The Harry Potter Alliance

By Monica Watson

December 28, 2010

Reflection on the Dementor Horcrux

In the Harry Potter series, Harry looks inside of himself to find his happiest memories in order to ward off dementors. These fear-invoking creatures feed by taking away all the happiness from a person, and they prey upon the loneliness he feels resulting from the death of his parents. Just like in the Potter world, we experience the same feelings of sadness, loneliness, and anxiety. Like Harry, we too can find the power to overcome the darkness in our lives. It’s a lesson I’ve learned from experience. As we wrap up the Dementor Horcrux, I’d like to share my patronus with you.

On December 11, 2007 The Order of the Phoenix came out on DVD. I rushed home from school, knowing that my mom had bought it for me that day. My dad had been diagnosed with cancer earlier that spring. By then, the cancer had progressed. He had become so thin from all the treatments, and it was hard for him to stay awake for too long. We had moved a bed into the living room, so he wouldn’t need to walk up and down the stairs. When I entered the living room he was resting with the television playing in the background.

As we watched the movie together that afternoon, I watched him. He stayed awake for the full duration of the film, a feat I didn’t fully appreciate at the time. When it was done, I sat near him with my hand in his.

“You’re going to get better, right?” I whispered.

“Yes,” he said.

And the thing is, I believed him. I believed him until three days after Christmas when he passed away.

Books, and especially the Harry Potter books, became my way out of this world; they were my removal from reality. Sorcerer’s Stone was the best at doing this. It was my own personal pensieve where I could lose myself in the security and freedom of being nine again.

The Harry Potter Alliance came into my life in the summer of 2009 with the What Would Dumbledore Do campaign. This campaign not only showed me how to use the thoughts and actions of Dumbledore to make the world a better place, but also helped me heal. “You think the dead we loved ever truly leave us?” Dumbledore asks Harry in The Prisoner of Azkaban. “You think we don’t recall them more clearly than ever in times of great trouble? Your father is alive in you, Harry, and shows himself plainly when you have need of him.” It wasn’t until then that I began to really see how a book series could change and effect a person.

This August, I joined the HPA on their writing team, now called the web team. Before this I never realized how fulfilling working for a non-profit could be. I felt a change in myself; I had a sense of purpose that was caused by the work I was going with the Harry Potter Alliance.

The Harry Potter Alliance and the books I read helped me through the depression and anxiety that occurred after my father’s death. They became my own personal Patronuses.

This month we partnered with Reachout.com and asked you to share your own Patronuses in our fight against dementors in the real world. As we move on to the Body Bind Horcrux, you can browse Patronus submissions by heading over to the the HPA tumblr. Check out these great horcruxes: Swaneet’s parrot patronus drawing and Mimy’s tiger patronus makeup. Not all Patronuses took the form of animals. One member wrote a poem about the importance of music and another wrote about musicals. Even as our focus on this Horcrux shifts, we will be taking our personal patronuses with us as protection against the real-world dementors that creep in.

EXPECTO PATRONUM!