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Things I Learned From the Harry Potter Series

From one of those adults who can truly say it shaped their lives

By Briony FraserPublished 6 years ago 6 min read
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I was the perfect age for Harry Potter - I learned to read on the books and the first film came out when I was 6. From the word 'go' I was absolutely enamoured, and my enthusiasm has only grown as I've matured into an adult. It's played such a tremendous part in my whole life, and I reckon JKR teaches us some valuable lessons. Here are some things the Harry Potter series taught me:

1. Good and bad aren't mutually exclusive

Look at Harry himself, who literally contains a fragment of the soul of the most evil dark wizard that has ever existed. He may not be everyone's favourite character, but it's undeniable that he is, on the whole, a pretty good guy. Yet as the series progresses, we see (especially in the books), Harry trying to grapple with the subtle indications that there's more to him than even he knows. Harry spends an entire year questioning whether he is the Heir of Slytherin, yet instead of embracing that fragment of his soul, he strives to save Ginny and defeat the basilisk at great personal cost.

Obviously, there are certain cases when bad is just bad...Umbridge, for example, was beyond saving.

2. Adults aren't infallible

Let's start with the obvious - Albus Dumbledore. He makes (and on the whole admits to making) numerous mistakes throughout the series and his life. In death, he leaves a child thinking he's not allowed to trust anyone or ask for help whilst facing a dangerous task. He leaves Harry without the knowledge or skills he needs to end Voldemort, and doesn't confide his plans to any full grown fully qualified adults. Imagine how many problems could've been avoided if he had just told McGonagall everything!

Next Lupin - and I do not say this lightly seeing as he is absolutely my favourite character: he acts based on fear and cowardice when he offers to leave Tonks and the baby and help Harry on his horcrux quest. He has to be told to step up to his responsibilities, by a child.

This was an important lesson for me as a child - I read these books when my parents were divorcing and it made human nature a lot clearer to my 7 year-old self. It also probably contributed to my always questioning authority, which has certainly got me in trouble over the years!

3. Bad things happen to good people

As children we are taught to believe that if we are good all year, Santa will give us presents - essentially good things happen to good people. Fairytales are the same - good always wins. Harry Potter teaches us otherwise.

Hagrid was cast out of magical society (and would've been worse-off had it not been for Dumbledore's support) because everyone chose to believe the handsome manipulator over the bumbling, big hearted half-giant. And after it was proven that he didn't open the Chamber of Secrets, was he allowed a wand again? Was he allowed to practice magic? No, he wasn't. Yet, here's the thing...Hagrid wasn't bitter - he used his position to be the absolute best support Harry could've had. Forget Sirius (gasp, I know): Hagrid was the best parental figure Harry had, despite sometimes being a little bit misguided, especially when it came to large and scary creatures (he was large and scary and nobody gave him a chance - he's just trying to give them the chance he never had).

Remus and Tonks are good to the core, and their son ends up parentless just like Harry was. Lily and James left school, still kids, and devoted their lives to fighting evil. Fred, who lived to make other people laugh...

Yet that's not the lesson "it's okay to be bad", it's the lesson that life throws rubbish our way sometimes yet we shouldn't stop being a good person because of it - good will out in the end.

4. Money doesn't always equal happiness

This is always something that was hammered into me as a child, being taught the value of money etc. However the message only hit home when I became a poor adult. If money was the key to happiness, most of us would spend the majority of our 20s completely miserable.

Look at the Weasleys - poor as they come yet the most loving and happy of families: they make the best of what they have and are the stability and comfort Harry craves. Their values are stronger than their bank balance, and they stand by their morals in a world of Lucius Malfoys gaining influence from money.

I always thought it was a lovely scene in The Deathly Hallows where the Weasley's gift Fabian Prewett's old watch to Harry for his 17th birthday. Harry, who has no family, gets an old tatty heirloom that comes with history and story, and because he's had money but no family he values this so much. Ron, who has family but no money, appreciates the new watch he gets more. As an adult, I always prefer to hand-make gifts - this comes from that concept that I'd rather give someone my time and my creativity than my money.

5. We can't just judge someone off their worst action - it's the whole that counts

I see a lot of fan comments that say that James stole Lily from Snape etc, and this completely misses the point. Lily was a freethinking individual who chose James over Snape because she saw that although James had been a cocky teenager who bullied Snape, he had matured and become a good man who gave up his life to fight evil, whereas Snape had turned his bitterness and insecurities into supporting evil. Snape was not a "misunderstood hero" - he turned to Dumbledore out of selfishness and fear and he didn't care about James or Harry, just Lily. Even his patronus, a doe like Lily's, shows that his "love" for Lily was just obsession, in contrast to James' stag, the partner of the doe. Snape becomes a teacher but bullies children - he bullies the child of the woman he supposedly loved because he looks like James. He mercilessly bullies Neville to the point that when Lupin asks what Neville is most frightened of he replies Snape - Neville, the boy who probably witnessed his parents being tortured into insanity*, is more scared of Snape. It always bothered me that Snape was forgiven by Harry and was "one of the bravest men I've ever known" - personally, I think Remus, Hagrid or Arthur would both be much better contenders for this accolade.

*I say he probably witnessed his parents' torture due to the ease in which he recognises the cruciatus curse in The Goblet of Fire.

6. There is absolutely no shame in being a swot

Growing up, Hermione Granger was a breath of fresh air. A heroine who was super intelligent and not afraid to show it, yet who recognised the value of friendship and bravery. Hermione taught me that knowledge is power (because seriously, do you think Harry and Ron would've got anywhere without her?) and since then I've never been scared to be an "insufferable know-it-all". Having Hermione as a role model meant I was never scared to know the answer, never scared to learn just that little bit more...there's a very good chance I owe a lot to her character in terms of academic (and pub quiz!) success.

humanity
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About the Creator

Briony Fraser

Geographist, Nerd, dog-mad, and Harry Potter fanatic. Just writing about things I love.

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