Harry Potter Book 1 Trivia: Sorcerer's Stone
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122 free Harry Potter Book 1 Trivia: Sorcerer's Stone trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This Harry Potter book 1 trivia quiz is devoted entirely to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, published in the US as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. It follows the story from Privet Drive to the Mirror of Erised: Hagrid's arrival, Diagon Alley, the Sorting, Harry's first Quidditch match, the troll, Norbert the dragon, Fluffy and the trapdoor, and the final confrontation with the professor nobody suspected. It also goes behind the book: the train journey where the idea arrived, the tiny first print run, the £2,500 advance, why the American title changed, and how the 2001 film was cast and shot, from Alnwick Castle to London Zoo. The early questions suit anyone who has read the book once; the later ones are for readers who know the publication history as well as the plot. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries and other primary references before publishing, so you can settle any argument with confidence.
30 of 122 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the name of caretaker Argus Filch's cat?
Mrs Norris
Mrs Norris is Argus Filch's scrawny, dust-coloured cat; she prowls the corridors and fetches the caretaker whenever she catches students breaking the rules.
Q 02Which publisher released Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in the UK on 26 June 1997?
Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury published the book after editor Barry Cunningham backed it; chairman Nigel Newton's eight-year-old daughter Alice had loved the sample chapter.
Q 03How many hardback copies of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone were in its first UK print run?
500
Only 500 hardbacks were printed in that first run, and that scarcity is why one copy fetched $471,000 at auction in 2021.
Q 04Roughly how much was the advance J.K. Rowling received for the first Harry Potter book?
£2,500
£2,500 or £1,500, depending on the account: either way a tiny advance for a debut that has gone on to sell more than 120 million copies.
Q 05Between which cities was Rowling on the delayed 1990 train when the Harry Potter idea 'fell into her head'?
Manchester and London
Manchester and London: the train was delayed for four hours and she had no working pen, so she simply sat and thought the story through before she could write a word of it.
Q 06Who painted the cover of the first UK edition?
Thomas Taylor
Thomas Taylor painted the first UK cover, showing Harry beside the Hogwarts Express; Mary GrandPré did the American jackets and Cliff Wright the next two UK ones.
Q 07Which children's-choice award gave Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone a gold medal in 1997?
Nestlé Smarties Book Prize
Nestlé Smarties Book Prize: adult judges drew up the shortlist, but classes of schoolchildren cast the deciding votes, and they put the unknown author's debut first.
Q 08Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone has been published in which two ancient languages?
Latin and Ancient Greek
Latin and Ancient Greek: a retired classics teacher spent about a year on the Greek, which he calls the longest text written in the language since the 3rd century AD.
Q 09Which artist illustrated the full-colour edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone released in 2015?
Jim Kay
Jim Kay illustrated the series as far as the fifth book, then stepped away in 2022 to look after his mental health, leaving another artist to finish the last two.
Q 10In the book, Harry lives with the Dursleys in which fictional English town?
Little Whinging
Little Whinging is a fictional town in Surrey, south-west of London; cat-loving old Mrs Figg, two streets away, minds Harry each year while the Dursleys take Dudley out for his birthday.
Q 11What is the Dursleys' house number on Privet Drive?
4
The Dursleys live at number 4, Privet Drive, where Harry sleeps in the cupboard under the stairs until the Hogwarts letters start arriving.
Q 12On which birthday does Harry learn that he is a wizard?
His eleventh
His eleventh: just after midnight on 31 July, Hagrid tracks the fleeing Dursleys down and hands Harry the Hogwarts letter his uncle had been keeping from him.
Q 13What is the name of the snowy owl Hagrid gives Harry in Diagon Alley?
Hedwig
Hedwig is the snowy owl Hagrid buys Harry as a birthday present on their trip to Diagon Alley; Harry finds her name in his school book A History of Magic.
Q 21Which magical object does Neville Longbottom's grandmother send him in his first year at Hogwarts?
A Remembrall
The Remembrall is a glass ball full of white smoke that turns red when its holder has forgotten something, though it never says what.
Q 22Harry and Ron become friends with Hermione after saving her from what?
A troll
A troll: on Hallowe'en the boys knock out a twelve-foot mountain troll in the girls' toilets; Hermione lies to keep them out of trouble, and the three become friends.
Q 23What does the Mirror of Erised show the person looking into it?
Their deepest desire
Their deepest desire: Harry, who never knew his family, sees his parents beside him, while Ron sees himself as Head Boy and Quidditch champion.
Q 14The Leaky Cauldron, the pub that hides the entrance to Diagon Alley, stands on which real London street?
Charing Cross Road
Charing Cross Road is famous for its bookshops, which is why Rowling made it the place where those in the know slip into a different world.
Q 15How many times must the brick behind the Leaky Cauldron be tapped to open the way to Diagon Alley?
3
Knockturn Alley, the seedy side street, runs diagonally off the main shopping street.
Q 16From which platform does the Hogwarts Express leave King's Cross?
Nine and three-quarters
Platform Nine and Three-Quarters is reached by walking through the barrier between platforms nine and ten; the real King's Cross marks it with a plaque and a half-vanished luggage trolley.
Q 17Which House does the Sorting Hat consider for Harry until he silently pleads against it?
Slytherin
Slytherin: Harry grips the edges of the stool thinking 'not Slytherin', and the Hat takes him at his word and sends him to Gryffindor instead.
Q 18Which position does Harry play on the Gryffindor Quidditch team?
Seeker
Seeker: Harry wins the place after Professor McGonagall sees him out-fly Draco Malfoy in his first flying lesson, making him the youngest House player in a century.
Q 19How many points does catching the Golden Snitch earn in Quidditch?
150
150 points go to the side that catches the Golden Snitch, and the catch ends the match, so that team nearly always wins.
Q 20How many players are on a Quidditch team?
7
7: three Chasers, two Beaters, a Keeper and one player who hunts the Snitch, and because play stops only when the Snitch is caught, a match can go on for ages.
Q 24What does Dumbledore tell Harry he sees when he looks into the Mirror of Erised?
Himself holding a pair of socks
Himself holding a pair of socks: he says one can never have enough socks, though Harry suspects he is not telling the whole truth.
Q 25What is the name of the three-headed dog guarding the trapdoor on the third floor?
Fluffy
Fluffy is Hagrid's three-headed dog, bought from 'a Greek chappie' in a pub and lent to Dumbledore to guard the trapdoor on the third-floor corridor.
Q 26How do the trio get past the three-headed dog?
By playing music on a flute
By playing music on a flute: the dog falls asleep at the first notes of the flute Hagrid whittled for Harry as a Christmas present.
Q 27What does Hagrid let slip to the stranger he wins a dragon egg from?
How to calm the guard dog
How to calm the guard dog: the hooded stranger keeps buying Hagrid drinks until he boasts that the three-headed beast is a piece of cake if you know the trick.
Q 28What is the baby dragon that hatches in Hagrid's hut called?
Norbert
Norbert is the name Hagrid gives his Norwegian Ridgeback; when the dragon outgrows the hut, friends of Charlie Weasley collect him from the tallest tower and fly him abroad.
Q 29To which country is Hagrid's baby dragon sent?
Romania
Romania is where Ron's brother Charlie studies dragons; he agrees to take the hatchling once it grows too big to hide in Hagrid's hut.
Q 30Which magical creature warns Harry in the Forbidden Forest that Voldemort wants the Stone?
A centaur named Firenze
A centaur named Firenze: he rescues Harry from the hooded figure in the forest, and later joins the Hogwarts staff to teach Divination, for which his herd banishes him.