Post #4

     "What kind of blood was that, incidentally?" asked Dumbledore loudly over the chiming of the newly unsmashed grandfather clock.

     "On the walls? Dragon," shouted the wizard called Horace as, with a deafening grinding and tinkling, the chandelier screwed itself back into the ceiling.

     There was a final plunk from the piano, and silence.

     "Yes, dragon," repeated the wizard conversationally.  "My last bottle, and prices are sky-high at the moment.  Still, it might be reusable."  (J.K Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 66)

     Upon reading the above quote I had a suspicion that Harry Potter isn't the only story that refers to dragons' blood.  As it turns out, dragons' blood was believed to have many special qualities far before our society began.  Some myths tell the story of it being used as a means of medicine and others as a poison.  These claims do vary, according to various wiki entries though, the idea of dragons' blood being used in mythology still remains.

(Picture taken from: http://masterbraeokk.tripod.com/Dragons.html)

Post #3

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_6500000/newsid_6501100/6501105.stm

"You don't know what it's like!  You- neither of you- you've never had to face him, have you?  You think it's just memorising a bunch of spells and throwing them at him, like you're in class or something?  The whole time you're sure you know there's nothing between you dying except your own- your own brain or guts or whatever- like you can think straight when you know you're about a nanosecond from being murdered, or tortured, or watching your friends die- they've never taught us that in their classes, what it's like to deal with things like that-and you two sit there acting like I'm a clever little boy to be standing here, alive, like Diggory was stupid, like he messed up- you don't get it, that could just as easily have been me, it would have been if Voldemort hadn't needed me-" (J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix 293)

The above quote proves that, despite his fame, Harry Potter is still modest.  In the quote he isn't talking about how good his spell work was or how brave he was to face Voldemort.  He, instead, talks about not being able to think straight and how easy it would have been for him to be killed in the place of Diggory.  It sounds more like he considers himself lucky as opposed to anything else.  That, in return, makes him modest.

Deducing that Harry Potter is modest doesn't lead me to any prediction about his future, though.  I have seen the Harry Potter movies and, in them, Harry Potter continues to be hesitant to take credit for his actions.

I chose this video because I think it describes Harry Potter's situation well.  At times, he doubts his abilities but he still manages to do amazing things like, escape Voldemort.

Post #2

 

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K Rowling is the forth book in the Harry Potter Series. In it, Harry, a young wizard, is forced to brave three dangerous tasks after his name is drawn from the goblet of fire. Throughout the book Harry and his two best friends, Ron and Hermione, face the outcomes of Voldemort's plotting along with Harry's publicity from the Tri-Wizard tournament. 

I'd recommend Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire to almost anybody who hasn't read it.  The magical theme of the book isn't just in the character's spell work.  It carries on, outside of the pages, to a place beyond itself within the reader.  Out of all the books I have read it is by far my favourite.    

Picture found at:  http://zed1.com/read.html