expecto pater: reading harry’s journey of identity in prisoner of azkaban...

Presented at SWTX PCA ACA Conference 10 Feb 2012

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Expecto Pater: Reading Harry’s Journey of Identity in Prisoner of Azkaban from a Theological/Psychological Lens

Kj Swanson, MDiv Assistant Instructor

The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology 2501 Elliott Ave

Seattle, WA 98117, USA

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the third book of J.K. Rowling’s

series, Harry crosses the threshold of adolescence, celebrating his thirteenth birthday in

the first chapter. Though Harry faces many questions regarding his role in the Wizarding

world throughout the series, the central questions he faces in the third book are those

fundamental to leaving childhood, dealing with memory, relationships, and self-esteem.

As the narrative guides Harry toward recovered memories of his parents, the introduction

of his godfather, and a new mentoring relationship with one of his father’s best friends,

Harry’s identity as an orphan begins to transform. The self-reliance that had proven

necessary to Harry’s survival thus far, fails him in the face of the Dementors, wraith-like

creatures that feed on one’s soul. Harry’s eventual achievement of the Patronus charm

that repels Dementors, and the words of the incantation, symbolically and narratively

express his maturational shift from self-reliant orphan to trusting son. When interpreted

theologically and psychologically, the fact that proclaiming his need for a protector is the

very method by which Harry is able to protect himself, sheds light on the important role

relationships play in the formation of identity. The psychology of attachment theory and

the theology of the spirit of adoption as articulated by the apostle Paul in the New

Testament, offer keys to understanding how the recovery of Harry’s identity as a beloved

son empowers him to move beyond self-reliance and into healthy dependence. By


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exploring the Harry’s therapeutic relationship with Professor Lupin, the interpretive

possibility the patronus charm’s dual meaning, and the testimony of Harry’s sonship

made manifest in his patronus, Prisoner of Azkaban is revealed as a story of entering

maturity through accepting one’s identity as a loved child.

Claiming Orphanhood

Central to the seven-book storyline of the Harry Potter series is Harry’s struggle

to defeat the Dark Lord, Voldemort. It is significant to note therefore, that Prisoner of

Azkaban is the only book in which Voldemort does not appear. The message driven home

is that the nemesis Harry must face is not Voldemort, but rather, his own self-perception.

Within the first two chapters, Harry is already shown struggling between his identity as

an unwanted burden to his relatives and that of an embraced member of the Wizarding

community. We see Harry withstanding verbal attacks by the Dursleys and their Aunt

Marge by clinging to the hope that if he ‘behaves’ he’ll receive permission to visit

Hogsmeade, the only entirely Wizarding Village in existence.1 The thought of Uncle

Vernon potentially signing his Hogsmeade permission form keeps Harry from retaliating

when Aunt Marge tells him, “you’d have gone straight to an orphanage if you’d been

dumped on my doorstep.”2 Harry continues to concentrate on literally going to a place of

wizard identity while his own identity is attacked as “rotten on the inside,” “weak,” and

“underbred.”3

1 J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Great Britain: Bloomsbury, 1999), 21. 2 Rowling, Prisoner of Azkaban, 31. 3 Ibid., 32; 35.


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His endurance fails him, however, when his deceased parents are disparaged.

Prodded by Aunt Marge who wonders aloud if Harry is proud of his “bad egg” mother

and “wastrel” father,4 Harry is unable to suppress the magical retribution that results in

Aunt Marge floating towards the ceiling, and Harry storming out of the house. Believing

he’ll now be expelled from Hogwarts School for performing illegal underage magic,

Harry swiftly shifts from fear of being on his own, to acceptance of his new status as an

outcast.5 Because his attempt to put any trust or hope in Uncle Vernon was repaid by

abuse, Harry’s well-worn response of choosing the safety of isolation is confirmed. In

the language of attachment theory, Harry demonstrates the major characteristics of a

dismissive/avoidant attachment style.

In the psychotherapeutic discipline, attachment theory proposes that “relational

competence in adult life starts from attachment patterns in childhood.”6 Attachment

refers to the matrix of responses by a parent/primary caregiver to an infant’s expressed

needs, and the patterns learned by the infant to best ensure continued care by the parent.7

Children raised by “a consistently sensitive caregiver…who provided a secure base”

develop into secure adults who hold reasonable expectations for their needs being

responded to by others.8 Individuals with insecure attachment are those who, as Dr.

David Wallin points out, have “grown up with parents who provided no such secure base

4 Rowling, Prisoner of Azkaban, 36. 5 Ibid., 40. 6 Jeremy Holmes, The Search for the Secure Base: Attachment Theory and Psychotherapy

(Philadelphia, PA: Taylor & Francis, Inc, 2001) 1. 7 Holmes, Search for the Secure Base, 7-8. 8 David Wallin, Attachment in Psychotherapy (New York, NY: The Guilford Press, 2007), 39.


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but instead were rejecting, unpredictable, or frightening.”9 One of the three main

categories of insecure attachment styles is the avoidant/dismissive posture.

While treating Harry Potter as a case study is a distinct venture of its own and

indeed one that would prove faulty as a result of Rowling’s hyperbolic and often flippant

portrayal of the abuse Harry endures, what we can engage is Harry’s observable style of

relating—how he treats others based on how he expects they will treat him. Individuals

with dismissive attachment styles are those who in early development had caregivers that

consistently “rebuffed their bids for connection.”10 As children, they learned that “their

overtures for comfort and care would be of no use,” and as a result, learned to suppress

the feelings and behaviors that express their needs.11 The resultant deactivating strategies

of the dismissive attachment style “promote distance, control, and self-reliance … while

inhibiting emotional experience that might activate the attachment system.”12

We see Harry display the “compulsive self-reliance”13 of a dismissive style of

relating throughout the book and indeed throughout the entire series. Harry regularly

expresses disdain at the thought that others might consider him weak or in need of help,

misinterpreting care for contempt. When Mr. and Mrs. Weasley refuse to let him roam

free while Sirius Black is escaped from Azkaban, Harry’s speculation runs thus: “Did

they think he couldn’t look after himself? He’d escaped lord Voldemort three times, he

9 Wallin, Attachment in Psychotherapy, 39. 10 Ibid., 20. 11 Ibid., 20. 12 Ibid., 91. 13 Ibid., 211.


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wasn’t completely useless….”14 Later, in Defense Against the Dark Arts class, Harry is

angered when Professor Lupin doesn’t allow Harry to practice spells against a Boggart.

Harry wonders, “Why? Was it because he’d seen Harry collapse on the train, and thought

he wasn’t up to much? Had he thought Harry would pass out again?”15 The insecurity

Harry feels about how the Dementors on the train affected him leads him to believe that

others find his weakness as loathsome as does he. Like a dismissive individual whose

“defensive overestimation of their own value [requires] that they remain remote from

whatever feelings, thoughts, or desires might provoke them to seek support, connection,

or care from others,”16 Harry’s style of relating reveals a belief that expression of

weakness is contemptible. Harry’s behavior is reminiscent of someone whose internal

working model, (internalized attachment pattern), equates expression of need with

rejection. Wallin states:

The detachment of dismissing adults from others and from their own feelings is…a response to their hopelessness about being cared for; it also provides protection both from further loss in the present and from the sadness that is the legacy of past loss. Dismissing patients need us to help them to connect to the needs they minimize and the feelings they avoid.

Though Harry’s attitude broadcasts that he does not need anyone to take care of him, at

the same time it expresses his fear that no one ever will. Harry clings to his identity as an

orphan, unwanted and unloved, for to express his need for connection would also mean

mourning the treatment he has received and the losses he has suffered. Harry minimizes

the threat of the Dursleys by considering them less-than-human (which arguably is indeed

14 Rowling, Prisoner of Azkaban, 77. 15 Ibid., 152. 16 Wallin, Attachment in Psychotherapy, 211.


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how they are written), but at the same time, dissociates from his own desire to actually be

parented. And though he enjoys the warmth and attention offered by caring figures such

as the Weasleys, Hagrid and especially Dumbledore, a significant element of distrust is

always present. Ultimately, Harry believes he is the only person who knows what’s good

for him. For the dismissive individual to open himself to intimacy is to invite more

loss.17 Harry rejects other’s protective and caring advances because it comes too close to

having to face the sorrow of what he has been denied. Instead, committing to his self-

reliant orphan identity, he does not need to suffer the feeling of needing a parent.

Fortunately, attachment patterns need not remain permanent. New relationships of

attachment can favorably affect an individual’s inner working model.18 Prisoner of

Azkaban shows Harry is just such a relationship.

Clinging To A Secure Base

In the third book, Harry’s classmates at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and

Wizardry meet their first qualified professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts. Following

the tremulous, Voldemort-possessed Professor Quirrell and the inept, foppish Gilderoy

Lockhart, Remus Lupin offers structure and guidance that Defense Against the Dark Arts

students have not experienced. It is thus fitting that this excellent teacher is able to

provide guidance and structure for Harry in a way that is transformative. In the process of

teaching Harry how to fight off Dementors, Professor Lupin offers sensitive, attuned

care, helping Harry walk through lost memories of his parents; Lupin becomes a secure

base in whose presence Harry does not have to fear weakness. As “self-esteem and

17 Wallin, Attachment in Psychotherapy, 102. 18 Ibid., 85.


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security are intimately linked,”19 the security Harry comes to know with Professor Lupin

enables him to feel more secure within himself.

Harry’s first encounter with Professor Lupin is on the Hogwarts Express when

Lupin protects Harry from a Dementor, a guard of Azkaban Prison seeking the escaped

criminal Sirius Black. The Dementor encounter causes Harry to faint, hearing echoes of

mother’s dying moment as he loses consciousness. When Harry wakes and learns he was

the only one so severely affected, he feels ashamed.20 He interprets his inability to

withstand the presence of the Dementors as a failure in himself, and is all the more quick

to expect others to see failure in him as well.

This shame-reaction surfaces again when Professor Lupin does not let Harry face

the Boggart brought in for a class exercise. While other students takes turns banishing

the projection of their fears by making it take a humorous form, Professor Lupin forces

the Boggart away from Harry. Days after this, when Harry is forced to stay at Hogwarts

while his friends tour Hogsmeade, (for he never achieved a signed permission form), he

wanders past Lupin’s office and is invited in. While at first, Harry behaves as he

typically does with others, holding back his questions and concerns so he won’t be

thought a coward,21 the conversation quickly moves in a direction that takes Harry by

surprise. Harry denies being worried about information he recently learned, but Lupin

reads Harry’s emotions on his face and continues to pursue him.22

“Anything worrying you, Harry?”

19 Holmes, Search for the Secure Base, 2. 20 Rowling, Prisoner of Azkaban, 97. 21 Ibid., 168. 22 Ibid.,168-169.


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“No,” Harry lied. He drank a bit of tea and watched the Grindylow brandishing a fist at him. “Yes,” he said suddenly, putting his tea down on Lupin’s desk. “You know that day we fought the Boggart?”

“Yes,” said Lupin slowly. “Why didn’t you let me fight it?” said Harry abruptly. Lupin raised his eyebrows. ‘I would have thought that was obvious, Harry,” he said, sounding

surprised. Harry, who had expected Lupin to deny that he’d done any such

thing, was taken aback. “Why?” he said again. “Well,” said Lupin, frowning slightly, “I assumed the if the

Boggart faced you, it would assume the shape of Lord Voldemort.” Harry stared. Not only was this the last answer he’d expected,

Lupin had said Voldemort’s name. The only person Harry had ever heard say the name aloud (apart from himself) was Professor Dumbledore.

“Clearly, I was wrong,” said Lupin, still frowning. “But I didn’t think it a good idea for Lord Voldemort to materialize in the [class] room. I imagined that people would panic.”23

In this exchange, a number of significant shifts take place. While at first Harry lies about

his feelings, he abruptly changes course and admits that something is indeed worrying

him. Harry shows vulnerability by indicating his shame at not being allowed to fight the

Boggart. Then, instead of denying his protective actions, as Harry assumes will happen,

Professor Lupin tells the truth and admits his assumption that Harry understood his

actions. Lupin had not patronized Harry as a feeble student, but acted out of regard for

Harry’s situation. Further, Lupin demonstrates a type of fearlessness that Harry respects

when he speaks Voldemort’s name, which the Wizarding community refuses to utter.

Equally important, Lupin admits that he was wrong. This first conversation with Lupin

exhibits characteristics of the attuned care he continues to provide in a way that is both

subtle and powerful enough to reach Harry.

23 Rowling, Prisoner of Azkaban, 169.


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As their relationship develops, Lupin helps Harry name his own feelings, as well

as stepping in when Harry cannot.24 After Dementors disrupt a Quidditch match that

results in Harry fainting again, Lupin names what Harry is ashamed to, inviting further

trust and vulnerability from Harry.

“…I suppose [the Dementors] were the reason you fell?” “Yes,” said Harry. He hesitated, and then the question he had to

ask burst from him before he could stop himself. “Why? Why do they affect me like that? Am I just—?”

“It has nothing to do with weakness,” said Professor Lupin sharply, as though he had read Harry’s mind. “The Dementors affect you worse than the others because there are horrors in your past the others don’t have.”25

Lupin names the fear Harry is afraid to admit—that he is weak—and instead affirms

Harry’s experiences as traumatic. This results in Harry taking a risk and asking Lupin to

teach him how to defend himself against the Dementors.26 In asking for help, Harry

expresses his trust in Lupin and is thus free to undertake a challenge he could not do on

his own. Lupin exemplifies the “consistency, reliability, responsiveness, non-possessive

warmth” and firm boundaries that mark the parameters of a secure base in an attachment

relationship.27 Secure in his relationship to Professor Lupin, Harry is free to explore his

internal world as well as face challenges within his environment.28

24 Rowling, Prisoner of Azkaban, 170. 25 Ibid., 203, italics original. 26 Ibid.,, 205. 27 Holmes, Search for the Secure Base, 4. 28 Wallin, Attachment in Psychotherapy, 67.


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Casting The Spell

The introduction of the expecto patronum spell in Prisoner of Azkaban fits within

the theme of identity and psychological development present throughout the story.29

Both Boggarts and Dementors, two major magical creatures introduced in the novel, are

monsters of the psyche. Boggarts, we learn, are shape-shifters that take on forms best

suited to terrify the individual they encounter.30 Dementors feed off feelings of hope,

leaving their victims in despair.31 Defending oneself against either creature requires the

ability to project positive thoughts and feelings to counteract the creature’s psychological

advantage.

The anti-Dementor spell Professor Lupin teaches is the most advanced magic

Harry has yet to learn.32 By offering to privately tutor him, Lupin tangibly expresses his

faith in Harry’s aptitude. Indeed, he tells Harry, “I have complete confidence in you.”33

With Lupin present as a secure base, Harry can begin to face the painful memories that

fighting Dementors stirs within.

To deflect a Dementor attack, a wizard must produce a patronus, “a guardian

which acts as a shield.”34 Professor Lupin describes the patronus as “a kind of positive

force, a projection of the very things that the Dementor feeds upon—hopes, happiness,

29 Joseph A. Talamo, "Harry Potter and the Haunted Prophet," Psychological Perspectives 52, no.

3 (December 15, 2009): 340, accessed September 26, 2011, DOI: 10.1080/00332920903098950. 30 Rowling, Prisoner of Azkaban, 146. 31 Ibid., 257. 32 Ibid.,, 257, 261. 33 Ibid., 267. 34 Ibid., 257.


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the desire to survive,” and that each patronus “is unique to the wizard who conjures it.”35

Performing the spell involves conjuring a strong, happy memory and speaking the spell’s

incantation: expecto patronum.

Harry’s progress with the spell is halted by the effects the Dementors have on

him. When Harry faces them, even when it is just a Boggart taking on the shape of a

Dementor, Harry hears the voices of his parents in their last moments of sacrificing their

life for him. A new struggle is introduced in the process: “…something else kept

intruding…any second now, he might hear his mother again…but he shouldn’t think that,

or he would hear her again, and he didn’t want to…or did he?”36 Because his parents

died when he was only a year old, Harry has not had access to the memory of their

voices. When the Dementors conjure up Harry’s worst experience, his parents being

murdered in front of him, they also provide a chance for Harry to hear their voices again.

He tells Lupin after recovering from another faint brought on by Dementor practice, “I

heard my dad…[that’s] the first time I’ve ever heard him.”37

It is at this point Harry learns that Professor Lupin was close friends with his

father. This follows Harry’s discovery that Sirius Black, the escaped criminal the

Dementors have been sent out to seek, is his rightful godfather. Harry is unaware that

Sirius, wrongly accused of betraying Harry’s parents, has been covertly watching over

Harry since his escape. Though Harry does not yet know that Sirius is innocent, the

discovery of Sirius’ close bond with his father, has for the first time, instigated a search

into the details of his parent’s lives. It is as if until now, his parents only existed as

35 Rowling, Prisoner of Azkaban, 257, 258. 36 Ibid., 259. 37 Ibid., 261.


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martyrs, vague saintly figures who saved him once but have no history of their own. The

escape of Sirius Black, and in turn, the presence of the Dementors sent to find him, stir

questions Harry has never truly engaged. Harry’s identity as an orphan begins to falter as

he learns that upon his parents’ death, his godfather Sirius was prepared to adopt him,38

and that his parents were more than just the means by which he was saved.

The anger and guilt Harry feels for letting his desire to hear his parents voices

obstruct his anti-Dementor training, reflects the disruption that can occur while

attempting to integrate elements of one’s dissociated past.39 In other words, Harry does

not know how to be a son because he has never had parents.40 He tells himself sternly,

“they’re dead, and listening to echoes of them won’t bring them back. You’d better get a

grip on yourself.”41 Harry has been given no positive associations with his parents, other

than being told they loved him. As he experiences glimpses of their love and care through

their sacrificial moment, his instinct is to distance himself from the memory. But because

Professor Lupin now represents not just a secure base for Harry, but also an actual link to

his father, Lupin is even better situated to help Harry begin to integrate the memories of

his parents, not just fight against them. Jeremy Holmes explains:

Working through past losses is an essential part of attachment-informed therapy. ‘Working through’ –a glib term for an often unbearably painful process—can only happen because of the possibility of ‘representation’; the lost loved one cannot be recovered in the external world, but can be ‘reinstated’ …in the inner world of the bereaved. If the therapist can

38 Rowling, Prisoner of Azkaban, 224. 39 Wallin, Attachment in Psychotherapy, 85. 40 Rowling, Prisoner of Azkaban, 266. 41 Ibid.,, 264.


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provide a temporary secure base, then the anger and despair associated with bereavement can be negotiated towards at least partial acceptance.42

By providing space for Harry to use the memory of his parents to fight the Dementors

rather than avoiding the memory, Lupin helps Harry recover inner representations of his

lost parents. This inner representation of a lost parent becomes narratively represented in

Harry’s climactic victory over the Dementors towards the end of the novel.

Cry Of The Spirit

Though Harry is an orphan in the literal sense of the word, the use of the term

orphan thus far has functioned primarily as a metaphor for Harry’s insecure attachment

style: his inability to receive care because he does not believe himself worthy of it. The

use of orphan as a metaphor is central to the theology of the apostle Paul.43 Paul’s

articulation of the function of the Holy Spirit in attesting to believers’ identity as children

of God, offers nuance to the meaning of what occurs when Harry is finally able to

produce the patronus charm at the climax of the book.

The incantation expecto patronum has been commonly interpreted to mean, “I

await a protector,”44 coming from the Latin words exspectare, meaning to wait for or to

expect, and patronus, meaning protector.45 However, additional interpretations are

42 Holmes, Search for the Secure Base, 14. 43 Trevor J. Burke, Adopted into God’s Family: Exploring a Pauline Metaphor (Downer’s Grove,

Illinois: Intervarsity Press, 2006), 26. 44 “Patronus Charm,” Harry Potter Wiki, accessed November 4, 2011,

http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Patronus_Charm; “Name Origins,” Mugglenet, accessed November 4, 2011, http://www.mugglenet.com/books/name_origins_spells.shtml.

45 Alleen Pace Nilsen and Don L.F. Nilsen, "Latin Revived: Source-based Vocabulary Lessons

Courtesy of Harry Potter," Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 50, no. 2 (October 2006): 133, accessed September 26, 2011, DOI: 10.1598/JAAL.50.2.5; “Expecto,” Verbix, accessed November 15, 2011,


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possible and evident. Expecto can also be interpreted from the Latin expectorare, which

means literally “to expel from the chest,” from ex, “out,” and pector, meaning breast or,

significantly, soul.46 Patronus is noticeably related to its Latin root word, pater, meaning

father.47 In this sense, “expecto” can mean both exspecto, “I expect,” and ex-pecto, “out

of the soul.” Likewise, “patronum” resonates both as pater meaning father, and patronus

meaning protector. As we will see, the narrative of Prisoner of Azkaban, supported by

the interpretive possibilities of the spell’s incantation, reveals the patronus charm as best

understood in a dual meaning: “I expect my father” and “from my soul, I send a

protector.” What we see by looking closer at the narrative events surrounding Harry’s

successful defense against the Dementors at the climax of the book, is how Harry’s

moment of expecting his father and saving himself, resonates with a theological

framework of spiritual adoption. In the moment of his greatest need, Harry’s actions

testify to his belief that he is a loved son, not a defenseless orphan. Harry affirms his

identity as his father’s son in the very act of being able to save himself.

Having spent almost a year bearing the burden of believing his godfather, Sirius

Black, was the one who betrayed his parents to Voldemort, Harry is finally given the

whole story when Sirius reveals the real traitor to be Peter Pettigrew. With Pettigrew

pulled out of hiding, Harry, Ron, and Hermione are present when Lupin and Sirius

http://www.verbix.com/webverbix/go.php?D1=9&T1=expecto&H1=109; “Patronus,” Latin Word List, accessed November 15, 2011, http://www.latinwordlist.com/latin-words/patronus-21688347.htm.

46 “Latin for Spells,” Language Realm, accessed October 20, 2011,

http://www.languagerealm.com/hplang/latin_for_spells.php; “Expectorate,” Merriam-Webster Dictionary, accessed October 20, 2011, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/expectorate.

47 Suzanne Lake, "Objects Relations in Harry Potter," Journal Of The American Academy Of

Psychoanalysis 31, no. 3 (September 2003): 509-520, accessed January 9, 2012, DOI: 10.1521/jaap.31.3.509.22133; “Patronus Charm,” Harry Potter Wiki, accessed November 4, 2011, http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Patronus_Charm.


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capture him. On their way back to the castle, Sirius starts an important conversation with

Harry.

“You know what this means?” Sirius said abruptly to Harry, as they made their slow progress along the tunnel. “Turning Pettigrew in?”

“You’re free,” said Harry. “Yes…” said Sirius. “But I’m also – I don’t know if anyone ever

told you – I’m your godfather.” “Yeah, I knew that,” said Harry. “Well…your parents appointed me your guardian,” said Sirius

stiffly. “ If anything happened to them…” Harry waited. Did Sirius mean what he thought he meant? “I’ll understand, of course, if you want to stay with your aunt and

uncle,” said Sirius. “But…well…think about it. Once my name’s cleared…if you wanted a…a different home…”

Some sort of explosion took place in the pit of Harry’s stomach. “What – live with you” he said, […] “Leave the Dursleys?” “Of course, I thought you wouldn’t want to,” said Sirius quickly. “I

understand. I just thought I’d –“ “Are you mad?” said Harry, his voice easily as croaky as Sirius’.

“Of course I want to leave the Dursleys! Have you got a house? When can I move in?”

Sirius turned right around to look at him. […] “You want to?” he said. “You mean it?” “Yeah, I mean it!” said Harry.48

Harry had known previously that his parents trusted Sirius to be his guardian and

that Sirius had planned on adopting him when James and Lilly Potter died, but for the

first time, Harry realizes that what had been part of a distant past is now possible in the

present; Sirius wants to adopt Harry. Harry has no hesitation in wanting to live with

Sirius. Having seen Sirius’ fierce loyalty expressed in the face of Pettigrew’s cowardice,

Harry is able to fully accept Sirius’ offer of restoring a family relationship. Though until

that evening Harry had believed Sirius Black to be guilty of destroying his family, Sirius

has proven himself not only to be the man worthy of James and Lilly’s trust, but a

guardian in whom Harry can put his trust.

48 Rowling, Prisoner of Azkaban, 407-408.


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It is for this reason that directly following this conversation, when Sirius is

surrounded by Dementors and weakened from his fight with a werewolf, it is the thought

of Sirius that helps Harry fend off the Dementors for as long as he does: “I’m going to

live with my godfather. I’m leaving the Dursleys. He forced himself to think of Sirius, and

only Sirius, and began to chant: ‘Expecto Patronum! Expecto Patronum!’”49 Harry

struggles to maintain the shield form of his patronus, telling himself over and over that

Sirius will be all right and that he is going to live with him.50 Unfortunately, when both

Sirius and Hermione succumb to the Dementors’ presence, Harry is overwhelmed by the

feeling of being alone, and can no longer defend himself. Just before he passes out,

however, he sees a powerful patronus appear from across the lake that dispels the

Dementors. Though he is barely conscious when it occurs, Harry is convinced that his

own father has somehow come to his rescue.

This initial Dementor encounter at the lake, with a wounded Sirius by his side as

well as Hermione, who cannot produce a patronus charm, is the first time Harry’s work

with Professor Lupin is put to the test. Facing not one, but over one hundred Dementors,

Harry keeps them at bay by filling himself with the hope of a new life with his godfather.

Ultimately, however, when Hermione collapses beside him, the feeling of being

completely alone overwhelms Harry.51 His familiar sense of isolation overpowers his

hope of being adopted by Sirius. But even as he succumbs to the paralyzing despair

brought on by the Dementors, he envisions a new hope; he has a father who can save

49 Rowling, Prisoner of Azkaban, 412. 50 Ibid., 412-413. 51 Ibid., 413.


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him. This paradoxical hope, that his deceased father can somehow rescue him, shows

how far Harry has come through his work with Lupin. He has drawn strength from the

hope of having Sirius as his guardian, and when that strength falters, his hope rather than

his doubts are confirmed. Harry is not completely alone. Someone, who looks just like

his father, saves him when he can no longer fight on his own. According to the narrative,

Harry has moved significantly further along the trajectory from orphan to son. Though

what Harry learns about his godfather and his parents has always been true, it is as Harry

begins to integrate them into his identity that he is able to benefit from their love and

protection. Harry’s actions show that in his heart, he has begun to believe that he belongs

to a family.

In Romans chapter 8, the apostle Paul introduces the term “spirit of adoption.”52

The importance of this term for the first century church regards the cultural and religious

clash brought on by the inclusion of Gentiles into the Christian faith. With the gospel

being preached to Jews and non-Jews alike, the term “children of God” no longer applied

to Israel alone. Throughout his epistles, Paul is an advocate for unity amongst believers,

and this advocacy often centers on the issue of identity. In terms of biblical theology,

Paul has notably been called an “entrepreneur of identity.”53 Paul’s foremost metaphors

for Christian identity, whether Jew or Greek, refer to family life, and of these, adoption is

key.54

52 Romans 8:15 (NRSV). 53 Philip F. Esler, Conflict and Identity in Romans: The Social Setting of Paul’s Letter

(Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2003), 270 as cited by Caroline Hodge, If Sons, Then Heirs : A Study of Kinship and Ethnicity in the Letters of Paul (Oxford University Press Premium, 2007), eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), accessed November 7, 2011.

54 Burke, Adopted into God’s Family, 36.


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Paul’s use of adoption as a way for Christians to understand their spiritual

inheritance relies on the dual experience of being a child of God and knowing one is a

child of God. As Harry’s sense of security in relationship develops throughout the story

from primarily identifying as an orphan despite knowledge of the parents who loved him,

to a son who expects to be cared for and protected, this dual experience of having an

identity and claiming an identity is clarified through Paul’s theology.

The Greek term huiothesia, adoption, is unique in the New Testament to Paul’s

writing and occurs five times within Romans, Galatians and Ephesians.55 Adoption was a

common practice in first century Roman culture, “an accepted and high profile method of

perpetuating a lineage.”56 Inheritances and legacies could be transferred through

adoption, the new heir taking on the family name of the adoptee.57 Paul uses the

metaphor of adoption to tell the struggling community of believers that despite their

differences, they are all children of God, heirs with Christ.58 The way one comes to

know that they are adopted into God’s family is made most clear in Romans 8 and

Galatians 4.

Romans 8:14-17: For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs,

55 Burke, Adopted into God’s Family, 22. 56 Jeanne Stevenson Moessner, "One Family, Under God, Indivisible," Journal Of Pastoral

Theology 13, no. 2 (September 1, 2003): 52-53, accessed January 9, 2012, Accession Number: ATLA0001436710.

57 Michael Peppard, "Adopted and Begotten Sons of God: Paul and John on Divine Sonship,"

Catholic Biblical Quarterly 73, no. 1 (January 2011), 96, accessed September 26, 2011, Accession number: 57522477.

58 Romans 8:14-17.


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heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ--if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. (NRSV) Galatians 4: 3-7: But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God. (NRSV)

The key points to note are the role of the Holy Spirit in testifying to one’s

sonship, and the “Father!” cry that is the expression of one’s sonship. Paul is not

attesting to how one becomes a child of God, but rather, how one comes to know that one

is a child of God. The Holy Spirit testifies to something that is already true, rather than

revealing a new truth in this case. Trevor Burke writes of Romans 8, “a better translation

is that ‘the Spirit of huiothesia bears witness with our spirit to us that we are indeed

God’s adopted sons and daughters,’” and further, “the Spirit of God strikes a chord with

the human spirit of the adopted son, indicating to him that he has indeed ‘come home.’”59

What Paul explains to believers is that through Christ they have been adopted into God’s

family, and they can know this because their own spirit bears witness along with the Holy

Spirit that this is true. They need no longer live in doubt or fear about their identity in the

family of God; they know it their hearts.

Further, this “attestation of the fatherhood of God …by the Spirit,” is given voice

through the familial expression of “Abba! Father!”60 Abba is an Aramaic term for father,

59 Burke, Adopted into God’s Family, 150, italics original. 60 George C. Gianoulis, "Is Sonship in Romans 8:14-17 a Link with Romans 9?" Bibliotheca

Sacra 166, no. 661 (January 1, 2009): 74, accessed September 26, 2011, accession number: ATLA0001703998.


20

most commonly interpreted as an intimate and affectionate name such as “Daddy.”61 It

most notably appears in the Gospel of Mark when Jesus prays in the Garden of

Gethsemane.62 In Brendan Byrne’s interpretation, “sonship status is attested by the fact

that the Risen Christ…continues in us the Abba cry characteristic of his own relationship

to the Father as Son of God.”63 In Paul’s theology, the Father sends the Spirit to our spirit

and thus, our very ability to cry out in recognition of God as Father, is the affirmation of

our adoption. The inheritance of the children of God is a spirit of adoption instead of a

spirit of slavery to fear.64 As Burke states, “no longer are we in bondage…but as God’s

sons and daughters by adoption we serve and are empowered by the energizing spirit who

lives within.”65 Paul, the ‘entrepreneur of identity’ and advocate of unity among

believers, assured the church in its new Gentile and Jewish identity, that they were all

children of God through adoption, and together, shared the witness of the Holy Spirit. As

George Gianoulis concludes, “the new status of being in Christ is attested to

experientially as Jewish and Gentile believers cry by the Spirit ‘Abba, Father’ (v. 15),

and the Spirit testifies to the spirit of the believers that they are ‘children of God’ (v.

16).”66 In this Pauline theology, calling out for the Father is the mark of a true child of

God.

61 Burke, Adopted into God’s Family, 92-93. 62 Mark 14:36. 63 Brendan J. Byrne, Sons of God, Seed of Abraham: A Study of the Idea of the Sonship of God of

all Christians in Paul against the Jewish Background, Analecta Biblica Volume 83 (Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1979), 101.

64 Romans 8:15. 65 Burke, Adopted into God’s Family, 141. 66 Gianoulis, "Sonship in Romans 8:14-17," 83.


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Harry’s final Dementor encounter in Prisoner of Azkaban shows him attesting to

his true sonship by calling on his father (Galatians 4:6) while also acting upon his

newfound freedom from fear (Romans 8:15). But before this can happen, Harry’s

journey into memories, which has been a focus throughout the book, becomes an actual

journey; Harry travels back in time.

Calling On A Father

Unable to prove his innocence once Peter Pettigrew escapes again, Sirius Black is

taking into custody by Ministry of Magic officials and set to receive the Dementor’s Kiss,

the most devastating punishment the Dementors perform. The Dementor’s Kiss is yet

another profound attack on the psyche, and thus identity, present in Prisoner of Azkaban.

Instead of killing their victims, the Dementors suck out a person’s soul. As Professor

Lupin tells Harry, losing one’s soul is worse than death: “You can exist without your

soul…as long as your brain and heart are still working. But you’ll have no sense of self

any more, no memory, no…anything. There’s no chance at all of recovery.”67

To save Sirius from this fate, Dumbledore gives Hermione the idea to use her

time-turner to prevent Sirius’ capture. With Dumbledore’s guidance, Hermione and Harry

return to the previous day. Though Harry promises not to interfere until they can release

Sirius from where he’ll be locked up in the castle, he cannot resist returning to the lake

where he and Sirius were attacked, in the hopes of seeing his father return. With “no



22

thought in his head except his father,”68 Harry slips away from Hermione, and watches,

hidden, while Dementors swarm him and Sirius:

“Come on!” he muttered, staring about. “Where are you? Dad, come on –“

[…] It was time for the rescuer to appear – but no one was coming to help this time -

And then it hit him – he understood. He hadn’t seen his father – he had seen himself –

Harry flung himself out from behind the bush and pulled out his wand.

‘EXPECTO PATRONUM!” he yelled.69

Though it is Harry who actually cast the rescuing spell, his expectation that his

father will appear is also confirmed. The corporeal patronus Harry produces for the first

time here, takes the form of a stag. When it appears, Harry finally understands why his

father’s nickname was ‘Prongs;” his father was an animagus who could transform into a

stag. Harry’s patronus, the guardian projection of Harry’s hope and happiness, is his

father. Because Harry expects his father, he is able to save his own life and his

godfather’s. At the same time, Harry discovers something about his father he did not yet

know was within himself.

When Harry shouts “Expecto Patronum,” he acts on the expectation of seeing his

father (exspecto pater), but at the same time sends his own protector (ex-pecto patronus).

Harry’s soul cries out for his father while his patronus, the image of his father, testifies to

his sonship. Expecto patronum is the “Abba! Father!” cry that reveals how Harry truly

believes he is a son of a loving father. The fear and insecurity that has forced Harry to

remain isolated in his orphan identity has been replaced by the spirit of adoption as

68 Ibid.,, 441. 69 Rowling, Prisoner of Azkaban, 442, italics original.


23

experienced through Lupin’s mentorship, Sirius’ actual offer to adopt him, and testified

to through the appearance of his stag patronus, his father’s presence within.

Moreover, just as the Dementors were a catalyst to Harry facing the loss of his

parents, through his travel back in time, Harry is able to face the moment when, the

previous night, he succumbed to the fear of being abandoned with the Dementors. Harry

becomes his own rescuer, but not from a need to reject help from others. His desire to be

parented by his godfather and his belief that his father can save him, provide the secure

base from which Harry is able to rescue himself, without cutting himself off from others.

The Harry that collapsed next to Sirius and Hermione the night before has finally learned

that he is not “completely alone.”70 At the critical moment, he does not avoid or dismiss

his need for help, but instead, allows his whole being to be filled with the desire to be

protected by his father. Harry displays a healthy dependency71 on others, and in so doing,

calls on an inner strength rooted in security of love rather than fear of rejection.

Conclusion: Claiming Sonship

Before the book’s conclusion, Harry’s most important attachment figures all

assert that producing the patronus confirmed Harry’s legacy as his father’s son. His

godfather Sirius says, “You are – truly your father’s son.”72 Professor Lupin confirms

Harry’s discovery that his patronus is the very shape his father took as an animagus.73

And when Harry confesses to Professor Dumbledore the foolishness he felt for expecting

70 Rowling, Prisoner of Azkaban, 413. 71 Wallin, Attachment in Psychotherapy, 102. 72 Rowling, Prisoner of Azkaban, 447. 73 Ibid.,, 456.


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to see his dead father appear, Dumbledore quells his fears and confirms his hope with the

following speech:

You think the dead we have loved ever truly leave us? You think we don’t recall them more clearly than ever in times of great trouble? Your father is alive in you, Harry, and shows himself most plainly when you have need of him. How else could you produce that particular Patronus? Prongs rode again last night.74

Hearing from these three father figures that the way he both called for his and

called forth his father through the patronus charm, affirms for Harry that his

identity is son, not orphan.

Through training to defend himself against the Dementors, Harry learns to trust

himself by trusting Professor Lupin. In the process, he gains access to the inner

representation of his parents. When he stops fighting against those memories and begins

to use them as powerful forces of good that can repel the Dementors, Harry gains strength

from the love his parents bore him, instead of avoiding the pain of having lost them.

Having already been adopted metaphorically by Professor Lupin’s attuned care and

guidance, Harry is able to receive his godfather’s eagerness to adopt him, with joy, rather

than doubt. Finally, to save himself and his godfather, Harry calls upon his father, and as

a result, draws on an inner strength he did not yet know he possessed. Harry had always

been a beloved son, but had not yet experienced the security and self-esteem that come

from knowing one is unconditionally loved.

Through the Pauline theology of the spirit of adoption, the achievement of

Harry’s stag patronus, bears witness to the reclamation of his sonship. The spell’s

incantation and the appearance of his patronus serve as the dual witness to Harry’s belief



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that what has always been true, is indeed true; he is a beloved son. In attachment theory

terms, Harry’s success against the Dementors signifies that he is no longer cut off from

the feelings or thoughts that would cause him to seek support or care from others.75 Harry

saves himself by acting on his need for Sirius to live and his desire to see his father. The

risks Harry learned to take throughout the book, admitting his fears, displaying

vulnerability, and expressing hope for connection with others, transformed his

commitment to isolation into a willingness to seek care from others. The defensive

independence Harry displayed at the book’s beginning has been reworked into a pattern

of trusting others’ strength and presence. When Harry proclaims “Expecto Patronum,” he

bears witness to his sonship, and thus, his need for relationship. Harry shows courage and

maturity beyond the “compulsive self-reliance”76 of his orphan identity. Instead, he

claims his rightful inheritance as a loved son—freedom from the fear of isolation. As

Dumbledore’s final words to Harry in the novel affirm, “you did see your father last

night, Harry…you found him inside yourself.”77

75 Wallin, Attachment in Psychotherapy, 211. 76 Ibid., 211. 77 Rowling, Prisoner of Azkaban, 460.


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Bibliography

Burke, Trevor J. Adopted into God’s Family: Exploring a Pauline Metaphor. Downer’s Grove, Illinois: Intervarsity Press, 2006. Byrne, Brendan J. Sons of God, Seed of Abraham: A Study of the Idea of the Sonship of God of all Christians in Paul Against the Jewish Background, Volume 83 of Analecta Biblica. Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1979.

Chappell, Drew. "Sneaking Out After Dark: Resistance, Agency, and the Postmodern Child in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Series." Children's Literature in Education 39, no. 4 (December 2008): 281-293. Accessed September 26, 2011. DOI: 10.1007/s10583-007-9060-6.

Conway, Francine, Maria Oster, and James McCarthy. "Exploring Object Relations in Hospitalized Children with Caregiver Loss." Journal Of Infant, Child & Adolescent Psychotherapy 9, no. 2-3 (April 2010): 108-117. Accessed January 9, 2012. DOI: 10.1080/15289168.2010.510980.

Gianoulis, George C. "Is Sonship in Romans 8:14-17 a Link with Romans 9?" Bibliotheca Sacra 166, no. 661 (January 1, 2009): 70-83. Accessed September 26, 2011. Accession number: ATLA0001703998.

Hodge, Caroline E. Johnson. If Sons, Then Heirs: A Study of Kinship and Ethnicity in the Letters of Paul. Oxford University Press Premium, 2007. eBook Collection, EBSCOhost (accessed November 7, 2011). Holmes, Jeremy. The Search for the Secure Base: Attachment Theory and Psychotherapy. Philadelphia, PA: Taylor & Francis, Inc, 2001.

Katz, Maureen. "Prisoners of Azkaban: Understanding Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma Due to War and State Terror (With Help from Harry Potter)." Journal for the Psychoanalysis of Culture & Society 8, no. 2 (Fall2003 2003): 200-207. Accessed September 26, 2011. Accession Number: 11640105.

Lake, Suzanne. "Objects Relations in Harry Potter." Journal Of The American Academy Of Psychoanalysis 31, no. 3 (September 2003): 509-520. Accessed January 9, 2012). DOI: 10.1521/jaap.31.3.509.22133

Mitchell, Stephen A. Relationality: From Attachment to Intersubjectivity. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press, 2000. Moessner, Jeanne Stevenson. "One Family, Under God, Indivisible." Journal Of Pastoral Theology 13, no. 2 (September 1, 2003): 51-65. Accessed January 9, 2012. Accession Number: ATLA0001436710.


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Nilsen, Alleen Pace and Don L.F. Nilsen. "Latin Revived: Source-based Vocabulary Lessons Courtesy of Harry Potter." Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 50, no. 2 (October 2006): 128-134. Accessed September 26, 2011. DOI: 10.1598/JAAL.50.2.5 Peppard, Michael. "Adopted and Begotten Sons of God: Paul and John on Divine Sonship." Catholic Biblical Quarterly 73, no. 1 (January 2011): 92-110. Accessed September 26, 2011. Accession number: 57522477. Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Great Britain: Bloomsbury, 1999. St. Clair, Michael. Object Relations and Self Psychology: An Introduction. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, 1996. Talamo, Joseph A. "Harry Potter and the Haunted Prophet." Psychological Perspectives 52, no. 3 (December 15, 2009): 335-346, accessed September 26, 2011. DOI: 10.1080/00332920903098950. Wallin, David. Attachment in Psychotherapy. New York, NY: The Guilford Press, 2007.

expecto pater: reading harry’s journey of identity in prisoner of azkaban...

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