Warning! Contains Book 3 Spoilers!

Harry Potter lives with his aunt and uncle - Vernon and Petunia Dursley (Lily's sister and brother-in-law) - and his cousin Dudley, at 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey. He has lived there since the death of his parents, whereupon Hagrid (the Keeper of the Keys atr Hogwarts) took him from the ruins of their house in Godric's Hollow and brought him to Surrey on Dumbledore's orders. He meets Minerva McGonagall and Albus Dumbledore there, and then Harry is turned over to the Dursleys. There have been questions raised as to why Harry was given into the care of and continues to stay with such disagreeable people, but apparently he is protected by an ancient magic whilst he's with his family. It has been suggested that this is why Petunia Dursley can't bring herself to just throw out the nephew who has been such an annoyance to her - she knows it would be tantamount to murdering him.

Harry's real parents are James and Lily Potter. James Potter is an unregistered animagus (a stag - Prongs), and was Head boy of Hogwarts. He was also an excellent Quidditch player - a talent which Harry has inherited. Along with Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin (his gang at school - two illegal animagi known as Padfoot and Wormtail and a werewolf named Moony), he created the maurauder's map, which Harry also inherits. Lily Potter was Head girl of Hogwarts, and we know very little else about her at this point, except that she was from a muggle family. Both James and Lily were aurors.

Voldemort is after James and Lily Potter, apparently trying to get them to join him (his exact motive has not yet been explained- dumbledore has refused to tell Harry - but we will supposedly find out more about Lily, at least, in the next book. Maybe that'll fill us in a little more.) In order to protect themselves, James and Lily decide to use Sirius Black as a secret keeper, but he convinces them to change to Peter Pettigrew. Pettigrew hands the Potters' location over to Voldemort. See book 3 for the full story.

Voldemort arrives at the Potter household, and James tries to hold him off to allow Lily to escape with Harry. He is killed, and Lily then dies protecting Harry - the result of this being that Voldemort's curse has no effect on Harry. Instead, it backfires on the evil wizard and he loses most of his power, transferring some of it to Harry in the process.

Sirius confronts Pettigrew, who bites off his own finger and blows up the street behind him as he transforms into a rat and escapes. Sirius - Harry's Godfather - is blamed for the Potters' death and taken to Azkaban. That's pretty much all we know of the Potter story at this point - and it leaves us with a whole bucketload of questions. Does the Potter residence in Godric's Hollow mean they have any connection with the founder of Gryffindor House? Is there another reason behind the Dursleys' hatred of Harry? What was the real reason for the murder of James and Lily? And, most importantly, why is Voldemort after Harry? Is it just to prove he can kill anyone he jolly well wants to, thank-you-very-much, or are his actions driven by a desperate fear that Harry will be his downfall (perhaps some sort of prophecy)? Well, in three years or so I guess we'll have all the answers, so we'll get back to you then, yeah?