#guess who's reading GoF

[loonyloopylupin96]

The fact Barty is canonically the kid who cries when he gets in trouble tickles me.

[baocean]

#undercover

chapter fourteen - paying your friends to hangout with you

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[hollowed-theory-hall]

Hello!! So, I saw an argument about Harry's uhm looks? I guess. A lot of people basically headcanon him as someone buff. I digress, I'm part of the uhm more realistic? group. Harry's been starved and abused his entire life. I doubt he'll gain the weight and the height everyone else wants him to have. Years later. maybe. But in 6th year? While on the run? 3 years after the war? Doubt. do you think he would be able to get super tall and buff? Also, do you think its possible he used the same methods the dursleys used to punish himself?

I mean, anyone can headcanon whatever they want, but, I'll try to explain via quotes, what Harry's height and muscle situation is likely to be. I believe the reasons some headcanon him as buff and tall are:

Harry had pinned Mundungus against the wall of the pub by the throat. Holding him fast with one hand, he pulled out his wand.

(HBP)

He lifts Mundungus by his throat with one hand easily, and he practices Quidditch like 3 times a week at least. This implies that Harry has some muscle on him.

And he's mentioned to be James' height when he's 17:

James was exactly the same height as Harry.

(DH)

Which was supposedly tall, according to both, Harry:

tall and untidy-haired like Harry, the smoky, shadowy form of James Potter

(GoF)

And Voldemort:

the tall black-haired man in his glasses

(DH)

Now, let's put Harry's height in the context of other character heights. Particularly of interest are characters taller than him, to get an image of how tall is "tall." And some shorter characters to help figure out his exact height.

Sirius, Ron, Voldemort, and Dumbledore are all taller than Harry and exceptionally tall in general. They are each likely to be over 6 feet tall, making Harry likely less than 6' (183 cm). Supporting this is this quote:

Once the painful transformation was complete he was more than six feet tall, and from what he could tell from his well-muscled arms, powerfully built.

(DH)

This means Harry is less than 6' and isn't super buff. But, I want to get to his specific height, because I have a lot to say about character heights.

Like, Dumbledore is probably the tallest character who isn't a half-giant because he's towering over everyone except Hagrid and Maxime. In book 6, he's literally taller than all the inferi in the cave:

Dumbledore was on his feet again, pale as any of the surrounding Inferi, but taller than any too,

(HBP)

And Abeforth (who's as tall as Dumbledore) is taller than Ron, who's one of the other tallest characters in the books:

Ron looked slightly sick. Aberforth stood up, tall as Albus, and suddenly terrible in his anger and the intensity of his pain.

(DH)

Making the Dumbledores really tall. My estimate is around a whooping 6'5 (195 cm).

Sirius is mentioned to be taller than Snape, and the tallest Marauder:

said Sirius, standing up. He was rather taller than Snape

(OotP)

To Sirius’s right stood Pettigrew, more than a head shorter

(DH)

A head, in height, should be around one foot (30.48 cm). As the average height of a man in England in 1998 was around 5'8 (174.4 cm), this would make Sirius around 6'2 (188 cm), therefore taller than average, and Pettigrew around 5'2 (157 cm), shorter than the average, but still both at a reasonable height.

Ron is almost as tall as the twins at 11:

“Shut up,” said Ron again. He was almost as tall as the twins already and his nose was still pink where his mother had rubbed it.

(PS)

And, just, really tall in general:

He stepped forward. Not as tall as Ron, he had to crane his neck to read the yellowish label affixed to the shelf right beneath the dusty glass ball.

(OotP)

So I estimate Ron at around 6'3 (190 cm).

Voldemort who grew up on war rations is still described very consistently as tall, regardless of childhood malnourishment:

He was his handsome father in miniature, tall for eleven years old, dark-haired, and pale

(HBP)

tall, pale, dark-haired, and handsome — the teenage Voldemort.

(HBP)

Taller than Bellatrix (who's taller than Harry). Voldemort is also considerably taller than Pettigrew, as he has to bend to reach Pettigrew's arm when both are standing:

Voldemort bent down and pulled out Wormtail’s left arm; he forced the sleeve of Wormtail’s robes up past his elbow

(GoF)

I usually place Voldemort at around the same height as Ron, so 6'3 (190 cm).

Fred and George, though, are mentioned to be shorter and stockier, more similar to Molly's build:

Charlie was built like the twins, shorter and stockier than Percy and Ron, who were both long and lanky.

(GoF)

but are mentioned to shrink to become Harry in book 7:

Hermione and Mundungus were shooting upward; Ron, Fred, and George were shrinking

(DH)

I actually place the twins around 6' (183 cm) so they could be taller than Harry, but shorter than Ron. The twins are likely taller than Charlie.

Bellatrix, as a woman, should also be shorter on average, but considering how tall Sirius is mentioned to be, it appears the Blacks are just considerably taller than the average, even the women:

a tall dark woman with heavy-lidded eyes, who had stood at her trial and proclaimed her continuing allegiance to Lord Voldemort

(OotP)

She was taller than he was, her long black hair rippling down her back, her heavily lidded eyes disdainful as they rested upon him;

(DH)

So I place her at around 6' (183 cm) as well, as an exceptionally tall lady.

So where does this place Harry?

During the first 4 books, Harry is short and small for his age. When he's 13, he and Hermione are bit shorter than Pettigrew:

He was a very short man, hardly taller than Harry and Hermione.

(PoA)

(Ron, noticeably, is taller than Pettigrew at 13)

So, so Harry at 13 was around 5'1 (155 cm). And so was Hermione.

Then in between books 4 and 5 puberty kicks in and probably causes a slight growth spurt that makes him more attractive to girls around him:

Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown, the last two of whom gave Harry airy, overly friendly greetings that made him quite sure they had stopped talking about him a split second before. He had more important things to worry about, however:

(OotP)

And then he has another, larger growth spurt between books 5 and 6:

“You’re like Ron,” she [Molly] sighed, looking him up and down. “Both of you look as though you’ve had Stretching Jinxes put on you. I swear Ron’s grown four inches since I last bought him school robes.

(HBP)

“And it doesn’t hurt that you’ve grown about a foot over the summer either,” Hermione finished, ignoring Ron. “I’m tall,” said Ron inconsequentially. [Ron is objectively correct]

(HBP)

Post book 6 growth spurt, we know Harry is below 6' (183 cm) but close enough to 6' to be above the average of 5'8 (174.4 cm) and be considered "tall", and grow "about a foot" after said growth spurt.

I personally place his height at 5'11 (180 cm), to make all of the above make sense.

And while he is physically fit, he is likely very thin from years of malnourishment. So, he likely has some muscle on him, but he's very lean with little to no fat during his Hogwarts years (he'd likely gain more weight as an adult living peacefully with regular meals). So, Harry in the books isn't what I'd call buff, but he has some muscle and can definitely throw a punch. As he grows older post-canon, I think he could get buff if he set his mind to it.

(I actually have notes about the height of a bunch of other characters. Hermione is shorter than Harry and Ron, but noticeably taller than Ginny (5'1 or 155 cm - edited Ginny's height since I think she's shorter than the former estimate of 5'2. Bellatrix says “Very well — take the smallest one,” with Hermione and Luna (who's also short) present, so Ginny is really short) and probably around 5'4 (162 cm) by book 7. Draco is said to be slightly taller than Harry "Harry did not dare look directly at Draco, but saw him obliquely; a figure slightly taller than he was" - DH, placing Draco at around 6' (183 cm))

For your other question, no, I don't think Harry self-harms, definitely not in any way related to the Dursleys, but that's a different post because I went off about heights.

[severus-snaps]

a ramble and some open questions for fandom elders (and others) about whether Snape was only made more sympathetic on account of Alan Rickman's popularity/casting, and similar things

so I stopped engaging with a tiktok creator for a while who I'd previously found very interesting because nearly every time they brought up Snape, they'd throw in some casual "if Harry was a girl, Snape would be really creepy/predatory about it" or some other weird Snape take not rooted in anything (to my mind). Like, it was weird to me because they bring in book quotes or pottermore/interview snippets to other analyses of other characters and ideas, but never Snape - for Snape, it was always just about vibes and feelings. For Snape, the fact we never hear that he killed someone or the fact we never heard that he stalked Lily is, in fact, strong evidence that he did do those things - or certainly thought about it - and certainly enough to be considered predatory and likely to dose Lily (and later a hypothetical Harriet) with a love potion or keep them in his basement, or something.

I disputed that idea in the comments one time, and some Snape supporting comments outside of mine got removed and users blocked, meanwhile my comments were (I think deliberately) misinterpreted. I stopped using tiktok entirely for a while, and never went back to see if the comments got deleted or whatever. Tiktok never gave me any further notifications about it upon re-downloading, so I guess they were removed? Idk. I have no desire to check.

but all of that is background really; she's lately posted some videos (I still find the rest of her content interesting, but apparently snape content is a no-go lool) saying that Snape's whole characterisation is different after the 'three year summer' - that is, that JKR saw how popular Snape was in the films, that she had to find a way to keep Alan Rickman on board when he wanted to leave, and that when she took her break between writing GoF and OotP I think, Snape sort of morphed into a new character and she had to attempt to redeem him (which, in her eyes, he's not redeemed even at the end which is like. ok). She implied that there's no evidence of James' bullying prior to OotP, no evidence of Snape ever having had a relationship (much less a friendship) with Lily, and that all of that was tossed into the later books retroactively to 'redeem' his character. (Obviously, I have Thoughts on that, which I'll come back to).

Of course, with the sort of... bad vibes she's built up around pro-Snape comments on her videos, all of the comments were in agreement with her. I'm also new to HP/Snape in terms of actively engaging with the fandom online, as it somehow passed me by at the time. But now I have Thoughts

So with all of that in mind, and just because I want to hear other people's thoughts but TikTok comments are a nightmare on their own with the character limit, inability to read them properly/in order, and general vibe of TikTok comments (even without the creator deleting/getting antsy about pro-Snape ideas), if anyone wants to discuss this lot, I am keen to hear people's thoughts:

Was Snape always a popular book character, or did that change/skyrocket with Alan Rickman? (For my part, I don't remember hating Snape when I read the books the first time around - in fact, I hardly remember registering him at all - but I do remember hating Umbridge).

How true is it that Snape was made 'more sympathetic' following the films? To me, it doesn't make sense; the first big, weighty suggestion of the marauders bullying Snape was in PoA, which was released mid-1999; the first evidence that Snape was spying was in GoF, in mid-2000. The first film didn't even come out (Alan Rickman's charisma included) until 2001. Weirdly, the PoA stuff the user is convinced just says that Snape was jealous of James (probably true, not denying it) but in the exact same book Remus/Sirius all but admitted to Sirius trying to kill Snape, which seems like a massive overreaction to Snape being an annoying little hater of a teen that she never comments on because, I guess, Snape deserved it?

Also, does it matter if he was made 'more sympathetic'? ootp was published in 2003, and in early 2002 Alan considered leaving. sure, JK might have added/exaggerated SWM to make him more sympathetic, but the reasons for adding in scenes don't change the fact that that's now part of the fabric of the character - a character who, by this point, had already been revealed in PoA to be the subject of a near-murder plot at the hands of the Marauders and was Very Not Okay about it; the marauders had already been described as troublemakers; Snape was already shown to be wary of Lupin for reasons that weren't solely about him being a werewolf, but about the Prank/Trick/Willow incident. An incident, much like SWM, that occurred because Sirius thought it would be "amusing" to put Snape in a horrible position. if JKR wanted to, she could've made Sirius the ringleader in SWM - but for Snape, I think she just wanted to solidify why a grown man hates a child who looks exactly like his father, which was also referenced in the early books and strongly prefaced by the events of PoA in the Shack (I don't think she had it 'all planned out' from day dot, however, but went with the vibes and fleshed out the details later). Obviously, to this creator, Lupin's idea that Snape was solely a little bitch because he hated that James was better at Quidditch is to be taken at face value, despite the fact the conversation then moves on to Snape's near-death following Sirius 'trick'ing Snape into the willow

Same as above but with his characterisation; she acknowledges that the later books are darker and have a more adult tone, but somehow it's still suspicious that Snape's sympathetic backstory was never once alluded to in earlier books (which, again, I think it's fair to say it was alluded to, but in sufficiently lacking detail so that JK could deal with it when she got there). Also with PoA and GoF especially, there are hints of Snape going from his more 'silly evil teacher' which he kind of was in books 1 and 2, heading towards the more realistic, but still delightfully bitter and flawed, adult character as the books aged up. I haven't read the books in a while I'll admit, but from the Snape passages I have read, I never noticed a sufficient difference pre or post three-year-summer that didn't match the wider tone of the books changing also.

Unlike the tiktok creator, I also think that Snape's reaction to Harry in general is almost entirely to do with James, rather than Lily's so-called rejection, and so there's no evidence that Snape would be weird to a 'Harriet' that resembled his mother, or weird to Lily if he saw her again; I think with his characterisation it's more likely that Harriet would've been treated like Hermione, Ron, or Tonks - being largely ignored with the occasional insult and told off for causing trouble - aka, how Snape would treat most people. Outside of the one isolated 'mudblood' incident, Snape was a bit of a doormat when it came to Lily (bless his heart). He followed her from the train carriage without comment, backtracked when she appeared angry in the post-prank conversation, even the "I won't let you" seemed more "I won't let you turn him into some kind of hero" or even, at a stretch, an "I won't let you be with him" out of Lily's own safety or something than "I won't let you leave me", to me - because he did just let her leave him in school? James and Snape continued hexing one another in 7th year, but there's no suggestion that Snape ever tried to be weird to Lily.

To my mind, there's no suggestion that Snape stalked Lily, no suggestion that he asked Voldemort to capture her - just to spare her. And then Snape went to Dumbledore anyway, probably immediately based on how harried he is on the windy hilltop scene, because he knew Voldemort wouldn't spare her, and even if he did, Snape would probably have to keep up the ruse of 'desiring' Lily, and do the sorts of thing Snaters suggest he wanted to do, just to keep her alive. But with Dumbledore involved, Snape wouldn't ever have the chance to imprison/love potion her - and that wasn't what he wanted. He just wanted her alive so he wouldn't have played a part in her death. I also doubt that Snape had much time to think when Voldemort revealed who he was choosing to kill; it's not as though Voldemort makes decisions by committee. He'd have revealed his plans and Snape would make a quick, panic-stricken decision to tell Voldemort that he desired Lily (which he may have done, to an extent; he'd need to draw on something to back up his request when Voldemort undoubtedly looked into his mind to see why Snape wanted to spare his Priority #1 victim). And like I say, he then set up a meeting with Dumbledore, probably immediately/as soon as he could, sensing that that wouldn't work (was he not convincing enough? Did he just know Voldemort too well? I have so many questions about how that conversation went down, and subsequent conversations about Lily which presumably occurred after V's resurrection).

anyway, no conclusion, only thoughts too rambly for tiktok comments

[the-hyperthermic-writer]

Harry Potter and Tom Riddle are two sides of the same coin, equals in every sense of the word.

I often see Harry depicted as a stuttering mess, a bad lier, an open book, timid, but that is not Harry James Potter.

Harry Potter brought the second Wizarding war to an end almost single handedly, he is a child soldier, a fighter. Harry lead the resistance against Voldemort, not Dumbledore, Harry.

This boy, since his first year was observant enough to figure out every mystery thrown at him, successfully surviving each danger he met. His gut was almost right every single time, and he had impeccable instincts.

Harry Potter is not dumb, he is not clueless and he is not oblivious. Sure, Harry was not the top of his classes, but he passed almost all of his OWLs, only failing in the subject that I’m sure almost everyone did (History of Magic). He was the one who caught Draco was up to something immediately in HBP, already guessing he was a Death Eater. He was the one who filed away every small, minuscule observation, which helped him solve so many things thrown at him. He was the one who figured out the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, who repeatedly took note of the random black dog wandering Hogwarts, who knew something was wrong when Dumbledore wouldn’t look at him, knew Draco was doing something under Voldemorts orders and who was able to figure out the whereabouts of the Diadem and thought to ask Ravenclaws ghost.

Yes, he had his moments of stupidity, but he was under tremendous stress and often was sleep deprived. He may have chased after Sirius like a brash Gryffindor, but he was extremely sleep deprived, nobody would tell him shit, and Sirius was his only family left.

No, Harry Potter was not an open book or a horrible lier. He survived an abusive household for ten years straight, that boy knew how to lie to survive. In the Philosophers Stone I know Quirrell wouldn’t have known Harry was lying about what he saw in the mirror had he not had the Dark Lord on the back of his head who can literally read minds. It was said in the books that Harry was seen as cold, unapproachable, it wasn’t known what he was thinking till he blew up. He was hard to get a read on because he knew how to hide his emotions after years of abuse.

Yes, Harry had his moments where he lost control over his emotions, like with Umbridge, Dumbledore, his friends, but only while he was under pressure and hit his breaking point. His whole life he had been called a lier, and suddenly a woman he doesn’t know accuses him of lying about how a student he watched die died. Dumbledore had been keeping secrets from Harry all year in OotP, fled the school and it ultimately led to Harry losing his last piece of family. His friends were constantly bickering while Harry was suffering, truthfully, I would’ve lost it on them too.

Harry Potter was not a stuttering, awkward mess. He was a leader, he was the one who called the shots, who took down Voldemort. When there needed to be someone in charge, Harry took the mantle even though he hated the attention because he knew he could handle it. He taught the DA with such ease because he could command a room, put on a confident front so others could rely on him. Never during the GoF did he stutter with fear when faced with challenges, he faced them head on. He wasn’t awkward when he met Ron or anyone else, truthfully, he just seemed to want most people to stay away.

There’s not even a single time I can remember him being awkward except with Cho crying and suddenly kissing him. Anyone would feel awkward as hell if that happened, but imagine being an abused orphan who wasn’t allowed to be upset? Exactly, Harry doesn’t understand emotions as well as others because he had to push them down. Also, she literally kissed him while crying about her dead boyfriend he witnessed die.

Harry Potter was not weak mentally or physically. He played Quidditch religiously, was forced to run from his cousin if he didn’t want to get hurt and fought tooth and nail in every fight to survive. There is no way in hell he didn’t have some muscle, and I will admit he may have lost it often during the summer or the year he was on the run, but for the majority of his school years he was athletic. Not burly, but definitely had lean muscle. Harry also survived through all that shit and never forget what he was fighting for, not once wavering on his path. He knew what he wanted, and was willing to do anything to achieve a means to an end, even if it meant dying by the hand of the one man he swore to defeat.

As stated above, I know he was often starved/malnourished, so there definitely were times he was physically weak. However, for the majority of the time he was not just thin. Also, it’s said he was the same height as his dad, who was described as being tall. Prolonged malnourishment can definitely stunt growth though, so I don’t really care for this point as much.

Harry James Potter and Tom Marvolo Riddle were prophesied enemies for a reason. Harry may have been a bit of a brash and reckless Gryffindor, but in the end he was a force to be reckoned with.

Both Tom and Harry were orphans who grew up in harsh environments, learning how to manipulate people to survive. (And don’t say Harry didn’t manipulate, he was able to get Vernon off his back for a summer by using Sirius)

They both were war survivors, Tom surviving a Muggle war and Harry surviving a Wizarding war.

Harry and Tom were both antisocial to an extent, the difference being Harry was able to gain a close knit group of friends.

They were magically powerful, but Tom was more controlled magic and Harry was wild magic that he willed to do as he said.

They were distrustful of adults, almost never turning to an adult unless they had to.

There’s so many more, but I can’t name them all.

Overall, it is an insult to Harry’s character (in my opinion) to water him down to someone so far away from who he truly is. He is Tom Riddles equal, he is not just a lucky boy who somehow survived. This boy was never dumb, awkward, loud or timid, and anyone who says he was has forgotten who canon Harry truly is.

I will not lie and say I do not love some of these traits when paired with his true personality, but I will never like a timid, awkward, stupid Harry. That is not the person Voldemort marked as an equal.

[whinlatter]

So I am obsessed with Beasts. And specifically I cannot stop thinking about Ginny and Hermione getting ready for the NYE party. It made me start wondering if Hermione has ever felt jealous of Ginny? Like they grew up together and Ginny was the younger girl, who was excluded from the “Harry/Hermione/Ron club” so she’s obviously felt a little jealous and left out there (which you explore so well!! Agh the telling Harry it’s fine, and maybe he’d rather hang out with them than her, and pretending to herself she doesn’t care!! But I digress). But now I’m wondering if Hermione has ever felt the same about Ginny and if you will explore this more in this work or a later one? Because Ginny is cool. She’s Hot, she’s sexy, she’s popular. She pulls off that Union Jack dress perfectly and has got everyone looking at her. She’s many things that Hermione is not (or hasn’t chosen to be). While Ginny has had lines of boys wanting to go out with her, Hermione has had Harry and Ron who are her best friends.. but Harry’s not an option (for either of them) and Ron has been pretty pigheaded and oblivious through a lot of their relationship (and her as well lol). And we don’t see a lot of evidence in canon that she has many other friends. People see her as the know-it-all, kinda awkward, sometimes ruthless (rip Marietta) girl. But i guess my point is, Hermione isn’t seen as hot, sexy, popular, cool like Ginny is. The Yule ball was her one big moment really. So her putting on that little black dress and letting herself be hot… idk it gets me feeling some type of way. Like yes you go girl! And I want to know Hermiones feelings here in regards to Ginny. Like I imagine she’s happy for her, but I wonder did she ever feel sort of left out of that part of girlhood/coming into womanhood that Ginny had just so naturally embraced?

THANK YOU for reading and for the beasts love, you legend 🫶

so i have been thinking about this question a lot! no-one will be surprised to discover that i find hermione and ginny's relationship in canon so so interesting. it's neither the relationship of natural besties, but nor does it seem to be a relationship of pure convenience: there's genuine love and warmth there, the swapping of confidences, meaningful advice, emotional support in moments of distress, and more than a little boy scheming (taylor swift wrote mastermind about hermione and ginny, change my mind). i tend to think of them as sisters, though very much with hermione as the big sister, and ginny as the little.

i say this because i think my answer is no, i don't think hermione would be jealous of ginny as a hot popular girl, in canon or after the war as i imagine it in beasts. but i do think that there might be reasons for different kinds of insecurity and jealousy from hermione towards ginny, especially after the war. full reasoning and minor beasts spoilers below the cut!

one of the funniest things about hermione is that, by her mid-teens, she's reasonably self-assured about her social position and her place on the dreaded teen romance market. after she's made some mates and sorted her teeth out (something she clearly was insecure about), she's pretty content. she doesn't feel especially upset about the absence of a large circle of friends or crave the approval of the other girls in her year, parvati and lavender. she has harry and ron's friendship for a lot of her emotional needs (and, beginning in GoF, ginny, for the one's that they can't meet). when it comes to boys, hermione consistently really backs herself (as she should). when krum's interested in her, she's flattered but not astonished that this international quidditch player would want to ask her out, and the ball's mostly in her court throughout their courtship (ok penpals!) when she wants to make ron jealous, she backs herself to be able to bag both cormac and zacharias and to have her pick of them (icon). she enjoys a nice dress up - the yule ball, the wedding - and knows she scrubs up well. and while she's tapped into the public mood/gossip mill (romilda vane's love potions, harry's growing fanciability, cho's quidditch fortunes), she's not especially interested in popularity herself. she'd rather be thought of as clever than she would hot or popular, for better or worse. i think we should take hermione's encouragement that ginny tap into the growing number of boys who fancy the pants off her to help get over harry in good faith. in her mind, ginny's her little sister, and hermione gets a lot out of trying to steer her towards things that might make her happy. (she disdains fleur for her obsession with appearance and seeming desire for male attention, but she thinks of ginny as her ally in being opposed to such things, not another rival).

(that doesn't mean i think hermione doesn't ever feel insecure or even feel humiliated socially, but that her insecurities are more about her feelings for specific people (read: ronald bilius weasley) than they are about the approval of her peers. when ron takes the piss out of her in HBP, for instance, she's less upset that parvati and lavender laugh at her than she is that ron, who she fancies, is mocking her and the other girl who fancies him, lavender, is laughing at her. for the most part, hermione in canon is happy as she is)

that said... i do think that hermione might have complicated, or even jealous feelings towards ginny in other contexts. in canon, the tensions in hermione and ginny's relationship are the moments where the big sister/little sister dynamic is most visible, or else when ginny tries to reject hermione's big sisterly approach and assert herself as hermione's equal. in OotP, when hermione becomes a prefect and ginny spends the prefect party laughing with tonks and sirius about behaving badly, we see hermione's big sistery approach on display, as well as her teetering with a desire to get involved with the troublemakers while also remaining pretty committed to being well-behaved in her bones. we see elsewhere that while hermione advises ginny, we have no evidence that that happens the other way around, or at least that hermione takes any of ginny's advice (it seems to hard to imagine ginny approving the cormac/zacharias plan, for one). their fight in HBP over sectumsempra isn't ginny calling hermione on not being involved in quidditch because she's not cool enough, it's the suggestion from ginny that hermione is wrong about harry's best interests, doing up i-told-you-so, being too wrapped up in her own ego over the prince's book, and then trying to manipulate ginny by bringing up quidditch in the first place (which causes ginny to go for the jugular and bring hermione's intellect, and lack of understanding on quidditch, into it). hermione's disdain for how much time harry and ginny are spending together during exam szn is also plainly big sistery, and, as it bothers harry, i think we can assume it's also something that ginny would grate against too.

in the post-war world (as i see it in beasts) i think these dynamics would be more visible than ever. ginny's lived a certain kind of war that's made her less happy to be patronised or dismissed as a little sister figure rather than an equal: she's also a symbol of the world hermione feels increasingly lost in. hermione is head girl of a student body she feels extremely removed from, while ginny is widely respected as a resistance leader among the other students, and especially admired within the DA. her conflict with ginny is really an extension of hermione's post-war conflict in general, which is about her place in the wizarding world at large: where does she fit in, in this post-war world that's both so different but also (in lots of troubling ways) very much the same, full of many of the same prejudices and problems that defined wizarding society in the interwar years. another of hermione’s big postwar conflicts, in my mind, and in fanon more generally, is about hermione's relationship with her self - as a former soldier now trying to go back to normal young adulthood - and her relationship with her family. the reason i wanted hermione in that little black dress looking fit was partly to have her try and reach out to her pre-war self who did enjoy getting dolled up and stunting on the hoes (even if maybe not in a dress quite so short, slay), but also to have her play with the idea of being allowed to do something so frivolous like look fit to turn her boyfriend on (real slay), and to have her start to publicly wrestle with a different set of external expectations, not from her peers, but perhaps from a parent she recognises she doesn’t really know:

Hermione tries for a smile, sad eyes tracing the dress’ low neckline. ‘My mum would hate it,’ she mutters. ‘She - ’ She shakes her head, throws up her hands. ‘I don’t know. Maybe she wouldn’t. I don’t know.’

i always think about that scene early in PoA where hermione and ginny are laughing with mrs weasley about love potions. it's such a cute moment - really the first hermione and ginny friendship moment in the series - and i'm very struck that it's a moment of real fun and levity that happens with this mother figure present (especially when hermione has just ditched hers to go hang out with the weasleys for what will be the first of many times). i don’t want to say too much for where things are going in beasts, but just that i think it’s significant that hermione and ginny’s first real girly friendship moment happens in the presence of a warm maternal figure who adores her daughter, imbuing hermione and ginny’s relationship with a sisterly-ness but also bringing into the dynamic the example of mothers and intergenerational female relationships. ginny has a very specific relationship with her mum; i imagine hermione has a very different one with hers, and i think that matters for who hermione is but also her relationship with ginny, just a bit.

loved thinking about this one, thank you so much!

[padfootastic]

Sometimes I read a fic and Sirius is so stupid and just gullible, and it’s like, has fandom forgotten this man was raised in a family of Slytherins? Have they forgotten that over a decade of false imprisonment still couldn’t break his intelligence? That he mostly figured out the GOF plot with scraps (because who on earth could guess BCJ was involved, given he was believed to have died several years prior)? He’s not just booksmart and powerful, but he’s socially and emotionally intelligent as well.

noooo but why is this so common 😭😭 we talk about this on the server often but,,,it’s just,,so weird??? and like ok. u wanna write a sirius like that. fine, no problem, worlds ur oyster. BUT FOR RHE LOVE OF GOD—THE OOC TAG EXISTS FOR A REASON!!! there is no moral judgement to writing ooc shit, it’s fine, just…say that, ykno?

but yeah, it seems like so many people genuinely believe sirius was stupid and it just,,,baffles the mind,,,,bc how??? is it bc of his post azkaban plan? bc there were some seriously extenuating circumstances there. it also fkn kills me that e was able to figure out where harry was despite a dozen years of imprisonment like?? no one else did that?? and he just,,,,casually swims across the ocean and finds his boy???

[greenerteacups]

Hi! in regards to Hagrid and his teaching, idk if we are supposed to see it as anything other than racial campaign. I'm not sure that in-universe Hagrid was doing anything beyond "dead poets society" level extra teaching (as much as I don't like dps). Especially since its happening in the third book, where jkr actually raises the question of targeted violence and stigma

Hi! I'm assuming you're talking about the fact that Hagrid's a half-giant, but unfortunately, that isn't established until Goblet of Fire, and I just don't see it reflected in any of his interactions with the Malfoys, Macnair, or the Board of Governors in the third book. I guess you could argue that him being larger than usual is the reason that Malfoy goes after him, but I always figured it was more that he's bumbling and good-natured and has an obvious soft spot for Harry. The most we get on the idea that his size has anything to do with it is this passage in POA:

"God, this place is going to the dogs," said Malfoy loudly. "That oaf teaching classes, my father'll have a fit when I tell him." (pg.91)

Which could be read as a remark on Hagrid's size, but scans to me more like a remark on his intelligence. Then you have these passages, where Rowling spells out in the text (probably for the benefit of the many 11-year-olds reading her book) why Malfoy's hamming up his injury:

"I'm afraid he won't be a teacher much longer," said Malfoy in a tone of mock sorrow. "Father's not very happy about my injury ... and with a lasting injury like this, who knows if my arm will ever be the same again?" (pg. 100)

"So that's why you're putting it on," said Harry, accidentally beheading a dead caterpillar because his hand was shaking in anger. "To try to get Hagrid fired." "Well," said Malfoy, lowering his voice to a whisper, "partly, Potter. But there are other benefits too. Weasley, slice my caterpillars for me." (101)

Meanwhile, when Rita Skeeter reveals that Hagrid is a half-giant in Goblet of Fire, Malfoy immediately starts mocking him for it, with language suggesting this is the first time he's learned of it, and the first time most people would have suspected (half-giants being obviously uncommon):

“Well, I think this should put an end to the oaf’s teaching career,” said Malfoy, his eyes glinting. “Half-giant . . . and there was me thinking he’d just swallowed a bottle of Skele-Gro when he was young. . . . None of the mummies and daddies are going to like this at all. . . . They’ll be worried he’ll eat their kids, ha, ha. . . .” (439)

The thing is — as the above passage reveals — Rowling is not a soft touch when it comes to discrimination and bigotry. When she wants to show a character being a bigot against Group X, her go-to move is having the character loudly announce "God, I hate Group X!" So the idea that Malfoy and his father are engaging in a targeted racial campaign against Hagrid in the third book would require us to believe that Malfoy has developed a sudden vocality about his bigotry in GOF that he's never showed beforehand, despite having known or suspected that Hagrid wasn't fully human all along.

To the real point about "what's this plot doing here?", I think Malfoy and Hagrid's plotline in Prisoner of Azkaban is supposed to be a parallel to Sirius, insofar as both storylines are about innocent creatures being blamed for something because of a coward's lie. (Pettigrew's lie is that Sirius committed the murders; Malfoy's lie is that he was hurt much more seriously than he actually was.) In my reading, Prisoner is less about targeted violence towards specific groups (what groups? what violence?) than it is about how easy it is to judge based on limited information, and the failures of the establishment to deliver justice. Like all Harry Potter novels, it's incredibly suspicious and resentful of bureaucracy in almost any form, and it heavily implies that the people who work for bureaucracy are selfish, cruel, or simply disinterested in the truth.

It isn't until much later in the series that we see werewolves developed as a kind of stigmatized out-group, and when we do, I kind of doubt that JKR was meaningfully interested in them as a group unfairly afflicted by trauma and suffering; for the most part, her werewolves are cannibalistic child-eating predators, with a few, like Lupin, who are conscious and ashamed of what they are. But that's a very long, very separate post about the problems of making your subjugated class a group of literal deadly monsters.

[joannerowling]

On the issue with James, I do think this is one area where the books aren’t ageless and have to be read in the context of an English school in the 70s written by an author in the 90s. Because by today’s standards, James is less of your garden variety ‘boys will be boys’ type bully and more of an actual sociopath well past the age of criminal responsibility who by 16 had committed one public sexual assault and was an accessory to attempted murder who backed out last second. But I don’t think that’s at all what Jo meant to convey.

Let me guess. Snape fan? :P

Look, my issue with this discourse has always been that only James seems to get so much flack for his most morally ambiguous actions. I mean, Hermione disfigured a girl her age with zits spelling "sneak" because she'd given the DA members out to Umbridge. Harry nearly gored Malfoy to death by using an unknown spell he knew was meant "for enemies". Yet, i've never seen anyone hating on James that would go as hard against these other characters.

On your first point: James wasn't an accessory to attempted murder who backed out last second. Sirius was the one who tricked Snape and nearly got him killed (which would have made Lupin an accessory to murder). James acted to stop it as soon as he realised what Sirius had done. His reasons for doing so remain obscure - Snape thinks he wanted to save his own skin because he would have been blamed alongside Sirius, but that's Snape's interpretation, not exactly the most unbiased source.

Next: i ressent people misusing the term "sexual assault" to describe what James does in Snape's worst memory (a take that, btw, i've only seen upheld as if it were common knowledge by Americans, or very "Americanised" fans). The definition of sexual assault is "unwanted sexual contact", and in the UK especially it pretty much means "rape without penetration". I do think Jo meant for it to be taken seriously (its parallel with the Muggles's treatment by Death Eaters in GoF is clear), only people didn't really at the time. Still. James humiliated Snape, i'd say what he did qualifies as sexual harrassment, and he's rightfully painted as the bad guy in that episode, but he didn't sexually assault Snape.

Also, because we only have that one scene to work with, everyone seems to forget the larger context, namely: Snape created that spell. Judging by the way Death Eaters were still using it 15+ years later, i imagine James wasn't the first nor the last in his generation to use it against another student. I always saw it as a bit analogous to those dangerous/humiliating games that suddenly become trendy with high schoolers until someone gets hurt enough for adults to intervene. I'm comforted in that interpretation by the fact that Snape implies James didn't even know HE was the one to invent the spell, suggesting it started as a thing Snape showed to other Slytherins to gain some social cred, which then spread to the whole school.

Anyways, if that makes James a sociopath, then Hogwarts must have been chock-full of them in the 70s, starting with Snape himself. Maybe the point isn't that Snape or James (or Sirius) are sociopaths, but that imminent war tends to turn people more prone to violence and less likely to abide by moral principles, or consider their designated enemies's humanity. I have no doubt that James morally justified himself and his actions by the fact that Snape belonged to the "bad crowd" of Voldemort's future recruits. Even though we readers know enough about Snape to be able to tell that he was never seriously convinced by Pure Blood superiority.

[fangurlss63]

HHr fanfiction recommendation

I know it’s 2023 and not a lot of people still reading harry potter fanfiction but here I am. This month alone I’ve been reading so many good stories that I want to compile in a post so it can be easier if someone want to read a harmony/harmione/HHr ff. Here we go!!

p.s. I’m from Indonesia so some of this fanfic will be in Bahasa Indonesia

A Marauder’s Plan by CatsAreCool

Rating : T Status : Complete Language : English Summary : Sirius decides to stay in England after escaping Hogwarts and makes protecting Harry his priority. AU GOF. 

Just Breathe by ficfan91

Rating : T Status : Complete Language : Bahasa Indonesia  Summary : Time Travel Stories. Harry and Hermione are attacked by Voldemort and Death Eaters in a tent during the Horcrux Hunt. Fawkes saves them from the Place Between Life and Death, and sends them to 1975. Canon until book 7, chapter 18.

Fourteen Days by alexandra_emerson

Rating : M Status : Complete (Part 1 of 5 on-going series) Language : English Summary : During her work in the Department of Mysteries, Hermione discovers an alternate universe where Neville was the Boy Who Lived, not Harry. Where James and Lily are alive and where Harry and Hermione aren’t about to marry Weasleys, but each other.They impersonate the other Harry and Hermione and join Harry’s parents on a trip to visit the Seven Wonders of the Magical World. It was only supposed to be two weeks. Fourteen days to get to know his parents. It became a journey of self-discovery. One they weren’t ready for.

In the Other Side of the World by nessh

Rating : T Status : Abandoned (but the last chapter can be interpreted as ending) Language : Bahasa Indonesia Summary : After the war, Harry disappeared from England and started his new life on the other side of the world, America. For years, Harry lived quietly there, until fate brought him back to face his past.

The Time Travelling Potters by LordCroussette 

Rating : T Status : Completed Language : English Summary : James, Lily, Fleamont and Euphemia are bored to death during an Order meeting taking place at Potter Manor. What they never expected during their half-asleep mind-ranting was for James and Lily's son to travel back in time from the future with his wife and their daughter. Suddenly, they have hope that they will be able to kill Voldemort for good. H/HR JP/LE.

Our Real Life by nessh

Rating : K+ Status : Completed Language : Bahasa Indonesia Summary : Characters reading Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, HHr/DG/RL.

Stay Here by nessh

Rating : T Status : Completed Language : Bahasa Indonesia Summary : "Maybe we should stay here Harry. And grow old," HHr/RWLL. OOC. RnR

A Solid Foundation by Lucych.7

Rating : M  Status : Completed Language : English Summary : Harry gets kicked out by the Dursleys at age 5. Sirius escapes Azkaban to find him. Hermione & her parents take in the boy & the dog. What if Harry knew he could count on the adults in his life for love, advice & support? Rated M for child abuse, adult themes & language, violence, etc. Evil APWBD, some Weasley bashing. Slow Harmony. Not canon.

Tones of Gray by Lucych.7

Rating : M Status : On-going Language : English Summary : This is the sequel to "A Solid Foundation". Please start there for context. In this world, there is black and white, but how do you navigate the rest that is all tones of gray? Follow the kids as they go to Hogwarts. Find out what happened with The Past, The Present, and The Future. Rated M for violence, explicit language, adult themes, etc. H/Hr. Some Weasley bashing. Non-canon.

Uncovering the Truth by TitansRule

Rating : T Status : Complete Language : English Summary : No one would ever guess that Hermione was hiding such a terrible secret. But just as that secret is discovered by an unlikely person, she finds herself cast adrift with only her friends to help her. With new powers, surprising allies, and shocking secrets, Hermione fights to uncover that which is being hidden from her.  Pre-Harmony.

Defying the Enemy by TitansRule

Rating : T Status : Complete Language : English Summary : Voldemort is back, the Ministry of Magic is pretending he isn't, and the Order of the Phoenix is being blocked at every turn. Amidst it all, Harry's Muggle neighbour is more than she seems, Draco Malfoy is trying to break free from his father's hold, and the Golden Trio are facing a Ministry-controlled Hogwarts. AU. Sequel to 'Uncovering the Truth'.

The Last Stand by TitansRule

Rating : T Status : Complete Language : English Summary : Jennifer Black is taking matters into her own hands. If her godson has to face Voldemort, she's going to make damn sure he's not alone. As the war with Voldemort heats up, the Marauders - both new and old - must fight to save everything they hold dear. Sequel to ‘Defying the Enemy’.

Aftermath by TitansRule 

Rating : T  Status : Complete Language : English Summary : As the dust settles at Hogwarts and the Wizarding World is left in limbo, awaiting the reappearance of their hero, the Marauders set about cleaning up the mess left behind. Sequel to Uncovering the Truth, Defying the Enemy, and The Last Stand.

this post will be updated!!

[neverending-tbr-pile]

Books I read in December

Books I finished

My Sweet Audrina by V.C. Andrews - 3/5

Simultaneously the worst and best thing I read all year. Clunky dialogue and prose kept me from loving it entirely but the characters are all so over-the-top and weird, and the story is so unhinged, it loops around to being kind of good. The ending is haunting and horrific and I loved it. Not a fan of how the female characters were constantly sexualized but I also don't want to write this off as pure trash, though it is quite trashy at times. Enjoyed it enough that I'm planning to read some of Andrews's other works in the coming year.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling - 5/5, reread

I don't think I've read this since I was either a teenager or in my early twenties. This was never my favorite Potter book growing up but reading it as a 30-something (and someone who is much more well-read than my younger self) I found myself appreciating a lot of things about it that I never had before. The pacing is phenomenal, the characters are all great, the mysteries are very well-executed, the foreshadowing (on both a book- and series-wide level) is great. Ron and Harry's falling-out still hurts to read lmao. After being kind of underwhelmed rereading Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows earlier this year I wasn't expecting to enjoy GoF very much and yet I did.

Red Moon and Black Mountain by Joy Chant - 4/5

I absolutely love vintage fantasy and this didn't disappoint. Chant's writing style hit all the right notes for me and on top of that this book is dense with lore and plot and character growth, kind of amazed it's only 255 pages long. Was kind of hard to get my hands on a copy, I'm not sure if it's in print any longer, but I definitely recommend reading it if you're able.

Books I did not finish

The King of Elfland's Daughter - DNF

Boooo-ring. I thought the language could be beautiful and I liked how the magical creatures found the wonder in Earth, but the prose was repetitive and the one (1) significant female character was just there for men to fight over. I liked her but she was just sorta there and just sorta symbolic for the purposes of man feelings and I don't like that lmao. Anyway. If you want to read vintage fantasy I guess give it a try, but I couldn't push myself through this.

[arkadijxpancakes]

I haven't seen the word "friendzoned" in relation to Snape. I would find it odd, if it was used as a descriptor for him and his relationship with Lily. Mostly, because the "friendzone" doesn't exist. It's just a term used by shitty, misogynistic men ("nice guy"s, incels, etc.) to denounce any female friends they might have for not being interested in a sexual relationship with them. Usually, it follows this pattern:

shitty misogynistic man has a female friend

instead of valuing her as a friend, he sees her as a walking and warm sex toy (probably one that should take care of his emotional, physical, emotional and physical needs)

when he asks her out and she rejects him, he accuses her of friend zoning him, instead of realizing that a platonic friend might be just that. (Bonus points, if he asks her out multiple time, making her increasingly uncomfortable each time it happens. Or alternatively, he never asks her out and only watches her from the sidelines, seething, while she is living her life.)

It's a misogynistic concept at its core. No matter what one thinks of Lily: She did not friend zone him. It doesn't even matter if Snape was romantically interested in her or not. She was a friend, who cut contact in the end. (Which is a normal thing to do. One doesn't have to keep a friendship they don't want to continue, just like one doesn't have to enter into a romantic relationship, just because the other person is interested.)

The only perspective from which this friend zone accusation could make sense is that of Snape. If he really had romantic feelings for Lily, that she didn't reciprocate, he could've felt friend zoned. (At least in theory. It would still require a certain amount of misogyny on his part.)

So a Snape!hater calling him friend zoned ... sounds odd, to me.

What would be more plausible for Snape!haters is to call him an incel, I guess. I saw some people doing that, in fact. It would still require a very different reading of his character, comparing to yours. While I don't agree with the incel allegations, I can see where they are coming from.

When it comes to whether Snape had romantic feelings for Lily or not (and to how malicious they were, if they were there at all), I think Rowling's mediocre writing is to blame for this.

Firstly, there is this massive tone shift halfway through the series, and Snape is heavily affected by this. He started out as this horrible, mean teacher, who bullies the protagonist and his friend. After GoF, Rowling started to build him up as this tragic figure and martyr, complete with tragic backstory and everything. However, I think she just failed to pull it off. She never really manages to reconcile mean!Snape from the earlier books and tragic!Snape from the later books.

It also doesn't really help that Rowling avoids character development like the plague. Instead of writing about how her characters grow from their experiences, she tends to simply reframe them instead. So Snape doesn't really develop during the books (or during his backstory), he just changes sides. He also never really sheds his meanness. He kind of starts mean and stays mean, never really growing beyond that. (Rowling just drops and ignores his bullying behavior, once it doesn't suit the tone of her books anymore.)

This alone invites readers to have pretty uncharitable readings of him. Especially if they take mean!Snape and apply his early characterization to his later version.

And then there is the whole thing with Lily. Rowling likes to talk about Lily's love a lot. Most of it is focussed on her romantic love for James and her motherly love for Harry. (This means, Lily has sexual connotations from the start. She loved James. And she did so in a sexual way - otherwise, Harry would not exist.) This does spill over onto her relationship with Snape. Because the narrative frames James and Snape as rivals/enemies (with Lily at the center of their rivalry) and because James is romantically interested in Lily, this can lead readers to read Snape as romantically interested in Lily, too.

The flashbacks in Deathly hallow do not help, either.

I just reread the chapter. The first thing I notice was, that there wasn't a single scene that portrayed Lily and Snape as friends, doing friend-things and enjoying their company. Instead, they argue a lot. Even in the earlier memories and in the memories were that could have shown them as best friends.

In addition to this, there are some scenes that would be read as romantic or sexually-predatory in most stories. The most notable once were:

The scene the playground (Snape was around 9 or 10): The narrative frames Snape as a creep, who is hiding in some bushes, to watch Lily. He is described as wearing creepy clothes and having a look of "undisguised greed" on his face, while invading their privacy. (Note: I'm not saying that Snape was a creep in this scene. He was a kid, behaving in a way that was normal for his age and his situation. I just don't think that the setup of this scene was accidental, as it draws heavy parallels to the usual "an adult creep hides in some bushes, to lust after a woman who doesn't even know he's there"-scene. The whole thing could have been set up without the creepy undertones.)

The scene after the playground-scene, where Snape tells her about Hogwarts and rules regarding the usage of magic: The narrative calls him greedy again. (Quote: He watched her as greedily as he had watched her in the playground.)

The scene where they argue about the marauders: First, the scene shows him to be somewhat possessive of her and she picks up on it (He says: "Saved? Saved? You think he was playing the hero? He was saving his neck and his friend's, too! You're not going to - I won't let you -" She answers: "Let me? Let me?") Immediately afterwards, Snape brings up that James fancies her. She then insults James, which leads Snape to be relieved and to have a new spring in his step.

The scene where Dumbledore and Snape talk about Lily's death. Dumbledore says "If you loved Lily Evans, if you truly loved her, then your way forward is clear." Firstly: Fuck you, Dumbledore. Secondly, I think it is important how he stressed Severus' love for Lily and how he doesn't use any qualifiers or the word "friendship". The word "love" in itself is usually reserved for romantic love, especially between a man and a woman.

The when she reads the letter Lily had sent to Sirius: In this scene, he rips the photograph of Lily, James and Harry in two, so he can take the half with Lily with him. In media, most of the scenes that involve the ripping of photographs happen in a romantic context. It's usually the owner of the photograph removing their ex or a lover who is separating their love interest from their rival.

I think, this is where Snape!haters are coming from, when say that Snape was romantically/sexually attracted to Lily and when they call him an incel. I'm not saying that this is the true reading of that chapter, of course. In fact, I think the chapter can be read both ways. It's mostly in the subtext and in the implications that arise from the wider context of literature and pop culture.

When one takes this subtext and its implications and adds Lily's role as love interest and mother (and as a woman that gets fridged to motivate both Snape and Harry) on top of it, Snape's love for Lily will get read as romantic/sexual. And when that reading is then mixed with an uncharitable view of his character (which is mostly caused by the author), "Snape is an incel and a creepy stalker, who never got over his first crush" isn't all that unlikely as a conclusion.

I don't really agree with that reading, but this is probably where people are coming from. (Personally, I'm not really a fan of Snape. However, I do think Rowling did Snape dirty with her uncharitable portrayal of him. He doesn't strike me as particularly misogynistic, either. He just hates everyone equally.)

Sidenote: I just had to add the word "incel" to the library of my language tool. I feel like I have to scrub something. *shudder*

wait,, i sort of just realized something

snaters like to throw around the word 'friendzoned' when talking about him, but severus and lily weren't even friends in the end? it was never 'i don't like you romantically', it was 'we were friends and now we are not'.

canon snily was never actually romantic in the first place, it was more of a close sibling-like best friends bond (i think). (it was a pretty unhealthy friendship for both of them in their later years, but that's completely unrelated.) where did the friendzone thing even come from? was it just because lily ended up dating james and then people interpreted severus' hate for him being caused by that? because as far as i remember, severus hated james for making his life a living hell during hogwarts.

i don't know, i just feel like a lot of snape hate comes from misconceptions within the fandom

[hollowed-theory-hall]

Dumbledore is a little full of himself

Like, I read Tales of Beedle the Bard, and I was struck by how Dumbledore comments on his own cleverness and knowledge in his notes incredibly often:

This prejudice eventually died out in the face of overwhelming evidence that some of the world’s most brilliant wizards(3) were, to use the common phrase, “Muggle-lovers”. [...] 3 Such as myself.

(Albus Dumbledore on “The Wizard and the Hopping Pot”)

I think I may say, without vanity, that both my Fountain and my Hill performed the parts allotted to them with simple goodwill. Alas, that the same could not be said of the rest of the cast.

(Albus Dumbledore on “The Fountain of Fair Fortune”)

Even I, Albus Dumbledore, would find it easiest to refuse the Invisibility Cloak; which only goes to show that, clever as I am, I remain just as big a fool as anyone else.

(Albus Dumbledore on “The Tale of the Three Brothers”)

The guy can hardly talk about anything without talking about how smart and wise and brilliant he is. Like, no humility whatsoever.

In the books, everyone keeps singing his praises like Dumbledore can do no wrong and the only one who keeps saying Dumbledore can be wrong is Harry. And even then, in Harry's limbo vision of King's Cross, which I don't think is really Dumbledore, it's telling Harry envisions him saying something like this:

“And you knew this? You knew — all along?” “I guessed. But my guesses have usually been good,” said Dumbledore happily

(DH, Ch35)

Dumbledore doesn't speak to Harry all that often throughout the series, with book 6 being the one he interacts with him the most. And we see that even in conversations with people, Dumbledore loves to hear how wise and great he is. When he says "I might be mistaken" it's with the tone of "I'm right and everyone else is wrong". Which is usually the case often enough, yes (though not always), but he does it a lot, and I found it interesting how often he uses this phrasing and how smug he seems about it:

And then Dumbledore called out from the back row where he stood with the other teachers — “Aha! Unless I am very much mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbatons approaches!” (GOF)

“I may be wrong,” said Dumbledore pleasantly, “but I am sure that under the Wizengamot Charter of Rights, the accused has the right to present witnesses for his or her case? Isn’t that the policy of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Madam Bones?” he continued, addressing the witch in the monocle. (OotP)

“Payment?” said Harry. “You’ve got to give the door something?” “Yes,” said Dumbledore. “Blood, if I am not much mistaken.” (HBP)

Dumbledore uses this phrasing when he knows what he is saying is correct. He is saying it not because he thinks he might actually be wrong. When he actually thinks he is wrong, he makes excuses and tries to reason why the decision he made was actually reasonable at the time:

“Harry, I owe you an explanation,” said Dumbledore. “An explanation of an old man’s mistakes. For I see now that what I have done, and not done, with regard to you, bears all the hallmarks of the failings of age. Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young ... and I seem to have forgotten lately...”

(OotP)

He is incapable of saying: "I was wrong, it happens, let's move on," it has to come with reasoning or an excuse. He blames it on his age, not that he made a wrong judgment call. This isn't humbleness.

Dumbledore is a character who wants to be humble but just isn't. he considers modesty a virtue. Hell, humility is practically his favorite trait Harry possess:

Harry, who could not see any way out of this without flatly lying, nodded but still said nothing. Slughorn beamed at him. “So modest, so modest, no wonder Dumbledore is so fond — you were there, then?

(HBP) - Slughorn mentions how Dumbledore appreciates modesty.

The third brother in the story (“the humblest and also the wisest”) is the only one who understands that, having narrowly escaped Death once, the best he can hope for is to postpone their next meeting for as long as possible.

(Albus Dumbledore on “The Tale of the Three Brothers”)

He appreciates being humble and modest and sees it as being wise. He derides Tom for thinking of himself as "special" or "clever" even when it's true (and when he does the same). He loves Harry's modesty, which is really low self-esteem, not modesty. Harry's low self-worth is like the ultimate humbleness in Dumbledore's eyes because he doesn't see it for what it is and he was never humble in his life, so he doesn't really know where the balance between confidence and arrogance is or the line between modesty and low self-worth. I think he honestly doesn't know because he is exceptionally arrogant.

Dumbledore created this image of ineffability around him and it's clear Harry is one of the only people (besides Dumbledore and Aberforth) who knows Dumbledore can make a mistake and he keeps reminding Hermione, Lupin, and literally everyone else of that fact:

“People have said it, many times. It comes down to whether or not you trust Dumbledore’s judgment. I do; therefore, I trust Severus.” “But Dumbledore can make mistakes,” argued Harry. “He says it himself. And you” — he looked Lupin straight in the eye — “do you honestly like Snape?”

(HBP)

This is all another case of Dumbledore being incapable of practicing what he preaches. He values modesty, but he doesn't seem to be capable of it.

Now, I'm not saying he isn't clever or special, he is. But he is the type of really smart person who looks down on anyone they don't see as intelligent as them. He doesn't see most people as equal to him.

Dumbledore doesn't see most of the Order or Aberforth as his equals. He never did. Elphias Doge kisses his ass, but Dumbledore clearly doesn't share the same level of respect for him. Or for most people, really.

“Elphias Doge mentioned her to us,” said Harry, trying to spare Hermione. “That old berk,” muttered Aberforth, taking another swig of mead. “Thought the sun shone out of my brother’s every office, he did. Well, so did plenty of people, you three included, by the looks of it.” Harry kept quiet. He did not want to express the doubts and uncertainties about Dumbledore that had riddled him for months now. [...] “Grindelwald. And at last, my brother had an equal to talk to someone just as bright and talented as he was. And looking after Ariana took a backseat then, while they were hatching all their plans for a new Wizarding order and looking for Hallows, and whatever else it was they were so interested in.

(DH)

Dumbledore doesn't trust the majority of the Order with anything because he doesn't think they'd be capable of handling it because they're not him. He literally tells them nothing until he has to, keeping them busy guarding a prophecy he knows can't be stolen by a run-of-the-mill Death Eater. He only tells Harry about the Horcruxes because he has no choice but to tell him. Same with Snape — Dumbledore trusts him out of necessity.

Snape and Grindelwald are the only people we see Dumbledore show respect towards their abilities, wisdom, and magic in some capacity.

Like, he calls Sirius clever, but he talks about him as foolish in the same breath. He calls McGonagall wise, but he clearly doesn't think she's wise enough to be told anything or trusted with anything. And while he does speak highly of Harry's courage and humility and though Harry is insanely powerful and with the right training could beat Dumbledore, Dumbledore keeps putting him down when it comes to magical abilities/intelligence compared to himself:

“I’m not upset.” “Harry, you were never a good Occlumens — ”

(HBP) - even though Harry can and does get really good at it once he does it his way.

“I do not think you will count, Harry: You are underage and unqualified. Voldemort would never have expected a sixteen-year-old to reach this place: I think it unlikely that your powers will register compared to mine.”

(HBP)

I find this tendency of Dumbledore to be really interesting. He underestimates people constantly and thinks too highly of himself. and he is very honest about it to people's faces. He keeps talking about how Voldemort’s defenses on his Horcruxes are shit, and how Voldemort is foolish when the curse Voldemort left on the ring is literally killing him at that very moment:

“I do not think you will count, Harry: You are underage and unqualified. Voldemort would never have expected a sixteen-year-old to reach this place: I think it unlikely that your powers will register compared to mine.” These words did nothing to raise Harry’s morale; perhaps Dumbledore knew it, for he added, “Voldemort’s mistake, Harry, Voldemort’s mistake ... Age is foolish and forgetful when it underestimates youth. ... Now, you first this time, and be careful not to touch the water.”

(HBP)

Dumbledore thinking himself so clever, more clever than Voldemort, is what killed him. His arrogant insistence that he's the smartest man in the room killed him. He is undermining Voldemort for mistakes similar to the ones he makes regularly when interacting with Harry. And he's aware of that. He knows he's a hypocrite:

When I discovered it, after all those years, buried in the abandoned home of the Gaunts—the Hallow I had craved most of all, though in my youth I had wanted it for very different reasons—I lost my head, Harry. I quite forgot that it was now a Horcrux, that the ring was sure to carry a curse. I picked it up, and I put it on, and for a second I imagined that I was about to see Ariana, and my mother, and my father, and to tell them how very, very sorry I was . . . “I was such a fool, Harry. After all those years I had learned nothing. I was unworthy to unite the Deadly Hallows. I had proved it time and again, and here was the final proof.”

(DH) - Dumbledore's portrait

I think Dumbledore's self-awareness is why he wants to like Harry as much as he does. While I don't think Dumbledore knows Harry as well as he thinks he does, what Dumbledore does see is enough for him to imagine Harry in his head as this perfect, virtuous martyr that he wished all his life to portray himself as. He idealizes who he imagines Harry is without fully respecting Harry as his own person with his own abilities.

I just find it interesting that for a character who speaks so highly of humility, he doesn't seem to possess it, and that it ends up being the death of him.

[severus-snaps]

new headcanon: snape & karkaroff

So this might only be new to me but I guess them's the breaks when you (re)join a fandom after a few decades but

Snape and Karkaroff knew each other reasonably well - very well, given that Karkaroff is happy to hound him and hover around him at the drop of a hat, he named Severus in his trial some years prior so they must have spent some time together (and most DEs were split up or anonymous to one another, for various reasons).

Obviously at the time that they're in GoF together, Snape is in his early-mid 30s. Karkaroff is presumably older, at whatever age that a gentlemen goes from having black hair (during his trial 14 years earlier) to white hair (at the time of the Tournament). (Google informs me that "Half of all people have a significant amount of gray hair by the time they turn 50." so presumably he's about or over 50, as his hair is now entirely white). He is also a Headmaster by this point, which suggests a certain level of maturity (given the general ages of the deputy/headteachers at Hogwarts, anyway, and wizarding lifespans).

So (and please do correct me if I'm wrong bc I haven't read GoF in ages so I'm working off of the chapters I've gone through recently) in theory Karkaroff could've been the Dark Arts teacher OR the headmaster at Durmstrang already, by the point Snape graduates from Hogwarts himself.

In a world with little to no higher education, but mostly 'on the job' and similar work experience counting for something, where might Snape have gone to get the 'CV experience' or an apprenticeship he needs to get the DADA job he later applies for?

Durmstrang, of course; where they teach the Dark Arts, and not just defence. I don't think it's a leap that Lucius and/or one of the other Death Eaters or Slytherins would've known Karkaroff before Snape did, and made a connection for Snape to study/apprentice there.

And where did Snape learn to teach? From the very man who outright favours Krum, at the rude expense of other students, perhaps?

“Back to the ship, then,” he was saying. “Viktor, how are you feeling? Did you eat enough? Should I send for some mulled wine from the kitchens?” “Professor, I vood like some vine,” said one of the other Durmstrang boys hopefully. “I wasn’t offering it to you, Poliakoff,” snapped Karkaroff, his warmly paternal air vanishing in an instant. “I notice you have dribbled food all down the front of your robes again, disgusting boy — ”

It's giving:

[Snape] was just telling everyone to look at the perfect way Malfoy had stewed his horned slugs when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeon. Neville had somehow managed to melt Seamus’s cauldron into a twisted blob... “Idiot boy!” snarled Snape.

(Also, such a Snape complement)

Minor evidence for this also includes the fact that Karkaroff calls Snape "Severus", meanwhile Snape calls him "Karkaroff" - a sign of respect or formality, how Snape always calls Dumbledore, 'Dumbledore' - or a sign of dislike, like how Snape is "Severus" to Lupin who's 'playing nice' meanwhile Snape always calls him 'Lupin' and not 'Remus'? Who can say. Possibly both; he's both outranked and irritated by Karkaroff.

By the time Snape meets Karkaroff again, he's somehow cultivated his slightly cooler persona (given how awkward and unpolished Snape was as a student vs how he tries to present himself as a professor at Hogwarts). He is also a much braver man and, arguably, in a safer position than Karkaroff (having over a decade of information on Dumbledore for Voldemort vs having sold out a bunch of other Death Eaters and widely denounced Voldemort), Snape's riddled with grief and even more bitterness - so Karkaroff's constant worrying is, undoubtedly, genuinely irritating to him, as well as the fact that he's genuinely unsettled by Voldemort's possible return as well, even as he tries to hide it.

Now, I can't remember whether it's canon or fanon that Snape first applied for the DADA position on Voldemort's orders, or whether he did it under his own steam, but I think either way this would fit; young Snape would want and/or need the 'relevant' experience of teaching the Dark Arts either way to get the job, and if nothing else he was too young to get it, so how better to fill his time than to prepare somewhere where the Dark Arts aren't only taught to be defended, but in their own right?

Travel isn't really an issue, either; with Portkeys, Floo, Apparition (questionable at that distance and given Hogwarts' own Apparition ban), and a giant magical boat, they could be doing their thing in Durmstrang by day and doing... whatever it is Death Eaters did by night, but I think being at Durmstrang would also be a stronger position, with more resources, to be experimenting with Dark magic and potions than trying to do it in the Malfoys' back garden, for instance

(Also, where did Voldemort like...live during the first war? Did he just pitch up to the Malfoys' every time? Has he got his own house? Have I forgotten that? Was it mentioned?)

Anyway please do correct me if I've gotten anything terribly wrong, but otherwise I'll be holding on to this

[thegirlwhowrites642]

From Book 1(or From book they were introduced) to 7 -changes following characters(some are minor) goes through(characters arc) :-

Harry ,Ginny,Ron,Hermione,Remus , Tonks, Percy, Fleur, lavender

I remember reading this ask and being like "is this a challenge?". I could write books on some of these characters and on others there's very little to tell.

But you know what? As Barney Stinson would say:

Challenged accepted.

I'll need to be very synthetic which is not something I'm good at.

Lavender Brown

Lavender does not sustain any relevant change through the story, she's always painted as very girly and in contrast to Hermione. It's not surprising seeing that she's not a particularly relevant character. The only change we see is that at the start of OotP she doesn't believe Harry but then she's at the first meeting of the DA. She is not stupid or a coward but it's not a revelation of her character, she's always been a clear Gryffindor.

Fleur Delacour

Fleur doesn't really change, we just see new sides of her. In GoF, Harry finds her unlikable, and only when he saves Gabrielle, she warms up to Harry and we discover that she's not that bad. In HBP the Weasley women go through the same thing, with the addiction that seeing that she will be a new member of the family and they have to live with her, her unlikability is far heavier on them. One change that I guess we could see is when in DH before the Battle, when Percy comes back, she's the one that tries to break the tension by asking about Teddy to Remus. This shows an ability to read the room, and as basic as it is, it does seem to be an improvement for her. Most of the rude things she says to the Weasleys in HBP seem to not come from hatred but an inability to have any type of social filter. In an analysis of her character, we could see how this may be linked to her being part Veela.

Percy Weasley

Percy is always presented as an ambitious and smart character who is very academically driven. This does not change. I do not personally recall and have not found any declaration of loyalty towards Dumbledore in the early books (but please correct me if I'm wrong) so him taking the parts of the Ministry is not a change for him. There's on the other hand an interesting change in his relationship with Arthur.

Percy feels a connection with his father for his job at the Ministry and even seems to share Arthur's biggest interest. In the second book, he tells Harry that the optional subjects he should choose are divination and muggle studies. Percy has actually taken all the optional classes because we know he got 12 owls, so these are the ones he really likes and values more (I find it really interesting that the other is divination personally). Now, this is important because when Percy gets away from his family, he mainly rows with Arthur and shows resentment towards him. This seems to be a change due to Percy working at the Ministry for a year and having to deal with having "Weasley" as a surname but of course, we'll never know for sure. He could've bottled up those feelings against his father for years.

Percy needs the Battle of Hogwarts to come back to his family. As every Gryffindor he has braveness but also a lot of pride and stubbornness. By this point, he has no problem addressing his excessive ambition and his wrong behavior toward his family.

Nymphadora Tonks

Tonks is another of those characters that we don't really see changing, we just see different sides of her. If in OotP she's vibrant, funny, and energetic, in HBP she's depressed because of the whole Remus matter. I've seen people during the years say that the way she acted in HBP was out of character and my question is: based on what? How can you say that when we didn't know anything about her intimate emotional sphere? Between the scene in the infirmary and the one written by JKR outside the books, her attitude towards Remus doesn't seem to change. She's extremely sad but she doesn't sulk in silence. In DH she seems to return to her OotP-self which is coherent with her being now married to Remus. We don't know how she reacted to Remus going away, just that eventually they patch it up.

Remus Lupin

Remus is the incarnation of self-hatred. We see it from his very first appearance in PoA, just think about how he stays away from Harry for years and he keeps that attitude even when he becomes his professor. This is a central part of his character, something he constantly battles with and he seems to have a real improvement with the birth of his son. Remus is incredibly happy, he seems to finally start to see himself as worthy of love. Personally, I've always interpreted Remus making Harry Teddy's godfather as a sign of gratefulness for setting him back on the right path.

I've always found Remus's death very fitting because it made sense for me that at the end of the story all the Marauders died but that death is also an enormous tragedy for Remus' character because he's killed when he has finally started accepting himself and had in front of him years of happiness. It kind of cuts his arc right in the middle.

We could talk about the "marauders era" but I feel like I'd be going too much into speculation. What we can say is that surely Halloween of '81 caused a regression in his self-esteem, despite that, I think it's important to remember that it's suggested that Remus always had a sense of gratefulness towards the Marauders (specifically James) on a level that indicates a sense of feeling undeserving of their support.

Hermione Granger

Hermione is not a character that changes a lot, actually. Especially if you consider how much page space she has. But nonetheless, let's dive into what we have.

Managing stressful situations -> In PS we see Hermione not being able to act straight under pressure, in CoS she is not really involved in any action but she seems to be able to handle herself in PoA. Though PoA is also the book in which she goes completely out of control about the optional subjects. The narrative seems to imply that Hermione made a crazy choice taking them all, but we know that both Bill and Percy did it which means it's possible. This implies that Hermione didn't know how to deal with the pressure that all that work required, maybe because some of the subjects were difficult for her, like divination? We'll never know. From GoF, this trait of her seems to disappear.

Social skills -> We meet Hermione as someone with very poor social skills and who has a hard time making friends. I do not consider her becoming friends with Ron and Harry a sign of improvement because the event has very little to do with her social skills. I think in this aspect her friendship with Ginny, and to a minor degree, Neville and Luna, is far more significant. They are born in a more natural way even if still in forced circumstances, like all the time she spends at the Burrow. By the end of OotP, she even learns to not attack Luna on her beliefs. I do not consider the advices she gives Ginny (about Harry) and Harry (about Cho) improvement because I do not think she ever had a problem understanding situations as a third party, she doesn't know how to act when she's directly involved.

Family -> Hermione progressively distances herself from her parents spending constantly more time with the Weasleys to the point that one wonders where she would have spent Christmas of 1996 if she hadn't fought with Ron. It's not clear what are her motivations and feelings about it. In OotP we know that she cares about them knowing she became a prefect because at least they know what that means. The apex is her wiping away their memories of her but we know she eventually restores them. She's accepted by the Weasleys as family but through Ron, instead of that unconditional way in which Harry is a Weasley. If and how much she feels grateful for the Weasleys is not clear.

Ron -> I don't think her view of Ron changes much frankly, she was always more susceptible to his behavior. She seems to officially develop romantic feelings for him during CoS because, by the start of PoA, she obviously likes him. She always seemed pretty aware of her feelings but not open to making the first move. In HBP she invites Ron to the Christmas party which is surely an improvement but she remains very vague and in fact, we all know what happens. She does kiss Ron first but considering that they are three minutes away from a very likely death I don't think it can be considered character development. She also shows repeatedly that she's aware of Ron's insecurities but doesn't really act accordingly with the exception of her complimenting Ron about his idea of the fangs before the battle, could they have possibly talked about what happened with the locket? I suppose the real end of the arc, even if we jump from a first kiss to marriage, is her marrying Ron and having children with him.

House-elves -> The information we know about what she does after the books suggest that she eventually learns how to properly deal with the house-elves matter. While her feelings about the issue in the books are correct, her way of dealing with them is deeply wrong.

Ron Weasley

Ron is a character that consistently messes up and consistently improves himself afterward. From the start, we are made very aware of Ron's insecurities and his need to prove himself.

Insecurities regarding Harry -> From the first book we are made aware that Ron's aspiration is having glory, and success, in short: what Harry has. These feelings arrive at a peak in GoF when Harry becomes one of the champions, Ron eventually understands his error and apologies. Since then he really tries his best to suppress his insecurities about Harry and besides a comment about height in HBP, he needs a Horcrux to bring them up again. The destruction of the locket is symbolically Ron finally completely getting over this insecurity. It's made quite obvious by the story, especially when Harry says that he just knows it must be Ron who destroys the Horcrux.

Insecurities regarding his siblings -> He feels the weight of being the sixth son and the confrontation with Ginny who is the only girl, he constantly feels overshadowed and like he's not enough. The twins seem to be the main source of his insecurities, as suggested by Hermione. Like the ones about Harry, these too find a moment of resolution with the destruction of the Horcrux. The final push in the direction of understanding that he's not the least loved could probably be attributed to what Bill does for him during the period he is separated from his best friends during the seventh book. But we can already see significant growth by the end of OotP where he becomes very open to the idea of Ginny being included in his group of friends. By this point, he has won the Quidditch Cup and the twins are not around anymore. It's interesting to notice how he will end up working alongside George for life, unfortunately, though, the factor of Fred being dead can't be ignored.

Hermione -> Already in the first book, we see an arc with these two. Ron goes from being mean to Hermione to becoming her best friend. During the second year, he already manifests romantic feelings toward her. But as PoA makes it clear, he has absolutely no grasp on what he feels for her, for that we need to wait for the Yule Ball, and even there there's still a solid level of denial. By the fifth book though, Ron's attitude suggests that he has become aware of his feelings. In the sixth, I do not think that Ron doesn't know what Hermione feels for him. Hermione's attitude is far too explicit. I think he doesn't believe to be enough for her, as his reaction to Hermione kissing Krum suggests. If she was actually with the famous Victor Krum then the moment they get together she'll realize that he's not enough, right? This is reinforced by the whole Felix felicis mess. His relationship with Lavender seems to bring a new level of maturity to Ron as we see blatantly at the start of DH. Ron here also repairs his error of not inviting Hermione to the Yule Ball. Yet we know that he won't be completely rid of his insecurities until he comes back and destroys the Horcrux. After we'll also have the first moment in which Ron openly acknowledges his feelings for Hermione with Harry with a quote that I absolutely love: "All's fair in love and war, and this is a bit of both" (and then he married her and they had babies).

Career choice -> Ron stopping to be an Auror, a lifelong dream due to his need of proving himself, suggest an ability to finally overcome all those insecurities that he had, despite the fact that he will inevitably remain in part a person inclined to develop insecurities, he does a great job on himself.

Prejudices -> Ron is a character that grows up in the wizarding world and as a pureblood, despite the Weasleys being quite accepting and progressive we see him retain some prejudices, specifically against werewolves and half-giants. But because he's Ron, he soon overcomes his bias. While he never treated them badly, we also see him becoming sensible to the enslavement of the house-elves.

Luna -> Ron also becomes consistently more friendly with Luna. If in HBP he still calls her "Loony", in DH he shows a strong affection for the girl, highlighting Ron's great improvement in terms of maturity after the Lavender situation.

Ginny Weasley

Ginny is a pretty easy character to follow through the story, because of the role she covers in Harry's life her presence is usually well defined.

Confidence -> We are first introduced to Ginny in the form of a young girl with a strong personality, a need to not be left behind by her brothers, and a strong fascination for the famous legendary Harry Potter. Already from the scene where she runs after the train, we see the definition of her personality, both strong and sweet: she half laughs and half cries. Ginny's big expectations for Hogwarts are completely destroyed in this second book. We discover her as someone who has some strong insecurities regarding Harry and has a hard time fitting in. These insecurities that she could have probably easily gotten over considering her previous attitude are instead increased by Riddle's diary. This is a very different Ginny from the one we'll discover in OotP where she's outgoing, popular, and confident, the Ginny we'll keep seeing for the rest of the story. In between, we had PoA where she faded into the background, and GoF where she was already a lot more outgoing, her main insecurity remaining Harry, this is the year where she finally decides to get over him and starts dating Micheal. [for more about Ginny's insecurities check this post]. It's also interesting to note that during the progression of the books she becomes less and less open to being shoved aside because she is the girl or the youngest, her disagreement is consistently more and more strong. Becoming the mother of a youngest sibling who is a girl offers her the opportunity of ending that cycle.

Trauma -> At the tender age of eleven, Ginny goes through an enormous life-changing trauma that many readers during the years have described as "mind-rape". We see frequent glimpses of how this negatively affects her during the second book. By the end of CoS Ginny seems to be feeling pretty well as for the very start of PoA (the trip to Egypt probably helped). She has a regression that leads her to fade into the background due to the dementor incident, this and her being a lot more out-going in GoF suggests that her second year was the one dedicated to resolving the major part of her trauma. She goes back to being herself but with the inevitable changes of someone who lived through something so dark. She becomes quite guarded with her own feelings and has strong responses to people not respecting her boundaries.

Harry -> Ginny grew up hearing stories about the famous Harry Potter, and soon her fascination with this boy develops into full romantic feelings, probably a combination of Ron's stories and actually meeting Harry. It's important to notice how her feelings are never dismissed as a crush, she's said to have always been "quite taken" with Harry (GoF). And Harry is canonically the person who understands her perfectly so we have this on good authority. Ginny is overwhelmed by her feelings for him which make her uncharacteristically shy. Her insecurities when it comes to Harry contribute to her being subjected to Riddle. By the end of CoS, she seems more comfortable around her future husband. But PoA reminds us that she still has feelings for him and is still shy about it, even if she has a moment of boldness with the singing card. GoF is what changes everything, the combination of Harry's crush on Cho and Hermione's advice brings her to try to live a little and start looking at other fish in the sea, even if we know that deep down she never really gave up on Harry. During her fourth year, finally able to act like herself in front of him, she becomes quite an essential part of Harry's life. In the summer of '96, they officially become close friends, and during HBP we see glimpses of Ginny becoming increasingly worse at hiding her feelings for Harry while dating Dean. By the time of the break-up at Dumbledore's funeral, we know for sure that she's in love with him (that "I like you so much" is the worst disguised I love you in the history of time). DH reminds us that, in case someone had forgotten, Ginny has come a long way from the shy little girl, and clarifies with Harry that she's going to wait for him. And she did, ladies and gentlemen, she did.

Defender of the marginalized (Neville and Luna) -> In GoF she's embarrassed about going to the Ball with Neville, in OotP she defends him. At the start of OotP she calls Luna "Loony" (not with ill intention but it shows she has not taken the time to get to know her) by the end of the book they are friendly and in HBP she outright defends her from bullies. [for an insight into her relationship with Neville and Luna, read this post] This theme has a continuation with what she does at Hogwarts during the war.

Fleur -> In HBP she has an arc in her relationship with Fleur who she detests. At the end of the book, she begrudgingly accepts the girl in her family. [a clear nod to Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" if you want my opinion]

Quidditch -> She goes from training herself for years in secret to entering the house team as a second option in a position she doesn't prefer, to becoming the life and soul of the team and finally, she becomes a professional player and then a sports journalist. The theme of "coming out of the shadow" is very dominant in her character.

Writing -> Through the series, Ginny manifests an interest in creative writing. An activity strongly linked with her biggest trauma but we see a complete reappropriation of this passion when she becomes a journalist. While maybe due to her fading into the background in PoA, it's still interesting to note that the year dedicated to her emotional recovery is also the only one where in the book there are no elements that associate her with creative writing.

Harry Potter

I'm writing the summary of the summary of the summary of the summary for Harry because I could write seven other books on him.

Family -> Harry lives with a constant need of having a family as we see in the first book very explicitly. At the start of the series we see Harry hating the Dursleys (mainly Vernon) but still having some sort of need to connect with them, they are technically his family, after all. It ends when Sirius arrives in the picture and Harry completely takes him in as a parental figure, relying on Sirius' official role as his godfather. How Harry reacts to the argument between Sirius and Molly in OotP shows how the Weasleys are like family to him, but Sirius is family. With Sirius' death, the role of Harry's family falls exclusively on Ginny as made explicit in DH [for a bit of an insight on this, read this post]. Harry concludes his story as a husband and a father, finally achieving his heart's greatest desire.

Ron and Hermione -> Harry is never particularly confrontational with them, not surprising considering how he grew up. He avoids calling out Ron and he takes Hermione's nagging internalizing his annoyance towards her and fundamentally ignoring her. In the fifth book, he has a lot of understandable pent-up rage and he takes it out on them. Probably because they stick with him through that, in HBP he feels a bit more comfortable at occasionally criticizing Ron and manifesting verbally his annoyance towards Hermione. Nothing spectacular, mind you, but still, there's a bit of a change. Through the books, Harry also becomes progressively more aware of Ron's insecurities but he finally really grasps how deep they are rooted only with the destruction of the locket.

Ginny -> Harry's journey with his feeling for Ginny is more of a finding out something that was always there instead of about acquiring it. Since the first book Harry has a certain pull toward Ginny. In PS, PoA, and GoF is quite subtle, in CoS is honestly kind of thrown in the reader's face, it's very obvious even if Harry has no idea about it. But it's only in OotP that Harry's subconscious is finally given a full justification for this attraction he has for Ginny because she finally shows herself to him completely. By the time Harry kisses Cho, it's becoming quite difficult for Harry too to keep ignoring how superficial his feelings for the Ravenclaw girl are, and not coincidentally right after, it starts to become impossible to ignore Ginny in the book. Harry is reminded of their connection with darkness, she establishes herself as Harry's source of optimism, and the growing feelings that Harry has for her are nearly revealed to him in the easter eggs scene. At the end of the book, Harry's protectiveness toward her comes back all the way from CoS. Through HBP Harry's feelings for Ginny become constantly more impossible to ignore until the big revelation. Harry has a denial phase, a very long pining phase and then he finally kisses her. Their relationship is blissful oblivion (;D) and it's made quite clear that it's far from a casual teenage romance. Then there's the break-up, which funnily enough shows how much Harry loves her, and in DH, he associates more than once Ginny with marriage and family. His fight with Ron in the tent forces Harry to think about how uncertain he left things with Ginny and of the possibility of her being in danger. Before the final battle, Harry is open to losing Ginny's trust if that means her being alive. As we all know she is his last thought before dying and so it's not surprising then that Harry's story ends with him married to Ginny with kids.

Touch -> Harry is clearly someone that is not exactly comfortable with physical affection, clearly due to his upbringing. The first person he hugs in the series is Ginny in HBP. Touch is a strong component of their relationship and Harry seems to become a little more open to touch with other people too thanks to Ginny. In DH he hugs Mrs. Weasley and Ron and he doesn't feel uncomfortable when Hermione takes his hand in front of his parents' grave (admittedly he had more pressing matters at that moment than feeling uncomfortable but still). If we look at Harry's last thoughts of Ginny before dying there's once again touch ("[...]and the feel of her lips on his—"). Emotional conversations though seem to remain something he's comfortable only with Ginny and I suspect that to remain true for a very long time.

Being the hero -> While for us it's always obvious that Harry is the hero of the story, we're reading books named after him, in the story it goes a tad differently. PS establishes Harry has a natural hero, fighting evil is part of who he is, a concept remarked by Dumbledore and Ginny (his mentor and his soulmate, not exactly two random people). When he arrives in the wizarding world, Harry has this old fame and there are hints of him not being an average wizard, but it's only in CoS that Harry starts seeing that there's something out of the ordinary about him. Harry grows progressively more aware of his own role in the story and also of his own nature, GoF besides being the book that changes everything in the tone of the story and officially creates the need for conclusion in the HarryVSVoldemort situation, is also the book in which Harry starts thinking about being an Auror. OotP is the book in which he knows that he's not normal, status accentuated by his PTSD and survivor guilt, but everybody keeps telling him that he has to act like he is. When he finally learns about the prophecy in a way there's a sense of calm that settles in him, at least it all finally makes sense. And in HBP he is finally let into the big scheme, he works with Dumbledore. The sixth book is the best written one of the series because it's the more structured. Harry Potter lives both as Harry and the Chosen One with a constant back and forth between these two realities. The Harry one is strongly linked to Ginny, in fact, the break-up is symbolic of the Chosen One burying Harry deep down. In DH the Chosen One keeps being dominant over Harry and all the moments in which he allows himself to think of Ginny are the moments in which despite the Chosen One best efforts he can't hide Harry underwater. The death (where non coincidentally Ginny is brought up again) is in some way the actual death of the Chosen One. His mission is completed, the one that comes back is a Harry who actively chooses the take upon himself the mantel of the hero. It's Harry Potter that kills Voldemort, not the Chosen One. That chapter of his life officially closes with Ron and Hermione who in a way are also saying goodbye to the Chosen One and to their roles as his helpers. Harry saying that he needs to talk to Ginny is an indicator of this new Harry who is finally whole, merging the different parts of him, he's grown into himself, let's not forget that this is a coming-of-age story before anything else. This new Harry is the one we fully see in the Epilogue, aware of his identity as a hero but also free to finally make his own choices.

Dumbledore -> Harry for the first four books is very trusting of Dumbledore, but as for a lot of other sub-plots, then everything changes. OotP is the book in which Harry starts seeing that maybe Dumbledore is human after all and in fact, during HBP he is open to the possibility of Dumbledore being wrong. Harry is devastated by Dumbledore's death who was both his mentor and a grandfather sort of figure. His last protection is taken away and he has to step into the real world. Through DH Harry discovers another side of Dumbledore and that, added to his frustration and depression, leads him to become quite frustrated with Dumbledore who, at the end of the book, it turns out, had one last card hidden from Harry. Then there's a final reconciliation in the metaphysical King's Cross where Dumbledore owns up to his mistakes and Harry, in typical Harry's fashion, forgives him.

James and Lily -> since the very beginning of the story Harry craves the idea of meeting his parents. He particularly looks up to James and hopes to be like him, he finds pride in the idea. This is true until Snape's worst memory where feels a bit like a fool for all the years he looked up to his father. He also has a first real approach to Lily and he likes how she behaved in that situation. At the end of OotP, we see Harry reconciliation with his father, accepting that after all, it's part of being a human being flawed, yet from then Harry looks more at his mother like we can easily see when he talks to his parents and Sirius and Remus before walking to his death.

Neville and Luna -> Harry sometimes is a teenager like everybody else and so he looks down on people like Neville and Luna who are kind of the losers of the situation. But thanks to the two of them going to the Ministry with him he learns better, after all, he values courage above everything else and he grows to really respect them. This is underlined by the contrast in his feelings about riding the train with them in OotP and HBP.

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Note: Before someone starts with the "But you didn't talk about this and that!": it's a synthesis.

[lucynda]

I'm someone who once disliked Ron a lot. Then I re-read the books when I was older and realised how much Ron's life sucks.

To clarify, Ron isn't abused and his family loves him but it's clear that they often forget about him.

Like in philosopher's stone when he doesn't even get his own wand while Percy get an owl (and while I believe Percy deserve good things for his hard work, it's a bad look) and than on the train he doesn't even get his favourite food and instead he gets food that he doesn't like.

I checked, Ron's favourite food is his mum's bacon sandwich. Molly could easily prepare his favourite for a train ride to BODRING SCHOOL. She isn't going to see her son for next 10 months and it's his first time in Hogwarts but I guess I don't care if he at least gets something nice to eat.

Instead Ron gets corrned beef sandwich that he hates.

This may seem small but this sort of thing is all over books 1-7 and than people are surprised when he is hurt by the while thing in GoF or the whole leaving thing in DH

There are clues all over the story how low is Ron's self-esteem and how unloved he feels but I guess it doesn't matter to some people

I was scrolling in tiktok through ron and harry hashtag bc I've missed them and I'm just so mad. I saw people in the comments saying that they don't like ron because he is selfish and doesn't care about Harry's trauma or he is always jealous of Harry and I'm like wtf. Like Ron is so sweet and he cares so much about Harry. He didn't want him to live in that horrible house so he always invited him to his house and never took no as an answer. He even flew a car to get him out of there. He hasn't ever been jealous of him, not for money and not for fame. In gof he was mad at Harry because he thought he didn't trust him enough to tell him he put his name in the goblet and he was sad he did it without him. In ofp he defends Harry and he tries to distract him from the gossip about him. He didn't even know that harry was in love with Ginny but still when they kissed he wasn't mad at Harry. He was shocked and ofc he didn't like seeing them snogging but he smiled when Harry and Ginny kissed for the first time even though his worst fear was to be second to his siblings. Harry was his friend. He was the first person to notice him and value him for who he is and not for who his brothers are. He could have been mad at Harry but he wasn't. He was glad that they were happy together so he ignored his insecurities. That is the exact opposite of being selfish. Besides he never left Harry's side. He always helped him and even when everybody hated him he still supported him.

Ron was the best friend Harry could have picked and I hate people that say otherwise