#stizreadshp

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HP Re-read

Chamber of Secrets - Ch. 9 ‘The Writing on the Wall’

Just when you think that Snape is going to have some decency and stick up for Harry, Ron, and Hermione, he turns the situation into a chance to get Harry kicked off of the Quidditch team!!

Again, Ron gets to show off how smart he is when he tells the others about Squibs.

Poor Ginny... she’s distraught about Mrs. Norris because she CAUSED her to become petrified. And Ron is the best big brother because even though he thinks it’s because she just loves cats, he tries to comfort her.

I think I’ve said this before, but I love Professor Binns’ backstory. He was so dull and boring when he was alive that everyone hated his class. Then he died, but got up and went right on teaching and hardly anyone noticed because he was still so dull and boring there was basically no difference.

And it’s BINNS that tells about the Chamber of Secrets, not McGonagall.

It’s odd that Harry never told Ron and Hermione that the Sorting Hat almost sorted him into Slytherin (although I said the same thing about Ron never telling Harry that his dad worked at the Ministry).

Eww...they couldn’t get the words off of the wall! How creepy would it be to walk through the school and see that message every day?

I’m with Ron. Fuck spiders.

Okay, the movie makes it seem like the place where people (and cats and ghosts) are getting petrified is not close to anything but it’s RIGHT ACROSS THE HALL FROM MYRTLE’S BATHROOM!!!! That makes so much more sense because if it was farther away the basilisk would probably be seen by more people.

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn Percy is tripping on power!

Ron-the-Seer moment: When Hermione gets an idea of how to sneak into Slytherin common room, she doesn’t come out and say how right away which prompts Ron to say, “If, in a month or so, you feel like explaining, you will let us know, won’t you?” Doesn’t polyjuice take about that long to brew?

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HP Re-read

Chamber of Secrets - Ch. 3 ‘The Burrow’

I love how over the course of a full school year Ron (or Fred, George, or Percy) never once said his dad worked at the Ministry.

Fred and George know how to pick locks the Muggle way because of course they do.

Half of me is yelling, WHY WAS UNCLE VERNON EVEN MAD THAT HARRY WAS GETTING AWAY?! SHOULDN’T HE HAVE BEEN GLAD?! But the other half of me knows that abusers are nothing without their victims.

Drarry moment: Harry imagines Draco “strutting around a large manor house” because that’s what twelve year old boys daydream about, right?

Out front of the Burrow is: a sign stating that this is, indeed, the Burrow; a “jumble of wellington boots” because there’s a bunch of kids; a rusty cauldron; gnomes (and not the Muggle kind); and chickens, non-magical chickens.

Ginny is so obsessed with Harry she freaks out and won’t come out of her room, which drives Ron crazy beause to him Harry is just his best friend not some celebrity.

Various name-drops: Mafalda Hopkirk, Celestina Warbeck, and Mundungus Fletcher.

I love everything about the Burrow, and it’s my dream to run a home like Molly Weasley.

[istiz]

HP Re-read

Chamber of Secrets - Ch. 4 ‘At Flourish and Blotts’

Harry thinks that the strangest thing about living at The Burrow isn’t the ghoul in the attic or the mirror that shouts at him r even Fred and George’s experiments- it’s the fact that EVERYONE LIKES HIM. I forget that even at Hogwarts Harry is not really popular. During a third of the last book, the entire school spent their time actively bullying him.

Arthur truly finds Muggles fascinating, not mundane or primitive.

Good lord Ginny is a mess around Harry!!! She’s got such a big crush on him.

Fred says that Percy is acting strangely. Is he already in cahoots with the evil Ministry people at this point?

Ron is the greatest friend to ever friend! Not only did he make it his personal mission to rescue Harry, he enlisted his brothers to help and even wrote to Hermione to ask her as well (they’re not as close and he and Harry are and she’s a girl, which is a big deal to 12 year olds). And then when Harry gets embarrassed about not knowing how to travel by Floo Ron says, “Sorry, Harry, I forgot.” He doesn’t blame Harry or mock him, he just wants his best friend to feel safe.

My favorite little piece in any HP fic (my own included) is that Harry absolutely sucks at Floo travel. He always falls or stumbles his way out.

Drarry moment: “...he’s so smart, wonderful Potter with his scar and his broomstick-” Lucius interrupts Draco saying, “You have already told me this at least a dozen times already.” DRACO TALKS ABOUT HARRY BASICALLY NON-STOP.

Draco looks at a cursed necklace in Borgin and Burkes- is that the same one that Katie Bell ends up with because of him later?

Percy is reading a book called “Prefects Who Gained Power” ...creepy...

HOLY SHIT ARTHUR FUCKING WEASLEY TACKLED LUCIUS MALFOY IN THE BOOKSTORE!!!! Why did the movie cut that out?!

[istiz]

HP Re-read

Sorcerer’s Stone - Ch. 17 ‘The Man with Two Faces’

This whole chapter is nearly identical to the movie and there I don’t have much to say. [edit: this may be my longest post? oh well]

I still don’t get why Snape was the one trying to save Harry and yet Snape was an ass to him constantly. I just... *sigh* (I know it’s because Snape feels he owes his life to James but I just can’t take Snape’s bitchy emotional whiplash.)

Voldemort says: “... but your mother needn’t have died ... she was trying to protect you ...” Which leads me to believe that Voldemort truly was never going to harm Lily but OF COURSE SHE WAS GOING TO STOP HIM FROM KILLING HER SON!!!

I love the command that Madam Pomfrey has over her Hospital Wing; even Dumbledore is afraid of her throwing him out!

The Weasley Twins toilet reference #3: “I believe your friends Misters Fred and George Weasley were responsible for trying to send you a lavatory seat.”

This ‘love saved Harry’ bullshit pisses me off. I mean, I know this is a book series involving magic but love? Maybe I’m just cynical...

Favorite Dumbledore quotes: “Alas! Earwax!” and “To the well-organised mind, death is but the next great adventure.”

Hagrid gives Harry a hand-bound photo album filled with pictures of his parents (and he says he asked his parents friends for pictures- I WANT NAMES!!).

I used to genuinely feel bad that Slytherin got the House Cup ripped out from under them but it DID say in the book that they’d won for so many years in a row that everyone else was just pleased that it went to another house for once. And it was Draco’s fault that Gryffindor fell out of first place when he squealed on Harry and Hermione at the Astronomy Tower!

Mrs. Weasley tries to be nice to Uncle Vernon but he’s still a dick.

Ron asks Harry at least three times to come visit over the summer.

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HP Re-read

Sorcerer’s Stone - Ch. 16 ‘Through the Trapdoor’

See, here’s the problem with Hagrid being used as an expositional monster- HAGRID. WOULD. NEVER. BETRAY. HOGWARTS. OR. DUMBLEDORE. OR. THE. ORDER. BY. TELLING. SOME. RANDOM. FUCK. IN. A. PUB. ABOUT. HOW. TO. GET. PAST. FLUFFLY. NO. MATTER. HOW. DRUNK. HE. WAS.

I’ve said before how even though I hate Snape, I adore Alan Rickman’s acting, so when I read “people will think you’re up to something” I heard it just like he said it in the movies. Chills.

People always mock when characters are worried about getting expelled, but that’s a serious thing. You don’t just get kicked out of school when you’re expelled. The Minister of Magic comes and snaps your wand in half and then they fucking black ball you. The only reason Hagrid has a job right now is because Dumbledore is now the headmaster at Hogwarts. If Harry were to get expelled, he would have nowhere to go but back to the Dursleys and eventually they would throw him out as well and he’d be left with nothing. So, when Harry is risking expulsion by sneaking out he is risking everything he has. At eleven years old he is willingly risking everything to stop Voldemort.

I have a soft spot in my heart for Neville, and I just love when he stands up to them. He had been made fun of relentlessly all year, and then when he lost 50 points from Gryffindor he cried himself to sleep because he knew everyone would just be worse to him. He had the guts to stand up to Ron and Hermione and Harry and say NO. Dumbledore was right to give him house points for this.

I don’t think the professors really thought through their protection of the Sorcerer’s Stone. I mean, their puzzles were clever but why were they solveable? Why not just have a room full of winged keys and NONE of them fit the door? Why not have a chess game that’s set so you automatically lose? Why not just have potions vials filled with poison? If they were really trying to stop someone, they did a shit job of it.

[istiz]

HP Re-read

Sorcerer’s Stone - Ch. 15 ‘The Forbidden Forest’

godDAMN McGonagall took away 150 points from Gryffindor for Harry and Hermione being out at the Astronomy Tower to meet Charlie’s friends (and Neville for being out looking for them).

Oh noooooooooooooooooooo!! :( my poor babies!!!! Everyone was so mean to them! Even non-Gryffindor students were mad at them because they didn’t want Slytherin to win the House Cup again.

Harry overhears Quirrell whimpering “not again” and figures that Snape had been torturing him.

Okay, what the crap kind of school has detentions that are in the middle of the night and are super freaking dangerous? especially as a punishment for four kids who were caught sneaking out at night and doing something potentially dangerous??

Draco demanding that he get Fang as a guard dog always cracks me up because it’s such a humanizing moment for Draco. He’s scared shitless, just like everyone else! He could so easily have been their friend but at every moment he made the wrong decisions.

Ronan the centaur is strange.

ACK! Bane the centaur is strange, too!

Okay, finally Firenze the centaur is there and he has some sense.

(I just want to pause and remind everyone that even though Harry is 11 years old, and has just seen two other centaur minutes before, he stops to notice just how BEAUTIFUL Firenze is. He makes special note of the coloring of his human and horse halves, as well as waxes poetically about his sapphire blue eyes.)

The other centaur are PISSED that Firenze has Harry onto his back.

The invisibility cloak was back in Harry’s bed (creepy) and we are left to wonder who retrieved it from the astronomy tower and returned it to him (Dumbledore).

[istiz]

HP Re-read

Sorcerer’s Stone - Ch. 12 ‘The Mirror of Erised’

Fred and George were bouncing snowballs off the back of Quirrell’s head, which means thEY WERE BOUNCING SNOWBALLS OFF VOLDEMORT’S FACE!!

Draco-is-a-Drama-Queen moment: He yells, loudly, across the potions classroom that he feels sorry for anyone who’s staying at Hogwarts for Christmas because that means their family doesn’t want them.

Harry ignores Draco’s taunts because BEST CHRISTMAS EVER.

The Weasley boys are staying at Hogwarts because Molly and Arthur are going to Romania to visit Charlie. I swear Charlie is mentioned more than Percy in this book, and Percy goes to school with them.

Harry’s Christmas gifts: 1) Hagrid carved him a wooden figure that sounds like an owl when you blow into it. 2) Vernon and Petunia sent Harry the most impersonal note ever and a single fifty-pence piece that he promptly tells Ron he can keep. 3) Molly makes him an emerald green jumper and a box of fudge. 4) Hermione sends a box full of chocolate frogs. 5) The Invisibility Cloak

Hagrid gets so wine-drunk at the feast that he kisses McGonagall, and SHE’S so wine drunk she just giggles and blushes!

This is my own personal headcanon about the Mirror of Erised: I don’t think the Mirror is in an unused classroom, like Harry assumes. I think it’s in the Room of Requirement. Harry required a place to hide out from Filch and Snape, and we know later that the Room of Requirement is sort of a catch-all for junk and items better left lost. Dumbledore admits that he was just storing the mirror in this room for later.

Favorite Dumbledore quote: [when Harry asks him what he sees in the Mirror] “I? I see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks.”

[istiz]

HP Re-read

Sorcerer’s Stone - Ch. 13 ‘Nicholas Flamel’

The only reprieve Harry gets from his nightmares (of his parents dying) are when Oliver Wood runs them completely exhausted at Quidditch practices.

“Don’t play,” said Hermione at once. “Say you’re ill,” said Ron. “Pretend to break your leg,” Hermione suggested. “Really break your leg,” said Ron.

In order to find out about Nicholas Flamel, these things had to happen: 1) Neville had to get cursed by Malfoy. 2) Neville had to somehow get through the portrait tunnel with his legs locked together. 3) Hermione had to be there and try to help him when everyone else just laughed. 4) Harry had to feel bad that Neille felt he didn’t belong. 5) There had to be a chocolate frog in Harry’s pocket. 6) Harry had to give said chocolate frog to Neville to make him feel better. 7) Neville had to open the chocolate frog right then and there. 8) Neville had to give the card to inside to Harry. 9) The card had to feature Dumbledore. 10) Harry had to ACTUALLY READ THE CARD AND NOT JUST THROW IT OUT BECAUSE HE ALREADY HAD ONE OF DUMBLEDORE!!!!

Foreshadowing? Echo of the future? Harry sees Dumbledore at their Quidditch match against Hufflepuff, and notes that he feels safer.

Draco-is-a-Drama-Queen moment: He yells, as loudly as possible, across the stands that Gryffindor picks its players by who they feel sorry for.

Neville uses Harry’s words from earlier and actually stands up to Draco!

After one too many obnoxious comments, Ron tackles Draco to the ground and Neville helps Ron when Crabbe and Goyle join in. (Ron gives Draco a black eye but Neville ends up passed out in the Hospital Wing.)

Snape is a freaking jerk. He fouls Gryffindor for playing the game, and when they win he spits on the ground in front of Harry.

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HP Re-read

Sorcerer’s Stone - Ch. 11 ‘Quidditch’

Hermione makes her first blue-flame-in-a-jar.

“Dean the West Ham fan”.

Also, “Dean, who was good at drawing”.

Lee Jordan does commentary for the Quidditch matches but McGonagall has to sit behind him and constantly scold him because he makes so many other comments that have nothing to do with the match.

I still can’t get over how badass Hermione is when Harry’s broom is jinxed. She charges over to the staff section of the stands and sets fire to Snape’s robes! And on the way she knocks over Quirrell and doesn’t even say sorry.

Neville was crying into Hagrid’s sleeve because he thought something bad was going to happen to Harry. Neville is too precious for this world!

[istiz]

HP Re-read

Sorcerer’s Stone - Ch. 7 ‘The Sorting Hat’

All of the Hogwarts ghosts and Peeves!!!! stupid movies…

Hermione was reeeeeeeeally unlikable.

Clueless-Harry quote: [upon seeing the Sorting Hat for the first time] “Maybe they had to try and get a rabbit out of it.”

Ron-the-Seer quote: “I’ll kill Fred, he was going on about wresting a troll.

In books, movies, and television shows I’m kind of obsessed with minor characters, especially when so much detail goes into them like Rowling has done with Harry Potter, so here is a list of all the students that are mentioned as being sorted (even though we know there are more):

Hannah Abbott, Susan Bones, Terry Boot, Mandy Brocklehurst, Lavender Brown, Millicent Bulstrode, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Seamus Finnigan, Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, Draco Malfoy (Crabbe and Goyle are mentioned as already being sorted by this point and their first names have yet to be given), Moon (no first name given), Nott (no first name given yet, but it’s Theodore), Parkinson (no first name given yet, but it’s Pansy), Patil twins (again, no first names given but it’s Padma and Parvati), Sally-Anne Perks, Harry Potter, Lisa Turpin, Ron Weasley, and Blaise Zabini.

The only ones I don’t remember AT ALL are Brocklehurst, Moon, Perks, and Turpin.

Favorite Dumbledore quote: “I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!”

Now, it says in this chapter that the Dursleys never starved Harry but don’t you dare give me that bullshit because they already have in this book and we’re only 7 chapters in.

TREACLE TART!!

One of my favorite things about Hogwarts is the school song, and that Dumbledore encourages everyone to sing it in whatever tune they wants (with Fred & George choosing a funeral march).

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HP Re-read

Sorcerer’s Stone - Ch. 6 ‘The Journey from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters’

Dudley had his pig tail for a freaking month until they did something about it!

I love how Harry named Hedwig after some random name that he found in A History of Magic. Can you imagine what would have happened if he had flipped through Hogwarts, A History instead?

Neville and Lee Jordan are the first two names dropped besides the Weasleys. I love Neville, and I forgot that Lee actually has a rather large role in the books (for a minor character) because he was written out of the movies after the first two.

The Weasley Twins toilet reference #1: Molly lists a bunch of what we can assume are reasons they’ve been in trouble in the past. She doesn’t want to hear about them having “blown up a toilet”.

The Weasley Twins toilet reference #2: Ginny desperately wants to go to Hogwarts and the twins try to cheer her up by shouting from the train that they’ll send her a Hogwarts toilet seat.

When Ron asks Harry if he remembers anything from the night Voldemort killed his parents, Harry says no EXCEPT FOR A GREEN LIGHT!!!!!

I find it really interesting that Ron is using Charlie’s old wand. We learn throughout the series that you can do magic with someone else’s wand but it never really works as well as your own (or unless it’s truly ‘conquered’ by you). I think this is the real reason that Ron does not do as well in school as some of his peers. He’s not really using HIS wand.

Also, Hermione is mentioned several times as “sounding bossy” and I forgot that the boys did not like her. At all.

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HP Re-read

Sorcerer’s Stone - Ch. 10 ‘Hallowe’en’

I was going to mock Oliver Wood for not knowing what basketball is (I know he’s a wizard but he’s suuuuuper into Quidditch and, at least in my own personal experience, people who are into one sport usually know SOMETHING about other sports even if they don’t watch them), but then Harry mentions rounders? and I totally had to look up what that is because I’m an ignorant American.

Oliver says Charlie Weasley could have played professional Quidditch “if he hadn’t gone off chasing dragons.” As if I needed another reason to love Charlie...

Seamus sets his feather on fire!

I thought of this a couple of chapters ago when Snape takes away points from Gryffindor, but during the scene this chapter with the troll it really hit me how much they inflated points for the movies. In the book, Harry and Ron receive 5 points apiece for defeating the troll. In the movie, they each receive 50 points. Professors only take away or give a few points at a time in the books whereas the movies make it seem like massive amounts.

[istiz]

HP Re-read: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Follow me as I re-read Harry Potter! These are my reflections by chapter:

Chapter 1 - ‘The Worst Birthday’

Chapter 2 - ‘Dobby’s Warning’

Chapter 3 - ‘The Burrow’

Chapter 4 - ‘At Flourish and Blotts’

Chapter 5 - ‘The Whomping Willow’

Chapter 6 - ‘Gilderoy Lockhart’

Chapter 7 - ‘Mudbloods and Murmurs’

Chapter 8 - ‘The Deathday Party’

Chapter 9 - ‘The Writing on the Wall’

I will update as I go :-)

[istiz]

HP Re-read: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Follow me as I re-read Harry Potter! These are my reflections by chapter:

Chapter 1 - ‘The Boy Who Lived’

Chapter 2 - ‘The Vanishing Glass’

Chapter 3 - ‘The Letters from No One’

Chapter 4 - ‘The Keeper of the Keys’

Chapter 5 - ‘Diagon Alley’

Chapter 6 -  ‘The Journey from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters’

Chapter 7 - ‘The Sorting Hat’

Chapter 8 - ‘The Potions Master’

Chapter 9 - ‘The Midnight Duel’

Chapter 10 - ‘Hallowe’en’

Chapter 11 - ‘Quidditch’

Chapter 12 - ‘The Mirror of Erised’

Chapter 13 - ‘Nicholas Flamel’

Chapter 14 - ‘Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback’

Chapter 15 - ‘The Forbidden Forest’

Chapter 16 - ‘Through the Trapdoor’

Chapter 17 - ‘The Man with Two Faces’

[istiz]

HP Re-read

Chamber of Secrets - Ch. 8 ‘The Deathday Party’

Harry is talking to Nearly Headless Nick and Mrs. Norris finds him. Harry says that Filch used this “mysterious power that seemed to connect him with his foul cat” and he “burst suddenly through the tapestry.” So does Filch have the Marauder’s Map? And he’s definitely using a secret passageway!

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FILCH COMES IN YELLING ABOUT THE VALUABLE VANISHING CABINET THAT PEEVES BROKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE FUCKING VANISHING CABINET THAT DRACO HAS TO FIX OR VOLDEMORT WILL TORTURE/KILL HIS FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *dead*

Ron is such a good person. At Nearly Headless Nick’s party he reminds Harry and Hermione to be careful to not walk through any of the ghosts. And when the rotten food smells bad he doesn’t yell or run away; he asks Harry if they can move. He gives Harry the chance to say no. I teach 12 year olds, and Ron is nicer than most 12 year olds.

Ugh, again with the creepy language from the Basilisk: “...rip ...tear ...kill ...soo hungry... for so long ...kill ...time to kill ...I smell blood ...I SMELL BLOOD!”

Whenever someone is yelling something loud enough for everyone to hear, and inappropriate enough that no one should hear it, it is always Draco.

[istiz]

HP Re-read

Chamber of Secrets - Ch. 7 ‘Mudbloods and Murmurs’

I love that Harry leaves Ron a note before he goes to Quidditch practice. He doesn’t want Ron to worry about him.

Colin Creevey is the cutest, most annoying, little angel ever.

Also, can we appreciate how sassy the photograph Colin took of Harry and Lockhart is? Photograph-Harry refuses to be pulled into frame by photograph-Lockhart, and Colin made the decision to keep it! He even asks Harry to sign it!!!

I have a weakness for Oliver Wood’s insane dedication to the point of self-sabotage. It is no one’s fault but his own that he takes so freaking long to explain his new ideas to everyone that his team doesn’t even get to practice.

I don’t think Lucius sat down and said to himself, “How can I get my son to be more popular at school? Aha! I shall buy brooms for the Quidditch team and then he shall get to play!” I think that Draco has been begging all summer and even since getting to Hogwarts and finally Lucius cracked and said FINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! because Draco is a spoiled brat (and Narcissa played a part in this as well, I’m sure).

I know they give the excuse of “it’s closest” but did they really think taking Ron to Hagrid’s hut was the best choice when he was puking up slugs? Also, they want to avoid Lockhart so badly they hide until he’s gone and then take Ron to Hagrid’s.

Book-Ron for the win!!!!! In the movie, Hermione is the one who knows what “Mudblood” means but of course she and Harry wouldn’t know. Ron is the one who explains it.

Even Hagrid teases Harry about Ginny being in love with him. Also, he notes that he found Ginny wandering around his garden with some bogus excuse. She’s already possessed and it’s only a week into term!

Foreshadowing: When Harry hears the mysterious voice it is described as “ice-cold venom”. VENOM!

Can we take a moment to really think about the Basilisk’s word choice? “Come... come to me... let me rip you... let me tear you... let me kill you...” It is significantly more creepy that it lists ripping and tearing separate from killing.

Two trophies mentioned by Ron when he talks about his trophy-polishing detention: Quidditch Cup and Special Award for Services to the School