Harry Potter is a really fun franchise with a rabid fandom that's always thinking about the nuances of the story and characters. As a Harry Potter fan myself, I love looking at the complex parts of this series and getting into all the cool things that J.K. Rowling might not have expanded upon. While this franchise can be really light hearted and fun, there's also a darkness and sadness to it that's really important to talk about. All of the characters in this series have the potential to make us sad in ways we'd never have expected, either because of what happens to them over the course of the story or because they're just a sad figure before the story starts. Either way, Harry Potter can break your heart and leave you with shattered pieces faster than you'd think. And thanks to the HP fans of Tumblr, they showed us memes that ripped us apart and wish we never cared so much in the first place.

15 Luna's More Of A Realist Than You Think

Luna Lovegood is one of the few characters who could be called a universal good. She's idealistic and imaginative and extremely intelligent, and for all intents and purposes, she's the quintessential Ravenclaw. However, she was always seen as 'weird' and 'dumb' because she was always talking about creatures that nobody else believed existed. Everyone thought she was just painfully naive. However, that's very far from the case. Even when she was being tortured in the Malfoy house, she was still herself, which is more than some others could say. On top of that, she has a realistic view of the world that acknowledges the magic of the world she lives in, while also being aware that magic can only do so much. She gets that bad things can happen and those things are sometimes beyond anyone's control. That's something that most adults have a hard time with and Luna figured it out well before she turned 16.

14 The Forgotten Black Brother

Anyone who comes up to me and tells me that Severus Snape is the bravest Slytherin ever will get a look and a suggestion to reread The Half-Blood Prince, where it becomes obvious that Regulus Black is probably one of the bravest people in the entire series. While Sirius was faffing about the Marauders and being mean to Kreacher, Regulus was getting to the bottom of the Horcrux mystery and knowingly walking towards his own death by torture potion. Even Dumbledore had company when he drank the potion, but Regulus did it with just Kreacher, who was never going to be the best company for something like this. He didn't do it to prove his brother wrong, and was even willing to die without settling things with him in order to keep him safe. Keep in mind, he was the same age as the average Muggle high school senior. That's incredibly brave, and he gets no credit in his role taking down Voldemort.

13 Two Sides Of The Same Coin

Not only are Harry and Draco two sides of the same coin, it can be argued that Molly Weasley and Narcissa Malfoy are as well. Harry and Draco are on opposite sides of the war, but if certain things had gone differently, the two could very well have been friends. They were both tapped for a task that was seriously too big for them, and they both had mother figures that went to bat for them both.

Molly and Narcissa were similarly devoted to their children, even if they were raising totally different families, and their love for their children surpassed everything. On top of that, their love for their children is so strong that they ended up supporting the other kid by the end. Molly (a member of Draco's family to begin with) was never unkind to him in the slightest and seemed to sympathize with him at the end. As for Narcissa, if it hadn't been for her lying for Harry at the end, Voldemort would never have been defeated. They're seriously just kids, though, and it's super sad.

12 The Saddest Reason To Cut Class

Every month, the Marauders would go off into the night to be with their werewolf friend so he wouldn't be alone, which is an incredibly selfless thing to do. However, the nature of the full moon raises some questions with some very sad answers, not all of which are addressed in this post. The moon can go up during the day or hang in the sky while the sun is also up. Does this mean that a full moon in the daytime would incapacitate Remus? Would that be something else to watch out for? In the event that Remus turns in the daytime, what happens? Would the other three need to drop everything to make sure their friend doesn't maul someone or someone else doesn't see him? Would the full moon's effect not be quite as bad because the sun is also out? I have so many questions about this! Someone call J.K. Rowling!

11 Draco's Boggart

Much has been made of Neville's boggart becoming Professor Snape, but the thing we often forget amid all the boggarts is that Draco didn't participate in that class at all. He was a party pooper about the whole situation and acted above it all. The reason for that might be far more tragic than one would think.

Imagine what it would have been like for Draco, an arrogant kid who never wants to show off his vulnerable side, to step in front of the wardrobe and have his own father step out. It would have revealed him to be a boy afraid of his father, and he just couldn't bear that. To make matters worse, doing this might have actually gotten Draco away from Lucius, shielding him from his whole subplot in the Half-Blood Prince. Draco Malfoy is just tragic throughout, and The Cursed Child didn't make things any better for him.

10 A Mother's Gratitude

The relationship between Lily Potter and Molly Weasley isn't really expanded on. We know that they were both in the Order of the Phoenix together, and were pregnant with Harry and Ron at the same time, respectively. However, we don't know how close they were or how they felt about each other. We do know that Molly spent seven years basically being a mother figure to Harry over the course of the story, though. We also know that Lily and James were at least semi-aware of what was going on with their son in the afterlife, at least well enough that they didn't need a recap of the events of the series whenever their ghosts showed up. Whenever Molly and Arthur Weasley die in the series, I have no doubt that this is what happens when they arrive in the afterlife. As heartwarming as this is, it's still incredibly sad.

9 Harry's Real Father Figure Never Gets Any Credit

The whole fandom loves to go on and on about how Sirius Black was the closest thing to a father that Harry Potter would ever have. But the people saying this clearly haven't read the books. Sure, Hagrid's role in the movies is largely diminished, but even then, he was a major force in Harry's life. He was the guy who got Harry out of his abusive home with the Dursleys, and walked him through school shopping that first year. He also made it a point to check in on him and his friends throughout his time at school and went to every single Quidditch game, which is something not many characters can say they did. There's also the fact that Hagrid is the guy whose first scene is with Harry at the beginning and the guy who carries Harry back to Hogwarts thinking he's dead at the end. Hagrid is one of the biggest heroes of the whole series and the fact that he gets no credit is beyond sad. 

8 Mothers Taking Care Of Each Other's Sons

Molly Weasley was essentially Harry's adoptive mom from the moment she met him. She took him in even though she had seven children with at least four working their way through school at any given point within the first five years. That's a pretty tall order for any mom, and Molly shouldered that burden gladly.

When Fred dies and makes his way to the afterlife, it's impossible to deny that Lily wouldn't do the same for Molly. Lily might not know what it's like to live after your child dies, but she knows what it's like to be separated from your child through no fault of your own. She also knows how much Fred and George took care of her son over the years.

Fred's death was tragic, but Lily taking care of him in the afterlife would give her a chance not just to repay the Weasleys, but to be the mother she could and should have been to Harry had circumstances allowed her to be.

7 'You're It. Good Luck.'

This headcanon relies a bit on conjecture, as we don't know how involved the Marauders were in Harry's life before October 31st, 1981. We can infer that they were really involved, though, at least enough to be considered babysitters for the baby. Sirius was actually the guy who pulled Harry out of his house where his parents died. and held him until Dumbledore came to take him; so he was involved at least that much. It stands to reason that the guys would have a weird, heartwarming tradition like this when it came to baby Harry. That's why it makes so much sense that Sirius would think something like this as he was dying; since he was always the guy who was super stuck in the past.

The other option is that he was seeing James in Harry's face again, like he was doing through the whole fifth book (and movie), which is even worse.

6 How Would Neville Know What The Cruciatus Curse Sounds Like?

Neville Longbottom was a character who had a really long payoff. From the beginning, we knew he was going to be important since he was the one to stand up to his friends in the first book when Harry, Ron, and Hermione were going to get the Philosopher's Stone. However, we had no way of knowing then just how similar Neville's origin story would be to Harry's own. We know that Harry has residual memories of the night his parents died, but that can be chalked up to the piece of Voldemort that was living inside of him for all those years. They weren't Harry's memories, but Voldemort's.

Neville doesn't have a piece of Voldemort inside him, which means that there is a chance that he might actually remember what the sound of his parents being tortured into insanity sounds like. It could also be that he jumped there because of his history, but that would still be equally sad.

5 Ginny Weasley: The Girl Who Never Gets Any Credit

Ginny Weasley has never gotten any credit for anything that she's ever done throughout the series. She was introduced as a shy girl who had a huge crush on Harry, but the books ended up developing her into a spunky, witty, young woman who was insanely independent and never took any crap. The movies admittedly didn't do her any justice, but even then, she still wasn't the Bella Swan type character the fandom is always accusing her of being. She loved Harry and waited for him, sure, but that love never defined her character. She dated other guys, developed her own interests, and led a pretty interesting life independently of her brother Ron and his friends — even though they were close as children. Also, let's keep in mind that Ginny had Voldemort in her head talking to her for a whole year. Harry didn't even have that going on. At 11 years old, Ginny Weasley was able to keep her psyche intact with no friends except for Lord Voldemort. She's the only one who can say that, and it's heartbreaking that no one recognizes how great she is.

4 Percy Weasley: Unsung Hero

Percy Weasley is unique in the sense that he's a Weasley who wasn't always on the side of good. He's ambitious in a way that the Weasleys don't quite understand, and he expects the best in himself and won't let Voldemort get in the way of his rise. As much as we want to dislike him for it, his single-minded ambition is actually quite admirable. He was Prefect and Head Boy, so Dumbledore must have seen some greatness in him. On top of that, once he realized what was actually going on, he apologized and came home, which is a quality few people are willing to show. He was a stuffy guy, but when the chips were down, he was there fighting. He even made peace with the twins, with whom he could never see eye to eye with. They could have been the greatest friends in the world, balancing each other out in the best way, but then Fred died and took that future away from them. 

3 Pick Up Your Mirror When Sirius Calls, Harry!

As much as Harry loved Sirius, he was kind of really absentminded with him. He got a mirror in the beginning of the fifth book, but with everything going on in the story, the mirror is kind of forgotten about. While rereading the book, I even forgot about the mirror, so I can imagine how easily it would be for Harry to let the mirror slip his mind, especially since he only sees Sirius from time to time. While Harry forgot about the mirror, it was probably all that Sirius had. That being said, this is also sad because Sirius, a grown man, has tied most of his emotional well-being to the existence of a 15-year-old boy in the middle of a solo mission to take down Voldemort. As much as it would have been nice for Harry to use the mirror, it wouldn't have been healthy for him to stay on it talking to Sirius all the time when he had a life to live.

2 We Sometimes Forget How Young 21 Is

When you're young and reading the books for the first time, you might not realize just how young James and Lily Potter were when they're killed. I remember being an 8-year-old reading the books and thinking that 21 was really old. Maybe they weren't elderly, but they'd had a child and a family before being killed, so it stood to reason that they weren't especially young when everything went down. The movies glossed over this a bit with their casting choices, too. I'm sorry, but Gary Oldman was never going to look like he was in his mid-thirties, even during the third movie, and the Potters and Lupin also had this issue. It wasn't until I grew up and realized—upon a reread of the series—just how young 21 is. When you die at 21, you've barely seen anything of life. The more you think about how young they were when they died, the more tragic the Potters and Marauders are.

1 Dumbledore Was The Worst For A Very Simple Reason

I was never the biggest fan of Dumbledore, but I get why some people considered him a favorite character. He's filled with sage wisdom and was always willing to commit to whatever plan of action was necessary to get the job done. That's an admirable quality in its own way. However, reading this post put Dumbledore's whole character into sharp perspective. This is a man who let a former student of his rot in jail because he didn't fit in the plan. Most importantly, he refused to find a way around Harry's abusive home situation and let him live in a closet under the stairs for his entire childhood pre-Hogwarts (even when Harry outright asked). This is putting aside the whole thing with Grindelwald and his siblings, which we still don't know a ton about — Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them notwithstanding. Either way, I hate to burst the bubble of your childlike innocence and ruin a possible hero of yours, but Dumbledore might just be pretty terrible.