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vazaha-tya · 2 months ago

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I talked about this with @a-capricious-creative and I kinda wanted to make a proper post about this:

Hermione doesn't write Harry and Ron's homework for them

I just see this point brought up sometimes (and I made the mistake of looking at Reddit), so I want to set the record straight regarding Hermione's help with Harry and Ron's schoolwork. In the books, she isn't writing their essays for them, nor does she let them copy the entire thing. Ron and Harry do their own work, and sometimes (not always) Hermione goes over it, corrects mistakes, spelling, and sometimes adds a different conclusion or, in general, refines the work; she doesn't write their work from scratch.

But, I wouldn't be me if I just said that without bringing up evidence, so, here is the evidence (You will see in the quotes that the book Hermione writes the most in Harry and Ron's homework is HBP, and before that she practiclly never helps with their homework to the degree shown there, if you needed any more reasons to criticize HBP):

More often than not, Harry and Ron do their essays on their own. They are described as studying last-minute and staying up late to finish essays after they procrastinated. They complete said last-minute essays with no help from Hermione:

Harry found Ron at the back of the library, measuring his History of Magic homework. Professor Binns had asked for a three-foot-long composition on “The Medieval Assembly of European Wizards.” “I don’t believe it, I’m still eight inches short. . . .” said Ron furiously, letting go of his parchment, which sprang back into a roll.

(CoS, Ch9)

He [Harry] replaced the top of the ink bottle; pulled an old pillowcase from under his bed; put the flashlight, A History of Magic, his essay, quill, and ink inside it; got out of bed; and hid the lot under a loose floorboard under his bed.

(PoA, Ch1)

When at the Dursleys, Harry does his summer homework of his own accord, no nagging needed. Harry actually worries and thinks about when he's going to do his homework quite a bit throughout the books.

They continued to make up predictions (which grew steadily more tragic) for another hour, while the common room around them slowly emptied as people went up to bed. Crookshanks wandered over to them, leapt lightly into an empty chair, and stared inscrutably at Harry, rather as Hermione might look if she knew they weren’t doing their homework properly.

(GoF, Ch14)

He was working flat-out just to get through all their homework, though he made a point of sending regular food packages up to the cave in the mountain for Sirius; after last summer, Harry had not forgotten what it felt like to be continually hungry.

(GoF, Ch28)

Again, Harry is working on his homework on his own while worrying about Sirius.

Now panicking slightly about the amount of homework they had to do, Harry and Ron spent their lunch hour in the library looking up the uses of moonstones in potion-making. Still angry about Ron’s slur on her woolly hats, Hermione did not join them.

(OotP, Ch13)

He had not had time to practice Vanishing Spells, had not written a single dream in his dream diary, and had not finished the drawing of the bowtruckle, nor had he written his essays. He skipped breakfast next morning to scribble down a couple of made-up dreams for Divination, their first lesson, and was surprised to find a disheveled Ron keeping him company.

(OotP, Ch13)

His homework situation, however, was now desperate, and when he returned to the Gryffindor common room he did not, though exhausted, go to bed, but opened his books and began Snape’s moonstone essay. It was half-past two by the time he had finished it. He knew he had done a poor job, but there was no help for it; unless he had something to give in he would be in detention with Snape next. He then dashed off answers to the questions Professor McGonagall had set them, cobbled together something on the proper handling of bowtruckles for Professor Grubbly-Plank, and staggered up to bed, where he fell fully clothed on top of the bed covers and fell asleep immediately.

(OotP, Ch13)

Due to Umbeidge's detentions, he had no time for homework and stayed up late to pull something together on his own. Both Harry and Ron are more likely to cobble up a subpar essay last minute than not submit anything or copy from Hermione (not that she lets them, more on that later). Also, Harry got an 'Acceptable' for McGonagall's homework described here, which I think is commendable considering the very little effort he put in.

but Harry pulled out his Potions book and set to work to finish his essay, though he was only pretending to concentrate and, by the time that Ron said he was going to bed too, had written hardly anything. Midnight came and went while Harry was reading and rereading a passage about the uses of scurvy-grass, lovage, and sneezewort and not taking in a word of it. . . .

(OotP, Ch18)

Again, Harry is working on his homework on his own.

Having wasted a lot of time worrying aloud about Apparition, Ron was now struggling to finish a viciously difficult essay for Snape that Harry and Hermione had already completed. Harry fully expected to receive low marks on his, because he had disagreed with Snape on the best way to tackle dementors, but he did not care

(HBP, Ch21) - Harry and Hermione clearly didn't write the same essay, and Ron is writing another essay on his own.

Harry refers to his own homework workload a lot, and complains about having to do all of it and having no time for it. If he was copying everything off Hermione, that would not be the case:

Perhaps it was because he was now so busy, what with Quidditch practice three evenings a week on top of all his homework, but Harry could hardly believe it when he realized that he’d already been at Hogwarts two months.

(PS, Ch10)

Meanwhile Professor Binns, the ghost who taught History of Magic, had them writing weekly essays on the goblin rebellions of the eighteenth century. Professor Snape was forcing them to research antidotes. They took this one seriously, as he had hinted that he might be poisoning one of them before Christmas to see if their antidote worked. Professor Flitwick had asked them to read three extra books in preparation for their lesson on Summoning Charms.

(GoF, Ch15)

“I hope she [Umbridge] doesn’t keep me too long this evening. You realize we’ve got to write three essays, practice Vanishing Spells for McGonagall, work out a countercharm for Flitwick, finish the bowtruckle drawing, and start that stupid dream diary for Trelawney?”

(OotP, Ch13) - about his detention with Umbridge.

And sometimes, all three do homework together. Hermione is not the only one sitting long hours in the library over homework; they all do, and they all write their own essays with different conclusions and different grades:

They piled so much homework on them that the Easter holidays weren’t nearly as much fun as the Christmas ones. It was hard to relax with Hermione next to you reciting the twelve uses of dragon’s blood or practicing wand movements. Moaning and yawning, Harry and Ron spent most of their free time in the library with her, trying to get through all their extra work.

(PS, Ch14)

“Wonder what it’s like to have a peaceful life,” Ron sighed, as evening after evening they struggled through all the extra homework they were getting. Hermione had now started making study schedules for Harry and Ron, too. It was driving them nuts.

(PS, Ch14)

“Why would anyone want to celebrate the day they died?” said Ron, who was halfway through his Potions homework and grumpy. “Sounds dead depressing to me. . . .”

(CoS, Ch8)

Harry, Ron, and Hermione chose seats as far as possible from Percy in the common room that night. Ron was still in a very bad temper and kept blotting his Charms homework.

(CoS, Ch9)

“How’s she doing it?” Ron muttered to Harry one evening as Harry sat finishing a nasty essay on Undetectable Poisons for Snape. Harry looked up. Hermione was barely visible behind a tottering pile of books.

(PoA, Ch12)

Neville actually asks Harry for help with his own homework (Harry isn't seen as a bad student by others; that being said, it is DADA which is his best subject):

“Er — not now — I was going to go to the library and do that vampire essay for Lupin —” “I’ll come with you!” said Neville brightly. “I haven’t done it either!” “Er — hang on — yeah, I forgot, I finished it last night!” “Great, you can help me!” said Neville, his round face anxious.

(PoA, Ch14)

Hermione herself is against just letting Harry and Ron copy her homework, and repeatedly doesn't let Harry and Ron do so:

Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat together next to a window. Hermione was checking Harry and Ron’s Charms homework for them. She would never let them copy (“How will you learn?”), but by asking her to read it through, they got the right answers anyway.

(PS, Ch11)

“You know, we probably should try and get more homework done during the week,” Harry muttered to Ron, as they finally laid aside Professor McGonagall’s long essay on the Inanimatus Conjurus spell and turned miserably to Professor Sinistra’s equally long and difficult essay about Jupiter’s moons. “Yeah,” said Ron, rubbing slightly bloodshot eyes and throwing his fifth spoiled bit of parchment into the fire beside them. “Listen . . . shall we just ask Hermione if we can have a look at what she’s done?” Harry glanced over at her; she was sitting with Crookshanks on her lap and chatting merrily to Ginny as a pair of knitting needles flashed in midair in front of her, now knitting a pair of shapeless elf socks. “No,” he said heavily, “you know she won’t let us.”

(OotP, Ch14)

When we do see her help them, she never writes the whole essay for them; she usually corrects the essays they wrote and occasionally adds to them:

It was really lucky that Harry now had Hermione as a friend. He didn’t know how he’d have gotten through all his homework without her, what with all the last-minute Quidditch practice Wood was making them do. She had also lent him Quidditch Through the Ages, which turned out to be a very interesting read.

(PS, Ch11)

She helps Harry go through his homework when he doesn't have time for it; he goes through it himself, too. She is helping by summarizing information (as we see later), not doing it for him. (I also want to note Hermione read Quidditch Through the Ages, she knows Quidditch, she just isn't passionate about it).

“Don’t start arguing again,” said Harry wearily, as Ron opened his mouth to retaliate. “Can’t we just . . . Let’s just do that homework, get it out of the way. . . .” They collected their schoolbags from a corner and returned to the chairs by the fire. People were coming back from dinner now. Harry kept his face averted from the portrait hole, but could still sense the stares he was attracting. “Shall we do Snape’s stuff first?” said Ron, dipping his quill into his ink. “ ‘The properties . . . of moonstone . . . and its uses . . . in potion-making . . .’ ” he muttered, writing the words across the top of his parchment as he spoke them. “There.” He underlined the title, then looked up expectantly at Hermione. “So what are the properties of moonstone and its uses in potion- making?” [...] “Anyway . . .” He [Ron] rolled up the parchment on which he had written the title of Snape’s essay. “There’s no point trying to finish this now, I can’t do it without Hermione, I haven’t got a clue what you’re supposed to do with moonstones, have you?” Harry shook his head, noticing as he did so that the ache in his right temple was getting worse. He thought of the long essay on giant wars and the pain stabbed at him sharply. Knowing perfectly well that he would regret not finishing his homework tonight when the morning came, he piled his books back into his bag.

(OotP, Ch13)

Again, Harry does his own homework and schedules when he does which assignment for himself. And sometimes, they work together; there is nothing wrong with studying together or writing essays together. This isn't cheating.

Ron is attempting to get Hermione to explain what he needs to write so he won't have to track a book to read it in, but she doesn't help him in this situation, and later Harry and Ron go to the library to research for this essay on their own:

Now panicking slightly about the amount of homework they had to do, Harry and Ron spent their lunch hour in the library looking up the uses of moonstones in potion-making.

(OotP, Ch13) - I brought this quote up earlier, but this is the context. Harry and Ron sometimes have Hermione summarize research for them instead of going to the library. This is often what her help looks like.

When she does help, it usually looks like this:

“Jupiter’s biggest moon is Ganymede, not Callisto,” she said, pointing over Ron’s shoulder at a line in his Astronomy essay, “and it’s Io that’s got the volcanos.” [...] “Give them to me, I’ll look through them and correct them,” she said. “Are you serious? Ah, Hermione, you’re a lifesaver,” said Ron, “what can I — ?” “What you can say is, ‘We promise we’ll never leave our homework this late again,’ ” she said, holding out both hands for their essays, but she looked slightly amused all the same. “Thanks a million, Hermione,” said Harry weakly, passing over his essay and sinking back into his armchair, rubbing his eyes. It was now past midnight and the common room was deserted but for the three of them and Crookshanks. [...] “Okay, write that down,” Hermione said to Ron, pushing his essay and a sheet covered in her own writing back to Ron, “and then copy out this conclusion that I’ve written for you.” [...] said Hermione. “Harry, yours is okay except for this bit at the end, I think you must have misheard Professor Sinistra, Europa’s covered in ice, not mice — Harry?”

(OotP, Ch14)

Again, context, it's past midnight, and Harry is having a Voldemort-induced migraine. They've procrastinated the essays until the last moment, but they wrote them. Hermione checks them over and corrects them, but she isn't writing them for them.

All that day she [Hermione] seemed to be in a particularly good mood, and that evening in the common room she even consented to look over (in other words, finish writing) Harry’s Herbology essay, something she had been resolutely refusing to do up to this point, because she had known that Harry would then let Ron copy his work.

(HBP, Ch20)

Again, Hermione doesn't help them as often as some fans say, because she wants them to learn. And again, she corrects and helps finish an already written essay, and Ron, apparently, copies Harry's essays sometimes (at least per HBP that started dumbing both boys, but especially Ron, down...).

“Ah no!” said Ron, staring horror-struck at the parchment. “Don’t say I’ll have to write the whole thing out again!” “It’s okay, we can fix it,” said Hermione, pulling the essay toward her and taking out her wand. “I love you, Hermione,” said Ron, sinking back in his chair, rubbing his eyes wearily.

(HBP, Ch21)

Hermione again checks over already written essays and corrects Ron's spelling errors caused by Fred & George's jinxed quill; she isn't writing the whole thing.

Hence why Harry, Ron, and Hermione get different grades often enough because they aren't submitting the same essays, nor are they always working on them together (even Harry and Ron don't always do their homework together, though they help each other more often than Hermione helps either of them). Hermione never wrote their whole essays for them; she corrected and reviewed them, and there is a huge difference. She actually compliments Harry's essays sometimes as being good. Regardless, Ron and Harry still sat in the library/common room and stayed up late to write their essays on their own more often than not. Ron and Neville see Harry as a good enough student to copy his essays from him in certain subjects (and sometimes, Ron's essays are better than Harry's. Though I'd say Harry is more inclined to put slightly more effort into his essays than Ron usually is, if he has time. Harry also doesn't like setting homework off for the last minute, and it's Ron who repeatedly convinces him to do so:

Harry felt a small twinge of guilt at the thought of the pile of homework awaiting him upstairs, but the sky was a clear, exhilarating blue, and he had not been on his Firebolt for a week. . . . “I mean, we can do it tonight,” said Ron, as he and Harry walked down the sloping lawns toward the Quidditch pitch, their broomsticks over their shoulders

(OotP, Ch14)

I love Ron, but he is a bad influence on Harry when it comes to his schoolwork. Harry actually read through his school books before first year:

He had decided to call her Hedwig, a name he had found in A History of Magic. His school books were very interesting. He lay on his bed reading late into the night

(PS, Ch6)

Harry just: a. stops caring when he sees no one else really cares b. he gets good enough grades without caring c. has so much other shit on his mind, give him a break).

So can this fanon that Hermione does all their essays be put to rest, please? Harry and Ron's 'A's, 'E's, and occasional 'O's are their own, not Hermione's.

(Also, considering how last-minute Harry and Ron tend to do their homework, the fact that they average on 'A's and 'E's for most subjects is absolutely a testament to them being intelligent and decent bullshiters)

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