CHAPTER FIVE
“And what are Slytherin and Hufflepuff?”
“School Houses. There’s four. Everyone says Hufflepuff are a lot
o’ duffers, but —”
“I bet I’m in Hufflepuff,” said Harry gloomily.
“Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin,” said Hagrid darkly. “There’s
not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn’t in Slytherin.
You-Know-Who was one.”
“Vol-, sorry — You-Know-Who was at Hogwarts?”
“Years an’ years ago,” said Hagrid.
They bought Harry’s school books in a shop called Flourish and
Blotts where the shelves were stacked to the ceiling with books as
large as paving stones bound in leather; books the size of postage
stamps in covers of silk; books full of peculiar symbols and a few
books with nothing in them at all. Even Dudley, who never read
anything, would have been wild to get his hands on some of these.
Hagrid almost had to drag Harry away from Curses and Counter-
curses (Bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the
Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue-Tying and Much, Much
More) by Professor Vindictus Viridian.
“I was trying to find out how to curse Dudley.”
“I’m not sayin’ that’s not a good idea, but yer not ter use magic
in the Muggle world except in very special circumstances,” said
Hagrid. “An’ anyway, yeh couldn’ work any of them curses yet,
yeh’ll need a lot more study before yeh get ter that level.”
Hagrid wouldn’t let Harry buy a solid gold cauldron, either (“It
says pewter on yer list”), but they got a nice set of scales for weigh-
ing potion ingredients and a collapsible brass telescope. Then they
visited the Apothecary, which was fascinating enough to make up
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