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Redheaded Hero is being cut per the Appearance tropes cleanup thread.
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** Red - either [[RedIsHeroic heroic spirit]] ([[TheHero House Gryffindor]], [[RedHeadedHero The Weasleys]], [[FieryRedhead Ginny in particular]], [[SignificantGreenEyedRedhead Lily Evans]], also the [[ThouShaltNotKill non-lethal]] [[StunGun Stupefy]] and [[BlastingItOutOfTheirHands Expelliarmus]] spells) or ChaoticEvil tendencies ([[RedEyesTakeWarning Voldemort's eyes]] in the book, [[AgonyBeam the Cruciatus curse]]).
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** Red - either [[RedIsHeroic heroic spirit]] ([[TheHero House Gryffindor]], [[RedHeadedHero The Weasleys]], Weasleys, [[FieryRedhead Ginny in particular]], [[SignificantGreenEyedRedhead Lily Evans]], also the [[ThouShaltNotKill non-lethal]] [[StunGun Stupefy]] and [[BlastingItOutOfTheirHands Expelliarmus]] spells) or ChaoticEvil tendencies ([[RedEyesTakeWarning Voldemort's eyes]] in the book, [[AgonyBeam the Cruciatus curse]]).
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** Professor Dumbledore is actually an example of this trope all on his own. His full name is "Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore"
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* BrokenAesop: In general the novel's overall AmbitionIsEvil aesop suffers from InformedAttribute:
** The point about AmbitionIsEvil leading to bad fates for Dumbledore, Snape, Voldemort and others, and happy fates for the HumbleHero Harry Potter falls flat since TheHero's success comes down to having a lot of convenient PlotCoupon handed down to him, alongside huge doses of luck and PlotArmor. In addition, Harry Potter is the inheritor of wealth and fame thanks to the actions of his parents and ancestors, so he doesn't really have a lot to be ambitious about unlike Dumbledore, Riddle and Snape (products of troubled low-income homes).
** Slytherin's house is meant to show the bad side of ambition, except Slytherin is the house of tradition and wizarding elites, who want to preserve order and prevent genuinely ambitious people such as Hermione (driven by committment to excellence, and social and institutional reform) from rising further. Only Voldemort and Snape qualify as ambitious Slytherins and neither of them are part of the traditional wizarding elite. A better aesop would be to say that Slytherin is the house of tradition and opposes innovation since those are the attributes its members and house have far more frequently displayed in the books and backstory.
** The point about AmbitionIsEvil leading to bad fates for Dumbledore, Snape, Voldemort and others, and happy fates for the HumbleHero Harry Potter falls flat since TheHero's success comes down to having a lot of convenient PlotCoupon handed down to him, alongside huge doses of luck and PlotArmor. In addition, Harry Potter is the inheritor of wealth and fame thanks to the actions of his parents and ancestors, so he doesn't really have a lot to be ambitious about unlike Dumbledore, Riddle and Snape (products of troubled low-income homes).
** Slytherin's house is meant to show the bad side of ambition, except Slytherin is the house of tradition and wizarding elites, who want to preserve order and prevent genuinely ambitious people such as Hermione (driven by committment to excellence, and social and institutional reform) from rising further. Only Voldemort and Snape qualify as ambitious Slytherins and neither of them are part of the traditional wizarding elite. A better aesop would be to say that Slytherin is the house of tradition and opposes innovation since those are the attributes its members and house have far more frequently displayed in the books and backstory.
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* BookEnds:
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* BookEnds:{{Bookends}}:
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** More examples are on the trope page.
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* IAmBigBoned: Madame Maxine uses this excuse not at the prospect of being called fat, but when Hagrid speculates that she is half-giant. This trope also applies to the Dursleys blaming Dudley's weight on baby fat. In the ''Prisoner of Askaban'' PS2 game, an unnamed girl says this about the Fat Lady.
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* IAmBigBoned: Madame Maxine uses this excuse not at the prospect of being called fat, but when Hagrid speculates that she is half-giant. This trope also applies to the Dursleys blaming Dudley's weight on baby fat. In the ''Prisoner of Askaban'' PS2 [=PS2=] game, an unnamed girl says this about the Fat Lady.
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* BlondGuysAreEvil: Played straight with Draco and Lucius Malfoy, Barty Crouch Jr., Dudley Dursley, and Gilderoy Lockhart. Averted with Ernie Macmillan.
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** When Kingsley Shaklebolt becomes Minister of magic temporarily after Voldemorts death and later on permanently, things start to go uphill again slowly, as the law is reformed to remove the FantasticRacism and the Corruption from the Gouvernment.
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** DarkActionGirl: Bellatrix Lestrange
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** DarkActionGirl: Bellatrix LestrangeLestrange.
** ActionMom: Molly Weasely, as shown in ''Deathly Hollows.''
** ActionMom: Molly Weasely, as shown in ''Deathly Hollows.''
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%%* EarnYourHappyEnding
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%%* FantasticScience
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%%* FantasyForbiddingFather: The Dursleys.
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* TheFourLoves: The main theme of Harry Potter is Agape.
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* TheFourLoves: The main theme most of the good side characters show, in one or the other way, this trope. Harry Potter is Agape.an example of the four types of love.
** Storge: Towards most of the Weasleys and Hermione.
** Phileo: Towards Ron and Hermione.
** Eros: Towards [[spoiler:Ginny]].
** Agape: Towards everyone.
** Storge: Towards most of the Weasleys and Hermione.
** Phileo: Towards Ron and Hermione.
** Eros: Towards [[spoiler:Ginny]].
** Agape: Towards everyone.
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* AnimalMotifs: An Animagus's animal form generally fits their personality. J.K. Rowling has also stated that Animagi don't get to choose what animal they turn into.
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* AnimalMotifs: An Animagus's animal form generally fits their personality. J.K. Rowling has also stated that Animagi don't get to choose what animal they turn into.personality (and a wizard can't pick their Animagus form).
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%%* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe
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%%* BigLabyrinthineBuilding: Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic.
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%%* TheBoardGame: Yes, and there's even been more than one.
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* BribingYourWayToVictory: InUniverse, Harry is constantly praised as the best Seeker in the school, and maybe the best player for several years. However, twice in the series, Harry is gifted broomsticks that are demonstrably faster and more maneuverable than his opponents'.
** ...Kind of. Harry's initial feat of Seeking that earns him praise is performed on one of the school brooms, which are universally derided in-universe. He then receives a good broom--but not so good a broom that it would make up for a lack of skill on his part. Then, in second year, he wins against a whole team of players on better brooms than his own, and with a serious disadvantage. (The Bludger is cursed to attack him.) It's only halfway through the third book that he gets a broom that's a whole class above his opponents', and by that point he's pretty well proved himself.
** ...Kind of. Harry's initial feat of Seeking that earns him praise is performed on one of the school brooms, which are universally derided in-universe. He then receives a good broom--but not so good a broom that it would make up for a lack of skill on his part. Then, in second year, he wins against a whole team of players on better brooms than his own, and with a serious disadvantage. (The Bludger is cursed to attack him.) It's only halfway through the third book that he gets a broom that's a whole class above his opponents', and by that point he's pretty well proved himself.
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** HufflepuffHouse in general. They spend the whole series just hanging out and being generally inoffensive... until the school is attacked in the final battle, and all but the youngest take up their wands and fight without hesitation.
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*HorribleJudgeofCharacter: Subverted with Dumbledore, it seems as if he has this in his trust for Snape, [[spoiler: but then he turns out to be right]]
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* EvilTaintedThePlace: Voldemort leaves behind a pretty nasty SoulJar during his time at Hogwarts but his left overs are small potatoes next to the nigh demonic Basilisk the founder of the Slytherin House stored in the pipes.
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*FantasticAngst: Harry is an orphan because his parents were killed by an evil wizard using the Kiling Curse (though he believes up until his 11th birthday that they died in a car crash.)
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* BornOfMagic:
** The most obvious example of magically-generated consciousness is the Hogwarts Sorting Hat, after ''"the founders put some brains in [him]"'' via unspecified magic.
** Most 'common' magical items are not differentiated as being sentient, or merely enchanted to ''appear'' as such.
** The most obvious example of magically-generated consciousness is the Hogwarts Sorting Hat, after ''"the founders put some brains in [him]"'' via unspecified magic.
** Most 'common' magical items are not differentiated as being sentient, or merely enchanted to ''appear'' as such.
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* CueOClock: The Weasleys have a clock with nine hands representing the Weasleys, and dials labeled with place names, like "Home", "School", and "Prison". The clock doesn't tell time; rather, it tells where the Weasleys are.
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* GenreSavvy: Voldemort knows he's an evil wizard in a fantasy story, and [[spoiler: pulls a page right out of a DungeonsAndDragons source book by becoming a lich and binding his soul into a phylactery. Then, knowing that the destined hero inevitably finds the phylactery and destroys it, he repeats the process six more times to hedge his bets.]] This effectively gives him an extra generation of time as an active villain and another viable shot at world domination that no one could reasonably have expected given his numerous and powerful enemies.
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* FantasticSlurs: "Mudblood", a derogatory term for a witch or wizard who was born into a {{Muggle}} family. It's considered to be an extremely vulgar term as well, aND treated like real life racial slurs; when Draco Malfoy first calls Hermione this in ''Chamber of Secrets'', there is a tremendous uproar and Ron even tries to curse him.
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* FantasticSlurs: "Mudblood", a derogatory term for a witch or wizard who was born into a {{Muggle}} family. It's considered to be an extremely vulgar term as well, aND treated like real life as a racial slurs; slur; when Draco Malfoy first calls Hermione this in ''Chamber of Secrets'', there is a tremendous uproar and Ron even tries to curse him.
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removing the comparisons of mudblood specifically to the n word because, while both are forms of racism in some way, comparing fantastic racism to antiblackness is, well, anti-black.
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** Draco Malfoy displays this often, calling Hermione a "mudblood" more than once (a slur for a wizard or witch who is born to non-magical parents, and whom "purebloods" of certain persuasions, like the Malfoys, see as inferior) and such insults almost ''always'' end up badly for him, as the wizard m-word is as nasty as the Muggles' n-word. Considering that several of the teachers, particularly Dumbledore and [=McGonagall=], are often shown to strongly dislike the term and be angered by it, it's surprising that Draco's frequent use of it did not earn him suspension or expulsion. Likewise with [[spoiler:Snape, whose life took a turn for the worse when he called Lily a "filthy little mudblood."]]
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** Draco Malfoy displays this often, calling Hermione a "mudblood" more than once (a slur for a wizard or witch who is born to non-magical parents, and whom "purebloods" of certain persuasions, like the Malfoys, see as inferior) and such insults almost ''always'' end up badly for him, as the wizard m-word is as nasty as the Muggles' n-word.him. Considering that several of the teachers, particularly Dumbledore and [=McGonagall=], are often shown to strongly dislike the term and be angered by it, it's surprising that Draco's frequent use of it did not earn him suspension or expulsion. Likewise with [[spoiler:Snape, whose life took a turn for the worse when he called Lily a "filthy little mudblood."]]
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* FantasticSlurs: "Mudblood", a derogatory term for a witch or wizard who was born into a {{Muggle}} family. It's considered to be an extremely vulgar term as well, almost on par with the N-word; when Draco Malfoy first calls Hermione this in ''Chamber of Secrets'', there is a tremendous uproar and Ron even tries to curse him.
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* FantasticSlurs: "Mudblood", a derogatory term for a witch or wizard who was born into a {{Muggle}} family. It's considered to be an extremely vulgar term as well, almost on par with the N-word; aND treated like real life racial slurs; when Draco Malfoy first calls Hermione this in ''Chamber of Secrets'', there is a tremendous uproar and Ron even tries to curse him.
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** A Slyterin Pureblood supremacist who has a lasting enmity with TheHero (Draco/Severus);
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** A Slyterin Slytherin Pureblood supremacist who has a lasting enmity with TheHero (Draco/Severus);
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Cleaning up crosswick. Instant Death Bullet is a gunplay trope not magic trope. Using it for the killing curse is a shoehorned example.
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* InstantDeathBullet: ''Avada Kedavra'', the Killing Curse.
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* AnimalEspionage: Animagi can turn themselves into animals so as to go around without attracting suspicion as a human, though there's always an element to the disguise that identifies his/her human form. In Rita Skeeter's case, she turns into a literal surveillance bug (a beetle). This causes Bellatrix Lestrange to kill a fox at one point, as she believed it to be an auror... except in this case it [[WrongGenreSavvy genuinely was a fox]].
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* AcheyScars: Harry's lightning-bolt scar, though [[spoiler:the pains go away after Voldemort's death.]]
* ActionGirl: Hermione, especially in ''Prisoner of Azkaban'' and ''Deathly Hallows''. Tonks, Luna, Ginny, and even [=McGonagall=] also fall into this trope. For the most part, this is more extreme in the films. Particularly with Hermione, otherwise known as the [[MightyMorphinPowerRangers Pink Granger]].
* ActionGirl: Hermione, especially in ''Prisoner of Azkaban'' and ''Deathly Hallows''. Tonks, Luna, Ginny, and even [=McGonagall=] also fall into this trope. For the most part, this is more extreme in the films. Particularly with Hermione, otherwise known as the [[MightyMorphinPowerRangers Pink Granger]].
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* AcheyScars: AcheyScars:
** Harry's lightning-bolt scar,though [[spoiler:the which magically hurts when Voldemort's in close proximity or feeling a particularly vivid emotion. [[spoiler: The pains go away after Voldemort's death.]]
** [[WritingLines The scars he got from Umbridge]] also tingle whenever something reminds him of her. No word on whether it's magical or psychosomatic.
* ActionGirl: Hermione, especially in ''Prisoner of Azkaban'' and ''Deathly Hallows''. Tonks, Luna, Ginny, and even [=McGonagall=] also fall into this trope. For the most part, this is more extreme in the films. Particularly with Hermione, otherwise known as the[[MightyMorphinPowerRangers [[Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers Pink Granger]].
** Harry's lightning-bolt scar,
** [[WritingLines The scars he got from Umbridge]] also tingle whenever something reminds him of her. No word on whether it's magical or psychosomatic.
* ActionGirl: Hermione, especially in ''Prisoner of Azkaban'' and ''Deathly Hallows''. Tonks, Luna, Ginny, and even [=McGonagall=] also fall into this trope. For the most part, this is more extreme in the films. Particularly with Hermione, otherwise known as the
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* DrGenericius: A lot of wizards have names ending in "us": Albus, Bilius (Ron's middle name), Lucius, Regulus Arcturus, Remus, Rubeus {Hagrid), Severus, Scorpius, Sirius... It seems to be more frequent in the Pureblood families, though.
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* DrGenericius: A lot of wizards have names ending in "us": Albus, Bilius (Ron's middle name), Lucius, Regulus Arcturus, Remus, Rubeus {Hagrid), (Hagrid), Severus, Scorpius, Sirius... It seems to be more frequent in the Pureblood families, though.
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* BadassTeacher: Moody, [=McGonagall=], Snape, Lupin, and Slughorn.
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* BadassTeacher: Moody, [=McGonagall=], Snape, Lupin, Hagrid and Slughorn.
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** Bill and Fleur. Harry and [[spoiler: Ginny]] end up as happy marriages, too.
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** Bill and Fleur. Harry and [[spoiler: Ginny]] Ginny, also Ron and Hermione]] end up as happy marriages, too.
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*** Wizards in this world are in hiding, and know they are dangerous to the general Muggle population. In most universes where this is the case of the "protagonists", punishment for potentially "rending the Veil" can be very harsh.
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[[Literature/HarryPotter Main page]]
'''Tropes A to I'''
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'''Tropes A to
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[[Literature/HarryPotter Main page]]
'''Tropes A to I'''
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[[folder:A]]
* AbusiveParents: Although not his biological parents, the treatment Harry receives from Petunia and [[EvilUncle Vernon]] Dursley is nothing shy of abusive.
* AcademyOfAdventure: Given that Hogwarts is not only a school, but where most of the most powerful and influential wizards and the most ancient secrets make their home, this is to be expected.
* AcheyScars: Harry's lightning-bolt scar, though [[spoiler:the pains go away after Voldemort's death.]]
* ActionGirl: Hermione, especially in ''Prisoner of Azkaban'' and ''Deathly Hallows''. Tonks, Luna, Ginny, and even [=McGonagall=] also fall into this trope. For the most part, this is more extreme in the films. Particularly with Hermione, otherwise known as the [[MightyMorphinPowerRangers Pink Granger]].
** DarkActionGirl: Bellatrix Lestrange
** Overall, the series has managed a nice balance of male badasses with the female badasses, such that even the most innocuous character can be a badass when the time calls for it.
* AdoringThePests: The Weasley family adopts a rat named Scabbers, whom they thought was a wild rat at the time. [[spoiler:Turns out it was really a [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shape-shifted]] form of Peter Pettigrew.)]]
* {{Adorkable}}: Luna, and maybe Neville if you count him as a geek. Ron is sometimes seen as this too.
* AdultFear: This series, despite being [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids aimed at children]], has ''plenty'' of moments that scare the parents more than the kids, and a lot of them have to do with child abuse, ParentalAbandonment, and not being able to protect or take care of your own children. Most of this probably came from Rowling's own fears as a mother (and especially as a single mother, having broken off an ''abusive'' marriage).
* AerithAndBob: The "Muggle" first names range from Dudley to Hermione; the wizarding ones, from George to [[MeaningfulName Xenophilius]]. All in the UK. Same with the wizarding last names, which range from Potter and Black to Slytherin and Dumbledore. The old pureblood families are usually the ones to have the strangest names and they also tend to have themed names. For example, the Black family and their various offshoots named their children after constellations and stars.
* AfterActionPatchup: They land in the infirmary for treatment frequently. It's often where the post-action discussion takes place.
* AfterSchoolCleaningDuty: This is often given as a detention at Hogwarts. There is usually a requirement that the cleaning must be performed without magic.
* AgonyBeam: The Cruciatus curse.
* AgonyOfTheFeet: In all seven books to all three main characters. Shocking.
* AllCrimesAreEqual: How the House "points" system at Hogwarts works. Later, we discover that this is how the Ministry of Magic treats "crime" in general. There appears to be only one wizard jail for UK wizards to go to. The very act of just being there is severe psychological torture, as every happy, positive thought you've ever had is forcibly removed from you, leaving you with nothing but the worst memories of your life. You even forget that this might end. Any crime that merits more than a fine warrants Azkaban. And it's even used for preventative detention of suspects.
*** Wizards in this world are in hiding, and know they are dangerous to the general Muggle population. In most universes where this is the case of the "protagonists", punishment for potentially "rending the Veil" can be very harsh.
* AllergicToEvil: Harry's scar burns when Voldemort is feeling strong emotions and/or killing someone -- or nearby.
* AlliterativeFamily: Albus, Aberforth, and Ariana Dumbledore. Marvolo, Morfin, and Merope Gaunt. Padma and Parvati Patil.
* AlliterativeList: The Three "D"s of Apparition: Destination, Determination and Deliberation.
* AlliterativeName: Cho Chang, Colin Creevey, Dudley Dursley, Filius Flitwick, Gregory Goyle, Luna Lovegood, Minerva [=McGonagall=], Pansy Parkinson, Padma Patil, Parvati Patil, Peter Pettigrew, Piers Polkiss, Poppy Pomfrey, Severus Snape, William (Bill) Weasley, Nearly-Headless Nick, The Fat Friar, The Bloody Baron, and Moaning Myrtle appear in the current time whereas the backstory has the four founders of Hogwarts: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin. Some creatures have them, like the Hungarian Horntail and Peeves the Poltergeist, and Quidditch teams also have alliterative names (Tutshill Tornadoes, Chudley Cannons, Appleby Arrows, Ballycastle Bats, Caerphilly Catapults, Falmouth Falcons, Holyhead Harpies, Kenmare Kestrels, Montrose Magpies, Pride of Portree, Wigtown Wanderers, Wimbourne Wasps, to name just the ones from the UK[[note]]Kenmare is actually in Ireland. Irish people can get quite [[TheTroubles annoyed]] with people telling them they're British. There are 4 different Ballycastles in Ireland, but 3 of them are in StrokeCountry, so the Bats are most likely British[[/note]] .)
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: In book 1, Harry is hated near the end for helping his house lose 150 points. In book 2, Harry is hated because his fellow students think he's attacking them. In book 4, Harry is hated because his fellow students think he sneaked his way into the Triwizard Tournament. In book 5, Harry is hated because almost all the students think he's an attention-seeking brat. In book 7, Harry is labeled "Undesirable No. 1" by the government.
* AllThereInTheManual: [[http://www.pottermore.com/ Pottermore]]is a hotbed of information barely even alluded to in the actual books.
* AllWitchesHaveCats: A cat is one of the animals which wizarding students can bring as a pet to Hogwarts. In this case the cats are merely pets, not familiars. A Witch and teacher, Professor [=McGonagall=], can turn into a cat. Both Hermione and Umbridge own cats, the latter of whom doubles as a CrazyCatLady. There is also a CrazyCatLady who lives near the Dursleys [[spoiler:who turns out to be a Squib (a non-magical person born to two magical parents).]] In an interesting subversion, the only cat in the series that acts like a witch's familiar belongs to the one non-magical person at Hogwarts, Filch.
* AlternateDVDCommentary: No, this doesn't go on the Film page -- ''Blog/MarkReadsHarryPotter'', reviewing the books a chapter at a time. It's genuinely hilarious and does very well to remind us all what it was like to read the books for the first time.
* AlwaysIdenticalTwins: The Weasley and Patil twins, though the Patils [[AvertedTrope avert]] this in the movies.
* AlwaysLawfulGood: Gryffindor House, with one or two very minor exceptions. Even a rumor that Godric Gryffindor may have come to his famous sword by doubtful means is dispelled in Pottermore.
** The one major exception to the above is, of course, [[spoiler:Peter Pettigrew]].
* AmbiguouslyEvil: Snape. He's a deeply unpleasant fellow with an extremely transparent bias in favor of the Slytherin house (a House which is ''not'' seen in a positive light, see AmbitionIsEvil below.) He also has an intense dislike of Harry Potter (which turns out to be not only for somewhat complicated reasons, but [[spoiler: is also tempered with an odd sense of loyalty and protectiveness]]) This results in Harry and friends swiftly jumping to the conclusion that Snape is one of the bad guys, ''especially'' in ''The Philosopher's Stone'', ''The Chamber of Secrets'', ''The Half-Blood Prince'', and ''The Deathly Hallows'' (and they don't really trust him in the slightest in ''The Prisoner of Azkaban'' or ''The Order of the Phoenix'', either.) ''The Goblet of Fire'' is the only book in the series that ''doesn't'' seem to go out of its way to villify Snape in some fashion, at least in Harry's eyes. It doesn't help that the events of the books have a knack for making you think that Harry's suspicions might be well-founded, at least until TheReveal at the very end. [[spoiler:This comes to a head in ''The Deathly Hallows'', in which Snape has pulled an apparent full-blown FaceHeelTurn by returning to the service of the Death Eaters. However, in the very end of the book, as he lies dying, he gives Harry his memories, revealing that his murder of Dumbledore was in fact a MercyKill, and [[ReverseMole he's been on Dumbledore's side the entire time]].]]
* AmbitionIsEvil: The usual trait of those put in Slytherin House. Some fans argue this is less about ambition being bad than about the serious lack of high-profile "good" House members.
** This is however a general theme, in that many wizards put ambition over family, friends and morality. Dumbledore [[spoiler:was frustrated by SmallTimeBoredom because he felt that his ambitions were thwarted by being Arianna's caretaker. He eventually comes to realize that the more humble Aberforth was the better man and likewise moderates to a life of service, leaving behind a great legacy of magical and social achievements]].
** Tom Riddle is essentially the picture of this trope, sacrificing his humanity and conscience for becoming the "most feared wizard of his age". He succeeds but [[spoiler:in the end, becomes a shell of a man and ends up in limbo. In the end, people stop being afraid of him as well]].
** Severus Snape wanted to have his cake and eat it too. He wanted [[spoiler:to become a great wizard, rise high in Voldemort's favour and become a major Death Eater. But he also wanted to gain Lily's love at the same time. Eventually he spends most of his life in a job he hates, serving as a DoubleReverseQuadrupleAgent and using his considerable skills to serve Dumbledore's ZeroApprovalGambit]].
** Dumbledore argues that Harry is himself the true aversion in that he isn't tempted by power at all. [[spoiler:Likewise Hermione despite being highly knowledable about magic wants to improve the lot of the less fortunate and help other people. Ron is also tempted by ambition but ultimately comes to terms with valuing himself in comparison to his more talented brothers and friends]].
* AndYourRewardIsClothes: A house-elf is freed from its master if it is given an article of clothing, which is actually sort of [[InvertedTrope an inversion]]; the clothing itself isn't the reward (at least, not the ''only'' reward), but rather a symbol ''of'' the reward.
** Even more an InvertedTrope, clothing is most often seen as an extreme form of ''punishment''. To be given clothes and set free means to be without a master and a family, and the lowest moment for a House Elf. Dobby, the most openly Free Elf seen in the books, is often looked at with absolute shame by other elves, and treated with sheer contempt when discussing the topic of ''wages''.
* AnimateDead: Inferi, first mentioned in ''Order of the Phoenix''.
* AnimalMotifs: An Animagus's animal form generally fits their personality. J.K. Rowling has also stated that Animagi don't get to choose what animal they turn into.
* {{Animorphism}}: Animagi are witches and wizards that can transform into an animal at will.
* AnonymousBenefactor: Harry has at least four through the course of the series: [[spoiler:Dumbledore gives him the invisibility cloak. Sirius gives him a Firebolt. Barty Crouch is a malicious benefactor who helps Harry by proxy. Snape leaves the Sword of Gryffindor in the woods for him to find.]]
* AnyoneCanDie:
** Not so much in the earlier books, but after ''Goblet of Fire'', all bets are off. By the time book seven was announced, and Rowling herself stoked the fires by claiming that more people ''would die'', entire websites were devoted to betting on which major characters were going to bite the big one, including the three main characters.
** Professional betting odds establishments made a fortune on the last two books. [[http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/aug/08/books.harrypotter One professional bookmaker lost over 60,000 pounds on the outcome of the last book]] because [[spoiler:Harry both died and didn't die]], and he ended up having to pay ''everyone''.
* ArbitrarySkepticism: Luna Lovegood is constantly going on about the bizarre magical creatures her father writes about in his magazine. Even in a world where there's magic, dragons and the like, hardly anyone else believes they exist.
* ArcNumber: The number seven [[http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Seven comes up numerous times throughout the series]].
* ArchEnemy: Harry and Voldemort.
%%* ArsonMurderAndLifeSaving
* TheArtifact: The House Point system is this. In the first book, winning the House cup was serious business, but as the war against Voldemort gets more prominent the House Cup fades into the background. In Harry's last few years at Hogwarts, it isn't even mentioned who won at all.
* ArtifactOfDeath: Several: [[spoiler:Riddle's diary, the Elder Wand, and Marvolo Gaunt's ring. The latter includes a ''literal'' ArtifactOfDeath.]]
* ArtificialOutdoorsDisplay: The ceiling of Hogwarts' Great Hall is enchanted to always correspond with the weather outside.
* ArtisticLicenseBiology:
** "[[http://www.mugglenet.com/editorials/editorials/edit-wilkins01.shtml Magic is a dominant and resilient gene.]]" Given the number of wizards born to Muggle parents (and the extreme rarity of the reverse), this blatantly flies in the face of middle school genetics. You could say that AWizardDidIt (it ''is'' magic, after all), but a better explanation would perhaps be that magic is ''recessive'' and that squibs have mutations that block or repress the magic gene.
** Both [[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone the book]] and [[Film/HarryPotter movie]] of ''Philosopher's Stone'' feature a snake that winks at Harry. Snakes can't wink or blink because they don't have eyelids, but they ''do'' have a translucent retractable lens called a nictitating membrane, sometimes referred to as a "third eyelid". This fulfills much the same purpose as eyelids do while letting snakes see.
%%* {{Asshole Victim}}s: The Riddles.
* AudienceShift: As Harry and the original audience grew older, the maturity level of the books "grew" as well, making it so that whereas the early books are straight children's literature, the later ones fall more into the YA genre. Though it will be tricky for future generations of Potter fans, it makes sense when you realize the series took over a decade to be released in full; the 10-year olds who were reading ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'' in 1997 were 20-year olds by the time they were reading ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'' in 2007.
* AuthorAvatar: Hermione is, by Creator/JKRowling's own admission, an exaggeration of herself when she was younger. Rowling says she was a bit of an InsufferableGenius in her younger days but [[DefrostingIceQueen gradually mellowed out]], much as Hermione does over the course of the series (this may be why, of all the young performers in the ''Potter'' movies, Rowling is closest to Creator/EmmaWatson). Rowling has admitted that each of the three main characters are aspects of herself.
* AwesomeButImpractical: [[VoluntaryShapeshifting Animagus]] transformation is largely considered more trouble than it's worth. To begin with, it's a particularly difficult branch of the already particularly difficult art of Transfiguration, and the consequences of botching the job are said to be disastrous. Even when carried out successfully, one is instantly labelled a criminal unless one gives full public disclosure of one's skill and animal form to the government to prevent misuse, which rather jives with the fact that stealth and inconspicuousness are the skill's main use. Even with all this, the form taken by the Animagus is fixed and determined by their personality, so they can easily end up with a useless conspicuous form for all their trouble. Cats, dogs and beetles? Useful and mundane-looking in any backdrop. Huge deer? Not so much.
* AwesomeMcCoolname: A couple stand out, but '''Kingsley Shacklebolt''' wins the prize.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:B]]
* BadPowersBadPeople:
** DoubleSubverted: Parseltongue is usually an ability only found in evil wizards. Harry is good and runs into trouble when people assume he's bad because he possesses it. [[spoiler:It turns out in the last book that the reason Harry has it is because it belongs to Voldemort, who gave him the ability when he accidentally turned Harry into a sixth Horcrux. And when Harry loses the fragment of Voldemort's soul residing in his body, he supposedly loses the ability with it.]]
** To some degree it's debatable how much it's true that only those born with Parseltongue can speak it. Dumbledore is able to understand it without being able to speak it; Ron can speak it (by imitating Harry) without understanding it. If those who aren't born Parselmouths can do each one individually, it's reasonable to assume that someone might eventually figure out how to do both.
*** But not many wizards would likely bother with such study, as most humans don't think snakes would be worth conversing with.
** Perhaps played straight as well with Dumbledore. In the first book, [=McGonagall=] suggests that Dumbledore could do everything [[BigBad Voldemort]] was capable of if he were less noble. (Whether this means that Dumbledore ''can't'' do them or simply ''wouldn't'' is not answered.) For starters, Dumbledore knows Parseltongue; he can't speak it because he wasn't born with it, but he can understand it. Likewise, in the seventh book, Voldemort states that what he will achieve could have been Dumbledore's, implying that Dumbledore could have been as "great" if he weren't such a sentimental old fool.
* BadassAdorable:
** [[LittleMissBadass Ginny]], and Luna.
** Harry, Hermione, and Ron themselves arguably qualify as well in earlier installments. Especially Hermione.
* BadassBookworm: Several, but primarily [[TheSmartGuy Hermione]], Lupin, and, most of all, [[TheChessmaster Dumbledore]].
** Snape would also appear to count, going so far as to have made dozens of corrections and improvements in his potions text. Note that he did this while still a student, showing ingenuity, creativity, and ability beyond even a master Potions-brewer-cum-author.
* BadassCrew: Dumbledore's Army
* BadassFamily: The Weasley siblings already include a curse-breaker, a dragon rancher, and a prefect when the books begin, and ''all'' of them go on to be successful in various fields. And let it be put on record that [[MamaBear the matriarch]] of this family, Molly, [[spoiler:kills [[TheDragon Bellatrix]], who is the second most powerful Death Eater after Voldemort himself.]] The fact that they happen to be close friends of Harry Potter (who himself is considered a member of the family, in more ways than one) certainly helps.
* BadassGrandpa: Dumbledore, full stop.
* BadassTeacher: Moody, [=McGonagall=], Snape, Lupin, and Slughorn.
* BarredFromTheAfterlife: Ghosts are people who either refused or were too scared to accept death and move on. Apparently, there's no take-backs later on if you change your mind.
* BatmanGambit:
** [[BigBad Voldemort's]] plan in the ''Half-Blood Prince''.
** Much of Dumbledore's [[TheChessmaster extensive]] plan for the year following [[spoiler:his death]] as explained to Harry at the end of ''Deathly Hallows'' was based on how he expected Harry, Ron, and Hermione to act.
* BattleCouple: Many. Examples include [[spoiler:Lupin and Tonks, Harry and Ginny, Ron and Hermione]], and Arthur and Molly.
* BeamOWar: Spells have been known to clash and cancel each other out, though there's at least one instance of two characters firing spells at each other where the beams hit each other and ricochet off at angles, each hitting the person standing right next to the intended target.
** ''Priori Incatatem'', the current image for the trope page, is a magical phenomenon known exactly for this. It occurs when two wands which share the same (or directly related) Cores are used against one another in combat. The wizards involved are surrounded by golden light as their wands connect by a partially tangible golden thread, and the two have a more internal battle of will and determination.
* BecauseDestinySaysSo: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]]. [[TheHero Harry's]] destiny is self-fulfilling precisely because Voldemort ''insists'' on fulfilling it. Dumbledore suggests that not all prophecies must be fulfilled.
%%* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe
* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: The series upgrades a few historical characters to "real" wizards.
* BerserkButton:
--> '''Hagrid:''' [[PunctuatedForEmphasis NEVER -- INSULT -- ALBUS DUMBLEDORE -- IN FRONT OF ME!]]
** Hurting Harry or any of his furry friends will get Hagrid very angry. When Fang gets hit by a spell, Hagrid hurls the perpetrator ten feet in the air.
** Harry doesn't take kindly to willing parental abandonment, given his experiences as an orphan. He flips out a bit on [[spoiler:Lupin]] when the latter discusses leaving his wife and newborn son.
** Harry also doesn't like to be left out of things, going into [[http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lqelinjo1r1qkvd9to1_500.jpg ALL-CAPS RAGE]] because he got stuck at the Dursleys' while Ron and Hermione got to hang out with the Order at Grimmauld Place.
** Dumbledore will kindly accept horrible slurs against him and remains civil to his enemies even when dueling them, but reacts furiously if any of his students are threatened. The one time Harry manages to get Dumbledore mad at him is when he accuses Dumbledore of not taking the students' safety seriously.
** Dobby is fiercely protective over Harry ever since Harry freed him and his trademark is "You shall not harm Harry Potter!" He is so devoted to Harry that he [[spoiler:risks his life (and loses it) for Harry and the others to escape the Malfoys' manor.]]
---> "Kreacher will not insult Harry Potter in front of Dobby! No he won't! Or Dobby will shut Kreacher's mouth for him!"
** Ron bickers and argues with Hermione in a BelligerentSexualTension style but if anyone else goes after her, all bets are off.
** Neville flips out when Malfoy says they should send Harry to St. Mungo's as they have special floor for people with brain damage. Considering what happened to Neville's parents, this is understandable. Any mention of Neville's parents in a negative light will result in a beatdown that even Death Eaters didn't expect.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Quite a long list, though three names stand out as particularly notable examples.
** Luna "Loony" Lovegood, who, similar to her namesake, is... eccentric, something that she gets from her father. Despite her pacifistic nature, she proves herself repeatedly as a very capable witch.
** Molly Weasley of the "NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!" fame. She's been described as being a short, portly, and very "motherly" type of woman with an extremely kind nature. However, if you fuck with ANYONE she cares about, watch out.
** Neville Longbottom is more of a "grew into it" type. Early in the books, he was TheDitz and MommasBoy and was frequently picked on because of these traits. However, by ''Order of the Phoenix'' his testosterone levels skyrocketed and he TookALevelInBadass, becoming a capable wizard in the process. His best and brightest moment/[=CMoA=] is the entirety of book 7 (much of which unfortunately falls into NoodleIncident territory and is told by secondhand accounts) as he [[spoiler:becomes the ''de facto'' leader of Dumbledore's Army, outright resists everyone who's taken over the school at every turn, defends as many people as he can, and proves instrumental in the final battle by destroying Nagini, the seventh horcrux, on top of fighting in and surviving the final battle.]] In short, after book 5, this guy will trounce your sorry ass if you mess with him.
* BigBad: Voldemort. Harry's nemesis, Dark Lord, leader of the Death Eaters, and the initiator of two Wizarding Wars. Almost everything bad that has happened from the past 50 years to the Wizarding World can be traced back to him in some way.
* BigGood:
** Most obviously Albus Dumbledore at the start. Head of the school, known as the most powerful wizard of the age and the only one [[BigBad Voldemort]] ever feared, and an important mentor figure.
** Harry himself in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows''. Even though he does not exactly lead anyone, he continues to inspire hope and is a rallying point for the students of Hogwarts, Dumbledore's Army, and the Order of the Phoenix. In the practical sense, however, [[spoiler:Moody and, after ''he'' dies, Kingsley]] seem to be Dumbledore's designated successors.
** Off-screen, [[spoiler:Neville]] is this for Hogwarts during ''Deathly Hallows'': it's implied by the way he talks that he stood up and took a lot of crap so the other students wouldn't have to, he was the only leader of the DA to remain at school for the entire year, and during the Second Battle of Hogwarts he's explicitly shown leading an attempt to ''kill Death Eaters en masse'' using Mandrakes.
** Professor [=McGonagall=] also serves as a Big Good at Hogwarts in Dumbledore's absence: she protects the students from the sadistic Carrows, overthrows Snape, and leads the resistance against Voldemort when Harry returns.
%%* BigLabyrinthineBuilding: Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic.
* BilingualBonus: The Latin. For example, "Expecto Patronum" is the CORRECT Latin form.
%%* BitchInSheepsClothing: Quirrell and Umbridge. The latter is arguably the queen of this trope.
* BittersweetEnding: ''Prisoner of Azkaban''. Even though [[spoiler:Sirius manages to convince Harry, Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore, and even ''Snape'' of his innocence, Wormtail still gets away, preventing Sirius's true exoneration before the Ministry and eventually bringing about Voldemort's resurrection a year later. And the only good and skilled Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher quits to avoid being fired after Snape reveals that he's a werewolf.]]
** ''Deathly Hallows''. Even though [[spoiler:Voldemort is finally dead, and most of the Death Eaters are killed or captured, Hedwig, Moody, Dobby, Colin, Fred, Lupin, and Tonks all died in the process.]]
* BlackAndWhiteMorality: The series starts out this way. Dumbledore is the BigGood, Harry and his friends are the heroes, the other students are generally nice except for the Slytherins, and Voldemort is the BigBad. As the series goes on, it adds more and more shades of gray with turncoats on both sides, a corrupt government opposing Voldemort, heroes [[PayEvilUntoEvil paying evil unto evil]], and Harry discovering that his father and Dumbledore have... complicated backstories.
* BlackAndGrayMorality: Played with. The Ministry of Magic is definitely gray; although they're much better than the Death Eaters, they have more than their share of [[TheQuisling Quislings]], {{Fantastic Racis|m}}ts, and {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s. Harry and his friends/family are more on the unblemished side, but not entirely.
** Harry occasionally slips towards this in battle; when crossed or when his friends are threatened, Harry can become quite pitiless, instinctively resorting to the nastiest/most powerful curses he can think of (save ''[[InstantDeathBullet Avada Kedavra]]''). He even casts [[spoiler:''[[AgonyBeam the Cruciatus Curse]]'']] at a few points (though he never uses it very effectively; as Bellatrix explains [[spoiler:after he tries it on her]], in order to cast an Unforgivable Curse successfully you have to ''really'' want to [[KickTheDog go through with it]]--the one time Harry does the spell properly, [[KickTheSonOfABitch he really does mean it]]).
* BlackCloak: Death Eaters wear them. Dementors wear them. The Hogwarts school uniform includes black robes.
* BlackSheep:
** Sirius and Andromeda to the Black family. Considering that the family is evil as a whole, this makes them WhiteSheep.
** Percy is the only member of the Weasley family who is not friendly and outgoing.
* BlackSpeech: [[SssnakeTalk Parseltongue]] is regarded as this in-universe, as pointed out above.
* BlastingItOutOfTheirHands: The ''Expelliarmus'' spell, which is intended for exactly this purpose. Amusingly, the spell seems capable of disarming a person of anything, whether it's a weapon or a book.
* BlondGuysAreEvil: Played straight with Draco and Lucius Malfoy, Barty Crouch Jr., Dudley Dursley, and Gilderoy Lockhart. Averted with Ernie Macmillan.
* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: In the books, if you pool the main and beta trios, you get one of each gender -- Neville (whom JKR once stated she pictured as a blond) and Luna the blondes, Harry and Hermione the brunettes, and Ron and Ginny the redheads.
* BloodlessCarnage: ''Avada Kedavra's'' lack of leaving physical injuries on bodies provides a convenient excuse for not describing much blood and gore, so most deaths in the series play this straight because they are bloodless and painless. That said, there ''are'' spells for dismembering, and they can get bloody indeed.
%%* TheBoardGame: Yes, and there's even been more than one.
* BoardingSchool: But also...
* BoardingSchoolOfHorrors: At times, Hogwarts can be quite a dangerous place. Made obvious when, on Harry's ''first day'' at school, there's an announcement to the student body to please not enter the third floor corridor unless you want to die horribly.
** It has been this in the past as well: In an early book Filch talks about how they used to string students up. In book 4, Moody is admonished for punishing a student with transfiguration, but the scolding implies it was allowed at one time.
** This is in no small part due to the inherent dangers of practicing magic. Many spells can be very dangerous, especially in the hands of someone who doesn't know what they are doing.
** Hogwarts becomes this full-time when [[spoiler:Umbridge, and later Voldemort, take over. ''Deathly Hallows'' goes out of its way to explain how horrible it's become by saying that some prefects used the Cruciatus curse on ''first years'' (about 11 years old) for refusing to use it themselves in the now-mandatory Dark Arts class.]]
* BondVillainStupidity: Massive amounts from Voldemort, who does many things that the EvilOverlordList advises you not to do. Probably more a case of SanityHasAdvantages than anything else.
** Mentioned frequently by Dumbledore, that [[spoiler:Tom Riddle]][=/=]Voldemort never bothered to study those powers he ''already considered useless'', meaning Voldemort's plans could always be defeated by such "trivial" things as Love.
** He did follow the EvilOverlordList's suggestion to [[spoiler:leave (one of) the [[SoulJar item(s) that is the source of his power and his greatest weakness]] in his safe deposit box instead of a dungeon (well, somebody else's safe deposit box), but that doesn't stop the heroes from stealing it anyway.]]
** He also followed #101, by not delegating away the task of killing "the infant who is destined to overthrow [him]", but trying to kill Harry himself. [[NiceJobBreakingItHerod That worked]] [[SarcasmMode rather brilliantly.]]
** In perhaps his final big villain stupidity moment, he [[spoiler: makes one of his lackeys check to see if Harry is dead, not doing it himself or using a messy non-magic way of ensuring his greatest opponent remains dead]]. Of course, he's physically exhausted from the backlash of his curse, so he can't well do it himself.
* BookDumb: Ron and Harry really aren't diligent students, though when they ''do'' try they prove to be quite adept. Fred and George are even worse academically, but they're experts in magical joke item inventions, which eventually gets them far in the business world.
** A case could be made for Harry that he isn't this trope. Or at least that he plays with this trope. Harry has shown a particular knack and affinity for the D.A.D.A (Defense Against the Dark Arts) skills, which is then compounded by him actually utilizing these skills a lot in the real world, giving him experience to boot.
* BookEnds:
** Harry's life with the Dursleys. When he was one, having recently lost his parents and disembodied Voldemort, Hagrid brings him to Privet Drive riding Sirius' magical motorcycle. When he is about to become seventeen, with the magical protections about to fall, Hagrid is the one that carries Harry out of Privet Drive on the same motorcycle. Hagrid even lampshades it.
** Also, in book one: Ron: "Are you a witch or not?" In book seven: Hermione: "Are you a wizard or not?"
** The entire series effectively begins and ends with [[spoiler:Voldemort getting the ''Avada Kedavra'' curse reflected back at him by Harry. In the first book, Voldemort's power is negated by Lily's selfless sacrifice; his spells won't keep during the final battle because Harry willingly gives his life to save his friends (he gets better).]]
* BoomerangBigot:
** Voldemort. One of the goals of the Death Eaters is the elimination of any wizard who isn't pure-blooded, especially if they are Muggle-born, but Voldemort himself is a half-blood (his father was a Muggle). But then, he ''is'' based on UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler (see below).
** Snape is a double hitter -- in his youth, he was highly prejudiced against Muggles and Muggle-borns despite being a half-blood himself [[spoiler:and in love with a particular Muggle-born]]; as an adult teacher, he mocks [[TheSmartGuy Hermione]] for being, as he once put it, "an [[InsufferableGenius insufferable know-it-all]]" -- ironic coming from Snape, who is himself an InsufferableGenius.
* ABoyAndHisX: For all the Hogwarts students with pets.
* BrainBleach: The reason why Rowling has yet to reveal the exact method of creating a Horcrux. It supposedly made one of her editors vomit. (For note, one of the steps is ''committing murder'' in order to split your soul to place it in the Horcrux. Murder is one thing, but the entire process is implied to involve crossing the MoralEventHorizon, and it's certainly treated as such in-universe. For ''one'' Horcrux.)
* BribingYourWayToVictory: InUniverse, Harry is constantly praised as the best Seeker in the school, and maybe the best player for several years. However, twice in the series, Harry is gifted broomsticks that are demonstrably faster and more maneuverable than his opponents'.
** ...Kind of. Harry's initial feat of Seeking that earns him praise is performed on one of the school brooms, which are universally derided in-universe. He then receives a good broom--but not so good a broom that it would make up for a lack of skill on his part. Then, in second year, he wins against a whole team of players on better brooms than his own, and with a serious disadvantage. (The Bludger is cursed to attack him.) It's only halfway through the third book that he gets a broom that's a whole class above his opponents', and by that point he's pretty well proved himself.
* BrickJoke: In what is perhaps the most elusive brick joke in the series, at the start of book 5, Harry and Dudley are attacked by Dementors. After Harry fights them off, he attempts to explain to his aunt and uncle what happened, only to realize it's hopeless because neither of them have any idea what he's talking about. Petunia finally says, "They guard the wizard prison, Azkaban," and Harry asks how she could possibly know that. Petunia responds with "I overheard -- that awful boy -- telling ''her'' about them, years ago." At the time (and even after finishing the series), everyone simply assumed "that awful boy" to be Harry's father, James Potter. However, at the very end of book 7, we find out that it was actually [[spoiler:Severus Snape]]. While watching his memories, Harry witnesses the scene "first-hand," but it's played so quickly and amidst so many other things very few people pick up on it.
* BrokenMasquerade: Despite the Dursleys' best efforts, Harry learns of the Wizarding World he belongs to that's hidden from the {{Muggles}}.
* BuildingOfAdventure: Hogwarts is the setting for many, many adventures.
* BullyingADragon: There's this giant man standing in front of you. You know he has SuperStrength because he just knocked your door down. This is ''clearly'' not someone to be messed with, so what do you do? Well, whatever it is, you do NOT threaten your nephew, who up until now has had no idea that he is a wizard, in front of said man, and you do NOT insult a man the giant clearly admires... unless you're Vernon TooDumbToLive Dursley.
* ButtMonkey:
** Neville "Why's It Always Me?" Longbottom. Peter Pettigrew during his days at Hogwarts, as well.
** There is a minor character (Dawlish) who is sort of a background ButtMonkey in that the only time we see him, he gets defeated in one hit, and whenever he is mentioned, he has been cursed or failed in something. This is pretty shocking when you consider he's an Auror, the equivalent of magic police (who above that are also elite dark wizard catchers), and is therefore supposed to be skilled at defensive magic.
** Draco Malfoy, Gilderoy Lockhart, Argus Filch, and Dolores Umbridge also fall under this category at times, [[KickTheSonOfABitch although they more than deserve it.]] Quirrell, too, until [[spoiler:he is revealed to be TheDragon at the end of Book 1.]]
** Also, Hufflepuff House in general.
** Ron Weasley, particularly to Slytherins. Harry has also been subjected to this, most notably due to the Rita Skeeter articles.
* ByTheEyesOfTheBlind: Thestrals are only visible to people who have witnessed death first-hand.
** Not only that, but they have to fully comprehend what they saw -- Harry wasn't able to see thestrals when he first came to Hogwarts despite having witnessed the murder of his parents[[spoiler:, but he is able to see them when he comes back fifth year after he saw Voldemort kill Cedric Diggory. (It's generally assumed that he couldn't see them at the end of his fourth year because Cedric's death hadn't fully sunk in at that point.)]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:C]]
* CainAndAbel: Dudley and Harry, Petunia and Lily, [[spoiler:Severus and Lily]].
* CallingYourAttacks: Played straight at first, but justified in that you ''have'' to say the name of the spell in order to cast it. However, it gets subverted when a major portion of the sixth-year curriculum turns out to be learning how to cast spells ''without'' calling them, specifically so that you don't alert your enemies as to what you are doing.
* CanisLatinicus: Expelliarmus, Wingardium Leviosa, Petrificus Totalus, Riddikulus. There ''are'' real Latin spells as well.
* CannotCrossRunningWater: Belief in this principle is why the Dursleys take Harry to a shack in the middle of the sea in their attempt to escape the wizarding world.
* CantLiveWithoutYou: Inverted by the prophecy in the fifth book -- "[[spoiler:Neither can live while the other survives.]]"
* CaptainErsatz: Though possibly coincidental, the Dementors have a certain resemblance to the Nazgûl of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''; both are based on TheGrimReaper. Dementors are also an allegory for clinical depression; they suck the joy out of everything.
%%* CaramelldansenVid: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inSjePhFe2o Hoo boy.]]
* CaptureAndReplicate: Polyjuice Potion can allow one to mimic any person, but it requires [[SympatheticMagic a piece of the person]], usually a hair. The piece must be recent and taken while the subject is alive, so in order to impersonate them for more than a few hours, it's necessary to keep them captive somewhere. To protect against the technique, people who are at risk of being replaced use {{Trust Password}}s.
* CardCarryingVillain: Godelot, a historical personage and author of ''Magick Most Evile'', reveled in his villainy (although a passage quoted in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince Half-Blood Prince]]'' indicates that [[spoiler:[[EvenEvilHasStandards even he would not dare go into the field of Horcruxes]]]]).
%%* CassandraDidIt: Augeries.
* {{Catchphrase}}: Several characters have one.
** Ron: "Bloody hell!"
** Hermione: "I read about it in ''Hogwarts: A History''."
** Moody: "Constant vigilance!"
** Umbridge: "Hem hem."
** Slughorn: "Merlin's beard!"
** Voldemort (in the movies): "NYEAAAAAAAA!"
* CategoryTraitor: The [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Death Eaters]] consider wizardry to be in the blood. They also feel that all "real" wizards are obliged to be "loyal" to "their own kind," and thus despise all [[{{Muggle}} regular humans]], fantasy creatures, and above all else the so-called "mud-bloods"--Muggle-born wizards (and later, once they resurface and begin openly fighting the Order of the Phoenix, any and all wizards who don't agree with the Death Eater ideology's arbitrary definition of a "real" wizard). Unsurprisingly, their contempt for pure-blood and half-blood wizards who care for muggles and "mudbloods" turns out to become a big part of their undoing, [[spoiler:as young Snape loses faith in them because of his love for the "mud-blood" witch Lily Evans.]]
%%* CatsAreMagic
* CardboardPrison: Azkaban shows this. Whereas in book three it is said that Sirius Black is the first to ever escape from Azkaban, [[spoiler:in the very next book it is discovered that Barty Crouch Jr. had been snuck out some time ago, and in book 5 everyone gets out.]]
* CentralTheme: [[ThePowerOfLove Love is what makes us strongest]]. Prejudice and bigotry are bad. Everybody has to die eventually.
** For her part, Creator/JKRowling says that the central theme is death: "The theme of how we react to death, how much we fear it. Of course, I think which is a key part of the book because Voldemort is someone who will do anything not to die. He's terrified of death. And in many ways, all of my characters are defined by their attitude to death and the possibility of death."
** Also, whether certain values -- courage, intelligence, hard-work and cunning -- can be easily sorted and identified. People can be brave in all sorts of unexpected ways, even the {{Bookworm}} can't know everything, and everyone needs a good deal of cunning to survive. Even the best magic in the world can't identify WhatYouAreInTheDark and there are many cases, where people "sort too soon" and judge too readily.
* CerebusSyndrome: Kinda. The darkness of the plot was there from the beginning, but it gets more visible as the story progresses.
* ChameleonCamouflage: The Dissillusionment Charm has this effect, and if done well enough can confer actual invisibility. Putting it on a garment is one way to make an InvisibilityCloak, though the charm fades over time.
* ChangelingFantasy: Harry's is fulfilled when Hagrid takes him to the wizarding world.
* CharacterNameAndTheNounPhrase: The book titles all follow the pattern of "Harry Potter and the..."
* ChekhovsArmoury: ChekhovsGun is [[ChekhovsGun/HarryPotter common]] in the series; e.g., The Deluminator. Fans obsess over details in earlier books, looking for hidden Chekhov's Guns, to the point where J.K. Rowling made a public apology about accidentally giving a minor, unimportant character the same last name as Harry's mum.
%%* ChekhovsBoomerang
* ChekhovsClassroom: In ''The Prisoner of Azkaban'', [=McGonagall=] mentions in the middle of a scene [[spoiler: focused on Professor Trelawney's dubious oracular record the fact that there are numerous wizards known as animagi who can transform themselves into animals. Towards the end of the book, it is revealed that Sirius Black is an animagus, and so were Peter Pettrigrew and James Potter.]]
* ChekhovsGun: More accurately, Chekhov's Wand. We learn that Harry and Voldemort's wands share a common source for their magical cores; it takes on plot significance from book 4 onward. Also, the Vanishing Cabinet, and Godric Gryffindor's Sword. Along with a fair laundry list of other objects. [[spoiler:Of the six Horcruxes, we actually see four of them before they are recognized for what they are. [[labelnote:*]]The diary, Slytherin's locket, Nagini the snake, and Harry himself.[[/labelnote]]]]
* ChekhovsGunman:
** Grindelwald, mentioned in the ''Philosopher's Stone'' and barely ever brought up again until ''Deathly Hallows''. Same goes for Aberforth Dumbledore, who was first mentioned in ''Goblet of Fire'' and first appeared in ''Order of the Phoenix''.
*** Even better? ''We didn't know who Aberforth was until Deathly Hallows.'' In both ''Order of the Phoenix'' and ''Half Blood Prince,'' he is only referred to as "the barman of the Hog's Head," though there are hints to his identity regarding his inappropriate charms on goats...
** The name Regulus Black briefly comes up in one of the books, then [[spoiler:becomes significantly more important in Deathly Hallows.]]
** The name Sirius Black gets mentioned in passing in the very first chapter of the very first book; he only comes up again in the third book, as the title character.
** The Lovegoods also get a brief mention early in The Goblet of Fire, although Luna doesn't become important until the next novel, and her father until the 7th.
* ChekhovsSkill:
** Ron's aptitude for wizard chess becomes important in getting the group past [[spoiler:the defenses for the Philosopher's Stone]].
** Harry's prodigious skill with casting a Patronus becomes useful in a variety of situations involving Dementors beyond the initial purpose of defending himself from Dementors during Quidditch games.
** Hermione having taken Ancient Runes comes into play in the seventh book, as her copy of Tales of Beedle the Bard was written in runic alphabet.
** Neville's skill at Herbology becomes useful during the final battle.
** Harry's Quidditch playing. He's good at flying and good at spotting and getting ahold of small golden objects. This comes in handy when he has to catch a flying key in The Philosopher's Stone, and when he has to get the dragon's egg in the First Task of the Triwizard Tournament.
** Harry's Seeker skills and the generally harmless "Expelliarmus" spell both play key roles in [[spoiler:Harry's final defeat of Voldemort.]]
%%* TheChewToy: Ron. Neville.
* ChildhoodFriendRomance: Several:
** Of the Unlucky kind, [[spoiler:Snape was friends with Lily when they were kids, and loved her, but she ended up with James instead.]]
** Of the Victorious kind: [[spoiler:Ginny, for Harry. Ron, for Hermione.]]
* TheChooserOfTheOne: Voldemort (unknowingly) got to choose his arch-enemy, and picked Harry.
* ChronicHeroSyndrome: Harry does sort of have a "saving people thing," as Hermione [[LampshadeHanging puts it]].
** This is also lampshaded by Ron in the fourth book. He mentions that Harry couldn't help "playing the hero."
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome:
** Ludo Bagman plays an important role in the fourth novel, however he never appears again after escaping from the goblins. He is only briefly mentioned in the next book.
** Cornelius Fudge was not seen at all in the last book. It's unknown what happened to him following the take over at the Ministry.
** Florean Fortescue was kidnapped at the beginning of the sixth book yet we never learn about what happened to him.
* TheClan: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] with the House of Black, a well-known pure-blood family known in previous generations for its fixation with blood purity. Was once wealthy but the loss of numbers and the fact that quite a few of its named members are [[AxCrazy a bit nuts]], has veered more toward BigScrewedUpFamily.
** The Weasleys, despite their massive numbers (even outside the ones directly introduced in the series), don't meet the requisites otherwise - until arguably the epilogue, [[spoiler: by which point Arthur and Molly Weasley's children and children-in-law include professional athletes, successful businessmen, known geniuses, war heroes, dragon experts... and Harry Potter himself.]]
* CleverCrows: Ravenclaw House, although intelligence is its defining trait and it is not the most sinister of the Houses. [[InNameOnly Despite the name]], Ravenclaw's mascot is an eagle.
* ColdBloodedTorture: What happens to many characters at the hands of the Death Eaters (mostly Voldemort and Bellatrix), including [[spoiler:Neville's parents.]]
** Also what goes on in Umbridge's detentions.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Various colors are strongly associated with [[GoodColorsEvilColors both good and evil]] across the story:
** Red - either [[RedIsHeroic heroic spirit]] ([[TheHero House Gryffindor]], [[RedHeadedHero The Weasleys]], [[FieryRedhead Ginny in particular]], [[SignificantGreenEyedRedhead Lily Evans]], also the [[ThouShaltNotKill non-lethal]] [[StunGun Stupefy]] and [[BlastingItOutOfTheirHands Expelliarmus]] spells) or ChaoticEvil tendencies ([[RedEyesTakeWarning Voldemort's eyes]] in the book, [[AgonyBeam the Cruciatus curse]]).
** Green - either the mark of [[EmeraldPower a powerful wizard or witch]] who is [[ThePowerOfLove loving]] and [[HeroicSacrifice self-sacrificing]] (Lily and Harry's eyes, later inherited by Albus) or the color of [[AmbitionIsEvil the bigoted and often villainous House Slytherin]] as well as outright [[SicklyGreenGlow sinister powers]] such as [[InstantKill the Killing curse]] and dark [[{{Necromancer}} revival potions]].
** Blue - almost uniformly associated with calm and reasonable types (House Ravenclaw, Dumbledore's eyes), although Ron Weasley also has InnocentBlueEyes mostly to [[BlueAndOrangeContrast contrast]] with his red hair and impulsive character. In the film, Patronuses are [[HeavenlyBlue glowing blue]] and on the evil side, Voldemort has IcyBlueEyes which fit well in his scenes in HollywoodDarkness.
** Yellow - either friendly, down-to-earth people (House Hufflepuff) or evil magic such as [[CharmPerson the Imperius curse]] or a [[SupernaturalGoldEyes Basilisk's eyes]].
** Purple - either the sign of [[PurpleIsPowerful a great benevolent force]] ([[BigGood Dumbledore]]) or [[PurpleIsTheNewBlack Dark magic]] ([[DemonicPossession Quirrell's turban]] and Antonin Dolohov's signature curse).
** White: almost uniformly connected to [[LightIsGood goodness]] ([[MeaningfulName Albus]] Dumbledore, Patronuses), except Voldemort's [[EvilMakesYouUgly unnatural]] [[UndeathlyPallor chalk-white skin]]. The final stage of Voldemort's body regeneration potion is also glows [[LightIsNotGood so bright white that Harry sees it through eyes screwed shut]].
** Gray: linked to sneaky characters ([[YouDirtyRat Scabbers]]) or outright evil ones (Fenrir Greyback). The [[RichBitch cold and haughty]] Malfoys have GrayEyes.
** Black: mostly perceived as [[DarkIsEvil evil]], though the BlackCloak is worn by the school students and evil characters alike. [[DarkIsNotEvil Averted]] by Harry and James' black hair, Sirius Black and [[spoiler: Severus Snape]]. Played straight with the [[EldritchAbomination Dementors]], [[BlackMagic Death Eaters]] and [[BigScrewedUpFamily the rest of the Black family]].
** Gold: paired with red (Gryffindor) symbolizes heroism Harry's Polyjuice Potion is also gold. Paired with green (Slytherin's locket, Tom Riddle's awards before TheReveal of his identity) hints of an evil presence.
** [[SilverHasMysticPowers Silver]]: Can be good when paired with [[LightIsGood light]] (Patronus charm), neutral (memories in the book) or sinister (House Slytherin, Wormtail's hand). The Malfoys have silvery blonde hair.
* ComingOfAgeStory: ''Harry Potter'' is as much about growing up as it is about wizards.
* ContrastingSequelAntagonist: Lord Voldemort is the consistent BigBad, but each individual book also has its own secondary antagonist whose nature and motivations often say much about the themes and conflict at the heart of each installment. ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone The Philosopher's Stone]]'' has [[TheRenfield Quirinus Quirrel]], the frail and cowardly servant of the crippled Voldemort; ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets The Chamber of Secrets]]'' has "[[FromNobodyToNightmare Tom Riddle]]", the ghostly echo of Voldemort's former self; ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban The Prisoner of Azkaban]]'' has [[spoiler: [[EvilFormerFriend Peter Pettigrew]]]], the confidant of the Potters who betrayed his friends out of cowardice; ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire The Goblet of Fire]]'' has [[spoiler: [[WellDoneSonGuy Barty Crouch, Jr.]]]], the troubled young Death Eater initiate who remains faithful to Voldemort in the wake of his downfall; ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix The Order of the Phoenix]]'' has [[TyrantTakesTheHelm Dolores Umbridge]], the corrupt Ministry bureaucrat who denies Voldemort's return; and ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince The Half-Blood Prince]]'' has [[TheRival Draco Malfoy]] and [[spoiler: [[TheAtoner Severus Snape]]]], who finally openly join Voldemort after six years of lurking in the background at Hogwarts.
* ContrivedCoincidence: The Marauders present themselves in their map as "Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs", or MWPP. Is it a coincidence that [[spoiler:they die in that order, backwards? Prongs (James Potter) dies on October 31st, 1981, Padfoot (Sirius Black) dies in the Battle of the Ministry in June of 1996 (Harry's fifth year), Wormtail (Peter Pettigrew) gets killed in March of 1998 by the silver hand Voldemort gave him back in 1995, and Moony (Remus Lupin) dies in the Battle of Hogwarts on May 2nd, 1998.]]
** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'' kicks off because 1) the Weasleys won a lottery ticket, 2) this gets them a large front page picture, 3) Ron's pet rat Scabbers was included in said picture, and 4) Cornelius Fudge happened to be carrying that exact issue when he visited Sirius Black.
* ConvenientlyCoherentThoughts: Subverted with Legilimency, which reveals thoughts in a disjointed manner and requires much training to sort out which thoughts are important.
* CoolButInefficient: So many of the things the wizards do.
** Particularly that we repeatedly see wizards are rendered helpless when they are disarmed, which in later books often leads to their death. For some reason, there seems to be an unwritten rule amongst wizards that you can't carry ''a spare wand''.
** Given that most Wizards are capable of Apparating, possess cars such as the Knight Bus for those who can't, and possess the ability to carry large amounts of objects in a BagOfHolding, it often begs the question why they bother with the mess of using Owls to deliver their mail. Theoretically ''a single wizard'' could serve as the postman to the entire country. That being said, owls are implied to be capable of always finding the person they are supposed to give a letter to.
* CoolTrain: It's pulled by a [[SteamNeverDies steam locomotive]] and carries the students to and from Hogwarts at each end of the school year, as well as for holidays.
* CorporalPunishment: Not unexpected, given the BoardingSchool setting. Early on, it's played relatively comically, with Argus Filch constantly bemoaning the fact that he's not ''allowed'' to string misbehaving students up by their ankles anymore. It gets rather darker later, with ''Order of the Phoenix'' featuring a quill that carves whatever you write into your hand, and God-only-knows-what going on at Hogwarts during ''Deathly Hallows''.
* CrapsaccharineWorld: Once you get past the initial cool factor of the magical world, the Harry Potter universe is not an exceptionally happy one. FantasticRacism of absurd extremes permeates every level of the wizarding world, and the government seems to be run by evil, scheming, political glory hounds (regardless of their allegiance to "good" or "bad"). The justice system is a KangarooCourt, the regulations on dangerous magic are feeble at best, the very system of instruction in magic carries a high injury/mortality rate, the schools are run by people who think nothing of manipulating their students for years with the express intention of having them throw their lives away, said schools think nothing of employing borderline sociopaths with a stated dislike of--and known enjoyment of torturing--children, the entire population as a whole seems to have crippling naiveté about the non-magical world (to the point that you wonder how they've kept the {{masquerade}} going for so long), and the overall respect for human, sapient non-human, or animal life and sanity is appallingly low. The in-universe explanation is that this was a cultural reaction to Voldemort, and that it supposedly went away once he was defeated. Also, it's heavily implied that there's degradation of the "magical" ecosystem and natives, with species like the dragons and giants dying out and forced on to small reservations.
** They maintain the 'masquerade' by casually (and ofttimes repeatedly) using magical LaserGuidedAmnesia on {{Muggles}} who don't know about the magical world.
* CrazyJealousGuy: Ron Weasley, especially in books 4 and 6. (The latter was [[OperationJealousy deliberately]] started by Hermione.)
** Viktor Krum: Quidditch star, and Ron's a fanboy of his. Guess what Ron says to Hermione at the Yule Ball when Hermione goes with Krum.
---> '''Ron''': You're[Hermione] fraternizing with the enemy[Krum]!
** When Hermione goes to the Slug Club party with Mclaggen in book 6 (and after Ginny accuses him of being insecure about never having kissed a girl), he starts the most shallow and kissy relationship with Lavender Brown.
* CrazyPrepared: Hermione, especially with her BagOfHolding in ''Deathly Hallows''. Also, Dumbledore, in general.
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass:
** Luna "Loony" Lovegood may act like she ain't playing with a full deck, but when it comes down to an actual battle... watch yourself. She participates in several battles, but the only time she gets injured the entire series is when a door gets blown off its hinges into her face and she flies across the room.
** Neville Longbottom, ButtMonkey poster boy in the early years, becomes a seriously competent fighter in his own right from the latter parts of the fifth year on. In the battle of the Department of Mysteries in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]'', he is the only other student besides Harry who stays fighting right up until the end, whereas everyone else gets incapacitated one way or another during it.
* CrushingHandshake: The Slytherin quidditch team captain tends to do this when he shakes hands with the Gryffindor captain at the begining of a match. In the first few books, Oliver Wood is able to give as good as he gets, but Angelina and Harry (during their respective stints as captain in the later books) have to keep themselves from wincing.
* CrypticBackgroundReference: At one point Harry sees some warlocks drinking at a pub, but whatever makes a warlock different from a wizard is never mentioned. Simply being a male witch as is typical is unlikely, as the series treats "witch" as the female equivalent of "wizard.
** The difference is finally explained in one of Rowling's footnotes in ''[[Literature/TheTalesofBeedletheBard Tales of Beedle the Bard]]'': a warlock is either an unusually fierce-looking wizard or an unusually skilled and accomplished wizard.
* CulturalPosturing: Even the ''Muggle-born'' wizards are condescending toward Muggles.
* CulturalTranslation: Editors at Scholastic Books forced a change from "Philosopher's Stone" -- a genuine item of folklore and alchemy -- to "Sorcerer's Stone" for the American editions on the grounds that American children would have no idea what a Philosopher's Stone was. Due to the negative reaction, British terms and slang in the later books, such as "jumper," "taking the mickey," and "snogging," were left in.
* {{Curse}}: Spells that have a major negative effect are often referred to as "curses." More minor curses are called "hexes" and "jinxes."
[[/folder]]
[[folder:D]]
* DancesAndBalls: The Yule Ball. In both the book and the movie, however, it quickly degenerates into a magical rock show.
* DarkerAndEdgier: The series gradually gets darker and darker as it moves forward. Although the first book starts in the aftermath of a ''double homicide'', so...
* DeadGuyJunior: Lots of examples from the epilogue, including [[spoiler: James Sirius Potter, Lily Luna Potter (even though Luna Lovegood doesn't die), Albus Severus Potter, and Fred Weasley II.]]
* DeadpanSnarker: Honestly, if you took a shot every time a character made a wry comment, you'd be pretty messed up early on in the series. There are so many examples, [[DeadpanSnarker/HarryPotter it has its own page]].
* DeathRay: The Killing Curse, ''Avada Kedavra''. The reason that Harry is known as "The Boy-Who-Lived" is because he's the only person in the wizarding world to have ever survived the spell.
* DecliningPromotion:
** Horace Slughorn is described as "preferring the backseat." However, it's not so much exerting power as it is enjoying being able to influence the world thanks to former students he gave a boost to (e.g., casting a vote for a new junior minister or getting free tickets to a Quidditch match). Harry has a mental image of a spider pulling a webstrand to bring a juicy fly closer.
** It was stated more than a few times Mr. Weasley could have easily been promoted within the Ministry years ago, but enjoyed where he was in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office too much. He does finally take a promotion AND get rank in the Order of Phoenix as the series goes on, however.
* DeconstructedTrope: Happens a lot in the series, especially concerning character dynamics. A character is a ButtMonkey? Turns out that they have some pretty depressing baggage and it motivates them to become a total badass later. Another is a {{Cloudcuckoolander}}? They are relentlessly teased and bullied over it and have very few friends. Our main man is a Chosen One and FamedInStory? They really hate it. Kid Genius? Is seen as an InsufferableGenius (which they sometimes are).
* DisproportionateRetribution: The treatment Harry received from the Dursleys for most of the eleven years prior to his acceptance into Hogwarts, and occasionally afterward as well. He was confined to the cupboard under the stairs until age 11 just for existing, yelled at for asking questions or innocently mentioning strange dreams, and punished (up to and including being denied meals) for exhibiting signs of the hated magic, which he neither understood nor was able to control. For example, in the first book he gets locked in the cupboard for much of the summer just for talking to a snake after the "vanishing glass" incident.
* DistantFinale: [[spoiler: The last chapter of book seven, better known as the Epilogue, takes place 19 years after the end of the previous chapter.]]
* DirectLineToTheAuthor/ATrueStoryInMyUniverse: ''Literature/FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem'', ''Literature/QuidditchThroughTheAges'', and ''Literature/TheTalesOfBeedleTheBard'' are all presented as reprintings of in-universe books. ''The Tales of Beedle the Bard'' also makes reference to the existence of a seven-volume biography of Harry Potter, thus implying that the main ''Harry Potter'' series exists in its own universe as non-fiction as well.
* DitchTheBodyguards: In several books, Harry is being threatened by someone (usually Voldemort) and everybody tries to keep him safe. It never works; somehow, for some reason, he always finds his way to the source of the problem to face it himself.
* DividedWeFall: [[spoiler:The ''Half-Blood Prince'' DVD has a chapter entitled "Free Agents", a clever reference to not only Harry and Ron's Quidditch issues, but their romantic lives, as well.]]
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The Death Eaters are [[ANaziByAnyOtherName a group who believe in "purity" who overtake the government in an effort to eradicate "nonpure" people and are led by an extremely creepy-looking dude.]]
* DoingResearch: Hermione, in almost every book.
* DomesticAbuser: It's implied in ''Order of the Phoenix'' that Snape's father was at the very least verbally abusive to Snape's mother, and that this was a large contributing factor in his anti-Muggle attitudes.
* DontFearTheReaper: According to Creator/JKRowling, the CentralTheme of the series has always been death. [[spoiler:It doesn't really come to the forefront until ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', where Dumbledore states that Harry is the Master of Death not because he owned all three of the Deathly Hallows, but rather because through his experiences where he unknowingly gathered all three, he came to realize that death is inevitable and that there are far worse fates than dying, and accepted his death. The Tale of the Three Brothers, where the legend of the Deathly Hallows comes from, shows that if you try to escape death or are unable to accept the death of a loved one (the first and second brothers, represented by Voldemort and Snape in ''The Deathly Hallows''), then death will be a grueling bastard. However, if you accept death as inevitability (the youngest brother, represented by Harry), then death will greet you like an old friend.]] All of this stems from Rowling's own experiences with the death of her mother.
* DontTellMama: The only time the Weasley twins get talked into cooperating with authority is when Hermione [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment threatens to tell Mrs. Weasley about their antics]].
-->'''Hermione:''' If you don't stop, I'm going to...\\
'''Fred:''' Put us in detention?\\
'''George:''' Make us write lines?\\
'''Hermione:''' No, but I will write to your mother.\\
'''George:''' [[OhCrap You wouldn't...]]
* {{Doorstopper}}: All of the books from the fourth onwards; the fifth, weighing in at 766 pages for the Bloomsbury hardback edition, is the winner here.
** The original American hardcover edition had it at over 800 pages.
*** Stephen Fry is even credited with the following:
-->"So if any of you hear someone pronounce her name "Rohw-ling", you have my permission to hit them over the head with -- not with Order of the Phoenix, that would be cruel. Something smaller, like a fridge."
* DownerEnding:
** [[spoiler:Goblet of Fire, Order of the Phoenix, and Half-Blood Prince.]]
** [[spoiler:Deathly Hallows is no picnic either, even considering the fact that, technically, the good guys have finally won a complete victory.]]
* DrGenericius: A lot of wizards have names ending in "us": Albus, Bilius (Ron's middle name), Lucius, Regulus Arcturus, Remus, Rubeus {Hagrid), Severus, Scorpius, Sirius... It seems to be more frequent in the Pureblood families, though.
* TheDreaded: Each side has their own. [[BigBad Voldemort]] is easily the most feared being on the planet. His power and cruelty are legendary; people are terrified of even speaking his name long after he is thought to be dead. Even he has his own in [[BadassGrandpa Dumbledore]], the only person Voldemort ever feared.
* DuelingMessiahs: Flashbacks reveal that there was once a legendary duel between Grindelwald and Dumbledore. The former wanted to lead the wizards out of hiding whereas Dumbledore sided with the muggles.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:E]]
* EarlyBirdCameo: Several supporting characters are mentioned in passing long before their importance to the plot is revealed, among them [[spoiler:Mrs. Figg, Mundungus Fletcher, the Lovegoods, Grindelwald, Aberforth Dumbledore, Sirius Black, and his brother Regulus Arcturus Black.]]
** Several creatures in ''Order of the Phoenix'' were mentioned in ''Literature/FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem'' prior to their appearances, and even Thestrals earned a minor, blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference under "Winged Horse".
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The Hogwarts School Song. Sung once in the first book, then never mentioned again.
%%* EarnYourHappyEnding
* ElaborateUndergroundBase: Salazar Slytherin intended to use the Chamber of Secrets as this, doubling as a SupervillainLair after the schism with the other Founders.
* EmbarrassingPassword:
** The Ministry of Magic encourages people to devise security questions with their loved ones. One of the security questions between Mr. and Mrs. Weasley is:
-->'''Mr Weasley:''' What do you like me to call you when we're alone together?
-->'''Mrs Weasley:''' Mollywobbles.
** The password to Dumbledore's office is always a type of candy. At one point in ''Goblet of Fire'', Harry, trying to get inside, lists off every single magical candy he can think of, only to find the correct one is "Cockroach Cluster".
-->Cockroach Cluster? I was only joking.
* EmotionBomb:
** Dementors. They ''eat'' happiness.
** Cheering Charms are an example of this in the ''good'' way.
* EmotionalPowers: The Patronus spell is fueled by the caster thinking of their happiest thoughts or memories.
* EmpathicWeapon: Wands are said to choose the wizard who will use them, and they don't work as well for anyone who is not the original owner and hasn't defeated the previous owner in some form of combat.
* EnforcedColdWar: The House rivalries, especially between Gryffindor and Slytherin. According to the history of Hogwarts's founders, it's actually closer to Slytherin versus everyone else. It goes down a ''lot'' after [[spoiler:Voldemort is defeated.]]
* EntertaininglyWrong: In ''Half-Blood Prince'', Dumbledore and Harry both come to the perfectly valid conclusion that Voldemort tried to get a job at Hogwarts in an attempt to get ahold of an item belong to a Hogwarts Founder for use as a SoulJar. In ''Deathly Hallows'', Harry realizes they had it backwards: Voldemort used the interview to ''hide'' one of his Soul Jars in a hidden room on the way to Dumbledore's office--actually getting the job would've just been a bonus.
* EnthrallingSiren: Veela are a less malicious version of this. Generally, they look like they're an InhumanlyBeautifulRace of women complete with MindControlMusic and hypnotic dancing. If enraged, however, they suddenly gain [[HarpingOnAboutHarpies cruel, bird-like features and chuck fireballs]].
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas:
** Draco Malfoy's only redeeming quality is his love for his family.
** Although Voldemort is incapable of real love, his mother's sad death is his motivation for some of his crimes.
** Narcissa Malfoy's main motivation by the end is making sure her family is safe, [[spoiler:to the point where she lies to ''Voldemort''.]]
* EveryoneIsRelated[=/=]TangledFamilyTree: Check out the Black family tree, for starters. The Peverell and Weasley familes are similarly tangled up: the Peverell family contains almost ''every'' single wizard, including Voldemort and [[spoiler:Harry Potter]]! Gets to the point where EveryoneIsRelated both literally and in terms of the trope.
** This is implied to be a result of forced intermarrying of pureblood families in order to ''keep'' the blood "pure." Amongst the many notable muggle discoveries proud purebloods dismiss are the effects of inbreeding. (Even though there are plenty of things, like the health benefits of laughter, that wizards noticed long before Muggles did.)
** Step back for a moment and consider this. Draco Malfoy is easily recognised by his curious platinum-blond hair and aristocratic features. When we meet Lucius we see he too has the same hair colour and similar features, not that unusual. However, his mother Narcissa has exactly the same unique hair colour and aristocratic features. What are the odds of her and her husband being related?
** There is already canon saying that Harry Potter, Narcissa Malfoy, and Andromeda Tonks are first cousins, as are the Weasley twins to Neville Longbottom, and the six of them are second cousins to each other. Their family tree also implies a relation to the Crabbe, Macmillan, Burk, Bulstrode, Yaxley, and Crouch families.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Voldemort was conceived through the use of a love potion, which is essentially fake love. (In fact, [[FridgeHorror if you think hard enough]], it seems like he's almost a ChildByRape.) His mother later made no attempt [[DeathByChildbirth to keep herself alive through magic as he was born]]. Without any proper upbringing, he was seemingly born with the inability to understand real love at all.
* EvilCounterpart:
** Harry and Voldemort both had very similar beginnings, and Harry occasionally finds himself sympathetic to Voldemort. Nonetheless, the choices that both of them made sent them in totally different directions. [[{{Anvilicious}} Lampshaded]] in the film during the disturbing moment when the two of them briefly meld into one image while falling through the air.
** Harry also notes parallels with Snape in ''Deathly Hallows''. He refers to himself, Voldemort, and Snape as "the abandoned boys", and notes that they all found a home at Hogwarts. Interestingly, Snape seems to have been set up as the half-way point between Voldemort and Harry.
** Bellatrix and Hermione. Hermione is as devoted to Harry as Bellatrix is to Voldemort. Both intelligent and powerful witches, on the opposite side of the good/evil divide; both capable of, and shown willing to go to, extremes for their purposes. (Bellatrix tortured the Longbottoms into insanity to find Voldemort. Hermione comes up with the same method for Harry to communicate with his DA members as Voldemort used with his Death Eaters; she bewitches a DA document so that it will semi-permanently facially disfigure anyone who signs it and later sells them out; she blackmails Rita Skeeter.)
** Bellatrix also serves as an EvilCounterpart to Molly Weasley. According to Rowling that is why the two fight each other at the end -- Bellatrix loves no one (besides her obsession over Voldemort) and Mrs. Weasley is very loving. Love wins out. (This is in spite of Bellatrix having all but been set up as Neville Longbottom's ArchEnemy.)
** Voldemort and Dumbledore turn out to have a lot in common.
** Umbridge could be considered [=McGonagall=]'s EvilCounterpart. Both are known for being disciplinarians, but [=McGonagall=] is [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure fair and well-meaning]] whereas Umbridge, to say the least, is not. Incidentally, both of them cast a Patronus in the shape of a cat.
** Though they're on the same side in ''Order of the Phoenix'', Sirius and Snape can be interpreted this way as well. They started out as Gryffindor vs. Slytherin, then they joined opposite sides of the war. Sirius was James's best friend, and Snape had been best friends and had a crush on [[spoiler:Lily]], and despite the falling out that Snape and [[spoiler:Lily]] had, he and Sirius are incredibly loyal to their said best friends. Both of them even did something ''really'' terrible to a close friend of theirs, Sirius's being sending Snape to be torn apart by Remus on the full moon and Snape's being [[spoiler:calling Lily a Mudblood]]. Snape hated his father, and Sirius hated his family. More importantly, both make a misguided major decision that indirectly causes the death of their respective best friends: Sirius [[spoiler: offers Pettigrew as the real SecretKeeper with him as a decoy, resulting in Pettigrew's betrayal]] and Snape [[spoiler: informs Voldemort about the prophecy of TheChosenOne which causes Voldemort to target the Potters in the first place]].
** Harry and Voldemort's respective chosen methods of self-preservation: [[spoiler:Voldemort survives through his six [[SoulJar Horcruxes]], which he created by murdering five people (plus Harry as the sixth Horcrux) plus one more after his ill-fated attempt on Harry's life. Harry survives through his relationships with friends and relatives, six of whom are killed in the act of directly saving his life: James and Lily Potter, Sirius Black, Albus Dumbledore, Peter Pettigrew, and Dobby. Harry and Voldemort act as the seventh Horcrux/relationship for each other: Harry is Voldemort's unknown seventh Horcrux, and Voldemort unknowingly saves Harry's life by creating a blood bond between them during his resurrection in Goblet of Fire; he even "dies" to save Harry's life when he tries to kill Harry in the Forbidden Forest and instead destroys the portion of his soul preserved in Harry.]]
** Harry's wand and Voldemort's wand share the same core, a phoenix feather from Fawkes, who only gave two feathers. Then, we have the Elder Wand, which is different entirely. People have written papers on the connections between Voldemort and Harry.
** Ron and Pettigrew. Both are/were close friends to a guy who is/was considered very popular and cool and are/were ignored otherwise. Both are hinted to be a little jealous of this. ''Deathly Hallows'' implies that Ron, like Pettigrew, has a bit of a lust for power (his interest in the Elder Wand, though [[NotSoAboveItAll Hermione is just as fascinated by it]]). Unlike Pettigrew, Ron never abandons his friends for power or protection. More importantly, Ron refuses to be an ExtremeDoormat and bottle up his frustration, indeed he voices it out and works through it, which Pettigrew never did and so never worked out his bitterness. Wormtail would sell out his friends to curry favor to the next biggest bully for his own ends.
** Neville and Pettigrew. In their early school days at least, both are seen as weak students who need help form their more powerful/competent trio of friends (Harry/Ron/Hermione and James/Sirius/Remus). While this trio is their closest friends, they are always portrayed as being slightly outside of it as well. Pettigrew was famous for having attempted to bring down one of Voldemort's greatest strengths [[spoiler:(Sirius Black), which he had actually set up as a frame job,]] and Neville [[spoiler: actually did take one out (Nagini)]]. Neville eventually learned to find his own strength and stepped up to the level of his friends, while Pettigrew never tried to work through his weaknesses and was always looking for someone to protect him [[spoiler:(James/Sirius/Remus, Voldemort, the Weasleys, Harry)]].
* EvilMakesYouMonstrous: Tom Riddle (Voldemort) was a handsome student, but by the time he is reborn, he is bald, has pale white skin, bloodshot eyes and slits for nostrils. We see him earlier in a Pensieve memory Dumbledore has of him entering his office to ask to be the Defense of Dark Arts professor after he began dabbling in Dark Arts but before he gained power, and Harry notes that he had already lost his good looks by then and was beginning to resemble the pale, snake-like creature he would fully become later on. Even many years before that when Tom Riddle was still pretty handsome, he is stated to have already begun to look a little pale by the time he took a job in a store to get ahold of an ancient artifact.
* EvilSoundsDeep: {{Inverted}}. Voldemort is described as having a high, cold voice.
* EvilTeacher: PlayedWith with [[spoiler:Snape]] but played very straight with Quirrell, [[spoiler:Crouch/Moody]], Umbridge, and the Carrows.
* ExoticEntree: Voldemort dines on unicorn blood in ''The Philosopher's Stone'' (though there is a magical justification for this).
* {{Expy}}: Harry and Dumbledore are expies of Wart and Merlin, respectively, from ''Literature/TheSwordInTheStone''.
* ExtranormalPrison: Azkaban is a prison for evil wizards, guarded by the soul-sucking dementors.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:F]]
* {{Fainting}}: Many characters do this, but this unfortunately happens to Harry multiple times in each book, especially in ''Prisoner of Azkaban'' (wherein the Dementors inevitably have this effect on him) and ''Order of the Phoenix''.
* FamilyThemeNaming: Most families have a theme:
** Blacks: Stars and constellations and galaxies, except most females who remarry
** Carrows: Names of Myth/{{Greek mytholog|y}}ical characters
** Bagmans: Names of Holy Roman Emperors
** Belbys: Names of Roman (and Byzantine) Emperors
** Campbells: Names of Shakespearean characters
** Evanses (Harry's mother and aunt): Names of flowers
** Weasleys: Names connected to medieval royalty.
** The [[https://www.pottermore.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/the-potter-family revelation of the Potter Family history]] makes them an aversion, they tend to alter between AerithAndBob, with names like Linchfred, Ralston, Hardwin, Henry, Fleamont, James and Harry among many others, having no particular theme.
* FamilyValuesVillain: The Malfoys' only mildly redeeming quality is their care for each other as a family.
%%* FantasticAnthropologist
* FantasticRacism:
** Done four times in the series: first, in the way some "pureblood" wizards look down on Muggles and those who have Muggles in their ancestry; second, in Hermione's well-meaning campaign on the behalf of house-elves; third, the treatment of werewolves and "halfbreeds" such as Hagrid; and fourth, the Dursleys' bigotry against wizards. The second and third are part of a larger theme of non-humans being discriminated against, and centaurs fall into this category too; [[Characters/HarryPotter Dolores Umbridge]] hates them, and Firenze the centaur gets into trouble with his own people, who consider him an "Uncle Tom" and traitor for associating with humans. Lupin chooses to resign from school after everybody finds out he's a werewolf.
** And the "official" wizard attitude to the other magical races is clearly portrayed as a different ''kind'' of racism to the [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Nazi-esque]] Death-Eaters, not open-minded egalitarianism; Harry is surprised to see a statue at the Ministry of Magic with a centaur and a goblin in submissive adoration of a wizard and witch; totally preposterous (unlike the house-elf in the same statue), but evidently the way the Ministry believes the world "should" work.
*** It is, perhaps, worth noting that the Ministry of Magic classifies all living creatures as either "beast" or "being," with the latter being less discriminated against. Centaurs are classed as "beasts," and thus discriminated against greatly... because they themselves discriminated, and weren't willing to share "being" classification with things like vampires. According to [[AllThereInTheManual tie-in materials]] they were also insulted that humans thought they had authority in such matters at all, and originally insisted on the beast classification after the mermaid civilization was filed there for not speaking English (which was later rectified).
** Draco Malfoy displays this often, calling Hermione a "mudblood" more than once (a slur for a wizard or witch who is born to non-magical parents, and whom "purebloods" of certain persuasions, like the Malfoys, see as inferior) and such insults almost ''always'' end up badly for him, as the wizard m-word is as nasty as the Muggles' n-word. Considering that several of the teachers, particularly Dumbledore and [=McGonagall=], are often shown to strongly dislike the term and be angered by it, it's surprising that Draco's frequent use of it did not earn him suspension or expulsion. Likewise with [[spoiler:Snape, whose life took a turn for the worse when he called Lily a "filthy little mudblood."]]
** Hermione's campaign for house elves is portrayed as well-meaning but misguided, with her imposing human values on the elves and refusing to accept that the vast majority of them are actually happy with their jobs as long as they're not abused. She seems to have become better educated on the house-elf psyche by ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', though, and has gone for a more practical approach--at no point in book seven does she ask Harry to ''free'' Kreacher, but she ''does'' convince Harry to treat Kreacher well despite his betrayal in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix''. [[spoiler:It pays off almost immediately, and again at the end of the novel.]]
** In ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince The Half Blood Prince]]'', Tom Riddle murdered a woman for her artifacts and framed her House Elf for it. Dumbledore tells Harry that the Ministry should have investigated further but didn't "...because she was a House Elf". Harry had never sympathized with Hermione's campagin as much as he did at that moment.
** There is also the treatment of Squibs (non-magic children of witches and wizards). Even the Weasleys had a relative (Molly's second cousin) who possibly was a squib and, as such, an embarrassment to the family.
%%* FantasticScience
* FantasticSlurs: "Mudblood", a derogatory term for a witch or wizard who was born into a {{Muggle}} family. It's considered to be an extremely vulgar term as well, almost on par with the N-word; when Draco Malfoy first calls Hermione this in ''Chamber of Secrets'', there is a tremendous uproar and Ron even tries to curse him.
** In Books 5 and 7, [[spoiler:Snape's friendship and romantic hopes for something bigger are ruined when in reaction to Lily pulling an embarrassing rescue he says, "I don't need help from a filthy little mudbloods like her." This ruined his life... to say the least.]]
%%* FantasyForbiddingFather: The Dursleys.
* FantasyCounterpartAppliance: Mostly averted, because wizards either appropriate Muggle technology or invent something completely strange of their own, but there are a few cases; e.g., the Floo Network, which is regulated and functions not unlike a mass transit or communication system.
* FantasyGunControl: Guns exist in the Muggle world, but apparently not even Squibs seem to have them in the wizarding community; in an article about Sirius Black, it's mentioned that the Muggles have been warned he's carrying a gun, which is then defined as "a type of metal wand that Muggles use to kill each other."
** This has more to do with UK gun laws than Fantasy Gun Control. If the story took place in a country where owning arms is considered a basic right (like the US), then it would be unusual. However in the UK guns are strictly prohibited: it is illegal for citizens to own them and even police officers need special permits to carry.
* FantasyKitchenSink: Nearly everything about wizardry from Fantasy novels is revealed to exist -- and every mythological creature as well, especially in ''Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them''.
* FateWorseThanDeath:
** Neville's parents were tortured into insanity.
** The Dementor's Kiss sucks out a person's soul while leaving the body alive, leaving a shell of a person behind.
** The side-effect of drinking unicorn blood is "a cursed half-life."
** The state one finds oneself in after a horcrux successfully prevents death. Unlike the above, however, this state can be ended, either by true resurrection, or just "letting go."
** In the first book, Dumbledore mentions people who, transfixed by the Mirror of Erised, have literally wasted away in front of it.
* FictionalSport: Quidditch. Despite fantastic requirements, [[http://www.internationalquidditch.org/ people in real life have tried to replicate it.]]
* FieryRedhead: The Weasleys. All of them (except maybe Percy), but ''especially'' Ginny. Also, Lily Evans in book five.
* TheFirstCutIsTheDeepest: Cedric's death to Cho.
* FirstGirlWins: [[spoiler:Ginny Weasley is the first young witch Harry hears/meets at Platform 9 3/4, and Hermione is the first female friend Ron Weasley makes. Years later, Harry marries Ginny, and Ron marries Hermione. In TheFilmOfTheBook, Ginny Weasley is the first girl Harry's age we meet in both the first film ''and'' the second. She's also ''almost'' the first girl we see in the third film -- soon after Hermione's entrance, we see Ginny's face in a newspaper clipping.]]
* FiveBadBand: The major Death Eaters.
** BigBad: Voldemort.
** TheDragon: Bellatrix.
** EvilGenius: [[spoiler:Crouch, Jr. and Snape. The latter [[ReverseMole isn't really evil]], though...]]
** TheBrute: Fenrir Greyback.
** DarkChick: Peter Pettigrew and the Malfoys.
** SixthRangerTraitor: [[spoiler:Snape and, eventually, Narcissa.]]
** TeamPet: Nagini.
* FiveManBand: The main trio plus the auxiliary trio:
** TheHero: Harry.
** TheLancer: Ron.
** TheSmartGuy: Hermione (sometimes TheChick).
** TheBigGuy: Ginny, her [[LittleMissBadass petite stature]] notwithstanding.
** TheChick: Neville (Hermione and Luna show some traits as well).
** SixthRanger: Luna, who also counts as TheChick.
** TeamPet: Hedwig (and to a lesser extent, Pigwidgeon and Crookshanks).
* {{Flanderization}}: The Hogwarts Houses. Gryffindors are brave and righteous, Ravenclaws are clever and scholarly, Hufflepuffs are fair and sympathetic, and Slytherins are "ambitious and cunning," except Slytherin comes across much more as "the house of bad guys."
* FluffyTamer: Rubeus Hagrid. He has raised giant spiders, baby dragons, and a three-headed dog. Their names were Aragog, Norbert, and Fluffy, respectively. He's half-giant, so such creatures are less likely to hurt him, but he tends to not realize that most people aren't as indestructible as he is. This has landed him in trouble numerous times. Tom Riddle was able to use Aragog to frame him for opening the Chamber of Secrets and yet he never seems to learn. He's also a Fluffy ''breeder'', credited with the creation of the Blast-Ended Skrewts, an incredibly dangerous and aggressive hybrid possessed of absolutely no useful qualities.
* FluffyTheTerrible: Quite a few monsters, but the most famous is actually named Fluffy.
* FlyingBroomstick: Quite a few, often of plot significance, including the Nimbus and the Firebolt.
* FollowTheLeader: Rowling has admitted she wasn't the first to send kids to wizarding school. However, a lot of books have attempted to cash in on the success of ''Literature/HarryPotter'', some of them even being obvious ripoffs.
* ForeShadowing: The most important one is in the first book. Very subtly done, but right there for everyone to see, it may be one of the finest examples of foreshadowing in the history of literature. It forms the foundation for the build-up to the final confrontation with Voldemort, and gives Harry an advantage that he didn't know he had until literally the last minute. "''The wand chooses the wizard, Harry.''" Rowling says she had the entire outline for the series and how everything was going to play out clearly pictured in her head before she first put pen to paper. She wasn't kidding.
* FormallyNamedPet: Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris.
* ForTheEvulz: This seems to be the motivation behind at least half the things done by members of Slytherin House -- especially Malfoy. It seems rather bizarre when you remember that they're '''supposedly''' the House for the [[BadassDecay cunning and ambitious]].
* ForWantOfANail: If Voldemort's mother hadn't had the absolutely miserable life that she had -- abused by her father and brother, abandoned by her brainwashed Muggle Lover, swindled out of her sole possession, forgotten and uncared for by Wizard society -- perhaps Voldemort would not have been the sociopathic mass-murderer that he eventually came to be.
** That's not so much For Want Of A Nail, that's more For Want Of An Entire Toolbox!
* TheFourLoves: The main theme of Harry Potter is Agape.
* FullNameBasis: Harry Potter, to a few characters, notably Dobby and Voldemort.
* FullPotentialUpgrade: Wands are this for wizards. They have to either be precisely matched when purchased or legitimately won from a prior owner for best effect. Wizards who are shown to use hand-me-down wands (Ron and Neville) show a level of improvement when using one purchased just for them.
* FunctionalMagic: JKR says in interviews that she spent time working out the limits of wizard magic, but the novels only touch on these a few times.
* FunetikAksent: Hagrid, and the foreign visitors in ''Goblet of Fire''.
* FunnyBackgroundEvent: A common aspect of Rowling's writing in this series, one of her favorite kinds of scenes seems to be one where the characters are having a private conversation while in the background something amusing is going on at the same time. Most commonly, in the school scenes these often involve [[TricksterArchetype Peeves.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:G]]
* GangOfBullies: Dudley's gang as well as [[TerribleTrio Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle]].
** The Marauders were also this in regards to Snape. Snape was also a member of a gang of future Death Eaters, as was Tom Riddle.
* GenerationXerox: Subverted. Though differently mixed to form each character, there are several tendencies that carry on from the previous Hogwarts generation to this one:
** A [[TrueCompanions tightly-knit]] group of Gryffindors consisting of a [[TheHero a heroic, adventurous natural leader]] with disregard for the rules (Harry/James), a [[TheLancer more impulsive sidekick]] (Ron/Sirius), [[TheSmartGuy a studious]], member reluctant to break the rules (Hermione/Remus),[[TheSmartGirl a talented Muggle-born girl]] (Hermione/Lily) and a more loosely associated follower who is [[spoiler: (at first glance)]] inept at magic (Peter/Neville)
** A Pureblood Gryffindor strongly opposed to Pureblood supremacy (Ron/James). Said Gryffindor's family warmly accepts that Gryffindor's best friend (Harry/Sirius);
** A Slyterin Pureblood supremacist who has a lasting enmity with TheHero (Draco/Severus);
** A poor and unpopular boy who is friends with and in love with a Muggleborn witch (Ron/[[spoiler: Severus]]) who he [[KickTheMoralityPet hurts for no good reason]] (in Ron's case it gets better). He is often bullied by his wealthy Pureblood rival (Draco/[[spoiler: James]]);
** A no-nonsense and ambitious Gryffindor witch with red hair who ends up together with TheHero (Ginny/Lily);
** A pair of Gryffindor pranksters (Fred and George/James and Sirius);
** An [[AlwaysSecondBest insecure]] and [[OvershadowedByAwesome overshadowed]] member of the TrueCompanions (Ron/Peter). [[spoiler: He betrays and endangers the group out of weakness, but unlike Peter, Ron's betrayal is a MomentOfWeakness he overcomes]].
* GenericistGovernment: The Ministry of Magic.
* GeniusLoci: At Hogwarts, staircases sometimes change direction and are said to be fond of doing it.
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: See Radar.HarryPotter.
* GiantSquid: There's one in the Hogwarts lake. It's mainly there to add color and is very much a GentleGiant--when Dennis Creevey falls in the lake, it helps him back into his boat. Lee and the twins are even seen tickling it at one point.
* GiganticAdultsTinyBabies: Dragons start out football-sized at hatching, but most species grow to bus-size or larger.
* GoodCannotComprehendEvil: Dumbledore has shown that he can understand quite a bit about Voldemort. However, it turns out that Dumbledore was unable to figure out that Voldemort [[spoiler:hid one of his Horcruxes in the Room of Requirement]]. Why? Because Dumbledore was a model student who never cheated and hence had no need to use the room. Harry, however, was certainly not a model student, he cheated a couple of times, and he used that room, so he could figure it out.
* GoodLuckCharm: Felix Felicis potion acts as this when drunk.
* GradeSystemSnark: The N.E.W.T. scores. Among the grades are "T for Troll."
* GreaterScopeVillain: Lord Voldemort, the official Big Bad of ''Harry Potter'', fills this role instead sometimes:
** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets''. If you consider [[spoiler:the Tom Riddle in the diary]] as a separate person, Voldemort (the disembodied spectre in Albania) is a Bigger Bad in this book. Tom Riddle is more a manifestation of Voldemort's will, and at any rate acts independently from him (although in his interests).
** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban''. He isn't directly involved in the book's events but it's believed that Sirius Black, the Death Eater who helped Voldemort to kill [[Franchise/HarryPotter Harry's]] parents and later killed Peter Pettigrew and several muggle bystanders, was trying to kill Harry in hopes it'd somehow restore Voldemort. [[spoiler:Then in TheReveal we find out Peter Pettigrew faked his death and framed Black, but it still counts for the trope as Voldemort killing Harry's parents led to Sirius being imprisoned and Peter faking his death.]]
** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'' doesn't feature Voldemort at all, and all his actions take place outside the main events of the plot. The BigBad of the book eventually turns out to be [[spoiler:Severus Snape, who kills Dumbledore and sets most of the events in motion to further himself in Voldemort's eyes.]]
* GrowingWithTheAudience: Creator/JKRowling has stated that she intentionally wrote the series to encompass more mature and scarier themes as the young readers got a little older for each book. This took something of a hit during the "Three-Year Summer" after the fourth book; the audience grew quite a bit older than Harry, and so the reception began to decline.
* GuiltComplex: Harry suffers a massive one, usually born from his ChronicHeroSyndrome.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:H]]
* HappilyMarried:
** Molly and Arthur Weasley.
** While they were still alive, Harry's parents Lily and James.
** There's even reason to believe that Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy are happily married.
** Vernon and Petunia, whatever else you can say about them.
** Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom were likely this until [[spoiler:they were driven insane by the Cruciatus Curse]].
** Mr. and Mrs. Granger appear to be this from what little we can see of them.
** Bill and Fleur. Harry and [[spoiler: Ginny]] end up as happy marriages, too.
** Luna, Neville, George, Percy, and Dudley all had/will have this as well.
* HappinessInSlavery: Most house-elves love being servants. There's also the issue (which Hermione never seems to grasp in canon) that with one exception, "freeing them" -- especially from a master who isn't openly abusive -- is equivalent to ''sacking them in disgrace''. There are several instances of house-elves working around orders or finding loopholes to disobey masters that they ''don't'' like, rebelling without being freed. Even the exception to the rule, Dobby, essentially considers freedom the right to decide whose orders he will obey.
* HateSink: Plenty of characters exist solely to inspire hatred in the reader, starting with the Dursleys and later including Rita Skeeter, Zacharias Smith, Cormac [=McLaggen=], and Cornelius Fudge. But the main one is [[SadistTeacher Dolores Umbridge]], a secondary villain whose every quality, including her [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast name]], is carefully designed to make the reader despise her as much as possible.
* HeadlessHorseman: The Headless Hunt is an event held by a group of these.
* HeroesWantRedHeads: Ginny and Lily (and also Ron and Bill, if you argue that Heroines, or known beauties at least, want them as well).
** JKR confirmed that she really likes red hair, so she stuck an entire extended family of them into her series and made one her hero's best friend and the other [[spoiler:his (eventual) love interest]].
* HeroSecretService: The Order of the Phoenix.
%%* TheHerosJourney
* HeroWithBadPublicity: Harry himself, along with Sirius Black and [[spoiler:Severus Snape]].
* HeterosexualLifePartners:
** James Potter and Sirius Black.
** Harry and Ron, most definitely. They even have two break-up episodes: once in ''Goblet of Fire'' and another in ''Deathly Hallows''.
* HiddenDepths: A large amount of characters become gradually more rounded, most notably Snape and Neville.
** All {{Jerkass}} characters, without exception.
* HiddenElfVillage: Hidden Wizard World. Wizards routinely travel between sanctuaries such as their homes and [[BazaarOfTheBizarre Diagon Alley]], but on average, the ''entire'' Wizarding World is InvisibleToNormals.
* HillbillyHorrors: The Gaunt family represent this.
* HisOwnWorstEnemy: Although Harry is Voldemort's [[spoiler:literal]] mortal enemy, Voldemort [[spoiler:does have a huge responsibility in his own downfall right from the very beginning. When he was presented the Schrodinger's Prophecy he could've chosen to ''ignore'' it, but he didn't, and in doing so created his own downfall with Harry's scar]].
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Voldemort had no idea that [[spoiler:the Elder Wand technically belonged to Harry]]. [[spoiler:(Even though Harry actually ''told him'' about it.)]] So, naturally, when he tried to cast the Killing Curse on Harry with it, [[spoiler:it reflected back on him (''again'') and killed him permanently]].
* HomeschooledKids: According to JKR, this is the easiest way for wizarding families to get their kids through Primary School without exposing the wizarding world to Muggles. In ''Deathly Hallows'' it's also stated that wizarding parents have the option of homeschooling their children rather than sending them to Hogwarts or a foreign school, but at that point Voldemort's regime makes it mandatory for parents to send their children to Hogwarts so he can keep an eye on them.
* HomoeroticSubtext: Intentionally invoked with Sirius and Lupin, according to Alfonso Cuarón. Apparently, the director thought that Lupin was a "gay junkie".
* HormoneAddledTeenager: Nicely {{avert|ed trope}}s this trope until the later books, and then {{subvert|ed trope}}s it by making the main characters' teenage relationship tangles A) realistic and B) quite secondary to the actual plot. Done especially well with Hermione. After her brief liaison with Viktor Krum in ''Goblet of Fire'', she decides dating isn't all it's cracked up to be and realizes she's still not old enough for serious romantic entanglements. She's also largely uninterested in clothes and doesn't care that she has frizzy hair, concerning herself with academics rather than vanity.
* HufflepuffHouse: In addition to having the TropeNamer, the Ravenclaw House serves as something of a less triumphant example of the trope, at least until Cho Chang and later Luna Lovegood begin taking more active roles in the plot.
* HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace: A less extreme example with Portkeys, which accompany rather intense and blurry visuals. [[AllThereInTheManual According to Pottermore]], "Portkey-sickness" (hysterics and nausea) was a common start-of-school ailment during Hogwarts's brief flirtation with a Portkey network as subsidized transport to campus.
** Apparition certainly counts, as Harry describes it as an extremely unpleasant sensation of being squeezed through a very tight tunnel.
** Travelling by Floo powder could also count as a less-extreme example, considering that it involves spinning very fast and you could see any manner of things in one of the fireplaces, or fall out at the wrong grate, as Harry does in ''Chamber of Secrets''.
* {{Hypocrite}}:
** Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters are [[FantasticRacism prejudiced against]] wizards with [[WitchSpecies less than pure wizarding blood]] and non-human magical creatures in general despite he, himself, having a muggle parent. Though he's counting on the anti-Muggle feelings of his followers, he genuinely despises Muggles and anything he considers Mud-blood -- and he apparently has a one drop rule for everyone except himself [[spoiler:and personal Death Eaters like Snape]]. Although they also recruited giants and werewolves, they probably rationalized them as second- and third-tier "citizens" in Voldemort's new England.
*** It is suggested a few times that he is exploiting the prejudices of his own followers more than enforcing his own, and that he really doesn't care about anything but his own power anymore. Voldemort's own half-blood status is one of the reasons he started going after power. He considered his father to be lowly and weak and cowardly for turning away his mother and was determined to ignore his own history and go with wanting power.
** And then we have [[TyrantTakesTheHelm Umbridge]]. Although fans have a lot of reasons to [[HateSink hate her]] with [[LoveToHate relish]], her hypocrisy is certainly one of the main ones. In ''Order of the Phoenix'' she is seen as an agent of the Ministry, sycophantic to its causes and forcing tyrannical laws onto the school in order to get her own way, yet at the same time gleefully (although secretly) engaging in activities that are highly illegal and certainly unforgivable, even by the Ministry. Worse, she punishes Harry most severely for asserting that Voldemort is at large, insisting that he "not tell lies," while aping the official Ministry line on Voldemort, which is patently and obviously false. In ''Deathly Hallows'' she [[spoiler:persecutes Muggle-borns for "stealing magic," which she should certainly know is a nonsensical charge, while claiming that the locket she took as a bribe is an old family heirloom supporting her own bloodline. The injustice and cruelty of this enrages Harry so much that he attacks her immediately without resorting to a more subtle plan]].
** Sirius Black. Despite his axiom that the measure of a man is how he treats his inferiors, he behaves detestably towards Kreacher (because Kreacher reminds him of the house and the family he hated while growing up). Indeed, this is one of his least admirable qualities. [[spoiler:It also bites him in the arse. ''Hard''.]] But as Dumbledore clarifies, Sirius was kind to house-elves in general but Kreacher was special as a reminder of his home and the bad childhood that he hoped to escape.
*** Also, his belief that "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters" goes out the window during the argument with Snape, though the latter is himself not blameless in that regard. JKR admits that this is a serious flaw for Sirius, but she also admits that it's difficult to be morally consistent in life.
** Lupin in the [[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban third book]] tells Harry that he's appalled that Harry never brought the Marauder's Map to a teacher's attention given how useful it would be to catch Sirius or how useful it'd be to Sirius if he found it. Yet, Lupin never bothers telling Dumbledore (or anyone except Harry, Ron, and Hermione) that Sirius is an animagus and knows about the tunnel from the Shrieking Shack onto Hogwarts grounds.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:I]]
* IAmBigBoned: Madame Maxine uses this excuse not at the prospect of being called fat, but when Hagrid speculates that she is half-giant. This trope also applies to the Dursleys blaming Dudley's weight on baby fat. In the ''Prisoner of Askaban'' PS2 game, an unnamed girl says this about the Fat Lady.
* IdiotHero: PlayedWith. Harry is not stupid per se, but he ''is'' lacking in common sense on more than one occasion and often operates on instinct rather than thinking things through. He's often trying to take on wizards far older and far more experienced than him, he pins ''all'' of the wrongdoing in the school on Draco Malfoy (or Slytherin in general), and if ever he senses a corrupt and possibly harmful teacher, ''it's always Snape''. It gets to the point where, in ''Half-Blood Prince'', Ron and Hermione start rolling their eyes at Harry whenever he brings up his "Malfoy is a Death Eater" theory. [[spoiler:This is subverted when he turns out to be correct about both Malfoy (who ''is'' a Death Eater) and Snape ([[ReverseMole sort of]]).]] This gets him into trouble in ''Order of the Phoenix'', and Hermione even lampshades this by telling Harry he's got "a [[ChronicHeroSyndrome saving-people thing]]" that Voldemort not only ''can'' {{exploit|ed trope}}, but has exploited in the past. [[spoiler:Namely, kidnapping a mind-raped Ginny and taking her into the Chamber of Secrets because he wanted to meet Harry.]]
* IllGirl: [[spoiler:Ariana, Dumbledore's sister, became half-insane because she refused to use magic after a traumatic experience where she was attacked by three {{Muggle}} boys who found out she was a witch. Her family put it about that she just had poor physical health to avoid attracting attention, leading many people to theorize that she was a [[MuggleBornOfMages Squib]], when in reality she would have magic exploding out of her when she couldn't keep it in anymore.]]
%%* ImpoverishedPatrician: The Gaunt Family.
* IncestIsRelative:
** Just look at every pureblood family tree; Sirius's parents themselves were second cousins, and it is possible that Lucius and Narcissa are related, too, in some way or another.
** Also, the Gaunts, heirs of Salazar Slytherin and Voldemort's family, were apelike and extremely stupid and unattractive. According to Rowling, this is due to generations of inbreeding (''close'' inbreeding) to preserve not only their pureblood status but also their Parseltongue abilities. Handsome young Voldemort got all of his looks from his Muggle father.
--->'''Dumbledore:''' [The Gaunts] were known for a violent streak that flourished in the family, due to their habit of marrying their own cousins.
* InhumanlyBeautifulRace: Veelas are beautiful women with long silver-blonde hair, blue eyes, shining skin and perfect teeth. However, they have supernatural powers to seduce men and hypnotize them, so it is possible that Harry's description of them is a little exaggerated. They have one downside though: piss them off and they turn into [[HarpingOnAboutHarpies crazy bird monsters]] that throw fire at you. Also, Fleur Delacour claims to be part-Veela on her maternal grandmother's side.
* IneffectualDeathThreats: The staff of Hogwarts seem to love to toss around expulsion as if it's done weekly -- especially directed at younger students. We only ''ever'' meet one person expelled from Hogwarts -- Hagrid, who is now a professor.
* InsistentTerminology:
** Hermione Granger gets rather snippy when people refer to her "Society for the Promotion of Elvish Welfare" by its [[FunWithAcronyms acronym]].
*** The name is even better in Dutch: "Stichting Huiself voor Inburgering en Tolerantie" (society house-elf for naturalizing and tolerance).
** Also, whenever Harry calls Snape "Snape," the nearest adult (or Hermione) often corrects him: "''Professor'' Snape."
* InstantDeathBullet: ''Avada Kedavra'', the Killing Curse.
* InternalizedCategorism: Some of the meanest persons are said to hate themselves because they are squibs -- and to take this self-hatred out on young wizards of whom they are jealous. Though more ambiguous, it is also possible that Tom Riddle (Voldemort) himself was embarrassed over being a half-blood and that his Fantastic Racism was partly an overcompensation for this. (This example is for the novels only; the movies don't have room for such nuances.)
* InvincibleIncompetent: Harry may be the highest-functioning version of this possible, given his constant victories despite rarely being noted as exceptionally gifted at any type of magic outside of Defense Against the Dark Arts and flying, and fully half the time defeating the villain either by accident or through the actions of another.
** This is [[LampshadeHanging his main argument]] for refusing Hermione's suggestion to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderofThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]''; he's very aware that he's lived as long as he has thanks to situational luck, external help, and/or some personal flash of inspiration that he can't exactly teach others to have.
* {{Irony}}:
** The series often displays many examples but ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince the Half-Blood Prince]]'' is probably the one with the most and/or largest ones. In this book Snape stops teaching Potions class and teaches Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts, and is replaced in Potions by Professor Slughorn. Potions was previously Harry's worst subject because he hated Snape and never made the effort in class. In his first class with Slughorn he finds a second-hand book labelled as "the property of the Half-Blood Prince". Inside the book are vast amounts of hints that help Harry in his Potions classes, making it his best subject. Then the big reveal is that [[spoiler:Snape is the Half Blood Prince]]. At one point in the book Harry even makes a throwaway remark that The Prince is a much better teacher than Snape. Dramatic irony at its finest.
** The people who [[spoiler:seem to]] care the least for Harry (Vernon, Petunia, [[spoiler:Snape]], Aberforth) are the people who sacrifice the most of their own security and commodity to keep him free from Voldemort.
** Although everyone agrees that Professor Trelawney has not a whit of divinatory talent (most of the time), it happens that every single prediction she makes eventually comes true. Largely this is because they are extremely vague or already probable (for example, telling Harry, who's been marked as the nemesis of the Dark Lord, that he is in danger), but even so, her ultimate record is astoundingly perfect.
* IsThatWhatHeToldYou: Lots of well-meaning deception from Dumbledore.
* ItAmusedMe: The only reason Peeves the poltergeist does anything, although his pranks are (generally) more irritating than harmful. Dumbledore and the Bloody Baron are the only ones who can control him.
* ItMayHelpYouOnYourQuest: The items from [[spoiler:Dumbledore's will]]: The Deluminator, The Snitch, and the Tales of Beedle the Bard.
* ItSucksToBeTheChosenOne: For [[TheHero Harry]], who doesn't like how the Daily Prophet and the Ministry of Magic insist on calling him and treating him as the ChosenOne in ''Half-Blood Prince''.
[[/folder]]
'''Tropes A to I'''
HarryPotter/TropesJToR
HarryPotter/TropesSToY
[[folder:A]]
* AbusiveParents: Although not his biological parents, the treatment Harry receives from Petunia and [[EvilUncle Vernon]] Dursley is nothing shy of abusive.
* AcademyOfAdventure: Given that Hogwarts is not only a school, but where most of the most powerful and influential wizards and the most ancient secrets make their home, this is to be expected.
* AcheyScars: Harry's lightning-bolt scar, though [[spoiler:the pains go away after Voldemort's death.]]
* ActionGirl: Hermione, especially in ''Prisoner of Azkaban'' and ''Deathly Hallows''. Tonks, Luna, Ginny, and even [=McGonagall=] also fall into this trope. For the most part, this is more extreme in the films. Particularly with Hermione, otherwise known as the [[MightyMorphinPowerRangers Pink Granger]].
** DarkActionGirl: Bellatrix Lestrange
** Overall, the series has managed a nice balance of male badasses with the female badasses, such that even the most innocuous character can be a badass when the time calls for it.
* AdoringThePests: The Weasley family adopts a rat named Scabbers, whom they thought was a wild rat at the time. [[spoiler:Turns out it was really a [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shape-shifted]] form of Peter Pettigrew.)]]
* {{Adorkable}}: Luna, and maybe Neville if you count him as a geek. Ron is sometimes seen as this too.
* AdultFear: This series, despite being [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids aimed at children]], has ''plenty'' of moments that scare the parents more than the kids, and a lot of them have to do with child abuse, ParentalAbandonment, and not being able to protect or take care of your own children. Most of this probably came from Rowling's own fears as a mother (and especially as a single mother, having broken off an ''abusive'' marriage).
* AerithAndBob: The "Muggle" first names range from Dudley to Hermione; the wizarding ones, from George to [[MeaningfulName Xenophilius]]. All in the UK. Same with the wizarding last names, which range from Potter and Black to Slytherin and Dumbledore. The old pureblood families are usually the ones to have the strangest names and they also tend to have themed names. For example, the Black family and their various offshoots named their children after constellations and stars.
* AfterActionPatchup: They land in the infirmary for treatment frequently. It's often where the post-action discussion takes place.
* AfterSchoolCleaningDuty: This is often given as a detention at Hogwarts. There is usually a requirement that the cleaning must be performed without magic.
* AgonyBeam: The Cruciatus curse.
* AgonyOfTheFeet: In all seven books to all three main characters. Shocking.
* AllCrimesAreEqual: How the House "points" system at Hogwarts works. Later, we discover that this is how the Ministry of Magic treats "crime" in general. There appears to be only one wizard jail for UK wizards to go to. The very act of just being there is severe psychological torture, as every happy, positive thought you've ever had is forcibly removed from you, leaving you with nothing but the worst memories of your life. You even forget that this might end. Any crime that merits more than a fine warrants Azkaban. And it's even used for preventative detention of suspects.
*** Wizards in this world are in hiding, and know they are dangerous to the general Muggle population. In most universes where this is the case of the "protagonists", punishment for potentially "rending the Veil" can be very harsh.
* AllergicToEvil: Harry's scar burns when Voldemort is feeling strong emotions and/or killing someone -- or nearby.
* AlliterativeFamily: Albus, Aberforth, and Ariana Dumbledore. Marvolo, Morfin, and Merope Gaunt. Padma and Parvati Patil.
* AlliterativeList: The Three "D"s of Apparition: Destination, Determination and Deliberation.
* AlliterativeName: Cho Chang, Colin Creevey, Dudley Dursley, Filius Flitwick, Gregory Goyle, Luna Lovegood, Minerva [=McGonagall=], Pansy Parkinson, Padma Patil, Parvati Patil, Peter Pettigrew, Piers Polkiss, Poppy Pomfrey, Severus Snape, William (Bill) Weasley, Nearly-Headless Nick, The Fat Friar, The Bloody Baron, and Moaning Myrtle appear in the current time whereas the backstory has the four founders of Hogwarts: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin. Some creatures have them, like the Hungarian Horntail and Peeves the Poltergeist, and Quidditch teams also have alliterative names (Tutshill Tornadoes, Chudley Cannons, Appleby Arrows, Ballycastle Bats, Caerphilly Catapults, Falmouth Falcons, Holyhead Harpies, Kenmare Kestrels, Montrose Magpies, Pride of Portree, Wigtown Wanderers, Wimbourne Wasps, to name just the ones from the UK[[note]]Kenmare is actually in Ireland. Irish people can get quite [[TheTroubles annoyed]] with people telling them they're British. There are 4 different Ballycastles in Ireland, but 3 of them are in StrokeCountry, so the Bats are most likely British[[/note]] .)
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: In book 1, Harry is hated near the end for helping his house lose 150 points. In book 2, Harry is hated because his fellow students think he's attacking them. In book 4, Harry is hated because his fellow students think he sneaked his way into the Triwizard Tournament. In book 5, Harry is hated because almost all the students think he's an attention-seeking brat. In book 7, Harry is labeled "Undesirable No. 1" by the government.
* AllThereInTheManual: [[http://www.pottermore.com/ Pottermore]]is a hotbed of information barely even alluded to in the actual books.
* AllWitchesHaveCats: A cat is one of the animals which wizarding students can bring as a pet to Hogwarts. In this case the cats are merely pets, not familiars. A Witch and teacher, Professor [=McGonagall=], can turn into a cat. Both Hermione and Umbridge own cats, the latter of whom doubles as a CrazyCatLady. There is also a CrazyCatLady who lives near the Dursleys [[spoiler:who turns out to be a Squib (a non-magical person born to two magical parents).]] In an interesting subversion, the only cat in the series that acts like a witch's familiar belongs to the one non-magical person at Hogwarts, Filch.
* AlternateDVDCommentary: No, this doesn't go on the Film page -- ''Blog/MarkReadsHarryPotter'', reviewing the books a chapter at a time. It's genuinely hilarious and does very well to remind us all what it was like to read the books for the first time.
* AlwaysIdenticalTwins: The Weasley and Patil twins, though the Patils [[AvertedTrope avert]] this in the movies.
* AlwaysLawfulGood: Gryffindor House, with one or two very minor exceptions. Even a rumor that Godric Gryffindor may have come to his famous sword by doubtful means is dispelled in Pottermore.
** The one major exception to the above is, of course, [[spoiler:Peter Pettigrew]].
* AmbiguouslyEvil: Snape. He's a deeply unpleasant fellow with an extremely transparent bias in favor of the Slytherin house (a House which is ''not'' seen in a positive light, see AmbitionIsEvil below.) He also has an intense dislike of Harry Potter (which turns out to be not only for somewhat complicated reasons, but [[spoiler: is also tempered with an odd sense of loyalty and protectiveness]]) This results in Harry and friends swiftly jumping to the conclusion that Snape is one of the bad guys, ''especially'' in ''The Philosopher's Stone'', ''The Chamber of Secrets'', ''The Half-Blood Prince'', and ''The Deathly Hallows'' (and they don't really trust him in the slightest in ''The Prisoner of Azkaban'' or ''The Order of the Phoenix'', either.) ''The Goblet of Fire'' is the only book in the series that ''doesn't'' seem to go out of its way to villify Snape in some fashion, at least in Harry's eyes. It doesn't help that the events of the books have a knack for making you think that Harry's suspicions might be well-founded, at least until TheReveal at the very end. [[spoiler:This comes to a head in ''The Deathly Hallows'', in which Snape has pulled an apparent full-blown FaceHeelTurn by returning to the service of the Death Eaters. However, in the very end of the book, as he lies dying, he gives Harry his memories, revealing that his murder of Dumbledore was in fact a MercyKill, and [[ReverseMole he's been on Dumbledore's side the entire time]].]]
* AmbitionIsEvil: The usual trait of those put in Slytherin House. Some fans argue this is less about ambition being bad than about the serious lack of high-profile "good" House members.
** This is however a general theme, in that many wizards put ambition over family, friends and morality. Dumbledore [[spoiler:was frustrated by SmallTimeBoredom because he felt that his ambitions were thwarted by being Arianna's caretaker. He eventually comes to realize that the more humble Aberforth was the better man and likewise moderates to a life of service, leaving behind a great legacy of magical and social achievements]].
** Tom Riddle is essentially the picture of this trope, sacrificing his humanity and conscience for becoming the "most feared wizard of his age". He succeeds but [[spoiler:in the end, becomes a shell of a man and ends up in limbo. In the end, people stop being afraid of him as well]].
** Severus Snape wanted to have his cake and eat it too. He wanted [[spoiler:to become a great wizard, rise high in Voldemort's favour and become a major Death Eater. But he also wanted to gain Lily's love at the same time. Eventually he spends most of his life in a job he hates, serving as a DoubleReverseQuadrupleAgent and using his considerable skills to serve Dumbledore's ZeroApprovalGambit]].
** Dumbledore argues that Harry is himself the true aversion in that he isn't tempted by power at all. [[spoiler:Likewise Hermione despite being highly knowledable about magic wants to improve the lot of the less fortunate and help other people. Ron is also tempted by ambition but ultimately comes to terms with valuing himself in comparison to his more talented brothers and friends]].
* AndYourRewardIsClothes: A house-elf is freed from its master if it is given an article of clothing, which is actually sort of [[InvertedTrope an inversion]]; the clothing itself isn't the reward (at least, not the ''only'' reward), but rather a symbol ''of'' the reward.
** Even more an InvertedTrope, clothing is most often seen as an extreme form of ''punishment''. To be given clothes and set free means to be without a master and a family, and the lowest moment for a House Elf. Dobby, the most openly Free Elf seen in the books, is often looked at with absolute shame by other elves, and treated with sheer contempt when discussing the topic of ''wages''.
* AnimateDead: Inferi, first mentioned in ''Order of the Phoenix''.
* AnimalMotifs: An Animagus's animal form generally fits their personality. J.K. Rowling has also stated that Animagi don't get to choose what animal they turn into.
* {{Animorphism}}: Animagi are witches and wizards that can transform into an animal at will.
* AnonymousBenefactor: Harry has at least four through the course of the series: [[spoiler:Dumbledore gives him the invisibility cloak. Sirius gives him a Firebolt. Barty Crouch is a malicious benefactor who helps Harry by proxy. Snape leaves the Sword of Gryffindor in the woods for him to find.]]
* AnyoneCanDie:
** Not so much in the earlier books, but after ''Goblet of Fire'', all bets are off. By the time book seven was announced, and Rowling herself stoked the fires by claiming that more people ''would die'', entire websites were devoted to betting on which major characters were going to bite the big one, including the three main characters.
** Professional betting odds establishments made a fortune on the last two books. [[http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/aug/08/books.harrypotter One professional bookmaker lost over 60,000 pounds on the outcome of the last book]] because [[spoiler:Harry both died and didn't die]], and he ended up having to pay ''everyone''.
* ArbitrarySkepticism: Luna Lovegood is constantly going on about the bizarre magical creatures her father writes about in his magazine. Even in a world where there's magic, dragons and the like, hardly anyone else believes they exist.
* ArcNumber: The number seven [[http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Seven comes up numerous times throughout the series]].
* ArchEnemy: Harry and Voldemort.
%%* ArsonMurderAndLifeSaving
* TheArtifact: The House Point system is this. In the first book, winning the House cup was serious business, but as the war against Voldemort gets more prominent the House Cup fades into the background. In Harry's last few years at Hogwarts, it isn't even mentioned who won at all.
* ArtifactOfDeath: Several: [[spoiler:Riddle's diary, the Elder Wand, and Marvolo Gaunt's ring. The latter includes a ''literal'' ArtifactOfDeath.]]
* ArtificialOutdoorsDisplay: The ceiling of Hogwarts' Great Hall is enchanted to always correspond with the weather outside.
* ArtisticLicenseBiology:
** "[[http://www.mugglenet.com/editorials/editorials/edit-wilkins01.shtml Magic is a dominant and resilient gene.]]" Given the number of wizards born to Muggle parents (and the extreme rarity of the reverse), this blatantly flies in the face of middle school genetics. You could say that AWizardDidIt (it ''is'' magic, after all), but a better explanation would perhaps be that magic is ''recessive'' and that squibs have mutations that block or repress the magic gene.
** Both [[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone the book]] and [[Film/HarryPotter movie]] of ''Philosopher's Stone'' feature a snake that winks at Harry. Snakes can't wink or blink because they don't have eyelids, but they ''do'' have a translucent retractable lens called a nictitating membrane, sometimes referred to as a "third eyelid". This fulfills much the same purpose as eyelids do while letting snakes see.
%%* {{Asshole Victim}}s: The Riddles.
* AudienceShift: As Harry and the original audience grew older, the maturity level of the books "grew" as well, making it so that whereas the early books are straight children's literature, the later ones fall more into the YA genre. Though it will be tricky for future generations of Potter fans, it makes sense when you realize the series took over a decade to be released in full; the 10-year olds who were reading ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'' in 1997 were 20-year olds by the time they were reading ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'' in 2007.
* AuthorAvatar: Hermione is, by Creator/JKRowling's own admission, an exaggeration of herself when she was younger. Rowling says she was a bit of an InsufferableGenius in her younger days but [[DefrostingIceQueen gradually mellowed out]], much as Hermione does over the course of the series (this may be why, of all the young performers in the ''Potter'' movies, Rowling is closest to Creator/EmmaWatson). Rowling has admitted that each of the three main characters are aspects of herself.
* AwesomeButImpractical: [[VoluntaryShapeshifting Animagus]] transformation is largely considered more trouble than it's worth. To begin with, it's a particularly difficult branch of the already particularly difficult art of Transfiguration, and the consequences of botching the job are said to be disastrous. Even when carried out successfully, one is instantly labelled a criminal unless one gives full public disclosure of one's skill and animal form to the government to prevent misuse, which rather jives with the fact that stealth and inconspicuousness are the skill's main use. Even with all this, the form taken by the Animagus is fixed and determined by their personality, so they can easily end up with a useless conspicuous form for all their trouble. Cats, dogs and beetles? Useful and mundane-looking in any backdrop. Huge deer? Not so much.
* AwesomeMcCoolname: A couple stand out, but '''Kingsley Shacklebolt''' wins the prize.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:B]]
* BadPowersBadPeople:
** DoubleSubverted: Parseltongue is usually an ability only found in evil wizards. Harry is good and runs into trouble when people assume he's bad because he possesses it. [[spoiler:It turns out in the last book that the reason Harry has it is because it belongs to Voldemort, who gave him the ability when he accidentally turned Harry into a sixth Horcrux. And when Harry loses the fragment of Voldemort's soul residing in his body, he supposedly loses the ability with it.]]
** To some degree it's debatable how much it's true that only those born with Parseltongue can speak it. Dumbledore is able to understand it without being able to speak it; Ron can speak it (by imitating Harry) without understanding it. If those who aren't born Parselmouths can do each one individually, it's reasonable to assume that someone might eventually figure out how to do both.
*** But not many wizards would likely bother with such study, as most humans don't think snakes would be worth conversing with.
** Perhaps played straight as well with Dumbledore. In the first book, [=McGonagall=] suggests that Dumbledore could do everything [[BigBad Voldemort]] was capable of if he were less noble. (Whether this means that Dumbledore ''can't'' do them or simply ''wouldn't'' is not answered.) For starters, Dumbledore knows Parseltongue; he can't speak it because he wasn't born with it, but he can understand it. Likewise, in the seventh book, Voldemort states that what he will achieve could have been Dumbledore's, implying that Dumbledore could have been as "great" if he weren't such a sentimental old fool.
* BadassAdorable:
** [[LittleMissBadass Ginny]], and Luna.
** Harry, Hermione, and Ron themselves arguably qualify as well in earlier installments. Especially Hermione.
* BadassBookworm: Several, but primarily [[TheSmartGuy Hermione]], Lupin, and, most of all, [[TheChessmaster Dumbledore]].
** Snape would also appear to count, going so far as to have made dozens of corrections and improvements in his potions text. Note that he did this while still a student, showing ingenuity, creativity, and ability beyond even a master Potions-brewer-cum-author.
* BadassCrew: Dumbledore's Army
* BadassFamily: The Weasley siblings already include a curse-breaker, a dragon rancher, and a prefect when the books begin, and ''all'' of them go on to be successful in various fields. And let it be put on record that [[MamaBear the matriarch]] of this family, Molly, [[spoiler:kills [[TheDragon Bellatrix]], who is the second most powerful Death Eater after Voldemort himself.]] The fact that they happen to be close friends of Harry Potter (who himself is considered a member of the family, in more ways than one) certainly helps.
* BadassGrandpa: Dumbledore, full stop.
* BadassTeacher: Moody, [=McGonagall=], Snape, Lupin, and Slughorn.
* BarredFromTheAfterlife: Ghosts are people who either refused or were too scared to accept death and move on. Apparently, there's no take-backs later on if you change your mind.
* BatmanGambit:
** [[BigBad Voldemort's]] plan in the ''Half-Blood Prince''.
** Much of Dumbledore's [[TheChessmaster extensive]] plan for the year following [[spoiler:his death]] as explained to Harry at the end of ''Deathly Hallows'' was based on how he expected Harry, Ron, and Hermione to act.
* BattleCouple: Many. Examples include [[spoiler:Lupin and Tonks, Harry and Ginny, Ron and Hermione]], and Arthur and Molly.
* BeamOWar: Spells have been known to clash and cancel each other out, though there's at least one instance of two characters firing spells at each other where the beams hit each other and ricochet off at angles, each hitting the person standing right next to the intended target.
** ''Priori Incatatem'', the current image for the trope page, is a magical phenomenon known exactly for this. It occurs when two wands which share the same (or directly related) Cores are used against one another in combat. The wizards involved are surrounded by golden light as their wands connect by a partially tangible golden thread, and the two have a more internal battle of will and determination.
* BecauseDestinySaysSo: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]]. [[TheHero Harry's]] destiny is self-fulfilling precisely because Voldemort ''insists'' on fulfilling it. Dumbledore suggests that not all prophecies must be fulfilled.
%%* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe
* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: The series upgrades a few historical characters to "real" wizards.
* BerserkButton:
--> '''Hagrid:''' [[PunctuatedForEmphasis NEVER -- INSULT -- ALBUS DUMBLEDORE -- IN FRONT OF ME!]]
** Hurting Harry or any of his furry friends will get Hagrid very angry. When Fang gets hit by a spell, Hagrid hurls the perpetrator ten feet in the air.
** Harry doesn't take kindly to willing parental abandonment, given his experiences as an orphan. He flips out a bit on [[spoiler:Lupin]] when the latter discusses leaving his wife and newborn son.
** Harry also doesn't like to be left out of things, going into [[http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lqelinjo1r1qkvd9to1_500.jpg ALL-CAPS RAGE]] because he got stuck at the Dursleys' while Ron and Hermione got to hang out with the Order at Grimmauld Place.
** Dumbledore will kindly accept horrible slurs against him and remains civil to his enemies even when dueling them, but reacts furiously if any of his students are threatened. The one time Harry manages to get Dumbledore mad at him is when he accuses Dumbledore of not taking the students' safety seriously.
** Dobby is fiercely protective over Harry ever since Harry freed him and his trademark is "You shall not harm Harry Potter!" He is so devoted to Harry that he [[spoiler:risks his life (and loses it) for Harry and the others to escape the Malfoys' manor.]]
---> "Kreacher will not insult Harry Potter in front of Dobby! No he won't! Or Dobby will shut Kreacher's mouth for him!"
** Ron bickers and argues with Hermione in a BelligerentSexualTension style but if anyone else goes after her, all bets are off.
** Neville flips out when Malfoy says they should send Harry to St. Mungo's as they have special floor for people with brain damage. Considering what happened to Neville's parents, this is understandable. Any mention of Neville's parents in a negative light will result in a beatdown that even Death Eaters didn't expect.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Quite a long list, though three names stand out as particularly notable examples.
** Luna "Loony" Lovegood, who, similar to her namesake, is... eccentric, something that she gets from her father. Despite her pacifistic nature, she proves herself repeatedly as a very capable witch.
** Molly Weasley of the "NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!" fame. She's been described as being a short, portly, and very "motherly" type of woman with an extremely kind nature. However, if you fuck with ANYONE she cares about, watch out.
** Neville Longbottom is more of a "grew into it" type. Early in the books, he was TheDitz and MommasBoy and was frequently picked on because of these traits. However, by ''Order of the Phoenix'' his testosterone levels skyrocketed and he TookALevelInBadass, becoming a capable wizard in the process. His best and brightest moment/[=CMoA=] is the entirety of book 7 (much of which unfortunately falls into NoodleIncident territory and is told by secondhand accounts) as he [[spoiler:becomes the ''de facto'' leader of Dumbledore's Army, outright resists everyone who's taken over the school at every turn, defends as many people as he can, and proves instrumental in the final battle by destroying Nagini, the seventh horcrux, on top of fighting in and surviving the final battle.]] In short, after book 5, this guy will trounce your sorry ass if you mess with him.
* BigBad: Voldemort. Harry's nemesis, Dark Lord, leader of the Death Eaters, and the initiator of two Wizarding Wars. Almost everything bad that has happened from the past 50 years to the Wizarding World can be traced back to him in some way.
* BigGood:
** Most obviously Albus Dumbledore at the start. Head of the school, known as the most powerful wizard of the age and the only one [[BigBad Voldemort]] ever feared, and an important mentor figure.
** Harry himself in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows''. Even though he does not exactly lead anyone, he continues to inspire hope and is a rallying point for the students of Hogwarts, Dumbledore's Army, and the Order of the Phoenix. In the practical sense, however, [[spoiler:Moody and, after ''he'' dies, Kingsley]] seem to be Dumbledore's designated successors.
** Off-screen, [[spoiler:Neville]] is this for Hogwarts during ''Deathly Hallows'': it's implied by the way he talks that he stood up and took a lot of crap so the other students wouldn't have to, he was the only leader of the DA to remain at school for the entire year, and during the Second Battle of Hogwarts he's explicitly shown leading an attempt to ''kill Death Eaters en masse'' using Mandrakes.
** Professor [=McGonagall=] also serves as a Big Good at Hogwarts in Dumbledore's absence: she protects the students from the sadistic Carrows, overthrows Snape, and leads the resistance against Voldemort when Harry returns.
%%* BigLabyrinthineBuilding: Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic.
* BilingualBonus: The Latin. For example, "Expecto Patronum" is the CORRECT Latin form.
%%* BitchInSheepsClothing: Quirrell and Umbridge. The latter is arguably the queen of this trope.
* BittersweetEnding: ''Prisoner of Azkaban''. Even though [[spoiler:Sirius manages to convince Harry, Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore, and even ''Snape'' of his innocence, Wormtail still gets away, preventing Sirius's true exoneration before the Ministry and eventually bringing about Voldemort's resurrection a year later. And the only good and skilled Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher quits to avoid being fired after Snape reveals that he's a werewolf.]]
** ''Deathly Hallows''. Even though [[spoiler:Voldemort is finally dead, and most of the Death Eaters are killed or captured, Hedwig, Moody, Dobby, Colin, Fred, Lupin, and Tonks all died in the process.]]
* BlackAndWhiteMorality: The series starts out this way. Dumbledore is the BigGood, Harry and his friends are the heroes, the other students are generally nice except for the Slytherins, and Voldemort is the BigBad. As the series goes on, it adds more and more shades of gray with turncoats on both sides, a corrupt government opposing Voldemort, heroes [[PayEvilUntoEvil paying evil unto evil]], and Harry discovering that his father and Dumbledore have... complicated backstories.
* BlackAndGrayMorality: Played with. The Ministry of Magic is definitely gray; although they're much better than the Death Eaters, they have more than their share of [[TheQuisling Quislings]], {{Fantastic Racis|m}}ts, and {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s. Harry and his friends/family are more on the unblemished side, but not entirely.
** Harry occasionally slips towards this in battle; when crossed or when his friends are threatened, Harry can become quite pitiless, instinctively resorting to the nastiest/most powerful curses he can think of (save ''[[InstantDeathBullet Avada Kedavra]]''). He even casts [[spoiler:''[[AgonyBeam the Cruciatus Curse]]'']] at a few points (though he never uses it very effectively; as Bellatrix explains [[spoiler:after he tries it on her]], in order to cast an Unforgivable Curse successfully you have to ''really'' want to [[KickTheDog go through with it]]--the one time Harry does the spell properly, [[KickTheSonOfABitch he really does mean it]]).
* BlackCloak: Death Eaters wear them. Dementors wear them. The Hogwarts school uniform includes black robes.
* BlackSheep:
** Sirius and Andromeda to the Black family. Considering that the family is evil as a whole, this makes them WhiteSheep.
** Percy is the only member of the Weasley family who is not friendly and outgoing.
* BlackSpeech: [[SssnakeTalk Parseltongue]] is regarded as this in-universe, as pointed out above.
* BlastingItOutOfTheirHands: The ''Expelliarmus'' spell, which is intended for exactly this purpose. Amusingly, the spell seems capable of disarming a person of anything, whether it's a weapon or a book.
* BlondGuysAreEvil: Played straight with Draco and Lucius Malfoy, Barty Crouch Jr., Dudley Dursley, and Gilderoy Lockhart. Averted with Ernie Macmillan.
* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: In the books, if you pool the main and beta trios, you get one of each gender -- Neville (whom JKR once stated she pictured as a blond) and Luna the blondes, Harry and Hermione the brunettes, and Ron and Ginny the redheads.
* BloodlessCarnage: ''Avada Kedavra's'' lack of leaving physical injuries on bodies provides a convenient excuse for not describing much blood and gore, so most deaths in the series play this straight because they are bloodless and painless. That said, there ''are'' spells for dismembering, and they can get bloody indeed.
%%* TheBoardGame: Yes, and there's even been more than one.
* BoardingSchool: But also...
* BoardingSchoolOfHorrors: At times, Hogwarts can be quite a dangerous place. Made obvious when, on Harry's ''first day'' at school, there's an announcement to the student body to please not enter the third floor corridor unless you want to die horribly.
** It has been this in the past as well: In an early book Filch talks about how they used to string students up. In book 4, Moody is admonished for punishing a student with transfiguration, but the scolding implies it was allowed at one time.
** This is in no small part due to the inherent dangers of practicing magic. Many spells can be very dangerous, especially in the hands of someone who doesn't know what they are doing.
** Hogwarts becomes this full-time when [[spoiler:Umbridge, and later Voldemort, take over. ''Deathly Hallows'' goes out of its way to explain how horrible it's become by saying that some prefects used the Cruciatus curse on ''first years'' (about 11 years old) for refusing to use it themselves in the now-mandatory Dark Arts class.]]
* BondVillainStupidity: Massive amounts from Voldemort, who does many things that the EvilOverlordList advises you not to do. Probably more a case of SanityHasAdvantages than anything else.
** Mentioned frequently by Dumbledore, that [[spoiler:Tom Riddle]][=/=]Voldemort never bothered to study those powers he ''already considered useless'', meaning Voldemort's plans could always be defeated by such "trivial" things as Love.
** He did follow the EvilOverlordList's suggestion to [[spoiler:leave (one of) the [[SoulJar item(s) that is the source of his power and his greatest weakness]] in his safe deposit box instead of a dungeon (well, somebody else's safe deposit box), but that doesn't stop the heroes from stealing it anyway.]]
** He also followed #101, by not delegating away the task of killing "the infant who is destined to overthrow [him]", but trying to kill Harry himself. [[NiceJobBreakingItHerod That worked]] [[SarcasmMode rather brilliantly.]]
** In perhaps his final big villain stupidity moment, he [[spoiler: makes one of his lackeys check to see if Harry is dead, not doing it himself or using a messy non-magic way of ensuring his greatest opponent remains dead]]. Of course, he's physically exhausted from the backlash of his curse, so he can't well do it himself.
* BookDumb: Ron and Harry really aren't diligent students, though when they ''do'' try they prove to be quite adept. Fred and George are even worse academically, but they're experts in magical joke item inventions, which eventually gets them far in the business world.
** A case could be made for Harry that he isn't this trope. Or at least that he plays with this trope. Harry has shown a particular knack and affinity for the D.A.D.A (Defense Against the Dark Arts) skills, which is then compounded by him actually utilizing these skills a lot in the real world, giving him experience to boot.
* BookEnds:
** Harry's life with the Dursleys. When he was one, having recently lost his parents and disembodied Voldemort, Hagrid brings him to Privet Drive riding Sirius' magical motorcycle. When he is about to become seventeen, with the magical protections about to fall, Hagrid is the one that carries Harry out of Privet Drive on the same motorcycle. Hagrid even lampshades it.
** Also, in book one: Ron: "Are you a witch or not?" In book seven: Hermione: "Are you a wizard or not?"
** The entire series effectively begins and ends with [[spoiler:Voldemort getting the ''Avada Kedavra'' curse reflected back at him by Harry. In the first book, Voldemort's power is negated by Lily's selfless sacrifice; his spells won't keep during the final battle because Harry willingly gives his life to save his friends (he gets better).]]
* BoomerangBigot:
** Voldemort. One of the goals of the Death Eaters is the elimination of any wizard who isn't pure-blooded, especially if they are Muggle-born, but Voldemort himself is a half-blood (his father was a Muggle). But then, he ''is'' based on UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler (see below).
** Snape is a double hitter -- in his youth, he was highly prejudiced against Muggles and Muggle-borns despite being a half-blood himself [[spoiler:and in love with a particular Muggle-born]]; as an adult teacher, he mocks [[TheSmartGuy Hermione]] for being, as he once put it, "an [[InsufferableGenius insufferable know-it-all]]" -- ironic coming from Snape, who is himself an InsufferableGenius.
* ABoyAndHisX: For all the Hogwarts students with pets.
* BrainBleach: The reason why Rowling has yet to reveal the exact method of creating a Horcrux. It supposedly made one of her editors vomit. (For note, one of the steps is ''committing murder'' in order to split your soul to place it in the Horcrux. Murder is one thing, but the entire process is implied to involve crossing the MoralEventHorizon, and it's certainly treated as such in-universe. For ''one'' Horcrux.)
* BribingYourWayToVictory: InUniverse, Harry is constantly praised as the best Seeker in the school, and maybe the best player for several years. However, twice in the series, Harry is gifted broomsticks that are demonstrably faster and more maneuverable than his opponents'.
** ...Kind of. Harry's initial feat of Seeking that earns him praise is performed on one of the school brooms, which are universally derided in-universe. He then receives a good broom--but not so good a broom that it would make up for a lack of skill on his part. Then, in second year, he wins against a whole team of players on better brooms than his own, and with a serious disadvantage. (The Bludger is cursed to attack him.) It's only halfway through the third book that he gets a broom that's a whole class above his opponents', and by that point he's pretty well proved himself.
* BrickJoke: In what is perhaps the most elusive brick joke in the series, at the start of book 5, Harry and Dudley are attacked by Dementors. After Harry fights them off, he attempts to explain to his aunt and uncle what happened, only to realize it's hopeless because neither of them have any idea what he's talking about. Petunia finally says, "They guard the wizard prison, Azkaban," and Harry asks how she could possibly know that. Petunia responds with "I overheard -- that awful boy -- telling ''her'' about them, years ago." At the time (and even after finishing the series), everyone simply assumed "that awful boy" to be Harry's father, James Potter. However, at the very end of book 7, we find out that it was actually [[spoiler:Severus Snape]]. While watching his memories, Harry witnesses the scene "first-hand," but it's played so quickly and amidst so many other things very few people pick up on it.
* BrokenMasquerade: Despite the Dursleys' best efforts, Harry learns of the Wizarding World he belongs to that's hidden from the {{Muggles}}.
* BuildingOfAdventure: Hogwarts is the setting for many, many adventures.
* BullyingADragon: There's this giant man standing in front of you. You know he has SuperStrength because he just knocked your door down. This is ''clearly'' not someone to be messed with, so what do you do? Well, whatever it is, you do NOT threaten your nephew, who up until now has had no idea that he is a wizard, in front of said man, and you do NOT insult a man the giant clearly admires... unless you're Vernon TooDumbToLive Dursley.
* ButtMonkey:
** Neville "Why's It Always Me?" Longbottom. Peter Pettigrew during his days at Hogwarts, as well.
** There is a minor character (Dawlish) who is sort of a background ButtMonkey in that the only time we see him, he gets defeated in one hit, and whenever he is mentioned, he has been cursed or failed in something. This is pretty shocking when you consider he's an Auror, the equivalent of magic police (who above that are also elite dark wizard catchers), and is therefore supposed to be skilled at defensive magic.
** Draco Malfoy, Gilderoy Lockhart, Argus Filch, and Dolores Umbridge also fall under this category at times, [[KickTheSonOfABitch although they more than deserve it.]] Quirrell, too, until [[spoiler:he is revealed to be TheDragon at the end of Book 1.]]
** Also, Hufflepuff House in general.
** Ron Weasley, particularly to Slytherins. Harry has also been subjected to this, most notably due to the Rita Skeeter articles.
* ByTheEyesOfTheBlind: Thestrals are only visible to people who have witnessed death first-hand.
** Not only that, but they have to fully comprehend what they saw -- Harry wasn't able to see thestrals when he first came to Hogwarts despite having witnessed the murder of his parents[[spoiler:, but he is able to see them when he comes back fifth year after he saw Voldemort kill Cedric Diggory. (It's generally assumed that he couldn't see them at the end of his fourth year because Cedric's death hadn't fully sunk in at that point.)]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:C]]
* CainAndAbel: Dudley and Harry, Petunia and Lily, [[spoiler:Severus and Lily]].
* CallingYourAttacks: Played straight at first, but justified in that you ''have'' to say the name of the spell in order to cast it. However, it gets subverted when a major portion of the sixth-year curriculum turns out to be learning how to cast spells ''without'' calling them, specifically so that you don't alert your enemies as to what you are doing.
* CanisLatinicus: Expelliarmus, Wingardium Leviosa, Petrificus Totalus, Riddikulus. There ''are'' real Latin spells as well.
* CannotCrossRunningWater: Belief in this principle is why the Dursleys take Harry to a shack in the middle of the sea in their attempt to escape the wizarding world.
* CantLiveWithoutYou: Inverted by the prophecy in the fifth book -- "[[spoiler:Neither can live while the other survives.]]"
* CaptainErsatz: Though possibly coincidental, the Dementors have a certain resemblance to the Nazgûl of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''; both are based on TheGrimReaper. Dementors are also an allegory for clinical depression; they suck the joy out of everything.
%%* CaramelldansenVid: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inSjePhFe2o Hoo boy.]]
* CaptureAndReplicate: Polyjuice Potion can allow one to mimic any person, but it requires [[SympatheticMagic a piece of the person]], usually a hair. The piece must be recent and taken while the subject is alive, so in order to impersonate them for more than a few hours, it's necessary to keep them captive somewhere. To protect against the technique, people who are at risk of being replaced use {{Trust Password}}s.
* CardCarryingVillain: Godelot, a historical personage and author of ''Magick Most Evile'', reveled in his villainy (although a passage quoted in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince Half-Blood Prince]]'' indicates that [[spoiler:[[EvenEvilHasStandards even he would not dare go into the field of Horcruxes]]]]).
%%* CassandraDidIt: Augeries.
* {{Catchphrase}}: Several characters have one.
** Ron: "Bloody hell!"
** Hermione: "I read about it in ''Hogwarts: A History''."
** Moody: "Constant vigilance!"
** Umbridge: "Hem hem."
** Slughorn: "Merlin's beard!"
** Voldemort (in the movies): "NYEAAAAAAAA!"
* CategoryTraitor: The [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Death Eaters]] consider wizardry to be in the blood. They also feel that all "real" wizards are obliged to be "loyal" to "their own kind," and thus despise all [[{{Muggle}} regular humans]], fantasy creatures, and above all else the so-called "mud-bloods"--Muggle-born wizards (and later, once they resurface and begin openly fighting the Order of the Phoenix, any and all wizards who don't agree with the Death Eater ideology's arbitrary definition of a "real" wizard). Unsurprisingly, their contempt for pure-blood and half-blood wizards who care for muggles and "mudbloods" turns out to become a big part of their undoing, [[spoiler:as young Snape loses faith in them because of his love for the "mud-blood" witch Lily Evans.]]
%%* CatsAreMagic
* CardboardPrison: Azkaban shows this. Whereas in book three it is said that Sirius Black is the first to ever escape from Azkaban, [[spoiler:in the very next book it is discovered that Barty Crouch Jr. had been snuck out some time ago, and in book 5 everyone gets out.]]
* CentralTheme: [[ThePowerOfLove Love is what makes us strongest]]. Prejudice and bigotry are bad. Everybody has to die eventually.
** For her part, Creator/JKRowling says that the central theme is death: "The theme of how we react to death, how much we fear it. Of course, I think which is a key part of the book because Voldemort is someone who will do anything not to die. He's terrified of death. And in many ways, all of my characters are defined by their attitude to death and the possibility of death."
** Also, whether certain values -- courage, intelligence, hard-work and cunning -- can be easily sorted and identified. People can be brave in all sorts of unexpected ways, even the {{Bookworm}} can't know everything, and everyone needs a good deal of cunning to survive. Even the best magic in the world can't identify WhatYouAreInTheDark and there are many cases, where people "sort too soon" and judge too readily.
* CerebusSyndrome: Kinda. The darkness of the plot was there from the beginning, but it gets more visible as the story progresses.
* ChameleonCamouflage: The Dissillusionment Charm has this effect, and if done well enough can confer actual invisibility. Putting it on a garment is one way to make an InvisibilityCloak, though the charm fades over time.
* ChangelingFantasy: Harry's is fulfilled when Hagrid takes him to the wizarding world.
* CharacterNameAndTheNounPhrase: The book titles all follow the pattern of "Harry Potter and the..."
* ChekhovsArmoury: ChekhovsGun is [[ChekhovsGun/HarryPotter common]] in the series; e.g., The Deluminator. Fans obsess over details in earlier books, looking for hidden Chekhov's Guns, to the point where J.K. Rowling made a public apology about accidentally giving a minor, unimportant character the same last name as Harry's mum.
%%* ChekhovsBoomerang
* ChekhovsClassroom: In ''The Prisoner of Azkaban'', [=McGonagall=] mentions in the middle of a scene [[spoiler: focused on Professor Trelawney's dubious oracular record the fact that there are numerous wizards known as animagi who can transform themselves into animals. Towards the end of the book, it is revealed that Sirius Black is an animagus, and so were Peter Pettrigrew and James Potter.]]
* ChekhovsGun: More accurately, Chekhov's Wand. We learn that Harry and Voldemort's wands share a common source for their magical cores; it takes on plot significance from book 4 onward. Also, the Vanishing Cabinet, and Godric Gryffindor's Sword. Along with a fair laundry list of other objects. [[spoiler:Of the six Horcruxes, we actually see four of them before they are recognized for what they are. [[labelnote:*]]The diary, Slytherin's locket, Nagini the snake, and Harry himself.[[/labelnote]]]]
* ChekhovsGunman:
** Grindelwald, mentioned in the ''Philosopher's Stone'' and barely ever brought up again until ''Deathly Hallows''. Same goes for Aberforth Dumbledore, who was first mentioned in ''Goblet of Fire'' and first appeared in ''Order of the Phoenix''.
*** Even better? ''We didn't know who Aberforth was until Deathly Hallows.'' In both ''Order of the Phoenix'' and ''Half Blood Prince,'' he is only referred to as "the barman of the Hog's Head," though there are hints to his identity regarding his inappropriate charms on goats...
** The name Regulus Black briefly comes up in one of the books, then [[spoiler:becomes significantly more important in Deathly Hallows.]]
** The name Sirius Black gets mentioned in passing in the very first chapter of the very first book; he only comes up again in the third book, as the title character.
** The Lovegoods also get a brief mention early in The Goblet of Fire, although Luna doesn't become important until the next novel, and her father until the 7th.
* ChekhovsSkill:
** Ron's aptitude for wizard chess becomes important in getting the group past [[spoiler:the defenses for the Philosopher's Stone]].
** Harry's prodigious skill with casting a Patronus becomes useful in a variety of situations involving Dementors beyond the initial purpose of defending himself from Dementors during Quidditch games.
** Hermione having taken Ancient Runes comes into play in the seventh book, as her copy of Tales of Beedle the Bard was written in runic alphabet.
** Neville's skill at Herbology becomes useful during the final battle.
** Harry's Quidditch playing. He's good at flying and good at spotting and getting ahold of small golden objects. This comes in handy when he has to catch a flying key in The Philosopher's Stone, and when he has to get the dragon's egg in the First Task of the Triwizard Tournament.
** Harry's Seeker skills and the generally harmless "Expelliarmus" spell both play key roles in [[spoiler:Harry's final defeat of Voldemort.]]
%%* TheChewToy: Ron. Neville.
* ChildhoodFriendRomance: Several:
** Of the Unlucky kind, [[spoiler:Snape was friends with Lily when they were kids, and loved her, but she ended up with James instead.]]
** Of the Victorious kind: [[spoiler:Ginny, for Harry. Ron, for Hermione.]]
* TheChooserOfTheOne: Voldemort (unknowingly) got to choose his arch-enemy, and picked Harry.
* ChronicHeroSyndrome: Harry does sort of have a "saving people thing," as Hermione [[LampshadeHanging puts it]].
** This is also lampshaded by Ron in the fourth book. He mentions that Harry couldn't help "playing the hero."
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome:
** Ludo Bagman plays an important role in the fourth novel, however he never appears again after escaping from the goblins. He is only briefly mentioned in the next book.
** Cornelius Fudge was not seen at all in the last book. It's unknown what happened to him following the take over at the Ministry.
** Florean Fortescue was kidnapped at the beginning of the sixth book yet we never learn about what happened to him.
* TheClan: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] with the House of Black, a well-known pure-blood family known in previous generations for its fixation with blood purity. Was once wealthy but the loss of numbers and the fact that quite a few of its named members are [[AxCrazy a bit nuts]], has veered more toward BigScrewedUpFamily.
** The Weasleys, despite their massive numbers (even outside the ones directly introduced in the series), don't meet the requisites otherwise - until arguably the epilogue, [[spoiler: by which point Arthur and Molly Weasley's children and children-in-law include professional athletes, successful businessmen, known geniuses, war heroes, dragon experts... and Harry Potter himself.]]
* CleverCrows: Ravenclaw House, although intelligence is its defining trait and it is not the most sinister of the Houses. [[InNameOnly Despite the name]], Ravenclaw's mascot is an eagle.
* ColdBloodedTorture: What happens to many characters at the hands of the Death Eaters (mostly Voldemort and Bellatrix), including [[spoiler:Neville's parents.]]
** Also what goes on in Umbridge's detentions.
* ColorCodedForYourConvenience: Various colors are strongly associated with [[GoodColorsEvilColors both good and evil]] across the story:
** Red - either [[RedIsHeroic heroic spirit]] ([[TheHero House Gryffindor]], [[RedHeadedHero The Weasleys]], [[FieryRedhead Ginny in particular]], [[SignificantGreenEyedRedhead Lily Evans]], also the [[ThouShaltNotKill non-lethal]] [[StunGun Stupefy]] and [[BlastingItOutOfTheirHands Expelliarmus]] spells) or ChaoticEvil tendencies ([[RedEyesTakeWarning Voldemort's eyes]] in the book, [[AgonyBeam the Cruciatus curse]]).
** Green - either the mark of [[EmeraldPower a powerful wizard or witch]] who is [[ThePowerOfLove loving]] and [[HeroicSacrifice self-sacrificing]] (Lily and Harry's eyes, later inherited by Albus) or the color of [[AmbitionIsEvil the bigoted and often villainous House Slytherin]] as well as outright [[SicklyGreenGlow sinister powers]] such as [[InstantKill the Killing curse]] and dark [[{{Necromancer}} revival potions]].
** Blue - almost uniformly associated with calm and reasonable types (House Ravenclaw, Dumbledore's eyes), although Ron Weasley also has InnocentBlueEyes mostly to [[BlueAndOrangeContrast contrast]] with his red hair and impulsive character. In the film, Patronuses are [[HeavenlyBlue glowing blue]] and on the evil side, Voldemort has IcyBlueEyes which fit well in his scenes in HollywoodDarkness.
** Yellow - either friendly, down-to-earth people (House Hufflepuff) or evil magic such as [[CharmPerson the Imperius curse]] or a [[SupernaturalGoldEyes Basilisk's eyes]].
** Purple - either the sign of [[PurpleIsPowerful a great benevolent force]] ([[BigGood Dumbledore]]) or [[PurpleIsTheNewBlack Dark magic]] ([[DemonicPossession Quirrell's turban]] and Antonin Dolohov's signature curse).
** White: almost uniformly connected to [[LightIsGood goodness]] ([[MeaningfulName Albus]] Dumbledore, Patronuses), except Voldemort's [[EvilMakesYouUgly unnatural]] [[UndeathlyPallor chalk-white skin]]. The final stage of Voldemort's body regeneration potion is also glows [[LightIsNotGood so bright white that Harry sees it through eyes screwed shut]].
** Gray: linked to sneaky characters ([[YouDirtyRat Scabbers]]) or outright evil ones (Fenrir Greyback). The [[RichBitch cold and haughty]] Malfoys have GrayEyes.
** Black: mostly perceived as [[DarkIsEvil evil]], though the BlackCloak is worn by the school students and evil characters alike. [[DarkIsNotEvil Averted]] by Harry and James' black hair, Sirius Black and [[spoiler: Severus Snape]]. Played straight with the [[EldritchAbomination Dementors]], [[BlackMagic Death Eaters]] and [[BigScrewedUpFamily the rest of the Black family]].
** Gold: paired with red (Gryffindor) symbolizes heroism Harry's Polyjuice Potion is also gold. Paired with green (Slytherin's locket, Tom Riddle's awards before TheReveal of his identity) hints of an evil presence.
** [[SilverHasMysticPowers Silver]]: Can be good when paired with [[LightIsGood light]] (Patronus charm), neutral (memories in the book) or sinister (House Slytherin, Wormtail's hand). The Malfoys have silvery blonde hair.
* ComingOfAgeStory: ''Harry Potter'' is as much about growing up as it is about wizards.
* ContrastingSequelAntagonist: Lord Voldemort is the consistent BigBad, but each individual book also has its own secondary antagonist whose nature and motivations often say much about the themes and conflict at the heart of each installment. ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone The Philosopher's Stone]]'' has [[TheRenfield Quirinus Quirrel]], the frail and cowardly servant of the crippled Voldemort; ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets The Chamber of Secrets]]'' has "[[FromNobodyToNightmare Tom Riddle]]", the ghostly echo of Voldemort's former self; ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban The Prisoner of Azkaban]]'' has [[spoiler: [[EvilFormerFriend Peter Pettigrew]]]], the confidant of the Potters who betrayed his friends out of cowardice; ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire The Goblet of Fire]]'' has [[spoiler: [[WellDoneSonGuy Barty Crouch, Jr.]]]], the troubled young Death Eater initiate who remains faithful to Voldemort in the wake of his downfall; ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix The Order of the Phoenix]]'' has [[TyrantTakesTheHelm Dolores Umbridge]], the corrupt Ministry bureaucrat who denies Voldemort's return; and ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince The Half-Blood Prince]]'' has [[TheRival Draco Malfoy]] and [[spoiler: [[TheAtoner Severus Snape]]]], who finally openly join Voldemort after six years of lurking in the background at Hogwarts.
* ContrivedCoincidence: The Marauders present themselves in their map as "Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs", or MWPP. Is it a coincidence that [[spoiler:they die in that order, backwards? Prongs (James Potter) dies on October 31st, 1981, Padfoot (Sirius Black) dies in the Battle of the Ministry in June of 1996 (Harry's fifth year), Wormtail (Peter Pettigrew) gets killed in March of 1998 by the silver hand Voldemort gave him back in 1995, and Moony (Remus Lupin) dies in the Battle of Hogwarts on May 2nd, 1998.]]
** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'' kicks off because 1) the Weasleys won a lottery ticket, 2) this gets them a large front page picture, 3) Ron's pet rat Scabbers was included in said picture, and 4) Cornelius Fudge happened to be carrying that exact issue when he visited Sirius Black.
* ConvenientlyCoherentThoughts: Subverted with Legilimency, which reveals thoughts in a disjointed manner and requires much training to sort out which thoughts are important.
* CoolButInefficient: So many of the things the wizards do.
** Particularly that we repeatedly see wizards are rendered helpless when they are disarmed, which in later books often leads to their death. For some reason, there seems to be an unwritten rule amongst wizards that you can't carry ''a spare wand''.
** Given that most Wizards are capable of Apparating, possess cars such as the Knight Bus for those who can't, and possess the ability to carry large amounts of objects in a BagOfHolding, it often begs the question why they bother with the mess of using Owls to deliver their mail. Theoretically ''a single wizard'' could serve as the postman to the entire country. That being said, owls are implied to be capable of always finding the person they are supposed to give a letter to.
* CoolTrain: It's pulled by a [[SteamNeverDies steam locomotive]] and carries the students to and from Hogwarts at each end of the school year, as well as for holidays.
* CorporalPunishment: Not unexpected, given the BoardingSchool setting. Early on, it's played relatively comically, with Argus Filch constantly bemoaning the fact that he's not ''allowed'' to string misbehaving students up by their ankles anymore. It gets rather darker later, with ''Order of the Phoenix'' featuring a quill that carves whatever you write into your hand, and God-only-knows-what going on at Hogwarts during ''Deathly Hallows''.
* CrapsaccharineWorld: Once you get past the initial cool factor of the magical world, the Harry Potter universe is not an exceptionally happy one. FantasticRacism of absurd extremes permeates every level of the wizarding world, and the government seems to be run by evil, scheming, political glory hounds (regardless of their allegiance to "good" or "bad"). The justice system is a KangarooCourt, the regulations on dangerous magic are feeble at best, the very system of instruction in magic carries a high injury/mortality rate, the schools are run by people who think nothing of manipulating their students for years with the express intention of having them throw their lives away, said schools think nothing of employing borderline sociopaths with a stated dislike of--and known enjoyment of torturing--children, the entire population as a whole seems to have crippling naiveté about the non-magical world (to the point that you wonder how they've kept the {{masquerade}} going for so long), and the overall respect for human, sapient non-human, or animal life and sanity is appallingly low. The in-universe explanation is that this was a cultural reaction to Voldemort, and that it supposedly went away once he was defeated. Also, it's heavily implied that there's degradation of the "magical" ecosystem and natives, with species like the dragons and giants dying out and forced on to small reservations.
** They maintain the 'masquerade' by casually (and ofttimes repeatedly) using magical LaserGuidedAmnesia on {{Muggles}} who don't know about the magical world.
* CrazyJealousGuy: Ron Weasley, especially in books 4 and 6. (The latter was [[OperationJealousy deliberately]] started by Hermione.)
** Viktor Krum: Quidditch star, and Ron's a fanboy of his. Guess what Ron says to Hermione at the Yule Ball when Hermione goes with Krum.
---> '''Ron''': You're[Hermione] fraternizing with the enemy[Krum]!
** When Hermione goes to the Slug Club party with Mclaggen in book 6 (and after Ginny accuses him of being insecure about never having kissed a girl), he starts the most shallow and kissy relationship with Lavender Brown.
* CrazyPrepared: Hermione, especially with her BagOfHolding in ''Deathly Hallows''. Also, Dumbledore, in general.
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass:
** Luna "Loony" Lovegood may act like she ain't playing with a full deck, but when it comes down to an actual battle... watch yourself. She participates in several battles, but the only time she gets injured the entire series is when a door gets blown off its hinges into her face and she flies across the room.
** Neville Longbottom, ButtMonkey poster boy in the early years, becomes a seriously competent fighter in his own right from the latter parts of the fifth year on. In the battle of the Department of Mysteries in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]'', he is the only other student besides Harry who stays fighting right up until the end, whereas everyone else gets incapacitated one way or another during it.
* CrushingHandshake: The Slytherin quidditch team captain tends to do this when he shakes hands with the Gryffindor captain at the begining of a match. In the first few books, Oliver Wood is able to give as good as he gets, but Angelina and Harry (during their respective stints as captain in the later books) have to keep themselves from wincing.
* CrypticBackgroundReference: At one point Harry sees some warlocks drinking at a pub, but whatever makes a warlock different from a wizard is never mentioned. Simply being a male witch as is typical is unlikely, as the series treats "witch" as the female equivalent of "wizard.
** The difference is finally explained in one of Rowling's footnotes in ''[[Literature/TheTalesofBeedletheBard Tales of Beedle the Bard]]'': a warlock is either an unusually fierce-looking wizard or an unusually skilled and accomplished wizard.
* CulturalPosturing: Even the ''Muggle-born'' wizards are condescending toward Muggles.
* CulturalTranslation: Editors at Scholastic Books forced a change from "Philosopher's Stone" -- a genuine item of folklore and alchemy -- to "Sorcerer's Stone" for the American editions on the grounds that American children would have no idea what a Philosopher's Stone was. Due to the negative reaction, British terms and slang in the later books, such as "jumper," "taking the mickey," and "snogging," were left in.
* {{Curse}}: Spells that have a major negative effect are often referred to as "curses." More minor curses are called "hexes" and "jinxes."
[[/folder]]
[[folder:D]]
* DancesAndBalls: The Yule Ball. In both the book and the movie, however, it quickly degenerates into a magical rock show.
* DarkerAndEdgier: The series gradually gets darker and darker as it moves forward. Although the first book starts in the aftermath of a ''double homicide'', so...
* DeadGuyJunior: Lots of examples from the epilogue, including [[spoiler: James Sirius Potter, Lily Luna Potter (even though Luna Lovegood doesn't die), Albus Severus Potter, and Fred Weasley II.]]
* DeadpanSnarker: Honestly, if you took a shot every time a character made a wry comment, you'd be pretty messed up early on in the series. There are so many examples, [[DeadpanSnarker/HarryPotter it has its own page]].
* DeathRay: The Killing Curse, ''Avada Kedavra''. The reason that Harry is known as "The Boy-Who-Lived" is because he's the only person in the wizarding world to have ever survived the spell.
* DecliningPromotion:
** Horace Slughorn is described as "preferring the backseat." However, it's not so much exerting power as it is enjoying being able to influence the world thanks to former students he gave a boost to (e.g., casting a vote for a new junior minister or getting free tickets to a Quidditch match). Harry has a mental image of a spider pulling a webstrand to bring a juicy fly closer.
** It was stated more than a few times Mr. Weasley could have easily been promoted within the Ministry years ago, but enjoyed where he was in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office too much. He does finally take a promotion AND get rank in the Order of Phoenix as the series goes on, however.
* DeconstructedTrope: Happens a lot in the series, especially concerning character dynamics. A character is a ButtMonkey? Turns out that they have some pretty depressing baggage and it motivates them to become a total badass later. Another is a {{Cloudcuckoolander}}? They are relentlessly teased and bullied over it and have very few friends. Our main man is a Chosen One and FamedInStory? They really hate it. Kid Genius? Is seen as an InsufferableGenius (which they sometimes are).
* DisproportionateRetribution: The treatment Harry received from the Dursleys for most of the eleven years prior to his acceptance into Hogwarts, and occasionally afterward as well. He was confined to the cupboard under the stairs until age 11 just for existing, yelled at for asking questions or innocently mentioning strange dreams, and punished (up to and including being denied meals) for exhibiting signs of the hated magic, which he neither understood nor was able to control. For example, in the first book he gets locked in the cupboard for much of the summer just for talking to a snake after the "vanishing glass" incident.
* DistantFinale: [[spoiler: The last chapter of book seven, better known as the Epilogue, takes place 19 years after the end of the previous chapter.]]
* DirectLineToTheAuthor/ATrueStoryInMyUniverse: ''Literature/FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem'', ''Literature/QuidditchThroughTheAges'', and ''Literature/TheTalesOfBeedleTheBard'' are all presented as reprintings of in-universe books. ''The Tales of Beedle the Bard'' also makes reference to the existence of a seven-volume biography of Harry Potter, thus implying that the main ''Harry Potter'' series exists in its own universe as non-fiction as well.
* DitchTheBodyguards: In several books, Harry is being threatened by someone (usually Voldemort) and everybody tries to keep him safe. It never works; somehow, for some reason, he always finds his way to the source of the problem to face it himself.
* DividedWeFall: [[spoiler:The ''Half-Blood Prince'' DVD has a chapter entitled "Free Agents", a clever reference to not only Harry and Ron's Quidditch issues, but their romantic lives, as well.]]
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The Death Eaters are [[ANaziByAnyOtherName a group who believe in "purity" who overtake the government in an effort to eradicate "nonpure" people and are led by an extremely creepy-looking dude.]]
* DoingResearch: Hermione, in almost every book.
* DomesticAbuser: It's implied in ''Order of the Phoenix'' that Snape's father was at the very least verbally abusive to Snape's mother, and that this was a large contributing factor in his anti-Muggle attitudes.
* DontFearTheReaper: According to Creator/JKRowling, the CentralTheme of the series has always been death. [[spoiler:It doesn't really come to the forefront until ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', where Dumbledore states that Harry is the Master of Death not because he owned all three of the Deathly Hallows, but rather because through his experiences where he unknowingly gathered all three, he came to realize that death is inevitable and that there are far worse fates than dying, and accepted his death. The Tale of the Three Brothers, where the legend of the Deathly Hallows comes from, shows that if you try to escape death or are unable to accept the death of a loved one (the first and second brothers, represented by Voldemort and Snape in ''The Deathly Hallows''), then death will be a grueling bastard. However, if you accept death as inevitability (the youngest brother, represented by Harry), then death will greet you like an old friend.]] All of this stems from Rowling's own experiences with the death of her mother.
* DontTellMama: The only time the Weasley twins get talked into cooperating with authority is when Hermione [[CoolAndUnusualPunishment threatens to tell Mrs. Weasley about their antics]].
-->'''Hermione:''' If you don't stop, I'm going to...\\
'''Fred:''' Put us in detention?\\
'''George:''' Make us write lines?\\
'''Hermione:''' No, but I will write to your mother.\\
'''George:''' [[OhCrap You wouldn't...]]
* {{Doorstopper}}: All of the books from the fourth onwards; the fifth, weighing in at 766 pages for the Bloomsbury hardback edition, is the winner here.
** The original American hardcover edition had it at over 800 pages.
*** Stephen Fry is even credited with the following:
-->"So if any of you hear someone pronounce her name "Rohw-ling", you have my permission to hit them over the head with -- not with Order of the Phoenix, that would be cruel. Something smaller, like a fridge."
* DownerEnding:
** [[spoiler:Goblet of Fire, Order of the Phoenix, and Half-Blood Prince.]]
** [[spoiler:Deathly Hallows is no picnic either, even considering the fact that, technically, the good guys have finally won a complete victory.]]
* DrGenericius: A lot of wizards have names ending in "us": Albus, Bilius (Ron's middle name), Lucius, Regulus Arcturus, Remus, Rubeus {Hagrid), Severus, Scorpius, Sirius... It seems to be more frequent in the Pureblood families, though.
* TheDreaded: Each side has their own. [[BigBad Voldemort]] is easily the most feared being on the planet. His power and cruelty are legendary; people are terrified of even speaking his name long after he is thought to be dead. Even he has his own in [[BadassGrandpa Dumbledore]], the only person Voldemort ever feared.
* DuelingMessiahs: Flashbacks reveal that there was once a legendary duel between Grindelwald and Dumbledore. The former wanted to lead the wizards out of hiding whereas Dumbledore sided with the muggles.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:E]]
* EarlyBirdCameo: Several supporting characters are mentioned in passing long before their importance to the plot is revealed, among them [[spoiler:Mrs. Figg, Mundungus Fletcher, the Lovegoods, Grindelwald, Aberforth Dumbledore, Sirius Black, and his brother Regulus Arcturus Black.]]
** Several creatures in ''Order of the Phoenix'' were mentioned in ''Literature/FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem'' prior to their appearances, and even Thestrals earned a minor, blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference under "Winged Horse".
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The Hogwarts School Song. Sung once in the first book, then never mentioned again.
%%* EarnYourHappyEnding
* ElaborateUndergroundBase: Salazar Slytherin intended to use the Chamber of Secrets as this, doubling as a SupervillainLair after the schism with the other Founders.
* EmbarrassingPassword:
** The Ministry of Magic encourages people to devise security questions with their loved ones. One of the security questions between Mr. and Mrs. Weasley is:
-->'''Mr Weasley:''' What do you like me to call you when we're alone together?
-->'''Mrs Weasley:''' Mollywobbles.
** The password to Dumbledore's office is always a type of candy. At one point in ''Goblet of Fire'', Harry, trying to get inside, lists off every single magical candy he can think of, only to find the correct one is "Cockroach Cluster".
-->Cockroach Cluster? I was only joking.
* EmotionBomb:
** Dementors. They ''eat'' happiness.
** Cheering Charms are an example of this in the ''good'' way.
* EmotionalPowers: The Patronus spell is fueled by the caster thinking of their happiest thoughts or memories.
* EmpathicWeapon: Wands are said to choose the wizard who will use them, and they don't work as well for anyone who is not the original owner and hasn't defeated the previous owner in some form of combat.
* EnforcedColdWar: The House rivalries, especially between Gryffindor and Slytherin. According to the history of Hogwarts's founders, it's actually closer to Slytherin versus everyone else. It goes down a ''lot'' after [[spoiler:Voldemort is defeated.]]
* EntertaininglyWrong: In ''Half-Blood Prince'', Dumbledore and Harry both come to the perfectly valid conclusion that Voldemort tried to get a job at Hogwarts in an attempt to get ahold of an item belong to a Hogwarts Founder for use as a SoulJar. In ''Deathly Hallows'', Harry realizes they had it backwards: Voldemort used the interview to ''hide'' one of his Soul Jars in a hidden room on the way to Dumbledore's office--actually getting the job would've just been a bonus.
* EnthrallingSiren: Veela are a less malicious version of this. Generally, they look like they're an InhumanlyBeautifulRace of women complete with MindControlMusic and hypnotic dancing. If enraged, however, they suddenly gain [[HarpingOnAboutHarpies cruel, bird-like features and chuck fireballs]].
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas:
** Draco Malfoy's only redeeming quality is his love for his family.
** Although Voldemort is incapable of real love, his mother's sad death is his motivation for some of his crimes.
** Narcissa Malfoy's main motivation by the end is making sure her family is safe, [[spoiler:to the point where she lies to ''Voldemort''.]]
* EveryoneIsRelated[=/=]TangledFamilyTree: Check out the Black family tree, for starters. The Peverell and Weasley familes are similarly tangled up: the Peverell family contains almost ''every'' single wizard, including Voldemort and [[spoiler:Harry Potter]]! Gets to the point where EveryoneIsRelated both literally and in terms of the trope.
** This is implied to be a result of forced intermarrying of pureblood families in order to ''keep'' the blood "pure." Amongst the many notable muggle discoveries proud purebloods dismiss are the effects of inbreeding. (Even though there are plenty of things, like the health benefits of laughter, that wizards noticed long before Muggles did.)
** Step back for a moment and consider this. Draco Malfoy is easily recognised by his curious platinum-blond hair and aristocratic features. When we meet Lucius we see he too has the same hair colour and similar features, not that unusual. However, his mother Narcissa has exactly the same unique hair colour and aristocratic features. What are the odds of her and her husband being related?
** There is already canon saying that Harry Potter, Narcissa Malfoy, and Andromeda Tonks are first cousins, as are the Weasley twins to Neville Longbottom, and the six of them are second cousins to each other. Their family tree also implies a relation to the Crabbe, Macmillan, Burk, Bulstrode, Yaxley, and Crouch families.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Voldemort was conceived through the use of a love potion, which is essentially fake love. (In fact, [[FridgeHorror if you think hard enough]], it seems like he's almost a ChildByRape.) His mother later made no attempt [[DeathByChildbirth to keep herself alive through magic as he was born]]. Without any proper upbringing, he was seemingly born with the inability to understand real love at all.
* EvilCounterpart:
** Harry and Voldemort both had very similar beginnings, and Harry occasionally finds himself sympathetic to Voldemort. Nonetheless, the choices that both of them made sent them in totally different directions. [[{{Anvilicious}} Lampshaded]] in the film during the disturbing moment when the two of them briefly meld into one image while falling through the air.
** Harry also notes parallels with Snape in ''Deathly Hallows''. He refers to himself, Voldemort, and Snape as "the abandoned boys", and notes that they all found a home at Hogwarts. Interestingly, Snape seems to have been set up as the half-way point between Voldemort and Harry.
** Bellatrix and Hermione. Hermione is as devoted to Harry as Bellatrix is to Voldemort. Both intelligent and powerful witches, on the opposite side of the good/evil divide; both capable of, and shown willing to go to, extremes for their purposes. (Bellatrix tortured the Longbottoms into insanity to find Voldemort. Hermione comes up with the same method for Harry to communicate with his DA members as Voldemort used with his Death Eaters; she bewitches a DA document so that it will semi-permanently facially disfigure anyone who signs it and later sells them out; she blackmails Rita Skeeter.)
** Bellatrix also serves as an EvilCounterpart to Molly Weasley. According to Rowling that is why the two fight each other at the end -- Bellatrix loves no one (besides her obsession over Voldemort) and Mrs. Weasley is very loving. Love wins out. (This is in spite of Bellatrix having all but been set up as Neville Longbottom's ArchEnemy.)
** Voldemort and Dumbledore turn out to have a lot in common.
** Umbridge could be considered [=McGonagall=]'s EvilCounterpart. Both are known for being disciplinarians, but [=McGonagall=] is [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure fair and well-meaning]] whereas Umbridge, to say the least, is not. Incidentally, both of them cast a Patronus in the shape of a cat.
** Though they're on the same side in ''Order of the Phoenix'', Sirius and Snape can be interpreted this way as well. They started out as Gryffindor vs. Slytherin, then they joined opposite sides of the war. Sirius was James's best friend, and Snape had been best friends and had a crush on [[spoiler:Lily]], and despite the falling out that Snape and [[spoiler:Lily]] had, he and Sirius are incredibly loyal to their said best friends. Both of them even did something ''really'' terrible to a close friend of theirs, Sirius's being sending Snape to be torn apart by Remus on the full moon and Snape's being [[spoiler:calling Lily a Mudblood]]. Snape hated his father, and Sirius hated his family. More importantly, both make a misguided major decision that indirectly causes the death of their respective best friends: Sirius [[spoiler: offers Pettigrew as the real SecretKeeper with him as a decoy, resulting in Pettigrew's betrayal]] and Snape [[spoiler: informs Voldemort about the prophecy of TheChosenOne which causes Voldemort to target the Potters in the first place]].
** Harry and Voldemort's respective chosen methods of self-preservation: [[spoiler:Voldemort survives through his six [[SoulJar Horcruxes]], which he created by murdering five people (plus Harry as the sixth Horcrux) plus one more after his ill-fated attempt on Harry's life. Harry survives through his relationships with friends and relatives, six of whom are killed in the act of directly saving his life: James and Lily Potter, Sirius Black, Albus Dumbledore, Peter Pettigrew, and Dobby. Harry and Voldemort act as the seventh Horcrux/relationship for each other: Harry is Voldemort's unknown seventh Horcrux, and Voldemort unknowingly saves Harry's life by creating a blood bond between them during his resurrection in Goblet of Fire; he even "dies" to save Harry's life when he tries to kill Harry in the Forbidden Forest and instead destroys the portion of his soul preserved in Harry.]]
** Harry's wand and Voldemort's wand share the same core, a phoenix feather from Fawkes, who only gave two feathers. Then, we have the Elder Wand, which is different entirely. People have written papers on the connections between Voldemort and Harry.
** Ron and Pettigrew. Both are/were close friends to a guy who is/was considered very popular and cool and are/were ignored otherwise. Both are hinted to be a little jealous of this. ''Deathly Hallows'' implies that Ron, like Pettigrew, has a bit of a lust for power (his interest in the Elder Wand, though [[NotSoAboveItAll Hermione is just as fascinated by it]]). Unlike Pettigrew, Ron never abandons his friends for power or protection. More importantly, Ron refuses to be an ExtremeDoormat and bottle up his frustration, indeed he voices it out and works through it, which Pettigrew never did and so never worked out his bitterness. Wormtail would sell out his friends to curry favor to the next biggest bully for his own ends.
** Neville and Pettigrew. In their early school days at least, both are seen as weak students who need help form their more powerful/competent trio of friends (Harry/Ron/Hermione and James/Sirius/Remus). While this trio is their closest friends, they are always portrayed as being slightly outside of it as well. Pettigrew was famous for having attempted to bring down one of Voldemort's greatest strengths [[spoiler:(Sirius Black), which he had actually set up as a frame job,]] and Neville [[spoiler: actually did take one out (Nagini)]]. Neville eventually learned to find his own strength and stepped up to the level of his friends, while Pettigrew never tried to work through his weaknesses and was always looking for someone to protect him [[spoiler:(James/Sirius/Remus, Voldemort, the Weasleys, Harry)]].
* EvilMakesYouMonstrous: Tom Riddle (Voldemort) was a handsome student, but by the time he is reborn, he is bald, has pale white skin, bloodshot eyes and slits for nostrils. We see him earlier in a Pensieve memory Dumbledore has of him entering his office to ask to be the Defense of Dark Arts professor after he began dabbling in Dark Arts but before he gained power, and Harry notes that he had already lost his good looks by then and was beginning to resemble the pale, snake-like creature he would fully become later on. Even many years before that when Tom Riddle was still pretty handsome, he is stated to have already begun to look a little pale by the time he took a job in a store to get ahold of an ancient artifact.
* EvilSoundsDeep: {{Inverted}}. Voldemort is described as having a high, cold voice.
* EvilTeacher: PlayedWith with [[spoiler:Snape]] but played very straight with Quirrell, [[spoiler:Crouch/Moody]], Umbridge, and the Carrows.
* ExoticEntree: Voldemort dines on unicorn blood in ''The Philosopher's Stone'' (though there is a magical justification for this).
* {{Expy}}: Harry and Dumbledore are expies of Wart and Merlin, respectively, from ''Literature/TheSwordInTheStone''.
* ExtranormalPrison: Azkaban is a prison for evil wizards, guarded by the soul-sucking dementors.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:F]]
* {{Fainting}}: Many characters do this, but this unfortunately happens to Harry multiple times in each book, especially in ''Prisoner of Azkaban'' (wherein the Dementors inevitably have this effect on him) and ''Order of the Phoenix''.
* FamilyThemeNaming: Most families have a theme:
** Blacks: Stars and constellations and galaxies, except most females who remarry
** Carrows: Names of Myth/{{Greek mytholog|y}}ical characters
** Bagmans: Names of Holy Roman Emperors
** Belbys: Names of Roman (and Byzantine) Emperors
** Campbells: Names of Shakespearean characters
** Evanses (Harry's mother and aunt): Names of flowers
** Weasleys: Names connected to medieval royalty.
** The [[https://www.pottermore.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/the-potter-family revelation of the Potter Family history]] makes them an aversion, they tend to alter between AerithAndBob, with names like Linchfred, Ralston, Hardwin, Henry, Fleamont, James and Harry among many others, having no particular theme.
* FamilyValuesVillain: The Malfoys' only mildly redeeming quality is their care for each other as a family.
%%* FantasticAnthropologist
* FantasticRacism:
** Done four times in the series: first, in the way some "pureblood" wizards look down on Muggles and those who have Muggles in their ancestry; second, in Hermione's well-meaning campaign on the behalf of house-elves; third, the treatment of werewolves and "halfbreeds" such as Hagrid; and fourth, the Dursleys' bigotry against wizards. The second and third are part of a larger theme of non-humans being discriminated against, and centaurs fall into this category too; [[Characters/HarryPotter Dolores Umbridge]] hates them, and Firenze the centaur gets into trouble with his own people, who consider him an "Uncle Tom" and traitor for associating with humans. Lupin chooses to resign from school after everybody finds out he's a werewolf.
** And the "official" wizard attitude to the other magical races is clearly portrayed as a different ''kind'' of racism to the [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Nazi-esque]] Death-Eaters, not open-minded egalitarianism; Harry is surprised to see a statue at the Ministry of Magic with a centaur and a goblin in submissive adoration of a wizard and witch; totally preposterous (unlike the house-elf in the same statue), but evidently the way the Ministry believes the world "should" work.
*** It is, perhaps, worth noting that the Ministry of Magic classifies all living creatures as either "beast" or "being," with the latter being less discriminated against. Centaurs are classed as "beasts," and thus discriminated against greatly... because they themselves discriminated, and weren't willing to share "being" classification with things like vampires. According to [[AllThereInTheManual tie-in materials]] they were also insulted that humans thought they had authority in such matters at all, and originally insisted on the beast classification after the mermaid civilization was filed there for not speaking English (which was later rectified).
** Draco Malfoy displays this often, calling Hermione a "mudblood" more than once (a slur for a wizard or witch who is born to non-magical parents, and whom "purebloods" of certain persuasions, like the Malfoys, see as inferior) and such insults almost ''always'' end up badly for him, as the wizard m-word is as nasty as the Muggles' n-word. Considering that several of the teachers, particularly Dumbledore and [=McGonagall=], are often shown to strongly dislike the term and be angered by it, it's surprising that Draco's frequent use of it did not earn him suspension or expulsion. Likewise with [[spoiler:Snape, whose life took a turn for the worse when he called Lily a "filthy little mudblood."]]
** Hermione's campaign for house elves is portrayed as well-meaning but misguided, with her imposing human values on the elves and refusing to accept that the vast majority of them are actually happy with their jobs as long as they're not abused. She seems to have become better educated on the house-elf psyche by ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', though, and has gone for a more practical approach--at no point in book seven does she ask Harry to ''free'' Kreacher, but she ''does'' convince Harry to treat Kreacher well despite his betrayal in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix''. [[spoiler:It pays off almost immediately, and again at the end of the novel.]]
** In ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince The Half Blood Prince]]'', Tom Riddle murdered a woman for her artifacts and framed her House Elf for it. Dumbledore tells Harry that the Ministry should have investigated further but didn't "...because she was a House Elf". Harry had never sympathized with Hermione's campagin as much as he did at that moment.
** There is also the treatment of Squibs (non-magic children of witches and wizards). Even the Weasleys had a relative (Molly's second cousin) who possibly was a squib and, as such, an embarrassment to the family.
%%* FantasticScience
* FantasticSlurs: "Mudblood", a derogatory term for a witch or wizard who was born into a {{Muggle}} family. It's considered to be an extremely vulgar term as well, almost on par with the N-word; when Draco Malfoy first calls Hermione this in ''Chamber of Secrets'', there is a tremendous uproar and Ron even tries to curse him.
** In Books 5 and 7, [[spoiler:Snape's friendship and romantic hopes for something bigger are ruined when in reaction to Lily pulling an embarrassing rescue he says, "I don't need help from a filthy little mudbloods like her." This ruined his life... to say the least.]]
%%* FantasyForbiddingFather: The Dursleys.
* FantasyCounterpartAppliance: Mostly averted, because wizards either appropriate Muggle technology or invent something completely strange of their own, but there are a few cases; e.g., the Floo Network, which is regulated and functions not unlike a mass transit or communication system.
* FantasyGunControl: Guns exist in the Muggle world, but apparently not even Squibs seem to have them in the wizarding community; in an article about Sirius Black, it's mentioned that the Muggles have been warned he's carrying a gun, which is then defined as "a type of metal wand that Muggles use to kill each other."
** This has more to do with UK gun laws than Fantasy Gun Control. If the story took place in a country where owning arms is considered a basic right (like the US), then it would be unusual. However in the UK guns are strictly prohibited: it is illegal for citizens to own them and even police officers need special permits to carry.
* FantasyKitchenSink: Nearly everything about wizardry from Fantasy novels is revealed to exist -- and every mythological creature as well, especially in ''Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them''.
* FateWorseThanDeath:
** Neville's parents were tortured into insanity.
** The Dementor's Kiss sucks out a person's soul while leaving the body alive, leaving a shell of a person behind.
** The side-effect of drinking unicorn blood is "a cursed half-life."
** The state one finds oneself in after a horcrux successfully prevents death. Unlike the above, however, this state can be ended, either by true resurrection, or just "letting go."
** In the first book, Dumbledore mentions people who, transfixed by the Mirror of Erised, have literally wasted away in front of it.
* FictionalSport: Quidditch. Despite fantastic requirements, [[http://www.internationalquidditch.org/ people in real life have tried to replicate it.]]
* FieryRedhead: The Weasleys. All of them (except maybe Percy), but ''especially'' Ginny. Also, Lily Evans in book five.
* TheFirstCutIsTheDeepest: Cedric's death to Cho.
* FirstGirlWins: [[spoiler:Ginny Weasley is the first young witch Harry hears/meets at Platform 9 3/4, and Hermione is the first female friend Ron Weasley makes. Years later, Harry marries Ginny, and Ron marries Hermione. In TheFilmOfTheBook, Ginny Weasley is the first girl Harry's age we meet in both the first film ''and'' the second. She's also ''almost'' the first girl we see in the third film -- soon after Hermione's entrance, we see Ginny's face in a newspaper clipping.]]
* FiveBadBand: The major Death Eaters.
** BigBad: Voldemort.
** TheDragon: Bellatrix.
** EvilGenius: [[spoiler:Crouch, Jr. and Snape. The latter [[ReverseMole isn't really evil]], though...]]
** TheBrute: Fenrir Greyback.
** DarkChick: Peter Pettigrew and the Malfoys.
** SixthRangerTraitor: [[spoiler:Snape and, eventually, Narcissa.]]
** TeamPet: Nagini.
* FiveManBand: The main trio plus the auxiliary trio:
** TheHero: Harry.
** TheLancer: Ron.
** TheSmartGuy: Hermione (sometimes TheChick).
** TheBigGuy: Ginny, her [[LittleMissBadass petite stature]] notwithstanding.
** TheChick: Neville (Hermione and Luna show some traits as well).
** SixthRanger: Luna, who also counts as TheChick.
** TeamPet: Hedwig (and to a lesser extent, Pigwidgeon and Crookshanks).
* {{Flanderization}}: The Hogwarts Houses. Gryffindors are brave and righteous, Ravenclaws are clever and scholarly, Hufflepuffs are fair and sympathetic, and Slytherins are "ambitious and cunning," except Slytherin comes across much more as "the house of bad guys."
* FluffyTamer: Rubeus Hagrid. He has raised giant spiders, baby dragons, and a three-headed dog. Their names were Aragog, Norbert, and Fluffy, respectively. He's half-giant, so such creatures are less likely to hurt him, but he tends to not realize that most people aren't as indestructible as he is. This has landed him in trouble numerous times. Tom Riddle was able to use Aragog to frame him for opening the Chamber of Secrets and yet he never seems to learn. He's also a Fluffy ''breeder'', credited with the creation of the Blast-Ended Skrewts, an incredibly dangerous and aggressive hybrid possessed of absolutely no useful qualities.
* FluffyTheTerrible: Quite a few monsters, but the most famous is actually named Fluffy.
* FlyingBroomstick: Quite a few, often of plot significance, including the Nimbus and the Firebolt.
* FollowTheLeader: Rowling has admitted she wasn't the first to send kids to wizarding school. However, a lot of books have attempted to cash in on the success of ''Literature/HarryPotter'', some of them even being obvious ripoffs.
* ForeShadowing: The most important one is in the first book. Very subtly done, but right there for everyone to see, it may be one of the finest examples of foreshadowing in the history of literature. It forms the foundation for the build-up to the final confrontation with Voldemort, and gives Harry an advantage that he didn't know he had until literally the last minute. "''The wand chooses the wizard, Harry.''" Rowling says she had the entire outline for the series and how everything was going to play out clearly pictured in her head before she first put pen to paper. She wasn't kidding.
* FormallyNamedPet: Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris.
* ForTheEvulz: This seems to be the motivation behind at least half the things done by members of Slytherin House -- especially Malfoy. It seems rather bizarre when you remember that they're '''supposedly''' the House for the [[BadassDecay cunning and ambitious]].
* ForWantOfANail: If Voldemort's mother hadn't had the absolutely miserable life that she had -- abused by her father and brother, abandoned by her brainwashed Muggle Lover, swindled out of her sole possession, forgotten and uncared for by Wizard society -- perhaps Voldemort would not have been the sociopathic mass-murderer that he eventually came to be.
** That's not so much For Want Of A Nail, that's more For Want Of An Entire Toolbox!
* TheFourLoves: The main theme of Harry Potter is Agape.
* FullNameBasis: Harry Potter, to a few characters, notably Dobby and Voldemort.
* FullPotentialUpgrade: Wands are this for wizards. They have to either be precisely matched when purchased or legitimately won from a prior owner for best effect. Wizards who are shown to use hand-me-down wands (Ron and Neville) show a level of improvement when using one purchased just for them.
* FunctionalMagic: JKR says in interviews that she spent time working out the limits of wizard magic, but the novels only touch on these a few times.
* FunetikAksent: Hagrid, and the foreign visitors in ''Goblet of Fire''.
* FunnyBackgroundEvent: A common aspect of Rowling's writing in this series, one of her favorite kinds of scenes seems to be one where the characters are having a private conversation while in the background something amusing is going on at the same time. Most commonly, in the school scenes these often involve [[TricksterArchetype Peeves.]]
[[/folder]]
[[folder:G]]
* GangOfBullies: Dudley's gang as well as [[TerribleTrio Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle]].
** The Marauders were also this in regards to Snape. Snape was also a member of a gang of future Death Eaters, as was Tom Riddle.
* GenerationXerox: Subverted. Though differently mixed to form each character, there are several tendencies that carry on from the previous Hogwarts generation to this one:
** A [[TrueCompanions tightly-knit]] group of Gryffindors consisting of a [[TheHero a heroic, adventurous natural leader]] with disregard for the rules (Harry/James), a [[TheLancer more impulsive sidekick]] (Ron/Sirius), [[TheSmartGuy a studious]], member reluctant to break the rules (Hermione/Remus),[[TheSmartGirl a talented Muggle-born girl]] (Hermione/Lily) and a more loosely associated follower who is [[spoiler: (at first glance)]] inept at magic (Peter/Neville)
** A Pureblood Gryffindor strongly opposed to Pureblood supremacy (Ron/James). Said Gryffindor's family warmly accepts that Gryffindor's best friend (Harry/Sirius);
** A Slyterin Pureblood supremacist who has a lasting enmity with TheHero (Draco/Severus);
** A poor and unpopular boy who is friends with and in love with a Muggleborn witch (Ron/[[spoiler: Severus]]) who he [[KickTheMoralityPet hurts for no good reason]] (in Ron's case it gets better). He is often bullied by his wealthy Pureblood rival (Draco/[[spoiler: James]]);
** A no-nonsense and ambitious Gryffindor witch with red hair who ends up together with TheHero (Ginny/Lily);
** A pair of Gryffindor pranksters (Fred and George/James and Sirius);
** An [[AlwaysSecondBest insecure]] and [[OvershadowedByAwesome overshadowed]] member of the TrueCompanions (Ron/Peter). [[spoiler: He betrays and endangers the group out of weakness, but unlike Peter, Ron's betrayal is a MomentOfWeakness he overcomes]].
* GenericistGovernment: The Ministry of Magic.
* GeniusLoci: At Hogwarts, staircases sometimes change direction and are said to be fond of doing it.
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: See Radar.HarryPotter.
* GiantSquid: There's one in the Hogwarts lake. It's mainly there to add color and is very much a GentleGiant--when Dennis Creevey falls in the lake, it helps him back into his boat. Lee and the twins are even seen tickling it at one point.
* GiganticAdultsTinyBabies: Dragons start out football-sized at hatching, but most species grow to bus-size or larger.
* GoodCannotComprehendEvil: Dumbledore has shown that he can understand quite a bit about Voldemort. However, it turns out that Dumbledore was unable to figure out that Voldemort [[spoiler:hid one of his Horcruxes in the Room of Requirement]]. Why? Because Dumbledore was a model student who never cheated and hence had no need to use the room. Harry, however, was certainly not a model student, he cheated a couple of times, and he used that room, so he could figure it out.
* GoodLuckCharm: Felix Felicis potion acts as this when drunk.
* GradeSystemSnark: The N.E.W.T. scores. Among the grades are "T for Troll."
* GreaterScopeVillain: Lord Voldemort, the official Big Bad of ''Harry Potter'', fills this role instead sometimes:
** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets''. If you consider [[spoiler:the Tom Riddle in the diary]] as a separate person, Voldemort (the disembodied spectre in Albania) is a Bigger Bad in this book. Tom Riddle is more a manifestation of Voldemort's will, and at any rate acts independently from him (although in his interests).
** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban''. He isn't directly involved in the book's events but it's believed that Sirius Black, the Death Eater who helped Voldemort to kill [[Franchise/HarryPotter Harry's]] parents and later killed Peter Pettigrew and several muggle bystanders, was trying to kill Harry in hopes it'd somehow restore Voldemort. [[spoiler:Then in TheReveal we find out Peter Pettigrew faked his death and framed Black, but it still counts for the trope as Voldemort killing Harry's parents led to Sirius being imprisoned and Peter faking his death.]]
** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'' doesn't feature Voldemort at all, and all his actions take place outside the main events of the plot. The BigBad of the book eventually turns out to be [[spoiler:Severus Snape, who kills Dumbledore and sets most of the events in motion to further himself in Voldemort's eyes.]]
* GrowingWithTheAudience: Creator/JKRowling has stated that she intentionally wrote the series to encompass more mature and scarier themes as the young readers got a little older for each book. This took something of a hit during the "Three-Year Summer" after the fourth book; the audience grew quite a bit older than Harry, and so the reception began to decline.
* GuiltComplex: Harry suffers a massive one, usually born from his ChronicHeroSyndrome.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:H]]
* HappilyMarried:
** Molly and Arthur Weasley.
** While they were still alive, Harry's parents Lily and James.
** There's even reason to believe that Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy are happily married.
** Vernon and Petunia, whatever else you can say about them.
** Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom were likely this until [[spoiler:they were driven insane by the Cruciatus Curse]].
** Mr. and Mrs. Granger appear to be this from what little we can see of them.
** Bill and Fleur. Harry and [[spoiler: Ginny]] end up as happy marriages, too.
** Luna, Neville, George, Percy, and Dudley all had/will have this as well.
* HappinessInSlavery: Most house-elves love being servants. There's also the issue (which Hermione never seems to grasp in canon) that with one exception, "freeing them" -- especially from a master who isn't openly abusive -- is equivalent to ''sacking them in disgrace''. There are several instances of house-elves working around orders or finding loopholes to disobey masters that they ''don't'' like, rebelling without being freed. Even the exception to the rule, Dobby, essentially considers freedom the right to decide whose orders he will obey.
* HateSink: Plenty of characters exist solely to inspire hatred in the reader, starting with the Dursleys and later including Rita Skeeter, Zacharias Smith, Cormac [=McLaggen=], and Cornelius Fudge. But the main one is [[SadistTeacher Dolores Umbridge]], a secondary villain whose every quality, including her [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast name]], is carefully designed to make the reader despise her as much as possible.
* HeadlessHorseman: The Headless Hunt is an event held by a group of these.
* HeroesWantRedHeads: Ginny and Lily (and also Ron and Bill, if you argue that Heroines, or known beauties at least, want them as well).
** JKR confirmed that she really likes red hair, so she stuck an entire extended family of them into her series and made one her hero's best friend and the other [[spoiler:his (eventual) love interest]].
* HeroSecretService: The Order of the Phoenix.
%%* TheHerosJourney
* HeroWithBadPublicity: Harry himself, along with Sirius Black and [[spoiler:Severus Snape]].
* HeterosexualLifePartners:
** James Potter and Sirius Black.
** Harry and Ron, most definitely. They even have two break-up episodes: once in ''Goblet of Fire'' and another in ''Deathly Hallows''.
* HiddenDepths: A large amount of characters become gradually more rounded, most notably Snape and Neville.
** All {{Jerkass}} characters, without exception.
* HiddenElfVillage: Hidden Wizard World. Wizards routinely travel between sanctuaries such as their homes and [[BazaarOfTheBizarre Diagon Alley]], but on average, the ''entire'' Wizarding World is InvisibleToNormals.
* HillbillyHorrors: The Gaunt family represent this.
* HisOwnWorstEnemy: Although Harry is Voldemort's [[spoiler:literal]] mortal enemy, Voldemort [[spoiler:does have a huge responsibility in his own downfall right from the very beginning. When he was presented the Schrodinger's Prophecy he could've chosen to ''ignore'' it, but he didn't, and in doing so created his own downfall with Harry's scar]].
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Voldemort had no idea that [[spoiler:the Elder Wand technically belonged to Harry]]. [[spoiler:(Even though Harry actually ''told him'' about it.)]] So, naturally, when he tried to cast the Killing Curse on Harry with it, [[spoiler:it reflected back on him (''again'') and killed him permanently]].
* HomeschooledKids: According to JKR, this is the easiest way for wizarding families to get their kids through Primary School without exposing the wizarding world to Muggles. In ''Deathly Hallows'' it's also stated that wizarding parents have the option of homeschooling their children rather than sending them to Hogwarts or a foreign school, but at that point Voldemort's regime makes it mandatory for parents to send their children to Hogwarts so he can keep an eye on them.
* HomoeroticSubtext: Intentionally invoked with Sirius and Lupin, according to Alfonso Cuarón. Apparently, the director thought that Lupin was a "gay junkie".
* HormoneAddledTeenager: Nicely {{avert|ed trope}}s this trope until the later books, and then {{subvert|ed trope}}s it by making the main characters' teenage relationship tangles A) realistic and B) quite secondary to the actual plot. Done especially well with Hermione. After her brief liaison with Viktor Krum in ''Goblet of Fire'', she decides dating isn't all it's cracked up to be and realizes she's still not old enough for serious romantic entanglements. She's also largely uninterested in clothes and doesn't care that she has frizzy hair, concerning herself with academics rather than vanity.
* HufflepuffHouse: In addition to having the TropeNamer, the Ravenclaw House serves as something of a less triumphant example of the trope, at least until Cho Chang and later Luna Lovegood begin taking more active roles in the plot.
* HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace: A less extreme example with Portkeys, which accompany rather intense and blurry visuals. [[AllThereInTheManual According to Pottermore]], "Portkey-sickness" (hysterics and nausea) was a common start-of-school ailment during Hogwarts's brief flirtation with a Portkey network as subsidized transport to campus.
** Apparition certainly counts, as Harry describes it as an extremely unpleasant sensation of being squeezed through a very tight tunnel.
** Travelling by Floo powder could also count as a less-extreme example, considering that it involves spinning very fast and you could see any manner of things in one of the fireplaces, or fall out at the wrong grate, as Harry does in ''Chamber of Secrets''.
* {{Hypocrite}}:
** Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters are [[FantasticRacism prejudiced against]] wizards with [[WitchSpecies less than pure wizarding blood]] and non-human magical creatures in general despite he, himself, having a muggle parent. Though he's counting on the anti-Muggle feelings of his followers, he genuinely despises Muggles and anything he considers Mud-blood -- and he apparently has a one drop rule for everyone except himself [[spoiler:and personal Death Eaters like Snape]]. Although they also recruited giants and werewolves, they probably rationalized them as second- and third-tier "citizens" in Voldemort's new England.
*** It is suggested a few times that he is exploiting the prejudices of his own followers more than enforcing his own, and that he really doesn't care about anything but his own power anymore. Voldemort's own half-blood status is one of the reasons he started going after power. He considered his father to be lowly and weak and cowardly for turning away his mother and was determined to ignore his own history and go with wanting power.
** And then we have [[TyrantTakesTheHelm Umbridge]]. Although fans have a lot of reasons to [[HateSink hate her]] with [[LoveToHate relish]], her hypocrisy is certainly one of the main ones. In ''Order of the Phoenix'' she is seen as an agent of the Ministry, sycophantic to its causes and forcing tyrannical laws onto the school in order to get her own way, yet at the same time gleefully (although secretly) engaging in activities that are highly illegal and certainly unforgivable, even by the Ministry. Worse, she punishes Harry most severely for asserting that Voldemort is at large, insisting that he "not tell lies," while aping the official Ministry line on Voldemort, which is patently and obviously false. In ''Deathly Hallows'' she [[spoiler:persecutes Muggle-borns for "stealing magic," which she should certainly know is a nonsensical charge, while claiming that the locket she took as a bribe is an old family heirloom supporting her own bloodline. The injustice and cruelty of this enrages Harry so much that he attacks her immediately without resorting to a more subtle plan]].
** Sirius Black. Despite his axiom that the measure of a man is how he treats his inferiors, he behaves detestably towards Kreacher (because Kreacher reminds him of the house and the family he hated while growing up). Indeed, this is one of his least admirable qualities. [[spoiler:It also bites him in the arse. ''Hard''.]] But as Dumbledore clarifies, Sirius was kind to house-elves in general but Kreacher was special as a reminder of his home and the bad childhood that he hoped to escape.
*** Also, his belief that "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters" goes out the window during the argument with Snape, though the latter is himself not blameless in that regard. JKR admits that this is a serious flaw for Sirius, but she also admits that it's difficult to be morally consistent in life.
** Lupin in the [[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban third book]] tells Harry that he's appalled that Harry never brought the Marauder's Map to a teacher's attention given how useful it would be to catch Sirius or how useful it'd be to Sirius if he found it. Yet, Lupin never bothers telling Dumbledore (or anyone except Harry, Ron, and Hermione) that Sirius is an animagus and knows about the tunnel from the Shrieking Shack onto Hogwarts grounds.
[[/folder]]
[[folder:I]]
* IAmBigBoned: Madame Maxine uses this excuse not at the prospect of being called fat, but when Hagrid speculates that she is half-giant. This trope also applies to the Dursleys blaming Dudley's weight on baby fat. In the ''Prisoner of Askaban'' PS2 game, an unnamed girl says this about the Fat Lady.
* IdiotHero: PlayedWith. Harry is not stupid per se, but he ''is'' lacking in common sense on more than one occasion and often operates on instinct rather than thinking things through. He's often trying to take on wizards far older and far more experienced than him, he pins ''all'' of the wrongdoing in the school on Draco Malfoy (or Slytherin in general), and if ever he senses a corrupt and possibly harmful teacher, ''it's always Snape''. It gets to the point where, in ''Half-Blood Prince'', Ron and Hermione start rolling their eyes at Harry whenever he brings up his "Malfoy is a Death Eater" theory. [[spoiler:This is subverted when he turns out to be correct about both Malfoy (who ''is'' a Death Eater) and Snape ([[ReverseMole sort of]]).]] This gets him into trouble in ''Order of the Phoenix'', and Hermione even lampshades this by telling Harry he's got "a [[ChronicHeroSyndrome saving-people thing]]" that Voldemort not only ''can'' {{exploit|ed trope}}, but has exploited in the past. [[spoiler:Namely, kidnapping a mind-raped Ginny and taking her into the Chamber of Secrets because he wanted to meet Harry.]]
* IllGirl: [[spoiler:Ariana, Dumbledore's sister, became half-insane because she refused to use magic after a traumatic experience where she was attacked by three {{Muggle}} boys who found out she was a witch. Her family put it about that she just had poor physical health to avoid attracting attention, leading many people to theorize that she was a [[MuggleBornOfMages Squib]], when in reality she would have magic exploding out of her when she couldn't keep it in anymore.]]
%%* ImpoverishedPatrician: The Gaunt Family.
* IncestIsRelative:
** Just look at every pureblood family tree; Sirius's parents themselves were second cousins, and it is possible that Lucius and Narcissa are related, too, in some way or another.
** Also, the Gaunts, heirs of Salazar Slytherin and Voldemort's family, were apelike and extremely stupid and unattractive. According to Rowling, this is due to generations of inbreeding (''close'' inbreeding) to preserve not only their pureblood status but also their Parseltongue abilities. Handsome young Voldemort got all of his looks from his Muggle father.
--->'''Dumbledore:''' [The Gaunts] were known for a violent streak that flourished in the family, due to their habit of marrying their own cousins.
* InhumanlyBeautifulRace: Veelas are beautiful women with long silver-blonde hair, blue eyes, shining skin and perfect teeth. However, they have supernatural powers to seduce men and hypnotize them, so it is possible that Harry's description of them is a little exaggerated. They have one downside though: piss them off and they turn into [[HarpingOnAboutHarpies crazy bird monsters]] that throw fire at you. Also, Fleur Delacour claims to be part-Veela on her maternal grandmother's side.
* IneffectualDeathThreats: The staff of Hogwarts seem to love to toss around expulsion as if it's done weekly -- especially directed at younger students. We only ''ever'' meet one person expelled from Hogwarts -- Hagrid, who is now a professor.
* InsistentTerminology:
** Hermione Granger gets rather snippy when people refer to her "Society for the Promotion of Elvish Welfare" by its [[FunWithAcronyms acronym]].
*** The name is even better in Dutch: "Stichting Huiself voor Inburgering en Tolerantie" (society house-elf for naturalizing and tolerance).
** Also, whenever Harry calls Snape "Snape," the nearest adult (or Hermione) often corrects him: "''Professor'' Snape."
* InstantDeathBullet: ''Avada Kedavra'', the Killing Curse.
* InternalizedCategorism: Some of the meanest persons are said to hate themselves because they are squibs -- and to take this self-hatred out on young wizards of whom they are jealous. Though more ambiguous, it is also possible that Tom Riddle (Voldemort) himself was embarrassed over being a half-blood and that his Fantastic Racism was partly an overcompensation for this. (This example is for the novels only; the movies don't have room for such nuances.)
* InvincibleIncompetent: Harry may be the highest-functioning version of this possible, given his constant victories despite rarely being noted as exceptionally gifted at any type of magic outside of Defense Against the Dark Arts and flying, and fully half the time defeating the villain either by accident or through the actions of another.
** This is [[LampshadeHanging his main argument]] for refusing Hermione's suggestion to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderofThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]''; he's very aware that he's lived as long as he has thanks to situational luck, external help, and/or some personal flash of inspiration that he can't exactly teach others to have.
* {{Irony}}:
** The series often displays many examples but ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince the Half-Blood Prince]]'' is probably the one with the most and/or largest ones. In this book Snape stops teaching Potions class and teaches Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts, and is replaced in Potions by Professor Slughorn. Potions was previously Harry's worst subject because he hated Snape and never made the effort in class. In his first class with Slughorn he finds a second-hand book labelled as "the property of the Half-Blood Prince". Inside the book are vast amounts of hints that help Harry in his Potions classes, making it his best subject. Then the big reveal is that [[spoiler:Snape is the Half Blood Prince]]. At one point in the book Harry even makes a throwaway remark that The Prince is a much better teacher than Snape. Dramatic irony at its finest.
** The people who [[spoiler:seem to]] care the least for Harry (Vernon, Petunia, [[spoiler:Snape]], Aberforth) are the people who sacrifice the most of their own security and commodity to keep him free from Voldemort.
** Although everyone agrees that Professor Trelawney has not a whit of divinatory talent (most of the time), it happens that every single prediction she makes eventually comes true. Largely this is because they are extremely vague or already probable (for example, telling Harry, who's been marked as the nemesis of the Dark Lord, that he is in danger), but even so, her ultimate record is astoundingly perfect.
* IsThatWhatHeToldYou: Lots of well-meaning deception from Dumbledore.
* ItAmusedMe: The only reason Peeves the poltergeist does anything, although his pranks are (generally) more irritating than harmful. Dumbledore and the Bloody Baron are the only ones who can control him.
* ItMayHelpYouOnYourQuest: The items from [[spoiler:Dumbledore's will]]: The Deluminator, The Snitch, and the Tales of Beedle the Bard.
* ItSucksToBeTheChosenOne: For [[TheHero Harry]], who doesn't like how the Daily Prophet and the Ministry of Magic insist on calling him and treating him as the ChosenOne in ''Half-Blood Prince''.
[[/folder]]
