According to Potter, he had absolutely no birthday celebrations until midnight on his eleventh birthday. He had not yet recieved his Hogwarts Acceptance Letter, and a faculty member personally came to deliver it to him. Mr. Rubeus Hagrid, who, to this day, remains the Keeper of Keys and Grounds as well as Care of Magical Creatures teacher at Hogwarts, not only delivered his letter, but brought him a personally baked chocolate cake. Mr. Hagrid recounts his experience that night.

"Blimey, it must have been pitch black and stormy as Azkaban out there. O' course, I used a bit o'magic to get to the hut. Tiney little thing, it was. So, I knocked. No answer. Knocked again, no answer. Knocked again, and I accidentally knocked the door down."

Later that day, after some sleep, Msrs. Hagrid and Potter made their way to London, the Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley. There, Potter bought his first wand, holly and phoenix feather core. Wand-maker Garrick Ollivander recounts the sale.

"It was as normal as any wand sale, multiple wands tried, some mildly disorganizing results, and finally, that holly wand chose him, and I was very surprized. Very surprized, but at the same time, not surprized at all. That wand had a feather from the exact same phoenix that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's wand core had."

This connection would save Potter later in life.