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Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone
By J.K. Rowling
Baby Harry Potter was targeted along with his parents by Voldemort, the strongest evil wizard ever -- but somehow, Harry survived the encounter, and Voldemort seemingly didn't. While the Wizarding world celebrates, Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry hide Harry away with his Muggle (non-Wizard) Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, and cousin Dudley.
10 abusive years later, Harry learns that his is a Wizard, and that he is to go to Hogwarts. Hagrid, a giant man, arrives and takes Harry to Diagon Alley, a magical shopping place, where Harry learns of his reputation as "the boy who lived". He also learns that his parents left him money, and he purchases the things he needs for Hogwarts. Of note, the only wand that will work for him is effectively the twin of Voldemort's.
On the way to Hogwarts, Harry befriends Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger, and be-enemies Draco Malfoy and his thugs Crabbe and Goyle. Once there, Harry is put through a magical ritual where he learns that he will be in House Gryffindor, the house of courage, with Ronald and Hermione. After dinner, Professor Severus Snape glares at Harry, and the scar on his forehead - the only trace of Voldemort's attack - hurts.
Visiting Hagrid, Harry learns of an attempted robbery of Gringotts - the bank in Diagon Alley where his parents left money for him - around the same time that Harry was there. He remembers Hagrid leaving the bank with a small package.
Later, during their first broom-flying lesson, Draco throws an unpopular student's valuable item high up in the air, and Harry races out to catch it, succeeding just inches before it crashed into the ground. Impressed, Professor McGonagall appoints Harry to House Gryffindor's Quidditch team as Seeker. (Quidditch is a broom-flying sport, and the Seeker is assigned the challenging task of catching a mobile little ball called the Golden Snitch.)
On a nighttime excursion, Ron, Harry, Hermione, and Neville Longbottom (the unpopular student from the broom-flying exercise) enter a forbidden area and find a three-headed dog guarding a trapdoor. Harry decides that Hagrid's package from Gringotts is below.
Hermoine is cornered by a rampaging troll, but Harry and Ron save her, solidifying what was a very tenuous friendship. Someone tries to sabotage Harry's first real Quidditch match, and the three suspect Snape, but Hagrid insists otherwise - and admits that the three-headed dog is his, and it's guarding a secret that belongs to Dumbledore and someone named Nicholas Flamel.
Harry receives an Invisibility Cloak for Christmas, and uses it to look for information about Flamel. Harry stumbles upon the Mirror of Erised, which shows that which the viewer most desires, becomes addicted to it's visions, and must be rescued by Dumbledore.
Harry happens upon the information that Flamel is an ancient alchemist who possesses the only known Philosopher's Stone. He then overhears Snape discussing the three-headed dog with a Professor Quirrel, and decides that Snape is trying to steal the Stone.
Harry is required to help an injured unicorn, and while doing so, sees a hooded figure drink its blood. Harry is then knocked out by a pain in his scar, and when he awakens, a centaur suggest that the figure was Voldemort, who drank the blood to sustain him until he could use the Stone to make an elixir that would return him to full health.
Harry learns that the three-headed dog can be put to sleep with music, and concludes that Snape is going to steal the Stone that night. He and his friends put the dog to sleep with a flute, then pass a series of obstacles, each of which requires special skills that only one of the three possesses. Harry, alone in the final room, meets Professor Quirrel, who ties him up with magical ropes.
Quirrell admits to serving Voldemort - it was he who sent the troll after Hermione, and sabotaged Harry's Quidditch game. He tried to steal the Stone from Gringotts, and he got here, to this room, in search of the Stone -- but the only thing here is the Mirror of Erised. Voldemort then possesses Quirrell, and unties Harry, forcing him to stand in front of the Mirror.
Harry feels the Stone fall into his pocket, and fights with Quirrell. Touching Harry causes Quirrell's flesh to burn, but the fight nonetheless knocks Harry out. He awakens in the school hospital, where Dumbledore explains that Harry's mother gave her life to save his, and Voldemort cannot pierce that love. He has destroyed the Stone, but warns that Voldemort will find other means to try to return to life.
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