Information about Hermione Granger

Harry Potter character
Hermione Jean Granger
Emma Watson as Hermione Granger in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Parentage	Muggle-born
Actor	Emma Watson
First appearance	Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone|

Hermione Jean Granger (first name pronounced IPA: /hɚˈmaɪəni/) is a fictional character in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. She first appeared in the books in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone as a new student on her way to magic school. As the books progressed, she became head of her class and used her vast intelligence to help Harry Potter. Author J.K. Rowling has stated that Hermione is like her at a younger age, with her self confidence and fear of failure.

Background

Hermione is a Muggle-born Gryffindor student and the best friend of Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. The daughter of two dentists, Hermione is an overachiever who shows considerable academic prowess when compared to her close friends and classmates, and she is described by Rowling as a "very logical, upright and good" character.^[1] Her parents are "a bit bemused by their odd daughter, but quite proud of her all the same."^[2] Rowling says that Hermione feels "utterly inadequate…and to compensate, she tries to be the best at everything at school, projecting a false confidence that can irritate people."^[3] Hermione's Boggart is Professor McGonagall informing her that she failed her exams.^[3] Hermione's Patronus is an otter, Rowling's favourite animal.^[4] Her wand is made of vine wood and dragon heartstring core; vine is the wood ascribed to Hermione's fictional birth month (September) on the Celtic calendar.^[5]

Character development

Hermione's name was derived from William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale;^[6] Rowling claimed that she wanted it to be unusual since if fewer girls shared her name, fewer girls would get teased for it.^[6] Her original last name was "Puckle", but Rowling felt the name "did not suit her at all", and so the "less frivolous" Granger made it into the books.^[3] Rowling confirmed in a 2004 interview that Hermione is an only child.^[7]

Rowling claimed the character of Hermione carries several autobiographical influences: "Hermione is a bit like me when I was younger. I did not set out to make Hermione like me but she is a bit like me. She is an exaggeration of how I was when I was younger."^[1] Rowling recalled being called a "little know-it-all" in her youth. ^[3] Moreover, she stated that not unlike herself, "there is a lot of insecurity and a great fear of failure" beneath Hermione's "swottiness".^[1] Finally, according to Rowling, next to Albus Dumbledore, Hermione is the perfect expository character: because of her cleverness, she can always be used as a plot dump to explain the Harry Potter world.^[9]

Personality

Hermione's most prominent feature is her cleverness. Hermione is book smart and is very good with logic, as seen when she deciphers Snape's potion challenge at the end of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Hermione does not do well at the beginning of the series in stressful situations, as seen when she does not think to use her wand when needing to create fire to get rid of the Devil's Snare. However, in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, she can quickly think of a place to apparate to. She also thinks to reveal Harry to the Death Eaters to save Xenophilius Lovegood, and to use a stinging hex on Harry's face to hide his identity when attacked by Snatchers.

Appearances

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Hermione debuts in Philosopher's Stone when she meets future companions Harry and Ron on the Hogwarts Express. She is described as having "a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth," and constantly annoys her peers with her knowledge. Harry and Ron initially consider her arrogant, especially after she criticizes Ron's incantation of the Levitation Charm.^[10] They heartily dislike her until she is rescued by Harry and Ron from a troll. She is so thankful that she lies to protect them from punishment, and their friendship is born.^[10] Hermione's knack for logic later enables the trio to solve a puzzle essential to retrieving the Philosopher's Stone, and she defeats the constrictive Devil's Snare plant by setting it on fire.

Rowling revealed that she had an argument with her editor about the troll fight scene, and that she refused to remove it because, "Hermione…is so very annoying in the early part of Philosopher's Stone that I really felt it needed something (literally) huge to bring her together with Harry and Ron."^[3]

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Hermione develops a crush on handsome new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart.^[10] During a morning confrontation between the Gryffindor and Slytherin Quidditch teams, a brawl nearly ensues after Draco Malfoy shockingly calls her a "Mudblood," but she does not know what the epithet means until Ron explains it to her at Hagrid's hut. Hermione's matchup with Slytherin student Millicent Bulstrode during Lockhart's ill-fated Duelling Club ends with her being painfully wrenched in a headlock. She assembles the Polyjuice Potion needed for the trio to disguise themselves as Malfoy's housemates in order to collect information about the Heir of Slytherin who has reopened the Chamber of Secrets. However, she is unable to join Harry and Ron in the investigation after the hair she plucked from Millicent's robes turns out to be those of her cat, whose appearance she takes on in her human form; it takes several weeks for the effects to completely wear off. Hermione is Petrified by the basilisk after successfully identifying the creature through library research; though she lies incapacitated in the hospital wing, her information is crucial to Harry and Ron in their successful mission to solve the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets. Hermione is revived after Harry kills the basilisk, but she is devastated to learn that all end-of-year exams have been cancelled as a school treat.^[10]

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

In her third year, Hermione gets a pet cat-Kneazle mix named Crookshanks, who habitually pursues Ron's pet rat, Scabbers.^[10] Before the start of term, Professor McGonagall secretly gives her a Time-Turner, a device which enables her to go back in time and handle her heavy class schedule. While filling in for Remus Lupin in one Defence Against the Dark Arts class, Professor Snape labels her "an insufferable know-it-all" and penalizes Gryffindor after she speaks out of turn in her attempt to describe a werewolf. While Hermione correctly deduces Lupin's secret after completing Snape's homework assignment from the class, Crookshanks proves vital in exposing Scabbers as Peter Pettigrew, a friend of James and Lily Potter who revealed their whereabouts to Voldemort the night of their murders, and was able to wrongly implicate Sirius Black (revealed to be Harry's godfather) in the Potters' deaths.^[10] The Time-Turner enables Hermione and Harry to rescue Black and the hippogriff Buckbeak.^[10]

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Hermione is Bulgarian Quidditch prodigy Viktor Krum's date at the Yule Ball, much to a jealous Ron's disdain, looking unexpectedly beautiful at the ball to boot.^[10] The proper pronunciation of her name (Her-my-oh-nee) is interjected into the plot when she teaches it to Krum; the best he can do is "Herm-own-ninny," but she has no problem with it.^[3] She later gets into a heated argument with Ron after he accuses her of "fraternising with the enemy" in reference to her friendship with Krum. Hermione also tirelessly campaigns for the rights of house-elves by forming the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare (SPEW), but she is the only vocal opponent of the enslavement of house-elves, as Ron vehemently reminds her, "They like being enslaved!" Near the end of the term, she stops fraudulent tabloid reporter and Animagus Rita Skeeter, who had published slander about Hermione and Harry during the Triwizard Tournament, by holding her captive in her animal form (a beetle) in a jar.^[10]

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Hermione becomes a Gryffindor prefect along with Ron, and befriends Luna Lovegood, even though they share the exact opposite ideologies,^[19] but their friendship gets off to a rocky start after Hermione chastises Luna's father's publication: "The Quibbler's rubbish, everyone knows that." She also lambastes housemate Lavender Brown for believing the Daily Prophet's allegations of Harry fabricating stories of Voldemort's return. Later, with Luna's assistance, Hermione blackmails Rita Skeeter into interviewing Harry for an upcoming issue of The Quibbler. Attempts to ban the magazine from Hogwarts are futile as the story spreads quickly through the school. One turning point in the series is when she conceives the idea of secretly teaching defensive magic to a small band of students in defiance of the Ministry of Magic's dictum to teach only the subject's basic principles. Hermione gets an unexpectedly huge response, and the group becomes the nascent Dumbledore's Army. She is involved in the battle in the Department of Mysteries and seriously injured, but makes a full recovery.^[10]

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

New Potions professor Horace Slughorn invites Hermione to join his Slug Club.^[10] She helps Ron retain his spot on the Gryffindor Quidditch team when she secretly jinxes Cormac McLaggen, causing him to miss his last save attempt during Keeper tryouts. Hermione begins to develop feelings for Ron, but when he romances Lavender Brown instead, she attempts to retaliate by dating McLaggen at Slughorn's Christmas party, but her plan goes bust and she abandons him midway through the party.^[10] Ron and Hermione continually feud with each other until he suffers a bout of poisoning from tainted mead, which frightens her enough to reconcile with him. Following Albus Dumbledore's death, Ron and Hermione both vow to stay by Harry's side regardless of what happens.^[10]

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Hermione is a valuable help in Harry's quest to destroy Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes. When the trio are captured by Snatchers who are on the hunt for Muggle-borns under the Ministry's orders, Hermione passes herself off as "Penelope Clearwater" and a half-blood to avoid persecution, but is then taken to Malfoy Manor and tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange for information on how they came to possess the Sword of Gryffindor (which Bellatrix believed Snape sent to her vault in Gringotts) before being rescued by Dobby, along with Harry and Ron. She later uses Polyjuice Potion to impersonate Bellatrix when the trio attempt to steal Hufflepuff's cup from Gringotts. Hermione and Ron share their first kiss, and they join Dumbledore's Army in the final battle against Voldemort and the Death Eaters, during which Hermione destroys the cup in the Chamber of Secrets with a basilisk fang.^[10] In the final battle in the Great Hall, Hermione fights Bellatrix with the help of Luna and Ginny Weasley. However, the three of them are unable to defeat Bellatrix, and stop fighting her once Molly Weasley orders them to back off.^[10]

Epilogue

Nineteen years after Lord Voldemort's downfall, Hermione is married to Ron and they have two children, Rose and Hugo.^[10] She begins her post-Hogwarts career by working in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, where she is instrumental in greatly improving life for house-elves; she has since moved higher up in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement while ensuring the eradication of oppressive, pro-pureblood laws.^[27]

Film portrayal

Emma Watson has portrayed Hermione in all the Harry Potter films as of 2007. Watson considers Hermione "charismatic" and "a fantastic role to play."^[28] In 2007, prior to the release of Order of the Phoenix, Watson stated: "There are too many stupid girls in the media. Hermione’s not scared to be clever. I think sometimes really smart girls dumb themselves down a bit, and that’s bad. When I was 9 or 10, I would get really upset when they tried to make me look geeky, but now I absolutely love it. I find it's so much pressure to be beautiful. Hermione doesn’t care what she looks like. She's a complete tomboy.”^[29]

Screenwriter Steve Kloves revealed in a 2003 interview that Hermione was his favorite character. "There's something about her fierce intellect coupled with a complete lack of understanding of how she affects people sometimes that I just find charming and irresistible to write."^[9]

References

External links

• Hermione's entry at Harry Potter Lexicon

•  • [ e] Harry Potter characters

Main characters Harry Potter | Ron Weasley | Hermione Granger| Albus Dumbledore| Severus Snape| Lord Voldemort Relations People: Sirius Black| Regulus Black| Phineas Nigellus Black| Fleur Delacour| Aberforth Dumbledore| Bellatrix Lestrange| Remus Lupin| Draco Malfoy| Lucius Malfoy| Narcissa Malfoy| James and Lily Potter| Nymphadora Tonks| Arthur Weasley| Bill Weasley| Charlie Weasley| Fred and George Weasley| Ginny Weasley| Molly Weasley| Percy Weasley Families: The Blacks| The Dumbledores| The Dursleys| The Gaunts| The Lupins| The Malfoys| The Potters| The Riddles| The Snapes| The Weasleys Hogwarts staff and students '''Staff| '''Founders| Ghosts Students: Cho Chang| Cedric Diggory| Neville Longbottom| Luna Lovegood Students in Harry Potter's year| Minor Gryffindors | Minor Hufflepuffs | Minor Ravenclaws | Minor Slytherins Organizations: Dumbledore's Army| Inquisitorial Squad| Slug Club| Hogwarts Quidditch teams| S.P.E.W. Staff: Argus Filch| Filius Flitwick| Rubeus Hagrid| Minerva McGonagall| Horace Slughorn| Pomona Sprout| Sybill Trelawney Minor Hogwarts teachers Ministry of Magic officials Barty Crouch Sr| Cornelius Fudge| Alastor Moody| Rufus Scrimgeour| Kingsley Shacklebolt| Dolores Umbridge Minor Ministry officials Other characters People: Barty Crouch Jr| Gellert Grindelwald| Igor Karkaroff| Viktor Krum| Gilderoy Lockhart| Moaning Myrtle| Peter Pettigrew| Quirinus Quirrell| Rita Skeeter Minor characters Creatures: '''Beasts| Beings Boggarts| Dementors| House-elves| Goblins| Ghosts| Inferius| Thestral| Trolls| Werewolves Basilisk| Buckbeak| Crookshanks| Dobby| Fawkes| Firenze| Griphook| Hedwig| Kreacher| Nagini| Peeves Other beasts| Mythical creatures Organisations and groups: Animagus| Dark wizards| Death Eaters| Historical characters| International Confederation of Wizards| Marauders| Order of the Phoenix (Minor members)| Portraits| Quidditch| The Weird Sisters

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