I think Harry Potter is an excellent book series. I’m in awe of J.K. Rowling’s clockwork plots and rich characterization. Her worldbuilding is shakier, but not shallow. It operates similarly to Toy Story – which I praised in my previous worldbuilding post – utilizing characters’ reactions in place of waterproof lore.
In book five, Harry’s godfather is killed. The distraught Harry seeks out one of the Hogwarts ghosts, Nearly-Headless Nick, to ask if there’s a chance that his beloved guardian might return as a phantom too. “People can come back, right? As ghosts. They don’t have to disappear completely.”
Nick admits, somberly, that he was expecting Harry to come see him. “It happens, sometimes … when somebody has suffered a … loss.” He then tells Harry that his godfather won’t be returning, for unlike Nick, he is too brave to not face death.
That moment always felt real to me. If ghosts existed, and could mingle with the living, they probably would be bombarded with questions by the recently bereaved. And it would be awkward for them, and more than a little tragic, to almost always have to bring bad news.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t wish Rowling’s universe was more meticulously crafted. But that’s not the kind of worldbuilding she opted for. She made her world real to us, not through a detailed history of wizardkind, or lectures on magical mechanics, but through her characters. Their distinct, and believable experiences of the Wizarding World enhance ours.