Hermione Granger

Character Development

Hermione Jean Granger is a fictional character in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. She initially appears in the first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, as a new student on her way to Hogwarts. After Harry and Ron save her from a mountain troll in the girls' toilets, she becomes close friends with them and often uses her quick wit, deft recall, and encyclopaedic knowledge to help them. Rowling has stated that Hermione resembles her at a younger age, with her insecurity and fear of failure

Hermione Jean Granger is a Muggle-born Gryffindor student whose parents are both dentists.[2] She becomes the best friend of Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. J.K. Rowling states that she was born on 19 September 1979[1] and she was nearly twelve when she first attended Hogwarts.[3] She is an overachiever who excels academically, and is described by Rowling as a "very logical, upright and good" character.[4] Rowling adds that Hermione's parents, two Muggle dentists, are a bit bemused by their odd daughter but very proud of her all the same."[5] They are well aware of the wizarding world and have visited Diagon Alley with her. Rowling originally planned for Hermione to have a sister, but the character never made an appearance in the novel and in 2004 Rowling noted that it "seemed too late" to introduce the character at that point.[5] Rowling confirmed in a 2004 interview that Hermione is an only child

Hermione's name is taken from William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale;[11] Rowling claimed that she wanted it to be unusual since if fewer girls shared her name, fewer girls would get teased for it[11] and it seemed that "a pair of professional dentists, who liked to prove how clever they are...gave [her] an unusual name that no-one could pronounce."[12] 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.

Hermione first appears in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone when she meets Harry and Ron on the Hogwarts Express. She constantly annoys her peers with her knowledge, so Harry and Ron initially consider her arrogant; especially after she criticises Ron's incantation of the Levitation Charm.[13] They heartily dislike her until they rescue her from a troll, for which she is so thankful that she lies to protect them from punishment, thus winning their friendship.[14] Hermione's knack for logic later enables the trio to solve a puzzle that is essential to retrieving the Philosopher's Stone, and she defeats the constrictive Devil's Snare plant by summoning a jet of "bluebell flame".[15]

Hermione is the brains behind the plan to enter the place where the Stone is hidden. She responds to Harry's wariness of Professor Severus Snape and is also suspicious of him. She reveals to Harry and Ron that she does a lot of research in the library, which helped her defeat the Devil's Snare and work out the logic of the potions.

Rowling said on her website that she resisted her editor's requests to remove the troll scene, stating "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."[1]

Hermione (along with Mrs. Weasley and a few female students of Hogwarts) develops a liking for Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher Gilderoy Lockhart as he had written all the books required for the subject of Defence Against The Dark Arts in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.[16] During a morning confrontation between the Gryffindor and Slytherin Quidditch teams, a brawl nearly ensues after Draco Malfoy calls her a "Mudblood", an insulting epithet for Muggle-born wizards which she does not yet understand but later learns is detestable language in wizarding culture. She assembles the Polyjuice Potion needed for the trio to disguise themselves as Malfoy's housemates 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 plucked from the robes of Slytherin student Millicent Bulstrode (with whom Hermione was previously matched up during Lockhart's ill-fated Duelling Club) was that 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.[17]

Hermione buys a cat named Crookshanks, who takes to chasing Ron's pet rat, Scabbers.[18] 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, though this is not revealed until the penultimate chapter. Much tension comes into play between Hermione and her two best friends; Harry is furious with her because she told McGonagall that he had received a Firebolt, which was confiscated to be inspected for traces of dark magic. Ron is angry because he feels Crookshanks is responsible for Scabbers' disappearance, while Hermione fiercely maintains that Crookshanks is innocent.

While filling in for Remus Lupin in one Defence Against the Dark Arts class, Snape labels Hermione "an insufferable know-it-all" and penalises Gryffindor after she speaks out of turn in her attempt to describe a werewolf when no one else does. She correctly deduces Lupin's secret after completing Snape's homework assignment from the class, while Crookshanks proves vital in exposing Scabbers as Peter Pettigrew, a friend of James and Lily Potter who revealed their whereabouts to Lord Voldemort the night of their murders, and was able to wrongly implicate Sirius Black (revealed to be Harry's godfather) in the Potters' deaths.[19] The Time-Turner enables Hermione and Harry to rescue Sirius and the hippogriff Buckbeak.[19]

Hermione is horrified by the cruelty that house-elves suffer, and founds S.P.E.W., the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, as an effort to gain basic rights for them. She is Bulgarian Quidditch prodigy Viktor Krum's date at the Yule Ball of the Triwizard Tournament.[20] 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.[1] 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. In the book, Hermione's feelings toward Ron are hinted at when she says that Ron can't see her "like a girl," but Krum could. She supports Harry through the Triwizard Tournament, helping him prepare for each task. At the end of the second task, Krum asks her to come to Bulgaria with him, but she politely refuses. Near the end of the term she stops fraudulent tabloid reporter and unregistered Animagus Rita Skeeter, who had published defamatory material about Hermione, Harry, and Hagrid during the Triwizard Tournament, by holding her Animagus form (a beetle) captive in a jar.

Hermione becomes a Gryffindor prefect along with Ron, and befriends Luna Lovegood, but their friendship gets off to a rocky start after Hermione chastises the publication of Luna's father: "The Quibbler's rubbish, everyone knows that." She also lambasts housemate Lavender Brown for believing the Daily Prophet's allegations of Harry fabricating stories of Voldemort's return. Ron and Hermione spend much of their time bickering, likely due to their growing romantic feelings toward one another, but they show continued loyalty to Harry. 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 Hermione conceives the idea of Harry 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 from a textbook, with no hands-on practice. 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 by a spell from Death Eater Antonin Dolohov, but makes a full recovery.

New Potions professor Horace Slughorn invites Hermione to join his "Slug Club",[23] and she helps Ron retain his spot on the Gryffindor Quidditch team when she confunds Cormac McLaggen, causing him to miss his last save attempt during Keeper tryouts. Hermione's feelings for Ron continue to grow and she decides to make a move by inviting him to Slughorn's Christmas Party, but he romances Lavender instead in retaliation for his belief that Hermione had kissed Krum years earlier. She attempts to get even by dating McLaggen at the Christmas party, but her plan goes bust and she abandons him midway through the party.[24] Ron and Hermione continually feud with each other (Ron is upset with her because she set birds to attack him after seeing him and Lavender Brown kissing; Hermione is mostly mad because of her growing jealousy) until he suffers a near-fatal poisoning from tainted mead, which frightens her enough to reconcile with him. Following Dumbledore's death, Ron and Hermione both vow to stay by Harry's side regardless of what happens.[25] A minor subplot in the book is that Hermione and Harry form a rivalry in Potions, as Hermione is used to coming first in her subjects and is angered that Harry outperforms her undeservedly by following tips and different instructions written in the margins of Harry's potions book by the previous owner. Hermione is also the only one of the trio to successfully pass her Apparition test (Ron failed and Harry was too young).

In the seventh and final book, Hermione accompanies Harry on his quest to destroy Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes. Before leaving on the quest, she helps ensure the safety of her parents by placing a false memory charm on them, making them think they are Wendell and Monica Wilkins, whose lifetime ambition is to move to Australia. She inherits Dumbledore's personal copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which allows her to decipher some of the secrets of the Deathly Hallows. She prepared for their departure and journey by placing an Undetectable Extension Charm on a small beaded purse so she is able to fill the infinite depths of the bag with materials they will need. Hermione's spell saves her and Harry from Lord Voldemort and his snake Nagini in Godric's Hollow, although the ricochet snaps Harry's wand. When she, Ron, and Harry are captured by Snatchers, who are on the hunt for Muggle-borns under the Ministry's orders, Hermione disguises Harry by temporarily disfiguring his face with a Stinging Jinx. She also attempts to pass herself off as former Hogwarts student Penelope Clearwater and a half-blood to avoid persecution, but is later recognised and taken to Malfoy Manor where Bellatrix Lestrange tortures her with the Cruciatus Curse in an attempt to extract information on how Hermione, Harry, and Ron came to possess Godric Gryffindor's sword (which was supposed to be safe in the Lestrange vault at Gringotts).