Blog Post #1 Expectations

I think in the Sorcerer's Stone most people expected Snape to be after the stone. I know I did when I read it the first time. I think JK Rowling set Snape up to see like the bad guy because it wouldn't be as good of a story if we expected the right person right away. I figured Voldemort would have something to do with it in the end but I didn't expect Quirrell at all. All of the clues that Harry, Ron and Hermoine were discovering all pointed to snape. There was the Quidditch game when Snape wouldn't break his concentration on Harry and then he was always bullying Quirrell into giving up something. To me, Quirrell was a much weaker character than Snape so it seemed much more likely that Snape was doing all the planning to get the stone than Quirrell. Harry, Ron, and Hermoine seemed to get it in there minds that Snape was the one after the stone and then any consideration of anyone else didn't happen. All of the signs pointed to Snape for them so they believed it could only be Snape and I think the reader follows them and expects it to be Snape too. In Chamber of Secrets, the same kind of thing happens. Harry, Ron, and Hermoined expect Malfoy to be the heir of Slytherin and so the reader goes along with them and expects Malfoy too. I expected Malfoy that Malfoy had something to do with it or at least his father since they are very in to dark magic and in the beginning of the book when Harry sees the Malfoys in Borgin and Borkes the reader finds that there are all kinds of objects full of dark magic in the Malfoy's house. This really increased my expectation that the Malfoy's had something to do with the chamber of secrets. This along with Harry, Ron, and Hermoine thinking it was Malfoy really increases the expectation. But it's never the person you expect. After they use the polyjuice potion and find out it isn't Malfoy I didn't really know who to expect, and I defintely didn't think it was Tom Riddle and neither did Harry. I think the reader is very heavily influenced by what Harry, Ron, and Hermoine expect. Riddle accused Hagrid of opening the chamber, but I think most people like Hagrid and I don't get the feeling that Hagrid has the ability to open the chamber or scare all those people. I think this is the first sign that Riddle may not be who he seems but it still doesn't raise much expectation of him.