Although I am a fan of Harry Potter, my favourite characters are Hermione Granger and Professor Trelawny. Anywhoo, although we all love Harry Potter and he saves the world, has anyone ever realised that without Hermione, they would all be dead, like five times over by now?

She knew the spell to stop the Devils Snare - PS
She figured out the basilisk and how it travelled - COS
She figured out Lupin was a werewolf - POA (ok so that didnt save their lives but still)

It just annoys me a little, that Hermione does all the brainwork and Harry takes credit in the end. I love Harry, but I wish Hermione would get some praise for her work, I mean, she is the only one who ever listens.

Good idea!

Yes.Hermione is a true hero,and Im sure she will get lots of credit for it in Deathly Hallows. Maybe a kiss from Ron.. Haha anyway,she's part of the Trio,together they all helped each other in all those situations. Though she knew most of the stuff and spells,she couldnt have done it without Harry and Ron.

I agree but you see I think Rowling sends a good message. Nobody is perfect and if she only had Harry Potter doing EVERYTHING it would be incredibly unrealistic. Rowling portrays teamwork which is incredible. Everyone in the trio contributes their own part which is great.

To be quite honest (don't hit me for this! ), I often find myself really disliking Harry, I think Hermione is a much more likeable character, and alot less, for want of a better word, annoying than Harry, i'm not saying he's annoying all of the time, far from it but she is definately above Harry in my favourite characters.

now that i think about it harry potter does seem to take a lot of hermione's credit.... throughout all the books she continuosly proves herself and still is just known as "harry potter's friend" or worse to people... though to say hermione is the real hero is a bit extreme while she does do a lot its really a team effort and cannot just be put on one person (and that includes harry)

Yes that is true she is the brains of the trio of maybe the whole series, Ron needes creidt also because Harry wouldnt have gotten threw the first task [4th book] without his help unless you didnt catch it xD...But Harry does thank them in a way!Its not like he treats them like second class...[color=#FF0000]

I was thinking the same thing jiggery-pokery. I think that what JKR is trying to show is that the trio work together as a team and without one of them the trio couldn't cope. Each one of them has their own contribution which without it the trio couldn't suceed in the way that they do. It's to show that you can't get by in life on your own and that teamwork is important.

Sure Hermione is the hero. But harry is the moral. Ron is just ace. But seriously if she wasn't there, Harry would have died about sixty times! And isn't it convenient that she's always got the right potion on her to make everything alright again. Hermione is definately the Mother and Ron and Harry just run about messing around all the time. Scratch that. Some of the time.

While, I agree with that to a great extent, I feel it stretches the things quite a bit to say that Hermione does everything and Harry takes the credit. Hermione's contributions to Harry's success cannot be denied and she's had a major role to play. Please remember that Hermione has always been the brains of the trio and JKR chose to make it that way. many Harry Potter fans do not agree with her portraying Harry the way he has been considering that it seems that he's the only mediocre wizard in the group that he's accompanied by. Take Dumbledore, his parents, Sirius, Remus, Snape, Mad Eye, Weasley brothers (save for Ron), Mr and Mrs Weasley the list is endless. I mean the thing that comes out is that all of them are far more capable than Harry and even Hermione, but most were not only scared of Voldemort but those who did face him, did not come out alive save for Dumbledore. Harry faced him several times, whatever you call it luck, bravery, foolishness. He escaped every time. How much of it can you say for any other character? Tom thinks they were accidents, while Harry begged to differ and so do I.

It doesn't matter how much brains you have, if brains were the only things that counted, then there are far more capable witches and wizards than Harry and they were swatted aside by Tom. The fact is if Hermione had a big role to play in Harry's destiny, so did Ron. Harry was the one who worked out the concept of hallows and frankly speaking some of the things JKR did in the final book appeared to be more in line with redeeming Hermione's character than having Harry fulfill his destiny. For instance take the instance of Hermione apparating them around, now that's plain ridiculous. Harry apparated himself and Dumbledore from the south of England to Hogsmeade that almost the entire length of Britain, so his skills are not in doubt, so what sense does it make to have Hermione apparate him? Similarly, he's quite adept at cooking that we have seen, then why is it projected as though he cannot cook? Why did JKR deliberately portray him as stubborn, incompetent wizard in much of the first 300 pages in the book? I am sure that many may not agree with me, but frankly speaking the first three hundred pages of the book were bad and that's where coincidentally most of Hermione's heroics come through.

No one is the true hero of the series. There are several heroes here. Albus Dumbledore who realised his follies and stood upto the darkest wizard in ages. Severus Snape who sacrificed his life for love. Sirius Black who spend 13 years in hell and came back to be with his godson, only to die defending him and many other characters who fought Tom's forces. I agree that everyone has their favourite characters and perhaps their portrayal always brings about some resentment from the fans.

I completely agree. She is one of the heros. I don't think that Harry is the only hero in this book. After all, he is not a great wizard like Dumbledore, but he is like the brawn of the group. Hermoine is the brains, and Ron is the level headed, down to earth one, who is also some times the comic. I really think that Harry needs these two friends to show him that he does not have to do it alone, and that it is alright to rely on other people. Hermoine does get them out of some really sticky situations, and her ability to retain information is very important to the story. I think that each of the trio brings something important to the group, and that if one was missing then there would be a weakness in the chain. I think by the end of the 6th book Harry has finally realized that he needs the other two to be a success.

i disagree with what potterwatch07 when he was talking about Ron being level-headed. i do not believe that Ron was level-headed. Hermione was more level-headed than both of them.
Harry, Hermione, and Ron are the main heroes; but i think that everyone who died for Harry gave Harry the strength and made him determined to kill Voldemort.
I believe that if Harry was the only hero that Hermione and Ron would not have either been in the book or gone along with him when he went off to fight Voldemort.

Yes, Hermione was a hero. They were all heroes, nobody could do what Harry did in all these books without help. I believe that Hermione could have gotten more credit than she did, but this was not Harry's fault. He continuously tried to pass credit on to other people, or just take credit away from himself. Also, although Hermione did do alot for Harry, he did more on his own. He continuously helped Hermione and Ron, and he also faced many, many obstacles on his own. He faced Voldmeort 5 times on his own, I mean, Hermione was a great witch, but I find it difficult to believe she could have beat Voldemort, even once.

I also have to agree that they all are heroes. Each one has saved the other in some way. They're best friends and do things for eachother. Hermione got them out of some majorly sticky spots, and I do think she's a hero in many ways, but she didn't do everything. They all have done a lot and are each deserving of the recognition for the heroic things they've done.

There also have been other people outside of the trio that have done incredibly heroic things. Dumbledore, Mad-Eye, Lupin, Sirius, Tonks, and Snape (he, really, really was brave) are just a few people who haved saved lives and directly affected them.

HermioneClone-I totally agree with you...Harry is considered the true hero becouse he is the main character but all his friends have done much to be considered heroes,too.

i agree with... oh cant rmember who said it... they are somewhere in earlier posts...

but yer anyhow i dislike harry to at times.. he can be arrogant in that he wont listen to what ISNT being said, he broods alot but tend to thread bits together. hermione doesnt dot his and i thinkt his makes her, at times more approachable, though boy she can throw a strop!!!

all three of the trio act an impulse at times and cause the others to be put into danger but i think when harry makes a bad choice it is more noticable because as an audience that has assumably read or been told other stories, we expect the main character to carry the weight of the world.

hermione comes to hogwarts, an average student with no extrodinary background and just happens to be really clever. noone expects much of her because she ALWAYS does so well.
harry, comes from a troubled 'home' life and is thrust into the lime light. most people expect him to show marvelous talent and as dumbledore says, in a much nicer way though, the only thing special about harry is the love in his blood. others dont pay attention to this and as an audience we tend to also expect him to constantly wow us

and then we also approve of hermione because ron tends to distract harry

rowling establishes very early on that ron comes from a large and sometimes overshadowing family. he says that if he ever does anything whats the point coz he is sure one of his many siblings has already done it.
so we are in no way shocked to see ron not paying attention in lessonsa nd not doing hoework, but what does niggle the audience is that harry mirrors his behaviour. as harry has never really had a friend he is bound to act with the model behaviour of the first person his age that he has ever felt close to.
hermione discourages this and is almost the exact oppersite of ron so we think that she helps harry more than ron, especially throughout the triwizard tournament

I have to admit this thread slipped by me. I didn't even know it existed until now--thanks for resurrecting it, rach2603!

One thing I thought of instantly that made me chuckle a bit--if Hermione is the hero, and J.K. Rowling says Hermione is the character most like her, does that make Hermione a Mary Sue? So many times fanfic writers are accused of creating Mary Sues in their fics--original characters that may or may not reflect the authors themselves, but is J.K. the biggest Mary Sue-creator of all of us?

Harry gets by on guts and luck, Hermione gets by on brains. In many ways that does make her a greater hero than Harry.

Are we reading the same series? I don't find Hermione heroic at all. Perhaps that is just my dislike of the character. She is bossy and overbearing. She doesn't give much credit to Ron"s cleverness (which is to be expected) but she also doesn't respect Harry's intelligence either.

It is safe to say that each of the trio would have died a few times had it not been for each other. They all pulled together and saved one another at some point so to compare how many times or what exactly they did to save the other is irrelevant.

In my opinion just being brainy doesn't make you a hero. I think often in the series, even though Hermione went ahead and did something brave...she did not embrace courage. She often tried to logically talk Harry out of so many things that perhaps to her were not intellectually sound but heros have grit and guts and are a bit unpolished around the edges. Everyone I consider a hero in the series (Dumbledore, Snape, Harry to name a few) were a bit rough and had to work things out for themselves. Hermione always relied on book smart and was extremely lost when the answer couldn't be found there.

Don't get me wrong. Hermione is a vital part of the series with qualities of intelligence well written by JKR. But to say she is the real hero is a bit of a stretch for me to grab on to.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion at VTM, at least I assumed so. I found that statement to be a bit insulting, really, and was surprised to read it.

Yes, to me, Hermione is a hero. And this statement:



is also an opinion, not a fact, though you are certainly welcome to it! I don't agree, though. I feel that there are all kinds of heroes. Dads who read Chaucer and teach English class, and Moms who are nurses, can be heroes as sure as firefighters and police officers can be heroes. It depends on the situation and how it is responded to. In some situations Hermione is a greater hero than Harry or Ron, because the situation required that which makes her a heroine. As for whether she is a greater hero overall than the other two, perhaps not, since I'm not willing to go through each chapter of the saga, looking for how it all balances out. To me it's not worth getting snippy about.

Hiya Darc
I just want to point out that I agree with you in saying that perhaps she is not a greater hero then the other two in the series. I personally just don't find her brains as heroic. As I previously stated in my original post, each of the three had to work together to make it, I wasn't downplaying her in that aspect. You are right in saying that each situation called for each member of the trio to outshine perhaps the other, however the title of this thread (Hermione is the real hero)is also someones opinion on which I disagree. The tiltle is stated as fact and I don't believe that to be true.
I also want to point out that the little statement that you quoted is only a partial. The entire paragraph is prefaced with 'In my opinion.' The entire portion, including the part about grit and guts and unpolished are my own opinions of what heros encompass.

I also happen to agree that unpolished and grit come in forms of gentleness who perform such duties as teachers and nurses.

I am sorry if you felt insulted and offended that I was being snippy. It is just that I have a differing opinion on Hermione apparently from everyone else who has posted in this thread to discuss and I thought discussing with others on why we feel the way we do would have been neat.
You know that I always consider the opinions of others and value yours as well.

Amanda

I think it's the former Auror in me, Amanda! It makes me oversensitive to any perceived 'creating of a hostile atmosphere.' But I'm sorry about misinterpreting your second statement, that was totally my bad.

I guess for me, I find the topic kind of humorous, but yeah, I can see where, if you have a greater affiliation to other characters, and not much fondness for Hermione, that it could be taken much more seriously. I see a lot of heroism in the series, from almost every character. The main hero is Harry, but all the Gryffindors are heroes, and Snape is really a hero! And of course Luna is one, and all of the other teachers, and parents, etc. All heroes, in their special ways.

So, I guess, Hermione is a real hero, just not the real hero.

Hermione is my favourite character too, I suppose because I'm just quite quite like her. I've always she does deserves most of the credit, but still have this point, as many of you have cleared before: the trio would have never been all they did without each other. Each and eery one of Harry, Ron and Hermione have worked together during their dangerous and exciting tasks.
Harry has always the guts to carry on, to keep on march. His impetus, his great courage, had been an essential part of his successes.
Ron, on the other hand, is always there! He can be a bit coward, a bit childish, and not that witty, but he's always there and not only to make them laugh: he's usually the one who spots thing the other not, and add most of the wizarding information the get.
Hermione is the logical brain: it's true she's always looking forwards to the proper way, but she's always there for her friends and uses all her brain in hard situations.
And let'sbe honest: every time they were tested in bravery, the three passed well. I mean, when they had to be brave, they were.
So, for me, being the hero doesn't mean being the brainiest, the toughest, the bravest ... you get the idea. What makes you the real hero? I can't simply answer that. Nobody simply can answer that. But one thing is true ... Hermione is the best!! Joking! Again, one thing is true: the trio is the best, and they're simply inseparable.

Hermione is my favourite character too, I suppose because I'm just quite quite like her. I've always she does deserves most of the credit, but still have this point, as many of you have cleared before: the trio would have never been all they did without each other. Each and eery one of Harry, Ron and Hermione have worked together during their dangerous and exciting tasks.
Harry has always the guts to carry on, to keep on march. His impetus, his great courage, had been an essential part of his successes.
Ron, on the other hand, is always there! He can be a bit coward, a bit childish, and not that witty, but he's always there and not only to make them laugh: he's usually the one who spots thing the other not, and add most of the wizarding information the get.
Hermione is the logical brain: it's true she's always looking forwards to the proper way, but she's always there for her friends and uses all her brain in hard situations.
And let'sbe honest: every time they were tested in bravery, the three passed well. I mean, when they had to be brave, they were.
So, for me, being the hero doesn't mean being the brainiest, the toughest, the bravest ... you get the idea. What makes you the real hero? I can't simply answer that. Nobody simply can answer that. But one thing is true ... Hermione is the best!! Joking! Again, one thing is true: the trio is the best, and they're simply inseparable.

One can understand Hermione being elevated to near Mary Sue proportions in the final book, and though this may sound politically incorrect and some may accuse me of being sexist, which I should clarify, I am certainly NOT, JKR did seem to go out of her way in highlighting the role of women in the last two books of the series- Ginny comes out of nowhere to occupy a part of the center stage she scarcely deserves; Hermione gets all the ideas while Harry is lost; Molly Weasley kills Bellatrix Lestrange, Muriel reduces Diggle to tears, Rita Skeeter is given a free run, Umbridge is all powerful and oh I forgot JKR is a billionaire. I have had discussion with several Harry Potter fans and one thing that many of us agree upon (not necessarily like) is that canon Harry would be pushing up daisies without Hermione, JKR made it absolutely sure in the final book. Hermione can summon the book on horcruxes from Dumbledore's office, but it did not strike any death eater to get the sword that way... Hermione apparates Harry all over the country; Hermione casts all the spells, Hermione casts concealment enchantments and to add insult to Harry's incompetent injury she also cooks the food!! Wish JKR had let Hermione kill off Riddle, though I am surprise she did not have Hermione singlehandedly finish off all the death eaters and the werewolves and the giants and the acromantulas or even Bellatrix Lestrange alone...

Thank goodness the books end at seven because I am not sure I could have taken another issue of this outlandishness

Personally, I agree. I think she will after what she, Harry, and Ron went through. Also I love the fact that not only was there a "wanted" sign for Harry, but one for Hermione as well. It seems Hermione as become Undesirable # 2 only second down from Harry,