I recently rewatched the Fantastic Beasts films and found myself thinking about how differently Credence’s story could have developed. I have always considered the first Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them one of the most remarkable films in the Wizarding World, partly because of its wonderfully unconventional characters and partly because it introduced a surprisingly profound idea through the story of the Obscurus. The later films gradually moved away from that idea, but I think the foundations of a much more satisfying five-film narrative were already present from the beginning.

What particularly disappointed me about Credence’s story was that his extraordinary survival eventually became little more than another indication of his magical power and connection to the Dumbledore family. By the third film, he was essentially a tragic young man whose condition was killing him, while the mystery surrounding his identity had taken precedence over the psychological and emotional significance of the Obscurus itself. Yet the first film had introduced a detail that could have led to a very different conclusion.

We are told that Obscurials almost never survive beyond childhood, which is precisely why Grindelwald, disguised as Graves, initially fails to recognise Credence as the person he is searching for. Credence has somehow survived into adulthood while carrying an Obscurus, something previously considered impossible. Rather than explaining this exclusively through his exceptional magical power, the story could have explored the possibility that there was something unusually resilient about Credence himself, something in his magical constitution or his capacity to endure the presence of the Obscurus that distinguished him from every other known Obscurial.

If Credence had managed to survive with an Obscurus for so many years, perhaps he could also become the first person to survive its separation.

This possibility would immediately give Newt an essential role in the larger conflict between Dumbledore and Grindelwald. Newt had already encountered an Obscurus in a young Sudanese girl and had managed to separate it from her while trying to save her life. Although the girl died, he preserved the Obscurus for study, giving him practical experience with a phenomenon that even extraordinarily powerful wizards might not fully understand. If Credence’s unusual survival suggested that separation might not always have to end in death, Newt would be uniquely qualified to investigate how such an outcome could be achieved.

Dumbledore, meanwhile, would possess the magical power necessary to attempt something that Newt might understand in theory but could not accomplish alone. Their collaboration would therefore make sense without requiring Newt to become a conventional action hero or to compete with Dumbledore in magical ability. Each would contribute something the other lacked, while the success of the procedure would ultimately depend on Credence himself.

What makes this possibility especially interesting is the revelation in The Secrets of Dumbledore that Credence is Aberforth’s son, because it connects his condition directly to the greatest tragedy in the Dumbledore family’s history.

Ariana Dumbledore’s story has striking similarities to what Fantastic Beasts establishes about Obscurials. After being attacked by Muggle boys, she became deeply traumatised and frightened of her own magic, which she struggled to control and which sometimes erupted in dangerous and unpredictable ways. In the third film, Albus explicitly confirms to Newt that Ariana was an Obscurial, explaining that her inability to express her magic gradually poisoned her and that nobody in the family had been able to relieve her suffering.

Ariana’s death is also the defining moral failure of Albus Dumbledore’s youth. While Aberforth was concerned with caring for their vulnerable sister, Albus became increasingly absorbed in his relationship with Grindelwald and their grand plans for transforming the world. His fascination with power, historical destiny and the greater good distracted him from the suffering taking place within his own family, until the confrontation between Albus, Aberforth and Grindelwald ended with Ariana’s death.

Albus spent the following decades living with the consequences of that tragedy, unable even to determine whose spell had killed his sister. Although he eventually rejected Grindelwald’s ambitions, he could never change the fact that he had allowed those ambitions to become more important than his responsibility toward Ariana.

Now imagine that many years later Albus discovers that Aberforth has a son suffering from the very same condition. Credence’s unusual survival could offer an extraordinary possibility, but pursuing it would require Albus to confront the tragedy he had spent much of his life trying to come to terms with.

What makes this especially compelling is that the third film already contains an almost perfect starting point for such a storyline. During his conversation with Newt, Dumbledore expresses his conviction that Credence cannot be saved, even though the young man might still be able to help them. Later, Newt reminds Albus that even after making terrible mistakes, people can still try to make things right. A continuation of the series could have developed these two moments into a single emotional journey, with Newt gradually challenging Dumbledore’s belief that Credence’s fate was inevitable.

I imagine that the separation of Credence and his Obscurus could then become the emotional climax of the fourth film, after a gradual development of his relationship with Aberforth and the establishment of genuine trust between Credence, Newt and Albus.

Newt would have spent much of the preceding story studying the Obscurus and developing a method that might allow Credence to survive its removal. Albus would be needed to control and contain the immense magical forces involved, while Aberforth would remain beside his son throughout the attempt. The procedure itself could be extremely dangerous, with no certainty that Credence would survive, but its success would depend on more than magical technique alone.

Credence has spent almost his entire life being taught to fear and suppress his own magical nature. Mary Lou Barebone convinced him that his magic was shameful, while Grindelwald later exploited the destructive consequences of that repression by encouraging him to identify with the power of the Obscurus. His recovery could require him to overcome both forms of manipulation, learning that his magic is neither something he must destroy nor something that should define him through violence and suffering.

By this point, Credence would finally have people around him whom he could trust without being afraid of their intentions. Aberforth would offer him the unconditional acceptance of a father, Newt would approach him with the understanding and compassion that had distinguished him from the beginning, and Albus would contribute his extraordinary abilities without expecting Credence to become a weapon or serve any larger purpose.

I think there could be a particularly moving moment during the separation itself, when the two Dumbledore brothers have to work together to protect the young man whose life is in their hands. Decades earlier, their conflict over Ariana had ended in catastrophe, with Albus pursuing his ambitions alongside Grindelwald while Aberforth desperately tried to defend their sister. Now, instead of allowing another member of their family to be destroyed, they would finally be united in the effort to save him.

Newt would guide the process, Albus would contain the destructive power of the Obscurus, and Aberforth would remain at his son’s side, helping Credence hold on to the trust that makes the attempt possible. Credence himself would have to participate in his own recovery, allowing others to help him rather than continuing to respond to his magic through fear and resistance.

For the first time, an adult Obscurial would survive the separation.

The moment would be extraordinary not simply because an unprecedented magical achievement had taken place, but because Albus and Aberforth would finally have accomplished together something they had once failed to accomplish for Ariana. It would not undo her death or erase the responsibility either brother continued to carry, but it could begin to transform the memory of their shared tragedy from an insurmountable source of pain into something they could finally face together.

I would find it especially moving if Credence did not emerge from this experience as an immensely powerful wizard destined for another exceptional role. His entire life has been shaped by other people assigning him identities and purposes: an unwanted child, an Obscurial, a member of the Dumbledore family, Grindelwald’s weapon and someone supposedly capable of defeating Albus. After all of that, perhaps the most meaningful ending would be for Credence to discover that he no longer needs to be exceptional in order to deserve love and belonging.

He could simply return home with Aberforth and begin living the ordinary life that had always been denied to him.

For Albus, however, the experience would have consequences reaching far beyond his relationship with Aberforth and the memory of Ariana. I think it could also provide the missing emotional and philosophical resolution to his conflict with Grindelwald.

The struggle between Dumbledore and Grindelwald is not merely a confrontation between two extraordinarily powerful wizards who disagree about politics. Their shared past involves love, ambition and a worldview that Albus himself once considered beautiful. Both young men believed that their exceptional abilities entitled them to pursue an extraordinary historical mission, and although Albus eventually came to recognise the dangers of Grindelwald’s ideology, the emotional relationship between them remained inseparable from the ideals they had once shared.

For that reason, defeating Grindelwald would require more than acknowledging the terrible things he had done. Albus would need to understand precisely why the vision that had originally attracted him was wrong, rather than simply concluding that Grindelwald had corrupted an otherwise admirable dream.

And this is where I think Newt could become the most important character in the entire story.

Unlike Dumbledore and Grindelwald, Newt has never been particularly interested in greatness, power or the historical significance of his actions. His attention is directed toward individual living beings, especially those that others regard as frightening, dangerous or unworthy of understanding. The first film establishes this quality beautifully through his relationship with magical creatures and, most importantly, through his response to Credence.

Where Grindelwald sees a potential weapon and the magical authorities see an uncontrollable threat, Newt recognises a frightened and abused young man who needs help. He does not begin by asking what Credence’s power might accomplish or how it might influence the larger political situation. His first concern is the person suffering beneath the destructive force.

If this understanding guided Newt throughout the five films, his greatest contribution to the conflict would not be his knowledge of magical creatures, important though that knowledge would be. It would be his ability to introduce an intensely human perspective into a struggle dominated by history, ideology and extraordinary magical power.

Credence exists at the intersection of the two opposing sides. Grindelwald wants to use him against Dumbledore, while Albus understandably sees him through the complicated circumstances of their family history and the danger he represents. Newt would be the one person who continually insists that Credence’s personal suffering matters independently of his usefulness to either side.

Through that insistence, he could gradually bring Dumbledore back from the scale of history to the scale of a single human life.

I think this moral transformation would become particularly convincing if Albus eventually had to make a genuine sacrifice in order to save Credence. Perhaps the attempt to separate the Obscurus would force him to abandon an opportunity to gain a strategic advantage over Grindelwald, or temporarily divert his attention from the approaching conflict at a moment when everyone expected him to act. In that situation, helping Credence would no longer be another part of Dumbledore’s larger plan. It would be a decision to place one vulnerable person’s life above the demands of that plan, precisely because the person deserves to be saved regardless of what happens to the war.

That is the choice Albus failed to make for Ariana.

It would also be the culmination of something Newt had been teaching everyone around him throughout the series: trust.

Credence would have to learn to trust his own magical nature and the family he had finally found. Aberforth would have to trust his brother again after decades of resentment and grief. Albus, perhaps most importantly, would have to learn that compassion for an individual is not a weakness or a distraction from the pursuit of a greater good, but the only reliable foundation upon which any genuinely good purpose can rest.

Newt would not teach these lessons through political speeches or philosophical arguments. He would demonstrate them through his unwavering determination to save a young man whom almost everyone else had treated as a threat, a mystery or a useful instrument in a much larger struggle.

This is precisely the moral transformation that Albus needs in order to resolve the conflict within himself. As a young man, he became fascinated by the possibility of changing the world alongside Grindelwald and neglected the immediate needs of Ariana. Many years later, with Newt’s help, he would choose to save Aberforth’s son rather than allow another vulnerable person to become secondary to a supposedly greater historical purpose.

His redemption would not come from discovering that he was innocent of Ariana’s death or from finally finding a way to punish himself sufficiently for what had happened. It would come from being confronted with a similar moral choice and responding differently.

The experience could also allow him to see the fundamental flaw in the philosophy he once shared with Grindelwald. A vision of a better world cannot be truly benevolent if the lives of individual people are treated as expendable instruments of its fulfilment. Compassion for a single person is not a distraction from a greater moral purpose, but the foundation without which that purpose loses its meaning.

And by saving Credence, Dumbledore would finally understand the choice he should have made for Ariana.

I think this would make his eventual confrontation with Grindelwald in 1945 considerably more powerful. Albus would no longer be approaching that battle simply because he was the only wizard capable of defeating his former lover, or because political circumstances had finally made the confrontation unavoidable. He would have reached a state of moral clarity in which the worldview that once united them no longer possessed the same attraction.

He could still remember loving Grindelwald, and those memories could remain painful, but he would no longer feel that opposing him meant betraying the great ideals of his youth. Having witnessed what happens when abstract ambitions become more important than the life of a vulnerable individual, and having finally chosen differently, Albus would understand why Grindelwald’s vision was unacceptable to him at its very foundation.

His victory would therefore begin long before the famous duel. By helping save Credence, he would have overcome the part of himself that Grindelwald once understood and appealed to so successfully.

The final confrontation could still be the spectacular magical climax of the series, but its emotional significance would be different. Albus would not defeat Grindelwald merely because he possessed greater power, but because he had finally become free of the ideas and unresolved guilt that had bound him to their shared past. He would know exactly what he was defending and why the person standing opposite him represented a vision of the world he could no longer accept.

What I particularly like about this possibility is that it requires surprisingly little invention. Credence’s extraordinary survival, Newt’s previous experience with an Obscurus, the tragedy of Ariana, Aberforth’s relationship with his son and Dumbledore’s unresolved feelings toward Grindelwald are all established elements of the films. The story would simply have to develop them toward a resolution in which they finally become parts of the same emotional and philosophical journey.

More importantly, it would preserve the significance of Newt Scamander as the protagonist of a series that increasingly became concerned with two of the most powerful wizards in history.

Newt would never need to become their equal in magical ability or assume a conventional heroic role. His importance would arise precisely from the fact that he does not share their fascination with greatness. He approaches the world with patience, curiosity and compassion, recognising the value of individual living beings before considering the larger purposes they might serve.

Through saving Credence, he could help Albus reconcile with his family, confront the tragedy of Ariana and finally understand what separates him morally from Grindelwald.

In that version of Fantastic Beasts, Newt would not be an incidental participant in the story of Dumbledore and Grindelwald. He would be the person who makes its resolution possible, because his compassion for one damaged young man would ultimately help the greatest wizard of his time overcome the temptation of greatness itself.

And perhaps that is exactly why a story about the most famous magical conflict of the twentieth century needed to be called Fantastic Beasts, with Newt Scamander as its protagonist, in the first place.

My native language isn't English, so I used a translation tool to help. I apologise for any awkward phrasing or errors.

If there is one thing in the Harry Potter books that I cannot get used to, it is the fact that Hermione marries Ron in the end. It has been a long time since I read the books, but I was always of the opinion that she is a better match for Harry. Especially the movie version of Ron constantly annoyed Hermione, ignored her, and disregarded her feelings. The kiss in the Chamber of Secrets was so random, even in the book. Most of the time they only had contact because Harry was their mutual friend.

And I do not think that Hermione is happy with Ron in the long run. Is it just me? I was always of the opinion that there is more of a spark even with a Draco Malfoy.

All of this just feels like: Yeah right, the hero cannot get the girl too. The friend group would also fall apart because of it.

I am looking for arguments, but I cannot really find any. Ron basically pulls Hermione out of her universe, well I think that is not an argument.

We’re led to believe that Trelawney has only made two accurate predictions: the prophesy about Harry and Voldemort, and the prediction about Wormtail re-joining Voldemort. She says a whole lot of other things during divination classes (and other points, when we see her outside of class), and we’re led to believe that she’s just making things up with a spooky manner, and that it’s basically a load of nonsense. Hermione, McGonagall, and Dumbledore all take this view, as do Harry and Ron (eventually). Firenze reinforces this attitude by calling Trelawney’s teaching “human nonsense.” But she actually makes a lot of predictions which come true!

“Beware a red haired man,” to Lavender, who later dates Ron and he breaks her heart.

“The first to rise will be the first to die.” Before she said that, there were already 13 at the table because Scabbers was with them, and the first to rise was Dumbledore, who died just a few years later.

When she’s shuffling cards and making predictions to herself, and Harry’s nearby under the cloak, she predicts he’s there, and then logic makes her doubt herself.

Even her prediction to Umbridge - done out of anger - comes true! She’s attacked by a herd of centaurs, and deeply traumatised by the experienced.

When she predicts Harry was born in midwinter, she might’ve been picking up on the Voldemort horcrux in Harry, as Voldemort was born on New Year’s Even (which is around midwinter/winter solstice).

This isn’t even the extent of it, just the ones I could think of. I think Trelawney is accidentally much more in tune than even she realises. No one really takes her seriously, but she actually has a pretty good track record!

Do you think JK Rowling and Warner Bros should capitalise on this whole Malfoid thing by making a spinoff and making it a part of an alternate reality if the new series gets a positive response? If not then why?

Dans ma vie, j’ai énormément regardé Harry Potter . C’est lors du deuxième volée de la saga que l'on peut observé plus en détail l’horloge du Terrier.

Lorsqu’on découvre les objets magiques et hors du commun de la famille Weasley, on aperçoit une horloge magique qui indique où se trouvent les différents membres de cette famille de sorciers. Parmi les inscriptions, on peut notamment y lire « Prison », « Perdu » ou encore « Dentiste ».

C’est là que notre incohérence apparaît.

Tout au long des films et des livres, nous savons que les parents d’Hermione Granger sont des Moldus et qu’ils exercent la profession de dentiste. Pourtant, dans le sixième film, Hermione est obligée d’expliquer au professeur Slughorn ce qu’est un dentiste.

Cette erreur semble être exclusivement cinématographique, en effet J. K. Rowling ne mentionne pas cette inscription sur l’horloge dans les livres.

En théorie bien sur je pense que c'est parce que Arthur weasley veut s'imprégner des moldus et vivre comme eux , a vous de me dire vos théorie !!

I’ve been rereading the Harry Potter books for years (some of them dozens of times), and there’s something about the ending of Deathly Hallows that has always bothered me.

I have a theory: Harry actually dies when Voldemort hits him with Avada Kedavra in the Forbidden Forest. He never physically comes back. Everything we read afterwards is Harry’s own version of the afterlife.

Hear me out.

**1. Nearly Headless Nick’s words in Order of the Phoenix**

After Sirius dies, Harry desperately seeks out Nearly Headless Nick, hoping Sirius might return as a ghost.

Nick explains that some wizards choose to remain behind as ghosts, while others move on.

The important expression is “gone on.”

At first, this seems like another scene about Harry processing grief. But why introduce this particular explanation of death? We’ve already seen Harry struggling with loss throughout the book.

What if Rowling was establishing something we’d only fully understand two books later?

**2. Dumbledore’s final words at King’s Cross**

Fast-forward to Deathly Hallows.

Harry has been struck by the Killing Curse. He finds himself at King’s Cross, talking to Dumbledore.

Harry asks where the train would take him.

Dumbledore answers:

“On.”

Nick says the dead have “gone on.”

Dumbledore says the train will take Harry “on.”

Same word. Same concept. Both conversations explicitly concern death.

And Rowling is famously deliberate with her choice of words.

What if this isn’t just a thematic parallel? What if the train represents the same journey Nick described years earlier?

**3. Destroying a Horcrux requires destroying its container**

Throughout the series, we’re told that a Horcrux can only be destroyed when its container is damaged beyond magical repair.

Harry is an accidental Horcrux.

Voldemort hits him with Avada Kedavra.

The Horcrux is destroyed.

But why should Harry survive if the vessel containing the Horcrux must be destroyed?

Of course, the canonical explanation involves Lily’s protection surviving through Voldemort’s blood.

Which brings me to something else.

**4. Dumbledore’s “gleam of triumph” might not be what we think**

In Goblet of Fire, when Harry tells Dumbledore that Voldemort used his blood to regain a body, Harry thinks he sees a fleeting look of triumph in Dumbledore’s eyes.

But the narration explicitly frames this as Harry’s perception. Harry himself wonders whether he imagined it.

We’re seeing everything through Harry’s perspective.

What if that moment isn’t definitive evidence that Dumbledore knew Harry could survive?

What if Harry — and the reader — interpreted it that way only afterwards?

**5. Dumbledore tells Snape that Harry must die**

In The Prince’s Tale, Dumbledore reveals that Harry carries part of Voldemort’s soul.

He tells Snape that Harry must die, and that Voldemort himself must do it.

But here’s what interests me:

Dumbledore never tells Snape that Lily’s protection, preserved in Voldemort’s blood, might allow Harry to survive.

Why?

Perhaps Dumbledore was withholding information. Perhaps he had a plan.

But the only detailed explanation we receive about Harry’s survival comes from Dumbledore at King’s Cross — after Harry has already been hit by the Killing Curse.

And what if that Dumbledore isn’t really Dumbledore but a projection of Harry? Or Harry sub-conscious?

What if he’s a manifestation of Harry’s own mind, trying to make sense of his death?

Remember what Dumbledore says about things happening inside Harry’s head not necessarily being unreal.

**6. The ending feels almost like a dream**

Something else has always struck me about the final chapters.

After seven extraordinarily detailed books, the conclusion moves surprisingly quickly.

Voldemort is defeated. Hogwarts is saved. Harry survives. Years later, he has a family, children, and the peaceful life he never had growing up.

It’s almost too perfect.

Now think about Harry’s deepest desires.

He has spent his entire life longing to see his parents, Sirius, Lupin, and the people he’s lost.

But he also loves the people still alive: Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and everyone fighting at Hogwarts.

What if his afterlife is shaped by that conflict?

Part of him wants to move on and reunite with the dead.

Another part desperately wants to return and save the living.

And so his mind creates the ending he wanted most: a world where he defeats Voldemort, protects his friends, and finally gets to live a normal, happy life.

**7. The real meaning of Harry’s sacrifice**

This would also create a fascinating contrast with Voldemort.

Voldemort fears death more than anything. He tears his soul apart to escape it.

He repair it's wand which we know it's impossible...also Olivander says it's beyond any repair.

**8. The Flaw in the Plan**

The final chapter is titled The Flaw in the Plan.

We assume it refers to Voldemort’s misunderstanding of the Elder Wand’s allegiance. And that’s clearly the explanation the book gives us.

But what if there’s a second meaning?

What if the real flaw was in Dumbledore’s plan? He hoped that Lily’s protection, preserved through Voldemort’s blood, would allow Harry to survive the Killing Curse.

But what if it didn’t work?

The Horcrux was destroyed, just as Dumbledore intended, but Harry died with it.

And everything we read afterwards is Harry imagining that Dumbledore’s plan actually worked.

Maybe the real flaw in the plan wasn’t about the Elder Wand at all. Maybe it was that Harry never came back.

Harry willingly walks towards death because he loves other people.

In the conventional reading, that love helps him return to life.

But in this interpretation, Harry genuinely completes his sacrifice.

He dies to save everyone else.

And the ending we read is not his physical survival, but his final experience of love, peace, and acceptance.

**DISCLAIMER: I fully accept the canonical explanations, and they all make sense to me. I’m not trying to challenge them or claim I’ve discovered Rowling’s hidden intentions. This theory is just for fun, an excuse to overanalyze certain passages and explore the books from a different perspective, hopefully gaining a deeper appreciation of their themes along the way.**

⸻

My question to you

I’m not claiming this is what Rowling officially intended. I know there are strong arguments against it, especially Dumbledore’s explanation of Voldemort carrying Lily’s protection.

But I find the parallel between Nick’s “gone on” and Dumbledore’s “on” particularly difficult to dismiss as a coincidence.

Maybe Rowling simply wanted to foreshadow Harry’s choice between life and death.

Or maybe there’s a darker, more ambiguous interpretation hidden in the final chapters.

What do you think? Is there anything in the books that definitively proves Harry physically returned from King’s Cross, rather than experiencing the ending as a kind of afterlife?

**TL;DR:** My theory is that Harry actually dies in the Forbidden Forest, and everything afterwards is his imagined afterlife. Destroying a Horcrux requires destroying its container, Dumbledore never tells anyone Harry might survive, and the famous “gleam of triumph” could simply be Harry’s perception. Most importantly, Nearly Headless Nick describes death as having “gone on”, while Dumbledore tells Harry the train at King’s Cross will take him “on”. Maybe Harry never really came back, and the happy ending is simply the life he always wished he could have lived.

Hey everyone,

I just started the book reading spree around 1.5 months back and completed the 5th yesterday, I am writing here since everything is still fresh in my memory and I want to talk to other potter heads about the book! (I wanted to write a post when I completed the 4th book as well, but became bit lazy to post).

I am 27F currently, I have read the first three books in my college when I was around 19, but stopped at the 4th book since it felt too long. (I wanted to show myself that I can read such long books as well this time when I completed reading the 3rd book and proud that I was able to finish 4th and 5th books which have 800 ish and 1000 ish pages).

Okay now coming to this book, I felt the movie didn’t do a good job at all regarding the Sirius’s death scene, they don’t explain the veil and they didn’t had anything from the lost prophecy chapter, that was such a powerful chapter to read, and to connect a lot of things. Harry is almost always angry in the book and shouting at everyone and everything but given the suffering he goes through it all made sense, especially when no one was telling him the truth. The story keeps getting darker and darker and I feel the tipping point for me was Cedric’s death. When I read I didn’t know that words could be as powerful as visually seeing it. As she wrote he was dead It felt a rite of passage towards more sufferings, killings and war.

But given all this I feel JKR made it very very difficult for Harry to not feel guilty and responsible for Sirius’s demise, he did try to cross check but kreacher (I loathe him!) lied to him, if only he knew this could happen. And the aftermath of not opening Sirius’s gift when he told him that this gift had a means for communicating with him if Snape pulled something during his Occlumency sessions.

Hagrid’s arc about giants and then his half brother felt like a filled and could have been reduced (or not sure if it is helpful later).

I was also expecting that JKR will explain the veil in the book but it was kept ambiguous. I think it would have been better he was also killed by the AK killing curse instead. It felt the way it happened it sort of kept the audience in the false hope of Sirius making a comeback in some form but I know that doesn’t happen.

Gearing up for HBP now, wish me luck to sit through it towards the end🥹 (OOTP was hard to read once you know what happens, how come HP is a children’s book! I can’t fathom it being one given the pain, agony and deaths that happen).

I am looking to discuss the book in any what way to please comment, fellow potter heads, we can exchange theories and reactions and stuff!

Thanks for reading:)

Something I've noticed about JKR's writing is that she often uses names to suggest a character's ethnic background without explicitly mentioning it. Cho Chang, Parvati Patil, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Anthony Goldstein... Their names give us clues about their backgrounds without those backgrounds necessarily being relevant to the plot. In fact, Rowling later confirmed that Anthony Goldstein was Jewish, even though it's never actually discussed in the books. This is different from characters like Fleur Delacour or Igor Karkaroff, whose foreign backgrounds are relevant to the story itself.

Now here's where my theory comes in. Dumbledore sounds remarkably similar to Trumpeldor. For anyone unfamiliar, Josef Trumpeldor was a famous Jewish historical figure, and Trumpeldor is a surname strongly associated with Jewish history. Considering how deliberately JKR chooses her characters' names, I do find the resemblance interesting.

And if Dumbledore did have Jewish ancestry, would the books necessarily have mentioned it? Not really. His religious or ethnic background has virtually no relevance to Harry's story, just like Anthony Goldstein's doesn't. Being Jewish also wouldn't automatically mean he was religiously observant, so the lack of Jewish traditions in his characterization doesn't necessarily disprove the idea ither.

I'm not claiming this is confirmed canon, but I do think it's an interesting possibility that I've never seen discussed much. Has anyone else noticed the Dumbledore/Trumpeldor similarity, or am I reading way too much into a coincidence? lol

Everyone ask questions and respond to each other:)

For me 8 had many but if i had to say one..........it would be when I learned snape's past and that harry is a horcrux 🪄 🪄 🪄 🪄 🪄

I always felt the final confrontation between Harry and Voldemort coming down to the fact that Harry randomly gained allegiance to malfoy's wand and therefore the elder wand way too big of a coincidence

What would have happened if he didn't have malfoy's wand? Would the elder wand have just killed him?

Am I right in assuming that dumbledore's plan was for snape to kill dumbledore to protect malfoy but also so that snape would win the elder wand and then use it to defeat voldemort after harry destroyed all the horcruxes and sacrificed himself?

What would Dumbledore have done if Harry had told him that he was hearing voices in CoS?

Before 1920s and before the downfall of the ottoman empire , wizard kind were used to serve in the ottoman empire to the royal family and the nobles in the country ,in battles against other muggles or wizards ,you would easily find an entire wizarding family serve a muggle noble family in the ottoman empire , serving a big muggle empire is something usual in the middle eastern wizarding community through out the history ,how ever after the collapse of the ottoman empire ,M.E.M.U ordered all the wizarding world to cut their commuinication with the muggles and reorganize themselves ,however good amount of wizards kept this connection and helped against british inavsion in iraq and frensh one in syria ,to this day ,alot of wizarding family hide their connection to the muggle economic world and work hard to avoid the M.E.M.U eyes

middle eastern wizarding commuinty has it noble family as well:

kai clan , is a ancient family known to have served the ottoman empire since it first became and for helping wizard and witches evade the muggle eyes in turkey, so they are always welcomed as heroes ,they own a lot of Rising rice and TRolling tea farms , the youngest of the family kian kai , is attending babylon school for peacful magic in the year 2015/2016 .

shafeeq family : it is family that used to serve the caliphate in baghdad until the fall of baghdad by the hands of mongols as the mongolian wizards started fighting them and treat them harshly as they were loyal servents to the mongol empire ,which pushed them to leave to britin , but after they supported grindelward wars and voldmort in his first war , they evaded britian and went back to iraq hiding as normal muggle family with no wizard in the family until ali shaffeeq discoved his magical abiltes at the age of 11 , ali shafeeq is a boy who works in the largest cemetry in the world in iraq who is used to talk to ghost there but never told anyone thinking they would bully him for it ,at age of 11 he accidantly made a fence vanish which made him fall over a grave while a family was attending , he is attnding babylone school at the same year of kara kai .

I've been in and out of the fanbase throughout the years, but because of the recent memes... I came back. Its something fun to theorize and make what ifs. Now I have been doing basic research, and I don't think of myself as a scientist, so this could all be wrong, but I haven't found anything in my research that majorly contradicts my theory.

Magic is Radiation. Some Ancient Humans adapted to radiation deposits, giving them the ability to harness it. What they thought was magic was actually radiation. Eventually they learned to master it. Now just because they have a high tolerance to radiation, does not mean they are unaffected by it. High levels of radiation will still kill a wizard. So maybe some wizards want to try and defend themselves from high output spells like the killing curse.

One wizard went so far as to create a stone to transmute any metals like Lead into pure metals like Gold. Gold is also one of the best metals to block radiation, but is also dense enough that for a similar effect with lead it needs more thickness. Gold is even non-toxic to humans. Now why would a wizard want to turn any metal into gold? To become rich? The wizards and Goblins would tear him to shreds if he did? Just because he can? I mean its a good guess and is probably the public reason. What probably happened is that this wizard found out that Gold can block spells. But announcing that Gold is a natural spell blocking metal would also destroy the economy as people would turn and melt down their own gold for armor. So he kept it to himself. This wizard turned out to be Nicholas Flamel.

How does this fit with Harry Potter? There was lead poisoning epidemic in the UK and around the world where paint had lead, Petrol had lead and most of the water pipes had lead. Almost anything had lead. Harry lived under and un-renovated part of the house in the cupboard under the stairs, a prime place where lead paint and lead dust were the most potent in the house. It didn't help that Dudley stomped on the stairs occasionally while Harry was in there to worsen the problem. So while the Dursleys got lead poisoning too, Harry got the most lead poisoning. The Dursleys exhibit symptoms of Lead Poisoning. Vernon has Hypertension, Petunia has Anemia, Dudley has Hyper-Aggression. All of these symptoms can be caused by Lead Poisoning. Of which Harry had no magical part in. Not even his Horcrux. In fact did you know there was a book called "The Potter and Lead Poisoning" written in 1898 in the UK, 100 years before "The Philosopher's Stone"? Being a "Potter" was always known to be an occupational hazard about the toxicity of lead even before the books were out.

Then if Harry is being poisoned by Lead does he too have symptoms of it? Yes, yes he does. Young Harry is portrayed as skinny even for his age, Pale skin and Headaches. Yea, part of his headaches were from his Horcrux, but some probably did come from lead. Lead Poisoning can also lead to visual impairment.

What about Ron and Hermoine? Wouldn't they get Lead Poisoning? Well. Yes and no, depends on who we talk about, Ron and the rest of the wizarding world? Yes, they all probably got lead poisoning too, but they would use potions as needed when they felt sick or poisoned, any lead washes of with the magic of potions. Well then, What about Hermoine? Well her parents are dentists and were probable one before her birth so they would know the effects Lead has on a developing child, and with foreknowledge, probably moved to a lead free or lead conscious neighborhood. She would have little to no lead in her and if any were in Hogwarts, the potions in stock would clear it out of her quickly, unlike Harry which probably needed multiple visits.

What is this leading to? The Philosopher's Stone of course. Upon contact with the stone in the final act, it turned whatever Lead poisoning Harry had left in him into pure noble Gold. Gold that is not toxic to humans. And is dense enough to block "Radiation Magic" Thats when Voldemort tried to posses Harry when Quirrel died, but he couldn't because the Lead in Harry finalized and Voldemort escaped. He has a gold lattice Faraday Cage within him, strengthen by his mother's protection. He became healthy enough and fast to be the youngest seeker in Quidditch in Chamber of Secrets. Now I can't confirm this, but maybe because the snitch is gold and he has a gold Faraday cage, that he can feel its presence.

The Golden Faraday cage in him also explains why he is so resistant to Curses like the Imperius curse, or the Cruciatus Curse and even the Killing Curse, Avada Kedavra. Because Magic is Radiation and Gold is good at blocking radiation, it would seem his Golden Faraday cage is helping him survive all of these alongside his other protections placed on him.

Magic as Radiation also explains why electronics do not work in magic dense areas like Hogwarts. Radiation messes with electronics in real life and enough is possible to break electronics. The ambient "Magic" is making bit flip from a 1 to a 0 or vice versa. And too many flips might brick an electronic device. To shield against both magic and radiation, its probably best to enclose the motherboard in a gold case.

Then if Magic is radiation, were humans unknowingly harnessing magic through science? I would say so. Using nuclear plants for energy and for the nuclear bomb. Imagine finding out that muggles just made two destroyed Japanese cities so dense in magic for a couple of months that no spells worked for miles of both ground zeroes.

Then there is the Demon Core incident. Instead of a green flash from the Avada Kedavra, when the core hit criticality, it made a blue flash. Lois Slotin got hit by a lethal dose and had symptoms from 3 dark arts spells. He said he felt like his hands were constantly burning. Doctors found out he suffered hemorrhaging that wouldn't stop and finally on his 9th day after the incident, he died. Sound very familiar? Kinda slow, but inevitable. If I were to name this as a Omni-Directional Dark Arts Spell, I would name it Avara Kazym and for story sake, would take about 5-10 minutes until you are dead.

And if some dark wizards found out that Radiation is magic. Then Chernobyl fits perfectly for Voldemort timeline wise to infiltrate muggle nuclear sites and cause the worst nuclear meltdown in human history even to this day. Just so he could harness enough magic to start learning how to posses people.

I could probably figure out more, but this is what came up. Feel free to tell me if you think something is wrong. Because I could still be, but with all of this, it just fits perfectly.

Been re-reading The Sorcerer's Stone. Never caught this before. In chapter 12 "The Mirror of Erised" Harry while under the invisibility cloak gets chased by Filch out of the Restricted Section of the library only to find himself in a corridor where Filch (after presumably using a shortcut) meets up with Snape, who apparently was already in this corridor. Filch and Snape then hurry towards Harry, not knowing he is there of course because Harry is under the cloak.

The book then says "He (Harry) backed away as quietly as he could. A door stood ajar to his left. It was his only hope. He squeezed through it, holding his breath, trying not to move it, and to his relief he managed to get inside the room without their noticing anything. They walked straight past and Harry leaned against the wall, breathing deeply, listening to their footsteps dying away...propped against the wall facing him...was a magnificent mirror."

So we have the door to the room where the Mirror of Erised is just left ajar and Snape who was apparently already in this corridor hurrying off with Filch. And Filch knew where to find him. So my bet is that Snape regularly spent time in this corridor at night. Staring at an image of him and Lilly Potter with a child in their arms. Yearning for a future that might have been...My theory is that when Harry looks in the mirror and sees his mom, she had just barely disappeared from the mirror because someone else had been looking at her image just before her son arrived.

Severus Snape is such a tragic character already, but this is now my head canon.

For me the religion. I can see why jk Rowling never touched religion in Harry Potter but I am curious cause what do wizards believe ?
They celebrate Christmas but do they believe in Jesus.
Jesus walking on water and such would probably just sound ordinary to them.
I would like to see what they believe in.

Other wizarding jobs.
Like every job we see is working for hogwarts, gringgots the ministry, shop keeper or with wild animals.

I would like to see what other jobs are out there.

Other major wizarding sports, like quidditch can’t be the only one.

How different countries use magic, I would like to have seen more explanation on how magic is used.
It’s said in Africa wands are less popular as people are trained more to use wandless magic and I would like to see how that’s done, I would also like to have seen how magic is done in Asian societies and how they differ from western magic.

Alchemy as a subject, it’s said it is a subject but only when enough students show interest in doing it.

I would like to see how alchemy is used, how it differs from potions and how it can be used to help the trio.