When three fifth-graders — Torrent, Starry, and Bird – attended a Harry Potter reading group with me, we held a celebration of the end of Sorcerer’s Stone.

I promised them that we’d be going through the trapdoor, solving the potions puzzle, brewing a simple Muggle potion, solving mysteries, and then leaving with the Stone.  I had them breathe deeply and open their imaginations.  Imagine putting on your Invisibility Cloaks, I said.  Now walk up to the third-floor corridor and try the door.  I asked them the spell to open it and they all cast Alohomora.  I brought them through the door and asked what they saw.

We went through the protections and how to pass them, in order.  I asked them why it was appropriate that Ron played a knight and they were pleased (“Ohhh!”) at the realization that it was to demonstrate the Gryffindor trait of chivalry.  We got to the potions and I had them get up and take a scroll with the potions puzzle on it.  I set the table with seven containers and gave them seven identifying cards that said

• Go forward to the Stone
• Go back away from the Stone
• Nettle wine
• Nettle wine
• Poison
• Poison
• Poison

I told them to figure out the puzzle and place the identifying cards in front of the correct containers when they were sure.  They worked out the logic beautifully as a team, taking turns reading out the lines, working out intermediate solutions (“not poison or wine”), getting the answer in very good time.

I had them collect their cauldrons (teacups) and let them open the container that moves people forward.  They found mint tea bags.  I had them pour out nettle wine (hot water) and they said happily that it really was like Muggle potions.  I invited them to take a bit of poison, too.  They opened a container of poison and found lumps of sugar that a friend of mine had molded into skulls.

As they drank the potion, I read out the mystery questions:   How effective were the protections around the Stone?  Did Dumbledore and the other teachers know Harry would go down the trapdoor?  Who else did they think would go with Harry?  When was each protection put into place?

Then they took turns looking up and reading aloud 12 clues.  Page numbers here refer to the Scholastic U.S. paperback edition.

• Ron saying it was a good thing Hermione paid attention in Herbology class, p278
• Flitwick saying McGonagall told him about the special circumstances under which Harry got a broom, p165
• Hermione losing to Ron at chess, p217
• McGonagall asking why Hermione thought she could take on a mountain troll all on her own, pp177-8
• Dumbledore warning students to avoid the third floor or they would die a painful death, p127
• Hagrid saying he lent Fluffy to Dumbledore to guard the Stone, p192
• Dumbledore saying the Mirror of Erised would be moved, pp213-4
• McGonagall saying the Stone is too well protected and can’t be stolen, p268
• Snape telling the kids they want to be careful or people will think they’re up to something, pp268-9
• Dumbledore telling Harry that he and Hermione’s owl must have crossed in mid-air, pp296-7
• Hermione telling Harry that Dumbledore was going toward Harry before Hermione even got to the owlery, p302
• Snape tending his leg and asking how to keep your eyes on three heads at once, p182

Based on these clues, we went over the mystery questions painstakingly.  They said immediately that the protections weren’t very strong if three first-years could get through them.  They thought Dumbledore knew, but thought maybe some but not all of the professors knew that Harry would go.  They were sure the teachers thought Ron and Hermione would go, too.  Then they realized (*gasp!*) that Flitwick must have known because JKR went out of her way to show that he’d heard about Harry’s flying skills.  They said Sprout told everyone, not just those three, about Devil’s Snare, and I said, “Do you think Sprout has noticed who pays attention in her class?  Of the three, which two became friends first?  Do they always want to listen to Hermione?  Should they listen to her more?”  With each question, their smiles grew.  Bird remembered that Flitwick planned it so all three of them had to fly together for Harry to catch the key.  About the potions, they figured that because of the quantity, Snape had planned only two people to go forward, Quirrell and Harry.  I said that was to tell Harry that he needs friends with him until the end, and then he has to go alone.  Starry wondered why Snape brewed enough for Quirrell and Harry, since Quirrell probably didn’t want Harry to come through, but I asked what Quirrell was doing on Voldemort’s behalf.  Ah, they said; stealing the Stone, and killing Harry.  So he would want to confront Harry.

I asked what McGonagall meant by saying the Stone was too well protected to steal.  That’s when they agreed that, based on evidence, the teachers had all designed the protections for these three particular first-years.  I asked how to get past the Mirror and Torrent said if you want it, but not for your own gain.  Yes, exactly; so could a person like that be said to be stealing it?  No, they all said.  I asked if they thought that Fluffy and the Mirror would have been protection enough, and if the other protections were just designed to remind the three of their strengths, remind them to work together, and operate basically as a final exam.  Torrent and Starry said yes, but Bird disagreed and said the protections were designed for those first-years’ strengths in particular, and they were necessary to keep out others.  Ah, good point.

I asked when each protection had been devised and this stumped them at first.  They worked out that the Stone was installed after Harry’s birthday but before the first day of school, and Fluffy set to guard it then.  The Mirror, sometime after December 27.  The rest, sometime after Christmas, since they wouldn’t have known about Ron’s chess abilities until then.  I asked where the kids were playing chess, they said the common room, and I asked who would have seen this.  Torrent said McGonagall, and Bird said, what, McGonagall was spying on them?  Starry said no, it’s just like your mom coming in to make dinner.  She was just around and noticed things.

The conflicting stories about whether Dumbledore returned before or after Hermione got to the owlery were the most challenging for them.  I said flatly, “Dumbledore was lying.”

 
So, we concluded:  the teachers all knew, they had discussed Harry Potter coming to school before the term started, they set Fluffy to guard the Stone to see if anyone would try to get through, the Halloween troll showed them that somebody was indeed trying, and that was when Dumbledore thought up the second, stronger protection — the Mirror.  Shortly after the Mirror was installed, the teachers (minus Quirrell) talked about the battle that Harry might have to face and plotted protections that could help him as much as possible and teach him to accept help from his friends, and set their protections accordingly.

I asked the girls if they saw how we had solved the mystery and all the clues had been there.  They were happy and said yes.  Starry said she felt like we knew more about the characters than the characters did, and it was like a football stadium where the narrator was giving us the overhead view.

I congratulated them all on solving the mystery and invited them to open the final container and get the Stone, which would enable them to leave the chamber.  They found baked goods and a sign identifying them as Sorcerer’s Scones, which made them laugh.  Then I had them make Elixir of Life to go on the scones.

Ingredients for Elixir of Life

1 package of Trader Joe’s freeze-dried strawberries, 1.2 oz (toad spleens)

1 tsp powdered sugar (wartcap powder)

1 cup heavy cream (undiluted bubotuber pus)

1. Grind spleens of toad to a fine powder in a mortar and pestle.

2. Transfer powdered spleens to a non-reactive metal basin.

3. Add wartcap powder.

4. Add undiluted bubotuber pus.

5. Whisk vigorously, 150 turns. At this stage, the potion should be thick enough to hold its shape.

6. Decant into individual vessels.

7. Obtain Sorcerer’s Scone.

8. Add potion atop scone.