It's so nostalgic
I wrote the first sentence as if I’ve read this book before🤣 To be honest, I watched the movie when I was in junior high school. And up until now, I haven’t read the first to fourth books of Harry Potter. But it’s definitely nostalgic because I remember how mind-blowing it was watching the movie for the first time. And now I’ve read the book for the first time as well.
The book begins with the day Voldemort, the most evil wizard, was declared gone (wheather he died or was hiding somewhere). Everyone knew that he was gone after killing Lily and James Potter in their home, but he failed to kill their 15 months old baby. That was obviously becoming one of the biggest questions about how Voldemort, known as one of the most powerful wizards, couldn't kill a boy who barely even spoke. However, the wizarding world was overjoyed that Voldemort was finally gone after terrorizing them for years.
—
And then Dumbledore, as the headmaster of Hogwarts School, decided to entrust Harry to Lily’s one and only family member that was still alive, which was her sister, Petunia. Although Dumbledore knew how bad the Dudley Family was, he thought it was the best choice because Dumbledore didn’t want Harry to become arrogant because of the label of “The Boy who Lived”. Dumbledore wanted Harry to be raised away from all that until he was ready to receive it.
Fast forward to almost 10 years after that night, Harry Potter still lives in the Dudleys' house with Petunia, Vernon, and Dursley. Harry specifically lives in a very cramped room under the stairs. Just as we saw in the movie, the story of Harry becoming a wizard begins with an unexpected letter sent to him. But Vernon, knowing that the letter is from a wizarding school, always takes the letters so Harry can't read the messages inside.
Until it was terrorizing them with hundreds of letters sent almost daily, Vernon decides to take his family to a hut on the seashore. Hadgrid finds them, of course. He brings Harry a birthday cake and finally hands over the official letter from Hogwarts.
After that, we follow Hagrid and Harry visit The Leaky Cauldron, a pub that serves as the magical entrance to the wizarding street from the Muggle world. And then stopping at Gringotts Bank, and shopping at Diagon Alley. And then Harry and the Weasleys meet at King's Cross, Hermione’s first appearance on the train, their arrival at Hogwarts, The Sorting Hat, and all the introductions to the wizarding world.
Visiting Gringotts Bank is perhaps the first crucial part because it leads to Harry’s discovery of the Philosopher's Stone and telling Hagrid that Snape might want to steal it because Harry overheard Snape asking for treatment to Madam Poppy Pomfrey because Fluffy (the three-headed dog guarding the stone) had bitten his leg.
The story continues with the mention of Nicolas Flamel, and then Robert, a dragon hatched from an egg Hagrid obtained from an unknown source, the Quidic match with all its drama, and the punishment of going to the Forbidden Forest for Harry, Hermione, and Malfoy, which all point to something interconnected with all the ongoing events.
With all the signs suspecting a certain professor, but it turns out the professor behind all the strange events is an unexpected one, the episode ends beautifully. After reading the book, I rewatched some scenes from the film, and the final part where Professor Dumbledore gives additional points to Harry, Ron, and Hermione is really touching. Especially with Dumbledore’s speech saying “it takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to your enemies, but a great deal more to stand up to your friends” to give Neville Longbottom points, almost brought me to tears one more time :”)
However, after reading the book, I noticed a few differences that I thought would be really cool if they included them in the film, some of which are:
- Uncle Vernon drives Harry to King’s Cross even though he’s teasing Harry about 3 ¼ platform. And the Dudley Family also send Harry a letter and a 50 pence coin on Christmas, which sounds quite nice of them, doesn’t it?
- The Hogwarts song. I don’t remember the movie including it and I’m wondering why..
- [I just returned the book because I borrowed it from the library so I can’t recheck it] But I did note that in the book, Neville actually participates when Harry, Ron, and Hermione wander into the room where Fluffy is. Just curious to see what it would be like if they included this in the movie too haha
- I believe the book has a narration that Harry gets annoyed by the pieces in wizard chess because they’re always telling Harry which pieces should be moving, etc. It amazes me that not only can chess pieces walk on their own, but they can also speak!?
I know there are people who make a list about “every single difference between Harry Potter books and movies” type of videos, so maybe I should check them out😆 That’s it for my slow reading journey this time. I’ve been in a reading slump for months. So it’s nice to finally pick up a nostalgic story like the Harry Potter series to make me go back into reading again.
Anyway, what books have you been reading lately?