Hermione Deserves Better!

In the Harry Potter series there is a serious lack of women characters overall, but even more so in the first few books. Majority of the female characters are senior figures- professors, parents, or otherwise. Of the students, almost none of the developed characters are female. Most of the girls in Harry’s age group tend to be nothing more than names. The ones who are more than just their name still tend to be flat, static characters. They have no use other than being present. As of now, it seems Hermione is the only female student at Hogwarts with actual character development.

Reading the series as a child, I remember always connecting with Hermione the most out of all the characters. This was probably because she was a girl, but I also always looked up to her because of her intelligence and morality. I love who Hermione is as a person.

From the moment we met Hermione, she was always the same bright bookworm we’ve known throughout the entire series. When Harry and Ron first met her they didn’t find her personality as enticing, but now that we’ve reached Prisoner of Azkaban, it’s clear they’re the three musketeers of Hogwarts. Or are they?

Now we’ve reached the main rant of this blog post: I HATE HARRY AND RON’S TREATMENT OF HERMIONE IN THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN AND SHE DESERVES BETTER!!!!! Now that that’s off my chest, let me explain.

For much of Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry and Ron are either arguing with Hermione or not speaking to her at all. Ron’s upset with Hermione because he thinks Crookshanks ate Scabbers. I don’t blame Ron for being mad, after all Scabbers was his family pet for 12 years, but Scabbers is a rat and Hermione is a human (and his best friend) and I think he forgot that.

Harry on the other hand got a really cool broom for Christmas and Hermione was (understandably) concerned about his well being. Because a known mass murderer was after her best friend, she responsibly told McGonagall that Harry recieved a strange gift. Again, while I understand why Harry was upset, he also needed to appreciate the fact that Hermione was just trying to protect him.

But what does Hermione get in return? Both of her best friends ignoring her for the next several weeks. How is that fair in the slightest? For Ron, it wasn’t necessarily Hermione’s fault that Crookshanks attacked Scabbers. While she knew that Crookshanks was after Scabbers, if she wasn’t around it’s not like she could’ve stopped the “attack” anyways. Besides, if Hedwig ate Scabbers I really don’t think Ron would’ve ignored Harry for weeks on end. And for Harry, Hermione was just looking out for him! I think their friendship should be valued above a Firebolt...

Overall, I just feel like the way Harry and Ron treat Hermione isn’t always the way somebody should treat their friends. Hermione was clearly stressed the entire year with her class load; This year was probably one of the years she could’ve used her friends the most. Instead, they just pretended like she didn’t even exist.

Personally, I just feel that Harry and Ron don’t always treat Hermione with the respect she deserves, especially in their younger years. That could be due to their young age and maturity levels but still, let’s face it: without Hermione, Harry and Ron would’ve been dead since the Devil’s Snare in Sorcerer’s Stone. Now that’s the tea, Sis.