Summary Harry Potter

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Summary

Ten-year-old Harry Potter is an orphan


who lives in the fictional London suburb
of Little Whinging, Surrey, with the
Dursleys: his uncaring Aunt Petunia,
loathsome Uncle Vernon, and spoiled
cousin Dudley. The Dursleys barely
tolerate Harry, and Dudley bullies him.
One day Harry is astonished to receive a
letter addressed to him in the cupboard
under the stairs (where he sleeps). Before
he can open the letter, however, Uncle
Vernon takes it. Letters for Harry
subsequently arrive each day, in
increasing numbers, but Uncle Vernon
tears them all up, and finally, in an
attempt to escape the missives, the
Dursleys go to a miserable shack on a
small island. On Harry’s 11th birthday, a
giant named Hagrid arrives and reveals
that Harry is a wizard and that he has
been accepted at the Hogwarts School of
Witchcraft and Wizardry. He also sheds
light on Harry’s past, informing the boy
that his parents, a wizard and a witch,
were killed by the evil wizard Voldemort
and that Harry acquired the lightning-bolt
scar on his forehead during the fatal
confrontation.
Upon arrival at the school, the students
are sorted into one of four houses—
Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or
Slytherin. Harry ends up in Gryffindor,
and during his eventful first year at
Hogwarts he becomes close friends with
two other members of the house, Ron
Weasley, who comes from an old
wizarding family, and Hermione Granger,
whose parents are Muggles (those who are
not magical). Harry also finds that he has
an enemy in Draco Malfoy (Slytherin). In
addition, Harry’s prowess in flying on a
broomstick makes him a star of
Gryffindor’s Quidditch team. Hoping to
get Harry and his friends into trouble,
Draco tricks them into leaving their rooms
one night, a violation of school rules.
While trying to avoid being caught, they
discover a three-headed dog guarding a
trapdoor. Harry gradually comes to the
conclusion that Professor Snape, who
teaches Potions, dislikes him intensely
and is trying to get hold of whatever is
behind the trapdoor. Harry receives his
father’s cloak of invisibility as a Christmas
gift, and, while exploring under the cloak’s
cover, he finds the Mirror of Erised, in
which he can see his parents. Later,
headmaster Albus Dumbledore explains
that the mirror shows the viewer’s deepest
desire.
00:0303:12

Harry, Ron, and Hermione deduce that


the treasure under the trapdoor is the
Philosopher’s Stone, which can transform
metal into gold and can also confer
immortality. They later discover that
Voldemort has been killing unicorns in the
Forbidden Forest and drinking their
blood, another way to achieve
immortality. The trio comes to believe that
Snape is in league with the evil wizard.
After learning that Hagrid revealed the
secret way to lull the three-headed dog to
sleep to a suspicious stranger, whom they
believe to be either Snape or Voldemort,
they are certain that the Philosopher’s
Stone is in danger. The three classmates
use the cloak of invisibility on a secret
mission to get the Stone themselves to
keep it from Voldemort. After getting past
the dog and defeating various protective
spells, Harry reaches the room in which
the Stone is hidden and is surprised to
find the perpetually nervous Professor
Quirrell there. Quirrell fails to figure out
how to retrieve the Stone from the Mirror
of Erised (the final protective measure)
and forces Harry to try. When standing in
front of the mirror, wishing only to protect
the Stone and not use it for himself, Harry
feels the Stone’s weight in his pocket but
refuses to tell Quirrell that he has it.
Quirrell unwraps his turban, revealing
Voldemort’s face on the back of his head.
Voldemort explains that he has been
sharing Quirrell’s body until he can get to
the Stone and become fully alive again,
and Voldemort/Quirrell and Harry fight
for possession of the Stone, until Harry
blacks out. He awakens in the infirmary
and learns that Dumbledore saved him,
the Stone is to be destroyed, and
Voldemort escaped.
Mr. Dursley, a well-off Englishman, notices strange
happenings on his way to work one day. That night,
Albus Dumbledore, the head of a wizardry academy
called Hogwarts, meets Professor McGonagall, who
also teaches at Hogwarts, and a giant named Hagrid
outside the Dursley home. Dumbledore tells
McGonagall that someone named Voldemort has
killed a Mr. and Mrs. Potter and tried unsuccessfully
to kill their baby son, Harry. Dumbledore leaves Harry
with an explanatory note in a basket in front of the
Dursley home.

Ten years later, the Dursley household is dominated


by the Dursleys’ son, Dudley, who torments and
bullies Harry. Dudley is spoiled, while Harry is forced
to sleep in a cupboard under the stairs. At the zoo on
Dudley’s birthday, the glass in front of a boa
constrictor exhibit disappears, frightening everyone.
Harry is later punished for this incident.
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Mysterious letters begin arriving for Harry. They
worry Mr. Dursley, who tries to keep them from Harry,
but the letters keep arriving through every crack in
the house. Finally, he flees with his family to a
secluded island shack on the eve of Harry’s eleventh
birthday. At midnight, they hear a large bang on the
door and Hagrid enters. Hagrid hands Harry an
admissions letter to the Hogwarts School of
Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry learns that the
Dursleys have tried to deny Harry’s wizardry all these
years.

The next day, Hagrid takes Harry to London to shop


for school supplies. First they go to the wizard bank,
Gringotts, where Harry learns that his parents have
left him a hefty supply of money. They shop on the
wizards’ commercial street known as Diagon Alley,
where Harry is fitted for his school uniform. Harry
buys books, ingredients for potions, and, finally, a
magic wand—the companion wand to the evil
Voldemort’s.

A month later, Harry goes to the train station and


catches his train to Hogwarts on track nine and three
quarters. On the train, Harry befriends other first-year
students like Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, a
Muggle girl chosen to attend Hogwarts. At school, the
first-years take turns putting on the “Sorting Hat” to
find out in which residential house they will live. Harry
fears being assigned to the sinister Slytherin house,
but he, Ron, and Hermione end up in the noble
Gryffindor house.

As the school year gets underway, Harry discovers


that his Potions professor, Snape, does not like him.
Hagrid reassures Harry that Snape has no reason to
dislike him. During their first flying lesson on
broomsticks, the students are told to stay grounded
while the teacher takes an injured boy named Neville
to the hospital. Draco Malfoy, a Slytherin bully,
snatches Neville’s prized toy and flies off with it to the
top of a tree. Harry flies after him. Malfoy throws the
ball in the air, and Harry speeds downward, making a
spectacular catch. Professor McGonagall witnesses
this incident. Instead of punishing Harry, she
recommends that he play Quidditch, a much-loved
game that resembles soccer played on broomsticks,
for Gryffindor. Later that day, Malfoy challenges
Harry to a wizard’s duel at midnight. Malfoy doesn’t
show up at the appointed place, and Harry almost
gets in trouble. While trying to hide, he accidentally
discovers a fierce three-headed dog guarding a
trapdoor in the forbidden third-floor corridor.

On Halloween, a troll is found in the building. The


students are all escorted back to their dormitories,
but Harry and Ron sneak off to find Hermione, who is
alone and unaware of the troll. Unwittingly, they lock
the troll in the girls’ bathroom along with Hermione.
Together, they defeat the troll. Hermione tells a lie to
protect Harry and Ron from being punished. During
Harry’s first Quidditch match, his broom jerks out of
control. Hermione notices Snape staring at Harry and
muttering a curse. She concludes that he is jinxing
Harry’s broom, and she sets Snape’s clothes on fire.
Harry regains control of the broom and makes a
spectacular play to win the Quidditch match.
For Christmas, Harry receives his father’s invisibility
cloak, and he explores the school, unseen, late at
night. He discovers the Mirror of Erised, which
displays the deepest desire of whoever looks in it.
Harry looks in it and sees his parents alive. After
Christmas, Harry, Ron, and Hermione begin to
unravel the mysterious connection between a break-
in at Gringotts and the three-headed guard dog. They
learn that the dog is guarding the Sorcerer’s Stone,
which is capable of providing eternal life and
unlimited wealth to its owner and belongs to Nicolas
Flamel, Dumbledore’s old partner.

A few weeks later, Hagrid wins a dragon egg in a


poker game. Because it is illegal to own dragons,
Harry, Ron, and Hermione contact Ron’s older
brother, who studies dragons. They arrange to get rid
of the dragon but get caught. Harry, Ron, and
Hermione are severely punished, and Gryffindor is
docked 150 points. Furthermore, part of their
punishment is to go into the enchanted forest with
Hagrid to find out who has been killing unicorns
recently. In the forest, Harry comes upon a hooded
man drinking unicorn blood. The man tries to attack
Harry, but Harry is rescued by a friendly centaur who
tells him that his assailant was Voldemort. Harry also
learns that it is Voldemort who has been trying to
steal the Sorcerer’s Stone.

Harry decides that he must find the stone before


Voldemort does. He, Ron, and Hermione sneak off
that night to the forbidden third-floor corridor. They
get past the guard dog and perform many impressive
feats as they get closer and closer to the stone. Harry
ultimately finds himself face to face with Quirrell, who
announces that Harry must die. Knowing that Harry
desires to find the stone, Quirrell puts Harry in front of
the Mirror of Erised and makes him state what he
sees. Harry sees himself with the stone in his pocket,
and at that same moment he actually feels it in his
pocket. But he tells Quirrell that he sees something
else. A voice tells Quirrell that the boy is lying and
requests to speak to Harry face to face. Quirrell
removes his turban and reveals Voldemort’s face on
the back of his head. Voldemort, who is inhabiting
Quirrell’s body, instructs Quirrell to kill Harry, but
Quirrell is burned by contact with the boy. A struggle
ensues and Harry passes out.

When Harry regains consciousness, he is in the


hospital with Dumbledore. Dumbledore explains that
he saved Harry from Quirrell just in time. He adds
that he and Flamel have decided to destroy the
stone. Harry heads down to the end-of-year banquet,
where Slytherin is celebrating its seventh consecutive
win of the house championship cup. Dumbledore
gets up and awards many last-minute points to
Gryffindor for the feats of Harry and his friends,
winning the house cup for Gryffindor. Harry returns to
London to spend the summer with the Dursleys
This is a story written by J.K.
Rowling.The story begins with
enunciating about the
conservative family of the Dursley’s. But
this morning changed everything. After
Vernon Dursley says goodbye to his wife,
Petunia Dursley and his son, Dudley
Dursley, he found people walking in
cloaks which he found unusual. Many
more queer activities were spotted in
London like owls flying in the broad
daylight. The news channels debated on
this matter all evening. Another unusual
thing about the day was, a tabby cat was
staring at the Dursley residence all day.
But Vernon became more restless when
he heard that someone named ‘You-
Know-Who’ was gone forever because of
his nephew Harry.

At night an old man in purple robes


started referring to the tabby cat as
‘Professor McGonagall’. The cat
transformed into a woman wearing
emerald green cloak and called the old
man, ‘Professor Dumbledore’. A man on
motorbike came flying from the sky with
a baby. The three of them called him
‘Harry’ and left him at the door of his
aunt’s home.

For the next 10 years, Harry was


mistreated and locked up in a small
cupboard under the stairs. For Dudley’s
eleventh birthday, Harry and the
Dursley’s went to a zoo. Harry was
warned not to make any mess.
Unfortunately, he set a snake free. He
was punished for that too.

As the time passed, Harry was about to


turn 11 when he saw a letter for him. It
was strange for him as he was never
loved by his family members and
friends. Before he could give the letter a
glance, Uncle Vernon took it from him.
It must have been some important letter
as there was a rain of letters at their
home even on Sunday. The Dursleys
decided to go at a place where there can’t
be any letter. But they were wrong as
Hagrid reached there on his birthday
and told him that he was a wizard.
Once Harry was convinced, Hagrid took
him to the Diagon Ally through the
underground route. There he met his
Defense against Dark Arts teacher,
Professor Quirrel. Hagrid gifted him an
owl named Hedwig. He brought a wand
from Ollivander’s. He was shocked to
know that this wand had the twin core of
the wizard’s wand that gave him the scar
and murdered his parents. To Harry’s
surprise, everybody called this wizard
‘You-Know-Who’.

Hagrid bought him tickets for platform


9¾. He asked his Uncle about that
platform but he just scolded him for
talking nonsense. But Weasleys helped
him to reach his destination, Harry and
the youngest Weasley boy, Ron quickly
became friends.

On the train, a boy named Neville, came


in their berth and searched for his toad.
Then a girl named Hermione entered the
berth and asked for the same. She
recognized Harry immediately. She told
him that he was the famous ‘Harry
Potter’. She bought many books about
him. Ron became annoyed with
Hermione, as she was strutting her
knowledge. He hoped that they both
weren’t in the same house.

At Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall


explained first years about the four
houses viz. Gryffindor, Ravenclaw,
Slytherin and Hufflepuff. At the sorting
ceremony, the sorting hat welcomed
everyone by singing a song. Ronald,
Hermione, Parvati, Seamus, Neville were
sorted into Gryffindor. When it was
Harry’s turn, the sorting hat wished to
sort him into Slytherin as it was the
house of Voldemort, Harry refused and
he was sorted into Gryffindor. Harry
liked all the subjects except potions,
because Professor Snape loathed him.

After few weeks, they had their first


flying lesson. Neville got knocked off his
broom, claiming that odds weren’t in his
favor, one of his gifts from his
grandmother was taken by Draco who
refused to return it. He threw it in the air
but Harry kicked his broom off the
grounds and caught it in time. Harry was
seen by Professor McGonagall doing
this. She feared that he might get
expelled, however, he became part of
wizarding game called Quiditch. Harry
was the seeker. At the game, Harry
helped his team win the match against a
strong Slytherin side. The only thing that
made him worried was that Snape tried
to jinx his broom but Hermione set his
robes on fire which made him break the
eye contact.

After few days, Draco asked him to dwell


at the 3rd floor, Harry and Ron both
agreed to come there but they were
caught by Hermione. She tried to stop
them but ended up following them.
Surprisingly, Draco wasn’t there. It was a
trap. They heard caretaker Filch coming.
They had no other option than going to
the forbidden room. By entering there,
they found that it was locked up for a
good reason. It had a three headed giant
dog, guarding something. When they
asked Hagrid about him, they got to
know that it was the pet dog of Hagrid,
Fluffy. A person named Nicholas Flamel
was also mentioned. The trio believed
that whatever the dog was guarding,
Snape was trying to steal it as he was
limping the other day.

During the Christmas break, Harry got a


gift. He was surprised as he was never
given anything more than an old sock.
But this time, he got a cloak. Not any
cloak but an invisibility cloak. One night,
the trio gave a visit to Hagrid after
school hours. They found that Hagrid
had dragon’s egg. The egg hatched in
front of them, it was a Norwegian
Ridgeback. Ron helped him by giving it
to his brother Charlie who was studying
Dragons in Romania. Hermione decided
to go back to her home during the
Christmas break. As for Harry and Ron,
they decided to stay and find out more
about Nicholas Flamel. The day they
visited Hagrid, Draco Saw them and
complained to Gryffindor’s head,
Professor McGonagall. The trio and
Draco all lose point, 50 each. During
their detention, Harry met a centaur
who told him about unicorn’s blood. As
soon as it touches your lips, you become
immortal, in what way, is very painful.

“It does not do to dwell on dreams and


forget to live.”

After detention, Harry found ‘Mirror of


Erised’ which can show you the thing
that you always desired to see.
Dumbledore however asked him never to
look for it. When Hermione got back,
they got to know about Nicholas Flamel.
He is the only known maker of the
philosopher’s stone. They indirectly
asked Hagrid how to pass the door.
Now everything was ready. Once they
passed through the dog, they were struck
into the devil’s snare. Hermione saved
them through her spell incantation. Now
they had to open a door. For that Harry
rode a broomstick and found the key.
After that they had to play ‘wizard’s
chess’. Ron helped them by sacrificing
himself. Hermione took him back to the
castle.

Harry proceeded furthered and was


startled to see Professor Quirrel He was
astonished to see Voldemort inside his
turban. Harry wasn’t able to understand
anything as he found his pocket heavy.
He had the Philosopher’s stone. He
touched the stone and then touched
Professor Quirrel. He was burning. After
some time, Quirrel was in ashes and
Harry woke up in a Hospital, in front of
Headmaster. He was told that his
mother loved him wholeheartedly and
sacrificed her life to save him. The house
cup was won by Slytherin but
headmaster’s last minute points helped
Gryffindor win the house cup. Now
Harry’s journey will begin again after
summer breaks until then, he’ll have to
stay with Dursleys.

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