Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Books/Philosopher's Stone/Chapter 9
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Chapter 9 of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: The Midnight Duel
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[edit] Synopsis
Harry is dismayed to find out, in his second week of school, that flying lessons are also going to be shared with Slytherin house, and because he has no idea about how to fly, he will be subject to ridicule from Draco Malfoy, who has become as well-loved by Harry as cousin Dudley.
Neville receives a Remembrall from his grandmother, which Draco attempts to steal, but is prevented from doing so by the arrival of Professor McGonagall.
At the flying lesson, Neville falls off his broom and injures himself. The instructor, Madam Hooch, takes him off to the hospital wing, ordering the rest of the class to stay on the ground. Draco spots Neville's Remembrall on the ground, and takes off to place it in a tree for Neville to fetch later. Harry flies off after him, and finds that flying on a broomstick is something he is naturally good at. Draco changes his mind and throws the Remembrall away in the air, but Harry dives after it and catches it mid-air, just inches above the ground. He is immediately accosted by Professor McGonagall, who has been watching from her office. Professor McGonagall drags him away from the lesson, apparently in disgrace, but then introduces him to the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, Oliver Wood, and tells him Harry's the new Seeker.
Surprised to find Harry at dinner that evening, Draco challenges Harry to a Wizard's Duel in the trophy room at midnight. Ron volunteers to be Harry's second. As Harry and Ron leave the common room later that night, circumstance adds Neville and Hermione to the party. As they reach the trophy room, they hear Filch looking for them. Evidently Draco had no intention of showing up, but simply sent Filch after Harry to get him in trouble. Making a run for it because Peeves yelled that he found students out of bed, Harry's group end up in the forbidden third-floor corridor, looking for a place to hide. Though they do avoid Filch, they are dismayed to find that their hiding place is occupied also by a huge three-headed dog. Managing to escape, they return to the common room, where Hermione points out that the dog was standing on a trap door and apparently guarding something. Harry leaps to the conclusion that the dog was guarding the package that Hagrid had taken from the vault at Gringotts.
[edit] Analysis
This is one of the happiest chapters, at least initially, of Harry's early school career. We've seen how he felt initially out of place – apart from the natural dislocation of being in a new school, Harry has had to deal with sudden celebrity, and the associated ongoing feeling that he's a bit of a fraud. This is compounded by the fact that he doesn't seem to be able to do magic with the natural fluidity of some of his peers, such as Hermione (it seems that she knows anything that can be learned from a book, while Harry has to muddle along). Harry is also concerned that his years of living among Muggles, particularly those Muggles, may have crippled his magical abilities – all the other students will have had magical upbringings and will bring an understanding to the school that he does not have.
In this situation, imagine his joy to discover that flying on a broomstick is something magical that he can do, not only naturally and well, but better than anyone else in the class. Compound this with the discovery that his father also flew well, that he will not have to attend further flying classes with the Slytherins, that the school will be providing him with a top-quality broom for use in Quidditch matches... and you can see that by dinner time, Harry could likely fly from sheer joy, without needing a broom.
The Wizards' duel, which may appear somewhat arbitrary, is a natural progression; Draco has been humiliated, and he must have his revenge. And for Draco, betraying Harry (and, peripherally, Ron) to Filch would be every bit as satisfying as beating him, if he could, personally, at a duel, and carries much less risk of further humiliation – what if Harry met him at the duel and actually beat him? This is also a glimpse of the lack of courage to act for himself which will later land Draco in more trouble than he can imagine.
It is also necessary for Harry to find clues to the location of Hagrid's grubby little package. It will seem that many different people are all seeking that one small thing... and Harry of course will have to know where it is if he is to do his part in keeping it safe.
[edit] Questions
[edit] Review
[edit] Further Study
[edit] Greater Picture
The trap door under the three-headed dog Fluffy is one of the many Hogwarts secrets foreshadowed in the previous chapter. The trap door also provides a huge question to be answered in this series: "What is under the trap door?" If the dog is guarding Hagrid's parcel, then one must question what else could lie beneath the floors of the castle. Hogwarts holds many secrets that will be discovered in later books.
