Chapter 4: Keeper of the Keys
In chapter four of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Hagrid arrives, tells Harry he’s a lizard wizard, and info dumps a whole lot of backstory and world building on us.
(Please be advised that this is a reread and I will be discussing book and movie spoilers.)
Harry, who is at the beginning of the chapter feeling rightfully sorry for himself, hungry because Uncle “My God is He the Worst” Vernon thinks a bag of chips and a banana is dinner, and cold in a hut on his birthday, is startled out of this funk when a giant we last saw riding a flying motorbike in chapter one shows up, insults the Dursley’s, gives Harry some food and a birthday cake, and solves the mystery of his life for Harry; he’s a wizard. Oh, also, he looks like his father, except he has his mother’s eyes. We’re going to hear that one a lot, so perhaps incorporate it into BINGO, or a drinking game.
(via Cleolinda’s Movies in 15 minutes)
Hagrid also tells the Dursleys to go “boil (your) heads” which is such a delightfully weird insult I had to mention it. Harry gets to read his letter inviting him to join a wizard school, and millions of children and adults worldwide wish with all of their hearts that Hogwarts was real, and that Hagrid was going to show up with their letter, even if it’s many years too late. Perhaps Hogwarts is real, and we’re all Muggles and that’s why we didn’t get letters? Would that actually be worse then Hogwarts not being real? Am I feeling sympathy for Petunia?!
Aunt Petunia hasn’t had anyone paying attention to her for roughly five minutes and that can’t be borne so she lets out some bitterness that has been stewing for a solid twenty years about Lily’s abnormal witchitude, and accidentally lets it slip that Harry’s parents weren’t killed in a car accident. It’s up to poor Hagrid to tell Harry the truth about his parent’s death: that they were killed by an evil wizard who tried and failed to murder Harry as well, that this failure led to the evil Lord Voldemort’s disappearance, and that Harry himself is thought of as a hero to the wizarding world. It’s a lot for us to take in, so Harry’s brain is exploding a bit at all this, but mostly with excitement that he finally gets answers, and moreover, that he finally gets some relief from the horrendous Dursleys.
Hagrid’s tale of Harry’s parent’s deaths and Voldemort’s disappearance after his attempted murder of Harry answers a lot of our most desperate questions, but we, and Harry, can sense there are some holes in the telling.
But never mind that for now, because Uncle “Seriously He’s the Worst Uncle in the History of Uncles” Vernon has gone and insulted Dumbledore and Hagrid has had enough of this balderdash and malarkey and now Dudley has a pig’s tail.
Before turning Dudley into a partial pig, Hagrid answers some questions, but he leaves Harry (and us) with a lot more. Why was he expelled in his third year? What is he hiding from Harry? And how much can he fit in that coat, anyway? (Where can we buy this handy coat?)
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How did you react to “you’re a wizard, Harry”?
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