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Let’s
say you’re on an interminable train journey from Manchester
to King’s Cross. The year is 1990. You are watching the trees
and the houses that are soaring fast past you through the dirty
window of your compartment. You are thinking... A whole new world
comes to life in front you. A world full of magic that is entirely
different from our own. This world continues to grow and to become
more and more real to you. That’s what happened to J.K Rowling
when Harry Potter was born.
In 1995, after 5 years of hard work,
J.K. Rowling finishes the first book in the series and outlines
the plot for all the Harry Potter books. After being rejected by
several publishers, Jo manages to convince Bloomsbury to publish
Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone in 1997.
This is how it all begun. This is how Harry Potter entered our life!
In
the second book, "Harry Potter and the Chamber
of Secrets", Harry's vacation before the second
school year is interrupted unexpectedly when he finds his bed occupied
by a... house-elf! The creature warns Harry not to return to Hogwarts,
because there is a plot against him. Of course, Harry doesn't listen
to him and returns!
New adventures await the three friends as the plot thickens and
the atmosphere becomes darker.
The series continues
with the third book, "Prisoner of Azkaban".
Azkaban is the wizard's prison, a horrible place populated by the
most dangerous criminals in the world and guarded by creatures who
suck happiness out of human beings: dementors. For the first time
ever, a prisoner escapes: Sirius Black! The novel is filled with
tension as Harry finds out the reason Sirius escaped: to find him..
and kill him!
The Goblet
of Fire starts in an unusual way: we witness the murder
of a Muggle by Lord Voldemort himself. Voldemort continues his quest
for immortality, for which he needs the blood of Harry Potter. The
atmosphere becomes a little more relaxed as Harry and his friends
enjoy the Quidditch World Cup. However, the events that follow it
will take your breath away. This book was the longest at the time
it was
published.
The Order
of the Phoenix is a secret society founded by Dumbledore
as a retort to Voldemort and his followers. Harry's life at school
is more and more difficult as the Ministry attempts to silence him
and avoid him telling the world the events which he had witnessed
at the end of the previous year. When he meets Professor Umbridge,
who was sent by the Ministry to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts,
he shifts his opinion about the professor he hates most from Snape
to her. The book is even longer than the previous one, keeping you
busy for days.
The
second-to-last book, The Half-Blood Prince,
is the darkest in the series. Serious and tense, the book is no
longer a children's one. We witness murders after murders in the
world that is being taken over by Lord Voldemort and his followers.
To counter his actions, Dumbledore teaches Harry everything he has
found out over the years about Voldemort, so that he will be able
to defeat him. Harry finds out the true meaning of the prophecy
and experiences something which has as much importance in the magical
world as it does in the Muggle one: love, the non-platonic kind.
The 16-th year-old approaches his adulthood and embraces the responsabilities
he has in a way that shows how extraordinary a writer JK Rowling
is. |
