Hermione blackmailed a journalist and kept her in a jar for several weeks. The following year she cursed a fellow student and left them permanently disfigured. I’m not sure that I would consider her more reliably moral… a good person overall, but with flaws.
Idk, just because she doesn’t turn into a human welcome mat doesn’t make her immoral. And Rita is as much a journalist as anyone on Fox News is, which is to say, not at all. Hermione recognized that nobody would do anything about Rita spreading her harmful bullshit and took direct, decisive action.
Reliably moral by traditional wizarding standards*. Hermione is more reliably moral by standards external to the wizarding world.
Hermione blackmailed a journalist and kept her in a jar for several weeks. The following year she cursed a fellow student and left them permanently disfigured. I’m not sure that I would consider her more reliably moral… a good person overall, but with flaws.
Idk, just because she doesn’t turn into a human welcome mat doesn’t make her immoral. And Rita is as much a journalist as anyone on Fox News is, which is to say, not at all. Hermione recognized that nobody would do anything about Rita spreading her harmful bullshit and took direct, decisive action.
I read that part as a(nother) self insert for Rowling venting about tabloids which were absolutely writing about her at the time.