Well, Hermione wasn’t just appearing to be incompetent in the sense of “too stupid to calculate the correct solution;” she was appearing to be irrational in the sense of “too self-righteous to want to calculate the correct solution.”
Also, note that Hermione actually did stay true to her goals: her possum tactic allowed her to avoid “unfairly” choosing who to attack first. By waiting until most other players had been sleepified, she was able to attack only the strongest or luckiest survivors, rather than the soldiers controlled by someone that she personally disliked. She was able to both win the game and stay true to her values because she (somehow) was much better at working in groups than Draco or Harry. One wonders how a girl who had no social skills in Chapter 3 suddenly became so socially adept—has she been reading books on how to get along with people?
One wonders how a girl who had no social skills in Chapter 3 suddenly became so socially adept—has she been reading books on how to get along with people?
It’s more that both Harry and Draco were mentally handicapped here. Draco has the glamorous dream of being the dark overlord who controls everything from the top, his orders unquestioned and his name spoken in hushed tones. Harry has the habit of trying to think up an ingenious plan by himself, and it just didn’t occur to him to get other people in his army to do strategy planning. Tactics, sure, but not strategy.
Hermione, in contrast, is perfectly used to learning from others, and doesn’t have particularly grandiose ambitions. And maybe Quirrell casually hinted that some of the people in her army were good at planning things. It seems the sort of thing he’d do, to make his plan less brittle.
Well, Hermione wasn’t just appearing to be incompetent in the sense of “too stupid to calculate the correct solution;” she was appearing to be irrational in the sense of “too self-righteous to want to calculate the correct solution.”
Also, note that Hermione actually did stay true to her goals: her possum tactic allowed her to avoid “unfairly” choosing who to attack first. By waiting until most other players had been sleepified, she was able to attack only the strongest or luckiest survivors, rather than the soldiers controlled by someone that she personally disliked. She was able to both win the game and stay true to her values because she (somehow) was much better at working in groups than Draco or Harry. One wonders how a girl who had no social skills in Chapter 3 suddenly became so socially adept—has she been reading books on how to get along with people?
It’s more that both Harry and Draco were mentally handicapped here. Draco has the glamorous dream of being the dark overlord who controls everything from the top, his orders unquestioned and his name spoken in hushed tones. Harry has the habit of trying to think up an ingenious plan by himself, and it just didn’t occur to him to get other people in his army to do strategy planning. Tactics, sure, but not strategy.
Hermione, in contrast, is perfectly used to learning from others, and doesn’t have particularly grandiose ambitions. And maybe Quirrell casually hinted that some of the people in her army were good at planning things. It seems the sort of thing he’d do, to make his plan less brittle.