Throughout the first book, The Sorcerer’s Stone, expectations rise and fall at a rapid rate. Ultimately the grand fallen expectation would be the developed assumption of Snape as the culprit, the core antagonist. Rowling sets the reader up for the trap and then pulls the rug from beneath our feet when Quirrel is revealed as the "bad guy." Through the contrasting personalities and character make-up of Snape and Quirrel, the apparent negative misdeeds of Snape appearing to be hexing Harry’s broom and limping around with a bloody leg, the reader is heavily influenced to pinpoint Snape as the antagonist, but isn’t given enough information to realize that we are being set up.
Though the most developed, the villain reveal is only one of the many fallen expectations in the first book. We can associate each character to a fallen expectation. From the very beginning, through the dialogue and internal thoughts and descriptions produced by the narrator, the reader is set up to believe that Hermoine would be an antagonizing, criticizing rat towards Ron and Harry for the remainder of the series. But through events that could not have been predicted, a bond was generated between Ron, Hermione, and Harry. A fallen expectation for me, personally, was when it was revealed that the Mirror of Erised showed what the viewer desires the most and that the reflection of Harry’s family is strictly one big, conscious less moving picture and nothing more. Through many suspenseful near-expulsion occurrences, the most shocking was when Professor McGonagall caught Harry flying on his broom to catch Neville’s Remembrall and tells him to follow her. Both Harry and the viewer were convinced that he was in for it this time only to be caught off guard as McGonagall is actually assigning him as the new Seeker.
I really liked reading this post, my favorite was the part about Professor McGonagall. I can remember first reading this and completely taking McGonagall as one of the very strict always rule abiding teacher. We are proved wrong time and time again with her and this is the first but my favorite example. Another time that I felt McGonagall changed from her rule abiding self to a rebel with a cause was when Umbridge came to Hogwarts. McGonagall sticks up for what she believes is right, and is always ready to fight for what she believes, especially Dumbledore. McGonagall attempted to stop Professor Umbridge from corporal punishment in detentions as well as attempting to reason with her in her unfair and outdated teaching beliefs. Although we always knew Professor McGonagall was a strong character until the most recent books I don't think we really get to see how big her heart is.
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