** spoiler alert ** 
 This is at least the second, maybe the third time that I've read HP & the CoS. This time, we listened to the audiobook with our 6-year-old more or less avidly listening along. She enjoyed it so much that she wanted to start it over when we got to the end. 
 For my part, I was struck on this re-reading by how many things that seem incidental here are actually important for the whole series. Kudos to Rowling for that. 
 I was also struck by a few other things--and let me just preface this by saying that I've spent most of my career working in boarding schools, so that's why my thoughts tend in these directions): 
 I found myself wondering how all this works behind the scenes for Hermione and her family. You have to wonder, given the lengths the wizarding world goes to in hiding itself from the muggles, how they're apparently so clued in, going to Gringott's to exchange currency, grabbing a drink with the Weasleys in Diagon Alley. Along these same lines, I found myself wondering how Hogwart's handles parent orientation, since the kids all get on the train and head to Hogwart's without their folks. Is there, like, a parents association that helps bring in the new families--particularly the muggles? If there isn't, there really should be, you know? 
 Speaking of the train, there's a strong implication that EVERYONE comes to Hogwart's on the train. So... does everyone have to come to London to catch it? I mean, if you're a wizard from Scotland or Ireland or just northern England, can't you get there by other means? Why aren't there multiple trains? Does the Hogwart's Express make stops along the way? It doesn't seem to. I mean, I know they're mostly witches and wizards, so it's probably easy enough for them to get to London, but still, it seems like quite an imposition. 
 Where ARE the adults, anyway, and how has Hogwarts not been sued out of existence decades ago? I mean seriously, the lack of supervision is appalling. And it's not just the ways that kids can basically wander at will, getting into whatever kind of trouble they can find. I mean, consider the Quidditch match where the bludger is enchanted to chase around Harry. Why the frick aren't adults stepping in to put a stop to that? There's clearly something beyond fishy going on here--bludgers just don't behave that way. It's somewhere between unfair and sinister, but they just let the kids play? WTF? 
 And speaking of the adults, do you think they called the parents when all those kids got magically frozen? Like "Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Granger. We know this whole magic thing is all a bit new and confusing to you, but we wanted to let you know that your daughter has been magically enchanted by a mysterious creature that seems bent on killing kids. She's just kind of frozen, though, not dead, so don't be alarmed. We're pretty sure that once these mandrake things grow to maturity, we can murder one of them and put your daughter right back in order." My guess is they didn't tell the parents squat, figuring they would get it all sorted out eventually. They did at least call the Weasleys, but I mean, let's be honest, there's no covering up the abduction and likely death of your child, the way that mere petrification can be swept under the rug. 
 On a totally different note, Harry spends a lot of time in this book wondering about his sorting into Gryffindor vs. Slytherin and there's this whole "who's the heir of Slytherin" mystery, but it all seems beyond silly. Harry in Slytherin? In what world would Harry be sorted into Slytherin. He pretty much lacks ambition, he instantly detests every Slytherin he ever meets... in what universe is this even a question. But then, that got me thinking of an alternate reality in which Harry DOES go to Slytherin. What would that even look like? There's a part of me that likes to think that the story we see in Harry Potter is so thoroughly filtered through Harry's immature consciousness that we have to take it all with a grain of salt. That, in fact, the Slytherins are not so moustache-twirlingly dastardly as they seem. So I imagine a world in which, just maybe, Harry has a positive influence on Draco Malfoy, making him less douchy, maybe even sympathetic. Where Snape and Harry have a warm and fuzzy relationship and McGonigal is the adult that seems shady and biased against Harry because of her strictness and his propensity to do whatever the hell he wants without reference to the rules or what adults think (instead of coddling him because he's Gryffindor). 
 Oh, and speaking of: was anyone else struck by the number of times Harry lies? Or the fact that Ron asks Hermione to let him copy some of her work? Maybe Snape isn't exactly crazy to distrust young Mr. Potter and his friends.... 
 Also, what were Harry and Ron thinking when they marched Lockhart down to the Chamber of Secrets with them? Maybe the revelation that he's a total fraud should have induced them to go find an actually-competent adult (presuming they could find one with Dumbledore gone)? 
 Going back to my revisionist ideas, when we got the backstory of the Hogwarts founders, I found myself yearning for an account more sympathetic to Salazar Slytherin: here we are in the midst of the Dark Ages, with muggles burning witches left and right--is it any wonder that old S.S. was a bit distrustful of the muggle-born? I mean, sure, in our modern context, it's pure prejudice to be against the mudbloods, but you can see how there might, once upon a time, have been some justification for the attitude. I'm not saying they deserve a basilisk, I'm just saying, there were ample grounds for distrust a thousand years ago. 
 Anyway, those were some of the random thoughts occasioned by this re-read, but these things are all incidental to the fact that I still greatly enjoyed the book.