I’ve been reading this to David at bedtime over the last month or so, and
we finally finished. David’s familiar with the story, having seen the
movie any number of times, though there were still a few surprises.

There’s no point in my reviewing this book in the usual way, as pretty
much everyone has already formed an opinion about it. I do have a couple
of comments.

The first is, the book reads aloud tolerably well. It’s not outstanding
as a read-aloud–the prose doesn’t flow trippingly and effortlessly from
the tongue–but it flows pretty well, nevertheless, with only the
occasional clunky bit. I’ve read books that are much, much harder to
read aloud. (Some of them, ironically, are intended for kids who are
learning to read. There’s something wrong with that.)

But there’s something I noticed this time around. (This is a spoiler,
for anyone who doesn’t know how it ends. Uh huh.)

Dumbledore has hidden the Sorceror’s Stone using the Mirror of Erised in
such a way that only someone who wants the Stone but does not want to use
can get it. Thus, Quirrel/Voldemort sees himself using the stone, but cannot
get it. Harry, on the other hand, has no problem.

So…that means that the Stone would have been perfectly safe if Harry
had simply left well enough alone and gone to bed instead of braving
Fluffy and the other horrors in an attempt to save it from Voldemort’s
hands. Dumbledore was already on his way back to Hogwarts at the time
Harry faced down Quirrel; if Harry hadn’t been there, Dumbledore likely
would have caught Quirrel in the act and would have dealt with
Voldemort, perhaps permanently.

In fact, Harry’s presence made it more likely, rather than less,
that Voldemort would succeed.

I’ll grant you that getting past all of the obstacles took great courage
and skill. Not everyone at Hogwarts could have done it. But just how
was it anything but colossally stupid?