I recently re-watched the movie adaptation of the 7th J.K Harry Potter novel and I must admit to, once again, being amazed at the depth and insight of J.K Rowling. People who do not know better condemn the book savagely; some as merely a child’s tale that has been so cleverly packaged as to deceive adults into falling in love with a child’s fairy-tale. Others simply determine it an over-rated work of art. Yet others, more conservative and peppered with the heat of misplaced religiosity, denounce the book for being a heretical study of dangerous ideas and an insidious method of spreading devilish messages. I am replete in the confidence that I have a different covenant with the Creator himself, ruler of all things temporal and extemporal, so I disbelieve conspiracy theorist tales of occultic and odious practices tied to innocent fairy-tales.

But opinions, as I suspect you are aware, are like orifices in the nether regions of every human body; unconditionally available to all persons.

I found Harry, Ron and Hermoine abandoned in the Regis house girls bathroom of my secondary school sometime in my twelfth year and we’ve been fast friends ever since. I bonded with them very well because…well, lets just say that if you have ever been to a boarding school where the school cooks appear to be in constant competition to determine who will kill the students first, any book that shows your fondest wish in printed form is one that is cherished and reread for years to come. (Your fondest wish of course being the ability to talk to your plate at meal times and have the grub of your dreams materialise before your bulging eyeballs). Add to this dream a school where two mischievous and swagger-full teenage twins elevate themselves to the status of living legends by executing a flawless revolt; gloriously rebelling against all their teachers, taking their carefully orchestrated revenge on their worst teacher AND subsequently blasting off into the sky on flying broomsticks, the twins deafened by the cheers and warmed by the eternal adoration of their fellow students…..and you have every boarding school student’s fantasy.

So that’s where my love of JK Rowling’s amazing imagination comes from. I have always been a fan of the Harry Potter franchise and the latest movie confirmed the true reason. More than anything else, the Potter series is the story of a young person’s coming of age. So readily identifiable, and incredibly accessible to anyone who knows what it is to try to find and stay true to yourself in a world that is perpetually trying to pull you to its dictates. At the heart of the tale is a story of the rarest of gifts; friendship.

It is a tale of good, solid friendships standing the test of time, growing and maturing with its owners, enriching their lives by its very presence. But more than anything else, it is a tale of courage. Of people standing up to inefficient and cruel systems, challenging the status quo, of people in a constant search for truth against all odds. In recent days, I have been thinking of courageous humans, people that care for much more than themselves and are able to break out of their barrier of comfort, unwilling to sit and let Destiny master the ship of their existence…men and women who look into an uncertain future and refuse to hand over the rein of their lives to that elusive vixen called Destiny.

From books one to seven, the Harry Potter series chronicles courage at the height of tyranny and unrestrained evil. And reading the author’s speech about her inspiration for the book moves the characters from the realm of black and white manifestations on a page, and makes me think of the real-life people of courage all over the world who persistently stand up for right and truth. It makes me wonder, what will my legacy be? When I leave this world, how much would I have contributed to my corner of the earth?

How did I get here from the story about a frightened looking 11 year old who lived in a cupboard?

That’s that Harry Potter magic.