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J.K.Rowling official site

Original synopsis of 'Philosophers Stone'

The following is a transcription of "Original synopsis of 'Philosophers Stone' ", one of the Potterania extras stored in your Scrapbook.  For instructions on finding this extra click here.

Certificate reads:
"The original synopsis of 'Philosophers Stone' which I sent out to Publishers and which kept winging its way back!"
 

Synopsis

Harry Potter lives with his aunt, uncle and cousin because his parents
died in a car-crash – or so he has always been told.  The Dursleys don't
like Harry asking questions; in fact, they don't seem to like anything
about him, especially the very odd things that keep happening around
him (which Harry himself can't explain).

The Dursleys' greatest fear is that Harry will discover the truth about
himself, so when letters start arriving for him near his eleventh 
birthday, he isn't allowed to read them.  However, the Dursleys aren't
dealing with an ordinary postman, and at midnight on Harry's birthday
the gigantic Rubeus Hagrid breaks down the door to make sure Harry
gets to read his post at last.  Ignoring the horrified Dursleys,
Hagrid informs Harry that he is a wizard, and the letter he gives
Harry explains that he is expected at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft
and Wizardry in a month's time.

To the Dursleys' fury, Hagrid also reveals the truth about Harry's
past.  Harry did not receive the scar on his forehead in a car-
crash; it is really the mark of the great dark sorcerer Voldemort,
who killed Harry's mother and father but mysteriously couldn't
kill him, even though he was a baby at the time.  Harry is
famous among the witches and wizards who live in secret all over
the country because Harry's miraculous survival marked Voldemort's 
downfall.

So Harry, who has never had friends or family worth the name, sets
off for a new life in the wizarding world.  He takes a trip to
London with Hagrid to buy his Hogwarts equipment (robes, wand,
cauldron, beginners' draft and potion kit) and shortly afterwards,
sets off for Hogwarts from Kings Cross Station (platform nine and
three quarters) to follow in his parents' footsteps.

Harry makes friends with Ronald Weasley (sixth in his family to
go to Hogwarts and tired of having to use second-hand spellbooks)
and Hermione Granger (cleverest girl in the year and the only person
in the class to know all the uses of dragon's blood).  Together, they
have their first lessons in magic – astronomy up on the tallest tower
at two in the morning, herbology out in the greenhouses where the