Harry Potter Hullaballoo - The Whomping Willow

The Whomping Willow

In which Harry and Ron miss the Hogwarts Express and choose a different route to Hogwarts.

A Series of Trends Throughout the Series:

1. Fred + George + Fireworks.
2. Being late to Platform every single year.
3. Falling a great distance and landing on a harmful plant.
4. Missing the Sorting Hat ceremony.
5. Getting busted by Snape while missing the Sorting Hat ceremony.
6. Getting off with minimal punishment after breaking the rules.
7. Getting reprimanded by Hermione for breaking the rules.
8. Getting cheered by fellow Gryffindors for breaking the rules.
9. Breaking the freaking rules all the freaking time.

Harry and Ron are the brand of dumb in this chapter that you can only get from a pair of twelve-year-old boys. Sending a letter to Hogwarts would have been a smart idea if you couldn't get past the platform barrier. Waiting until Mr. and Mrs. Weasley came out would have worked, too. Waiting by the  car was fine. But, no, they had to go and drive the flying car and get a whole detention for doing so (totally worth it).

The thing I love most about this chapter is the flying car, the Ford Anglia. It's a character by itself, and it is a part of the Weasley family. I love that after it wins a fight with the Whomping Willow, it totally ejects Harry and Ron from inside and becomes a wild recluse in the Forbidden Forest.

The Whomping Willow is cool, too. It is more proof that J.K. Rowling went into this knowing things. Almost nothing here is just randomly placed.

I think when they're first looking into the Great Hall from the lawn, Harry and Ron see the sorting of Colin Creevey. Poor kid: his name is only two letters different then Colin Creepy (he is, though, a bit).

Harry and Ron don't get expelled or arrested. They get one measly detention apiece. McGonagall is a strict woman, but she has a subtle sense of humor about her. Sometimes she can't even take herself too seriously.

Snape is really a grouchy pants. He takes himself to seriously all the time. He takes himself so seriously he conditions with axle grease just to prove that he can seriously pull it off.

At the end of the chapter there's a really cute scene after they've gone to bed where Harry and Ron are reunited with their roommates, Neville, Dean, and Seamus. And then the chapter ended.

Harry Potter Hullaballoo - At Flourish and Blotts

At Flourish and Blotts

In which Harry and friends travel to Flourish and Blotts and happen across the infamous Gilderoy Lockhart.

It's Harry's first time traveling by floo powder, and as impressive of a wizard as he is at twelve years old, he still gets nervous and ends up in Knockturn Alley, the sketchiest of all wizardly alleys. He ends up in a store called Borgin and Burkes, which specializes in creepy objects and hides himself in a sarcophagus thing so that he isn't seen by the Lucius and Draco who happen to walk into the store at that moment.

Lucius is selling something. I'm not sure what. It probably doesn't matter, but he does possess some very sketchy objects, one of which he gives to Ginny about five pages later. The diary. Malfoy has this obsession with Harry that kind of carries on throughout the books. I think that he wants to fit in so much with his dad's crowd of Death Eater types that he constantly talks about the only things he knows about, that being Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

Hagrid finds Harry in Knockturn Alley and returns him to Diagon Alley. Who knows what he was doing there. Oh yeah, Flesh-Eating Slug repellent ahem gamblingproblem ahem. Actually it probably was the slug repellent, who knows.

Reunited at last, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and rest go to Flourish and Blotts and find dear old Gilderoy Lockhart doing a book signing there. He announces that he will be the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and pretends to be buddybuddy with the famous Harry Potter.

You know who else is in Flourish and Blotts? Draco and Lucius. And they start something.

See here, Ginny is not some shy fangirl. She is the first to defend Harry when he's insulted by Malfoy. It only cost her a year of being possessed by a horcrux, but hey. After that, Lucius and Arthur get into a tussle, which is kind of weird, because Arthur is usually the calmest of the Weasleys and I can't imagine Lucius lowering himself so low as to fight with a "blood traitor." I guess Arthur has that "Weasley temper" everyone talks about, and Lucius forgot to eat his Wheaties for breakfast so he was cranky.

This chapter is the only chapter in the entire series in which Hermione's parents are there in the flesh. I don't know if you noticed them in the movie or not, but they're cute parent-types.

Until next time.

The Second Story Window

The downfall to a warm winter is the bugs. Huge. Bugs. Everywhere. A slight exaggeration, but there are those nighttime bugs that love them some windows, and they keep banging against mine like bullets. Every time this happens, my mind immediately jumps to the worst conclusion. That someone is climbing in my window, snatching my people up. Then I remember that my window is on the second story and it is impossible to climb in it unless you're spiderman. Guys, spiderman is trying to break into my house. My spidey senses are tingling.

Harry Potter Hullaballoo - The Burrow

The Burrow

In which Harry is rescued from the Dursleys' house and taken to the Burrow.

A hierarchy of Harry's homes would look like this: Hogwarts, the Burrow, 4 Privet Drive. Even though, Harry would most definitely put 4 Privet Drive at the bottom of the list, it is important that he still considers it home. Every spring, he goes back to Privet Drive at first, not the Burrow or eventually 12 Grimmauld Place.

When we start the chapter, Harry is permanently locked in his room. Bars on his window, deadbolt locks in his door, the whole nine yards. Petunia even feeds him soup three times a day through a cat flap Uncle Vernon installed. It may seem like the Dursleys are doing this because they're angry at him for ruining their dinner party, and I have no doubt that they're furious, but even more than that, they're freaking terrified of Harry.

If I had a list of my favorite moments in the entire series, this would be one of them: the moment when Fred, George, and Ron all break Harry out of his room and take him via flying car to their home. It's the most exciting, huzzah moment.

There's something that Harry says: "'Watch out for the bottom stair—it creaks'" (26) that I found funny. Fred and George just broke bars off of your window, Harry. If the Dursleys slept through that, they probably won't notice the creaky stair. But it's neither the creaky stair nor the bar-breaking that wake Uncle Petunia and Aunt Vernon—hang on . . . scratch that; reverse it. It's Hedwig.

But they escape fine. And they ride off into the midnight sky, home free.

The description and Harry's first reaction of the Burrow is one of my favorite things. He notices everything, from the Burrow's whimsical architecture, to the greenish pond and weedy garden. The knitting needles that knit by themselves, and the Weasleys' clock. That clock is so cool. I think that Burrow is a brilliant contrast to the the spick- and span-ness of 4 Privet Drive.

Home free, not quite, actually. Mrs. Weasley catches them and is throughly peeved at Fred, Ron, and George. She makes many an exception for Harry, and continues to do so right up until the last book.

Harry catches a glimpse of Ginny, the youngest of all the Weasleys, whom we've only briefly seen on Platform 9¾ last year. She was starstruck then and she's very very shy now, which Ron tells us is unusual for her. A lot of people really hate Ginny, because she's fangirly at first. But think about yourself in sixth grade, then imagine yourself in pajamas, meeting your big fat seventh-grade crush who happens to be famous and also your older brother's best friend and also is staying at your house until school starts, which you will be attending together. How would you react?

Okay, how do you think Mr. Weasley developed his passion for muggles? I mean, he's one of two people who share this passion. I always imagined that he got busted for doing something at Hogwarts, and instead of getting a detention, he was forced to do community service with muggles. Dress up like the easter bunny, perhaps? (Holiday spirit.)

Über favorite moment:

"It's a bit small," said Ron quickly. "Not like that room you had with the Muggles. And I'm right underneath the ghoul in the attic; he's always banging on pipes and groaning. . . ."

But Harry, grinning widely, said, "This is the best house I've ever been in" (41).

On that note, I leave you. Goodbye.

Harry Potter Hullaballoo - Dobby's Warning

Dobby's Warning

In which Dobby ruins a dinner party and tells Harry not to go back to Hogwarts.

The thing that makes Dobby so admirable is that he has to do the right thing. It's embedded in his character to do what he thinks is right thing no matter what the cost, whether the right thing is to warn Harry of going back to Hogwarts, to hit himself with a lamp, or to not talk ill of his masters. It's pretty tragic to have a heart so golden that it leads to the detriment of others. He honestly means well when he hides letters and drops puddings on women's heads. Those things just tend to upset the people he's trying to help. He's also very smart. He knows exactly what he's doing all the time. He doesn't follow orders from the Malfoys for the sake of following them, and he—forgot what I was going to say—is just really cool.

The Malfoys' plan is hinted at even in this chapter, for why else would Dobby be warning Harry about going back to Hogwarts? Of course, at this point, we don't know that Dobby belongs to the Malfoys or that the Malfoys have a secret plan. I guess despite Voldemort thinking otherwise, Lucius does attempt to bring back Voldmemort. I don't know how he knows what that diary would do, though.

Harry has another dream at the end of this chapter, where he's in a snake cage (or just a regular cage, I'm assuming it's the same cage of the snake he let loose at the zoo last year). A lot of Harry's dreams have to do with snakes and Harry's scar.

I never understood why Harry was reprimanded for Dobby's magic. He receives a letter and everything, but Dobby doesn't have the trace on him, so the wizards shouldn't have even been able to tell there was any magic going on at 4 Privet Drive. My only guess would be that 4 Privet Drive is under very strict surveillance, because Harry's a very important wizard, but I haven't a clue.

Incredibly short chapter. Incredibly short response. Learn how to spell incredibly, Sam.