Harry Potter’s Magical Success

By Sigrun Strunk

Discover some aspects of the worldwide success of the Harry Potter series. Learn what J.K. Rowling thinks about eternal life. This interpretation discusses the decisions that lead to Voldemort's death, Dumbledore's secret motivations and the tragic character of Severus Snape, as well as a long chapter about Harry Potter's development. With commentary on 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child'.
In the 2020 edition a chapter about Dolores Umbridge is added.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sigrun Strunk Editeur
• Release date: Dec 2, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463192818

Sigrun Strunk

Sigrun Strunk was born in Hamburg, Germany. She studied library sciences in Cologne, Germany. Has a Master of Advanced Studies in Foreign Languages and Literatures which she completed in Limoges, France. She now lives in southwest France.

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1. Introduction

Why a book on Harry Potter? Many works have already been published about the Harry Potter series, but the ones that I have consulted are very unsatisfactory. They contain errors and inexactitudes that show that these authors have a superficial understanding of the seven volumes and that their knowledge of the fantasy genre is insufficient. Additionally, a French critic claims that the stories centred on The Magicians of Caprona were written in the wake of Harry Potter, which is simply not rue and quality analyses that study the entire Harry Potter series and not only the first five novels are sorely lacking.


Why is the Harry Potter series is such a worldwide success? This is probably due to a successful combination of various elements: adventure, magic, a scholastic setting and the development of the stories through several novels – a dose of each genre. In this work, I will shed light on some of the numerous aspects that contribute to the overall success of the series such as the myth of adolescent heroes and other archetypal characters. Additionally, there are allusions to Greco-Roman mythology. However, even if one knows nothing about these subjects, it is still an enjoyable read. It is not necessary to have any prior literary knowledge, to be British, or to have any knowledge of British culture to appreciate the story. While the series takes place in England, but it is an imaginary England and there is nothing to prevent the reader from adapting the story to his or her own surroundings.


Very often when I would tell people that I was writing a book on the Harry Potter series, I would hear the question, for whom are you writing? My response is always the same: firstly, I write for people like myself who are earnest readers of Harry Potter, and for whom this work can expand upon essential aspects of the series. Secondly, my aim is to help students wishing to write a thesis on Harry Potter by providing a deeper insight to the books. Rowling’s work is rich in possibilities for literary and psychological research, so I mention all the interactions between the protagonists and the peer pressure that they are subject to. Many characters like Hermione, Ron, Neville, or even Draco Malfoy and the two house-elves, Dobby and Winky, merit detailed study.

Despite my German studies having suggested that I write this interpretation based on scientific criteria taking into account the numerous analyses already published, I gave up after some hesitation. Not only did I want to yield to the temptation of writing after xyz and begin to lose sight of my own ideas, but also, many readers find this manner of writing to be fastidious and off-putting. This is why I have decided to take an essayist’s approach. Consequently, the majority of footnotes only reference the source to which I am referring or from where I took a direct quote. However, I rarely refer to secondary literature. All quotations are taken from the English Bloomsbury edition.

2. Literary Genres in the Harry Potter Series

In order to understand the success of the Harry Potter series, it is important to examine the literary genre. Generally speaking, the series is built on the interactions of a group of adolescents and their journey into adulthood. One can say that this series is mostly a school adventure genre with an important amount of fantasy.


Enid Blyton was the author of the most famous adventures and school novels for children and adolescents. These books are typical of the genre.(1)
Adventure stories: As a general rule, one finds at the centre of the action, a group of three to five adolescent boys and girls. The leader is always the oldest boy and the most fearful child is always the girl. The adventures take place during school vacations without any discernible timeline and despite the fact that the series can have up to twenty volumes, the ages of the children never change. Murder is never a theme.

Boarding school stories: In this case, the action takes places during the school year. The different themes all revolve around social interactions and in stories by Enid Blyton, the action is centred around a group of girls. At the same time, lessons are only mentioned incidentally, or not at all. The protagonists always have consistent behaviours, even though the action might take place over the course of several years starting with their first year in school and ending with graduation. Relationships with boys are never a theme and the professors are mostly female.

A. Prieger critiques the typical construction of adventure novels and the boarding school format of Enid Blyton. This criticism is equally true for a lot of other series:

Reducing dissonances … first, by the illusion of ‘reality’, the production of safety. This is successful in spite of unrealistic circumstances of life in the fiction by using the medium of familiar, rigid requirements of behaviour. Young readers seem to recognise and accept this.


Furthermore, Blyton offers her readers who lack influence and face an uncertain future, primarily those spheres where activity and behaviour have direct consequences: the level of personal arguments. Blyton justifies the absence of more extensive prospects by an idealisation of adolescence, whose transitional status as to adulthood is thus denied.(2)

J.K. Rowling certainly does not share this point of view. Although presumably done with the intention of agreeing to the specification of the genre, its implementation is diametrically opposed to that of Blyton and similar authors.

2.1. School Adventures

The Harry Potter series has the typical structure of scholarly adventures of other writers. We follow the heroes beginning their entry into the boarding school, Hogwarts, until the completion of their last year. The heroes are a group of two boys and a girl of the same age. The weakest child out of the main characters is a boy named Neville Longbottom. Typical of this literary genre, they face a new adventure each year. However, the challenges they encounter are within their intellectual grasp.

The educational system at Hogwarts is loosely based on the English boarding school system. Hogwarts is a boarding school. To be admitted, one must be at least eleven years old and have magical powers. At the age of fifteen, students at Hogwarts take an exam that is comparable to the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE), which is commonly taken during a typical British student’s sixth year, of secondary education. At Hogwarts, this exam is called the Ordinary Wizarding Level (OWL). The results of this test determine the areas of study to be focused on during the following two years and which will eventually lead to a professional career. At the end of the seventh year at Hogwarts, there is an exam equivalent to the A-level called the NEWT (Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Test) parodying once again, a real life exam. However, the sorcerers graduate at age seventeen. Generally speaking, in the vast majority of countries in the word, important events and exams happen at similar ages. This ensures that readers have sufficient knowledge to follow along with the scholarly exams in this magical world.

Another difference that sets Harry Potter apart from other similar adventure series is that typically, the female protagonist does not play an important role. The opposite is true for Harry Potter who frequently finds himself lost without Hermione’s help.


Contrary to other series, the classes and their subject matter at Hogwarts play an important role in each book. All the professors at Hogwarts regularly point out the fact that they teach so that the students can one day be fully trained wizards as well as fully functioning adults. The students are so accustomed to this concept that there is great outcry when, in Volume 5, Professor Umbridge decrees that magic should be taught at the appropriate age and without risk. Since in her mind, no one can be attacked on school grounds, Professor Umbridge sees no reason to teach anything other than basic theory. "

This is school, Mr. Potter, not the real world."(3) According to Umbridge, students must learn for the sake of school and not real life. The other professors do not share this opinion.

2.2. Boarding School Genre

Like in the series Malory Towers by Enid Blyton,(4) the students of Hogwarts are sorted into different houses. Each house has its own head professor: McGonagall for Gryffindor, Snape for Slytherin, Sprout for Hufflepuff, and Flitwick for Ravenclaw. Inside the houses, certain upperclass students are chosen by the directors to help, guide and watch over the other students. Classes as well as the majority of free time are passed amongst students of the same house.

One reason that Hogwarts is not an ordinary boarding school is that the students are there to learn magic. It is not surprising, then, that one is provided with information about certain aspects of this magical world. Rowling gives the most detail about Transfiguration, Potions class, and spells. In the case of Arithmancy and Ancient Runes class, there is little more information given than the course name. There are many examples that show what happens if they make an error in the execution of their work. What is learned thereafter is always used to the student’s advantage. This is the case for the disarmament spell, Expeliarmus, in the second year. This spell that Snape shows his students proves to be very useful against Lockhart, not unlike the attraction spell in the fourth book that is used to summon a broomstick for battling a dragon. The significance of important exams is also well covered. This is highlighted by teachers and the zealous Hermione. Often Rowling begins major events of action directly following the final exams.


In The Philosopher’s Stone, the decisive adventure begins at night after the last exam and on the last page of the book we learn that everyone has passed on to the second year.
The following year in The Chamber of Secrets, the students are upset because the exams are scheduled even though no one knows what monster haunts the castle and that several petrified students are in the infirmary. But three days before the exam date, Ginny is taken into the chamber. After her rescue and the recovery of the petrified students, the exams are canceled. Why does the author have Riddle attack before the exams? The reason is probably that the potion that revives those who are petrified was ready before the tests. But as soon as the students wake up, they are able to recount who attacked them. If Tom Riddle wants to get to Harry, he has to strike before his victims can identify him.


In The Prisoner of Azkaban, which takes place during the third year, the protagonists revise at the beginning of the Easter vacation for their exams. The quantity of evening homework has been mentioned and the exams for Spells, Divination, and Defence Against the Dark Arts are described. After interrogating Harry just as he is about to leave the classroom, Professor Trelawney makes a second prediction. As was the case for the first year, the decisive action begins the evening of the last exam.


The fact that Harry participates in the Triwizard Tournament means that he is exempt from the exams in The Goblet of Fire. However, he does not have more free time because he still attends class and learns spells that he can use during the third round of the tournament. The final competition takes place on the evening of the last exam.


The Order of the Phoenix begins during the year of the important OWL exams. Starting on the first day of the course, the professors prepare the fifth year students for these important end-of-year exams.(5) The results determine the educational path of the student, and eventually, lead to their career. Like in real life, there are conditions in this world of magic that predetermine a student’s future.


This year, the exams do not begin without hindrance. During the Astronomy practical exam, the Wednesday of the second week of exams, the students are faced with the tentative arrest of Hagrid and his subsequent flight. They also witness Minerva McGonagall, who rejoins the group, attacked.(6) One Thursday afternoon in the middle of History of Magic, Harry has a vision of the apparent torture of Sirius by Voldemort and he leaves the class before the end of the exam. Immediately after, the final adventure begins.(7)

In The Half-blood Prince, it is Ginny who is preparing to take the OWL’s and Hermione advises Harry to not distract Ginny in her work.(8) Harry has put aside his work to take a particular course with Dumbledore who will prepare him for his task: the destruction of Voldemort. After the death of Dumbledore, classes are suspended and the exams are postponed, but not canceled.(9)


In the last book (The Deathly Hallows), which begins at the start of the final year at Hogwarts, the three protagonists do not return to school. This is why the reader does not learn a whole lot about scholastic life. The trials with which they are faced during the entire year are considerably more difficult than any scholastic exam could be. By various means, they receive information about life at Hogwarts. We learn that Umbridge’s assertion two years earlier that the school would be separated from the outside world is only a lie. In reality, classes have been taken over by the Carrow siblings and their questionable teaching methods. Two years prior, Umbridge disapproved of the fake Moody teaching the unforgivable curses to the students.(10) The three fugitives also learn that Ginny and her friends have attempted to steal the sword of Gryffindor which is kept in the Headmaster’s office, and that Death Eaters abducted Luna Lovegood when she went home for the holidays. Her abduction was retribution against her father when the articles of his newspaper did not conform to the ideas of the current regime. The school is also no longer under protection. After the final battle against Voldemort and his Death Eaters, where many of the older students along with those who did not wish to evacuate are killed or injured during a hugely devastating attack on the school, the year ends without final exams. The trials of life have essentially replaced them.

Unlike other classic stories that take place at a boarding school, education is not incidental, but part of the action. In addition, the characters evolve, becoming more mature. If you look at the visible impact that education has on character development, these books read like a coming-of-age story.

2.3. Fantasy

The series also belongs to a fantasy genre for children and adults that has a long tradition in Britain as well as in Germany comprised in part by the predecessors: Edith Nesbit, C.S.