Lately, I Have Some Plot Bunnies Gnawing At My Brain Cells.The Newest: Percy Never Broke Off Contact

Lately, I have some plot bunnies gnawing at my brain cells. The newest: Percy never broke off contact with Charlie. It was very low-key. Every other week or so, Charlie would send a letter. No accusations, though. No demands. No questions either. Just pictures of his cute*, scaly babies.

And sometimes, Percy would send pictures back.

(* "Cute" by Charlie's standards. Percy would have used very different descriptions.)

With Sirius Orion Black, fans are following a naming tradition that was quite common at the time he was born, especially in the middle and upper classes. A baby would receive a given name and one or more middle names. The middle names were often named after relatives to honor them. Usually, a firstborn son would receive his father's name as a middle name. His brothers would receive the name of other relatives, like grandfathers and uncles. Female names could be handled in the same fashion.

Rowling (who has no middle name) mimicked this tradition, when picking her pseudonym "J. K. Rowling". She chose the "K" after her grandmother, who was named Kathleen.

This tradition appears frequently in the books. Harry's full name is Harry James Potter, after his dad. Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was named after his father Percival. The Weasley kids were also named in that manner. (William Arthur, Percy Ignatius and Ronald Bilius are in the books and Ginevra Molly comes from supplemental material. We don't know the middle names of Charlie, Fred and George, but one would assume that they have middle names as well.)

Most importantly: Sirius' brother Regulus is named the same way. His full name is Regulus Arcturus Black. Arcturus was his grandfather.

Fans are extrapolating from there. It would be odd for Sirius to not have a middle name (especially as his younger brother has one) and his father's name is an obvious choice. So, he becomes Sirius Orion Black.

When it comes to Percy/Percival, fans are also extrapolating. This time, they use the naming conventions of the Weasleys. The majority of them has a pretty traditional and fairly long given name, that gets shortened into a nickname. (So William becomes Bill, Charles becomes Charlie, Ronald becomes Ron and Ginevra becomes Ginny.)

"Percy" sounds like a nickname, too, so people assume that it is a nickname and Percival would fit as a given name. This also started before OoP was published, so people didn't know that Percy was his given name, not just a nickname. It just carried over from there.

(Edit: Fred sometimes gets a similar treatment. I definitely saw "Frederick" or something like that as a given name before)

okay so i noticed that a lot of people in the fandom tend to elongate the canon names of characters (sirius black -> sirius orion black, percy ignatius weasley -> percival ignatius weasley), is this like a conscious choice to deviate from canon or is it just how the fandom has grown to name the characters?

i am Confused but the names are usually pretty cool so

Harry Potter should have been a quidditch player for a few years and then switch to teaching is a hill I will die on.

Like let him enjoy his youth and not fighting for his life for once. Let him work in a place that he feels safe in and was his first home.

The Great Longbottom Bully chronicles: friendly fire edition

What started as a humble Draco stan's attempt to re-evaluate his involvement with the oft-bullied Neville has quickly become a sentient behemoth of epic proportions (see: pt.1 & pt.2).

In this section, I will examine the unkind ways in which Neville is treated, both by the narration and by his own friends.

It came from inside the house (if by "house" we mean the author)

I always felt like, in the first books, Neville is treated rather callously in order to fit the stereotype of the go-to comic relief guy, but I was never able to articulate just why I felt this way. As I went though the books for the purpose of this exercise, I paid close attention the language used to describe him, starting with his physical description.

It's well documented that JKR uses fatness as a visual shorthand for a character's failings: from Vernon and Dudley Dursley all the way to Peter Pettigrew, her fat characters are portrayed as either comedically evil or somewhat pathetic (and sometimes both). The plus-size character she is perhaps kindest to is Molly Weasley and even then her fatness is used to place her in the archetype of the Mama Bear. In keeping with this theme - wherein a character can't just be fat because sometimes people are fat - one of the characters that gets this treatment is Neville, and it's done in order for him to better fit the stereotype of the clumsy oaf.

Up until the sixth book Neville is described as round faced and pudgy. He doesn't sit, he heaves himself, and in doing so he squashes things, often to comedic effect. Neville is clumsy and uncoordinated and his fatness is used in conjunction with that to really drive the point that he's not to be taken seriously home.

We can also see the role Neville is meant to play in the story by the way his emotions are portrayed: Neville spends his first 4 years at Hogwarts in a constant state of comically exaggerated fear.

I tried cataloguing all the descriptors used to indicate Neville's tone and I had to give up in shame because JKR seems to have gone ham on the thesaurus in order to signal Neville's anxiousness and timidity in increasingly creative ways; nevertheless here's some interesting factoids:

the verb used most often to describe Neville's tone is squeak (by a large margin) followed by choke, sob and moan.

Neville's most common state of mind is frightened - he speaks fearfully, he cowers, he is terrified - followed closely by sad - he speaks miserably, tearfully, unhappily - and anxious - he is jumpy, nervous, tremulous; he is twice "close to a nervous collapse".

When the narrative shifts to a more serious tone, around book 4, we see a sudden drop in the usage of these descriptors. As Neville's role in the story becomes more important, we notice the disappearance of what were once the hallmarks of his personality. All of a sudden, Neville is no longer forgetful and clumsy as apparently those traits cannot coexist with his new heroic persona (Neville 2.0. if you will). I would call this character growth if Neville retained at least some if his previous mannerisms; as it stands Neville's growth ends up reading more like a personality transplant (not unlike what happens to Ginny).

We can also observe this shift in character by the way his friends and peers interact with him, which brings me to the next section:

With friends like these, who needs enemies?

HARRY POTTER

Harry is generally kind to Neville but the way his kindness is presented often reads like condescension:

(PS, Neville tries to do Harry a solid and ends up joining him in detention)

Prior to OotP, their conversations are often superficial in nature and very short. Additionally, Harry does not seem to want to hang out with Neville a whole lot and often goes out of his way to avoid him.

(PS, Harry would like to learn wingardium leviosa without Neville, thanks)

It must be noted that, since the books are mostly told from Harry's point of view, many of the uncharitable descriptors used for Neville could also be attributed to Harry. It's an assessment I somewhat disagree with since the language Harry uses in his (explicitly stated and delineated) thoughts is often less harsh than the narration's.

BONUS HARRY WTF:

(from PoA, Harry is imagining how Sirius must have killed poor poor Peter)

This is one of those Harry remarks that kind of straddles the line between genuine character assessment and authorial dickishness. At this point in the story Harry doesn't know that Peter is a traitor and a murderer so, by imagining him to be Neville-like, Harry lets us infer that they are both to be seen as hapless and bumbling individuals. JKR does know who Peter really is, though, and she makes the deliberate choice of comparing the two.

RON WEASLEY

Ronald Bilius Weasley is not exactly known for his tact, there's no two ways about it. Furthermore, as our everyman character, it often falls on him to illustrate the status quo with his observations. From Ron we get gems such as:

(from PS)

+ BONUS HARRY

(Harry's corresponding nightmare in PoA)

The thought of Neville Longbottom on a broom strikes fear in the heart of many, it seems. Neville's accident in PS's flying lesson and the ensuing chaos seem to be a core memory for the Gryffindors.

(CoS, Ron tries to make Hermione feel better about her muggleborn status by putting Neville down)

This sentence is important because it helps establish Neville's role among his peers. Not only it seems to be an universally acknowledged fact that Neville is hopeless as magic, it is socially acceptable for his classmates to say so.

and

(GoF, Ron makes sure we know that Neville is on the lowest rung of the Hogwarts social ladder)

This scene serves a dual purpose: yes, Ron is once again indicating that we're supposed to infer that Neville is an uggo and a loser, but he's doing so because he's secretly miffed that Hermione has someone to go to the Yule Ball with that isn't him. Ron contains multitudes.

(PS, Neville tries to enforce curfew, the golden trio has no time for rules, Snape is up to evil!)

I put this scene last, despite it occurring during PS, because it perfectly encapsulates what seems to be the general Gryffindor attitude towards Neville during the first books: Neville may be a hopeless dullard but he's their hopeless dullard, as such Gryffindors are the only people allowed to dunk on him (because they're Gryffindors and therefore inherently Good). Speaking of which:

GRYFFINDORS

Here's more excerpts that plainly show just what Neville's place among his fellow Gryffindors is:

(PS, Draco just cursed Neville)

This incident is treated as funny by everyone except Hermione (you go girl). The only problem Harry & co. seem to really have with what happened is that it's Malfoy who did the cursing, again showing that when a malicious act comes from a Gryffindor it's funny and also a prank but when it comes from a Slytherin it's bullying (here's a novel idea: why not both?).

and

(OotP, the twins are such pranksters LOL ROFLMAO)

See? It's ok if the mean-spirited joke comes from a Good Guy, why, Neville even joins in the laughter! How often must have this happened to Neville for him to have learned to laugh the embarrassment away? I wouldn't put such a big emphasis on this type of friendly fire if it happened in the context of a solid friendship based on mutual respect but what we actually see in the books is that these "pranks" happen to Neville whilst he's still treated as somewhat of an outsider. These instances happen before the introduction of Neville 2.0 (now with more courage!), not after.

Just like with his gran's (and Snape's) bullying, both the language used to describe Neville and the opinion of his peers change completely once Neville 2.0 drops. From book 6 onward Neville is part of the hero squad and thus he can no longer be subject to ridicule. Up until then, though, we are clearly meant to laugh at Neville's expense and call me a party pooper but I find this to be rather mean spirited.

To cleanse our palates, I'd like to add a bonus section:

⭐️ The congratulatory gold star award for being a Decent Person ⭐️

This award goes to Hermione Jean Granger who, despite not being exactly known for her tact and delicacy, manages to constantly treat Neville with kindness and compassion, especially when he needs it the most:

and

(GoF, Barty Crouch jr. has just traumatized Neville by showing him the curse that ruined his parents' minds forever)

You go girl, and thank you for your service.

I agree, the conflict between Harry and Ron really isn't resolved. They barely scratch the surface of their conflict, when they "resolve" it. They fix the issue that has bubbled to the surface (Ron's feelings about Hermione), but they don't fix the iceberg underneath. They never do.

There are multiple opportunities for Ron to learn from and overcome his insecurities, but the narrative never really allows him to have lasting character development. Every time one of those conflicts comes up, he starts to have some growth - just to revert to his factory settings (I like how you mentioned this for Percy and I do think, this applies to other characters as well, including Ron), once the inciting incident is dealt with.

It's the same for the conflict between Arthur and Percy. Because, yes, their differing opinions on how to deal with the news about Voldemort did spark their argument, but it isn't really the reason they argued and it's also not the reason Percy went no-contact with his whole family for three fucking years.

So Percy apologizing for being wrong might solve the inciting incident, but it also doesn't solve the conflict underneath. Him fighting Thicknesse also doesn't do that. Because, in the end, the conflict wasn't really about Voldemort being back or about Dumbledore.

It was about their dysfunctional family dynamics (not just between Percy and Arthur, but also between Percy and everyone else). It was about Percy's status as golden child of the family (and how fragile that status really is) and about them not really knowing each another. And it was also about Percy growing into his adult self, while separating who he wants to be from what his parents want him to be. One could also make a point about how this conflict was about their socioeconomic status and the discrimination that came with it. But all of this was completely dropped, after the conflict was introduced in Order of the Phoenix. From that point onwards it's just about Voldemort being back and about Percy being wrong about it.

And the "resolution" in Deathly Hallows treats the conflict as such. Percy stumbles into the situation, apologizes (he's basically groveling), mom and dad hug him, Fred and George make some jokes, the conflict is solved, all is well.(1) And afterward, Percy really does go back to his factory settings.

And it's not just Ron and Percy this is happening to. Rowling seems to have an aversion to writing character development. Harry does grow as a character, but he's basically the only one. She attempts to give Snape some development, but it's mostly of the "and he was good all along!" kind of development, where he doesn't really change at all. Draco starts to become a better person, but she never really commits to a redemption arc (probably, because she hates Drarry shippers...)

(1) Side tangent: I just - once again - realized how fucking Christian the series (especially Deathly Hallows) really is. I wonder if Percy's arc was supposed to be read that way. Him denouncing JesusHarry and leaving his congregationfamily, just to realize the error in his ways to return just in time for the final battle and his congregationfamily welcoming him back with open arms ... There would be no character development needed, after that.

Guys who Cry in the Harry Potter Books (and Why)

Men do 30% of the crying in the Harry Potter books, even though they represent 66% of the characters (and that's pretty much as expected).* I’m interested in why the crying happens though, and what it says about the characters. For the ladies, crying is neutral - they all cry, and for all sorts of reasons (tired, frustrated, stressed, emotionally overwrought...) Bellatrix, Augusta Longbottom, Ginny, Tonks… all cry. *Hermione* cries thirty separate times over the course of the books. 

Male crying though, that's something that gets mocked (usually by Slytherins.) Pansy calls Neville a “fat little cry baby,” and after Rita’s article (falsely) describes Harry crying, Draco comes in with “Want a hanky, Potter, in case you start crying in Transfiguration?” Of course there’s also “D’you think [Hagrid]’ll cry when they cut off his hippogriff’s - ” right before Hermione slaps him. So making fun of guys for crying is bad right? 

Let’s get into it. 

1 : Crying because of a death

The most “acceptable” reason for male crying. This happens a lot, we are definitely not supposed to think any less of the guys who do it. Mostly it happens *right* at the moment of death, or maybe at the funeral. The exception is Harry, who cries in Book 3 after talking about hearing his parents dying (although the narrative voice DOES let us know that he’s kind of embarrassed about this...)

“Harry suddenly realized that there were tears on his face mingling with the sweat. He bent his face as low as possible, wiping them off on his robes, pretending to do up his shoelace, so that Lupin wouldn’t see.” 

Then he cries again in Book 7, while visiting his parents' graves. But it’s definitely still crying over a death. Just one that Harry takes a little bit longer to process. 

Crying over a Death: Full Breakdown: 

Amos Diggory: 1 (Cedric’s death) 

Arthur Weasley: 1 (Fred’s death)

Harry Potter: 3 (Hedwig, Lily, James)

Rubeus Hagrid: 4 (Dumbledore, Buckbeak, Aragog, Harry) 

Argus Filtch: 1 (thinks Mrs. Norris is dead) 

Xenophillius Lovegood: 1 (thinks Luna is dead) 

Fillius Flitwick: (thinks Ginny is dead) 

Ron Weasley: 1 (Dumbledore’s funeral) 

Elphias Doge: 1 (Dumbledore’s funeral

2: Crying because of Pain

You’d think this one would also be acceptable. But… it really isn’t? Dudley cries when Vernon hits him (but Harry doesn’t.) Peter Pettigrew cries when he cuts off his own hand, Saw style, but it gets framed as blubbering weakness. Pettigrew framed SO pathetically for the entire resurrection scene - and honestly, for the entire rest of the series.

(Which is strange when you think about it. Like objectively, Pettigrew did GOOD. Sure he only likes Voldemort because he’s powerful, but so do most of the Death Eaters, that’s nothing special. Peter found Voldemort, resurrected him single-handedly (ha.) Found Bertha Jorkins,  i.e. the reason Voldemort was able to plan his comeback. Obviously he has god-tier bluffing and lying abilities, as well as enough willpower to cut off a limb. Being able to turn into a rat would make him a really useful spy. Also his spell, the one that killed thirteen muggles and destroyed a street? Most magic we see does not have a blast radius like that. Either he’s extremely powerful, or he somehow rigged the whole street up to blow beforehand? Maybe he planted magical bombs everywhere, and triggered them after luring Sirius to the right place. Either way, Peter’s formidable. But somehow his job is to hang out and be Snape’s servant? (Is it because he’s not cute?  Is this JKR’s fatphobia rearing its ugly head? Unclear.)

Our last guy crying in pain is Book 1 Neville, after he breaks his wrist during flying lessons. He also “sniffs,” while walking into the Forbidden Forest for detention, which *might* count as crying? But really, Neville cries surprisingly little. We get a lot of “looked as though he might cry” and “on the verge of tears”... but that's not actually crying. And I think that’s because… early-books Neville, yes we’re supposed to see him as a little pathetic. But definitely not as pathetic as Dudley or Pettigrew. 

3: “Childlike” Crying

Sometimes the people who cry are literally little boys. This is also okay. No one is going to judge infant Harry for crying when Voldemort is in the house, or little Severus for crying when his parents are fighting. Interestingly, when Myrtle is talking about Draco crying in her bathroom, Harry assumes she’s talking about someone much younger: 

“There’s been a boy in here crying?” said Harry curiously. “A young boy?” 

But of course, when an adult is crying in a childlike way, it immediately becomes… pathetic. Again we have Pettigrew, who “burst into tears. It was horrible to watch: He looked like an oversized, balding baby, cowering on the floor.” In the Horcrux cave, crying Dumbledore is described “like a child dying of thirst.” Which is also meant to be pathetic, but in more of a ‘Harry has to be the adult now’ sort of way. Also, the potion seems to have made Dumbledore mentally regress back to his youth, so it’s *closer* to a literal “child crying” moment. 

(I considered putting Dumbledore drinking the potion in the ‘pain’ section, but at least in the book I think it’s clear he’s mostly in emotional rather than physical pain.)

Where this gets messy is with the house-elves. House-elves are not children, but they are presented as childlike. They are small and in-your-face, direct even though their problem-solving tends to be very convoluted/not especially logical. I like the present-tense, no pronouns way they speak, but I can’t deny it is kind of baby-talk adjacent. And… house elves are *really* emotional. Dobby, Kreacher (and Winky) cry a LOT. If I had to guess, I would say JKR likes treating house-elves as childlike so it’s more of a surprise when it turns out that one of them was behind everything. But considering that they are slaves, it is gross considering that one of the main real-world justifications for slavery was ‘slaves are childlike, and unable to take care of themselves.'

There’s also Hagrid. With seventeen separate instances of crying, Hagrid easily cries more than any other guy in the Harry Potter books. And… well… he’s also presented as oddly childlike. He seems much more like Harry and Ron’s contemporary than a peer of the other professors - which is weird, since  if he went to school with Voldemort fifty years ago, he’s in his sixties now. But still, he’s helpless in the face of criticism, he’s comically out of his depth whenever he deals with the Ministry, he’s constantly letting things slip or drastically misjudging danger levels. The first three books use “Hagrid gets in trouble, the gang has to bail him out” as a plot point, and in Book 4 his sideplot with Madame Maxime gets treated like a schoolboy’s first crush, with all these jokes about him wearing suits that don’t quite fit, and trying and failing to style his hair. Not to mention, we know she’s flattering him because she wants insider info on the Tournament. But he doesn’t know that. 

4. Crying because of Sports

Oliver Wood cries when Gryffindor wins the Quidditch cup. That's all.

And that brings us to our stragglers. The only non-childlike guys who cry for reasons other than death, pain, or sports are as follows: 

Harry Potter: 1 instance of crying

Draco Malfoy: 2 instances of crying

Severus Snape: 2 instances of crying

Albus Dumbledore: 4 instances of crying

Horace Slughorn: 1 instance of crying

Let’s see what’s going on here. 

Harry Potter

Dumbledore had weakened himself by drinking that terrible potion for nothing. Harry crumpled the parchment in his hand, and his eyes burned with tears as behind him. Fang began to howl. He clutched the cold locket in his hand so tightly that it hurt, but he could not prevent hot tears spilling from his eyes

There’s a lot going on in this moment: Harry is tired, frustrated, disappointed, overwhelmed. But even though it is a complex moment, probably the main emotion is still Harry’s attempt to process Dumbledore’s death, now that he finally has a second to do so. So this honestly could have gone in the “Crying because of a death” category. It’s just different enough that I want to specially call it out. 

Draco Malfoy

We hear about Draco crying once from Myrtle, and then see it first hand: 

Malfoy was crying — actually crying — tears streaming down his pale face into the grimy basin.

The narrative takes a second to let us know that he was ACTUALLY CRYING, just to hammer in that this is something unexpected and not-normal. I think I want to attribute Draco’s tendency to cry - and cry because he’s overwhelmed, scared, lonely - to the character’s slight femme coding. What can I say, he cries for ""girly"" reasons. And so does Snape!

Severus Snape 

“Snivellus” is clearly a nickname meant to evoke the idea of “crybaby,” since “sniveling” is a synonym for crying. We also get this: 

Snape was kneeling in Sirius’s old bedroom. Tears were dripping from the end of his hooked nose as he read the old letter from Lily. 

Crying over Lily’s letter could count as crying over a death… but since he’s crying over a letter, not over a grave or her body (like in the movie), I’m going to say that he’s probably crying because of guilt, emotional overload, or love (especially because he rips the ‘love Lily’ off the end of that letter.) Like Draco, Snape might be getting little bit of femme-coding here. He’s the mean-girl type of bully (versus the mean boy) He cries, he threatens to poison people, which is something we only see women (and Draco) actually doing in these books. Idk, he’s an odd one who JKR clearly has very complicated feelings about. 

Albus Dumbledore 

I was actually really surprised that Dumbledore cries as much as he does, and at such unusual times! He cries when he sees Snape’s doe patronus - because of love or just because he’s emotionally overwhelmed. He cries all through the Horcrux cave, primarily because of guilt. He cries twice during the King’s Cross Station vision-quest, once because of his complicated feelings about Harry while he asks for forgiveness, and once over … Grindlewald.

“They say he showed remorse in later years, alone in his cell at Nurmengard. I hope that it is true. I would like to think he did feel the horror and shame of what he had done. Perhaps that lie to Voldemort was his attempt to make amends . . . to prevent Voldemort from taking the Hallow . . .”  “. . . or maybe from breaking into your tomb?” suggested Harry, and Dumbledore dabbed his eyes.

And okay. JKR announced that Dumbledore was gay just a few months after book seven was published, and I think she was folding in deliberate queer-coding as early Book 6. My proof of that is Dumbledore's increased emotionality - as we can see, it’s pretty unusual for men to cry in the Harry Potter books because they’re feeling “softer” emotions like love, regret, stress etc. It’s something she associates with femininity, and I’m sure she associates gay guys with femininity as well (I mean, that’s a very common thing to do.)

There’s also this interesting passage from Book 6: 

This younger Albus Dumbledore’s long hair and beard were auburn. Having reached their side of the street, he strode off along the pavement, drawing many curious glances due to the flamboyantly cut suit of plum velvet that he was wearing. “Nice suit, sir,” said Harry, before he could stop himself, but Dumbledore merely chuckled.

Now, this is subtle. Wizards out and about in the muggle world often wear unusual colors like purple and emerald green. However. That adjective flamboyantly is only used one other time in the entire series, to describe Fudge’s hand gestures. But here, it is used to describe an outfit, a purple velvet suit which is honestly a little bit Oscar Wilde. And “flamboyantly gay” … those are two words often heard together. 

Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but I am pretty sure this is the only opinion about clothing Harry ever expresses aloud. And, I think @niche-pastiche hit the nail right on the head when were talking about this and they said, "'Nice suit, sir,' said Harry, before he could stop himself," is SO the response of a young adhd boy in the early 2000s trying not to say "thats gay." 

Horace Slughorn

Horace Slughorn cries at Aragog’s funeral, not really out of grief for Aragog, but mostly out of a maudlin sense of togetherness, nostalgia, and camaraderie. And… I do think we have one more slightly morally ambiguous femme-coded guy on our hands? Like Dumbledore, Slughorn is very much a flashy dresser, with shiny hair and gold buttons on his waistcoat. He loves treats and candies (hey… so does Dumbledore. They’re the only adults with a sweet tooth like that.) He loves fancy dinner parties, and is well-connected without being ambitious the way Lucius is. He also (like Draco) is aligned with pureblood-supremacy, but hyper avoidant of violence and confrontation. Except for the Harry example, I think I’d be comfortable with calling all of these last few instances “Femme-Coded Crying.” 

* Methodology - My list of 208 Harry Potter characters comes from TV Tropes, which had the most complete list. I am excluding characters from Cursed Child and the Fantastic Beasts Films. 

In order to find instances of crying, I searched for the words “cried/cry/crying” “tears” “sob” and “sniff.” I counted each crying episode as one, even if crying was brought up multiple times throughout the scene. I made the fairest call I could whenever I hit a “the crying intensified” or the “the tears restarted,” but I mostly judge pretty conservatively when I’m ringing up data.

So, picture this:

Here I am, sat in an internet-less room, twiddling my thumbs and waiting for time to crawl ever so slowly by. For lack of a better alternative, I start flipping through the pages of Chamber of Secrets and I notice A Thing.

"My, how peculiar" I say to myself, fully intending to let The Thing be, but alas; time moves slowly, boredom persists and, not unlike the tell-tale heart, The Thing calls to me.

"Come," it beckons, "notice me further". "Compile some data" it begs, "that's surely the most productive way to pass the time"; like a moth to a flame, I am caught.

This, dear reader, is how I found myself tallying all the different ways the word "mudblood" is used in canon. So gird your loins and let me introduce you to

The Mudblood Chronicles, or what's in a name?

part 1: methodology

Since the purpose of this exercise is to analyse the use of the term "mudblood" as a slur, I'm not going to count the times in which the word is not being used with malicious intent. Throughout the books this happens on several occasions, those being:

during the course of the narration (it happens once in the context of "everyone present knew mudblood was a very offensive term")

when Harry uses the term, since it only happens when he either recalls someone else saying it (one time with Draco and once with Snape) or he's forbidding Kreacher from using it (twice).

when Ron uses it; it happens once to explain the slur's meaning and once (in conjunction with Ginny) to demand Kreacher stop using the term.

when someone is quoting themselves. Draco quotes himself to Dumbledore once ("you care about me saying mudblood when I'm about to kill you?"; incidentally, it's also the last time he ever utters the word)

I am counting instances in which a muggleborn character uses the term to refer to themselves, since it happens in the context of reclaiming the insult and I am interested in who the author chooses to highlight thusly.

part 2: the results/ WHEN

The word "mudblood" and its plural "mudbloods" are used as an insult a total of 62 times in the Harry Potter books. Here we can see the book by book breakdown:

Unsurprisingly, The book where "mudblood" is used the most ( a total of 34 times) is Deathly Hallows since it takes place during a war about muggleborns. Chamber of Secrets, where the term is introduced, follows with 10 mentions, after which is Order of the Phoenix (7 mentions), followed by Goblet of Fire (6 mentions) and Half-Blood prince (5 mentions). The term "mudblood" is not used in either Philosopher's Stone or Prisoner of Azkaban.

part 3: the results/ WHO

So who is our biggest culprit?

Draco Malfoy is our uncontested lead, having both the advantage of appearing in all books and of orbiting around our narrator. Both Bellatrix and Kreacher make a good showing, with Bellatrix's 6 times being especially notable since they all occur during the course of Deathly Hallows.

Let's break this down further, shall we?

Despite introducing us to the term, Draco appears to scale back his usage of the slur as he ages.

Before partaking in this experiment, I was under the vague impression that, in the wizarding world, "mudblood" is seen as a childish insult. I can now see why: in times of peace (i.e. before Voldemort's resurrection), Draco is the only person in Harry's day-to-day life saying it and he himself peters off in the usage of "mudblood" as things get more serious. To Draco, it appears, "mudblood" IS a childish insult, and we'll see further proof of this at a later date.

part 4: the results/ HOW

Let us now look at how the term is used:

Unsurprisingly, the person "mudblood" is hurled most often at is Hermione. As a main character, she is the most visible muggleborn in the narrative and, if that wasn't enough, she is more often than not the only muggleborn present, even when it doesn't make much sense (Hermione is the only known muggleborn member of the order of the phoenix, an organization whose supposed aim is the fight for muggleborn rights.)

There are no known instances of the word "mudblood" being used to refer to any other muggleborn student during Harry's time at Hogwarts. Lily Evans is the only other school-aged character who gets the dubious honor of being a "mudblood".

Let's break this down further and look at who people are referring to when they say "mudblood":

*= Walburga's portrait never directly addresses Hermione, she only alludes to the presence of various filth (muggleborns, blood traitors, werewolves..) in her home. That said, Hermione is the only muggleborn we ever see in Grimmauld Place so it must stand to reason that Walburga is referring to her, just like she's indirectly referring ro Remus Lupin when she mentions werewolves.

**= Both Hermione and Lily use the term mudblood to refer to themselves in an attempt to reclaim the slur, they both do it twice.

***= Our only "other" is mr Ted Tonks, who Bellatrix only mentions in order to disavow when Voldemort talks about the birth of Teddy Lupin.

Interestingly, the only people who ever refer to Lily Evans as "mudblood" to her face are Severus Snape (one instance recounted three separate times) and Lily Evans herself. Voldemort uses the insult when talking about her with Harry long after her death.

Of further note, our only written "mudblood" comes by courtesy of a ministry pamphlet Harry finds in Diagon Alley, heavily implied to have been written by one ms Dolores Umbridge.

part 5: a brief interlude/ Draco's language

Draco refers to Hermione as “Granger” 13 times and, while their interactions often consist of him talking about her blood status, he uses "mudblood" instead of her name only 4 times. Furthemore, there are 4 additional times where he uses both mudblood and Granger (as in "that mudblood Granger").

The very first time Draco mentions Hermione in the books occurs during this exchange with Lucius:

I find this interesting because, even in private, his first instinct is to use her given name. It's only after he is scolded by Lucius* that we get our first "mudblood", in a scene where he is once again feeling threatened by her.

*= Guess who never utters the word "mudblood"? Lucius. Even Narcissa does once (in DH, when she recognises Hermione at the manor)

part 6: conclusion

I am not a linguistics expert, I cannot tell wether JKR uses the slur she made up in a way that mimics real world slurs. What I can do with the data I compiled is try to track various characters' attitudes towards muggleborns in the books by looking at what they call them.

People whose views remain unchanged (Voldemort, Kreacher, Walburga) remain consistent with their usage of "mudblood"; Draco, who grows up as the books progress, scales back. Snape only ever uses the word once, in the past, and the incident is retold multiple times to signify its importance.

As the situation in the wizarding world worsens, more people feel emboldened to use an otherwise taboo term, as seen by how most one-off utterances of "mudblood" take place in book7, during wartime.

Finally, I would like to note that we only ever hear two muggleborns' (Lily and Hermione) opinions on "mudblood" as a slur, the rest of the time it's mostly purebloods (and the occasional half-blood) telling us how to feel about the insult; I find that very interesting.

There. Now all this useless information is out of my brain and into the aether, where other nerds can ponder on its significance while this nerd here sleeps the sleep of the truly righteous.

xoxo