I’m old enough to have read each book before its film version came out - I thank God every day for that.

No hate to the films or film fans - AT ALL.
But there’s nothing more magical than having your own mental image of what all the characters look like.
And the rich, intricate plots surprised me each time. Had I already seen the film, I would know the ending.
Would he interested to hear if anyone also has this take or disagrees with me…?

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Why Harry and Ron did not involve competent teachers at end of CoS?

I am currently re-re-(..)-re-reading Chamber of Secrets and have reached the point that has always irked me most.

Upon learning that monster inside the Chamber is a Basilisk, Harry and Ron rush to staff room to inform McGonagall about this momentous discovery. That's pretty sensible, up to this point.
Then as they heard McGonagall's magnified warning of another attack, they decided to hide in a wardrobe to learn more about it. Still pretty on brand for them.

At this point the plot consistency starts to go haywire.

McGonagall informs all teachers in the staff room about abduction of Ginny by the monster. Then all the teachers collectively dump the responsibility of finding Ginny on Lockhart, as a way to call him out about his boasts. However, Harry and Ron do not step out of Wardrobe and execute their original plan of informing McGonagall or any other teacher about identity of Monster. True, they were shocked to learn about Ginny, but that should had induced frantic action, not paralysis.

But their action becomes more inexplicable from here. They simply go back to Gryffindor common room, and miserably spend entire afternoon, without still informing any teacher. Why? why waste the entire afternoon being miserable, instead of acting on the information?

And then finally the teacher they went to seek help was Lockhart!

Throughout the story of CoS, we are given to understand that both Harry and Ron have healthy distrust about Lockhart's self acclaimed feats and his magical abilities. However, let's for the argument sake we say that they sought Lockhart cause he had promised to find Ginny. But few minutes later, Lockhart himself confessed to both of them that he was a fraud and a pure hack and attempted to wipe their memory. Harry promptly disarms him.

At this point both Ron and Harry know unequivocally that Lockhart is an absolutely incompetent wizard who couldn't help them in anyway in finding the entrance to chamber or to help them fight the monster inside. And yet they chose to lead him to the bathroom of Moaning Myrtle and then jump with him inside the tunnel!

So again the question is why didn't they immediately lead Lockhart to McGonagall and other teachers ?. This was most logical and simple thing to do. As Harry and Ron both know, all the other teachers, esp McGonagall and Snape, are genuinely powerful wizards . In fact it can be argued that upon learning this fact, McGonagall might even have sent an owl to Dumbledore to come and deal with the monster.

None of these inconsistencies can be explained by Harry and Ron's age, inexperience, or circumstances surrounding them. They have been through equally perilous situations before and came out on top. This was just weak story writing and convenient plot building to get Harry face Basilisk and Tom Riddle alone in the climax scene.

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JUST FINISHED THE FIFTH BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!

Its pretty good!it took a whole year!

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It's interesting how tonks feels guilty about not defeating Bellatrix in the battle of the department of mysteries, Voldemort was low key mocking Bellatrix for this in the deathly hallows book



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Homecoming Proposal.

Hello I’m 17 and trying to do something cute for the first time and just need some help. I redownloaded Reddit to do this. So my first post is some I guess advice lol. I am in desperate need of help from the Harry Potter community. My GF (17) is obsessed with the movies and has made me watch them however I just can’t get into actually paying attention.
Anyways, this week I was planning on asking her to homecoming using something with a Harry Potter theme, and the stuff on Pinterest doesn’t seem to good. All I’m really asking here is if anyone out there could lend me some good ideas that only someone who really payed attention would think of or any ideas on what I should do for this poster or even if it’s not a poster. I just need some help.
Thank you so much.

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Chamber Of Secrets Is So Underrated

In my opinion, it’s the most underrated Harry Potter film. It’s also my second favorite film in the series behind Prisoner Of Azkaban. I’m honestly shocked that a lot of people dislike it and consider it one of the weakest (if not the weakest) films in the series. I think this movie was an improvement over The Sorcerer’s Stone for a number of different reasons.

The CGI and visual effects were definitely improved and felt more natural compared to the first film. Characters like Dobby, Moaning Myrtle, Fawkes, and the basilisk looked so real and blended so well with the practical effects that were also done. The Quidditch scenes are looked way better visually. The Quidditch match that appears in this movie is actually my favorite Quidditch scene in any of the other films.

The acting from the kids in this movie is also greatly improved. I mean, it wasn't bad in the first film. But you could tell that a lot of the kids didn't have much acting experience and still needed a little improvement. For this movie, it's greatly improved and the acting feels so much more natural.

It was cool that we got to see a lot more of Hogwarts as a school in this movie. It also felt like we were actually at Hogwarts and doing stuff there compared to some of the other films. I don't know how to describe it. But you probably understand what I mean if you've seen the film.

Another thing I appreciated was how some of the characters in this movie were a little more fleshed just like they should be in any sequel. Seeing that Harry is unsure if he really belonged in Gryffindor was really interesting and relatable for people who feel like they don't belong in where they are even if they're fine with it. I also liked to see how hurt Hermione is when talking about being a mudblood. Emma Watson's performance is really great in that scene.

I liked that this was more of a mystery story. Seeing the trio slowly fight out all the clues of what’s going on and why everyone kept getting petrified was really investing.

The climax down in the Chamber Of Secrets was absolutely fantastic. The fight between Harry and the basilisk is one of my Top 3 favorite scenes in the whole series. I'm on the edge of my set every single time I watch that scene and still blown away by how awesome it is.


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Why didn't Harry just forge Venon's signature to go to Hogsmead?

I've been rereading the books, and I previously thought that the students' guardians had to personally mail the permission notes to Hogwarts. But really, all they have to do is personally hand it to their head of house. And we never heard of needing permission notes for anything else before then, so Harry could have scribbled anything resembling a signature and said it was Vernon's, and McGonagall would have had no way of knowing.

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Fred and George Appreciation

Nothing more than appreciation for Fred and George spending the first snow storm of their 3rd year throwing snowballs at the back of Quirrel’s head… also known as Voldemort’s face.

Other than maybe Harry killing him in front of all of his friends, this might be the single greatest humiliation of Voldemort’s life, and he could do absolutely nothing to stop it.

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Has anyone noticed how much J.K. Rowling seems to like socks?

So, in the Sorcerer’s Stone, Dumbledore tells Harry “One can never have too many socks.” And then, throughout the series, socks keep popping up in important plot moments.

-In his second year, Harry frees Dobby with a sock.

-In his third year, Harry keeps the sneakoscope that Ron gives him in a pair of socks, to muffle its constant whistling because of Pettigrew hiding in plain sight.

-In his fourth year, Harry is reintroduced to Dobby, who is still wearing Harry’s old sock, thus kicking off the Trios continuous investigation into Barry Crouch Sr.

-In his sixth year, Harry hides the Felix Felicis in the same pair of socks he used to keep the sneakoscope hidden.

-In his seventh year, Mrs. Weasley needs Harry to “identify a lone man’s sock” when she confronts him about the Trio’s plans to not go back to school.

This is is a super deep theory or anything like that, it’s just something interesting that I found myself pondering on as my mind wandered, and I wanted to hear people’s thoughts and opinions on it. What do socks mean to you?

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Why doesn't Hogwarts Legacy have playable Quidditch? It feels like such a missed opportunity..

Does anyone know the real reason it wasn't included? Or does anyone have fun experiences playing a Quidditch video game? I've been replaying the game, and I still can't believe it's left out!

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You go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and buy a replica wand. Turns out, it's a real wand but you can only use one spell but as many times as you like. Which spell do you choose?

I'd go with accio. Accio pizza!

https://redd.it/1o7xu71
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Sometimes I like to think about which characters seem to know all the students names, and which don't. The one I think that stands out the most is Peeves.

Most of the professors seem to take the time to learn students name. Teachers like McGonagall, Snape, and Lupin seem to have learned everyone's name before even the first class.

That seems uncharacteristic for Snape. But my thought is that because he's a head of house, he's probably also involved in some of the administrative work for new students, and learns everyone's name from that. Plus he is also a little pedantic.

Trelawney funnily enough is one of the teachers that seems less aware of students names. It could partially just be her manner of speaking, calling everyone dear. But I get the impression that she's so detached from the rest of the castle, and not interacting with others enough to catch on to names very well.

Prof. Binns is the best example of a teacher who doesn't seem to know anybody's name. At least he knows who Dumbledore is, despite him only being ~115 years old.

And then of course there's Slughorn, who could never get poor Ralph, or Rupert, or whoever it was name right.

But, who I really wanted to talk about was Peeves. I don't think there's a single instance of Peeves not knowing someone's name.
On the first day of Classes he know who Lupin is. He knows who Luna is. And then obviously Harry.

Of course he never CALLS people by their actual name. Except for Mr.Baron.


Potty, voldy ( who's gone moldy), Loony (lupin), Loony (luna).

I almost wonder if he learns people's names explicitly so that he can makes sure he calls them the wrong thing.

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Do you think Harry instead of arguing back with Ron before Ron left should have tried to be less confrontational?

I feel Harry being defensive and confrontational back didn’t help matters though it is hard when you feel attacked and hurt to rise above it. I think what really made him hit back was Ron was saying the things Harry feared himself to be true about Dumbledore and Ron was sort of blaming him for it.

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How could Voldemort not tell that Narcissa was lying when she said Harry was dead?



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Shouldn't Voldemort have checked on the remaining Horcruxes as soon as he found out that the diary was destroyed?

I never understood why he didn't. Finding out what had happened to the diary should have made him very nervous.

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"We're leaving soon, really soon. And then you'll be able to fly again." This one...hits different now.

Warning: this isn't a happy post, but I felt compelled to share it.

I recently lost my dog to Lymphoma, and it was completely unexpected. Just two or three weeks passed between him being perfectly healthy and completely gone. It still hurts to think about how quickly it all happened.

I was listening to the seventh audiobook and paused when I got to the line where Harry tells Hedwig, "We're leaving soon, really soon. And then you'll be able to fly again." I realized I'd said something similar to my dog right before I had to say goodbye to him, and I had to stop listening.

Sometimes the end is a killing curse. Sometimes, it's Lymphoma. Please hold your pets close. Hug them every day and treasure every moment. I truly thought I had so much more time with him.

Thank you for reading.

https://redd.it/1o8cwsh
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Being a muggleborn can be an advantage to attend Hogwarts, for naturally gifted wizards.

Muggleborns are the only one to not be hindered by magical laws regarding children's use of magic. Their muggle parents, unknowgly caretaker of young wizards and witches can't be expected to retain their child's magic. Therefore, the muggleborns are totally free to explore and experiment their own magical capabilities, and even train them until the very moment of attending Hogwarts.

A very clear exemple is Tom Riddle. He was training his powers in every matters he could experiment for eleven years. Including dark arts. Upon others, and his environment. No one tried to stop him among the ministry employees, and no one could stop him among muggles.

Even though he was already a prodigy, because there is clearly genetic factors in the expression of magic within individuals, there is very certainly as well environmental factors. And training since early childhood is a very strong way to enhance magical capabilities.

Furthermore, Hermione could be herself a good exemple of this bias.

Of course it depends a lot of the natural abilities of the child in the first place. The more naturally powerful an infant is, the easiest it gets to train themselves with awarness. The contrary is also true.

If children where allowed, under supervision to train, the average wizard would be much more powerful. Imagine all the years wasted, to do nothing, but patiently (or impatiently) waiting for the right to express their talents at school. All the earliest years, the most important years of the child development wasted for all this time...
Though, if the average wizard was much more powerful and talented than what we saw in the book, imagine the threat for the muggleworld and the wizarding world at the same time.

Unhinged wizards would try to take power by force, terrorise the muggles, experiment dangerous magic, and be able to do difficult magic that could help them to break into houses, steal, obliviate people at will, manipulate behaviours and thoughts, do a lot of crimes, while bend the proofs and make them impossible to be proven right, etc.

It's very convenient for the minitry of magic to declare this control is for the sake of magic secret.

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How was Nicolas Flamel not in more books?

In The sorcerer's Stone chapter 12, when they're trying to find out who Nicholas flomel is, it lists a few books that he's not in. Looks like "great wizards of the 20th century", "notable magical names of our time", and "important modern magical discoveries".

How is it possible that an alchemist of his caliber isn't in any of these books? He basically invented the elixir of life, and he's not a notable name or great wizard of the 20th century?

Edit: I get that he's 600 years old and all that, but honestly he didn't even make the notable names book? Also did he really not do anything other than make the stone? He has to have had some more recent accomplishments right?

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"Promise me one thing, Dobby. Never try to save my life again."

I guess its been awhile since I watched Chamber because I don't remember that line hitting so hard. It went from a mildy amusing joke to a knife in the heart. :-(

https://redd.it/1o8nuqj
@harrypotterbackup

Is it realistic that Imposter Moody fooled everyone?

Barty Crouch Jr. was imprisoned at 19, and spent most of his life in Azkaban. Upon release, he was able to take down the real Moody, then put on such a performance that everyone was fooled. Is this realistic? I feel there were so many opportunities to slip up, especially around Dumbledore and other powerful wizards. I don’t know how he got away with this.

What do you think?

Edit: Someone rightfully pointed out that he didn’t spend most of his life in Azkaban, he was confined at his father’s home the majority of the time. But he still couldn’t practice magic, etc. so I’m confused how he (and Wormtail) could defeat an already paranoid Moody who was powerful and always looking over his shoulder

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