What misconceptions did you have about the Harry Potter world and story, either due to bad reading or incorrect inference?

For example, I used to think the name of the wizarding world was "Mimblewimble", from this part of Philosopher's Stone:

I also pronounced "Draco" to rhyme with "Taco", and "Hagrid" like "Hey-grid", the "Raven" part of "Ravenclaw" like in "ravenous", and I still think of the "good" part of "Lovegood" as rhyming with "food".

 

I went through several different pronunciations of Hermione before the film came out:

• Her-me-oh-nee
• Her-me-own
• Her-my-one
• Her-my-own
• Her-me-oh-nay

I think "Her-me-own" was the one I ended up settling on, initially.

 

I'm going to attribute this to being a kid and never been terribly good with pronunciations, but I used to think the "tri-wizard" tournament was said as the "tree-wizard" tournament. Not "tri" as in triangle.

 

I've read Filch as Flich until last year. No idea why or how. Just reading fail.

 

Slept through most of mom reading me PoA, only got the dementor parts and the last showdown, so when a teacher named Moody came in book four I thought he must be the Moody from the Map.

 

I totally missed that Dean Thomas is black while reading about him and not realized it till I watched 5th movie or so (mostly because I watched previous films before getting really interested in HP). It was even more funny because I was reading many 6th year fics by then, so he often appeared in them as Ginny's boyfriend and I still kept imaging him as a white guy with black hair for quite a some time after realizing my mistake.

 

I think I was fourteen when I figured out that in POA, they don't change the timeline.

 

I thought that Nagini was pronounced Na-jeen-ee until I heard Voldemort say her name in Deathly Hallows 1.

And I always thought that Puddlemere United was Puddlemore United until I started betaing A Game of Style and Brutality.

 

Until I heard Jim Dale do the audio track for the first book, I was under the impression that Severus Snape was pronounced 'seveerus' due to the severe nature of his character.

 

Just your wand hand, yeah.

 

Always mispronounced 'Accio' but how the fuck was I supposed to know that 'cc' in Latin comes out like 'kk'.

I mean every time I heard 'Akkio' in the movies I cringed even though I knew it was right.

 

I still pronounce it 'Assio' because that's how Jim Dale said it.

P.S. Jim Dale is the greatest book narrator on the planet.

 

FYI, It's not just "cc" that is a "k" sound in Latin. All "c"s are hard.

 

I don't know how or why but Accio turned into Invito in the Hungarian translation.

 

When I started reading fanfiction, I was confused about a growing interest in Arabian Nights/Harry Potter crossovers, as there were all these 'harem' stories. I thought maybe I had missed an official supplement, like 'A Guide to Cultures and Covens (in the World of Harry Potter)'.

I started with the movies, so this is the fault of translation- I'm often confused while reading the later books to see mention of Ron looming over the twins. I think the Phelps are great, but it doesn't quite fit.

 

I have no idea where the fuck I came up with it, but I did something similar, only more retarded:

I thought Filch was, in some way, related to Justin Finch-Fletchley. >_>

 

Yeah, I thought it was 'Her-me-own' until one of my best friends pointed out 'Her-my-oh-knee'.

Man, did she make me feel like a twat.

 

I know I pronounced Hermione more like "her-me-own" for a while. I think it was my mom that corrected me before the first movie even came out.

I remember a friend I had started pronouncing Sirius as "sigh-rus."