Harry Potter has been living a difficult life of abuse by his aunt and uncle, Vernon and Petunia Dursley and bullied by their son Dudley since the death of his parents ten years prior. His life changes on his eleventh birthday when he receives a letter of acceptance into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, delivered by a half-giant named Rubeus Hagrid after previous letters had been destroyed by Vernon and Petunia. Hagrid reveals that Harry's parents, James and Lily Potter, also wizards, were murdered by the most evil and powerful dark wizard of all time, Lord Voldemort, resulting in Harry being sent to live with his aunt and uncle as a baby. Voldemort failed to kill Harry, and his powers were destroyed in the attempt, forcing him into exile and making Harry famous among the hidden magical community.
Hagrid introduces Harry to the wizarding world by bringing him to Diagon Alley, a hidden street in London, where Harry uncovers a fortune left to him by his parents at Gringotts Wizarding Bank. He also receives a pet owl, Hedwig, various school supplies, and a wand. A month later, Harry catches the Hogwarts Express from King's Cross railway station's secret Hogwarts platform, Platform â9 3â4. On the train, Harry befriends fellow first-year Ronald Weasley, meets Hermione Granger, whose snobbiness causes the two boys to dislike her, and makes an enemy of first-year Draco Malfoy, who shows prejudice against Ron for his family's financial difficulties.
At Hogwarts, the first-years are assigned by the magical Sorting Hat to Houses that best suit their personalities, the four Houses being Gryffindor, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. Harry hears from Ron about Slytherin's reputation of housing dark witches and wizards. Despite the Hat claiming that Harry has potential to develop in Slytherin, Harry rejects the offer and is instead sorted in Gryffindor with Ron and Hermione, with Draco sorted into Slytherin.
As classes begin, Harry discovers he has a talent for flying on broomsticks and is recruited into his House's team for Quidditch as a Seeker. Harry comes to dislike the school's Potions master, Severus Snape, who acts in favour of Slytherin while looking for opportunities to fail Harry and his friends. Malfoy tricks Harry and Ron into a duel to get them out of their rooms at night and secretly tells Filch, the school's caretaker, where they will be. Hermione comes along after failing to stop them, and after realizing the duel was a set-up, they run away, and discover a huge three-headed dog standing guard over a trapdoor in a forbidden corridor. The school's Halloween celebrations are interrupted by the entrance of a troll into the school. It enters the girls' bathroom, where Hermione was, but she is saved by Harry and Ron, and the three become best friends. Coupled with Snape's recent leg injury and behaviour, the recent events prompt Harry, Hermione and Ron to suspect him to be trying to enter the trapdoor.
Hermione forbids the boys from investigating for fear of expulsion, and directs Harry's attention to his first Quidditch game, where his broomstick attempts to throw him off while mid-air. This leads Hermione to suspect that Snape had jinxed Harry's broom, due to his strange behaviour during the match. Eventually, Christmas arrives and Harry receives an invisibility cloak, belonging to his father, from an anonymous source. Using the cloak to explore the school at night, he discovers the Mirror of Erised, in which the viewer sees their deepest desires come true.
The trio find a newspaper report stating there had been an attempted robbery of a Gringotts vaultâthe same vault that Hagrid and Harry had visited when the latter was getting his school supplies. They work out that the object kept under the trapdoor is a Philosopher's Stone, which grants its user immortality and the ability to turn any metal into pure gold. Harry is also informed by a centaur named Firenze that a plot to steal the Stone is being orchestrated by Voldemort, who schemes to use it to be restored and return to power. When the school's headmaster Albus Dumbledore is lured from Hogwarts under false pretences, Harry, Hermione and Ron fear that the theft is imminent and descend through the trapdoor themselves.
The trio encounter a series of obstacles, each of which requires unique skills possessed by one of the three, forcing Ron and Hermione to stay behind while Harry goes ahead. In the final room, Harry finds Quirinus Quirrell, the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, who reveals he had been the one working behind the scenes to kill Harry by jinxing his broom and letting a troll into the school, while Snape had been trying to protect Harry. Quirrell is helping Voldemort, whose face has sprouted on the back of Quirrell's head, to attain the Philosopher's Stone. Quirrell uses Harry to get past the final obstacle, the Mirror of Erised, by forcing him to stand before the Mirror. It recognises Harry's lack of greed for the Stone and surreptitiously deposits it into his pocket. As Quirrell attempts to seize the stone and kill Harry, his flesh burns on contact with Harry. Harry's scar suddenly burns with pain and he passes out.
Days later, he awakens in the school's infirmary, where Dumbledore explains his survival against Voldemort is due to his mother's sacrificing her life for him. This left a protective charm on Harry, which caused Quirrell to burn on contact with Harry due to being possessed by hatred and greed. He also reveals himself as the one who sent Harry the invisibility cloak, while Quirrell has been left to die by Voldemort, and the Stone has been destroyed. The school year ends at the final feast, during which Gryffindor wins the House Cup. Harry returns to Privet Drive for the summer, neglecting to tell the Dursleys that the use of spells is forbidden by under-aged wizards, and anticipating fun and peace over the holidays.
[from Wikipedia]
Dimensions:127 x 196
Author: J.K. Rowling
ISBN: 9780747532743
Format: Paperback
Pages 223