HARRY POTTER 1 : Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

BY : J.K. ROWLING

Harry Potter is the most miserable, lonely boy you can imagine. He’s shunned by his relatives, the Dursley’s, that have raised him since he was an infant. He’s forced to live in the cupboard under the stairs, forced to wear his cousin Dudley’s hand-me-down clothes, and forced to go to his neighbor’s house when the rest of the family is doing something fun. Yes, he’s just about as miserable as you can get.

Harry’s world gets turned upside down on his 11th birthday, however. A giant man, Hagrid, informs Harry that he’s really a wizard, and will soon be attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry also learns that, in the wizarding world, he’s a hero. When he was an infant the evil Lord Voldemort killed his parents and then tried to kill Harry too. What’s so amazing to everyone is that he couldn’t do it. Somehow Harry survived, and destroyed Voldemort in the process.

When Harry hears all this he doesn’t know what to think. Everything Hagrid tells him turns out to be true, and with a joyful heart Harry starts school in September. He quickly becomes best friends with a boy named Ron Weasley, and before they even make it to Christmas they break tons of school rules when they attack a troll and prevent it from killing fellow student Hermione Granger. After the troll incident the three become inseparable, and Harry is amazed to have found such great friends. He is constantly busy trying to stay on top of mounds of homework, as well as participating in weekly Quidditch practices. Harry is the youngest Quidditch player in over a century, and it’s a game he loves more than anything else at school.

As the year progresses the three friends set out to solve the mystery of the 3-headed dog that is guarding something in a deserted corridor in the school. The figure out that a very valuable object, the Sorcerer’s Stone, is being hidden in the school, although they don’t know why. When one of the professor’s starts acting as if he’s trying to steal it, they quickly take action to circumvent the theft.

Things come to a head when they sneak past the vicious, 3-headed dog and go down into the bowels of the school, determined to save the Stone. Ron and Hermione help Harry get through the challenges set forth to stop the thief, and Harry must go on alone to battle the professor. When he finally gets to the last room, however, he’s astonished to find someone else entirely.

Harry is forced to do battle with the wizard that tried to kill him so many years before, Lord Voldemort. He’s able to save the Sorcerer’s Stone, although he’s almost killed in process, and Dumbledore arrives just in time to save him.

The school year ends spectacularly when Harry, Ron, and Hermione are honored for their service to the school, and Harry leaves to go back to the Dursley’s feeling as if he’s finally found a place where he really belongs.

Read more...

HARRY POTTER 2 : Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

BY : J.K. ROWLING

It’s been another long summer at the Dursley’s for Harry Potter. He can’t wait to get back to Hogwarts and is counting down the days until he can return. He’s surprised when, on his birthday, a strange creature named Dobby shows up with dire warnings for Harry: He must not return to Hogwarts!

When Harry flat out refuses to stay home Dobby lands him in heaps of trouble with the Dursley’s, who lock Harry up in his room and refuse to let him out. Before Harry can sink too far into despair, however, Ron and his two brothers come to his rescue in a flying car and spirit him back to Ron’s house, where Harry is thrilled to spend the remainder of the summer.

Thus starts an eventful second year for Harry. Between having to cope with more homework than ever, a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor who is vain and convinced Harry is too, and a mysterious voice he keeps hearing in the walls, Harry’s days are nothing if not interesting.

As the school year progresses, however, the mysterious voice Harry keeps hearing is getting more and more menacing, and soon vicious attacks start happening on the students of Hogwarts. When Harry discovers, quite by accident, that he is a Parslemouth and can speak to snakes, he’s quickly singled out as Slytherin’s Heir, the person who, according to legend, is opening the mysterious “Chamber of Secrets” and letting out the monster.

Of course Harry has no idea who is attacking the students, but he quickly resolves to find out who is responsible. He, Ron, and Hermione come up with an elaborate plan to disguise themselves as Slytherin students so they can question Draco Malfoy, whom they believe IS the one setting the monster loose in the school. The plan goes perfectly, but they’re disappointed when they find out from Draco that he is not the one they’re looking for.

The quest gets personal when Hermione is attacked and Petrified by the monster. Ron and Harry are devastated, and are left on their own to uncover the true identity of the person responsible. Events come to a head when Ron’s sister, Ginny, is kidnapped and taken down into the Chamber, and they discover an important clue that Hermione left for them. They quickly head down into the Chamber of Secrets to rescue Ginny.

Harry and Ron get separated once they’re down there and Harry is left to pursue the monster on his own. He quickly finds Ginny, and thanks to some mysterious help from Dumbledore and his phoenix Harry is able to destroy Slytherin’s Heir, whom he’s amazed to find out is a younger version of Lord Voldemort. Voldemort was possessing Ginny through an enchanted diary and was using her to set the monster loose on the students.

Harry and Ron are both hailed as hero’s when they make it back out with Ginny, and Harry can’t imagine a finer end to such an eventful year when Hermione and the rest of the victims are healed and they win Gryffindor loads of House Points.

Read more...

HARRY POTTER 3 : Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

BY : J. K ROWLING

Harry starts off his third year at Hogwarts rather eventfully. He inadvertently blows up his Aunt Marge, goes on the run and is then personally absolved by the Minister of Magic himself. He then learns that mass murderer, Sirius Black, is intent on killing him, and Mr. Weasley makes him promise a strange thing, that no matter what he hears he won’t go looking for Black. Confused, Harry agrees.

As he heads back to school armed with this knowledge, he learns that dementors, evil, soul-sucking creatures, have been stationed around Hogwarts for protection against Black. They effect Harry much more than the others students because of his terrible past, and he quickly resolves to learn to defend himself when he begins collapsing every time they come near. He finds a willing teacher in Professor Lupin, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, who begins teaching Harry the Patronus Charm, which is the only spell that will work against the foul creatures.

As the school year progresses and the third years are buried under mounds of homework, Ron and Hermione start a bitter feud over their pets. Hermione is already stressed out due to her enormous course load, and none of them can figure out how she’s getting to all her classes. It doesn’t help that Hermione’s cat, Crookshanks, repeatedly tries to eat Ron’s rat, Scabbers, and the two friends argue ceaselessly about the animals. They stop speaking entirely when it’s discovered that Crookshanks seems to have eaten Scabbers for good, and Ron is devastated.

Harry has a few close calls with Black when he breaks into the castle, but is not apprehended. Things come to a head at the end of the year when a number of events fall like dominoes up Harry and his friends. Ron’s rat, Scabbers, turns out to still be alive and is really a wizard in hiding, Peter Pettigrew, long thought dead. Harry learns that it was Peter, and not Sirius Black, that betrayed his parents to Voldemort. Just when Harry is sure Peter is finally going to be punished for his crimes, he escapes into the night.

Sirius, long thought to be a mass murderer and Voldemort supporter, turns out to be innocent, and Harry learns that Sirius is his godfather. He’s overjoyed when, for a moment, he thinks he might be finally free of the Dursleys, but Sirius has to go on the run from the Ministry to avoid being apprehended.

Professor Lupin, Harry’s favorite teacher, ends up resigning his post when it’s discovered that he’s a werewolf. He narrowly avoids attacking the kids, and it’s Sirius that saves their lives when he turns into a huge shaggy dog to protect them.

It’s an action-packed year to be sure, but Harry is very happy that Sirius makes it out safely and is finally free from Azkaban. He’s comforted by the fact that he finally has a family-member, so to speak, out there watching over him.

Read more...