Hermione Granger
Template:HP characterHermione Jane Granger (born 19 September 1979) is a fictional character in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter book series. The character is portrayed by Emma Watson in the films.
Hermione is a Gryffindor student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and is a close friend of Harry Potter and Ron and Ginny Weasley. She plays a key role in many of Harry's adventures and serves as a moderating influence on Harry and Ron.
Personality
Hermione acts, at times, like the mother hen of the trio. She is very studious, yet sometimes bossy and fussy; she is the best student in her year and one of the best in the entire school. She is teased and admired in equal measure for her pedantic tendencies. Neville, Harry, and Ron depend on her for academic help, and her knowledge and common sense often prove invaluable in overcoming the trio's more serious challenges.
She always goes the extra mile when completing homework assignments, handing in four feet seven inches of parchment when she was only asked for three, carrying out independent research and regularly reading ahead of the class. This excessive studying and determination to be the best at everything often seems to reflect a deep seated insecurity. Her innate fear of failure causes her to panic whenever a major exam is called for - although she usually gets the best marks. Upon her very first meeting with Harry and Ron, she announces to the stunned boys that she's "learned all our set books off by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough". She is close to fanatical about completing assignments and never missing class. Although she relaxes a bit through years of being with Harry and Ron, as a rule, she hates to break school rules, hates to miss lessons and slaves at her books to get the top grade. However, she ends up having to break the rules to find out their mysteries during the books.
In fact, a line of Hermione's from the first Harry Potter film adaptation, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, succinctly sums up her priorities in life, at least early on. After narrowly escaping a dangerous encounter with a three-headed dog, Hermione rounds on Harry and Ron and says famously, "We could all have been killed, or worse, expelled!"
Background
Hermione is Muggle-born, that is, the child of two non-magical parents. Mr. and Mrs. Granger have, to date, received very little "page time," as the author chose to focus more on Ron's family instead. They are both dentists and, according to Rowling, "they are a bit bemused by their odd daughter, but quite proud of her all the same". Rowling noted she initially considered giving Hermione a younger, Muggle sister, but now says it is "too late". Therefore, it is usually considered canon that Hermione is an only child.
Hermione has brown eyes and, when she first appears, "bushy brown hair and rather large front teeth". Many at the school have teased her for her looks, including, on one occasion, Professor Snape. During the fourth book, Hermione shrinks her teeth to a "normal size" by magic. When she applies Sleekeazy's Hair Potion and does her hair up in a chignon for the Yule Ball when she is fourteen, even Harry and Ron notice her developing beauty.
Hermione's name is pronounced "her-MY-oh-nee" (IPA: /hə.ma.ə.ni/), as readers find out in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, as opposed to "hermy-own". This was the most frequently asked question J. K. Rowling received, so in this book she cunningly had Hermione teach Viktor Krum how to pronounce her name properly (without much success). Rowling said she obtained it from William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, claiming that she wanted it to be unusual since if fewer girls shared her name, fewer girls would get teased for it. "Hermione", appropriately, is derived from "Hermes", the Greek god of invention, inspiration, eloquence and quick thinking. It is also the name of the legendary Helen of Troy's daughter in Greek mythology.
Hermione in the books
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Hermione first appears in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. For the first part of the book, she is portrayed as being an over-the-top "know-it-all" and "goody two-shoes". Needless to say, Harry and Ron do not like her initially, as they consider her to be endlessly annoying, interfering and overbearing. This attitude seems to be shared by almost all of the other students.
However, when Ron makes a passing (but extremlly rude) remark about Hermione not having any friends, Hermione's feelings are terribly hurt and she retreats to a girls' bathroom to cry. When Ron hears this he feels extremely uncomfortable. Unbeknownst to her, Professor Quirrell lets a mountain troll into the school, which happens to find its way into the same bathroom. Fortunately, Hermione is rescued by Harry and Ron, whom Harry convinces to help him in his search for Hermione – Ron knows that if he had not made that unkind remark, Hermione would not be crying in the bathroom in the first place. When they are discovered by Professors McGonagall, Snape and Quirrell, Hermione quickly lies about why she was in the bathroom, claiming she had gone looking for the troll herself, thinking she could defeat it because of her knowledge. She thereby rescues Harry and Ron from punishment for engaging the troll and endearing herself to them by revealing her inner kindred spirit of rebellion and self-sacrifice. The two boys are amazed that Hermione would lie under any circumstance. This shows that she would even break her self-principals to save her freinds
The episode initiates the friendship between the trio because, hinted in the book: "There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them".
Though Hermione's attitude about rules and schoolwork remain largely intact, she softens up a little bit after becoming friends with Harry and Ron. With them, she helps solve the mystery surrounding the Philosopher's Stone. Although she is initially skeptical of Harry's and Ron's belief that someone is trying to steal it, she eventually comes around. She also shows her willingness to break the rules when she body binds Neville Longbottom, who attempts to stop the trio from leaving the common room after hours, ready to fight them.
Her deep belief in the power of logic is emphasised when she and Harry find themselves in a room where they must correctly identify two potions from a range of bottles that will enable them to pass out of the room, either onwards or back the way they came. Some of the bottles contain poison. A riddle is given to them and Harry cannot make sense of it, but Hermione's face glows with a sense of awe at the logical simplicity of the riddle. Harry is impressed by her ability to confidently solve the riddle.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
In her second yearTemplate:HP2, Hermione - like so many other witches - has a crush on the handsome new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart. Ron constantly teases her about this, but Hermione defends Lockhart, despite the fact he is an obvious fraud.
Hermione appears less than in the first book, with Harry appearing only with Ron during most of their adventure, yet her role is somewhat bigger. However, she does her part by brewing Polyjuice Potion so that Harry and Ron can discover if Draco Malfoy is the Heir of Slytherin. Unremarkably, Hermione masters the skill to concoct Polyjuice Potion, an extremely complex process introduced during the sixth year, and tested on during NEWTs.
Unfortunately, Hermione uses a hair from Millicent Bulstrode's cat which she mistakes for a hair from Millicent herself, and the potion is not supposed to be mixed with animal or non-human hairs (how she mistook a cat hair for a human hair is never explained and makes little to no sense regarding her exceptional intelligence and the fact that she's always the one who picks up on the little hints and clues that others ignore). Subsequently, in what was undoubtedly the most humiliating experience of her life, she is turned into a part-cat and is rushed to the Hogwarts hospital wing. The accident takes a little more than a month to reverse (for some strange reason no other magical maladies, not even considerably more harmful ones that could have potentially killed the individual are ever said to take as long to reverse), during that period Ron and Harry have to bring Hermione her homework - at her request of course - until early February, although on the bright side for her she received a get well card from Lockhart.
Hermione correctly identifies the creature hidden inside the Chamber of Secrets to be a Basilisk, though she is petrified before being able to divulge the information to Harry and Ron. This, of course, causes her to be absent for much of the later part of the novel.
Hermione's loosening-up continues as well, with her actually convincing Harry and Ron to break the rules rather than vice versa. Considering they are close confidants later on, Hermione probably meets and becomes friends with Ginny Weasley some time during the course of this novel.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
In the next year Template:HP3, Hermione takes so many classes she requires the use of a Time-Turner, a device which enables her to go back in time, to fit in all her subjects (most of her lessons are scheduled into the same class periods); this fact is not revealed until near the end of the book. Hermione suffers a nervous breakdown due to her exhaustive schedule, though she insists she doesn't need to cut down on the number of classes she is taking.
Hermione is estranged from her friends in part of this book: first, she distances herself from them with all the extra work she has to do. Later, she is (rightly) suspicious about Harry's Christmas gift, a Firebolt broom, and reports it to Professor McGonagall, who confiscates it; and again when Ron accuses her new cat, Crookshanks, of killing his pet rat, Scabbers. Ron and Harry unjustly give her the cold shoulder after this, but their argument is solved when they finally realize she is trying to help them. During this time, she is the only one who volenteers to help Hagrid prepare for the court case against his hippogriff, Buckbeak, which is amazing, considering she is already taking so many subjects. During the preparation for the trial, she breaks down on Ron. Hermione and Ron make up and he pledges to take over the trial.
Hermione takes an instant dislike towards Professor Trelawney and her subject, Divination. Towards the end of the year, Hermione storms out of the class after Trelawney predicts Harry's death one time too many, and describes Hermione's mind as "hopelessly mundane." (Ron earlier on comments in a teasing way that he believes that the only reason Hermione dislikes Trelawney is because it's the first time she's been told she's not good at something at Hogwarts.) Despite the fact she is no longer taking every subject available, Hermione still requires a Time-Turner to go to all her classes. Also, much to Harry and Ron's surprise, Hermione gets angry, musters up all her energy and punches Malfoy right across the face when she hears him making fun of a grief-stricken Hagrid.
Hermione's Time-Turner comes in useful at the end of the book when she and Harry travel back in time to rescue Sirius Black and Buckbeak. During the end-of-the-year exams, Hermione's Boggart manifests itself as Professor McGonagall informing her that she had failed all her classes - causing her to run away screaming. Although that is amusing, it shows Hermione's great fear of failure. At the end of the book, she drops the class of Muggle Studies, enabling her to have a normal schedule again.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
In her fourth yearTemplate:HP4, Hermione's attention is drawn to what she believes is the poor quality of life for house-elves. She therefore starts the organisation she calls the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, but which becomes known by its unfortunate acronym, SPEW. Though Hermione zealously works for her cause, few others display any interest. Harry and Ron officially join her organisation, though they do so only with the hope she will stop badgering them, and predictably, they contribute very little. She does, however, trick them both into following her to the kitchens to pursuade the elves to accept wages after she discovers that Dobby the house-elf has been hired by Professor Dumbledore.
Following the estrangement of Harry and Ron, Harry and Hermione are together more than usual, but he finds that it's not much fun, and misses Ron's presence. Hermione helps Harry practice the Summoning Charm which allows him to successfully complete the First Task of the Triwizard Tournament.
Hermione attends the Yule Ball with Viktor Krum, the Triwizard champion from Durmstrang - and shocks everyone in attendance with her suddenly beautiful appearance. By attending the ball with Krum, she elicits some jealousy from Ron Weasley. Ron loses control of himself and viciously accuses Hermione of "fraternising with the enemy". Shocked and appalled, a violent row breaks out between the two of them.
Hermione is the "hostage" that Krum has to save in the Tournament's Second Task. She is given quite a bit of grief about this afterward and becomes rather irritated. After the task, Krum asks Hermione to visit him in the summer. Ron's jealousy of Viktor Krum appears countered by Hermione's dislike of Fleur Delacour, whom Ron has a crush on - Hermione becomes visibly angry when Fleur does so much as smile at Ron.
Rita Skeeter, a tabloid reporter, fabricates a love triangle between Harry, Hermione, and Krum, in which Hermione is cheating on Harry with Krum. Hermione's relationship with Mrs. Weasley is temporarily turned cold by this incident, until Harry explains to Mrs. Weasley that the whole thing was a vicious lie. Krum questions Harry over his relationship with Hermione and Harry firmly refutes any romance. Hermione is enraged with Rita's behaviour and vows vengeance against her. After much work, she determines Rita is an illegal Animagus who can change into a beetle, and manages to catch her in this form by trapping her in a jar, which shen proudly displays to Harry and Ron. She blackmails Rita with this information to make Rita stop writing for The Daily Prophet.
At the end of the book Hermione kisses Harry on the cheek, which along with Ron clapping him on the back, indicates a stronger bond and greater affection forged between the trio in their fourth year, despite their arguments.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
In the beginning of the fifth bookTemplate:HP5, Hermione is staying at Grimmauld Place, the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, with the Weasleys. When she and Ron are reunited with Harry, who is moody and temperamental after being confined to the Dursleys nearly all summer, he loses his temper, which causes Hermione to get rather tearful. Despite this, the book sees Hermione becoming the more prominent of Harry's two friends in some areas, helping Harry with emotional issues that Ron can't (though as of the sixth book, Harry still sees Ron as his best friend). In particular, Hermione tries to tutor Harry on how to interact with girls when Harry tries his hand at a relationship with his long time crush Cho Chang - which ultimately falls apart due to Harry's inability to handle Cho's grief over Cedric Diggory's death and Cho's misplaced jealousy towards Hermione.
Hermione and Ron become prefects for Gryffindor, to Hermione's rule-abiding delight, although she is initially shocked to learn that Ron is the prefect and not Harry, much to her embarrassment when Ron gives her the evil eye. Their duties include patrolling the corridors of the Hogwarts Express and guiding the Gryffindor first-years to their common room. They also gain entry to the prefect carriage of the Express (of course they still sit with Harry) and the prefects' luxurious bathrooms. Hermione also continues SPEW, attempting to befriend Kreacher, the surly and malicious old house-elf who lives in Grimmauld Place despite the creature's obvious hatred of her. She devotes her time and energy making clothes for the house-elfs and putting them in strategic locations, in the hopes of freeing the elfs. She is also heartened by Dumbledore's support. The house-elves refuse to clean Gryffindor Tower because of this, and the task is left to Dobby.
Also, in Order of the Phoenix, Luna Lovegood is introduced. She is Hermione's complete opposite. She's "the anti-Hermione," Rowling says, "Hermione’s so logical and inflexible in so many ways and Luna is likely to believe 10 impossible things before breakfast." Still, though the two girls do not share the same belief system, they become friends and comrades-in-arms when Luna is one of the few to support Harry by joining the DA and aiding them during the climax of the book.
Hermione is seen writing a letter to Krum, much to Ron's dismay. Her capture and subsequent blackmail of Rita Skeeter proves useful when she persuades Harry to give an interview stating the return of Lord Voldemort. Hermione also comes up with the idea of Dumbledore's Army. While Hermione is trying to convince Harry to start the DA, she finally says the name, "Voldemort," which is an admirable first for her. During the DA, Hermione conjures a corporeal Patronus in the shape of an otter (Rowling's favourite animal).
She is involved in the battle in the Department of Mysteries, in which she is badly wounded, but after taking ten types of potions a day, she makes a full recovery.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The sixth bookTemplate:HP6 marks a notable change in Hermione's character. As a full-blown teenager in a darker and increasingly dangerous time, her flaws and insecurities become more visible than they have in the past. She also proves humorously unable to make much of the advice she gave Harry in the previous book work regarding her own love life, which gives Harry his turn to play confidant for Hermione (though he is much less comfortable and helpful in this role than Hermione). Notably, Harry does not confide his feelings for Ginny in Hermione, fearing Hermione would be "smug" about it; this is perhaps justified, as it later transpires that Hermione has been playing match-maker, and giving Ginny advice on how to get Harry to notice her.
As has become customary, Hermione stays at The Burrow for much of the summer holidays, where she receives her amazing O.W.L. results of ten "Outstandings" and one "Exceeds Expectations", after a panic attack upon the arrival of said O.W.L.s. Ron says that she is dissapointed that she didn't get perfect marks, but Hermione denies this, showing that she can accept failure . During her stay with the Weasleys, Hermione once again encounters Fleur Delacour, who is now engaged to Bill Weasley. Her dislike for Fleur, which initially manifested in the fourth book, deepens with more frequent exposure to her. Now she is not alone in her dislike, as it is apparent that both Mrs. Weasley and Ginny feel the same way, although the three dislike Fleur for different reasons (Mrs. Weasley and Ginny dislike Fleur because they view her as spoiled and narcisstic; while she initially disliked her for those reasons, and still does, Hermione now primarily dislikes Fleur because Ron had an obvious crush on her).
Hermione continues her passion for her schoolwork in the sixth year, and is even invited by Professor Slughorn to join his Slug Club due to her extraordinary talent at school. Ironically, as Harry describes Hermione to Slughorn in an earlier encounter as "the best in our year", she is outperformed by Harry in Potions due to the fact that he has access to the Half-Blood Prince's old textbook. Throughout the book, she becomes increasingly bitter at Harry's overnight success at Potions, especially since she comes to believe that the Half-Blood Prince is a shady character and she considers Harry academically dishonest for using the book. Despite this, she still becomes a favorite of Slughorn's. She is still the best in the year, though, because when Snape takes away the Prince's book, Harry goes downhill in Potions, showing that Hermione is better.
For the second time in their lives, Ron and Hermione have a serious falling out, which lasts for a good part of the book. Although it looked like their relationship had been progressing to the point that they could have started dating, with Hermione inviting Ron to be her date for Slughorn's Christmas party (albeit aggressively when he was mocking her for being a favourite of Slughorn), all goes amiss when Ron, during an argument with Ginny, learns that Hermione had kissed Viktor Krum, which causes him to become angry and jealous, being extremely touchy, sensitive and highly aggressive to those around him, and especially to Hermione, who has no idea why he's suddenly trying to hurt her.
It also leads to him to perform poorly on the Quidditch practice fields. After rejecting an offer to resign from the team, Harry tries to reverse the situation by pretending to spike Ron's drink with Felix Felicis, which allows Ron to overcome his usual lack of self-esteem and perform well, raising Harry's hope that Ron and Hermione will forget their dispute in the midst of a Gryffindor victory. Instead, Hermione accuses Harry of cheating about the drink, and when Harry reveals that he didn't spike the drink for real, an overconfident Ron rounds on Hermione for having no faith in his abilities. At the ensuing celebration, Ron rejects Hermione and, apparently deciding that since Hermione didn't wait for him he may as well not wait for her, starts dating and unabashedly kissing classmate Lavender Brown instead, leaving Hermione heartbroken and bitter. Determined to get even, a righteously furious and jealous Hermione decides to avenge herself against Ron's spiteful behavior by inviting Cormac McLaggen, whom she had actually cursed during the Quidditch tryouts in Ron's favour, to be her date to Slughorn's Christmas party instead of Ron, only to have it backfire on her when the egomaniacal McLaggen proves to be much more than she can handle. After being mauled by McLaggen under the mistletoe, Hermione spends the rest of the night hiding from him.
Subsequently, Hermione decides to spend Christmas with her parents instead of with the Weasleys. During this time, it becomes clear that Hermione and Luna, while still complete opposites in many ways, have come to some sort of mutual acceptance of each other, as Luna at one point comforts Hermione after Ron had been rude to her.
After the holidays, Hermione continues to ignore Ron, or make biting insults towards him, but when he is poisoned, she is fearfully upset and quietly reconciles with him. With the two of them acting like friends again, Lavender becomes jealously paranoid that Hermione is trying to steal Ron away from her. Lavender eventually breaks up with Ron when she sees him and Hermione walking down the stairs alone (they are actually accompanied by Harry, but he is covered by his Invisibility Cloak) from the boys' dormitory a few weeks later, and the next day, both Ron and Hermione are visibly delighted with the break-up.
Near the end of the book, at Harry's request, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville and Luna (the only members of Dumbledore's Army who responded) are sent to patrol Hogwarts – specifically, to monitor Snape and Malfoy. Their efforts half pay off in that they are able to alert the members of the Order who are also on patrol from the Death Eaters lurking in the castle, but they still fail to prevent Dumbledore's fall. They themselves just barely survive fighting the Death Eaters, thanks to the Felix Felicis that Harry had given them.
At the end of the book, Ron is seen comforting a tearfully weeping Hermione at Dumbledore's funeral, stroking her hair as she cries on his shoulder. When Harry announces his intentions to seek and destroy Voldemort's horcruxes, Hermione and Ron display their personal loyalty and tell Harry that they will stick with him wherever he goes, even if it means leaving their beloved Hogwarts.
The Seventh Harry Potter Book (name as yet unknown)
Along with Ron, she is expected to assist Harry in his mission to destroy Voldemort's horcruxes.
Rowling has implied that she did not want Hermione to be the first girl Ron ever kissed, indicating that there will probably be a kiss between the two in book seven.[1] She has also said that Ron is now "worthy" of a romantic relationship with Hermione, and sees confirmation of their romantic interest as a "spoiler" for book seven.[2]
Trivia
- Hermione is actually the eldest of the trio; for years it was widely assumed that she was born in September 1980, the same year as Ron and Harry. However, J.K. Rowling pointed out that to attend Hogwarts, one must be eleven years old, and Hermione's birthday was in 1979. Therefore Hermione was nearly twelve when she began school in September of 1991. Many fans found this detail a source of debate, with many arguing that it shouldn't have mattered that a brilliant witch as herself would have been slightly younger than her classmates for the first three weeks of the school year, had she been born the same year as them.
- Logically, Hermione should have gained several extra weeks of age by the end of her third year due to her use of the time turner; however, general fan opinion balances this out by factoring in the petrification she suffered in her second year (during which, they claim, she gained no age due to the conditions of petrification): i.e. she ended her second year younger than she should have been, but balanced that out by the extra age gain in the following year.
- Early on, Hermione's surname was originally going to be "Puckle" but it was quickly changed by Rowling because it didn't suit her. "Puckle" is a term for a goblin or elf.
- Hermione's middle name, Jane, has never been mentioned in the books, only on Rowling's official site. Interestingly, this is also the middle name of Dolores Umbridge. It is also a feminine form of the name 'John': as is the name 'Joanne', the author's own name.
- Rowling has admitted that Hermione is "a bit like" herself when she was young[3].
- Rowling has revealed on her website that Hermione's wand is made of vine wood with a dragon heartstring core. Each of the trio's wands have one of Ollivander's three preferred cores: phoenix feather (Harry), unicorn hair (Ron), and dragon heartstring (Hermione). Her wand's wood, vine, is the wood ascribed to her birth month in the Celtic calendar.
- Hermione's Patronus is an otter.
- Many main characters of the series had their first or last names altered in the Dutch translations of the books. Hermione Granger is among the few to have gotten both their first and last names changed - she is known in the Netherlands and in the Flanders as "Hermelien Griffel".
References
- Template:Fnb "JKRowling.com Archives: Birthdays" from MuggleNet
- Template:Fnb "When Hermione arrived at Hogwarts, was she nearly eleven or nearly twelve?" from the J.K.Rowling Official Site
- Template:Fnb "Rumours: Crookshanks is an Animagus" from the J.K.Rowling Official Site
- Rowling, J. K. (1997). Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Bloomsbury. ISBN 0747532699.
- Rowling, J. K. (1998). Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Bloomsbury. ISBN 0747538492.
- Rowling, J. K. (1999). Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Bloomsbury. ISBN 0747542155.
- Rowling, J. K. (2000). Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Bloomsbury. ISBN 074754624X.
- Rowling, J. K. (2003). Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Bloomsbury. ISBN 0747551006.
- Rowling, J. K. (2005). Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Bloomsbury. ISBN 0747581088.
- Rowling, J. K. (2001). Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Bloomsbury. ISBN 0613325419.