01 HP:Philosopher’s Stone

[chantaldormand]

Hey guys, I hope you don’t mind me posting yet another chapter commentary.

Just for fun I decided to count some things during this commentary:

Crime Count: Times when the supposed good guys break rules/law

Death Count: When our protagonist could die.

Freud Would Be Proud: The text is suggestive in some way or this commentator’s brain managed to

Comments

[aikaterini]

Hooray, another chapter commentary

[chantaldormand]

/I know that it's supposed to be comic relief, but now I'm wondering if the reason why a lot of wizards don't bother to learn basic Muggle customs to fit in is because they think that the Ministry will just swoop in and Obliviate the Muggles anyway if an issue should arise. /

I'm honestly not sure. On one hand we get Arthur who is supposed to know how muggle money and clothes works, because his job depends on it yet he constantly fumbles. On the other hand we have Crouch Sr. who is perfectly capable to figure out all those details, while not needing it.
I think that a lot of such conflicting information and situations come from how Rowling sees her characters. I already finished writing out commentary for whole book and now I'm just editing it, but by the end of it I came to conclusion that a lot of characters are stand ins for various ideas and things. We see just characters and expect them to keep to their characterisation, Rowling on the other hand seems to (at very least subconsciously) use them as symbols. That is why non-

[vermouth1991]

"Did JKR plan for Tom Marvolo Riddle to be his real name at this point?"

No idea, but if every British witch and wizard passed through Hogwarts, then he must have had an older name.

[jana_ch]

I suggest that you keep one count of mere broken rules and another of actual crimes for which one could be prosecuted in court. In this chapter we have two of the latter

[chantaldormand]

Both Crime and Death counts started as tongue-in-cheek poking at Hagrid's statement about safety in Hogwarts, but then I realised that Harry has strange tendency to walk into potentially deadly situations and not getting hurt. There will be a lot of comments in this commentary that are not really plausible, like for example awarding point for potential death via landslide of wands in chapter 5, because I grew annoyed with characters and writer

[vermouth1991]

Another favorite of mine is:
‘Smiley’s Potter’ by Rumour of an Alchemist: George Smiley, whose organization knows all about the Wizarding World, watches the man he has nicknamed ‘the Elderly Hippie’ leave a baby on a doorstep, and takes over from there. I wish this story had been continued beyond two chapters. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9243512/1/Smiley-s-Potter

~*~

OMFG I am go going to read this. I *love* the way John le Carre writes his characters.

(And I think there was a fic that centered around British PMs meeting the Ministers For Magic, Churchill was a blast to read in that. but i forgot the title sorry.)

[smirkingcat]

oh, this is amazing!
please continue - i am so entertained!

[chantaldormand]

Thanks, glad that people enjoy my work :)
As I already said in one of earlier comments, I have whole thing already written, but it still needs some tender love from my editing pen. Well that and I'm struggling with the final post about PS :/
I'll probably post the next chapter on Friday, because I don't want to spam the community.

[nx74defiant]

Do you think that Albus included Harry’s birth certificate in that letter? I don’t think so

And James & Lily's death certificate. I've wonder how the Dursleys managed the documents needed to enroll Harry in school?

[oryx_leucoryx]

Wizards know only one way: Mentally coerce Muggles to do what wizards want. Who knows what spells were on the letter.