The 11 Weirdest Scenes From The 'Harry Potter' Movies

The Harry Potter series is beloved for many reasons. It's a moving tale about friendship and family that teaches young people the value of bravery, loyalty, and knowledge. It's also a fun, suspenseful saga with meaningful characters. Even better, it's a social commentary, making big topics like war and classism accessible to wide audiences. Yet, no matter how much you love the series, it's hard to deny that some scenes from the Harry Potter films are super weird. In a world where spells make almost anything possible, it's to be expected that some of this magic might be a little bit strange.

When Harry Potter movies came out in the 2000s, they were celebrated for detailed set and costume design, as well as stunning visual effects. The films turned J.K. Rowling's wizarding world into a reality, and for the most part, readers were thrilled by the adaptation of the novels. However, special effects have come a long way in the past few years, and sometimes the studio faced a bit of difficulty translating the page to screen. Moments that seemed logical, even magical, in the book often made for some pretty strange movie moments.

Here are some of the oddest scenes in the Harry Potter films for you to revisit, in no particular order.

1. When Hermione Was A Cat (Sort Of)

Okay, let's face it — Polyjuice potion was a pretty odd concept in general. Turning into somebody else doesn't sound comfortable, but the film made it even more unappealing by making the potion a foul gray sludge. Those skin bubbles as Harry transforms in Goyle would give anyone nightmares, but nothing compares to Hermione's cat face. Polyjuice potion won't turn you all the way into an animal, so instead Hermione had an enormous cat's face and tale on a human body. Eep!

2. When Everyone Was Harry (Sort Of)

Speaking of uncomfortable Polyjuice Potion experiences, what about the time that almost every character in the core cast turned into Harry? That scene where Harry stands in a room with eight versions of himself is super weird - there's a reason that earlier in the series Harry and Ron have to make sure not to run into Crabbe and Goyle. Turns out meeting yourself is a little uncanny.

3. When Fred And George Turn Old

In another instance of portions gone awry, Fed and George face some hairy repercussions for trying to enter the Wizard's Tournament. Hermione tries to warn them that they shouldn't enter, but do they listen? It never is revealed how they return to their normal selves, and as a kid, this scene took a funny but totally creepy turn.

4. When Krum Had A Shark Face, And Pretty Much Every Other Time A Character Had An Animal Head

Enough with the animal heads already! So weird.

5. When Gilderoy Lockhart Turns Harry's Arm Into Jelly

Gilderoy Lockhart wasn't the brightest Lumos spell, that's for sure. His blundering attempts at being a professor were hilarious, but this one went a little bit too far. The weird gooey sound effects are absolutely the worst part of this already icky scene!

6. When Ron Discovers That Scabbers Is Peter Pettigrew

Anyone would be shocked if they found out their pet was actually a stowaway criminal, but Peter Pettigrew is played to such rat-like perfection by Timothy Spall, that it's hard not to feel bad for Ron. After all, he's been carrying Scabbers around for three whole years! He's part of the fam, and finding out he's been Pettigrew the whole time is one of the weirdest moments in the series.

7. When Voldemort Is Professor Quirrell's Head

Okay, the only thing worse than a character having a face that is half an animal is a character having a face that is half of Voldemort. The scene where Harry finds out Voldemort's been housing himself in Professor Quirrell's head is pretty much disturbing from start to finish. It's going to be hard to unsee those Voldy face special effects, or the bizarre skin sand crumble at the end.

8. When Voldemort Is A Baby

The Quirrell face debacle should have been the most disturbing Voldemort scene in the series, but then he goes ahead and turns himself into a baby in The Goblet of Fire. Watching Voldemort grow back to normal size in a weird womb cauldron has to be one of the most disturbing scene.

9. When Ron Accidentally Takes A Love Potion

It's beautiful isn't it, the moon? Ron falling madly in love with someone he's never met makes for one of the funniest, weirdest scenes in the whole series.

10. When Ron Dances With Professor McGonagall

The series does love to throw Ron into embarrassing situations, and in this scene, the students are learning to dance for the Yule ball. McGonagall uses Ron to demonstrate the waltz, and it is super awkward. Fred and George aren't going to let Ron forget this, and we're not going to either.

11. Dolores Umbridge

Stand aside Voldemort, because Dolores Umbridge is the most terrifying villain in the Harry Potter series. The contrast between her high-pitched voice and fuzzy pink office with her cruel punishments for students and evil agenda makes for some truly scary scenes.

J.K. Rowling's magical series isn't going anywhere anytime soon. However, nobody is going to stop thinking about these weird moments either. For better or worse, these strange, funny, gross, bizarre scenes are some of the most memorable from the films.