I hadn't noticed Harry Potter's figurative death and resurrection scenes in Books 1-6 until I read one of John Granger's articles, probably, Harry Potter & the Alchemical Tradition in English Literature:

Harry always dies a figurative death and is saved by love in the presence of a Christological symbol. The resurrection at story’s end each year is the culmination of that year’s cycle and transformation. The cycle then closes with congratulations and explanations from the master alchemist and a return to the Dursleys for another trip through the cycle.

Alchemy is sort of a pre-chemistry idea that one could turn lead into gold by something called a philosopher's stone. As fans know, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is the original name of Book 1 and still is in the UK edition.

American publisher Alfred A. Knopf didn't think American kids would read a book with the word "philosopher" in the title, so he changed it to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Of course, the word "sorcerer" is what started the Harry Potter backlash among certain Christians. The change of title led people down a completely different path than the one Rowling intended, but that's spilled milk under the bridge.

All of this is fascinating stuff, and if you want to know more, read Granger's articles on alchemy in Harry Potter.

After I read about Harry's figurative death and resurrection at the end of each book in one of Granger's articles, I saw them clearly and don't know how or why I missed them before. Travis Prinzi at Sword of Gryffindor blogs about such scenes in detail:

For years, believers in Christ have been captivated and inspired by the resurrection of Aslan in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Aslan explained that it was the result of the deeper magic from before time. Lewis, of course, was not trying to portray what we might call “pagan” or “occulting” magic. He was using magic as a literary tool, communicating the power and reality of resurrection in the midst of the natural world.

J.K. Rowling has also used resurrection imagery in every one of the Harry Potter books thus far. Here is a brief summary of what we have seen:

Read the whole post.