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In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Hermione leaves the class of Professor Trelawney.

There was no mention of any consequences or punishments received by Hermione for walking out of the class mid-lesson. If there were no consequences then why didn't any other students leave the class?

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  • See also scifi.stackexchange.com/a/35496/4918 which argues that a special exception was made for Hermione.
    – b_jonas
    Commented Mar 20, 2017 at 11:19
  • She was a teacher's pet. What is permitted to Jupiter....
    – DVK-on-Ahch-To
    Commented Mar 20, 2017 at 17:47
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    The question asks about a consequence of leaving class mid-lesson, but the accepted answer addresses why she was allowed to drop it. The two are not necessarily related: It's still rude to leave mid-class, even if you intend on never coming back. If the accepted answer does address what you want to know, please update the question to reflect that.
    – Bobson
    Commented Mar 20, 2017 at 20:54
  • ...I mean, whatever stops her from messing with the timeline...
    – xDaizu
    Commented Mar 21, 2017 at 8:39

2 Answers 2

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Because Divination was an elective...

At the end of their second year at Hogwarts, students are required to choose a minimum of two more subjects from the following list: Arithmancy, Muggle Studies, Divination, Study of Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures.

Hermione was not required to take Divination in the first place! This is because she was already above the requirement of two electives.

The other students would not have had the option to drop the class if they were only taking the minimum of two electives. Thanks to the @The Dark Lord in the comments for completing the thought.

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    Yeah, I've only seen the movies, but in those it seemed to me the other students probably thought it was a bit of a slack off class, an easy credit. Hermione wasn't interested in ticking a box, she wanted to use her time to actually learn.
    – delinear
    Commented Mar 20, 2017 at 11:59
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    It was an elective but, as your quote shows, electives were compulsory. Hermione got out of doing Divination because she was taking way more than two extras. If she was just taking Care of Magical Creatures and Divination (like Harry and Ron) then she may well have been forced to come back or, at a bare minimum, take up another subject in its place.
    – The Dark Lord
    Commented Mar 20, 2017 at 13:35
  • @TheDarkLord But that was the year Hermoine used time turners to take more classes than she had time, so she had plenty of electives completed.
    – DonyorM
    Commented Mar 20, 2017 at 14:51
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    @DonyorM Exactly. The point being that if she hadn't been taking more than two extra subjects then she wouldn't have been able to give up Divination. The Time-Turner made Hermione a special case. Saying "Divination was not mandatory" is, to my mind, incorrect. It was was mandatory to the kids taking only two elective subjects since that was the minimum requirement.
    – The Dark Lord
    Commented Mar 20, 2017 at 15:05
  • @TheDarkLord Oh sorry, I must have misread your comment. Right on! :)
    – DonyorM
    Commented Mar 20, 2017 at 15:09
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She had two additional classes on her timetable (due to the Time-Turner) so she was, as far as I know, the only student who could drop a class and still have more than enough other classes to go to. It was Hermione herself who asked for these additional classes, so she is free to drop them.

By the way, she drops another two classes (Arithmancy, and maybe muggle studies I think) by the end of her third year.

What is more, she is a favourite with many of the teachers so she could get away with doing far worse than walking out of Divination without consequences...

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    Every teacher's favourite? I think a certain potions master might disagree with you ;)
    – DisturbedNeo
    Commented Mar 20, 2017 at 10:07
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    She dropped Muggle Studies, considering she's a Muggleborn (or whatever the non-derogatory term is for a witch/wizard born from Muggle parents.)
    – Nzall
    Commented Mar 20, 2017 at 14:04
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    She actually took ALL the possible classes during her third year. So she had 3 more than required.
    – Weckar E.
    Commented Mar 20, 2017 at 14:14
  • Forgot about the third, thanks !
    – Nyny
    Commented Mar 20, 2017 at 14:19
  • @Nzall Child of the magically impaired?
    – can-ned_food
    Commented Mar 21, 2017 at 4:10

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