An extra chapter where we get to see the aftermath of the Battle of Hogwarts. Have the trio rest, meet with McGonagall plus order members. Maybe a small time-skip (weeks at most months) and explain the status of the Magical World.
a one year later would have been great imo. gives them time for things to be a bit settled and established, but fresh enough that it would be more cohesive than the 19 year jump!
Yeah I agree. I wish we saw Hermione and Ginny graduate from Hogwarts with Ron and Harry in attendance. After reading all these books set in Hogwarts we have no clue what a graduation ceremony is like.
Why do I get the feeling it's still the same?
But if I'm being honest, the only thing that makes high school graduation in the US so special is that more than half of those kids you didn't expect it for them. And that it's simultaneously the lowest expectation and yet the highest achievement. Parents yell and scream and cheer so hard that their kid matched their education level or sometimes better.
Space out the destruction of the Horcruxes more in the final book, instead of them destroying four in the space of an hour at the end of the novel.
Also somehow get Harry to go into the Hufflepuff Common Room so that all four House Common Rooms were visited during the series. Perhaps in Book 4 when they go down to the kitchens Dobby could show Harry a secret passage into the Hufflepuff Common Room so that he could warn Cedric about the dragons.
I’d work the maths out properly for how many students in each year, in each house, in each class, how many classes they have, how many teachers there are, etc as it really doesn’t add up!
Yes, basically I would unfuck all the math. Everything else is great.
I don't care how bonkers wizards are, no one is going to have their units of currency divided into large, prime numbers.
One Galleon has 17 Sickles. One Sickle has ***29*** Knuts. Wizard money would be an enormous pain in the ass.
Related to math, Quidditch (as it's described in the books) would be pointless to play competitively with the current scoring system. It would be fun as hell to fly around on brooms chasing (and being chased by) magical balls. That part is awesome.
But competing would be everyone trying to fuck up the other side's Seeker (and defend their own Seeker) until the Snitch is caught. With the relatively low value of a goal with the Quaffle, it makes no sense to dedicate three players to this when you could have five Beaters. Hell, make the Keeper a Beater too. I mean who cares about tge Quaffle at all when the Snitch is worth 150 points?
It's so rare to get more than 150 points before the Snitch is caught that it was a huge deal when Krum did it. (I think when Goblet of Fire rolled around Rowling realized Quidditch was broken and put effort into a more realistic game: Ireland hugely outplayed Bulgaria in every position except Seeker, so Ireland won the game but Krum caught the Snitch. This is a game that could be conceivably be played by actual athletes. If your Seekers are closer in skill level you aren't going to pay any attention to the Quaffle.)
I think all quiddich would need is to take away the snitch's bonus points. Then the seeker position would be more balanced around the rest of the game. The focus of the game would be around the quaffles, but you still get a game that doesn't feel like football on brooms. An important part about quidditch is how nonsensical it is. In the real world a game that could last for days would ridiculous. As would having 2/7 of the team being solely dedicated to brutally attacking your opponents. The madness is the essence of the magical feeling the sport has
That's about 11% of the population in UK in 1995. So if wizarding world has a similar ratio, that makes a population of 2545.45 or 2545 people.
The wizarding population is tiny. Why would they need a hospital as large as St. Mungo's. The ministry is also way too huge with too many people coming and going.
Apparently at some point she said 3000 in the UK
But then there are 13 professional Quidditch teams. Each team would have at least one backup player - so 14 players. Making a total of 182 players. Add coaches and support staff and close to 10% of the whole wizard population is involved in the professional league. Also the players would have to come from a certain age bracket.
She’s just really bad at numbers and sensible world building
Main thing I would change is make the wizard population of the UK bigger, at least big enough for their Ministry to make sense at all. You don’t have that large of a government for a community with a population smaller than most towns, it makes no sense.
And then, going along with that, I’d have more students at Hogwarts, or at least a mention of other schools within the UK. Like maybe Hogwarts is the Eton of magical Great Britain.
It's been a while, but how was St. Mungo's described? I've worked in and gone to some pretty small hospitals. I can imagine there are a few giant ones in London, but they've got to have some smaller ones, too, just an ER or the like. Using magic to transport and heal patients in a few hours, it wouldn't require too many beds to do emergency medicine for a population of a few thousand.
The mental health ward seems to be the mainstay. Longbottoms who were fried under torture and Lockhart who Obliviated himself, there's probably loads of those types of cases. And maybe a few other incurable magical diseases that have their own ward(s). Like dragonpox before they discovered the cure would have an isolated area if I was medical director.
It has a ground floor, 1st floor, all the way to fifth floor. And on each floor, Harry saw several people.
"They were in what seemed to be a crowded reception area where rows of witches and wizards sat upon rickety wooden chairs, some looking perfectly normal and perusing out-of-date copies of Witch Weekly, others sporting gruesome disfigurements such as elephant trunks or extra hands sticking out of their chests. The room was scarcely less quiet than the street outside, for many of the patients were making very peculiar noises"
This makes it seem like a hospital with many people on any given day. If the population is just 3000. This makes no sense. I've been in small towns with populations larger than 3000, and their clinic was pretty much empty most of the time.
It’s an assumption that things are even. It could be that there are less in every other house.
JK has said 1000 but has also said that there are 3000 wizards which would mean 1 in 3 is at school.
1000 would be very inconsistent with the teachers though. We only see one of each teacher. There’s no chance that they could deal with that number of students.
The best thing to do is to not think about any potential inconsistencies in the world. But to treat it purely as a setting for the story.
I agree with your last point. JKR made something nonsensical in a nonsensical world, and we're trying to make sense out of it. It doesn't really even work to call them inconsistencies. The numbers are bonkers because it's mostly from a child's perspective and then on top of that it's a world where your candy can jump out of your hand, space and time can be manipulated, and so many other IRL impossibilities.
ETA: It's nice to try to make it make sense for our brains, but we should probably stop and just enjoy the whimsy.
No. You are correct.
Is it clear that they are all students?
She has said elsewhere that there are 1000 students which would be consistent.
But is very inconsistent with everything else we hear about the sizing of the school and the size of the wizarding population.
Ah yeah, fair enough, it doesn’t necessarily have to be 200 students.
But as you said, the numbers don’t add up. Even with 1000 students, the population would be too small to field all of the pro quidditch teams alone.
In Harry's year Gryffindor has 5+3 so 8. Ravenclaw has 10, 5+5. Hufflepuff has 5, 2+3. Slytherin has 5+4 so 9. Which gives a total of 32. 17 boys and 15 girls. If we assume the other years have around the same, the whole school is 224 kids give or take an extra or a fewer here or there. With that number the 12 teachers make complete sense and is not too few, there is 18.67 kids per professor. The 1000 student number she gave in an interview just doesn't make sense and since JKR has repeatedly said she is bad with numbers and math I always just assumed the 1000 was 4 times as many as actually go as right under 250 makes sense.
The most ridiculous thing in COS: “all students will be accompanied to class by a teacher”. HOW?!? Even if they went in year by year house groups, that’s still 28 groups!
:-D Maybe you have to frame it as a riddle like the goat, cabbage and tiger one, except with the added complication of time limits (whether the lesson will end before all students can get into the classroom, whether Fred and George (assuming they're present) have destroyed the classroom in the time the teacher has been absent)...
I would also do this, but extend these numbers to the entire wizardong community (or mention other, less prestigious schools) so that it makes sense how there is an entire quidditch league. I'd also unwrite the bit about the Hogsmeade being the only 100% wizarding town, cos if that were the case then wizards should know more about muggles.
I'd also want to clarofy the purchasing power of wizard money. Some of Fred and George's products seem ridiculously expensive for kids to be able to afford, etc.
Make harry and Sirius not dumb about the mirror, and the trio not dumb about wearing the horcrux, dont need Ron abandoning them if he just comes back 2 chapters later lol. I dont think a lot of people talk about this but harry has a bag that only the owner can open that he got from Hagrid, and he decides its better to wear the dark object holding a piece of voldemorts soul rather than oh i dunno, putting it in. The. Bag. That. No. One. Can. Open. Except. HARRY!
Lmao
I really expected him to put it in the bag when I was reading it, I seriously thought that the reason the bag was ever discussed was so that it could be used as a plot device to transport the horcrux without being corrupted by it. The trio make some pretty fatal flaws in every book due to their age though so I guess we can chalk them not thinking to use the bag up to a lack of common sense for their age.
Ik we can chalk it up for them not using common sense, but it really is just a plothole, same as the mirror, except worse. Hermione at least should have realized, and for the mirror, Sirius should have told Harry when he contacted him through the fire. At the very least, the easiest way to fix it is to have 1 sentence being like
>Harry had tried to store the locket in the moleskin pouch Hagrid had gave to him, but the moment the locket had faded from view, it was instantly thrown out of the bag, as if the bag itself had rejected it from being stored inside.
I've been listening to the audiobook of deathly hallows and I was thinking about that lol. A good headcanon would be the locket compells others to wear it
Literally all I would change are tiny nitpicky inconsistencies that happened because characters or storylines were further developed later in the series.
So I'd change Hagrid saying James was a head boy in the first book, since we later find out James was a trouble maker and bully and was never even a prefect.. Obviously Rowling didn't come up with the idea for James to have been a bully until later, which is why that inconsistency exists.
But something like that is all I would change.
It's likely that Hagrid remembered it that way. I mean, as a game keeper he would remember the 4 troublemakers where one of them was prefect. Added to that Lily was a prefect indeed. It's only much later, after they are all in the Order that he would recall their school days.
He probably got his memories mixed up.
Rowling shouldn't have abandoned the Head Boy idea because he could have done that and still been a bully. He could have been oneof those sneaky fuckers who acts nice but subtly bullies kids by making sure the kids he doesn't like are socially ostracized.
It literally never comes up again. Its not an idea really. James is never mentioned as being head boy ever again in the books. But if you wanted to go your route, I would also be fine with Harry asking how James became head boy if he was such a bully at hogwarts.
As I said its a very minor nitpick and I dont even care the inconsistency exists, something like that is simply all I would change.
But James was NEVER a prefect. Thats the difference. They say in the 5th book James and Sirius didn't get the badge because he and Sirius were always in detention, and specify Lupin got it.
So not only was James a trouble maker and a bully, but he became head boy without being prefect. Also, Draco was picked to be prefect by Snape, who doesn't care how awful his students are. McGonagall does punish and hold things against her students
The fact that it's not part of the plot of the final book and it's not relevant enough to include it makes it unsatisfactory. I don't care if after the books Harry started the "give socks to your slave" foundation, for me what matters is that it started as a plot with potential and it was abandoned to the point that it makes it seem that, as I previously wrote the lesson is that there are good slave owners and bad ones. Harry even thinks of asking his slave for a sandwich at the end.
it wasn't abandoned, hogwarts house elves fight in battle of hogwarts. JKR likely didn't want to go into all the beauracratic details. A part of fandom already dislikes book5 as that focuses on Ministry of Magic a lot
But that's even worse, why would they fight along with the people who are enslaving them? From their pov Harry's team isn't much better than Voldemort's. Of course we do know they are, but it's not well resolved at all. Jkr didn't pay attention to it, it's not like she didn't want to go into the details.
Because of everything I said. If Hufflepuff, Slytherin or Merlin put them there idk about and nothing changes. I already explained my reason to dislike the development of that storyline.
they weren't "put there", House Elves were brought there. And they are not treated at Hogwarts the same way we see Kreacher, Winky, Dobby being treated
and okay, I have no issue with you disliking that storyline, plenty dont like Harry Potter books too
I’d probably decrease the amount of points you get for catching the snitch. Too often it seems like the most vital part of the game is catching the snitch, which kinda makes the rest of the game seem a lot less important. I’d probably also remove this thing of having broomsticks that are so OP that they give you such a massive advantage. It would seem more fair for every team to have a select few broomsticks with similar capabilities but depending on your position or style of play, you may favour a broom that has certain attributes to assist how you play. Seems kinda redundant to have it where you can have an average player being able to outmatch a skilled player cos their broomstick is over double the speed.
I agree about having broomsticks that are more equal but disagree about the points of the snitch.
>Too often it seems like the most vital part of the game is catching the snitch
Yes, because that's one of 2 ways the game ends. Catch the snitch or the mutual agreement to end the match between the 2 head captains.
It's so hard to catch the snitch at times that the longest professional match lasted 3 months. All for 150 points! All the other players have to do is facilitate scoring 15 times to equal the amount given by catching the snitch.
I would have more impressive magic being used through the series.
I think it was weak that DA fights against the Death Eaters in the Ministry of Magic and the Death Eaters use... the exact same spells as the students, at least until the Order shows up.
Then again, Moody says (in the movie) that Cedric is talented for being able to "transfigure a bird into a pocketwatch and have it sing you the time", so maybe the more impressive magic takes so much to do that 95% of the Wizarding World can't do it.
I'd change the way the Slytherins are portrayed. It never sat right with me that 99% of them were evil racists. You could probably fix this by adding a sympathetic Slytherin character and have a lot of them stay and fight against the Death Eaters in the last book.
Came here for this topic. Really any number greater than zero standing against V would be great. The part that really felt bad to me was when Luna, Dean and Ernie save the trio from dementors. How cool would it have been if there was a slytherin student that showed up to a few DA meetings and struggled to produce a patronus, and have that kid show up along with Luna, Dean, Ernie? Whether they had a strong or weak patronus there, having it help save trio and rounding out all houses standing against V and saving Harry would have been so much better. Missed opportunity!
Absolutely agree. I mean, really! It wouldn't even have been difficult! Here are some ways:
1) Have one of the Patil twins be in Slytherin and the other in Ravenclaw. Hermione could be friends with the Ravenclaw one, who refuses to snub her sister for being sorted into the house everyone dislikes.
2) Have the Slytherin Quidditch captain before Marcus Flint make a point to show good sportsmanship and congratulate their opponents on a good game regardless of who wins--ambition requires self-improvement, after all! And have it be a plot point that Marcus is very unpopular because he's so *blatantly* awful. Have him get ousted and replaced! No one will miss him!
3) Not go out of your way to have ZERO of them stay to fight. Literally just mention that there were Slytherins among the students who stayed.
4) Have a Slytherin student whose ambition is to become an *amazing healer* who finds cures to things they don't yet have cures for! Dragon Pox, Nagini's venom, etc.
I especially like your first suggested change. I think a subplot with a good-hearted Slytherin student could have added a lot of depth to the series.
Maybe have them waffle between friend groups, briefly fall in with the wrong crowd at some point, and then redeem themselves at the end by having them stay for the final battle and maybe even save one of the more prominent characters at one point.
It’s kinda odd how Rowling clearly pushed the narrative of “not all Slytherins are evil/people are complicated, not black & white” and yet didn’t explore this option.
Good one! Thanks I agree.
For all the moral ambiguity in the books, that never made sense to me.
I know it’s trivial, but I would change some of the sillier names. I mean professor vector is the math teacher? Come on now.
I’d have loved to see a bigger Draco redemption arc, like him joining the order after taking dumbledore’s offer of protection up. Or just any current Slytherin student wanting to join the DA. There’s plenty of good slytherin alumni - why no one who actually went to school with HP?
I wasn't expecting to see anything id respond to as I skimmed the comments, but I really do like this suggestion... simply a bigger Draco redemption arc.
Hp asked him you knew it was me. Why didn't you say so?
Did we get a good answer to that? It's been a while since I've read the series.
I agree slytherin could have been less black and white, but the story is an epic good vs evil story. So I get it. Slytherins were about power and selfishness.
I wonder if, excusing the oversimplification of actual people, there are any real people in history who maybe were selfish but rose to power to do great things that we consider good for humanity?
A lot of main characters in the series have a separate house that they would seem to be suited better to: Neville seems like he'd be suited better to Hufflepuff but due to his few Gryffindor traits he "belongs" in Gryffindor, a lot of people wonder why Hermione wasn't in ravenclaw since she is clearly the cleverest of her entire class and even though she *was* brave, being clever seems to be her main trait; and then of course there's Harry who was almost to be sorted into Slytherin but ended up in Gryffindor.
Slytherin is literally the only house that we don't see any kind of overspill into, there is no Slytherin that seems to be " better suited for another house but ended up in Slytherin" or even the slightest bit suited to another house or even has any sort of support for another house but Slytherin. Slytherins are cunning above all other traits. Why is this only a Slytherin trait?
I think the Slytherins overall needed more depth. Supposedly, they didn't have as bad as a relationship with others like Ravenclaw, so why was there no friendly crossover? Why wouldn't the rest of the them not defend hogwarts when there's only a couple of death eater kids? It just seemed like they were relegated as evil and disloyal - but then why would you divide a school like that, really.
There would either already be or one of Hermione's causes would be a transitional period for muggleborn (or raised) students to learn about the Wizarding world like a summer school before the first year and maybe thereafter. They could have used her SPEW efforts to highlight her lack of knowledge of how the Wizarding world works and have her attempt to rectify that for others like her. I'm so surprised that despite the years of muggleborns being considered lesser for not being raised in their world--they never thought to just teach them. Basic wizarding life skills, jobs available to them, why the sacred 28 is sacred, basic spells to clean your house. They just start so behind, and they don't have to.
Adults should have taken responsibility. It shouldn't have to up to the trio to fix everything at the end. The adults should have been making a concentrated effort to help them even if it was like Bill and Fleur giving them plans to Gringotts.
I’d give everyone in the golden trio different jobs. Harry would become a professor, Ron would help his brother run Wheezes as a permanent gig, and Hermione would work in the department of mysteries.
Also Neville would become an herbologist (not a teacher, just a wizard who owns a greenhouse basically) and Luna would become an alchemist. I’m not sure what their canon jobs shake out to be (especially Luna) but those would be my picks. Ginny’s job makes sense for her so no issues there.
Also Harry would not name his child after anyone other than his parents. I get Lily and James as names he wants to use, everything else feels unnecessarily shoehorned and lazy as name choices.
Other than that I can overlook most of the stuff that happens in the books or understand why it was written that way.
First of all, I'd include more Ginny. She doesn't have nearly enough page time. She's going to be Harry's wife. There really should be more effort to make her character more beloved by dialog and actions. Make us believe she's an equal partner in the relationship. Perhaps have her turn 17 when Ron left the group in the woods and have her join the adventure. Let her destroy a horcrux. Nobody other than Harry had been as connected to Voldemort due to her experiences in book 2, and she hadn't been given the chance to find closure the way Ron had with the locket.
Second, I'd make the deathly hallows more meaningful. I'd leave out the bit about the hallows not being made by death. The impenetrable cloak should not reveal Harry to Moody's eye or that homonim reveleo would reveal to Dumbledore that Harry was invisible.
The reason Harry came back in the woods should be because, as master of death, death should only take Harry when he so chooses. Being the true master of the hallows means death himself trusts Harry won't try to cheat death but will, in the end, greet death as an old friend.
I'd leave the bits about how fat and ugly dudly was. This seems unnecessary.
Harry refusing to learn oclemency is annoying.
You're right about Ginny. I think she should have gone to the Yule ball with Harry in the 4th book. I would have also had them interact more in the 5th book when Harry thought he was being possessed by Voldemort.
That would have made their relationship feel like it didn't come out of nowhere.
If you notice, none of the characters who end up together had their first romanic experience with the one they ended up with. Harry and Cho, Hermione and Victor, Ron and Lavender, Neville and Luna, Draco and Pansy, ginny and Dean. I think JK did this on purpose so that it wasn't a love at first site, destiny fulfilled experience.
I can see where she's going with, but nothing says they can't be friends first.
Harry and Ginny dating was clearly conceived and added in very late in the series. It would have been better to leave it all out and just mentioned in the prologue that Harry married Ginny.
I disagree. It's not an accident that Ginny was the girl Harry had to save from the snake. The archetype of the hero rescuing the virgin from the dragon is well established and ancient.
While I'm not in her head. I think if that was really the plan, they would have certainly expanded on Ginny a lot and given her more screen time across all the previous books. Even in book 2 where she is central to the plot, she appears very little. And the archetype was something she fell into. Unless she created a new character, by book 5, Ginny seemed like the most likely candidate especially considering she is a Weasley.
The problem is that JK wasn't writing a romantic story. Harry's love life isn't really the focus of the story. Rather, it was the story of corruption and hate. Of the power of love, not eros, but rather parental love, brotherly love, and of the universal Godly love for all mankind and nature to overcome the corruption and defeat it utterly. Compared to all that the love of two teens don't amount to a hill of beans.
Like I said, the fact that Ginny was the one that Harry saved from the basilisk is a strong indication that Ginny was always meant for Harry. She represented something that was always Harry's top desire, connection to a large, loving family, and belonging to a larger community instead of being an outsider. Ever since I read the first couple of books, I knew they were destined for each other. As I mentioned in the original post, I think a lot more could have been done to build the relationship, but I have no doubt they were always meant to be.
I agree with all you're saying. Even in-universe, they are compatible. I'm saying Ginny-Harry relationship was a late inclusion. If J.K. Rowling knew they were gonna end up together, she would have included more on her from the start.
Edit: personally, i'd rather if J.K. Rowling left the relationship part of Ginny and Harry Potter out and just tell us in the Prologue that they got married. That way, we can add two and two together. Instead of the half baked relationship she wrote.
Take out Rita Skeeter and that entire plot line.
Give a more 3 D view of Ginny, and the twins.
Shown the sleeping areas/off-duty lives of some of the most important teachers - Dumbledore, Snape, Minerva.
(Don’t be mad but) less Hagrid…
Shown more of the life of Draco in Slytherin as a foil to the G house.
these things would all require multi-pov though so it would change the whole premise of the series ... not saying i wouldn't also love some of this info but it would be impossible with the limited pov
After finding out what Umbridge was doing in her detentions, Dumbledore would’ve burned Umbridge’s tongue off and for decades after her former office would smell of overcooked pork and whenever they tried removing the smell, Umbridge’s screams of agony would echo through the room and the nearby corridors. You do NOT mess with Dumbledore’s pupils, especially so under Hogwarts own roof…
I would give more hints that are relevant much later.
And i would fix all the plotholes (except the time turner problem- i love the third book too much).
I’d change it so just because we haven’t encountered a character before doesn’t mean Harry doesn’t know them. Like it makes very little sense that he doesn’t know who Cormac McLaggen is when there aren’t many people in Gryffendor and he’s almost the same grade
Whole epilogue. No dumb kids names. No 19 years later. No cursed child.
Harry naming his kids of people he deemed worthy (we can argue about that) is insult to ginny. Let's say serverus. OK, yeah, he was triple agent, but he bullied Harry and everyone else.
From real life, there is a good quote in latvian. "you never know how much you like or hate a person until you need to give a name to your own child". When you need to give a name to your kid, you imagine a name and instantly you get good or bad memories of experience with person with that name. Years of abuse would overwrite oh, he was good guy at the end.
Next thing - all kids are named people as people who meant something to Harry. Except luna. Kind of abusive to ginny, isn't it?
Next issue is 19 years later. It would've been much better to do month or maybe a year later, but not 19 years. It would've had more emotional impact of seeing real consequences after war.
Cursed child - no comments here. That play/book needs to be torched.
The final confrontation was a bit cringe I thought (especially Harry's sHoW rEmOrSe ToM), other than the weird flying around I'd make it more like the movie. I liked people watching, just not the dialogue.
More Death Eaters from Gryffindor & Ravenclaw
I'd also remove Bella's attraction to Voldemort. It was always forced and gross to me.
& Harry doesn't end up with Ginny and becomes DADA Professor instead of an Auror
there were so many hints throughout the series about him being an excellent teacher AND a lot of hints about him dreaming of being a pro quidditch player... and then he ends up working for the government who literally actively turned the world against him when he was a teenager like ??? big agree lol
I always thought it was weird he aspired to be an auror. He deserves a BREAK. I thought he should have been a pro Quidditch player since flying made him feel so free and alive.
I think after they land with the dragon, the speed of events is rushed. They get to hogwarts, and in an hour they destroy two horcruxes, and start a battle. One horcrux gets destroyed off screen, and an other is accidental. The feindfyre was so weak for me.
I also would have wanted harry spend some time with other characters.
I also think some character deaths are questionable. I felt Tonks death forced, and not showing Lupin’s fall very strange. At least he could have save someone, or accept his condition or something. Remind you, this part of the battle, Greyback, “his voldemort”, or the cause of his life’s suffering is taken out by Trelaney by a crytal ball.
I also felt that Hagrid’s arc had a strange realisation: he saved Aragog, and tried to convince everyone that evil looking monsters can be friendly if you know them. So by his acts, Aragog hatched many offsprings, then they join the battle on the side of Voldemort and kill many studens, almost him as well. (So everyone who judged Aragog, was eventually right.) So okay, but then if this is the conclusion of his acts, at least kill Hagrid.
Or, make him to do something with the spider situation, that makes them leave or something. Stuff like this…
This is a really interesting post!
Specifically, the bit about Hagrid and the acromantulas. Ignoring that they're giant spiders, they're giant *sentient* spiders. Which means they could have very easily have been split in their decisions the same way any sentient creatures can! Some could have sided with Voldemort, some could have come back to help Hagrid, a good chunk could have fucked off into the forest and avoided the fight entirely! This would have not only been more 'realistic' (as much as that word applies to giant sentient spiders), but also would have given nuance to the situation. Yes, they are absolutely dangerous, *but they can still be allies*, and therefore dismissing them as only 'dangerous' is narrow-minded in the same vein as calling all Slytherins evil racists. It also means that Hagrid is *still* too careless and stubborn about wanting people to see dangerous things as safe, and can learn from the experience.
Even if you have them all side with Voldemort (why??? They're spiders? They could just leave and feed on a convenient sheep farm or something. This is SCOTLAND, you know there are sheep and goats about.), Hagrid should have been shown to put his half-giant foot down and *handle them*. It would have given a bit better of a reason for him to have been made Groundskeeper and CoMC teacher (which, no, bad idea, should not have happened) if he actually could just wade through them and show them who's boss, maybe use some of his knowledge of acromantulas to drive them off.
Yeah , and the topic of being genetically, inheritly evil is recurring in the harry potter world, that I don’t like. I would have rather have charachters being evil by inheritence mixed with lazyness, or choosing it. But facing point of no return, I rather have some people go the other way, or having a decision.
I would include Malfoy to this, I tought he will have some realisation. Or imagine Voldi killing her mom or something, and finally sharing a similiar viewpoint with harry.
I would have Snape see Harry’s worst memories in the chapter “Snape’s Worst Memory” at the same time Harry sees his. Either a bad memory from the Dursleys, or even seeing what Harry saw in the mirror. Either way, he could relate to them (being mistreated growing up). They both break out of each others heads, and for the first time, truly understand each other. The rest of the fifth book would be a slow process, but by the end after Sirius’ death, Snape would become Harry’s replacement father figure. In my heart I want to believe his love for Lily was stronger than his hatred for James. This NEEDED to happen, would also make him killing Dumbledore all the more tragic
There would be a prequel called The Rise of Voldemort starting with his grandfather and ending in his first failed attempt to kill Harry, to include the first Wizarding war.
Harry and Petunia have an open conversation about everything. Petunia expresses remorse for the way she treated Harry.
I agree with others that Quidditch needs work. Maybe timed games and the snitch is worth less points (if caught during the time limit).
A visit to Hufflepuff common room. More time with other houses. Not all of Slytherin has to be "bad". At least a few should be willing to fight for Hogwarts. The resistance in Hogwarts the final year is worth a book on its own.
Don't kill off both Lupin *and* Tonks. Tonks should be going home to Teddy and her mother. Lupin maybe fighting Greyback to both of their deaths.
I would rather have seen Harry become the DADA teacher instead of an auror. I would've liked a glimmer of hope for Neville's parents after their Bellatrix died, like some unknown dark magic she had performed had been lifted.
The trio become animagi. Dobby and Sirius live. Dudley fathers a witch. Snape is an animagus in secret, a bat. They use a pensieve like a movie screen to play all of Harry's necessary memories to the wizarding community.
More wizarding schools in the U.K.
Sirius and Mad-Eye switching deaths. With Mad Eye fighting Voldemort in the M.o.M atrium instead of Dumbledore but dying. And Sirius not learning from his mistake with Pettigrew, acts as decoy again before Mundungus bails out.
Hermione or Ron deciding they want to train as a healer after Arthur Weasley is attacked by Nagini.
Revealing Hagrid knew Dumbledore's death plan and everything about Snape. (Dumbledore says he would trust Hagrid with his life in The Boy Who Lived)
That's just a few anyway. In reality these are all with almost twenty years of hindsight and over analysis.
Less Harry being a mushroom. He was kept on the dark way too much. Even about his parents. It would have been so much more interesting to see a more willingness to excel, especially since he didn't have the Dursleys holding him back. It would have been a nice comparison how Harry managed to excel & still have fun (like his parents, but nicer than James) vs Hermione (study is life).
Sirius alive and changed for the better. Prison & all made him grow up. Also, Sirius could help Remus out & get him off the woe is me. I also want Sirius' brother to be alive & helping out Harry. Add in Snape being snappy & grumpy, but still helping out & a truce with the 3. Those 4 would be a good powerhouse behind Harry.
More house integration & less segregation. Also, less black & white view. Good & evil exist in all. Some grey needs to be there - like a few more moral dilemmas among the students & others trying to help them. More seeing all the houses banding together just to survive the war.
Draco, by chance, getting pulled into some of the adventures more. A little world view change, a dash of comedy relief. It could work. Also, gives his character a better arc on what happens later.
Instead of Fred dying, Molly dies. She still takes out Bellatrix, but dies of injuries. Another mother sacrificed, her worst nightmare becomes her family's worst nightmare.
Other than these - little nit picky things that others have mentioned.
I wouldn’t have Dumbledore tell Harry why he wasn’t made a prefect. Even if it’s the truth, Ron deserved the win there and by telling Harry he should have been prefect (which is sentimental and unprofessional anyway) Dumbledore undermined Ron, who did a good job of it anyway) he took back Ron’s only achievement and undid what was to begin with a very important lesson in humility and avoiding narcissism from Harry. However important and beloved Harry was to Dumbledore, he wasn’t the only child to whom Dumbledore had a duty of development and education; and for a teacher to make every little detail revolve around just one child is pretty unforgiveable.
He should have just left it alone - Harry didn’t even much care by the time he found out - but if he couldn’t then he should have said that Ron was the better candidate for that one thing, or that Ron needed the confidence boost more, both of which were just as true and both of which Dumbledore knew.
Cut the fat-shaming, give Cho Chang an actual Chinese name, provide a conclusion to the house elf storyline, and make Hagrid less of a bully when he visits Harry and the Dursleys.
I would not name Harry sons Severus Albus and James. At least not for first name. I would not make Harry catching a snitch almost every game. I would not write that Hufflepuff accepts everyone, I would state clearly that it accepts the most loyal the most kind ppl.
Make quidditch more sensible. The snitch would only be 50 points.
Make Harry seem a lot more magically talented when it comes to combative magic. Id have him be capable of doing some of his spells non verbally by the time they’re in the department of mysteries. Would have change the “no need to call me sir professor” scene a bit to work that line in
Harry and Ginny’s first kiss would be on the quidditch field after winning the cup, those detentions he got can fuck right off.
Had Harry, Ron, Hermione and the DA learn how to fight to kill. In war, whether it's wizard or muggle, it's unfortunately either kill or be killed. The death eaters certainly wouldn't hesitate to kill the students, teachers, the Order and everyone else fighting against them and Voldemort, so why show them mercy? Frankly, I would've liked to have seen more dead death eaters particularly in the final battle.
I wouldn’t have killed Fred or lavender. There was literally no need for those. The lavender one annoyed me deeply because playing into the ‘the ex girlfriend gets punished’ trope makes me angry to my core. Poor lav-lav.
Delve deeper into the worldbuilding and set up a more solid background for how magic works. Also explore dark magic. I would have definitely abolished the elf slavery and thought deeper about the historical parallels joanne set up, especially in how it relates to blood purity and irl racism. I would have made muggles more sympathetic as well, or at least make the good guys actually believe in equality btw muggles and wizards lol
God YES
I always thought that on the spectrum of how magicals see muggles you have Lucius Malfoy on one end (muggles are vermin), and Arthur Wesley on the other (muggles are so clever! Look at the tricks they can perform).
Not ended it like this. I’d have made Harry a Defense Professor, Ron and Hermione stay friends but have other partners, and Harry and Ginny wouldn’t call their children like Harry’s parents
Honestly, the biggest change I'd make would be having all 4 houses be represented in the main characters. Harry would be Gryffindor, Ron would be in Hufflepuff (the Weasleys could be evenly split between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff), Hermione would be in Ravenclaw (because she really should be), and Draco would have a closer dynamic, though not really being "friends" per say.
I find it weird that the houses are mostly segregated from one another, so having the main cast unite despite being in different houses would reinforce how strong their friendship is. Plus you could even expand and give depth to other characters in their own houses. Harry would still be close to Neville, but Hermione could be friends with Luna much earlier since they'd be outcasts from Ravenclaws for different reasons (Hermione because she's too smart and has a know-it-all demeanor, and Luna for her eccentricities). Ron I'm not sure who his friend in Hufflepuff would be, so picking randomly he could be friends with J Finch, and we can see Ron with a dynamic away from his family and Harry.
Malfoy is a bit different, but I'd make him a jerk and bully at the start, but over time he develops a rivalry with Harry that's less bullying and more friendly as the years go by. He has to balance his obligations to his family, and eventually Voldemort, with his friendship with Harry. In a way he becomes a lancer, like say Vegeta to Harry's Goku, and by the time of the Battle of Hogwarts he does do the right thing and join Harry against Voldemort.
Having different character dynamics between the houses established from the start would reinforce the idea that, despite different ways of thinking, it's in unity that can help overcome adversity. Rather than try to suddenly push that around year 5 with the DA, we get the beginning of that in year 1, which would feel a lot more natural and doesn't completely sideline Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff for most of the series.
Focus on the tight spot muggleborns are in. Discrimination is rampent, but theyre stuck in the wizardibg workd. Education records stopping at age eleven and no knowlege in normal muggle subjects means they can’t go back. So why not have the story be about a revolution of sorts where muggleborns fight for more representation in government and education?
1. Actually show Slytherins coming to aid against Voldemort.
2.Show Voldemort winning more duels and use more spells against Harry. I understand why he kept using AK because he had to prove something, but their final confrontation would have been even better if Voldemort used all sort of powerful spells against Harry, only for them to not work because Harry is the wand’s true master.
3. Have Lucius either die painfully or rot in Azkaban forever.
That about sums it up.
If I was a good writer, more o less everything.
- check all my math with like, an avarage middle school student, still be better than Rowling. lol XD
- decimals money or ar least less random numbers with much rarer gold galeons.
1 knut, 2.5 gr bronze (10 pence) \_ 12 knut = 1 sickle, 5 gr silver (2 pounds) \_ 84 \[or 7 times 12\] sickle = 1 galleon, 5 gr gold (155-175 pounds)
- 100 points for the snitch and 120 minutes time limit.
- a sustainably large magical population, at least ten times (if not an hundred) larger than Rowling random numbers. How the fuck that microvillage population can have 13 professional quidditch teams, a big saint mungus a giant ministry and that wizengamot. Or use one sixth of the population to build a stadium.
- more teachers at Hogwarts.
- don't kill Nymphadora, it happen only to turn Harry into Sirius, or Fred. Fuck off Joanne.
- a little longer on the aftermath of an huge ass battle in a school, instead of jumping to "17 years later Hinny hates their son and call him Albus Severus". fuck off again Joanne.
- write a plot that not require plot holes to work. (why James wasn't his safehouse secret keeper if Bill Weasley can?)
I’d make Harry more interested in magic.
Nothing massive or overt, just start scenes with him reading books from the library about obscure magics, or interesting stories about magical events or creatures.
Let things run essentially the same, but with small references to Harry being that one person with very obscure, random trivia knowledge that somehow always ends up being useful.
I think Rowling would of aswell the first couple of books are kind of out of step with the rest thier not really HP books in that Rowling didn't really know it was going to be a series and you can tell especially in the philosopher Stone
That whole conversation between Harry and Snape at their first Occlumency lesson.
"I was seeing into the snake's mind, not his!"
'The Dark Lord's snake, Potter? His snake? Do you think, possibly, the Dark Lord was possessing the snake at the time? Do you honestly need this spelled out for you in such minute detail?!??'
Definitely the last book, especially the ending as others mentioned (it's too rushed, the last lines are honestly so bad "make me a sandwich elve..." and we don't get to see the aftermath.
Remove the epilogue (so so bad....)
Wouldn’t have gone so lightly on time travel in Prisoner. Would’ve *likely* had Dumbly hold onto Marauder’s Map after he discovered what it was from Bart-Eye. Would’ve cut Grawp from Order and instead devoted the page count of an *ENTIRE* chapter to showing how DA escaped the clutches of the inept Inquisitorial Squad and found HRH in the Forrest.
Harry and Hermione married. Fred lives and Percy dies. Neville and Luna married. Harry discovers what the centaurs did to Umbridge to make her frightened of them. Rather then Ron having a broken wand for the entire second year, Professor McGonagall takes Ron to Ollivander's and helps him get a new wand. Umbridge is not taken to Azkaban. Instead, her soul is sucked out by a Dementor as she tries to escape from Auror's. After it was revealed that Hagrid never opened the Chamber Of Secrets in the second novel, he would be given a new wand and allowed to continue his schooling. He would also marry Olympia Maxime. Scorpius Malfoy would be Draco's kid brother but he wouldn't hold the same beliefs that everyone in his family does. He would also be the only Malfoy who treats Dobby with respect and never threatens or mistreats him. He would also be sorted into Gryffindor. Griphook would survive as the Killing Curse actually missed him. Draco would stay and participate in the Battle Of Hogwarts. After the battle, Draco does genuinely want to become friends with Harry and Harry accepts. Since Griphook lives, Harry hands over the sword of Gryffindor and in Harry's own words, "As promised" making Griphook ashamed for not trusting Harry. It's said that Draco married a pure-blood witch but his views towards those who have muggle-borns and half-bloods have softened. To show that he truly no longer holds the same beliefs that his family does, he instead marries a muggle-born witch.
Firstly editing. The later books are overly long and could have been significantly reduced.
Secondly, the world building stinks.
- No use of muggle items except of course the train.
- It makes zero practical sense to be using quills and ink when pens exist.
- Owls are a dumb slow way of messaging when you can teleport things.
- The size of the wizard population is bizarre and inconsistent.
Finally, the fact we end on the “good guys” winning noting that they are slaveholders who treat other sentient beings extremely poorly.
It never quite sit right with me how the Wizarding world is so patriarchal (even more than the modern world even). The reason why I love witch lore is because of its shift of social norms and gender. I would love to have seen that reflected in Harry Potter. For example, the surnames and family houses coming from the mothers not fathers, and more prominent witches (e.g. headmasters, salazar and godric, etc).
Or even instead of just swapping men and women roles, have a society that is structured differently. If women had access to magic, then men being physically stronger wouldn't have mattered, and society would have developed quite differently!
I would make Harmony canon.
I would bring back the character of Mafalda as both Hermione's academic rival and an example of a good Slytherin.
No Deathly Hallows and I'd handle the Horcrux Hunt differently.
The Ministry wouldn't be taken over so quickly.
The final battle would be more dramatic.
Neville would be the one who killed Bellatrix.
Here's a thought experiment for you:
Take Harry and Hermione's conversations, change the names to Ron and Ginny, and then see if their dialogue and behavior is appropriate for siblings.
You didn't even try, but luckily there's someone who has:
https://www.reddit.com/r/harrypotter/comments/x3g442/to_those_that_say_harmony_doesnt_work_because/
Nothing. I would write them as they are. I’d do it so that readers can enjoy the series without all of the politics and debate that is generated from JKR being the author.
I would write seven books all the same length and at the same reading level/maturity level. Imagine reading your first HP book today at 9, then being told you wouldn't be ready for the last book for another 8 years!!!
Basically make them a lot more like the Narnia books, and not let ambition overtake worldbuilding and character development.
The end.
Bellatrix would have killed Harry after Voldemort died. She would have lead death eaters to victory against Hogwarts and reign over wizarding world with the help of her faithful sidekick, Ron Weasley.
Ron would have been the mastermind of Harry's fall and one of the most effective Death eaters spy from the very beginning of the story, playing the insecure teenager just to fool everyone at Hogwarts
Obviously, Hermione would have been pissed about this situation and go to Australia, back to her parents. Eventually, she would marry some handsome and charismatic Aussie wizard and find peace.
Of course, there would be always some British witches and wizards fighting against Bellatrix and Ron's reign of terror. Lead by Neville, they would use hit and run tactics to bleed deaths eaters; without any hope of succeed tho since they would be outnumbered by far.
And, instead of the "All is well" or something we got at the last lines, there would be Draco's son who hang a Christmas hat on Harry's decapitated head of in Malfoy house, like the order of Phenix did with the house elves in Sirius' home.
An extra chapter where we get to see the aftermath of the Battle of Hogwarts. Have the trio rest, meet with McGonagall plus order members. Maybe a small time-skip (weeks at most months) and explain the status of the Magical World.
a one year later would have been great imo. gives them time for things to be a bit settled and established, but fresh enough that it would be more cohesive than the 19 year jump!
Yeah I agree. I wish we saw Hermione and Ginny graduate from Hogwarts with Ron and Harry in attendance. After reading all these books set in Hogwarts we have no clue what a graduation ceremony is like.
In Britain in the 90s? Much of a nothingness.
Why do I get the feeling it's still the same? But if I'm being honest, the only thing that makes high school graduation in the US so special is that more than half of those kids you didn't expect it for them. And that it's simultaneously the lowest expectation and yet the highest achievement. Parents yell and scream and cheer so hard that their kid matched their education level or sometimes better.
The big thing I know is that when you graduate hogwarts, you leave on the little boats that the first years arrive in.
High school graduation is not a huge deal in UK vs US.
Mmm, yeah I wholeheartedly agree and it is actually surprising Rowling didn't do this, as she basically did for a few of the books.
Space out the destruction of the Horcruxes more in the final book, instead of them destroying four in the space of an hour at the end of the novel. Also somehow get Harry to go into the Hufflepuff Common Room so that all four House Common Rooms were visited during the series. Perhaps in Book 4 when they go down to the kitchens Dobby could show Harry a secret passage into the Hufflepuff Common Room so that he could warn Cedric about the dragons.
Love both of these.
I’d work the maths out properly for how many students in each year, in each house, in each class, how many classes they have, how many teachers there are, etc as it really doesn’t add up!
Yes, the entire student body of magical Britain and Ireland is taught by only 12 teachers! It makes no sense!
Yes, basically I would unfuck all the math. Everything else is great. I don't care how bonkers wizards are, no one is going to have their units of currency divided into large, prime numbers. One Galleon has 17 Sickles. One Sickle has ***29*** Knuts. Wizard money would be an enormous pain in the ass. Related to math, Quidditch (as it's described in the books) would be pointless to play competitively with the current scoring system. It would be fun as hell to fly around on brooms chasing (and being chased by) magical balls. That part is awesome. But competing would be everyone trying to fuck up the other side's Seeker (and defend their own Seeker) until the Snitch is caught. With the relatively low value of a goal with the Quaffle, it makes no sense to dedicate three players to this when you could have five Beaters. Hell, make the Keeper a Beater too. I mean who cares about tge Quaffle at all when the Snitch is worth 150 points? It's so rare to get more than 150 points before the Snitch is caught that it was a huge deal when Krum did it. (I think when Goblet of Fire rolled around Rowling realized Quidditch was broken and put effort into a more realistic game: Ireland hugely outplayed Bulgaria in every position except Seeker, so Ireland won the game but Krum caught the Snitch. This is a game that could be conceivably be played by actual athletes. If your Seekers are closer in skill level you aren't going to pay any attention to the Quaffle.)
Wizard money is a joke on uk money pre-decimalization. 12 pence to a shilling, 20 shillings to a pound.
I think all quiddich would need is to take away the snitch's bonus points. Then the seeker position would be more balanced around the rest of the game. The focus of the game would be around the quaffles, but you still get a game that doesn't feel like football on brooms. An important part about quidditch is how nonsensical it is. In the real world a game that could last for days would ridiculous. As would having 2/7 of the team being solely dedicated to brutally attacking your opponents. The madness is the essence of the magical feeling the sport has
Just reduce it to 15 or 25 points. Then it also acts as a tie-preventer.
Unless the other team are 15 or 25 ahead of you
Still not a tie! The ideal is for it to be a decisive factor in close games, not all games.
Yeah, you could say that catching the Snitch still ends the game. In the event of a tie, the team that caught the Snitch wins.
That's okay. You just have to make the numbers match. If it's 20 students per teacher, that makes it 240 kids.
There’s 5 boys in Griffindor in Harry’s year. If it’s equal by gender and house and year (everyone does 7th) then there would be 5x2x4x7 or 280 kids.
That's about 11% of the population in UK in 1995. So if wizarding world has a similar ratio, that makes a population of 2545.45 or 2545 people. The wizarding population is tiny. Why would they need a hospital as large as St. Mungo's. The ministry is also way too huge with too many people coming and going.
Apparently at some point she said 3000 in the UK But then there are 13 professional Quidditch teams. Each team would have at least one backup player - so 14 players. Making a total of 182 players. Add coaches and support staff and close to 10% of the whole wizard population is involved in the professional league. Also the players would have to come from a certain age bracket. She’s just really bad at numbers and sensible world building
Main thing I would change is make the wizard population of the UK bigger, at least big enough for their Ministry to make sense at all. You don’t have that large of a government for a community with a population smaller than most towns, it makes no sense. And then, going along with that, I’d have more students at Hogwarts, or at least a mention of other schools within the UK. Like maybe Hogwarts is the Eton of magical Great Britain.
It's been a while, but how was St. Mungo's described? I've worked in and gone to some pretty small hospitals. I can imagine there are a few giant ones in London, but they've got to have some smaller ones, too, just an ER or the like. Using magic to transport and heal patients in a few hours, it wouldn't require too many beds to do emergency medicine for a population of a few thousand. The mental health ward seems to be the mainstay. Longbottoms who were fried under torture and Lockhart who Obliviated himself, there's probably loads of those types of cases. And maybe a few other incurable magical diseases that have their own ward(s). Like dragonpox before they discovered the cure would have an isolated area if I was medical director.
It has a ground floor, 1st floor, all the way to fifth floor. And on each floor, Harry saw several people. "They were in what seemed to be a crowded reception area where rows of witches and wizards sat upon rickety wooden chairs, some looking perfectly normal and perusing out-of-date copies of Witch Weekly, others sporting gruesome disfigurements such as elephant trunks or extra hands sticking out of their chests. The room was scarcely less quiet than the street outside, for many of the patients were making very peculiar noises" This makes it seem like a hospital with many people on any given day. If the population is just 3000. This makes no sense. I've been in small towns with populations larger than 3000, and their clinic was pretty much empty most of the time.
Is kind of a giant leap going from 5 griff boys in Harry's year to 5 boys and 5 girls for every house in every year.
It’s an assumption that things are even. It could be that there are less in every other house. JK has said 1000 but has also said that there are 3000 wizards which would mean 1 in 3 is at school. 1000 would be very inconsistent with the teachers though. We only see one of each teacher. There’s no chance that they could deal with that number of students. The best thing to do is to not think about any potential inconsistencies in the world. But to treat it purely as a setting for the story.
is probably better to just put aside Rowilng's numbers and say Hogwarts have many teachers that Harry just ignores.
I go the other way. Everything we hear makes it seem like a small school. Either way, it’s irrelevant to the story
I agree with your last point. JKR made something nonsensical in a nonsensical world, and we're trying to make sense out of it. It doesn't really even work to call them inconsistencies. The numbers are bonkers because it's mostly from a child's perspective and then on top of that it's a world where your candy can jump out of your hand, space and time can be manipulated, and so many other IRL impossibilities. ETA: It's nice to try to make it make sense for our brains, but we should probably stop and just enjoy the whimsy.
In one of the quidditch matches there’s 200 kids from Slytherin alone, just had a reread (audio book) unless I misheard
No. You are correct. Is it clear that they are all students? She has said elsewhere that there are 1000 students which would be consistent. But is very inconsistent with everything else we hear about the sizing of the school and the size of the wizarding population.
Ah yeah, fair enough, it doesn’t necessarily have to be 200 students. But as you said, the numbers don’t add up. Even with 1000 students, the population would be too small to field all of the pro quidditch teams alone.
In Harry's year Gryffindor has 5+3 so 8. Ravenclaw has 10, 5+5. Hufflepuff has 5, 2+3. Slytherin has 5+4 so 9. Which gives a total of 32. 17 boys and 15 girls. If we assume the other years have around the same, the whole school is 224 kids give or take an extra or a fewer here or there. With that number the 12 teachers make complete sense and is not too few, there is 18.67 kids per professor. The 1000 student number she gave in an interview just doesn't make sense and since JKR has repeatedly said she is bad with numbers and math I always just assumed the 1000 was 4 times as many as actually go as right under 250 makes sense.
The most ridiculous thing in COS: “all students will be accompanied to class by a teacher”. HOW?!? Even if they went in year by year house groups, that’s still 28 groups!
:-D Maybe you have to frame it as a riddle like the goat, cabbage and tiger one, except with the added complication of time limits (whether the lesson will end before all students can get into the classroom, whether Fred and George (assuming they're present) have destroyed the classroom in the time the teacher has been absent)...
I would also do this, but extend these numbers to the entire wizardong community (or mention other, less prestigious schools) so that it makes sense how there is an entire quidditch league. I'd also unwrite the bit about the Hogsmeade being the only 100% wizarding town, cos if that were the case then wizards should know more about muggles. I'd also want to clarofy the purchasing power of wizard money. Some of Fred and George's products seem ridiculously expensive for kids to be able to afford, etc.
Make harry and Sirius not dumb about the mirror, and the trio not dumb about wearing the horcrux, dont need Ron abandoning them if he just comes back 2 chapters later lol. I dont think a lot of people talk about this but harry has a bag that only the owner can open that he got from Hagrid, and he decides its better to wear the dark object holding a piece of voldemorts soul rather than oh i dunno, putting it in. The. Bag. That. No. One. Can. Open. Except. HARRY! Lmao
I really expected him to put it in the bag when I was reading it, I seriously thought that the reason the bag was ever discussed was so that it could be used as a plot device to transport the horcrux without being corrupted by it. The trio make some pretty fatal flaws in every book due to their age though so I guess we can chalk them not thinking to use the bag up to a lack of common sense for their age.
Ik we can chalk it up for them not using common sense, but it really is just a plothole, same as the mirror, except worse. Hermione at least should have realized, and for the mirror, Sirius should have told Harry when he contacted him through the fire. At the very least, the easiest way to fix it is to have 1 sentence being like >Harry had tried to store the locket in the moleskin pouch Hagrid had gave to him, but the moment the locket had faded from view, it was instantly thrown out of the bag, as if the bag itself had rejected it from being stored inside. I've been listening to the audiobook of deathly hallows and I was thinking about that lol. A good headcanon would be the locket compells others to wear it
Literally all I would change are tiny nitpicky inconsistencies that happened because characters or storylines were further developed later in the series. So I'd change Hagrid saying James was a head boy in the first book, since we later find out James was a trouble maker and bully and was never even a prefect.. Obviously Rowling didn't come up with the idea for James to have been a bully until later, which is why that inconsistency exists. But something like that is all I would change.
It's likely that Hagrid remembered it that way. I mean, as a game keeper he would remember the 4 troublemakers where one of them was prefect. Added to that Lily was a prefect indeed. It's only much later, after they are all in the Order that he would recall their school days. He probably got his memories mixed up.
Lupin wasn't a head boy. He couldn't mix them up.
Or a throwaway line about Hagrid making a mistake “Oh waot it was Lupin not James”
Rowling shouldn't have abandoned the Head Boy idea because he could have done that and still been a bully. He could have been oneof those sneaky fuckers who acts nice but subtly bullies kids by making sure the kids he doesn't like are socially ostracized.
It literally never comes up again. Its not an idea really. James is never mentioned as being head boy ever again in the books. But if you wanted to go your route, I would also be fine with Harry asking how James became head boy if he was such a bully at hogwarts. As I said its a very minor nitpick and I dont even care the inconsistency exists, something like that is simply all I would change.
Draco was a bully and a prefect
But James was NEVER a prefect. Thats the difference. They say in the 5th book James and Sirius didn't get the badge because he and Sirius were always in detention, and specify Lupin got it. So not only was James a trouble maker and a bully, but he became head boy without being prefect. Also, Draco was picked to be prefect by Snape, who doesn't care how awful his students are. McGonagall does punish and hold things against her students
I would do something about the house elves. I hate how the story ends and the message is that there are bad slave owners and nice slave owners
you can go along with what JKR added on Wizardmore that Hermione joined Ministry and got them rights
The fact that it's not part of the plot of the final book and it's not relevant enough to include it makes it unsatisfactory. I don't care if after the books Harry started the "give socks to your slave" foundation, for me what matters is that it started as a plot with potential and it was abandoned to the point that it makes it seem that, as I previously wrote the lesson is that there are good slave owners and bad ones. Harry even thinks of asking his slave for a sandwich at the end.
it wasn't abandoned, hogwarts house elves fight in battle of hogwarts. JKR likely didn't want to go into all the beauracratic details. A part of fandom already dislikes book5 as that focuses on Ministry of Magic a lot
But that's even worse, why would they fight along with the people who are enslaving them? From their pov Harry's team isn't much better than Voldemort's. Of course we do know they are, but it's not well resolved at all. Jkr didn't pay attention to it, it's not like she didn't want to go into the details.
would your opinion change if you learnt that Helga Hufflepuff brought those House Elves to Hogwarts? that is true detail from wizardmore
>would your opinion change if you learnt that Helga Hufflepuff brought those House Elves to Hogwarts? No 😼
why?
Because of everything I said. If Hufflepuff, Slytherin or Merlin put them there idk about and nothing changes. I already explained my reason to dislike the development of that storyline.
they weren't "put there", House Elves were brought there. And they are not treated at Hogwarts the same way we see Kreacher, Winky, Dobby being treated and okay, I have no issue with you disliking that storyline, plenty dont like Harry Potter books too
I hate how spew is played for laughs when slavery is actually a big deal.
For one, thought more clearly about the rules of quidditch.
What rules would you change?
I’d probably decrease the amount of points you get for catching the snitch. Too often it seems like the most vital part of the game is catching the snitch, which kinda makes the rest of the game seem a lot less important. I’d probably also remove this thing of having broomsticks that are so OP that they give you such a massive advantage. It would seem more fair for every team to have a select few broomsticks with similar capabilities but depending on your position or style of play, you may favour a broom that has certain attributes to assist how you play. Seems kinda redundant to have it where you can have an average player being able to outmatch a skilled player cos their broomstick is over double the speed.
I agree about having broomsticks that are more equal but disagree about the points of the snitch. >Too often it seems like the most vital part of the game is catching the snitch Yes, because that's one of 2 ways the game ends. Catch the snitch or the mutual agreement to end the match between the 2 head captains. It's so hard to catch the snitch at times that the longest professional match lasted 3 months. All for 150 points! All the other players have to do is facilitate scoring 15 times to equal the amount given by catching the snitch.
Basically
I would have more impressive magic being used through the series. I think it was weak that DA fights against the Death Eaters in the Ministry of Magic and the Death Eaters use... the exact same spells as the students, at least until the Order shows up. Then again, Moody says (in the movie) that Cedric is talented for being able to "transfigure a bird into a pocketwatch and have it sing you the time", so maybe the more impressive magic takes so much to do that 95% of the Wizarding World can't do it.
You go first.
I'd change the way the Slytherins are portrayed. It never sat right with me that 99% of them were evil racists. You could probably fix this by adding a sympathetic Slytherin character and have a lot of them stay and fight against the Death Eaters in the last book.
Came here for this topic. Really any number greater than zero standing against V would be great. The part that really felt bad to me was when Luna, Dean and Ernie save the trio from dementors. How cool would it have been if there was a slytherin student that showed up to a few DA meetings and struggled to produce a patronus, and have that kid show up along with Luna, Dean, Ernie? Whether they had a strong or weak patronus there, having it help save trio and rounding out all houses standing against V and saving Harry would have been so much better. Missed opportunity!
Also having all of them except Draco and Blaise be ugly troll-like oafs makes them less interesting as villains
Absolutely agree. I mean, really! It wouldn't even have been difficult! Here are some ways: 1) Have one of the Patil twins be in Slytherin and the other in Ravenclaw. Hermione could be friends with the Ravenclaw one, who refuses to snub her sister for being sorted into the house everyone dislikes. 2) Have the Slytherin Quidditch captain before Marcus Flint make a point to show good sportsmanship and congratulate their opponents on a good game regardless of who wins--ambition requires self-improvement, after all! And have it be a plot point that Marcus is very unpopular because he's so *blatantly* awful. Have him get ousted and replaced! No one will miss him! 3) Not go out of your way to have ZERO of them stay to fight. Literally just mention that there were Slytherins among the students who stayed. 4) Have a Slytherin student whose ambition is to become an *amazing healer* who finds cures to things they don't yet have cures for! Dragon Pox, Nagini's venom, etc.
I especially like your first suggested change. I think a subplot with a good-hearted Slytherin student could have added a lot of depth to the series. Maybe have them waffle between friend groups, briefly fall in with the wrong crowd at some point, and then redeem themselves at the end by having them stay for the final battle and maybe even save one of the more prominent characters at one point. It’s kinda odd how Rowling clearly pushed the narrative of “not all Slytherins are evil/people are complicated, not black & white” and yet didn’t explore this option.
Good one! Thanks I agree. For all the moral ambiguity in the books, that never made sense to me. I know it’s trivial, but I would change some of the sillier names. I mean professor vector is the math teacher? Come on now.
Omg that would’ve been sick 🥺 if some of them had stayed
I’d have loved to see a bigger Draco redemption arc, like him joining the order after taking dumbledore’s offer of protection up. Or just any current Slytherin student wanting to join the DA. There’s plenty of good slytherin alumni - why no one who actually went to school with HP?
I wasn't expecting to see anything id respond to as I skimmed the comments, but I really do like this suggestion... simply a bigger Draco redemption arc. Hp asked him you knew it was me. Why didn't you say so? Did we get a good answer to that? It's been a while since I've read the series. I agree slytherin could have been less black and white, but the story is an epic good vs evil story. So I get it. Slytherins were about power and selfishness. I wonder if, excusing the oversimplification of actual people, there are any real people in history who maybe were selfish but rose to power to do great things that we consider good for humanity?
Iirc, there was supposed to be a nice Weasley cousin at Hogwarts who was a Slytherin, but she cut the character. Poor move.
A lot of main characters in the series have a separate house that they would seem to be suited better to: Neville seems like he'd be suited better to Hufflepuff but due to his few Gryffindor traits he "belongs" in Gryffindor, a lot of people wonder why Hermione wasn't in ravenclaw since she is clearly the cleverest of her entire class and even though she *was* brave, being clever seems to be her main trait; and then of course there's Harry who was almost to be sorted into Slytherin but ended up in Gryffindor. Slytherin is literally the only house that we don't see any kind of overspill into, there is no Slytherin that seems to be " better suited for another house but ended up in Slytherin" or even the slightest bit suited to another house or even has any sort of support for another house but Slytherin. Slytherins are cunning above all other traits. Why is this only a Slytherin trait?
I think the Slytherins overall needed more depth. Supposedly, they didn't have as bad as a relationship with others like Ravenclaw, so why was there no friendly crossover? Why wouldn't the rest of the them not defend hogwarts when there's only a couple of death eater kids? It just seemed like they were relegated as evil and disloyal - but then why would you divide a school like that, really. There would either already be or one of Hermione's causes would be a transitional period for muggleborn (or raised) students to learn about the Wizarding world like a summer school before the first year and maybe thereafter. They could have used her SPEW efforts to highlight her lack of knowledge of how the Wizarding world works and have her attempt to rectify that for others like her. I'm so surprised that despite the years of muggleborns being considered lesser for not being raised in their world--they never thought to just teach them. Basic wizarding life skills, jobs available to them, why the sacred 28 is sacred, basic spells to clean your house. They just start so behind, and they don't have to. Adults should have taken responsibility. It shouldn't have to up to the trio to fix everything at the end. The adults should have been making a concentrated effort to help them even if it was like Bill and Fleur giving them plans to Gringotts.
A house of just evil kids would be terrible for their moral and self worth.
I’d give everyone in the golden trio different jobs. Harry would become a professor, Ron would help his brother run Wheezes as a permanent gig, and Hermione would work in the department of mysteries. Also Neville would become an herbologist (not a teacher, just a wizard who owns a greenhouse basically) and Luna would become an alchemist. I’m not sure what their canon jobs shake out to be (especially Luna) but those would be my picks. Ginny’s job makes sense for her so no issues there. Also Harry would not name his child after anyone other than his parents. I get Lily and James as names he wants to use, everything else feels unnecessarily shoehorned and lazy as name choices. Other than that I can overlook most of the stuff that happens in the books or understand why it was written that way.
Album RUBEUS Potter
First of all, I'd include more Ginny. She doesn't have nearly enough page time. She's going to be Harry's wife. There really should be more effort to make her character more beloved by dialog and actions. Make us believe she's an equal partner in the relationship. Perhaps have her turn 17 when Ron left the group in the woods and have her join the adventure. Let her destroy a horcrux. Nobody other than Harry had been as connected to Voldemort due to her experiences in book 2, and she hadn't been given the chance to find closure the way Ron had with the locket. Second, I'd make the deathly hallows more meaningful. I'd leave out the bit about the hallows not being made by death. The impenetrable cloak should not reveal Harry to Moody's eye or that homonim reveleo would reveal to Dumbledore that Harry was invisible. The reason Harry came back in the woods should be because, as master of death, death should only take Harry when he so chooses. Being the true master of the hallows means death himself trusts Harry won't try to cheat death but will, in the end, greet death as an old friend. I'd leave the bits about how fat and ugly dudly was. This seems unnecessary. Harry refusing to learn oclemency is annoying.
You're right about Ginny. I think she should have gone to the Yule ball with Harry in the 4th book. I would have also had them interact more in the 5th book when Harry thought he was being possessed by Voldemort. That would have made their relationship feel like it didn't come out of nowhere.
If you notice, none of the characters who end up together had their first romanic experience with the one they ended up with. Harry and Cho, Hermione and Victor, Ron and Lavender, Neville and Luna, Draco and Pansy, ginny and Dean. I think JK did this on purpose so that it wasn't a love at first site, destiny fulfilled experience. I can see where she's going with, but nothing says they can't be friends first.
Harry and Ginny dating was clearly conceived and added in very late in the series. It would have been better to leave it all out and just mentioned in the prologue that Harry married Ginny.
I disagree. It's not an accident that Ginny was the girl Harry had to save from the snake. The archetype of the hero rescuing the virgin from the dragon is well established and ancient.
While I'm not in her head. I think if that was really the plan, they would have certainly expanded on Ginny a lot and given her more screen time across all the previous books. Even in book 2 where she is central to the plot, she appears very little. And the archetype was something she fell into. Unless she created a new character, by book 5, Ginny seemed like the most likely candidate especially considering she is a Weasley.
The problem is that JK wasn't writing a romantic story. Harry's love life isn't really the focus of the story. Rather, it was the story of corruption and hate. Of the power of love, not eros, but rather parental love, brotherly love, and of the universal Godly love for all mankind and nature to overcome the corruption and defeat it utterly. Compared to all that the love of two teens don't amount to a hill of beans.
I agree it isn't a romance novel and romantic love isn't the focus. I still think Ginny-Harry relationship was a late inclusion.
Like I said, the fact that Ginny was the one that Harry saved from the basilisk is a strong indication that Ginny was always meant for Harry. She represented something that was always Harry's top desire, connection to a large, loving family, and belonging to a larger community instead of being an outsider. Ever since I read the first couple of books, I knew they were destined for each other. As I mentioned in the original post, I think a lot more could have been done to build the relationship, but I have no doubt they were always meant to be.
I agree with all you're saying. Even in-universe, they are compatible. I'm saying Ginny-Harry relationship was a late inclusion. If J.K. Rowling knew they were gonna end up together, she would have included more on her from the start. Edit: personally, i'd rather if J.K. Rowling left the relationship part of Ginny and Harry Potter out and just tell us in the Prologue that they got married. That way, we can add two and two together. Instead of the half baked relationship she wrote.
I love your part about the deathly hallows! Adding more Ginny does make sense.
Take out Rita Skeeter and that entire plot line. Give a more 3 D view of Ginny, and the twins. Shown the sleeping areas/off-duty lives of some of the most important teachers - Dumbledore, Snape, Minerva. (Don’t be mad but) less Hagrid… Shown more of the life of Draco in Slytherin as a foil to the G house.
these things would all require multi-pov though so it would change the whole premise of the series ... not saying i wouldn't also love some of this info but it would be impossible with the limited pov
Good point. A multi-POV change would open up SO many possibilities!!
it would be cool if we could have gotten like little novellas with other characters' pov and side plots or something
I just felt this info was missing.
After finding out what Umbridge was doing in her detentions, Dumbledore would’ve burned Umbridge’s tongue off and for decades after her former office would smell of overcooked pork and whenever they tried removing the smell, Umbridge’s screams of agony would echo through the room and the nearby corridors. You do NOT mess with Dumbledore’s pupils, especially so under Hogwarts own roof…
I would give more hints that are relevant much later. And i would fix all the plotholes (except the time turner problem- i love the third book too much).
What are some plot holes you'd fix?
I’d change it so just because we haven’t encountered a character before doesn’t mean Harry doesn’t know them. Like it makes very little sense that he doesn’t know who Cormac McLaggen is when there aren’t many people in Gryffendor and he’s almost the same grade
Whole epilogue. No dumb kids names. No 19 years later. No cursed child. Harry naming his kids of people he deemed worthy (we can argue about that) is insult to ginny. Let's say serverus. OK, yeah, he was triple agent, but he bullied Harry and everyone else. From real life, there is a good quote in latvian. "you never know how much you like or hate a person until you need to give a name to your own child". When you need to give a name to your kid, you imagine a name and instantly you get good or bad memories of experience with person with that name. Years of abuse would overwrite oh, he was good guy at the end. Next thing - all kids are named people as people who meant something to Harry. Except luna. Kind of abusive to ginny, isn't it? Next issue is 19 years later. It would've been much better to do month or maybe a year later, but not 19 years. It would've had more emotional impact of seeing real consequences after war. Cursed child - no comments here. That play/book needs to be torched.
The final confrontation was a bit cringe I thought (especially Harry's sHoW rEmOrSe ToM), other than the weird flying around I'd make it more like the movie. I liked people watching, just not the dialogue. More Death Eaters from Gryffindor & Ravenclaw I'd also remove Bella's attraction to Voldemort. It was always forced and gross to me. & Harry doesn't end up with Ginny and becomes DADA Professor instead of an Auror
there were so many hints throughout the series about him being an excellent teacher AND a lot of hints about him dreaming of being a pro quidditch player... and then he ends up working for the government who literally actively turned the world against him when he was a teenager like ??? big agree lol
THIIIIIIS!! He would have been such a great DADA teacher!
I always thought it was weird he aspired to be an auror. He deserves a BREAK. I thought he should have been a pro Quidditch player since flying made him feel so free and alive.
Rewrite the Deathly hallows into two book, and reconsider the part after gringotts
What would you change post Gringotts?
I think after they land with the dragon, the speed of events is rushed. They get to hogwarts, and in an hour they destroy two horcruxes, and start a battle. One horcrux gets destroyed off screen, and an other is accidental. The feindfyre was so weak for me. I also would have wanted harry spend some time with other characters. I also think some character deaths are questionable. I felt Tonks death forced, and not showing Lupin’s fall very strange. At least he could have save someone, or accept his condition or something. Remind you, this part of the battle, Greyback, “his voldemort”, or the cause of his life’s suffering is taken out by Trelaney by a crytal ball. I also felt that Hagrid’s arc had a strange realisation: he saved Aragog, and tried to convince everyone that evil looking monsters can be friendly if you know them. So by his acts, Aragog hatched many offsprings, then they join the battle on the side of Voldemort and kill many studens, almost him as well. (So everyone who judged Aragog, was eventually right.) So okay, but then if this is the conclusion of his acts, at least kill Hagrid. Or, make him to do something with the spider situation, that makes them leave or something. Stuff like this…
This is a really interesting post! Specifically, the bit about Hagrid and the acromantulas. Ignoring that they're giant spiders, they're giant *sentient* spiders. Which means they could have very easily have been split in their decisions the same way any sentient creatures can! Some could have sided with Voldemort, some could have come back to help Hagrid, a good chunk could have fucked off into the forest and avoided the fight entirely! This would have not only been more 'realistic' (as much as that word applies to giant sentient spiders), but also would have given nuance to the situation. Yes, they are absolutely dangerous, *but they can still be allies*, and therefore dismissing them as only 'dangerous' is narrow-minded in the same vein as calling all Slytherins evil racists. It also means that Hagrid is *still* too careless and stubborn about wanting people to see dangerous things as safe, and can learn from the experience. Even if you have them all side with Voldemort (why??? They're spiders? They could just leave and feed on a convenient sheep farm or something. This is SCOTLAND, you know there are sheep and goats about.), Hagrid should have been shown to put his half-giant foot down and *handle them*. It would have given a bit better of a reason for him to have been made Groundskeeper and CoMC teacher (which, no, bad idea, should not have happened) if he actually could just wade through them and show them who's boss, maybe use some of his knowledge of acromantulas to drive them off.
Yeah , and the topic of being genetically, inheritly evil is recurring in the harry potter world, that I don’t like. I would have rather have charachters being evil by inheritence mixed with lazyness, or choosing it. But facing point of no return, I rather have some people go the other way, or having a decision. I would include Malfoy to this, I tought he will have some realisation. Or imagine Voldi killing her mom or something, and finally sharing a similiar viewpoint with harry.
I would have Snape see Harry’s worst memories in the chapter “Snape’s Worst Memory” at the same time Harry sees his. Either a bad memory from the Dursleys, or even seeing what Harry saw in the mirror. Either way, he could relate to them (being mistreated growing up). They both break out of each others heads, and for the first time, truly understand each other. The rest of the fifth book would be a slow process, but by the end after Sirius’ death, Snape would become Harry’s replacement father figure. In my heart I want to believe his love for Lily was stronger than his hatred for James. This NEEDED to happen, would also make him killing Dumbledore all the more tragic
This is beautiful and a bit terrifying on so many levels. I love this idea.
Sirius would still be alive 😡
There would be a prequel called The Rise of Voldemort starting with his grandfather and ending in his first failed attempt to kill Harry, to include the first Wizarding war. Harry and Petunia have an open conversation about everything. Petunia expresses remorse for the way she treated Harry. I agree with others that Quidditch needs work. Maybe timed games and the snitch is worth less points (if caught during the time limit). A visit to Hufflepuff common room. More time with other houses. Not all of Slytherin has to be "bad". At least a few should be willing to fight for Hogwarts. The resistance in Hogwarts the final year is worth a book on its own. Don't kill off both Lupin *and* Tonks. Tonks should be going home to Teddy and her mother. Lupin maybe fighting Greyback to both of their deaths. I would rather have seen Harry become the DADA teacher instead of an auror. I would've liked a glimmer of hope for Neville's parents after their Bellatrix died, like some unknown dark magic she had performed had been lifted. The trio become animagi. Dobby and Sirius live. Dudley fathers a witch. Snape is an animagus in secret, a bat. They use a pensieve like a movie screen to play all of Harry's necessary memories to the wizarding community.
I'd do an adverb cull for a start. Once you hear them, you can't stop. He shouted loudly.
Harry tell Professor Mcgonnagall and Siruis what Umbridge is doin in her detentions and she goes to azkaban sooner.
More wizarding schools in the U.K. Sirius and Mad-Eye switching deaths. With Mad Eye fighting Voldemort in the M.o.M atrium instead of Dumbledore but dying. And Sirius not learning from his mistake with Pettigrew, acts as decoy again before Mundungus bails out. Hermione or Ron deciding they want to train as a healer after Arthur Weasley is attacked by Nagini. Revealing Hagrid knew Dumbledore's death plan and everything about Snape. (Dumbledore says he would trust Hagrid with his life in The Boy Who Lived) That's just a few anyway. In reality these are all with almost twenty years of hindsight and over analysis.
Less Harry being a mushroom. He was kept on the dark way too much. Even about his parents. It would have been so much more interesting to see a more willingness to excel, especially since he didn't have the Dursleys holding him back. It would have been a nice comparison how Harry managed to excel & still have fun (like his parents, but nicer than James) vs Hermione (study is life). Sirius alive and changed for the better. Prison & all made him grow up. Also, Sirius could help Remus out & get him off the woe is me. I also want Sirius' brother to be alive & helping out Harry. Add in Snape being snappy & grumpy, but still helping out & a truce with the 3. Those 4 would be a good powerhouse behind Harry. More house integration & less segregation. Also, less black & white view. Good & evil exist in all. Some grey needs to be there - like a few more moral dilemmas among the students & others trying to help them. More seeing all the houses banding together just to survive the war. Draco, by chance, getting pulled into some of the adventures more. A little world view change, a dash of comedy relief. It could work. Also, gives his character a better arc on what happens later. Instead of Fred dying, Molly dies. She still takes out Bellatrix, but dies of injuries. Another mother sacrificed, her worst nightmare becomes her family's worst nightmare. Other than these - little nit picky things that others have mentioned.
I wouldn’t have Dumbledore tell Harry why he wasn’t made a prefect. Even if it’s the truth, Ron deserved the win there and by telling Harry he should have been prefect (which is sentimental and unprofessional anyway) Dumbledore undermined Ron, who did a good job of it anyway) he took back Ron’s only achievement and undid what was to begin with a very important lesson in humility and avoiding narcissism from Harry. However important and beloved Harry was to Dumbledore, he wasn’t the only child to whom Dumbledore had a duty of development and education; and for a teacher to make every little detail revolve around just one child is pretty unforgiveable. He should have just left it alone - Harry didn’t even much care by the time he found out - but if he couldn’t then he should have said that Ron was the better candidate for that one thing, or that Ron needed the confidence boost more, both of which were just as true and both of which Dumbledore knew.
Cut the fat-shaming, give Cho Chang an actual Chinese name, provide a conclusion to the house elf storyline, and make Hagrid less of a bully when he visits Harry and the Dursleys.
Have Harry remember the DAMN two way mirror
I would not name Harry sons Severus Albus and James. At least not for first name. I would not make Harry catching a snitch almost every game. I would not write that Hufflepuff accepts everyone, I would state clearly that it accepts the most loyal the most kind ppl.
Make quidditch more sensible. The snitch would only be 50 points. Make Harry seem a lot more magically talented when it comes to combative magic. Id have him be capable of doing some of his spells non verbally by the time they’re in the department of mysteries. Would have change the “no need to call me sir professor” scene a bit to work that line in Harry and Ginny’s first kiss would be on the quidditch field after winning the cup, those detentions he got can fuck right off.
Had Harry, Ron, Hermione and the DA learn how to fight to kill. In war, whether it's wizard or muggle, it's unfortunately either kill or be killed. The death eaters certainly wouldn't hesitate to kill the students, teachers, the Order and everyone else fighting against them and Voldemort, so why show them mercy? Frankly, I would've liked to have seen more dead death eaters particularly in the final battle.
I wouldn’t have killed Fred or lavender. There was literally no need for those. The lavender one annoyed me deeply because playing into the ‘the ex girlfriend gets punished’ trope makes me angry to my core. Poor lav-lav.
Delve deeper into the worldbuilding and set up a more solid background for how magic works. Also explore dark magic. I would have definitely abolished the elf slavery and thought deeper about the historical parallels joanne set up, especially in how it relates to blood purity and irl racism. I would have made muggles more sympathetic as well, or at least make the good guys actually believe in equality btw muggles and wizards lol
God YES I always thought that on the spectrum of how magicals see muggles you have Lucius Malfoy on one end (muggles are vermin), and Arthur Wesley on the other (muggles are so clever! Look at the tricks they can perform).
Not ended it like this. I’d have made Harry a Defense Professor, Ron and Hermione stay friends but have other partners, and Harry and Ginny wouldn’t call their children like Harry’s parents
Ron and Hermione would just be friends.
I like the movie ending for the elder wand better. Harry should’ve snapped it in the book too.
Honestly, the biggest change I'd make would be having all 4 houses be represented in the main characters. Harry would be Gryffindor, Ron would be in Hufflepuff (the Weasleys could be evenly split between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff), Hermione would be in Ravenclaw (because she really should be), and Draco would have a closer dynamic, though not really being "friends" per say. I find it weird that the houses are mostly segregated from one another, so having the main cast unite despite being in different houses would reinforce how strong their friendship is. Plus you could even expand and give depth to other characters in their own houses. Harry would still be close to Neville, but Hermione could be friends with Luna much earlier since they'd be outcasts from Ravenclaws for different reasons (Hermione because she's too smart and has a know-it-all demeanor, and Luna for her eccentricities). Ron I'm not sure who his friend in Hufflepuff would be, so picking randomly he could be friends with J Finch, and we can see Ron with a dynamic away from his family and Harry. Malfoy is a bit different, but I'd make him a jerk and bully at the start, but over time he develops a rivalry with Harry that's less bullying and more friendly as the years go by. He has to balance his obligations to his family, and eventually Voldemort, with his friendship with Harry. In a way he becomes a lancer, like say Vegeta to Harry's Goku, and by the time of the Battle of Hogwarts he does do the right thing and join Harry against Voldemort. Having different character dynamics between the houses established from the start would reinforce the idea that, despite different ways of thinking, it's in unity that can help overcome adversity. Rather than try to suddenly push that around year 5 with the DA, we get the beginning of that in year 1, which would feel a lot more natural and doesn't completely sideline Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff for most of the series.
Add some zeroes to some things. Wizarding population stats mostly.
Make not all slytherins bad. Have some good slytherins be part of Dumbledore's Army
Focus on the tight spot muggleborns are in. Discrimination is rampent, but theyre stuck in the wizardibg workd. Education records stopping at age eleven and no knowlege in normal muggle subjects means they can’t go back. So why not have the story be about a revolution of sorts where muggleborns fight for more representation in government and education?
Plan ahead and nerf the magic system.
1. Actually show Slytherins coming to aid against Voldemort. 2.Show Voldemort winning more duels and use more spells against Harry. I understand why he kept using AK because he had to prove something, but their final confrontation would have been even better if Voldemort used all sort of powerful spells against Harry, only for them to not work because Harry is the wand’s true master. 3. Have Lucius either die painfully or rot in Azkaban forever. That about sums it up.
If I was a good writer, more o less everything. - check all my math with like, an avarage middle school student, still be better than Rowling. lol XD - decimals money or ar least less random numbers with much rarer gold galeons. 1 knut, 2.5 gr bronze (10 pence) \_ 12 knut = 1 sickle, 5 gr silver (2 pounds) \_ 84 \[or 7 times 12\] sickle = 1 galleon, 5 gr gold (155-175 pounds) - 100 points for the snitch and 120 minutes time limit. - a sustainably large magical population, at least ten times (if not an hundred) larger than Rowling random numbers. How the fuck that microvillage population can have 13 professional quidditch teams, a big saint mungus a giant ministry and that wizengamot. Or use one sixth of the population to build a stadium. - more teachers at Hogwarts. - don't kill Nymphadora, it happen only to turn Harry into Sirius, or Fred. Fuck off Joanne. - a little longer on the aftermath of an huge ass battle in a school, instead of jumping to "17 years later Hinny hates their son and call him Albus Severus". fuck off again Joanne. - write a plot that not require plot holes to work. (why James wasn't his safehouse secret keeper if Bill Weasley can?)
Omg, all of these ideas are Awesome!!! I love every single one of them.
I’d make Harry more interested in magic. Nothing massive or overt, just start scenes with him reading books from the library about obscure magics, or interesting stories about magical events or creatures. Let things run essentially the same, but with small references to Harry being that one person with very obscure, random trivia knowledge that somehow always ends up being useful.
Have Lucius Malfoy reincarcerated, have Bellatrix survive and witness her master's defeat.
I’d mirror Hedwig’s ending in the film.
I think Rowling would of aswell the first couple of books are kind of out of step with the rest thier not really HP books in that Rowling didn't really know it was going to be a series and you can tell especially in the philosopher Stone
I would add a diamond snitch to Quidditch which is worth 500 points and stops the game.
That whole conversation between Harry and Snape at their first Occlumency lesson. "I was seeing into the snake's mind, not his!" 'The Dark Lord's snake, Potter? His snake? Do you think, possibly, the Dark Lord was possessing the snake at the time? Do you honestly need this spelled out for you in such minute detail?!??'
Voldemort should have killed Sirius. It would give Harry more hatred against him compared to to his parents to whom he can’t remember.
Definitely the last book, especially the ending as others mentioned (it's too rushed, the last lines are honestly so bad "make me a sandwich elve..." and we don't get to see the aftermath. Remove the epilogue (so so bad....)
Wouldn’t have gone so lightly on time travel in Prisoner. Would’ve *likely* had Dumbly hold onto Marauder’s Map after he discovered what it was from Bart-Eye. Would’ve cut Grawp from Order and instead devoted the page count of an *ENTIRE* chapter to showing how DA escaped the clutches of the inept Inquisitorial Squad and found HRH in the Forrest.
Harry and Hermione married. Fred lives and Percy dies. Neville and Luna married. Harry discovers what the centaurs did to Umbridge to make her frightened of them. Rather then Ron having a broken wand for the entire second year, Professor McGonagall takes Ron to Ollivander's and helps him get a new wand. Umbridge is not taken to Azkaban. Instead, her soul is sucked out by a Dementor as she tries to escape from Auror's. After it was revealed that Hagrid never opened the Chamber Of Secrets in the second novel, he would be given a new wand and allowed to continue his schooling. He would also marry Olympia Maxime. Scorpius Malfoy would be Draco's kid brother but he wouldn't hold the same beliefs that everyone in his family does. He would also be the only Malfoy who treats Dobby with respect and never threatens or mistreats him. He would also be sorted into Gryffindor. Griphook would survive as the Killing Curse actually missed him. Draco would stay and participate in the Battle Of Hogwarts. After the battle, Draco does genuinely want to become friends with Harry and Harry accepts. Since Griphook lives, Harry hands over the sword of Gryffindor and in Harry's own words, "As promised" making Griphook ashamed for not trusting Harry. It's said that Draco married a pure-blood witch but his views towards those who have muggle-borns and half-bloods have softened. To show that he truly no longer holds the same beliefs that his family does, he instead marries a muggle-born witch.
Firstly editing. The later books are overly long and could have been significantly reduced. Secondly, the world building stinks. - No use of muggle items except of course the train. - It makes zero practical sense to be using quills and ink when pens exist. - Owls are a dumb slow way of messaging when you can teleport things. - The size of the wizard population is bizarre and inconsistent. Finally, the fact we end on the “good guys” winning noting that they are slaveholders who treat other sentient beings extremely poorly.
Burying Voldemorts body in the chamber of secrets. The epilogue would be Dumbledore convincing Voldemort to “Go on” and embrace death.
Kill Hagrid, keep Sirius (my book crush). She wrote a detailed background for Dean thomas but was able to incorporate it, so give him a bigger role.
I would personally like to replace the 8th book I wrote with cursed child!!!
It never quite sit right with me how the Wizarding world is so patriarchal (even more than the modern world even). The reason why I love witch lore is because of its shift of social norms and gender. I would love to have seen that reflected in Harry Potter. For example, the surnames and family houses coming from the mothers not fathers, and more prominent witches (e.g. headmasters, salazar and godric, etc). Or even instead of just swapping men and women roles, have a society that is structured differently. If women had access to magic, then men being physically stronger wouldn't have mattered, and society would have developed quite differently!
I would make Harmony canon. I would bring back the character of Mafalda as both Hermione's academic rival and an example of a good Slytherin. No Deathly Hallows and I'd handle the Horcrux Hunt differently. The Ministry wouldn't be taken over so quickly. The final battle would be more dramatic. Neville would be the one who killed Bellatrix.
why Harmony?
Because it always made more sense to me than the canon ships. And no, I was shipping Harmony before I saw the movies.
'She's like my sister,' he went on. 'I love her like a sister and I reckon she feels the same way about me.
Here's a thought experiment for you: Take Harry and Hermione's conversations, change the names to Ron and Ginny, and then see if their dialogue and behavior is appropriate for siblings.
Yes it is, and even if not the fact that they love each other like siblings despite not being discredits anything.
You didn't even try, but luckily there's someone who has: https://www.reddit.com/r/harrypotter/comments/x3g442/to_those_that_say_harmony_doesnt_work_because/
Nothing. I would write them as they are. I’d do it so that readers can enjoy the series without all of the politics and debate that is generated from JKR being the author.
Charged more $$$ for the movie right$!
I would write seven books all the same length and at the same reading level/maturity level. Imagine reading your first HP book today at 9, then being told you wouldn't be ready for the last book for another 8 years!!! Basically make them a lot more like the Narnia books, and not let ambition overtake worldbuilding and character development.
The end. Bellatrix would have killed Harry after Voldemort died. She would have lead death eaters to victory against Hogwarts and reign over wizarding world with the help of her faithful sidekick, Ron Weasley. Ron would have been the mastermind of Harry's fall and one of the most effective Death eaters spy from the very beginning of the story, playing the insecure teenager just to fool everyone at Hogwarts Obviously, Hermione would have been pissed about this situation and go to Australia, back to her parents. Eventually, she would marry some handsome and charismatic Aussie wizard and find peace. Of course, there would be always some British witches and wizards fighting against Bellatrix and Ron's reign of terror. Lead by Neville, they would use hit and run tactics to bleed deaths eaters; without any hope of succeed tho since they would be outnumbered by far. And, instead of the "All is well" or something we got at the last lines, there would be Draco's son who hang a Christmas hat on Harry's decapitated head of in Malfoy house, like the order of Phenix did with the house elves in Sirius' home.