7 secrets of theHarry Potter and theSorcerer's Stonecover

“I see it as a walkway,” says GrandPre.

Of course, Hogwarts architectural purists have taken issue with where this abstract corridor would supposedly be located.

Then again, it’s a magic castle, so… that’s something to consider.

Harry Potter Book Series Mary GrandPre in her studio

Charisse Meloto/Scholastic

Harry Potter and theWhat!?

To me it felt too prosaic, like School of Drama, like School of Chemistry.

It didnt feel magical to me, ironically."

And for Rowling, too, who ultimately nixed it and proposed the alternativeSorcerers Stone.

But they were on a mission to get every child in America to read this book.

In the end, I feel like history proves that was not a bad decision."

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“Some of that depended on what was already showing on the inside chapters,” she says.

One sketch later, an iconic image was born.

Its extremely rare for a movie company to pick up book typography and use it on their movie.

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Its been imitated in other languages.

I mean, theyll take letterforms in Cyrillic and add lightning bolts to it!"

“The lightning bolt just worked on that P,” shrugs the illustrator.

Scholastic

“Right there in the middle.

I dont even remember thinking about trying it anywhere else.”

The author “was so in awe that she wanted to touch it,” Saylor says.

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and she pulled her forefinger away and it was justcoveredwith pastel.

It didnt spoil the painting, just so you know, but it was a moment of panic.

She was just so entranced by seeing it in person."

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“But it just wasnt right for a first book.

We had to see Harry.

It had to be him on the broom, it had to be him going after the Snitch.

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Its that iconic thing that you just have to see.”

Maybe Ron and Hermione are just too normal!"

(See them pictured here, perferctly normal, inHalf-Blood Prince.)