-
(#6) Hermione's Dislike Of Rita Skeeter Prevented The Wizarding World From Learning About Voldemort's Return Immediately
From Redditor u/jackbuddhist:
We all know that Hermione catches Rita Skeeter, in her animagus form as a beetle, while Rita is spying on the hospital wing after the Tri-Wizard Tournament. And of course on your first dozen read-throughs, the reader is completely on board with this, because Rita is a toxic little beetle of a journalist.
However, if Hermione hadn't caught Rita and blackmailed her into silence, what would Rita's next big exposé have been? I think, given where Rita was captured -- on the window of the hospital wing -- tells us that she could have (and I say definitely would have) overheard Dumbledore's speech to Fudge, at the very least. She knew about Barty Crouch Jr., she knew about Harry's claims that Voldemort had returned, and she knew that Fudge was being a little punk and that the witness to the whole evil plot -- Crouch Jr. -- was permanently silenced by a dementor brought in by the Minister of Magic himself.
Now, I'm not saying she would have necessary got all the details right -- it is Rita Skeeter, after all -- but she had the bones of an amazing story there, and I'm sure she would have been salivating to expose all of it. Maybe she would have sided with Fudge, and might have continued along the lines that Harry is crazy, etc. But we've already seen that her ultimate motive is the biggest, juiciest story she can find. And what could be more juicy than a ministry cover-up about the return of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named? She would have her tragic hero again, in Harry Potter (an angle that people seem to love), she would be exposing the corruption and cowardice of the Minister of Magic himself (which, come on, she would adore doing), and she would be announcing the most sensational and horrifying news of the decade -- Voldemort's return.
But instead, Hermione catches Rita, keeps her magically contained until at least after the train ride home, and then blackmails her into journalistic silence for a year. Rita cares more about her self-preservation than about the truth -- that's been made clear. So she didn't write the the story, and the wizarding world was kept in the dark for a full year longer than needed to happen.
-
(#8) Hermione, Harry and Ron Were Better Fits In Other Houses
From Redditor u/ElephantErik:
A more complete write up of this theory is available here. We all know that Harry had fitting qualities to place him into Slytherin, but he instead chose to go to Gryffindor where he could be with his new friends.
Hermione is probably the smartest student of her class and really should have been a Ravenclaw. We don't know if she desired to be in Gryffindor to be close to Ron and Harry, or perhaps she wanted to be in the house where the founder fought for muggle-born wizards. This wouldn't be beyond her knowledge at this point.
Ron is totally a Hufflepuff, he doesn't exactly radiate courage and he isn't all that smart. It's because of all his siblings having been in Gryffindor that he chose to continue the tradition and be close to his friends and family. Plus his brothers would have more ammo to use on him if he ended up somewhere different.
I like to think of this as somewhat poetic that the sorting hat took strong candidates from 3 very different houses and placed them into the same house by their own choice or even because they new each other and would be the best fit for all of them. If there is any evidence to dispute any of this, I invite discussion.
Tl;Dr: Harry should have been Slytherin, Hermione, Ravenclaw, and Ron, Hufflepuff, but their choices and their brief history with each other brought them together into Gryffindor.
-
(#10) The Entire Wizarding World Would Collapse Overnight Without Hermione Granger
From Redditor u/Deggit:
The British wizarding world has its own currency, the gold Galleon (G). British Muggles use the pound sterling (£). This has some interesting consequences. With few exceptions (Arabella Figg) most wizards don't touch Muggle money. They earn Galleons at work, and they spend Galleons to purchase magical ingredients, wands, brooms, and other things. So far so good. However, magic cannot create gold or food.
So... how do wizards eat? Why would £-holders, aka Muggles like Mr. Granger, have an endless willingness to trade their £ for Galleons?
The answer is they don't. The entire currency exchange is being driven by Muggle-born wizards like Hermione Granger.
As illustrated throughout the novels, Hermione constantly buys Galleons with her family's Muggle money. She needs to do this in order to pay for books, supplies, and so on.
By the end of the novels, Hermione (now Mrs. Hermione Weasley) has fully joined the wizarding world, "immigrating" from the Muggle world. She has converted her entire worldly possessions (including the Granger inheritance, if her parents are dead in the epilogue) from Muggle money to Galleons. Through Gringotts, this finances an equally large movement of raw goods (primarily food).
-
(#7) Hermione Received The Time-Turner In "Prisoner of Azkaban" Due Lucius Malfoy Trying To Sabotage Her Schooling
From Redditor u/Obversa:
In Chamber of Secrets, Lucius Malfoy got laws passed with the Hogwarts board of governors, when he was blackmailing / threatening them, to try and undermine Hermione academically, including limiting class schedules / time tables / max number of classes able to take. McGonagall intervened by writing "many letters" to the Ministry on Hermione's behalf, resulting in her getting the Time-Turner in Prisoner of Azkaban.
-
(#4) Why Hermione Was Even Given A Time-Turner
From Redditor u/magrippalfcos:
One of the biggest plot holes in prisoner of Azkaban for me is that Hogwarts would give a device as powerful and dangerous as a time turner to a teenage girl so she could attend more classes. My theory is that due to the potential danger incurred by time travel, the wizards would have set up powerful means of monitoring when time travel has occurred and that Dumbledore has one of these monitors specifically for Hogwarts. If this was the case, Dumbledore would have seen that Hermione had used a time turner to attend classes. In order to prevent damage to the timeline, he would then have professor Mc'gonagle give Hermione a time turner and instruct her in its usage. This also explains why Dumbledore gave such vague advice to Harry and Hermione later in the book. He had already been monitoring the two of them during their journey to the past and knew that they would be successful.
New Random Displays Display All By Ranking
About This Tool
Our data comes from Ranker, If you want to participate in the ranking of items displayed on this page, please click here.