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Lessons from Hogwarts #1

For years I have wanted to write a book about Harry Potter.  The series is so warm and life-affirming, full of interesting connections and wonderful characters.  My knowledge of the world of Potter is encyclopaedic; I often forget that other people find better things to do with their time than endlessly reread J.K. Rowling's books.  One of these days I will persuade someone to let me preach a sermon series on them.

One of the characters I find most interesting is Neville Longbottom.  Neville is clumsy and, while not stupid, is far from being a straight-O student.  His teachers find him exasperating and Professor Snape treats him with utter contempt.  Neville lacks confidence and suffers from bullying.  The only subject he is really good at is Herbology (care of magical plants).  Neville has been brought up by his grandmother because his parents are incapable of caring for him, having been tortured into insanity by Voldemort's followers many years earlier.

Although Neville is not particularly clever or talented, he shows his true colours when the evil wizard Voldemort returns to power and a battle begins between evil and those who would resist it.  Despite being a liability with a wand in his hand, Neville joins Dumbledore's Army, a student group which meets to practice defensive magic, and a few months later is one of a small group of students who fly to the ministry of magic with Harry and defend him against the Death Eaters.  In the final book, when Harry, Ron and Hermione have left Hogwarts on a quest to defeat Voldemort, and the evil Death Eaters are in charge of Hogwarts, terrorising those students who dare to defy them, it is slow, clumsy Neville Longbottom who leads the resistance against them.  

Towards the end of the final book, it seems as if all is lost; Harry is apparently dead and the Death Eaters have won.  Voldemort commands all those who are fighting him to give up and accept their defeat.  It is Neville who refuses to give in, pulls the sword of Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat and destroys the final Horcrux, Voldemort's snake, making Voldemort mortal and allowing Harry finally to defeat him.

For me, Neville epitomises these words of Jesus: 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven... Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth'.




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