It was 1997 when the world first met 'The Boy Who Lived' and fell under bespectacled Harry Potter 's enchanting spell and JK Rowling 's magical imagination.
As mere Muggles, we were introduced to the youngster with the lightning bolt scar who would take us on a flying ride across six more books and eight hit films.
As Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone turns 25 tomorrow we asked superfans how our hero changed their life.
Jacqueline, 23 - Hertfordshire
Reading was always a struggle for Jacqueline Hulbert, but it took until she was 21 for her to be diagnosed with dyslexia. "School was very hard," she says. "I knew I had to work harder, even just to get the same level as some of the other people."
However, when she was 11 her mum came up with an idea to help her to read - Harry Potter.
"I had such a bad relationship with reading, the Harry Potter series was the first book series I finished," says Jacqueline, who lives in Hoddesdon, Herts.
"I started reading them at quite a pivotal point where I was struggling with school."
She and older sister Catherine, then 18, read them together and she adds: "Having that person to talk to about them kind of made me persevere through it."
Since then Jacqueline, 23, has read all seven books three times. Her favourite character has always been brainy overachiever Hermione Granger.
"I always wanted to be the smart girl," she explains. "I always wanted to be at the top of the class and I always wanted to be that kind of personality."
The book series has shaped her life in many other ways too. She has bagged a dream job at the Warner Bros: Harry Potter Studio Tour, telling people about the exhibition.
Her home is filled with memorabilia, including several models of horcruxes, objects in which villain Voldermort hid his soul. She also collects editions of the books, as well as Hogwarts school jumpers.
And Jacqueline adds it helped her accept her differences. "I felt not alone," she says. "Because these characters who I was essentially growing up with had something that made them different too."
Mariam, 23 - East London
In the packed room Mariam Khan watched as the boy, holding a cage, proclaimed the creature inside was Hedwig and promptly set free the snowy owl.
Soaring over the heads of the superfans gathered for a Harry Potter-themed event in a Brighton bookshop, the owl sparked pandemonium as people screamed and dived for safety.
It is typical of the level of frenzy that the book and film series can ignite.
Mariam, who lives in Stratford, East London, and is pictured on the Studio Tour, says: "I feel this is one of the best fandoms to be part of."
The 23-year-old adds: "I don’t think it’s just for couples or lovers or old people or young people. I feel like everyone together as a collective is able to share our love for Harry Potter."
Mariam started reading the books when she was 11. In English class at school, she would hide her current one behind the printed out pages of William Shakespeare.
During Ramadan she would read Harry in her bedroom instead of the Koran at home. Her mother would shout up to her, "Are you reading?," implying the holy book.
"I'd be like, 'yeah!'," says Mariam. "Technically I wasn't lying. I mean, I wasn't reading the Koran. But I thought, 'I'm not sinful.'"
She also became savvy in the library, hiding the next book in the series behind an encyclopaedia because she could not take more than one book out at a time.
Katie, 24 - Kent
The series is Katie Spender's comfort blanket. Whenever she opens one of the books, her worries melt away.
She still remembers her "best present ever". Over a decade ago, on Christmas Day, she tore off the paper, and gasped. It was the entire box set.
That winter she read all 3,407 pages in two weeks. The experience shaped her life. Katie, now 24, works as an editor, with dreams of stumbling across the next defining series.
Her first editing feat was trying to rewrite the book with a pal, aged 12, from the perspective of bumbling Neville Longbottom. "We got through two chapters. We were like, 'This is going to be great.' I found it when I moved, it wasn't that good."
Some people, she admits, don't really understand her love for the series. "Probably the most frustrating thing is when you get judged for liking something so much," she says.
"Everyone can have a passion." She loves the books because, "Take away the magical bit, they are just trying to fit in. That’s lovely."
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - 25th Anniversary Edition, published by Bloomsbury Children's Books, is available now. It's priced at £16.99.
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