The Flick Chick

Ten Favorite Movies (3/10) ╚ SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991) dir. Jonathan Demme

However, I have since come around to the idea that maybe the reason Harry never told anyone, especially Ron and especially Hermione, is because he feared that their reaction would change his opinion of James. It is no coincidence that Harry discusses the subject only with those who loved his father and whom James loved and protected. Hermione’s reaction not only at James’s actions but also at Harry having spied on Snape would have been to tell Harry to apologise to Snape. 

In a way, it’s a copt-out. The narrative never actually confronts the gravity of the Mauraders’ actions as Harry never discusses the issue with people who would offer an impartial, distanced view.

At the end of Order of Phoenix, Harry asks Dumbledore “So it is okay for Snape to hate my father but not okay for Sirius to hate Kreacher”. Dumbledore realises the question is unfair which is why he doesn’t answer the first part of it. Both Harry and Dumbledore know that Snape had plenty of reason to hate James. However, the shock of Sirius’s death, and Harry’s need to protect himself from his guilt by blaming Snape, prevents Harry from fully engaging with his father and his godfather’s faults and with how their actions affected others around them.

Seeing how he’s able to kind of push James’s actions under the rug as soon as Sirius and Remus tell him James was actually okay, I think the reason he confronted them in the first place was not purely because he wanted to know if James was as bad a person as he’d been in that memory. I’m convinced that it was more along the lines of him wanting to believe James’s goodness to be true, just to quell the doubt inside him. So he didn’t really care about Snape enough to ask his father’s friends about it, he more so cared about his own view of what he’d thought his father to be, and wanted to be assured that his previous beliefs held water.

Even in the scene where he’s mulling SWM over in his head, his thoughts focus predominantly on his father, his mother, and the rest of the Marauders’ actions. And though he tells Remus and Sirius that he felt sorry for Snape, his thoughts in that scene show way more of him being doubtful about his father than him feeling any empathy towards Snape.

I also think we can’t completely fault Harry for wanting to think well of his father and godfather. After all, they both had very important qualities, and they both loved Harry.

Despite the fact that I am not deaf, mute, or blind myself, one of the most common questions I receive is how to portray characters with these disabilities in fiction.

As such, I’ve compiled the resources I’ve accumulated (from real life deaf, mute, or blind people) into a handy masterlist.

Deaf Characters:

Deaf characters masterpost

Deaf dialogue thread

Dialogue with signing characters (also applies to mute characters.)

A deaf author’s advice on deaf characters

Dialogue between deaf characters

Mute Characters

Life as a Mute

My Silent Summer:  Life as a Mute

What It’s Like Being Mute

21 People Reveal What It’s Really Like To Be Mute

I am a 20 year old Mute, ask me anything at all!

Blind Characters:

The 33 Worst Mistakes Writers Make About Blind Characters.

@referenceforwriters masterpost of resources for writing/playing blind characters.

The youtube channel of the wonderful Tommy Edison, a man blind from birth with great insight into the depiction of blind people and their lives.

An Absolute Write thread on the depiction of blind characters, with lots of different viewpoints and some great tips.

And finally, this short, handy masterpost of resources for writing blind characters.

Characters Who Are Blind in One Eye

4 Ways Life Looks Shockingly Different With One Eye

Learning to Live With One Eye

Adapting to the Loss of an Eye

Adapting to Eye Loss and Monocular Vision

Monocular Depth Perception

Deaf-Blind Characters

What Is It Like To Be Deafblind?

Going Deaf and Blind in a City of Noise and Lights

Deaf and Blind by 30

Sarita is Blind, Deaf, and Employed (video)

Born Deaf and Blind, This Eritrean American Graduated Harvard Law School (video)

A Day of a Deaf Blind Person

Lesser Known Things About Being Deafblind

How the Deaf-Blind Communicate

Early Interactions With Children Who Are Deaf-Blind

Raising a DeafBlind Baby

If you have any more resources to add, let me know!  I’ll be adding to this post as I find more resources.

2026 redraw