Reason of choice
This series is one of my favorites of all time, both the movie adaptations and the books themselves. However, I have only read the Portuguese books back then. Now that I’ve developed my English skills, I wanted to read the original books.
Reaction to the first pages
Since I knew this series almost by heart, I was delighted to remember some details I have forgotten as the time went by and that are only present in the books. For this reason and due to liking so much this series, I have always wanted to keep reading the book.
Summary
The book begins when Harry is delivered to the Dursley’s, which raised him with their son, Dudley, who bullied Harry during all the time they lived together. One day, when Harry was getting the mail, he saw he had a letter for himself but he wasn’t fast enough to read it and their uncle confiscated it from him. More letters exactly alike that one arrived in the following days but he never managed to read one.
Due to this fact, the Dursleys and Harry left their house and went to the middle of nowhere to run away from the letters but Hagrid, the gamekeeper of Hogwarts, the school of witches and wizards, went to meet them and delivered one letter to Harry.
After that, they went to London, to Diagon Alley, where Harry bought everything he needed for his first year at Hogwarts. However, before buying anything, Hagrid and Harry went to Gringotts, the wizard’s bank, where Harry took some of the money their parents had left for him, while Hagrid took something from another vault.
After some time, Harry went to King’s Cross Station, where he met Ron Weasley and his family, who helped him to get aboard the Hogwarts Express, in the Platform 9 and 3/4. When the first-year students arrived at Hogwarts, they were placed in the four different Houses: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin. Harry, Ron and Hermione, who the boys met in the train were all placed in Gryffindor, while Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle, some guys they have also met in the train but that they didn’t like, were placed in Slytherin.
Then, we are introduced to the several classes they would be having and to their teachers, being the most relevant ones Potions, taught by Snape, who hated Harry, and Transfiguration, taught by Professor McGonagall. Moreover, Harry showed incredible skills in Quidditch, being recruited as the seeker for Gryffindor, which was against the rules, since the first-year students weren’t allowed to have their own brooms.
One night, Malfoy invited Harry and Ron for a duel, which they accepted, and Hermione tried to stop them but she wasn’t able to do so. Although she didn’t want to go with them, she was forced to go since she couldn’t get back to the Gryffindor common room. However, Malfoy didn’t appear. Therefore, they understood that he tried to frame them. Fortunately for them, they weren’t seen, but, in their way back, they went straight to the 3rd floor, which was forbidden. In there they found a three-headed dog, which was guarding something but they didn’t know what was it.
Then, in Halloween, there was a troll that entered in Hogwarts and that almost killed Hermione, who was saved by Ron and Harry. To free the boys from the trouble they would be getting for running away from the other classmates, Hermione lied for them, being that the beginning of their friendship.
In Christmas, Harry and Ron would be staying at Hogwarts, trying to find who Nicholas Flamel was, since Hagrid told them that only Dumbledore and that man knew what was being guarded by Fluffy, the three-headed dog. Harry received an invisibility cloak as a Christmas gift and he used it to sneak into the restricted section of the library to search for Flamel but he wasn’t successful. In his way back, he found a room with a mirror which showed Harry and his parents. Harry was fascinated by it, which led him to decide to show it to Ron, who wasn’t able to see what Harry said he had seen. After some visits, Dumbledore caught Harry in that room and explained him that the mirror would show one's biggest desire and he also told Harry not to look again for the mirror.
After some time, Harry, Ron and Hermione found out who Flamel was and they also discovered that Fluffy was guarding the Philosopher’s Stone. Besides, Hagrid told them how to pass through Fluffy and that he had a dragon egg about to hatch. Unfortunately, he couldn’t keep it for himself, so Harry and Hermione helped Hagrid to deliver it to one of Ron’s brothers, who were working and studying dragons. However, they were caught by Professor McGonagall because Malfoy warned her that they would do it in that night, but they were caught only after delivering the dragon.
Because of that, they were sent with Hagrid to the Dark Forest, where they chased something that was killing unicorns but they weren’t able to identify it. Then, one day that Dumbledore had went to London, they thought Snape would try to steal the Stone, therefore they tricked Fluffy and they were able to go through all the challenges made by the teachers until they found out that the thief wasn’t Snape, but Professor Quirrel, who was sharing his own body with Voldemort, the man who killed Harry’s parents and that made him his scar. Harry was able to get the Stone for himself and he was able to stop Quirrel and Voldemort, being this the end of the book.
Highlights
It is a little hard to highlight something but I think the author’s ability to make almost every little detail count to the development of the story should be the greatest highlight of the book because, throughout the whole book, we get some clues about what would be happening and they are always pointed out whenever we need to remember them.
Recommendation
Obviously, since this is one of my favorite series, I must recommend it because it’s very nice to remember the Harry Potter story and because we should know how great J. K. Rowling is as a writer.
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