Dumbledore’s Army stands 300 strong. At least that’s how many names have been added to the club’s mailing list, something President and founder, sophomore Molly Carroll is humbly proud of.
What was originally an idea posted on the Saint Louis University’s Class of 2015’s Facebook page last year has rapidly grown into one of the largest student organizations on campus.
Carroll, an English major, has had a deep relationship with the Harry Potter books since an early age.
In 1997, at the age of five years old, Caroll laid hands on her first Harry Potter book. She said she remembers her mom bringing home a book with a cover picturing a boy flying on a broom for her to read.
“I remember thinking ‘Why does that boy get to ride on a broomstick? I want to do that. It’s not fair!’” Carroll said. Her devout loyalty to the series and her tendency toward leadership lead Carroll to begin Dumbledore’s Army when she was only a freshman at SLU. The one and only Harry Potter-centric club on campus quickly attracted memebers. Now that the fan club has finished the probationary period mandated for all new student groups, the newly chartered organization is beginning to plan their events for the year.
Carroll and her “team” are working to plan Wizard Rock (or Wrock) concerts, Harry Potter movie showings, trivia nights and a spring Yule Ball. The Dumbledore’s Army Quidditch Team is already gearing up to compete against the Quidditch teams at Webster, Fontbonne, Mizzou and Washington University. The team is also aspiring to play in the Midwest Tournament of the International Quidditch Association.
Though the events are aimed at the big Potter fans on campus, Carroll wants to cater to the less enthusiastic as well. Membership in the group is not mandatory and all are welcome at Dumbledore’s Army meetings and events. Carroll said her reasoning for this is that she wants to exude the core values of Harry Potter in her leadership position: loyalty and acceptance. When one takes into account Carroll’s emphasis on these two virtues, it is not surprising that her favorite character from the series is Severus Snape, the potions master at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
“I identified with him a lot in the fifth book; he was picked on a lot,” Carroll said. “And I think that he would be one of my friends. I loved his story with Lily; I actually had to put the book down and cry when he died.”
Carroll said Snape is easy to relate to because he was bullied, something many people have dealt with in their lives. It is because of this that Carroll wants Dumbledore’s Army to be a very welcoming group. It is also not much of a surprise that Carroll’s favorite book was “The Order of the Phoenix”, the fifth book in the overall series, as it is in this book when Dumbledore’s Army formed and fought against the injustice of the new headmistress.
“There’s a certain spirit of rebellion when they all go against establishment. And that’s kind of what student organizations are all about” Caroll said.
In everything that Carroll has accomplished thus far in her time as Dumbledore’s Army president, she has used the passion she discovered in J.K. Rowling’s writing.
With a keen interest in fantasy and Sci-Fi writing, Carroll wants to eventually use media in the same way she believes Rowling to have done. She wants to make the world a better place.
As the might of Dumbledore’s Army saved the day in the beloved story, the SLU chapter of Dumbledore’s Army is well on its way to bringing some much needed magic to campus.
