Question: In the end of the movie just after Ron sacrifices himself to the Queen to win the chess game, he falls to the floor unconscious. But before the scene cuts, a rock flies past his head, he winces, and it leaves a red mark. Did he really get it by a rock during filming or was it added in later?
Question: In Book 6, Dumbledore mentions that the Defence Against the Dark Arts Job is cursed, and that no one has had it for more than a year since he refused it to Voldemort. But in Movie/Book 1, it seems that Quirell has been at the school for a while (Hagrid knows him, and knows that he's the DADA teacher; all the older students seem to know him and there is no mention that this is Quirells first year of teaching). Explain.
Chosen answer: According to Rowling, Quirrell was the Muggle Studies teacher at Hogwarts (which is why all the older students know him) before moving to teach Defence Against The Dark Arts in the year that Harry started there. Immediately after meeting Quirrell in the Leaky Cauldron, Hagrid makes a reference to Quirrell having taken a year off from teaching to "get some first-hand experience", encountering such dark creatures as vampires and hags along the way, which would strongly support the idea that he's not previously been the teacher in that subject.
Question: On the second DVD for Special Features, how do you buy your owl in Eeylops? The narrator tells you to pick an owl and that you'll need it for communication. How do you buy it? I've clicked on all three of them and nothing happened. None of my friends can figure it out either.
Answer: Those owls are not essential. Just follow these instructions to view the deleted scenes: 1) In the Main Menu click the Owl - Diagon Alley. 2) To enter, choose the bricks in clockwise order from the left. If you make 4 mistakes, it will open anyway. 3) Once in Diagon Alley, hit the Key, located at the bottom of the Gringotts sign. 4) Click on the Coins. Then hit the Arrow to go back to Diagon Alley. 5) Click on the Ollivanders sign. 6) Pick a Wand Box, until the wand chooses you and then you'll be sent back to Diagon Alley. 7) Click on the Arrow to go back to the Main Menu. 8) Click the Wand on the table - Classrooms. 9) Place the cursor over the word- Transfigurations under the Cat and hit DOWN Arrow (or simply move the cursor directly to the *H* under the fire and skip to 12). 10) The two Owls under the fire will be highlighted. Hit Enter. 11) The *H* above the Owls is highlighted. Hit Enter. 12) Click on the Flute, above Fluffy's three heads. 13) Click on the tiny key with the bent wing tip at the door. Or pick any key. When you miss four times the correct key will be shown in the center of the screen, much much larger than the others. Click it. 14) Click on the short, round, yellow bottle in the back. Do this fast or you'll land in the Hospital Wing anyway. 15) In the Mirror of Erised click on the Stone.
Question: What is the actor who played the Slytherin seeker in this movie called?
Answer: Will Theakston plays Terrence Higgs, the Slytherin seeker, according to the IMDb.
Question: I listened to the scene where Harry goes to visit Ron and Hermione at the end after he gets out of the hospital wing. Ron and Hermione apparently have a conversation that's not appropriate for a PG rated movie, and I turned it up as loud as I could, and I heard Ron say something like, "I have this black shirt." Can anyone tell me what he really is saying?
Chosen answer: While he stands at the top of the stairs with Hermione, Ron says, "I had a resurrection!!", referring to his 'near death' experience on the chess board earlier in the film. Some people mis-hear it as a reference to "an erection" which is why you may have heard people think it's inappropriate.
Question: What I don't understand is: Dumbledore has the brilliant idea of using the Mirror of Erised to hide the stone in. Yet the mirror is in some room in the castle, where Harry eventually finds it, and not inside the guarded area, where the stone is hidden, until very much later into the movie. Why is that? Even if it was there to teach Harry its secret, it would mean the stone was less efficiently guarded. Or did Dumbledure just get the idea of using the mirror later into the movie ?
Answer: Presumably, Dumbledore came up with his idea after catching Harry in front of the mirror, after he explained the mirror's "power" to Harry. It is safe to assume that the stone was stored in some other magical manner that was less secure before Dumbledore decided to use the mirror.
Question: Is there a definite answer as to why this is called "Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone" in the US?
Answer: Both the book and the film were retitled because Scholastic, the publishers, were worried that American children wouldn't have heard the legend of the "philosopher's stone", and would think the book was about philosophy. They wanted to rename it to something that made it obvious that it's about magic, so they used "sorceror's".
Question: At the end, Dumbledore awards the trio back their 150 points, considering that he knew that them sneaking out to Hagrid was in good judgment. But then he gives 10 points to Neville for what? I know Slytherin had the house cup for 7 years straight, but was Dumbledore actually favoring Gryffindor to win the whole time or was not wanting Slytherin to win? I think a headmaster like him wouldn't be that slippery and would keep his opinions about the house cup to himself, even if for some reason he opposes Slytherin.
Answer: Neville had the courage to stand up to three people very dear to him when he knew that they were doing something wrong. There are a lot of teens out there who will just go with the flow no matter what, but Neville had the courage to break that and try to stop them. Dumbledore awarded him the points for that.
Question: Two questions. First, why is Hagrid sent to tell Harry about the wizarding world and escort him to Diagon Alley? Being a half-giant, he would attract attention from a lot of Muggles. Second, have no Muggles noticed that several children arrive at King's Cross Station with owls every year? The owls would be seen before the wizarding families approach Platform 9 3/4.
Answer: I would guess Dumbledore sent Hagrid to fetch Harry solely because he knew the half-giant would frighten the Dursleys, who wanted to stop Harry from going to Hogwarts. Hagrid was also on a mission to fetch the Philosopher's Stone from Gringott's Bank at the same time. Magic was apparently used to mask the comings and goings of wizards whenever they were out and about in the Muggle world. Sometimes people noticed odd things happening, but then tended to shrug it off.
Question: In the flying lesson scene, what happened to Neville's broomstick? Was it bewitched? It did remind me of the scene where Harry had trouble with his broomstick.
Chosen answer: In the books they explain that the brooms for their lessons were old and getting worn, and some of their flying charms weren't working like they use to. Neville was exceptionally nervous about the flying lessons as he had never flown before. The combination of the crappy broom and his nervousness made the broom lose control.
Question: Please correct me if I am mistaken, but in the lyrics that the frog choir is singing in the first scene in the great, one of the lines is "Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble." This is a direct reference to the witches spell in Shakespeare's Macbeth, is it not?
Question: Do the numbers on the Hogwarts train, 5972, have any meaning?
Answer: It has no meaning to the story. The locomotive used for the Hogwarts Express is the GWR No. 5972 "Olton Hall." It was built in 1937 and was in service in the U.K. until 1963. It was to be sold for scrap, but it was bought by the National Railway Museum and has been on display there in Shildon.
Question: Supposedly JK Rowling has said that Nagini is the snake who Harry meets at the zoo, but if so, why does the zoo snake talk in a male voice?
Answer: JK Rowling has never said they were the same snake. Rowling makes it clear in the book that Nagini is some type of venomous snake while the snake in the zoo was a constrictor.
Question: After watching Professor Quirrell die in this school year, shouldn't Harry have been able to see thestrals?
Answer: In the novel, Harry passes out before Quirrell dies, meaning that he did not truly see the death and therefore was unable to see the Thestrals. In the movie, Harry does see Quirell die and therefore should have been able to see the Thestrals before witnessing Cedric Diggory's death. This was a movie mistake.
I thought the reason Luna told Harry that only they could see the thestrals was because they lost a loved one. Not that that they saw someone die.
Question: When Petunia says that her parents were "so proud to have a witch in the family" (referring to Lily), she seems to imply that they had previously been aware of the wizarding world, despite being Muggles. After all, most people would be shocked to learn that magic, wizards, witches, etc. Really exist. Did the Evans know about it?
Answer: No, they did not know about the magical world until after they were contacted by Hogwarts about Lily being a witch. Petunia, who had a long-standing grudge and resentment toward her sister's magical ability, is referring to how her parents were proud of Lily once she began her magical training.
Question: Why is it that the students at Hogwarts are only wearing wizarding hats in the first movie?
Answer: It is typical in a movie series for changes to be made from film-to-film, particularly concerning things like costumes, make-up, set designs, etc. It's a matter of trying something and later deciding it is not really working well. It may have been that the hats were just too cumbersome, were constantly falling off, and were affecting the actors' performances. Also, in the Harry Potter series, there were a number of different directors and each has their own artistic vision and often make subtle changes.
Question: If Voldemort is attached to Quirrell in this movie, then he heard Snape arguing with Quirrell and threatening him. Wouldn't he then become aware that Snape is actually loyal to Dumbledore? And wouldn't he be angry that Snape tried to protect Harry during the Quidditch game?
Answer: Voldemort believes that Snape is playing a role, not that he is actually loyal to Dumbledore.
Question: Are the quaffles in Quidditch enchanted? I know it didn't bump around when Harry was being shown how to play. Does it have any magical powers? What if someone drops it to the ground? Does it fly back after someone scores?
Chosen answer: The quaffle was enchanted by means of a Gripping Charm, allowing one to throw and carry it using one hand without need for straps or finger holes. Source: http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Gripping_Charm.
Question: Has it ever been stated where witches and wizards go to school before they go to Hogwarts? I mean Hermione and Harry obviously went to Muggle primary school, but what about people like the Weasleys?
Chosen answer: According to J K Rowling, most wizarding families choose to home school their children prior to sending them to Hogwarts. A few enrol their children in nearby Muggle schools in order to give them a more rounded view of the world, but most take the home schooling option.
Answer: The debris from the exploding chess piece was not real; this looks like a combination of computer-generated special effect (CGI) as well some type of a light-weight material (such as Styrofoam) made to appear real and is tossed at Rupert Grint (Ron) from off-screen. Considering the stringent safety standards and precautions that are employed in today's film industry, particularly regarding child actors, and also the multiple times that scenes are shot to get it right, it is unlikely that this was anything that actually could have hurt him.
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