Tag: j. k. rowling

Top Ten Tuesday adapted from http://www.flickr.com/photos/ceasedesist/4812981497/

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books that Feature Travel

Posted on by Dana

Top Ten Tuesday adapted from http://www.flickr.com/photos/ceasedesist/4812981497/

This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic is top ten books that feature travel in some way. OK, wide open, so here is my list.

[amazon_image id=”0545139708″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”054792822X” link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Hobbit; or, There and Back Again[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0544003411″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Lord of the Rings[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0143105957″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Moby-Dick: or, The Whale (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0440423201″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Outlander (20th Anniversary Edition): A Novel[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0385737645″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Revolution[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0143039954″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Odyssey (Penguin Classics)[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0451202503″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Songcatcher[/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0486280616″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn][/amazon_image] [amazon_image id=”0393334155″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (A New Verse Translation)[/amazon_image]

So many great books feature quests or voyages. These are my favorites. You could argue that all the Harry Potter books feature travel, but the trio travels the most in [amazon_link id=”0545139708″ target=”_blank” ]Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows[/amazon_link], which features not just the very long camping trip, but the end of Harry’s journey and even a trip to the other side of the veil.

[amazon_link id=”054792822X” target=”_blank” ]The Hobbit; or, There and Back Again[/amazon_link] features Bilbo’s famous quest to the Lonely Mountain with 13 dwarves and sometimes Gandalf. It’s a classic quest and an excellent hero’s journey. In some ways, it is more of a straight hero’s journey and a tighter, finer story than [amazon_link id=”0544003411″ target=”_blank” ]The Lord of the Rings[/amazon_link], which is also quite an amazing quest in which Middle Earth is saved, at least for the likes of men and possibly dwarves and hobbits, but not so much elves, especially not Galadriel and Elrond.

Ishmael says at the beginning of [amazon asin=0143105957&text=Moby Dick] that he decided to stop teaching school and sign on a whaling ship in order to “see the watery part of the world.” He saw a lot more than he bargained for, but you can’t deny it was a heck of a trip.

In Diana Gabaldon’s [amazon_link id=”0440423201″ target=”_blank” ]Outlander[/amazon_link] series, Claire Randall travels back in time when she walks through a stone circle at Beltaine, and she finds herself over 200 years in the past. Trips don’t get much farther than that.

Like Gabaldon’s Claire, Jennifer Donnelly’s Andi Alpers finds herself about 200 years in the past during the French Revolution, but she also figures out a way to move on from a terrible loss in her past in [amazon_link id=”0385737645″ target=”_blank” ]Revolution[/amazon_link].

[amazon asin=0143039954&text=The Odyssey] is the quintessential travel book. The whole book is about the worst trip home ever. On top of that, it’s a rollicking adventure that has stood the test of time. Few books can match it.

I absolutely love Sharyn McCrumb’s novel [amazon_link id=”0451202503″ target=”_blank” ]The Songcatcher[/amazon_link], and my favorite part concerned Malcolm McCourry, who was kidnapped and brought to America from Scotland, bringing a snatch of an old song along with him on the voyage, but the real voyage in this novel is the trip that the song takes through the generations, remembered by Malcolm’s descendants and passed down through time.

[amazon asin=0486280616&text=The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn] is yet another classic travel book, as the book follows Huck and Jim down the Mississippi. We can see how far Huck has come in his other voyage when he decides to tear up the letter revealing Jim’s location and says, “All right, then, I’ll go to hell.” Reading that line always gives me the shakes.

Sir Gawain promised he would seek out the Green Knight in the Green Chapel, and he is a knight of his word. If you are looking for reasons why Gawain is better than Lancelot, you can’t do better than the excellent [amazon_link id=”0393334155″ target=”_blank” ]Sir Gawain and the Green Knight[/amazon_link]. Plus, we have no idea who wrote it. It’s a complete mystery. He goes on a quest and finds himself in great peril, but he is true, and he returns home to Arthur’s court a wiser man.

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Living the Literary Life
Musing Mondays—October 17, 2011
Crazy Week

A Note on Slytherins

Posted on 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 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 by Dana

hufflepuff

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 by Dana

Ravenclaw

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 by Dana

Stop VoldemortThe 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:

  1. 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.
  2. Voldemort singled Harry out for a reason, but Dumbledore does not think he is ready to hear it yet. Maybe one day.
  3. Love is some of the most powerful magic of all.
  4. Dumbledore sent him the cloak (though he probably should have figured that out based on Dumbledore’s earlier remark about it).
  5. 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.

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

Posted on by Dana

Erised

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:

threebrothers

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.

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Harry Potter

Posted on by Dana

Potter IIYou may not know this, but I have a Harry Potter blog. I won’t link to it because it is embarrassingly dormant. I sometimes think I take on too many projects. The subject of Harry Potter can find its natural home here, in my book blog, but there was once I time I thought it should be separate. I plan to delete the Harry Potter blog, but I will be moving some of my favorite entries from that blog over to this one. I have never really had the Harry Potter blog open to comments, so I am not concerned about losing those comments.

In the coming weeks or months, I will be pulling those entries into this blog and publishing them here. The rest I will delete.

Speaking of Harry Potter, I have been having a sort of mediocre reading year. I have had a hard time finding time and finding books that grab me. In those times, I often turn to old book friends to cleanse my palate and start again. I was watching the Harry Potter movies last weekend, and of course, it made me want to read the books. So yet again, I find myself in the Wizarding World.

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Top Ten Tuesday adapted from http://www.flickr.com/photos/ceasedesist/4812981497/

Top Ten Bookish Memories

Posted on by Dana

Top Ten Tuesday adapted from http://www.flickr.com/photos/ceasedesist/4812981497/

What a fun topic for this week’s Top Ten Tuesday! My best bookish memories:

  1. Reading the Harry Potter series to my oldest daughter. When she was young, we had this horrendous commute and only one car. We had to wait for her stepdad to get off work, and we would sit in the car and read. I will probably always associate the Harry Potter series with that closeness we shared.
  2. Going to the library with my best friend Darcy. We would walk there and get hot chocolate out of the machine. I used to love to bike over to the library, too. It was so close to my grandmother’s house. Unfortunately, it’s since been closed.
  3. Winning a trip to Salem, MA in a contest connected with Brunonia Barry’s The Map of True Places. We loved it. We never could have imagined two years later, we’d be living in Massachusetts (though not in Salem).
  4. Meeting Matthew Pearl and winning a signed manuscript page from The Dante Club.
  5. Meeting Katherine Howe. She told me that my husband is crazy. Which is true.
  6. Meeting Jasper Fforde. What a charmer! He said one of my favorite things ever about interpreting literature and reading being a creative act. I loved it. When he signed my book, he also stamped it and tucked a postcard inside it. It was a nice touch.
  7. Reading Tolkien for the first time in college and finishing The Fellowship of the Ring around midnight. I was so desperate to find out what happened next that I took a chance and went downstairs to my friend Kari’s dorm room to borrow The Two Towers after midnight. She was awake, and thankfully, she was amused.
  8. Sharing my favorite book Wuthering Heights with students who loved it, too. One of them told me that she only had room for three books in her suitcase for college, and she packed Wuthering Heights.
  9. Reading The Catcher in the Rye with my first class of freshmen at the Weber School. They were the class of 2008, so they are mostly finished with college now, which blows my mind. They just really loved the book. They wanted to keep reading whenever we read together.
  10. Reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? with my son. He loved those books in preschool. They were both such delightful books, and sharing them with my son was so special.

What are your favorite bookish memories?

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Top Ten Tuesday adapted from http://www.flickr.com/photos/ceasedesist/4812981497/

Top Ten Tuesday: Authors I’m Thankful For

Posted on by Dana

Top Ten Tuesday adapted from http://www.flickr.com/photos/ceasedesist/4812981497/

This week’s appropriate Top Ten Tuesday concerns authors I’m thankful for.

  1. William Shakespeare: My best moments in the classroom I owe to this writer, who is not only the greatest writer in the English language, but also the most fun to teach. I can return to his plays again and again, and I always get something new out of them. In addition, his sonnets are some of the most glorious poetry in the English language. Don’t believe me? Watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ORccj9HosA
  2. Jane Austen: She is my homegirl. Really. I love her. I return to her books all the time. I love her characters, her sparkling wit, and her tangled love stories.
  3. J. K. Rowling: Some of my best reading experiences have been with the Harry Potter series. If I could read just one series over and over, and no other books, for the rest of my life, I’d choose the Harry Potter series. I find the Wizarding World to be a rich, imaginative place I never tire of visiting.
  4. Emily Brontë: She gave me my favorite book, even though it was the only book she wrote. I love returning to this book. I always notice something new. I love to hate her characters. I marvel each time I read it at the novel’s beautiful structure. Though I find the characters horrendous, I admit one place I’d love to visit is Wuthering Heights.
  5. J. R. R. Tolkien: My first major foray into fantasy set the bar really high. I am currently listening to The Hobbit in preparation for the movie. I love reading this series, and I love Middle Earth.
  6. Judy Blume: I read her books over and over again as a child. I grew up on her stories, and she has been a huge influence over my reading and writing life.
  7. Jasper Fforde: I have spent many a happy hour giggling through one of his books. He is crack for book and word nerds, and he is utterly charming.
  8. Joseph Campbell: His enduring ideas and understandings about the hero’s journey enabled me to enjoy literature and film in a new way, and I was able to construct a course around his work.
  9. Diana Gabaldon: I love her time travel romance/fantasy/historical fiction/genre-bending stories about Claire and Jamie Fraser. She is so much fun, and such a nice lady, too.
  10. Ernest Hemingway: I love, love, love F. Scott Fitzgerald, but Hemingway has a much larger canon, and I am not done with it yet. I love the way he writes, and I love to read his ideas about writing. I have rarely cried so hard over a book as I did over the end of A Farewell to Arms.

What authors are you thankful for?

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving! I am so thrilled to be celebrating it this year in the state where the first Thanksgiving took place.

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