Harry Potter is nothing short of a magical escape when we need a break from the tiring realities of the muggle world. Whether it is going on a trip to Hogsmeade with the Golden Trio or studying Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall, the books and films are made in such a way that makes it so easy for fans to teleport into them and live out their best lives at Hogwarts.
While Harry Potter has everything from floating candles to dementors, it does lack a very common thing – illness and disability. Throughout the franchise, we don’t get to see wizards suffering from disabilities or illnesses. Author J.K. Rowling once opened up about how she believes that while wizards can catch the common cold and break their bones, they can simply use magic to heal these muggle problems.
J.K. Rowling on Why Wizards Never Caught the Common Cold
A few years back, J.K. Rowling penned down a letter for Pottermore where she talked about and illness and disability in the Harry Potter world. While we do get to see students of Hogwarts spend time in the hospital wing under the care of Poppy Pomfrey, it is not because the student is suffering from high fever or the common cold.
According to Rowling (via Wizarding World),
“I decided that, broadly speaking, wizards would have the power to correct or override ‘mundane’ nature, but not ‘magical’ nature. Therefore, a wizard could catch anything a Muggle might catch, but he could cure all of it; he would also comfortably survive a scorpion sting that might kill a Muggle, whereas he might die if bitten by a Venomous Tentacula.”
As for why we don’t see a wizard with broken bones, walking around on crutches or seated in a wheelchair, Rowling stated that if a wizard gets his or her bones crushed in a non-magical accident, he or she can simply have them repaired with magic. But when the cause of such problems is magical, then the aftereffects can be “serious, permanent or life-threatening.”
“Similarly, bones broken in non-magical accidents such as falls or fist fights can be mended by magic, but the consequences of curses or backfiring magic could be serious, permanent or life-threatening. This is the reason that Gilderoy Lockhart, victim of his own mangled Memory Charm, has permanent amnesia, why the poor Longbottoms remain permanently damaged by magical torture, and why Mad-Eye Moody had to resort to a wooden leg and a magical eye when the originals were irreparably damaged in a wizards’ battle; Luna Lovegood’s mother, Pandora, died when one of her own experimental spells went wrong, and Bill Weasley is irreversibly scarred after his meeting with Fenrir Greyback.”
Perhaps it is a good thing that wizards don’t have to deal with the long-term effects of broken bones and can easily have them fixed with a little bit of magic. After all, have you seen the staircases at Hogwarts? Seems like never-ending cardio!
What About Harry Potter’s Eyesight?
If magic can so easily fix muggle problems like Rowling has claimed, why didn’t anyone think about curing Harry Potter’s weak eyesight? One explanation could be that his eyesight was affected by dark magic when Voldemort attacked his parents.
However, there are other characters in the franchise, like Dumbledore and McGonagall, who wear glasses. Maybe magic isn’t a cure for the ailments that come with aging.
Rowling was once asked about the reason behind giving Harry a pair of glasses to which she replied that she was tired of seeing spectacled characters be the “brainy one.” As someone who wore glasses, she finally wanted to make a story where the hero would wear glasses for a change.
“Because I had glasses all through my childhood and I was sick and tired of the person in the books who wore the glasses was always the brainy one and it really irritated me and I wanted to read about a hero wearing glasses. It also has a symbolic function, Harry is the eyes onto the books in the sense that it is always Harry’s point of view, so there was also that, you know, facet of him wearing glasses”.”
It looks like even if magic was able to cure Harry’s weak eyesight, Rowling would still have wanted him to rock those iconic glasses that became somewhat of a trend in the real world.
You can stream Harry Potter films on Max.
