Do Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasley actually have much in common outside of Harry Potter? We look at whether the pair are real friends.

When one thinks of friendships in the Harry Potter series minds immediately jump to the golden trio of Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Fans often also think of Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, or Neville, Luna, and Ginny. When it comes to pairs Harry and Ron are often thought of together, as are Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas. But what about Hermione and Ginny?

Are Ron's sister and his eventual wife really friends in the series? Or are they rather a relationship of convenience? Are they shoved together simply because they spend so much time in the same place, at Hogwarts, and at the Burrow, and both happen to be girls? Yes. Their relationship is less of a friendship and more of a forced family bond.

10 Forced to Share Space

Rather than coming together naturally, the way many friendships begin, Hermione and Ginny are forced to spend more time together than most as they share a room every time the Weasley family is together (again, they're both girls). Rather than spending time with her actual friends on visits, Hermione is forced to interact with Ron's baby sister.

Hermione is a genuinely kind and caring person and thus doesn't complain about the arrangement, but that doesn't mean that it leads to any more than a close acquaintanceship between the two girls.

9 Like Sisters

Because of their age difference, Hermione is often seen playing the "big sister" role to Ginny, rather than the pair interacting on even ground.  Hermione is the one to offer Ginny advice on Harry, telling the younger girl not to obsess, to treat Harry like a normal person, and thus Ginny gets more comfortable around everyone.

Hermione is also seen comforting Ginny after the Dementor attack on the train when everyone is headed back to Hogwarts in The Prisoner of Azkaban. They aren't comforting each other, it's Hermione doing the comforting, as a big sister would.

8 Hermione Doesn't Keep Ginny's Secrets

Hermione's main bond has always been and will always be with Harry and Ron, which makes her less of a friend to Ginny. It is Hermione, in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, who reveals Ginny's budding relationship with Dean Thomas to both Harry and Ron (making Ron incredibly angry and overprotective).

That's not what a real friend would do, rather she would allow her friend to reveal her own information to her own family members in her own time. Hermione and Ginny can't build a real friendship because of the complications of the other relationships in their lives.

7 Quidditch

The only person who seems to love Quidditch more than Ginny Weasley is Oliver Wood, who, like Ginny, graduates from Hogwarts and becomes a professional Quidditch player. Quidditch is Ginny's main extracurricular and main point of interest outside her classes. Hermione, on the other hand, hates Quidditch.

She doesn't understand it and can't believe Ron and Harry spend so much time discussing it. It's very hard to form a lasting and real friendship when one of the most important points of interest in a person's life cannot be shared.

6 Yule Ball

While Ginny was the only person who knew the famed Seeker Viktor Krum had asked Hermione to the Yule Ball, the girls didn't really spend time together at the dance itself.

Again it seems as if the information was shared with Ginny out of convenience rather than friendship, as one would imagine friends might actually spend a significant amount of time together at a school party, which we don't really get to see Hermione and Ginny doing.

5 The Room of Requirement

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the book at least, fans watch as students, the Order of the Phoenix, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione, leave the Room of Requirement to take on Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Ginny is left behind in the Room of Requirement, as ordered by her parents.

No one, not even Hermione, comes to Ginny's defense or argues for her to be able to fight alongside her family and "friends". At that moment wouldn't a friend have said something?

4 The Half-Blood Prince

In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Hermione and Ginny actually have a full on-page argument over Harry and his use of the Half-Blood Prince's potions book.

While Hermione argues that she always knew the book was no good (as it recently led Harry to injure Draco with the unknown spell "sectumsempra") Ginny argues that Harry was in the right, as Draco was preparing to use an unforgivable curse on Harry. Apparently "sisters before misters" doesn't apply if you're not really friends to begin with.

3 No Hogsmeade

When the trio, Harry, Ron, and Hermione, go to Hogsmeade in Prisoner of Azkaban and beyond, they go as the trio. Ginny doesn't come along. Perhaps she's trying to avoid being a tag along with her brother, but if she and Hermione were real friends, would that even be an issue?

Ginny is brave and confident enough, especially in Order of the Phoenix and beyond to hang out with who she likes. Instead of visiting the wizarding village with Hermione, she is seen with a string of boys, like Dean Thomas from Harry and Ron's own year.

2 Hermione Doesn't Tell Ginny Their Plans

Yes, Harry is the one who has the right to offer or withhold all the information about the Horcrux hunt left to him by Dumbledore, but that doesn't mean that one might want to leave hints or contact information for others.

As Ginny is returning to Hogwarts it might even have made sense for Hermione to leave Ginny a way to contact her with any information she might pick up while back at the school. But, like everyone else, Ginny is left with no information. Hermione's loyalty is to her actual friends, Harry and Ron, and no one else.

1 Ginny Doesn't Defend Hermione to Mrs. Weasley

In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Mrs. Weasley believes all the gossip in the newspaper about Hermione playing with Harry's feelings and his heart. The Weasley matriarch makes her feelings known by sending Hermione a paltry Easter gift, compared to the packages sent to her children and Harry.

It is Harry who has to save Hermione's reputation, rather than Hermione's supposed friend Ginny defending Hermione to her own mother.

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