PoA Thought

[lightofdaye]

So I've been listening to audio book of Prisoner of Azkaban fo the upteemth time and this quote leapt out at me: "you're the cleverest witch of your age I've ever met." - Remus Lupin

It seems to me that that quote gets shrunk down to 'the cleverest witch of the age' a lot. Or at least it seems like a lot in fanfic and I can't remember if gets referred to very often again in canon.

But... that ommission completely changes the meaning to me. With it it means something like 'wow, you're really smart for 14.' without I always read it as 'you're literally the cleverest witch of your generation'

And its not just Hermione, lots of fanfics will refer to Harry by some variant of boy-who-lived, modified to account for his later victories, far more than canon does, or at least so it seems to me.

Not sure what i'm concluding here beyond 'fandom loves nicknames' and 'poor ron: why doesn't he get a moniker?' but I thought you might appreciate my ramblings nevertheless.

Comments

[nutmeg-44.livejournal.com]

I know nicknames are never graceful or dignified and there are some really terrible ones in canon but 'Mione just grates on every single nerve in my body for some reason.

Re: Hermione's use of 'Ronald', I only see it as applicable if she's mad at him for some reason, not as everyday speech. It just sounds far too formal for best friends. When I read her using it, it always plays in my head in the tone of that moment in PoA when she says, 'Ronald has lost his rat'. Can't unhear the tone.