20 Things We’ve Learned from Harry Potter

Many of us grew up alongside Harry Potter, coming of age as he did. His life lessons were our life lessons. So in honor of the twentieth anniversary of the U.S. release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (one year after it hit UK shelves as Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, here are twenty things we’ve learned from two magical decades of Potter.
1. There are different kinds of courage. Some require you to stand up to your friends, not just your enemies; others require you to walk calmly into death’s waiting arms. Still others merely ask that you keep fighting and never give up.
2. Never be ashamed of who you are. We learn this with Luna, with Neville, with Hermione, with Hagrid. “I am what I am, an’ I’m not ashamed,” Hagrid said. “‘Never be ashamed,’ my ol’ dad used ter say, ‘there’s some who’ll hold it against you, but they’re not worth botherin’ with.’ An’ he was right.”
3. How NOT to ask a girl to a dance. I still don’t know how to successfully ask someone out on a date, but at least I know not to blurt it out incomprehensibly (Harry with Cho) or imply that I’m doing them a favor because no one else is likely to ask them (Ron with Hermione).
4. Always question authority. Maybe even start an illegal underground club to teach defensive magic the government doesn’t want you to know.
5. Never go to the bathroom by yourself. Moaning Myrtle, Katie Bell, and Hermione all went to the bathroom by themselves, and what did that get them? Killed, cursed, and attacked by a twelve-foot mountain troll is what.
6. There’s nothing wrong with asking for help. Harry wouldn’t have been able to destroy all the Horcruxes without help from his friends, and he wouldn’t have been able to pass Potions without help from Hermione in particular.
7. The family you choose is just as—and sometimes more—important than the one you’re born into. Sirius Black was born into a family of Voldemort-supporting purebloods whose love for him was conditional. He went out and found himself a new family, and so can you.
8. Latin etymology. While I don’t exactly speak Latin, I’m not completely clueless about it either, thanks to J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter has probably taught you more Latin than you realize. For instance, “Albus” means “white,” “Lupin” means “wolf,” “Accio” means “I summon, and “Veritaserum” comes from “veritas,” or “truth.”
9. Jupiter’s moons. Strange as it sounds, Harry Potter taught me about the Galilean moons. I’ll never forget that Io is the one with the volcanoes, and Europa is full of ice, not mice.
10. The power of positivity. Saying “Just cheer up!” is never the way to deal with depression. But if the sadness you’re facing is situational, sometimes reframing your thoughts—dispelling a negative impulse with a positive one, not unlike how Harry fought the Dementors with a Patronus borne of his happiest memory—can go a long way. Also, chocolate.
11. Friends will help you get out of trouble, but a best friend will be sitting right beside you in the flying Ford Anglia you stole from his parents right up until the moment you unwittingly crash it into a violent tree.
12. Correct pronunciation is crucial. Harry and Ron learned this, to their detriment, when they attempted to pronounce “Diagon Alley!” and “Wingardium leviosa!” but the lesson has also served me well in French class.
13. People may die, but love never will. When I first started reading Harry Potter, I was seven years old and had never lost a loved one. By the time I experienced loss, I knew that the people we love never truly leave us, which enabled me to find some solace in the midst of grief.
14. If you want to know what a man’s like, take a look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals. This has served me well on many a first date. If the person’s rude to the wait staff or anyone else whose ability to earn a living depends on politely accommodating their every needless whim, I run.
15. It is our choices that show who we are, far more than our abilities. Anyone can be capable of greatness, but it takes a truly good person to choose to do the right thing when doing the wrong thing (or doing nothing at all) is so much easier.
16. People are complicated. The world isn’t split into good people and Death Eaters. There are bad people who aren’t Death Eaters (like Umbridge), and there are good people who do bad things (Sirius, Dumbledore, Snape).
17. It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live. Dwelling on what has been in the past or what will be in the future only distracts from the now. It prevents you from living, from experiencing, from doing, from being.
18. Never tickle a sleeping dragon. This is the Hogwarts motto, and it’s sound (if somewhat obvious) advice.
19. The worlds we imagine are no less important than we one we live in. The world of Harry Potter may be a fictional one, but the way it makes people feel is very real, and so is the impact it has had on the world. After all: “Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean it is not real?”
20. Words are our most inexhaustible source of magic. Maybe we can’t fly around on broomsticks or turn turtles into teacups, but words are a kind of magic in and of themselves. They enable us to help, to heal, to persuade, to create. They’re the means by which Harry Potter exists at all. J.K. Rowling built the wizarding world one paragraph at a time using the tools we all have at our disposal—our words, our imaginations, a pen and paper—and if that doesn’t make you feel like a witch or wizard, nothing will.