"Harry Potter", by J.K. Rowling | School trauma nostalgia.

For a long, long time, I don't really know since when, I've owned a copy of the first Harry Potter book (Portuguese translation). I think someone must have given it to me after I watched the first movie, but I never read it. I remember opening it and starting to read it for school (back then we had to read one book each "period" (trimester?), and then present it to the class), but soon after our Portuguese Language teacher announced that the Harry Potter books where banned, and students could not read those books for their presentations. Not because of "religion" (I read somewhere that in some countries/communities the books are actually banned because of "witchcraft"... silly), but because of the movies, teachers feared that the kids would simply watch the movie(s) and present the story as if they had read the book. In a way it made sense, I can see some people doing that, but at the same time it might have damaged many kid's (including myself) will to read the series. Imagine a kid that didn't really like reading (aka: me), mostly because he was not good at it (dyslexia), and then you don't let him read one of the most popular books of the time, a book that peaked his interest... well guess what that kid (and many others of my class - and probably many more) thought: "Well, reading is a chore... I already have to read one mandatory book each period, plus another book of my choosing. I have this super popular book what I would not mind trying to read, but it as been prohibited. I really don't feel like reading anything else... so... lets not read anything at all." This was me and, along the years, many of my colleagues. Every time someone proposed (we had to ask the teacher if she would accept the book that we choose) a Harry Potter book, the teachers would deny it. Sometimes it was proposed by students that where proposing a book ahead of the movies... but the first movie had done it's damage, all Harry Potter book where banned from presentations during my twelve years of school. It reached a point where all students already knew that it was hopeless, for the last three years of school, only one person attempted to propose one of the books.
I'm not completely blaming it on the teachers, I didn't like reading in general, but now, as an adult, I think that it was wrong for them to prohibit students from using it for their evaluations. The objective of the project was to encourage students to read more. The kids that already liked to read, read the books on their own. Me, and probably other kids that didn't like to read, got discouraged from reading the first book, and so never really got hooked into it, and never had motivation to continue the series. Imagine, if Harry Potter had been allowed, at least some of the kids (that didn't like to read) would have read the first one and liked the story, then would have read the second one, the third and so fourth... 
I am not sure, but I think that it was Harry Potter that started the "trend" of not allowing books, that have been adapted into films/series, as something that students could present for their class.

And all of this could have been solved if the teachers had bothered to actually read the books and see the movies... obviously there are differences! So it would be possible to identify the students that only pretended to read a book, and actually only watched the movie.

I've been out of school for about eight years now (I think), from what I know (from my cousin and friends), the Harry Potter books are now a known "tabu". Everyone knows that the Harry Potter series doesn't count as a "book", because there are movies, and the same applies to all other (well known) book series that where adapted to cinema or television. Of course, not all teachers do this, I have hope that the "new generation" of teachers, that got educated during the ascension of Harry Potter, might now be more tolerant.

But anyway, I was saying something and got lot in my rant again, now I have to scroll up and see what the hell I was saying at the start of all of this. [...] Oh yes, I was ranting about how I got the books. So I owned the first one since... probably 2001 and then, many years later, when the last book came out, someone again offered me (for birthday or christmas) a copy of the last book (also translated in Portuguese). Since then I owned the first and the last books of the series, and never got past the first chapter of the first. Until now.

Usually I prefer to read a book in it's original language (if it's English - I am not fluent in other languages) but, since I already had two of the books in Portuguese, I decided to get the rest of them also in the same language. It has a bit of an investment, buying the remaining five books, so I opted for the Weasley route and got them in second hand (basically all of them never had been read - and the one that did, was in a very good condition).

And so my journey into the Wizarding World began, after disinfecting all the books that arrived in the mail, because Voldemort is child's play, compared to Covid.

**Warning: The text below might contain spoilers and a fair amount of sarcasm**

**Disclaimer: All of this is purely my personal opinion. That means that it's not worth anything for anyone but me.**

Has I was reading the first couple of books, I decided to not write a rant for each book, but rather just writing one rant for the entire series.

The first two books where "ok" for me, I think that I didn't enjoy them as much because they are more appropriate for a middle grade audience. But that also makes them fast reads, so I reached the third book rather quickly, and this was when I really started to enjoy it. Maybe because it was the first book where the theme of the story was not the same as the first book. Lets be honest, the first two books are very similar: Harry goes to school, discovers some strange things with his friends, turns out that Voldemort is behind it all, ruins Voldemort's plans, Gryffindor wins the cup. The third book was the first that did something new, putting Voldemort aside and expanding the story around Sirius.

I have the feeling that J.K. Rowling didn't really plan the entire series from the beginning, and just went along discovery writing. It is not necessarily a bad thing but, I had the impression (especially towards the last two books) that the author tried to "weave" many of the details of the first two books into the main story, in order to keep them more relevant.

But anyway, the Prisoner of Azkaban was the first book where Harry was "less special", and more relatable. Then it kind of dipped into the "Harry is special" trope again in the Goblet of Fire, the main plot felt kind of forced to me. In the end we discover that Voldemort was behind the entire plan, and that getting Harry to the end of the tournament was all his idea. But... like... Dumbledore, the other teachers, and even Harry and his friends feel a bit "dumbed down" in this book. For example, it was obvious that Harry didn't put his name in the Goblet. And the tournament is called "Triwizard Tournament"... TRI... aka three wizards! The fact that there are four is clearly an anomaly, as it is stated by Dumbledore and the other two directors of the competing schools. Obviously they feel that it's unfair that Hogwarts has two students competing, when they can have only one. "Oh but if the Goblet chose his name he now has to participate.", ok yes... but participating is one thing, competing is another! Harry clearly didn't want to take part in the tournament, the other two schools where against it, and everyone admitted that it was an anomaly! Then, why not do the only logical and fair thing available, since some magic from the Goblet compelled Harry to take part in the tasks...

For example, make Harry participate (fulfilling the Goblets demand), but not compete. If his case was an anomaly, against the rules even... why not just make Harry "surrender/give up/retreat" at the beguiling of each task, and award him zero points? He would be technically in the tournament, but would not unbalance the odds of each school and, more importantly, he would be completely safe, focus on his studies, and enjoy the tournament as somewhat of a spectator, like he wanted! And Voldmort would not succeed in is dumb complicated plan, because Harry would put one step in the maze, cast the red sparks in the air immediately, and go back to enjoy watching the final task along with his friends! What the hell was Dumbledore thinking? The man surely would be able to find a way around and trick the Goblet... sigh anyway, moving on. Out of the "non middle grade" books, the Goblet of Fire was my least favorite.

The Order of the Fenix was a fantastic breath of fresh air. Harry goes back to not being "special" ( I mean, he is special, but is not doing something completely out of the ordinary, that has never happened before, etc etc), he is just a teenager in a magical school, having to deal with the imposition of new rules that make no sense for him at all!

Yet again, the series relates well to situations that regular kids experience in school. (Here come the memories again). Back in my 8th or 9th year of shcool, a new rule got implemented that left everyone revolted and confused. To us kids, that new rule made no sense at all, but all the teachers and auxiliaries imposed it eagerly... and still today I don't see much sense to this rule. The rule was regarding footballs inside school. I never liked football, I never played it with my colleagues during the break between classes, but most of my colleagues did and I just stood there watching them play (I was never good at it). For years, almost every day, someone from the class would bring their football to school, we even had a rotation system to known who should bring the ball. We had usually two or three intervals per day. Some of ten minutes, one of twenty. One day, my colleagues where playing (the school had a huge football camp or dirt, at least four classes could be playing a game at the same time), when the gatekeeper came and confiscated all the balls! We didn't knew, but a new rule was now in place - the thing is, no one told the students about the new rule, and the gatekeeper also didn't say a word, just confiscated the balls and went away (now that I think of it... something was up with that man, in all my years there I can hardly recall hearing him say a word). For the following week people continued to bring balls to play, and they continued to be confiscated. Until finally a teacher decided to inform us of the new rule, while asking that we didn't tell anyone that she told us, because "students where supposed to discover the rule by themselves" - thank you Professor Rosa of History... I don't think that it now matters that it was you. :)

So the new rule consisted in: The students must bring their own footballs (and any other balls, we has a basket field as well), but said balls must be delivered directly to an auxiliary, otherwise they will be confiscated. The students can then fill in a form to RENT (yes, pay to play with our own ball) one of their own balls, ONLY during the the 20 minute break. The form could only be requested during said 20 minute interval, and would have to be approved by the teacher in charge of said class, the students would have to pay 20 cents before receiving the blank form. The balls can not leave the school grounds, and must be returned before the bell rings for the end of the 20 minute break. If it is returned after the ring of the bell, said student will be prohibited from renting any more balls until the end of the school year. And, the final touch, even after receiving the fully signed paper form, it is up to the responsible auxiliary to decide if the ball should be given to the student or not.

So, the school had already confiscated/stolen a ton a balls during a week, any new balls coming win would suffer the same fate. Students could not request a ball for the breaks of 10 minutes, only for the one of 20 minutes. When the bell rang for the break, one student would have to run from class to the teacher's pavilion, get in line if there where others trying to buy the paper form to request a ball, PAY 20 cents, fill in the form, ask to talk with the teacher responsible for their class (that might or not be there... or sometimes just where there but "not available"), get their permission and signature, get back in line for the auxiliary who accepts the forms and gives the balls, hope that said auxiliary was in a good mood (some days, and depending on the auxiliary they would just refuse to give balls), get the ball, run to the other side of the school, play, run back and get back in line, and hope that your turn comes before the bell rings... anyway, it was a disaster. Every day people payed 20 cents (for us kids that was quite a lot), and most days my classmates didn't get to play at all, when they did it was only for about 5 minutes. At the end of the year, some students tried to get their own balls back from the school but, of course, now they where "school property".

Anyway, today this sounds totally insignificant, but at the time this issue was the bane of our little existence. All of this story, just to relate to Harry and his friends during the mad reign of Dolores Umbridge.

Moving on! The Half-Blood Prince continues the same interesting theme as the previous book, of a build up to a final confrontation between Harry and Voldmort. But I'm going to jump forward to the last book, the Deadly Hallows, because I just finished it last night. It was really good, I loved the fact that they abandoned Hogwarts and the text developed around the interactions of Harry, Hermione and Ron, while they are on the run, hunting for horcruxes. And honestly, already knowing the main plot, because I saw the movies, the thing that interested me more in the books was exactly that, getting to know the characters better, and expand the details that I already knew, as well as get to knew new things. I also liked the way that the author killed important characters, their deaths where not long, some of them even died "off scene" and the realization of their deaths by Harry where very brief... that made the consequences of their death's even more impactful. I, personally, would have killed a lot more characters, especially some background named characters, instead of just saying "many died", give names, names that maybe only appeared once before, but at least it makes us feel even more. But ok... this is not a Song of Ice and Fire, I get it. I just like death in books... kill everyone! Leave just 10% of the name characters alive, Harry looses an arm, Rom looses a finger (poetic oh oh) and... no... Hermione is fine. 

Now for a few problems. I think that some details of the story would be different if it was written today. For example the fact that all Slytherin are somewhat bad, everyone hates them, none of them stays to fight in the final battle. And then, everyone supports Gryffindor, even during the quidditch matches, when they plays against Slytherin, all the others support it. But I think that such is all due to patriotism, J.K. Rowling is English, and there's nothing more English than a golden lion in a red field.

There are also some problems regarding inconsistency along the series, I'll give an example for the last book. For instance, at the end, Harry decides to return the Elder Wand to Dumbledore's grave, thinking that the power of the wand will end with the death of it's last owner, himself. And so all it's safe... BUT, Dumbledore died, and the wand's allegiance passed to Draco, because he disarmed Dumbledore. Then the wand was buried with Dumbledore, until Voldemort stole it, but the wand's allegiance remained with Draco until Harry disarmed him... so the wand's allegiance passed to Harry, and Voldmort never had the wand's allegiance. The author sets up that the wand's power has only been kept contained because of secrecy, no one knew who was the owner of the wand, for many many years, and so it didn't feel in someone that might miss use it. But now, after the final confrontation at Hogwarts, everyone that was present knows that the Elder Wand belongs to Harry Potter! So, if Harry ever gets disarmed before he dies, the Elder Wand's allegiance will switch to whoever disarmed him. And, it would not be very hard to deduce that, if Harry was not using the Elder Wand, then he must have returned it to Dumbledore's grave... so the cycle would continue anyway! It would not end with Harry's death...

And, if a wand switched allegiance, when it's owner is disarmed... well, for example, every member of the DA (and possibly everyone is the school) practiced expelliarmus... so all of their wands have switched allegiance? Or must you do the spell with the intent of claiming their wand? That also doesn't make sense, because then (for example) Harry would not have claimed Draco's wand... A bit of a mess.

But anyhow...there a lot of similar problems, I had to do some "suspension of belief" and ignore some issues. Overall I enjoyed the experience of reading all the book, as an adult, and after having watched all the movies. It's not a revolutionary story, but it did shake the word of literature in the start of this century...millennium. 

Another big rant... oof. Didn't use colors this time, it was not needed. On to the next one.