The most evil and powerful dark wizard in history, Lord Voldemort, murdered married couple James and Lily Potter but mysteriously disappeared after failing to kill their infant son, Harry. While the wizarding world celebrates Voldemort's apparent downfall, Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall and half-giant Rubeus Hagrid place the one-year-old orphan in the care of his surly and cold Muggle uncle and aunt, Vernon and Petunia Dursley, with their spoiled and bullying son, Dudley.
Ten years later while living at number Four Privet Drive, Harry is tormented by the Dursleys, treated more like a servant than a member of the family and forced to live in a cupboard under the stairs. Shortly before his eleventh birthday, a series of letters addressed to Harry arrive, but Vernon destroys them before Harry can read them, leading only to an influx of more letters. To evade the pursuit of the letters, Vernon first takes the family to a hotel, and, when the letters arrive there too, he hires a boat out to a small island. On Harry's eleventh birthday at midnight, Hagrid bursts through the door to deliver Harry's letter and tells him what the Dursleys have kept from him: Harry is a wizard and has been accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Hagrid takes Harry to a hidden London street called Diagon Alley, where he is startled to discover how famous he is among the witches and wizards, who refer to him as "the boy who lived." He also finds that his parents' inheritance is waiting for him at Gringotts Wizarding Bank. Guided by Hagrid, he buys the equipment he will need for his first year at Hogwarts and receives a pet owl.