Dear reader, today I am writing to you to not convince you but to express my love for Harry Potter, the book series of course. Harry Potter has everything that a good story should consist of; A hero with a tragic past – the protagonist is an orphan who is good and kind despite everything, a funny sidekick, Ronald Weasley, an animal sidekick – the owl. A mentor, which would be the wise old Dumbledore. An evil villain, who only the hero can defeat – Voldemort, and world peace that lies on the protagonist’s young shoulders. A lovely love interest and finally something different, something other-worldly – that would be where the magic comes in. Seems stereotypical, right? But if we were to look at things in this simplified, aphoristic, abridged version then, all timeless literature would be underwhelming and cliché.
For instance, a prince avenging his father’s death ends up going crazy in grief and begins to hallucinate, kills his own mother, the love of his life, all accidentally, and his uncle, that was on purpose, and finally dying as a martyr, this is the plot of Hamlet, a timeless classic with multiple remakes and several adaptations.
Books are more complicated than the blurb or the summaries make them out to be, they’re so much more, this over-simplification of the Harry Potter series may be stopping you from experiencing one of the greatest pleasures of life.
“And to you,
if you have
stuck
with Harry
until the
very
end.”
The words that will almost always send shivers down my spine (and also make me cry). Harry Potter books aren’t just books or movies or a franchise, it’s a feeling, it’s a world that you can go back to where Harry, Ron, Hermoine, and the walls of Hogwarts are awaiting to give you a warm hug, they take you on this marvellous adventure of love, friendship, good and evil, magic and everything in between. I will not tell you to read the books because they’re so good, this, that and the other thing. But I will state why I love them so much, maybe that’ll be enough for you to dive into the Magical World of Harry Potter.
When I began to read them, I was 11 years of age and that was when it came crashing down to me that this would never be my reality. I would never get my letter and I would never board the Hogwarts Express, I am almost 25 and it is still one of the most heartbreaking things that have ever happened to me, to know that the characters, and places that I consider my own, and such a huge part of my life, aren’t real.
The reason why Harry Potter has been the biggest franchise in the world, with seven books, eight movies, five theme parks around the world, and much more. When you read Harry Potter, you do not read them from an outsider’s point of view, in fact, you become a part of the series. You become a part of the family, you feel like you’re inside the books, whether its inside Hogsmeade with the trio or at Grimmauld Place with Sirius, you feel like you’re in the room with them. Harry grows up with you, you grow up with Harry. You go through life with Harry and as he does with you. The characters are incredibly well-rounded, three-dimensional, and human. They have good and bad in them, they’re not perfect, they get jealous, they fight, they make mistakes, and try to make it right.
The hero, he gets scared and he procrastinates like the rest of us and sometimes he’s filled with regret and bitterness that it’s all-consuming. Draco, the nemesis, isn’t all evil and a bully but you see how afraid he is and he wishes he could be on the other side; his regret of not being on the right side. Draco isn’t just a bad person or a good person but you see he doesn’t have a choice, sometimes evil is done out of love. All characters are rich with full, beautiful personalities, well… except for Umbridge, I will forever hate her, even more than Voldemort.
It’s so much more than just wizards and wands, it’s about the fight, within ourselves, choosing the greater good, choosing selflessness, love, and friendship, and being brave even when it’s scary.
Every time I read Harry Potter, I forget quite quickly that I am reading, I float in this orbit of nothingness and everything all at once. I am myself and Harry at the same time, I am at Hogwarts and at home in my bed, heart racing, glassy-eyed, fingers flipping pages but also, I’m unable to recall how I finished the books so soon. As you keep reading, they get more realistic, and lifelike, and you soon realise they aren’t as much about spells and Horcruxes or Quidditch, but something greater, being valiant and gallant and not giving up even in the face of evil and terror. It’s about grief, acceptance, and tolerance. Genocide, child and animal abuse, the hierarchy of government power, the dangers of mob mentality, death, corruption of the media, courage, living in war, loss, and the importance of human life. Still think it’s a children’s book?
The fight between Voldemort and the wizarding world isn’t a war between good vs evil, right and wrong. It’s about the tyranny that we endure one way or another, the helplessness that we all feel within us, and how people get carried away when they have power. To quote Uncle Ben from Spiderman “with great power, comes great responsibility.”
It could be an evil boss that you’re battling with a politician that you despise, or even a friend that we can’t seem to get away from their control. The books aren’t simply about potions and dung bombs and goblets of fires, it’s so much more special, to be wrapped in the world, the ever-problematic JK. Rowling has created, to be carried away with the words, into the magnificent and thrilling and exciting world of Magic, to feel the paper between my fingers and smell the food of the Great Hall to be transported into this world, with my fictional best friends and make-believe enemies is the ultimate delight for me.