I adore Harry Potter. It is not only such a giant part of my childhood but pretty much of my life. And, for the most part, I like the fandom, or the group of fans who all share a love for a common subject. There are so many parts of the fandom that I love to interact with, from the fan-created stories, or fanfics, to the art created by fans. Because of the great diversity of Potterheads, there’s always something new to see on all of the Harry Potter fan websites. One of my favorite things that the fandom made is the interpretation that Hermione, one of the main characters, is black.

In the books, there’s not much of a description of Hermione regarding her skin color, giving the reader a lot of room to fill in the blanks. Personally, I really like the interpretation that Hermione is black; we need more people of color in general in the Harry Potter series. And, I totally understand why people would see Hermione being black; I spent a lot of time watching TV and envisioning that some black-haired dark-eyed characters were East Asian since I never got to see one on TV.

What I don’t get is why people dislike the interpretation of Hermione being black. Whether in person or on social media pages like Facebook or the Harry Potter fan-website Mugglenet, they frequently voice their dislike by saying either a) it’s not accurate to the movies or b) J.K. Rowling never wrote Hermione to be black. Whenever I see these comments, I just get agitated.

Firstly, who decided that all details of an original work must be portrayed exactly, even in the interpretations by viewers? The point of fan-interpretations is to unveil a new side of a story or to point out a missed opportunity. Not adding actual diversity to the cast outside of Cho Chang and Angelina Johnson was a missed opportunity, which this reimagining of Hermione points out. Besides, the movies themselves were never consistent with race; in the movies, Lavender Brown started out as black, but suddenly became white when she had a more prominent role. And secondly, in an interview with The Observer, J.K. Rowling herself stated that “Hermione can be a black woman with [her] absolute blessings and enthusiasm”, despite not originally seeing her like that. So why is there this outrage?

I don’t want to be labeled a social justice warrior and immediately point to racism. There must be other reasons as to why people cannot accept this image of Hermione, like maybe it’s hard to adjust to a new version of Hermione after Emma Watson’s iconic performance. But, sometimes people just give the two arguments I listed above, and nothing else. Honestly, I can’t answer that question myself, even though I rack my brain and try to be understanding. Instead, I just want to ask those who can’t stomach this version of Hermione one question: “why does it hurt you that Hermione could be black ?” Because I know that it can hurt to not have the possibility she could be black.

Interpreting Hermione as black isn’t trying to overshadow the word of the author nor the performance of the original actress. Rather, she’s enhancing a beloved work of fiction by making it more personal to a group of people who may feel isolated by the work. Even now, the majority of fiction leads in the fantasy genre are white, which can prevent readers who are not white (like myself) from feeling represented. And the few characters who aren’t white remain in the background and only are identified by a few aspects or traits. This new interpretation of Hermione is a proposition for a future of literature where more characters are not white.