Hello friend!
I have brought you
a new blog post today. Happy reading!
[Warning: This contains MAJOR
spoilers.]
Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone is the first book
in the Harry Potter series and J.K. Rowling’s debut novel, first published in
1997 by Bloomsbury. If you haven’t read this series, I recommend you to do
so. Once you open the book, buckle your
safety belts—you’ll be dragged into a whirling world of fantasy and magic. The
sixth book in the series is my personal favourite [it’s pretty dark and
gritty—and really sad—but that’s part of its charm.]
A quiet, repressed boy called
Harry Potter has been living an ordinary, mundane life, constantly abused by
his surly and cold aunt and uncle, Vernon and Petunia Dursley and bullied by
their son Dudley sice the death of his parents ten years prior. His life
drastically changes on his eleventh
birthday—he receives a letter of acceptance into a school called
“Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry”, delivered by a half-giant Rubeus
Hagrid after previous letters had been destroyed by Vernon and Petunia.
Initially, Harry does not believe Hagrid’s preposterous declaration that he is
a wizard, but the half-giant gently
tells him
that his parents were wizards, too, and that his aunt and uncle kept this piece
of news from him because they were afraid of magic and therefore wanted to
“squash the nonsense out of him.” Harry
learns that his parents were not killed in a car crash as he had been told; they
were murdered by the most powerful Dark Wizard—Lord Voldemort—which resulted in
the one-year-old Harry being sent to live with his aunt and uncle. Here’s the
real shock—Voldemort failed to kill baby Harry. His Killing Curse backfired on
him, causing him to lose his powers; the tiny, innocent child was soon the talk
of the magical world. Voldemort’s attack left a lightning bolt shaped scar on
his forehead.
Hagrid introduces Harry to the
wizarding world, taking him to places such as Diagon Alley, a hidden London
street where Harry gets his pet owl Hedwig [she’s too, too cute] and various
school supplies, and Gringotts Wizarding Bank, where discovers the inheritance
his parents left him. There, he is surprised to learn how famous he truly is
among the witches and wizards. A month
later, Harry leaves the Dursleys’ home to catch the Hogwarts Express from
King’s Cross railway station’s secret Hogwarts platform, Platform Nine and Three Quarters. On the train, he
immediately hits it off with a fellow first year, Ronald Weasley. He also meets
three other first year kids—Neville Longbottom, a clumsy boy with seriously low
self-esteem, Hermione Granger, a know-it-all and snob, and Draco Malfoy, an
arrogant boy who shows prejudice against Ron for his family’s financial
difficulties. Upon arriving at Hogwarts,
the first years are assigned to Houses that best suit their personalities by
the magical Sorting Hat. The Four Houses
are Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. The Sorting hat cannot
determine whether to place Harry in Gryffindor or Slytherin, but Harry, having
heard of Slytherin’s ill reputation, chooses to be placed in Gryffindor. Ron,
Hermione and Neville are also placed in Gryffindor, while Draco Malfoy is
placed in Slytherin [big surprise there, right… that boy is trouble throughout
the series]. As classes begin at Hogwarts, Harry discovers his inherent talent
for Quidditch [ a competitive wizards’ sport played in the air on broomsticks]
and is recruited into his House’s team as the Seeker. He also develops a strong
animosity for the Potions master, Severus Snape, who incessantly picks on him
and his housemates. Meanwhile, Harry and Ron befriend Hermione after saving her
from a troll [she takes responsibility for the incident and lies to the Head of
Gryffindor, Minerva Mcgonagall, out of gratitude to the two.] The three are
inseparable after that. Owing to a few
suspicious incidents involving Snape, the three of them suspect him of having
some connection to Voldemort. During his first Quidditch game, Harry’s
broomstick spirals out of control, threatening to throw him off. This leads the
ever watchful Hermione to suspect that Snape is jinxing Harry’s broomstick. Gryffindor
wins the match, and at Christmas, Harry receives an Invisibity Cloak from a
mysterious benefactor. The three learn of a robbery at Gringotts from Hagrid;
he also lets an invaluable piece of information slip—that the Philosopher’s
Stone is being kept under a trapdoor guarded by a vicious three headed dog.
The Philosopher’s Stone is an
object that grants its user immortality as well as the ability to turn any
metal into gold. Harry is also informed by a centaur, Firenze, that a plot to
steal the stone is being orchestrated by none other than Voldemort himself, who
schemes to use it to return to his body and regain his powers. When the
School’s Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, is lured away from Hogwarts under false
prentences, the three fear that the theft is imminent, and descend through the
trapdoor themselves. They encounter a series of obstacles, and Harry makes his
way through the last door alone. In the final room, he encounters Professor
Quirell, the Defense against the Dark Arts teacher, who has been hand-in-glove
with Voldemort all along—Voldemort’s face had sprouted on the back of Quirell’s
head, but was concealed by his oversized turban—and Voldemort now needs Harry’s
help to get past the last obstacle, the Mirror of Erised [a mirror that can
show a person his deepest desires]. The mirror depicts Harry’s lack of greed
for the Stone and surreptitiously slips it into his pocket. As Quirell attempts
to kill Harry, his skin burns on contact with the child’s skin, causing him to
burn alive. [A fitting end, if you ask me.]
Harry wakes up in the school’s
infirmary, where Dumbledore explains that the reason he is alive is because his
mother, Lily Potter, placed a protection charm on him; the charm repelled
Quirell’s greed and hate. Voldemort, however, has managed to escape. The Stone
has been destroyed. It is also revealed that Dumbledore was the one who gave
Harry his Invisibility cloak. Thus, the story ends on a rather happy
note—though Voldemort hovers ominously in the background.
Thank you! I hope you enjoyed my
article!
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