I have a head canon that Ron's underlined talent is divination. He just never explores it 1. Because of low self esteem and 2. Because everyone laughs at that class

DID SOMEONE SAY DRAAACO MALLLFOY??!! *Rolls into the room*

I completely agree about Snape. It bothers me that everyone sees him as a saint. Yes, he loved Lily and never got over her and that's all very sad. And yes, he was fighting for the good. But! Only for his own selfish reasons. He was emotionally/mentally abusive to Harry and other students (i.e. Neville, Hermione). He never cared about Harry's well-being other than him not dying. And as a teacher with a child under his care, he made Harry as miserable as possible simply because of who Harry's father was. I do not think Lily would have appreciated this.

The vanishing cabinet, how could’ve missed that!? Golden nugget that. Is it usable on a first date? Yes! If not thank you, next.

Draco is in love with Harry, but not in a romantic way. It's in a "wanting to be acknowledged, and respected by him" way. I can't explain it well, but that's a headcanon of mine.

Also, I don't disagree with what you were saying about house-elves, but in regards to everyone's reactions to Hermione's championing of elf rights....I think a lot of the, shall we say important characters? (the twins and Hagrid especially) are mostly criticizing her methods and approach more than they're making fun of her (and I would argue that Hagrid doesn't make fun of her at all). Bc yes, Hermione is correct that house-elf slavery is unjust and wrong, and her intentions are good, but that doesn't excuse the fact that her execution is often terrible. She starts her crusade without it ever crossing her mind (so far as we know) to actually speak to the house-elves herself directly about their opinions about their conditions (which the twins correctly point out to her), she ends up speaking over them and their experiences even when she does speak to them, and she's rather condescending and dismissive of what they do tell her, waving their opinions away as just brainwashing; even if that's probably true, that's....not a helpful attitude to take in this situation? Not to mention the fact that in book 5 she's knitting clothes and hiding them around Gryffindor Tower in an attempt to trick them into freeing themselves. Like, I know that Hermione didn't intend to be condescending and dismissive (and the fact that she tends to lack sensitivity in social situations is a recurring element to her character), and again, she has good intentions in general, and she's correct to not just accept the status quo unquestioningly. But there were also definitely ways in which she was problematic in her methods and approach to the issue (kinda White Savior-esque, I suppose), and characters like Hagrid and the twins were absolutely correct in calling her out about it. A thought that occurs to me about Harry's approach to the house-elves.....I don't think this was an intentional part that JRK wrote into the book, but....I think that being stuck with the Dursleys has sort of unconsciously made Harry resigned to the whole thing? Like, he definitely understands and identifies with Dobby, bc he too feels trapped with these abusers with no permanent escape possible (that he can truly conceptualize, anyway). So, bc he's had to give up the hope of ever being freed of the Dursleys, he's internalized the idea that ultimately there's no way to save house-elves either. The system is always corrupt and oppressive, and there's no fixing it (as he hasn't yet hit the point of rebelliousness in his character arc, so he's not advanced to the stage of believing that it's possible to tear down the system to make way for something better). Idk if this is making any sense, so I'll stop here XD

I literally don't know how anyone could think hermione is a rule follower when in ootp she is literally like Harry we should make a club where you teach us things the literal ministry of magic does not want us to learn. lmao

The thing with the brooms I was literally just thinking about a few days ago! It seems horribly unfair.

I am glad to hear that I am not the only thinks about the wizard muggle money exchange

Hahaha, that first comment about Draco is great. I support! #drarry

Draco is that kid who leaves "get out of my school" notez in his crush's locker*coughHarrycough*

I’ve been slowly rereading them and watching the movies and also your vlogs between them (I’ve only reread through chamber of secrets) and it’s so cool to see how similar different thoughts you mentioned are to my annotations!!

I stopped reading Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban to watch this.

The value of a Galleon is specified in one of the Hogwarts Library books, I believe in Fantastic Beasts (but only the old editions, cuz the new editions are movie tie-ins). Still, the first book clearly states: "Harry didn't need to know the Galleon-Pound conversion rate to know he was rich", so it's blatantly self-aware that JKR does not have a conversion rate in mind and cant keep it consistant.

You are really making me want to reread the whole series so I think this is gonna happen in September :D and this one is also my least favorite book, I actually heard somebody say that they dont love HP series but they love what community made it into, like books have so many problems but community made the characters into very different ones than in books and movies and I think I love it more than books too, it is just these books are essentially so problematic cuz as you said Rowling really uses her own views and we all know they are horrible

I love this series! Have you listened to Witch Please? It is a Harry Potter reread/watch podcast and it is very good, and I would recommend. I have Strong Thoughts on your house elf comment-- feel free to pass on reading. But. I had to. Sorry. In the book shop Arthur throws the first punch during the fight between him and Lucius. He's a "good man" and he gets physically violent first because he is so angered by what Lucius is saying. (Do I agree with his actions... a whole other story but...) In a broader sense, the "blind spot" of the house elves (as well as many other magical creatures) is an example of a good family (the Weasely's specifically) who are Of Course Against the pureblood rhetoric (because THAT'S OBVIOUSLY morally abhorrent) missing another really abhorrent practice within their world because it doesn't specifically affect them. Arthur throws hands because Lucius is being disparaging towards Muggles and he is compassionate and cares THAT much. He even actively uses his ministry position to protect muggles. However, he either doesn't feel he can or doesn't care to add house elves to that agenda of protection, and we know from Ron voicing his opinions over the course of the series that he has taught his children some specific prejudices in regards to house elves, werewolves and giants. It also shows how some newcomers into a culture (hi Harry) can choose to adopt and perpetuate bad practices in order to maintain belonging, especially when the example is set by a Good Family who defend their specific differences. Harry would not take moral advice from Draco who scorns non pureblood because Harry isn't a pureblood, but he will take cues from his Weaselys because they defend nonpurebloods, so they probably have a good moral compass. Unless he experiences something prior to getting a Weasely opinion, Harry tends to adopt whatever they think. And eventually Ron does change his mind about how he feels about house elves and werewolves and giants and it's because of him leaving his pureblood family and getting to know people within those communities. He realizes they're individuals. What works for Dobby doesn't work for Winky. Who Sirius is is NOT who Greyback is. Hagrid is not Grawp. I think Rowling did something interesting with Ron's specific character arc of privilege and prejudice, which has stood the test of time. (Whether she did it intentionally or not, which, with Rowling who really knows.) It's something we see in the real world. People who take a strong stand against one kind of oppression with a close tie to them or someone they love, but ignore ones that have "nothing to do with them." Or individuals who look too different from them. It's a warning to leave our own bubbles and remember that even the people we love who champion our own rights might have blindspots, and to watch out for those who don't have as much of a voice as we do, and to not leave them behind as we're fighting for our own causes.

You just blew my mind with the vanishing cabinet. 😯😯

This was also always my least favourite because of the spiders, but ever since I watched the extended version of the movie (which makes the movie an almost perfect scene to scene adaption of the book) I saw it in a different light, because it has so much mystery in it and is actually a lot darker and more cruel than the other books in its main issue. I just reread it through the illustrated edition and put bookmarks over all the spiders 🙈 and I really enjoyed it. I think that Tom Riddle is such an interesting character and yeah, in recent years this part has really grown on me ☺️

On my re read of this now. That stuff with draco is hilarious. Harry lives in his head rent free 😂

I did not know about the vanishing cabinet! It is super cool! :D

Your hp videos always bring a smile on my face. I love seeing someone enjoy harry potter, as much I do and still be critical about it. The fun fact about the vanishing cabinet is awesome I didn't know about it. Can't wait for prisoner of Azkaban video I think there will be a lot of gushing and many rants ... I'm looking at you snape, dumbledore.

I am living for these vlogs!

I want to start off this comment by saying that I don't like Harry Potter. I grew up with it and used to love it as a kid, but as time has moved on, distance has made me find more and more things about the series that I dislike. With that out of the way, I have spent the past however long binge-watching your HP chats series and frankly the amount of passion you and everyone else has for this series is incredible. I've gotten more joy out of watching a series of headcanons and rewrites than I do out of the books themselves, and it's made me think about how much greater the series could have been. I used to think nostalgia was the main driving force behind why people adore this series so much, but now I think how the fan community has taken it and made it their own, ignoring whatever J. K. Rowling has tried to tell them is fact, is the real reason this series has endured so long.

You're tempting me to read the books, sad that I don't currently have a copy of any :(

I adore your “pointless “ updates. More please ❤️❤️❤️❤️

“I hate giant spiders” mood!

Never heard that about the vanishing cabinet!!

Never trust how Snape's emotions are described in the books. The books are from Harry's perspective, and Harry is terrible at interpreting Snape.

Hermione being characterized by ppl as a goody goody isbecause her most famous line is "now if you don't mind I'm going to bed before either pf you come up with another clever idea to get us killed or WORsE expelled"

late to this video, but omg I’m so upset with myself for never seeing all of these observations you’ve made 😂😂 it all makes so much sense though

I was waiting for this video!!!! Thank you so much!!! I really like the fact that Ron always knows something that no one notices! Love it! Continu telling us please! Thank you again! :D

this is absolutely brilliant!

Malfoy meets Red Herring?! YES. THANK YOU.

You mentioned all of Ron's prophetic statements, but here's my favorite of Harry's in this book that I fully appreciated on my latest reread: (in response to Dumbledore telling him why he's a Parselmouth) Harry: Voldemort put a bit of himself in me? Dumbledore: It certainly seems so. [pg 333 of the original US paperback] Like.................JKR/Dumbledore, you absolute TROLL. I honestly cannot even. This book truly does hold the answers to all the mysteries. XDDDDD

have you seen all the meta on tumblr about dumbledore and sirius and how their disagreement is messed up and how the consequences of it ripple throughout the series? i really love tumblr meta sometimes and this one hit the nail on the head tbh

There are a couple theories about galleon to Muggle money conversion. On one hand, Rowling has said that a galleon is about five Muggle pounds. And Mental Floss wrote about a more comprehensive conversion here: mentalfloss.com/article/74890/whats-exchange-rate-between-harry-potter-coins-and-muggle-money

Chamber of Secrets is my least favorite of the series too, my main problem with it is just that no one thinks Harry, a twelve year old boy put through hell year after year, is innocent?? Including himself???? Like my poor child

I think Hermione's insistence in freeing the house elves played a part in cementing her as a PoC (black) in my headcanons - because of her ancestry and her love of knowledge and learning, that she would be appalled something like one race "being ENSLAVED" to another and stripped of basic rights would have infuriated her so that she did without really thinking things through and whether her actions would backfire. The Hogwarts house elves were certainly treated a lot better when compared to those working under the Malfoy or Crouch families, so perhaps their insistence in not wanting to be freed is that they knew this was the best possible place to raise their own families and ensure future well-being (especially when Winky was at Hogwarts, bemoaning her own freedom after Crouch kicked her to the kerb). In regard to wizards as a whole not bothering with freeing the house elves or allowing them decent wages and the like, is that after centuries of house elves threatening to punish themselves and bawling and sobbing for their "masters" -- hoooo, i have issues with that term - to not abandon them and give them clothes, that perhaps wizards just stopped trying and assumed it was the nature of all house elves and then later on, more and more wizards just accepted the status quo. Families like the Malfoys would obviously abuse this status quo, but I gather there weren't too many who did. Even Sirius hated Kreacher, instead of getting to know the house elf and trying to understand where these views came from and why Kreacher clung to them when they were so close-minded; Sirius is generally a well-liked, yet deeply flawed character, but people often overlook his own treatment of house elves. One line that didn't really age well, was in the fifth book - when Sirius says: "If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals." While Rowling isn't alone in having this concept or putting it down on paper, the mere fact that someone would think another person or being is inferior in regards to race, culture, background, &c is infuriating; how egotistical is this person to consider themself above another? While I was absorbed in Harry Potter when it came out - the books, the movies (it was pretty much my first foray into being a "fandom nerd") - a lot of the deeper issues didn't really register with my limited child perspective; looking upon the series as an adult, fully aware of problems in the real world that seep into fiction, I have a lot more issues with the frivolity of how JKR handled so many serious topics. A lot characters were very one-dimensional until the end of the series when they all of a sudden needed to be three-dimensional; the Golden Trio, I think started as more two-dimensional and had a much more gradual shift to three-dimensional as the series progressed. Because the perspective is closed off to where we get mainly Harry's for the entirety of the series, a lot of motives, goals, characterisations, &c are completely lost to us because Harry very much takes things at close value. Book 7 is where he can no longer afford to keep his view of everyone as b/w; in Deathly Hallows, we finally get to see a lot of grey behaviour from everyone, including the trio, so that explains why there was so much "developement" and "redemption" at the end for characters who wouldn't have deserved it otherwise based off books 1-6. Regarding my stance on Snape after the sixth book came out and there was all the speculation going around, I was always a firm believer that he was "good" because of Dumbledore being cursed, the Unbreakable Vow to protect Malfoy, the "Severus, please" moment that I KNEW meant he was begging the man to kill him so a child didn't have to, because at his core, that's who Dumbledore was. In the latter books, we see Snape working as a double agent, and around Slytherin House, being as he's Head of House and a lot of the Slytherins are children of other Death Eaters, that he would have to show the Gryffindors, especially Harry's friends and dorm mates, absolutely no mercy - he would have to side with Slytherin, his students, no matter how petty it made him, because should Voldemort rise again, his "allegiance" shouldn't be in question. The moment Dumbledore died, I will admit I was shocked and angry with Snape's character and how Rowling made all of that happen, but once I had calmed down, and thought through it more clearly, I realised why he had to do that. So initial reactions are always difficult to move past, but looking at certain characters overall and examining the reason for actions and reactions is absolutely necessary to get a broader scope of the intricacies of human emotion and reasoning. Another thing that definitely broadened my mind however is fanfiction. The amount of fanfiction I've read, even with characters I don't particularly like as mains, always makes me see things from someone else's perceptions. Home life, propaganda, the want to blend in whether out of safety reasons or personal need to be around others - there are so many factors that play a part in how someone grows up and interacts with the world, SEES the world - it's a never-ending, never-repeating wonder. Good/bad, hero/villain, protag/antag - it's all a matter of perspective and education; only when being forced out of one's comfort zones can one truly begin to form their own thoughts, question their own beliefs, make a difference, change for the positive. And Rowling, sadly, didn't truly let that happen for so many characters. I think Severus and Draco and lot of other Slytherins and their families are now just amalgamations of all the different versions I've read, that I no longer see them as irredeemable because it all depends on how well, or not-so-well, an author writes their characters. The first few books were also MG fantasy and a lot of time, the heroes end up in a school-type place, where they are bullied by that one particular student, they have to suffer that one dreaded class with that one rotten professor - not to mention, JKR confirms her character of Snape is based off of a professor she didn't like - the BIAS in these novels, haha; that Snape and Malfoy are pretty much tropes until the latter books, which are more YA, give them a little more substance. Speaking of fanfiction, I'm currently reading the series "They Shook Hands" by Dethryl and it's really good so far; the one thing I don't really like in fanfiction is that when Harry is sorted into Slytherin and ofttimes befriends Draco et alia, that it's Ron and co. who become the bullies, and in a few occasions, McGonagall or Flitwick who are the unfair teachers. Just so the fanfiction can incorporate the same scenes as the original books; but, when Dethryl doesn't include Weasley or McGonagall bashing, it's really good (which honestly, I tend to ignore author bashes, because it's someone else's personal preference to not like that character, or not write that character in a flattering way for story purposes - so I'll focus on what I do like about the fic and continue on - it's only when the bad starts egregiously outweighing the bad that I DNF). Speaking of weight, there are SO MANY YA BOOKS that bring it up constantly in relation to describing characters - it's ridiculous at this point. I'm not sure I would classify EVERY author who uses it as being fat-phobic (I don't really pay attention to authors', actors', &c's personal lives), but I do shake my head in awe at how lazy they were in using such a disgusting trope. It gets to the point where everything a character does, if they happen to carry extra weight, has some adjective describing them, or at least one of their body parts, as being "chubby", or "plump", or "dumpy", or "rotund", and on and on and on ad nauseum. If a character is overweight, and it's mentioned once, maybe twice - okay - but dear GOD, YA is just saturated with overly descriptive waffling about characters' appearances - who cares how much they weigh?, who cares what they're wearing?, (or who, for the really pretentious novels?), NO ONE! Climbs off the soap box and apologises profusely for hogging the microphone for my diatribe. I always enjoy listening to you to talk about Harry Potter, even if there are things we disagree on, just hearing you speak passionately about a fandom I love as well - the small differences just melt away! I hope this finds you well, Cece! Cheers!

Maybe Ron has slight divination powers.

I'm reading this, I'm currently on page 154!

omggg i've never noticed the diary is like a pensieve!!! im s h o o k

I always kind of wished I liked Chamber of Secrets more because Ginny is my favorite character. But despite the fact that this is her story, that the events of the year revolve around her, we don't actually see much of her at all. And I know that's because Harry can be a little oblivious about some things and he's probably trying to avoid her at least a little bit because he's uncomfortable with the fact that she has a crush on him, but it still really frustrates me. Especially since Ginny apparently just bounces back from her experience with no real ill effects. There's like a line at the end about her being as happy as she ever was or something. Knowing how hard it was for Ron and Harry to deal with the locket in DH, I can't see an eleven-year-old who has been dependent on the diary (which contains the largest portion of Voldemort's soul - far larger than the locket or even the bit in Voldemort himself) for almost a year could just bounce back and be perfectly happy once more. Even when it's finally mentioned again in OotP, it's a really brief mention and gets dismissed really quickly. This whole year had to be a really defining one for Ginny, and canon just doesn't get into it at all and that bugs me.

Gaaaah I still have to finish the series 💀

Still don't agree in the fat-shaming claim for the series. Still think she in general uses looks to instill particular feelings in people about the character. Like Petunia that is described as a horse. I like your other observations though. Quite clever noticed about the vanishing cabinet. And you are right about the Harry/Draco obsession. It is quite funny.

Is harry related to godric because j.k say maybe I suppose you have to guess ?

damn now i feel like reading some drarry fanfiction,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

I literally dropped everything I was doing to watch this

Rowling’s Christian faith very clearly influenced Harry Potter as a whole. If Harry is the Jesus analogue and Voldemort is the devil, then dumbledore is God. He asks for loyalty without question and doesn’t seem to like it much when anyone has questions or expresses doubts; as though having doubts equates to weakness or lack of faith/loyalty. “I will never leave hogwarts while some here are still loyal to me” etc. That also explains a lot about the way Rowling writes Lilly. She has little to no agency and is wholly defined by the men (or male presenting) figures in her life, just like Jesus’s mother Mary. And like Mary, her legacy is how much she loved her son and was loyal to dumbledore (god). That’s just how I interpreted it. Also thank you for mentioning Rowling’s fatphobia! I really appreciated that :) Looking forward to the next installments of this read through.

I can’t watch the second movie because of the giant spider scene 😣 they terrify me!

This one is also my least favorite on the series, I’m not entirely sure why...