Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince

In this book, the magical world is pretty much in chaos. Voldemort is at large and nobody really knows what to do about it. However back at Hogwarts, thing are going along almost normally. Snape finally got his job as Defense Against the Dark Arts, Ron and  Hermione are fighting as usual, only this time it's over (GASP) girlfriends!! Except, Harry finds a potions textbook/cheat sheet in which the "half blood prince" scribbled spells and potion tips. Unfortunately, some of the spells are downright bad, and Harry ends up getting rid of it. Meanwhile Dumbledore has been giving Harry lessons on how to defeat Voldemort and the time has come for him to put his skills to the test...

My favorite part in the book is when Aragog dies. In the movie it is when Harry takes the Felix Felicis potion!

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix

This book is my favourte...

Harry has a problem. Nobody at the minstry of Magic belives that Voldemort is back, and they are doing every thing they can to turn poeaple against him and Dumbledore. So Harry once again finds himself a social outcast at school, and he has to deal with evil teachers, and Voldemort accidentaly possesing him. In the end good prevails, and (Spoiler Alert!) the first good guy dies for Voldemort. The plot thickens however, with a prophecy explaining Voldemort's actions, a mysterious connection between Harry, and Voldemort, and Dumbledore avoiding Harry like the plague.

My favorite parts are...

In the movie : When Neville finally gets the Expelliarmus charm, in the DA

In the book : When Harry starts the DA, and when they di the interview the the reporter from the 4th, and Luna's dad publishes it.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

In this book Hogwarts is chosen to host the triwizard tournament, a lengendary competition in which the three main magic schools in Europe, Hogwarts, Durmstrang, and Beauxbatons, compete in three challenges, to win 1000 galleons, the triwizard cup, and eternal glory, aka bragging rights! Harry, as usual, finds himself in danger when he is chosen as the 2nd representative of Hogwarts, even though each school is only allowed one, and only 7th years are allowed to compete, because of the danger of the competition. Ron and Harry fight, Hagrid obtaines illegal magical creatures for them to take care of in CMC, a nasty news reporter starts spreading rumors, and Voldemort comes back to life. Just another not-so normal year at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. 

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

This is one of my personal favourites...

In this book a mass murderer breaks out from the wizard prison, Azkaban, supposedly (spoiler alert!) after Harry! Harry, Ron, and Hermione head to what will be another eventful year at Hogwarts. Hagrid becomes their Care of Magical Creatures, Hermione tries to do to much, and Ron's rat turns into a mass murder victim, who is supposed to be dead. (GASP!!) Read the book to find out what else happens!

My favorite part is when Lupin teaches Harry how to fight off Dementors, the Azkaban guards, and at their next Quidditch game the "Dementors" that Harry manages to fight off turn out to be Draco Malfoy and his cronies.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

In this book, a monster is set loose in the Hogwarts castle, and when Ron, Harry, and Hermione's friend Hagrid gets blamed they know that it's up to them to stop it. But when Hermione herself gets attacked, Hargrid gets sent to jail, and none of thier investigations bear any fruit things start to go downhill. Suddenly a girl gets taken by the monster and it's Ron's sister! Harry, and Ron venture down into the Chamber of Secrets, the monster's lair, and manage to save the day yet again!

My favorite part is when Harry Ron and Hermione take the Polyjuice potion, and Hermione is turned into a cat! I also love Gilderoy Lockhart, the new, dimwitted, Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher who writes supposedly non-fiction books about all the heroic things he's done. Spoiler alert!! (He's never acctually done them!) 

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, continued...

Sorry about the sudden ending, I got cut off...
Anyway, here's the rest of the story...

Harry, and Ron start learning magic at Hogwarts. Originally, they acctually hated Hermione. She was a bit off an "insufferable know-it-all"- Severus Snape- and tended to boss them around. (Wingaaaaardium Leviooosaaaaaa!) and one night she follows them to a supposed "wizard duel" with Draco Malfoy (an obnoxious Slytherin*, who has it out for Harry) Turns out they were set up, and to escape Filch (a rather pathetic squib* caretaker who resentes all the student for their ability to use magic) they run into an empty room that just happens to have a three-headed dog guarding a trapdoor that supposedly has some kind of precious, priceless, kind of treasure that is hidden  deep in Hogwarts, protected by the greatest wizard of all time, you know,just your average school classroom. Anyway this encounter sparks curiosity in Harry, and Ron, but Hermione is annoying as ever. On Halloween, a troll gets let loose in the dungeons, and Hermione is in a bathroom down there. Harry and Ron go down and save her, and after that they become friends. Harry, Ron, and Hermione try their best to find out all about whatever's down in that trapdoor. The answer comes in the form of that giant Hagrid, remember him? Well he lets slip that whatever's down there is the between Albus Dumbledore, and Nicolas Flamel. So Harry, Ron, and Hermione become obsessed with finding out who Nicolas Flamel is. They find out that he is the inventor of the Philosopher's stone, a stone that can turn any metal to gold. It can also produce the Elixir of Life, a type of potion that can enable you to live forever, as long as you keep drinking it. Harry becomes very worried that Professor Snape, a rather evil potions master who, like Draco, has it out for Harry, is going to steal it. He heard Professor Snape talking to Professor Quirrel, the defense against the dark arts teacher, who has a stutter, and seems to be afraid if everything. Snape was telling Quirrell that he was waiting for his bit of "hocus pocus", and that he needed to decide "where his loyalties lie".  He convinces Hermione, who originally thought that all teachers were saints, and could do no wrong during a Quidditch match. Quidditch is a sport played on flying broomsticks. During that match. Harry's broom started acting up, trying to buck Harry off. Hermione could see Snape muttering something, an incantation? Hermione sets Snape's robes on fire, and his concentration was lost. harry's broom went back to normal, and they won the game. Hermione was then convinced that Snape was up to no good.  One day, while they were serving detention in the Forbidden Forest, for being caught out of bed after hours, Harry sees a monstrous creature drinking the blood of a unicorn. He is saved by a centaur, and realizes that He Who Must Not Be Named, Voldemort was there at Hogwarts! They think that it is because Snape is trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone for him, so that Voldemort can drink the Elixir of Life and come back fully. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are horrified to realize that Dumbledore had been called away on urgent business, and would not be back for a while. dumbledore was the only wizard thet Voldemort had ever been afraid of, they were sure he could help. So they decide to go themselves. They sneak down to the third floor corridor, and get past Fluffy, the three-headed dog, an evil plan that ttried to strangle them, a bunch of flying keys,and a life size chess board where Ron was taken out by the white queen, and a puzzle where they had to find the right potion that would allow them to walk through the fire that was blocking the door. Unfortunately, there was only enough potion for one person so Harry had to go on alone. In the next chamber, Harry finds, no Snape, or Voldemort, but Quirrell! Harry find out that is was Quirrell who was cursing Harry's broomstick, and lost concentration when Hermione, in her haste to get to Snape, knocked him over. It was also he who let the troll in in Halloween. Also he has not been acting alone, he unravels the turban that he always wraps around his head, and it turns out that Voldemaort is sticking out the back of his head! Harry os forced to look in the mirror that was in the room, and sees himself put the philosopher's stone in his pocket. Suddenly he feels the philosopher's stone drop into his pocket! Unfortunately, Quirrell/Voldemort sees it too, and grabs Harry though when he touches Harry he crumbles to dust, and Harry passes out. Harry wakes up a while later in the hospital wing, with Dumbledore standing over him. Dumbledore explaines that the reason Voldemort could not touch  Harry is because his mother had sacrificed herself to save him, so Voldemort could not touch Harry. The end of the year approached, and at the feast, Dumbledore awardedpoints to Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and belive it or not, Neville Longbottom,for standing up to Harry, Ron, and Hermione when they were sneaking out. That pushed Griffindor* over the edge, and they won the house cup!! 

THE END

*A squib is someone who was born into a magic family, but dosn't have any magic of their own. They are extremely rare.

*Griffindor, and Slytherin are two of the houses. There are four Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Griffindor, and Slytherin. The new students are sorted at the beginning of the year based on personality traits. Hufflepuffs are faire, Griffindors are brave, Ravenclaws are smart, and Slytherins are, well sneaky I mean pure-blood.


I have to say, that my favorite part is when Harry, Ron, and Hermione become friends, after they fight the troll, or when they are trying to learn how  to make things fly. Wingaaardiun Levioosaaaaa!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Harry lived with his fat, rude uncle, bony, nosy, bossy aunt, and fat, rude, violent cousin. He is ridiculed at school, beat up by his cousin, and his gang, and has to live in a broom cupboard, under the stairs. And strange, unexplicable things happen to him, like, while running away from his cousin, and his gang, he takes a running leap, aiming for behind the garbage can, he suddenly finds himself on the roof. And when his aunt, tired of having Harry go to the haircutter's looking as if he'd never had a hair cut in his life, took the kitchen scissors, and cut of so much of his hair that he was nearly bald. The next day, Harry's hair was back! And then there was the scar. His aunt & uncle always said he had got it in the car crash that had killed his parent, but it was shaped, most curiously, like a lightning bolt. One day a letter arrives for Harry in the mail. His uncle takes it and burns it before Harry can read it, but the letters just keep coming, until his uncle, fed up with all the letters, takes the family to a small island in the middle of a storm. There, they get a visitor, a large visitor, a giant named Hagrid. Hagrid tells Harry that he is a wizard, and a evil, dark wizard, named Voldemort  had killed his parent, and tried to kill him too, but somehow, Harry had survived, and not only survived, he had broken something inside that dark wizard, and was now famous in the wizarding world. He goes with Hagrid to buy schoolbooks, and a wand, because the letters had been telling him that he had been invited to Hogwarts, a school of witchcraft, and wizardry. At Hogwarts he makes friends with an extremely smart girl, named Hermione, and a boy named Ron...