The novel opens with the description of the Dursley family, a middle-class family living in Little Whinging, Surrey. Vernon and Petunia Dursley are constantly worried that someone will find out about Petunia's decidedly "un-Dursley" witch sister, Lily, and their worries are justified when Lily's son Harry is left on their doorstep. James Potter, Lily's husband, had been murdered by the dark wizard, Voldemort, but when Voldemort attempted to kill Harry, his power was somehow damaged. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Harry becomes the only living person to survive the killing curse, and the only sign of his encounter with Voldemort is a unique bolt of lightning. shaped scar on the forehead. Because Harry has no other living relatives. Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, decides to leave him with the Dursleys until he is old enough to attend Hogwarts. A decade later, Harry has become a pale, thin boy with black hair rising above his seat and bright green eyes. From a young age, Harry is told that his parents were killed in a car accident but he has no other information about them, not even a photograph. Harry's cousin Dudley dominates the family, bullying Harry with his friends and being spoiled by Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia. While Dudley has two bedrooms: one for his bed and one for all his unused toys. Harry is given the small cupboard under the stairs. Even though he tries to avoid attracting attention, Harry can't deny that strange things often happen around him. Aunt Petunia once cut off all his hair in a fit of frustration, and it grew back to its original length in time for school the next day. Another time, Harry was being chased by Dudley's gang and suddenly found himself on the kitchen roof. On Dudley's eleventh birthday, Harry takes the family and Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, to the zoo. While Harry is in the reptile house, the glass front of the boa's cage suddenly vanishes. Harry is unable to explain the accident, but Uncle Vernon blames him anyway and locks him in the cupboard under the stairs until the holidays. One day, unknown letters start arriving for Harry. Uncle Vernon refuses to let Harry read the letter but tells him that it was addressed to him by mistake. Over the next few days, more and more letters arrive at the house, but Uncle Vernon prevents Harry from reading any of them. In a last-ditch effort to escape the letters, Uncle Vernon takes the family to an isolated shack on an island the night before Harry's eleventh birthday. As the clock strikes midnight and Harry wishes himself a silent "Birthday Harry", there is a loud knock on the door and Hagrid enters. Hagrid introduces himself as the "Keeper of the Keys to Hogwarts" and then explains that Harry is a wizard who was accepted into Hogwarts to study magic. Harry discovers that the Dursleys were always aware of his magical abilities but attempted to hide them and make him "normal". Then, Harry learned what really happened to his parents, they were murdered by Voldemort. The following day, Hagrid takes Harry to Diagon Alley in London to buy school supplies. Their first stop is Gringotts, the wizarding bank, where Harry is shown to his family vault and realizes that his parents left him a comfortable fortune of wizarding gold. On the trip to the bank, Hagrid stops at Vault 713 and picks up a mysterious package: "Hogwarts business for Dumbledore," he explains. After the bank, Harry visits "Clothes for allMadame Malkin's bargains" for her plain black school robes and "Flourish and Blotts" for her school textbooks, as well as other shops for parchment and potion ingredients. Hagrid buys Harry a white owl as a birthday present, and Harry decides to name her Hedwig. Their last stop in Diagon Alley is Ollivander's, where Harry purchases a magic wand that contains a core corresponding to the evil Voldemort's wand. The train arrives at Hogwarts, the students immediately show up in the dining room to be "sorted" or assigned to one of the four Hogwarts houses: Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw. Harry fears being sorted into Voldemort's old house, Slytherin, and makes a special request to the Sorting Hat to be assigned to any other house. The Sorting Hat considers carefully but ultimately places Harry (as well as Ron and Hermione) in Gryffindor House. At the beginning of the school year, Harry receives more attention than he has ever had before, especially when the other students see his hat lightning shaped scar. Although most of his lessons are entertaining, Professor Snape, the potions instructor, seems determined to dislike Harry, and Harry notices that his scar seems to tingle every time Snape glares at him. After their first potions lesson, Harry and Ron decide to visit Hagrid at his cottage near the Forbidden Forest. Hagrid inadvertently reveals that vault 713, the Gringotts vault containing the mysterious package, was broken into shortly after Harry and Hagrid's visit to Diagon Alley. During his first flying lesson, Neville breaks his wrist and has to be taken to the infirmary by the instructor. Malfoy grabs Neville's Memory, forgotten after his injury, and flies into the air with it. Harry flies after Malfoy to retrieve Neville's toy, and when Malfoy throws the Remembrall to the ground, he makes a spectacular dive to catch the Remembrall inches from the ground. Professor McGonagall observes Harry's flying ability and, instead of punishing him for breaking the rules, assigns him to play Seeker on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Malfoy arranges a midnight duel with Harry to settle the score, and Ron, Hermione and Neville accompany him to ensure he stays out of trouble. The four accidentally enter a forbidden corridor and come across a three-legged dog guarding a trap door. They quickly leave the corridor, but not before Harry has concluded that the dog is guarding the mysterious package from Vault 713. After the holidays end, Harry, Ron and Hermione finally discover the identity of Nicolas Flamel: he is the only known creator of the Philosopher's Stone, from which the elixir of life is produced. They realize that the three-headed dog is guarding the Philosopher's Stone, and Harry begins to suspect that Snape is planning to steal it. Harry, Ron and Hermione also discover that Hagrid is breeding an illegal dragon that was given to him by a mysterious stranger in a bar in exchange for information about the three-headed dog. Harry and Hermione decide to smuggle the dragon to Ron's brother Charlie, who works with dragons in Romania, but are caught soon after delivering the dragon to one of Charlie's friends. As punishment for disobeying the school curfew, Harry and Hermione are sent to the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid to locate an injured unicorn. When the group splits in two, Harry and Malfoy come across the unicorn's body just as a hooded figure crawls towards it and begins drinking its blood. Malfoy screams and runs away, but Harry is paralyzed by excruciating pain suddenly spreading from his scar. While the hooded figure does.