harry potter: a story of reformation

in honor of reformation and
halloween, our guest
blogger: mr. h. j. potter

my name is harry james potter, and i am a reformer.  let me tell you my story.

growing up i was pretty set on going to stonewall high.  much like martin luther's, my caregivers (uncle vernon and aunt petunia) had me set on a specific track--instead of becoming a lawyer like luther, i was set to go to public school.  one night during a great storm, a half-giant named rubeus hagrid knocked down the door to our hut on the sea and set me on an entirely different course.  martin luther's lightning was my knocked-in door.

our caregivers were not at all happy about our change of plans, but our minds were made up.  so it was that on the first of september, 1991, i boarded the scarlet steam engine that would carry me to hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry.

each year at hogwarts was unlike the one before, yet as the years progressed i began to realize that something wasn't right with the powers that be (also known as the ministry of magic).  the dark lord kept trying to come back and yet no one could let go of their need for perceived peace.

at the end of my fourth year, lord voldemort (alternately known as tom riddle, the dark lord, you-know-who, and he-who-must-not-be-named) returned.  i saw him and knew the evil he would seek.  it seemed, however, that the ministry had no concern and, in fact, refused to believe me!  now martin luther, it seems, remained in good standing with the catholic church until the 95 these were posted.  as for me, the moment i returned from the graveyard and cornelius fudge, the then minister of magic, refused to believe me, i was a persecuted man.

like luther, i had a few key people in my corner with me.  ron was my non-romantic katharina luther.  he supported me, occasionally argued with me, but overall, we were in it together--loyal best friends.  hermione was my philipp melanchthon.  her brains kept me sharp and on-point.  she kept our movement focused and when my part in the reforms was done, she continued, pushing for the improved treatment of all magical creatures--especially house elves--and continuing to reform the department of magical law enforcement.  professor dumbledore and the members of the order of the phoenix were oftentimes like prince frederick iii, elector of saxony, and the nobles who provided enough support and protection for us to continue reforming.

all of my memories of my fifth year are marred by thoughts of dolores umbridge, our defense against the dark arts professor.  she was cruel and was only there as a spy for the ministry.  those were lonely times and there were several occasions that i woke up and wanted nothing more than to be as scathing toward umbridge and fudge and the ministry--and sometimes even toward my own allies--as martin luther was toward the jews when he realized they weren't going to convert to christianity and when he was ill.  luther was bad, though.  i'd like to hope a right sight worse than i ever was even at my worst!  sometimes that resulted in detentions, but most often i was luckier than martin and managed not to have a record of it.  looking back, i sometimes wish that both luther and i had had the insight to just go back to bed on those days.

in the spring of my fifth year, i posted my own version of the 95 theses.  while luther didn't intend to upend the entire church and incite a new branch of christianity called protestantism, i was already in the midst of a struggle with the powers that be, so it was just another step along the path for me.  instead of a church door or a blog, i put my story in the quibbler, a magazine whose reputation varies, but was quite loyal to our movement for reform.

that's when things really got bad.  the ministry revved up its persecution of me while voldemort continued to get stronger and built up his army.  things came to a head with the ministry when umbridge tried to use the cruciatus curse (an unforgivable curse) on me.  like the attempt on luther's life planned after the diet of worms, when luther was made an outlaw and anyone was allowed to kill him, i too was spared.  prince frederick iii saved luther, and hermione's clever plan combined with pure luck saved me.

we continued the movement as the war continued.  we won the battle against umbridge, although the war kept going in full force.  the ministry of magic was forced to acknowledge that we had been right all along, but voldemort was still out there and so we turned our attention to him and the death eaters instead.  what martin luther did with words, i did with action as in our seventh year, hermione, ron, and i didn't return to hogwarts.  instead we set out to destroy voldemort's horcruxes--to make him human again.

in the end, by risking our lives and by staying true to what we knew--to our beliefs, we were able to defeat voldemort and reform the magical world.  throughout this all, some specific insights remain with me.  i remember sirius telling me in my fifth year that the world isn't split into good people and death eaters.  that is such a difficult concept, and yet it reminds me of what martin luther said: we are all simultaneously sinner and saint.  we are not one or the other, we are both and.  and in that vain as the holy spirit does with the church today, so too we in the magical world are ever reforming.