Celebrating Harry Potter’s 20th Anniversary

Harry Potter’s 20th anniversary is on November 16th, celebrating its first publication and huge success over the decades. Harry Potter has influenced people in the San Dimas high school community to people around the world. Harry Potter attracts different kinds of people with its layers of house identities which can start friendships between people and overall bring a community into any space.

Harry Potter can attract multiple kinds of people because the story does not only focus on and include Harry Potter and his Gryffindor friends but also includes insights on other characters from other houses which gives readers deeper insight into not only the houses but characters as a whole. A long-time Harry Potter fan at San Dimas Highschool, Vice Principal, Ms. Henriquez – PuliIdo says, “There are so many layers to it right? Because you can identify with different houses; I think that there’s good in each house and that you can connect with them on a different level than if you had just been [following] just this story of one kid’s friends, I think because there are so many layers between all of the different people and how they play a part of the story, that your ability to connect with it grows, you can see yourself in that. Maybe you see yourself in Luna or maybe you see yourself in Hagrid, y’know [sic] even Snape; from these characters, you can see that there’s goodness in everyone, and because of the different houses you’re able to now connect with more people differently”.

Bonding over the same interests is one of the most common ways friendships can form and grow from there! Because Harry Potter was a successful book series and a movie series, it meant more people had an interest in one or the other, and sometimes even both; which resulted in many friendships being formed. Harry Potter fan, Sophomore, Averie Nelson states, “So I met my friend Christina in third grade, but we weren’t that close, but then during 5th grade, I read Harry Potter and she’d just seen the movies and we were talking about it. It turned out we both liked it and to this day, most of our friendship is based on Harry Potter because we would play a lot of Harry Potter-themed games; we would go to each other’s houses and watch the movies together which then turned into us just bonding over liking books and watching movies together. We would have probably still been friends without Harry Potter but it was the thing that we got close over, we wouldn’t be friends to the extent that we are now; (Harry Potter) was a big factor in our friendship”. 

For 20 years, Harry Potter has attracted more people into its community from the book releases to the movies being produced; it has even gained its area at Universal Studios Hollywood. With the 4 main houses being Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, and Ravenclaw; people can find others like them with the same interests and goals and can find those opposite, it gives a space in which people can make friends with others not only for similar interests but similar mindsets and personalities.