Finals have come and gone, and you have returned home. All is well. You now have three unobstructed months (barring any internships or jobs) to relax, see your friends, catch up on your favorite shows, and stuff your face with food your parents pay for. But after about a week, it gets boring. You feel bad about yourself for sleeping in until 2 p.m. every day, you’ve heard your friends tell the same stories about 40 times, and you’ve already binged your way through How To Get Away With Murder and House of Cards. So now what?

Well, if you consider yourself a Harry Potter fanatic and yet have neglected to read the books, now may be a great time to crack them open. There are so many minute (and not-so-minute) details in them that didn’t make the cut, some of them that actually have tremendous implications in the Wizarding World. So here’s a list of the many reasons why the books are worth a read; after all, any Harry Potter knowledge is invaluable, and you might even realize that you were a total squib for not reading them in the first place.

**Obligatory spoiler alert for these novels that have come out almost two decades ago**

1. Peeves

Where is he? Where are all of the poltergeists’ miscreant antics? Peeves may not be a central part of the plot line, but he is still a significant presence in the books. Aside from the obvious scene in which he finally takes an order from someone who isn’t the Bloody Baron in Book Five, J.K. Rowling included (and continued to include) Peeves in all of her books to enhance the aura of the characters surrounding him. What I would have given to see shabby old Remus Lupin send gum shooting up this guy’s nose.

2. Snape’s Logic Game

In Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry, Hermione and Ron need to overcome a series of obstacles to reach the Mirror of Erised. Although the movie covered the Devil’s Snare, keys, and chessboard, it excluded two. One being a mountain troll who was placed there (and defeated by) Quirrel, and the other being the potions logic game from Snape. This was a huge part of the book! It proved that Snape was working for Dumbledore at a point where the trio believed in his guilt, and it also shows just how brilliant Snape really is. Despite being a thoroughly accomplished wizard, he elected to display his talent via logic--he and J.K. boiled down his task to accrue for muggle readers.

3. Penelope Clearwater

Who? Penelope Clearwater gets only one mention in the movies, and it’s in the seventh movie when they’re caught by snatchers and Hermione needs to think of an alias, fast. What you would know if you read the books is that Miss Clearwater is Percy Weasley’s girlfriend, and is also a victim of the Petrifying attacks that occurred in Book Two. With her introduction as a character, we see a softer, more affectionate side of Percy that soon is tarnished by his behavior after he graduates.

4. Buying Crookshanks

After Harry accidentally inflates his Aunt Marge in the movie and ends up at The Leaky Cauldron (that’s in London), Hermione and Ron appear in the kitchen the next morning arguing about Scabbers and Crookshanks. What we don’t see is where Hermione acquired Crookshanks to begin with. In the book, we see Scabbers acting "off color" all morning, prompting Ron to buy rat tonic. This leads them to Magical Menagerie, where Hermione elects to buy the bandy-legged, flat-faced kneazle instead of an owl. This becomes a focal point both in the story as well as in some newly arising theories that Crookshanks was Lily and James Potter’s old cat who recognized Wormtail for what he was immediately.

5. The Marauders

So really quick, if you didn’t know already, “Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs” are actually Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black, and James Potter. Of course, you wouldn’t know this just by watching the movies since the producers only made vague illusions. It baffles me that this isn’t addressed more, because it seems like such a staple of the trio’s lives and forges a deeper connection between Harry and his dad.

6. Harry Using the Patronus at a Quidditch Game

After taking extensive private lessons from Lupin, Harry conjured the Patronus at a Quidditch match while playing Ravenclaw. Although the “dementors” at the game were actually Malfoy and his cronies trying to scare him, Harry had just demonstrated to all who were present that he could conjure a corporeal Patronus. Even though in his pursuit of the Snitch, he wasn’t able to see the form that it took, Lupin commented that it was “quite a Patronus”; meaning that he saw that it was in the shape of a stag, a subconscious homage to James Potter.

7. Floo Powder Fiasco of 4 Privet Drive

Nothing capitalizes on the Dursleys’ hatred of anything magical more than the day that Arthur Weasley attempted to get 4 Privet Drive connected to the Floo Network without realizing that they had an electric fireplace. Not only did Mr. Weasley essentially blow up the Dursleys’ living room, he also had to get Dudley’s tongue back to its original state after he ate a Ton-Tongue Toffee. So many chaos ensuing just to pick up Harry on his way to school.

8. Hermione’s Vendetta Against Rita Skeeter

Whoever cast and costumed Miranda Richardson as Rita Skeeter was spot on. Unfortunately, they were unable to get as much visibility for her as a character as she deserved in the movies. Rita’s role in defaming Harry’s best friends and Hagrid drives Hermione so crazy that she spends incredible amounts of time in the library trying to figure it out. We see a more vindictive side of Hermione here. After she captures Rita in her Animagus form, she blackmails her for a LONG time, until at least halfway through the fifth book when Harry is interviewed and tells his part of the story in the graveyard and gets it published in The Quibbler.

9. Winky and S.P.E.W.

Winky is Barty Crouch Sr.’s house elf, who was loyal to her master and his son. She even managed to convince Crouch to letting his son go to the Quidditch World Cup, and watch the game under the pretense of saving a seat for her master. After she failed to keep Barty Jr. from escaping, she is fired. This prompts Hermione to whip out her activist profile and begins a campaign to fight for elfish welfare. Although people dismiss her cause by saying that she doesn’t “get it” because she wasn’t raised with the idea that house elves are bred to be inferior, she carries on. This is such a telling manifestation of Hermione’s character as being incredibly loyal and committed to spreading equality.

10. Who Are the Prefects?

Ron and Hermione. A large chunk of the beginning of Book Five is Harry feeling neglected and excluded when his two best friends are appointed as Prefects by Dumbledore. This escalates his resentment toward his headmaster, and is eventually explained well in the last chapter when Dumbledore tells him that he thought Harry had “quite enough to be dealing with already.”

11. Percy’s Disappearance

It’s difficult to keep track of all seven of the Weasley children at every point in time. Bill is off treasure hunting for Gringotts, Charlie is busy working with dragons in Romania, Fred and George are causing mayhem somewhere, and Ginny is busy being a potential member of the trio or dating some boy. But in the movies, we see no indication that Percy had walked out on his family and denounced their support for Dumbledore by working on part of the Ministry. A major point in the novels that defines the relationship within the Weasley household, Percy’s disappearance in the movies is regarded as the family simply not being in close touch with him just as they aren’t with the two eldest brothers.

12. Fred and George’s Swamp

One of the most memorable parts of the fifth movie was when the twins used their entire supply of Weasley’s Wildfire Whiz-Bangs during the Defense Against the Dark Arts OWL, even conjuring a dragon to chase Umbridge before exploding in the great hall. What we wish we could have seen is their swamp by Umbridge’s office that she couldn’t figure out how to get rid of. Not only is that hilarious, but the fact that Flitwick got rid of it “in about a second” but kept a section of it as a tribute to their good magic shows us just how accomplished the twins were, and how their unconventional wisdom was actually able to aid in their cause against the ministry hag.

13. Harry’s Advisor Meeting

Dame Maggie Smith is amazing. What would have been more amazing would be to see her as McGonagall in a passive-aggressive yet sassy head to head against Dolores Umbridge. Although Minerva McGonagall’s dry humor and “take-no-shit” attitude is present in the books, the movies didn’t do her justice. When Harry goes in to consult with her on a potential career path, McGonagall and Umbridge face off in an argument about his validity as a candidate to be an Auror. McGonagall’s fierce loyalty to Harry shines through particularly in this scene, and it is at this point in the book that we really begin to see acts of defiance against the corrupt Ministry.

14. The Other Minister

The Muggle Prime Minister is a man who was allotted an entire chapter, and was hardly ever mentioned again. So why would Jo even include him in the first place? Well, the opening chapter to the Half Blood Prince serves as an explanation as to how the Muggle world is seemingly unaware of the massive war that is brewing in their midst, and how the government is an integral part in concealing it. It forces readers to consider our own governments, and far from being a conspiracy theory, it simply allows us to have a different angle when thinking about events that happen with potentially improbable causes. #JetFuelCan’tMeltSteelBeams

15. Hepzibah Smith and Hokey

This was surprising. When the producers of the Harry Potter movies didn’t think that it was important to include the memory of Hepzibah Smith showing Tom Riddle two of the horcruxes, I was baffled. She is such an integral part of the story, and displays not only Tom’s bloodthirsty lust for important Hogwarts artifacts, but also the thoroughness of his actions in trying to attain them. Planting a memory in Smith’s house elf’s mind of accidentally poisoning her mistress as a cover up is ingenious, and the movies should have addressed this huge plot point in how Voldemort attained all of these seemingly lost treasures.

16. Voldemort’s Parents

Again, along the same lines as Hepzibah Smith’s story, the story of Tom Riddle Senior and the Gaunt family should have been a large focus of the sixth movie. This has the potential to explain a lot about the psychology behind Voldemort. On his mother’s side is the pure-blood mania, Parseltongue, and lust for magical powers. His father’s side is the root cause of the breeding resentment and desire for independence from everything. Dumbledore went to great lengths to procure these memories; the least we could do is have David Yates pay more attention to Voldemort’s background and less to Harry’s erections.

17. The Half Blood Prince

Casually, Snape is the Half Blood Prince. He tells us as Bellatrix is busy maniacally setting fire to Hagrid’s house. But why is he the half blood prince? Where did he get his name? There are so many questions surrounding his title that were actually addressed pretty thoroughly in the book. Hermione finds that Snape’s mother, an Eileen Prince, married a muggle by the name Tobias Snape. This makes him half of a prince. Pretty clever, pretty interesting, pretty short and sweet, and pretty deserving of a least a quick rundown in the movies, don’t you think?

18. Phineas Nigellus

How did Snape know that Harry and Hermione were in the Forest of Dean? How did he know to conjure the doe Patronus to lead Harry to the sword of Gryffindor that just so happened to be conveniently located at the bottom of a pond in a remote forest? The movie expects you to just take these bizarre facts for granted, but if you read the books then you are aware that Sirius’ ancestor Phineas Nigellus is a former headmaster of Hogwarts, and has two paintings that he can rotate between. Hermione brings along the portrait of Phineas Nigellus in her bag, and when he hears that they have traveled to the Forest, alerts Snape and sends him running to show Harry where the sword is.

19. Peter Pettigrew’s Death

Debt is a huge recurring theme throughout the series, and J.K. Rowling does a superb job of outlining just how much of an underlying role it plays in magic. Peter Pettigrew was about to be killed by his two ex-best friends in the Prisoner of Azkaban, when Harry steps in and spares his life. When Pettigrew betrays him and runs back to Voldemort who gives him a new hand, he is still indebted to Harry. Pettigrew encounters them at the dungeons of Malfoy Manor, and is about to expose their presence when Harry reminds him that he owes him his life. Pettigrew’s fake hand chokes him to death, a symbol of unpaid debt that the movie casually overlooks for the sake of allowing Dobby a reentrance.

20. F*** the Elder Wand

In the movie, Harry stands victorious on the bridges of Hogwarts, making a calculated decision to snap the Elder Wand into tiny fragments before launching them into the depths of the Hogwarts cliffs. It’s implied that he continues to use Draco’s wand that he took at Malfoy Manor. The book is a little different. In a far nobler move, Harry deems that the wand should be returned to Dumbledore’s tomb, and uses it to fix his wand that chose him Ollivander’s shop seven years ago. By returning it to Dumbledore, Harry breaks the spell of the Elder Wand, truly becoming the master of death.

21. When Voldemort Doesn’t Float Up Into The Air Like Paper Mache

The whole point is that Voldemort is a mortal man. Tom Marvolo Riddle is now back to being a man no longer tethered to life via his horcruxes. The fact that he fell to the floor as a deceased body brings the whole excursion to kill him to a close. When movie Voldemort fluttered away in bits and pieces, potentially being inhaled by students streaming out of Hogwarts, we didn’t get the same principle ending that J.K. Rowling wanted us to get.

It is now time for me to conduct my annual rereading of the entire series, and I sincerely hope that you will join me after being reminded that the legacy left by J.K. Rowling’s novels is one that will live on… always.