67

Recently I've watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 again and a little piece of something made me curious. It's definitely thin enough for being a laptop (display), it's tilted like a laptop display (> 90° angle) and the most interesting - it doesn't look like a chair mainly because there are already two chairs (under the green lines). None of them look at least a little bit similar to the object under the red arrow.

The scene is right after another Harry(George) with an ear cut off came with Remus to the Burrow and entered the house. The hand belongs to Molly Weasley.

So, is that object a laptop, or something similar that somehow got into the movie? If yes, was it an accident or was it in the book? I do remember stuff from the books, but I don't believe Arthur had a laptop, nor I remember Rowling describing one in the Burrow.

enter image description here

Valorum
  • 689,072
  • 162
  • 4,636
  • 4,873
KeyWeeUsr
  • 1,265
  • 1
  • 15
  • 26
  • 8
    I am almost certain this is a box with a flip lid - say like this: https://www.pioneerplastics.com/shop/containers/square-container/515chips/ (though probably not a plastic one). – bdecaf Feb 24 '17 at 14:39
  • 11
    Hard to tell, but it wouldn't be unreasonable for Arthur Weasley to have a labtop. He worked for the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office and was rather obsessed with Muggle gadgets. He collected electrical plugs, for example. – robopuppy Feb 24 '17 at 15:35
  • 9
    I thought HP DH 1 was some model of Hewlett-Packard that you were identifying from the photo. – Nick T Feb 25 '17 at 00:13
  • @NickT I wish... although there should be at least one printer in the whole HP series visible iirc. I think it was displayed when Marge came to visit Dursleys. If not there, then in the first movie somewhere. – KeyWeeUsr Feb 25 '17 at 00:26
  • 6
    Well, if there were any printers or laptops, what manufacturer do you think it would be? HP, perhaps? – can-ned_food Feb 25 '17 at 11:45
  • 3
    @can-ned_food - Or Lex(dark)mark. Or Dubious Canon. Or ExDelliarmus. – Valorum Feb 25 '17 at 12:50
  • 1
    Though even if it were a laptop as @robopuppy speculates, there's no way it would be in working condition at the Weasley's house. Or maybe that's why we have SHA-1 hash collisions now :D – Wayne Werner Feb 25 '17 at 20:51
  • It was the lid of a George Foreman Grill – iMerchant Feb 25 '17 at 23:36

2 Answers2

161

It appears to be a two-tier, cantilever sewing box.

enter image description here

Given that Molly is a known knitter, those large orange round things are likely to be balls of orange wool.

Valorum
  • 689,072
  • 162
  • 4,636
  • 4,873
  • 1
    You can even see the knitting needles sticking out of the balls of yarn. – Radar Feb 24 '17 at 22:38
  • 3
    Oh!!! So it wasn't a chair, it was a handle! – KeyWeeUsr Feb 24 '17 at 22:51
  • 1
    @KeyWeeUsr - It was indeed a handle – Valorum Feb 25 '17 at 01:07
  • 12
    How the hell did you figure this one out?? Damn. – iMerchant Feb 25 '17 at 23:39
  • @iMerchant - It was easier for me because I have the Blu-Ray version and went to go have a look at the actual prop. It appears slightly earlier in the scene in a better light. I also lightened the picture before searching for sewing boxes. – Valorum Feb 26 '17 at 00:58
  • 9
    @Valorum - I noticed the clearer pic, but to know it was a cantilevered sewing box was the impressive part. Are you an antique sewing paraphernalia aficionado too? Did you do a google image search on your screenshot? Are you magical? – iMerchant Feb 26 '17 at 01:03
  • 3
    @iMerchant - If you google "sewing boxes" you get pretty close without even trying. Then it was a matter of finding out what those kinds of boxes are called ("tiered") and finally locating a pic that was taken from a similar angle. – Valorum Feb 26 '17 at 01:09
  • 1
    @iMerchant: We had three of the things in our household when I was growing up. I actually recognized it in the OP's picture already. Ah, today's youth... :-D – DevSolar Feb 27 '17 at 12:31
  • 4
    @iMerchant Some say he has an RJ45 port instead of a left ear. Some say he's an alien bent on accumulating all human knowledge. Some say he's the embodiment of all science and all fiction. All we know is... he's called Valorum. – T.J.L. Jun 07 '18 at 17:11
15

It's a box.

You can see that it is actually a box. It's holding those fuzzy orange things.

If you zoom in, you can see that it's connected to the thing holding the orange things.

Mithical
  • 38,898
  • 17
  • 178
  • 229