I'm back in the UK! Hurrah! Here is the latest on Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone...I wrote it while I was on the plane yesterday, so please forgive any strange tenses, grammar and spelling - it was a 43 hour journey back from New Zealand.
The Quidditch Match
Having survived Christmas and the perils of too many nightly
wanderings in the castle, more aspersions are cast on Snape as we learn that he
is to be the umpire of the second Quidditch match, Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff.
Although at this point in the book we are supposed to suspect him of trying to
get past Fluffy, JKR is also doing some incredibly important character
development. Remember that by the end of Book Six, we are supposed to hate him
so thoroughly that we can easily believe that he would kill Dumbledore…
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| Snape referees Quidditch...fan-art by Chicxulub |
By the end of this chapter, we hate Snape more than we ever
did, and Neville clambers through the portrait hole into Gryffindor Tower to
general amusement, as we find out that Malfoy has done the leg-locker curse on
him. As well as adding to the character development of Neville and Draco, this
gives us the perfect excuse to find out exactly who Nicolas Flamel is – and
suddenly, we find out that Fluffy is guarding the Philosopher’s Stone.
NEWSFLASH: did you know Nicolas Flamel was a real person?? And his real life wife was called Perenelle? And he still has a house standing in Paris! Wikipedia knows all...
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| Line engraving of Nicolas Flamel (source) |
I love Hermione’s concept of ‘light-reading’. When I was first
at uni, I felt that I needed to learn more about Egypt, and I bought a huge and
blooming expensive textbook that was recommended for first year history
students (I was studying engineering). This was my bedtime reading for at least
a year. Hermione is a girl after my own heart.
Before I skip past it, the Dumbledore Chocolate Frog Card
reminds us that Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald. Obviously, we found this out
when the boys were on the Hogwarts Express, but while I’m thinking about it…the
date of this seems significant. The duel between the two happened in 1945,
exactly coinciding with the end of the Second World War. There may be more
information on this elsewhere on the Internet, I’m sure many people will have
asked, but having been in the Land of Poor Internet for the last month, I
haven’t been able to research it.
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| Albus Dumbledore's Chocolate Frog Card (Copyright Warner Bros) |
Let’s not forget how important Grindelwald will be later,
either…
Hagrid gets a baby dragon…
I always found the Norbert episode extremely annoying. I
couldn’t figure out why it was put in, and even when I was reading it for the
purpose of this readalong, I made very few notes. In fact, there were only two;
Harry is looking up “Dittany” in One
Hundred Magical Herbs and Fungi, which is important later in the series
when it is an invaluable part of the First Aid Kit when Ron splinches himself.
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| Norbert hatches! Brilliant fan-art by prydester |
I also underlined the words “stoat sandwiches” – here is
another little reveal for you, in case you don’t know what a stoat is. A
type of weasel, a stoat sandwich would be the equivalent of eating your
pet ferret/the local weasel/a beloved rodent pet. Yes, I know they eat Guinea
Pigs and other rodents in some parts of the world…but it just seemed strange to
me that this was in the UK.
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| A stoat (also known as a short-tailed weasel) [source] |
Norbert, of course, is hugely important. If Harry and Hermione
hadn’t been caught on their way down from the Astronomy Tower, they wouldn’t
have got detention, wouldn’t have ended up in the Forbidden Forest, and
wouldn’t have met the deathly cloaky creature thingy, or the centaurs.
On that note…
The Forbidden Forest
Detention in the Forbidden Forest sounds like a scary thing.
Malfoy talking about werewolves has always annoyed me (is it the full moon??)
and I’ve always found it rather funny that a) students aren’t allowed out of
bed late, b) students aren’t allowed in the Forest, and c) making students stay
up till dawn seems a strange way to treat 11-year olds…
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| One of the best screen-shots ever! Tom Felton, I love you. Copyright Warner Bros. |
And not funny haha. Dumbledore puts a lot of special emphasis on NOBODY GOES IN THE FOREST during the start of term feast.
Anyway, we learn that Voldemort is still a threat for the
first time, and Harry’s Scar pain starts for the first time way that is not
offhand and in a dream.
Despite the horrific subject matter, I have always found
this scene beautiful in my mind. Forests in the UK always feel special to me,
as if fairies and goblins are hiding behind every tree, and the thought of this
gilded in silver (which just happens to be unicorn blood) has always enchanted
me.
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| Unicorn blood - oddly beautiful. Copyright Warner Bros. |
I wonder if Quirrel would have had a longer life if he had
survived, despite the fact that he was ‘only’ drinking the blood for
Voldemort’s sake?
On the subject of Centaur’s, I’ve always wondered if there
is actually any spiritual significance to “Mars is big tonight.” I’m sure there
are branches of fortune telling that would say there is...
With that thought for the day, I have just landed in London
and am about to go back home. Regular scheduling will commence when I am over
my jetlag!
Much love,
Corrie xx
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| This. |
Hi great reaading your post
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