--- title: Harry Potter Sassiest Burns on Reddit Ranking description: Reddit has gone wild for a thorough ranking of Harry's sass factors throughout the seven-book series, based on his witty repartee. canonical: https://time.com/4812885/harry-potter-sassy-lines/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-09T18:03:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:44:22.261Z og:title: Fan Ranks Harry Potter's Sassiest Moments in Every Book og:description: A thorough investigation of the teen wizard's sharpest retorts og:url: https://time.com/4812885/harry-potter-sassy-lines/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Fan Ranks Harry Potter's Sassiest Moments in Every Book twitter:description: A thorough investigation of the teen wizard's sharpest retorts twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Here's an Expert Assessment of Harry Potter's Various Sass Levels Throughout the Books > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jun 9, 2017 6:03 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jun 9, 2017 6:03 PM UTC Harry Potter is not known for his meek demeanor. The [infamous wizard](http://time.com/4749654/harry-potter-19-year-later-book/) is a rule breaker and a rebel, equal parts kind-hearted kid and smart-mouthed adolescent. Reddit user InquisitorCOC took fan knowledge of this fact — and decided to [apply a ranking](https://www.reddit.com/r/harrypotter/comments/6frtos/collection%5Fof%5Fharrys%5Fsass/) to each of the seven _Harry Potter_ books based on the teen wizard’s level of sass in each year’s adventure. Using a ten-point scale, the Redditor made good use of some expert knowledge of Potter dialogue in the extensive analysis of the situation. The results? According to InquisitorCOC, Potter is sassiest in the _Half-Blood Prince_, where he spouts off with some truly memorable lines. (“There’s no need to call me ‘sir,’ Professor,” is one standout from that particular tome during a tense exchange with Professor Snape.) According to this Reddit user, Harry reached a sass slump back in his second year during the _Chamber of Secrets_ era; he only gets five points for that year, by Reddit’s judgment. But he was young. Things improved especially in the [_Order of the Phoenix_](http://time.com/4609174/j-k-rowling-snape-queenie-legilimency/), during which Harry is notoriously moody and mercurial — and gets in a number of spats with friends and enemies alike. For instance, during a chat with Dudley Dursley: “This is night, Diddykins. That’s what we call it when it goes all dark like this.” While Harry is best known [for his courage](http://time.com/4607327/harry-potter-inspirational-quotes/item/it-takes-a-great-deal-of-bravery-to-stand-up-to-our-enemies-but-just-as-much-to-stand-up-to-our-friends/) and selfless heart, this ranking draws much-needed attention to his wry wit and dry humor, too. Looks like he’s a man after Rowling’s own heart: she does [love a good clapback](http://time.com/4812905/jk-rowling-misogyny-twitter-rant/), after all. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4812885/harry-potter-sassy-lines/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4812885/harry-potter-sassy-lines/"},"headline":"Here's an Expert Assessment of Harry Potter's Various Sass Levels Throughout the Books","datePublished":"2017-06-09T18:03:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:44:22.261Z","description":"Reddit has gone wild for a thorough ranking of Harry's sass factors throughout the seven-book series, based on his witty repartee.","url":"https://time.com/4812885/harry-potter-sassy-lines/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","Books","Harry Potter"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4812885/harry-potter-sassy-lines/","name":"Here's an Expert Assessment of Harry Potter's Various Sass Levels Throughout the Books"}}]}] ```