The series might have just started with a cool, easy, unicorn-like story filled with colors and somewhat purity but JK Rowling threw that idea out of our heads quite clearly in her fourth book. Death and destruction hold a dark space in all of our hearts and these are also the very emotions that unite us too in the darkest of times. The series also holds somewhat the same balance or rather the odd mixture of life, where the sadness and depression are balanced out with friendship, hope, and determination to achieve a certain goal in life.
The series is very well laid out by JK Rowling but if we passed all those supernatural creatures like dragons, unicorns, and Hogwarts itself for once we can see how dark and gruesome life could be and how it might alter once reality. In the series, there is not even a single character to whom justice has been served, but there is also no one who hasn’t paid for their actions later and got what they deserved (well at least some of them). So here we are deciphering the most gruesome and heart-wrenching moments in Harry Potter that laid hidden or somewhat veiled behind those magical walls.
Harry’s past
The Boy Who Lived! But did anyone ever grieve or even sympathize with the story and reason because of which he was named so? Getting orphaned at the age of one and becoming a legend in history by surviving because of your parent’s sacrifice is something that everyone knew but never emphasized upon. So caught up in celebration of their freedom from the Dark Lord that they forgot to treat the little boy as someone who might also have a heart, that must be bleeding beyond repair.
Harry is shown as the hero and the survivor even a warrior at some point but only a selected few saw him as a young boy struggling to survive and get through the day alive and happy just like any other kid. The fact that the little wizarding community held no such condolences for the boy or his loss is evidently clear but craftily overpowered by magical phenomena around us, which kinda makes it sad and worth acknowledging.
Life at Dursley’s
Always getting compared with a magically born sister and looked down upon and losing the same sister to a monster of the magical world holds a great pain and sorrowful journey, but raising a child of hers and being encountered with all those unpleasant feelings once more is something else all along. If that was not it the fact that Harry never had a loving and pleasant childhood and never knew or saw his parents until the age of 11 holds a great ting of pain itself. The life at Dursley’s was an unpleasant journey for everyone, especially for Harry as he never experienced love and belonging there, and for Petunia, as she was constantly reminded of her unpleasant childhood and constant fear of being not enough in comparison to something magical.
Sirius Black
Locked up in the most dreadful prison after gaining a friend’s betrayal and losing a best-friend to it is quite dark on its own. Apart from this carrying the guilt of their death and blame for it in the eye of the whole world is enough to drive a person crazy, dementors apart. People usually ignore Sirius’s pain in comparison to his role as a godfather. But the fact that he survived all those years alone and rotten over his own grief and pain is quite astounding. God knows how much serious damage Sirius took over his seriously damaged mind and soul.
Neville and his parents
The Boy Who Could Have Been suffered no less than the Boy Who Lived. Parents tortured till they completely lost their minds to the level beyond repair is very disturbing for a child. If that was not enough for the young boy, he got nobody to talk to about his pain and chooses to suffer in silence along with a bit of personality issue too. Neville’s pain and fear of losing his grams along with watching no emotions in his own parent’s eyes sent a deep shiver of resentment down our spines, but unfortunately, the ill fate of the boy was ignored along with other deeds by the magical doors themselves.
Muggleborn struggle
Mudblood, dirty blood or muggle-born have their own little bit sad battle going on. Always looked down upon by the purebloods of the wizarding community, the non-wizarding family members had a lot to keep up to. The stereotype and status differentiation is something we all are familiar with within the real world as well and can all agree to the fact of how emotionally wrecking it could be for a child. The thin and invisible barrier between the two communities always existed and was quite elegantly shown with all sorts of polished distractions so one could focus on anything but the devastating burden the little children went through.
Losing Cedric
When Cedric died so did a part of us for the first time as it was then when we realized that it’s all gonna be dark soon. Watching a friend and a fellow student die in front of your eyes and being helpless about it, is something Harry was not prepared for. The death of the poor kid had all kinds of impact on everyone, a parent losing his only smile, a friend losing his companion and a teacher losing his pride all at once is beyond repair. Yet the boy’s death was not taken into account from every angle that well, instead was used to torment an already burdened and damaged little boy further later. Molly was right after all, ‘he is just a boy!’.
Thestral’s visibility
Odd isn’t it how you get to see the most unique and yet beautiful creature in its own way in the most depressing way possible. The fact that the winged skeletal like horses could only be seen by those who have seen death eye to eye has something unsettling about it. Just when we thought we can move forward from the trauma the very sight of these creatures can make us walk back to memory lane and relive that part of our lives again.
Tonk’s mother
Funny how we all sympathize with tonk’s death but forget to mention her mother’s suffering. It’s quite odd to realize that it’s not the death that breaks us down but the very reaction of their loved ones and Andromeda’s reaction has something to do with it. First, she loses her family by marrying a muggle-born, then she loses her husband and only daughter leaving her with her only grandson and memories to survive with. Her pain can never be matched with anyone and yet it was never taken into account.
Obsessive Bellatrix
Nothing is good beyond a limit, not even love or hatred itself, unfortunately, Bellatrix knew none of her limits and drove her obsession and possessiveness to a level beyond reach. Her loyalty to Voldemort caused the wizarding world a huge cost to pay. She was driven to the level of madness that can’t be reached or helped and her faithfulness towards Voldemort until the last breath had a great shivering impact on all. She was indeed the last loyal lieutenant and her own breathtaking madness set Goosebumps in us all.
Dumbledore’s grief
With great power comes great pain and indeed Dumbledore is the very example of the same. The man leads a very depressing and hard life from the very start, when his father passed away he had to let go of his dreams and take up all the responsibility, later when he found a companion to connect with, he found himself blaming for one of the darkest decisions and losing his mother and sister in the process along with his brother (at least emotionally). He was so caught up in doing the right thing that he nearly lost everything in the process of it which makes his life one of the darkest of the few.
