Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

"HP1" redirects here. For the protein molecule, see Heterochromatin Protein 1.

This article is about the book. You may be looking for the film or the video game.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (published in the United States as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) is the first novel in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling and featuring the fictional character Harry Potter, a young wizard. It was published 30 June 1997 by Bloomsbury in London, and has been made into a feature-length film of the same name. This is also the most popular of the books in terms of number sold — an estimated 107 million copies worldwide. As of August 2007, the book is number nine on the best selling book list of all time, and is the second best-selling non-religious, non-political work of fiction of all time, beaten only by Don Quixote by Cervantes.

Plot

Beginning

The novel begins with the wizarding world's celebration of the downfall of Lord Voldemort, an evil, powerful and cruel Dark wizard. After killing Lily and James Potter, Voldemort had attempted to kill one-year old Harry Potter, but the curse rebounded upon him, destroying his body and leaving a lightning-bolt scar on Harry's forehead. Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall and Gamekeeper Rubeus Hagrid leave Harry on the doorstep of his ultra-conventional and unsympathetic Muggle relatives, the Dursley family. Petunia Dursley is the sister of Harry's mother Lily, although Petunia never approved of her magical sister. The Dursleys resolve to conceal Harry's magical heritage from him, and maltreat him while overindulging their own son Dudley. They tell Harry that his parents' deaths and his scar were caused by a car accident.

Shortly before Harry's 11th birthday, he receives a mysterious letter addressed specifically to him. His outraged uncle reads and burns the letter before Harry can see it. The sender does not capitulate, and the Dursleys receive increasingly greater numbers of the same correspondence over the next few days. Soon, his uncle becomes so paranoid that the Dursleys, with Harry in tow, hide in a hut on a small island to escape. That night, Hagrid bursts through the hut's locked door. As Hagrid holds the Dursleys at bay, Harry finally reads his letter in which he learns he has been invited to study magic at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The next day, Harry and Hagrid leave the hut and head to London's magic hub Diagon Alley via famous wizarding pub The Leaky Cauldron. Harry enters the wizarding world for the first time, learns to his surprise that he is famous for his defeat of Voldemort, and meets the new Hogwarts Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Quirrell. He returns to the Dursleys and a month later, takes the train to Hogwarts from Platform Nine and Three Quarters at King's Cross Station. On the trip to Hogwarts, Harry befriends Ron Weasley and meets the forgetful Neville Longbottom and Hermione Granger, a precocious Muggle-born witch.

Admission to Hogwarts

Upon arrival, the Sorting Hat places Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville in Gryffindor House, one of the four houses at Hogwarts. Draco Malfoy, an arrogant and elitist student, is placed in Slytherin. At the end of his first week at Hogwarts, Harry and Ron discover that the wizarding bank Gringotts was robbed, and a vault that Harry and Hagrid visited had been the subject of the burglary. Later, Harry discovers he has a talent for riding broomsticks, and after a broom-mounted game of keep away with Malfoy over Neville's Remembrall, he is recruited to join Gryffindor's Quidditch team as Seeker. He is the youngest Quidditch player at the school in a century, much to Malfoy's displeasure.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville, in Hogwarts' halls late at night, accidentally stumble across the door to a corridor on the third floor that they had been warned not to enter, finding in the corridor a monstrous three-headed dog, christened Fluffy by Hagrid, that guards a trapdoor. On Halloween, Quirrell informs everyone that a troll has entered the castle and is in the dungeon. As the rest of the students are ushered to their dorms, Ron and Harry remember overhearing that Hermione is in the girls' bathroom crying because Ron insulted her, and they realise that she would not know about the troll. The two of them go to the girls' bathroom, fight the troll, and save Hermione. When confronted by Professor McGonagall over why they did not go back to their dorms when directed, Hermione defends the boys and takes the blame, which results in the three becoming best friends.

Suspicions

At Harry's first Quidditch match, Harry's broom becomes possessed, nearly knocking him off. Hermione sees Professor Severus Snape, the sinister Potions master, staring at Harry and mouthing words, causing her to believe that Snape has cursed the broom. Hoping to save Harry, she runs and accidentally knocks over Professor Quirell. Hermione sets Snape's robes on fire, distracting him and others and allowing Harry to survive and catch the Snitch to win the game for Gryffindor.

At Christmas, Harry receives an Invisibility Cloak, once belonging to his father, which renders its wearer invisible. Harry uses it to explore the Restricted Section in the library to learn about Nicolas Flamel, a name Hagrid let slip when confronted about his knowledge of Fluffy. On being discovered in the library by caretaker Argus Filch, Harry escapes to a disused classroom in which he finds the Mirror of Erised, which shows Harry his family. After three nights of returning to the mirror, once accompanied by Ron, Harry is confronted by Dumbledore, who explains that the mirror shows our deepest desires: Harry sees his family, while Ron sees himself achieving more than his older brothers. Dumbledore tells Harry the mirror is to be moved, and if he sees it again he will be prepared. Eventually, Harry learns (through Dumbledore's Chocolate Frog card) that "Nicolas Flamel is the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone, which produces the Elixir of Life which will make the drinker immortal."

Harry sees Snape trying to get information from Quirrell about getting past Fluffy; Quirrell says he does not know what he's talking about. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are sure that Snape is trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone in order to restore Lord Voldemort to power, but Hagrid denies it. While at Hagrid's hut, the trio discover a dragon egg Hagrid is nursing in a fire. The egg hatches a Norwegian Ridgeback dragon, Norbert. The friends are nervous for Hagrid, since dragon breeding has long been outlawed in the wizarding world, and Hagrid, with his reckless nature, has long nursed a strong desire for a dragon. Finally, Harry, Ron, and Hermione are able to convince Hagrid to let Norbert go live with other dragons of his kind with Ron's older dragon trainer brother, Charlie, in Romania. They arrange for the dragon, (now quite large in size), to be picked up by friends of Charlie's.

Harry, Hermione, and Neville are caught out late at night while sending off Norbert (Ron is in the hospital wing, being treated for a bite from Norbert), and they are forced to serve detention with Hagrid in the Forbidden Forest along with Draco, who had been spying on them. Harry sees a hooded figure drink the blood of an injured unicorn, which causes pain in Harry's forehead scar. Firenze, a centaur, tells Harry that it is a monstrous thing to slay a unicorn, let alone drink its blood, that unicorn blood sustains life but gives the drinker a cursed life in return, and that the hooded figure is in fact Voldemort.

The Philosopher's Stone

Harry, Hermione, and Ron discover that a drunk Hagrid had told a hooded stranger how to get past Fluffy in exchange for Norbert's egg, and they believe the theft of the Stone is imminent. Rushing to finally confide their news to Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts, they meet Professor McGonagall. McGonagall is shocked to find out how much they know about the Stone, but reassures them that it is safe in the castle. She also tells them that Dumbledore has been sent away on an important mission by the Ministry of Magic. Positive that Dumbledore's summons was a red herring to take him away from Hogwarts, the trio make plans to thwart Snape's theft of the stone. They set out to reach the stone first, navigating the security system, which is a series of complex magical challenges set up by the school's faculty. The three make it through the rooms together, with Hermione using her talent at logic and Ron using his chess skills, until finally, Harry enters the inner chamber alone. There he finds that meek Professor Quirrell, not Snape, is the one attempting to steal the Stone; Snape was trying to protect him from Quirrell all along. The final challenge protecting the Stone is the Mirror of Erised, and by looking in the mirror, the Stone falls into Harry's pocket. Harry confronts Quirrell and survives a second encounter with Lord Voldemort, who has possessed Quirrell and appears as a ghastly face on the back of Quirrell's head. Voldemort tells Harry that Lily Potter died protecting him. Quirrell feels severe pain when he touches Harry's skin, and Harry's scar feels immense pain because of his close proximity to Lord Voldemort. Dumbledore arrives just in time to rescue Harry. Voldemort then pitilessly abandons Quirrell, who dies in the aftermath of his possession.

Aftermath

Dumbledore confirms to Harry that Lily died while protecting Harry as an infant. Her pure, loving sacrifice provides Harry with an ancient magical protection against Voldemort's lethal spells and prevents Voldemort from touching Harry without suffering terrible pain. Dumbledore also says that the Philosopher's Stone has been destroyed to prevent future attempts by Voldemort to steal it. Asked by Harry why Voldemort attempted to kill him when he was an infant, Dumbledore promises to tell Harry when he is older.

At the end-of-year feast, where Harry is welcomed as a hero, the House Points totals are given: Gryffindor is in last place. However, Dumbledore gives a few "last-minute additions," granting points to Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville, so that Gryffindor wins the House Cup, ending Slytherin's six-year reign as house champion.

Missing text

As with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the American version of the book has retained text edited out of the British version. According to the author's website:

Anybody who has read both the American and British versions of 'Philosopher's Stone' will notice that Dean Thomas' appearance is not mentioned in the British book, whereas in the American one there is a line describing him (in the chapter 'The Sorting Hat'). This was an editorial cut in the British version; my editor thought that chapter was too long and pruned everything that he thought was surplus to requirements.

The American version reads as follows. The text not in the British version is highlighted in bold:

And now there were only three people left to be sorted. "Thomas, Dean," a Black boy even taller than Ron, joined Harry at the Gryffindor table. "Turpin, Lisa," became a Ravenclaw and then it was Ron's turn.

This edit also created a minor incongruency in the American edition. Since Dean Thomas' mention had been edited out of the British edition, it is mentioned that "there were only three people left to be sorted". However, in the American edition, Dean Thomas, Lisa Turpin, Ron Weasley and Blaise Zabini were all sorted after this statement was made. This oversight was corrected in later printings.

Translations

Main article: Harry Potter in translation

American edition

Both the book and the motion picture were released in the United States with the revised title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The book's U.S. editor, Arthur Levine, who was also responsible for Americanising words, spellings, and grammar characteristic of British English, felt that Philosopher's Stone conveyed an incorrect idea of the subject matter, and that a title change was necessary. Rowling and Levine had agreed to change words only when they felt that British usages would be unnecessarily confusing to American readers (e.g., replacing the phrase "Quidditch pitch" with "Quidditch field" in multiple instances). Several alternative titles were discussed, and Rowling chose Sorcerer's Stone in the end. The "translations" in the American edition led to criticism by many readers. The New York Times ran an op-ed titled "Harry Potter, Minus a Certain Flavour" on July 10, 2000, which heavily criticised Scholastic's decision to Americanise the U.S. Harry Potter editions. Many felt that the translations insulted the intelligence of the American public, and also deprived American readers of an opportunity to learn about other dialects of English. In their editions of the sequels, Scholastic continued to replace British orthography (such as "flavour") with American spellings, but otherwise left many of the British usages unaltered.

Editions

Bloomsbury (United Kingdom, Australia, Canada etc.)

• ISBN 0-7475-3269-9 Hardcover
• ISBN 0-7475-3274-5 Paperback
• ISBN 0-7475-7360-3 Hardcover (adult edition)
• ISBN 0-7475-7447-2 Paperback (adult edition)

Scholastic (United States etc.)

• ISBN 0-590-35340-3 Hardcover
• ISBN 0-590-35342-X Paperback

External links

• Mythological structure of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone from MonoMyth.org
• Background information and storylines from the Harry Potter Lexicon