Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Books/Philosopher's Stone/Chapter 12
From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection
Chapter 12 of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: The Mirror of Erised
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
Now that they have the name "Nicholas Flamel", Hermione, Ron, and Harry are spending all their spare time in the library, trying to find out who he is, a pastime that annoys Hagrid, when he finds out about it. Despite searching for a fortnight, however, they have not found him by Christmas break, when Hermione returns home for the holidays. Ron is staying at Hogwarts because his parents are going off to visit their son Charlie in Romania and Harry is staying because Hogwarts is more of a home to him than Privet Drive ever could be. Hermione reminds them to keep looking for information on Flamel.
On Christmas Day, both Harry and Ron receive gifts. Among Harry's are a sweater from Mrs. Weasley, and an Invisibility Cloak from an anonymous sender. The note with the cloak says that it had been Harry's father's, and advises him to use it well.
Christmas Dinner is very merry, including various magical accessories and truly amazing amounts of food.
Following dinner, Harry remembers the Invisibility Cloak, and decides to explore the Restricted section of the library in the hopes of finding Flamel's name. The first book he selects, however, screams when opened, causing Harry to break his lamp, and attracts Filch. On the run from Filch, he ends up in a room containing a magic mirror, which shows him standing amidst a crowd of people. On inspection, this crowd turns out to be his parents and relations – not the Dursleys, but his magical relatives.
Harry wakes Ron up and brings him down also to see this mirror, so that Ron can see Harry's parents, but Ron instead sees himself with a Head Boy's badge, and holding the Quidditch Cup.
Harry repeats his visit to the mirror a few times, eventually being surprised in the act by Professor Dumbledore. Dumbledore identifies the mirror as the Mirror of Erised, and that it shows "only the deepest desire of our hearts". When asked what he sees when he looks into the mirror, Dumbledore replies that he sees himself holding a pair of socks, which Harry suspects is a lie. Dumbledore then says that he is going to hide the mirror, and asks Harry to not seek it out again.
[edit] Analysis
Family has recently become very important to Harry: raised by the Dursleys, who barely mask their contempt for him, Harry was largely unaware of his lack. Recently, though, exposure to Ron Weasley and his family has allowed Harry to begin to understand what it feels like to be part of a family, and to have people who are concerned about him. He is touched when Mrs. Weasley, knowing that he wouldn’t be receiving many gifts from other people, sends him Christmas presents.
By looking in the Mirror of Erised, Harry gets his first glimpse of his real family. He is transfixed by the sight of his parents and relatives he never knew, and so continues to come back to look in the mirror at his parents. Dumbledore explains the way the mirror works, and it is apparent at this point in his life, Harry wishes more than anything to have a normal life with his family restored to him.
[edit] Questions
[edit] Review
[edit] Further Study
- When Harry asks Dumbledore what he sees when he looks into the Mirror, Dumbledore replies that he sees himself holding a pair of socks. Is that really what Dumbledore sees?
[edit] Greater Picture
Harry's desire to have an ordinary, peaceful life with a family around him is a feeling which will follow him throughout his story. It will also serve as an incentive that will drive him to do what he needs to do.
After asking what Dumbledore sees in the mirror, Harry thinks to himself that he has just asked a very impertinent question, and much later in the series comes to the conclusion that Dumbledore had not been entirely truthful. It is revealed much later, in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, that Dumbledore's heart's desire is the same as Harry's – to be reunited with his departed family, especially his mother Kendra and sister Ariana.
At this stage in the books, we do not know who had returned the Invisibility Cloak to Harry. At the end of this book, it will be revealed that, in fact, Dumbledore was the sender. However, that raises a very large question. When Harry is caught at the Mirror of Erised, Dumbledore mentions that he does not need a cloak to be invisible. We will learn later that invisibility can be provided by a spell, the Disillusionment charm, and we can guess that Dumbledore is very good at it. Why, then, would Dumbledore want James Potter's Invisibility Cloak? He has no need for it, after all.
This last point is particularly of interest, as the author mentions that it is a peculiarly never-asked question. It will be a key issue in the final book in the series, as it turns out that the Cloak is one of the Deathly Hallows of the title. It should be noted that there is technique involved in concealing the fact that this is even a question. The previous ownership of the Invisibility Cloak is separated in the text from Dumbledore's statement that he doesn't need one, by several exciting events, even though the two do fall in the same chapter, and the admission that it was Dumbledore who had been keeping the Cloak for the intervening decade is several chapters ahead. This separation of the three parts of the paradox removes the immediacy that makes it a question that the reader thinks about.
Dumbledore's interest in this Cloak will be echoed again in the seventh book.
