Is there some personal story going on between these two we don't know about, or is it just the way of things that naturally they hate each other?
Hermione is The Girl on Harry's team, and Pansy is The Girl on Draco's team, plus they're supposedly opposite "types" (since Pansy, like, giggles and wears pink frills, and Hermione's too cool for that), so they're automatically supposed to hate each other even before they ever do anything to each other or interact. I never quite bought their animosity.
I had the same reaction to McG's unscrewing of the chandelier--how does she know it won't kill some random innocent little kid? Maybe it drops straight from the ceiling immediately after being unscrewed instead of hanging there precariously?
Hermione's nagging is indeed ineffectual. She's like Molly: bossy and domineering about the trivial things, but usually caves on the important decisions. And "third-grade kind of honor" is a good description the sort of morals that the books heavy-handedly promote. Not just the whole "but you PROMISED!" nonsense, but also the weird obsession with bravery, i.e. "I'm not scared of you! You're not the boss of me!" People who do the right thing in the books aren't praised for doing the right thing, they're praised for being brave (Harry, Snape, Cedric, etc.), even if their decision was as much about compassion or loyalty or whatever as bravery.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2008-05-16 04:34 pm (UTC)Hermione is The Girl on Harry's team, and Pansy is The Girl on Draco's team, plus they're supposedly opposite "types" (since Pansy, like, giggles and wears pink frills, and Hermione's too cool for that), so they're automatically supposed to hate each other even before they ever do anything to each other or interact. I never quite bought their animosity.
I had the same reaction to McG's unscrewing of the chandelier--how does she know it won't kill some random innocent little kid? Maybe it drops straight from the ceiling immediately after being unscrewed instead of hanging there precariously?
Hermione's nagging is indeed ineffectual. She's like Molly: bossy and domineering about the trivial things, but usually caves on the important decisions. And "third-grade kind of honor" is a good description the sort of morals that the books heavy-handedly promote. Not just the whole "but you PROMISED!" nonsense, but also the weird obsession with bravery, i.e. "I'm not scared of you! You're not the boss of me!" People who do the right thing in the books aren't praised for doing the right thing, they're praised for being brave (Harry, Snape, Cedric, etc.), even if their decision was as much about compassion or loyalty or whatever as bravery.