One of my favorite parts of the Harry Potter books were the Quidditch matches. There's something so relatable and simple about the fact that on that Quidditch pitch, Harry was just a normal kid. Sure, he was a jock and a sports prodigy, being the first first year to join the Quidditch team, but it was uniquely special watching him thrive in something. Harry wasn't a star student like Hermione and didn't have a great wizard family life like Ron. Quidditch is one of those things that he could suc…

I have never been a big fan of the Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them series. I'm happy that more movies are being made about the wizarding world, but I wish that these were different movies. JK Rowling is clearly surrounded by yes men who let her write the screenplay for all of these movies, despite her not having any skills as a screenwriter. Her author brain wanted to insert ten million characters into Fantastic Beasts that nobody cared about. She wanted to flesh out all of their backst…

Thank you, Chamber of Secrets.

If you ask a random Harry Potter fan off the street what they think of Severus Snape , chances are you will get a strong opinion. Get 100 Potterheads in a room, and there's a chance none of them will share the exact same take on Snape. Over the years, fan opinions have slowly but surely turned against Snape. While some still view him as a hero, it's a lot more common for people to see him as no more than a common villain who was needlessly cruel to an abused child because he still has a crush o…

I'm sure everybody, no matter what Hogwarts house they're in, wishes they could spend their hours of study and leisure in the Gryffindor Common Room . None of the other common rooms could compare to where Harry, Ron, and Hermione spend their Hogwarts days inbetween classes. The Slytherin Common room would make you feel like you're surrounded by concrete, with the AC always turned up way too high. There's probably a lot of fluorescent lighting that would do a number on the complexion. Look at ho…

If there's one Harry Potter character whose hype I never really understood, it's Draco Malfoy . So many Draco fangirls see him as a misunderstood boy with secret depth and hidden pain. I don't think that the text of the books or the movies really supports that, but I believe they get this idea from the aesthetics of Harry Potter itself. Draco is in the dark Hogwarts house. He lives in the dark dungeons of the school and doesn't really have any other friends besides his lackeys. He is raised in…

One of the greatest mysteries of my life has been one I'm sure all of us have asked at one point or another; What does Butterbeer taste like? That unanswered query is why I recently marched down to the Harry Potter store right near the Flatiron Building and spent 12 whole American dollars on a foamy glass of Harry Potter's favorite beverage. Nobody had ever described what it tasted like to me, so I was excited and ready for anything. When I tell you it is simply a butterscotch-flavored crème so…

[SPOILER ALERT] Not to turn the series into a love story, but would've been nice to really dive into how Harry and Ginny fall in love. It was just like immature flirting and then BOOM it's the end and they're married??

I don't know if there's ever been a fictional character with more father figures than Harry James Potter . Considering his lack of alive and supportive immediate family members, Harry had the chosen family thing down to a science. Rubeus Hagrid, Arthur Weasley, Albus Dumbledore, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, and arguably Severus Snape looked after Harry in a way his father no longer could. Hagrid made him and his friends tea, Lupin taught him how to ward off dementors, and Snape bullied him relent…

There are some Harry Potter takes that have been beaten to the ground. Everybody wonders why the Weasley twins didn't see Peter Pettigrew on the Marauders Map in the same room as Ron. Everybody has questions about how Gilderoy Lockhart was able to get hired at Hogwarts in the first place. My favorite Harry Potter plot hole pertains to everybody's favorite game: Quidditch. I really question the viability of Quidditch as a game. I know that in the Quidditch World Cup , the golden snitch is less c…

Gilderoy Lockhart is one of the funniest characters in the entire Wizarding World. He's one of those goofy, incompetent, largely unimportant fake-out villains that could've only come out of the first couple of books. It is such a wonder how this man even got hired at this school. Professor Quirrell, I get it. He's a socially awkward guy who happens to have Voldemort on the back of his head, but at least he knows the basic tenants of magic! Lockhart is worse at magic than 12-year-old kids who ha…

Happy Boxing Day, Potterheads! It's days like today that really make me think about how Dudley Dursley is doing as an adult. Of course, I know Dudley Dursley isn't a real person, but there are thousands of kids just like him all over the world who are all grown up now. Kids who cried if they got 36 presents for Christmas instead of 37 are walking the earth as we speak. I like to believe that Dudley ended up as a better person than when we first met him in Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone .…

Bri-ish

I don't know about you guys, but I wish I could've gone to Hogwart's Yule Ball. The way the Great Hall was decorated so elegantly for the holiday season, and the movie executed the set of that scene so brilliantly. I know that some fans are bitter about how the girl characters were costumed (mainly Hermione, Padma, and Parvati) but you have to admit, the movie did pretty darn well translating the book to the screen. My high school was so lame that we never had a “winter ball” themed dance. Ther…

I am a theme park fan, and no theme park is superior to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. It's a very simple formula, really. Millions of people worldwide want to walk around and exist at Hogwarts, Hogsmede, and Diagon Alley, and Universal Studios decided to facilitate that experience. Unfortunately, most of us won't actually get to go to magical boarding schools , so these theme parks are as good as it gets. I haven't been to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter yet but based on the vlogs I'…

Is Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone a Christmas movie? Scholars remain divided, but it's a well know fact among Potterheads that the Harry Potter movies are often a favorite to watch during the holidays. The scene with Ron and Harry celebrating Christmas together is too pure for words, and who among us hasn't wished we could spend the holiday within the walls of Hogwarts? I feel like every Harry Potter film gives me different seasonal vibes. Obviously, Sorcerers Stone and Chamber of Secrets…