History Literature / HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone

* ToughActToFollow: In-universe, Ron sees his three eldest brothers -- former Head Boy Bill, former Gryffindor Quidditch captain Charlie, and new prefect Percy -- as this for him.

* NotSoDifferent: As we learn later in Book 7, [[spoiler:Dumbledore, like Harry, also sees his family alive and happy again in the Mirror of Erised.]]

* DieOrFly: Neville Longbottom.
* DividedIntoDisaster: while doing work as punishment for getting caught late outside their dormitories, Harry, Hermione, Neville and Malfoy are sorted in two teams, with Neville and Malfoy (the former being bullied by the latter) in the same team.

* SpannerInTheWorks: [[spoiler:[[PhlebotinumHandlingRequirements Dumbledore had set up the Mirror of Erised so that only someone who wanted to retrieve the Stone, but NOT use it, could do so.]] It's often observed by critics of the novel that, based on the text, the Stone, and by extension the world, ''were never actually in danger but for Harry Potter and his friends attempting to protect it''.]]

''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 (and one of the largest entertainment franchises) of all time]].

** Hagrid is pretty cheerful when he arrives to collect Harry, even being amused by Vernon Dursley [[BullyingADragon threatening him with a gun]]. Then Vernon insults Albus Dumbledore.

* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: In response to Ron and Hermione...
--> '''Harry Potter''': If Snape gets hold of the Stone, Voldemort's coming back! Haven't you heard what it was like when he was trying to take over? There won't be any Hogwarts to get expelled from! He'll flatten it, or [[{{Foreshadowing}} turn it into a school for the Dark Arts]]! Losing points doesn't matter any more, can't you see? D'you think he'll leave you and your families alone if Gryffindor win the house cup?

** 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 mistake is especially out of character for the normally organised and reliable Hermione. Creator/JKRowling had them make this blunder in order to further the plot by having Harry encounter Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest.
** [=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.
* IllNeverTellYouWhatImTellingYou: Hagrid refuses to tell the heroes anything about the Stone while accidentally dripping all sorts of hints, over and over again.

* InvisibilityCloak: TropeNamer. Harry gets it for Christmas [[spoiler:from his late father, via Dumbledore.]]
* InvisibleToNormals: Harry's pretty sure that he and Hagrid are the only ones in the London's crowd that can see the Leaky Cauldron.
* {{Jerkass}}

** Severus Snape: On the general scope, he gives obscenely unfair advantage to his own student house (Slytherin) at every single opportunity while ignoring their transgressions while simultaneously jumping at any chance to punish students of other houses. [[ItsPersonal He even holds a special hatred for Harry]] because [[spoiler:his father saved his life.]]
** 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 favours 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.

* GoldenSnitch

* GoneHorriblyRight: It can be inferred that the villain gave Norbert's egg to Hagrid so that he'd be dismissed when he inevitably got caught with it, and thus would be discredited and unable to mention that he'd accidentally blabbed about Fluffy's weakness to a stranger. This leads to Harry and Hermione being caught out of bed on the Astronomy Tower due to Malfoy seeing the egg and trying to report it, meaning they had to get rid of Norbert(a) by contacting Ron's brother Charlie, who asked them to meet his friends up there. This in turn indirectly leads to Harry learning about the properties of unicorn blood, which lets him deduce the thief's goal. He takes matters into his own hands when [[YouHaveToBelieveMe McGonagall refuses to believe him]], resulting in [[spoiler:Voldemort leaving Quirrell to die, and the Stone is destroyed after Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel have a chat while Harry is unconscious. [[NiceJobFixingItVillain Way to go, Voldy.]]]]

* ForgotICouldFly: Ron, to Hermione, after she can't light a fire to burn the Devil's Snare: "HAVE YOU GONE MAD? ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?"

** Some of [=McGonagall's=] early behaviour, 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.

** Hagrid seems to be able to fly and teleport, as he says he flew to the hut on the rock and vanishes when Harry blinks at the train station. As he was expelled in his second year, that magic should be way too advanced for him.

* EasingIntoTheAdventure

* DoorstopBaby: Harry is this to the Dursleys.

* ByNoIMeanYes: After Dumbledore's ides of "a few words before the feast can begin" ("Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!"), Harry asks Percy if Dumbledore is mad.

* AllJustADream: Harry initially believes this about Hagrid and his revelations when he wakes up the morning after meeting him.

* AlreadyDoneForYou: [[spoiler:The obstacle to the Stone after the chess board is a troll. Harry and Hermione find it out cold with a bloody lump on its head]].

* AngerBornOfWorry: Professor [=McGonagall=]'s reaction to Harry's flying. She runs out furious with him that he could have broken his neck, then she rewards his skill with a place on the house Quidditch team. And then again with the trio when they tackle a troll.

* ApologeticAttacker: Hermione, after Body-Binding Neville as he tries to [[BreakThemByTalking talk her, Ron, and Harry out of wandering around after hours again]].

* AccidentalAthlete: How Harry gets on the Quidditch team.

** Draco Malfoy gets one when he and Harry meet in Madam Malkin's. He speaks in a drawl, [[SpoiledBrat suggests "[he]'ll bully Father" into getting him a broomstick]], and, after learning [[MyParentsAreDead Harry's parents died]], says, "Oh, sorry. But they were ''our'' kind, [[FantasticRacism weren't they?]]"
** Hermione Granger introduces herself by speaking very quickly, showing excitement for school, dispensing information others don't know, and--this is key--helping a fellow student who's lost something.

* ExactWords:

** Aunt Petunia gets one when she dismisses Lily’s choice of name for her son as a “Nasty, common name”. In fact “Harry” is generally considered quite a posh name in the UK; being, after all, the name of one of the Queen’s grandsons, thus showing that nothing Lily does will ever be good enough for Petunia.
** Draco Malfoy gets one when he and Harry meet in Madam Malkin's. He has no idea he's talking to "The Boy Who Lived", and responds to MyParentsAreDead with "Oh, sorry. But they were ''our'' kind, [[FantasticRacism weren't they?]]"

* LighterAndSofter: By far compared to the rest of the series. It starts getting DarkerAndEdgier beginning with the very next book.

* GoldenSnitch;

** The attempt to kill Harry by knocking him off his broom mid-Quidditch match is hard to take seriously after reading the following books, in which Harry gets successfully knocked out mid-flight several times and securing his landing is always rather trivial. For those keeping count, that means [[JerkJock Cormac McLaggen]] came closer to killing Harry than [[spoiler:Quirrell]] did. A point to note here is, though, that [[FridgeBrilliance it's the youngest Potter we see in the franchise, and he might have not perfected the art of flying at the time of [[spoiler:Quirrell's]] attack]].

** Severus Snape: On the general scope, he gives obscenely unfair advantage to his own student house (Slytherin) at every single opportunity while ignoring their transgressions while simultaneously jumping at any chance to punish students of other houses. He even holds a special hatred for Harry because [[spoiler:his father saved his life.]]

* EstablishingCharacterMoment

* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight:
--> '''Harry Potter''': If Snape gets hold of the Stone, Voldemort's coming back! Haven't you heard what it was like when he was trying to take over? There won't be any Hogwarts to get expelled from! He'll flatten it, or [[{{Foreshadowing}} turn it into a school for the Dark Arts]]! Losing points doesn't matter anymore, can't you see? D'you think he'll leave you and your families alone if Gryffindor win the house cup?

->''"[To] the well-organised mind, death is but the next great adventure."''

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Aunt Petunia gets one when she dismisses Lily’s choice of name for her son as a “Nasty, common name”. In fact “Harry” is generally considered quite a posh name in the UK; being, after all, the name of one of the Queen’s grandsons, thus showing that nothing Lily does will ever be good enough for Petunia.

->''"[To] the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure."''

** 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 honour and coming out on top.

** The attempt to kill Harry by knocking him off his broom mid-Quidditch match is hard to take seriously after reading the following books, in which Harry gets successfully knocked out mid-flight several times and securing his landing is always rather trivial. For those keeping count, that means [[JerkJock Cormac McLaggen]] came closer to killing Harry than [[spoiler:Quirrell]] did. A point to note here is, though, that it's the youngest Potter we see in the franchise, and he might have not perfected the art of flying at the time of [[spoiler:Quirrell's]] attack.

** The American edition changes most British English to American. For example, "mom" is used instead of "mum," and Dean Thomas is mentioned to be a "soccer" fan. Later books use the British terms (with the exception of references to the Stone, which is still changed to "Sorcerer's" for continuity purposes).

* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Harry Potter gives a whole speech to this effect prior to the climax: "If Snape gets hold of the Stone, Voldemort's coming back! Haven't you heard what it was like when he was trying to take over? There won't be any Hogwarts to get expelled from! He'll flatten it, or [[{{Foreshadowing}} turn it into a school for the Dark Arts]]! Losing points doesn't matter anymore, can't you see? D'you think he'll leave you and your families alone if Gryffindor win the house cup?"

* AngerBornOfWorry: Professor [=McGonagall=]'s reaction to Harry's flying, she runs out furious with him that he could have broken his neck. (then she rewards his skill with a place of the house Quidditch team.) and then again with the trio when they tackle a troll.

* AngerBornOfWorry: Professor McGonagell's reaction to Harry's flying, she runs out furious with him that he could have broken his neck. (then she rewards his skill with a place of the house Quidditch team.) and then again with the trio when they tackle a troll.

* AngerBornOfWorry: Professor McGonagell's reaction to Harry's flying, she runs out furious with him that he could have broken his neck. (then she rewards his skill with a place of the house Quidditch team.) and then again with the trio when they tackle a troll.

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

* ChekhovsGunman: Hagrid makes an offhand remark about getting the flying motorbike off Sirius Black. He becomes a major character in [[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban in the third book]].