Quotes by J.K. Rowling

Youth can not know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young.

She was a very pretty woman. She had dark red hair and her eyes -- her eyes are just like mine, Harry thought, edging a little closer to the glass. Bright green -- exactly the same shape, but then he noticed that she was crying; smiling, but crying at the same time. The tall, thin, black-haired man standing next to her put his arm around her. He wore glasses, and his hair was very untidy. It stuck up at the back, just like Harrys did.Harry was so close to the mirror now that his nose was nearly touching that of his reflection.Mum? he whispered. Dad?They just looked at him, smiling. And slowly, Harry looked into the faces of the other people in the mirror and saw other pairs of green eyes like his, other noses like his, even a little old man who looked as though he had Harrys knobbly knees -- Harry was looking at his family, for the first time in his life.The Potters smiled and waved at Harry and he stared hungrily back at them, his hands pressed flat against the glass as though he was hoping to fall right through it and reach them. He had a powerful kind of ache inside of him, half joy, half terrible sadness.

Hagrid, look what I’ve got for relatives!” Harry said furiously. “Look at the Dursleys!”“An excellent point,” said Professor Dumbledore. “My own brother, Aberforth, was prosecuted for practicing inappropriate charms on a goat. It was all over the papers, but did Aberforth hide? No, he did not! He held his head high and went about his business as usual! Of course, I’m not entirely sure he can read, so that may not have been bravery. . . .

Im serious, Harry, dont go. But Harry only had one thought in his head, which was to get back in front of the mirror, and Ron wasnt going to stop him.That third night he found his way more quickly than before. He was walking so fast he knew he was making more noise than was wise, but he didnt meet anyone.And there were his mother and father smiling at him again, and one of his grandfathers nodding happily. Harry sank down to sit on the floor in front of the mirror. There was nothing to stop him from staying here all night with his family. Nothing at all.

Makes a diffrence, havin a decent family, he said. Me dad was decent. An your mum an dad were decent. If theyd lived, life woulda bin diffrent, eh?Yeah, I spose, said Harry cautiously. Hagrid seemed to be in a very strange mood.Family, said Hagrid gloomily. Whatever yeh say, bloods important...

The Death Eaters were waiting for us,” Harry told her. “We were surrounded the moment we took off — they knew it was tonight — I don’t know what happened to anyone else, four of them chased us, it was all we could do to get away, and then Voldemort caught up with us —”He could hear the self-justifying note in his voice, the plea for her to understand why he did not know what had happened to her sons, but —“Thank goodness you’re all right,” she said, pulling him into a hug he did not feel he deserved.“Haven’t go’ any brandy, have yeh, Molly?” asked Hagrid a little shakily. “Fer medicinal purposes?”She could have summoned it by magic, but as she hurried back toward the crooked house, Harry knew that she wanted to hide her face.

The mind is not a book, to be opened at will and examined at leisure.

In the end, it mattered not that you could not close your mind. It was your heart that saved you.

Power was my weakness and my temptation.

At that moment, Harry fully understood for the first time why people said Dumbledore was the only wizard Voldemort had ever feared. The look upon Dumbledores face as he stared down at the unconscious form of Mad-Eye moody was more terrible than Harry could have ever imagined. There was no benign smile upon Dumbledores face, no twinkle in the eyes behind the spectacles. There was cold fury in every line of the ancient face; a sense of power radiated from Dumbledore as though he were giving off burning heat.

And his knowledge remained woefully incomplete, Harry! That which Voldemort does not value, he takes no trouble to comprehend. Of house-elves and childrens tales, of love, loyalty, and innocence, Voldemort knows and understands nothing. Nothing. That they all have a power beyond his own, a power beyond the reach of any magic, is a truth he has never grasped...

Every witch or wizard with a wand has held in his or her hands more power than we will ever know. With the right spell or potion, they can fabricate love, travel through time, change physical form and even extinguish life.

You do care, you feel as though you will bleed to death with the pain of it all.

It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.

Kill me then, panted Harry, who felt no fear at all, but only rage and contempt. Kill me like you killed him, you coward-DONT- screamed Snape, and his face was suddenly demented, inhuman, as though he was in as much pain as the yelping, howling dog stuck in the house behind them- CALL ME A COWARD!

Come on! he muttered, staring about. Where are you? Dad, come on-- But no one came. Harry raised his head to look at the circle of dementors across the lake. One of them was lowering its hood. 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 hadnt seen his father--he had seen himself--... It was stupid, thinking it was him, he (Harry) muttered. I mean, I knew he was dead. You think the dead we loved ever truly leave us? You think that we dont 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.... You know, Harry, in a way, you did see your father last night...You found him inside yourself. And Dumbledore left the office, leaving Harry to his very confused thoughts.

I know that you are preparing to fight. There were screams amongst the students, some of whom clutched each other, looking around in terror for the source of the sound. Your efforts are futile. You cannot fight me. I do not want to kill you. I have great respect for the teachers of Hogwarts. I do not want to spill magical blood.There was silence in the Hall now, the kind of silence that presses against the eardrums, that seems too huge to be contained by walls.Give me Harry Potter, said Voldemorts voice, and they shall not be harmed.Give me Harry Potter and I shall leave the school untouched. Give me Harry Potter and you will be rewarded.You have until midnight.The silence swallowed them all again. Every head turned, every eye in the place seemed to have found Harry, to hold him forever in the glare of thousands of invisible beams. Then a figure rose from the Slytherin table and he recognized Pansy Parkinson as she raised a shaking arm and screamed, But hes there! Potters there. Someone grab him!Before Harry could speak, there was a massive movement. The Gryffindors in front of him had risen and stood facing, not Harry, but the Slytherins. Then the Hufflepuffs stood, and almost at the same moment, the Ravenclaws, all of them with their backs to Harry, all of them looking toward Pansy instead, and Harry, awestruck and overwhelmed, saw wands emerging everywhere, pulled from beneath cloaks and from under sleeves.Thank you, Miss Parkinson. said Professor McGonagall in a clipped voice.You will leave the Hall first with Mr. Filch. If the rest of your House could follow.

You do care. You care so much you feel as though you will bleed to death with the pain of it.

He had a powerful kind of ache inside of him, half joy, half terrible sadness.

How awful it was, thought Tessa, remembering Fats the toddler, the way tiny ghosts of your living children haunted your heart; they could never know, and would hate it if they did, how their growing was a constant bereavement.