CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Prisoner of Azkaban Chapter 13: Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 190003


> 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?
>

Pippin:
Hermione and Lavender have been roommates for more than two years at this point.  I think their feelings about each other have already developed beyond the point where an expression of sympathy would have changed anything. As Ron said, Hermione must have noticed, way back in PS/SS, that she didn't have any friends. One of the people who wasn't her friend must have been her roommate Lavender.

Hermione wasn't very good at picking up social cues from other people, and she hadn't yet developed the ability to compensate by *thinking* about how they must feel. It was a mystery to her why people didn't like her, and resented what Hermione genuinely thought  to be helpful advice. I don't agree with Shelley that Hermione thinks Lavender is showing off and trying to get attention. If that was the case, IMO, Hermione would have tried  to ignore Lavender instead.

Pippin