A Kind of Hush

31^st July seems to be a normal date for all of us…..but is it? A cat on a pavement is spying on a house in a suburb of London. This is also not abnormal…..all cats wander around places and into neighbor’s gardens walls. A man is eating his breakfast and will shortly be leaving his house, go to the office and lay a set of terms before another man. All in a day’s work.

I forgot to mention that on his way to office, he sees the cat mentioned above staring at a road map….and reading a sign…..Like a normal person, he felt that his hangover hadn’t passed. The lunch hour…a welcome moment when one can stretch his legs, call home or a friend and get some thing(s) to eat. This man goes down in the elevator and crosses to the bakery. He buys a doughnut and on his way back, a complete stranger comes up and hugs him….This is a bit odd…..even more so because the person is dressed in green robes and a purple hat….. (just some eccentric?) The man shrugs this off but then meets a large group of these queerly dressed men around a corner….

WELCOME MY FRIENDS TO PLATFORM 9&3/4 (nine and 3 quarters)…..ALL ABOARD FOR THE HOGWARTS EXPRESS!!!

 Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is an institution founded by 4 great wizards Godric Gryffindor, Salazar Slytherin, Rowena Ravenclaw and Helga Hufflepuff. The four houses there are named after them and their aim is to educate young boys and girls in the arts of magic. The school accepts one and all irrespective of background, creed or caste. Even half bloods (wizards whose parents are not wizards) are accepted here. But, according to Salazar Slytherin, such half bloods are unworthy of being instructed at Hogwarts and this opposition later on causes a row between the founders and Slytherin leaves the school.

Pardon my digression, it was necessary to lay some foundation before continuing with the article. Our story is about “the boy who lived”, Harry James Potter. The title is well deserved for at the age of one, he survived an attempt on his life by the dreaded dark wizard Lord Voldemort, which leaves him with a scar shaped like a bolt of lightning. Lord Voldemort however was not so lucky and he lost all his powers and had to go into hiding.

This is how Ms. JK Rowling begins the first book in the Harry Potter saga. These books tell Harry’s story. They show him as a normal boy, who by a cruel twist of fate loses his parents. He is given to the care of his aunt and uncle. They are the typical foster parents, like Cinderella’s stepmother. They keep him locked in a cupboard under the stairs and force him to work round the clock. But, on his 11^th birthday, his life changes.  He learns that he is a wizard and that he has been admitted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He is famous in the wizarding community as he brought about the fall of Lord Voldemort. It is at this point that we are introduced to certain wizard terminology- for starters, non magical people like us are called Muggles and the wizarding world can only marvel at how they manage to survive without ANY magic whatsoever. A world without magic is as much a fantasy to them as spells and wands are to us.

The big moment comes when Harry meets Mr. Ollivander, who tells him a very important fact- “the wand chooses the wizard, Mr. Potter” Again as if by fate’s will, Harry is chosen by a wand whose brother belongs to Voldemort.

He befriends Ronald Weasley and Hermionie Granger, and this group face many perils together as the tale unfolds. At Hogwarts, we are thrown headlong into Harry’s world, a world where portraits move, ghosts sweep corridors, staircases are not stationary, doorknobs bite, candles are everlasting and owls bring letters to people. Harry soon learns that on the night Voldemort killed his parents, he also lost all his powers and became a mere shell of himself. But, the headmaster and Harry’s mentor believes that the story is yet to be told and Voldemort will come back, seeking vengeance on Harry and the wizarding world as a whole. His prediction comes true and Harry faces off against Voldemort sooner than he expects…in his very first year in fact.

As the stories progress, Harry grows up in front of our eyes. He learns spells, procrastinates, gets into fights, makes enemies and has crushes. Perhaps, this is what is so appealing to us, the normalcy of the characters. Harry’s imperfections are what set him apart from the rest. He seems more real, more factual.

The subjects taught at Hogwarts include Transfiguration, the ability to change the shape of things- such as change an owl into a glass or a table into a wine glass. This is applicable to humans as well. Charms is a class taught by Professor Flitwick, who is so short, he needs to stand on books to look over his desk. Charms is perhaps the most varied class. There are charms to heal people, to make objects levitate, to bewitch people and to set things on fire. Next is Potions, a class that Harry hates almost as much as the teacher Severus Snape. Potions are of a wide variety- there are healing potions, potions that force you to tell the truth, potions that can make you sleep indefinitely and potions that are used as antidotes.  Unfortunately, Harry is never able to brew a potion correctly in Snape’s class. Herbology is equivalent to Biology in the Muggle world (I used the word Muggle…this is the effect Harry Potter has on us!). It is the study of magical plants, taught by Professor Sprout. Defence Against the Dark Arts as the name suggests is a class where you get to learn how to use protective spells against potential threats- dark creatures or wizards. This is the one class whose teachers keep changing until at last it is given to Snape, who had been after it for a very long time. This is Harry’s favourite class and one for which he has an aptitude.

The wizards also have a sport which they call Quidditch. It involves flying on broomsticks and dodging other players. The ultimate goal of the game is to capture the Golden Snitch. The person whose responsibility it is to catch the Snitch is called the Seeker, a position that Harry plays in. Beaters are players who keep Bludgers at bay. A Bludger is a ball that concentrates on knocking people off their brooms. The last ball in the game is the Quaffle. Chasers are players who put the Quaffle into any one of three goal hoops located at the ends of the pitch. A Quidditch team has 3 Chasers, 2 Beaters and one Seeker.

Neville Longbottom is a boy whose parents were tortured and driven insane by Bellatrix and Rodolphus Lestrange. Harry meets Neville’s parents in the 5th book. He visits the wizarding hospital St. Mungo’s and sees Neville with his grandmother there.  Mrs. Longbottom gives Neville a bubble gum wrapper that he pockets despite his grandmother telling him not to. His father cannot recognize him. Later on in the book, Neville meets Bellatrix Lestrange. All he says is “You are Bellatrix Lestrange”.  That’s it. There is so much humanity in the books. They teach us about how to face our fears and how to fight against them. The books lend us strength and give us joy. Through the eyes of Harry we see a world which is every bit as tough as our own. It’s more than just a tale of Good v/s Evil. It’s a tale told with humour, passion and is humane. The books teach us how to forgive, how to come to terms and how lucky we are to be alive. This is what sets them apart from any other book in the same genre. This is Pottermania. And you know what? In spite of the fact that Voldemort is dead and gone, in spite of the fact that everyone knows what’s at the end of the tunnel, people will STILL read Harry Potter even after the final movie releases. Why? Because they are not books, they are tomes of wisdom, they are our friends. And there is a kind of hush all over the world as people just like us fall in love with them again.