15 Wild Hermione Granger Fan Theories That Are Actually Plausible
With a series as grand and vast as Harry Potter, there's bound to be a fanbase to match. One of fandoms' most favorite things to do is scour the internet for fan theories, and there are a lot of them. Hermione Granger was the brightest witch of her age, and one of the most popular characters in the franchise, which means more than a few fans have some strong opinions about our favorite Muggle-born.
Which Hermione Granger fan theory do you think could be true? Vote up your favorites below!
- 115,140 VOTES
Hermione Isn't Actually A Muggle-Born
Photo: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix / Warner Bros PicturesFrom Redditor u/StarWarsHarryPotter:
Remember in the 6th book, when Slughorn asked Hermione if she was related to Hector Dagworth Granger and she told him that she didn't think so because she is a muggle-born? I think she IS related to him. If you don't know, a squib is a person who was born from magical parents but has no magic powers or abilities, but can still see everything wizards and witches can. How can Hermione's parents see and go into Diagon Alley if they are non-magical or muggles? The could be squibs. Hector D. Granger could have been an ancestor of Hermione's. Hector may have gotten married to a witch but their children could have been squibs. There may have been a long line of squibs in the Granger family tree after that and the family could have almost all knowledge of magic, leading to Hermione and her parents not knowing what Hogwarts is until Hermione got her Hogwarts letter. Hermione probably was the first magical person in generations. So that wouldn't make her muggle-born, it would make her squib-born.
- 212,420 VOTES
The Reason Why Hermione Is So Smart
Photo: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone / Warner Bros PicturesFrom Redditor u/Gay_Genius:
I’ve just finish all the Harry Potter books. I was thinking about wizarding education.
I think Hermione is so smart because she is muggle born. I’m sure she is just naturally intelligent too, but I think a big factor is that until she was 11 she had a good muggle education(And smart loving well of parents). Well an education in general. The same with Harry, but obviously didn’t get as good of an education/his guardians were terrible humans. But he can at least write his own name. Unlike Ron.
Ron’s parents are both witches and wizards and he is freakishly uneducated. Like stated above, it’s implied that he can’t spell his own name. I understand that Ron is also gifted in the exact opposite way Hermione is but it really seems like he isn’t the only wizard that is lacking in some basic human skills. It doesn’t really seem like witches and wizards have much in the way of education before they are eleven other than what their parents may or may not teach them.
- 313,393 VOTES
Hermione Was Homeless For Her Last Three Years At Hogwarts
Photo: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt.1 / Warner Bros PicturesFrom Redditor u/sidewinderucf:
In this thread on r/Harrypotter, it was pointed out that in last three Harry Potter books, Hermione spends virtually all of her time out of school with Harry and Ron, spending her entire summer either at Grimmauld Place or the Burrow. It seems weird that she wouldn't spend any of that time with her parents.
My theory is that Hermione saw the writing on the wall and decided to take action. She erased her parents memories of her as soon as she left Hogwarts after the Triwizard Tournament, and was homeless for her last three years at Hogwarts. She knew she had places to stay, with the Weasleys, for example, but she kept it a secret in order to keep them as anonymous as possible, so that when the moment of truth came and she actually went to war against Voldemort with Harry, they would be as safe as possible.
- 48,109 VOTES
Why Hermione Was Even Given A Time-Turner
Photo: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban / Warner Bros PicturesFrom Redditor u/magrippalfcos:
One of the biggest plot holes in prisoner of Azkaban for me is that Hogwarts would give a device as powerful and dangerous as a time turner to a teenage girl so she could attend more classes. My theory is that due to the potential danger incurred by time travel, the wizards would have set up powerful means of monitoring when time travel has occurred and that Dumbledore has one of these monitors specifically for Hogwarts. If this was the case, Dumbledore would have seen that Hermione had used a time turner to attend classes. In order to prevent damage to the timeline, he would then have professor Mc'gonagle give Hermione a time turner and instruct her in its usage. This also explains why Dumbledore gave such vague advice to Harry and Hermione later in the book. He had already been monitoring the two of them during their journey to the past and knew that they would be successful.
- 57,003 VOTES
The Real Reason Hermione Didn't Make It Into Ravenclaw
Photo: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone / Warner Bros PicturesFrom Redditor u/SnofruNeferNeb:
So it is established that Ravenclaw is for smart people. But why did Hermione get into Gryffindor? Or really anyone who seems to belong in another house, for that matter? We assume she at least partly belongs in Ravenclaw and she did say that the hat considered putting her in Ravenclaw but she asked to be in Gryffindor so it changed it's decision. I stand skeptical. Even Hufflepuff has sharp witches and wizards (like Newt) but saying "they just asked to be in it" is stretching it for Hermione. Read the passage again here...
Hermione's breathe hitched and Scarlet gave her a comforting squeeze. She smiled at Scarlet and took a deep breath before almost running to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head. "Mental that one," Ron mumbled and Scarlet 'accidently' stomped on his feet. "OUCH!" "Sorry, Ron," "GRYFFINDOR!" shouted the hat...
So there is no stretch of time, her sorting is instantaneous when you're reading it. The movie makes it a few seconds so all indications that she almost got into Ravenclaw are severely lacking. Some students took minutes to be sorted, hell, Harry took like 15 times as long to not be sorted into Slytherin so I have to believe that Hermione is lying.
What do we know from observing other Ravenclaws? Playful, child like, dreamy and have a very different perspective on the world and things. This is clearly not a description of Hermione. A Ravenclaw is more of an inventor or visionary. Hermione is not this type. She may be smart from a general perspective as if she became what she thought is smart. Sure she has a good practical intelligence, learning memory and talent, but she is missing a very big component- really the most important component- that is inventive creativity. And talent is not required for Ravenclaw, look at Lockhart who overcame his hopeless mediocrity. He put all his skill points in charm and persuasion and he had tremendous success.. Now that's clever. And Luna, there's a good reason Hermione clashed with Luna intellectually. Luna is open to the unseen, like the Ravenclaws that subscribe to divination. If you can't accept that there are unseen forces at work then can you really consider yourself a complete brain? Hermione tends to mostly believe what is written fact, she is immutable. I mean, imagine if a dog transformed itself into what it thought was a perfect replica of a human. The replica may be perfect in the eyes of the dog, but real people would think it to be a raving lunatic babbling or yelling "BAD DOG!" for no reason at all. That's what Hermione is to regular dumb people. Dumb people think being a genius is just memorizing facts or formulas. Really, it is the mobility of the spirit (mutability) and the sight to look beyond the evident. THough she does make good deductions and observations, I rather found her and other Gryffindors gravely lacking in the brains department. I found myself screaming at the book a number of times, like wake up it's soooo obvious. You solved a few riddles and got all cocky. Though I suppose this is just an element of good writing as it'd be bad for a mystery if the protagonists were truly smart.
- 65,943 VOTES
Hermione's Dislike Of Rita Skeeter Prevented The Wizarding World From Learning About Voldemort's Return Immediately
Photo: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire / Warner Bros PicturesFrom Redditor u/jackbuddhist:
We all know that Hermione catches Rita Skeeter, in her animagus form as a beetle, while Rita is spying on the hospital wing after the Tri-Wizard Tournament. And of course on your first dozen read-throughs, the reader is completely on board with this, because Rita is a toxic little beetle of a journalist.
However, if Hermione hadn't caught Rita and blackmailed her into silence, what would Rita's next big exposé have been? I think, given where Rita was captured -- on the window of the hospital wing -- tells us that she could have (and I say definitely would have) overheard Dumbledore's speech to Fudge, at the very least. She knew about Barty Crouch Jr., she knew about Harry's claims that Voldemort had returned, and she knew that Fudge was being a little punk and that the witness to the whole evil plot -- Crouch Jr. -- was permanently silenced by a dementor brought in by the Minister of Magic himself.
Now, I'm not saying she would have necessary got all the details right -- it is Rita Skeeter, after all -- but she had the bones of an amazing story there, and I'm sure she would have been salivating to expose all of it. Maybe she would have sided with Fudge, and might have continued along the lines that Harry is crazy, etc. But we've already seen that her ultimate motive is the biggest, juiciest story she can find. And what could be more juicy than a ministry cover-up about the return of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named? She would have her tragic hero again, in Harry Potter (an angle that people seem to love), she would be exposing the corruption and cowardice of the Minister of Magic himself (which, come on, she would adore doing), and she would be announcing the most sensational and horrifying news of the decade -- Voldemort's return.
But instead, Hermione catches Rita, keeps her magically contained until at least after the train ride home, and then blackmails her into journalistic silence for a year. Rita cares more about her self-preservation than about the truth -- that's been made clear. So she didn't write the the story, and the wizarding world was kept in the dark for a full year longer than needed to happen.
- 74,710 VOTES
Hermione Received The Time-Turner In "Prisoner of Azkaban" Due Lucius Malfoy Trying To Sabotage Her Schooling
Photo: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban / Warner Bros PicturesFrom Redditor u/Obversa:
In Chamber of Secrets, Lucius Malfoy got laws passed with the Hogwarts board of governors, when he was blackmailing / threatening them, to try and undermine Hermione academically, including limiting class schedules / time tables / max number of classes able to take. McGonagall intervened by writing "many letters" to the Ministry on Hermione's behalf, resulting in her getting the Time-Turner in Prisoner of Azkaban.
- 85,335 VOTES
Hermione, Harry and Ron Were Better Fits In Other Houses
Photo: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets / Warner Bros PicturesFrom Redditor u/ElephantErik:
A more complete write up of this theory is available here. We all know that Harry had fitting qualities to place him into Slytherin, but he instead chose to go to Gryffindor where he could be with his new friends.
Hermione is probably the smartest student of her class and really should have been a Ravenclaw. We don't know if she desired to be in Gryffindor to be close to Ron and Harry, or perhaps she wanted to be in the house where the founder fought for muggle-born wizards. This wouldn't be beyond her knowledge at this point.
Ron is totally a Hufflepuff, he doesn't exactly radiate courage and he isn't all that smart. It's because of all his siblings having been in Gryffindor that he chose to continue the tradition and be close to his friends and family. Plus his brothers would have more ammo to use on him if he ended up somewhere different.
I like to think of this as somewhat poetic that the sorting hat took strong candidates from 3 very different houses and placed them into the same house by their own choice or even because they new each other and would be the best fit for all of them. If there is any evidence to dispute any of this, I invite discussion.
Tl;Dr: Harry should have been Slytherin, Hermione, Ravenclaw, and Ron, Hufflepuff, but their choices and their brief history with each other brought them together into Gryffindor.
- 94,906 VOTES
Hermione Was Secretly Ashamed Of Being A Muggleborn
Photo: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt.1 / Warner Bros PicturesFrom Redditor u/Cheeseanonioncrisps:
Evidence:
She studies ridiculously hard (even bending time itself to try and fit more oessons into a day) despite being under little or no pressure from her teachers or parents. This suggests that she might feel a need to prove that she isn't like her muggle family.
She barely writes to her parents, as shown in the Chamber of Secrets when they let her stay at Hogwarts over Christmas (would you let a twelve year old girl spend Christmas at school if there was a monster hunting people like her?) and she straight up lies to them in Order of the Pheonix when she says she's going to study at school when, in fact, she's going to support a friend who's going through a family crisis (even though the latter is a more reasonable excuse. Also, if telling them that she's going to Grimmauld place is a bad idea- where did they think she was staying when she was there during the summer holidays?) This shows that her relationship with her parents is growing more distant.
She barely talks about her past. Most muggleborns and halfbloods we see are still a part of muggle culture, e.g: Justin Finch Fletchley talks about how he was going to go to Eton, Dean Thomas hangs a football poster up in his dorm and Colin Creevey uses a muggle camera for his photography. All we hear from Hermione about her preHogwarts days (apart from a few things about where her parents used to take her on trips) is that she was very excited to get her letter and immediately started practising spells.
If this is true, then it not only helps us understand Hermione better, but also suggests why she made her parents forget that they were her parents, rather than sending them to a safe house like the Durselys.
- 103,700 VOTES
The Entire Wizarding World Would Collapse Overnight Without Hermione Granger
Photo: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince / Warner Bros PicturesFrom Redditor u/Deggit:
The British wizarding world has its own currency, the gold Galleon (G). British Muggles use the pound sterling (£). This has some interesting consequences. With few exceptions (Arabella Figg) most wizards don't touch Muggle money. They earn Galleons at work, and they spend Galleons to purchase magical ingredients, wands, brooms, and other things. So far so good. However, magic cannot create gold or food.
So... how do wizards eat? Why would £-holders, aka Muggles like Mr. Granger, have an endless willingness to trade their £ for Galleons?
The answer is they don't. The entire currency exchange is being driven by Muggle-born wizards like Hermione Granger.
As illustrated throughout the novels, Hermione constantly buys Galleons with her family's Muggle money. She needs to do this in order to pay for books, supplies, and so on.
By the end of the novels, Hermione (now Mrs. Hermione Weasley) has fully joined the wizarding world, "immigrating" from the Muggle world. She has converted her entire worldly possessions (including the Granger inheritance, if her parents are dead in the epilogue) from Muggle money to Galleons. Through Gringotts, this finances an equally large movement of raw goods (primarily food).
- 113,378 VOTES
Why Hermione Hates Divination
Photo: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban / Warner Bros PicturesFrom Redditor u/boredonpatrol:
I thought about this after seeing a post on how weird it is that, Hermione, after coming from a muggle family had such an aptitude and was so accepting for all kinds of magic except divination. I believe in her childhood she had a vision of something terrible happening and couldn't/didn't do anything to stop it. As a way of coping with her perceived failure she believes divination is a total sham. I apologize for lack of details or if this is already a thing, just came to the realization.
Possibly she foresaw herself using magic to obliviate her parents to protect them in TDH. She would have seen that before she knew about being a witch and thought it was silly. After learning she was a witch it would be something she would be constantly reminded of. Like in the chamber of secrets with Lockheart, then the very next year she had divination...
- 123,935 VOTES
Hermione Stole The Time-Turner
Photo: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban / Warner Bros PicturesFrom Redditor u/ArenLuxon:
The time travel in Harry Potter has always bothered me. At first sight, it looks like bad writing. If a society really had time travel, surely they wouldn’t use it so some kid could take a few extra classes. Come on Jo, this doesn’t make any sense.
The justification given by Hermione is insane. For those of you who don’t know the Harry Potter books by heart (honestly, what are you doing with your time?), this is what she says to Harry: “Professor McGonagall made me swear I wouldn’t tell anyone. She had to write all sorts of letters to the Ministry of Magic so I could have one. She had to tell them that I was a model student, and that I’d never, ever use it for anything except my studies…”
There are just so many problems with this line. Would a government really just hand out Time-Turners for something like that? And if they did, wouldn’t they put some safety mechanisms in place? This is a world with Unbreakable Oaths and Veritaserum and we’re supposed to believe the Ministry will just take her word for it? The word of a fourteen year old girl who by the way actually did misuse her Time-Turner and no one ever found out about it. And what’s with this ‘multiple letters’? Just how many people know about a dangerous and experimental magic like time travel? Surely something like this would be kept secret. But there is something even more strange about all this. After Harry and Hermione break Sirius out, Snape and Fudge walk into the hospital wing and Snape starts accusing Harry and Hermione.
Now I am willing to believe that Snape didn’t know about the Time-Turner, but shouldn’t Fudge know? He’s Minister of Magic, surely something like a Time-Turner being given to a student must have crossed his desk at some point. Sure, Fudge is not the brightest, but Dumbledore even says: “Unless you are suggesting that Harry and Hermione are able to be in two places at once, I’m afraid I don’t see any point in troubling them further.” Surely Fudge should remember the Time-Turner at this point. Especially since a Time-Turner being lend out is rare. And it is actually confirmed it is rare.
When the Time-Turners are conveniently destroyed in Order of the Phoenix, Hermione specifically mentions: “We smashed the entire stock of Ministry Time-Turners when we were there last summer. It was in the Daily Prophet.” They smashed the entire stock. This means that all Time-Turners were being kept at one specific place. None were being used, not even for research purposes or something. This makes it even harder to believe they lend it out to a kid and Fudge didn’t even know about it. So what if Hermione got the Time-Turner in a different way? What if she stole it from the Ministry?
It’s entirely plausible that the Time-Turners were developed at some point in the Department of Mysteries and it was decided no one could use them because they were deemed too dangerous. Which means Hermione simply broke in and stole one. This would also explain a different scene in Order of the Phoenix. “Let’s go,” called Hermione from halfway up the stone steps. “This isn’t right, Harry, come on, let’s go. . . .” She sounded scared, much more scared than she had in the room where the brains swam… Isn’t this strange? When they are in the room with the Veil, Hermione of all people, who’s more curious than all the rest combined, immediately wants to leave. She has no desire to investigate the strange Veil. Almost as if she’s been there before.
- 13684 VOTES
Need More Harry Potter In Your Life?
Photo: Amazon - 143,924 VOTES
Matilda From 'Matilda' Grows Up To Be Hermione Granger
Photo: Warner Bros Pictures / TriStar PicturesFrom Redditor u/TopRamen713:
Both British, both love to read, both are brilliant both have magical powers. Here's how it goes:
Matilda Hermione Wormwood displays her magical abilities when she's under great stress at Miss Trunchbull's academy. Like Harry's blowing up of his aunt and disappearing of the glass at the zoo, it just kind of happens. Of course Hermione being Hermione, she's able to control her telekinesis much better (ever wonder how she mastered Wingardium Leviosa so quickly? She was actually using her telekinesis)
Eventually, her family leaves and she's adopted by Miss Jenny Honey. In order to escape her family's criminal past and to honor her new mother, Matilda renames herself Hermione Jean Honey.
Under the care of a teacher, Hermione learns to respect good teachers and gives up her pranks, even becoming somewhat of a stick in the mud. Miss Honey does some growing as well. She goes to night school to become a dentist, where she meets a fellow older learner, Mr. Granger. They fall in love and eventually marry.
Soon after, a witch by the name of Professor McGonagall arrives...
- 153,684 VOTES
Hermione’s Time-Turner Is Dumbledore’s Horcrux
Photo: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban / Warner Bros PicturesFrom Redditor u/RemQuatre:
TLDR: It is plausible that Dumbledore has created a horcrux after his sister’s death. As he is a very nostalgic character, he could have chosen a Time-Turner to seal the broken part of his soul. If so, each of the seven books would feature at least one horcrux, the Time-Turner being the horcrux hidden in The Prisoner of Azkaban.
- 164,842 VOTES
Ron Weasley Used The Imperius Curse On Hermione Granger To Make Her Fall In Love With Him
Photo: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt.2 / Warner Bros PicturesFrom Redditor u/EmperorDeathBunny:
The following theory is based solely on evidence presented in the films and does not take any content from the books into consideration. Unfortunately, due to the number of differences/changes between the film and the book series that sometimes contradict each other, this theory is strictly an analysis of data from the movie series. I've watched the Harry Potter films many times over the years, and each time I always felt a little confused as to why Hermione Granger ended up with Ron Weasley. Throughout the series, Ron is (in Harry's words) a right foul git to Hermione.
What happened?
Ron Weasley used the Imperius Curse on Hermione Granger to make her fall in love with him, instead of Harry Potter.
Why would you think that?
Ron treats Hermione very poorly across all the films and Hermione doesn't take it well. But then, in Half-Blood Prince, Hermione is suddenly really into Ron.
Why would he do that?
Because he was jealous of Hermione's affection toward Harry, frustrated about being one of youngest Weasley siblings, and exhausted of living in Harry's shadow.
But Ron would never...
In Deathly Hallows, we saw Ron suggest murder, and in other movies Ron demonstrates abusive behaviors towards Hermione such as manipulation, grooming, and coercion. Other times, we see Ron pull Hermione away when she's calling for Harry, as if he resents her for focusing on Harry.
That doesn't mean he used an Imperius Curse...
Ron successfully used the Imperius Curse on Bogrod the goblin teller. Where did he practice it? The films established that spells require practice and proficiency to use them successfully.
So how did Ron become so well practiced with such a spell?
But the books...
Are separate from the film universe. Though the films are based on the books, the films are different; changes were made to the original story. The films aren't continuing the story of Harry Potter, they are retelling it. Unfortunately, within the film universe's retelling, there is plenty of evidence there to suggest Ron used the Imperius Curse on Hermione so that she would fall for him.
