books 2007: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, by J.K. Rowling

[supercheesegirl]

Read this on the train and while Fritz was working this weekend. I wanted something light and fun to read.

A lot of things I hadn't remembered. Harry finds out at the end of this book that Voldemort was out to kill him specifically, and therefore his mother was protecting him when she died--but he doesn't find out here *why* Voldemort wanted to kill him. He doesn't find out about the prophecy until, what, book 5? I forgot that that was an unsolved plot point for so long.

It was fun to see everyone's beginnings--how Hermione became Harry and Ron's friend, and what Neville was like at first, especially considering how brave and good Neville turns out to be. I hadn't realized, reading the first book, but Neville really is set up to be a major character--he's the only first year we know much about, besides the trio and Malfoy. I liked seeing a little bit of Neville discovering himself--when Malfoy was teasing Neville, Harry tells him that he's worth 12 of Malfoy, and it's clearly just a tossed-off sort of comment from Harry (more about what a crud Malfoy is than about how great Neville is), but Neville hangs on to that and it gives him inspiration to stand up to Malfoy later. Yeah, Neville's definitely a favorite with me.

I think it's interesting that even from the very beginning, Rowling's working with a definite character list--we see Justin Finch-Fletchley get sorted, and the Patil sisters, but they stay very minor characters until much later.

Have we found out yet how James Potter saved Snape's life once? I can't remember.

Comments

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

While I have no window into Rowling's brian, you might be mistaking "planning in advance" with Rowling's undeniable skill at taking incidental stuff from earlier books and building on it.

E.g., she might not have had a definite character list until she was partway through book 2 or 3, at which point she went back and made a note of every proper name that had appeared so far.

[x-hj-x.livejournal.com]

It was in Prisoner of Azkaban, I think. If I remember this right, Snape was always spying on James & the gang to try to get dirt on them and report them, and he found out that Lupin had a secret that had something to do with the tunnel under the Whomping Willow. (He didn't know that Lupin's secret was that he was a werewolf and lived sequestered in the shack for three days a month while dangerous in wolf form.)

Sirius told Snape to follow the tunnel to the end, which would have led to his probable death at the jaws of Lupin in wolf form. James warned Snape off at the last minute, probably saving his life. I think Dumbledore referred to this as Snape's "life debt" to James. Personally, I'm not sure that necessarily counts as "saving Snape's life," unless you also allow that Sirius attempted murder. They were all schoolkids, and I don't think any of them were thinking much in terms of life and death.

Glad you reminded me about Harry Potter-- it's just about time to reread them all in preparation for the series finale. You're right, it is pretty neat seeing all the little seeds planted early on that turn into major plot developments in later books. I think I read somewhere that Rowling conceived of the entire seven-book arc during a single train ride, so I suppose it's not surprising that there's evidence of that sort lying around in the first book.

In fact, that whole "Neville is worth 12 of Malfoy" comment makes me think that perhaps we're going to see a duel to the death between the two and that Neville will kill Malfoy...

[sarahpender.livejournal.com]

Now you've got me in the mood to read them again.