Thoughts on Hermione

I wrote this almost a month agao, but I wanted to move it here:

So I've now completed my first reading of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" and look forward to what comes next. I have been an avid fan of these books since my sister put them in my hands my first summer home from SU.

I thought a lot about the characters in the books, and about which ones show up or don't show up as much in this volume. I missed Ron's older brothers, Fred and George and the late Sirius Black because I like those characters. We go through the story with Harry, out hero and main character but I thought then of what character I most related to.

The obvious answer is Harry's best female friend, Hermione. Not because she is the most prominent female character and the brains of the outfit, but because I see myself in her.
I have unruly blonde-brown hair that used to be the subject of ridicule by certain people in middle school who had nothing better to do. Hermione's two best friends are boys, and I have close male friends, sometimes even preferring their company to that of girls. And then in high school, I found myself with a crush on one of my closest male friends. Reading the scenes where Hermione and Ron nervously dance around each other with their as yet, unspoken feelings for each other, I remembered my time as the girl of a very different trio of friends doing the same.

I enjoy the action, the friendships and the values emparted by the Harry Potter books and I have to tip my hat to Ms. Rowling for making a girl like Hermione such a prominent character throughout the series. Though she can be wearing at times, Hermione is a rock for both of her closest friends and she values them highly. She is a supremely feminist character that shows not only can girls play with boys, but girls can match boys in strength and loyalty.