Hagrid and Harry after the Hut-on-the-Rock...

[va32h]

No: HPFGUIDX 144277

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Geoff wrote:


> Perhaps when JKR first wrote "Philosopher's Stone", she did not 
> anticipate the intense and microscopic scrutiny to which they 
would 
> be subjected by fans of the books and so did not think these 
matters 
> through... 

va32h: First off yes - I think this is exactly right...readers 
caught up in the story will miss little things, much like excited 
moviegoers will miss the occasional continuity gaffe. But after 
repeated readings/viewings, these stand out. 

But I do have some reasonable guesses.

Geoff:
> 1. When Hagrid and Harry leave the island, they take the boat. So, 
> how do the Dursleys get back to the mainland? Harry was only with 
> Hagrid for one day and I presume that, when he got back after his 
> train journey, they had returned to Privet Drive.

va32h: 

This is the biggest puzzle. Vernon rented the hut from somebody, 
perhaps that person was contacted (how?) and sent to rescue them. 

Geoff:
> 2. On the subject of the train journey, how did Hagrid know that 
> Harry was going home on the train from Paddington? He is not very 
au 
> fait with Muggle matters. 

va32h: Someone at Hogwart's is aware enough of Harry's movements to 
know that he lives in a cupboard, then is moved to the smallest 
bedroom, then to a hotel in Cokeworth, then to a hut on a rock. It 
shouldn't be too hard then, to determine what train would take Harry 
back to Little Whinging. Based on the location of Diagon Alley, 
Hagrid could have been told "take Harry to X station and put him on 
X train". 

Geoff:
> 3. In addition, where did Harry get the money for his ticket? I 
think 
> he will only have got a pittance for pocket money (if any) and 
that 
> wouldn't buy a rail ticket.


va32h: Hagrid bought their tickets to London, and bought Harry a 
hamburger - so he was obviously given some Muggle money for the trip 
(we know he was - he tells Harry he doesn't understand how to use 
it, and has Harry buy the tickets). Surely Hagrid would have bought 
him a ticket back home as well. 


Geoff: 
> 4. We are told that, for the next month, Vernon and Petunia tried 
to 
> avoid speaking to him, behaving as if he wasn`t there. Presumably 
he 
> said nothing more to them until the 31st August when he broached 
the 
> subject of reaching Kings Cross with his uncle. So where 
did "Harry's 
> huge, heavy trunk" (PS "The Journey from Platform Nine and Three-
> Quarters" p.68 UK edition) come from? He wouldn't need a trunk 
> because he never been anywhere and had had nothing to pack in the 
> past.

va32h:

This is harder. He bought it in Diagon Alley when he bought his 
school supplies? Harry found it under Dudley's broken toys in the 
second bedroom?  Perhaps the Dursleys did give it to him, if only to 
hide all of Harry's wizard gear.   Vernon would sooner haul a trunk 
down from the attic than appear at Kings Cross station with a 
cauldron in one hand and an armful of robes. 

va32h