Blog Post 1: Prompt 2

With a seven book series, there has got to be some serious character development for it to stand out as a “great series” and Rowling develops her characters flawlessly, starting with The Sorcerer’s Stone. The character development is crucial in raising expectations, pushing and pulling us as readers to unintentionally assume things about these characters.

I have always found Hermione to be a fascinating character. We first see her as an irritating know-it-all, seemingly blind deaf and dumb to her schoolmates’ distaste for her over-the-top show in classes. She seems rather pompous and arrogant, but she is fleshed out when her feelings are hurt by Ron’s comments before the Halloween feast. She quickly evolves from an annoying character in the background to a major player in the series, which for me was pretty unexpected. Our first impression of her is that she wouldn’t set a toe out of line, and certainly wouldn’t go looking for trouble, and yet she is the one who puts together so much of the Nicholas Flamel information in Book 1, pushing the plot forward and leading us to a very unexpected conclusion. In Book 2, it is Hermione who suggests the Polyjuice Potion, which even she admits, would be breaking about 50 school rules. While she is this extremely “brainiac” type, she also has a rebellious side.

Rereading this series, I have taken a particular interest in Professor Snape. From any angle, he seems like “The Bad Guy” in just about any situation he is in. It seems so obvious that he would be the one to be helping Voldemort reclaim his powers. His hatred for Harry, is affinity for the Dark Arts, his clear preferential treatment of his own house, Slytherin, all point to him being a pretty awful guy. And yet, it is Snape who saves Harry during the Quidditch match; it is Snape who figures out what Quirrell is up to; it is Snape who attempts to stop him on Halloween. We expect Professor Snape to be a relatively flat character, cruel and scary and that’s about it. We are proven quite wrong when he proves to be one of “the good guys” protecting the Sorcerer’s Stone.

Ginny Weasley really begins to play a role in the series in The Chamber of Secrets and she definitely played with our expectations. I personally thought she was acting so strange through a majority of the book because 1-she had a crush on Harry, and like any 11 year old, she didn’t have any idea how to interact with a crush, let alone her brother’s best friend (awkward), and 2-she was 11 and a bunch of really awful and terrifying things were happening at Hogwarts, so no wonder she was constantly scared and anxious. SURPRISE! She’d been doing all those terrifying things! Definitely didn’t expect little Ginny Weasley to be the one opening the Chamber of Secrets and terrorizing the school the entire year. Many times we as readers were reminded that the Chamber of Secrets required knowledge of an immense amount of dark magic, so the last thing we would expect would be a first year to pull all that off. All she wanted was a place to release all those awkward preteen feelings, and for a while she found that in Tom Riddle’s diary.

Even Riddle’s diary misdirects our expectations. We think it is a reliable journey into the past, when in reality it was the key to unlock the Chamber of Secrets. We think Tom is an admirable student, and very similar to Harry, (and in many ways he is, setting up more expectations in reference to links between himself and Harry for later in the series). For one thing, I didn’t expect Tom Riddle to be, not simply evil, but the Heir of Slytherin. I also didn’t expect him to be what he hates most, a non-pureblood wizard. From what we have learned through the first book and a half of Voldemort, we unintentionally assume he must be a pureblood, so the revelation that his father was a Muggle takes readers for a loop.

More than anything, we must remember to expect the unexpected in this series. These are some highlights of unexpected twists within the first two books, the largest ones that will continue to evolve through the series. But even smaller characters, like Dobby, twist our expectations, (I couldn’t believe Dobby was the Malfoys’ house elf because he was trying to save Harry, or that he was behind so many strange things like closing the platform and trying to hurt Harry in Quidditch.) Rowling sets us up only to knock us down with twists that in the moment seem unbelievable, but upon looking back seem so clear. She puts pieces together that don’t seem to fit but that create an infinitely more interesting story than the one we would expect.