As a Harry Potter fan, I love this article by Catholic columnist Matt C. Abbott (via MICH News) about Harry Potter and the historical link between witchcraft and contraception:
In contrast to this historical sorcery and witchcraft, most of the characters in Harry Potter appear to follow the natural law in terms of marriage, family, and those rights and obligations reserved to these venerable institutions. For example, the Weasley family provides the main supporting characters for the protagonist, Harry Potter.
Arthur and Mollie Weasley are the parents of seven children. (One of whom is Harry’s best friend, and another who is the object of his romance). Mrs. Weasley, the matriarch, is positively portrayed as a stay-at-home mother who sacrifices her own wants for the good of her children. Her husband, Mr. Weasley, has sacrificed advancement and higher salary so that he can partake in his children’s moral upbringing. Despite being a witch and a wizard, the two appear to have a fertile marriage in keeping with the natural law. One would think they could conjure up some contraception given its close historical link to witchcraft.
The courtship between Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour provides a younger example of a witch and wizard appearing to avoid historic sorcery in favor of the natural law. The oldest Weasley sibling is a very handsome young man. Miss Delacour is a young woman of magical beauty who dearly loves her fiancé. Yet the couple appears to maintain separate bedrooms prior to marriage.
When they find themselves under the same roof on the night before their wedding, both sets of parents are present. Fleur shares a bedroom with her sister, while Bill bunks with his best man. They do not share a bedroom until after the couple is married.
Conclusion:
The witchcraft of Harry Potter is for the most part pure fantasy. On the other hand, contraception — which is never mentioned in the Harry Potter books — is accepted as morally licit by many who claim to be Bible-believing Christians. As such, Harry Potter offers orthodox Catholics an opportunity to evangelize Protestants in the spiritual dangers of contraceptive sorcery.
I forgot about Bill and Fleur’s pre-wedding sleeping arrangements when I was writing my “pro-life” HP post last month. Also, in one of Rowlings quirkier moments, in book 6, when the students were maturing in their male/female relationships (which involves some common room “snogging”), in Ch. 17 she changed the password to the Gryffindor common room abstinence (p. 331, paperback).
Incidentally there was also a column last week in the American Spectator about the apparent endorsement of euthanasia in book 7 regarding the agreement between Snape and Prof. Dumbledore (that Snape would kill Dumbledore if his death was inevitable). Admittedly this had many HP fans, like myself, scratching their heads. I don’t have a lot of time to go into too much detail, but Dumbledore’s murder/suicide or whatever it was, was not your standard “I’m getting old and sick and I just can’t go on anymore” kind of thing. It was a difficult situation which involved him, I believe, trying to save one of his students who had a promise to Voldemort to kill Dumbledore. Also, we find out in book 7 that Dumbledore is not the virtuous man we all thought we was and not someone to be emulated.