Hogwarts Herald

When looking in depth at Diagon Alley, the thing that hits me is the description of Gringotts. The things that Hagrid tells Harry in this chapter lay silently in the back of our minds, waiting to strike. Hagrid tells Harry you’d be mad to try and rob Gringotts. That the bank extends for hundreds of miles underneath London and how if you did manage to break in and find something that you’d end up starving to death trying to get out. It also goes into there being rumors of dragons guarding the high security vaults at Gringotts. These things you learn in the fifth chapter of the very first book, and then BAM book seven comes along, and right in the middle on the search for Horcruxes, the trio have to do exactly what Hagrid warns Harry about before he has ever taken a step into the magical world. And sure enough, seven years later, there is indeed a dragon there, and it’s only with the help of a Gringotts goblin himself, namely Griphook. Griphook, coincidentally, is the very same goblin who takes Harry down into his vault the very first time.

Enter, stranger, but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed,
For those who take, but do not earn
Must pay most dearly in their turn.
So if you seek beneath our floors
A treasure that was never yours,
Thief, you have been warned, beware
Of finding more than treasure there.

Now, in this chapter we are also introduced to a couple of new characters that will be major players. One is simply a major player in this book, the other is prevalent in the entire series.

First of all, I am taking a look at Professor Quirrell. The most seemingly benign character in the entire book is, in the end, the enemy. Poor Professor Quirrell is shaky and stuttery in the Leaky Cauldron, just at the notion of meeting Harry. Hagrid explains that he was fine, until he took a year off. Apparently there was some trouble in the Black Forest, as well as “a nasty bit of business with a Hag” What we don’t know, is that while he was off studying, he ran into the Dark Lord, and became enticed over to the dark side. He began harboring what was left of Lord Voldemort within his very body. Throughout the rest of the book, this is hinted to, but only really revealed to those who have read it more than once. When Harry is being cursed off his broom, for example, Quirrell is right there behind Snape. But because Snape is such a malevolent character the children, and therefore the readers, focus on him. I’d like to say that I suspected Quirrell from the beginning, but I didn’t. This book, being the very first, took me completely by surprise. I didn’t spend my spare time coming up with theories on it as I did for books six and seven. And hooray for that. I am pleased that at the end of Sorcerers Stone, when Harry finally makes it into that last chamber, I was genuinely shocked to see Professor Quirrell standing there.

The second major character we meet in this chapter is Draco Malfoy. Draco appears, in this chapter, to be merely a spoiled snotty child, but as the books unfold his character becomes very multi dimensional. While he is indeed a snob, and a spoiled brat, he is also the product of evil parents. He is raised in a household where abuse is prevalent. Not only is their servant, the loyal Dobby, continuously abused, but Draco is encouraged to be abusive to anyone considered beneath the family. By Half-Blood Prince Draco has become a rather sympathetic character, suffering the consequences for his parents sins. And while Draco will never be one of my favorite people in the world, he is one of my favorite characters. Just like all of Jo’s villians, he is flawed and broken. That is what makes him bad, and this is what makes me love him.