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Top Ten Best/Worst Book to Movie Adaptations

Posted on July 9, 2013 by Dana

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is all about book to movie adaptations. Oh, this is a hard one. I will start with the best ones. Links go to the movies’ IMDb profiles.

Brokeback Mountain the movie is even better than Annie Proulx’s short story. Proulx doesn’t develop the characters as much, and Innis and Jack’s wives are just window dressing. The movie gives the story much more depth and heart. I hardly ever say this kind of thing. The book is usually better. Which brings me to #2.
The Princess Bride is another case where I think the movie is better. The book gets a little lost, but the movie stays focused. Plus the acting is just great. Easily one of the most quotable movies of all time.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a great film. Not as good as the book, but really great. Everyone talks about how wonderful Gregory Peck was as Atticus Finch, and he was, but they always forget that Mary Badham was phenomenal as Scout. She was nominated for an Academy Award. She didn’t win. Probably because of her age. She was only ten years old.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was famously reviled by Ken Kesey, who didn’t like it that you couldn’t tell the story through the eyes of the schizophrenic Chief Bromden, but the film turned in some stellar performances by some actors often known more for comedy. Great film.
The Color Purple jiggled some things around, but they got the most important stuff right. I love this film all over again every time I see it.
Sense and Sensibility is gorgeously shot and the acting is awesome. I like everyone in it.
Pride and Prejudice, both the version with Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth and the one with Keira Knightley.
The adaptation of Louis Sachar’s novel Holes was awesome. Pretty much just like the book.
I don’t know if it’s cheating to include plays, but I’m gonna. Franco Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet is pretty much the gold standard of Shakespeare in film.
Clueless is a pretty awesome update of Emma. I love that movie.

My choices for worst adaptations:

As much as I love the Harry Potter movies, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban hits all the wrong notes from the opening when Harry is practicing spells outside of school in a Muggle house, which everyone knows underage wizards can’t do, to the made up toad chorus and talking shrunken head, to the confusing deletion of the Marauders’ subplot that renders the movie incomprehensible unless you have read the book. And everyone looks scruffy the whole movie long. They don’t have to be as well scrubbed as when Chris Columbus directs, and I don’t mind them looking like normal teenagers, but having parts of your shirt untucked, your tie askew, and your hair mussed in every single scene? Nah. I’m blaming the director for this one because I like the others just fine (except for Michael Gambon’s performance, especially in Goblet of Fire—Dumbledore wouldn’t manhandle Harry like that). It’s a shame because it is easily one of the top books in the series.
Just about every version of Wuthering Heights except this one, though to be fair, I haven’t seen the newest one with Kaya Scodelario. Why on earth people can’t get that book straightened out in film form, I do not get. Some versions cut the Hareton and Cathy part altogether. Others delete Lockwood.
The Scarlet Letter with Demi Moore. What were they thinking? We were discussing the scene when Reverend Dimmesdale reveals the scarlet letter carved into his own chest and dies in one of my classes one day, and I re-read it to the class. One of my students said, “Wow, this would make a great movie.” Yeah, you’d think, but no.
This version of Macbeth is pretty heinous, but I do use two scenes from it when I teach the play. They do some neat camera tilt tricks and use mirrors in a clever way in the scene when Banquo’s ghost shows up, and the opening with the three witches dressed like schoolgirls busting up a graveyard is good.
The Rankin/Bass versions of The Hobbit and The Return of the King and Ralph Bakshi’s version of The Lord of the Rings. Ugh. I much prefer Peter Jackson’s adaptions despite the changes made. He takes the subject matter seriously.
The Black Cauldron was ruined by Disney. I don’t blame you if you didn’t read Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain Chronicles if you thought they were like that movie. I remember dragging my mom to see it and being so disappointed.
And by that same token, The Seeker adapted from Susan Cooper’s novel The Dark is Rising is heinous. I keep using that word. But it’s so true in this case. Take this one together with The Black Cauldron and there’s a fair chance kids won’t give these wonderful books steeped in Welsh myth and legend a shot at all.
Their Eyes Were Watching God was pretty bad. Oh, you mean you never even knew it it existed? There is a good reason for that. I love that book. I can’t believe the film is so bad.
Beowulf. Oh. My. Gosh. What the heck was that?
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil should have been good. Kevin Spacey is in it. Clint Eastwood directed it. The Lady Chablis played herself. Instead it’s terrible. Don’t watch it.

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Re-Reading Harry Potter: Enemies of the Heir, Beware

Posted on July 6, 2013 by Dana

As you might recall, I’m re-reading Harry Potter, and each five chapters, I’m stopping to comment here. This post concerns chapters 6-10 of [amazon_link id=”0439064872″ target=”_blank” ]Harry Potter and the Chamber Of Secrets[/amazon_link].

In chapter six, “Gilderoy Lockhart,” we see how Gilderoy Lockhart gets on as professor. The chapter begins with Ron’s mother sending a Howler. Question: if Neville received one from his Gran (which he ignored—”it was horrible”), then where were the trio? It must have happened when they were outside the Great Hall because Harry and Hermione don’t seem to know what it is.

I love Lockhart as a character. He’s so completely odious. This passage captures him well:

“Yes, I know what you’re thinking! ‘It’s all right for him, he’s an internationally famous wizard already!’ But when I was twelve, I was just as much of a nobody as you are now. In fact, I’d say I was even more of a nobody! I mean, a few people have heard of you, haven’t they? All that business with He Who Must Not Be Named!” He glanced at the lightning scar on Harry’s forehead. “I know, I know, it’s not quite as good as winning Witch Weekly’s Most-Charming-Smile Award five times in a row, as I have—but it’s a start, Harry, it’s a start.”

We also see the mandrakes in a great Herbology scene. I wish there were more of those, actually. Professor Sprout is funny and no-nonsense. Lucky for Hogwarts that she just happened to procure some mandrakes the year that everyone gets petrified, no?

Lockhart gives the class a quiz about himself, which Hermione aces. I am kind of dumbfounded that she checked her brains at the door when it comes to Lockhart. I guess even smart women are susceptible to the wiles of a handsome face. Sad. The quiz scene was cut in the movie version of the book, which is a shame because Kenneth Branagh is hilarious when he says that line about wanting to market his own line of hair-care potions. In fact, he is just simply brilliant as Gilderoy Lockhart. After the Cornish pixies tear apart the classroom, and Lockhart abandons Harry, Ron, and Hermione to clean up the mess, I love it that Hermione defends Lockhart—”You’ve read his books—look at all those amazing things he’s done…” and Ron replies, “He says he’s done.” Ron had the measure of Lockhart from the very start.

In chapter seven, “Mudbloods and Murmurs,” we learn the pejorative term for Muggle-born witches and wizards. I always hated what the film did with this part because they decided that Hermione already knew the word. In the novel, she says, when Hagrid expresses outrage over Malfoy’s insult, “I don’t know what it means. I could tell it was really rude, of course…” Naturally, Ron, who wound up with a slug attack when his wand backfired after he tried to curse Malfoy for calling Hermione a mudblood, knows exactly what it means. Another case when the films give a great line of Ron’s to someone else. In the book, it’s Ron who tells everyone about the whole pure-blood/Muggle-born deal. He adds, “Most wizards these days are half-blood anyway. If we hadn’t married Muggles we’d’ve died out.” On Pottermore, you learn that when Hogwarts was founded, Salazar Slytherin’s notion of pure-blood supremacy was unusual. It wasn’t until the International Statute of Secrecy in 1692 that some pure-blood families became mistrustful of Muggles (for good reason) and the idea that marrying Muggles would taint your blood took hold among a substantial number of wizards. In the 1930’s, a Pure-Blood Dictionary was published, likely by Cantakerus Nott (must be Theodore Nott’s grandfather or great-grandfather), with a list of the “Sacred Twenty-Eight” pure-blood families (my notes in parentheses):

Abbott (Hannah’s family, known Hufflepuff)
Avery (one of the Averys is a hapless Death Eater, known Slytherin)
Black (Sirius’s family, including Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange; fierce pure-blood pride, known Slytherins except for Sirius)
Bulstrode (Millicent’s family, known Slytherin)
Burke (Caractacus Burke ran Borgin and Burke’s, suspect Slytherin)
Carrow (Amycus and Alecto Carrow are Death Eaters who wind up teaching at Hogwarts, suspect Slytherin)
Crouch (Bartemius Sr. and Jr., suspect Ravenclaw)
Fawley (as far as I know, no character in the series has this surname, no basis for House speculation)
Flint (Marcus’s family, known Slytherin)
Gaunt (Tom Riddle’s, aka Voldemort’s, mother’s family; most didn’t attend Hogwarts, but Riddle is known Slytherin, and they claim descent from Slytherin)
Greengrass (Daphne Greengrass is in Harry’s year in Slytherin; Draco Malfoy later marries her little sister Astoria; known Slytherin)
Lestrange (Rodolphus and Rabastan along with Rodolphus’s wife, Bellatrix; known Slytherin)
Longbottom (Neville, Augusta—Neville’s gran—, and Frank and Alice, Neville’s parents; Great Uncle Algie might be a Longbottom, too; known Gryffindor, suspect Frank and Alice were Gryffindors, too)
Macmillan (Ernie’s family, known Hufflepuff)
Malfoy (a very old pure-blood family; Lucius and Draco, along with Lucius’s wife Narcissa; known Slytherin)
Nott (Theodore Nott and his father, a Death Eater; known Slytherin)
Ollivander (Garrick Ollivander, known Ravenclaw)
Parkinson (Pansy Parkinson, known Slytherin)
Prewett (Gideon and Fabian, members of the Order of the Phoenix who were killed; Molly Weasley was their sister, and thus, she was a Prewett by birth; Molly was a known Gryffindor, suspect Gideon and Fabian were, too)
Rosier (Evan Rosier, a Death Eater; suspect Slytherin)
Rowle (Thorfinn Rowle, a Death Eater; suspect Slytherin)
Selwyn (Selwyn was a Death Eater; Dolores Umbridge claimed kinship with the Selwyns; Umbridge is a known Slytherin, suspect Death Eater Selwyn was, too)
Shacklebolt (Kingsley Shacklebolt, suspect Gryffindor)
Shafiq (this name is never used in the series, to my knowledge; no basis for House speculation)
Slughorn (Horace Slughorn, Potions Master; known Slytherin)
Travers (a Death Eater, suspect Slytherin)
Weasley (of course, the famous “Blood Traitor” family; known Gryffindors)
Yaxley (a Death Eater, suspect Slytherin)

Interesting how many of these families bought into the idea of pure-blood supremacy, and also of note is how frequently Slytherins are represented in this bunch, especially given Salazar Slytherin’s beliefs. Obviously not all families are in the same house—witness Sirius Black and the Patil twins. But the values of each family are probably passed on frequently enough that being in the same house is more common than it is rare, hence my speculation about possible houses above. Also interesting is the absence of the Potters. Harry’s father’s family is an old pure-blood family, and they descend from Ignotus Peverell. I speculate their absence from this list might be due to a regular infusion of Muggle-born spouses, including Lily. I think James’s parents were both probably a witch and wizard, and that neither was Muggle-born or Half-Blood, but I suspect they married into Muggle families at times, hence their exclusion from the list. We know their descent from the Peverell family is not a straight male line, so it stands to reason even the earliest Potter was a Muggle who married a witch.

It is also fascinating to me that wizards don’t seem to discriminate based on race or religion. Blood status is much more important to them than other signifiers of difference. Indeed, the Pottermore article notes that

A minority of these families publicly deplored their inclusion on the list, declaring that their ancestors certainly included Muggles, a fact of which they were not ashamed. Most vocally indignant was the numerous Weasley family, which, in spite of its connections with almost every old wizarding family in Britain, was proud of its ancestral ties to many interesting Muggles. Their protests earned these families the opprobrium of advocates of the pure-blood doctrine, and the epithet ‘blood traitor’. Meanwhile, a larger number of families were protesting that they were not on the pure-blood list.

The article also notes that families who adhered most closely to the pure-blood doctrine when marrying wound up with strains of mental instability in their families. Witness the Blacks (especially Sirius’s mother and Bellatrix) and the Gaunts. If you haven’t ever had a gander at the Black Family Tree, it’s a fascinating piece of wizarding lore. I will talk about it some more when I get to the chapter about the Black Family in [amazon_link id=”0439358078″ target=”_blank” ]Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix[/amazon_link].

Returning to the story, back at Hagrid’s hut, we learn something important about the Defense Against the Dark Arts post: Lockhart was the only person who applied for the job (or who agreed to take it, but I must say that if Dumbledore sought the guy out… well, he’s not always the best administrator, is he?). Hagrid says that “People aren’t too keen ter take it on, see. They’re starting’ ter think it’s jinxed. No one’s lasted long fer a while now.” Of course, we find out later it is jinxed, courtesy of Voldemort, who wanted it but was denied. Interesting notion: if Armando Dippet had still been headmaster instead of Dumbledore, how much you want to bet he’d have hired Voldemort? I seem to recall he tried to convince Headmaster Dippet to hire him right out of Hogwarts, but Professor Dippet said to wait and reapply when he was a little older. Of course, Dumbledore (and Voldemort, it should be noted) was a skilled Legilimens and already had the measure of Tom Riddle.

Another small detail (or two) often overlooked in this chapter: Hagrid sweeps a half-plucked rooster from the table and mentions he saw Ginny Weasley on the grounds—she claimed she was just looking around. Likely she had just killed that rooster. It would not be the last one she’d kill. The rooster’s cry is fatal to the basilisk, and Tom Riddle would take no chances.

Sure enough, Harry hears the basilisk for the first time while serving his detention, helping Lockhart answer his fan mail. Lockhart can’t hear it, which is strange. Harry tells Ron about the voice, and Ron says that he had a slug attack all over Special Award for Services to the School. Of course, that is Tom Riddle’s award for fingering Hagrid as the culprit in the last basilisk attacks, during which Moaning Myrtle was killed.

In chapter eight, “The Deathday Party,” the trio attends Nearly-Headless Nick’s Deathday Party. We also discover that Filch is a Squib, which explains why he never uses magic to clean up. Nick convinces Peeves to drop a Vanishing Cabinet on the floor, breaking it. Betcha that’s the same Vanishing Cabinet that Draco Malfoy spends most of sixth year repairing.

Another important note about this chapter: it forms the basis for all the dates in the Harry Potter series. Nearly-Headless Nick’s deathday is the only definitive date given: October 31, 1492. He tells Harry it’s his 500th deathday, which means that Harry is a second-year student in the school year 1992-1993. Going back, he was a first year in 1991-1992. Since he turned 11 in 1991, he was born July 31, 1980. All of the other dates in the series are based on this date, which is considered canon. Of course, none of the actual calendar dates will line up perfectly. For instance, term always starts on September 1, no matter what day of the week it is. Rowling has been famously unconcerned about maintaining that level of accuracy. It’s interesting to think that if Harry were really alive, he would be turning 33 this year, and it will not be for another four years that Albus Severus Potter and Rose Weasley go to Hogwarts, meaning right now, Albus Severus Potter is seven (depending on when his actual birthday is), and he would have been born in 2006, when Harry was 26 and Ginny was 25. This kind of dorky thing is fun for me to figure out.

Regarding the prospect of attending a deathday party, Hermione naturally sees it as a great learning experience, while Ron thinks it will be “dead depressing.” I happen to agree with Hermione in theory, but the end result was much closer to Ron’s prediction. Ron is pretty good about cracking some sort of joke or pun and then being right later. People forget about that when they just watch the movies instead of read the books, I think.

At the deathday party, Harry and Ron meet Moaning Myrtle. Later, when they are leaving, Harry hears the basilisk again, but this time they find a message written on the wall: “THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.” Draco Malfoy rightly concludes, “You’ll be next, Mudbloods.” Of course, the trio naturally suspects Draco is the heir and culprit after this outburst, but he does reveal one interesting thing: he knows what the Chamber of Secrets is, and he knows that the monster within goes after Muggle-born witches and wizards.

In the next chapter, “The Writing on the Wall,” after Snape accuses Harry of hiding something, Dumbledore gave “Harry a searching look.” At that point, I am fairly certain he’s using legilimency on Harry, and that he has discovered Harry heard a voice. He would, of course, know all about the Chamber of Secrets, having been at the school when it was opened before.

Later in the chapter, we learn Ginny was really disturbed about what happened to Mrs. Norris, and Ron concludes it is because she’s a cat lover. Of course, we later learn it’s because she thinks she is responsible.

Because all the copies of Hogwarts: A History have been taken out, Hermione chances asking Professor Binns about the Chamber of Secrets in History of Magic. A pause here to reflect that this class could easily have been the most interesting and potentially one of the most important courses Harry took, but it’s dead boring instead. As a result, he never pays attention and we as readers learn precious little wizarding history. That is a pity!

Professor Binns tells the rapt students the story of the Chamber of Secrets, dismissing it as myth. The trio goes to Moaning Myrtle’s bathroom, on the trail of the Heir of Slytherin. As they are leaving, they see Percy, who takes five points from Ron. As far as I can recall, this is the only mention of a prefect taking points from one of the trio (or from any student). It’s a wonder it doesn’t happen more often, but then the students may have a “we’re all in this together” mentality that prevents a lot of points from being taken. Still, how do you keep the Slytherin prefects in check? If it meant winning the cup, they’d take points left and right. Doesn’t seem fair to me, unless prefects can ONLY take points from their own housemates for infractions. Then, it makes total sense.

Because Hermione pays attention in Potions, she remembers Snape’s remark about Polyjuice Potion and even the name of the book where the recipe can be found, but it’s in the restricted section, so the trio has to figure out how to get permission to check it out. After Hermione suggests that if they made it sound as it they were just interested in the theory, Ron accurately predicts, “Oh, come one, no teacher’s going to fall for that… They’d have to be really thick.”

Finally, in chapter ten, “The Rogue Bludger,” Harry is trying to keep Professor Lockhart in a good mood so he will sign off for permission to check out Moste Potente Potions. Lockhart offers to “pass on [his] expertise” in Quidditch to Harry, noting he likes to help out “less able players.” This man is the most ridiculous person. Harry is probably the single most gifted Quidditch player at the school. He’s the youngest player in a century.

At any rate, they manage to get the book, and Hermione is uncharacteristically determined to break the rules when Harry wonders if they might get in trouble.

The Quidditch match with Slytherin begins, and as you probably remember, a rogue bludger chases Harry all over the pitch. In spite of this fact, he still manages to grab the Snitch right under Malfoy’s nose—nearly. He winds up with a broken arm, and that idiot Lockhart vanishes all the bones in his arm when he tries to fix it. I love his response to his error: “Ah. Yes. Well, that can sometimes happen. but the point is the bones are no longer broken. That’s the thing to bear in mind.” That’s the thing to bear in mind? And Hermione still defends him! “Anyone can make a mistake,” she says.

Dobby manages to visit Harry that night in the hospital wing. He sure gets away from Malfoy Manor quite a lot for a house elf. Wizards think they can’t do that kind of thing, but it seems they are little more wily than wizards realize. Moments later, a petrified Colin Creevey is brought into the hospital wing, and Dumbledore himself says that the Chamber of Secrets has been opened again. Emphasis mine. And he says, “The question is not who… The question is how.” Dumbledore, therefore, knew Tom Riddle opened it last time, though Hagrid was blamed, and he knows it must be Tom Riddle this time, but as Voldemort is currently bodiless and roaming the forests of Albania, Dumbledore doesn’t know how. I contend that it is not until the diary is found and destroyed that Dumbledore works out that Voldemort made horcruxes.

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Weekend Reading: January 11, 2014

Review: The Rock and the River, Kekla Magoon

A Note on Slytherins

Posted on June 4, 2013June 4, 2013 by Dana

Slytherin

You learn a great deal about the other houses if you are NOT sorted into Gryffindor in Pottermore, and in fact, if you are sorted into Gryffindor, you are simply greeted by Percy Weasley and instructed to follow the adventures of Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Because much of series seems to pit Gryffindors against Slytherins, and also because of Harry’s close shave with the Sorting Hat, we learn more about Slytherin than any other house aside from Gryffindor, and we also know more Slytherin students than we do students of any other house.

My husband was sorted into Slytherin on Pottermore. If we had all actually been Hogwarts students, we would have been an interesting family because we all would have been in different houses. It seems in the series that for the most part, families wind up sorted into the same house—witness the Weasleys and Malfoys. However, if anyone could reasonably be expected to be sorted into the same house, it would be twins, and we know Parvati and Padma Patil are sorted into different houses.

If you are sorted into Slytherin, you are greeted by prefect Gemma Farley. Interestingly enough, of the prefects on Pottermore, Gemma is the only girl who greets first years. We don’t know who her male counterpart is, and we don’t meet Gemma herself in the series. In fact, the only Slytherin prefects the trio ever mentions are Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson, who become prefects in Harry’s fifth year. We do learn in Snape’s memory that Lucius Malfoy was prefect when Snape was sorted into Slytherin, and we also know that Tom Riddle was not just prefect but also Head Boy. How much do you want to bet that Snape was probably a prefect, too? He was a good student: studious and intelligent.

Gemma Farley describes the Slytherin common room windows as being underwater, with a view of the lake. She notes that sometimes you can even see the giant squid swim by. The room, she says, has “the aura of a mysterious, underwater shipwreck.” She says that their ancient four-poster beds are shrouded in green hangings and the coverlets are woven with silver thread. The walls are covered with tapestries and portraits of famous Slytherins. The Head of House when Harry starts is, of course, Severus Snape. Oddly enough, Gemma doesn’t mention him at all. The other prefects all mention their head of house. Well, I can’t remember for certain if Percy Weasley does. I will have to check. After Snape becomes headmaster, Horace Slughorn is once again Head of Slytherin, as he had been before Snape’s arrival at Hogwarts. The house ghost is the Bloody Baron, actually the only scary ghost at Hogwarts, who sports silver bloodstains acquired when he murdered Helena Ravenclaw in a rage.

While Slytherin has turned out more dark wizards than any other house, which has given the house something of a notorious reputation, Gemma counters that the other houses have produced their share of dark wizards, too. She also mentions the anti-Muggle bias, and she acknowledges that it is somewhat true that Slytherins tend to come from pureblood families, but that it is not unusual to find Slytherins with one Muggle parent. While Gemma doesn’t come right out and say so, I think it’s safe to infer that Slytherin house has few Muggle-born students. Obviously, it has had half-blood students (Severus Snape and Tom Riddle being two examples). This raises an interesting question. What does the Sorting Hat do when a Muggle-born student with otherwise Slytherin traits comes to school? Surely, it has happened. Perhaps the student’s secondary characteristics are considered instead. Or, perhaps these students are sorted into Slytherin after all. Purebloods, as we have seen, are not automatically sorted into Slytherin, so perhaps blood status is not as important as other traits.

Gemma also shares that Merlin, the most famous wizard of all-time, was a Slytherin. Leaving aside the fact that Merlin, if he ever lived, likely lived before the founding of Hogwarts, it makes perfect sense that he was a Slytherin. He engineered Arthur’s birth for his own purposes, even though they were, depending on your point of view, noble. He also took Arthur away from his mother and had him fostered with Sir Ector. He has some wily, Slytherin traits, indeed.

Slytherins see themselves as cool and edgy and believe their house is superior to the other houses at Hogwarts. Gemma says that Slytherins have a sort of pack mentality, though she doesn’t use those words. If you are sorted into Slytherin, you can count on the loyalty of the other Slytherins. She indicates Ravenclaws often stab each other in the back as they clamber to earn the highest grades. Besides, she says, the Slytherin reputation can be valuable in that other students will think twice before messing with you. She also mentions that Slytherins are competitive because they care about the honor and traditions of their house.

Gemma claims that what Salazar Slytherin sought in his students was the seeds of greatness. Of course, we know as readers he also prized pureblood status (as he didn’t trust Muggles) and, as Dumbledore once put it, “a certain disregard for the rules.” While it might not always be apparent that Slytherins have the seeds of greatness *coughCrabbeandGoylecough*, Gemma says that if students were sorted into Slytherin, then they have potential. I think this is an interesting point because the Sorting Hat tells Harry: “You could be great, you know, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that.”

As the series unfolds, we learn that Slytherins are more complex than they appear to be at the outset. Their character traits, cunning, resourcefulness, and ambition, are not negative traits except when taken to excess. We also see several Slytherins act nobly. Severus Snape might be the most notable example, but certainly, others do their part for good. Horace Slughorn fights against Voldemort’s forces at the Battle of Hogwarts. Andromeda Black Tonks marries a Muggle-born wizard, Ted Tonks, and helps hide Harry from Voldemort.

In fact, Gemma grudgingly admits that perhaps Gryffindors and Slytherins, while old rivals, might have more in common than they’d like to admit. I would imagine that is one reason why we learn more about Slytherins than we do Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs when we read the series.

Finally, Gemma mentions that no outsider has entered the Slytherin common room in 700 years, which we know is untrue, but it raises an interesting question: who entered the common room 700 years ago and what happened to them?

All of the houses have virtues, but each has its vices as well, and in no other house is this mesh of virtue and vice more complicated than in Slytherin.

The following characters are known Slytherins:

Draco Malfoy
Vincent Crabbe
Gregory Goyle
Pansy Parkinson
Millicent Bulstrode
Marcus Flint
Adrian Pucey
Montague
Terence Higgs
Theodore Nott
Blaise Zabini
Daphne Greengrass (older sister of Draco Malfoy’s wife, Astoria Greengrass)
Tom Marvolo Riddle
Severus Snape
Avery
Mulciber
Evan Rosier
Lucius Malfoy
Narcissa Black Malfoy
Bellatrix Black Lestrange
Rodolphus Lestrange
Rabastan Lestrange
Regulus Black
The entire Black family except for Sirius
Horace Slughorn
Scabior
Dolores Umbridge (J. K. Rowling confirmed this after the fact, but really, was there any doubt?)

Characters I strongly suspect were Slytherins, but whose house has never been confirmed:

Rita Skeeter (I mean, come on.)
Ludo Bagman (He has the self-preservation of a Slytherin.)
Cornelius Fudge (Preserving his role as Minister and the appearance that he was competent at the expense of nearly everyone? Yeah.)
Albert Runcorn (He seems to be trusted by the Death Eaters at any rate, and loathed by Arthur Weasley. Seems fair enough.)
Rufus Scrimgeour (He is brave, no doubt, but he also throws out justice at the expense of wanting to be thought of as doing something about the Voldemort problem. Cf. Stan Shunpike.)
Amycus Carrow (Death Eater. Teaches Dark Arts to students.)
Alecto Carrow (Death Eater. Teaches pureblood mania, Muggle hatred in Muggle Studies.)
Yaxley (Death Eater.)
Caractacus Burke (Owns a Dark Arts shop in Knockturn Alley with Borgin.)
Borgin (Owns a Dark Arts shop in Knockturn Alley with Burke.)
Thorfinn Rowle (Death Eater.)
Walden Macnair (Death Eater.)
Jugson (Death Eater.)
Travers (Death Eater.)
Wilkes (Friend of Snape’s and Death Eater.)
Selwyn (Death Eater.)
Gibbon (Death Eater, accidentally killed by Rowle.)

Characters I DON”T think were Slytherin, despite later being somewhat Slytherin-y:

Barty Crouch, Sr. (He didn’t seem to lord his pureblood status enough for a Slytherin pureblood. I suspect Ravenclaw.)
Barty Crouch, Jr. (I think he was also a Ravenclaw. He got 12 O.W.L.s)
Gwenog Jones, Quidditch Player for the Holyhead Harpies and Slug Club member (Despite being in the Slug Club, my hunch is Gryffindor. Quite a few Gryffindors were in the Slug Club.)
Olive Hornby, who teased Moaning Myrtle about her glasses (Teasing is mean, but all the students engage in that sort of thing.)
Gilderoy Lockhart. (He is apparently a Ravenclaw. I don’t get it either. Of course, that is movie canon, but I wonder if, in this instance, Rowling didn’t give it her approval.)
Stan Shunpike (He was Imperiused and used by Death Eaters, but he never showed any Slytherin traits himself. More likely Hufflepuff, but I don’t think he made it to N.E.W.T. level at Hogwarts. One suspects he didn’t pass many of his O.W.L.’s.)
Pius Thicknesse (Though the puppet Minister of Magic under Voldemort’s control, Yaxley does say it took a lot of effort to Imperius him, so my guess is he doesn’t sympathize much with their world view when not under a curse.)
Igor Karkaroff (Not from Britain, likely went to Durmstrang.)
Antonin Dolohov (I suspect he also went to Durmstrang.)
Fenrir Greyback (I don’t think he was allowed to attend Hogwarts. Of course, I guess that depends on when he became a werewolf; much was made of the exception that Dumbledore allowed for Lupin to attend.)
Marvolo, Morfin, and Merope Gaunt (I think I remember that they never went to Hogwarts.)

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Re-Reading Harry Potter: The Burrow

Posted on June 2, 2013 by Dana

The Burrow

The first five chapters of [amazon_link id=”0439064872″ target=”_blank” ]Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets[/amazon_link] cover the period of time spanning from Harry’s awful 12th birthday, including his introduction to Dobby, the spoiling of Petunia’s pudding, and his imprisonment in his room, to Ron and Harry’s spectacular arrival at Hogwarts via flying Ford Anglia.

Through our introduction to Dobby, we learn house elves have powerful magic of their own. Dobby is able to apparate and disapparate, even in areas like Hogwarts where apparition and disapparition is impossible for witches and wizards. Dobby’s hover charm lands Harry in trouble with the Ministry because, we later learn, they know where magic has been performed, but not who performed it. Seems to me that houses with a lot of underage wizards, such as the Weasleys, probably get away with a lot more shenanigans than poor Harry could, as it would be difficult to determine who performed the magic, and indeed, it must be left to the parents to supervise. But Harry is the only wizard in Little Whinging, so he is unlikely to catch a break. We learn a great deal more about the Trace later on, but essential it is a charm placed on all underage wizards that alerts the ministry to magic performed in the vicinity of said underage wizard. Harry falls under more scrutiny as he lives with Muggles, and performing underage magic might not only be potentially harmful but might also breach the International Statue of Wizarding Secrecy. However, the Trace does seem to be rather inconsistently applied, and one might say, unfairly applied to Harry in particular, but when the Order of the Phoenix retrieves Harry from Privet Drive, they perform several spells, and the Ministry does not swoop in and clap Harry in the stocks. Hermione says she has tried a few simple spells before getting on the train to Hogwarts, and she seemingly did not get into trouble. Why? Because she didn’t know any better yet? It seems to me that the Trace is, for the most part, rather ineffective at preventing underage wizards who live near other wizards from doing magic. For instance, Tom Riddle murdered his father and grandparents when he was sixteen, but he didn’t he get caught performing underage magic, and his magic was much more harmful than anything Harry ever did, not just to Riddle’s family but to the wider wizarding community who wouldn’t want Muggles to start up another witch hunt. In fact, the biggest breach of the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery that Harry commits is casting a Patronus charm to save himself and Dudley from a Dementor, and of course, such magic is permitted in life-threatening situations.

At any rate, after Dobby mysteriously is able to leave Malfoy Manor to warn Harry Potter not to go to school and winds up getting Harry in a great deal of trouble both with the Ministry and with Uncle Vernon, Harry is stuck in his room, miserably eating cold soup with Hedwig, when Ron, Fred, and George come to the rescue in Arthur’s flying Ford Anglia. The Weasleys fly Harry to the Burrow, which he describes to Ron as “the best house I’ve ever been in.” The Burrow would continue to be a place of solace and comfort, where Harry would find his real family. I have to agree with Harry. The Burrow is this amazing, madcap place, and the description Rowling gives makes it seem at once incredibly magical (it is most likely held up by magic) and incredibly comfortable. It is one of my favorite places in the novels, and I always enjoy it when Harry visits.

The family goes to Diagon Alley for school supplies, and Harry, who has never used Floo Powder before, doesn’t speak clearly enough and winds up in dodgy Knockturn Alley in time to see Lucius Malfoy unload some illegal-sounding goods on Mr. Borgin at Borgin and Burkes. In this scene, we are introduced to two magical objects that become important in [amazon_link id=”0439785960″ target=”_blank” ]Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince[/amazon_link]: the cursed opal necklace and the Vanishing Cabinet. Draco notices the necklace on this trip to Borgin and Burkes, and we know he buys it later and winds up nearly killing Katie Bell with it (albeit in an attempt to kill Dumbledore with it). The sign indicates that the necklace has killed nineteen Muggles. I have always wondered if it was engineered precisely to kill Muggles by a dark wizard with anti-Muggle leanings. The Vanishing Cabinet’s partner is at Hogwarts. It’s not broken yet, but it will be by Halloween when Nearly-Headless Nick convinces Peeves to break it in order to distract Argus Filch from punishing Harry. Presumably, if Harry had wandered too far into the cabinet, he could have found himself at Hogwarts, although, according to the movies, you need to speak an incantation to complete the process. I consider the books, Pottermore, and official word from Rowling to be canon, and so far, there is no reason to believe based on canon that a wizard can’t simply walk into one cabinet and out the other. I have to admit I’m curious who placed the cabinets in their respective locations. Whoever it was, they were clearly up to something. Might even have been Tom Riddle. It would make sense. He worked at Borgin and Burkes, and we know he was desperate to get into Hogwarts to find artifacts to transform into horcruxes.

At Flourish and Blotts, we meet Gilderoy Lockhart, the only character J.K. Rowling confesses she based on a particularly unpleasant individual she knew. I was talking with Southern author Sharyn McCrumb about this character on McCrumb’s Facebook page. She made the comment that she could tell Lockhart was based on a real person, and I replied that Rowling had said so, and McCrumb made an interesting comment to the effect that the description was so spot on—the gender, age, and other particular details may have been changed to hide the real person’s identity better, but the essence of the character was intact and so clear a portrayal of a classic narcissist that McCrumb insisted he must be based on a real person. Facebook doesn’t make it easy to go back and find a particular post, so I can’t recall her exact words. He even retains this narcissistic element of his personality after his memory has been wiped by his own charm, which shows how deeply ingrained a part of him it is.

Another small incident that becomes interesting later: Percy is seen reading a book called Prefects Who Gained Power. Percy is really irritated when Ron teases him about it, and Ron remarks that Percy is very ambitious and would like to be Minister of Magic one day. Later on, when he acts like a complete git and sides with Fudge against his family and Harry, it makes sense because we know he is worried his association with them will hurt his prospects. I don’t think he ever became Minister of Magic, though I can well believe he devoted his career to the Ministry.

Lucius Malfoy also get into a fight over “what disgraces the name of wizard.” I do so love that scene. Pottermore reveals a great deal more about the Malfoy family. The family came to Britain with William the Conqueror, who gave Armand Malfoy the land in Wiltshire where the family still lives. They have historically been a slippery lot, and they often evade punishment for their crimes. Lucius Malfoy, for instance, claimed he had been under the Imperius Curse during Voldemort’s first reign of terror, a claim he would obviously not successfully be able to make the second time. We don’t learn this in the books, but Pottermore says he testified against Voldemort’s other Death Eaters in order to aid in their capture and conviction.

As soon as the Weasleys and Harry arrive, they eat and are put to work de-gnoming the garden, which is a pretty funny scene. Before too long, it is time to go back to school, and Harry discovers the Ford Anglia has been expertly enlarged to accommodate all the luggage and travelers. This charm must be the same charm performed on the tents at the Quidditch World Cup and possibly the same charm cast on Hermione’s beaded handbag in [amazon_link id=”0545139708″ target=”_blank” ]Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows[/amazon_link] and on Alastor Moody’s magical trunk in [amazon_link id=”0439139600″ target=”_blank” ]Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire[/amazon_link]. Hermione calls this charm the Undetectable Extension Charm.

At one point, the crew turns back because Ginny has forgotten her diary, which we later learn is a horcrux created by Voldemort when he murdered his father and grandparents. Ever wonder what would have happened if Arthur had said screw it, we are not going back for that? The horcrux would have been unable to do the damage it did at Hogwarts that year, unleashing the basilisk on the school, but we also may never have discovered that Voldemort made horcruxes, which might have made it impossible to defeat him later.

Pottermore has an interesting article about wizarding notions of Muggle technology. Arthur Weasley, for example, is obviously fascinated by it. However, we learn on Pottermore that wizards have at best a “condescending curiosity” about Muggle technology and at worst, an active disdain for it. Wizards don’t really need technology because they can use spells to do many of the things we need technology to do. Wizards’ aversion to technology is also cultural: using it might make it look like you don’t know how to properly perform spells. I can imagine an old pureblood wizarding family like the Malfoys having a much greater dislike for technology than, say, families mixed with Muggle heritage. Wizards have adapted two pieces of Muggle technology for their use, however: radio and cars. Apparently, there was an attempt to adapt television for wizarding use, but it was seen as too risky by the Ministry, whereas, for whatever reason, Muggles who accidently picked up wizarding communications via radio were seen as less of a threat. Cars were adopted out of practicality. Once Muggles stopped using horses and carts, then it made little sense for wizards to keep using them, unless they really wanted to attract Muggle notice. Over time, they learned to love cars as much as Muggles, but some families still held some disdain for the technology. Sirius Black’s family, for example, abhorred his flying motorcycle.

Once at King’s Cross Station, Ron and Harry are unable to get through the barrier to Platform 9¾. We learn later that Dobby has magically sealed the entrance. On Pottermore, you learn that Ministry of Magic officials are on hand at King’s Cross each year in case the Muggles do notice wizards disappearing onto the platform. It’s a wonder none of them were around when Harry and Ron caused their clamor. I suppose it’s understandable that in a moment of panic, Harry and Ron don’t think to send Hedwig to Hogwarts to explain their predicament. I suppose it stands to reason they might be concerned that Arthur and Molly can’t come through the barrier, but surely they could have apparated out. The moment Harry and Ron decide the only way they can get to Hogwarts is via flying Ford Anglia is the Dream Team at their most clueless. Naturally, they are in big trouble when they get back to school. The Whomping Willow smashes up the car, which ejects them. Snape first refers to the Whomping Willow as a valuable tree, which makes sense. They are probably rare. Later on, he calls it old, which, for a tree, it clearly isn’t. I think the exchange that takes place when he catches Harry and Ron outside the Great Hall is hilarious:

“Maybe he’s ill!” said Ron hopefully.

“Maybe he’s left,” said Harry, “because he missed out on the Defense Against the Dark Arts job again!”

“Or he might have been sacked!”said Ron enthusiastically. “I mean, everyone hates him—”

“Or maybe,” said a very cold voice right behind them, “he’s waiting to hear why you two didn’t arrive on the school train.”

At any rate, all that winds up happening to Harry and Ron is that they miss the feast and receive detention, which results in a Howler for Ron and nothing much for Harry. I imagine Hogwarts probably did talk about their arrival in the flying Ford Anglia for years.

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A Note on Hufflepuffs

Posted on June 1, 2013June 3, 2013 by Dana

I recently wrote about Ravenclaws, as I landed in Ravenclaw House, but all of my kids somehow wound up in Hufflepuff, although I’m not sure Dylan really took the quiz all that seriously, so I doubt his results.

The prefect who welcomes new Hufflepuffs in Harry’s year is named Gabriel Truman. Like Robert Hilliard, the Ravenclaw prefect who welcomes first years, he is a character we never meet in any of the books. In fact, the only Hufflepuff prefects we ever actually meet are Cedric Diggory (he tells Harry how to use the prefects’ bathroom to work out the egg clue) and Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbott, who became prefects for Hufflepuff the same year Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger became prefects. We know Cedric Diggory to be captain of his house’s Quidditch team as well.

Hufflepuff House’s Common Room is one floor below ground in same corridor as the kitchens. Gabriel Truman says that Hufflepuffs, sadly, are often underestimated, which is why their emblem is the badger. Badgers look docile, but when they are provoked, they can even take on wolves.

Truman is most eager to dispel the pervading myth that Hufflepuffs are, well, not bright. On the contrary, Hufflepuff House has produced a great many accomplished witches and wizards, including Grogan Stump, one of the most popular Ministers of Magic in history, as well as Artemesia Lufkin and Dugald McPhail, also Ministers of Magic. Newt Scamander, author of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, was also a Hufflepuff. Hufflepuff House also produced Bridget Wenlock, famed Arithmancer who first discovered the magical properties of the number seven and Hengist of Woodcroft, who founded Hogsmeade. Gabriel Truman says that Hufflepuffs are unassuming and modest, and because they do not shout a lot about their accomplishments, some folks think they don’t have many. In fact, Truman singles Ravenclaws out in particular as having difficulty fathoming how anyone who shows a spark of brilliance didn’t come from their house. You can actually see this character defect at work in [amazon_link id=”0439358078″ target=”_blank” ]Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix[/amazon_link] when Hermione puts a Protean Charm on coins, and Ravenclaw Terry Boot says, “How come you’re not in Ravenclaw? With brains like yours?” He clearly doesn’t understand why someone brilliant enough to perform N.E.W.T.-level charms work is not in his house.

However, one area in which Hufflepuff House is rather lacking is in its number of Dark wizards. In fact, Hufflepuff has produced fewer Dark wizards than every other house, including Gryffindor. Truman says that Hufflepuffs get along best with Gryffindors, which is something readers see in the series, but they resent the Slytherins’ lack of fair play and the Ravenclaws’ intellectual snobbery.

The entrance to the Hufflepuff Common Room is cleverly disguised behind some barrels in a nook on the right side of the kitchen corridor. You have to tap barrel two from the bottom, second row, in the rhythm of “Helga Hufflepuff” to open the lid. Tap the wrong barrel or use the wrong rhythm, and you’ll be doused in vinegar. Hufflepuff is the only house that has such an intruder-repelling device. Once you have opened the lid, crawl in and at the end of the passageway is the coziest of all the Hogwarts common rooms. Decorations include some of Professor Sprout’s specimens, lots of burnished copper, overstuffed yellow and black chairs. Each bed in the dormitory is covered with a patchwork quilt. In fact, in description, the common room and dorms with their round windows and doors, low ceilings, and view of sunshine and rippling grass and dandelions, sound a lot like a Hobbit Hole, and as you know, that means comfort.

As you probably remember from the series, Professor Pomona Sprout is the Head of Hufflepuff, and the Fat Friar is its ghost.

Hufflepuffs see themselves as the friendliest, most decent, and most tenacious of the four houses. Being placed in Hufflepuff marks you as loyal, hardworking, fair-minded, accepting, and kind. Who wouldn’t want a Hufflepuff in their corner?

Characters who were in Hufflepuff House include the following:

Nymphadora Tonks
Susan Bones
Ernie Macmillan
Hannah Abbott (who later marries Neville Longbottom and winds up working at the Leaky Cauldron)
Cedric Diggory
Zacharias Smith
Justin Finch-Fletchley
Leanne, Katie Bell’s friend
Unknown Stebbins (Snape took points from Hufflepuff from Stebbins and Fawcett, a Ravenclaw, at the Yule Ball)

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A Note on Ravenclaws

Posted on May 28, 2013June 4, 2013 by Dana

I mentioned in a previous post that I was extremely excited to be placed in Ravenclaw. I learned some interesting things about Ravenclaw House that do not make it into the series.

The prefect who welcomes new Ravenclaws in Harry’s year is named Robert Hilliard. He is a character we never meet in any of the books, but it stands to reason that his female counterpart is Penelope Clearwater.

Ravenclaw House is the only one of the four houses with no concealed entrance. As we saw in Deathly Hallows, in order to get in the Common Room, Ravenclaws must answer a question. Presumably, this requirement keeps out members of other houses. Doesn’t say much for what they think of the intelligence of the other students! However, Robert Hilliard claims this “simple barrier” has kept out everyone but Ravenclaw students for 1,000 years. However, as the questions sometimes pose a challenge, Hilliard warns that it is not unusual to see a crowd of students outside the door attempting to answer the question, and he advises first years to triple check belongings before leaving Ravenclaw Tower because it might be hard to get back in.

Hilliard maintains that Ravenclaws are the most accepting of eccentrics, and when one considers that such noted eccentrics as Quirinius Quirrell, Garrick Ollivander, and Luna Lovegood were Ravenclaws, he probably has a point.

Hilliard also shares the rumor that the Head of Ravenclaw House, Filius Flitwick is small because he is part elf, but no one has ever asked. Professor Flitwick is said to cheer up his students by entertaining them with dancing cupcakes.

Famous Ravenclaws include the following:

Perpetua Fancourt, the inventor of the lunascope.
Laverne de Montmorency, a great pioneer of love potions.
Ignatia Wildsmith, the inventor of Floo powder.
Millicent Bagnold, Minister for Magic who was in power on the night that Harry Potter survived the Dark Lord’s curse, and defended the wizarding celebrations all over Britain with the words, “I assert our inalienable right to party.”
Minister for Magic Lorcan McLaird, who was a quite brilliant wizard, but preferred to communicate by puffing smoke out of the end of his wand.
Uric the Oddball, who used a jellyfish for a hat. He’s the punch line of a lot of wizarding jokes.

About the students in other houses, Hilliard shares the following:

Slytherins. They’re not all bad, but you’d do well to be on your guard until you know them well. They’ve got a long house tradition of doing whatever it takes to win—so watch out, especially in Quidditch matches and exams.
The Gryffindors are OK. If I had a criticism, I’d say Gryffindors tend to be show-offs. They’re also much less tolerant than we are of people who are different; in fact, they’ve been known to make jokes about Ravenclaws who have developed an interest in levitation, or the possible magical uses of troll bogies, or ovomancy, which (as you probably know) is a method of divination using eggs. Gryffindors haven’t got our intellectual curiosity, whereas we’ve got no problem if you want to spend your days and nights cracking eggs in a corner of the common room and writing down your predictions according to the way the yolks fall. In fact, you’ll probably find a few people to help you.
As for the Hufflepuffs, well, nobody could say they’re not nice people. In fact, they’re some of the nicest people in the school. Let’s just say you needn’t worry too much about them when it comes to competition at exam time.

He adds that the Ravenclaw ghost, the Grey Lady, doesn’t speak to other students, but she will help out Ravenclaws. Perhaps it is all the more stunning, then, that Tom Riddle and Harry Potter both managed to get her to talk to them.

Other characters who were in Ravenclaw House include the following:

Moaning Myrtle
Filius Flitwick
Garrick Ollivander
Quirinius Quirrell
Helena Ravenclaw
Penelope Clearwater
Roger Davies
Eddie Carmichael
Cho Chang
Marietta Edgecombe
Terry Boot
Mandy Brocklehurst
Michael Corner
Padma Patil
Marcus Belby
Anthony Goldstein
Morag McDougal
Lisa Turpin
Stewart Ackerley
Orla Quirke
Unknown Fawcett (Snape takes points off this student at the Yule Ball)
Unknown Chambers and Unknown Bradley (Quidditch players)

Updated, 6/4/13 to add that Gilderoy Lockhart was a Ravenclaw. WTF?

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Re-Reading Harry Potter: The Man with Two Faces

Posted on May 27, 2013May 26, 2013 by Dana

The concluding chapters of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone bring Harry through the trap door and face-to-face with Voldemort for the second time in his life. After the last exam in History of Magic, Hermione mentions that she need not have learned about “the 1637 Werewolf Code of Conduct or the uprising of Elfric the Eager.” Given Professor Binns’s fascination with the dealings of goblins, I have a hunch that Elfric the Eager was a goblin involved in some rebellion or other. The Werewolf Code of Conduct is presumably an agreement or set of rules dictating werewolf behavior. Fenrir Greyback probably disregards the whole thing, but my hunch is good werewolves like Remus Lupin follow the code.

Another thing I noticed in chapter 16 was when Harry decided he would have to go through the trap door that night and plans to use his invisibility cloak, Ron says, “But will it cover all three of us?” As Harry tries to convince them not to come, Hermione insists that he will need their help. She turns out to be right, as it is unlikely he would get past McGonagall’s chess set or Snape’s logic puzzle without them. However, it caught my eye because we see Ron and Hermione’s insistence in following Harry into danger when he tries to go it alone repeated later, especially in Deathly Hallows when they go on the run with Harry.

Neville bravely tries to stop the trio from going out again, and we later learn that this act of courage will earn him the only points he will earn his first year. We also get to see Hermione’s power as a witch as she casts a rather horrible full Body-Bind curse on Neville. She is kind of scary.

For the second time in this book, Mrs. Norris is skulking around while Harry is under the cloak. She looks right at him both times, and both times he seems unsure whether or not she knows he is there. I would contend she knows something is there; after all, she can smell. The night vision of cats is notoriously good. Peeves can also sense the trio’s presence, but Harry fends him off with a clever ruse.

I love the part when Hermione is trying to remember how to combat Devil’s Snare, and the change made to that scene in the movie is kind of pointless. Hermione remembers Devil’s Snare hates fire, but she doesn’t have any wood! Ron, aghast, screams, “HAVE YOU GONE MAD? ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?”

Later on, Ron shows true Gryffindor bravery when he allows himself to be taken in the giant chess game. I always liked that part. He is so frequently overshadowed by his brothers and Harry. He puts up with it very well for the most part, but he gets tired of it, and it is always good when he has moments like these. Knowing that he and Harry go on to be Aurors together, it’s fairly safe to say he spends his career in Harry’s shadow, too, but he has revealed a sense of humor about it by the time we see them sending their own children off on the Hogwarts Express.

In the last chapter, Quirrell describes Snape as “swooping around like an overgrown bat.” This throwaway line introduced a lot of speculation among Harry Potter fans that Snape was a vampire. His appearance, his preternatural ability to discern when Harry was up to something… there is more, and I’ll return to it when I discuss Prisoner of Azkaban. But Rowling has said no, Snape is not a vampire. He’s just really unpleasant. He’s actually my favorite character, for reasons that will become clearer as I discuss the rest of the series.

Sure enough, Quirrell confirms that Snape was already on to him by Halloween, and that Snape had gone to the third floor to head Quirrell off. I am definitely going to have to look for what Snape says about Quirrell in the memory Harry sees in the Pensieve.

We also learn that Snape and James Potter had a deep and burning hatred for each other, much, as Dumbledore points out, like Harry and Malfoy.

Quirrell says that Voldemort taught him that “There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it.” You know what this statement reminds me of? It reminds me of the corruption of Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader. Palpatine says to Anakin: “Remember back to your early teachings. ‘All who gain power are afraid to lose it.’ Even the Jedi.” He then tells Anakin the story of Darth Plagueis the Wise (Palpatine’s own former master, whom he killed, as is the way of the Sith), including the fact that Plagueis had discovered how to conquer death. Anakin remarks in surprise, “He could do that? He could actually save people from death?” to which Palpatine replies, “The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.” When Anakin asks what happened to Plagueis, Palpatine says, “He became so powerful… the only thing he was afraid of was losing his power, which eventually, of course, he did. Unfortunately, he taught his apprentice everything he knew, and then one night, his apprentice killed him in his sleep. It’s ironic that he could save others from death, but not himself.” Harry, unlike Anakin, realizes that there are things worse than death, and one thing we discover by the end of the series is that there are ways to be more powerful in death, just as some of Jedi discover in Star Wars.

My point in bringing this up is that Palpatine’s seduction of Vader is similar to Quirrellmort’s attempted seduction of Harry. Where Palpatine was successful in swaying Vader to the Dark Side, Voldemort fails. Harry doesn’t see the world in the same way as Voldemort, and he is not as afraid, even as an eleven-year-old boy, to face death. He fights in this scene and nearly loses his life, but he plunges forward anyway because not to do so would allow Voldemort to win, at least in his mind. Vader is too scared to lose Padmé and is too desperate to learn how to be master over death. In so doing, he only ensures that Padmé will die. It is rather like the scene when Macbeth wonders whether or not he need really kill Duncan to be king. “If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me without my stir.” If Vader had done nothing, the result might have been different, but his actions may have brought about the events he was desperate to prevent. Likewise, Voldemort, who is like Plagueis in that he was only afraid of losing power, eventually lost his power, too. Harry knows there are more important things in life, and that there is indeed a difference between good and evil.

Harry is an interesting mirror for Voldemort in which to examine himself. They had similar childhoods, but Harry’s choices led him down a very different path. Even Voldemort notices the similarities, which may be why he saw Harry as a threat and marked him as his equal.

Interestingly, when Rowling is asked about how the novels became darker as the series wore on, she often brings up Voldemort’s face on the back of Quirrell’s head as horrific example of darkness in the first book. And indeed, she does begin the story with the deaths of James and Lily Potter. But there is a much darker tone as the series continues. One thing I sense as I re-read is that the tone is just about right for Harry’s age in each present book. Because the story is filtered through his point of view, that makes sense.

After Dumbledore arrives to save Harry in the end, Harry wakes up in the hospital wing, surrounded by sweets. Dumbledore remarks that “What happened down in the dungeons between you and Professor Quirrell is a complete secret, so, naturally, the whole school knows.” Anyone who has ever worked in a school, or perhaps anywhere, knows this is one of the truer statements about human nature in the series.

However, in their conversation, Harry does learn some important things:

Voldemort is not truly alive, so he cannot truly be killed. Dumbledore probably has his suspicions about how Voldemort accomplished this, but he is not yet certain. And yes, this means Voldemort can come back, but Dumbledore holds out hope that they can delay his return indefinitely.
Voldemort singled Harry out for a reason, but Dumbledore does not think he is ready to hear it yet. Maybe one day.
Love is some of the most powerful magic of all.
Dumbledore sent him the cloak (though he probably should have figured that out based on Dumbledore’s earlier remark about it).
Harry’s father saved Snape’s life, although it should be mentioned that it is not nearly as noble as Dumbledore makes it out to be here. He was just doing the right thing and not really sticking his neck out for Snape. In fact, his motivation might even have been to prevent Sirius from being responsible for Snape’s death rather than rescuing Snape himself. I don’t think Snape does anything this year out of any sort of debt to James. But we learn all about that later.

Later the trio speculates that Dumbledore must have known Harry was going to try to go after the Stone, so he taught Harry just enough to do it. I’m with Hermione on this one. “That’s terrible,” she says. They are a bunch of first year students! I find Dumbledore to be terribly frustrating sometimes.

As I pointed out in my previous post, it’s really Ron’s 50 points that makes the largest difference in Gryffindor’s winning the House Cup, which no one really notices, by the way. Taking into account the 50 points lost together with the 50 points Dumbledore gives her, Hermione breaks even. Neville lost 50 and earned 10, so he is -40. Harry lost 50 and gained 60, so he really only earned 10 points for defeating Quirrellmort. Ron didn’t go out that night with Norbert to the Astronomy Tower, so he didn’t lose any points. He gained 50 full points.

Another interesting thing I hadn’t noticed before: when the exam results arrive, everyone does well, and Hermione is top of the class, but “Even Neville scraped through, his good Herbology mark making up for his abysmal Potions one.” I have read this novel I don’t know how many times, and I didn’t pick up on that before. Obviously, Neville later shows a very strong aptitude for Herbology and becomes Herbology professor when Harry and Ron’s children go to Hogwarts. Nice!

I think the main purpose of this first book is to establish the wizarding world and introduce the conflict between Harry and Voldemort. We don’t find out as much about nuances, such as the anti-Muggle and Muggle-born prejudice, until the second book. It strikes me that it is Chamber of Secrets that sets the tone and establishes the themes that will concern the rest of the series. But at the end of Philosopher’s Stone, the threat of Voldemort seems very distant indeed, and we don’t even find out about his followers until later.

Musing Mondays—June 13, 2011

Re-Reading Harry Potter: Harry at Hogwarts

A Note on Ravenclaws

Re-Reading Harry Potter: “Mars is Bright Tonight”

Posted on May 26, 2013 by Dana

Chapters 11-15 of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone cover Harry’s first ever Quidditch game through his detention in the Forbidden Forest when he discovers it’s actually Voldemort who is after the Philosopher’s Stone (roughly November through May or June, I think). The first statement that caught my eye in chapter 11 was that “Hermione had become a bit more relaxed about breaking rules since Harry and Ron had saved her from the mountain troll and she was much nicer for it.” I think this new attitude of Hermione’s speaks to the need for balance. Had she landed in Ravenclaw after all, she might never have developed this side of her personality. Sometimes, you need to break rules because greater things than obeying rules are at stake, as the trio discovers many times throughout the series. Sometimes, the rules are wrong and should be broken. Hermione learns both of these lessons from Harry and Ron.

Rowling also continues to build up her case against Snape when Harry glimpses Snape’s wounded leg when trying to get Quidditch Through the Ages back from him. Naturally, Snape was checking on Fluffy to make sure Quirrell wasn’t going through the trap door, but Harry is much more inclined to think Snape is up to something than that Quirrell is because Snape is so unpleasant.

During the Quidditch game, naturally Hermione sees Snape muttering a curse (actually a counter-curse to keep Harry on his broom) and thinks Snape is jinxing the broom. Rowling is clever enough to point out that Hermione knocks Quirrell over in her attempt to set fire to Snape’s robes, thus breaking the true culprit’s concentration. Can we pause for a moment and wonder why Dumbledore hasn’t fired Quirrell at this point? I mean, Snape has surely told Dumbledore that Quirrell let in the troll at Halloween (I know Snape has guessed this much) and that he is after the Philosopher’s Stone. Why does Dumbledore keep so many rotten and frankly dangerous teachers around Hogwarts? I have a vague memory that Snape and Dumbledore discuss this issue in the Snape’s memory near the end of Deathly Hallows.

Yet another plot device that seems unimportant becomes crucial in Deathly Hallows: Harry catches the Snitch in his mouth. Who knew those things had flesh memories? I mean, it makes sense because there are bound to be instances when who caught the Snitch first is in dispute.

Early in chapter 12, the trio has agreed not to ask Madam Pince about Nicolas Flamel even though they are sure she could tell them who he was. Not sharing information with those who could help becomes a running theme in the series. Thankfully, Harry grows out of it by Half-Blood Prince. I doubt Madam Pince would have put two-and-two together enough to share information about who was trying to learn about Nicolas Flamel. Perhaps she would, but the trio strikes me as a bit paranoid here. She’s not the most helpful librarian, however, so it stands to reason they don’t feel like asking her questions for that reason.

We get to see our first Christmas at Hogwarts as Harry and the Weasleys stay behind during the holidays. I love Christmas at Hogwarts. One thing Rowling writes so well is descriptions of food. I think her descriptions of Hogwarts feasts and various other treats such as wizarding candy and Butterbeer are perhaps the most evocative descriptions in the whole series. I never fail to crave French onion soup, for example, whenever I read that passage near the beginning of Half-Blood Prince when Molly Weasley is making Harry French onion soup. She even manages to make foods I dislike, such as peas, sound appetizing.

Harry actually has a pile of presents on Christmas morning, including his father’s old invisibility cloak, which we learn is THE invisibility cloak in the “The Tale of the Three Brothers” by Beedle the Bard. This story, it turns out, has its origins in the true story of the Peverell brothers: Antioch, Cadmus, and Ignotus. And I pause here to share this cool image that circulated on Pinterest:

That image captures an interesting parallel to “The Tale of the Three Brothers.” While it is actually Dumbledore who suffers the most in the series because of the Resurrection Stone (he did himself an injury that would ultimately be fatal, had he not died before it killed him, remember, in trying to use the Resurrection Stone, now a horcrux), and it is arguably the one item of the Deathly Hallows he himself would most have liked to have possessed (he does possess it later, I know), this graphic makes some sense to me. I can’t remember anymore where I read it, but I did read once that Harry is definitely descended from Ignotus Peverell, which makes sense because he inherits Ignotus’s cloak. It is to Dumbledore’s credit that he ultimately decides not to keep this artifact. Had he done so, he would have possessed all three Deathly Hallows at the same time once he found the Resurrection Stone. But he recognized it as Harry’s rightful property and knew Harry would need it more. Most invisibility cloaks, we later learn, lose their power after a time. They are made from Demiguise pelts. Harry’s is a true artifact, an heirloom that has been passed down in his family since the Middle Ages.

Antioch may be an ancestor of Tom Riddle’s. He, of course, wanted the Elder Wand, just as Antioch did before him. I don’t know if this is true or not, but Marvolo Gaunt did have the Resurrection Stone set in a ring and declared its markings were the Peverell Coat of Arms. He claimed Peverell ancestry. So wouldn’t it be interesting if Dumbledore or even Snape descended from Cadmus Peverell? I think the two men had such a strong friendship because they had a strong connection through loss. The echo of “The Tale of the Three Brothers” in the lives of their descendants is an interesting idea to ponder.

I will save some of this discussion for later when I get to that point in re-reading Deathly Hallows, but I find it interesting that even here, we find the seeds for the series’s conclusion planted.

In chapter 12, Harry finds the Mirror of Erised. This chapter is all the more poignant when you realize Rowling had lost her mother as she began writing this book. The longing and aching for lost loved ones is sharp and perhaps could only have been written by someone who had experienced that feeling: “He had a powerful kind of ache inside him, half joy, half terrible sadness.” The Mirror of Erised is an interesting device. We never do learn who brought it to Hogwarts, or what became of it after Philosopher’s Stone. Of the Mirror of Erised, Pottermore says,

The Mirror of Erised is a very old device. Nobody knows who created it, or how it came to be at Hogwarts School. A succession of teachers have brought back interesting artefacts from their travels, so it might have arrived at the castle in this casual manner, either because the teacher knew how it worked and was intrigued by it, or because they did not understand it and wished to ask their colleagues’ opinions.

The Mirror of Erised is one of those magical artefacts that seems to have been created in a spirit of fun (whether innocent or malevolent is a matter of opinion), because while it is much more revealing than a normal mirror, it is interesting rather than useful. Only after Professor Dumbledore makes key modifications to the mirror (which has been languishing in the Room of Requirement for a century or so before he brings it out and puts it to work) does it become a superb hiding place, and the final test for the impure of heart.

The mirror’s inscription (‘erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi’) must be read backwards to show its true purpose.

It is to Ron’s credit that he mistrusts the device early on and urges Harry not to go back to it again. Sure enough, Harry visits the mirror again and is caught by Dumbledore, who tells Harry he doesn’t need a cloak to become invisible. Two things Harry doesn’t figure out here: 1) Dumbledore mentioned the cloak. He knows Harry has it. 2) There is some other way to make yourself invisible. We find out later that Dumbledore is really good at casting Disillusionment Charms and that Dumbledore had James’s cloak and was the person who gave it to Harry on Christmas.

Towards the end of the chapter, Harry asks Dumbledore what he sees when he looks in the Mirror of Erised. Dumbledore claims he sees himself holding a pair of thick socks. Harry speculates that Dumbledore might not be telling the truth. I think Dumbledore probably sees something similar to what Harry sees: his family, whole and smiling out at him.

In chapter 13, Harry makes the observation that Snape appears to be following him around and that “he sometimes had the horrible feeling that Snape could read minds.” Of course, we do find out he was following Harry around to protect him and that he can read minds. Sort of. He is gifted at Legilimency and Occlumency. Earlier in the book, when the trio catches the troll, we see Snape give Harry a “swift, piercing look” but Harry “looked at the floor.” I think this is perhaps the first instance in the series when Snape attempts to use Legilimency to find out what Harry is up to, but Harry prevents him from being successful by looking down so that Snape cannot look into his eyes. Clever, as later, Rowling establishes eye contact as important in this branch of magic. Later in this chapter, Harry overhears Snape threatening Quirrell and deduces that Snape is trying to find out how to get past Quirrell’s magic behind the trap door. The conversation is cleverly worded and plotted with a few gaps so that later, we can interpret it as Snape threatening Quirrell away from the trap door and from the Philosopher’s Stone.

In chapter 14, Hagrid acquires a Norwegian Ridgeback from a mysterious stranger in the pub. Oh, Hagrid. He sure causes a lot of trouble with his critters. In this case, covering for Hagrid costs Harry and Hermione (and Neville, as an innocent bystander) 150 house points. How unfair is it for McGonagall to take away 150 points for being out of bed at night when she only took away five from Hermione for trying to tackle a troll on her own and only awarded ten to Harry and Ron for defeating it? I think this spot of unfairness is why it seems fair for Dumbledore to pile on the points at the House Feast. It is not overly generous so much as it is righting a wrong, if you remember how many points McGonagall takes from her students in this chapter. Neville winds up losing the house 40 points, in the end; Hermione breaks even, as Dumbledore awards her the same amount of points as she lost; Harry earns ten points over what he lost. Ron is the only one who might be said to be unfairly awarded points, as he himself didn’t lose any that night (he was in the hospital wing, recovering from Norbert’s bite). It is really Ron, then, who clinches the House Cup for Gryffindor, all other things being equal, because it is his 50 points that makes the most difference in the scores.

In chapter 15, McGonagall scolds her students for being out of bed, adding that “nothing gives [them] the right to walk around school at night especially these days, it’s very dangerous” (emphasis mine). So my question is, why? We don’t have a basilisk wandering the halls, as we do in Chamber of Secrets. No escaped criminal from Azkaban has found a way in the castle. So what gives? What is going on in this book that McGonagall knows about? Do we ever find out? Does she know that there is a traitor in their midst?

Harry, Hermione, Neville, and Malfoy have to serve their detentions… in the Forbidden Forest, chasing something that has slain a unicorn. I ask you what kind of sense this makes? I think Malfoy is actually right to question this punishment, and I wonder what Lucius Malfoy actually would have done had Draco told his father about it. I suspect he would not, as Hagrid claims, have shrugged it off and said that’s how it is at Hogwarts. I realize it’s a plot device for Harry to learn about the centaurs’ predictions and find out that Voldemort is seeking the Philospher’s Stone, but still… it’s a ridiculous detention, especially for a bunch of 11 and 12-year-old students. However, Harry and Hermione do not question their punishment. They feel “they deserved what they’d got.” That said, Harry’s interaction with the centaurs is particularly interesting. Their insistence that “Mars is bright tonight” can be read as their prediction that war is imminent, which, indeed, it is. Ronan adds that “Always the innocent are the first victims… So it has been for ages past, so it is now.” He refers to the onset of war, when atrocities are often committed against the innocent, who are not responsible for the events but are caught in the crossfire. We also learn that the centaurs do not think it is their responsibility to share too much information with humans. Bane accuses Firenze of divulging too much information, saying “we are sworn not to set ourselves against the heavens.” They are the ultimate bystanders, knowing what is to come, but steadfastly refusing to intervene, even if their information might help. As Hagrid says, “Ruddy stargazers.” Firenze, at least, will not stand for it. He tells Bane, “Do you not understand why it was killed? Or have the planets not let you in on that secret? I set myself against what is lurking in this Forest, Bane, yes, with humans alongside me if I must.”

We learn that drinking unicorn blood will “keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at a terrible price. You have slain something pure and defenceless to save yourself and you will have but a half life, a cursed life, from the moment the blood touches your lips.” Of course, Voldemort manages to get his body back later, but one wonders what might have been different if he had not chosen to drink unicorn blood. Did that mistake have repercussions he didn’t realize? Is it one of the choices he made that contributed to his ultimate downfall? Obviously, the Elder Wand played a bigger part, but you have to wonder.

Firenze bids Harry farewell, saying he hopes that this is one of the times when the planets have been read wrongly. So what did the centaurs see in the stars? Just that Harry was in peril or that he would die? Did they not see his choice to return from King’s Cross? Well, as Hermione says, “It sounds like fortune-telling to me, and Professor McGonagall says that’s a very imprecise branch of magic.”

Indeed.

Celebrating Georgette Heyer

A Note on Slytherins

Re-Reading Harry Potter: Harry at Hogwarts

Posted on May 23, 2013May 26, 2013 by Dana

Chapters 6-10 of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone cover the time span from Harry’s journey to Hogwarts from Platform 9¾ at King’s Cross Station to the trio’s defeat of the mountain troll in the girls’ bathroom.

After Harry is ignored for a month before school starts, he works up the nerve to ask Uncle Vernon for a ride to King’s Cross to meet the Hogwarts Express. Uncle Vernon wonders why students travel to the school by train: “Magic carpets all got punctures, have they?” Of course, we learn in Goblet of Fire that magic carpets are illegal. Obviously, Muggles must have seen witches and wizards riding them, as they had seen witches and wizards riding brooms, which is how magic carpets entered legend in folk tales and fairy stories. I suppose brooms were too popular to ban, and perhaps even more easily concealed. One wonders, though. In any case, we discover later that moving students by train is part of the drama of arriving at school. I suspect the train is more of a device for exposition and drama than a necessity for travel, but Pottermore has this to say about the Hogwarts Express:

Portkeys were therefore arranged at collecting points all over Britain. The logistics caused problems from the start. Up to a third of students would fail to arrive every year, having missed their time slot, or been unable to find the unobtrusive enchanted object that would transport them to their school. There was also the unfortunate fact that many children were (and are) ‘Portkey-sick’, and the hospital wing was frequently full to bursting for the first few days of every year, while susceptible students overcame their hysterics and nausea.

While admitting that Portkeys were not an ideal solution to the problem of school transportation, the Ministry of Magic failed to find an acceptable alternative. A return to the unregulated travel of the past was impossible, and yet a more secure route into the school (for instance, permitting a fireplace that might be officially entered by Floo powder) was strongly resisted by successive Headmasters, who did not wish the security of the castle to be breached.

A daring and controversial solution to the thorny problem was finally suggested by Minister for Magic Ottaline Gambol, who was much intrigued by Muggle inventions and saw the potential in trains. Where exactly the Hogwarts Express came from has never been conclusively proven, although it is a fact that there are secret records at the Ministry of Magic detailing a mass operation involving one hundred and sixty-seven Memory Charms and the largest ever mass Concealment Charm performed in Britain. The morning after these alleged crimes, a gleaming scarlet steam engine and carriages astounded the villagers of Hogsmeade (who had also not realised they had a railway station), while several bemused Muggle railway workers down in Crewe spent the rest of the year grappling with the uncomfortable feeling that they had mislaid something important.

The Hogwarts Express underwent several magical modifications before the Ministry approved it for school use. Many pure-blood families were outraged at the idea of their children using Muggle transport, which they claimed was unsafe, insanitary and demeaning; however, as the Ministry decreed that students either rode the train or did not attend school, the objections were swiftly silenced.

The first real wizards that Harry meets, aside from his trip to Diagon Alley, are the Weasleys. I loved Molly Weasley instantly. She is just the sort of helpful soul who would help Harry. Imagine if he had encountered Narcissa Malfoy instead. She would probably have mocked him or assumed he was Muggle-born and definitely would not have helped him. Incidentally, don’t we find out later that Muggle-born students are given instructions for how to get to Diagon Alley for supplies and how to get on the Hogwarts Express? Given that Dumbledore knows by the time the term starts that Harry knew nothing about being a wizard (surely Hagrid shared those details), Dumbledore would have thought to send along instructions. Nope. Once again, it offers Harry an opportunity to make a connection.

I also instantly loved the Weasley twins. They joke around, but they offer to help Harry with his trunk without being asked, just because they are nice.

Harry figures out early on that “The Weasleys were clearly one of those old wizarding families the pale boy in Diagon Alley had talked about.” They definitely are, and indeed, they are even distantly related to the Malfoys and just about every other old wizarding family around. But they also don’t think that makes them superior to others, which is where they differ, in all the best ways, from many of the old pureblood families.

Ron says that he has a lot to live up to as the youngest Weasley boy. He also complains about getting things second hand, including Charlie’s old wand. So why does he have Charlie’s old wand? Why did Charlie need to get a new one? I thought the wand chose the wizard. Clearly, wizards can perform magic with other wands, but Ollivander makes it clear that you do your best work with your very own tool. Also, Charlie’s old wand is made of ash and unicorn hair. Of ash wands, Pottermore says

The ash wand cleaves to its one true master and ought not to be passed on or gifted from the original owner, because it will lose power and skill. This tendency is extreme if the core is of unicorn. Old superstitions regarding wands rarely bear close examination, but I find that the old rhyme regarding rowan, chestnut, ash and hazel wands (rowan gossips, chestnut drones, ash is stubborn, hazel moans) contains a small nugget of truth. Those witches and wizards best suited to ash wands are not, in my experience, lightly swayed from their beliefs or purposes. However, the brash or over-confident witch or wizard, who often insists on trying wands of this prestigious wood, will be disappointed by its effects. The ideal owner may be stubborn, and will certainly be courageous, but never crass or arrogant.

The emphasis is mine. So it seems to me that Ron is set up not to do well until he gets his own wand, even before it breaks in Chamber of Secrets.

We also meet Peter Pettigrew for the first time. I have to admit, I never imagined that rat was really a person. I was surprised by Azkaban.

I have always loved the introduction to wizarding candy on the train. I am convinced that Rowling got the idea for Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans from Jelly Belly jelly beans, which have a huge variety of flavors (though no gross ones). If this is true, she must have been thrilled when Jelly Belly started making Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans. I also love the Chocolate Frog cards, and one of my biggest disappointments in Pottermore is that though you collect Chocolate Frog cards, they have no pictures. At least you can go look at them and re-read them once you’ve put them in your trunk. When Pottermore was first rolled out, you couldn’t re-read them.

Hermione comes along, looking for Neville’s toad. Through her, Harry learns about Hogwarts’ other two houses, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. Hearing Harry Potter is on the train, Draco shows up with his cronies, Crabbe and Goyle. In Scabbers’s finest hour, he bites Goyle when the evil trio tries to steal Harry and Ron’s candy.

Once they arrive at Hogsmeade, the first years are taken by boat to the castle. This must be for dramatic effect, as we learn no other students travel to Hogwarts that way.

In chapter 7, we find out how students are sorted into houses. A weird side note: Hermione has read Hogwarts: A History (which I really, really, really hope becomes a real book one day), but she does not appear to know about the Sorting Hat, as she is “whispering very fast about all the spells she’d learnt and wondering which one she’d need.” How on earth is something like the Sorting Hat kept secret even in old wizarding families like the Weasleys? After all, Fred tricks Ron into thinking Ron would have to wrestle a troll (we will come to that later). At any rate, I am not buying that the Sorting Hat is never mentioned in Hogwarts: A History. Perhaps Hermione had not yet finished the book, but she knew about the ceiling being bewitched to look like the sky. So why doesn’t she know about the Sorting Hat?

One of the best parts of Pottermore is that you, too, are sorted into a house when you play. Interestingly, the numbers of students in each house have remained about evenly divided since the site’s inception. I think Rowling must be an adept observer of human nature to have figured out four groups into which society so evenly divides. I was sorted into Ravenclaw. I have always identified with that house, and I was truly nervous I wouldn’t get in when I took the test on Pottermore. What if I (gasp) was a Hufflepuff? (Just kidding, Hufflepuffs. You make the world go round.) Almost everyone I know was sorted into the exact house I thought they belonged in when they took Pottermore’s Sorting Hat test.

Another fascinating fact we learn about sorting on Pottermore is that some individuals are tough to sort, and when the Sorting Hat appears to be taking a really long time to sort a student, it is because the Sorting Hat cannot decide between two houses. Seamus Finnigan wore the hat for almost a whole minute before he was sorted into Gryffindor. We do NOT learn in the book how long it took the Hat to decide where to put Hermione, but on Pottermore, we learn it was nearly four minutes. One guess which other house was the contender. Actually, we do learn the answer to that question in Order of the Phoenix. Another student in Harry’s year also took a long time to sort: Neville. Neville really hoped to be in Hufflepuff because he didn’t feel up to Gryffindor. The Hat disagreed. The Hat was right.

Interestingly, at least for me, is that we learn there is a term for a person whom the Hat takes longer than five minutes to sort: a Hatstall. Minerva McGonagall and Filius Flitwick were both Hatstalls and like to joke about how easily it could have turned out that they would have swapped houses.

I just love it that the Hat won that silent argument with Neville. I may have actually cried a little the first time I read that. Because this is why:

I love it that the Hat knew that was in Neville all along, even if Neville didn’t.

Later, as everyone is feasting, the new Gryffindors meet Nearly Headless Nick. I love Nearly Headless Nick. I also love it that Seamus asks Nick how the Bloody Baron got covered in blood, and Nick says he never asked, but even THAT tiny detail is sorted out in Deathly Hallows. Almost every single little detail is wrapped up in a neat little bow by the end of the series.

We met Quirrell before, but we see him again at the feast talking to Snape. Did you know that Quirrell was a Ravenclaw? Also of note is that Harry dreams that night that Quirrell’s turban was talking to him. Because it is Voldemort’s face, and Harry is a horcrux, is why. That Rowling is a clever witch.

We get to know Snape in chapter 8, and clearly, he has a real axe to grind. He hates Harry on sight because he looks like James, Snape’s loathed enemy. Before we get involved with Snape, I want to mention it is sad that History of Magic, which has the potential to be the most interesting class at Hogwarts, turns out to be boring. I wish Harry had a more engaging teacher in that class. Think of what we readers might have learned if he had.

So, Snape. Best quote:

“As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don’t expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses … I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even stopper death—if you aren’t as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach.”

We also learn that if you add powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood, you can make the Draught of the Living Death, which Harry successfully makes for Slughorn in Half-Blood Prince, earning the Felix Felicis. By following Snape’s instructions. See, if we had paid really good attention to this chapter, we could easily have pegged Snape as the original owner of Harry’s copy of Advanced Potion-Making. Actually, I did figure that detail out because it was Potions, after all. Snape might be fascinated by the Dark Arts, but he is clearly most gifted at Potions. Snape also asks Harry where you might find a bezoar. Of course, Harry also uses a bezoar to save Ron in Half-Blood Prince, again because Snape left those instructions on the antidote recipe Harry is reading. As far as I can remember, monkshood/wolfsbane/aconite don’t become terribly important later, except that it is an ingredient in the Wolfsbane Potion that subdues werewolves during their transformation phase.

In chapter 9, Malfoy sets Harry up to be caught out of bed at midnight by challenging Harry to a duel. Curiously, he sizes up both his cronies and picks Crabbe as his second. Why not Goyle? Isn’t he bigger? Crabbe, of course, would later set Fiendfyre on the trio in the Room of Requirement and winds up killing himself with it. He is said to become gifted at Dark Arts spells. Figures he would be a good duellist, though how he rubs his two brain cells together to figure that out, who knows.

We learn in this chapter that Harry has a natural gift for flying. He commands the broom to leap into his hand and flies expertly the first time he mounts his broom. And he only does it to defend poor Neville because Malfoy tossed Neville’s Remembrall. McGonagall sees Harry catch it, and she is elated. Did you know she had been a talented Quidditch player? Yeah! She was captain of her house Quidditch team at Hogwarts. Unfortunately, a sports injury cut her Quidditch career short (via Pottermore):

A nasty fall in her final year (a foul during the Gryffindor versus Slytherin game which would decide the Cup winner) left her with concussion, several broken ribs and a lifelong desire to see Slytherin crushed on the Quidditch pitch. Though she gave up Quidditch on leaving Hogwarts, the innately competitive Professor McGonagall later took a keen interest in the fortunes of her house team, and retained a keen eye for Quidditch talent.

Pottermore does not tell us what position she played. My guess is Chaser, though I have nothing on which to base that guess, and indeed, if she had been Seeker, taking her out with a game-losing foul might make more sense. She just seems like a Chaser to me.

And of course, we learn that James Potter was a Quidditch player, too. The movie displays his team trophy and lists his position as Seeker, but Rowling has said he was a Chaser.

Of course, when Harry and Ron sneak out for the midnight duel, Hermione follows them, “hissing at them like an angry goose.” Don’t you love her? And poor Neville winds up coming along because he’s been stuck outside the Common Room. Then the four of them wind up finding Fluffy. I always thought it was dumb that the movie script changed the detail regarding Fluffy’s origin from Greek to Irish. It makes much more sense for a Greek chappie to have a three-headed dog. Anyone could tell you that, right?

In chapter 10, the trio is cemented as lifelong friends after they defeat the troll, but before that happens, Harry goes for his first Quidditch training session and learns the rules of the game. I was struck again upon reading that scene that Rowling expertly handles exposition. She figures out a natural way to explain the rules of Quidditch that doesn’t detract from the progress of the story. Oliver Wood remarks at the end of their lesson that he wouldn’t be surprised if Harry becomes a better player than Charlie Weasley, whom Wood insists “could have played for England if he hadn’t gone off chasing dragons.” I have to agree with Wood about Harry’s abilities, given how he turns out. I think definitely could have played for England, and he might even have been able to assist his team to the Quidditch World Cup. But he doesn’t choose that path. Wood, of course, winds up playing for Puddlemere United. The only other Hogwarts student among Harry’s friends that we see go into professional Quidditch is Ginny, who plays for the Holyhead Harpies.

In Charms, the first years learn how to make things fly, and Seamus sets fire to the feather he is sharing with Harry when he prods it with his wand. Unfortunately, the movies decided to exaggerate this event for comic effect, and Seamus’s pyrotechnics become a running joke.

Later on, Harry and Ron take on the troll that has cornered Hermione in the bathroom, and it’s just the best scene.

Harry then did something that was both very brave and very stupid: he took a great running jump and managed to fasten his arms around the troll’s neck from behind. The troll couldn’t feel Harry hanging there, but even a troll will notice if you stick a long bit of wood up its nose, and Harry’s wand had still been in his hand when he’d jumped—it had gone straight up one of the troll’s nostrils.

Surprisingly, Professor McGonagall only takes five points from Gryffindor because of Hermione. I mean, later in the book, she takes 50 points each from Harry, Hermione, and Neville for being out in the halls at night time. Tackling trolls alone seems to be much more dangerous than roaming the halls at night. Very odd system they have for taking points. And she is not very generous with awarding points. Harry and Ron get only ten points for tackling the troll, but later, Dumbledore gives them a whole bunch of points for various accomplishments behind the trap door.

But Rowling sums it up perfectly at the end of chapter 10:

But from that moment on, Hermione Granger became their friend. There are some things you can’t share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them.

Exactly. And can you believe an editor tried to convince Rowling to cut the troll out?

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Re-Reading Harry Potter: "Mars is Bright Tonight"

NaNoWriMo 2015

Re-Reading Harry Potter: The Beginning

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Dana

I have long wanted to do two things with a re-read of the entire Harry Potter series. No, strike that. Three things. I have wanted to do three things with a re-read of the Harry Potter series.

Read the British versions. There are differences.
Analyze/discuss/think about the events in light of what we know now that the series is done with addenda revealed via Pottermore (though they are only in the middle of Azkaban and not likely to move at the speed I’ll read).
Blog about the series re-read as I do it.

Jenny actually reminded me I need to do the third item. I have been adjusting to living in MA and a new job and all that entails, and now that things seem to be settling, and I finally feel like I have more time to read and blog, I am catching up on blog posts I missed from my favorite bloggers, Jenny among them, naturally.

Apparently, folks are doing a big re-read of HP, and Jenny is participating. I did not know this was happening, but I am not about to commit myself to any sort of a challenge or anything, so it’s probably best. Anyway, I decided to re-read the Harry Potter series again, as I said previously, because I’m in a rut, and returning to my beloved Wizarding World is always a great palate cleanser.

So, without further ado, my take on the first five chapters of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

First, I have a bone to pick with the American publishers about the title. The philosopher’s stone is a well-known alchemical substance. Even us backwater Americans have heard of it. Truly. Which is why I hate the American title of this book and consider it to be talking down to its American audience. Americans are perfectly capable of looking up the term “philosopher’s stone” if they are not familiar with it. And the notion of a “sorcerer’s stone” only introduces unnecessary confusion. But no one asked me.

I am reading digital editions published by Pottermore, so I will not be making any attempt to locate page numbers, but I will provide quotes. The first thing I made notes about was a reference to a man wearing a violet cloak who bumps into Vernon Dursley when he is leaving Grunnings in the afternoon the story begins. My guess is that this man is Dedalus Diggle, but I’m not sure anyone has ever confirmed this.

I always laugh at the line where Dursley “hurried to his car and set off home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn’t approve of imagination.” That, in one, is what is wrong with the Dursleys. Right?

Later in the first chapter, when Dumbledore arrives on Privet Drive, he uses the Deluminator to put out the lights on the street. This device, described as Dumbledore’s invention, has some very interesting properties, and I wonder that we didn’t see it more often. It is used in Order of the Phoenix when Moody et. al. arrive at 12 Grimmauld Place. We see it willed to Ron after Dumbledore’s death and learn that in addition to putting out lights, it is used to help Ron find his way back to Harry and Hermione. Very cool toy, that thing is.

Another interesting note from this first chapter. McGonagall, in protesting Harry’s placement with his terrible Muggle relatives, tries this tactic with Dumbledore, hoping it will help the old man see reason: “Really, Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter? These people will never understand him! He’ll be famous—a legend—I wouldn’t be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter Day in future—there will be books written about Harry—every child in our world will know his name!”

Just a pause to think about how awesome it is that McGonagall’s pronouncement really happened. How cool is that?

When Hagrid arrives with baby Harry in tow, we find out he borrowed Sirius Black’s motorcycle. We don’t find out more about Sirius until Azkaban, and the casual reader isn’t likely to note the reference and remember it by that time.

Moving on to chapter two, we see Harry referred to as “Dudley’s favourite punch-bag.” How clever Rowling is. She remembered to make Dudley actually pursue boxing seriously later on. And get pretty good at it. I know she did extensive planning. I will be interested to learn how Dudley turned out whenever that information is shared on Pottermore.

We (sort of) meet Mrs. Figg in this chapter, too. Harry is delighted to learn he will not be staying with her on Dudley’s birthday and will actually be going to the zoo. Let us pause a moment and think about how truly awful the Dursleys are. I mean, seriously, they never let him go to Dudley’s birthday parties (never mind they never give him one of his own). He has to stay with Mrs. Figg every year. He watches Dudley’s presents pile up on the table. And then, when their plans with Mrs. Figg fall through, they try to think of everything they can do to avoid taking Harry to the zoo. I mean, really, would it be so terrible if the boy could have fun once in a while? Let’s call it out by its right name—they are abusive. They are by far some of the most evil characters, in my estimation, in the series. Still, it was nice to learn later that at least the Order of the Phoenix had an eye on Harry.

In chapter three, there is this excellent description of Harry and Dudley fighting over a spot where they can listen in to the conversation between Vernon and Petunia about the letter Harry has received from Hogwarts: “Harry and Dudley had a furious but silent fight over who would listen at the keyhole.” The reason I love that description is that it captures exactly what it is like to quiet fight with a sibling. Exactly. I can always picture this little scene perfectly.

In chapter four, we meet Hagrid. The first thing he says to Harry is “Yeh look a lot like yer dad, but yeh’ve got yer mum’s eyes.” Harry would hear this many times over the years, and of course, the fact that he has his mother’s eyes becomes crucial near the end of Deathly Hallows. The fact that he looks so like his father is also crucial to his relationship with Snape through much of the series. One wonders how Snape would have treated Harry had he looked like Lily, no?

When Petunia finally admits that what Hagrid is telling Harry about being a wizard and all that is true, she lets loose with pent up jealousy.

“Knew!” shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. “Knew! Of course we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was? Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that—that school—and came home every holiday with her pockets full of frog-spawn, turning teacups into rats. I was the only one who saw her for what she was—a freak! But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!”

Petunia goes on, but you get the idea. This little speech is interesting in light of some things we learn later. Firstly, that underage witches like Lily are not supposed to do magic outside of school, so when was she turning teacups into rats? Was that an accident? Or did she do it on purpose and get in trouble for it like Harry? If so, it sort of puts a dent her squeaky clean image. Not a bad thing, necessarily. We also learn later that Petunia herself wanted to go to that school. But she wasn’t a witch, so she wasn’t allowed. You know, I had a hunch at some point that Petunia knew Snape, but I couldn’t figure out how. I must admit it never occurred to me that she knew Snape as a child because he was friends with her sister. Oh, jealousy!

Some time later in the conversation, Hagrid tells Harry that his parents had been “Head Boy an’ Girl at Hogwarts in their day!” I have some confusion on this point because we learn later that it was Remus Lupin who was chosen as Gryffindor prefect in the Marauders’ fifth year. It stands to reason Lily was chosen as his female counterpart. So how did James become Head Boy? Did Remus have to leave school because of his lycanthropy? That doesn’t make sense to me, given what we know. How is it possible for a boy who was not a prefect to be Head Boy? We haven’t seen other instances of Head Boys or Girls chosen from outside the pool of 7th year prefects. Percy Weasley was one. He had been prefect since 5th year. Tom Riddle was one. Again, also a prefect. So what is up with Hagrid’s comment? Is this a mistake on Rowling’s part? I am inclined to think it is a mistake, but I await some elucidation on this point in Pottermore at some stage.

Very soon after we learn that Lily and James were apparently Head Boy and Girl, we learn about some of the people Voldemort killed during his rise to power—the McKinnons, the Bones [technically should be Boneses], and the Prewetts. We encounter the Bones family later through Susan, Harry’s classmate, and her Aunt Amelia Bones, who is on the Wizengamot at Harry’s trial in Order of the Phoenix. We learn that the Boneses in reference are Susan’s uncle Edgar Bones and his wife and children. As Edgar was Amelia Bones’s brother, we can assume he was also brother to Susan Bones’s father. The Prewetts were Gideon and Fabian Prewett, Molly Weasley’s brothers. Sobering reminder of how just about every family was affected by Voldemort.

Probably one of my favorite passages is Harry’s first step into the Wizarding World, when he first sees Diagon Alley in the next chapter.

Harry wished he had about eight more eyes. He turned his head in every direction as they walked up the street, trying to look at everything at once; the shops, the things outside them, the people doing their shopping.

I just love that description. It perfectly captures the feeling of that moment, and it’s one of the moments when I as a reader felt I was right there with Harry and seeing everything he could see. It’s amazing.

We also go to Gringott’s and meet Griphook. I always found it interesting that Rowling chose to bring him back in such an important role in Deathly Hallows. Harry cranes his neck looking for dragons as the cart wheels around the underground vaults, hurtling towards his own vault. Little did he realize he would see, much less ride, a real Gringott’s dragon!

While Hagrid goes for a pick-me-up at the Leaky Cauldron, Harry goes off to buy his robes and meets Draco Malfoy. Malfoy tells Harry that Narcissa Malfoy is up the street looking at wands. Why would she be doing that when the wand chooses the wizard? Could be Draco didn’t exactly know what Narcissa was doing. Or maybe she was checking them out. But it makes more sense for her to wait and look at them with Draco present, right? Another weird little line that trips me up every time.

We learn that Slytherin House is notorious for producing evil wizards, including You-Know-Who. This information prompts Harry to ask in wonder about Voldemort’s time at Hogwarts. Hagrid only volunteers that Voldemort went there “years an’ years ago,” but doesn’t offer up the fun fact that they were classmates. I guess that is understandable, given that Voldemort framed Hagrid for Moaning Myrtle’s death (or at least framed Aragog).

A nice throwaway line informs us that toads went out of fashion years ago, so when Neville shows up with a toad, we know a lot about poor Neville immediately. J.K. Rowling is great with exposition. It is not easy to do. The guy who wrote another book I’m currently reading is very clumsy with exposition, so it is nice to appreciate what it looks like when it is done well.

And then we go to Ollivander’s. And we learn that Ollivander’s family has been making wands for millenia. That is pretty amazing. If you are on Pottermore, you learn a whole lot of other really interesting things about Ollivander.

His full name is Garrick Ollivander.
He was in Ravenclaw (which makes sense, given his vast academic knowledge of wandlore).
He was a half-blood, like Snape, only with a wizard father and Muggle mother.
He had a family, including a wife, son, and daughter, but they are deceased.
His own wand is hornbeam and dragon heartstring, twelve and three-quarter inches, slightly bendy.

It is worth joining Pottermore for what you learn about wands alone, in my opinion. For the record, my own wand is sycamore and phoenix feather, ten and three-quarter inches, hard. About phoenix feather cores, Pottermore has this to say:

This is the rarest core type. Phoenix feathers are capable of the greatest range of magic, though they may take longer than either unicorn or dragon cores to reveal this. They show the most initiative, sometimes acting of their own accord, a quality that many witches and wizards dislike.

Phoenix feather wands are always the pickiest when it comes to potential owners, for the creature from which they are taken is one of the most independent and detached in the world. These wands are the hardest to tame and to personalise, and their allegiance is usually hard won.

And sycamore:

The sycamore makes a questing wand, eager for new experience and losing brilliance if engaged in mundane activities. It is a quirk of these handsome wands that they may combust if allowed to become ‘bored,’ and many witches and wizards, settling down into middle age, are disconcerted to find their trusty wand bursting into flame in their hand as they ask it, one more time, to fetch their slippers. As may be deduced, the sycamore’s ideal owner is curious, vital and adventurous, and when paired with such an owner, it demonstrates a capacity to learn and adapt that earns it a rightful place among the world’s most highly-prized wand woods.

I always took the description of the wand’s pliability to say something about the flexibility of its owner. As my wand is hard, you can draw your own conclusions. Stubborn is one word that has been used. Seriously, though, you really do learn a lot about the personality of various Harry Potter characters from the information about wand cores and wand woods on Pottermore. And every person I know who has obtained a Pottermore wand has a wand core and wood that fit their personality. It is more accurate than a Myers-Briggs test. Also, it is interesting to note here, before I go on about wands too long, that once Ron’s own wand chooses him (and even before, really, as his brother’s wand has the same core), the trio have wand cores of each of the three types Ollivander uses: Harry has phoenix feather, Hermione has dragon heartstring, and Ron has a unicorn tail hair. Very cool fact. Wands really merit their own post. I will stop now.

Oh, wait. I should tell you about Harry’s wand before I stop. You already know about the phoenix feather core because my wand has the same core (see above). About holly wood, Ollivander has this to say:

Holly is one of the rarer kinds of wand woods; traditionally considered protective, it works most happily for those who may need help overcoming a tendency to anger and impetuosity. At the same time, holly wands often choose owners who are engaged in some dangerous and often spiritual quest. Holly is one of those woods that varies most dramatically in performance depending on the wand core, and it is a notoriously difficult wood to team with phoenix feather, as the wood’s volatility conflicts strangely with the phoenix’s detachment. In the unusual event of such a pairing finding its ideal match, however, nothing and nobody should stand in their way.

Do you see what I am saying about wands? They are so illuminating and much more important than we realized. After all, Ollivander remembers every wand he has ever sold. And while he says the wand chooses the wizard, it is his craft in putting together the cores with the woods and trying various selections on his clients that makes that happen. After all, he has the ingenious idea that perhaps Harry might be destined for the wand with one of Fawkes’s phoenix feathers as its core just as Voldemort was destined for the only other feather Fawkes gave. Again, this detail is very important later on.

Oy, this is getting long. I should have broken it up. Are you still with me? I apologize.

Actually, I should end it there. Yes. That might be best. We are pushing 3,000 words.

But if you read the whole thing, I’d be interested in your thoughts.

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