Intricacies of the Harry Potter series

As I finished reading the series for the fourth, fifth, sixth time I cannot remember; I believe that I am now finally able to completely appreciate the work that J.K Rowling put into the series. When I first finished reading the series, I don’t believe that I was quite old enough to truly understand the underlying factors that J.K Rowling weaved into her Harry Potter series. For example, the ways of the elder wand and how Harry truly became master of the wand, as well as exactly why Harry didn’t completely ‘die’ when Voldemort performed the Avada Kedavra curse on him in the seventh book.

            I would like to articulate my thoughts on exactly why Harry didn’t die on that night in the Forbidden Forest. First, when Voldemort stole the elder wand from Dumbledore’s grave, he believed that the master of the wand would be himself, because he had stolen it for himself from the previous master. The problem with this, is that the master of the wand was not Dumbledore at that time but Draco Malfoy, who had disarmed Dumbledore atop the tower. This is why Voldemort only killed the horcrux of his own soul within Harry on that night, because the wand refused to kill it’s actual master (Harry, because he had disarmed Draco at Malfoy manner). In effect, Voldemort’s killing curse was a weapon of irreparable magic that is able to kill horcruxes.

            In a way, this entire series was a ‘the good guy eventually wins’ series; yet, there are also tragedies mixed in. The deaths of Fred Weasley, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Alastor Moody, Albus Dumbledore, Sirius Black, Severus Snape, Harry’s parents, etc. are all catastrophes that would haunt a young reader’s mind. Looking back on the novels, I finally realize the scope of the amount of deaths that Rowling mixed into the series.  It takes a more mature reader to realize that the entire plot laid out by Dumbledore only succeeded due to the sacrifices made by the heroes of the series; and this, I believe, is why Harry frequently refers to himself as not being the ‘hero’ but rather ‘lucky’ to be put into a favorable position by the loved ones that surround him. I wish that I could go further on and discuss the role of Severus Snape in the series, but I think that it would be such a long discussion that I would not be able to fit it into this one blog post.