Harry, Ron, and Hermione are an iconic friendship trio from Harry Potter that are there for each other through some pretty unimaginable situations. There aren’t many friends out there who are willing to help someone defeat an evil wizard and put their own lives at risk. While the three friends might have cared deeply about each other and have been good friends in many ways, there were also times that they weren’t so great. Given that Hermione was the only girl in the group, there were especially instances where Harry and Ron weren’t very good friends to her.
Here are the ten times that Harry and Ron were the worst friends to Hermione.
10. THE WAY RON TREATED HERMIONE DURING HALF-BLOOD PRINCE
The entire relationship between Hermione and Ron has a lot of ups and downs. While the two are close friends, they also develop romantic feelings for each other at different points.
Ron has feelings for Hermione but clearly doesn’t know how to act on them. Instead, he treats her pretty rudely throughout their sixth year. This is most apparent when he starts dating Lavender Brown in order to make Hermione jealous.
9. WHEN HARRY AND RON GOT MAD AT HERMIONE FOR TELLING MCGONAGALL ABOUT THE FIREBOLT
Hermione might be a bit more of a rule follower than Ron and Harry, but she’s always willing to break rules if she feels it’s important to do the right thing. However, when Harry receives the Firebolt anonymously in their third year, Hermione is understandably worried that it could have been jinxed. She tells McGonagall about the gift. When McGonagall takes it away to be tested for issues, Harry and Ron are both mad at her, putting the broom over their friendship.
8. HOW THEY USED HERMIONE TO DO THEIR HOMEWORK ALL OF THE TIME
It’s pretty obvious that Hermione does a lot of the extra work in the trio. While Harry might be the chosen one, it’s often Hermione that keeps things moving forward. This is especially true when it comes to their schoolwork. While Harry is pretty capable and intelligent, and Ron isn’t unintelligent either, they often rely on Hermione to help them along.
While she usually won’t outright do their homework, she spent a lot of time reminding them, editing their work, and giving them answers to things.
7. HOW JEALOUS RON GOT OF HERMIONE GOING TO THE YULE BALL WITH KRUM
This is another instance of horrible behavior from Ron that has to do with his feelings for Hermione. When Hermione is asked to the Yule Ball by Viktor Krum, Ron gets really jealous. This causes him to lash out at Hermione and treat her poorly. The truth of the matter is that whether she’s just a friend or whether he wants to date her, treating someone you care about poorly isn’t cool.
6. WHEN THEY WERE UNSUPPORTIVE OF S.P.E.W.
Hermione is definitely a character who cares a lot about doing the right thing. She has a lot of compassion and takes up causes with a lot of vigor. This is especially true when she learns about the house-elves being used for labor at Hogwarts. Her cause is an admirable one, and neither Harry or Ron are very supportive. They go along with things begrudgingly, but it’s sad they don’t support or and that they don’t see how the mistreatment of house-elves is an issue.
5. RON WEASLEY BLAMING HERMIONE FOR SCABBERS’ DEATH
Overall, Hermione isn’t treated very well by Ron and Harry while they are in their third year. When Hermione gets Crookshanks as a pet, Ron takes the cat’s behavior towards Scabbers personally.
While it's understandable he’d want to protect his rat, the way he treats Hermione after he thinks Crookshanks killing Scabbers is not great. He blames her for something she couldn’t have controlled in the first place and stops being her friend for a good amount of time.
4. HOW RON ALWAYS CALLED HER A KNOW-IT-ALL
If there’s one thing that’s true about Ron, it’s that he doesn’t have a lot of tact. He can be insensitive and say some mean things about people. He is often hurtful in the way he talks about and to Hermione. While there are times where Hermione can be a bit overzealous about being the smartest person in the class, as Hermione’s friend, it’s not great how Ron sometimes points this out and calls her a know-it-all.
3. WHEN RON AND HARRY FORGOT TO HELP HERMIONE WITH BUCKBEAK’S APPEAL
This is another moment from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban when Harry and Ron should have been better friends. In the midst of Ron not talking to Hermione after Scabies goes missing, Hermione is left to do research about Buckbeak’s appeal all on her own.
Even Harry, who was being both their friends at the time, dropped the ball and didn’t help her with this serious problem.
2. WHEN HARRY TOOK HIS ANGER OUT ON HER (AND RON)
Harry had struggles in the series with dealing with his own feelings of anger. This might make sense given that he had been through a lot and never really given a chance to process them. In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix especially, he takes some of his anger out on Hermione, and Ron, by yelling at them about things that were out of their control.
1. THEIR LACK OF APPRECIATION FOR ALL THE WORK HERMIONE DID FOR THEM
In many ways, it was Hermione that kept the trio going and allowed them to defeat Voldemort. This was especially true in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows when it was Hermione who had everything prepared for them to go on the run. Hermione did a ton of emotional labor, planning, and studying throughout the series that she wasn’t ever property acknowledged for.