Harry Potter Curiosities, Book One
Weeeeeell I've been rereading the Harry Potter series in preparation for the release of book seven, and now that I'm older and wiser and have my fanfic writer and beta-reader hats on, a lot of plot oddities have been jumping out at me. I've been posting them in a discussion thread over on .moon (thread) but I figure I'll list them here as well for the heck of it.

Questions that have been satisfactorily answered in the discussion thread or by the other books in the series will be crossed out.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone

• How old was Harry when his parents died? The best I can tell with logic is he was only a few months old, but Hagrid says he was a year old, and contextual evidence suggests a year or so as well.


• It was Quirrell who broke into Gringotts, yes? How did he manage it when it's supposedly so secure? I was assuming Voldemort helped him, but he didn't have the turban that day and Harry had no problem interacting with him, so I assume Voldemort wasn't with Quirrell at that point. Surely the goblins know something about preventing wizards from getting in?


• Why the heck did James give his Invisibility Cloak to Dumbledore before he died?


• There's mention of general bathrooms and the prefects' bath, but where do the normal students bathe?


• The Muggle parents of Hogwarts students all seem oddly cool about the whole wizard world thing. I know it's a children's book, so there's some things you just have to let slide, but still, it strikes me as pretty strange. Ever wonder if there's some sort of enchantment on them to make them okay with it? A happy cloud of bemusement comes with the letter, or something?


• Following that, what do you think would happen if some parent refused to let their child go to Hogwarts, or a student refused to go themselves? Harry was clearly a special case, I doubt they'd go to such an extent to get them all through the doors.


• Why do the students hang around an extra week waiting for their exam results? Is this normal in England? Why not send everyone home and send them their results by owl?


• When the Trio heads after "Snape" (really Quirrell), they decide against sending Dumbledore an owl instead because it wouldn't reach him in time... but then toward the end Harry sends Hermione back to send him an owl anyway. Why didn't they send one in the first place before heading into the forbidden corridor?


• After they fall through the trapdoor... "We must be miles under the school," (Hermione) said. Miles? After falling from the third floor? I know it's written that Harry fell "down, down, down..." but damn. Even landing on Devil's Snare can't be that soft, to break a fall like that...


• Ron was a knight in the chess game... why was his final move only one space forward? Can't knights only move in "L" shapes? I'm not misinterpreting, it's clearly written that it's only one step...


• What the heck is Quirrell doing while the Trio's getting past all these time-consuming tasks? The key-chasing, and the potions logic puzzle, and an entire chess game? Does he really spend all that time staring cluelessly at the Mirror of Erised?


• If Quirrell posted a troll in the tunnel as his part of the protection of the Stone... obviously he's capable of dealing with trolls, right? Why were the teachers not suspicious of his fainting from fear at Halloween, then? The guardian troll is written as being even bigger than the Halloween troll...


• Quirrell waited all year long before making a try for the Stone? He found out Fluffy's secret quite a while earlier...


• Quirrell met Voldemort while traveling around the world? WTF? Wasn't he some cloud of intangible vapor since the night of Harry's parents' deaths? How did he randomly run into Quirrell on some other continent?


• What happened to Quirrell after his fight with Harry? Unlike the movie, in the book it doesn't seem like he dies. Harry burns him, but there's nothing about him crumbling away, he's just burnt, and then Dumbledore arrives and pulls them apart. What happens to Quirrell after that?


• Why the heck can't Dumbledore tell Harry about the prophecy right away?


• Hmm... how did Ron and Hermione get out of the tunnel, when it was miles underground and all?


• Why do the first-years take the boats back across the lake at the end of the year? I thought that was only some symbolic traditional thing they did on their first journey to the school.


• Finally... what's with all these people not being at all surprised to see the Trio butting into extremely dangerous, adults-only situations? They're eleven! "I wondered whether I'd be meeting you here, Potter." Did he actually think a bunch of kids had a chance against Fluffy, and the Snare, and the chess, and the potions? Those aren't exactly first-year skills, dude.

Also, some general musings...

I'm in the crowd that believes Snape had a crush on Lily, so I think when it comes to his hatred of Harry, it's less that he's James' son and more that he's James with Lily's eyes. Harry is a symbol of the fact that Snape lost... that Lily chose James instead. Harry's also the reason Lily died. I find that explanation a lot more sympathetic than hating the next generation for the actions of its parents.

Does anyone else get the feeling that McGonagall is a lot younger in the books than the movies made her?

I love Dumbledore to death, but he's kind of an ass, isn't he? Letting eleven-year-olds get into all these dangerous situations where they're more likely to get killed than not...

About two of the most unlikely Gryffindors in all the history of Hogwarts we've seen - Peter and Neville. For a while I was thinking that they seem to be pretty similar, and why did Peter turn traitor when Neville didn't? But even in the first book, it's not hard to spot the difference. Peter strikes me as the type who always did what the cool kids wanted to do. When Sirius and James were getting into mischief, he rolled with it even if he didn't agree, so they would like him. By contrast, almost from the very beginning Neville speaks up against things he really doesn't agree with (events at the end of SS/PS being an obvious example, but there were earlier instances too). Of course, Neville also had Harry and Ron encouraging him to speak his mind, while James and Sirius were probably more interested in having a lackey. Who was it with that quote, "Speak your mind even if your voice shakes"?

More about Quirrell's fate... The only hint of it is that Dumbledore said Voldemort "left him to die." I triple-checked the scenes because I'd thought it was clearer myself... but that's all that's said. I suppose the implication is supposed to be Quirrell was mortally wounded by Potter and, once Dumbledore appeared on the scene, Voldemort separated from Quirrell (?) and without his strength supporting him Quirrell died. But it still seems odd to me upon reexamination. Quirrell's wounds were painful but didn't seem that serious. I suppose it's possible the full affect of his injuries set in once Voldemort was gone (and he was grafted onto his head, how did he just let go and get free so easily?) but there were no new injuries done to him at that point - unless Dumbledore took a shot at him. Which is kind of creepy to consider now, actually. We're not shown anything of what happens after Harry passes out. It's unlikely, but possible Dumbledore busted in, pulled Quirrell and Harry apart, thought Harry was dead and proceeded to deal Quirrell a deadly blow in retaliation. Who knows? "Left him to die" is a rather open statement. It also seems possible that, although Voldemort left Quirrell to die, he didn't actually die. I see why the movie elaborated on the battle scene like it did. In GoF Voldemort says Quirrell died when Voldemort left his body.

"To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure." Dumbledore says this about Nicolas Flamel... I wonder if that sentiment will come up again...