"I loathe Pansy Parkinson. I don't love Draco but I really dislike her. She's every girl who ever teased me at school. She's the Anti-Hermione. I loathe her."
— J.K. Rowling
Lord Voldemort, the chief antagonist of the franchise, has done tons of despicable things, including killing Harry's parents, but even if he was responsible for setting the series' plot into motion with the murder of Harry's parents, he acts in the shadows for most of the series and thus isn't really a suitable nexus for audience scorn. In his place are other characters who are willing to serve as bullseyes for the audience's hatred.
Harry Potter
- The Dursleys are your archetypal Dahlian abusive family to Harry; although Dudley has a Heel–Face Turn after Harry saves his life from the Dementors, and Aunt Petunia at least has something of a Heel Realization and is ultimately revealed to have somewhat sympathetic reasons for her hatred of the magical world, having been envious of her sister Lily's powers for her whole life, Uncle Vernon is never given any sort of redemptive moment towards Harry. Unlike Petunia, he has no motive for his hatred of magic other than his general disdain for anyone who isn't like him, and he is a vulgar, short-tempered, and petty-minded jerkass even at the best of times, not to mention encompassing everything Rowling herself thinks is wrong with British society. He outright encourages Dudley's rude behavior and bullying of Harry, and when he hears that Dementors have been sent after Harry in Little Whinging, his first instinct is to kick Harry out of his house to save himself, his wife, and his son, which would most certainly spell a death sentence to the teenage Harry, who had just saved his son's life, might one add.
- And then there's Vernon's sister, Marge Dursley. She only appears in one chapter of Prisoner of Azkaban, but it only took that one to one-up her brother and then some. She downs brandy after brandy like the industry's going belly-up (while simultaneously slinging false accusations at Harry's parents of having been the same), cares more about her dogs than most people (which given how callously she has the runt of a litter drowned is very little as well), has classist notions that put her brother to shame, shows unabashed joy at the thought of Harry receiving corporal punishment, and even Dudley has to be bribed to tolerate her presence. Ultimately, she gets a very satisfying comeuppance from Harry, who isn't even punished for inflating her due both to circumstances and the fact it was accidental.
- Draco Malfoy is introduced as a Jerkass Fantastic Racist rich kid who thinks he is better than others because he was born in a rich family. As the story progresses, he only shows more jerkassery as he openly declares that he wishes to know who Slytherin's heir is so he can help him kill Muggle-borns, deliberately fake the severity of the injury Buckbeak inflicted on him so Hagrid will be sacked (it doesn't work, but Buckbeak almost gets killed for it), and so on. This is finally subverted in Half-Blood Prince. Although Draco makes several attempts on Dumbledore's life which almost get two other people killed, he's ultimately shown to be pitiable and is arguably at his most sympathetic, as he clearly doesn't want to be a member of the Death Eaters but knows Voldemort will kill him and his family if he fails.
- Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, Draco's two handymen, are essentially Malfoy minus even the microscopic redeeming qualities that Draco himself possessed, or any motive for their actions beyond being obnoxious, brutish bullies. Having the same personality as Draco but being even dumber, uglier, and crueler, no one was remotely sorry when Crabbe (Goyle in the movie) got himself killed in an unbelievably stupid way by his own misdirected spell in an attempt to kill Harry, Hermione, and Ron, making him the only person in the series dumb enough to die in the Room of Requirement.
- For the early part of the series, Severus Snape largely acts as a cruel, bitter, and absurdly unfair Jerkass. Even as the series progresses and his backstory and Hidden Depths are revealed, he never truly stops being a petty and spiteful bully towards Harry and one of his major antagonists in his school life. This changes somewhat in Book 5 when Umbridge quickly turns out to be far worse than him, and then there's Book 7, when we find out just how much of a (morally grey) hero he was all along despite remaining a cruel, bitter and absurdly unfair Sadist Teacher.
- Book 3 features Snape at his most detestable. With very little of the Deadpan Snarker on display, sadistically torturing Neville openly in class, insulting another teacher publicly in front of his students, and in the end gleefully looking forward to feeding a man to Dementors even when he was willing to come quietly and requested a fair hearing. When it's clear that he won't listen to reason, the trio resort to knocking him unconscious. After the climax, he gets in one last act of spite by outing Lupin as a werewolf (which he had already tried, more subtly, at least once earlier in the year).
- Pansy Parkinson is portrayed as a one-dimensional Alpha Bitch who's rude, insulting, prejudiced (topping off the series' usual Fantastic Racism with some actual racism towards Angelina Johnson), and cruel with no improvement throughout the series; she's also the only Hogwarts student who wants to sell out Harry to Voldemort in exchange for safety. On top of that, she's dumb and ugly. Rowling herself describes
her as "...every girl who ever teased me at school ... I loathe her." and she isn't particularly subtle about it. - Lucius Malfoy, Draco's father, manages to be an even bigger Jerkass and Fantastic Racist than his son. He openly insults the Grangers for being Muggles and the Weasleys for being poor, harshly berates his son for his poor grades, glowers at the 14-year-old Hermione for being a Muggle-born, and, in his most loathsome act not directly connected to being a Death Eater, has the 11-year old Ginny brainwashed to open the Chamber of Secrets, which could have killed several children and did result in said children being petrified, intending to take advantage of the situation to have Dumbledore sacked and Arthur Weasley's life ruined, all to settle a petty grudge with Arthur and rid himself of an incriminating dark artifact. This was Enforced by Lucius's actor Jason Isaacs with regard to his film incarnation, as he stated his intent was to make Lucius so hateable as to make Draco more sympathetic by comparison. If anything, the film version of Lucius is even worse, stepping up from emotionally abusing Draco to hitting him with a cane, and attempting to outright murder Harry for foiling his plans in Chamber of Secrets. Like with Draco, this gets subverted in the later books, as his love for his wife and son is presented as a genuine redeeming quality, but Word of God states that Lucius ultimately learns nothing from Voldemort's defeat and remains a bitter Muggle-hater in his old age.Jason Isaacs: I watched the first film to see who my son was and maybe decide how to play his dad, and he's such an unpleasant little slimeball I decided I should win him some sympathy. So you see me bully him mercilessly.
- Gilderoy Lockhart is a a Know-Nothing Know-It-All characterised by his extreme arrogance. He claims to have performed many heroic deeds, but is actually a fraud who used the Memory Charm (the only spell he was even remotely good at) to erase the memories of others and claim the credit for himself. During his one-year stance as Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher, he is seen as a complete joke, not helped by his many attempts to one-up other Professors in their own field and failing miserably every time. When real danger rears its head, he is revealed to be a complete coward who is willing to leave Ginny to die in the Chamber to save his own neck while attempting to wipe Ron and Harry's memories... only for Ron's wand to wonderfully backfire on him and wipe his own mind clean due to Ron's wand being damaged earlier in the story. This potentially horrifying fate earns him no sympathy and is Played for Laughs, and Order of the Phoenix reveals that it has taught him nothing, as he remains exceptionally full of himself even though he can barely remember who he is. It is worth mentioning that during his time as a student, his Professors noted that he was very intelligent (being sorted into Ravenclaw) and could have been a great wizard, but was so vain that he never actually bothered to develop his magical talents.
- Cornelius Fudge is initially presented as something of a Reasonable Authority Figure, but by the end of Book 4 and throughout Book 5, he shows his true colours: that of a corrupt, cowardly, greedy, xenophobic moron who puts the entire world in danger by ignoring Voldemort's return. To do this, he launches a smear campaign against Harry and Dumbledore (despite the latter always gave him helpful advice during his years in office) and puts the former through a Kangaroo Court where he acts incredibly smug and refuses to let Harry get a word in. He also puts too much importance on so-called blood purity, having held back Arthur Weasley to low-paying positions within the Ministry because of Arthur's like of and fascination toward Muggles, considering Arthur to lack proper wizarding pride, while continuing to associate with Lucius Malfoy, a former Death Eater. Eventually when the truth about Voldemort's return is revealed, he wants Harry to help him despite everything he did, leaving Harry and Dumbledore disgusted.
- Peter "Wormtail" Pettigrew is a former classmate-turned-nemesis of the Marauders having betrayed the Potter family to Lord Voldemort when his life was threatened. Initially presumed dead at Sirius Black's hands, Wormtail actually framed Black as Voldemort's informant before faking his own death, killing innocent people and removing a finger in the process before transforming into Ron Weasley's pet rat, Scabbers. When confronted by Lupin and Black, Wormtail blames Voldemort's threats for his treachery, before begging for his life. After escaping the encounter, Wormtail serves Lord Voldemort out of self-interest, eventually culminating in an attempt to kill Harry Potter despite the latter saving his life.
- Rita Skeeter is a smug, obnoxious Paparazzi journalist for the Daily Prophet who has no respect for anyone's privacy, and spends the vast majority of her time writing blatantly false and defamatory articles that just serve to make Harry and Hermione's lives more difficult. Her writings about Harry convince Minister Fudge that Harry is crazy and shouldn't be believed about Voldemort, so she's more responsible for Voldemort's damage than one might think. She even manages to be just as scummy in Deathly Hallows despite not personally appearing. There, she writes a tell-all book about Albus Dumbledore's life and darkest secrets, despite the fact that he was just recently murdered. She is, notably, the only person in the entire franchise who Dumbledore (including his younger self in Fantastic Beasts) treats with outright contempt instead of his usual condescending rudeness he uses on people he doesn't like. She also makes the detestable, homophobic implication in Deathly Hallows that Dumbledore has an "unnatural" interest in Harry.
- Three words: Dolores Jane Umbridge. Full-stop. She uses her position at Hogwarts to undermine Harry and Dumbledore for daring to tell the truth about Voldemort's return, and outright tortures Harry by forcing him to magically carve the words "I must not tell lies" into his own hand with his own blood. She hides all of her horrible traits under a sugary-sweet mask, lacking even the Love to Hate charisma of Voldemort. In Order of the Phoenix, Umbridge demonstrates the consequences of giving power to a bigot, promoting hatred towards Muggle-borns, depriving students of the capacity to learn self-defense, and disrespecting the inhabitants of the Forbidden Forest. In Deathly Hallows, she graduates from "mere" petty cruelty to outright assisting with genocide, charging Muggle-borns with "stealing magic". Whether she is an undercover Death-Eater or merely an opportunist jumping at the chance to cause pain to a large number of people is never confirmed, not that we have the slightest sympathy for her when according to Word of God she is sentenced to life in Azakban (albeit one without Dementors). Stephen King described her as "the most despicable person since Hannibal Lecter", and this comes from the man who created Annie Wilkes, Pennywise and Randall Flagg.
- Zacharias Smith never does anything evil, but stands out as a particularly obnoxious and annoying character. He joins Dumbledore's Army, only to complain about everything Harry tries to teach them. He later becomes an incredibly biased Quidditch commentator in the sixth book and makes one final appearance in the seventh book, abandoning Hogwarts before the final battle starts and pushing first years out of his way whilst deserting.
- Fenrir Greyback, while not as widely hated as many of the above examples due to his villainy being of the same over-the-top and impersonal brand as Voldemort's, is still a cannibal and the werewolf personification of Would Hurt a Child, to the point of even being implied to be a pedophile.
- Marvolo Gaunt is The Patriarch of the Gaunt family and one of the last living descendants of Salazar Slytherin alongside his children Morfin and Merope. Marvolo treated his daughter Merope with nothing but contempt, forcing her to do all the work and berating her for her lack of magic, a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy since abuse stifles the development of magic. Because of his bloodline, Marvolo thought he was untouchable, and proved to be unreasonable when confronted about his son's attack on a muggle named Tom Riddle. When Marvolo learned of his daughter's infatuation with Riddle, he tried to strangle her in front of a Ministry official, leading to his and Morfin's arrest. Marvolo's abusive treatment of his daughter caused decades of suffering for the wizarding world when Merope despaired after being left by Riddle and died giving birth to his son, who would become Lord Voldemort and instigated two wars in a mad quest for power and immortality.
Fantastic Beasts
- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: Mary Lou Barebone is an odious Bible-thumping wizard-hater who beats her foster children and spreads slanderous anti-wizard propaganda around New York, all the while hiding behind an infuriatingly preening mask of arrogant righteousness. If that wasn't bad enough, she's also directly responsible for getting Tina Goldstein fired when she used magic to try to defend Credence from Mary's violent abuse. She's such a horrible mother and so fanatically anti-magic that she makes the Dursleys look positively sanctified in comparison. It is impossible to feel even the slightest bit of sympathy for her when Credence lashes out with his powers and she dies wearing an expression of obviously horrific agony.
- Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald: Corvus Lestrange IV lusted after Laurena, the wife of Mustafa Kama and put her under the Imperius Curse, attacking her son Yusef when he tried to stop him. Corvus raped Laurena for months before she died giving birth to a girl, who Corvus showed no love for as she could not continue his line. Corvus brushed off Laurena’s death and subsequently took another wife who bore him a son. Knowing that Yusef would target his son, Corvus sent both his children to America despite knowing the person he sent them to would be abusive. In short, Corvus Lestrange committed a particularly heinous crime for the Wizarding World and managed to avoid the consequences.
- Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore: Anton Vogel is the German Minister of Magic supporting Gellert Grindelwald's interests and successfully gets him legally absolved of his past transgressions. As part of this, Vogel also intends to help Gridelwald's supporters keep the still living Qilin from picking Vicência Santos or anyone else over Gridelwald for the Supreme Head of the ICW—while the dead, cursed one that Grindelwald possesses will pick Grindelwald personally—and throws Theseus Scamander in a prison to make him look like a dissenter. The plan nearly succeeds with Grindelwald ready to declare war, but as the actual Qilin steps forth to ultimately choose Santos, Vogel's own deception is exposed as the curse wears off of the dead Qilin and it collapses in his arms.
