#peak harry in ootp/hbp

[mistress-riddle]

hit em up being released in summer time 1996 is actually perfect for mr. crash out, mad, sassy, traumatised harry potter, his ass should and will be jamming out to that song

[whinlatter]

sorry if you've discussed this before, but do you think ginny's quidditch talent came out of nowhere? it's a common criticism I see about her but I feel like that kind of overstates how much of a quidditch "star" she was at the beginning, like she was consistently described as good but not great until partway into hbp and I also think it makes sense she'd keep it a secret from her teasing brothers. but maybe they're right and I'm just biased towards defending ginny

thank you for the question, anon!

the short answer is - no, i think it's (just about) plausibly rendered in the books. i think the series gets away with it because:

the story is told from the perspective of a teenage boy aka peak obliviousness in corporeal form, so we see what harry sees (and harry notices big fat nothing)

there is an entirely adequate narrative explanation for ginny's sporting skills that most readers not operating in bad faith* can put together, as you suggest: ginny comes from a sporty family who are all good at quidditch; she is of middling-to-good seeking ability when she first joins the team in ootp; she then has a good few months flying several times a week where she would necessarily grow in confidence and experience, leaving her perfectly able to blossom in hbp in a high school sport where she is competing against other children. fine and dandy in my book.

also quidditch is a broadly dumb and pointless plot so ginny being good at it is just a fun extra that we don't need to deep too much because - let's be real - quidditch is a waste of page space.

*i say this because, most of the time, these takes come from those who don't like hinny as a pairing. which is entirely their right and prerogative! it personally doesn't float my boat to spend my days doing worst faith readings of the text in order to make the case against canon ships i don't like, but as this is a race to the bottom - we are all adults dissecting children's books written by a nasty spiteful woman rotting in her mouldy castle spouting slurs, after all - who am i to judge.

(i also suspect the 'ginny is good at quidditch out of nowhere' takes have enjoyed such a long shelf-life on eg. reddit because the films are still most people's primary reference for HP takes so complaints about them then get cast back on the books - and, in the films, ginny does in fact rock up in film 6 like she's mbappé, if mbappé had the charisma of an extraordinarily soggy bath mat.)

with that said... could it have done with a bit more foreshadowing? yes, probably. people who don't like hinny as a pairing and prefer another are never going to be convinced - that's fine! but here i am, a paid-up hinny supporter, and even i think ginny's character development is sometimes wanting, to a frustrating and problematic extent. good writing (usually) means showing not telling, and it's weird and lazy of jkr to be so slapdash about revealing this and other character details about ginny and other (often female) characters. i think it's particularly striking that jkr underserves characters (again, usually women) who exist to serve the emotional development of characters (usually men), rather than the mystery plot(s) that drive hp as a series. (wanted! tonks' personality! last seen making fake pig noses and being the only auror mad eye moody mentored as his successor, for no plot reason!)

while i'm not a die-hard adherent to the chekhov's gun principle, i think one of the strengths of many novels du jour - especially the nothing really happens postmodern novel that crowds the bookshop shelves these days - is that their conventions allow authors to add colour to characters without each tiny detail being pregnant with meaning and in service of a driving plot that must be marched forward at all times. that can be really nice! as readers, we like to get a sense of characters as well-rounded living breathing people who go for a wee and take the bins out and stick on an album because it slaps every now and then; in these novels, we're also happier with the idea that things can happen to characters beyond the protagonist that don't directly impact the plot or demand the protagonist knows more than their own very limited vantage point. you have more room to play with character as a result.

jkr, ofc, isn't that kind of author. jkr is in fact an author for whom everything about her characters serves the plot. this, after all, is the brain that brought you 'remus lupin' the werewolf, and named the bad-guy-turned-good-guy in a book using a big black dog as a red herring omen of death 'sirius black'. jkr wants her audience to notice clues and remember little details about characters because they might be significant later on. this is entirely her wont and - lupin and sirius aside - she's often very good at it. the hp books are all standalone mysteries, and, when they land, those mysteries slap. ginny being the culprit in CoS is a genuinely satisfying resolution to the whodunit plot: this was reflected in critical reception at the time and was part of the reason why hp was able to be marketed as a children's book adults would also enjoy thereafter. there are also very satisfying foreshadowing and mystery plots that straddle the entire series and that reward the reader with reasonably good pay-off at the series end. (my favourite is the foreshadow within the foreshadow - e.g. regulus black barrelling back from ootp in DH, but then regulus' plot turning out to ultimately exist to foreshadow snape's own double agent status... delicious).

for my part, it's also what i want out of the fiction i read and the stories i try to write. i want everything to mean something. i want the weather, clothing, setting, body language etc to all do heavy lifting. i want character work to do work. it makes it fun for me to write and (i hope) it can it a bit more fun for the reader.

the problem is that while jkr is good setting up some mysteries, she is bad at others, and the romantic plot is one she falls down (a bit) on. she sets herself up for this: she wants to be a plot-centred mystery writer, so she does have an obligation to do better in how she deploys character details. jkr does to try to write the harry/ginny romance like a mystery, with little hints throughout the series up to the reveal of harry's feelings for ginny in HBP. (even ginny's full name is nominative determinism, finally revealed in DH once the reader has been told her place in the plot - ginevra, so guinnevre, the hero's queen). and while i will never not tire of pointing out to all of reddit that harry/ginny didn't come out of nowhere, and there is some satisfying foreshadowing knocking about here and there, i think it's fair to say that the harry/ginny build-up is not as satisfying as it could have been because jkr is basically lazier about the clues that ginny is the character harry will ultimately fall for, while she is much better at dropping clues for the series' central plot. that ginny ends the series with no real resolution of the primary tensions that motivate her other than her love of harry is probably the most acute example of this. but there's lots about her character where jkr phones it in a bit in fleshing her out or taking it to any logical conclusions or interesting plot directions. a smattering of examples:

ginny is the character who spends the entire series demanding to be included and not underestimated ends the series... with no real major role in the battle other than causing harry panic, while all other central characters receive a satisfying narrative arc that speaks to their central motivators across the series as a whole. (for an interesting discussion of what should have happened with ginny and the horcruxes, see here. i didn't even pay @saintsenara to write this!)

there are lots of shades of colour to ginny's character that are introduced pointlessly. i have previously talked about my beef with arnold the pygmy puff. we know ginny is popular but we know nothing of her friends who are all faceless plotless nobodies. we know ginny supports the all-womens quidditch team in a way that implies a nascent feminist politics after a childhood being excluded from playing a sport she loves by her brothers - yet we know nothing of it. we know ginny loves the one wizarding band that seems to exist because she has a poster of them on her wall and it just.... is something we just get told about her. now, all of these suggest ginny is a good time gal and a right laugh at the pub. and that's nice! i too am fun at the pub! but why does it matter? it wouldn't, in another series. but in a series where Everything Matters, it really stands out.

now..... i don't think all of this is an unsolveable problem for those of us writing fanfiction about ginny or harry and ginny as a couple. i don't think this makes ginny an inherently bad character. i hope the amount of life i have wasted thinking about this character is testament to this (...) and i personally find trying to cook up some fleshed-out characterisation and a satisfying arc for ginny, and for female characters more generally, from the crumbs of the original source material to be a very rewarding way to pass the time and a fuck you to a woman who thinks she can gatekeep womanhood while writing some astonishingly antifeminist fiction. i think harry and ginny are a deeply compelling and eminently plausible couple, and i think i return to writing about them as much as i do because i think they have a ton of potential as narrative mirrors and as characters with a rich well of tension but also devotion between them. as i say a lot, i think one of the things the harry/ginny pairing does refreshingly well compared to other romantic lead couples in YA fiction is show a couple that, at heart, genuinely get on very well, have a laugh together and enjoy each other's company in completely mundane lovely day-to-day ways (laundry and taxes u know). i think that's a striking and refreshing dynamic that i like to spend time fleshing out and playing with and writing about. but i can also see that there is an inconsistency in jkr's character work here, particularly her character work writing female characters, of which ginny is among the most acute examples.

[startanewdream]

Giving my two cents to defend why I "don't see it".

Harry and Ginny are passionate, extremely attracted to each other and physical people—but their physical interactions in canon come in the shape of understanding the other, that's when they are most physical with each other.

They kiss "three times" in the books:

Their first kiss, which happens after Ginny throws her arms around Harry with a hard blazing look— and during their breakup, Harry notes that Ginny had the "same hard, blazing look that he had seen when she had hugged him after winning the Quidditch Cup in his absence, and he knew that at that moment they understood each other perfectly". Harry kissed her "without thinking, without planning it, without worrying about the fact that fifty people were watching" because he is an impulsive guy, but only after he understood that Ginny fancied him back.

Their goodnight kiss the night before Dumbledore's funeral. This is the scene:

“Of course there isn’t,” said Harry, who became angry every time this subject cropped up. “They won’t find Snape till they find Voldemort, and seeing as they’ve never managed to do that in all this time . . .” “I’m going to go to bed,” yawned Ginny. “I haven’t been sleeping that well since . . . well . . . I could do with some sleep.” She kissed Harry (Ron looked away pointedly), waved at the other two, and departed for the girls’ dormitories.

Harry is getting angry, but Ginny does not say anything because when comes to discussing Voldemort, she just isn't part of the trio (and by now I guess she knew what Harry would eventually do).

The birthday kiss. Ginny is not angry about their breakup, nor is she weepy. She kisses Harry and there is no argument, no discussion about feelings, or exchanged promises. It's a final kiss that will be Harry's last thought.

Now, there are scenes in which Harry and Ginny "discuss".

Lucky you scene: Ginny is angry and she is right; Harry says he is right.

“Well, that was a bit stupid of you,” said Ginny angrily, “seeing as you don’t know anyone but me who’s been possessed by You-Know-Who, and I can tell you how it feels.” Harry remained quite still as the impact of these words hit him. Then he turned on the spot to face her. "I forgot," he said. "Lucky you," said Ginny coolly. "I'm sorry," Harry said, and he meant it.

After Harry has a vision of Sirius taken in OotP: he is rude when Ginny shows up to help, which she pointedly notes to him, but later she offers to help anyway.

“Hi,” said Ginny uncertainly. “We recognized Harry’s voice — what are you yelling about?” “Never you mind,” said Harry roughly. Ginny raised her eyebrows. “There’s no need to take that tone with me,” she said coolly. “I was only wondering whether I could help.” “Well, you can’t,” said Harry shortly. (...)

Though clearly struggling to understand what was going on, Ginny said immediately, “Yeah, we’ll do it,”

Before the Quidditch match against Hufflepuff in HBP: Harry and Ginny clearly have different priorities by then, she is pissed that he is late, but then after he is injured, Ginny visits him (and argues with her boyfriend when he mocks Harry).

“Where have you been?” demanded Ginny, as Harry sprinted into the changing rooms. The whole team was changed and ready; Coote and Peakes, the Beaters, were both hitting their clubs nervously against their legs. “I met Malfoy,” Harry told her quietly, as he pulled his scarlet robes over his head. “So?” “So I wanted to know how come he’s up at the castle with a couple of girlfriends while everyone else is down here. . . .” “Does it matter right now?” “Well, I’m not likely to find out, am I?” said Harry, seizing his Firebolt and pushing his glasses straight. “Come on then!” And without another word, he marched out onto the pitch to deafening cheers and boos.

(...)

“Ginny came in to visit while you were unconscious,” he said, after a long pause, and Harry’s imagination zoomed into overdrive, rapidly constructing a scene in which Ginny, weeping over his lifeless form, confessed her feelings of deep attraction to him while Ron gave them his blessing. . . . “She reckons you only just arrived on time for the match. How come? You left here early enough.”

Compare these scenes with Ron and Hermione's fights; Ron and Hermione enjoy firing up the other, they enjoy their spats. Whereas, while Harry and Ginny don't agree with each other on all points (bless them for it), and they don't stand down either, arguing does not seem to bring them any joy, any heat just for the sake of it. Harry and Ginny would have giant outbursts because they are both people who tend to talk before thinking through? Yes. They would argue, neither wanting to stand down. They would be mad and sleep apart. But they also understand each other more than anyone else, so they would raise in the middle of the night and Ginny would open the door and Harry would be there ready to knock, they would say they are sorry at the same time, then something might happen; born of their love for each other and their knowledge that they want to be with each other and they will solve whatever it's their issue. Make-up sex, passionate-after-arguing sex, but not angry-fight sex.

Ok so a few people have suggested, based off of my last poll, that I make one asking if Harry and Ginny are angry fight sex people. So, without further ado

Headcanons and elaborations are welcome in the comment section.

Please be kind everyone 😁

[ashesandhackles]

Voldemort, Bellatrix and Barty Crouch Jr for the character ask Apologies if you are tired of receiving more of these asks.

I am starting to think you are sending me these asks because I have cool song recs 😤 - because my last one was entirely a shitpost. XD

But no worries, I am a humble blogger and I take all opportunities to procrastinate at work.

• favourite thing about them

Voldemort: patricide. Voldemort's rage at his father's abandonment of him makes him super compelling to me. His backstory in HBP was fascinating.

Barty Crouch Jnr: Father issues that he projects onto Voldemort.

Bellatrix: she is the prime example of wanting to uphold terrible patriarchal, anti women ideologies while wanting to be an exception.

• least favourite thing about them

Voldemort: what a great, humble guy. I can't think of anything I dislike.

Barty Crouch Jnr: that he got killed off. One of the few competent DEs we had.

Bellatrix: Okay I am going to answer this one seriously - I think the moment I viscerally hate what's on page is her offering Hermione to Fenrir Greyback.

• favourite line

Voldemort: "May your loyalty never waver again, Wormtail" - because that was a line he made while gifting the silver hand. It's on reread that you realise he is making a threat.

Barty Crouch Jnr: Oscar level acting for "It wasnt me mother" hysterics at the trial for him. But also his villain monologue at the end of GOF maybe?

Bellatrix: tbh, it's less her line and more of Harry baiting her to get a reaction, "did you know he was a half blood too?" Lmao or Snape's bored 'Yes indeed, most admirable" when she talks about staying in Azkaban for Voldemort.

• BroTP

Voldemort: Nagini. His only true friend.

Barty Crouch Jnr: Peter. The year they worked together in GOF brought them closer

Bellatrix: it used to be Andromeda, but now she has to settle for her baby sister, Cissy.

• OTP

Voldemort: Given his massive reaction to her death even though he spends Dark Lord Ascending chapter toying with her, dangling his favour while making some innuendos, I am going to say Bella.

Barty Crouch Jnr: had a crush on Regulus. It led nowhere.

Bellatrix: polyamory setup with Voldemort and Rodolphus, because that is more interesting reading than Rodolphus being insecure about the relationship.

nOTP

All three of them shouldn't be around normal characters Imao. Everyone is a nOTP.

Random headcanon

Voldemort: He robbed Borgin and Burke's before he left. He enjoys his little antique dark objects collection that Lucius is now forced to keep in his basement.

Barty Crouch Jnr: Winky was his carer and best friend growing up.

Bellatrix: Kind of respects Sirius and Andromeda in a twisted way for having convictions even though she hates what those are, while she condescends to Narcissa (and possibly Regulus when he was alive).

Unpopular opinion

Voldemort: on his own, the adult persona of Voldemort feels flat, unless you consider Tom Riddle and how what drives Tom feeds the Voldemort persona. When you combine the two, he makes more sense as a character. Plus Dark Lord Ascending is him at his peak Toxic Bad Boss glory.

Barty Crouch Jnr: Would be more interested in him and Snape in GOF. He would have figured out Snape's true loyalties, yes?

Bellatrix: she does display more on page nuance than what initially reads to the eye. The fact that she doesn't sell out Narcissa's Unbreakable Vow with Snape, teaches Draco Occlumency, disagrees with Voldemort on Snape's loyalties (although this is a bit coloured by jealousy), and is seen running with Lucius (Imao) when Voldemort starts murdering people when he realises the Hufflepuff cup is stolen. She is also terrified by the idea that the cup may be stolen (by seeing the sword) so she has a great degree of fear of Voldemort and does not seem to think she will escape death at his hands. She also calls Sirius "Animagus Black" at end of OOTP to Voldemort which is super distancing language, as if to tell Voldemort they aren't related. Very interesting stuff.

• songs I associate with them

Voldemort : Here is one for his rebirth sequence

Barty Crouch Jnr: Here is him waiting under the Imperius for his Master, his true father lol

Bellatrix: for the vibes.

• favourite picture of them

Voldemort: this one. It's just perfect.

Barty Crouch Jnr: I have only seen one fanart of Jnr (and it was a very good one)

Bellatrix: Giblimort's Bellatrix. Fully embracing the haughty aristocratness.

[batmansymbol]

Omg this chapter with Ron! And you posted a chapter count! I absolutely love your writing and this story ❤️ what did you used to think of Ron and what made you change your mind about him? I'm having similar feelings Tm

sweet anon!! thank you so much for reading and yaaay for the Feelings TM :) honestly, i’ve always loved Ron as a character. he feels so real to me, flawed but in a way that’s consistent with his strengths. it’s more my feelings on Ron & Hermione’s relationship that have changed over the years.

i had this debate with somebody a few years ago about the way Ron is portrayed in Goblet of Fire, and how that plays into many readers’ negative feelings surrounding Ron/Hermione ... idk, though. some of it i stand by, but since then, i’ve realized that i would have been perfectly, 100% happy with Ron and Hermione getting together if Ron hadn’t been so short-changed by the major plot beats of Deathly Hallows. i’ve started to feel that DH does a real disservice to the Ron of books 1-6.

first off, it seems so ridiculous that Ron would be the grouchiest one while Horcrux hunting, JKR claiming he’s used to a comfortable life at home?? Ron grew up in extreme poverty! His parents’ bank account in Chamber of Secrets is virtually empty!! With seven children, one underpaid working parent, and a family culture that refuses to accept help, I find it really hard to believe that the Weasleys didn’t struggle with food insecurity at some point in Ron’s life.

tbh, if anyone should have been the grouchiest during camping, it should’ve been hermione, lol. when has she ever handled stress particularly well? she’s gotten snappish during exam seasons dating back to the first book.

more rambly thoughts under cut

honestly, the way Ron’s prodigal subplot plays out in DH is, imo, the reason that many people leave the series dissatisfied that he and Hermione get together. We see a Horcrux-brainwashed Ron who’s uncharacteristically resentful and snide, then totally absent, and then, because Hermione is so furious with Ron when he returns, he spends part of the book forced into the role of a hen-pecked husband type, steeping in Hermione’s stony silence or making desperate attempts to placate her. When I was a kid, I read all this and got really annoyed with both Ron and Hermione. Now I’m just annoyed with the way it was written.

Like, okay. I understand that JKR wanted to address, once and for all, Ron’s insecurities. Fair. And the forest scene where Ron saves Harry, then destroys Slytherin’s locket, is a good one: it both unveils Ron’s Harry/Hermione worries and offers Ron an act of heroism. That’s clearly what JKR was going for with this snippet of conversation:

‘You've sort of made up for it tonight,' said Harry. 'Getting the sword. Finishing off the Horcrux. Saving my life.'

'That makes me sound a lot cooler than I was,' Ron mumbled.

'Stuff like that always sounds cooler than it really was,' said Harry. 'I've been trying to tell you that for years.'

But this is basically it for the peak of Ron’s arc in the book, and I don’t think it goes far enough. I don’t think Ron needed to save Harry, to get reassurances from Harry, because that still fundamentally revolves around Harry. I think Ron needed to blossom out in a different, complementary direction—to develop the strength that we saw all the way back in Philosopher’s Stone: Ron is a strategist, and this is a war. I mean, come on. Chess is a war game!!!! lol

Imo, for the final book, Ron really deserved a sequence of leadership, designed, planned, and executed in his own way. (Maybe he could have designed the Gringotts or Ministry break-in?) Sure, JKR dropped the ball in books 2-6 developing his strategic strengths, but she still could have drawn on Ron’s groundedness, his deep knowledge of the Wizarding World, and his clear-eyed loyalty as a basis for him being the strategist of the group. She could have claimed that in Harry’s absence from the Quidditch team in HBP, Ron had continued to develop his strategic skills as a team leader.

Either way, Ron certainly shouldn’t have been detoured at Shell Cottage for months (!) because of bad luck with the Snatchers. I really feel he should have been undertaking something independent, ultimately proving to himself that he’s his own person outside the frame of Harry’s reference. Then, in service of the Ron/Hermione relationship, we could have seen Hermione’s admiration for Ron’s abilities and achievements in the way that Ron admires hers, which is especially necessary because neither Hermione nor the reader got to see Ron’s big Quidditch win in OotP..... aaaaaa

anyway, given all these feelings, you can see why i did what i did with the fic. i really feel that ron was short-changed at the last second instead of being able to display all the ways that he’s grown over the series (getting over his Harry-as-Champion complex in GoF, turning from self-hating Quidditch failure to triumphant Keeper in both OotP and HBP). but that’s life!!!

[eswel]

Harry Potter Memories

Today we celebrate 20 years since The Philosopher’s Stone was published. This franchise has always been special to me because I spend my teenage years growing alongside the main characters/actors of the movies. So, I’ll dig into the memory lane and journey through my history as a fan.

My first aproach was in 2001. I had just turned 10 and saw the first movie in my neighbourhood’s theater. Sadly, the place closed years ago. But that’s why I treasure the moment even more.

To be honest, we had the book in my house, but I thought it was some old book like Lord of the Rings and that’s why I hadn’t read it. But the movie captured my attention so much that shortly after I took it and started reading. It was even more magical and I was so absorbed that I didn’t eat my lunch.

I was so fascinated and it sparked my imagination. I invented a maritime school based after some brand of tea that my mother consumed and wrote an acceptance letter similar to the one in the book.

Sometimes I would like a travel machine to see how was the fandom before the movies, because the first book was published (in its country of origin) when I was 5 and therefore to young to even experience it.

Later I moved to a new city where I would live all my teenage era and also the peak of the saga. I saw CoS with my younger cousin and the daughter of some friend of my aunt.

In summer of 2003 I went to the yearly book fair and discovered a parody comic series called “Harry Potto de Botella” (Harry Bottle’s Bottom). Sadly it covers only until GoF.

PoA movie came out when I was 12 and my eldest cousin accompanied us. Around that time an uncle of mine bought me that book as a gift.

I started being involved with the fandom around that era. I participated in a MSN group and I’m kinda embarrased by the nickname I used in that community.

When I was 13 I discovered the world of fanfiction and I spent the next 6 years reading fics of Harry Potter. One of the first I read was written by a girl that now is a well-known author in my country.

I read the books out of order: after the first and third, one of my cousins lent me the second and fourth. For my 14th birthday my present was the fifth one.

That same week was GoF premiere and I decided I wanted to see it in the biggest cinema of my country, where all the interesting events happen. So I travelled to the capital city (where I lived before and where I saw the first), because I wanted to be with the people from fanclubs. My eldest cousin went with me.

A month later I registered in their forum. You could arrange meetings with people in your city. So, I joined the local group founded a few weeks prior. I was one of the first members and it was one of the best summers I’ve had.

At that time, cinemas were experimenting and interrupted movies in the middle, so that people could go for food or to the bathroom. It was annoying.

Starting from book 4 I kept up to date with the books, reading them before the movies. So, in 2006 we tried to organize an event for the spanish release of HBP, but in the end we couldn’t.

My younger cousin, who also loved the books, let me borrow his copy. It was funny because he had some of the books and I had the others. Together, the two of us had the full collection and we kept exchanging them.

For OotP I went with said cousin. We met our friends from the fanclub. A few that saw it earlier told us to make mocking seal noises when the time arrived and I asked “Why? What do you mean?” Later, when we reached the Fudge scene we just knew. It came so natural and all the audience made fun of him.

We did a potion contest once in the club and I won. Also, I played Dumbledore in the scene where he dies and when I had to fall it hurt.

I couldn’t forget all those times we were duelling and someone used a Tarantallegra and we did stupid little dances.

We were invited to Children’s Day celebrations and we organized activites for the kids. We also had a shared day with a LOTR community.

There was a network across the country and during summer we received lots of members from other cities that were travelling for vacations. That’s why the national Wizard Tournament was born in the true spirit of collaboration and new friendships.

The first book of the saga that I bought with my own money was the last. I think it was the first one ever, so even more special.

We don’t talk about the 2008 incident, right? I remember people said it was Batman’s fault. When the sixth movie finally premiered I was in my last year of high school.

I don’t remember how I came across AVPM, but I remember it was in september 2009, just a few months after it was uploaded. For AVPS premiere onwards I would stay until like 4 am.

My aunt was working on a project with people from the US and they brought her book 7 as a gift and then she gave it to me. Up to this day is the only book of the saga I have in english.

For DH1 promotion the cast finally came to Latin America. None other than Matt Lewis visited my country. I was there, I saw him with my own eyes, I have photos of him. Sadly, I don’t have an autograph.

It still was a funny experience, because the staff of the cinema were cosplaying. During the wait we chatted with the guard who had a Slytherin tie and his wife was a Ravenclaw. We tried to convince him to let us enter the conference, too.

That year I was living in the capital city again, because I was attending college. Funny that I saw the first and last movies in the same city. The second time I watched DH1 it was in another cinema I frequented as a kid.

When I saw Dobby die, half of the audience was crying. But I couldn’t. I was just shaking.

The day of the farewell arrived. It was 2011 and I was 19. One of my cousins gave me an newspaper article about the Potter Generation, where it talked about fans growing up with the franchise (the illustration was so pretty). It was time for reflection.

I’m not sure, but I think I followed 3 premiere’s livestreams: GoF, DH1 and DH2. I cried with the last one

I watched DH2 three times in the course of one weekend and I regret spending so much money. Up until this day I can’t watch that movie.

Luckily, they launched the Pottermore project to prevent fans dying from an empty heart. Bad thing is, it ended up being a mess.

I ended as a hatstall several times during my life. And everytime I chose Ravenclaw

In the last few years new editions with new covers have been released around the world. It feels surreal, because is getting the treatment of the classics that have had many covers. I grew up knowing one cover per country. We’re getting old.

[joannerowling]

Two issues i have with your reply. I'll start with the most obvious and general one: "flat" characters aren't necessarily a "let down"? What a very weird thing to say. The majority of literature's greatest and most influencing works have relatively archetypical characters (especially side characters).

Second: Hermione evolves plenty - duh, she's in a story following kids going through puberty. You are confusing flatness with rigidity of character, which is just a core aspect of her personality. Of course she was never going to go through the sort of spectacular (albeit late coming) growth in moral fibre that Ron goes through by DH, but that's never been where she was lacking anyway. She entered the narrative claiming that Dumbledore was her role model after all. Hermione's journey is about other things: learning to reign in her natural anxiety so that it doesn't control her; improving her social skills; being more open-minded and less likely to act on her impulse to shut down uncomfortable thoughts, or lash out at behaviours that irritate her in others. She even becomes quite subtle and manipulative! For the greater good, of course.

Compare the way she approaches the House Elves issue in GoF: "i'm gonna STOP EATING!! and force my friends into this association i've created and get angry and confused at them when they don't immediately want to join me in fighting this great injustice!!!" VS OotP: "I will act alone. I will concoct an elaborate plan to liberate the Elves whether they like it or not. Step 1: learn to knit. Step 2: hide my creations around so that the Elves will accidentally get freed. What's this in my pocket? Oh, nothing, just the journalist i blackmail and keep in a glass jar until she's useful to me." (… sorry, I really love OotP Hermione, she's peak Hermione. Anyways); VS HBP/DH: no longer attempting to force freedom on House Elves, but acting kind towards the ones she interracts with, and considering her career options to develop S.P.E.W..

There are myriads of little ways in which the young, immature, sharp around the edges 12 years old from PS differs from the more emotionally and socially confident young woman from DH. Baby Hermione was so swallowed by stress and self-doubt she would forget how to magically light a fire at the moment it could have cost her friends's lives; adult Hermione saves Harry from a freaking giant snake, improvises a way to escape Death Eaters like a pro, turns a tapestry into stone so that pursuing enemies crash into it, etc. 17-18 Hermione gets along much better with Harry after finally learning to not push his buttons, and clearly has the emotional upper hand in her romantic relationship (which was so NOT the case for the first half of the story). 12 years old Hermione would never have been able to communicate healthily with Luna Lovegood. Etc. etc.

In conclusion: stop calling perfectly fine characters who evolve while still looking like themselves pancakes. Also, it's literally Thursday.

We all know Harry is an unreliable narrator but I'm rereading the first book and I think Hermione was kind of always the way she was. Ron and Harry both teased her for being a know it all then say she loosened up after they were friends for a while but the time between the troll incident and her setting Snape on fire is like a month and a half. Nobody changes that drastically in a month. She was always kind of insane and they didn't appreciate her the way she deserved

[manyregerts]

Umbridge being shown in DH alongside the corrupt ministry with absolutely no qualms

Fred and George. All of their lines. They were mentioned a lot in the earlier books, but in the later movies? So many more lines and fun outfits

Hermione and Harry dancing in DH1, followed by Harry asserting that they were like siblings? Good platonic shit

I know a lot of people didnt like it, but all of Rupert Grint's facial expressions were great honestly

That bit in OotP where Harry spits out milk trying to smile at Cho was peak teenage boy foolishness and I loved it.

They changed the basilisk being able to smell Harry to being able to hear him, so we got to see Harry's quick thinking in throwing the stone to distract it

Harry not being in the chamber with Ron and Hermione robbed us of his dialogue, but it also made the kiss seem a lot more organic

Lucius Malfoy being coded as a lot more cannonically abusive, making Draco more redeemable

Ginny's screen time may have been seriously reduced, but every time she's shown she's a badass

Harry studiously avoiding looking st Lavender in HBP, Ron's "my lips are chapped, look" and leaning in, pretty much that whole scene was a look into how they're all still teenagers despite the war going on

Neville's quip after he nearly falls off the destroyed bridge shows us the character development we missed since they dont explain the Hogwarts situation much in DH2

They stuck to the 'you have your mother's eyes' motif despite Daniel Radcliffe having blue eyes and Lily brown in Snape's flashback. Like the actors weren't always 100% identical to their book counterparts but they kept that in because it's an important part of the story

Things I'm happy they changed for the Harry Potter movies/added

I always see posts about what we wish was in the movies/they didn’t change, and there are SO MANY THINGS THAT FIT THAT LIST. But honestly the movies did a great job and stayed pretty true to the books. SO, here’s a post to point out the great things the movies did! Please add on and let’s celebrate the movies that brought these amazing books to life!

Adding the word Potter to… “Scared Potter?” “You wish.”

Showing us what Neville forgot was to wear his robes

Bellatrix torturing Hermione by carving the word mudblood into her arm

Barty Crouch Jr. licking his lips (good job David)

Amos Diggory’s reaction to his son dying

“Look at it this way: every great wizard in history has started out as nothing more than we are now – students. If they can do it, why not us?” 

In the OotP when they’re in the Hog’s Head a goat walks by… Aberforth owns the Hog’s Head/is the barman

Slughorn’s story about Lily and the fish

Voldemort hugging Draco

Showing Lupin and Tonks reaching for each other and just not touching. It killed me, but I loved it.

Continually having Seamus blow up things through out the movies

“I’ve always wanted to use that spell!”

Showing them just being kids and having fun! PoA scene where the boys eat the candy and make the animal noises