【哈利波特】Sherbert Lemon对HP的解读之15

eglid

FIFTEEN
It’s Our Job, but We’re Not Mean, in Our Town of Halloween
The relationship between Harry and Hermione strengthens on Halloween.

PS/SS – Mountain Troll


QUOTE
Snape bent over the troll. Professor McGonagall was looking at Ron and Harry. Harry had never seen her look so angry. Her lips were white. Hopes of winning fifty points for Gryffindor faded quickly from Harry’s mind.

“What on earth were you thinking of?” said Professor McGonagall, with cold fury in her voice. Harry looked at Ron, who was still standing with his wand in the air. “You’re lucky you weren’t killed. Why aren’t you in your dormitory?”

Snape gave Harry a swift, piercing look. Harry looked at the floor. He wished Ron would put his wand down.

Then a small voice came out of the shadows.

“Please, Professor McGonagall—they were looking for me.”

“Miss Granger!”

Hermione had managed to get to her feet at last.

“I went looking for the troll because I—I thought I could deal with it on my own—you know, because I’ve read all about them.”

Ron dropped his wand. Hermione Granger, telling a downright lie to a teacher?

“If they hadn’t found me, I’d be dead now. Harry stuck his wand up its nose and Ron knocked it out with its own club. They didn’t have time to come and fetch anyone. It was about to finish me off when they arrived.”

Harry and Ron tried to look as though this story wasn’t new to them.

“Well—in that case…” said Professor McGonagall, staring at the three of them, “Miss Granger, you foolish girl, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own?”

Hermione hung her head. Harry was speechless. Hermione was the last person to do anything against the rules, and here she was, pretending she had, to get them out of trouble. It was as if Snape had started handing out sweets.

“Miss Granger, five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this,” said Professor McGonagall. “I’m very disappointed in you. If you’re not hurt at all, you’d better get off to Gryffindor tower. Students are finishing the feast in their houses.”

Hermione left.

Professor McGonagall turned to Harry and Ron.

“Well, I still say you were lucky, but not many first years could have taken on a full-grown mountain troll. You each win Gryffindor five points. Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. You may go.”

They hurried out of the chamber and didn’t speak at all until they had climbed two floors up. It was a relief to be away from the smell of the troll, quite apart from anything else.

“We should have gotten more than ten points,” Ron grumbled.

“Five, you mean, once she’s taken off Hermione’s.”

“Good of her to get us out of trouble like that,” Ron admitted. “Mind you, we did save her.”

“She might not have needed saving if we hadn’t locked the thing in with her,” Harry reminded him.

They had reached the portrait of the Fat Lady.

“Pig snout,” they said and entered.

The common room was packed and noisy. Everyone was eating the food that had been sent up. Hermione, however, stood alone by the door, waiting for them. There was an embarrassed pause. Then, none of them looking at each other, they all said “Thanks,” and hurried off to get plates.

But from that the moment on, Hermione Granger became their friend. There are some things you can’t share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them.
(CH 10: US – 177, UK - 131, FR - 177, GR - 195, ITL - 171, PL – 186, RM - 129, SP – 150)

Harry and Ron save Hermione from a Mountain Troll, making her their official friend.

GoF – Triwizard Tournament


QUOTE
By half past five it was growing dark, and Ron, Harry and Hermione decided it was time to get back up to the castle for the Halloween feast—and, more important, the announcement of the school champions.
(CH 16: US – 265, UK - 234, FR - 283, GR - 279, ITL - 229, PL - 281, RM - 236, SP – 239)


QUOTE
They went downstairs, crossed the entrance hall quickly without looking in at the Great Hall, and were soon striding across the lawn toward the lake, where the Durmstrang ship was moored, reflected blackly in the water. It was a chilly morning, and they kept moving, munching their toast, as Harry told Hermione exactly what had happened after he had left the Gryffindor table the night before. To his immense relief, Hermione accepted his story without question.

“Well, of course I knew you hadn’t entered yourself,” she said when he’d finished telling her about the scene in the chamber off the Hall. “The look on your face when Dumbledore read out your name! But the question is, who did put it in? Because Moody’s right, Harry…I don’t think any student could have done it…they’d never be able to fool the goblet, or get over Dumbledore’s—“

“Have you seen Ron?” Harry interrupted.
(CH 18: US – 289, UK - 253, FR - 307, GR - 301, ITL - 249, PL - 305, RM - 255, SP – 258)

Hermione is the only one who believes that Harry did not enter himself into the tournament and stands by him, never faltering in her trust of him.

DH – Horcruxes

In PS/SS, Harry and Hermione’s friendship begins, and then strengthens through trust during GoF. Harry initiates the “troll” scene by telling Ron that they had to find Hermione because she didn't know about the Mountain Troll. Then Hermione is the one who initiates the “let’s walk around the lake eating toast” scene by leaving early from breakfast to grab Harry (who was not at breakfast because he had the row with Ron) and tell him that she believed him despite what everyone else thought. Hermione continued to be friends with Harry when Ron did not and she continued to treat him as “just Harry” when no one else did. She was even targeted by the other students (the Slytherins) and Rita Skeeter because she chose to stand by her beliefs. Hermione did what she felt was right over what would have been easy. Dumbledore had said that one has to be brave to do what's right over what's easy. Harry and Hermione are brought together by friendship on Halloween in PS/SS and then by bravery on Halloween in GoF.

According to Hermione, there are more important things than books and cleverness, and they are friendship, bravery, and “–oh Harry.” PS/SS was friendship, GoF was bravery, leaving DH with “–oh Harry.” So what does “–oh Harry” mean?

The main theme/lesson that Harry learned in PS/SS was friendship. Where would Harry be without Ron and Hermione? Harry arrived at Hogwarts never having had a friend but yearning for a sense of belonging. When Harry first found the Mirror of Erised he saw his family reflected back to him because the only solution he felt that would ease his pain of loneliness was to be reunited with his biological family. By the end of PS/SS when Harry last looked into the Mirror of Erised he only saw his reflection because through the friendships he had made during the school year he had found his sense of belonging; he had found a family of his own making.

For GoF, the main theme/lesson that Harry learned was bravery. Where would Harry be without his moral fiber? This is also the book in which the idea of doing what’s right over what’s easy is introduced. Instead of letting Cedric have the disadvantage of being the only Triwizard champion remaining ignorant of the details concerning the first task, Harry tells him. Instead of just rescuing Ron in the second task and leaving the rest of the captives to the other champions, Harry stays with them until the other champions arrive, and decides to rescue Gabrielle Delacour as well as Ron, when time truly begins to run out. Instead of letting Cedric battle the spider by himself, which would have let Harry get to the Triwizard Cup, Harry helps Cedric and then offers to share the Triwizard Cup with him. Instead of leaving Cedric’s body in the graveyard, which would have made it easier for Harry to escape, he refuses to leave Cedric behind and risks his life in order to fulfill Cedric’s wish, returning the body to his parents.

To know what will strengthen Harry and Hermione’s relationship on Halloween in DH, we have to understand what the main theme/lesson Harry has to learn in DH. What is it that Harry has not been able to grasp through six books but needs to in DH, so that he is able to progress to the end? It’s love. Even though Dumbledore informed Harry that the power he has to defeat Voldemort is love in both OotP and HBP, he still has not accepted this or given it much thought. Harry has to understand love, to feel love, to experience love in order to defeat Voldemort; the love of a friend, the love of a parent, the love of family, the love of a beloved. Does this necessarily mean that Harry and Hermione will start a romantic relationship on Halloween? No, it does not. However, awareness of their need for each other deepens their current relationship.

Hermione seemed attached to Harry’s hip in OotP, but then pulls back in HBP. Why? Toward the end of OotP, was Hermione starting to realize that she had romantic feelings for Harry? Did that scare her? If so, is that why she seemed to alienate herself from Harry in HBP? Because she didn’t want to get too attached to someone whose life is constantly in danger? Did Hermione become distant in HBP because she was trying to prevent herself from getting hurt emotionally? On Halloween, Hermione will fully accept the fact that she is in love with Harry and understand that no matter how much she wants to stop in order to protect herself emotionally, she can’t help but love him.

Harry constantly had Hermione on the brain in OotP, but then in HBP he pushes her to the background. Why? Does he just not care about her anymore? Did their relationship truly change that much over the summer? Was it all that darn Amortentia Potion’s fault? Harry and Hermione’s relationship during school did change in HBP because it went from passionate to passive. Passionate in the sense that the connection between Harry and Hermione is different from their other relationships: being able to read each other without saying a word, being on the “same page”, being able to reach each other where other characters cannot. Passive in the sense that the connection between Harry and Hermione became subtle but still different from other relationships: the same connections are present as before but are now elusive. Nevertheless, their relationship did not weaken or lessen during that time. The progression of their relationship stalled in HBP. JKR did not allow Harry to follow through in his thoughts about Ron and Hermione as a possible couple, but easily wrote some flirting between Harry and Hermione. Why? Why has JKR held Harry back from following through on his feelings? Because for Harry to have begun realizing any romantic feelings for Hermione in HBP, would have been too soon. On Halloween, in the last book, Harry will be aware of just how much he desperately needs Hermione not because she is his best friend and he’d be lost without her guidance, but because he is starting to fall in love with her.

How will they both become aware of their love for one another on Halloween? The previous events in PS/SS and GoF can both be linked to the overall plot featured in those books. For PS/SS, it was the Philosopher’s Stone and in GoF, it was the Triwizard Tournament. Professor Quirrell let the Mountain Troll into Hogwarts because he was trying to create a diversion large enough so that he could steal the Philosopher’s Stone without confrontation. Professor Moody placed Harry’s name into the Goblet of Fire to be able to use the Triwizard Tournament as a diversion large enough to transport Harry out of Hogwarts without confrontation. In DH, the main plot will be the quest for the Horcruxes, because HBP left that task unfinished. Does this necessarily mean that Ron will not be present? No, because in the two previous occasions Ron was present. Ron helped Harry save Hermione from the troll and Ron was there when Harry’s name was spit out of the Goblet of Fire, so Ron will most likely be present during the events of Halloween in DH.