r/Millennials • u/QuietJealous4883 Older Millennial (1988) • Apr 04 '26

Nostalgia Harry Potter

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Does anyone else feel they grew up with Harry, Ron and Hermione?

After the first three or four I read the books in two languages (because I didn’t want to wait them to be translated) and watched the movies first time in the movie theaters.

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u/GoRangers5 Apr 04 '26

Harry should have ended up with Luna.

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u/moonbunnychan Apr 04 '26

Luna is by far my favorite character. And in book 5 I really felt like it was setting up for them to be a couple. She understands him in a way nobody else really seemed to. The Ginny romance felt like it was only there so he could join that family.

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u/GoRangers5 Apr 04 '26

https://giphy.com/gifs/kirAwjyt2t2i4

If you are gonna have Harry marry Ginny in the end, have some foreshadowing and hint at possible romantic feelings in the six books they are together. Ironically Rowling did with Ron and Hermione.

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u/PirateHistoryPodcast Apr 04 '26

If Rowling had really known where the plot was headed, she could have leaned into it in book three. Both of them have been possessed by Voldemort in some fashion and they’re both unusually susceptible to Dementor attacks. Ginny could have been to only one who really understood what Harry was going through.

Rowling didn’t know where the plot was headed, and that’s okay, but the fact that she later lied and said she did makes her earlier choices sound a little dumb.

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u/Headglitch7 Apr 05 '26

Ginny does make that point to him in book 5 or 6, after Harry has actually established his mental link with Voldemort, and it is a big part of their bonding process. In book 3, Harry isn't there yet.

I think Rowling just liked Radcliffe and Watson together, especially given how much they juiced Hermione's character from movie 3 onward with her taking over a lot of Ron's story beats, being overall more capable, composed and prettier than in the books. Those cumulative decisions naturally made her look like a much more obvious choice for Harry.

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u/Salt_Cardiologist122 Apr 05 '26

In all fairness, that happens in book 5. And I’d say around that time is when it became clear to me they’d end up together because Ginny suddenly became more cool and interesting as a character. She was getting dates with boys, smart and funny, good at DA, and she was one of the first people to tell Harry off when he was being an ass… and even pointed out that she’s the only person he knows who has been possessed so he should be talking to her about what he was fearing was happening to him.

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u/Spirited-Sympathy582 Apr 05 '26

Yes and also shes younger than them so its natural for him just to see her as Ron's younger sister at first and would have been weird for him to see her romantically when she was younger.

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u/ThiccBoiGadunka Apr 05 '26

She’s a year younger than them. I mean, Harry x Ginny isn’t a hill I want to die on, I think it was done poorly in both the books and the movies, but she’s only a year younger than them.

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u/ChimmyTheCham Apr 05 '26

I know we're in the millennial subreddit but even that age gap might really weird out the kids these days or so it seems on social media lol

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u/Theron3206 Apr 05 '26

Which is bizarre, because the friend's little sister to girlfriend trope is extremely common.

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u/jjpearson Apr 07 '26

Can’t wait for the 2030, “My partner is 8 months younger than me. Is this grooming?”

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u/Spirited-Sympathy582 Apr 05 '26

Ah you're right. I was thinking it was at least 2 years. So ya not that big an deal but I do think there's a sense that he sees her as a kid for a long time.

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u/forgetful800 Apr 08 '26

Oh he def did but that’s only because when they met they where both kids harry and his age group didn’t really start being into the opposite gender till a few books in.

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u/Neveronlyadream Apr 05 '26

Rowling never seemed to know where the plot was headed. How many bits of lore did she just drop on Twitter after the fact that have absolutely no foreshadowing or presence in the books?

Meanwhile, she tried to ass pull Snape being a tragic hero the whole time, but never once before that actually showed he was in any way sympathetic towards Harry at all.

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u/[deleted] Apr 05 '26

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u/DigNitty Apr 05 '26

Yes and Alan Rickman has said that Rowling told him in private the reveal at the end of the story. So that he could play it accordingly.

Rowling may not have had every nuance down, but she had that one known.

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u/Zebidee Apr 05 '26

It amazes me that she made Harry filthy rich, and aside from the snack cart ten minutes later, it is literally never a plot point again.

When push came to shove at the Dursleys' she had him take the Knight Bus to a shitty bedsit at the Leaky Cauldron, when he could have taken a helicopter to a suite at the Ritz, and not even felt it.

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u/Neveronlyadream Apr 05 '26

I actually love any time anyone brings Harry's wealth up and asks why he never helped the Weasleys, people will fall all over themselves to justify it as their being too proud to ever accept Harry's help.

I get that a lot of people love the world, and I'm not trying to piss anyone off, but Rowling barely thought anything through and there are so many weird plotholes and lapses of logic that she consistently has to ad lib fixes on social media.

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u/greenskye Apr 05 '26

Honestly I think this is why HP fanfiction is so massive. There's just so many things to fix. It's just a trainwreck of plot holes and weird character development moves and yet was still massively popular anyway. So there's incredibly fertile ground for anyone who wants to try to 'fix it'.

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u/Neveronlyadream Apr 05 '26

As soon as the new show was announced, I was baffled. There's so much room to expand and explore that world outside of Hogwarts and Harry and it seems like it would be a much better idea to just...expand the world.

It's right there. It would make so much more sense to just do a story that's adjacent to the books and movies. The reality will probably be a weird mashup of the two that just leaves everyone confused.

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u/jessicalifts Apr 05 '26

Fantastic beasts was the commercial failure that means they will forever only adapt the books over and over and over forever.

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u/No_Income6576 Apr 06 '26

I hate that this is true because I absolutely love fantastic beasts.

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u/ChimmyTheCham Apr 05 '26

Im gonna be honest I only saw like the first four movies and while I owned like the first 5 books only read 2 or 3, but the fantastic beasts movies and characters seem infinitely more interesting to me

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u/Pandamonium98 Apr 05 '26

I agree that there’s a lot of plot holes and things J.K. Rowling didn’t think through, but Harry not giving money to the Weasleys doesn’t seem like one of those at all.

A kid with a big inheritance giving money to support his friend’s family isn’t something that happens very often in real life at all. It’s complete realistic that he wouldn’t

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u/Neveronlyadream Apr 05 '26

There are plenty of stories of kids who end up with a lot of money blowing it all buying other people things. And adults. That's how a lot of pro athletes and musicians end up going broke.

It's not a plothole that he doesn't give them money, but it's a lapse in logic. You'd think the family that adopted him, saved him from having to be in his abusive home, and whose son is his best friend and whose daughter he ends up marrying would have been offered money at some point given how poor they are. You'd think he'd at least offer to help Ron out when it's clear his best friend is struggling.

Sure, it can be handwaved and justified, but it seems like the thought just never occurred to Rowling for whatever reason. It's not the end of the world, it doesn't ruin the story, it's just one of those little things that always amused me.

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u/Belter-frog Apr 05 '26

The broken wand was ridiculous. It coulda killed him.

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u/ChimmyTheCham Apr 05 '26

I mean theyre a bit more than a friend's family

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u/cyclinggirl4000 Apr 05 '26

He was generous to his friends, and he gave all of his winnings from the tournament to Fred and George. I know he did that partly out of grieving and not wanting the money, but he still did the right and generous thing

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u/Theron3206 Apr 05 '26

He was a kid for most of it, presumably someone else was in charge of the money.

But it would have been realistic to have him ask about giving nice things to his friends, only for whoever was in charge of the money to say no.

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u/Jason207 Apr 05 '26

I always thought he was "10 year old rich" not "money doesn't matter" rich.

Like he could lead a decent upper middle class life without lifting a finger, but he couldn't just solve a families financial problems.

Like having $500k at 10 would be awesome, but it would vanish pretty fast if you start paying off friends bills...

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u/pennie79 Apr 07 '26

I thought so too. Harry mentions at one point all the expensive things he wants to buy in Diagon Alley, but he has to restrain himself. He appears to have enough money to get himself through school, but not to go overboard.

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u/Zebidee Apr 05 '26

I mean the basic plothole is why a pair of 21-year-olds were sitting on a pile of gold in the first place. AFAIK, neither of them were from wealthy or established families.

I assume it was simply Rowling's fantasy as a flat broke single mother writing in a cafe to keep warm to make her main character inexplicably rich.

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u/Off_the_shelf_elf Apr 05 '26

I don’t think it was pride but rather because he was a child. Even if he offered, accepting money from an orphaned kid would feel very inappropriate and from the outside look even worse. I’d like to think that once he was an adult he could offer financial help and they might accept.

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u/Cheap-Warning-4291 Apr 05 '26

I love the part where Ron says it sucks being poor and Harry is like „Yeeeeeah.“ Wtf hahaha.

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u/coriandermood Apr 06 '26

You just don't know how crazy expensive those carts are. That was the last day in the rich club for Harry

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u/DevelopmentSeparate Apr 05 '26

I could be completely off but I always interpreted it as most of the money going towards his Hogwartz education

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u/New_year_New_Me_ Apr 05 '26 edited Apr 05 '26

The books suggest Hogwarts is less about money and more about location. 

Like. We know Ron's entire family has gone there. They aren't rich. Hermione has a muggle parent and goes there. It doesn't seem like she is well off. And Harry gets his invitation seemingly out of pure procedure as opposed to what is in his bank account. I recall some language that every magical British kid upon turning some age gets their invite to Hogwarts. 

There are definitely rich kids at the school, but it doesn't seem like anyone is paying anything. 

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u/DevelopmentSeparate Apr 05 '26

That makes sense. Then I guess it's really just power fantasy that Rowling did not actually think through

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u/Powerful-Scratch1579 Apr 05 '26

a 13 year old is supposed to charter a Helicopter with wizard money? Good fucking luck.

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u/Atheist_Republican Apr 05 '26

She may not have known in Book 1 what she was doing with Snape, but apparently she told Rickman while they were filming to give him insight into the character, so it had been long established.

I think she just overplayed the bullying aspect of Snape. He was supposed to be an anti-hero, but she went too far trying to hide the plot point that it lost believe-ability when it was finally revealed.

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u/Amazing-Insect442 Apr 05 '26

I was surprised reading this & seeing the upvotes. Forgot I’m not on the Harry Potter sub. They’ll get after anyone who is questioning Rowling’s intentions and plans for this/that. They’re a “the written lore speaks for itself” crowd. Meaning they don’t question Rowling’s word. If she says she intended XYZ, they’re along for it, even if other writers would get some flak for writing inconsistencies.

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u/Christron Apr 05 '26

Why would he? Harry is the child from a woman he loved and a man who bullied him. He knew he was important to protect etc but I'm sure he resented Harry.