How Hermione Handles Adolescence

Growing up is not easy. It does not matter what social economic class or gender one is apart of or identifies with. Although the Harry Potter series is ultimately about what the character of Harry Potter experiences and overcomes, it is interesting how the people close him fair in growing up essentially in his shadow. Hermione Granger is extremely clever and intelligent but there is nothing easy about growing up with two boys as her closest friends. From the moment the reader meets Hermione, they know she is not like other girls and not in an annoying, “oh, I’m so different, weird, and quirky. I’m not like other girls. I’m a Zooey Deschanel,” way, but in a confident in her yearning for knowledge kind of way. The confidence that Hermione has in her knowledge is what makes her such a great strong female character. Hermione’s coming of age is my personal favorite in the entire series and it is not just because she is a girl, it is because she is a loyal and honest friend to both Harry and Ron.

J.K. Rowling may not fully address this in her series, but a girl going through puberty is weird. Hermione obviously cannot talk to Ron and Harry about her everyday girl struggles and not much is seen of interactions between the other girls in Gryffindor, except Ginny Weasley, and Hermione. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, she did not tell Harry or Ron about Viktor Krum pursuing her and asking her to the Yule Ball. The way the reader can imagine Hermione when she is coming into the Yule Ball to meet Krum is a clear indication that she is changing and in a different way than her closest friends.  J.K Rowling could have made Hermione into a full-on Lavender Brown, but that contrast between Lavender and Hermione in the sixth book, brings to life just how differently Hermione grew up from other girls around her. She cannot necessarily let her feelings for Ron out to Harry because of his friendship with Ron as well, even though Harry just knows. And obviously she is sixteen years old and she is not going to tell Ron. Hermione deals with these emotions and feelings, it seems almost by herself up until the point where Ginny Weasley starts hanging out with them more. Nothing is easy for a teenager, or anyone for that matter, having to go through that. It is inspiring but frustrating because the reader is left wanting Hermione to feel as though she can tell Ron and Harry everything, but she cannot.

Her “coming of age” turns into an independent, strong, very intelligent woman by the end of the series and I think J.K. Rowling knew that not making Hermione essentially “just one of the girls” set Hermione apart of everyone else. She could and can be considered a female heroine. At this point in the series, she is a sixteen year old girl and there is nothing easy about that, but she handles it all so well. And although, she may be living in Harry Potter's shadow right now, she knows how to set herself apart, she knows what her strengths are and she knew from the first time Harry Potter needed help saving the day that it would not be the last and she is going to have to do all of the research because Lord (not Voldemort) knows Harry is too impulsive and Ron is too lazy to do so on their own. And Hermione did start an activist group for house-elves and trapped Rita Skeeter in a jar.