This article contains major Harry Potter spoilers!
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling recently went on record to express her sorrow to fans over the death of Fred Weasley. Her remarks are likely prompting many fans to think about all of the other great characters who died throughout the series. Sirius Black. Dobby. Dumbledore. Lupin and Tonks. The list goes on... But let's be honest, there were a few notable characters we weren't so sorry to see go. In fact, we came up with a list of six, ranked by how little sympathy they deserve for their actions...
Professor Quirrell
Book: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Cause of Death: Exposure to Harry Potter. (Also involuntary exorcism?)
Quirrell seemed like a nice enough guy... until it turned out he was carrying Lord Voldemort around in his turban and letting him possess him. As a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Quirrell was pretty weak. He was even weaker as a villain, and a failure at that, as he allowed himself to be thwarted by an 11-year-old. Still, we're not sorry he's gone. I mean, who kills a unicorn? Honestly.
Barty Crouch, Jr.
Book: Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire
Cause of Death: Presumed to have died sometime after receiving the dementor's kiss.
Like Quirrell, Barty Crouch flew mostly-solo in his efforts to bring Lord Voldemort back. Unlike Quirrell, however, Barty Crouch was a lot more successful in his endeavors. So he gets points for that, but loses them immediately due to torturing and killing harmless spiders in his DADA class. Unnecessary. Also, he helped torture the Longbottoms (assuming the accusations were true), killed his father and kept Mad-Eye Moody trapped in a trunk for almost a year.
Nagini
Book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Cause of Death: Beheaded by Neville Longbottom at the Battle of Hogwarts.
We're not going to hold "being a snake" against Nagini (#SlytherinPride). But Voldemort's faithful pet has a death count of her own, and it includes Severus Snape. That by itself warrants her a place on this list. Plus, she was one of Voldemort's Horcruxes, so her death was necessary to ensure his. Sorry, Nagini, not sorry.
Bellatrix Lestrange
Book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Cause of Death: Killed by Molly Weasley at the Battle of Hogwarts.
This might sound harsh but... Oh, whatever, Bellatrix was horrible and a living (dying) example that what goes around, comes around. It wasn't so much her murderous ways that defined her horribleness, as it was her open enjoyment of other people's pain. She celebrated the death of Sirius in Book 5 and taunted Molly Weasley about Fred's death during the Battle of Hogwarts. Turns out, she picked the wrong mother to mess with, and it backfired hard as Molly promptly took her down. Good riddance.
Peter Pettigrew
Book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Cause of Death: Strangled to death by his own hand.
Peter Pettigrew earned his thirty pieces of silver in the form of a prosthetic hand in Book 4. But his reward for his loyalty to Voldemort backfired in the final book, when the magical hand turned against him after he hesitated to kill Harry at Malfoy Manor. It's hard to feel any sympathy towards Peter. He had the love and support of good people and he chose to follow evil instead. He betrayed his best friends, resulting in Lily and James' deaths, and he let Sirius take the fall for it. He also killed a bunch of muggles while faking his own death, creeped around the Weasley family for years posing as a rat, and killed Cedric Diggory just for being there.
Lord Voldemort
Book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Cause of Death: Dueling with Harry Potter; Failing to master the Elder Wand; Ran out of Horcruxes.
At the risk of taking the obvious road, Tom "Lord Voldemort" Riddle tops this list, as it's impossible to imagine the series ending any other way than with Voldemort and all of his horcruxes destroyed. In that respect, Harry Potter didn't let us down. Voldemort spent most of his life trying to thwart death, taking countless lives in the process. We'll try to take Dumbledore's high road and pity Voldemort for having lived without love. But it's hard to feel sorry for how things turned out, as Tom Riddle's ruthless determination to evade death proved to be his downfall in the end.
