10 Harry Potter Characters Who Deserved Better & 10 Who Had What Was Coming
A Little Justice, a Little Karma, and a Lot of Feelings
The Harry Potter series is packed with magical wonder, but it’s also basically a masterclass in “life isn’t fair,” and you’ve probably got at least a few characters you still want to send a sympathy card. Some people were doing their best and still got steamrolled by tragedy. On the flip side, however, a handful of terrible, no good characters finally got the satisfying end they deserved. Here are 10 Harry Potter characters whose demises still hurt and 10 whose fate was more than warranted.
1. Sirius Black
Sirius lost his best friends, his freedom, and his reputation because the wizarding world was way too eager to point fingers. Even after he escaped, he had to live like a ghost on the edges of Harry’s life, which is cruel when you know he only wanted to protect his kid. When he finally got a moment of hope, the story yanked it away, and you can almost hear the universe saying, “Nope, not today.”
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2. Remus Lupin
Teaching at Hogwarts lets you see the version of Remus that should’ve been his everyday life: kind, competent, and quietly brave. Instead, being a werewolf kept slamming doors in his face, from jobs to friendships, even when he was trying his hardest to do right. By the time he found real happiness, the war took it back, and that just feels like the plot picking on the nicest guy in the room.
3. Nymphadora Tonks
Tonks shows up with neon hair and big-sister energy, and you immediately think, “Okay, this one is going to be fun to watch.” Then the books hand her grief, war trauma, and a heartbreakingly short time to enjoy her little family. If anyone earned a long, chaotic career as the coolest aunt in the wizarding world, it was her.
4. Fred Weasley
Nobody did comic timing like Fred, and his jokes were basically the Weasley family’s emergency coping plan. Watching George lose the other half of that act hits harder because you know their dream shop was finally working. Fred’s story ends like a punchline that never lands, and you can’t help but wish the war had taken literally anyone else.
5. Cedric Diggory
Cedric was one of those rare Hogwarts kids who could be popular without being a jerk about it. He played fair, treated Harry like a real competitor, and still got used as a pawn in a plan he didn’t even know existed. For a character who did almost everything right, his exit feels like the series’s cruel reminder that being a good guy isn't enough to save you from the forces of evil.
6. Dobby
Dobby’s whole life is a masterclass in how to be brave when you’re small and everyone expects you to stay quiet. He finally gets freedom, friends, and a job he actually likes, and then the story snatches him away right when you’re rooting the hardest. If you ever yelled “leave him alone” at a page, you already know Dobby deserved a peaceful retirement somewhere with unlimited socks.
7. Rubeus Hagrid
Hagrid keeps getting blamed for disasters he didn’t cause, which is wild when his biggest crime is loving dangerous animals a little too much. Between being expelled, getting sent to Azkaban, and being mocked for his size, he spends years proving himself to people who don’t deserve his loyalty. Honestly, Hogwarts should’ve built a statue in his honor and let him keep a dragon in the courtyard, just once.
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8. Lavender Brown
Lavender gets remembered as “the clingy girlfriend,” but she was a teenage girl in a war zone trying to feel normal for five minutes. Her crush on Ron was messy, sure, yet it also showed she could be bold and affectionate without apologizing for it. When the final battle rolls around, she doesn’t hide, and that kind of courage should’ve earned her more respect than a running joke.
9. Colin Creevey
Colin’s camera obsession can be annoying until you realize he’s basically documenting the first place that ever felt like home. As a Muggle-born kid, he walks into Hogwarts with stars in his eyes and ends up fighting for the right to exist in that world. His death is one of those details that makes you put the book down for a second, because it shouldn’t have been a child paying that bill.
10. Katie Bell
Katie was just trying to make it through school and Quidditch practices when a cursed necklace decided to ruin her entire year. She gets dragged into the big bad plot with zero consent, and the aftermath is mostly pain, fear, and people moving on. If you think about it, she deserved a victory lap, not a hospital bed and a storyline that barely pauses to check on her.
Now that we've talked about the characters who didn't deserve their tragic ends, let's go over the ones we couldn't wait to see taught a harsh lesson.
1. Dolores Umbridge
There's perhaps no character more vile and hateable in all of fiction than Delores Umbridge. She abused power with a smile, punished kids for telling the truth, and tried to turn education into a control experiment. So when the centaurs hauled her off, and she later faced real consequences, it felt like the universe was filing her complaints directly into the shredder.
2. Peter Pettigrew
Peter Pettigrew spent years surviving by being smaller, quieter, and nastier than everyone around him. After he betrayed his friends and hid behind stronger villains, even Voldemort treated him like a disposable tool. That silver hand turning on him is the kind of poetic justice that makes you nod and say, “Yep, that tracks.”
3. Lord Voldemort
Voldemort chased immortality so hard that he basically turned his soul into confetti. Every shortcut he took, from Horcruxes to bullying followers, came with a cost he refused to admit existed. When his own killing curse rebounds, it’s not just dramatic, it’s the exact ending his choices were building toward.
4. Bellatrix Lestrange
Bellatrix treated cruelty like a hobby and loyalty like a competitive sport, which is a truly exhausting combo. Like a psychopathic sociopath, she enjoyed hurting people, bragged about it, and never once showed a shred of regret, even when the tide turned. Molly Weasley taking her down is satisfying because it proves that fearless love can hit harder than fanatical devotion.
5. Gilderoy Lockhart
Lockhart coasted on stolen stories and perfect hair, which might work at book signings but not in real danger. He tried to wipe other people’s memories to protect his image, then botched the spell so badly it backfired on him. Ending up in St. Mungo’s with nothing but his own autograph to cling to is exactly the sort of consequence his ego invited.
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6. Rita Skeeter
Rita Skeeter is the embodiment of why everyone hates the media these days. Her habit of snooping, twisting facts, and feeding the public’s worst instincts finally ran into Hermione, who didn’t feel like playing nice. Getting trapped and then kept on a very tight boundary was a rare moment where the gossip machine got forced to swallow its own ink.
7. Quirinus Quirrell
Quirrell wanted dark wizard credibility so badly that he let a literal monster move into his head. Instead of asking for help, he tried to outsmart Dumbledore, steal the Stone, and intimidate a bunch of kids, which was never going to end well. His demise is a brutal reminder that borrowing Voldemort’s power comes with a return policy you won’t like.
8. Vincent Crabbe
Crabbe spent most of the series acting like cruelty was a personality, and he kept choosing the worst possible friends to follow. When he unleashed Fiendfyre in the Room of Requirement, he proved he couldn’t handle the kind of magic he was flirting with. The fire consuming him feels less like a tragedy and more like a consequence of treating danger as a toy.
9. Lucius Malfoy
For years, Lucius waved his money and influence around like a wand that could solve everything. Once Voldemort came back, though, his swagger turned into panic, and you could see how hollow his “pure-blood” superiority really was. Watching him scramble for his family’s safety is the perfect retribution for someone who spent so long gambling with other people’s lives.
10. Marge Dursley
Aunt Marge showed up, insulted Harry's dead parents to his face, and acted like being loud counted as being right, so she didn’t exactly earn sympathy. Harry inflating her is over-the-top, but in a world full of curses and dragons, it’s also a very teenager-style breaking point. Not to mention, deeply satisfying to witness.
