Master of Death

Each time I read the Harry Potter series I develop a deeper understanding and connection with the characters and my feelings for them. I have hated and then loved Severus Snape. I have loved and then hated and then loved again, Albus Dumbledore. I have despised Draco Malfoy and pitied him. Hermione Granger has both intrigued and endlessly annoyed me. Tom Riddle, a.k.a. Lord Voldemort, has equally fascinated and terrified me. But it always comes down to Harry Potter and he will forever be my favorite character of the series. Of course he is the intended hero, however I believe it has more to do with his character development throughout the series and the fact that, because most of the story takes place from his point of view, I experience his feelings, and appreciate his reactions to those feelings, on a deeper level than that of the other characters.

It is his selflessness, which unfortunately is mislabeled as his "love for playing the hero," that enables Harry to consistently put himself in danger throughout the seven books. Harry begins his journey as an unloved boy, that consequently has no one to love, and transforms into a man with enough love within him that he is willing to stand up and die for the world. He must cope with the knowledge that his parents were murdered and that, as he was an intended victim, the murderer is at large and is intent upon killing him. Harry spirals into the deepest despair of depression while being forced to hear his mother's screams as she died protecting him. He witnesses the senseless murder of a classmate, and then must fight for his own life, and consequently endures the tremendously exhausting rage of the post-traumatic stress that follows. He also witnesses, first his godfather and friend, and then his mentor and protector, killed in front of him and must experience the most painful form of love which is grief. Harry must face dangers and experience emotions that most people will not have to deal with in their entire lifetimes, and he does so valiantly as he comes to accept his mortality at a much younger age than most and becomes the true master of death.

 "The true master does not seek to run away from Death. He accepts that he must die, and understands that there are far, far worse things in the living world than dying." - Albus Dumbledore (7: 720; ch. 35)

A tribute to harry Potter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raRJhypEgzE&list=PL9504FEC0B8BD69F5

and on for fun :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8m5XZwqp2s&list=PL9504FEC0B8BD69F5