The Fandom Effect

The Fandom Effect: a piece of information about Harry Potter that everyone thinks it’s canon after tons of fanfictions/fanarts but when they read the books again it’s actually not.

What are the best examples?

Lucius Malfoy does NOT have long hair *le gasp*

Ooooohoooohoohoho yes let’s talk about this.

- Remus never canonically had scars on his face. 

- Daphne Greengrass doesn’t actually get a single line in the series let alone the personality of being the ‘ice queen’.

- SIRIUS BLACK NEVER ONCE DATED A FEMALE PERSON, OR ANY PERSON. Yes, there were several girls giggling as they watched the Marauders but I have absolutely no idea where the characterization of Sirius being a ladies’ man even came from. Or a guys’ man. Or anyone’s man. 

- Remus wasn’t as smart as James and Sirius. He admits right in the Shrieking Shack that James and Sirius were smarter than he was when it came to the inventions/becoming Animagi so the characterization of Remus getting all As in his classes as the other Marauders scraped by is wrong.

- Regulus Black could have actually been an asshole. Like the fandom came together in this wonderful agreement that he was going to be this innocent kid, too afraid of his parents’ abuse, and that Sirius protected him up until the point he ran away, at which point Regulus faced the abuse alone and was forced into becoming a Death Eater because nobody else was around to protect him. I love that characterization with a heart and there’s nothing disproving it but there’s also nothing proving it. Reg could have been a complete asshole who wanted to kill Muggles before he realized the error of his ways.

- Lily wasn’t a fusion of Hermione and Ginny

- Bellatrix was ten years older than Sirius

- Luna was odd but not a complete hippie who smoked one too many, she said plenty of things that made sense, she also never talked in riddles??? Not sure where that characterization came from

- The House of Potter was never a Noble and Most Ancient House. James and Lily were only rich because of Fleamont’s hair potion. I love Powerful!Harry fics to death but the Potters were not part of the Sacred 28.

- And as far as fanart goes, don’t even get me started on Lily’s hair being shoulder-length, Ginny have orange hair like the rest of the Weasleys, Petunia being blonde, Neville being blonde, Luna having dirty-blonde hair, Harry being incredibly thin due to the abuse, Ron having scars on his arms due to the brains, Hermione only getting the Mudblood scar in the movies, Bellatrix looking identical to Andromeda which means sheprobably didn’t have the crazy Bride of Frankenstein hair, Voldemort having red eyes, Ron being tall, etc.

- draco Malfoy isn’t ‘just behind hermione’ in classes. All we know was fact is he’s not as smart as her.

- Hermione never calls Ron Ronald

-Ron isn’t dumb as a rock. He doesn’t only pass his classes because Hermione fixes his work for him. He scores nearly the same on his OWL exams as Harry does, passes the same number of OWLs as Harry, and had no help during those exams because *they’re ministry administered examinations*.

-Pettigrew isn’t basically a squib. He’s a strong and intelligent enough wizard to become an animagus at 15. Whether he had help or not doesn’t matter, he still completed the transformation, which no one can do for him. He also isn’t dumb as a rock. He successfully played traitor/spy in the first Voldemort war without being caught, then pulled off faking his death while framing another wizard, and managed to keep up the pretense for 12 years. He found wraith-voldemort on his own, and cared for the baby-homunculous for a year, alone. He also completed the rebirth ritual, with guidance from voldemort for the prep, most likely, but the actual ritual was all him.

Old as the universe itself