Day 3/4, 760 pages read

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Sorry that there wasn't an update yesterday. I was off at Cedar Point with the boys Josh and Zach, and boy did we have a blast. I want to thank them on here for a very wonderful day yesterday. You both put up with my motion sickness so well, and gave me a nice long break from rollercoasters after lunch. Even though I was sick for the half of the day, I'm glad that I made you both laugh, and as you have told me you will have lasting memories of that day, some which include, "WHY DID I DO THIS!!!!!!" on the millenium force. You two are the very best, even when Josh is laughing at me on the rides instead of asking me if I'm alright the way Zach was. <3

That being said, we move on wards!

It is clear to me as I am reading Prisoner of Azkaban that it was once my favorite Harry Potter novel. My binding is so worn that I can lay the book down on a table and it will stay open on the page I am reading without me having to hold it. Obviously it is this way for good reason; Prisoner of Azkaban has never failed to make me laugh out loud every ten pages. Most of it consistent banter between hilarious characters that introduced in the book like Stan Shunpike, the Knight Bus conductor, Sir Cadogan, the painting of a short and stout knight that is loud and bold, and Professor Trelawny, who is by far the most absurd character Jo has ever written for the series.

I remember anxiously waiting for the movie of PoA to come out because I wanted to see Marge blow up like a balloon. I hate that woman so much, I laugh derisively at her as she boobs off into the night sky, her shrieks growing fainter and fainter. As I am re-reading this one, I noticed something that I overlooked the many times I have read this book. First bear this in mind before continuing on, Aunt Marge is absolutely not a kind and considerate woman. She is her brother Vernon but in a woman's body, therefore, she is just as unpleasant as he is. Knowing this I looked at Harry through her eyes for a moment in the book a found a startling discovery as to why she may hate him so much. Marge has no idea that Harry is a wizard, the only things that she knows about Harry are the things that she hears from her brother and sister-in-law, and of course they never have a good thing to say about him. Marge was told that Harry got dumped on her brother's doorstep because her sister-in-law's irresponsible sister and her husband got into a car crash. She was made to believe by her brother and Petunia that Harry's parents were most likely alcoholics and that is how they got into the car crash in the first place. The Dursleys never confirm Marge's guesses about Harry's parents lives, but they never discount them either. This just gives Marge more of a reason to hate Harry besides her already being an unpleasant character in the first place.

Reading this book makes me amazed at how Jo really goes into the little details about the wizarding world. She even makes up their own little phrases to say, that is different from what we have heard in the 'muggle' world. When Harry is on the Knight Bus, Stan and Ern, the bus driver, are talking about the guards of Azkaban and Ern says, "Talk about summat else, Stan, there's a good lad. Them Azkaban guards give me the collywobbles." It's brilliant! Instead of saying that they give him the shivers or the shakes she makes up an entirely different word for it for them.

Another thing that I noticed with the Knight Bus scene is that Jo clearly makes sure to show the reader all of the different classes involved in their society that is very similar to ours. There is Harry, who is upper middle class, has enough money to buy plenty of things, and there is Stan and Ern who talk differently than most of the other characters in the novel. They aren't exactly Hagrid's style, but they are different in which they take short cuts with their words and uses the wrong pronouns. It is most apparent when Fudge comes into the scene and wants a 'private parlor' to talk to Harry so that he won't have to be interrupted by Stan and Ern. It is just another reason why Jo is so brilliant, and I really appreciate the difference in social class and how she writes the characters from each class.

One thing that confused me so much as a kid while reading this book was the scene when Ron takes Scabbers into the pet shop in Diagon Alley. I remember because it catches me off guard every time. Here is the conversation between Ron and the woman who works at the Pet Shop.
"It's my rat," he told the witch. "He's been a bit off-color ever since I brought him back from Egypt."
"Bang him on the counter," said the witch, pulling a pair of heavy black spectacles out of her pocket.
Bang him on the counter?! Every time I read this line, I think, "What? What the heck will banging him on the counter do  for Scabbers? It's gonna hurt that rat even more!" and every time I read on, I think, "Wow, Dawn. It's a British saying." Even though I read on and realize that she means put him on the counter, I wish that Ron would bang him on the counter anyway. The little berk Peter deserves more than a banging.

Onto funny quotes I have read so far. There are literally so many that I love in this book that I had to limit it to five, but a very funny five they are, and they go as follows:
1. This is Fred an George talking to Harry about Percy being annoying ever since he was made Head Boy.
...George heaved a sigh. "We tried to shut him in a pyramid," he told Harry. "But mum spotted us."
2. The mirrors in the rooms at the Leaky Cauldron all talk, and this time the mirror says something absolutely hilarious to Harry after he overhears that Sirius Black wants to kill him.
"I'm not going to be murdered," Harry said out loud.
"That's the spirit, dear," said his mirror sleepily.
3. This quote is another from the twins when they talk about Malfoy being a hypocrite for making fun of Harry for feinting when the dementors came onto the Hogwarts Express.
"That little git," George said calmly. "He wasn't so cocky last night when the dementors were down at our end of the train. Came running into our compartment, didn't he, Fred?"
"Nearly wet himself," said Fred, with a contemptuous glance at Malfoy,
4. This scene is just too much to type all of it out. This is probably my most favorite scene in the whole book, apart from Hermione slapping Malfoy of course, but it is when the trio are trying to find their way to Divination, and they are going to be late, so they get help from Sir Cadogan, the plump knight in a painting on the seventh floor. Just read the whole scene over again. It is the funniest character banter she may have ever written for the HP series.
"Farewell, my comrades-in-arms! If ever you have need of noble heart or steely sinew, call upon Sir Cadogan!"
"Yeah, we'll call you," muttered Ron as the knight disappeared, "if we ever need someone mental."
5. This is one of my favorite McGonagall lines in HP. It is the scene after Trelawny predicts that Harry will die, and McGonagall is trying to convince the class not to hold any merit to what she says, as she predicts the death of a student at the beginning of every year ever since she became employed at Hogwarts.
"You look in excellent health to me, Potter, so you will excuse me if I don't let you off homework for today. I assure you that if you die, you need not hand it in."

That concludes that blog entry for today. Sorry that I missed yesterday, but I'll have another big one for you tomorrow. :)

Day 2, 650 pages read

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Late last night I finished the second book, and there wasn't much within dialogue for the plot line that I forgot, but there were a lot of funny quotes that I somehow seemed to have forgotten. I remembered the story well with Chamber, and have not many things to point out in this one.

So onto to funny quotes that had me laughing for ages:

Quote number one comes from our berk of a character Malfoy. This has got to be Draco's best quote in my book although it shows that he has no respect even for his closest friends which Jo tells us that this kid is one slimey sleeze ball. Anyway this quote occurs in the Slytherin Common Room after Harry and Ron both take polyjuice potion to look like Crabbe and Goyle. So Harry and Ron are basically interrogating Malfoy, and Malfoy brings up Azkaban. Harry being brought up a muggle has obviously never heard of it, so he says "Azkaban?"

"Azkaban-the wizard prison, Goyle," said Malfoy, looking at him in disbelief. "Honestly, if you were any slower, you'd be going backwards." Enough said. Best Draco quote ever.

Number Two comes from our very own Ronald Weasley when the trio are discussing what T.M. Riddle could have done for the school to receive a special award for services to the school and Ron smartly says, "Could've been anything," said Ron. "Maybe he got thirty O.W.L.S. or saved a teacher from the giant squid. Maybe he murdered Myrtle; that would've done everyone a favor...." I guess Ron would know soon enough how right he was.

Now onto my favorite part. Ron and Hermione analysis. All right, so I have thought long and hard about Ron's actions in Chamber because where there was only small evidence to go on that Hermione cared for Ron in one, there is bundles of things to show that Ron may be feeling something for Hermione. It appears to me that Ron doesn't fancy her yet of course, but there is an odd feeling that Ron is being a bit protective of Hermione. First you see it with Malfoy calling her a mudblood and Ron acting out and trying to curse him for it. There are more small occasions where he gets annoyed at her admiration of Lockhart. I wouldn't go so far as to say that he was jealous at these times, but Ron doesn't like Lockhart and thins he is a good for nothing liar, and he doesn't seem to like the fact that Hermione fancies someone like this and wants to protect her from him. Another moment that truly had me considering his feelings for her was when Malfoy talks about wanting Granger to be the next one attacked and wanting her to be the one killed. Ron clenches his fists and turns red in Crabbe's body making it look odd to Malfoy. Harry, who hears the same thing is angered but stays cool unlike Ron who obviously has a very touchy nerve when it comes to Hermione. Later on when Hermione is attacked, it is Ron who yells out her name instead of Harry. Once again Malfoy repeats that he wished Granger would have been the one who was killed after she was only petrified, only this time Ron didn't glare at him, he tried to attack him screaming that he didn't need a wand, he'd kill him with his bare hands. Luckily Harry held him back and Ron never got his hands on Malfoy. Once the news that the petrified people have been revived is told to the group in McGonagall's office, Ron instantaneously yells out "So Hermione's ok!" All of these moments made me wonder exactly how Ron viewed Hermione at this time in his character development. Harry, who cares for his two best friends deeply, doesn't call out her name when she is in danger or happy to see her, and I'm pretty sure Jo did this on purpose to show that it is in fact Ron who will fall in love with the girl of the trio. From what I can see now is that Ron feels protective over Hermione ever since the troll incident. He felt guilty but never truly admitted that he was wrong for teasing her in their first year, but I'm sure somewhere inside of his good heart, Ron decided that no one would ever tease or hurt her again. It only makes sense for him to see it that way especially since she could've died if he hadn't sent her to the bathroom crying in the first place.

I want to quickly address something that made me nearly sob at midnight this morning. Harry has a quote where he is talking to Dobby after he sets him free that made me set the book done and think what a genius Jo is.

""Harry Potter has set Dobby free!"

"Least I could do," said Harry, grinning. "Just promise never to try and save my life again."

The elf's ugly brown face suddenly split into a wide, toothy smile."

Thank God Dobby never promised him anything that day.

So currently I am on Prisoner of Azkaban which I will be reading all day long, so I'll have an update about today for you late on.

Day 1, 495 pages read

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone/Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Hello there. Here I will be putting my own spin on the Harry Potter books as I re-read them before the eighth and final Harry Potter movie is released. I have only eighteen days to do so, but I have already finished the first book and am halfway through the second, so I am feeling pretty confident that I will accomplish this feat.

Book 1:

I picked up number one remembering how the first time I heard the story was listening to it on tape in my fourth grade classroom. It was a great story then, and over the years it has aged along with me. After reading all of the books later in the series, I can look and see how the eleven year old Harry will become a teenager, and eventually become a man. It truly is symbolizing the end of my childhood as the movies come to a close, but I will always have the evidence that I was a happy child sitting on my bookshelf. I partly plan on never growing up fully, but how can you when you will always want to dress up and pretend with your friends that you are in fact witches and wizards. I'm sure that my friends all know this to be true as they gladly attended my eighteenth birthday party to do just this, so friends we will always have this magical experience with us. This way Harry Potter will never come to an end for us. He will live on in our hearts and possibly in the hearts of our future children.

Enough with the sappy stuff. Let's get done to the goods. Wow is number one boring in the beginning. Those Dursley's are just so savagely mean to poor Harry. The whole first three chapters i was wishing for Hagrid to show up and save him. Once he did I was fine, and got into the swing of Jo's writing style and was practically tearing through the book. One thing I really appreciated was the introduction of Draco in the book. She made him a proper git in my opinion and that was something the movie only succeeded at partially. There is no way in the books that Draco could ever be seen as attractive, but in the movies he's seen as a cold mysterious boy, and of course when he got older, girls were fawning over him and eventually pairing him and Hermione together in fan fictions, which is a BIG no no in my book. Anyway, Jo has a good way of showing a character's true colors with harry's first meeting with them, and I appreciate that as a reader.

Right now I can't think too much on the first book as I am currently reading the second and have too much of that plot line swirling around in my head, but one thing I am really paying attention to this time through is the relationship between Ron and Hermione. In one there is not much to go on to show that the two will eventually get married and have two children, but there are a few cute moments with them together. One, the troll incident. Two, when Ron is whacked across the head by that chess piece. The two of them already resemble Molly and Arthur, but Ron is a little less like his father at this point because one, he is a stupid immature boy, and two he is not in love with her yet.

Book 2:

Before I never really liked Chamber much, possibly because Jo never liked it much herself, but on this read through I am enjoying it a lot more than I have in the past. The trio is a year older and a year wiser, maybe not Ron, but Hermione makes up for him I guess. This mystery story is a lot better than the first, but it has less action involved and the book tends to fall into plot line slumps, however characters like Neville, Lockhart, and Colin make up for it by a long shot. One character who I believed should not have died was Colin, but we will go into a long debate about that when that actually happens, but while he is still breathing in book form I shall cherish his enthusiasm and bravery. The little guy actually mouths off to Draco as quick as a whip when he wants Harry to sign a picture of him to show his dad. So funny Neville moment. I think this guy is so amiable and likeable. Jo really wrote a winner here. So anyway, because of the attacks on muggleborns in the school, fake amulets and other protective devices were being sold by the older students to the young ignorant ones who were frightened out of their wits. Of course poor Neville will buy something. The other Gryffindor boys tell him that he was fine without them already because he is pureblood, but Neville, bless his soul, has already thought about this fact. He responds with, "They went for Filch first, and everyone knows I'm almost a Squib." I had to set the book down and laugh for a while before I could continue, and I didn't get too far after that and stopped on the next page. So the trio are about to steal polyjuice potion ingredients from Snape, and that is where I have left off for the time being.