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Harry wakes up thinking all this must've been a dream, but no - an owl is now tapping on the window, trying to deliver the paper (which of course is the Daily Prophet). We get an explanation of wizard money - which is comically over-complicated, of course. Harry and Hagrid go to London to get Harry's school things. Hagrid explains that Harry does have money, at Gringott's, which is a bank run by goblins. (Hagrid also does unauthorized magic to make the boat go faster. He seems to have his wand remnants hidden in his umbrella.)
A couple of questions:
1. I suppose whoever took them out to the island in the first place shows up eventually to pick the Dursleys back up! (Rowling doesn't ever bother to mention that piece, but I always wondered.)
2. Hagrid may love dragons and everybody else may fear them, but wizards also use their skins to make things. I've always rationalized this in my head by saying that dragons are really hard to kill, so maybe we can assume that dragon skins are so expensive because they only come from dragons who die natural deaths?
Things Harry needs for school:
"Can you buy all this in London?" Harry asks. Hagrid: "If yeh know where to go." (Rowling always makes sure you know Hagrid is low on the social scale.)
NO BROOMSTICKS FOR FIRST-YEARS (must be an ongoing issue) but they may have an owl, a cat, or a toad. (Or apparently, a rat, because nobody ever tries to tell Ron he can't have Scabbers.)
Harry isn't quite sure he believes all this, but on the other hand the Dursleys definitely aren't the kind of people who'd stage practical jokes this elaborate, and who else would bother over poor downtrodden Harry? (Note that Harry being downtrodden is essential to the set-up of these books, because he has to be a likeable character - otherwise the fact that he's practically a rock-star once he gets to the wizarding world would make him totally intolerable!)
A couple of questions:
1. I suppose whoever took them out to the island in the first place shows up eventually to pick the Dursleys back up! (Rowling doesn't ever bother to mention that piece, but I always wondered.)
2. Hagrid may love dragons and everybody else may fear them, but wizards also use their skins to make things. I've always rationalized this in my head by saying that dragons are really hard to kill, so maybe we can assume that dragon skins are so expensive because they only come from dragons who die natural deaths?
Things Harry needs for school:
- 3 sets of plain work robes
- 1 pointed hat for day wear
- 1 winter cloak
- (all of the above in black, with name tags)
- protective gloves, "dragon hide or similar"
- Books: The Standard Book of Spells, A Beginner's Guide to Transformation, A History of Magic (by B.Bagshot), One Thousand Magical Spores and Fungi, Magical Drafts and Potions, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them (by Newt Scamander), The Dark Forces: a guide to self-protection
- also a wand, cauldron (pewter), glass or crystal phials, telescope, brass scales
"Can you buy all this in London?" Harry asks. Hagrid: "If yeh know where to go." (Rowling always makes sure you know Hagrid is low on the social scale.)
NO BROOMSTICKS FOR FIRST-YEARS (must be an ongoing issue) but they may have an owl, a cat, or a toad. (Or apparently, a rat, because nobody ever tries to tell Ron he can't have Scabbers.)
Harry isn't quite sure he believes all this, but on the other hand the Dursleys definitely aren't the kind of people who'd stage practical jokes this elaborate, and who else would bother over poor downtrodden Harry? (Note that Harry being downtrodden is essential to the set-up of these books, because he has to be a likeable character - otherwise the fact that he's practically a rock-star once he gets to the wizarding world would make him totally intolerable!)
