I thoroughly enjoy the Harry Potter series. I love the story line, I love the characters, I love the morals, and I love the magic. However, more than anything, I love Harry Potter himself. He is a delightful character and one that I have an enormous amount of respect for. Harry Potter has everything I could ever want in a friend, and he reminds me of one of the greatest friends I’ve ever had - C.J.

To begin with, Harry is fiercely loyal to his friends and peers. This is evidenced by his quest to save Hermione from the trolls even though he was not friends with her. He knew Hermione a little bit, and he disliked her. But, he also knew that Hermione was a good person, a fellow Gryffindor, and did not deserve to be hurt by the troll. Harry is loyal to the point of risking his own life to make sure that someone he hardly knows and is loosely connected to ends up ok. Harry also turns down Malfoy’s offer of friendship and stays loyal to Ron, a friend he’d made only that day. Lastly, Harry is also loyal to Neville and goes after the Remembrall that Malfoy stole, even though he hardly knew Neville at the time and Neville was only an acquaintance.

CJ is a helpful and loyal friend, going far above and beyond the call of duty for his friends and loved ones. He never gives up on anyone. He has stayed up with friends all night long when they were feeling depressed, and he has stopped many from suicide. He’s tutored tons of his friends that were struggling with their classes and even when those friends wanted to give up and fail, he refused to let them. He wouldn’t let them stop until they understood the subject. Most would not be willing to work so hard for their friends. C.J. is one of the most loyal people I’ve ever met. He preservers things for his friends even when they don’t believe that they can.

Secondly, both Harry Potter and C.J. are extremely selfless. Selflessness is the idea of forgoing one’s own comfort and safety for the comfort, safety and even lives of others. At the climax of the novel, Harry and his friends are trying to get the Sorcerer’s Stone from Voldemort before he can use it to take over the world. The very way that Harry gets the stone from Voldemort is by being selfless. He wants the stone not for personal gain, but to keep it out of the wrong hands. The only one that could get the stone out of the Mirror of Erised is one that wanted to get it but not use it; Harry would not be able to get the stone if he weren’t so selfless. In the scene with Harry and Voldemort, Voldemort even tries to trick Harry into giving him the stone by offering the very thing that Harry wants most. Voldemort lies and tells Harry that he has the power to bring his parents back, and that if Harry will join him, he will do it. Harry does not give in. He knows that if he did so, Voldemort would murder millions of people. So he turns down the offer to get the deepest desire of his heart in order to save the world.

C.J. is also an incredibly selfless person. As was mentioned before, he would do anything, no matter how exhausting or unpleasant to keep a friend from killing themselves. He has talked countless people through their problems, whether big or small. Other examples of problems that C.J. has helped people work through are anxiety, depression, break ups, abusive relationships, being cheated on, parents’ divorces, toxic friendships, and death of loved ones. None of these are pleasant or easy topics to talk about, but C.J. has dealt with them all numerous times. He wants to become a psychologist and will actually dedicate his life to helping people deal with issues such as these. It is something that is near and dear to his heart.

Lastly, Harry Potter and C.J. both share curiosity. Although it is clear through the whole series that Harry is no academic, he has a lot of curiosity and cunning and this often ends up allowing him to discover problems before anyone else does. Often, this is what enables him to save the day. Harry doesn’t let things go that interest him. An example of this is from the very beginning of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, when Hagrid got the little package out of vault 713. Harry doesn’t just move on when Hagrid won’t tell him what it is, and of course, it ends up being the Sorcerer’s Stone. This is the first clue to the puzzle that takes the entire book for Harry to figure out. But he does figure it out and it allows him to save everybody. He often takes matters into his own hands and is successful with it.

C.J. is an interesting character because he is a genius, but did not actually graduate high school. He found high school to be boring and unengaging and refused to do his “pointless work.” But when C.J. finally realized that he wanted to go into counseling, he got his act together and is now succeeding with flying colors at college. He went to community college for a few years, took 18 credit hours almost every semester, graduated with his A.A. and a high GPA and went on to a university. He is now working 20+ hours a week in a research lab and is making straight A’s. Similar to Harry, when he is curious about something that he really cares about, he doesn’t let it go. He gets to the bottom of it and does whatever he needs to in order to get there.

Harry Potter and C.J. are very similar people. They are living very different lives, so their qualities manifested themselves in different ways, but they have similar values and make similar choices, and I have an immense amount of respect for each of them.