21 Seemingly Magical Parts of the Harry Potter Universe That Were Actually Just British

‘Wearing robes as part of a school uniform’
21 Seemingly Magical Parts of the Harry Potter Universe That Were Actually Just British

Part of the stranglehold magic castle where every day held the promise of a great feast, a cutthroat competition and weird uniforms.

What many American readers and viewers didn’t realize, however, was that there was nothing necessarily magical about any of that — just British. In fact, there are a lot of features of the wizarding world that Americans really thought were magic that British Potterheads knew were just facts of daily life across the pond. That’s why  lbstr99 asked r/AskReddit, “What in Harry Potter did you think it was magic but later realized it was just British?”

notacanuckskibum 3y ago The name Hermione
SunCactus321 3y ago Prefects
SmellLikeSheepSpirit . 3y ago The school having houses
Vegetable-Bat-8475 3y ago Christmas crackers
PurpleDreamer28 3y ago . Edited Зу ago When I saw the first movie, I thought Happy Christmas was what they said in the wizard world instead of Merry Christmas. But no, it was a British thing the whole time.
pileodung 3y ago Butterbeer is based on buttered beer, which dates back to the 1500s
 3y ago People selling you stuff off a trolley on trains. Thought that was so cool and then went to the UK for real.
Grey_Gryphon . 3y ago wearing robes as part of a school uniform. thought it was fiction until I went to Oxford...
 3y ago All the use of ickle and the other words they attached to it. Took me a while to figure out wtf they meant at first.
R/PLACE AUniquePerspective . 3y ago Not British but real French: Nicholas Flamel and the whole idea of a philosopher's stone is all for real. Dude has a street named for him in Paris.
EnigmaticSorceries 3y ago Lavatory. I thought that was some old magic universe term but turns out that's where the Guvnor goes to lighten his belly.
brouhaha13 3y ago When I first read it as a kid, I didn't understand that the Underground is a subway. I thought they were taking some fancy magic tunnels under London by foot.
Pablo_Tescobar0 0 3y ago Five year old me thought a Ford Anglia was called a Fordanglia and was a magic car specifically made in HP that was designed to fly.
 3y ago When I was younger, the World Cup. I'd never heard of the concept of various countries facing each other in sports, so I didn't realize that the Quidditch World Cup was actually based on something real.
SlightlyConfused007 3y ago The Ministry of Magic seemed explicit to the Harry Potter world to me. When I visited England, that's when. I learned of the Ministry of Defense or Ministry of Agriculture its just their version of the US department of ... ..
iheartnickleback . 3y ago . Edited 3y ago a galleon divided up into 17 sickles and however-many knuts isn't that much crazier than the pre-decimalization division of the GBP
littleredrobots 3y ago When Hagrid mentions some people think Voldemort died and then says it's codswallop? Yeah, I definitely thought codswallop was some wizarding world disease for the next...decade or so.
adhuc_stantes 3y ago Whenever they said bollocks as in rubbish, although I understood the intention behind the word, I was convinced it was a fantastic creature of some sorts. Kind of like calling somebody a troll. Then my sister proceeded to explain they are testicles and it's a common British non-magical curse.
TheWanderingSlacker 3y ago . Edited Зу ago Casually offering your guest an entire pie. Turns out, little pies are common there, and I am jealous. I want lil' meat pies for snacks.
Blastspark01 . 3y ago At 10 I had to google knicker bocker glory to see if it was real or not. When I went to London as a 16 year old I of course had to get one and I immediately related to Dudley. In the first book, Dudley complains because his knicker bocker glory didn't have enough ice cream. And yeah, I realized he was damn right. Would've gotten way more had I just ordered a regular ice cream cone and for cheaper too
MDNTF_Mayhem . 3y ago As a teenager reading the books; spotted dick. Didn't know what to think.

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