#hp reference

[courfee]

17 December 1975 / 15 May 1976

[loz-tearsofahomo]

being hyperfixated on the marauders but not even remotely invested in taylor swift is a battle only given to god's strongest soldiers

[yumeurl]

tom riddle told me this is canon

omake:

[nicolinocolino]

[inkyarcturus]

Adopted Harry Potter screaming, crying while his friend group does a hear me out cake, and one idiot (probably one of the twins or something) decides to put Snape on the cake. Three more people nod in agreement. He is traumatized for life.

[adamslander66]

I'm sighing very loudly

[themostobsessed]

That one Pinterest ref with a mirror shard that fits Harry and Scarcrux so much ❤️ I couldn't walk by 🐍⚡

[mvrphysart]

that’s what they used to write that poetry about

[oldangryslytherin]

Harry: Maybe because you're skinny and maybe 'cause you're pretty, you're used to getting away with things, but I want you to know that your actions have an effect on others, and I hate you, and you are a horrible person, and you not understanding that you're a horrible person doesn't make you less of a horrible person

Tom:

Tom: you think I'm pretty?

[ivys-garden]

People don't talk about this much but it was kinda fucked of JK to steal the names for her characters from gravestones in Greyfriars . Tom Riddle didn't ask to be wizard Hitler.

[courfee]

oby jeggy is a different kind of dsfkdsf so here is them from the first fic in that series, i will touch you with my mind by my love @itsjaywalkers

[hpseeker99]

Teacher: Harry James Potter! I want you to call your parents this instant! 8-year-old Harry, who has absolutely been anticipating this exact moment: *pulls out a Ouija board* This might take a minute.

[ultravioletbrit]

“ball” - Jegulus microfic - @into-the-jeggyverse - 305 words

Regulus is sitting on the couch with one foot tucked under him and James’ feet in his lap and he’s absentmindedly playing with the hem of James’ joggers. He’s reading a fascinating book Pandora got him about the interconnection between Greek philosophy and mythology; James is reading a magazine that Regulus has never heard of. Regulus is getting lost in the moment until he hears Sirius snickering from across the room, he tries to ignore it, but Sirius doesn’t stop.

“What?” Regulus looks up, annoyed.

“You guys are the literal embodiment of ‘you know how to ball, I know Aristotle’.” Sirius chuckles.

“Did you just compare us to a Taylor Swift lyric?” Regulus raises an eyebrow.

“I mean…” Sirius gestures between Regulus and James.

“You mean what?” Regulus narrows his eyes.

“What are you reading?” Sirius asks instead of answering.  

Regulus reluctantly looks at his book about Greek philosophy then just glares at Sirius who cackles in response. “So? James is also reading?” Regulus tries to justify.

“James, what are you reading?” Sirius asks.

Regulus looks at James who’s trying very hard not to giggle when he says, “FourFourTwo.”

“I don’t even know what that is.”

“It’s my football magazine, love.” James tells him with a chuckle.

“Face it, Reggie. Your relationship is a walking, talking Taylor song.” Sirius leans back with a smug smile.

Before Regulus can respond, Barty and Evan walk in the living room and throw themselves on the other couch. “Hey, Sirius? You want to play video games with me and Ev?” Barty asks, unaware of the current conversation.

James and Sirius look at each other and burst out laughing.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” Regulus mumbles and rolls his eyes.

“What?” Barty looks between the three of them.

“It’s Taylor’s world, Barty. We’re just living in it.” Sirius tells him.

“Well, obviously.” Barty rolls his eyes.

[nkhluu]

I LOVE MY GIRLSS (ignore the gay man /j)

Don't ask why it's so low quality I have no idea myself

I hate ibis

[blorger]

Eyes, the so-called window to the soul, an often invaluable key to a character's true nature, are perhaps one of the less examined descriptors in the hp books.

We no doubt all have a distinct eye moment we can remember from the books; perhaps it's Harry's green eyes -so much like his mother's-, maybe it's the whimsy of Dumbledore's twinkling gaze or perhaps what stuck in your mind is one of the more peculiar, out there descriptors like Luna's popping eyes.

I prsonally find the hows and whys of jkr's physical descriptors to be a fascinating insight into the characters she created so I went and lovingly prepared a brief guide; hopefully you enjoy this,

METHODOLOGY

I counted these instances by hand so please keep in mind that there may be some minor inaccuracies in my tallying (basically don't quote me, I may occasionally be slightly off).

Furtermore, there are some descriptors that I did not consider in my count; I didn't keep track of the number of times in which someone's eyes are implied to be tearing up in some way because most times the crying is alluded to indirectly (eg.people often "wipe their eyes" or "avert their eyes") and actual adjectives like "teary", "misty", "streaming" and "leaking/leaky" are actually used quite sparingly (I will however observe who the narrative choses to highlight thusly because it's interesting).

Similarly, I didn't keep track on the amount of time a character's eyes "widen" since it's one of jkr's favourite ways to convey fear and/or surprise and it's not actually a verb used in conjunction with any character specifically (basically everyone does it at one point or another).

Finally, I did not keep a tally of the amount of times Harry's (or anyone else's) eyes open or close since this happens often regardless of the nature of the scene it happens in and doesn't tell us anything about a character that the excerpt itself doesn't.

TOP OF THE TOP

I would first like to begin our journey through the hp books' ocular realm with a few superlatives; here are the characters whose eyes are mentioned most often:

Voldemort is our leader with 53 eye mentions. He is the character whose eye color (red/scarlet) is mentioned most often (39 times + 2 mentions of Tom Riddle's dark eyes), but other notable descriptors include his pitiless/blank stare (5 times) and his slit pupil shape (4 times).

Severus Snape follows closely with 52 mentions; the most used eye descriptor is black (26 mentions) in reference to his eye color with a special mention going out to his cold and glittering stare (8 mentions each).

Albus Dumbledore is our distant third, with 36 mentions. His eye color (alternatively described as light blue/clear blue/bright blue) is mentioned 19 times and his infamous twinkling gaze is mentioned 11 times.

EYE COLOR DISTRIBUTION

BLUE: this the most common eye color in the books, with 10,5 named characters described as having it (the .5 is Alastor Moody's prosthetic eye). The characters with explicitly stated blue eyes include Albus Dumbledore (19 mentions), Dudley Dursley (1), Firenze (3), Narcissa Malfoy (1) and Ron Weasley (1). Caracters with more detailed descriptions include Gilderoy Lockhart (2) who we are specifically told has bright blue eyes, Ludo Bagman (3) and his baby blues, Aberforth Dumbledore (2)'s piercing brilliant eyes, Fleur Delacour (2) and her deep blue eyes and Igor Karkaroff(1) with his icy stare.

GREEN: The characters with explicitly stated green eyes are of course Harry ( 8 mentions) and Lily Potter (4),but also Dobby (4). I have further included in the count Hagrid's brother's Grawp* (2), who is described as having "sludge colored" "greenish brown" eyes and professor Horace Slughorn (1), whose eyes are described as "pale" and "gooseberry"-like.

*= I acknowledge that Grawp could have just as easily gone in the "brown" eye category but for some reason his eyes's description gave me more of a green vibe; feel free to disregard my categorisation if you wish.

BROWN: curiously, this is color is not more popular. Both Ginny Weasley (1 mention) and Hermione Granger (2) have brown eyes, together with Marvolo Riddle (1) and bowtruckles (1). As far as more evocative color names go, Hedwig (5) is described as having amber eyes whereas Winky the house elf (6) has beetle-brown eyes. Our final brown eyed beauty is James Potter (1), who has hazel eyes.

BLACK: black eyes are quite common with animals and beings since Scabbers (1 mention), acromantulas (1), Fawkes (1) and Goblins -most notably Griphook- (4) all have them. Humans with black eyes include the aforementioned Snape (26) and Hagrid's father (1), with Hagrid himself having the dubious honor of being the only character with beetle-black eyes (9).

GREY:* Lucius Malfoy (5 mentions), Cedric Diggory (3), Draco Malfoy (2) and Kreacher (1) are the only characters expressly stated to have grey eyes. Garrick Ollivander (2), patronuses (1) and Luna Lovegood (1) have specifically silvery eyes.

*:There's another character who is implied to have grey eyes as well, as we'll later see when discussing pale eyes.

YELLOW: this is another color largely reserved for creatures as Mrs Norris (2 mentions), the basilisk (1), Crookshanks (8), Dragons (2) and merfolk (2) are all said to have yellow eyes. The only humans with yellow eyes are Cat Hermione - albeit temporarily- (1), Madam Hooch (1) and Rufus Scrimegour (3).

ORANGE: this color is reserved for hippogriffs (and Buckbeak) who are twice mentioned as having orange eyes.

RED: There is only one person in the books who has permanently red eyes and that, of course, is Voldemort (39 mentions, sometimes using the term scarlet). Many characters' eyes are temporarily red, be it from crying (Hagrid, Molly, Madam Maxime, Lavender, Neville) or cursed locket possession (Ron). The only animals/creatures with red eyes are Beauxbatons's winged horses.

WHITE: finally, we come to the rarest eye color in all of the books, which gets a .5 on account of the fact that only one person could conceivably have had milky eyes and that is Bathilda Bagshot. Considering the fact that white eyes in general and milky eyes specifically seem to be an exclusive purview of the dead (Aragog's corpse, the thestrals's blank white eyes) and that the only time we meet Bathilda she's currently a corpse being inhabited by a giant snake, I'd venture to say that no one who is alive (or not closely tied to death) actually possesses white eyes.

Of further interest to the eye color conversation, I would like to point out characters who are mentioned to have either pale or dark eyes:

the term DARK EYES doesn't seem to be tied to a single color specifically. the only dark-eyed beings/people whose eye color we know for sure are goblins and Severus Snape, who are both described as having black eyes. The rest of the characters who get this descriptor are Padma Patil (who, being an identical twin, most likely shares this characteristic with her sister Parvati), Romilda Vane, Morfin Gaunt, Tom Riddle, Kendra Dumbledore, Phineas Nigellus Black and Bellatrix lestrange.

The term PALE EYES, however, seems to refer almost exclusively to grey eyed people since Ollivander, Lucius and Draco Malfoy* and Kreacher are all described as having pale eyes. The only pale eyed person with non-grey eyes we find is Horace Slughorn (he has very pale green eyes) and we further have only one pale eyed character whose eye color we cannot be sure of and that is Petunia Dursley.

*: Draco is a rarity in that his eyes are said to be pale (7 times) and cold (2) more often than their actual color (once grey and once light grey)

PECULIARITIES IN EYE DESCRIPTIONS

There honestly doesn't seem to be neither rhyme nor reason behind wether someone's eyes are described or not. Important characters like Ron and Ginny's eyes are talked about extremely rarely whereas beings like like Grawp and Winky get incongruously detailed descriptions.

Of the main trio, Hermione's eyes get mentioned often when she's either crying or on the verge of tears but her actual eye color is mentioned only twice and her expression is almost never conveyed through her gaze. Hermione's eyes are glassy, puffy, tearing, bloodshot; they are sparkling or shining with tears more than they are flashing with righteousness or shadowed with tiredness.

Harry's eyes are more often mentioned in the context of him trying to push hair out of them than they are to showcase his expressions. Besides Harry's eye color and his penchant for glaring we learn precious little about his eyes. The only information of note I found comes from a description Harry provides of his mother's eyes* (to which his are often compared, even by himself). When observing Snape's worst memory Harry notes that his mother's eyes are almond-shaped, a rare descriptor only used in two instances: this one and when Harry meets and describes a Sphynx's appearance.

Ron's eyes are the least described of the trio. We sometimes hear of him rolling his eyes or widening them in fear and/or surprise but that is just about it.

Unlike Ron, House Elves's eyes get mentioned every time they appear in a scene, to the point that we know both the eye color and characteristics of all named elves: Kreacher's pale grey eyes are bloodshot and bulging, Dobby's green ones are round, huge, enormous, immense and they are desrcribed on more than one instance as orb-like and tennis ball-like. Even Winky's eyes are remarked upon with surprising frequency; they are glassy on account of her frequent crying and, like all elves's, they are also giant and enormous.

other characters who get more eye mentions than the number of their appearances demand are Gregory Goyle, who we know has dull and small deep-set eyes and Mrs Norris, whose unique lamp-like eyes are remarked upon multiple times.

Some characters have a characteristic eye look that is unique to them. Bellatrix, for example, is the only person with hooded and heavy-lidded eyes (even Andromeda, who is said to resemble her greatly, has wider, kinder eyes).

Characters who have spent time in Azkaban (though not Bellatrix) retain a visible tell of their experience through their gazes: both Sirius and post-jail Lucius** have shadowed eyes that are sunken, like those of the long-imprisoned Grindlewald.

*: curiously, the only other character whose eyes get compared to a member of their family's is Aberforth Dumbledore, whom the narrative takes pain to remind the reader has his brother's eyes.

**: the post-jail change in Lucius's eyes is stark in that, before his imprisonment, he had glittering eyes, cold and cool (a term uniquely reserved for him).

IT'S THE SIZE THAT COUNTS

Another eye characteristic that is often remarked upon is the size of one's eyes, with small eyes being more often than not the purview of villains and general undesirables.

People with small eyes, include Myrtle Warren, Gregory Goyle, Peter Pettigrew, both Dudley* and Vernon Dursley*, Grawp and Morfin Gaunt.

Beady eyes are found in animals like Fawkes and snakes, but also -curiously- in Professor McGonagall.

Little eyes are a Dursley exclusive* as the term is only used to refer to both Vernon and Dudley.

Characters with tiny eyes include Vernon Dursley and his sister, Aunt Marge, Scabbers the rat, Hepzibah Smith and Amycus Carrow.

*:As you might have noticed, small eyes seem to be a bit of a Dursley family special. The same goes for the term piggy eyes, which is only found in relation to them

Talk of BIG EYES is strangely not used in a flattering way that contrasts the aforementioned small eyes, with the notable exception of Romilda Vane's case. She is the only character whose big and large eyes are to be interpreted in a flattering manner; as for the rest:

LARGE eyes are found in Petunia Dursley, Hedwig, Alice Longbottom (in whose case said eyes are remarked to be overlarge) and Horace Slughorn

People with HUGE eyes include Dobby, Prof. Trelawney, Narcissa Malfoy and Kreacher.

IMMENSE eyes are the exclusive purview of Dobby, as are eyes likened to TENNIS BALLS, HEADLIGHTS and ORBS.

Characters with ENORMOUS/ENLARGED eyes include prof. Trelawney, Winky, Dobby and Luna Lovegood.

GIANT eyes are exclusive to Trelawney and Winky

BULGING eyes can be found in both mrs Norris and Argus Filch, but also in Norbert the dragon, Dobby, Kreacher, Oliver Wood, Crouch sr., Luna and Umbridge. Fittingly for a category that is most likely supposed to be transitory* both the newly poisoned Ron and the dying Bellatrix are also described through this term.

People with POPPING eyes include Argus Filch, Luna Lovegood, Crouch sr, Vernon Dursley, Ron and Dolores Umbridge.

PROMINENT eyes are found in Luna, Umbridge and Slughorn.

PROTUBERANT eyes are a Luna Lovegood staple but Garrick Ollivander is also mentioned to be having them.

BEACON-like is a term reserved exclusively for Sibyl Trelawney

LAMP-like is, likewise, a mrs. Norris exclusive

*: Another observation that must be made in regard to large eyes is that not all of the characters l listed above are described as having permanently big eyes. In many case, these terms are used as synonyms for wide-eyed (the term indicating surprise I chose not to include because of its indiscriminate nature). Regardless, with one look at this list one can easily identify repeat offenders (like elves, Luna and Trelawney) whose eyes are more likely to actually be big

To close out this section, I would like to point out some miscellaneous descriptors used to highlight a character's eye shape, something that actually happens quite rarely in the books. We are more often provided adjectives that give us an impression of a certain character's eyes but aren't necessarily descriptive then we do with tried and true physical descriptors.

Round eyes, for example, are often used to describe Ludo Bagman's child-like expression while pouchy is a term reserved for Dolores Umbridge's toad-like eyes. In order to highlight Blaise Zabini's "exotic beauty" (barf), he alone receives long eyes that slant (like goblins' eyes do, do with that what you will). Morfin and Merope Gaunt are the only characters with strabismus while the perennially shady Mundungus Fletcher has permanently droopy, saggy and baggy eyes.

IT'S ALL IN THE EYES

Some terms, usually those referring to how the light catches a character's eyes, are surefire indicator of their nature (or, at the very least, the nature of their actions).

Glittering eyes, for example, often do so with malice or mischief; some notable adopters include Lucius and Draco Malfoy, Peeves, Severus Snape, Griphook and, in two occasions, some random Death Eaters (as seen through their masks). (It must be noted, for completeness sake, that Harry's eyes also glitter in one occasion, and not for evil reasons)

These same characters' eyes also also described through the synonyms gleam and glint, though these two terms are more widely adopted by non-evil characters.

Oliver Wood, Crookshanks, Fred Weasley and Minerva McGonagall's eyes also glint, but at the same time so do the Death Eaters', Draco's Snape's and Voldemort's.

Gleaming eyes, likewise, are not only used for characters like Aragog/acromantulas in general, dog Sirius as the Grim, thestrals, Snape, Voldemort and Bellatrix but also for Ron, Trelawney, Oliver Wood, Ernie Macmillan and Slughorn.

The complete opposite of glittering eyes is probably twinkling eyes, which are only found in "good" characters. Besides Dumbledore, the term is also used to refer to the expressions of Hagrid, Lupin, Tonks and Bill and Molly Weasley.

GENDERED EYE LANGUAGE

Eyes that are tearing or on the verge of tears are a near total female exclusive. In line with this meta by @wisteria-lodge ,The only male characters who occasionally get described using the same language do so for either femme-coding or comical reasons.

While terms like red rimmed and streaming eyes (aunt Muriel), burning eyes (McGonagall), leaky eyes (Myrtle and McGonagall) are female exclusives, only male characters have wet or watering eyes (both Scabbers and Peter, Kreacher and Slughorn).

Hagrid, our most prolific male crier, shares both teary and bright/overbright eyes with noted female criers Hermione and Molly Weasley (plus, unexpectedly, Petunia) and further displays misty eyes together with Luna (and again Petunia) and puffing/puffy eyes with Hermione.

As a curious aside, notably femme-coded character Draco Malfoy has both shining and sparkling eyes which, when referring to Hermione, are used to describe crying but for him indicate malice.

CONCLUSION

I'd like to close this out with a look at some terms I was surprised weren't as widely used as I would have thought:

Only one character has mean eyes and it's book 1's troll

the only instance in which the term long-lashed is found occurs when Snape's doe patronus is being described

Only one person has hungry eyes (even though quite a few characters have hungry expressions) and it's Voldemort

both alert and weary (two very useful descriptors for a war and conflict in general) are terms used uniquely to refer to Remus Lupin's eyes

Vernon Dursley is the only character with angry eyes

Rufus Scrimegour is the only character to have keen eyes

Similarly, only Phineas Nigellus possesses clever eyes

lastly, only Peeves's eyes dance around

Please enjoy the fruit of my (unasked for) labor friends,

xoxo

[casszanova]

Finally finished