Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone By J. K. Rowling chapter one the Boy Who Lived

And the school bellowed: 
 

“Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts, 
 
 
 Teach us something please, 
 

Whether we be old and bald 
 

Or young with scabby knees, 

---

Our heads could do with filling 
 

With some interesting stuff, 
 

For now they’re bare and full of air, 
 

Dead flies and bits of fluff, 
 

So teach us things worth knowing, 
 

Bring back what we’ve forgot, 
 

just do your best, we’ll do the rest, 
 

And learn until our brains all rot.” 
Everybody finished the song at different times. At last, only the Weasley twins were left singing 
along to a very slow funeral march. Dumbledore conducted their last few lines with his wand and 
when they had finished, he was one of those who clapped loudest. 
“Ah, music,” he said, wiping his eyes. “A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off 
you trot!” 
The Gryffindor first years followed Percy through the chattering crowds, out of the Great Hall, 
and up the marble staircase. Harry’s legs were like lead again, but only because he was so tired 
and full of food. He was too sleepy even to be surprised that the people in the portraits along the 
corridors whispered and pointed as they passed, or that twice Percy led them through doorways 
hidden behind sliding panels and hanging tapestries. They climbed more staircases, yawning and 
dragging their feet, and Harry was just wondering how much farther they had to go when they 
came to a sudden halt. 
A bundle of walking sticks was floating in midair ahead of them, and as Percy took a step toward 
them they started throwing themselves at him. 
“Peeves,” Percy whispered to the first years. “A poltergeist.” He raised his voice, “Peeves — 
show yourself.” 
A loud, rude sound, like the air being let out of a balloon, answered. 
“Do you want me to go to the Bloody Baron?” 
There was a pop, and a little man with wicked, dark eyes and a wide mouth appeared, floating 
cross-legged in the air, clutching the walking sticks. 
“Oooooooh!” he said, with an evil cackle. “Ickle Firsties! What fun!” 

---

He swooped suddenly at them. They all ducked. 
“Go away, Peeves, or the Baron’ll hear about this, I mean it!” barked Percy. 
Peeves stuck out his tongue and vanished, dropping the walking sticks on Neville’s head. They 
heard him zooming away, rattling coats of armor as he passed. 
“You want to watch out for Peeves,” said Percy, as they set off again. “The Bloody Baron’s the 
only one who can control him, he won’t even listen to us prefects. Here we are.” 
At the very end of the corridor hung a portrait of a very fat woman in a pink silk dress. 
“Password?” she said. 
“Caput Draconis,” said Percy, and the portrait swung forward to reveal a round hole in the wall. 
They all scrambled through it — Neville needed a leg up — and found themselves in the 
Gryffindor common room, a cozy, round room full of squashy armchairs. 
Percy directed the girls through one door to their dormitory and the boys through another. At the 
top of a spiral staircase — they were obviously in one of the towers — they found their beds at 
last: five four-posters hung with deep red, velvet curtains. Their trunks had already been brought 
up. Too tired to talk much, they pulled on their pajamas and fell into bed. 
“Great food, isn’t it?” Ron muttered to Harry through the hangings. “Get 
off
, Scabbers! He’s 
chewing my sheets.” 
Harry was going to ask Ron if he’d had any of the treacle tart, but he fell asleep almost at once. 
Perhaps Harry had eaten a bit too much, because he had a very strange dream. He was wearing 
Professor Quirrell’s turban, which kept talking to him, telling him he must transfer to Slytherin at 
once, because it was his destiny. Harry told the turban he didn’t want to be in Slytherin; it got 
heavier and heavier; he tried to pull it off but it tightened painfully — and there was Malfoy, 
laughing at him as he struggled with it — then Malfoy turned into the hook-nosed teacher, 
Snape, whose laugh became high and cold — there was a burst of green light and Harry woke, 
sweating and shaking. 
He rolled over and fell asleep again, and when he woke next day, he didn’t remember the dream 
at all.