photo from Wikimedia Commons

     Let’s dive into characters that don’t get enough attention, I think the first character that is underrated is Draco Malfoy. A lot of people hate him but he was misunderstood by everyone. He was only a child and was forced to be a death eater and given the job to kill Dumbledore. He eventually changes his ways and stops caring about his blood status and probably getting PTSD from being a death eater. Not to mention in Half-Blood Prince when he’s crying in the bathroom because he feels angry and upset for hexing someone Harry sees this and instead of being considerate of Draco, he attacks him. People call Draco the villain in this scenario because he was about the hit Harry with the crucio! Curse He was only doing it to defend himself since he was already weakened. Despite that, before Draco could finish saying the curse Harry fought back at him using sectumsempra! (Which is a spell Snape made and does damage as if you were cut by blades). He eventually leaves Draco unconscious and hurt without feeling any sympathy or guilt.  When Draco makes fun of Ron for being poor, Harry and Ron act like only Draco does it and other people don’t say stuff and target Draco once again (not to mention Draco was only 9-11 years old a literal kid as kids we don’t know any better and just do what we see from the adults around us).

 Another underrated character is Oliver Wood, people who watched the movies know him as the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. If you have read the books then you know that the movie Oliver and the book Oliver and two different people. In the books, he cares so deeply about Quidditch, that in Prisoner of Azkaban when Professor McGonagall takes away Harry Firebolt he is so determined to win the Quidditch cup that he says that he cares more about winning than Harry possibly getting injured from a “jinxed” broom. In the Battle of Hogwarts, he even brings his Quidditch team to fight in battle even though it has been years since he attended Hogwarts. Knowing Oliver he probably came to save the burning quidditch pitch, but still, he came and helped making him a highly underrated character. 

Also, another underrated character whose death was not justified is Cedric Diggory. Firstly movie watchers meet him in Goblet of Fire but book readers have known him since Prisoner of Azkaban. He is briefly mentioned as the seeker for Hufflepuff but since Hufflepuff rarely gets attention his character is severely underrated. In Goblet of Fire Harry is picked for the Triwizard tournament despite being a fourth year. Dumbledore had the power to not let Harry participate but he still let Harry do it knowing it was dangerous. Throughout the movie (goblet of fire) we see Cedric looking out for Harry because Cedric knows that Harry is only a fourth year. 

Some more underrated characters are Luna and Neville they could have gotten so much expansion, especially Neville. The prophecy about a boy being at the end of July could have been about Neville and his parents where tortured so badly that they couldn’t remember anything. At the end of Deathly Hallows, Part 2 Neville kills Nagini, the last Horcrux and the one that was still providing Voldermort with power and still, he is seen as “weak” and “not a true Gryffindor.” 

 Luna was a good character she was so cute and was always there for her friends no matter what and was optimistic and never left anyones side. Another character that I think is underrated is Seamus Finnigan he didn’t get enough attention but could have been expanded on. Pansy and Blaise are also very underrated because I feel that their friendship with Draco could have been expanded on. The three of them could have been expanded on and we could have seen the better side of them through their friendship with each other. 

 Tom Riddle is highly misunderstood he only wants revenge on his muggle father. He only wanted power and misunderstood the prophecy. Being the heir of Slytherin he had the full right to gain power. Also, he was promised the job of defense against the dark arts teacher after he graduated from Hogwarts. When he came back to get the job Dumbledore became headmaster and refused to give Tom the job and that caused Tom to jinx the job. (I talked about Tom Riddle before he came to Voldermort and became obsessed with killing a teenage boy). 

A character that I think gets over-praised is Slughorn, he is seen as the most innocent Slytherin which I think is a lie. He was the one who taught Tom Riddle how to make Horcruxs. This helped Tom become Voldermort by teaching him how to preserve his soul in the Ravenclaw diadem, Hufflepuff cup, Slytherin’s locket, Tom Riddle’s Diary, etc. I think Dumbledore is very overrated and the true villain in the series. He practically only saved Harry to one day give him to Voldemort to die. He favored Gryffindor over all other houses. Harry, Ron, and Hermione would break 40+ school rules and he would let it slide and instead give Gryffindor points. As headmaster, all houses should be equal to him. He asked Snape to kill him so that Harry would no longer be protected and Voldemort could kill Harry. He could have easily pleaded Sirius Black’s case with the ministry instead of using the time turner. He could have used the time-turner to save Lily and James. Snape is also very overrated, he gave Harry disgusted behavior for something Harry couldn’t control. He always despised Harry because of his father (James who bullied him when they were in their Hogwarts years). He also blamed Harry for his childhood crush, Lily dying like it was Harry’s fault.