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…

One of the best things about the Harry Potter books is you can imagine yourself living in them. You might think that many children's series provide escapism and character identification. While that's true, the Wizarding World allows you to imagine yourself as just a regular person within the world. You don't need to be a heroic and brave Gryffindor to want to go to Hogwarts. Even though I'm not likely to be leading any revolutions, I still would like to attend that school. Many of Potterhead's…

I know it has been said hundreds of thousands of times by Harry Potter fans everywhere, but the Mauraders deserved better. Imagine being Lupin and watching your entire friend group die before they reach 40, only to die before you turn 40. One of his friends was killed by Voldemort, one was falsely imprisoned and villainized by the media, and the other turned over to the side of the Death Eaters. The trauma, drama, and absolute conflama of the Maurader's lives can sometimes be too much for me to…

Ronald Weasley is a horrifyingly underrated character in the Harry Potter franchise. According to some sources, before the first Harry Potter movie came out, Ron was a much more popular character among fans than Hermione. Unfortunately, that changed quickly when the Harry Potter films turned Ron into a goofy comic relief sidekick with fewer heroic moments. Hermione was the smart friend, Harry was the hero, and Ron was just there. The Ron depicted in the movies was definitely not the Ron in the…

So many people think they'd want a 6-hour-long Harry Potter movie that covers every single of the details of the books with no variation whatsoever. Not to be contrarian, but I believe this is a delusional take. Film and literature are two completely different mediums. Nobody really wants the exact details of Harry Potter played back at them onscreen like nobody would want a 129-part BBC “miniseries” of War and Peace. There are some plot points of the Harry Potter books that I wish they'd inclu…

Being sorted into your Harry Potter house is one of the most important moments of a young Potterhead's life. There are so many ways to do it. If you're one of the lucky ones, you can do it in person, like my friend who was sorted into Hufflepuff at a bookstore the night of the Deathly Hallows book release. Imagine how much fun it is to have a real sorting hat plopped on your head as an eight-year-old? Lucky dog. If you were sorted in the pre-Pottermore era, you likely had to fill out a question…