CHAPTER DISCUSSION: PS/SS 7, The Sorting Hat

potioncat willsonkmom at msn.com
Sun Oct 18 14:17:03 UTC 2009


No: HPFGUIDX 188114


> Chapter Seven: The Sorting Hat
 
> Discussion Questions:
> 
> 1. How do you think Harry's first impressions of Hogwarts differed from those of
> the other first year students? It seemed like nobody knew what to expect for the
> sorting, but do you think those who had grown up knowing about Hogwarts were
surprised by other things?

Potioncat:
I think all the first years were amazed. Knowing what something will be like, and actually seeing it are very different. Harry and the other Muggle-borns would have the additional amazement at even the very ordinary magic.

> 
2. Who is your favorite of the ghosts introduced in this chapter, and why?

Potioncat:
I didn't have a favorite, then or now, but I've always been curious about the Fat Friar.  I'm even more curious now because we learned nothing about him at all. But I agree with Alla, the thought of ghosts with unfinished business who never make it to the Hereafter makes me uncomfortable. After we met Moaning Myrtle, I felt sad that she was never reunited with her family. Later, Snape refers to ghosts as imprints left behind (or something along that line.) So now I'm not sure if a ghost is the person, or something similar to the interactive portraits.

> 
> 4. If you were being sorted, would you have a discussion with the hat like
Harry, or would you go with wherever it wanted to put you?

Potioncat:
I guess that would depend on what I expected and what it said. 

While I've known it all along, it was this time that I really "got" that the Sorting Hat asked where to put Harry (a rhetorical question, I think) and Harry piped up with not Slytherin. The resulting discussion between Hat and boy has created all sorts of threads

 Both Draco and Ron were sorted very quickly. So for some students there wasn't even an opportunity for discussion. Is that because the Sorting Hat knows instantly where the student wants to go, so it's only in ambiguous cases or ones in which the house doesn't really fit the student that a conversation occurs? I'm not sure.

.
> 
> 5. Do you think any of the Weasleys wished they were in a house other than
Gryffindor?

Potioncat:
No, because the Weasley family seems so close knit and their values seem shared. 
I still think Percy and the twins would have made good Slytherins, if it wasn't for the Pure-blood ideology. 
>


> 9. If you had the banquet of your choice magically appear in front of you, what
would it include?

Potioncat:
Not Jell-O. And I say that because the American edition includes Jell-O. Is there a gelatin based item on the list in the British edition? From an earlier thread here or at OT, I thought that perhaps Jell-O wasn't used in Britain.
> 


> 10. What did you think of Neville's account of his family's concern that he
wasn't magical?

Potioncat:
It tells us how deeply felt the importance of magic is to the WW families. Yet I don't think it's all that different in the RW. Many parents and school systems try to fit kids into a college-bound-science-based mold that isn't always a fit---or patents push non-athletic kids into sports. Not exactly the same thing, I know.

I think it's important that while everyone in the family doubted Neville's magical ability, no one was rejecting him. Of course, it didn't do much for his self-confidence.


> 
> 11. The first time you read the chapter, what did you think was happening when
>Harry had the pain in his scar while looking at Snape and Quirrell?

Potioncat: 
I believed that Snape had done something. It wasn't until much later that I realized he had not. Now I wonder if it was only the pain that made Harry think the teacher didn't like him, because he was right about that part. Nothing in canon, except for the pain would indicate dislike.


> 
> 12. What was your first impression of Dumbledore? Aside from the fact that we
> learn so much more about him as the series goes on, do you think that the "few
>words" and the way he introduces the school song are typical of him?

Potioncat:
I was bewildered. It didn't seem the same person we saw in chapter one. He reminded me a little of Merlin from Disney's "The Sword in the Stone." 


> 
> 13. Did you think there was any greater significance to Dumbledore's statement
that music is "a magic beyond all we do here"?

Potioncat:
I don't think so. I did expect to see music used in magic somewhere along the line---which we did in HBP. 


>15. What did you think of Harry's dream the first time you read the chapter?

> Carol:
> It was pretty clear that Harry already associated Draco and Snape, or Slytherin in general, with Voldemort. The role of Quirrell's turban in the dream turns out to be prescient on Harry's part, but I didn't know it on a first reading--only that the turban would somehow be important.

Potioncat:
I thought the dream would be important for the readers, since we know Harry won't remember it. But I didn't know what the purpose of it was--except to review Harry's feelings about this magical world he'd entered. It also set us up to see Snape as the villain.
The dream does put Draco, Snape and LV together, but we don't yet know that Snape is associated with Slytherin.



Thanks Megan for some interesting questions. 

I'd like to add that it's been a real pleasure to take this overall look at the HP series. I've read each chapter as the discussion comes due, taking time to savor the experience and to notice how some things fit so well in the bigger picture.






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