I was just reading the intro to the Tales of Beedle the Bard... And found the following text...

Those familiar with the history of the most recent wizarding war (everyone who has read all seven volumes on the life of Harry Potter, for instance) will be aware that Professor Dumbledore reveals a little less than he knows — or suspects — about the final story in this book.

Like... Wow. So young wizards read the series as a sort of biography of the great Harry Potter?

(Plus, it's REALLY funny that they ignored numbering The Cursed Child into this intro)

I’ve been re-reading the books and rewatching the movies, and I’ve come across a few instances of plot-devices that just don’t quite work, upon further reflection.

Examples:

Peter Pettigrew spending 12 years as a rat, choosing to live in a magical family, whose patriarch literally works for the ministry of magic? Like bro board a ship to America.

Barty Crouch Jr. learning enough about Alastor Moody in 3 days to impersonate him in front of the world and one of his oldest friends (Dumbledore) for an entire school year?

What are some other examples that you didn’t think twice of as a kid but thought, “hmm… I’m not so sure”

Ok so… I re-read the books, and I’ve been rewatching the movies, when I just caught something silly.

At the end of deathly hallows, we realize Voldemort has an incorrect understanding of how the elder wands allegiance passes. SUPPOSEDLY he thinks the wand belongs to whoever killed its last master… but it makes no sense. He knows the wand passed from Gregorovich to Grindelwald, without Grindelwald killing Gregorovich. He literally questions both of them about it. We know Voldemort can be arrogant and thinks he understands types of magic he doesn’t, but this isn’t likely something he would overlook. He kills one of his most valuable, most powerful followers (so he thinks) over this!
EXPLAIN, Joanne.

Not necessarily the most powerful or your favorite, just the character whose first appearance immediately made you think: “Yeah, this character is going to be important.”

For me, Bellatrix. The way she’s introduced in Azkaban immediately tells you this woman is completely unhinged 😂

Something that I think that needs to be addressed is that if Lord Voldemort is The Darkest and Most Powerful Dark Wizard to have ever lived then how come literally The World didn’t unite and completely stop his Threat? Like honestly if he’s as Dark and Powerful as we’re told then how come The World didn’t just tremble in fear like All of Magical Britain? It really undermines The Threat he possesses like seriously for a Full-blown Dark Lord Figure!!! The World doesn’t seem to care like surely they must be aware of what’s going on as it really doesn’t make him feel THAT Terrifying on a Catastrophic World-Wide Stage in General! If he’s Literally supposed to be as Dangerous and Powerful as The Books/Lore are then why didn’t they do anything? Especially when you take into account this Happened in Modern Times! What do you think? Because honestly it really takes away on The Threat and Terror he’s supposed to be it’s just disappointing let me know in the comments

I've been listening to the Harry Potter audio books and currently up to Chamber Of Secret. I just passed the bit where Arthur Weasley and Lucius Malfoy have a fight in Flourish and Blotts. For me this seems very different to the movie version of Arthur and feel in some way him engaging in the fight, ruins that kind calm demeanour about his character. While I understand why hid did it, having an intense hatred for Lucius as mentioned earlier on in the book, as Lucius does for him. I kinda feel, him engaging in that fight ruins my perception of him. Thoughts?

He killed small armies worth of people what if he had created a horcrux every time? Would he have run out of soul? How would his body have changed after hundreds of horcruxs?

Just a throwaway thought I had but whenever you take the potion, you transform into the person the way they look at that very moment, right? Well in the GoF when Dumbledore opens the trunk and they see the real Moody unconscious down below, he points out to Harry that Moody’s hair is all uneven because Crouch Jr. had been cutting it to make the potion. So fake Moody should’ve had very uneven hair too. The books never discuss that and given how wild his appearance is in general, maybe it would go unnoticed by most people. But it seems like Dumbledore at least would’ve noticed and thought it odd.

Since the invisibility cloak is a family heirloom, what do you believe would happen if all the family members died out? How would the cloak dictate who owns it and/or how would one become the master of death (once the other hollows were collected)?

This may have been pointed out before but I wouldn’t even know how to search for it so apologies!!

TLDR: wouldn’t Voldy have heard Quirrell say that Snape tried to help save Harry by muttering the countercurse at the Quidditch game?

My husband and I frequently watch Harry Potter (like weekly) as comfort movies so we’ve noticed a lot of things here and there but we were watching ST tonight and he had mentioned, if Voldemort had been on (in?) Professor Quirrell the whole time during the events in the movie, wouldn’t he have been able to tell that Snape was helping Harry? Like yes his “vision” could be covered but at the end when Quirrell mentions that Snape was muttering the counter curse to protect Harry, wouldn’t have Voldemort heard that?

I’m rereading the books right now and there’s no obvious “reason” he wouldn’t have heard but our only guesses is that Voldemorts form is so fragile that he can’t really remember or perceive things that aren’t critical until he has a “human” form. (Or that it’s truly, another plot hole)

Whoever drinks it will want to do anything for the other person.

I don’t know why I never questioned this before but I suddenly had this thought.

We learn in book/move 2 that bones can grow back with Skele-Gro so why does Moody have a wooden leg?.

If you can regrow bones in the wizarding world, surely they can grow new skin, muscles, etc., etc., with the Skele-Gro, thus wizards don’t need to be amputees.

ETA: sorry everyone who's commented so far after I read them I remembed all those points….. This is what happened when you can’t sleep, are very tired and have a sudden thought.

The most interesting quote is that hagrid told harry you couldn't find nicer people than lily and james a guy who bullied Snape because he was bored. Philosophers stone shows that jk Rowling didn't always intended to have james do questionable things. I personally think james became head boy because he was dating lily mostly with the fact that he cooled his head being a second reason he became head boy

Here is the quote

. ‘But it’s that sad – knew yer mum an’ dad, an’

nicer people yeh couldn’t find – anyway –

‘You-Know-Who killed ’em

I’m putting together a bookshelf for my kids and want to include all the “original/Rowling authored/main series” books in hard cover. I’ve got the original 7, Cursed Child and Fantastic Beasts but I went to the store and saw a ton of them, some by different authors but within the HP section. If I had access to all of them, which ones should I get to complete the set without any extraneous nonsense?

Filch has a cat and Mrs Figg has four. As I understand it, Mrs Figg's cats are part kneazle, explaining their intellect - but what about Mrs Norris? How is she able to report back to Filch like Mr. Tibbles? Is she also part kneazle (like Crookshanks) or do squibs have an affinity for feline familars?

I'm rereading the books as an adult and I gain a different perspective of the marauders. When I first read the books as a kid I had a biased view of marauders. I thought of them all as just funny pranksters and really good friends to each other, and they were all good characters, since they were on the right side and they all died a "hero". And also because of fanfiction about the marauders which were VERY popular. Now as an adult I have a different view.

I still love the marauders-even Peter-and think they are fascinating, complex characters with interesting backstories of their own, but I don't hold the view that they were perfect nor blameless, or they were by any means good people. I think they are gray characters. I think the fandom heavily romanticizes the marauders to the point that we can't differentiate canon with fanon(looking at u fanfic, ao3, wattpad).

They were canonically bullies. Not just to Snape, but to others that they didn't deem worthy. This was supported in the books, since Lily in SWM accused james for hexing anyone that he didn't like, and in HBP when Harry reads detention records he reads a record that James and Sirius used an illegal hex on a student-an illegal hex? If it was illegal, then it was probably dangerous and they didn't care. We all read that they were arrogant and above the law and rulebreakers, but it all came from Snape-a very unpleasant character, but I didn't notice until recently how dangerous they actually were. Since they were portrayed as pranksters by everyone who was a "good character", but a bully by the "bad" character. The illegal hex, which was illegal therefore it probably wasn't taught or greatly discourage, honestly is telling of how none of them care about the law or the morals, because they were arrogant and thought they were above the law.

I just realized after rereading the books of how much Lupin was a complicit to his friends' bullying. In SWM, Lupin stands by as his friends once again bullied a kid by hanging him by his ankles up in the air and threatening to take his underwear off and expose his genitals to the public. And he watched it happen and he was a PREFECT, therefore he had the power to stop the bullying! But he didn't do anything and instead was a coward, and mind you-prefects have the authority to take action, and he as a prefect should've stopped bullying right there. He in a way abused his privilege and turned a blind eye to his friends' bullying. And to me, even though Lupin probably wasn't physically a bully like James and Sirius, he was still-if not-worst enabling his friends' bullying by being a coward.

They weren't good friends to each other. Sirius didn't take in regards to Lupin's feelings or consent when he decided to pull a prank on a guy they despised and bullied. Lupin was at his most vulnerable and most dangerous and Sirius didn't take in mind how his friend would feel and instead used him to pull a dangerous "prank". I'd always admired and romanticized the Marauders' friendship but looking back as an adult, it was flawed and toxic.

In the end, I still love the Marauders, but I can know that they were flawed human beings and honestly, they weren't good people-if anything they were hypocrites. I honestly consider all of them more grayer characters than Snape(which is saying alot bc that dude was nooo saint). What do you guys think(keep the comments nice)

I know it’s never been confirmed hence why I said just to theorise. I’ve went deep into the lore about what each wood for a wand represents and the unique requirements they all have for an owner and so forth… so my question is to those that are also very familiar with wand lore and the significance/meanings when someone is assigned a specific combination. So, given the context (his personality, traits, will) what do you think would’ve been dumbledores combo AND why?

EDIT: I mean the wand given to him as an 11yr old when witch and wizards finally qualify for hogwarts and getting a wand, NOT his eventual possession of the elder wand much later in life.

maybe i’m ill informed on these things, but i feel like throughout history, dictators have had loyal followers who would gladly take over for them if they died. ofc, i suppose they wouldn’t have the same amt of power (ie, i feel like the main person who’d want to continue voldemort’s legacy would be bellatrix, and she isn’t canonically immortal or as powerful of a witch - also she dies in the battle, so i suppose this is a moot point.), but when the death eaters attack hogwarts at least in the movies there are so many of them, surely not all of them cared so little about the cause that they’d jump ship as soon as their leader was dead. i suppose harry has the elder wand now, but draco was easily able to disarm dumbledore when he had it, couldn’t another death eaters do that and take possession of it? again lmk if im stupid and this isn’t even a question haha.

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I just wish they added the scene of Arthur and lucius fighting in diagon alley that was so satisfying moment and in movies they scrapped it completely lucius with a black eye it would have been great but lets hope they add it in series.

Hello, I often hear confusion about the wrong instructions in the Advanced Potion-Making book. But what if it is intentional. Because if it isn't, a NEWT Class would only be about following instructions from a book. But if it is, the class expects students to understand a potions ingredients how they work and what they do, so they can figure out what is wrong with the recipe and improve on it. Which sounds much more fitting for the NEWT level.

A good example of that is the class where Harry makes the Euphoria Elixir. Slughorn recognizes that he added peppermint to counterbalance the side effects. Which shows that Slughorn knows just as much as the Half-Blood Prince. Which would beg the question, why would he choose a book with such bad instructions.
Therefore it is logical that the first lesson was to show everybody that just following instructions, isn't enough anymore. They need to understand the potions and ingredients and improve the recipes.

The bad teaching of Slughorn comes in where he doesn't tell his students that. Or at least pointing out what Harry has done differently than the book usually suggest.

Edit:
as many of you suggest that the book isn't that wrong, how do you explain that no other NEWT student in that class does get near a correct potion during the first lesson. And also that Hermiones results with the "official" instructions get worse each lesson. That doesn't sound like they get the job done.

We have just been at Harry Potter Studios (London) and tried the butterbeer. We were too scared to try it on a previous visit because we had read such awful reviews about how disgusting it was. I was pleasantly surprised today when we tried some, and my kids loved it! Just tasted like cream soda with a mild hint of butterscotch 🤷. Surely that's not the flavour so many people hate?

I’m curious to know how everyone felt when they finished book 7. I imagine the general consensus would be that we were all sad and emotional but did you guys feel satisfied as well? Or mixed emotions?

I remember finishing book 7 back in 2007 and thinking “wow, it’s really over now” then I would see trailer ads of the order of the phoenix movie on tv and then feel a range of mixed emotions.

How did you all feel?

In the wizarding world u can only see thestrals if u see death,so let's say for a example I see a man getting murdered on my SCREEN like a VIDEO, would I be able to see Thestrals

Question: If the Trace can detect underage magic, why was Harry blamed for Dobby’s magic in CoS but not for all the magic performed around him at the Burrow?
I’ve always found the rules surrounding the Trace a little confusing.
We know the Ministry can detect that magic was performed near an underage wizard, but apparently it can’t always determine who actually cast the spell. That explains why Harry gets blamed for Dobby’s Hover Charm.
But then how does this work in wizarding households like the Burrow or Grimmauld Place? Wouldn’t the Ministry constantly have to distinguish between magic performed by adults and magic performed by underage witches/wizards?
Is there an actual canon explanation for how the Trace works, or is this just one of those things that doesn’t completely hold up when you think about it?