Anyone else watching Worst Witch on Netflicks, and does anything totally see HP characters there? I really love HardBroom AKA Snape an Dumbledore AKA Cackles. The close friendship is evident and so well done. Hallows seem to be Malfoys but Severus and Albus seem the most direct character copies to me.

 

The first novel of The Worst Witch was published in the mid 70s.

If you look close (and far!) enough, you'll find those relations repeated across time and cultures.

Draco and Dudley are classic bully types. The legitimate child that has no real claim to their legitimacy: that's the mean and fat step-sibling but also the pompous rival at the new place.

The interesting thing with Rowling and HP is that there's so much unsaid that it turns into a choose-your-own read type of thing. The HP 'tropes' are familiar enough for us to latch on to them, but they're also empty enough that we can make of them what we will.

HardBroom and Cackles sound like very specific reads of Snape and Dumbledore. Reminds me a bit of Wizard People, Dear Reader, but also of "dick-ish but reluctantly helpful/kind Snape" and "well-meaning and powerful but overly eccentric Dumbledore" that we see a lot of in fanfiction, although not often together. That kind of Snape is often in Severitus fics and you've generally got a bad manipulative!Dumbledore there.

In The Never-ending Road, you've got Snape and Albus eating pastries over tea and it's hilarious, but not necessarily the kind of Snape I want to see. My read of Snape is he could've been a great guy, maybe even a cool guy, but he's generally a rotten shithead. One of them hook-nosed bad apples. But that's the nice thing with HP. My Snape is as true as all the other Snapes, and I get to say #NotMySnape.