In the wizarding world of Harry Potter, it's only natural for witches and wizards to break the rules at some point, particularly during the infant and toddler years when they don't know any better. Once they are are old enough to attend Hogwarts, however, students should be able to control themselves much better, following the rules designed to protect them.
Not Gryfindors, though! Not only is the Gryffindor House known to routinely smash rules, they also completely get away with it. Sometimes they are even rewarded for behavior that would have landed other students an expulsion notice--or even worse.
10 Hermione Used Petrificus Totalus On Neville
Poor Neville Longbottom is the real hero when it comes to being a brave Gryffindor. It's as Dumbledore said: "It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends." It sometimes takes even more, and when those friends hit you with a Petrificus Totalus curse, it's a wonder you could ever even be their friend again.
Friends shouldn't curse friends. That curse is also known as the The Full Body-Bind, meaning that Neville was paralyzed and could do nothing while his friends went off to save the world. They could have included him, they could have simply disarmed him, as Harry is so fond of doing; yet Hermione thought it most appropriate to freeze poor Neville and let him stew in his own fear. Rather than being punished, she, along with the other rule-breakers, was rewarded.
9 Harry And Ron Drove The Flying Car
The fact that grown Gryffindors like Arthur Weasley routinely break the laws they've sworn to uphold by tinkering with muggle artifacts only points to what rule breakers they'll always be, and Mr. Weasley set a terrible example for his kids by doing so. Sure, the car helped in busting Harry out of the Dursley's house, but it also came in handy when Harry and Ron missed the Hogwarts Express, flew into the Womping Willow and risked exposing their entire world.
This incident shouldn't have only gotten them expelled, but also resulted in their wands being snapped in half. Ron's was snapped by accident, but between all of the laws they broke they should have been banned from magic like poor Hagrid.
8 They Bullied Snape
Gryffindors are commonly known as the brave House, but they may as well be known as bullies, especially when it comes to popular kids like James Potter and Sirius Black, not to mention their friends. The Marauders may have been an interesting group of kids who became Animagi but they also loved to bully Severus Snape, which proved their true character. Even kind Remus Lupin failed to stand up for him when his friends decided to pick on him.
It's true that Snape was pursuing the Dark Arts at the time, and perhaps the boys went at him because of his dark side, but we're not given that context. Instead it would seem they bullied him due to his appearance, personality and the fact that he was friends with Lily Potter, which is much worse.
7 Hermione Cheated During Quidditch Tryouts
For someone who loves the rules and obeying them so often, Hermione sure doesn't mind breaking them when it suits her. This must be the mark of a true Gryffindor. Hermione scolded Harry when she thought he used liquid luck to help Ron get through a Quidditch match, but during Quidditch tryouts, she cheated to help Ron get the role of Keeper.
Using a Confundus charm on Cormac McLaggen was not only unethical, but it was dangerous. Quidditch is already a dangerous sport and Hermione could have caused an injury by casting the spell on the smarmy young wizard. McLaggen probably would have even made a better Keeper, so it also sabotaged the Quidditch team.
6 They Break Rules Left And Right And Are Rewarded For It
Hogwarts has some pretty important safety rules in place to keep young witches and wizards safe, but it seems like every Gryffindor has a penchant for breaking them at least some of the time. Harry's own father, along with his buddies, made a map specifically so they could break the rules without getting caught, Dumbledore passed an invisibility cloak to Harry so he could get away with much more and he even allowed Harry and Hermione to go back in time, something that grown wizards aren't even allowed to do!
All throughout this, the witches and wizards of Gryffindor are rarely punished, even when they get caught. There are a few detentions awarded here and there, but there are multiple instances where Harry, Ron and even Hermione should have been expelled from school.
5 They Won The House Cup Without Having Earned It
What is the point of even having a House Points system, or a House Cup, when at the end of the term your headmaster is going to randomly assign points to his favorite House just to throw the whole system? Imagine being a Slytherin, having worked so hard to win that Cup, which is everything to an ambitious Slytherin, only to see the Gryffidors win it after losing a million points all year for not even trying to win.
To be fair, Gryffindors do get points taken away by Professor Snape for dumb reasons all of the time, but that doesn't mean that Dumbledore should just throw it all at the end-of-term feast. Any points should be awarded before then in terms of equity.
4 Fred And George Pull Mean Pranks
As cute and funny as Fred and George are, they certainly aren't innocents. The Weasley twins are known for their elaborate pranks, but some of them are downright mean. They've tormented their poor younger brother, using his own fears against him when they turned his toys into spiders. They've tested their products on unsuspecting younger students, causing them to have terrible side effects.
They've also tormented muggles like Dudley Dursley, which should have gotten them into trouble for breaking underage wizard laws. Since technically Dudley ate the candy that caused his predicament, the twins weren't punished, but it was certainly their fault.
3 Harry Used The Half-Blood Prince's Spells
After everything Harry has been through, he should definitely know better than to use a book with advice that somehow helps him ace every potion's exam. Did he learn nothing from Ginny's experience in The Chamber of Secrets? Hermione kept warning him about what could happen and he completely ignored her, even becoming angry with her concerns.
Then when Harry was caught with the book and harmed Draco Malfoy with one of its spells, nothing happened. He was able to whisk it off to the Room of Requirement before it could be confiscated or used to implicate him, which would have certainly had dire consequences.
2 Literally Everything Dumbledore Has Done
Dumbledore is a Gryffindor who can't help but show partiality to his old House, often awarding points for dumb reasons, not punishing Gryffindors who get into trouble and generally playing favorites. Not only that, but Dumbledore may have caused the demise of his own sister, let not only Grindelwald go free but also recruited Tom Riddle and ignored the same problematic signs he showed that were similar to Grindelwald's, and he was careless with information he shared that ultimately led to the demise of the Potters.
While we can't blame Albus for Lily and James's demise, as that was completely on Voldemort, we do think he wasn't nearly as careful as he should have been. To make matters worse, he then used everyone involved, from the man who harbored an unrequited love for Lily to her own child, in a plot to save the world without caring about their own feelings.
1 Harry Became An Auror
Sure, Harry Potter defeated Lord Voldemort, which makes him one of the most skilled fighters in the world, but he also had plenty of help--and he broke just about every wizarding law every year. Is that the kind of person who should be enforcing magical law?
Harry's grades were average, his behavior was often terrible, he completely failed at Occlumency and he was awful at snooping after other wizards, particularly Malfoy and Snape, both of whom he was frequently wrong about. How many other wizards were denied entrance into the Auror program when Harry was allowed due to his special circumstances?
Covering the hottest movie and TV topics that fans want.
The go-to source for comic book and superhero movie fans.
A one-stop shop for all things video games.
Leave A Comment