Magic at its Deepest

      When Harry saves Pettigrew's life, Dumbledore informs him that, "When one wizard saves another wizard's life, it creates a certain bond between them ... This is magic at its deepest, its most impenetrable. (Prisoner of Azkaban; 311)." What Dumbledore is essentially saying here is that magic at its deepest, impenetrable magic is not truly magic at all. It is the bond formed by acts of grace, love, sacrifice, ect. It is a force that is available to everyone in the world.
       The impenetrable bond is formed when one person chooses to give another something that the other doesn't deserve or hasn't earned. It is something that neither person is likely to ever forget and until the person to whom grace was given understands its power, he will always feel indebted to the giver. Once he understands, the bond forms into one of love and trust and forgiveness that cannot be broken by any magic or evil force because it is a spiritual bond rather than a physical one.

Predicting the Future

       This post was inspired by an Albus Dumbledore quote from right after Harry informs him of Professor Trelawney's second prediction: "The consequences of our actions are always so complicated, so diverse, that predicting the future is very difficult business indeed." I thought that this was a really cool comment because it is so true. Often I do something that I think will lead to something completely different than what is actually does (whether in terms of emotions or events in me or in someone else). It's impossible for us to ascertain what our actions will lead to before hand because results do not depend on the action itself, the also depend on motives and the emotion/reactions of everyone else involved. For example, one might think that after God turned the Nile from blood to water (Exodus 17:20; read all of Exodus for full story) Pharaoh would have recognized God's power and let the Israelites go but only God can read the heart (Acts 15:8; Psalm 44:21) and He knew that Pharaoh's heart was hard and proud, therefore God was able to correctly predict the future to Moses even before He struck the Nile. There are examples of this all over the Bible ("this" being God reading our hearts and predicting the future). That is why it is so important that we obey God and listen to what He tells each of us to do. And since He alone has the power to accurately predict the future, we can trust that He knows what He's doing.

Killers

       In HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban there is a part where Sirius and Remus are about to kill Peter but Harry stops them because "I don't reckon my dad would've wanted his best friends to become killers - just for you." All evil has consequences, even when the motives seem good and to kill someone who cannot defend himself is wrong. Jesus is extremely merciful even when we don't deserve his mercy and when we follow in his example good things will happen. Perhaps not as drastic as Peter later saving Harry's life but if that person turns around, the joy we will feel because of his healing is much purer and fuller than any elation over death.

Fear

   In my book this scene happens on page 177. It when Harry and Lupin are discussing the boggart and Harry confesses that his biggest fear is of dementors. Lupin's response is as follows, "That suggests that what you fear most of all is - fear. Very wise, Harry."
   This comment shows Lupin's wisdom of the "ancient magic." Ancient magic is not so much magic but power, and it's power not limited to Wizards but available to muggles as well. The greatest of these powers is love but fear is among the greats as well.
   When we fear something we are giving it a certain measure of control over ourselves and our actions. The magnitude of this control depends on the magnitude of our fear. In order to avoid it we may go somewhere we may not have otherwise have gone or not go somewhere where we would have gone. Our actions reflect our fears because we often change our behavior in order to avoid our fears. For example, if you see something rustling around in the bushes you may be curious as to what it is but you fear of the unknown and getting hurt causes you to walk away rather than investigate.
   Of course, fear can work in much more impactful ways as well. Say you lived somewhere where Christians are persecuted for their faith. Perhaps you would not follow Jesus because you fear personal harm or separation from friends and family. In this situation you would be allowing your fear to control your eternal destiny.
   If what we fear most is fear itself then we have recognized that we cannot focus our attention on overcoming our fear of spiders or pain or another individual thing and expect to become fearless or courageous. In fact, if we are fearless, we have not yet recognized/acknowledged danger and we are, in that way, quite unwise. You cannot boast of being courageous and fearless because you need fear to have courage.
   Courage is not the absence of fear, nor is fear the absence of courage. Courage is overcoming fear. Courage is being willing to ignore your fear for the good of something else. Lilly Potter, for example, was courageous when she didn't allow her fear to prevent her from protecting her son although she had the option to do so (and we know that she definitely feared death/Voldemort or she wouldn't have put the fidelius charm on her). Although she died, her courage was rewarded because Harry survived.
   So, in conclusion, If you fear fear above all else, what you are most afraid of is allowing your feelings to stop you from doing what is good and important. This fear is very wise because it shows we have recognized that as long as there are things we love, there will be things we fear and we have agreed to not allow our personal fears to prevent us from fulfilling our purpose for the greater good.

(p.s. I realize that "for the greater good" may have a negative connotation for any major Harry Potter fans but please realize that the saying itself is actually a good one when used in a context where you are actually working for the greater good and generally requires you personally to make sacrifices rather than sacrificing others.)

The Patronus Charm and Sirus Black's Innocence

       In Chapter 12 of the Prisoner of Azkaban, Professor Lupin starts to teach Harry the Patronus Charm. He describes it as  "a guardian which acts as a shield between you and the dementor...The Patronus is a kind of positive force, a projection of the very things that the Dementor feeds upon - hope, happiness, the desire to survive - but it cannot feel despair, as real humans can, so the Dementors can't hurt it."
       When I read this, I immediately connected a patronus to Jesus/God. After all, God is our protector (Psalm 18) and willingly steps in front of us so that we do not have to suffer (the cross, John 3:16-18). He is the embodiment of all things good (James 1:17) yet he is different from a patronus because, although he protects us and drives away evil, he does suffer in the process. In this sense he's a lot like Sirius Black.
       In Chapter 19, when they're all in the Shrieking Shack, Sirius explains how he stayed sane in Azkaban, "I never lost my mind because I was innocent. That wasn't a happy thought, so the dementors couldn't suck it out of me ... but it kept me sane, knowing who I am." I suspect it was similar for Jesus. He was going through the worst torture, felt like God had forsaken Him (Matthew 27:46), and knew that His most passionate follower had denied Him (Mark 14:72). His hope was in His innocence and His knowledge of who He was (and is), the hope for all humanity.
        So, after thinking all that through, I decided that the best connection is the name of Jesus and a patronus. The name of Jesus has the power to drive away evil (lots of demon example in the bible and today life examples) and it is the representation of hope, happiness, the desire to survive but it cannot feel despair.