Philosopher's Stone Chapter Fourteen

[urbanman1984.livejournal.com]

PS Chapter Fourteen

*Enter Norberta the Norwegian Ridgeback!  I wonder how the characters involved in her story arc remember her.  They seem to have forgotten all about it by the next chapter and yet Harry can remember her in Order of the Phoenix.

 

*Voldemort’s steadily draining Quirrell’s life force.  It would be a hideous thought, just sharing a dormitory with him, let alone a body.  Personally I would struggle to accommodate even the Bowdlerised Voldemort in A Very Potter Musical.  

 

*Snape sweeping around in a bad temper is a fixture of the first six books.  He was always a reliable antagonist.  One of the many many things wrong with Deathly Hallows is that Snape is not in the ever present antagonistic role he had always occupied previously  :\

 

*I wonder what Quirrell thinks of Harry and Ron’s efforts to cheer him up?

 

*It’s pretty obvious Hermione needs all the revision time she can get.  She has to waste much of it with that compulsive chart and colour code making, just like Rimmer on Red Dwarf.

 

*In the first year, failing the exams mean removal from Hogwarts, but not subsequently *shrugs*

 

*I wonder what kind of research Hagrid had to do to breed the Blast Ended Skrewts *shudder* Must have been in the Restricted Section.

 

*Is Hagrid taking the egg for a walk or what?

 

*Hagrid’s one to admonish Ron about discretion and keeping Fumblewhore’s secrets.

 

*At this point Ron is the one to supply information about the wider magical world – he is the one who would realistically know about it.  But just wait till Hermione becomes a Mary Sue and Ron is downgraded *retch*

 

*I wonder what the point of keeping dragons a secret is?  Oh well, this series was never strong on logic.

 

*Hermione’s actually better at getting information from Hagrid than Voldemort and Quirrell both were.  She doesn’t even need to get him drunk.  Does she remind Hagrid of a giantess or some kind of monster making him sentimental?

 

*Voldemort doesn’t know how to get past Cerberus... what a wally!

 

*Are the chickens at Hogwarts entirely managed by Hagrid?  He must steal a good number.

 

*Malfoy’s eavesdropping!  His ensuing course of action will be puzzling.

 

*Norberta’s description sounds like she is aerodynamic.  Naturally her wings would have to be very much larger than her body.  Still I always wondered how bumblebees fly, do they look aerodynamic? ;)

 

*Go on Norberta bite him!

 

*Hagrid considers himself to be the dragon’s surrogate mother.  JKR explained that since he is part monster he has a pathological fixation with owning monsters that could potentially kill him.  The Blast Ended Skrewts were a very much more sinister manifestation of his desire to enact his own unnatural conception.  A distinctly Neo-Nazi or KKKlanish type of concept, JKR!

 

*Malfoy’s seen the dragon and now he is going to ... do nothing?  Is this practice for when he is a Death Eater?  They do a lot of nothing.

 

*It would be great if Norbert could just be left alone to grow larger than Hagrid.  Perhaps she could finally get rid of the silly old monster.

 

*Perhaps it is better that Ron was bitten rather than burned.  If we applied human standards to Hagrid then he would seem quite callous here, but he genuinely is not right in the head, JKR actually intends it in his case.

 

*I wonder how much correspondence Ron had with his brothers.  Harry is so self-centred that he never notices such things.

 

*There is a pressing need to get rid of Malfoy even though he has done absolutely nothing.

 

*Okay why is Ron lending Malfoy books at all?  There is no way at all I would have lent one to any boy I was on bad terms with when I was eleven, whatever the circumstance.

 

*Did Malfoy get a free pass to the hospital wing, because Lucius was still a school governor?

 

*Hagrid’s not so stupid – he’s set the kids the task of taking the dragon to the top of the tower even though he’s the one entitled to roam the grounds at night.  At least it saves him the exertion!

 

*So was Malfoy trying to catch them in the act or did he just want to see the dragon...?

 

*Hermione still works really hard to keep in Harry’s good books this year, including adopting all his feuds as her own. 

 

*Charlie’s friends were a cheery lot, but they are just blurs to Harry.

 

*And they left the invisibility cloak at the top of the tower, but that’s not the stupidest thing to happen in the series by a very long way.

Comments

[mmmarcusz.livejournal.com]

*Are the chickens at Hogwarts entirely managed by Hagrid? He must steal a good number.

The house-elves are probably field-slaves as well. Or do they exist at this point? JKR seemed to invent them whole-cloth in GoF.

*Charlie’s friends were a cheery lot, but they are just blurs to Harry.

No handsome boys then.

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

I wonder what Quirrell thinks of Harry and Ron’s efforts to cheer him up?
But notice how , in PS, Harry is still some sort of normal, empathic boy: He realizes Quirell is unhappy and tries to make him feel liked or something along those lines. It's hard to imagine him doing something similar in, say OotP or further down the road.

*Hermione’s actually better at getting information from Hagrid than Voldemort and Quirrell both were. She doesn’t even need to get him drunk. Does she remind Hagrid of a giantess or some kind of monster making him sentimental?
Oh come on, you know it's her budding feminine wiles which allow her to manipulate a male!


*Hagrid considers himself to be the dragon’s surrogate mother. JKR explained that since he is part monster he has a pathological fixation with owning monsters that could potentially kill him.
OMG, is that true? And how on earth would such a weird complex come into existence? It sounds like illogical illogic on crack.


*Malfoy’s seen the dragon and now he is going to ... do nothing? Is this practice for when he is a Death Eater? They do a lot of nothing.
Bwahaha - and another case of IOIAGDI: in DH, Harry will be practicing the good kind of not doing anything.

[sunnyskywalker]

Well, giants are supposed to be brutal monsters, so maybe Hagrid's unconscious reasoning is something like, "I'm not a monster, just misunderstood, so they are too!" Or, "If I can prove they're okay/make them okay, it proves I'm okay." I imagine it was pretty awful for him after he was expelled, too, staying on campus where kids could point and whisper about how they hear he had a monster that killed someone, figures, freak like him... And yet he also had reasons to feel grateful for this situation, which has got to twist up things in your head even more... It's not surprising he got some kind of complex.

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

Your interpretation would make sense, but as far as I can see, that doesn't follow from Rowling's citation at all. Nor does it explain the strange gender shift - why not feel like Norberta's daddy?

[sunnyskywalker]

I'm taking the loosest possible interpretation (monsters who can kill him = monsters like him/his mom?), because that's about the best you can usually do with JKR. The best I can figure for why he's mommy rather than daddy is he's identifying with his own giant monster mommy, or making her what he wished she had been, or something like that. Not that it will ever entirely make sense.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Hermione and Hagrid: In 4 years Hagrid's half-brother will develop a mini-crush on her. Maybe she's attractive to the giant-kind.

Did Rowling literally refer to Hagrid as a monster? Sounds like another case of her adopting the supposedly evil prejudices of her world and justifying them - if she did.

[urbanman1984.livejournal.com]

Hagrid no, but the giants yes, it is even stated in the text that Grawp is a monster. So the text states that Hagrid is biologically half-monster.

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

"*Hagrid considers himself to be the dragon’s surrogate mother. JKR explained that since he is part monster he has a pathological fixation with owning monsters that could potentially kill him.
OMG, is that true? And how on earth would such a weird complex come into existence? It sounds like illogical illogic on crack."

Insane Troll Logic?

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

*Voldemort’s steadily draining Quirrell’s life force. It would be a hideous thought, just sharing a dormitory with him, let alone a body. Personally I would struggle to accommodate even the Bowdlerised Voldemort in A Very Potter Musical.

Ah ah! You're pitying him! He's full of hate and greed, remember!

*Did Malfoy get a free pass to the hospital wing, because Lucius was still a school governor?

Remember when Slytherins seemed actually cunning when we couldn't see their cunning plans?

*Hermione still works really hard to keep in Harry’s good books this year, including adopting all his feuds as her own.

She really is his vassal, isn't she?

[urbanman1984.livejournal.com]

The dynamic of Voldemort and Quirrell really was underdeveloped in canon. It was redone really well in The Best Revenge on fanfic.net

Being fused with Voldemort would most certainly have a corrupting influence (as well as increasing the host's tendency towards procrastination).

[aasaylva.livejournal.com]

(as well as increasing the host's tendency towards procrastination
OMG, I must be another Horcrux! Thanks for alerting me!!!

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

Being fused with Voldemort would most certainly have a corrupting influence (as well as increasing the host's tendency towards procrastination).

Just imagine - if Harry were less self-absorbed, he'd have noticed the other pupils complaining about how long it took Quirrell to mark their homework, and would have solved the mystery in half the time!

[urbanman1984.livejournal.com]

Voldemort is so evil that he would suggest just giving them all B minuses to cut the corner of actually marking them ;)

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

And this is evil by typical Hogwarts standards how, exactly?

[urbanman1984.livejournal.com]

If it is not a Gryffindor doing it, it is evil.

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

You know, I always wondered why Hermione took it on herself to do all that stuff for Harry (do his homework, constantly back him up, etc.) It's almost like she knows that Harry is the main character or something.

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

Either that or the Hat's random mention of chivalry that not even Harry understands the relevance of is actually an indication that Gryffindor is run on a quasi-feudal arrangement.

[charlottehywd.livejournal.com]

Well, that makes more sense than any other theory I have heard so far.

[sunnyskywalker]

Dumbledore is their liege lord, Harry is a lesser lord who sword fealty to him, and Ron and Hermione are his vassals? Suddenly "Dumbledore's man" has another level of meaning.

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/Okay why is Ron lending Malfoy books at all? There is no way at all I would have lent one to any boy I was on bad terms with when I was eleven, whatever the circumstance./

Yes, this is very odd. Ron, after all, is the person who supposedly has the greatest beef with Draco – their fathers are enemies and Ron’s the one who told Harry that the Malfoys were all in Slytherin and Dark wizards – yet when Harry’s not there, he’ll lend Draco books?

/Hermione still works really hard to keep in Harry’s good books this year, including adopting all his feuds as her own./

This moment is also weird because it’s the opposite of Ron’s. When Ron is with Harry, he publicly voices his dislike of Draco, yet lends him a book in private. We never hear of Hermione ever having any bad moments with Draco before she befriended Harry and Ron (the first time that we see Draco call her “Mudblood” is in CoS), yet she’s happy that Draco’s going to be punished.

[detritius.livejournal.com]

That sort of makes me think that Ron and Draco had more of a schoolyard rivals thing going at this point -- they needled each other, but there wasn't any serious anger behind it. Harry was the one melodramatic enough to think they were sworn enemies.

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

Ron lending Malfoy books....

Okay, that one is partly explained. That was DRACO's excuse for visiting Ron on his sickbed. (Poppy's apparently not up on the kids' alliances--she doesn't see anythng weird in a Pureblood borrowing a book from his fellow-Pureblood second cousin even if they are in different houses and their dads don't get along. Maybe some of Ron's older brothers--not the twins, obviously--were not such unregenerate Slytherin-haters that she expected Ron, whom she hadn't had dealing with, to be one?)

Ron went along with this cover story because Draco was blackmailing him with the threat of telling Madam Pomfrey the truth about what bit Ron.

I wonder if Draco spotted a corner of envelope sticking out of one book, and that's why he took THAT one? Ron didn't even realize until talking it over later that he'd given Draco the letter as well as a book....

[oryx_leucoryx]

Maybe some of Ron's older brothers--not the twins, obviously--were not such unregenerate Slytherin-haters that she expected Ron, whom she hadn't had dealing with, to be one?

Or some of the Weasley cousins, who should be around Bill and Charlie's ages, or a bit older. Heck, some of the cousins may have *been* Slytherins. Why not? Their grandmother was a Slytherin. For all we know, a brother of Arthur's may have even married a Slytherin.

[nx74defiant.livejournal.com]

*Hagrid’s not so stupid – he’s set the kids the task of taking the dragon to the top of the tower even though he’s the one entitled to roam the grounds at night.

or do the kids realize that they can't trust Hagrid to actually do it?

[dollmaker (from livejournal.com)]

*I wonder what Quirrell thinks of Harry and Ron’s efforts to cheer him up?
That his plan is working marvellously, he says so himself to Harry.

*It’s pretty obvious Hermione needs all the revision time she can get.
She has definitely perfectionist tendencies.

*In the first year, failing the exams mean removal from Hogwarts, but not subsequently *shrugs*
Hermione might have just misunderstood how it works. As a teacher I would not advertise the fact that test only matter as a yardstick measure for OWLs and NEWTs.

*Is Hagrid taking the egg for a walk or what?
Pretty sure he's just sneaking out a book on dragons.

*I wonder what the point of keeping dragons a secret is? Oh well, this series was never strong on logic.
Dragons are magical, so they need to be kept hidden because of the Statue of Secrecy.

*Hermione’s actually better at getting information from Hagrid than Voldemort and Quirrell both were. She doesn’t even need to get him drunk. Does she remind Hagrid of a giantess or some kind of monster making him sentimental?
She is a friend, not a suspicious, hooded stranger in a bar.

*Voldemort doesn’t know how to get past Cerberus... what a wally!
Quirrel tells it like he was the one to do all the work, supposedly Voldemort was too weak to do much.

*Hagrid considers himself to be the dragon’s surrogate mother. JKR explained that since he is part monster he has a pathological fixation with owning monsters that could potentially kill him. The Blast Ended Skrewts were a very much more sinister manifestation of his desire to enact his own unnatural conception. A distinctly Neo-Nazi or KKKlanish type of concept, JKR!
This whole paragraph is just ugh. Neo-Nazi? KKK? Really? This has nothing to do with it. Hagrid has issues due to being raised in a society that considers one half of his parents as lesser and monstrous. Nothing of what you wrote makes any sense whatsoever!

*Malfoy’s seen the dragon and now he is going to ... do nothing? Is this practice for when he is a Death Eater? They do a lot of nothing.
He is staying his hand, he does something later.

*I wonder how much correspondence Ron had with his brothers. Harry is so self-centred that he never notices such things.
Ron has little to no correspondence with Charlie I imagine. Harry is about as self-centred as Ron I'd wager who fails to take notice of the Dursleys abuse.

*There is a pressing need to get rid of Malfoy even though he has done absolutely nothing.
He's threatening to tho.

*Okay why is Ron lending Malfoy books at all? There is no way at all I would have lent one to any boy I was on bad terms with when I was eleven, whatever the circumstance.
Draco took a book, presumably Ron did not dare stop him for fear of Draco rattling him out.

*Did Malfoy get a free pass to the hospital wing, because Lucius was still a school governor?
Wut? Students visit each other in the hospital wing all the time.

*Hagrid’s not so stupid – he’s set the kids the task of taking the dragon to the top of the tower even though he’s the one entitled to roam the grounds at night. At least it saves him the exertion!
Hagrid would not fit under the Invisibility Cloak.


*So was Malfoy trying to catch them in the act or did he just want to see the dragon...?
Both, who wouldn't want to see a dragon?

*Hermione still works really hard to keep in Harry’s good books this year, including adopting all his feuds as her own.
Typical of children to take the side of their friend.

*Charlie’s friends were a cheery lot, but they are just blurs to Harry.
It was dark :)
He needs a new prescription :P