Many discuss the “missing day” in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone between the night Lily and James died and the next evening when Hagrid delivers Baby Harry to his aunt and uncle. But fewer talk about the “missing month” in the film, known as the “skipped month of August.”
If you remember in the movie, Hagrid takes Harry school shopping on his 11th birthday. During that day, Hagrid explains to Harry what happened the night his parents died, how he got the scar, and why he is famous. And then the next scene cuts to the shot where Hagrid takes Harry to King’s Cross to drop him off to the train for Hogwarts.
However, the novel depicts a different scene. Hagrid only takes Harry shopping on his birthday, and then sends him back to the Dursleys. Then the Dursleys take Harry to King’s Cross for boarding the Hogwarts Express. So, for the next whole month, Harry is back with his relatives.
While the book shows something more rational and doesn’t leave any open mysteries, the movie does. A lot of people guess that Harry’s birthday might’ve been changed to August 31st in the film adaptations to assume how Harry went to Hogwarts the next day – or did it?
That could have been the case. I assumed, though, that Hagrid dropped Harry off back at the Dursleys and picked him up again after the month of August.
But if the film writers did (secretly) change Harry’s birthday in the movies, and his first day of school started the next day, did that mean… Hagrid and Harry stayed somewhere overnight? Oh, God.
Hagrid already slept overnight at that island house the Dursleys stayed at in the book. Rereading that as an adult, I found that kind of creepy. I mean – who would let some stranger sleep in their home overnight? This did happen in other films, too, such as Disney’s Enchanted.
Anyway, that kind of crossed the line – but, to me, less then the missing day 10 years before the main story’s events begin. Even then, some things about that may go too far.
A giant and a human baby together for 24 hours? Let’s not think about how Hagrid would have babysat Harry then. Because if he did… all I could say is, “Oh, boy.” Hopefully, somebody else took care of Harry then, like Bathilda Bagshot.
So, there you have it. What do you think could have occurred between Harry’s 11th birthday and his first day at Hogwarts in the movie?