Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: Prologue
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Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
PROLOGUE
Mr. and Mrs. Dursley live at number 4, Privet Drive. They are a perfectly normal family. They do not like anything that is different or strange, and they hate mysterious things most of all. They prefer a life that is calm, ordinary and without any surprises.
Mr. Dursley is the director of a large company. He is a very fat man, with a very short neck. He has a large mustache. Mrs. Dursley, his wife, is thin and has blond hair. Her neck is extremely long. She uses her long neck to look over the fence in her garden. She likes to watch her neighbors. She is a gossip.
The Dursleys have a young son. His name is Dudley. The Dursleys think Dudley is the perfect son.
The Dursleys have everything they want. But they also have a secret! Mrs. Dursley has a sister. Her name is Mrs. Potter. But Mrs. Dersley pretends she does not have a sister. She pretends she does not have a sister because her sister does not live a normal, ordinary life. Mrs. Potter and her husband are very strange and very different. They are very un-Dursley.
Like the Dursleys, the Potters have a young son, too, but the Dursleys do not want their son, Dudley, to be around the Potters’ son.
The Dursleys wake up one Tuesday morning. It seems like a perfectly normal Tuesday morning. But the day is about to change. It is about to become very strange and mysterious. The Dursleys HATE strange and mysterious things.
While driving to work, Mr. Dursley sees the first strange thing of the day. Near his house, he sees a cat reading a map! Or, at least, he thinks he sees a cat reading a map. His eyes must be playing games with him.
Later, while he is waiting in traffic, he notices many people wearing strange clothes - they are wearing colorful cloaks and capes! Who wears colorful cloaks like that at this time of the year, he thinks to himself! It must be a stupid new fashion that the young people are following. But he notices that some of the strange people are not young at all - they are very old! But the traffic moves forward and Mr. Dursley forgets about all the strange people he sees.
His day at work is very normal - he yells at many people, he makes some important calls, and then he decides to go across the street and have lunch. When he is about to enter his favorite bakery to order a sandwich, he notices another group of people dressed in strange clothes. They are talking together in a group. They seem very excited about something. Mr. Dursley passes by them as he is leaving and this is what he hears:
“The Potters.
You’re right.
That’s what I heard, too.
Yes, their son, Harry.”
Mr. Dursley cannot believe what he hears. He becomes very scared. He runs back to his office. There are many people named “Potter”, he thinks. And he is not sure if his nephew is named Harry, anyway. He has never seen the boy. He wants to call his wife, but then he decides it is a bad idea. He doesn't want to make his wife upset. She always gets upset when she talks about her sister.
It is very difficult for Mr. Dursley to concentrate at work. When it is 5 pm, he leaves work to go home. As he is leaving his building, he does not see the small man who is standing in front of him. Mr. Dursley walks right into him! “Sorry,” says Mr. Dursley. The man he walks into is a small old man wearing a violet cloak.
He does not seem angry at all that Mr. Dursley almost knocks him to the ground. On the contrary, he smiles a big smile and says in a very squeaky voice, “Don’t be sorry, sir! Nothing could make me upset today! Be happy, because You-Know-Who is gone! Even Muggles like you, sir, should celebrate. This is a happy, happy day!” Then the tiny old man hugs Mr. Dursley and walks away.
Mr. Dursley has no idea what has just happened. He does not know the old man, and he does not know what a “Muggle” is, either. Mr. Dursley is beginning to hate strange things even more. Mr. Dursley drives home and is very surprised to see the same cat he saw earlier in the morning. The cat is sitting on his garden wall, looking at him. “Shoo! Go away!” he yells at the cat. The cat does not move. It just sits there on the wall, looking at Mr. Dursley as he enters his house.
Mr. Dursley tries to act normal around his wife, but it is quite difficult. He and his wife and son have a normal, ordinary dinner. They put little Dudley to bed, and Mr. Dursley has time to sit and watch the news on the TV:
“...what a strange thing. Bird watchers have noticed very strange behavior by owls all over the country today. Owls are normally only active at night, but today many owls have been seen flying in every direction since this morning. Experts cannot explain this strange behavior. Very, very odd behavior, indeed. And now the weather with Jim. Is it going to rain owls later tonight?”
“Well, Ted,” answers the weatherman, “I certainly hope not! But that is not the only strange thing happening today. People from all over the country have been calling me and telling me they have been seeing falling stars! Thousands and thousands of shooting stars, falling from the sky…”
Mr. Dursley sits frozen in his chair. Shooting stars all over Britain? Owls behaving strangely? Mysterious people wearing strange clothes, and talking about the Potters… At that moment, Mrs. Dursley comes into the living room with two cups of tea. Mr. Dursley thinks he has no option - he must say something to his wife. “Er…Petunia, dear…have you spoken to your sister recently?”
As expected, Mrs. Dursley looks shocked and angry. Rember, she normally pretends she does not even have a sister.
“No,” she says angrily. “Why?”
“Oh, nothing…just the strange things happening on the news. Owls…shooting stars…and there were funny-looking people in town today…I just thought…maybe it had something to do with…you know…people like her.”
“Their son,” continues Mr. Dursley, “would be around Dudley’s age now, right? What’s his name again? Howard, isn’t it?”
“His name is Harry. What a nasty, common name that is,” answers Mrs. Dursley.
“Of course, Harry.” Mr. Dursley’s heart begins to beat very quickly. “Yes, I agree, a terribly common name.”
He does not say another word about the topic, and they both go to bed. While Mrs. Dursley is in the bathroom, Mr. Dursley looks out the window into the front garden. The cat is still there on the wall. It is looking down the street, like it is waiting for something.
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