Ponder the mysteries
24-Classic-Contemporary-YA_BL_16-9.gif.corpimagerendition.xxl.1400.788.png

Books

J.K Rowling's Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone

THE BOY WHO LIVED

  • The Dursley family have a secret they want nobody to know

  • Whispers are abound about the Potters and their son Harry. Mr. Dursley is worried and talks to his wife Petunia about it who confirms her nephew is named Harry

  • At night, a tabby cat transforms into a woman who had been watching the Dursleys and speaks with an old man named Albus Dumbledore who confirms that someone named Voldemort killed Lily and James Potter and he tried killing their son but somehow failed and lost his power

  • They do not know how Harry survived or how Voldemort lost his power

  • The woman, whose name is Professor Mcgonagall, Dumbledore, and a large man named Hagrid bring Harry and leave him at the doorstep of the Dursleys to be raised, with a letter explaining everything. They then depart and go their ways

THE VANISHING GLASS/LETTERS FROM NO ONE

  • Ten years pass

  • Dursleys and Harry go to the zoo

  • Unusual things happen around Harry. Harry somehow releases a boa constrictor from captivity behind glass. Harry is punished

  • Harry is punished

  • Harry remembers a flashing green light when straining his memory try and remember the car crash his parents died from which he believes

  • An anonymous letter is written to Harry with a wax seal bearing 4 different animals- a lion, badger, snake, and eagle

  • His letter is snatched and Dursleys are horrified and think they are being spied on

  • The letter has Harry’s address of the cupboard under the stairs, how did whoever write the letter know?

  • Dursleys move from place to place but the letters still find him. Their final location is a rundown shack out at sea

KEEPER OF THE KEYS

  • A giant man barges into the shack. It is Rubeus Hagrid, the same man who brought Harry to the Dursleys

  • He’s furious when he finds out Harry doesn’t know his heritage or about how famous he and his parents are. He tells Harry he is a wizard

  • He gives Harry his overdue letter from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He’s furious when he finds out the Dursleys lied about the Potters dying in a car crash. Harry find out the truth right there that the Dursleys knew all along and tell Harry that his mother got “blown up”

  • Hagrid tells Harry the story of how Voldemort targeted the Potters and Harry’s survival and no one knew why Voldemort targeted them. Perhaps they were too close to Dumbledore, a man Voldemort feared

  • Dursleys are adamant of not allowing Harry to attend Hogwarts. Uncle Dursley insults Dumbledore and Hagrid gives Dudley Dursley a pig’s tail

  • Hagrid and Harry plan to leave in the morning

DIAGON ALLEY

  • Hagrid and Harry leave. Harry learns about Gringotts wizard bank and the Ministry of Magic

  • Harry has a list of things to buy including a cauldron, wand, pet, books, robes, and a hat

  • In a pub called The Leaky Cauldron many people know him

  • He meets Professor Quirrell

  • Hagrid opens a wall with taps to reveal Diagon Alley

  • They go to Gringotts where Harry has a large fortune of wizard coins- Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts

  • Hagrid grabs a small package from another vault

  • Hagrid gets Harry a snowy owl

  • Harry meets Ollivander and receives his wand which has a phoenix tail feather inside it. There is only one other wand which carries a feather from the same phoenix which was owned by Voldemort and gave Harry his lightning-shaped scar

PLATFORM 9 3/4/THE SORTING HAT

  • Harry names his owl Hedwig

  • Harry gets on platform 9 3/4 at King’s Cross station and boards Hogwarts Express

  • He meets the Weasley family- twins Fred and George, and Ron

  • Meets Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy

  • Once they’re off the train, they get into rowboats and row across a lake and head towards a castle

  • Professor Mcgonagall explains about the four houses: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin

  • Harry is sorted into Gryffindor

POTIONS MASTER/MIDNIGHT DUEL

  • The Potions teacher Professor Snape dislikes Harry. Picks on him

  • The newspaper, the Daily Prophet, reveals that someone attempted robbery the same day that Hagrid and Harry were there at vault 713, the same vault that they emptied earlier

  • During a flying lesson with broomsticks, Malfoy takes Neville Longbottom’s Remembrall (a device that turns white smoke into red to signify you’ve forgotten something) and takes it while flying on a broom. He throws it and Harry catches it in mid-air

  • Mcgonagall takes Harry inside and introduces him to Oilver Wood and tells Oliver he’s found him a Seeker- a Quidditch position. (Quidditch is a wizard sport played in the air on broomsticks)

  • Mcgonagall reveals that Harry’s father was a Seeker too

  • Malfoy challenges Harry and Ron to a duel in front of the trophy room on the 3rd floor

  • Harry and Ron leave 20 min to midnight and are met by Hermione who is stuck with them after she tries to stop them but the portrait of the Fat Lady (entrance to Gryffindor common room) closes on her

  • Neville is on the floor outside after returning from the hospital (accident during broom lessons where he hurt his arm). The four of them together go to the trophy room and are almost found by caretaker Argus Filch’s and his cat Mrs. Norris

  • Hermione says they were tricked and Filch was tipped off by Malfoy

  • The three realize they’re in the forbidden corridor on the 3rd floor which Dumbledore warned everyone about at the beginning of the year and run into a giant three-headed dog. They run for their lives and make it back to the common room

  • Hermione exclaims it was standing on a trapdoor guarding something

  • Harry recalls Hagrid saying there’s no safer place than Gringotts except Hogwarts. Harry now knows where the small package from the vault is being kept

HALLOWEEN

  • Ron and Harry guess that the package is dangerous and valuable

  • Harry receives a Nimbus Two Thousand broom from Mcgonagall

  • Harry learns the rules of Quidditch. 14 players, seven on each team. 3 Chasers handle the main ball, the Quaffle and try to score through 3 giant hoops that look like bubble blowers. Keepers are goalies. Beaters use bats to hit a ball called a Bludger to hit the opposing team. Weasley twins are the Beaters

  • Harry is a Seeker and responsible for catching the Snitch which small, gold, and fast and worth 150 points. The game is over once it is caught

  • Ron hurts Hermione’s feelings after a class, calling her a nightmare. Makes her cry

  • During Halloween feast Quirrell exclaims a troll got into the school

  • Dumbledore has the school prefects take their houses to the dormitories. Ron and Harry go warn Hermione. While on the way to the washrooms they spot Snape heading to the 3rd floor

  • They see the troll and take it down and save Hermione. Hermione covers for them when Mcgonagall, Quirell, and Snape find them

  • The 3 become friends afterwards

QUIDDITCH

  • Harry sees that Snape’s leg is bloody and sees Filch bandaging it in the staff room. He tells Ron and Hermione and suspects that he was trying to get past the 3-headed dog on Halloween and caused the diversion with the troll

  • During Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin, Harry’s broom buckles violently

  • Hermione notices Snape keeping eye contact on Harry and muttering words. She distracts him by setting his robes on fire. Harry goes on to the win the match

  • The trio tell Hagrid, who doesn’t believe them, about Snape wanting to steal what the dog is guarding and asks them how they know about Fluffy, the dog’s name since Hagrid bought it off someone

  • Hagrid tells them it’s guarding something that’s between him and Nicholas Flamel

THE MIRROR OF ERISED

  • On Christmas Harry receives an invisibility cloak from anonymous. A letter says to use it well and that it once belonged to Harry’s father

  • He uses it to go to the restricted section in the library at night. He picks a book which literally screams

  • Getting away from Filch and Snape, Harry hides in a room with a tall mirror with the words “erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi”

  • Harry sees his parents in the mirror and other extended family. He stops caring about Flamel

  • He shows Ron who sees himself as Head Boy and Quidditch captain with the House and Quidditch cups

  • Harry goes back a third time and Dumbledore catches him. He tells Harry it is called the Mirror of Erised and shows someone their deepest desires but can make them go mad. He asks Harry not to look for it again

NICHOLAS FLAMEL/NORBERT THE NORWEGIAN RIDGEBACK

  • The trio find out that Flamel is the creator of the philosopher’s stone- an object which possesses the elixir of life making anyone who drinks it immortal and can turn any metal into gold. They assume that’s what Fluffy is guarding

  • After a Quidditch match, Harry sees Snape go into the forbidden forest and overhears what seems to be a threat against Quirrell asking if he’s found a way to get past Fluffy affirming that Snape is after the stone

  • Hagrid reveals that all the teachers put enchantments to protect the stone including Snape meaning he knows how to get past them all except Fluffy and Quirrell’s spell

  • Hagrid breeds a dragon. A Norwegian ridgeback. He names it Norbert. Malfoy sees it

  • Harry suggests giving it to Ron’s older brother Charlie who works with dragons

  • After Harry and Hermione give it to Charlie at midnight at the top of the tallest tower, they leave the cloak at the top and get caught by Filch

  • Ron is not with them because he got bit by Norbert and had to be treated by Madam Pomfrey in the hospital wing. Malfoy threatens Ron about telling about the dragon

FORBIDDEN FOREST

  • Harry and Hermione are taken to Mcgonagall who has Neville and Malfoy and under the assumption the latter two were fed a cock-and-bull story about a dragon

  • Neville was going to warn them about Malfoy who overheard the plan. 150 points are taken from Gryffindor, losing the Snitch points

  • Harry overhears Quirrel surrendering to Snape in classroom the next day and assumes Snape is ready to make his move for the stone

  • The four students serve detention with Hagrid. Hagrid tells them they are looking for an injured unicorn by following its trail of silver blood

  • Harry Hagrid and Hermione encounter a couple of centaurs named Roman and Bane

  • Harry goes with Malfoy and Fang (Hagrid’s dog) and they find the dead unicorn and a hooded figure drinking its blood

  • A centaur named Firenze saves him from the figure. Firenze tells Harry that unicorn blood is used to keep one alive even if an inch from death but it is a desecration to do so

  • He goes on to tell him that unicorn blood can sustain an individual until they drink the elixir of life and when he asks Harry if he knows who’d be desperate enough to do that, Harry realizes it is Voldemort who is after the stone

  • The trio surmise that Snape wants the stone for Voldemort and then will come after Harry but Hermione reassures him that Harry is safe as long as Dumbledore is around since he is the only one Voldemort ever feared

  • Harry finds a letter beside his cloak on his bed which says “just in case”

THROUGH THE TRAPDOOR

  • After exams Harry finds it odd that a stranger just happened to have a dragon. A creature Hagrid wanted very much and the odds of a stranger carrying one and finding Hagrid

  • Hagrid tells them the stranger was wearing a cloak and was interested in Fluffy. Hagrid told him he just had to play music. The trio assume the stranger was Snape or Voldemort

  • They seek Dumbledore’s office and run into Mcgonagall who tells them he went to the Ministry of Magic in London. She is shocked when they mention the philosopher’s stone

  • They know Snape must’ve written a letter as a ruse to get Dumbledore away and will the stone the very same night

  • As they try to sneak out that night, Neville tries to stop them. Hermione uses petrificus totalus which completely paralyzes him

  • A harp is beside Fluffy meaning Snape already put him to sleep. Harry uses a flute Hagrid gave him for Christmas

  • They fall through a trapdoor and land on a pant called Devil’s Snare which binds Ron and Harry. Hermione uses light to get rid of it

  • In the next room they use broomsticks to catch a specific key among hundreds of keys

  • The next room is a game of giant wizard’s chess (where the pieces move). Ron sacrifices himself as knight so Harry can checkmate the white king

  • The next room has a knocked out troll even larger than the Halloween one. They figure that was Quirell’s defense

  • The last defense is a potions riddle where they must drink the correct two potions out of 7 bottles. Hermione solves it easily

  • Harry goes through black flames while Hermione goes back and takes Ron and to send word to Dumbledore

  • Who Harry sees in the next room is neither Snape nor Voldemort

THE MAN WITH TWO FACES

  • It’s Quirrell

  • Revealed that Quirrell tried to kill him at the Quidditch match and Snape was trying to save him

  • Quirrell let the troll in and Snape tried to ward Quirrell off from the 3rd floor and got bitten by Fluffy

  • The Mirror of Erised is there with Quirrell

  • It was him who tried to steal the stone the same day Harry was at Gringotts

  • Quirrell met Voldemort on his travels and is apparently with him everywhere

  • As Quirrell places Harry in front of the mirror, Harry receives the actual stone in his pocket because it’s what his heart desires, something that Quirrell failed to do

  • Quirrell removes his turban to reveal a white snake-like face with slits and red eyes on the back of his head. It is Voldemort

  • He is vapour and shadow and has to share one’s body to survive. Unicorn blood sustained him and plans to drink the elixir to get his own body back

  • Voldemort commands Quirrell to grab Harry but cannot touch him. For unknown reasons he burns at Harry’s touch. Harry goes unconscious as Quirrell screams and Voldemort is yelling to kill him

  • Harry wakes in the hospital wing 3 days later. Dumbledore pulled Quirrell off Harry

  • The stone has been destroyed but Flamel has enough elixir to set his affairs in order after which he will die

  • Voldemort is still out there and cannot be killed but can be delayed

  • Harry asks why Voldemort wanted to kill him. Dumbledore cannot answer this until Harry is ready one day

  • Quirrell could not touch Harry because of his mother’s protection. The strong love she had for him will protect him forever

  • Dumbledore gave Harry his dad’s cloak

  • Harry’s dad once saved Snape’s life and Snaoe wanted to save Harry so he’d be even. He and James Potter hated each other

  • Dumbledore explains that only one that wanted to find the stone but not use it could claim it

  • The trio suspect that Dumbledore set Harry up with the cloak and mirror as an opportunity to confront Voldemort

  • Initially in last place with 312 points, Dumbledore awards 210 points to Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville for their bravery, logic, problem solving, and courage

  • Harry receives 60 points while Ron and Hermione receive 50 and Neville, 10. Favouritism?

  • The trio head home on the Hogwarts Express as the Dursleys await Harry

  • Harry tells his friends that the Dursleys don’t know he can’t use magic outside of school

David MejiaComment