Piggy banks, sticks and Hogwarts Castle

I'm on page 120 - it's been a busy few pages! Hagrid - The Keeper of the keys, has freed Harry from the Dursleys, whisked him off to London,  made a withdrawal from Harry's piggy bank - Gringotts of Diagon Alley, and kitted Harry out for Hogwarts - with robes, parchment, quills, books and everything else a student wizard needs for his first term.  Including the wand (which apparently chose Harry).  Hagrid also bought Harry a birthday gift - Hedwig - his owl - I always wondered where Hedwig came from - and now I know!

The wand shop was the first time in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone that I found myself questioning the facts.   Bearing in mind that by this time I have accepted without question that wizards are commonplace, owls deliver letters, boats can be propelled with nothing more than the tap of a pink umbrella, entrances open up from a couple of bricks to a Hagrid size portal, and then close again behind you and goblins guard a bank several hundred feet beneath London.   

The section in Mr Ollivander's wand emporium snapped me right out of the story with a 'That's not right!' kind of thought.  

Here's the phrase that did it  

"Your father, on the other hand, favoured a mahogany wand.  Eleven inches. Pliable" 

Mahogany is a fine hardwood, but one thing it isn't is pliable. But I can't keep falling out of the story whenever I find something I think is factually wrong - we're in a wizarding world here, and I need to maintain the suspension of disbelief.

After all - If I pick holes in Harry Potter books based on the physical properties of materials, I might as well complain about the dragon heartstrings and phoenix feathers as well - in which case we won't have much of a story left.  

I've therefore decided that this must be 'wizards special wand making mahogany' - with characteristics not found in ordinary 'muggle mahogany' 

What's brown and sticky?       A stick!

So I'm good with Harry Potter, and from now on - anything which contradicts what I already know from 60 years as a muggle will be considered to be special wizarding world stuff with magical properties, and I'll just carry on reading. 

The trip to Hogwarts from Platform Nine and Three Quarters, introduced the Weasley's, Hermione Granger and identified the pale snooty boy from the robe shop as Draco Malfoy - we're now out of the boat under Hogwarts ready to enter the huge oak front door.  

I can't wait to see what happens next!