Just a quick question, does anyone know Hermione's parents' first names? Just wanted to know for a new fic I'm writing.

No, we've never been told and unfortunately Hermione's family seems to be pretty anonymous all round. However I like the popular fanfic choice of Dan and Emma...

I once dabbled with a fanfic in which I called them David and Sarah, for no other reason than I like the names. What have others imagined them to be?

I typically assume that Hermione's mother is Jane (since many Rowling children are named after their same-gendered parent), and then give her father an L name so Harry and Hermione both have a J parent and an L parent and are named after the J parent.

I think that is a good theory. Especially since Hermione's last name was suppose to be Puckle (untill JKR changed it) which would have given her the initials of HJP like Harry. So I think that would be awesome if her parents have the same first name initials as Harry's parents.

In one of my fanfics (alas, unfinished, and it's more of a genfic) Hermione's parents are named Alan and Marcia -- which are the real names of Daniel Radcliffe's parents But IMO Dr. Alan Granger and Dr. Marcia Granger have a nice ring to them, yes?

I think it's a bit strange how we don't know very much about her family. I mean, we know her parents aren't divorced, muggles and dentists. That's...about it. I was hoping that JK would divulge a little bit more as time went on but I guess her family's just not that important?
It's just weird, when you compare the amount of information to Harry and Ron's family trees.

They are probably gansters in the Mob with the godfather and are trying to keep themselves under wraps. Nobody wants to wake up with a dead horse head in your bed if you can help it.

You know, I considered that but pushed those thoughts away because they sounded so silly. But thank you! At least someone agrees with me.

I think we know so little about Hermione’s parents compared with Harry and Ron is that she is from a Muggle family. The story is about the Wizarding world, so I suppose JKR felt it was unimportant to explore. Fanfic writers OTOH…

Hermione is so entrenched as the Brightest Witch of her age, that sometimes I forget she is Muggleborn. It’s only when they bring it up in the story, do I remember. I also liked in Book 1 when she said they couldn’t start a fire without matches and Ron reminded her that she was a witch. Hermione was having a “Muggle moment.” She doesn’t seem to have those anymore….

Haha, yes, I remember. That was quite good. Represented them very well. Ron with the "ARE YOU MAD!? ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?!" and Hermione with the "Oh...right." Heheh. It really tells you how they come from different backgrounds. It's second nature for Ron but for Hermione, it's still very new. She was about as new to magic as Harry, actually. She just read more books.

I've always liked Jane for her mom and a short name for her father. In fact, I never worry much about what her father's name is...just so her mother is Jane. Weird, huh?

hey guys dose it strike you as odd that jkr never let us know what hermiones parents names are or where she came from but yet we know about harry, ron, seamus, neville, dean families pretty odd huh? well that my two cents at least.

That's exactly what I said. It's strange. Maybe she's building Hermione up.

God I hope so.

I heard her mom be called Jane, Helen, and a whole lot of other names. It kinda of &^%#$% me off how we know nothing about Hermione. J.K. does nothing on her birthday, on her history, or anything at all.

Oh we know her birthday:

September 19th, 1979

But beyond confirming that she is indeed an atypical Virgo, you're right in saying that there is nothing else about her character.

In a play I once was in, titled "Acting Out" there was one character, Kerry, who's entire purpose was to introduce another one of the character's story, beyond that all you knew of her character was that Kerry had a nice house and family with nice curtains in the windows. Her entire purpose was to be of help to another character, introduce his problems and realities and be the friend he needed, and the possible hint of something more exists at the end of the play.

Maybe that's part of Hermione's role, to be more of the help that Harry needs, it doesn't matter where she came from, her main purpose however is to be the help and healer.

Then add in the fact that Rowling said she wanted her to contrast with Ron, as we know almost everything about his family, so she wanted something to contrast with it, which meant no family introductions for Hermione.

~Salamon2

What little we do know about her family--both parents working, prosperous enough to take vacations every year, relatively boring jobs--does contrast with Ron; however, the gaping lack of information isn't a contrast, it's a lack of information. What would be a contrast is if we'd met them and seen how they were different from the Weasleys--perhaps more distant, for example. But we haven't seen anything like that, so we're just left to guess.

Actually, there would be a really interesting theme if the Grangers played the role the Weasleys currently play; Harry would have found the family he wants in the Muggle world, not the wizarding one, creating a sort of "what you're looking for is right under your nose" theme. But Rowling didn't go with that one. Oh well.

The main idea with Hermione, it seems, is that SHE separates her Muggle life with her Wizarding one, mostly because it's so hard for her to explain everything to her parents without making them feel apart from her world. This fact seemed obvious in book 5 when she got her Prefect badge and she said something along the lines of "At least this one they'll understand." It implies that she doesn't talk about her Wizard life much with her parents, simply because she couldn't explain how it's perfectly alright to "splinch" one's self or to happen to have a Basilisk in one's school.

Speaking of which, the danger of her whole Hogwarts experience is probably a point she doesn't want to let her parents get too familiar with.

Anyway, it seems to me that the only person holding out is Hermione. JKR made it her personality such that she keeps her Muggle life separate from Harry and Ron. Her priorities are obvious, but she keeps her Muggle background to herself.

Besides, too many families in a series where the main focus are the children just makes it a mess. See how in sitcoms, we know about the family with the many kids but known nothing about the kid next door except he comes over in the most opportune times and mooch off the food? I'm not saying Hermione's obnoxious, but JKR doesn't have to serve everything up. She has a story to tell, and it's Harry's. Too much of everyone else is just unnecessary.

Hmm..you do make a valid point there. It seems very Hermione-ish. Although I don't see why JK couldn't just introduce the parents in one page. Just to see what they're like when they're in the magical world. Have them follow her around in Diagon Alley and have her be really excited to introduce them to everyone.

Perhaps having them be Mr. and Mrs. Granger is intro/background enough for JKR. That they're "there" and "supportive" of Hermione is perhaps all that we need to know about them.

I always wondered, anyway, if there was an unspoken rift between Hermione and her parents ever since she found out about Hogwarts. I'm sure Hermione's parents had so many visions of Hermione being a successful Muggle, taking honors: Valedictorian, Summa CL, Masters, PhD, Nobel Prize, or something like that. Hermione had such a promising Muggle future. That she went into Hogwarts and they could barely relate to her accomplishments there must've affected their relationship with their daughter somehow. That she cuts short vacations with her parents to come to Harry's rescue must have woken them up to that reality. That she'd spend Christmas at school or anywhere else but with them is telling.

Somehow, for some reason, I don't see Hermione walking around excitedly introducing her parents. She's not ashamed of them, but her parents seemed to have ceased to be part of her personality. She had grown so independent of them that they don't define her anymore, not like Ron who's so In-Your-Face with his family, or Harry, who often gets associated with Lily's eyes and James's personality. The only thing that connects Hermione to her parents is her OCD for healthy teeth, and that's only because innately, Hermione is so thorough and cerebral about most things: Harry, studies, magic, health and well-being.

You think she's an atypical Virgo (namely, not typical), rather than a typical virgo? To me she seems almost to be a stereotypical Virgo.

Anne
(Cancer with Gemini moon and Virgo rising)

i have always wonder why jkr did not tell us about hermiones family before to me it seems that jkr is ashamed of her dose not like to talk about hermione.
for all we know is her birthday that is it.

i read somewhere i think in CoS or HPANA that maybe harry and hermione are twins or siblings or something like that. lol i think they thought about that because of this reason, that we have not heard about hermione's parents except that they're dentists

My brother has said that many times. But that's because we're Star Wars Freaks. JK wouldn't do that.

...because it'd be like Star Wars.

yeah i would have to agree with you there glassfreak it would way to wierd and i too like star wars

There'a thread somewhere here about this sibling theory, but I really don't give many thoughts to it. We know for sure that Harry and Hermione's birth dates are different (Hermione 1979-09-19 and Harry 1980-07-31), so they can't be twins. They could theorically be brother and sister, Hermione being something like 10 months older than Harry, but that would have been two very close pregnancies - it happens, but it would be hard to believe, and it would create a lot of complicated things to explain, like why nobody in the wizarding world would have known that the Potters had 2 children, for example.
Besides, as other have said, that would be too much like Star Wars. JKR was once asked if Harry was actually Voldemort's son ( ) and she answered the person something like "you've seen too much of George Lucas", so I think this also stands for Harry-Hermione-siblings theory.

Thanks, bloue angel. That's right, as well, we forgot about the birth dates. And where does Hermione get her hair from? Harry's parents' are jet black and bright red. Strange. No, I really don't think they're twins and if they were, that would be completely unoriginal and just plain stupid.

No, the sibling theory is clearly a non-starter - there haven't been any subtle signs of it. Their birthdates are theoretically possible for siblings but very unlikely; James and Lily clearly only had one child (never any hint of another); no physical resemblance between L/J/Hr. The only possibility might be that Harry was born to the Grangers and adopted by the Potters, but the physical likeness between Harry and (particularly) James discounts that one.

The reason, I guess, that we've never been given any real exposure to Hermione's parents is that the story doesn't take place in their world. Which is a great pity because it would have been nice to have seen Hermione in a family situation. She loves her parents dearly, and they her, but like Harry she BELONGS in the wizarding world, and we've seen that as a tension in her life - she loves going home but also needs to be in her world (with Harry).

Hence we have another red herring - Jo has only ever offered us the Weasleys as a likely family for Harry and we are therefore expected to embrace the OBHWF theory - because Ginny would provide a family for him and Hermione wouldn't. (Incidentally, as I have said before, OBHWF is already a reality - Molly and Arthur consider Harry and Hermione to be part of their family, which is enough. You don't need H/G or R/Hr to confirm it).

We know Hermione has a loving family, and we know something about them at least - they're both dentists. This fixes Hermione's socio-economic background as comfortably off/professional in contrast to Ron's (scrimping and saving/low to middle income), but only serves as background information. This is a great shame, because Hermione's parents would undoubtedly see in Harry an ideal potential partner for their daughter (if he avoids getting her killed), as countless fanfics have postulated on over the years.

I think Jo knows much more about Hermione's family background than she'll ever need to tell us, and I think we'll only ever learn more about them if she ever writes the HP encyclopaedia she talked of once, explaining a lot of things she hasn't needed for the story. I think her parents have names and a story of their own, there's grandparents' history, and so on. I note that at various times Jo was trying to work both Hermione's father and her sister into the story, but it didn't serve a purpose so it didn't happen.

wait a minute here didnt jkr base herself in hermione i think that she did so now the question is what is jkr not tell us about hermione's past.

the sibling theory was really hilarious! although yeah it's not impossible but i don't think jk would write that kind of crap! it's probably just a way of getting an assurance for OBHWF for some herons....

honestly i don't think we'll ever hear about hermione's parents (detailed info) in this series. probably in jk's encyclopedia though

That would be inserting herself in the story and that would be horribly amateurish. I think she was asked which character she identified with most, or which character she was most like... I don't think she was even asked at all. She just mentioned that she was like Hermione, because she could be such a Know-It-All, but JKR is absolutely NOT Hermione, nor was Hermione's character based on her.

Hi everyone!

Hmm, I think I recall this topic being discussed before in the general HP forums. However, a reply I intended to formulate there never really made it on the board, so how about I use this topic as my soapbox?

In regards to the siblings theory, I have a good idea as to where that came from, and it is sadly not very condusive to my obsession with Harry and Hermione being romantically linked. Check Ms. Rowling's site, and do a little digging. You will find one of her areas - I unfortunately forget which, as I haven't been to her site in years - that one of her discarded plots from way back before she even began writing was the one concerning Lilly and James living on a remote island similar to the Dursley's last hideout in SS/PS when Voldemort comes for them. Hermione's parents lived on the coast near the island and they notice an explosion/commotion of sorts. Long story short, Hermione's dad goes to investigate, he finds baby Harry in the wreckage and he brings him back to their home and raise him as their own.

The obvious yukiness of all this is then Harry would be Hermione's adoptive brother so no romance. The fact that Ms. Rowling considered this as an early plotline doesn't bode well. I can also see why people who support R/Hr would like to latch on and perpetuate this theory as it would pretty much end our line of thinking.

As to the Muggle thing. Ms. Rowling said in an interview that Hermione's parents were rather bemused at their daughter. Bemused isn't necessarily a good thing, and doesn't seem to indicate the tight relationship that some fanfic authors like to showcase between Hermione and her parents is necessarily true. It rather indirectly implies that they love her because she's their daughter, but can't really relate or understand her or the new situations she finds herself in and are therefore dismissed by even Hermione. Which is really sad in my opinion, as she seems to be a champion of equality yet she is unconsciously perpetuating the supiority complex between wizards and Muggles. That they can't understand or would never accept the wizarding world and are therefore to be mollycoddled, treated as children who do not understand the way the real world works. That leads me to an interesting theory:

That Ms. Rowling is actually quite disallusioned with Muggles and the Muggle world in general. It's actually quite a literary statement she is making. Think on her treatment of Muggles in general, what few we are introduced to. The Dursley's are the worst of the lot, being highly xenophobic, constantly in denial, and rather abusive in their treatment of both Harry and those whom they percieve as "different" from their established norm (and it's not just wizards that fear and anger is directed towards either.)

Second to worse is her treatment of the Muggle Prime Minister. He is the leader of arguably one of the most powerful and influential countries of the world and yet he is treated condescedingly from Minister Fudge, even being spoken to as if he was a simpleton in one case for a comment that was rather thoughtless. Throughout his interview with Minister Fudge, he is dismissed as a non-entity and he even behaves as such. Muggles in general seem to almost earn their low opinion of them by wizards for their dismissive, "I-didn't-see-that" attitude. The fact that they are easily and often memory wiped,and the lacidasical, almost casual disregard that wizards show in performing the memory charms leads me to wonder if Ms. Rowling doesn't feel disenchanted with Muggles as a whole and is allowing those sentiments to show in her work either on purpose or on accident.

Hence, we have Hermione's parents. Muggles both, dentists, bemused with their daughter who seems to have more emotional attachment to Mrs. Weasley than she does to her own birth parents. Pretty soon, I would almost expect Hermione to forget that she was even a Muggle for 11 years of her life and fully embrace the culture and society of the wizarding world. The attiude being what it is so far, I wouldn't even be surprised if there was a special Ministry task force that erases the memories of Muggle parents that they even had a magical child once that wizard or witch reaches the age of majority in the wizarding world.

Given Ms. Rowlings attitude on Muggles I would highly doubt any more information on Hermione's parents coming to light in the future, whether oin the books or in an official Encyclopedia.

--Garasu

merged with similar topic. It's okay to leave it in the H/H board as people will find it more easily in here.
- Pen / gal-texter, 2008

We all know Ron's parents are loving and affectionate. We all know Harry's parents would've been loving and cool, and we certainly know that the Dursleys suck as parents, to both Harry and Dudley, but honestly, what are Hermione's parents like?

I'm not sure this should go in this section. I didn't think it belonged in the "HBP Discussion" board, and I didn't think this was of the "General Harry Potter Discussion" variety, since discussion of Hermione's parents seems so off-page, but I set up this discussion mostly to examine Hermione's character, and maybe how it would impact her relationship with Harry (assuming Harry and Hermione do end up together).

I can't quote book passages right now, since I don't have any of the books handy, and even if I were at home, my HP collection got left behind in the Philippines, so I am yet to buy new copies for books 1 to 4, but from what I remember, there's very little said about Hermione's parents that would indicate they're as loving and supportive as Ron's and Harry's parents.

We know that Hermione's parents are good providers, and perhaps it could be inferred that they're supportive enough by letting her go to Hogwarts and buying the books she needs, but it's hard to gauge a parent's affection through material things. I am wondering if Hermione's attitude to her parents is a reflection of how they are.

Hermione goes off to France with them, and she went on several holidays with them, but the fact that she could spend time away from them on supposedly important holidays like Christmas and summers in some world unknown/unfamiliar to them sounds strange. Stranger still that Hermione seems capable of hiding huge truths from them. I say this because while I don't think Hermione's parents are cruel or uncaring, I do think the fact that Hermione could keep things from them indicates that they don't act parenty enough to gouge out the awful truth from her. If they were anything like the parents I know, they'd be able to ask the right questions, regardless of whether the child wants to keep secrets from them or not. Such parents are concerned and interested.

I've latched on to this belief because surely, no normal Muggle parent would willingly send their ONLY daughter into the untold dangers of being Harry Potter's best friend year after year, and while Hermione's parents may seem more preoccupied about things other than their daughter, I don't think they're unfeeling gits.

And then there's the time Hermione got her prefect badge. She said something along the lines of "At least it's something they'd understand..." That was very sad, that Hermione would feel so apart from her parents like that. Sure, they're Muggle, born and bred, and they had no idea the magical world existed until their daughter went to school in it, and perhaps there are many things they couldn't understand, but surely, they aren't so stupid and insensitive as to be completely alienating about Hermione's magical life, could they?

I think JKR mentioned Hermione's parents in an interview... which really doesn't help much on-page.

Perhaps Hermione's parents are still overwhelmed? Which is why they seem so apart from their daughter? Or are they just "absentee" parents?

How does this impact her relationship with Harry? Does this make them compatible? Co-dependent? A Freudian disaster waiting to happen?

I've always felt sad about Hemione's relationship with her parents. I always imagine that they love her very much and support her hugely, but perhaps just don't quite "get" her. Or they just feel too removed from the magical world to have much of an impact on her life currently.

I know JK hinted that we never would, but I'd like to see one or both of them actually speak on page, even if it's just to say "Hi" to Hermione or something! I know they are unimportant characters themselves, but they are (or should be!) important to Hermione and I'd love to see that reflected if only for an instant.

There's that bit in the COS movie when Harry and Hermione enter the bookshop, and Hermione bounds up to her parents and I think her mum gives her a kiss or something and they exchange words. I love this moment because it's the kind of thing I'd like to see mentioned in the books (there's probably been a couple of moments like this, only with quite sterile overtones, such as, "Hermione greeted her parents" or something).

I also don't like the fact that Hermione seems closer to Molly then she does her own mum, because that indirectly supports R/Hr. Yuk. I wonder if Hermione's family would have more prominence if JK decided to include her younger sister as she originally planned? I really wish she had done that...

Wow, I've always thought that Hermione has awesome parents. Let me give a few reasons:



To let a child go off to a magical boarding school when she is only 11 years old must have taken quite a sacrifice on their part. Then, to let her leave on holidays (summer break, Christmas) they must really respect and trust Hermione's decisions and choices. She's Hermione...what parent wouldn't, LOL.



Much better than putting bars on her windows (a la Vernon D.). What are they supposed to do? Hermione is an exceptional child. We've been shown her intelligence, her great morals/values (i.e. friendship and bravery, respect, knowing limits, caring for the 'under-dog' - Dobby) and her ability to know when she may have to improvise on those morals when she deems something worthy of fighting for. Her parents must know all of this.



But Hermione's attitude wasn't a sad one when she said that. She was thrilled to be able to tell her parents about the prefect badge. I mean, they can listen for hours and hours about flying, spells, magical beasts and such, but truth is, they've never seen it. Heck, Hermione couldn't even show them a simple "scourgify" if she wanted to (underage magic and what not). So, she was happy to find something they could truly connect on, not just something that they could remember her telling them about.



Really? I disagree with that. I've never seen Molly and Hermione close. For starters, hasn't anyone thought that the fact that Hermione doesn't get a Weasley sweater is odd? She supposed to be best friends with Ron and Harry, and close friends with Ginny, spending holidays with them for the last half decade, yet no sweater...ever. And remember the way Hermione was shunned by Mrs. Weasley in GoF when the article about H/Hr came out in Witch Weekly? She obviously chose Harry over Hermione there.

So, no, I don't think Hermione's parents are 'absentee' or neglectful to Hermione. I mean, do bad parents have daughters like Hermione?

Actually, I think Hermione is a bit out of luck family-wise.

To me, it doesn’t feel as though she’s that close to even Molly. The Easter egg thing in fourth year springs to mind, in addition to the steady absence of a Weasley jumper. Harry got one in his first year, but I don’t recall Hermione ever getting an official Weasley jumper. Of course, everyone knows about how Molly only gave Hermione a really small Easter egg while Harry and Ron got, what was it? Dragon sized Easter eggs, I believe. [Oh, I see Accio! Harry mentioned this in her entry. That’s what I get for not typing faster. Suffice to say, I agree.]

As for her own family? I don’t know about everyone else, but if my parents took a skiing vacation, and I decided to skip out on it barely a day in, they’d probably smack me upside my head. It’s amazing that they let her go, when you consider how little time she’d spent with her family at that point.

Think about it—before fourth year, she spent a good portion of the summer with the Weasleys, going to the Quidditch World Cup and all of that. Then she was at Hogwarts, where she stayed through Christmas until the end of the year. Already she’s been away from her parents for close to a year.

Following fourth year, we’re led to believe that she left her family and went to Grimmauld Place shortly after leaving the train station. Harry knows that Hermione was at Grimmauld Place long before he was, and commented on getting letters from her where she stated that she couldn’t tell him much of what was going on. So now she’s been gone for almost a year, and then leaves again, and is not seen until Christmas time, where she leaves again after another brief visit and for what? Not to visit her friend’s father who is in the hospital, or her friend who is dealing with a form of depression, no, they let her leave so she could study for exams and were “…a bit disappointed…”

Hermione is sixteen by Christmas time in the fifth book. Call me crazy (or delusional, that would be better) but I don’t think that most parents would let that sort of thing happen. I realize, of course, that this is fiction, and so is completely moot, but that doesn’t make it right. It makes me feel horrible for Hermione.

She may have parents who love her and support her enough to let her accomplish her goals, but this is ridiculous. Hermione has spent two, count them, two, Christmases with her family: first year, and sixth year (I think. We don’t know for sure where she went, but I’m guessing she went to see her parents who, by the way, she saw for a whole three weeks that summer before she left and stayed with the Weasleys.)

Sorry, but I’m a bit touchy when it comes to family topics.

Back to the point, I don’t know how this could impact Harry and Hermione’s relationship. I have several possibilities running through my head right now, but I’d prefer to check the facts before I say anything definite. I’m a psych student, and I have plenty of textbooks, so I can check out a few things. If you want me to, of course. I’m still an undergrad, but I have my books, all of which are fairly recent.

Like I said, if you want, I can give you some information on childhood attachments/bonds to parents and how it affects their lives later on, but I won’t bore you with it if you don’t care. I’ll leave it to you to decide.

Cheers,

Madm_05

Actually, if you read what she says, she never even went. She said she had to wait until term officially ended before coming to Grimmauld Place. So, she went there right when the Christmas holidays started. It's not as though she abandoned her parents when they were having a blast on the slopes. She probably owled them (while still at school) about what happened to Mr. Weasley and Harry. I'm sure they understood, her being 16.

I don't think that Hermione's parents are neglectful towards her. I just don't think they really quite understand what it is that she's going through at Hogwarts because, like Accio Harry! said, her parents aren't able to see what it is that she's learning at her school because she's not allowed to do any magic until she's of age. I'm sure, knowing Hermione, she's probably told them all about "Hogwarts, A History," and all the things she's learned about the magical world and stuff, but she can't show them how talented she really is. The only things they can really understand are the things that also occur in the muggle world, i.e. the prefect badge. They don't know how difficult Hogwarts is as a school, so when Hermione tells them that she has to stay at Hogwarts to "study," then, knowing how important grades are to their studious daughter, they forgive her absence.

Also, when Hemione told Harry that her parents were "a bit disappointed" at her not being able to go skiing with them in OoTP, I honestly think that she's deliberately keeping her tone light for Harry's sake. Harry's already in a fragile emotional state and if she tells him that her parents were "extremely disappointed" or "very upset" then he'll have something else to feel guilty about.

I do think that her parents love her and I do remember the text mentioning Hermione talking to her parents or hugging her mother as she did at the end of OoTP or giving her advice (to get braces instead of getting her teeth shrunk by magic). I do also think that they give her a lot of space in order to give her an opportunity to learn for herself.

And as far as having a "dangerous" friend like Harry, well they probably don't know how dangerous it really is for their daughter to be friends with him because she's probably never told them even a quarter of the things that she's been through with him and because of him. And she's not the first Hogwarts student to have sugar coated the truth or perhaps withheld it entirely from their parents. Even Dean Thomas said in the beginning of OoTP that he's not stupid enough to tell his parents about all the bad things happening in their school.

I think the lack of parenting by Hermione's parents ties her background more closely to Harry's. It would be nice to think that Hermione has great parents who are supportive and all that, but to be honest, they just seem detached and distracted. They're dentists and yet they didn't even give Hermione braces or anything to fix her dental problems that caused her such horrible insecurities. She had to use magic. There's a big clue IMO.

Hermione is much more bonded to Harry and Ron than her own family. If I only saw my daughter 3 months out of the year, I'd want her home with me. I wouldn't be so keen on letting her go stay with a friend's family (especially a male friend's family). To me, it seems that Hermione's parents are like the Dursleys without the abuse. They've got no problem with letting the magical kid out of their site.

I wonder if Hermione's parents have been left out because it would tie her background too closely to that of Lily's. We know that Petunia hates magic and Hermione's sister was supposed to hate magic. What do we know of Lily and Petunia's parents? Maybe they just wanted their weird little kid out of the way too.

You really think so PixieDust? Even when Lily's parents are well documented in PS/SS?

"My perfect sister" "My parents were proud to have a witch in the family" "I was the only one who saw her for what she was, a FREAK!"

Lily's parents were proud of her and let her do what she wanted. According to Petunia, they saw Lily as the "perfect" sister who could do no wrong.

As for Hermione's parents, I've had no doubts that they indeed do love their daughter, however I think they've just always been distracted with work. I see Hermione's workaholicness coming from them, which would indicate that Hermione as a child probably spent time playing in their office behind the counter while they were busy taking care of patients. I've always imagined them as workaholics like Hermione, and like Hermione they don't mean to cut off everyone else when they work, it's just they can't help it. They're probably brilliant at what they do but that's because they push everything else to the backburner and focus on one thing at a time. As for being upset at not having their daughter close to them all the time, not every parent is all touchy-feely about their children, and what I mean by that is the same thing about the workaholic attitude. Yes it upsets them a little probably, however there are other things, and probably that other daughter to look after. I imagine Hermione's sister, while disliking magic, would probably be the opposite of Petunia, in that her parents make more time for her.

~Salamon2

I think you also have to consider that Petunia saying that her parents thought her sister was "perfect" is still coming from the way Petunia saw things as a child. Maybe the Evans's were very supportive of Lily being a witch, but it isn't uncommon at all for a one kid to think the parents favor the other kid, even if it's completely false.

I think there's a balance between touchy-feely and completely uninvolved and Hermione's parents seem to lie more closely to completely uninvolved. We get things from Harry's perspective and Hermione can go for months at a time without mentioning her parents. Where are the Hermione care packages? If Harry notices Ron's, he would notice if Hermione got mail too. There has to be a way for muggles to send mail to their kids.

It could be that it's just completely irrelevant to the plot, but Hermione's parents barely exist. Then we have the backstory on Hermione that would indicate that her parents were supposed to be more important to the plot than they have been (finding Harry as a baby). It really could go either way: the books are too big so there's no room; or Hermione's parents' inclusion would give too much of the plot away.

They're a mystery to me. As they're written, they don't seem like very good parents, but they may be great. ??? Maybe it will all be cleared up in the last book.

I haven't read all the way through every post, so excuse me if I repeat a thing or two...

Personally, I've always gotten the impression that Hermione's parents are the type of parents that do really love their children dearly, only they are very career-oriented and so they pay their career a lot more attention than their child/ren, and so let the child/ren run around doing much of what they please.

I don't think Hermione's parents are particularly negectful, yet I don't think they're awesome parents either. I think they do neglect her at times but they do love her, it's just they don't understand her, and so they don't bother when she seems so keen to be away from them. Do I see that as a mark of good parenting? Actually, absolutely not.

Let's take the ski vacation example. Had I tried to just suddenly decide not to go with my family, instead going to spend the holiday with the same friends I spent summer holiday with, my parents would NOT have let me go. No way would they have. But see, that's not a bad thing. I see that as more caring and loving than letting your child/ren go. Letting them go seems like a bit uncaring to me.

Again, I just think Hermione has never had a particularly strong relationship with her parents and that is why it's so easy for her to spend long chunks of time away from them and vice versa. That's not to say they're bad parents, but it certainly doesn't mean they're good parents. I in fact think the Weasley's are loads better parents than the Grangers.

Also, if I remember correctly, JK Rowling has mentioned that Hermione originally was intended to have a little sister. I always imagine this to be important to rememebr, because I think had Hermione had that canon little sister, I think her sister would have been much closer to her parents, and her parents would have understood her little sister a lot better than Hermione. I see Hermione as being the "second-best" type of thing, which pushes her further away.

That's just how I see things.

I don't see Hermione's parents as involved, The way that they were writen in the books, and the fact they are never seen makes me think that they are workaholics. It had always seemed to me that they never understood her so that it would be easy to turn to their work. As I also think that it goes both ways that both Hermione and her parents don't work hard enough to spend time with eachother, I think that it's equally both of their fault.

Technically, she was around the age where the parents only begin to consider braces. I suppose you could say they were a bit late at it...

Now, allow me to throw around more ideas before I get to the point of this post.


I think this pretty much sums up the conclusions I've drawn in my head. Emphasis on "they do love her" but they're too career-oriented, or too busy (necessarily) to make any kind of effort to be more involved in her day to day life. It's all assumption on my part, you understand, drawn from their physical absence from the pages, but I read about Hermione and I couldn't help but draw that conclusion.

I even feel that her parents compensate for the lack of attention by giving her everything she asks for/might want: The books, the clothes (which were never described as tattered/old/worn-out/grown-out-of, and she had a really nice gown for the ball), the advanced birthday gift (Crookshanks), the pricey Christmas presents to her friends, the trips to France, and the skiing resorts...

Question: Where were her parents when she was petrified? Or after she got hexed in the DoM? I think they were mentioned. I'd be surprised if they weren't... yet not.

HERE'S THE SHIPPER CLINCHER:

Like it was mentioned in a previous post, Dean Thomas doesn't tell his mum everything, either, or he won't be sent back to school, but Hermione was supposedly involved in TWO life-threatening situations where the school SHOULD have informed her parents: The Basilisk attack and the DoM raid. I can only assume Hogwarts informed Mr. and Mrs. Granger of this, particularly because Hermione was petrified the first time and dangerously injured the second. How couldn't the school not inform them? So its more logical to assume they were informed. However... HOW can they send Hermione back to Hogwarts then? Assuming they're not completely daft, they might have been alarmed by it, but Hermione must've reassured them somehow. Now, petrification and hexed by Dolohov... Hermione must've told some pretty tall tales to make her parents feel better about both incidents--enough to send her back to school, and if her parents didn't pick up on those tall tales... maybe they didn't care enough to inquire further. Unless...

Assuming her Basilisk encounter was easier to explain away (Harry killed the Basilisk and there isn't another one like it, so Hogwarts is safe, therefore Hermione is safe. She was only petrified, anyway, and that was easily, if not quickly, remedied by Mandrake root. Hermione is therefore sent happily back into the "safe" halls of Hogwarts, with promises of "I'll be careful, mum!" from Hermione), the DoM encounter was a harder sell. So how did Hermione get manage to get persmission to go back to Hogwarts?

Her parents might have been dead set this time, but Hermione, going on her sixth year and being the only child who possibly gets everything, and who only wants to be educated in the BEST wizarding school in Britain, aggressively asked to be sent back, assuring them that Hogwarts is the safest place in all of Britain, that it said so in Hogwarts: A History, etc., etc. Her parents might have conceded this, and for goodness sake, she just wants to get a good education! BUT they might have made her promise... STAY AWAY FROM TROUBLE (Harry? Death Eaters?). Same difference in their opinion. No more chasing bad people. No more sneaking through the castle. No more. No more. If they find out, back to London she shall go.

Result: HBP!Hermione.

She stayed out of trouble. She stayed out Harry's range, though she physically hung around. She (dare I say it?) LET Harry notice Ginny. She tried to get the "emotional range of a teaspoon" guy (Ron) so that she wouldn't have to feel so heartbroken by alienating the "fanciable" one (Harry). When her "helping hand" didn't get Ron's good mood, she dated another guy. She didn't help Harry snoop on Malfoy, who might have been a Death Eater. She stayed away from Hagrid. She detested the HBP's book because it smelled like trouble that Harry would inadvertently throw her way. Normal things. Things that wouldn't get her into "Harry Trouble."

So maybe her relationship with her parents IS impacting her relationship with Harry. What do you think? Silly theory? Totally flawed? Possible?

You know, that really makes a lot of sense. Most of us think Hermione was behaving strangely and I guess it would be better for her to be near Harry in a different capacity than to not be allowed near him at all.

I don't think that's a far out theory, it's a strong possibility that her parents had some type of talk with her about Harry and the dangers of the magical world. It makes me wonder if this will come into play with the 7th book when she tells her parents about possibly dropping out of school and helping Harry with the Horcuxes, or she might not tell them at all and do what she thinks is best. Either way, I think it would be interesting to see if Rowling writes something with her having to choose between either her parents or Harry. If she chooses Harry, I believe that has to be a positive sign for our ship

I think that's a sound theory. It would help explain her flipped-out behavior in HBP, definitely. And it happens to alot of young girls, especially the "good girls" who let their parents decide so many things.

Still, I can't help but doubt that Hermione's one to let her parents have that drastic an influence on her decisions-- especially if their influence would impede her helping Harry in any way. What gives me pause about HBP!Hermione is that, if she really believed Harry about Malfoy, etc., she would have helped him. Whatever else was happening, she would have, even if it would have gotten her in trouble. I think maybe at the beginning of the series she would-- and did-- avoid getting into scrapes for fear of expulsion.. But her development as a character up through OoTP wouldn't have let her walk away from helping Harry and Ron for anything at all, in my opinion. I'm not sure she would be make such a drastic change just to stay in school and mollify her parents.

The fact remains, though, that she did make a drastic change. And this theory does go a ways toward explaining that. After all, it could be argued on my point that she figured she couldn't help Harry if she weren't allowed to return to school, so she resolved to tamp down on the urge to be so involved with him, as PixieDust has mentioned. However, it would have to have been really hard for her not to get involved in Harry's situation, especially as far as Malfoy is concerned, given her personality and her drive to be needed/useful, and just-plain put her two cents in. I really do think she didn't believe him, and turned out to be wrong; not that she believed him but didn't want to get into it because of possible Death Eater involvement.

Anyway. </rambling

Her behavior warrants an explanation, at any rate. It was too much a departure for her. Something must have been up. Your theory's definitely possible.

This is definitely important to consider, which is perhaps why I'm see-sawing about Mr. and Mrs. Granger's parenting.

I mean, a whole bunch of other theories could explain Hermione's behavior. From Heron to Harmonian, ONE of the theories is bound to be right, so assuming my theory about her behavior change is wrong, and someone else is right, it brings me right back to my original (possibly unnecessary... lol) question: What kind of parents are Mr. and Mrs. Granger?


It could be, but I suppose that would only make your first point more valid, because she would be going round and round in her convictions if she reasons that she's not helping Harry so she could help him.

True, but she didn't believe that Sirius was truly in trouble at the Mom in OoTP but she was still adamant about going with Harry when he decided to go and see for himself.

I like your theory, AdamantEve. It would tie up some loose strings (about her parents, her behavior). I mean, since when has Hermione ever backed down when she feels it's justified? I especially thought it was very OoC for her not to go down to Hagrid's hut for Aragog's burial. And that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to her actions in HBP.

On a side note, I don't think her not going skiing was a big deal. I'm sure her parents would understand that her best friends needed her...of course, she may have lied, who knows?

Maybe she was sticking around to keep him out of trouble, thereby she could hang out with him more.

SHIPPY COMMENT ALERT:

Perhaps seeing that Harry was already noticing Ginny, she let it happen just so Harry would get distracted from getting into trouble. Harry snogs Ginny and he stops worrying about Death Eaters and such...?



That's also entirely possible. That she didn't believe him. He had, after all, proven himself wrong on the matter of Sirius. So exactly what you said, maybe she's thinking that Harry's wrong again.

Now that I think about it, it makes a lot more sense.


This response definitely set off my Sirius response above. So she went with him to the DoM. Applying this to HBP: She wasn't going to let Harry convince her she was wrong again just because he was being "paranoid."