{"id":544,"date":"2011-09-13T06:00:56","date_gmt":"2011-09-13T13:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=544"},"modified":"2011-09-11T22:56:46","modified_gmt":"2011-09-12T05:56:46","slug":"mark-re-reads-harry-potter-and-the-sorcerers-stone-chapter-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2011\/09\/mark-re-reads-harry-potter-and-the-sorcerers-stone-chapter-13\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Re-Reads ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’: Chapter 13"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the thirteenth chapter of Harry Potter<\/em>, we get a lot more Neville and it’s pretty much the best thing out of a lot of great things. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to re-read Harry Potter.\u00c2\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: NICHOLAS FLAMEL<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don’t want to position this as some sort of complaint about Sorcerer’s Stone<\/em>, but you can see in retrospect how Rowling became a better writer through these books. Sorcerer’s Stone<\/em> is meant for a younger audience, and she tends to spell things out for the reader, which is entirely fine. But her writing becomes less obvious over time, and it’s something I never commented about during my initial read. Of course, I lacked the scope that I have now, and the luxury of having read the whole series honestly makes me feel so radically different from my first time around. Even more so than chapter twelve, there are hints to future themes or character arcs, and a lot of lines that made me squeal with joy.<\/p>\n

I still maintain that the best bit of all of chapter thirteen is this:<\/p>\n

“Don’t play,” said Hermione at once.<\/p>\n
“Say you’re ill,” said Ron.<\/p>\n
“Pretend to break your leg,” Hermione suggested.<\/p>\n
“Really<\/em> break your leg,” said Ron.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Bless you forever, Ron.<\/p>\n
The chapter doesn’t focus on it, but Neville finally plays a much bigger part than he did before. I’m at a point with the Harry Potter <\/em>world where I would totally be fine with a companion series that focuses on Hermione, and then another one that focuses on Neville. He’s such a great character and well-defined enough that it’s easy enough for us to just get<\/em> him. He’s meek, quiet, and a bit of a pushover at time. While it may seem that he belongs in Hufflepuff, one of the coolest things Harry ever says is his affirmation of Neville being a Gryffindor. I actually think it’s great defense of both<\/em> houses, showing us that Hufflepuff has nothing to do with feeling like you’re a coward or being useless, and to give Neville the confidence to realize he’s worth something<\/em> to his friends. While the trio eventually does grow close to Neville, the reason I’d love to read about his perspective on this is because there’s a whole lot of growth that occurs later that’s all off-page. (I mean, COME ON. He isn’t in Deathly Hallows<\/em> until the end, and I WANT TO KNOW WHAT HE DID DURING HIS LAST YEAR AT HOGWARTS.) The trio do provide help to Neville, but his growth is his own, and I’m glad that Rowling gives him that agency. I just want to read about it, okay? THAT IS ONLY FAIR.<\/p>\n
The kids discover who Nicholas Flamel is, giving us the titular item being guarded by Fluffy. I still love the idea that it takes a book and a card from a piece of candy to figure it out, and it’s exciting to see them get so amped about this discovery. I think at the heart of this, it’s a dream for a kid to be able to participate in a mystery of this magnitude, and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to wanting to do the same thing when I was eleven, though my obsession stemmed from my love of Sherlock Holmes. (Also, I want to do this now<\/em>.) Even as an adult, this mystery is infectious to me; these books are immensely readable even as I get older, and I know I can still plow through these when I’m 50 and they’ll still provide a lot of the same excitements as they do now.<\/p>\n
Can we discuss some LOL-worthy lines?<\/p>\n
Harry didn’t see how he could–yet he sometimes had the horrible feeling that Snape could read minds.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
SWEET CHRIST, YOU HAVE NO IDEA<\/em>, HARRY. <\/strong>SNAPE CAN USE LEGILIMENCY. oh god DID SHE KNOW THIS WHEN SHE WROTE THIS.<\/p>\n
“Now, don’t forget, it’s Locomotor Mortis<\/em>,” Hermione muttered as Ron slipped his wand up his sleeve.<\/p>\n
“I know,” Ron snapped. “Don’t nag.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
DESTINED TO BE TOGETHER FOREVER, right????<\/p>\n
One thing that is<\/em> strange in chapter thirteen is the fight between Malfoy and his friends and Neville\/Ron. The setup is simple enough: Malfoy insults Ron on his class status, and Neville on his “brains.” (Not him being afraid? Whatever, Malfoy’s bullying rarely makes any real<\/em> sense anyway.) While the Quidditch game is going on and Harry catches the snitch in about five minutes, Ron and Neville have a war of pre-pubescent fists on Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. Hermione is overjoyed by the victory, as is Harry, and as far as I can tell\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.the fight is still happening? Rowling doesn’t bring it up again<\/em>, except to mention that Ron was cheering “through a heavy nosebleed.” Oh, and Neville is “out cold” from the fight, but no one seems to say anything about anyone getting in trouble. How did Ron explain Neville to Madame Pomfrey at all? How did no one lose any points? WHO WON THE FIGHT? Maybe it’s addressed in the next chapter? I honestly don’t remember, but this moment where Ron and Neville finally stand up to Malfoy seems to be gloriously glossed over. IT’S WEIRD.<\/p>\n
I brought it up the first time around, and I think it bears repeating again: How is Harry able to just fly<\/em> into the Forbidden Forest the way he does here, and to do so without being detected by Snape and Quirrell? Wouldn’t he have to be super<\/em> close to them to hear them? I suppose it really doesn’t matter and I’m nitpicking. Reading through this, the more important point is the fact that I now see why<\/em> I bought the theory that Snape was the evil one. It’s easier to accept that when you see how meek and terrified Quirrell is. How could someone so frightened be doing something so terrible? Because Rowling is DIRTY TRICKSTER. I don’t blame myself, though, because this conversation seems so slanted towards Snape that it’s almost too clever for its own good in hindsight. Oh, Rowling, you genius.<\/p>\n
“So you mean the Stone’s only safe as long as Quirrell stands up to Snape?” said Hermione in alarm.<\/p>\n
“It’ll be gone by next Tuesday,” said Ron.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
OH, IF YOU ONLY KNEW, RON. God, I love this book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the thirteenth chapter of Harry Potter, we get a lot more Neville and it’s pretty much the best thing out of a lot of great things. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to re-read Harry Potter.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,8,23,7],"class_list":["post-544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-harry-potter","tag-harry-potter-and-the-sorcerers-stone","tag-jk-rowling","tag-mark-reads","tag-mark-reads-harry-potter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}