I think in a series with so many supporting characters, it’s a little cowardly to introduce an entirely new character just to be the snitch, and then give them zero character traits other than “never wanted to be here in the first place.” After Hermione’s SNEAK pimple spell (we all know how brutal that is, that’s been established…) our guys never have to interact with her again. At least the movies made the snitch Cho, so the viewer felt something at the reveal. And then sort of implied that this is the breaking point for Cho and Harry. So it’s a consequence of some kind for our main characters. There’s even some nuance there: Harry knows that Cho was drugged, so it wasn’t reaaaallly her fault… but I bet it’s still the first thing he thinks about when he looks at her, so of course that relationship falls apart.

If the idea really was that the series is getting older and more complex for Book 5-7… then let people do bad things for sympathetic/understandable reasons! We have Dumbledore plotting world domination (and points for not throwing in a bit where Aberforth says it was 100% Grindelwald who killed Ariana or something.) Could live without the framing that Albus was ‘corrupted’ by Grindelwald and the situation was basically Grindelwald’s fault, but whatever. Or Draco! Sneaking Death Eaters into the castle because he wants to protect his family. And okay the movie did make him a lot more sympathetic, and I suspect we’re supposed to see a Wormtail “then you should have died! Died rather than betray your friends” parallel. But you know what, I’ll take it. That IS a more complicated moral situation, since Draco is concerned with people who aren’t just him.

So yeah. Marrietta gets nothing. Make it Katie Bell, and then our guys would have to learn how to deal with a sympathetic person who doesn’t agree with them for once.

I think in a series with so many supporting characters, it’s a little cowardly to introduce an entirely new character just to be the snitch, and then give them zero character traits other than “never wanted to be here in the first place.” After Hermione’s SNEAK pimple spell (we all know how brutal that is, that’s been established…) our guys never have to interact with her again. At least the movies made the snitch Cho, so the viewer felt something at the reveal. And then sort of implied that this is the breaking point for Cho and Harry. So it’s a consequence of some kind for our main characters. There’s even some nuance there: Harry knows that Cho was drugged, so it wasn’t reaaaallly her fault… but I bet it’s still the first thing he thinks about when he looks at her, so of course that relationship falls apart.

If the idea really was that the series is getting older and more complex for Book 5-7… then let people do bad things for sympathetic/understandable reasons! We have Dumbledore plotting world domination (and points for not throwing in a bit where Aberforth says it was 100% Grindelwald who killed Ariana or something.) Could live without the framing that Albus was ‘corrupted’ by Grindelwald and the situation was basically Grindelwald’s fault, but whatever. Or Draco! Sneaking Death Eaters into the castle because he wants to protect his family. And okay the movie did make him a lot more sympathetic, and I suspect we’re supposed to see a Wormtail “then you should have died! Died rather than betray your friends” parallel. But you know what, I’ll take it. That IS a more complicated moral situation, since Draco is concerned with people who aren’t just him.

So yeah. Marrietta gets nothing. Make it Katie Bell, and then our guys would have to learn how to deal with a sympathetic person who doesn’t agree with them for once.

Dudley does physically bully Harry, his “favorite punching bag” a lot. There’s the taped-together-glasses because Dudley punches him in the nose, his favorite sport “Harry Hunting,” and a lot of what Snape dredges up during Occlumency lessons are “early memories he had not even realized he still had, most of them concerning humiliations Dudley and his gang had inflicted upon him in primary school.” We also know that Dudley has much more sway over the school than Draco does - people won’t be friends with Harry because they don’t want to get on Dudley’s bad side.

All that sounds pretty bad. So why do we get “Harry had never believed he would meet a boy he hated more than Dudley, but that was before he met Draco Malfoy.” When at that point, Draco’s crimes consist of -

• Trying (unsuccessfully) to get his parents to buy him extra presents
• Insulting Hagrid
• Being insensitive about Harry being an orphan
• Insulting Ron
• Calling Hagrid and the Weasleys “riffraff”
• Implying that Harry’s parents were also riffraff and this got them killed. (this one is quite bad)
• Trying (unsuccessfully) to steal Harry’s candy
• Being a Malfoy and a daddy’s boy
• Laughing in potions and generally being Snape’s hype man

BUT Draco still manages to get under Harry’s skin REALLY fast… and it’s because Draco makes him feel inadequate. During their first conversation at Madame Malkin’s, Harry doesn’t know basic things about the Wizarding World, which makes him feel “stupid,” and when Draco starts comparing the Hogwarts houses, Harry is “wishing he could say something a bit more interesting.” He’s still picking over this conversation when he meets back up with Hagrid, giving him a play-by-play:

“…and he said people from Muggle families shouldn’t even be allowed in—”

During Potions, Harry seems to think Snapes ‘bezoar’ questions are another instance of him not knowing obvious things about the Wizarding World (instead of just Snape being an ass.) This is apparently confirmed by Malfoy’s reaction: "He tried not to look at Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, who were shaking with laughter.”

Harry is then very anxious about Quidditch, because “Everyone from wizarding families talked about Quidditch constantly,” and it seems to be a very big deal socially. But he’s putting himself in the same category as kind-of-pathetic never-been-on-a-broom Neville. This time he doesn’t even have to see Malfoy’s reaction, he’s imagining it.

“Typical,” said Harry darkly. “Just what I always wanted. To make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Malfoy.”

Even things that aren’t actually a problem, or aren’t actually things Draco is doing - like getting regular care packages from home - seem to really bother Harry, to the degree that “[He and Ron] were half hoping for a reason to fight Malfoy.”

So: Draco makes Harry feel underprepared and inadequate, and this gets to him because he thinks it might be true. Dudley normally doesn’t bother to come at Harry in a psychological way - the few times he does (teasing Harry about having no friends in Book 2, teasing Harry about dreaming about his “boyfriend” Cedric in Book 5) are also the only times he’s able to send Harry into negative spirals.

Because the thing about Dudley is that Harry has him figured out. By the time the first book starts, Harry knows all Dudley’s favorite strategies and just, has a very detailed understanding of what it looks like inside Dudley’s head:

Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn’t really crying — it had been years since he’d really cried — but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.

Harry knew perfectly well that Dudley only put up with Aunt Marge’s hugs because he was well paid for it.

Dudley was in shock. He’d screamed, whacked his father with his Smelting stick, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother, and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof, and he still didn’t have his room back.

Harry knows that the reason he has no friends at school is 100% to do with Dudley and 0% to do with him. It also seems like Dudley was able to physically bully Harry a lot when he was younger, but by the time we meet Harry, he’s easily “dodging” all of Dudley’s attacks.

Dudley’s favorite punching bag was Harry, but he couldn’t often catch him. Harry didn’t look it, but he was very fast.

The rest of them were all quite happy to join in Dudley’s
favorite sport: Harry Hunting. This was why Harry spent as much time as possible out of the house, wandering.

Harry dodged the Smeltings stick

Like Dudley, yeah he’s around all the time, and he makes Harry’s life difficult. But he’s not important. Draco, on the other hand, is hugely important to Harry - which becomes super clear when he dreams about him.

[Harry] was wearing Professor Quirrell’s turban, which kept talking to him, telling him he must transfer to Slytherin at once, because it was his destiny. Harry told the turban he didn’t want to be in Slytherin; it got heavier and heavier; he tried to pull it off but it tightened painfully — and there was Malfoy, laughing at him as he struggled with it.

We learn later that this is foreshadowing, and one of Harry’s “Voldemort dreams.” But on the first read… this is an anxiety dream about being - unprepared, overburdened, strangled by a destiny he doesn’t want. And his brain has chosen Draco to symbolically represent this anxiety, and I get why. Draco is supported (by his parents), he is prepared (because he grew up rich in the wizarding world), and he just seems 100% comfortable with who he is and his place in the world. Which is all stuff that Harry really, really wants. Draco sucks, same as Dudley. But Harry doesn’t want what Dudley has. He can’t say the same about Draco.

Dudley does physically bully Harry, his “favorite punching bag” a lot. There’s the taped-together-glasses because Dudley punches him in the nose, his favorite sport “Harry Hunting,” and a lot of what Snape dredges up during Occlumency lessons are “early memories he had not even realized he still had, most of them concerning humiliations Dudley and his gang had inflicted upon him in primary school.” We also know that Dudley has much more sway over the school than Draco does - people won’t be friends with Harry because they don’t want to get on Dudley’s bad side.

All that sounds pretty bad. So why do we get “Harry had never believed he would meet a boy he hated more than Dudley, but that was before he met Draco Malfoy.” When at that point, Draco’s crimes consist of -

• Trying (unsuccessfully) to get his parents to buy him extra presents
• Insulting Hagrid
• Being insensitive about Harry being an orphan
• Insulting Ron
• Calling Hagrid and the Weasleys “riffraff”
• Implying that Harry’s parents were also riffraff and this got them killed. (this one is quite bad)
• Trying (unsuccessfully) to steal Harry’s candy
• Being a Malfoy and a daddy’s boy
• Laughing in potions and generally being Snape’s hype man

BUT Draco still manages to get under Harry’s skin REALLY fast… and it’s because Draco makes him feel inadequate. During their first conversation at Madame Malkin’s, Harry doesn’t know basic things about the Wizarding World, which makes him feel “stupid,” and when Draco starts comparing the Hogwarts houses, Harry is “wishing he could say something a bit more interesting.” He’s still picking over this conversation when he meets back up with Hagrid, giving him a play-by-play:

“…and he said people from Muggle families shouldn’t even be allowed in—”

During Potions, Harry seems to think Snapes ‘bezoar’ questions are another instance of him not knowing obvious things about the Wizarding World (instead of just Snape being an ass.) This is apparently confirmed by Malfoy’s reaction: "He tried not to look at Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, who were shaking with laughter.”

Harry is then very anxious about Quidditch, because “Everyone from wizarding families talked about Quidditch constantly,” and it seems to be a very big deal socially. But he’s putting himself in the same category as kind-of-pathetic never-been-on-a-broom Neville. This time he doesn’t even have to see Malfoy’s reaction, he’s imagining it.

“Typical,” said Harry darkly. “Just what I always wanted. To make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Malfoy.”

Even things that aren’t actually a problem, or aren’t actually things Draco is doing - like getting regular care packages from home - seem to really bother Harry, to the degree that “[He and Ron] were half hoping for a reason to fight Malfoy.”

So: Draco makes Harry feel underprepared and inadequate, and this gets to him because he thinks it might be true. Dudley normally doesn’t bother to come at Harry in a psychological way - the few times he does (teasing Harry about having no friends in Book 2, teasing Harry about dreaming about his “boyfriend” Cedric in Book 5) are also the only times he’s able to send Harry into negative spirals.

Because the thing about Dudley is that Harry has him figured out. By the time the first book starts, Harry knows all Dudley’s favorite strategies and just, has a very detailed understanding of what it looks like inside Dudley’s head:

Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn’t really crying — it had been years since he’d really cried — but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.

Harry knew perfectly well that Dudley only put up with Aunt Marge’s hugs because he was well paid for it.

Dudley was in shock. He’d screamed, whacked his father with his Smelting stick, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother, and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof, and he still didn’t have his room back.

Harry knows that the reason he has no friends at school is 100% to do with Dudley and 0% to do with him. It also seems like Dudley was able to physically bully Harry a lot when he was younger, but by the time we meet Harry, he’s easily “dodging” all of Dudley’s attacks.

Dudley’s favorite punching bag was Harry, but he couldn’t often catch him. Harry didn’t look it, but he was very fast.

The rest of them were all quite happy to join in Dudley’s
favorite sport: Harry Hunting. This was why Harry spent as much time as possible out of the house, wandering.

Harry dodged the Smeltings stick

Like Dudley, yeah he’s around all the time, and he makes Harry’s life difficult. But he’s not important. Draco, on the other hand, is hugely important to Harry - which becomes super clear when he dreams about him.

[Harry] was wearing Professor Quirrell’s turban, which kept talking to him, telling him he must transfer to Slytherin at once, because it was his destiny. Harry told the turban he didn’t want to be in Slytherin; it got heavier and heavier; he tried to pull it off but it tightened painfully — and there was Malfoy, laughing at him as he struggled with it.

We learn later that this is foreshadowing, and one of Harry’s “Voldemort dreams.” But on the first read… this is an anxiety dream about being - unprepared, overburdened, strangled by a destiny he doesn’t want. And his brain has chosen Draco to symbolically represent this anxiety, and I get why. Draco is supported (by his parents), he is prepared (because he grew up rich in the wizarding world), and he just seems 100% comfortable with who he is and his place in the world. Which is all stuff that Harry really, really wants. Draco sucks, same as Dudley. But Harry doesn’t want what Dudley has. He can’t say the same about Draco.

Dudley does physically bully Harry, his “favorite punching bag” a lot. There’s the taped-together glasses because Dudley punches him in the nose, his favorite sport “Harry Hunting,” and a lot of what Snape dredges up during Occlumency lessons are “early memories he had not even realized he still had, most of them concerning humiliations Dudley and his gang had inflicted upon him in primary school.” We also know that Dudley has much more sway over the school than Draco does - people won’t be friends with Harry because they don’t want to get on Dudley’s bad side.

All that sounds pretty bad. So why do we get “Harry had never believed he would meet a boy he hated more than Dudley, but that was before he met Draco Malfoy.” When at that point, Draco’s crimes consist of -

• Trying (unsuccessfully) to get his parents to buy him extra presents
• Insulting Hagrid
• Being insensitive about Harry being an orphan
• Insulting Ron
• Calling Hagrid and the Weasleys “riffraff”
• Implying that Harry’s parents were also riffraff and this got them killed. (this one is quite bad)
• Trying (unsuccessfully) to steal Harry’s candy
• Being a Malfoy and a daddy’s boy
• Laughing in potions and generally being Snape’s hype man

BUT Draco still manages to get under Harry’s skin REALLY fast… and it’s because Draco makes him feel inadequate. During their first conversation at Madame Malkin’s, Harry doesn’t know basic things about the Wizarding World, which makes him feel “stupid,” and when Draco starts comparing the Hogwarts houses, Harry is “wishing he could say something a bit more interesting.” He’s still picking over this conversation when he meets back up with Hagrid, giving him a play-by-play:

“…and he said people from Muggle families shouldn’t even be allowed in—”

During Potions, Harry seems to think Snapes ‘bezoar’ questions are another instance of him not knowing obvious things about the Wizarding World (instead of just Snape being an ass.) This is apparently confirmed by Malfoy’s reaction: "He tried not to look at Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, who were shaking with laughter.”

Harry is then very anxious about Quidditch, because “Everyone from wizarding families talked about Quidditch constantly,” and it seems to be a very big deal socially. But he’s putting himself in the same category as kind-of-pathetic never-been-on-a-broom Neville. This time he doesn’t even have to see Malfoy’s reaction, he’s imagining it.

“Typical,” said Harry darkly. “Just what I always wanted. To make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Malfoy.”

Even things that aren’t actually a problem, or aren’t actually things Draco is doing - like getting regular care packages from home - seem to really bother Harry, to the degree that “[He and Ron] were half hoping for a reason to fight Malfoy.”

So: Draco makes Harry feel underprepared and inadequate, and this gets to him because he thinks it might be true. Dudley normally doesn’t bother to come at Harry in a psychological way - the few times he does (teasing Harry about having no friends in Book 2, teasing Harry about dreaming about his “boyfriend” Cedric in Book 5) are also the only times he’s able to send Harry into negative spirals.

Because the thing about Dudley is that Harry has him figured out. By the time the first book starts, Harry knows all Dudley’s favorite strategies and just, has a very detailed understanding of what it looks like inside Dudley’s head:

Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn’t really crying — it had been years since he’d really cried — but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.

Harry knew perfectly well that Dudley only put up with Aunt Marge’s hugs because he was well paid for it.

Dudley was in shock. He’d screamed, whacked his father with his Smelting stick, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother, and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof, and he still didn’t have his room back.

Harry knows that the reason he has no friends at school is 100% to do with Dudley and 0% to do with him. It also seems like Dudley was able to physically bully Harry a lot when he was younger, but by the time we meet Harry, he’s easily “dodging” all of Dudley’s attacks.

Dudley’s favorite punching bag was Harry, but he couldn’t often catch him. Harry didn’t look it, but he was very fast.

The rest of them were all quite happy to join in Dudley’s favorite sport: Harry Hunting. This was why Harry spent as much time as possible out of the house, wandering.

Harry dodged the Smelting stick

And Dudley - yeah he’s around all the time, and he makes Harry’s life difficult. But he’s not important. Draco, on the other hand, is hugely important to Harry - which becomes super clear when he dreams about him.

[Harry] was wearing Professor Quirrell’s turban, which kept talking to him, telling him he must transfer to Slytherin at once, because it was his destiny. Harry told the turban he didn’t want to be in Slytherin; it got heavier and heavier; he tried to pull it off but it tightened painfully — and there was Malfoy, laughing at him as he struggled with it.

We learn later that this is foreshadowing, and one of Harry’s Voldemort dreams. But on the first read… this is an anxiety dream about being - unprepared, overburdened, strangled by a destiny he doesn’t want. And his brain has chosen Draco to symbolically represent this anxiety, and I get why. Draco is supported (by his parents), he is prepared (because he grew up rich in the wizarding world), and he just seems 100% comfortable with who he is and his place in the world. Which is all stuff that Harry really, really wants. Draco sucks, same as Dudley. But Harry doesn’t want what Dudley has. He can’t say the same about Draco.

thank you very much for the ask, pal!

now, we don’t have much to go on here, but if we dissect the text very carefully we can see that this is definitely canon…

we know that snape continues to allow students to leave the castle for hogsmeade trips while headmaster because ginny loses the privilege after she tries to steal the sword of gryffindor.

from this, we can conclude that the teachers were also allowed to go into the village.

this seems like a slightly unusual choice for [voldemort to grant the authority for] snape to make. voldemort surely knows - and snape would know that voldemort knows - that people like mcgonagall and hagrid are members of the order. why would he happily let them trot off into hogsmeade? they could be meeting anyone! they could be engaged in all kinds of sedition!

but the answer is simple… voldemort - whose pragmatism is one of his underappreciated canonical traits - thinks it’s better for every if amycus and alecto are able to keep their regularly scheduled appointments with the wizarding world’s premier dominatrix, madam puddifoot.

[whether they go separately or together is reader’s choice…]

after all, harry compares the decorations in her shop to umbridge’s office, which implies that she’s primarily in the business of causing pain, and points out that she’s got a “shiny black bun”, which is a cunty domme hairstyle if ever i’ve seen one.