Synopsis:  Harry is selected a member of Gryffindor house

Vocabulary:

airily:  lightly

blubber:  cry noisily

bowlers:  a style of hat

chivalry:  gallantry

cunning:  clever

drone:  monotonous sound

éclairs:  a kind of pastry

flagged:  identified

gales:  rain with high winds

just:  fair

magnificent:  grand

meringue:  a baked whipped egg white dessert

miffed:  annoyed

nitwit:  fool

oddment:  peculiarity

queasy:  sick

sleek:  streamlined

swaggered:  exaggerated walk

toil:  work

treacle:  molasses-like

tweak:  pinch

Questions:

1.  Why does Harry compare the entrance hall's size at Hogwarts to the Dursley's house?

2.  What do the first year students fear about the sorting ceremony?  Why is the ghosts' presence in the chamber significant?

3.  how do the characteristics of the Hogwarts houses suggest future plot developments?  Why does the sorting hat assign some people quickly and others, like Harry, require more time?  What doe the students' conversations at the table reveal abut their characters?

4.  Why does Harry's scar burn when Snape looks at him?

5.  What does Dumbledore's speech reveal about him?  What rules does he issue?  What rules are implied?  What is the purpose of the school song?

6.  Why does the turret seem like home to Harry?  Why does he have a nightmare and what does it suggest may happen to him?