Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 2: The Scar

1. What wakes Harry from his dream?

2. True or False: Harry experienced his dream about the Riddle house through Frank Bryce’s point of view.

3. Besides Ron and Hermione, to whom does Harry consider and decide against writing a letter about his scar?

4. What creatures delivered the two letters Harry received from Sirius?

5. Which Quidditch book lies open by Harry’s bed?

6. Angry about his diet, Dudley breaks his Playstation, and now he’s unable to play which of his favorite games?

7. Who did Harry think Ron would ask her help about his scar?

8. In his letter to Sirius, to whom does Harry tell him to say hello for him?

9. True or False: Harry is told by Sirius he is hiding out in the tropics of Portugal, far from Ministry wizards.

10. Whose voice did Harry remember clearly from his dream?

For Your Reflection: The opening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has curious parallels with the opening of the fourth Hogwarts Saga novel, Goblet of Fire, most obviously an opening chapter featuring the Dark Lord and his minion(s) murdering an innocent victim and a follow-up chapter where we find The Boy Who Lived in his bedroom at Privet Drive. List three other parallels — and, working from the chiastic principle that ‘The Meaning is in the Middle,’ think about why would Rowling begin the fourth and central novel of her seven book series with a chapter focusing on Harry Potter’s scar. Is this a pointer to the heart of the series, the ending of Goblet, or both?

Answers. 1. His scar (p 16) 2. False (17) 3. Dumbledore (21) 4. Tropical birds (24) 5. Flying with the Cannons (18) 6. Mega-Mutilation Part Three (25) 7. Mr. Weasley (22) 8. Buckbeak (25) 9. False (24) 10. Voldermort’s (17)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 3: The Knight Bus

1. What color is the Knight Bus?
2. True or False? Harry gave the false name Vernon Dudley to the Knight Bus conductor.
3. Where did the witch Madame Marsh get off of the Knight Bus?
4. What was the title of the Daily Prophet article concerning Sirius Black that Stan Shunpike was reading?
5. The full name of the Knight Bus’ driver is what?
6. Where did Harry ask to be taken by the Knight Bus, and where did they drop him off?
7. Who met Harry outside the Leaky Cauldron?
8. Which Wizarding Decree did Harry tell the Minister he broke?
9. True or False? Hedwig was waiting for Harry with Cornelius Fudge.
10. To what number room of the Leaky Cauldron was Harry guided by Tom the Innkeeper?

For Your Reflection: Of all Harry’s journeys from Privet Drive to the Wizarding World, the one he takes on the Knight Bus in Prisoner of Azkaban is perhaps the most exciting and surprising. Harry is convinced at the chapter’s start that he must run from the Powers that Be who will be coming to get his wand and winds up, after a wild ride on one of Rowling’s funniest magical Muggle-Equivalencies, being lauded and reassured by the Minister of Magic himself. The chapter can be read, in fact, as a telescoped version of the heroes journey Harry takes in the whole Prisoner novel. Compare and contrast the Cornelius Fudge of this chapter with the one at Hogwarts at story’s end and his comments about escaped criminals in both.

Answers: 1. Violently purple (33); 2. False. He told him it was Neville Longbottom (34); 3. Abergavenny (36); 4. Black Still at Large ( 37); 5. Ernie Prang (35); 6. Diagon Alley and The Leaky Cauldron(41); 7. Cornelius Fudge (42); 8. The Decree for the Restriction of Underage Sorcery (45); 9. False. She was waiting for him in his new room (47); 10. Number 11 (46).

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Chapter Two: Dobby’s Warning

1. Dobby bursts into tears after Harry asks him to do what?

2. True or False? After he inadvertently insulted his masters, Dobby started to punish himself by banging his head into the window

3. How does Dobby plan to punish himself after coming to warn Harry Potter?

4. What impossible request does Dobby ask of Harry to protect him?

5. What name does Dobby use for Voldemort?

6. According to an irate Uncle Vernon, Dobby’s commotion had ruined the punch line of his what?

7. True or False? After Harry refuses not to go back to Hogwarts, Dobby drops Aunt Petunia’s giant pudding onto Mrs. Mason’s head

8. From what department in the Ministry of Magic was the letter to Harry accusing him of the Hover Charm Dobby used?

9. Along with having bars fitted to his window, what did Uncle Vernon personally fit into Harry’s bedroom door?

10. After waking up from a strange dream, whom does Harry see outside his window?

For Your Reflection: With Ron’s appearance at Harry’s window, we have had two chapters in a row with cliffhanger closing a hurry-up-and-turn-the-page chapter. Why does Rowling start her book this way? What effect does the surprise appearance at the end of each chapter have on the reader?

Answers: 1. Sit down (p.13); 2. True (p.14); 3. Shut his ears in the oven door (p.14); 4. Not to go back to Hogwarts (p.16); 5. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (p.15); 6. Japanese golfer joke (p.18); 7. False: he drops it in the kitchen (p.19); 8. Improper Use of Magic Office (p.21); 9. A cat flap (p.22); 10. Ron Weasley (p.23)

I am writing a Hogwarts Professor Substack post on the ‘Pregnancy Traps’ that run through Rowling’s work from Harry Potter to Cormoran Strike. What better chapter to choose, then, for our Sunday quiz questions, Half-Blood Prince edition, than the chapter in which Harry dives into the Pensieve with Dumbledore via Bob Ogden’s memory to meet Merope Gaunt and read about her love for the muggle Tom Riddle?

It’s the ‘Pregnancy Trap’ that failed — and which gave the world the psychopathic Lord Voldemort. Enjoy!

Chapter 10: The House of Gaunt

1. True/False? On his way to his first private lesson with Dumbledore, Harry saw and hid from Professor Trelawney.
2. What was the password to Dumbledore’s office?
3. What object did Dumbledore use to store his memories?
4. True/False? After Dumbledore could not open a crystal memory-storage bottle, Harry pulled out the cork for him.
5. In Bob Ogden’s memory, what was nailed to the Gaunts’ door?
6. What two objects did Mr. Gaunt show Bob Ogden?
7. What was the name of Tom Riddle Senior’s lady friend?
8. Who was Voldemort’s mother?
9. What object from the Gaunts’ house did Dumbledore wear?
10. Who repaired the pot that Merope broke?

Essay Prompt/Discussion Topic: Merope’s Pregnancy Trap is actually her second move to win Tom Riddle, Sr’s love. The first thing she does, according to Dumbledore’s best guess at least, is brew a potent love potion and enchant him with it. It is only, again per Dumbledore’s speculation, when she elects to release him from the potion’s effect (in the hope that their marriage and her being ‘with child’ will win him over) that the Pregnancy Trap is sprung — and fails. How does Merope Gaunt’s love potion resemble and differ in intention and effect from the ones used by Molly Weasley and Romilda Vane?

Answers: 1. True (195) 2. Acid pops (196) 3. The Pensieve (198) 4. False: Dumbledore used his wand (199) 5. A snake (201) 6. Slytherin’s locket and the black stone ring (207) 7. Cecilia (209) 8. Merope Gaunt (112) 9. The black stone ring (215) 10. Ogden (205)

 

In the fifth Sunday Potter quiz posting, I continue our week-by-week march through the series one chapter from each of the seven books, one at a time, in sequence. We’re up to Order of the Phoenix, naturally, and I have chosen the chapter in which we get our first long meeting with perhaps Rowling’s most inspired student character, Luna Lovegood. Enjoy!

Phoenix Chapter Ten: Luna Lovegood

1. True or False? When first Harry meets her, Luna Lovegood is reading a magazine upside down and is wearing a necklace of butterbeer caps and Spectrespecs.

2. When Ginny tells Harry and Neville that Luna is in Ravenclaw, she says what Ravenclaw related rhyme?

3. What extremely rare magical plant did Neville show to Harry, Ginny and Luna?

4. And where did Neville’s great-uncle Algie buy it for him as a present?

5. Who unexpectedly enters Harry’s compartment to see him covered in Stinksap and clutching Neville’s toad Trevor?

6. Who are the Slytherin prefects Ron and Hermione meet in the prefects’ compartment?

7. True or False? Harry reads in Luna’s copy of The Quibbler about how Sirius is actually the false name of Stubby Boardman, lead singer of the wizarding band the Hobgoblins.

8. The magazine also claims that which Quidditch team is winning the League due to blackmail, illegal broom tampering and torture?

9. Who, to Harry’s befuddlement, was overseeing the first years on the train platform instead of Hagrid?

10. Who was the only other student who could also see the strange horses who pulled the Hogwarts carriages?

Essay Prompt-Discussion Topic:

Miss Lovegood’s first name is the Latin word for ‘moon.’ Explore the senses of lunar that are especially apt and those that are deceptive with respect to this remarkable character, e.g., the moon’s illumining glow is the sun’s reflected light that shines in the darkness and the Latin word luna is also the foundation of the English word ‘lunatic.’

Answers:

1. False, no Spectrespecs (185); 2. ‘Wit beyond measure is man’s greatest treasure,’ (186); 3. Mimbulus mimbletonia (186); 4. Assyria (186); 5. Cho Chang (187); 6. Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson (188); 7. True (191-192); 8. The Tutshill Tornadoes (193); 9. Prof. Grubbly-Plank (196); 10. Luna Lovegood (199)