Harry Potter (novel)/Tear Jerker

Philospher's Stone

 * Eleven-year-old Harry looking into the Mirror of Erised and seeing his dead family is a heartbreaking moment and somewhat iconic in terms of the series as a whole.
 * On Pottercast, after DH had been released, John (I think, it's been three years) said he'd have liked to have read Harry looking into the Mirror again, only this time he'd've been the way Dumbledore described the "happiest man on Earth". Holy shit, was that emotional for this listener.

Prisoner of Azkaban
""Prongs rode again last night.""
 * When Harry realizes what his Patronus is.


 * Harry's learning of the Patronus (or rather, his initial struggle to do so) is sad in a way that's so obvious that it's almost subtle. Especially the film, where Harry fails the first time and Lupin asks him what happy memory he chose to try to power the Patronus. Harry responds with his first memory of riding a broomstick and Lupin says that it wasn't "nearly strong enough." But until Harry finds the loophole (the memory doesn't always have to be real - it can be a positive hope or dream or the like), that's literally the best he can come up with up to that point. :'(
 * A rather subtle, but effective, moment comes in Prisoner of Azkaban when Harry catches himself half-hoping to be overwhelmed by a Dementor since, horrible as the experience is, it's the only time he's ever heard his parent's voices.

Goblet of Fire
"Harry: I told him to take the cup with me."
 * In Harry Potter 4, Harry mentions that it's Voldemort and his followers' fault for destroying these families. And that's when it hit this troper what the Death Eaters HAD done: And this list isn't even over yet.
 * Harry thinking about his parents never hugging him like that when Molly hugged him.
 * Not to mention that all the while, Harry was fighting back tears over.


 * When asks Harry to
 * In Goblet of Fire: "And now another head was emerging from the tip of Voldemort's wand... and Harry knew when he saw it who it would be... knew, because the woman was the one he'd thought of more than any other tonight..." This is really one of the only times Harry ever gets to meet or speak to his parents.
 * In Goblet of Fire: "And now another head was emerging from the tip of Voldemort's wand... and Harry knew when he saw it who it would be... knew, because the woman was the one he'd thought of more than any other tonight..." This is really one of the only times Harry ever gets to meet or speak to his parents.

Order of the Phoenix
""I must confess... that I rather thought... you had enough responsibility to be going on with.""
 * Two words:.
 * A subtle one with Lupin when, but instead of breaking down, he's trying to comfort Harry.
 * Another subtle one this troper noticed from the film. Sirius Black's last words before he died were "Good Shot James!"
 * The scene where Dumbledore explains to Harry why he wasn't made a prefect:

"Harry: I DON'T CARE! I'VE HAD ENOUGH, I'VE SEEN ENOUGH, I WANT OUT, I WANT IT TO END, I DON'T CARE ANYMORE-- Dumbledore: You do care. You care so much you feel as though you will bleed to death with the pain of it."
 * Molly's personal boggart of seeing her sons (and Harry) killed.
 * That scene made her Crowning Moment of Awesome in DH even more awesome.
 * In "Order of the Phoenix", Bellatrix taunting Neville about his parents ("Longbottom? Why, I've had the pleasure of meeting your parents, boy!"). It's made all the worse by the fact that we've seen them now. The tear jerker is his furious, heartbroken "I KNOW YOU HAVE!" The sheer emotion brings tears to your eyes, especially when you think about the fact that every time he sees his parents, it hits him all over again that this is the person who did that to them.
 * Personally, I'm a little furious that Neville didn't get to be the one to finish her off.
 * In Order of the Phoenix, the scene where Moody gives Harry a photo of the original Order of the Phoenix and describes how many of them died. It's pretty sad because all of the subjects are smiling and waving at the viewer, oblivious to the fact that this photo was probably the last time they were all together and alive.
 * I can't believe no one has mentioned the Order of the Phoenix film when Fred and George sit down to comfort a scared first year after he's been punished. They show him their hands and say, "See, it's not so bad. You can hardly see the scars." That one scene showed more about the true character of those young men than almost anything else in the movies. They aren't just good guys, they're good MEN, protecting AND comforting the weak when they need it.
 * The scene in Dumbledore's office at the end of Order of the Phoenix. After everything that happens in the Department of Mysteries, Harry breaks.


 * It's made even worse when coming back to Book 5 after finishing the series. Why is Dumbledore so calm and understanding? Because he went through the same thing.
 * "Snape's Worst Memory" becomes this after you read Deathly Hallows and realize just how much that particular memory hurt for the poor guy.
 * The "flaw" in Dumbledore's plan.



Half-Blood Prince
""It's going to be all right, sir," Harry said over and over again, more worried by Dumbledore's silence than he had been by his weakened voice. "We're nearly there.... I can Apparate us both back.... Don't worry...." "I am not worried, Harry," said Dumbledore, his voice a little stronger despite the freezing water. "I am with you.""
 * Dumbledore throughout all of the scene in the cave, if you have read Deathly Hallows.
 * When Harry sees on the grass next to the tower in Half-Blood Prince. It was bad enough seeing that  actually killed Dumbeldore, but the fight scene distracts you from that until Harry pushes through the crowd around Dumbledore's body. Then there's the bit with.
 * In Half-Blood Prince, when Slughorn His sad declaration that he's not proud of what he did, and the way he tremulously asks Harry not to think too badly of him after he sees it touchingly and completely removes all ill will we might feel towards the poor guy.
 * In Half-Blood Prince, when recruiting Slughorn to work at Hogwarts, Dumbledore told Harry that he wouldn't need to worry about being attacked, because "You (Harry) are with me (Dumbledore)". At the end of the book, after Dumbledore took all of the potion to get the Horcrux, Harry is helping Dumbledore get out of the cave, leading to this exchange:
 * In Half-Blood Prince, when recruiting Slughorn to work at Hogwarts, Dumbledore told Harry that he wouldn't need to worry about being attacked, because "You (Harry) are with me (Dumbledore)". At the end of the book, after Dumbledore took all of the potion to get the Horcrux, Harry is helping Dumbledore get out of the cave, leading to this exchange:


 * Snape's "Don't call me coward!" in book 6 becomes this when you realize how much he went through just to get to that moment.

Deathly Hallows
"The world had ended, so why had the battle not ceased, the castle fallen silent in horror, and every combatant laid down their arms?"
 * Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, has this in bucketloads, including, but not limited to:, , the , , Dumbledore's past, especially when , the scene where ,.
 * His last words: "Look... at... me..."
 * Snape's death in the film.
 * There was a new scene added to And if that isn't bad enough, we see
 * When
 * The scene that.
 * The scene where Hermione is being tortured, while Harry and Ron listen, trapped in the basement of the Malfoy house.
 * The most tearjerk-y thing about that scene isn't even that Hermione is getting tortured, it's that Ron is absolutely losing it because he can't do anything.
 * Everything about.
 * The scene where Hermione is being tortured, while Harry and Ron listen, trapped in the basement of the Malfoy house.
 * The most tearjerk-y thing about that scene isn't even that Hermione is getting tortured, it's that Ron is absolutely losing it because he can't do anything.
 * Everything about.
 * The most tearjerk-y thing about that scene isn't even that Hermione is getting tortured, it's that Ron is absolutely losing it because he can't do anything.
 * Everything about.


 * This troper survived  without shedding a tear. That scene made her bawl like a baby.
 * During the Battle of Hogwarts, when Harry sees that are dead, he pretty much shatters emotionally, running blindly toward the only place where he feels safe: Dumbledore's office. When the gargoyle guarding the staircase to the office asks for the password, Harry says the first thing that comes to mind: . The password works. Fridge Brilliance kicks in when you realize that  set that password, meaning that despite everything,  was just as dedicated to honoring the man's memory as Harry was.
 * Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and McGonagall's reaction to
 * This troper didn't cry until she read Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness. It turned all the people who died in the final battle from a Redshirt Army of background characters into people with hopes and dreams, families and best friends, people she'd gotten familiar with, people whose jokes and little quirks she'd laughed at, just all around PEOPLE.
 * A comparatively minor one, but the habit Harry develops of taking out the Marauder's Map just to look at Ginny's dot because that's the closest he can be to her.
 * When Harry finds a letter wrote to Sirius (in Deathly Hallows).
 * Kreacher's Tale. That is all.
 * Godric's Hollow. Everything: The grave scene, seeing his house with all the encouraging notes, and the statue commemorating the Potter family, all together.
 * The Prince's Tale was actually a refreshing happy moment for a young Snape with him excitedly telling Lily about Hogwarts until this happens:

": After all this time?
 * "The Prince's Tale" as a whole is a massive Crowning Moment of Sadness for Snape. From This chapter rivals  as the saddest one in the series.
 * Always."

""Wendell and Monica Wilkins don’t know they have a daughter, see.""
 * Hermione putting a memory charm on her parents to keep them safe:

""Parents shouldn't leave their kids unless -- unless they've got to.""
 * This was one of the saddest parts of the film adaptation, where Hermione magically edits herself out of the seventeen years' worth of family photos sitting on the Grangers' mantle after she erases her family's memories.
 * Narcissa asking Harry whether Draco was alive. And then betraying Voldemort himself.
 * Then immediately afterwards, when the fighting breaks out again, her and Lucius running through the battle, not lifting a finger to help Voldemort's side, screaming for Draco. Two of the most devout Death Eaters in the series no longer care about Voldemort's war or blood purity or anything else and are simply reduced to two frantic parents desperately searching for their son. It was a moment that made two of the most unsympathetic characters in the books very human.
 * In Deathly Hallows, when Lupin visits the Trio at Grimmauld Place and confesses to . While it's a painful moment for Lupin, so full of guilt and self-loathing, it's actually even worse for Harry, who has just seen his very last "father figure" knocked off a pedestal.


 * The way Harry hesitates during the sentence says all too clearly that he's thinking about his own situation - and possibly Tom Riddle's as well. As a result of their parents not being there (Tom Riddle the elder is implied to have abandoned Merope shortly after finding out she was pregnant), both of them were brought up in home situations where they were misunderstood, persecuted, and feared. What Harry really means to say is that the only good excuse for a parent not to be there for their child is if that parent dies.
 * Lupin died with a picture of his son in his pocket.

General

 * Frank and Alice Longbottom's story.
 * Just like the scene in Goblet of Fire
 * When Moody taught the Unforgivable Curses, it must have been having a hell of a moment for Harry and
 * That scene was so well-shot. When "Moody" used the Avada Kedavra on the spider, and just as you see the green flash and the spider's limbs start to go limp, the camera changes its focus depth to Harry in the background, who is absolutely white as a ghost because he sees the green light and almost knows what it is before "Moody" explains it.
 * It's actually both a Tear Jerker AND a Moral Event Horizon for
 * Worse so in Harry Potter when Anything with Neville and his parents, really.
 * God, that scene... somehow it's made even worse by the fact that, in the middle of this fantasy series with all sorts of funny spell effects and whimsical noodle incidents, we get a very low-key, realistic depiction of a son visiting
 * What got me was Harry's reaction - the part where Neville looked like he was "daring them to laugh" and it said "Harry didn't think he'd ever seen anything less funny in his life."
 * Just realizing that Harry won't.
 * Any moment between Narcissa's betrayal of Voldemort and Voldemort's death. The two that give me the worst case of tears are Slughorn (who has always been shown as a bit of a coward) leading the reinforcements for the Battle of Hogwarts and Molly Weasley fighting with Bellatrix Lestrange.
 * The realisation that Andromeda Tonks lost her husband and her daughter's husband walked out on them. Then, he comes back, her grandson is named after her dead husband, and it seems okay. But then there's the battle at Hogwarts. Lupin leaves, and then so does her daughter, and neither of them come back, leaving her with her grandson, named for her husband, and with the same morphing abilities as her dead daughter. The woman barely appears in the book, but experiences as much loss as so many others. (Also, Sirius had died nearly two years beforehand, and a comment Sirius makes in Book 5 implies that they were closest to each other among their family members.)
 * Not to mention the fact that she's the sister of Voldemort's right-hand woman. You see Harry's reaction to her when he doesn't initially realize who she is (or rather, who she isn't), and wonder if other strangers had given her that same reaction. And then you wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that she and her husband live in a secluded location, away from other wizards and witches.
 * Barty Crouch Jr.'s story. His past is still depressing. He was the "Well Done, Son" Guy, with a father who loved work a great deal more than his own son. He did whatever he could to impress his father, who never let Barty know that he was impressed at his top grades in the OWLs and the NEWTs. The only family member who loved him died to give him freedom, which he never obtained because he spent the next thirteen years under the control of his father via Mind Rape, which drove him mad. He sided with Voldemort because he was more like a father than his own to him.