Hermione Jane Granger (born September 19, 1979)^[1][2] is a fictional character of the Harry Potter book series. She is a young female student at Hogwarts and, with Ron, one of Harry Potter's two best friends there. She is slightly bossy, and bookish. Her thirst for knowledge comes in useful in many of their adventures. One of her favourite subjects at school is Arithmancy. Her parents are both Muggle dentists. She shares her dormitory at Hogwarts with Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown.

Hermione's name is pronounced "Her-my-oh-nee", as readers find out in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. This was the most frequently asked question J. K. Rowling received, so in this book she cunningly had Hermione teach Viktor Krum how to pronounce her name properly (without much success). Her name comes from William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale.

J. K. Rowling created the character of Hermione as a caricature of herself at the age of eleven.

Hermione is played by Emma Watson in the Harry Potter movies.

Harry and Ron do not like Hermione initially; in her first year at Hogwarts, while still on the Hogwarts Express, Ron hopes that he doesn't end up in the same house as her. They later warm to her: she lies to Professor McGonagall to keep them out of trouble, after they save her from a troll attack — she had been in the bathroom, crying over a comment Ron had earlier made about her not having friends. As the books progress, it becomes evident that Hermione and Ron's personalities clash rather violently, escalating into fierce arguments between the two. Hermione helps Harry to get past the Devil's Snare and the Potions puzzle when he seeks to stop the theft of the philosopher's stone.

In her second year, she finds out what the term mudblood means from Draco Malfoy and is defended by Ron, she is petrified by the basilisk while researching a hunch; this information later helps Harry and Ron to save Ron's sister, Ginny.

In the next year, Hermione is again estranged from her friends, first when she is suspicious about Harry's Christmas gift, a Firebolt broom, and reports it to Professor McGonagall, who confiscates it; and again when Ron accuses her cat, Crookshanks (which, incidentally, is part kneazle^[3]), of killing his rat Scabbers. While estranged from her friends, she helps Hagrid to prepare for the court case against his hippogriff, Buckbeak, though these efforts are unsuccessful. She and Harry later help the hippogriff to escape.

Hermione starts to relax that year, and after taking a dislike to Professor Trelawney and her subject, Divination, she leaves the class when she is accused of not having the Sight, deciding that she would rather study a subject of substance like Arithmancy. To do this, she required the use of a Time-Turner (a device which enables her to go back in time to fit in all her subjects), which she and Harry used in their rescue of Buckbeak.

In her fourth year, her attention is drawn to the poor quality of life of house-elves. She makes the decision to start an organisation, the Society for the Protection of Elvish Welfare, which becomes known by its unfortunate acronym. She attends the Yule Ball with Krum, the Triwizard champion from Durmstrang and teaches him how to pronounced her name properly. By attending the ball with Krum she elicits some jealousy from Ron Weasley. She vows vengeance against Rita Skeeter, a reporter who has been spreading lies about both Harry and herself. She later determines that Rita is an illegal animagus, and traps her. It is hinted that she has become friends with Ginny Weasley behind the scenes.

Hermione continues S.P.E.W. the next year, knitting items of clothing for the elves, in the hope of freeing them (though the house elves refuse to clean Gryffindor Tower because of this, and the task is left to Dobby). Her capture, and subsequent blackmail of Rita Skeeter proves useful when they need an article stating the return of Lord Voldemort. Hermione also came up with the idea for Dumbledore's Army, and was involved in the battle in the Department of Mysteries, in which she was wounded rather heavily.

Hermione studies a lot and is rather obsessed with homework sometimes. She took the O.W.L. exams in her 5th year and it is hinted that she did well on most of them, though it is still unsure whether she might have gotten a good grade in Astronomy. We can be quite sure, though, that she got an excellent grade in Charms, because she was able to do the N.E.W.T level Protean charm, which is an advanced charm.

From this, we can conclude that Hermione is a very extraordinary witch for her age and is an important character to the Harry Potter series.

External links

• Extra information about Hermione from J.K. Rowling's official website

References

• ^[1] "JKRowling.com Archives: Birthdays" from MuggleNet
• ^[2] "When Hermione arrived at Hogwarts, was she nearly eleven or nearly twelve?" from the J.K.Rowling Official Site
• ^[3] "Rumours: Crookshanks is an Animagus" from the J.K.Rowling Official Site