I finished Chamber of Secrets last night. Random thoughts:

If Hagrid was at Hogwarts fifty years ago, that would put him in his early sixties. I always imagined him younger for some reason. Voldemort, too, would be in his sixties. Ralph Fiennes does not look sixty. Wait, what the hell, he's fifty? He doesn't even look that!

Remember that time Harry Potter killed a basilisk when he was TWELVE? Eat your heart out, Kvothe.

Oh man, Ron/Hermione is so blindingly obvious now. I'd say 90% of the time, if not 100% of the time, if someone is concerned about Hermione or worried about Hermione or asking about Hermione, it's Ron, not Harry.

On the other hand, Harry/Ginny is weird right now given that they meet when she's a total Harry fangirl.

TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE = I AM LORD VOLDEMORT still blows my goddamn mind.

I want Mark to read All Of The Books but Infinite Jest is the only one he's started so far that I haven't already read and my clever "I'll read along with Mark" idea is more impractical each time I have to renew this libary book. Perhaps I should go ahead and buy it. I first tried to borrow my brother's book and he looked at me like I wanted to take away his puppy. Am I going to end up wanting an Infinite Jest of my very own?

BTW, Amy, I requested COLD KISS at my library and it's on order!

Aw, thank you!

If Hagrid was at Hogwarts fifty years ago, that would put him in his early sixties. I always imagined him younger for some reason.

I have the suspicion that some wizards live longer, and maybe giants do, too. After all, Dumbledore was already headmaster at Hogwarts when Hagrid & Riddle were there.

Oh man, Ron/Hermione is so blindingly obvious now.

Well, yes. The constant (unending and occasionally really damned annoying) bickering is a dead giveaway. That said, it's kind of surprising in one way, because Ron is so frequently stupid on an emotional level. But not always: he often picks up on stuff Harry's thinking faster than Hermione does.

The problem with Ron is that he's basically the Zeppo of the series: not powerful, not particularly lucky, not super-smart. He should be the emotional core of the trio, but I don't think JKR does a great job showing that (not as well as Joss did with Xander, anyway). At least he does get his own storyline, but I'm halfway through Order of the Phoenix and desperate for Ron to develop some competence on the quidditch pitch...

I think Ron's chief contribution vis-a-vis Harry is his friendship and his access to the Weasleys. If not for those connections, the stories could not have proceeded as they do.

After all, Dumbledore was already headmaster at Hogwarts when Hagrid & Riddle were there.

No, he wasn't. He was Transfiguration teacher. The headmaster was Armando Dippet.

I'd go more general (or maybe this is just another way of saying what you just said). Ron is the only one of the three that has grown up in the wizarding world. Without him, Harry and Hermione are lost.

And yes, Harry has a certain special status as The One Who Survived, but Dumbledore, Hagrid, and so on can't be with him day-to-day to explain this, that, or the other.

Which raises another question -- how are the muggle-born introduced into the ways of wizarding? There doesn't seme to be any real orientation beyond a speech from Dumbledore at the first dinner.

Hermione read everything. And I think there was a class that students could take about history, etc. if they needed it.

No, he wasn't. He was Transfiguration teacher. The headmaster was Armando Dippet.

Hah. I missed that somehow.

Ron is the only one of the three that has grown up in the wizarding world. Without him, Harry and Hermione are lost.

Or, well, the reader is. I think Hermione's position as The Girl Who Reads Everything helps her operate as Infodump Central, but it's true that the reader still needs a social navigator.

And I agree that without access to the emotional support of the Weasley clan, Harry's position is just too depressing for words. And thus too grim for the reader, who needs occasional moments of gnome-tossing in the back garden.

I had forgotten how important Fred and George were (as well as the other family members), frankly--although I sort of wish JKR had made more of an effort to distinguish the two. At the moment, five books in, the only difference I have seen between the two of them is that George was the one who (with Harry) punched Draco--but only because Fred was being physically restrained at the time. That said, she does a solid job with the rest of the family: they're all unique characters.