#this goes for other characters like lily dumbledore hermione petunia etc

[sneverussape]

bringing back a not-so-new take on why snape was in the DE:

because he wanted to be, marauders be damned.

yes, the main reason for him being pushed towards the DE due to Circumstances, i.e. marauders bullying him, is a vary valid take. but also, i'm getting really bored of it so here's an additional take:

he would probably still have been in the DE even without the marauders bullying him. why? personality-wise, severus was very ambitious and was never going to be content to stay where he was. he also lacked the social status to be among the Haves, so he would have naturally gravitated towards a group that could have promised a chance for him to rise above his station, with their connections to the upper echelons of society and everything that entailed.

now i say could have because i'm never too sure how the DEs were officially formed in the first place. we don't know what tom told a bunch of uppity purebloods (and halfbloods, for that matter, but he's one himself so i would guess he'd know exactly what would make them tick) in order to get them to back his cause. my working theory is he capitalized on their fear of muggles and the fact that they know so little about them (unlike him, who actually spent time with them) and twisted it into a goal of keeping them (the purebloods, and anyone who associated with them) 'safe'. this isn't too hard to imagine because this kind of thing happens so much in the real world, where people are radicalized by anyone who feeds on their hidden fears. this is also why i don't automatically write off DEs as 'bad' and the Order as 'good'. the logic works for a children's book, where everything is boiled down to simple polarized concepts. but it's so so so boring to me because people are complex. people are affected by their past and present situations, their goals for the future, their friends and families, and so the decision of joining a cult should always beg the question why and what could have been done to stop it, and how the situation could have been different.

in snape's case, i maintain that due to his upbringing (poor halfblood in less-than-ideal family situations), House (slytherin, which houses many landed and traditionalist students, like the blacks and the malfoys), and personality (curious, hungry for knowledge, ambitious, tests limits), he still would have been a DE even without the marauders' unwanted attentions, especially since tom was heavily recruiting at the time. hell, lily probably would have joined too if she had been in slytherin and given her similarities with snape and his upbringing.

would snape have been in the DE had he been in a different House? maybe not, but who's to say lucius malfoy wouldn't have singled him out even then, an intelligent loner, especially with him as prefect then eventually Head Boy? would he have been in the Order instead if he had been in, say, gryffindor? i honestly think he'd have had an even tougher time in gryffindor with the 4 around since james had already disliked him prior to sorting. if snape had been a wealthy muggleborn with a strong support system maybe he'd have stood a chance to say no to all of these offers, but who knows really.

as himself, as he was, severus would have been attracted to the DE or any similar groups with cultish personalities - like the Order, one way or another, depending on who was a stronger influence during his formative years.

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

What if Petunia never got jealous of Lily? What if they had a good relationship, and their husbands actually liked each other? Would the story be different if Harry was raised equal as Dudley in a loving and supportive home?

So, what if everyone was an entirely different character, basically? Well then, yes, we'd have a different story.

Harry would have a well-adjusted childhood which would probably lead to bad places when he gets to Hogwarts? Why? This Harry Potter isn't the one Dumbledore was looking for.

Harry gets his letter. Petunia's probably a little worried, given what happened to her sister (dies extremely young, drafted into a war effort and illegal resistance movement by her headmaster, who is still headmaster of this school Harry's going to). She has a long talk with Harry and she'd really rather not send him to this school.

She's pretty sure other schools exist in Europe that Lily mentioned now and then, maybe they can send Harry to one of them instead.

Harry responds "no" to the letter and asks if he can't have the name of that French school instead.

Dumbledore panics, this isn't a part of the plan. He sends Snape to go and 'convince' Petunia to send Harry to Hogwarts.

Well, Snape goes, and Petunia's even more pissed (didn't Lily say this guy became a terrorist or something?) Snape tries to convince Petunia that this was Lily's dying wish (it wasn't) and then he gives up and obliviates her.

Suddenly, Vernon and Petunia think they' agreed to send Harry to Hogwarts. They changed their mind. Only Dumbledore can possibly protect Harry from the Death Eaters still very much at large (they're not).

Harry is... confused but says "alright" and heads off to Hogwarts. There, things get weird.

Everyone keeps calling him Potter even though his last name is Dursley. They keep seeming to forget his muggle family exists, that he was raised by his muggle relatives, and whenever Harry reminds them they seem... upset about it. I imagine Harry doesn't become friends with Ron because of this, as Ron just gets really weird about Harry living with muggles.

I imagine sooner or later Harry becomes friends with Hermione, in part because she's also muggleborn and doesn't get too weird about him. (Though still weird enough to mention he was in this one book she read.)

Well, adventures happen, Harry writes home to his family that weird shit keeps happening that's very dangerous. Harry almost gets eaten by a dragon, by a three-headed dog, almost was murdered during quidditch, etc.

Well, Petunia probably raises hell and writes to Dumbledore. That's it, she's pulling Harry out and he's going to France. That gets her yet another visit from Snape.

Suddenly, all her responses to Harry's letters are that Hogwarts is great and Lily always thought of it as a second home. THINK OF YOUR DEAD PARENTS, HARRY.

Harry... thinks this is getting really really weird. Well, then he almost gets killed by Voldemort and hospitalized, he goes home and... his parents aren't normal.

They've been obliviated a little too many times and are starting to ask funny. They're very forgetful, especially when it comes to Harry himself and all the magic stuff, and are acting really out of it. Harry starts getting really concerned, asks Dudley how long this has been going on, to which Dudley replies pretty much since Harry went off to school.

This trend continues throughout Harry's very dangerous Hogwarts career until Hermione eventually stumbles on side effects of oblivation. Then it all comes together.

Harry throws a tantrum in Dumbledore's office and is likely mollified when Dumbledore says it's for their own good because Harry can only be protected at Hogwarts.

Eventually, Harry's groomed for suicide so that Voldemort can be defeated. By this point, nice Vernon and Petunia are probably vegetables.

[cursedchilddrarry]

Things the Cursed Child fixes about the books

I loved the books, but disliked the DH epilogue and wished a few things could have been wrapped up a bit better. One of the things I love about the Cursed Child is I think it satisfactorily addresses many of these issues, while still leaving enough story open for future books/plays/films/TV series (I can dream, can’t I??)

In no particular order:

1. It finishes Draco’s character arc

Something I always found a little bit disappointing was that Draco seemed so obviously set up to go through a classic villain redemption arc but we kind of only got about halfway. He got to be slightly less of a villain (not stopping Harry and the others escaping the Manor, walking away during the battle, etc) but never took that final step of actually joining the heroes, which we all find so satisfying anytime it happens in fiction. The Cursed Child gives us that, with Draco finally joining them and fighting alongside them, and it’s great.

2. It makes Ron/Hermione more believable

I was never a huge fan of Ron and Hermione getting together as they are just so different. I found Ron annoying through the later books and thought Hermione was just way too intelligent for him, I couldn’t see how their relationship could work. The Cursed Child kind of shows that it did work, in a way that I can accept. Ron balances Hermione perfectly - he stops her from getting too serious, sometimes helps her to step back from the details and see the bigger picture, and he plays the caregiver role, taking primary responsibility for looking after the children while she concentrates on being Minister for Magic. The alternate reality where Hermione is a severe Professor is a nice glimpse at how her personality might develop very differently without that grounding influence, becoming intolerant and arrogant, as intelligent people are often inclined to do.

3. It lets Harry finally have an honest, open conversation with Dumbledore

Although it’s only Dumbledore’s portrait, so really it’s just magical therapy for Harry, I found it so cathartic to hear Harry actually say out loud that Dumbledore shouldn’t have left him to be abused by the Dursleys for 10 years, and that Dumbledore should have told Harry more when he had the chance. And also, Harry says he loved Dumbledore like a father, and Dumbledore says he loved Harry like a son. It was the conversation I always wanted them to have.

4. It recognises Harry’s abuse

I think this is often downplayed for humour in the books, but the play addresses several times how severely Harry was abused as a child, in a much more stark and honest way. The dream sequence/flashback scene where we learn that Harry had nightmares of his parents’ murder and frequently wet the bed as a small child, and Petunia screaming at him, getting him up to re-wash the dishes in the middle of the night, telling him he’s disgusting, are all played very seriously with Harry’s adult and parent perspective overlaid (he is literally sleeping on top of the stairs while his dream/flashback self is under the stairs) - this makes it feel much more like abject abuse rather than a mere lack of care, which is how Harry often describes it to others or even frames it in his own mind. It is juxtaposed strongly against the efforts of all the parents in the play to try to give their children the best lives they can.

5. It fixes the epilogue

One of the things I found so annoying about the epilogue was that it was just patently ridiculous that Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Draco would have all instantly gone off to get married and have babies after the severe trauma they’d been through. Real world experience tells us that it’s far more likely they wouldn’t all necessarily still be friends or in touch, they wouldn’t necessarily at 40 be with the same person they were dating at 17, they wouldn’t all necessarily live in the same city, and they wouldn’t all be such well-adjusted, productive members of society. The Cursed Child goes ‘yes, the epilogue happened, but things certainly aren’t as rosy as it made out’. This is such a relief to me. Harry and Ginny’s relationship is not as solid as it’s made out (more on that here). Harry’s children are not all perfectly happy. Harry’s job is not going that great. Draco’s life has been difficult up to this point, and it just gets harder. Hermione and Harry have both made significant sacrifices to their personal life and wellbeing in favour of their careers. Harry has not truly recovered from everything that happened. These things are all far more gritty and realistic, and I much prefer it to the apparently sparkly perfect ‘happily ever after’ image that was presented in the books.

6. It lets us see a version of Snape post-reveal

It was so frustrating that the final reveal about Snape - that all this time he had been on the side of light because he loved Harry’s mother - only happens after he’s already dead. Harry never got a chance to resolve that, and he still doesn’t really as it’s Scorpius who encounters alternate-reality Snape, but it’s at least satisfying from the audience’s perspective, and presumably Scorpius told Harry about this ‘off-screen’ later. When he is coaching Scorpius to avoid the dementors, he tells him to think of his friend Albus, and says “One person. All it takes is one person. I couldn’t save Harry for Lily. So now I give my allegiance to the cause she believed in. And it’s possible that along the way I started believing in it myself.” This is a beautiful snippet of Snape’s core character that we never got to see in the books, as it was always buried underneath his various layers.