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My daughter recently asked me, Why wasn't Professor Flitwick at the Sorting Ceremony?

I wanted to know why she had asked and she pointed out two things:

  1. Professor Flitwick is not described as being present at the High Table right after Harry gets sorted (PG 122 HP and the SS paperback, 1999). I began to reply, but that doesn't mean he wasn't there and then she said,

  2. "Flitwick is surprised when he finds Harry's name on his roster."

Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. At the start of their first class he took the roll call, and when he reached Harry's name he gave an excited squeak and toppled out of sight.

(HPSS pg.133 paperback, 1999).

Obviously, and reasonably, my daughter is concluding that if he had been at the sorting ceremony, he would not have been surprised at Harry's presence. Honestly, as a former teacher myself, I think he should have known ahead anyway - must've been fairly out of touch with the other teachers to not have had an inkling there was at least a possibility.

I understand this is sort of an inconsequential point in the book so it is likely there isn't an answer that is "in universe" and "in cannon." But I am trying to teach her to be a thoughtful reader and I felt it was an astute observation for a six year old and didn't want to just poo poo it. So, just in case there is something in an interview out there, I thought I'd ask - you guys seem to be able to answer it all.

Update

My Daughter has decided to write directly to Rowling and ask. This is really bugging her. She say's "even if he wasn't there, he still should've known." We'll see if there is a response or not and update if there is. I am trying to talk to her about other possible reasons he was startled by the name as well. No return letter - not even a form letter from Scholastic - yet.

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Professor Flitwick was either 1) there and not mentioned or 2) not there and the reason why is not explained. I totally support you nurturing the abilities of an astute questioner in your daughter. I'm not sure if Stack Exchange is the right place to present questions that are known to not be answerable except by speculation. When my kiddos would ask something like that, I liked to give the question back to them and engage their imagination: "Hmm, where do you think Prof. Flitwick might be? Why do you think he's not here? What could he be doing?" Make sense? :) – Slytherincess Jan 17 at 18:50
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@ASlytherin - sorry, I think it's a great question. The assumption of "known to not be answerable except by speculation" is unwarranted unless one has full access to a complete searcheable canon (which thanks to "design" of PotterLess we can't realistically count on) – DVK Jan 17 at 19:03
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@balancedmama - technically speaking, it's called "Pottermore". But it's an awful design for anyone interested in obtaining information as opposed to playing interactive web games, and I pretty much refuse to go there anymore after struggling through first couple of chapters. Whoever "designed" that POS should be forever barred from any work aside from flash quiz games. I will wait till someone digitizes that mess of un-copy-pasteable text fully and puts it on a searcheable data source. – DVK Jan 17 at 19:04
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A little more pertinent to the question, perhaps - it's entirely possible that the squeak-and-topple was more about excitement than surprise. – Darael Jan 20 at 7:41
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My daughter is assuming that such excitement would be expressed at the moment one discovered the item that made you excited. I completely agree with her reasoning. I don't think an accomplished and intelligent professor such as Flitwick would topple over with excitement in front of a class full of kids if he had already known he would be seeing HP in his class. – balanced mama Jan 20 at 17:38
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2 Answers

up vote 4 down vote

What a fantastic question. You are right, your daughter has acute reading skills. It also helps that the story of Harry Potter is very entertaining. Flitwick has a very emotional sort of personality which accounts for his reaction to seeing Harry on his register along with many other encounters in the Harry Potter series. Go to Flitwick's page on the Harry Potter Wikia and read about his personality and traits as well as relationships.

If there was a reason for his being absent from the sorting ceremony he certainly wouldn't have been included in the film production of Book 1 as Rowling had a close hand in the making of all the films. You can see him at the table on the left hand side of this image, just as Susan Bones is being sorted.

enter image description here

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Well spotted on the movie! – Pureferret♦ Feb 16 at 18:18
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We had seen the movie too, and saw this as well. Even though she was involved with the movies, changes were made from the books (many) so we didn't consider this an answer when discussing it. I'm guessing it was a mis-step on Rowling's part, frankly and that there is no reason. He was at the Sorting ceremony AND surprised Harry Potter was at the school - which of course, makes absolutely no sense. But great screen shot and timing! – balanced mama Feb 18 at 14:51
up vote 0 down vote

Unless I am mistaken, I believe he was enchanting his room in the Philosopher's Stone Chambers.

I can't find a reference to this online, and I don't have the book with me. But this makes intuitive sense to me.

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Hmm. . . I'll look again. We went back and re-read that part and didn't see anything, but that doesn't mean we didn't miss something. – balanced mama Feb 18 at 15:00

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