It'd been so long since I'd last read it, and that's taking into consideration that I read the books after the movies had come out (as an experiment of sorts that showed only two movies in the entire series made sense as stand-alone projects).

Most of what I remember enjoying about the series is what I could imagine in my own head, and I liked the initial attempt at promoting friendship as a solution... Though there have often been things that really grated my nerves and were easier to find on a re-read.

So in reading them again after having been a teacher for a while, I feel like I should be very concerned over aspects of things that were done with regards to what we term "duty of care." Though I could initially read Severus Snape from the perspective of a child who was generally afraid of some of their teachers, my perspective of Severus Snape has shifted greatly because I have met people like him (with significantly less magic). This character doesn't really seem to maintain a fully consistent characterisation in some places and has a shoddy excuse for why he'd protect Harry, but I think this is largely because Rowling made it too obvious that he'd be a bait-and-switch. She didn't really want to actually do anything to, like, make his characterisation consistent because it would ruin whatever story she intended to tell, so she... just fails at times. He's also given a personality for someone who should've left the teaching profession but stayed in because of reasons that no one really knows (usually because they enjoy having power over children), and it's not presented as wrong in any capacity. He's definitely not there for the benefit of the students he's treating poorly. Meanwhile, Albus Dumbledore knowingly brough something on-campus that's dangerous and provides tools that actively encourage a child to undertake the protection of that very thing, which makes it oddly apparent that he seems to be okay with varying degrees of child endangerment.

Then at the end, the school knowingly sends Harry back to a family that has been excessively and openly abusive at all times they've been around despite the fact that he could very well have stayed on at the school. It's a very perplexing concept that these people (people who are often made to be "mandatory reporters" in the real world) aren't doing anything to provide Harry with safety. They choose to send him to people who hurt, abuse, and neglect him. Granted, this leads to events in the next novel, but this feels lazy. Things like this often leave me feeling a little uncomfortable with aspects of the story, especially now that I'm an adult (and very specifically one who has worked with children and has had experience in a variety of schools).

It's a weird conflict to have that it's an engaging story with such awkward elements of characters or in-world policy, and it also doesn't seem to provide children with ways to consider a 'new' world. It's the status quo in so many ways.