The rest of dinner passes similarly. Hermione's parents are comfortably middle-class, but they don't have inherited wealth: her maternal great-grandparents were Welsh coal miners. As such, her parents are intensely insecure about their place in society, and they view Hermione's impending medical career as the pinnacle of the Granger family's achievements. She shudders at the thought of how they'd have reacted if she'd said she wanted to study some ridiculous arts discipline like Classics.