[HPforGrownups] Re: CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Prisoner of Azkaban Chapter 13: Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw

[Shelley]

No: HPFGUIDX 190000

On 1/23/2011 11:47 AM, June Ewing wrote:
> June:
> The one thing in this book that I have always thought about was
> when Lavender is crying because she got news that her pet rabbit
> had been killed. I love Hermione to pieces but I did think that
> she was a little insensitive to Lavender's situation which could
> also be why the two best friends and Hermione never really became
> friends. Personally I think that Hermione should have kept her
> feelings about divination and her logic out of it in this case to
> confort a dorm sister who really needed it. What does everyone
> else think about this?

Shelley
You know, in answering this question, I have to put "myself" in that 
situation. I would see a girl whom I would have probably acted like 
Hermione to- yes, your rabbit died, yes it's OK to feel sad about it, 
but for Pete's Sake, let's not go to pieces and milk it for all the 
attention you can get out of it. Personally, I have little sympathy for 
the drama queens who just love the attention, and it probably wasn't 
about the rabbit at all but the chance to get all her fellow girls 
waiting hand and foot on her because of her "situation". Geeze all 
mighty! And if the other girls had her, she was being sympathized with, 
then why would Lavender need me to jump in and be another weepy one with 
her? Plus, she's milking what I would have also felt to be a lie- the 
divination was not proven to be correct (or real) because a rabbit died. 
The irritation about the superstitious girls would trump any sympathy 
she might have otherwise shown. In this situation, I would have agreed 
with Hermione and did what she did. Logical, not necessarily insensitive.

Remember Hermione is a Muggle-born- she's seen Muggle superstitions and 
now she's seeing the superstitions of the Wizarding World. But she did 
not come to Hogwarts to learn all the wrong way to do things, she came 
to learn how to do real magic. She doesn't have time to pander to 
Lavender, who is already surrounded by all those other girls, for 
something that wasn't real (the coming true of a tea leaf or whatever it 
was that didn't ever tell Lavender that it would be her rabbit that 
died). Call me unsympathetic, but I would have acted the same way.