HP 20th anniversary reread, chapter 12
(Bullet point form again.)
- You know, Nicolas Flamel actually is recognised in Muggle history books. What if Hermione had asked her parents about him? I wonder what sort of answer she would have got.
- The Christmas feast. Just ... okay, I know the British really go all out at Christmas dinner (which is in fact lunch) and there's plenty, but 100 turkeys? When I doubt there's even 100 people dining, and it's not like one person can eat a whole turkey (well, you can, but you'd be pretty miserable after). Either there's going to be a whole lot of food wastage, or assuming there's some magical preservation of leftovers going on, the students are going to be eating a lot of Turkey in spring term. I get the feeling JKR was probably quite hungry when she wrote all that ...
- Man, the castle is spooky at midnight. I love the descriptive writing here. It captures perfectly that weird sense you get when you're alone at night and you know rationally that inanimate objects don't move and speak but it feels like they just might all the same. And I guess in the wizarding world all bets are off on that, too!
- There's an interesting discussion our reading group has been having on Boggarts and how they know what your fears are, and whether that involves some natural Legilimency on their part. The Mirror of Erised seems to be another such 'creature'. How does it know what your deepest desires are? Do you actually know what you would see in the Mirror or Erised? I certainly don't. And I actually doubt Harry would have known, if anyone had asked what it was he wanted the most. If asked what we want, I'd hazard a guess that we'd respond with what we think we want in the moment, but often the deepest desires of our heart are a mystery, perhaps especially to us.
And once again, I've gone diving off into the swimming pool of philosophy. Sorry!
I ended up playing with the idea of Hermione asking her parents about Nicolas Flamel. This is what came of it. (No, they didn't really give any input, but I just liked the idea of Hermione talking their ear off all the way home.)