Stone Defenses

[m.steinberger]

No: HPFGUIDX 57838

The odd thing about the Ph. Stone's defenses is not that they were too easy, but that solutions were deliberately provided. I'm referring to the brooms in the key room. Why leave brooms there? And the riddle in the potions room. Why leave any clues at all? Any normal person setting up the potions defense would have left the clue to the potions locked in a safe elsewhere in the castle. And if you imagine that Quirrel nabbed the potions riddle and then left it with the potions, that doesn't explain why there were three (or more) brooms in the key room. Had Quirrel brought a broom in and left it, there would be only one.

I'm sure this was discussed years ago, but I just wanted to add this factor to the current thread on how much credit the trio get for breaking the defenses. For first years, they did very well, but the defenses were clearly set up to be broken.

BTW, in the context of the first book, not the whole series, the defenses are fine. The whole book is a sweet jaunt into magic-land, and it doesn't ask to make much logical sense. But looking back from the much more serious vantage of book 4, the stone issue becomes very peculiar.

The Admiring Skeptic



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