On Harry dug, deeper and deeper into the hard, cold earth, subsuming his grief in sweat, denying the pain in his scar.

Harry Potter was a highly unusual boy in many ways.

There is no point in apportioning blame. What is done, is done.

Books are like mirrors: if a fool looks in, you cannot expect a genius to look out.

If it's a good book, anyone will read it. I'm totally unashamed about still reading things I loved in my childhood.

So why in the name of Merlin’s saggy left —” “Don’t talk to your mother like that.

It was, he thought, the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to the death and walking into the arena with your head held high. Some people, perhaps, would say that there was little to choose between the two ways, but Dumbledore knew - and so do I, thought Harry, with a rush of fierce pride, and so did my parents - that there was all the difference in the world.