I'm currently re-reading the books. I'm half way through book 5 at the moment and a thought suddenly occurred to me. I had always found it rather amusing about Harry's anger and frustration in book 5 due to his connection with Voldemort since boys Harry's age go through the same thing for an obviously difference reason, when it hit me, I think Voldemort is supposed to be a metaphor for puberty.

During the first 2/3 books, Voldemort is a vague, future-problem. Harry doesn't fully understand the impact of Voldemort's existence but nonetheless understands that he is a serious concern. It's not until book 4 that Voldemort rises to full power, when Harry is 13/14 (I think, please correct me on this). During book 5, as I mentioned earlier, Harry is full of anger, frustration, confusion, loneliness as a result of his link with Voldemort. Then in book 7, when Harry is nearly an adult, Voldemort is defeated. Even the fact that everyone calls him He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named may be a reference to puberty often being socially unacceptable to talk about. It's embarrassing and makes people uncomfortable when it's brought up in conversation.

This may all be an interesting coincidence but it makes sense for Rowling to use Voldemort this way. Having been around the same age as Harry when the books were release, for me and many others the series was a companion to growing up, to understanding the issues and challenges of getting older and becoming a responsible adult. For someone Harry's age in book 5, being confused and frustrated at new emotions and your own seemingly random bursts of anger, seeing Harry go through the same thing in book 5 will be comforting, knowing that you are not alone, and furthermore the books externalize the problem, the angry outbursts are not your fault and you should not feel guilty about them since they are an external force acting against you may help kids to bear through the difficult period in their life.

I searched around and saw no more than a few mentions of the idea so I wanted to post here. What do you all think? Was it intentional? Have you seen this idea come up elsewhere?