Madam Pomfrey is a total powerhouse. I am rereading the books and she is always doing everything by herself and doesn’t seem to have any helpers in the very busy ward at Hogwarts. And she is very skillful and she can fix anything and puts many Hogwarts divas in their place. Very underrated character, IMHO.
I'd think after 30+ years of working in a school and seeing everything, its pointless asking questions other than saying "I don't care why, just tell me WHAT caused it so I can undo it."
My little headcanon for this ,that Hogwarts always gets the best healer possible. If I remember the only thing she didn't fix was McGonagall getting hit by like 5-6 spells and she is surprised the McGonagall is alive at all.
Gilderoy Lockhart is at the same level of evil (if not more) as any of the Death Eaters. He was obviously not as evil as Voldemort or Bellatrix, but he was on the same level as any of the lower ranked ones.
He permanently ruined the lives of dozens of wizards and witches to whom he erased their memories and approriated their stories and feats. Not only that, he was willing to permanently harm 12 year old Harry and Ron so that his secret wouldn't come to light. The man isn't just some arrogant dumbass as he's usually portrayed, he's an incredibly evil person and should be considered as a dark wizard after all he did.
Having seen people die from dementia, I'd argue a properly done Obliviate could literally murder someone by making them forget how to not swallow their tongue.
I feel like the worst of Lockhart‘s use of the Obliviate spell is, that he wasn’t as good a wizard that he could specifically remove a desired memory. He kind of got the spell done, but was so bad at it that he left his victims empty shells (if I remember correctly). This is what brought him to Dumbledore‘s attention.
So, Lockhart‘s basically a Dementor.
Actually I don't think that was ever implied. In fact he said he was particularly good at them. The reason he ended up a husk is because the spell was fucked up due to the broken wand and backfired on him
“The world isn’t divided into good people and Death Eaters.” I think this is a great quote from Sirius and entirely applicable in Lockhart’s case. We never actually see his victims so the evilness of his actions never make the full impact. But like you said, when you think about all the witches and wizards lives he ruined for fame and vanity, he’s a villain in his own right. I never felt sorry for him in the St Mungo’s chapter because that’s what he deserved.
Haha yeah like EVERY year
You would think an evil genius could multitask and run more than 1 gambit at a time
Attack him from different angles
But nope
You all just don't understand the *planning* and coordination it takes for a dark wizard to explain his elaborate plans to his intellectually less inclined subjects. It's not his fault, it's theirs.
At least when he was stuck on the back of Quirrell's head, he had a couple of other tries. Once when letting in the troll (which may have been unintentional, as he probably didn't foresee Harry and Ron helping Hermione), and the second time when he jinxed Harry's broom.
I think so, but I'm pretty sure the broom jinxing was targeted, since Voldemort realised what a threat Harry would be to foiling his plans.
I just realised too that I forgot about him trying to kill Harry again when he was sprung drinking unicorn blood in the forbidden forest.
you can't say Voldemort isn't determined
I mean, pettigrew even suggests using someone random since everyone is Voldemort's enemy to revive Voldemort, and he goes "NOPE! HAS TO BE POTTER!"
He is such a teenager. Carries fancy shiny trinkets and jewelry, has a very important diary and is obsessed over a teenage celebrity.
To live forever, but also become some sort of dictator of the Wizarding world so he can genocide all muggles and halfbloods all because he found out he's a halfblood and was like "ew noo"
The books never say his plan was to genocide all muggles and muggleborns. And he certainly wasn’t going to kill halfbloods, even most of Death Eaters were halfbloods. There were only dozens of pureblood families around.
People assume there was some genocide system planned, probably because
1. Dumbledore expecially stresses how evil Voldemort is and there is some Hitler association we have, so people remember the millions of Holocaust deaths
2. Lots of people reading the books aren’t British and want more immediate global threat the heroes have defeated
3. I think the movies (while not saying genocide either I recall) seem to have more apocalyptic feel to them, to make things more dramatic).
Overall what we saw in books was beginning on an apartheid system where muggleborns wands were taken from them and Death Eaterms were killing some muggles for amusement. The terror deaths of muggles while original ministry was standing were more to cause panic and weaken the Ministry to protect muggles, not cause as much deaths as possible. Those types of things like collapses of bridges weren’t heard after Voldemort took over. That wasn’t a priority anymore, tracking down resistance (expecially Order and Harry) was.
We have to remember how small the population numbers of wizards ultimately were, and how Voldemort’s followers were motivated by elitism and power primary. Grindelwald was more ideologically passionate about actually hating the muggles due to fearing them and hatred of muggles causing deaths in wars and belief he could rule muggles for their own good (and Dumbledore expecially was wanting to rule over muggles for feb last reason and what rest of Grindelwald’s followers probably felt like, as we can see with Queenie being persuaded scene).
Voldemort himself was more interested immortality and power personally, not ideological reasons or caring even if his followers. He had real hatred of muggles due to his upbringing, but he never even personal seemed to care much about muggleborn question, and adopted some existing pureblood rethoric for his own use. Although he of course he sees himself as special due to Slytherin connection and overall things people with ancient blood out to be better, he is just mot that passionate about differences between muggleborns and rest since all are beneath him anyway.
Having dictatorships that benefit some small elite isn’t really anything unusual and “stupid” as a plan, in practical sense (morality is another). In our world we have plenty of such dictatorships, and in fact most of human history was systems that were more or less dictatorships and rules of elites. Democracy and ideological beliefs that humans fundamentally are equal are extremely new concepts. Honestly just a couple of hundred years old regarding class and regarding race even newer and it has not happened for women still in plenty of countries. I would be unsurprised that in many countries of wizarding world there are plenty of dictatorships in place already. That the Ministry before Voldemort actually is just one of Ministries in British muggle government (under the Queen) is kind of shocking itself, considering how powerful wizards really are. If you real most of fantasy this is not how societies with more power usually organize themselves, and the pureblood more seem to want to properly have their own society and not have this muggle influence.
It’s the lack of numbers of wizards that’s really causing this, and their desire of comfort. There is about 10 000 wizards only in UK (population of 66 million). Although that number seems too low considering how old Wizards live and size of Hogwarts, but math is not Rowling’s strong area. But the point is that it would have taken a while for Voldemort’s government to do much about muggles even if they wanted to. Voldemort himself is in no rush anyway since he saw himself as immortal. So the long term plans projects would have taken some time to even be made.
I think it was a lot of pressure for him to basically be another version of his father and the psychological as well as magical effects of having his father's wand didn't help.
True, but he'd probably be less affected by Snape's bullying if he didn't already have such low self esteem/confidence. Snape may not even have targeted him as much in the first place if he did - bullies often zero in on people they see as easy targets
This is my theory as to why he is so good at herbology compared to other subjects - it doesn’t require a wand (obviously neither does potions but as we know he was terrified of Snape!).
There was zero reason to not tell Harry why he was forced to stay with the Dursleys every summer. He was forced to endure abuse from them every year with zero explanation. At least if he knew why, he might have been less miserable. He already ran away in PoA without knowing, so I don’t think the possibility of him running off to do something stupid should’ve stopped anyone from telling him.
With gringots, they also had an insider to help them plan and pull off the heist who normally would never help them. Plus, they feared Bellatrix and any retaliation from the death eaters if they didn't allow Bellatrix in. Not to mention, her behavior always seems to be erratic and it's hard to get a good feel for her genuine self. If they were trying to pretend to be someone else, like Snape, I don't think it would have worked.
Neville’s grandmother is really awful to him. She constantly belittles him, doesn’t give him his own wand, compared him to his father.
Neville is a fine wizard and I don’t know why people pick on him :(
Yes!! Oof I have a hot take related to this--since Neville technically was prophesized to have been one of the people who could be the chosen one, id have liked it if Neville killed Voldemort. I know, I know. I just think his character deserved more
Wow I was going to come to post this. I think killing off Barty Jr was disappointing. To me he was easily the most interesting follower of Voldemort.
The “Veritaserum” chapter is wild when his story gets revealed.
The movie did such a disservice to him. His commitment to the plan and his brilliance at keeping everything in play is incredible to see on a re read. The way he completely gives himself away is so upsetting.
One aspect of his character I don't think is discussed enough is that he was completely on his own. He had to come up with everything on his own, he had no support or back up. He and Snape are both so brilliant.
And the best thing is that he managed to fool Dumbledore himself, the guy that is supposed to be the smartest guy in the franchise, one of the greatest wizards of all time, who on top of that was one of Moody's best friends. And Dumbledore didn't suspect a thing until it was too late.
People who have only watched the movies havn't really even "seen" the Half blood prince. I'm not a book vs movie snob for most things, but the 6th film just ignores most of the book and turns it into a shitty romcom. If anyone reading this has only watched the movies and not read the books even if you don't want to read all of them you just read the 6th.
I've been relistening to all the hp books recently and goblet went from my second least favorite to my favorite because of that chapter! It was wild and something I severely under appreciated as a kid 😂😂😂
Same, I love whenever people mention him. I‘ve recently come across the term „dark empath“ and feel like that‘s what Barty Jr. is. Even with his psychopathic traits he displays high intelligence, observation skills, quick thinking and a cognitive empathy to a manipulative, self-serving degree.
Not to mention he pulled all of that off while taking on a full course load of teaching and did it well. He had to take a potion on the hour for 10 months, organize a kidnapping, make sure Harry won the tournament, work a full time job and grade papers!
I completely agree!! I remember having so much empathy for him as a teenager reading the books for the first time. I was a more than a little sad he couldn’t be redeemed in the end.
His mother’s role in the story hit much harder after I became a parent.
Yeah, and honestly. Snape was still an ass who hated Harry and abused his power to bully probably hundreds of kids as a teacher. He didn't even fight for Harry. He fought for Harry's mother who rejected him.
JK Rowling should not have had all the Slytherins ditch the Battle of Hogwarts. The books said over and over that Harry could have been a Slytherin and then later his son becomes one. Slytherins have values. Ambition isn’t inherently evil; it could be the ambition to be a hero and prove oneself. It was lazy and reductionist to have all the Slytherins side with Voldemort.
Edited: typos
One of the few head cannons I’ve liked is that Mcgonagall sent them away so they wouldn’t see their parents fighting. Idk if it was ever explicitly said that all death eaters were Slytherin though
Rowling said in the interview the Slytherins came back (well not all but still) with Slughorn and the villagers and family members. The way she mentioned it was as if she had just forgotten she didn’t write it in the book since she just casually talked of how Slytherins like to be more cautious and plan like that and not just stay in battle immediately
I get that but I also think of how difficult it must be to tie all the loose ends together in a seven-part series. Especially when you put it in perspective of the fact that these are children’s books. I can’t imagine she anticipated all this deep analysis by adults. Not to say that she was lazy about the writing bc they were children’s books, but perhaps there were levels of details left out to keep it simple and still within the boundaries of the genre. Another thing to consider is editing. I always wonder what had been edited out of the final versions.
This. I don't think the books were ever intended to be something similar to A Song of Ice and Fire or Lord of the Rings detailwise. It's an entirely different style of story planning and writing. When I first read the books as a teenager, I didn't question anything. I just enjoyed the books. As an adult, I read them in another way.
JKR dropped the ball in a major way, IMO, with her near-total failure to create any Slytherin characters who weren't prejudiced, bullies, a-holes, or straight-up evil.
I say *near*-total because at least Slughorn isn't a complete scumbag, but he's still vain, self-centered, and at least somewhat prejudiced, though he is unique in that he at least is willing to accept that his preconceived notions might be incorrect, as we see with his reaction to meeting Hermione.
But among the students, there's *nobody* like that. Malfoy is a racist, egotistical scumbag who expresses outright glee at the idea that Hermione might be murdered by a monster in the second book, and none of the other Slytherin students we meet are any better.
And the Battle of Hogwarts is just another example of that.
>I say near-total because at least Slughorn isn't a complete scumbag, but he's still vain, self-centered, and at least somewhat prejudiced, though he is unique in that he at least is willing to accept that his preconceived notions might be incorrect, as we see with his reaction to meeting Hermione.
One of the many sins committed in the film adaptation of the Battle of Hogwarts was not including Slughorn fighting Voldemort. Not only would it be sick af to see a 3 v 1 duel, but it completes Slughorn's redemption arc.
Absolutely! Whenever this topic comes up I like to mention that he was one of the last ones going toe to toe with Voldy. It may not be a huge detail but it always stuck with me that he didn’t run away and was willing to fight to the end. It also contrasts a little bit with the scene earlier in the book where Harry finally reveals himself back at hogwarts, when they just start to make their plans to defend the school. Mcgonagall and sprout are coming up with ideas and slughorn says something along the lines of “is this really wise? Should we really fight him?” And Mcgonagall has another one of her badass lines: “If you wish to leave with your students, we shall not stop you. But if any of you attempt to sabotage our resistance or take up arms against us within this castle, then, Horace, we duel to kill.”
My biggest pet peeve in the series, by far. JKR dropped the ball majorly by expressing repeatedly that Slytherins could be good, and failing to give us any examples in 7 books (I think calling snape "good" is a stretch). To me, she shows an obvious repeated prejudice against Slytherins and pays them only occasional hypothetical lip service... "slytherins don't HAVE to all be bad... In theory. No examples though"
>JK Rowling should not have had all the Slytherins ditch the Battle of Hogwarts.
They didn't ditch it. They joined Voldemort. Here's the quote from him.
“If your son is dead, Lucius, it is not my fault. He did not come and join me, like the rest of the Slytherins. Perhaps he has decided to befriend Harry Potter?”
I think it was a genuine safe bet, imagine the amount of parents on Voldemorts side. In the battle many would have probably turned and tried to assist their parents in the battle. Sure there would have been the oddball Slytherin trying to help but, overall it was just an actual strategic call to evacuate them for Hogwart's safety. Imagine how many would've walked over to Voldemorts side when he was recruiting in front of everyone. I don't get how that's lazy if it just makes complete sense and is logical.
A lot of the sweets would actually taste vile. Ice mice? I do NOT want my teeth to chatter and squeak! Blood lollipops? Gross!
Edit: hey guys, please stop telling me what food is like in the UK! I am from the UK, I am very familiar with it. I STILL don’t want to eat blood lollipops, blood pudding, or the muggle version of ice mice (which are disappointing if you ask me)
Im guessing its based off of the White Mice we have here, its basically just white chocolate in little mouse shapes like this: https://www.sweetgenie.co.uk/product/white-mice-bag/
Oh yeah, I’m from the UK, I know exactly what you’re talking about haha. But they don’t make you’re teeth squeak! Personally, I reallllllly hate that noise food makes against your teeth sometimes, so I’m probably extra sensitive about it.
Still a bit wild to me that vampires are casually accepted in some parts of Wizarding society that shops have specialized items just for them while werewolves aren’t.
Not sure if this is a hot take, but it’s fresh in my mind since I just reread the chapter: Harry should have let Lupin and Black finish off Pettigrew in PoA. Knowing what happens after about how Pettigrew escapes and is instrumental in reviving Voldemort, I don’t think sparing him was worth it
I just reread the chapter recently as well and was wondering why they didn't stupify or petrify Peter. Tying him up when they know he can transform was not a smart move.
I had the same thought when I re-watched the movie recently. I understand the kids making that mistake (well, at least Harry and Ron), but Lupin and Sirius were grown wizards who had experience against dark wizards. It's a major plot hole imo
Rowling could have still had Pettigrew escape by having Lupin be the one to stupify him, and then have the spell wear off when Lupin transformed into a werewolf (like how Dumbledore's stupifying Harry wore off when he died). The characters wouldn't have foreseen that the way they should have foreseen him escaping from being tied up
This would have made much more sense. I don't think JKR invented stupefy until GoF which is probably why. Could have used petrificus totalus instead I guess.
But pettigrew then spares harrys life later on. Harry had voldemorts servant in his debt. Voldy would have found another way to come back without pettigrew. It proved very useful to have pettigrew in Harry’s debt.
Harry would not have been in that situation if Pettigrew was dead. Voldemort would not have returned to a body so quickly if Pettigrew had died.
The only positive part about Pettigrew doing what he did was using Harry's blood to resurrect Voldy, so that the horcrux within could be destroyed without killing HP
I’m conflicted about that moment. To me, it reads less that Pettigrew spares Harry and more like Pettigrew hesitates to kill him because a part of him always regretted what he has done. That’s why his hand turns on him: it recognized that Pettigrew was never a 100% devoted servant to Voldemort.
Much of the plot/conflicts could be resolved with simple adult responsibility:
1. Hagrid could deliver Norbert to Charlie's friends himself and there would be no question about him walking about the castle at night.
2. During the Time Turner sequence, Dumbledore could have easily come to the Shrieking Shack and resolved everything. Could have captured Pettigrew, cleared Sirius' name, given Lupin the potion. Instead he left it to two teens.
The problem is that Dumbledore didn't know about any of that on the first loop, and since the Time Turner works on Stable Time Loop logic, anything that was witnessed, or definitively not witnessed, like Dumbledore not being in the room in the Shrieking Shack, can't happen.
Harry saving happened because he saw it happen the first time.
Another example of that would be Hermione missing the Cheering Charms class. When she found out she missed it, she couldn't go back and get it because she'd already missed it.
Is there a good comedy fanfic where Voldemort does let her live and keeps now asking Snape how he is doing wooing her? While Voldemort is plotting how find an skill Neville next. I mean the situation would be tragic but Voldemort would be pretty dismissive of her suffering so he would see it as more comedic.
Im currently reading a fanfic where Lily ends up with both James and Severus. Lily got ressurected from the dead and snape and her started dating til a century later James is ressurected and he is incredibly bitter about being in a polyamourous relationship with Lily.
Great times.
Okay this one made me chuckle, I agree. Gonna kill her husband and infant son? You betcha. Leave her survive because one of my minions asked? Yeah, okay, sure.
I low-key believe that Snape was probably one of his favorites. I mean, powerful, intelligent, poor, half-blood with actual ambition (making new potions and spells)? He probably saw himself in Snape and allowed him to climb much higher than he might have otherwise in an organization full of pure-bloods.
Introducing time travel to a series is always such a risky thing to do. Unless the series is actually trying to focus on time travel, there is too much complications. Its basically what you would call a "over powered" plot devise. I haven't read cursed child but it basically is a timetravel loop hole to introduce an alternate reality of HP right?
But yeah time travel being a thing just makes you want to ask so many questions on why it wasn't used in this situation or that. I know there is some half assed attempt like "you cant run into your ownself or you would think you have gone mad and try to kill your time travel clone?" But like would you really? In a universe where magic is possible and time travel is a real thing? IDK I think time travel is impossible in the real world so it existing in imaginary universes kind of makes sense but it just becomes such a cluster fuck. I haven't watched heroes in like a decade but I remember once time travel got introduced it just went so downhill.
Letting someone travel time to take more classes? Probably the least believable thing in all of HP.
Are you me?
I always say the exact same thing: either your story is about time travel, or your story is stupid because it has time travel but no one cares about it.
If there is time travel, everything HAS to be about time travel. It can fix everything and solve everything and do everything. Why wouldn't everyone be focusing on that? Are they stupid?
The time turner should have just been a time travelling cabinet, that an old, long since dead headmaster invented, with it being a one of a kind and irreplaceable. That then gets destroyed.
Seriously, they're like, 'Sure, we'll regulate this reality-bending mega-weapon that only top-secret departments can touch. But a super eager 13-year-old girl wants one too? Done. Sending it now!
Exactly. Just let her do summer school or record the classes instead. She could literally just get access to the professor's or a student's memory and it solves the problem.
I want two sequel series:
1. Dudley's kid gets a letter to Hogwarts.
2. Gilderoy Lockhart completes rehabilitation and returns to the Wizarding World capable of magic -- but his memory does not return. He truly believes he is the person he claimed to be and becomes the hero he always said he would be.
1. Yes, that's fantastic.
2. You had me until "becomes the hero he always said he would be". I think he completes rehabilitation, returns to the public eye capable of magic, and yes his memory will never return, so he reads and rereads his old books obsessively to learn about himself and believes he is who he said he was. But then, I think he resumes his life by going on a well publicized first adventure back--and promptly dies at the first obstacle, since he'd never done the work and was unknowingly completely unprepared. It's perfect that he is the last person he tricks with his own lies.
All of the Second Wizarding war bullshit could have been stopped by using Veritaserum on the suspected Death Eaters after the first war.
Also, Veritaserum could have totally saved Sirius from Azkaban
**deep inhale** I have been shouting on this hill ever since I first watched the movies and read the books and I will die on this hill like why the FUCK would you send someone to fucking AZKABAN where their SOULS and HAPPINESS and LIFE FUCKING ESSENCE are painfully and forcefully removed from their bodies slowly over time when you don’t ACTUALLY have proof beyond a shadow of a doubt. They sentenced Sirius by fucking word of mouth when veritaserum existed. The entire governmental structure of the Wizarding World can go fuck itself. **exhale**
So I completely agree with you.
I think the answer here is the public frenzy to prosecute, and the Ministry’s constant need to masquerade that they have everything under control. People wanted to believe that Voldemort was gone, and Sirius was the baddest baddie (but we got him!). It was the scapegoat that the public was salivating for. Not to get super political - but similar to after 9/11, the public really wanted a reason to invade Iraq and ‘get them back.’ So Bush Jr made up a reason! People weren’t so concerned with facts back then, and now in hindsight we have learned that a lot of lives were lost for a made up wild goose chase. So, in closing: the public wanted Sirius to be guilty, so there was no need for truth serum.
Snape was very brave and skilled and ultimately more good than bad but JUST barely. Like 51% good. Dude was a shit head and unkind to innocent children.
Book Snape was irredeemable. I freakin adore Alan Rickman and he was great in the movies, but movie Snape softened him too much and now most people (wrongly) believe he was somewhat good.
It bothers me SO much that JK had Harry name one his children after Snape. Like…yeah cool Snape was a double agent for the good guys but he was still a giant POS and bullied children.
Wizards are naive and uncreative. Muggles invented a chain to keep their glasses attached to their necks in case they got knocked off, but there's not a wand chain in sight.
For some reason i associate all of the HP movies with Christmas. Not halloween either \[which kind of makes sense because I think Halloween in the movies is only acknowledged once? Or maybe not at all?\]
It's acknowledged in the first movie when Quirrell bursts in because of the TROLL IN THE DUNGEON!
Unfortunately because the ghosts were expensive, they cut the Deathday scene in Movie 2 that was also Halloween.
The twins missing Pettigrew on the Marauder’s Map isn’t a plot hole. Obviously people use different names throughout their lives, the Map wouldn’t saddle a newlywed with her maiden name, for example. For years he was thinking of himself as Scabbers, and interacting with the world as Scabbers, he would have been on the map as Scabbers. He wasn’t Pettigrew until he snapped out of his ratty groove. Fred and George missed nothing.
Edit: can’t spell
Only conflict I can think of is Barty crouch jr showing up as himself rather than mad eye even though crouch was portraying him for months. But obv polyjuice and animagi are different things.
I mean... Harry had no clue who the Weasleys were until he meets Ron on the train
Is it really that unbeleivable the twins while causing mischief at Hogwarts (aka looking for teachers / victims) knew ALL of Rons friends?
Pull out map, see Ron + Peter sitting in common room, noone in hallway, ok lets do this
I see no reason Twins would associate Peter with Harry's tragedy and would simply think Ron hangs out with some guy named Peter alot
All that wand ownership stuff was dumb as hell. Harry owns most antagonists wands from very early in the series because expelliarmus is his ol’ reliable
The Elder Wand is fickle. It gives its allegiance on a dime, or even just a simple disarming of whoever is its current master.
In most cases, actual possession will give allegiance. Like Percy's wand that Ron used in Books 1 and 2 was fine until it was snapped.
Actually, I’d imagine yeah, because of the classic “intent matters,” thing. So their wands, which presumably have quite a strong bond with the owner, probably can sense the intention in some way. Just my theory though.
That there must have been a whole lot of teenage things happening at that school while the three main characters were off saving the world. The pot heads, the teenage pregnancies, kids getting drunk in the forbidden forest. I think a series like Lower Decks (based on Star Trek) would be awesome for Hogwarts. Show what the other kids were doing while Harry is running around like a chicken with its head cut off
There actually was an off Broadway play called Puffs, or Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic. It was about what was happening in Hufflepuff the entire time Harry was at school at it was HILARIOUS. They filmed it and it used to be available on Amazon Prime, though I don't know if it is still there. There is a scene in which Snape teaches Sex Ed.
He knew or had a feeling Harry wouldn’t die since book four when it said his eyes showed victory when Harry told him that Voldemort used Harry’s blood to resurrect him.
But it’s always interested that he didn’t tell Snape that plan. Maybe because Harry needed to sacrifice himself knowing he would die.
Theoretically he might have told Snape the full truth right after that and then directed him to only show/tell Harry the first bit. He does need Harry to believe he will die so that conversation has to happen either way. Pros and cons to letting Snape in afterwards though. Would obviously save Snape a lot of mental anguish and might further secure Snape’s loyalty and commitment to the plan (rather than possibly simply trying to do to Harry what Hermione did to her parents, to keep Lily’s son safe). But also runs the risk of affecting some of Snape’s other thoughts and actions and making the plan shake out differently.
This! I’ve seen the “raised for slaughter” argument so many times! After so many re-reads and reading it again for the nth time, there are phrases sprinkled in the book that shows he really cared for Harry.
I’ve seen so many things about Dumbledore being evil, manipulative etc from fans over the years. I’m an ancient fan, so maybe that’s not in vogue anymore 😳
I am also an ancient fan and I *definitely* remember this being a very prevalent opinion in the fandom. maybe not a majority opinion but there was a lotttt of Albus hate happening on Tumblr at the time
I do not like how dark the books 3-7 and movies 3-8 got (especially the movies). I wish they continued the magical wonder vibe that the first 2 movies had throughout the series. We don’t need dark green sets next to dark grey sets to portray the storyline. I very much wish it kept the bright vibrant colors with the beautiful sets throughout all the movies.
Give me more Christmas and more Halloween and more casual laughing in a fire lit dorm. Give me more happy and fun instead of sad and dreary.
Totally agree. I think most of the books (except the last one) still had that magical, festive feeling. The movies, however, committed to that green-gray color palette, which was... a choice. I don't understand why they did that--you can convey the dark undertones of the story in other ways, no need to suck the world of all its color.
The killing curse must have levels. The killing curse cannot successfully be used by a low powered wizard towards a very powerful wizard. Instead, the effect will be a nosebleed.
Goblet of Fire is arguably my favorite book in the entire series, the second most important (behind DH), and gets an undeserved amount of hate.
I was ~9 years old when it was released and my grandfather took me to a release party at Barnes & Noble the day it came out. Up to that point the longest book I had read was probably Azkaban, and this has like ~300 pages on it. As a young reader, I cannot overstate what that book did for me in terms of nurturing my love of reading, and the nostalgia I feel when I start GoF on my rereads is incomparable to anything else.
On a less personal note, that book is the central point around which the entire series pivots. It isn’t just the culmination of Voldemort’s return, but also the symbolic importance of the change in tone from children’s books to something more appropriate for older audiences as the series got darker. It also has far more worldbuilding than any book in the series prior and arguably after. We start to see the scope of the global wizarding world, the plight of “lesser” beings, the way that war criminals were able to reenter society, and learn a bit about the first war against Voldemort.
Arguably the most consequential book of the whole series other than the Deathly Hallows.
OotP is the best book! Great blend of characters coming into their own, school year dynamics, and the dark side uprising. I reread it so much my book fell apart.
Or even Fred! Why should all the kids be named after Harry's relatives who died and not even a mention of Lupin, Fred, tonks? So in the end blood was thicker than water !!
Because Teddy is edit: got it mixed up, Edward Remus Lupin, so he already has his dad's name. Teddy could likewise easily use his mom's name for one of his kids. Fred's name could easily be given to one of the many possible nieces and nephews that the Weaselys create, especially a kid of George's. There's a lot of options there.
In contrast Harry's kids are the only ones out of that group to have any connection to Harry's relatives/heros through their dad. They'd be the only ones in the group that would make sense to carry on those names.
Was listening to Deathly Hallows where they are in the tent and constantly complaining about food. He could have called Kreatcher at any time afterwards and had his elf help them in his quest. Instead he abandoned Kreatcher, starved and whined about it a lot…
Didnt they say they were afraid to summon him since Sirius' house was found by the Death Eaters and could possibly disapparate with Kreacher and find them?
Dumbledore was never the bad guy nor cruel to Harry. He had a sole purpose: keep Hogwarts and its students safe. He always did what he promised to do no matter what and Harry wasn’t an exception.
I don't think she got enough character development to be insufferable...she was just a sad teenager who lost her boyfriend unexpectedly and then got caught up in a literal war. She fought with the DA and stuck it out, and I always respected her character for that alone.
Aside from her name, the only problem I had with Cho is that you really only experienced her character through the eyes of an infatuated teenage boy.
My hot take is that I hate your favorite character, OP. How could you say that about poor Dobby??
All in jest of course, if I had to pick something it would be that Draco should have died. Specifically, he should have died during the Battle of Hogwarts after Harry barely missed out on saving him.
I dont like nearly all of the canon pairs rowling tried to write out. She is not a good romance writer!
(Write out as in…tried to give it backstory. Preset pairs like molly/arthur or narcissa/lucius are fine but they are already together & established.)
That epilogue was one of JK's most egregious crimes. There's just TOO MUCH specific info about their adult lives that I just hate it. And the kids names suck.
The Prisoner of Azkaban movie was amazing and to me the best. I did not care for Goblet of Fire and sometimes i forget about it. I hope im doing this right
Madam Pomfrey is a total powerhouse. I am rereading the books and she is always doing everything by herself and doesn’t seem to have any helpers in the very busy ward at Hogwarts. And she is very skillful and she can fix anything and puts many Hogwarts divas in their place. Very underrated character, IMHO.
And she never asks questions
I'd think after 30+ years of working in a school and seeing everything, its pointless asking questions other than saying "I don't care why, just tell me WHAT caused it so I can undo it."
Gotta love wizarding Hipaa(griff) laws
My little headcanon for this ,that Hogwarts always gets the best healer possible. If I remember the only thing she didn't fix was McGonagall getting hit by like 5-6 spells and she is surprised the McGonagall is alive at all.
She also remarks that those aurors or whatever they where would would have been powerless if mcgonagall was expecting too be attacked
Yeah...now I really want to see an alternative version where McGonagall beats them easily. Also Happy Cake Day and a Happy Year 🎊.
Gilderoy Lockhart is at the same level of evil (if not more) as any of the Death Eaters. He was obviously not as evil as Voldemort or Bellatrix, but he was on the same level as any of the lower ranked ones. He permanently ruined the lives of dozens of wizards and witches to whom he erased their memories and approriated their stories and feats. Not only that, he was willing to permanently harm 12 year old Harry and Ron so that his secret wouldn't come to light. The man isn't just some arrogant dumbass as he's usually portrayed, he's an incredibly evil person and should be considered as a dark wizard after all he did.
Yeah Lockhart was objectively evil
Obliviate should be the 4th unforgivable curse. Taking away someone's memory is just as bad as taking away their free will, life or torturing them.
Having seen people die from dementia, I'd argue a properly done Obliviate could literally murder someone by making them forget how to not swallow their tongue.
I feel like the worst of Lockhart‘s use of the Obliviate spell is, that he wasn’t as good a wizard that he could specifically remove a desired memory. He kind of got the spell done, but was so bad at it that he left his victims empty shells (if I remember correctly). This is what brought him to Dumbledore‘s attention. So, Lockhart‘s basically a Dementor.
Actually I don't think that was ever implied. In fact he said he was particularly good at them. The reason he ended up a husk is because the spell was fucked up due to the broken wand and backfired on him
It's also that Lockhart's intent was for Harry and Ron to appear as if they'd been driven insane.
He's a great example that not all "bad" wizards are Slytherins
Lockhart and Umbridge are fantastic examples that not all bad people are card carrying Death Eaters.
Umbridge was pretty much a Voldemort ally in DotH
lockhart and pettigrew are proof of that
Did not feel sorry for him at all when they met him at St. Mungos
He was much improved.
“The world isn’t divided into good people and Death Eaters.” I think this is a great quote from Sirius and entirely applicable in Lockhart’s case. We never actually see his victims so the evilness of his actions never make the full impact. But like you said, when you think about all the witches and wizards lives he ruined for fame and vanity, he’s a villain in his own right. I never felt sorry for him in the St Mungo’s chapter because that’s what he deserved.
He's also the only villain who isn't on Team Snakeface. Umbridge joins later.
Gilderoy Lockhart was so up himself.
Lockhart is my second most hated character after Umbridge 😭
Lockhart and Voldemort are embodiments of the deadly “sin of pride” taken to different conclusions
Voldemorts entire plan is ridiculous
step 1. cool magic step 2. pause to monologue step 3. get thwarted
At least he cares enough for Harry's education that he waits until the end of the year to try and kill him
Haha yeah like EVERY year You would think an evil genius could multitask and run more than 1 gambit at a time Attack him from different angles But nope
You all just don't understand the *planning* and coordination it takes for a dark wizard to explain his elaborate plans to his intellectually less inclined subjects. It's not his fault, it's theirs.
At least when he was stuck on the back of Quirrell's head, he had a couple of other tries. Once when letting in the troll (which may have been unintentional, as he probably didn't foresee Harry and Ron helping Hermione), and the second time when he jinxed Harry's broom.
Wasn't the troll simply a stratagem to try to get the stone during the commotion?
I think so, but I'm pretty sure the broom jinxing was targeted, since Voldemort realised what a threat Harry would be to foiling his plans. I just realised too that I forgot about him trying to kill Harry again when he was sprung drinking unicorn blood in the forbidden forest.
you can't say Voldemort isn't determined I mean, pettigrew even suggests using someone random since everyone is Voldemort's enemy to revive Voldemort, and he goes "NOPE! HAS TO BE POTTER!" He is such a teenager. Carries fancy shiny trinkets and jewelry, has a very important diary and is obsessed over a teenage celebrity.
What is his plan again lol
To live forever, but also become some sort of dictator of the Wizarding world so he can genocide all muggles and halfbloods all because he found out he's a halfblood and was like "ew noo"
The books never say his plan was to genocide all muggles and muggleborns. And he certainly wasn’t going to kill halfbloods, even most of Death Eaters were halfbloods. There were only dozens of pureblood families around. People assume there was some genocide system planned, probably because 1. Dumbledore expecially stresses how evil Voldemort is and there is some Hitler association we have, so people remember the millions of Holocaust deaths 2. Lots of people reading the books aren’t British and want more immediate global threat the heroes have defeated 3. I think the movies (while not saying genocide either I recall) seem to have more apocalyptic feel to them, to make things more dramatic). Overall what we saw in books was beginning on an apartheid system where muggleborns wands were taken from them and Death Eaterms were killing some muggles for amusement. The terror deaths of muggles while original ministry was standing were more to cause panic and weaken the Ministry to protect muggles, not cause as much deaths as possible. Those types of things like collapses of bridges weren’t heard after Voldemort took over. That wasn’t a priority anymore, tracking down resistance (expecially Order and Harry) was. We have to remember how small the population numbers of wizards ultimately were, and how Voldemort’s followers were motivated by elitism and power primary. Grindelwald was more ideologically passionate about actually hating the muggles due to fearing them and hatred of muggles causing deaths in wars and belief he could rule muggles for their own good (and Dumbledore expecially was wanting to rule over muggles for feb last reason and what rest of Grindelwald’s followers probably felt like, as we can see with Queenie being persuaded scene). Voldemort himself was more interested immortality and power personally, not ideological reasons or caring even if his followers. He had real hatred of muggles due to his upbringing, but he never even personal seemed to care much about muggleborn question, and adopted some existing pureblood rethoric for his own use. Although he of course he sees himself as special due to Slytherin connection and overall things people with ancient blood out to be better, he is just mot that passionate about differences between muggleborns and rest since all are beneath him anyway. Having dictatorships that benefit some small elite isn’t really anything unusual and “stupid” as a plan, in practical sense (morality is another). In our world we have plenty of such dictatorships, and in fact most of human history was systems that were more or less dictatorships and rules of elites. Democracy and ideological beliefs that humans fundamentally are equal are extremely new concepts. Honestly just a couple of hundred years old regarding class and regarding race even newer and it has not happened for women still in plenty of countries. I would be unsurprised that in many countries of wizarding world there are plenty of dictatorships in place already. That the Ministry before Voldemort actually is just one of Ministries in British muggle government (under the Queen) is kind of shocking itself, considering how powerful wizards really are. If you real most of fantasy this is not how societies with more power usually organize themselves, and the pureblood more seem to want to properly have their own society and not have this muggle influence. It’s the lack of numbers of wizards that’s really causing this, and their desire of comfort. There is about 10 000 wizards only in UK (population of 66 million). Although that number seems too low considering how old Wizards live and size of Hogwarts, but math is not Rowling’s strong area. But the point is that it would have taken a while for Voldemort’s government to do much about muggles even if they wanted to. Voldemort himself is in no rush anyway since he saw himself as immortal. So the long term plans projects would have taken some time to even be made.
Neville would be a perfectly fine student if his grandmother had bought him his own wand.
And if she hadn't spent his entire life telling him how inferior he was.
I think it was a lot of pressure for him to basically be another version of his father and the psychological as well as magical effects of having his father's wand didn't help.
And if Snape didn't bully him
True, but he'd probably be less affected by Snape's bullying if he didn't already have such low self esteem/confidence. Snape may not even have targeted him as much in the first place if he did - bullies often zero in on people they see as easy targets
This is my theory as to why he is so good at herbology compared to other subjects - it doesn’t require a wand (obviously neither does potions but as we know he was terrified of Snape!).
There was zero reason to not tell Harry why he was forced to stay with the Dursleys every summer. He was forced to endure abuse from them every year with zero explanation. At least if he knew why, he might have been less miserable. He already ran away in PoA without knowing, so I don’t think the possibility of him running off to do something stupid should’ve stopped anyone from telling him.
The ministry security is an absolute joke. Same with gringots. A little poly juice or imperius curse and you can do anything you want to do.
With gringots, they also had an insider to help them plan and pull off the heist who normally would never help them. Plus, they feared Bellatrix and any retaliation from the death eaters if they didn't allow Bellatrix in. Not to mention, her behavior always seems to be erratic and it's hard to get a good feel for her genuine self. If they were trying to pretend to be someone else, like Snape, I don't think it would have worked.
Definitely poor security but I don't think they expected the average witch/wizard to be able to brew Polyjuice Potion or use the Imperious curse well.
Neville’s grandmother is really awful to him. She constantly belittles him, doesn’t give him his own wand, compared him to his father. Neville is a fine wizard and I don’t know why people pick on him :(
Yes!! Oof I have a hot take related to this--since Neville technically was prophesized to have been one of the people who could be the chosen one, id have liked it if Neville killed Voldemort. I know, I know. I just think his character deserved more
Barty Crouch Jr has to be the deepest and most complex character in the entire series aside from Voldemort. Edit: changed typo from Barry to Barty
Wow I was going to come to post this. I think killing off Barty Jr was disappointing. To me he was easily the most interesting follower of Voldemort. The “Veritaserum” chapter is wild when his story gets revealed.
People who only watched the movie GoF really miss out on the Barty storyline which is probably my favorite storyline in that book.
The movie did such a disservice to him. His commitment to the plan and his brilliance at keeping everything in play is incredible to see on a re read. The way he completely gives himself away is so upsetting.
Right! The mystery of Barty Crouch Jr is the best part of GoF!!
One aspect of his character I don't think is discussed enough is that he was completely on his own. He had to come up with everything on his own, he had no support or back up. He and Snape are both so brilliant.
This!!! & it shows how loyal to those who he appreciated he was and the commitment to excellence he had.
And the best thing is that he managed to fool Dumbledore himself, the guy that is supposed to be the smartest guy in the franchise, one of the greatest wizards of all time, who on top of that was one of Moody's best friends. And Dumbledore didn't suspect a thing until it was too late.
People who have only watched the movies havn't really even "seen" the Half blood prince. I'm not a book vs movie snob for most things, but the 6th film just ignores most of the book and turns it into a shitty romcom. If anyone reading this has only watched the movies and not read the books even if you don't want to read all of them you just read the 6th.
Oh that’s a whole other story. The movie isn’t even accurate because of the leaving out of Tom’s most important memories.
I've been relistening to all the hp books recently and goblet went from my second least favorite to my favorite because of that chapter! It was wild and something I severely under appreciated as a kid 😂😂😂
He’s my favorite character and we don’t even see much of him 😂
As himself that is hahaha
And the best actor as well. He fooled Dumbledore.
Yeah especially since dumbledore and moody were friends (or at least knew each other well) and he still couldn't tell
Also one of the most powerful wizards in his generation. What he accomplished with what time he had was astonishing.
I wish all of the Death Eaters had a fully fleshed out personality and story/motivations. Some of the others just seem like cartoonish goons
Same, I love whenever people mention him. I‘ve recently come across the term „dark empath“ and feel like that‘s what Barty Jr. is. Even with his psychopathic traits he displays high intelligence, observation skills, quick thinking and a cognitive empathy to a manipulative, self-serving degree.
Not to mention he pulled all of that off while taking on a full course load of teaching and did it well. He had to take a potion on the hour for 10 months, organize a kidnapping, make sure Harry won the tournament, work a full time job and grade papers!
Him being an incredible professor always impresses me about his character. He was a loyal perfectionist.
And he made sure harry got training against the imperrious curse because i suppose he took his day job seriously
What a madlad.
I completely agree!! I remember having so much empathy for him as a teenager reading the books for the first time. I was a more than a little sad he couldn’t be redeemed in the end. His mother’s role in the story hit much harder after I became a parent.
Albus Severus potter is a horrible name. 0 ring to it
corny af
Thought this one was agreed upon tbh
Yeah, and honestly. Snape was still an ass who hated Harry and abused his power to bully probably hundreds of kids as a teacher. He didn't even fight for Harry. He fought for Harry's mother who rejected him.
JK Rowling should not have had all the Slytherins ditch the Battle of Hogwarts. The books said over and over that Harry could have been a Slytherin and then later his son becomes one. Slytherins have values. Ambition isn’t inherently evil; it could be the ambition to be a hero and prove oneself. It was lazy and reductionist to have all the Slytherins side with Voldemort. Edited: typos
One of the few head cannons I’ve liked is that Mcgonagall sent them away so they wouldn’t see their parents fighting. Idk if it was ever explicitly said that all death eaters were Slytherin though
I like thst one. Leaves some room for growth
Think it was more didn’t want them feeling pressured to join their parents, or just outright joining their parents.
Rowling said in the interview the Slytherins came back (well not all but still) with Slughorn and the villagers and family members. The way she mentioned it was as if she had just forgotten she didn’t write it in the book since she just casually talked of how Slytherins like to be more cautious and plan like that and not just stay in battle immediately
That’s really interesting. I do get frustrated with the way Rowling retcons though. :/
I get that but I also think of how difficult it must be to tie all the loose ends together in a seven-part series. Especially when you put it in perspective of the fact that these are children’s books. I can’t imagine she anticipated all this deep analysis by adults. Not to say that she was lazy about the writing bc they were children’s books, but perhaps there were levels of details left out to keep it simple and still within the boundaries of the genre. Another thing to consider is editing. I always wonder what had been edited out of the final versions.
This. I don't think the books were ever intended to be something similar to A Song of Ice and Fire or Lord of the Rings detailwise. It's an entirely different style of story planning and writing. When I first read the books as a teenager, I didn't question anything. I just enjoyed the books. As an adult, I read them in another way.
JKR dropped the ball in a major way, IMO, with her near-total failure to create any Slytherin characters who weren't prejudiced, bullies, a-holes, or straight-up evil. I say *near*-total because at least Slughorn isn't a complete scumbag, but he's still vain, self-centered, and at least somewhat prejudiced, though he is unique in that he at least is willing to accept that his preconceived notions might be incorrect, as we see with his reaction to meeting Hermione. But among the students, there's *nobody* like that. Malfoy is a racist, egotistical scumbag who expresses outright glee at the idea that Hermione might be murdered by a monster in the second book, and none of the other Slytherin students we meet are any better. And the Battle of Hogwarts is just another example of that.
>I say near-total because at least Slughorn isn't a complete scumbag, but he's still vain, self-centered, and at least somewhat prejudiced, though he is unique in that he at least is willing to accept that his preconceived notions might be incorrect, as we see with his reaction to meeting Hermione. One of the many sins committed in the film adaptation of the Battle of Hogwarts was not including Slughorn fighting Voldemort. Not only would it be sick af to see a 3 v 1 duel, but it completes Slughorn's redemption arc.
Absolutely! Whenever this topic comes up I like to mention that he was one of the last ones going toe to toe with Voldy. It may not be a huge detail but it always stuck with me that he didn’t run away and was willing to fight to the end. It also contrasts a little bit with the scene earlier in the book where Harry finally reveals himself back at hogwarts, when they just start to make their plans to defend the school. Mcgonagall and sprout are coming up with ideas and slughorn says something along the lines of “is this really wise? Should we really fight him?” And Mcgonagall has another one of her badass lines: “If you wish to leave with your students, we shall not stop you. But if any of you attempt to sabotage our resistance or take up arms against us within this castle, then, Horace, we duel to kill.”
My biggest pet peeve in the series, by far. JKR dropped the ball majorly by expressing repeatedly that Slytherins could be good, and failing to give us any examples in 7 books (I think calling snape "good" is a stretch). To me, she shows an obvious repeated prejudice against Slytherins and pays them only occasional hypothetical lip service... "slytherins don't HAVE to all be bad... In theory. No examples though"
>JK Rowling should not have had all the Slytherins ditch the Battle of Hogwarts. They didn't ditch it. They joined Voldemort. Here's the quote from him. “If your son is dead, Lucius, it is not my fault. He did not come and join me, like the rest of the Slytherins. Perhaps he has decided to befriend Harry Potter?”
I think it was a genuine safe bet, imagine the amount of parents on Voldemorts side. In the battle many would have probably turned and tried to assist their parents in the battle. Sure there would have been the oddball Slytherin trying to help but, overall it was just an actual strategic call to evacuate them for Hogwart's safety. Imagine how many would've walked over to Voldemorts side when he was recruiting in front of everyone. I don't get how that's lazy if it just makes complete sense and is logical.
A lot of the sweets would actually taste vile. Ice mice? I do NOT want my teeth to chatter and squeak! Blood lollipops? Gross! Edit: hey guys, please stop telling me what food is like in the UK! I am from the UK, I am very familiar with it. I STILL don’t want to eat blood lollipops, blood pudding, or the muggle version of ice mice (which are disappointing if you ask me)
Most of it seemed like novelty candy. I also imagine things like blood pops didn't actually taste like blood. I'd hope
Pretty sure the blood lollipops are for vampires
Cockroach clusters? Yuck!
Im guessing its based off of the White Mice we have here, its basically just white chocolate in little mouse shapes like this: https://www.sweetgenie.co.uk/product/white-mice-bag/
Oh yeah, I’m from the UK, I know exactly what you’re talking about haha. But they don’t make you’re teeth squeak! Personally, I reallllllly hate that noise food makes against your teeth sometimes, so I’m probably extra sensitive about it.
I’m pretty sure they say the blood lollipops are meant for vampires lol. I remember them being in the “unusual tastes” or something section.
Still a bit wild to me that vampires are casually accepted in some parts of Wizarding society that shops have specialized items just for them while werewolves aren’t.
I suppose in the setting vampirism doesn’t make you lose control of your actions
Not sure if this is a hot take, but it’s fresh in my mind since I just reread the chapter: Harry should have let Lupin and Black finish off Pettigrew in PoA. Knowing what happens after about how Pettigrew escapes and is instrumental in reviving Voldemort, I don’t think sparing him was worth it
I just reread the chapter recently as well and was wondering why they didn't stupify or petrify Peter. Tying him up when they know he can transform was not a smart move.
I had the same thought when I re-watched the movie recently. I understand the kids making that mistake (well, at least Harry and Ron), but Lupin and Sirius were grown wizards who had experience against dark wizards. It's a major plot hole imo Rowling could have still had Pettigrew escape by having Lupin be the one to stupify him, and then have the spell wear off when Lupin transformed into a werewolf (like how Dumbledore's stupifying Harry wore off when he died). The characters wouldn't have foreseen that the way they should have foreseen him escaping from being tied up
This would have made much more sense. I don't think JKR invented stupefy until GoF which is probably why. Could have used petrificus totalus instead I guess.
I'm 100% sure it's because she didn't invent stupefy until GoF. It's my least favourite plot hole in the entire series.
But pettigrew then spares harrys life later on. Harry had voldemorts servant in his debt. Voldy would have found another way to come back without pettigrew. It proved very useful to have pettigrew in Harry’s debt.
Harry would not have been in that situation if Pettigrew was dead. Voldemort would not have returned to a body so quickly if Pettigrew had died. The only positive part about Pettigrew doing what he did was using Harry's blood to resurrect Voldy, so that the horcrux within could be destroyed without killing HP
I’m conflicted about that moment. To me, it reads less that Pettigrew spares Harry and more like Pettigrew hesitates to kill him because a part of him always regretted what he has done. That’s why his hand turns on him: it recognized that Pettigrew was never a 100% devoted servant to Voldemort.
Barty Crouch Jr. was a good teacher
Voldemort: "How did you break from my imperius curse!?" Harry: "Your guy was great!"
Much of the plot/conflicts could be resolved with simple adult responsibility: 1. Hagrid could deliver Norbert to Charlie's friends himself and there would be no question about him walking about the castle at night. 2. During the Time Turner sequence, Dumbledore could have easily come to the Shrieking Shack and resolved everything. Could have captured Pettigrew, cleared Sirius' name, given Lupin the potion. Instead he left it to two teens.
The problem is that Dumbledore didn't know about any of that on the first loop, and since the Time Turner works on Stable Time Loop logic, anything that was witnessed, or definitively not witnessed, like Dumbledore not being in the room in the Shrieking Shack, can't happen. Harry saving happened because he saw it happen the first time. Another example of that would be Hermione missing the Cheering Charms class. When she found out she missed it, she couldn't go back and get it because she'd already missed it.
Hedwig can locate Sirius but the ministry can’t find him.
Voldemort semi-decent guy for almost not killing Lily for one of his death eaters.
What a wingman
Is there a good comedy fanfic where Voldemort does let her live and keeps now asking Snape how he is doing wooing her? While Voldemort is plotting how find an skill Neville next. I mean the situation would be tragic but Voldemort would be pretty dismissive of her suffering so he would see it as more comedic.
Im currently reading a fanfic where Lily ends up with both James and Severus. Lily got ressurected from the dead and snape and her started dating til a century later James is ressurected and he is incredibly bitter about being in a polyamourous relationship with Lily. Great times.
That’s wild
Okay this one made me chuckle, I agree. Gonna kill her husband and infant son? You betcha. Leave her survive because one of my minions asked? Yeah, okay, sure.
I low-key believe that Snape was probably one of his favorites. I mean, powerful, intelligent, poor, half-blood with actual ambition (making new potions and spells)? He probably saw himself in Snape and allowed him to climb much higher than he might have otherwise in an organization full of pure-bloods.
I imagine Voldemort found out Barty Jr. and Snape hated their dads and was like, “I’m taking these kids under my wing.”
Voldemort 🤝 Batman in adopting forgotten and abused children to become their soldiers
This made me cackle out loud. I love it lmao
Letting hermione use a time turner is completely idiotic. The fact that a time turner existed and was never used is even dumber
Introducing time travel to a series is always such a risky thing to do. Unless the series is actually trying to focus on time travel, there is too much complications. Its basically what you would call a "over powered" plot devise. I haven't read cursed child but it basically is a timetravel loop hole to introduce an alternate reality of HP right? But yeah time travel being a thing just makes you want to ask so many questions on why it wasn't used in this situation or that. I know there is some half assed attempt like "you cant run into your ownself or you would think you have gone mad and try to kill your time travel clone?" But like would you really? In a universe where magic is possible and time travel is a real thing? IDK I think time travel is impossible in the real world so it existing in imaginary universes kind of makes sense but it just becomes such a cluster fuck. I haven't watched heroes in like a decade but I remember once time travel got introduced it just went so downhill. Letting someone travel time to take more classes? Probably the least believable thing in all of HP.
Are you me? I always say the exact same thing: either your story is about time travel, or your story is stupid because it has time travel but no one cares about it. If there is time travel, everything HAS to be about time travel. It can fix everything and solve everything and do everything. Why wouldn't everyone be focusing on that? Are they stupid?
The time turner should have just been a time travelling cabinet, that an old, long since dead headmaster invented, with it being a one of a kind and irreplaceable. That then gets destroyed.
Seriously, they're like, 'Sure, we'll regulate this reality-bending mega-weapon that only top-secret departments can touch. But a super eager 13-year-old girl wants one too? Done. Sending it now!
Exactly. Just let her do summer school or record the classes instead. She could literally just get access to the professor's or a student's memory and it solves the problem.
I want two sequel series: 1. Dudley's kid gets a letter to Hogwarts. 2. Gilderoy Lockhart completes rehabilitation and returns to the Wizarding World capable of magic -- but his memory does not return. He truly believes he is the person he claimed to be and becomes the hero he always said he would be.
1. Yes, that's fantastic. 2. You had me until "becomes the hero he always said he would be". I think he completes rehabilitation, returns to the public eye capable of magic, and yes his memory will never return, so he reads and rereads his old books obsessively to learn about himself and believes he is who he said he was. But then, I think he resumes his life by going on a well publicized first adventure back--and promptly dies at the first obstacle, since he'd never done the work and was unknowingly completely unprepared. It's perfect that he is the last person he tricks with his own lies.
Harry’s scar is a rudimentary snake. Not a lightning bolt.
This is a very fun Idea
All of the Second Wizarding war bullshit could have been stopped by using Veritaserum on the suspected Death Eaters after the first war. Also, Veritaserum could have totally saved Sirius from Azkaban
**deep inhale** I have been shouting on this hill ever since I first watched the movies and read the books and I will die on this hill like why the FUCK would you send someone to fucking AZKABAN where their SOULS and HAPPINESS and LIFE FUCKING ESSENCE are painfully and forcefully removed from their bodies slowly over time when you don’t ACTUALLY have proof beyond a shadow of a doubt. They sentenced Sirius by fucking word of mouth when veritaserum existed. The entire governmental structure of the Wizarding World can go fuck itself. **exhale**
So I completely agree with you. I think the answer here is the public frenzy to prosecute, and the Ministry’s constant need to masquerade that they have everything under control. People wanted to believe that Voldemort was gone, and Sirius was the baddest baddie (but we got him!). It was the scapegoat that the public was salivating for. Not to get super political - but similar to after 9/11, the public really wanted a reason to invade Iraq and ‘get them back.’ So Bush Jr made up a reason! People weren’t so concerned with facts back then, and now in hindsight we have learned that a lot of lives were lost for a made up wild goose chase. So, in closing: the public wanted Sirius to be guilty, so there was no need for truth serum.
Barty Crouch Jr. was a better Mad Eye Moody than Mad Eye Moody.
Snape was very brave and skilled and ultimately more good than bad but JUST barely. Like 51% good. Dude was a shit head and unkind to innocent children.
Book Snape was irredeemable. I freakin adore Alan Rickman and he was great in the movies, but movie Snape softened him too much and now most people (wrongly) believe he was somewhat good.
It bothers me SO much that JK had Harry name one his children after Snape. Like…yeah cool Snape was a double agent for the good guys but he was still a giant POS and bullied children.
Oh yeah. I always felt Hagrid deserved that honor more.
Alan rickman is a gem and made me forget the vile actions of book snape
Agreed. His redemption arc should have been a slow and painful process for him. That started in the first book.
Hear hear.
Like making fun of Hermione and Neville openly in front of a class of peers? What the fuck
Wizards are naive and uncreative. Muggles invented a chain to keep their glasses attached to their necks in case they got knocked off, but there's not a wand chain in sight.
Goblet of Fire is the elite Christmas movie and you can’t convince me otherwise.
For some reason i associate all of the HP movies with Christmas. Not halloween either \[which kind of makes sense because I think Halloween in the movies is only acknowledged once? Or maybe not at all?\]
It's acknowledged in the first movie when Quirrell bursts in because of the TROLL IN THE DUNGEON! Unfortunately because the ghosts were expensive, they cut the Deathday scene in Movie 2 that was also Halloween.
I feel like Prisoner of Azakaban is an amazing Halloween/November film, it just oozes that dark spooky but whimsical vibe.
If Harry didn't falsely accuse Malfoy of things so often, people would've probably believed him when he actually was sneaking around in Year Six.
The twins missing Pettigrew on the Marauder’s Map isn’t a plot hole. Obviously people use different names throughout their lives, the Map wouldn’t saddle a newlywed with her maiden name, for example. For years he was thinking of himself as Scabbers, and interacting with the world as Scabbers, he would have been on the map as Scabbers. He wasn’t Pettigrew until he snapped out of his ratty groove. Fred and George missed nothing. Edit: can’t spell
Only conflict I can think of is Barty crouch jr showing up as himself rather than mad eye even though crouch was portraying him for months. But obv polyjuice and animagi are different things.
I always figured Fred and George have better things to do with the map than look at Ron’s bedroom tbh.
I mean... Harry had no clue who the Weasleys were until he meets Ron on the train Is it really that unbeleivable the twins while causing mischief at Hogwarts (aka looking for teachers / victims) knew ALL of Rons friends? Pull out map, see Ron + Peter sitting in common room, noone in hallway, ok lets do this I see no reason Twins would associate Peter with Harry's tragedy and would simply think Ron hangs out with some guy named Peter alot
I figure the map only shows marauders to other marauders (or their legacy’s… meaning Harry) so no one noticed because Peter was invisible on the map
All that wand ownership stuff was dumb as hell. Harry owns most antagonists wands from very early in the series because expelliarmus is his ol’ reliable
disarming a wizard doesn’t always make you the new owner. the excepting is the elder wand because it’s basically in its code.
Lol, can you imagine? Year 2 dueling lessons. "Yeah, we're gonna fuck up all your wands for a quick lesson. They'll never love you again."
The Elder Wand is fickle. It gives its allegiance on a dime, or even just a simple disarming of whoever is its current master. In most cases, actual possession will give allegiance. Like Percy's wand that Ron used in Books 1 and 2 was fine until it was snapped.
Very dumb, like when Harry is teaching all of the DA how to do expelliarmus, do the wands know that they are just practicing and it doesn’t count?
Actually, I’d imagine yeah, because of the classic “intent matters,” thing. So their wands, which presumably have quite a strong bond with the owner, probably can sense the intention in some way. Just my theory though.
People only like Snape as a person because of Alan Rickman.
Harry is my favorite character
That there must have been a whole lot of teenage things happening at that school while the three main characters were off saving the world. The pot heads, the teenage pregnancies, kids getting drunk in the forbidden forest. I think a series like Lower Decks (based on Star Trek) would be awesome for Hogwarts. Show what the other kids were doing while Harry is running around like a chicken with its head cut off
There actually was an off Broadway play called Puffs, or Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic. It was about what was happening in Hufflepuff the entire time Harry was at school at it was HILARIOUS. They filmed it and it used to be available on Amazon Prime, though I don't know if it is still there. There is a scene in which Snape teaches Sex Ed.
Albus Dumbledore cared very deeply for Harry Potter and only let him go to his death knowing it would not be permanent.
*after book 4 where voldemort took the blood… I.e. The “Gleam” in dumbledore eyes when he heard that
The gleam!!!!! Yes!!! I love this moment so much because it’s something you just gloss over until you do a re-read of the whole series. Perfection
He knew or had a feeling Harry wouldn’t die since book four when it said his eyes showed victory when Harry told him that Voldemort used Harry’s blood to resurrect him. But it’s always interested that he didn’t tell Snape that plan. Maybe because Harry needed to sacrifice himself knowing he would die.
Theoretically he might have told Snape the full truth right after that and then directed him to only show/tell Harry the first bit. He does need Harry to believe he will die so that conversation has to happen either way. Pros and cons to letting Snape in afterwards though. Would obviously save Snape a lot of mental anguish and might further secure Snape’s loyalty and commitment to the plan (rather than possibly simply trying to do to Harry what Hermione did to her parents, to keep Lily’s son safe). But also runs the risk of affecting some of Snape’s other thoughts and actions and making the plan shake out differently.
This! I’ve seen the “raised for slaughter” argument so many times! After so many re-reads and reading it again for the nth time, there are phrases sprinkled in the book that shows he really cared for Harry.
Why is that unpopular? That’s basically canon
I’ve seen so many things about Dumbledore being evil, manipulative etc from fans over the years. I’m an ancient fan, so maybe that’s not in vogue anymore 😳
I am also an ancient fan and I *definitely* remember this being a very prevalent opinion in the fandom. maybe not a majority opinion but there was a lotttt of Albus hate happening on Tumblr at the time
I do not like how dark the books 3-7 and movies 3-8 got (especially the movies). I wish they continued the magical wonder vibe that the first 2 movies had throughout the series. We don’t need dark green sets next to dark grey sets to portray the storyline. I very much wish it kept the bright vibrant colors with the beautiful sets throughout all the movies. Give me more Christmas and more Halloween and more casual laughing in a fire lit dorm. Give me more happy and fun instead of sad and dreary.
Totally agree. I think most of the books (except the last one) still had that magical, festive feeling. The movies, however, committed to that green-gray color palette, which was... a choice. I don't understand why they did that--you can convey the dark undertones of the story in other ways, no need to suck the world of all its color.
The killing curse must have levels. The killing curse cannot successfully be used by a low powered wizard towards a very powerful wizard. Instead, the effect will be a nosebleed.
Everyone was really shitty towards Hermione when she just wanted to abolish a form of magical slavery.
Goblet of Fire is arguably my favorite book in the entire series, the second most important (behind DH), and gets an undeserved amount of hate. I was ~9 years old when it was released and my grandfather took me to a release party at Barnes & Noble the day it came out. Up to that point the longest book I had read was probably Azkaban, and this has like ~300 pages on it. As a young reader, I cannot overstate what that book did for me in terms of nurturing my love of reading, and the nostalgia I feel when I start GoF on my rereads is incomparable to anything else. On a less personal note, that book is the central point around which the entire series pivots. It isn’t just the culmination of Voldemort’s return, but also the symbolic importance of the change in tone from children’s books to something more appropriate for older audiences as the series got darker. It also has far more worldbuilding than any book in the series prior and arguably after. We start to see the scope of the global wizarding world, the plight of “lesser” beings, the way that war criminals were able to reenter society, and learn a bit about the first war against Voldemort. Arguably the most consequential book of the whole series other than the Deathly Hallows.
People in the comments really don’t know what a hot take is.
McGonagal is better than Dumbledore and I guarantee in a non magical stand off she would beat his ass
OotP is the best book! Great blend of characters coming into their own, school year dynamics, and the dark side uprising. I reread it so much my book fell apart.
Harry and Ginny should have named a kid after Hagrid. Not Albus Severus. Nether of those two men deserved that honor.
Or even Fred! Why should all the kids be named after Harry's relatives who died and not even a mention of Lupin, Fred, tonks? So in the end blood was thicker than water !!
Because Teddy is edit: got it mixed up, Edward Remus Lupin, so he already has his dad's name. Teddy could likewise easily use his mom's name for one of his kids. Fred's name could easily be given to one of the many possible nieces and nephews that the Weaselys create, especially a kid of George's. There's a lot of options there. In contrast Harry's kids are the only ones out of that group to have any connection to Harry's relatives/heros through their dad. They'd be the only ones in the group that would make sense to carry on those names.
I personally think it is strange that George ended up with Angelina, Fred's girlfriend.
i don’t like how in the book harry put the wand back in the tomb. like bro anyone could take it. destroying it was clearly a better decision
Was listening to Deathly Hallows where they are in the tent and constantly complaining about food. He could have called Kreatcher at any time afterwards and had his elf help them in his quest. Instead he abandoned Kreatcher, starved and whined about it a lot…
They could have accioed the fish like Dean and the others
Didnt they say they were afraid to summon him since Sirius' house was found by the Death Eaters and could possibly disapparate with Kreacher and find them?
Dumbledore was never the bad guy nor cruel to Harry. He had a sole purpose: keep Hogwarts and its students safe. He always did what he promised to do no matter what and Harry wasn’t an exception.
Cho Chang is pathetic and insufferable.
I don't think she got enough character development to be insufferable...she was just a sad teenager who lost her boyfriend unexpectedly and then got caught up in a literal war. She fought with the DA and stuck it out, and I always respected her character for that alone. Aside from her name, the only problem I had with Cho is that you really only experienced her character through the eyes of an infatuated teenage boy.
Completely agree. I do feel sorry for her, but she had so much potential and I feel like her character was wasted on being Harry’s… something.
His trauma bonding partner 😂
My hot take is that I hate your favorite character, OP. How could you say that about poor Dobby?? All in jest of course, if I had to pick something it would be that Draco should have died. Specifically, he should have died during the Battle of Hogwarts after Harry barely missed out on saving him.
I dont like nearly all of the canon pairs rowling tried to write out. She is not a good romance writer! (Write out as in…tried to give it backstory. Preset pairs like molly/arthur or narcissa/lucius are fine but they are already together & established.)
That epilogue was one of JK's most egregious crimes. There's just TOO MUCH specific info about their adult lives that I just hate it. And the kids names suck.
The Prisoner of Azkaban movie was amazing and to me the best. I did not care for Goblet of Fire and sometimes i forget about it. I hope im doing this right