25 Harry Potter Deaths Ranked By How Viciously They Ripped Your Heart Out

The Harry Potter characters are no stranger to heartbreak. The story begins with a trio of incredibly significant deaths, and the hits just keep coming over the course of eight films. And while the first few films are comparatively light, with the child-friendly Chris Columbus at the helm, things get dark pretty fast thanks to Jk Rowlings' unwillingness to dumb down to her readers. You can tell just by looking at the title credits of each of the films, which get progressively more depressing looking as time goes on that things are going down. And naturally, that sense of impending doom means there are going to be some top billed casualties. People you seriously care about die. An important thing to note about this list is that it's only going to focus on the deaths, heart-wrenching and otherwise, that are featured in the films. There are plenty more where that came in the novels, like Colin Creevey and Ted Tonks and Amelia Bones, but we're not going to go there. Quite frankly, there's more than enough heartbreak to be going off of just from the film canon. So emotionally prepare yourselves, Harry Potter fans: this is not going to be easy.

25. Bellatrix Lestrange

You might wonder how the over-arching villain of the entire Harry Potter franchise could possibly not be the low man on the totem pole in terms of having a death that really tore you up inside. But then you remember Bellatrix Lestrange and how awful she was, and it sort of makes sense. Most fans were not only not sad about her death, they actively celebrated it. Because she is honestly just the worst. Voldemort was evil, sure, but he was evil in a way that was remote and distant and difficult to emotionally comprehend. But Bellatrix is so ugly and hateful that it's hard not to wish for her to suffer a humiliating, painful death. When Mrs. Weasley killed her off, the majority of Harry Potter fans experienced not just relief, but the near physical sensation of pleasure.