Mirror Mirror

When I read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix I was already in love with Sirius Black, the moody, brooding young man (Harry’s parents were only 20 when they had Harry, so by book number 5 Sirius would have only been 35. That’s not too old!), who had a bad reputation and a heart. So I was basically devastated when his cousin Bellatrix kills him. So much could have prevented his death – I think Harry and I both kept thinking, “If only…”

If only Harry had learned how to keep Voldemort out of his thoughts, he wouldn’t have thought Sirius was in trouble. If only Sirius hadn’t disobeyed his order to stay hidden, he wouldn’t have gone to the ministry to save his godson. If only Kreacher hadn’t been racist and spiteful, he would have told Harry that Sirius was safe. If only Harry remembered that he had the two-way mirror, he could have spoken to Sirius and known he was safe….

I think the two-way mirror frustrated me the most. Why did J. K. Rowling give Harry this awesome magical tool, a “tech magic” as Sheltown would call it, if Harry was just going to forget about it? All the other tools that are given tend to imply something important, like the sneak-o-scope warning the boys that Scabbers was actually Peter Pettigrew, an intruder. Even non-magical tools come in handy, like the flute that Hagrid gives Harry in book one, which lulls three-headed fluffy to sleep. Why couldn’t the mirrors save Sirius’ life?!

Reading Shelton’s article actually helped me come to terms with this (not that I’m still in mourning, I swear!) She argues that Rowling seems more gung-ho on technology than fantastical author-predecessors like Lewis and Tolkien. Why shouldn’t she be? She uses technology in a way that really connects to the millennial generation, because she keeps it current, relevant, and fun. The wizards are much like us, in the way that gadgets. Instead of using sparks notes to finish homework faster, Harry and Ron use magic quills…

However, Rowling makes a big point that technology is an artificial, weird concept in general. It may make life fun and easier in day-to-day business, but it ultimately doesn’t have the power to shape who someone is, how they morally live, and how they are going to die. Harry’s world like our own is pretty complicated. It’s not good vs. bad all the time; it’s not dualistic in the technological sense either that the more apt one becomes at magic the better the person they are, or the more they deserve to live. A silly mirror, much like a walkie-talkie in our own world, isn’t enough of a force to save Sirius’ life.

And death, ultimately, “is the next great adventure,” as Dumbledore puts it. Sirius lived his life the way he wanted to, risking his own many times, at first to feel what life really feels like, and then more so in order to save the ones he loved. He took death into consideration like Ciaccio says Rowling wants her characters to, and didn’t hide when it came time to die.

*This sounds awkwardly emotional. I promise I'm over it!

**also, I’d like to note that there’s a big distinction between the handsome Sirius of my imagination, and the not-so-much Sirius of the movies. The illustration is some fan’s version of Sirius back in his own Hogwarts days.