The Harry Potter books and films have been combed through by everyone who wished they'd
gotten a Hogwart's acceptance letter on their 11th birthdays.
But there are some details in the movies that only die-hard Potter fans could really pluck
out.
Here are some Harry Potter Easter eggs that only bona fide members of Dumbledore's Army
would've caught.
Snape's coded message
It took a long time for Harry Potter to figure out that Professor Snape wasn't actually out
to get him and make his stay at Hogwarts miserable.
If he was a star student of language like his pal Hermione, though, he might've been
able to unlock the Half-Blood Prince's true intentions long before he got a screening
of Snape's memories through Dumbledore's Pensieve in the final chapter.
In the Sorcerer's Stone, Snape challenges Harry:
"Tell me, what would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
The moment seems like a check on Harry's sudden star status as the big man on campus, but
in retrospect, superfans have always found a little more weight to those words.
See, asphodel is actually a member of the lily family and can invoke the phrase "my
regrets follow you to your grave".
Meanwhile, wormwood is literally defined as something "bitter or grievous."
This has led many to believe that Snape was really just telling Mister Potter that he
was bitterly regretful of his mother, Lily, passing away.
Given the fact that he loved her most of his life and clutched her corpse in agony the
day he discovered The Boy Who Lived, that makes a lot of sense, then, doesn't it?
So much seven
Harry Potter's number on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team is seven, and it's no accident: he's
the seventh of Voldemort's horcruxes, after all, and there are seven books in the series.
So the filmmakers went to painstaking efforts to include the fabled numerology throughout
the series, whether you noticed it or not.
There are a ton of things that just so happened to add up to seven throughout the movies,
like the headcount on snakes that line the door to the Chamber of Secrets, the number
of players on each Quidditch team, the number of children in the Weasley family, and the
number of Harry Potters that are made from the Order of the Phoenix to disguise the real
deal.
Looks like seven really was Harry's lucky number...
Deathly Hallows everywhere
Speaking of visual iconography, the movies also made a point of flashing the sign of
the Deathly Hallows during pivotal scenes as well.
For example, in the Goblet of Fire, Dumbledore gazes upon his collection of artifacts in
his office, and they're arranged in such a way as to give us a wink to the triangle-circle-line
symbol that would represent the Cloak of Invisibility, the Resurrection Stone, and the Elder Wand
later on in the story.
Another example comes in Deathly Hallows: Part 2, when Harry, feeling bad about Dobby's
death, looks in the shard of mirror the house elf had in his possession.
The lens of his glasses and a streak of glare create the symbol for a split second as well,
seemingly reminding him of his mission to destroy Voldemort's horcruxes.
Fans could launch a full-scale Easter egg hunt to find all the other nods to this paramount
piece of symbolism because it's been scattered throughout the film series in small moments
such as these.
Trelawney's prophecies
Hermione Granger didn't care much for Divination, but Professor Trelawney's prophecies did turn
out to be astonishingly accurate, even when she seemed her kookiest.
The one that most people point to as prescient in retrospect is from the books.
At one point, she declined a dinner invitation in Prisoner of Azkaban because twelve people
were already seated and thirteen is unlucky.
The theory then was that the first person to rise from a table of 13 would be the first
to die, and, as fate would have it, Sirius Black stood first from a table of such number
in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
And yes, he died first.
But it takes an especially keen sensibility to ferret out that her birthday claim about
Harry was also ultimately on point, even though it seemed way off at the time.
In the same chapter in Prisoner of Azkaban, she said she thought he was born in midwinter,
but he answered that his birthday was actually in July.
However, Voldemort's birthday was New Year's Eve, and since Harry had a piece of Voldemort
lodged in his soul after surviving the attack on his family, well, she was kinda right then,
wasn't she?
Plus, of course, she totally called it when she said...
The chocolate frog bookend
There's a small wink to Harry's first journey on the Hogwarts Express contained in the very
last scene of Deathly Hallows: Part 2.
During Harry's first ride, when he initially befriended Ron Weasley, he'd used his new
pocket full of Gringotts galleons to buy "the lot" of treats on the trolley.
It didn't take long for he and Ron to stuff their faces with all the bewitched goodies
they could stomach.
One of the chocolate frogs, however, got away and hopped through the window, which wasn't
so much of a problem for Ron since he was more interested in collecting the character
cards that came with them anyway.
In the final film, as Harry and Ginny's children board the same train with Ron and Hermione's
kids, the chocolate frog returns to the window as a nod to the start of a new story — this
time, with boy wizard Albus Severus Potter unknowingly beginning his journey as the Cursed
Child.
Voldemort was in Hogwarts the whole time
In the film version of Prisoner of Azkaban, there's a moment when the students are walking
through the staircase when an unexpectedly familiar face pops up in a portrait: Lord
Voldemort.
It's a blurred and fairly quick pass-by situation, but that's gotta be him–a Nosferatu-like
bald wizard in flowing black capes reaching out to the students that pass him by in his
menacing way.
If it seems odd that Voldemort's portrait would be included in the halls of Hogwarts,
that's because it is odd.
Not only was he dubbed "He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named" by everyone and kept far, far away from the
mainstream wizarding community, but Ralph Fiennes hadn't yet arrived as the character.
It'd be a whole 'nother installment — The Goblet of Fire — before he'd show up.
Foreshadowing much?
Dial 6-2-4-4-2 for magic
In Order of the Phoenix, Harry is called to the Ministry of Magic to have a disciplinary
hearing before the Wizengamot after producing his Patronus to save himself and cousin Dudley
from a Dementor while in the Muggle realm.
Mr. Weasley accompanies Harry to the hearing and takes Harry into a telephone box to get
access to the Ministry.
In the book, he narrates the number he's dialing to get through as 6-2-4-4-2.
On a traditional telephone like that one, the letters would be arranged on the keypad
as well and those digits just so happen to spell "M-A-G-I-C."
There's no chance that was a coincidence.
Hedwig's theme
The score to the Harry Potter film series has become quite an earworm since the films
were released, unmistakably belonging to the series forevermore.
The introductory music has been titled "Hedwig's Theme," but the character who actually played
the music during the movie was Hagrid.
In the first film, he plays the melody on his flute as Harry, Ron, and Hermione all
rush up to him for critical information on their latest meanderings around the school
grounds.
Maybe it should've been called "Hagrid's Theme" instead?
Aberforth's bar
There's a scene in The Order of the Phoenix when Harry, Ron, and Hermione duck out of
Hogwarts to formulate Dumbledore's Army at Hogsmeade.
When they hit up the Hog's Head, a local bar, for some private planning, they find that
there's just one other person there: a bartender lurking in the dark.
And he's got a goat.
Only J.K.
Rowling's most faithful DA members would have recognized that this was an early glimpse
of Albus Dumbledore's brother, Aberforth...who was obsessed with goats.
And owned a bar.
That establishment would later come into play again in Deathly Hallows: Part 2 when the
trio tries to sneak back into Hogwarts during another troublesome Headmaster switcheroo
moment–this time, with Aberforth arriving to lend a hand.
Opening at the close
There's a lot that can be read into the Snitch's inscription that so famously read "I open
at the close."
The most obvious interpretation is that, when Harry kisses it in Deathly Hallows, it opens
itself up to present him with the Resurrection Stone so he can have a pep talk with his long-lost
loved ones before sacrificing himself to Voldemort to fulfill his part of the prophecy.
He got it in the first book, when he started this journey, and it opened at the close.
Simple enough, right?
What should really get the eyebrows raising, though, is the fact that Rowling published
the first book back in 1997, when the events of Deathly Hallows took place.
So, it's also a statement that symbolizes the entire franchise as a whole.
It literally opens at the close.
Is this all in Harry's head?
One of the grimmest fan theories associated with the Harry Potter books and films is the
idea that everything magical about Harry's life outside of 4 Privet Drive was just a
cruel fiction of his overactive imagination.
The idea behind this one is that Harry, who was a tortured orphan and was made to live
in the closet under the stairs by his cruel aunt and uncle, created this fictional reality
as a coping mechanism for his circumstances.
And in the final installment, there's a momentary wink to that very possibility — and a possible
acknowledgment that it may be right on the money after all.
After Harry has died by Voldemort's wand and wakes up in a dreamy version of King's Cross
Station, he meets with Dumbledore, who gives him the option to stay in the living realm
or go onto the beyond.
Harry asks Dumbledore if this is in his head and Dumbledore answers like so:
"Is this all real, or is it just happening inside my head?"
"Of course it’s happening inside your head, Harry.
Why should that mean that it's not real?"
To fans looking for confirmation of that theory, there's really only one possible response:
"And bloody hell!"
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