History BrokenAesop / HarryPotter

* The series has a bit of fantastic racism, against werewolves in particular. This has some UnfortunateImplications once you realize that the minority in question is legitimately dangerous, more so than normals, and, without proper precautions, has no choice but to be violent. The wizards are also a minority, who is, again, more powerful than the muggles, who they want to oppress. Given the statue in the Ministry and nearly all pure bloods, it is constantly reinforced.

** The first problem is that there are no good werewolves ever even mentioned in the books besides Lupin. Every mention we hear of a werewolf besides Lupin is of werewolves either horribly mauling people or considering joining Voldemort. As far as we can tell, werewolves are generally very dangerous, and Lupin is just [[TokenHeroicOrc "the good one."]]

* Next, Rowling [[WordOfGod claimed]] that she intended Dumbledore to be gay, and it was supposed to "teach children tolerance". However, nearly all heterosexual romances in the series (even Snape's unrequited love for Lily Evans) played a positive role, and Dumbledore's allegedly homosexual feelings for Grindelwald were decidedly calamitous, resulting in the rise of the magical variant of fascism, many deaths (including the death of Ariana), and, to some extent, possibly even UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. Some homophobic people even praised this plot point, seeing it as confirmation for their idea that "homosexuality is evil". The fact that it's the ''[[TokenMinority only]]'' gay relationship in the series just makes it even more problematic. There's also absolutely zero indication that he's actually gay; he seems to be more or less celibate in the books, and in ''Film/FantasticBeastsTheCrimesOfGrindelwald'', where his relationship with Grindelwald is briefly shown, [[HideYourLesbians it's never made explicit]] that the two were anything more than very close friends. There's certainly implications, but no more than many other relationships depicted as merely HeterosexualLifePartners (Lupin and Sirius, for example).

''Literature/HarryPotter'' occasionally has [[{{Aesop}} aesops]] that don't work too well.

** [[WordOfGod Rowling]] tried to justify this by stating that wizards are afraid of Muggles, and if Muggles found out about magic it probably would cause more trouble. So segregation is unavoidable in the Potterverse. Which... only enforces the broken nature of the Aesop.

** The first problem is that there are no good werewolves ever even mentioned besides Lupin. Every mention we hear of a werewolf besides Lupin is of werewolves either horribly mauling people or considering joining Voldemort. As far as we can tell, werewolves are generally very dangerous, and Lupin is just [[TokenHeroicOrc "the good one."]]

* Throughout the series, a few characters (especially the Sorting Hat) express an interest in reconciliation between the four Hogwarts houses, urging camaraderie and friendship, rather than preserving the status quo of Slytherin = Bad Guys and the Other Three Houses = Good Guys. But when Voldemort attacks Hogwarts, instead of the four houses putting aside their differences and defending the school together, we have the entire Slytherin house petulantly refusing to fight. It's even worse in the film, where the other three houses actually cheer as the Slytherins are led away. Yes, it's commendable that Slughorn stays and fights, but he was never a villain, anyway. The story tries to make up for it in the epilogue by having Harry name one of his sons after Snape, but that act would have been more meaningful if Slytherin house had chosen the right side when it mattered.[[note]]It's at least slightly unbroken by Pottermore, which claims that Slytherin went to Hogwarts to gather reinforcements from Hogsmeade and hit Voldemort from behind with their fresh fighters during the second stage of the battle. Even so, it still would have been more meaningful if that moment was actually seen or even ''mentioned'' in the actual story[[/note]]

* In general the novel's overall AmbitionIsEvil aesop suffers from InformedAttribute:

* Next, the series has House Elves, a race that is treated as slave servants of wizards. Their enslavement is never depicted as wrong, and the one person who is against it, Hermione, is treated as an annoying tree-hugging hippy. The closest the series goes to decrying the treatment of House Elves is saying that [[GoldenMeanFallacy it's wrong to enslave them if you're an abusive master, not that it's wrong to enslave them]]. It also makes an argument that Elves [[HappinessInSlavery enjoy serving wizards and abhor the attempts to free them]], ignoring the fact that they're also conditioned to severely and bodily punish themselves for failing a task, [[MoreThanMindControl which clearly indicates that they are not in control of their own minds]], and strongly implies that their "enjoyment" of servitude is just as forced. According to Rowling, the idea behind house-elves and Hermione's quest to free them was apparently to satirize well-meaning liberals [[WhiteMansBurden so determined to help others that they ignore what the people they're trying to help actually want]], but the whole thing is [[CluelessAesop handled so clumsily]] that it reads more as "owning slaves is okay, as long as they say they're happy." And even that clumsy message loses what little water it held, when in ''Deathly Hallows'' it's revealed that even a loving and well-meaning master can ''accidentally'' lock an elf in an [[LogicBomb infinite loop of failure and self-punishment]] by incautiously giving them an impossible order.
* Next, Rowling [[WordOfGod claimed]] that she intended Dumbledore to be gay, and it was supposed to "teach children tolerance". However, nearly all heterosexual romances in the series (even Snape's unrequited love for Lily Evans) played a positive role, and Dumbledore's allegedly homosexual feelings for Grindelwald were decidedly calamitous, resulting in the rise of the magical variant of fascism, many deaths (including the death of Ariana), and, to some extent, possibly even [=WW2=]. Some homophobic people even praised this plot point, seeing it as confirmation for their idea that "homosexuality is evil". The fact that it's the ''[[TokenMinority only]]'' gay relationship in the series just makes it even more problematic. There's also absolutely zero indication that he's actually gay; he seems to be more or less celibate in the books, and in ''Film/FantasticBeastsTheCrimesOfGrindelwald'', where his relationship with Grindelwald is briefly shown, [[HideYourLesbians it's never made explicit]] that the two were anything more than very close friends. There's certainly implications, but no more than many other relationships depicted as merely HeterosexualLifePartners (Lupin and Sirius, for example).

* Throughout the series, a few characters (especially the Sorting Hat) express an interest in reconciliation between the four Hogwarts houses, urging camaraderie and friendship, rather than preserving the status quo of Slytherin == Bad Guys and The Other Three Houses == Good Guys. But when Voldemort attacks Hogwarts, instead of the four houses putting aside their differences and defending the school together, we have the entire Slytherin house petulantly refusing to fight. It's even worse in the film, where the other three houses actually cheer as the Slytherins are led away. Yes, it's commendable that Slughorn stays and fights, but he was never a villain, anyway. The story tries to make up for it in the epilogue by having Harry name one of his sons after Snape, but that act would have been more meaningful if Slytherin house had chosen the right side when it mattered.[[note]]It's at least slightly unbroken by Pottermore, which claims that Slytherin went to Hogwarts to gather reinforcements from Hogsmeade and hit Voldemort from behind with their fresh fighters during the second stage of the battle. Even so, it still would have been more meaningful if that moment was actually seen or even ''mentioned'' in the actual story[[/note]]

** On top of this, the series also goes out of its way to emphasize that there is absolutely no functional difference between pure-blood, half-blood, and Muggle-born wizards. This is fairly reasonable in a vacuum, but when you add in that this is the only form of racism consistently treated as bad, it gives the impression of "racism is bad and pointless, because [[SillyReasonForWar you're being racist against people who are identical to you]]." The question of how to deal with prejudice that ''is'' steeped in genuine differences (such as lack of magic or being part of a different species) seems to be that it's pretty okay, which is a pretty mutual kind of "it's okay to mistreat people who are ''different'' than you" belief that just reeks of TheHorseshoeEffect.

* The series is largely centered around the message of unity and tolerance. Specifically, unity and tolerance between Pure-Blood, Half-Blood, and Muggleborn wizards. Discrimination and segregation between them are always depicted as wrong. It also has the bad guys seeking to kill or enslave non-wizard people (aka Muggles) as an allegory to Nazism. This would all be fine and dandy, if it weren't for the fact that wizards -- even the good ones -- are highly guilty of separatism and segregation by hiding themselves and their society from Muggles and rejecting their culture (the reason wizards are still stuck with medieval technology is that they're largely ignorant of modern technology and science due to their rejection of anything "Muggle"), and the books never portray this behavior as being wrong. Okay, being fair, many wizards believe in Muggles' rights, and some have an interest in Muggle culture, and they have a study called Muggle Studies dedicated to it. But in those cases, this is done in an incredibly condescending manner, almost as if dealing with an animal species, and it's never done with the objective of integration. In other words, being a promoter of Muggle rights practically makes you the wizard equivalent of a PETA activist. Consider how Ron's father's job is specifically to study Muggle culture but still has to ask Harry what the point of a rubber duck is and that the existence of wizards with fully Muggle parents means that they don't even need to leave their veil to get most of the info they could ever need to see how seriously they honestly take it. This behavior is also treated as comical eccentricity at its worst.

** Even worse, by the end of the saga the bad guys, a fascist cabal of evil wizards, become a legitimate nation-wide threat and then take over the country, unleashing a campaign of terror against Muggle-born and Muggles. That is ''still'' not treated as a good enough reason for the good guys to at least warn the non-wiz population about danger and give them a fighting chance. Notably, the giants, a race explicitly called AlwaysChaoticEvil, is found worthy of an invitation to the alliance. But non-wizards? Not even once suggested. In fact, the only cooperation ever present is the Minister of Magic occasionally bringing the non-wiz Prime Minister up to date, and even ''that'' is done in a perfunctory and condescending way, basically boiling down to "Hey, some crazy stuff is probably about to happen in your world, and it's the fault of wizards, so you'd better start cooking up some convincing lies about it while we take care of it for you." Even more egregious is the fact that while there are enchantments designed to preserve TheMasquerade, such as Muggle-Repelling or Memory Charms, the evil wizards in question ''want'' Muggles to live in terror, so they probably wouldn't be using them in the first place.
** On top of this, the series also goes out of its way to emphasize that there is absolutely no functional difference between pureblood, half-blood, and Muggleborn wizards. This is fairly reasonable in a vacuum, but when you add in that this is the only form of racism consistently treated as bad, it gives the impression of "racism is bad and pointless, because [[SillyReasonForWar you're being racist against people who are identical to you]]." The question of how to deal with prejudice that ''is'' steeped in genuine differences (such as lack of magic or being part of a different species) seems to be that it's pretty okay, which is a pretty mutual kind of "it's okay to mistreat people who are ''different'' than you" belief that just reeks of TheHorseshoeEffect.

** While HIV/AIDS is a terrible condition, and treating it is costly and difficult, a person who knows they have it and knows to take the proper precautions (don't have unprotected sex, don't donate blood, don't share medical needles or use used medical needles) is no more dangerous than anyone else, even if they haven't had any treatment. This is a lot of why anti-AIDS hysteria was wrong; there was no good reason to think of people with it as inherently dangerous. On the other hand, werewolves turn into uncontrollable cannibalistic monsters every month and they ''will'' attack any human who's unlucky to be near them at the time. Even the most well-intentioned werewolf can infect people (if they don't end up killing them instead), and while there is a treatment that makes them harmless, it's rare, expensive, and can only be made by Potion Masters, to the point that Lupin could only take it at Hogwarts. In that case, [[StrawmanHasAPoint it's entirely reasonable for people to fear werewolves]]. Rather odd to try to remove the stigma by coming up with something infinitely more dangerous and virulent...
** Furthering from the above, the story can't claim that Lupin is harmless when half the climax of the third book arose from Lupin not taking his potion. It wasn't even that he was unable to do so; he just left the school in a hurry and forgot to drink it before he was out the door. It's a flat-out miracle that nobody was killed or infected, and some were still badly injured, all because it slipped Lupin's mind. Firing a teacher for being HIV+ would be a cruel act of prejudice; firing them because they ignored all precautions and nearly infected their students, not so much.

* Speaking of Voldemort's backstory, it seems to be making a statement about assault under influence: Tom Riddle was fed a love potion by Merope Gaunt and enchanted into a relationship with her, [[ChildByRape which resulted in Voldemort's conception]]. It is emphasized as a loveless relationship and produced the biggest evil in the wizarding world, with Harry even claiming that love potions are practically a form of dark magic. Unfortunately, this gets overturned by seemingly every other instance of love potion in the series being treated as a harmless bit of fun; in particular, Fred and George openly sell the stuff to teenagers.

* "You fail to recognize that it matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be!" Dumbledore said this to Voldemort. However...

** There are no good werewolves ever even mentioned besides Lupin. Every mention we hear of a werewolf besides Lupin is of werewolves either horribly mauling people or considering joining Voldemort. As far as we can tell, werewolves are generally very dangerous, and Lupin is just [[TokenHeroicOrc "the good one."]]

** There are no good werewolves ever even mentioned besides Lupin. Every mention we hear of a werewolf besides Lupin is of werewolves either horribly mauling people or considering joining Voldemort. As far as we can tell, werewolves are generally very dangerous, and Lupin is just [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch "the good one."]]

* The series is largely centered around the message of unity and tolerance. Specifically, unity and tolerance between Pure-Blood, Half-Blood, and Muggleborn wizards. Discrimination and segregation between them are always depicted as wrong. It also has the bad guys seeking to kill or enslave non-wizard people (aka Muggles) as an allegory to Nazism. This would all be fine and dandy, if it weren't for the fact that wizards -- even the good ones -- are highly guilty of separatism and segregation by hiding themselves and their society from Muggles and rejecting their culture (the reason wizards are still stuck with medieval technology is that they're largely ignorant of modern technology and science due to their rejection of anything "Muggle"), and the books never portray this behavior as being wrong. Okay, being fair, many wizards believe in Muggles' rights, and some have an interest in Muggle culture, and they have a study called Muggle Studies dedicated to it. But in those cases, this is done in an incredibly condescending manner, almost as if dealing with an animal species, and it's never done with the objective of integration. In other words, being a promoter of Muggle rights practically makes you the wizard equivalent of a PETA activist. Consider how Ron's father's job is specifically to study Muggle culture but still has to ask Harry what the point of a rubber duck is and that the existence of wizards with fully Muggle parents means that they don't even need to leave their veil to get most of the info they could ever need to see how seriously they honestly take it. This behavior is also treated as comical eccentricity at it's worst.

* Rowling claims that werewolves were meant to be [[TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed an allegory for those infected with HIV/AIDS]]. The prejudice Lupin receives as a result of being a werewolf is meant to be analogous to the hysteria over AIDS and the stigma against HIV-positive people, with the intended idea being that "fearing AIDS was bad and hurt a lot of people because of how trumped-up the issue was." Several parts are even clearly meant to invoke it, like the creation of a Werewolf Registry, the oft-mentioned nonsense rumors, or Lupin being kicked out of school. It would be a strong statement... [[FantasticAesop if the metaphor didn't start falling apart almost instantly.]]

** While HIV/AIDS is a terrible condition, and treating it is costly and difficult, a person who knows they have it and knows to take the proper precautions (don't have unprotected sex, don't give birth, don't donate blood, don't share medical needles or use used medical needles) is no more dangerous than anyone else, even if they haven't had any treatment. This is a lot of why anti-AIDS hysteria was wrong; there was no good reason to think of people with it as inherently dangerous. On the other hand, werewolves turn into uncontrollable cannibalistic monsters every month and they ''will'' attack any human who's unlucky to be near them at the time. Even the most well-intentioned werewolf can infect people (if they don't end up killing them instead), and while there is a treatment that makes them harmless, it's rare, expensive, and can only be made by Potion Masters, to the point that Lupin could only take it at Hogwarts. In that case, [[StrawmanHasAPoint it's entirely reasonable for people to fear werewolves]]. Rather odd to try to remove the stigma by coming up with something infinitely more dangerous and virulent...

** Then there's also the fact that the only thing that made Harry important in the grand scheme of the Wizarding World, especially to Dumbledore and Voldemort, was a prophecy that decided what he would be even before he was born.

** The idea that one's choices matter also falls flat when the ''entire series'' revolves around everybody involved intentionally or not fulfilling a prophecy. The one person who actually tries to make his choices matter and ScrewDestiny ''is the villain'' and [[YouCantFightFate he fails miserably at it]] and [[ProphecyTwist even unintentionally ends up bringing it about.]]

* One of the main themes of the series is ThePowerOfLove, and the primary example of that is how Lily [[HeroicSacrifice sacrificed herself]] to let her son Harry survive Voldemort's attack and protect him against any future attacks from the Dark Lord and the Death Eaters as long as he was underaged. However, this is diminished by how the resulting charm required Harry to be sent to live with [[AbusiveParents the Dursleys]] because he needed to live with a blood relative of Lily's in order for the protections to actually work. The Dursleys do not love Harry in the slightest, and at ''best'' they just simply begrudged his existence, yet they're allowed to count under a spell forged by love solely because Petunia is the only person alive that shares DNA with both Lily and Harry. On the other hand, if Harry was sent to live with an ''actual'' loving family like the Weasleys or ended up being raised by a Muggle family he wasn't biologically related to, then he would no longer be protected from Voldemort and the Death Eaters. So once again, the random circumstances of birth and blood outweigh actual choices and loving relationships, and the reader is left with the impression that only the bonds between family members that share DNA count as "true love" even when there's no love to be had and the actual relationship is abusive. It's not hard to peg that this was really less of a powerful statement and [[AssPull more of a plot convenience]] to justify Harry being forced to live with his horrible relatives for as long as possible.

** While HIV/AIDS is a terrible condition, and treating it is costly and difficult, a person who knows they have it and knows to take the proper precautions (don't have unprotected sex, don't give birth, don't donate blood, don't share medical needles or use used medical needles) is no more dangerous than anyone else, even if they haven't had any treatment. This is a lot of why anti-AIDS hysteria was wrong; there was no good reason to think of people with it are inherently dangerous. On the other hand, werewolves turn into uncontrollable cannibalistic monsters every month and they ''will'' attack any human who's unlucky to be near them at the time. Even the most well-intentioned werewolf can infect people (if they don't end up killing them instead), and while there is a treatment that makes them harmless, it's rare, expensive, and can only be made by Potion Masters, to the point that Lupin could only take it at Hogwarts. In that case, [[StrawmanHasAPoint it's entirely reasonable for people to fear werewolves]]. Rather odd to try to remove the stigma by coming up with something infinitely more dangerous and virulent...

* Next, the series has House Elves, a race that is treated as slave servants of wizards. Their enslavement is never depicted as wrong, and the one person who is against it, Hermione, is treated as an annoying tree-hugging hippy. The closest the series goes to decrying the treatment of House Elves is saying that [[GoldenMeanFallacy it's wrong to enslave them if you're an abusive master, not that it's wrong to enslave them]]. It also makes an argument that Elves [[HappinessInSlavery enjoy serving wizards and abhor the attempts to free them]], ignoring the fact that they're also conditioned to severely and bodily punish themselves for failing a task, [[MoreThanMindControl which clearly indicates that they are not in control of their own minds]], and strongly implies that their "enjoyment" of servitude is just as forced. According to Rowling, the idea behind house-elves and Hermione's quest to free them was apparently to satirize well-meaning liberals [[WhiteMansBurden so determined to help others that they ignore what the people they're trying to help actually want]], but the whole thing is [[CluelessAesop handled so clumsily]] that it reads more as "owning slaves is okay, as long as they say they're happy." And even that clumsy message loses what little water it held, when in ''Deathly Hallows'' it's revealed that even a loving and well-meaning master can ''accidentally'' lock an elf in an [[LogicBomb infinite loop of failure and self-punishment]] by uncautiously giving them an impossible order.

* One of the main themes of the series is ThePowerOfLove, and the primary example of that is how Lily [[HeroicSacrifice sacrificed herself]] to let her son Harry survive Voldemort's attack and protect him against any future attacks from the Dark Lord and the Death Eaters as long as he was underaged. However, this is diminished by how the resulting charm required Harry to be sent to live with [[AbusiveParents the Dursleys]] because he needed to live with a blood relative of Lily's in order for the protections to actually work. The Dursleys do not love Harry in the slightest, and at ''best'' they just simply begrudged his existence, yet they're allowed to count under a spell forged by love solely because Petunia is the only one alive that shares DNA with Lily and Harry. On the other hand, if Harry was sent to live with an ''actual'' loving family like the Weasleys, then he would no longer be protected from Voldemort and the Death Eaters. So once again, the random circumstances of birth and blood outweigh actual choices and loving relationships, and the reader is left with the impression that only the bonds between family members that share DNA count as "true love" even when there's no love to be had and the actual relationship is abusive. It's not hard to peg that this was really less of a powerful statement and [[AssPull more of a plot convenience]] to justify Harry living with his horrible relatives for as long as possible.
* Throughout the series, a few characters (especially the Sorting Hat) express an interest in reconciliation between the four Hogwarts houses, urging camaraderie and friendship, rather than preserving the status quo of Slytherin == Bad Guys and The Other Three Houses == Good Guys. But when Voldemort attacks Hogwarts, instead of the four houses putting aside their differences and defending the school together, we have the entire Slytherin house petulantly refusing to fight. It's even worse in the film, where the other three houses actually cheer as the Slytherins are led away. Yes, it's commendable that Slughorn stays and fights, but he was never a villain, anyway. The story tries to make up for it in the epilogue by having Harry name one of his sons after Snape, but that act would have been more meaningful if Slytherin house had chosen the right side when it mattered.[[note]]It's at least slightly unbroken by Pottermore, which claims that Slytherin went to Hogwarts to gather reinforcements from Hogsmeade and hit Voldemort from behind with their fresh fighters during the second stage of the battle. Even so, it would have been more meaningful if that moment was actually seen or even ''mentioned'' in the actual story[[/note]]

** While HIV/AIDS is a terrible condition, and treating it is costly and difficult, a person who knows they have it and knows to take the proper precautions (don't have unprotected sex, don't give birth, don't donate blood, don't share or use used medical needles) is no more dangerous than anyone else, even if they haven't had any treatment. This is a lot of why anti-AIDS hysteria was wrong; there was no good reason to think of people with it as inherently dangerous. On the other hand, werewolves turn into uncontrollable cannibalistic monsters every month and they ''will'' attack any human who's unlucky to be near them at the time. Even the most well-intentioned werewolf can infect people (if they don't end up killing them instead), and while there is a treatment that makes them harmless, it's rare and expensive to the point that Lupin could only take it at Hogwarts. In that case, [[StrawmanHasAPoint it's entirely reasonable for people to fear werewolves]]. Rather odd to try to remove the stigma by coming up with something infinitely more dangerous and virulent...
** Furthering from the above, the story can't claim that Lupin is harmless when half the climax of the third book arose from Lupin not taking his potion. It wasn't even that he was unable to do so; he just left the school in a hurry and forgot to drink it before he was out the door. It's a flat-out miracle that nobody was killed or infected, and some were badly injured, all because it slipped Lupin's mind. Firing a teacher for being HIV+ would be a cruel act of prejudice; firing them because they ignored all precautions and nearly infected their students, not so much.

* One of the main themes of the series is ThePowerOfLove, and the primary example of that is how Lily [[HeroicSacrifice sacrificed herself]] to let her son Harry survive Voldemort's attack and protect him against any future attacks from the Dark Lord and the Death Eaters as long as he was under seventeen. However, this is diminished by how the resulting charm required Harry to be sent to live with [[AbusiveParents the Dursleys]] because he needed to live with a blood relative of Lily's in order for the protections to actually work. The Dursleys do not love Harry in the slightest, and at ''best'' they just simply begrudged his existence, yet they're allowed to count under a spell forged by love solely because Petunia is the only one alive that shares DNA with Lily. On the other hand, if Harry was sent to live with an ''actual'' loving family like the Weasleys, then he would no longer be protected from Voldemort and the Death Eaters. So once again, the random circumstances of birth and blood outweigh actual choices and loving relationships, and the reader is left with the impression that only the bonds between family members that share DNA count as "true love" even when there's no love to be had and the actual relationship is abusive. It's not hard to peg that this was really less of a powerful statement and [[AssPull more of a plot convenience]] to justify Harry living with the Dursleys for as long as possible.

** On top of this, the series also goes out of its way to emphasize that there is absolutely no functional difference between pureblood, half-blood, and Muggleborn wizards. This is fairly reasonable in a vacuum, but when you add in that this is the only form of racism consistently treated as bad, it gives the impression of "racism is bad and pointless, because [[SillyReasonForWar you're being racist against people who are identical to you]]." The question of how to deal with prejudice that ''is'' steeped in genuine differences (such as lack of magic or being part of a different species) seems to be that it's pretty okay.

* Rowling claims that werewolves were meant to be [[TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed an allegory for those infected with HIV/AIDS]]. The prejudice Lupin receives as a result of being a werewolf is meant to be analogous to the hysteria over AIDS and the stigma against HIV-positive people, with the intended idea being that "fearing AIDS was bad and hurt a lot of people because of how trumped-up the issue was." Several parts are even clearly meant to invoke it, like the creation of a Werewolf Registry, the oft-mentioned nonsense rumors, or Lupin being kicked out of school. Except...

* One of the main themes of the series is ThePowerOfLove, and the primary example of that is how Lily [[HeroicSacrifice sacrificed herself]] to let her son Harry survive Voldemort's attack and protect him against any future attacks from the Dark Lord and the Death Eaters as long as he was under seventeen. However, this is diminished by how the blood charm required Harry to be sent to live with [[AbusiveParents the Dursleys]] for the protections to actually work. The Dursleys do not love Harry in the slightest, and ''the best'' treatment they ever gave him was just simply begrudging his existence, yet they're allowed to count under a spell forged by love solely because they're his relatives. On the other hand, if Harry was sent to live with an ''actual'' loving family like the Weasleys, then he would no longer be protected from Voldemort and the Death Eaters. So once again, the random circumstances of birth and blood outweigh actual choices and loving relationships, and the reader is left with the impression that only blood familial bonds count as "true love" even when there's no love to be had and the actual relationship is abusive. It's not hard to peg that this was really less of a powerful statement and [[AssPull more of a plot convenience]] to keep Harry with the Dursleys as long as possible.

** While HIV/AIDS is a terrible condition, and treating it is costly and difficult, a person who knows they have it and knows to take the proper precautions (don't have unprotected sex, don't give birth, don't donate blood) is no more dangerous than anyone else, even if they haven't had any treatment. This is a lot of why anti-AIDS hysteria was wrong; there was no good reason to think of people with it as inherently dangerous. On the other hand, werewolves turn into uncontrollable cannibalistic monsters every month and they ''will'' attack any human who's unlucky to be near them at the time. Even the most well-intentioned werewolf can infect people (if they don't end up killing them instead), and while there is a treatment that makes them harmless, it's rare and expensive to the point that Lupin could only take it at Hogwarts. In that case, [[StrawmanHasAPoint it's entirely reasonable for people to fear werewolves]]. Rather odd to try to remove the stigma by coming up with something infinitely more dangerous and virulent...

* Rowling claims that werewolves were meant to be [[TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed an allegory for those infected with HIV/AIDS]]. The prejudice Lupin receives as a result of being a werewolf is meant to be analogous to the hysteria over AIDS and the stigma against HIV-positive people, with the intended idea being that "fearing AIDS was bad and hurt a lot of people because of how trumped-up the issue was." Except...

** HIV/AIDS is only dangerous to someone if HIV-infected blood enters an uninfected person [[note]]For example, a blood transfusion that was contaminated with HIV is how [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_White Ryan White]], (one of the people who's advocacy during his life and his posthumous legacy helped defeat the hysteria surrounding HIV/AIDS and the one who publically proved it wasn't a "homosexual" disease) got it in the first place[[/note]], if somebody is born to an HIV-infected mother, or if sexual intercourse happens between someone who has HIV and someone who doesn't. While it's a horrible condition, it's rather tricky for someone who knows they have HIV to infect someone else by accident--which is much of the reason why the anti-AIDS hysteria was bad. On the other hand, werewolves turn into uncontrollable cannibalistic monsters every month and they ''will'' attack any human who's unlucky to be near them at the time, meaning that it's very easy for a werewolf to accidentally infect people (if they don't end up killing them instead). In that case, [[StrawmanHasAPoint it's entirely reasonable for people to fear Lupin infecting others with his condition]], especially since lycanthropy can only be held at bay with a rare potion that Lupin could only regularly drink during the year he worked at Hogwarts. Even then, he still forgets to drink it in a pivotal moment in the third book, which nearly led to multiple other people being infected.

** HIV/AIDS is only dangerous to someone if HIV-infected blood enters an uninfected person [[note]]For example, a blood transfusion that was contaminated with HIV is how [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_White Ryan White]], (one of the people who's advocacy during his life and his posthumous legacy helped defeat the hysteria surrounding HIV/AIDS and the one who publically proved it wasn't a "homosexual" disease) got it in the first place[[/note]], if somebody is born to a HIV-infected mother, or if sexual intercourse happens between someone who has HIV and someone who doesn't. While it's a horrible condition, it's rather tricky for someone who knows they have HIV to infect someone else by accident--which is much of the reason why anti-AIDS hysteria was bad. On the other hand, werewolves turn into uncontrollable cannibalistic monsters every month and they ''will'' attack any human who's unlucky to be near them at the time, meaning that it's very easy for a werewolf to accidentally infect people (if they don't end up killing them instead). In that case, [[StrawmanHasAPoint it's entirely reasonable for people to fear Lupin infecting others with his condition]], especially since lycanthropy can only be held at bay with a rare potion that Lupin could only regularly drink during the year he worked at Hogwarts. Even then, he still forgets to drink it in a pivotal moment in the third book, which nearly led to multiple other people being infected.
** The only other named werewolf, Fenrir Greyback, is a PsychoForHire who [[{{Plaguemaster}} delights in spreading the disease and deliberately plans his transformations near human populations]], has his attacks and urges [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything described in a rather sexual manner]], and [[PaedoHunt targets young children]] with the goal of [[RapeAndSwitch indoctrinating them into the werewolf community]]. Those familiar with anti-AIDS hysteria will probably recognize every single negative stereotype and unrealistic myth about people with HIV, all embodied in one character who seems to be far more typical of the demographic than Lupin. Given the longstanding association of HIV and homosexuality, it really doesn't help that Greyback has his most pivotal role being that he [[AllGaysArePedophiles attacked and infected Lupin as a young boy]], causing angst for the very explicitly straight Lupin that would only be resolved when he got married to a woman.

** The only other named werewolf, Fenrir Greyback, is a PsychoForHire who [[{{Plaguemaster}} delights in spreading the disease and deliberately plans his transformations near human populations]], has his attacks and urges [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything described in a rather sexual manner]], and [[PaedoHunt targets young children]] with the goal of [[RapeAndSwitch indoctrinating them into the werewolf community]]. Those familiar with anti-AIDS hysteria will probably recognize every single negative stereotype and unrealistic myth about people with HIV, all embodied in one character who seems to be far more typical of the demographic than Lupin. Given the longstanding association of HIV and homosexuality, this doesn't help the above issues with Dumbledore's sexuality--especially since Lupin, the "good" werewolf, is very explicitly straight, while Greyback, the "bad" one, [[AllGaysArePedophiles attacks male children]].