The novel opens with a description of the Dursley family, a middle-class family who live in Little Whinging, Surrey. Vernon and Petunia Dursley constantly worry that someone will discover the existence of Lily, Petunia's decidedly "un-Dursley" witch sister, and their worries are justified when Lily's son, Harry, turns up on their doorstep. James Potter, Lily's husband, had been murdered by the dark wizard Voldemort, but when Voldemort tried to kill Harry, his power was damaged in some way. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get original essay Harry becomes the only person alive to survive the Killing Curse, and the only sign of his encounter with Voldemort is a single lightning bolt . shaped scar on his 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 grown into a pale, skinny boy with black hair sticking all the way out. spot on and bright green eyes. At a young age, Harry learns that his parents were killed in a car accident but has no further information about them, not even a photo. Harry's cousin Dudley dominates the house, bullying Harry with his cronies and being spoiled by Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia. While Dudley has two rooms: one for his bed and one for all his unused toys. Harry is given a small cupboard under the stairs. Although he tries hard to avoid attracting attention, Harry cannot deny that strange things often happen around him. One day, Aunt Petunia cut off all of her hair in a fit of frustration, and it was returned 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 accompanies Dudley's family and best friend, Piers Polkiss, to the zoo. While Harry is in the reptile house, the glass front of the boa constrictor's cage suddenly disappears. Harry is unable to explain the incident, but Uncle Vernon blames him anyway and confines him to 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 of these letters arrive in the house, but Uncle Vernon stops Harry from reading them. In an extreme effort to escape the letters, Uncle Vernon takes the family to a remote island cabin the night before Harry's 11th birthday. As the clock strikes midnight and Harry wishes himself a silent "Birthday Harry", there is a loud knock at the door and Hagrid enters. Hagrid introduces himself as the "Keeper of the Hogwarts Keys" and then explains that Harry is a wizard who has been accepted into Hogwarts to study magic. Harry discovers that the Dursleys have always been aware of his magical abilities but have tried to hide them and make him "normal". Then Harry learned what had really happened to his parents: they had been murdered by Voldemort. The next day, Hagrid takes Harry to Diagon Alley in London to buy school supplies. Their first stop is Gringotts, the wizarding bank, where Harry discovers his family safe and realizes that his parents left him a comfortable fortune in wizarding gold. During their visit to the bank, Hagrid stops at Vault 713 and removes a mysteriouspackage: “Hogwarts stuff for Dumbledore,” he explains. After the bank, Harry visits "Madame Malkin's Robes for All Occasions" for her plain black school robes and "Flourish and Blotts" for her textbooks, as well as other stores for parchments and potion ingredients. Hagrid buys Harry a white owl as a birthday present, and Harry decides to name her Hedwig. Their final stop in Diagon Alley is at Ollivander's, where Harry purchases a wand that contains a core matching the wand of the evil Voldemort. When the train arrives at Hogwarts, students immediately go to the dining hall to be "sorted" or assigned to Hogwarts. one of the four houses of Hogwarts: Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. Harry fears being sorted into Voldemort's old house, Slytherin, and he makes a special request to the Sorting Hat to be assigned to any other house. The Sorting Hat thinks carefully but ultimately places Harry (and Ron and Hermione) in Gryffindor House. As the school year begins, Harry receives more attention than ever before, especially when the other students spot his lightning bolt object. scar. Although most of his classes are enjoyable, Professor Snape, the potions instructor, seems determined to dislike Harry, and Harry notices that his scar seems to tingle every time Snape looks 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 their first flying lesson, Neville breaks his wrist and has to be taken to the infirmary by the instructor. Malfoy grabs Neville's Remembrall – 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, makes a spectacular dive to catch the Remembrall inches from the ground. Professor McGonagall observes Harry's flying skills and, instead of punishing him for breaking the rules, prepares him to play the role of seeker on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Malfoy arranges a midnight duel with Harry to settle scores, and Ron, Hermione and Neville accompany him to make sure he stays out of trouble. The four men accidentally enter a forbidden corridor and come across a three-legged dog standing guard over a trapdoor. They leave the corridor quickly, but not before Harry concludes that the dog is guarding the mysterious package from Vault 713. After the vacation ends, Harry, Ron and Hermione finally discover the identity of Nicolas Flamel: he is the only known creator of the Sorcerer's Stone, which produces the elixir of life. They realize that the three-headed dog is guarding the Sorcerer'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 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 arrested just after handing the dragon over 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 a unicorn that has been injured. When the group splits in two, Harry and Malfoy encounter the unicorn's body just as a hooded figure crawls towards it and begins drinking its blood. Malfoy screams and runs away, but.