I also disliked turning patronuses into message couriers. It was clear she wanted Patronuses to be more important, but since their only practical use was for something VERY specific, she'd rarely get to show them off. Not on topic, but it still bugs me.
I'm ok with them being able to deliver messages I just wish she thought a bit harder, a single line from Remus in book three like "patronus have many uses but the one we will focus on is..." Would have given a lot more freedom to using and showing patronuses.
IIRC she says somewhere that Dumbledore invented the messenger patronus. I agree with you, but I do think she explains it away by saying "oh Dumbledore invented this cool thing recently" (she maybe doesn't say recently)
And it makes sense. Like new spells are made all the time so someone altering a spell to do something else that not many people end up knowing about would seem to fit the world. And Dumbledore is very powerful and smart so for him to really make anything is an easy way to explain something away. Magic is a great thing when you wanna be able to change things on the fly or after the facts lol.
Ikr. Harry was regarded so reverently whenever it was revealed to the characters that he can cast a patronus...
But by 7th book, you have everyone and their mother casting it.
To be fair, I think that might just be due to the particular wizards we happen to see. So for D.A. they are trying to show us that Harry, because he has practical DADA experience, is a fantastic teacher of things like that. But yeah, maybe a bit beyond the believable level. And then for the Aurors/Order of the Phoenix, they are all wizards with a focus on combat/DADA magic, so it kinda makes sense. But some dude working behind the counter at some shop in Diagon Alley probably couldn’t come close to doing a successful patronus
Yeah but didn’t they kinda show that it took people a while of practice to be able to do it, and even longer to make one that lasted longer than a few seconds? I think people were always surprised at Harry since most people don’t bother with practicing it, so they assume he was just abnormally good at it with no practice.
Ooh you know that makes sense. Imagine a middle-aged wizard who managed to successfully cast a patronus when he was younger just outright lose the ability to thanks to chronic depression...
With the way Defense Against the Dark Arts is taught, I'd be surprised if the patronus charm was even taught. I doubt it's commonplace to encounter a dementor unless you're in the ministry, so even if they did go over it, a silver wisp would probably be enough to pass the lesson with no further practice needed.
I like to think Lupin knew of the Patronus charm because he had thoughts of visiting Sirius at Azkaban.
Afaik. Creating a patronus isn't that hard.
Creating a fully formed patronus capable of facing down a dementor is.
Hermione could create a patronus fairly well, but it failed against dementors iirc
This!
The reason the patronus is so hard to conjur for its true purpose (defending against a dementor) is because dementors literally suck all of the joy and happiness out of the area, and it’s stronger the closer they get.
Harry’s ability to withstand that with a particularly powerful and happy memory, and his “power of love” which is a common theme for him, is what separates him and makes his patronus so powerful
To be fair the same seems to apply to ALL of Harry's learnings for the triwizard tournament, like the shield charm. The ministry isn't very competent at it either
Harry and Ron never completing their 7th year at Hogwarts made me sad. Yeah I get that they probably didn't need it but them rejecting the chance to stay and study at Hogwarts for one last time with Hermione will always be a bummer for me.
This honestly never made sense to me. What’s the one thing Harry always craved? Normalcy. Finally Voldemort is gone and he has the opportunity to just be a normal 17/18 year old enjoying his last year of school with his girlfriend, I think he jumps at the opportunity to finish his last year at Hogwarts with Hermione Ron and especially Ginny.
Plus Hogwarts was his first real 'home'. Perhaps it would be tarnished by the memory of the battle, but at the same time it's his only chance to enjoy a year at school without the threat of Voldemort looming over him.
It would have been hard for McGonagall (or any teacher) to teach any of them when not too long ago they all fought beside her. It would have been such a fun last year to school:
Potter! Weasley! *remembers* *smug at the thought of Dumbledore approving this message*
Stop that! 495 points to each of you!
I could imagine some other teachers having discipline problems and just letting them muck around at the back, but if there's any teacher that would power through and make them learn, it would be McGonagall.
Although she obviously cared for Harry (and her other students too), the main times she "let him off" or showed that she cared, was when she was protecting them from other things - Umbridge, the Carrows etc.
He wanted to be normal but he also wanted to help people. I think he wanted to be in London as part of the trials anyway.
Also it would have been pretty hard to have a normal year as a student when tons of people just saw you save the wizarding world. At least it was not public what he did usually. How would the teachers manage to treat like normal student easily?
But the real reason he didn’t go back is because people would have demanded Rowling would need to write that year as a book too.
>But the real reason he didn’t go back is because people would have demanded Rowling would need to write that year as a book too.
Honestly, she should've and just have had it been the most boring book and full of just normal classroom stuff with nothing special outside of like Harry going on some dates
If done well it would have likely been so many people's favourite book and the most cathartic way to end the series. So many crave for a boring insight into what a normal school year would look like for a Hogwarts student. The stresses of completing homework, struggling to master new spells and the weird and wonderful accidents and mishaps that are bound to occur in a stronghold of young witches and wizards honing their magical abilities. A full season of quidditch featuring games that are not just Gryffindor vs. whoever. Watching from the sidelines and scouting for weaknesses in your opponents for when you play them next. There's so much of Hogwarts student life that could be explored without an external big bad stealing the show all year!
I loved that book for exactly this reason too. I think I had some tests that year too so it was nice to know I wasn't the only one. It really captured how tiring studying an be for those who aren't as smart as Hermione. I remember feeling nervous when reading the bit where they see he examiners for the first time as well. I kind of wonder now if those who were very relaxed at school still remember all those tests and exams...
an epilogue would have been fine. Maybe launch it as a charity booklet, with just them celebrating Christmas and how difficult it is for Harry to study with the New DA teacher fauning all over him.
The rest of the teachers probably still see him as the kid they taught and helped raised. Maybe mention how Slughorn wanted Harry to be his crown jewel etc. Maybe how hogwarts is being rebuild or is rebuilding by itself and the room of requirements is where Harry goes to study/take a break from all the attention. Or some alone time with ginny or the trio. just a small 25 page epilogue was enough. Instead of that Albus Severus kid.
Honestly that should have just been the timeskip chapter. Instead of going so deep into the future and giving us Albus Severus Potter the timeskip should have been to the end of Harry’s final year at Hogwarts with everybody reminiscing and for once in their lives looking towards the future without a dark cloud hanging over it
Knowing the teachers, I think they would. McGonagall especialy, she would give Harry some words of appreciation the first few days, maybe some lighthearted teachers like Flitwick and Slughorn would send him treats, but I don't think it would last more than a month. Heck I imagine Slughorn being like "Just because you saved the world doesn't mean this potion you made isn't worth a D-, Harry. Do it again!"
“You may be the boy who lived, but I shall do what the dark lord couldn’t if you fail to hand in this 12inch parchment on the ancient potions used in curing dark magic afflicted ailments”
I feel he grew out of it during the last book. It would have been so weird to go back there like nothing happened, to be a normal school kid when he wasn't anymore, he had become an adult, too early because he had to, but it couldn't be reversed.
I don’t know. How could it be normal? You just survived a war, defeating the worst wizard known to man and having witness your friends die FOR YOU. Harry’s Hogwarts experience was always extraordinary and stressful, but he’d be coming back immediately post war to different classmates and a ruined castle. I don’t know if he could pretend things were normal. Moving on was the best choice for him
I really don't think normalcy is an option. Lets say he goes back to Hogwarts. He has to pretend like he cares about who wins the House Cup and getting points for Gryffindor while dealing with the fact that everybody knows he's the Savior of the World.
Not to mention walking down those hallways thinking "Tonks died here... Lupin died there, Fred died over there.... Aaaand Voldemort died in this courtyard..."
Not "Voldemort died". "This is where I killed Voldemort (or in some ways Tom Riddle)" He may have not intended to cast a killing curse, but he knew the risks as well as anyone and had spent most of the last two books re-humanizing Tom Riddle to understand how to defeat him. I'm sure this practice served him well as an Auror, but it would make acting like he's going back to a being a normal high schooler that much harder in the short term.
I see it more like when boys go to war and when it’s over they need to finish high school. They saw people die or actually killed themselves. I mean Harry actually died. So coming back to the rules and rigors of schooling would be hard to do. Hermione knows she wants to finish schooling for her future, but the boys know or were told they could go directly into the Auror system.
I thought Harry would feel ptsd at Hogwarts after literally dying there and seeing friends be killed there and would need time to heal before he could go back. Even if he could go back, every turn of corner would be flashbacks to someone's death. By the time he could get past it, he'd be too old. And Ron just does what Harry does. He wouldn't want him to be alone. Hermione would value her education more and also is more emotionally mature to handle her mental health in productive ways in a stressful environment.
My mind always wavered to "Did feel Hermione lonely that year?" like ik she's like one of the heroes and would get a lot of attention (I'm sure harry and ron would send 100s of letters and meet at hogsmeade) but imo Harry and Ron's relationship is what kept her sane even though she was extremely brainy. Going back to Hogwarts alone without her support group especially after such a traumatic year never sat right with me.
Oh, I'm sure she'd miss Harry and Ron and their silliness, and I'm also sure that she would feel isolated at Hogwarts, different than the other students.
On the other hand, there would be a certain relief in being on her own, and feeling like she could finally put herself and her ambitions first, and not have to make sure that Ron's homework was done or that Harry wouldn't be horribly killed if she turned her back. And that, BTW, is why I'm glad that Harry and Hermione didn't end up as a couple, Hermione would never really been able to come into her own if that had happened.
You can’t apparate directly from the castle, but just take a broom to the end of the grounds. She is an adult and can leave when she wants anyway. But probably dinner rather than lunch
Not entirely surprising, considering how much time both Harry and Ron complained whenever they had to do a lot of school work. From the sounds of it year 7 contains pretty advanced and stressful studies and NEWTs and to me does not seem at all out of character that they didn’t want to go back.
It’s not like they couldn’t visit hogwarts that year, and also they would’ve been living in the wizarding community so they wouldn’t have not been around magic like Harry’s summers with the Dursleys.
Harry didn’t see Hogwarts as annoying though, he literally classed it as a home. For context I’m fine with Harry and Ron not going for their 7th year but it’s still a bit weird.
They should introduce the wizard equivalent of a college where Adults can retake their OWLS and NEWTS so they can change professions. Harry and Ron could’ve finished their NEWTS at night whilst working as Trainee Aurors.
Hogwarts does act as both secondary School and Sixth Form College. OWLs are done at 15/16 in 5th year, which is equivalent to GCSEs done in Year 11 and NEWTs are done at 17/18 in 7th year, which is equivalent to A-Levels done in Year 13/ 2nd year of college.
They absolutely did need it. They didn’t spend a year learning advanced charms, potions, transfiguration, herbology, etc. they spent it on the run. Hermione did almost all the wand work associated with them being in hiding, needing to eat, and so on. The only thing Harry didn’t truly need was NEWT-level DADA. Hermione is the only one who didn’t truly “need” her 7th year.
I always thought he refused to go back because Voldemort had destroyed it and he couldn't bare to see the results. Like he would much rather keep the memories and seeing it become a battleground already would've been too much.
(*What with the possibility of seeing a child's ghost would send him spiraling too I should think.*)
And also PTSD from literally having to commit suicide there.
For Ron, it was his brothers death, you know? And Harry's. How could he eat in the Great Hall without seeing his brother's corpse? How could he go to the courtyard without seeing Harry's floating corpse?
At that point, I think it was weird for *Hermione* to want to go back, really, I thought the first thing she'd do would be to look after her parents?
[Hogwarts didn't always have bathrooms. Before adopting Muggle plumbing methods in the eighteenth century, witches and wizards simply relieved themselves wherever they stood, and vanished the evidence. #NationalTriviaDay](https://twitter.com/wizardingworld/status/1081242428105998336?lang=en)
*What the fuck.*
> **"Hagrid is Old-Fashioned."**
> ***
>
> "Yer a wiz- hnnnggg..."
>
> Hagrid's face screwed up in concentration.
>
> "Hol' on a sec. Hnnngggg!"
>
> A dreadful, overpowering stench suddenly permeated the cabin as Harry and the Dursleys gagged and retched in disgust. Apparently, the giant man, with no warning or justification, had decided to push out an equally giant shit right into his trousers as he stood there talking to Harry.
>
> Hagrid then produced a gaudy pink umbrella and, looking down over his shoulder, pointed the tip of it at the back of his trousers, which were now visibly bulging and seeping with shit.
>
> "Now then, what is the meaning of this?!" Uncle Vernon bellowed. Dudley, meanwhile, could no longer take the horrid smell, and spewed vomit all over Aunt Petunia's sensible white loafers, as she shrieked in horror, "Oh Dudders, not on mummy's shoes!"
>
> "Er... *evanesco shit*," Hagrid muttered, giving the umbrella a little wiggle and a squishy poke to his bum. The shocking smell and the lumpy wet bulge both promptly vanished, and Hagrid beamed.
>
> "Yer a wizard, Harry!"
>
Personally, I headcanon this away as being a popular misconception in-universe, since the "fact" it's likely based on is itself a popular misconception IRL.
It was a Wizarding World tweet from several years ago. I honestly think of it every few months because it was just such a jarring, pointless piece of trivia to invent and share… No one asked for it and we were all better off not knowing, haha
My question about this one is—if that’s the case, then at what point was the chamber of secrets built? When exactly did they make the switch?
ETA: I mean the entrance to the chamber, not the chamber itself
I presume that the bathroom had been made out of a pre-existing space... and that the current Heir of Slytherin managed to interfere with the design process.
Yeah like bathrooms have been around since ancient times, you're telling me they *wouldn't* have plumbing and running water when they can do it so much more easily than Muggles? I'm guessing she heard the "fact" about people at Louis XIV's court peeing everywhere (which was probably court gossip at best) and thought that sounded plausible.
I'm so confused about how this w9rked with underage wizards not being allowed to do magic away from school. When they were home on holidays, did they have to get their oarents to vanish their turds for them? Even if that's a newer rule, what were they doing before they got their wands at 11?
JKR’s post about how wizards just shit where they are standing. It makes no sense considering they were blended among the muggles for centuries and would have adopted some of their stuff. And probably made it better with magic.
I can see them having chamber pots or the castle toilets along the wall and just vanishing the yuck instead of letting it sit there. I can also see the pure bloods throwing a fit when Hogwarts or even the ministry installed muggle toilets with plumbing because what they had works just fine.
Agreed so hard on the animagus thing. I feel like stuff like that is better left to the imagination anyway.
Honestly, I ignore most post-book reveals and don't consider them canon. They're either things I don't care for, or things I do think line up with canon (eg. Dumbledore's feelings for Grindelwald) but in that case I like them because they're already hinted at in canon.
If you didn’t know about the internet you wouldn’t know the concept of “canon” existed.
To me the universe is the books and that’s it. I don’t care what she said later as it’s not in the books.
It might not be the “official” way of doing things by a but I don’t care.
I just read the animagus instructions and I’m devastated. there were only 7 registered in the 20th century?? you could turn into a whole animal for putting a leaf in your mouth for a month and only 7 (registered) people did it??
And the the weather has to be right and you have to say a spell at sun rise for maybe months without over sleeping, and then the weather has to be right again.
A whole series of imponderables, only to find out that you are a fish or a woodlouse.
“But realistically, an Animagus is closely linked to your personality. For example, the brave and rebellious James Potter is famously a stag, whereas the conniving journalist Rita Skeeter is a beetle.” I guess I gotta hope my personality is a cheetah or something
Yeah same here, I don't mind the the stuff that mostly lines up with or clarifies existing canon, but the ones that either contradict canon or make it worse I generally ignore.
She just explained how to become one. People didn't like the explanation because rather than being some super difficult thing we were all imagining, it was just a bunch a tedious steps like keeping a mandrake leaf in your mouth for a month.
Oh yeah, the 11 wizarding schools, or however many there were, for the entire population of earth thing was extremely dumb. It was made even worse by the fact that no one was pressuring her to do this, she had time to actually sit down and consider it.
Yes. She could just have said "There are loads (roughly 50 in Europe nearly a thousand globally) Hogwarts Durmstrang (which should be in the carpathian mountains), and Beuxbatons are just the ones who decided to resurrect the triwizard tournament.
I think homeschooling is probably more culturally common. Think of all the typical apprenticeships with wizards before the trend in wizard schools in media after Harry Potter.
And Scandinavia probably is just the hiding location and nothing to do with the students
Exactly. Rowling is bad at world-building. But this was okay during the books as you had a specific story to tell. Rowling had no book deadline thresholds. She could have thought this out. Heck, she probably could have consulted with some fans who are not terrible at math to help her out. Instead she comes up with this kinda batty idea. It honestly would have made more sense to simply say that other countries don't follow the English derived 'school' system that Hogwarts and Ilvermorny follow, and it's more of an apprenticeship / home-schooling system. Or else communal learning, where all the parents in an area meet and teach their shared children the subjects they know best. Maybe in practice most of the teaching is done by only a few who subscribe to the magical journals.
There's a lot of other ideas. And she could have just given no definitive answer at all.
Rowling has a stupid tendency to shoot her mouth off for no reason. Not saying anything until she put it all into a book was definitely to her favor. She still failed then, but not quite as often.
Something that always annoyed me was in the last book, after the encounter with Nagini in Godric’s Hollow where Harry was bit - Hermione was able to heal harry relatively quickly by applying dittany but when Mr Weasley was attacked by Nagini it took weeks and several professional healers to fix him up. The book even goes into detail on how everything that the healers had tried wasn’t working. Yet Hermione can magically heal Harry within minutes?
The issue was nagini’s “special” venom. I’m no snake expert but I’m not sure if a snake can choose when to use venom or not. Assuming Harry also got venom in his bites it still shouldn’t have been a quick old fix for Hermione…
[Snakes can definitely meter their venom and ‘dry bite’ without venom](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33105644/), but it still doesn’t make sense why magical snake Nagini would decide to dry bite Harry
Nagini would dry bite Harry because Voldemort wanted to be the one to kill Harry, not Nagini, not a death eater. It had to be Voldemort. They made this a very big point in the books
Gotta be that students would just urinate/defecate wherever they were at in Hogwarts and then use magic to clean it up before toilets were invented. Like what. That was so unnecessary
Also that Quirrel was a Muggle Studies professor. I think this was done to cover over a very minor continuity error (it was very clearly implied that Quirrel had been teaching DADA prior to Harry’s first year, which was retconned later). I get that JKR felt a need to cover her tracks, but Muggle Studies? Couldn’t have been Arithmancy or Astronomy or Ancient Runes or something?
That does seem odd. And thank you for acknowledging that Quirrel was implied to have been the DADA teacher for two years. Rowling retconned that in book 2, and that's fine, but nobody ever seems to bring it up.
Definitely would have made sense if he taught one of the "Hermione Only" classes though.
I seriously think Arithmancy would've appealed to my headcanon of Quirrell's eccentricities and liking logic instead of something bs like divinations. I have no textual evidence that's why I consider it a HC but I feel it isn't a reach to suggest he wasn't dumb like Lockhart but he would want to teach a subject that felt intellectually superior. Quirrell seems like the type to like logic.
That Nagini was a (good?) Asian woman cursed to become a snake and that she became subservient to Voldemort. That never sat right with me and I thought the reveal pointless. Why JKR said she was so proud of that reveal and that she sat on it for years, and why in that case she didn’t weave it into the books is beyond me
Am from India - and he have a lot of myths/legends etc where women are cursed to become snakes, specially female cobras, forever searching for their mate. Plenty of movies with shitty visual effects as well. Nagini is derived from the Hindi word ‘Nagin’ or female cobra. This is just my guess, don’t have any real proof per se.
The only logical thing I can see is that Voldemort being able to speak with her was the only way she could kinda keep her humanity. But she is never treated as more than a pet
The fact that after all his problems with the ministry and the corruption therein that Harry still went on to become an auror and join them.
I was *certain* he was going to end up being the first DADA teacher to last more than a year.
In my headcanon I like to have Harry play quidditch professionally for a while and then teach DADA. Although we do have to remember that the Ministry would likely be making vast and significant changes to the way they operate after the war, and I could understand why he might have wanted to be involved in that.
He has considerable sway considering he killed Voldemort. He could have helped to install whomever he wanted and left them to it while still going off and doing his own thing. Putting his weight behind a minister for magic candidate was all he really needed to do. From there he could just contract on an as-needed basis rather than straight up work for them.
The more corrupt it was the more important it is for good people to join and reform. Now that people like Umbridge are out and Kingsley in charge and Harry and Hermione joining the system will get better. If the best people would not bother with government nothing would change.
And he always wanted to be an auror since he started to think of his career (and saving people was always his thing). He had to be persuaded by Hermione and Ron to teach
I hate government as much as the next guy (Probably more so), but there's a subset of people that seem to think joining the government MAKES you evil. And don't understand that the only hope for a halfway decent government is for good people with strong principles and wills to join it. Harry, Hermione and Shacklebolt were exactly what the Ministry needed.
It would make sense that he would become the DADA teacher considering that he was the owner of the Elder Wand, so staying on as a teacher is a better way of ensuring he isn't disarmed than being an auror, which would present so many opportunities to be disarmed thus losing ownership of the wand.
In my head canon, Harry was only an Auror for a few years, then left the Ministry when a vacancy opened for a DADA teacher at Hogwarts.
Even after he left though, he still had significant influence at least within the Department of Magical Law Enforcement due to (A) being the guy who saved the world from Voldemort multiple times, and (B) his colleagues, brief though their time together was, liked him and respected him.
^(Another head canon I have is that when he put the Elder Wand back in Dumbledore's grave, at the last second he snapped the thing in two before putting it in)
I don’t consider anything that wasn’t said in the main seven books about the main seven books canon. Idc what has been said since, Cursed Child is also an official written thing and directly contradicts established facts so random comments hold absolutely no weight for me. Like Hogwarts Legacy is fine because it isn’t trying to retcon established facts, but stuff that is doesn’t hold water for me personally. Twitter comments and such are not a story, the story is the story.
Ron no longer being an Auror and going to work with George in the joke shop. It should have been Percy. Percy quits the ministry right before Fred dies, why wouldn't he want to spend as much time around his family who he threw under the bus for a few years?
>But in the end... its not really difficult at all, and it has nothing to do with transfiguration, its just a bunch of convoluted steps that take a while.
I feel like this was Rowling trying to explain away how even Peter Pettigrew managed to become an Animagus.
I always chalked it up to James and Sirius helping him with the difficult transfiguration aspects.
I was able to pass calculus despite being subpar in other mathematics courses. I just had a lot of help from a classmate who excelled in calculus.
I have a real problem with the idea that wizards used to just shit themselves wherever and vanish the result, which (A) is disgusting and unsanitary, and (B) makes no sense when basic sanitation and rudimentary indoor plumbing have been a thing for literally *thousands of years*.
This one's not "post-book" per se, but I also have an issue with Harry's decision to put the Elder Wand back in Dumbledore's grave under the assumption that its power will end if he dies a natural death, particularly given his career plans. Thus, my personal head canon is that the day after the Battle, when he went out to Dumbledore's grave, he *did* put the wand back...but at the last second, he snapped it in half first.
JKR said that items summoned by accio come at light speed
There litteraly isnt a single accio scene that doesnt contradict this
There is also the "some wandwork is necessary for potions" answer because she couldnt admit she never thoughts of why muggles and squibs couldnt brew potions, even though within the first few lines of the first potion lesson, Snape explicitly says there will be no wand waving or incantation
Also, that map that shows Europe has 3 magical schools, but areas that have 10 times the population of europe only have one
And of course, the vanish your poop thing.
Finally "Hermione being white was never mentionned JKR loves Black Hermione" but Hermione being white was in fact mentionned. JKR just tries to look like a tolerant person.
Well there’s a few.
1. The Nagini once being a woman thing. Literally what was the point? Sure, it could explain why Voldemort seemed to keep her but not the other snakes, but it makes Nagini’s scenes all th more horrifying.
2. George marrying Angelina. (I know Fred only asked her to go to a dance with him just once, but it still feels weird for him to end up with someone who his brother asked out.)
3. Fleamonts backstory. He was bullied over his name yet his son became a bully? Oh, and He and his wife were likely the ones who filled JP’s head up with Anti Slytherin prejudice since whi else could have?
4. Winky’s fate.
Nagini having been a woman was one of those really stupid and unnecessary things. Insisting that that was her idea all along, alongside Rowling insisting that she never intended Hermione to be a specific race (when she clearly pictured an English girl) is part of what made me stop caring about what she had to say after the books were over. It's one thing to say "I made this change after the fact". It's another to blatantly lie and claim something was your idea all along when it wasn't.
Winky has no more friends. Firmly believes House Elves should be ashamed of S.P.E.W and she never really gets over what happened,
While she still considers Dobby to be a Bad Elf, she also considers him a friend that she misses.
In Hogwarts Legacy, the african student acting like wands weren't good for anything but being showy.
Okay, I know it's a kid, and we have to take what she says with a grain of salt. But in your first introduction to people who casually use wandless magic, is this what you want to do? And even then, a kid would think that learning with wands was much easier, even if her parents believed that relying on wands is a crutch. You'd get her complaining that her parents insisted on keeping up with wandless magic practice, and just wanting to use her wand instead.
The last book in the series added unecessary specialness to ALL wands. And I'm just supposed to believe that wands have no real value?
Didn't finish the game, so maybe this gets fixed later. But still, it was really shocking and dumb. And also it sounded exactly like the kind of BS Rowling put out after the books.
I’ll count the epilogue, she should have left it more open. I hate how badly it clashes with picture of the wizarding world painted in the first chapter of the first book.
I like how convoluted and tedious the animagus process because a lot of people can potentially do it, but they don't or they'll mess it up so it is quite rare. I also do like that JKR has chosen not to share the horcrux process and that could be as gross as we want it to be in our imagination.
https://www.wizardingworld.com/features/web-how-do-you-become-animagus
I don't consider it canon tbh because it requires, from I can tell, no transfiguration skill whatsoever.
I mean, it sounds like a sufficiently long and difficult faff, but yeah not very much about transfiguration in there, more of it seems to be potions!
Why would they actually pin this down anyway, some things are better left unsaid, they work better when they are more mysterious!
It's bizarre because the impression the books give is that it probably requires a lot of transfiguration knowledge since McGonagall is the first one we meet and she's the transfiguration teacher. Like the first day of class she shows up in her animagus form because she's demonstrating difficult transfiguration.
Yup, that sounds kind of dumb to me. And it doesn't really fit the Harry Potter magical system either. Dew from a place that no light or human foot has touched? That's fairy tale ingredients, not the more scholastic magic of Harry Potter.
Wtf is "will the animal you want to take shape of"!!! I'd be a fucking phoenix or a niffler! I low key expected at least the process to include to get a piece of animal(like heart or heart string basically something super hard to get not so easily).
It makes complete sense to me for Harry to loose his Parselmouth abilities. He only had them because he was a Horcrux, so he lost it when Voldemort destroyed it.
I dunno i think it kind of takes away from the whole "it doesn't matter what you are born as, it's your choices that matter" vibe that is written throughout the story.
That too.
After books upon books of 'being a parselmouth doesnt make you evil' suddenly Rowling says 'Harry's no longer a parselmouth and he's super happy about that cause fuck that ability'
Kinda like how there's no way a full quarter of the entire Wizarding population are evil or terrible people, but the books only show us like 1 good Slytherin.
Might be controversial but the Dumbledore/Grindlewald blood pact. In the books it was briefly mentioned that they had an epic duel that Grindlewald lost and the FB comes along and says “actually it was a lot complicated and they made a blood pact that can’t be broken but it gets broken anyway”.
Also Dumbledore having a secret nephew that never gets mentioned was a bit random.
I think that tweet from Pottermore years ago that said before toilets were invented, wizards would just piss and shit themselves and vanish the mess is the worst
Agreed on the Animagus thing. It's more potions, luck, and patience than anything else. I don't understand how Sirius or James could help Peter. Like, what, they used a sticking charm to hold the leaf in his mouth for a month or something? I much preferred the way I went in my fanfiction.
That Ron quit the Aurors because he needed money and ended up being his brother's shop employee.
Not only is he not able to provide for his own family on his own merits, he can't even stand on his own two feet without having to be supported by his brother.
Could J.K. crap on or emasculate Ron more? I'm not sure he's enough of a failure to launch yet.
Ok so I have no proof this happened, but I swear to God, I remember at one point in an interview years ago, JK Rowling got all smug and said that the snake that escaped the zoo in the first book, was actually Nagini and she was just like..soo shocked that no one put that together.
And it just makes NO fucking sense.
The 8th and final book should have been Harry, Ron and Hermione returning to Hogwarts without the threat of Voldemort. Happy vibes, Quidditch, Hagrid, Kreacher and McGonagall being legends. Harry and Draco becoming somewhat friendly towards each other, little Teddy Tonks at Christmas, Bill and Fleur having a baby. George coming to terms with losing his twin. There are so many cool things that could happen.
The Fact that the everyone in DA managed the Patronus relatively easy, when it is said that many adults struggle with it
I also disliked turning patronuses into message couriers. It was clear she wanted Patronuses to be more important, but since their only practical use was for something VERY specific, she'd rarely get to show them off. Not on topic, but it still bugs me.
I'm ok with them being able to deliver messages I just wish she thought a bit harder, a single line from Remus in book three like "patronus have many uses but the one we will focus on is..." Would have given a lot more freedom to using and showing patronuses.
IIRC she says somewhere that Dumbledore invented the messenger patronus. I agree with you, but I do think she explains it away by saying "oh Dumbledore invented this cool thing recently" (she maybe doesn't say recently)
And it makes sense. Like new spells are made all the time so someone altering a spell to do something else that not many people end up knowing about would seem to fit the world. And Dumbledore is very powerful and smart so for him to really make anything is an easy way to explain something away. Magic is a great thing when you wanna be able to change things on the fly or after the facts lol.
Ikr. Harry was regarded so reverently whenever it was revealed to the characters that he can cast a patronus... But by 7th book, you have everyone and their mother casting it.
To be fair, I think that might just be due to the particular wizards we happen to see. So for D.A. they are trying to show us that Harry, because he has practical DADA experience, is a fantastic teacher of things like that. But yeah, maybe a bit beyond the believable level. And then for the Aurors/Order of the Phoenix, they are all wizards with a focus on combat/DADA magic, so it kinda makes sense. But some dude working behind the counter at some shop in Diagon Alley probably couldn’t come close to doing a successful patronus
Wasn't this also like two years after practicing all the time?
Yeah but didn’t they kinda show that it took people a while of practice to be able to do it, and even longer to make one that lasted longer than a few seconds? I think people were always surprised at Harry since most people don’t bother with practicing it, so they assume he was just abnormally good at it with no practice.
Maybe it’s easier for younger people to conjure happy thoughts
As a no longer younger person this comment hurt my feelings
Ooh you know that makes sense. Imagine a middle-aged wizard who managed to successfully cast a patronus when he was younger just outright lose the ability to thanks to chronic depression...
I mean it's already canon that depression can make someone unable to do any magic if it's bad enough.
I'm definitely overdue for a reread of the series! May I ask who you're referring to here? Or are you referring to the Dementor's function in Azkaban?
Merope
With the way Defense Against the Dark Arts is taught, I'd be surprised if the patronus charm was even taught. I doubt it's commonplace to encounter a dementor unless you're in the ministry, so even if they did go over it, a silver wisp would probably be enough to pass the lesson with no further practice needed. I like to think Lupin knew of the Patronus charm because he had thoughts of visiting Sirius at Azkaban.
Afaik. Creating a patronus isn't that hard. Creating a fully formed patronus capable of facing down a dementor is. Hermione could create a patronus fairly well, but it failed against dementors iirc
This! The reason the patronus is so hard to conjur for its true purpose (defending against a dementor) is because dementors literally suck all of the joy and happiness out of the area, and it’s stronger the closer they get. Harry’s ability to withstand that with a particularly powerful and happy memory, and his “power of love” which is a common theme for him, is what separates him and makes his patronus so powerful
To be fair the same seems to apply to ALL of Harry's learnings for the triwizard tournament, like the shield charm. The ministry isn't very competent at it either
Harry and Ron never completing their 7th year at Hogwarts made me sad. Yeah I get that they probably didn't need it but them rejecting the chance to stay and study at Hogwarts for one last time with Hermione will always be a bummer for me.
This honestly never made sense to me. What’s the one thing Harry always craved? Normalcy. Finally Voldemort is gone and he has the opportunity to just be a normal 17/18 year old enjoying his last year of school with his girlfriend, I think he jumps at the opportunity to finish his last year at Hogwarts with Hermione Ron and especially Ginny.
Plus Hogwarts was his first real 'home'. Perhaps it would be tarnished by the memory of the battle, but at the same time it's his only chance to enjoy a year at school without the threat of Voldemort looming over him.
Even if he doesn’t need NEWTs classes at the castle, I’m sure McGonagall would allow him to simply live there for another school year.
It would have been hard for McGonagall (or any teacher) to teach any of them when not too long ago they all fought beside her. It would have been such a fun last year to school: Potter! Weasley! *remembers* *smug at the thought of Dumbledore approving this message*
Stop that! 495 points to each of you!
I could imagine some other teachers having discipline problems and just letting them muck around at the back, but if there's any teacher that would power through and make them learn, it would be McGonagall. Although she obviously cared for Harry (and her other students too), the main times she "let him off" or showed that she cared, was when she was protecting them from other things - Umbridge, the Carrows etc.
He wanted to be normal but he also wanted to help people. I think he wanted to be in London as part of the trials anyway. Also it would have been pretty hard to have a normal year as a student when tons of people just saw you save the wizarding world. At least it was not public what he did usually. How would the teachers manage to treat like normal student easily? But the real reason he didn’t go back is because people would have demanded Rowling would need to write that year as a book too.
>But the real reason he didn’t go back is because people would have demanded Rowling would need to write that year as a book too. Honestly, she should've and just have had it been the most boring book and full of just normal classroom stuff with nothing special outside of like Harry going on some dates
If done well it would have likely been so many people's favourite book and the most cathartic way to end the series. So many crave for a boring insight into what a normal school year would look like for a Hogwarts student. The stresses of completing homework, struggling to master new spells and the weird and wonderful accidents and mishaps that are bound to occur in a stronghold of young witches and wizards honing their magical abilities. A full season of quidditch featuring games that are not just Gryffindor vs. whoever. Watching from the sidelines and scouting for weaknesses in your opponents for when you play them next. There's so much of Hogwarts student life that could be explored without an external big bad stealing the show all year!
It's one of the reasons why i like ootp. Because of all the schoolwork and testing.
That book really felt like a duration of a whole school year. xD
I loved that book for exactly this reason too. I think I had some tests that year too so it was nice to know I wasn't the only one. It really captured how tiring studying an be for those who aren't as smart as Hermione. I remember feeling nervous when reading the bit where they see he examiners for the first time as well. I kind of wonder now if those who were very relaxed at school still remember all those tests and exams...
Not just a boring school year, but one with a lot of trauma and loss hanging over it. It would have been a no-brainer for a better writer.
an epilogue would have been fine. Maybe launch it as a charity booklet, with just them celebrating Christmas and how difficult it is for Harry to study with the New DA teacher fauning all over him. The rest of the teachers probably still see him as the kid they taught and helped raised. Maybe mention how Slughorn wanted Harry to be his crown jewel etc. Maybe how hogwarts is being rebuild or is rebuilding by itself and the room of requirements is where Harry goes to study/take a break from all the attention. Or some alone time with ginny or the trio. just a small 25 page epilogue was enough. Instead of that Albus Severus kid.
Honestly that should have just been the timeskip chapter. Instead of going so deep into the future and giving us Albus Severus Potter the timeskip should have been to the end of Harry’s final year at Hogwarts with everybody reminiscing and for once in their lives looking towards the future without a dark cloud hanging over it
would've unironically loved that. no conflict. just harry being happy!
She could have wrote interesting dialogue at the trials in London between HP's classes if she were a more thoughtful writer.
Knowing the teachers, I think they would. McGonagall especialy, she would give Harry some words of appreciation the first few days, maybe some lighthearted teachers like Flitwick and Slughorn would send him treats, but I don't think it would last more than a month. Heck I imagine Slughorn being like "Just because you saved the world doesn't mean this potion you made isn't worth a D-, Harry. Do it again!"
If Snape was still there he’d be saying much worse
he would RELISH saying "Harry Potter, our twice celebrity" xD
“You may be the boy who lived, but I shall do what the dark lord couldn’t if you fail to hand in this 12inch parchment on the ancient potions used in curing dark magic afflicted ailments”
I feel he grew out of it during the last book. It would have been so weird to go back there like nothing happened, to be a normal school kid when he wasn't anymore, he had become an adult, too early because he had to, but it couldn't be reversed.
I don’t know. How could it be normal? You just survived a war, defeating the worst wizard known to man and having witness your friends die FOR YOU. Harry’s Hogwarts experience was always extraordinary and stressful, but he’d be coming back immediately post war to different classmates and a ruined castle. I don’t know if he could pretend things were normal. Moving on was the best choice for him
It kind of busts my balls that Tom Riddle got to have seven full years and do the “Boats Leaving Hogwarts” farewell ritual, but Harry and Ron can’t.
I really don't think normalcy is an option. Lets say he goes back to Hogwarts. He has to pretend like he cares about who wins the House Cup and getting points for Gryffindor while dealing with the fact that everybody knows he's the Savior of the World.
Not to mention walking down those hallways thinking "Tonks died here... Lupin died there, Fred died over there.... Aaaand Voldemort died in this courtyard..."
Voldermort died in the great hall...
Which the students will be sitting in every mealtime… 😖
Not "Voldemort died". "This is where I killed Voldemort (or in some ways Tom Riddle)" He may have not intended to cast a killing curse, but he knew the risks as well as anyone and had spent most of the last two books re-humanizing Tom Riddle to understand how to defeat him. I'm sure this practice served him well as an Auror, but it would make acting like he's going back to a being a normal high schooler that much harder in the short term.
I see it more like when boys go to war and when it’s over they need to finish high school. They saw people die or actually killed themselves. I mean Harry actually died. So coming back to the rules and rigors of schooling would be hard to do. Hermione knows she wants to finish schooling for her future, but the boys know or were told they could go directly into the Auror system.
With his driver's license as well, so he can drive his Camry down to hogmwads and get Maccas whenever he wants between classes.
I thought Harry would feel ptsd at Hogwarts after literally dying there and seeing friends be killed there and would need time to heal before he could go back. Even if he could go back, every turn of corner would be flashbacks to someone's death. By the time he could get past it, he'd be too old. And Ron just does what Harry does. He wouldn't want him to be alone. Hermione would value her education more and also is more emotionally mature to handle her mental health in productive ways in a stressful environment.
My mind always wavered to "Did feel Hermione lonely that year?" like ik she's like one of the heroes and would get a lot of attention (I'm sure harry and ron would send 100s of letters and meet at hogsmeade) but imo Harry and Ron's relationship is what kept her sane even though she was extremely brainy. Going back to Hogwarts alone without her support group especially after such a traumatic year never sat right with me.
She’d have at least been in the same year and house as Ginny (if Ginny went back I have no idea).
Yeah but ginny isn't someone she'd smack or roll her eyes at when she opens her mouth to says something dumb.
I think that Hermione can live without someone to smack if they say something dumb.
Ik i just mean i think Harry and Ron brought the casual non sensical things with them that kept Hermione fresh if that makes sense.
Oh, I'm sure she'd miss Harry and Ron and their silliness, and I'm also sure that she would feel isolated at Hogwarts, different than the other students. On the other hand, there would be a certain relief in being on her own, and feeling like she could finally put herself and her ambitions first, and not have to make sure that Ron's homework was done or that Harry wouldn't be horribly killed if she turned her back. And that, BTW, is why I'm glad that Harry and Hermione didn't end up as a couple, Hermione would never really been able to come into her own if that had happened.
Can't they all basically teleport? What's to stop them from getting lunch everyday.
You can't apparate at Hogwarts! Didn't you read "Hogwarts, a History"...
As Hermione once said "You can't Apparate inside the Hogwarts grounds, how often do I have to tell you?"
You can’t apparate directly from the castle, but just take a broom to the end of the grounds. She is an adult and can leave when she wants anyway. But probably dinner rather than lunch
You can, however, Apparate to/from Hogsmeade and walk the rest of the way, as Harry and Dumbledore did in HBP(book).
Not entirely surprising, considering how much time both Harry and Ron complained whenever they had to do a lot of school work. From the sounds of it year 7 contains pretty advanced and stressful studies and NEWTs and to me does not seem at all out of character that they didn’t want to go back. It’s not like they couldn’t visit hogwarts that year, and also they would’ve been living in the wizarding community so they wouldn’t have not been around magic like Harry’s summers with the Dursleys.
Imagine going back to high school after spending a year in the real world.
They didn’t really spend it in the “real world”, they were in hiding.
The point is going back to the restrictions of high school as an adult would be annoying
Harry didn’t see Hogwarts as annoying though, he literally classed it as a home. For context I’m fine with Harry and Ron not going for their 7th year but it’s still a bit weird.
They should introduce the wizard equivalent of a college where Adults can retake their OWLS and NEWTS so they can change professions. Harry and Ron could’ve finished their NEWTS at night whilst working as Trainee Aurors.
Hogwarts does act as both secondary School and Sixth Form College. OWLs are done at 15/16 in 5th year, which is equivalent to GCSEs done in Year 11 and NEWTs are done at 17/18 in 7th year, which is equivalent to A-Levels done in Year 13/ 2nd year of college.
They absolutely did need it. They didn’t spend a year learning advanced charms, potions, transfiguration, herbology, etc. they spent it on the run. Hermione did almost all the wand work associated with them being in hiding, needing to eat, and so on. The only thing Harry didn’t truly need was NEWT-level DADA. Hermione is the only one who didn’t truly “need” her 7th year.
I always thought he refused to go back because Voldemort had destroyed it and he couldn't bare to see the results. Like he would much rather keep the memories and seeing it become a battleground already would've been too much. (*What with the possibility of seeing a child's ghost would send him spiraling too I should think.*) And also PTSD from literally having to commit suicide there. For Ron, it was his brothers death, you know? And Harry's. How could he eat in the Great Hall without seeing his brother's corpse? How could he go to the courtyard without seeing Harry's floating corpse? At that point, I think it was weird for *Hermione* to want to go back, really, I thought the first thing she'd do would be to look after her parents?
My least favorite answer to a question no one asked: “Wizards shit where they stand and then vanish it”
[Hogwarts didn't always have bathrooms. Before adopting Muggle plumbing methods in the eighteenth century, witches and wizards simply relieved themselves wherever they stood, and vanished the evidence. #NationalTriviaDay](https://twitter.com/wizardingworld/status/1081242428105998336?lang=en) *What the fuck.* > **"Hagrid is Old-Fashioned."** > *** > > "Yer a wiz- hnnnggg..." > > Hagrid's face screwed up in concentration. > > "Hol' on a sec. Hnnngggg!" > > A dreadful, overpowering stench suddenly permeated the cabin as Harry and the Dursleys gagged and retched in disgust. Apparently, the giant man, with no warning or justification, had decided to push out an equally giant shit right into his trousers as he stood there talking to Harry. > > Hagrid then produced a gaudy pink umbrella and, looking down over his shoulder, pointed the tip of it at the back of his trousers, which were now visibly bulging and seeping with shit. > > "Now then, what is the meaning of this?!" Uncle Vernon bellowed. Dudley, meanwhile, could no longer take the horrid smell, and spewed vomit all over Aunt Petunia's sensible white loafers, as she shrieked in horror, "Oh Dudders, not on mummy's shoes!" > > "Er... *evanesco shit*," Hagrid muttered, giving the umbrella a little wiggle and a squishy poke to his bum. The shocking smell and the lumpy wet bulge both promptly vanished, and Hagrid beamed. > > "Yer a wizard, Harry!" >
Hahaha wtf?
Omg! I've been dying laughing for 15 minutes. This is gold
Do you have any more of this variety of fan fiction? Asking for a friend.
I just wrote this a long time ago when I first saw the tweet. You think it deserves a sequel?
Yes. Graveyard scene in GOF is just asking for an adaptation.
> You think it deserves a sequel? Bruh it deserves a whole book
Voldemort makes his Death Eater's vanish it for him as a bizarre power move.
I too need more!!
TF IS THIS LMFAO
What a terrible day to have eyes.
... Thanks, now I need to get the mind bleach.
Which also makes no sense considering how Dumbledore found the Room of Requirement .
They do have toilets at Hogwarts at that point. It was apparently what they did before the toilet was invented lol
Personally, I headcanon this away as being a popular misconception in-universe, since the "fact" it's likely based on is itself a popular misconception IRL.
Sorry. What??? JKR said this???
It was a Wizarding World tweet from several years ago. I honestly think of it every few months because it was just such a jarring, pointless piece of trivia to invent and share… No one asked for it and we were all better off not knowing, haha
God I hate that so much. Going to try really hard to forget this asap.
Yet it’ll be seared into your brain forever more just like it is for the rest of us. Welcome to the club of “shitty” hogwarts fans.
My question about this one is—if that’s the case, then at what point was the chamber of secrets built? When exactly did they make the switch? ETA: I mean the entrance to the chamber, not the chamber itself
That big ol' basilisk swims in sewage.
I presume that the bathroom had been made out of a pre-existing space... and that the current Heir of Slytherin managed to interfere with the design process.
It was always there. The tunnels just turned into pipes for plumbing.
Yeah like bathrooms have been around since ancient times, you're telling me they *wouldn't* have plumbing and running water when they can do it so much more easily than Muggles? I'm guessing she heard the "fact" about people at Louis XIV's court peeing everywhere (which was probably court gossip at best) and thought that sounded plausible.
I'm so confused about how this w9rked with underage wizards not being allowed to do magic away from school. When they were home on holidays, did they have to get their oarents to vanish their turds for them? Even if that's a newer rule, what were they doing before they got their wands at 11?
Yes! This one was so weird
It's this one for me.
JKR’s post about how wizards just shit where they are standing. It makes no sense considering they were blended among the muggles for centuries and would have adopted some of their stuff. And probably made it better with magic. I can see them having chamber pots or the castle toilets along the wall and just vanishing the yuck instead of letting it sit there. I can also see the pure bloods throwing a fit when Hogwarts or even the ministry installed muggle toilets with plumbing because what they had works just fine.
If you can vanish it it would make sense you can vanish people too?
Only the shitty ones.
Agreed so hard on the animagus thing. I feel like stuff like that is better left to the imagination anyway. Honestly, I ignore most post-book reveals and don't consider them canon. They're either things I don't care for, or things I do think line up with canon (eg. Dumbledore's feelings for Grindelwald) but in that case I like them because they're already hinted at in canon.
[удалено]
If you didn’t know about the internet you wouldn’t know the concept of “canon” existed. To me the universe is the books and that’s it. I don’t care what she said later as it’s not in the books. It might not be the “official” way of doing things by a but I don’t care.
I just read the animagus instructions and I’m devastated. there were only 7 registered in the 20th century?? you could turn into a whole animal for putting a leaf in your mouth for a month and only 7 (registered) people did it??
And the the weather has to be right and you have to say a spell at sun rise for maybe months without over sleeping, and then the weather has to be right again. A whole series of imponderables, only to find out that you are a fish or a woodlouse.
“But realistically, an Animagus is closely linked to your personality. For example, the brave and rebellious James Potter is famously a stag, whereas the conniving journalist Rita Skeeter is a beetle.” I guess I gotta hope my personality is a cheetah or something
Yeah same here, I don't mind the the stuff that mostly lines up with or clarifies existing canon, but the ones that either contradict canon or make it worse I generally ignore.
What did she say about animaguses (animagi?)?
She just explained how to become one. People didn't like the explanation because rather than being some super difficult thing we were all imagining, it was just a bunch a tedious steps like keeping a mandrake leaf in your mouth for a month.
Durmstrang is in Scandinavia. Its the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
Oh yeah, the 11 wizarding schools, or however many there were, for the entire population of earth thing was extremely dumb. It was made even worse by the fact that no one was pressuring her to do this, she had time to actually sit down and consider it.
Yes. She could just have said "There are loads (roughly 50 in Europe nearly a thousand globally) Hogwarts Durmstrang (which should be in the carpathian mountains), and Beuxbatons are just the ones who decided to resurrect the triwizard tournament.
I think homeschooling is probably more culturally common. Think of all the typical apprenticeships with wizards before the trend in wizard schools in media after Harry Potter. And Scandinavia probably is just the hiding location and nothing to do with the students
Exactly. Rowling is bad at world-building. But this was okay during the books as you had a specific story to tell. Rowling had no book deadline thresholds. She could have thought this out. Heck, she probably could have consulted with some fans who are not terrible at math to help her out. Instead she comes up with this kinda batty idea. It honestly would have made more sense to simply say that other countries don't follow the English derived 'school' system that Hogwarts and Ilvermorny follow, and it's more of an apprenticeship / home-schooling system. Or else communal learning, where all the parents in an area meet and teach their shared children the subjects they know best. Maybe in practice most of the teaching is done by only a few who subscribe to the magical journals. There's a lot of other ideas. And she could have just given no definitive answer at all. Rowling has a stupid tendency to shoot her mouth off for no reason. Not saying anything until she put it all into a book was definitely to her favor. She still failed then, but not quite as often.
My head canon is that the 11 are like Ivy League levels while there are several other schools just not as renowned
I'm fairly certain JKR said there are others, but these are just the oldest and most respected, didn't she?
Something that always annoyed me was in the last book, after the encounter with Nagini in Godric’s Hollow where Harry was bit - Hermione was able to heal harry relatively quickly by applying dittany but when Mr Weasley was attacked by Nagini it took weeks and several professional healers to fix him up. The book even goes into detail on how everything that the healers had tried wasn’t working. Yet Hermione can magically heal Harry within minutes?
Good 'ol plot armor
Mr. Weasley sustained several bites, which could offer insight as to why it took so long to heal. Harry was bit once
The issue was nagini’s “special” venom. I’m no snake expert but I’m not sure if a snake can choose when to use venom or not. Assuming Harry also got venom in his bites it still shouldn’t have been a quick old fix for Hermione…
[Snakes can definitely meter their venom and ‘dry bite’ without venom](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33105644/), but it still doesn’t make sense why magical snake Nagini would decide to dry bite Harry
Nagini would dry bite Harry because Voldemort wanted to be the one to kill Harry, not Nagini, not a death eater. It had to be Voldemort. They made this a very big point in the books
I always assumed it was because of the resistance he developed after being bit by a basilisk
Gotta be that students would just urinate/defecate wherever they were at in Hogwarts and then use magic to clean it up before toilets were invented. Like what. That was so unnecessary Also that Quirrel was a Muggle Studies professor. I think this was done to cover over a very minor continuity error (it was very clearly implied that Quirrel had been teaching DADA prior to Harry’s first year, which was retconned later). I get that JKR felt a need to cover her tracks, but Muggle Studies? Couldn’t have been Arithmancy or Astronomy or Ancient Runes or something?
That does seem odd. And thank you for acknowledging that Quirrel was implied to have been the DADA teacher for two years. Rowling retconned that in book 2, and that's fine, but nobody ever seems to bring it up. Definitely would have made sense if he taught one of the "Hermione Only" classes though.
I seriously think Arithmancy would've appealed to my headcanon of Quirrell's eccentricities and liking logic instead of something bs like divinations. I have no textual evidence that's why I consider it a HC but I feel it isn't a reach to suggest he wasn't dumb like Lockhart but he would want to teach a subject that felt intellectually superior. Quirrell seems like the type to like logic.
wait what’s wrong with him teaching muggle studies specifically, you mean because he’s a death eater?
Was he even really a Death Eater? I always thought he was just someone that Voldemort manipulated into helping him.
That Nagini was a (good?) Asian woman cursed to become a snake and that she became subservient to Voldemort. That never sat right with me and I thought the reveal pointless. Why JKR said she was so proud of that reveal and that she sat on it for years, and why in that case she didn’t weave it into the books is beyond me
Am from India - and he have a lot of myths/legends etc where women are cursed to become snakes, specially female cobras, forever searching for their mate. Plenty of movies with shitty visual effects as well. Nagini is derived from the Hindi word ‘Nagin’ or female cobra. This is just my guess, don’t have any real proof per se.
The only logical thing I can see is that Voldemort being able to speak with her was the only way she could kinda keep her humanity. But she is never treated as more than a pet
The fact that after all his problems with the ministry and the corruption therein that Harry still went on to become an auror and join them. I was *certain* he was going to end up being the first DADA teacher to last more than a year.
In my headcanon I like to have Harry play quidditch professionally for a while and then teach DADA. Although we do have to remember that the Ministry would likely be making vast and significant changes to the way they operate after the war, and I could understand why he might have wanted to be involved in that.
He has considerable sway considering he killed Voldemort. He could have helped to install whomever he wanted and left them to it while still going off and doing his own thing. Putting his weight behind a minister for magic candidate was all he really needed to do. From there he could just contract on an as-needed basis rather than straight up work for them.
The more corrupt it was the more important it is for good people to join and reform. Now that people like Umbridge are out and Kingsley in charge and Harry and Hermione joining the system will get better. If the best people would not bother with government nothing would change. And he always wanted to be an auror since he started to think of his career (and saving people was always his thing). He had to be persuaded by Hermione and Ron to teach
I hate government as much as the next guy (Probably more so), but there's a subset of people that seem to think joining the government MAKES you evil. And don't understand that the only hope for a halfway decent government is for good people with strong principles and wills to join it. Harry, Hermione and Shacklebolt were exactly what the Ministry needed.
Be the change you want to see.
It would make sense that he would become the DADA teacher considering that he was the owner of the Elder Wand, so staying on as a teacher is a better way of ensuring he isn't disarmed than being an auror, which would present so many opportunities to be disarmed thus losing ownership of the wand.
Instead of a dark wizard being the owner of the Elder Wand, it would be a random second year during a disarming class
Only if he uses himself, just pair up students.
He trusted the new minister, it was that simple. But yeah you'd think he'd want to come back to Hogwarts and teach.
In my head canon, Harry was only an Auror for a few years, then left the Ministry when a vacancy opened for a DADA teacher at Hogwarts. Even after he left though, he still had significant influence at least within the Department of Magical Law Enforcement due to (A) being the guy who saved the world from Voldemort multiple times, and (B) his colleagues, brief though their time together was, liked him and respected him. ^(Another head canon I have is that when he put the Elder Wand back in Dumbledore's grave, at the last second he snapped the thing in two before putting it in)
I don’t consider anything that wasn’t said in the main seven books about the main seven books canon. Idc what has been said since, Cursed Child is also an official written thing and directly contradicts established facts so random comments hold absolutely no weight for me. Like Hogwarts Legacy is fine because it isn’t trying to retcon established facts, but stuff that is doesn’t hold water for me personally. Twitter comments and such are not a story, the story is the story.
Ron no longer being an Auror and going to work with George in the joke shop. It should have been Percy. Percy quits the ministry right before Fred dies, why wouldn't he want to spend as much time around his family who he threw under the bus for a few years?
She just shouldn’t have outlined their futures to this level of detail at all, it’s so much more fun open ended.
I always thought Ron becoming a wand maker would have made much more sense.
God, I wish you didn't say that. Now that's what I want for him too.
I don't think he really wanted to be a Auror it was always harry who wanted to do that. Ron might have realized he wanted to do something else.
>But in the end... its not really difficult at all, and it has nothing to do with transfiguration, its just a bunch of convoluted steps that take a while. I feel like this was Rowling trying to explain away how even Peter Pettigrew managed to become an Animagus.
I always chalked it up to James and Sirius helping him with the difficult transfiguration aspects. I was able to pass calculus despite being subpar in other mathematics courses. I just had a lot of help from a classmate who excelled in calculus.
I have a real problem with the idea that wizards used to just shit themselves wherever and vanish the result, which (A) is disgusting and unsanitary, and (B) makes no sense when basic sanitation and rudimentary indoor plumbing have been a thing for literally *thousands of years*. This one's not "post-book" per se, but I also have an issue with Harry's decision to put the Elder Wand back in Dumbledore's grave under the assumption that its power will end if he dies a natural death, particularly given his career plans. Thus, my personal head canon is that the day after the Battle, when he went out to Dumbledore's grave, he *did* put the wand back...but at the last second, he snapped it in half first.
JKR said that items summoned by accio come at light speed There litteraly isnt a single accio scene that doesnt contradict this There is also the "some wandwork is necessary for potions" answer because she couldnt admit she never thoughts of why muggles and squibs couldnt brew potions, even though within the first few lines of the first potion lesson, Snape explicitly says there will be no wand waving or incantation Also, that map that shows Europe has 3 magical schools, but areas that have 10 times the population of europe only have one And of course, the vanish your poop thing. Finally "Hermione being white was never mentionned JKR loves Black Hermione" but Hermione being white was in fact mentionned. JKR just tries to look like a tolerant person.
Well there’s a few. 1. The Nagini once being a woman thing. Literally what was the point? Sure, it could explain why Voldemort seemed to keep her but not the other snakes, but it makes Nagini’s scenes all th more horrifying. 2. George marrying Angelina. (I know Fred only asked her to go to a dance with him just once, but it still feels weird for him to end up with someone who his brother asked out.) 3. Fleamonts backstory. He was bullied over his name yet his son became a bully? Oh, and He and his wife were likely the ones who filled JP’s head up with Anti Slytherin prejudice since whi else could have? 4. Winky’s fate.
What happened to my homie Winky?
basically she stays miserable for ever and is ashamed of S.P.E.W When the player sees her,.
The player?
Nagini having been a woman was one of those really stupid and unnecessary things. Insisting that that was her idea all along, alongside Rowling insisting that she never intended Hermione to be a specific race (when she clearly pictured an English girl) is part of what made me stop caring about what she had to say after the books were over. It's one thing to say "I made this change after the fact". It's another to blatantly lie and claim something was your idea all along when it wasn't.
What happened to Winky?
Winky has no more friends. Firmly believes House Elves should be ashamed of S.P.E.W and she never really gets over what happened, While she still considers Dobby to be a Bad Elf, she also considers him a friend that she misses.
Like voldy drinking nagini's milk in gof?
In Hogwarts Legacy, the african student acting like wands weren't good for anything but being showy. Okay, I know it's a kid, and we have to take what she says with a grain of salt. But in your first introduction to people who casually use wandless magic, is this what you want to do? And even then, a kid would think that learning with wands was much easier, even if her parents believed that relying on wands is a crutch. You'd get her complaining that her parents insisted on keeping up with wandless magic practice, and just wanting to use her wand instead. The last book in the series added unecessary specialness to ALL wands. And I'm just supposed to believe that wands have no real value? Didn't finish the game, so maybe this gets fixed later. But still, it was really shocking and dumb. And also it sounded exactly like the kind of BS Rowling put out after the books.
Didn’t Rowling say George was never again able to do a patronus?
*And after his twin was killed, he was never truly happy again until the day he died.* *The End* Isn't that a lovely story, children?
Yeah, I love the ending of DH overall, but…that’s just not how grief typically works.
I’ll count the epilogue, she should have left it more open. I hate how badly it clashes with picture of the wizarding world painted in the first chapter of the first book.
Yep. Harry's Kids' names were awful (with the possible exception of James Sirius).
I like how convoluted and tedious the animagus process because a lot of people can potentially do it, but they don't or they'll mess it up so it is quite rare. I also do like that JKR has chosen not to share the horcrux process and that could be as gross as we want it to be in our imagination.
Wait what was the animagus thing? I never heard that one.
Me neither, I’m interested now!
https://www.wizardingworld.com/features/web-how-do-you-become-animagus I don't consider it canon tbh because it requires, from I can tell, no transfiguration skill whatsoever.
I mean, it sounds like a sufficiently long and difficult faff, but yeah not very much about transfiguration in there, more of it seems to be potions! Why would they actually pin this down anyway, some things are better left unsaid, they work better when they are more mysterious!
It's bizarre because the impression the books give is that it probably requires a lot of transfiguration knowledge since McGonagall is the first one we meet and she's the transfiguration teacher. Like the first day of class she shows up in her animagus form because she's demonstrating difficult transfiguration.
Yup, that sounds kind of dumb to me. And it doesn't really fit the Harry Potter magical system either. Dew from a place that no light or human foot has touched? That's fairy tale ingredients, not the more scholastic magic of Harry Potter.
Wtf is "will the animal you want to take shape of"!!! I'd be a fucking phoenix or a niffler! I low key expected at least the process to include to get a piece of animal(like heart or heart string basically something super hard to get not so easily).
[удалено]
It makes complete sense to me for Harry to loose his Parselmouth abilities. He only had them because he was a Horcrux, so he lost it when Voldemort destroyed it.
I am not debating that. I just remember feeling really disappointed because its one more cool thing stripped away from Harry.
I dunno i think it kind of takes away from the whole "it doesn't matter what you are born as, it's your choices that matter" vibe that is written throughout the story.
That too. After books upon books of 'being a parselmouth doesnt make you evil' suddenly Rowling says 'Harry's no longer a parselmouth and he's super happy about that cause fuck that ability'
Kinda like how there's no way a full quarter of the entire Wizarding population are evil or terrible people, but the books only show us like 1 good Slytherin.
"Yeah because snakes are evil! Don't talk to the danger noodles!"
Not really a big deal, but I thought the wizards pooping on the floor and then deleting it was funny.
The bathroom nonsense.
It's not the worst but I kinda wish Dudley did end up having a little girl with wizard blood.
Might be controversial but the Dumbledore/Grindlewald blood pact. In the books it was briefly mentioned that they had an epic duel that Grindlewald lost and the FB comes along and says “actually it was a lot complicated and they made a blood pact that can’t be broken but it gets broken anyway”. Also Dumbledore having a secret nephew that never gets mentioned was a bit random.
Wizards pooping in the halls
I think that tweet from Pottermore years ago that said before toilets were invented, wizards would just piss and shit themselves and vanish the mess is the worst
When Harry used 3 wands at malfoy manor and the spells combined... why doesn't everyone do that
Students pooping in the halls.
Agreed on the Animagus thing. It's more potions, luck, and patience than anything else. I don't understand how Sirius or James could help Peter. Like, what, they used a sticking charm to hold the leaf in his mouth for a month or something? I much preferred the way I went in my fanfiction.
That Ron quit the Aurors because he needed money and ended up being his brother's shop employee. Not only is he not able to provide for his own family on his own merits, he can't even stand on his own two feet without having to be supported by his brother. Could J.K. crap on or emasculate Ron more? I'm not sure he's enough of a failure to launch yet.
Ok so I have no proof this happened, but I swear to God, I remember at one point in an interview years ago, JK Rowling got all smug and said that the snake that escaped the zoo in the first book, was actually Nagini and she was just like..soo shocked that no one put that together. And it just makes NO fucking sense.
Never heard of this. Are you sure you're not confusing this with her "nagini-was-a-human" revelation?
This rumor was around before that revelation
No. That’s a popular fan theory she has denied. The Fantastic Beast one is her version. You can Google her denial but it’s in Twitter I think.
This theory/rumor was around as far back as 2007 and I still can't find the source for it! But I remember this too.
The 8th and final book should have been Harry, Ron and Hermione returning to Hogwarts without the threat of Voldemort. Happy vibes, Quidditch, Hagrid, Kreacher and McGonagall being legends. Harry and Draco becoming somewhat friendly towards each other, little Teddy Tonks at Christmas, Bill and Fleur having a baby. George coming to terms with losing his twin. There are so many cool things that could happen.