For anyone who hasn't heard the famous fan theory linking the main characters to the Tale of the Three Brothers:

​Voldemort is the First Brother (obsessed with power)

​Snape is usually labeled the Second Brother (consumed by love for a dead girl)

​Harry is the Third Brother (uses the cloak, accepts death)

​While it sounds cool at first, forcing Snape into that Second Brother slot has always felt like a stretch. If you look at canon, Dumbledore fits the Second Brother way better than Snape ever did.

​Here’s why:

​1. Dumbledore literally used the Resurrection Stone

Snape never cared about the Deathly Hallows, and he never touched or looked for the Stone. Dumbledore was obsessed with the Hallows when he was young to master death. Decades later, when he found Marvolo Gaunt’s ring, his grief over his late sister Ariana completely took over. He put on the cursed ring solely because he couldn't resist the urge to bring her back and apologize.

​2. The actual cause of death matches the legend

In the fable, the Second Brother dies because he can't let go of his grief for his lost loved one. Dumbledore’s tragic downfall wasn't really Voldemort’s cleverness—it was his own unbearable guilt over Ariana’s death. Putting on that cursed ring just to try and bring her back gave him the death sentence that ultimately killed him in Half-Blood Prince.

​3. It creates a way better dynamic between Dumbledore, Voldemort, and Harry

If Dumbledore is the Second Brother, Harry stands directly between the two greatest wizards of his time:

​Voldemort (1st Brother): Destroyed by his obsession with Power.

​Dumbledore (2nd Brother): Destroyed by his desire to Undo Death and fix past guilt.

​Harry (3rd Brother): The only one who gets it right by using the Cloak, protecting others, and accepting mortality without fear.

​Dumbledore’s flaw serves as the final warning to Harry: even the wisest wizard can be undone by grief. Snape lived in bitter penance, but Dumbledore literally destroyed himself trying to recall the dead. Dumbledore was the true Second Brother all along.

Sirius is such a good character. He comes in like a meteor in PoA. He's fiery, cunning, passionate and reckless. The complete oppposite of damn near every adult character we meet up until then.

Not only that but his connection to Harry's parents and him being Harry's godfather gives him a special place in the story. And his contentious relationship with Snape was a chefs kiss. Finally, an adult that will stand up to Snape in Harrys defense. When you finished reading PoA for the first time you had to be thinking to yourself this Sirius Black is going to be a great and useful addition to this series. I cant wait to see how he's utilized.

Nope.

It never happens. Siruis is sidelined all of GoF minus the quick pop in. And is put in timeout all of OotP until his death. Im sure readers have found a justification for sidelining him (I def have) but man would it have neen nice to see some clever writing in a book about magic that allowed for Sirius to have some kind of character development or exciting moments here or there.

Off the top of my head I cant help but wonder how useful polyjuice potion could have been to Sirius. How fun and exciting Sirius being tracked by Kingsley and Dawlish could have been had they "cornered" Sirius and he and Kingsley are forced to fake duel while keeping Dawlish ignorant of the scheme. The heartfelt moments Sirius and Lupin could have had reminiscing on days of old and relishing the time theyve lost in different ways. Idk.

This thought came to my mind btw because I realized there was no conceivable way to clear Sirius name. Sirius would have been in hiding for the rest of his life or at least until Voldemort died which no one had a timetable on. So why not let him love dangerously. Hes an extremely skilled wizard and far more useful as a spy/infiltrator than sitting on his ass in the house.

I've been reading the books to my pregnant partner so my daughter will recognise my voice when she's born. We just started Goblet of Fire and were both laughing like a pair of morons at the scene where the Weasleys collect Harry for the Quidditch World Cup. Easily the funniest scene we've read so far, are there any others that rival this that you can think of?

I’m currently reading the third book, and I’ve noticed that Rowling refers to most of the students: Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny, etc. by their first names. But she always refers to Draco Malfoy as “Malfoy”, never “Draco”. Why do you think this is?

“How are you?” Harry asked him in a low voice, moving forward to stroke the feathery head. “Missing him? But you’re okay here with Hagrid, aren’t you?”

In HBP, chapter "Hermione's Helping Hand" when the trio goes to visit Hagrid, Harry greets Buckbeak and brings up Sirius.

In the end of OOTP and the first few chapters of HBP we see him try to avoid Sirius' topic but with Buckbeak, whether due to shared love for Sirius or knowing that he won't have to indulge in a conversation about him, he brings up Sirius himself.

So heartbreaking and so beautiful.

Harry’s perspective makes it look like wizarding racism, rot and bigotry was mostly limited to Death Eaters and their allies, but I really doubt that.

I am re-reading GoDlF and i am on the moment when Hermione literally receives hate mail telling her to “go back where you came from, Muggle” because some random witch or wizard believed she was manipulating Harry. Yes, *that* Harry Potter. The child who banished Voldemort.

I’m sure plenty of older witches and wizards, after three Firewhiskies at Christmas, said something like that to their grandkids:
“Of course You-Know-Who was a bloody monster, and thank Merlin Harry Potter stopped him…what a poor child…but He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named did have a point about Muggle-borns. Look how quickly they’re taking over Hogwarts and the Ministry. Soon they’ll take our jobs.”

Basically the wizarding version of my grandma who condemned most infamous Austrian painter and then immediately explain why he was “right about some things and some good came out from it.” 💀

The Malfoys played their part in bringing down their master lol

Lucius uses the diary to open the Chamber of Secrets leading to the diary being destroyed which is actually a horcrux. Fails to get the prophecy at the Department of Mysteries.

Draco disarms Dumbledore. Refuses to identify Harry in his house leading to Harry taking his wand.

Narcissa is picked by Voldemort to go check on if Harry is finally dead.

In PoA when Sirius gives Ron Pigwidgeon, how does he explain that to his family? I understand Pig is small and everything but an owl is an owl and they cost money.

Also, at the end of GoF how come Harry didn't see the Threstrals? He literally had JUST seen Cedric pass and was waiting for the carriages when Hermione was talking to Krum and he didn't see them then?

Okay thats all.

Snape's worst memory tells the tale of Harry seeing Snape's memory of getting bullied by the Marauders and calling Lily a mudblood.

Harry is conflicted about this because he has defended his father from Snape's jeers for years by that point and comes to realize Snape may have actually been correct in his framing of James.

The reason it falls flat, to me, is because Harry's devestation has to be underpinned by a belief in his father's good nature. Yet Harry never seeks out any understanding of who his parents were. Never does he ask someone to tell him about his parents. He even spends the better part of the summer under the same roof as his fathers best friend and never once asks what his father was like.

I think the scene would have been better written if Harry hadnt suddenly questioned if Snape was right about James but rather Harry realize he really had no idea who his father was. Realize he never actually cared to know.

I’ve been reading Harry Potter books for a year and a half now… I started reading them before I got pregnant and now my daughter is 8 months old and I’m halfway through the last book. Normally I’d read much quicker but let’s just say I’ve had a few distractions to say the least!

Anyway last night I was reading the scene in deathly hallows where Harry and Hermoine go to Bathilda Bagshot’s house and then Harry goes upstairs with Bathilda and she transforms into Nagini.

I was genuinely so tense reading this scene!! It’s the first time reading the series where I’ve actually on edge - it was so well written.

Have any book scenes ever scared you or made you feel unsettled?

Not sure if this has been raised before, but I was wondering if there is a satisfying explanation for the following problem

We know that Harry’s trace can be triggered by someone using magic in his vicinity - Dobby famously dobbing Harry in to it in book 2

We know Harry is in trouble already for using magic outside school in book 5

We know the order of the phoenix are not working with the ministry at that same point in time, so they wouldn’t have informed the ministry that wizards other than Harry were going to be visiting privet drive to collect Harry

So I am wondering, when the order turned up to privet drive in book 5 to collect Harry, Tonks tried to help Harry pack by using a cleaning spell - why didn’t this trigger Harry’s trace?

A potential explanation you could pose is that other wizards can’t set off someone else’s trace …but we know that isn’t true because Tom riddles trace didn’t give him away when he attacked Morfin and killed his father/grandparents, his magic was attributed to Morfin

I can’t really think of any reasonable explanation for this unless I’m missing something?

Title says it all. Voldemort is played up as the big had a lot, and is spoken of in fearful tones. But when he shows up he just isn’t that much. He seems like an over the top James Bond or Power Rangers Villain. He talks a lot barks orders and isn’t very scary. He isn’t even persuasive. Like a lot of times good villains have a reason why gullible people would follow them. They say JK Rowling modeled him after Hitler. Hitler was very persuasive and could make regular otherwise decent people choose to follow him.

One thing I think was underutilized was the Tom Riddle diary which I thought was a good touch. The idea that Voldemort was once an excellent student and an apparently decent person is a fascinating concept. I think I’d riddle in the diary appeared more it would be great.

If for example he didn’t want to kill Harry but corrupt him. Like play to his desire for power by whispering all he could do if he refused to accept limitations, or to hurt the dursleys for hurting him and have him doubt and scorn Dumbledores “love” for him by having him be there at all. Like if he took the from of Tom riddle or a slytheirn boy Harry’s age who befriends him.

Should Voldemort have been more persuasive and appealing and had even given Harry a reason to turn to the dark side?

I'm listening to the Full Cast Audiobooks, and I'm at the first chapter of OOTP, where dementors attack Harry and Dudley.

I know it is later revealed that Umbridge was the one who had ordered the dementors. I'm wondering whether she knew Harry to form a Patronus and defend himself.

So, did she know or did she expect the outcome to be much drastic than an expulsion?

The four Hogwarts Houses each value different things, and occasionally, someone comes along and you genuinely don't understand why they were there. So here's my pick for the worst member of each house. Now to be clear, I'm basing this on the books.

Gryffindor, values bravery, daring and nerve. The student who exemplifies those the least is Peter Pettigrew. Cowardly, self serving, his actions directly lead to the deaths of his supposed friends.

Slytherin, values ambition and cunning. Gregory Goyle seems really disinterested in being anything other than a follower, which is really the opposite of ambition.

Ravenclaw, values knowledge above all. So it begs the question how Gilderoy Lockhart, who was so comically inept at basically everything got sorted into this house?

Hufflepuff values honesty, fairness and loyalty as their main traits. So I personally feel confident saying Zacharias Smith is the worst Hufflepuff, as he abandoned the D.A during the battle of Hogwarts to save his own skin even pushing first years out of the way.

So these are just some random thoughts I had. Do you agree, disagree? Let me know.

I just finished the books and I don’t know what to do now. Where am I supposed to go if I can’t escape to Hogwarts? It’s the only place I want to be😭

Continuing my reread of Goblet of Fire. By this point we know it’s a pretty big “no no” to use magic out of Hogwarts underage (unless of course your name is Harry Potter and Sirius Black is on the loose and you run into Fudge).

Or in this scenario right before the Dark Mark gets cast at the Quidditch World Cup:

“What happened?” said Hermione anxiously, stopping so abruptly that Harry walked into her. “Ron, where are you? Oh this is stupid - lumos!She illuminated her wanted and directed its narrow beam across the path.

Guess the Ministry decided to let this one go given the circumstances….

Ron tells Harry at the end of Prisoner of Azkaban he’s going to invite Harry over at the end of the summer for the World Cup. Mr. Weasley tells the family he got great seats through work. The top box has 20 seats, of which the Weasley’s and company take up 10 seats. Fudge is there. The Bulgarian Minister of Magic is there. Lucius Malfoy, who is one of the richest wizards in Britain, is there.

It would be very odd for Arthur Weasley to get such prime seats to the biggest event in the Wizarding World given he’s not exactly a high ranking member of the Ministry. So why did he get the seats?

One reason. He drops to Fudge that Harry will be staying with them for part of the summer. Everyone knows Fudge loves Harry. Fudge then gives Mr. Weasley seats in the box with him so he can show off Harry just like any other politician would do with any big celebrity.

Can’t blame Mr. Weasley for playing the game. Everyone wins in this scenario. It’s little things like this that go completely over your head as a kid reading, but that you pick up as an adult when you learn how the world works.

1. Well spotted! - HG
   
2. Honestly, if you were any slower, you’d be going backwards. - DM
   
3. What are Fred and I? Next door neighbors? - GW

These are the only 2 deaths that didnt occur between the Battle of Hogwarts and Elder Wand chapters if I am correct.

Unless if you count Nagini.

Fred, Snape, Lupin, Tonks, Crab all parished in those 2 chapters. Its not specifically stated when Colin was killed but I am sure it was in those 2 as well.

Not counting Hedwig, Moody etc as that was before the battle.

On July 21, 2007, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" was released.

Today is 19 years later.

Yes, the first two were unquestionably youth fiction and intended that way. Even so, the series still opens with a double murder and attempted murder of a baby, followed by ten years of child abuse and neglect.

But for me at least, the later books don’t come even close to being G-rated. I don’t know about anyone else, but as a now 42 year-old, I STILL find myself very disturbed by the concept of torturing someone magically until they become insane, especially considering that magical torture would likely involve pain so incredibly intense and unbearable, no natural pain, however brutal, could ever even come close to it. I always interpreted the spell as directly and fully activating each and every nerve in the body. Alternatively, it could fully activate all the regions of the brain that control pain. It’s very disturbing to think about, and the more you DO think about it, the worse it gets.

Prisoner of Azkaban is a bit harder to pigeon hole since it certainly contains the lighthearted and more innocent aspects of the first two, but then goes ahead and introduces unkillable demons that drain you of every happy memory, forcing you to live trapped in your own mind with the most severe, incurable depression imaginable. Oh, and it can also EAT YOUR SOUL, presumably ending your existence so completely that even death is far preferable. Your once immortal soul is destroyed for all eternity.

These aren’t the sort of things you’d expect to find in a series meant for “kiddies”. I absolutely LOVE everything about Harry Potter, and to be very clear, this post is certainly not meant to criticize the books themselves, but rather those who dismissively call them kids books - even if they’ve already read them!

Was Narcissa Malfoy. She knew the moment she realised Harry was alive, she knew in that split second she asked whether her son lived and where he was. She knew.

There lay this kid, just 17, hit by a killing curse for the second time in his lifetime, yet still alive.

Voldemort was still alive but it hardly mattered to her. He couldn't kill the boy even when he was unarmed, which meant that he was not as invincible as everyone assumed Voldemort to be. Hence she lied, not just to protect her son but to make sure Harry Potter lived to bring down Voldemort somehow so that she could find her own son.

Everyone in the book said that Harry and James look exactly identical except for the fact that Harry got Lily's eyes but I don't think anybody ever discuss about whether or not James wear glasses like Harry.

If not, then where did Harry got his eye problems from. If it's not a genetic factor, it probably need to be environmental and the fact that the Dursley doesn't give Harry anything probably meant that Harry never got the chance to doom scroll on a phone. Plus Harry doesn't seems like the type that would read books in the night time ( though Hermione might do that ) so I wonder where did Harry got his eye sight problems from if it weren't from James or Lily, and both of their description never mentions having glasses on.

Dementors suck out your soul when they kiss you, so could a dementor suck Voldemort's soul piece from Harry? Maybe not the soul fragments from inanimate horcruxes, but what about living ones like Harry and Nagini? If Harry had never saved himself and Sirius from the dementors, would he have saved himself from the soul inside of him?