Final Fantasy

Who wants to be a wizard? As depicted in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, at times the life of a young wizard couldn’t be more miserable.

Harry is spurned by normality-loving Muggle relatives, constantly stalked by wand-wielding assassins, and (even worse) quill-happy reporters. He is also subjected at school to amateur hexes far worse than the ordinary wedgie.

Yet thousands of readers across the Rio Grande Valley and millions around the world lined up Friday night to get their hands on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, enchanted by the prospect of life with a magical twist.

Dressed in their finest wizard gear, fans young and old converged on bookstores and libraries to celebrate the arrival of the final book in the seven-volume series.

Asked to explain the draw of Harry’s far-from-charmed life, some readers and literature experts pointed to the appealing idea that anyone can be yanked out of the crowd.

“It’s always fun to think that you can do magic, but I think that what really appeals to kids — and adults too — is the thought of Harry being special,” said Jo Alyson Parker, a professor of English at St. John’s University in Philadelphia.

“Here he is, living in this mundane life with these muggles, and he’s a hero. He’s able to possibly — we don’t know yet — vanquish Voldemort!”

That possibility, of a grand destiny, poses the minor discomforts of the journey into perspective, said Anne Alton, a Central Michigan University professor and Harry Potter devotee.

“Harry may not have a great life with the Dursleys (his non-magical legal guardians), but they’re not actually trying to slice him in half,” she said.

The magical details are nice, she said, but without that feeling of being special, of destiny, the books would lose their appeal.

“If Harry were Hermione or Ron, if Hermione or Ron were the hero of the tale, would we be as invested in them? I don’t believe we would.”

Fairy tales and children’s often feature an ordinary or even below-average child discovering powers, a secret identity or a unusual destiny. They also frequently subject children to peril, ridicule or abuse from adults and other children.

Jude Magaro, 16, who came to a book release party at Barnes & Noble in McAllen dressed as a magic professor, said he’d welcome the power and the responsibility, using magic to cure hunger.

“Imagine all this was destroyed,” he said wistfully. “I’d have the power to make it right.”

The message for young readers?

It may be that danger tags along with destiny — or, as in the Spider-Man comic series, with great power comes great responsibility — but every ordinary young person can, someday, be capable, independent and important, no matter what obstacles appear.

“Whatever happens to Harry Potter, he always has such a good attitude, and I think that’s a good lesson for kids,” said Carmen Donowho, who dressed her 9-year-old son, Tristan, as Harry Potter for the book’s release.

For teens who have aged with Harry and are nearing the end of high school just like the Hogwarts crew, Harry’s confrontation of ordinary and extraordinary growing pains has been a comfort.

“I would read the books and say ‘Oh my god, that’s me,” said Mariah Rhinehart, 16.

Meanwhile, Parker likens Potter to epic heroes like Luke Skywalker or Frodo Baggins, who endure almost unimaginable loss.

“That’s a really typical motif in these kinds of epics, that the hero has a great deal of hardship,” she said.

Nevertheless, another appeal of such tales to readers is the chance to step into a richly imagined magical world — and out of this one.

“You’re not living your own life,” explained Sarah Cortino, 23, who came to Barnes & Noble dressed in a custom-make black-and-green Slytherin robe. “It’s not real. I imagine what I could do if I had magic.”

“With all good literature — and I would say Harry Potter books are good literature — we get to live these lives vicariously,” Parker said.

As Alton noted, “I don’t think there are any kids who haven’t picked up a stick at some point and wished it were a wand.”

They may not want the great responsibility, but the great power — and the ability to clean your room with a word — is undeniably attractive.

And Alton, a mother to a young child and an opponent of social conservatives who have targeted the series, floats a third option: That Harry, who steps in when the adults around him fail to save the day, appeals to an anti-authoritarian streak in all Americans.

“That’s why one school tried to ban it in Georgia,” she said. “Disrespect for authority.”

Whether they root for him, like his pluck or want to be in his shoes, one thing unites fans: Sorrow that Harry’s tale has come to an end.

Sarah Cuadra said some of her customers at Storybook Garden in Weslaco — particularly the older teens who grew up with the books — were misty-eyed helping her unload boxes of volumes.

“They were getting depressed,” she said. “It’s the end.”

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Sara Perkins covers Starr County and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4472. For this and more local stories, visit www.themonitor.com.