Chapter 8: The Potions Master
In chapter eight of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, we see that Harry Potter is living one of my worst nightmares; everyone is staring, pointing, and talking about him.
It’s bad enough when you have started a new school without anyone you know but add in lack of knowledge of magic and fame he doesn’t want or understand and I feel for Harry. This is the first time we see one of our recurring themes, the negative side effects of fame, especially for something so horrible as your parents being murdered by a dark wizard.
(Please be advised that this is a reread and I will be discussing book and movie spoilers.)
We also meet Snape in this chapter. My feelings on Snape are, like Snape himself, complex. I think he’s one of the most layered, fascinating characters, a man who does brave and heroic things but he’s also a petty, occasionally unhinged bully of children, and that to me makes him more interesting of a character. You just can’t overlook the fact that he purposefully insults and torments an eleven year old orphan his first day of class, then doubles down by insulting another eleven year old quasi orphan boy who is far more sensitive to this type of bullying. To complete the trifecta, he disregards Hermione’s interest in learning. But we will get to complicated Snape in later books.
Snape’s behavior in book one is also of course, a way for us to immediately suspect Snape of any ne’er do well activities that are going on.
To throw us off the trail further, Quirrelldemort is portrayed as an incompetent, frightened mouse of a man. I got a good laugh at the part where Quirrelldemort rescues Ron and Harry from Filch’s wrath when they accidentally wander to the third floor forbidden corridor. Why does he do this? Is Voldemort afraid they will find the stone first? Is Quirrell the person in control at this point? Or is Lord Voldemort so petty only he can punish Harry, not Filch?
QQ: Master the boy is being berated by Argus Filch! Perhaps he will accidentally kill him with those manacles he’s so fond of.
LV: For god’s sake Quirrell, how many times do I have to say it! Only I can kill Harry Potter!
QQ: ….
LV: …
LV: ….what?
QQ: You’re…a disembodied head sticking out of the back of my head…?
LV: Shut up and drink that unicorn’s blood!
In any case, we’ve established that McGonagall is strict but probably fair, Hagrid has a lot of trouble casually changing the subject in a non suspicious way
Hermione is a bit annoying and Neville is somewhat bumbling. Onwards!
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Why is Quirrell’s cover story so terrible for his smelly turban?
Why did Quirrell save Ron and Harry from Filch?
Would you like the attention Harry Potter gets?
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