Why I’m Done with Harry Potter

Forget about The Crimes of Grindelwald, let’s talk about the crimes of Harry Potter.

I’m a Hufflepuff at Hogwarts, a Horned Serpent at Ilvermorny,  my “reasonably supple flexibility” wand is 13 3/4 inches long and made from pear wood and unicorn hair. My Patronus is a mole, if I were a mythical creature from the Harry Potter world I would be a mermaid, and the character I’m most like is Hermione Granger.

In the past two years I’ve been to four different Harry Potter Festivals, was a “Prefect” (helped herd children) and was assigned to be The Golden Snitch (ran away from said children) at a festival I was too old to attended as a “student”.

I own eight Harry Potter books, nine Harry Potter movies, six Harry Potter magazines, three wands, a Hufflepuff shirt, a Hufflepuff sweatshirt,  a pair of Potter pajama pants, a 9 and 3/4 pillow, five pairs of Hogwarts house socks, Harry Potter Clue, a Hogwarts blanket, a Dumbledore bookmark, six Harry Potter croc charms, three keychains, four vintage Sorcerer’s Stone plastic decorations, a homemade Harry Potter bracelet, four vintage Sorcerer’s Stone posters, a homemade Fleur Delacour costume, and a deck of Harry Potter Uno cards. (I also use to have a Marauders map tea mug – but I accidently dropped/shattered it.)

I originally planned to name this blog Her Homeschooled Hufflepuff, I have a Pottermore account and I can rattle off dozens of Harry Potter memes, jokes, and facts. I know an unholy amount of information about Daniel Radcliff,  have read books/watched movies because a Harry Potter actor was somehow connected to it.  (Risen, Ophelia,) and I auditioned for a production of Beauty and the Beast solely because I wanted to be like Emma Watson.

NO MORE.

I’m done with Harry Potter.

I’m never going back.

I’ve burned all my Harry Potter merchandise, I’m done looking up Harry Potter facts, and I will no longer be going to Harry Potter festivals.

Why?

Because I’m done hitting the snooze button on my conscience and am now fully awake to the reality behind the boy who lived.

Magic.

It’s fun to pretend that you can use magic.

I mean, who doesn’t wish they could use the accio spell to summon an object? Or apparate from here to there? Or use the leviosa spell to lift a heavy object?

However, there is something lurking behind the colorful scarves, snowy owls, and living chess pieces – something that we only get a glimpse of in the latter Harry Potter stories.

People often comment on how dark the final Harry Potter books are – but that’s simply not true.

The final books are more realistic.

In the first few books, magic is shown as this whimsical power which Harry has. From the shops of Diagon Alley, to the tunnels beneath Gringotts, Butterbeer in Hogsmeade, to the moving staircases of Hogwarts, tea at Hagrid’s Hut, to zooming above the quidditch field.

The first two books are just plain fun. Sure, there’s a bit of danger and scariness in the books but they mostly focus on the fantasticalness and wonder of Harry Potter’s world.

Then comes The Prisoner of Azkaban (the third book) which I view as the bridge.

It starts with the same feeling of the first two books but quickly spirals into something much darker as Harry begins to find out more about his past, and the wizarding world.

The next book (The Goblet of Fire) is basically four hundred – very disturbing – pages of doom, gloom, and blood – although there is a brief repose for the Yule Ball (which was pointless and a blatant excuse to throw romance into the book).

And by the way Mr. Movie Director: Hermione’s dress is blue.

Book five, (The Order of the Phoenix) is a combination between college exams, Hitler’s Nazi régime, and a bank heist planned by idiots. It’s the darkest book yet. It even goes as far as having Harry Potter use a magical quill to endlessly write: “I must not tell lies.” with his own blood as ink and each time he writes it the words are magically carved into his skin.

Has anyone given J.K. Rowling a sociopath test yet?

On to book six (The Half-Blood Prince). Romance, blood, and vengeance are key in this story.  Long gone is the wide-eyed, wonder-filled Boy Who Lived and in his place is a hateful, moralless teen who will stop at nothing to prove his revenge is justifiable. The main focus of the book is about Harry proving that a certain character is a Death Eater. And at the end of the book we have about a chapter of “Harry Potter and the Manhunt of Murderous Revenge” which ends about as well as you’d expect a manhunt performed solely by a hormonal sixteen-year-old boy to end.

Finally, the seventh book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

This one is basically Pokémon GO with Horcruxes.

I’m not even sure what to say about this one. Harry, Ron, and Hermione travel around trying to find bits of Voldemort’s soul to murder. There’s a lot of blood, killing, and use of deep, dark magic that comes from the devil’s nightmares. Also, this book is confusing with it’s kind-a-sort-of explanation as to the ownership of wands – which turns out to be this super important thing that some of the characters don’t even understand.

Rereading what I’ve just wrote I honestly have no idea how I managed to read through the series – not once but twice.

I feel ashamed for having enjoyed something that so blatantly promoted the dark art of magic.

Some people have said (HERE, HERE ,and HERE) that the Harry Potter series mirrors some aspects of the Bible – which, for some, might be enough to justify reading and rereading and re-rereading the series. Others have commented on how the series is just all about love(This is a very good article. I suggest reading it after finishing mine.) – to which I will admit: love does play a big role, but even love can’t drown out the evil of magic.

I promise I will wrap this post up soon but first I want to briefly outline why magic is evil.

““By what authority are you doing these things?”” – Matthew 21:23

Any type of supernatural feat that a human performs is either because they are using the power of God or the power of the devil.

There is no middle ground.

No place for tolerance.

No medium.

There are only mediums drawing on the devil’s powers or holy men and women using the powers God has blessed them with.

(For more information on magic click: HERE)

Albus Dumbledore once said: “Happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.”* but The Light was never turned on for this magical series.

* – from 2004 movie: The Prisoner of Azkaban