It's been almost two months since I actually finished reading this book and I have since then finished Chamber of Secrets also, but I would like to return to Book 1 and give my review of the last couple of chapters before reviewing the book as a whole.
While there were some things that I didn't like or agree with until now, it isn't until the end of the book that I start having some real issues with the storytelling and my main issues were with the last few chapters of the book, namely Chapters 15 through 17.
Corrie already touched upon my main conundrum - detention in the Forbidden Forest. As she rightly pointed out, Dumbledore makes a big deal at the Welcome Feast (indeed he does this in every book) to remind all of the students that the Forbidden Forest is exactly that, forbidden. It therefore makes little to no sense to send students into the forest for their detention. I would be more inclined to let this slide if they were in the company of Hagrid the entire time and therefore kind of in safe hands, but as soon as they enter the forest Hagrid instructs them to split up! This leaves two 11-years-old students, barely able to do any real magic, to fend for themselves against centaurs, giant spiders (although we don't know this yet) and who knows what else. As enamored as Hagrid may be with dangerous creatures, this is truly reckless and I find it very difficult to believe that he has permission to do this. And if he does have permission from McGonagall or Dumbledore, it makes me seriously question their judgement.
This problem aside, I really like the scene with the unicorn and Voldemort, as well as Harry's subsequent rescue by Firenze. I remember being really scared while reading this as a child and it is still profoundly creepy - I think mostly because the creature drinking the unicorn's blood is described as floating/slithering across the floor, i.e. not behaving in a human way. It gives me the heebie-jeebies. I remember finding the centaurs mildly annoying/frustrating as a child, because they didn't seem to be paying any attention to the questions being posed to them. However, reading it now, I realized that in their own way, they are replying. Hagrid describes them as "ruddy stargazers", which means they are interested in Astronomy and we know from Book 5 that they are skilled at Divination. They keep alluding to the planet Mars, named after the the Roman god of war - surely a clear indication that danger/war is coming?
My second issue is with how much is crammed into Chapters 16 and 17. The students have their end-of-year exams, Harry figures out Hagrid was tricked into giving up information about Fluffy, the Trio decides to go through the trapdoor to stop Snape, they make it through the challenges, Harry faces off with Quirrell/Voldemort, Harry spends almost a week in the hospital wing, Dumbledore explains what has been happening all year, we have the Leaving Feast and finally, the journey back to King's Cross. It all feels like a bit of an anticlimax, especially the scene between Harry and Quirrell, which I think totals 5 pages of mostly grandstanding and exposition by the latter. All of the tasks leading up to actually finding the Mirror of Erised also seem unbelievably easy, if they can be overcome by children. Assuming for a minute that it was indeed Snape who was looking for the Philosopher's Stone, I really don't see how much trouble he would have had getting through:
- Fluffy - even if Snape didn't know that playing music to a three-headed dog would lull it to sleep, perhaps a simple Stupefy or Petrificus Totalus spell would have done the trick?
- Devil's Snare - the first year students learned about this in Herbology and Snape is a Potions Master, presumably he needs to have in-depth knowledge of plants and fungi also. Don't foresee this being an issue for him
- The Flying Keys - I suppose this would have been slightly trickier, but we know that Snape can fly a broomstick and perhaps could have used Accio on the key once he had figured out which key he needed?
- The Chessboard - this isn't made apparent in the first book, but we all know that Snape is an intelligent man who is skilled at subterfuge and strategic thinking. I think it's safe to say he can play chess
- The Troll - again, we have seen a troll being defeated by children using a simple Wingardium Leviosa spell...
- The Potions - well, this was designed by Snape anyway so don't even have to argue this one
The real problem would be the Mirror of Erised. Just how many wizards know of its existence in the first place? Only Dumbledore knows the trick to getting the Stone out of it. This to me seems the only obstacle to stealing the stone.
Logically, I understand that this is a book primarily for children with children as protagonists and therefore they need to be able to overcome these challenges to drive the story forward. Reading it as a child I had no problem with this and raced through the chapter with bated breath. Reading it as an adult, however, I find it difficult to accept this. The six stages are supposed to keep out powerful wizards, they should therefore, in my opinion, be more difficult.
If I think about it even more - and sorry to keep ranting about this - none of these tasks seem to require magical skills above that of a first year student. The only one that would is the troll and JK Rowling conveniently removed that threat by having Quirrell defeat it for them. This brings me to my third issue - Harry doesn't do any magic in these two chapters! In fact, the only bit of magic done is by Hermione conjuring fire to scare off the Devil's Snare and that's it. This being a book about witches and wizards studying at a magical school, I find this extremely frustrating.
And I am most frustrated by Harry, because he doesn't actually do anything (except be good at flying) until the very end. I firmly believe that he would not have been able to do any of this on his own - and we are supposed to believe in later books that he is the savior of the wizarding world and will defeat Voldemort. Perhaps I'm being too harsh - he is, after all, only a child with very little magical training. But so is Hermione and I would bet more money on her overcoming these challenges, than I would on Harry. Accompanied as he is by Ron and Hermione, he might as well not even be a wizard because the only thing he has to offer at this point is his bravery. It is only with the Mirror of Erised that him being a wizard is to his benefit - although this is only an assumption, as we don't actually know if the mirror would work on a Muggle.
I have slight issues with Dumbledore's lack of explanation in the hospital wing - while in the later books I appreciate the 'love protection spell' that saved Harry's life when he was a baby, in this book I find the reasoning kind of cheap and hurried. I don't understand why JK Rowling couldn't give us one more chapter so that she could flesh these things out a bit. I suppose going too in depth with the intricacies of Lily's sacrifice would have been too much for a child to grasp? Then there is the Leaving Feast scene, which I already discussed in a previous post, so won't rehash it again here.
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And, just like that, we have reached the end of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. I have one more post about this book and then it's full steam ahead (finally) with Book 2!
Until next time,
Lucia
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