H. Granger's Journal

Journal
Hermione Granger

January 2003

Tuesday, January 21, 2003

11:24AM

I'm at IFTS right now, doing a full course in Spell Design. For me that means an advanced Arithmantical seminar (algebraic connections) and several classical language courses. I wish Hogwarts had been less focused on technical mastery and more on theory; a firm grounding in Latin and Greek is necessary for the creation of spells, and languages weren't even an elective. I've had to spend years catching up.

Ron's here, too, but I suspect he's simply trying not to have a real job. His main object in life seems to be persuading me to the pub.

Harry flew in for the weekend, because he is certifiably not sane. That's eight and a half hours by broomstick, over the ocean. (Saltwater destroys Apparation range. I think this may be related to its electromagnetic properties? Must check.) The visit was good, though. He was cheerful, and since the Christmas holidays are only just ending, we had the library almost to ourselves.

3:04PM

I did the Arithmancy set in two hours. This should not be possible in an advanced course.

Wednesday, January 22, 2003

9:19AM

Owl from Viktor this morning. There are no intelligent women in professional Quidditch.

8:51PM

I've just found this fascinating book on witches associated with temples in medieval India. I'm very tempted to run through and transcribe names instead of doing work-- onomastics is rather a hobby of mine, and British witches are so very ignorant of non-European cultures that the fact that I'm working from a translation and don't read Tamil (yet) is irrelevant. But of course work comes first. (I could transcribe by spell, but that always introduces error, and in this sort of work one can't allow slips of the pen.)

An onomastic question I've wondered about for a while now: Helga Hufflepuff et al. are clearly not true medieval names. How accurate is Hogwarts: A History? It has served me well so many times that I cannot doubt its general veracity, but the lack of attention to detail is troubling.

11:22PM

Mrs. Weasley sent Ron the only tea in the universe that tastes like beef jerky.

Friday, January 24, 2003

1:26PM

Received an unexpected owl from Blaise this morning. We've been close friends for a while, though sometimes merely because I feel a compulsive need to demonstrate my Gryffindor loyalty. More precisely, I am motivated by:

1. Gryffindor loyalty,
2. an intellectual fascination with his various sources of anger (What do a mother with chronic pain not curable by any spell, the realization that one is attracted to men and the subsequent decision to come out at a place as mired in tradition as Hogwarts, and enough experimentation with Mind-Altering Potions to merit legal insanity produce? Trouble), and
3. the fact that he asks me to recommend books.

So naturally we discuss books. He's enthusiastic about Theory of Magic, especially the mystical elements, but hasn't actually read anything in the field, and I've been working him through the popular classics. Dodgson's books are next, of course.

And the boy hadn't heard of Jupiter and Ganymede. His lack of cultural knowledge is saddening. After all, that's a story that predates the Great Division by several hundred years . . .

Saturday, January 25, 2003

6:32PM

So last night it transpired that Ron and his mates had been to the pub Thursday night and spent all their money, and anyway we were all opposed to going anywhere in the bitter cold. Thus the only solution was to wander the halls of the IFTS boarding house looking for alcohol. Somehow this led to a bunch of us sitting in Ron's room drinking whiskey in coffeemugs and looking at somebody's pornographic magazine. Now, wizards' pornographic magazines have some sort of potential, in that the characters move and occasionally make sarcastic comments, but this particular issue was beyond hope. I read one of Ron's textbooks (Prophetic Form) and he played chess against himself while his mates made squeaky noises and tried to get the magazine to react. Eventually we substituted artistic Japanese photography, which featured many depressed characters and excessive use of Mind-Altering Potions, but still managed to be sexier. I suspect I would have been better off transcribing Tamil all evening . . .

Sunday, January 26, 2003

1:31PM

Talked to Harry in the fire last night. It was a nice happy conversation for a while, mostly about books, of course, but eventually it deteriorated into one of those things where I kept saying things that mildly irritate him by virtue of reminding him of past dark experiences. He's stressed at work, of course, but . . . I want cheery Ron-ish conversation, and that is clearly impossible given Harry's childhood. And all of Hogwarts.

Monday, January 27, 2003

9:15AM

Another owl from Viktor this morning. There are still no intelligent women in professional Quidditch; and the only intelligent woman in the rest of the city is quasi-in-love with someone from Nuremberg.

Tuesday, January 28, 2003

1:04AM

I recently discovered a significant nick in one of my contact lenses, which means that I threw them away and am wearing glasses for the rest of the night. I don't mind wearing glasses, except that when I first starting wearing them the entire world seemed convinced that I had always done so. (And I don't have time to cast Visio every five seconds. I'm almost certain Padma used to do that, but I have real work to do.)

Harry, meanwhile, had his eyes fixed magically over Christmas. I wondered for a while why that particular ritual isn't more widespread-- the answer, of course, is that it requires precise measurement of one's eyes, and that's expensive. Of course Harry is stunningly wealthy and doesn't have to worry about such things. Generally I don't notice that, but every so often it suddenly seems bizarre.

Wednesday, January 29, 2003

9:41AM

Owl from Viktor again this morning. He's madly in lust and admiration with the girl who likes the boy from Nuremberg, and stressed about his job, and oh, by the way, if he visits for a weekend in February should he show up Thursday or Friday night?

11:46PM

Helen of Troy had a daughter named Hermione. I'm rather less impressed with my name than I usually am.

Thursday, January 30, 2003

9:48AM

Harry is being strange about Viktor's projected visit. I suppose that given Harry's childhood his issues with abandonment are natural; but I still hate not being trusted, especially in moments of shining virtue. This is Viktor. Viktor and I have known that Viktor and I don't work for longer than I've been with Harry.