I was very low and I had to achieve something. Without the challenge, I would have gone stark raving mad.

Snape was looking as though the first person to ask him for a Love Potion would be force-fed poison.

It is my belief... that the truth is generally preferable to lies.

Yes, well, principles are sometimes the problem, if you ask me,' said Miles. 'Often what's needed is a bit of common sense.' 'Which is the name people usually give to their prejudices,' rejoined Kay.

And that boys," yelled Mr. Weasley over the tumult of the crowd below,"is why you should never go for looks alone!

Harry's status as orphan gives him a freedom other children can only dream about (guiltily, of course). No child wants to lose their parents, yet the idea of being removed from the expectations of parents is alluring. The orphan in literature is freed from the obligation to satisfy his/her parents, and from the inevitable realization that his/her parents are flawed human beings. There is something liberating, too, about being transported into the kind of surrogate family which boarding school represents, where the relationships are less intense and the boundaries perhaps more clearly defined.

I bet you’re not dangerous at all, are you? Are you, you great ugly brute?