Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Books/Philosopher's Stone/Chapter 6
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Chapter 6 of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: The Journey from Platform Nine and Three Quarters
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[edit] Synopsis
Back at the Dursleys', Harry now has to wait out the month before he can go to Hogwarts. Uncle Vernon agrees to take him to London only because he has to take Dudley to a surgeon to get his pig's tail removed. The Dursleys then leave him standing in the station, unable to find Platform 9-3/4 where his train is supposed to leave.
Harry then spots another apparent wizarding family, and tags along with them to get to the Hogwarts Express. This family, who recognize him for who he is, turn out to be the Weasleys, and Harry is introduced to three of the four Weasley children who are currently attending Hogwarts: Fred, George, and Ron, who ends up sharing a compartment with him. (Percy Weasley is also attending, but he is a Prefect and so rides in the special Prefects compartment at the head of the train.) Ron tells him about the treat, Chocolate Frogs, and the enclosed Famous Wizard cards; Harry gets Albus Dumbledore's card, among others. Ron also happens to mention that there had been a break-in at Gringotts Wizarding Bank in Diagon Alley; Harry is interested in this because of his own recent trip there.
During the trip to school, various other students introduce themselves to him. Neville stops by looking for his toad, Trevor; Hermione Granger stops by shortly afterwards trying to help Neville find Trevor. Draco Malfoy, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle, tries to coerce Harry into an alliance, and when that fails, in part because of Malfoy's bad-mouthing the Weasley family, the three try to steal some of Harry's snacks; in this, they are stopped by Scabbers, Ron's pet rat, who attacks Goyle. Finally, Hermione returns, to let them know that they are about to arrive and should get into uniform.
At Hogsmeade Station, Hagrid reappears to shepherd the first-years down to a fleet of small boats that carry the students across the lake to Hogwarts castle.
[edit] Analysis
Hermione, here in her first appearance of the series, is portrayed as a true grind – a girl whose "know-it-all" attitude is immediately off-putting. Both Harry and Ron dislike her at once... though not in the same way that they dislike the anti-trio, Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, who they immediately despise. It is interesting how Hermione mellows during the course of the series; this ongoing maturation of the characters, especially Hermione and, to a slightly lesser extent, Harry, is a significant part of what makes the overall story so compelling.
Draco's attitude to Ron gives us our first glimpse of the lineage-related prejudice which plagues the wizard world, and is the obsession of Voldemort and most of his followers.
Albus Dumbledore's "Famous Wizards" card is the key that provides a major clue to the riddle that needs to be solved in the course of this book.
[edit] Questions
[edit] Review
[edit] Further Study
[edit] Greater Picture
While much of what Harry reads on Dumbledore's Chocolate Frog card will prove important to the story of this book, it will turn out that it will be somewhat important up until the very end of the series. In part of what will be an almost stunning amount of interconnection between the first of the series and the last, we will find that Grindelwald, mentioned on Dumbledore's Chocolate Frog card, was in fact an influence on the young Dumbledore, and has a large, though not central, role in the final book of the series.
