Harry Potter And The Philosophers Stone
Harry returns to the kitchen and gives Uncle Vernon the other two letters as he sits down and starts to open the letter. Dudley soon sees that Harry has a letter and Uncle Vernon snatches it from him to read with Aunt Petunia. Uncle Vernon tells Harry and Dudley to get out of the kitchen, so they both go and stand in the hall. Dudley wins, so Harry resorts to looking through the gap between the floor and the door.
Aunt Petunia tells him to make some bacon, as she wants everything perfect for Dudley's 11th birthday. Harry dresses into a pair of Dudley's old clothes and goes into the kitchen, where the table is covered in Dudley's presents. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is the first novel in the Harry Potter series written by J.
On Tuesday, 1 November 1981, the Dursleys begin the day by gossiping about their neighbours while Petunia wrestles their toddler into his high chair. None of them notice a large tawny owl flying past their window, but Vernon does notice the tabby cat reading a map and a street sign outside their house. He forces himself to forget the sight, but upon arriving in town, he notices large groups of people wearing cloaks.
While his membership of the team is confirmed in later books, J.K. McGonagall's name is also on one of the other trophies, showing that she too was a Quidditch player, which isn't mentioned in the book. Retitled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the United States because, as with the book, the American publisher worried that kids would think a book with "philosopher" in the title would be boring. Of course, this was before Harry Potter was the reliable franchise it became. 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.
Hagrid goes for a drink at the Leaky Cauldron while Harry gets his uniform at Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. Madam Malkin stands him on a stool next to a pale-faced boy who is also getting measured for his robes. The boy starts to talk Quidditch, including his plan to smuggle in his broomstick, and houses called Slytherin and Hufflepuff. When the boy learns that Harry is there with Hagrid, he asks first charms lesson him what happened to his parents. He is unsympathetic about their deaths and only expresses relief that they were both wizards because the other kind shouldn't be allowed in.
Neville also joins them, as he has forgotten the password to the common room and ended up sleeping on the floor outside. They arrive at the Trophy Room, the site of the duel, but Malfoy is nowhere to be found. Suddenly, they hear Argus Filch and his cat, Mrs Norris, enter the room.
The giant turns his eyes to Harry and greets him, saying he hasn't seen him since he was a baby. Uncle Vernon tells him to leave but the giant merely grabs the gun, ties into a knot and throws it away. Harry asks the giant who he is and he says he is Rubeus Hagrid, the Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Whatever the reasons for the change in the title for the U.S. market, the attitudes expressed here indicate that ignorance is a global phenomenon. The reason the Dutch title includes the reference to the "stone of the wise" is that this is simply an alternative name for the Philosopher's Stone, and the one most readily in use in a Dutch context. The provenance is the Gospel quotation "the stone which the builders rejected has become the keystone".
Rowling has described Hermione as a "very logical, upright and good" character with "a lot of insecurity and a great fear of failure beneath her swottiness". The book was first published in the United Kingdom on 26 June 1997 by Bloomsbury. It was published in the United States the following year by Scholastic Corporation under the title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It won most of the British book awards that were judged by children and other awards in the US. The book reached the top of the New York Times list of best-selling fiction in August 1999 and stayed near the top of that list for much of 1999 and 2000. It has been translated into at least 73 other languages, and has been made into a feature-length film of the same name, as have all six of its sequels.