Seven Challenges in PS corresponding to Seven Books?

[mongo62aa]

No: HPFGUIDX 31625

Hello again. This is the second of a series of occasional posts on 
parallels and foreshadowing in the Harry Potter series.

I believe that the seven challenges at the end of PS (six barriers, 
plus the Mirror of Erised) symbolize the seven books of the HP 
series, in randomized order.

To summarise:

Barrier 1 : three-headed dog (Hagrid)
Barrier 2 : Devil's Snare (Sprout)
Barrier 3 : flying keys (Flitwick)
Barrier 4 : Wizard's Chess (McGonagall)
Barrier 5 : troll (Quirrell)
Barrier 6 : potions (Snape)
Final Room: Philosopher's Stone (Voldemort)

Each of these challenges seem to match an important event in the 
emotional journey of Harry:

PS - troll. The first troll scene marks the first turning point in 
the developing friendship between Harry and Ron, on the one hand, and 
Hermione, on the other. It was only after saving her from the troll 
that they became firm friends.

CoS - Philosopher's Stone. There seem to be two major events 
foreshadowed here. Firstly, Quirrell as Voldemort suggests Riddle as 
Voldemort. In both cases, they were 'hidden', seeming innocent until 
they revealed themselves. Secondly, the Stone itself seems to 
correspond to Ginny Weasley. Harry struggles to prevent Voldemort 
from possessing either of them. It may be significant that the Stone 
is red in colour, like Ginny's hair. I would say that Ginny will play 
an important role in the final three books.

PoA - three-headed dog. Fluffy's three heads may correspond to the 
three surviving members of MPPW, and huge canine body to the large 
black dog form of Sirius Black (Sirius is the Dog Star), and the wolf 
form of Remus Lupin (Remus, co-founder of Rome, was supposedly 
suckled by a she-wolf). As his godfather, Remus is very important to 
Harry.

GoF - flying keys. In the key room, Harry must fly on a broomstick to 
grab the correct key, enabling further progress. In GoF, Harry must 
fly on a broomstick to complete the First Task, and the TriWizard Cup 
turns out to be a PortaKey, sending him to the rebirth of Voldemort, 
with incalculable consequences.

Note that the challenges, arranged in this order, start out in PS 
with a purely non-agressive task (sneaking past an unconcious troll). 
The next task is also purely defensive, but more challenging 
(resisting Quirrell/Voldemort). The third task is again defensive 
(sneaking past a sleeping Fluffy). The fourth task , however, is more 
aggressive, and physically demanding (catching the correct key).

The final three challenges are more mentally demanding than the first 
four. All require logical thinking and coolness under pressure.

A thought about the role of Harry's friends in the final three 
challenges. Two of them are won by Hermione with her powers of logic, 
and one by Ron, who sacrifices himself to ensure victory.

I also cannot help thinking that the Mirror of Erised is an important 
element of foreshadowing. It is a necessary part of the rescue of the 
Philosopher's Stone, and also shows Harry a vision of his parents. In 
addition, the line in the movie from Voldemort about bringing back 
Harry's parents occurs at this time, and was apparently approved by 
JKR. Could it be that in the seventh book, Harry's parents are 
revived? They are also involved in the Voldemort scene in GoF.

William