Those are great Joesman, but I really like these two (Dobby and Knockturn Alley):


Some epic names there.


Weird about Dobby having no pants.

---

Here are a few thoughts as I read through the book:

Ch 3:

I love this sort of character building for Fred and George, precisely the sort we didn't get in the movies.

So... I guess Ron knows who Father Christmas is!

 

Yeah, I thought that, too. I guess the illustrator has gone for comedic effect, but anyone coming up those stairs is going to see two solid inches of elf schlong they didn't plan on seeing.

 

Lockhart mentions being an honorary member of the Dark Force Defense League. I can't help but think of them as a team of super wizards but, since Gilderoy is a member, it probably is a big farce.

 

I think the key word here is honorary.

 

I also wondered about that. It is weird that Dark Force Defense league was never mentioned again in book 6 and 7(during war)

 

Caught up to this today, better late than never!

Chapter 4: At Flourish and Blotts

Two things here. First of all, you can buy broken wands. Interesting on a couple of levels - for a start, I know people have wondered how the Weasleys can afford Ollivanders wands. Well, maybe they didn't. Maybe they went to a junk shop and found some second hand ones in decent condition. Secondly, if the wands are properly broken...why would you want to buy them? Ok, Hagrid manages some form of magic with his, but when Ron's breaks later in the book it's essentially useless every time it's mentioned. I'm picturing apprentice wandmakers practicing their craft by trying to repair them.
The second thing is the very smart foreshadowing of Tom Riddle, later in the book - a prefect who gained a whole lot of power.

Shame how that turned out...

Well, it's not quite a lopsided smirk...

Chapter 5: The Whomping Willow

So not since he was six. Begging the question: what for? He doesn't expect them to get him anything for his eleventh birthday, and fifty pence is considered unusually generous, so what would they have been giving him pocket money for at that age? Maybe this was before he started doing accidental magic, and they treated him a bit better? Or it's just exaggeration for effect, of course.

I know it was a kangaroo court, but it's a shame no-one remembered this clause in OoTP, assuming Ron hasn't dreamed it up.

Chapter 9: The Writing on the Wall

Probably not the last time Ron and Hermione have had this exchange...

History of Magic is so boring that even Hermione doesn't ask questions!

Neat follow up to the discussion in the PS threads about why Harry rejected Slytherin.

The way this is phrased suggests that it's literally the only book to feature the recipe for Polyjuice Potion, which would go a long way to explaining why so many wizards seem to lack knowledge of more advanced magic. If some things are only printed in one book in one location, how will they learn if it doesn't come up in their classes? Could also be used as a decent basis for the fanon tropes of family libraries and grimoires.

This is exactly what Riddle does with Slughorn. Interesting - maybe accidental - parallel.

 

Personally, I don't quite get why Vernon decides to lock Harry up like that as punishment? I get he was really mad at Harry for botching an important dinner and lying about ability to use Magic outside of school. But does he remember that:
Vernon isn’t exactly the smartest person out there even if he does have a seemingly high-paying job. I think it was just something where the consequences were never thought through. The neighbours are probably of the same type of people as themselves I guess, meaning they tried not to mind other people’s businesses. It could also be that yes, the Dursleys did tell their neighbours that Harry is someone dangerous as suggested in chapter 1 of OotP.

I think Arthur is generally an easier-going person than Molly and is far less bossy towards other people, but when someone triggered his nerves like Lucius did here he could be much scarier than Molly ever was.

Probably is biased, although I believe if wizards only marry pure-bloods or those very close to it then the whole wizarding community would become hopelessly inbred just like the Gaunts shown in HBP.



As for Bill and Percy getting 12 OWLs apiece, yes it could be just a mistake as redm94 suggested. However I guess it’s possible for Bill and Percy to sit the extra exams without taking the classes for them or just studying by themselves, meaning there was no need for them to apply for time-turners. We don’t know exactly what grades they got for each of their OWLs (Percy getting outstanding NEWTs doesn’t mean he got great grades for all of his OWLs, he could have dropped the subjects where he only scored an A on them) so it’s possible that the fact they didn’t get the class time meant they suffered in the subject and only scored As on them which would still count towards the 12 OWLs they achieved.

Yes and it’s a shame Rowling didn’t explore the theme of using Muggle solutions to overcome problems that couldn’t be solved by magic later on in the series.

So do I, although for some people Ron reading it means that he hates Muggles.

Yes, for me this scenes shows there is a great deal of similarity between Ron and Draco and their respective fathers here.

I thought the books made it clear that a wizard could perform the most effective when they have a wand that chose them so it’s unhelpful for the Weasley children to have to go with second-hand wands. It’s really better if they sacrifice on other things like books, robes, cauldron, etc.
Well when a wand is broken or splintered like Ron’s here or Harry’s in DH it couldn’t really be repaired. Perhaps it’s talking about different degree of damage here? Like the wandmakers are only able to fix chipped wands or something like that?

Yes and I think Ron is really more perceptive than people gave him credit for.

Ron does know what he is talking about here, Dumbledore and Hermione confirmed it during Harry’s trial in OotP and just after Harry’s arrival in Grimmauld Place.
I am sure the Ministry does know about it which was why they kept trying to claim Harry was not attacked by the Dementors when Harry casted the Patronus Charm so that clause wouldn’t apply.

True, although I don’t think it mattered in the end because they both had to do the exams on their own, and it doesn’t seem like homework marks matter one bit in the end.

Hermione would have read all the relevant sections of the textbooks beforehand and I am guessing all Binns did was to confirm what she has already read.

I think it also goes to show how broken and backward the wizarding society is. Many things we take for granted like accessible knowledge about all possible subjects of interest are simply not available or remain very well-hidden.

Hermione definitely has the cunning needed to be in Slytherin although I think her cleverness is used in a much less selfish manner in general than the Slytherins. Also it goes to show that Hermione’s crush on Lockhart really isn’t such a huge deal as she knew it better to let it get in the way of manipulating Lockhart to do what she wanted.

 

...I wish I could be as innocent as you again.

 

It's heartwarming, isn't it?

 

OK so are you saying Ron and Harry got help with some of the subjects through reading through Hermione's notes or her correcting them their homework? If so, then I agree as it happens all the time between friends with different levels of academic achievement at school. Otherwise, what are you trying to say exactly? Like what Hermione actually does their homework?

 

He was implying them talking about the length of his penis.

 

I think this is genuinely the sweetest thing I've ever seen on this site.

 

Been frantically trying to recover my files for the past week in preparation for turning in final projects for my courses after my SSD failed day before Thanksgiving. As such I was going through files and noticed my Chamber of Secrets Sins file. Now this isn't the complete one just the initial .txt file I made and I don't know if I managed to get the .docx file in my latest attempt but if I do I'll post the rest (unfortunately I haven't been able to find my PS ones which I didn't get a chance to post), hopefully I'll find the ones I'd edited to be in the form of "Cinema Sins" but for HP Books.

__________________________________________________________________

Chamber of Secrets Notes/Potter Sins

Chapter 2

From where? Draco sharing the latest hogwarts gossip? If so makes you wonder why more people didn't see right through Fudge when he was smearing Harry and Dumbledore in OotP and according to Hagrid most believed he wasn't gone in the first place. Then again people are stupid and believe what makes their lives easier.

Dobby is better at keeping secrets than Hagrid

Dobby is evil, all hail Implord Dobby

Again it occurs to me that Petunia should have known that Harry would not be allowed to do magic outside school, after all her sister shouldn't have been able to. Then again, in PS Petunia mentions Lily doing magic and bringing frogspawn so, JK revisionism?

Chapter 3

So it takes a letter for using magic outside of school to get Ron (or Hermione) to come and see what's going on with Harry, not the mysterious lack of replies or anything. I mean you would think the whole thing with the stone would be an amazing team-building excercise if nothing else. #fastfriends

Yes, and you would think Harry would want to take lessons.

The Weasley Mobile has a compass

Arthur and Molly were going to come and get Harry apparently.

Haha Potatohead

Arthur is corrupt

Chapter 4

Hogwart's tracking system and Dumbledore are apparently better than Santa Clauss as I noted in PS notes but never posted. I bet Dumbledore also knows when Harry's sleeping.

Haha

White-Wizard-Problems

Flesh-Eating slugs apparently eat cabbages

 

You know, I once read a very elaborate Theory behind Malfoy was really planning and what Dobby really knew.

I forgot where I read it and the exact details, but it essentially says Malfoy was going to give the Diary to Harry. He outright ordered Dobby to spy on Harry's letters to find out when Harry would be at Diagon Alley. Malfoy would then covertly leave the Diary with Harry. Dobby was super concerned because he feared Voldemort's Diary was going to do something really bad to Harry. Malfoy then changed his mind after his fight with Arthur, when he decided to give it to Ginny as an impulsive revenge against the Weasleys.

 

To judge from PoA he does, chapter 1 : "Harry had crept downstairs, picked the lock on the cupboard under the stairs, grabbed some of his books, and hidden them in his bedroom"

He's actually a pretty resourceful guy