Hi there, Magical Muggles!
I hope you’ve had an excellent week full of fall weather and its colors!
In chapter 10 of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, we have some action. Quidditch, regrowing bones, Dobby, Gilderoy Lockhart being just… you know. And more! We break it all down in our video for today. As always, all of this content will be filled with *SPOILERS*.
Today on the site, we’re going to focus on someone who is in much need of a spotlight—Hermione Granger. Seriously, why did I wait so long to do this?
First, a brief appreciation statement for our girl, one of the best characters in the series in my opinion. I haven’t had the opportunity to focus on Hermione since this blog started, but let me just say, she’s an amazing character. One of the things I love about this series is it doesn’t usually have flat characters; almost all of them go through changes that develop them as people. As one of the main characters, Hermione definitely grows as the book series continues, and I’m excited to see her change and develop along with Harry and Ron.
All of us go through what we would call “defining moments” at various points in our lives. These are situations that forge us into the people we are today, further steeping us in our own personalities and who we’re becoming. For Hermione, the Chamber of Secrets is one of the books where this is most apparent for her, and we witness these changes occurring in this very chapter.
At this point in the books, it’s been well-established that Hermione is a rule-follower, and this becomes even more apparent as the series continues. However, another quality of hers steadily rises to the surface, and this chapter is a moment when we catch a glimpse of it—Hermione’s strong sense of justice. She is noble, bold, and unafraid to sometimes break rules to ensure evil is stopped.
Here’s one of my favorite moments from the Chamber of Secrets:
Hermione shut the book with a snap.
“Well, if you two are going to chicken out, fine,” she said. There were bright pink patches on her cheeks and her eyes were brighter than usual. “I don’t want to break rules, you know. I think threatening Muggle-borns is far worse than brewing up a difficult potion. But if you don’t want to find out if it’s Malfoy, I’ll go straight to Madam Pince now and hand the book back in—”
“I never thought I’d see the day when you’d be persuading us to break rules,” said Ron.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Chapter 10
Seriously, what an awesome scene!
Hermione, like many other Gryffindors, is a champion of justice for the innocent who are threatened. The opening of the Chamber of Secrets and what it represents for the students of Hogwarts lights a fire in Hermione, and she becomes the trio’s leader during a horrifying time to be at Hogwarts. She doesn’t let fear stop her and views this situation as an opportunity to help those who can’t fight for themselves.
Keep this in mind—Hermione is a Muggle-born, someone who is also being targeted. While I’m sure this does play into her feelings about the situation at hand, I think Hermione would still hold these views and passion whether she was a Muggle-born or not. She would have reacted the same way and with the same fervor.
Actually, if she wasn’t a Muggle-born, I think she’d strive even further to protect these people. Think of how she interacts with house-elves starting in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire! She’s never been in these elves’ position, but being on the outside of what they experience makes her sympathize and fight for them even more. I can’t wait to talk about this particular topic when the time comes!
Hermione is compassionate, driven, and dedicated to ensuring justice is served and those who are helpless are protected. While we do see her break rules to go after the Sorcerer’s Stone in the first book, this is the moment when we vividly see her desire to protect others in action.
While Harry and Ron obviously hold these values dear as well, Hermione’s determination becomes an obsession until she decides how she wants to accomplish her goals. Once she has a plan, she dedicates all her energy to achieving it. She becomes the driving force behind the trio’s goals and works to keep Harry and Ron focused on the task at hand. This is the case with the Polyjuice Potion plan, too. For the next couple of chapters, we’ll see her work and work on the potion every chance she gets, striving to do all she can to fight against the danger posed by the Heir of Slytherin.
This dedication toward her goals is something we see later on in the books as well, especially in the seventh when she, Harry, and Ron are living on the lam.
Again, I’m so excited to watch how Hermione grows from here. Don’t worry, we’ll reanalyze her soon! For this book, we get to watch her be an invaluable member of this team, even helping Ron and Harry when she’s petrified…
Thanks for tuning in today! Follow me through the social media links below to keep up with all the latest Muggles and Mocha news, as well as little tidbits from my website. If you have any questions or thoughts about the article or video, please let me know.
And I have a job for you—what’s your favorite Hermione moment? Leave a comment below!
See you next week for chapter eleven, “The Dueling Club!”
Disclaimer: I do not own any element of the Harry Potter series.
Madison K. Darby 
We could all have been killed – or worse, expelled. Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to bed.” Of course, a Hermonie favorite line for a lot of us. It always give me a laugh. Hermonie, I believe, is such an over achiever due to the fact of having muggle parents and always feeling she has something to prove. She wanted everyone to know that she was deserving of being at Hogwarts. I agree, that she would have fought for the muggle born even if she had not been one. I love Hermonie!
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First off, I definitely need to check out that fan art…
Secondly, unfortunately I’m unable to provide any help/validation with the Harry Potter easy-bake potions kit lol
Now. On to Miss Granger. I’d like to start off by saying that Hermione has been one of my most favorite characters for a very long time. I have always been what you’ve called more than once a “goody two-shoes” (shocking, I know) so I almost always identify with her decision making and values. I think it’s funny that you’ve decided to spotlight her this week – there is something about her reaction in this chapter that stood out in the story up to this point for me. Like you mentioned, she had already exhibited a willingness to break the rules in the first book, but her very impassioned response in this chapter feels like a real beginning for her. We’re definitely seeing her priorities shine through here – and why not?? She is essentially facing a personal attack this time around, and she’s having to confront the existence of an ideology that declares that the blood in her body makes her less than others. This is horrific, and it was definitely time to ACT. I’m ready for Hermione appreciation any time you are.
As for the Quidditch match, I completely agree with your comment about what it would actually take to stop a game – you had me laughing for sure 😂 This seems like a perfectly appropriate question! While I can accept that maybe due to the weather and the sheer size of the pitch (is it called a pitch? a field? something else?) perhaps Hooch truly didn’t understand what was going on, but I highly doubt that calling the rouge bludger to her attention would have forced them to forfeit the match… This seems to be to me a bit of Harry’s naïveté and selflessness shining through. He’s always ready to be the martyr 😂 Also, I get that these games are important, but do you ever feel like they’re a little TOO important sometimes? Maybe that’s an unpopular opinion, but there it is…
I’d also be remiss to not point out once again how unbelievably dangerous Lockhart is to not only the school, but society at large… I know that I somewhat defended Dumbledore’s decision to hire him (and I do still stand by what I said) but it’s times like these that make it really hard to do so… I’m going to continue to believe that it wasn’t solely Dumbledore’s decision to make and make it easier on myself lol
Now I want to jump to Harry overhearing Dumbledore and McGonogall talking in the hospital wing. I agree with what you said about the implications of Dumbledore’s wording here – what I’d like to know is his level of awareness of the horcruxes at this time. Do you think that he suspects this type of magic yet? Actually, thinking about the mind of Dumbledore led to a writing question! I’m not a writer by any stretch of the imagination, but I do from time to time wonder about their processes and how they come to do what they do. Maybe this would even be a subject you might find would work for the writing portion of your blog? My question is this: How do authors write characters that are in all likelihood wiser than they themselves are? I feel like this would be a particular challenge when writing a character like Dumbledore (or Gandalf, Aslan, or any other “wise” character you can think of). Just a thought!
Oh! My favorite Hermione moment absolutely has to be in the 3rd book when she punches Malfoy in his obnoxious face. That was wonderful.
As always, I’m excited for next week!
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YAY, HERMIONE! I’m living for your love for her right now. And yes, I too am a good two shoes… and there’s nothing wrong with that! I completely agree with all of your comments about her.
Tyler… how dare you question Quidditch? 😉 Just kidding! No, I can get behind that. Although I find I get swept up in the moment during times like the championship games. Also, I find Wood’s passion about the game such a funny component of the book series. He just encourages Harry’s sacrificial nature when it comes to Quidditch, too.
For Dumbledore and McGonagall’s conversation and Dumbledore’s horcrux knowledge, I can’t remember at this time, but I KNOW he says something about when he began suspecting this magic in the later books. I’m going to have to do some digging and figure out when he put the pieces together. I think it was at least by the fifth book. And I know with the diary, he expected something malevolent was going on when Harry told him about his interactions with Diary Riddle, as well as what happened when the diary was “destroyed.” He may have known even then… but again, I’ll need to read up on it to remember.
YES, the Hermione slap! That’s a good one! This read through the books is making me dislike Malfoy more than I already did.
Thanks!
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