Thank You, Hermione Granger

With the Harry Potter 20th anniversary set to premiere on New Years Day, I began to reflect nostalgically on the series that defined an entire generation.

As someone who found escapism in fantasy novels, my childhood was spent with a nose in a book. From C.S. Lewis to Philip Pullman, it wasn’t until J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series that I found myself in the pages of a story... Hermione Granger.

There’s been much talk about representation these days - many of it for good reasons - but for me, I found myself identifying many of Hermione’s characteristics with my own. There were practically no disabled characters in children’s literature that I had read, so finding characters to identify with on personal levels had more of an influence on me. Having a character you can identify with - regardless of gender, ability, sexuality or race - is something that many young readers find reassuring as they grow up. Hermione was that reassurance for me, speaking as someone who was definitely a bookish know-it-all as a child… characteristics that followed me into adulthood.

Author J.K. Rowling had stated that 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. Academia was something that meant a great deal to me, especially as years later I’d be the first in my family to go to university - it was a breath of fresh air to read a character who was just as much a nerd and reader as I was.

It sounds cliche, but Hermione did allow me to become more confident in myself as a kid. The one thing that was great about this character was her determination not to change who she was or adapt to other people’s expectations. That confidence of self and refusal to compromise on her own morals and choices are traits that many readers can find comfort in.

When the films began coming out, Emma Watson did a great job bringing Hermione to life on screen. She definitely grew in confidence with the role as she matured as an actress, and the later films are some of her best work. Despite the films giving faces and voices to these characters, I always had my own version of Hermione in my head. No matter how many times I binged the movies or revisited the books in page or audio form, that cast of characters has remained in my imagination for twenty years.

In 2017, I got the chance to revisit the series and see one of my favourite literary characters brought to life on stage with Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. I had read the play script at this point and knew what to expect of the story set nineteen years after the Deathly Hallows; I was excited to see how such a fantastical world would be realised inside a theatre.

My visit to the West End was to see both parts performed on the same day, with the new cast having just taken over from the original cast that same week. The stage production was marvellous, but when Rakie Ayola stepped on stage as Hermione, I immediately started getting emotional. She was just superb as the character, and her performance throughout the entire show was outstanding. I wasn’t expecting to get emotional seeing the play, but it was a poignant experience watching characters I’d grown up with older through an adult’s eyes.

This is often a controversial topic, but I prefer the Cursed Child over the new Fantastic Beast franchise, but that’s another story for another article. As we're set to see the cast and crew reunite to celebrate twenty years of this series, I definitely wanted to throw my own hat into the conversation.

Thank you feels a bit simplistic, but I can honestly say these stories through books, cinema, and theatre have given me more than can be explained through words alone. Hermione Granger is a hero in her own right, and as one of a trio, she had her individuality that helped me grow into my own.