I have grown up on the Harry Potter series. Reading them from the day I was able to read chapter books, and going to midnight premieres from the day my mother deemed me old enough to finally stay up late enough to watch my beloved golden trio as they grow. I grew with Harry even though the series came out when I was very young. And from him, I've have grown a lot about growing into a world you knew nothing about and creating your own opinion on everything based on your own moral compass.
Now, that may seem like a bunch of fancy wording, but Harry Potter is a lot more than wizard's chess and fighting dragons. Harry teaches children some of the harder lessons in life, such as slavery, racism, and good vs evil. As we watch Harry grow we are able to grow and change with him as he learns more about the different interact parts of the Wizarding World.
Throughout many of the books, Harry is presented with things that may seem like side-story lines, but are actually life lessons and eventually come back to him at the end. An example such as this would be how during the first few books Hermione, Harry's best friend and cohort in defeating evil, defends the helpless and enslaved house-elves that pure-blood wizarding families and Hogwarts themselves even uses for cooking, cleaning, and housework. Hermione creates a group called S.P.E.W. or the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, that is dedicated to the freeing of enslaved house-elves.
The books continually show the mistreatment of elves, and how they're only granted freedom when in their master provides them with some source of clothing. Harry is only able to free his friend, Dobby the house-elf, when he tricks Lucius Malfoy into giving Dobby a sock.
Not only does the series display slavery in its most pure form, it also sheds a different light into racism - but thats a discussion for another post.
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