Hermione Granger

House : Gryffindor
Actor : Emma Watson
First appearance : Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Hermione Jean Granger (first name pronounced /hɚˈmaɪəni/) is a fictional character 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 magic school. As the series progresses, she becomes close friends with Harry Potter and often uses her quick wit and encyclopaedic knowledge to help him. Rowling has stated that Hermione resembles her at a younger age, with her insecurity and fear of failure.
Character development
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 shows considerable academic prowess when compared to her friends and classmates, 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 ideologies, 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.
Personality
Hermione's most prominent features includes her prodigious intellect and cleverness. She is levelheaded, book-smart and is very good with logic, but at first, she has a tendency to panic in intense or scary situations (as with the Devil's Snare) and is not good at thinking on her feet. However, by Deathly Hallows, she has learned to be more instinctive, saving everyone's lives more than once with her quick thinking. She is often bossy yet very loyal and conscientious. Rowling stated that Hermione is a person that "never strays off the path; she always keeps her attention focused on the job that must be done." Despite Hermione's intelligence and bossy attitude, Rowling says that Hermione has "quite a lot of vulnerability in her personality," as well as a "sense of insecurity underneath," feels "utterly inadequate...and to compensate, she tries to be the best at everything at school, projecting a false confidence that can irritate people." During her Defence against the Dark Arts exam at the end of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Hermione revealed that her biggest fear is failure, after a Boggart took the form of Professor McGonagall and told her she had failed all her exams.
Hermione has an extremely compassionate side to her personality and is quick to help others, especially those who are defenceless, such as Neville Longbottom, first-years, house-elves, and fellow Muggle-borns. It was revealed by Rowling after the publication of the final book that Hermione's career in the Ministry was to fight for the rights of the oppressed (house-elves and Muggle-borns). Hermione is also very protective of her friends and values them so much that Rowling has suggested that, if Hermione had looked in the Mirror of Erised, she would have seen Harry, Ron, and herself "alive and unscathed, and Voldemort finished." As a person who relies on facts and logic, Hermione finds it difficult to get on with Luna Lovegood when they first meet, as Luna has great faith in things unseen and unproven (Rowling has referred to Luna as the "anti-Hermione"). Although dismissive of The Quibbler, the magazine Luna is reading, she does feel embarrassed finds out that Luna's father is the editor, but tells Harry that he can "do much better than her" when it comes to convincing people that Voldemort is back. Although constantly frustrated by Luna's statements and beliefs throughout the book, by the end of Order of the Phoenix, Luna and Hermione have reached a sort of understanding.
In popular culture
Hermione has been parodied in numerous sketches and animated series. In Saturday Night Live, Hermione was played by Lindsay Lohan, who wore an enormously revealing sweater that showed most of her breasts. This was to parody the fact that Hermione had reached puberty. On his show Big Impression, Alistair McGowan did a sketch called "Louis Potter and the Philosopher's Scone". It featured impressions of Nigella Lawson as Hermione. In 2003, Comic Relief performed a spoof story called Harry Potter and the Secret Chamberpot of Azerbaijan, in which Miranda Richardson featured as Hermione. The Wedge, an Australian sketch comedy, parodies Hermione and Harry in love on a "Cooking With..." show before being caught by Snape. Hermione also appears as Hermione Ranger in Harry Podder: Dude Where's My Wand?, a play by Desert Star Theater in Utah, written by sisters Laura J., Amy K. and Anna M. Lewis.
In Harry Cover, a French comic book parody of the Harry Potter series by the Pierre Veys (subsequently translated in Spanish and English), Hermione appears as Harry Cover's friend Hormone. Hermione also stars in The Potter Puppet Pals sketches by Neil Cicierega. One of the episodes, "The Mysterious Ticking Noise", shows Hermione along with Snape, Harry, Ron and Dumbledore being killed by a bomb placed by Voldemort; the episode being the seventeenth most viewed video of all time as of 2008 and the winner for "Best Comedy" of the year 2007 at YouTube. Source : en.wikipedia.org