The power of love

                   There are several instances in the books where the power of love is so great that it overcomes even the most evil wizard, Lord Voldemort. Warning: there are a couple of spoiler alerts!

This week’s blog will feature the many ways the power of love over comes evil throughout J.K. Rowling’s series.

                The first instance of this is when Voldemort attempts to kill Harry Potter when he was just 1 year old. Harry had lived at home with his parents, James and Lily Potter. Voldemort learned information that one day, Harry was going to be the one wizard to defeat him. To prevent this from happening, Voldemort traveled to the town of Godric’s Hallow in hopes to kill little Harry Potter. While he did succeed in killing both James and Lily, Harry did not die after the killing curse was used on him. This was because of the love that Lily had for her son. Because Lily’s death was pure sacrifice, Harry did not die. Harry was marked with the protection of her love with the lightning bolt scar on his forehead.

                Another example of the power of love is the way Severus Snape (a teacher of Harry’s) always protected Harry because of his undying love for Lily Potter, even after she died.  Fans learn in the final book of the series that because of Snape’s love for Lily, he vowed to always protect Harry, although readers would not realize this until the very end. Throughout the books, Snape is seen as very cruel and unfair to Harry. He is always punishing Harry for the smallest things and favors other students over him. Fans learn in the seventh book that although it may seem that Snape despises Harry, he actually is protecting him the entire time. He acts as though he hates Harry because of an old grudge against Harry’s father James.  Through Snape’s love for Lily, Harry is protected by him until the very end of Snape’s life. 

                There are also several relationships that develop throughout the series. Although some fans may have suspected it all along, it is not revealed until the final book that Ron and Hermione end up together. In addition, Harry and Ginny (Ron’s younger sister) also end up together. Both of these couples get married and start families of their own. In the end, readers can feel the love that has grown throughout the seven novels. J.K. Rowling did a great job portraying the power of love in her series of Harry Potter.