9 moments from the Harry Potter books that should have been in the movies

8. Harry reading Lily Potter’s letter to Sirius Black

Harry Potter was a little more than one year old when Voldemort attacked Godric’s Hollow and killed his parents. Throughout the series, we hear a ton about their great love and sacrifice for their son, but almost nothing about their actual lives.

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, Harry finding Lily’s letter to Sirius is one of the only glimpses he gets of his short life with his parents. He finds out that Sirius gifted him his first toy broomstick for his one-year birthday. It is a heartwarming revelation considering Sirius also bought him the Firebolt when he turned 13 in Prisoner of Azkaban. Harry also realizes that Lily wrote the letter ‘g’ the same way he does.

For anyone else, it would be a generic letter written between two friends. For Harry, it was concrete evidence that his parents were real people with their own peculiarities. As J.K. Rowling put it, “The letter was an incredible treasure, proof that Lily Potter had lived, really lived, that her warm hand had once moved across this parchment, tracing ink into these letters, these words, words about him, Harry, her son.”

7. The tragic sacrifice of Regulus Black

The Harry Potter movies failed to do justice to Slytherin’s greatest unsung hero: Regulus Black, brother to Harry’s godfather Sirius.

Deathly Hallows: Part 1 does mention Regulus, as Harry figures out who R.A.B. was while hiding in Grimmauld Place. The trio summons the house elf Kreacher to explain the connection between Sirius’ brother and the fake locket Harry and Dumbledore retrieved from the Crystal Caves. From this very brief scene, we only learn that Regulus was a former Death Eater who had the real Horcrux in his possession before he died young.

In the book, an entire chapter is dedicated to the lengths Regulus went to make sure that at least one Horcrux was kept hidden from the Dark Lord. As a child, he tried to live up to the Black family name and became a Death Eater at a young age. However, he became disillusioned with Voldemort’s pureblood obsession as time passed.

Voldemort’s ill treatment of Kreacher was the final straw for Regulus, and he decided to defect. He visited the Crystal Caves, drank the potion himself, and ordered Kreacher to run away with Slytherin’s locket and later destroy the Horcrux. He succumbed to the relentless Inferi shortly afterward.

Regulus’ sacrifice does not add much to the main plot, since Kreacher failed to destroy the locket and the trio had to hunt it down anyway. However, the movies missed an opportunity to show how young minds were indoctrinated into the ideals of the dark side, and to tell a story about one young man who found the resilience to break free even at the cost of his life.

One could argue that Regulus Black is what Draco Malfoy could have been if he wanted.