Completing my read through comments:

Chapter 6

It always amuses me when authors have Harry read his schoolbooks from first year again and have him discover all sorts of new and fundamental things about magic. Nope, he already knows that stuff.

Vernon can say “magic” and “wizards”.

This image always cracks me up.

I’ve always enjoyed the idea that there are other hidden platforms within the station going to other locations. But it could be equally likely that she’s asking simply to test her children to make sure they know. Which is a common thing parents do.

What this has never indicated to me is that Molly Weasley is attempting to entrap Harry Potter.

That seems to conclusively settle the issue: Harry’s scar was definitely publicised post-1981. Probably Hagrid let it slip at the pub XD

Interesting that his was not common knowledge at all. It really emphasises for me the extent to which Voldemort operated from the shadows. There were no big battles between Death Eaters and Aurors where Voldemort was present and killing people left and right. It was all about subterfuge.

Common knowledge that Harry Potter grew up with Muggles. So many fics get it wrong, then, by having characters be shocked and outraged to find that out.

It’s an interesting use of the word “Dark” here. It doesn’t seem immediately obvious that dark magic would be more useful than any other kind of magic for infiltrating Gringotts. Rather the word seems to serve more as an indicator of a wizard with a nefarious purpose.


Chapter 7

After the narrative says this, Dean Thomas, Lisa Turpin, Ron Weasley and Blaise Zabini are sorted. Early indication of Rowling’s problem with numbers!

Rowling hadn’t invented the word “squib” yet.

Demonstrates that wizards, or at least a good number of them, are ignorant of the nature of squibs (i.e. that it’s a binary property, you either have magic or not). This goes well with Fudge not knowing in OotP if Squibs could see Dementors.

This paragraph has validated the way I picture to staircases as moving not in the literal sense of moving through space but rather moving as in the floor plan changing.

I wonder how old Filch is, if Hagrid thinks he’s old.


Chapter 9

That is some weird-ass imagery. Glasses flashing. It's Dan Brown level.

Parvati seems to have a “sticking up for people” thing, between defending Harry and Neville.

There goes all the loopholes about the rule only banning broom ownership, not team participation

Brutal destruction of Harmonian dreams of Harry just going along with Ron’s dislike of Hermione.

Neville really sucks at everything lol.

Nice way there for JKR to cut through a whole boring scene of conversation between Harry and Ron where they figure it out.

 

I wonder how that got out. Did Dumbledore do some kind of press conference, maybe?

 

In the books every Slytherin is an arsehole. Its one of the bigger failings of the books. We have bad guys from Gryffindor but no good guys from Slytherin.

 

I was surprised to find someone in the Sorting that I'd never heard of before, even in fanfic - Moon, no first name given. According to the Wiki, this is Lily Moon, revealed on Pottermore to be a precursor to Luna. She never gets mentioned again, even in the OWL rolecall.

 

She didnt follow Dumbledores advice and died a rather horrible death in her first year.

 

American translation of dressing gown?

 

Sesc: I'm obviously reading the wrong fanfics then

 

I agree with this. But how does everyone seem to know that Voldemort was in Slytherin?

It isn't common knowledge that Voldemort is Tom Riddle. Did Voldemort or some of the first death eaters spread a rumor? Did Dumbledore?

 

Heir of Slytherin.

 

But it wasn't known that Voldemort is the Heir of Slytherin. If it was, Harry wouldn't be suspected.

 

Remember the Hufflepuff thinking he'd be the next dark Lord? Voldemort could've claimed to be the heir of Slytherin, or more likely people just assumed he was in Slytherin cause he's a parsel tongue also if Dumbledore never outright stated he wasn't in regards to those rumors most people would assume it's true.Also Walpurgis knights could have outright said so. Naturally the dark wizards come from Slytherin bias would be a factor too.

 

Hmm, possibly.

On a thematic level, I think it's difficult to justify Harry being in Slytherin. It's something that crops up later in the books, but it's present even here: despite how similar the origins between Voldemort and Harry are, it's ultimately their choices which make them starkly different. Harry choosing to not go to Slytherin is just the initial seed of that theme that carries forward throughout the entire series. Like you say, I think you'd have to either alter Harry's character in general or have Harry not receive the scoop on Slytherin and just let the Sorting Hat decide what's best for him.

Anyway, some random observations of my own, beyond what others have stated:

Vernon Dursley went to work at 8:30 and McGonagall's been there the whole time, a whole 16 hours of sitting still in cat form. That's dedication for you.

Played for laughs, but kind of vindictive of Hagrid to be attacking Dudley, who thus far hasn't done or said anything to Hagrid, instead of Vernon, the person who Hagrid became angry at.

Seems to imply here that Petunia never went with Lily whenever her parents would take her to go to Hogwarts.

The Sorting Hat is wide enough to cover the typical 11-year old's eyes. I wonder if this is connected with Legilimency, as introduced in the 5th book, which typically requires eye contact, in order for the Sorting Hat to do its thing. In this case, it would contact between the sorted student's eyes and the hat.

@Taure mentions that Rowling erroneously mentions three people left. In my version of the US edition, it correctly mentions 4 people. I wonder if it's been corrected in more recent printings of the UK edition as well.

Draco Malfoy, action hero?

Broomsticks can keep going on even without being under the influence of a rider and fairly long after.

For as brash and un-Slytherin as Malfoy is frequently portrayed, this was a pretty cunning move on his part.

 

I was curious myself. It turns out there's no real answer to that, but McGonagall says in DH that Filch has been working at Hogwarts for "a quarter of a century", meaning around 1973. Assuming the minimum age for starting work is 17 and that he immediately started working at Hogwarts (like the wiki did), that leaves us with 1956 as his birth year at the latest.

Hagrid, on the other hand, was born 1928. It's easy to forget, but by Harry's first year he's already 63. I usually think of him as being more around his forties or so, for some reason.

 

But we don't know what Squibs do. If Hagrid thinks he's old then he's probably in the 60-75 range. He could've switched careers. I'm surprisingly curious about Hagrid we don't know a lot about him after all. For example did the groundskeeper job used to belong to a squib? Or did Dumbledore just make it for him. How did he cope with Azkaban, like I think Harry mentioned him looking haunted or such. Is his infatuation with dangerous animals because he can't be hurt or because of a deeper reason also is him being simple to do with him being a giant? I dunno, his mom sounded awesome. He's a prime example of double taking at a character when you reread.

 

I realize this is info from DH, but in Snape's memory Petunia is seen with Lily's family on the platform in their first year.

So Rowling must have changed her mind between the first and seventh books.

 

Chapters 6-9

chapter six

- "Half terrified, half furious, they acted as though any chair with Harry in it were empty. Although this was an improvement in many ways, it did become a bit depressing after a while." p. 88

This kinda makes me believe that while the Dursley's didn't treat Harry particularly well until now, and were definitely in the abusive category, not every interaction they had with Harry was bad. That sentence makes it seem like there was some sort of smalltalk with Harry going on, as long as he kept to the rules of not saying anything weird and all. Not necessarily friendly interaction but something like a rough "what were you up today, boy?", even as a suspicious question, was most likely a regular occurrence. Or am I reading too much into this?

-same page mentions how Aunt Petunia is the one who vacuums Harry's room, another piece of proof that contradicts the "Harry was the Dursley slave" narrative a lot of fanfics run with. There were probably only a few chores he had to do. More than a kid should, to be fair but still.

- the train employee that Harry asks who then walks off because he is getting annoyed at Harry kinda surprises me. I mean, there is a distressed really young child trying to find information on a train he wants to take, seemingly on his own, and that guy really doesn't give a damn. Seems strange.

-You know, does Lee's tarantula make another appearance outside of this book? Did it play a role again? It's not like spiders were approved pets or anything or that Lee did anything special with it. He just had one. Was it just there to make clear how bizarre Hogwarts was or was there a plan for it that got dropped/forgotten?

-On page 95, Fred and George only see the scar after he brushes his hair away. Furthermore, no one recognized him while he was walking around the train station, same with the Weasley's. And we know that Harry's hair was always like this, he is physically unable to have another hair do, seeing how it gets magicked back when altered. So, how come the various people did recognize him over the years to shake his hand when they saw him? Coupled with him being raised by muggles and that he has this scar being public knowledge, I do think there were probably paparazzi pictures of him floating around that someone got, or at least a general description and location. Or maybe he was just recognized by people who also knew James Potter.

- p99 has Ron being starstuck at the beginning but then realizing he is making Harry feel uncomfortable and knocks it off and then makes general smalltalk/talks about muggles and stuff and his family, contrary to all the Ron bash fics where Ron is seemingly unable to take a hint and behaves like a raging, entitled jackass. It also has the nice dynamic that both find each other interesting, as opposed to the fics where Edgy Potter is just super annoyed and bored of Ron before they even talk.

- The whole wands thing seems to be knowledge that is really not open to most people. You could argue that the Weasley's are too poor to buy a new wand for Ron when they have one already at hand, but Neville is also using his father's wand, so the whole "wand chooses the wielder" and "someone else's wand won't work as well for you" thing seem to be unknown tidbits.

Also, why did Charlie get a new wand? You guys think it's an even older wand, having belonged to someone else before Charlie, a deceased family member or did something change within Charlie that made his old wand not work for him anymore? I mean, it wasn't broken or anything, not yet. Well, on page 105 it says that "it was chipped in places and something white was glinting at the end. "Unicorn hair's nearly poking out."" so it was quite worn out. If that had been Charlie's wand, how the hell did he use it? Really think it belonged to someone else before that, maybe one of Molly's dead brothers?

Charlie did really well in his school life with someone else's wand though, respect.

- that list of candy makes me think, is there like a factory or something that creates all those sweets, like, are there candy brands that deliver their stuff all over the magical world, not only in Britain or is that all local stuff? Forgot that candy shop in Hogsmeade, do they make all the candy that is sold on the Hogwarts Express and Diagon Alley? Is there global trade for stuff like this? I mean, the ministry has rule and regulations for a lot of stuff, would make sense if there was a market for this stuff as well.

- I do quite like the wizard perspective of Ron who is just astonished of the concept that paintings and pictures don't move at all. Creates this nice contrast and makes for good world-building.

-thinking way too hard about it and being way too nitpicky, but Every Flavor Beans has got to pack some serious magic. I mean, it could be hyperbole and there are really maybe a thousand pre-programmed tastes in it but what if it is true? What if every taste is present? How would that magic work? I mean, so far, everyone who is eating such a bean also knows what it tastes like and I find it unlikely that Dumbledore ever tasted earwax. Probability is high that the bean also supplies the eater with the knowledge of what that taste is, I mean, suppose you get coal taste or moss or unicorn blood or varitaserum or camel hair, how would you know what you just tasted? Also, there are way more tastes that are bad than good, so, if every taste was available, would mean that you probably have a lot more bad tasting beans that good.

As I said, looking way too close at this.

- You know, Ron has lived his whole life around wizards, he has seen them casting lots of spells, presumably and he still believed his prankster brothers when they told him this stupid english rhyme as opposed to the latin and other different language spells he must have been hearing usually. So, disregarding the option that Ron is just that stupid, which I don't think he is, he is not retarded after all, there are probably spells that are somewhat like that. Otherwise, there is no reason why he would otherwise believe his brother who is known to play tricks on people on this extremely fake sounding spell and yet we never see something like that again.

-Also on page 105 Hermione is bragging on how she knows Hogwarts is "the very best school of witchcraft there is". How does she know, which book said that? Also, asking around which house was best and she got the answer that it was Gryffindor? Did she only ask Gryffindor students or what? Hermione is not dumb, she must have seen the Gryffindor insignia on them when asking them which house was the best.

- All this talk on You-Know-Who being Slytherin, with that being common knowledge and all, how come no one asked themselves what his true name was? Did they really think he enrolled in Hogwarts as Voldemort? Did no one care? Dumbledore knew, of course, but why didn't he make that public knowledge? Spreading the fact that Voldemort was a half blood seems like the smart thing to do.

- So, did Malfoy Senior openly fight for Voldemort, guerrilla style, on the run from the ministry, away from his home or did he come after the war, reveal that he was under the Imperius and forced to follow Voldemort? Was he captured? So many questions. Makes me wonder how that played out. I mean, the Death Eaters wore masks and all, but how did Malfoy being one of them got revealed after the war ended? They couldn't have known during the war, after all, or they would have gotten him in his very well known house. Was Arthur one of the few who suspected Lucius Malfoy? One possible explanation could be that there are way more pureblood families than we know off, like a lot more and thus the Malfoy's fell under the radar and the pool of suspects was larger. I mean, otherwise, if someone is fighting for the pureblood agenda, and if there are only like a dozen or two pureblood families around, well, you don't need to be Sherlock Holmes to crack that case.

-Here is something that had struck me as weird even way back then; how did Trevor get on that boat? Did Trevor amount to anything in the later books? Because that here is way more suspicious than anything Scabbers ever did. Kinda suspected that Trevor had some powers back then but since he never really came up again, quickly forgot about that.

Lol, all that was chapter six >_>


chapter seven

- On one hand, I really like this piece of culture that everyone adheres to, even families like the Malfoy's to not tell their kids how the sorting goes. On the other, it strikes me as astoundingly weird that Hogwarts: A History doesn't mention the Sorting Hat. Or did Hermione skip that chapter?

- don't think I have seen a fanfic make use of Brocklehurst, Mandy, the Ravenclaw.

- Is there a one-shot about Seamus mother telling his dad that she is a witch? Would be interesting to read.

- Neville's anecdote is interesting because of one tidbit; the phrase "not magic enough". I always had assumed there were really two states, muggle or magic but apparently there are more stages in-between. You can apparently be magic but not magic enough to go to a wizarding school. How would that work? Can't use most spells? Can't use a wand at all but some accidental magic? Can see dementors and whatnot and not be repelled by anti muggle charms but still unable to really cast spells?

- Dumbledore's sentence "Ah music,[...]A magic beyond all we do here!" always resonated a lot with me and did wake some expectation that we would see more of that. I know he didn't mean in the terms of powerful spells but still. Wished we had seen music magic but all that appeared was music to make Fluffy sleep and the phoenix song.

chapter eight

- Is it known why the kids have to study Astronomy? It never comes up, IIRC. Never. It's never useful for Harry or any other character to know anything about the stars, constellations and so on. Lycanthropy doesn't count, you don't need to study the sky and stars extensively to know when a full moon is. Seems like a wasted class,in terms of story telling. Everything else makes an appearance in some form for Harry's adventures. And even disregarding that, for the regular wizard, when does Astronomy come up? Would assume it's for rituals and stuff but we never quite have those. Fanfics yes, but not canon, unless I am forgetting something.

- classes seem fuller than the books lead us to believe since Harry is saying "lots of people had come from Muggle families and, like him, hadn't had any idea that they were witches and wizards." p 134. I really had the impression that muggleborns were in the absolute minority in the books but apparently, there are tons of them. Really wish we knew how big each year is.

-Another thing I never noticed, Hedwig dropped off Hagrid's letter to Harry. How did he get access to her? I guess since Hagrid knows Harry and bought him Hedwig, he can use her, since they are all in the same building but Harry seemed to expect that any post addressed to him would be brought by Hedwig and that doesn't make any sense. Or is that a bit how owl post works? If I don't have an owl and want to write someone, that person's owl suddenly appears, waiting for me to attack a letter to them? Magic would make it possible, I guess. Or it's just Harry being a stupid, ignorant kid.

-Snape loudly praising Malfoy on stewing his horned slugs (p. 139) seems really weird and out of character but I guess Snape likes Malfoy a lot more than we realized. Always thought he was grudgingly looking out for him but maybe there is genuine affection there (in the con-creepy way)?

- when Snape is punishing Harry for Neville's fuck-up, it is Ron that's keeping a cool head and preventing Harry from making things worse. Something that many fanfic authors believe Ron is incapable off. Later on he and Harry are pretending to like Hagrid's cakes in order to not hurt his feelings, wheras fanfiction loves to portray Ron as this idiot with zero social grace.

It's also cute to see how Harry is worrying about losing TWO POINTS for Gryffindor. Oh you sweet summer child.

-We talked about Hagrid's size before but how big is Fang if Hagrid has trouble restraining him? (p. 140) Is Fang the size of a bear? Could even see Fang being an actual bear only Hagrid thinks he is a cute dog.

-Talking about squibs, it seems obvious that Mrs. Norris is magic and it was mentioned that there is the option of not being magic enough. Maybe Filch is in that category? Can't use a wand but has some magical talent/inclination for working with animals? Beastmaster Filch, if you were. Maybe that's why he is ordering those cure your squib-ness programs, maybe they do allow him to do SOME magic?

chapter nine

-Gryffindors have potions with Slytherins (and the flying lesson) but are there classes they share with Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws? And other combinations between the other houses? Not that I can remember.

- It's fascinating to me that Malfoy knows what helicopters are. How weird. I mean, Ron has a muggle enthusiast for a father and he didn't know they had pictures that didn't move and here is Malfoy, aware that muggles have helicopters.

-Twenty brooms for every Slytherin and Gryffindor first year. That seems not nearly enough. Rowling being bad with numbers, I guess. (p. 146)

-Seems to me, Madam Hooch should have been able to react to Neville falling and done something with her wand to catch him. She saw him speeding upwards and then he fell. Should have had her wand ready when he took off. Can't be the first time this happened either. So either a terrible teacher, not good under pressure or that's some high class shit.

- Parvati and Pansy being on first name basis is interesting to note. As is Parvati defending Neville, probably knowing him as well. Yeah, she's defending Harry as well, really do wonder if Rowling didn't have something else planned for Parvati's story arc after all.

- You know, they said earlier that trials for Quidditch were in the second week and Wood didn't have anyone for that position. Did no one really apply? Seems unlikely, there must have been someone who, even if seeker is not their favorite position, would play that rather than not playing. Or playing seeker is way more demanding than we realize and no one else was physically capable of filling that slot. It would explain why McGonagall is so eager to break the rules here, it's either that or having no seeker at all. Not even having a lesser seeker but with 6 whole classes of Gryffindors there, seems really unlikely that not one person there could fulfill the seeker position. Or have one of the three chasers be seeker and then fill the chaser slot.

But if being a seeker is so hard and rare, how come this is the first time in a century that there is need for such a young player? Don't think the whole seeker thing has aged well. Seems an unnecessary special thing to give to Harry. There was no need for the "first years can't have a broomstick/play Quidditch" rule. It was just there to make Harry more special and it was completely unnecessary.

Not to mention that the whole 150 points plus ends the game thing is the dumbest thing in HP (after the epilogue) and needs a change, hard. Really, why have a player that makes the other six obsolete unless one team so completely outclasses the other, it's not even funny?

Still, it was always weird that they didn't have any reserve players for the team but I guess Rowling didn't want to bother with even more characters.

-You know, you have to admire the sheer balls that Wood has. McGonagall, the least rule-breaking teacher of Hogwarts, is already acting so out of character due to her Gryffindor loyalty (remember how Harry wished McGonagall would favor them as well?) and he has the fucking nerve to say to McGongall that they need to get Harry the newest and most expensive broom there is. Wow, Wood. That's bold. No wonder he got into Gryffindor. That's bravery right there.

It's also fun to imagine Snape and McGonagall having this Quidditch rivalry. First hint on Snape's "goodness" by the way, that he has this rapport with Minerva.

-Huh, Fred and George are apparently keeping the information about secret passages to themselves, not sharing it with Lee Jordan. Surprising. I mean, they are what, in their third year? Or fourth? They found the passage in their first week and I would assume they've been friends with Lee Jordan for quite a while and never told him that? Not such good friends, after all. I get not sharing the Marauder's Map (kinda) but stuff like that?

- I forgot how funny Ron could be with his comments. His "bet you could" made me laugh.

- Another sign of Harry's Gryffindor-ness. He is eagerly awaiting a magic duel despite not knowing any magic to fight with. He really just wants to fight.

-Neville's arm was mended in a minute, after the flying lesson. During that time, Harry had his talk with McGonagall and Wood, ate dinner, scheduled his duel date with Malfoy, talked with Ron about it, faked going to bed, waiting until everyone was asleep and then they went out and Neville has been in front of the painting the whole time? Flying lessons started at three thirty (p. 145). He must have stood there for like six-eight hours and no one let him in? That's just cruel from the countless fellow Gryffindors who must have come past him. And rather unrealistic.

-It does seem really, really fishy that a simple Alohomora cast by a first year, even if that first year was Hermione, could open the door to Fluffy.

-Quite convenient that Fluffy didn't attack them during the minute or two they were inside and just listening to Flich and Peeves talk.

-The "or worse, expelled" line is still gold.

Book still holds up so far. The wizarding world is still magical to me and the characters are fun. Ron and Harry are delightful so far. Forgot how funny and charming they were. Even Hermione was entertaining and endearing in her own way.

So, that was a lot more than I thought. Sorry for rambling. Hope that's okay >_>