#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??? Email any thoughts, questions or feedback to [email protected] 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/ Follow Us:  Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/potterrevisited Twitter https://twitter.com/potterevisited Instagram https://www.instagram.com/potterrevisited_/ Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4v2Xt0OIQ8_LCVYhKf2S5A TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@potterrevisited