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Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
Book report by Katja Fünfschilling
Introduction
There are four books about Harry Potter. I think the fourth is the most well known one. Its title is Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. When this book was published children were queuing in front of bookstores to buy it. But the other three books were also described using superlatives too. Here are some quotations from famous magazines and newspapers.
The Scotsman
“Rowling uses classic narrative devices with flair and originality and delivers a complex and demanding pot in the form of a hugely entertaining thriller. She is a first-rate writer for children”
The Story of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”
The story started in the normal world in the house of a very basic family, the Dursleys. They lived in Privet Way 4 and were proud to be perfectly normal humans. Mr. Dursley was a huge, fat man and director of his own company. Mrs.
Dursley was thin and blond. She was a housewife. Their son Dudley was very fat and looked like a pig. Mrs. Dursley had a sister, but hated her. Mrs Dursley didn’t allow her family to even talk about her sister.
This sister was called Lily Potter and she and her husband James had a small son, named Harry.
One day when Mr. Dursley went to work, he noticed some very strange things. There was a cat, which read a road map and there were strangely dressed people with robes and plain pointed hats. Owls were flying around while the sun was shining. In his break while he was going to the baker's shop he listened to the strange people talking.
They spoke about Harry Potter. Mr. Dursley stopped dead because his nephew was called Harry Potter.
In the evening the card-reading cat and an old man with a long white beard (Albus Dumbeldore) sat in front of the house of the Dursleys. Suddenly an enormous motorcycle and an even more enormous man appeared in the sky. This man was called Hagrid.
He laid a baby and a letter on the doorstep. The baby was Harry Potter. Lord Voldemort, a powerful wizard of the dark side, had killed his parents. Voldemort is so mighty and evil, that everybody is afraid about him. He is called “You-know-how”. Lord Voldemort had tried to kill Harry too, but he did not succeed.
This was the reason why one scar, which looks like lightning remained on Harry’s forehead. That made Harry a hero in the world of wizards and witches.
Harry had to stay with his relatives, the Dursleys. They were muggel, which meant they could not perform magic. The Dursleys wanted to be normal, so they hated everything that reminded them of magic. So the next years became really terrible for Harry.
He had to live in a wardrobe under the stairs and Dudley’s favourite sport was to punish Harry. Harry grew up to a not very special boy with black unkempt hair and glasses. He was not very big for his age and just normal at school. He did what he wanted, but he was not laying flat at the had and he is very brave.
Some days before Harry’s eleventh birthday he got a letter with an invitation to Hogwarts: school for witches and wizards. He had never got a letter before.
The Dursleys didn’t want Harry to go to Hogwarts or to know wizards and witches. So they hid the first letter from Hogwarts and hundreds of others, too. Harry noticed that, but he couldn’t prevent it. The Dursleys even escaped to a lonely isle to prevent Harry from getting the letters. But on Harry’s birthday at night Hagrid, brought a letter to Harry. Hagrid is around 35 years old and gamekeeper at Hogwarts.
Perhaps he is not very intelligent, but he can handle with animals fantastically and he has a very wide heart.
Next morning they drove together to London. There was a little pub called the Leaky Cauldron. In the pub they went through a secret door and Harry was suddenly in another world, in the world of witches and wizards. In Diagon Alley there were lots of very exciting shops like “Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 BC: ” for example. They bought books, magic herbs, the school uniform, a magic wand and everything else from the list of Hogwarts.
Hagrid gave a snowy owl to Harry as a birthday present. Harry had never received a birthday present before, so he almost cried.
On September, 1st Harry had to appear at 11:15 p.m. at a station in London on platform 9 ¾. The Hogwarts Express would fetch him.
The Dursleys brought him to the station but Harry had to find the platform for himself. But this was a serious problem. Suddenly he heard someone talking about “muggels”. He knew these people had to be wizards. They told him he had to go fast through a wall. Afterwards he saw platform 9 ¾.
There were many children with their families and all wanted to go to Hogwarts. When the people saw the scar on his forehead and heard his name, they looked admiringly. Harry didn’t like the feeling to be someone special. He was afraid, that he would fail and disappoint their expectations. While driving he made friends with Ron Weasley. Ron has five brothers and a little sister and all Weasleys are red-haired.
They were not very rich and Ron thought this was a shame. Ron always makes jokes and is a faithful friend.
At Hogwarts in the evening there was the start-of –term banquet in the Big Hall with the very important ceremony of sorting people into their houses using a hat that could sing and read thoughts. The pupils have classes with the rest of their house, sleep in their house dormitory and spend their free time in their house common room. So the house is their family. The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin.
The hat sent Harry to Gryffindor. His father had been in Gryffindor too. Also Ron would live in this house.
But Harry did not only have friends and fans, he had also enemies: Professor Snape and Malfoy. When Professor Snape was looking at Harry, his lightning scar on the forehead started glowing and a stinging pain drove through it. Even in the potions lessons Harry was treated in a very unfair way by Professor Snape.
Malfoy was a terrible boy. His two friends Grabe and Goyle were always around him like bodyguards. They didn’t decline an opportunity to provoke Harry. Unfortunately the pupils from Gryffindor had flying lessons together with those from Slytherin. So Harry and Malfoy had to get along well with each other. In the first lesson after an accident had happened, the teacher brought one pupil to the nurse.
During this time flying was strictly forbidden. But both leapt on their broomsticks and took off. Harry noticed, he was very gifted in flying. This was his first flight on a broomstick, but he was able to beat Malfoy. Now Malfoy challenged Harry to a midnight duel the following night. Although Harry feared to be suspended from school, his honour did not permit him to decline the challenge.
When they were again on the ground, Professor Mc Gonagall came towards both. She looked very strictly and asked Harry to follow her into the house. But she didn’t want to punish him. She was enthusiastic about his flight. She wanted him to become the Seeker of the Quidditch team from Gryffindor. That was a giant honour for a first-year.
So Malfoy was very envious.
At night Harry and Ron went to the duel. Hermione, a very correct pupil with very good grades in all subjects, absolutely wanted to hold them back. While she was talking with them she locked herself out so she had to go with them. Malfoy had never planned to come to this secret duel. He only wanted to tell on Harry to the caretaker Mr.
Filch. When the children had noticed this they tried to get back into their beds. But they didn’t know the right way and arrived in the forbidden third-floor corridor and discovered a monster. It was a giant dog with three heads, three pairs of mad, rolling eyes and three drooling mouths. This dog was guarding something under a trapdoor. The three fled and didn’t stop running until they were safe in their common room.
Harry was busy with Quidditch training and schoolwork until Halloween. On Halloween Ron argued with Hermione and he hurt her. So she was crying and hid the whole day. There was a wonderful Halloween feast in the Great Hall. Suddenly there was large excitement. A very dangerous troll had come into the house and all children were sent into their dormitories.
Only Hermione didn’t know anything about the troll. Ron and Harry remembered Hermione and wanted to warn her but they met the enormous stinking troll. Briefly they decided to lock it into the girls’ toilet, without knowing that Hermione was in the girls’ toilet. When they heard Hermione´s screaming, they stormed inside. With the courage of the despair the three beat the troll. When the teacher noticed, that Ron and Harry had fought with the troll they were very angry.
But Hermione lied to help them. Since this moment Hermione belonged to Ron and Harry. Ron and Hermione often argues each other, because Hermione always knows things best. But her cleverness often helps them and Hermione is a real friend. Heromine´s parents are muggels, so sometimes she understands Harry better than Ron.
Then the large day of the Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin came.
If Gryffindor would win they would win the House Championship for the first time since seven years. The whole school watched the match at the stands and inspired the teams. But Harry suddenly got difficulties. His Nimbus 2000 bucked and he almost fell off his broomstick. Hermione observed, that Professor Snape had his eyes fixed on Harry and was whispering words. It seemed he was jinxing the broomstick.
But Hermione was an excellent pupil and knew how to stop him. She set Snape’s robe on fire so he couldn’t continue jinxing Harry. So he could fly normally again and he caught the snitch, so Gryffindor won the match. Malfoy is now more intolerable than normal.
After the match the three friends were invited to a cup of tea by Hagrid. They asked Hagrid about the dog in the forbidden floor.
Hagrid didn’t want to say anything. But the name Nicolas Flamel slipped out of him. But they didn’t know Nicolas Flamel. Hermione wanted Ron and Harry to find out who Nicolas Flamel was during the Christmas holidays. Both would stay at school, but she would drive to her parents place.
Harry had never experienced such a wonderful Christmas in his life.
When he woke up on Christmas morning, many presents were on his bed. One of the packages included a Invisibility Cloak. It had belonged to his father. Harry didn’t know who had sent it. In the following night Harry took his Invisibility Cloak and went to the forbidden part of the library. He wanted to find something about Flamel.
He opened a big old book that began to cry. Harry quickly hid under his cloak. Mr. Filch and Professor Snape had heard the noise and came into the library. Harry escaped and hid in a room with a large mirror. He looked into the mirror and saw a beautiful woman with eyes just like his and a man, who looked similar to him.
Harry suspected that it must be his family. The next day he could not think of anything else other than seeing his family again. He went back to the mirror and met Albus Dumbeldore there. He explained to Harry that this was the Mirror of Erised. The mirror shows the deepest, most desperate desire of the heart. He told Harry to forget the mirror, because it would drive him mad.
Harry was sad, but he obeyed Dumbeldore`s advice. Dumbeldore is one of the greatest wizards of modern and he is a fantastic Headmaster of Hogwarts too. He always knows everything about his pupils but he allows them to make their own experiences.
After the Christmas holidays Hermione came back. One evening while the friends were sitting in the common room Neville gave Harry a collecting card from Chocolate frogs. Harry gasped.
There was the name of Nicolas Flamel on the card. He was a friend of Albus Dumbeldore and the only known maker of the Philosopher’s Stone. They were sure that the dog in the forbidden floor guarded this stone. The friends guessed Professor Snape wanted to steal this stone.
The next adventure for the three was caused by Hagrid. Hagrid had been in the village and won a dragon’s egg by playing cards.
Soon the dragon, a fire breathing Norwegian Ridgeback hatched. Hagrid called him Norbert and took care of him like a baby. But there were some problems: Firstly, it was illegal to have a dragon as a pet. Secondly, Malfoy had found out that Hagrid did this. Thirdly, Hagrid lived in a wooden house. So the dragon had to disappear.
They asked Ron´s brother, who was studying dragons in Romania for help. He would send four friends to fetch Norbert at the top of the tallest tower at midnight at next Saturday. Unfortunately Malfoy had read the letter from Ron´s brother.
On Saturday Harry and Hermione put the dragon into a crate, covered him and themselves with the Invisibility Cloak and carried him on the top of the tower. After Norbert had been fetched Harry and Hermione were discovered by Professor Mc Gonagall because they had forgotten the cloak at the top of the tower. Professor Mc Gonagall was very disappointed in Harry and Hermione, because they had broken a strict house rule.
She had to take Gryffindor´s 150 points away. She hated doing this for her own house so she was very angry. So there was a second punishment together with Malfoy. They had to help the gamekeeper with his work. Because of losing points, Gryffindor was despite Harry’s gains in the Quidditch match, in last place of the House Championship. Malfoy was very angry and all schoolmates of the house Gryffindor turned against Harry, Hermione and Ron.
Harry is very sad. So he did a lot of homework and learned a lot. That was not so bad, because there wasn’t much time until the exam.
One night the children had to do their punishment. Finch sent them with Hagrid into the forbidden forest. They were looking for a wounded unicorn together.
They split into two parties and followed the trace made of the unicorn’s blood. They were all afraid because they didn’t know who ever could have hurt the unicorn. It had to be somebody very mighty and dangerous. But first they met only two centaurs, which spoke in a very mysterious way about terrible things that would happen in near future. Later Harry and Malfoy found the wounded unicorn and a cloaked figure drinking its blood. Suddenly terrible pain pierced through Harry’s head, as though his scar was on fire.
Then the figure wanted to attack Harry. In the same moment a centaur appeared and saved him. He was called Firenze. He told Harry that only somebody, who has nothing to lose, and everything to gain, would commit such a crime. The blood of an unicorn will keep you alive, even if you are an inch away from death. But there is a very high price.
You will only have half a life a cursed one as well. The only thing that can help you is the Philosopher’s stone, which had been hidden at school. Harry understood, that the figure that killed the unicorn was going to steal the Philosopher’s stone it had to be Lord Voldemort. He recognised, that Lord Voldemort definitely wasn’t dead. So his life was in great danger.
A terrible time for Harry followed.
His scar hurt continuously and he had nightmares. Finally he had done his exams and there was a lot of free time. So the friends visited Hagrid. They talked about the Philosopher’s Stone and Fluffy, who had been protecting it. While they were talking Hagrid remembered that he had told to a stranger, how to get past Fluffy when Hagrid was drunk. Harry and his friends ran to Dumbeldore, in order to tell him everything.
But he wasn’t at school, he had gone in London to a congress. So the friends had to prevent Professor Snape from stealing the Stone themselves. This is the most exciting part of the book. I don’t want to tell you everything, but the three went through the trapdoor. There they had to solve seven problems together. They needed a lot of courage, magic and logic.
Finally Harry had to go alone through the last door into the room with the Philosopher’s Stone and the thief inside. But this person is not Professor Snape. I won’t reveal who tried to steal the stone. But there is another thing I want to tell you. There is a hard exciting fight between Lord Voldemort and Harry. At the end Harry got the stone and Dumbeldore appeared just in time to save Harry.
Three days later Harry woke up in the school’s hospital. Everybody in school was proud of Harry, because he had beaten Lord Voldemort. Albus Dumbeldore and Nicolas Flamel had destroyed the stone. This meant Nicolas Flamel would have to die, but he and his wife were glad, to be able to die finally in peace in the age of 600 years. Harry found out, that Professor Snape had been hating him because Harry’s father had saved Snape´s life during their school time together. They didn’t like each other, similar to Harry and Malfoy.
So Snape didn’t want to be in his debt. Nevertheless he wouldn’t ever try to hurt Harry.
The school year finished and all pupils got their exam results. Hermione was top of the year and Ron and Harry had much better results than they had thought. Before the children drove to their families, there was the end-of-year feast. The Hall was decorated with the colours of Slytherin, because they had most points in the House Championship.
Malfoy was very proud. But when Dumbeldore appeared, he gave Harry and his friends for their bravery exactly the amount of points that Gryffindor needed for first place.
Dumbeldore clapped his hands and the decoration changed its colours into those of Gryffindor. This had been the very best day in Harry’s life. So he was not so happy when he thought about his summer holidays, which he had to spend with the Dursleys. But at least he could threat them with magic.
This is the end of the first book about Harry Potter but there are hundreds of little jokes and funny stories left, which I didn’t write in my essay. If you want to know more details, you must read the book for yourself. I’m sure you will love it.
The Author
Now I want to know who is the person who writes such brilliant books?
JK Rowling is the single mother of a little girl living in Edinburgh. She was a graduate of Exeter University and became a teacher.
Her story sounds a bit like a PR-fairytale.
She was just riding a train from Manchester to London when the idea for Harry Potter fell into her head. The train got stuck and so she had much time to think. She wrote the first bit of Harry Potter on some napkins in a cafe while she was unemployed. At this time she was 31 years old, divorced and had a little baby. And her mother died with multiple scleroses. This is why J.
K. Rowling got depressed. She says, Harry Potter saved her. I suppose Rowling enjoyed escaping into the fantasy world of witches and wizards. She says, she wrote the book mainly for herself. She didn’t believe, that the book would become so famous.
After the first idea she wrote five years the first volume. It took so long, because she was also planing and writing parts of the next books. I’m glad, that she had planed all books from the beginning. If you read the second, third or fourth one, you will see, that there is a logical story behind all books. She is going to write seven books, one for every year of Harry at Hogwarts. This year the fifth volume called “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” will appear.
Harry Potter was not the fist book written by J.K. Rowling. She has been a writer since age of six when she wrote her first book about a rabbit named 'Rabbit' who gets the measles. But she had never published a book before. There are two Novels for adults, but J.
K. Rowling says they are “really shit”.
Rowling believed that she could not write for children, but working on Harry Potter taught her how easily she could tap into her childhood memories. She says “I really can, with no difficulty at all, think myself back to 11 years old. You are very powerless, and kids have this whole underworld that to adults is always going to be impenetrable.”
It is not very surprising that J.
K. Rowling loved Paul Gallico's 'Manxmouse', CS Lewis' Narnia books and Noel Streatfield, when she was young. Now her favourite writer of all time is Jane Austen. J.K. loves comedy sitcoms, mostly British ones, but among the many American shows she has seen, her favourites were 'The Simpsons' and 'Frasier'.
Perhaps this is the reason for Rowling´s funny way of writing.
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