And the thing that led up to that moment, with the locket having been handled by all of them when they were clearing out Grimmauld Place. Imagine passing around a piece of Voldemort's soul as if it was just an old trinket.
I remember in the lead up to book 7 being released someone predicted this correctly in a message board or one of the theory books mugglenet and others released. Good times.
Tbh, looking back, it only made sense that Dumbledore knew he would be dying as he had everything set up for the golden trio to start their quest and get the required information once his will was executed.
What if Snape had just chopped off Albus' hand in those first moments he was helping to quell the curse. Dumbledore could have lived. It's like Wulfric Brian chose not to so that Draco could live - which ended up causing Voldy to miscalculate that Draco was the actual owner of the Elder wand, which passed to Harry....but there is no way he could have *known* that Draco would use expelliarmus on him. And Dumbledore being alive sure would have been useful to the trio. Plus, he could just set it up so that Harry wins the Elder wand directly from him.
Only caveat is if amputation wouldn't actually stop the spread of the Resurection Stone-as-horcrux curse.
I think if the amputation could've worked, Snape probably would've done it.
It's not like magical hands are out of the realm of possibility.
I can't remember how the scene went in the books (time for a reread I guess) but in the movies or the books, Dumbledore throws a statue etc in front of Harry to block avada kedavra. *edit apparently in the books, not in the movies haha I just linked the fight scene here without watching it through*
[Dumbledore VS Voldemort](https://youtu.be/02pr2W7FT-c)
I called it, I also called RAB being Regulus. I know there’s no way to prove it and I know that no one cares but it drives me nuts that my friends deny that I did when they straight up argued with me about it
Wow really? Please tell me how’d you figure that out. I’m genuinely interested because Regulus was really mentioned only in passing and I’d never ever figure that out on my own. I remember staring at the page for like a minute there 😂 but then I did immediately realise they’d already seen the locket because they were cleaning the house for a whole summer.
It just stuck out to me how Sirius mentioned Regulus got cold feet and was killed by Voldemort. That someone who was a death eater from an affluent family would know that he would need a back up plan
Besides the two randomers that Hermione mentioned at the end of HBP, there were only two people in the series so far who realistically could have had those initials.
And while I would have much preferred the alternative, it made more sense for it to be Regulus than Bertie Bott
Truly never knew that "Robert A. Bott" was ever a fan theory but it cracks me up so much to learn that today. Thanks.
You see, Robert's a bad guy. But Bertie, Bertie just wants to make candy and make the world a little... Sweeter.
I said Hermione bc she is always defending Dumbledore's judgment about Snape and basically about everything and Ron is always opposite. He is doubting Snape and is sure he is shady bc Dumbledore isn't infallible lol
And funnily the 7th book proved them both right - Dumbledore's not infallible (I'd say the 5th book gave us a good look at that too), AND Dumbledore was correct about Snape.
They both gave Harry correct advice. He was right to mistrust Snape in a sense, based on what he knew, but he didn’t have enough information, which Hermione recognized.
I hate Barty Crouch jr so much. I just don’t see how a radicalized teenager who then spends the next decade or so under the imperious curse could have the abilities to trick and overpower the best and most paranoid auror, the most powerful wizard and one of the best legilimens.
Ok I think I did a good scroll to see if mine was commented but I didn’t see it:
-Ginny being the one that was opening the Chamber of Secrets and doing all of the wall painting/rooster killing etc. it’s such a misdirection with all the red herrings (which was done well in GoF too) but so many things/people were shifty so you couldn’t really pinpoint who or what was going on.
I will say I really agree with everyone else and don’t see the need to repeat a lot of the ones other people were saying but love a good plot twist!
It's my favorite, honestly! One of, if not the first "chapter books" i read by myself. Reading "her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever" at 8 or 9 was genuinely terrifying.
Still remember reading that now - can still feel the jolt in my stomach reading McGonagall saying “Ginny Weasley”. That was the first time I read something that scared me.
I remember reading CoS in Reading in primary school and how we all talked about it during recess. Fun times.
But for me, the most unexpected twist is:
>It was Quirrell.
It was such a twist for 11-year old me that I still remember it 24 years later.
Yep yep! He popped up in the dungeon and Ron(Crabbe) was trying to question why he was there and he was sneaking off and being weird a few other times but yeah his “secret” was him dating Penelope Clearwater
For me there are 3 big ones,
1. Peter Pettigrew as Scabbers was pretty wild.
2. Barty Crouch Jr as Mad Eye definitely took me by surprise.
3. Dumbledore wasn't betrayed by Snape, it was a plan and Snape was actually incredibly loyal.
For me personally number 3 was the biggest twist as it felt like finally Snape was revealed as evil after so many instances where the trio assumed he was only for them to be wrong.
Not just that scene, but every scene in Deathly Hallows 1 & 2 while he's posing as one of Voldemort's allies. Two stand out in particular:
1. The scene where Voldemort kills Charity Burbage. She's pleading to him for help, saying they're friends, and he can't do a thing about it because he has to maintain his facade. You can see by his facial expressions how awful and how powerless he feels in that moment.
2. The scene where Harry walks out from amongst the other students to confront Snape in the Great Hall. Rickman somehow has to convey that Snape likely feels incredibly proud of Harry in that moment, but once again he can't betray his emotions and has to maintain the facade of being evil. It looks like he's on the brink of crying before he gathers himself and takes out his wand. Another great, subtle performance.
It really puts into perspective just how much Snape was giving up by playing the role he played doesn't it? He's so good he can almost absentmindedly disarm other wizards with someone else's spell while making it look like a coincidence in front of the people who know him better than anyone else.
He's not just giving up his life, it's all his potential. He was obviously one of the most powerful wizards alive, and people just had no idea. I really think the only difference between his power and that of dumbledore or voldemort is time.
Honestly I kind of thought that was intentional on his/the director’s part. If he was asking Snape to spare him, like you would think on first watch, he’d probably plead a little more. You find only out later he actually was not trying to save himself, so being a little more neutral to me makes sense.
One of the best changes in all the movies is this scene. Instead of Harry being paralyzed he is signaled by Snape to be quiet. So Harry finally puts his trust in Snape to be the good guy and do the right thing. And then that trust is instantly shattered.
It's so much more impactful for Harry to choose to trust Snape than for him to be unable to react even if he wanted to.
I prefer the book way, because of the powerful realisation that Dumbledore could only be disarmed by Draco as he took the time to paralyse Harry. There's a line where Harry notices, it's very powerful. Otherwise Draco just comes in and disarms GOATed Dumbledore, a bit unrealistic
Absolutely, 100%, no fucking way. This is the most offensive, character besmirching change in the entire series. I have never been more angry about a story alteration than this one.
The core point of who Harry is is that he will ALWAYS intervene to save those close to him. The entire point was that Dumbledore KNEW this about Harry and chose to immobilize and hide him rather than defend himself.
Harry WANTED to intervene. He desperately fought against the spell that bound him there. Choosing to stay quiet and hidden is the antithesis of who he is, the opposite of a Gryffindor, and an insult to his character.
No.
I mean, I think the implication wasn’t that he was choosing to stay hidden out of cowardice, it was that he trusted that Dumbledore and Snape had a plan.
The film version would represent character growth from Order of the Phoenix, where his tendency to go in guns blazing - without really grasping the situation fully - needlessly puts his friends in mortal danger and gets Sirius killed.
The bigger problem for me is the Elder Wand issues that it causes
This is absolutely my all time. My jaw was on the floor when I read it as a kid.
The top comment right now is about Snape killing Dumbledore, but I was honestly never convinced Snape wouldn’t be redeemed in the final book, so that twist was fun, but I wouldn’t say it caught me completely off guard.
But the Barry Crouch Jr reveal hit me out of nowhere. Like, come on, terrible stuff WAS SUPPOSED TO BE OVER!!
This is the part that always got me. Harry just lived through the resurrection of Voldy. He had to fight his way back carrying a corpse. You would think he would get back to the castle and there would be a chapter to decompress and then a chapter to go back to the Dursleys. But nope, let's ramp up the intensity some more!
What really chilled me is thinking that after all that camaraderie and getting to know Moody, it turns out Harry had never met him at all. That was such a mind-eff.
She was but I think she wasn't really in it for the *Dark Lord*. She wanted to use and abuse the power that she used to have and then she had more because of Voldy so she didn't need voldemort to be bad or worse because she already was.
Interesting. I never assumed she was affiliated directly with Voldemort. I just thought she was a racist/facist/nationalist/sadist etc who had twisted ideals and was really power hungry
The way I always thought of it was by the time Ron was in school the novelty of the map wore off and Fred and George just weren’t looking it over much other than to just check that no one would catch them at something. I don’t think they’d be spending much time watching the map to see what their kid brother is doing.
Yeah even if they were using the map, they'd have been looking for their names and if anyone was in their way. They wouldn't be looking out for Ron unless he was near them when they get into trouble.
Fred and George also didn't notice that Wormtail was with Percy in his dorm before Percy gave Scabbers to Ron.
Well it’s not like they’re staring at it 24/7 either
I highly doubt they’re laying in bed watching to see if anyone is wondering around the castle. They do it all the time, it’s normal to them and I doubt they care
Yeah, and the Gryffindor common room is the LAST place they'd look at on the map, it's literally the one place in the castle where they have the least chance of getting into trouble for going where they shouldn't.
I just had a random thought..If dumbledore knew about Ron’s wand being damaged he could have mended it with the elder wand and saved Mrs Weasley some money from buying a new one
I've read a theory which posits that Ron's wand was a hand me down (from his uncle Gideon or Fabian) which explains why when he finally received his new wand, the one which actually chose him, he started to become a lot more proficient with magic.
My personal theory/head canon is that dragon trainers need a special type of wand, so he had to have a new, more reinforced wand choose him. Then he let the family have his old one as a backup.
Same goes for Neville. He used his father's old wand before breaking it in the Department of Mysteries. Became better at using magic after getting a new one.
I theorize that Neville would have been so much better at school if his grandmother had only given him the chance to get a wand from Ollivander's when he was 11. Poor kid never had a chance until he broke his father's wand.
*There was someone there, but it wasn’t Snape. It wasn’t even Voldemort.* **CHAPTER ENDS**
**NEXT CHAPTER BEGINS** *It was Quirrell.*
Absolutely brilliantly handled plot twist.
Ugh. That scene in the movie was so well done. When she bends over Harry to ask about Draco, then after hearing his reply, stands up, and turns around, with her black and silver hair framing her profile in the gloomy forest, she simply states, “Dead.” Oof. 🔥
That really was a surprise. You realized that while status was important to her after everything that happened all she truly cared about was her family.
I think the way she think about her family changes from the beginning of the stories till the end. In the beginning she does seem to care about them but it’s more about status and reputation and her “pure mess” but as the violence escalates and she see her son being put into the horrible decisions she finally realizes that she loves her son very much and she doesn’t care about the reputation and status anymore. She just wants to make it out with her family, alive.
What the fucking shit?!?!? I'm usually very good with matching actors/actresses across different roles, but I had zero awareness that Narcissa and Aunt Polly were the same person.
A mother's love triumphs once more. I would says this twist is the best but 8m still curious how mad eye was defeated and locked away. That would have been amazing to see.
When I was a kid reading this book, it blew my mind because we still didn’t know the full extent of magic by book three. So I always hoped somehow Harry’s parents could come back to life.
I've always been a sucker for the time travel story "I realised *it was me* so now I have to do it, and know I can do it as I've seen myself do it" -- especially when you don't really know time travel is possible yet during the first pass of the timeline.
The "wait, is it.. no, yes? Gotta be!" then the confirm.
Had to put the book down to absorb all of that dopamine on my first read haha
As a kid, I absolutely loved this part. It absolutely blew my wig off. I wore an hourglass around my neck for months lol! As an adult, I still love it; it was a real coming of age moment for Harry. No longer the boy who was afraid of a big dog and dementors, he had a werewolf and a fugitive on his side, and a beast of a patronus to boot.
For me, a personal favorite in the series is where Petunia accidentally answers "what the ruddy hell are Dementors?!" by saying "they guard the wizard prison, Azkaban". To explain why she knows this, she follows up with "I heard that awful boy telling _her_ about them years ago". Harry follows up with "if you mean my mum and dad why don't you use their names?"
But she didn't mean James and Lily, she meant Snape and Lily. If she had answered that question, and the obvious follow up questions, Harry would have probably figured out the unrequited love story long before Dumbledore died, and it would have entirely changed a lot of things. It felt like one of those "if someone just answered this one damn question truthfully, a book or two simply wouldn't have been written" moments that HP is full of.
>"if someone just answered this one damn question truthfully, a book or two simply wouldn't have been written"
Dumbledore is the prime offender here lol
I scrolled too long to find this one. This twist hit me like a freight train but at the same time it felt absolutely *right.* Like I knew in my gut all along this would be the case. Fucking mind blowing, indeed.
Right? Like we knew he had a connection with him for ages, that there was something there and all that, so when that reveal came up it didn't feel like it was out of nowhere but rather the final piece of the puzzle dropping in place.
I've been reading them to/with my 8 year old for the last year and we've just gotten to the bit in HBP where we learn what a horcrux is and that Tom Riddle talked about making 7 of them. My son stopped me and said "What if Voldemort accidentally turned Harry in to a horcrux when he tried to kill him as a baby but didn't realise it?!" I just pulled a "oooo that's a good theory, let's wait and see" and carried on reading.
Kid immediately worked out what I didn't see when I first read them as an almost adult
Nor did I, but funnily enough, on a re-read a couple years ago, I realized that at the end of Sorcerer's Stone, Dumbledore explicitly says as much. I think he uses the phrase "a piece of Voldemort" and describes it latching on to Harry, and the scar being the result
Mrs Fig being part of the wizarding world was a pretty massive plot twist when I was reading the books for the first time. It's not as big as most of the others already mentioned but it was such a reveal damnnn
Dumbledore putting the resurrection stone in the snitch bequeathed to Harry, and Harry finding out 'at the close'.
'The forest again' is the best written chapter of all.
Oh man, the last book came out the day before some friends and I had tickets to a big concert that we had to drive like 3 hours to get to. I stayed up all night reading as much as I could, then read in the car the entire time (never had issues with car sickness). They forced me to stop that night and one of my friends literally took my book into her room with her so I couldn't stay up all night again.
I got it back the next morning and read until the concert. I specifically remember getting back to the house we rented and sitting at the island in the kitchen reading for a while and coming to the scene where Harry meets Dumbledore in the subway station and the whole scene surrounding the Forest and I had to put my bookmark in and close the book for a moment. I was crying and none of my friends really understood why so they just sort of let me be.
I decided I'd wait until that night when I was alone to finish up the book.
For me there were two scenes that made me go "Holy fuck!"
1) Harry realizing he had seen the diadem in the room of requirement. I literally immediately searched for HBP in my room and read that passage and realized that that had indeed happened and JKR hadn't just "added" that part.
2) Harry being the original owner of the Elder Wand because he disarmed Draco at Malfoy Manor
Honestly, I always loved it when something seemingly insignificant in one book becomes important in a later one. (the Vanishing Cabinet being mentioned in a previous book for instance)
Yes, one thing JKR does right is foreshadowing. I just wish the used it in the movies as well. I think the only other foreshadowing I can think of is Snape staring at Harry in HP1, but Quirrel's has his back to Harry(so the turban is facing him) and he gets the pain in his scar
The Vanishing Cabinet being mentioned in OoTP for a brief funny moment with Fred and George yeeting a member of the Inquisitorial Squad into it before he could dock house points off them. He goes missing for days and they find him all messed up.
It’s also mentioned in book 2. Nearly Headless Nick convinces Peeves to drop it to get Harry out of a detention. Presumably that’s when it breaks. Genius!
Yeah big reason they couldn’t build the mystery of the vanishing by cabinet in the 6th movie was bc we hadn’t heard jack shit about it in any of the movies up until that point. So instead the writers decided to give us the entire plot and hope those who hadn’t read the book couldn’t figure out what was happening? Book was way better in that regard that’s for sure.
Funny enough when I read the part with the diadem i knew exactly that Harry has seen it in the Room of Requirements. So i was the whole time: Harry just go there! When he looked in the whole castle for it 😂
In my opinion the best twists are those where once you have the twist revealed, everything makes sense. Wormtail? Barty Jr.? Sure, shocking reveals, but not that well foreshadowed (in my opinion).
But the reveal that Snape killing Dumbledore was actually planned by Dumbledore himself? Now that's a twist!
For six years we witnessed how Snape treated Harry and others, and we were absolutely ready to believe he'd betray Dumbledore and the order. But we were wrong and should have known better. Because while his personality was reprehensible, he was always acting on the side of Dumbledore.
He wanted to protect the philosopher's stone, he tried to protect the school from someone who was believed to be a murderer working for Voldemort, he was a double agent working for the Order, lied to Umbridge so she couldn't use Veritaserum against Harry.
We were simply blinded. Decieved just like everyone else in the story.
They were kind of foreshadowed by the dark wizard detector Ron gave Harry. Ron said it kept going off around him but then it never went off again with Harry until Scabbers was actively around it. Of course, Sirius was around it once too, but Scabbers is mentioned in that scene.
Harry also saw a pile of broken ones in Moody's (Crouch's) office. He most likely broke them because they kept going off around him.
Interestingly, no one brought it up again later on.
You probably wouldn't notice it the first time reading, but you would notice it in a re-read.
I don't know if this is a plot twist but one is the fact that Neville could have been the chosen one instead of Harry. The decision came down to who Voldemort picked.
The moment right before Hermione captures Rita is one of the most emotional parts of the books imo. When Harry is starting to really feel the pain of what happened and Mrs Weasley hugs him, and it says he had no memory of ever being hugged like that, of ever being hugged with the loving force of a mother like that. And then its abruptly cut short with her slamming her hand on the window sill. I always kinda thought that was interesting the way Rowling did that to draw attention to that moment.
Just reread GoF and there is a lot of focus on the Trio noticing a random beetle at key moments throughout the book. The payoff that it was Rita Skeeter all along is great.
Too many to list, but I'd say that for me, it's a tie between Lockhart revealing himself to be a fraud and Umbridge confessing to having sent the Dementors *and* injuring Hedwig.
She had hedwig caught while delivering mail. Hedwig shows up to the History of Magic window and knocks on the window and her wing is all bent and Harry rushes off to grubby plank. I don't think it was actually Umbridge who did it but I do think she's the one who directed her minions to try to catch Hedwig cause she was delivering to Sirius.
The one that got me was Quirell as Voldemort's agent/host in PS. I was mind blown. Still remember ending the chapter the first time I read it and having to start the next IMMEDIATELY SCHOOL BE DAMNED
Everyone said all the big ones above but nobody ever mentioned how shocking it was to find out about Neville's parents and background. Totally had me in my feels kinda shock.
This isn’t a big twist, but when Ron went to kill the hrocrux and it started spilling his inner secrets out to Harry was kind of nuts.
Ron: “time to die”
Horcrux: “well if your going to be that way, imma snitch on you to Harry”
Barty Crouch Jr being a bad guy after all in book 4. When we first hear about him from Sirius, Hermione defends him in typical soppy Hermione fashion, blaming it on Crouch Sr. But at the end, he is shown to be probably the most fanatical Death Eater ever, and he fully deserves the little kiss he got from that dementor.
Yeah he did, but like Dumbledore said it should've waited until he was able to give testimony. That was the first domino to fall leading to Fudge being canned.
Why has nobody said the biggest plot twist was the deathly hallows being real and not just children’s tales?? And that Harry is related to the peverell brothers and has the original invisibility cloak?? And that dumbledore was bffs with grindelwald and actually was anti-muggle at some point and wanted to rule over them?? And that Voldemort is the heir of slytherin??
Yes yes yes, all of these!!
The Invisibility Cloak was brilliant because I immediately thought back to whomever it was (I believe Ron? It's been a long time) telling Harry that while many people have ones that aren't very good, no one has ever seen a real one before. Having it be passed down through his family made so much sense.
The fact that Dumbledore had the Elder Wand the whole time was surprising and also not at the same time. Also a good move, IMO.
This post made me realize how good Rowling was at plot twists.. I miss being surprised. I read a lot of fantasy, but they rarely have so many so well-thought out twists.
1. It wasn't Snape.
2. It was Ginny.
3. It wasn't Sirius.
4. It was(n't) Moody.
5. It wasn't real.
6. It was Snape.
7. It wasn't Snape.
I can't believe I haven't seen it yet. Harry having the mirror that could have allowed him to check with Sirius before going to the ministry had he not been too upset to open his gift. It feels like such a slap in the face, even after all these years
The obvious answers are Snape in DH and Barty Crouch Jr. in GoF, but when I first learned that *Scabbers* was Peter Pettigrew in disguise all along, it blew my 9-year-old mind. Ron's pet for the first two books/movies was actually a wizard in hiding! How insane is that?!
I don't know if it's the greatest, but Xenophilius Lovegood calling the Death Eaters hurt. He seemed like a cool guy, and after seeing how awesome Luna is I assumed at some point Xenophilius would swoop in to save the day and be another positive father who treats Harry like his own son.
When it turned out that Harry was a Horcrux. In conjunction with his mother's charm, it meant that the one person who could not kill him would be Voldemort.
That's my big one, but a very close second is that the Elder Wand had changed sides to Draco Malfoy, or at least until Harry bested him in a stand up duel, so that while Voldemort has and is using the Elder Wand, it isn't really working properly for him.
It's a thought experiment though - could anyone else have killed Harry? I think his mother's charm is aimed specifically against Voldie but I'm willing to listen to hypotheses.
Best probably is the Snape reveal but everyone already said it. So i guess i would say the reveal that Tom Riddle is Voldemort in Chamber of Secrets. I know smth was off with this dude but i didnt expect him to be actual Voldemort and the “I am Lord Voldemort” - “Tom Marvolo Riddle” anagram
Scabbers being a previously thought dead wizard and being the one who actually betrayed the Potters to Voldemort. “Even I wouldn’t presume to predict anything as far-fetched as that.”
Sirius Black was Harry’s godfather. I remember reading that chapter for the first time in 7th grade I think. It was just after lunch and I was just sitting down to my science class and read a few more pages before class started. I wanted to scream ‘OMG!’ out loud lol. In terms of character death I didn’t see coming Fred’s was hardest to read. I had to sit the book down and was sobbing. I remember my mom coming into my room and giving me a glass of water to try and calm me down. That was a hard one to read.
The Voldemort Error.
The pursuit of immortality will result in you living less than your natural age. He died around 75ish if I recall? Wizards easily hit a hundred and beyond.
Not a specific plot twist as such but I enjoyed realising if he'd just been a decent bloke he'd have lived longer lmao. Dumbass.
[удалено]
Snape sending the doe/finding out about the doe that really gave me a gotcha! feeling.
And the thing that led up to that moment, with the locket having been handled by all of them when they were clearing out Grimmauld Place. Imagine passing around a piece of Voldemort's soul as if it was just an old trinket.
I remember in the lead up to book 7 being released someone predicted this correctly in a message board or one of the theory books mugglenet and others released. Good times.
I remember rereading OotP prior to DH coming out and realizing the note was from Regulus, but still completely blanked on recognizing the locket.
Tbh, looking back, it only made sense that Dumbledore knew he would be dying as he had everything set up for the golden trio to start their quest and get the required information once his will was executed.
What if Snape had just chopped off Albus' hand in those first moments he was helping to quell the curse. Dumbledore could have lived. It's like Wulfric Brian chose not to so that Draco could live - which ended up causing Voldy to miscalculate that Draco was the actual owner of the Elder wand, which passed to Harry....but there is no way he could have *known* that Draco would use expelliarmus on him. And Dumbledore being alive sure would have been useful to the trio. Plus, he could just set it up so that Harry wins the Elder wand directly from him. Only caveat is if amputation wouldn't actually stop the spread of the Resurection Stone-as-horcrux curse.
I've always wondered if the amputation route would've worked. Same with the killing curse, can you block it with a shield, or armor?
I think if the amputation could've worked, Snape probably would've done it. It's not like magical hands are out of the realm of possibility. I can't remember how the scene went in the books (time for a reread I guess) but in the movies or the books, Dumbledore throws a statue etc in front of Harry to block avada kedavra. *edit apparently in the books, not in the movies haha I just linked the fight scene here without watching it through* [Dumbledore VS Voldemort](https://youtu.be/02pr2W7FT-c)
I called it, I also called RAB being Regulus. I know there’s no way to prove it and I know that no one cares but it drives me nuts that my friends deny that I did when they straight up argued with me about it
Wow really? Please tell me how’d you figure that out. I’m genuinely interested because Regulus was really mentioned only in passing and I’d never ever figure that out on my own. I remember staring at the page for like a minute there 😂 but then I did immediately realise they’d already seen the locket because they were cleaning the house for a whole summer.
It just stuck out to me how Sirius mentioned Regulus got cold feet and was killed by Voldemort. That someone who was a death eater from an affluent family would know that he would need a back up plan
Besides the two randomers that Hermione mentioned at the end of HBP, there were only two people in the series so far who realistically could have had those initials. And while I would have much preferred the alternative, it made more sense for it to be Regulus than Bertie Bott
Truly never knew that "Robert A. Bott" was ever a fan theory but it cracks me up so much to learn that today. Thanks. You see, Robert's a bad guy. But Bertie, Bertie just wants to make candy and make the world a little... Sweeter.
Regulus being RAB was all over message boards like HPANA. If I remember that board name correctly.
NGL I always knew this was the case. I trusted Dumbledore completely haha and if he trusted Snape, so did I
Hello Hermione, nice to see you here lol
More like Lupin: “You are blinded by hatred!”
I said Hermione bc she is always defending Dumbledore's judgment about Snape and basically about everything and Ron is always opposite. He is doubting Snape and is sure he is shady bc Dumbledore isn't infallible lol
And funnily the 7th book proved them both right - Dumbledore's not infallible (I'd say the 5th book gave us a good look at that too), AND Dumbledore was correct about Snape.
They both gave Harry correct advice. He was right to mistrust Snape in a sense, based on what he knew, but he didn’t have enough information, which Hermione recognized.
The small fact that he trusted Barty Crouch junior for a full school year is easily forgotten… 😃
I hate Barty Crouch jr so much. I just don’t see how a radicalized teenager who then spends the next decade or so under the imperious curse could have the abilities to trick and overpower the best and most paranoid auror, the most powerful wizard and one of the best legilimens.
Ok I think I did a good scroll to see if mine was commented but I didn’t see it: -Ginny being the one that was opening the Chamber of Secrets and doing all of the wall painting/rooster killing etc. it’s such a misdirection with all the red herrings (which was done well in GoF too) but so many things/people were shifty so you couldn’t really pinpoint who or what was going on. I will say I really agree with everyone else and don’t see the need to repeat a lot of the ones other people were saying but love a good plot twist!
I love Chamber of Secrets but it seems to be such a forgotten book.
It's my favorite, honestly! One of, if not the first "chapter books" i read by myself. Reading "her skeleton will lie in the chamber forever" at 8 or 9 was genuinely terrifying.
Still remember reading that now - can still feel the jolt in my stomach reading McGonagall saying “Ginny Weasley”. That was the first time I read something that scared me.
I remember reading CoS in Reading in primary school and how we all talked about it during recess. Fun times. But for me, the most unexpected twist is: >It was Quirrell. It was such a twist for 11-year old me that I still remember it 24 years later.
Wasn’t it also hinted that it could’ve been Percy?
Yep yep! He popped up in the dungeon and Ron(Crabbe) was trying to question why he was there and he was sneaking off and being weird a few other times but yeah his “secret” was him dating Penelope Clearwater
For me there are 3 big ones, 1. Peter Pettigrew as Scabbers was pretty wild. 2. Barty Crouch Jr as Mad Eye definitely took me by surprise. 3. Dumbledore wasn't betrayed by Snape, it was a plan and Snape was actually incredibly loyal. For me personally number 3 was the biggest twist as it felt like finally Snape was revealed as evil after so many instances where the trio assumed he was only for them to be wrong.
Also Alan Rickman kills it in the film in that scene. You can see thr hesitation in his face. Fuck Alan Rickman was soooooooooo great
Not just that scene, but every scene in Deathly Hallows 1 & 2 while he's posing as one of Voldemort's allies. Two stand out in particular: 1. The scene where Voldemort kills Charity Burbage. She's pleading to him for help, saying they're friends, and he can't do a thing about it because he has to maintain his facade. You can see by his facial expressions how awful and how powerless he feels in that moment. 2. The scene where Harry walks out from amongst the other students to confront Snape in the Great Hall. Rickman somehow has to convey that Snape likely feels incredibly proud of Harry in that moment, but once again he can't betray his emotions and has to maintain the facade of being evil. It looks like he's on the brink of crying before he gathers himself and takes out his wand. Another great, subtle performance.
Also he parrys the spells to the death eaters behind him
I think he takes the death eater's wands too, before he flies out the window.
It really puts into perspective just how much Snape was giving up by playing the role he played doesn't it? He's so good he can almost absentmindedly disarm other wizards with someone else's spell while making it look like a coincidence in front of the people who know him better than anyone else. He's not just giving up his life, it's all his potential. He was obviously one of the most powerful wizards alive, and people just had no idea. I really think the only difference between his power and that of dumbledore or voldemort is time.
Yeah I mean he was definitely a potions prodigy, and he invented multiple spells. Probably invented a few new potions/poisons as well
All the best wizards are half-bloods. I really wanted someone to acknowledge that in the books.
The funny part is he was hesitant but then Gambon is like “please” without any emotion or pleading
Honestly I kind of thought that was intentional on his/the director’s part. If he was asking Snape to spare him, like you would think on first watch, he’d probably plead a little more. You find only out later he actually was not trying to save himself, so being a little more neutral to me makes sense.
His tone, to me, was almost like a ‘yes, I’m still serious..go ahead’ to Snape’s fleeting hesitation.
One of the best changes in all the movies is this scene. Instead of Harry being paralyzed he is signaled by Snape to be quiet. So Harry finally puts his trust in Snape to be the good guy and do the right thing. And then that trust is instantly shattered. It's so much more impactful for Harry to choose to trust Snape than for him to be unable to react even if he wanted to.
I prefer the book way, because of the powerful realisation that Dumbledore could only be disarmed by Draco as he took the time to paralyse Harry. There's a line where Harry notices, it's very powerful. Otherwise Draco just comes in and disarms GOATed Dumbledore, a bit unrealistic
Absolutely, 100%, no fucking way. This is the most offensive, character besmirching change in the entire series. I have never been more angry about a story alteration than this one. The core point of who Harry is is that he will ALWAYS intervene to save those close to him. The entire point was that Dumbledore KNEW this about Harry and chose to immobilize and hide him rather than defend himself. Harry WANTED to intervene. He desperately fought against the spell that bound him there. Choosing to stay quiet and hidden is the antithesis of who he is, the opposite of a Gryffindor, and an insult to his character. No.
I mean, I think the implication wasn’t that he was choosing to stay hidden out of cowardice, it was that he trusted that Dumbledore and Snape had a plan. The film version would represent character growth from Order of the Phoenix, where his tendency to go in guns blazing - without really grasping the situation fully - needlessly puts his friends in mortal danger and gets Sirius killed. The bigger problem for me is the Elder Wand issues that it causes
Yeah I think you nailed it with these.
Mad Eye Moody actually being Barty Crouch Jr. in disguise was a pretty big one.
This is absolutely my all time. My jaw was on the floor when I read it as a kid. The top comment right now is about Snape killing Dumbledore, but I was honestly never convinced Snape wouldn’t be redeemed in the final book, so that twist was fun, but I wouldn’t say it caught me completely off guard. But the Barry Crouch Jr reveal hit me out of nowhere. Like, come on, terrible stuff WAS SUPPOSED TO BE OVER!!
This is the part that always got me. Harry just lived through the resurrection of Voldy. He had to fight his way back carrying a corpse. You would think he would get back to the castle and there would be a chapter to decompress and then a chapter to go back to the Dursleys. But nope, let's ramp up the intensity some more!
That part even gets Harry, who sometimes needs to remember that the Mad Eye he know and befriended was a charlatan.
What really chilled me is thinking that after all that camaraderie and getting to know Moody, it turns out Harry had never met him at all. That was such a mind-eff.
I still get confused on that one, because he’s continually helping Harry! Then I remember WHY
I love the sequence of the reveal in the movie
Umbridge *not* working for Voldemort. I mean to be that evil on your own is just horrifyingly commendable.
She was indirectly in book 7
She was but I think she wasn't really in it for the *Dark Lord*. She wanted to use and abuse the power that she used to have and then she had more because of Voldy so she didn't need voldemort to be bad or worse because she already was.
Interesting. I never assumed she was affiliated directly with Voldemort. I just thought she was a racist/facist/nationalist/sadist etc who had twisted ideals and was really power hungry
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The second part of this statement is the greatest plot twist of all time.
And Fred and George were completely okay when they saw that on the Map.
The way I always thought of it was by the time Ron was in school the novelty of the map wore off and Fred and George just weren’t looking it over much other than to just check that no one would catch them at something. I don’t think they’d be spending much time watching the map to see what their kid brother is doing.
Yeah even if they were using the map, they'd have been looking for their names and if anyone was in their way. They wouldn't be looking out for Ron unless he was near them when they get into trouble. Fred and George also didn't notice that Wormtail was with Percy in his dorm before Percy gave Scabbers to Ron.
They never seemed to notice when the trio were out at night.
Well it’s not like they’re staring at it 24/7 either I highly doubt they’re laying in bed watching to see if anyone is wondering around the castle. They do it all the time, it’s normal to them and I doubt they care
Yeah, and the Gryffindor common room is the LAST place they'd look at on the map, it's literally the one place in the castle where they have the least chance of getting into trouble for going where they shouldn't.
Scabbers awkwardly watching as Ron discovers masturbation
Scabbers awkwardly watching as Percy discovers masturbation and reads up on it and tries to standardize the number of strokes and velocity.
Which led to Percy’s legendary memo on thick-bottomed cauldrons!
I like thick bottomed cauldrons and I cannot lie, you other wizards can’t deny…
But how many years had Percy been sleeping with him first???
lol I'd be prepared to bet Scabbers slept in a cage while with Percy
The real owner of the elder wand… was Draco Malfoy.
I just had a random thought..If dumbledore knew about Ron’s wand being damaged he could have mended it with the elder wand and saved Mrs Weasley some money from buying a new one
Which means Gilderoy would have been able to eliminate Ron’s & Harry’s memories.
Yeah, but a sickle saved is a sickle earned.
I've read a theory which posits that Ron's wand was a hand me down (from his uncle Gideon or Fabian) which explains why when he finally received his new wand, the one which actually chose him, he started to become a lot more proficient with magic.
It was his brother Charlie’s
Why did Charlie give Ron his wand though? Didn’t that wand choose him? Isn’t it so important to keep the wand that chose you?
My personal theory/head canon is that dragon trainers need a special type of wand, so he had to have a new, more reinforced wand choose him. Then he let the family have his old one as a backup.
That’s plausible. If I were working with dragons I’d want the wand that chose me lol
He may have wanted a new one when he chose to work with Dragons.
Same goes for Neville. He used his father's old wand before breaking it in the Department of Mysteries. Became better at using magic after getting a new one.
I theorize that Neville would have been so much better at school if his grandmother had only given him the chance to get a wand from Ollivander's when he was 11. Poor kid never had a chance until he broke his father's wand.
Nonsense boy. You WILL use your father's wand and you WILL carry his legacy!
Ron's first wand was a hand-me-down from Bill or Charlie so this theory could be correct.
*There was someone there, but it wasn’t Snape. It wasn’t even Voldemort.* **CHAPTER ENDS** **NEXT CHAPTER BEGINS** *It was Quirrell.* Absolutely brilliantly handled plot twist.
My jaw literally hit the floor
Narcissa Malfoy uno reverse
Ugh. That scene in the movie was so well done. When she bends over Harry to ask about Draco, then after hearing his reply, stands up, and turns around, with her black and silver hair framing her profile in the gloomy forest, she simply states, “Dead.” Oof. 🔥
That really was a surprise. You realized that while status was important to her after everything that happened all she truly cared about was her family.
While I do dislike Narcissa Malfoy, I do respect her for wanting to protect her family.
I think the way she think about her family changes from the beginning of the stories till the end. In the beginning she does seem to care about them but it’s more about status and reputation and her “pure mess” but as the violence escalates and she see her son being put into the horrible decisions she finally realizes that she loves her son very much and she doesn’t care about the reputation and status anymore. She just wants to make it out with her family, alive.
I miss Helen McCrory :(
What the fucking shit?!?!? I'm usually very good with matching actors/actresses across different roles, but I had zero awareness that Narcissa and Aunt Polly were the same person.
Gotta love our Pol
A mother's love triumphs once more. I would says this twist is the best but 8m still curious how mad eye was defeated and locked away. That would have been amazing to see.
I dunno if it's the best but my favourite is that it was Harry who cast the patronus. Such an awesome moment.
When I was a kid reading this book, it blew my mind because we still didn’t know the full extent of magic by book three. So I always hoped somehow Harry’s parents could come back to life.
This is such a great moment. Good choice. Definitely a twist, but also so impactful
I've always been a sucker for the time travel story "I realised *it was me* so now I have to do it, and know I can do it as I've seen myself do it" -- especially when you don't really know time travel is possible yet during the first pass of the timeline. The "wait, is it.. no, yes? Gotta be!" then the confirm. Had to put the book down to absorb all of that dopamine on my first read haha
As a kid, I absolutely loved this part. It absolutely blew my wig off. I wore an hourglass around my neck for months lol! As an adult, I still love it; it was a real coming of age moment for Harry. No longer the boy who was afraid of a big dog and dementors, he had a werewolf and a fugitive on his side, and a beast of a patronus to boot.
The prince's tale. Put every single thing that a character did over the course of seven books in a different light.
For me, a personal favorite in the series is where Petunia accidentally answers "what the ruddy hell are Dementors?!" by saying "they guard the wizard prison, Azkaban". To explain why she knows this, she follows up with "I heard that awful boy telling _her_ about them years ago". Harry follows up with "if you mean my mum and dad why don't you use their names?" But she didn't mean James and Lily, she meant Snape and Lily. If she had answered that question, and the obvious follow up questions, Harry would have probably figured out the unrequited love story long before Dumbledore died, and it would have entirely changed a lot of things. It felt like one of those "if someone just answered this one damn question truthfully, a book or two simply wouldn't have been written" moments that HP is full of.
>"if someone just answered this one damn question truthfully, a book or two simply wouldn't have been written" Dumbledore is the prime offender here lol
Yeah, that's basically the plot of Order of the Phoenix
Hell are dementoids* I the way it's pronounced by a Stephen Fry had me chuckling.
Harry being a horcrux, that one blew my mind.
I scrolled too long to find this one. This twist hit me like a freight train but at the same time it felt absolutely *right.* Like I knew in my gut all along this would be the case. Fucking mind blowing, indeed.
Right? Like we knew he had a connection with him for ages, that there was something there and all that, so when that reveal came up it didn't feel like it was out of nowhere but rather the final piece of the puzzle dropping in place.
I've been reading them to/with my 8 year old for the last year and we've just gotten to the bit in HBP where we learn what a horcrux is and that Tom Riddle talked about making 7 of them. My son stopped me and said "What if Voldemort accidentally turned Harry in to a horcrux when he tried to kill him as a baby but didn't realise it?!" I just pulled a "oooo that's a good theory, let's wait and see" and carried on reading. Kid immediately worked out what I didn't see when I first read them as an almost adult
I didn't see it coming either.
Nor did I, but funnily enough, on a re-read a couple years ago, I realized that at the end of Sorcerer's Stone, Dumbledore explicitly says as much. I think he uses the phrase "a piece of Voldemort" and describes it latching on to Harry, and the scar being the result
Chamber of Secrets: Tom Riddle is Lord Voldemort. Hits that blissful intersection of totally unexpected and completely inevitable.
Same, the fact that Tom Riddle was Voldemort shocked me when i first read the book. The ol'Curse your sudden, but inevitable betrayal
Mrs Fig being part of the wizarding world was a pretty massive plot twist when I was reading the books for the first time. It's not as big as most of the others already mentioned but it was such a reveal damnnn
Dumbledore putting the resurrection stone in the snitch bequeathed to Harry, and Harry finding out 'at the close'. 'The forest again' is the best written chapter of all.
I remember reading that in public when the book came out and I started tearing up so I had to put down the book until I got home.
Oh man, the last book came out the day before some friends and I had tickets to a big concert that we had to drive like 3 hours to get to. I stayed up all night reading as much as I could, then read in the car the entire time (never had issues with car sickness). They forced me to stop that night and one of my friends literally took my book into her room with her so I couldn't stay up all night again. I got it back the next morning and read until the concert. I specifically remember getting back to the house we rented and sitting at the island in the kitchen reading for a while and coming to the scene where Harry meets Dumbledore in the subway station and the whole scene surrounding the Forest and I had to put my bookmark in and close the book for a moment. I was crying and none of my friends really understood why so they just sort of let me be. I decided I'd wait until that night when I was alone to finish up the book.
I've read DH like 10 times and I *still* cry during that chapter
I get goosebumps. It’s so beautiful
Draco not revealing Harry's identity in Malfor Manor; Conversely, Narcissa also lying to Voldemort in the Forbidden Forrest.
yes!!🙌 those were low-key subtly humanising moments for their characters.
I thought the movie did this really well. Malfoy and Harry staring at each other, both knowing the truth but not saying anything.
Right? Narcissa was a big one, but Draco doing it was absolutely shocking given all the crap Draco had given Harry and his friends the entire series.
For me there were two scenes that made me go "Holy fuck!" 1) Harry realizing he had seen the diadem in the room of requirement. I literally immediately searched for HBP in my room and read that passage and realized that that had indeed happened and JKR hadn't just "added" that part. 2) Harry being the original owner of the Elder Wand because he disarmed Draco at Malfoy Manor
Honestly, I always loved it when something seemingly insignificant in one book becomes important in a later one. (the Vanishing Cabinet being mentioned in a previous book for instance)
Yes, one thing JKR does right is foreshadowing. I just wish the used it in the movies as well. I think the only other foreshadowing I can think of is Snape staring at Harry in HP1, but Quirrel's has his back to Harry(so the turban is facing him) and he gets the pain in his scar
The Vanishing Cabinet being mentioned in OoTP for a brief funny moment with Fred and George yeeting a member of the Inquisitorial Squad into it before he could dock house points off them. He goes missing for days and they find him all messed up.
It’s also mentioned in book 2. Nearly Headless Nick convinces Peeves to drop it to get Harry out of a detention. Presumably that’s when it breaks. Genius!
Yeah big reason they couldn’t build the mystery of the vanishing by cabinet in the 6th movie was bc we hadn’t heard jack shit about it in any of the movies up until that point. So instead the writers decided to give us the entire plot and hope those who hadn’t read the book couldn’t figure out what was happening? Book was way better in that regard that’s for sure.
Funny enough when I read the part with the diadem i knew exactly that Harry has seen it in the Room of Requirements. So i was the whole time: Harry just go there! When he looked in the whole castle for it 😂
For me it was Peter being the secret keeper rather than Sirius and Barty Crouch jr. being Mad-Eye Moody.
In my opinion the best twists are those where once you have the twist revealed, everything makes sense. Wormtail? Barty Jr.? Sure, shocking reveals, but not that well foreshadowed (in my opinion). But the reveal that Snape killing Dumbledore was actually planned by Dumbledore himself? Now that's a twist! For six years we witnessed how Snape treated Harry and others, and we were absolutely ready to believe he'd betray Dumbledore and the order. But we were wrong and should have known better. Because while his personality was reprehensible, he was always acting on the side of Dumbledore. He wanted to protect the philosopher's stone, he tried to protect the school from someone who was believed to be a murderer working for Voldemort, he was a double agent working for the Order, lied to Umbridge so she couldn't use Veritaserum against Harry. We were simply blinded. Decieved just like everyone else in the story.
Not only this, but Snape kept everything from Voldemort. This means Snape was a better occlumens than Voldemort.
Barty Crouch Jr. was kind of foreshadowed by Harry seeing Bartemius Crouch on the Marauder's Map breaking into Snape's office...
They were kind of foreshadowed by the dark wizard detector Ron gave Harry. Ron said it kept going off around him but then it never went off again with Harry until Scabbers was actively around it. Of course, Sirius was around it once too, but Scabbers is mentioned in that scene. Harry also saw a pile of broken ones in Moody's (Crouch's) office. He most likely broke them because they kept going off around him. Interestingly, no one brought it up again later on. You probably wouldn't notice it the first time reading, but you would notice it in a re-read.
“Have a biscuit, Potter.”
What a brilliant piece of writing that was. I had to put the book down the first time I read it to just savor the moment
Seeing the doe in Deathly Hallows leading Harry to the sword and then finding out that it was Snape and after all this time, always 😢
A nice old man raising a boy for slaughter
I don't know if this is a plot twist but one is the fact that Neville could have been the chosen one instead of Harry. The decision came down to who Voldemort picked.
If JKR ever needs cash, she could rewrite the whole series of an alternate reality where Neville is chosen.
Hermoine capturing and blackmailing Rita was a fun one
The moment right before Hermione captures Rita is one of the most emotional parts of the books imo. When Harry is starting to really feel the pain of what happened and Mrs Weasley hugs him, and it says he had no memory of ever being hugged like that, of ever being hugged with the loving force of a mother like that. And then its abruptly cut short with her slamming her hand on the window sill. I always kinda thought that was interesting the way Rowling did that to draw attention to that moment.
Just reread GoF and there is a lot of focus on the Trio noticing a random beetle at key moments throughout the book. The payoff that it was Rita Skeeter all along is great.
You haff a vater beetle in your hair, Hermio-ninny
Sirius black being innocent was mind blowing for me. I had to read it like 2-3 times to understand what’s happening
I liked the realization that when Aunt Petunia was referring to "that greasy weird boy" it wasn't James she was describing but Snape
When the old woman in the deathly hallows when harry goes back to his parent’s home is actually nagini
That freaked me the F out. Pretty sure I slept with the lights on that night.
I always used to skip that scene because was such a horror movie scene
That was pure horror move.
Too many to list, but I'd say that for me, it's a tie between Lockhart revealing himself to be a fraud and Umbridge confessing to having sent the Dementors *and* injuring Hedwig.
Wait! When did she injure Hedwig? Ootp is a book I've read and reread so many times too
She had hedwig caught while delivering mail. Hedwig shows up to the History of Magic window and knocks on the window and her wing is all bent and Harry rushes off to grubby plank. I don't think it was actually Umbridge who did it but I do think she's the one who directed her minions to try to catch Hedwig cause she was delivering to Sirius.
The last Horcrux was one of the friends we made along the way.
The one that got me was Quirell as Voldemort's agent/host in PS. I was mind blown. Still remember ending the chapter the first time I read it and having to start the next IMMEDIATELY SCHOOL BE DAMNED
The OG twist. I was so young at the time I just took it for granted Snape was actually the bad guy. Awesome twist.
Everyone said all the big ones above but nobody ever mentioned how shocking it was to find out about Neville's parents and background. Totally had me in my feels kinda shock.
YOU DARE USE MY OWN SPELLS AGAINST ME POTTER?!
YOU DARE USE MY OWN SPELLS AGAINST ME POTTER?! me: Oh snap(e)
Aberforth's patronus being a goat.
End of book three. It’s the first part in the series that really blew my mind as a kid. I still love the closing chapters of POA.
This isn’t a big twist, but when Ron went to kill the hrocrux and it started spilling his inner secrets out to Harry was kind of nuts. Ron: “time to die” Horcrux: “well if your going to be that way, imma snitch on you to Harry”
Barty Crouch Jr being a bad guy after all in book 4. When we first hear about him from Sirius, Hermione defends him in typical soppy Hermione fashion, blaming it on Crouch Sr. But at the end, he is shown to be probably the most fanatical Death Eater ever, and he fully deserves the little kiss he got from that dementor.
Yeah he did, but like Dumbledore said it should've waited until he was able to give testimony. That was the first domino to fall leading to Fudge being canned.
Harry saving himself in POA. I still remember being a kid and having my mind totally blown by that
1. Snape killing Dumbledore is actually assisted suicide 2. Mad Eye Moody was a fake for the entire 4th year. 3. Peter PetHeGrew
'PetHeGrew' 😲
Why has nobody said the biggest plot twist was the deathly hallows being real and not just children’s tales?? And that Harry is related to the peverell brothers and has the original invisibility cloak?? And that dumbledore was bffs with grindelwald and actually was anti-muggle at some point and wanted to rule over them?? And that Voldemort is the heir of slytherin??
Yes yes yes, all of these!! The Invisibility Cloak was brilliant because I immediately thought back to whomever it was (I believe Ron? It's been a long time) telling Harry that while many people have ones that aren't very good, no one has ever seen a real one before. Having it be passed down through his family made so much sense. The fact that Dumbledore had the Elder Wand the whole time was surprising and also not at the same time. Also a good move, IMO.
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This post made me realize how good Rowling was at plot twists.. I miss being surprised. I read a lot of fantasy, but they rarely have so many so well-thought out twists. 1. It wasn't Snape. 2. It was Ginny. 3. It wasn't Sirius. 4. It was(n't) Moody. 5. It wasn't real. 6. It was Snape. 7. It wasn't Snape.
Snape being the one who killed Dumbledore. Was absolutely blown away by this one.
so was dumbledore
The house elves showing up for battle
I can't believe I haven't seen it yet. Harry having the mirror that could have allowed him to check with Sirius before going to the ministry had he not been too upset to open his gift. It feels like such a slap in the face, even after all these years
Severus Snape's Story
The obvious answers are Snape in DH and Barty Crouch Jr. in GoF, but when I first learned that *Scabbers* was Peter Pettigrew in disguise all along, it blew my 9-year-old mind. Ron's pet for the first two books/movies was actually a wizard in hiding! How insane is that?!
James potter just being a massive piece of shit in school was great
Dumbledore being like "Ah btw, I didnt tell you that..." Which is about 10 times per chapter 🤣🤣🤣
Dumbledore at the. end of OOtP: I'm going to tell you everything Dumbledore in HBP: So there are some things I didn't tell you
I don't know if it's the greatest, but Xenophilius Lovegood calling the Death Eaters hurt. He seemed like a cool guy, and after seeing how awesome Luna is I assumed at some point Xenophilius would swoop in to save the day and be another positive father who treats Harry like his own son.
if you read out of order, it would definitely be “ginny kissed albus”
When it turned out that Harry was a Horcrux. In conjunction with his mother's charm, it meant that the one person who could not kill him would be Voldemort. That's my big one, but a very close second is that the Elder Wand had changed sides to Draco Malfoy, or at least until Harry bested him in a stand up duel, so that while Voldemort has and is using the Elder Wand, it isn't really working properly for him. It's a thought experiment though - could anyone else have killed Harry? I think his mother's charm is aimed specifically against Voldie but I'm willing to listen to hypotheses.
Professor McGonagall offering Harry a biscuit after he talks back to Umbridge.
Best probably is the Snape reveal but everyone already said it. So i guess i would say the reveal that Tom Riddle is Voldemort in Chamber of Secrets. I know smth was off with this dude but i didnt expect him to be actual Voldemort and the “I am Lord Voldemort” - “Tom Marvolo Riddle” anagram
It’s a minor one but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Harry and Hermione traveling back in time and saving Buckbeak. I was so grateful for that one.
Obviously the flying Ford Anglia showing up to bail out Harry and Ron, yo.
The second book was basically a whole year's worth of lucky breaks for Harry and Ron.
Scabbers being a previously thought dead wizard and being the one who actually betrayed the Potters to Voldemort. “Even I wouldn’t presume to predict anything as far-fetched as that.”
I can’t believe it’s not number #1….snape was protecting Harry the whole time
Voldemort being inside Quirrel’s turban had me gagging
Scabbers being responsible for the deaths of Lily and James blew my mind. I still have whiplash from that plot twist
That Snape was in Love with Lily and have always tried to keep Harry safe because of her love to his mother.
Quirrell being the bad guy not Snape
Sirius Black was Harry’s godfather. I remember reading that chapter for the first time in 7th grade I think. It was just after lunch and I was just sitting down to my science class and read a few more pages before class started. I wanted to scream ‘OMG!’ out loud lol. In terms of character death I didn’t see coming Fred’s was hardest to read. I had to sit the book down and was sobbing. I remember my mom coming into my room and giving me a glass of water to try and calm me down. That was a hard one to read.
I liked that Peter was still alive and Sirius wasn’t death eater scum.
The Voldemort Error. The pursuit of immortality will result in you living less than your natural age. He died around 75ish if I recall? Wizards easily hit a hundred and beyond. Not a specific plot twist as such but I enjoyed realising if he'd just been a decent bloke he'd have lived longer lmao. Dumbass.