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

[June Ewing]

No: HPFGUIDX 190001

> 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 too- 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.
>

June:
It is hard to lose a pet. Those of us who keep them regard them as
family. I myself have had to endure the pain of losing a pet (4 at
once when my landlord sprayed poison into the walls with holes in my
wall that she never had fixed). I believe that even if you do not
understand someone crying over a pet who has passed away you should
be aware that they too have feelings and be supportive and if you
can't then leave and don't talk to them at all. No offense but I
found your remarks to be a lot worse than Hermione's and very
insensitive.









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