What is a Home?: A "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" Discussion

Is there a circular journey in this first novel of the series? Is the concept of “home” is fraught with difficulty. Prove or disprove.

The concept of ‘home’ in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is a very sad, and yet hopeful one. There’s a saying, “blood is thicker than water” which has been taken to mean blood relatives matter more than others, but that’s actually the opposite of what the true quote entails. The true saying, the full one with the context is this:

“The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb”.

Not only is the modern saying the exact opposite of the original intended meaning, it is intentionally misconstrued. What the true saying means is this: “bonds made of your own volition are stronger than those of genetics.” (Also, ‘covenant’ is a distinctly witchy term which is entirely fitting I think.)

Harry’s blood (or water relations in the case of the true saying) shows that one’s true family is not determined by lineage but instead cultivated by choice. The Dursley’s do not treat Harry like a person, let alone like kin. They let him down in almost every regard, and the abuse Harry endures puts him on a lonely path.

He is an outcast in almost every sense: he is an outcast in his family because he’s a wizard, he’s an outcast in the Wizarding world because he grew up in the muggle world, and he is an outcast in a sense at Hogwarts because of his unfortunate fame. His true blood relations were never there for him – they did not support, help, or provide anything to him. They failed him emotionally and physically, and treated him as a burden.

Meanwhile, Harry gets his first true Christmas present from Ron’s mom, Molly (a hand-knit sweater), and he realizes then that he finally has a true friend. He becomes informally adopted into the Weasley family. Hermione, too, becomes his family, and they understand each other in a different way than Ron can comprehend because they both grew up in the muggle world. They have things in common and the three of them overlay with one another in very interesting ways.

Harry’s true family is Ron and Hermione, predominantly, though his circle expands as the series moves along. His friends are there with him every step of the way (*cough* Ron in Goblet of Fire and Deathly Hallows aside *cough*) and through their adventures together, they become a family. They’re his family because they’re helpful, supportive, consistent, and demonstrate this through thick and thin. They are with him every step of the way, and though families aren’t without occasional quarrels, they always come back together.

In terms of physical location of “home”, I think Harry would always consider Hogwarts home. It’s the first time he’d ever felt safe and like he belonged somewhere. He met individuals like himself, found out a hidden part of himself, and felt a freedom to be himself like he’d never experienced before. He cannot be himself with the Dursley’s. With his friends, he can be, and at the core, home and family are concerned with authenticity.

In terms of a circular concept of “home”, I would say it’s not so simple as circular though there is certainly an element of it. He leaves his “home” with the Dursley’s and finds a true home at Hogwarts. When he leaves Hogwarts, he does not believe he is going back “home” to the Dursleys, and instead feels he’s leaving home. I would say he feels a sense of enlightenment on the subject of ‘home’ and feels a sense of peace and hope, even if he is going back to the Dursley’s for the summer. There is a sense of coming full-circle in the sense that he is going back to where he started, but he’s unlocked a new level of himself, and that it starts and ends with him “leaving home”.