Dobby, dobby, doo

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Chapter 2

First, Dobby refers to himself in the first person repeatedly. If I were to write, "Jeff thinks Harry should ... or If it were up to Jeff, the Dursleys would be ...." Annoying isn't it.

I'm sure any of us could come up with some punishments for Dobby to inflict on himself every time he talks in the first person. Like, have to sit down to dinner with Vernon, Petunia and Dudley. Or pretend to be Dudley's chair.

So Dobby claims to be a warning signal, but he's just a big pain in the rear end for Harry. Dobby could be a double agent who just wants Harry to stay away from Hogwarts. And now Harry's locked in his room like a full-fledged prisoner. Somebody call social services and put the Dursleys behind bars. I'd like to see Dudley be demanding with a 6-foot-4 prison guard carrying a club.

By now I'm obviously quite sympathetic toward Harry. The Dursleys are as unlikable a lot as you could imagine and they've just about touched my last nerve.

But Ron is outside the window as we close this chapter. A rescue can't be too many pages away.

There's no place like home

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Chapter 1

I have a feeling that Harry's bedroom isn't going to be a Chamber of Secrets when Vernon's hoped-for client comes to dinner. Whoever is in Harry's room is bound to cause enough trouble to let out the secret of Harry.

It will be fun to watch the Dursleys squirm in anger at Harry and try to remain pleasant for their company. I expect them to fail miserably. If you have to rehearse being nice and saying lovely things, what's that tell you. Handling adversity gracefully probably isn't a Dursley virtue.

Too bad Harry hasn't heard from his friends, but my guess is that his mail is probably being intercepted by Vernon and Petunia.

Even worse is that Harry doesn't at least get cake for his birthday. But Dudley probably would've eaten it all anyway. He certainly is a growing boy.

School's out for the summer

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Chapter 17

So Dumbledore outsmarted them all. Or should I say outmagicked them. He allows the praise to be heaped on Harry and his sidekicks at the banquet, but it was Humbledore's forethought of how to handle the mirror that ultimately stumped Quirrell and Voldemort ... or is it Voldemort and Quirrell.

Every good story has a good conclusion that answers lots of questions, and this one did.

• Snape is not the enemy but not quite a friend.
• Warped thinking is revealed: "There is no good and evil, there is only power ...
  
• Quirrell/Voldemort find Harry to be too hot to handle.
• The manifestation of Voldemort was as creepy as you had hoped.
• Dumbledore has answers, but he keeps the biggest answer from Harry and us.
• Gryffindor wins the cup. It would have been a downer had Slytherin won. The author wants us to put the book down completely happy with the outcome.
• We haven't seen the last of Voldemort in any form.
  

So now Harry gets to spend summer vacation with Dursleys. He will soon think of the school year as vacation despite his plans for Dudley.

I would say poor Dudley, but I won't.

An unexpected conclusion

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Chapter 16

So how is it that three first-year Hogwarts students get past Fluffy and decipher spells and riddles to get at least near the Sorcerer's Stone? That stone is about as well protected as a quarterback with a bad offensive line.

If two heads are better than one, are their three heads really that much better than Fluffy's three heads? Was the trapdoor really the beginning of a trap to snare Harry?

Katie warned me not to turn the page and read the beginning of the next chapter until tomorrow. I intended to heed her warning, but this chapter ends at the bottom of the page. You can guess what happened. I turned the page and saw the words: It was Quirrell. So I won't lie awake tonight wondering who Harry saw. Then again, I don't usually lie awake thinking about anything. It is rare that anything meddles with my ability to sleep during the night or any other time of day. My wife can verify that.

Not sure what it means that Quirrell is in the room, other than he is likely to stutter when Harry asks him why he is there.

So tomorrow I finish the first book and start the second. I plan to write separate posts, plus one about the movie when I get time to watch it.

For now, it's time to work on my to-do list. Somewhere in there, I sense a nap coming on.

I want a pet dragon

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Chapter 14

If there is any part of fantasy stories and legends that I always wished to be true, it would be that dragons are real. The fire-breathing part would be problematic, but clinging to the back of a flying dragon would be my ultimate thrill ride.

My story would be to raise my own dragon like Hagrid wanted to, tame it, then fly around on it and slay the mean dragons. Then I could be a knight like St. George in Stan Freberg's Dragnet spoof. And I would give it a better name than Norbert. Something like Blaze or Heater or Wildfire or Dragon Breath.

It doesn't seem like Norbert has much to do with the story other than serve as a way to put Harry, Hermione, Neville and Malfoy in detention so that they end up in the forest. Maybe there will be more dragons later.

I had detention a couple of times, probably for being tardy. No late-night forest adventures though. We just sat quietly in a classroom with a teacher and our lunch. Too bad I didn't have a Harry Potter book to read or a dragon to break me out.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Chapter 15

So if the forest is forbidden, why does Professor McGonagall send them out there in the middle of the night? I think it's because she's part cat.

It's interesting, though, how in such a dark forest so much can come to light. Voldemort is only mostly dead after all, and there is little distance between him and the Sorcerer's Stone.

But the shadows in the forest can play tricks on you. The centaur's story convinces Harry that Snape is Voldemort's mole, but that seems too easy. That's probably just what we're supposed to think. Clouseau once said, "I suspect everyone and I suspect no one."

There has to be a mole, though. If you've ever watched "24," you know there's always a mole. But who is it? Is it really Snape? Have we even been introduced to the mole?

More than meets the eye

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Chapter 12

I didn't expect Christmas to be part of a story about wizards and witches. I'm really not sure what I think about that.

Now I've received some wonderful Christmas presents but never an invisible cloak. Then again, I've never been to wizard school, so I haven't had much need for one. What would I use one for anyway?

I don't hunt, but I can see how one would come in handy during deer season. Soldiers and spies would certainly love to have an invisible cloak in their bag of tricks. Magicians could do real magic and not just sleight of hand.

The next time I have one of those "You want to get away" moments like the airlines commercial, I will wish I had Harry's cloak. Other than that, I'm sure it would only serve to get me in trouble, like sneaking around in libraries in the dark of night.

As for the Mirror of Erised, or desirE, I think Dumbledore is right. Not much good can come from spending too much time in front of that window into your soul. (I was told to read the inscription on the mirror backward, so in case you are wondering if I figured that out by myself I had a little help.)

Imagine what you would see if you stood in front of the mirror inside the invisible cloak. Hope that thought doesn't keep anybody awake tonight.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Chapter 13

Nicolas Flamel, the Sorcerer's Stone, Snape's clandestine activities ... it's all starting to come together for our little detective trio. At least there's three of them, one to do battle with each of Fluffy's heads.

The plot is thickening like those potions that they are cooking up in Snape's class. Dark things are going on in the secret places of Hogwarts. It makes sense of course. If The Harry Potter is training to become a great wizard, then it's time for Voldemort and whoever is working on his behalf or whoever he has manipulated to get busy. I'm pretty sure he's only mostly dead, so I suppose the Sorcerer's Stone might be on his shopping list.

I have no idea if I'm on any of the right speculative paths or just wandering around Hogwarts looking for my 9 o'clock class. Usually, stories don't turn out the way you expect, so I'm sure many surprises are coming.

If I only had one of those invisible cloaks ...

Quidditch, questions and quick wits

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Chapter 10

So how long do you think it would take Dudley to break a Nimbus Two Thousand? About a minute. Once he realized not even the Cadillac of brooms could budge him off the ground, he would snap it over his knee like Bo Jackson and toss it next to his other broken gadgets.

What was the most anticipated thing you ordered through the mail as a kid? I remember when I was 10 or 11 and had saved up enough money to order a complete set of Topp's baseball cards. How cool was that. I didn't have to buy packs and packs of cards to go for a complete set, which was impossible. I still have that set.

But if I had been born a wizard, then I can see how the arrival of a Nimbus Two Thousand could almost make you wet your pants.

That is until you are face to face with a troll. But bravery and courage prevailed as Ron and Harry rescued Hermione from certain death. Then she took the blame.

Hmmm ... willing to die and willing to take the blame. What does it all mean?

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Chapter 11

Interesting game, this Quidditch. The sports fan in me is probably why I finished my reading so early today. I never leave a game before it's over (never know what you might miss), so it was hard to stop reading.

I was disappointed by how the match ended. There's no explanation of how Harry caught the Snitch in his mouth or if he even meant to. A good reporter wouldn't leave that out. Oh well, I won't play editor or professor today.

Now about this Snape business. Hagrid is keeping something hidden, which I assume is the sorcerer's stone or something related to it. Snape wants it and we can only assume for evil purposes.

But not everything in Hogwarts is at seems. T'will be interesting to see what is real, what is imagined and what is magic.