Halloween Countdown: 10 memorable quotes from Harry Potter and the written word

I was lucky to get into Harry Potter with group support. The first one was published when I was 16 and as each came out, I had more friends who could quote Dumbledore without checking their sources. Different moments have stuck with readers of the books and here are some that still come to mind from the books and, as a special bonus, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Apologies for including a lot of Dumbledore.

1. "There are all kinds of courage. " Harry Potter, Year 1

The full quote says that "It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies but just as much to stand up to our friends." The tribute to Neville Longbottom and his first real moment of audacity is from the end-of-year feast, when his ten points for courage win Gryffindor House the House Cup. The round-faced forgetful boy has been undervalued since the moment he lost his toad, but we all feel called to do the right thing in a hard circumstance.

2. "What's comin' will come, an' we'll meet it when it does." Harry Potter, Year 4

After everything that Harry goes through in the Triwizard Tournament, there are a variety of friends and adults who offer him help or advice. but it says outright that the only person Harry felt "able to talk to" other than Ron and Hermione is Hagrid. We see Hagrid not trying to ignore his trials and the long road of emotional recovery ahead, but first acknowledges that Harry's not all right and then simply says, "'Course yeh're not. But yeh will be." In this same vein,, he expresses his belief that they'll be able to face the difficult and dark times ahead. Of course Harry is able to talk to such a person.

3. "Unless the few of us who know the truth stand united, there is no hope for any of us." Harry Potter, Year 4

Professor Snape does not do anything gladly, and this certainly applies to working with Sirius Black. As Voldemort returns to power and the people who are reckoning with a second war begin to make their plans, Dumbledore asks the adults to stand united before he ever makes the same request of the rising generation. He prefaces this with a reminder that time is sort and follows it not long after with the unspoken assignment to send Snape to join the Death Eaters. In this current climate of divisiveness and uncertainty,, this reminder of standing behind truth is all the more important.

4. "Dumbledore's man, through and through." Harry Potter, Year 6

Agency is a major theme in every one of the books, but it becomes more important when Harry becomes more than an icon. He is a figurehead by the end of the war and people question why he chooses allegiance to Albus Dumbledore. When Scrimgeour labels him twice as "Dumbledore's man, through and through" and Harry identifies himself as such to Dumbledore when term resumes, it's a statement of not just how he's been shaped by that friendship, but his allegiance to certain ideals.

5. "They were great men, with huge flaws." Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

From the moment I found out that Harry's youngest son was named Albus Severus Potter, I was certain of two things: ASP would be in Slytherin with initials like that and those names would be a burden to him. In the last scene of the play that explores this burden and the reconciliation of generations, the grown Harry tries to explain something about the names to Al. "Those names you have - they shouldn't be a burdan. Albus Dumbledore had his trials too, you know - and Severus Snape, well, you know all about him -" He goes on to bring the people on a pedestal down to earth. "They were great men, with huge flaws, and you know what - those flaws almost made them greater." It's an excellent way to find a middle ground between hero-worship and personal anxiety.

6. "Yes. YES. AND IT'S AMAZING."

In the play, Scorpius Malfoy has a wonderful journey through choice and consequences as he attempts to change history and sees the need for even the problematic parts. In this moment in the second half, Albus Potter expresses disappointment that they haven't changed anything. And Scorpius not only says that the outcome is brilliant, but when told that they failed, he crows that "IT'S AMAZING!" This perspective is so very un-Malfoy according to the characters we knew in the books and that's the point."

7. "Yes, but the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters." Harry Potter, Year 5

Sirius Black may have said this to put Harry's mind at ease about Professor Umbridge, but it's a good reminder of looking past easy answers. This is the man who spent twelve years in Azkaban because of the self-serving betrayal by a former friend. He has barely contained his anger towards Severus Snape. But he keeps looking for ways to avoid the easy categorization and simple answer. We would all be well-served to look at people on a spectrum instead of judging them as a single type.

8. "Your father is alive in you...and shows himself most plainly when you have need of him." Harry Potter, Year 3

Dumbledore says in several ways that love leaves a mark. In this same chapter, he says that a certain bond between Harry and Peter Pettigrew is "magic at its deepest, its most impenetrable." Given what we later learn of Dumbledore's personal losses and trials, I love that he asks, "You think the dead we have loved every truly leave us? You think that we don't recall them more clearly than ever in times of great trouble?" Harry has found strength in his Patronus in spite of the desire to hear his parents' voices when it fails to protect him. But Dumbledore proves that his memory of his parents can provide a different kind of protection.

9. "It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities." Harry Potter, Year 2

This counsel, just one book after Dumbledore gave the victory to Gryffindor on the merits of a struggling wizard, is a potent piece of advice. On the other hand, the Headmaster uses it to point out that Harry has chosen courage instead of relying on extraordinary power. It will be reflected much later in the series, when Voldemort accuses Harry of living because of accident and Harry enumerates the choices of brave people who have chosen to fight in defiance of someone with the "right to rule" according to some opinions.

10. "Why on earth should that mean that it is not real?" Harry Potter, Year 7

The "King's Cross" chapter is one of my favorites. Not only does it come in the eye of the storm and answer a lot of questions that readers had been harboring for a while, but it rearmed our hero for the final push to victory. We hear Dumbledore tell Harry to "pity the living, and, above all those who live without love." Dumbledore muses that "It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it." He also says that "the true master does not seek to run away from Death...and understands that there are far worse things in the living world than dying." Harry closes the conversation by asking if this entire conversation has taken place in his imagination and it is perhaps the most quoted part that I know when Dumbledore answers, "Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?" In addition to turning Harry to his intuiition, it is a message to everyone who has learned something in the pages of the series.

What are your favorite quotes and lessons learned?