A natural wizard

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Chapter 8

Hogwarts is definitely no place for me with all those stairways, hallways and doorways. My sense of direction inside a building is ... well, to call it a sense of direction is an overstatement. When I walk out of a store in the mall, Amy goes one way and I go the other. I don't even ask, I just change direction and follow her.

I remember the first days in a new school building. I would think there were more hallways than there were. I couldn't find my locker. I'm sure every corner I would have turned in Hogwarts, there Norris the cat would have been. Gives me the heebie-jeebies just thinking about it.

Snape, Snape, Severus Snape ... . There's a video that you have to watch if you haven't seen it that will explain that little jingle.

Anyway, I have seen a couple of scenes from a couple of the movies, so I know that Alan Rickman plays Snape. He is one of my favorite actors (Diehard, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, Galaxy Quest), but for a reason I can't remember I started pretending not to know who is. Of course, somebody would begin to explain to me who he is before remembering that I was pulling their leg. Maybe one of my daughters remembers how this all started.

So what is Snape's deal with Harry? I suppose that will unfold over the summer. And what's Hagrid hiding?

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Chapter 9

I might have had trouble finding homeroom, but I could find gym class. Gym class at Hogwarts, however, is nothing like any gym class I ever took. It would have been fun to fly around on brooms, but it seems like all we ever did with Mr. Howe was play softball.

So Harry is "The Natural" when it comes to broom flying. Something tells me he will get the big hit - or the equivalent of a big hit in Quidditch - when his Gryffindor mates need it the most.

Harry's temper paid off when he took the broom ride, but not when Malfoy challenged him to a duel. He took the bait, but Harry seems smart enough to learn from his mistakes. Good thing I wasn't trying to lead them back to Gryffindor in the dark. We might have been dog food.

Hermione seems to be one to keep her cool under pressure. And whenever the time comes to see what the three-headed dog is guarding I'm sure she'll go along. Curious as a cat, that one.

Home is where the hat says it is

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Chapter 6

I felt sorry today for kids like Harry who don't have a mother to love and depend on. There was no one to help him find platform nine and three-quarters. And here he was going off to boarding school and he had no one to miss.

OK, on to happier things. We need snack carts on airplanes like they have on the Hogwarts Express. Amy has made pumpkin pasties and I can attest that those are tasty. I would be just as adventurous as Harry with the Every Flavor Beans. And I'd be looking for that Harry Potter rookie card in the Chocolate Frogs. Sure to be a valuable collectible one day.

I suspect Ron Weasley will be a true friend for Harry. Right now he's Harry's only friend in the world, so I'm pretty sure Harry already knows he would die for his friend. Reminds me of Doc Holliday in "Tombstone" when he says he is risking his life "Because Wyatt Earp is my friend." Someone else says they have lots of friends. Doc replies, "I don't."

Hermione Granger is certainly booksmart. Ron hasn't taken a shine to her, that's for sure. But not many boys his age are going to be tolerant of a know-it-all girl who talks a lot. Not saying Hermione doesn't have redeeming qualities, but it's pretty obvious Ron's first impression isn't favorable.

Harry, though, knows obnoxious. As long as her last name isn't Dursley I'm sure he'll like her just fine.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Chapter 7

This was my longest day of reading yet, and I admit that I drifted off into two naps before I could finish my assignment. But I might rate Chapter 7 as my favorite so far.

I do have one question. Why do all the wizards and witches have such strange names, while most of the students have regular names? Do they get a new name when the graduate? And where did the name Hogwarts come from? Are those the warts on Warthogs? Sure doesn't sound like a place you'd plan a vacation to.

Anyway, the sorting hat thing was clever. It was interesting how the hat listened to Harry's wishes. Did it listen to anybody else's wishes? I'm guessing he has special powers, and I'm wondering if he's exercising them already without knowing it. He's already famous because he did so as an infant.

How about that banquet. Sounds better than any school cafeteria I've ever heard of. I guess even wizards and witches have to eat.

Have you ever wondered where the hat would have sent you? I think I would've been sent to Hufflepuff. What about you?

A lot in common

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Chapter 5

The great Oscar Wilde said, "Life imitates art far more than art imitates life." As far as I'm concerned you can turn that quote around. Same difference, I say.

We took a little pre-Mother's Day family trip this morning to Waynesville where the local chamber proclaims its town to be "The Antiques Capital of the Midwest." After a bountiful buffet at the Der Dutchman Amish restaurant, it was time to walk off the only meal I've needed today (6:15 p.m. as I write this).

We perused some curious shops with lots off odd and curious antiques and collectibles.
That's where my day stopped imitating Harry's day. No thrill ride with goblins or a vault of gold or a giant for an escort.

We shopped, but we bought a decorative wooden cross for the wall in our bedroom and a little green jar for the kitchen. If we can find a screw-on lid with holes in the top, it will make a perfect cinnamon-sugar shaker. We won't be putting silver unicorn horns or glittery-black beetle eyes in it from the Apothecary in Diagon Alley.

I saw some interesting canes and walking sticks, but no magic wands. Then again, we didn't explore any alleys.

My favorite Hagrid line: "I don't like cats, they make me sneeze." More life imitating art there. I've never met a cat that didn't cause an allergic reaction to either my nose, eyes or lungs.

And props to Harry for choosing an owl over a cat. Wise beyond his years, that Harry.

A giant welcome sight

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Chapter 3

Dudley with something called a Smelting stick? That's as dangerous as Vernon and Petunia being parents. Parliament should pass a law.

The image that Dudley brings to mind is that rotund kid who wins a trip to Willie Wonka's chocolate factory and falls into the river of chocolate. Same shape, same obnoxious attitude, same penchant for whining, same mean streak and same appetite. I truly hope the Dursleys fade from the plot lines sooner than later. Don't know how much of them I can take. I say give Harry the stick and the license to use it. He would probably be more accurate with it than a wand at this point.

And let Harry read his letter for crying out loud. There is no justice in the home of Vernon and Petunia Dursley.

But someone's at the door. Maybe Harry will get some help.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Chapter 4

A gentle giant ter the rescue, an' just in time. Not only fer Harry, but fer me as well. Just when I was startin' ter get impatient about what this was all about, Hagrid filled in some missin' pieces.

He looks scary, but if he's on yer side I imagine there's nothin' ter be scared o'. This guy was definitely never a cat, yeh can be sure o' that.

I have the feelin' that Hagrid is going to help Harry out o' more 'an one scrape this summer. Every aspirin' wizard needs a little muscle once in a while.

Glad Harry fin'lly got ter read his letter. Hogwarts, eh. Sounds like an interestin' place.

I'm wonderin' if Voldemort's last name is Dursley an' if he used ter be a cat.

The cat people

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Chapter 1

I have no idea what I'm getting into by beginning this summer-long foray into the world of Harry Potter. No one is more mugglish than I.

I have avoided reading J.K. Rowling's best-selling series on the boy wizard. I have found something else to do when one of the movies was playing on our DVD player. No reason other than I'm just into different things. I spent 22 years in sports journalism, and now I teach journalism at my alma mater, Cedarville University. I read good manly fiction like Louis L'Amour and John Grisham. But mostly I read a lot of nonfiction like most journalists.

These are kids books, right. I didn't expect the creepy quotient to be high. But what do I find on page 2? A cat.

Nothing creeps me out more than cats. This cat is just like every other cat I've crossed paths with.

When I was about Harry Potter's age, we stayed with some friends who had a three-story Victorian house that could have been on Privet Drive. They had a black cat named Simon. Everywhere I explored in that glorious home, the cat was there.

Simon sat and stared at me just like that cat sat and stared at Mr. Dursley. I know from Chapter 2 that Vernon Dursley is not a likable chum, but I found myself identifying with him in Chapter 1.

I know how unnerved Dursley must have felt went he got home from work and saw that same tabby with staritis. I would have said "Shoo" as well. Any cat that's ever wandered into my yard has heard me say that or "Scat" and clap my hands.

Dursley might not have pondered what that cat was thinking. But I know. I know they sit there and think that I am stupid and that as soon as I turn my back they will do what they've always wanted to do to me: attack me and scratch my eyes out.

I can't help my feline phobia, so I was relieved when the cat became a professor. Of course, now I will look at cats and wonder who they really are.

I'm not sure I'm any better off.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Chapter 2

I began Chapter 2 with great expectations of no more cats. After learning that Harry has to live most of his days in a cupboard under the stairs, I'm glad I'm not claustrophobic.

And I'm glad I don't know anyone named Vernon, Petunia or Dudley. What an awful lot this bunch is. Harry is already a hero. No matter what he does the rest of the summer, he will get the benefit of the doubt.

It's very clever of the author to make us like Harry from the start. How can you be against an orphan who has to grow up in such dysfunction. They are afraid of him, so they treat him like a leper. I don't think I will grow to like the Dursley clan.

Maybe they were cats in a previous life.