Harry Potter
and the Philosopher's Stone
film adaptation

Changes from the Book

Deletrius!
major characters and events from the book not included in the film:

• Vernon Dursley's day, as the wizarding world is more apparent in their celebration of the disappearance of Voldemort.

• Mention of Mrs. Figg.

• Piers Polkiss' presence during the trip to the zoo and appearance as a character at all.

• Parts of Uncle Vernon's madness. Major snippets of his attempts to avoid the letters have been left out, including a jaunt to a hotel and to the middle of a forest.

• Harry's trip to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, with consequent changes to his first meeting with Draco (see Serpensortia).

• The details of James' and Lily's wands. Somewhat minor but nice facts about their size and composition.

• The month between Harry's birthday (31 July) and his arrival at King's Cross Station on 1 September (see Serpensortia).

• The Sorting Hat's song.

• The entire exchange between Harry and Draco on the Hogwarts Express (see Serpensortia).

• Peeves the Poltergeist! (Reportedly was filmed, and a voice actor hired, but was cut for time.)

• Draco's challenge to a duel and Ron and Harry's attempt to meet with him at night.

• The "secret" arrival of Harry's Nimbus 2000. McGonagall covers up the broomstick that is delivered to Harry in the book, to keep his Quidditch playing a secret until the first game, but it is quite obvious and dramatically done in the film.

• The rest of Harry's family, aside from his mother and father, in the Mirror of Erised.

• Nicolas Flamel. Mentioned in a scene that later appeared on the DVD, he is hardly mentioned in the theatrical version, and his mention on Dumbledore's Chocolate Frog card doesn't get its proper place, even in the cut scene.

• The centaurs Bane and Ronan.

• The unconscious troll in the chambers of the stone.

• "Hermione's Task:" the potion riddle Hermione solves to get Harry to the Stone was cut, perhaps because it is not nearly as cinematic as Ron's chess task.

Serpensortia!
plotlines that were twisted in the transition to the screen:

• Hagrid's conversation with Harry about Voldemort takes place after their shopping expedition rather than in the Hut-on-the-Rock beforehand.

• Harry and Draco's first meeting, in Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions in the book, now takes place at Hogwarts just before the Sorting; their second conversation in the book is moved to this point. Consequently, Scabbers never bites Goyle and has a much less visible role than in the book.

• Hagrid delivers Harry to King's Cross Station in such a way that it appears to be on the same day as Harry's birthday, rather than just over a month later.

• Rather than speaking inside the mind of the wearer, the Sorting Hat speaks aloud and quite openly while evaluating the wearer's suitability for a particular House.

• Norbert's removal, and the subsequent detentions in the Forbidden Forest. Though Harry and Hermione go to great lengths in the book to get Norbert sent off with Charlie Weasley, Dumbledore simplifies matters in the film and sends him himself. (In fact, the entire Norbert sequence in the film is compressed so that the kids are caught out of bounds on the night of the hatching, rather than later. Consequently, Ron in the film is never bitten by Norbert and isn't sent to the hospital wing.)

• The fourth person to get detention with Draco, Harry, and Hermione changes from Neville in the book to Ron in the film, to suit this alteration.

• McGonagall performs an Animagus Transfiguration for her class in the first film, but in the books, the students first see it in their third year.

• The first-year Gryffindors do not share Transfiguration lessons with any other House in the books, as far as we can tell, but both Hufflepuffs (e.g., Susan Bones) and Slytherins (e.g., Draco Malfoy) share Harry's Transfiguration lesson in the film.

  In fact, the latter is definitely incorrect, because in PS9, we are told that the first-year Gryffindors and Slytherins only have Potions and Flying classes together, nothing else.

Switching Spells

• The snake is from Brazil in the book, but bred in captivity but native to Burma in the film. (However, the appearance of the snake in the film seems consistent with the variety that would be found in Brazil.)

• Dudley and Aunt Petunia are described in the books as blond, but are dark-haired in the film.

• Draco's initial offer of friendship to Harry takes place on the Hogwarts Express in the book - an encounter during which Scabbers' great moment of biting Goyle's finger occurs - but occurs outside the Great Hall before the Sorting in the film, sans Scabbers.

• Harry's parents look quite a bit older than they should. They were about 22 when they died, but in the film they look like they're in their mid-thirties at least.

• Firenze is white-blond with a palomino body in the book, but appears to be dark-haired in the film.

Conjuring spells
additions to the film without direct canon backing:

• The full-out depiction of Voldemort's attack on Harry and Lily Potter is only in the book in Hagrid's dialogue, but becomes a first-hand depiction of the flashback in the film.

• Though there is no real description of the Hogwarts uniforms or obvious differentiation in house appearances in the books, the films have added house crests, ties, and prep-school-inspired clothing under the cloaks.

• Oliver Wood's anecdote that during his first Quidditch match, he took a Bludger to the head two minutes into the game and woke up a week later in the hospital wing.

• The plaque that proclaims James Potter to be a Seeker, and the non-canon characters R.J.H. King and M.G. McGonagall on it. (The latter cannot be Professor McGonagall, who far from being a teammate of James Potter was one of his teachers.) See PS/f errors for more about this plaque.

  • King, R.J.H.
    Non-canon student at Hogwarts in the late 60s/early 70s. He or she played Quidditch for Gryffindor, and in 1969 won a small plaque which is now part of a trophy in the trophy room.
    NOTE: King's name appears on a wooden shield in the trophy room in PS/f only. Other information on that shield is problematic since it contradicts JKR's statement that James Potter was a Chaser. Therefore King cannot be considered part of the official canon.

• spells:

  • Alohomora is supposedly found in The Standard Book of Spells, chapter seven

  • Flitwick's remark that Levitation is one of the rudimentary skills for every wizard and that he therefore teaches it to his first year class.

• portraits present in the film but not in the books

  • picture of a little girl who curtsies to the first years on their way up to their common room after the welcoming feast

  • picture of a woman who walks into a room and sits by a bed, in the hospital wing

  • Among the portraits on the shifting staircase is a painting of Anne Boleyn, King Henry VIII's second wife and the mother of Queen Elizabeth I. One of the charges against her when Henry VIII had her tried and executed was that she was a witch.