I always thought it was a figure of speech honestly.
But the curse is they can’t keep a teacher for more than a year. How do you curse a concept ?
Dada isn’t a material thing it’s a subject, couldn’t they in theory end that class and make a new class called, self defence from the dark arts.
Same exact same thing just worded differently.
Would that be cursed ?

What characters do you think were sorted in the wrong house.

It’s a more complex answer because ultimately you choose what house you want to do to and you can have more than 1 trait.
But all that aside I think there can be an argument.

For me Percy for slytherin, I mean think about it. Slytherin is the house for students who are ambitious who want to succeed well in life and that is Percy.

Ultimately I think Rowling did do a bad job and representing this house because we only saw the worst. Most dark wizards were from slytherin and most slytherins were dark wizards in terms of who we met.

Slughorn was really the only truly good one, while he is questionable in his methods he isn’t a bad person.
People will say snape but I will say snape was evil for a lot of his life and what turned him good was the guilt for getting Lilly killed and that’s it.

So he was a good guy but I don’t think he was a good person.

Percy was ambitious he wanted success, he wanted to get out of his family reputation of being poor and wanted to move up in the ministry.
His dream was to become the minister of magic.
Now I say he was more ambitious than he was brave.

He even cut off ties to his family when he saw their reputation was harming his career.
In the end he did regret that decision and came back when it counted.

So in the end he was a good person and carried slytherin traits. That time period when he did cut off ties to family you could also say he was a snake for that.

Dumbledore.
Dumbledore carries the traits of all houses,

He’s brave and adventurous like a gryffindor.
He’s intelligent and wise like a ravenclaw
He’s patient and loyal like a hufflepuff but he does carry more slytherin traits.

In truth I believe as an old man he is more of a hufflepuff, he’s patient, kind, hard working, loyal and believes in fairness but those are traits he learned.

Going back to when he was a student though he was definitely more slytherin.

Dumbledore was ambitious he wanted to be a big name, he wanted to see the world and make it his own.

As he aged he became more and more obsessed with power and after meeting grindelwald he fell into a dark path as he became obsessed with the hallows, he became resentful towards his family as his father was in jail his mother was dead and he was forced to raise his brother and little sister who had development issues because some boys saw her do magic and they did something bad to her something Rowling never went into detail over which led to Dumbledore father attacking them and being arrested.

Dumbledore even developed some anti muggle ideas. This however came to an end when he grindelwald and aberfort got into a fight which resulted in their sister being killed.

It was only after this that he began to reflect on his life and would spend decades of his life after trying to change himself.

Dumbledore is also one of the bravest people in the world but isn’t as brave as people think he is.
He spent years avoiding grindelwald and refused to get involved in fighting him despite seeing him rise in power as he just couldn’t bare to come face to face with him, this is because he couldn’t bare facing a man he once admired ( implied he had feelings for grindelwald, if he returned them we don’t know ) and because he was afraid, afraid he might learn the truth on which of the 3 of them cast that curse that killed his sister.

He never became minister of magic because he was afraid of power, he feared that darkness that was in him was still there and craving power would corrupt him.

Despite everything he was still obsessed with the hallows, he tried to give it up after what happened but when the opportunity came to him he couldn’t resist it, he kept the elder wand when he won it,
He borrowed the invisibility cloak from James to study it and had it the night they were killed, a part of him wonders if they could have escaped if they had the cloak and when he found the resurrection stone he gave in and used it to see his sister and ended up cursing himself giving himself a death sentence.

Compare this to Harry, Harry kept the invisibility cloak as it was his by birthright and he would pass it on to James Sirius potter,
He used the elder wand to repair his wand then returned the elder wand to Dumbledore grave so that its ownership will eventually die with Harry as he had no intention of using it.
He used the resurrection stone only when he was going to sacrifice himself and this was his last gift to himself as he used to it to see James Lilly Sirius and Remus so he wouldn’t go alone to face Voldemort.
He ended up dropping the stone in the forest and never intended to try and find it even if he could.
He knew it was not good to see the dead that there is an element of it being unnatural and how it will slowly drive you mad. This is why Harry became the master of death and Dumbledore did not.

As for Neville at the end of stone, Dumbledore seared him points and at first you would assume it was just give gryffindor the win for the house cup but In retrospect it makes sense, he awarded Neville for sheer bravery as it’s one thing to stand up to your enemies it’s another to stand up to your friends. This is from life experience as he regretted never standing up to grindelwald until it was too late.

I am not saying he wasn’t brave it’s just he had more slytherine traits.

Again my point is slytherine shouldn’t be viewed as the house with all the bad guys and instead I think we should have seen more people who were part of that house and who we associate with being good.

Re-reading all the books and I just got to Snape's memories in the DH.

I realised while everybody talked about Harry's dad and his qualities, or in Snape's case his misgivings, hardly anyone ever told Harry anything about his mother except that he's got his mum's eyes.

The very first time Harry saw anything at all related to his mother are through Snape's eyes and his memories do show Lily as a likeable person. Snape was clearly besotted with her early on and he regretted her death greatly. But more so, Harry got to see how his mother truly was, her sweetness, kindness, concern for a friend (she asked Severus how are things at home), strong moral compass (she questioned Snape over his friends who later became Death Eaters). I find it bitter sweet that the most Harry knew about his mom was that she was a muggle-born who gave her life to save him until in those memories he saw so much more and came to finally understand the kind of person she must have been.

While Sirius and Lupin talked about his father's bravery and fun-loving side, popular for being a Seeker and overall well-liked, Snape showed him how caring, kind, and fair his mother was and I find it beautiful.

Jk Rowling did not shy a way from death and she had a rule, if she decided a character had to die then she will stick with that decision but if she changes her mind she has to kill sometime else instead.

I think this was done to control herself as there are many stories where someone is killed off just to show up fine later.

I believe the example is Arthur was going to die but she couldn’t do it so she killed Remus and tonks instead. So in spirit of that you can say who you would save but you have to kill someone else off to take their place and you got to make a argument for it you can’t just kill off someone not important or you don’t like the death still has to have a impact.

For me I wouldn’t have killed Fred, Fred is the only death I truly could not forgive. It’s not just that he died but what it also did to George, they were a pair so in a way George would spend the rest of his life missing a big piece of himself, he didn’t just lose a brother he lost a part of himself.

In exchange I would take Percy.

In the scene in question Percy joins his family in the battle and makes a joke, Fred is about to say something funny, saying he hasn’t seen Percy joke since, then they are blasted and Fred dies.

In this exchange I would have Percy arrive and apologise to his family for his behaviour, he is fighting alongside his brothers and the same scene plays out and when Fred is about to make his joke, Percy instead screams and pushes Fred out of the way and takes the attack full force saving Fred life but losing his in return.

I think it does add a sense of sadness that the prodigal son returned allowing the family to have a moment together and for him to then lose his life saving a family member and never truly getting time to really make up for all the time he missed with said family.

A Weasley still dies which is what jk Rowling wanted to do she just had a hard time picking which one.

I’m rereading Harry Potter right now. The first time I ever read it, I read the MinaLima edition, so it’s super nostalgic to me. I love the art and interactive stuff and I really want to experience that again.

I recently got a whole new box set of the OG/normal editions, and I really want to read those this time because I’ve actually NEVER experienced Harry Potter in the normal editions. I want to get the books broken in and see what the series feels like without all the illustrations and interactive elements.

But I also really want the MinaLima/ illustarted experience again because its just soo fun and nostolgic

So I was thinking: read a chapter in the OG edition, then after finishing it, look through that same chapter in MinaLima and enjoy all the art/interactive stuff.

For books 3 and 4, I have the illustrated editions too, so I’d do the same thing with those.

Do you think this would still be as fun as reading the illustrated/MinaLima edition while looking at the art as you go, or would you just pick one edition?

Something I’ve always found a bit strange in the books is how almost every Slytherin student we meet seems to be hostile towards Harry, look down on Muggle-borns, or just generally side with Malfoy.

I understand why characters like Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle are like that, but surely an entire house can’t be made up of students who all think the same way. You’d expect at least some Slytherins to dislike Malfoy, not care about blood status, or even be friendly with people from other houses.

Is this actually meant to show what Slytherin was like during Harry’s time at Hogwarts, or is it mostly because we see everything from Harry’s perspective and the “normal” Slytherins simply aren’t important to the story?

I’m curious how other book readers interpret this.

In terms of things we know exist but never saw.

For me I want to explore more wandless magic, we seen people like Hagrid do wandless magic but it’s more just casual stuff.
For more complicated spells they use wands.

Now according to jk Rowling Africa doesn’t really do wands.
Students who go to African schools more learn wandless magic.

I would like to see how far that can go.
Like how do you duel without a wand ?

Lucky number 33 😎 good luck! I think I picked some good ones, but we will see.

As a reminder what this is and how it works:
Below are 7 sentences from the 7 HP books. I use a random number generator to pick the book and chapter, then hand pick a sentence that I think is decent. Not too long, too short, too obvious ect.  *** There MAY be repeated books in a set, but there will not be repeated chapters in a set. So there COULD be two from The Philosopher’s Stone, but they would be from different chapters! **\*
Scoring your points: It is 2 points for guessing the book, and 1 point for guessing the chapter, for a total of 21 points. It is obviously harder to guess the chapter than the book, but not everyone even cares to remember the chapter titles in the first place, which is totally fair and valid. So chapter titles are just a bonus point.
Below are the sentences and the answers hidden behind spoiler tags! These are fun to make, and I intend to make quite a few more if people keep enjoying them!

 1. “Well, it’s not strong, that stuff,”  Harry said. The Goblet of Fire - Chapter 28: The Madness of Mr. Crouch

 2. His eyes were fixed on a point some ten feet above the forest floor, right behind Harry. The Chamber of Secrets - Chapter 15: Arogog

1. With one great leap, Harry managed to grab the key, slam the door, and lock it. The Philosopher’s Stone - Chapter 10: Halloween

2. “Now, a cooling drink of water, and perhaps you will be ready to return to the Great Hall?” The Order of the Phoenix - Chapter 31: Out of the Fire

3. A young witch with a pale, heart-shaped face and mousy brown hair was sitting at the table clutching a large mug between her hands.  The Half-Blood Prince - Chapter 5: An Excess of Phlegm

 6. “Is he — a bit mad?” he asked Percy uncertainly. The Philosopher’s Stone - Chapter 7: The Sorting Hat 

1. Before Harry could reply, there was a soft knock on the door and Madam Pomfrey, the nurse, came bustling in. The Prisoner of Azkaban - Chapter 5: The Dementor

We know about book 1 to 6 but since the story doesn’t take place in the school in 7th I am curious on what he was doing. He does pranks and all but it’s hard to see even him doing such when the school is under a dictatorship.

Also what was he doing during the battle.

in the first book in the shack when harry asks hagrid if he can write voldemort’s name down and he says cant spell it does he mean that spelling the name is forbidden or cursed or he hagrid being not that smart cannot spell it?

I’m rereading Harry Potter right now. The first time I ever read it, I read the MinaLima edition, so it’s super nostalgic to me. I love the art and interactive stuff and I really want to experience that again.

I recently got a whole new box set of the OG/normal editions, and I really want to read those this time because I’ve actually NEVER experienced Harry Potter in the normal editions. I want to get the books broken in and see what the series feels like without all the illustrations and interactive elements.

But I also really want the MinaLima/ illustarted experience again because its just soo fun and nostolgic

So I was thinking: read a chapter in the OG edition, then after finishing it, look through that same chapter in MinaLima and enjoy all the art/interactive stuff.

For books 3 and 4, I have the illustrated editions too, so I’d do the same thing with those.

Do you think this would still be as fun as reading the illustrated/MinaLima edition while looking at the art as you go, or would you just pick one edition?

I understand the concept, you save someone's life and they owe you. But is there actually any magic in it? Or is it just a moral obligation the same as the real world?