The dark stories of Azkaban

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Azkaban FINAL FINAL 

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Which Quidditch position would be right for you? 

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Ron Quidditch tryouts quidditch HP6

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## For thrill-seeking adventurers, you should be a Seeker 

*Notable Seekers*: Viktor Krum, Glynnis Griffiths, Harry Potter, Charlie Weasley

*Seeker objective*: Catch the Golden Snitch before the other team’s Seeker

__Seeker would be the right Quidditch position for you if…__
… you keep a cool head under pressure and never shy away from shouldering responsibility. Individuality is important to you; you love the limelight, but you believe working as part of a team makes your success all the more meaningful. You notice small details that other people don’t and often follow your instincts when the way forward is unclear. You are bold and brave in the face of physical danger and would never dream of running the other way. 

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## For a goal-orientated team player, you should be a Chaser 

*Notable Chasers*: Ginny Weasley, Dragomir Gorgovitch, Angelina Johnson, Katie Bell

*Chaser objective*:  Throw the Quaffle through one of the three goal hoops

__Chaser would be the right Quidditch position for you if…__ 
… you’re a team player and feel most fulfilled when working towards a common goal. You read situations quickly, and often successfully pre-empt a particular outcome. You don’t crack under pressure, but you prefer to share the burden of responsibility with a select and trustworthy few. You’re excellent at thinking on your feet and unafraid of a challenge. You don’t shy away from hard work and are a fan of the mantra, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. For you, victory isn’t sweet unless it’s shared. 

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Quidditch Pitch and its stands from the Half Blood Prince 

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## For the selfless, you should be a Keeper 

*Notable Keepers*: Oliver Wood, Ronald Weasley, Barry Ryan, Cormac McLaggen

*Keeper objective*: Protect the hoops from goal-scoring Chasers

__Keeper would be the right Quidditch position for you if…__ 
… you’re an all-or-nothing kind of person, for whom there is no middle ground. Good or bad, that’s how you see things. You save the goal, or you let it in – no grey area exists. You stand strong in the face of adversity and cope well under pressure, as well as under intense scrutiny. You are happy to sacrifice personal glory for the good of others, even if it means you’re the centre of negative (rather than positive) attention. When it comes to a showdown, you always stand your ground. Some might describe you as an unsung hero or heroine, but you don’t need their praise to know your own worth. 

Ron Keeper Quidditch falling HP6

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## For the free-spirited exuberant, you should be a Beater 

*Notable Beaters*: Kevin and Karl Broadmoor, Gwenog Jones, Fred and George Weasley

*Keeper objective*: Protect team members from Bludgers using a bat

__Beater would be the right Quidditch position for you if…__ 
… you’re fiercely protective of your friends, sometimes taking it to... extremes. Rather than focussing on specific goals, you prefer to take life as it comes, and go with the flow. When you have a challenge in your sights, however, there’s no holding you back. You’re a team player, but only as long as you’re enjoying your own role within the group. You prefer to tackle new obstacles as they arise, rather than plan for them in advance. People call you unpredictable, mainly because you have a strong sense of fun and nobody can tie you down. You only live once, right?

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## For the thick-skinned, you should be a referee 

*Notable referees*: Madam Hooch, Hassan Mostafa

*Referee objective*: Implement the rules of Quidditch in a fair manner

__Referee would be the right Quidditch position for you if…__ 
… you have a clear and unshakeable moral compass and don’t mind getting a bit of stick. You are never swayed by bias and judge events based on the facts in front of you rather than making any assumptions, even if people are arguing otherwise. If you are convinced of a particular way forward, you will not be deterred, even if it makes you unpopular. Indeed, a referee of any sport requires a thick skin, and judging by some of the injuries we’ve heard about Quidditch referees suffering, we might mean literally. 

Quidditch crowd stands image

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## If you have a way with words, you should be a commentator 
 
*Notable commentators*: Lee Jordan, Luna Lovegood, Ludo Bagman

*Commentator objective*: Communicate the action on the Quidditch pitch to the crowd

__Commentator would be the right Quidditch position for you if…__ 
… you prefer to watch the action rather than be caught up in it – but that doesn’t mean you don’t know exactly what’s going on. You like facts and figures, and you have an excellent memory for names and faces. You have a love of words and like the sound of your own voice, and others like listening to you too. You are generally trustworthy, honest and call things as you see them. You also have an infectious sense of humour and don’t mind being the centre of attention – even if you’re happy on the sidelines most of the time. And, of course, you are absolutely, 100% impartial.  

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Luna Lovegood’s eight wackiest moments

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## That time... she laughed at Ron’s joke for wayyyy too long

We all know Ron Weasley’s a hoot a minute, but there are limits to even his joke-cracking abilities. Granted, his gag about Goyle looking like a ‘baboon’s backside’ was pretty funny but maybe not quite as funny as Luna Lovegood found it. She ‘let out a scream of mirth that caused Hedwig to wake up and flap her wings indignantly and Crookshanks to leap up into the luggage rack, hissing. Luna laughed so hard her magazine slipped out of her grasp, slid down her legs and on to the floor.’
 
## That time... she commentated the Hufflepuff vs Gryffindor Quidditch match

From forgetting the names of players, to pointing out ‘interestingly shaped clouds’, to being ‘singularly uninterested in such mundane things as the score’, Luna commentating the disastrous Hufflepuff vs Gryffindor Quidditch match in *Half-Blood Prince* had to be one of the most unexpected and hilarious moments of the whole series.  

Ron said of the hilarious commentary: ‘I hope Luna always commentates from now on...’ and we whole heartedly agree. And if you don’t, you’ve probably got a case of ‘Loser’s Lurgy’ just like Luna diagnosed for Zacharias Smith during the match. 

## That time... she wore those radish earrings 
 
Yes, you read that right. They were earrings, they were radishes and they were orange. What a look! At least if Luna ever got hungry, she had a healthy snack hanging from her ears to nibble on. We included this moment for more than just the radishes though. The first time Harry noticed Luna’s radish earrings was also when she randomly declared her belief in him: 

> Luna took a great breath and then said, without so much as a preliminary hello, ‘I believe He Who Must Not Be Named is back and I believe you fought him and escaped from him.’<br>
> *Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix*
> <br>

We sometimes wish we could wear our hearts on our sleeves as wonderfully as Luna Lovegood.  

## That time... she wore a roaring Gryffindor lion hat 
 
> ‘I’m supporting Gryffindor,’ said Luna, pointing unnecessarily at her hat. ‘Look what it does...’ She reached up and tapped the hat with her wand. It opened its mouth wide and gave an extremely realistic roar that made everyone in the vicinity jump.<br>
> *Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix*
> <br>
> 

If you’re ever wondering whether you’ve overdone it when showing off your own house pride, just remind yourself of Luna’s lion hat – and she wasn’t even in Gryffindor!

## That time... she warned everyone about the Rotfang Conspiracy

This had to be one of Luna’s wackiest moments of all. In conversation with Harry, Slughorn and Snape at Slughorn’s party, she became very concerned about Harry’s desire to become an Auror. The reason for this? According to Luna, the Aurors were actually ‘part of the Rotfang Conspiracy’. What did this mean, we hear you ask? Luna told the group that the Aurors were ‘working from within to bring down the Ministry of Magic using a combination of Dark magic and gum disease.’ Wow, just wow.





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Luna wearing her roaring Gryffindor Lions Head  

How to make your own Wizarding World Valentine's Day cards 

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Watch our handy guide on how to make your very own Harry Potter-themed Valentine's Day cards. Puns included. 

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This week, we've gone all romantic, and have created these Wizarding World themed Valentine's Day cards you can make along at home. 

Take a look.  

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Feel free to use your own magical puns if you don't like ours!

You can download our Valentine's Day card templates below. 

[Download our Quidditch-themed card is here.](https://assets.wizardingworld.com/cards/quidditch-card.pdf)<br>
[Or our Felix Felicis-themed card here.](https://assets.wizardingworld.com/cards/felix-card.pdf)

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Seven behind-the-scenes facts about the third task

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Fleur Delacour and her sister Gabrielle before the third Triwizard task

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Seven is the most powerful magical number and so we are very excited to bring you seven behind-the-scenes facts about the third task! We share secrets about the Triwizard Cup, the design of the maze, and a spell you’d definitely want to know before beginning the third task.

Watch the video below to find out more about these behind-the-scenes facts, as well as few more. 
If you’re brave enough to join us in the maze that is… 

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Can’t get enough of the Triwizard Tournament? [Here’s an article](https://www.wizardingworld.com/features/5-standout-moments-of-the-triwizard-tournaments-third-task "5 standout moments triwizard") we wrote about the five standout moments of the third task.




Wisdom from the Wizarding World: romantic relationships

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Tonks looking scared with Lupin at her side from the Half Blood Prince.

Some handy romance tips inspired by the Wizarding World. 

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## Telling someone how you feel

We can’t all have it as easy as Queenie and Jacob; being a Legilimens would really come in handy when trying to work out how someone feels about you. But for most of our love-struck characters, mindreading just isn’t an option and they have to pluck up the courage to say how they feel. And it isn’t always easy. 

Poor Harry waited so long to ask Cho Chang to the Yule Ball that Hermione could have brewed three batches of Polyjuice Potion by the time he got his act together. But although Cho turned him down faster than you can say Quidditch, there’s a good lesson here in getting your feelings out in the open. 

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Newt Scamander and Tina Goldstein share a moment as he tucks her hair behind her ear

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Newt Scamander tucks Tina Goldstein's hair behind her ear in a tender moment at the port

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Sometimes actually finding the right words to express how you feel is the problem. Nobody struggled more with this than Newt Scamander, who found it impossible to tell Tina he liked her without comparing her eyes to those of a salamander. Although we wouldn’t necessarily recommend comparing your crush to a magical beast, or indeed screaming in their face like an overexcited Mandrake – oh Ron. The way you express your feelings tells the other person something about who you are, and it’s important to be yourself.

Scorpius Malfoy found it even harder to ask out Rose Granger-Weasley, but he taught us an important lesson about positivity when she turned him down:
‘But I asked her. I planted the acorn. The acorn that will grow into our eventual marriage.’ Bless him. Hopefully he’s got more of a chance in the future than Harry and Moaning Myrtle. 

A final word on the first step: if you’re not as optimistic as Scorpius and wish you could Obliviate all memory of your confession, take comfort in the fact that at least you have been true to yourself.

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## Beware the Veela effect

On the path to romance, it’s important to remember that looks and personality don’t always align. Hermione ¬– blinded by Gilderoy Lockhart’s good looks –couldn’t see past his wavy blond hair and bright blue eyes to accept that he might not be the wizard he claimed to be in his books. The Veela at the Quidditch World Cup were perhaps the best warning that looks aren’t everything. One moment they were beyond beautiful, and the next they turned into terrifying creatures with ‘cruel-beaked bird heads, and long, scaly wings’. Mr Weasley had some particularly wise words for Harry and Ron once their true natures were revealed: ‘And that boys is why you should never go for looks alone.’ Quite. 

James Potter and Lily Evans taught us a slightly different lesson: personalities can improve over time. Harry was horrified when he witnessed his father being ¬– as Lily put it – ‘an arrogant toerag’ in Snape’s memory. Despite his Quidditch player kudos and constantly rumpled hair, Lily declared to him: ‘I wouldn’t go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid.’ Lily set us a good example when it comes to choosing someone for looks as well as personality: she waited until the seventh year to date James – once he was mature enough for her. 

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This isn’t to say that looks and personality can’t go together. Save for a slight blip in the Triwizard maze, Viktor Krum was a genuinely lovely young wizard despite his brooding looks being worshipped by witches everywhere. And then there’s Fleur Delacour. The moment when Mrs Weasley assumed Fleur wouldn’t want to marry Bill anymore, after he’d been bitten by Greyback, warmed our hearts: ‘What do I care how ’e looks? I am good-looking enough for both of us, I theenk!’ The wizarding world teaches us not to jump to conclusions about personality, until we really get to know someone.

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## Valentine’s Day is an absolute nightmare: proceed with caution

Whether you like someone from afar, you’ve just started dating, or you’ve been married for years, romantic gift-giving can be tricky. And never was there a day more fraught with these difficulties than Valentine’s Day, as many of our favourite wizarding characters found out. But what can their blunders teach us?

We can safely say that embarrassing public moments are certainly worth avoiding. Harry’s singing Valentine from a particularly aggressive dwarf doesn’t go well for him or Ginny. Then again, we’d probably also avoid telling someone their ‘eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad’ or telling them their ‘hair is as dark as a blackboard,’ as well. 

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Harry and Cho’s disastrous date was also made much worse by its location at the very public Madam Puddifoot’s. But it has something else to teach us about Valentine’s Day generally: it’s a day that makes it very easy to compare your relationship to others. Roger Davies and his girlfriend snogging at the table next to Harry and Cho’s, pressured Harry into feeling he should be behaving differently. But the truth is, if he’d just stuck to topics he’d felt comfortable with when spending time with Cho, the date might have gone a lot better.

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## Unrequited love is worse than sitting on a Blast-Ended Screwt

There is no shortage of unrequited love in the wizarding world, and the heart-broken characters have much to teach us. One lesson is that loving someone who doesn’t love you back isn’t something you should bottle up. In Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Newt was still upset about how things ended with Leta Lestrange. However, Queenie was the only one who found out about her, saying ‘people are easiest to read when they’re hurting,’ because Newt was hiding his feelings. But it’s not just difficult emotionally when you pine for someone: it can affect you physically. When Remus continued to reject Tonks, she ‘…looked terrible; thinner than usual, her mouse-coloured hair lank,’ and she also lost the ability to shift her appearance.

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Remus eventually came around, but some love stories are never meant to be and that can be tough for the person who can’t move on. Just look at Snape’s enduring love for Lily. Was there ever a more heart-breaking exchange than Snape and Dumbledore’s in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: ‘After all this time?’ ‘Always.’  Through love potions, the wizarding world also teaches us something important: you can’t force true love – just look at Merope Gaunt or Romilda Vane’s efforts. Instead of dreaming about love potions, it might be better to make some tea – as Ron says, ‘that’s what my mum does whenever someone’s upset,’ and eat mountains of Chocolate Frogs while reading about Cheering Charms. If Vernon and Petunia found each other, there’s hope for us all.

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## Other people might be interested in your relationship choices

So you like someone, and they like you back and everything is as perfect as the Hogwarts grounds in sunshine. Then other people start finding about your new relationship: your friends, your family, your exes… What wisdom does the wizarding world have for us when our relationship goes public?

Prepare for people to have lots of opinions. Remember all the Weasley resistance to Bill and Fleur? Ginny kept calling Fleur, ‘Phlegm’, and hoped that Bill would decide to marry Tonks instead. And Mrs Weasley wasn’t at all keen on her to start with, either. Fred, George and Ron had plenty to say about Ginny’s love life too. Although of course, it’s important to respect other people’s well-meaning opinions, we think that on the whole Ginny had the right idea when she told Fred it was none of his business. 



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At the end of the day, people with the emotional range of a teaspoon may be insensitive and nosy, but if you’re happy with your new beau, you might not mind. As Harry found when he finally got together with Ginny: ‘it made a very nice change to be talked about because of something that was making him happier than he could remember being for a very long time, rather than because he had been involved in horrific scenes of Dark magic.’

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## Even when you’re perfect for each other, you still have to work at it 

When everything’s going right, it’s easy to see your life through rose-tinted Spectrespecs. But every relationship has its ups and downs ¬– even for our favourite Wizarding World couples. Do you remember how angry Mrs Weasley was with her husband when she found out about his flying car? Or about his Muggle stitches in St Mungo’s? And Mr Weasley was never much of a fan of Celestina Warbeck. But despite their differences, they can teach us an important lesson – compromise. Mrs Weasley put up with her husband’s plug collection, just as Mr Weasley pretended to enjoy ‘A Cauldron Full of Hot Strong Love.’

Sometimes it is external forces that put pressure on your relationship, rather than internal ones. Jacob and Queenie seemed to be made for each other right from day one, but their disagreement over Rappaport’s Law caused a rift between them. In Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Harry and Ginny found that their struggles with their son, Albus, put pressure on their own relationship. And of course, back when they were younger, Harry had to make the difficult choice to break things off with Ginny, so he didn’t put her in danger whilst trying to defeat Lord Voldemort. 

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WB FB Queenie and Jacob 

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But what can we learn from how our favourite characters faced difficult times? Unlike Ron avoiding a difficult conversation with Lavender, we think that talking to each other and being open about your feelings and fears would be a good place to start. 

We’re all out of wisdom for now, but remember, if all else fails: ‘there are some things you can’t share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them.’ On second thoughts, it might be better to stick to a Butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks. 


Has the Wizarding World ever helped your love life? We’d love to hear about it! @WizardingWorld #wizardingwisdom


Things we loved when international magical co-operation came to Hogwarts

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### Different wizarding ways to travel  

Before the arrival of the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students to Hogwarts we’d already heard of a few exciting ways for wizards to travel: flying cars, Floo powder, Apparition, broomsticks, even Portkeys – an inanimate object that, once bewitched, can ‘transport anyone who grasps it to a pre-arranged destination’. But we have to say the international transport choices made by Beauxbatons and Durmstrang really did blow us away.  

Remember Beauxbatons? A golden carriage the size of a house? Horses the size of elephants? That beats grasping a mouldy old boot at the top of a hill any day of the week! 

And then there was the stately arrival of the Durmstrang ship: ‘Slowly, magnificently, the ship rose out of the water, gleaming in the moonlight.’ Impressive.
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### Expanded fashion horizons  

Don’t get us wrong, we are big fans of the Hogwarts robes – warm, practical and…  does black really ever go out of fashion? Severus Snape certainly didn’t think so. And we would have loved to be fitted out at Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions in Diagon Alley. However, we thoroughly enjoyed the different wizarding uniforms fashioned by the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang students when they attended Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. 

The Beauxbatons robes of fine silk, though impractical, were undeniably beautiful. And the Durmstrang cloaks made from ‘shaggy, matted fur’ were certainly something. If nothing else, they’d keep any wizard warm in winter. But we suppose at the end of the day, for the students of all three schools, it went further than fashion. What international magical co-operation really meant for them was widening their experience of the wizarding world in as many ways as possible, whether they wore silk, or fur or plain old Hogwarts black.  
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### New faces shaking things up 

Obviously, a fresh batch of first years nervously enters the Great Hall to be sorted every year, so there are new witches and wizards arriving each September. But the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students’ arrival at Hogwarts was a little like an established school body absorbing additional sixth form students. They were new, they were mysterious, some of them were very good looking, and they were the same age – if not older – than many of the Hogwarts students. Cue chaos (Krum-mania), teenage tantrums (Ron) and more than a few crushes (or Fleur-fever, as we like to call it). Nothing like new faces to shake things up and we thoroughly enjoyed it – even if Ron didn’t. 
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### Excuses for Hogwarts to show itself off  

International magical co-operation didn’t mean the three wizarding schools weren’t competitive against each other. As host, Hogwarts certainly wanted to put its best brick forward. As the Triwizard Tournament approached, Harry noticed ‘that the castle seemed to be undergoing an extra-thorough cleaning’. Members of staff also seemed ‘oddly tense’ with Professor McGonagall telling Neville: ‘Longbottom, kindly do not reveal that you can’t even perform a simple Switching Spell in front of anyone from Durmstrang!’  

As well as the Hogwarts home team worrying about the castle’s appearance and the apparent abilities of the students, there was the opportunity for shining as a host of the Yule Ball, a traditional part of the Triwizard Tournament. As Professor McGonagall put it, the Yule Ball was a chance for ‘us to socialise with our foreign guests’ and ‘of course a chance for us all to – er – let our hair down’. The glitz, the dancing, the giant revelations, the love triangles, the DRAMA – the Yule Ball really was one of the highlights of the Harry Potter stories, and all thanks to international magical co-operation.  
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### Similarities as fascinating as differences 

We loved how the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang presence at Hogwarts allowed us to compare the way they lived and learned magic to our favourite Harry Potter characters. Remember when the champions were required to have their wands weighed by Mr Ollivander? We learned that although Viktor Krum and Fleur Delacour owned wands like Harry and Cedric, Krum’s wand was made by Gregorovitch and Fleur’s had a core – Veela hair – that you’d never find in an Ollivander wand.  

Learning about other schools meant we also found out more about Hogwarts, through Hermione’s reading of Hogwarts: A History, of course. Turns out, just like Durmstrang and Beauxbatons, Hogwarts was hidden: bewitched so that if ‘a Muggle looks at it, all they see is a mouldering old ruin with a sign over the entrance saying DANGER, DO NOT ENTER, UNSAFE’. Though the Triwizard Tournament was notoriously dangerous, this was perhaps what Dumbledore envisaged when he helped revive it – students from different wizarding communities learning about each other and making friends along the way. 
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### New and long-lasting friendships 

It was very heart-warming to read in later books that the new international friendships made at Hogwarts during the Triwizard Tournament stayed strong. Hermione and Krum continued to write letters to each other (in a friend way, Ron – calm down). Fleur ended up married to Bill Weasley, and Krum attended their wedding! How’s that for international magical co-operation?

What if… Harry had gone through the Triwizard Tournament without 'Mad-Eye Moody’s' help?

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__Warning: spoilers for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire are more abundant than gnomes at the Burrow. Proceed with caution!__ 

Harry Potter never asked for help with the Triwizard Tournament. And he certainly never asked to be assisted by Death Eater Barty Crouch junior disguised as famous Auror Mad-Eye Moody. In fact, he never actually asked for his name to be entered into the Goblet of Fire in the first place. It’s complicated. 

Let’s take this step-by-step and explore how we think Harry would have fared in the Triwizard Tournament without Mad-Eye Moody’s help.

Oh, and you might notice we’ve referred to Barty Crouch junior as Mad-Eye Moody in the title of this article to save people from spoilers. For consistency, we’ll be referring to Barty Crouch junior as Mad-Eye Moody throughout, just to put you in the same position as Harry and keep you on your toes.

## The Goblet of Fire hurdle


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According to the new rules of the Triwizard Tournament, Dumbledore drew an Age Line around the Goblet of Fire, to prevent anyone under seventeen from entering. Harry was as surprised as everyone else when his name came out as a fourth Triwizard champion. Only later did he find out that it was Mad-Eye Moody who put his name in the Goblet of Fire, under the name of a different school. But if Harry had really wanted to enter the Tournament, could he somehow have figured out a way around Dumbledore’s Age Line? 

Fred and George Weasley attempted it with an Ageing Potion and, as Hermione predicted, it didn’t work. But what about if Hermione had really put her mind to it and helped Harry enter the Triwizard Tournament? Could she have used her famous logic to outsmart even Albus Dumbledore? After all, Mad-Eye Moody did, and he wasn’t even the real Mad-Eye. 
One hurdle might have been Hermione not being all too keen on breaking rules. But then she did brew Polyjuice Potion in her second year at Hogwarts, breaking – in her words – ‘about fifty school rules’. 

For the sake of argument, let’s say Harry managed to persuade Hermione to help him, and as a Hogwarts champion, he progressed to the first task… 


## Here be Dragons

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Harry holding his wand in the first task of the Triwizard Tournament 

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It was Mad-Eye Moody who nudged Hagrid into showing Harry the dragons, as well as Mad-Eye who helped Harry see how he could play to his Quidditch strengths to succeed in the first task.

But we’re not entirely sure what difference Mad-Eye Moody’s help actually made on this particular task. Hagrid was never a brilliant keeper of secrets – in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, his catchphrase could have been, ‘I shouldn’ta told yeh that!’. And given how much Hagrid cared about Harry, we reckon he would have been likely to show Harry the dragons anyway, to prepare him. Even if Hagrid hadn’t, we’re not entirely sure it was helpful for Harry to have seen the Hungarian Horntail up close. Arguably, it made him even more nervous just before he was about to begin the first task! 

We should also add into our considerations the fact that Harry wasn’t as unfamiliar with dragons as some of the other Triwizard champions might have been. He’d unwillingly come far too close to a Norwegian Ridgeback in his first year at Hogwarts – a dragon Hagrid affectionately named Norbert. Perhaps this familiarity might have helped him in the first task, even without the dragon warning?

Then there is the small matter of getting past the dragon and retrieving the golden egg. Would Harry have been prepared to do this without Mad-Eye Moody’s hints about using a broom? It’s worth remembering that it was actually Harry who worked out that he’d need a Summoning Charm. And then it was Hermione who helped Harry to learn how to Summon his broom from a great distance. Had they had prior warning from Hagrid about the dragons, we reckon Harry and Hermione might have worked things out on their own. 
On to the second task… 
  
## Anyone fancy a swim?

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Hermione wrapping Harry in a towel after task 2 

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Mad-Eye Moody told Harry that it was he who told Cedric Diggory to open the golden egg underwater, and then trusted that Cedric would pass the information on to Harry in repayment for the dragons. But it was actually Harry who made the decision to tell Cedric about the dragons himself, so that all the champions were on an equal footing for the first task. Also, Mad-Eye Moody might have pointed Cedric in the right direction with the egg, but Cedric was a clever and resourceful student, as well as kind; he may very well have worked it out on his own and shared the information with Harry anyway.

The trickster Moody also planted (excuse the pun) the book Magical Mediterranean Water-Plants and Their Properties in Harry’s Gryffindor dormitory – and by planted we mean he gave it to Neville Longbottom. When Harry didn’t ask Neville for help, Moody then staged a conversation with Professor McGonagall about Gillyweed in front of Dobby, who ‘ran straight to Snape’s store- cupboard’ to get a mouthful for Harry in time for the second task. 

We think that the question of how Harry would have fared in the second task without Moody’s interference really comes down to loyalty. Harry was a loyal friend and inspired loyalty in others too – perhaps his Gryffindor roots were to thank for this? Neville was great at Herbology and may well have known about Gillyweed even without the book. Perhaps at the eleventh hour, Harry might have sought him out, and no doubt Neville would have helped him anyway.

Then there’s the matter of the second task itself. Moody might have helped with the Gillyweed but he didn’t help down in the lake. Professor Lupin taught Harry about Grindylows – they were in his Defence Against the Dark Arts exam in third year. Harry managed to fight them off in the second task, where Fleur failed. It was also Harry’s Gryffindor courage and loyalty that got him the extra points from the second task – saving both Ron and Fleur’s little sister. On to the third and final task… 


## A-MAZE-ing at the maze

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You had an easier time of it than you should have done in that maze tonight, of course,’ said Moody. ‘That was because I was patrolling around it, able to see through the outer hedges, able to curse many obstacles out of your way. I Stunned Fleur Delacour as she passed. I put the Imperius Curse on Krum, so that he would finish Diggory, and leave your path to the Cup clear.’

We don’t want to be rude, but Moody might have had an inflated sense of his own importance here. Harry’s Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons with Lupin the previous year were hugely beneficial to him in the maze – he cast a Patronus and then saw off a Boggart in quick succession. Harry was also very naturally talented at defensive magic, as we saw with his duel with Lord Voldemort only moments after he completed the maze. Also, let’s not forget that the year after the Triwizard Tournament, Harry actually taught defensive magic to a whole bunch of people known as Dumbledore’s Army. 

We can’t say for sure, but we reckon Harry would have had just as good a chance of getting to that cup first as Cedric, or Krum, or Fleur, even without Moody’s interference. 

## Conclusion


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We can’t deny that it would have been tough for Harry to get through to the third task without Moody’s help. But we don’t think it would have been impossible, as long as Harry had help from his friends. 

One of Harry’s greatest qualities was that he knew the importance of friendship and knew that sometimes you just have to ask for a helping hand. It didn’t hurt that one of his best friends happened to be the cleverest witch of her age, either.


Still curious? This is just one of the 'What if' articles in the series. Click [here](https://www.wizardingworld.com/features/what-if-dumbledore-had-told-harry-that-he-was-the-chosen-one-from-the-beginning "What if Dumbledore had told Harry he was the chosen one article") to read one about Dumbledore...   


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Terrible teaching: the Hogwarts professors who could do with a lesson themselves

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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

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__Before you begin, there are more spoilers in this piece than Harry had hot dinners at Hogwarts. If you haven’t read all the Harry Potter books, proceed with caution...__

## Gilderoy Lockhart – terrible teaching trait: dishonesty

We’re sorry to bring this up in his birthday week, but Lockhart was a terrible teacher for many reasons. Remember when he released those Cornish pixies in his classroom and couldn’t even round them up himself? Or when he tried to make a run for it when he was tasked with saving Ginny Weasley from the Chamber of Secrets?

But we reckon that the root of his failings was his dishonesty. He overcompensated for faking his brave deeds by pretending to know about everything – from duelling to Petrified cats – which made him a pretty irritating person to be around, and a very useless teacher. If he’d been honest about his abilities as a wizard – in particular his Defence Against the Dark Arts achievements – he might have made a decent Charms professor. After all, he may have used Memory Charms for dishonest purposes, but he really was rather good at them. There, we’ve been nice. Happy birthday for this weekend, Gilderoy!


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## Severus Snape – terrible teaching trait: unfairness

Snape might have had hidden depths, but we can’t say we would have necessarily looked forward to a Potions lesson with him. The way he behaved towards Harry was highly unfair, from shaming him for being the Boy Who Lived to making him copy out records featuring Sirius after his recent death. His treatment of Hermione throughout the stories was also extremely unfair – often ignoring or even embarrassing her for her enthusiasm and knowledge. Neville Longbottom fared even worse in Potions lessons. Rather than encouraging Neville, he harangued him for his mistakes; Snape once told Neville he would have to feed his beloved toad Trevor the Shrinking Solution he was brewing in a lesson. And let’s not forget that when Neville was asked by Professor Lupin, ‘What would you say is the thing that frightens you most in the world?’, Neville’s answer was ‘Professor Snape’. 

From bullying to Slytherin favouritism, we can’t say Severus Snape was always a shining example of a Hogwarts professor.


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Snape pushes Harry and Ron's heads down in the Goblet of Fire.

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## Alastor Moody – terrible teaching trait: insensitivity

Okay, okay, so the Professor Moody who taught Harry wasn’t actually Alastor Moody, so apologies to the real one for this section. But what Harry and his classmates had to deal with during their fourth-year Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons wasn’t always a walk in the Hogwarts grounds. In one lesson containing both Neville Longbottom (whose parents were tortured into insanity by the Cruciatus curse) and Harry Potter (whose parents were killed by Avada Kedavra), Moody decided it would be a good idea to demonstrate these Unforgivable Curses, as well as the Imperius curse, on a spider. It must have been extremely traumatic for both Harry and Neville to witness this, but Moody didn’t seem to care. That being said, we didn’t mind Moody’s insensitivity so much when we got to see ‘Draco Malfoy, the amazing bouncing ferret...’ Every cloud, eh?


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## Dolores Umbridge – terrible teaching trait: all theory, no practice

We could probably write a whole article about how Umbridge made a Blast-Ended Skrewt look friendly (in fact we have, [here](https://www.wizardingworld.com/features/how-dolores-umbridge-made-our-skin-crawl)). But what about her teaching, specifically? What made her classes so terrible? Well, we think it’s mostly summed up by the command she used at the beginning of her classes: ‘wands away’. Not only did it make her classes boring and useless, it also put her students in danger at a time when she must have known (or should have known), deep down, that they would need to learn to protect themselves in the coming months and years. Who knows what would have happened if Hermione hadn’t had the initiative to suggest they take matters into their own hands and start Dumbledore’s Army? 


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## Professor Binns – terrible teaching trait: sending the class to sleep

You’d think a lesson taught by a ghost would be on the scary rather than the dull side, but History of Magic was one of Harry and Ron’s least enjoyable classes. In fact, it is referred to at one point as ‘the most boring subject ever devised by wizardkind’. Though we’re not sure it’s entirely the subject’s fault. Professor Binns had some pretty good teaching material to work with but seemed incapable of making even goblin rebellions exciting. The story goes that Professor Binns fell asleep in front of the staff-room fire at a grand old age, died, and then got up the next morning to teach, leaving his body behind. He was reported to have a ‘wheezy, droning voice that was almost guaranteed to cause severe drowsiness within ten minutes, five in warm weather.’ It’s a shame he didn’t make more of an effort to keep his students’ attention. Remember when Hermione surprised him by putting up her hand and asking about the Chamber of Secrets? Professor Binns was so surprised by the attention of the class actually being on him, he was desperate to go back to his droning.  


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## Sybill Trelawney – terrible teaching trait: lack of talent (most of the time)

Like Lockhart, Sybill Trelawney’s terrible teaching also came from a place of insecurity. It was indeed Trelawney who made the prophecy that resulted in Lily and James Potter’s deaths: ‘*...the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies...*’ But in her Divination lessons, she wasn’t quite so impressive. According to Professor McGonagall, ‘seeing death omens’ was her ‘favourite way of greeting a new class’. She added that none of the students whose deaths she’d predicted had ‘died yet’. We’re not sure pretending that your young students are in mortal peril is a very good teaching method. Plus, for those who believed her predictions – we’re looking at you Lavender and Parvati – it could be very stressful. Nobody wants to hear from their teacher that the thing they are dreading will happen on ‘Friday the sixteenth of October’. It wouldn’t exactly inspire you to finish your homework.



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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

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and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Love & Patronuses: how does love impact a Patronus?

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As ‘the majority of witches and wizards are unable to produce Patronuses, it’s no wonder that they are shrouded in so much mystery. And the effect of love on Patronuses is one of the most intriguing features of all. But as Harry, Ron and Hermione know so well, if you’re going to try to solve a mystery, you’re going to need some clues. Let’s look at some Patronus case studies… 

*Hold up! Best wait until you’ve finished all the Harry Potter books before you read this article, it has more spoilers than Lockhart received Valentine’s cards…*

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### Case study 1: Nymphadora Tonks

It was Snape that first mentioned the change to Tonks’s Patronus in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. When Malfoy attacked Harry on the Hogwarts Express and left him immobile under the Invisibility Cloak, Tonks found him and escorted him back up to the school. When they met Snape at the Hogwarts gates, he commented to Tonks: ‘I was interested to see your new Patronus.’ And then, unkindly: ‘I think you were better off with the old one… The new one looks weak.’

Tonk’s’ original Patronus was a jackrabbit – an animal similar in size and form to Luna Lovegood’s silver hare - but the Patronus Harry saw as they made their way up to Hogwarts was ‘an immense silvery four-legged creature’. A wolf, as it turned out that exactly matched the form of Remus Lupin’s Patronus.

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## Case study 2: Severus Snape

Severus Snape might have been rude to Tonks, but love had a long-lasting and – let’s be honest – tear-jerking effect on his own Patronus too. It wasn’t until after Snape’s death and the heart-breaking revelations in ‘The Prince’s Tale’ chapter of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that we learnt its shape. A doe. And in his final battle with Lord Voldemort, Harry explained the significance of this to his adversary, and to us: ‘Snape’s Patronus was a doe,’ said Harry, ‘the same as my mother’s, because he loved her for nearly all of his life, from the time when they were children’.

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## Case study 3: Hermione Granger 

‘Hermione’s Patronus, a shining silver otter, was gambolling around her. They are sort of nice, aren’t they?’ she said, looking at it fondly.’ We loved hearing that Hermione’s Patronus had such a carefree way of gambolling about her, given that she was so often solving mysteries, getting ahead on homework and researching complicated potions in the library. But then again, according to eighteenth-century Charms researcher Professor Catullus Spangle, ‘the Patronus is the awakened secret self that lies dormant until needed’.  Was there some other hidden meaning in Hermione’s otter Patronus though? A meaning related to her feelings for a certain red-headed Gryffindor, perhaps? 

We don’t know for sure but otters and weasels belong to the same mammal family (the Mustelidae). Is it really coincidence that Hermione ends up marrying into the Weasley family and her Patronus is a otter? Plus, Ron’s family home was in Ottery St Catchpole. Ottery? Otter? Perhaps Hermione and Ron’s love was reflected in their Patronuses after all?


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Although Lily and Snape’s doe Patronuses matched, Severus’s love was devastatingly unrequited. Lily’s true love was James Potter, who, although Lily once told him ‘I wouldn’t go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid’, she ended up marrying the untidy-haired Quidditch player after they left Hogwarts. Their connection and love showed through their Patronuses in a different way to an exact match like Tonks and Lupin. Lily’s husband’s Patronus was a stag, the male form of her doe. The stag and doe complemented each other rather than matched. Interestingly, James’s Animagus form was also a stag, hence his school nickname: Prongs. 

##  Case study 5: Harry Potter 

Our last case study looks at the Boy Who Lived himself, who discovered that his Patronus was a stag in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. This stag matched both his father’s Animagus form and his Patronus, and was the male form of his mother’s doe Patronus. Harry ‘s Patronus is perhaps an illustration that a Patronus form isn’t just influenced by romantic love, but also love for family, and in his case particularly those loved ones you have lost. Harry thought himself stupid to have believed the stag Patronus he saw at the lake in Prisoner of Azkaban was his father. But Dumbledore reassured him: ‘You think the dead we have loved ever truly leave us?’


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## The protective magic of love

Our case studies have shown us how great an impact love can have on a Patronus, whether that be an influence on its shape or a change to an already settled form. The Patronus is, after all, on its most fundamental level, ‘a pure, protective magical concentration of happiness and hope’. Happiness and hope, with which love often walks arm in arm. 

Besides the Patronus, love as a magical protection was seen in many different forms throughout the wizarding world, perhaps the most important that of Lily’s love protecting Harry as a baby, allowing him to survive and later defeat Lord Voldemort. Dumbledore had – as always – some wise words to say on the matter.

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In *Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone*, Dumbledore told Harry: ‘to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection for ever’. But it isn’t just being loved that protected Harry, Dumbledore insisted to Harry in Half-Blood Prince: ‘You are protected, in short, by your ability to love!’ It seems that if we love and are loved in return, we are protected two-fold. 

Looking at our case studies and the wider wizarding world, it isn’t so much of a surprise that love has the power to influence a Patronus, especially when love has the power to protect wizards and witches, just like those mysterious silver guardians.

What if Dumbledore had told Harry that he was the chosen one from the beginning?

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Dumbledore and Harry stand near the Pensieve in the Half Blood Prince

In our new series, we explore 'what if' scenarios in the Wizarding World - and ponder, hypothetically, how things could have been.  

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There are many things that Albus Dumbledore does in the Harry Potter series that have left us stroking our beards and wishing we had a spell to tell us exactly what he was thinking.  

Why, for example, didn’t he tell Harry in *Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince* that he knew that Draco would attempt to kill him? It might have been handy, too, if Harry had known of Dumbledore’s friendship with Grindelwald. Given that for most of *Half-Blood Prince*, Dumbledore knew that he was dying, why didn’t he just tell Harry that he was a horcrux or that Snape was in love with Lily? 

Of course, there are a multitude of reasons for why Dumbledore didn’t share these facts – the biggest being that, despite his incredible mind, he was fallible like the rest of us. Still, it’s intriguing to wonder what might have happened had Dumbledore divulged some secrets. In fact, if we had a Time-Turner wouldn’t it be fun to go back and see what might have occurred if Dumbledore had shared more details with Harry? For example: what if Dumbledore had told Harry from the beginning that he was the Chosen One? 

Naturally, given that at the beginning of *Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone* Harry didn’t even know that he was from the wizarding world, it might have been information overload for an 11-year-old to be told not only could he use magic but that he was also at the centre of a prophecy in which either he or the darkest wizard of all time would have to die in order for either of them to survive. 

However, by the end of that first book, Harry had faced and, at least for that moment, defeated Voldemort. Lying in the hospital wing after his confrontation, he is visited by Dumbledore, who, when quizzed, is unable to tell Harry why Voldemort tried to kill him in the first place. “When you are ready,” Dumbledore says, “you will know.” 



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Harry showing his scar to Ron on the Hogwarts Express 

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Imagine, though, that in that moment, Dumbledore – the only person with knowledge of the true prophecy – had shared that information with Harry. Well, it would have changed everything. 

It’s not unfair to say that Harry has a hero complex. If you take *Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix*, instead of really trying to alert the Order about his visions of Sirius at the Department of Mysteries, he takes the word of a miserable house-elf and heads to London, putting him, his friends and the Order at risk. If Harry had already known about the prophecy, his eagerness to help may have been tempered. In fact, it could have ultimately saved Sirius.

With that knowledge, Harry might actually have focused on learning Occlumency, too. While his connection to Voldemort saved Arthur Weasley’s life, it also put numerous people at risk, Harry included. It might also have saved a lot of angst in *Order of the Phoenix* as Dumbledore wouldn’t have had to give Harry the cold shoulder for a year. 


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Voldemort holding his wand in the Ministry of Magic from the Order of the Phoneix 

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Indeed, with the foresight that he would one day have to vanquish Voldemort or perish himself, you can’t help but wonder whether Harry might have held on to a smidgen of self-preservation. Instead of descending into the Chamber of Secrets, he might have known not to get involved. Likewise with the Triwizard Tournament – while Harry couldn’t have prevented his name being entered, surely an awareness of the prophecy could have meant that he failed all the tasks (perhaps on purpose). It could have stopped Voldemort’s full return and given Harry more time to really train himself for the final battle. 

Indeed, the knowledge that he is the Chosen One doesn’t mean that during the Battle of Hogwarts Harry balks at the brave and distressing decision he makes to sacrifice himself for his friends and the rest of the wizarding world. However, if he had just been given more time, it could have prevented the battle in totality. 


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Nevertheless, all of this is subject to the idea that the notion of being the Chosen One doesn’t affect Harry’s wellbeing. Snape always called him arrogant, and there’s every chance that knowledge of the prophecy could have gestated inside Harry, giving him an inflamed sense of importance. Who knows what an enlarged ego could have done to Harry Potter. It’s likely he may have turned out like Gilderoy Lockhart, leaning into his celebrity. Such a profile would make it easy for the Ministry of Magic to use Harry as their pawn, and when Voldemort ultimately returned (which, no matter the order of events, would have happened), it’s debatable whether the wizarding world would have had the capacity to fight him off. Certainly, there would have been no Dumbledore’s Army. Likewise, would Harry have the humility to face Voldemort and sacrifice himself if, for his entire adolescence, he was told how important he was? 

In choosing not to tell Harry about just how significant he is in the battle against Voldemort, Dumbledore makes a wider decision, one that helps Harry become the man he needs to be in order to overcome the difficult choices he has to make to save the wizarding world. And while it’s easy to see how Dumbledore’s omission of the truth incurred additional trauma upon the Boy Who Lived, it’s also clear that Harry had to experience the things he did in order to fully realise what was at stake. 

'Can you forgive me?', Dumbledore asks Harry in the ‘Kings Cross’ chapter in *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*. 'Can you forgive me for not trusting you? [...] I only feared that you would fail as I had failed.' 

While he is talking about withholding the knowledge of the Deathly Hallows, it could easily apply to the prophecy, too. Dumbledore’s knowledge about the Chosen One didn’t stop Voldemort from killing Harry’s parents, nor the wrongful incarceration of Sirius Black. He didn’t stop Voldemort’s reign of terror, either. Instead, a baby boy, protected by his mother’s love, did it. It took Harry not knowing to get him to a position where knowing wouldn’t set him on the wrong path. Most likely, Dumbledore knew that all along. 