The Vanishing Glass (PS)
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The Vanishing Glass is the second chapter in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
Contents |
The cupboard under the stairs
Ten years have passed since the end of The Boy Who Lived. The Dursleys' home is practically unchanged, with the exception of the many photographs of their son Dudley, now an eleven-year-old, on the mantlepiece. There is no indication that Harry Potter inhabits the house: the boy lives in the cupboard under the stairs; it is full of spiders, but he has learned not to mind them.
Harry has "a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair and bright-green eyes". His hair seems permanently messy and in need of a haircut. He wears round glasses held together with Sellotape due to the many times Dudley has punched him. The only remarkable thing about his appearance is the lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead, which, according to Petunia, is the result of the car crash in which his parents were killed.
Weird things tend to happen around Harry, but he does not cause them consciously:
- When Aunt Petunia, exasperated at the state of his hair, cut it with the kitchen scissors (except for the fringe, which she preserved "to hide that horrible scar". Harry spent the night awake on his bed, dreading going to school the following day; when he got up, his hair was exactly as it had been before the haircut.
- "Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old jumper of Dudley's (brown with orange bobbles). The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a glove puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Harry."
- "He'd got into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens. Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when, much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, he was sitting on the chimney. The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings. But all he'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big bins outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid-jump."
Odd strangers also compliment Harry on the street from time to time; they vanish whenever he does a double take.
- "A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him while shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley."
- "A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at him once on a bus."
- "A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word."
Dudley's birthday
Aunt Petunia harshly wakes Harry up from his dream of a flying motorbike—it felt oddly familiar to him, for some reason. She wants him to watch the frying bacon in the kitchen, to avoid anything going wrong on Dudley's birthday. The table is covered with presents, including a computer and a racing bike, but the boy complains when he sees them: there are only thirty-seven, as opposed to the previous year's thirty-eight. Petunia, fearing a tantrum, says that they will buy two more presents while going out that same day.
The phone rings: it's Mrs. Figg, claiming that she has broken a leg and cannot watch over Harry for the day. She is "a mad old lady who [lives] two streets away. Harry [hates] it there. The whole house [smells] of cabbage and Mrs Figg [makes] him look at photographs of all the cats [she's] ever owned."
Vernon suggests phoning his sister Marge, but his wife refuses to do so, because Marge hates Harry. Petunia's friend Yvonne is on holiday in Majorca. When Harry asks to be left in the house, Petunia is horrified at the thought of coming back to the house in ruins. Petunia muses that they could take him to the zoo and leave them in the car; Vernon reminds her that the car is new, and he wouldn't let Harry alone in it. Dudley then begins to throw a tantrum, pretending to cry, and wails that he doesn't want Harry (who "ruins everything") to come to the zoo.
Suddenly, Piers Polkiss arrives with his mother, interrupting the tantrum. Harry ends up going to the zoo with Petunia, Vernon, Dudley and Piers, after being threatened with confinement in the cupboard until Christmas.
The zoo
At the zoo, the Dursleys buy Piers and Dudley large chocolate ice-creams, and to Harry a cheap lemon ice lolly—because the smiling lady in the van asked him what he wanted before they could hurry him away.
Harry walks a little apart from the rest of the family, to prevent Dudley and Piers, who are starting to get bored, from remembering to use him as a punch-bag.
They eat lunch at the zoo restaurant, and Harry is allowed to finish Dudley's knickerbocker glory. After lunch, they go to the reptile house. Dudley quickly finds the largest snake at the place, which is big enough to wrap itself twice around Vernon's car. It is, however, sleeping. At his son's request, Vernon futilely tries to attract the reptile's attention by rapping the glass with his knuckles.
Dudley walks away, leaving Harry alone with the snake. He feels sorry for it; he can imagine how terrible and lonely it must be to be displayed as a freak show all day long.
The boa constrictor
The snake opens its eyes, and winks at Harry. He winks back. Somehow, the two communicate quite well: the boa constrictor complains to the boy that it frequently sees the sort of behaviour Vernon has just displayed. It also points out to Harry that it was born in Brazil and bred in a zoo.
Just then, Piers notices what's going on, and calls Dudley and Vernon to watch the snake. Harry finds himself shoved away, and the two boys stare at the reptile through the glass in front of the tank. Suddenly, the glass vanishes, and the snake slithers out to the floor, saying goodbye to Harry and snapping playfully at the heels of Dudley and Piers in passing.
Aftermath
Everyone in the reptile house panics. Piers and Dudley greatly exaggerate the snake's actions, causing Mr. and Mrs. Dursley to be even more frightened. After a while, Piers remembers that Harry had been talking to the boa constrictor.
Vernon waits for Polkiss to leave the house to punish Harry. Out of his mind with fury, he barely manages to order Harry into the cupboard (where the boy is to remain without receiving any meals) before collapsing on an armchair.
Harry lies on his cupboard later on, thinking about his parents. He remembers nothing of their death except for a flash of green light, and the Dursleys refuse to talk about them.
Quote
Boa constrictor: "Brazil, here I come... Thanksss, amigo."
Trivia
- Dudley's birthday is on a Saturday.
- Harry is small and skinny for his age, and appears even more so than he is due to his oversized hand-me-downs.
- Harry is Dudley's favourite punch-bag, but he has learned to escape before being beaten.
- Dudley's presents:
- A racing bike;
- A cine-camera (broken in PS3);
- A remote-control airplane (crashed soon afterwards);
- Sixteen computer games;
- Video recorder;
- A gold wristwatch.
- The names of four of Arabella's cats are revealed in this chapter: Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws and Tufty.
- Vernon's fright at the slightest mention of magic is demonstrated when Harry mentions his dream of a flying motorcycle.
- Harry is picked on at school by all the other students—because no one dared to disagree with the likes and dislikes of Dudley's gang.
- The boa constrictor is the one who initiates the communication, not Harry.
- Harry likes his scar.
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| The Boy Who Lived | The Vanishing Glass | The Letters from No One |
