Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Books/Philosopher's Stone/Chapter 17
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Chapter 17 of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: The Man with Two Faces
Contents |
[edit] Synopsis
Note: This chapter ties up a large number of plot threads in a relatively small space. In order to catch the necessary high points, the synopsis must be relatively long.
The man in the final chamber is Quirrell. But a changed Quirrell, no longer twitching and stuttering, no longer unsure of himself. Quirrell is quick to point out that being seen as ineffective, particularly alongside Snape, is a very effective disguise. Snape was suspected of all the mischief that Quirrell had done, such as enchanting Harry's broom in the Quidditch match against Slytherin – apparently Snape was working a counter-charm, and it was Hermione knocking Quirrell off his feet that stopped the enchantment. Quirrell also admits to having let the troll into the dungeons at Halloween, so that he could look at what was guarding the Stone, in which he was also thwarted by Snape.
Now all that stands before him is the final guardian of the Stone, which Harry recognizes as the Mirror of Erised. While examining the Mirror, Quirrell mentions that Snape was at school with Harry's father, and that they hated each other. He also says that "his Master", which apparently means Lord Voldemort, is with him wherever he goes. When Quirrell is unable to decode the secret of the Mirror, he asks for help, and a voice tells him to "use the boy". Quirrel stands Harry in front of the mirror. Harry sees himself taking the Stone out of his pocket and finds that it is, in fact, in his pocket. He tells Quirrell that he sees himself winning the Quidditch cup, but the mysterious voice says he's lying and demands to speak to Harry face to face. Quirrell demurs, but eventually removes his turban to reveal a second face on the back of his head, that of Lord Voldemort. Voldemort orders Quirrell to seize Harry, but Quirrell cannot - his skin burns and blisters when he tries. Quirrell prepares to curse Harry to death but Harry grabs his opponent's face, and Quirrell is in too much pain to utter the jinx. But by now, the pain in Harry's head, from his scar, is enough to drive him out of consciousness.
Harry wakes up in the hospital wing, with Professor Dumbledore in attendance. Dumbledore tells him that Quirrell did not get the stone, that Dumbledore arrived just in time to save Harry from Quirrell, and that the Stone has been destroyed. Yes, that means Nicholas Flamel and his wife Perenelle will die, but they have enough time to get their affairs in order, and "after all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure." Dumbledore agrees with Harry that Voldemort is still out there, possibly looking for another body to inhabit, possibly looking for some other way to return but refuses, for the moment, to explain to Harry why Voldemort wants to kill him. Quirrell could not touch Harry, according to Dumbledore, because Harry's mother died to save him, and a love that strong provides protection against some forms of magic. Dumbledore also admits to having been the source of the Invisibility Cloak which Harry has been using - Harry's father had left it in Dumbledore's care. Dumbledore also mentions that the reason Snape seems to hate Harry so much is because Harry's father saved Snape's life, leaving Snape in his debt, something that has continued to bother Snape. Dumbledore then mentions that Harry got the Stone out of the Mirror because the enchantment on the mirror was such that if someone wanted to use the Stone, they would only see themselves using it, but someone who wanted to find it but not use it, would find it.
After Dumbledore's departure, Ron and Hermione are allowed to visit. Harry lets them know what had happened in the last chamber and what Dumbledore had told him. They come to the conclusion that Dumbledore had allowed Harry to fight Voldemort, if he chose, rather than trying to protect him from Voldemort.
Next day, Harry has another visitor: Hagrid. Hagrid is in tears, because he was the one who had given Quirrell the final piece of information he needed in order to figure out how to reach the Stone. Harry manages to calm him, and Hagrid remembers that he has a gift for Harry. The gift is a photo album, containing wizarding pictures of Harry's parents.
Late in the day, Madam Pomfrey, the nurse, relents and lets Harry go to the end-of-term feast. There, after much good food, Professor Dumbledore rises to award the House Cup. Slytherin is in the lead, in part because without Harry in the final match, Ravenclaw defeated Gryffindor rather badly at Quidditch, and in part because of all the points Harry lost in the Norbert debacle. "However, recent events must be taken into account - I have some last-minute points to dish out." Harry, Ron, Hermione, and – surprisingly – Neville have earned between them enough house points to regain the lead and win the House cup for Gryffindor.
Exam results appear and while Hermione, as expected, is top of her class, both Ron and Harry have managed decent passes, and even Neville has managed to scrape through. And finally it's time for the Hogwarts Express to take everybody back home. Ron and Hermione promise to write, and Ron promises to invite them both to stay with him. And although they have all received notes telling them they are not allowed to do magic outside of school, Harry knows that the Dursleys have no idea about that. "I'm going to have a lot of fun with Dudley this summer..."
[edit] Analysis
Clearly the big surprise here is that it is not Snape, but Quirrell, who is behind the ongoing attack on Harry. We already know of Snape's dislike of Harry, and Harry of course is equally aware of it. It is because of this dislike that Harry has evidently decided Snape is the main mover behind the attacks. It does not occur to Harry that there might be other reasons behind Snape's dislike of him, as it does not occur to him that such obvious dislike would make Snape the main suspect in any attack against Harry. Snape's dislike of Harry is widely known, even among the staff, though Dumbledore seems to discount it somewhat; it is almost certain that Snape will have been interrogated following the attacks on Harry and will have been cleared. Harry apparently assumes that as he has not heard of such questioning, it has not happened. It does not seem to occur to him that teachers might not feel a need to discuss disciplinary details with an 11-year-old student.
Many fan sites have pointed out a discrepancy in this chapter. Hermione says that she found Dumbledore in the Entrance Hall as she was on her way to send an owl to him. Yet the trap door is in the third-floor hallway, and the Owlery, we will find later, is high in the castle, on the seventh floor. Why would Hermione head down to the main floor on her way from the third to the seventh floor? One possible answer to this can actually be found in the Harry Potter films, in which we see a large central stairwell in the castle. Combine that with Percy's earlier warning that the stairways like to move, and it is entirely possible that Hermione, emerging from the third floor corridor, would have found herself on the side of the central stairwell away from the Owlery with no staircases leading upwards at that moment. On her way downwards to find a staircase that would bridge the gap, she might either have been forced all the way to the Entry Hall, or else happened to see Dumbledore, below her, as he returned to the castle.
The speculation provided above is intended to quiet one of the few small issues that can hamper the enjoyment of the story; it is unsupported by anything in the books.
[edit] Questions
[edit] Review
[edit] Further Study
- Why did Dumbledore have Harry's father's invisibility cloak at the time of his death, given that Dumbledore could make himself invisible without a cloak?
[edit] Greater Picture
In this chapter, Harry survives his second encounter with Lord Voldemort, and that which protected him the first time, his mother's love, protects him again, and apparently will continue to protect him. We will later learn that part of this protection is based on his having a home where someone of his mother's blood (in this case, her sister, Harry's Aunt Petunia) lives. This is why Harry must return to Privet Drive each summer, as much as he hates it.
This is also the first place where the seeming hatred between James Potter and Severus Snape is mentioned. This is featured prominently in the later books, especially the fifth. As this apparent hatred is one of the axes on which the series plot turns, we will see it repeatedly over the entire story arc, and will eventually learn the full reasons for it.
One of the key questions driving the series is asked here for the first time, as well, and is not answered. Harry asks why Voldemort is trying to kill him, and Dumbledore says that he must refuse to answer that. We will learn later that there is a prophecy that says that either Harry or Voldemort must die, as "neither can live while the other survives." Dumbledore feels that as a child of 11 years, Harry is still too young to learn this, arguably extremely harsh, fact. The prophecy will be revealed to Harry in four years, along with Dumbledore's reasons for withholding it.
In this chapter, also, Dumbledore voices one of the philosophies that centers the series: "after all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure." This does not, at first glance, seem to be a particularly useful philosophy, but it will turn out that this is the key difference between Voldemort and those who would defeat him. Much of the series revolves around death and the attitudes towards it. Voldemort, we will find, fears death, to the point of killing other people in cold blood in order to preserve his own life. Dumbledore, and to a large extent Harry, are prepared to die, if necessary, to destroy the great evil that Voldemort represents. It is the one who is prepared to meet death, on his own terms, who fully masters it; running away from death will not allow one to avoid it. It is because of this that Harry, we are told, is the stronger wizard when he meets Voldemort and duels him near the end of book 4.
