Essay: Blood Sport
When Harry first enters the wizarding world, where someone stands on Quidditch is a metaphor for how well they fit into that world. That Harry takes to flying immediately clearly delineates him as a soldier, a warrior. It also contributes to the animus between him and Draco Malfoy, who first mentions the word “Quidditch” to Harry. For Harry to join the Gryffindor house team as a first year and actually be good at it cements the separation between them. In addition to there being an archetype aligning with each book in the series (see QuantumHarry, the Podcast, Episode 2: This Old Man ), JK Rowling has also engaged in a clever bit of self-referential recursion. Each of the seven obstacles to the Philosopher’s Stone also aligns with one of the seven books in the series, and links to a significant theme in each book. The first obstacle to the Stone is “Fluffy”, the three-headed dog Hagrid loans Dumbledore to guard the trapdoor leading to the Stone. Harry initially sees Fluf
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