H.P.B.C. Day Off Again: Hey, It Is Summer, After All

...and last week was the Fourth of July, and did you see all the sparks people were shooting into the sky?!! It was all very exciting, and beautiful, but somehow I talked myself into posting every day last week even though it was a holiday week and Lou had three days of vacation. Fellow friends of Harry... I'm taking a day off!!

Also, I want to give Masha another week to get in on this chapter. Blogging is hard in summer. Especially when you get your first real sunshine in weeks. :)

I'll extend the time on last week's linky, so you'll all have another week to post anything Sorcerer's Stone-related you want, and in the meantime I'll prepare the post on the final chapter.

Here are a few magical things to get you by for the week:

First, Christie's post on "The Point of No Return" (now that song from Phantom of the Opera is going to run through my head... fortunately, I like it):

There's always that moment before the great act, suspended before them like lustrous fruit to tempt, in which the would-be heroes could turn back, should turn back.  The moment when hesitation could creep in and infect them; the subconscious whispers, "No one would notice now if you turned back."  Self-preservation urges us to stay alive a little longer. 

That moment comes and goes in Chapter 16, with no fanfare or great build-up, so casually as to go unnoticed.

Second, this little video is so ubiquitous among Potter fandom that if you're a bolder soul than I, you could probably walk into any decent-sized milling crowd, call "Snape! Snape! Severus Snape!" on pitch, and have someone respond "Dumbledore!"



Also, if you've ever wondered how all Rowling's clever names get managed in the countless translations, wonder no more. I love it that Filch was translated to a word meaning 'magpie' in Italian. Thanks to Jessi for the link.

More Potter next week!