Harry Potter and the Incredibly Poor Decision

Now that I've got my little exploration of Ottery St Catchpole out of the way, it's time to tackle the meat of "The Whomping Willow" - and the incredibly poor decision that Harry and Ron make. I have a lot to say about this, and not all of it pleasant - you may want to grab yourself a sweet beverage to neutralise the sourness of my thoughts!

The Flying Ford Anglia

We are first introduced to the car when Harry is rescued from Privet Drive by Fred, George and Ron in the dead of night. Fair enough, although it does take them a very long time to get from Surrey, where Little Whinging is, back to Devon, considering how quickly the car can fly between London and Devon (see my previous post for more details). I am ambivalent about this, although I did point out that it's not the last time Harry escapes Privet Drive by air.

The Ford Anglia didn't need to be red.

We now proceed directly from where I left off halfway through "The Whomping Willow" yesterday, as I went off on one about Ottery St Catchpole, where it is and what it is. Harry and Ron are the last to go through the barrier at King's Cross, where as we should all know (spoiler alert) that Dobby is concealed, waiting to seal the barrier so they can't get through to Platform 9 and three quarters. (There is just no good way to write Platform 9 and three quarters on this blogging platform, is there?)

Ron is the one who comes up with the idea of flying the car to Hogwarts. Harry reacts in a thoughtless way as his sense of adventure tingles, not asking anything other than "Can you fly it?". Yes, yes, of course, Ron assures him, and off they fly into the sky...with a faulty Invisibility Booster and nothing to drink in the car.

It could have been white...

There are at least two other courses of action that the boys could have taken. They could have waited for one/two minutes for Mr and Mrs Weasley to come back through the barrier. Failing that, because Dobby had sealed it, surely they would have realised Ron and Harry had missed the train, Apparated out, then Apparated back to somewhere near the boys so they could find them?

They could send someone from Hogwarts an owl, as Professor McGonagall points out. The school would have figured out what was wrong with the barrier, Floo'd the boys to the castle, and fed them a hearty lunch while they were waiting for the rest of the school to turn up.

I can't think of any other solutions at the moment, but I'm sure there are some that are failing to come to me. Muggle trains? Find Diagon Alley, which they know is on Charing Cross Road as Hagrid told Harry when they met for the very first time, and seek magical help from there? Do some illegal magic (because let's face it, what is more illegal than flying a car across the country? Don't they know there are laws against that) and tell whoever comes to investigate that they are stranded? So many options.

The most annoying line of the film, delivered in a squeaky voice!

However, the boys hop in the car and fly into the sky. The Invisibility Booster (which, by the way, shouldn't be a booster because there's no pre-existing Invisibility for it to boost) fails, they are seen, and the rest is history, as we all know. They crash into the Whomping Willow, the car goes off into the Forbidden Forest, the boys are given detention, and they get the kudos they wanted for 'landing smoothly on the front lawn' in spades once they crash the car into the tree. This much is obvious, from Lee's exclamation when they enter the Common Room:

'Brilliant!' yelled Lee Jordan. 'Inspired! What an entrance! Flying a car right into the Whomping Willow, people'll be talking about that one for years!'

Fanart of the Ford Anglia in the Whomping Willow
(source)

As much as I don't like the chapter, it does set up some really important plot points, both to this book and to the series as a whole. In the accident, Ron snaps his wand (and the most annoying line of the whole movie is born). This turns out to be important because his wand backfires when he tries to curse Malfoy, making him have to spend hours scrubbing an award for Special Services to the school. The car trundles off into the forest, which is extremely important, because without it running wild in there, Harry and Ron would become Aragog bait and the whole series would be a heck of a lot shorter. We meet the Whomping Willow, which becomes important in Prisoner of Azkaban, not to mention a few other plot points.

I'll close the blog post with my favourite quote from the chapter.

"[Harry] tried not to look at a large, slimy something suspended in green liquid on a shelf behind Snape..."

Fan art by Wilson Swain. I adore this! (source)

Come back tomorrow for more Harry Potter lovin'! Don't forget to vote on which the next series of books we read will be - look over to the right! --->

Much love,

Corrie xx