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Essay: Blood Sport

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When Harry first enters the wizarding world, where someone stands on Quidditch is a metaphor for how well they fit into that world. That Harry takes to flying immediately clearly delineates him as a soldier, a warrior. It also contributes to the animus between him and Draco Malfoy, who first mentions the word “Quidditch” to Harry. For Harry to join the Gryffindor house team as a first year and actually be good at it cements the separation between them. In addition to there being an archetype aligning with each book in the series (see QuantumHarry, the Podcast, Episode 2: This Old Man ), JK Rowling has also engaged in a clever bit of self-referential recursion. Each of the seven obstacles to the Philosopher’s Stone also aligns with one of the seven books in the series, and links to a significant theme in each book. The first obstacle to the Stone is “Fluffy”, the three-headed dog Hagrid loans Dumbledore to guard the trapdoor leading to the Stone. Harry initially sees Fluf
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Essay: The Alchemy of Games

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Near the beginning of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire , before Harry goes to the Quidditch World Cup, he wakes on Privet Drive, having “seen” Voldemort kill an old man in what may or may not have been a dream. Dreams—like fairy tales, toys, and games—are disregarded and considered unimportant by many characters in the Harry Potter series, as well as in our world. (See Quantum Harry, the Podcast, Episode 1: The Kids’ Table .) Harry recalls that before he fell asleep the night before, he had been reading Flying with the Cannons, a book about the Chudley Cannons Quidditch team. Even when the war scene comes first, JK Rowling tells us that Harry was reading about metaphorical war right before that. After witnessing Frank Bryce’s murder, he is again drawn to this book. Another early reference to games and violence in the fourth Harry Potter book is when Harry writes a letter to Sirius, telling his godfather that Dudley’s diet isn’t going well so his parents have threatened to
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Essay: Playing the Game

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They made their way back up the crowded street to the Magical Menagerie.   As they reached it, Hermione came out, but she wasn’t carrying an owl.   Her arms were clamped tightly around the enormous ginger cat. “You bought that monster?” said Ron, his mouth hanging open. “He’s gorgeous , isn’t he?” said Hermione, glowing. ~Chapter Four, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Harry Potter’s third year at Hogwarts is shaped by the three Quidditch matches he plays during that year, which is the first and last time that he plays a complete Quidditch season. Each match carries symbolic importance to future books in the series, which further reinforces that JK Rowling has not inserted Quidditch or any game into the books frivolously. When she describes a match or when Harry plays it’s for a good reason, and when she pulls back from Quidditch or other games it’s also for a good reason, such as it doesn’t advance the big plot or carry love or war symbolism, or she’s rep
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