5 Important Things In The Harry Potter Universe That Quickly Stopped Mattering

4. Wizard Pets

The Moment It Stopped Mattering: After Ron's pet rat turns out to be a dude. I know the scene at the beginning of Deathly Hallows where Hedwig takes a bolt of killing curse straight to the beak is supposed to be this really sad and emotional scene, but at that point I'd sort of already forgotten that he (or she?) existed. When Hagrid first takes Harry to Diagon Alley he makes it seem like having a pet is practically the second most important thing about being a wizard after having a wand. Sure, owls provide an important service in delivering mail, but you know what else delivers messages? Patronus charms, paintings, and the aforementioned (with disdain) Floo Powder. And what about the kids who didn't have owls? After Scabbers turned into Peter Pettigrew, do you think Neville Longbottom thought to himself "Blimey, I wonder if my Trevor is also secretly a murderer in disguise?" No, he didn't. Because at that point Neville (and everyone else) had probably also forgotten that he had a pet toad because by that point pets didn't matter anymore.