Hermione

Biodata

Appearance

• Bushy hair: Hermione carefully washes her bushy hair during a visit to the girls’ communal bathhouse 38.
• Temporary feline features: A Polyjuice Potion accident covers her face in black fur, turns her eyes yellow, and gives her long, pointed ears. Moaning Myrtle also remarks that she has grown a tail 41.

Personality

Hermione is studious and eager to fill gaps in her knowledge. When Ginny breaks Ron’s slug-vomiting jinx, she immediately asks which book taught her the counter-jinx. She also rises early to study Powerful Potions, explaining that opportunities to borrow it are rare 11 26.

She values school rules and academic honesty, worrying that Harry and Ron’s flying-car journey will cost Gryffindor points or get them expelled. Nevertheless, she obtains restricted reading material and volunteers to steal potion ingredients for the Chamber investigation. She strongly objects to Cyrus doing Ginny’s homework and stops Ron from asking him for the same favor 3 20 27 43 49.

Her admiration for Gilderoy Lockhart overrides her usual judgment. She continues defending him after repeated classroom failures and even after he removes the bones from Harry’s arm. Her concern for friends is more practical: she tries to protect “Ginny” from an unfair duel and helps Harry reach her when a giant snake threatens the stage 8 24 34 37.

Abilities & Skills

Potion Brewing

Hermione handles most of the brewing for the group’s Polyjuice Potion plan 20 26 30.

• Obtains Powerful Potions from the Restricted Section using Lockhart’s signature 20.
• Identifies the required ingredients, including bicorn horn and African Tree Snake skin, and incorporates the stolen supplies into the mixture 26 30.
• Produces a potion that successfully transforms Harry, Ron, and Cyrus into their chosen Slytherin students 40 41.
• Mistakes cat hair for Millicent Bulstrode’s hair. Because Polyjuice Potion is not intended for animal transformations, her own dose causes an accident requiring treatment in the Hospital Wing 41.

Snape recognizes her as the likely brewer but criticizes her approach as lacking creativity 30.

Charms

• Levitation Charm — Wingardium Leviosa: Lifts Harry by his clothes and sends him onto the Duelling Club stage between “Ginny” and the enormous snake. In her panic, she follows Harry’s plan rather than realizing she could lift Ginny to safety instead 37.
• Disarming Charm — Expelliarmus: Joins Harry and Ginny in disarming Cyrus while he occupies Draco Malfoy’s body 49.
• Counter-jinx limitation: Cannot stop Ron’s slug-vomiting curse herself and is surprised when Ginny succeeds 11.

Magical Knowledge and Investigation

• Recognizes that the Bludger pursuing Harry has been tampered with, though she cannot identify the person responsible 22.
• Explains that Parseltongue was Salazar Slytherin’s famous ability and that Harry’s use of it will encourage suspicions that he is Slytherin’s heir 37.
• Points out that Polyjuice Potion could let someone enter Ginny’s dormitory under another identity, challenging Ron’s assumption that the diary thief must be a Gryffindor girl 43.

Equipment / Items

• Wand: Used for the Levitation Charm and the coordinated disarming of Cyrus 37 49.
• Powerful Potions: Borrowed restricted text used to prepare Polyjuice Potion 20 26.
• Supposed Millicent Bulstrode hair: Collected from Hermione’s clothes after their Duelling Club encounter; actually cat hair 40 41.
• Borrowed disguise clothing: Takes clothes from the Laundry Room for the planned Slytherin infiltration 40.

Relationships

• Harry Potter — Close friend and investigative partner. Hermione searches for him on the train, helps him during the snake incident, and remains concerned about his isolation after other students begin avoiding him 3 37 38.
• Ron Weasley — Friend and frequent target of her corrections. She worries when his curse backfires, challenges his excuses, and objects to his attempts to have Cyrus complete his homework 11 43 49.
• Ginny Weasley — Gets along well with her and admires her spellwork and enthusiasm for reading. Hermione helps confront the apparent thief of Ginny’s diary 11 22 32 49.
• Cyrus / “Tom Riddle” — Initially works with him while believing he is Ginny. After learning his claimed identity, she dislikes his forcible possession of Draco but still persuades him to accept the group’s help 26 49.
• Draco Malfoy — Antagonistic schoolmate who calls her a “Mudblood” after she challenges his place on the Quidditch team. She later demands that he return Ginny’s diary, unaware at first that Cyrus controls his body 11 49.
• Gilderoy Lockhart — Idolized professor whose failures she repeatedly excuses 8 24 33 35.
• Millicent Bulstrode — Duelling Club partner who wrestles with her and attempts to choke her. Hair left on Hermione’s clothes during the encounter becomes the source of her Polyjuice accident 33 40.
• Hagrid — Supportive adult who angrily condemns Malfoy’s insult and praises Hermione’s magical ability 11.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Start of Term and Quidditch Confrontation

Hermione searches every carriage of the Hogwarts Express for Harry and Ron before Luna spots them following the train in Arthur Weasley’s enchanted car. She warns that they could be expelled, then reassures Ginny that this is only a possibility 3.

At the Quidditch pitch, she challenges Draco’s boasting by pointing out that Gryffindor players earned their positions through talent rather than money. Draco responds with a blood-status slur. Ron’s retaliatory curse backfires, and Hermione accompanies the group to Hagrid’s hut, where Ginny successfully treats him 11.

Chamber Investigation and Polyjuice Accident

Hermione, Harry, and Ron are accused by Filch after Mrs. Norris is attacked. As suspicion surrounding the Chamber grows, they plan to use Polyjuice Potion to investigate Draco; Cyrus joins them while occupying Ginny’s body 17 20 24 26.

During the Duelling Club incident, Hermione sends Harry onto the stage to protect “Ginny.” His use of Parseltongue then forces her to explain why other students will connect him to Slytherin 37.

The completed Polyjuice Potion lets Harry and Ron investigate Draco, but Hermione cannot accompany them because her dose contains cat hair. She emerges from her cubicle sobbing, and Cyrus helps persuade her to seek treatment from Madam Pomfrey. The investigation establishes that Draco is not the heir, leaving the group without its original lead 40 41.

The Missing Diary

After Ginny’s diary disappears, Hermione learns that its resident “Tom Riddle” has been tutoring Ginny and helping with her homework. She disapproves of the homework assistance but helps investigate the theft 42 43.

Harry eventually identifies the diary in Draco’s possession. Hermione joins the ambush to recover it, only to discover that Cyrus is controlling Draco. She persuades Cyrus to let them help him investigate the heir; he then announces his intention to alter their memories of the diary, claiming this will protect his secret from Legilimency 49.

In the following chapter, Hermione accompanies the others into a memory showing the young Riddle speaking with Headmaster Dippet about remaining at Hogwarts during the attacks fifty years earlier 50.

Notable Quotes

“At least no one on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team had to buy their way in. They got in on talent alone.” 11

“But you can’t find the culprit on your own, can you? We can help. You’ve worked with us before. You know that!” 49