Better Out than In: Healthy and Unhealthy Desires in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Part 3

While unhealthy desires tend to turn a person inward and strain or even break relationships with others, healthy desires, Rowling suggests, do the opposite: they draw a person out of himself and focus his attention on other people. Harry and Ron face conflicting desires on Halloween night when they realize that Hermione is locked in the bathroom with a twelve-foot mountain troll. On the one hand, they want nothing more than to run the other direction as fast as they possibly can (217). On the other, they realize that Hermione is in grave danger and that they have a responsibility to try to save her if they can. Their healthy desire to help Hermione turns out to be stronger than their fear, and they end up knocking out the troll, much to the surprise of their teachers and, even more, of themselves (219).

Sometimes a character's healthy desires are much more difficult to distinguish. Snape is a prime example. Until the very end of the story, Harry, Ron, and Hermione believe that Snape is the one trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone, and they are positive that the professor is out to kill Harry. They attribute all the worst desires to Snape, but in the end, they are dead wrong. Snape, for all his sarcasm and nastiness, actually desires to prevent the Stone from falling into the wrong hands and to save Harry's life (359). In spite of appearances to the contrary, Snape's desires are focused almost entirely on other people rather than on himself. Readers do not learn the reason for Snape's commitment to protecting Harry until much later in the series, but they do, at least, begin to discover that there is much more to Snape and his deepest longings than meets the eye. 

Neville is also a much more complex character than he first appears, and his desires, too, often prove to be other-centered and therefore healthy. Although Neville struggles as the victim of bullying, he truly cares about and desires the well-being of his friends and of Gryffindor, and he is not afraid to speak up when he thinks something is amiss. When Harry, Ron, and Hermione are getting ready to leave the Gryffindor common room to try to prevent Voldemort from absconding with the Stone, Neville steps up and insists that they stop right where they are (339). “You can't go out,” he proclaims, “you'll be caught again. Gryffindor will be in even more trouble....I don't think you should be breaking any more rules!” 

It would have been much easier for Neville to stand back and stay quiet, but instead he is determined to protect his friends and his house even if that means being misunderstood and, in this case, frozen in a full Body-Bind (340). Of course, Neville is, in the end, well rewarded for his courage in carrying out his healthy desires: his ten points push Gryffindor over the top for the House Cup, and he is finally lauded as the hero he turns out to be (381).