IT was bought to help him cope with his first terms at boarding school, but now a rare Harry Potter book could help see Williton student Toby Rundle, 19, through university.

He's hoping his first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the first in J K Rowling's series of novels about the boy wizard, will bring him as much as £10,000 when he sells it.

Just 500 hardback copies of the first edition were printed when the book by the then unknown author appeared in July 1997, though within weeks reprints were being ordered as it became a publishing phenomenon.

Among those to buy one of the initial run was Toby's mother, Debbie.

"I saw it reviewed somewhere and thought it would be just the thing to cheer him up" she said.

"He was having one or two problems at school at the time, and when I saw the book was also about life at a boarding school I thought it might be appropriate.

"He loved it, and so did the friends he lent it to-thank goodness he always got it back."

Debbie also secured a first edition of the second book in the series, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, though by then Rowling was already well established, there was a much larger print run, and copies today are only worth a few hundred pounds.

"We heard just how valuable the first editions were getting a year or so later" she said.

"My sister had a look at ours and said she was sure they were both genuine, so we put them in the bank-though I didn't really believe she could be right until we took them to an expert."

The market for the Potter books has dropped somewhat since an edition of The Philosopher's Stone sold for around £23,000: the latest recorded price, for a pristine copy, was £13,000.

But both Toby's books are in good condition, and the former Millfield School pupil, who's off to read Classics and English at Oxford in October, is hoping this summer's scheduled appearance of the seventh and final book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, will add to the interest in them when they are auctioned by Dominic Winter at Cirencester in June.

He said: "A few thousand pounds coming out of the blue would be very useful indeed.

"I really loved The Philosopher's Stone when I got it. I was the only one at school who had a copy, and it got passed round quite a bit. I'm only glad I remembered to bring it home at the end of that term.

"I'm not expecting a world record price or anything, but I should imagine there will be one or two collectors out there who will be looking to get a complete set, with the final book coming out this summer-and that could help quite a bit."