I enjoy a good Harry Potter meme as much as the next guy. Okay, maybe more than the next guy, since the next guy probably isn’t obsessive Harry Potter fan. True, some are a bit lame and others are clearly aimed at teenage girls, but whatever. We all have our favorite ways to fan-crush on something and I’m great with that. However, there are some memes that are flat-out false. They pop up like Death Eaters and no matter how often fans try to Avada Kedavra them, they keep coming back. Here are three that particularly aggravate the true fan in me:
1 – The one that says that the snake Harry released in book one was Nagini.
The Brazilian Boa is NOT Nagini!
The snake in book one was a boa constrictor. Nagini was venomous. Boa constrictors aren’t venomous. Just formatting this as a quotation and putting “J.K. Rowling” at the bottom doesn’t make it true.
2 – The one that says that the baby who played Harry in the first film grew up to play Albus Severus in the last film.
No, the baby in the Philosopher’s Stone movie did not grow up to play Albus Severus in the Deathly Hallows Movie!
Not true. Look it up. Baby Harry is actually played by a set of triplets with a last name of Saunders, while Albus Severus is played by young actor Arthur Bowen.
3 – Any meme which presents a quote from the films which doesn’t appear in the books — then attributes that quote to Rowling.
No J.K. Rowling didn’t write this
“Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light” isn’t from the Harry Potter books. It isn’t even particularly clever or profound. There are plenty of wonderful Rowling quotes available — no need to borrow mediocre quotes from the films. I have no problem if you like the quote — repeat it as much as you like! Just don’t credit it to Rowling, that’s all I’m saying.