Plot Summary of 'Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone'

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling is about an eleven-year-old boy named Harry Potter. Harry soon discovers on his eleventh’s birthday that he is an orphaned son of two powerful wizards and that he possesses unique magical powers of his own. This realization quickly follows with an acceptance to an English boarding school for wizards, Hogwarts. At Hogwarts, Harry discovers many facts about his parent’s death as even make new friends. Throughout the story, Harry and his friends go through many challenges with certain characters such as Professor Snape, Voldemort, and Draco Malfoy.

The story starts with mysterious letters being sent to a young boy named Harry Potter, which at the time, lived with his Aunt and uncle (the Dursleys) that despised him. These letters were kept away from the viewing of Harry, as the Dursleys knew it was something bad. These letters quickly start to bother the Dursley’s and at midnight, they hear a large bang on the door which happens to be a giant named Hagrid. That night, Hagrid hands Harry an admissions letter to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry right as Harry turns eleven. Harry learns that the Dursleys have tried to deny Harry’s wizardry all these years and quickly accepts the choice of admission into the school.

The following day, Hagrid takes Harry to London to shop for his school supplies at Hogsmeade. To buy the supplies, they first go to the wizard bank, Gringotts, where Harry collects the money his parents have left behind for him. They shop on the wizards’ commercial street known as Diagon Alley, where Harry is fitted for his school uniform and first meets one of his classmates/ enemies, Draco Malfoy. He also shops for his books, ingredients for potions, and finally, a magic wand, which he learns is the “companion” to an evil wizard that people speak of as, “ you know who.”

A month passes and Harry goes to the train station and catches his train to Hogwarts on the track 9 3/4. On the train, Harry quickly gets acquainted with other first-year students, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. When arriving at Hogwarts, the first-years all take turns to put on the “Sorting Hat” to find out in which house they will be placed into. When its finally time for Harry, he fears being assigned to the sinister Slytherin house, but he, Ron, and Hermione all end up together in Gryffindor.Once the school year begins, Harry discovers that Professor Snape, his potions professor, very obviously doesn’t like him.

When the school year begins, they first start to take lessons on flying on brooms and on how to play quidditch. During this lesson, Harry first becomes to grow an absolute hatred towards Draco Malfoy once Malfoy decided to be foul with Harry out of pure jealousy that Harry is a natural at the sport. Later that day, Malfoy challenges Harry to a wizard’s duel at midnight. After Malfoy doesn’t show up but Harry does, Harry almost gets in caught. While trying to hide from getting caught, he accidentally discovers a fierce three-headed dog inside the school guarding a door. On Halloween night, a troll is found lurking around inside the building. The students are all forced to be escorted back to their dormitories, but Harry and Ron sneak off to find Hermione, knowing that she is alone and unaware of the troll. Together, they defeat the troll inside the girl’s restroom with Hermione also in terror. Goody two-shoes Hermione tells a lie to protect Harry and Ron from being punished and this was the start of a beautiful friendship with trust.

For Christmas, Harry receives a present from an anonymous gifter, inside the box was supposedly his father’s invisibility cloak. With it on, Harry explores the school, unseen, late at night. While lurking around the school, Harry discovers the Mirror of Erised, which displays the deepest desire of whoever looks in it. Harry only sees his now-dead parents alive inside the mirror. After Christmas, the crew consisting of Harry, Ron, and Hermione learn that the dog is guarding the Sorcerer’s Stone, which is capable of providing eternal life and unlimited wealth to its owner. The stone was learned to have belonged to Nicolas Flamel, Dumbledore’s old friend. When they try to help get rid of the dragon Hagrid one during a poker game, the three get caught and are severely punished, and Gryffindor is docked 150 points. On top of the docking of points, 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, which happened to be a friendly centaur who tells him that Voldemort has been the one killing all the unicorns, but for an unknown reason. 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 challenges as they get closer and closer to the stone, putting off one of the characters each challenge they face. 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 Harry is lying and requests to speak to Harry face to face. Quirrell later 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 fight between Harry, Quirrell, and Voldemort eventually leads to Harry passing out.

After regaining consciousness, Harry is in the hospital with Dumbledore. Dumbledore explains that Dumbledore was able to save Harry from Quirrell just in time. He adds that he and Nicolas Flamel have decided to destroy the stone for the safety of everyone else. 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 and breaking the continuous victory of the house of Slytherin. Although he hates it, Harry returns to London to spend the summer with the Dursleys once more, on Privet Drive.