02 HP Philosopher’s Stone

[chantaldormand]

Ch2 Vanishing Glass

>The title sounds much more exciting than this chapter really is.

>So Harry helps with cooking, but any kind of skill he gained this way doesn’t translate to preparation of ingredients in Potions class. Nor him helping with cooking in DH.

>Also why Harry is sharing a living space with spiders? For bonus Poor Orphan points? Normally spiders would look for less frequented spaces.

>Harry remembers asking his Aunt Petunia how he had gotten his scar. 

Petunia: You were left on our doorstep by some idiot and wild animals molested you. I had to fight off 5 raccoons to save you!

>Well Harry, perhaps if you combed your hair instead of simply cutting it when they tangle beyond mortal help, they would look presentable?

>Here Harry predicts Dudley’s tantrum yet by the end of this book Harry will think that he can stall an experienced wizard who fooled supposed all-knowing and all-powerful headmaster. 

>Harry ridicules Dudley’s lack of interest in books now, but fast-forward few years and he absolutely cannot find book about breathing underwater.

>Now narrative tries to portray Durslays as unreasonable, but they are simply aware, that given chance the resident Gary Stu would outshine their son on his birthday.

>Strange things happen around Harry and telling Durslays about them is not good idea thus Harry tells about his dream. Our protagonist, Ladies and Gentlemen. +1 to Leap of Logic

>Either the Potters left REALLY strong impression on Vernon or living with his nephew is way more stressful than Harry believes.

>Now, Harry makes it look like Petunia was forced to buy him ice cream to look good, but she could simply tell the ice cream lady that Harry was allergic and not pay for any ice cream for Harry.

>Uncle Vernon rapped the glass, all while ignoring Do Not sign with list of actions you shouldn’t try to do. Among them rapping on the glass

>Now I don’t know about zoos in Great Britain, but here where I live, most of reptile houses have cameras installed, just in case some idiot tries to break glass and free the animals. Granted, it’s 1991, but even back then there were at least some kind of guards.

>Also +1 to Uncovered for whole glass stunt. Kinda makes me wonder why wizards need wands, if they can create this kind of chaos wandlessly. For control? Well little Tom and later in this book Quirrell disagrees. +1 to Death Count for potential death via snake.

>Harry is quite emotionless here- no fear of giant reptile making it for exit, no joy from seeing his bullies scared. Just ‘Meh, it only snapped at your legs. Why are you overdramatizing it?’

>Poor Vernon, he just wanted to spend nice day with his family. Now his blood pressure and Potter induced mental trauma renders him almost speechless.

>While Harry angst over his Cinderella back story, I cannot stop myself from slapping another +1 to Uncovered, for brainless wizards who bother their child celebrity. Also what is stopping any Voldie sympathiser or budding Dark Lord from kidnapping Harry? Or for that matter why none of those wizards go to the Prophet and tell reporters where they spotted our favourite child celebrity?

>On side note- if Petunia was anywhere as bad as fandom likes to claim she is, she could easily come up to random wizard and ask “Would you like to take this child? I will even include a letter from Albus Dumbledore.” Instead she grabs her nephew and evacuates from the shop.

>Harry has no friends before Hogwarts, because Dudley scared them off, yet after he joins magical society he befriends every student he meets. No, really!

>Chapter ends so abruptly that I borrowed my friend’s paperback copy just to be sure that my ebook wasn’t missing some text. Where was editor?

>While staying on the subject of editor- what was the point in making 2 starting chapters? If you get rid of the first one, Dumbledore ends up looking slightly better. If you trash the second one, you might as well trash the third chapter reducing this way a huge amount of angst and pointless drama from whole Letter Chase section of book. Either way, you end up with tighter plot.

Crime Count: 0, I wanted to give point for zapping glass with magic and releasing dangerous animal in public place, but I’m giving Harry pass this once- it was accident.

Death Count: 1 

Leap of Logic: 1

Uncovered: 2

Spell Count: 0 since all magic was done via accidental bursts of Harry’s Love

Comments

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

/So Harry helps with cooking, but any kind of skill he gained this way doesn’t translate to preparation of ingredients in Potions class. Nor him helping with cooking in DH./

Maybe this another consequence of JKR not rereading her earlier books. Although that is a good point that you make about Potions class. Others and myself have wondered why Harry couldn't cook for Ron and Hermione in DH, but I never connected cooking with Potions. Now I wonder what would happen if Harry's cooking skills did help him out and he turned out to be great in Potions. Would Snape treat him any differently or would he be even more aggravated?

/Harry ridicules Dudley’s lack of interest in books now, but fast-forward few years and he absolutely cannot find book about breathing underwater./

Others have commented on how Harry is treated like Dudley once he enters the wizarding world.

/Kinda makes me wonder why wizards need wands, if they can create this kind of chaos wandlessly. For control?/

Out of all of the wizards that we see in the series, it's only the really powerful ones who are able to wandlessly control their magic: Voldemort, Dumbledore, Lily (well, until she grew up and inexplicably forgot that she could do wandless magic when Voldemort showed up), etc. But I remember thinking that the wizards' overall dependence on their wands leaves them really vulnerable. You take away a wizard's wand (as the authorities did with Hagrid) and they're almost helpless (which makes me wonder why Muggles don't try doing that more often). Which is in contrast to how they are as children, where wandless magic happens all the time.

/what is stopping any Voldie sympathiser or budding Dark Lord from kidnapping Harry?/

As I understand it, nothing. The blood protection only applies to Voldemort.

/if Petunia was anywhere as bad as fandom likes to claim she is, she could easily come up to random wizard and ask “Would you like to take this child? I will even include a letter from Albus Dumbledore.”/

Would Dumbledore let her do that, though? He did send her a Howler later on in the series when it looked like the Dursleys were about to kick out Harry.

[chantaldormand]

/Maybe this another consequence of JKR not rereading her earlier books. Although that is a good point that you make about Potions class. Others and myself have wondered why Harry couldn't cook for Ron and Hermione in DH, but I never connected cooking with Potions. Now I wonder what would happen if Harry's cooking skills did help him out and he turned out to be great in Potions. Would Snape treat him any differently or would he be even more aggravated? /

IMHO while cooking might not help with brewing itself (depending on how much improvisation Harry does while cooking) he should be very effective at preparing ingredients.
As for Snape I think this would confuse him: he might not treat Harry better, but Harry was supposed to grow up at his muggle relatives' house so he shouldn't be great at any practical subject.

/Which is in contrast to how they are as children, where wandless magic happens all the time./

I could theorise that children and elders being closer to death might make their magic wilder, but this is not how magic works in HP books. At all.
I have feeling that over course of books I will rise this point constantly. We have 'safe' magic that is simplified to do-gesture-say-right-words and then suddenly we have magic that doesn't fill this pattern and makes me go "Wait what??". Majority of magic used by 'bad guys' is like that: potions, Voldemort's fairy-tale styled magic, heck even Unfogivables are like that.

/Would Dumbledore let her do that, though? He did send her a Howler later on in the series when it looked like the Dursleys were about to kick out Harry. /

Dumbledore has nothing to say here. In OotP he probably heard from Arabella about Dementors and just in case send the Howler to keep Harry where he wanted- after all Harry already did pull runner in PoA and was rescued from his family in CoS.
Petunia could easily give away Harry, quickly pack up her stuff and take her family to let's say New Zealand. Sure at some point Albus would figure out what happened to Harry, but depending on who got their hands on the boy it might be too late for our protagonist.

[oryx_leucoryx]

And Legilimency, which Dumbledore does wandlessly. Severus uses a wand when teaching Occlumency to Harry, but it is implied he can also do the wandless version. And Occlumency is wandless (by necessity, as it is truly defensive magic).

[chantaldormand]

I wasn't sure so I avoided mentioning it, but you are right.
Mind magic seems to be wandless magic so in theory anyone who mastered it can do wandless magic. Does animagi tranforamation requires wand?

[oryx_leucoryx]

The only thing that reliably saves Harry is not the blood protection but Tom's Horcrux. (Which Dumbles would really want gone, though only under circumstances convenient to him.)

[chantaldormand]

How exactly the Scar Horcrux saves him?
Not that I'm criticising you, but now I'm wondering if I missed something.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Horcruxes are very hard to destroy. Other than some extreme magical means, as long as the Voldiesoul is there Harry can survive pretty much anything. (Now that doesn't mean he would survive it well and be able to enjoy a productive life. He might end up severely brain damaged and on life support, but he would live.)

[chantaldormand]

Horcruxes that are objects sure, but horcrux that is in living creature I'm not sure.
If this was Koschei the Deathless we were talking then yeah I would agree, but Jo's magic system is very wacky.

[jana-ch.livejournal.com]

It's never clear whether horcruces are intrinsically hard to destroy, or if Voldie put special protections on those he created intentionally. Nagini was destroyed by a simple beheading—although since Neville used the Sword of Gryffindor, I suppose it was an extra-special Gryffie beheading with Nobility and Courage added. Draco wielding the Scimitar of Salazar could not have done it, though he certainly had the motivation.

[oryx_leucoryx]

The Sword of Gryffindor was transformed into a Horcrux destroyer by supposedly absorbing basilisk venom, according to plot.