#19 Harry’s Birthday Blues | CoS 1, The Worst Birthday

Potter Revisited Episode #19 | Harry's Birthday Blues Aka Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Chapter 1 "The Worst Birthday"

• We are on the next book of our reread journey, Chamber of Secrets
• This book was first published in 1999! 
• Tori discusses how she originally skipped this book at first, but it was the first HP movie she saw in theatres
• Both of us are excited for the mystery aspect of this novel, and learning more about the outside Wizarding World and Hogwarts backstory
• Harry is having the worst time with the Dursley's - no surprise there. But poor Hedwig is locked in her cage - Tori worries about her wellbeing 
• Tori questions the fatphobia - specifically around the Dursley's - in the books which seems more jarring reading it now as an adult in 2022 than as a child in the early 2000's
• Shay finds it amusing that the Dursley's are so afraid of Harry, yet he has barely done any spells by this point 
• We both talk about the previous book recaps we get, especially in the earlier books and if it is necessary
• Shay wonders if it is a product of the times and discusses her own reading journey
• This turns into a discussion on how reading was taught to us at school
• Why does Hogwarts assign Summer Homework? What does that entail, and is it graded? Wouldn't it be unfair for students with Muggle families? 
• Why did they keep Harry in his room when the Mason's were coming over? Why didn't they send him to Ms. Figg's or the park - somewhere away from the house?
• Why is Harry so quick to believe that Ron and Hermione don't care about him or forgot about him? 
• Sassy Harry is back with "Well done! You've finally learned the day's of the week!"
• Petunia punishes Harry by making him clean the entire house - Tori wonders if the Dursley's are so focused on appearing upper class if they would have a housekeeper
• Shay believes Petunia needs to have control over her environment so a housekeeper would never work for her
• The neglect Harry is facing from all the Adults in his life is concerning
• Penunia tries to hit him with a frying pan
• No one has heard from Harry all summer but the only ones who seem concerned are Ron and Hermione - who are children
• Once again- WHY DUMBLEDORE???

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Music:

Shelter Song by Alexander Nakarada (www.serpentsoundstudios.com) Licensed under Creative Commons BY Attribution 4.0 License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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