Sometimes I like to think about how if James and Lily had survived they would’ve been grandparents in their early forties like can you imagine James taking his namesake to the park and someone cooing over him and the baby like, “Your son is adorable,” and he tells them, “Grandson, actually,” and they think he’s joking until James Sirius catches his attention by saying, “Grandad!”
Harry’s childhood affects him enormously, setting the stage for huge swathes of his behaviour throughout the books. It doesn’t start and end with exceptional reflexes and the ability to go for long periods of time on not much food.
For example: Sirius Black is the first adult in whom Harry Potter willingly confides before he’s beaten the bad guys and taken care of the issue on his own.
This happens in book four of seven.
Look, Harry has trust issues: he lets very specific people in and they stay there. End of. Everyone else spends a lot of time bashing their heads against the brick wall that he throws up around those people he loves.
But noticeably, all of the people he loves in that way are teenagers like himself; all but Sirius. Never in five books does Harry ever confide in an adult other than Sirius. He accepts guidance from adults when it’s offered to him, but he does not take his troubles to grownups of his own volition. Ever. This character trait drives the entire plot of the first two books – Harry, Ron and Hermione solving mysteries on their own even though they are in a castle stuffed with teachers, among whose number is the man the Wizarding World acknowledges as the greatest wizard alive. They tell all, of course they do. But only when it’s over. Only when they’ve already won.
Harry Potter does not trust people who are in a position of power over him. This isn’t a result of Snape, or Umbridge, or Skeeter-induced Ministry ridicule. This is a result of the Dursleys.
I have this really important Headcanon where Remus gets to Hogwarts and has no idea how being around people works, since he’s been isolated from people outside his parents practically his whole life. So you can imagine this scrawny little boy with brown curls and skin pale as paper, with this massive red cardigan over his robes and muddy boots with a pink and green bandaid over the bridge of his nose, of course he has no idea how to tie a tie, so he wears it in a bow instead.
So this goofball walks into his very first potions class and his hand shoots up at the very first question, and he stands up and rambles on for about ten minutes about the pros and cons of using mandrake leaves. (having already read through all of the text books,) and you can be sure he isn’t shy with swear words because by age 11 Remus has read every book in the house and has a pretty large vocabulary, and when he’s done he sits down and Sirius black and James potter stand up and applaud him because goddamn, this nerd just said “fucking rare as shit” to a teacher, who is this. All while slughorn has never looked more constipated in his life.
posts like this are why i still log on to this website tbh
Our fave failed couples from Harry Potter have left us ‘SHIPWRECKED. (WHY CHARRY, WHYYYYYYY?) Click here to see all of Vitoria Bas’ hilarious illos, then let’s have a moment of silence for Albus and Gellert’s lost love. IT COULD HAVE BEEN SO BEAUTIFUL, GUYS.
So I’ve been seeing this post floating around Tumblr about how Harry should have retrieved the Resurrection Stone and imagine how wonderful it would have been for the characters to have closure with their loved ones and how beautiful and emotionally satisfying and and and… heart-wrenching stuff.
But… that’s completely not what the Resurrection Stone does.
The Stone is a liar, designed by Death to draw people away from life. The Second Brother literally goes insane from the image of his lost love, and kills himself to join her in death. And if you don’t believe the fairy tale (heh), look at what happens when Harry uses the Stone: Yes, his mother, father, Sirius and Remus appear, but they lure him to death. They literally encourage him to walk to his supposed grave. What does StoneLily say? “You’ve been so brave”. Compare that to the urgency of Goblet of Fire’s ShadowLily. Do they seem quite the same? Does it seem quite like Remus to be so passive in the face of dying before getting to know his son? Or for Sirius to encourage anyone to simply accept their death lying down?
Time and again, J. K. Rowling has emphasized the importance of “moving on” in the context of death. Think about it. Harry has another experience with the memories of his parents which nearly derails him – the Mirror of Erised. The Stone – which creates a far more tangible memory and far more dangerous allure – is devastating by nature. It’s not heartwarming or romantic or sweet. Frankly, I’m baffled that we would forget such a critical part of the Stone’s mythology. It is no less a murder weapon than the Elder Wand. It simply kills in a more roundabout way.
THANK YOU. I fricking hate that other post, but never had time when I saw it to write a rebuttal.
Cheloneuniverse 