Considering he was nicknamed the "Chosen One," Harry Potter was never going to end with anyone other than the Boy Who Lived killing Lord Voldemort. Their paths are intertwined from the very beginning, and taking his nemesis down serves as the culmination of several years of Harry's character development.
Even if Harry wasn't predestined to kill Voldemort, he has plenty of personal motivation to do so. By the time he's 17 years old, Voldemort has both directly and inadvertently killed or maimed several of his loved ones. But Harry isn't the only one who suffers. For better or worse, everyone in the Harry Potter universe feels the impact of Voldemort's tyranny — and many characters deserved revenge.
Fans are split on whether Dumbledore is a hero or villain, but one thing everyone can agree on is that his beliefs make him the antithesis of the Dark Lord. After his past mistakes with Grindelwald, Dumbledore becomes the voice of reason in the wizarding world and is renowned as the only man Voldemort ever feared.
Considering it's Dumbledore's years of research into Horcruxes and the Deathly Hallows that set Harry up to kill Voldemort, the former Hogwarts headmaster already plays a big role in the villain's demise. However, taking him down personally would serve as a valiant ending for a man who once veered dangerously close to also pursuing the Dark Arts.
As the second youngest of seven children and best friend of the Chosen One, Ron often feels overlooked. He deals with it well for the most part, but every now and then — such as when Harry's name is pulled from the Goblet of Fire — Ron's jealousy gets the better of him.
Killing Voldemort would have given Ron the chance to finally bask in the spotlight. He also has personal reasons for revenge, considering the pain and grief Voldemort brought into his best friend's life, and how his followers led to years of danger for his family and Fred's tragic death.
Although Narcissa isn't technically a Death Eater, her life is so entangled with their cause that she may as well be. She expresses anti-Muggle values that align with Voldemort's, and her husband and sister both benefit from his rule.
Despite this, Voldemort makes her life miserable. Because of him, she briefly loses Lucius to Azkaban and goes through a year of hell when Draco is tasked with killing Dumbledore. Ultimately, Narcissa's allegiance lies with her family above all else. Taking down the one responsible for the Malfoys' problems would have served as a satisfying full-circle moment for a series that started with another mother, Lily, risking everything for her son.
Hermione doesn't come face to face with Voldemort until Deathly Hallows. However, she feels the impact of his anti-Muggle-born sentiments for years. Not only is she bullied by the likes of Malfoy and Pansy, who benefit from the Death Eaters' rise to power, but Hermione is lucky to survive Voldemort's Ministry of Magic, which would gladly see her imprisoned — or killed.
It's because of Voldemort that Hermione has to remove her parents' memories and spend a year on the run. As the group he oppresses most, a Muggle-born killing Voldemort would have made a point about how irrelevant blood and heritage are to magical prowess.
Kind, loyal and generous, Hagrid has a heart of gold. This is exactly what makes his school experience so upsetting. After just three years at Hogwarts, Hagrid was expelled and lost his legal right to magic for something he didn't even do.
This was all Voldemort's fault. Then known as Tom Riddle, he pinned the opening of the Chamber of Secrets and Moaning Myrtle's death on Hagrid. This gave Riddle a few extra years of magical training, while Hagrid's life was ruined. It'd be near-impossible to kill Voldemort without a wand, but the moment would have been extremely gratifying.
Regulus is one of many Harry Potter characters fans never met whose deaths turn out to be incredibly important. Long before Harry and Dumbledore started hunting them, Sirius' younger brother was the first to discover one of Voldemort's Horcruxes.
Sadly, Regulus gave his life in the process. After worshipping Voldemort and the Dark Arts through his adolescent years, this act does serve as a redemption of sorts. However, Regulus actively taking down the person who twists the beliefs of so many other young purebloods would have sent a stronger message.
Despite only entering the wizarding world at the age of 11, Lily’s entire life is defined by Lord Voldemort. Not only does she lose her best friend Snape to his cause, but she has to tolerate the Muggle-born hatred incited by his power throughout her school years. And that’s only half of it.
As an adult, Lily is forced to watch her friends in the Order of the Phoenix die at the hands of Voldemort and his followers. But the main reason she deserved to kill Voldemort is, of course, because he wanted to kill her son. The only thing more powerful than her sacrifice would have been her killing the Dark Lord to save her boy.
Some Harry Potter fans consider Snape to be a romantic hero, while others believe he brought his suffering upon himself. He definitely wasn’t forced into the Dark Arts — and he made terrible choices — but there’s no denying he had reason to hate his master.
Voldemort not only threatened to kill Lily, but actually did it when Snape begged him not to. Snape then spent years playing the exhausting and dangerous role of a double agent to protect her son. Even though this is for entirely selfish reasons, Snape had more personal reason to kill him than many.
In many ways, Harry and Neville have very similar journeys, with the latter coming so close to being the Chosen One. If Voldemort had seen the pureblood as the greater threat — not the half-blood like himself — it would have been the Longbottoms he visited that night, and Harry would be scar-free.
That didn’t happen, but Neville still has his reasons for wanting revenge. Alice and Frank Longbottom were tortured into insanity by Voldemort’s followers, which even Harry admits might be worse than death. Neville is one of many children whose lives were destroyed by the Wizarding Wars. His transformation to the confident young man in Deathly Hallows couldn’t have had a more impactful ending than killing the one responsible.
Voldemort ruined plenty of lives — even those of his loyal followers. After spending his youth openly supporting Voldemort’s values, Malfoy becomes a Death Eater in his sixth year. In spite of all his bravado, he hates the experience. He’s tormented by the idea of killing Dumbledore all year, desperately trying to complete the task indirectly to avoid doing it in person.
It isn’t in Malfoy’s heart to kill (making him more like Harry than he’d care to admit). However, Malfoy fighting back to kill Voldemort would have given his character a more effective redemption arc than he got in the series. It would also serve as a nice parallel to Snape; Malfoy could have reinforced how it’s never too late to make the right choice.
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October 09, 2021 at 12:00AM
