Blog Post #1 Response: Expect the Unexpected

The wizarding world is full expectations. There are expectations about people, expectations about experience, expectations about behaviors, all kinds of expectations. It is true, that if expectations were always fulfilled in stories, then there wouldn’t really be much of an exciting story to tell. In the first book, the Dursley’s expected that if they kept Harry away from news of the wizarding world and never told him about his parents, his past, or where he came from, that the magic would be “squashed out of him.” If that expectation had been fulfilled and Harry never found out he was a wizard, there wouldn’t be a story to tell, especially one spanning 7 books! After leaving the Dursley’s and coming to the wizarding world, there are all kinds of expectations. At Hogwarts, there are expectations that students behave and follow the rules, because that’s what keeps the school orderly. As we all know, Harry has some kind of disregard for the rules, creating another failed expectation. There are so many failed expectations that follow, including Harry and Ron’s expectation that flying the car to Hogwarts would be a good idea, which it wasn’t. There are several expectations Harry, Ron, and Hermione have towards Snape, in particular, that inevitably turn into failed expectations. They thought that Snape was trying to curse Harry to make him fall off his broom during quidditch, and then they were sure Snape was after the Sorcerer’s Stone, and both of those expectations were failed. Of course, there couldn’t be a story without some expectations that are met. It was expected that Harry was going to be a great quidditch player after the remembrall incident, and he was a great player. Ollivander had an expectation of Harry from the moment that Harry bought his wand, that Harry was going to be a great wizard, and he seems to be so far in the series. Hermione is expected to be the best in her year, and she seems to be throughout the first two books, without doubt. Expectations that are actually met in a literary sense create a basis for a story, while the expectations that are failed drive the story to be interesting and action-packed. It is important to have a balance of failed and met expectations, for without both, the story wouldn’t really be very interesting or exciting, it would just be a plain story about somebody’s life.