#hermione problems

[englishmajorhumor]

[diannaravenwood]

When your hair turns into a scarf, sigh.

[depthchargeforcutie]

Having a bit of a poopy morning because I didn't get as high a mark as I'd hoped in a unit I worked really hard for. Made worse by the fact that I know I still objectively did very well so I can't talk to my usual friends about it coz I have less difficulties with uni than they do.

[ferretsscarhead-blog]

when you just came here to study and be a good student, but got involved with harry potter and now you just manage to cause chaos every year. and now all you hear is harry talking about what a prat draco malfoy is (because he’s super cute and what not)

[weareallfromearth]

#HermioneProblems: Gryffindor, overachievement and martyrdom

So, ok, reasons Hermione is in Gryffindor rather than Ravenclaw? Basically, she read that Gryffindor was The Good One, so she asked to be in Gryffindor. That's the act of someone who thinks they're making an informed choice, but who has a relentless drive to just Do Everything Right, with basically no regard for or grasp of how that is different to Doing What Would Make Sense For Hermione. Because she ultimately cares less about finding the complete truth, seeking knowledge and understanding, than about fiercely going after the right thing and the best thing, sometimes in cases where it would be wiser to pull back or assess the situation more thoroughly. She has a lot of the same problems as Harry in that sense; it makes sense that she stayed on the quest with him in the 7th book, whereas Ron went home. We are talking about a girl who erased her own parents' memories of her to protect them, because that's how badly she wanted to be part of a hero quest, that's how keenly she felt responsibility. We are talking about a girl whose panic-attack-worst-fear was doing badly in school, who was desperate to be and do everything to the extent that she got herself a time turner just to study more classes - not just for the love of knowledge but because of her own certainty that she was going to be and do everything, that she had to, that she couldn't miss out on any opportunity ever. We are talking about a girl who started SPEW after meeting Dobby, completely ignoring the fact that she was trying to liberate House Elves from things they flat out didn't want to be liberated from, just because she thought she understood their situation and their needs better than them. It's much the same sort of behaviour as Harry refusing to stop and figure out what was going on before endangering his life and the lives of others by charging into the Ministry to save Sirius. Hermione and Harry were nearly the only characters that Remus Lupin knew should not be allowed to face their boggart in front of the class, and in Harry's case he believed he was doing it to protect the class from boggart-Voldemort. But in Hermione's case he was just doing it to protect Hermione from the humiliation of everyone knowing that her worst fear was failing all the tests. This is an element of Hermione that the films never quite capture - a friend of mine noted that what Hermione seems like in the films is constantly bossy and controlling and shrill and a terrible know it all - and that is absolutely a problem she has. But the bit they miss is how she is sort of constantly crying, is way more emotional than you'd expect from a character coded the way she's coded, is off-page bonding with Luna and Ginny, and is terrified under her arrogance. Also, the part where Harry and Ron are just completely comfortable copying her homework, and she doesn't just let them, but actually makes study planners for them, which they proceed not to use because dude, they are not Hermione, why would they use them? There's a terrifying thing that Remus Lupin says to Peter Pettigrew in Prisoner of Azkaban. When he says it, we have to keep in mind the kind of childhood Lupin had, and what his friends meant to him in light of how thoroughly he was ostracised for his werewolf status, and the sorts of things he went along with because he was so grateful to Pettigrew and to Sirius and to James. Pettigrew says that he faced the choice of betraying his friends or being killed by Voldemort, and Lupin, in an extremely rare moment of pure fury, shouts that, in that case, Pettigrew should have died. I think, unfortunately, Hermione would agree with him. Because her friends were her friends despite how unbelievably annoying she was in her first year, because they faced down a troll for her, she became the sort of person who would erase her own parents' memories of her, who would de-anchor herself from the world completely, in order to go help Harry and Ron defeat the Dark Lord. So yeah. That's why Hermione's in Gryffindor.

[weareallfromearth]

The Dumbledore problem

Dumbledore theory: he overcorrects for his past mistakes, always.

He really cocked it up with Tom Riddle, assuming the worst and dealing with him in an authoritarian fashion, because Riddle reminded him of the same levels of power he and Gellert once had, and the same levels of ambition, but darker.

Then, realising he cocked that up so thoroughly, when he saw the same kind of damage on Snape as there had once been on Tom, and seeing far more remorse though not nearly enough insight, he trusted Snape to teach, assuming that if only he had trusted Tom more he would have gotten better results. 

Similarly, he got way overinvested in Gellert’s vision, having found his intellectual equal and, let’s be real, first and perhaps last real romance, and way overinvested in the idea of basically ruling the world as a benevolent fascist.  So in order to avoid making that mistake again, he shied away from both power and relationships, but didn't step in when his soft power could have fixed things at the Ministry, and also didn't confide in anyone about his full plans, which - if he had - could really have resulted in more happiness for Harry because someone would have told him not to trust Petunia to be a good carer.

No one was his equal in his eyes apart from Gellert, which was a huge problem for him, because he needed the counsel of someone who was much more mistrustful than him - Aberforth, perhaps, who saw his power and his merits but didn’t worship him, or McGonagall if she felt more empowered to disagree with him and was less prone to the hero worship everyone indulged in when it came to Dumbledore. Hell, Tom Riddle himself, had Dumbledore gone the right way with him, could have provided exactly the counterpoint he needed. Both Dumbledore and Voldemort gathered cults of personality, after all.

[weareallfromearth]

Advice they don’t give you at school, but should

Just because you are very good at something does not mean you have to do it.

[hermiones-corner-blog]

Oh no, the boys are going to the pub tonight and I only have three midterms next week but also have two papers due by a week from Monday and I wish I could turn back time to get everything done