Initiation of the Hero

At the heart of the Hero's Journey are the hero's trials, challenges, and discoveries in the world of the unknown.

Campbell identifies six stages that may occur during the initiation, though as noted in the overview not every story includes every stage and they don't always happen in the same order.

The Road of Trials

The hero undergoes a series of tests or challenges. He may not pass all of them, but he learns from each, and they help prepare him for the final challenge.

The trials constitute the bulk of each novel, and the first five novels can be seen as trials on the road to the last two.

Some of Harry's trials are academic. In each of the first six books, he attends lessons and thereby gains knowledge and skills that will prove useful in later schoolwork and in his extracurricular activities.

Some of his trials involve social interactions. He forms friendships. He stands up to bullies. He has to ask a girl to the school dance. He has to deal with fallings out between himself and his friends, and with being caught in the middle of fallings out between his friends. He deals with love, death, anger, doubt, and hope.

The series as a whole deals with his struggle to defeat the dark wizard Voldemort, and each of the early books in the series can be seen as challenges to be overcome and learned from on his path to the final confrontation in the final book. Each book in turn can be broken down into a series of challenges that must be faced on the path towards defeating some plan of Voldemort's. In many cases these smaller challenges are in some respect smaller hero's journeys in and of themselves: the first trip to Diagon Alley, the quest to find and enter the Slytherin common room in search of a piece of information, the obstacles placed to protect the Philosphers Stone.

The Meeting with the Goddess

The Goddess represents pure, unconditional love, as between a mother and child. The hero often finds love on their quest, and it empowers him.

Harry's mother saved Harry's life as an infant by combining her maternal love with the power of her sacrifice of her own life in defense of his in order to craft a protective charm that shielded him from Voldemort's dark magic, both as an infant and later at the climax of the first novel (though he does not learn of it till after the fact). The spirits of his mother and father reappear in The Goblet of Fire and The Deathly Hallows to provide aid and support.

Harry's love of and loyalty to Dumbledore are also key plot points, in particular during the climax of Chamber of Secrets, when they unexpectedly bring aid in the form of Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes. When confronting his father's best friend at the climax of Prisoner of Azkaban, a man who may or may not have been involved in his father's death, it is the memory of his father that guides him to the correct decision on how to handle the choice before him. Love, anger, and fear are recurring themes throughout Order of the Phoenix, as Harry struggles through adolescense and an unwanted spiritual link to his foe.

The Woman as Temptress

The hero often is presented with temptations as he draws near his goal, temptations that would lead him astray. In many stories, this temptation may take the form of lust, or power, or material comforts.

Harry is most often tempted to simply give up. Voldemort's shade offers him power during their initial confrontation at the climax of the first book, but Harry refuses. In many of the books, Harry has the chance to turn back and get outside help as he nears his goal and realizes the danger to himself, but in each case he presses on. He is strongly tempted in the Half-Blood Prince to break his promise to Dumbledore to follow orders and follow his own judgement instead, but again, chooses to stay on the path.

Atonement with the Father

This is generally the climax of the story, when the hero encounters whoever or whatever is either guarding the ultimate treasure or trying to steal it. This is often a father figure (remember, coming of age metaphor).

In most of the novels, the adversary is usually Lord Voldemort or one of his agents. We eventually learn that there is a strong connection between Harry and Voldemort, unwanted by either. While part of Harry's journey is trying to rediscover his lost parents, and forging new relationships with parental-like figures he respects, another part of his journey is the struggle to rid himself of unwanted parental bonds, represented in the real world by his unloving aunt and uncle and in the magical world by Voldemort, his evil soul-twin, who unintentionally imbued him as a child with part of his own power, and whose fate is entwined with Harry's as a result.

Apotheosis

In its most spiritual form, this is the period of rebirth or reawakening. This can be a literal ressurection, as in the story of Christ, or a spiritual awakening or enlightenment, as with Buddha. Or, it may simply be a moment of calm and reflection following the denoument and preceding the journey home.

The most explicit apotheosis in the series occurs in the final book, following Harry's encounter with Voldemort's forces in the Forbidden Forest and preceeding their final encounter at the end of the Battle of Hogwarts. Voldemort has dealt a killing blow to Harry, and Harry hovers in a spiritual limbo between life and death, where he encounters and converses with the ghost of his mentor. He contemplates what has gone before, crystalizing his knowledge, is given the choice (the temptation) of moving on or returning, and arrives at an understanding of what must happen if he returns.

Many of the earlier books contain more metaphorical apotheoses: Harry is often seriously injured during his confrontations with Voldemort, sometimes physically and sometimes spiritually and often both, and spends a few days or a week in the hospital wing or otherwise isolated from his fellow students while he comes to terms with what has happened earlier.

The Ultimate Boon

The ultimate boon is the ultimate goal or reward that the hero has sought. The Holy Grail, the magic potion, the destruction of the monster. The reason for which the journey was undertaken.

The ultimate boon that drives the series as a whole and the last book in particular is the destruction of Lord Voldemort, who poses a clear and present danger to the hero, his friends and allies, and the greater wizarding community. In the earlier books the goal is similar - blocking Voldemort's plans, stopping him from achieving some outcome that will increase his standing. Throughout the books he engages in many smaller quests, some of which involve attaining information ("Where is the Chamber of Secrets?", "How can I survive underwater for an hour?"), acquiring an object (the horcruxes, a hidden memory, a dragon egg, the Philosopher's Stone) or rescuing a person (Ginny, Ron, Sirius).

When the goal has been reached, the hero must then begin their return.