HP Topic: Book 1 re-read (some OOP spoilers)

[Terry James]

If we post something on-topic, do we get tossed off the OT list?  I just 
want to throw some
thoughts out for discussion, and there's not much discussion on the main 
list at the moment--more like a feeding frenzy of posting.  I thought it 
might be quieter here just for the moment.

OK, here goes:

I was re-reading SS looking for the reference someone mentioned,
re Neville seeing monsters in the forest that no one else could see.
Has anybody found if that is a valid reference, or did the poster just
make a mistake?  If valid, could someone send me a book & chapter #
off-list?  Thanks!

Anyway, this is the first time I've re-read it in a while, and a lot
of stuff struck me, as my perceptions have changed
quite a bit since then.

1. At the very beginning, when Mrs. Figg breaks her leg and can't keep
Harry for Dudley's birthday, Harry tells the Dursleys that he'd be
happy to stay home.  Petunia shrieks, "What?  And come home to find
the place in ruins?"  Harry (and the reader) takes this as an
implied statement that he would misbehave and wreck the place, and
indeed he replies something like "I'm not going to blow the house up."

But this time I had the immediate
impression that she was afraid to leave Harry alone because she
knew what had happened in Godric's Hollow--house in ruins after
V's attack.  Maybe she doesn't quite understand the "family" protection,
and is worried that if Harry is not actually with the Dursleys, that
he is vulnerable.  Of course, she is more worried about the house than
about Harry--she has no problem leaving him with Mrs. Figg.  Or maybe
she has instructions from Dumbledore on that as well.

Does anyone else think this, or am I just over-analyzing this comment?

2.  It never dawned on me that quite a few off Ron's off-the-cuff
remarks come true until I got on HP4GU.  Since then, it's become
a game to examine every statement he makes.  Here's one from SS I
never noticed before: "And Neville will play Quidditch for England
before Hagrid lets Dumbledore down."   Anything to it?  A red herring?
Under what circumstances could either of these things happen?

3.  I never realized how much Neville was mentioned in SS.  He
seemed to fade into the background in later books, but maybe
he was there all the time and I just didn't notice.  I'll be
re-reading them all with new eyes from OOP experience.  But he played
a much bigger role than I remembered.

4.  More foreshadowing?  HRH share a first-year boat, of course, but
Neville is the fourth person on the boat.

4. When Hagrid is shepherding the first years out of the boats and he
says, "You there, still got your toad?"  I was irresistibly reminded of
"Both buttocks still on?"

5.  I've got a very bad feeling that Ron will not survive until the end
of Book 7.  This comes from the wizard chess obstacle at the end, when
Ron says he has to be sacrificed--the queen has to take him so that
Harry can checkmate the king.  This may be a little too obvious bit of
foreshadowing for JKR, but with Bellatrix Lestrange coming into
prominence, and V.rescuing her (where's her husband, anyway?) I see
a future in which Ron will sacrifice himself to distract BL, who will
be protecting V., so that Harry has a clear path to V.

6.  And if Book 7 does have a parallel with Book 1, then HRH will
work together to overcome many obstacles, demonstrating bravery,
guts, and lots of luck....but Neville will provide the finishing
touch to wrap everything up.  Which will tie in nicely with that
aggravating non-specific prophecy.

Terry LJ

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