Fantasy Writing Course

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What Harry Potter Lacked?

Your Idea Bank for future novels...

Don't get me wrong.  I love Harry Potter as much as the next fan, but it is worthy to note what the Unauthorized Examination - Psychology of Harry Potter by Neil Mulholland has to say on the matter of what was unique about the novels.  Part of being creative and original is to know what has or hasn't been done already.  This page, written in list format for convenience, might give you some ideas for your novel:
Hogwarts promotes memorization
Hogwarts punishes experimentation, creativity and critical thinking skills especially in book 6.  Harry Potter & Co. is the exception...
Hogwarts is the best school of witchcraft and wizardry.
What do Aurors do?  When Harry went to his career counseling service was he given much advice about his future job?

Hogwarts focuses on magic.

Do kids at Hogwarts learn the 3 R's even?
Harry is the miraculous boy who lived.
Despite traumas, abuse and neglect suffered by Harry as a child, he is quite normal as compared to the equally loved-starved orphan Lord Voldemort.
It is a testament to the genius of J.K. Rowling that these were the only slight descrepancies in her story.  Of course, storywriting is based on the style of the author.  J.K. Rowling probably chose to leave out stuff that wasn't important to her plot so that she wouldn't bog the reader down with superfluous details. 

Under all the main headings of the aforementioned book:
What kind of School is Hogwarts?
Will Harry be Okay?
Is Magic Real? 
The Weird World of Wizards. 
The Weird World of Muggles. 
Learning from Harry.
Only the above listed aspects of the story could really be pointed to as ways in which Hogwarts and Harry departed from the accepted standards of modern schooling and psychology.  But then, isn't that what escaping into a fantasy world would entail?  The deviation from the ordinary and boring.