Hermione Granger: Biography, Brains and Secrets

Hermione Granger arrives at Hogwarts having memorized her textbooks, and everyone writes her off as an insufferable know-it-all. What few people see at first is what she does with that brain: she saves her friends again and again, and pays the price alone when she has to.

Who she is

She comes from a Muggle family of dentists. She meets Harry and Ron on the train, looking for Neville's toad (Philosopher's Stone, ch. 6). She is the top student of her year and signs up for more classes than anyone can attend at once. Her cat, Crookshanks, is suspicious of Scabbers before any human is.

To people who despise Muggle-borns, she is a "Mudblood." Hermione turns that word into one more reason to be the best.

Key moments

• Philosopher's Stone, ch. 10: she lies to Professor McGonagall to cover for Harry and Ron after the troll. It is the first time she breaks a rule for her friends.
• Chamber of Secrets, chs. 12 and 13: she brews Polyjuice Potion in second year. In ch. 16 she is found petrified with a torn page in her hand that names the basilisk.
• Prisoner of Azkaban, ch. 21: she uses the Time-Turner to help save Buckbeak and Sirius.
• Goblet of Fire, ch. 21: she launches her campaign for house-elf rights, and almost nobody backs her.
• Deathly Hallows, ch. 6: she erases her parents' memories and sends them to Australia to keep them safe, telling no one.
• Deathly Hallows, ch. 23: Bellatrix tortures her and carves a mark into her arm. Hermione gives nothing away.

Relationships

With Harry she has the steadiest loyalty in the series. With Ron she has a friendship full of fights that takes years to become something more: the Yule Ball argument (Goblet of Fire, ch. 23) foreshadows it, and the kiss comes in Deathly Hallows (ch. 31). Krum asks her to the ball and she goes happily. With Crookshanks, her cat, she has the calmest relationship of all.

What almost nobody notices

In Half-Blood Prince (ch. 11), Hermione casts a Confundus Charm on McLaggen so he flubs his Keeper tryout and Ron makes the team. The model student cheated for a friend.

And in Order of the Phoenix (ch. 27), the Dumbledore's Army sign-up parchment she drew up carries a hidden jinx. Marietta Edgecombe betrays the group and her face breaks out in pimples. Hermione hates cheating, and still planned a very good trap.

If you are torn between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, the house quiz can settle it. And Gryffindor House Explained: What Nobody Tells You shows why Hermione's brand of courage is not the usual one.