History Literature / HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone

** Harry and Hermione both inexplicably forget to put the invisibility cloak back on after delivering Nobert to Charlie's friends, landing them in detention. This is in order to further the plot by having Harry encounter Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest.

* IdiotBall: [=McGonagall=]'s summarily dismissing Harry's concerns about the Stone are uncharacteristically shortsighted. Even if his concerns were far-fetched, the fact that three first-years knew about a top-secret item should have alerted her to the presence of a major security leak, and the possibility that someone else could have learned about the item. At the very least, she should have demanded to find out everything they knew, and where they learned it.

In 2001, the [[Film/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone film adaptation]] was released. Like its source material, the movie earned strong critical reception; it also ended up as the highest-grossing motion picture in the world released that year, and started [[Film/HarryPotter a series of films based on the books]]. Since FirstInstallmentWins, the plot of this book will be much more familiar to non-fans than any of the others.

In 2001, the [[Film/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone film adaptation]] was released. Like its source material, the movie earned strong critical reception; it also ended up as the highest-grossing motion picture in the world released that year, and started [[Film/HarryPotter a series of films based on the books]]. Since FirstInstalmentWins, the plot of this book will be much more familiar to non-fans than any of the others.

** Just before the House Cup is awarded, Dumbeldore awards Griffindore hundreds of points that allow them to overtake Slytherin.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: The American "Translation" actually kept the line in about Harry wanting to buy as many Mars Bars as he wanted, despite that this was referencing the European version (closer to a Milky Way). However, at the time the book takes place ''and'' when it was printed, there was a candy bar called [[https://lerevdr.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/us-mars-bar.jpg?w=584 Mars]] available in the U.S.

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: After she, Ron, and Harry encounter Fluffy for the first time, Hermione says, "I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed -- or worse, expelled." This said, it's likely that not even Hermione considers being expelled from school a ''true'' FateWorseThanDeath.
** To be fair, expulsion from Hogwarts means expulsion from the wizarding world in general: your wand gets snapped in half and you are forbidden to get a new one. [[spoiler:Just ask Hagrid.]]

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: After she, Ron, and Harry encounter Fluffy for the first time, Hermione says, "I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed -- or worse, expelled. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed." This said, likely as not Hermione considers being expelled from school a ''true'' FateWorseThanDeath.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The fate of the escape boa constrictor is never revealed.

* ExactWords: As Ron points out, and Dumbledore discovered the hard way as a kid, Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans really do have every flavor, including grass as well as disgusting things like earwax, snot, and vomit.

* ExactWords: As Ron points out, and Dumbledore discovered the hard way as a kid, Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans really do have every flavor, including inedible things like earwax, snot, and vomit.

** Harris seems to be able to fly[[note]]He says he flew to the hut on the rock. He says in a later book that he's too heavy for a broom and flying unaided doesn't seem to have been invented until ''Deathly Hallows''[[/note]] and teleport[[note]]He vanishes when Harry blinks at the train station. Later books show apparition to be difficult for sixth year wizards to learn. Harris shouldn't be able to do it after being expelled in his second year.[[/note]] in this book when that magic should be way too advanced for him.

* OffscreenTeleportation: The wizards Harry meets on the street when he was younger would usually have disappeared if Harry turned back to look at them. Harris even vanishes at one point when Harry blinks, which seems a bit advanced for him.

In 2001, the [[Film/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone film adaptation]] was released. Like its source material, the movie earned strong critical reception; it also ended up as the highest-grossing motion picture in the world released that year, and started [[Film/HarryPotter a series of films based on the books]]. Since FirstInstallmentWins, the plot of this book will be much more familiar to non-fans than any of the others.

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: The snake at the zoo winks at Harry. Snakes in RealLife don't have eyelids.

** Draco Malfoy steals a Remembrall from Neville, a frequent target of his bullying, and mocks him for injuring himself. Harry gets tired of this and rises on his broomstick, challenging Malfoy to a contest of flying skills. Harry is able to retrieve the Remembrall through a tricky broomstick maneuver, defending Neville's honor and coming out on top.

-->While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank, and Harry were just a few of his favorite subjects.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness

** Some of [=McGonagall's=] early behavior, such as reading a map in cat form openly long enough for Vernon to see her doing so is very uncharacteristic for her in later books.

* HandshakeRefusal: Harry refuses Draco Malfoy's handshake when they first meet on the Hogwarts Express, rejecting him in favor of his future best friend Ron.

** Uncle Vernon regularly mistreats Harry, hoping to stomp the magic out of him, by forcing him to live in a cupboard under the stairs and punishing him for any perceived transgression. Vernon's wife, Harry's Aunt Petunia, blatantly favors her son Dudley over Harry, treats Harry much the same as Vernon does, and is generally presented as the neighborhood busybody. Dudley is a SpoiledBrat who constantly beats up Harry.

* MacGuffinGuardian: Fluffy the three-headed dog is the first defense against those who seek to steal the stone.

* NaiveNewcomer: Harry, understandably much more so here than in later installments.

** He implies that Quirrell was the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor prior to the coming school year. In fact, he was the Muggle Studies Professor, and, as Hagrid knows, nobody has held the DADA post for more than a year at a time in decades.

* GoldenSnitch: Harry is recruited as Seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, where his function is to catch the {{Trope Namer|s}}.

* InvisibilityCloak: Harry gets it for Christmas [[spoiler:from his late father, via Dumbledore.]]

** Hagrid's first line to Vernon, "Shut up Dursley, you great prune!" makes it sound as if these men have met before. There's never another indication that they have.

* EarlyPersonalitySigns: Dudley Dursley learns the word, "Shan't!" as a baby. Flash-forward nine years and he's very stubborn.

''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'' is the first book in the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' series, published in Britain on June 30, 1997. The first print run was only 500 copies -- 300 of which were distributed to libraries. It was [[SleeperHit a humble, quiet beginning to what would become one of the top-selling book series of all time]].

* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: The American title was changed from ''Philosopher's Stone'' to ''Sorcerer's Stone''.

* NoodleIncident: Dumbledore's defeat of the Dark Wizard Grindelwald, as mentioned on the Headmaster's Chocolate Frog card, appears to be this at first. It ultimately gets subverted as we find out exactly what happened in the last book.

* BreakTheHaughty: Defied. Try as they might, neither Snape nor Ron can do it to Hermione, to the point that she proudly declares that she is better at logic than most great wizards -- but the fact that a wizard literally wrote the puzzle she solved to prove it gave her no pause.
-->'''Hermione:''' [[HypocriticalHumor A lot of the greatest wizards don't have an ounce of logic.]]