Hermione Granger

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,Hermione Jean Granger is a fictional character and one of the three protagonists (the other two being Harry Potter and Ron Weasley) in J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. She initially appears in the first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, as a new student on her way to Hogwarts. After being saved in the girls’ bathroom from a mountain troll by Harry and Ron, she becomes close friends with them and often uses her quick wit and encyclopaedic knowledge to help them. Rowling has stated that Hermione resembles her at a younger age, with her insecurity and fear of failure.

Hermione is a Muggle-born Gryffindor student, and the best friend of Harry Potter and Ron Weasley. The daughter of two dentists, she is an overachiever who excels academically, and she is described by Rowling as a “very logical, upright and good” character. Her parents are a bit bemused by their odd daughter, but quite proud of her all the same.” Though Rowling has described the character of Luna Lovegood as the “anti-Hermione” because they hold the exact opposite characters, Hermione’s foil at Hogwarts is Pansy Parkinson, a female bully based on real-life girls who teased the author during her school days.
Rowling claims the character of Hermione carries several autobiographical influences. “I did not set out to make Hermione like me but she is…she is an exaggeration of how I was when I was younger.” She recalled being called a “little know-it-all” in her youth. Moreover, she states that not unlike herself, “there is a lot of insecurity and a great fear of failure” beneath Hermione’s swottiness. Finally, according to Rowling, next to Albus Dumbledore, Hermione is the perfect expository character; because of her encyclopaedic knowledge, she can always be used as a plot dump to explain the Harry Potter universe. Rowling also claims that her feminist conscience is saved by Hermione, “who’s the brightest character” and is a “very strong female character”.
Hermione’s name is derived from William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale; Rowling claimed that she wanted it to be unusual since if fewer girls shared her name, fewer girls would get teased for it. Her original last name was “Puckle”, but Rowling felt the name “did not suit her at all”, and so the less frivolous Granger made it into the books. Rowling confirmed in a 2004 interview that Hermione is an only child.

Emma Watson has portrayed Hermione in all the Harry Potter films to date. Watson’s Oxford theatre teacher passed her name on to the casting agents of Philosopher’s Stone, impressed with her school play performances. Though Watson took her audition seriously, she “never really thought she had any chance” of getting the part. The producers were impressed by Watson’s self-confidence and she outperformed the thousands of other girls who had applied.
Rowling herself was supportive of Watson after her first screen test. Before the production of Half-Blood Prince, Watson considered not returning, but eventually decided that “the pluses outweighed the minuses” and that she could not bear to see anyone else play Hermione.
Watson has said that Hermione is a character who makes “brain not beauty cool,” and that though Hermione is “slightly socially inept,” she is “not ashamed of herself.”In 2007, before the release of Order of the Phoenix, Watson said, “There are too many stupid girls in the media. Hermione’s not scared to be clever. I think sometimes really smart girls dumb themselves down a bit, and that’s bad. When I was nine or ten, I would get really upset when they tried to make me look geeky, but now I absolutely love it. I find it’s so much pressure to be beautiful. Hermione doesn’t care what she looks like. She’s a complete tomboy.”
Screenwriter Steve Kloves revealed in a 2003 interview that Hermione was his favourite character. “There’s something about her fierce intellect coupled with a complete lack of understanding of how she affects people sometimes that I just find charming and irresistible to write.”