deathtocapslock | 12 HP Philosopher’s Stone (Reply)

Sorry for not posting last week, but I caught flu. I've spend last week and half being totally useless :(

Ch12 The Mirror of Erised

>This chapter reveals that, aside of being headmaster, professional politician and war leader, Albus still finds time to be a dealer. When the man finds time to sleep?

>So Weasley twins torment their relatively nice teacher and we don’t hear any moralising from narrative? That was subtle foreshadowing courtesy of Jo. +1 to Crime Count.

>Yeah Jo, WW is so wonderful that it makes central heating redundant.

>Harry, I’m not sure that telling straight up truth can be really called taunting. You hate Durslays, Durslays are terrorised into keeping you and you don’t seem to try to win their approval.

>Weasley parents spends their non existing money to visit their son who secretly hates them so much, that he moved to other side of Europe just so he can avoid them.

>This scene beautifully shows difference between good guys and bad guys in these books: to Hagrid ‘he was provoked’ is good enough defence to let two guys beat each other up, Severus on the other hand sticks to rules.

>What do you mean ‘fighting is against Hogwarts rules’??? Severus, now you are just pulling my leg.

>I’m not sure if I’m more impressed with Harry’s cheek or Hagrid’s delusions that he can keep a group of nosy kids from sticking their noses where they do not belong.

>I don’t know what British kids learn at school, but at Harry’s age I already knew who Nicolas Flamel was. If I remember correctly he was mentioned in my first science textbook in chapter that outlined history of science. As such reading this chapter when I was teenager was bizarre and frustrating experience for me.

>Hermione for the first time shows that she isn’t very creative. While the library doesn’t seem to be organised by modern standards and as such finding anything there must be a chore and half, if I couldn’t find Flamel in books I would try to research Dumbledore in hopes that would give me some kind of clue.

>I don’t know Harry; perhaps you could charm your loyal fan Fillius Flitwick into giving you permission to enter Restricted Section.

>Why there is Restricted Section in the first place? Hogwarts is big (and empty) enough to create separate room to contain those books.

>I see that Madam Pince’s attitude towards books is very similar to Aziriphale’s from Good Omens.

>They spend TWO weeks using Hermione’s method and didn’t come up with alternatives? Guys you don’t need more time for research, you need to learn how to research. +1 to Leap of Logic

>Yes Hermione, ridicule your own parents since they are only muggles. Funny thing is that they actually could know who Flamel is.

>So wizard chess is just like normal chess only the figures are alive and you have to “get” them to do what you want? Sounds like less fun and more frustrating version of Majesty.

>Hagrid wants our heroes to stop meddling with Dumbledore’s plan yet doesn’t stop and think that he is about to give Harry a tool that he can use to get past Fluffy. Are wizards naturally inclined to self sabotage?

>While Durslays sending Harry 50 pence is amusing, now I’m imagining Albus terrorising them until they gave him anything to pass to Harry.

>”We received your message and enclose your Christmas present.” What message? I don’t remember Harry sending any “messages” to Durslays.

>Does Molly send presents to all friends of her kids or just to those who are celebrities?

>And here Jo introduces the ultimate Deus Ex of this series: Invisibility Cloak. Need to sneak Harry somewhere? Take the cloak. Need some drama from being discovered? Take the cloak. Need ancient artifact granted by Death? Take the cloak.

>You know Albus, normally in cases such as this a normal human being would give the cloak to the closest related adult for safe keeping, not keep it for years and then give it as a Christmas gift. +1 to Crime Count?

>”Use it well”? Albus you just gave a middle schooler a powerful magical object! If Harry was real guy he would be plotting peeping on girls or bulling his enemies or sneaking out of the castle to buy sweets. What exactly did you expect from eleven year old?

>[About sweaters] ”She obviously makes more of an effort if you’re not family.” And people wonder why there is so much friction in Ron-Harry friendship?

>Harry, you received all those cool things and that is fine, but how about you tell us what you gave your friends?

>”“You haven’t got a letter on yours,” George observed. “I suppose she thinks you don’t forget your name. But we’re not stupid — we know we’re called Gred and Forge.””I would be much more sympathetic towards twins struggle to be recognised as separate people, if their author didn’t write them as one person in two bodies.

>The Food Porn is back with vengeance. Why staff and handful of students needs “a hundred fat, roast turkeys”?

>This time Jo isn’t even pretending that Hagrid is getting drunk while sitting with teachers.

>A Grow-Your-Own-Warts kit? Why would you even produce something like this??

>”The white mice had disappeared and Harry had a nasty feeling they were going to end up as Mrs. Norris’s Christmas dinner” Harry, don’t pretend that you are emphatic toward mice, you don’t even treat your own pet properly.

>Something had been nagging at the back of Harry’s mind all day. Considering the rest of this chapter I wonder if the cloak had some mind controlling spell on it. +1 to Crime Count for breaking curfew

>Harry who only was interested in books when they had some spells he could use on Dudley, upon realising that whole school is open to him decides to go read books. +1 to Crime Count for entering the Restricted Section without permission.

>Snape being thinking adult realises what kind of things teenagers can come up with and asks Filch to report standard teenager behaviour to him.

>Ever since chapter five I was contemplating location of PS during plot of this book. IMHO the only logical possibility is that for the whole school year Albus keeps PS in his office. It’s the most secure location in this castle since it’s protected with password, sentient portraits, phoenix and Albus himself. If that is not the case then Dumbledore is taking huge risks by either placing stone at the end of the obstacle course without Mirror as protection or by taking the Mirror out of the gauntlet while it holds the stone.

>I’m not going to buy that a priceless magical artifact that has addicting properties was just sitting in random classroom. Even wizards are not that irresponsible. +1 to Crime Count for inflicting drugs in form of Mirror onto unsuspecting students?

>I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there is something very odd about Harry’s thinking process when he interacts for the first time with the mirror. Perhaps it’s a leap of logic: woman with eyes like mine=my mother! +1 to Leap of Logic.

>How does the Mirror work? Harry doesn’t know how Lily looks, yet his ‘mother’ in the reflection looks just like Lily. Same goes for James.

>Harry starts to exhibit first symptoms of addiction: he’s so obsessed with the mirror that he can’t eat, nor does he care about plot of this book. Apparently he even looks ‘odd’ according to Ron.

>Scratch that, Harry is so obsessed with the mirror that he “feared most” that he won’t be able to find mirror. It was creepy when I first read it and now it is not getting any better.

>Head boy AND Quidditch Captain? Oh my, Ron is quite ambitious!

>It seems that Harry has addictive personality. Unlike him, Ron isn’t hooked after first time.

>Ron being good friend tries to convince Harry that taking drugs isn’t good for him. Sadly at this point Harry is so obsessed that no matter what Ron says, he is going for another dose.

>”So back again Harry” That does not in any significant way shows that Albus was aware what Harry was doing. At all. +1 to Crime Count

>Albus straight up admits that he was spying on pair of eleven year olds breaking school rules. He didn’t do anything to stop Harry earlier and admitting this now makes it look like he approves of Harry’s rule breaking habits. +1 to Crime Count

>Albus realises that once again Harry cannot do 2+2 equation and patiently explains the mirror to him.

>”If you ever do run across it, you will now be prepared.”???? That is not how addiction works Albus!

>Dumbledore claims that in mirror he sees himself holding a pair of thick, woollen socks. According to fandom in the mirror he wears them while being fucked by Grindelwald. Go figure.

>Considering he lives with Durslays, Harry shouldn’t be surprised that somebody really wants woollen socks.

>An anti-intellectual add courtesy of Joan Rowling. You are welcome.

>I wonder, did Dumbledore did mirror shenanigans to familiarise Harry with the mirror or to check what sits in the brats head?

>Harry shoves Scabbers off his pillow and Peter once again ignores his chance to score points with his former master. One has to wonder if he would run for Voldemort if Sirius stayed at magical version of Guantanamo.

Crime Count: 7

Death Count: 0

Freud Would Be Proud: 0

Leap of Logic: 2

Uncovered: 0

Spell Count: 0