I found the peak in the Harry Potter story; there is a period of about one minute in these books where everything is as perfect for Harry as it can possibly get (not counting any time spent with his soon to be dead parents as an infant). The minute occurs in the third novel The Prisoner of Azkaban towards the end. Harry, Sirius Black, Lupin, Pettigrew, Ron and Hermione are all leaving the shrieking shack through the whomping willow and Snape’s unconscious body is being levitated back to Hogwarts when Sirius offers for Harry to come live with him. In that moment, Harry has achieved an absolute balance in his world. He will no longer have to live with the Dursleys. His parents’ deaths have been put into perspective, their friends are now his friends and the true murderer will be going to jail. Gryffindor has won the house cup and there is no sign of Lord Voldemort. The story very well could have ended here as a trilogy but since it’s a tragic story (and I do believe it is); there had to be a moment of downfall where a character acting from his own center, his own secret source, takes an action which will lead to his ultimate destruction and were he to take that action a thousand times, his choice would never change (like Romeo stabbing himself with the dagger while Juliet slept through seeming death). Harry showed Pettigrew compassion and allowed him to live.

One minute from that high point, the moon catches Lupin who turns into a werewolf, Pettigrew turns back into a rat and scampers away to help Lord Voldemort come back to life, Sirius Black dies, Dumbledore dies and we’re at the precipice of Harry’s likely own destruction in the final novel.

Fascinating stuff!

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