Harry Potter Lessons Learned, Chapter 3: The Letters from No One

Welcome back to Privet Drive. Or, well, we hope you would be unwelcome on Privet Drive because that puts you in good company. It should be known by now that I would consider it a great honor if someone put me in the same class as Rubeus Hagrid. But that's a discussion for Chapter 4. Right now, we are on Chapter 3 of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and there is a mystery brewing.

Making Do

There are two very different experiences at Number Four, Privet Drive and this chapter is a perfect illustration of that. Last chapter, we saw the household on a special occasion. Dudley was fawned over and celebrated as the birthday boy and Harry was wedged into a cupboard under the stairs and only allowed to leave the house because the neighbor broke her leg.

Both students in this chapter are stuck in some way. Harry has no choice but to go to the local comprehensive and fights back by refusing to let Dudley prepare him for a good bullying. Dudley has no choice but to follow in his father's Smeltings footsteps and seizes this opportunity to be a jerk to everyone within reach of his stick. Dudley is about to face a world in which he doesn't have to be associated with Harry, but he is going to have a different world to find his place in. Harry doesn't know anything about Stonewall High, but dreads showing up in Dudley's old clothes and being shoved headfirst into a toilet.

If I had to choose a favorite chapter of the entire series for the promise of things to come, it would be this one. From the moment Harry refuses to give up on receiving his mail to the thunderous knocking on the door, it reminds me of one of the nicest things ever said to me: "You always seem on the brink of a new adventure." My friend was admiring my love of travel, but I notice in Harry that he is poised for something to finally change. As another magical person says, "Something has changed within me. Something is not the same. I'm through with playing by the rules of someone else's game." (If you don't know this reference, please acquaint yourself with Wicked, the musical.)

This is the chapter where Harry has the first concrete sign in a decade that he isn't overlooked. He may be on the receiving end of baggy grey clothing, but he is receiving mysterious letters through the mail slot or inside the family's eggs. He fights back against Dudley. He dares to stand up to Uncle Vernon. All of it seems to be in vain, of course, but by gum, this boy is GOING places. And I don't just mean to Cokeworth in the back of the Dursleys' car.

The Leson: It's time to trust your instincts

I remember being told at the age of 21 that "Repetition puts a lid on inspiration" and this is a message I've carried ever since. Harry could have spent the days leading up to his birthday with business as usual. Harry Hunting is the family pasttime. He always gets Dudley's cast-offs. Uncle Vernon always controls what he knows and what he can do. Had he maintained that awful status quo, he would have never found himself trying to stay warm on the floor of a storm-battered shack.

And what a waste it would have been to maintain anything about the status quo. It is vitally important that Harry begin to stand against what has been controlling him and it reminds me powerfully of another British favorite: Doctor Who. In "The Big Bang," the closer to Matt Smith's first season as the 11th Doctor, the title character finds himself crossing his own timeline at a crucial moment. After telling his best friend that "It's never been more important" that she trust him and hearing her respond that he doesn't always tell her the truth, he has this to say:

"If I always told you the truth, I wouldn't need you to trust me."

- The 11th Doctor

Harry has been unable to rely on anyone for a decade and trying to trust himself has often brought him pain. But he has to begin somewhere and it begins here with him deciding that he is a person worth reaching.

The lesson for this chapter is to trust the truths that aren't always easy for you. It's a place to start and a journey that needs to be taken.