Philosopher's Stone Chapter Six

[urbanman1984.livejournal.com]

On the way to Hogwarts!

 

Philosopher’s Stone Chapter Six

 

*Harry does some reading of text books for the first time.  It is also the last time he does so with any kind of eagerness. 

 

*Dud’s tail has got to be removed my non-magical means since Hagrid couldn’t be bothered to get rid of it.  This is another way the Dursleys are treated differently to other muggles.  Not only are they spared mind wipes, but they are given constant reminders of the existence of the magical world they would much rather forget.

 

*JKR had forgotten the layout of King’s Cross Station.  The sign for platform 9 ¾ has been placed on a wall a short distance away from the other platforms as its location in the book is totally inconsistent with the way the real platforms are positioned.  They have also bolted half a trolley to the same wall :p  Makes you think you are really in the Potterverse.

 

*Naturally Hagrid cannot be relied on even for the simplest thing.

 

*The conversation Molly is having with her kids is strange.  Surely she can’t have forgotten that the Hogwart’s Express leaves from platform 9 ¾ seeing as she was there the previous summer...?  Perhaps she is as innumerate as JKR.

 

*What must it be like to have twin sons who don’t have distinct personalities?  Molly must really have trouble telling them apart.

 

*Ron is the quintessential sidekick.  It is readily apparent that he will never be the sex magnet that Malfoy will become. 

 

*The Twins are uncharacteristically helpful in assisting Harry with the trunk.  Perhaps they only become really horrible as the series develops.

 

*Ron immediately greases up to Harry on the grounds of his being Harry Potter.  Just imagine how differently the series would have progressed if it had been Ron and not Draco who was unaware that Harry was the Boy Who Lived on first meeting him.

 

*Oh don’t worry Ron, in my estimation you will at least compare favourably to Fred and George in the end.

 

*It clearly must be a passive-aggressive gesture on Molly’s part to give Ron Charlie’s old wand.

 

*Why is Ron shocked that Harry can say Voldemort’s title?  Surely he realises that Harry was just that awesome, even from birth?

 

*Again, those horrible sandwiches must also be a sign of Molly’s displeasure.  She really ought to get over it.  She has had her Mary Sue (to be) daughter now after all, can’t she give Ron a break for being born a boy and a stereotypical sidekick?

 

*Chocolate Frog cards remind me of collectable football player stickers.  And they are equally dull.  Still, they are the most advanced children’s recreation the magical community seems to have.

 

*It’s Dumblesnore.  I wonder how Harry would react to the card if he had been introduced to the magical community by the Malfoys.  I began an AU fanfic on that topic as a matter of fact. 

 

*Great idea, the every flavour beans including flavours that are unpalatable.  I suppose the horrible flavours must be for Gryffindors to dare each other to eat them.

 

*Here’s Neville, the might have been.  Push off Neville, Harry Potter’s the centre of this universe.

 

*Ron’s spell for turning Scabbers yellow does not sound remotely like any other incantation we read in the series.  I suppose the fact that Ron doesn’t realise it is a fake is an indication that he is not all that bright?

 

*I can imagine that I would be very much more provoked by Hermione rudely butting in and insulting me than I would have been by Draco in Diagon Alley.  And surely any gruesome girl must be much more irritating by very definition than a kid who is just a bit snobbish but not actually provoking in any way?  I suppose we have to infer that Draco went wrong by reminding Harry of Dud at the beginning and the rest is just in the script.

 

*I suppose Ron might have unwittingly strengthened Harry’s prejudice against Slytherin house had that ship not already sailed.

 

*It must’ve been a powerful dark wizard to get round Gringotts?  Arthur seriously overestimates Gringotts security in that case.

 

*Ron explains the rules of Quidditch to Harry.  The ensuing conversation really ought to have unfolded like the very funny excerpt from a fan fiction that another member posted on my commentary to the previous chapter.  What a joke the position of Seeker makes of the entire sport!

 

*Enter Malfoy again.  Too late Malfoy, you already reminded Harry of Dud.  And you didn’t introduce him to the magical world or buy him his first birthday present so his views are set in stone.  It’s no good pointing out that Hagrid is riffraff or insulting the Weasleys now.

 

*JKR couldn’t be bothered to write out this entire vignette in a logical fashion, so Wormtail bites Goyle and then Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle just evaporate.  It is odd as JKR could not have known when writing this that her work would be made into a video game which is a medium where this kind of thing can happen.

 

*Oh come on can’t you see Hermione’s angling for a fight much more than Malfoy was?

 

*Hagrid’s in charge of the entry ceremony to Hogwarts.  Whose great idea was that...?

 

*It is ominous to be thrust into the same boat as both Neville and Hermione.

 

*We’re at Hogwarts!

Comments

Re: Oh dear, money

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I agree--having one extra mouth to feed would mean that much. Actually, I think that probably fits onto the real world and the way people view people with less money. People will often judge what they should be spending it on if they don't have a lot of it? But everyone decides what they think is worth it.

For me the odd thing about the used wand isn't that it proves they're poor (if wands work just as well when used there's no reason not to use an older one--Neville's using his father's because his grandmother thinks he should) but that according to everything else Charlie should be using it. People don't really have spare wands or old wands. Unless, I suppose, we assume that it was never really Charlie's but had belonged to a dead person. Charlie inherited it, then Ron, and they both eventually got their own a little later on.

Re: Oh dear, money

[cured4life.livejournal.com]

Feeding Harry once in awhile...maybe. But don't forget Hermione spends many summers there as well. There is no way a very poor large family can afford to have house guests all the time.

Re: Oh dear, money

[lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com]

Yes and no about Hermione. She does appear to spend practically the whole summer there in HBP, true. But in OotP, she's at Grimmauld Place rather than the Burrow, and there's no particular reason to think that the Weasleys are paying for what she eats. (They might not even be paying for what they themselves eat, there; everyone was Sirius' guests, really.)

She spends time with the Weasleys in GoF, but it's only four days, now that I've gone back and counted. According to Ron's letter, she arrived the day before Harry, and they left for the World Cup the day after Harry arrived. The game itself is only one day; then they spend one full day at the Burrow, and the next morning they're off to Hogwarts.

(Of course, this shows that someone can't count, because the last full day at the Burrow, Harry notes that it's "been over a week" since he sent Hedwig to Sirius. Except that he sent Hedwig to Sirius the same day that he got Ron's letter, the same day that Hermione arrived. So unless *I've* miscounted, it's been four days, which is well *under* a week.)

Er, anyway...

You're right about HBP and DH, where both Hermione and Harry are around for a while.

Still, the affordability of long-term guests could depend somewhat on how much food the Weasleys grow/raise from their land. They've got a garden, and an orchard, and chickens, that we know of. It seems possible that food might not be that much of an expense for them, and they could still lack money for things they needed to buy.