"Sorcerer's Stone" Chapter 17; "Chamber of Secrets" Chapters 1-3
WAAAAAY behind in posting this. But here is it, finally!
Page 289: Snape was trying to save me?
Look how neatly this plot comes together. It's such a thing of beauty. It makes me want to take a step back and admire it, the way I imagine people feel when looking at Niagara Falls or something.
Page 294: So he knew.
Yes. Voldemort knew the Stone was in Harry's pocket. But how did Voldemort know? Is he just that all-knowing?
Page 297: After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.
I've been noticing all along the similarities between Dumbledore and the Doctor, and this seems like such a Doctor-y thing to say.
Page 299: You will know, one day...put it from your mind for now, Harry.
I had forgotten that Harry immediately asks Dumbledore why Voldemort wants to kill him...and that Dumbledore doesn't tell him. There's a way in which this single moment, here on page 299 of the first book, puts all six remaining books into action. It's the beginning of the tragedy that dogs Book 5, and it's one of the moments Dumbledore apologizes for at the end of Book 5. When Dumbledore sighed and didn't tell Harry about the prophecy here, I actually felt the twinge of foreboding, in a way I know I hadn't when I first read the book. The first time through, it seems like an interesting mystery. When you know how it all ends, you view it very differently.
Page 299: Ah -- your father happened to leave it in my possession, and I thought you might like it.
And we find out that Dumbledore gave Harry the invisibility cloak! Yay!
Page 302: I think he sort of wanted to give me a chance.
The machinations of Dumbledore behind the scenes--the way he always feeds everyone just the amount of information he thinks that they need--will turn out to be one of Dumbledore's most infuriating characteristics, I think, and here, his tendency to try to orchestrate things, to keep control of uncontrollable things, begins to be evident.
Page 303: "It's -- all -- my -- ruddy -- fault!" he sobbed, his face in his hands.
Why, yes, Hagrid. Yes, it is...
Page 304: Smiling and waving at him from every page were his mother and father.
Okay, but this is a really, really nice gift, I admit it. Alright, Hagrid, you've won me over a bit now...
Page 306: I therefore award ten points to Mr. Neville Longbottom.
The part that Neville will play in the future of the books is just slightly hinted at here, where Dumbledore gives him the points to achieve victory over Slytherin. It's just a nice moment for Neville, the first in a string of them scattered through the series.
And with that we have reached the end of "Sorcerer's Stone" ends. I think I was surprised to be reminded exactly how simple and young it feels compared to the later books. I enjoyed "Sorcerer's Stone" the first time I read it, but I had no idea what was in store in the other books. I still feel like the tone of "Sorcerer's Stone" is amazingly innocent, in a way that suits the age of the kids in it, but I did enjoy seeing the small hints scattered throughout it. I'm not sure I like the book more now than I did before. I think it's an enjoyable book, very well-constructed, but it's not necessarily a book that's going to shake your world, or really make you understand why people like me adore Harry Potter so much.
On to "Chamber of Secrets."
Page 2: I WILL NOT TOLERATE MENTION OF YOUR ABNORMALITY UNDER THIS ROOF!
I find "abnormality" to be an interesting choice for the Dursleys to use for Harry's magic-ness. Maybe because I live in this ridiculous country, but it seems to equate magic-ness with other things that cast you outside of the "normal," most obviously homosexuality.
Page 3: He missed Hogwarts somuch it was like having a constant stomachache.
Oh, Harry. Those constant stomachaches are terrible.
And that paragraph then blends into a long run-on sentence in which J.K. Rowling manages to sum up all of Hogwarts. It's enough to remind her old readers and whet her new readers' appetites all at once, and it takes her all of eight lines. Genius.
Page 9: "Jiggery pokery!" said Harry in a fierce voice.
Oh, and now I want to watch some Nine...
Page 17: He hasn't got a brother, has he?
For some reason, this cracks me up. I don't think JKR is being all meta on us and commenting on the prevalence of things like evil twins (or, in this case, maybe "eviller") but still, this query out of Harry about there being a possible Voldermort brother to be his nemesis amuses me.
Page 23: He dreamed he was on show in a zoo, with a card reading UNDERAGE WIZARD attached to his cage.
Another Harry dream!
Page 26: "A lot of wizards think it's a waste of time, knowing this sort of Muggle trick," said Fred, "but we feel they're skills worth learning, even if they are a bit slow."
Fred says this as he's picking a lock the old-fashioned Muggle way. It reminds me of that scene in "Chaos in College" when Athena tells Kate that a sonic screwdriver is a bit of unnecessary flash, and she picks locks with a bobby pin instead.
Page 29: "Draco Malfoy?" said George, turning around. "Not Lucius Malfoy's son?"
This line feels odd to me. Did George and Fred never run into Malfoy during the entirety of the previous year? Never have any idea of the growing epic enmity between Malfoy and Harry?
Page 31: Like, last year, some old witch died and her tea set was sold to an antiques shop.
This makes me want to go around to antiques shops buying up tea sets to see if I can get a bewitched one...
Page 36: Mrs. Weasley beamed down at him. "Oh, he is marvelous," she said.
I greatly enjoy Mrs. Weasley fangirling over Gilderoy Lockhart the way I fangirl over David Tennant.
Page 38: Bless them, they'll go to any lengths to ignore magic, even if it's staring them in the face....
Not me! I use magic to explain almost eveything!
Page 39: "I -- I mean," he faltered as sparks flew from Mrs. Weasley's eyes, "that -- that was very wrong, boys -- very wrong indeed...."
Ah, men. They are all the same...
Page 40: Ron's school spellbooks were stacked untidily in a corner, next to a pile of comics that all seemed to feature The Adventures of Martin Miggs, the Mad Muggle.
It's another little touch of Rowling brilliance that creatures with magical superpowers read comic books about human beings.