The Good and the Evil are strictly separated from each other. In the first Harry Potter Book “H.P. and the Philosopher’s Stone” you just can get information about the good magicians and the bad wizards who belonged to Lord Voldemort at his time. That are the magicians who believe in the power of the Dark Arts. Draco Malfoy seems to be impressed by a power like this. Voldemort is one of the worst, but he hasn’t been active for several years now because he lost his power by trying to kill Harry as a little baby.
Voldemort is a wizard who wants to be the strongest one in the wizard world. He thinks that he could be the dictator of the whole world. He also wants to kill all mudbloods, wizards with Muggle parents. Voldemort is eager to get power because he had none in his childhood. It was like Harry’s: he had no parents either.
The opposite of him, the good side, is represented by Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of the Hogwart’s School. He always wants to see the good side of everybody. He’s like god, believing in the power of the hearts. Not so Voldemort, he has the part of devil. He makes all people believe that they can get as much power as they want if they followed him and used the Dark Arts. Quirrel, the teacher for the Dark Arts, is someone like that. He is a small man and he has no physical power anyway. He is a complete loser. But he believes in Voldemort.
In the last chapter Quirrel talks to Harry about power. He says that he could never be afraid of someone, not even of Snape, when his master Voldemort is with him. He also mentions that he himself is weak and without his mentor he would be nothing - but with him he’s great because he showed him that there is no evil, only power. That’s what I meant. The bad ones are the weak ones who try to get to power and the good ones are brave and naturally powerful magicians, even if they don’t believe in their own power.
The author suggests that evil and hate aren’t strong enough to take over the good and love. Sometimes it looks like it but it isn’t really so. It seems that the bad will get power and in the end the good is better.
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There are many examples in the book for the Good against the Evil. The most important example for this is, as we think, the difference between Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort, known as “You know who”, even though that there are some common points about them. Lord Voldemort is the most famous wizard of the Dark Side (pg. 64) and tried to kill Harry, when he was a baby. But he got away with his life and has ever since a scar on his forehead (pg. 65). So that is a bond between them. They also have the same wand, even though every wizard has its own combination of feathers (pg. 96). Harry has to face “You know who” again, as he tries to conquer the Philosopher’s Stone for himself and therefore for the Dark Side, but Harry manages once more, that everything turns out well. You could compare these two with the figures David and Goliath of the bible, where the weaker one wins, because he belongs to the Good Side.Another bond between them could be the house of Slytherin. Lord Voldemort was a member of it and turned out to be a bad one as so many other Slytherins. When Harry had the Sorting Hat on, which tells you, in which house you are, it wanted to put him in Slytherin at first, but didn’t after Harry asked to be a Gryffindor. Malfoy is also a member of Slytherin and the biggest enemy of Harry at school. He is always happy when Harry gets into trouble and jealous about Harry’s popularity, because his family is also a supporter of the Dark Side.
You can also tell the difference between the two houses (Gryffindor and Slytherin) by their symbols. A big Lion stands for the Gryffindor house, which is a sign for leading powers, whereas a Serpent, which has always been a symbol for something bad and evil, stands for the Slytherins (pg. 329).
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