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Countdown to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!-Month One-Book One-Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K Rowling
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Yeah, I know, it’s only July and the movie isn’t out until November, but this is going to be cool. What’s going to happen is I’m going to review one or two of the Harry Potter books each month, and I’m going to coordinate it so that my review of the Deathly Hallows happens in November, right before the movie comes out! Right now I’m gonna start at the very beginning, with the Sorcerer’s Stone. Then there’ll be the Chamber of Secrets later this month, and in August there’ll be the Prisoner of Azkaban and the Goblet of Fire, and so on until we reach the Deathly Hallows! So, with no further ado, here’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K Rowling!
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The story starts in a quiet street somewhere in Britain, with a wizard called Professor Dumbledore. Soon he is joined by a witch called Professor McGonagall, a rather large guy named Hagrid, and a small boy named Harry Potter, who is, as of that night, an orphan, his parents killed by the dread villain Lord Voldemort! The strange group then leaves Harry on his Muggle (that’s non-magic people, by the way) relatives.
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Almost eleven years later, we find Harry living with the Dursleys-his horrible Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, and spoiled cousin Dudley. He isn’t in the comfiest of predicaments, that’s for sure!
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One interesting incident that doesn’t much affect the story line of this (note: this) story is when Harry goes with the Dursleys to the zoo for Dudley’s birthday. There he meets a snake, and he accidentally sets it free! How? Well, let’s just say that he learns how he did it in this one. Why he did it is a whole other question, one that is answered in the Chamber of Secrets.
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Back on track, however. Just when life gets back to normal, a letter arrives. Uhhhhmm, excuse me, you’re probably thinking. Why’s a letter all of a sudden so important?
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Well, the thing is, Harry has never gotten a letter for him before! Unfortunately, however, Uncle Vernon steals it before Harry can open it! But the letters persist, and Uncle Vernon has had enough! He takes them to a little island, way out at sea, where he thinks they can never find them!
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Wrong! That very night (incidentally, it happens to be Harry’s eleventh birthday) a giant knocks on the door! Unfortunately, it turns out to be the kind of knock where you (accidentally, of course) knock in the door! Not pretty, but when you’re dealing with the likes of the Dursleys, it does the job.
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In any case, the giant turns out to be the very same giant named Hagrid who helped deliver Harry to the Dursleys! But before we find that out, he decides to drop the bomb: Harry’s a wizard! He also tells Harry how his parents died (the Dursleys just told him they died in a car accident) and that the letters had been about his acceptance into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the finest school of magic in Britain!
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The next day, Hagrid takes Harry to Diagon Alley, home of all things magic! There he buys all his school stuff, including his holly-and-phoenix-tail-feather wand and Hedwig, his beautiful snowy owl. But just before that, Hagrid took out a small bundle from Gringotts, the wizard bank. What’s up with that, I wonder?
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Then, a bit later, on the first of September, he boards the Hogwarts Express on Platform nine and three-quarters! There he meets Mrs. Weasley, a kind but rather stern woman and her sons Percy, Fred, George, and Ron, who is also a first-year. He also meets his future best friend Hermione, clumsy but (eventually) heroic Neville, the twin’s friend Lee Jordan, and his arch-school-enemy Draco Malfoy and his henchmen Crabbe and Goyle! (His regular arch-enemy is, obviously, Lord Voldemort, but he has to deal with Malfoy a lot more often!)
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One boat ride across the Black Lake with Hagrid and the other first-years later, Harry is in the Great Hall waiting to be Sorted into his house. See, there’s four different Houses- Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Gryffindors are really brave, Slytherins are wily, Ravenclaws are brainy, and Hufflepuffs are hard workers. There’s this hat that decides which House you’re best suited for. Turns out Harry, Ron, and Hermione are all for Gryffindor, along with Neville. Malfoy? Easy. He’s in Slytherin, and so are Crabbe and Goyle.
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Lessons in magic come soon after that. Some of the subjects include Transfiguration, taught by none other than Professor McGonagall, Defense against the Dark Arts, taught by Professor Quirrell, and Potions, taught by Harry’s least favorite teacher and ex-Death Eater (maybe), Professor Snape.
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Then, some time later, Malfoy challenges Harry and Ron to a duel! Needless to say, it flops, and Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville end up coming face-to-face with a very bored and rather hungry three-headed dog named Fluffy.
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Yeah. Really.
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Anyway, that’s how Harry figured out where the little bundle Hagrid picked up from Gringotts went. That’s right: in a trapdoor guarded by a very bored and rather hungry three-headed dog named Fluffy.
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Then at Halloween, Hermione gets trapped in the girl’s bathroom by a very large and very scary mountain troll, and Harry and Ron have to save her. After that, she changes from her strict, rule-following self that thinks Harry and Ron are stupid to their best friend. Overnight.
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Yeah. Really.
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Then there’s Harry’s first Quidditch game-Gryffindor versus Slytherin. Quidditch is like this half-soccer, half-basketball game played on broomsticks. There’s four balls-one bright scarlet Quaffle, two hard iron Bludgers, and one little Golden Snitch. There’s seven players-a Keeper, who keeps the Quaffle from going in the goal hoops, three Chasers, who try to get the Quaffle through the rival team’s hoops, two Beaters, who try to keep the Bludgers away from their teammates, and a Seeker (Harry’s a Seeker) whose job is to catch the Golden Snitch. And no, I’m not telling who won, but I bet you can guess. It’s pretty obvious.
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Then Harry discovers this cool mirror called the Mirror of Erised that shows you the things you desire the most-in this case, it’s Harry’s parents! But then Dumbledore says that the Mirror is being moved to a new home. Where? And why? That’s what Harry is about to find out! To aid this, it seems, for Christmas Harry receives an Invisibility Cloak, inherited from his father! But who’s it from? Once again, I’m not telling because it’s waaay too obvious!
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Then, after learning about Dumbledore’s friend Nicolas Flamel and helping to release an ill-fated pet dragon of Hagrid’s, Harry, Hermione, Neville, and Malfoy end up in detention together. They, accompanied by Hagrid and his dog Fang, go into the Forbidden Forest. See, Hagrid found a dead unicorn, and another one is obviously hurt. They have to find it.
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Well, they do. Dead, and with a cloaked figure bending over it, drinking its blood! Yuck! Malfoy and Fang are with Harry at the time, and at the first sight of it promptly beat it, leaving Harry to face the thing!
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Luckily for Harry, a centaur named Firenze intervenes and chases off the thing! But guess what it was! No, really, guess. I’m not telling you. It’s waaaay too obvious!
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That’s when Harry overhears Professor Snape threatening poor Professor Quirrel. The kids think he’s going to try and steal the little bundle, which turns out to be the Sorcerer’s Stone, a magic stone that can turn anything into gold and makes the Elixir of Life, a potion that will make the drinker immortal! So the next thing you know, they’re play music to put Fluffy to sleep and use fire to defeat a Devil’s Snare.
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The next room is just too awesome! It’s a giant chess set, and they have to play across the room! Of course, they do, and they win, but in the process, Ron is taken and is knocked unconscious by the enemy Queen!
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The next room is an unconscious troll. It shows for sure that somebody has managed to get through to the Stone! So Harry and Hermione press on, until a room that requires only one to go on. Harry goes; Hermione has to get Ron and get help! So Harry continues alone, and when he reaches the room where he knows the stone is, he finds not Voldemort, but…..
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Professor Quirrell! He’s the one who’s let the bodiless Lord Voldemort take over his body! He’s the one who was plotting to take the Stone! He’s the one who very nearly kills Harry! Luckily, though, Harry is able to protect the Stone long enough for Dumbledore to get there and save his life. And it’s not for the last time, I can guarantee that! Oh, and as for the Mirror of Erised, it was moved there as the final and most difficult obstacle between anyone and the Sorcerer’s Stone!
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Harry’s fine, of course. What’d you expect me to say? “Uh, yeah, Voldemort managed to kill Harry, so yeah, there are no more books.” Not by a long shot! They’re all fine, in fact, except Professor Quirrell. He gets turned into dust just by touching Harry!
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So then its summer break, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione go back to their respective homes. But their time at Hogwarts isn’t over. Not by a long shot!
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So, that’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone! Next up I’m going to review Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. That’s going to be later this month, but I’m not saying when, so keep checking! Then we’ll have Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire-books number three and four, respectively, next month, then Order of the Phoenix-book five- in September, Half-Blood Prince-book six-in October, and finally Deathly Hallows –book seven-in November, so keep checking in until then! See you!
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