Harry Potter After 2020

If you're the person who was a victim of one of these crimes, you do not owe the criminal your forgiveness. If somebody has tried to mind-control you, torture you, or kill you, it's not your job to forgive them. It's not your job to restore their human dignity, to tell them it was okay. They may need that; that's on them. They have to go find whatever peace they can from somebody else. For full sh...

This fake Moody seizes an opportunity to get on Harry's good side. Knowing the relationship or even just observing the relationship right there between Harry and Draco, to just jump in and go so over the top taking Draco out of the equation -- is absolutely the best thing that he could have done to get Harry and Ron to like him. -JC For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or su...

The lake is rising and Dennis Creevey falls in, and then it hit me: these kids are never going to have a normal year at Hogwarts. This is the crew that will never know what it was like. Not that any of them have really had a normal year, but compared to what's coming this year and the next year… We know what's happening and then it gets worse for these kids, and then I went, "Oh, it's like the pan...

Lorrie:  I don't know if this is an unpopular opinion or not, but I think that Lucius and Narcissa have by far the most functional marriage in this whole series. JC: I can't think of a couple that seems to be more of a team. Lorrie: They discussed their disagreement and they compromised. Oh, my God. For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit hp...

Since I've read this book last, the whole fake news thing has arisen and we have so much disinformation online, and the way that news spreads has changed. It just hit me that I'm going to read Rita Skeeter differently this time than I have in the past because of what's happened in the last decade. For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit hpaf...

The transphobic messages communicate to especially trans youth -- but also queer and non-binary youth, LGBTQIA+ youth -- "you're broken"; "you are a danger, you're a threat." I think one of the things that is tough is that you can't not ingest toxic messages from that. It gets inside you and it's part of you, and the challenge is it's not just coming from J.K.; she's just someone with a huge megap...

"This is the first time we have genuinely seen the intense fear that Voldemort stirs up in the adults who lived in that era. We've seen people shuddering when they say the name, but it almost becomes a joke at some point. And this is genuine panic." For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit hpafter2020.com .

I love Viktor Krum. I love how he is graceful in some contexts and inept in others, and as we will see later in this volume, I love understanding him in context as an athlete who is from a minority, and because of his high skill is vulnerable to government exploitation. For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit  hpafter2020.com .

JC: How does Harry know what a slide rule is? But also, how would you even use a slide rule to trim a mustache? It makes no sense. Lorrie: But it does call up a certain kind of old-fashioned fussiness. JC: Yeah, and a certain 1950s, 1960s style of nerd with the pocket protector and the horn-rimmed glasses. For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, v...

I don't think, pre-2016, I would've thought about it so much: how much the wizarding world is a metaphor for any group of people that has to live outside of the power structure or parallel to it, or with an eye on it at all times to make sure that they're not catching the attention of the wrong people. -JC For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, v...

I don't think, pre-2016, I would've thought about it so much: how much the wizarding world is a metaphor for any group of people that has to live outside of the power structure or parallel to it, or with an eye on it at all times to make sure that they're not catching the attention of the wrong people. -JC For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, v...

The awful thing that happens to Dudley, this body-horror thing of his tongue turning into something terrifying: that's the first announcement of one of the major themes in this volume that puberty is a time of monstrous, uncontrollable body changes. However your body changes on the outside, at all times you're going to have to somehow square it, coordinate it with who you feel like you are on the...

When he first gets the letter, Harry knows that it's the Weasleys asking permission, so at the very beginning of that scene he is not going to say or do anything to upset Uncle Vernon. And by the end of the scene, Harry is not at all worried about pissing off Uncle Vernon, and Uncle Vernon's the one who's scared of Harry. It's really wild to watch that change happen over the course of this one sce...

How is anyone ever going to know how Tom Riddle, the child, feels? Well, if he can brand his followers with a Dark Mark, then there will always be people who know how he feels. It's the closest thing to having friends. When he's angry, and he wants to punish the rest of the world for how much he's hurting, then he has these built-in victims that have sworn their lives and their souls over to him....

Crucio , Avada Kedavra , and Imperio were invented by infants who desperately need to control the behavior of others to keep them alive, and are terrified and enraged when that is endangered. That's why when you see out-of-control tyrants -- when things don't go their way -- exhibit appalling, punitive behavior, that's why they seem like babies. For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact th...

"A not-insignificant number of people discovered their trans identities through Harry Potter roleplay and Harry Potter cosplay, because Harry Potter was so big and such a big part of our lives. I was trying to make a list of the people I knew on LiveJournal who went through transition, and it was so long that I gave up. It's a demographic, not just a few people we knew." For full show notes, trans...

Giving Harry back the cloak and the Marauder's Map, Lupin so distinctly crosses over from being a teacher to being a pure agent of chaos. He has zero compunction about this, but that's his actual true nature. He is a very edgy character, and that's something that I want to advocate for in portrayals of Lupin in fanfiction. He is a mollifying person, but he isn't a domesticated safe human. He is ch...

Whenever time travel and Time-Turners are used in Potterverse, I read it as this metaphor for how you can go back into trauma, into the past, with a different perspective and change not what happened, but change your view of the innocence and guilt of yourself, as well as other people, and understand where strength in yourself came from that you didn't believe in at the time.  For full show notes,...

The appearance of this Patronus made me think, 'This is the love that had strengthened him from his father.' This is so much more coalesced now in him. He's gotten to know the bonds between James and James' friends. He's connected with these friends, and he's been told that he's like James; flying, the most Harry thing, is connected to James. We have seen how that has changed Harry in this one cha...

This is the one character that every person, every character in this series, is unanimous about. There is nobody else where every single character on every side has the same reaction, but everybody loathes Peter Pettigrew.  Have you and I talked about the name of J.K. Rowling's father?  First, middle, and last. I'm going to sit here while you Google. For full show notes, transcripts, ways to conta...

Sirius has re-entered relationships. Until this moment, he had nobody but himself, so what did it matter if he killed Peter now or five minutes from now? Now Lupin is saying, "I don't know the story. These children don't, and James's kid doesn't know." Suddenly, Sirius has relationships that he's responsible to, and that brings life; that brings more reason to live. Scabbers is squealing; he's lis...

'Don't kill. Get the full story. You might think what you want is revenge or anger or hatred or murder, but what you really want -- what's really going to satisfy you -- is knowing the full story.' Expelliarmus, disarmament, enables the story to be told. Oh, Sirius... His voice is all rough because he hasn't had anyone to listen to him for so long. For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact...

In this series that is overtly skeptical about a lot of new age or mystical things, we see something that is obviously meant to be genuine divination. It's powerful and it's undeniable, so do we suspend our belief or not? This series has simultaneously disbelieved and believed. It's fun, and the fact that Trelawney doesn't know about it somehow makes it more authoritative. For full show notes, tra...

JC:  For Harry, this is one thing that he has that is really his own. I think about the students I've worked with. How important it is for a kid to have a thing that they are good at and that they know they're good at. To have an identity as, "I am a person who is capable of something." For full show notes, transcripts, ways to contact the hosts or support the show, and more, visit hpafter2020.com...

LK:  To me, this chapter is a masterpiece. People have secret agendas, everything is working on at least three layers at once, and everybody in this chapter is right and wrong about everything.  JC: It's a common refrain online for people who really dislike the author, for extremely legitimate reasons, who will often say, "Oh, the books are mediocre." This is the kind of chapter where I want to go...