The Magic - Part 1 - How does it come?
The foremost concern most people have about Harry Potter is the unavoidable magic throughout, and the fact that it is labeled under 'witchcraft and wizardry'. I'm going to address those labels in the next installment, but for the moment, I'm going to present some of the characteristics of the HP magic, to clear things up a little bit.
The pivotal key to understanding the magic system are in these scenes:
#1:
In the 2nd chapter of the first book, Harry is taken by his relatives (the Dursleys) for his cousin Dudley's birthday. While in the reptile house, the Dursleys get irritated with a boa constrictor (a python in the film) that doesn't show any sign of activity and leave the area in disgust. Harry lingers behind, feeling sorry for the snake being captivated and alone, much like himself.
Suddenly the snake looks directly at him and winks. Harry is amazed to realize that he understands it and it understands him.
When Dudley sees this, he runs over, shoving Harry to the ground, and presses himself against the glass. Harry looks up just in time to see the glass seemingly disappear. The snake slithers out, says a quick thank you to Harry, then leaves the zoo.
When interrogated by his uncle about the event, Harry has no explanation.
"One minute the glass was there, and then it wasn't! It was like magic!" (-from the film)
#2:
Earlier - "The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen. Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald... Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day... Next morning, however he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before... He had been given a week in his cupboard for this even though he had tried to explain that he couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly. Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's... The harder she tried to pullit over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until it might have fitted a hand puppet... Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney... But all he'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big trash cans outside the kitchen doors."
#3:
These quotes from the scene where Hagrid, keeper of the grounds and keys at Hogwarts, comes to find Harry:
""Hagrid," he said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard."
To his surprise, Hagrid chuckled.
"Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?"
Harry looked into the fire. Now he came to think about it... every odd thing that had ever made his aunt and uncle furious with him had happened when he, Harry, had been upset or angry... chased by Dudley's gang, he had somehow found himself out of their reach... dreading going to school with that ridiculous hair-cut, he'd managed to make it grow back... and the very last time Dudley had hit him, hadn't he got his revenge, without even realizing he was doing it? Hadn't he set a boa constrictor on him??
So this eliminates the idea of demonic summoning or the employment of demonic powers, as Harry often doesn't intend any of these actions, at least not specifically. He's mad at Dudley and sad for the snake, but he doesn't specifically think of the glass disappearing. He wants to escape danger, but doesn't intend to end up 40+ feet above the ground. As it is, Harry seems to just have these powers as naturally as a fight-or-flight response. In fact, they are his fight-or-flight response.
We don't hear a lot about how the other characters began to show their powers, except for Harry's mother, Lily, and fellow student, Neville.
In one of the later books, we get a flashback to when Lily was a child and she is showing her sister (Petunia) how she can resuscitate a flower. Neither has any explanation, and Petunia gets very upset about this, while Lily is just baffled.
In the book, Neville is asked how he found out he had powers as well. First off, he explains that at least most of his family are magic, but that he didn't show any signs of it until he was eight years-old.
"My Great Uncle Algie kept trying to catch me off my guard and force some magic out of me - he pushed me off the end of Blackpool pier once, I nearly drowned - but nothing happened until I was eight. Great Uncle Algie came round for dinner, and he was hanging me out of an upstairs window by the ankles when my Great Auntie Enid offered him a meringue and he accidentally let go. But I bounced - all the way down the garden and into the road."
So that shows that initially usually magic isn't safe even for the user, as they have no idea how to control it at first. Again, like the fight-or-flight response, where if you don't keep your head, you can actually hurt yourself in attempting to do either of those options (this will probably be used as a reference in part three, about Hogwarts' purpose) and that usually magic is triggered by a strong emotion, such as Neville's panic (there's no soft cushion two stories above a garden) and Lily's sadness about the dead flower.
But how did Harry and the rest get these powers, and why didn't Neville's show itself earlier? That is what will be discussed in part two, where I shall also specify the meaning of the terms 'purebloods', 'halfbloods' and 'mudbloods'.
(BTW, I am not claiming these quotes or pictures as my own and make no profit off their usage whatsoever. All credit goes to the publishing companies. Oh! And those dots in the samples are just where I was too lazy to write the full paragraph, or it wasn't direct to the point.)
The pivotal key to understanding the magic system are in these scenes:
#1:
In the 2nd chapter of the first book, Harry is taken by his relatives (the Dursleys) for his cousin Dudley's birthday. While in the reptile house, the Dursleys get irritated with a boa constrictor (a python in the film) that doesn't show any sign of activity and leave the area in disgust. Harry lingers behind, feeling sorry for the snake being captivated and alone, much like himself.
Suddenly the snake looks directly at him and winks. Harry is amazed to realize that he understands it and it understands him.
When Dudley sees this, he runs over, shoving Harry to the ground, and presses himself against the glass. Harry looks up just in time to see the glass seemingly disappear. The snake slithers out, says a quick thank you to Harry, then leaves the zoo.
"One minute the glass was there, and then it wasn't! It was like magic!" (-from the film)
#2:
Earlier - "The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen. Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald... Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day... Next morning, however he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before... He had been given a week in his cupboard for this even though he had tried to explain that he couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly. Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's... The harder she tried to pullit over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until it might have fitted a hand puppet... Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney... But all he'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big trash cans outside the kitchen doors."
#3:
These quotes from the scene where Hagrid, keeper of the grounds and keys at Hogwarts, comes to find Harry:
""Hagrid," he said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard."
To his surprise, Hagrid chuckled.
"Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?"
Harry looked into the fire. Now he came to think about it... every odd thing that had ever made his aunt and uncle furious with him had happened when he, Harry, had been upset or angry... chased by Dudley's gang, he had somehow found himself out of their reach... dreading going to school with that ridiculous hair-cut, he'd managed to make it grow back... and the very last time Dudley had hit him, hadn't he got his revenge, without even realizing he was doing it? Hadn't he set a boa constrictor on him??
So this eliminates the idea of demonic summoning or the employment of demonic powers, as Harry often doesn't intend any of these actions, at least not specifically. He's mad at Dudley and sad for the snake, but he doesn't specifically think of the glass disappearing. He wants to escape danger, but doesn't intend to end up 40+ feet above the ground. As it is, Harry seems to just have these powers as naturally as a fight-or-flight response. In fact, they are his fight-or-flight response.
We don't hear a lot about how the other characters began to show their powers, except for Harry's mother, Lily, and fellow student, Neville.
In one of the later books, we get a flashback to when Lily was a child and she is showing her sister (Petunia) how she can resuscitate a flower. Neither has any explanation, and Petunia gets very upset about this, while Lily is just baffled.
In the book, Neville is asked how he found out he had powers as well. First off, he explains that at least most of his family are magic, but that he didn't show any signs of it until he was eight years-old.
"My Great Uncle Algie kept trying to catch me off my guard and force some magic out of me - he pushed me off the end of Blackpool pier once, I nearly drowned - but nothing happened until I was eight. Great Uncle Algie came round for dinner, and he was hanging me out of an upstairs window by the ankles when my Great Auntie Enid offered him a meringue and he accidentally let go. But I bounced - all the way down the garden and into the road."
So that shows that initially usually magic isn't safe even for the user, as they have no idea how to control it at first. Again, like the fight-or-flight response, where if you don't keep your head, you can actually hurt yourself in attempting to do either of those options (this will probably be used as a reference in part three, about Hogwarts' purpose) and that usually magic is triggered by a strong emotion, such as Neville's panic (there's no soft cushion two stories above a garden) and Lily's sadness about the dead flower.
But how did Harry and the rest get these powers, and why didn't Neville's show itself earlier? That is what will be discussed in part two, where I shall also specify the meaning of the terms 'purebloods', 'halfbloods' and 'mudbloods'.
(BTW, I am not claiming these quotes or pictures as my own and make no profit off their usage whatsoever. All credit goes to the publishing companies. Oh! And those dots in the samples are just where I was too lazy to write the full paragraph, or it wasn't direct to the point.)
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