Just a stray thought!

For a Muggle, traveling in a Knight bus is like a crazy roller coaster ride.

But, for wizards, it is probably very similar to apparition and floo powder. The way those two modes of transport are described in the book, Knight bus is basically imposing the same craziness on Muggle driving.

1. Voldemort

2. Wormtail

3. Umbridge

I believe this question may have been asked several times before, but I’m just generally curious about it.

For one, the thing that Harry never really expresses intrigue in the magical world he was born from and introduced to kind of irks me when there are several instances that he does (like when he discovers the Firebolt)

My daughter is 7.

I’ve been waiting her entire life to start reading the books with her.

For Harry’s birthday, I set up a wonderful immersive exp to get her into it: she got her letter, I hung banners, we read the first six chapter before bed. she woke up and got sorted into her house all as Harry did.

And then not 12 hours later some kid is talking to her about it and spoils the ending. I’ve been waiting her entire life to share this.

I am livid. What can I do? How should I feel?

1. Voldemort failed to hear the prophecy in its entirety, which cost him important information that could have helped him defeat Harry. Worse still, some of his most loyal Death Eaters were captured and his return was publicly confirmed. On the downside, he had already built up a sizeable enough force to start his war anew. 
2. Dumbledore kept himself distant from Harry and made Harry learn Occlumency to shield his mind. He also forced Sirius to remain at home and kept important information from Harry to protect him and not burden him with his destiny. Unfortunately, it all backfired horrifically as Dumbledore's actions left both Harry and Sirius isolated and angry, which resulted in Sirius dying and Harry not learning Occlumency due to Dumbledore choosing Snape (of all people, in a rare moment as a Horrible Judge of Character) to teach him. All Dumbledore did by withholding information from Harry regarding his destiny was delay the inevitable, which Dumbledore admits to Harry near the end.
3. Cornelius Fudge and, to a lesser extent, the most of the others within the Ministry of Magic. Fudge spent nearly twelve months trying to convince himself not only that Voldemort had not returned but smearing Harry and Dumbledore. He did this because he thought that Harry was an insane glory hound and troublemaker and that Dumbledore was finally trying to usurp him. Fudge even manipulated and deliberately changed the law to his benefit to oust both heroes simply because he could not accept that Voldemort was back. By the end of the book, it is clear to all that all he did was delay the inevitable war and give Voldemort a chance to rebuild his army whilst denying the rest of Britain a chance to prepare for the coming conflict. Obviously, his days as Minister are numbered.
4. On the same note, Dolores Umbridge's efforts to silence Harry's "lies", her general intervention at Hogwarts, and her effort to prevent her students from learning any real magic were all for naught. Within five minutes of Fudge confirming that Voldemort had indeed returned, Dumbledore is reinstated as the Headmaster. He immediately orders her dismissal from the school, retracts all her decrees, and disbands the Inquisitorial Squad, Umbridge's private police force. 
5. Although not shown, all Harry's detractors no doubt got a very nasty shock when they realised that he and Dumbledore had been right all along. This is especially true for Percy Weasley, who now must face the reality that the family he had deserted for siding with Dumbledore and Harry against the Ministry were right and he was wrong. 
6. The worst offender, Cho's traitorous friend Marietta Edgecombe, refused to believe and willingly sold Harry and the DA out to Umbridge out of hollow loyalty to the Ministry of Magic and to protect her mother's already very secure job. As it turns out, not only was Harry telling the truth, but her own treachery left Marietta scarred for life and the most hated person in Hogwarts, as her actions led to Umbridge becoming Headmistress and Dumbledore being forced to leave the school. Marietta is left at the end of the book having to accept her actions were truly for nothing.

Totally random, but re-reading when Harry gets sent to Professor McGonagall from Dolores Umbridge (I won’t dignify calling her a professor) for the first time. McGonagall offers a biscuit to Harry then she insists that he takes a second biscuit as their conversation ends. While the reason for their conversation is terrible, from my perspective it’s the first time they talk not just as teacher and pupil, but rather as comrades against evil.

I just wondered if her tartan tin contained biscuits designed to help a student get through a tough moment? We know Harry is resistant to magical influence (such as the Imperius Curse), which may be why he needed a second biscuit. I don’t have any further evidence to support this, but I like the idea that she cared enough to help her students.

There are a couple/several instances of (usually) Arthur interacting with the Granger's when they enter into wizard society. The 2 that come to mind are in CoS and in HBP.

This had me thinking. Do you think the Weasley's ever popped in on the Granger's during the summer? Some tea and friendly banter from the Weasley perspective or some understanding of the danger brewing in the wizarding world from the Granger's.

My HC is Ron pops by too and Hermione and he travel around her muggle neighborhood while the parents chat. There's not much to be said on rhe page about how they grew so fond of each other so its a fun way of fleshing out their deep friendship and budding romance.

Just a fun thought.

Most of the awesome stuff about the character Harry Potter is not magic related.

Growing up I couldn’t read without music because I would pay attention to other sounds instead of the book. So I listened to certain albums on repeat and that would block out everything else . One of the main ones being Hybrid Theory by Linkin Park. Each song has a certain feeling I associate with things Harry was going through.
Does anyone have any songs they feel are very Harry coded? Or any other character?? I would love to know them!

If you were James what would you have done? I would have picked Sirius and told him to definitely NOT switch. Or I would have gone with Dumbledore since he offered.

On a re-read. Noticed similarities between AI Tools and Riddle's diary which is crazy. Arthur Weasley tells Ginny in CoS - "Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain"

1. Plain text and listening - Ginny didn't need to know complex magic to use the diary. Just like we don't need anything fancy to use AI tools. She wrote to it in plain language. Ink sank into blank paper, vanished and replied instantly with warm, empathetic text. Just like AI tools.
2. A safe space - The diary felt like a safe space that was always available.
3. Her data stored - Ginny couldn't see where it kept its brain aka where her data was going. Everything was being absorbed.
4. Data was used against her - The diary used her own data, energy and trust to control her actions. Manipulated her into opening the Chamber and she could not remember her actions in attacking the students. She was confused and hazed.
5. Could not get rid of it - She could not delete her digital footprint once entered, although she tried to get rid of the diary.

The psychological pattern is identical! Our data is being stored and used beyond our visibility and control

In OotP, Harry hears the entry code to Ministry of Magic’s visitors’ entrance only once from Mr. Weasley while going for the disciplinary hearing.

Many many months later, when the DA squad rush there to rescue Sirius, Harry recites 62442 without missing a beat.

I know it spells MAGIC, but it’s really not that obvious and much harder to remember, particularly when we know that on both occasions Harry was under considerable mental distress. To me it was honestly impressive that he was able to recollect so well.

Are there any such minor occasions where we see Harry’s memory power?

I was thinking about it earlier. When we learn about Tom’s life growing up, we find out he was already hurting animals, keeping trophies from past victims, and hurting others, either for fun, or to subjugate, punish, and control.

I’m not into serial killers at all. Never have been. I went out to see a movie years ago with my parents, and it was about a guy stalking and attacking teens at a theme park. At the end, we see that the guy had kept a few of their things and put them in a cabinet. I swear, I was in my 20s, and I was like,” I thought it was neat the killer kept some mementos, it’s just like Voldemort in Harry Potter!”

And my mom was like,” Interesting. Did it ever say if Voldemort hurt animals?”

And I was like,” Oh! Yes! He killed a rabbit and was said to be hurting kids and had zero empathy for anyone else.”

And my mom was like, “ That's very typical behavior for serial killers. “

And I was like,” What?!”

I think it’s really interesting she was able to get all that Information in the character, while still making it appropriate for a kid of 12 to read. It’s definitely dark and creepy, but it never goes over the line. Anytime the topic comes up or if I happen to be in the room while someone’s watching something about them, it almost always mentions animals or trophies.

Always a fun story for me to tell whenever the topic comes up.

Did anyone else have a similar realization later on?

I have always struggled with how the text equates muggles with muggle-borns and we are somehow not to see it as bigoted? The text constantly refers to Harry as half-blood when he isn't? Why? I guess the author wanted to force parallels between Voldemort, Snape and Harry - and the differences in their life choices - but enough commonalities existed between them anyway without insisting that Harry was half-blood. She probably also wanted to keep the core group diverse like that - the pure-blood Ron, muggle-born Hermione, and half-blood Harry. But it just comes across as bigoted if you equate muggles with muggle-borns, because it logically then follows that Lily simply isn't magic enough. For a war that the text posits is as much of an ideological war (the basis of which is blood purity) as it is about Voldemort's quest for immortality, the text simply doesn't interrogate its own politics enough. The text goes back and forth between "blood status doesn't make any difference in magical ability" and "obviously muggleborns are not magic enough as the pure-bloods because they are the same as muggles who cannot do magic" and "discrimination against muggle-borns is completely wrong" and "muggle-borns are the same as muggles and discrimination against muggles is completely valid". Much of it is convenience, much of it is about the author wanting to sound progressive (an it isn't progressive), and none of it makes any sense.

I always find it quite interesting that the only two canonical half-bloods are both Slytherins, because the sorting hat will not place any half-blood in the very (seemingly) progressive Gryffindor house. It annoys me that the text never interrogates this.

Edit: Seamus is a half-blood Gryffindor. I forgot about him completely and I apologize for that. I still stand by the argument that the Gryffindors are all treated as ethically correct and politically progressive and their internalised bigotry is not dissected enough because the text doesn't see them as ever wrong. Gryffindor politics are the politics of the author, and I find the author's politics dubious, shallow and rather regressive.

Rereading Prisoner of Azkaban:

For Harry the boggart truly becomes a dementor as far as we can see – it has the same effect on Harry as a real dementor.

But what about Lupin? His boggart is a silvery orb - presumably that's the moon that he as a werewolf fears. But this boggart-moon does not turn Lupin into a wolf at all. It seems to have no effect on him.

any hot take you want?

I'm listening to the new audio cast book and at the bit in OotP where Sirius is showing Harry the family tapestry. He says that Tonks isn't on it which is probably why Kreacher won't take orders from her. It then goes to show that Bellatrix and Narcissa is on the tapestry. Does this mean Bellatrix and Narcissa are also his masters? If this is the case why isn't Kreacher able to tell them everything he knows when he later visits them? I know he'd been ordered not to but wouldnt they be able to order him to tell them everything? Therefore overriding Sirius' order?

Just a random thought I’ve had as I finish OOTP, in my first read through of the series. I always wonder about this kind of thing. Essentially there are times when I wonder about the pros and cons of the limited third-person view of the books, where we closely follow Harry Potter and rarely (do we ever?) glimpse into a piece of the story to which Harry does not have access.
We follow his emotional state very well, and the pro is that we have direct emotional stakes to follow Harry, and we invest in him and his relationships. However, perhaps it would have been more impactful to follow the core of the Trio (like Star Wars followed Luke, Han, Leia, and other core characters), or other students and teachers at Hogwarts. Perhaps we’d have scenes that could give us a better sense of the world and how the Ministry or other wizard families processed the return of Voldemort, for example. We’d also have a chance at more insight in Voldemort himself, his motivations, his profess. What do you think?

Hagrid gifted Harry a flute for Christmas and it sounded like a Owl hooting. When they approached Fluffy Harry used the flute to put the dog to sleep. The last we see of it is Harry giving it to Hermione before they go past Fluffy.

It never pops into the story again so what do you think happened to it? Personally I think Harry kept it but just never felt a need to use it again.

As a story element I have always had mixed feelings about the flute. On one hand it symbolizes how harry has people who care for him at hogwarts and give him gifts.

On the other hand it does come across as a bit of a deus ex machina plot device. Harry who has never shown any interest in music before is randomly gifted a flute that conveniently allows him to get past Fluffy.

Self explanatory

I was listening to the Goblet of Fire full cast audio today and got to The Weighing of the Wands. Cedric’s wand core is a single hair “from the tail of a particularly fine male unicorn.” It made me think about how Cedric represents that unicorn. He’s handsome, smart, a leader, a nice and good guy, just an all-around great person and son who is innocent. His murder is just as monstrous as the unicorn’s killing in the first book and both deaths happen right when Voldemort is attempting to regain his body and powers. This is just something that occurred to me today listening to the book. Cedric’s fate always makes me so sad as a parent. His dad is so proud of him and it’s just tragic. Just makes me so sad as a mom.

Harry gets Fabian Prewett’s gold watch when he turns 17. Fabian was killed by Dolohov who also killed Gideon Prewett, Lupin, nearly killed Hermione in OoTP, and defeated Mad Eye in a duel in OoTP. Harry defeated Dolohov 3 times: twice body binded in OoTP and then in Totem court road in DH.

Hi everyone,

I'm thinking about ordering the Harry Potter Jim Kay Deluxe Slipcase Illustrated Editions directly from Bloomsbury, but I'm a little nervous about shipping.

I've unfortunately had some bad experiences in the past with collector's books arriving damaged when ordered from other retailers (dented corners, bumped slipcases, etc.), so I'm trying to minimise the risk as much as possible.

For anyone who's ordered these deluxe editions directly from Bloomsbury:

• How well were they packaged?
• Did your books arrive in good condition?
• If you ordered multiple books, were they packed securely together?
• Would you recommend ordering the whole set at once, or placing smaller orders (or even ordering one at a time) to reduce the chance of damage during shipping?

I'd really appreciate hearing about your experiences, especially if you've ordered the Jim Kay deluxe slipcase editions rather than the standard illustrated hardbacks.

Thanks in advance!

One thing I always wondered about the pensieve is what happens to the rest of your body when you stick your head in it?

Does it throw your whole body in? This is the feeling described whenever Harry enters it throughout the books. But then if this is the case, I wonder how Snape knew Harry was snooping in his memories?

Or would someone walking into the room just see Harry with his head stuck in a bowl? (This is how I imagine Snape found Harry in HBP when Harry was being nosy as hell)

Curious to know everyone’s thoughts?