Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
164 lines (120 loc) · 4.38 KB

9.md

File metadata and controls

164 lines (120 loc) · 4.38 KB
Raw
Title Redacted
  • note
  • spoiler

This is part of a multi-chapter arc, and the title is hidden to avoid spoiling a crucial plot-point. In particular, the title is Self Awareness, referring specifically to the Sorting Hat achieving self-awareness due to Harry's unique perspective.

All your base are belong to J. K. Rowling.
  • note
  • reference

A reference to All Your Base Are Belong To Us.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_your_base_are_belong_to_us

You never did know what tiny event might upset the course of your
master plan.
  • title-quote

This is a flash-forward to later in the chapter, when Harry is relieved that Draco is sorted into Slytherin.

Harry glanced over briefly at his new House-mate, more to get a quick
look at the face than anything else. He was still trying to get
himself under control from his encounter with the ghosts. The sad, the
really sad, the really truly sad thing was that he did seem to be
getting himself under control again. It seemed ill-fitting. Like he
should have taken at least a day. Maybe a whole lifetime. Maybe just
never.
  • spoiler

Harry's first reaction upon seeing the ghosts was to believe that nobody had ever really died (39/I thought there was an afterlife). He was understandably upset to learn that this was not the case.

"I mean -" Harry whispered. "Not that I have a problem with that -
it's just - I mean - how's that possible? You can't just mix two
different species together and get viable offspring! It ought to
scramble the genetic instructions for every organ that's different
between the two species - it'd be like trying to build," they didn't
have cars so he couldn't use a scrambled-engine-blueprints analogy, "a
half-carriage half-boat or something..."
  • spoiler

Harry later concludes that all magical humanoids are just humans with weird magic genes. // TODO: find chapter link

And talk about your foregone conclusions. Harry didn't see why
Hermione had been so tense about it. In what weird alternative
universe would that girl not be Sorted into Ravenclaw? If Hermione
Granger didn't go to Ravenclaw then there was no good reason for
Ravenclaw House to exist.
  • original

Hermione obviously has the traits of a Ravenclaw, but in the original series she is put into Gryffindor. A common criticism of the original series is that Gryffindor is the "good" house, Slytherin is the "bad" house, and the other two are just filler.

Professor McGonagall called "Perks, Sally-Anne!", and from the
gathered children detached a pale waifish girl who looked oddly
ethereal - like she might mysteriously disappear the moment you
stopped looking at her, and never be seen again or even remembered.
  • original

This sounds like a joke about the original series, where this character was mentioned once to be in Harry's year, but was never mentioned again.

"Save us from some more Dark Lords!" called one of the Weasley twins,
and then the other Weasley twin cried, "Especially if they're
Professors!" to general laughter from all the tables except
Slytherin.
  • foreshadowing
  • spoiler

One of the professors is a Dark Lord (Quirrell is Voldemort), although the Weasleys are just implying Severus Snape is evil.

And Severus Snape gripping his empty wine goblet, white-knuckled, so
hard that the silver was slowly deforming.
  • spoiler

Severus Snape has very complicated feelings about Harry. He was in love with Harry's mother, hated his father, and arguably caused both their deaths. He may also already know something about Harry's mysterious dark side at this point.

More likely, however, he's just playing the part expected of the Evil Potions Master (it is later revealed that he is very good at keeping up this act).

Its song had implied so: Oh, I'm the Sorting Hat and I'm okay, I sleep
all year and I work one day...
  • reference
  • link

This is not the actual sorting hat song, but instead it is a reference to The Lumberjack Song by Monty Python: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgaRd4d8hOY

In the back of his mind, he wondered if the Sorting Hat was genuinely
conscious in the sense of being aware of its own awareness, and if so,
whether it was satisfied with only getting to talk to eleven-year-olds
once per year.
  • spoiler
  • foreshadowing

Ironically, the hat becomes conscious when Harry puts it on precisely because he is thinking this.