Hermione Granger

Hermione Jean Granger is a fictional character in the Harry Potter book series written by J. K. Rowling. The character is portrayed by Emma Watson in the Harry Potter film series.

Hermione is a Gryffindor student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and is Harry Potter's and Ron Weasley's best friend. She shows considerable academic prowess when compared to her close friends and classmates.

Background

Hermione Granger is a Muggle-born witch. Her parents, both dentists, are (according to Rowling) "a bit bemused by their odd daughter, but quite proud of her all the same". When asked in 2004 if Hermione was an only child, Rowling replied, "I always planned that Hermione would have a younger sister but she's never made an appearance and somehow it feels like it might be too late now."

When Hermione first appears in the series, she already seems to know a great deal about magic, Hogwarts, and the wizarding world, probably due to her love of reading. Both she and Harry were unaware of their magical abilities during their childhoods; Harry was informed by a Hogwarts envoy, and it is reasonable to assume Hermione was as well. However, nothing specific has been said, beyond an off-hand remark that it was "ever such a surprise" when Hermione was invited to Hogwarts.

For years it was widely assumed that she was born in September 1980, the same year as Ron and Harry. However, Rowling pointed out that to attend Hogwarts, one must be eleven years old, and Hermione was born on 19 September 1979. Therefore Hermione is nearly 12 when she begins school in September 1991.

Rowling revealed on her website that Hermione's wand is made of vine wood with a dragon heartstring core. Each of the trio's wands have one of Mr Ollivander's three preferred cores, with Harry having phoenix feather and Ron having unicorn hair. Her wand's wood, vine, is the wood ascribed to her birth month in the Celtic calendar.

Hermione's name is pronounced "her-MY-uh-nee" (IPA: /hə(ɹ).maɪ.ə.niː/), 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). Rowling said she obtained it from William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, claiming that she wanted it to be unusual since if fewer girls shared her name, fewer girls would get teased for it.

Personality

Hermione is known as one of the most intelligent students in her year (even scoring one hundred and twelve per cent in her Charms exam at the end of her first year at Hogwarts and scoring three hundred and twenty percent in her Muggle Studies exam at the end of her third year), which she works hard to maintain. Her knowledge and common sense prove valuable in overcoming the trio's challenges, and Harry and Ron depend on her for academic help. Hermione often demonstrates her logical abilities by playing devil's advocate during discussions with Harry and Ron, often pointing out aspects that the boys will ignore, usually for emotional reasons; when Harry is angry about Rita Skeeter eavesdropping on Hagrid and Madame Maxime at the Yule Ball, Hermione points out that he and Ron were doing the same thing.

Hermione is brave, loyal to her friends, and has a fierce political conscience. In her first year, she became flustered in crisis situations (when asked to light a fire when trapped in the Devil's Snare, she said, "But there's no wood!"). Later in the series, however, she maintains calm under pressure and becomes the one to solve those situations. For example, she came up with the last-minute plan that fooled Umbridge into going to the Forbidden Forest in Order of the Phoenix.

Although compassionate, Hermione can be a bit awkward when dealing with people. One example is her ham-handed attempt to comfort Lavender Brown over the death of her rabbit. Screenwriter Steve Kloves has said that Hermione often shows "a complete lack of understanding of how she affects people". However, her tendency towards awkwardness and pompousness seems to fade the longer she associates with Harry and Ron. By Goblet of Fire, she no longer seems to have the social difficulties she experienced earlier and in a reversal of fortune, tends to become impatient and exasperated regarding Harry and Ron's own social ineptitude, especially towards other girls.

According to Rowling, Hermione is deeply insecure and sometimes feels utterly inadequate. To compensate, she tries to be the best at everything at school, projecting a false confidence that can irritate people -- she simply must be right about everything all the time and cannot stand being wrong about something, she cannot take it that she can be mistaken to the point that it is her worst fear (revealed in Prisoner of Azkaban) to be told, by figures of authority, that she is wrong and that she has failed.

Hermione's jealousy, her competitiveness, her drive to excel, and desire to be outright on top academically above others can bring out the worst in her; in Philosopher's Stone, her penchant towards showing off leads her initially to having no friends of her own until the events of Halloween, and in Half-Blood Prince the fact that Harry is upstaging her in potions makes her act particularly cross and unpleasent towards him while she adheres to "the 'official' instructions". Despite this, Hermione has demonstrated a keen understanding of emotion and relationships, which often puts her at odds with the more oblivious Ron (she likens his emotional sensitivities to that of a "teaspoon"). Harry has consulted Hermione for advice regarding his relationships with Cho Chang and Ginny Weasley.

Rowling admits that Hermione is in many ways based upon herself. Hermione's Patronus is an otter, Rowling's favorite animal.

Appearance

Hermione has brown eyes, bushy brown hair and, in the beginning, rather large front teeth. However, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, she shows up at the Yule Ball with her hair sleek and pulled into a bun, her posture improved, and wearing floaty periwinkle-coloured dress robes. Hermione also had her teeth shrunk to a normal size by Madam Pomfrey in Goblet of Fire. This was after being hit in the teeth with a hex by Draco Malfoy, which caused them to grow far past her collar. When Madam Pomfrey was fixing them, Hermione simply let her "carry on a bit" until her teeth were smaller than they originally were.

In the books

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Hermione first appears in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and is 11, turning 12. Her future best friends, Harry and Ron initially consider her a "know-it-all" and heartily dislike her.

In Charms class, she hears Ron Weasley mispronouncing a spell, Wingardium Leviosa, and correctly pronounces it for him, though with just a slight change in the final vowel sound. Ron doesn't believe she can do it herself, but she accurately uses the charm to levitate a feather.

Shortly after the Charms class, when Ron makes a hurtful remark about Hermione to Harry, she overhears him and tearfully retreats to a girls' bathroom. Later that evening, while everyone is at the Halloween Feast, Professor Quirrell lets a mountain troll into the school, which finds its way into the same bathroom. Hermione is rescued by Harry and Ron. When they are discovered by Professors McGonagall, Snape and Quirrell, Hermione quickly lies about why she was in the bathroom, claiming she had gone looking for the troll, thinking she could defeat it herself. She thereby rescues Harry and Ron from punishment and the ordeal leads to them becoming friends, with the book stating "There are some things you cannot share without liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them".

Though Hermione maintains her positive attitude towards rules and schoolwork, she softens up a little bit after becoming friends with Harry and Ron. With them, she helps solve the mystery surrounding the Philosopher's Stone. She also shows her willingness to break the rules (and a streak of ruthlessness) when she casts a Body-Bind Curse (an advanced spell for her level) on Neville Longbottom, who bravely attempted to stop the trio from leaving the common room after hours although she did apologise before and after cursing him, and she also rolled him over when he was cursed so he could breathe freely.

Her intelligence again proves useful against the Devil's Snare (despite her temporary loss of nerve), and her deep belief in the power of logic is emphasised when she and Harry find themselves in a room where they must correctly identify two potions from a range of bottles that will enable them to pass out of the room. Hermione tells Harry that he is a great wizard as he has the qualities of friendship and bravery which are more important than "books and cleverness".

According to this book, playing chess is the one thing Hermione cannot do better than Ron.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

In her second year,^[HP2] Hermione has a crush on the handsome new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart, as do many witches her age and older.

Hermione brews Polyjuice Potion, a very advanced potion, so that she, Harry and Ron can discover if Draco Malfoy is the Heir of Slytherin. While the correctly-brewed potion produces the desired effects on both Harry and Ron, Hermione finds that she has accidentally added a cat hair to the potion instead of one of Millicent Bulstrode's, her intended target. She turns into a sort of half-cat. It takes over a month for her appearance to go back to normal, during which time Harry and Ron bring Hermione her homework at her request, a number of rumours spread about her disappearance and she has the shades around her bed pulled around her so that she does not have to endure the shame and humiliation of being stared at by other students. Hermione is finally released from the Hospital wing in early February, her normal appearance restored, and is shown Tom Riddle's diary by Harry, but she cannot make much of it.

Hermione later correctly identifies the creature hidden inside the Chamber of Secrets to be a basilisk, although she herself is petrified before being able to alert the school, leaving Ron and Harry to decipher the information themselves. However, both Hermione and the other victims are eventually revived after Harry defeats the basilisk. She is disappointed to learn that all exams have been cancelled.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

In the summer before her third year at Hogwarts,^[HP3] Hermione gets a pet cat-kneazle mix named Crookshanks, which makes a habit out of chasing Ron's pet rat Scabbers.

Hermione takes so many classes this year she has to use a Time-Turner, a device which enables her to go back in time, to fit in all her subjects, but which quickly becomes consuming even for her.

Hermione is briefly estranged from her friends several times, first over the extra school work she has taken on; later over a Firebolt broom Harry received for Christmas, which she got Professor McGonagall to confiscate on suspicion of it being sent by Sirius Black (proven correct, albeit with no jinxes as initially feared), and most painfully when Ron accuses Crookshanks of killing and eating Scabbers, and her refusal to even acknowledge the possibility of the cat eating the rat just makes things worse. She also is spearheading the defence of Hagrid's pet Hippogriff, Buckbeak following Draco Malfoy's accident in Hagrid's class. After Hermione confides in Hagrid over her frustrations, Hagrid sternly reproves Harry and Ron for their behaviour, and after the first defence fails they reconcile and the boys promise to assist with the still unsuccessful appeal; Hermione is so relieved she surprises Ron by hugging him and apologizing for his rat. She even slaps Malfoy for his cruelty towards Hagrid and Buckbeak.

Hermione's Time-Turner is useful at the end of the book when she and Harry travel back in time to rescue Sirius Black and Buckbeak the Hippogriff. During end-of-the-year exams, Hermione's Boggart manifests itself as McGonagall, informing her that she has failed all her classes; this frightens her, amuses readers, and shows Hermione's great fear of failure. At the end of the book, she drops Muggle Studies (despite the fact that she got 320% in it), enabling her to have a less intensive schedule again. She had previously dropped Divination believing the professor, Sybill Trelawney, is a fraud, though Trelawney later redeems herself. In this instance, Hermione's logical side dominates her thinking. Ron comments during the book that he believes her dislike of Trelawney stems from Trelawney claiming she was bad at a subject for the first time since entering Hogwarts: "You just don't like being bad at something for a change!"; the narrative claims that he indeed touched a nerve. This falls in line with her insecurity and her fear of failure as seen elsewhere in the book.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

In the summer following her third Year at Hogwarts, Hermione attends the Quidditch World Cup with Harry and the Weasley family. It is here for the first time that she becomes familiar with Viktor Krum, the famous Bulgarian International Seeker, himself still a student. Hermione initially considers him a gloomy, off-putting fellow, unaware that she will encounter him again at Hogwarts, where he takes to visiting the Hogwarts library frequently just to watch her before approaching her. After getting to know him better, Hermione sees later on that Krum is in fact a genuinely kind-hearted person.

In her fourth year,^[HP4] Hermione's attention is drawn to what she views as the poor quality of life for house-elves. She therefore starts the organisation she calls the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, but which becomes known by its unfortunate acronym, SPEW (also nicknamed "The House-Elf Liberation Front" by Ron Weasley). Although Hermione zealously works for her cause, few others display any interest. Harry and Ron officially join her organisation in the hope she will stop nagging them; she does, however, trick them both into following her to the kitchens to persuade the elves to accept wages after she discovers that Dobby the house-elf has been hired by Professor Dumbledore. This is one of the most obvious examples of her sense of moral superiority at play.

Hermione helps Harry to practice the Summoning Charm which allows him to successfully complete the First Task of the Triwizard Tournament; despite Harry and Ron's row over the tactics Harry supposedly used to get into the tournament. Hermione attends the Yule Ball with Viktor Krum, making Ron extremely jealous. She has had school nurse Madame Pomfrey shrink her teeth to a "normal size" by magic after being hit by an errant hex earlier in the year, and when she applies Sleekeazy's Hair Potion, does her hair up in a chignon and sporting a periwinkle blue dress, she turns heads at the Ball and gains new appreciation from her best male friends. However, Ron is less than pleased at her choice of date, accusing her of "fraternizing with the enemy" and stating that he believes his former idol — referring to him derogatively as "Vicky" — was trying to steal Harry's Triwizard secrets through her, both shocking and hurting Hermione deeply. After the ball, Harry walks in on the two having an argument over the matter so heated it draws stares from people, in which Hermione chastises Ron for failing to ask her before anyone else did, although Ron denies this was his true intent. Hermione later becomes the "hostage" that Krum has to save in the Tournament's Second Task. After the task, Krum asks Hermione to visit him in the summer. Ron's newfound jealousy and dislike of Viktor Krum appears countered by Hermione's dislike of Fleur Delacour, for whom Ron has a soft spot; Hermione becomes visibly angry when Fleur does so much as smile at Ron.

Throughout the latter part of the year, Rita Skeeter, a tabloid reporter, fabricates a love triangle between Hermione, Harry and Krum. Hermione's relationship with Mrs. Weasley is temporarily harmed by this incident, as Mrs. Weasley reads the tabloid for its recipes and stumbles on the article. Krum too questions Harry over his relationship with Hermione, and Harry flatly denies any romance. Ultimately it is not until after Harry tells Mrs. Weasley that Skeeter's stories are lies that Mrs. Weasley starts to be friendly towards Hermione again.

After much work, Hermione determines Rita is an illegal Animagus who can change into a beetle and manages to catch her in this form by trapping her in a jar. She kidnaps and imprisons Rita, eventually blackmailing her with a threat to reveal her Animagus status in order to make Rita stop writing harmful stories for The Daily Prophet.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

In the beginning of the fifth book,^[HP5] Hermione is staying at Grimmauld Place, the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, with the Weasleys. When she and Ron are reunited with Harry, moody and temperamental after being confined to the Dursleys nearly all summer, he loses his temper, pushing Hermione to tears. Hermione tries to tutor Harry on how to interact with girls when Harry tries his hand at a relationship with his longtime crush Cho Chang — which ultimately falls apart due to Harry's inability to handle Cho's grief over Cedric Diggory's death and Cho's misplaced jealousy towards Hermione.

Hermione is shocked to learn that Ron has been made a Gryffindor prefect alongside her, as she was expecting Harry to win the position, much to her embarrassment at Ron's resentment of her low estimation of him. Hermione also continues S.P.E.W. She attempts to befriend Kreacher, the surly and malicious old house-elf who lives in Grimmauld Place, despite the elf's obvious hatred of Hermione, whom he calls a "Mudblood". She devotes her time and energy to making clothes for the house-elves and surreptitiously putting them in strategic locations, in the hopes of secretly freeing the elves. The house-elves, who find this highly insulting, refuse to clean Gryffindor Tower because of this, and the task is left to Dobby.

Hermione gives Ron a kiss on the cheek before his disastrous first Quidditch game.

Also, in Order of the Phoenix, Luna Lovegood is introduced. She is Hermione's complete opposite; according to Rowling, she's "the anti-Hermione"; "Hermione’s so logical and inflexible in so many ways and Luna is likely to believe ten impossible things before breakfast". When Luna goes into speeches about creatures no one is familiar with, Hermione will tell her, "What proof do you have that they exist?" Luna retorts with, "What proof do you have that they don't?" Still, though the two girls do not share the same belief system, they become friends and comrades-in-arms when Luna is one of the few to support Harry by joining Dumbledore's Army (the DA) and aiding them during the climax of the book (and each subsequent book).

Hermione's capture and subsequent blackmail of Rita Skeeter proves useful when she persuades Harry to give an interview confirming the return of Lord Voldemort. While Hermione is trying to convince Harry to start the DA, she finally identifies Harry's enemy by his feared name, "Voldemort", making her one of the few students besides Harry to use the name. During the DA, Hermione conjures a corporeal Patronus in the shape of an otter (Rowling's favourite animal). She also protects the DA from total betrayal (by Marietta Edgecombe, a member) by hexing its sign-up sheet.

Hagrid introduces Hermione and Harry to his giant half-brother, Grawp, and since Hagrid is being targeted by Umbridge because of his loyalty to Dumbledore, he asks them to take care of Grawp in case Umbridge somehow were to succeed in getting rid of Hagrid himself; Grawp seems to take a liking to Hermione, but can only at best address her as "Hermy". Hermione is initially very upset and angry with Hagrid over his request, feeling that Grawp is too much for the three of them to handle, but Grawp proves unexpectedly useful later on when Hermione devises a plan to save her friends from Umbridge's torture and interrogation by leading the Inquisitor into the Forbidden Forest, on the same path leading to the Acromantula, giant talking spiders. After Umbridge is carried away by the Centaurs (apparently making good on their promise to kill the next adult human they found in the Forest, helped along with Umbridge's having called them "filthy half-breeds"), the Centaurs turn their attention to Hermione and Harry, and prepare to kill them as well, until Grawp unexpectedly blunders his way in and distracts the centaurs long enough for the two to escape.

She is involved in the battle in the Department of Mysteries, in which she is seriously injured by an unknown curse from the Death Eater Antonin Dolohov, but after taking ten types of potions a day, she makes a full recovery.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

The sixth book^[HP6] marks a notable change in Hermione's character. As has become customary, Hermione stays at the Burrow for much of the summer holidays. During her stay with the Weasleys, Hermione once again encounters Fleur Delacour, who is now engaged to Bill Weasley. Her dislike for Fleur has deepened from their encounter in book four, and she has been joined in this by both Mrs. Weasley and Ginny.

Hermione receives excellent OWL results from the previous school year, with ten "Outstanding", and one "Exceeds Expectations" in Defense Against the Dark Arts, which she finds disappointing. Hermione continues her passion for her schoolwork in the sixth year, and is even invited by Professor Slughorn to join his Slug Club due to her extraordinary talent at school. Even though Harry describes Hermione to Slughorn in an earlier encounter as "the best in our year", she is bested by Harry in Potions (for the first time in that subject) due to the fact that he has access to the Half-Blood Prince's old textbook, in which the latter wrote multiple helpful notes and spells. Although Harry offers to share with his friends his helpful guide, she considers Harry dishonest for using the book and prefers to use the "official" instructions. Hermione becomes increasingly bitter at Harry's newfound success at Potions, especially since she comes to believe that the Half-Blood Prince is a suspicious character. Despite this, she still becomes a favourite of Slughorn's, and remains academically the best in the year. When Harry hides the Prince’s book to prevent its confiscation by Snape, Harry's performance in Potions noticeably declines, demonstrating that Hermione is better at following standard instructions than Harry.

For the third time in their lives, Ron and Hermione have a serious and lengthy falling out. Just when it looked like they were on the verge of admitting romantic feelings, with Hermione offering Ron to be her date for Slughorn's Christmas party, everything is wrecked when Ron learns of Hermione kissing Viktor Krum (possibly when Viktor came for the Triwizard Tournament, at the Yule Ball, but Rowling never mentioned when it happened). Ron's new anger upsets and confuses her, since she does not know that he knows of her kissing Krum. Ron's self-confidence is dashed after realizing that he is the last of his friends to have never experienced their first kiss. Harry's attempt to mediate ultimately results in Ron's rejecting Hermione in favour of Lavender Brown. Hermione is extremely angered and hurt by this and attacks Ron, and even retaliates by inviting the egomaniacal Cormac McLaggen to be her date to Slughorn's Christmas party, which backfires and extends the feud to the point that Harry begins to think that they will not reconcile, and Harry himself chastises Hermione for her behavior. Ron's accidental poisoning on his birthday frightens Hermione so greatly that she reconciles with him; it also leads to the end of the short-lived Ron/Lavender coupling.

Near the end of the book, at Harry's request, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville and Luna (the only members of Dumbledore's Army who responded) are sent to patrol Hogwarts – specifically, to monitor Snape and Malfoy. Their efforts half-succeed in that they are able to alert the members of the Order (also on patrol) about the Death Eaters lurking in the castle, but they still fail to prevent Dumbledore's death. They themselves just barely survive fighting the Death Eaters, thanks to the Felix Felicis that Harry had given them.

At the end of the book, during Professor Dumbledore's funeral, Ron is seen comforting Hermione, stroking her hair as she cries into his shoulder.^[HP6] Hermione expresses concern about the possibility of Hogwarts closing. Nevertheless, when Harry announces his intentions to seek and destroy Voldemort's Horcruxes the following year, Hermione and Ron loyally vow to stay by their best friend's side regardless of what happens.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

By this time, Hermione was already of age and able to perform magic outside of Hogwarts. In her determination to assist Harry in his task, she has taken all possible precautions, even protecting her parents, whose memories she modified by making them believe they are a childless couple called Wendell and Monica Wilkins who desire to move to Australia. She took part in the Order's attempt to move Harry by drinking the Polyjuice Potion with his hair in it along with Ron and the others to confuse the Death Eaters.

She attends the wedding of Bill and Fleur, where she meets with disapproval from Ron's cantankerous Aunt Muriel, and is surprised to see Viktor Krum arrive as well, as he was invited by Fleur. Despite this, Ron and Hermione finally share their first dance and enjoy themselves until Kingsley's warning of the death of Rufus Scrimgeour and the oncoming attack of Death Eaters, putting her on the run with Harry and Ron.

Hermione essentially prepared all the things they would need in the quest for the Horcruxes, packing them all in the small beaded handbag she used for Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour's wedding. By using the Undetectable Extension Charm, she has managed to fit in not only clothes, but also books, Phineas Nigellus's painting, Harry's Invisibility Cloak, and a tent, among other things. She drinks the Polyjuice Potion again to help Harry and Ron infiltrate the Ministry, which does not turn out well. Later, she is tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange for information. After Hermione, Ron, and Harry escape, Hermione uses the Polyjuice Potion to impersonate Bellatrix to infiltrate her vault at Gringotts to get the Horcrux stored inside, only to have the bank's defenses literally "wash" the disguise away.

She is extremely upset when Ron, having been deeply affected by the Horcrux locket they agreed to wear in turns, leaves the group after a fight with Harry, chasing after him and shouting his name. Though both Hermione and Harry are deeply shaken by Ron's departure, they avoid talking about it and continue to look for Horcruxes, traveling to Godric's Hollow together and narrowly escaping when their visit to Bathilda Bagshot's house goes awry. When Ron eventually returns and reunites with them, Hermione unleashes a great deal of anger at him for leaving the group and having worried them so much.

Hermione and Ron share their first kiss in Deathly Hallows, when, after she had destroyed one of Voldemort's Horcruxes with the fang of a basilisk skeleton, Ron's concern for the safety of Hogwarts's house-elves acts as a catalyst to her long-developing feelings. Hermione suddenly embraces Ron and kisses him "full on the mouth", Ron returns her kiss with so much enthusiasm that he literally lifts Hermione off her feet. Harry proceeds (albeit almost helplessly) to remind the couple that they have to focus on the business of destroying the remaining Horcrux.

Hermione later fights Bellatrix Lestrange alongside Luna and Ginny at the Battle of Hogwarts, though it is ultimately Molly Weasley that finishes her off.

Nineteen Years Later

In the epilogue of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, set nineteen years later, Hermione has married Ron Weasley and they have two children: Rose, who is starting her first year at Hogwarts and a younger son Hugo.

Hermione works for the Ministry and is "pretty high up" in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and has ensured the eradication of oppressive, pro pure-blood laws, although she began her post-Hogwarts career by working in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, where she is instrumental in greatly improving life for house-elves and their ilk. She has helped in revamping the Ministry.

Relationships

Ronald Weasley

While Hermione dates a few boys during her time at Hogwarts, the most notable of her relationships is with her best friend of many years (and eventual husband), Ron Weasley. When the two first meet on the Hogwarts Express, they can't stand each other and spend the first few months of school trying to avoid each other as much as possible. However, after a dangerous run in with a mountain troll in the first book, the two put aside their differences and quickly become close friends, thus completing the main trio. Hints that Ron and Hermione's feelings for one another might go deeper than friendship appear as early as Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, but some argue maybe even earlier. The sexual tension escalates between the two throughout the third, fourth, fifth, and especially sixth book, but insecurity and fear of rejection on both their parts keep the two from admitting their deep attraction, even when it has become very obvious to everyone around them (especially Harry) that they have very strong romantic feelings for each other. Their friendship is very hotheaded and passionate, and the pair constantly bicker and argue as means to mask their true affection for each other. They are not above using other people to make each other jealous, as we see in Half Blood Prince, and it is only at the end of the 7th book, during the Battle of Hogwarts and in the face of almost certain death, that the couple finally admits and consummates their feelings.

When Hermione was Petrified, and Ron was terrified of confronting the Slytherin monster, he glanced at Hermione's empty chair and it seemed to convince him, and he is most excited and relieved to learn that her recovery will be imminent. Despite his teasing and bickering with her, Ron is extremely protective and defensive of Hermione when anyone (Malfoy in particular) insults her, whether it be for her muggle-born status or her personality in general. He once belched up slugs when a curse backfired on him while he was trying to jinx Malfoy for calling her a "Mudblood," and had to be restrained from physically attacking him by Harry when he overheard Draco wishing Hermione had been killed in the basilisk attacks, claiming that he would "kill him (Draco) with my bare hands." In addition, in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, his angry outburst defending Hermione against an insult from Snape in Potions Class landed him in detention.

Later on in Prisoner of Azkaban, Ron and Hermione have a serious falling out, one from which Harry thought they wouldn't recover. Their constant bickering registers to critics and readers that they may have a deep feeling for each other they may be unwilling to admit. Ron doesn't like to talk about his obvious feelings for Hermione, but becomes deeply jealous when she shows even the slightest bit of interest in another boy. The best example of this was his extreme jealousy when Hermione dated international Quidditch player Victor Krum in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Once Viktor's biggest fan, Ron comes to hate his former idol for dating Hermione, even going so far as to smash a model of him he had in his bedroom after Viktor attended the Yule Ball with her. His jealousy of Viktor continues throughout Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, where he is visibly disgruntled that Hermione still stays in touch with Krum via letters.

In Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Ron and Hermione come extremely close to admitting their romantic attraction, with him even agreeing to be her date to a Christmas party held by Slughorn, but all is wrecked when he learns that she had once kissed Viktor Krum. His insecurity and jealousy leads him to reject her angrily, and he quickly becomes involved with fellow classmate Lavender Brown. Hermione is devastated by this and the two do not speak for months, except to fight with or be cruel to each other. However, Ron obsesses over the fact that Hermione asks Cormac McLaggen to the Christmas party they were going to attend together, which Hermione merely does to get back at him for dating Lavender. Only after a near-death experience on Ron's birthday do the two reconcile, and shortly after, Lavender, who has caught on to the fact that Ron obviously harbors romantic feelings for Hermione, breaks up with him, much to Hermione's joy. At the end of the book, Ron is seen holding Hermione and stroking her hair, though readers are given no indication whether their relationship progressed beyond friendship.

Though Hermione returns his feelings, Ron holds a deep seated fear that Hermione will one day become romantically involved with Harry. In Order of the Phoenix, he reprimanded her in a panic when she said to Harry that he wasn't a bad kisser (in reality, Hermione was explaining to Harry his current girlfriend's reasons for crying when they kissed). In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, one of Voldemort's horcruxes shows Ron's deepest insecurity: the fear that Hermione will never love him back, and that she would fall for Harry, who, despite being his best friend, Ron has always felt overshadowed by.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows shows a deep shift in Ron and Hermione's friendship. The two seemed to have at least admitted their deep and longstanding attraction, but have yet to act on their feelings. Their interaction is far more tender, mature, and less argumentative than it has been in the past 6 books, with Ron finally making attempts to form a real romantic relationship with her. Near the end of the story, Hermione pulls him into a passionate kiss due to his desire to evacuate all of the house-elves from Hogwarts during The Battle of Hogwarts (which he happily reciprocates). The kiss ends only when Harry yells, "OI! There's a war going on here!"

The epilogue reveals that he and Hermione have married and have two children, Rose and Hugo.

Viktor Krum

In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Hermione meets world famous international Quidditch player Viktor Krum, a contender in the Triwizard Tournament being held at Hogwarts. Viktor would often see Hermione studying in the library and eventually began approaching her. After a few weeks of flirtation, Viktor was smitten, and asked her to be his date to the Yule Ball on Christmas Eve. Hermione, who returned his admiration, attended the event with him, only to have it be wrecked by extreme jealousy on the part of her best friend Ron. The relationship leads to a huge argument between Hermione and Ron, and marks the beginning of the obvious romantic tension between the two (up until then, their attraction, while very much present, had been covert and debatable). Ron, who once idolized Krum for his Quidditch skills, grows to detest Viktor for dating Hermione, but despite his antagonism towards Krum, Hermione and Viktor remain friends throughout Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, corresponding via letters. Though we do not see it, it is revealed that Hermione shared her first kiss with Viktor, another development which led to a major row between Ron and Hermione during Half Blood Prince. By Deathly Hallows, Hermione and Viktor’s relationship has cooled into simple friendship, with Hermione’s affections obviously lying with Ron. Despite this, Ron still feels threatened by Viktor and is less than thrilled to see him at the wedding of Fleur Delacour and his brother, Bill Weasley, in the final book.

Cormac McLaggen

Hermione’s relationship with Cormac in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is purely topical, as she only dates him to make Ron, who recently begins a relationship with classmate Lavender Brown, jealous. Ron and Hermione had been on the brink of admitting their feelings for each other, but learning that Hermione had kissed Viktor led Ron, in his insecurity and jealousy, to reject her in favor of Lavender. Hermione briefly dates Cormac, a Quidditch player Ron detests, for retaliation, and Ron jealously obsesses over the relationship. It turns out that Cormac is egomaniacal and self-absorbed, and Hermione, realizing that dating Cormac is not going to make her forget her feelings for Ron, dumps him unceremoniously after Slughorn’s Christmas party.

External links

• Hermione Granger on Harry Potter Wiki, an external wiki
• Hermione's entry at Harry Potter Lexicon