'Harry Potter' Fans Have a Game-Changing Take on Hermione's Iconic "Or Worse, Expelled" Line
Turns out it was us who needed to sort our priorities all along.
Harry Potter, after all these years, remains very relevant — not because it’s in line to receive yet another remake, but because new fan takes just keep arriving. Some of them are new and even negative towards the magical universe; but others are pretty old and rediscovered just now.
With Arabella Stanton revealing the cast for a new batch of Harry Potter audiobooks, which she is also a part of, I immediately became nostalgic after hearing the “or worse, expelled” line. Naturally, I started wandering on Reddit, with nothing particular in mind — only to have my view of that phrase turned upside down by a single take.
“As a wizard born to human parents, Hermione would literally rather die than be forced to leave the one place where she feels like she truly belongs, a place where she is not only able to realize her potential but where she is also surrounded by people who understand and accept her- by people who are like her. I thought this was kind of neat and it helps explain why she may seem odd,” Redditor gummy44 wrote in a Harry Potter subreddit 7 (a magical number) years ago.
The entire thread is full of insightful ways to look at this phrase: from the parallels to immigrant life to a theory that Hermione, being curious and ready to learn slightly more that is demanded of her, found out about Obscures and became afraid that she might become one if she were expelled from school and no longer allowed to practice magic.
Another Redditor then remembered that Hermione’s boggart is a note from McGonagall, saying that she failed all her classes.
The book says that Ron was ready to laugh at such a Hermione thing to be afraid of. I too thought it was funny back at the time, but now that I’ve discovered this take, I, as someone with straight-A syndrome, can once again reaffirm that Hermione Granger and her fears need to be protected at all costs.
