The Boy Who Should Not Have Lived

Listen, I wouldn’t have reread the Harry Potter series had I not been semi-pressured into doing so.  After the author went mental on Twitter, I turned away from the Wizarding World. But that wasn’t a HUGE deal for me. I didn’t “grow up” with Harry Potter, my first read through was during the last of the movie releases; so yes I do know my Hogwarts house (lets go Slytherin) but no, I will not spend $55 on a wand at Orlando Studios. And I was prone to making negative comments over positive ones when it comes to Harry Potter, purely out of spite. 

But when my best friend invited me to a book club, I wasn’t going to let my distaste for the author stand between me and a group of cool women who are willing to have intelligent conversations about books. So, we started Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone around November of 2023, and boy oh boy, do I have some thoughts. 

Nostalgia can blind us all, but I had my readers on for this entire book. I was searching for reasons to dislike it! To confirm for myself that not only has this author made ridiculously changes to her own characters and world POST publishing the book via Twitter, but also her series was never as good as people remember.

Unfortunately, that just isn’t true. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is a good book.

It is well paced, there is a solid

plot that continues to build on itself right up to the last couple paragraphs, is has enough action to keep me engaged but not so much that it is exhausting to read, and I can honestly say, I shed a tear at the very end when Harry was handed a leatherback scrapbook of pictures of his family. Overall, I was disappointed in how much I enjoyed rereading this book. 

But I have had one glaring problem with this entire series. And that is…  This story shouldn’t exist! Harry Potter should have never made it to Hogwarts or his eleventh birthday. Maybe this is my Slytherin side thinking too much, but if the Death Eater’s are as evil as we are told they are (and we see them to be in the final three books), Harry Potter would not have seen his second birthday! The amount of tracking magic would have made finding baby Potter a non issue and any Death Eater could have rolled up and ending the series before it even started.

“They wouldn’t have been able to find him using magic.”

I know the internet and social media wasn’t a thing in the 1990s, but someone would know something about Lily’s family. And the Dursleys were never in hiding. 

“All the crazy Death Eaters were locked up in Azkaban!” 

The martyring of a leader like Voldemort would have had ANY loyal Death Eater up in arms. You cannot convince me that there wasn’t at least 2 Death Eater’s out of Azkaban willing to get vengence.

“Mother’s love would have protected Harry from harm.” 

From a spell, yes. But let’s see how well mother’s love protects you from this Molotov cocktail through your window baby Harry. (Damn that’s dark)

“But the free Death Eaters thought Voldemort was dead and that they had lost the war! There was no reason to kill Harry.”

To that I say, you are WRONG! Most, if not all, of the death eaters were made aware of the steps that Voldemort took to protect himself from a mortal death (revealed in Goblet of Fire). And the Death Eaters have every reason to kill Harry Potter, or at least capture him for when Voldemort returns. 

The Death Eaters remaining outside of Azkaban at the beginning of The Order of the Phoenix are some of the most seemingly vile but cowardice villain minions to exist. They follow Voldemort, a wizard who wants to enslave the muggle world, a wizard who did “a vile act” to split his soul and then did that act five more times, a wizard who is known for being too evil to comprehend, and yet when he is defeated, his ‘most loyal’ followers all plead innocence and attempt to go back to their “normal” lives. If you are trying to convince me that not a SINGLE Death Eater was insane enough with grief and fear at the loss of their leader that they didn’t try to gank Harry Potter before he was five years old? I am not buying it! Honestly, Voldemort letting all of the Death Eater’s continue to live after his rebirth at the end of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire feels so uncharacteristic of a ‘I am the most evil man ever’ that he was hyped up to be.

As a Slytherin (and a HUGE fan of putting myself into the headspace of book villains), I can’t help but think of what I would have done, had I been a Death Eater in the Harry Potter world (an exercise in evil thoughts, I do not believe that one group of people should dominate over another). So for your reading pleasure, I have written out… 

Kat’s Master Plan for Living an Evil Happy Life Regardless of Circumstances:

Of course, I always think years in advance, so as soon as I convinced the Ministry of Magic that I had been under the effects of the Imperious Curse the entire time (I know my previous paragraph says this is a stupid idea but stick with me!) I would make sure to either adopt or have a child very quickly so that the babe is as close in age to Harry Potter as possible. From there, I would work to gain the trust of other wizarding family’s (regardless of impure blood) to prove that I am “reformed” and clearly attempt to make up for my “evil actions” as a Death Eater. I wait 11 years until the kids gets their Hogwarts letter.

As soon as my child is at Hogwarts I would make sure they are best friends with the Boy Who Lived. “Oh, that poor boy. Why don’t you invite him to Christmas dinner? And Easter? And Summer vacation.” I would ensure that Harry Potter is my child’s best friend and our families extended guest. 

Then regardless of circumstances, I have a win. Voldemort never rises again? Great, I am known as the Death Eater that did all she could to make up for her past mistakes and short of adopting Harry, have made him apart of a wizarding family again. Voldemort arises? “Hey Voldie, glad you are back. Sorry I didn’t come wake you up, but as a gift I have Harry Potter visiting us for dinner. A fat lamb on a plater, the dark lord only needs to say to what temperature he likes his steak.”

Although, Dumbledor’s instance at alienating Harry probably would have gotten in the way… like he always does. Never enough to prevent the problems, just involved enough to solve them like a hero.

At the end of this evil thought experiment; I am left with the perspective that if these villains were actually as evil as they are implied to be; Harry Potter is the boy who should not have lived.