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and somehow seemed to be taking up even more space than
usual. This was saying something, as he always took up an
entire side of the square table by himself& Dudley had
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reached roughly the size and weight of a killer whale.
Harry s childhood with the Dursleys was superbly rotten. While
pampered Dudley slept in a normal bedroom, Harry was forced to sleep
in a dusty closet beneath the stairs. What a dismal life! Yet everything
changed on Harry s 11th birthday. That s when Hagrid, the messenger
from Hogwarts, spoke these four life-changing words:  Harry yer a
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wizard.
Oh happy day! Harry thought. He was even more surprised  to
14
find out that everyone in the hidden wizarding world knew his name.
After packing his bags and purchasing his witchy school supplies in
Diagon Alley, Harry hurried toward the King s Cross subway station in
London, finally reaching  platform nine and three-quarters, which
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wasn t visible to the Muggle eye.
Thus Rowling s Magic versus Muggle message is all-pervasive. It
permeates every Harry Potter book and forms the framework for the
entire series. One of Harry s friends, Mrs. Weasley, declares about
Muggles:  Bless them, they ll go to any lengths to ignore magic, even
16
if it s staring them in the face. Wizards: 175. Muggles: 0. The score
widens at the beginning of book three, Harry Potter and the Prisoner
of Azkaban:
The Dursley family of number four, Privet Drive, was the rea-
son that Harry never enjoyed his summer holidays. Uncle Ver-
non, Aunt Petunia, and their son, Dudley, were Harry s only
living relatives. They were Muggles, and they had a very me-
dieval attitude toward magic. Harry s dead parents, who had
been a witch and wizard themselves, were never mentioned
under the Dursley s roof. For years, Aunt Petunia and Uncle
Vernon had hoped that if they kept Harry as downtrodden as
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THE M ESSAGE: Magic Versus Muggles
possible, they would be able to squash the magic out of him.
To their fury, they had been unsuccessful. These days they
lived in terror of anyone finding out that Harry had spent
most of the last two years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft
and Wizardry. The most they could do, however, was to lock
away Harry s spellbooks, wand, cauldron, and broomstick at
the start of the summer break, and forbid him to talk to the
17
neighbors.
As discussed in Chapter 7,  The Potion: Mixing Fantasy With Re-
ality, this paragraph reveals Rowling s typical mingling of facts with
fiction.  Muggles like the Dursleys young readers are informed
have  a very medieval attitude toward magic, making them superbly
unenlightened. The Dursleys even went so far as  to lock away Harry s
spellbooks, wand, cauldron, and broomstick. Imagine that! Shame on
them! No matter, for despite their ignorant Mugglish maneuvers, they
still couldn t  squash the magic out of him. Magic: 275. Muggles: -50.
In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the ghostly Profes-
sor Binns explains to his Hogwarts students while teaching History of
Magic:
 You all know, of course, that Hogwarts was founded over a
thousand years ago the precise date is uncertain by the
four greatest witches and wizards of the age. The four Hous-
es are named after them: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Huf-
flepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. They built
this castle together, far from prying Muggle eyes, for it was
an age when magic was feared by common people, and
witches and wizards suffered much persecution& Reliable
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historical sources tell us this much& .
Fantasy mingled with reality again.  Reliable historical sources,
said the Hogwarts professor, speak of times  when magic was feared by
common people, and witches and wizards suffered much persecution.
Historically, this happened, especially in American history remember
the Salem Witch Trials of 1692? Once again, the subtle message to
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Hou r of the Witch
young people is that it s high time for Muggles to wake up and to ac-
cept occult magic for what it really is a great gift to humanity.
The entire Harry Potter saga portrays non-magical people as sub-
standard. To be fair, Mrs. Rowling doesn t portray all Muggles as bad.
There are some okay ones out there they just haven t seen the light.
It s also true that not all wizards are smart and intelligent. By no
means. There are plenty of goofy ones missing some brain cells. Pro-
fessor Trelawney is a quack, Professor Binns is a ghost, and there are
plenty of hags with long noses. But whatever fictitious faults may be
seen in certain witches, there s one person whom Rowling consistently
portrays as the epitome of wisdom, power, and the deepest magical
abilities: Albus Dumbledore.
Consider the following descriptions of Dumbledore, and remem-
ber that kids all over Planet Earth are reading them. Before actually
meeting Albus himself, Harry Potter picked up a wizard trading card
and read:
ALBUS DUMBLEDORE, CURRENTLY HEADMASTER
OF HOGWARTS. Considered by many the greatest wizard of
modern times, Dumbledore is particularly famous for his de-
feat of the dark wizard Grindewald in 1945& and [for] his
work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor
19
Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.
More fantasy mixed with reality. As we ve seen, Nicolas Flamel
was a real historical figure a French alchemist who lived in the
1300s.  Enjoys chamber music gives Dumbledore a touch of style,
multiplying his admirable qualities. A house elf told Harry:
 Albus Dumbledore is the greatest headmaster Hogwarts has
ever had& [his] powers rival those of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-
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Named at the height of his strength.
Seen late one night in his office:
Dumbledore was sitting in a high-backed chair behind his desk;
he leaned forward into the pool of candlelight illuminating
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THE M ESSAGE: Magic Versus Muggles
the papers laid out before him. He was wearing a magnifi-
cently embroidered purple-and-gold dressing gown over a
snowy-white night shirt, but seemed wide awake, his pen-
etrating light-blue eyes fixed intently upon Professor
21
McGonagall.
& his long silver beard and half-moon glasses shining bright-
22
ly in the candlelight.
Defending a student under attack by an out-of-control teacher:
A split second later Dumbledore was on his feet, his wand
23
raised.
Near the end of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, a man who [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]