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

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 144305

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <bboyminn at y...> wrote:
>
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Geoff Bannister"
> <gbannister10 at t...> wrote:

Geoff: 
> > 4. ... 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.
> > 
> > ...edited...
> > 
> > Any bids to deal with my inquisitiveness?
> >
> 
> bboyminn:
> 
> Note that all the student have a trunk, and likely all have similar
> trunks, so I suspect it was amoung his school supplies even though 
the
> books don't really say that. Consider how difficult it was for Harry
> to lug all his many packages as well as a trunk from the train when 
he
> arrived in Little Whinging.
> 
> Now that bring up another critical question. How did Harry get from
> the train station at or near Little Whinging to the Dursley's house?
> Did he call them and ask for a ride? Given all that had happened,
> would Vernon be in a benevolent enough spirit to do that? Did Harry
> lug his packages and trunk across several blocks, if not miles, of
> Little Whinging until he arrived at the Dursley's home? Did he call 
a
> cab/taxi and expect Vernon to pay? Did he haul all this packages and
> truck aboard the local bus? Did he even have money for the local 
bus? 

Geoff:
I think I would be inclined to disagree with you... There is no 
reference to Harry buying a trunk in Diagon Alley although there is a 
fairly detailed description of the shopping which they actually 
carried out.

Again, if Harry had acquired a trunk, surely it would have been 
simpler to put all his purchases inside the trunk for convenience?  
Canon observes:
"Harry didn't speak at all as they walked down the road; he didn't 
even notice how much people were gawping at them on the Underground 
laden as they were with all their funny-shaped packages, with the 
sleeping snowy owl on Harry's lap."
(PS "Diagon Alley" p.66 UK edition)

I challenge you to try to negotiate the London Transport Underground 
network with a full size trunk and an armful of packages and an owl. 
It's bad enough with just a couple of carrier bags!

With regard to Little Whinging, I would be inclined to assume that 
the station is fairly close to Privet Drive.

Also, from message 144296:

Bruce:
> > Also, it doesn't say 'back to the Dursleys'' but 'back to the
> > Dursleys.' The apostophe is significant. It means not 'back to 
> > the Dursleys' house' but 'back to where the Dursleys were.' THEY 
> > WERE STILL ON THE ROCK. Harry had to rescue them. Thoroughly 
> > humiliating for them, of course.

kchuplis:
> Of course, maybe they have a cell phone.( I know, no mention of it, 
> but that doesn't mean they don't). Honestly, I don't think they 
> would have stayed on the rock two seconds longer than they had to 
> once the letter was delivered.

Geoff:
It is quite common usage in UK English to omit the apostrophe in a 
statement like "I am going to the Smiths on Saturday". I often do it 
myself.

If Harry was going to rescue them, how was he going to do that? To 
begin with, I wonder if he knew precisely where the rock was? I doubt 
whether he had been keeping close tabs on where Vernon had gone in 
his peregrinations on the previous day or two; and Hagrid had brought 
him back in the boat and then led the way to the station...

Again, canon tells us that "Uncle Vernon was pointing at what looked 
like a large rock way out to sea."
(PS "The Letters from No One" p.37 UK edition)

If Harry was going back to rescue them, no way would he be leaving 
from Paddington. The main line from Paddington heads due west out of 
London and the FIRST place you'd get anywhere near the sea would be 
the Bristol Channel, either beyond Cardiff or down the North Somerset 
coast - at least 130 miles or more from London....

Then he would have had to get the boat back over. All rather a lot 
for a (perhaps) nervous 11 year old who didn't get many opportunities 
to be away from home.

On the subject of mobile phones, IIRC they first came into use in the 
UK round about 1987 and by 1991, they were still fairly few and far 
between. Even if Vernon had one, if he packed everything up in about 
five minutes on the Sunday and they were in the car after another 
five minutes would he have remembered to take his mobile? As a 
regular user myself, I still leave the house from time to time 
without it even when I am not 'flapping' about something.

Interesting that the answers to my questions are creating second 
generation questions. 
:-)