Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone By J. K. Rowling chapter one the Boy Who Lived

 

Given Harry his letter. 
 

Taking him to buy his things tomorrow. 
 

Weather’s horrible. Hope you’re well. 
 

Hagrid 
Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped it in its beak, went to the door, and 
threw the owl out into the storm. Then he came back and sat down as though this was as normal 
as talking on the telephone. 
Harry realized his mouth was open and closed it quickly. 
“Where was I?” said Hagrid, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, still ashen-faced but looking 
very angry, moved into the firelight. 
“He’s not going,” he said. 
Hagrid grunted. 
“I’d like ter see a great Muggle like you stop him,” he said. 

---

“A what?” said Harry, interested. 
“A Muggle,” said Hagrid, “it’s what we call nonmagic folk like them. An’ it’s your bad luck you 
grew up in a family o’ the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on.” 
“We swore when we took him in we’d put a stop to that rubbish,” said Uncle Vernon, “swore 
we’d stamp it out of him! Wizard indeed!” 
“You 
knew
?” said Harry. “You 
knew
I’m a — a wizard?” 
“Knew!” shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. “
Knew
! Of course we knew! How could you not be, 
my dratted sister being what she was? Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to 
that — that 
school
— and came home every vacation with her pockets full of frog spawn, turning 
teacups into rats. I was the only one who saw her for what she was — a freak! But for my mother 
and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!” 
She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. It seemed she had been wanting to 
say all this for years. 
“Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you, and of course I 
knew you’d be just the same, just as strange, just as — as —
abnormal
— and then, if you please, 
she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!” 
Harry had gone very white. As soon as he found his voice he said, “Blown up? You told me they 
died in a car crash!” 
“CAR CRASH!” roared Hagrid, jumping up so angrily that the Dursleys scuttled back to their 
corner. “How could a car crash kill Lily an’ James Potter? It’s an outrage! A scandal! Harry 
Potter not knowin’ his own story when every kid in our world knows his name!” 
“But why? What happened?” Harry asked urgently. 
The anger faded from Hagrid’s face. He looked suddenly anxious. 
“I never expected this,” he said, in a low, worried voice. “I had no idea, when Dumbledore told 
me there might be trouble gettin’ hold of yeh, how much yeh didn’t know. Ah, Harry, I don’ 
know if I’m the right person ter tell yeh — but someone’s gotta — yeh can’t go off ter Hogwarts 
not knowin’.” 
He threw a dirty look at the Dursleys. 
“Well, it’s best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh — mind, I can’t tell yeh everythin’, it’s a 
great myst’ry, parts of it…” 
He sat down, stared into the fire for a few seconds, and then said, “It begins, I suppose, with — 
with a person called — but it’s incredible yeh don’t know his name, everyone in our world 

---

knows —” 
“Who?” 
“Well — I don’ like sayin’ the name if I can help it. No one does.” 
“Why not?” 
“Gulpin’ gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared. Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this 
wizard who went… bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was…” 
Hagrid gulped, but no words came out. 
“Could you write it down?” Harry suggested. 
“Nah — can’t spell it. All right —