This chapter is where things start to get even more interesting. Harry receives his first letter from Hogwarts, which causes Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia to think of ways to prevent him getting any more letters. They move him from the cupboard under the stairs to Dudley's second bedroom. This doesn't work, and the number of letters increases. When Uncle Vernon nails up the mail slot in the front door, hundreds of letters come shooting out of the fireplace! The Dursleys and Harry start driving around England to get away from the letters and end up at the hut on the rock. Here is where Harry spends his eleventh birthday, and at midnight there is a loud banging on the door.
-We realize how very alone Harry is because the Hogwarts letter is the first letter he has ever gotten. As the book says, "he didn't belong to the library, so he'd never even got rude notes asking for books back."
-I've always wondered about the letters. How do they get into eggs, through boarded up windows, and down the chimney? We are talking about wizards, of course, but is there someone actually casting spells to put the letters in these places? Dumbledore or McGonagall, maybe? Or maybe the letters are enchanted so that they reach the recipient no matter what obstacles are in the way.
-Would the Dursleys have successfully prevented Harry from going to Hogwarts if Hagrid hadn't come to get him? When students don't answer the letter, does Hogwarts send someone to get them or was Harry an exception? This makes me wonder how many witches and wizards there are that don't go to Hogwarts even after getting the letter. Also, I think Hermione says somewhere that someone from the school comes to explain everything to Muggleborn students. Harry was raised by Muggles so why didn't someone come to him? Hagrid only came because he didn't answer saying he would go.
-"If it was Monday --and you could usually count on Dudley to know the days of the week, because of television -- then tomorrow, Tuesday, was Harry's eleventh birthday." This means that Harry's eleventh birthday is Tuesday, July 31, 1991. However, if you look at a calendar from 1991, you see that July 31 was actually a Wednesday. Also, in chapter 1 it says that Harry was brought to the Dursleys on a Tuesday. His parents died the night of October 31, 1981, so Harry reached the Dursleys on November 1, 1981. But November 1, 1981, was a Sunday!
-It says that for Harry's birthday the year before, he had been given a pair of Uncle Vernon's old socks. These must be the socks he uses to muffle the Sneakoscope in his fourth year and later gives to Dobby.
Let the discussion begin! Who wants to do next week?
It says that Hagrid was "allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an'get yer letters to yeh an' stuff -one o' the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job-" in the next chapter, so that means it was Hagrid that did the magic to get the letters to him.. he was very creative.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think Harry does in the cuboard all that time? I would think he would want to belong the the library so he could have something to read when he is stuck in the cuboard all that time.
Maybe they assumed that they didn't need to send anyone because Aunt Petunia knows about magic and has been to Platform 9 and 3\4. I wonder how they do go about telling Muggleborns they have magic, and how do they find out that these kids have magic? Do they have little magic detectors in the ministry or something? For when they detect underage wizardry I always thought of a giant map in someones office in the Ministry and little red dots pop up whenever there is magic around an underage wizard.
I am pretty sure if someone didn't answer a letter they would send someone in other cases too, I think everyone did answer their letters.
And Uncle Vernon is mentioned in humming Tiptoe through the tulips, this is it... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6_EAnFlv70
"Smeltings - The name of Dudley's school. It is the process used in producing iron ore to make it stronger and more suitable for use. Good luck with Dudders!"- Mugglenet
You bring up a good point, Emily, about the Hogwarts letters. If a student doesn't answer, I would assume they'd send someone to find out why. But what if their parents don't want their kid to leave to go to a boarding school? Imagine if you got a letter that said you're a wizard and you've been accepted to a boarding school for witchcraft and wizardry? Would your parents (muggles, of course), let you go?
ReplyDeleteI like the connection you made with Uncled Vernon's socks! That's so cool!
I'll do next week, if I can borrow someone's book.
It would seem like a giant joke, being accepted to wizard school. I wonder if there are muggle parents who don't allow their kids to go. Who do you think goes to tell the Muggles about Hogwarts? They have a difficult job.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Dumbledore tells the muggle families...remember Harry sees Dumbledore's memory of telling Tom Riddle as a kid that he was a wizard?
ReplyDeleteBack then Dumbledore wasn't headmaster though, he was vice-headmaster (i don't know what else to call it), so maybe mcgonagall does? Dumbledore might go though, he definietly would want to if he had enough time.
ReplyDeleteDo you think your parents would just let you go off to wizard school? You are alowed to home-school your wizard kids, but what if you want to go but your parents don't want you to. Would Hogwarts interfere like Hagrid did? or is Harry a special case.
I have another question, that is totally unrelated. Do you think boggarts change like patronuses do? I would think that when Harry learned how to get rid of dementors, it would no longer be his biggest fear. After Voldemort came back, don't you think it would change to something different, a dead Ginny, Ron, and Hermione like Mrs. Weasley's?
ReplyDeleteIt would only make sense if the boggarts did change, or they would lose their purpose. After all, only one person can see the boggart in a specific way, so it could aways change, others just may not notice it. If that makes sense.
ReplyDeleteOther people can see what your boggart is though, because Harry see's them all in his third year...
ReplyDeleteHere are two Quotes from the Tales of Beedle the Bard that help conclude the argument from the first week.
ReplyDelete"Animagi make up a small fraction of the Wizarding population. Achieving perfect, spontaneous human-to-animal transformation requires much study and practice. and many witches and wizards consider that their time might be better employed in other ways."
But it would really help Auror's if they were Animagus', so it would be a good use of their time, so that doesn't answer anything.
"Animagi do not retain the power of human speech while in their animal form, although they keep all their human thinking and reasoning powers. This, as every schoolchild knows, is the fundamental difference between being an Animagi and Transfiguring oneself into an animal. In the case of the latter, one would become the animal entirely, with the consequence that one would know no magic, be unaware that one had ever been a wizard, and would need someone else to Transfigure one back to one's original form."
That concludes part of our discussion but brings up the whole new topic of human transfiguration, and Krum in the Triwizard Tournament.
Who was headmaster before Dumbledore while Dumbledore was vice headmaster???
ReplyDeleteAnd that's weird that the days are messed up. I wonder if J.K Rowling knew that they were to make people think and research or if she just picked a random day even if it wasn't like that in real life.