CHAMBER OF SECRETS, Chapters 4 through 9

Chapter Four: At Flourish and Blotts

With this chapter, we see the interaction and acceptance that Harry finds with the Weasleys, the early indication that there will be something between Harry and Ginny, Percy’s self-imposed isolation from his family, Lockhart, Lucius and Draco, Borgin and Burke’s and all the things that are there that we see later, as well as the diary, of course.

I’d not thought of it before, and just assumed that Hagrid was after something illegal in Knockturn Alley and that was why he seemed flustered, giving such a lame excuse for being there. But it makes more sense that Dumbledore did know where Harry was and once again sent Hagrid to rescue him. Of course, Hagrid wouldn’t want to tell Harry because that would tip Dumbledore’s hand of always knowing what is going on with Harry—which Harry (and we, the readers) learn later, when he tells Harry that he watched him more closely than he knew.

We already know that he does know when Harry is roaming around the castle from the conversation they had in front of the Mirror of Erised; Dumbledore knows that Harry has been there before, as well as knowing what Harry saw and what Ron saw, so it’s not just that Dumbledore has some sort of connection with just Harry. It all makes me wonder why Dumbledore didn’t know about Harry sneaking out of the castle via the map—but that’s Prisoner of Azkaban and way off topic.

Aside from Harry getting a good look at some of the things in Borgin and Burke’s, he gets to see Lucius and Draco together, when neither thinks anyone else is around. Borgin is in the back room and the shop seems empty. As someone mentioned, Draco is still whining about Harry seeming to get preferential treatment at school, which Lucius cautions him about the prudence of his attitude towards Harry. It is also the first time that we get a big clue that Lucius is a supporter of Voldemort, as he refers to him as “the Dark Lord”. Borgin thinks that Lucius has come to buy, but Lucius says “I’m not buying today, Mr. Borgin, I’m selling.” I have to wonder just how often Lucius goes into Borgin and Burke’s to buy something, and what sort of thing would interest him. So here we have another indication that Lucius is drawn to Dark Arts if he has purchased other things from this particular shop where the Weasleys wouldn’t ever think of going.

We also have the set up for why Lucius would want to discredit Arthur when he talks of the Ministry growing more “meddlesome”, and rumors of a new Muggle Protection Act—“no doubt that flea-bitten, Muggle-loving fool Arthur Weasley is behind it—“

I do think that that is the reason Lucius puts the diary inside Ginny’s book that he takes from her cauldron. (In Chapter 18, Ginny tells her parents that she found the diary inside one of her books that her mum got for her, and thought it had just been forgotten by someone, which answers the question of Lucius slipping the diary into the cauldron separately. However, the description of the diary is that it is a small thin book—not entirely unreasonable to see how she or anyone else could have missed seeing it.

From there, Lucius mentions that what he is getting rid of is poisons, which I completely missed the first time I read the book. So is Lucius still brewing things at home? I do think that might be a reason that Draco is good at potions or at lease an indication of why he is so interested in them. It might also be the reason that Snape smarms up to Draco so much—perhaps he is hoping to find out just what poisons Lucius has or is capable of making.

I love the language things that JKR does in the books, and this chapter is full of them, from Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley to the alliteration of the names of Lockhart’s books. I don’t think it’s a far stretch to see Diagon Alley as the word diagonally, or Knockturn Alley as nocturnally. I’d go a bit further and say that there’s even more to it than the sound of the words. If we look at the world “diagonally” then isn’t that a clever way of saying that there is more to our world than there seems to be—there is more than one way to see things, and if we look in a different way, we might see something unexpected. And the “nocturnally” reference seems to give us a clue that it is a dark place, a place where secretive things happen, as we often think of dark or evil things being done out of the more revealing bright daylight. When Hagrid steers Harry back to Diagon Alley, the first thing Harry sees is the bright white of Gringott’s Bank where Harry has his money legally stored—in stark contrast to the darkness of Knockturn Alley where Lucius was doing his own money changing.

The other thing that strikes me about the confrontation between Lucius and Arthur is that these two wizards could very easily start hexing one another, and it almost would seem more reasonable. Instead they both go for the physical muggle-style brawl. So while wizards do have a lot of things that distinguish them from Muggles, they aren’t as separate from the Muggle way of life after all.

* * * * *
An aside her, about Dumbledore watching Harry and whether or not this would take away his choices. I don't think that it does. Dumbledore has good reason to keep a close eye on Harry. We know from canon that Mrs. Figg has been watching him for a long time; Mundungus was sent to Privet Drive to watch him; and other Order members were watching him as well. But mostly we have it from Dumbledore himself (in OotP) that he has been watching Harry "more closely than you can have imagined". So it's just not a stretch to say that Dumbledore found out somehow that Harry had landed in the wrong grate and needed rescuing. Nor is it surprising that Dumbledore would send Hagrid, as he has sent him as Harry's rescuer several times already.

If Dumbledore wanted to take away Harry's ability to make choices (which sometimes get Harry into trouble), he wouldn't have let him see the Mirror of Erised, or go back two more times. Instead, Dumbledore takes the opportunity to guide Harry in understanding what the Mirror is. That is the role of the hero's mentor. He wouldn't have let Harry in Chamber of Secrets roam around the castle at all—and Dumbledore must have known that is exactly what Harry would do with the Invisibility Cloak, yet he is the one who gave it to him. As part of the hero story, Harry, who is quite young at the beginning, has lessons to learn. A traditional hero is not all-knowing, all-powerful from birth. In this case, we, and Harry, learn from Dumbledore that what makes Harry special is his pure heart, the protection of love that his mother sealed into him by her sacrificial death.

And now that Harry has learned a lot more about what he is to do, how things work with his quest, it is time for the hero to go on alone, without his mentor. (Not necessarily without his friends, just without Dumbledore.) But it was Dumbledore's careful nurturing that has given Harry, our hero, the necessary information and training to forge ahead in his quest to vanquish Voldemort. I don't see that as tarnishing Harry as a hero at all, as someone at the Corner Café suggested—it is just all part of the process. Part of what makes someone a hero is that he is ordinary but acts in an extraordinary way in the face of danger, be it a physical or moral peril.

Chapter Five: The Whomping Willow
I love this chapter. Once again we get a clear contrast between life at the Burrow and life at Privet Drive. The Dursleys would never have left in such disorder. We also get that sense that, while Arthur's job is to prevent the misuse of Muggle artifacts, he is very willing to bend the rules when he deems that no harm will come of it. He very readily admits to Harry that he has enchanted the trunk of the car to accommodate all their luggage. And he has passed that attitude along to Ron, who very easily justifies flying the car when they can't get through the barrier.

One thing though--why didn't the Ministry swoop down on them when Ron started up the car in a Muggle street? There was no warning from the MoM there. My thought is that they are more concerned about Harry's activities than they are about any other student his age, and while Ron's actions were illegal, they just didn't pay much attention.

It's funny to me, too, that Molly and Arthur know that Fred and George are taking fireworks to school, and they don't find that at all alarming. Most schools (certainly summer camps, anyway) would not allow that and would likely confiscate them.

They go back for Ginny's diary—given that the Weasley children don't ever have much money, didn't either of the parents think to ask her where she got the diary in the first place? Apparently not.

For all the people who complain about the rule breaking that the trio does in HP, this chapter is a good example of what happens to them when they do break the rules. There are the natural consequences of having a rather boring trip, though it seems exciting at the beginning, crashing into the tree rather than making an impressive landing, Ron's wand being broken which results in all kinds of further ramifications for him, missing the feast and the Sorting, and then being caught by the one teacher they like the least.

My favorite scene in this chapter is to do with Snape finding Ron and Harry, while they are discussing him. How perfect is that. So in this one we also get a first glimpse of Snape's office—in the dungeon, no fire, slimy things everywhere. There's also the reference that Harry thinks Snape can read minds, but then he realizes that he read all that in the newspaper. Really? Maybe a little of both going on. But the best is Snape's reaction when he finds out that Harry and Ron aren't going to be expelled after all.

"Snape looked as though Christmas had been canceled." LOL--after I watched "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" where the Sheriff, who happens to be Alan Rickman, says nearly the same thing—“ ...and call off Christmas”—I was sure that JKR was giving a nod to the kind of character that she wants us to see in Snape, and to Alan Rickman in particular. Too bad they didn't leave that scene alone in the movie—it would have been a much better set-up for later interactions between Harry and Snape, than having Filch find them.

I like it also that Snape is always proper in addressing Dumbledore—referring to him as Professor Dumbledore or Headmaster, even though he's very frustrated with him, but Dumbledore is very friendly towards both McGonagall and Snape, calling them by their first names and lightly talking about returning to the feast for dessert.

We also get a hint that Ron might be more insightful than even he realizes, when he says that McGonagall didn't want them showing off by going up to the feast.

Again, we see Percy disapproving of Ron and Harry because of their stepping outside the bounds—something that puts a bad light on Percy, by his connection with Ron as his brother.

* * * * *

In the discussion, someone brought up the rule followers and rule breakers. I liked that contrast that we see between Percy and Hermione. Percy takes his rule-following too far, in following a rule just to follow a rule, not thinking for himself whether it makes sense or is reasonable and just. His reasons are political—if he follows the rules set by his bosses, then he can move up the ladder at work, and that’s his main goal.

Hermione follows rules, but learns from Harry and Ron that one has to use some judgment with rule-following. She does think for herself, and that is the reason she turns Harry in for the mysterious broomstick later—she sees the danger in it—it doesn’t actually break a rule for Harry to receive it as a gift, I don’t think. But flying the car was rule breaking, and Hermione realizes how dangerous it was, not only to Harry and Ron, but to all the wizarding world that they were seen—not to mention that they could have been seriously injured or killed. So her rule following there is out of concern with a healthy dose of common sense, not just because it’s a rule.

McGonagall is much the same way—she makes and enforces rules, but she does bend them. Otherwise, Harry would not have been on the Quidditch team his first year, nor would he have got his own broomstick, which was apparently McGonagall’s doing.

We end up with something of the pirate’s code for this—rules are there as guidelines more than anything else. We do have to pay attention to them, but we should never check our brains and common sense at the door just to blindly follow a rule.

Chapter 6: Gilderoy Lockhart
Ron gets a howler, for his part in the flying car debacle and Hermione seems to accept that he's now had enough and appropriate punishment.

It's off to Herbology for the trio. Lockhart stops Harry for a chat and admonishes him about wanting fame--of course, nothing could be farther from the truth. Interesting that both Lockhart and Snape assume that fame is Harry's goal, but their reaction towards him is the opposite.

Mandrakes--mandragora--are an essential part of most antidotes. They repot them, wearing earmuffs to protect against hearing the cry, which can be fatal. Also, we see the Venemous Tentaculs--it's teething. (It's mentioned again in Half-Blood Prince in an off-hand way, so perhaps we should pay more attention to it.) Justin talks to Harry, Hermione and Ron, saying that he was down for Eton, thus telling them that he is a Muggle.

Now to Transfiguration, where they practice turning a beetle into a button, which Hermione manages quite well, though the rest of the class doesn't. Ron's wand just causes problems. It's a hint that anything he tries to do this year with his wand is going to be ineffective or disastrous.

Defense Against the Dark Arts: Colin Creevy wants to take Harry's picture. Draco overhears and taunts Harry. And then Lockhart shows up--again--and "covers" for Harry by posing with him. In DADA class, Lockhart begins with a quiz, to see how well they've read his books. Hermione is the only one to get full marks, while the boys in class have decided that Lockhart is full of himself. Lockhart releases Cornish Pixies which he tries to control with a spell that proves worthless. Harry, Ron and Hermione get the job of getting the Pixies back in their cage. Hermione is still amazed by Lockhart--"look at all the amazing things he's done--"

"He says he's done," Ron muttered. [COS-p. 103]

Chapter Seven: Mudbloods and Murmurs
Colin is tracking Harry for photos and finally has one developed, which shows him trying to get out of the picture with Lockhart. Quidditch practice finds Colin trailing along as Harry explains the rules--a creative way for Rowling to review for the reader as well. Gryffindor team consists of Harry (seeker), Fred and George (beaters), Oliver Wood (captain and keeper), Alicia Spinnet, Katie Bell, and Angelina Johnson (chasers, who all have names that are church related). Ron and Hermione come to watch, but the Slytherin team show up for new seeker training, authorized by Prof. Snape. Lucius has given the Slytherin team new Nimbus 2001 brooms. We can see that Draco's earlier whining paid off in a big way. After Draco makes a snide remark to Ron about his family, Hermione says, "At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in. They got in on pure talent." [COS-p. 112]

Draco calls her a filthy little Mudblood and everyone is outraged. Ron, as he often does, comes to Hermione's defense and tries to curse Draco. His damaged wand backfires, hitting him instead, and Ron burps slugs (disgusting) for the rest of the chapter.

Colin wants a picture, but Harry impatiently pushes him away as they take Ron to Hagrid's after dodging Lockhart. Hagrid takes it in stride (what are a few slugs to Hagrid as long as they aren't near his rather large pumpkins), giving Ron a bucket while he makes tea. Hagrid is not impressed with Lockhart, who was earlier giving him advice.

"Like I don't know how to get kelpies out of a well. An' bangin' on about some banshee he banished. If one word of it was true, I'll eat my kettle." [COS-p. 115]

As for why Lockhart was hired if he really isn't as good as he seems to be, Hagrid tells them that:

"An' I mean the on'y one. Gettin' very difficult ter find anyone fer the Dark Arts job. People aren't too keen ter take it on, see. They're startin' ter think it's jinxed. No one's lasted long fer a while now. . ." [COS-p. 115]

(There's our first hint that the DADA job really is jinxed--and it comes straight from Hagrid, who tends to give us fairly truthful information, just as Hermione does.)

Harry and Ron know that what Malfoy said was rude and horrid, but they don't know why. Ron is the one who explains it, between his slug burping.

"It's about the most insulting thing he could think of. Mudblood's a really foul name for someone who's Muggle-born--you know, non-magic parents. There are some wizards--like Malfoy's family--who think they're better than everyone else because they're what people call pure-blood."

Ron says that it doesn't matter to most--look at Neville, who is pure-blood but not very good. [COS-p. 116] Mudblood is a disgusting word, meaning dirty blood, common blood.

"Most wizards these days are half-blood anyway. If we hadn't married Muggles we'd've died out." [Ron in COS-p. 116]

Hagrid reassures Hermione that she shouldn't pay attention to Malfoy and then goes on to tease Harry about the signed photos. He shows them his rather large pumpkins and there is an allusion to his pink umbrella and the magic he's not supposed to do, with a further reminder that Hagrid was expelled. Ginny's been to visit Hagrid, he thinks she was hoping to run into Harry.

Later McGonagall sees them and assigns their detention for the flying car fiasco. Ron will be polishing the silver in the trophy room with Filch, while Harry will help Lockhart answer his mail--a request from Lockhart. They work from 8 pm to midnight, when Harry hears a voice: "Come. . . come to me. . . Let me rip you. . . Let me tear you. . . Let me kill you. . ." [COS-p. 120]

Lockhart doesn't hear it, however, and lets Harry go for the evening. Ron polished the Quidditch Cup fourteen times and a Special Award for Service to the School because he kept burping slugs all over it. Harry tells Ron about the voice, but neither can figure out what it was.

Chapter Eight: The Deathday Party
It's October and the days are rainy. Nick invites the trio to his 500th deathday party on Halloween after he arranges a diversion to save Harry from Filch's wrath over the muddy floors. Nick got Peeves to crash a large black and gold cabinet over Filch's office. When Filch returns, he realizes that Harry has seen his Kwikspell letter and let him off.

The party in the dungeons is dark and gloomy with disgusting inedible food. "Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington Died 31st October, 1492" (This is the clue that the year is 1992--the first one that we have to tell us the time frame for the Harry Potter stories.)

They meet Moaning Myrtle, Peeves, Sir Patrick Delaney-Podmore, see part of the Headless Hunt and then slip out of the cold dungeon, hoping to join the last of the Halloween Feast in the Great Hall. But Harry hears the voice again and follows it to the second floor. There is writing on the wall--"The Chamber of Secrets Has Been Opened. Enemies of the Heir, Beware." Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris, is hanging from a torch bracket below the writing. Before they can leave, the whole school, finished with the Feast, arrives. Draco says, "You'll be next, Mudbloods." His eyes are cold and alive, his "usually bloodless face flushed, as he grinned at the sight of the hanging, immobile cat." [COS-p. 139]

Chapter Nine: The Writing on the Wall
Filch is certain that Mrs. Norris is dead, accuses Harry and wants to see punishment. Dumbledore takes Mrs. Norris, Filch and the trio to Lockhart's office (Lockhart volunteers it as it's nearest). Snape and McGonagall followed. While Lockhart babbles about what killed the cat, Dumbledore checks her and states that she is not dead, just petrified.

"It would take Dark Magic of the most advanced. . ." says Dumbledore. Filch accuses Harry again because Harry knows he's a squib. Harry denies it and doesn't know what a squib is.

Snape speaks up for Harry, sort of.

"Potter and his friends may have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time," he said, a slight sneer curling his mouth as though he doubted it. "But we do have a set of suspicious circumstances here. Why were they in the upstairs corridor at all? Why weren't they at the Halloween feast?" [COS-p. 143]

They explain, but stop short of admitting that Harry was hearing a voice that no one else could hear. Snape catches the lie and tries to use it to stop Harry playing Quidditch. McGonagall, who is strictly by the rules, but nonetheless competitive when it comes to Quidditch scoffs that the cat wasn't hit over the head with a broomstick. Dumbledore gave Harry a searching look (Legilimency?)which made Harry feel like he was being X-rayed, and pronounces Harry "Innocent until proven guilty, Severus." [COS-p. 144]

We, along with the trio, learn that the Mandrake restorative draught, which Lockhart says he'll make, will instead be done by Snape who reminds Lockhart that he is the Potions master.

Ron explain later what a squib is--magical family, but no magical ability. Hermione, meanwhile searches the Library, regretting that she doesn't have her copy of Hogwarts, A History. She finally asks Professor Binns about the Chamber of Secrets, which he tells them:

There were four founders, over 1000 years ago.
They built the castle together, hidden from Muggles.
At first they worked together, but then disagreements arose between Slytherin and the other three.
He felt that "magical learning should be kept within all-magic families" and thought that Muggle-borns were untrustworthy.
After a serious argument with Gryffindor, Slytherin left the school.
The legend is that he built a Chamber of Secrets and sealed it so only his heir could open it to release the "horror within"--a monster.
The school has been thoroughly searched but no chamber has ever been found.

The rest of the school avoids Harry, assuming that he is the heir of Slytherin. The trio go back to the 2nd floor, see the spiders fleeing and go into Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. She hadn't seen anything, but Percy catches them coming out. He brings up Ginny saying that she thinks Ron will be expelled and she's upset and crying. Ron rightly points out that Percy is not concerned about Ginny, but about how it reflects on him and his chances for being Head Boy.

Hermione comes up with a plan to find out what Draco knows by making Polyjuice Potion, which Snape had mentioned in class a few weeks earlier. Ron and Harry are skeptical but as they have no other ideas, they follow her lead.

CHAMBER OF SECRETS, Chapters 1 through 3

I haven't updated here lately, as I've been involved in forum discussions at Leaky Lounge and at Hogwarts Professor. It's been hard to keep up with all the interesting side discussions. At Leaky, I'm in the Lily and Stag Inn Corner Cafe reading group, so I thought I'd put my comments here as well.

CHAMBER OF SECRETS

Chapter One: The Worst Birthday
Allegory has been mentioned and someone at the Corner Café (Leaky Lounge forum) said that HP is not allegorical. From my understanding, that's entirely correct. I even looked it up in my dictionary, in one of my Hermione-ish moods, and found this definition:

from Greek: "description of one thing under the image of another"

For something to be allegory, whatever the person or thing is that is standing in for the real person or thing, it must always be the same throughout the story. So if an author uses a donkey to represent a judge, then every time we see the donkey, we know that it is the judge we are reading about. The problem with allegory is that it is very limiting. And JKR doesn't seem to limit herself in that way.

Rather, she uses people and places and creatures to get across an idea about different types of people in the world and how they relate to one another. I'm thinking here, in the first part of COS of Harry meeting Dobby. Harry, a wizard, trapped in the muggle world for each summer, is suddenly face to face with a creature that is only from the wizarding world. All of the rules are new to Harry, as he has no experience with house elves. But that really is Chapter 2, not Chapter 1, so I'll stop there.

Back to allegory, though--some people refer to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings as allegory, but in a preface in the book that I have that he wrote when it was re-printed in the 1960s, he very definitely states that he was not writing allegory. He uses a lot of symbolism, but the story stands on its own merit, rather than having stand-in characters and places and events for real-life ones. (i.e., he was not writing about World War II and Hitler, because he had written much of the story before WW II, and put it aside, then finished it later)

I think what we see with Rowling is that she uses symbols a lot, and most are consistent with their traditional use in literature and fairy tales; some are clearly her own take on them. The unicorns are pure and good, snakes represent evil and sneakiness, dragons are powerful and destructive and scary--but house elves don't fit with my view of what elves are like, from fairy tales or from LOTR. As with many of her other creatures, she may have found something somewhere that she uses for her basis of what house elves are like. But none of that is allegory--it is, however, symbolism. We won't really know what her intent is in using certain symbols until we read the last book or until she just flat out tells us. All we can do at this point (even with 6 books in our hands), is guess. However, from the first book, JKR did a lot of set-up for the use of Alchemy with the whole Nicholas Flamel and Philosopher's Stone story line, and since book 6 had at least 3 references back to the Stone and to Alchemy, I don't think it's so far fetched that she is intentionally using Alchemy as a means of telling her story.

She has a background of traditional English literature, and you don't have to go very far to find that much of it was based on a Christian tradition. The whole use of Alchemy in literature is a means of showing the hero's journey, from an imperfect person to an enlightened one, through the use of Alchemical symbolism. Arianhrod's essay (at The Leaky Cauldron) goes into Alchemy in great detail, so I won't. If you want some examples of why I think JKR is following this tradition, re-read some 19th century English literature, particularly Jane Austen (any of her books, really) and Charles Dickens "A Tale of Two Cities". In some of her early interviews, JKR named these as some of her favorites. There is much in Dickens that seems to relate to Snape, in particular. It's interesting that in her more recent interviews, she has been naming other authors--my guess is that she's afraid if we pay too much attention to what she said first about Harry Potter we would get too close to the truth of what she is writing and she is now trying to misdirect us, to protect the ending of the books.

As for Chapter One, we see Harry unhappy, isolated, unsure of himself or his standing with his friends, still mistreated (abused) by his Aunt and Uncle, taunted by Dudley. But we also see the first sign of Harry striking back at Dudley and the Dursleys--he hints at doing magic to torment Dudley. Kind of disturbing, really--the oppressed becoming the oppressor? Rowling has a lot to say in all her books about how we treat one another, and this is but one example of what can happen when one person or group bullies another.

It's also interesting to see that when Vernon is going through what everyone's part in the dinner party is, Harry's is to be in his room, pretending that he is not there. Which is exactly what he really would want--to be "not there", but Vernon means it very literally--he wishes that Harry was "not there", and actually that Harry just didn't exist at all.

Harry is treated much as a house elf would be treated--forced to do all the work (that's a lot for one afternoon), eating food that sounds like something out of an old prison story, then disappearing to his room, much as the house elves later do the work, but are never seen.

Peering through the hedge made me think of Harry and Ron peering through the bushes at the Yule Ball, when they overhear Hagrid talking to Madame Maxime. Also there are the garden gnomes at the Weasleys that come back to the hedge after they've been kicked out of the garden--do they peer through it? Other than that, I can't think of any other hedge-peering that has any significance

Chapter Two: Dobby’s Warning

To me, the most interesting thing in this chapter is all the information we get about magic, through all the things that Dobby does. We see him Apparate and disapparate, he does wandless magic and non-verbal magic. All of those are important later. At this point we don’t have names for any of them, nor do we have the information that these are things that wizards can also do—it just seems to be something that house elves do.

This is jumping ahead a bit, but relates to why Dobby has ended up coming to warn Harry. I don’t think Lucius said anything to Draco—as others have pointed out, Draco doesn’t seem to know anything about it either. And I don’t think that Lucius is plotting to do something with the Horcrux—he doesn’t have that information; he just has a diary that Lord Voldemort gave him for safe-keeping, he thinks LV is gone, but sees this as a way to discredit Arthur, by slipping the diary into the possession of one of the Weasley children. Arthur has been making his life uncomfortable at the moment, with all his raids. I do think that Dobby overheard Lucius talking to one of the other Death Eaters—and as Crabbe and Goyle don’t seem much brighter than their sons, it’s more likely that he was talking to Theodore Nott’s father, but the scene was cut by Rowling. It doesn’t really matter how Dobby overheard it; it’s more important that he did and that he decided to act on the information.

Along with all the magic that is to come, we get a lot of information about how house elves are viewed and treated in the wizarding world. They are inconsequential because they are enslaved to their masters, forbidden to reveal the master’s secrets, forbidden to leave the house. But with Dobby we see what we see in real life in groups of people who are enslaved or oppressed; there is always someone who still thinks independently and who will strive to do what is right, rather than just blindly follow along because that’s what they are told to do. Dobby knows that he is breaking the rules, and punishes himself for it (and says that he’s been punished often, so this rebellious behavior is not new for Dobby), but still he thinks that any punishment is worth trying to do the right thing in protecting Harry Potter. One more example of Dumbledore’s constant reminder that doing the right thing is often not the easy way round.

Harry’s dreams drive me slightly nuts. I think some are definitely foreshadowing, while others are there as red herrings, seeming to mean something important when they are really just a dream, born of what has happened in our real lives and what is happening while we are sleeping. I’ve dreamt of being out in a snow storm with no coat when I’ve only just thrown off the covers in my sleep and I’m cold. That’s how I see this particular dream of Harry being in the zoo. It’s more that he feels trapped, abandoned with no friends to help him, and the rattling of the bars of the cage turns out to fit in with Ron really rattling the bars on his window.

Is this chapter suspenseful? Absolutely. And something we haven’t talked about—even when there is a lot of danger and suspense, Rowling manages to throw in enough humor to keep the story from being constantly scary—especially with Vernon’s reaction and with Dobby continually trying to punish himself, with the pudding dropping and with the owls arriving.

Speaking of which, it’s rather creepy to think how much the Ministry of Magic are watching and how quickly they can react. Even Dumbledore does the same in Order of the Phoenix. And later he says that he has watched Harry more closely than Harry knows. How they all do that, we’ve no clue—and it might just be one of those things that we have to take as “that’s the way it is in the wizarding world”.

I was listening to Chapter Two the other day (Stephen Fry), and I noticed a couple of things about Dobby. One is the phrase that some people at the Lily and Stag Inn Corner Café brought up—that he knew of Harry’s greatness, but not his goodness; it made me think of what Ollivander says about Voldemort doing great things—terrible, but great. Now, I’d never thought of the word “great” in connection to “terrible” until I read COS. To me, “great” always had a positive connotation. Dobby makes that distinction for us when he talks about Harry’s greatness, as in his fame, and his goodness, as in the way he treats others.

The other thing I wondered about. Just how did Dobby intercept all of Harry’s mail? Dobby was supposed to be at the Malfoy’s, yet he somehow has all of Harry’s letters. How did that happen? Just how powerful are house elves? I don’t think we really have any idea yet. And how did Dobby know where to find Harry? Is he that easy to find? I always had the idea that none of the wizarding world knew where Harry Potter was and that’s why they are all so surprised when he turns up at the Leaky Cauldron, in Diagon Alley, on the train and then at Hogwarts. If Dobby can get in and out of Privet Drive, then why doesn’t Voldemort just send a house elf there to either kidnap Harry or to kill him?

Like I said, those are just a couple of things that stood out to me on this re-read of COS.

Chapter Three: The Burrow
This chapter is great fun because we finally get to see how a wizard family lives along with Harry. It’s also nice to see all the chaos that goes with having so many children in the house, something that only child Harry living with only child Dudley has never experienced. Harry doesn’t have any friends at the Dursleys that he could go visit so that he could see how other families live and treat one another—yet another reason it’s so unusual that Harry is basically a nice person.

Getting to meet the Weasleys in their home shows us more of who they really are: Molly, the caring, loving, but strict mother, Arthur, head of the house, but not the disciplinarian and more like one of his sons as far as rule breaking goes when he want to know how the flying car was, the twins, joking even more and doing something odd in their room (we find out later just how odd it was), Percy is even more stuck up and separate from the rest of the family, and Ginny. We think we know what she is like, but we really have no clue, as she is so enamored with Harry that she doesn’t act at all like herself.

We also see the garden gnomes and Molly’s reliance on anything that Gilderoy Lockhart has to say. It sets us up to accept him as an expert, even though the twins don’t want to bother. The de-gnoming process, though funny, is somewhat disturbing. They are living creatures after all, yet they are treated as one would a weed that is spoiling the garden. A little worse thought of than a house elf, both dismissed as not worthy of any respect or consideration.

At the very end of the chapter, when Harry sees Ron’s room and thinks it’s marvelous along with the Burrow, we once again see that Ron is self-conscious about his family’s lack of wealth when he makes disparaging remarks about his room not being as good as the one that Harry had at the Dursleys. It’s nice to see how quickly and genuinely Harry responds with “This is the best house I’ve ever been in.”

People sometimes think that I like Severus Snape, the person (that's only true when I think about Alan Rickman playing the part), but in truth, I just find him the most fascinating character because we don't really know much about him. We know what Harry thinks, what Sirius and Lupin think, and even Dumbledore, because they all talk to Harry. Severus Snape spends a great deal of time with Harry, but we never hear directly from him. The only exchanges of information we get between the Snape and Harry are during the Occlumency lessons, which ultimately end in disaster. Too bad--there were a few moments where it seemed Snape might answer a question honestly, or where Harry sees some of Snape's childhood memories (not the Worst Memories, but the ones of his parents) that might have helped us understand him better.

On another forum, we were discussing Snape and Harry and the other adults. I am going to put some of what I wrote here, because it explains why I keep going back to Snape in trying to figure out what is going to happen with Harry.

I always think it's interesting when you take a close look at the adults in HP. Lupin is my favorite adult, though he is by no means perfect. Far from it, as has been pointed out. Yet he is the one that seems to me to have the most potential to be a mentor to Harry. He is caring and sensitive, has suffered persecution and isolation because of his werewolf problems, which allows him to understand some of the isolation that Harry has always dealt with. He is loyal and in the long run, stands up for what is right. As a teacher, he took the map from Harry in POA, realizing that, because of his knowledge of it, it had such potential danger for Harry. Yet he shielded Harry from Severus's wrath--which in this case, was well-founded for a change. For whatever reason, Lupin didn't reveal his close friendship with Harry's parents until the Shrieking Shack--something that I always thought would be a natural thing for him to do. (In the POA movie, my favorite scene is the one where Lupin tells Harry just that--it seems such a normal thing to say to Harry, and that seems like the appropriate time.)

Lupin shows the complexity of what it is to be an adult, working with youth. It's never easy, and it's never black and white, no matter how much people want it to be. Life is not like that, and part of what Lupin does is to help Harry come to more mature decisions on his own, with a minimum of adult interference. Why is that better than Snape's method of trying to thwart Harry's every step towards danger? Because the lessons that Harry learns on his own will be his--he won't resent someone else once again telling him what to do. We very often learn more from our own mistakes than from the lectures of adults who are just trying to keep us from making those mistakes. Eventually Harry will realize, should he live long enough, the kind of influence Lupin had on him, and will respect him all the more for his guidance and for his trust in Harry's intelligence and true nature. Severus Snape does not have a good understanding of what it takes for a teenager to become a mature adult--he has never really become one himself. He accepts adult responsibilities, of course, but he does not understand that one can be caring and considerate; Snape sees that as a great weakness that will make Harry vulnerable to Voldemort. The contradiction is that Dumbledore tells Harry that it is just that tendency that will help Harry defeat Voldemort. It makes me wonder what happened to Severus in his childhood that left him so hardened to any kind of human kindness.

Sirius, on the other hand, was never one of my favorites, once I thought about it for 5 seconds. Harry idolized him as an older brother or an older best friend, but Sirius was always rash and self-important and a show off. Not to say that he wasn't brave or working on the right side--he certainly was. But he was a bit full of himself when he was in school, as we see by the way he and James acted, and in his reaction to the story about his part in tricking Severus and endangering his life. Even as an adult, Sirius didn't regret his part in that, and that shows a lack of maturity and a lack of a strong moral code. It was one thing to be irritated by Severus sneaking around, but it's entirely another to knowingly endanger the life of someone else. The worst of it was, Sirius was old enough to know that the prank was dangerous and foolish--he's lucky that James had a little more common sense and did something about it. From what we see, though, James was not that far behind Sirius in making poor choices--they were best friends who brought out the worst in each other in regard to the way they treated those they didn't like. Hexing people just for the fun of it, or because they could, hardly speaks well for their character.

Sirius's time in Azkaban was more than likely responsible for stopping him from growing out of that being the bully that he was in school. From all accounts, James must have improved, if not by his 7th year, at least by the time he was married and had a child. Lupin, however, was left to grow up, much as he'd always lived--alone. Lupin's greatest fault was always that he was insecure and wanted desperately to fit in and to be liked. To find friends at school who still liked him after they knew the truth was liberating and imprisoning for Lupin though. He must always have wondered if they would have ditched him had he stood up to them when they were doing stupid things. We learn that Severus had friends, mostly Slytherins who later became Death Eaters--not too much chance of his learning any useful human relations lessons there, among a group that became part of a group led by Voldemort, who couldn't even be trusted enough to know who all the others were. So while some of that generation grew up, others for various reasons, did not.

We see that in the way Lupin treats Severus, and everyone else, that he has learned from his isolation. He is very kind and respectful to others. Of course, there is the way he and Sirius treat Pettigrew, but they are talking to someone who knowingly and consciously betrayed their mutual friends, resulting in their deaths, and who is working with Voldemort. Severus also seems to have led a very isolated life, but the choice of his friends shows how detrimental poor choices can be. Instead of learning to trust, Severus's sense of not trusting was reinforced, and that led him right into the clutches of Voldemort, who didn't want friends at all, just people he could use for his own purposes.

Again with Lupin we see that he is willing to move on from the past relationships that were part of childhood, while still holding people accountable for the choices they make as adults. The one thing preventing Lupin from telling Dumbledore the truth was that old insecurity that if Dumbledore knew all the truth that he wouldn't like him or trust him anymore either. And Dumbledore's trust, as he said, was more important to him than anything. Again, Lupin is an example of real people, doing things that seem right for the wrong reasons, because none of us are perfect. Yet, typical of Dumbledore, he forgave Lupin--and probably would have much earlier had Lupin confided in him.

The same fault that we see in Sirius is the same one we see in Severus--the inability to move beyond a childhood hatred. It colors everything he does, regarding Sirius or Harry--or even Lupin. Sirius's emotional growth was stunted by his years in Azkaban, and Severus's emotional growth was stunted by his self-imposed imprisonment. Severus only seems to have opened up to Dumbledore, but even Dumbledore's understanding has not been enough for Severus to let go of those past horrors of his school days.

After the end of HBP, it was hard to know where to put Severus Snape--on the side of good with Dumbledore or on the side of evil with Voldemort. Or is it that he doesn't trust anyone enough to be on either side and is really playing both ends against the middle, do what he thinks will help him survive? My personal opinion is that Snape will ultimately be on the good side and loyal to Dumbledore, though I've still not figured out what happened on the Tower. I do think that because we only get the story through Harry's eyes, that we are not getting the real story behind what we all think we saw. Harry has a blind spot where Snape is concerned, and in asking questions at the end, he doesn't really get confirmation from anyone that Snape was definitely with the Death Eaters. He didn't seem to know that they were coming or that they were there. His look of hatred and revulsion mirrors the same reaction that Harry had in the Cave when he was following Dumbldore's orders and forced him to drink the poison. I don't think that is a coincidence. It's one of the things that makes me think that there was some sort of promise that Dumbledore exacted from Severus (when Hagrid overheard them arguing) that is like the promise that Harry made to follow Dumbledore's instructions, no matter what.

By the end of Order of the Phoenix, I was completely convinced that Snape was working for the Order and loyal to Dumbledore. To have that set-up taking 5 books, then tearing it apart in the second chapter just seemed like a smoke screen to me. There were truths in what Snape said to Bellatrix, but we need to remember that at Spinner's End, if Snape is loyal to Dumbledore, he's outnumbered with Bellatrix, Narcissa and Pettigrew. And above all, Snape is a survivor. He would not have lived this long if he were not good at saying the right thing at the right time. Either Voldemort would have killed him when he left, or Dumbledore would never have taken him back. So that leaves us with a very complex person--very good at being a spy, whichever side he's on, but lacking the skills to truly understand interpersonal relationships as an adult.

Well, sorry that's so long. But I do think that Rowling is using some of these characters to make some particular points about childhood relationships, bullies in particular, and how that can affect who we become as adults, and how our choices impact the lives that we end up leading.