Various attempts to deliver the letter to Harry Potter
Mr H. Potter
The Cupboard under the Stairs
4 Privet Drive
Little Whinging
Surrey
Mr H. Potter, The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive
Mr H. Potter
Room 17
Railview Hotel
Cokeworth
Mr H. Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea
Harry Potter's Hogwarts Acceptance Letter
HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)
Dear Mr Potter,
We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.
Yours sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
===
HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
Uniform
First-year students will require:
1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)
2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear
3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)
4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)
Please note that all pupils’ clothes should carry name tags.
Set Books
All students should have a copy of each of the following:
The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk
A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot
Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling
A Beginner’s Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch
One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore
Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander
The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble
Other Equipment
1 wand
1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)
1 set glass or crystal phials
1 telescope
1 set brass scales
Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad.
PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST-YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED
THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS
Rubeus Hagrid takes Harry to buy the necessary books and equipment
Dear Mr Dumbledore,
Given Harry his letter. Taking him to buy his things tomorrow.
Weather’s horrible. Hope you’re well.
Hagrid
Shops
~ Cauldrons – All Sizes – Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver – Self-Stirring – Collapsible.
~ Eeylops Owl Emporium – Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown and Snowy.
~ Flourish and Blotts (book shop).
~ Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions.
~ Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 BC.
"We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers and the heart strings of dragons.
No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard’s wand."
First wands
Lily Potter: Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work.
James Potter: Mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration.
Voldemort: Thirteen and a half inches. Yew. Very powerful wand.
Hagrid :Oak, sixteen inches. Rather bendy. Was snapped in half when he was expelled.
Harry's pile of tried wands
Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible.
Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy.
Ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy.
Harry's perfect match
Holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple.
It’s really the wand that chooses the wizard.
Snacks from the Hogwarts Express Trolley
Bertie Bott’s Every-Flavour Beans
Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum
Chocolate Frogs
Pumpkin Pasties
Cauldron Cakes
Liquorice Wands
Profiles Cards of Famous Witches and Wizards
Albus Dumbledore
Currently Headmaster of Hogwarts. Considered by
many the greatest wizard of modern times, Professor Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945,
for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon’s blood and his work on
alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling.
The Sorting Ceremony
This is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts.
You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room.
The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin.
Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards.
While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.
The Sorting Hat Song
‘Oh, you may not think I’m pretty,
But don’t judge on what you see,
I’ll eat myself if you can find
A smarter hat than me.
You can keep your bowlers black,
Your top hats sleek and tall,
For I’m the Hogwarts Sorting Hat
And I can cap them all.
There’s nothing hidden in your head
The Sorting Hat can’t see,
So try me on and I will tell you
Where you ought to be.
You might belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve and chivalry
Set Gryffindors apart;
You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true
And unafraid of toil;
Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
If you’ve a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind;
Or perhaps in Slytherin
You’ll make your real friends,
Those cunning folk use any means
To achieve their ends.
So put me on! Don’t be afraid!
And don’t get in a flap!
You’re in safe hands (though I have none)
For I’m a Thinking Cap!’
Start of Term Banquet in the Great Hall
Roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes,
roast potatoes, chips, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup and, for some strange reason, mint humbugs.
Pudding: blocks of ice-cream in every flavour you could think of, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate éclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries,
jelly, rice pudding.
House Ghosts
The Fat Friar: the resident ghost of Hufflepuff.
Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington / Nearly Headless Nick: the resident ghost of Gryffindor Tower.
The Bloody Baron: the resident ghost of Slytherin.
The Grey Lady: the resident ghost of Ravenclaw.
The School Song
Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,
Teach us something please,
Whether we be old and bald
Or young with scabby knees,
Our heads could do with filling
With some interesting stuff,
For now they’re bare and full of air,
Dead flies and bits of fluff,
So teach us things worth knowing,
Bring back what we’ve forgot,
Just do your best, we’ll do the rest,
And learn until our brains all rot.
Hogwarts Staff
Argus Filch: Caretaker.
Professor Sprout: Herbology and Head of Hufflepuff house.
Professor Binns (ghost): History of Magic.
Professor Flitwick: Charms and Head of Ravenclaw house.
Professor McGonagal: Transfiguration and Head of Gryffindor house.
Professor Quirrell: Defence Against the Dark Arts.
Professor Snape: Potions and Head of Slytherin house.
Madam Hooch: Flying.
Madam Pince: Librarian.
Madam Pomfrey: Matron.
Potions Lesson
You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making. As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic.
I don’t expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses.
I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death – if you aren’t as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach.
Asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death.
A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons.
As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the
same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite.
Broomsticks
~ Comet Two Sixty
~ Nimbus Two Thousand
Harry trains as a Seeker in the Gryffindor Quidditch Team
DO NOT OPEN THE PARCEL AT THE TABLE.
It contains your new Nimbus Two Thousand, but I don’t want everybody knowing you’ve got a broomstick or they’ll all want one.
Oliver Wood will meet you tonight on the Quidditch pitch at seven o’clock for your first training session.
Professor M. McGonagall.
The Rules
There are seven players on each side:
- Three Chasers
- One Keeper
- Two Beaters
- One Seeker
There are four balls:
- The Quaffle (bright red ball about the size of a football)
- There are two Bludgers (jet black and slightly smaller than the red Quaffle)
- The Golden Snitch (tiny, about the size of a large walnut, bright gold with little fluttering silver wings).
The Chasers throw the Quaffle to each other and try and get it through one of the hoops to score a goal. Ten points every time the Quaffle goes through one of the hoops.
The Keeper flies around the six team hoops and stop the other team from scoring.
Bludgers rocket around trying to knock players off their brooms.
The two Beaters protect their side from the Bludgers and try andknock them towards the other team.
The Golden Snitch is very hard to catch because it’s so fast and difficult to see. It’s the Seeker’s job to catch it by weaving in and out of the Chasers, Beaters, Bludgers and Quaffle to get it before the other team’s Seeker, because whichever Seeker catches the Snitch wins their team an extra hundred and fifty points, so they nearly always win.
That’s why Seekers get fouled so much. A game of
Quidditch only ends when the Snitch is caught.
Harry spends Christmas at Hogwarts
Christmas Presents
A roughly cut wooden flute whittled by Hagrid himself.
A fifty pence piece from From Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia.
A thick, hand-knitted Weasley jumper in emerald
green and a large box of home-made fudge from Mrs Weasley.
A large box of Chocolate Frogs from Hermione.
An invisibility cloak and the following note:
Your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you.
Use it well.
A Very Merry Christmas to you.
Christmas dinner
A hundred fat, roast turkeys, mountains of roast and boiled potatoes, platters of fat chipolatas, tureens
of buttered peas, silver boats of thick, rich gravy and cranberry sauce – and stacks of wizard crackers every few feet along the table. These fantastic crackers didn’t just bang, it went off with a blast like a cannon and engulfed everyone all in a cloud of blue smoke, while from the inside exploded a rear- admiral’s hat and several live, white mice.
Flaming Christmas puddings followed the turkey.
Things Harry won from the wizard crackers
Non-explodable luminous balloons.
Grow-your-own-warts kit
New wizard chess set.
Christmas Tea
Turkey sandwiches.
Crumpets.
Trifle.
Christmas cake.
The Philosopher's Stone
The ancient study of alchemy is concerned with making the Philosopher’s Stone, a legendary substance with astonishing powers.
The Stone will transform any metal into pure gold. It also produces the Elixir of Life, which will make the drinker immortal.
There have been many reports of the Philosopher’s Stone over the centuries, but the only Stone currently in existence belongs to Mr Nicolas Flamel, the noted alchemist and opera-lover. Mr Flamel, who
celebrated his six hundred and sixty-fifth birthday last year, enjoys a quiet life in Devon with his wife, Perenelle (six hundred and fifty-eight).
Dragons
Dragon-breeding was outlawed by the Warlocks’ Convention of 1709.
Wild dragons:
- Common Welsh Green
- Hebridean Blacks
- Norwegian Ridgeback
Fluffy the Three-Headed Dog
Guards the trapdoor leading to the underground chamber where the Philosopher's Stone was hidden.
The sound of music playing calms Fluffy down and sends him to sleep.
Plot Twist!
Professor Quirrell was in league with Voldemort and was helping him to obtain the Philosopher's Stone.
Professor Snape was suspicious of him from the beginning. During a Quidditch match, Professor Quirrell attempted to kill Harry by cursing his broomstick. Professor Snape muttered a counter-curse in order to save Harry. Snape also insisted on refereeing the next match to make sure Quirrell didn't try doing it again.
GLOSSARY
Gringotts
Wizards’ bank run by Goblins.
"Enter, stranger, but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed,
For those who take, but do not earn,
Must pay most dearly in their turn,
So if you seek beneath our floors
A treasure that was never yours,
Thief, you have been warned, beware
Of finding more than treasure there".
Vault seven hundred and thirteen.
Muggle
Non-magical folk.
Wizarding currency
Knuts, Sickles and Galleons.
Ministry of Magic: the government of the magical community whose main job is keeping Muggles from finding out that witches and wizards exist.
The Leaky Cauldron
A Wizards pub with the gateway to Diagon Alley via the back wall.
An alley way with an assortment of shops selling books and equipment.
Quidditch
A popular team sport played by witches and wizards whilst riding on flying broomsticks.
Mirror of Erised
The mirror that shows the looker the deepest, most desperate desire of their hearts.
===
Out of loyalty to Jill Murphy and also not wanting to jump on the band wagon, the Domestic Goblin had initially avoided reading any of the Harry Potter books written by J.K. Rowling (and also avoided watching the film adaptations).
More than two decades later, in April/May 2022, the Domestic Goblin decided to start reading the first book 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' with an open mind...
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