Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Ch 1-5

Harry Potter and the First Time Readers

Chapter 1 - The Boy Who Lived

• He hurried to his car and set off home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn’t approve of imagination.
• “You can’t blame them,” said Dumbledore gently, “We’ve had precious little to celebrate for eleven years.”

Q1 - What are your general impressions of McGonagall, Dumbledore, Hagrid, and the Dursleys?

Q2 - Why can McGonagall transform into a cat? And if you could transform into an animal which would you choose?

Q3 - Why do you think Voldemort could not kill Harry?

Q4 - Do you think Dumbledore was right to separate Harry from the magical world?

• “You think it – wise – to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?” “I would Trust Hagrid with my life,” said Dumbledore.
• “Yes, yes, it’s all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we’ll be found,” Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm…
• “Good luck, Harry,” he murmured.

Q5 - What year do you think all this happened?

Q6 - Is Dumbledore irresponsible for leaving Harry on the doorstep with just a letter?

Q7 - Why do you think it took so long for Dumbly and Hagrid to get to Privet Drive?

Chapter 2 - The Vanishing Glass

• Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys’ front door; it crept into their living-room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-coloured bobble hats – but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large, blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a roundabout at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too. Yet Harry Potter was still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. His Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice which made the first noise of the day. ‘Up! Get up! Now!’

Q1 - Who is the nastiest to Harry?

• ‘Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don’t you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy’s birthday.’ Harry groaned.

Q2 - When you were a kid what was your favorite breakfast?

• He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank, and Harry were just a few of his favorite subjects. This morning, it was motorbikes.

Q3 - Out of all the magical things Harry can do in chapter 2, which do you think was the coolest?

• Hair Growth
• Shrinking Sweater
• Appearing on the roof
• Talking with a snake
• Making the glass disappear

Q4 - What are your first thoughts about Harry?

Q5 - What was the best birthday gift you ever got?

Q6 - Do you think it’s normal for a wizard to be able to talk to snakes?

• He’d lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he could remember, ever since he’d been a baby and his parents had died in that car crash. He couldn’t remember being in the car when his parents had died. Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead. This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn’t imagine where all the green light came from. He couldn’t remember his parents at all. His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.

Q7 - What is this flash of green light and pain on his forehead?

Chapter 3 - The Letters From No One

Q1 - Do you think the knobbly sticks are a useful teaching/character building tool?

• “What’s this?” he asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as they always did if he dared to ask a question. “Your new school uniform,” she said. Harry looked at the bowl again. “Oh,” he said. “I didn’t realize it had to be so wet.”
• Three things lay on the doormat: a postcard from Uncle Vernon’s sister Marge, who was holidaying on the Isle of Wight, a brown envelope that looked like a bill and – a letter for Harry? Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, Harry saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger and a snake surrounding a large letter ‘H’.

Q2 - Why do the Dursleys not want him to get this letter?

Q3 - Do you think you can “stamp out” being a wizard? What do you think happens to people who suppress their magic?

• He hoped the roof wasn’t going to fall in, although he might be warmer if it did. Four minutes to go. Maybe the house in Privet Drive would be so full of letters when they got back that he’d be able to steal one somehow.

Q4 - Do you wonder if these letters are duplicated by magic or if Hogwarts is handwriting all these letters to Harry?

Q5 - How would you have gotten the letter if you were Harry?

• Monday. This reminded Harry of something. If it was Monday – and you could usually count on Dudley to know the days of the week, because of television – then tomorrow, Tuesday, was Harry’s eleventh birthday. Of course, his birthdays were never exactly fun – last year, the Dursleys had given him a coat-hanger and a pair of Uncle Vernon’s old socks. Still, you weren’t eleven every day.

Q6 - What’s your most memorable birthday?

• One minute to go and he’d be eleven. Thirty seconds ... twenty ... ten – nine – maybe he’d wake Dudley up, just to annoy him – three – two – one – BOOM. The whole shack shivered and Harry sat bolt upright, staring at the door. Someone was outside, knocking to come in.

Q7 - What’s going to happen next?

Chapter 4 - The Keeper of Keys

• BOOM. They knocked again. Dudley Jerked awake. “Where’s the cannon?” he said stupidly.

Q1 - What was Dudley dreaming about?

• “Las’ time I saw you, you was only a baby,” said the giant. “Yeh look a lot like yer dad, but yeh’ve got yer mum’s eyes.”
• “Harry – yer a wizard.”

Q2 - If you are starving in a hut and a massive giant breaks in and starts cooking up a meal, what would you hope that he made?

Q3 - What are your first impressions of Hagrid? What’s up with his assault of Dudley?

Q4 - The logistics and maybe ethics of Hagrid throwing an owl out of the door in the middle of a raging storm is interesting. Let’s discuss.

• She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. It seemed she had been wanting to say all this for years.

Q5 - Is it alarming or endearing that Hagrid can’t spell Voldemort?

Q6 - Why do you think Voldemort tried to kill Harry and killed Lily and James?

Q7 - Do you have any theories about what stumped Voldy about Harry?

Q8 - Hagrid says that us Muggles would want all our problems solved with magic. Do you think this is true? And what is the first problem you are fixing with magic?

Chapter 5 - Diagon Alley

Q1- Should the wizarding world have more than one bank? That seems like a bad monopoly.

• “Gringotts is the safest place in the world for anything yeh want ter keep safe – ‘cept maybe Hogwarts.”

Q2 - Hagrid and Harry took the boat off the island. How long were the Dursleys stranded there before they got off?

Q3 - Which book sounds the most interesting from Harry’s book list?

• Standard Book of Spells
• A History of Magic
• Magical Theory
• Beginners Guide to Transfiguration
• One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi
• Magical Drafts and Potions
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
• The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection
• Even though everything Hagrid had told him so far was unbelievable, Harry couldn’t help trusting him.

Q4 - What is the weirdest thing you think Hagrid keeps in his pocket?

• “If anyone but a Gringotts goblin tried that, they’d be sucked through the door and trapped in there,” said Griphook. “How often do you check to see if anyone’s inside?” Harry asked. “About once every ten years,” said Griphook, with a rather nasty grin.

Q5 - Does Draco have the wrong wand? His mother picked it up for him…

• “But I know I’ll be in Slytherin, all our family have been – imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I’d leave, wouldn't you?”
• “Where are your parents?” “They’re dead,” said Harry shortly.
• “Ah yes,” said the man. “Yes, yes. I thought I’d be seeing you soon. Harry Potter.”
• “It’s really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course.”

Q6 - If you could choose your wand, which wand core would you want and why?

• “I remember every want I’ve ever sold, Mr Potter. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather – just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother, why its brother gave you that scar.”

Q7 - How do we like Hagrid?