a systematic approach

Ask Hermione Granger any question, and she will dedicate her full mental capacity to solving it. She will not rest until the answer has been discovered and presented (with a surge of pride on the side). In her twelve years, she can count on one hand the number of questions that she couldn't find the answer to (three).

So now ask Hermione Granger what she loves (and uh-oh we've hit four).

No, no, no, give her a minute to think, to reason. Give her a moment of quiet and she'll think through this systematically and logically and you will get your answer in no time.

(Hmm...)

Working off of a reliable definition, Hermione Granger will first answer that she definitely loves her parents (Love (v.): a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person). That's a good, safe answer. How can she not love her mother and father? And she loves school. Sure, it's not a person, but people can love things too. And to learn and to fill her head with knowledge, well, Hermione Granger absolutely loves that.

But Hermione Granger will dig a little deeper. If there are more answers, Hermione Granger can and will find them.

Harry Potter, she will answer next, a little tentative, but sure enough. Hermione Granger loves Harry Potter. Sure, she hasn't known him for that long, but in the almost two years they've been friends and what they've been through, she thinks that it would be impossible not to have made a connection like that. She thinks of him as her best friend, and from what she's read, people tend to love their best friends. Plus, Hermione Granger kind of sees Harry Potter as the brother she never had, and if she's right (and let's face it, she usually is), she thinks he feels the same way. Two only children, through a strange set of coincidences, have sort of became brother and sister. And Hermione Granger is reasonably sure that she considers that a form of love too.

Ah, what a relief. Hermione Granger has found the answer once more. What does Hermione Granger love? Quite simple, really. By systematic reasoning, Hermione Granger can answer that she loves her parents and learning and her best friend Harry. This wasn't a difficult question. Honestly, thinking she couldn't answer a question as easy as that...

(And if you ask about that red haired boy that she spends a large majority of her time with? The boy that when she's around sometimes, her stomach does this funny twisting thing? Well, Hermione Granger will answer you that that is not love. That is something else entirely.)

a.n. Thanks for reading.