CHAPTER DISCUSSION PS/SS 11, QUIDDITCH

[Susan A]

No: HPFGUIDX 188395

This message is a Special Notice for all members of

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups

In addition to being published onlist (available in webview), this post is also being delivered offlist (to email inboxes) to those whose "Message Delivery" is set to "Special Notices." If this is problematic or if you have any questions, contact the List Elves at HPforGrownups-owner @yahoogroups.com (minus that extra space)


CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone/Philosopher's Stone, Chapter Eleven, Quidditch

As the term moves into November, the weather becomes chilly and attention turns to the start of Quidditch season.  Harry has been kept as a "secret weapon" for as long as Oliver Wood could manage it.  

With their practice taking up so much time, Harry is grateful for the new friendship with Hermione, for she assists Harry & Ron by reviewing their homework assignments, to be sure they're correct.  She won't do work for them, but in reviewing, she shows them anyway what they've messed up.

Hermione also steers Harry to the book Quidditch Through the Ages, from which Harry learns all kinds of fascinating information, such as that Seekers are the ones to whom the most serious accidents typically occur.  

While H/R/H are outside one break period, Harry perusing QTTA and Hermione conjuring blue flames to keep them warm, a limping Snape appears.  Claiming that "books are not to be taken outside the school," Snape takes the book from Harry and also takes 5 points from Gryffindor.

Harry decides, that evening, to ask Snape to return QTTA.  He heads to the staffroom, assuming Snape might be there.  When he receives no answer to his knock, Harry enters.  What he sees surprises him:  Snape, with his robes lifted to reveal a bloody, mangled leg, in conversation with Filch.  Harry overhears Snape referencing "three heads" before Snape sees him and orders him out.  

Back in the Gryffindor common room, Harry & Ron decide that this must mean Snape was trying to get past the three-headed dog on Halloween night, to get to whatever is being guarded.  Hermione is less certain.

Next day the Gryffindor-Slytherin Quidditch match is on, Harry's very first.  He is too nervous to eat but feels somewhat better seeing his friends' "Potter for President" banner.  Things go smoothly until, during both seekers' race toward the Snitch, Marcus Flint blocks Harry and spins him off course.  A foul is called by Madam Hooch (although Dean Thomas thinks it is not adequate; he wants a red card ;)).

Suddenly, Harry's broomstick starts bucking and jerking, clearly jinxed. It takes all his efforts to keep from falling.  After Hagrid announces that no student would know how to perform such Dark Magic, Hermione grabs Hagrid's binoculars and begins scanning the adults in the crowd.  Honing in on Snape, she finds what she's looking for:  someone staring at Harry without blinking, muttering constantly.  She rushes over to sneak up on Snape, knocking Quirrell aside, and sets one of her blue-flamed fires on the hem of his robe.  Enough to break the jinx.

Harry recovers and soon has caught the snitch... in his mouth.  Gryffindor wins!  

Later the trio is at  Hagrid's hut, explaining to Hagrid what had happened and how Snape both tried to jinx Harry during Quidditch and to get past the three-headed dog ("Fluffy," they learn) on Halloween, to get to whatever is hidden below.  Hagrid tells them their notions are rubbish.  While protesting, he does manage (of course) to let slip that what is hidden is between Dumbledore and Nicholas Flamel.



1.  Per the narrative, "Hermione had become a bit more relaxed about breaking rules since Harry and Ron had saved her from the mountain troll, and she was much nicer for it" [US hardback, p. 181].  Please discuss the notion of being more relaxed about rule-breaking translating into being a nicer person, either in general terms or re: Hermione specifically.

2.  Is Harry correct that Snape made up the rule about no books outside school on the spot?  Or do you believe it truly was a Hogwarts rule?  Is this yet another example of Snape picking on Harry unfairly, or is it yet another example of the trio assuming negative things about Snape unfairly?

3.  When Harry & Ron express their belief that Snape had tried to get past the three-headed dog to whatever it was guarding, Hermione says, "No – he wouldn't.  I know he's not very nice, but he wouldn't try and steal something Dumbledore was keeping safe."  Ron snaps back, "Honestly, Hermione, you think all teachers are saints or something.  I'm with Harry, I wouldn't put anything past Snape" [p. 183].  

This exchange seems to express much of the crux of the mystery which surrounded Snape all the years we waited for the conclusion of the series:  Is he the kind of person about whom one could rightfully say "I'd never put anything past him"? Or is he to be trusted never to go against something Dumbledore has asked of him?  Was JKR thinking that far ahead at this point??  Do Harry, Ron and/or Hermione ever change their basic opinion as expressed here at any point before the final reveal on Severus Snape?

4.  Okay, harken back.  The FIRST time you read this, did you have any inkling that the broomstick jinx *wasn't* Snape's doing, or that it *was* Quirrell's?

Siriusly Snapey Susan


NOTE: For more information on HPfGU's chapter discussions, please see " POST DH Chapter Discussions" at

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/database?method=reportRows&tbl=33

Next Chapter Discussion, Chapter 12, The Mirror of Erised, on November 17, 2009.

If you would like to volunteer to lead a Chamber of Secrets chapter discussion, please drop a note to HPforGrownups-owner @yahoogroups.com (minus that extra space).