Hermione, or the Ghoul in Pajamas

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

Never, never pontificate without re-reading the original scene.

Here's what, precisely, Hermione says to Harry about her preparations to take off with him, specifically about her decision to modify her parents' memories so that "they're convinced they're really called Wendell and Monica Wilkins and that their life's ambition is to move to Australia, which they've now done.


"That's to make it more difficult to track them down and interrogate them about me--or you, because unfortunately, I've told them quite a bit about you."

She says it outright.

Ron's stratagem, the ghoul, is an attempt to protect his family from reprisals; Hermione's, to protect herself and Harry from the Grangers' knowledge of them. Not to protect them, or to protect them from being used as hostages to influence her.

And, y'know, it was a good thought. I mean, just imagine if her parents had blabbed about taking their little girl camping in the Forest of Dean.

Comments

[sunnyskywalker]

Lying to Harry to mislead Voldemort makes the most sense out of the most details and so sounds most plausible of the three possibilities I thought of, but (a) you're right that we should have heard about it if that was her cunning plan, and (b) as has been mentioned previously, Hermione rarely lies to Ron and Harry. The only time I could think of is when she (still somewhat indirectly) denied being in two places at once in PoA, and that was because an authority figure told her to keep it a secret.

Which is why I wondered if maybe Moody and/or Kingsley were actually the ones to relocate the Grangers and ordered Hermione to give this cover story... but that shows a lot more capability than any wizards seem to have in DH, just for starters. Total mess.