History Literature / HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone

* {{Unishment}}: Hermione decides to stop talking to Harry and Ron after a series of events nearly get the three of them (and Neville) killed one month into school. The boys consider the silence an improvement since they find her to be extremely grating.

* {{Fingor}}: When Goyle attempts to steal Harry and Ron's food on the train to Hogwarts, Ron's rat Scabbers jumps on Goyle and bites his finger.

* TheGhost: Nicolas Flamel is mentioned on several occasions and he's tied to the Philosopher's Stone, but he never shows up in person.

* MercyKill: When Hagrid goes into the Forbidden Forest to search for the wounded unicorn, he mentions that he might have to put it out of its misery if it’s hurt badly enough.

* MelancholyMoon: Risking the halls of the castle in the night, the way lit by moon light

JustForFun/{{The one|With}} that started it all.

* AccidentalAthlete: Harry gets onto the Quidditch team by accidentally drawing his Head of House's attention to his flying skills -- but he wasn't trying out, he was just rescuing a dropped object before it smashed.

* AgonyOfTheFeet: When Harry reaches the Hogwarts express, he attempts to get his trunk on the train, but has no success, dropping it twice on his foot before Fred and George Weasley volunteer to help him.

* CunningPeoplePlayPoker: [[GentleGiant Hagrid]] won a poker game against Professor Quarrel. The prize is a Norwegian Ridgeback egg. [[spoiler:Professor Quirrell gave Hagrid the egg just to get him in trouble since breeding dragons is illegal. Also he was possessed by [[BigBad Lord Voldemort]], a dark wizard who is cunning in every way.]]

** The school song, sung at the first dinner after Harry and the gang are Sorted, then never again[[note]]Except for the extended version of the ''[[Film/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire Goblet of Fire]]'' movie[[/note]].

** Fred and George are introduced with a quick prank of [[TwinSwitch pretending to be the other]] on their mother, and then helping Harry with his trunk. This quickly sets them up as a pair of pranksters who love messing with people, but also very nice and kind-hearted guys.
** Severus Snape first appears when he's staring so hard at Harry that Harry believes ''he's'' the one hurting his scar, all because he wants to see Lily's eyes in Harry's face, and then, in his first speaking scene, he bullies Harry, Neville, and Hermione, showing that even though he loves Lily and will protect her son in her name even after her death, he won't be nice about it.

* FluffyTheTerrible: Two examples, both kept as pets by Hagrid. The big, scary, three-headed dog guarding the Stone is named Fluffy, and he later acquires Norbert the dragon, who has a poisonous bite and the ability to breathe fire.

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

** Hagrid [[spoiler:takes Harry, Neville, Hermione and Malfoy into the Forbidden Forest to look for a Unicorn killer]] for detention. HarmfulToMinors does not begin to describe Hagrid. Then again, he didn't really know what to expect. Justified in-universe by Hagrid telling Malfoy that this is the sort of useful thing students do for detention instead of 'writing lines', which is later retconned as there are multiple cases of that punishment in the series.

* LooseLips: Trust Rubeus Hagrid with your life, trust him with your loved ones' lives, hell, trust him with underage children's lives, but for goodness' sake, ''don't trust him with your secrets''. To his credit, he recognizes this flaw and says "ItsAllMyFault" when he visits Harry in the hospital wing at the end of the book.

* MarketBasedTitle: Retitled ''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'' for the American release as the publishers were concerned that children would be put off by the word "philosopher" in the title, and something more suggestive of magic would be more likely to inspire interest.

* ChekhovsGunman: Hagrid makes an offhand remark about getting the flying motorbike off Sirius Black, who otherwise doesn't appear. Sirius debuts properly and becomes a major character in [[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban in the third book]].

* MayItNeverHappenAgain: Professor Dumbledore had destroyed the Sorcerer's Stone so Lord Voldemort won't use it to become immortal.

** The school song, sung at the first dinner after Harry and the gang are Sorted, then never again.

* BewareTheNiceOnes

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

* BigFriendlyDog: Hagrid keeps one named [[DeathbringerTheAdorable Fang.]]

* CunningPeoplePlayPoker: [[GentleGiant Hagrid]] won a poker game against Professor Quarrel. The prize is a Norwegian Ridgeback egg. [[spoiler:Professor Quarrel gave Hagrid the egg just to get him in trouble since breeding dragons is illegal. Also he was possessed by [[BigBad Lord Voldemort]], a dark wizard who is cunning in every way.]]

* TheDogWasTheMastermind: [[spoiler:"Who would suspect poor, st-st-st-stuttering Professor Quirrell?"]]

* AluminumChristmasTrees: The American edition actually kept the line in about Harry wanting to buy as many Mars Bars as he could eat, even though this was referencing the European version (closer to what Americans call 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.

* BecomingTheBoast: Before the first flying lesson, Draco touts his skill at flying ''ad nauseam'' to everyone, especially Harry. Ron thinks he's exaggerating. On the day of the lesson, he shows that he isn't.

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: The mountain troll is knocked out when Ron uses a spell to drop the troll's club onto its' owner's head.

** Harry and Hermione both inexplicably forget to put the invisibility cloak back on after delivering Norbert to Charlie's friends, landing them in detention. This mistake is especially out of character for the normally well-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.

** Severus Snape: On the general scope, he gives obscenely unfair advantage to his own student house (Slytherin) at every 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.]]

%%* DieOrFly: Neville Longbottom. %%(Zero Context Example)%%
* 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 latter bullying the former) in the same team.

** 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.

* BrickJoke: Mrs. Weasley warns Fred and George not to blow up a toilet. They jokingly tell Ginny they'll send her a Hogwarts toilet seat. Fast-forward to the end, when Dumbledore says that the twins attempted to give Harry a toilet seat while Harry was out for three days, assuming it would make him laugh.

* FriendlessBackground: Harry, Ron, and Hermione share this. Both Harry and Hermione knew nothing of magic for most of their respective lives hitherto, Hermione is also a HollywoodNerd, and Ron's family isn't prestigious.