Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Books/Philosopher's Stone/Chapter 5
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Chapter 5 of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: Diagon Alley
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[edit] Synopsis
Harry wakes up to find an owl attacking Hagrid's coat. Hagrid tells him to give the owl five Knuts, which turn out to be odd-looking coins, and they set off for London. Walking down the street, Harry notices Muggles (non-magical folk) are looking at them strangely and are scrambling to let Hagrid pass.
After climbing broken down escalators to the London Underground and getting Hagrid stuck at the ticket barrier (and after complaints from Hagrid that the seats were too small and trains too slow), they finally reach Central London.
Soon, they reach a place called the Leaky Cauldron. Harry notices the Muggles' gaze traveling from the record shop on one side to the bookstore on the other side, not noticing the pub in-between. He has a feeling that of those present, only Hagrid and himself can see it.
On entering the pub, Harry is greeted enthusiastically by many excited people, including one Quirrell, who Hagrid says will be teaching Harry about Defence Against the Dark Arts. Leaving the Leaky Cauldron, Harry and Hagrid find themselves in a small courtyard behind the pub. While Harry thinks over the responses of the people, Hagrid starts counting the bricks on top of the bin with his umbrella. He then taps a brick three times and a hole appears, getting bigger and bigger, and turns into an archway. They enter Diagon Alley.
Harry and Hagrid walk past the wizard shops to the end of the street, where Gringotts, the wizard bank, stands. At Gringotts, Hagrid provides the key to Harry's parents' vault, and a note authorizing him to enter another vault on behalf of Dumbledore. After a high-speed cart ride with Griphook the goblin (which makes Hagrid queasy), they reach Harry's vault, which is full of wizard money (galleons, sickles and knuts). Hagrid helps Harry draw enough for school supplies and a year at school, and educates him on the wizard monetary system. After another cart ride, Hagrid removes the only contents of vault seven hundred thirteen, a small grubby parcel, without explaining what it is.
Back on the surface, Harry, with Hagrid's assistance, buys school supplies. He meets another first-year Hogwarts student who seems quite full of himself; but before introductions can be completed, Harry's robes are finished and he moves on to buy other supplies: books, a cauldron, a telescope, and potion supplies. For his birthday, Hagrid buys him an owl, Hedwig. Finally, at Ollivander's, Harry buys a wand, which turns out, according to Mr. Ollivander, to be twin to the one sold to Voldemort, each being made with one of the only two tail-feathers ever given by one particular phoenix.
[edit] Analysis
Harry is amazed that he is so respected by these people. Without realizing it, he is famous, a hero to an entire people. In this chapter, we see Harry's reaction to fame; mostly, he is a bit embarrassed, because he feels he has done nothing to deserve the adulation that is being cast his way. We will be contrasting this with the behaviour of someone who lives for fame in the next book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
We are also here, for the first time, exposed to the parallel Wizarding economy, and to the magical creatures that exist in the Wizarding world. We meet goblins, and hear about phoenixes, dragons, unicorns, hags, and vampires; this is our first intimation that these creatures out of mythology may have a real, parallel existence.
Harry finds that having a wand related to Voldemort's makes him uneasy; while Ollivander sees it as an indication that Harry will be a great wizard, Harry finds it disturbing that he could have even that small a similarity to a wizard who is universally seen as evil, further evidence of his admirable character. The provenance of the magical core of Harry's wand will become important in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
[edit] Questions
[edit] Review
- Hagrid says that the Wizarding monetary system is simple. Is it?
[edit] Further Study
- We see that Harry and Hagrid get off the island by using the same boat that Harry and the Dursleys used to get there. If Harry and Hagrid take the only boat on the whole island, how did the Dursleys get home?
- When asked how he had gotten to the island, Hagrid reported that he had flown there. Apparently, wizards cannot fly without equipment such as a broom, a flying car or motorcycle, or a flying carpet. How could Hagrid fly there?
[edit] Greater Picture
The "small, grubby parcel" that Hagrid removes from the vault will turn out to be the titular Philosopher's Stone (US: Sorcerer's Stone), which will be the effective center of this book's plot. Harry, with his limited classical education, does not understand why this stone should be so prized, but its function will be explained to him by a classmate, Hermione Granger.
Mention is made of Harry's humility, above. While this character trait will serve him well, it will for a long time be masked by his unique position as "the Boy Who Lived". Harry will defeat Voldemort repeatedly, and in the process will begin to believe that he is the only one who can perform certain activities. Close examination will reveal that while he accepts, to some extent, the description of himself as a hero, he does not use this as a way of increasing status; rather, he sees it as increasing his obligations. Late in the series, he becomes known as The Chosen One, as the Ministry tries to use him as a means of showing that they are doing something; despite being thrust into the limelight in this manner, Harry does not use his fame as a way of improving his lot, instead shunning it so that he can continue the mission he has been given.
It is mentioned in the description of Ollivander's that the window display consists of a single wand on a cushion. We will find out in later books, notably Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, that Voldemort has been hunting artifacts of the Founders in order to make them into Horcruxes. It was suggested that the wand in Ollivander's window is Rowena Ravenclaw's; this might have had something to do with Ollivander's disappearance in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince as well. It turns out, however, that the artifact of Ravenclaw's that Voldemort was after had been found by him many years before; he had located her lost diadem, and had turned it into a Horcrux before he met Harry.
The idea that "The wand chooses the wizard" will also become a key point in the larger story. It will become particularly important in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
