deathtocapslock | GOF Chapter 8: The Quidditch World Cup

If Arthur's numbers are correct then the QWC stadium is of the order of Wembley stadium (though not as big as the original Wembley). Since Harry's experience of sporting events so far came from TV and Hogwarts I can see why he is awestruck with the size of he place, though I doubt anything else about it was particularly amazing.

Am I to believe Wizarding Britain can afford to have 500 members of its workforce engaged in preparing the stadium for an entire year? Does this work with a population of 3000? Or even 10,000? Is that why there wasn't enough manpower available to catch Sirius Black? Or perhaps many of these were retirees looking for extra income?

Oh how fun it is to mess with the minds of Muggles (people like, say, Hermione's parents) to keep this event secret. Bless them, indeed. Meanwhile Hermione is taking notes on what magic is acceptable to use on Muggles.

Now that we see the size of the top box we realize that Arthur's party takes up about half of it. No little favor Ludo did him.

Wizarding commercial advertisements are just as lame as Muggle ones.

Is that Dobby? No? Shucks. But it's a house-elf at any rate, so Harry was only half-wrong. Doesn't it sound like Winky knew Dobby from before he was freed and started seeking a paying job? What would that mean? Were the Malfoys frequent dinner guests at the Crouch household way back before Mrs Crouch's death? Did Dobby and Winky grow up together? Did Dobby sneak away from Malfoy Manor to the Crouch residence to complain about his evil masters? Do house-elves have some kind of social gatherings? We'll never know now. Hmm, but if Winky knows of Dobby's search for a paying job and had the chance to hear Dobby speak of Harry 'all the time', doesn't this mean he came to the Crouch home (more than once) after being freed? And never noticed the invisible Barty Jr (in contrast with Bertha Jorkins)? Or perhaps he too was zapped with some memory charm (or several)? Might explain some things.

So ill-behaved elves and goblins are to face the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Is this the same department that dealt with Buckbeak? I doubt it is the same department that deals with ill-behaved wizards. I think the latter are dealt with by the Department for Magical Law Enforcement. I can see elves getting a different treatment - once one realizes they are a slave-class (though Winky expects the same to apply to a free elf), but goblins are free members of magical society, or so I thought. In any case, elves and goblins are classified as beings which is a category that includes those creatures that have the capacity to understand the laws and take part in forming them. Of course, this does not mean they are actually treated equally by those laws, nor does it mean they actually get to participate in law-making.

Winky is sitting in one of the seats and ostensibly reserving the seat next to hers for Barty Crouch, when in fact the other Barty Crouch is sitting in it, invisible. Which means Crouch Sr got a Top Box seat for his house-elf. I'm wondering how that came across to mainstream wizards. Oh, this is Harry's first meeting with the coming year's DADA teacher (though he doesn't even know anyone is there). And Barty's 1st opportunity to see Harry up close (and steal his wand). Now I'm wondering if Bagman was working for Tom after all.

Harry is indignant on Winky's behalf for her having to reserve her master's seat when she doesn't like heights. 2+ years from now Harry will force his own house-elf to go on spying missions for him against said house-elf's preference. IOIAGDI?

Percy can repair his shattered glasses. Meanwhile Muggles invented plastic lenses that are shatter-proof.

We see Fudge, and the Bulgarian Minister. But no Irish Minister in sight. Has the Wizarding World not caught up with the 1920s? Fudge is alone, BTW. In chapter 28 at some point Crouch will ramble about taking his wife and son to a concert with Mr and Mrs Fudge. I wonder what became of her.

The Malfoys make their entrance. All three of them this time around. There have been many men by the name of Lucius in history and in literature, as the wikipedia disambiguation page shows (at the bottom there are links to additional lists of Luciuses), but I tend to think Lucius Malfoy was named after Lucius Tiberius from Arthurian legend, because it seems one of the main reasons for Lucius' existence in HP canon is to serve as Arthur's antagonist, to be compared to Arthur and be found wanting. (This looks even more true in light of

aasaylva 's 'Arthur cuckolded Lucius' theory.) In PS neither man is present, but we hear their opinions of each other quoted by their respective sons. In COS we get to meet each of them individually - Arthur being excited that the twins took the car without permission, Lucius expressing disappointment with Draco's grades - and then they meet and clash at the book store. In this book they are both in the Top Box and in OOTP they are both waiting outside the courtroom for the outcome of Harry's hearing (no, Lucius' ties did not go far enough to grant him entry to the Wizengamot). Their trajectories cross at the end of OOTP - Lucius goes to Azkaban, Arthur gets promoted - and leads searches of Lucius' home. DH shows one thing they have in common - love for their respective families.

(Heh -Arthur and Lucius are like Albus and Gellert, though probably without the love affair - red-haired 'good' guy and a slightly younger blond 'bad' guy.)

Back to chapter 8:

Lucius donated to St Mungo's. He is so evil for (possibly) receiving 3 tickets as a perk in return! He should have done something more wholesome, like, say, help Fudge cover up illegal and harmful acts. Since I am in the biotech field I like to imagine that Lucius founded The Abraxas Malfoy Memorial Fund for Dragon Pox Research, though of course it could have been just a general donation to the hospital.

No Harry, the Malfoys don't consider anyone from Muggle descent second class (Bellatrix does, but she is still away in Azkaban). Narcissa's visit to Severus' home in HBP seems not to have been the first one. But they do consider Muggle-borns like Hermione to be second class. The way the Weasleys consider Muggles, such as Hermione's parents.

Arthur feels the need to polish his glasses upon spotting the Veela. To see them better? Or to avoid looking at them? This used to be evidence in support for Imperiurized!Arthur theories - or alternately theories about Weasleys being more susceptible than average to mind-control.

Harry notices the Veela - and his mind goes blank. Blanker than usual, that is. This is his first direct experience with mind-control, which will be very important in this book. (And to a lesser extent in later ones.) Meanwhile Ginny thinks, 'when I grow up, I want to be a Veela too!'

Leprechauns give the crowd a golden shower :^ I notice that many among the crowd were rummaging for gold - were they as ignorant as Ron, or were they hoping to find others just as ignorant? (BTW leprechaun gold is explained in Fantastic Beasts, a book Harry and his friends had to buy for 1st year. I wonder if the boys ever read it?)

Veela can be part of human society, can interbreed with humans and are considered 'beings' (don't appear in 'Fantastical Beasts and Where to Find Them'). Leprechauns are capable of speech in human language but are classified as beasts and have never requested reclassification as beings (I suppose because they don't want to be bound by human laws? Not that being a beast helped Buckbeak in any way). Anyone find their use as mascots just a bit icky?

Are all Veela female? Are all leprechauns male? Are they like Pratchett's dwarfs - the sexes are indistinguishable to humans? How do human heterosexual females respond to male Veela? Was Lockhart a male Veela?

Krum is thin, dark, sallow-skinned, crooked-nosed and is likened to a bird of prey. He looks like teen-Snape! And Hermione ends up liking him! Surely she'd find Severus attractive too, once she is a bit older? Alternately - remember those theories about Viktor and Severus being related? Perhaps they are - it doesn't really matter who Viktor is related to. How does a professional player of an outdoors sport get to be sallow-skinned at the end of summer, anyway?

The Irish team rides Firebolts, which automatically makes them worthy of victory. You can skip to the end of the game, we know who has the better brooms.

As an example of the lengths us fans went in attempt to decipher Rowling's supposed 'master plan' I offer you Quidditch World Cup, Shadows of the Future - An essay by a fan who disliked the Quidditch in the series so much he thought there had to be some meaning to them for Rowling to go into such detail about the games. It's still fun to do these things in retrospect: Is Harry's watching the game in slow-motion until he misses events symbolic of how he has no idea what is happening in the war because he is hiding in the tent reading about Dumbles' youth? Is Viktor's skill at flying a foreshadowing of Superman!Voldie? Is Harry watching Lynch's fall in slow motion a foreshadowing of him seeing the extremely long fall of Albus' body from the tower? Is Viktor's broken nose a foreshadowing of noseless!Voldie? And obviously, catching the Snitch while losing the game is what Voldie did with the Elder Wand. But also what Rowling did with Harry's story - she managed to get him to outlive Voldemort while completely denying him convincing growth. (This was not intended to mock SCollins. Most of us were doing this sort of stuff for a long while.)

Ginny hears Arthur telling Harry not to go for looks alone and promptly decides to adopt Veela personality once she can manage it. (BTW, this is the girl who has been flying secretly since she was 6. Notice we hear nothing about her reaction to the game. What does Ginny know about Quidditch?) Of course in Rowling's world all adult women are Veela. The pretty ones do it naturally, the less pretty ones can be Veela by choice, with the aid of a Love Potion.

Viktor throws the game for personal glory. Yet his team doesn't seem to mind - he is still an active player 3 years later. Hermione thinks he was brave. Since Durmstrang becomes a stand-in for Slytherin in this book we can speculate that he too was 'Sorted too soon', just like the grown wizard he resembles.

Fudge receives the Cup on behalf of Ireland. Looks like wizards have their own borders.

Bagman finds himself in debt to the twins, goblins and others. His manner of paying them marks the beginning of his real troubles. How did he hope to get away with it? Maybe he didn't read Fantastic Beasts in his student days either.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

madderbrad.livejournal.com

I thought she brought it up to show Harry how dedicated she was to coming with him and Ron.

I thought if I remember rightly that she was sorta yelling the info at Harry, explaining what she did to her parents and using it to prove how much she had done so she could come along with Harry on the Horcuxes/Voldemort defeating hunt.

Yes, the reason she told Harry about her parents in that scene was to impress upon him that she had 'thought through' what was involved in accompanying him on his journey. But she was also quite emotional about having had to 'divorce' herself from her parents:

"Wendell and Monica Wilkins don’t know that they’ve got a daughter, you see."

Hermione’s eyes were swimming with tears again.

Quite the opposite from the callous girl that urbanman1984 mistakenly saw. :-)

There is nothing in it that tells me that her parents agreed to it.

There's nothing either way. They *could* have agreed to it. I used to think such a position was pretty flimsy, but re-reading it right now:

That’s to make it more difficult for Voldemort to track them down and interrogate them about me – or you, because unfortunately, I’ve told them quite a bit about you.

... I think the theory that the Grangers voluntarily submitted to the mind-wipe can be supported, as the only defence that muggles could muster against a Legilimency attack from Voldemort and his death eaters. I.e., they agreed to leave the country and allow their daughter to wipe them.

From:

oryx_leucoryx

.. I think the theory that the Grangers voluntarily submitted to the mind-wipe can be supported, as the only defence that muggles could muster against a Legilimency attack from Voldemort and his death eaters. I.e., they agreed to leave the country and allow their daughter to wipe them.

Might work against run-of-the-mill DEs, but not the Voldie himself. After all, he was able to break through the memory charm Crouch Sr placed on Bertha Jorkins. Of course most run-of-the-mill DEs aren't Legilimenses in the first place, so just a normal, non-magical, assumed identity would work against them.

From:

madderbrad.livejournal.com

Ah, but this is HERMIONE GRANGER we're talking about here! Her spells on her parents (and, remember, they weren't just simple obliviations - recall her words at the cafe after the Wedding, what she'd done to her parents was a different thing entirely!) would be ever so much better done than Crouch Sr's handiwork!

From:

oryx_leucoryx

In any case, the memory-wiping does not protect her parents, it protects her and Harry. Moving and taking a new identity protects her parents. But if DEs suspect they are not who they claim to be the parents are doomed whether the suspicions are supported or not. The key is to not attract the attention of DEs, to never have them run across one's path. If the mind-wiped Grangers were suspected by DEs they'd be doomed without even knowing why.

From:

karentheunicorn.livejournal.com

In any case, the memory-wiping does not protect her parents, it protects her and Harry.

Yea, exactly. Apparently Hermione has to point out that she's told a lot about Harry to her parents. Which I have no idea why that was even relevant for JKR to put in as a reason. The hiding them reason seems good enough, not whatever she stuff she told them about the magical world - but she makes of point of saying its stuff about Harry she's told.

What the hell would Hermione have told that Voldemort didn't already know? Unless JKR is saying that Hermione told her parents a bunch of secrets that Voldemort didn't know - then I have to question just how smart a girl Hermione really is.

From:

oryx_leucoryx

Right. The important things to keep from Voldie are that Harry knows about the horcruxes and was on a mission to destroy them. Also anything that would lead Voldemort to such a conclusion - for example the titles of the books she stole from Albus' office. I doubt she told them the former but they may have seen the latter or something else that might mean something to a person in the know (ie Voldie). I seriously doubt there was anything else of significance. Because anything that was Hogwarts gossip Draco or Severus would be able to tell him. So really, she only needed to remove memories from that summer, not her entire life.

From:

madderbrad.livejournal.com

If the mind-wiped Grangers were suspected by DEs they'd be doomed without even knowing why.

Yes. But Hermione and Harry would be spared.

I can quite imagine the Grangers agreeing to flee to the other side of the planet but then realise that, if found, they wouldn't be able to stop the bad guys from *using them* to find their daughter. So they could well agree to Hermione wind-wiping them as an additional precaution, to protect their beloved child. Yes. I'm coming round to this view - versus the Hermione-did-it-without-their-permission stance - more and more!

From:

oryx_leucoryx

But what could the Grangers possibly tell Voldie that would lead him to Hermione? Or Harry? All the places in the Wizarding World they hang out in are known - either commonly (The Burrow) or to Severus, supposed Voldie's man. Nobody can track a wizard who Apparates a few times in a row.

Maybe if Voldemort got the full itinerary of all the Grangers' family vacations and sent DEs to ambush Hermione at all those locations? That would really spread the DEs thin.

From:

madderbrad.livejournal.com

Heh, I think you've uncovered yet another flaw/weakness in Rowling's plot.

Hermione says:

That’s to make it more difficult for Voldemort to track them down and interrogate them about me – or you, because unfortunately, I’ve told them quite a bit about you.

So she says that they were moved to Australia + wiped to make it harder for Voldemort to track them down ... but the reason she gives for why he would do this is because they know 'quite a bit' about Harry.

So that's why she does it.

Now, if you're saying that you disagree with Hermione, that the dark lord would get nothing out of the Grangers that was of any use ... well, first of all, Rowling dumbed down Riddle a LOT, make him a farce of a villain, so that's one flaw you're biting into. Plus Rowling also dumbed down Hermione a lot - a couple of times in the book she makes an erroneous judgement simply because Rowling wanted her to agree with Harry's course of action - so that's another flaw.

So, really, you're venturing into Rowling flaws #1,254 & #932, not the "Hermione shouldn't have mind wiped her parents in the first place" topic. Given what Hermione says, her actions towards her parents were reasonable.

But on the other hand, who's to know that the Dark Lord wouldn't get anything good out of the Grangers? They might say "oh, sure, Hermione says Harry just *loves* the pizza that he can get at Waterloo station!". And so Riddle assigns a DE watch the station, in case the Boy Who Lived turns up there.

From:

sharaz-jek.livejournal.com

From:

madderbrad.livejournal.com

Hermione should have had a good reason, but the evidence strongly suggests that she didn't.

Okay, so that shifts your ire away from the anti-Hermione crowd saying "Hermione was cruel and callous and horrible and evil for mind-wiping her parents" and instead to "Rowling wrote Hermione as stupid". Which is a different thing entirely.

Stupid/canon Hermione is written as thinking that her parents (a) are in danger and (b) could lead the DEs to her and Harry, so she takes (non-evil) steps to protect them. She's a good girl. A stupid girl, maybe, in a stupid book written by a stupid author ... but not the selfish 'psychopath' that ubanman1984 started out accusing her of being.

From:

karentheunicorn.livejournal.com

It would probably depend on how you view the mind wipe of muggles and her parents.

If like you a majority of the fan base believe Hermione's parents knew and agreed to it, then the situation is a little better. They would have been given the choice.

But,

If you believe her parents didn't know what was happening and she did it without their permission, then she's a hypocrite.

Add into that (If I remember rightly) JKR said that Hermione works at the Ministry now - if that is true then I'm guessing she fits right in with the culture that says if muggles get in the way you alter their memory without their permission.

From:

seductivedark.livejournal.com

...but the reason she gives for why he would do this is because they know 'quite a bit' about Harry.

This reason does not hold water. In his earlier incarnation as a somewhat-competent villain, Voldemort was capable of mind-raping a woman (Bertha Jorkins) whose memories had been erased by a more experienced wizard than Hermione (Crouch, sr.). There has been speculation that the supposedly greatest wizard of these times (Dumbledore) was able to break through memory alterations to retrieve pertinent information about Tom Riddle's actions (Morphin Gaunt). Jorkins ended up dead from her encounter; Gaunt died soon after the incident and, though we don't know whether the retrieval had anything to do with it, I wouldn't put it past Dumbledore the Great to sacrifice a third-string bit player like Gaunt for the "greater good."

We can assume that Hermione is not aware that Dumbledore retrieved Gaunt's memories since it is never explicitly mentioned in the books but, she did know about Bertha Jorkins and, she is presented as being the deepest thinker of our trio. Since she knows about Bertha Jorkins (and may know about Morphin Gaunt via Harry) we can suggest that she knows that Bertha's memories were retrieved, that the methods used for that retrieval caused Bertha Jorkins pain and suffering and, that their retrieval caused Bertha's death. She also knows that Bertha Jorkins was attacked and killed outside of Britain and that supposedly there are foreign members of the DEs (ref. Karkarov) who may live anyplace in the world.

We can also assume that Hermione is aware that certain DEs have no problem with torture in order to retrieve memories or information (Lestranges/Crouch, Longbottoms). She knows that these people have been incarcerated in an institution where mental damage is not only possible but actively promoted (Azkaban). She knows that Bellatrix Lestrange has exhibited sadistic tendencies since leaving that institution and that Bellatrix is a devoted sycophant of Voldemort's.

She knows that Voldemort was able to access Harry's mind and that Harry has not practiced Occlumency in order to keep him out. We know she is aware of this because she kept after him to practice his Occlumency and chastised him for not doing so. She is aware that Harry's unwillingness to even try to keep Voldemort out of his mind led to the debacle at the Ministry and to Sirius's death.

So, Hermione knows:

1) A wiped mind can be unwiped.
2) The retrieval of wiped memories and information can be dangerously taxing on the subject.
3) Her adversary is not above injuring and killing by-standers and peripherals.
4) Her adversary has followers who enjoy torturing people.
5) Her adversary and his followers are not confined to Britain.
6) Her adversary's crimes have not been confined to Britain.
7) Her adversary has a mind link to Harry Potter and she has just told Harry Potter what was done to her parents and given him their new identities and their destination.

Given the above, Hermione was thoughtless at the least to do what she did and then, she gave the information to someone who has not been able to keep Voldemort out of his mind, in fact, someone who has been unwilling to even try to keep Voldemort out of his mind.

From:

madderbrad.livejournal.com

Your theory is that Hermione is very knowledgeable about all these things - memory charms, Gaunt, Bertha, etc - so therefore you must take Hermione at her word when she says that she has 'never done a memory charm':

“You’re the boss,” said Ron, sounding profoundly relieved. “But I’ve never down a Memory Charm.”

“Nor have I,” said Hermione, “but I know the theory.”

Therefore you must take it as fact that Hermione did *something else* to her parents. After all, (a) she replaced one set of memories with another, and (b) as part of the setup she planned to *restore* their memories at a later date!

So most of your reasoning - based on 'memory charms', which Hermione did *not* employ - are irrelevant. And Hermione remains pure, yay!

But this was a good one:

Given the above, Hermione was thoughtless at the least to do what she did and then, she gave the information to someone who has not been able to keep Voldemort out of his mind, in fact, someone who has been unwilling to even try to keep Voldemort out of his mind.

Brilliant! I've never seen that mentioned before ... it's another nice fresh DH error!

Or is it?

Hmmm. Actually, Harry hadn't started having his 'visions' at that point, had he? Certainly Hermione didn't know about them; it was at Grimmauld Place where he started having his news flashes from the Dark Lord Mental Broadcast Network, and when Hermione berated him for not even trying to resist.

So no, I don't think it is a DH error, we can't say that Hermione was silly in telling Harry what she had done. Other than the breaking the much more general rule of "need to know". But that sort of realistic common sense was broken ten ways from Sunday by Rowling's simplistic plot, it would never have held up under such realism.

It would have been excellent, though, if Hermione had shared your thoughts about this when she *did* discover that Harry was deliberately lurking in the dark lord's mind - "oh no! And I told him about mum and dad, he knows everything!".

Hmmm. Harry never mentions the Grangers ... maybe Hermione obliviated him? :-)

But that would be okay.

From:

karentheunicorn.livejournal.com

Hmmm. Actually, Harry hadn't started having his 'visions' at that point, had he? Certainly Hermione didn't know about them; it was at Grimmauld Place where he started having his news flashes from the Dark Lord Mental Broadcast Network, and when Hermione berated him for not even trying to resist.

Um, forgive me but what the hell was going on in OOTP? Voldie had already been playing around in Harry's head a book ago in OOTP. He had already been having visions, Hermione knew Voldie had trespassed in Harry's mind.

Apparently the only thing that convienced everyone that Voldie would never go there again was Dumbledore, who said Voldie feared the "whatever love" Harry socked him with.

But the premise is flimsy to start with considering Voldie had already tresspassed many times into Harry's mind without coming into contact with "Whatever Love".

So technically Hermione already knows Voldie has had access to harry's brain since OOTP.

From:

madderbrad.livejournal.com

Um, forgive me but what the hell was going on in OOTP? Voldie had already been playing around in Harry's head a book ago in OOTP. He had already been having visions, Hermione knew Voldie had trespassed in Harry's mind.

Yes, you're right. I enjoyed reading your previous post with this 'new' DH error that I hadn't seen before so I raised it at an anti-DH forum I frequent. Another poster told me the same thing - Hermione should have known about the risks of telling Harry anything confidential starting from HBP, right after the events of OotP.

So, she said, it was a Rowling error that kicked off in HBP - people should have been wary of telling Harry anything from back then.

Of course, this is all too complex for Rowling, so she just turned off the Dark Lord Mental Broadcast Network in book 6 for the convenience of her plot.

And then she turned it back on again - only turning it upside-down - to prop up the story she wanted to write for book 7.

Yes, for both general 'need to know' reasons and also from her knowledge of what Harry had undergone in book 5 Hermione should never have told him about her parents. But, maybe, we can forgive her; it had been a year with the mental link turned off, she'd probably forgotten about it, just like us. So when it was suddenly turned on again it should have been an even bigger shock - OH NO, I TOLD HIM ABOUT MY PARENTS! HARRY, OBLIVIATE!

:-)

Re: Hermione and muggles

From:

oryx_leucoryx - Date: 2011-02-25 02:01 am (UTC) - Expand

Re: Hermione and muggles

From:

karentheunicorn.livejournal.com - Date: 2011-02-25 02:49 pm (UTC) - Expand

Re: Hermione and muggles

From:

madderbrad.livejournal.com - Date: 2011-02-26 12:19 am (UTC) - Expand

From:

seductivedark.livejournal.com

...so therefore you must take Hermione at her word...

No, I don't. Anyone can say anything. Hermione can say she didn't know how to do memory charms, I can say I've never swum in a competition, you can say you have never written a spork. Words are a cheap commodity. The proof of those words, or the proof against them, is what we actually see. Or, in this case, there is no reason to doubt that the Grangers are missing and not being taken to some safe haven by the Order because of the reason Hermione gives - she took their memories, planted new ones, and turned them loose upon the world.

...she replaced one set of memories with another, and (b) as part of the setup she planned to *restore* their memories at a later date!

How is this not a memory charm? Or, is it a memory spell? It removes or submerses memories - since the method is never mentioned, we don't know which it is, only that the Grangers don't know of their existence so they cannot access them, wherever they may be. She 1) removed (or submersed) memories. This must have required a spell or a charm. The spell or charm would specifically be for the removal or submersion of memories. Therefore, a memory spell or charm. She 2) replaced one set of memories with another. Requiring a spell or charm specifically for the planting of memories which are not the original memories of the subject. Therefore, another memory spell or charm. She 3) planned to restore their memories at a later date. Which means using a spell or charm in order to restore their memories.

She would have to have stored their memories, making me think you're angling for the removal of memories as we've seen done in the various Pensieve scenes. However, the fact that Slughorn was able to produce a memory, alter it, and still have that memory to produce once again in its unaltered form so I do not buy the idea that Hermione might have used the removal of memories in this way. Now, we could debate this point, since the Snape evidence from the Occlumency lessons seems to support a simple removal of those gossamer threads as a way to "wipe" a memory without using charm or spell but, what on earth is that sort of removal if it isn't a spell or a charm? Certainly Muggles can't do it, we can't do it, and it requires a wand.

(Cont'd)

From:

seductivedark.livejournal.com

... it's another nice fresh DH error!

Or is it?

It is. As I mentioned above and as Karen mentioned below, Voldemort was getting into Harry's mind all through 5th year. That was why Harry had those Occlumency lessons with Snape. Hermione talked to Harry about those lessons. She told him he should practice. She was aware that he did not. She was a part of the DA group that went to the MoM and walked straight into a trap. Wasn't she injured in that outing? She's not so stupid as to forget, especially after an injury.

Your theory is that Hermione is very knowledgeable about all these things - memory charms, Gaunt, Bertha, etc -

Yes, and she's also knowledgeable about Voldemort and his followers. She knows about the Longbottoms and their torture. She saw them at St. Mungo's in GoF. She knows their story. She knows about Bertha Jorkins. We don't know if she knows about Morphin Gaunt - the only way she could know about that is if Harry told her about it at some point after seeing the Riddle memory and hearing DD's explanation. We do know, since we saw her meet them, that she knows about the Longbottoms and we know she knows about Bertha Jorkins because it was a big plot point involving Wormtail and Albania and Voldy's out-of-body existence.

She knows that these people will torture someone to insanity whether they actually know anything or not. She knows that they will not stop trawling through someone's brain for snatches of submersed memories until they kill that person. Therefore, she is able to reason that merely removing their memories will not protect them from Death Eaters or Voldemort if they get it into their minds that the Grangers know something. It will also not protect her parents from a retribution attack against them merely because they're Hermione's parents, whether they remember her or not. She isn't stupid, she isn't ignorant. She knows what she's dealing with in the Death Eaters. She knows that Harry's got a connection to Voldemort that Voldemort has used before to get sensitive information (Harry's feelings for Sirius) and she knows Harry hasn't learned how to cut that access.

Of course, in the actual world of authors and readers, these are all Rowling's mistakes, not Hermione's. I know you like Hermione as a character. She could have been everything you see in her but for Rowling. This is just another egregious example of Hermine acting OOC for the sake of the plot.

And, yeah, if Hermione Obliviated Harry that would at least explain why he can't do third-year magic that we've seen him do in previous books. And, since she's still a novice at those types of spells/charms, it would also explain why Harry got so stupid. Maybe the Obliviation happened in 5th year...