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]

It would seem very odd if Hermione had actually told her parents all the dangers she's experienced and they never expressed any concern whatsoever. (Dear, last time we let you stay with the Weasleys during the summer you were caught in a riot instigated by terrorists specifically targeting people with your ancestry. Now you want us to send you to that same family earlier in the summer? To stay in a house owned by an ex-convict who nearly went insane in prison and has been living in a cave as a dog for the last year, and the werewolf teacher who forgot to take his medicine and nearly mauled you? To host a vigilante group? We think that summer calculus course has a lot to recommend it...)

But she's never so much as commented that her parents were a bit worried about her after the disaster of the year, but she convinced them that she would be perfectly safe with the Weasleys (or with Lucius kicked off the Board of Governors, or with the Aurors who would be hanging around, etc. depending on the year) and now they can do [fun event X or important world-saving activity Y). So I suspect you're right that she downplayed or outright didn't tell them a lot of it.

Seriously, what could she have told them about Harry?