The Harry Potter series ends with a bang in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, an installment that sees many lives lost and culminates in an epic battle against Voldemort and the Death Eaters. Throughout the book and the two movies, there are many tragic character deaths that audiences never saw coming. These hit especially hard and drive home the point that Harry and the other characters sacrifice a lot to defeat Voldemort. However, certain individuals likely should have met their end in The Deathly Hallows, as this would have made sense in the narrative and delivered some justice.
The saddest deaths in the Harry Potter movies happen to characters who were kind and innocent and didn’t deserve to pay the ultimate price in the war against Voldemort. While no character’s death is happy, some people, like Voldemort or Bellatrix Lestrange, have done so much damage and caused so much suffering that the story had to kill them off to make the conclusion satisfying. However, plenty of evil characters made it through the narrative and then faded into the background. Additionally, some heroes were set up to die through their character arcs that somehow lived to the end.
8 Dolores Umbridge
First introduced in The Order of the Phoenix, she’s an unforgivable character
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There are few characters as hated in the Harry Potter series as Dolores Umbridge, and for good reason. When she arrives at Hogwarts in The Order of the Phoenix, she tortures Harry and the other children and turns the magical school into an oppressive and abusive environment. After Voldemort takes power, she continues working for the Ministry and persecutes Muggle-born wizards to take away their wands. When Harry, Ron, and Hermione break into the Ministry, this is the last time she’s heard from in the books.
While this is punishment enough for Umbridge’s crimes, it still seems that she is on track to be one of the characters destroyed by her own selfishness and hunger for power.
After this, audiences are left wondering what happens to Umbridge after the Deathly Hallows, and it’s been confirmed that she was sentenced to life in Azkaban after Harry defeats Voldemort. While this is punishment enough for Umbridge’s crimes, it still seems that she is on track to be one of the characters destroyed by her own selfishness and hunger for power. Though she wasn’t at the Battle of Hogwarts, there were other ways that her actions at the Ministry could have led to death, and this wouldn’t have surprised anyone.
7 Percy Weasley
Percy’s redemption arc could’ve gone in an entirely different direction
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The Harry Potter movies ruined Fred Weasley’s death, but the fact that he’s a casualty of the war in the first place is unbelievable. Conversely, Fred’s older brother, Percy, had a narrative reason to die during the Battle of Hogwarts. When Fred was killed off, it was treated as a tragedy, but there was so much going on during these chapters that it was difficult to process his death fully. Additionally, there wasn’t a clear motivation behind Fred’s death other than the sadness it caused.
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Percy Weasley’s character arc and desire for power and notoriety in the Harry Potter movies is somewhat overlooked, but his betrayal in the books is a devastating blow. Throughout The Order of the Phoenix, Percy denies that Voldemort is back and becomes estranged from his family. He doesn’t reconcile with the rest of the Weasleys until the Battle of Hogwarts. Then, he finally admits he was wrong and wants to make amends. While it’s nice that Percy was able to continue living and doing good, he would have made more sense as a casualty than Fred.
6 Lucius Malfoy
It’s improbable that all of the Malfoys make it through the story
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Though Draco is one of Harry’s biggest rivals while he’s at school, Draco’s father, Lucius Malfoy, is even more cruel and villainous. It becomes clear throughout the books that Draco was raised in a terrible home environment and that he was pressured into becoming a Death Eater and following Voldemort, even though he didn’t really believe in the cause. Since he was a child and deserved the chance to follow his own path as an adult, it was satisfying that Draco lived and that Harry got to see him again when they were adults in the epilogue.
It’s not just Draco but both his parents who live through the Battle because they try to stay out of the way.
However, it’s not just Draco but both his parents who live through the Battle because they try to stay out of the way. However, there’s an argument to be made that Lucius’ death would have been poignant, as his cowardice and self-preservation were what led him to Voldemort in the first place and might have been his undoing. There were many senseless losses for the heroes, so it would have balanced things if secondary characters like Lucius had fallen on the other side.
|
Book |
Year of Release |
|
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone |
1997 |
|
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets |
1998 |
|
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban |
1999 |
|
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire |
2000 |
|
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix |
2003 |
|
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince |
2005 |
|
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows |
2007 |
5 Professor Trelawney
Or one of the more minor Hogwarts Professors
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Professor Trelawney is unaware that she truly possesses the gift of sight in Harry Potter. However, in The Prisoner of Azkaban, she predicts the events that unfold with Sirius and Peter Pettigrew. Later, Harry finds out that she is the one who made the prophecy about Voldemort’s destruction, which leads him to seek out the Potters and kill Harry’s parents. Her importance to the story and her influence over Harry’s fate would have made her death quite impactful.
Additionally, very few Hogwarts professors are killed during the Battle of Hogwarts and The Deathly Hallows overall. Snape dies at Voldemort’s hand during the Battle, and Charity Burbage is tragically captured by the Death Eaters early on in the story. While the professors possess highly advanced magical skills, it’s unlikely that none would have fallen during the Battle when so many others did. If it wasn’t Trelawney who was killed, it wouldn’t have been surprising to see another minor professor pass on.
4 Fenrir Greyback
As the werewolf who attacked Lupin, Greyback is an easy character to hate
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The audience is first introduced to werewolves in Harry Potter through Remus Lupin, a wise teacher and paternal figure in Harry’s life who doesn’t use his transformation as a weapon. However, the man who turned Lupin, Fenrir Greyback, uses his wolf side to hurt others and aligns himself with the Death Eaters. While Greyback wasn’t as prominent a villain as Bellatrix, seeing him taken down by a member of the Order, or even Lupin himself, would have made his character arc come full circle.
The fact that Lupin and Tonks both die in
The Deathly Hallows
and Greyback gets to live is a disappointing twist of fate.
Though he wasn’t technically a Death Eater, all of the supporters and Death Eaters who survive the Battle of Hogwarts in Harry Potter end up going to Azkaban and being fully punished. However, that doesn’t make their crimes any easier to look back on. The fact that Lupin and Tonks both die in The Deathly Hallows and Greyback gets to live is a disappointing twist of fate. The damage he caused during the Battle of Hogwarts was also unforgivable, as he cruelly attacked Lavender Brown.
3 Mundungus Fletcher
Though not an evil character, Mundungus had no loyalties in Harry Potter
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It would be easy to blame Mundungus Fletcher for the death of Mad-Eye Moody in The Deathly Hallows, as though Mundungus doesn’t support the Death Eaters; he only looks out for himself. Fueled by greed and cowardice, Mundungus flees at the first sign of trouble, leaving Mad-Eye alone to fight off too many enemies, resulting in his death. Matters are made worse by the fact that Mundungus was the one who stole the Horcrux locket from Grimmauld Place and let it fall into Umbridge’s hands.
Related Harry Potter: Every Major Death That Happened Off-Screen
Several important deaths in Harry Potter were never actually displayed on-screen at all, though many audiences believe they should have been.
After telling Harry that he ransacked Grimmauld Place after Sirius’ death and disappearing, Harry doesn’t hear from Mundungus again for the rest of The Deathly Hallows. It’s unsurprising that he doesn’t put himself at risk in the Battle of Hogwarts and leaves the hard and dangerous work to the other characters. Overall, Mundungus is a character who’s driven by selfishness, and while this doesn’t mean he should die, his development went unfinished, and a sacrifice could have redeemed him.
2 Vernon Dursley
None of the Dursley’s are heard from again after they leave Harry for the last time
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Harry never had a good relationship with the Dursleys, as his aunt and uncle made it clear throughout his childhood just how much his existence inconvenienced them. However, in the final moments, when they’re packing up in The Deathly Hallows and saying goodbye to Harry, it’s bittersweet. They might not have offered love or affection, but their presence in his life was a form of protection, and not being with them was a loss of innocence for Harry. Despite the critical role they play, Harry doesn’t think about them for the rest of the book.
The death of Vernon, or one of the Dursleys, would have been a shock and communicated to the audience that no one was safe from Voldemort’s wrath.
It’s unlikely that Voldemort would have thought of targeting the Dursleys, as they weren’t close to Harry, and they had no magical powers. However, the death of Vernon, or one of the Dursleys, would have been a shock and communicated to the audience that no one was safe from Voldemort’s wrath. This also would have shown that the Dursleys might not have been perfect, but they were important to Harry and had learned to be a bit better by the story’s end.
1 Neville Longbottom
His journey paralleled Harry’s and it could just as easily have been Neville who faced Voldemort
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Harry is shocked to learn that Neville could have been the child the prophecy referred to, as they were born around the same time, and both of their parents were in the Order. It came down to Voldemort’s belief that the prediction was about the Potters that sealed Harry’s fate and made Neville’s life seemingly ordinary. However, Neville also lost his parents, even if it wasn’t in the same way, and he showed tremendous bravery throughout the narrative, standing up to Voldemort and taking up Harry’s mantle when Harry is believed to be dead.
The
Harry Potter
HBO reboot TV show will premiere in 2026 (via
Deadline
).
Had Neville died while Harry survived the killing curse for the second time, it would have been a full-circle moment in Harry Potter, and Neville’s death would have been one of the biggest in the books. Of Harry’s immediate friends, there weren’t many Hogwarts students who died during the Battle, which would have given Neville’s death enormous impact. Additionally, since there’s a version of events when their roles are reversed, Neville should have died along with Harry when he sacrificed himself to Voldemort.
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Harry Potter is a multimedia franchise about an orphaned boy who enrolls at Hogwarts School of Wizardry, where he learns the truth about himself, his family, and the terrible evil that haunts the magical world. Adapted from the novels, Harry Potter is an eight-episode film saga that follows the journey of Harry Potter and his friends, Hermoine Granger and Ron Weasley, as they navigate the tricky world of growing up, school life, and magic. Starting from year one and moving to their seventh year, the films chronicle the students’ time at Hogwarts while unfurling a sinister plot that centers around the unsuspecting Harry. With the return of the dark wizard, Voldemort, the students and professors at Hogwarts will fight to carry on as the world around them may change forever. Harry Potter has expanded beyond the world of its films and novels with several video games, a spin-off film series titled Fantastic Beasts, and even attractions at Universal Studios.
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