Through the Trapdoor
In which Harry, Ron, and Hermione jump through the aforementioned trapdoor, and huzzahs! are distributed.
We're getting down to the nitty gritty here. Only two chapters left! The chapter starts out with a lot of hoopla surrounding surrounding exams. I feel like wizarding grades are pretty unimportant—I also feel like I would fail just about every class based on the amount of homework they seem to receive per night. And I don't understand why they don't spend all of their free time jumping around, turning coffee tables into puppies.
As long as Dumbledore is at Hogwarts, the school is safe, for Dumbledore is the only wizard Voldemort ever feared. I'm not sure if I mentioned this before or not, and I'm sorry if I'm being redundant by saying this, but I feel like Dumbledore has some fear for Voldemort as well. Or at least the two have a mutual level of respect for each other. But wait—when Harry, Ron, and Hermione go to tell Dumbledore about Snape's plot to steal the Sorcerer's Stone, they find that he's not at the castle. And if Snape's going to do anything, tonight would be the perfect night to try and pull one over on the castle. It is also very convenient that it is the end of the school year, finals are over, and the book is going to end in another fifty pages. It's a recurring pattern.
Harry then launches into a speech about Voldemort, saying "D'you think he'll leave you and your families alone if Gryffindor wins the house cup?" (270) I'm sure that's at the top of Voldemort's to-do list: kill all Gryffindors if Slytherin doesn't win the house cup. Jezebel, I love me some Slytherin house cups. If I had a Slytherin house cup for every time I tortured a mudblood, why I'd . . .
After aforementioned speech Hermione says, "Oh, come off it, you think we'd let you go alone?" (271) Another recurring theme. Harry has kind of been a loner his whole life, and he's got a shit load of compassion and a tiny bit of arrogance, which is a dangerous combination, especially when it comes to him needing the help that he doesn't want to ask for.
Skip ahead a few pages to nighttime when the gang waits until everyone is asleep to sneak out of Gryffindor common room. Except that Neville catches them in the act. Can we all just give Neville a giant huzzah! at this point. I'm such a proud mama right now. Oh, Neville, you are such a good Gryffindor, great wizard.
After some sneaking around and fooling the Bloody Baron—that was good thinking on Harry's part—they arrive at the trapdoor. And they know how to get past Fluffy because Hagrid told them and also gave Harry a flute for Christmas. While Dumbledore may trust Hagrid with his entire life, I personally would never tell Hagrid an important secret.
They land in a pot of Devil's Snare. Ron shouts some words of encouragement to Hermione, which are so cute considering they—spoiler alert—end up together: "HAVE YOU GONE MAD? . . . ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?"
It's a really good thing that Harry, Ron, and Hermione each have such vastly different strengths. Without the other two, none of them could have possibly gotten through the obstacles. Harry, Quidditch prodigy, catches the key that leads them to—Ron, wizard chess master, sacrifices himself to win the chess game that leads them to—Hermione, logic prowess, deciphers the riddle that allows her to save Ron and leads Harry to—Quirrell?
I think we should give a huzzah! to Ron, Hermione, and Harry as well. They are being such good Gryffindors in this chapter. And an anti-huzzah! goes out to all of the teachers who didn't catch on to what Quirrell was up to. Especially McGonagall, whom Harry, Ron, and Hermione alerted that the Stone's safety was in jeopardy, and Snape, who was wise to Quirrell's plan all along.
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