Fathers in Harry Potter

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Well a late Happy Fathers' Day people, so with that, a quick look at fathers and how they are treated in the Potter series.
To observe fathers and their role in the series, while Harry would be a good person to look at, he would require about a week's worth of work, and doesn't necessarily give a full look at the series. So instead, we'll touch lightly on the boy who lived, and focus more on other characters.

The first of these more obscure choices would be Lucius Malfoy, who is perhaps one of the better fathers in the series. While for the most part, Lucius is presented in an antagonistic light, there are moments where one can see his true colors are quite light, namely when his son is involved. When Lucius gets out of Azkaban, he wants to hand Harry over so his family will be "forgiven" and therefore in the clear. In addition, during the battle, he does try and call it off, to try and convince Voldemort to stop so he can look for his son, find him and make sure he is safe, and when his wife found out that Draco was still alive, they ran off with him to keep him safe, and to make sure that they would all live for another day.

In comparison, we have two others that are defined by their conflict with their fathers, Barty Crouch Jr, and Voldemort. Both kill their fathers, share a name with their fathers, and ultimately reject what their fathers do. While Voldemort was understandably distant from his father due to being in an orphanage (and yes this is also a blog post prompt for a whole other day), Jr had his father there, but was demonstrably distant from him, with this coming to a head when his father sent him to Azkaban, and let him back, not as his own decision, but to go along with his wife's decision, however, both of these fathers in essence allowed their sons to take on a new life of a sort, though this is not necessarily indicative of the entire series rather than these antagonists.

Lastly, we have the many father figures that Harry has, and since his father was dead from Harry's early life onwards, we see a multitude of characters taking this role, and while individual examples could be given, we can focus on just three, Dumbledore, Lupin and Sirius, who all push Harry and guide him towards becoming a better person, as well as encouraging a bit of mischief now and then. Each of the three has helped Harry move forward, and for each, it can be seen that when one of them dies, Harry is that much closer to adulthood, not having any fathers to lean back on.

As these three characters are his principle fathers, showing him how to act, teaching him morals and guiding him on his tasks to try and keep him safe, it connects back to Lucius as to how fathers are supposed to act, and even connects back to the idea that the fathers' absence allows their offspring to sort of grow as adults. Draco also "grew" as an adult due to the Dark Mark being branded on his arm, while his parents actively tried to prevent him from becoming an adult in that regard. Furthermore, Lucius did present Draco with information and guidance, though these instances in the book are rather short and mentioned in passing, such as how Draco was told about the Chamber of Secrets by his father, and how Draco was given the Nimbus 2001 broomsticks to cement a spot on the quidditch team by his father.

So how does this relate to fathers as a whole you may wonder? Well, we see a wide array of father types, with the negative relations with fathers touched on lightly, as well as the negative types of fathers (absent, abusive, or otherwise poor in raising their offspring), as well as the guides, though the existence of any "guiding" father aside from Harry's own father figures is noticeably scarce, with few scenes of note where a father guides their children or bonds with them outside of small scenes with Cedric's father or Arthur Weasley. While this is to be expected with Harry as the main character, it provides a stark contrast, especially in a series where love, especially the love and bonds between family members is focused on.