Quirrell and the Philosopher's Stone

A DRAFT OF HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE, CHAPTER SEVENTEEN, HANDWRITTEN BY J.K. ROWLING

J.K. Rowling

This handwritten draft of ‘The Man with Two Faces’, Chapter Seventeen of The Philosopher's Stone, shows J.K. Rowling's writing in biro, on unlined paper. While you can see some small deletions in the text, much of the dialogue in this early draft remains the same as the published text. On discovering that Professor Quirrell was behind the attempts to steal the Philosopher's Stone, not Snape as he had suspected, Harry is given this defiant line: ‘You haven’t got the stone yet […] Dumbledore will be here soon. He’ll stop you.’ This and Quirrell's next line was cut during the editorial process, in which the confrontation was reorganised. In the published version, Quirrell discloses that he had let the troll into the school immediately after he had bound Harry in ropes.

“J.K. Rowling has expressed how much she loves writing dialogue, and this draft shows how small changes in dialogue can have a powerful effect on characterisation.”

Joanna Norledge
Curator