Harry Potter 30 Day Challenge - Day 2

The Hogwarts Express has come and gone, the newest witches and wizards have been sorted into their respective houses so it's on to day two of the challenge!

Day 2 - Favorite Book
Choosing a favorite book is hard, I'm honestly the worst when it comes to having to choose my favorite anything and I love every single book. But if I absolutely had to choose, it would be the 3rd

book in the series: The Prisoner of Azkaban. It's always been one of my favorites but it took me a while to really pinpoint why I loved it so much. One reason is that it's such a pivotal book in the series, in my opinion. You have some very important characters introduced that play some major rules both in Harry's life and in the other books. And one of those characters introduced happens to be one of my favorite adult characters: Remus Lupin. His kindness, sincerity, and just overall goodness make him an amazing character and I really love how his relationship with Harry develops throughout the book. The book also introduces us to Hippogriffs which happen to be one of my favorite magical creatures. But probably the aspect that took me longest to figure out is that this is the last book where we see our main characters happy. Obviously there are some serious ups and downs and it's not all sunshine and daisies, but the following books take a much darker turn. Here we have Harry discovering that Sirius and Lupin were best friends with his father. We see his joy at not only having

that connection to his parents, but also finding out that Sirius is his godfather and he know has people who care about him. It's that tangible link to his parents that he's longed for. And finally, I love this book because it introduces the Patronus charm. Rowling has stated multiple times that the Dementors that first appear in this book represented her depression. As someone who has now struggled with serious depression for years, I really liked the idea of using happiness, a happy memory, to combat the soul sucking darkness that threatens to obliterate everything positive. I found it to be an encouraging reminder that depression can be defeated or at least held at bay.