And we thought we had a hard life. But we don’t have a Dark-Lord for a mortal enemy, a godfather who can’t-really-think-straight, a werewolf for a teacher and two best-friends who can’t seem to communicate effectively. But then again, we might accept all of that for a chance to go to Hogwarts.
Fine, we probably wouldn’t. No one wants Harry Potter’s life. But we wouldn’t mind someone else’s. Seamus Finnigan, can we be you?
In the meantime, though, here are five lessons we learned from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban:
Communication is key (aka for crying out loud, Sirius. USE YOUR BRAIN)
No, seriously. Talk to your friends. TALK TO THEM. Sirius, this goes especially to you. I mean, we get that you weren’t “thinking straight,” but if there was enough rational thinking to get to Gryffindor Tower, you could have deviated and tried to convince Remus.
I mean, you did learn how to become an animagi for the guy. If anyone was going to give you the benefit of the doubt, it was him.
Animals are smarter than humans (Aka why everyone need to listen to Crookshanks)
Crookshanks is seriously the unsung hero of this book. Or, he would have been, had Ron not been there to thwart his plans. Scabbers is truly the villain we never knew we were facing. Hell, even Hedwig seems smarter than some of the humans in retrospect.
Let’s not forget Mrs. Norris. She’s scary. And displays more common sense than Remus, Sirius and Snape combined. Ah, to be an animal in the Harry Potter Universe.
You make your own future (aka why no one should listen to Trelawney)
Screw Divination. Screw Trelawney. Screw death omens, or good omens or any omens, really. The future is not a set thing that you have no possibility of affecting. The future is constantly changing – because we make our own future. And yes, sometimes we mess up, but other times …other times we almost get it right. Almost.
Even if we need a time-turner to do so.
Good memories keep us afloat (aka focus on the good, push away the bad)
Hang onto the good moments. They make you happier. They make you smarter. They make you stand taller against adversity. And they can even help against dementors. So don’t focus on the bad things that have happened to you. We all go through hard times. Focus on the good moments and stand tall.
They make for a hell of a Patronus.
Thirteen year old boys are stupid (aka Ron, you’re the worst friend ever)
Especially if they’re called Ron Weasley. They’re also incredibly stubborn. If you were once a 13 year old boy, please apologize to your parents, your siblings and any friends you might have retained from that time – if any. And if you’re a girl, well …just know that 13 year old boys are stupid. And 14 year olds. And 15. Yeah, it gets worse before it gets better.
We’re sorry.
If it helps, some of them (most of them) figure it out at some point. Just not soon.
