16 details you might have missed in 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'

In the book, Aunt Petunia dyes her son Dudley's old clothes gray so that Harry can wear them as his school uniform. As you can imagine, the clothes are huge on him, and this is one of the first examples of the Dursleys poor treatment of Harry.

While this detail never made into the film in an explicit manner, you can see Aunt Petunia dyeing the clothes in the background of this breakfast scene.

The Dursleys reluctantly drag Harry along with them to Dudley's birthday trip to London Zoo, which is where Harry first speaks parseltongue with a snake and Dudley gets trapped inside the glass.

But before this, in the scene's establishing shot, we see a group of school kids dressed in green coming out of the reptile house. Given that green is the color of house Slytherin and Slytherin is synonymous with snakes, this surely can't be a coincidence.

Alfred Hitchcock and his movies have inspired many filmmakers, and his techniques and shots have been replicated and referenced countless times, but it's still surprising to see Hitchcock show up in a "Harry Potter" movie.

The scene where the Hogwarts letters burst throught the fireplace and fill the room parallels the scene in Hitchcock's "The Birds" where the birds invade the house via the chimney. Watch both scenes below to see how similar they are.

Harry Potter:

The Birds:

There are so many small details showing magic littered throughout the eight movies, and this is one of the best. The sign to the Leaky Cauldron is black and blank at first, but as Hagrid and Harry approach it, it slowly fills itself in and displays a black and gold emblem with a cauldron on it reading "The Leaky Cauldron."

As we know, muggles can't see magic, so this suggests that the sign lights up only because Hagrid and Harry, magical folk, are approaching it. So if you see any blank signs outside buildings in London, you can probably assume it's a wizards' pub.

Watch the sign change in the scene below:

Harry has a lot of pressure placed on him as soon as he finds out he's a wizard — he's told he is the one who stopped Voldemort, and he is a huge celebrity in the Wizarding World as people regard him as the chosen one.

It's odd, then, that we don't actually see our main protagonist cast a single spell in the entire movie, which follows witches and wizards learning to cast spells at a magical school. We see Hermione and Ron cast spells, and even Seamus Finnigan, but not Harry. Instead, the closest we get is when Harry waves potential wands around Ollivanders wand shop. They don't count as spells, though.

Snape is the ultimate bad-guy-who-is-secretly-good, and even one of his first lines to Harry — who he apparently despises — is a secret code of kindness disguised as a snidey dressing down.

Snape asks Harry: "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Asphodel is actually a lily (the name of Harry's mother, who Snape loved until his dying day), which means death. Wormwood, meanwhile, symbolizes abscence and bitter regret. So what Snape is actually saying is something along the lines of: "I bitterly regret Lily's death."

Neville receives a Remembrall — a magical object with white smoke inside that turns red whenever the holder has forgotten something — from his grandmother over breakfast in one scene.

Neville notes that he can't remember what he's forgotten, but he is clearly the only one in this scene who isn't wearing his black robe. Instead, he's sat at the table with just his jumper on, so we're pretty sure he forgot his coat.

Seeing Hermione soothe Harry's Quidditch anxieties by showing him the name of James Potter, his dad, on an old Quidditch trophy is an emotional plot point in this movie.

However, you may not have noticed that Professor McGonagall's name also appears on the trophy. The date shows that McGonagall earned her award in 1971 when she was a Hogwarts student, which doesn't actually make sense considering she appears as a Hogwarts professor in "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald," which was set in 1927.

In the exact same shot, you can also see another award behind James Potter and Minerva McGonagall's Quidditch trophy. This one is an award for special services to Hogwarts school, and it belongs to Tom Riddle.

Riddle falsely earned this award for framing Hagrid and his pet spider Aragog for the murder of Moaning Mrytle back when they were students. This is revealed in "The Chamber of Secrets," but we later learn that Hagrid and Aragog are innocent and it was Riddle and his basilisk who were responsible all along.

Harry catches Professor Snape glancing at him, and at the same time his scar burns. Initially, we think his scar is burning as a warning sign to watch out for Snape, but we later learn that Snape is the one trying to help him, while Quirrell is the real villain.

In hindsight, we can work out that in this scene Harry's scar was burning because of Quirrell instead of Snape, as they were sat next to each other. However, there's more to it than just that.

Quirrell is sat with his back to Harry, so Harry can only see the back of his head, which is covered by his turban. We later learn that Voldemort is part of the back of Quirrell's head, hidden beneath said turban, so in this scene Voldemort is actually staring right at Harry — pretty creepy when you think about it.

Julianne Hough played an unnamed Gryffindor student in this movie and didn't have any lines. Hough has since gone on to be a successful dancer, actress, and singer. She joined the cast of "Dancing With the Stars" before serving as a judge from 2014 to 2017, and was actually nominated for three Emmys for her time on the show — for outstanding choreography.

This random "Harry Potter" appearance must feel like a long time ago to her now. It was her first acting role and she was credited as "Hogwarts schoolgirl."

There are tons of details hidden in the moving portraits of Hogwarts scattered throughout the "Harry Potter" movies, but this one is of particular interest as a real-life person makes an appearance.

Anne Boleyn was Henry VIII's second wife, and it is rumored that Boleyn was accused of being a witch — although it is also reported that she was never charged with being one. Still, it's a nice detail to add, and Boleyn is clearly a witch in the "Harry Potter" universe, similar to how JFK was a mutant in "X-Men."

While most Potterheads know that "Erised" is "desire" spelled backward, you may have missed the inscription at the top of the mirror.

The text says: "Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi," which, read backward, says: "I show not your face but your heart's desire."

This basically tells the user exactly what the mirror does, as Harry finds out when he sees his parents staring back at him.

Each of our three main characters wear their scarves in very different ways, and they seem to reflect each character's personality. Hermione's is organized and neatly tucked in; Ron's is slung on scruffily; and Harry's is somewhere in between for a more natural look.

Foreshadowing is a key technique in a lot of movies, and "Harry Potter" uses foreshadowing throughtout all eight. This is one such example. Ron and Harry play wizard's chess at Christmas, with Ron's queen brutally smashing Harry's knight.

In the last of the three tests Harry, Ron, and Hermione have to pass find the philosopher's stone, a second game of chess takes place, with Ron masterminding another win. The queen kills the knight in exactly the same way as Harry and Ron's earlier game, except it's the opposition's queen smashing Ron's knight this time around.

Chess game number one:

Chess game number two:

Ralph Fiennes played Voldemort in "The Goblet of Fire" onward, but we first see the dark lord in this movie, where he was forced to live as part of Professor Quirrell on the back of his head.

It was Richard Bremmer who played him in this movie, and his character is listed as "He Who Must Not Be Named" in the end credits rather than Voldemort.