Harry had always known the loss of his parents, but he never truly began to feel it until he turned 11. Just like Harry himself, we don’t know it at the time, but these deaths will set the stage for the entire series, and will shape Harry’s life forever. And as the book nears its twentieth anniversary, now is as good a time as any to break them down… The book starts with the biggest death of the whole seriesĭeath haunts Philosopher’s Stone from the very first chapter, in which we learn that something tragic has happened to a baby boy’s parents. The books are what they are because she died.’Īs such, Philosopher’s Stone laid the foundations for a book series all about life, death and grief. As she has said herself: ‘If hadn’t died, I don’t think it’s too strong to say that there wouldn’t be Harry Potter. Rowling was rocked by the death of her mother: an experience that would go on to shape not only that book, but the series as a whole. But it was about death or, at the very least, a story about coming to terms with it.Īnd how could it not be? Only six months after starting Philosopher’s Stone, J.K. Nor were its actual deaths – Professor Quirrell and, off the page, we assume Nicolas Flamel – especially dramatic or shocking.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was not explicitly about death.
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