In the Harry Potter series, we had the Golden Trio. These three characters made Harry Potter what it was and without them there would be no series. While Harry was the main protagonist, he didn’t have all the attributes that would have enabled him to take down Voldemort. His friends also got separate personalities and abilities that made them stand out in their own ways. Rivaling Harry in the best character polls is Hermione Granger. A sizable portion of the fandom consider Hermione to be the best character in the series due to her multitude of capabilities as well as her mature personality.
Hermione’s star was made brighter after Emma Watson portrayed her in the Harry Potter film series as she was quite a looker and was very close in personality to Hermione Granger. While Harry and Ron have some people who aren’t fans of them, Hermione never has anyone dislike her. She’s seen as the most complete of the trio due to her hardly ever showing tendencies that would make her unlikable. All in all, if you’re a fan of Hermione, you’re nothing special because of all the Harry Potter fandom feels the same way about her.
However, there are many things about Hermione that aren’t so great. No doubt you’ll cry about how much you dislike these points we’re about to make in the comments, but it is worth a look regardless. Hermione was, after all, still a teenage girl, so she did have flaws that need to be known.
Here are 25 Things Wrong With Hermione Granger We All Choose To Ignore.
She Bosses Ron Around
Most of what we saw of Ron and Hermione during the Harry Potter novels was her bossing Ron around. Ron would generally be rather silly, but Hermione would mainly counter that by telling him what to do.
In times when they weren’t butting heads, Ron would follow whatever Hermione told him to do and their dynamic generally was just this. He never complained about it other than when he was annoyed by her. Looks like he didn’t mind being the less dominant one in their relationship, so who are we to complain?
The Films Exaggerate Her Abilities
While Hermione did play savior to Ron and Harry in the novels, they still did pretty well without her as seen in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. In the films, however, Hermione was pretty much the only reason the group survived. The filmmakers gave just about every useful trait Ron displayed in the books to Hermione; this made her stand out so much that Ron looked like the plucky comic relief and nothing more.
Hermione would always be a step ahead of everyone and would even get the best lines compared to the others.
Confunding McLaggen
As we followed the lives of Harry and his friends, we didn’t really care what happened to those these people didn’t like. One of these was McLaggen, who was pretty full of himself. However, Hermione still broke school rules when she cheated to hand Ron the position of goalkeeper in the Quidditch team.
Hermione used the Confundus charm to cause McLaggen to become groggy and miss the final save he would’ve made. Not only is it against the rules, it also sounds very illegal. But she was in love with Ron so it’s justified, right?
She Gets Crazy Jealous
Fleur Delacour never did anything to Hermione; she never even spoke to her, but Hermione vehemently hated Fleur for no reason. That is, unless you see how obviously she was jealous that Ron was into Fleur and ignored Hermione. Discounting Fleur, Hermione still got jealous when Ron was interested in Lavender and she was left in the cold.
We didn’t see how Hermione was like in a relationship, but you can bet she wasn’t the cool girlfriend guys hope they can find. Hermione seems to be very possessive of who she’s interested in.
She Was Happy About Breaking Ron And Lavender Up
When Lavender’s interest in Ron was a mere flirtation, Hermione didn’t seem happy at all. And when Ron and Lavender became an item, Hermione was completely distraught about it. Once Hermione and Ron made up from their squabble, they started spending time together again and it was because of this Lavender dumped Ron.
Rather than feeling guilty, Hermione was seen with a visible smile on her face by Harry once Ron was single again. She was inwardly happy at what had happened because of her involvement.
Her Greatest Fear
For someone who has always excelled at everything she has set her sights toward, Hermione could never stomach lacking in something. Her greatest fear is known to readers as this was shown in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
Turns out, her greatest fear is something as menial as failure! No one likes to fail, but Hermione is morbidly afraid of failing. Her boggart was Professor McGonagall telling her she’d failed all her exams. Hermione really needed to take a breather from wanting to excel at everything because not everyone can be perfect.
Her Time Turner Use
Percy, Bill, and Barty Crouch Jr all took twelve subjects for their N.E.W.T exams, and passed with flourishing results. Meanwhile Hermione only took eleven O.W.Ls and yet she was supposed to be swamped?
In Prisoner of Azkaban, Hermione had thirteen subjects, and needed the time turner because it wasn’t physically possible to take all the classes. Yet, the other three boys had only one subject less and passed Hogwarts without a time turner. It doesn’t make sense why Hermione ever needed a time turner in the first place.
Her Fear Of Voldemort
Hermione is a nerd who reads up on everything before she even has to deal with it. When she’s introduced in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Hermione already knows all about Voldemort and is shown to be as terrified of him as every other wizard.
This makes no sense, because she only has books to go from about Voldemort and was never raised to feat him like Ron. She was even terrified of saying his name until the fifth part. It doesn’t make sense why a logical thinker like her would fear something such as a name.
Saying Voldemort’s Name
Then there’s the fact that she can’t really decide if she’s afraid of saying Voldemort’s name at all. While it was acknowledged that she said Voldy’s name out loud in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for the first time, Hermione did say the name a couple times before.
You can even view one instance in the film version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone when she says Voldemort’ name while in Hagrid’s cabin. In Chamber of Secrets, she scoffs at Lucius Malfoy for being scared of Voldemort’s name.
She Commited A Crime By Obliviating Her Parents
Oh, it was so sad how Hermione was separated from her parents by wiping their memories and yada yada, but that’s just glossing over the fact that she actually committed a crime.
Wiping someone’s memory is not sanctioned as the Ministry of Magic had a specific department whose purpose was to do just that. Of course, Hermione didn’t broadcast that she wiped her parents’ memories, but should someone find out that the current Minister of Magic had done this to her parents, her career would be in severe jeopardy.
She Had No Friends During Her Muggle Life
You must have noticed that Hermione acted like a total loser in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone before she became friends with Ron and Harry, and this was because she really was a complete loser.
She had absolutely zero friends in the muggle world before heading off to Hogwarts. In fact, Harry and Ron were her first friends ever. Hermione’s neurotic personality when she was a kid ensured no one wanted to be friends with her and she had a very lonely childhood indeed. Good thing Harry and Ron, and even Hagrid, came along.
She Never Made A Move On Ron
While readers are inclined to single out Ron for not having tact to ask Hermione out the whole time, the same can be said about her too. She even seemed to like him before he did but never did anything about it.
We can even forgive Ron seeing that he didn’t realize he was in love with Hermione until very late, but Hermione did know for sure she was in love with Ron. So what was stopping her from making a move? Ron would one-hundred-percent have complied had Hermione made it clear she wanted to be with him.
Blaming Ron For Not Asking Her Out
Once she had realized she liked Ron that way, it was clear she wanted him to ask her out. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Hermione spent a large part before the Yule Ball throwing hints in Ron’s way that she wanted him to ask her to the Ball.
When he kept wanting to go with someone very attractive, she became scandalized and would treat Ron coldly, or just storm out without telling him why she was mad at him. If she wanted to go with him, why not just say it to him?
Never Apologizing
In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Hermione’s pet Crookshanks turned out to be right about Scabbers and he was revealed to be Peter Pettigrew in hiding. This made most forget the fact that had Scabbers not been Pettigrew, Hermione’s cat then just terrorized Ron’s pet all the time with Hermione never apologizing for it.
Ron was beside himself with anger whenever Crookshanks attacked Scabbers, but Hermione would always brush this aside. All it would have taken was an apology for her pet’s behavior, but Hermione seemed to be proud to acknowledge it.
Changing Ethnicity
After Harry Potter and the Cursed Child became canonical (yeah, we hated it too,) we had to accept whatever happened in it actually took place in-universe. But it made no sense how Hermione suddenly went from Caucasian to dark-skinned.
According to Rowling, she never made it clear what ethnicity Hermione had in the novels, but we do still have the movie series where Hermione was nothing what she looked like in Cursed Child. So, how does this get explained in-universe? Not only Hermione, but her daughter’s ethnicity changed as well.
Couple’s Therapy
According to Rowling, despite Hermione and Ron getting together and also marrying, they still had several marital problems due to Ron’s issues with inferiority and Hermione’s generally bossy attitude.
This also means that even though Hermione greatly matured from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, she still had problems with bossing Ron around. According to Cursed Child, Ron and Hermione’s wedding was far from perfect and he spent it under the influence. It doesn’t sound like Hermione was on top of things as far as her personal life was concerned.
Butting In Everywhere
The only reason Hermione became friends with Ron and Harry was because she would never leave the two alone. In Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, she would follow the two around all the time and listen in on their conversations.
Hermione would also interrupt the two when they attempted to go on their midnight duel with Malfoy. The reason she was so sad in the earlier books was because of Ron’s comments against her due to her once again eavesdropping in on what he was saying.
Thinking Expulsion Is Worse Than The End Of One's Mortal Coil
When she was still in her neurotic phase, Hermione placed education at the top of her priorities list. Whenever she was faced with the prospect of expulsion, Hermione would retract her intention to break rules, even for good – although this was something she eventually started overlooking.
In Philosopher’s Stone, though, Hermione claimed losing her life wasn’t as bad as getting expelled. Ron caught this and stated out loud that Hermione really needed to sort out her priorities. Considering she returned for her seventh year, education was still top priority for her.
Has A Habit Of Hitting Ron
Nowadays, with people all about debating gender equality, the idea that Ron might hit Hermione for menial reasons will spark outrage from everyone. But the flip side is the fact that Hermione really seems to love hitting Ron for no reason.
Whenever she’s annoyed at Ron, Hermione takes it out on him by hitting him. This was most evident in the film version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince where she smacked Ron with a book repeatedly for not caring about where Harry was.
JK Rowling Want To Pair Hermione With Harry
Rowling has a horrible habit of backtracking on her own decisions and publicly announce regret at making those decisions. The one that irked people the most was when she admitted she didn’t want Hermione to end up with Ron and had wanted to pair her with Harry.
When she saw fan interest was riding behind Ron and Hermione, Rowling incorporated this into her books and went with it. This means that Ron and Hermione are together only because of the fans rather than the author’s initial plans.