u/Weak_Biscotti118

The fact that he will hear Brian Thompson's family's victim impact statements but they will NEVER hear and never care about the impact BT had on thousands and thousands of people who either lost their lives, or live with illnesses while constantly battling their insurance company. Not saying he shouldn't have to listen to the impact statement, but it will likely torment him as he seems to have a conscience that health insurance CEO's and their families sorely lack.

I love that there isn't just one reason why Harry survived in the end, there are multiple.

1. The most important reason: Voldemort's soul in Harry acted as a horcrux, ensuring his survival, the killing curse only killed Voldemort's soul, not Harry himself.

2. The wandlore explanation: The elder wand's allegiance to Harry ensured it refused to kill a master who did not want to die.

3. The "mythical" explanation: Many might choose not to believe in this, but Harry had united all three deathly hallows, making him master of death. This may not truly have anything to do with his survival because it's a children's story, after all, but if you do believe in the story of the Hallows, then you can choose to believe this was one of the reasons.

4. "The most powerful magic is love", as Dumbledore has always said - Harry's mother's love for him ensured his survival the first time, Snape's love for Lily ensured Harry's protection until his own death, Narcissa's love for her son, Draco, ensured he survived once again.

God, I freaking love this series. Are there any other reasons you can think of?

I have a couple of questions about him.

He's supposed to be the most notorious and troublesome poltergeist in all of British history, and can't really be controlled even by magic. This is an excerpt from Pottermore:

Several concerted efforts to remove Peeves from the castle have resulted in failure. The last and most disastrous was made in 1876 by caretaker Rancorous Carpe, who devised an elaborate trap, baited with an assortment of weapons he believed would be irresistible to Peeves, and a vast enchanted bell jar, reinforced by various Containment Charms, which he intended to drop over the poltergeist once he was in place. Not only did Peeves break easily through the giant bell jar, showering an entire corridor with broken glass, he also escaped the trap armed with several cutlasses, crossbows, a blunderbuss and a miniature cannon.

But in the books, he's threatened with "I will call the Headmaster" a few times - so what could Dumbledore possibly do here?

And my other question is why he's scared of the Bloody Baron, it doesn't make sense to me, the Baron is just a ghost and has no powers

Interested to know if anyone else has one moment from the books that makes you really dislike an otherwise likable character.

For me, it's this Hermione moment from HBP that drives me crazy (I still love Hermione and I know the best characters always have flaws, but this one really irks me). It's when - after Dumbledore's death and all the chaos that follows the death eaters entering Hogwarts - Hermione still has to tell Harry she was right about the Half Blood Prince, and that Snape was, in fact, Eileen Prince's son. Harry is still traumatised and grieving and she chooses to rub it in because everyone MUST know she was right about something so inconsequential (yes, it was inconsequential - it made no difference that Snape was the owner of that book, it could have been anyone who was fascinated with the dark arts).

Meanwhile, Harry was right all through the year about something of great importance - that Malfoy was up to something dangerous, and that he had been made a death eater, and Hermione did not take him seriously at all and kept rubbishing him or ignoring him. He could have easily rubbed that in - Dumbledore was dead because of what Malfoy was able to do, Bill got bitten because of it, but he never does.

Aside from the fact that he was working all along to protect Harry, there are some moments in the books (even before the big reveal) that hint Snape is not that bad a person.

1. He's loyal to Dumbledore, despite Dumbledore being awful to him and using him.
   In book 4, Karkaroff is furious at Harry being chosen Champion and accuses Dumbledore, but Snape immediately steps in and granted, is terrible to Harry, but tells Karkaraoff to "not blame Dumbledore"

In book 7, we see the flashback of Snape tending to Dumbledore's cursed hand, and he asks Dumbledore why he didn't call him sooner and almost seems angry that Dumbledore had been so careless with his life.

He continues to follow Dumbledores orders even AFTER learning that Dumbledore hadn't been completely honest with him and had used him all along, and (at least as far as Snape was concerned) was raising Harry as a pig for slaughter. It's also worth mentioning that this fact is so heinous that it horrifies Snape when he hears it.

All this despite Dumbledore not being good to him at all - he tells Harry that Snape was saved by his father, knowing full well that's a sore point for Snape, and conveniently leaves out the fact that Sirius was responsible for that stupid prank that almost got him killed. Dumbledore makes all kinds of demands of Snape through the books and never seems grateful (at least as far as the books show us).

2. Doesn't resort to cruel punishments
   In book 7, Harry hears about Ginny, Luna and Neville being caught by Snape trying to break into his office and steal the sword of Gryffindor, but at a time when the most vicious punishments were being meted out, he sent them with Hagrid to the forest knowing full well that wasn't a punishment at all.
   He's also, despite despising Harry, never handed out a punishment anywhere near as cruel as Umbridge's punishments were.

3. Adult Snape is never shown to be anti-muggle, and even tells Phineas Nigellus sharply to not use the word "mudblood"

Any other positive moments?

I paid for a monthly subscription, I have 1 credit, and I have listened to 3 books so far (returned and replaced the first two books). I'm unable to return the third book and get the fourth. If I want to listen to more books, how do I go about it? Surely it isn't the case that I can only listen to three books? I'm not even able to purchase an extra credit. The audiobooks im listening to are audible exclusives so I can't get them anywhere else.

This might be more ethan snark, but now that the news is out about their breakup, can we take a moment to marvel at how royally he fucked up his own life? Spongebob was extremely lucky to have a beautiful, smart wife and a new baby, and he squandered it all for Ariana (encouraged by her, of course), and now he has no famous girlfriend, there's no way he's gonna become a movie star, and he lost his wife and kid too. He has absolutely nothing going for him.

Ariana probably hated having to drag out this relationship for so long, the whole thrill was the affair for her, and after a few months she probably got bored of him, but couldn't get rid of him because of the news calling her a homewrecker and the Wicked press tour.

Please recommend some. I loved Gone Girl for this reason, she really was just a crazy bitch and very cunning and calculated.