Hermione's prejudice?

[English]

Remember Hermione's attitude towards Firenze? she pretty much called him a horse- " I've never really liked horses." When told that he was a centaur her reply was- " He still has four legs."

HERMIONE!!!!!!!!

Surely someone who is so keen on house-elf right, and is aware of the anti-mudblood feelings would have rather a better attitude.

[gecko]

Yeah, I haven't noticed it while reading, but this is really unlike Hermione!

And then centaurs are way more intriguing than house-elfs, because all they do is clean and cook and things like that.

I think she might be prejudiced against the whole subject divination because she couldn't stand it with Trelawney. Or, perhaps she was jeaulous of the other students, because those other girls, can't remember who they were exactly, thought Firenze was handsome !

[zledm007]

yeah, i think jealousy played a big part in that. i don't know that those were her real genuine thoughts about centaurs, it was just that she was so jelous of everyone who was still in divination and she wanted to make sure nobody knew it. up untill that point everything that she had done had been, well, perfect and worked out right. it was something very different for her.

[June]

Perhaps jealousy did play a part, but I think another part of it should be because of the centaurs themselves. They are not like house-elves who can't protect themselves, and are treated like slave labour in many places. Centaurs are intelligent beings who feels superior to humans, and so, Hermione, knowing all these, probably don't feel the same way towards them as she did towards house-elves, hence, her attitude.

[zledm007]

ah, good point. they are a bit stuck up aren't they...

[English]

Yeah, they are stuck up- but even so, for Hermione to call them horses seems very nasty and Malfoy-ish. It appears that Hermione hasn't thought of them as intelligent- she sees them as animals, albiet ones that don't serve the respect she gives elves.

Perhaps it is because she was born muggle- she has (our) muggle attitude towards animals, but she has respect for humanoids like elves?

And in retrospect her attitude towards the elves seems very patronising, and she is stubborn in not altering her beliefs- although dumbledore does agree that the way Kreature was treated added to how he behaved.

[AccioNiffler]

I think that Hermione calling Firenze a horse was just a way to cover up how she feels. She's always saying Trelawny is a phoney. She also said that real seers are really rare. She was probably kicking herself becuse there was finally a real seer and she wasnt in his class to learn about it. So she has a little animosity .

Now that Umbridge is gone, and Dumbledore is back, that means Trelawny will have her job back, right? What does that mean for Firenze? Because he can't go back to the centaurs now, can he? I mean, will he stay at Hogwarts and teach another subject maybe, or go find another group of centaurs?

[gecko]

Didn't Trelawney and Firenze give the lessons together at the end of the year? If that is so, I think that will continue. Maybe Firenze only teaching the older students, year 6 and 7, and Trelawney the other students?

[Gwared]

I believe they were to join lessons, maybe they could have two lessons/week? One with Firenze and one with Trelawney.

Another important point is the Harry and Co. have just taken there OWLs so next year they'll be studying for their NEWTS. Do you really think any of them will take divination??

[Professor]

Unfortunately, while Ms. Granger's heart is often in the right place, she has a tendency to interpret others' ways according to her own human culture. Think about her deplorable lack of respect for the ways of the house-elves. To her, they are slaves. To them, being given clothes is a horrible expulsion from a beloved family. Despite their attempts to voice this, Hermione ignores them (thinking they are ignorant) and uses her own "superior" judgement and decides to trick them into taking clothes (i.e. her badly woven hats and socks).

So in regards to Ms. Granger's comment about centaurs -- it could be a cover for her feelings of failure re: divination, or her Muggle bias (they don't have elves, so she can understand that they are special, but Miggules do have contact with horses and she may have had some unfortunate experience with one), or her deplorable lack of understanding other species (her feelings for buckbeak aside, since she may have wanted to defend any "animal" without truly respecting the creature).

[highsorcerer]

For a student that is supposed to be the best in her class at everything (save DADA), Hermoine is remarkably ignorant of the ways of house elves. If she had thought about it for 30 seconds or more, she would have realized that all her knitting of hats and socks and putting them among the rubbish in the Gryffindor common room was a complete waste of time. Hermoine is NOT their master. She could provide each of them with bespoken garments and it would only offend them, not set them free.

Dumbledore is probably the only one who can set the Hogwarts house elves free. If that is what the house elves wanted, Dumbledore would do it in a heartbeat. He had no problem offering Dobby wages and days off since Dobby wanted both (admittedly, not much, but Dumbledore offered full market value when he first applied). He also left Dobby free to bad-mouth him if he desired. Dobby wouldn't do it, since he likes working for Dumbledore, but it would have left him free to say anything he wanted about Umbridge during her tenure as headmistress.

[HuffleDuck]

AH! good point about jealousy. probably is so that she's jealous.
And about hose-elves. setting them free will kill them It'll be a big shock and probably they wanna drown themselves if set free.

[HuffleDuck]

looks around, no editing button?

it's house-elves not hose..

[Hermy]

She sees house elves as slaves though doesn't she?
Centaurs can look after themselves (as we can see from OotP) and don't have to answer to anyone else.

[HuffleDuck]

There's like 2 side to view about Hermione action of SPEW.. it's her belief that house-elves were mistreated b/c she sees them working so hard without paying(muggle view point). But then she didn't ask them if they wanted it or not(ignorance of others)