HP_CommonRoom: SS/PS Chapter 1
As I've mentioned in a previous post, hp_commonroom is doing a complete re-read of the Harry Potter series as of yesterday through the showing of the final Deathly Hallows movie. I wasn't sure if I was going to do it, but after reading through the comments on the first chapter yesterday, I was impressed with some of the conversations going on. It's certainly far more than the fangirling/fanboying that you might expect (though there is a healthy amount of that in the discussions as well, all in good fun).
So I thought now is a good of time as any to do a close reading of the books again. I spent the beginning of this year re-reading the series for enjoyment, so perhaps I can approach the books in a different way this go around.
Beneath the cut are my thoughts on chapter one. Please feel free to discuss if you'd like! And also, bear with me while I figure out how I'm going to format these posts. Right now I'm going to go from specific quotes to over all chapter, I think.
Book: Philosopher's Stone/Sorcerer's Stone
Chapter: 1: The Boy Who Lived
Summary: In which we meet the Dursleys and learn of the peculiar happenings surrounding the arrival of Harry Potter on their doorstep including a conversation between Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall. We also hear mention of Madam Pomfrey.
*Note: Summary provided by hp_commonroom
Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. [p.1]
Since the first line of the book has to draw the reader's attention, I thought I would mention my thoughts on it. I really adore this sentence, and it's sort of become well-known everywhere, hasn't it? What really captures me when I read this is how clipped the "thank you very much" is in my head. It's almost as if it's Petunia saying it to someone who has dared to accuse her of being something less than normal.
Also, I think it begs the question of why in the world anyone would put as much importance on being normal as the Dursleys do. It sort of puts up a red flag from the beginning that there are unnatural things, in their opinion, that they want to distance themselves from. The "thank you very much" at the end really seals the deal for me. Without it, I'm not sure I would get the same feeling.
They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense. [p.1]
Oh, you Dursleys. I should come clean and admit that I love them. I hate what they do to poor Harry, but they are just so absurd and so focused on being normal that it's endearing. I look forward to the beginning of every book just to see how much more ridiculous they've become since the last.
I do also have an affection for the word nonsense, and I think that it's use here is a bit interesting. I find that the Dursleys brushing off something that is mysterious or strange as nonsense rather than something to consider very funny. This is a conversation I imagine in my head:
Co-worker: Bit odd all this fog we've been having lately.
Vernon: Utter nonsense, if you ask me.
Not everything that is strange can be classified as nonsense, Vernon. Ehm, /tangent.
Dursley Descriptions
Mr. Dursley's giant mustache! Also, Vernon's complete lack of neck compared for Petunia's twice as much neck. If that wasn't a sign that they were meant to be, I don't know what is, lol. And it should also be mentioned that "small" would probably be the last word I would use to describe Dudders.
I do adore how Petunia is the neighborhood busybody. She strikes me as the type to spy on her neighbors.
I think that they did a great job of casting the movie actors for the Dursleys, despite taking a liberty or two.
Mrs. Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister, because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish as it was possible to be. [p.2]
Lily and James! It's very tragic what transpired between Petunia and Lily. There was so much resentment on Petunia's part that it's hard to imagine her ever really putting all of that behind her. I wonder if they ever would have reconciled if Lily had lived.
Also, the "good-for-nothing husband" bit did strike up a number of comments over at hp_commonroom. There was a lot of James hating, so I posted a lengthy comment in his defense. There isn't much sense in getting into it at this point (Lord knows I could write at length about why all the hatred for James exists and why it's not completely justified), but I want to mention here that most of what we know about James comes from Petunia and Snape. Not exactly his two biggest fans, are they? We are given one scene, from Snape's POV, to form our opinion of him, which isn't fair at all. The rest of James' character has to be inferred, and some people don't care to take the time to consider his inferred maturity. If James is guilty of anything, it's not having enough time in the book. Ugh, I feel like there is an essay that's going to spawn from this.
unDursleyish. What an amazing word.
…Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls. "Little tyke," chortled Mr. Dursley… [p.2]
Oh, Vernon. It's so hilarious that your son in throwing food everywhere. Way to raise a barbarian.
Mr. Dursley couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes… and …why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald green cloak! The nerve of him! [p.3]
Lol. Honestly man, what can you bear? The nerve of him, indeed.
The newscaster allowed himself to grin. and "Well, Ted," said the weatherman. [p.6]
I wanted to mention that there was a lot of discussion at the community as to whether the newscaster was Ted Tonks. Regardless, the newscaster obviously either knew what was going on judging from the way he was grinning or had a very strange sense of humor when it came to owls.
"Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me." [p.7]
Apparently, Petunia and Vernon love everything normal except common names.
I do find this an interesting bit of dialogue worthy of a little discussion. Does anyone find it strange that Petunia knows Harry's name right off the top of her head? We're told on page 3 that she hadn't met her sister for several years and that they had never seen the Potter's son before. For someone who pretends she doesn't even have a sister, she sure does come up with Harry's name quickly. I think this goes to show that not only did Petunia and Lily have some sort of contact since Harry's birth (she had to find out somehow, after all), but also that she cares more about Lily than she lets on. At the very least she read either a letter from Lily saying that she had had a son or received a birth announcement. She obviously didn't throw it away promptly after receiving it, or she wouldn't know Harry's name. I think that there is this part of Petunia who still dearly loves her sister, but she has to keep it secret because it would be unDursleyish to love someone like Lily.
He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots. [p.8]
Purple cloak? High-heeled, buckled books? And how was it not painfully obvious to me that Dumbledore was gay? I think this was the general consensus over at hp_commonroom after rereading that bit about Dumbledore. In fact, calvaryscars provided us with this crude and hilarious depiction at the community:
Instead he was smiling at a rather severe looking woman…Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun." [p.9]
Oh, McGonagall. I love you for your strictness and up tightness. Talk about a no nonsense woman. I never really pictured her with black hair, but then again, my first HP experience was the GoF movie, so Maggie Smith was probably permanently ingrained in my skull as McGonagall by the time I started reading the series.
"No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for lemon drops. [p.11]
Personally, I think every moment is an appropriate moment for a lemon drop.
"…there will be books written about Harry-every child in our world will know his name!" [p.13]
Oh the irony of that statement.
"Young Sirius Black lent it to me." [p.14]
I love you, Sirius, and your sexy motorbike! I wonder how many times he and Remus had sex on the motorbike or because of the motorbike. Mmmm, R/S.
It's weird to think that he was mentioned so early on.
"No problems, were there?" [p.15]
This is another thing that came up on the community regarding Sirius as "Secret Keeper" and Dumbledore. Some of the members were wondering if Dumbledore hadn't known the whole time that Sirius was innocent but pretended he thought Sirius was guilty. Dumbledore knew Sirius would never allow Harry to live with the Dursleys, and Harry had to live at the Dursleys or Lily's sacrifice would have been in vain. So, Dumbledore needed a way to get Sirius out of the picture, and he chose not to speak up about the change in Secret Keeper.
Personally, I don't believe that Dumbledore had any idea, but it is an incredible interesting thought. I would love to see that explored in fic.
On the Chapter as a Whole
I think this is such a fantastic opener. It does its job from the very beginning at capturing the reader's attention. It flows nice, scene transitions are smooth, there's wit and humor and sadness. JKR gave us a very basic picture of what happened the night Voldemort was defeated and still kept us in the dark enough to make us wonder just what is so special about Harry, who is he, and what is he. If I recall, they don't ever mention the fact that these are wizards, though it's heavily implied.
My one issue, and it's really not so much an issue at all really, is that this is an incredibly self contained chapter. I felt as if this chapter could have been the ending of a book on the First War era, you know? What a fantastic closing line! It feels very one-shot fic to me.
On the Inconsistencies and Awkwardness
Everyone more or less knows at this point that JKR has lost a day in this chapter. There's not really much sense in touching upon that.
What really stuck out to me as awkward and very inconsistent with what we learn about their characters though was the entire conversation between McGonagall and Dumbledore before Hagrid's arrival. Firstly, it doesn't make sense for McGonagall to ask how Dumbledore knew she was the cat. We know she's a professor at this point, and it's likely that Dumbledore has become Headmaster. I'm sure he's seen her in her Animagus form before, especially given that the two specialize in Transfiguration and both work at Hogwarts. Of course, JKR could have meant it to come off a bit more like "How did you know that it was me (in comparison to any other stray cat)," but I just felt it was a bit strange.
Also, I don't care for how McGonagall starts to come undone when they start talking about Lily and James and Harry. She's described as a rigid, no nonsense kind of person; after all when Hagrid started to lose it, she told him to get it together. So I didn't like how suddenly she's weeping, gasping, trembling, or crying out. Just seems a little…off to me. You're more than welcome to argue with me on this though.
Their conversation is terribly info dump-y. I understand of course that there is a lot of explaining to be had here, and JKR had to do it somehow. I just wish it could have been woven into the story a bit better than it was.
Us vs. Them
I was discussing with someone over at the community about the hatred some have for Muggles and Muggle-borns as well as the people who hate those that hate Muggles and Muggle-borns. I think a running theme through the series is the "us vs. them" theme that's fairly common place in literature. We certainly see it between Gryffindors and Slytherins. Death Eaters vs. the Order of the Phoenix. It really stands out to us in those instances.
I guess when I was reading this chapter, I was struck by how quickly JKR set us this very conflict between Muggles vs. Wizards. Now, we usually are given access to the wizards' perspective on Muggles, and it's usually a Dark Wizard's perspective. But even McGonagall in this chapter is quick to tell Dumbledore that he can't possibly be leaving Harry with someone so unlike themselves. I'm in no way saying that McGonagall is a Muggle-hater or anything. I just think it's important to know that even "good witches" make this "us vs. them" distinction.
The Dursleys allow us to get the Muggle's perspective on wizards (which can be a bit skewed), but they're really the only ones throughout the whole series. It's interesting that we start out thinking of these other people as weird in the first chapter, but by the time you're further into the books, wizards are normal and it's become strange to go back to the Muggle world with Harry before school starts.
Just a bit of an observation.
On the Matter of the Survivors
I never really thought about what the survivors might be thinking on the day following Halloween 1981 until someone mentioned it at the community. I suppose when I say survivors, I'm specifically talking about Remus, Sirius, and Snape.
I did explore Remus and Sirius' feelings on the matter in a fic, I guess. But I never considered Snape's turmoil. He probably just found out that Lily has died, that all his efforts were in vain. My heart doesn't go out to him, as he's the one who told Voldemort about the prophecy in the first place so the whole mess is really his fault; however, I can imagine him being utterly damaged on November 1st.
It's funny how we hear about all this celebrating and yet for those three, their lives have essentially ended. It's incredibly sad, especially when we start to know more about WMPP+L+S. For most of the Wizarding World, James and Lily were just two more casualties. I really hate that.
Characters (appearing or otherwise)
Vernon Dursley............[p.1]
Petunia Evans Dursley.....[p.1]
Dudley Dursley............[p.1]
Lily Evans Potter.........[p.2]
James Potter..............[p.2]
Harry Potter..............[p.2]
Minerva McGonagall........[p.2]
Voldemort.................[mentioned, p.5]
Albus Dumbledore..........[p.8]
Dedalus Diggle............[mentioned, p.10]
Madam Pomfrey.............[mentioned, p.11]
Rubeus Hagrid.............[p.14]
Sirius Black..............[mentioned, p.14]
Memorable Quotes
"I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs." ~Dumbledore, p.11
He hurried to his car and set off for home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination." ~ in reference to Vernon, p.5
He couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: "To Harry Potter-the boy who lived!" ~ in reference to Harry, p.17
So I thought now is a good of time as any to do a close reading of the books again. I spent the beginning of this year re-reading the series for enjoyment, so perhaps I can approach the books in a different way this go around.
Beneath the cut are my thoughts on chapter one. Please feel free to discuss if you'd like! And also, bear with me while I figure out how I'm going to format these posts. Right now I'm going to go from specific quotes to over all chapter, I think.
Book: Philosopher's Stone/Sorcerer's Stone
Chapter: 1: The Boy Who Lived
Summary: In which we meet the Dursleys and learn of the peculiar happenings surrounding the arrival of Harry Potter on their doorstep including a conversation between Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall. We also hear mention of Madam Pomfrey.
*Note: Summary provided by hp_commonroom
Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. [p.1]
Since the first line of the book has to draw the reader's attention, I thought I would mention my thoughts on it. I really adore this sentence, and it's sort of become well-known everywhere, hasn't it? What really captures me when I read this is how clipped the "thank you very much" is in my head. It's almost as if it's Petunia saying it to someone who has dared to accuse her of being something less than normal.
Also, I think it begs the question of why in the world anyone would put as much importance on being normal as the Dursleys do. It sort of puts up a red flag from the beginning that there are unnatural things, in their opinion, that they want to distance themselves from. The "thank you very much" at the end really seals the deal for me. Without it, I'm not sure I would get the same feeling.
They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense. [p.1]
Oh, you Dursleys. I should come clean and admit that I love them. I hate what they do to poor Harry, but they are just so absurd and so focused on being normal that it's endearing. I look forward to the beginning of every book just to see how much more ridiculous they've become since the last.
I do also have an affection for the word nonsense, and I think that it's use here is a bit interesting. I find that the Dursleys brushing off something that is mysterious or strange as nonsense rather than something to consider very funny. This is a conversation I imagine in my head:
Co-worker: Bit odd all this fog we've been having lately.
Vernon: Utter nonsense, if you ask me.
Not everything that is strange can be classified as nonsense, Vernon. Ehm, /tangent.
Dursley Descriptions
Mr. Dursley's giant mustache! Also, Vernon's complete lack of neck compared for Petunia's twice as much neck. If that wasn't a sign that they were meant to be, I don't know what is, lol. And it should also be mentioned that "small" would probably be the last word I would use to describe Dudders.
I do adore how Petunia is the neighborhood busybody. She strikes me as the type to spy on her neighbors.
I think that they did a great job of casting the movie actors for the Dursleys, despite taking a liberty or two.
Mrs. Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister, because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish as it was possible to be. [p.2]
Lily and James! It's very tragic what transpired between Petunia and Lily. There was so much resentment on Petunia's part that it's hard to imagine her ever really putting all of that behind her. I wonder if they ever would have reconciled if Lily had lived.
Also, the "good-for-nothing husband" bit did strike up a number of comments over at hp_commonroom. There was a lot of James hating, so I posted a lengthy comment in his defense. There isn't much sense in getting into it at this point (Lord knows I could write at length about why all the hatred for James exists and why it's not completely justified), but I want to mention here that most of what we know about James comes from Petunia and Snape. Not exactly his two biggest fans, are they? We are given one scene, from Snape's POV, to form our opinion of him, which isn't fair at all. The rest of James' character has to be inferred, and some people don't care to take the time to consider his inferred maturity. If James is guilty of anything, it's not having enough time in the book. Ugh, I feel like there is an essay that's going to spawn from this.
unDursleyish. What an amazing word.
…Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls. "Little tyke," chortled Mr. Dursley… [p.2]
Oh, Vernon. It's so hilarious that your son in throwing food everywhere. Way to raise a barbarian.
Mr. Dursley couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes… and …why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald green cloak! The nerve of him! [p.3]
Lol. Honestly man, what can you bear? The nerve of him, indeed.
The newscaster allowed himself to grin. and "Well, Ted," said the weatherman. [p.6]
I wanted to mention that there was a lot of discussion at the community as to whether the newscaster was Ted Tonks. Regardless, the newscaster obviously either knew what was going on judging from the way he was grinning or had a very strange sense of humor when it came to owls.
"Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me." [p.7]
Apparently, Petunia and Vernon love everything normal except common names.
I do find this an interesting bit of dialogue worthy of a little discussion. Does anyone find it strange that Petunia knows Harry's name right off the top of her head? We're told on page 3 that she hadn't met her sister for several years and that they had never seen the Potter's son before. For someone who pretends she doesn't even have a sister, she sure does come up with Harry's name quickly. I think this goes to show that not only did Petunia and Lily have some sort of contact since Harry's birth (she had to find out somehow, after all), but also that she cares more about Lily than she lets on. At the very least she read either a letter from Lily saying that she had had a son or received a birth announcement. She obviously didn't throw it away promptly after receiving it, or she wouldn't know Harry's name. I think that there is this part of Petunia who still dearly loves her sister, but she has to keep it secret because it would be unDursleyish to love someone like Lily.
He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots. [p.8]
Purple cloak? High-heeled, buckled books? And how was it not painfully obvious to me that Dumbledore was gay? I think this was the general consensus over at hp_commonroom after rereading that bit about Dumbledore. In fact, calvaryscars provided us with this crude and hilarious depiction at the community:
Instead he was smiling at a rather severe looking woman…Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun." [p.9]
Oh, McGonagall. I love you for your strictness and up tightness. Talk about a no nonsense woman. I never really pictured her with black hair, but then again, my first HP experience was the GoF movie, so Maggie Smith was probably permanently ingrained in my skull as McGonagall by the time I started reading the series.
"No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for lemon drops. [p.11]
Personally, I think every moment is an appropriate moment for a lemon drop.
"…there will be books written about Harry-every child in our world will know his name!" [p.13]
Oh the irony of that statement.
"Young Sirius Black lent it to me." [p.14]
I love you, Sirius, and your sexy motorbike! I wonder how many times he and Remus had sex on the motorbike or because of the motorbike. Mmmm, R/S.
It's weird to think that he was mentioned so early on.
"No problems, were there?" [p.15]
This is another thing that came up on the community regarding Sirius as "Secret Keeper" and Dumbledore. Some of the members were wondering if Dumbledore hadn't known the whole time that Sirius was innocent but pretended he thought Sirius was guilty. Dumbledore knew Sirius would never allow Harry to live with the Dursleys, and Harry had to live at the Dursleys or Lily's sacrifice would have been in vain. So, Dumbledore needed a way to get Sirius out of the picture, and he chose not to speak up about the change in Secret Keeper.
Personally, I don't believe that Dumbledore had any idea, but it is an incredible interesting thought. I would love to see that explored in fic.
On the Chapter as a Whole
I think this is such a fantastic opener. It does its job from the very beginning at capturing the reader's attention. It flows nice, scene transitions are smooth, there's wit and humor and sadness. JKR gave us a very basic picture of what happened the night Voldemort was defeated and still kept us in the dark enough to make us wonder just what is so special about Harry, who is he, and what is he. If I recall, they don't ever mention the fact that these are wizards, though it's heavily implied.
My one issue, and it's really not so much an issue at all really, is that this is an incredibly self contained chapter. I felt as if this chapter could have been the ending of a book on the First War era, you know? What a fantastic closing line! It feels very one-shot fic to me.
On the Inconsistencies and Awkwardness
Everyone more or less knows at this point that JKR has lost a day in this chapter. There's not really much sense in touching upon that.
What really stuck out to me as awkward and very inconsistent with what we learn about their characters though was the entire conversation between McGonagall and Dumbledore before Hagrid's arrival. Firstly, it doesn't make sense for McGonagall to ask how Dumbledore knew she was the cat. We know she's a professor at this point, and it's likely that Dumbledore has become Headmaster. I'm sure he's seen her in her Animagus form before, especially given that the two specialize in Transfiguration and both work at Hogwarts. Of course, JKR could have meant it to come off a bit more like "How did you know that it was me (in comparison to any other stray cat)," but I just felt it was a bit strange.
Also, I don't care for how McGonagall starts to come undone when they start talking about Lily and James and Harry. She's described as a rigid, no nonsense kind of person; after all when Hagrid started to lose it, she told him to get it together. So I didn't like how suddenly she's weeping, gasping, trembling, or crying out. Just seems a little…off to me. You're more than welcome to argue with me on this though.
Their conversation is terribly info dump-y. I understand of course that there is a lot of explaining to be had here, and JKR had to do it somehow. I just wish it could have been woven into the story a bit better than it was.
Us vs. Them
I was discussing with someone over at the community about the hatred some have for Muggles and Muggle-borns as well as the people who hate those that hate Muggles and Muggle-borns. I think a running theme through the series is the "us vs. them" theme that's fairly common place in literature. We certainly see it between Gryffindors and Slytherins. Death Eaters vs. the Order of the Phoenix. It really stands out to us in those instances.
I guess when I was reading this chapter, I was struck by how quickly JKR set us this very conflict between Muggles vs. Wizards. Now, we usually are given access to the wizards' perspective on Muggles, and it's usually a Dark Wizard's perspective. But even McGonagall in this chapter is quick to tell Dumbledore that he can't possibly be leaving Harry with someone so unlike themselves. I'm in no way saying that McGonagall is a Muggle-hater or anything. I just think it's important to know that even "good witches" make this "us vs. them" distinction.
The Dursleys allow us to get the Muggle's perspective on wizards (which can be a bit skewed), but they're really the only ones throughout the whole series. It's interesting that we start out thinking of these other people as weird in the first chapter, but by the time you're further into the books, wizards are normal and it's become strange to go back to the Muggle world with Harry before school starts.
Just a bit of an observation.
On the Matter of the Survivors
I never really thought about what the survivors might be thinking on the day following Halloween 1981 until someone mentioned it at the community. I suppose when I say survivors, I'm specifically talking about Remus, Sirius, and Snape.
I did explore Remus and Sirius' feelings on the matter in a fic, I guess. But I never considered Snape's turmoil. He probably just found out that Lily has died, that all his efforts were in vain. My heart doesn't go out to him, as he's the one who told Voldemort about the prophecy in the first place so the whole mess is really his fault; however, I can imagine him being utterly damaged on November 1st.
It's funny how we hear about all this celebrating and yet for those three, their lives have essentially ended. It's incredibly sad, especially when we start to know more about WMPP+L+S. For most of the Wizarding World, James and Lily were just two more casualties. I really hate that.
Characters (appearing or otherwise)
Vernon Dursley............[p.1]
Petunia Evans Dursley.....[p.1]
Dudley Dursley............[p.1]
Lily Evans Potter.........[p.2]
James Potter..............[p.2]
Harry Potter..............[p.2]
Minerva McGonagall........[p.2]
Voldemort.................[mentioned, p.5]
Albus Dumbledore..........[p.8]
Dedalus Diggle............[mentioned, p.10]
Madam Pomfrey.............[mentioned, p.11]
Rubeus Hagrid.............[p.14]
Sirius Black..............[mentioned, p.14]
Memorable Quotes
"I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs." ~Dumbledore, p.11
He hurried to his car and set off for home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination." ~ in reference to Vernon, p.5
He couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: "To Harry Potter-the boy who lived!" ~ in reference to Harry, p.17