Omg I Can Definitely See That.

Omg I can definitely see that.

As I’m writing HP fics centering the Golden Trio, I’ve been writing out all their character traits n stuff for similarities and differences, and something big I noticed was how all of them don’t have great relationships with their parents.

Like Harry’s is obvious, physical and emotional abuse, and Ron’s is talked about, but Hermione having emotionally neglectful parents both makes a lot of sense and also fills in some gaps.

It seems like Ron and Hermione have similar issues with their parents not paying them much attention outside of their academic achievements, and how that has shaped them. Especially in the differences between Ron, who is mid/poor academically vs Hermione who is straight A’s. Same root problem, similar lingering issues, different personalities.

Final note: love this idea! It makes a lot of sense in canon and also in common head-canon land.

P.s. wrote this at midnight, I’ll review it later

(Honestly this entire thing might be projection, but who cares!)

Hermione has such an interesting underdeveloped relationship with her parents. They’re rarely if ever mentioned, and when they are mentioned, they never seem to know the full story of what exactly is going on at Hogwarts.

At least, based on the fact that they let her keep going to Hogwarts, you wouldn’t expect them to know.

On top of that, nearly every summer, she stays a large portion of her time at the weasleys. she also stays at Hogwarts during breaks, despite having the option to leave.

I find it fascinating that Hermione was even capable of obliviating her parents memories in the first place. This must have caused massive amounts of grief and agony to have surfaced. Yet she still did it.

Now I know she isn’t perfect, keeping skeeter in a jar and scarring that girls face in 5th year, but still, she was more okay with her parents completely forgetting her existence then attempting to find a different solution?

The only way to make that sort of decision easier, is your parents already not knowing you.

Which leads into my idea, I wish fanfics delved a little deeper into the idea that Hermione might have been neglected, at least emotionally so.

It may just be me, but most of these signs seem to point to some form of neglect.

See the thing about neglect is that it’s a slow acting poison in a lot of ways. Unnoticeable to those around you, and easy to ignore when it comes to yourself.

I think it would be so easy for fanfic writers to draw a connection between Hermione’s drive for academic success and plausible neglect from her parents leading to a need to impress people to keep them around.

Her number one fear in third year was failure.

I can imagine a world where she grew up quiet, struggling to make friends from her slightly bossy nature and higher intelligence. She noticed that she was special in a way (magically so), but she didn’t pay too much mind to it as neither did her parents.

But as dentists, as people who have gone through higher levels of academia, they would have paid attention to her success in school.

It wasn’t a lot of course. They’re both dentists, they both have full time jobs and no other kids, so she was just alone most of the time with her books as she didn’t have friends either.

It was lonely, but it was survivable, there was food on the table, a roof over her head, a warm bed to go to sleep in, and those brief moments where her parents would surpass her expectations and actually do something that showed that they cared and noticed her beyond her academic achievements for once.

Then she gets to Hogwarts, and the weekly letters turn into monthly ones. She tries to tell herself that all of them have just gotten busier with work and school. She doesn’t quite succeed in being convincing, but she goes back during winter break anyway.

She only ever goes back again in 6th year.

It would be so easy for her not to mention her parents, as they have a good steady job (with stable income, unlike the weasleys) and they don’t exactly outwardly harm her (like the dursleys).

It would be so easy to see her parents lack of attention or care as simple freedom, or her wanting too much, or not trying hard enough.

Because after all, she’s not helping by not sending letters either, or telling them the full story of what happened that school year when she does meet up with them.