December 7, 2022
I started reading the book series Harry Potter a few months ago. I will be writing a summary on the first book: The Philosophers’ Stone.
It all started one morning when the Dursleys’ son Dudley was about one year old. Mr. Dursley (or Uncle Vernon) was going to work when he noticed a bunch of weird people in cloaks who were whispering about the Potters. Mrs. Potter was actually Mrs. Dursleys’ sister. Mr. Dursley decided not to tell his wife what he heard. And that night, something you don’t see everyday happened. Professor Dumbledore: The Headmaster for Hogwarts, was at Privet Drive and was walking toward the Dursleys’ home. Then he met up with Professor McGonagall. Then, Hagrid, an enormous half giant with a big, tangled beard, came on the flying motorcycle with baby Harry. They left him on their porch.
10 years later, Harry woke up with a start. Today was Dudley’s birthday and they don’t turn out well for Harry. Dudley and his friend Piers were going to the zoo today. Usually, they drop Harry off at Mrs. Figg’s house on Dudley’s Birthday but today they couldn’t because Mrs. Figg had broken her leg. They didn’t trust Harry to stay in the house, so they brought him along. At the zoo, when they were at the reptile exhibit, there was a big accident. Somehow, Harry was talking to a snake. (He didn’t know yet, but he was actually a parselmouth.) And the snake escaped. Plus, Dudley and Piers got trapped in the snake’s cage.
The next day, (after Uncle Vernon forced him to) Harry went to check the mail. Surprisingly, he had found a letter addressed to him. Sadly, Mr. Dursley caught him holding it and he couldn’t read it. The next day, the same letter arrived at the door. Again, Uncle Vernon caught it first. The next evening, Uncle Vernon was teasing Harry about how there was no post on Friday. And literally just then, about 200 letters shot out of the fireplace like bullets. Harry tried to catch one, but Uncle Vernon grabbed his ankle and he tripped.
The letters kept coming and that had just driven Vernon so mad that he had decided that they’re going to run away. He and Petunia (Mrs. Dursley) quickly took what they needed and made Harry and Dudley get into the car.
They decided to start off at a hotel where they can plan their next move. On their way to the hotel, Dudley started complaining that he hadn’t been this long without blowing up an alien on his computer. The next morning, at the hotel, when they were having breakfast, the waiter came to their table. He asked if anyone here was “Mr. H. Potter.” The waiter said there were about hundred letters delivered to the hotel addressed to that name. Harry tried to tell the waiter, but Vernon stopped him and took all the letters. A few days later, they decided where to stay. Vernon found an extremely tiny old cabin they could rent. The cabin had only 2 rooms! And the windowpanes had no glass!
That night, they had been woken up by a loud banging sound coming from outside the door. Uncle Vernon came down from upstairs holding a gun. It was Hagrid (he is the Hogwarts Gamekeeper). He came to pick up Harry. There was a bit of arguing, but Hagrid convinced them to let harry go to Hogwarts.
And so, Harry and Hagrid went to London to get Harry’s supplies. In London, Hagrid led Harry into a secret door to a wizard street called Diagon Alley. There, they got Harry a cauldron for potions, a bunch of quills and rolls of parchment paper, all the spell books Harry needed, wizarding robes, dragon hide gloves for Herbology, a wand (obviously), and a snowy owl (named Hedwig). Did you know, in the wizarding world, people use owls to deliver post? At the wizard bank, Gringotts, Hagrid got a mysterious package from vault #713, and he wouldn’t tell Harry what it is. Near Diagon Alley, was a place called The Leaky Cauldron, a famous bar. There, Harry met Professor Quirrell, who is the “Defence Against Dark Arts” teacher at the Hogwarts. He has a big, purple turban, & stammers a lot. In the Leaky Cauldron, Hagrid told him that Voldemort, a super evil sorcerer, murdered his parents. That’s why he was left to live with the Dursleys. Voldemort also tried to kill Harry, but instead, Voldemort’s power was drained, and he fled, leaving Harry with a lightning bolt shaped scar. Though wizards try not to say Voldemort’s name, Harry finds no trouble with it.
A week later or so, it was time for Harry to go to Hogwarts. The Hogwarts Express train ticket said to go to The Kings Cross train station, platform 9 ¾, but there was no such thing! Turns out, platform 9 ¾, is a magical doorway in the barrier between platform 9 and 10. That’s how he met Ron Weasley whose it was first time at Hogwarts too. As Harry passed through the barrier, he found himself facing The Hogwarts Express. An enormous scarlet steam engine. He and Ron got on. In the train, Harry and Ron bought some sweets from the trolley witch, a witch who sells snacks on the train. One of these sweets are called cholocate frogs – each of which has a card showing a famous witch or wizard. During the ride, a random girl burst into their compartment and asked if they had seen a missing toad. The girl’s name was Hermione Granger. And the toad belonged to a very forgetful boy named Neville Longbottom. Finally, they reached Hogwarts. It was a humongous castle! Every year, there is a sorting ceremony for the first years where they must put on a magic talking hat that sorts you into your house. There are four houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each of them has lots of talents. Points are awarded for good deeds and will be taken off for any misbehavior. At the end of year, the house with the most points will win the house cup. Both Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville were sorted into Gryffindor. There was a big feast, and Dumbledore made a speech and said that one of the corridors on the fourth floor was forbidden, and the forest in the grounds was too. Each house has a common room.
The next day, Harry and his friends started classes, which were not always fun. Potions was Harry’s least favorite class, which was taught by Severus Snape. He kept finding excuses to take points off Gryffindor. Transfiguration is not too bad, but it is REALLY hard. Herbology is pretty easy, and Charms isn’t too hard, but a bit. Sometimes, Harry has no clue what is going on in Astronomy. Defense Against Dark Arts turned out to be mostly a joke. The entire class smelled like garlic, because on his journeys, professor Quirrel met a vampire and he thought the vampire wood come back one day and garlic will ward it off . And in History of Magic, pretty much everyone falls asleep. By the way, History of Magic is taught by a ghost named Professor Binns. Hermione is good at pretty much everything.
A few days later, during breakfast, Draco Malfoy from Slytherin, (Harry’s arch nemesis) challenged them to a duel. He said to meet him at midnight in the trophy room. The following night, Harry and Ron did what Malfoy said. But, when they got there, the place was deserted. They heard footsteps approaching. Then realized it was Filch the Hogwarts caretaker. They would surely be put in detention for this. So, they ran for it. The three of them slipped through a door and Hermione locked it with a spell. As they thought, Harry realised that they were in the forbidden corridor. As they turned around, they realised why it was forbidden: they were staring at a humongous and hungry looking three-headed dog. They all ran out of the room. Luckily, Filch was gone so they went back to the common room. Hermione said that she spotted a trap door under the dog’s feet.
It was Halloween. And there was going to be a big feast that night. But somehow, a full-grown mountain troll was let into the castle. All the students were brought into the great hall. That left the teachers to deal with the problem. But Harry and Ron realised that Hermione was still in the bathroom. They hurried over to get her and found that the troll was heading straight to her! They snuck past it and into the bathroom. Eventually, the troll found his way into the bathroom too. Ron used a spell (Wingardium Leviosa) they learned in charms to make the troll’s club fly out of its hand and bonk it in the head.
The next day, they had their first Flying lesson with Madam Hooch. They were going to learn to fly on broomsticks. The Slytherin first years were taking the lesson with them too. Each of them had to mount their brooms, and on Madam Hooch’s whistle, they kick off. But Neville Longbottom accidentally kicked off a bit early. His broom started zipping around like crazy! At last, he crashed, and he was sent to the hospital wing. Madam Hooch specifically instructed them not to play with there brooms before she left. But when she did, it didn’t go well. Malfoy had found Neville’s Remembrall, a little glass ball filled with smoke that turns red and vibrates if you forget something. He took the little ball, got on his broom, and shot into the air! Now Harry was mad, he too got on his broom and soared up. He knew he’d get into trouble, but it was worth it. He couldn’t let Malfoy destroy Neville’s Remembrall. He was about to throw it into the castle wall. Harry soared after the ball, and good news, just before it smashed into Professor McGonagall’s window, he caught it! But the bad news was, McGonagall saw him and came down to talk to him. Everyone thought he was going to be expelled, but instead, he became the Seeker in the Gryffindor Quidditch team. He was actually the youngest person to be on the Quidditch team in 100 years.
In Quidditch, there are 4 balls: The Quaffle, The 2 Bludgers, and The Golden Snitch. And there are 7 players in each team: The 2 Beaters, The Seeker (what Harry is), The Keeper, and the 3 Chasers. Each team has a captain. The Gryffindor captain’s name is Oliver Wood. He is the Keeper. Harry’s job is to try to find the Golden Snitch. A tiny, super fast ball that if your team’s Seeker catches it, that team is awarded 150 points. And the game instantly ends.
The first game was coming soon. And Harry was excited. He had been reading the book “Quidditch Through the Ages.” He was strolling through the grounds with his book in his hands, but then Snape appeared. He snatched the book out of Harry’s hands and accused him of bringing the book out of the castle. And took 5 Points from Gryffindor. A few days later, Harry decided to ask Snape for his book. He went to the staff room and opened the door. There, sitting on a chair, was Snape. And Filch the caretaker, was bandaging his leg, while he was muttering something about “three heads.” Harry tried to shut the door quietly, but Snape spotted him, and Harry ran away. The first Quidditch match was Gryffindor versus Slytherin. In the end, Harry caught the Snitch and Gryffindor won. Well, Harry didn’t actually catch the Snitch though. He almost swallowed it.
Christmas break was coming and Harry was excited. He decided to stay for the break because he couldn’t stand another 2 weeks with the Dursleys. Ron was staying too. They decided to ask Hagrid about the big dog, and what was under the trapdoor. Hagrid didn’t seem that happy about it though. But he did accidentally hint something about to do with a guy called Nicolas Flamel, which sounded very familiar to Harry. Recently, they had been looking in the library for information on him. Since Hermione wasn’t staying for the break, she left them in charge of researching on Flamel. But the two of them were having too much fun and they totally forgot about it.
A few days later, when Harry woke up, he was surprised to find a little pile of presents near his bed. He got a little flute from Hagrid, a Christmas jumper from Ron’s mom, and a very rare and useful object, an Invisibility Cloak. There was a note that said:
YOUR FATHER LEFT THIS IN MY POSSESION BEFORE HE DIED.
But there was no name at all.
Now that Harry had the cloak, he got an idea. The restricted section of the library can only be accessed by the teachers, and students who have permission to. But Harry could sneak in after dark. That night he went into the restricted section and lit a lantern for himself. He picked a book at random and opened it. The book gave a wailing shriek. Harry closed it quickly, but not quick enough. Filch came running over to the library. Quickly, Harry threw on his cloak, dropped his lantern, and ran for cover in an empty classroom. Inside, he found a strange mirror. And he didn’t just see his reflection, he saw his parents standing behind him too. But his parents were dead, so how does it work? The next day, Harry told Ron about the mirror, and that night, Harry also showed him. But Ron didn’t see his parents. Instead, he saw himself as “Head Boy (a very important position for a Hogwarts student), Quidditch captain, and holding the Quidditch Cup. A while later, Harry thought about the mirror and what does it do. The next night, he decided to look at it again. But when he checked, he heard footsteps right behind him. It was Dumbledore. He had seen him twice before, but only one other time in person. Dumbledore told him that it was called the Mirror of Erised. The mirror was supposed to show your deepest and greatest desire. Dumbledore told him not to go looking for it again. It was going to be brought to a safer place soon anyway.
The next Quidditch match was against Hufflepuff, and Wood had some bad news. Snape was refereeing. The team thinks that Snape’s going to cheat, so Wood wants the cleanest game they can get, so Snape won’t find any excuses. You should know that He favours his students and always wants Gryffindor to lose. Ron and Hermione were playing a game of Wizard Chess, the only thing Hermione lost at. It was the same as normal chess, except the figures actually moved. When Harry told them the news, they started loading him with suggestions on ways to leave the team temporarily. But Harry decided to play. In the middle of the match, Harry’s broom started shaking violently. In the stands, Hermione spotted Snape muttering under his breath. Quickly, she scooted her way toward him accidentally bumping into Quirrell. Hermione took her wand out and whispered something. Bright blue flames burst from her wand and spread to Snape’s robes. It took some time for him to realise that he was on fire. Just enough time for Hermione to sneak away. At last, Harry caught the Snitch, and Gryffindor won.
A few weeks later, while the three of them were in the Gryffindor common room, Neville came bursting through the door. His legs were crossed together in an odd way. Hermione told them that he was put under the Leg Locker curse and then she unjinxed him. Harry handed Neville a chocolate frog. Neville gave Harry the card back to him. Harry got the Dumbledore card again. On the card, it said:
Currently headmaster of Hogwarts. Considered by many the greatest Wizard of modern times, Professor Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark Wizard, Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the 12 uses of dragon blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel.
Harry remembered where he heard the name Nicolas Flamel. Just then Hermione ran upstairs and brought down a big old book. She flipped through it until she found the right page and read it aloud:
Nicolas Flamel is the only known maker of the Philosopher’s Stone. The stone gives you the power to get unlimited gold and it produces the Elixir of Life, which makes the drinker immortal.
Now it was clear. Snape tried to get under the trapdoor on Halloween. They thought the stone was under the trapdoor, and it was probably heavily guarded.
One afternoon, when they were studying in the library, they saw Hagrid shifting strangely, his arms behind his back. He waved to them then hurried out. Harry noticed that there were lots of books on dragons on the table Hagrid was reading on. Then Harry remembered, Back at Gringotts, Hagrid told Harry that he always wanted to have a dragon. Harry thought that the thing behind Hagrid’s back was a dragon egg. Quickly, they went to Hagrid’s cabin. Even though it was almost summer, there was a roaring fire inside. And in the fire, was a dragon egg. Ron told Hagrid that it was illegal to breed dragons, but Hagrid didn’t care. He told them that he got a Norwegian Ridgeback. Harry asked where he got the egg, and Hagrid said that he met someone in a pub who was willing to give him the egg for a game of cards. A few weeks later, in the morning, Harry got a message from Hagrid that said:
It’s Hatching.
They went to see Hagrid. The egg was cracking. Out popped a little black dragon. Hagrid decided to name it “Norbert.” But then Malfoy found out, so they had a problem. Ron’s older brother Charlie studied dragons in Romania. Harry thought it would be a good idea to send Norbert to Charlie. Hagrid agreed, so Ron sent an owl to Charlie asking if he’d like that. Then, after a few days, Charlie sent an owl back saying that a few friends of his are going to come and pick Norbert up. Charlie said to meet them at the tallest tower. They succeeded in delivering Norbert, but on their way back, they forgot the invisibility cloak and were busted. Ron wasn’t with them though, so he didn’t get detention like the rest.
But Malfoy and Neville got detention too, so they would be joining Harry and Hermione. Luckily, detention was with Hagrid, so they thought it won’t be that bad. But this time, they were going into the Forbidden Forest, which was forbidden for a reason. Hagrid told them that he needed their help solving a mystery. Recently, Hagrid has seen a trace of unicorn blood around the forest. He even saw a few real dead unicorns. So, he wanted them to help him search for more. So, they split into two groups. The first group was Harry, Hermione, and Hagrid. Group two was Neville, Malfoy, and Fang: Hagrid’s boarhound. He also said that if they got in trouble, to send up red sparks, and if you find something, to send up green sparks. In the middle of the search, team two sent up red sparks. Turns out it was a fake, and Malfoy snuck up behind Neville and tackled him as a joke.
So, Hagrid split the teams up again, and Harry and Neville switched places. And so, Harry and Malfoy kept going. They spotted another trail of unicorn blood. The blood led to a clearing in the trees. And there was a dead unicorn, laying on a rock. It was shining white with a golden horn. But then the two of them (and Fang) saw a hooded figure bending over the unicorn. Malfoy and Fang ran off Shouting and barking, but Harry stood still. His scar started sizzling with pain. Quickly, the hooded figure swept away. A large centaur was standing behind Harry, an arrow drawn. Centaurs are mythical creatures, with the body and head of a human, and the torso and legs of a very strong horse. This one’s name was Firenze. Harry asked if he knew who the hooded figure was and Firenze told Harry that the only use of unicorn blood was that it could bring you back to your normal state, even if you are inches away from death. But there is a catch, you will be cursed – a curse that practically sucks away your good soul. But some people really desperate might still drink the blood. Then Firenze asked, “You know the one person who has been trying to regain power for years,” “Voldemort” Harry whispered. “and especially, now because he will probably drink something else.” Harry thought Firenze was talking about the Philosopher’s Stone. They rode back towards Hagrid’s cabin in the grounds.
A few days later, they decided to ask Hagrid if he knew what else was guarding the Philosopher’s Stone. Hagrid wasn’t very happy when they asked, though. But then, he just gave up. He said that they knew too much already. He said that it was guarded by many traps, each enchanted by one teacher. Harry knew Snape was trying to get through the trapdoor, but did he know how to get past fluffy? Back at the Gryffindor common room, Harry told Hermione and Ron that it was time they went into the trapdoor themselves. They brought the Invisibility Cloak, and the wooden flute Hagrid gave Harry on Christmas. Conquering fluffy was easy now that they knew what to do. But the trapdoor led to an extremely deep tunnel. But they jumped in anyway. At the bottom, they fell on a tangle of black vines. But these were no ordinary vines. They were grabbing at their limbs. They couldn’t stop it. Then Hermione remembered in Herbology when Professor Sprout mentioned this plant: it was called Devil’s Snare. Devil’s Snare liked damp, dark places, so she lit a fire with her wand. The plant slowly weakened and let Harry and Ron go. The three of them went through the door at the other end of the room. They entered a glittering room full of colourful birds. There was a door at the other end of the room. The birds were as fast as Snitches. Harry thought that they were supposed to run across the room without getting attacked by the birds. So, he ran as fast as he could to the other side. He tried to open the door, but it was locked. The birds didn’t attack him either. They just continued flying around, glittering-wait, glittering?! They weren’t birds. They were keys! Harry saw a row of brooms leaning against the wall. They each grabbed a broom and kicked off. Harry saw a big silver key that’s wing was bent as if it was already shoved into the lock. The three of them circled the key and caught it. As they entered the next door, they smelled something horrible. There was a troll, even bigger than the one they fought on Halloween. It was laying unconscious, with a lump on its head. In the next room, they saw the biggest chessboard in the world. It looked like to Ron that they had to play their way across the room. One of the figures nodded. The game was extremely hard, and Ron sacrificed himself so they could win. He was out cold. Next was a bunch of clues. They were surrounded by fire. There were seven potions: 2 were wine, 3 were poison, 1 lets you continue, and one gets you back. Hermione was able to solve the riddle, so she went back, and Harry continued. And finally, Harry made it to the Philosopher’s Stone! But it wasn’t Snape. It was Quirrell. And the stone wasn’t there instead he saw the Mirror of Erised. Quirrell was actually working for Voldemort. He unwrapped his turban. And underneath, on the other side of his head, was a snakelike face with evil red slits for eyes. Quirrell said that the stone was in the mirror Harry looked into the mirror. This time, he saw himself with the stone in his pocket. And surprisingly, it actually was in his pocket! But Quirrell (and Voldemort) didn’t see. But Voldemort did tell Harry to tell him what he saw. Harry lied, and said what Ron saw. But Voldemort knew in was in Harry’s pocket. So, Voldemort instructed Quirrell to take it from Harry but for some reason, Quirrell couldn’t touch Harry. In the end, Quirrell was burnt to a pile of ashes, and Voldemort went back into hiding. At the end of year banquet, Gryffindor won 170 points for their work, and they won the house cup.
THE END
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