Deathly Hallows Completely Ruined One of the Most Poignant Deaths in Harry Potter

We're talking about death of Harry's owl, Hedwig.

In the book, when Harry Potter and a bunch of disguised decoy Potters tried to escape the Death Eater pursuit, both actual Harry and all the doubles had owls in cages (stuffed toy owls in case of doubles).

Because of course, owls of the Wizarding world willingly stick with their owners, so having only one of the whole roster of Harry Potters followed by a big snowy owl would have been an instant giveaway.

So, while stuck in the cage, Hedwig gets hit by a killing curse aimed at Harry's direction and dies. Then even her body is reduced to ash, when Harry tries to fight off the pursuers with an explosive spell.

And that gets Harry quite traumatized – when things are only starting getting bad.

You can perhaps complain a bit that sacrificing a minor character or a pet to show brutality of war, abruptness of death, and establish an atmosphere of doom and gloom is a cheap writing trick.

But this trick works, and the whole sequence of events makes sense within the confines of the plot.

In the movie version, however, this happens instead:

To explain a bit, Harry releases Hedwig before the escape attempt. Despite knowing that, again, wizard owls are attached to the owners they choose.

So, this dramatic "get down Mr. President" moment from Hedwig was predictable not only out of the story – certainly more predictable that what happened to Hedwig in the book – but in the story as well.

And while Hedwig's death was supposed to be made more dramatic, as the movie had to compress events and could not relay Harry's internal thoughts and feelings, he seemed to shrug off the whole event.

So, at times even something as small as an adjustment to fate of not even a character, but a pet, without a single line of dialogue or a substantial plot role, can substantially impact atmosphere of your story.