This week: 25 Years of Harry Potter Edited by: NaNoKit  
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Who is your favourite character from the Harry Potter series? What do you like about them?
25 years on, Hogwarts still welcomes new students of all ages.
This week's Drama Newsletter, then, is all about the magic and wonder of of the wizarding world.
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On the 26th of June, 1997, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone opened the doors to a magical world that captured the imagination of readers young and old. Now, 25 years later, there are few who have not heard of the wizard with the lightning scar. Even after a quarter of a century it’s not uncommon to see people wearing Harry Potter t-shirts, or scarves in the colours of one Hogwarts house or another. Harry Potter still sells. It still inspires. But why is it so loved? Why has it remained as popular as it has?
I was already an adult when the first novel hit the shelves. Still, I remember what that introduction to J. K. Rowling’s wizarding world felt like. As a child, I had often felt like an outsider. It wouldn’t be until many years later, when I was diagnosed with High-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder and Dyspraxia that I understood why I was always a little different, why I never quite fit in. All I’d wanted, back then, was to belong, and the place where I felt I could most be myself was when reading books about people who didn’t fit in, either. People who went on magical adventures, befriending dragons and wolves and unicorns and all manner of wonderful creatures. I longed for a wizard to stop by and tell me I was needed to save their world. That never happened, of course. When you open a book, though, you can, for a while, escape your reality and join the characters on their journey through the author’s imagination.
What the wizarding world offers readers is a story about outsiders finding loyal friends, respect, strength and courage. Harry Potter’s never been treated with much love or kindness, but at Hogwarts he finds people who are there for him no matter what. Ron Weasley comes from a big family and isn’t certain where he fits in. At Hogwarts he makes friends and discovers his own skills and talents. Hermione Granger is a bookworm whose thirst for knowledge and adherence to the rules is found off-putting by her peers, but she, too, finds acceptance and friendship and love, and a confidence in her abilities.
The main setting (in most of the novels) is Hogwarts castle and it is, well, magical. It has moving stairs, talking portraits, hidden rooms and passageways, towers and dungeons and an owlery where you can send off mail. Students are sorted into houses, and those houses become their family-away-from-home. Readers are likely to identify with one house or the other. I am a Ravenclaw; you may be a Gryffindor, a Hufflepuff or a Slytherin.
It is no wonder that this was a world that appealed to young readers. When a new book in the series was released there would be queues outside of bookshops, with children and their parents eager to immerse themselves in the next instalment. As I mentioned, I was already an adult when the first book was released, but you bet I pre-ordered each release so that I, too, could return to my fictional friends.
The wizarding world isn’t perfect. Just like our own world it has its flaws. Hermione, a witch born to non-magical parents, faces discrimination for her lack of ‘pure blood’. Some of the teachers at Hogwarts are biased towards certain students and houses. I always felt bad for the Slytherin students who were about to celebrate their House Cup win, only for the Headmaster to give it to Gryffindor at the very last moment. And wizarding politicians, on the whole, aren’t much better than the ones we have in our world.
I enjoy that touch of realism. It makes the wizarding world more interesting for an adult reader. The characters don’t always make the right decisions, they aren’t always sweet and kind, always strong and determined. They get angry, afraid, they have doubts. They fall out from time-to-time. In the end, though, they choose to stand up for what they believe in. And it is one’s choices that determine what you are.
It has been 25 years. It wouldn’t surprise me if, in another 25 years, children still pick up Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and feel that sense of coming home. If you have never read the novels then, no matter your age, I encourage you to do so. There’s room for all of us at Hogwarts.
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Drama: June 29, 2022 Issue [#11438]
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