Read All the Things: Gilderoy Lockhart and some handy foreshadowing

Does anybody else find Gilderoy Lockhart incredibly annoying? I know he is meant to be, but oh my goodness gracious me, what a pain in the ass that man is. Anyway, let's take a trip to Knockturn Alley.

In Flourish and Blotts

We learn about Floo Powder in this chapter, which sounds like the most useful thing in the world. I am spending about 14 hours a week travelling between London and Devon, and however awful whizzing through fireplaces sounds, it would certainly come in handy! This was where I first figured out how the names for Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley came about. If you haven't worked this out before, your mind is about to be blown.

Diagon Alley = diagonally

Knockturn Alley = nocturnally

I can remember walking down a street in London crying with laughter about this when my friend first realised. It was one of the best moments of my teenage life.

When Harry lands in Borgin and Burke in Knockturn Alley, we meet with a lot of objects that will be important later on. With Draco in the shop, Harry hides in the Vanishing Cabinet. Isn't it lucky he leaves a crack of the door open to peer through? Who knows where he would have ended up - if he'd got to Hogwarts, the mystery would have been solved much sooner and a lot of deaths could have been saved...

Draco and Harry see the opal necklace that is cursed and has claimed the lives of 19 Muggle owners, which Draco later tries to kill Dumbledore with. Draco sees the Hand of Glory, which gives light only to the beholder, and Lucius refuses to buy it for him. However, Draco does end up with it later on - isn't it strange how all of these objects come into their true importance in Book Six?

After leaving the shop, Harry bumps into a woman with 'mossy teeth'. I really wanted to know what having mossy teeth meant, so I Googled it and found this fantastic image! I love it. But it would appear that mossy teeth are what you get when you haven't brushed your teeth for a bit and they feel like they have things growing on them. I've never considered what this meant, and I don't feel any better for the knowing now. At least I'm sharing, right?

Jobs I've never wanted till now: Hippo Dentist!

Heading back to Diagon Alley with Hagrid, one of my favourite relationships of the books is demonstrated: Harry's love of ice cream.

"The bag of gold, silver and bronze jangling cheerful in Harry's pocket was clamouring to be spent, so he bought three large strawberry and peanut-butter ice-creams which they slurped happily as they wandered the up alley..."

My best friend when I was about 3 or 4 was a boy called Andrew. I don't remember a lot about him, but three things stick in my mind. First, he was Greek, although I don't even know what his surname was. Second, he had a party at his house and I saw him going to the loo in a bush - it was the first time I really recognised the difference between boys and girls. Third, his dad owned an ice cream factory.

I have been obsessed with ice cream ever since.

Meeting Lockhart in Flourish and Blotts is a bit of a revelatory moment. We discover how arrogant he is, and learn all about the toothy grin. I wish we had see that article - I can well imagine Lockhart in all of his finery with an awkward Harry cringing next to him.

Lockhart and an awkward Harry...

The much more interesting part of this chapter is the brawl between Malfoy and Mr Weasley. We know that at this point, Riddle's Diary is slipped into Ginny's Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration - this actual moment is so short that it is really easy to miss even when you are looking for it!

I think the thing I really love about this chapter is how much is in it, and we don't even realise. I am always talking about how much it irritates me that people assume that JKR is a terrible writer, because the amount of detail that is interlaced throughout the entire series is incredible. Reading back on the books is really helping me to fully appreciate the amount of detail in the whole series.