HPFC Character Diversity Boot Camp
Character – Hermione Granger
Prompt – Wish
When you wish upon a star. The saying makes me smile. I remember sitting between my parents as a child, watching Disney movies with them, singing along with the songs. Watching as the princesses were saved by their princes, I remember believing that someday my prince would come, just like snow white. I remember wondering when my Fairy Godmother would show up like Cinderella. I remember lying in bed, looking at the stars, trying to find the way to never land. Third star to the right and straight on 'til morning. I remember going shopping with my mother and rubbing any antique bottles I saw, hoping the genie would pop out and grant me three wishes.
Now when I look back, at my naivety, my innocence, I smile. The promise of those Disney movies no longer exists, I have found my own prince, I have granted my own wishes and I have fought in the battles with the bad guys. I find myself nostalgic, every now and again, and force my friends into watching the same movies I believed in as a child. They laugh at me as I cry at the end, they raise their eyebrows when I smile at something they don't understand.
When I was younger, I thought that bad guys only existed in the movies, that the hero would always triumph and everything would turn out in the end. I soon learnt at the tender age of eleven, that bad guys do exist in real life and often, are a lot more terrifying than an evil stepmother.
My best friend, the hero, was not what you would expect of a knight in shining armour. I sure didn't, and yet when I look back now, he was a thousand times more heroic than the ones you see on the big screen. He was scared, he was clueless and yet the strength of his will overpowered almost everything the bad guys could throw at him. The fact that he lost occasionally, lost the things most dear to him, made him all the more heroic.
People see us in the street, and I know what goes through their minds. There is our hero, and his sidekick. That's me, the sidekick. The hero would never see me like that, and that is another thing that differs from the movies. In real life, my hero thinks me equal, and often tells people this. If it wasn't for me, and the other sidekick, the hero could not have completed the quest.
I think of the movies I watched as a child, and I realise this to be true in some ways. Without the support, the hero would never get as far as he did. Whether the sidekick is another person, or a monkey, the hero will never triumph alone.
In the movies, the hero always welcomes the adulation of his people, is proud that they are the one in the spotlight. Are happy that they are getting the recognition they feel they deserve.
That is another place where my hero is different. He hates the spotlight, tries to push the recognition and adulation on to other people, swearing that he isn't a hero, he is merely part of a bunch of people who decided to fight for the light. I watch as he drowns in the applause and gratitude he receives, as the light leaves his eyes when people treat him like royalty. You would think that others would see it too, but all they see is a hero. Not a human as I see, that is as flawed as the next person but who made the right choices to fight instead of flee.
All of the people who are congratulating him in the street, they all, or at least most of them, sat in their houses, his away, travelled abroad, only to come out when the deed was done, when the bad guy was defeated and congratulated the hero. This doesn't happen in the movies either. In the movies, all of the good guys bunch together and all of the bad guys bunch together. There are no people left in the middle, sitting on the fence ready to dive to the winning side when all is said and done.
The wizarding world of which I joined at age eleven are cowards. Sure there are some that stand for their beliefs that fight for them and are proud of them. My hero is right, they deserve the respect he gives them, because they fought alongside him, and know how it feels to stand on a battleground, tired, empty, with grief for the people lost and relief that the battle is done warring inside them. They know what it is like to never know when your life is going to end, or if you in return will be forced to end a life. They know what it feels like to be scared to look around and see people you love on the ground, the light gone from their eyes.
My hero understands this, and that more than anything else, is what makes him my hero.
When you wish upon a star. Well the sentiment is all well and good as a child, and I pray that children all around the world can hold onto it for as long as humanly possible.
All I wish on now, is myself, my friends, acquaintances and the rest of the wizarding world.
Stand up for what you believe is right, and never allow history to repeat itself. And that, that is the only wish I have.