Even if the first book has been been published TWO decades ago (it was that long ago), the Harry Potter series will continue to live on in our hearts (and lots of franchises).

And now, Singapore has its own contribution from Suffian Hakim, a local writer/producer.

His book is titled Harris bin Potter And The Stoned Philosopher. It was written in 2009, but is currently seeing its second print run.

Here's an except from the first chapter, The Boy Who Tak Mati, Siol!:

Harris bin Potter is not your average boy.

For one, he is an orphan. His parents, Pakcik and Makcik Potter, had died of very bad food poisoning when he was only a year old. At least, that was what his aunt, Cik Petom, told him.

“It was very bad satay from Johor,” she had told Harris. “I’ve tried the satay from that stall before. Tak sedap lah! Tastes like pantat!”

When Harris heard this speech, he wondered two things: one, how Cik Petom even knew how pantat tasted like, and two, why she didn’t drop dead when she too had eaten that infernal satay from Johor.

Indeed, Harris hated the nasi lemak out of his aunt, and not without reason.

Since the unfortunate death of his parents, Harris had been under the care of his Uncle Pandir and his Aunt Petom. In actuality, ‘under the care’ is a grossly inaccurate statement. Harris was more often than not under their only son, Dumbass. Literally.

And this was a particularly unpleasant situation because: one, nobody likes to be sat on, and two, because Dumbass weighed a hundred kilos.

And when Dumbass was not sitting on him, Harris was badly mistreated by his aunt and uncle. They would talk rudely to him, not let him watch television and make him do all the house chores. For a boy of eleven years, in an age of Playstation 3 and where TV no longer had Aksi Mat Yoyo, this was a foul, miserable existence.

One reason why his relatives abuse him is perhaps because Harris had special abilities. No, it wasn’t that he was particularly good at sepak takraw, or could preside over a void deck soccer match, or could play the guitar particularly well.

What made Harris really special was that he was a wizard.

He wasn’t exactly a full-fledged one yet, but he was learning to be one at Hog-Tak-Halal-What School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a secret school of magic situated in The PIE. Since this story is written from a Singaporean perspective, most people assume that the school is somewhere along the famed Pan-Island Expressway. The school is however, located on a real pie, called The PIE – block letters to highlight its significance as a locale. Where The PIE is, only witches and wizards would know. How a grand castle could stand erect (hee hee) on a squishy pie (hee hee), only witches and wizards would know. How nobody ever noticed a bloomin’ castle in Singapore, again, only witches and wizards would know.

Nothing like a little local adaptation to make an ang moh production better.

You can find the the first three chapters on Suffian's site.

Happy reading!

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