Film adaptations of books are never easy, and details are often excluded for a variety of reasons. This is also true for the Harry Potter franchise. One of the aspects that are missing from the films is a key part of Hermione’s personality. She is portrayed as brilliant, brave and, occasionally, a bit snotty and shrill. However, one of her least admiral qualities is her viciousness that is present within the books but absent from the film adaptations. This doesn’t make her accomplishments any less impressive or her bravery less heroic, but it does round out her character a bit more.
The first noteworthy example of her viciousness happens at the end of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Throughout the course of this book, journalist Rita Skeeter wrote sensationalized articles about Harry and his friends. This put her in Hermione’s crossfire, and Hermione became dedicated to ending Skeeter’s invasive journalist tactics. Eventually, Hermione figured out that Skeeter was getting her privileged information because she was an unregistered Animagus.
Like the Marauders, Skeeter became an Animagi and didn’t properly register with the Ministry of Magic, which is technically a crime. Hermione realized that Skeeter could turn into a beetle, so she trapped her in a jar from the end of the Triwizard Tournament until some time before the start of the next school year. Hermione treated a human woman like an insect and was actually proud of the revenge she exacted on her.
Not only did Hermione dehumanize Rita Skeeter literally, but she also blackmailed her. The following year when the press attacked Harry for his true claims that Voldemort had returned to power, Hermione blackmailed Skeeter into writing an article in support of Harry, including an interview with him. It was published in The Quibbler. When she conducted the interview, Skeeter had lost her sparkle, literally. Her glasses were missing some of her trademark rhinestones, and she was clearly suffering from her past brush with Hermione.
Rita Skeeter may not be the most sympathetic victim of Hermione’s viciousness, but she’s not the only one either. In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry and his friends start Dumbledore’s Army to teach themselves Defense Against the Dark Arts in rebellion of Dolores Umbridge. Students from Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff all join, including Harry’s crush Cho Chang and her friend Marietta Edgecombe.
When signing up for the DA, the students signed a register. However, this was not just any piece of parchment they signed. No, this parchment had been jinxed by Hermione so that anyone who ratted out the club to Umbridge would face the consequences — and Marietta learned the hard way. When Marietta turned the group into Umbridge, horrible pimples broke out across her face to spell out the word “Sneak,” which caused her extreme shame and distress. Hermione never disclosed to the group that they were signing a jinxed document, and since Marietta never really wanted to join in the first place (she was only there out of loyalty to Cho), it’s unlikely Marietta would’ve signed in the first place.
It’s not enough that she was immediately identified as the traitor as a result of her disfiguration. Instead, Hermione pushed her intelligence and ingenuity into viciousness by making this jinx seemingly permanent. At the start of the next school year, Harry noticed that Marietta still had Sneak written across her face. Hermione didn’t want just to discover the traitor in their midst; she wanted them to suffer a lifelong punishment for their actions. Marietta was just a teenager, who believed she was doing the right thing, and as a result, she was forced to endure Hermione’s viciousness for the rest of her life.
Hermione was a hero in the Wizarding World, but the Harry Potter movies portray her a little bit more perfect than she actually was in the books. In the books, she was a bit more well-rounded in that she had admirable and negative qualities. She was not only smart, but she could also be brutally ruthless. She used her intelligence and skill for good but also to cause harm. As such, the movies missed the less desirable but arguably more interesting side of Hermione Granger.
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