Watching the first of the Deathly Hallows films has inspired me to reread the entire Harry Potter series in order. Here are my notes on rereading Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, twelve years after receiving it for my tenth birthday!



- The Professor McGonagall in my head will never be the one of the films. In my head, she's younger - perhaps in her mid-forties - and has quite a square build, which was possibly a result of my ten-year-old mind overextending the description of her square glasses to apply to her entire body. (If I were at Hogwarts, I'm sure she would be my favourite teacher.)
- 'And they've got this son - I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets.' This is the first reading on which I've realised that this probably means that Dudley was kicking Petunia as the two of them were walking up the street together, rather than that Dudley was physically propelling Petunia up the street by kicking her.
- The only thing Harry likes about his own appearance is the scar that Voldemort gave him! Not his mother's eyes, not his father's features, but his lightning-bolt scar. Interesting.
- There seems to be quite a bit of ill-feeling towards Muggles in the first book, even from supposedly admirable characters. McGonagall says 'Well, they're not completely stupid'; Hagrid tells Harry 'it's your bad luck you grew up in a family o' the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on'. I think that's quite interesting, given that prejudice against Muggle-born witches and wizards is portrayed as despicable throughout the series.
- I'd forgotten how lighthearted and silly the Harry Potter series was at the beginning! It's difficult to believe that only a decade later we would all be reading Harry Potter and EVERYONE DIES.
- '"Go on, have a pasty," said Harry, who had never had anything to share before or, indeed, anyone to share it with.' I actually teared up a bit at this line. Oh, Harry.
- I always imagined Scabbers as a big soft toy.
- Hermione went up to the front of the train to ask the driver when they'd be arriving. That's such a very Hermione thing to do.
- Ahahaha, remember when people lost or gained one or five house points at a time? Such inflation to come.
- I've just remembered that, when I first started secondary school, I didn't much like my Chemistry teacher, and so I used to pretend that Chemistry was Potions and she was Professor Snape.
- I'd forgotten that Harry and Ron didn't get on with Hermione at first! It seems so strange, now. (When I first read it, I thought it was pronounced 'Hermy-own'. I assume Krum's confusion in Goblet of Fire was for the benefit of similarly pronunciationally-challenged readers.)
- Reading the bits about the Philosopher's Stone, I found myself really annoyed by the mere thought that the American edition changed it to Harry Potter and the Magic Rock (other books in the series: Harry Potter and the Secret Room, Harry Potter and the Fiery Cup and Harry Potter and Snape). The Philosopher's Stone is an actual alchemical concept! Changing it to 'Sorcerer's Stone' makes no sense! Give the children of your country some credit, American publishers; they may be more amenable to new concepts than you think.
- (An interesting difference between the UK and US editions: the British edition doesn't contain the line '"Thomas, Dean," a Black boy even taller than Ron, joined Harry at the Gryffindor table'. I was confused for a long time by people on the Internet saying Dean Thomas was black as if it were a canonically established fact, not having realised that, well, it was.)
- 'They slipped back down the spiral staircase, their hearts as light as their hands, now that Norbert was off them.' When I was younger, I inexplicably interpreted this as Harry and Hermione holding hands as they descended the staircase. Awww.
- You can't criticise Snape for favouring Slytherin and then turn around and celebrate Dumbledore for saying 'Slytherin have won the house cup OH WAIT NO I'M GOING TO GIVE MY OLD HOUSE JUST ENOUGH POINTS AT THE VERY LAST SECOND TO WIN, LIKE AN ARSEHOLE,' Rowling. Of course, when I was a child, the oddness didn't occur to me, but as an adult I've realised that you can't decorate the Great Hall in Slytherin's house colours just so you can dramatically rip their win away at the last moment. That's not okay, Dumbledore! You're a terrible headmaster! Not saying that Gryffindor shouldn't have won, but giving them their points when Slytherin practically had the House Cup in their hands wasn't the way to do it.
- Even when I was a child, I was slightly taken aback by 'A storm of cheering and stamping broke out from the Slytherin table. Harry could see Draco Malfoy banging his goblet on the table. It was a sickening sight.' They were just celebrating their win, as any house would have, and there was no mention of their jeering at the losing houses, so I wasn't sure what was so sickening about it. Years later, I saw 'banging his goblet' reinterpreted on the Internet and suddenly it made sense.



In unrelated news, Peep Show last night, although brilliant (just thinking about Alan Johnson was still making me laugh hours afterwards), sort of broke my heart. And it was the last in the series, so we won't know what happens to the El Dude brothers for ages! I'm tempted to write fix-it fanfiction, which isn't something I generally do.