By Anjali Nayak
Hello fellow former Potterheads!
In a last ditch effort to bask in my childhood for just a little bit longer—what do you mean I only have two weeks of high school left?—I started to reread J.K Rowling’s acclaimed Harry Potter series.
The second half of the series sets a far darker tone than the first three books. The once whimsical Wizarding World is plagued with magic terrorism and hate crime. Hogwarts goes from a joyous institution of imagination to a breeding ground for whatever hell Dolores Umbridge spawned from. Nearly every somewhat tolerable character dies within the last fifty pages of the last book. I would say spoiler alert, but come on, the books have been out for over twenty years.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire will forever be the best book in the series, no questions asked. Fifth grade Anjali stood fervently on this hill, and Senior Anjali is willing to die on it. For one, this is the first book in which we get to see the Wizarding World at an international scale—the inclusion of the Quidditch World Cup perfectly showcases how different cultures and nationalities use magic. However, it did crush little Anjali’s dream of going to Hogwarts. The American wizarding school is Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, what does that even mean? Then the Triwizard Tournament, though I do not have any chance of ever surviving a single second of the first round, I remember being so entranced by the dragons and depth of the tournament. But The Goblet of Fire will forever be remembered as the massive turning point within the series. There are two major firsts; the first time Harry, and thus the reader, witnesses a death (other than that of his parents) and the first time that we see Lord Voldemort in his true form. Noseless. Pale. Terrifying. Even more, this is the moment in which the battle shifts from The Wizarding World vs Lord Voldemort to Harry Potter vs Lord Voldermort. Throughout the books until now, Harry has had the help of his trusty friends to ensure safety. But in the graveyard, it’s nothing but the Boy Who Lived himself.
Now for a bit of a hot take: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is by far the worst book in the series. It was the first time I read it, and it still is. It just drags. I get that Harry Potter is supposed to be scary now, but the first three hundred pages are so, so, so boring. Things pick up more when the origins of the first Dumbledore’s Army are described. I will admit that learning the backstories of some of these adult characters—and overall major wizarding families—did add a lot to the world building and overall depth of the story. It’s interesting to weave through the nuances of the chosen family created due to the wrath of Voldemort and his Death Eaters. The Weasleys, Longbottoms, Blacks, Dumbledores, and Lestranges each have their own fleshed out storylines. The Battle of Hogwarts proves that those in Dumbledore’s Army stick together simply because they want to see good in the world. Sirius Black’s death at the very end of the book lives as the largest example of such.
I have something to admit, the first time I read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, I knew that Dumbledore was going to die at the end. This isn’t incredible hindsight or simply a mismanagement of my memory, but the simple truth. And if I were to have read this book for the first time just a week or two ago, I am almost certain that I would have guessed the same. Also? I’m personally not that big a fan of Dumbledore. He did get a tad bit more interesting once Rowling spewed the fact that Dumbeldore may or may not have been gay for Grindelwald—though that might have been a desperate attempt to earn some brownie points from liberal Twitter. I did enjoy going deeper into Professor Snape’s backstory, as the overall theme of “love having the power to defeat evil” is forever one of my favorites. Learning that Snape had first had a crush on Lily Potter sets the entire plotline in emotion of the reveal that he has been working for Dumbledore this entire time. Easily, Snape is the bravest man in the Wizarding World, and learning about his story as the Half-Blood Prince makes for an extremely enticing read. Overall, this is definitely a character-driven rather than plot driven book. Even the most climactic moments—the death of Dumbledore and destruction of the first Horcrux—aren’t as exciting as the climaxes of moments in other books. There isn’t even shock. Once again, I was indeed not shocked.
As much as I love daydreaming as to what life at Hogwarts would be like—though Westmont does provide quite a magical highschool experience—I enjoy the Wizarding World most when Hogwarts isn’t center stage. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows witnesses the Golden Trio on the most wild goose chase of their life. From the literal middle of the woods, to Godric’s Hollow, to Gringotts, the three frantically attempt to find the other Horcruxes. Oh, and this book is very depressing. There is definitely an overall connotation of an impending end, though Rowling keeps it ambiguous as to whether or not that end is positive or negative. The once glorious world of magic is now in wartorn ruins.
Even more, we get to hear the backstory of the second main character in the series. Lord Voldemort himself. I swear, reading the story of how Voldemort is truly evil because he was conceived through a love potion will always send shivers down my spine. That’s some good storytelling right there. Also, I am forever fascinated by the Deathly Hallows fable. The invisibility cloak! They’ve literally had that the entire time! I do admit that my current brain like Berkeley still does not understand how Harry is the true master of the Elder Wand. I’ve also had it explained to me many times before.
Oh, and the end. Usually I am not one for super action-packed books, my favorite literature has always been a bit of a slog, but I really did enjoy the fast-pace of the last one hundred pages. There really is a sense of urgency within the words, as if this really is a do or die situation. This book is great, and does a really good job at tying up all of the loose ends that Half-Blood Prince ended on.
Though Harry Potter is a children’s book through and through, I do appreciate how Rowling includes far more serious themes and nuance. As flamboyant as the characters in Harry Potter are, they face very real, very serious problems. I will admit that some of the characters do seem a little bit half-baked—Ron deserved far better and Harry is honestly quite boring for the most part—but the characters that do have nuance.
The use of the child perspective throughout the books can be misleading for a reader who is about the same age as Harry. Through his lens, we see the adults in a story as binaries—either good and bad, but always knowing more than us no matter which side they’re on. Rereading the book at an older age almost removes the myth of the perfect adult in the story. For instance, Dumbledore is no longer this all-knowing mentor figure, but instead a man who understands the political climate of the Wizarding World and instead looks to restore balance at any cost. Words will never be able to encapsulate the betrayal I felt when it was revealed he was raising Harry “like a pig for slaughter” in the Deathly Hallows. Though Rowling had pulled multiple rugs from under my feet throughout the series, that one definitely hit a little too hard.
Yet I think Rowling was doing more. She wanted us to reflect on the theme of sacrifice ‘for the greater good’—a key idea that Dumbledore passionately believed in when he experimented in the dark arts with Grindelwald. I cannot blame Dumbledore for manipulating other characters to get what he wants, because they ultimately met benevolent goals, but it is clear from these actions that Dumbledore never really developed that strong sense of empathy and trust – even towards Harry, who I believed that he loved the most. It is quite interesting to see that the wisest character in the series is also the one that changes the least.
One of J.K Rowling’s writing feats is her ability to hide the motivations of her characters and then reveal them several books later. Their grand strategies, and the flaws in their plans, are only revealed when one reads the book forward, and then backwards. I found Dumbledore to be the most interesting, but you’ll find the same for characters like Severus Snape, Sirius Black, James Potter, and Petunia Dursley.
Also, if this wasn’t clear enough, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child does NOT count as a Harry Potter book.