H o w t o R e a d L i t e r a t u r e1 7 0in the novels so they can enjoy seeing it transformed by the power
of magic. Since the majority of these readers are children, most of
whom have little status or authority, seeing other children equipped
with prodigious powers is no doubt particularly gratifying. So the
mixture of realism and non- realism is essential, even though having
the familiar and the exotic sit side by side in this way leads to incon-
gruities on almost every page. Characters cast spells while wearing
blue jeans. Broomsticks throw up dirt and pebbles when they land.
The Death Eaters and Auntie Muriel exist cheek by jowl. Unreal
creatures enter and exit through real doors. At one point, Harry uses
his wand to clean a filthy handkerchief which he has used to scour
an oven. Why not just use the wand to scour the oven?
If magic could resolve all human problems, there would be no
narrative. We have seen already that for a story to get off the
ground, its characters must meet with mishaps, revelations or
changes of fortune. In the Potter novels, this disruption cannot
arise from a clash between magic and reality, since the magic would
effortlessly triumph and there would be no adventures to recount.
So it must spring instead from a division within the world of magic
itself, between good wizards and bad ones. Magical powers are
double- edged. They can be used for evil as well as for good. Only
in this way can a plot begin to unfurl. Yet this means that good and
evil are not exactly the opposites they appear. They can flow from
the same source. The term ‘Hallows’, in the title Harry Potter and
the Deathly Hallows, comes from a word meaning to consecrate or
make holy, so that it is unsettling to see it yoked so tightly to the
adjective ‘deathly’. It reminds us that the word ‘sacred’ originally
meant both blessed and cursed. We have seen that the novels
contrast fantasy with reality, while also showing how the two
realms are intermingled. In a similar way, they insist on an absolute