Harry Potter Lessons Learned, Year 2, Chapter 1: The Worst Birthday

Welcome back to our chapter-by-chapter discussion of Harry Potter. today, we get to begin Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and the first chapter is quite the ride. We have a highly-anticipated business dinner, Harry turning the tables on his bully of a cousin, and a cliffhanger at the end of the chapter. Let's dive in.

July 31, again

At the end of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, ron Weasley teases his best friend for being "Still famous" and Harry responds, "Not where I'm going, I promise you." Ron really doesn't understand the full context of this, but we get a full face of it from the beginning of Chapter 1. The first book talked about how the people at number four, Privet Drive were "perfectly normal" and in this book, we learn that "Not for the first time an argument had broken out over breakfast at number four, Privet Drive" and the context is that "Mr. Vernon Dursley had been woken in the early hours of the morning by a loud, hooting noise from his nephew Harry's room."

We're privy to a balancing act at the Dursley home. We know Harry's magical supplies were locked away in his old cupboard under the stairs over a month ago, but Harry just asking Dudley to say the magic word ("please") causes an uproar that probably drowns out that owl hooting in the early hours of the morning.

Harry expects this birthday to be as torturous as the rest of his summer home from Hogwarts. He even promises thrice to stay in his room, "making no noise and pretending [he's] not there." Happy birthday to him.

I don't blame Harry acting out and mock-hexing Dudley, even if it's not the best idea. But he's reminded of the last things he experienced at Hogwarts and keeps "waking in the night, drenched in cold sweat, wondering where Voldemort was, rememberoing his livid face, his wide, mad eyes." Harry has felt helpless before with much higher stakes and he tries to empower himself in a world where he's forbidden to display his powers.

Lesson Learned: Stay grounded

Self-care is a vital part of human experience. In a less toxic environment, Harry could expect respect at breakfast and stand up for his owl's rights. His best decision of the chapter is to take advantage of the "brilliant, sunny day," but there's a moment when he thinks that "he'd almost be glad of a sight of his archenemy, Draco Malfoy, just to be sure it hadn't all been a dream." Harry can do little, but he grounds himself in what he knows to be true. As for taking refuge on the garden bench, one coping mechanism for troubled times is a grounding technique where you take stock of what you can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. Harry is mostly trying to escape Aunt Petunia, but he does so by taking care of his immediate needs. Let's follow that example.