Character Guides

Voldemort’s childhood explains his choices better than any single cause. He was conceived through a love potion, abandoned by his father before he was … Read more

Dolores Umbridge becomes the scariest villain in Harry Potter because her cruelty is ordinary, official and enjoyed. She never chases you down a corridor … Read more

Molly Weasley’s protectiveness is the quiet engine under seven books of the saga. Rooted in the deaths of her brothers in the First Wizarding … Read more

Sirius Black’s recklessness reaches Harry Potter in three ways: it puts a grieving fifteen-year-old in danger, it teaches him that adults who claim to … Read more

How Neville Longbottom’s character arc develops is really a story about a boy who does the right thing while feeling like a fraud for … Read more

Ron Weasley’s insecurity shapes almost every choice he makes, because his deepest fear is that he is ordinary, unwanted and second best. Poverty, six … Read more

Spoilers for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, including the epilogue. Percy Weasley betrays his family by believing the Ministry of Magic instead of … Read more

Spoilers for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and every book after it. Cedric Diggory’s death changes the series tone by putting death … Read more

Luna Lovegood’s belief system is a faith-first way of knowing: she accepts a claim as true when it feels true, when her father printed … Read more

Draco Malfoy changes most sharply between the Goblet of Fire and the Half-Blood Prince: he goes from a confident, sneering pure-blood bully to a … Read more