incomplete character personality essay
Hermione Jean Granger, born on September 19, 1979 to two muggle dentists is someone who, ultimately, was always more than what met the eye. In the Wizarding World of Harry Potter there are two types of humans, of course: muggles and the magical (witches and wizards). Muggles are those without magical powers and are perfectly human people, but that is the twist, is it not? Hermione was born to muggles but turned out a witch! Not all too uncommon in her world, but there are significant moments that develop from this heritage.
There is little known about her early life, although J.K. Rowling in an interview herself announces her parents did find her a little odd, but they were proud of her. Assumingly, the part of her they found “odd” was not her general personality, but the fact of her magic. It is near impossible for young witches and wizards to control their magic, which is why their later usage of a wand becomes incredibly important. It’s highly likely that several times as a young girl who magic showed itself, in what ways, however, it is unknown.
When she was eleven, the answer to her “oddness” appeared in the form of an acceptance letter to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. From her reactions on the train Hermione was baffled, amazed, and allured. Getting her schoolbooks Hermione immediately delved into their words, becoming engrossed in the world that she was destined to be in. Until, finally, on September 1st, 1991 she arrived at Hogwarts School. There she met, although not yet befriended, Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley who, for the next seven years, she’d be going on dangerous adventures with. She was sorted, not without debate to put her into Ravenclaw, into the noble house of Godric Gryffindor.
But this is not a reenactment of her next seven years. Instead it is a simple in depth look through of her personality and how it grows from year one until the very end. This is by no means a completely accurate vision of how J.K. Rowling sees her, but a look into how this Mun plays and sees her. If you wish for the events that shape her? Well, I quite suggest picking up the books yourself! For now, this should be more than supplementary compared to my… er, less than adequate application in comparison.
Funnily enough, in Book 1 Hermione’s personality is almost completely different from what it turns out in Book 7. Back then, Hermione was arrogant, self-assured, and more than a little full of herself. Of course, that was in the very beginning before Hermione befriended Harry and Ron after they saved her from, er, troll smashing. In a way, this attitude can be understood. Why?
Hermione knew full well what she was: Muggleborn. By book two she even knew the foul termed “Mudblood”. So, we must understand this about her: from the very beginning she was righteous, determined, and afraid of failure. Of course we never find out this fear of failure until exam time of book three, but the way she pushed herself throughout even the first two books and her words about school work make it clearly evident.
The fact of the matter is, Hermione knew people were going to look down on her for what she was: a person with no magical heritage. She’d literally read about it. In a way, we could figure she believed that if these people did look down upon her the way to prove herself was by knowing everything possible. Note, she spent hours her first year in the library, gaining knowledge to the point she was able to tell Harry more about his family than he even knew himself. This need to push herself, to not fail, is probably the most shining trait that prevails beyond the first book.
However, it is half-way through this book that, more or less, she drops the haughty act. Why? Because she becomes friends with Harry and Ron, who couldn’t give two galleons about her heritage. In a way, her friends humbled her, brought her back to Earth and even then taught her lessons on morality that she somehow didn’t know. When Harry compliments her after the Chess match in the first book she even says it: “Me! Books! And cleverness! There are more important things--friendship and bravery.”
And then on, we might say, sealed Hermione’s life as a Gryffindor. Rebellious, brave, loyal, courageous, and most importantly a true friend. However, it almost was naught. She says herself in Order of the Phoenix that the Sorting Hat had seriously debated putting her into the house of Ravenclaw, the most intelligent house, but decided on Gryffindor in the end. Could it be that it saw she would one day be as brave and daring as her friends? Or perhaps it was by Hermione’s own persuasion? After all, she says in book one that she’d prefer to be in Gryffindor which sounded “by far the best”.
So haughty, self-centered, and abrasively full of herself was how Hermione started, but that hardly lasted! Oh no, by book five she’s gained some sense of modesty seen trying to brush off the fact she could do Protean Charms that were things supposed to be years beyond her! And just the following you she tried to dash off the fact she was the brightest witch of her age. Of course we can’t forget her noble words during Philosopher’s Stone, can we not? No, through and through it is shown she gained some sense of modesty to the young girl who on her first train ride snidely pointed out that she’d memorized the books and had tried a few “simple spells that worked for her”.
So, we continue, do we not? The simplest and most forefront of Hermione’s nature is her intelligence. Hands down it is one thing we see from beginning to end, without hindrance. Her first moments in the book may have been self-centered in their words, but even then she performed spells with such capability her teachers were amazed. Throughout her years at Hogwarts she was capable of performing spells within the first few tries. Most notably being able to defend nonverbally after her third attempt where most of her classmates were unable to do it even months later.
Hermione’s intelligence is an amazing thing. It’s known that any child who had photographic memory will lose it during their teenage years and it become near obsolete by adulthood, however, this is not the case for Hermione. She is able to recite her school books nearly word for word from the text, as pointed out by Professor Snape, and even be able to recognize them quite easily. This is how she knew in her third year that Professor Lupin was a werewolf when most, if not any, of the students were aware.
J.K. Rowling herself calls Hermione logical, and in the recent Deathly Hallows movie a line was added to Hermione’s script that went quite clearly: “I’m just highly logical which allows me to look past extraneous details--” Which is quite true. In the third book Professor Trelawney states many crude things a teacher should never be allowed to say about a student, but they generally went down to how she couldn’t see outside her facts and the knowledge she has-- having a very, er, square outlook on the world. This is furthered by Luna Lovegood two years later who, although Ravenclaw, has a very interesting take on the world. Just don’t think this part to logic is anything bad, because honestly it’s not. It’s this logical nature that gets her and her friends out of so many scrapes!
It’s important to note that Hermione’s intelligence does not waver when trouble’s near. In fact, in her very first year she was awarded 60 points for “the use of cool logic in the face of fire” which turned into “for the use of cool logic and great intellect while others were in grave peril” during the first movie. Hermione is an amazingly quick and analytical thing, all the way through to the end. One example is inside the Lovegood house during the seventh book where, within the few seconds they had, hid Ron, blasted the floor and allowed Death Eaters to see her and Harry as not to get Lovegood in trouble (Ron having been hidden since he was supposed to be home ill and all).
The greatest case of her intelligence, perhaps, really is when in the face of grave peril. The first instance being in her fifth year when Umbridge caught Harry, her, and the others using her chimney to send a message to Sirius. Umbridge was wanting to use the torture curse to get Harry to speak, but she quickly came up with the rather convincing story that Dumbledore had a weapon finished and they were trying to contact him, something the Ministry greatly feared. Yet, perhaps the greatest is more recent, when Bellatrix was torturing her to find out where they had gotten the Sword of Gryffindor she managed to come up with another story to protect her friends, saying the sword they had was a fake.
However, on an ironic note, this keen, quick lying seems to only work in these dire situations. Since, in book six, she complained flopped doing so while trying to get information Draco Malfoy.
These moments also so another great point of Hermione’s nature: her infallible loyalty. There are so very many times that both she and Ron could abandon Harry and never look back, except neither do and, quite frankly, neither can. In her first year we had a girl so afraid of being expelled that she thought it a fate worse than death, but everything with the stone would change all that. There’s an unbreakable bond between the trio, no matter what they face they also come back together. Instead of fearing expulsion as she had her first year, her second year she even suggested breaking rules-- and pressed it her fifth. But that’s a time for another story, of course, as her loyalty is not in regards to her rule breaking, is it not?
No. It’s evident how much Hermione truly cares for her friends throughout the course of the seven novels. Even when she thinks something is silly or impossibly, if it bothers them so much she swallows her own pride and will help them to the best of her ability--- as seen when Harry fretted over Sirius possibly being tortured in the Department of Mysteries. And later, when Harry and Ron fight in Deathly Hallows Ron gives her the ultimatum of following him or staying with Harry. Not only was Hermione torn between her two best friends, but the fact she was admitting--although not in words but to herself-- that she loved Ron. Choose him or Harry? Funnily enough, she chose Harry, but not because she didn’t want to follow Ron. Because when they started the hunt for the Horcruxes they had promised to help Harry find them, and she had found that need greater.
It never stopped her from crying every night while Ron was away, though.
Another factor of Hermione is the simple fact that she’s an incredibly righteous and good young woman. Despite how she can scowl, yell and bicker with the best of them she has an incredibly strenuous set of morals. She has two trouble making best friends and she’ll follow them to the ends of the world, but at the same time she also scolds them enough it almost comes off as motherly. Although she and her friends break rules in such a consistency, any time they’re not [which is when, I mean honestly--] she constantly tries to uphold them. She frowns upon people disrespecting their Professors and things set out before them and has no problem pointing out that she disagrees.
Funnily enough, the righteous side of her has a way to contradict it’s “good” counterpart, but perhaps with good reason. See, when Hermione finds something completely unjust she fights for what she believes is right. A good example is how she tries to form S.P.E.W. to protect the welfare of house elves who she feels is brainwashed into serving and have no idea what freedom is like, of course this doesn’t go too well but it’s not without it’s attempt! And nor, of course, was her attempt to try and save Buckbeak the Hippogriff, who she and Harry save anyway.
The most shining example of her rebellion against what she believes unjust is, more than obviously, her driving nature to the creation of Dumbledore’s Army-- to go against the Ministry and Umbridge to learn what Hermione thought was “proper defense”. It’s moments that like these that show us a deeper nature to Hermione, for as much as she was concerned with upcoming O.W.L. exams she believed Harry in the fact Voldemort had returned to power and thought it best they learned proper defense. Her actions here show such a deep loyalty to her friends, but at the same time the abrasive side of her that will stop at literally nothing when she finds there’s wrong doings.
Hermione, although not weak, is not quite as strong as a rock. This especially develops as she becomes closer to the boys and they face more. She can suffer torture and not say a word about it, but instead gain a haughty attitude and a determination to prove that she is better than just mudblood. Still, she’s a girl who really has faced more than most in a few short years---none compared to Harry, though. As Hermione grew more attached to the boys she opens up more in her emotions, which gives a little of the idea she does lock quite a bit up, but nonetheless there are many times where she’s openly allowed her eyes to be brimmed with tears. Most significantly, when she was both horrified and angered at Professor Moody showing unforgivable curses in school, and secondly when Umbridge, so against half-breeds, seemed determined to kick Hagrid out of position.
She does fear though, and even admits in the sixth book that Buckbeak was still a little scary. She worries openly for her friends and even more openly her anger at them. In a way, she is a very bright and emotional girl, growing more open with each passing book. Hermione’s not one to hide what she truly feels, seen punching Malfoy in the face and even calling a professor a “foul, evil, gargoyle”. In this, we find less of the bookworm and more of the student who inherited the name of Godric Gryffindor. There are many more traits, of course that factor here and we’ll still getting to them, at that!
Bravery, an important trait for any member of the House of Godric Gryffindor, and certainly a trait that Hermione shows explanatory traits of. As I’m sure you’re already aware, of course. There are many moments of her bravery that could be mentioned--- the Stone, the Basilisk, the Shrieking Shack, the Battle at the Ministry, the Battle on the Astronomy Tower, the Battle over Little Whingining, and most of all the Battle for Hogwarts. Through it all, this tiny, bookish girl shows bravery to help and protect her friends, even when she herself is in great peril. “And leave Hermione? We wouldn’t last two days without her!” is a quote from Ron in the recent Deathly Hallows movie which, in a way, certainly describes situations of peril where her bravery and wit saves them.
Amazingly, despite all the trouble, rule breaking and dangerous situations Hermione and her friends get into, during her fifth year she received a Gryffindor’s Prefect badge. There is no denying the responsibility of this badge was undeserving, and she certainly upheld the name of it (er… for the most part. But we can’t count their adventures, can we?) Hermione’s good with power, honestly, she doesn’t attempt to abuse it but she won’t allow a person to get away with things that are against the rules. A prime example is when she told Fred and George off for testing their joke items on first years and threatening to reprimand them over it--- but even though she disliked what they did, when they did it on themselves she made no move to stop them since it wasn’t against the rules.
And yet another twist? There are times where Hermione breaks the rules as a prefect. A good example being when she confudes McLaggen during Quidditch Try-outs to prevent him from making Keeper. She tells Harry when caught that it was because he had a foul temper and was saying things about Ginny and Ron, which while true… Is a highly suspicious reasoning, is it not?
Which is what leads us into another factor of Hermione’s personality. There is no doubt that Hermione adores and loves her two best friends, Harry and Ron. But there’s a ticket here, is there not? And anyone who’s read they end of Deathly Hallows knows what it is! The factor of it, however, does play a deal on Hermione’s appearance from time to time. From at least Year Three, Hermione and Ron began bickering quite evenly, rowing, really. And it got worse as years went by. Why is this? It wasn’t possibly a clashing of personalities, since even Hermione and Harry fought, but for never so long.
And then it became clear, on Hermione’s side at least, in year six. Hermione liked Ron more than as a friend, it was clear as day, but in more likelihood loved-- since she was seen as heartbroken at his dating of Lavender Brown. Then of course Ron makes it clear in Deathly Hallows on his side---ahh! Why is it important? Because this emotion towards Ron brings out sides of Hermione that she’d never done before: confunding someone for example. More importantly, jealousy.
Hermione was never really jealous of anything until Ron started dating Lavender. In fact, Ron was utterly jealous their fourth year when he found her with Krum---but that’s a story for Ron, of course. She uses McLaggen in order to get back at Ron, something she would never have done before. She regrets the matter later, but it doesn’t change the fact that this, er, love for Ron brings out some of the worst and best of Hermione.
In a way, this relationship would be good for counterparts. For, where as Ron has the “emotional range of a teaspoon”, Hermione is quite the empathic being. She sees people and is able to pick apart and understand how they feel. This is how she knows why Cho cries when Harry and her kiss their fifth year, and (at least in the movie) their sixth year that Harry was heartbroken to see Ginny with Dean. This empathy, however, seems only to be best with emotions since when faced with more trivial things she’s at a complete loss. A great canon example is that of Quidditch, which while she loves watching her friends play she will never understand their complete addiction to it and how it can be so important (although when planning “homework schedules” she knows enough to save at least one evening a week for practice).
[there is something wrong with me.]
There is little known about her early life, although J.K. Rowling in an interview herself announces her parents did find her a little odd, but they were proud of her. Assumingly, the part of her they found “odd” was not her general personality, but the fact of her magic. It is near impossible for young witches and wizards to control their magic, which is why their later usage of a wand becomes incredibly important. It’s highly likely that several times as a young girl who magic showed itself, in what ways, however, it is unknown.
When she was eleven, the answer to her “oddness” appeared in the form of an acceptance letter to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. From her reactions on the train Hermione was baffled, amazed, and allured. Getting her schoolbooks Hermione immediately delved into their words, becoming engrossed in the world that she was destined to be in. Until, finally, on September 1st, 1991 she arrived at Hogwarts School. There she met, although not yet befriended, Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley who, for the next seven years, she’d be going on dangerous adventures with. She was sorted, not without debate to put her into Ravenclaw, into the noble house of Godric Gryffindor.
But this is not a reenactment of her next seven years. Instead it is a simple in depth look through of her personality and how it grows from year one until the very end. This is by no means a completely accurate vision of how J.K. Rowling sees her, but a look into how this Mun plays and sees her. If you wish for the events that shape her? Well, I quite suggest picking up the books yourself! For now, this should be more than supplementary compared to my… er, less than adequate application in comparison.
Funnily enough, in Book 1 Hermione’s personality is almost completely different from what it turns out in Book 7. Back then, Hermione was arrogant, self-assured, and more than a little full of herself. Of course, that was in the very beginning before Hermione befriended Harry and Ron after they saved her from, er, troll smashing. In a way, this attitude can be understood. Why?
Hermione knew full well what she was: Muggleborn. By book two she even knew the foul termed “Mudblood”. So, we must understand this about her: from the very beginning she was righteous, determined, and afraid of failure. Of course we never find out this fear of failure until exam time of book three, but the way she pushed herself throughout even the first two books and her words about school work make it clearly evident.
The fact of the matter is, Hermione knew people were going to look down on her for what she was: a person with no magical heritage. She’d literally read about it. In a way, we could figure she believed that if these people did look down upon her the way to prove herself was by knowing everything possible. Note, she spent hours her first year in the library, gaining knowledge to the point she was able to tell Harry more about his family than he even knew himself. This need to push herself, to not fail, is probably the most shining trait that prevails beyond the first book.
However, it is half-way through this book that, more or less, she drops the haughty act. Why? Because she becomes friends with Harry and Ron, who couldn’t give two galleons about her heritage. In a way, her friends humbled her, brought her back to Earth and even then taught her lessons on morality that she somehow didn’t know. When Harry compliments her after the Chess match in the first book she even says it: “Me! Books! And cleverness! There are more important things--friendship and bravery.”
And then on, we might say, sealed Hermione’s life as a Gryffindor. Rebellious, brave, loyal, courageous, and most importantly a true friend. However, it almost was naught. She says herself in Order of the Phoenix that the Sorting Hat had seriously debated putting her into the house of Ravenclaw, the most intelligent house, but decided on Gryffindor in the end. Could it be that it saw she would one day be as brave and daring as her friends? Or perhaps it was by Hermione’s own persuasion? After all, she says in book one that she’d prefer to be in Gryffindor which sounded “by far the best”.
So haughty, self-centered, and abrasively full of herself was how Hermione started, but that hardly lasted! Oh no, by book five she’s gained some sense of modesty seen trying to brush off the fact she could do Protean Charms that were things supposed to be years beyond her! And just the following you she tried to dash off the fact she was the brightest witch of her age. Of course we can’t forget her noble words during Philosopher’s Stone, can we not? No, through and through it is shown she gained some sense of modesty to the young girl who on her first train ride snidely pointed out that she’d memorized the books and had tried a few “simple spells that worked for her”.
So, we continue, do we not? The simplest and most forefront of Hermione’s nature is her intelligence. Hands down it is one thing we see from beginning to end, without hindrance. Her first moments in the book may have been self-centered in their words, but even then she performed spells with such capability her teachers were amazed. Throughout her years at Hogwarts she was capable of performing spells within the first few tries. Most notably being able to defend nonverbally after her third attempt where most of her classmates were unable to do it even months later.
Hermione’s intelligence is an amazing thing. It’s known that any child who had photographic memory will lose it during their teenage years and it become near obsolete by adulthood, however, this is not the case for Hermione. She is able to recite her school books nearly word for word from the text, as pointed out by Professor Snape, and even be able to recognize them quite easily. This is how she knew in her third year that Professor Lupin was a werewolf when most, if not any, of the students were aware.
J.K. Rowling herself calls Hermione logical, and in the recent Deathly Hallows movie a line was added to Hermione’s script that went quite clearly: “I’m just highly logical which allows me to look past extraneous details--” Which is quite true. In the third book Professor Trelawney states many crude things a teacher should never be allowed to say about a student, but they generally went down to how she couldn’t see outside her facts and the knowledge she has-- having a very, er, square outlook on the world. This is furthered by Luna Lovegood two years later who, although Ravenclaw, has a very interesting take on the world. Just don’t think this part to logic is anything bad, because honestly it’s not. It’s this logical nature that gets her and her friends out of so many scrapes!
It’s important to note that Hermione’s intelligence does not waver when trouble’s near. In fact, in her very first year she was awarded 60 points for “the use of cool logic in the face of fire” which turned into “for the use of cool logic and great intellect while others were in grave peril” during the first movie. Hermione is an amazingly quick and analytical thing, all the way through to the end. One example is inside the Lovegood house during the seventh book where, within the few seconds they had, hid Ron, blasted the floor and allowed Death Eaters to see her and Harry as not to get Lovegood in trouble (Ron having been hidden since he was supposed to be home ill and all).
The greatest case of her intelligence, perhaps, really is when in the face of grave peril. The first instance being in her fifth year when Umbridge caught Harry, her, and the others using her chimney to send a message to Sirius. Umbridge was wanting to use the torture curse to get Harry to speak, but she quickly came up with the rather convincing story that Dumbledore had a weapon finished and they were trying to contact him, something the Ministry greatly feared. Yet, perhaps the greatest is more recent, when Bellatrix was torturing her to find out where they had gotten the Sword of Gryffindor she managed to come up with another story to protect her friends, saying the sword they had was a fake.
However, on an ironic note, this keen, quick lying seems to only work in these dire situations. Since, in book six, she complained flopped doing so while trying to get information Draco Malfoy.
These moments also so another great point of Hermione’s nature: her infallible loyalty. There are so very many times that both she and Ron could abandon Harry and never look back, except neither do and, quite frankly, neither can. In her first year we had a girl so afraid of being expelled that she thought it a fate worse than death, but everything with the stone would change all that. There’s an unbreakable bond between the trio, no matter what they face they also come back together. Instead of fearing expulsion as she had her first year, her second year she even suggested breaking rules-- and pressed it her fifth. But that’s a time for another story, of course, as her loyalty is not in regards to her rule breaking, is it not?
No. It’s evident how much Hermione truly cares for her friends throughout the course of the seven novels. Even when she thinks something is silly or impossibly, if it bothers them so much she swallows her own pride and will help them to the best of her ability--- as seen when Harry fretted over Sirius possibly being tortured in the Department of Mysteries. And later, when Harry and Ron fight in Deathly Hallows Ron gives her the ultimatum of following him or staying with Harry. Not only was Hermione torn between her two best friends, but the fact she was admitting--although not in words but to herself-- that she loved Ron. Choose him or Harry? Funnily enough, she chose Harry, but not because she didn’t want to follow Ron. Because when they started the hunt for the Horcruxes they had promised to help Harry find them, and she had found that need greater.
It never stopped her from crying every night while Ron was away, though.
Another factor of Hermione is the simple fact that she’s an incredibly righteous and good young woman. Despite how she can scowl, yell and bicker with the best of them she has an incredibly strenuous set of morals. She has two trouble making best friends and she’ll follow them to the ends of the world, but at the same time she also scolds them enough it almost comes off as motherly. Although she and her friends break rules in such a consistency, any time they’re not [which is when, I mean honestly--] she constantly tries to uphold them. She frowns upon people disrespecting their Professors and things set out before them and has no problem pointing out that she disagrees.
Funnily enough, the righteous side of her has a way to contradict it’s “good” counterpart, but perhaps with good reason. See, when Hermione finds something completely unjust she fights for what she believes is right. A good example is how she tries to form S.P.E.W. to protect the welfare of house elves who she feels is brainwashed into serving and have no idea what freedom is like, of course this doesn’t go too well but it’s not without it’s attempt! And nor, of course, was her attempt to try and save Buckbeak the Hippogriff, who she and Harry save anyway.
The most shining example of her rebellion against what she believes unjust is, more than obviously, her driving nature to the creation of Dumbledore’s Army-- to go against the Ministry and Umbridge to learn what Hermione thought was “proper defense”. It’s moments that like these that show us a deeper nature to Hermione, for as much as she was concerned with upcoming O.W.L. exams she believed Harry in the fact Voldemort had returned to power and thought it best they learned proper defense. Her actions here show such a deep loyalty to her friends, but at the same time the abrasive side of her that will stop at literally nothing when she finds there’s wrong doings.
Hermione, although not weak, is not quite as strong as a rock. This especially develops as she becomes closer to the boys and they face more. She can suffer torture and not say a word about it, but instead gain a haughty attitude and a determination to prove that she is better than just mudblood. Still, she’s a girl who really has faced more than most in a few short years---none compared to Harry, though. As Hermione grew more attached to the boys she opens up more in her emotions, which gives a little of the idea she does lock quite a bit up, but nonetheless there are many times where she’s openly allowed her eyes to be brimmed with tears. Most significantly, when she was both horrified and angered at Professor Moody showing unforgivable curses in school, and secondly when Umbridge, so against half-breeds, seemed determined to kick Hagrid out of position.
She does fear though, and even admits in the sixth book that Buckbeak was still a little scary. She worries openly for her friends and even more openly her anger at them. In a way, she is a very bright and emotional girl, growing more open with each passing book. Hermione’s not one to hide what she truly feels, seen punching Malfoy in the face and even calling a professor a “foul, evil, gargoyle”. In this, we find less of the bookworm and more of the student who inherited the name of Godric Gryffindor. There are many more traits, of course that factor here and we’ll still getting to them, at that!
Bravery, an important trait for any member of the House of Godric Gryffindor, and certainly a trait that Hermione shows explanatory traits of. As I’m sure you’re already aware, of course. There are many moments of her bravery that could be mentioned--- the Stone, the Basilisk, the Shrieking Shack, the Battle at the Ministry, the Battle on the Astronomy Tower, the Battle over Little Whingining, and most of all the Battle for Hogwarts. Through it all, this tiny, bookish girl shows bravery to help and protect her friends, even when she herself is in great peril. “And leave Hermione? We wouldn’t last two days without her!” is a quote from Ron in the recent Deathly Hallows movie which, in a way, certainly describes situations of peril where her bravery and wit saves them.
Amazingly, despite all the trouble, rule breaking and dangerous situations Hermione and her friends get into, during her fifth year she received a Gryffindor’s Prefect badge. There is no denying the responsibility of this badge was undeserving, and she certainly upheld the name of it (er… for the most part. But we can’t count their adventures, can we?) Hermione’s good with power, honestly, she doesn’t attempt to abuse it but she won’t allow a person to get away with things that are against the rules. A prime example is when she told Fred and George off for testing their joke items on first years and threatening to reprimand them over it--- but even though she disliked what they did, when they did it on themselves she made no move to stop them since it wasn’t against the rules.
And yet another twist? There are times where Hermione breaks the rules as a prefect. A good example being when she confudes McLaggen during Quidditch Try-outs to prevent him from making Keeper. She tells Harry when caught that it was because he had a foul temper and was saying things about Ginny and Ron, which while true… Is a highly suspicious reasoning, is it not?
Which is what leads us into another factor of Hermione’s personality. There is no doubt that Hermione adores and loves her two best friends, Harry and Ron. But there’s a ticket here, is there not? And anyone who’s read they end of Deathly Hallows knows what it is! The factor of it, however, does play a deal on Hermione’s appearance from time to time. From at least Year Three, Hermione and Ron began bickering quite evenly, rowing, really. And it got worse as years went by. Why is this? It wasn’t possibly a clashing of personalities, since even Hermione and Harry fought, but for never so long.
And then it became clear, on Hermione’s side at least, in year six. Hermione liked Ron more than as a friend, it was clear as day, but in more likelihood loved-- since she was seen as heartbroken at his dating of Lavender Brown. Then of course Ron makes it clear in Deathly Hallows on his side---ahh! Why is it important? Because this emotion towards Ron brings out sides of Hermione that she’d never done before: confunding someone for example. More importantly, jealousy.
Hermione was never really jealous of anything until Ron started dating Lavender. In fact, Ron was utterly jealous their fourth year when he found her with Krum---but that’s a story for Ron, of course. She uses McLaggen in order to get back at Ron, something she would never have done before. She regrets the matter later, but it doesn’t change the fact that this, er, love for Ron brings out some of the worst and best of Hermione.
In a way, this relationship would be good for counterparts. For, where as Ron has the “emotional range of a teaspoon”, Hermione is quite the empathic being. She sees people and is able to pick apart and understand how they feel. This is how she knows why Cho cries when Harry and her kiss their fifth year, and (at least in the movie) their sixth year that Harry was heartbroken to see Ginny with Dean. This empathy, however, seems only to be best with emotions since when faced with more trivial things she’s at a complete loss. A great canon example is that of Quidditch, which while she loves watching her friends play she will never understand their complete addiction to it and how it can be so important (although when planning “homework schedules” she knows enough to save at least one evening a week for practice).
[there is something wrong with me.]