Holly... You know like Christmas

I love how Harry’s parents are in many ways almost synonymous with his magical power. I love how the story is constructed in such a way that he discovers more and more of his parents as he discovers his magical and emotional capabilities. As his image of his parents is enhanced, fleshed-out, and given all sorts of caveats and nuances, so to does his understanding of magic and of the immense magical forces operating within and around him. As he learns that his father was not the faultless hero he had always made him out to be, he also learns that the very magic that had saved him as a baby also is working against him, keeping him tethered indefinitely to the man he must destroy. And at the end when he truly comes to “know” his parents (when he talks to their shadows from the resurrection stone and emulates their sacrifice by walking to his death in the Forbidden Forest) he is able to unlock and utilize the most powerful magic residing within him, the magic that enables him to survive the killing curse a second time, give protection to all his loved ones fighting in the castle, and defeat Voldemort for good.