Defeat the king of boredom...

Desperate for entertainment, you flop yourself onto the bed, fascinated by the bare ceiling. Suddenly, an image of yourself on an island, sipping fresh coconut juice under a palm tree slides into your head. Ka-ching! You need a holiday. As you jolt up, you kick over the cat (“Yeow!”). However, going on holidays is impossible without breaking the bank. Legs heavy, feet dragging, you begin to drift back towards your bed when a pile of books finds itself stealing the limelight: an alternative to holidays and what’s more is that no flight tickets or waiting in a long line is compulsory! You seize a battered collection of Harry Potter. Be ready for a vacation into the wizarding world.

“Oof!” you are thrust down on a particularly hard and rough surface. “Well, at least the fall didn’t crack your head open”, you say. Taking a look around, you recognize this place as Borgin & Burkes, the same shop Harry (Potter) landed on when first traveling with Floo Powder. If you desired such Dark items, this was the right place to purchase them from. This is not a big surprise as the main theme of Harry Potter is death. The series starts with the death of Harry’s parents, there is the antagonist’s obsession of conquering death (the goal of anyone with magical blood), and the author herself - J.K Rowling - states that death is the main theme of most of her books. Well, not entirely child-friendly. The books contain themes of power, greed, desire, love, family, and friendship. One can not deny the extent of creativity and imagination.

Creativity in the wizarding world is also conspicuous and easy to identify. According to a Lancaster University study, 52 children were split into 2 groups, watching 2 clips from Harry Potter. The children who watched scenes from Harry Potter portraying magical objects scored "significantly better" in selected tests than their peers in the other group who watched scenes without any supernatural content. Magical thinking enables children to create fantastic imaginary worlds, allowing them to augment their capacity to view 'reality'. A person’s mind and thoughts are often limited but an exception applies to J.K Rowling. Her brain discovered a whole universe including its history and culture: brilliant! One culture from her world is Quidditch, a popular sport played by all wizards and witches. Try to put yourself into Rowling’s fiction-making shoes. You might just not fit. This proves J.K Rowling is an extraordinary and most creative author (whose books have a well-earned place in the fantasy fiction repertoire). Nevertheless, Harry Potter is incomplete without music.

The theme songs are venerated by Harry Potter fans. John Williams, a laureate composer and the last person to be knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, composed Hedwig’s Theme, the most iconic soundtrack in Harry Potter which takes you into a whimsical background. The opening part of it has an eerie, mystical, and uncertain mood as though Hagrid is leading the new, timid students across the dark water to the Sorting Ceremony. Shortly after, you will find Harry Potter and his companions rushing down a corridor as an enemy closes in. The violin buzzes as a mix of nervousness and excitement bulges out of you imitating something in altitude: the feeling you will get from playing Quidditch. Additionally, if listening carefully, you may realise a passage from the song strongly emulates Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky and Baba Yaga by Mussorgsky. The tempo of the music rapidly increases, mirrored by your heartbeat. The mixture of instruments all stringed together elicits the sensation of surprise, suspense, and magnificence, all in a synthesis in the ending. This masterpiece represents the supernatural powers of wizards and witches. John Williams himself must be proud.

J.K Rowling has engraved many valuable and relatable meanings in Harry Potter. The struggle to come to terms with our mortality and the musical harmony amplifies the movies. In addition, this series spurs imagination in youths. There is no denying the impressive scale of the transfixing, spine-tingling, and dramatic wizarding world. Whenever I meet someone less fortunate than I, they have not read Harry Potter yet.