- Harry's parents were killed, Sirius says that he thinks Alice and Frank suffered a fate worse than death. Harry gets all sorts of power of prophecy, fame, close friends, all the advantages of his parents being killed by Voldemort, Neville, who's parents suffered a worse fate than Harry's gets NOTHING, no fame he is in fact mocked, no power, no friends. Since Hogwarts helps those who deserve it, I can see the room figuring of all the people at Hogwarts Neville deserves the Rooms help more than anyone.
- hell Harry even, though dumb luck, got some freaking Felix Felisus! How lucky are you to luck up on some liquid luck! So yeah, destiny was hooking Harry Potter up. Poor Neville, he makes Charlie Brown look like Fonzy.
- Alternatively, someone will witness a breach of the Statute and upload it, but no one will believe the video and assume it was due to special effects.
- Alternatively, it may be that muggleborn wizards face tough time being expelled. This most likely includes memory modification to them and their relatives to prevent them from disclosing the magical world.
- Would it be worse for someone to be expelled and keep their memory but not be allowed to do magic or to forget all about it?
- Either way. One of two things could happen to Hermione: First, she could be forced to go back to her family and spend the rest of her life pretending that she doesn't realize there exists a whole magical world, never again performing magic or meeting with her friends, forced to never reveal the truth to any other Muggle by the threat of memory modification or worse. Second, she could have her memory wiped, which would probably be better in the long run, but which might compare unfavorably to death from Hermione's perspective. Both of these (especially the first) could arguably qualify as a Fate Worse than Death.
- Note that Hagrid was expelled, and had no consequences except being forbidden to do magic; but then he is not muggleborn.
- Although this may be because Dumbledore went to bat for him, really knowing that Tom Riddle was the culprit.
- This troper always felt that the punishment for expulsion (having your wand snapped in half) was unrealistically steep, anyway, given the fact that attendance at Hogwarts isn't even mandatory to begin with.
- Wait, when does the book say that's the punishment for getting expelled? I may be forgetting something, but I thought it only happened to Hagrid because he was thought to have set an extremely dangerous magical creature on Muggle-born students. Which would probably have landed him in Azkaban if Dumbledore hadn't intervened.
- Book 5 seems to lend credence to it. In Harry's expulsion letter, it explicitly says that Ministry representatives would be arriving shortly to destroy his wand. Then again, the fact that this was Harry Potter and the Ministry had it in for him at the time clouds this a bit. The fact is, there's no way of knowing if this is a universal thing, because Harry and Hagrid were the only two people known to have been expelled from Hogwarts. (Grindelwald was expelled...from Durmstrang, IIRC. He doesn't seem to have lost his wand, but that may be because he escaped or no one had the balls to try and take it from him.)
- Technically, they're both snapping his wand and expelling him, not snapping his wand because they're expelling him. Their first letter is unclear about this, but the second letter makes it clear they will not destroy his wand until after his hearing. And it says, 'following discussions' with DD, the question of his expulsion 'will be decided' at that time...because, as we later learn, the Ministry cannot actually expel students. This probably means DD agreed to expel Harry if Harry's wand was snapped, because without a wand, Harry can't actually attend Hogwarts anyway. Of course, this doesn't prove anything about what happens upon expulsion...it's just that expulsion isn't what Harry's being threatened with here, it's wand snapping by the Ministry, and, consequentially, expulsion from school. Not the other way around.
- Wait, when does the book say that's the punishment for getting expelled? I may be forgetting something, but I thought it only happened to Hagrid because he was thought to have set an extremely dangerous magical creature on Muggle-born students. Which would probably have landed him in Azkaban if Dumbledore hadn't intervened.
- So James Potter is alive?
- No because he died prior to the start of the story. I'm talking about everything past PoA.
- The other poster was saying that if Harry and Hermione hadn't gone back in time, the trio, Sirius and Snape would all be dead (or rather soul-sucked) since the time-traveling Harry wasn't there to save them. Hence, Harry couldn't have gone back in time to save them without having already been saved, resulting in a paradox which can only work in a "there was no first time" universe. Therefore, alternate timelines are impossible in the Potterverse.
- No, Harry, Hermione and Sirius would be dead or soul-sucked, as Ron and Snape were not present when the Dementors attacked, they were still up near the whomping willow. Also, being that they were both unconscious, it's unlikely the Dementors would have been able to detect them (the Dementors couldn't even identify Sirius when he was in dog-form because of his simpler mind, they probably wouldn't have been able to 'see' unconscious people unless they already knew they were there/were already in the process of feeding off them).
- [petulant tone]Actually[/tone], I was saying the Harry wouldn't have been there to be seen on the first cycle, and it doesn't matter if he would have died or not (he would have, though), because if it wasn't a Stable Time Loop the 0th-cycle version of him would never have traveled to the first cycle, the first-cycle version would have had to have had a reason to behave the way he did (waiting by the lake, jumping out and using a full patronus) and the second and later cycles (which the canon version of PoA would necessarily have been) would have been functionally identical to a Stable Time Loop, with no changing the past.
- The other poster was saying that if Harry and Hermione hadn't gone back in time, the trio, Sirius and Snape would all be dead (or rather soul-sucked) since the time-traveling Harry wasn't there to save them. Hence, Harry couldn't have gone back in time to save them without having already been saved, resulting in a paradox which can only work in a "there was no first time" universe. Therefore, alternate timelines are impossible in the Potterverse.
- The unmasque-ing will start when the vampires reveal themselves, although it'll apparently take a long, long time before all the other beings are believed.
- Actually, The Tales of Beedle the Bard are edited by Dumbledore, so he is referencing the first wizarding war.
- A small but telltale feature that would signal the end
- Extraneous characters or events which are inconsistent with the spirit of the foregoing story
- A sudden shift in letter frequencies or word lengths
- Errors appearing immediately thereafter.
- The mixed up order of Harry's parents coming out of the wand was a publishing error that got fixed. this Tropers copy has Lilly coming out first and then James, which is the correct order.
- Word of God (I think) said the last chapter was written first, hence why it seems so "amaturish".
- Just a note on page number - the relevant page in my UK first hardback edition (with James emerging first frow Voldy's wand)is 570.
- Jossed. Snape didn't take that many points from Gryffindor. Plus you also have to figure in the amount of points the Gryffindors were given from the other teachers.
- Another possibility is that the spell only works on real rats.
- I actually had a similar idea (currently trying to work it into a fanfic): The entire thing was a trap for Voldemort, which shows why the obstacles were easy enough that three first-years could get past them. The obstacles had to appear to be difficult, so as not to arouse Voldemort's attention, but possible to get past without too much trouble.
- However, my theory goes a little further: The Stone hidden in the Mirror of Esired was a fake. In reality, when Hagrid got the real Philosopher's Stone to Dumbledore at the beginning of the year, Dumbledore and Flamel had already agreed to destroy it. Dumbledore knew that Voldemort had infiltrated Hogwarts (whether he knew about the situation with Quirrel or not is uncertain; he did know that something was up but may or may not have had all the details). And so, Dumbledore and Flamel make a decoy stone while destroying the real one — Flamel and his wife have enough elixir left to keep up appearances for a year or so, and so only those three people know that the Stone has been destroyed.
- Over the course of the year, Dumbledore subtly let's Voldemort find out how to get past the obstacles, and then pretends to be called away from Hogwarts on urgent business. However, he had not counted on Harry getting to the same conclusions... and so the entire thing takes a slightly different turn than he'd planned, but the end result is that Voldemort is effectively purged from Hogwarts.
- And so when Harry is in the hospital wing and the first thing he does when waking up is ask whether the Philosopher's Stone is safe, Dumbledore (impressed with Harry's bravery and knowing that the boy will have to face Voldemort again sometime in the future) just doesn't have the heart to tell him that the entire ordeal was completely unnecessary and that the Stone Harry saves was a worthless decoy. So he lies just a teensy bit, pretending that he and Flamel have just now decided that the Stone should be destroyed — when in reality, it had already been destroyed several months ago.
- Jossed. This has already been disproven. Furthermore Just because the writing looks female does not mean it was written by a girl. There are men out there who have feminine handwriting.
- This would have been more likely to be a member who, unlike the Trio and others, may have been too severely injured at the end of the battle to take part in full-time Auror work, and settled down to teach instead.
- This theory is supported by Word of God stating that Harry was brought in as a guest lecturer fairly often, indicating that the full-time prof was somebody that knew Harry knew his stuff.
- Word of God says that the only Death Eater who could produce a Patronus was Snape. Snape was (at least somewhat) accepting of Muggleborns, Muggles, and Squibs, because he fell in love/lust (there is really no denying that his relationship with her wasn't at least part-lust.) with one. None of the other Death Eaters could, because they were all for the slaughter of people with Muggle-blood, Squibs, and those who supported both. Snape, though it's made VERY CLEAR that he doesn't care about any other Muggleborns, Muggles, or Squibs apart from Lily, since he is stated to be very rude towards them (Lily says he calls everyone but her of Muggle birth that dirty M-word), and he is extremely rude to her sister specifically because she is a Muggle. After she died, though, he wanted to protect her memory, and he still at least, supported those of Muggle-birth, as he is shown to hate the "dirty-blood" slurs (calling out Phineas Nigellus). Umbridge is a strange exception.
- Reputedly, Umbridge was only able to while she held the locket Horcrux. Personally, this troper thinks that Snape was able to because, despite all his flaws, what he did during the events of the books was out of love rather than of hate, which is how most Death Eaters operated.
- Or Umbridge actually got her jollies from having the existence of others in the palm of her hands. It actually crosses over into Fridge Horror territory when you think of it like that.
- I always thought that was kind of dodgy, surely Lily wasn't the first mother to sacrifice herself out of love for her child? An explanation recently hit me: Snape managed to get Voldemort to make an Unbreakable Vow to not kill Lily. When Lily threw herself in the way of the Killing Curse, Voldemort accidentally broke the Vow causing him to die. Harry's scar is a side-effect of the accidental Horocrux creation.
- Voldemort isn't nearly foolish enough to try to kill someone he has made an Unbreakable Vow not to kill. He did try to persuade Lily to walk away, perhaps because he knew how Snape felt and didn't want to alienate a powerful servant. But if he did make an Unbreakable Vow, there are lots of magical ways for someone as powerful as Voldemort to leave her alive while still getting her out of the way.
- I once saw a fanfic that used that exact explanation with the further explanation that Voldie was so pleased with Snape for his spy work that when he promised he'd spare Lily he well and truly meant it at the time when he gave his word to spare her life-and he had meant it so strongly his magic reacted. In other words it was an Unbreakable Vow created by accidental magic so he didn't know he'd made an Unbreakable Vow...
Hogwarts was cash-strapped enough to have to accept corporate sponsorships during Harry's first few years there. After the whole Chamber of Secrets disaster, the school ended up with even less money for the next year, so they had to accept additional sponsorships from the Pumpkin Pasties and Cauldron Cakes companies. Eventually, the Triwizard Tournament made enough money for the school to do away with corporate sponsorships for the remainder of Harry's time at Hogwarts. They'll be back in a big way the year after Deathly Hallows, as the school rebuilds from the Battle of Hogwarts.
- Arthur Weasley was familiar with the curse because members of the ministry were put under the curse, or so they claimed, which is what Moody said (at least in the movies, I can't recall what he said in the book). Although that doesn't disprove that Arthur might have been put under the curse, it wasn't the impetus in Moody's comment either.
- Alternate mission: It seems obvious that the Aurors had Voldemort's wand at some point, because everyone knows that Voldemort was killed via his own backfiring curse, which is easy knowledge to explain if they have his wand, but nearly impossible otherwise. And it doesn't seem like body-less Voldemort could have kept his wand with him anyway, so it should have been laying on the floor of the Potter house. But, at some point, Peter Pettigrew ended up with it...and we all know where he was living. So: Arthur was Imperioused, stole the wand from the Ministry, and was caught post-Obliviation with no memory of this. He was eventually released, but no one ever figured out what Death Eater he gave it to. (Because he actually just took it home and gave it to Peter, which would be nearly impossible for anyone to figure out, considering Peter isn't known to be a Death Eater and is known to be dead.)
- As a bonus, actually being under the Imperious Curse and getting caught while under it explains why Arthur is pissed at people like Lucius who lied about that.
- Alternatively, the two abrasive personalities in the same room, well, one thing led to another...
Note, I am not saying that Ginny was physically raped by Diary!Tom Riddle, although I certainly would not have put it past him. After all, Riddle was said to have done something to one of the orphanage girls that was extremely traumatic and about which we readers can only speculate. But the interaction between Riddle and Ginny plays out like an allegorical rape. Which also explains Ginny's reaction to the Dementors in book 3. By then, she'd had about two or three months to process the gravity of what had happened to her, which is enough time to realize how bad it was but not enough time to start healing. She's also Demoted to Extra in books 3 and 4, which may indicate that it took her a couple of years to get over her own personal demons even before Harry started having some real issues in books 4 and 5. Then Harry falls in love with her because she's the only person he knows that has gone through nearly as much interaction with Voldemort as he has.
J.K. came out on record as saying that Ginny was Harry's 'ideal girl', and, as she also said that Harry, by his mid-teens, had less sexual experience than other boys his age - make of that what you will. What this troper makes of it is that Harry didn't have a 'type.' He didn't have nearly enough experience with girls to have a 'type' that he liked in particular. He was physically attracted to Cho, but the relationship didn't work once it got rollingbecause he was seeking from her what he eventually found in Ginny - someone who had a small understanding of his burden. Note how he gets over Cho rather quickly; he knew that she didn't - and couldn't - get it. But Ginny did because of the above experience, and that's why she and Harry ended up together.
- Part of the problem with this theory is that Snape's potion's book is the 6th year book, and thus student's wouldn't have normally had it in 5th year or before, so couldn't have been stolen before the incident we saw. However, we know the book was second hand, and the logical theory is that the book was originally his mother's. And thus Snape, being a Potions Nerd, could conceivable have started reading it and making notes in it well before his sixth year...and could have it stolen before then. (Hey, Snivellus, can't think of anything better to do with your time than read NEWT-level potion books?)
- That last parenthetical sentence is probably exactly what happened. Snape was a Teen Genius. Sirius explicitly says that Snape knew more curses and hexes when he got on the first train to Hogwarts than a lot of seventh years. And Snape clearly had possession of that book before his sixth year. Since it was his mother's, I daresay it was even a keepsake of his. He inscribed the notes for Levicorpus and Sectumsempra into it, and those spells were perfected and being used by him and the Marauders during OWL year at the very latest. I mean, Hermione was studying NEWT-level charms in her spare time during her OWL year, so that shouldn't be thoroughly unbelievable.
- Either that, or Snape taught it to someone. I mean, if someone saw him use some sort of spell they'd never seen before, perhaps an older or popular Slytherin, I imagine that person would be interested in learning the spell. A bit of flattery on the weird loner kid, and a bit of acting impressed with his ability to create magic would probably be enough to get him to share any and all new magic he's been developing.
I contend this is not a story, but a prophecy about Harry Potter. In my theory, Harry represents all three brothers, and Dumbledore is Death.
It starts like this - Dumbledore is the embodiment of death, and kills Harry's parents because his servant, Voldemorte, asked him to. In return, Voldemorte is asked to conquer the world and subject everyone to his master, Death. Remember - Dumbledore was the one who suggested the Fidelius Charm to keep Harry's family "safe". Dumbledore tried to kill Harry, but because his mother cast a spell (similar to the bridge in TTB story), Harry survived and cheated Death.
Fast forward. Dumbledore, having failed to kill Harry, begins to act like his friend. Throughout the story, Dumbledore actually gives Harry the three Deathly Hallows (in a roundabout way sometimes, but still). The story moves forward, and it's time for Harry to face Voldemorte in the woods. Before Voldemorte kills Harry, Harry does the following: comes out of hiding, uses the Stone to see his dead loved ones, and puts down the Wand. These are exact parallels to TTB's deaths.
And who does Harry see when he "moves on"? The same thing you might expect to see; Death. Only, Harry sees him as he knew him, as Dumbledore. Harry then gets the option of going back or moving on. This is a completely unprecidented offer - what's dead is dead, despite if it has a Horcrux inside of it. Otherwise, we would have seen Nagini come back to life, Horcrux-free! I contend that Harry really moves on to "the next life", but to him, he sees "Heaven" as the "real world" where he easily (almost stupidly) defeats Voldemorte, none of his friends die, he marries his sweetheart, and everyone lives happily ever after. And he thinks it's real life to make it feel that much better.
The reality is that Voldemorte killed Harry, and Dumbledore takes him to the "beyond" (from TTB's story: "And they walked together as equals"). Meanwhile, in the real world, Voldemorte brutally conquers the earth, and all of humanity becomes subject to the true master; Death.
As we saw in one of the movies, (Chamber of Secrets, I think), when Molly is pissed at Ron, she sends him a nice Howler as a present. Clearly she must be experienced with them, seeing as it was quite effective on him. This is the same way she started the plot; see, Tom Riddle was never evil. Forget what Rowling wrote - he was a sweet boy, at least until Molly stepped in. She sent the poor boy a brainwashing Howler telling him to go and become the greatest dark wizard of all time and go kill a random family to begin his reign of terror. After some eenie meenie minie mo, Voldy chose the Potter house. No choice involved, it was purely random. While in there, he murdered Harry's parents, and the famous killing curse rebounding took place. You know the drill. And Molly was watching all of it in a corner, where she could not be seen. Afterwards, she used another kind of magic which she excelled at: Clay-o-mancy. This is where it starts making less sense, but believe me, it's true. Now, Clay-o-mancy is the art of making stuff out of clay. Molly, being an expert at it, created a man. The man's name? Quirinus Quirrell. Yes, that Quirrell from Philsopher's Stone. This is why he burnt when Harry touched him; that's what happens to clay people. She helped Voldy stay alive by stitching him to the back of Quirrell's head using invisible thread (which makes sense, as most housekeeper ladies can sew), and that's how the first movie took place.
Next year, after enjoying the suffering of Harry and friends in their first year in school, she opened the Chamber of Secrets, and, after events far too elaborate for me to explain, she made it look like Ginny was being controlled by a diary. This was, in fact, a carefully concocted plan by Voldemort and Molly.
The NEXT year, she sent a brainwashing Howler to Remus Lupin, telling him to go teach at Hogwarts. Also, she tortured Fred and George with the Cruciatus Curse, telling them to give Harry the Marauder's Map or there will be plenty more where that came from. That is how Harry, and eventually Lupin, go hold of the map, and that is how Harry met Sirius for the first time.
Then, another brainwashing Howler (I know, these things sure can get the job done) was sent to whoever arranged the Triwizard Tournament, telling them go ahead and do it this year. She brewed a Super Polyjuice Potion for her buddy, Barty Crouch Jr., which allowed him to masquerade as Moody. Moody himself then proceeded to do the stuff we all know about, helping Harry get through Year 4, and eventually all the stuff happened with Edwa—-I mean Cedric dying, Voldemort returning, and whatnot.
For Order of the Phoenix, a brainwashing Howler for Umbridge, who was a very nice lady beforehand, turned her into the monster we know her as today. She then did Molly's dirty work for her, basically.
In Year 6, yet another brainwashing Howler reached Dumbledore, telling him to go find Slughorn. This led to the events of Half-Blood Prince, which Molly cites as her favorite year, as everyone suffered a good amount of pain on this one.
In Deathly Hallows, Molly finally snaps out of her strange state, and stops liking suffering; but it is too late, and Voldemort's assault is in full swing. We all know what happens then.
So basically, Molly is omnipresent; she was everywhere to witness people's pain and enjoy it immensely. And that is that.
What? You say that my theory has more holes in it than a slice of cheese? Well...*runs away*
2- The Marauders -Snape, Lilly and the Marauders are now seniors. James and Snape are both prefects. We hear that there is a new wizard named Voldemort who lectures in Daigon Alley. Snape and Lilly talk about this Voldemort and his anti-muggle stance which Snape is starting to believe in. Lilly points out that he has muggle blood and so does she, so it's offensive and stupid for him to believe in this. She talks to James about it, being that he and his best friend Sirius are both Purebloods she is impressed that they think blood mania is stupid. However as this Voldemort guys teachings get around more blood mania takes hold, and Snape is teased for being a Half Blood, the Half Blood Prince.During dueling practice we see that James and Snape are the top rivals, however James squeeks out a victory. Snape fumes that it's just dumb luck that this dickhead, pure blood jock scamming on Lilly just has a lot of raw magical power, whereas Snape has training, and study and discipline. He wonders if the wand has something to do with it. Snape steals James' wand sub-plot runs through the movie.Dumbeldore has a candid talk with James and Lilly. He is telling them his suspicions about this Voldemort, that they should be wary and found out more about him. Dumbeldore says he thinks that the Defense Against the Dark Arts position has been cursed, possibly as a way of making sure that students aren't taught how to defend themselves against the dark arts. He is even beginning to worry about the ministry.I don't know what the plot is, but the Marauders now have the map. Also they can all change into animals, having been taught how on the sly by professor McGonagall. Using the map they outsmart Snape and solve the plot before he does. Taking what he considers to be his victory. Unleashing his own anger over his blood purity teasing, combined with the frustration that though she says she doesn't care about blood purity she's ditching him for a pureblood, and calls Lilly a mud blood. She runs to James for comfort and they kiss. Snape finds out and gets pissed. He swears he'll show them all what true power is.The movie ends with a montage of James and Lilly kissing, Sirius being thrown out of his House at the age of 16 and the Night Bus showing up to get him, Snape sitting amid a dark congregation, we see someone out of focus, presumably this Voldemort, speaking over the crowd and firing up their anger, and finally Dumbeldore in his office looking up into the distance...as if sensing a dark disturbance, behind his Phoenix flares it wings and caws.
3- The First Wizarding War -The Marauders and such are all graduated. Siriius stands up as the best man at the wedding of James and Lilly. After the wedding they talk about how they are worried by these 'dissapearances'.Bellatrix approaches Sirius and tries to convince him to come listen to Lord Voldemort. He declines, she freaks out on him. They get into a small magic fight. Sirius tells the Marauders, and they tell Dumbeldore. Dumbeldore reveals the existence of the Order of the Phoenix, McGonagall is a member, as is Alastor Moody, an Auror who suspects the Aurors office is being infiltrated as is the Ministry. The Marauders all join the Order of the Phoenix.The Minister of Magic publicly swears fealty to Lord Voldemort, and calls for all members of the Ministry to do the same. Those who don't are fired. Voldemort announces that the Death Eaters will now be enforcing wizarding law. We see the 1st Wizard War unfold...ending with the murder of James and Lilly and destruction of Voldemort. Snape finds Lilly's body.
