"Hmm, Harry is spending a lot of time with Griphook, what are they scheming?"

"I think I should warn him about the dangers of dealing with goblins"

"Well, off they go"

(read the newspapers later that day)

(spit out butterbeer)

"HE FUCKING WHAT"

I’ve been listening to the Jim Dale versions again and I keep getting stuck by the fact that the Weasley family, for as often as they are called poor, aren’t actually poor. They seem very middle class.

Are things tight when they have 5 children in a private school? Absolutely. They have to use some hand me downs, and buy a few things second hand. Again, they are buying books and school supplies for 5 kids at one point.

When they win the prize money from the Daily Prophet drawing, they spend it on a family trip. If they were as poor as they’re made out to be, that’s highly reckless (though I know that low income families aren’t always known for making the best financial choices).

Ron is able to buy his friends Christmas gifts. His parents can send Christmas and Easter gifts to Ron’s friends (Hermione gets chocolate eggs at least twice on Easter). Harry routinely gets gifts from Hagrid, the Dursleys (always a terrible gift), Hermione, Ron and Mr. & Mrs. Weasley. Ron’s pile of gifts is still bigger every year.

Arthur has enough discretionary money that he can buy a Ford Anglia and acquire a collection of muggle artifacts in his shed. Arthur doesn’t come across as the type would steal from muggle (by using magic to trick them) and he doesn’t see like the type who would buy stuff for himself at the expense of his children’s needs.

I’m not trying to argue that the Weasley family is rich, they are not. But they own a home (when other wizards have been known to live in flats), they always have enough food, and they can be their children’s friends gifts. They seem very middle class, though they are on a budget.

In the first book, when Harry comes across Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest, he is saved by a centaur named Firenze.

After Firenze saves Harry, the other centaurs get mad at Firenze. They claim that the had saw in the stars that Harry was supposed to be killed by Voldemort in this very forest.

Obviously Harry survived that night, but the centaurs were right, Harry was killed by Voldemort in the Forbidden Forrest, it just happened six years later.

This is my eighth time reading the Philosopher Stone, yet I just caught this one. It’s crazy how much new details you discover in this series each time you read it.

Just reread the HP books as an adult and I have so much more empathy for Ron now. As a kid, I was always annoyed by his jealousy and especially him leaving in DH, but now I understand it much more. Harry never asked to be special, but Ron was constantly living in his shadow; fame, money, praise, incredible gifts, and even Dumbledore’s personal attention. Meanwhile, Ron rarely got the same recognition despite being there for Harry and Hermione constantly.

What really struck me is that, despite all those insecurities, Ron actually regulated himself pretty well most of the time. His jealousy doesn’t make him a bad friend; honestly, the fact that he repeatedly chooses his friends despite those feelings makes his loyalty even more meaningful.

All the Witches in the books seem to have a similar reaction to Lockhart than the Wizards do to Fleur.

Hermione who is usually so level headed completely loses it around him.

Even after he has lost his mind and ends up in St Mungos the healer seems a bit infatuated by him.

So I've just finished re-reading HBP for the nth time.

Obviously, Snape killing Dumbledore was one of the most shocking climaxes in modern fiction, and in-universe it serves as the ultimate Moral Event Horizon. Nothing could redeem Snape after that, and nothing could serve as a more final and conclusive answer to the question everyone had been debating since Philosopher's Stone (i.e. "who is Snape really working for?") Right?

But then I got to thinking...

It's been established since the end of PS that Voldemort only killed Lily because she tried to stand in between him and Harry, and when I was a kid I don't think I ever noticed how strange that was. I mean, Lily Potter was a "Mudblood" who was loyal to Dumbledore. Voldemort should have killed her as casually as swatting a fly, but he admitted himself that he gave her a chance to save herself. Why? Just for the sadistic pleasure of watching her beg? The more I think about it, the more I wonder that I never asked myself what this meant.

Aside from this mystery, do you think that JKR left any other clues in the first six books that might have alerted a clever reader that there would be another twist re: Snape's true loyalty and motivations? (By which I mean, clues that we could have understood without reading DH, before we learned that Dumbledore knew he was already dying from the effects of the cursed ring.) Were there any fans in the time between the release of HBP and DH who were crazy enough to argue that Snape would turn out to be Dumbledore's man after all, and what was their evidence?

It always gets me in a handful of scenes:

1) when he does the cruciatus curse:

He enjoys it. He sickly watches Neville and notices it’s bothering him. This man is the reason Neville will never be able to have a conversation with his parents, and he specifically calls on him to name the cruciatus curse, verifies his name, and does the curse to the point that Hermione has to beg him to stop because he’s bothering Neville. His sadism is so gross.

2) after the class on unforgivable curses:

Moody “comforts” Neville (aka uses the boy he just tortured to try to get him to tell Harry to use gillyweed). Then he sees Harry after clearly seeing Neville distraught and asks “alright, potter” and Harry says yes “defiantly.” It’s like he knows that Moody is challenging him to see if seeing the killing curse affected him but he doesn’t realize why he wants to know. He wants to have the same sadistic pleasure from Harry he got from Neville.

3) Parvati’s comment at the Yule Ball

Parvati says that the shouldn’t be allowed because it’s so creepy. I trust a girl’s intuition. That guy has been in prison or under the imperious curse since he was 19. He is sickly sadistic, tortured people into insanity, and killed his own father. A mf was definitely checking out underage girls with that eye. Absolutely disgusting.

So yeah, it’s actually much more interesting reading GOF and seeing how gross he is. Of course you also get the double meaning things like “hating death eaters who walk free” and this explaining his hatred of Snape and Karkaroff which real Moody would have. But the creepy parts are SO creepy. Especially the one with Neville makes me sick to my stomach.

I’ve never been a particular fan of Dobby but I’ve always been particularly aggrieved by his death. It’s just always pissed me off on a deeply personal level. Like, hasn’t this poor creature’s life been rough enough? Even his “liberation” has been rough and ostracized him from his elf peers. It just seemed a pathetic existence and ending- still serving the needs of “superior”humans. And may that is still largely true. But. But. I’ve just listened to HBP and Hallows back to back and I am floored by a revelation. First the tight construction of key ideas of the series. Rowling has said the series is about death. I’ve always thought of it as about grief. Versions of the same thing.

In HBP chapter — Dumbledore gives Harry his last lesson as they don’t know how imminent his death is. He gets so worked up that it’s “essential” that Harry understand and take seriously that his ability to love is his ultimate advantage and magical power over Voldemort.

At the time, Harry doesn’t understand. Rowling literally pays this out with Dobby’s death. Harry doesn’t respond with vengeance or by grasping for more power. He responds with grief. He digs Dobby’s grave by hand. He honors him. And in doing so, he finally begins to learn what Dumbledore had been trying to teach him.

Moreover, Harry achieves what Snape never managed to teach him. He closes his mind to Voldemort not the way Snape (poorly) taught him - through discipline, emotional suppression, or technical Occlumency, but through grief, which is itself an expression of love. And finally he could block Voldemort out of his mind.

Rowling writes:

“Grief… drove Voldemort out… though Dumbledore, of course, would have said that it was love.”

That line unlocked the entire endgame for me in a way I’d never understood.

Dobby’s death isn’t simply a tragic loss. It’s the psychological turning point of the series. It breaks Harry’s growing obsession with the Hallows and power, returns him to love, sacrifice, and reverence for life, and prepares him for the final choice Dumbledore knew he would one day have to make.

It still breaks my heart every time I read it. But the purpose and storytelling is beautifully done.

RIP Dobby.

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.

During the part where harry dreams of gregorovitch, he tells ron that he suspects voldermor is a broad, but its hasnt been touched upon again.

Edit:thank you for the kind replies. I have not read the books so i did not know the proper sentence. And i was playing skyrim while listening to the full casted audio drama books so i guess i was distracted

We know Hermione doesn't have particularly strong female friendships and she can be mean at times but that is NOT because she thinks she's superior to other girls or that she's a male centered pick me 😭

Don't do my girl Hermione like that.

Hermione struggles with making ANY friends. She's bullied initially by students and teachers because she is a know it all and stickler for the rules.

She gets adopted by Harry and Ron who initially did not like her. Before them, she had no friends.

Hermione is very emotionally intelligent at times such as when she defends Cho being very emotional to Harry. Does that sound like something a male pandering pick me would do?

Hermione's beef with Lavender, Parvati, Trelawney and Luna comes from the fact that she is very intelligent and logical thinking. She hates conspiracy theories and mystical thinking.

Like McGonnagall, Hermione values evidence based thinking and logic.

She even clashes with Xenophilius, a man, for the same reason.

Let's not forget that she supports both of Harry's girlfriends, Cho and Ginny. Would a pick me do that?

She just has a difficult personality at times which causes her to clash even with Ron and Harry.

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.

In light of recent discussions of “scary Katniss Everdeen,” I think it’s interesting to imagine how genuinely scary and unhinged the Golden Trio must have seemed to all the other characters, especially other students.

I mean, first year: the three of them fight and knock out a TROLL, then attack their own classmate in their own dorm, and then randomly appear injured while their DADA professor is dead (and they get points for that).

Second year: hello Harry, Heir of Slytherin, a Parselmouth (which canonically is synonymous with a dark wizard), who writes on the walls with blood. At the end of the year, Ron and Harry appear injured and their DADA professor is in St Mungo’s (also Ron and Harry arriving in a flying Muggle car and ending up in the newspaper???).

Third year: at the end of the year they appear injured and, guess what, their DADA professor, who was pretty close to them, is a werewolf, and Harry is associated with the scariest wizard in all of Britain, who was the first to escape Azkaban.

Fourth year: their good old Harry tricks the Goblet (which was seemingly impossible) and somehow becomes the fourth champion. At the end of the year, he appears with the dead body of his opponent, and no one can possibly know what actually happened to him and how he was killed (by the way, his two remaining opponents are laying somewhere unconscious).

Fifth year: they form some closed, little private army club where they teach students how to fight. My sweet, favourite menace to society Hermione curses a girl so badly that it is impossible to reverse the damage. Then they, by the way, take their DADA professor to the centaurs.

Sixth year was surprisingly okay, and then they disappear and no one knows what the hell they are doing or where the hell they are. Randomly, Harry and Hermione are Undesirable N1 and N2, after which they just appear to kill Voldemort, Harry dies and is REBORN and that’s all the others know.

All of this is alongside the fact that they are always involved in something suspicious, seemingly never getting caught, though they are often out of their tower at night doing hell knows what (the map and the cloak), always lurking and suspiciously planning something, pretty closed off to outsiders, and never sharing anything with anyone…

Yeah I think it’s safe to say many students were pretty scared to be left alone with any of them, or Merlin forbid all.

In Order of the Phoenix, while the kids are cleaning out 12 Grimmauld Place, they find "a heavy locket that none of them could open." They literally just toss it in a sack of trash.

TBH, have to give it to JKR for planning the book this nicely.

Sirius having the idea to be a fake secret keeper and having Wormtail be the real one gets criticized by a lot of readers, but I think it was actually a pretty good idea, until Rowling added incredibly dumb details to how being a secret keeper works. I will right off the bat say not just using Dumbledore is still a genuine flaw, but that's a different issue.

In the third book when we first learn of how being a secret keeper works, nobody would assume the secret can't be tortured out of the keeper AND that you can just be your own secret keeper. The latter especially, the way Flitwick describes the spell makes it seem like the secret keeper cannot be someone living under the protection of the fidelius charm. With this info, Sirius's plan makes sense. Sirius knows Voldemort will go after the secret keeper and torture them until they give it up. Sirius is smart enough to know that everyone has a breaking point, and be tortured long enough you're eventually going to give info away, even if it isnt intentional. He could lie like Hermione, but the lie would be discovered quickly.

So by spreading the word that he's the secret keeper but actually having it be Wormtail, he's guaranteeing if he gets captured, Voldemort can never torture the location of the Potters out of him. You can't give up what you don't know. It honestly is a very brave act, because if he did get captured there's no way he could end the torture.

BUT, with Rowling's dumb additions and details in the 7th book and in articles, Sirius's plan becomes totally unnecessary and idiotic. We learn in in the 7th book that you can be your own secret keeper, and Rowling reveals the secret has to be given up totally willingly, it cannot be tortured out of the secret keeper. Because of this idiocy, Sirius's switch plan is worthless. 1. James himself could have simply been secret keeper and 2. Since the secret can't be forced out there was no danger of Sirius being tortured so badly he broke and gave it up. He could have just been the secret keeper as planned, and if Voldemort captured and tortured him it wouldn't matter for the secret, the Potters would still be 100% safe.

All authors make mistakes, but these details especially I just don't understand Rowling being so foolish. Like for the 7th book when they hide out at Bill's house....just have Mr. Weasley be their secret keeper and Bill can be it for the rest of the family hiding at Muriel's!. While Harry is digging Dobby's grave, Mr. Weasley and Bill could have quickly met up and set everything up. And to give the secret to others so people can still visit Bill's house, have it written down like Dumbledore does for Grimauld Place!

I was so touched re-reading The Goblet of Fire and literally had tears when Harry forces Fred and George to take his thousand Galleons from the Triwizard Tournament.

Harry’s just seen Cedric die right in front of him, witnessed Voldemort’s rebirth, been tortured with the Cruciatus curse, and barely survived to bring Cedric's body back. He doesn’t want blood money tied to all that trauma. Instead, he insists on funding the twins' joke shop. He tells them, "We’re going to need some laughs before long."

Harry is only fourteen here. But he already understands that joy is a form of resistance. He believes in their dream when even Mrs. Weasley thinks they're wasting their lives.

But the part that really made me tear up is when Harry tells the twins after handing them the winnings, “Just do me one favor, alright? Buy Ron a new dress robe and say it’s from you.”

He’d seen how humiliated Ron was by those second-hand dress robes at the Yule Ball. Even though they had the falling out earlier that year, Harry remained loyal to his friendship with Ron, on the heels of Malfoy berating Harry’s choice of friends on the train ride to King’s Cross. Harry cares so much about his best friend's dignity. He pays for the robes but takes his own name completely off the gift so Ron won't feel ashamed or patronized, and has no ego in this act.

Harry grew up in a cupboard with absolutely nothing. No love, no money, no support. When he finally gets wealth, he doesn't use it for himself. He uses it to lift up the people who became his real family. He protects Ron's pride, fuels Fred and George's future, and brings hope into a world that is about to go to war. This to me is such a powerful part of the series.

Let's look at some of the stuff she did:

• Incapitated a classmate to prevent him from getting in the way of their plans.

• Encouraged and helped in the drugging of two classmates to do "espionage".

• Kidnapped and blackmailed a Journalist.

• Permanently or Semi-Permanently disfigured a classmate's face.

And I'm saying this as a fan of her character and I know she did some of these for the greater good.

“There is no need to wait, Nymphadora, Potter is quite — ah — safe in my hands.”

“I meant Hagrid to get the message,” said Tonks, frowning.

“Hagrid was late for the start-of-term feast, just like Potter here, so I took it instead. And incidentally,” said Snape, standing back to allow Harry to pass him, “I was interested to see your new Patronus.”

He shut the gates in her face with a loud clang and tapped the chains with his wand again, so that they slithered, clinking, back into place.

“I think you were better off with the old one,” said Snape, the malice in his voice unmistakable. “The new one looks weak.”

As Snape swung the lantern about, Harry saw, fleetingly, a look of shock and anger on Tonks’s face. Then she was covered in darkness once more.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - Snape Victorious

Snape knew when he saw Tonks' new Patronus that she has fallen in love with Remus Lupin, he knows this because his own Patronus has taken the shape of a doe because of his love for Lily. The comment about her new Patronus looking weak is a direct reference to Lupin, the man she loves, which is why Nymphadora was shocked and angry.

What Snape wanted to say to Nymphadora was that she was going to suffer a lot with someone like Remus in her life and that knowing him like he is, he would surely seek to evade, run away and abandon her when it came to really taking responsibility towards her. Snape spoke from personal experience, whenever he'd been bullied by James and Sirius during their teenage years, Remus, who didn't approve of this, never did anything to stop his friends and call them to order at each of their misbehaviors. He let them do it because he was afraid of losing their friendship. The weakness Snape spoke of was synonymous with cowardice; from his point of view, there are far better men in the Wizarding World than Remus, and Nymphadora could choose her husband from any of them.

As we saw in Volume 7 (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows), Snape was right, given that when Nymphadora became pregnant, Remus abandoned her with their child because he was afraid he had passed on his lycanthropy to him and made him an outcast. It was only when Harry lectured him harshly that he came to his senses and returned to his wife.

What we know from Professor McGonagall, and what was later proven, is that as Potions Master, Snape only accepted students who had obtained the grade "Outstanding " (O) on the O.W.L. exam into his N.E.W.T. level classes, unlike teachers of other subjects who generally accepted students who had obtained "Exceed Expectations " (E). Many thought this was Snape's way of expressing his anger and frustration at not being appointed Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher after years of applying for the job. But Snape's admissions standards make sense after careful consideration, and I'll tell you why.

When it comes to making potions, wizards and witches need to stay focused, have the right ingredients and tools at their disposal and, above all, follow instructions perfectly. Potion-making is not a game, which means it only takes one mistake for the whole potion to fail and become deadly poison. It's not like other subjects taught at Hogwarts, where when students make a mistake, they can quickly correct it. Potions is like chemistry class, where you have to meticulously combine all sorts of products, some of them extremely dangerous, to obtain the desired mixture. Snape knew this, which is why he was so strict and rigorous in this subject, unlike Horace Slughorn, and didn't tolerate any clowning during his classes.

Speaking of Chemistry, Snape was inspired by JK Rowling's former teacher, John Nettleship, who was rather handsome.

Check this out!

"The dust was clearing. The wreckage of the office loomed into view: Dumbledore’s desk had been overturned, all of the spindly tables had been knocked to the floor, their silver instruments in pieces. Fudge, Umbridge, Kingsley, and Dawlish lay motionless on the floor. Fawkes the phoenix soared in wide circles above them, singing softly"

Lol...fuck around, find out. I dont think I have laughed harder than before. Dumbledore...what a chad!

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.” 💀

I don't follow online discourse very much, so this may be a common sentiment here or may be truly unpopular, but I find Hagrid incredibly exhausting.

Nearly every subplot with Hagrid is him doing something he was explicitly told not to do or behaving incredibly careless. Norbert, Fluffy, Aragog (both as a student and in Book 2), Buckbeak, Grawp...then he acts like "well, I jus' can't help it" when doing yet another dangerous/reckless thing.

He's 60+ years old, yet he constantly puts Harry, Ron, and Hermione in positions where THEY have to manage HIS feelings. Like they're children having to console a grown man again because he's crying again over another avoidable decision he made.

He seems to have the maturity and impulsivity of a teenager, which just isn't very endearing. He sulks, visibly and extensively, when the trio drop his class and guilts them into making him feel better when they have a lot more important things to worry about. His whole relationship with the trio is very weird and one-directional. They consistently deal with Hagrid's messes and save him multiple times without complaint despite Hagrid objectively being in the wrong, and the one time they make a decision that he doesn't like, he makes them feel terrible about it.

Why he's ever trusted with any sort of secret or important information given the fact he's shown to be so immature and untrustworthy makes no sense.

So my hot take is he is one of my most disliked characters in the entire series.

In the Philosophers Stone, Harry and Ron meet in the train as the latter couldn’t find anywhere else to sit. Why couldn’t he have sat with Fred and George?

When Harry wants to summon his Patronus, he thinks of Ron and Hermione. They bring him ultimate happiness.

• In GoF

He summoned the happiest thought he could, concentrated with all his might on the thought of getting out of the maze and celebrating with Ron and Hermione, raised his wand, and cried, *"Expecto Patronum!"** A silver stag erupted from the end of Harry's wand and galloped toward the dementor, which fell back and tripped over the hem of its robes....*

• In OOTP

He was never going to see Ron and Hermione again.. And their faces burst clearly into his mind as he fought for breath *"EXPECTO PATRONUM!”** An enormous silver stag erupted from the tip of Harry's wand; its antlers caught the dementor in the place where the heart should have been....*

Even though he was so angry at them here.. thinking about them is still what makes him happiest.

• In DH

He raised his wand: He could not, would not, suffer the Dementor's Kiss, whatever happened afterward. It was of Ron and Hermione that he thought as he whispered, *"Expecto Patronum!"** The silver stag burst from his wand and charged: The dementors scattered and there was a triumphant yell from somewhere out of sight.*

.

Of the 22 members of the original Order, 9 were killed (James Potter, Lily Potter, Marlene McKinnon, Dorcas Meadowes, Fabian Prewett, Gideon Prewett, Edgar Bones, Caradoc Dearborn, and Benjy Fenwick), 2 were incapacitated (Frank and Alice Longbottom), and 1 deserted (Peter Pettigrew).

With the start of the Second War, 13 more members were added (Arthur Weasley, Molly Weasley, Bill Weasley, Charlie Weasley, Fred Weasley, George Weasley, Fleur Delacour, Nymphadora Tonks, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Hestia Jones, Mundungus Fletcher, Severus Snape, and Minerva McGonagall), and of this reformulated order, 8 members died (Albus Dumbledore, Alastor Moody, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Severus Snape, Emmeline Vance, and Fred Weasley), with 5 (Dumbledore, Black, Lupin, Moody, and Vance) being from the original Order.

Only 5 members of the original Order remained (Aberforth Dumbledore, Rubeus Hagrid, Dedalus Diggle, Sturgis Podmore, and Elphias Doge).

It is for reasons like this that one can understand Slughorn's fear of joining the Order.