HP1- Chapter5- Diagon Alley

[Serenoli]

Chapter Five, Diagon Alley, opens with a half-asleep Harry, convinced that everything that had happened was a dream. Luckily for him, and for us, it wasn’t. A knocking owl wakes him up, and soon, he and Hagrid are on their way to Diagon Alley.

The main events that occur are as follows:

-They travel to the Leaky Cauldron in London, where we meet Professor Quirrel, t-the n-n-nerv-vous DADA teacher, and then to Diagon Alley itself.
-The trip to Gringott, to get Harry’s gold, and the all-important ‘small grubby package’.
-Madam Malkin’s to get school robes, and make the acquiantance of Draco Malfoy.
-Parchment, inks, the introduction of Quidditch, cauldrons, scales, phials, apothecary and all the rest. Then, finally, Hedwig the snowy owl, and a wand at Ollivander’s.
-Once they’re done, they leave the Leaky, have a hamburger, and after giving Harry the Hogwart’s train ticket, and handing him into another train to get back to the Dursleys, Hagrid leaves.

A highly enjoyable chapter, in fact. Diagon Alley effectively summarises the wizarding world for us, hands it to us in a nutshell, giving us loads of information ranging from hags to broomsticks disguised as a shopping trip. Did anyone else love the names of the school textbook authors? Switch writes transfiguration, and Spore gets the herbology book, and of course, Magical Theory is written by Waffling. A very humourous chapter, with lots of little jokes everywhere.

But, as always, clues everywhere as well. Meeting Quirrel, who’s there to rob Gringotts, and the Philosopher’s Stone. Poor Harry, he didn’t know the title of the book, or he might have figured out what the package contained at once. When you first read it, what did you think the all-important package contained?

Then Hagrid mentions dragons, and how he’d always wanted one. More foreshadowing.

Discussion points:

What are your first impressions of the wizarding world from Diagon Alley? How is it different from your expectations gotten from reading the first four chapters?

What was the point of Ollivander’s measuring tape? As far as I saw, he handed him completely random wands, with little in common…

And the appropriate thread for the question: how DID the Dursleys get home?

Do you think any of the folk from the Leaky Cauldron will make any appearances in the 7th book? Or were they just extras?

Also, how does Hagrid fly? Maybe he came on that bike of Sirius', because I've never seen a broom near him... but other than the first chapter, I've never seen the flying motorcycle either. Any ideas where that could be?

And, this is obviously something we wont know on our first reading, but any theories on how Quirrel/Voldy managed to get in the vault without getting sucked in and being trapped for ten years?

I’ve written this on very short notice, and because I’m anticipating my A level results tomorrow , I can’t even postpone and take time to hone it better, so forgive me for the shortness, or the lamentably low number of discussion points I could think of… If I can think of more, I’ll come back and post. Meanwhile, enjoy!