Harry Potter Muggle or Wizard?
C. Cuomo-Lewia
Readers are first introduced to J.K. Rowling’s main character Harry Potter in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the first installment of her literary works. When readers meet Harry Potter, a boy orphaned by the death of his parents and living with unkind relatives, the first impression is that of a Cinderella character. Harry dresses in rags of clothing, his Cousin Dudley’s old clothes, and is presented with household chores which define his existence as one of servitude to the Dursleys. This Cinderella style character Harry Potter is also confined to a cupboard under the stairs while in the care of the Dursleys. When Harry’s invitation to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry arrives after numerous thwarted attempts to deny him his mail by his Uncle Vernon, it appears as if Harry Potter has been salvaged from his demeaning life and headed to an enchanted castle. Once Harry arrives at Hogwarts and his fairy tale life is bestowed upon him, he unlike Cinderella has to endure hardships and real life scenarios to realize his potential as a person of magnitude. J.K. Rowling’s literary works feature a fantasy style solely by the incorporation of a magical existence for her characters being that they are witches and wizards. What is exemplified by her literary works is the basic nature of life and what humans regardless of having or not having magical powers must endure throughout that life. A look at the life of Rowling’s character Harry Potter throughout Rowling’s series will highlight and confirm the assertion that magic does not omit a person from the things that those without magic succumb to, which is the intended goal of this personal discourse. Magic cannot conquer death, humanity’s most feared realization, or imminent danger from those who wish to harm the innocent; Rowling’s character Voldermort portrays this side of the human experience. J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter exists much like a reader of her literary works and that is how she captivates them and they want to follow Harry on his journey through the series.
Rowling’s Harry Potter is equipped with the initial sense of loss and death of his parents. The tragic beginning for Harry as a boy orphaned is only his initial taste of life’s hardships. Rowling introduces death to Harry in a gradual manner. Harry displays a distant view of death in Rowling’s first book Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, with his reaction to the fate of Nicolas Flamel and his wife Perenelle. Rowling created Nicolas Flamel who “is the only known maker of the Sorcerer’s Stone” (219).
“The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Sorcerer’s stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers. The stone will transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal. There have been many reports of the Sorcerer’s Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr. Nicolas Flamel, the noted alchemist and opera lover. Mr. Flamel, who celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday last year, enjoys a quiet life in Devon with his wife, Perenelle (six hundred and fifty-eight) (Rowling, “Sorcerer’s Stone” 220).
When Harry learns that the Sorcerer’s stone has been destroyed his innocence in regards to what death defines is clarified by Rowling when she has Dumbledore tell Harry, “They have enough Elixir stored to set their affairs in order and then, yes they will die.” “To one as young as you, I’m sure it seems incredible, but to Nicolas and Perenelle, it really is like going to bed after a very, very long day. After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure” (297). Rowling’s Harry Potter, a boy at the age of eleven years is gradually tasting life’s vulnerability to death in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Rowling’s Harry Potter the eleven year old wizard that has been newly introduced to his magical life discovers one of the most non-magical privileges of humanity and that is the privilege of choice. When the sorting hat, Rowling’s magical singing hat that divides the students of Hogwarts School into their separate houses is placed on Harry’s head Harry is determined not to be placed in Slytherin House. Harry is seemingly convinced that his meet and greet with Draco Malfoy who is of Slytherin character material is proof enough that Harry wants nothing more than a complete avoidance of that fate. When the sorting hat is placed on Harry’s head, Harry pleads “Not Slytherin, not Slytherin” (121). The hat replies to Harry’s request “better be Gryffindor” (121). Rowling’s Sorcerer’s Stone delivered a Cinderella character straight from a life of servitude to one full of possibilities; despite wielding a magic wand Harry appears to be like any other boy of eleven years, vulnerable and full of life.
In J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets her main character seems to be right on schedule with his pre-pubescence by having some sort of identity crisis. Harry Potter now age twelve years old questions if he is the heir to Slytherin; the one who can unleash a monster loose inside Hogwarts. Harry Potter has the rare ability to speak to snakes in Rowling’s wizarding world, he is a Parselmouth. A Parselmouth is a wizard that can speak snake language which is called Parseltongue. In Rowling’s Chamber of Secrets a monster which is revealed to be a basilisk is unleashed throughout the castle; and it was said that only the heir to Salazar Slytherin the founder of the Slytherin House at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry could unleash it. While the basilisk is attacking students at the school Harry questions the very essence of who he is. He knows very little about his father’s family and their wizarding family tree and wonders if he is a descendant of Salazar Slytherin. One again Harry must be reminded of life’s course and what he is capable of by choices he has already made. Rowling uses her character Professor Dumbledore again to instill wisdom on her twelve year old character in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. “You can speak Parseltongue, Harry” said Dumbledore calmly, “because Lord Voldemort – who is the last remaining ancestor of Salazar Slytherin – can speak Parseltongue. Unless I’m much mistaken, he transfored some of his powers to you the night he gave you that scar” (332-333). Harry struggles with this information and questions whether or not he should have been put in Slytherin House. “The Sorting Hat could see Slytherin’s power in me and it- Put you in Gryffindor, said Dumbledore calmly” (333). “It only put me in Gryffindor,” said Harry in a defeated voice, “because I asked not to go in Slytherin….” “Exactly,” said Dumbledore, beaming once more. “Which makes you very different from Tom Riddle. It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities” (333). Rowling is providing the notion that humanity’s true power or presence in the world is about making choices rather than what is it capable of doing; the difference between being a muggle, Rowling’s term for non-magical people in her series, or a wizard is inconsequential when both muggles and wizards alike have the ability to make choices that mold the world around us. In Chamber of Secrets Harry makes a choice to free Dobby, a house elf that is in the service of the Malfoy family. House elves are not treated kindly in Rowling’s series and their slave like existence is questioned by her characters who seek betterment for the lives of these house elves. Harry Potter uses his judgment to defend what is right and just; he does not simply wave his wand in the series. Harry Potter makes decisions that ultimately mold the moral being of his character. Magic is a mere accessory for Rowling’s main character Harry Potter.
In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Rowling’s third book in her series Harry Potter meets his godfather, Sirius Black. The mere introduction of having a godfather to the now thirteen year old boy begins to shed some light on the possibility of Harry having a real relative of his own and the foundation for a family like structure. Once again Harry’s happy ever after is not something Rowling will give him; which is a statement of hardship according to real life scenarios Rowling is making. In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban readers are introduced to Rowling’s Patronus Charm, a spell that Rowling’s character Professor Lupin defines as “a guardian that acts as a shield between you and the dementor” (237). The dementors, flying cloaked non-human wretches that act as Harry’s rival in the book are hunting Sirius black and consequently harming Harry in the process. Harry’s ability to conjure a Patronus Charm is a self discovery Rowling’s character is making. The ability to cast a Patronus, a guardian spell, paired with his newly discovered relationship with his godfather are important character enhancements to the boy wizard, who is maturing rapidly in Rowling’s wizarding world as well as in the minds of her readers. When Harry inquiries about the Patronus Professor Lupin replies, “Each one is unique to the wizard who conjures it” (237). “The Patronus is a kind of positive force, a projection of the very things that the dementor feeds upon – hope, happiness, the desire to survive – but it cannot feel despair, as real humans can, so the dementors can’t hurt it. But I must warn you, Harry, that the charm might be too advanced for you. Many qualified wizards have difficulty with it” (Rowling, “Prisoner of Azkaban” 237). Rowling uses her character Dumbledore to deliberately point out Harry’s maturing path when she has Dumbledore state this to Harry, her main character that was introduced to readers as a boy orphaned, who now has been reunited with his godfather and has learned to cast a Patronus, his very own guardian spell. “And I remember the most unusual form your Patronus took, when it charged Mr. Malfoy down at your Quidditch match against Ravenclaw. You know, Harry, in a way, you did see you father last night….You found him inside yourself” (428). Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban sheds light on a person’s inner strength with her invention of the Patronus charm, and that light is defined as something that will cast away shadows of doubt and ghosts that threaten individuals on their journey to self discovery; and Harry Potter now wields that knowledge.
In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Harry is tested by Rowling when she introduces The Triwizard Tournament competition to her main character. “The Triwizard Tournament was first established some seven hundred years ago as a friendly competition between the three largest European schools of wizardry: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. A champion was selected to represent each school, and the three champions competed in three magical tasks. The schools took it in turns to host the tournament once every five years, and it was generally agreed to be a most excellent way of establishing ties between young witches and wizards of different nationalities – until, that is, the death toll mounted so high that the tournament was discontinued” (Rowling, “Goblet of Fire” 187). Harry is set to these tasks when he is chosen as a fourth Triwizard champion; although he did not seek to enter the competition. A Death Eater, a person who is a supporter of Rowling’s character Lord Voldemort and one who subsequently opposes Harry, enters Harry’s name in the Goblet of Fire, the goblet that magically chooses the Triwizard competitors. Once Harry’s name is revealed as a fourth champion by the Goblet of Fire Harry becomes obligated as a champion to compete in the Triwizard competition. Rowling’s Dumbledore states this “Finally, I wish to impress upon any of you wishing to compete that this tournament is not to be entered into lightly. Once a champion has been selected by the Goblet of Fire, he or she is obligated to see the tournament through to the end. The placing of your name in the goblet constitutes a binding, magical contract. There can be no change of heart once you have become a champion. Please be very sure, therefore, that you are wholeheartedly prepared to play before you drop your name into the goblet” (256). Not only has Harry Potter been falsely entered into this binding competition he is three years juvenile of the age requirement that is enforced by Dumbledore, who magically draws an Age Line that is meant to keep those under the age of seventeen from entering. Rowling destines her fourteen year old character Harry Potter to compete in the Triwizard competition which calls upon Harry’s ability to be brave and display cunning. Harry survives the competition despite another student’s death, the result of Rowling’s character Lord Voldemort and his followers’ doing. Lord Voldemort is given the ability to transform once again into a whole person that is fully capable of harming Harry Potter and others, which is what he intends to do. Harry’s tasks throughout the Goblet of Fire have helped him to gain the mindset to prepare for imminent danger that presents itself to him, due to the return of Rowling’s character Voldemort.
In Rowling’s fifth book of her series Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Harry is now fifteen years old and is aware of the dangers Voldemort’s return presents to the wizarding world as well as the muggle world; since Voldemort represents a universal evil he does not discriminate when harming people. Wizards and muggles alike fall victim to Lord Voldemort on his destructive path to gain power. Harry Potter who is beginning to realize his course is to stop Voldemort from gaining complete power is now being intervened by authority. The Ministry of Magic, the governmental body of Rowling’s wizarding world is interfering with Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in an attempt to discredit the notion that Voldemort is back and presenting a great conflict in society. Rowling introduces her character Dolores Umbridge who represents the authority that Harry must confront in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Dolores Umbridge has been appointed as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, by the Ministry of Magic. Dolores Umbridge clarifies the Ministry’s ignorance concerning Voldemort’s threat and poises herself to teach the students of Hogwarts book lessons rather than the spell and wand activities teachers have used to prepare the students for real life scenarios regarding dangers. “We will be following a carefully structured, theory-centered, Ministry-approved course of defensive magic this year (Rowling, “Order of the Phoenix” 239). Despite Dolores Umbridge’s lacking method of teaching and preparing the students to defend themselves, which certainly does not live up to the course name “Defense Against the Dark Arts”, Harry and other students make a commitment to practice spells and jinxes to gain the knowledge they need to prepare themselves for battle against Voldemort and his followers. At the end of Rowling’s book Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Harry’s lessons in Dumbledore’s Army, the name given to the group of students who are teaching themselves defensive magic, have proven worthy; but Rowling sees to it that Harry experiences another loss when her character Bellatrix Lestrange, Voldemort’s self proclaimed “most loyal servant” (811) kills Sirius Black. Harry who is becoming more familiar with life’s precarious nature now has to sustain another great lesson from Rowling, the death of his godfather.
In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Rowling’s character Harry Potter now sixteen years of age is permitted to attend a funeral, the funeral of Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In Half-Blood Prince Dumbledore is killed most unfortunately by his own curiosity; this fact is unbeknownst to Harry at the time of his elder’s death. Rowling does not let the truth of Dumbledore’s death be revealed until her seventh and final book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. When Harry attends the funeral of Rowling’s character Dumbledore, who was a person of great importance in his life, Harry is surrounded by others when his mind goes over yet another loss in his life. Rowling has allowed Harry Potter to endure the death of important people in his life; while Voldemort has murdered many characters in an effort to become immortal. Dumbledore discovered that Voldemort made several Horcruxes; “A Horcrux is the word used for an object in which a person has concealed part of their soul” (Rowling, “Half-Blood Prince” 497). Rowling’s character professor Horace Slughorn explains to Tom Riddle about Horcruxes; Tom Riddle is the birth name Rowling gave her character Voldemort and the one he used while he was a student at Hogwarts. “I don’t quite understand how that works, though, sir,” said Riddle. “Well you split your soul, you see,” said Slughorn, “and hide part of it in an object outside the body. Then, even if one’s body is attacked or destroyed, one cannot die, for part of the soul remains earthbound and undamaged. “How do you split your soul?” “you must understand that the soul is supposed to remain intact and whole. Splitting it is an act of violation, it is against nature.” “But how do you do it?” “By an act of evil – the supreme act of evil. By committing murder. Killing rips the soul apart” (Rowling, “Half-Blood Prince” 497-498). Rowling has created her character Harry Potter with an emphasis on his mortal being. It is proven in Rowling’s series that the non-magical decisions Harry makes are more powerful than those that could be conjured with magic. Rowling’s Harry Potter is now engaged in a battle to defeat Voldemort, who Rowling deliberately defined as someone with a damaged soul, an evil being.
Harry Potter whose soul is completely intact discovers in Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows that he must face death, or rather submit to it in an effort to ultimately defeat Voldemort. Rowling creates a child’s fable, a story about death and three brothers who meet death in Deathly Hallows, her final book in the Harry Potter series. The story tells of three brothers who come to cross a river where Death is waiting for them. Death intended for the brothers to drown and he was to claim them; but the brothers were wizards and used magic to create a bridge to cross the river. Death was humiliated by his defeat and offered the brothers gifts in an attempt to trick them; two of the brothers took gifts that lead to their deaths. The third brother where the moral of the story lies took Death’s own “cloak of invisibility” as a gift and was able to hide from Death until he had lived a long life, then the third brother passed the cloak to his son and greeted Death as an old friend (Rowling, “Deathly Hallows” 406-409). The fable is Rowling’s lesson to readers that if death is accepted as something that happens to us all, then we will be able to truly live. Rowling’s Voldemort created Horcruxes to avoid death; Voldemort became an evil being, something unnatural. Rowling uses her character Dumbledore to explain how Voldemort accidentally put a Horcrux inside Harry the night Voldemort killed Harry’s parents and tried to kill Harry too but failed to kill him. “You were the seventh Horcrux, Harry, the Horcrux he never meant to make. He had rendered his soul so unstable that it broke apart when he committed those acts of unspeakable evil, the murder of your parents, the attempted killing of a child. But what escaped from that room was even less than he knew. He had left more than his body behind. He left part of himself latched to you, the would-be victim who had survived” (Rowling, “Deathly Hallows” 709). Harry Potter, Voldemort’s seventh Horcrux learns something else extraordinary in Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows about his family lineage. The fable of the three brothers is more than a tale; it is an account of the Peverell brothers in Rowling’s wizarding world. Harry possesses an invisibility cloak like no other; and it is revealed that Harry is the descendant of Ignotus Peverell. “The Cloak, as you know now, traveled down through the ages, father to son, mother to daughter, right down to Ignotus’s last living descendant, who was born, as Ignotus was, in the village of Godric’s Hollow. Dumbledore smiled at Harry” (Rowling, “Deathly Hallows” 714). Harry submits to death by walking into the woods and allowing Voldemort to kill him, what is extremely important is what Rowling wrote about Harry’s composure. “His hands were sweating as he pulled off the Invisibility Cloak and stuffed it beneath his robes, with his wand” (703). Once Harry allows Vodemort to kill him, Harry’s is no longer Voldemort’s Horcrux, which was destroyed by Voldemort himself. Harry is not truly dead; Rowling once again uses Dumbledore to explain this to Harry. “He killed me with your wand.” “He failed to kill you with my wand,” Dumbledore corrected Harry. “I think we can agree you are not dead – though, of course,” he added, as if fearing he had been discourteous, “I do not minimize your sufferings, which I am sure were severe” (Rowling, “Deathly Hallows” 712). Harry Potter who has once again survived an attack by Voldemort an attack that was meant to murder him twice now, will not be permitted by Rowling to endure Voldemort’s evil attempts a third time. Harry defeats Voldemort at the end of Rowling’s final book in her series. Harry Potter, a wizard who has used bravery and natural ability to face evil to become a person of great magnitude is finally permitted to live out his happy ever after, when Rowling speeds up the life of her character nineteen years forward and allows him to indulge in his very ordinary life. Harry is happily married and he has three children (Rowling, “Deathly Hallows” 753-759). Harry Potter who faced death without hesitation but with a natural acceptance that it was something he must endure despite being a wizard has shown an aptitude for muggle behavior throughout Rowling’s series; his muggle like existence is what makes his character so very powerful, in that wielding magic or not he is quite ordinary in such a way that makes him extraordinary.
Works Cited
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, 1998. Print.
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, 1999. Print.
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, 1999. Print.
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2000. Print.
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2003. Print.
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2005. Print.
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2007. Print.
