Read All the Things: Weasleys, Diagon Alley and Knitting

Harry has just met Ron on the train, and they're on their way to Hogwarts.

I can't believe how long it takes me to read a physical book. I would never, ever have thought that this would be a problem for me if you had told me I would struggled with finding the time to sit down with a novel for half an hour until three or four years ago. I suddenly understand why my parents didn't read more when we were kids.

Anyway, the slowness of my challenge aside, here are my latest thoughts, in some sort of haphazard fashion.

Knitting

I am a knitter. If you hadn't figured that out yet, you'll find out all about it in the course of the next seven months! So the sentence that intrigues me as we get going is this:

"Hagrid took up two seats and sat knitting what looked like a canary-yellow circus tent."

We spent a while discussing what this could actually be. We never see or hear of this gigantic piece of yellow knitting again. Is it a bedspread? A unicorn blanket? A giant squid comforter? Something for Aragog? A bed for Fluffy? A circus tent for a Salamander Circus? So many possibilities - one day I'm going to ask JKR, you see if I don't.

Incidentally, there is a very small amount of fan art that a quick Google search can find of this magnificent moment. Come on artists, get drawing!

Hagrid knitting on a train. Source

Shopping in Diagon Alley

Almost immediately after this, we read the list of things Harry needs to buy. Something that has always amused me is the way the author's names correspond to the topic of the book they are writing.

This is not necessarily true for all of them: but here are some that I think are really obvious.

Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling

A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch

One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore

Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander

The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble

If it's not obvious to you how I see these as related to the book titles, let me know! I do love this.

Fun Fact: Phyllida Spore was also a
Hogwarts Headmistress (source)

Another thing I always love is the name. Diagon Alley. If you haven't already had your mind blown by the fact I'm about to tell you, you've almost certainly been living under a rock...right?

Diagon Alley = Diagonally

(And Knockturn Alley = Nocturnally)

You read a lot of text, interviews, thoughts about how JKR is not a very good writer. I absolutely adore the way she has crafted her books, the attention to detail and generally vast amount of material that is available in the books. The amount of foreshadowing that has already happened is immense - we've already seen the Put-Outer, learned about Sirius Black, learned that scars are important, discovered that Harry must live with blood relatives, the list goes on and on and on. I don't know how it happened - did JKR write this stuff first and then get it all to link together, or was it from the beginning?

Either way, I don't care. I love the amount of work that has gone into it, and I have a lot of respect for someone who I think is a very clever writer.

Diagon Alley (from Pottermore)

Anyway, enough about that. There's so much more stuff I want to talk about - how does Hagrid know so much about the muggle world? What does Vault 713 have in it when it's not emptied of Philosopher's Stones? Why does Hagrid's wand work even though it's been snapped cleanly in half and hidden in an umbrella, when incompletely broken wands do not work at all? (Think Ron & Harry.)

So many questions, so little time. I'm enjoying rediscovering all of this stuff!

The Weasleys

I've now met my favourite family of redheads for the umpteenth time. I really like how we are introduced to all of them - Mrs Weasley as kindly and slightly chaotic, Ginny as a Harry-worshipper (which is really how she is identified until mid-GoF), the twins as trouble-makers but generally good souls, and Ron as...well, Ron. There's not a lot more to say about them at this exact moment - I'm glad they've come in to the story.