Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Major Events/Hermione Granger
Overview
[edit | edit source]Hermione Granger remains unattached for the first three years of the series. It seems that Viktor Krum is attracted to her when he arrives for the Triwizard Tournament in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, but she does not reciprocate his feelings; she sees him as a pen-friend, though it is obvious to us that he wants more than that. When Ron's relationship with Lavender ends, he suddenly discovers his true feelings for Hermione, feelings which Hermione has quietly had for him for the past three years or more; and by the end of the sixth book, they have become more than "sort of" together, according to Harry. They remain so, with some friction, throughout the seventh book.
Event Details
[edit | edit source]Hermione starts off this book as a smart, but very bossy and largely unattractive girl with rather large teeth. She is written as a "grind", the sort of person who is obsessed with rules and marks, and is quite unappealing. After Hallowe'en, however, she becomes friends with Harry and Ron, and later takes part in protecting the Philosopher's Stone, helping Harry to bypass the many obstacles leading to where it is being guarded.
Hermione develops a rapid crush on Gilderoy Lockhart, Hogwarts' new Defence Against the Dark Arts instructor, resulting in possibly a bit more than an annoyed flicker from Ron. While she never develops an attachment for Lockhart, she, along with many other girls in the school, seems entranced by him. Despite some clear evidence that his magical competence is limited, Hermione asks Madam Pince if she can keep the note Lockhart wrote giving her permission to check out a restricted library book. It is only as the year continues, and Lockhart's competence is repeatedly challenged and found wanting, that Hermione finally loses interest in him.
Towards year's end, Hermione is attacked and petrified by the Monster that has been released from the Chamber of Secrets. When we see her in the Hospital Wing, Ron seems more deeply affected than Harry.
Hermione is somehow managing to take twelve subjects during most of this book, though it drops to eleven after she gives up on Divination in mid-April. She is far too busy, even with the Time-turner to assist with her scheduling, to have much of a social life, and when we see her she is tired from overwork and snappish. When Hermione suggests to Professor McGonagall, at Christmas, that Harry's new broom might be jinxed, this causes an estrangement between Hermione and the other two. During this time, Hermione is working to try and secure a reprieve for Buckbeak, a job that Harry and Ron promised to help with, but have somehow forgotten.
The return of Harry's broom could have cured this separation, but Ron's pet rat, Scabbers immediately disappears, apparently eaten by Hermione's pet cat Crookshanks, leaving Ron estranged from Hermione. We learn from Hagrid that she is feeling this separation very deeply – she is often in tears when she visits him. The two of them do reconcile when they have to start work on Buckbeak's final appeal, but they remain at least outwardly friends, rather than anything more serious.
Ron is apparently infatuated with Fleur Delacour, a Beauxbatons student and shortly the Beauxbatons Champion in the Triwizard Tournament, much to Hermione's disgust. When Fleur comes over to the Gryffindor table to ask if they want their bouillabaisse, Ron is almost struck dumb. After she departs, Ron says that she must have some Veela in her ancestry. Hermione is rather nettled by this, and says that nobody else is acting that silly about her, but Harry notices that many other students seem similarly struck by her.
Viktor Krum, who arrived with the Durmstrang delegation, and has been chosen as their Champion in the Tournament, seems to appear in the library whenever Hermione is there.
It is early in this term that the abortive duel between Harry and Draco Malfoy results in Hermione's already big teeth being dramatically over-enlarged by a stray curse. In the Hospital Wing, Madam Pomfrey arranges to shrink them to their original size, but Hermione deliberately has her overdo it, so that they are the correct proportion for her face.
Matters come to a head at the Yule Ball. Ron invites Hermione to be his date (apparently as a last resort), but Hermione already has a date - with Viktor Krum, who had haunted the library to get closer to Hermione. After three hours getting ready for the ball, Hermione is almost unrecognizably pretty. Ron glowers at Hermione, livid with what the reader recognizes as jealousy, as she dances with Viktor. When she floats over to speak to Ron and Harry, Ron accuses her of "fraternizing with the enemy". After a row, Hermione angrily stalks off into the crowd, while Ron and Harry exit for a walk in the rose garden.
After the dance, Harry finds Ron and Hermione arguing in the Gryffindor common room. Hermione shouts that if Ron does not like it, then, "The next time there's a Ball, ask me before someone else does, and not as a last resort!" Hermione storms off and Ron, stunned, says Hermione is quite clearly missing the point. It is obvious to Harry, and the reader, that Hermione understands the jealousy between them, while Ron quite clearly either does not, or is unwilling to accept it, and will not for some time.
In the Second Task, the merpeople are holding someone valuable to each Champion deep under the lake. Hermione is the "hostage" that Krum is to rescue. When Harry returns to the surface with Ron and also Gabrielle, Fleur's sister, Hermione and Viktor are close to each other, talking privately; Hermione breaks away from Krum briefly to check on Harry and Ron. Fleur is overjoyed at Gabrielle's rescue and gratefully kisses Harry, and also Ron, because he helped. Hermione is somewhat bothered by Fleur's attention to Ron, but is distracted by Viktor, who is apparently trying to retain Hermione's attention when she talks to Harry and Ron.
Shortly after, Rita Skeeter writes a scurrilous article for Witch Weekly suggesting Hermione is keeping both Harry and Viktor as lovers. Hermione wonders how Rita knew Viktor had invited her to visit him over the summer; Ron becomes upset at hearing about the invitation.
A month before the Third Task, after surveying where the task will take place, Krum asks Harry to walk with him. Harry is amazed when Krum asks if Hermione is Harry's girlfriend, and Harry replies she most definitely is not; they are only friends, despite how much Hermione talks about him.
As the Beauxbatons' carriage is about to depart, Fleur bids Harry goodbye. Ron is once again almost completely tongue-tied in her presence, earning a vexed look from Hermione.
Hermione remains largely unattached throughout this book, though she seems to be constantly holding Ron to a high standard, trying to turn him into a better person. It is mentioned that Hermione is writing to Viktor Krum, who Ron pettily persists in calling "Vicky". Hermione insists that he is only a pen-friend, but Ron darkly says that he would like to be a lot more than that. Hermione flushes at this comment.
As Ron is leaving breakfast for the Quidditch pitch, on the morning of his first-ever Quidditch match, Hermione kisses him on the cheek. Ron seems bemused by this, rubbing the spot on his cheek as he leaves the Great Hall.
Fleur is living in the Weasley's house as she prepares for her wedding to Bill. Ron, still dealing with the remnants of his infatuation with her, has mixed feelings about this development, as he seems to still be hoping for a kiss from her, but is totally abashed when she "jumps out at [him] unexpectedly, like then." Mrs. Weasley and Ginny are not so pleased; she seems quite self-centered and doesn't seem to care for the feelings of the family very much. Hermione is upset by this as well; it seems that Ron's ongoing goofiness whenever Fleur is around is quite troubling to her.
Lavender Brown begins the school year openly flirting with Ron, much to Hermione's disgust. After a particularly terrible Quidditch practice, Ron and his sister Ginny have a row after he and Harry accidentally walk in on her snogging Dean Thomas in a Hogwarts hallway. They have a screaming match in which Ginny accuses Ron of having absolutely no experience with girls. She says that Harry and Cho have been snogging, as have Hermione and Viktor Krum, and accuses Ron of being jealous because he's the only one (presumably, of the Trio plus Ginny) who doesn't have anyone to snog with. Since Ron is still smarting from watching Hermione being singled out by Krum, and their ongoing pen-pal relationship, he responds to Lavender's advances. Their relationship is publicly and intensely physical – Harry at one point compares it to a vertical wrestling match, and at another point wonders which of several hands he can see belongs to whom. This causes a huge rift between Hermione and Ron that lasts several months during their 6th year. Hermione is somewhere between vexed and incensed at this relationship of Ron's, at one point summoning a flock of birds to attack Ron when he and Lavender barge in on her, evidently looking for a private place to snog.
Hermione, as an exceptional student, has been invited to join the "Slug Club", a group of students who periodically are asked to parties by Professor Slughorn. Slughorn has made a larger than usual effort for the Christmas party, and Hermione is expected to bring a guest, as is Harry who has also been courted for the Slug Club. Hermione debates with herself, during Herbology class with Ron and Harry, who she will take to the Slug Club Christmas party. Ron eventually quietly asks if she will take him; she does not answer. Shortly after this, Hermione, in Ron and Lavender's entangled presence, loudly tells Parvati Patil that she is taking Cormac McLaggen to the Slug Club party, because she likes "good Quidditch players." This leaves Harry marveling at the lengths to which women would go to get revenge.
This strategy backfires on her, as McLaggen keeps trying to maneuver Hermione under mistletoe at the party. She latches onto Harry once he arrives, as his date, Luna Lovegood, seems to have chosen to spend her time discussing conspiracy theories with Professor Trelawney.
On his birthday, Ron eats some chocolate cauldrons which have been spiked with love potion by Romilda Vane, who intended them for Harry. After receiving the antidote from Professor Slughorn, Ron is nearly killed by some poison intended for another victim, possibly Dumbledore. Though they have been going through one of their stretches of estrangement before this, Hermione, deeply worried, stays by his bedside in the Hospital Wing his entire first day. It is likely significant that the first time Ron speaks coherently after being poisoned, it is immediately after the first time that Hermione, waiting at his bedside, has said something, and that what he says is her name. She visits him frequently until he is fully recovered, and thereafter she and Ron mend their differences.
After Ron's recovery, Ron's spell-checking quill goes wrong one day when doing homework and messes up an essay he is writing. Hermione unbends enough to offer to correct it for him. With a sigh of relief, Ron pushes his essay over to her, saying that he loves her. Hermione blushes, but says only that he shouldn't let Lavender hear that.
Harry now determines that he must use Felix Felicis potion to get a memory from Professor Slughorn. Under the influence of this potion, he decides to don his Invisibility Cloak and go visit Hagrid. As he, Ron, and Hermione descend from the boy's dormitory, they run into Lavender; she of course can't see Harry, and starts berating Ron for being up in his dormitory "alone with her" (Hermione). This is basically the lever Ron needs to end his relationship with her.
By the close of this book, Ron and Hermione are almost a couple. Between the battle under the Astronomy tower and Dumbledore's funeral, we see what appears to be almost a double date, with apparent intimacy between Ron and Hermione as well as an intimate relationship between Ginny and Harry; and Ron and Hermione sit together at Dumbledore's funeral, where we also see them comforting each other.
Harry finds that Ron has been given a book by Fred and George, Twelve Fail-Safe Ways To Charm Witches, which he describes as "pure gold". Harry, who has received his own copy from Ron privately (Ron says it's not for his mother's eyes), notes him using the techniques in this book both on his own mother and on Hermione; Hermione seems pleased when Ron compliments her.
Hermione is somewhat shocked when Viktor Krum shows up at Bill and Fleur's wedding; Fleur has invited him, and Hermione had not expected to see him there. He, in turn, is disgruntled when Ron hauls Hermione away and onto the dance floor; it is obvious at this point that he had in fact been hoping she would be more than a pen-friend. Hermione and Ron are still on the dance floor when Kingsley Shacklebolt's Patronus arrives with news of the fall of the Ministry. Fleeing the arriving Death Eaters, the Trio find sanctuary, in Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. There, as they turn in for the night, Hermione chooses to sleep beside Ron, holding hands with him for mutual comfort.
As the Trio escape from the Ministry, Ron is Splinched, and Hermione is desperate in her efforts to heal him. She seems almost as affected by Ron's injury as Ron is himself.
During their search of the Horcruxes, especially after they retrieve Slytherin's Locket from Umbridge, the relationship between the friends is strained. Ron, who is used to having three daily meals and not doing much work, is especially put out by their continued, apparently aimless, peregrinations through the cold, wet British countryside. His feelings are strengthened by the Locket, and, in a moment of rage when Harry admits not having a plan to find the Horcruxes, abandons the quest. His departure leaves Hermione in tears, and while they delay their departure the next morning in the hopes that Ron will return to their camp, eventually they decide that they must leave for the sake of their safety. Knowing that Ron will not be able to find them again, Hermione is devastated, and simply sits, sobbing, at their arrival point, leaving Harry to set the defensive spells around them.
By common unspoken agreement, Harry and Hermione do not discuss Ron's departure. Hermione retreats even further into her books, and Harry does not know how to console her.
When Ron comes back, Hermione explodes with apparent rage, and starts to hit him with all her strength, the first show of irrationality from Hermione. Harry has to separate them with a Shield charm, whereupon Hermione physically seems to retreat into herself. In hopes that Hermione will relent, Harry explained that Ron just saved him from certain death. She eventually does unwind, though Harry is a little surprised that she seems to not be moved by either Ron's saving Harry, or Ron's conquering the jealousy inspired by the Horcrux in its efforts to preserve itself. Rather, it is Ron's detailing his attempt to return, and his finding Harry and Hermione by means of the Deluminator, that cause her to relax a little. However, relations between the two are very strained for a few days.
As part of the reconciliation process, Ron accedes immediately to Hermione's suggestion that they visit Xeno Lovegood, overriding Harry's caution, and guides them to the Lovegood house. Betrayed by Xeno, the trio must escape from the Lovegood home. During the visit to the Lovegoods', and following the escape, Ron and Hermione seem to have fully reconciled their differences.
When the Trio are captured and taken to Malfoy Manor, Hermione is kept apart from the others by Bellatrix Lestrange, who is torturing her in order to determine how they had found the Sword of Gryffindor. Ron is frantic, shouting her name and pounding the walls, as her screams reduce him to sobs. Once freed from the dungeons, Ron concentrates his efforts on saving Hermione, and though she has been tortured nearly to the point of being unconscious, it seems that Ron's efforts do have some effect. When she has recovered, in Shell Cottage, she no longer seems quite as distant.
After their arrival at Hogwarts following their Gringotts break-in, with the Final Battle in Hogwarts' grounds becoming inevitable, Ron expresses his worry for the house-elves and asks if he and Hermione should tell them to go away so that they don't get killed. This act of maturity and selflessness from Ron prompts Hermione to kiss him, ignoring Harry's presence, and apparently confirming their relationship status as Ginny had earlier similarly done with Harry.
In the Epilogue, "Nineteen Years Later", Hermione is happily married to Ron and they have two children, Rose and Hugo. Rose is going to start Hogwarts that year. The happiness apparent in the epilogue, as Ron jokes numerous times with Hermione, shows that they are both very content with their relationship.
Notable Consequences
[edit | edit source]Just before Christmas in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Hermione comments that Ron has the emotional depth of a teaspoon. It's more accurate however, to say that Ron's ability to empathise with the emotions of others is the size of a teaspoon. We have seen this repeatedly; Ron seems oblivious to how his words can be hurtful to others, though he sometimes says things deliberately; many of his more provocative utterances in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban are meant to sting Hermione, as retaliation either for arranging for Harry's Firebolt broom to be confiscated by McGonagall, or for her apparent callousness when his pet rat appears to have been killed by her cat, Crookshanks. However, Ron also shows a lot of compassion towards Hermione on numerous occasions through the saga.
It is Hermione's caring about Ron so much, also, that delays his return to the group in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Ron had no way to locate Harry and Hermione's next campsite once they had departed the one Ron had left from. To spare Hermione's feelings, Harry avoids mentioning Ron by name, and so neither does Hermione. Only when Hermione eventually speaks Ron's name does Dumbledore's Deluminator detect it, leading Ron to Harry and Hermione. If Harry or Hermione had spoken Ron's name sooner, the Deluminator could have led him back more quickly.
Analysis
[edit | edit source]It is interesting to see how single-minded Hermione is in pursuing Ron. There are side-lights, of course; Viktor Krum is an interesting companion for a while, and she continues writing to him after he returns to Durmstrang, but it is possible she keeps the communication lines with Viktor open as a means to gather information, and also in case Krum has some later role to play in the fight against Voldemort as the anti-Voldemort movement had been forced underground. However, it is equally possible she simply wanted a foreign pen pal.
The author has mentioned "anvil-sized hints" being dropped about Ron and Hermione getting together since about Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It is in that book that we can see Ron's growing jealousy towards anyone daring to show a romantic interest in Hermione, and Hermione, earlier in the same book, seems to be furious and scowling at any female (notably Fleur Delacour) that shows affection towards Ron.
A red herring is seen in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, however; Ron expresses the same indignation when he finds Dean and Ginny snogging. Could Ron regard Hermione as a sister? Actually, we see that Ron is acting protective towards Ginny, and is jealous towards Hermione, but the difference is subtle.
We never find out exactly what was going on between Viktor and Hermione. True, Ginny does tell Ron that Hermione and Viktor snogged, but this is inconclusive, as Ginny was in mid-quarrel with Ron, trying to verbally hurt him. Ginny may only be repeating rumours, embellishing them for effect. Viktor would certainly like to spend time snogging with Hermione; what is uncertain is whether he actually has. Hermione clearly set her sights on Ron early in the series, and expresses that intent after the Yule Ball, before Viktor has decided to ask if Harry has left the field clear for him. It is uncertain if Hermione would jeopardize her potential relationship with Ron by being known to be snogging with Viktor. It is barely possible that Hermione, following the example of Cho Chang in Harry's fifth year, which led to that couple's Valentine's Day meltdown, may have been mentioning other suitors to gauge or increase Ron's commitment to her. However, as Hermione seems aware of how and why that failed to work, it seems unlikely that Hermione would try a similar tactic on Ron. Against this, we must mention Harry's apparent lack of surprise at Ginny's accusation; this would appear, at first glance, to indicate that Harry was aware of romantic activity between Hermione and Viktor. On re-reading, however, his reaction seems to be bemusement, leading us to believe it more likely that the appearance of Viktor in Ginny's diatribe is not based on actual fact.
Questions
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Greater Picture
[edit | edit source]It is interesting to note that Ginny Weasley and Hermione have each set their sights on one particular boy, and throughout the series will act with a certain single-mindedness to get him. Hermione, we see here, has decided that Ron is the one for her, and seems set on catching him, while Ginny is equally centered on capturing Harry. We will find out that Hermione had advised Ginny to give up on Harry when Harry fell for Cho Chang; this is the point at which Ginny started going out with Michael Corner. It is peculiar, then, that Hermione is unable, or unwilling, to follow her own advice when Ron and Lavender become an item. Perhaps it is simpler for her to see problems in Ginny's romantic life than in her own; it certainly is true in real life that it is easier to see other people's problems than to see your own.