Review Detail

Reader reviewed by janina

The novel begins with the wizarding world's celebration of the downfall of Lord Voldemort, an evil, powerful and cruel dark wizard. After he killed Lily and James Potter, Voldemort attempted to murder their one-year-old son, Harry. The magical curse rebounded and destroyed Voldemort's body, leaving only a lightning-bolt scar on Harry's forehead. Harry is placed in the care of his Muggle (non-wizard) relatives, the Dursley family.

The book skips the next ten years and resumes shortly before Harry's eleventh birthday. The Dursleys have kept Harry's heritage from him. However, the truth comes in the form of Rubeus Hagrid who tells Harry that he is a wizard and has been accepted at Hogwarts in the fall. One month later, Harry takes the train to Hogwarts from Platform Nine and Three Quarters at King's Cross Station. On the train, Harry sits with Ron Weasley. They are visited briefly by Neville Longbottom and Hermione Granger who are in search of Neville's missing toad, Trevor. Later on in the journey, Draco Malfoy comes into Harry and Ron's compartment with his friends Crabbe and Goyle and introduces himself to Harry. After Ron laughs at Draco's name, Draco offers Harry friendship, but Harry declines.

Upon arrival, the Sorting Hat places Harry and Ron in Gryffindor House, one of the four houses at Hogwarts. After a broom-mounted game to save Neville's Remembrall, Harry joins Gryffindor's Quidditch team as their youngest Seeker player in over a century.

Shortly after they start school, they discover that someone had broken into a previously emptied vault at the Wizarding bank, Gringotts. The mystery deepens when they discover a monstrous three-headed dog, Fluffy, that guards a trapdoor in the forbidden third floor passageway. On Halloween, a troll enters the castle and traps Hermione in one of the girls' lavatories. Harry and Ron rescue her, but are caught by Professor McGonagall. Hermione defends the boys and takes the blame, which results in the three becoming best friends.

Harry's broom becomes jinxed during his first Quidditch match, nearly knocking him off. Hermione believes that Professor Snape has cursed the broom and distracts him by setting his robes on fire, allowing Harry to catch the Snitch to win the game for Gryffindor.

At Christmas, Harry receives his father's Invisibility Cloak from an unknown source. He also discovers the Mirror of Erised in an unused classroom, a strange mirror which shows not just Harry, but Harry surrounded by his entire family. Shortly thereafter, Harry gets to know that Nicolas Flamel is the maker of Philosopher's Stone, a stone that gives the owner eternal life.[3].

Harry sees Professor Snape interrogating Professor Quirrell about getting past Fluffy, which seemingly confirms Harry, Ron and Hermione's suspicion that Snape is trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone in order to restore Lord Voldemort to power. The trio discover that Hagrid is incubating a dragon egg, which shortly thereafter hatches a Norwegian Ridgeback dragon, Norbert. Since dragon breeding is illegal, they convince Hagrid to let Norbert go live with other dragons of his kind. Harry and Hermione are caught returning to their dormitories after sending Norbert off (Ron was in the hospital wing after suffering a bite from the dragon) and are forced to serve detention with Hagrid in the Forbidden Forest. Harry sees a hooded figure drink the blood of an injured unicorn. Firenze, a centaur, tells Harry that the hooded figure is in fact Voldemort.

Hagrid, while intoxicated, tells Harry, Ron and Hermione how to get past Fluffy and they rush to tell Professor Dumbledore what they know, only to find that Dumbledore has been called away from the school. Positive that Dumbledore's summons was a red herring to take him away from Hogwarts while the Philosopher's Stone is stolen, the trio set out to reach the Stone first. They navigate a series of complex magical challenges set up by the school's faculty. At the end of these challenges, only one person can move forward and hence Harry enters the inner chamber alone only to find that it is the timid Professor Quirrell, not Snape, who is after the Stone. The final challenge protecting the Stone is the Mirror of Erised. Quirrell forces Harry to look in the mirror to discover where the Stone is. Harry successfully resists, and the Stone drops into his own pocket. Lord Voldemort now reveals himself; he has possessed Quirrell and appears as a ghastly face on the back of Quirrell's head. He tries to attack Harry, but merely touching Harry proves to be agony for Quirrell. Dumbledore arrives back in time to save Harry, Voldemort flees and Quirrell dies.

As Harry recovers in the hospital ward, Dumbledore confirms to him that Lily died while protecting Harry as an infant. Her pure, loving sacrifice provides her son with an ancient magical protection against Voldemort's lethal spells. Dumbledore also explains that the Philosopher's Stone has been destroyed to prevent future attempts by Voldemort to steal it. He then tells Harry that only those who wanted to find the Stone, but not use it would be able to retrieve it from the mirror, which is why Harry was able to retrieve it. When Harry asks Dumbledore why Voldemort attempted to kill him when he was an infant, Dumbledore promises to tell Harry when he is older.[4]

At the end-of-year feast, where Harry is welcomed as a hero, Dumbledore gives a few "last-minute additions", granting enough points to Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville for Gryffindor to win the House Cup, ending Slytherin's six-year reign as house champions.