31 Genius Harry Potter Details You Totally Missed If You Only Watched The Movies

Books >>>>>> movies forever and always.

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Movie adaptations of books are notoriously less than satisfactory. And Harry Potter is no exception. While the eight films are certainly wonderful and magical and perfectly acceptable, a LOT of content never made it into the script. Which means that if you've only ever seen the films and never read the books... you missed out on a ton of side plots. Some of which were actually super important.

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1. Ginny actually has a personality.

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The movies didn't have enough time to flesh out Ginny (and many other characters, to be honest). She's boring and flat in the movies, but in the books, she's fierce and independent and a low-key icon. She stands up to Ron and her brothers and is an excellent Quidditch player. 

2. Harry was the one who funded Fred and George's joke business.

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Harry won a thousand Galleons in the Triwizard Tournament. Traumatized by Voldemort's return and Cedric's death, he didn't want the cash. Plus, Harry's kinda rich anyway. He gave the winnings to the twins, who used it to fund Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. 

3. The Marauders' Map was created by Harry's dad, along with his friends Lupin, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew.

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The Marauders' Map is shown in the film in all its glory. But we never get the reveal that Harry's dad and his BFFs were the ones who actually created it. 

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4. Dumbledore sent the Dursleys a Howler when they were thinking of kicking Harry out after the Dementor incident.

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Just as Vernon was throwing Harry out the door, a Howler arrived, which boomed, "Remember my last," in Dumbledore's voice. Petunia instantly insisted that Harry stays in the house. 

5. Hermione's S.P.E.W. club.

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In their fourth year, Hermione became very passionate about house elf rights, after learning they were the ones cooking for students and cleaning the common rooms. She started a movement called Society for the Promotion of Elvish Welfare and persuaded other students to join. Ron kept calling it spew, much to Hermione's annoyance. 

6. Ron and Hermione were prefects.

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At the beginning of their fifth year, Ron and Hermione were selected as the two Gryffindor prefects. Harry (and everyone else) was kinda baffled that Ron would get the position over him, but Dumbledore later said it's because Harry had a lot of other shit on his plate. 

7. Harry randomly finds — and dismisses — two Horcruxes before he even knows what they are.

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In the fifth book, while cleaning Grimmauld place, they find a curious green locket that no one could open. In the sixth book, while trying to hide his Potions book after attacking Draco, he sees a dusty tiara in the Room of Requirement. Turns out, these two items had pieces of Voldemort's soul in them.

8. Muggles can't see Hogwarts.

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If a Muggle went for a cute countryside walk near Hogwarts, they wouldn't see the castle in all its splendor. Instead, they'd find ominous-looking ruins with a sign saying, "DANGER. DO NOT ENTER. UNSAFE."

9. And electronic devices don't work there.

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If a Muggle-born kid tried to bring their GameBoy (this was the '90s, remember) to Hogwarts, it'd simply short-circuit and stop working. 

10. Muggle Studies is a subject that is taught at Hogwarts.

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The movies only focus on the sexy subjects like Defense Against The Dark Arts and Potions. But other subjects taught in the books include Muggle Studies, Ancient Runes, Astronomy, and Arithmancy. 

11. Snape can kinda read minds.

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Snape is an excellent Legilimens, which means he can tap into peoples' thoughts. It's touched on a little in the movies, when Harry has to learn Occlumency to keep Voldy out of his mind, but never fully explained. 

12. Fred and George were the ones who gave Malfoy the idea to smuggle Death Eaters into Hogwarts.

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The twins shoved a Slytherin boy, Montague, into a Vanishing Cabinet at Hogwarts. The cabinet was faulty, trapping Montague between Hogwarts and Borgin and Burkes — a shop in Knockturn Alley. After escaping, he recounted the story to Draco, who realised the potential passage into the castle. 

13. And in fact, the whole reason this cabinet was broken was because of Harry.

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In Chamber of Secrets, Harry was in trouble with Filch. To distract the caretaker, Nearly Headless Nick persuaded Peeves the Poltergeist to drop a cabinet right above the office. That cabinet was the same Vanishing Cabinet that later became so integral to the story. 

14. Percy fully turned his back on the whole Weasley family.

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Percy worked at the Ministry of Magic after leaving Hogwarts. In the last two books, he deserts his family because they supported Harry and Dumbledore in the claims that Voldemort was back. It's alluded to in the films, but in the books, it's a massive deal that tears Molly apart. 

15. But his redemption came during the Battle of Hogwarts, literally seconds before Fred died.

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Percy came back to fight in the Battle of Hogwarts, rejoining his siblings in the fight for a sweet reunion. Just as they're celebrating, an explosion rips through the corridor and kills Fred.

16. Nearly Headless Nick had a Deathday party that was just full of ghosts.

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Harry was invited to Nick's 500th Deathday Party in his second year. It was held in a cold dungeon on Halloween, which was full of ghosts and a buffet of rotten and rancid food. 

17. Filch and Mrs. Figg are "Squibs" — people who are born into Wizarding families but don't have magical abilities.

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Harry finds this out while Filch is dealing with Peeves and the broken cabinet. 

18. Voldemort, aka Tom Riddle, is a half-blood.

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His mum, Merope Gaunt (a direct descendent of Salazar Slytherin), fell in love with a Muggle. She bewitched him with a love potion, got pregnant, and died in childbirth. Tom was raised in a Muggle orphanage, where Dumbledore eventually found him.

19. Snape is also a half-blood.

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His father was a Muggle, and his mother's maiden name was Prince. And that, my friends, is why he's the Half-Blood Prince. 

20. Rita Skeeter is an Animagus, meaning she could turn into a beetle whenever she wanted.

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That's how she got so many journalistic scoops. Hermione figures it out and threatens to out her unless Rita stops writing bitchy articles. 

21. When Fred and George left school in defiance of Umbridge, they turned a corridor of Hogwarts into a swamp.

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In the movies, they left on their brooms in a shower of fireworks, but in reality, they made a much bigger problem for Umbridge. Flitwick even left a little portion of swamp behind as a memento, roping it off and complimenting the twins' magic. 

22. The Sorting Hat sings a new song every year before the Sorting Ceremony.

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In the movies, kids just plonk the hat on their heads and wait to be sorted. But in the books, the Sorting Hat sings a long and detailed song about each house — and it's different every year. 

23. When boys try to enter the girls' dormitory, the entry stairs turn into a slide and whoosh them back down.

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Hermione can get into Ron and Harry's dorm, but when the pair try to visit Hermione, the stairs transform into a slippery slide so they can't get in. 

24. Harry has a terrible date with Cho at a teashop in Hogsmeade that ends with her leaving in tears because Harry mentioned he was meeting Hermione later.

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She also wanted to talk about Cedric Diggory, her ex-boyfriend who died with Harry while facing Voldemort — not really an ideal first date topic. It was on Valentine's Day, too. 

25. Trelawney is low-key an alcoholic.

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She's seen stumbling around while drinking cooking sherry, one of the things that led to her being fired by Umbridge. 

26. Harry and Ginny broke up at the end of sixth book, just after Dumbledore's funeral.

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Harry was trying to keep her safe from Voldemort and the Death Eaters while he went out Horcrux hunting. 

27. Hagrid's motorbike once belonged to Sirius Black.

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Sirius gave it to Hagrid the night that Harry's parents died, just before going off to hunt Peter Pettigrew. Hagrid then used it to take baby Harry to Privet Drive. 

28. Neville could have been The Chosen One, instead of Harry.

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Professor Trelawney's prophecy about The Chosen One who will defeat Voldemort — "born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies" — could also have been in reference to Neville Longbottom. Voldemort chose to go after Harry's parents (in part because Snape begged him not to), marking him as the Chosen One. 

29. Voldemort, when he was still Tom Riddle, desperately wanted to be the Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts.

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Dumbledore turned him down, and ever since then, no DADA teacher has stayed at the school longer than a year — leading people to believe Voldy cursed the job. 

30. Aunt Petunia was in contact with Dumbledore when she was a kid.

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She begged him to let her go to Hogwarts with her sister Lily. When he said no, it began her hatred of the Wizarding World. 

31. Hermione and Ron's first kiss is actually in front of Harry.

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In the movie, they snog in the Chamber of Secrets. But in the book, it's in a corridor in front of Harry. Ron says something about wanting to save the house elves in the kitchen, and Hermione can't control herself, launching in for a cute lil' makeout session. 

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