Love and Hate

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

I’ve read to chapter nineteen in J.K. Rowling’s fifth book in the Harry Potter series. I know this seems to have been a lot but there are thirty-eight chapters in this individual book. I read this book when I was in middle school shortly after it was released, and I was a teenager at the time.  Now I’m twenty-eight and a mother. My mindset has changed while I still adore some characters, I have found a new appreciation for characters that I didn’t pay much attention to before. One such character is Molly Weasley. Molly is the mother of some of the main characters and surrogate mother of Harry himself. Chapter nine the Woe of Mrs. Weasley while the majority of the chapter was happy with the family celebrating an event that happens within the chapter the part that affected the most was when Molly faces off against a Boggart. Boggarts are magical creatures that take the shape of the thing that the person fears most. A witch or wizard had to think of something funny recite a spell and the Boggart is defeated by laughter. So, when Harry is walking upstairs, he hears crying from a room and discovers Molly facing off against a Boggart.

'R-r-riddikulus!' Mrs. Weasley sobbed, pointing her shaking wand at Ron's body.

Crack

Ron's body turned into Bill's, spread-eagled on his back, his eyes wide open and empty. Mrs Weasley sobbed harder than ever.

'R-riddikulus!' she sobbed again.

Crack.

Mr. Weasley's body replaced Bill's, his glasses askew, a trickle of blood running down his face.

'No!' Mrs. Weasley moaned. 'No ... riddikulus! Riddikulus! RIDDIKULUS!'

Crack. Dead twins. Crack. Dead Percy. Crack. Dead Harry...

 She sees a dead Ron (her youngest son) faced with her fears the Boggart takes the form of dead versions of every member of her family and Harry. She was unable to overcome her fear and had to be rescued by Lupin. I cried my eyes out during this part. I knew a part of it was because I sympathized with Molly my greatest fear would is the same to be helpless to save my family. She fears that the upcoming war is going to take her family from her. That would be any parent's worst nightmare. Now that I have grown I feel that I have become more like Molly.
               Now that I talked about a character that I fell in love with now ill talk about one of my most hated characters. If anyone has read this book, they can probably take a wild guess and still know I’m talking about Dolores Umbridge. First of Harry describes her as looking toad like the first time he sees her, then multiple times after that.  She works for the ministry of magic and has her agenda at the school and its safe to say it's not teaching. She seems to target Harry from the first day and her detention methods result in forcing him to cut the words “I will not tell lies” into the back of his hand using a magic quill. She is out to change how things are done at the school but in a bad way. Forces teachers and students to follow her rules by going over everyone’s heads. Treats some of my favorite characters like they are morons, and it gets worse because it's not even to the really bad stuff yet. She is arguably the most disliked character in the series and Voldemort murders people. My hatred for Umbridge is something that seems to have evolved over time. As a child, it was just because I didn't want her to have her hold over Harry and his friends. Now I can't fathom an adult let alone a teacher hurting students the way she does. The fact that the J.K. Rowling describes her looking toad like you get the feeling that she is not meant to be someone that you will like. But it has evolved to more than that its just disgust.