Why we love Harry Potter

[dropcap]3[/dropcap]0 June 1997 was a life-changing day for the majority of our generation. The release of the Philosopher’s Stone marks the beginning of a literary era, and for the next decade, every child across the world got to experience the world of magic from their own rooms.

As a Harry Potter fanatic who went to the final movie premier (and was able to get Daniel Radcliffe’s autograph – one of my most prized possessions) and is planning to get a Deathly Hallows tattoo, I could spend hours, if not days, gushing over why the world is so in love with the Harry Potter series.

There are so many reasons why we all love Harry Potter – the sheer scope of the fantasy world it transports you to, as well as the journey you share with Harry as you grow up together. However, the most important reason why we all love Harry Potter is that the depth and dimension of the characters is unlike any other young-adult fiction.

The most important reason why we all love Harry Potter is the depth and dimension of the characters

The characters cannot simply be defined in a short sentence. Instead, their backgrounds, which shape their initial character, develop throughout the series and shape them into entirely different beings.

Every character has so much depth that the reader is taken on an emotional rollercoaster from start to finish, as we often don’t know, and can’t guess, where the characters will end up. The tale of Snape is enough to give any reader heartbreak and whiplash.

In the Philosopher’s Stone, Snape is the bitter Potions teacher, whose agenda is to take his childhood anger on Harry. The skin-crawling, and possibly evil Snape transforms throughout the series and, in the Deathly Hallows, dies as one of the most noble heroes of them all.

The skin-crawling, and possibly evil Snape transforms throughout the series

We learn that he sacrificed everything for the love of his life Lily, and he dedicated his allegiance, his watchful eye over Harry, and even his Patronus to her, and we end the series with a completely different character.

Snape is only one example of course, Dobby starts as a tortured house-elf and ends as a martyr, who dies for his one true master, Harry. Lockhart starts as a celebrity, then is revealed to be a fraud, and ends up as a patient with mental damage, reminding us that sadly, not all transformations were that heroic. Nonetheless, they shaped the tale.

So there you have it. We love the Harry Potter series for the magic that it gives us which we could never find in reality. We love it for the incredible coming-of-age tale of a boy who is burdened with greatness and much hardship, who becomes a man through his battles, his courage and the people he loves. We love it, finally, for the depth and transformation of every single character, which makes the imaginary tale so much more true to life, and all the more real in our hearts.

Image Credits: Flickr / Sonia Belviso (Header), Flickr / Triin Olvet (Image 1)