This Star Won't Go Out

A group of kids I was working with in 2002 encouraged me to give Harry Potter a try. I’d been reluctant to read it—I thought it was just a fad—but as soon as I started the first chapter, I was hooked. I closed the book, turned to the person sitting next to me, and said, “This book just changed my life.” Hogwarts opened up a world of freedom for me, a world of wonder.

Then I discovered the Harry Potter fandom and my mind was blown. The people who were growing up with Harry had created an entire online culture around him. Together they had created new Websites, podcasts, conferences, fan fiction, an entire sports league, musicals, and hundreds of Wizard rock bands.

And while I was thrilled to be surrounded by people online who didn’t think I was crazy for being crazy about Harry, I was also frustrated. Harry Potter would do a lot more than simply celebrate being Harry Potter. He’d fight injustices in our world the way he fought injustices in his. After all, Harry literally starts a student activist group named after his mentor Dumbledore, called Dumbledore’s Army.

I felt that if the entire online Harry Potter fan community could become a Dumbledore’s Army for our world, we could revolutionize a culture of first-time citizen heroes engaged in their communities and around the world. We could prove that fantasy is not an escape from our world but an invitation to go deeper into it. Predictably, most people thought I was crazy.

Then I met a Wizard rock band called Harry and the Potters. Harry and the Potters are two brothers who look like Harry Potter, dress like Harry Potter, and sing indie rock songs from Harry’s perspective. They are wildly popular and they loved my idea because it was crazy. With their help, and the help of my best friends, the Harry Potter Alliance (HPA) was born.

By the time I met Esther Earl in 2010, the HPA had tons of chapters, sent cargo planes loaded with supplies to Haiti, built libraries across the world, funded the protection of thousands of civilians in both Darfur and Burma, won J.K. Rowling’s praise in TIME magazine, and made significant progress on issues around marriage equality. Hundreds of thousands of fans had joined our cause, feeling empowered to become heroes. It felt so gratifying to show the world that the power of our stories can change the story of our world.

And I knew we could do so much more, grow even bigger, but we needed funding and street cred. Not surprisingly, when your nonprofit is called the Harry Potter Alliance it’s hard for many big donors to take you seriously. We just needed that first windfall with the hope that the rest would follow.


Having spent her childhood devouring Harry Potter with her sister Evangeline, Esther found solace in Harry’s experiences. Similar to me and so many others, for Esther, Harry’s triumphs were her triumphs. Harry’s losses were her losses.

Esther was a Harry Potter Alliance member who yearned to make a difference in our world. Making a difference in our world is a wish that Esther and I shared. Esther had lamented to her parents that she might not live long enough to make a difference. As the cancer progressed, she grew more tired. She was often bound to her home or bed, feeling disempowered and frustrated. Esther also yearned to make friends and be part of a community. Her physical condition made this next to impossible. But then, there was the Internet.

Social media and the Internet have certainly earned a bad reputation for being a space that can be both dangerous and desensitizing to our human experience. But the story that is often not told is that of a teenager dying from cancer, and reaching out to others through Harry Potter fan sites, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Skype. Esther did all of these things.

When the Make-A-Wish Foundation asked what Esther wanted, what she really wanted was to meet her best friends IRL (in real life). Though I only knew a little about Esther, she was a big fan of the HPA and I lived locally, so her mom, Lori, invited me to come for a weekend that would change my life.

As I entered the hotel, Dumbledore puppet in hand, I was taken aback by the unbelievably positive atmosphere in the room and how everyone was in such good spirits and full of so much laughter (with such irreverent jokes!). But I was mostly taken with Esther. Our friendship was instantaneous. Esther had a rare sweetness. She could look at you and see something in you; see you as you would like to see yourself. Through her kindness, warmth, and love for life she allowed others to be themselves.