While Hermione's actions have certainly been of a heroic nature in many portions of the HP books (I don't disagree with that at all), the same can be said of Ron. (And in OotP the rest of the sextet--Neville, Luna and Ginny--also behave heroically.) If Harry's two chief sidekicks (which they are, despite numerous heroic acts) were all males, I doubt that anyone would be saying that the books have THREE heroes. They have one hero: Harry. In fact, that's one reason that I strongly dislike the word "heroine." If Hermione WERE at the center of a book or series of books I believe that the correct term for her would in fact be the HERO. But she is not at the center of the books, which is something that this theory of hero/heroine does not recognize.
In fact, in my literary research, I have most often found people writing about romance novels talking about the heroine getting her hero in the end, as though the man that the female protagonist ends up eventually is "heroic" just by dint of being with the female protagonist. (This use of hero/heroine to mean the male and female counterparts of each other in a piece of fiction does not, in fact, appear in the dictionary, despite its widespread use.) I think that if the female protagonist does in fact behave heroically then SHE is the hero, and if she has a love interest who is a male then he is the love interest, not necessarily the hero.
The same is true of Harry. He is the center of the story and the hero/protagonist. Hermione and Ron are his sidekicks. When and if he has another female love interest (Cho was certainly not a heroine) she will be just that--the love interest. She may ALSO be someone who behaves heroically and could be viewed as a heroine using the definition of someone who displays heroic qualities, but only Harry is at the center of the HP series when all is said and done.
The theory proposed in this essay is that Hermione is ALREADY "the" heroine of the series, and that Harry must therefore be with her because he is the hero, so it just makes sense. This is not so; if some other male character ends up with Hermione (no, I'm not shipping R/Hr--been there and done that) he does not become the hero, and if some other female character is paired with Harry she does not become the heroine. If you want to go with the "heroic" definition of "heroine," then Hermione can be called A heroine, but Ginny and Luna can each be called A heroine as well. None of them are THE heroine, as proposed here.
Re: Hermione is not the heroine
In fact, in my literary research, I have most often found people writing about romance novels talking about the heroine getting her hero in the end, as though the man that the female protagonist ends up eventually is "heroic" just by dint of being with the female protagonist. (This use of hero/heroine to mean the male and female counterparts of each other in a piece of fiction does not, in fact, appear in the dictionary, despite its widespread use.) I think that if the female protagonist does in fact behave heroically then SHE is the hero, and if she has a love interest who is a male then he is the love interest, not necessarily the hero.
The same is true of Harry. He is the center of the story and the hero/protagonist. Hermione and Ron are his sidekicks. When and if he has another female love interest (Cho was certainly not a heroine) she will be just that--the love interest. She may ALSO be someone who behaves heroically and could be viewed as a heroine using the definition of someone who displays heroic qualities, but only Harry is at the center of the HP series when all is said and done.
The theory proposed in this essay is that Hermione is ALREADY "the" heroine of the series, and that Harry must therefore be with her because he is the hero, so it just makes sense. This is not so; if some other male character ends up with Hermione (no, I'm not shipping R/Hr--been there and done that) he does not become the hero, and if some other female character is paired with Harry she does not become the heroine. If you want to go with the "heroic" definition of "heroine," then Hermione can be called A heroine, but Ginny and Luna can each be called A heroine as well. None of them are THE heroine, as proposed here.