Pottermore: I’m In! Here’s How…

Well, I didn’t expect to try to get in to Pottermore as a Beta tester. I expected that getting early access would be really difficult, but when I read the Pottermore announcement shortly after midnight July 31 (UK time), I could not help but get caught up in all the excitement.

There wasn’t, as rumored, going to be some crazy round-the-Web scavenger hunt, and there were going to be 7 Days to get in to the Beta test group!

Naturally, I decided to give it a shot. And I decided to give it a shot on Day 1. I mean, how cool would it be to get in on Harry’s birthday – the day Harry got his own letter to Hogwarts?

Preparations

Since I was already hanging out on a fan site, I got a little bit of insider information. I learned that the first clue would be posted sometime after midnight Pacific time (8am in the UK), and that we would need to go to Diagon Alley.

The contest information had already indicated that the first day’s clue would focus on PS/SS. So Diagon Alley was clearly a reference to Chapter 5 in the first book. So of course, I skimmed the chapter and made notes before taking a nap and setting the alarm for 3am (US Eastern). It appeared that we would need to do some sort of calculation, so I particularly noted numbers in the Diagon Alley chapter.

Before taking my nap, I also made sure that I had the address I needed (http://quill.pottermore.com/) already typed in to the address bar on an open tab and that I had a calculator handy for the calculation. I didn’t want to be rushing around in excitement making mistakes if I figured out the clue.

The Clue

The clue didn’t arrive within 20 minutes of 3am, so I went back to sleep and woke up after a Pottermore dream at 4:30am. When I refreshed the Pottermore website, I saw this…

That was one number I had not written down!

But I did know where to find the Eeylops Owl Emporium because I had made a specific note of it. It was one of the first things Harry saw when he entered Diagon Alley! Five. Five breeds of owl. 5 * 49 = 245.

I couldn’t believe it had been so easy! I was pumping adrenalin as I opened up the tab with the address for the quill, typed 245 after the slash, hit Enter, and found myself trying to catch the Magic Quill!!!
(Note for anyone who wants to get into Pottermore: you have to do something with the Magic Quill. What you have to do has been different in each of the three challenges so far. But it is not hard to locate the Magic Quill).

Registration

Everything after that is a bit of a daze. After I clicked on the Magic Quill, I found myself on the registration page, then I saw my name on a list of magical people, and then I found myself having to choose a username. All the while, I was racing against the clock because I needed to get the registration completed before registration closed down for the day! Otherwise, catching the Magic Quill would not have mattered!

Anyway, I received a set of  5 possible usernames. They consisted of random Harry Potter words, coupled with a series of numbers. My choices, compared to a lot of people’s, actually seemed very good. I was ready to select one of the names at the top of the list when I found something in the middle:

AsphodelPhoenix

Seriously?!?!? I could have Asphodel and Phoenix in my username?

Asphodel is one of the ingredients in the very first question Severus Snape ever asks Harry:

“Potter! What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?”

(Answer: the Draught of Living Death)

And the Phoenix has been one of my favorite magical beasts since well before a wand with a Phoenix tail feather at the core chose Harry… or before Dumbledore befriended Fawkes or started an Order of the Phoenix!

All of my Top 4 characters are implied in that name. AsphodelPhoenix ties together Snape and Dumbledore, Harry and Riddle, and even (because there’s a plant involved) Neville! Just subtract Riddle from the list, and you know who my absolute favorite Harry Potter characters are!

Well, the choice was obvious, wasn’t it?!? And when I finished the registration process, I received a lovely piece of parchment confirming my name.

I wish I could say that the rest of the process went just as seamlessly, but I was one of the unfortunates who got caught in Yahoo Mail Limbo. It took me nearly 10 hours to get my activation email!

But hey, at least I didn’t have to wait as long as poor Evanna Lynch! (Luna in the Harry Potter movies). It seems that she had to wait about 18 hours!

So now, after recounting my own journey into Pottermore, I have something to pass on that I hope is useful to somebody.

The Numbers and the Books

It’s pretty obvious that the solution to the clue will always be a number, and that the number will be multiplied by something.

On Day 1, we had to multiply the solution by 49. Note that Pottermore is framing the challenge in terms of 7 Books, 7 Days, 7 Chances. 7 Days = 7 Chances, so we don’t really need to consider the final number. However, let’s look at the numbers so far…

Day 1: 7 books, 7 days (7 * 7 = 49)

Day 2: 7 books, 6 days (7 * 6 = 42)

Yes, it’s my understanding that on Day 2, the solution to the clue needed to be multiplied by 42. I predicted this, based on Day 1 using 7 squared. And if the pattern holds true, here are the rest of the numbers:

Day 3: 7 books, 5 days (7 * 5 = 35) - ETA (8/2/01): confirmed. The number was 35.

Day 4: 7 books, 4 days (7 * 4 = 28)

Day 5: 7 books, 3 days (7 * 3 = 21)

Day 6: 7 books, 2 days (7 * 2 = 14)

Day 7: 7 books, 1 day (7 * 1 = 7)

Note also, that on Day 3, the clue will focus on the third book, etc. So here are the remaining books you need to consider for the remaining days of the Beta test challenge:

Day 3: Prisoner of Azkaban

Day 4: Goblet of Fire

Day 5: Order of the Phoenix

Day 6: Half-Blood Prince

Day 7: Deathly Hallows

Pottermore Implications for the Expecto Patronum Blog

Once Beta testing is over and the entire public is allowed in to Pottermore, I will be re-focusing this blog on the Pottermore experience of re-reading the Harry Potter series.

Between now and then, I will re-read (and write about) some random chapters in the series. If anybody has any suggestions for favorite chapters to read, please let me know in the comments!

And with that, I’ll just say “Good luck on gaining early entry!”

Top 50 Potter Blogs – We’re on the List!!!

This is rather unbelievable, particularly since I’ve posted so sporadically since the semester began.

But today, when I learned that Last Muggle’s blog had made it into the 50 Best Blogs for the Ultimate Harry Potter Head (w00t!!!), I discovered that Expecto Patronum! had made it onto the list too! This is really exciting news, given that the finest Potter blogs on the planet are on that list.

We are listed under the “Fan Sites” category.

For those of you who are just arriving at this site through the “50 Best Blogs” link, let me give you a little bit of background:

This site began about 48 hours after I finished reading Deathly Hallows last December because I just needed to clear my head about the Dumbledore-Snape revelations in “The Prince’s Tale.” About a month later, I started an in-depth re-read, which progressed through PS/SS. We are just getting started on CoS, but I’ve been a bit derailed by a heavy schedule… which should lighten up in a few weeks. In the meantime, there’s plenty of content to read from the past 11 months.

We’ll pick back up on CoS probably around Thanksgiving. And we’ll definitely discuss the Deathly Hallows movie later this week. So stay tuned!

Torn Pillowcase

Back in the 1960s, Irish novelist Brian Moore published a Cold War thriller called Torn Curtain – later turned into a Major Motion Picture by Alfred Hitchcock. I don’t know what that really has to do with Dobby’s torn pillowcase except to say that both refer to torn fabrics, and both deal with undercover spy work.

Yes, little Dobby the House Elf is something of an undercover spy.

Nobody asked him to go undercover (and he’s going to have to punish himself something fierce for it), but he has spied on his own master and is working at cross-purposes to his master’s will. To use Cold War lingo, Dobby has defected to Harry – at least in his affections. And his unsought (and unappreciated) efforts come at great danger to himself.

After Dobby learns of the threat to Harry Potter (the hope, apparently, not only of the Wizarding World but even of the House Elves) he cannot keep silent. He must warn the Boy Who Lived. His warning, though, is unwelcome. After all, he’s telling Harry that he must not return to Hogwarts… and Dobby resorts to extreme measures to prevent Harry’s return – even to the point of stealing letters from Ron and Hermione and wrecking the Dursleys’ dinner party by splatting the pudding on the floor.

I don’t know how anybody else reacted, but my first encounter with Dobby came in the CoS movie… and I found him really annoying. It was shocking and uncomfortable to watch him punish himself – and make so much racket that Harry was bound to get into trouble. And then, of course, there were the really unscrupulous matters of the letters and the pudding.

But Dobby’s punishments and his tears on being treated as an equal also gave me some measure of sympathy for him. And in the end, when we find out who Dobby’s master is and the dimensions of the plot endangering Hogwarts, Harry’s final act of compassion towards Dobby becomes quite gratifying.

So… what do we learn from Dobby’s warning?

• For months, Dobby has known that there is a plot to make “most terrible things” happen at Hogwarts, and that these terrible events will endanger Harry. (Judging by Dobby’s remarks, Harry is not the specific target, but he could still become a victim.)
• Dobby believes that Harry is too important for the future of the Wizarding World to be allowed to endanger himself
• The plot, Dobby claims, does not derive from Voldemort – but the Elf’s inability to speak against his master and his simultaneous inability to tell the dimensions of the plot lead us to infer that the plot derives from Dobby’s (currently unknown) master
• Dobby speaks of “powers Dumbledore doesn’t… powers no decent wizard….” Horcruxes!!! Yes, the first unnamed reference to Horcruxes comes from Dobby.
• Dobby believes the danger is grave enough that he levitates the Dursleys’ pudding to the ceiling and drops it on the floor in order to bring down the wrath of the Dursleys on Harry

The end result is that Harry is imprisoned in his room as Hedwig has been imprisoned in her cage! He’s being starved, and things are looking pretty bleak, when the Weasleys arrive with a deus ex machina. And yes, it literally is a machine!

Here’s how the kitteh’s LiveTweeted Cos, Chapter 2.

Opening the Chamber of Secrets

No, I didn’t lie to you. I said that I would commence Chamber of Secrets on Friday… and I did. The only reason you didn’t know about it is that Annie’s Guest Post on Draco came through on the same day, and I wanted her to have some time in the spotlight.

But now, it’s back to the re-read… with perhaps some additional intermittent Guests.

So yes, I did start re-reading CoS on Friday. And my kittehs even started LiveTweeting it yesterday afternoon! (Who says you can’t herd cats?).

I mentioned that I’d like to do a Quick Read of CoS before getting down to in-depth commentary – talking about favorite things and stuff that jumps out at me. So here goes.

From Chapter 1:

Dudley, who was so large his bottom drooped over either side of the kitchen chair, grinned and turned to Harry.

“Pass the frying pan.”

“You’ve forgotten the magic word,” said Harry irritably.

The effect of this simple sentence on the rest of the family was incredible: Dudley gasped and fell off his chair with a crash that shook the whole kitchen; Mrs. Dursley gave a small scream and clapped her hands to her mouth; Mr. Dursley jumped to his feet, veins throbbing in his temples.

“I meant ‘please’!” said Harry quickly. “I didn’t mean – “

“WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU,” thundered his uncle, spraying spit over the table, “ABOUT SAYING THE ‘M’ WORD IN OUR HOUSE?”

Okay, yeah. I know. It’s slapstick, and it’s over the top. But it’s also hysterical. The description of the Dursley response is precisely like what happens in horror movies when the monster or the slasher or the black-gloved giallo killer comes crashing in to your home.

In addition to the slapstick, this chapter reminds us of some still unanswered questions – like how did Harry survive a curse from the “greatest Dark sorcerer of all time?” Why did Harry have to be raised by his dead mother’s sister and her husband, when there were probably lots of nice Wizarding families who would have treated Harry like a boy, and not a slave? Why are the Dursleys so completely freaked out by magic?

It reminds us also of some never-answered questions – like How do the Dursleys get away with abusing this child, according to Muggle law? And why does the Wizarding World allow the abuse?

And of course, the chapter even poses some new questions:

• Why has Harry received no cards or letters, when Ron and Hermione specifically said they would write to him over the summer? Have his friends forgotten him?
• What is staring out at Harry from the hedge with “two enormous green eyes”?
• What is sitting on Harry’s bed?

At this point, it’s possible for first-time readers to believe that maybe Uncle Vernon could be responsible for Harry not receiving his letters. After all, he’s locked Hedwig in her cage so that Harry can’t send letters. And in the previous year, when letters arrived from Hogwarts, Vernon Dursley did everything in his power to prevent Harry from receiving them. Or, it’s possible to believe that Ron and Hermione are just school friends who have their own lives during the summer. Readers will soon find out which of these is the case.

The thing staring at Harry is a wonderful touch because it also foreshadows the “Grim” staring at Harry in PoA right before the Knight Bus shows up to whisk him away. Of course, the reader doesn’t know about PoA yet… has barely even heard Sirius Black’s name! But JKR does a nice job of paralleling these two instances.

And as for what’s sitting on Harry’s bed… well, that is certainly the big question, isn’t it? Friend or foe? As the kittehs noted: it could be anyone… from one of the friends he hasn’t heard from, to someone he’s never met before, to Lord Voldemort himself!

Since the reader has not been told yet that Voldemort cannot touch Harry while he’s under his aunt’s roof, even this supremely frightening possibility is on the table for first-time readers. And given the scary nature of the green eyes staring from the hedge, and given Harry’s recent frightening encounter at Hogwarts, I might have been more inclined toward the sinister reading… if the movies had not already shown me who was about to arrive in Harry’s life.

Commencing Chamber of Secrets…

So here’s the plan…

I will start re-reading Chamber of Secrets (CoS) on Friday… and will write short posts while I’m in the midst of it – hitting upon anything that strikes my fancy.

Then I’ll come back and write some more analytical posts.

There may even be some surprise guests.

Sound like a plan?

Philosopher Stone Faves (and what should Dumbledore have told Harry?)

Once again, I must apologize for not being present this week to comment on my own blog post! I have just reached that point in the semester when first papers need to go back to students. So I got caught in the “Non-Stop Grading Zone.” And believe me, grading essays is typically not much fun.

So back to the topic at hand. We have had some lively discussion concerning Dumbledore’s lies to Harry at the end of PS/SS. And I personally have said everything about PS/SS that I’ve been dying to say.

Before the PS/SS discussion, though, draws to a close, I have a couple of questions for you:

1. What have you been dying to say about PS/SS that we haven’t really covered?
2. What would you have told Harry after he regained consciousness from the battle with Quirrellmort if you had been in Albus Dumbledore’s position?

The Comments thread is open. But I’m also taking suggestions for “End of PS/SS” Guest Posts. Anybody game?

When we move on to Chamber of Secrets (the book, not the Forum), I’ll do a quick read and post on random stuff that jumps out at me… and then go back and get into a bit more depth about the book.

One thing that occurred to me this morning is that CoS is really the first book that digs into biographical detail concerning Tom Riddle. Of course, we already know from PS/SS that he was a Slytherin and that his diminished form resided in Albania before Quirrell found him. But there’s not much that we know about the man himself until we open Riddle’s Diary/Horcrux in CoS.

Should be fun.

And now… what is it that you’re dying to say about PS/SS?

The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore

“Don’t be a fool,” snarled the face. “Better save your own life and join me… or you’ll meet the same end as your parents…. “They died begging me for mercy….”

“LIAR!” Harry shouted suddenly.

Quirrell was walking backward at him, so that Voldemort could still see him. The evil face was now smiling.

“How touching…” it hissed. “I always value bravery…. Yes, boy, your parents were brave…. I killed your father first, and he put up a courageous fight… but your mother needn’t have died… she was trying to protect you…. Now give me the Stone, unless you want her to have died in vain.”

“NEVER!”

We expect the lie from Voldemort, just as we expect defiance from Harry. Voldemort lies in claiming…

• That Harry’s parents died begging for mercy
• That he values bravery
• That Harry’s father put up a courageous fight

In actuality, Harry’s father rushed at Voldemort without a wand in his hand, Voldemort cast the curse, and…

James Potter fell like a marionette whose strings were cut….”

That’s it.

In context, fear has failed to motivate Harry to give Voldemort what he wants, so Voldemort reverts to flattery, reciting the key Gryffindor quality of bravery. And no doubt, James Potter bravely rushed at the Dark Lord. But put up a courageous fight? There was no fight.

Voldemort’s lie about Harry’s father, however, is ultimately less destructive than Albus Dumbledore’s. Once the Stone has been saved, Dumbledore promises Harry to answer whatever questions he can… without, of course, lying. But when Harry asks if it’s true that Snape hates him because he hated his father, Dumbledore replies:

“Well, they did rather detest each other. Not unlike yourself and Mr. Malfoy. And then, your father did something Snape could never forgive.”

“What?”

“He saved his life.”

That’s not exactly true. James Potter got cold feet on a Marauders prank that would have gotten Severus killed, and James intervened to stop it.

But Severus never believed that James’ primary intention was to save his life. He believed that James’ intent was merely to save himself and the other Marauders from getting expelled.
(And when we see what James did to Severus shortly afterward in the SWM, who can blame Severus for denying James any benevolent intent?)

But the question of James’ intent is not at the core of Dumbledore’s lie. It’s in his claim that Snape, in essence, was angry over owing James a life debt – a life debt that Severus never believed he owed. In framing Snape’s hatred in those terms, Dumbledore glosses over the true source of Snape’s fury: severe, public humiliation and abuse in SWM (what I would call a form of gang rape, frankly). And then, the worst of all possible humiliations: James winning Lily’s hand.

Yes, I know why Dumbledore might feel compelled to lie on this matter. Snape swore him to secrecy, admonishing Dumbledore never to reveal his [Snape's] motives for protecting Harry – and putting Dumbledore in a bit of a bind. So it’s possible that Dumbledore invents an alternate scenario to explain Snape’s protection (i.e., attempting to retire the life debt) while at the same time honoring his word to Severus.

But the lie doesn’t help. It doesn’t really explain anything about Severus’ antipathy toward James to Harry. It merely helps to escalate the tension between Harry and Snape. And a couple of years later, Harry uses the lie when he throws his father’s life-saving “courage” right back in Snape’s face.

So my question is: How conscious is Dumbledore that he’s telling a lie? Has he, like Harry, created some ideal “James” in his head? Or is he deliberately misleading Harry in order to protect Severus’ secret? Or what?

I await your comments.

Two-Face

“A foolish young man I was then, full of ridiculous ideas about good and evil. Lord Voldemort showed me how wrong I was. There is no good and evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it… Since then, I have served him faithfully, although I have let him down many times. He has had to be very hard on me.” Quirrell shivered suddenly.

Well, I’m back! It took a bit longer to get breathing space than I thought it would, and in the meantime, my sister finished reading the Harry Potter series!!! What this means is that she is now no longer banished from my blog. (And btw, she’s pro-Severus, and really angry at Albus). Maybe she’ll peak her head into the comments at some point and say “Hi.”

But let’s get back to Quirrell.

There is something profoundly sad about Quirrell’s account of how Voldemort seduced him. Quirrell has become so deluded that he now thinks that his former belief in the existence of good and evil was a “ridiculous idea” – and that “power,” not morality, is the true foundation for action.

These views sound remarkably similar to how the philosophy of Nietzsche is described – both by those sympathetic and those antipathetic to his work. Personally, I have never managed to stomach Nietzsche enough to actually read him, but I would be curious – from those who have some better acquaintance with his work than I do – if Voldemort’s perspective is authentically Nietzschean… or if it’s a weak reading or caricature of Nietzsche’s ideas of good, evil, and power. (I welcome your comments in the Comments thread)

Regardless of Voldemort’s relationship with Nietzsche… what becomes apparent from Quirrell’s words is that the influence Voldemort exerts over this young follower is like the influence of a cult leader. Quirrell has ceased thinking for himself. He believes that in balking at Voldemort’s commands, he is in the wrong, and that it is only fitting that Voldemort “be very hard on” him when he fails.

Quirrell never considers that perhaps prior to his fateful meeting with Voldemort, his notions of good and evil were correct… or that balking at Voldemort’s commands is merely how a normal human being with a conscience would act. We know from what Harry overheard in the classroom that Quirrell begged Voldemort not to make him harm another unicorn:

“No – no – not again, please – “

For a moment in that classroom, Quirrell’s conscience made an appearance, offering a normal human reaction to Voldemort’s monstrous command. But Voldemort has so deeply programmed Quirrell (perhaps through a deadly combination of brainwashing and magic) that the young professor believes he must serve Voldemort faithfully, no matter what horrific deed the Dark Lord asks him to perform. And so, he does kill the unicorn… and now aims to kill Harry.

Quirrell does not even question the necessity of sharing his body (and, as Dumbledore mentions, his soul) with Voldemort. But all Voldemort aims to do is use Quirrell for his own ends (just as he tells Quirrell to “Use the boy… Use the boy…”). Once Quirrell becomes a liability, though, Voldemort simply leaves him to die.

This is Voldemort’s modus operandi – to seduce, use, and discard. And personally, I think there is plenty of foreshadowing here for later books in the series.

In Quirrell’s words, we get a glimpse of how Voldemort seduced the previous generation of Death Eaters – teenage boys, really, recruited from within Hogwarts. He appears to have preyed on class and “blood” prejudices, and perhaps offered visions of nearly limitless power.

Though a couple of Death Eaters (Regulus Black and Severus Snape, in particular) had experiences horrifying enough to jar loose their programming and see through to the true nature of Voldemort’s regime, most of their compatriots remained loyal to the cause.

Actually, Severus Snape becomes almost the anti-Quirrell. Just as Quirrell is the man with two faces, Snape looks two ways – towards the Death Eaters and towards the Order of the Phoenix. In fact, Rowling quite consciously made his birthdate January 9 – the celebration of the Roman god Janus, the god with two faces:

Janus

The difference between Snape and Quirrell, though, is that Snape’s “double nature” is a product of his being a double agent. He fakes loyalty to the Death Eaters. He is authentically loyal to the Order.

And just as Voldemort casts Quirrell aside the moment he has no more use for him, he kills Snape because he wants something that he believes Snape has. As Dumbledore tells Harry at the end of PS/SS:

“he shows just as little mercy to his followers as to his enemies.”

Voldemort truly believed double agent Snape to be a “good and faithful” follower. But it was the death of “faithful Quirrell” here at the beginning of the series that put the reader on notice that such things could happen… even all the way at the end.

Just “Like” Magic!

Okay, folks. I’m getting prepared for the Fall semester – which means that I’m putting together syllabi for the classes I’m teaching. I haven’t done this in 10 years, and it’s amazing how much additional language you need to put into syllabi these days, given the more highly advanced state of technology. And then next week, I’ve got professional development activities on campus. And the following week… classes!

What this means is that for the next week or so, I may just dribble out a post here and there. But I’m aware that I owe you a post on Dumbledore’s enchantment of the Mirror, a post on Quirrell’s seduction by Voldemort, a post on Harry’s encounter with Voldemort, and at least one post on Dumbledore’s explanation to Harry. I’ve also got guest posts lined up before we quit PS/SS.

And then we’ll be ready to move on to CoS.

In the meantime, I just wanted to draw your attention to some magic buttons. WordPress has kindly added a “Like” button to the bottom of each post. So if you like a post, please “Like” it.

If you really like a post, Twitter has just today given you an easy way to broadcast the post through your Twitter network. And WordPress has decided to support it!

To tweet a post, click the “Tweet” button at the bottom of the post. It will go out across Twitter… just like magic.

So here you go… you wanna tweet? Tweet This!

It Was Quirrell!!!

[Harry] braced himself, saw the black flames licking his body, but couldn’t feel them – for a moment he could see nothing but dark fire – then he was on the other side, in the last chamber.

There was already someone there – but it wasn’t Snape. It wasn’t even Voldemort.

[chapter ends... page turn...]

It was Quirrell.

Bet you didn’t see that one coming!
Well, you did if you’ve read this blog for any amount of time… and I write assuming you’ve already read the entire series at least once! But I bet you didn’t see it coming before you read (or saw) PS/SS!

Or did you?
If you didn’t get sucked in by the Snape red herring, I’d love to hear from you in the Comments. But of course, I’d love to hear from you in the Comments regardless.

For most readers, going into the final chamber and encountering Quirrellmort and the Mirror of Erised is kind of like going through the looking glass. Everything Harry (and the reader) thinks is a known fact gets turned inside out and upside down.

What’s fun about the first part of this chapter is that it’s Quirrell himself who disabuses Harry of all his false notions of who his friends, enemies, and protectors are. Harry had thought that Quirrell was a poor, weak, stuttering fool who didn’t stand a chance against the unmentionable Snape. Now, he’s confronted with the reality:

“You!” gasped Harry.

Quirrell smiled. His face wasn’t twitching at all.

“Me,” he said calmly.

The man doesn’t even stutter!

It’s significant that here, Quirrell’s face isn’t twitching… because his face always twitches. It is significant that he speaks to Harry calmly… because his speech is never calm. It was all an act – the hyper-nervousness, the stuttering, everything. Quirrell even mocks his own carefully-staged persona, noting that…

“Next to [Snape], who would suspect p-p-poor, st-stuttering P-Professor Quirrell?”

Harry couldn’t take it in. This couldn’t be true, it couldn’t.

And therein lies one of the biggest problems still plaguing HP fandom today. Harry is not the only one who can’t take it in that the bad guy isn’t Snape. Harry has so much trouble believing the truth that he starts arguing with Quirrell.

Let’s paraphrase Harry’s objections:

It has to be Snape! Snape tried to kill me! What do you mean he was trying to save me? I saw you with him in the Forest! But he always seemed to hate me so much, and anyway, I thought that it was him threatening you in the classroom!

Now let’s paraphrase Quirrell’s explanations:

No, it’s me. I’m the one who tried to kill you. Snape was trying to save you. In the Forest, Snape was trying to frighten me because he suspected me of trying to steal the Stone. Oh, he does hate you, but that doesn’t mean he was trying to kill you. That was my master, not Snape, threatening me in the classroom. Oh, and btw, I’m the one who let the troll in at Halloween.

To nearly every one of Quirrell’s explanations, Harry offers a new objection. It’s rather like certain fans who continue arguing with Rowling that she could not possibly have meant that Snape didn’t remain a loyal Death Eater after he turned to Dumbledore. After all, he was such a nasty git to Harry!

Well, to his great credit at least, Harry eventually gets over it. Let’s hope the same for those poor, sad fans who never do.

But for now, let’s focus on one of Harry’s key objections. In it, Harry actually tells us one of his reasons for suspecting Snape:

“But Snape always seemed to hate me so much.”

11-year-old Harry confuses attitude with action. Snape apparently hates him (attitude); therefore, Snape is trying to kill him (action). This has got to be some sort of unnamed logical fallacy!
Any suggestions on what to call it?

Learning the truth at the end of PS/SS is Harry’s first big adventure into separating appearance from reality, but it is only the first. In CoS, a seemingly friendly voice in a diary is actually the voice of 16-year-old Tom Riddle/Voldemort. In PoA, the psychotic murderer who is supposedly out to kill him is actually a loving godfather who was framed for his “crimes.” In GoF, the DADA professor who inspires his career choice is actually a Death Eater trying to feed him to Voldemort. etc.,etc.,etc.

It is no wonder that when Harry emerges from the Pensieve in DH after witnessing one final reversal in perception, he believes what he’s seen immediately, without question… despite having thought only an hour before that Snape was a murderer and a traitor. By the end of DH, Harry has been well trained by experience to know that appearances can be misleading. And that experience begins right here, at the end of PS/SS.