Dissection: SS/PS ~ Chapter 1 The Boy Who Lived

[Cameraman Jenn]

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of 4 Privet drive are as normal as can be as far as the outside world is concerned. Mr. Dursley, a thick and beefy man with a big mustache and no neck, sells drills for a living. Mrs. Dursley, a thin blonde woman with extra neck, is a nosy, gossipy housewife raising their spoiled son that they dote upon. As normal as they appear on the outside, they have a secret that they fear being revealed above all others. This secret involves Mrs. Dursley's sister, brother in law and nephew, the Potter family. The Dursleys especially fear interaction between their perfect son and the freaky son of her sister.

The action begins with what seems to be an ordinary morning on what appears to be an ordinary day. Mr. Dursley picks out a tie and goes down to breakfast where he listens to the neighborhood gossip as told by his wife while she wrestles their screaming son into his high chair. Caught up in their ordinary lives, they fail to notice an owl swooping by the window in broad daylight. Mr. Dursley tries to kiss Dudley (his son) goodbye before leaving for work but is unable to do so because Dudley is engaged in throwing a temper tantrum. Rather than be disturbed by this, Mr. Dursley treats it with indulgent amusement.

On his way to work, Mr. Dursley sees a cat reading a map and then reading a street sign. He quickly convinces himself that he was imagining it. Further into his drive he sees people dressed very oddly, including and older man wearing an emerald green cloak. He rationalizes this by convincing himself that these people are involved in some silly stunt or collecting for somehting. When he finally arrives at work he sits with his back against the window so he fails to see the owls swooping by in broad daylight and also the people on the street pointing at the owls. He yells at several people during the morning which seems to put him in a good mood so he decides to stroll to the bakery at lunchtime. During his stroll he encounters more people dressed oddly and this makes him uneasy. On his way back to his office he actually overhears snatches of conversation from these weirdos which name the Potters and also a son called Harry. This floods him with fear.

He immediately rushes bck to his office, snaps at his secretary for privacy in order to call his wife. Once he has phone in hand and the number almost dialed he rethinks this and rationalizes that Potter is a common name and he doesn't even know for sure if the nephew's name is Harry. He is also afraid to anger Mrs. Dursley by bringing up the deep secret surrounding her sister and her sister's family. After a much distracted afternoon, he finally leaves the office and plows into an old man wearing a violet cloak. The man makes some odd comments about celebrating because You-Know-Who is gone at last and also calls Mr. Dursley a muggle. The old man hugs Mr. Dursley and then runs off. Completely rattled, Mr. Dursley goes home only to find the cat from the morning sitting vigil on his garden wall. He tells the cat to shoo and the cat only responds by giving him a stern look. Still more rattled, he resolves not to upset his wife with his fears or experiences.

Over dinner, Mrs. Dursley tells Mr. Dursley about her normal day and all the gossip about the neighbor and the neighbor's daughter. She also tells him that their son learned a new word and the word is "won't." He listens to this with half an ear, still unnerved. After the baby is put to bed and while Mrs. Dursley is making tea, Mr. Dursley turns on the news only to be confronted with reports of owls flying by daylight all over the country and the predicted rains being pre-empted by showers of shooting stars. He is terrified by this and finally feels the need to broach the subject of Mrs. Dursley's sister with Mrs. Dursley and lists the oddities on the news and asks if she thinks it might have something to do with Mrs. Dursley's sister's "crowd." Mrs. Dursley reacts so defensively at the mention of her sister that he tries to play it down and placates himself by asking what the nephew's name is. She tells him Harry and the situation is diffused by them both agreeing that Harry is a nasty common name. As they are readying for bed, Mr. Dursley peeks out the window to find the same cat staring down the street. He manages to partially convince himself this is imagination, something he does not approve of and they drift into sleep.

In the meantime, the cat is still holding vigil and is suddenly rewarded with the appearance of a man, seemingly out of nowhere. The man is tall and thin and very old sporting purple robes and a long silver beard and hair which can tuck into his belt. He has sparkling blue eyes. The man's name is Albus Dumbledore. The man rummages into his cloak and produces what appears to be a cigarette lighter but after several clicks he puts out the streetlights with this device. He approaches the house and sits on the garden wall next to the cat and addresses the cat as Professor McGonagall. The cat then turns into a severe looking woman with glasses and a tight bun in her hair and wearing an emerald green cloak.

They exchange some banter and Dumbledore asks Professor Mcgonagall why she hasn't been celebrating like everyone else. She acts affronted and disgusted about the flagrant celebrations and also seems more concerned about the carelessness of the revelers than anything else. She then gets to the heart of the matter by asking Dumbledore to confirm the rumors that You-Know-Who is really gone. Dumbledore only replies that it seems so and then tries to redirect her questioning by offering her a lemon drop. She refuses and then again asks about You-Know-Who. Dumbledore tries again to avoid a direct answer by admonishing her for not calling You-Know-Who by his real name, Voldemort. She flinches at the name and counters that Dumbledore was the only person Voldemort was frightened of. He counters with Voldemor having powers that he, Dumbledore, could never have. She counters that with a direct statement that this is only because Dumbledore is too noble. He reacts with another redirect about blushing and flattery.

Professor McGonagall's tenacity wins through and she asks Dumbledore if Lily and James Potter are truly dead and that while Voldemort tried to kill Harry, the baby survived and somehow Voldemort's power has been broken. Dumbledore confirms this and says that they can only guess but never know how this came to be. Professor McGonagall is taken aback but quickly recovers and asks what they are doing in this neighborhood. Dumbledore informs her that this is Harry's only living family and that he is to come to live with them. She is aghast and argues, saying that the Dursleys are the worst sort of people and that Harry should not be raised by them. Dumbledore counters with his theory that it is better for Harry to be raised away from all of the hullabaloo and fame and finally she agrees. They bicker a bit more when she discovers that the person responsible for Harry is a man named Hagrid. Dumbledore asserts that he would trust Hagrid with his life.

Suddenly a roaring noise is heard and a huge motorcycle drops out of the sky. A massive man with tangled hair, bearing a bundle approaches the scene. Dumbledore asks Hagrid where he got the motorcycle and Hagrid tells him that he borrowed it from a man named Sirius Black. After ascertaining that the baby is safe, Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall peer into the bundle and see a sleeping baby with a shock of black hair and a lightening shaped scar on his forehead. Professor McGonagall asks Dumbledore if he can remove the scar and he replies that even if he could he wouldn't and that scars can come in handy.

Dumbledore takes the baby from Hagrid and amidst Hagrid's howling goodbye in which he calls Dumbledore "Professor," and Professor McGonagall's shushing of Hagrid, he places him on the doorstep to the Dursley's and tucks a letter into the bundle. They all turn to leave and after restoring the streetlights with his "put-outer" Dumbledore looks back briefly to with a quiet "good luck" to the infant Harry.

Harry Potter, the infant, sleeps on, oblivious to the knowledge that he is special or famous and that he has just been consigned to years of misery by his adjutants.

[Zahir]

In retrospect, several things come to mind.

One is that the Dursleys seem to feel about "Harry" much as Voldemort feels about his own given name "Thomas."

Another is that Dumbledore lies rather a lot, when you think about it. Yet even now, at the very start of seventeen-year-long adventure in writing and reading, an important point is made about the difference between Voldemort and Dumbledore, about the magics they are willing to do. Yet at the same time, Dumbledore himself seems a bit ambivalent about those differences. We get the first hint here of the tragedies in his own personal history, and how he blames himself for them.

I find it also interesting that in the end Dudley Dursley (and is there anything crueller than sticking a kid with a name like that, btw?) eventually "won't" grow up to be quite what his parents desire him to be. Recall who among this family will have any good wishes to be aimed at Harry Potter sixteen years hence!

[dlbpharmd]

Good lead-in, CJ.

[Menolly]

...Jenn's interpretation to follow...

[Cameraman Jenn]

The stage is set. We have our protagonist, Harry, our antagonist, Voldemort, our mentor figure, Dumbledore, our charactor building insufferable oppressors, The Dursleys and a fumbling ally, Hagrid. The tone is also set. There has been a double edged sword event. Harry's parents have been killed, a tradgedy, but the magical world has been freed from fear and oppression because the tyrant has been dethroned. Dumbledore is very vague even when asked directly if Voldemort is gone for good. The magical world has been isolated and hidden from the non-magical world except in the few instances where one is muggleborn. Therefore the Dursley's worst fear is now realized. They are to become responsible for Harry and he is to be raised with their son. This will of course make them excellent and cruel oppressors to help to make Harry stronger for surviving the adversity. There isn't a whole lot to analyze in this chapter since it's really an establishing chapter.

[Menolly]

Excellent, Jenn.

Discuss!

[Zahir]

To the fresh reader, Chapter One also makes an interesting dichotomy right from the start. On the one hand you have the excrutiating conformity and small-mindedness of the Dursleys. But then we also have a hint of a secret, spectacular and very important world from which Harry initially came. And to which we of course expect him to return.

[Seafoam Understone]

That the oppressive Durselys will help mold Harry to be what he will become is evident.
My first reading I recall thinking Vernon was a stereotypical Brit. Snotty, frowns upon anything non-british and an egomanic... if he were stupidly rich this would be even more stereotypical... but it's not how 99% of the brits I've come to know and love really are. So possibly Veron and Petunia are parodies of the stereotyped uptightness Brits are supposedly to be. Rowling definitely takes a sharp tounge-in-cheek poke at these types with the Dursleys.
Muggle= non-magic folk. An odd name but not quite as insulting as Vernon makes it to be. The oddities he sees through the day just reassures him of his own ill-conceived superiority over others.
Very interesting first chapter.