#Harry is SO protective over Hagrid throughout the series

[antiyourwokehomophobia2]

Okay. I may be really slow on the uptake but I realized that in the first book, when Harry says he can't help trusting Hagrid in chapter 5, he feels that way because of the fact Hagrid saved him as a baby. He remembers Hagrid. Even if he doesn't remember remembering. He remembers being asleep in Hagrid's arms. He remembers their ride is the motorbike. He remembers the goodbye kiss Hagrid gave him. He trusts Hagrid right away because he remembers how safe Hagrid made him feel.

Hagrid was the last person to show him kindness before he went to the Dursley's, and Harry remembers that.

[hollowed-theory-hall]

Who do you think are the ten core characters of the series? Is there a difference for you between importance to narrative/narrative roles and regularity in appearance for you?

Yeah, appearance count and narrative role aren't the same thing. Like, a character can be super plot-relevant or relevant to the themes but not have much on-page time.

And it's a damn hard question. Like, HP has so many characters, but a lot of them are like, random NPCs, so let's see if I can do this without bias for my favorites (since the bias is here). The order isn't necessarily in the right order, but it's the order in which they came to my mind.

The first 3 core characters for the plot/narrative are obvious:

1. Harry Potter

2. Voldemort

3. Dumbledore

I think Harry is an obvious choice as the main character and narrator. I don't think he needs further explanation.

Dumbledore and Voldemort are examples of characters who technically don't have as much on-page time but are so incredibly integral to the narrative. I mean, in book 7, Voldemort is barely there, and Dumbledore is dead, but both of them are still at the helm of the narrative.

So, yeah, these gotta be the top 3.

The next 3, I think, are:

4. Ron Weasley

5. Hermione Granger

6. Severus Snape

Like, Ron and Hermione are Harry's best friends. They are super integral to the plot and narrative of the books and appear more than any other character besides Harry. Ron represents the wizarding world, he is the main member of Harry's surrogate family (the Weasleys) so he's so incredibly integral. Hermione is the brilliant muggleborn, she is eleven both for her active part in the story and also for what she is in this world with the blood status tensions.

Snape, while not appearing as much, is instrumental to the narrative as a whole and to how the plot goes down. Snape, as the double-triple agent that he is, is also pretty representative of the story's themes of love and sacrifice, which supports his narrative importance.

Then, the final 4 to reach 10 are a bit of a struggle for me, and I feel my biases rearing their head, but I'd go:

7. Sirius Black

Sirius is the first real parental figure who's competent and whom Harry truly trusts. Sirius' existence is both important to the themes (the black sheep of the Black family) and more so to Harry's personal arc. His death and Harry's grief over it are so prevalent in Harry's story far into Deathly Hallows. Also, he's relevant to the Secret Keeper plot and James' and Lily's deaths.

8. Reberus Hagrid

Hagrid is the person who introduces so many of the ideas we know of as part of the Wizarding World. He's Harry's (and ours) first guide to the magical world and remains instrumental in getting Harry and Co useful information throughout the books.

9. Peter Pettigrew

I mean, none of us would be here without this rat. He got James and Lily killed, he resurrected Voldemort, and he then accidentally saved Harry at Malfoy Manor. He's surprisingly important.

Number 10 was the hardest, and I considered a few characters, but I decided to go with:

10. Lily Potter

Lily has little to no page time. We don't know about her as much as we know about James, but I think she's more integral to Harry's story. She represents love strong enough to rebound a killing curse. She saved Harry, and her sacrifice protects him quite literally throughout the books. It's why he defeats Quirrell in book 1, it caused Voldemort to keep him alive long enough to escape in book 4, and it's potentially why he came back after dying. Lily and her death are big themes in the books for what it represents and what she represents more than just her as a character.

Both Lily and James haunt Harry's narrative, but I feel Lily does so a bit more. There's a reason "you have your mother's eyes" is emphasized so much. Harry at his core, is more similar to Lily than James. That and the love Lily represents are core aspects of the story.

So, these are my picks, I tried to be as objective as I could, 🤷🏻‍♀️

[citrusdarling7]

Dumbledore's Villainhood

description- an essay i wrote when i should have been doing actual course work

warnings- mentions of abusive households, spoilers for the HP series, mentions of death, and dumbledore slander. (duh)

🗡—————————————————————🗡

I have read the Harry Potter books around twenty times, along with dozens of fanfictions based off of the series. My friends and family have suffered through hour-long rants on subjects such as Snape being the worst character, racism in the writing, and how characters such as Fleur and Lavender are a projection of Rowling’s own internalized misogyny. (Warning: spoilers for the Harry Potter series below!)

The Harry Potter series by J.K Rowling is arguably one of the most well known book series in modern times. With over 500 million copies sold worldwide, these books have been read by millions of people. The story follows orphaned main character Harry Potter as he learns he is a wizard and has a mortal enemy that he will consequently face every book. Harry begins to study at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which is presided over by Headmaster Albus Dumbledore. Dumbledore was written to represent the Mentor character that is so commonly found in any Hero’s Journey type of story; however I do not believe Dumbledore deserves any praise. I believe that Albus Dumbledore was the true villain of Harry’s story.

Before I dive into the prompt, I would like to first clarify that this is actually not how Rowling had intended for her character to be interpreted. Although she has to be accredited with the fascinating world-building of her series, I don’t like to provide her with any unnecessary praise. Rowling has shown through her social media that she is transphobic, homophobic, anti-Semitic, and racist. Her judgment is incredibly flawed and therefore reflected in her work; Rowling truly believes that Dumbledore should be praised.

In the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, young Harry is sent to live with his non-magical Aunt and Uncle proceeding the murder of his parents. While standing on the end of the street and conversing with Professor McGonagall, Dumbledore says, “It’s the best place for him— His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he’s older. I’ve written them a letter.” (pg 14.) The Dursley’s were incredibly neglectful towards Harry, border lining on the edge of abuse. Harry often went days without meals and spent weeks locked inside the cupboard under the stairs. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, book number six, Dumbledore finally explains why he allowed a child to grow up in such horrible conditions. Since Lily Potter sacrificed herself to protect Harry, that protection would continue as long as he spent at least one day a year with her blood relatives. Dumbledore could have easily found a magical family to take Harry in, and have the boy visit his aunt and uncle once a year. It was completely unnecessary for him to be raised by them, yet Dumbledore simply did not care.

Throughout the series, Dumbledore manipulated nearly everyone around him in a variety of ways. One example of this was his relationship with Rubeus Hagrid. In the year 1945, the Chamber of Secrets was opened by Tom Riddle, (young Voldemort.) During a flashback scene, a suspicious Dumbledore has a conversation with Tom Riddle and asks, “Is there anything that you wish to tell me?” (pg. 245) regarding the Chamber. Dumbledore already knew that Riddle was the one to open in, yet he stood aside and did nothing when Hagrid was later blamed. Once Dumbledore was appointed as Headmaster of Hogwarts, he allowed Hagrid to become a gamekeeper for the school. Poor Hagrid views Dumbledore as his savior, which the old man uses to his advantage. Dumbledore was constantly having Hagrid risk his life and freedom by running errands for him. On page 59 of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Hagrid performs magic after Uncle Vernon insults Dumbledore. After his expulsion from Hogwarts, Hagrid was banned from doing magic. He is so blindly devoted to Dumbledore that he is willing to break laws to “defend his honor.” When the Chamber of Secrets is opened again in book two, Dumbledore stands aside and allows Hagrid to be taken to Azkaban, the wizard prison, even though he knows Hagrid could not have opened the Chamber.

Dumbledore is consistently described as a great and powerful wizard. Readers are meant to believe that there is nothing the man can not do. It is true that Dumbledore was extremely talented. We know this because of his part in defeating Grindelwald in the 1940’s, the various awards given to him by the Ministry, and him being appointed Headmaster of the school. Yet Dumbledore did very little to help defeat Voldemort, instead opting to use two generations of child soldiers. The Order of the Phoenix was an organization that he started in the 1970’s, which was made up of mostly 18-20 year old's that were fresh out of Hogwarts, Harry’s parents included. During the May 2nd 1998 Battle of Hogwarts, the majority of the fighters were teenagers. And where was Dumbledore? Well, he was conveniently dead by then, after plotting with Snape in the previous book to have him be “murdered.” Dumbledore was selfish and careless when he essentially raised Harry to be a sacrificial lamb, knowing that he was Voldemort’s 7th horcrux all along.

“Help will always be given at Hogwarts, Harry, to those who ask for it.” Dumbledore loves to emphasize how Hogwarts can essentially be a home and family for those who do not have one. That is, if they are in Gryffindor. Although Rowling paints members of Slytherin house to all be evil and conniving, that is not at all true. (Not that Rowling considers Snape to be the only redeemable Slytherin, which I completely disagree with.) Horace Slughorn and Regulus Black are examples of Slytherin characters who bravely fought against evil in their own special ways. In Regulus’ case, he sacrificed his life to further hide one of Voldemort’s horcruxes. Slughorn was able to put past his sense of pride and divulge vital information to Harry, even though it embarrassed him. But Dumbledore believes that being sorted into Slytherin House is like having the world EVIL branded across your forehead. When a young Tom Riddle was sorted into Slytherin, Dumbledore no longer made any attempts to help the boy. Much like Harry, he was a half-blooded orphan who had no idea of his heritage before coming to Hogwarts. Seeing as Harry was a Gryffindor, he was given extra favors and help from Dumbledore that prevented him from becoming evil, which was a very real possibility. Even after his time as a student at Hogwarts, Tom Riddle returned to the castle seeking out a job as a teacher. Dumbledore refused him the job, which would have been an excellent opportunity to keep Riddle in check and prevent him from becoming the monster that is Lord Voldemort. But Dumbledore turned him away, and is therefore responsible for the man he later became.

Although the Harry Potter series is marketed towards elementary school children, I have realized that as you mature, there is so much more that you will take away from the book series. Rowling’s intended themes are one of love, death, and friendship. Looking deeper, you realize that the story is essentially the story of two boys. By the neglect and manipulation of Dumbledore, one became the greatest villain, and the other the greatest hero.

[sophieoverett]

Disruptions of Ritual and Inciting Incidents

I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of a creative development series lately which has come with a lot of great advice and guidance on storytelling, from the extremely specific to the really broad and sweeping. It’s covered everything from character motivations to specific genre structures to audience expectation to interpersonal conflict, but one of the things that has come up over and over again has been the idea of disruption of ritual as pivotal to the establishment of a story.

It’s been interesting to hear it articulated this way, because when I’ve taught creative writing in the past, and when I’ve thought about my own writing, I’ve always talked about this concept as the world we leave behind. It’s the pre-inciting incident stuff – the introductory grounding stuff – whether that be Harry’s life before Hogwarts, or the Bennet’s home before Mr. Bingley moves in next door.

You establish a world – or a ritual – and then you break it open.

It’s in the schism, in the disruption, where your story finds it’s legs and starts to move.

It’s had me thinking a lot about the relationship between the disruption of ritual and the inciting incident of a story, because in a lot of ways, that disruption of ritual directly sets up the latter. A story like Bridgerton has the disruption of ritual in Phoebe making her debut – a change for the whole family – but the inciting incident is really her collision with Simon Hastings and their mutual decision to fake a courtship. Similarly (but differently), Harry Potter has the disruption of ritual when the owls start descending on the Dursley home in the lead up to Harry’s birthday, but the true inciting incident is when Hagrid tells Harry he’s a wizard. Neither of these inciting incidents could’ve happened without the disruption to the character’s lives that got us there.

When we talk about inciting incidents, we’re ultimately talking about the point of no return for your protagonist. Where they either make a choice, or have a choice thrust upon them, it’s one they can never go back from.

How the disruption of ritual lays the groundwork for the inciting incident though is important. It’s not just creating the first bubbles of conflict to pop, but it’s a key part of establishing who your character is and what world they exist in.

But what does that look like? Generally speaking, I find it’s useful to think of this sort of pre-inciting incident (or disruption of ritual world) in three categories:

Change of Circumstance

Change of Environment

Change of Information

So let’s break that down a little!

Change of Circumstance

I think this one is probably the most common.

I’ve watched a lot of new movies lately and I think change of circumstance is at the heart of all of them – in Nomadland, Fern’s husband has passed away and she’s had to move into a caravan out of financial necessity; in The Father, Anthony’s daughter is moving to Italy and so she tells him he’s being moved into an aged care facility for his dementia; in Those Who Wish Me Dead, Hannah, a firefighter, has been benched after freezing during a fire which lead to the death of two teenage boys.

While all these changes are environmental too (which I’ll come back to in a second), they’re more punctuated by the impact these circumstances have on these characters – Fern is grieving, Anthony is losing his agency and independence, Hannah’s role in a job she loves has been diminished.

These changes to circumstance create the context for which the inciting incidents begin and ground the characters within their own emotional arcs. The inciting incident in Those Who Wish Me Dead is when Hannah finds another teenage boy in the woods who’s being chased by assassins; in The Father, the inciting incident comes when Anthony’s daughter hires a new nurse that reminds him of his other, dead daughter, in Nomadland, Fern connects with a seasonal worker at an Amazon factory who in turn connects her to the nomad lifestyle.

In this sense, the disruption of ritual starts a conversation that the inciting incident can either build off or interrupt or both. The examples above are all pretty big, but these sorts of circumstantial disruptions can be anything. They can be as simple as a promotion at work, a pregnancy, a new neighbour; or hell, you can go the other way, and get even bigger – start a war, go on the run, discover a new planet! What’s important though is that initial change of circumstance creates context for your protagonist and builds towards your inciting incident.

Change of Environment

This one is still pretty common, but I’d say it’s often used most efficiently and effectively in horror and fantasy.

Moving house or exploring new territory, whether that be campsites or cave dives or new planets or planes, is a natural way of putting your characters off-kilter and building environmental tension. This tension is really steeped in the unknown of the space your protagonist is interacting with, and in the promise of conflict within it. Movies like The Descent, Hush, Lord of the Rings and Star Wars are all fundamentally steeped in their opening acts involving drastic shifts to their environments that build conflict, whether that be because an environment becomes something to protect (Hobbiton in Lord of the Rings), or something that the protagonist needs to be protected from (The Descent), or that environment being invaded (Hush) are all factors that are essential to the story overall.

In these stories, these environments aren’t just a stage for the character to move across, they’re deeply interactive and often allegorical to the character’s circumstances.

My Neighbor Totoro is one of my favourite examples of this – Satsuki and Mei’s move to a new home whisks them into a magical world with soot spirits and forest creatures, but these spirits and creatures are an escape from the reality that they moved because their mother is sick in a hospital nearby. The environment they’ve moved to is them clinging to a child’s world as they live ever closer to their trauma.

The most important thing to think about with environmental change is to ask why? Environmental change isn’t about simply presenting a stage for your characters – all stories have that – but that that environment be a motivator in your character’s overall arc. After all, Nomadland might deeply love the American landscape, but Fern’s story is driven by circumstance, not environment, as I mentioned above.

Change of Information

Probably the least used of these three, an information disruption is often reserved for stories about whistleblowers or journalists. Spotlight, Bombshell, All the President’s Men, hell, even The Bourne Identity all rely on a transfer of knowledge as pivotal to creating the conflict that the story builds on.

Change of Information involves a character learning something that they didn’t know before, and the information could seem incidental in the first act (the journalist in Citizen Kane for instance learning that Kane’s final word was ‘rosebud’, or Adrian Toomes realizing there’s alien tech in what he’s been assigned to clean up in Spiderman: Homecoming), or it could be left as a landmine for our protagonists to discover (Spotlight did this by opening with the cops in the 1970s talking about the child molestation charge that our protagonists would start investigating in 2001), or be the overall driver for the film (Min-hyuk telling Ki-woo about the Park family in Parasite).

I think Change of Information set-ups though can also be broadened out to tie pretty closely with Change of Circumstances set-ups to the point that I actually almost considered condensing the two, but I do think they’re different enough to be untangled. Parasite of course straddles all three in its brilliance as the information Min-hyuk gives Ki-woo of the Park family creates both a change in circumstance and environment too, and Midsommar is a movie I’d consider to be all three too – knowledge changing hands is essential to that film overall, and the focus in the first act of Dani finding out that her sister’s commit suicide is pivotal to everything that follows. Her change of circumstances and environment hinges on her grieving her sister, yes, but the weight of the opening act is on the discovery of that more so than it is on Dani’s circumstances changing. Life goes on is, in many ways, pivotal to that first act.

Change of information, to me, is about a character’s awareness of something creating that initial disruption overall, and that new knowledge being the ultimate plot and character driver for the rest of the story. It’s the new knowledge or awareness that creates story mobility, environment and circumstance can just come along with it.

What are you talking about, Sophie?

Right, sorry, haha.

Disruption of ritual is ultimately the shift in the story that allows for the inciting incident to happen. It’s what creates the perfect storm of circumstance, environment and information which fuels your characters, but what you choose to prioritise and emphasise is going to impact the direction of your story and provide your readers or audience with the context that shapes their experience overall.

What drives your characters is what determines their path throughout the story you’re telling, and considering circumstances, environment, and the information they do or don’t possess is an important part of shaping that. You don’t have to pick one, of course – as I mentioned above, a lot of great stories embrace two or all three! – but thinking about each and asking yourself why and working out what’s the priority for your protagonist might just help you articulate the crux of your story and give you an opening act that resonates.

[loloooowrites]

Hi there writers!!!!

This is my first post about writing fanfiction. The topic of these posts isn't to tell you what you're doing wrong, but rather to give you a new lens to see your writing through. Sometimes, all it takes is a new perspective to get over the writer's block that plagues us all. Check out this rant below:

Improve Your Story by Connecting Your Character's Traits With Their Goals

We all have those special characters that we’re connected to, and that's part of why we're here. There was something that captured you enough to write a story using your OTP, main hero, or even the side characters you're including. But what is it specifically that makes these characters so appealing to us? What can you do, as a writer, to create that connection with your readers through your characters?

A well rounded protagonist needs goals and traits that contribute to the plot. Figuring out these things for your character is essential for your story. That doesn’t mean that the reader should necessarily know all of these things from the first page of the book, but you should have an idea about what your character's goals are (what do they want out of the world?), their character traits (How do they react to the world around them?), and how this all contributes to driving your plot forwards.

What are character traits?

Your character's traits are their personality. How do your characters react to the world around them? Are they mean, generous, empathetic, pious, apathetic? Would they save the drowning villager, or let them drown in pursuit of the enemy? Do they maintain a chill exterior, but care deeply for others on the inside? These inherent qualities of our characters are their traits!

Our character's traits usually connect with what we already know about them. For example, if I'm using Naruto as my protagonist in a Star Wars bounty hunter AU, it's true that his world is different, but the way he reacts to the world should remain similar-ish in order to maintain the integrity of the character. One of his main traits is that he remains loyal. Specifically, he is loyal to his friends and would sacrifice himself to save them, so that might be a trait that I focus on to help him be pushed towards (or away from!) his goal, whatever that ends up being.

Your character’s traits should have consequences (positive and/or negative) when it comes to their goals. For example, one of Harry Potter's character traits is that he is brave. Harry's bravery causes him to strive to protect those who are close to him, no matter what the cost. He is forced into action as a result of this several times throughout the series. For example, Harry rushes to Sirius’ aid in the department of mysteries when he believes Sirius is being tortured by Voldemort. At first, he refuses the help of his friends because he is brave and he does not wish to put them in danger. However, this notion is overruled and Harry decides, begrudgingly, to go along to the department of mysteries with his possy in tow. After all, he still has to save Sirius.

Character goals: How do they fit into the plot?

Let’s take another look at Harry Potter. In the beginning of the first book, the readers learn that the Dursleys, Harry's adopted family, are horrible people and neglect Harry's emotional needs. He's dressed, watered, and fed, but he lacks a sense of family and a sense of belonging. Therefore, before the plot really gets going, readers understand that one of Harry’s goals, or needs, is to feel like he belongs and that people care about him.

This goal is part of what pushes Harry to leave with Hagrid. Harry is touched that Hagrid cared enough to break down a door to bring him a cake for his birthday, and that he was honest enough to tell Harry how his parents really died. It makes him feel like he belongs and is cared for. It is part of what makes Harry trust Hagrid enough to lead him into a world he knows little about, away from what he has known his whole life: The Dursleys. Without an understanding of Harry’s goal, readers may wonder why Harry trusted Hagrid enough to leave the Dursley's care at all.

How do my character's traits connect to their goals?

Harry's goal to feel like he belongs isn’t the goal that takes him to the end of the story, but it does play along with one of his main traits: his bravery. This results in Harry's habit of protecting those who care about him and make him feel like he belongs. This goal and subsequent trait of Harry’s pops up many times throughout the series, and is even a source of insecurity for him when danger arrives and his friends are in the mix. It also gives him something to lose, which makes the reader root and care for him.

Let's connect back to this Naruto bounty hunter Star Wars AU I mentioned to put this practice in the context of crafting fanfiction:

1. Goal: Perhaps a goal of Naruto's is that he plans to make as much money bounty hunting across the galaxy for as long as possible before dying.

2: Traits: Loyalty is one of his traits. In the beginning, he is loyal to himself and his goals only.

We have a goal and a trait, now, enter the plot: While on a bounty hunting job, he lands on a planet in the throes of a civil war. Somehow he finds himself in the middle after hearing the pleas of the oppressed citizens who wish to end the violence. Initially he agrees to fight because they are paying him a large amount of credits, but goes through some internal change and ends up caring for the people. This leads to some dramatic confrontation at the end with a main antagonist. Because I'm in a good mood I'll let Naruto win this story, saving the oppressed people. Because he's changed, maybe he doesn't accept the money and abandons that selfish goal he maintained from the beginning. His trait also plays a role, as he is now loyal to the people he has saved. Yay intrinsic rewards!

Anyway, the point here is to show you how goals and traits can be connected to one another. Viewing your work through this lens can help you drive your plot forwards, keep it interesting, and maintain the integrity of your character. All good things!

So what can you do?

Some exercises to help you find how your character’s goals and traits mix together:

1. List some character goals:

2. List some character traits:

3. Answer one or both of these questions:

a. How do my character’s traits move them along the plot and towards their goal(s)?

b. How do their traits cause issues for my character/push my character away from their goal(s)?

*Remember that some traits will only serve to move your character towards your goals or vice versa. There also may be goals that do both.*

I hope you found this helpful! If you did, feel free to share or follow. See you next time!

[cassieschaosdimension]

Now that I'm thinking about it...

Here are my thoughts on Dumbledore...

When I was younger, I used to think he was the next best thing to happen to Harry and everyone living in the Wizarding World. Now that I'm older I'm realizing that this guy was an absolute scumbag to the next level. I mean... He let Harry go to his Muggle aunt and uncle's because "he should be raised away from our world". BRO... Sirius and Remus would have been AMAZING at raising little Harry!

That was his first mistake when it came to Harry. His second one was literally keeping him in the freaking dark his first year in the hospital wing! Harry deserved to know!

Just the way he handled the whole Harry situation NO NO NO NO!!! He should have been raised in the Wizarding world because then he wouldn't have been thrown into the deep end and literally not know what he was doing! Plus not telling him about the prophecy and ignoring him in order of the phoenix.... Ummmm what?! No thank you! The whole thing of not telling Harry ANYTHING! Boi.... This is the savior of your world. Shouldn't he know what he's doing?!????

Also the treatment of Remus and Sirius..... Didn't even TRY to help them out! Gave James and Lily protection and then just THE MANIPULATION!!!! I'm sorry I have issues with the manipulation he goes through throughout the series! Hagrid being the biggest one. He believes that Dumbledore is the best thing in addition to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them or Charlie Weasley.

I'm sorry big guy, but he's literally up there with Grindelwald in regards to manipulation at least in my book. I feel like, the more I reread the series, the more faults I find out about Professor Dumbledore...

I have so many issues that I don't want this to get too long but AAAAAAGGGGHHHHHH! He makes me so mad! He manipulated Hagrid into thinking he's the best thing ever. He manipulated the entire Wizarding world into thinking he's so amazing. He manipulated practically everyone into trusting his judgement. But I have so many issues with his judgement...

Taking Moody out of retirement when the Triwizard tournament is happening.... Giving Remus a job when his best friend is on the loose and believed to be a convicted murderer.... HIRING UMBRIDGE WHEN VOLDEMORT CAME BACK....

I'm just so angry as I type this. I'm so sorry this is all over the place right now! But yeah that's my rant on Dumbledore and how awful I think he is. I'm not done, but I'm so ticked right now that's all you're getting from me.

[carewyncromwell]

5, 13, and 20 for the potter asks?

Pro or anti Marauders?

Pro overall, but let’s break this down by characters --

Remus Lupin is my favorite male character in the entire book series. He not only reminded me of my best teachers growing up, but I felt so, so much for him as a character too. I always felt kind of marginalized and different from my peers growing up, so it’s kind of unsurprising that I’ve had a soft spot for “outcast” characters since I was very little, and Remus is no exception. I completely understood why his friends meant so much to him and therefore felt SO much for him that, in the end, he had to lose all three of them and end up alone. Even his flaws, showcased best in the Snape’s Worst Memory chapter of OOTP and especially in Deathly Hallows, only serve to make him more real and human -- it broke my heart when he considered leaving Tonks and Teddy to help the Trio with their Horcrux hunt, but Remus wanting to “bury himself in his work” (which, honestly, this was -- he was a member of the Order, after all!) rather than face his worst fear of possibly dooming another person (namely, his son) to live a life like his made perfect sense with the characterization established, however horrible and wrong of a choice it was. It made me side with Harry so much in scolding Remus, yet I also felt compassion for the feelings behind Remus’s initial impulse. And of course, I was so proud of him when he overcame that fear and stood by Tonks and got to know his son before he died. I’m still not over the fact that my bb Remus had to die, AUUUUUGH, he and Sirius and Harry should’ve lived together as one happy makeshift family togetherrrrr. DX

Peter Pettigrew...that bloody rat. >> I’m sure just about everyone feels a lot of justified resentment toward Peter for what he did to the Potters, and I definitely agree with that sentiment...but at the same time, there’s still a part of me that finds him very interesting. Mainly because...I’d love to see him at his best, now that we’ve seen him at his worst! He was a Marauder, same as Sirius, Remus, and James, and we should never forget that -- he might have been a bit of a tag-along, but none of the other three, Lily, or anyone else thought that Peter would ever have been the type to turn on his friends. McGonagall disparaged Peter for his magical talent, but she openly grieved for him when she thought Sirius had killed him. Everyone was ready to believe Sirius -- who clearly adored James -- could be the traitor, before suspecting Peter. Sirius even suspected Remus before Peter...and this is when their connection in the books is so strong that HP fans have shipped Wolfstar since POA was first published back in 1999! Even when you read the books, you can see flickers of remorse in Peter at points, if you’re reading carefully. In Goblet of Fire, Peter seems noticeably uncomfortable around the rest of Voldemort’s supporters -- his efforts to bring Voldemort back to his body really seem to be out of obligation rather than any kind of enthusiasm. And of course, as we see in Deathly Hallows, Peter even as a Death Eater still retains enough honor to hesitate when Harry reminds him that he owes him his life. Gryffindor house does preach chivalry as well as courage, and in a twisted way, one could read Peter’s “loyalty” to Voldemort not just being about desperation as his friends now want nothing to do with him, but also because Peter’s standing by the choice he made...not unlike how Percy stood by the Ministry as long as he did, rather than by his family. This doesn’t justify what Peter did at all -- he is a despicable coward who destroyed so many lives and is responsible for bringing back the Dark Wizard whose return resulted in even more deaths -- but it does give his characterization as a villain interesting nuance. There’s a well-established internal logic to how Peter behaves, one I would frankly LOVE to see more of in a future Marauders-centric property.

Sirius is arguably the most polarizing of the Marauders, but honestly? I love him to pieces. He is a very, VERY flawed character -- he’s got a real mean streak, a hot temper, and more aggression than the average person. Him encouraging Snape to “go after Remus” was an indisputably terrible, stupid, callous thing to do, not just because of the endangerment to Snape’s life, but the flagrant betrayal of Remus’s friendship. The way Sirius treated Kreacher was completely uncalled for, regardless of how much the elf reminded him of his terrible home life. Sirius also can be really immature and can get really surly and passive-aggressive when he’s upset. But despite all of this, I love Sirius anyway. In a lot of ways, Sirius reminds me of my father, who I also love a lot despite his many flaws. Sirius lacks empathy for those different from him, but he’s also the only member of his immediate family who rejected the idea of pureblood superiority and fought in the Order of the Phoenix against Voldemort. Sirius was a bully and even as an adult could be incredibly petty and mean-spirited, but he also was the first person in Harry’s life who really felt like family to him -- who he could write to for help when he was sad, afraid, or insecure. Sirius was a hot-tempered, rash person who rarely thought through the consequences of his actions, but he also would’ve done absolutely anything to protect the people he loved. He without question loved James, Lily, and Harry more than his own life. Despite being raised in a cold, hate-filled, prejudiced, unaffectionate, abusive home, Sirius understood unconditional love, and he understood his godson in a way no one else could, not just because he was such close friends with the parents he’d lost at such a young age, but because he’d lived Harry’s experience as a neglected, unloved child himself.

And now we come to the often maligned James Potter. Honestly, this guy gets such a bad rap in the fandom, almost exclusively based on Snape’s memories, and I don’t think it’s really fair. Snape is really the only person who has a sour image of James, and even if we disregard the testimonials of fellow Marauders like Sirius and Remus, people like McGonagall, Dumbledore, Mad-Eye Moody, and even Cornelius Fudge had nothing but nice things to say about James, and those people don’t have reason to speak well of James at Snape’s expense. And of course, even Snape’s perceptions are bound to have their own slant to them. Pensieve memories are just that: memories. A Pensieve is not a pocket dimension that perfectly recreates the past, hence why Slughorn was able to badly modify his memory, Hokey the house elf’s memories were tampered with by Riddle, and even in Snape’s own memory, we follow Snape throughout the memory and we’re only able to hear what the Marauders are saying because he was close by. And if we judge James solely based on his no-doubt worst moment in Snape’s Worst Memory, we’re bound to get an incomplete picture -- just as we did for Hagrid, after seeing Tom Riddle’s memory of him confronting Hagrid for supposedly opening the Chamber of Secrets. Would we judge Harry solely for Malfoy’s recollection of the Sectumsempra incident, or Hermione solely for Marietta’s recollection of the time Hermione hexed her face to read “SNEAK” across it? Of course not. James was a bully and what he did in Snape’s Worst Memory was no doubt horrible -- but this is also a young man who without hesitation gave Sirius a home after he ran away from his terrible family, who supported Remus financially when he couldn’t find work, and who selflessly put himself between Voldemort and his family just to give them a chance to escape, even though he didn’t even have his wand on him. I would frankly love to learn more about James and see more of the arc he must’ve gone through as a character for someone like Lily to have fallen in love with him and for people like Remus and Sirius to feel such strong platonic love for him themselves, if a Marauders-centric property was ever created.

Who was the bravest character in Harry Potter and why?

Oh gosh...hm...that is a real challenge. There are a lot of very brave characters! Harry, Ron, Hermione, Remus, Sirius, McGonagall, Hagrid, Dobby, Cedric...but I think I’m going to nominate Neville. While Hogwarts was taken over by Snape and the Carrows and the students were no doubt being brainwashed a la the Hitler Youth to regurgitate blood-purist talking points rather than learning anything that could defend themselves against the Dark Arts or that was even remotely true about Muggles, Neville decided to face that undeniable hopelessness -- worsened all the more by the students’ lack of independence and freedom while being housed in the castle’s walls without their families and the threat of losing both their families and all hope for a future constantly dangled over their heads -- head-on and reform Dumbledore’s Army with Ginny and Luna to stand against it. Then, even as his group’s members got picked off one by one and were forced to hide in the Room of Requirement, he stuck to his guns and kept resisting because he knew -- as a Pureblood -- he was in a position he could use to fight for others and wasn’t afraid to stand up for those who couldn’t stand up for themselves and others. It was only when his grandmother was forced to flee and the Carrows realized that Neville was too much of a threat to keep in check that he went into hiding himself. Then, when everyone thought Harry was dead and many others would’ve despaired, Neville fearlessly and fiercely stuck both by Harry, his parents’ memory, and his own convictions and refused Voldemort’s offer to join him, even keeping his head enough after getting burned by the flaming Sorting Hat to fulfill his promise to Harry and kill Nagini. And this was the kid who people said shouldn’t have been Sorted into Gryffindor at all, in his first year! What a beautiful transformation.

Favourite Death Eater?

*cringes* Mmm...well, character-wise, I’d say I’ve always found Lucius a very compelling character, in the books. The Malfoy family in general struck me as interesting anti-villains, since they are indisputably unpleasant, prejudiced, awful people, but their one silver lining to me is how deeply and sincerely they love each other. That aspect is really lost in movie!Lucius, since the films try to portray him much more two-dimensionally bad and that interpretation has since colored the fandom’s view of Lucius as an abusive father when there is NO textual evidence of that in the books. And I kind of find it a shame, because as much as I adore Jason Isaacs in his role, it did serve to make Lucius a bit less complex and interesting in the films than he was in the books. Admittedly as well I have a bit more of a soft spot for Lucius after taking on the challenge of writing the guy and his family a redemption arc in my way-too-long AU fic Harry Potter and the Lack of Lamb Sauce. XD

HP Ask!

[khantoelessar]

Slytherin House in the role of the Outcast of Hogwarts: A meta on Slytherin House and its role in the seven Harry Potter books

There are two themes in the Harry Potter books and movies that I want to explore through this meta. The first is the role that Slytherin House plays as the outsiders within the narrative of the story. The second is the journey that the titular hero, Harry takes in how he views Slytherins, from a prejudiced, even at times bigoted view of them to acceptance and how he must overcome this prejudice in order to defeat Voldemort.

One of the most clearly defined themes that J.K. Rowling addresses in this series is that of prejudice. This includes not only the overt racism of Voldemort and his Death Eaters but also the ingrained, indifferent prejudices towards non-humans, such as house elves, centaurs and giants that many in the wizarding world regard as being inferior or evil just because they aren’t human.

           But there is also the prejudice and discrimination directed towards Slytherin House by Harry and in many cases the rest of Hogwarts. Slytherins as a House, as a segment of the society within Hogwarts are viewed by most of the rest of Hogwarts as being evil and inferior simply because they are Slytherin.

           Throughout most of this series Slytherin House is viewed as the house of the “Dark” witches and wizards as seen through the eyes of the protagonist, Harry. Over and over he (and thus we the readers) are told . . .

           “There’s not a witch or wizard who went bad who wasn’t in Slytherin.” (PS,ill,p.65)

           “[…] Slytherin, the house which had turned out more dark witches and wizards than any other.” (CS,ill,p.65)

           This point of view is echoed in the behaviour of many others in the other Hogwarts houses. We are shown time and time again throughout the books that Slytherin House is left isolated and shunned by the rest of Hogwarts.

           Let’s start at the beginning with “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”.

           Harry’s first encounter with overt prejudice and racism in the wizarding world comes from the person who will become his greatest rival within Hogwarts and for him in many ways the symbol of everything Slytherin House stands for; Draco Malfoy.

           Even as a child, Draco Malfoy is a nasty, bigoted little brat.

(PS, ill, p. 67)

“[…] but I know I’ll be in Slytherin, all our family have been – imagine being in Hufflepuff, I’d think I’d leave, wouldn’t you? … I really don’t think they should let the other sort in, do you? They’re just not the same, they’re never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get their letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families.” (PS,ill,p.68)

           He’s also an elitist snob and a bully. Harry is right in thinking that Draco and Dudley have a lot in common.

           But for all the racism and prejudice that Draco displays here the second example of prejudice and discrimination that Harry encounters in the wizarding world comes from Hagrid.

           When Harry tells Hagrid about his encounter with Draco, Hagrid’s response is quite illuminating.

           “’Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin.’ Said Hagrid. ‘There’s not a witch or wizard who went bad who wasn’t in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one.’” (PS,ill,p.69)

In the movie this line is given to Ron Weasley but the sentiment is the same.

Now, first of all, Hagrid is incorrect. At the time he said this Sirius Black was rotting in Azkaban for supposedly betraying the Potters. Granted, he was innocent but it was a case of having the wrong Gryffindor, not that a Gryffindor didn’t go bad.

But we also need to keep in mind Hagrid’s own personal experience. He’d had his whole future destroyed by Tom Riddle when he was falsely accused of being the Heir of Slytherin. (Not that he knew that Riddle was the heir at the time or that he was framing him, but still). Also Hagrid was a member of Dumbledore’s Order of the Phoenix. He’d fought in the last Wizarding War where so many of the Death Eaters had come from Slytherin. He must have lost a lot of friends during that war and seen a lot of destruction. His prejudice is understandable. Many soldiers and victims of war often carry the same type of prejudice towards those they fought against. But it is still prejudice and as we are shown before the end of this book, Hagrid is wrong.

The other thing to keep in mind is that when Harry first comes to the wizarding world, he is pretty much a blank slate. He knows nothing about its history or society. And Hagrid has saved him. This is an eleven-year-old boy who has endured years of horrific mental, emotional and at times physical abuse at the hands of the Dursley’s. Hagrid burst into that hut and brought magic and wonder to a little boy who’d never really had anything and had been told his whole life that it was wrong to dream. He told Harry that he was special when the Dursley’s had always called him a worthless freak. It’s no wonder that Harry trusts him and believes him when he tells Harry that Slytherins are evil.

           This prejudice is further enforced on the Hogwarts Express when Ron Weasley talks about the Houses.

           “’What House are your brothers in?’ Harry asked.

           “Gryffindor . . . Mom and Dad were in it too. I don’t know what they’ll say if I’m not. I don’t suppose Ravenclaw would be too bad, but imagine if they put me in Slytherin.’” (PS,ill,p.88)

           Again, we have, through the opinion of the character who would become Harry’s first friend, the negative view of Slytherin being the worst of the Houses. This viewpoint is also further reinforced by the second appearance of Draco Malfoy who supposedly offers Harry his friendship but only because he’s the “Boy-who-lived” and wants to guide him away from the “wrong sort” right after insulting the person who been so friendly to Harry. Who didn’t grin when Harry told him, “I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks,”? (PS,ill,p.89)  I certainly did.

           But what these encounters do is lay the foundation for Harry’s view that all Slytherins are evil. Rowling specifically states this in the sorting ceremony where we get Harry’s impression of the Slytherins;

           “’Perhaps it was Harry’s imagination, after all he’d heard about Slytherin, but he thought they looked an unpleasant lot.’” (PS,ill,p.98)

           It is important to note that Rowling employees the point of view of the limited omniscient narrator for these books. We know what Harry is thinking and feeling because she tells us. But we only know the thoughts and feelings of all the other characters by their words and actions and how Harry interprets them.

           This means that, through the course of these books the primary examples that we see of Slytherin House are Draco, Pansy, their cliques, Professor Snape and Voldemort. With the exception of Snape’s goal of protecting Harry by the end of the first book we are not offered any positive impressions of any Slytherin or of Slytherin House.

           In the movie there is one exception to this and that is the scene in the Dark Forest when Harry and Draco see Quirrell/Voldemort drinking the blood of the unicorn. In both versions Draco runs away while Harry is paralyzed by the pain of his scar. (see the link for the full clip).

But while in the book this is the last that we see of Draco in that scene, in the movie he comes back.

That figure on the far left holding the lantern? That’s Draco.

It’s important to note that not only did Draco come back, he brought back help. So, while he ran, he didn’t run away. He ran to find help and bring it back in order to save Harry. This was not only a very brave thing to do it was also a very Slytherin form of bravery. He ran and left Harry behind but he also returned, bringing back reinforcements.

This scene is one of the more striking divergences from the book in the portrayal of Draco Malfoy and Slytherin House.

           But in both versions, we are shown Slytherin House’s isolation from and in some instances ostracization by the rest of Hogwarts.  To demonstrate this, I want to bring forward two specific examples. The first is when Harry, Neville (Ron in the movie) and Hermione lose Gryffindor House one hundred and fifty points when they are caught out of bed after hours, sending Norbert the dragon away.

           “From being one of the most popular and admired people at the school, Harry was suddenly the most hated. Even Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs turned on him, because everyone had been longing to see Slytherin lose the House Cup.” (PS,ill,p.198)

           Please note, it wasn’t just a matter of the other Houses wanting to see their own House win because if that were the case then Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff would have been happy because they would have advanced ahead. Nor is it just a matter of the rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin. Rather we are told that Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff specifically wanted Slytherin to lose just as much as Gryffindor did. Now, this could partly be because at this point Slytherin House had won the cup seven years in a row. But I do not think that this is only reason for when Gryffindor wins the House Cup at the end of the book, it marks the beginning of a winning streak for Gryffindor House, but we never shown Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw longing to see Gryffindor lose.

           The second example is the awarding of the House Cup and Gryffindor’s dramatic victory.

           Let me start by saying that Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville totally deserved the house points they won. I cheered when I read that scene and when I saw it in the movie. (see the link for the full clip).

But let’s take a look at Dumbledore’s choice to first deck the Great Hall in Slytherin green, thereby giving the school (and us the readers) the impression that Slytherin had won.

           In literature this is known as the “sudden reversal” or the Peripeteia, meaning “a sudden or unexpected reversal of circumstances or situation especially in a literary work”, according to the Merrriam-Websters dictionary.

           It was certainly an excellent way of J.K. Rowling to write it. This is Harry’s story, and this is his moment of triumph and reward for defeating Voldemort.

           Imagine if J.K. Rowling had written it this way: “Harry made his way to the end-of-year feast alone that night. He had been held back by Madam Pomfrey’s fussing about, insisting on giving him one last check up, so the Great Hall was already filled. He found the Great Hall already decked out in Gryffindor Red and Gold for while he had been in the hospital wing Dumbledore had awarded Ron and Hermione fifty points each for their actions in defeating Voldemort, Harry sixty points and Neville ten points for standing up to his friends, so Gryffindor had won the House Cup.”

           Pretty awful isn’t it? If J.K. Rowling had written anything like that I would have been hugely let down to say the least. It would have been a horrible ending to the book.

           But let’s turn the lens around and look at it from the point of view of the characters within the story, especially that of Slytherin House. As far as they knew they had won the House Cup before Dumbledore stood up and without warning awarded Gryffindor House 170 points.

Now the House Cup is Hogwarts. The entire student body is disciplined or rewarded on a point system with the goal of their House winning it. To have the Headmaster suddenly award a huge amount of points to the House with the least amount of points at the last minute, when the Great Hall was already been decked out in the colours of the House who had seemed to have won  . . . well this does not really give the impression of fairness to Dumbledore. Certainly, we are given the impression that Slytherin House had been insulted and humiliated in front of the entire school.

“[…] Malfoy, who couldn’t have looked more stunned and horrified if he’d just had the Body-Bind curse put on him.

           “’Which means,’ Dumbledore called over the storm of applause, for even Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff were celebrating the downfall of Slytherin, ‘we need a little change of decoration.’

           He clapped his hands. In an instant, the green hangings became scarlet and the silver became gold; the huge Slytherin serpent vanished and a towering Gryffindor lion took its place. Snape was shaking Professor McGonagall’s hand, with a horrible forced smile.” (PS,ill,p.245)

           It is worth pointing out here that both Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw also cheered Gryffindor’s victory. Again this could partly be due to the fact that Slytherin had previously won the cup seven years in a row. But again this serves to demonstrate Slytherin House’s isolation within Hogwarts.

Now I’d like to turn that lens back around and focus on the readers and the Harry Potter fandom at large. One of ��the results of this scene was the creation of a large movement in the Harry Potter fandom who feels that Dumbledore is at the least being very unfair and biased against Slytherin House. All you have to do is Google “Slytherin losing the House Cup” and you will get multiple hits.

But more importantly in regards to the point of this meta, we the readers are clearly shown Slytherin House’s role as the outsider, outcast and isolated with the rest of the entire school cheering their loss.

This theme of the isolation of Slytherin House is carried forward as we go into Harry’s second year. Again, we see Slytherin House primarily through Harry’s eyes, which means mostly, Draco, Lucius Malfoy, and Voldemort. A bigoted little bully, a would-be child-killer and a terrorist.  There are few if any good representations of Slytherin House in this book but there a few things that I want to highlight here.

           The first is where we learn about the legend of the Chamber of Secrets from Professor Binns.

“You all know, of course, that Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago – the precise date is uncertain – by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age. The four school Houses are named after them: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin. They built this castle together, far from prying Muggle eyes, for it was an age when magic was feared by common people, and witches and wizards suffered much persecution . . . For a few years, the founders worked in harmony together, seeking out youngsters who showed signs of magic and bringing them to the castle to be educated. But then disagreements sprung up between them. A rift began to grow between Slytherin and the others. Slytherin wished to be more selective about the students admitted to Hogwarts. He believed that magical learning should be kept within all-magic families. He disliked taking students of muggle parentage, believing them to be untrustworthy. After a while, there was a serious argument on the subject between Slytherin and Gryffindor and Slytherin left the school . . . The story goes that Slytherin had built a hidden chamber in the castle, which the other founders new nothing.

           Slytherin according to legend, sealed the Chamber of Secrets as that none would be able to open it until his own true heir arrived at the school. The heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic.” (CS, ill, p.115)

           There are two parts of this speech that I want to focus on. The first is the reason why Salazar Slytherin wanted muggle-borns excluded from Hogwarts. It was not because he felt they were racially inferior as the Malfoys and Voldemort did but because he felt that they were untrustworthy.  “Magic was feared by the common people and witches and wizards suffered much persecution.”

           This part was cut out from the movie version but I feel it is an important part of Salazar’s character. Does the fact that muggles were persecuting witches and wizards make Salazar Slytherin right? No. Is he racist? Yes certainly. But as we’ll see before the end of this book, many Gryffindors including the Weasley’s were no better than Slytherin was.

           Which brings me to Ron Weasley. It is right after Binns’ lecture in the History of Magic that Ron says:    

           “’I always knew Salazar Slytherin was a twisted old looney.’ Ron told Harry and Hermione . . . ‘But I never knew he started all this pure-blood stuff. I wouldn’t be in his house if you paid me. Honestly, if the Sorting Hat had tried to put me in Slytherin, I’d’ve got on the train straight back home.’” (CS, ill, p. 116)

           Now, this statement combined with what Ron said about Slytherin House on the train in the Philosopher’s Stone, is exactly the same thing that Draco said about Hufflepuff House.

           [Draco]: “ . . . imagine being in Hufflepuff, I’d think I’d leave,” (PS,ill,p.68)

           [Ron]: “ . . . but imagine if they put me in Slytherin.’” (PS,ill,p.88)                [Ron]: “ Honestly, if the Sorting Hat had tried to put me in Slytherin, I’d’ve got on the train straight back home.’ (CS, ill, p. 116)

This not only shows us Ron’s prejudice against all Slytherins but also that the prejudice against them extends far beyond just the grounds of Hogwarts. This is only Ron’s second year and while Arthur Weasley and Lucius Malfoy do have a feud going on, this is beyond that. “I always knew Salazar Slytherin was a twisted old looney.” How could Ron have “always known” that? He certainly wasn’t born knowing it. No one is born knowing how to hate. You have to be taught it. And he certainly didn’t learn it from a book, not Ron Weasley. He’s not the good student or researcher. That’s Hermione. I think that Ron learned to think that all Slytherins are evil and twisted the same place that Draco Malfoy learned to think all Muggle-borns are evil and inferior. He learned it from his parents.

Again we have to consider the Weasley’s personal history here. Just like Hagrid, they fought in the last war. Molly lost her two brothers, Fabian and Gideon Prewett to Death Eaters (OoP,sch,p.158 and DH,sch,p.97). Both Molly and Arthur would have carried bitter memories of that struggle and their losses. As we can see, they passed that bitterness along to their children.

           It is a demonstration of J.K. Rowling’s skill as a storyteller when she shows us that this is exactly the same type of persecution and prejudice that Harry endures for most of his second year when it’s discovered that he’s a parselmouth. Justin Finch-Fletchley runs away at the sight of him (CS, ill, p.112), Ernie McMillian says that he was born evil because he’s a parselmouth (CS, ill, p.152), and he’s shunned by most of the school. (CS, ill, p.160) This has a devastating effect on him as we are shown. He starts questioning himself and who he is.

           In the book, “Harry lay awake for hours that night. Through a gap in the hangings around his four-poster he watched snow starting to drift pass the tower, and wondered.

           Could he be a descendent of Salazar Slytherin? He didn’t know anything about his father’s family, after all . . . ‘But I’m in Gryffindor.’ Harry thought. ‘The Sorting Hat wouldn’t have put me in here if I had Slytherin blood . . .’

           ‘Ah.’ said a nasty little voice in his brain, ‘But the Sorting Hat wanted to put you in Slytherin, don’t you remember?” (CS, ill, p.149)

           “He thought too, about what everyone was saying about him, and his growing dread that he was somehow connected to Salazar Slytherin.”

           “He was tired of people skirting around him in the corridors, as though he were about to sprout fangs, or spit poison, tired of all the muttering, pointing and hissing as he passed.”(CS, ill, p.160)

           In the movie we are shown;

(see the link for the full clip)

[Harry] “Who am I, Hedwig? What am I?”

(see link for the full clip, it’s midway through)

[Ron]: “Oh, come on Harry. Fred and George are just having a laugh.”

           [Harry]: “They’re the only ones.”

           [Ron]: “Okay, so half the school thinks that you’re nipping off to the Chamber of Secrets every night? Who cares?”

           [Harry]: “Maybe they’re right.”

           [Hermione]: “Harry! Harry! Oh, come on!”

           [Harry]: “Look, I didn’t know I could speak parseltongue. What else don’t I know about myself? Look . . . maybe you can do something . . . even something horrible and not know you did it.”

It is not the parseltongue ability that makes Harry question his identity or whether he is evil by nature. Harry has been a Parselmouth since the moment Voldemort tried to kill him and it has caused him no mental trauma at all. In fact he used this ability to set the python on Dudley in the Philosopher’s Stone and it did not bother him at all.

It is his treatment by the rest of the school, his peers and his community that causes this trauma. Harry is shunned and ostracized by a large part of the school, condemned as evil just because of an ability that was forced on him as an infant and that he has no control over.

           If this is the type of ostracization and shunning that Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who-Lived is faced with when it’s revealed that he has the parseltongue ability then how can it not be the same, if not worse, for all of Slytherin House?

           We are told that Salazar Slytherin was a parselmouth and according to Ernie McMillan, being a parselmouth is the mark of a Dark wizard.    

           “‘Hannah,’ said the stout boy solemnly, ‘he’s a Parselmouth. Everyone knows that’s the mark of a dark wizard. Have you ever heard of a decent one who could talk to snakes? They called Slytherin himself Serpent-tongue?” (CS, ill, p.152)

           There we have not only Salazar Slytherin but snakes, the symbol of Slytherin House branded as dark and evil. Add in the isolation shown towards Slytherin House already discussed from the first book and we are left with a rather disturbing picture of how Slytherins are viewed and treated within Hogwarts.

           If a few months of ostracization and shunning by two of the four houses can cause Harry such emotional trauma that he questions who and what he is and starts to believe that he might actually be evil, bearing in mind the years of this sort of treatment at the Dursley’s, then can you imagine what it would do to an eleven-year old when they first arrive at Hogwarts? They are told that their House will be like their family, then they are sorted and all of a sudden, they find out the hard way that they and their new “family” are viewed, if not outright dark and evil, certainly inclined towards it by the rest of their community. Over and over again the school is told about Voldemort and his Death Eaters, about how Salazar Slytherin was a supporter of pure bloods. Think of the whispers, the looks that followed Harry during his second year. Given the prejudice already shown against Slytherin House, I can imagine those same whispers, those same looks would follow every Slytherin all the time. And this would continue month after month, year after year. Can you imagine what this would do to a child in a community where your entire identity is wrapped up in your House? Add to that you’ve got those Slytherins like Malfoy and Parkinson and their gangs who talk about this “Great Dark Lord” and how he’s going to make everything right again.

           I believe that there is a great deal of truth in the saying that children learn right and wrong from the adults around them and they learn by example. In the cases of the Slytherins, many do seem to carry the prejudice against muggles and muggle-borns (although as we’ll see this is not limited solely to Slytherin House) and their head of house, Professor Snape can’t really speak against this prejudice if he is to maintain his role as Dumbledore’s spy among the Death Eaters. As for the other adults around them, well, Flitwick and Sprout seem kindly and McGonagall is usually fair (except where Quidditch is concerned) but we never see them speak out against the prejudice or the isolation exhibited towards Slytherins.

           This view of Slytherins House brings us back to the Chamber of Secrets and the reaction of many Gryffindors after Hermione and Penelope Clearwater were petrified by the basilisk.

           “That’s two Gryffindors down, not counting a Gryffindor ghost, one Ravenclaw and one Hufflepuff.’ Said the Weasley twins friend Lee Jordan, counting on his fingers. ‘Haven’t any of the teachers noticed that the Slytherins are safe? Isn’t it obvious all this stuff’s coming from Slytherin? The heir of Slytherin, the monster of Slytherin – why don’t they just chuck all the Slytherins out?’ he roared to nods and scattered applause.” (CS, ill, p.195)

           This scene is another testament to J.K. Rowling’s craft as a writer by not only demonstrating the prejudice and discrimination against Slytherin House; “Chuck all the Slytherins out.”, but also in her sharp and pointed use of situational irony. Because what Lee Jordan and his supporters want is the exact same thing that Salazar Slytherin wanted in regards to the muggle-borns and for the exact same reason, only now the roles are reversed. Just as Slytherin wanted all muggle-borns banned from the school because Muggles were persecuting wizards so too does Lee Jordan and the other Gryffindors who support him want all Slytherins banned because Slytherin House seems to be behind the attacks. In echoing this prejudice and desire to expel what they see as a collective enemy from their community they have in a way become Salazar Slytherin. Prejudice, racism and intolerance are the same no matter whom they are directed against. Here we see that all of Slytherin House is not only held responsible for the actions of one but is also even when it’s still unknown just who the heir of Slytherin is at this point.

           Now as it turns out two Slytherins were responsible. Lucius Malfoy and Tom Riddle. Riddle may have been working through a Gryffindor but I agree with Dumbledore, “Older and wiser wizards than she have been hoodwinked by Lord Voldemort.” (CS, ill, p.251)

           Yet Voldemort and Malfoy are only two Slytherins out of a population of probably thousands if we count the Slytherins who have graduated since Voldemort. They do not represent the whole, nor should the whole House be held responsible for the actions of one as Lee Jordan and the other Gryffindors insisted on earlier.

           This point of not judging all the by the actions of a few is something that is illustrated later when Harry and Dumbledore are talking in his office and Harry says that the Sorting Hat was right.

           “’So I should be in Slytherin,’ Harry said, looking desperately into Dumbledore’s face. ‘The Sorting Hat could see Slytherin’s power in me, and it –‘

           ‘Put you in Gryffindor,’ said Dumbledore calmly. ‘Listen to me, Harry. You happen to have many of the qualities Salazar Slytherin prized in his hand-picked students. His own rare gift of Parseltongue … resourcefulness … determination … a certain disregard for the rules.’” (CS, ill, p.253)

           This is another slight departure in the books from the movie. In the movie Dumbledore states that Voldemort prizes these abilities rather than Salazar Slytherin. Salazar Slytherin and Tom Riddle are very different characters. Salazar was prejudiced and racist towards muggle-borns, yes. But he was not like Tom Riddle or Grindelwald, demanding genocide and slavery and power over the entire world. Indeed, when it came to the point of violence in the school Slytherin chose to seal the Chamber and leave rather than incite bloodshed. (OoP, p. 186) I’m not saying that Slytherin was a good man, he wasn’t. He was a racist. But as it’s been proven, he was no worse than Lee Jordan and many Gryffindors in this respect.

           While within the community of Hogwarts we are shown that Slytherins are predominantly judged by the actions of the like of Voldemort and Malfoy, we the audience are shown evidence that this is not a valid or an accurate judgment. There are two scenes, one from the book and one from the movie which contradict the wholesale negative image of Slytherin House. In the book, when McGonagall announces that the Mandrakes are ready for cutting and that hopefully the culprit will be caught, “There was an explosion of cheering. Harry looked over at the Slytherin table and wasn’t at all surprised to see that Draco Malfoy hadn’t joined in.” (CS, ill, p.217)  Please note the wording here. Rowling is very specific. Draco Malfoy had not joined in; she does not say that Slytherin House had not joined in. We see this same thing play out at the end of the movie version when Hagrid returns. (see the link for the full clip).

Yes, Draco stops Crabbe from rising to his feet to salute Hagrid. Please note that he had to stop him. But Draco’s group is a minority here. As we can see most of Slytherin House is on their feet as well, welcoming him home.

In both cases we are given proof that not all Slytherins are like Draco, Pansy and their cliques. Not all Slytherins are like Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

           Now we come to the Prisoner of Azkaban. Once again, we are shown Slytherin House mainly through the actions of Draco Malfoy and Severus Snape. Malfoy behaves stupidly in the Care of Magical Creatures, gets hurt, and tries to get Buckbeak executed in order to hurt Hagrid. He, Crabbe, Goyle and Marcus Flint try to sabotage Harry during Quidditch (in a very stupid way) by dressing up as dementors.

           Snape also comes across in the book as a bully time and time again and not just to Harry. During Potions class he bullies Neville. (PoA, ill, p.95)  In his substitute lesson for Defense against the Dark Arts when Hermione speaks up to answer his question he slaps her down hard. “That is the second time you’ve spoken out of turn, Miss Granger,’ said Snape coolly. ‘Five more points from Gryffindor for being an insufferable know-it-all.’

           Hermione went very red, put down her hand and stared at the floor with her eyes full of tears.”(PoA, ill, p.130)

           But as bullying and as nasty as Draco and Snape are in this book, they are only two Slytherins out of a population of around 200. Yet as we are shown, the rest of Hogwarts judges and holds all Slytherins accountable for the actions of a few.

           This is demonstrated quite clearly in the last match for the Quidditch Cup where we see once again the division within Hogwarts with the three Houses aligned against Slytherin.

           “[The Gryffindor Quidditch team] walked out onto the pitch to a tidal wave of noise. Three-quarters of the crowd were wearing scarlet rosettes, waving scarlet flags with the Gryffindor lion upon them or brandishing banners with slogans such as ‘Go Gryffindor’ and ‘Lions for the Cup’. Behind the Slytherin goalposts, however, two hundred people were wearing green; the silver serpent of Slytherin glittered on their flags, and Professor Snape sat in the very front row, wearing green like every one else, and a very grim smile.” (PoA, ill, p.232)

           Now there are two ways to look at this. On the one hand, this may very well be the consequences of Malfoy and Flint’s actions at the previous match. I can see how their blatant attempt at cheating and sabotage would probably have pulled a lot of support from the other Houses towards supporting Gryffindor when it came down to a choice between who to support, especially when their own Houses no longer had a stake in winning the cup. On top of this, it’s a sporting match at a boarding school. When it comes to supporting a team, impartiality and fairness can have tendency to go by the wayside. Just look at the supporters of football or hockey in the muggle world and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

           But on the other hand, once again, we see Slytherin House as the outcast, the outsiders. There are no supporters for Slytherin in any of the other three Houses. This match can still be seen as another example of Slytherin Houses isolation and exclusion from the rest of their community.

           Yet it is also in this book that Harry learns that the world is not made up of simply black and white, good and evil, with Gryffindor always being good and Slytherin always being evil. This is where Harry’s world view starts to be seriously challenged.

           This is where Harry and thus we the readers, are shown that Gryffindors can be evil too. In fact, they can be backstabbing, traitorous, little cowards like Peter Pettigrew.

           Pettigrew didn’t betray the Potters solely out of fear. As Sirius states, “‘You always liked big friends who’d look after you. It used to be us … you never did anything for anyone unless you could see what was in it for you … If he gave them Harry, who’d dare say he’d betrayed Lord Voldemort? He’d be welcomed back with honours.’” (PoA, ill, p. 278 -279)

           Pettigrew, the Gryffindor, betrayed them out of ambition and a hunger for power, two of the traits that Slytherins are most condemned for.

           Now let’s look at the actions and motivations of the one Slytherin in that scene.

(PoA, ill, p. 271)

“‘Two more for Azkaban tonight,’ said Snape, his eyes now gleaming fanatically. ‘I shall be interested to see how Dumbledore takes this … he was quite convinced you were harmless; you know Lupin … a tame werewolf.’

           ‘You fool,’ said Lupin softly. ‘Is a school boy grudge worth putting an innocent man back into Azkaban?’

           BANG! Thin, snake-like cords burst from the end of the Snape’s wand and twisted themselves around Lupin’s mouth, wrists and ankles; he over-balanced and fell to the floor, unable to move. With a roar of rage, Black started towards Snape, but Snape pointed his wand straight between Black’s eyes.  

           ‘Give me a reason,’ he whispered. ‘Give me a reason to do it and I swear I will.’ . . .  

           ‘Vengeance is very sweet,’ Snape breathed at Black. ‘How I hoped I would be the one to catch you …’ (PoA, ill, p. 271)

           Lupin calls what Sirius did to Snape a trick (PoA, ill, p. 267) and on the surface, just going by what we have learned in the first three books it does seem to be just the school boy grudge that Lupin calls it.

           But looking ahead, in book seven we learn that Harry’s mother Lily, was the great love of Snape’s life. She was the reason he had dedicated his life to protecting Harry.

           This is important. It casts a different light on Snape’s reaction in Prisoner of Azkaban. He wasn’t just facing down his childhood tormentor, he was confronting the man he believed had betrayed the woman he loved to her death.

           Yet we the readers don’t know this at this point. Harry doesn’t know it. We, like Harry, don’t find out until the very end the depth of Snape’s love and sacrifice. Only then, looking back can we see that at that moment in the Shrieking Shack, Severus Snape, the Slytherin was the bravest and most self-sacrificing person in the room.

           But he was still blinded by his anger, pain and personal history with Sirius and Lupin. Harry, Ron and Hermione were right in doing what they did and knocking him out.

           But Harry is just as blinded by his own hatred and prejudices against Slytherins and especially against Snape as Snape is against the Marauders as we’ll see going forward.

           Now we come to the Goblet of Fire and once again our primary examples of Slytherin House are of Malfoy, Voldemort and the Death Eaters and once again we see them through Harry’s eyes. But as with each book Rowling makes things progressively more complicated and less black and white.  

           It is during the sorting that once again we are shown the hostility and prejudice towards Slytherin House by (at the very least) the Weasleys and Harry.

           “‘Baddock, Malcolm!’            ‘Slytherin!’            The table on the other side of the hall erupted with cheers; Harry could see Malfoy clapping as Baddock joined the Slytherins. Harry wondered whether Baddock knew that Slytherin House had turned out more dark witches and wizards than any other. Fred and George hissed as Baddock sat down.” (GoF, ill, p.119)

           At this point I’m a little divided over whether this view of Slytherin House turning out more dark witches and wizards than of the others is actually Rowling stating this from the point of view as the omnipotent narrator or if it is simply Harry’s opinion because that’s what everyone has told him. It’s what “everyone” in Hogwarts knows. Much in the same way that Ernie McMillan back in the Chamber of Secrets states “‘[Harry’s] a Parselmouth. Everyone knows that’s the mark of Dark wizard.’” (CS, ill, p.152) Rowling never tells us just how many Slytherins went dark as opposed to the other Houses nor does she as the author show any character offering any proof of this. Once again, we are shown this only from Harry’s point of view.  

           The next element to this book is the reaction by Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw to Harry being chosen as the fourth champion.

           The next few days were some of Harry’s worst at Hogwarts. The closest he had ever come to feeling like this had been during those months, in his second, year, when a large part of the school had suspected dim of attacking his fellow students.  . . . it was lonely, with dislike pouring in on him from all sides.

           He could understand the Hufflepuff’s attitudes, even if he didn’t like it; they had their own champion to support. He expected nothing less than vicious insults from the Slytherins – he was highly unpopular there and always had been, as he had helped Gryffindor beat them so often, both at Quidditch and in the Inter-House Championship. But he had hoped the Ravenclaws might have found it in their hearts to support him as much as Cedric. He was wrong, however. Most Ravenclaws seemed to think that he had been desperate to earn himself a bit m ore fame by tricking the Goblet into accepting his name. (Gof, ill, p. 188)

           Now as I stated earlier, it is my opinion that this shunning and ostracization that Harry has endured twice now is that same that Slytherin House is subjected to all the time. Yet there is one difference. In Harry’s case it is directed only towards himself, not the rest of his entire House. We are never shown anyone saying that just because Harry is evil because he’s a parselmouth, then all Gryffindors are evil or because Harry cheated to become a Hogwarts Champion then all Gryffindors are cheaters. Now granted a large number of Slytherins did become Death Eaters, possibly (although this is not confirmed) even a majority of Death Eaters were. But as we have already been shown there were Death Eaters that came from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, yet no one judges all of those Houses by the actions of those Death Eaters.

           Now we come to the end of the Goblet of Fire and the closing ceremony.

           What I want to draw attention to here are the actions of the Slytherins and how Harry perceives them.

           “‘There is much that I would like to say to you all tonight,’ said Dumbledore, ‘but first I must acknowledge the loss of a very fine person, who should be sitting’ – he gestured towards the Hufflepuffs – ‘enjoying our Feast with us. I would like you all, please, to stand, and raise your glasses to Cedric Diggory.’            They did it, all of them; the benches scrapped as everyone in the hall stood, and raised their goblets, and echoed in one loud, low rumbling voice ‘Cedric Diggory.’” [emphasis mine] (GoF, ill, p 443-444)

           And later when Dumbledore tells them that Cedric was killed by Voldemort …

           “Stunned and frightened, every face in the Hall was turned towards Dumbledore now … or almost every face. Over at the Slytherin table, Harry saw Draco Malfoy muttering something to Crabbe and Goyle. Harry felt a hot, sickening swoop of anger in his stomach. He forced himself to look back at Dumbledore …            Dumbledore turned gravely to Harry and raised his goblet once more … Nearly everyone in the Great Hall followed suit. They murmured his name, as they had murmured Cedric’s and drank to him. But, through a gap in the standing figures, Harry saw Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and many of the other Slytherins had remained defiantly in their seats, their goblets untouched. Dumbledore, who after all possessed no magical eye, did not see them.” [emphasis mine] (GoF, ill, p 443-444)

           It is important note (which is why I emphasized it) is that every single person in the Great Hall, including all the Slytherins, including Draco and Pansy and all of their cliques, all of them, rose to their feet and saluted Cedric Diggory. When Dumbledore saluted Harry, Rowling tells us that “Nearly everyone in the Great Hall followed suit” but “many” of the Slytherins including Draco did not. It is important to note what Rowling says here; “Nearly everyone” and “many” Slytherins. She does not say three quarters of the Hall rose and all the Slytherins did not. So I must conclude that there had been Slytherins (we aren’t told how many) who were on their feet toasting Harry’s bravery and his defiance of Voldemort. But as Rowling demonstrates to us, Harry didn’t see them. Harry saw only Malfoy and his gang.

           This what I want to show here; how Harry’s view of Malfoy influenced how he viewed all Slytherins. When Harry saw Malfoy muttering to Crabbe and Goyle he felt a “hot, sickening swoop of anger in his stomach” and when the Great Hall rose to toast him Harry’s attention is focused on only those Slytherins who didn’t rise. Here Harry is as blind as he thinks Dumbledore is. Rowling writes that Dumbledore did not see the Slytherins who remained seated. But Harry equally could not see those Slytherins who stood because he was blinded by his own prejudice and hatred. As Rowling shows us over and over again Harry judges and holds all Slytherins accountable for the actions of Draco, Snape and Voldemort. This is indeed prejudice And it gets worse as we go into the fifth book.

           This is where we meet Delores Umbridge. While J.K Rowling’s writing on Wizardingworld.com does not list the house she was in (see link) the original Pottermore did have her as a Slytherin if memory serves me correctly. We are also shown Malfoy and his clique join her inquisitorial squad and we are never shown or told if any members of the other Houses join. I think we can safely assume that there were no Gryffindors or Harry would certainly have seen them. However, I think that it would be wrong to assume that all of Slytherin House supported her. In the movie version we are, in fact, shown a number of Slytherins cheering Fred and George Weasley during their glorious fireworks escape. (See the link for the full clip)

This dichotomy between how the other Houses view Slytherin and what we the audience are shown serves to illustrate the isolation and shunning of Slytherin House. Another example is when Hermione forms the DA and pushes Harry into leading it. Slytherin House is the only one not represented in the DA and the reason for this is that nobody invited them. Nobody reached out their hand. Yet Hermione’s stated goal was to help everyone learn how to defend themselves and pass their OWLs. I suspect many Slytherins wanted to do that too, especially the ones in the fifth and seventh years who were facing their OWLs and their NEWTs. Once again, the prejudice and discrimination against Slytherins by the other three houses, is clearly demonstrated here.

           This is something that I believe Rowling does quite intentionally. She shows us this close to the beginning with the Sorting Hat’s song and Harry’s reaction to it.

           “… Listen closely to my song;             Though condemned I am to split you             Still I worry that it’s wrong             Though I must fulfill my duty             Still I wonder whether Sorting             May not bring the end I fear.             Oh, know the perils, read the signs,             The warning history shows,             For our Hogwarts is in danger             From external, deadly foes             And we must unite inside her            Or we’ll crumble from within.” (OoP, Sch, P186-187)

           This is a pretty clear condemnation of the House system and the disunity it brings by one of the most important and unbiased observers in all of Hogwarts. And then Rowling takes it a step further by showing us Harry’s reaction.

           “‘And it wants all the Houses to be friends?’ said Harry, looking over at the Slytherin table, where Draco Malfoy was holding court. ‘Fat chance.’” (OoP, Sch, P189)

           Again, Rowling shows us that Harry judges all Slytherins, even the newly sorted eleven-year-old first years by actions of Draco Malfoy. This is prejudice. In forming the DA Hermione, Harry and Ron manage to unite three of the four Houses but exclude Slytherin House.

           Nor does Rowling stop there. As I mentioned earlier as these books progress and Harry grows up, things become more and more complicated and less and less black and white. The lines are becoming more blurred and those that Harry were taught were great and shining heroes turn out to have feet of clay.

           I’m speaking of course of his trip into Snape’s memories where he gets the truth about his father and godfather’s interactions with Snape rammed right down his throat.

           “‘I’m bored,’ said Sirius. ‘Wish it was the full moon.’            …’This’ll liven you up Padfoot,’ said James quietly. ‘Look who it is …’            Sirius’s head turned. He became very still, like a dog that had scented a rabbit.            ‘Excellent,’ he said softly. ‘Snivellus.’            Harry turned to see what Sirius was looking at.            Snape was on his feet again, and was stowing the O.W.L. paper in his bag. As he left the shadows of the bushes and set off across the grass, Sirius and James stood up.            Lupin and Wormtail remained sitting: Lupin was still staring down at his book, though his eyes were not moving and a faint from line had appeared between his eyebrows; Wormtail was looking from Sirius and James to Snape with a look of avid anticipation on his face.            ‘All right, Snivellus?’ said James loudly.            Snape reacted so fast it was as though he had been expecting an attack: dropping his bag, he plunged his hand inside his robes and his wand was halfway into the air when James shouted, ‘Expelliarmus!            Snape’s wand flew twelve feet into the air and fell with a little thud in the grass behind him. Sirius let out a bark of laughter.            ‘Impedimenta!’ he said, pointing his wand at Snape, who was knocked off his feet halfway through a dive towards his own fallen wand.            Students all around had turned to watch. Some of them had got to their feet and were edging nearer. Some looked apprehensive, others entertained.            Snape lay panting on the ground. James and Sirius advanced on him, wands raised. James glancing over his shoulder at the girls at the water’s edge as he went. Wormtail was on his feet now, watching hungrily, edging around Lupin to get a clearer view.            ‘How’d the exam go, Snivelly?’ said James.            ‘I was watching him, his nose was touching the parchment,’ said Sirius viciously. ‘There’ll be great grease marks all over it, they won’t be able to read a word.’            Several people watching laughed; Snape was clearly unpopular. Wormtail sniggered shrilly. Snape was trying to get up, but the jinx was still operating on him; he was struggling, as though bound by invisible ropes.            ‘You – wait,’ he panted, staring up at James with an expression of purest loathing, ‘you – wait!’            ‘Wait for what?’ said Sirius coolly. ‘What’re you going to do, Snivelly, wipe your nose on us?’            Snape let out a stream of mixed swear words and hexes, but with his wand ten feet away nothing happened.            ‘Wash out your mouth,’ said James coldly. ‘Scourgify!’            Pink soap bubbles streamed from Snape’s mouth at once; the froth was covering his lips, making him gag, choking him -            ‘Leave him ALONE!’            James and Sirius looked round. James’s free hand immediately jumped up to his hair.            It was one of the girls form the lake edge. She had thick, dark red hair that fell to her shoulders, and startlingly green almond-shaped eyes – Harry’s eyes.            Harry’s mother.            ‘All right, Evans?’ said James, and the tone of his voice was suddenly pleasant, deeper, more mature.            ‘Leave him alone,’ Lily repeated. She was looking at James with every sign of great dislike. ‘What’s he done to you?’            ‘Well,’ said James, appearing to deliberate the point, ‘it’s more the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean …’            Many of the surrounding students laughed, Sirius and Wormtail included, but Lupin, still apparently intent on his book, didn’t, and nor did Lily.   ��        ‘You think you’re funny,’ she said coldly. ‘But you’re just an arrogant, bullying, toerag, Potter. Leave him alone.’            ‘I will if you go out with me, Evans,’ James said quickly. ‘Go on … go out with me and I’ll never lay a wand on old Snivelly again.’            Behind him, the Impediment Jinx was wearing off. Snape was beginning to inch towards his fallen wand, spitting out soapsuds as he crawled.            ‘I wouldn’t go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid,’ said Lily.            ‘Bad luck Prongs,’ said Sirius briskly, and turned back to Snape. “OI!’            But too late; Snape had directed his wand straight at James; there was flash of light and a gash appeared on the side of James’s face, spattering his robes with blood. James whirled about; a second flash of light later, Snape was hanging upside-down in the air, his robes falling over his head to reveal skinny, pallid legs and a pair of greying underpants.            Many people in the small crowd cheered; Sirius, James and Wormtail roared with laughter.            Lily, whose furious expression had twitched for an instant as though she was going to smile, said, ‘Let him down!’            ‘Certainly,’ said James and he jerked his wand upwards; Snape fell into a crumpled head on the ground. Disentangling himself from his robes he got quickly to his feet, wand up, but Sirius said, ‘Petrificus Totalus!’ and Snape keeled over again, rigid as a board.            “LEAVE HIM ALONE!’ Lily shouted. She had her own wand out now. James and Sirius eyed it warily.            ‘Ah, Evans, don’t make me hex you,’ said James earnestly.            ‘Take the curse off him, then!’            James sighed deeply, then turned to Snape and muttered the counter-curse.            ‘There you go,’ he said as Snape struggled to his feet. ‘You’re lucky Evans was here, Snivellus –‘            ‘I don’t  need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!’            Lily blinked.            ‘Fine,’ she said coolly. ‘I won’t bother in the future. And I’d wash your pants if I were you, Snivellus’            …            ‘Right,’ said James, who looked furious now, ���right – ‘            There was another flash of light, and Snape was once again hanging upside-down in the air.            ‘Who wants to see me take off Snivelly’s pants?’ (OoP, sch, p. 568-572)

           There are a few things that I want to look at here. First of all, as Lily flat out states, James, Sirius and Wormtail are bullies. It is James and Sirius who initiate the attack and do so for no other reason then they’re bored. When Lily demands to know what Snape had ever done to James, he tells her that it’s more the fact that Snape exists.

           Second, this is the exact same thing that the Death Eaters at the Quidditch World Cup did to the muggle family who ran the camp ground and they did it for the exact same reason.

           ‘A crowd of wizards, tightly packed and moving together with wands pointed straight upwards, were marching slowly across the field … High above them, floating in mid-air, four struggling figures were being contorted into grotesque shapes. It was as though the masked wizards on the ground were puppeteers, and the people above them were marionettes operated by invisible strings that rose from the wands into the air. Two of the figures were very small … the floating people were suddenly illuminated as they passed over a burning tent and Harry recognised one of them – Mr. Roberts, the campsite manager. The other three looked as though they might be his wife and children. One of the marchers below flipped Mrs. Roberts upside-down with his wand; her nightdress fell down to reveal voluminous drawers; she struggled to cover herself up as the crowed below her screeched and hooted with glee. (GoF, ill, p.84)

And just in case we missed it, Rowling hammers this lesson home in the sixth book.  

           “‘My Dad used this spell,’ said Harry. ‘I – Lupin told me.’            This last part was not true, in fact, Harry had seen his father use this spell on Snape, but he had never told Ron and Hermione about that particular excursion into the pensive . . .            ‘Maybe your Dad did use it Harry,’ said Hermione, ‘but he’s not the only one. We’ve seen a whole bunch of people use it, in case you’ve forgotten. Dangling people in the air; making them float along, asleep, helpless.’            Harry stared at her. With a sinking feeling, he, too, remembered the behaviour of the Death Eaters at the Quidditch World Cup.’” (HBP, sch, p.226-227)

           Please note that the reaction of the Death Eaters to the humiliation of the muggles is the same as the crowd around the lake to Snape’s humiliation.

           “Many people in the small crowd cheered; Sirius, James and Wormtail roared with laughter.             Lily whose furious expression had twitched for an instant as though she were going to smile, said, ‘Let him down.’” (OoP, sch, p.571)

           The parallels that Rowling draws here are very explicit and clear. James Potter and his gang of Marauders were just as much bullies and thugs as those Death Eater and while some might argue that the Marauders didn’t actually do any physical harm, unlike the Death Eaters and Snape, I would disagree. James Potter and his friends were the type of bullies that focused more on humiliation then physical harm. For them it was about humiliating and degrading their victims, of stripping them of every ounce of pride and dignity in order to demonstrate their own power and domination. For every bully that is what it is all about.

           And humiliation hurts. Humiliation can leave scars as deep as any beating and can sometimes be just as crippling.

           Rowling shows us this very well in Harry’s reaction to what he saw in the pensive.

           “What was making Harry feel so horrified and unhappy was not being shouted at or having jars thrown at him; it was that he knew how it felt to be humiliated in a circle of onlookers, knew exactly how Snape had felt as his father had taunted him . . .” (OoP, sch, p.573)

           But just as Harry knew this pain, I think that from the isolation and shunning of Slytherin House that Rowling has repeatedly shown us throughout these books, Slytherins know this pain too. Every sideways glance, every whisper in the halls, every time they are cut out or excluded or simply branded as evil just for being Slytherin, they have known this pain.

           To me it is a twist of brilliant irony that the person most ultimately responsible for saving Harry at the Battle of the Department of Mysteries was not only a Slytherin but the Slytherin that he hated the most; Severus Snape. Snape lied to Umbridge and carried Harry’s warning to Sirius and the Order. (OoP, sch, p.732,734)

           Without that lie Umbridge would have found out about Sirius and the Order of the Phoenix and that would have been disastrous. If Snape hadn’t warned Sirius and the Order they wouldn’t have come to the rescue of Harry and his friends and Voldemort would not only have gotten the prophecy but Harry and all his friends would probably have been killed. It was Snape, the head of Slytherin House who ultimately saved Harry again.

           Not that Harry could see this at the time.

           “‘What about Snape?’ Harry spat. ‘You’re not talking about him, are you? When I told him Voldemort had Sirius he just sneered at me as usual –‘            ‘Harry, you know Professor Snape had no choice but to pretend not to take you seriously in front of Dolores Umbridge,’ said Dumbledore steadily, ‘but as I have explained, he informed the Order as soon as possible about what you had said. It was he who deduced where you had gone when you did not return from the Forest. It was he, too, who gave Professor Umbridge fake Veritaserum when she was attempting to force you to tell her Sirius’s whereabouts.’            Harry disregarded this; he felt a savage pleasure in blaming Snape, it seemed to be easing his own sense of dreadful guilt, and he wanted to hear Dumbledore agree with him.’ (OoP, sch, p.734)

           In all fairness I can forgive Harry’s blindness and his willingness to blame Snape for Sirius’s death, especially given his anger and pain at losing someone he loved. When it came to Harry, Snape was probably the worst bully in the school barring only the temporary exception of Umbridge. Harry didn’t know at this point how much Snape had loved his mother or his vow to protect her son. He only knew how Snape had treated him and Dumbledore’s repeated insistence that since he had complete trust in Snape then Harry should blindly trust Snape as well wasn’t enough.

           But Harry’s anger towards Snape is partly what feeds his prejudice towards Slytherins as a whole. Harry is prejudiced and has been since before he ever encountered Snape or Voldemort as we saw during his Sorting in The Philosopher’s Stone. This is something that is demonstrated very clearly in the sixth book.

           The first occasion is where he meets Horace Slughorn and learns that he was Head of Slytherin House.

           “‘I was Head of Slytherin;’ said Slughorn. ‘Oh, now,’ he went on quickly, seeing the expression on Harry’s face and wagging a stubby finger at him, ‘don’t go holding that against me!’” (HBP, sch, p.71)

           As Slughorn points out Harry is prejudiced against Slytherins and does hold this against Slughorn. That’s clear.

           Not that Slughorn doesn’t have his own biases.

           “‘Your mother was Muggle-born, of course. Couldn’t believe it when I found out. Thought she must have been pure-blood, she was so good.’            ‘One of my best friends is Muggle-born,’ said Harry, ‘and she’s the best in our year.’            ‘Funny, how that happens sometimes, isn’t it?’ said Slughorn.            ‘Not really,’ said Harry coldly.            Slughorn looked down at him in surprise.            ‘You mustn’t think I’m prejudice!’ he said. ‘No, no, no! Haven’t I just said that your mother was one of my all-time favourite students? And there was Dirk Cresswell in the year after her, too – now Head of the Goblin Liaison Office, of course – another Muggle-born, a very gifted student.’” (HBP, sch, p.71-72)

Now while it’s clear that Slughorn does think that Muggle-borns are disadvantaged when it comes to magic, he never denied that they could be extremely gifted and favoured and supported them even over less talented pure-bloods when they did, regardless of House.

           I would say that at his worst Slughorn is no more prejudice towards Muggle-borns then McGonagall and the Weasley’s are towards Muggles. And they are.

           In the beginning of The Philosopher’s Stone, McGonagall tells Dumbledore “‘- even the Muggles have noticed something’s going on. It was on their news . . . Well they’re not completely stupid.’” (PS, ill, p.8)

           In The Chamber of Secrets, Fred Weasley tell Harry “‘A lot of wizards think it’s a waste of time, knowing this sort of muggle trick [picking locks], but we feel they’re (sic) skills worth learning, even if they are a bit slow.’” (CS, ill, p.20) and in The Half-Blood Prince Fred points out the Muggle magic tricks in their shop and says “‘For freaks like Dad, you know, who love Muggle stuff.’” (HBP, sch, p.115)

           These are only a few examples. I could name more if I had space.

           This opinion (which I think is very common in the wizarding world) is that because Muggles can’t do magic, Muggles are therefore slow and stupid. In my opinion, this is definitely racism and prejudice. And please note, these opinions are expressed by many including those characters portrayed as the “good guys” in the narrative.

           Which brings us back to Slughorn and Harry. I would say that Slughorn is far less prejudiced and far more supportive towards Muggle-borns than Harry is towards Slytherins. Slughorn merely thinks that Muggle-borns have a disadvantage compared to pure-bloods, When they show talent, he recognises this and supports them. He gives them a chance. Harry on the other hand, as we have seen, is very prejudiced towards Slytherins, judging all as evil or at the very least cowardly and never once does he ever give any Slytherin even one chance.

           Which brings us to the first meeting of the Slug Club on the train. This is where we meet Blaize Zabini.

           “[Harry] recognised a Slytherin from their year, a tall black boy with high cheekbones and long, slanting eyes . . . Zabini did not make any sign of recognition or greeting, and nor did Harry or Neville; Gryffindor and Slytherin students loathed each other on principal . . . Zabini, who was interrogated after McLaggen, turned out to have a famously beautiful witch for a mother (from what Harry could make out, she had been married seven times, each of her husbands dying mysteriously and leaving her mounds of gold.)” (HBP, sch, p.137, 138-139)

           There are two things that I want to bring to your attention. The first is where it talks about Gryffindor and Slytherin students loathing each other on principal. This is not just simple House rivalry here; there’s real hatred and Rowling does not say it’s because “Slytherins are evil and Gryffindors are good.”

Which brings me to my second point and that is Zabini’s looks. Barring only the former exceptions of Tom Riddle and Bellatrix Lestrange this is the first time that any member of Slytherin House has been described in the books as physically attractive.

           If you look at how most Slytherins are described in the books when seen through Harry’s eyes they are almost always seen as being uniformly physically ugly. Crabbe and Goyle are variously described as being troll-like or Gorilla-like, (CS, ill, p.165) Pansy Parkinson is described as having a pug face, (PoA, ill, p.72) Millicent Bulstrode is seen by Harry as “. . . a picture he’s seen in Holidays with Hags. She was large, square and her heavy jaw jutted aggressively.” (CS, ill, p.145). Marcus Flint is also described as having troll blood in him. (PS, ill, p.153)

           As for Draco Malfoy, while in the movie version, Tom Felton is very handsome young man, in the book he is described as pale, washed out and with features like a ferret. (GoF, ill, p.69)

           As for the adult Slytherins we encounter, Dolores Umbridge looks like a toad (OoP, sch, 134) and Snape is described as sallow skinned, with greasy hair and a hooked nose. (PS, ill, p. 104) Even Slughorn is described as massively obese with a moustache that looks like a walrus. (HBP, sch, p.137)

           This brings me back to Slughorn. In forming the Slug Club Horace Slughorn becomes unique amongst Hogwarts Professors and in his way quite a remarkable and brave character. Because while Slytherins are usually cast in the role of the outsider and the outcast, Slughorn, a Slytherin, is the only one to breach this barrier and truly create a form of interhouse unity of all four Houses with his Slug Club. Inclusion in this club was based on merit not wealth or blood or House and he used this club to forge connections and alliances between members of all the Houses. Yes, he gets something out of it too. He likes knowing famous and powerful people and knowing that he’s helped them on their path. He likes the gifts and the attention they show him. But it’s not about power. He never asks for political favours or handouts or anything like that. The people that he helps, regardless of their House get far more out of the Slug Club then he does.

           I find it very interesting that Rowling shows us that the only person to unite all four Houses and do so solely on a merit-based system was not only a Slytherin but the former Head of Slytherin House. This is something that not even Dumbledore managed to do. It is the only example that we see of complete interhouse unity in all seven books, at least that we are shown through Harry’s eyes. As I’ve mentioned, this is Harry’s story and Harry as we have seen is undoubtedly prejudiced against Slytherins, especially Draco Malfoy.

           This prejudice is well known to those around him and comes back to bite him in this book. Because he is right when he claims that Draco has become a Death Eater and that he was up to something bad in Hogwarts. But nobody believes him, partly because to date Malfoy has come off as pretty pathetic, failing every time he’s tried to best Harry but also largely because Harry has made no secret of his hatred of Draco and Snape and his prejudice against Slytherins. This is clearly shown in the book when he tells his theory to Ron and Hermione.

“‘He’s a Death Eater,’ said Harry slowly. ‘He’s replaced his father as a Death Eater!’

There was silence, then Ron erupted in laughter. ‘Malfoy? He’s sixteen, Harry! You think You-Know-Who would let Malfoy join?’ ‘It seems very unlikely, Harry,’ said Hermione, in a repressive sort of voice. ‘What makes you think - ?’ ‘In Madam Malkin’s. She didn’t touch him, but he yelled and jerked his arm away from her when she went to roll up his sleeve. It was his left arm. He’s been branded with the Dark Mark.’ Ron and Hermione looked at each other. ‘Well . . .’ said Ron, sounding thoroughly unconvinced . . .” (HPB, sch, p.144)

In the movie this is made even more clear in the scene between Remus and Harry in the Burrow. (see link for the full clip)

[Harry] “Dumbledore can make mistakes, he said so himself.” [Remus] “You’re blinded by hatred.” [Harry] “I’m not.” [Remus] “Yes you are!”

But it’s in this book that Harry and thus we the readers are shown our first humanization of Malfoy. Until now we knew so little of his character beyond what he showed to Harry that he was almost a caricature. He was a bully, a coward, someone who hid behind his father’s name and money and until now that’s pretty much was all that he was.

But Rowling continually brings out new depths to her characters and makes us see them in a different light by making Harry see them in a different light too.

I am of course referring to the bathroom scene. In the movie we see; (see link for the full clip)

In the book we are told;

“Draco Malfoy was standing with his back to the door, his hands clutching either side of the sink, his white-blond head bowed.

‘Don’t,’ crooned Moaning Myrtle’s voice from on of the cubicles. ‘Don’t . . . tell me what’s wrong . . . I can help you.’

‘No one can help me,’ said Malfoy. His whole body was shaking. ‘I can’t do it . . . I can’t . . . it won’t work . . . and unless I do it soon . . . he says he’ll kill me . . .’

And Harry realised with a shock so huge it seemed to root him to the spot, that Malfoy was crying – actually crying – tears streaming down his face into the grimy basin. Malfoy gasped and gulped and then, with a great shudder looked up in to the cracked mirror and say Harry starring at him over his shoulder.” (HBP, sch, p.448)

This scene differs between the book and the movie. In the movie it is Draco seeing Katie Bell and facing what he’s done that triggers the scene and Harry is much more the accuser and initial (verbal) aggressor. In the book we are shown that it is Draco realising that war is not fame and glory but death and pain and the loss of loved ones. Because of course, as we learn by the end of the book it’s not just Draco who is in danger from Voldemort, it’s his family.

“‘I haven’t got any options!’ said Malfoy, and he was suddenly as white as Dumbledore. ‘I’ve got to do it! He’ll kill me! He’ll kill my whole family!’” (HBP, sch, p.552)

It is not just his own life that Draco’s afraid for, it’s everyone he loves.

In both versions Draco does try to use the Cruciatus curse on Harry during the fight. It is the exact same curse that Harry has already tried to use once on Bellatrix Lestrange for revenge.

It is this scene that his fear and (in the movie) guilt over what he’s done that shows us the human side to Draco Malfoy, who has been one of the most predominant images of Slytherin House for Harry and thus the readers.

This is further reflected in Dumbledore’s death scene. (see link for the full clip)

In the book version Draco is trying to show more bravado to work himself up to killing Dumbledore, but in both versions his guilt and horror over what he’s already done clearly shows.

“‘I’ve got a job to do.’

‘Well then, you mut get on and do it, my dear boy.’ said Dumbledore softly.

There was silence . . . Draco Malfoy did nothing but stare at Albus Dumbledore who incredibly smiled.

‘Draco, Draco, you’re not a killer.’

‘How do you know?’ said Malfoy at once . . . ‘You don’t know what I’m capable of.’ Said Malfoy more forcefully. ‘You don’t know what I’ve done!’

‘ . . . Perhaps you ought to get on with the job alone.’ Suggested Dumbledore . . . ‘And after all, you don’t really need help . . . I have no wand at the moment . . . I cannot defend myself.’

Malfoy merely stared at him . . . Malfoy looked as though he was fighting down the urge to shout, or to vomit . . .

‘My dear boy, let us have no more pretence about that. If you were going to kill me, you would have done it when you first Disarmed me, you would not have stopped for this pleasant chat about ways and means.’” (HBP, sch, .546-552)

           I want to point out that in all seven of the Harry Potter books this is the first time that we see Dumbledore reach out to a Slytherin without wanting something in return. Slughorn, he wanted back in Hogwarts to access his hidden memory. Snape, he demanded that he turn spy against Voldemort in exchange for protecting Lily Potter. In short, he wanted to use them. One can argue that this was the necessity of war, and this would be a valid argument. However, until Draco, he does not reach out to any Slytherin for any other reason.

           If we look back to the Goblet of Fire Dumbledore urges Fudge to reach out to the giants and Fudge rejects this.

“‘The second step you must take – and at once,’ Dumbledore pressed on, ‘is to send envoys to the giants.’

‘Envoys to the giants?’ Fudge shrieked, finding his tongue again. ‘What madness is this?’

‘Extend them the hand of friendship, now, before it is too late,’ said Dumbledore, ‘or Voldemort will persuade them, as he did before, that he alone among wizards will give them their rights and freedom!’

‘You – you cannot be serious!’ Fudge gasped, shaking his head, and retreating further from Dumbledore. If the magical community got wind that I had approached the giants – people hate them Dumbledore – end of my career.’”(GoF, ill, p.436)

We later learn that Dumbledore sends Hagrid and Lupin to the giants and werewolves with offerings of peace and support behind the Ministry’s back. He knows that these outcasts will make up a large part of Voldemort’s army.

But in all the Harry Potter books and movies this one time with Draco is the only time that he ever makes this gesture towards those we have been shown are the most outcast and outsiders in his own school, the Slytherins.

I must point out though that we do see him do this with Leta LeStrange in the Crimes of Grindelwald movie. (see link for the full clip).

[Dumbledore] “Hello Leta. This is a surprise.” [Leta] “Finding me in a classroom? Was I such a bad student?” [Dumbledore] “On the contrary you were one of my cleverest.” [Leta] “I said bad not stupid. Don’t bother answering. I know you never liked me.” [Dumbledore] “I never thought you bad.” [Leta] “You were alone then.” [Dumbledore] “Leta, I know how painful the rumors about your brother, Corvus, must be for you.” [Leta] “No. You don’t. Not unless you had a brother who died too.” [Dumbledore] “In my case it was my sister.” [Leta] “Did you love her?” [Dumbledore] “Not as well as I should have done. Never too late to free yourself. Regret is my constant companion. Do not let it become yours.”

Dumbledore reaches out here to a Slytherin in a way we never see him do in the Harry Potter books or movies, not even at the end with Draco, not to this extent.

It is also in the scene between Draco and Dumbledore that Harry gets his second contradiction about everything he had assumed Malfoy and all Slytherins to be. Because Malfoy lowers his wand

[Hermione] Do you think he would have done it? Draco? [Harry] No. No, he was lowering his wand.

Now we come to the Deathly Hallows and this is where everything comes to a head on so many levels. One of them is the prejudice and discrimination towards Slytherin House by the rest of Hogwarts. This is where Harry finally has the last of his prejudices ripped from his eyes.

It begins with Harry being forced to watch Voldemort order Draco to torture his fellow Death Eaters under threat of being tortured himself if he doesn’t.

“Malfoy’s gaunt, petrified face seemed branded on the inside of his eyes. Harry felt sickened by what he had seen, by the use to which Draco was now being put by Voldemort.” (DH, sch, p.145)

For Harry, who judged all Slytherins largely on the actions of Draco (but also Voldemort and Snape) to see Draco being forced to do this and being sick and terrified by it is one of his turning points.

His second lesson comes with Regulus Black, Sirius’ brother, who was a Slytherin. When we’re first introduced to him by Sirius in The Order of the Phoenix Sirius describes him as “‘. . . my idiot brother, soft enough to believe them . . . Stupid idiot . . . he joined the Death Eaters . . . he was murdered by Voldemort . . . From what I found out after he died, he got in so far, then panicked about what he was being asked to do and tried to back out.’” (OoP, sch, p.104)

Soft, stupid and weak is how Sirius, Harry and thus we the readers are first introduced to Regulus through Sirius’ point of view. But in the Deathly Hallows Rowling tears this misconception to shreds and shows us a Slytherin who is noble, self-sacrificing, kind and compassionate.

“‘And one day, a year after he had joined [the Death Eaters], Master Regulus came down to the kitchen to see Kreacher. And Master Regulus said . . . he said . . .

The old elf rocked faster than ever.

‘. . . he said the Dark Lord required an elf.’ . . .

‘Oh, yes,’ moaned Kreacher. ‘And Master Regulus had volunteered Kreacher. It was an honour, said Master Regulus, an honour for him and for Kreacher, who must be sure to do whatever the Dark Lord ordered him to do . . . and then to come home.’ . . .

‘So Kreacher went to the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord did not tell Kreacher what they were to do, but took Kreacher with him to a cave beside the sea. And beyond the cave there was a cavern, and in the cavern was a great black lake . . .’

‘There was a b-basin full of potion on the island. The D-Dark Lord made Kreacher drink it . . . Kreacher drank, and as he drank, he saw terrible things . . . Kreacher’s insides burned . . . Kreacher cried from Master Regulus to save him, he cried for his Mistress Black but the Dark Lord only laughed . . . he made Kreacher drink all the potion . . . he dropped a locket into the empty basin . . . he filled it with more potion.’

‘And then the Dark Lord sailed away, leaving Kreacher on the island . . . Kreacher needed water, he crawled to the island’s edge and he drank from the black lake . . . and hands, dead hands, came out of the water and dragged Kreacher under the surface’

‘How did you get away?’ Harry asked, and he was not surprised to hear himself whispering.

Kreacher raised his ugly head and looked at Harry with his great, blood shot eyes.

‘Master Regulus told Kreacher to come back.’ He said.

‘I know – but how did you escape the Inferi?’

��Master Regulus told Kreacher to come back.’ He repeated.

‘Elf magic isn’t like wizard magic, is it?’ said Ron. ‘I mean they can apparate and disapparate in and out of Hogwarts when we can’t . . .’

. . . Hermione spoke and her voice was icy.

‘Of course. Voldemort would have considered the ways of house-elves far beneath his notice, just like all the pure-bloods who treat them like animals . . .’

‘The house elf’s highest law is his master’s bidding,’ intoned Kreacher. ‘Kreacher was told to come home, Kreacher came home . . .’

‘So what happened when you got back?’ Harry asked. ‘What did Regulus say when you told him what had happened?’

‘Master Regulus was worried, very worried.’ Croaked Kreacher. ‘Master Regulus told Kreacher to stay hidden, and not leave the house. And then . . . Master Regulus came to find Kreacher in his cupboard on night, and Master Regulus was strange, not as he usually was, disturbed in his mind . . . and he asked Kreacher to take him to the cave . . .’

‘And he made you drink the potion?’ asked Harry disgusted.

But Kreacher shook his head and wept.

“M-Master Regulus took from his pocket a locket like the one the Dark Lord had . . . And he told Kreacher to take it and, when the basin was empty to switch the lockets . . . And he ordered – Kreacher to leave - without him. And he told Kreacher to go home – and never tell my mistress – what he had done – but to destroy the first locket. And he drank – all the potion – and Kreacher swapped the lockets – and watched . . . as Master Regulus was dragged beneath the water . . .’

Harry sat back on his heels and shook his head, trying to clear it.

‘I don’t understand you, Kreacher.’ He said finally. ‘Voldemort tried to kill, you Regulus died to bring Voldemort down, but you were still happy to betray Sirius to Voldemort? You were happy to go to Narcissa and Bellatrix, and pass information to Voldemort through them . . .’

‘Harry, Kreacher doesn’t think like that.’ Said Hermione . . . ‘He’s a slave; house-elves are used to bad, even brutal treatment; what Voldemort did to Kreacher wasn’t that far out of the common way . . . He’s loyal to people who are kind to him, and Mrs. Black must have been and Regulus certainly was, so he served them willingly and parroted their beliefs. I know what you’re going to say,’ she went on as Harry began to protest; ‘that Regulus changed his mind . . . but he doesn’t seem to have explained that to Kreacher, does he? And I think I know why. Kreacher and Regulus’s family were all safer if they kept to the old pure-blood line. Regulus was trying to protect them all.’

‘Sirius –‘

‘Sirius was horrible to Kreacher, Harry, and it’s no good looking like that, you know it’s true. Kreacher had been alone for a long time when Sirius came to live here, and he was probably starving for a bit of affection. I’m sure ‘Miss Cissy’ and ‘Miss Bella’ were perfectly lovely to Kreacher when he turned up so he did them a favour and told them everything they wanted to know. I’ve said all along that wizards would pay for how they treated house-elves. Well, Voldemort did . . . and so did Sirius.’

Harry had no retort. As he watched Kreacher sobbing on the floor, he remembered what Dumbledore had said to him, mere hours after Sirius’s death: ‘I do not think Sirius ever saw Kreacher as a being with feelings as acute as a human’s . . .’ (DH, sch, p.158-164)

Regulus not only repeatedly showed kindness to Kreacher (as Hermione points out) without expecting anything in return, he also saw him as a person (as demonstrated when he tells Kreacher that Kreacher being given the opportunity to serve Voldemort was not only an honour for the Black family but an honour for Kreacher as well). When Regulus sacrificed his own life rather than sacrifice Kreacher’s he showed that he valued Kreacher in his own right where even his Gryffindor brother had not. In the end when it came down to a choice over whose life to sacrifice in order to steal the locket, from what we are shown, it never even occurred to Regulus to sacrifice Kreacher instead of himself.

Here, Rowling shows us a Slytherin who was not only brave and noble by choosing to sacrifice his own life in order to give someone else (he didn’t even know who) the chance at killing Voldemort but we are also shown that, at least when it came to house elves, the Slytherin was far less prejudice and bigoted than his Gryffindor brother. And Harry is forced to face painful this truth about both Sirius and Regulus.

Harry’s prejudice is further ripped away in his next encounter with Draco Malfoy when in Malfoy Manor Draco lies about Harry’s identity and refuses to identify him.

“‘They say they’ve got Potter,’ said Narcissa’s cold voice. ‘Draco, come here.’

Harry did not dare look directly at Draco, but saw him obliquely, a figure slightly taller than he was, rising from an armchair, his face a pale and pointed blur beneath white-blond hair.

. . . ‘Well boy?’ rasped the werewolf.

‘Well, Draco?’ said Lucius Malfoy. He sounded avid. ‘Is it? Is it Harry Potter?’

‘I can’t – I can’t be sure.’ Said Draco. He was keeping his distance from Greyback, and seemed as scared of looking at Harry as Harry was of looking at him.

‘But look at him carefully, look! Come closer!’

Harry had never heard Lucius Malfoy so excited.

‘Draco, if we are the ones who hand Potter over to the Dark Lord, everything will be forgiv-‘ . . .

. . . His grey eyes raked Harry’s forehead.

‘There’s something there,’ he whispered, ‘it could be the scar, stretched tight . . . Draco, come here, look properly! What do you think?’

Harry saw Draco’s face up close, now, right beside his father’s. They were extraordinarily alike, except that while his father looked beside himself with excitement, Draco’s expression was full of reluctance, even fear.

‘I don’t know.’ He said, and he walked away towards the fireplace where his mother stood watching” (DH, sch, p.370-372)

Even when it came to identifying Harry’s friends whose features weren’t disguised by a stinging jinx Draco is still reluctant about positively identifying them.

“‘Look, Draco, isn’t it the Granger girl?’

‘I . . . maybe . . . yeah.’

‘It’s them, Potter’s friends – Draco look at him, isn’t it, Arthur Weasley’s son, what’s his name -?’

‘Yeah,’ said Draco again, his back to the prisoners. ‘It could be.’ (DH, sch, p. 372)

(See the link for the full clip)

This is not to say that he redeems himself entirely, of course. In the book he does try to capture Harry in the Room of Requirement with the stated intention of turning him over to Voldemort and only stops Crabbe because Voldemort wanted Harry brought to him alive.

“‘STOP!’ Malfoy shouted at Crabbe, his voice echoing through the enormous room. ‘The Dark Lord wants him alive.’

‘So? I’m not killing him, am I?’ yelled Crabbe, throwing off Malfoy’s restraining arm, ‘but if I can, I will, the Dark Lord wants him dead anyway, what’s the diff - ?’

. . . ‘Don’t kill him! DON’T KILL HIM!’ Malfoy yelled at Crabbe and Goyle.” (DH,sch, p.506-507)

Yet the movie plays the scene out differently. Draco never mentions Voldemort and hesitates to kill Harry even though Goyle urges him and Harry has exposed Draco to Goyle and Zabini as having sheltered him from Bellatrix in the manor. (See link for the full clip)

[Draco]: “Well, well. What brings you here Potter?” [Harry]: “I could ask you the same thing.” [Draco]: “You have something of mine. I’d like it back.” [Harry]: “What’s wrong with the one you have?” [Draco]: “It’s my mother’s. It’s powerful but it’s not the same. Doesn’t quite understand me. Know what I mean?” [Harry]: “Why didn’t you tell her? Bellatrix. You knew it was me. You didn’t say anything.” [Goyle]: “Come on Draco. Don’t be a prat. Do him.”

           Yet whatever Draco’s motivations he’s clearly not on Harry’s side here, although there is a deleted scene in the movie where he throws his wand to Harry as Harry is escaping Voldemort. (See link for the full clip)

But this brings me back to Slytherin House and their isolation and shunning by the other three Houses.

           The most painful and poignant example of Slytherin House’s shunning and isolation comes when Neville leads Harry and the others into the Room of Requirement.

           ‘[Harry] did not recognise the room at all. It was enormous and looked rather like the interior of a particularly sumptuous tree house, or perhaps a giant ship’s cabin. Multi-coloured hammocks were strung from the ceiling and from a balcony that ran around the dark wood-panelled and windowless walls, which were covered in bright tapestry hangings; Harry saw the gold Gryffindor lion emblazoned on scarlet, the black badger of Hufflepuff against yellow, on the bronze eagle of Ravenclaw, on blue. The silver and green of Slytherin alone were absent.” (DH, sch, p.464-465)

When things were at their worst, when the Death Eaters had taken over the school and were torturing any student who wouldn’t toe the party line, the other three Houses abandoned Slytherin House and left them to face the darkness alone. There was not one single Slytherin in the Room of Requirement, not even so much as an eleven-year-old first year. Are we to believe that not one single Slytherin was ever tortured or abused by the Carrows? They certainly had no problem torturing first years as Neville pointed out (DH, sch, p.463) and Snape is living proof there had to be a lot of half-bloods in Slytherin. Are we to believe that none of those Slytherins loved their muggle parent, or perhaps even their muggle siblings, that they weren’t aware of the terrible danger that Voldemort and his so-called “pure blood supremacy” cause posed to their families? We know this isn’t true as Rowling will show us before the end. Before this story plays out Rowling will show us that the lines between Gryffindor and Slytherin are actually very thin and that just as Slytherins can be brave, noble and self-sacrificing so too can Gryffindors be ruthless, vengeful and bigoted.

It is in Deathly Hallows that Harry shows us just how ruthless he can be. Twice he uses an Unforgivable curse. The first time is to break into Gringotts.

“‘Act now, act now,’ whispered Griphook in Harry’s ear, ‘the Imperious Curse!’

Harry raised the hawthorn wand beneath the cloak, pointed at the old goblin and whispered, for the first time in his life, ‘Imperio!’ (DH, sch, p.428)

Now, since this was done to steal one of the horcruxes it can be argued that it was a necessity of war.

This cannot be said of his use of the Cruciatus curse. Harry uses this curse three times in the series. The first is when he tries to curse Bellatrix in the Order of the Phoenix to avenge Sirius’s death.

“Hatred rose in Harry such as he’d never known before; he flung himself out behind the fountain and bellowed, ‘Crucio!’

Bellatrix screamed: the spell had knocked her off her feet, but she did not writhe and shriek with pain as Neville had – she was already back on her feet, breathless, no longer laughing . . .  ‘Never used an Unforgivable Curse before, have you boy?’ She yelled. She had abandoned her baby voice now. ‘You need to mean them, Potter! You need to really want to cause pain – to enjoy it – righteous anger won’t hurt me for long.’  (OoP, sch, p. 715)

           The second is in the Half Blood Prince when he tries to use it against Snape in order to avenge Dumbledore.

           “Snape shouted, ‘Run, Draco!’ and turned: twenty yards apart he and Harry looked at each other before raising their wands simultaneously.

           ‘Cruc-‘

           But Snape parried the curse, knocking Harry backwards off his feet before he could complete it . . .

           ‘Cruc-‘ yelled Harry for the second time, aiming for the figure ahead illuminated in the dancing firelight, but Snape blocked the spell again.” (HBP, sch, p.562)

           Both times he is attempting to avenge the death of a loved one. He does not have that excuse the time he uses it in book version of the Deathly Hallows, which was left out of the movie.

           ‘Amycus moved forwards until he was offensively close to Professor McGonagall, his face within inches of hers. She refused to back away, but looked down at him as if he were something disgusting she had found stuck to a lavatory seat.

           ‘It’s not a case of what you’ll permit, Minerva McGonagall. Your time’s over. It’s us what’s in charge here now, and you’ll back me up or you’ll pay the price.’

           And he sat in her face.

           Harry pulled the Cloak off himself, raised his wand and said, ‘You shouldn’t have done that.’

           As Amycus spun around, Harry shouted ‘Crucio!’

           The Death Eater was lifted off his feet. He writhered through the air like a drowning man, thrashing and howling in pain, and then, with a crunch and a shattering of glass, he smashed into the front of a bookcase and crumpled, insensible, to the floor.

           ‘I see what Bellatrix meant,’ said Harry, the blood thundering through his brain. ‘you need to really mean it.’ . . .

           ‘He spat at you.’ Said Harry. (DH, sch, p.477)

           Harry is not trying to protect anyone here. He is not trying to win the war or even avenge someone’s death as he did twice before. He didn’t even do it to punish Amycus Carrow for torturing the children in Hogwarts. McGonagall was not physically harmed and we are shown that while Amycus Carrow did threaten her that’s not why Harry tortured him. “‘He spat at you.’”

           Harry did it simply to avenge an insult to McGonagall. Not even Draco went this far. When he tried to use the Cruciatus curse on Harry in the Half-Blood Prince he was in a fight and he was afraid of being exposed by his rival. Every other time after that he was coerced into it by Voldemort.

Yet here Rowling shows us not only a Gryffindor, but the hero of the story as being just as ruthless and, in this case, just as immoral as the villains. Yet we do not see anyone condemn Harry for this. Indeed, the head of Gryffindor calls his torturing a man to avenge an insult to her “‘Gallant; but foolish’” (DH, sch, p 477)

           Which brings me back to how all the other Houses viewed Slytherin House as evil based on the actions of a few or the one.

           After the interaction with Amycus Carrow McGonagall begins rallying Hogwarts to fight Voldemort and Slughorn questions her decision.

           “‘My word,’ he puffed, pale and sweaty, his walrus moustache aquiver, ‘What a to do! I’m not at all sure whether this is wise, Minerva. He is bound to find a way in, you know, and anyone who has tried to delay him will be in most grievous peril-‘

           ‘I shall expect you and the Slytherins to be in the Great Hall in twenty minutes also,’ said Professor McGonagall, ‘If you wish to leave with your students we shall not stop you. But if any of you attempt to sabotage our resistance, or take up arms against us within this castle, then, Horace, we duel to kill.’

           ‘Minerva!’ he said aghast.

           ‘The time has come for Slytherin House to decide upon its loyalties.’ Interrupted Professor McGonagall.” (DH, sch, p. 484)

           Now, I admit that Slughorn does not come off in the best light here, at least on the surface. Voldemort was coming and his policy was appeasement. But Slughorn’s concern was not for his own personal safety (as he will show later) but for the welfare of all those in the school. He advocated the wrong path here but for the right reasons. Not only that but in the collection “Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Politicians and Poltergeists” Rowling tells us that “[Slughorn] never enforced the violent discipline advocated by the Carrows and attempted to look after the students in his care as best he could.”

           But I also have to question what McGonagall said. “The time has come for Slytherin House to decide upon its loyalties.”

           McGonagall saying this raises a question that I think must be asked because it ties in directly with what I’ve been saying about Slytherin House being isolated and shunned. The question is; “what loyalty does Slytherin House owe the rest of Hogwarts?” After years of shunning and isolation, after years of being judged by and held accountable to the actions of others of their House while no other House is (otherwise all of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw would have been held accountable for the actions of Pettigrew and Quirrell) I must ask; why should Slytherin House show loyalty to those who never showed any loyalty to them? Why should they fight for those who never once fought for them?

           Yet in the end we’ll see that not even McGonagall, reputed to be the fairest teacher in Hogwarts was willing to give Slytherin House a chance when faced with the action of only one out of the entire House. It was Pansy Parkinson, and Pansy alone out of all of Slytherin House that wanted to turn Harry over to Voldemort, yet McGonagall rejected the entire House on the basis of the action of this one person.

           “Then a figure rose from the Slytherin table and he recognised Pansy Parkinson as she raised a shaking arm and screamed, ‘But he’s there! Potter’s there! Someone grab him!’

           Before Harry could speak there was a massive movement. The Gryffindors in front of him had risen and stood facing, not Harry but the Slytherins. Then the Hufflepuffs stood, and, almost at the same moment, the Ravenclaws, all of them with their backs to Harry, all of them looking towards Pansy instead, and Harry awestruck and overwhelmed, saw wands emerging everywhere, pulled from beneath cloaks and from under sleeves.

           ‘Thank you, Miss Parkinson,’ said Professor McGonagall in a clipped voice. ‘You will leave the hall first with Mr. Filch. If the rest of your house could follow.’

           Harry heard the grinding of benches and then the sound of the Slytherins trooping out on the other side of the hall.” (DH, sch, p.490-491)

           The movie version differs slightly in the ending of that scene. (see link for the full clip)

[Pansy]: “What are you waiting for? Someone grab him!”

[Filch]: “Students out of bed! Students out of bed! Students in the corridor!”

{McGonagall]: “They are supposed to be out of bed, you blithering idiot!”

[Filch]: “Oh. Sorry mum.”

[McGonagall]: “As it happens Mr. Filch your arrival is most opportune. If you would, I would like you to lead Miss Parkinson and the rest of Slytherin House from the hall.”

[Filch]: “Exactly where is it I’ll be leading them too mum?”

[McGonagall]: “The dungeons would do.”

           In the book the Slytherins are escorted of Hogwarts and released, in the movie they’re imprisoned in the dungeons but in both all are condemned for the actions of one and given no chance to prove themselves one way or the other. Yet, I doubt anyone would demand that all of Gryffindor or Ravenclaw be held accountable for the actions of those Death Eaters that came from those Houses. And there were Death Eaters from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. Rowling says so herself in an interview with the Leaky Cauldron.

           ES: But there aren’t a lot of Death Eater children in the other houses, are there?

JKR: You will have people connected with Death Eaters in the other houses, yeah, absolutely. (See the link for the full interview)

So, yes. Whether or not there were any supporters of Voldemort in the other three Houses in the current generation of Hogwarts, in the previous wizarding war with Voldemort, there certainly were. Peter Pettigrew and Quirinus Quirrell were only two of them.

Rowling brings all of this prejudice to a head for Harry when he watches Snape’s memories in the Pensieve. This is where she shows us that tolerance and bigotry are not attributes that belong solely to one House or the other as Harry gets his prejudices pretty much rammed right down his throat when he is shown Snape and Lily’s first meeting with James and Sirius.          

“‘Slytherin?’

One of the boys sharing the compartment, who had shown no interest at all in Lily or Snape until that point, looked round at the word, and Harry, whose attention had been focused entirely on the two beside the window, saw his father: slight, black-haired like Snape, but with that indefinable air of having been well cared for, even adored, that Snape so conspicuously lacked.

‘Who wants to be in Slytherin? I’d think I’d leave, wouldn’t you?’ James asked the boy lounging on the seats opposite him, and with a jolt, Harry realised that it was Sirius. Sirius did not smile.

‘My whole family have been in Slytherin,’ he said.

‘Blimey,’ said James, ‘and I thought you seemed all right.’

Sirius grinned.

‘Maybe I’ll break the tradition. Where are you heading, if you’ve got the choice?’

James lifted an invisible sword.

‘Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart. Like my dad.’

Snape made a small disparaging noise. James turned on him.

‘Got a problem with that?’

‘No.’ said Snape, though his slight sneer said otherwise. ‘If you’d rather be brawny than brainy –‘

‘Where’re you hoping to go, seeing as you’re neither?” interjected Sirius.

James roared with laughter. Lily sat up, rather flushed, and looked from James to Sirius in dislike.’ (DH, sch, p.538-539)

Now Snape was obviously just as snotty and prejudice towards Gryffindor as James was towards Slytherin. But James’ words strike a very familiar note here. Because we’ve heard them before. From Draco Malfoy in The Philosopher’s Stone; “- imagine being in Hufflepuff, I’d think I’d leave, wouldn’t you?” (PS, ill, p.68)

James Potter is in many ways like Draco Malfoy, like Dudley Dursley, like the Death Eaters at the Quidditch World Cup. The lines that Rowling draws between the two are very clear. He is just as much of a bully as they are and he is just as prejudiced and bigoted towards Slytherins as Malfoy is towards Muggle-borns. And where do you think James Potter learned that bigotry from?

If Dudley learned to be a bully through his parents telling him that everything he did was right and perfect and that those who are different are freaks, and if Draco learned Pure-Blood mania and to despise muggle-borns from his parents then where do you think James Potter learned his bigotry from? He learned it from the same place they did, over the breakfast table.

We are told in The Order of the Phoenix that Lily didn’t start dating James until he’d stopped being a bully.

“‘She started going out with him in seventh year,’ said Lupin.

‘Once James had deflated his head a bit.’ said Sirius.

‘And stopped hexing people just for the fun of it,’ said Lupin.” (OoP, sch, p.591)

James may have stopped being a bully by his seventh year (with the exception of Snape, because as Remus pointed out Snape was an exception because ‘he never lost the opportunity to curse James and you couldn’t expect James to take that lying down could you?”) (OoP, sch, p.592) But as Snape pointed out in The Half-Blood Prince; ‘Your father would never attack me unless it was four on one.’ (HBP, sch, p.562) They also never attacked Snape where Lily could see.

Sirius may have claimed that “‘A lot of people are idiots at the age of fifteen. He grew out of it.’” (OoP, sch, p.592) But here’s the thing. People don’t normally decide to stop being bullies, they don’t just “grow out of it”, especially if they’ve been taught for most of their lives that their behaviour, if not socially acceptable, will at least be tolerated with nothing more than a slap on the wrist. It takes a serious kick in the teeth for bullies to learn the empathy to understand the pain their actions have caused. This is something that Rowling shows us very clearly in the canon of the books, through both Draco and Dudley.

With Dudley it was the attack by the dementors. We don’t know what painful memories he was forced to relive, but whatever it was, this is what causes the change in him that we see in Deathly Hallows.

With Draco it was not only having Voldemort and his Death Eaters move into his family home, it was the bitter realisation during his sixth year of just what being a Death Eater meant.

We never learn what it was that caused James Potter to change but based on what Rowling has shown us to date, I’m pretty sure that something happened.

In this same way it was watching Snape’s memories in the Penseive that forced Harry to finally confront his final prejudice towards Slytherin House. Rowling shows us this in Harry’s thoughts about Snape, Tom Riddle and Dumbledore as he walks to what he believes is his death in the Forbidden Forest.

“Hogwarts was the first and best home he had known. He and Voldemort and Snape, the abandoned boys, had all found home here . . .” (DH, sch, p.558)

I think it is very notable that after Harry’s return from death he no longer calls Tom Riddle “Voldemort” anymore. He doesn’t call him Tom the way Dumbledore did, but he is Riddle now, not Voldemort.

It is also in the final battle where Rowling shows us that Harry and the other three Houses were so very wrong in their prejudice against Slytherins. Because it was Horace Slughorn who brought the reinforcements that turned the tide against Riddle, including members of Slytherin House.

“. . . Harry saw Charlie Weasley overtaking Horace Slughorn, who was still wearing his emerald pyjamas. They seemed to have returned at the head of what looked like the family and friends of every Hogwarts student who remained to fight, along with the shopkeepers and homeowners of Hogsmead.” (DH, sch, p.588)

And there were Slytherins among those reinforcements. Rowling specifically states this in an interview with the Leaky Cauldron editors.

“[JKR]: A part of the final battle that made me smile was Slughorn galloping back with Slytherins . . . but they’d gone off to get reinforcements first, you know what I’m saying? But yes, they came back, they came back to fight, so I mean- but I’m sure that many people would say “Well, that’s common sense, isn’t it? Isn’t that smart, to get out, get more people and come back with them?” (see here for the link)

Those Slytherins could have kept right on running once they got out of Hogwarts. They didn’t have to come back with the reinforcements. But in the end, they chose to fight against Tom Riddle, the man who wanted to destroy the other three Houses so that only Slytherin House would remain:

“‘There will be no more sorting at Hogwarts School,’ said Voldemort. ‘There will be no more houses. The emblem, shield and colours of my noble ancestor, Salazar Slytherin, will suffice for everyone . . .’” (DH, sch, p.586)

The Slytherins who returned with Slughorn and the reinforcements fought against that. They chose to fight for Hogwarts and all the four houses instead.

Remember what I said earlier about how during this terrible last year at Hogwarts, the other houses let Slytherin House stand alone? Slytherin House had lived the same year under threat of torture and death that the other houses had but they had done so without the support of the others because they were judged to be the same as the oppressors.

Yet they still came back despite this. And in doing so J. K. Rowling shows us there were Slytherins who were loyal and courageous and honourable even in the face of death. By their actions in the final battle the Slytherins proved themselves as loyal as any Hufflepuff, brave as any Gryffindor and as smart as any Ravenclaw. In Regulus Black J.K. Rowling showed us that Slytherins could be just as tolerant, compassionate and self-sacrificing as Dumbledore and Severus Snape showed us the heights of intelligence, courage and nobility that a Slytherin could reach when driven by the power of love.

And the reason she does this is because of something that she states in an interview with the Leaky Cauldron before the release of the Deathly Hallows in 2005.

ES: Why is Slytherin house still –

JKR: Still allowed!

[All laugh]

ES: Yes! I mean, it’s such a stigma.

JKR: But they’re not all bad. They literally are not all bad. [Pause.] Well, the deeper answer, the non-flippant answer, would be that you have to embrace all of a person, you have to take them with their flaws, and everyone’s got them. It’s the same way with the student body. If only they could achieve perfect unity, you would have an absolute unstoppable force, and I suppose it’s that craving for unity and wholeness that means that they keep that quarter of the school that maybe does not encapsulate the most generous and noble qualities, in the hope, in the very Dumbledore-esque hope that they will achieve union, and they will achieve harmony. Harmony is the word.

Harmony is needed yes. But so is healing. Because in the end this is Harry’s story and we see the journey he makes from prejudice and even bigotry at times towards understanding in regards to Slytherin House.  At the end of Deathly Hallows we learn that he named his youngest son Albus Severus in honour of Snape’s courage and tells him that it doesn’t matter which house he’s in. These two will go on to have problems in the play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child”, but for the titular hero of this series we are given hope that the prejudice and ostracization that Slytherin House has endured for centuries has finally come to an end, even if the healing of those wounds will be long in the process.

Bibliography

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15.  Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Raincoast Books: London, Bloomsbury Publishing: 2007

16.  Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, illustrated: London: Bloomsbury Publishing: 2019

17.  Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Half -Blood Prince, Raincoast Books: London: Bloomsbury Publishing: 2005

18.  Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Raincoast Books: London: Bloomsbury Publishing: 2003

19.  Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, illustrated: London: Bloomsbury Publishing: 2015

20.  Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, illustrated: London: Bloomsbury Publishing: 2017

[under-the-lake]

‘I enjoyed the [DA] meetings, too. It was like having friends.’ - Luna, Friendship and Loyalty: Why She is NOT a Manic Pixie Dream Girl

This quote from Half-Blood Prince, Chapter Seven, is one of the blunt yet calm and non-judging statements Luna can come up with occasionally, and that usually startle people because of their accuracy and/or bold honesty. While Luna can be very Berkeleyan in her conception of reality, her friendship once given seems to be given forever. Contrary to many characters in the Harry Potter series, she’s loyal to people before being loyal to her House. Luna has also been deemed to meet the requirements for being a Manic Pixie Dream Girl (MPDG). I beg to disagree with that statement. Maybe she ticks some of the boxes, but many of her traits and actions stand in opposition to that. So I’ll also explore that side of her here. These two short paragraphs already showcase Luna as ambiguous. Exciting, right?

Loyalty, Friendship, Empathy and MPDG

I’ve been asking people around me what they thought of Luna. Many put her loyalty, friendship and empathy forward. First it might be useful to define those terms. I know we all have some idea of what they are, but I was thinking of a more academic point of view (still wondering why Louhi was not sorted in Ravenclaw). I’ll try and make it short (I can hear you snort…).

Loyalty

Loyalty has been a theme running throughout the series from the very first chapter. Mr Dursley’s loyalty to the family principle of not mentioning the Potters is tested a few pages into the first book (Philosopher’s Stone, Chapter One). Dumbledore’s loyalty to the Potters is shown straight in as well (PS, Chapter One). I mean why would the headmaster bother bringing a baby to their foster parents himself if there was not a good reason? Harry’s loyalty to the Dursleys is settled rapidly as well, and further into the book (PS, Chapter Two), Hagrid’s loyalty to Dumbledore is stated by the gamekeeper very soon after he meets Harry (PS, Chapter Four). Loyalty as a virtue is associated with Gryffindor House by the Sorting Hat in each of its three songs (PS Chapter Seven; Goblet of Fire, Chapter Twelve; Order of the Phoenix, Chapter Eleven). It is therefore associated straightaway with the hero of the story, and by default, and tacitly, slyness and unreliability are associated with the ‘enemy’ that are Slytherins. None of these traits is mentioned in so many words, but Gryffindors are the ‘brave at heart’ whilst Slytherins ‘use any means to achieve their ends’ (PS, Chapter Seven) and that doesn’t change throughout the books.. Luna is a Ravenclaw. So what then?

What is loyalty? I mean we all have a sense of what it is, of course. Supporting our friends, our family, fly high the values we share with a society, support them whatever the circumstances, swearing allegiance to a master or an institution (sometimes even to social constructs). Loyalty is a virtue, albeit, as many point out, a complicated one, because it puts the person in front of hard choices, for instance telling their friends the truth or being bold, or honest, or doing things that they wouldn’t normally do, or acting against their own inclination. Some say loyalty is only a feeling because it’s always grounded in some sort of attachment for a person/institution/society. There’s no denying that loyalty cannot be affectless, but it doesn’t follow that the feeling is a positive one. You can be loyal out of fear, for instance. Take Wormtail. Of course one can question the very use of the term ‘loyalty’ in his case, but it ticks most of the boxes. What are the boxes, then? After reading the ‘loyalty’ entry of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Kleinig, 2017), I decided to make the boxes as follows: a) there needs to be some strong form of attachment that can go as far as devotion via professional commitment (like for a lawyer), b) this attachment makes the person want to secure (or at least not to jeopardize) the well-being/interests of the person/object/concept they are loyal to, c) this attachment makes the person put their interest and well-being after those of the object of loyalty, and d) there might be an interest for group survival (either genetic or other). That last one is one of the boxes that relate to family relationships, friendships, house loyalty etc…

The question is, how does Luna relate to loyalty? I reckon she’s one of the most loyal characters in the whole Harry Potter series, because she doesn’t question the concept. Her friendship, therefore her loyalty, once given, is given forever. Whilst she can be very Berkeleyan in many ways, Luna is full black or white when it comes to friends.

Friendship

Aristotle (him again) devoted a big part of his thinking to what friendship might be. Peoples (or some people among the peoples) have been discussing the topic of love and friendship as something fundamentally human (I don’t think I agree with that, but that’s not the point here). Ancient Greeks and Romans put friendship above romantic love in their scale of feelings (and I must say I do agree with that): it’s philia, friendship-love (Deavel & Deavel, 2010). That’s why there’s such a canyon of difference between the words ‘pal’ or ‘mate’, and ‘friend’. It has to do with the level of intimacy you share with the person (mentally and/or physically), but also with how much you embrace that person with all their qualities and faults, not trying to change them for your or their sake, but also being able to tell them truths in their face that nobody else would dare utter without fear of losing them.

If we go back to Aristotle, he defined three types of friendship (which, for him, is a kind of virtue, meaning people must constantly work on it): friendship for use, for pleasure, or complete friendship (Aristotle, in Mogg & Tully, 2012). It is easy to understand the first: the person whom the ‘friendship’ is bestowed on is only a means towards an end. For instance, take Peter Pettigrew. He never loved his three Marauder companions, but he used them to get protection. In the second type of ‘friendship’, the person who bestows his ‘friendship’ on someone wants to derive something pleasant out of it, still not considering the feelings of the other. That could be, for instance, the kind of relationship Romilda Vane would like to have with Harry, or again Pettigrew and the Marauders. A complete friendship means that the person desires positive things for their friend, for their sake and not their own. It’s valuing the friend for themselves, and not as a tool. Usually, in analysis of the Harry Potter series, only the friendship between Harry, Ron and Hermione is viewed in this light (Mogg & Tully, 2012). That might be because it indeed develops over seven years, involves living together not only in the comfort of Hogwarts or the Burrow, but in a tent (granted, with all comforts as well), on the run, on a mission, not really knowing where they are going. As Mogg & Tully put it, the evolution of friendship in Harry, Ron and Hermione goes from being a working group of complementary units to sharing and learning from each other and supporting each other’s psychological development.

Yet, I question this exclusivity in the sense that Luna’s character makes her a good candidate for that kind of friendship. She might not tick each box, but I’ll explore the concept, as well as try and state that Luna is NOT a MPDG among other reasons because of her take on friendship and loyalty. Maybe I’m wrong, maybe not. That’s the excitement of research, isn’t it?

Empathy

Empathy is a fashionable word nowadays, so it tends to be used to convey many things. However, primarily, it means the ability one person has to feel ‘in the stead’ of another, to step into their shoes and feel ‘with’ them. It is a central concept to the building of human societies, because it allows people to create bonds with one another. Empathy can lead to altruistic motivation, meaning that one who feels empathy towards others might want to help them. In the Sandford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stueber (2019) says that according to one of the philosophers who currently studies empathy, Batson, the predominant trait of empaths is selfishness (sic), that the altruistic bit of empathy is not the most common, and what determines if a person will help another or not depends on how strong they are personally, and what the cost of helping the other would be. To be truly altruistic, moreover (and quite obviously), the helping behaviour must not be directed towards a personal goal. That’s sort of logical, given the name is ‘altruistic’, but again, there are different forms of help. Other researchers (Ciladini et al., in Stueber, 2019) state that when in extreme conditions, this altruistic behaviour stems from a sense of oneness between the actors, the emergency or extremity of the situation leading them to behave as one body, therefore saving limbs rather than individuals. Empathy could go that far.

Of course I chose to mention those bits of the article because they serve my purpose, my question being Luna and empathy. I guess one could write books about all those three topics, but what is given here will be enough to shed some light on Luna.

A Manic Pixie Dream Girl?

For those who are into sociology and pop culture, the term is familiar. For those who are not, it requires a definition. The phrase was coined in 2007 by Nathan Rabin (in Nilson, 2020) but this type of characters actually were always there in pop culture in various forms. However, Rabin said that since this character was growing more and more common in films, it might be useful to coin a concept, and so he did: a Manic Pixie Dream Girl (MPDG) is a female character whose only role in the plot is to guide a soulful young male character towards embracing life and its mysteries. My inner feminism starts at such a phrase and all sorts of arguments come to mind to destroy it. After all, I am Louhi, The Witch Of Pohjola. However, it is true that MPDG characters exist and must be taken into account. Now the question is, what defines a MPDG?

A MPDG is a character who, at first, seems to have none. She stands out of the crowd, and represents something mythical or otherworldly at first, for the males around. That makes the MPDG attractive, along with some sort of dreaminess. Among the other ‘symptoms’ of the MPDG (Pasola, 2014) are innocent bluntness, lack of self-consciousness, and a propensity to desert conversations she doesn’t find interesting. There is even a ‘test’ (Bechdell-Wallace test) to assess MPDG-ness in a female character, and it consists of three statements: 1) the plot must contain at least two women, 2) who talk to each other and 3) discuss something else than men. This test has apparently been widely used to analyse films and culture (quick google scholar search… didn’t have time to read) since its appearance in 2005. Bechdell says that if a female character fails that test then she can be deemed a MPDG. I think it is a bit too straightforward.

Appearances… can be misleading. Therefore, while Luna fails the test (Pasola, 2014), there’s more to see than meets the eye, and Luna is worth the analysis. So, my stance is that Luna is NOT a MPDG, however much she looks the character at first sight.

Luna: what about her, then?

Luna is sort of vapoury, has a mythical or mystical je-ne-sais-quoi about her, conveyed by her waist-long blonde hair, protuberant eyes that give her ‘a permanently surprised look’ (OoP, Chapter Ten), and her rather peculiar choice of jewellery (butterbeer-cork necklace or radish-earrings). In the films, this effect is carried on further by Evanna Lynch’s voice, which gives Luna an ethereal quality. Therefore she physically sort of fits the MPDG trope. Moreover, according to literature, as said before, she fails the Bechdell test.

BUT. I don’t agree Luna is anywhere near a MPDG.

Let’s start with the definition of a MPDG. According to it, Luna should be a sort of muse to a man and guide him to embrace life and its mysteries. Well. Er… aha. There’s already a problem here. Because Luna guides nobody to embrace life and its mysteries. She sometimes says things that are just plain true and takes a rather original stance when it comes to relationships with others. She doesn’t guide anyone. She never seeks people to help them or offer any kind of advice. If she happens to be there at a moment when she can say something that seems relevant to her, then she’d do it. That’s not guiding. It’s a chance meeting. At least that’s how I see them. You could argue that she guides Harry. Why yes, but the bias is that we see the whole story from Harry’s point of view, so there’s no way we can be sure Luna doesn’t give the odd piece of her mind to anybody outside Harry’s presence. She doesn’t act like a muse either. Harry doesn’t daydream about her, his thoughts don’t get back to Luna every now and then. He basically doesn’t give a damn about her, at least at first, and if he occasionally does, it’s either by chance or for lack of a better option, like when he invites her to Slughorn’s Christmas party, or when he has no choice but to take her along to the Ministry. After that last adventure, though, his attitude towards Luna changes, she has grown on him, but in no respect is she a muse to him. He’s too much entangled with his love life, his loyalty to his parents, the Order and Dumbledore, and his need to save the world every now and then, to care much about others. To add to this, nowhere in papers analysing MPDGs do the words friendship, empathy and loyalty appear to describe the characters. And Luna can feel all three, and shows them throughout her appearances in the Potter saga.

Luna is empathetic, though in her own way. She can sense how others feel and offer comfort, yet it’s not the usual kind. ‘You’re just as sane as I am’ (OoP, Chapter Ten) is not exactly comforting at first to Harry, when he thinks he’s being mental, seeing the Hogwarts carriages being pulled by winged skeletal horses. He has just seen how unusual Luna is, reading the Quibbler upside down and believing the cock-and-bull stories her father prints about Fudge’s army of Heliopaths. However, at the end of the same book, they discuss Sirius’ and Luna’s mum’s deaths, and ‘as [Harry] watched her go, he found that the terrible weight in his stomach seemed to have lessened slightly’ (OoP, Chapter Thirty-Eight); Luna sort of comforts Harry in spite of herself with her optimism, and she couldn’t do that without being empathetic. In Deathly Hallows Luna is the one person who keeps Ollivander alive while both are imprisoned in the cellar at Malfoy Manor, as he acknowledges to her on leaving Shell Cottage: ‘I’m going to miss you, Mr Ollivander’, said Luna, approaching the old man. ‘And I you, my dear,’ said Ollivander, patting her on the shoulder. ‘You were an inexpressible comfort to me in that terrible place.’

Luna doesn’t seem to ‘need’ friends. As in, she’s not actively looking for friends. She probably has a whole world in her head that fills her. That doesn’t mean she’s not happy having some friends, as the mural in her bedroom at home is proof enough of. When she acknowledges friends, then she’s loyal to them. Had she not been so, she wouldn’t have stood alongside her dad and advocated Harry’s interview to be printed in the Quibbler. She wouldn’t have fought with Neville in the renewed Dumbledore’s Army in Deathly Hallows. She wouldn’t have stood to the Malfoys while being held captive. In return of her loyalty, one of the next offspring in the Potter family is called Lily Luna. I think we can reasonably say, along Aristotle in Mogg & Tully (2012), that when Luna bestows her friendship on someone, it is a complete one. She doesn’t want to change people, doesn’t want to use them, just wants the best for them, whatever the cost for her.

Luna doesn’t question her feelings. What she gives, she does fully. To the Trio, Neville, Ginny, and also Ollivander and Dobby. That leads her to not talk about her friendships, and therefore, maybe, people to think that she doesn’t have any. However, she expresses them in sometimes odd ways verbally, like when she agrees to go ‘as friends’ to Sulghorn’s Party with Harry (HBP, Chapter Fifteen), and sometimes in hidden ways, like in that ceiling painting she did in her room back home, and that the trio discovers when visiting Xenophilius during their hunt for clues about the Hallows (DH, Chapter Twenty-One).

Luna doesn’t forgive. She doesn’t need to. She’s so detached that it sounds like she’s not hurt by people being mean to her. A fine example of this is the finale of OoP, when Harry meets her on his non-way to the End-of-Year Feast, and Luna is looking for her possessions (OoP, Chapter Thirty-Eight). She doesn’t hold a grudge towards her fellow Ravenclaws for being mean to her. Therefore, she doesn’t need to forgive either.

Some people have suggested Luna could have autistic traits (Belcher & Stevenson, 2011; Guha, 2020). There are indeed traits that could lead into that direction, and the web is full of people discussing that possibility. However, Rowling has denied that (it’s all over the web, but I cannot get my hands on the place I read that bit of interview…). Luna is just… Luna, the moon girl, whose name is maybe only the moon, or, as Le Callet (2018) suggests, a tribute to an Assyrian satirist from the 2nd century AD, Lucian of Samosata, who wrote A True Story, a fantastic tale about creatures like tree-women, or Selenites living on the moon and grilling frogs (moonfrogs, ring a bell?), breathing the vapour that wafts from them. He was also a known critic of the belief in the paranormal and of religious superstitions. Then part of him stands in opposition to Luna’s: she does believe in weird stuff, has odd superstitions (Nargle infested mistletoe and all that), which she eventually has to give up (like Crumple-Horned Snorckacks). Luna’s name might also be a tribute to Cyrano de Bergerac, the French 17th century author of Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon which is a classic in the field of early French science-fiction (see illustration below, by Henriot, 1900, Cyrano in front of the Moon). After all, Rowling is learnt in French and French literature, so we cannot rule this hypothesis out. In this book, Cyrano travels to the Moon using rockets powered by firecrackers… The inhabitants of the Moon are four-legged creatures who have talking earrings which are used to teach children.

All in all, all well considered, there is not much to back up the idea of Luna being a MPDG, and I am quite relieved to see that my small researches and musings have led me to that conclusion. You could say I am biased, wanting my conclusions to fit my hypothesis. Who wouldn’t? However, it is reassuring to find that one’s mind goes not astray, somehow. I find, after all this thinking, that we can learn a huge lot from Luna, even if she appears only sporadically in the story: human values that make people strong in a moral sense: resilience, trust, loyalty, friendship, self-confidence.

Now this has been done, I want to delve further into Luna’s character by exploring the job of Magical Naturalist (that appeals to me a lot, being a biologist myself, with specialisations in botany, zoology and ecology), as well as exploring her relation to Death, comparing it to how the other characters embrace it (or not). But these are completely different stories.

Thanks to Little My, Purple, Andromeda, Kikimora, Dawn, and Thetis, for sharing their opinion of Luna with me.

Sources:

https://www.wizardingworld.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/the-original-forty  

https://www.wizardingworld.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/thestrals

http://www.accio-quote.org/articles/2007/0730-bloomsbury-chat.html

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/the-resiliency-of-luna-lovegood

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucian

Belcher, C. L., & Stephenson, B. H. (2011). Entering the Forbidden Forest: Teaching Fiction and Fantasy in Urban Special Education. In Teaching Harry Potter. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. 121-142.

Chaillan, M. (2016). Harry Potter et Berkeley. In Harry Potter à l’école des philosophes, Philosophie Magazine, Hors série n°31, novembre - décembre 2016. 70-71.

Granger, J. & Bassham, G. (2016). Just in Your Head? J.K. Rowling on Separating Reality from Illusion. In Bassham, G. (2016, Eds.). The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy, Hogwarts for Muggles. Wiley Eds. 185-197

Guha, S. (2020). Luna Lovegood or Loony Lovegood? - Reading Luna Lovegood as a victim of Asperger’s Syndrome. In P Barry, N Pederson, L Kang (2020, Eds.) Proceedings of the Two-Day Conference: Questioning Attitudes and Labels: Mental Health Versus Madness,  St. Mira’s College for Girls, Pune, 45-48.

Kleinig, J. (2017), “Loyalty”, in Zalta, E. N. (2017, Ed.) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy , retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2017/entries/loyalty/  

Le Callet, B. (2018), Le Monde Antique de Harry Potter, Stock, Paris.

Pasola, K. (2014). The Integrity of Luna Lovegood: How JK Rowling Subverts the ‘Manic Pixie Dream Girl’ Trope. In Martín Alegre, S. (2014, Ed.). Charming and Bewitching: Considering the Harry Potter Series. 153-161.

Mogg, J., & Tully, K. (2012). Harry gets by with a little help from his friends: An Aristotelian reading of virtue and friendship in harry Potter. Reasons Papers, 34(1), 77-88.

Nadal, C. (2014). Magical Science: Luna Lovegood’s Beliefs, Discoveries and Truth. In Martín Alegre, S., Arms, C., Blasco Solís, L., Calvo Zafra, L., Campos, R., Canals Sánchez, M., … & García Jordà, L. (2014). Charming and bewitching: considering the Harry Potter series. 148-153.

Nilson, M. (2020). A Magic Manic Pixie Dream Girl?: Luna Lovegood and the Concept of Postfeminism. In Jarazo-Alvarez, R. & Alderete-Diez, P. (2020, Eds.). Cultural Politics in Harry Potter: Life, Death and the Politics of Fear.  32-41. Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.

Rowling, J. K. (1997). Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Bloomsbury, London.

Rowling, J. K. (2000). Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Bloomsbury, London.

Rowling, J. K. (2003). Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Bloomsbury, London.

Rowling, J. K. (2005). Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Bloomsbury, London.

Rowling, J. K. (2007). Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Bloomsbury, London.

Rowling, J. K. (2007). The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Bloomsbury, London.

Scamander, N. (2001; 2018; [1927][J.K. Rowling]). Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Bloomsbury, London, in association with Obscurus Books, 18a Diagon Alley, London.

Stueber, K. (2019) Empathy, in Zalta, E.N. (2019, Ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2019/entries/empathy/

[peripetual]

the order of the phoenix is just, so good?? i will never understand people who hate it for being “too long” because it is Packed Full of fantastic content.

it is absolutely the best HP book, for three primary reasons:

for the sake of everyone who never asked for this (read: everyone) i’ve put it all under the cut ;)

1. CHARACTER WORK. you get new characters like Luna, some amazing development for old characters like Neville, Ginny, Fred & George, and even side characters like Dean and Seamus. Hatred-inducing though she is, Umbridge is one of the most compelling villains in the series. McGonagall is as iconic as ever, Snape starts becoming *slightly* less one-dimensional. A healthy dose of moral ambiguity for the Marauders, which is perfect considering that Harry is at just the right age where people tend to start seeing the flaws in the adults around them. Even better? For the first time we get to meet adults who aren’t just Harry’s teachers. Tonks, Kingsley, (the real) Mad-Eye, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley in the context of them being members of a secret society instead of just Ron’s parents. Which leads me to-

2. WORLD EXPANSION. We started getting a little bit of it in GoF with the Quidditch World Cup and the introduction of Durmstrang and Beauxbatons, but OotP takes us into the actual world of Wizarding adults and answers so many of our questions as to how their world actually works. We explore the Ministry and St. Mungo’s, we learn about all the different careers that Hogwarts students can pursue, we learn more about the first war and the people who fought on both sides of it. Other tidbits of magical history like the introduction of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black just add to the goodness.

3. COMPLEXITY. The themes of these books steadily increase in complexity throughout the series, and OotP is no exception. It’s still founded primarily on notions of friendship and resistance and courage, but it’s not so clear-cut anymore. Harry’s friends follow him into a trap, and they make that oh-so-realistic teenager mistake where the adults failed to give them all of the relevant information, and instead of blindly trusting their instructions the kids thought that they knew better and plunged headfirst into a situation that ended in someone they care about dying. They resist Umbridge’s grip on Hogwarts, and this manages to both be as hilarious as ever and genuinely unsettling. There is a crisis of authority; until now, Hogwarts was a haven of safety under Dumbledore’s protection, but now they’re not just fighting Dark wizards on the horizon, they’re fighting to survive in their own school. Umbridge (and Fudge) may not be practitioners of the Dark Arts, but their ignorance and political power are just as dangerous. A third side emerges in the conflict; like Sirius says, the world isn’t divided into good people and Death Eaters. And these people, buoyed by corruption and fear, pose a much more real threat to the Order and any hope they have of defeating Voldemort. Moreover, this is a threat that we as an audience can connect with far more than we can with the threat of Death Eaters. And finally: the courage of these six teenagers isn’t enough anymore. The war has very much begun, and it’s clear that they’re in over their heads. This isn’t just Ron versus a wizarding chess set, or Hermione cleverly solving a logical potion puzzle. It’s not even Harry defeating an evil serpent with a magical sword. This is Neville facing down the escaped convict who tortured his parents into insanity, who then brutally defeats her Auror niece in a duel and turns right around to murder her own cousin, laughing all the while. While GoF detailed Voldemort’s rise back to power, he still didn’t pose much of a tangible threat. He may have murdered Cedric, but it was a single incident, and in the graveyard when it is just him and Harry he still felt like a single threat to be apprehended. In OotP, we see the full scope of the havoc he will wreak: devoted, sadistic, and highly skilled Death Eaters like Bellatrix, connections in the Ministry to twist the government to his will, complex and in-depth plans that prove his intelligence and all-consuming dedication. The revelation of the prophecy at the end of the book seals the deal; it takes everything that has happened up to this point, contextualizes it, and sets up HBP to continue along these themes of raising the stakes and examining Voldemort’s own schemes and motivation. 

I absolutely adore HBP as well, and while I read OotP I can only marvel at all the ways in which it set up the former for success. HBP deepens these themes and further explores these characters and this world.

I’ll admit there are points where the book suffers from its length. The situation with Hagrid and Grawp is highly skippable, and the whole ordeal with Cho is, frankly, draining. Angsty Harry can be grating at times, even though we know it‘s a side effect of the ever-increasing control Voldemort has over him and the lingering psychological effects of GoF. But with the rest of its 860 pages, OotP manages to raise the stakes in this world while fleshing it out more clearly than ever, making us love the characters more deeply while creating new ones as well. More importantly, perhaps, it manages to do all of these things while remaining as funny and delightful as ever, making it the perfect balance between the more lighthearted action of the first four books and the frightening and weighty drama of the last two. 

[whumpster-fire]

Harry Potter and the False Double Standards

You know, I hate to get involved in Fandom Discourse or anything, but I’m getting really sick of reading people’s takes bashing Harry, Ron, and Hermione because of various actions throughout the series, and the latest is someone claiming the fandom is judging poor little Draco unfairly and calling him evil because he didn’t like Harry Potter when the trio were actually just as bad.

Okay, I’m legitimately pissed about this one because of how ridiculously far off the mark it is. Let’s tally their main sketchy actions throughout the series, shall we? Long wall of text ahead. In this essay I will

Harry and co, year 1: Assorted sneaking out at night, mostly looking for information or to try to stop a mass murderer from returning to life. One count of dragon-smuggling… for the purpose of putting that dragon in the hands of a professional dragon-tamer who was equipped to care for it properly. Hermione lit a teacher’s robes on fire… during a Quidditch Match where Harry’s life was in imminent danger due to a broom that was very obviously being jinxed and said teacher, who had a history of abusive conduct towards Harry, was very obviously doing some sort of magic targeted at Harry. Hermione also hexed Neville, which is way more questionable, but again the trio had a reasonable belief that Snape, who at the time they still had good reason to believe tried to murder Harry, was trying to bring another person who had tried to murder Harry and successfully murdered his parents and many many other innocent people, from returning to life. I’m putting the blame for this squarely on the entire Hogwarts staff, especially Dumbledore, for never communicating with the three 11–12 year old children, who had already been put in a life-or-death emergency just two months into term (troll incident), at ALL about someone trying to murder Harry. Snape’s role in the order had to be kept secret, I know, but Dumbledore literally just let Harry and his friends believe that a person in a position of supposed trust and authority had tried to murder him and that no one was going to believe him or do anything to protect him.

Draco, year 1: Tries to befriend Harry, is told to fuck off because he can’t go five minutes without being a classist asshole. Proceeds to be a complete asshole to… it sounds like pretty much every Gryffindor in his year, special mention to bullying other students for poverty (Ron) and possibly having a learning disability (Neville).

Harry and co, year 2: Harry and Ron start the term with the admittedly extremely stupid and irresponsible theft of a car. There was kind of a precedent set when said car had to be used to literally break Harry out of his abusive relatives’ home because he was being imprisoned and nearly starved. Next comes the big incident everyone loves to rag on the trio, especially Hermione, for: stealing potions supplies and tricking a “teacher” (airquotes because it’s Lockhart) to make a restricted potion to spy on other students… to investigate a series of racially targeted murder attempts against other students, and a group that Hermione’s part of.

Draco, year 2: Steps up his bullying to throwing around racial slurs. Turns out not to be behind the attacks, but he was cheering them on. When he had a sympathetic audience he was saying he hoped his schoolmates would be murdered.

Harry and Co, year 3: Assorted petty sneaking around, physically attacked a teacher… who was about to kill a potentially innocent person. Used a time travel device in a questionable way to save an innocent person and animal from being killed.

Draco, year 3: Intentionally disobeyed a teacher’s safety instructions, got hurt, milked his injury to try to get the teacher fired because Draco was racist against said teacher.

Harry and Co, year 4: Don’t remember anything particularly irresponsible they did… oh, I guess Hermione imprisoning and sort of blackmailing Rita Skeeter into... stopping slandering her and Harry.

Draco, year 4: Vocally supported the racist hate group attacking a sporting event and assaulting people, vocally hoped for Hermione to be sexually assaulted. Proceeded to spend half the year helping slander Harry and Hermione, tried to suckerpunch him with an unknown spell, and in the immediate aftermath of the return of a mass murder and one of his schoolmates dying, again vocally supported the terrorist group and mocked his fellow student’s death. This was literally the equivalent of a school shooting.

Harry and Co, year 5: Started a secret club to teach students to fight because the DADA “teacher” was literally refusing to do her job, the government was covering up the fact that there was about to be a war and literally torturing Harry and trying to have him assassinated for speaking out. The trio were also at this point semi-inducted into the grown-ups’ secret resistance organization. This cannot be emphasized enough. Marietta Edgecomb wasn’t a normal schoolkid ratting troublemakers out to the teacher situation. Umbridge was dangerous. Hermione should probably have warned people that they’d be hit with a massive fucking curse if they betrayed the DA, and made it a little bit clearer that this wasn’t some fun after-school club and ratting them out to the enemy wouldn’t end well, but fundamentally the curse was a result of Hermione treating a situation that was really on the boundary between a school and a war zone at that point like an actual war, and branding a traitor as a traitor.

Malfoy, year 5: Is somehow made a prefect, proceeds to abuse his power against younger students. Also cozies up to Umbridge, and ramps his classist bullying against Ron WAY up when he makes the Quidditch team.

Harry and Co, year 6: Harry panicked and used an unknown spell marked “for enemies” in self-defense against a death eater who was attempting to use an unforgivable curse on him. Note: Malfoy had already started the year by curbstomping a paralyzed Harry and throwing the invisibility cloak over him so he wouldn’t be found. Malfoy came damn close to murdering him by causing him to choke on his own blood. Harry also knows exactly what the Cruciatus Curse does. I wouldn’t have judged Harry even if he did know what Sectumsempra did.

Malfoy, year 6: Again, Malfoy’s little nosebreaking stunt could EASILY have been fatal. He left someone who was paralyzed and unable to move lying on the ground, bleeding heavily in his fucking airway, and actively hid him from view to prevent him from being seen and receiving medical attention. Harry is expected to have figured out what Sectumsempra does from the Latin, but I guess nobody expects Draco to be aware of, like... Step 1 of first aid for someone who’s unconscious being turning them on their side for this exact reason. Anyway following this, Malfoy has at this point kind of been roped into trying to murder Dumbledore, and in fairness he gets cold feet once he’s actually expected to help commit the Death Eaters’ atrocities instead of just being in the cheerleading squad, and it seems like he might have changed.

Anyway, getting to my point: Is Draco Malfoy a product of his environment? Yes. Is his portrayal somewhat biased because the books are from Harry’s perspective and... no, NOT because Harry hates Draco, because Harry only really pays attention to Draco when he’s being an asshole, which seems to be every single time they actually interact.

But you can’t say he wasn’t a terrible person throughout the events of the series. Maybe he changed afterwards, but there’s not really much shown of it other than him becoming a functional adult and being somewhat civil towards his former enemies. Which I guess isn’t that different from James and Sirius. But even they were... they were total assholes, but again, Malfoy was a racist who was vocally cheering on murder attempts and later an actual murder of his schoolmates. That’s at another fucking level.

And there’s also a MASSIVE difference between their actions. Prior to sixth year, there’s a very clear pattern. Harry, Ron, and Hermione frequently break the rules and do things that are stupid, irresponsible, and occasionally hurt people, while trying to protect themselves, their loved ones, or other innocent people. And while the effects of the traumatic events they’ve been through aren’t always that obvious, I really do think events like that very first Quidditch match had a serious long-term psychological impact: their ability to fully trust adults and authority figures to have their backs or even look out for their physical safety was severely damaged from their very first term at Hogwarts. Malfoy hurt people, intentionally, for his own amusement from the very first term. Not to mention that he was almost always “punching down.” Prior to Sixth Year, pretty much every single person he targeted was based on institutional power dynamics: Ron was poor, Hermione was Muggle-born, Neville was possibly disabled (and it turns out actually insecure due to being abused), and the one person in any position of power over him he really started shit with, Hagrid, was subject to institutional discrimination for being a half-giant and Malfoy used his rich family’s influence against him. Again, as opposed to Harry and Co who most of the time were actively defending themselves or fighting back against their abusers, and the only real power dynamic that you can really say they had working in their favor was Harry and Hermione being scarily good at the kinds of magic that can fuck people up compared to any of their social peers.

But you know what? There is one similarity between them: things only escalated to the level that they did because every single supposedly competent teacher at Hogwarts (i.e. not Snape or every single DADA teacher except Lupin) didn’t do their fucking jobs.

In the trio’s case, by (a) not doing jackshit about Snape’s behavior, and (b) keeping the kids in the dark and not even bothering to come up with a plausible cover story for them and just letting them think a teacher had tried to murder Harry and nobody was doing a single goddamn thing about it. Harry. The kid who already had serious issues with trusting authority figures because of the horrific emotional abuse he was subjected to since infancy which the multiple Order members in Hogwarts Staff had also been completely negligent about. And, y’know, Hermione, who was nearly killed by a troll her first year and saved not by a teacher but by her fellow first-years, then nearly killed by a basilisk her second year after several months of the staff failing to figure out the string of hate crimes against muggle-borns like her, and only surviving because she, the second-year starting from a massive disadvantage in terms of general cultural knowledge of things in the wizarding world, was the only one who did the research and figured out what the monster was, and only survived because she came up with looking around every goddamn corner with a mirror. And Ron, whose sister was possessed, kidnapped, and nearly killed, and the only adult who was supposedly “helping” him and Harry tried to put him into a vegetative state and only failed because of Ron’s shitty broken wand (which had been causing problems all year and the same staff that bought Harry a top-of-the-line broomstick last year spent the entire term doing absolutely nothing about the fact that one of their students was failing due to having to use a wand that was literally taped back together). How the fuck was it surprising to anyone when these teenagers continued to take matters into their own hands in increasingly dangerous ways?

In Malfoy’s case, because his bullshit should’ve been nipped in the bud way, WAY earlier. He should not have had the opportunity to do any of the shit he did in Year 6 because he should have been expelled long before that instead of the teachers letting him bully and abuse other students and basically do the equivalent of having a Hitler poster in his dormitory for five years.

[headcanonsandmore]

Hello. Hope you're having a good day 😀. Do you write fanfics or have any fanfic recs? I'm dying for some good HP fics that treat Ron with the respect he deserves.

Hello! Yes, I am; hope you are too! 

Yes, I do write fanfiction! I have a Fanfiction.net account, and an AO3 account. 

Ron x Hermione fanfiction;

April Fool by A is for Amy. Six year one-shot The other Gryffindors conspire to trick Ron and Hermione into admitting their feelings for one another. Rated K.

Mental by Penny in the sky. Gryffindor celebrates its Quidditch Cup victory. But while Harry’s not there to ponder the influence of dimly lit rooms and Butterbeer, Ron and Hermione are. And they experience this influence first-hand. Set during ‘Half Blood-Prince’. Rated T.

Kiss of the Fire by Star.Flash.17. Romione one-shot set in the summer before book 7. Rated T.

The Last Summer by HurricaneRosie. Hermione struggles to control her feelings for Ron in the summer before the seventh book. Rated K+.

The For and Against List by Pinky Brown. Hermione tries to talk herself out of liking a particular boy (no prizes for guessing which one) the way teenage girls have been doing since time immemorial: she makes a For & Against List. Rated T.

In this Firelight by Oppugnorhr12. A missing moment from book 7 about how Ron and Hermione ended up falling asleep holding hands. Rated K.

Eye Flirting by RonaldandMione. Ginny convinces Hermione to try something to get Ron’s attention during their stay in Grimmauld Place before fifth year. K+.

Not Just Handsome by HPLives. Hermione gets confused over her feelings for Ron after she overhears the other Gryffindor girls rating their male classmates by attractiveness. Rated T.

Seven Simple Years by HalfaSlug. A collection of Romione missing moments from all seven books. Rated K+.

Chapstick by TMBlue. Hermione intervenes with chapstick when she notices how chapped Ron’s lips are. Set at the start of sixth year. Rated K+.

Kiss the Girl by Weasleyismyking540. Romione AU confession. Rated K+.

Freckles, Cats and Candy by OrangeLovePerson. Ron and Hermione visit Hogsmeade in third year. Rated K+.

The Love In His Eyes by LovingNerdLife. Over the years, Ron Weasley has developed the habit of staring at Hermione Granger while she reads. While doing so, he reflects on how it came to be, without being aware that someone has noticed what he’s doing. Rated K+.

Late Night Snack by AloeMilk. Whilst staying at the Burrow after the second war ended, Ron goes to get food during the night, and finds Hermione in the kitchen. Adorableness ensues. Rated K+.

Seven simple years by Half A Slug. A collection of Romione missing moments from throughout the book series. Several of the chapters are from Ron’s perspective. Rated K+.

“Of Hearts and Heroes” by Emmilyne. Canon-divergent Romione fic that has the two teenagers grower closer in the summer between fifth and sixth year. Treats Ron with more respect than most fanfiction written in the 2000s did. It subverts a lot of the tropes about the character that were common-place at the time (for example, Ron’s apparent “dumbness” being a clever ruse used by him to get out of tough situations). Rated M, but (if you’re like me) you can easily skip over the saucy bits and not miss any plot threads.

@diva-gonzo‘s  The Ron Weasley Chronicles, which is Ron centric but also not focused on his relationship with Hermione but as related to his work as an Auror, with Harry and other Aurors.

Tangled, by @burgundydahlia. A plot to bring down one of the Wizarding world’s prominent business leaders brings two friends back together after years of separation. But will their reunion be bittersweet? And what will happen when they realise nothing is as it seems? It’s not completed just yet.

Not as a last resort (parts 1 and 2) by Arabella. An AU Romione fanfic about Ron and Hermione having to spent the night inside Hagrid’s cabin due to a snowstorm, and having to share a bed (one of my favourite fluff tropes), as well as discussing the upcoming 2nd Yule Ball. Not rated, but I’d give it a K+ to a mild T.

@hillnerd‘s “The Wonderful Won-Won”.  Being a teenager is difficult at best- but throw in a dose of flirtations, insecurity and snogs- well that makes it even worse. Ron is torn about his emotions regarding Hermione. For now he throws himself into Lavender. Starts off with that pairing, but is firmly Romione. Rated M, but several of the chapters are ace-safe (and I do believe Hilly made a version of the series that is completely ace safe throughout, so I’d suggest asking them as well).

Ron x Harry fanfiction;

‘Engaged’ by I’mdeadsothere. All around Harry everyone is getting engaged, leaving Harry to wonder if he’ll ever have the same honour. Especially when the one person he truly loves, well, it’s complicated. Rated T. Contains strong language.

‘Beds’ by I’mdeadsothere. Now that the war is over Harry treats himself by buying a nice big fluffy bed. Only it’s too nice, too fluffy, and WAY too big. Ron has the perfect solution, but it’ll change a lot more than just how Harry feels about his bed. Rated T. Contains strong language.

“Harry Potter And The World That Went Bloody Insane” by The Slice. “I know something you don’t know” is, apparently, the essence of Harry Potter’s love life. Harry’s certain that the world has been reading one too many romance novels, but then, Harry’s always been a bit oblivious. Featuring Protective!Attentive!Caring!Ron and Oblivious!Harry in their stinky flat and everyone shipping Harry/Ron. It’s awesome.

(Harry x Ron) + (Ron x Hermione) fanfiction;

(WARNING- FLAGRANT SELF-PROMOTION) There’s also my own ‘Having trouble sleeping?’, which is about Ron being the crush of both Hermione and Harry. It doesn’t have Ron choosing one person over the other, but focuses more on why Ron is so loveable. Rated T.

Ron x Luna fanfiction;

‘Energy’ by RoseyAshes. Ron has a certain energy about him that Luna can’t help but pick up. Ron/Luna one shot, all fluff! Allusions to explicit scenes.

‘Buns in the oven’ by KateKintail. Some Ron/Luna domestic fluff.

Other pairings that have Ron as a side character;

(WARNING- FLAGRANT SELF-PROMOTION) A Bond Between Us by Headcanonsandmore. Ginny Weasley is struggling to control her growing crush on Luna Lovegood. However, after a charm goes wrong in class, the two of them are joined together for a day. Will Ginny be able to keep her feelings for her friend in check? Find out in this adorably fluffy fic, full of blushes, bashful looks and hand-holding. (Romione as a side pairing, rated T just in case)

Ron x Neville fanfiction;

There for You AU after OotP. For his own safety, Neville has to spend part of his summer at Grimmauld Place with the Weasleys. In Harry’s absence, Neville and Ron start to form a friendship…

Hope you like these, anon! Thank you for the ask!

[tessimagines]

After All This (Bill Weasley x Reader) - Part One

Pairing: Bill Weasley x Moody!Reader

Summary: (Y/N) Moody and Bill Weasley are counting down the days until their wedding, but before it can happen, they must take the risk of attack and help the Order of the Pheonix in the transportation of Harry Potter. 

You can find the series masterlist in my bio!

Warning: Angst, fighting, death, grief and swearing... a lot of swearing.

Wordcount: 3k

A/N: Ahhhhhh! The first chapter! I’m so excited about this series. Please let me know what you think of it! Also, for the scene where Moody is going over the plan, some lines I took from the book & movie but most of it I just wrote myself.

July 27th, 1997

“This is it then,” Bill Weasley said, his hand sitting snuggly on your hip as you looked towards the ordinary house of 4 Privet Drive. The cool breeze in Little Whining was rustling Bill’s long, ginger hair as you looked up at him, his face sternly set on the mission you both had at hand.

You wrapped your grey trenchcoat tighter around your body, trying to keep the breeze from making you too cold. Bill was now tending to the large Thestral that had delivered you both to this small town. It had been an uncomfortable trip, the boney and hard frame of the thestral had made sure of that. But it wasn’t the trip here that you were worried about, it was the trip back. So much planning had gone into this one mission, and now, so many people were putting their life on the line. All you could hope was that it all went smoothly, with Harry Potter and every other Order member delivered to the Burrow all in one piece.

“Are you nervous?” You asked your boyfriend of ten years, his tall and slim body coming to stand next to yours again.

“Of course I am,” he said, giving you a quick kiss on your forehead, his arm hung loosely around your shoulder. “But we make a good team, so as long as we’ve got each other's backs, we’ll be fine.”

You smiled up at him and took his hand before making your way over to Harry’s house together, the rest of the Order heading the same way. Hagrid’s stomps could be heard throughout the street as he trudged along beside you, flashing you one of his large and warm smiles. “Ah, (Y/N), and Bill. It’s nice ta see you two ‘ere. I see that you two are attached to the hip. It’s not long now ta the Weddin’ day, is it?”

“Not long at all,” Bill smiled, looking down at you. “Five day’s and we’ll be married.”

You laughed, “Don’t speak too soon, Weasley. I still have five more days to change my mind.”

“I don’t think ‘ere was a person at Hogwarts who didn’t see the two of you comin’,” Hagrid laughed as he thundered along. “You’ve always been so close, I’m surprised that the two of you aren’t already married.”

“Quit the chatter!” Roared an all-too-familiar voice from the doorway of number 4 Privet Drive. Your father, Alastor Moody stood there, his wooden staff held tightly in his fist. “We don’t have much time.”

“Oh, calm down, Dad,” you nudged him as you walked past. “We were just talking about the wedding.”

“You can talk about that stuff later, (Y/N). There’s a more important task at hand.” His electric blue eye zapped to each of your faces as you walked past him and into the hallway of The Dursley’s house. It was impeccably clean, nothing compared to any family home you had ever stepped foot in. You saw Harry in the corner, watching as members of the Order entered his house and shook his hand. You couldn’t help but throw your arms around him when you reached him.

“Harry.” You said, stepping back and allowing Bill to shake his hand. “It’s nice to see you again.”

“Yeah, It’s nice to see you two as well.” You gave him a refreshing smile before entering the main room, already full to the brim with members of the Order. The room was full of noise as people discussed aspects of the plan as well as new developments in their personal life. You watched as Tonks flashed the gleaming silver band on her hand to Harry before your father stomped his way to the front of the room, Bill’s hand naturally slipping into your own. It was something that the two of you had grown so used to over time that sometimes it was hard to notice that his hand was even there.

“Alright, alright, enough of the cozy-catch up!” Moody growled, “Let’s get right into the plan.”

The room grew silent as Moody began to talk. “Potter, you’re underage which means you’ve still got the trace on you.”

“What’s the trace?” Harry inquired, his eyes remaining on Moody.

“If you sneezed the ministry would know who wiped your nose. But the point is, we need to use means of transport that the ministry can’t detect, brooms, Thestrals, the like. We’ll go in pairs, that way if anyone’s out there waiting for us and I reckon there will be, they won’t know which Harry Potter is the real one.”

“The real one?” You could already tell that Harry was beginning to dislike the plan, it was plain and simple in his voice.

“Polyjuice potion,” Moody said, pulling out his flask from his dark brown overcoat. “I believe you’re familiar with it.”

“No!” Harry shouted, looking around at the numerous people in the room. “I’m not letting you guys do this. It’s way too dangerous.”

“Everyone here is overage, Potter. They’ve all agreed to do it even with the risks.”

“Well, actually, Moody,” said, Mundungus Fletcher stepping forward from his place at the back of the room. His voice was high and irritating, causing you to roll your eyes at the very sound of it. “Not everyone.”

“Nip it, Mundungus!” Mad-eye roared, he took his eyes off the small man and moved them back to a pale looking Harry standing in the centre of the room. “Right, now some of your hair, Potter.”

Harry gave a sigh as he reluctantly stepped forward, pulling a bit of his hair out and adding it to the flask. It began to fizz immediately, bubbles appearing up near the top of the flask. “Now, I want all the Potters in a line,” spoke your father in his professional, imperious voice.

You looked up and flashed a smile at Bill before giving him a wink and going to stand at the end of the line next to Hermione. It didn’t take long before Bill decided that he was going to stand behind you anyway. No matter where you were, that always seemed to happen. 

“And for those of you who have never taken Polyjuice potion before, beware, it tastes like Goblin piss.”

“Had much experience with that before, Moody?” Fred asked before taking a sip from the flask. You watched his face wrinkle with disgust before he passed the bottle to George. Moody followed the trail of the flask down the line before he came to stand in front of you. 

“Be careful out there, (Y/N). I’d say that there are likely to be a few death eaters waiting for us.” You watched as your father’s normally stern face softened as he looked at yours. “Do your best to get to Muriel’s place all in one piece.”

“You don’t need to worry about me, Dad,” you smiled at him, stepping forward to wrap your arms tightly around him. “Plus, I have Bill with me. We’ll be fine. I’m more worried about you, you’ll have that rat with you.” Your eyes flicked over to the Harry Potter now dressed in Mundungus Fletcher’s clothes.

Moody’s arms wrapped around your body, his scared and large hand resting on the back of your head. It was a comfort to hold his only child in his arms before you both put your lives on the line. When he let go he turned to the tall and ginger-haired man standing behind you.

“Now, you keep her safe, Weasley,” Moody said, his face back to its usual stern expression.  “You’re her protector which means that you protect her throughout the trip. I don’t care what happens, you get her there quick and safe.”

“You’ve got my word, Moody,” Bill said, giving his soon-to-be father-in-law a nod. “I’ll get her to Aunt Muriel’s as safe as I can.”

“Good.” Was all your father said before he passed you the Polyjuice flask.

“Right, then.” You said, looking up at Bill before down to your father. “Bottoms up, I suppose.”

As soon as the Polyjuice potion hit your tongue, you felt yourself gag. It wasn’t the first time you had tasted it, but it's not a taste that any person can get used to. You felt your face wrinkle up and your eyes begin to water as you passed the flask back to your dad.

You felt the change begin to happen immediately, each feature morphing into a body that looked completely different to your own. It was a weird feeling to describe, not painful, but it wasn’t entirely comfortable either. All you could do was wait until it was over and you looked like a flawless copy of the boy this whole mission was about.

“Okay, now that that’s done,” Moody said, thrusting a sack full of clothes on the ground in front of the numerous Harry Potters that all stood in a line. “You will all need to change.”

Nobody dared to muck around. Each person had stripped down in a second and was changing into identical sets of clothes. Harry looked around at each person, his eyes begging them to at least give him and all the replicas of his bare body some privacy.

“Right, now I shouldn’t have to say this but if anything is to happen to anyone, you fly on. I don’t care if someone dies, you keep flying on until you get to your set destination. We need as many people as we can get in this war. Have I made myself clear?”

Moody took the lack of protest as a yes.

“Good. Now, Fred, you’ll go with your father and George, you’ll go with Remus. Ron, you go with Tonks, Hermione with Kingsley and Harry, you’ll go with Hagrid on his motorbike. Bill, you’ll take my daughter and Mundungus, you’ll be with me. Now everyone to their places.”

Nobody dared to disobey. Each person quickly made their way out the door and to their set transportation, all muttering goodbyes to each other as they passed. You couldn’t help but smile at Tonks as she gave you a wink over her shoulder before she boarded her broom with Ron. 

Your father nodded at you from his own broom as he watched you mount the Thestral, your arms going to wrap tightly around Bill’s waist in front of you.  Moody’s expression eased when he saw you flash him a warm smile and turn to give one last look at the man you had your arms around. If he had to put the safety of his daughter's life in one person's hands, it would be Bill Weasley. He knew that he cared for you beyond anything, and that was all he needed to know that you would make it out safe and alive. 

“I love you, Bill.” You muttered. It had become a ritual to say it before anything nowadays. 

“I love you too.” He said, turning his neck to give you one last look before you set off into the sky.

“Good luck, everyone,” shouted Moody. “See you all at The Burrow. One… two… three!”

The Thestral flew immediately up off the ground and made its way toward the clouds. With each foot you rose into the air, you felt the wind whip through your hair and ruffle your clothes. You kept a tight hold on Bill’s waist as you continued to ascend into the already dark and gloomy sky.

As soon as you broke through the clouds, it was apparent that something was wrong. The sky was no longer a solid black, the green light of lethal curses had lit up the entire sky as dozens of death eaters now swarmed every Order member in sight.

In an instant, your wand was in your hand, pointing at whatever death eaters came close. You kept one arm tightly wrapped around Bill’s waist, the only thing that wasn’t keeping you from plummeting to the now invisible town of Little Whining below.

“Hold tight, (Y/N)!” Bill shouted, the only way to be heard over the staggering noise. “Merlin, they’re everywhere!”

“Just keep going!” You shouted as you managed to deflect a curse shot from Antonin Dolohov. 

“Expulso!” You cried, watching as the expulsion curse hit Dolohov in the chest, it’s bright blue light sending him flying through the air and out of sight.

You caught a glimpse of Tonks and Ron just ahead of you, both of them firing spells at Bellatrix Lestrange in front of them. Over in the distance, Kingsley was shooting spells with his usual sharp precision, Hermione doing the same thing beside him. Wherever you looked you saw Death Eaters and Order members battling it out, sending spells and curses back and forth.

You saw Corban Yaxley fly past you, his wand outstretched and pointed directly at Bill in front of you. You felt your instincts kick in as you met his curse, disarming his wand from his hand. Bill did his best to fly on amidst the numerous swarming Death Eaters and the emerald green curses that lit up the sky.

As soon as you saw him, you felt your body freeze over, each and every drop of blood quickly turning to ice in your veins. It was Lord Voldemort, his black cloak swirled around him like thick and impenetrable smoke. His skin was a ghostly white colour, every vein appearing as a deep purple so close to the surface. 

You watched him as she glided so quickly after your father on his broom. Moody knew this was going to happen. They were all bound to think that the real Harry would be riding with one of the best Aurors that had ever lived. Your father turned around quickly when he sensed the danger behind him, causing Mundungus Fletcher to turn his head.

As soon as Mundungus saw him, he apparated into thin air, leaving your father to gain back control of the broom. You watched as Voldemort raised his wand, and without any hesitation said the curse that he was most famous for.

“Avada Kedavra!” A blinding green light erupted from Lord Voldemort’s wand, striking your father directly in the chest. He stumbled on his broom when it hit him, his eyes looking up to find his only daughter in the chaos of the battle. As soon as his eyes met yours one last, final time, he slipped off his broom and began to hurtle down towards the town of Little Whining below.

“Dad! Dad!” The scream scathed your throat as it came out, adding to the already ear-piercing sound of the battle. “We have to save him! Bill!”

“We can’t! You know what he told us!” Bill shouted back. “To keep flying no matter what!”

You were casting spells without notice now, your hand doing the work your mind was too scattered to process. All you could see was your father’s still form before he fell from his broom and down into the darkness below.

“Bill! I can’t just do nothing!” You screamed. If there were tears on your face at that moment, you weren’t able to feel them. “Fucking turn around now!”

“I can’t, (Y/N)!” Bill shouted over the chaos of the battle. “He told me to keep you safe no matter what so that’s what I’m going to fucking do!”

The battle was still raging on around you, each and every order member doing their best to stay on their brooms and Thestrals. Your mind was struggling to process what was going on as you blocked yet another spell shot your way from Rookwood. Bill kept his promise to your father and did the only thing he had known since he had realised he loved you. There was no way that the world was going to lose two Moodys that night. 

“Bill…” You couldn’t help but cry as he broke through the clouds and away from the battle.

“Merlin’s fucking beard, Bill! Just take me back now!” Your cries rang out around the empty field of the burrow as you apparated with a loud crack.

“(Y/N),” Bill said, doing his best to remain calm for you. He stepped forward, his arms outstretched as your voice became more hoarse with every scream. 

“I need to find him! Do you think I’m just going to leave him there?” Each word was amplified in the quiet field as you shoved Bill’s outstretched arms away. Your heart was thumping rapidly in your chest, the image of what you had just seen on an unstoppable loop in your head. 

“We will, (Y/N). When it’s safe.” Bill was doing his best to be gentle, to stop the shouting and screams that were coming from your throat, but nothing he said was able to stop it.

“I don’t care if it’s fucking safe, Bill!” Your screams had caught the attention of the people inside now, all their heads turning to look at what was going on through the windows. “I don’t care! I just need to find him now!”

Arthur, Remus and Kingsley began to make their way out of the burrow, their minds already grasping the reason for your screams. Bill looked over to them, his face panicked and sullen.

As soon as your knees hit the grass beneath them, Bill was beside you, wrapping his arms around your body and bringing you to his chest. He felt the cries rip through your body, each and every one causing a sickness to bloom in his stomach. The crying was uncontrollable as Arthur, Remus and Kingsley came to a stop in front of the two of you on the ground.

“What happened?” Arthur said, looking at Bill’s blanched face as he held you so tightly against himself. He looked like he was going to be sick.

“Moody’s dead.”

His voice cracked as he managed to get the words out. All he could do was hold onto you as you cried against him, each cry causing tremors to ripple through your delicate body in his hands.  

He only hoped that the next cry wouldn’t be the one to shatter you into a million, tiny pieces.

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[harrypotterfirsttime]

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Movie

Once again prefacing that I am commenting as I watch, so comments might be all over the place. Spoilers ahead.

Scenes with Aunt Marge are even more dramatic than in the book and we jump into them faster, so at least your attention is grabbed faster. Harry’s also hit puberty, he’s doing a better job of holding his emotions in while still having understandable outbursts. Daniel Radcliffe seems to have a slightly altered personality for Harry than the book has, and I still prefer movie Harry.

The street scene after Harry leaves the Dursleys where he sees Sirius as a dog for the first time is done very differently, but both in the movie and the book it seems a little out of place and random, guess they both did the best they could. Loading the Knight Bus is iconic, the bus they chose is phenominal. Ernie doesn’t talk and there’s a shrunken head that’s not in the book, but it adds to the oddness of everything.

Odd that the movie chose a hunchback to collect Harry at the Leaky Cauldron, I don’t think it was like that in the book. Cornelius Fudge wears significantly less eccentric robes and hats in the movie, and I think that’s for the best, the aesthetic of the movie wouldn’t suit it with his book wardrobe.

Weird that in the movie Fudge got Harry’s books for him instead of Harry getting them himself in Diagon Alley, and the Monster Book of Monsters wasn’t a gift from Hagrid at home, instead was just among his school books at the Leaky Cauldron. Small changes that aren’t super significant to the plot, but wew fun when the book had the extra time to give us context like that.

The plot moves extraordinarily fast in the movie, but I only know that because I know how much theoretically happened between all these things. Hermione and Ron have matured like Harry in terms of looks, they all look significantly older. Hermione’s already got Crookshanks and the cat is already tormenting Scabbers.

In the movie Arthur Weasley tells Harry directly why Sirius is out of Azkaban instead of overhearing him and Molly talk about it. Makes sense to cut some time out.

The hands of the dementors are just as grey and creepy and scaly as the book describes. Somehow the scene in the movie feels like it lasts longer than reading the passage in the book, which is really really poor, and specifically why reading this part was so underwhelming.

Ah the first appearance of singing in the movies. At least it’s not as cringy as in the book. And the new Dumbledore makes me sad, but at least he fits the look.

Professor Trelawney’s classroom is much larger than described in the book, but she’s just as strange and eccentric as expected, and the teacups are stacked in the background just as precariously. Her reaction to the grim in Harry’s teacup was more dramatic but more believable honestly.

The movie had Hermione randomly appear instead of disappear to show the time turner’s effects. It was just as weird if not more and very effective.

The location where they meet Buckbeak is very different than described in the book, but much better. And I like that there’s only one instead of multiple. Buckbeak also takes Harry on a longer flight than in the book, probably for all the beautiful shots of Hogwarts we get from it, so I don��t mind at all. Draco’s just as dramatic as in the book, and it’s just as pathetic.

We jump pretty quickly into the Defence Against the Dark Arts class with Lupin, which is done differently than the book, but just as much if not more effective. This is the first time we actually see them doing some practical studies. Alan Rickman having to wear the ridiculous outfit as a Boggart was amazing. I was right that Harry gets a turn with the Boggart in the movie but didn’t in the book, and when Lupin jumps in front of him we get to see it turn into a full moon.

McGonagall is strict but sympathetic, which is very similar to the book, but I think Maggie Smith adds a bit more understanding and sympathy even within her strictness that makes her so easy to love. We jump to Harry hanging out with Lupin while everyone is at Hogsmeade. The scenes seem disjointed, but because it’s a movie it gets away with it.

After finding the Fat Lady and her revealing that Sirius Black was in the castle, the castle being “secured” wasn’t something done in the book. We jump to everyone sleeping in the Great Hall that looks much smaller without the tables. Dumbledore and Snape have a really similar conversation to the one they had in the book.

Snape teaching the Defence Against the Dark Arts class is eerie, and shows that he has the potential to be a good professor for the subject but obviously isn’t because he’s chosen to specifically teach a lesson hoping that people will figure out Lupin is one. The note sent to him in class is silly and shouldn’t have been included.

The Quidditch weather is terrible, like described in the book, but we don’t get to meet Cedric (it doesn’t even look like the correct actor). Harry wears goggles instead of glasses that look ridiculous, it was nice seeing Hermione charm them, but we definitely didn’t have the time. Harry seems to fly just into the sky, much higher than he should.

We jump straight from the hospital wing to Harry with Lupin again. The movie gets away with it because movies do that, but this movie is moving faster than the book even with leaving so many things out which is wild. At least we get to see Lupin often.

The Weasley twins giving Harry the map was really cute and almost exactly like the book, but left out some of the extra dialogue about the passages that aren’t useable. I forget how they get to the Shrieking Shack without the passage under the Whomping Willow.

Hermione and Ron starting to have some romantic tension, first with Buckbeak, and now when talking about going to the Shrieking Shack. Harry in his invisibility cloak tormenting Malfoy was funny, but his head didn’t show, so that wipes out that meeting with Snape, even though it was pretty useless anyways.

They completely changed the scene where Harry overhears converastion about him in the Three Broomsticks. Instead of already being there with Ron and Hermione, he sneaks in with his cloak and Ron and Hermione are forced to stay outside. Harry doesn’t stay to hear everything and learns much less than he did in the book. I definitely preferred the book scene to the movie scene for this part.

Lupin teaching Harry to cast the Patronus Charm is really nice, and I like that in the movie they include Harry telling Lupin what he thought his happy memory was, and instead deciding to use one he’s not sure is real. He casts a successful Patronus with Lupin, which he doesn’t do in the book. I do like that in the book it’s more realistic in that he takes a lot longer to practice and get it.

The movie didn’t seem to include any of the time Harry and Ron stopped talking to Hermione. It does have that Crookshanks was accused of eating Scabbers, but other than that, it just jumps straight to Buckbeak being sentenced to death, which we know from the movie is when they made up. Harry still hasn’t received his Firebolt though.

I like that Harry spots Peter Pettigrew on the Marauder’s Map in the movie, something that definitely didn’t happen in the book. It’s a better way for him to get caught by Snape with the map. Better than him being caught coming back from Hogsmeade. Lots of scenes have been rearranged in the movie, and it actually works out really well this way. I think the times when this was happening were the chapters I was very frustrated with and felt weren’t going anywhere, and the movie fixed that by making it seem much more relevant.

Harry telling Lupin that he saw Peter Pettigrew is really funny, watching how confused Lupin gets.

Hermione punching Draco will always be an iconic scene.

Hagrid found Scabbers in his hut instead of Hermione, and I like that the stones being thrown were added to have them notice that people were coming down to the hut. Gives Harry and Hermione something else to do later.

So Ron is taken by the dog and dragged under the Whomping Willow like in the book, but instead of having a knot that turns the tree into marble, they have to fight their way into the passage. Maybe I don’t mind the marble, because being able to fight through it seems unlikely.

The actor for Sirius is very good, and the scene where Lupin and Sirius hugged was just as much a shock as the book. Hermione revealing he’s a werewolf is just as surprising too, but gets a bit lost in the chaos. Sirius’ iconic like of waiting 12 years in Azkaban is perfectly done and I’m shocked it wasn’t from the book. Snape showing up not in an invisibility cloak is nice, makes more sense, but he comes early and we don’t learn nearly as much as in the book.

The actor for Peter looks extremely rat like. He also only goes for Harry to convince him to not be killed. It feels so much more rushed without the long explanation, and we don’t learn why Peter was the one who caused the problems instead of Sirius 12 years ago. Peter tries to convince Ron and Hermione when they’ve gotten back to the Whomping Willow, which for some reason is just not attacking them.

The line “have you taken your potion tonight” makes sense to me now, but doesn’t without any other context that was given in the book. Snape actually protecting the three from Lupin as a werewolf is the kind of redeeming moment Snape needs, small moments throughout the series that show that he’s not just mean and evil to be that way. Unfortunate that the movie didn’t have these moments.

Harry alone runs after Sirius and Lupin, trying to protect Sirius. I forgot that someone howls to distract Lupin and pry him away from Harry so Harry can keep going after Sirius towards the lake where they run into dementors, alone, without Hermione, who was there with him in the book. Harry manages to cast a weak Patronus, but with so many dementors it’s just not enough.

The weird thing that looks like Sirius having his soul sucked out via a small glowing orb leaving his mouth was odd, instead of having a dementor actually kiss him. Then Harry sees the stag across the lake, the very strong Patronus, and the orb returns to Sirius’ mouth. Definitely different from the book, but not a bad rendition.

We don’t know from the movie what a dementor’s kiss is, so the line is meaningless to us. Dumbledore still comes and visits and believes them, and gives Hermione the cryptic instructions, along with an additional “retracing my steps seems to be a good place to start”. Interesting that going back in time takes them to 7:30pm, meanwhile in the book they go back 3 hours from 11:55, so it should be 8:55.

I feel like even though it was hinted in the movie, there wasn’t enough to make us wonder how Hermione is getting around. There likely wasn’t enough time, but the last movie was significantly longer than this one, I’m sure they could have included a few scenes.

Dumbledore somehow being aware of the fact that he needs to distract them to give them more time is amazing, and I’m glad that was carried over from the book. In this movie at least, Dumbledore’s actor has matched his book self very well. The addition of so many crows seems unnecessary.

In the movie a spell is what keeps the Whomping Willow from attacking Lupin when he follows them, I didn’t pick up on that the first time.

Buckbeak protecting Harry and Hermione from werewolf Lupin is a nice touch to show that Buckbeak has formed a bond with them. That’s made much clearer in the book than in the movie.

This time, when Harry’s down by the lake, he’s with Hermione, instead of her and Buckbeak being in Hagrid’s hut. Instead Harry has to make the realization that it wasn’t his father but instead him with Hermione there, which is strange but probably done so we can get some dialogue to help us figure it out. It jumps pretty suddenly to them riding Buckbeak through the night to rescue Sirius.

Dumbledore pretending to not know what Harry and Hermione are talking about is pretty funny, so are the few lines they exchange with Ron. I’m SO glad the movie cut out Snape wanting some award and blaming everything on Sirius, that tarnished his character in the book so much and was so frustrating.

Harry finally got his Firebolt, and had no note come with it except a feather from Buckbeak to show it’s from Sirius.

The ending of this movie is just TERRIBLE. What an odd scene to end it on.

Overall I think I liked bits of the movie more than the book and bits of the book more than the movie. If I had to pick just one, for the first time I would probably pick the book. I always remember this movie confusing me most when I watched it as a child because there was so much context left out that my mother had to fill in for me.

I think in my comments I highlighted the parts of the movie that I liked more than the book version, and if those parts were changed in the book, I probably would have enjoyed it much more. But the deep background that the book gives is definitely worth the boring parts. I really hope the next book is another improvement, though I’ve always loved the Goblet of Fire movie.

[dumbledore-and-grindelwald]

'I loved you too Dumbledore.' 'I know.'

As one of Dumbledore's biggest fans out there I 've thought of his character and of his relationships a lot... and as a Grindeldore shipper I love the idea of Grindelwald being the love of Dumbledore's life and in a way, on a romantic and sexual level and in terms of partnership, he was. That said, from my point of view Dumbledore's REAL love-story in the HP series is between him and Harry.

 We've seen different kinds of relationships when it comes to Dumbledore.

He loved Grindelwald as a partner in every sense of the word, but Grindelwald was unable to return that love in the same way and to allow it to be the light in his darkness and the sanity to his madness. And even if, as I've speculated, Grindelwald surrendered during the legendary duel and came to some realizations of his own, their timing was off.

He loved Aberforth, Ariana and Kendra (a familial kind of love) but Aberforth distanced himself after Ariana's death and the already existing cracks in their relationship were enhanced while the two women of his life died early and he was left alone and broken.

He loved Minerva and Hagrid and he did see them as friendsi n his way, but while both of them knew aspects of who he was (Minerva more so than Hagrid), neither had experienced Dumbledore's darkest parts. The ones that he was ashamed of and that defined his actions throughout his life.

And then there was Dumbledore's love for Harry. The love that snuck up on him; the one that he had not intended to feel. The kind of love that a father feels for his son, which he tried to deny...

DUMBLEDORE: Harry, don’t you think I wanted to fight him on your behalf? I would have spared you if

I could —

HARRY: “Love blinds us”? Do you even know what that means? Do you even know how bad that advice

was? My son is — my son is fighting battles for us just as I had to for you. And I have proved as bad a father to him as you were to me. Leaving him in places he felt unloved — growing in him resentments he’ll take years to understand —

DUMBLEDORE: If you’re referring to Privet Drive, then —

HARRY: Years — years I spent there alone, without knowing what I was, or why I was there, without knowing that anybody cared!

DUMBLEDORE: I — did not wish to become attached to you —

HARRY: Protecting yourself, even then!

DUMBLEDORE: No. I was protecting you. I did not want to hurt you . . .

DUMBLEDORE attempts to reach out of the portrait — but he can’t. He begins to cry but tries to hide it. But I had to meet you in the end . . . eleven years old, and you were so brave. So good. You walked uncomplainingly along the path that had been laid at your feet. Of course I loved you . . . and I knew that it would happen all over again . . . that where I loved, I would cause irreparable damage. I am no fit person to love . . . I have never loved without causing harm.

Dumbledore did everything he could to ensure Harry's survival but he also tried to timid his love because to his experience love tended to cloud his judgment and he ended up hurting and destroying the people he love. He tried to keep his distance and to be a mentor more than a parental figure; a failed fit because of Harry being starved for love, for being treated with respect by the adults who were responsible for him and of his appreciation of Dumbledore as a man worthy to look up to.

However, Dumbledore was wrong. This distance, this net of protection that he tried to keep in place was exactly what ended up hurting Harry and affecting him even as an adult:

HARRY: You would have hurt me less if you had told me this then.

DUMBLEDORE (openly weeping now): I was blind. That is what love does. I couldn’t see that you needed to hear that this closed-up, tricky, dangerous old man . . . loved you.

A pause. The two men are overcome with emotion.

HARRY: It isn’t true that I never complained.

DUMBLEDORE: Harry, there is never a perfect answer in this messy, emotional world. Perfection is beyond the reach of humankind, beyond the reach of magic. In every shining moment of happiness is that drop of poison: the knowledge that pain will come again. Be honest to those you love, show your pain. To suffer is as human as to breathe.

HARRY: You said that to me once before.

DUMBLEDORE: It is all I have to offer you tonight.

He begins to walk away.

HARRY: Don’t go!

DUMBLEDORE: Those that we love never truly leave us, Harry. There are things that death cannot touch. Paint . . . and memory . . . and love.

 Dumbledore's last lesson is the thing that he did not manage to deal with his entire life: That pain, imperfection and one's mistakes were something to be dealt with rather than to be hidden from the world. Things that could be understood and overcome through the forgiveness that comes with love.

And ironically, this last lesson was taught to him by Harry himself; by Harry who saw his darkness, who saw the way that Dumbledore  hurt him in and despite his bitterness and his trauma did not stop loving and trusting him. Harry who questioned him but never lost faith in him. Harry who carried him with him even when he was gone from the world.

HARRY: I loved you too, Dumbledore.

DUMBLEDORE: I know.

 This line has been criticized by many as Dumbledore being smug. This is not the case though. Dumbledore has already expressed his love for Harry in this scene. What we have here is Dumbledore getting closure, or rather the reader/audience getting closure in terms of Dumbledore's story. Through the last fragment that represents Dumbledore in the living world we get the sense that, finally, Dumbledore knows that he is loved; flaws and all. Not just that he knows; but that he has been told so... that he lives on through Harry's unconditional love.

 The immortality that this love provides him with is not by any means the character's absolution, but it is definitely his catharsis.

[ashleyfanfic]

Redemption arcs and Jonerys

So, I’ve had a few comments on my recent Tormund story that got me to thinking and I wanted to share this with you guys. I’ve had a few people ask me “how can you possibly put Jon and Dany together after he tries to kill her?” And I guess my answer for this comes from my shipping past.

Some of you may know by now that I was/am a Dramione shipper (Draco Malfoy/Hermione Granger - Harry Potter) from starting in like 2002/2003 and I wrote the most recent fic for them in 2017. I don’t actively write for that ship anymore but I do still read stuff from my favorite authors. But I’ve digressed.

So, all those years spent in the Dramione fandom I had to find ways to work around the fact that Draco Malfoy is essentially a bad guy and Hermione Granger is the golden girl. So, let’s look at their pasts. Draco was raised in a wealthy Pureblood family who believe that only Purebloods should be allowed to do magic. He’s a bigot. He’s a bully. He’s basically a shitty human being. Then you have Hermione who champions House Elf rights, helps Hagrid with his case for Buckbeak, is the smartest witch in an age and is the exact thing Draco grew up hating: a Muggleborn. But I shipped them because I saw little sparks of there being something more to Draco than meets the eye. We know Draco became a Death Eater, those who sought out Muggleborns and killed them, but there were so many interactions with Hermione that left you going ‘huh, maybe there’s something there’. 

To be a Draco/Hermione fan, I had to find LEGITIMATE ways to work with the source material, which I usually did. I was one of those people who thumped my dog earred, comments in the margins books screaming that it was canon and the movies were someone’s interpretation. It was always about a redemption arc for Draco. Hermione would never be with him how he was, so there were things in the stories where he had to grow. That was always the fun part, exploring the growth. 

All that being said, I think it’s why I can find a way for Jon and Dany to still be together. A this point, I’m going to put up the hide content thing cause I’m going to get into the spoilers for the last episode. 

So, according to the spoilers, Dany is killed by Jon. She just committed mass genocide, and Jon kills her. While I think what Dany did was reprehensible, having Jon kill Dany is an enormous hurdle to climb in terms of suspension of disbelief. Could she ever forgive him for that? Could he ever get over what she did? 

I’m approaching it thinking that there is a redemption arc on both sides. When Dany and co attack King’s Landing, she’s had a rough fucking time lately. The man she loves tells her that not only does he have a better claim to the things she’s worked and suffered for her entire life, but he’s pulling away from her because of the relationship (which makes no sense in a feudal system as aunts and nephews being icky is very much a Western thing). She’s losing her lifeline that she developed to cope with the new world she was living in. She lost a dragon to save his life, she opened herself up to him, fell in love with him, and he pushed her away. She might have been able to tolerate all the other heartbreak if she felt like she truly have one person on her side who still loved and believed in her. The man she wanted to cling to when it seemed like the world was crumbling down upon her. She lost her oldest friend in Jorah, who died in her arms after giving his life to protect her, she lost the intimacy she had with Jon, she lost another dragon (her child) and was helpless to stop it, and she lost her closest friend in the world, Missandei. All of those deaths were traumatic for her to witness. She’s seen trauma, but she had never experienced it to such a degree as she had these last few episodes. She lost her husband and child but walked out of the fire with three dragons. I’m not saying they are a substitute for a live, flesh and blood child, but they did bring her comfort and a purpose, as did the people that stuck with her. 

I’ll also say that when she had it confirmed that Sansa told Tyrion about Jon, it confirmed that Jon had done the one thing she had begged him not to do. BEGGED. We’ve seen Dany pretty low in this series. She didn’t beg Khal Drogo not to rape her. She didn’t beg Viserys not to sell her. She didn’t beg in the House of the Undying or to the Dothraki. She was not a person who begged anyone for anything. But she begged the man she loved not to tell this secret that would not only ruin her claim but put her life in danger. He told someone she already recognized as her enemy, that he was naive enough to trust. Sansa didn’t tell Tyrion because she thought Daenerys was unjust. She told Tyrion for the very reasons that Daenerys said, she knew he would spread it without her having to tell anyone else. She knows Varys is plotting against her. She knows Tyrion has at least thought about it. The only other person she has to lean on is Grey Worm and he’s seething in rage and hurt just as she is. So, when Dany starts burning innocent people, it’s not Dany anymore. It’s a shell of Dany. The real Dany made points along the way about preserving the innocent and especially children. It’s easy to say, “Oh she snapped” but maybe she really did snap.

Then we have Jon. She still loves him. Know that he sold her out to Sansa, she still loved him and wanted to be with him. He was still her lifeline. So, now, that the rumor is that Jon kills her, is seized by Grey Worm and forced to take the Black, you also set up a redemption arc for Jon. Because while Daenerys did do something horrible, her death didn’t prevent her from doing it. It’s not like Jaime killing the mad king. This is if Jaime had killed him after the fact. We have Jon betraying Daenerys and killing her. Jon not only becomes a Queenslayer/Kinslayer, but he also becomes an Oathbreaker. That’s the biggest disservice done to Jon Snow besides making him virtually ineffective throughout this season. Jon Snow has proven to be an honorable man. He values that more than just about anything and to have him kill a woman he loves, his family, too, just feels like it goes beyond whatever feels right.

I think that’s the part people are taking issue with. How could Dany ever forgive him for trying to kill her? The truth is she probably shouldn’t. How could she trust that he would never do it again? The truth is she probably shouldn’t. But I think if these two found one another in a different time, in different circumstances, where they had both made mistakes, done things they regretted and hated, then it would change things drastically. 

But I got back to a redemption arc. So, let’s assume Dany doesn’t die but lives through it, which if we believe what happens, Drogon takes her body and leaves. She could still be alive. She wouldn’t embrace him with open arms. That’s illogical. And no matter how she might have felt about him, there’s no erasing what he did for the “greater good”. And as for Jon, she’s not the woman he fell in love with. It would take them being isolated again. Jon and Dany always connected better diplomatically and otherwise when they were alone, without the counsel of others. I think that’s where you start. You have to make it realistic. You have to acknowledge what they’ve both done to bring them to that point. 

Glossing over Dany's madness doesn't make what she did less terrible or make it not happen. Glossing over Jon killing Daenerys doesn’t make it less terrible or make it not happen. The point, for me at least and how I’m coping with this is how do they get beyond that? Can they? Is there a middle ground to be found? Is there a catalyst that brings them together? Is there something more than what meets the eye? It doesn’t have to end just because D&D lost their fucking minds and forgot who these characters are and their journeys. Instead, embrace what happened and write something compelling. Hell, they might not end up together, but there could be something more. Explore it. Roll around in it. Invest in it. 

Now, I realize I’ve rambled but my ultimate point is I am a firm believer in redemption arcs. It’s why I grew to love Theon and Jaime(less Jaime now). People are capable of growing and learning from their mistakes, but these are more than just mistakes for Jon and Dany. They are huge milestones in their lives. Conscious choices each of them made that they will have to live with for the rest of their lives. And personally, I’m exploring that in my Tormund fic from his POV. 

Anyway, that’s just my two cents.