Super Harry Potter fans x Double Erica’s are back again to bring you the third blog post in our series of Life Lessons in Harry Potter.
If you’ve been following along, my good friend Erica Haskett and I, Erica Rose, decided this year to simultaneously re-read all seven Harry Potter novels and after each one, write a blog post with the life advice we took away from each novel.
Now, we’ve finally reached The Prisoner of Azkaban.
I’ve noticed that a lot of people consider this their favorite one, and while it was never my childhood favorite (or even my adult favorite) I actually totally get it now.
This time around, I read so fast; it was so captivating & it really is so different from the movie! I hadn’t read this book in a while so it felt even more exciting to go deeper into the drama between Sirius, Lupin, James, Snape, & Wormtail, especially since they don’t really go that deep in the movies. I am totally on board with needing a prequel tv show or novel series about them or something!
Overall, this one was packed with lots of great life lessons, wizarding wisdom, and spiritual metaphors.
So, without further ado, here are both Erica’s takes on Prisoner of Azkaban!
Erica Rose, House Slytherin:
There’s definitely an overall theme in this book about perceptions; about how there’s always multiple sides of the stories, and how you can’t always control what truth people believe. Writing this now actually makes me realize that’s totally also a Taylor Swift Reputation theme; where your reputation is just whatever people believe to be true about you, not necessarily what is true.
Sirius Black had everyone in the wizarding world thinking he was the worst kind of human being; but he was actually innocent, a loyal bestie, and overall a good man. One of the very few reasons he was able to survive as long as he did in Azkaban was because he knew those things to be true. He didn’t let the fact that everyone in the world had misjudged his reputation get to him. He held onto the fact that he was innocent and he was a good man and that got him through the hard times.
So, the same can be true with all of us. When it comes down to it, yeah it’s horrible and hurts when others perceive us in a way that’s not true, but in the end of it as long as we know what’s true about ourselves, as long as we know that we’re good and not what they say of us, we can absolutely get through anything. (Not me just realizing that Taylor Swift and Sirius Black are actually that similar 😂).
Also too, it’s a reminder that before we judge to keep in mind that there are always multiple sides of the story. Just because our friend may tell us something about someone else, or the news may say something about a celebrity, doesn’t necessarily mean any of it is true. Peter Pettigrew’s twisted story and betrayal set up Sirius to take the blame and fall. If only more people decided to hear out Sirius’ side of the story rather than condemn him, things may have been very different. So, it’s a lesson to always consider all sides before making any final judgements; hear everyone out; let everyone’s side and story be told and understand the truth that you are hearing may not be the actual truth.
Speaking of perceptions, Snape assumed the worst of both Sirius and Lupin because of his perception of them as mischievous teenagers. Sometimes we hold the ideas in our heads of who people were without acknowledging that they’ve grown. Sometimes people judge our adult self because of how we were in high school or before, without realizing that we’ve most likely grown and changed and are not the same person we were as teenagers. Most of us do become nicer and wiser and more mature with age, shedding our judgmental youthful side, so it really isn’t fair to judge the past version of someone else.
I think Lupin does that with Snape. Despite all the drama between the crew, Lupin still encouraged Harry and the others to respect and see the best in Snape. In future movies he is always adamant that since Dumbledore trusts Snape, he trusts Snape, so Lupin is a great example of recognizing that people change and we shouldn’t always hold an old version of them accountable.
Another perception problem that stood out to me within this was Aunt Marge in the beginning. Reading her words in the story literally made me just as mad as Harry; she is the definition of rude. But she’s also the definition of acting upon perceptions - she only knows about Harry what Vernon has complained about, so she created all these preconceived notions about him. Also too, both Vernon and Marge are mean, nasty people that most likely are unhappy with themselves, so they take that unhappiness out on others. This just shows there may unfortunately always be a bully, and there will be a bully who is so wrong about us and doesn’t really know us at all, and we just can’t let them get to us. It’s easier to just let them go (imagine them blowing up like a balloon and floating away like Marge); because when someone is that nasty, it’s always a reflection upon them, never ever us.
No one’s perceived view of you could ever truly bring you down. Remember like Sirius, if you know you, that’s all that matters, that’s exactly what can get you through.
I also loved the theme of fear in this novel. When Harry is afraid of the dementors Lupin famously tells him that shows that what he fears most is fear which is very wise.
It’s in a way true that fear really doesn’t have any power over us until we name it as something to be feared. What’s scary to someone else is not even a second thought to another. Our fears are all unique and different; but our fears are created. So, if they’re created, they can be conquered and let go.
Think about your greatest fear and pretend it’s a Bogart you’re facing. Then, try out your own Riddikulus charm. If you can find a way to turn your fear into something silly or something more empowering if silly doesn’t fit the bill, then you absolutely can gain control of your fear and let it go. Our fears don’t have to control us; we can have the upper hand; we can be brave and turn them into a strength.
Finally, I really, really love the end of the novel when Harry saves his past self, Sirius, and Hermione from the dementors by fully casting his Patronus charm. He tells Hermione, he knew he could do it because he had already seen himself do it! (His past version saw the flickers of the Patronus saving them before passing out). This is so incredibly powerful and arguably the most powerful mindset anyone could ever be in.
Imagine if you treated everything in life like you were Harry when he knew he could do a Patronus because he already did it? Before you do anything, before you conquer your dreams or your fears, imagine that you had already caught a glimpse of future you having already achieved that feat. This way, you know going into it, that present you can absolutely do it, because you already did it. Embody that future version of you, embody that version that knows it is already done. This is definitely one of the most powerful manifestation tools. Embody that confidence and know there’s no need to worry or doubt, because a future version of you already did it!!
Erica Haskett, House Hufflepuff:
Prisoner of Azkaban felt a bit like a return to SS for me in the sense that we were really transported into another world and into new characters and it was all so fun and magical. POA brought back aalll the fun and it was really well balanced with the darkness, where as COS was just generally kind of dark. POA is one of my favorites in the whole series and it was so much fun to read again and notice all the spiritual things and make connections and take away life lessons and everything from this one in particular. A few of the things that stood out to me in POA this read were divination, the patronus charm, cheering charm, and boggarts. So let’s dive into my takeaways and life lessons from POA!
We’ll start with divination. Divination is literally the like study of the spiritual world inside of the wizarding world, and though it got a bad rep because none of the main characters liked it or had the “seeing eye”, it is definitely significant and intriguing. The definition of divination is “a branch of magic that involved attempting to foresee the future, or gather insights into past, present and future events, through various rituals and tools.” Aside from the foreseeing the future part, I immediately thought about spirituality in general and all of the things I know and practice and Erica knows and practices on a regular basis to get in touch with our higher selves and connect to divine beings and angels and what not. While I think both her and I have different approaches to this that make what we do not divination, this class and subject in general is still immensely intriguing and definitely one I’d be signed up for and hopefully enjoying. And I know for a fact Erica would be thriving in divination hahaha the first thought I had when I read the description of Sybil Trelawney and the Divination classroom was “omg this is SO Erica!” Love the synchronicity of that and how it connects to what we both do in real life daily. Super intriguing subject that’s full of so many fun ideas and lessons throughout the book to see into the future. I would love to try them all and maybe I will one day.
Then there’s the patronus and cheering charms. The patronus is obviously used to drive away the dementors and in a way the darkness, and then the cheering charms are obviously used to cheer people up. I love love love both of these charms ssooo much because I think they’re just so relevant and useful. I love the fact that we can conjure up either of these spells to drive out darkness and evil and then to instantly cheer ourselves up. It’s magic but it’s also so true in real life. All we have to do is make a decision, feel the good feelings, and the darkness will be driven out. Always. And then we can literally just summon joy and cheerfulness on demand always too. It’s all about just tuning into those frequencies and focusing on them and creating them. Just like magic! I also love that in order to conjure the patronus you have to find an incredibly happy memory and allow it to fill you up and be focused on that before you can drive the darkness out. That is so true and so much fun to think about. Like what is an incredibly powerful, strong, joyful memory that I have? I started asking myself that question while reading and honestly there are so many memories I could pick from. The day I manifested and got my amazing dog Luna at 16, the day I got accepted into my dream college, the day I got my dream car, the day I launched my business, my whole 3 week trip to the UK and Ireland, my 8 day trip to NYC last year, and ssooo many more amazing, phenomenal memories. So many beautiful things that I’ve manifested in this lifetime to chose from to use to conjure my patronus! That question and those answers alone are so powerful to me and make me love the patronus charm even more. And as far as the unique shape my patronus would take, I honestly have no idea and would so love to find out! Maybe I can use divination to see this hahaha. Anyway, these two charms just really show that focusing on the positive and allowing good feelings to fill you up is the way to achieve so much goodness in your life, and that it’s so easy to do. It’s so easy to drive out the dark and to be cheerful. I love love love both of these charms and how relevant they are.
Finally, I’d like to talk about boggarts. Again, another very intriguing topic. The boggart transforms into the thing one is most afraid of and then with focus on something silly and the spell “riddikkulus” one can confuse it and ultimately drive it away. I think this is ssooo powerful just like the patronus and cheering charms. Focus on the good, on something uplifting and happy and funny and everything else just sort of fades away. Your fears dissolve. I’ve been thinking about this a lot along with the patronus, about what I fear and what it would transform into and how I would make it funny, and honestly I’m not sure what I’m afraid of. Failure I suppose. Not living up to my potential. Not being successful as an artist. Which I suppose could be shown as me trying desperately to sell my art and being a starving artist like the famous artists before me who were not at all famous during their lifetimes. So maybe the boggart would become me but living with my mom and not being happy and creating art just to try and sell it–not the art I really want to make. Or me kind of successful but miserable because I’m not creating the art I want to create. I’m creating everything just because that’s what clients want. Omg that would be the WORST. Okay that could definitely be a fear hahaha and to make that funny and silly and not true I could see me aasss creating art for the clients but like making them funny and not exactly what the clients were looking for. Which would show me taking back some power and make me laugh. I’d use bright colors and dress them in goofy clothes or pose them weirdly or have them make silly faces or only take candid photos or something hahahaha. Okay anyway that could potentially be my boggart and how it’d look based on my fear and what it would turn into when I yelled “riddikkulus!” So much fun to think about turning fears into humor. Love that concept! Love all of the concepts in POA to be honest.
All in all, POA is amazing and I could talk about so many more things–hogsmeade, Sirius, Lupin, the Marauder’s Map, time traveling, etc, but I’ll leave it with those three main topics that I found to be a little extra fun and made me think a bit, and I hope they make you think a bit to and that you put them into practice! I know I’ll be seeing into and manifesting my future via divination and casting away my darkness with the patronus and cheering myself up instantly with the cheering charm and finding humor in and flipping the script on my fears and just embodying the best, highest version of myself always. I love that I can think about these deeper topics and struggles and flip them so easily with the magic of Harry Potter. It is so so so beautiful and I can’t wait to see what else I learn and takeaway from the rest of the series!
Hope you enjoyed those!
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