Mark Reads ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’: Chapter 14

In the fourteenth chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, our main characters become even more awesome than they already were as the plot blasts forward at a lightning speed. Oh. One more thing. DRAGONS. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to read Harry Potter.

CHAPTER 14: NORBERT THE NORWEGIAN RIDGEBACK

Fuckin’ dragons how do they work?

Oh god THIS IS SO EXCITING also doesn’t Charizard look like he’s STANDING ON TOP OF MY WORDS omg i am 5 years old again

• Snape was sweeping about in his usual bad temper, which surely meant that the Stone was still safe. Wnever Harry passed Quirrell these days he gave him an encouraging sort of smile, and Ron had started telling people off for laughing at Quirrell’s stutter.

No seriously, where were you guys during my junior high existence?

• Hermione, however, had more on her mind than the Sorcerer’s Stone. She had started drawing up study schedules and color-coding all her notes. Harry and Ron wouldn’t have minded, but she kept nagging them to do the same.

For the record, Hermione and I are the same person. I did this all throughout junior high and high school. I was SRS BSNS about all of my school work. GOD WHY WAS I SO ANNOYING oh that’s right my whole life is full of tragedy

A good portion of chapter 14 involves the painful attempts at our trio of characters attempting to study while simultaneously being distracted by the idea of the Sorcerer’s Stone. Which means they spend a lot of time in the library. Which means that they run into Hagrid and attempt to grill him more about the Stone, but my boyfriend he isn’t budging.

• “What was he hiding behind his back?” said Hermione thoughtfully.

  “Do you think it had anything to do with the Stone?”

  “I’m going to see what section he was in,” said Ron, who’d had enough of working. He came back a minute later with a pile of books in his arms and slammed them down on the table.

  “Dragons!” he whispered. “Hagrid was looking up stuff about dragons! Look at these: Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland; From Egg to Inferno, A Dragon Keeper’s Guide.”

HOLY

SHIT

DRAGONS!!!!111!!!11!!!111

I said it before and I’ll say it again: What makes the Harry Potter world so exciting is that Rowling simply drops us into everything. Dragons are real. Trolls are real. This is all real and you should go along with it.

• “But it’s against our laws,” said Ron. “Dragon breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks’ Convention of 1709, everyone knows that. It’s hard to stop Muggles from noticing us if we’re keeping dragons in the back garden–anyway, you can’t tame dragons, it’s dangerous.”

my god WHERE IS MY FUCKING DRAGON ALREADY. also WARLOCKS wut

• “The Ministry of Magic has a job hushing them up, I can tell you. Our kind have to keep putting spells on Muggles who’ve spotted them, to make them forget.”

;lkjasdflj;asdkfja;slkfjl;kjasdf;ljkasfdjkl;afdsjkl;asf omg MUGGLE MIND VIOLENCE

Our friends decide to figure this mystery out by visiting my boyfriend Hagrid in his hut. Hagrid has sort of figured out that Harry and his friends know way more than they should about Nicolas Flamel and his Stone:

• “That Stone’s here fer a good reason. It was almost stolen out of Gringotts–I s’ppose yeh’ve worked that out an’ all? Beats me how yeh even know about’ Fluffy.”

LOL

It’s revealed that a large group of the head staff at Hogwarts helped to protect the Stone by casting spells, in addition to Dumbledore borrowing Fluffy from Hagrid. There’s only one problem: Snape also casted a spell on the very room.

Bless J.K. Rowling for this. Do you know exciting it is to me that she creates complicated plot situations? Look, again, I said I wasn’t going to do this, but I just came from a series in which there wasn’t a plot conflict for hundreds of fucking pages. And to have a multi-faceted, serial plot that is entirely hinged on character development present?

oh god I AM IN LOVE.

But you know what’s even better? My boyfriend Hagrid has a dragon egg!

• He looked very pleased with himself, but Hermione didn’t.

  “Hagrid, you live in a wooden house,” she said.

  But Hagrid wasn’t listening. He was humming merrily as he stoked the fire.

My heart may explode by the end of this book.

I was initially a bit confused as to why Rowling was introducing this plot so late in the book, aside from the fact that dragons are spectacular and should be in all books. I know all of you know the plot already, so I’m not going to bother discussing it and instead focus on the conflict that arises due to Hagrid deciding to raise a dragon from birth.

A bit about the birth scene. It’s quick. But it reinforces a couple of things:

1) How fucking cute baby dragons probably are.

For example: “It sneezed. A couple of sparks flew out of its snout.”

Seriously KILL ME NOW oh my god why aren’t dragons real 🙁

2) How motherly/loving Hagrid is

This is much more important to me as a reader and is a big part of why I enjoy Hagrid so much. Within seconds of the birth of Norbert, Hagrid immediately assumes the role of caretaker without a second thought as to what’s best for him as gamekeeper of Hogwarts. While he is, admittedly, slightly oblivious to the world around him, introducing the dragon is a great way to accentuate Hagrid’s desire not only to belong, but to be wanted. Since Hagrid was booted out of Hogwarts, he’s still done his best to feel included and to help out. I found it pretty smart to introduce this other character (briefly) to help show us exactly how caring Hagrid is.

Even when Malfoy sees the dragon (we’ll get to him in a second), Hagrid’s primary goal is to make sure his dragon feels loved and is safe. He knows when it isn’t safe to let the dragon roam free, but also knows when the time has come to let go of his (dragon) child.

It’s beautiful.

But let’s get to the opposite of that. Malfoy. I’m interested to see where he goes (especially since people like this twat-faced numskull willingly) because he seems very one-dimensional as an antagonist. I do see the potential for an interesting take on racism/classism with his form of bullying. And this chapter also provides a wonderful pay-off when Malfoy gets in a LOT of trouble for attempting to tattle on Harry and his friends, especially since he’s largely gotten away with his extreme hatred of Harry and Ron.

The final moment of the chapter, though, provides the most interesting “twist” to the entire story. Harry, for the most part, has also gotten away with quite a lot and been given a large amount of leeway within the story. He’s the first first-year allowed to play Quidditch, he doesn’t get in trouble for flying during his first flying lesson, and, with the exception of Snape’s maniacal persecution of Harry, not a single professor ever does anything to get Harry in trouble.

Until now. The same Invisibility Cloak that saved them from Malfoy’s attempt at getting them in trouble ends up forcing Harry to face his actions. By forgetting the cloak on the top of the tower, it allows Harry and company to get caught by Filch.

And now I can’t wait to find out what happens.