PEDESTRIAN.TV has partnered with Bloomsbury to celebrate the Harry Potter 20th anniversary editions (it’s legit been two whole decades since the first book was released). Check the collection HERE.
‘Harry Potter‘ is twenty years old this year, feel old yet?
If you are anything like me – a.k.a. a 27-year-old adult who can still name pretty much every character, spell and iteration of the bogart in Professor Lupin‘s first Defence Against the Dark Arts class – then you basically grew up with Harry, Ron and Hermione. I was eleven when I picked up ‘Philosopher’s Stone‘ and seventeen when I raced through ‘Deathly Hallows‘, desperate to finish the book but dreading the moment it was over.
These tweets remain some of the purest in existence.
‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ was published on June 26th, 1997, so to celebrate 20 years since this life-changing series was conjured into existence, we’re counting down our top 20 moments in the series.
DO NOT @ ME ABOUT THIS.
Just kidding. Fight me all you want.
20. When Snape told Harry to call him “sir” and Sassy Harry snapped into action.
It was during Professor Snape‘s tenure as the DADA professor during ‘Half-Blood Prince‘. When Harry wasn’t being an angsty hero throughout all seven books, he was sassy as hell – but this remains one of his most iconic clapbacks.
“Do you remember me telling you we were practicing non-verbal spells, Potter?”
“Yes,” said Harry stiffly.
“Yes, sir.”
“There’s no need to call me ‘sir’, Professor.”
19. When Ron was made prefect and Mrs Weasley temporarily forgot about the twins.
Towards the beginning of ‘Order of the Phoenix‘, owls arrived from Hogwarts to tell Ron and Hermione that they’d both been made the Gryffindor prefects, and Mrs. Weasley nearly had conniptions from pride, given that older brothers Bill, Charlie and Percy had also all been prefects.
“You’re a prefect? Oh Ronnie! That’s everyone in the family!”
“What are Fred and I? Next door neighbours?”
18. When Hermione punched Malfoy right in his gob.
Oh my god THIS WAS TOO SWEET AND PERFECT. Malfoy was being an ignominious prick about Buckbeak being wrongly executed in ‘Prisoner of Azkaban‘, and Hermione socked him right in his smug lil’ gob. May we all understand that violence is not the answer but also sometimes it kinda is.
17. When Luna Lovegood commentated the Quidditch game.
Luna was a perfect and beautiful character imo, and I will take a leaf out of Hermione’s book and clock anyone who disagrees with me. She had many, many perfect lines and perfectly encapsulated feeling odd, lonely, or just not quite the same as anyone else, but the game of Quidditch she commentated remains one of her funniest moments in the entire series.
Beside Luna, Professor McGonagall was looking slightly uncomfortable, as though she was indeed having second thoughts about this appointment.
“… but now that big Hufflepuff player’s got the Quaffle from her, I can’t remember his name, it’s something like Bibble – no, Buggins -“
“It’s Cadwallader!” said Professor McGonagall loudly from beside Luna.
16. When Harry finally received his letter and learned he would be leaving the Dursleys behind.
I feel like it’s always a bit glossed over, but Harry spent the first eleven years of his life living in a cupboard. He was bullied by the people tasked with caring for him, made to feel unlovable, unworthy, literally lesser than every other human. For his 11th birthday he drew himself a birthday cake in the dust on the floor in which he was sleeping, for chrissakes. And people just thought he’d MAGICALLY BE OKAY ONCE HE WAS REMOVED FROM THAT SITUATION? Great job, Dumbledore. You nailed it.
But when Hagrid finally caught up with the Dursleys on the rocky island to deliver his famous line, “Yer a wizard, Harry”, it meant that Harry was finally able to escape his child abuse situation and enter the world of magic instead.
15. When Dobby put Lucius Malfoy squarely in his place.
As we all know, Lucius Malfoy was a Death Eater, but back in the days of ‘Chamber of Secrets‘ he was just a rich committee parent with too much time on his hands and somehow in possession of Lord Voldemort‘s boyhood possessions. He was downright abusive to Dobby, so when Harry tricked Lucius into freeing the house elf via the old ‘sock-in-a-diary’ trick, the entire sequence of events was just so damn perfect.
Lucias Malfoy stood frozen, staring at the elf. Then he lunged at Harry.
“You’ve lost me my servant, boy!”
But Dobby shouted, “You shall not harm Harry Potter!”
There was a loud bang, and Mr. Malfoy was thrown backward. He crashed down the stairs, three at a time, landing in a crumpled heap on the landing below. He got up, his face livid, and pulled out his wand, but Dobby raised a long, threatening finger.
“You shall go now,” he said fiercely, pointing down at Mr. Malfoy. “You shall not touch Harry Potter. You shall go now.”
Rekt.
14. When the Marauder’s Map owned Snape.
Of course, Harry had no idea that his dad, his professor, his dad’s best mate and apparent murder, and his dad’s ex-best mate and actual murderer were the messrs of the map. He was just panicked that Snape would figure out how he’d been sneaking out of school.
The bigger twist was yet to come, of course, but it was always nice to see Snape get thoroughly rinsed, particularly by a non-human object.
“Mr. Moony presents his compliments to Professor Snape, and begs him to keep his abnormally large nose out of other people’s business.”
“Mr. Prongs agrees with Mr. Moony, and would like to add that Professor Snape is an ugly git.”
“Mr. Padfoot would like to register his astonishment that an idiot like that ever became a professor.”
“Mr. Wormtail bids Professor Snape good day, and advises him to wash his hair, the slimeball.”
13. When Professor Umbridge inspected Professor McGonagall’s class.
Honestly, this entire scene was just a pure joy to read. Umbridge had been wreaking havoc on Hogwarts and had recently appointed herself High Inquisitor, and still McGonagall had no time for her shit.
Despite doing her wildly irritating ‘hem, hem‘ cough, it takes Umbridge a few goes to force McGonagall to pay her any attention. And when she finally does:
“I was just wondering, Professor, whether you received my note telling you of the date and time of your inspec–”
“Obviously I received it, or I would have asked you what you are doing in my classroom,” said Professor McGonagall, turning her back firmly on Professor Umbridge.
Onya, Minerva.
12. When Harry took Felix Felicis and thought he was damn-near invincible.
Honestly, is this what Harry would have been like without the childhood trauma and weight of the world on his shoulders? This entire section was just exceptionally funny and one of those particularly moments that made you really, really, really wish magic was real.
11. When Sirius and Lupin explained everything in the Shrieking Shack.
This is one of the top moments in the entire series for several reasons. First, it’s just a delight to read – the storytelling, the suspense, it’s just wonderful. Second, it’s when Harry finally learns that his surrogate father figure (Lupin) was literally best friends with his dad, and that he had another father figure in the form of Sirius. Third, when you finally realise that this is a twist J.K. Rowling had been building up to since Book 1, Chapter 1, you realise she might actually be a witch. Hey, you can’t prove anything.
10. When Hermione discovers how Rita Skeeter was reporting on private conversations.
Imagine being fourteen years old and having some total stranger write about your love life? Hermione was basically shamed into being friends with two blokes (the horror!) and being asked to the Yule Ball by a Quidditch star and secret nerd.
She was the OG female hero of YA fiction, who ran circles around Harry, Ron, and half the teaching staff while still getting into hijinks and generally saving the day. She returned fire to Rita Skeeter by a) figuring out she was an illegal animagus and b) blackmailing her. Honestly, Hermione was the true hero of the ‘Harry Potter’ series.
9. When Harry is finally vindicated after being branded a liar for nearly six months.
We’re talking about ‘Order of the Phoenix’, of course. Not only does Harry survive a battle with Voldemort and watch his friend die, but he’s then branded a liar by the government, the media and most of the student body. So when he, Ron and Hermione are trying to convince people to join Dumbledore’s Army, and the crowd start relaying some of his biggest achievements (i.e. the finale of books one–four), he finally learns that not everyone thinks he’s lying through his teeth.
Then the ‘Quibbler‘ article comes out, and Harry is given all sorts of secret praise (house points, sugar mice, etc) by the teachers – it’s just grand. House points, positive predictions, that kind of thing.
8. When Dumbledore and Voldemort duel in the Ministry of Magic.
Honestly, that scene was just epic, and some real throwback to Merlin dueling kind of stuff. And then, right at the end, Cornelius Fudge walks in and is forced to eat his own words about Voldemort being back. YEAH, LIKE DUMBLEDORE WAS TELLING YOU FOR A YEAR, CORNELIUS. Took you long enough, you muppet.
7. When Harry successfully casts his first Patronus.
If it wasn’t for a clever Time Turner plot twist and a subscription to the theory of time travel that everything is set in motion and nothing is alterable, would Harry be able to cast a Patronus at all? Who knows. But after seeing himself-in-the-future cast a Patronus, and realising that he needed to cast one in order to save his friends (and Snape), Harry finally managed to EXPECTO PATRONUM-ed himself a stag. If at first you don’t succeed, etc.
6. When Harry and Ginny finally kiss.
IT’S ONLY TAKEN YOU FIVE-AND-A-HALF YEARS, MATE. Ginny was right there all along, but Harry? Harry had to witness her making out with Dean Thomas before realising his giant crush. Those couple months when he and Ginny were together – curled up doing homework together, or chilling by the lake – were just an ideal ray of sunshine in between a whole lotta misery.
5. When Harry realised Snape’s true allegiances all along.
Hey, it doesn’t excuse the fact that Severus Snape was a bullying, slimy toerag throughout most of the series. But when you learn that he loved Lily Evans his entire life, and only killed Dumbledore as an act of kindness to an old friend and to save the humanity of a pupil, and basically lived his entire life in the shadows to ultimately be working to take down Voldemort – hey, it was pretty special.
“After all this time?”
“Always.”
*sobs forever*
4. When Ron and Hermione finally kissed.
And it was because Ron had finally grown the hell up and realised that house elves were creatures worthy of saving. Also, there was a battle raging all around them, and possibly everyone was feeling a bit emotional. But then Harry had to remind them that hey, there was a battle going on and Horcruxes to destroy, and they should MAYBE STOP MAKING OUT WITH ONE ANOTHER TO GO DO THAT.
3. “NOT MY DAUGHTER YOU BITCH.”
We all need a Molly Weasley in our lives.
2. When Neville finally became the hero.
We’d been leading up to this point for years. Neville was forgetful, nervous, bottom-of-the-class (unsurprising, once we learned about wand law, and knew that his wand was a hand-me-down), but then in ‘Deathly Hallows’ he came into his own, leading the Hogwarts resistance against the Carrows.
And then at the end, he charged towards Voldemort, broke free of the flawed Body-Bind Curse, pulled the sword of Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat and sliced off Nagini‘s head, thereby destroying the final Horcrux and paving the way for Harry to finish off Voldemort once and for all. No biggie.
1. When Fred and George Weasley left Hogwarts in style.
This is it. Here we are, at numero uno. After almost a year of Professor Umbridge terrorising Hogwarts, Fred and George Weasley put her deftly in her place, unleash hell on Hogwarts, and fly out the front door. It was a sweet, beautiful moment of uprising from both students and staff in the face of Umbridge’s cruel and frankly not-above-board reign.
Fred looked around at the assembled students, and at the silent, watchful crowd.
“If anyone fancies buying a Portable Swamp, as demonstrated upstairs, come to number ninety-three, Diagon Alley – Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes,” he said in a loud voice. “Our new premises!”
“Special discounts to Hogwarts students who swear they’re going to use our products to get rid of this old bat,” added George, pointing to Professor Umbridge.
“STOP THEM!” shrieked Umbridge, but it was too late. As the Inquisitorial Squad closed in, Fred and George kicked off from the floor, shooting fifteen feet into the air, the iron peg swinging dangerously below. Fred looked across the hall at the poltergeist bobbing on his level above the crowd.
“Give her hell from us, Peeves.”
And Peeves, whom Harry had never seen take an order from a student before, swept his belled hat from his head and sprang to a salute as Fred and George wheeled about to tumultuous applause from the students below and sped out of the open front doors into the glorious sunset.
:’)
To celebrate twenty years of ‘Harry Potter’, Bloomsbury is releasing special 20th Anniversary editions of the books (y’know, in case you’ve read yours so many times the cover has literally fallen off).
