Major Things You Forgot (or didn’t know!) From Harry Potter

This post was supposed to be up during October 2018, but it got pushed back to September 1st 2019, and now… here we are. It’s October again. Still very late. 😌 But it’s finally here! 

I’m making this post based my own experiences. While my family has seen all of the movies multiple times, they have not read the books, and I quickly realized that there are just so many things they don’t know! Most, if not all, of the things listed here are not mentioned in the movies.

Here are some important things from the Harry Potter series you may have forgotten about from the books. And, if you’ve only seen the movies, most of this information will be totally new to you!

(But, if you’re a long time fan and have read the series more than once, you probably remember a lot of these! Either way, this post is a fun reminder of things we don’t always think about!)

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How Harry was actually treated.

I’m sure we’re all well-aware of the fact that Harry was mistreated by the Dursleys. However, I think sometimes we tend to forget just how bad Harry’s life was on Privet Drive…

Dursley events which may have escaped your mind:

• Because Harry never brings up memories of sleeping in Dudley’s 2nd room before Philosopher’s Stone, I think it’s safe to assume he’s lived in that cupboard for all of his life. 
• Aunt Petunia once shaved Harry’s entire head (except for his bangs) because she hated his hair, but hated his scar even more.
• At some point in the beginning of the series, Harry mentions that the best gifts he had ever received from the Dursleys were a single tissue and a toothpick. (On separate occasions, of course.)
  • And for the sake of pointing out some other good things about the Dursleys, they did send him a present in the first book! It was a 50-pence piece (equivalent to $0.62 cents in US money).
• During the beginning of Goblet of Fire, the Durselys are on a family diet because Dudley needs to lose weight, and Harry has to survive on 1/4 of a grapefruit every morning. This gets so bad that Harry sends letters of distress to his friends, to which they respond by sending him food and cakes.
• Also in Goblet of Fire, after recovering from the events of the Final Task, Mrs. Weasley hugs Harry and the narration says that he “had no memory of ever being hugged like this, as though by a mother.” This is just more proof that the Dursleys didn’t even hug him, or love him at all.
• On several occasions (GoF and DH), someone is taking Harry away for the time being, and asks the Dursleys why they don’t say goodbye to Harry. And they always respond with something along the lines of, “Why would we?”

There’s probably a lot more to talk about on this subject, but you get the idea. 🙂

The true Snape.

If you’re an adult fan of Harry Potter, chances are you don’t like Snape very much. But I was 10 when I finished reading Deathly Hallows, and after that “Prince’s Tale” chapter, I was so sad for Snape. He was my favorite character for about a year after that. But why?
Oh great goodness, I’m still embarassed to this day. Who was I back then? Who even allowed this? 

Yes, Snape was shown to have had a “difficult life”, and in the end, Harry better understood his actions. But you know what? Just because we understand Snape, doesn’t mean we should forgive him for everything.* 

Some bad things Snape did throughout the series:

• He once called Hermione something along the lines of “insufferable know-it-all” after she answered multiple questions correctly in his class.
• He emotionally bullied Neville multiple times, in front of other students. Once, in Prisoner of Azkaban, he used Neville’s pet toad in order to test out a shrinking potion Neville had completed in class. If the potion didn’t work (and Neville was often very bad at potions), then Trevor would have died. 
  • The potion was sucessful, and for lack of entertainment on his behalf, Snape took 5 points from Gryffindor.
• During Goblet of Fire, Draco and Harry were foolishly dueling each other, with Hermione and Ron nearby. One of Draco’s spells hit Hermione and enlarged her teeth. Snape soon entered the room to find out the situation, and when Harry pleaded for Snape to help fix Hermione’s teeth, he said, “I see no difference.”

This seemed hard to believe, so I needed to include some evidence.

• He purposely caused a tree branch to fall on Petunia when they were ten, and if that’s not a red flag, I’m not sure what is. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Once again, there are many other things I could point out, but I’m sure this is enough for now.

*This is my own opinion based on the evidence, but honestly? That’s what this post is about. I only come to bring you the official facts. 😌

Why Harry was “so angsty” in OotP.

Ever since I wrote that one Harry Potter essay in my senior year of high school, I consider myself an official Harry Potter scholar. And as an HP scholar, I’m here to tell you that you’re wrong if you think Harry was annoyingly angsty for no reason.

Prior to the events in Order of the Phoenix, Harry endured the following:

• Emotional and physical abuse by the Dursleys every year/summer, because his parents were mudered (please see above) and that makes sense, doesn’t it?
• Discovering that an old, extremely evil wizard is coming back to life specifically to kill him for not many good reasons.
• Learning that some people believed he (Harry) was related to Slytherin/Voldemort and was trying to kill people his age.
• Finding out he was being hunted by the most notorious Azkaban escapee, who supposedly killed at least 12 people.
  • and then finding out that this man is his godfather, but it’s alright because he was just framed and the Ministry made a mistake.
• Being accused of illegally submitting himself into a death-defying TriWizard tournament.
  • HARRY DID YOU PUT YOUR NAME–
  • I’m just kidding, Dumbledore said it softly, remember?
• Almost dying on numerous occastions during said tournament.
  • Without his consent! He didn’t sign up for this!
• Watching one of his friends (Cedric, a very nice boy whom he looked up to) die right before his eyes because Harry was trying to be nice/fair to him.
• Learning that the Ministry of Magic itself had labeled him, a fourteen-year-old boy, as a “liar” after he announced that Voldemort was back, but the Ministry didn’t want to believe him.
  • Also, the Ministry was just the worst ever. They never did anything!
• And finally, being ignored by his best friends and professors for an entire summer, which was likely to be his worst summer ever, despite the ignorances.
  • And everyone ignored Harry thanks to Dumbledore’s wishes, but that’s a post for another day 😉

So yeah, if I were Harry, I’d be “angsty” too.

The Marauders.

Ah yes, my favorite thing about the Harry Potter franchise (other than Harry himself). 

If you’ve only seen the movies, you probably don’t even know who the Marauders are! (In fact, I have tested this theory: Right after I saw Prisoner of Azkaban with my family for the 3rd time, I asked them who the Marauders were and they genuinely did not know.)

The Marauders were the group of friends who created the Marauders Map, but more importantly, they were an inseparable friendship group consisting of James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew.

James (and Lily Evans)

All of the Marauders (+ Lily and Snape) went to Hogwarts together between 1971-1978. James Potter developed a crush on Lily Evans sometime before their 5th Year, and was pretty insistent. While we don’t know when they started dating, we know they were in love and married before age 21. On October 31st in 1981, Lily and James were murdered by Voldemort at age 21.

Fun facts: Harry was concieved when Lily was 19, and Lily is actually several months older than James!

It’s important to note that James and Sirius were also bullies during most of their time at Hogwarts, which was the main reason why Lily didn’t want to go out with James. However, James (and Sirius) did clean up their act before 7th Year, and learned to become better people (unlike someone else we know).

a little side note that made me cry:

A few years ago, I wrote an HP essay about the aspects of love and mortality throughout the series (and you can read it here if you want! 😉 ). The essay covers many of the events in Harry’s life, before and after the books, which lead to him accepting the fact that he may have to die to save his people.

While rereading Order of the Phoenix for research, I came across a scene I had forgotten. After seeing Snape’s memories from his 5th Year, and witnessing James Potter belittle another student without hesitation, Harry is appalled. He is truly disgusted by his father’s actions.

But most of all… he wonders why people often tell him he’s so much like his father, if his father was so horrible. Harry almost has a breakdown, trying to accept that his father seemed like such a terrible person. This scene goes on for about a page, so much so that Harry eventually concludes that James must have forced Lily Evans to marry him.

Harry then risks his status as a Hogwarts student, along with his friends, to break into Umbridge’s office in order to use her floo and talk to Sirius about this. Harry gets some positive information about James, but he still leaves the conversation with doubts about what kind of person his father was, and who he could eventually become.

And that is the last conversation Harry ever has with Sirius! See? Fun memories.

Sirius

Sirius Black grew up in a pure-blood prejudiced family (not unlike the Malfoys), and his family did not support him for who he was. He didn’t fit in, and probably fought with his family often. (He also had a brother, but we’ll talk about him later.)

At age 16, Sirius ran away from home and went to live with the Potters, where he spent the rest of young life.

Sirius was also wrongfully accused of murdering a lot of Muggles on the night of the Potters’ deaths, and spent the rest of his life in secrecy after breaking out of Azkaban (and it wasn’t until immediately after his death when the Ministry admitted they should have given him a fair trial. Go figure!).

Remus

Remus Lupin was bitten by a werewolf named Fenrir Greyback at the tender age of 4.

He was also married to Order member Tonks (but the movies actually cut this announcement out. I’m still so mad!).

Also, I thought it was weird that the movies mentioned he had a son, but did they ever verbally acknowledge his marriage to Tonks? No! (Why? Why do this to us?)

Peter

Well… we don’t know very much about Peter Pettigrew’s life. *soft shrug*

I mean, we know the whole thing about betraying his best friends when they needed it most, but that’s whatever, and most of what we know.

Regulus Black.

Again, if you’ve only seen the movies… I’m sorry.

Regulus Black was Sirius’ younger brother. We don’t know much about their relationship, except that after Regulus died, Sirius felt like his involvement with Voldemort was foolish and that Regulus could have done better.

He died when he was about 18, but here’s the interesting part: as a Death Eater, at one point he secretly defied Voldemort in an attempt to destroy his locket Horcrux. This act of courage is what lead to his death.

And Sirius never knew about any of this, unfortunately.

Draco Malfoy’s life throughout the series.

I know that Draco isn’t exactly a role model guy, but he’s actually not as bad as we think.

Throughout the series:

• Draco met Harry in Madam Malkin’s robe shop and struck up a conversation about Quidditch with him (even though Harry had no idea what he was talking about at the time)
  • he also made some rude comments about Hagrid, which reminded Harry of Dudley was ultimately one of the main reasons why Harry didn’t want to be friends with him.
• He challenged Harry to a duel before they had learned any spells, and then promptly did not show up to his own duel.
• Actually, he was kind of obsessed with Harry (in a jealous way)
  • And he’s the one who told Dobby about Harry! That’s why Dobby thinks Harry is so interesting – because Draco knows everything!

• During Prisoner of Azkaban, Draco and Hermione were some of the top students in their year (if not, the top students), and I believe this continued for the rest of their time at Hogwarts.
•  Draco is actually quite crafty: he created buttons to mock Harry in Goblet of Fire, and he wrote a song about how bad Ron Weasley was at Quidditch in Order of the Phoenix. 
  • I mean, both of these are very rude, but you get the picture.
• In Half-Blood Prince, the reason why Draco joined the Death Eaters was because his father was in prison, and Draco was replacing him. He didn’t make this choice – Voldemort forced him.
  • And, because he was a young student at Hogwarts, Voldemort also made him promise to murder Dumbledore.
• A fun theory: Some fans think Draco is a werewolf because, in Deathly Hallows, Voldemort made a comment about Draco being the perfect person to babysit Remus Lupin’s future children, or “cubs” (also, this comment is super random and kinda funny)
• During the course of Deathly Hallows, both Draco and his mother recognized Harry under disguise, but denied that it was him and let him go. 
• And lastly, there is a scene at the end of Deathly Hallows in which Draco and his friends accidentally set the Room of Requirement on fire, and after Harry, Ron, and Hermione save Draco, he… didn’t thank them? (I don’t have my book with me, but I just remember being a bit disappointed and sad)

I’m not a big Draco fan, but like… he deserved better. 😌

a bonus meme, because I couldn’t help it: 

While at the Quidditch World Cup in Goblet of Fire, Harry asked Draco if his father was a Death Eater, to which Draco replied, “Wouldn’t you like to know.”

Petunia Dursley’s relationship with Lily.

I just wanted to point this out because I don’t even think it was mentioned in the movies?

It should have been during the Snape and Lily memory montage, but they just completely exed Petunia out, smh

• Petunia was a little older than her sister, Lily Evans, but they got along well enough to do things together, like going to the park and stuff.
• The Evans family really enjoyed the fact that Lily had magical powers, and Petunia didn’t like it only because she was jealous.
• At one point, Petunia was so jealous of Lily’s abilities that she wrote a heartfelt letter to Dumbledore, hoping to get into Hogwarts at the last minute.
• She once wanted to discuss magic with Lily and Snape (probably in a negative way, though), but as I said earlier, Snape made a branch fall on her head. 
• From Pottermore: Petunia and Vernon once had a double-date thing with James and Lily, and James just talked about his broomstick and Galleon fortune whenever Vernon asked him something, causing everyone to be confused and upset (what a nerd, honestly).

Hermione’s family.

You know what’s strange? We actually don’t know much about the Granger family, or even Hermione for that matter.

Here are the only things we know about the Grangers:

• Hermione’s parents are… Mr. and Mrs. Granger. (They don’t even have names!)
• They are capable of snow skiing, and have done it before.
• Mrs. and Mrs. Granger are both doctors, and are very health-consious (they once sent Harry a bunch of sugar-free snacks when he was in need of food over the summer.)
• The Granger parents are very supportive of Hermione being a witch! They’ve met the Weaselys at least once, and they are very facinated by magic!
• In Deathly Hallows, Hermione obliviated her parents’ memories and shipped them off to Austrailia, because Muggles in relation to Harry Potter were being persecuted and Hermione didn’t want anything to happen to them.
  • Do we know if Hermione ever had plans to get them back? *shrugs* She never said anything about it again.
• … That’s it. There is no other background info on any of the Grangers.

I hope you enjoyed these possibly-forgotten facts about the series!

(Also, I spent 8 hours of my life on this post, so now you know how dedicated I am about my Harry Potter facts ✨)

Apparently, the reason why it takes me so long to do anything on this blog is because of terribly long posts like these. 😅
I hope you enjoyed it! Did you learn (or newly-remember!) anything about the series? Would you be interested in seeing more HP canon facts like these? (Have you taken the new Pottermore Sorting? I don’t like it, but I got the House I wanted so that’s great, haha)

Chat with me about it!

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Happy reading, everyone! 😊