This Weekend, Read This
The Unofficial Harry Potter Bracket Part 3
By Curt David and Emily Gibson
April 23, 2020
Do I feel a little bad that it’s my fault Viktor Krum, Rubeus Hagrid, Arthur Weasley, and Rita Skeeter had humiliating defeats in duels with other wizards? A little.
But I’m even more excited that my lifelong goal to create The Unofficial Harry Potter bracket is coming to fruition.
To see the 32 seeded wizards and witches, and more info about the tournament, click here.
To learn how Dolores Umbridge, Ginny Weasley, Lucius Malfoy, and Bellatrix Lestrange advanced to the Sweet 16, click here.
Note: All of these Harry Potter columns might contain spoilers from the series.
The next four duels of the Harry Potter bracket have happened and I am going to share with you the results here. If you would like to vote for the remaining duels, feel free to follow along on Twitter @himmelberger_c and Instagram @curt_himmelberger.
Also, the amazing and wonderful Emily Gibson (FB: emily.gibson.12) has created the dueling stories you’ll see below.
Without further ado, here are the results:
MATCH 5: Who would win in a duel between Neville Longbottom (4) vs. Fleur Delacour (5)?
Neville Longbottom received 33% of the votes vs. 67% for Fleur Delacour, so Delacour moves on to the Sweet 16.
How did the duel go down? Emily explains:
Official: “Up next is Neville Longbottom and Fleur Delacour. Will both parties please come on up?”
Both come to the stage. Delacour is looking at Longbottom in the eyes and has a sly smile.
Longbottom tries to look away, but keeps an eye on her from the corner of his eye.
Official, “The combatants face each other, bow, and then attempt to disarm, injure, or kill each other in order to force submission, and thus a winner is decided. Ready on the count of three. One, Two. Three.”
Delacour, a half Veela with her white-gold hair and moon-bright skin, smiles at Longbottom again and asks nicely for his wand.
Longbottom trips and hands over his wand.
Officials, “The most beautiful Fleur Delacour has won due to Neville Longbottom currently following her around and fixing her a drink.”
Delacour, “Oh thanks, you are just so sweet! Here you can have your wand back.”
She walks away.
When Longbottom gets his wand, he blinks and takes a status like he is ready to attack. As she walked away, he asks, “Did you forfeit?”
Officials: “No Longbottom, you did.”
Longbottom is confused.
Match Analysis:
Out of the voters who commented, the number one reason behind voting for Delacour is her being the Beauxbatons champion for the Tri-wizard tournament. A second and similar reason is all of her other accomplishments, like helping with Order business and having several years of dueling experience on Neville. A third reason is a tie between men being defenseless around her and Neville’s clumsiness. The most popular reason to vote for Neville was his qualities of being courageous and defending his friends.
This match was the second upset of the tournament so far! Delacour moves on to the Sweet 16 where she will play the winner of either Molly Weasley or Sybill Trelawney.
My conclusion: One, and I think I’ll realize this time and again during this bracket, but J.K. Rowling knows how to create strong female characters. Two, I enjoy hearing voters’ opinions, which often highlight bigger issues in general. My favorite comment from this round was a voter who analyzed all the reasons why Neville was getting votes and sharing how this is another example of women being undervalued despite their obvious accomplishments. Preach! As far as Fleur’s future in the tournament, I sadly believe that Molly Weasley will take down her daughter-in-law in the next round.
MATCH 6: Who would win in a duel between Luna Lovegood (2) vs. Gregory Goyle (7)?
Luna Lovegood received 89% of the votes vs. 11% for Gregory Goyle, so she moves on to the Sweet 16.
How did the duel go down? Emily explains:
Official: “Up next is Luna Lovegood and Gregory Goyle. Will both please come on up?”
Goyle glares and sulks to his side. Meanwhile, Lovegood appears to be talking to herself and skipping in circles.
Officials, “Please stand still. The combatants face each other, bow, and then attempt to disarm, injure or kill each other in order to force submission, and thus a winner is decided. Miss Lovegood could you please stand still and face Goyle.”
Goyle’s evil sinister smile creeps across his face.
Lovegood, “Oh yeah, sure. I was just talking to some wrackspurts. They are all over the place. You won’t believe what they’re saying.”
The confused official: “On the count of three. One. Two. Three.”
Goyle’s wand turns a slight green and then flickers out. He then yells FIENDFYRE and everything erupts into flames.
Lovegood appears to be rising off the ground by herself and just hovering above the match.
Goyle is now on fire and yells that he has forfeited. Everyone rushes to the stage to put out the fire.
Lovegood is still appearing to talk to herself. She yells down, “It’s good to have a Thestral nearby. I am going to follow these Blibbering humdingers. Do you all see them? They are all over the place!”
Everyone else is still putting out the flames.
Match analysis:
Out of the voters who commented, the number one reason behind voting for Lovegood is her experience in Dumbledore’s army. The second reason to vote for her were all the comments about Goyle being dumb and not knowing much magic (if you add the reasons of him not being able to fight without Crabbe or Malfoy, then this would be the number one reason). While a lot of comments focused on Luna’s intelligence and fierce loyalty, the third reason was the spectrum of synonyms for quirkiness, from a “little kooky” to “lovable sociopath.”
Luna Lovegood moves on to the Sweet 16 where she will either duel Fred Weasley or Mad-Eye Moody.
My conclusion: Luna Lovegood is amazing, and that’s not my conclusion from the results of this duel. She was by far one of my top three favorite characters, who had so many admirable qualities. And if you go down a rabbit trail of researching her on the internet, you’ll realize she is a very powerful witch (could do a Patronus charm early on, etc.). So while I am excited that she won, I was disappointed that some people voted for her to win because she was “strange,” while in fact she did not live her life based on what people thought about her, which is something we all should strive to do as well. So while she may lose to Mad-Eye Moody next round, I personally believe that Luna deserves to make it to the Final Four.
MATCH 7: Who would win in a duel between Minerva McGonagall (1) vs. Gilderoy Lockhart (8)?
Minerva McGonagall received 97% of the votes vs. 3% for Lucius Malfoy, so McGonagall moves on to the Sweet 16.
How did the duel go down? Emily explains:
Official: “Now that we have the fire all taken care of, although the smoke smell is slightly in the air, up next is Minerva McGonagall and Gilderoy Lockhart.”
Lockhart says, “I will take it easy on you McGonagall. You know this is a wonderful teaching moment. It reminds me of the time I had to duel for the love of my life in Book 5, Holidays with Hags. You can pick it up at the best book stores. And I will be at Flourish and Blotts after this is done for autographs. It is not every day you get to meet a star.”
McGonagall looks at the official, “Can we get on with this?”
Official: “Oh, yes. The combatants face each other, bow, and then attempt to disarm, injure, or kill each other in order to force submission, and thus a winner is decided.”
Lockhart is still talking about his books.
Official: “On the count of three. One. Two. Three.”
Lockhart faces the audience. “Oblivia-” His wand flies out of his hand and he is tossed in the air.
McGonagall smiles and walks off the stage.
Official: “McGonagall wins. I am not sure why Lockhart was facing the audience.”
Match analysis:
It was tough to separate the reasons for McGonagall’s victory into separate categories. Other than people who mentioned Lockhart’s complete lack of ability, everyone else just stated McGonagall’s awesomeness and guaranteed victory, with phrases like “unbothered flick of her wrist,” “decisively decimate,” “hands down,” “no question,” and “she is basically the Ruth Bader Ginsberg of the Harry Potter world.”
Minerva McGonagall moves on to the Sweet 16, where she will duel Lucius Malfoy, who is already in the Sweet 16.
My conclusion: Who were the 3% who did not vote for McGonagall? I agreed with all the comments from this round, and will take it one step farther and predict that McGonagall may win the whole tournament.
MATCH 8: Who would win in a duel between Hermione Granger (1) vs. Pomona Sprout (8)?
Hermione Granger received 89% of the votes vs.11% for Pomona Sprout, so Hermione moves on to the Sweet 16.
How did the duel go down? Emily explains:
Official: “Hermione Granger and Pomona Sprout.”
Both make their way to the stage.
Sprout says, “I really need to check on the Mandrake when this is over.”
Granger says, “I really don’t think doing this with a teacher is best. I don’t want to hurt her.”
Official: “The combatants face each other, bow, and then attempt to disarm, injure, or kill each other in order to force submission, and thus a winner is decided.”
Sprout summons her Mandrake pot from the side lines and pulls it out of the pot; it starts screaming.
Everyone covers their ears!
It was a baby Mandrake so no one dies, but people start passing out.
Granger, “Expelliarmus!” Sprout’s baby Mandrake and wand fly out of her hands and into the air. They landed outside somewhere.
Sprout, “How are you still standing? You should have passed out like the rest of them.”
Granger takes the cotton out of her ears. “I was just wanting to concentrate and the noise of the audience is loud sometimes.”
The official, who also had cotton in his ears that he pulled out, “Well Granger wins. I guess when the others wake up we will try the next match tomorrow.”
Match analysis:
Now this is interesting. There were hardly any comments about why Hermione should win. The major reason why is that this duel and the McGonagall/Lockhart duel happened on the same day. Duels usually get their own days on my social media accounts, but since these were both 8 seeds and 1 seeds, they were lumped together. So, most of the voters picked McGonagall and Granger, and listed a reason why McGonagall would win. Did this happen because people disliked the thought of Lockhart winning anything at all and would be outraged if anyone voted for him over McGonagall? And no one really commented on Granger/Sprout because while Granger would obviously win, there is nothing bad to say against the teacher Sprout? I hope so. Because the other reason would be that people are more passionate for McGonagall than Granger, which would mean that Granger has a harder road ahead of her in this tournament.
Granger moves onto the Sweet 16 where she will duel either Remus Lupin or Peter Pettigrew.
My conclusion: Well, I personally thought the final two would be McGonagall vs. Granger (with perhaps Molly Weasley or Bellatrix Lestrange in one of those spots). I am still voting for McGonagall and Granger, but am a little bit more worried about Granger’s future duels.
Stay tuned for the results of the other matches of The Unofficial Harry Potter tournament.
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