Jo’s Reviews > Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone > Status Update

‘Call him Voldemort, Harry. Always use the proper name for things. Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.’ Dumbledore is so wise.

‘Flitwick told me in secret that I got a hundred and twelve percent on his exam. They’re not throwing me out after that.’ Hmmm, only Hermoine can get 112% on a test.

It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that.

But from that moment on, Hermione Granger became their friend. There are some things you can’t share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them. And so a beautiful friendship starts...

‘I want to hear you’re training hard, Potter, or I may change my mind about punishing you.’ Then she suddenly smiled. ‘Your father would have been proud,’ she said. ‘He was an excellent Quidditch player himself.’ Professor McGonagall is so awesome!!!!

He tapped the wall three times with the point of his umbrella. The brick he had touched quivered -it wriggled -in the middle, a small hole appeared -it grew wider and wider -a second later they were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid, an archway on to a cobbled street which twisted and turned out of sight. JKR's imagination astounds me.

Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on. Harry was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where he slept. Aww, that is terrible. Poor Harry.

"Everyone knows you’re the only one You-Know -oh, all right, Voldemort -was frightened of.’ ‘You flatter me,’ said Dumbledore calmly. ‘Voldemort had powers I will never have.’ ‘Only because you’re too -well -noble to use them.’ ‘It’s lucky it’s dark. I haven’t blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs.’

When Mr and Mrs Dursley woke up on the dull, grey Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. My first reread of this book in 14 years. It's amazing how many things I've forgotten, like that Mrs. Dursley was blond and not brunette like in the movies.