The Sorcerer's Stone

[housemouse]

I just started to read Harry Potter and the Sourcerer's Stone with my seven year-old (who is on the edge of his seat and says "more, more, more" every time we finish a chapter). I have read it twice before, but this time I noticed something I never noticed before.

When Harry is in Ollivander's getting his wand, Mr. Ollivander describes what the wand is made of and he notes that its "brother" wand belonged to Voldemort. The thing I found interesting was that he said both wands had a tail feather from the same Phoenix. Could that Phoenix be Fawkes? If it is Fawkes, could this be of some importance somewhere down the road?

I may be thinking waaayy too much about this.

[mlm828]

Yes, I think it is Fawkes. As I recall, Dumbledore tells Harry the feathers are from Fawkes, but I'm not sure when. Maybe at the end of Goblet of Fire, after Harry tells him about what happened with the two wands when he and Voldemort dueled at the graveyard? Yes, I'm sure there is something significant about this fact, and maybe we haven't yet learned its full significance.

[mlm828]

I checked, and it is in Goblet of Fire (p. 697). Dumbledore tells Harry that the phoenix feathers in his and Voldemort's wands come from Fawkes. He also tells Harry that two such wands will not work properly against each other, and if the wands' owners force the wands to do battle, the "Reverse Spell Effect" will take place (as occurred in the graveyard). Now I'm really sure we haven't heard the last of this. . . .

[housemouse]

I had forgotten (or it didn't register) that Dumbledore said that both feathers came from Fawkes.

Now I have even more questions. How did Fawkes come to be Dumbledore's bird? How did it come about that Fawkes donated tail feathers for both wands? Who took the feathers? Was the bird Dumbledore's at the time? Does any of this even matter?

[mlm828]

housemouse said:

Now I have even more questions. How did Fawkes come to be Dumbledore's bird? How did it come about that Fawkes donated tail feathers for both wands? Who took the feathers? Was the bird Dumbledore's at the time? Does any of this even matter?

These are all very good questions, to which I have no answers. The only other piece of information I recall about the phoenix feathers is that Ollivander told Harry, when he bought his wand, that the phoenix in question had donated only these two feathers. In other words, Harry's and Voldemort's wands are the only two in existence which have cores made from the feathers of this phoenix (which we later learn is Fawkes).

[housemouse]

Chess plays a very prominent role in The Sorcerers Stone. I wonder if it will come up again in the last book.

I can't wait to re-read all the others.

[housemouse]

I am reading The Sorcerer's Stone to my next son and I noticed something.

Right after they have been sorted Harry is sitting with the Gryffindor's when Snape catches his eye. As he and Snape make eye contact Harry's scar starts to burn. It hurts so much that he cries out in pain. What might that tell about Snape's relationship with Voldemort? In the later books it becomes clear that Harry's scar really hurts when Voldemort is around. Hmm...

Most of you Pot-Heads are way beyond me when it comes to noticing these things, so I'm curious to know what you thought of that scene in relation to the later books.

[shmeep]

First of all...Yay for all the reading you're doing with your kids! They will thank you for it. I have such wonderful memories of my mom reading to us and it really did start me off right when it came to developing the taste for it myself. I don't know how you find the time to do this individually with your boys, but I congratulate you for making such an effort and for being such a good mom.

There. Now onto the point raised...

housemouse said:

Right after they have been sorted Harry is sitting with the Gryffindor's when Snape catches his eye. As he and Snape make eye contact Harry's scar starts to burn. It hurts so much that he cries out in pain. What might that tell about Snape's relationship with Voldemort? In the later books it becomes clear that Harry's scar really hurts when Voldemort is around. Hmm...

Snape has nothing to do with Harry's scar hurting in this scene, but we are tricked into thinking he does. It's kind of like at the Quidditch match when they assume Snape is putting a spell on Harry's broom and Hermione, rushing to stop him, knocks over Quirrel, the real person behind the spell, and puts a stop to it in that way. During the feast, Quirrel is beside Snape and Lord Voldemort is hidden on the back of his head under his turban. I believe some mention is even made about the back of his head facing Harry at that moment (or at least something is said about the turban) so obviously Lord Voldemort himself is what is causing the pain.

My question is this: If Snape knew all along that Quirrel was trying to steal the stone and hurt Harry, why didn't HE go to Dumbledore or another teacher about it? He did the counter curse, knowing Quirrel was cursing Harry's broom AND he tried on more than one occasion to talk Quirrel out of stealing the stone. It makes me wonder if the whole thing was set up from the beginning for Harry to do. Dumbledore made sure Harry knew how the mirror worked before placing it under the trap door and he made sure Harry had his cloak. Harry suspected that may have meant Dumbledore meant for him to go down there all along. But...does that mean Dumbledore knew Quirrel was bad from the start? Was Snape in on the plan from the beginning? The stone never needed saving at all because Quirrel would never have been able to get it out of the mirror without Harry (thanks to Dumbledore's brilliant spell) so it could be argued that the stone was never in any real danger until it fell into Harry's pocket. What was really going on here? I've read these books enough to know that JKR doesn't stick stuff like that in for nothing so it could all have a deeper meaning.

One last question: Why was Quirrel able to say Voldemort's name? His closer followers in later books call him The Dark Lord and are often weirded out by Harry's ability to call him by his name so the fact that Quirrel can say it is interesting but I don't know what it means.

[housemouse]

It took me reading the chapter "The Mirror of Erisend" four times, but I finally noticed that "Erised" is desire spelled backward.