12 Biggest Lies In Harry Potter We All Accept

This one’s a bit more troubling than most on this list and boy does it make the movies a touch more uncomfortable upon a re-watch, but we had to include both for what you could extrapolate that it says about attitudes to crime and punishment, and also just because Bellatrix is a wildly underused character with so much untapped potential.

One of Voldemort’s closest confidantes, Bellatrix is a Death Eater who is clearly portrayed as being mentally ill throughout the series, with characters alluding to her family history of hereditary madness, her erratic behaviour, and her clearly unhinged appearance and self-presentation.

Now, this should really make her supposed “evil-ness” distinct from someone like the unapologetically sadistic Greyback or the manipulative Peter Pettigrew, both of whom are aware of their leader’s awful intentions and clearly co-sign them, rather than being encumbered by a mental illness which at best seriously clouds their judgement and might even nullify some of their guilt. Right?

Nah, the fact that she’s sick is her own fault, kill her off with the rest of those rotten lot, says the series centred around not judging people based on elements of self outside of their control.