Why Calling ‘Harry Potter’ a Children’s Book Is the Biggest Insult Ever
Because whether you’re 13 or 30, it has something in store for you, your parents and grandparents.
The magical world of Harry Potter was introduced to me when I was eleven. I wished my school would transform into Hogwarts and the school houses into Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. When the last movie ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ Part 2 released, I couldn’t hold back my tears when the screen showed Harry, Hermione, and Ron waving goodbye to their kids.
The movies may have ended a few years ago, but the fandom, books and the memories associated with it remain. As Harry enters into the magical world, we all can resonate with initially, as children. But what happens to Harry as he grows resonates with you as an adult.
In ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’, as you see Harry entering his teens, the plot ceased to be a novel associated with kids. It showcased the bond between godfather and son as friends. This bond is often seen between a teenage daughter and mother, father and son or a niece with an aunt. It’s the hidden meaning of such relationships that one explores as the plot moves on in this part.
We feel the first significant sense of loss in ‘Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire’. My favourite movie and novel, the pain that arises within you when you see a loved one die in front of you remains for a lifetime. In Harry Potter, it’s only the setting that has changed. In the movie’s last scene, when Hermione says, ‘everything is going to change, isn’t it?’, struck me as a teenager. Because when you are in your teens, everything changes not just biologically but mentally and emotionally, where nothing makes sense and everything changes. Old friends leave, people go on with their lives, and countless teenagers are left alone wondering, ‘what on earth does life have in store for me?’
Isolation and what it does to you, in reality, is depicted in ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.’ When no one understands you, and because of which you’re so angry all the time (and it’s not always just hormonal) that’s when you realise who are your real friends. True friendship is not only about being there for each other. It’s also about understanding all those parts of a friend that do not make sense. The ones where you need to be patient with your friend and realise that everything will fall in place with time if we stick around a little longer.
As you graduate from college, you remember not only your friends but also your teachers. Some teachers turn out to become the best of friends. The graduation from a teacher-student relationship to a friendship is a relationship like no other. In ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’, Harry and Dumbledore’s bond isn’t just limited to teacher and student. It dives deeper as Harry spends more time with his favourite headmaster. Harry develops a bond of friendship and trust. In the gut-wrenching cave scene when his headmaster begs him to stop feeding him a poisonous potion, Harry refuses, as earlier he promises Dumbledore that no matter what he wouldn’t stop until Dumbledore drinks all of it. Dumbledore dies in the end but what the story teaches us, is that a teacher-student relationship can grow into something so beautiful when both the teacher and the student drop their respective roles and reveal their true self.
Love dawns upon you at the most unexpected times (even when a murderer is on the loose). As Harry falls for Ginny in the most unusual circumstances, J.K Rowling proves the theory that in reality too, love hits you when you least expect it and sometimes in the worst of circumstances.
The people you love never leave. They are always with you in your heart. All you have to do is close your eyes and feel them within.
“The ones who love us never really leave us, you can always find them in here.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
The Deathly Hallows explain that and much more. How the quest for power can lead to your downfall, how holding on to people who have passed long ago can drive you insane and how humility is the only real way to lead a happy life, J.K Rowling explains vital life lessons towards the end of the series giving the series a phenomenal ending.
The world of Harry Potter may begin at the mere age of 11, but some of the biggest life lessons are explained as it progresses. To place the series under the kids’ section is unfair. There are moments in the novel that are relatable whether you’re 13 or 30. There are emotions in it that hit you hard, whether you’re a teenager in love or a man with three kids. No matter what your age, Harry Potter is for everyone. So the next time you see the books placed in only the children’s section, ask the attendant to put another set in the young adults and adults section too.
