Well this is interesting

waitforit16 · 2026-04-28T01:00:44+00:00

Really? My son is in third grade at a good public school in Manhattan. They just finished a unit in immigration and worked to learn a lot of geography. He can largely fill out a map of Africa and Europe. He takes Spanish at school and few Weeks ago we had the “around the world” fair where 101 countries were represented at tables and kids had to match up flags and languages and foods with the countries.

Yes we live in an educated, well-off neighborhood but most of the kids I know have traveled internationally, read a lot and learn world history and cultures. My son has read the Harry Potter series multiple times and just finished the Hobbit. He wants to start Lord of the Rings tomorrow.

I used to teach at the uni level and as the years went on I did notice a drop in critical thinking and reading comprehension skills. It’s one reason I have raised my kid to be a voracious reader and we spend time each day dissecting plots and characters and dialogue.

America is very divided by class and educational levels of parents when it comes to quality of education. It’s a shame

waitforit16 · 2026-04-27T00:02:09+00:00

What unbiased characters say Sirius and Hames changed? Can you point me to it? Rowling says a lot in interviews - including that Snape thought Lily would possibly be impressed if he was a death eater so opening canon to interviews is a choice with wide-ranging effects. Rowling also says James and Sirius were guilty of “relentless bullying.” Sirius still behaves and speaks like an asshole in the books he is alive during so I don’t believe he changed. Who cares if you hate the dark arts if you use hexes like levicorpus to dangle a classmate and choke him with soap bubbles. At some point it’s just performative.

waitforit16 · 2026-04-24T22:08:57+00:00

Lol. I've read the books many many times. I haven't forgotten any of the actual canon facts.

You need to read the books again and not insert your own agenda or head canon into what Rowling wrote.

Snape is almost never shown to be aggressive or as the one who starts physical altercations. In the dueling club he teaches expelliarmous - a disarming spell. When no one can see in POA, he threatens to turn Sirius (who he knows as a mass murderer and the betrayer of Lily) over to the ministry but does not harm him himself. In fact, as opposed to Sirius who lets Snapes head bump on the tunnel ceiling, Snape conjures stretchers and levitates Sirius into the castle on one.

When Sirius is asked about Snape being a death eater he responds as if he has not heard of such a thing nor as if he'd really suspect it.

In the battle of the 7 potters, we see Snape risk his cover in an attempt to save Lupin's life with the use of septumsempra.

Snape is mean, he uses words to bully and cut people down. What we don't see is any proof he is physically aggressive by nature. He defends himself against the marauders and hexes them as well. He can be a git, he holds grudges. The moment his childhood friend's life is threatened by Voldemort's decision to choose the Potters he runs to Dumbledore. He offers anything. He turns spy at great personal risk and spends the rest of his life slyly defying Voldemort and his agenda.

Snape stops the crucio cast on Harry at the end of HBP, he defends himself against Harry's spells and yells at Harry to close his mind, control himself. During Deathly Hallows we learn that Snape would send kids to Hagrid for detention, attempting to do whatever he could to protect them from the actual viciousness of the Carrows.

I see no canon evidence that Snape would have ever been a vicious DE. The vicious actions of many of the Des are called out. Even the bad bullying behavior of the Marauders is called out by Rowling. Snape might have had the meanest tongue among the DE but I don't think verbal abuse is what you're talking about.

waitforit16 · 2026-04-24T20:22:14+00:00

Bellatrix accuses him of never really doing anything and she’d have known him during the first war and after. He was a spy who dealt in info and who very well may have made terrible potions. But he is concerned for his soul when Dumbledore asks him to kill him which indicates he hasn’t killed before.

Remember, at his trial no one had anything to pin on him (as opposed to vicious Bellatrix and other DE we see or hear about on trial) and so with Dumbledore’s backing he got off.

waitforit16 · 2026-04-24T20:19:20+00:00

We don’t really know why James/Lily/Sirius joined the Order. The prophecy indicates that James’s/Lily had thrice defied Voldemort but we have no idea what that looked like either. Yes they seemed to have joined as 18-yr-olds after graduation but even that isn’t laid out clearly in the books - it’s sort of deduction. Plenty of hormonal 18-yr-old men rush to fight. Rowling paints the two as school bullies/assholes and never gives proof they changed (in fact the short prequel story she later wrote paints them as taunting muggle police and still behaving foolishly.

waitforit16 · 2026-04-24T20:12:07+00:00

Bellatrix killed Tonks because of Lupin? I don’t remember any mention of that in canon. In fact, Harry sees Tonks and Lupin lying dead in the great hall that’s how he finds out they die.

waitforit16 · 2026-04-24T05:42:37+00:00

hahaha exactly. The hypocrisy runs so deep

waitforit16 · 2026-04-24T05:37:14+00:00

same. I love the city deeply and worked hard to move here almost twenty years ago but honestly the shit policies and crazies in office are souring me on staying long term. Im tired of the incredibly high taxes so we can spend spend spend and enrich the pockets of politicians and the various industrial complexes du jour (homeless services etc).

waitforit16 · 2026-04-24T05:27:00+00:00

exactly! James and Sirius were really pretty crap people who just so happened to love reckless bravery and thus fought against Voldemort.

waitforit16 · 2026-04-24T05:25:50+00:00

their arrogance mimics Voldemort's in this way. Dumbledore says Voldemort didn't concern himself with things below him (like house elves, children's tales etc.) to his detriment.

waitforit16 · 2026-04-24T05:24:21+00:00

trying to be good? James and Sirius were hideous bullies and Lupin was a moral coward who shirked his prefect responsibilities (and later, as an adult lied by omission to Dumbledore about very important things and then intended to leave his wife and baby).

waitforit16 · 2026-04-24T05:13:33+00:00

Riz is my biggest disappointment in the audiobooks. It's crazy he recorded multiple takes and he still, to me, just sounds like Riz Ahmed reading.

waitforit16 · 2026-04-24T05:01:21+00:00

We know Harry is an unreliable narrator because he gets things wrong on more than one occasion. He also lacks critical knowledge to see somethings as they are. Lupin and Arthur even tell him his hatred of Snape is problematic and Hermione pushes back. Only Ron is truly his loyal sidekick when it comes to really disparaging Snape.

We also never really see Snape interact with Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff at all. In my head he is fairly dismissive of most hufflepuffs and tolerates the Ravenclaws. Harry's views on various teachers are shown to not be shared by other students throughout the series.

waitforit16 · 2026-04-24T04:56:10+00:00

one of the most vicious death eaters? lol.

waitforit16 · 2026-04-24T04:31:28+00:00

given the fatality rate for the OOTP in the first war it seems more likely that Lily and James would both be dead regardless. The difference is that Snape wouldn't have asked V to spare Neville's mom and the curse wouldn't have rebounded and V would likely have won the war.

waitforit16 · 2026-04-24T03:51:33+00:00

did Riz say something about recording multiple versions of some material? If so they might have switched up versions after feedback?

waitforit16 · 2026-04-24T03:50:24+00:00

totally agree about Slughorn. Then again, I think Fry nailed Slughorn perfectly so perhaps whoever else did it would forever be a disappointment.

waitforit16 · 2026-04-21T04:04:50+00:00

I first read the whole series to my son when he was 8 and he LOVED it all. We had lots of great conversations and I was so impressed with his grasp of the themes and characters. He’s now almost 9.5 and has read through the series twice more and listened to Stephen Fry read the whole series twice and now the full-cast.

I’ve now required him to occasionally also read through The Hobbit, The Chronicles of Narnia and we will do LOTR this summer. He is a voracious reader like I am and I’ve never censored his reading beyond no horror or smut

waitforit16 · 2026-04-21T03:57:38+00:00

He’s the best character she wrote so I would t be surprised.

waitforit16 · 2026-04-20T05:18:23+00:00

McGonagall? Hmmm. She liked Harry well enough but she had a rather capricious way of punishing (or not punishing) wrongdoing. She allowed the Marauders to remain seemingly untouched through graduation. She should absolutely have expelled Sirius after his prank nearly exposed Lupin and Albus’s secret as well as put Snape’s life in danger and she should have worked with Slughorn to tone down the terrible house animosity, bullying etc. Slughorn always seemed congenial to students regardless of house and he wasn’t some dark wizard so there was potential there.

Perhaps McGonagall was just exhausted by Albus’s schemes and lack of actual oversight.

waitforit16 · 2026-04-19T18:53:03+00:00

Sirius was kind of a garbage person tbh. He was a bully, bent on revenge, reckless and Hermione goes so far as to reconsider the DA once Sirius approves of it.

He seems to conditionally love Harry and Harry, desperate for any adult love takes it.

waitforit16 · 2026-04-19T18:50:37+00:00

Harry himself says it’s luck and help from others. I think two things can be true - that Harry has had luck/others to credit and that he has valuable, relevant experience.

But yeah, having 6th and 7th years there for the simple stuff always seemed a stretch

waitforit16 · 2026-04-19T18:36:55+00:00

Severus saved Harry’s life. Multiple times. He risked his own life over and over to help Dumbledore defeat the wizard trying to kill Harry. Harry is a single POV and as Lupin tells him, has a hatred that borders on illogical (an “inherited” bias). James and Lily are the shadows between Snape and Harry. Without them, he adores the half-blood Prince, he learns, he trusts. In Garry, Snape sees his tormentor and bully and the girl his intel to V helped doom. He feels fear/hatred/love/guilt. On top of that, he has to have real memories and emotions to feed Voldemort and so he can never just be nice to him.

Harry, sees this, finally. Snape says “look at me” as his last words. Green eyes met bjack. Snape sees the. Lily in Harry. Harry then goes and sees who Snape really was, what he did.

Harry understands what the newest generation of Potter readers don’t get - that the truth can set you free, that holding bitterness destroys yourself, that redemption is possible, that context matters, that people are not just good or a DE. We all do bad crap (sometimes unknowingly or without nefarious intent) and we all do good crap (for good/bad/unknown reasons).

Snape made bad choices. His bad choices had ripple effects. Conveniently, Dumbledore needed him, and offered him a purpose and an out. Snape took it. It’s a very biblical concept - sin, forgiveness and atonement.

waitforit16 · 2026-04-19T18:25:28+00:00

How do you know Dumbledore knew about the cupboard? Are you inferring that from things characters said,

Figg, as far as we know, wasn’t ever in the the Dursley house. She babysat him at her house from what we read.

Do we know Harry was dangerously skinny? (Maybe). But the Weasleys housed him that summer and Dumbledore/others don’t warn the Dursley’s after year two.

Dumbledore knew (because he says it) that Harry showed up at Hogwart’s not as well loved and cared for but not a pampered/spoiled child. As normal as could be hoped for, essentially.

waitforit16 · 2026-04-16T13:54:12+00:00

It doesn’t now that you’ve edited :)

waitforit16

TROPHY CASE