#hermione jean granger i will always love you my little bookish posh prep school girl daughter of dentists rock star

[whinlatter]

Hermione —> Overrated? Or underrated?

Do you think Harry or Ron would have been incapable of finding the Horcruxes without Hermione? Do you think their capabilities are overshadowed by Hermione since she’s so smart? When they became Aurors do you think they flopped or thrived without Hermione?

Anon are you trying to start a war in my ask box with this one…

You know, I think I would say Hermione is increasingly underrated in certain fandom spaces, after a long time being maaaybe idealised to the point where her character had all her flaws erased and the backlash was bound to happen. I love Hermione as a character, talents, flaws and all. I love thinking about her arc, her motivations and emotions and relationships that we don't glimpse through Harry's narration (her friendship with Ginny being a great example - I loved loved loved playing with it in Orchards). I just always enjoy exploring her inner life and her joy and fears and more intimate feelings when writing or reading fics (something this recent piece, something so tender (i can't explain) by @incalculablepower, does so so well). When I was much younger I used to be a bit ambivalent about Hermione as a character, for reasons that are almost cliche now: a reader who are themselves a bookish girl seeing too much of themselves in Hermione's worst moments and not enjoying the invitation to look inwards that those moments prompted, lol. (I remember little me reading the part where Ron mocks Hermione for jumping up and down in her chair while putting her hand up in class and being like sorry do other people... not like it when I do that in class... oh no oh no)

The boring answer is I don't think Harry or Ron would have been able capable of finding the Horcruxes without Hermione, but I also definitely don't think Hermione would have been able to find them on her own. Back in the day in fandom spaces, I think Harry and Ron were a bit caricatured as useless clowns bouncing off walls with Hermione being the only one with any sense. These days, at least in the fandom spaces I interact with, there've been a lot of big steps towards giving Harry and Ron their completely deserved credit for being smart, strategic and impressive throughout the Horcrux hunt (digression but I was doing a re-read of Malfoy Manor chapter the other day and sorry Harry and Ron double act in that scene is so impressive when they're dealing with Wormtail. Auror skills absolutely at work in that moment). I think Harry and Ron would do well in those early years as Aurors without Hermione, in part because they have learned from her over the years, but not solely because of it.

For me, it's so interesting to think about how a lot of Hermione's character growth and arc would happen after the war. Although I don't think the transition to Auror life would have been straightforward for Harry and Ron, I think Hermione would really struggle with going back to Hogwarts. It definitely makes sense that she would want to go back and try and get back on her pre-war track, but you know what they say: you can never really go home. For Hermione, going back to school would have been extremely dislocating and challenging, for so many reasons: the absence of Harry and Ron socially (and ofc being long-distance with Ron), but also the experience of going from being a war hero on-the-run back to the very controlled and arguably infantilising life of a boarding school, alongside peers who lived a very different war to her and went through Hogwarts under the Carrows. Hermione would have her own post-war traumas to deal with, but no longer be alongside the two people who shared hers most directly. Then there's also the context with her parents... I think the 1998/1999 academic year was a rough one for her, in ways that are so interesting to think about as a writer.

(Now if only someone... would write a fic... about the girls at Hogwarts in their seventh year... where we might explore these themes... that might begin with b and rhyme with feasts... maybe... might be nice...)