Forum: scifi.stackexchange.com
Tags: <harry-potter><patronus-charm><hermione-granger>
Title: Why is Hermione's Patronus not as powerful as her other magic spells?
Question: Hermione's Patronus is an otter, but it is not as powerful as Harry's. Being the best at everything she does, why is it that her magic isn't best at that particular spell? Does it have anything to do with her personality?

Answers:
sents: text: The Patronus Charm, according to the Harry Potter series, is a powerful spell.
text: In Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix , during the O.W.L. exams, the reader learns many grown wizards and witches have difficulty successfully conjuring a Patronus Charm.
text: Upon witnessing Harry Potter learn and master that spell by the end of Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban , that is a glimpse ahead into the powerful wizard he will become.
text: People might think power is measured in terms of destruction and mayhem, but true power is that quiet intensity a wizard like Dumbledore displays.
text: Sure, you can blow things up and create fear in others, but there's nothing constructive in that endeavor.
text: I see Hermione's brand of magic as more tricky and charm laden.
text: Hermione is a wealth of knowledge and information, always in search of more.
text: She masters the small spells quickly, but the Patronus Charm requires you to dig into the mind and heart for happiness while under extreme fear and urgency in most cases.
text: A nuanced wand movement or special technique is not the requirement; raw emotion and energy are.
text: Hermione, when she faltered a little, couldn't have previously imagined being trapped in that situation.
text: She likes to be prepared; but no one can prepare for something not yet experienced.
text: An interesting note about otters that could be relevant or not: they are family oriented animals.
text: The entire family of them raises their young, and support each other.
text: Hermione is a huge support system to Harry and Ron.
text: Her wealth of information, orderly way of planning ahead, and keenly logical mind carry the trio through so many legs of Harry's journey.
answer_details: author: scifi.stackexchange.com/users/536/ykombinator
score: 42
sents: text: Well, first, I think it's because Harry is better than Hermione at Defence Against the Dark Arts in general.
text: Even Hermione admits it: ‘Harry, you’re the best in the year at Defence Against the Dark Arts,’ said Hermione.
text: ‘Me?’
text: said Harry, now grinning more broadly than ever.
text: ‘No I’m not, you’ve beaten me in every test –’ ‘Actually, I haven’t,’ said Hermione coolly.
text: ‘You beat me in our third year – the only year we both sat the test and had a teacher who actually knew the subject.
text: But I’m not talking about test results, Harry Think what you’ve done
text: *!’
text: * Order of the Phoenix - Page 292 - British Hardcover I see Hermione as extremely logical, organised, intellectual, and unusually perceptive when it comes to learning.
text: However, I think she struggles with regulating her emotions (as do we all here and there) and she is a teenage girl.
text: She demonstrates her emotional volatility throughout the series through her interactions with and reactions to Ron.
text: She also experiences fear and admits it.
text: The Patronus Charm is contingent upon conjuring happy memories, as everyone has mentioned, and because of her internal rigidity, I think Hermione struggles a bit more with spells and charms that involve emotion .
text: We never once see her cast an Unforgivable, IIRC, while Harry and Ron, who are both more overt with their emotions, do.
text: I would imagine that once she actually produces a full corporeal Patronus, that her Patronus has the same defensive capabilities as Harry's does.
text: I suspect, though, that she has a harder time actually conjuring one.
text: And that's my INFJ opinion :)
answer_details: author: scifi.stackexchange.com/users/3500/Slytherincess
score: 18
sents: text: I don't think there's a fully canonical answer.
text: However some possibilities are: It's not Hermione's Patronus
text: that's unusually un-powerful (for her age), it's Harry's that is - possibly due to some inherited abilities, possibly to personality (his Patronus power rivals or exceeds most adult wizards,
text: whereas - absent weird entanglements with Voldemort - he is usually NOT that good/successful compared to experienced powereful wizards - look at him trying to duel with Snape at the end of HP6 for an example).
text: Related - Hermione's magic is not innately powerful - it's merely her skills are great.
text: Expecto Patronus is less of a technical skill spell and more of a raw energy/emotional one.
text: Sort of related to the last one - just like it requires a certain mindset to successfully cast Cruciatus, perhaps the same is true of Patronus.
text: I don't have the excact
text: quote
text: but it's stated that you need unusually positive memory.
text: Hermione, has happy memories, but she possibly doesn't have the required contrast between her generally not-unhappy life and her happiest memories that Harry has, or her emotional intensity may be on INTJ-typical lower level in general (source:
text: I'm basically half-Hermione :) .
answer_details: author: scifi.stackexchange.com/users/976/DVK-on-Ahch-To
score: 11
sents: text: Hermione didn't have the same driving need to perfect her Patronus, because the Dementors didn't affect her as strongly.
text: It wasn't the thing she feared the most against the Boggart.
text: She wasn't likely to see a Patronus Charm on a test either.
text: Harry had a lot of motivation to develop a powerful Patronus.
text: Both in terms of learning to protect himself and defending those he cared about.
answer_details: author: scifi.stackexchange.com/users/1148/Jack B Nimble
score: 5
sents: text: Hermione's Patronus only seems weak when compared to Harry's.
text: And Harry had more practice.
text: Harry learned the Patronus charm back in "Prisoner of Azkaban", and it took a long time before he was able to cast it at all, longer before he became proficient at it.
text: But he kept practicing until he was satisfied that he could handle the dementors.
text: Hermione simply never got that amount of practice.
text: The Patronus charm was never part of their coursework, and it was never mentioned as being in any volume of "The Standard Book of Spells" so she couldn't learn it just by reading ahead.
text: I don't think Hermione had ever even tried casting a Patronus prior to the D.A., by which time Harry already had a huge head start.
text: I think I remember Hermione mentioning in "Deathly Hallows" that she had been practicing the talking-Patronus trick, but that's different from practicing the Patronus in the face of dementors (or boggarts), like Harry did.
answer_details: author: scifi.stackexchange.com/users/3428/Joe White
score: 5

Summary of the answers:
Hermione didn't have the same driving need to perfect her Patronus, because the Dementors didn't affect her as strongly. As a result, she did not get the same  amount of practice. In addition,  Harry is better than Hermione at Defence Against the Dark Arts in general.
There is no canonical answer there is only speculation. Some examples being that Hermione simply didn't practice the spell as much as Harry, Harry is better at defence against the dark arts, Hermione didn't have the same driving need to perfect the Patronus spell etc. This is all speculation.