Granger Family

Family Members

Additional Information

As I have noted elsewhere, one of the problematic things with writing child protagonists is that it almost requires incompetent adults. Unfortunately this so often means dysfunctional families as well. Mrs. Rowling seems particularly prone to this, and the Grangers are no exception.

We only know of a three Grangers, and two of them have no names! Hermione’s parent’s are known to be dentists, but Doctor and Doctor Granger are only seen briefly in the second book, where they are simply described as “standing nervously” in Gringotts.¹ Beyond that, we rarely see them, and Hermione spends increasing amounts of time in the magical world.

Thus it is not precisely a blank slate in cannon for these characters. We can infer very little, but there are a number of key indicators here.

• Hermione, an only child, spends all of second, third, fourth, and part of fifth year’s Christmas break at school. Given there is no mention of normal break between the Spring term and Summer term in any of the books, this means that she spends at least 10 and possibly as much as 11 months of these years away from home (not counting the aborted ski trip in fifth year).
• Despite this, she consistently arrives at the Weasleys before Harry does, sometimes, as in the summer between fourth and fifth year, by at least a few weeks.²
• As discussed in my in depth look at her character, Hermione is not actually a well adjusted socially mature girl. While academically gifted, she is socially awkward, and has much of the same lack of tact that she berates Ron for.

Overall, this paints a picture of a girl who had a difficult childhood. While we cannot with any certainty say she was abused or neglected, she is already emotionally distant from her parents before she starts Hogwarts, and the time in a boarding school will only increase this distance. She most likely had trouble with her peers at school, and despite her tenancy to trust authority figures, her parents did little if anything to ameliorate the situation (or else she would trust them when she faces problematic situations in later life).

These are not the good parents who are eager to learn more about and experience the magical world that many fan fiction authors portray.