Quinn Blogs

I’m re-reading the Harry Potter series from start to finish in the name of over-analysis. Spoilers ahoy.

The Keeper of the Keys

Hagrid bashes down the door to the shack and presents Harry with a birthday cake, along with the letter that’s been trying so hard to get to him.  The letter is an official acceptance to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.  Hagrid explains Harry’s true magical origins, and gives a little more information about Voldemort and his reign of terror.  The Dursleys protest but Hagrid repeatedly shouts them down.  When Uncle Vernon insults Dumbledore, Hagrid finally snaps and tries to turn Dudley into a pig. With the Dursleys cowering in the other room, Hagrid loans Harry his coat to sleep under.

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I’m re-reading the Harry Potter series from start to finish in the name of over-analysis. Spoilers ahoy.

The Letters From No One

Harry receives a mysterious letter in the mail, but before he can read it, the Dursleys confiscate and burn it.  More letters follow.  Uncle Vernon nails up the mail slot, but the letters find their way through the cracks in the doors and even shoot down the chimney at high speed.  An increasingly crazed Uncle Vernon takes the family on an impromptu road trip to escape the letters, which chase them across the country all the way to the coast.  Uncle Vernon rents a shack on a tiny island, convinced that with the approaching storm, no one will be able to find them.  Harry lies awake on the shack floor, counting down the minutes until his eleventh birthday, when suddenly he hears a loud knock on the door.

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I’m re-reading the Harry Potter series from start to finish in the name of over-analysis. Spoilers ahoy.

The Vanishing Glass

Ten years have passed since the first chapter.  Harry is still living with the Dursleys, who make him sleep in a spider-infested cupboard and generally treat him like crap. Harry’s tendency to subconsciously make use of his latent magical abilities doesn’t help matters. It’s Dudley’s birthday, and thanks to unusual circumstances, the Dursleys begrudgingly allow Harry to come to the zoo with them.  Harry manages to have a good time until he accidentally frees a boa constrictor from its cage, which earns him yet another harsh punishment.  Locked up in his cupboard, he speculates as to why strange things keep happening around him, and why he regularly meets oddly-dressed people who treat him with reverence before abruptly disappearing.

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I’m re-reading the Harry Potter series from start to finish in the name of over-analysis. Spoilers ahoy.

The Boy Who Lived (cont’d)

Mr. Dursley has drifted off to sleep and the action shifts to Privet Drive outside.  Albus Dumbledore arrives and magically turns off the streetlights before meeting up with Minerva McGonagall, who’s spent the day disguised as a cat waiting for him to show up.  He confirms the rumors she has heard that Voldemort killed James and Lily Potter, but was somehow defeated when he tried to kill their son Harry.  The half-giant Rubeus Hagrid arrives on a flying motorcycle with Harry, who is to be left in the care of his only living relatives, the Dursleys.  The three take a moment to mourn the Potters before leaving Harry on the Dursleys’ doorstep.  Harry sleeps peacefully, unaware that after this night, his life and the world will never be the same.

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I’m re-reading the Harry Potter series from start to finish in the name of over-analysis.  Spoilers ahoy.

The Boy Who Lived

In the first half of Chapter 1, we’re introduced to the Dursleys, a prudish and judgmental couple who spoil their son Dudley rotten.  They have an embarrassing secret in the form of Mrs. Dursley’s estranged sister, Mrs. Potter, and they are careful never to speak of her or her husband and son.  But then Mr. Dursley has a very strange day in which he witnesses flocks of owls, a suspicious cat, and overhears odd people in colorful cloaks talking about “the Potters”  in hushed tones.  He speculates uncomfortably that these Potters are his in-laws, but after a terse conversation with his wife, decides to ignore these omens and assume it has nothing to do with him.

I’m going to stop there, because there’s a lot to comment on even before Dumbledore shows up. More…