Why is Hermione not a Ravenclaw? Everyone knows she’s the smartest witch in her year, the one who's studied everything there is to know about the Wizarding world and learns spells faster than everyone else. She should be in the House “where those of wit and learning will always find their kind”, shouldn’t she?
Well, no, I don't really think so. There are three reasons that lead me to believe Hermione was ultimately better suited to Gryffindor. And no, none of them have anything to do with every main character being automatically placed in Gryffindor – although looking at it strictly from a writer's point of view, it's definitely more convenient for all of Harry's closest friends to be in the same House as him, but that's not the angle we're looking at right now.
First, Gryffindor is where Hermione wanted the Sorting Hat to put her. She says it herself: “I hope I’m in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best….” Next thing we know, that’s exactly where she's Sorted. It's a point made time and time again in the series – the Sorting Hat puts you where you most want to be, or at least takes that strongly into account. Every time we see any character talking about where they hope they're going to be Sorted, they always end up in that exact House. (Which is why, if it's true Neville asked the Sorting Hat to place him in Hufflepuff, I can only believe what really happened is he secretly wanted Gryffindor, but was also scared of being in such a brave and daring House and possibly thought he wasn't good enough. Otherwise that's inconsistent with everything we know about the Sorting Hat. But that's another story.)
And Hermione probably hoped for Gryffindor in part because she valued their character traits the most and wanted to become more like them. I firmly support the fan theory that the Sorting Hat cares more about what traits you value than which ones you already have. This method makes more sense for Sorting eleven-year-olds anyway – they won't have fully developed their potential yet, so of course you would Sort them into whichever House will help them become who they want to be. Towards the end of The Philosopher's Stone, Hermione states: “Me! Books! And cleverness! There are more important things - friendship, and bravery….” However smart she was, it was Gryffindor's value of bravery that Hermione really admired, and probably wished she had more of.
But even apart from Hermione's own preferences, I believe she would not have been suited to Ravenclaw anyway. I believe that Hermione's smarts were not the kind valued by Ravenclaw House. Hermione has book smarts. She gets top grades and is always the first to master every spell. But when do we ever hear of any actual Ravenclaw doing that? Our most famous Ravenclaw, Luna Lovegood, is never associated with books or good grades or anything like that, but she keeps an open mind about everyone and everything, to the point of accepting virtually any idea so long as it is not irrefutably proven false. Hermione struggles with any branch of magic that requires her to feel things out, rather than simply learn from a book. Whenever she is asked to accept anything that doesn’t fit into her preconceived notions of what’s already possible, she won’t do it. She never strays outside the limits of her own knowledge, and almost seems scared to do so. I believe that Rowena Ravenclaw was looking for a more creative, openminded attitude towards learning and knowledge. The desire and ability to continually learn will be severely limited if you cut off any options outside your existing sphere of knowledge. I don’t believe that Hermione is perfect for Ravenclaw, as I have heard others claim, especially as I see no evidence that any other Ravenclaw is particularly booksmart. Also, Hermione is stated to be the brightest witch of her year, not just the brightest Gryffindor, implying that none of that year's Ravenclaws were as brilliant at school as Hermione. If Ravenclaws were supposed to be booksmart and good at school, surely at least some of them would have outdone Hermione in lessons?
Of course, I'm not going to just ignore the part where Terry Boot, a Ravenclaw boy, is surprised Hermione is not in his House with brains like hers, and Hermione tells him that the Sorting Hat did seriously consider putting her in Ravenclaw. Just like the Sorting Hat gave Harry the chance to develop his potential for greatness in Slytherin, which Harry chose not to take, Hermione had the option of expanding her knowledge in Ravenclaw. I don't believe Ravenclaw would have helped Hermione with the booksmarts she already had or made her any better at schoolwork. Hermione didn't need any help with that. I believe it would have pushed the limits of her thinking, opening her eyes to new concepts she might not have thought possible, pushing her towards new, more openminded and creative ways of thinking. And I think that would have made Hermione very uncomfortable. She wouldn't want to start wondering whether Nargles really exist or whether it might be possible to talk to dead people. She wants to stay in her nice comfortable world you can get a handle on by reading enough books. But she also has the option to develop some of that Gryffindor bravery she's heard so much about, and that she is interested in. It's even possible, though this is just a theory, that since she talks about “friendship and bravery”, she sees Gryffindor as the most likely place to make friends, which, considering she didn't have any friends at the beginning of the series, would have been a very important factor.
And I think it was all this together that made the Sorting Hat look through Hermione’s mind, think about putting her in Ravenclaw, and ultimately decide she was better suited to Gryffindor.
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