I begin, as most other teens would, with Harry Potter.
The young boy wizard, with his close companions, have ruled my bookish fantasies ever since I graduated out of Enid Blyton. More on her works later, though.
Thestrals... beautiful word, and a beautiful topic to contemplate upon. I know I should probably start at the beginning, from Philosopher's Stone, and work my way towards the end, but the moment I thought of this blog, I knew I wanted this to be my first post.
Thestrals are winged horses with skeletal bodies, reptilian faces, and wide wings that resemble a bat's. They are first introduced in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, when Harry notices them for the first time, pulling the students' carriages to the lake. The others, however, seem unable to see the thestrals, and Luna Lovegood, a Ravenclaw girl, explains to Harry that only those who have seen death can see the thestrals. They are gentle creatures (usually), and the Hogwarts herds are especially mild, reacting to soft words and caresses. What really held them in my memory was the fact that though they were associated with death, they are portrayed to be quite gentle animals, and loyal.
I initially wondered why Harry could not see the thestrals on the way back from Hogwarts in the Goblet of Fire, or even before, since he had witnessed his mother's death when he was only a year old. But then I found that a person can see the thestrals only when he has come to terms with the death they have witnessed. On the return trip from Hogwarts, Harry was still numb about Cedric's death. He could just not relate to it.
But later, he understood that when a war was going on, people would die, and he had to face it and keep going anyway. I'm sure many people, including yours truly, did not let Cedric's death affect them much. Sure, it startled everyone to reality, made it certain that Voldemort was back. But we were just glad that Harry had gotten out of there alive, and was fine, for then.
But from Harry's point of view, or even any other Hogwarts student's, it must have been jolting. Until then, Voldemort had been something of a distant concept, appearing only in people's memories and dreams. Then suddenly he turns up at some graveyard or the other, and murders a student in cold blood just because he was unlucky enough to turn up there with Harry.
If not for Cedric's death, the incident would have sounded ridiculous to anyone not knowing the full story. And as it was, we saw how Harry's own friends turned against him the next year. Even Dean and Seamus, fellow Gryffindors, refused to believe him.
So it was no wonder that Cedric's death brought back a rush of memories to Harry... that graveyard... almost dying at the hands of Voldemort... seeing his parents during the Priori Incantatem.
And so, Harry could not bring himself to even think about Cedric, much less accept that his death was not Harry's fault, for a whole summer.
The young boy wizard, with his close companions, have ruled my bookish fantasies ever since I graduated out of Enid Blyton. More on her works later, though.
Thestrals... beautiful word, and a beautiful topic to contemplate upon. I know I should probably start at the beginning, from Philosopher's Stone, and work my way towards the end, but the moment I thought of this blog, I knew I wanted this to be my first post.
Thestrals are winged horses with skeletal bodies, reptilian faces, and wide wings that resemble a bat's. They are first introduced in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, when Harry notices them for the first time, pulling the students' carriages to the lake. The others, however, seem unable to see the thestrals, and Luna Lovegood, a Ravenclaw girl, explains to Harry that only those who have seen death can see the thestrals. They are gentle creatures (usually), and the Hogwarts herds are especially mild, reacting to soft words and caresses. What really held them in my memory was the fact that though they were associated with death, they are portrayed to be quite gentle animals, and loyal.
I initially wondered why Harry could not see the thestrals on the way back from Hogwarts in the Goblet of Fire, or even before, since he had witnessed his mother's death when he was only a year old. But then I found that a person can see the thestrals only when he has come to terms with the death they have witnessed. On the return trip from Hogwarts, Harry was still numb about Cedric's death. He could just not relate to it.
But later, he understood that when a war was going on, people would die, and he had to face it and keep going anyway. I'm sure many people, including yours truly, did not let Cedric's death affect them much. Sure, it startled everyone to reality, made it certain that Voldemort was back. But we were just glad that Harry had gotten out of there alive, and was fine, for then.
But from Harry's point of view, or even any other Hogwarts student's, it must have been jolting. Until then, Voldemort had been something of a distant concept, appearing only in people's memories and dreams. Then suddenly he turns up at some graveyard or the other, and murders a student in cold blood just because he was unlucky enough to turn up there with Harry.
If not for Cedric's death, the incident would have sounded ridiculous to anyone not knowing the full story. And as it was, we saw how Harry's own friends turned against him the next year. Even Dean and Seamus, fellow Gryffindors, refused to believe him.
So it was no wonder that Cedric's death brought back a rush of memories to Harry... that graveyard... almost dying at the hands of Voldemort... seeing his parents during the Priori Incantatem.
And so, Harry could not bring himself to even think about Cedric, much less accept that his death was not Harry's fault, for a whole summer.
No comments:
Post a Comment