27 Years Later, Harry Potter’s Most Tragic & Forgotten Character Remains Unnoticed

Summary:

• Most major Harry Potter characters have tragic backstories, but some of them go severely underappreciated.
• Hermione Granger definitely doesn’t spring to mind when you think about forgotten and tragic characters.
• In The Sorcerer’s Stone, little Hermione tried for months to befriend someone and was repeatedly neglected by her peers.

The Harry Potter series has its fair share of tragic characters… Scratch that. The Harry Potter series has its fair share of non-tragic characters — but most of them have either sad or downright devastating backstories. Most of them are pretty well-known, from Harry Potter himself to Moaning Myrtle, but there’s one character who’s utterly tragic and neglected despite being under the spotlight the entire time.

You Thought You Knew Her, Didn’t You?

Hermione Granger is also known as “the Golden Trio at 99% of its mental capacity.” She’s the mastermind behind her, Harry, and Ron’s borderline every successful mission, and she’s the one person who keeps her friends alive throughout the years. There would have been no Golden Trio without Hermione, and both us fans and the boys appreciate her effort and care for them.

But that hasn’t always been like this, and quite some time had passed before Harry and Ron befriended Hermione. Until that point, she was perhaps the most tragic character in the Harry Potter series, and the one no one, us included, cared about.

Young Hermione Was Neglected by Everyone

Starting from Hogwarts Express, little Hermione was trying to befriend someone. She went out of her way to help Neville find his toad. She deliberately went around the entire train warning all first-years about their soon arrival to Hogwarts. She tried to share her passion for knowledge with others. All of that was in vain.

At Hogwarts, seeing how her classmates weren’t interested in her, she tried to befriend the Prefect, Percy Weasley. That didn’t work out. Then, she tries it with teachers: Professor McGonagall appreciates her effort, but Snape doesn’t. However, Harry points at her when the Potions Master bothers him for too long, and Hermione is happy to be noticed. She decided to try and befriend Harry next.

It Took Forever for Hermione to Be Accepted

Finally, rule-bound Hermione grudgingly agrees to break rules and follow Harry and Ron on their nighttime “adventure” in the castle. Even that doesn’t give her enough credit in the boys’ eyes as she doesn’t commit enough; they’re rude to her, and later, she overhears Ron calling her a “nightmare” and realizes they still don’t like her.

It takes an entire troll incident and lying to the teachers on Hermione’s part to finally be accepted by Harry and Ron. If that didn’t happen, she would have still been a lonely outcast, misunderstood and ridiculed. All that time, the poor girl just wanted to have a friend and tried her damndest for it — and no one cared about her.

Upon rereading those early chapters, we just want to give little Hermione a hug and tell her it’s going to be OK. She really didn’t deserve such terrible treatment.

Source: Reddit