Harry potter in one word

Harry Potter didn’t just escape to Hogwarts: He took us with him. As he delved, we followed, gliding along behind, our fingertips reaching for seven spines to crack open. Our tears, our laughter, our pursed, concentrated lips like we were preparing our own spells to cast. And it wasn’t just for him… we made friends, too, and worked to keep those. We remained by their side and battled for their rights, our rights, everyone’s. It was never about making it our own world. Rather, it was JKR letting us stroll into such a heartwarming and touching story. Letting us experience love, pain, and beauty, perhaps for the first time but most certainly not the last. Here was a boy who had every chance to be bad, but we willed him to be good. He couldn’t hear us, but we were still there, still present, still rooting for the classic good triumphing over evil, but somehow still knowing that just because good triumphs does not mean there are not losses. Harry showed us the fantastical way of literature.

Through the aid of others and his good heart, a boy wizard battled the obstacles that obstructed his and his friends’ way, in turn sharing his love with us.

Magic.

Harry James Potter (b. July 31, 1980) was a half-blood wizard, the only child and son of James Potter and Lily Potter (née Evans), and one of the most famous wizards of modern times. In an attempt to circumvent a prophecy that a boy born at the end of July 1980 would be able to defeat him, Lord Voldemort tried to murder him when he was a baby, and did murder Harry’s parents when they tried to protect him. This early attempt to vanquish Harry led to Voldemort’s first defeat and the end of the First Wizarding War. One consequence of Lily’s protection is that her orphaned son had to be raised by her only remaining blood relative, in her Muggle sister Petunia Dursley’s family, where he was not welcomed or nurtured, but would stay alive, at least until he was 17 years of age. As the only known survivor of the Killing Curse, Harry was already famous before he arrived at Hogwarts.

At the age of eleven, Harry learned from Rubeus Hagrid, the Hogwarts gamekeeper, that he was a wizard. He began attending Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and was sorted into Gryffindor house. While at school, Harry became best friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. He became the youngest Seeker in over a century and eventually captain of his house’s Quidditch team, winning two Quidditch Cups as part of the team.^[2] He became even better known in his early years for protecting the Sorcerer’s Stone from Voldemort and saving Ginny Weasley from the Chamber of Secrets. In his fourth year, Harry won the Triwizard Tournament, although the competition ended in tragedy with the death of Cedric Diggory and the return of Lord Voldemort. The next school year, Harry reluctantly founded Dumbledore’s Army and fought in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, during which he lost his godfather, Sirius Black, who was a father figure to him.

Harry played a significant role in many other battles of the Second Wizarding War and hunted down and destroyed Voldemort’s Horcruxes with Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. During the Battle of Hogwarts, he personally witnessed the deaths of Severus Snape and Fred Weasley, and learned that Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Colin Creevey, and many others had fallen as well. He encountered Voldemort and sacrificed himself, knowing that that was the only way to destroy the piece of Voldemort’s soul that was inside him. In Harry’s near-death experience after Voldemort cursed him in the forest clearing, Albus Dumbledore gave Harry advice and background information on Voldemort. Harry chose to live, and after he awoke, he dueled Voldemort one last time, and defeated him.

After the war, Harry became an Auror and married his best friend Ron’s younger sister, Ginny Weasley, with whom he had three children: James Sirius, Albus Severus, and Lily Luna. Harry was also named the godfather of Teddy Remus Lupin. He had felt the effects of the Cruciatus Curse and the Imperius Curse several times. He was also hit by the Killing Curse twice, but survived. Harry is also notable for being the only known Master of Death, having united the three Deathly Hallows.

Biography

Family lineage

The Potters were an old and wealthy pure-blood family, dating back to their founding patriarch Linfred of Stinchcombe. Linfred was given the nickname «Potterer», which over the years was changed simply to «Potter». The family took on the simplified nickname as a surname, thus leading to future generations calling themselves Potter.

The Potters were also descended from the Peverell family, through Hardwin Potter’s marriage to Iolanthe Peverell. As such, they are related to Ignotus Peverell, one of the three brothers that created the Deathly Hallows, who passed the Cloak of Invisibility down to his descendants as a family heirloom. The Gaunt family were also descended from the Peverells through Cadmus Peverell, who passed the Resurrection Stone as an heirloom, set in a signet ring.^[3] The Potters were thus indirectly related to the Gaunts as well, and by extension Lord Voldemort.

Before the start of the 17th century, some of Harry’s ancestors migrated to the United States, and held strong ties with the Magical Congress of the United States of America. These ties developed as a result of Abraham Potter being one of the original twelve Aurors of MACUSA. This distant relation of Harry’s was uncovered by genealogists centuries after Abraham’s death.

The Potters were related to many other wizarding families in Britain, largely through the marriage of Charlus Potter to Dorea Black, who was, in fact, the great-aunt of Sirius Black, Harry’s godfather and best friend of his father, James Potter. It is very likely that both Charlus and Dorea were closely related to Harry.

Two members of the Potter family had held positions on the Wizengamot. The first was Ralston Potter and the second Henry Potter. Harry inherited much wealth from his grandparents Fleamont and Euphemia, as Fleamont invented Sleekeazy’s Hair Potion, which quadrupled the family gold. Harry’s father James Potter was born late in couple’s lives. By that time, his parents were both elderly (even by wizarding standards), and he grew up in a doting household to the point where he became a proud yet arrogant boy. But deep down, James was a good person.

Conversely, Harry’s mother Lily J. Evans was a Muggle-born, who was introduced to the wizarding world via her friendship with Severus Snape, who lived nearby. The discovery of Lily being a witch caused a rift between her and her older sister Petunia, who envied her abilities.^[4]

James and Lily met when they attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry together 1971. Their relationship was a rocky one; while James was a popular student and talented Quidditch player, Lily was unimpressed with him. This had to do with James’ hostile relationship with Snape, who was falling in with a gang of Slytherins aspiring to join the Death Eaters.^[5]

By their seventh year, James lost the less savory aspects of his personality and was even appointed Head Boy, despite the fact that he had not been a prefect. This impressed Lily, who was appointed Head Girl, and the two began dating.^[5]

The couple eventually married after graduation in 1978, and served as members of the original Order of the Phoenix at the height of the First Wizarding War. They personally defied Voldemort on three occasions, the first being when they refused to join his cause when he tried to recruit them (possibly at Snape’s request).

Early life (1980-1991)

Harry James Potter was born on July 31, 1980, in Godric’s Hollow, only hours after his classmate-to-be Neville Longbottom. Around this time, a prophecy regarding a boy born at the end of July with the power to defeat Voldemort was stated to wizards. At an unknown time, James and Lily held a Christening for Harry. It was quiet and quick, with only his mother, father and his godfather Sirius Black in attendance.

For Harry’s first birthday, Sirius bought him a toy broomstick. In Lily’s letter to Sirius, it mentioned that this broomstick had been Harry’s favorite present and that he had smashed a horrible vase that had been a gift from Petunia and nearly killed their cat. In the letter, Lily also included a picture of Harry flying around on the broom and James chasing after him. Lily also stated in the letter that Harry looked pleased with himself while flying around on the toy broom. Lily and James also hosted a very quiet birthday tea. The only ones in attendance were them, Harry, and Bathilda Bagshot also used to dote on infant Harry. The Potters are also known to have owned a cat but it is not known what happened to the cat after Lord Voldemort’s attack.

When it became clear that Voldemort marked the Potters for death in regards to the prophecy, Albus Dumbledore suggested they use the Fidelius Charm to keep them safe. He even offered to be the Potter’s Secret Keeper, but the Potters had planned to make Sirius their Secret Keeper instead. On Sirius’ advice, they changed this designation to Peter Pettigrew, who they thought would be less suspicious. In a terrible turn of fate, Pettigrew was a Death Eater spy, and barely a week later betrayed the Potter’s whereabouts.

Attack at Godric’s Hollow (1981)

On the evening of October 31, 1981, Lord Voldemort arrived at Godric’s Hollow and murdered James and Lily. He murdered James first, who tried to distract the Dark Lord; unfortunately he did not have his wand with him and was killed immediately. Voldemort then advanced on Lily, who died trying to protect Harry. Her sacrifice prevented the Killing Curse from working on Harry, resulting in her love for Harry becoming a barrier to protecting him. When Voldemort attempted the curse on Harry, it backfired on the caster and instead of killing Harry, Voldemort lost all his powers and his physical form was obliterated.

Voldemort was saved from death by the five Horcruxes he had made up to that point, including his diary, Gaunt’s ring, Slytherin’s locket, Hufflepuff’s cup, and Ravenclaw’s diadem. Later, this also included Harry himself, because a piece of Voldemort’s unstable soul latched onto the only living being present. This gave him some of Voldemort’s abilities such as the ability to speak Parseltongue. This event made Harry the only person to have survived the Killing Curse, thus giving him the title the «Boy Who Lived». The failed curse left a lightning-bolt scar on his forehead, marking him as Voldemort’s equal. The scar would be a bane and also a blessing to Harry in the years to come, as it opened a telepathic link between Lord Voldemort and himself, giving each some awareness of each other’s thoughts.

Rubeus Hagrid rescued Harry from the house, partially destroyed by Voldemort’s faulty killing curse, and was given specific orders from Albus Dumbledore to take him to his aunt and uncle. As Hagrid left, he was intercepted by Sirius Black, a close friend of the Potters, who pleaded for Hagrid to give the baby to him, as he was the chosen guardian in the event of James and Lily’s death. Hagrid refused, saying that he was under orders from Dumbledore to take Harry to his relatives. Sirius, though reluctant, relented and gave Hagrid his flying motorcycle to take Harry to Privet Drive, and left to find Pettigrew, who subsequently faked his death and framed Sirius for his death and that of twelve Muggles.

Hagrid delivered Harry to Dumbledore late on the evening of November 1, 1981. Dumbledore left a letter of explanation to the family living in the house, the Dursleys, who did not want to take care of Harry.

Life at Privet Drive

As the Dursleys were Muggles, they could not use magic. They knew about it but refused to associate with wizards. They proudly considered themselves a «normal» family and despised anything out of the ordinary even if it had nothing to do with wizards. They lied to Harry about his parents’ death, claiming they had died in a car crash. They also claimed that the lightning-bolt scar on Harry’s forehead was from the same crash.^[6] Whenever Harry tried to remember it, all he could vaguely recall (as if he ‘strained his memory’) was a green flash of light and a high, cold, laugh. He tried to understand what it was, or if it was from the car crash, but he simply could not. Petunia and Vernon, Harry’s new guardians, forbade him from asking questions, particularly those regarding his parents. In addition, the Dursleys refused to have pictures of Lily and James, and did their best to avoid the subject of Harry’s parents altogether.

They resented Harry for his magic, which was sporadic, but evident and strongly discouraged any sort of imagination. They neglected Harry, verbally and emotionally abused him, and inflicted cruel punishments like depriving him of meals and locking him into the cupboard under the stairs on him whenever something «unusual» occurred. Their behavior was left unreported to authorities. In his youth, Harry could make strange things happen without understanding why he could, as no one had told him that he was a wizard. For instance, after Petunia had sheared off all of his messy hair using a pair of kitchen scissors in her fury that it would not lay flat, leaving him almost completely bald with only the fringe at the front, it had grown all the way back, and to its previous messy state at that, by the next morning. Harry was punished, even though he had not done anything on purpose. Another time, Dedalus Diggle bowed to him in a shop, and Petunia furiously interrogated Harry as to know how he knew the man before leaving the shop hastily.^[6]

The Dursleys spoiled and pampered their son Dudley and paid almost no attention to Harry; indeed, what little attention they did pay to him was negative in its entirety. All his clothes were hand-me-downs from Dudley and were far too large for Harry. He was made to sleep in the Cupboard Under the Stairs, while his cousin got two bedrooms to himself (one for sleeping in and one for storing all his toys). They also made Harry do household chores for them, such as making food and getting the post. In time, Dudley started bullying Harry. The Dursleys took Dudley and his friend Piers Polkiss to someplace spectacular every year for his birthday, but the only thing Harry ever got for his birthday was one of Vernon’s old socks or a coat hanger.

The Dursleys always hid evidence of Harry’s existence by not having pictures of him in the house. Among the few people who did know about Harry were Petunia’s friend Yvonne and Vernon’s sister Marge, the latter of whom the boy was forced to consider an aunt to him despite not being a relative of his. Aunt Marge showed the most dislike for the frail boy while visiting Privet Drive during Dudley Dursley’s fifth birthday, when she whacked Harry around the shins to stop him from beating Dudley at musical statues, and on holidays like Christmas, when she brought a computerised robot for Dudley and a box of dog biscuits for Harry to apparently eat.^[6] She eventually made a fool out of the young Potter during Dudley’s tenth birthday, when Harry accidentally stepped on the paw of her favorite pet bulldog Ripper, causing the enraged dog to chase him out into the garden and up a tree. Dudley laughed himself silly at the sight of his cousin then, and to the Dursleys’ delight, Marge refused to call Ripper off until past midnight.^[6]

Harry’s hardship, however, was highly necessary as by returning to live with his mother’s only living blood relative, the protection that Lily gave Harry would continue. While Harry could call that place home he could not be harmed. However, the Bond of blood charm would be broken when Harry turned seventeen years old, or when he no longer called 4 Privet Drive his home.

Unknown to Harry, one of his neighbors, Arabella Figg, was a Squib. Unfortunately for Harry, to maintain favor with the Dursleys, she was forced by Albus Dumbledore to give him a lousy time whenever she had to look after him, as the Dursleys would never have let him go if they knew Harry was enjoying himself, a possibility that infuriated them. Harry discovered her connection to the wizarding world when it was revealed during the summer before his fifth year that she worked undercover for the Order of the Phoenix to keep tabs on Harry’s suffering.

On June 23, 1991, Dudley’s eleventh birthday, the Dursleys went to the zoo with Dudley and Piers. Unfortunately for the Dursleys, they had to take Harry with them, as Mrs. Figg had broken her leg and there was no one to take Harry, and they refused to leave him alone in their house. At the zoo, Harry spoke with a boa constrictor and unintentionally made the glass of its enclosure disappear. This allowed the snake to slither out of his cage which scared Dudley into thinking it was after him. Harry was able to communicate in Parseltongue with the freed boa, which thanked Harry briefly, then slithered out of the reptile house calmly.^[6] After this incident, the enraged Dursleys sentenced Harry to his cupboard until the beginning of the summer holidays.^[7]

St. Grogory’s Primary School

Harry attended St. Grogory’s Primary School, a Muggle primary school, with Dudley. He had no friends there, since all the students were afraid of Dudley’s tough friends, who hated Harry simply because Dudley did. Dudley and his friends liked to play a unique game — ‘Harry Hunting’ — which involved chasing Harry for hours on end. Although Harry was good at sports, he was always the last picked for a team because no one wanted to admit to Dudley that they liked him, rather than because he was no good.

Harry got decent, if not good grades at school. On one occasion, Harry accidentally turned his teacher’s wig blue; on another, he accidentally apparated onto the school kitchen roof when escaping from Dudley’s gang; and on a third, he made Dudley’s old jumper shrink as Aunt Petunia tried to shove it over his head. These incidents always enraged the Dursleys, and after each, they would punish Harry by throwing him into the cupboard — except for after the jumper incident because Aunt Petunia thought that the jumper had shrunk in the wash.

If Harry had not gone to Hogwarts, then he would have attended Stonewall High, a Muggle secondary school that Harry dreaded attending. Rowling never specified the environment within it, but it was presumably even worse than St. Grogory’s in terms of what he might have expected as treatment.

Discovery of being a wizard

Harry had no birthday celebrations until the day he turned eleven, which was the same day that he discovered the exceptional reality about his identity . On the week of Harry’s birthday, hundreds of letters began arriving at the Dursley’s home, addressed to him from a place called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. When the Dursleys saw that the first letter was addressed as «cupboard under the stairs,» they panicked at the thought of Harry’s ill treatment being observed and transferred him to Dudley’s second bedroom out of fear of being arrested for child abuse, which soon appeared on letters as the smallest bedroom.

When Uncle Vernon first read the letter, he turned a pale, porridge grey out of fear that wizards were trying to contact Harry. Because of this, Vernon tried to destroy the letters in a futile attempt to keep Harry from his destiny. But the letters kept coming in increasingly larger quantities, to the point where they started flying out of the fireplace by the dozens and as they did, the Dursleys saw no alternative but to flee from them. This was not enough to let the Dursleys avoid the letters, as the owls carrying the letters followed them wherever they went. On July 30, 1991, in a final desperate move on, the Dursleys moved to a shack on a rocky island in the edge of the sea.

At midnight on Harry’s birthday, Rubeus Hagrid appeared in person to find out why Harry had not received his letter. He was infuriated by the Dursleys and explained to Harry, in spite of Vernon’s obstinate protests, that he was a wizard, how his parents died, that Dumbledore demanded him to take Harry from the ruined house to his hated relatives, and that he was to be sent to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

This would be Harry’s first birthday celebration, and Hagrid gave him a small homemade birthday cake and later, a snowy owl. Harry named her Hedwig, a name he had found from his textbook (History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot). This was the first birthday present Harry ever received. Hagrid took Harry to the Leaky Cauldron, where he learned that he was famous. He met Quirinus Quirrell, his soon-to-be Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts, the Inn-keeper, Tom, a witch named Doris Crockford, and Dedalus Diggle, the man who had bowed to Harry several years earlier. Hagrid then took Harry to Diagon Alley, where he learned more about his fame in the wizarding world and that his parents had left him a small fortune in a vault at Gringotts Wizarding Bank.

Harry bought his first wand from the wandmaker Garrick Ollivander that day. The wand that chose Harry was made of holly wood and had a phoenix feather core; it was 11″, nice and supple. The phoenix feather at its core came from Dumbledore’s phoenix Fawkes. It was crafted by Ollivander, who had also created a twin wand. This wand had been made from yew and contained the only other feather supplied by Fawkes. This twin wand had long ago chosen Tom Riddle as its master. But Riddle, after he turned evil and assumed the alias of Lord Voldemort, ended up using this wand to attack Harry and his parents. The two wands, sharing the same phoenix origin, had a unique connection which would prevent them from successfully duelling against each other in the years to come.

Hogwarts years (1991–1997)

First year

Harry was guided further to his destiny on September 1, 1991, when he was dropped off by the Dursleys at King’s Cross Station. Vernon helped Harry wheel his things to the platforms and left laughing about how Platform Nine and Three-Quarters hadn’t been built yet. The family then drove off, leaving Harry at the busy station all alone. With only ten minutes left until the train’s departure at eleven a.m., Harry was panicking when he overheard a red-headed family complaining about the station being packed with Muggles and he noticed they had an owl with their belongings.

Harry watched as the older boys magically passed through the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Harry nervously interrupted them and was introduced to the youngest son Ron, who was starting his first year as well. Molly, Ron’s mother, kindly gave him instructions on how to board the platform. Harry quickly ran through the barrier, followed by Ron, and arrived on the Platform, catching his first sight of the Hogwarts Express. As most of the compartments were full, Harry pushed his things to near the end of the train, and with some help from twins from the red-headed family, was able to get his things aboard.^[8]

While helping, the twins noticed his scar and recognized that he must be Harry Potter. While Harry sat near the window in his compartment watching the family, the twins Fred and George Weasley reported this discovery to the amazement of their little sister Ginny and their older brother Percy, who was a Prefect and had already changed into his robes. After boarding, the train soon departed and Ron asked if he could sit with Harry, who agreed. Ron asked Harry about his scar, and Harry asked if Ron’s whole family were wizards, which they are except for his mother’s second cousin, who was an accountant. When the Trolley witch came by around half-past twelve, Harry bought some of all the treats from the cart and shared them with Ron.

Neville Longbottom soon came by searching for his lost toad, Trevor. While Ron was attempting a magic spell to change his rat Scabbers, Hermione Granger interrupted trying to help find Trevor. After Ron’s spell failed, Hermione introduced herself and upon learning Harry’s name, informed him that he was in several books on magical history. While speculating which house they might be in, Harry and Ron were interrupted by Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe, and Gregory Goyle. Although Draco attempted to ingratiate himself, Harry refused to shake his hand after he insulted Ron and his family. When Goyle attempted to take some of their Chocolate Frog Cards, Scabbers bit his finger and helped drive them off. Ron afterwards explained that the Malfoy family were on Voldemort’s side, but came back saying they had been bewitched, although his father didn’t believe it.^[8]

Upon arriving, Hagrid gathered all the first years together and they followed a path down to the edge of a Great Lake. In groups of no more than four, they climbed aboard a little fleet of small boats, and sailed across the lake to an underground harbor. Helping to remind Neville to take his toad, Hagrid took them up a passageway to the gates of the castle.^[8]

The Sorting Ceremony

The new students were greeted at the castle door by Professor Minerva McGonagall, who explained the four houses of Hogwarts: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin, as well as the rules of the House Cup. McGonagall led the first years into a small room off the Entrance Hall and told them to wait until she returned. When she did, they were led into the Great Hall, where they were greeted by the rest of the students, and more importantly, a shabby wizard’s hat on a small stool.

Harry was particularly anxious, as he did not feel that any of the Houses as they were described in the Hat’s song were right for him. Harry noted that Draco Malfoy, whom Harry had met in Diagon Alley, was instantly placed in Slytherin, and remembered what Hagrid and Ron had told him about Slytherin’s reputation for turning out Dark Wizards, and that Voldemort had been in Slytherin. When Harry put on the Hat, it slipped down past his eyes, and the hat told him that he «would do well in Slytherin». Thinking of Voldemort, Harry desperately repeated the phrase «not Slytherin». The Hat heeded Harry’s request and placed Harry in Gryffindor along with Ron and Hermione Granger. In his second year during a visit to Dumbledore’s office, the Sorting Hat re-emphasized the idea that Harry «would do well in Slytherin».

The Sorting Ceremony was followed by the Welcoming Feast. Harry, who had never been allowed to eat as much as he wanted, was overwhelmed by the sheer variety of foods in front of him. Dessert arrived, and talk turned to the first years’ families. Neville Longbottom told the others how his family thought he was a Squib until his Great-Uncle accidentally dropped him out of a window, and he bounced.

It was during the feast that Harry’s scar hurt for the first time: Harry was looking up at the staff table at Professor Quirrell when the hook-nosed teacher Quirrell was talking to looked past Quirrell at Harry, who immediately felt a sharp pain in his scar. This is because Lord Voldemort was inhabiting Quirrell’s body as anytime Voldemort is near, Harry’s scar hurts. After the last morsels melted from the golden plates and goblets, Dumbledore gave a speech welcoming the new students to the school and the old students back. He added a few warnings about staying away from the Forbidden Forest, and avoiding the third-floor corridor before leading the school in singing the School Song and sending everyone off to their dormitories.

First years lessons/classes

In his first ever Potions class, Harry discovered that Professor Snape hated him, mocking him as the school’s «new celebrity» before teaching the class how to brew a Boil-Cure Potion. Harry and Ron went down to Hagrid’s hut for tea, where they met Hagrid’s huge and fierce-looking dog, Fang. Hagrid told Harry that he was overreacting to Snape’s treatment, asserting that he would have no reason to hate him. Hagrid and Ron began to talk about Ron’s brother older Charlie Weasley. While they were talking, Harry picked up a cutting from the Daily Prophet that was lying on the table. The article detailed a break-in that occurred on Harry’s birthday at Gringotts. The vault that was broken into was number 713, the same vault Hagrid visited with Harry on their trip to Diagon Alley.

One of the things Harry had been looking forward to was learning to fly until he found out that the Gryffindors would be taking flying lessons with the Slytherins. Malfoy had been bragging about his skill to anyone who would listen. Madam Rolanda Hooch taught the class by starting with basic broom control. After learning the theory, the students were told to hover gently off the ground on Madam Hooch’s go-ahead. Neville, terrified of being left behind, panicked and kicked off before anyone else, rising fifty feet in the air before falling off and breaking his wrist. Madam Hooch took Neville to the Hospital Wing after warning the other students to stay on the ground until she got back.

Draco Malfoy nicked Neville’s Remembrall from off the ground and was told to give it to Harry, jeering that he’d leave it «up a tree» unless Harry stopped him and took off on his broom. Harry mounted his broom and kicked off after him. As much to his surprise as everyone else’s, he discovered that he could not only fly, but that it was something he didn’t need to be taught. Bending low on the broom handle, he shot toward Draco, who realized that Harry was a better flier and threw the Remembrall into the air, daring the famous boy to catch it. Harry raced the ball towards the ground, catching it and coming out of his dive a foot from the ground. He toppled lightly onto the grass amidst the cheers of the Gryffindors, grinning wildly.

His euphoria did not last long however, as Professor McGonagall quickly arrived on the scene. Having seen the dive, she ordered Harry to follow her. Harry, expecting punishment, was instead introduced to Oliver Wood, whom she pulled out of a Charms class. Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, Wood’s confusion at being introduced to a first year quickly turned to excitement and ecstasy upon hearing McGonagall recount the dive. He told her that Harry would need a decent broom if they were to compete, and explained to Harry that he would make an excellent Seeker, perhaps rivaling the legendary Charlie Weasley.

The Midnight Duel

Harry told Ron about everything that happened after he left with McGonagall over dinner that night, but warned him that Wood wanted to keep it a secret. Much calmer on the ground, and with his cronies Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle flanking him, Draco came over to taunt Harry about getting in trouble earlier. Enraged that Harry not only escaped trouble, but was instead rewarded, he challenged Harry to a wizard’s duel. In spite of Hermione’s attempt to dissuade them from breaking the school rules, (or perhaps because of it), Harry accepted the challenge.

As they left the tower, the trio found Neville (whose wrist had been fixed by Madam Pomfrey) waiting outside, having forgotten the password. Neville decided to go with them and the four arrived at the Trophy Room (the site of the duel), but Malfoy was nowhere to be found. They speculated that he may have chickened out and were deciding what to do next when they heard the school caretaker Argus Filch and his cat, Mrs. Norris, enter the room. Realizing that Draco tricked them and told Filch their location, they attempted to quietly exit the room. A nearby doorknob rattled and Peeves, Hogwarts’ resident poltergeist, burst into the hallway, threatening to expose them.^[9]

Growing desperate, Ron took a swipe at Peeves, who began to bellow their whereabouts as loud as he could, attracting Filch. The four kids ran right to the end of the corridor, where they found themselves stopped by a locked door, which Hermione opened with the Unlocking Charm using Harry’s wand. They hurried inside, thinking themselves out of danger until turning around and coming face-to-face with a monstrous sight: a giant three-headed dog. Choosing Filch over death, the children ran for it, somehow managing to get back to their dormitory without running into anyone along the way. Though shaken by the night’s events, Harry’s interest in exploring was piqued by Hermione’s pointing out that the dog was standing on a trapdoor.

The Nimbus 2000

Over breakfast the next morning, Harry and Ron were discussing what Fluffy could be guarding when the mail arrived. Harry, who had received no mail apart from Hagrid’s letter, was intrigued as everyone else by the long, oddly-shaped package in the mail that morning, and was even more surprised than the others when he discovered what was inside: a Nimbus 2000, and with a note from Professor McGonagall warning him not to open the package at the table and that he was to meet Wood that night for Quidditch practice. Taking the broom up to their dormitory, Harry and Ron were stopped by Malfoy, who seized the package and told Harry that first-year students are not allowed their own brooms. When Professor Flitwick walked up to them, he tried to report Harry, but Flitwick, who had been told of Harry’s special permission, just expressed admiration for Harry’s talent.

Halloween

On Halloween, Professor Flitwick began teaching his students how to perform the Levitation Charm. Only Hermione succeeded; Ron, offended by her air of superiority, later made a nasty comment that she overheard. The comment was about her lack of friends, causing her to run off to lock herself in the girl’s bathroom in tears and making him and Harry feel slightly guilty. When the two went down to the Halloween feast later, their guilt was forgotten amidst the splendor of the decorations.

Partway into the feast, Quirrell arrived to announce that there was a twelve-foot Mountain Troll in the dungeons before fainting where he stood. The prefects led the students back to their dorms, but Harry realized that Hermione did not know about the troll and convinced Ron to help save her, since they were responsible. They sneaked off to the girl’s bathroom to warn Hermione, locking the troll inside. However, they didn’t realize their mistake until they heard Hermione’s terrified scream emanate from the bathroom. A horrified Harry and Ron ran back into the bathroom to rescue her. After a brief skirmish, during which Harry stuck his wand up the trolls nose. Ron finally knocked the troll out, by levitating the troll’s own club to smash into it’ head.

The teachers arrived, attracted by the troll’s yells, to find Harry, Ron, and Hermione covered in dust, and the bathroom in disarray. Professor McGonagall, head of Gryffindor, began scolding the boys for not going straight to their dormitories with the rest of their house, but instead putting themselves in grave danger. Much to Harry and Ron’s surprise, Hermione lied to McGonagall and told her that she had gone looking for the troll, as she thought she could handle them. She claimed that Harry and Ron were looking for her, (which was true), and she would most likely be dead if the boys had failed to rescue her (also true). The three bonded over the shared experience, and were friends thereafter.

Quidditch

As the Quidditch season began Harry became increasingly nervous. The first match of the season was against Slytherin. Harry was under increasing pressure to show that he was not just a famous name. In an attempt to calm his nerves, Harry borrowed a book entitled Quidditch Through the Ages. A book that was comprehensive history of the sport, that Hermione most have checked put from the library. During break the day before the match, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were huddled together around a jar of flames, which had been conjured by Hermione, to keep warm.

Snape noticed their guilty faces, and looking for a reason to punish them, confiscated Harry’s book on the feeble pretext that library books were not be taken outside. Harry noticed that Snape was limping, as though his leg was injured, strengthening his suspicions that the Potions Master was after whatever it was that Fluffy was guarding. Nervous about the next day’s match, Harry decided to ask Snape for the book back; realizing that he would most likely be in the staffroom and that it would be harder for Snape to bully him if there were other teachers around, Harry decided to confront him. Approaching the door, Harry overheard Snape complaining to Filch about Fluffy. After opening the door, Harry saw Filch helping Snape to bandage his leg. He returned to the Common Room and then told his two friends everything he had seen.

Harry had little time to dwell on Snape’s injury as the first Quidditch match began the very next morning. Harry’s job as being the Gryffindor Seeker was to catch the Golden Snitch. The snitch is a walnut-sized gold ball, that is extremely fast and difficult to see. The entire match rested upon the retrieval of the Snitch. Harry’s first attempt to catch the Snitch was foiled when the Slytherin Seeker blatched him. Though the Seeker was penalized, the move succeeded in stopping Harry from getting to the Snitch.

Soon after, Harry’s broom began bucking uncontrollably as if trying to unseat him. The bucking became even more violent with each passing second, until Harry was hanging from the broom with just one hand. The crowd looked on with horror, some of the professors had their wands at the ready should he fall. Ron and Hermione began to wonder if the other was at fault. That is until Hagrid, who had arrived to watch the game, noted that it would take powerful dark magic to make a broomstick so hard to manage. Magic that powerful is well above the level of a second year and therefore had to be cases by a qualified wizard. This announcement did nothing to help the worried friends.

Hermione, who had turned her gaze away from Harry, and was scanning the stands, noticed that Snape was staring unblinkingly at Harry and muttering non-stop under his breath. Thinking quickly, Hermione took advantage of the fact that everyone’s attention was now focused on Harry (and the Weasley twins’ attempts to rescue him) to run around the entire stadium, knocking over Professor Quirrell, and ending up behind Snape. Muttering a few «well-chosen words» Hermione lit Snape’s robes on fire with Bluebell Flames; a yell of shock told her she had done her job and she scooped the fire into a jar. Suddenly, up in the air, the spell on Harry’s broomstick was broken and he was once again able to control his broom. The spectators watched in confusion as Harry dove towards the ground, only to clasp his hand to his mouth as if he was being violently sick the instant he landed. In actuality, Harry had caught the Snitch in his mouth. His capture of the Snitch ended the match, thus Gryffindor won.

After the match, Hagrid took the three back to his hut. Ron and Hermione told Harry and Hagrid about what was happening on the other side of the stands, and how Snape was cursing his broomstick. Hagrid, however, did not believe them, asking why Snape would try to kill Harry; Harry told Hagrid about Snape being bitten by the dog in the third-floor corridor. Hagrid, surprised by their knowledge, involuntarily revealed that the dog belonged to him, and that what the dog was guarding did not concern them, as it was a secret known only to Albus Dumbledore and a man named Nicolas Flamel.

Christmas season

Impressed as they were with the fact that Harry had managed to hold onto a bucking broomstick, Malfoy soon found that the rest of the school no longer found his taunts that Harry was to be replaced amusing, and so reverted to teasing Harry about having to stay at Hogwarts for the holidays. Harry, however, was looking forward to spending Christmas away from the Dursleys, especially in light of the fact that Ron was also staying at Hogwarts, but also because it would give them some time to look up Nicolas Flamel; they were certain that the librarian would be able to find a book on Flamel in an instant, but were worried that it might be suspicious, and were thus forced to search for themselves.

On Christmas day, Harry and Ron awoke to a pile of presents each at the foot of their beds. At the bottom of the pile, he found a package containing an Invisibility Cloak and an anonymous note telling him only that the cloak once belonged to his father, and to «use it well». That night Harry, thoughts on the Cloak and decided to try it out. Realizing he could go anywhere, he snuck back to the library and headed straight for the Restricted Section. Knowing he had to start somewhere, Harry pulled down one of the heavier books, and let it fall open on his knee. To his shock and horror, the silence was rent by a blood-curdling scream that issued from the book in front of him. He stuffed the book back in its place and ran for the door, knocking over the lantern he brought with him in his haste. Ducking under Filch’s outstretched arms, Harry ran down the dark corridors, away from the library, and away from Filch.

Thinking he had escaped, Harry was scared to hear Filch’s voice approaching, and horrified when he realized whom Filch was talking to: Snape. As Snape and Filch rounded the corner, Harry realized that although his father’s cloak made him invisible, it did not stop him from being solid, and that he had no chance of sneaking past them, as the corridor was particularly narrow. Thinking quickly, (and panicking slightly), Harry noticed a door to his left; slipping inside, he found himself in an abandoned classroom. After Filch and Snape passed his hiding place, Harry relaxed and took in more details about the room he was in.

In doing so, he noticed something he had missed the first time: an old, gilded mirror bearing the inscription “Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi”. Stepping in front of the mirror, Harry very nearly cried out in shock: inside the mirror he saw a large crowd of people standing behind him. Shocked, Harry turned around to look at the room, but saw no one there. Turning back to the mirror and looking more closely, Harry realized that the man and woman in the front looked oddly like him. The man looked just like him, from his untidy hair to his glasses, and the woman, Harry saw, had the same eyes he had. Understanding, Harry focused on other members of the crowd, and saw others who had his untidy hair, his eyes, and even an old man who had Harry’s knees; Harry was looking at his family, for the first time in his life.

The next night, Harry brought Ron with him to the mirror room. Ron did not see Harry’s family in the mirror, but instead saw himself standing alone, tall, holding the House Cup, wearing badges indicating he was Head Boy and Quidditch Captain. The two began arguing over who would be allowed to look in the mirror; Mrs. Norris, Filch’s prowling cat, entered the room, attracted by the sounds of their argument. The next day, Ron, worried about being caught and about his friend’s obsession with the mirror, warned Harry not to return; Harry, however, was not to be dissuaded.

Going to the room that evening, Harry was ready to stay there all night, staring at the family he lost. However, in his haste, he failed to notice Professor Dumbledore standing by the door until after he removed his cloak. Dumbledore, who had been waiting for Harry, explained that the mirror, which was known as the “Mirror of Erised”, displayed the deepest, most desperate desire of whoever looked into it. Harry, who had never known his family, saw them standing around him; Ron, ever overshadowed by his older brothers, saw himself standing alone, the best of them all.

Before sending Harry back to bed, however, Dumbledore warned him that the mirror was and a dangerous object; men had been driven mad by what they saw in the mirror, not knowing if what they saw was real, or even possible. He told Harry that the mirror was to be moved to a new location, and warned Harry to not go looking for it. Before he left, Harry asked the headmaster what he saw in the mirror. Much to his surprise, Dumbledore told Harry that he saw himself with a pair of woollen socks. Despite his promise to Dumbledore, Harry found it difficult to forget the image of his parents, until Wood told the team that Snape would be refereeing the next Quidditch match against Hufflepuff.

Shortly before the match, Malfoy, ever eager to pick on Neville, used the Leg-Locker Curse on Neville, forcing him to bunny hop his way back to the Common Room. Harry told Neville he was «worth twelve of Malfoy» and gave him a Chocolate Frog. Thanking Harry, Neville handed the card back to Harry for his collection. Looking down, Harry noted it was Dumbledore’s card, the first he ever got. He turned the card over and suddenly remembered where he read the name Nicolas Flamel before: on the train on the way to school.

As the Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff Quidditch match drew nearer, tensions mounted in the school; Gryffindor had failed to overtake Slytherin in the Inter-House Quidditch Cup for seven years, and Harry was worried that it would be impossible with Snape as a referee. Unknown to Harry, Ron and Hermione had been practicing the Leg-Locker Curse to use on Snape, should he show any signs of wanting to harm Harry. Before the match began, Wood took Harry aside and reminded him that he needed to catch the Snitch as soon as he could, before Snape could favor Hufflepuff too much. Harry performed his role as Seeker phenomenally, catching the Snitch within five minutes of the game starting, putting Gryffindor in first place for the Quidditch Cup.

Detention

Having realized how much Harry, Ron, and Hermione had worked out about the Sorcerer’s Stone after running into them in the library, Rubeus Hagrid told them to meet him in his hut later. When the trio arrived later, they noticed that the fire was lit, despite the heat of the day. Although he was reluctant to answer their questions, Hermione managed to manipulate him into talking about the various protections used to guard it: Fluffy, the three headed dog, was Hagrid’s, along with enchantments from Professors Sprout, Flitwick, McGonagall, Quirrell, and Snape. Harry, growing uncomfortable in the heat, asked Hagrid to open a window, something Hagrid refused to do as he had a dragon egg in the fire. Unfortunately Draco Malfoy discovered the dragon, and decided to use the knowledge to get revenge by getting them into trouble for possessing an illegal dragon. So Malfoy in turn, tried to tell McGonagall of the trio’s activities.

To save everyone involved, Harry, Ron, and Hermione convinced Hagrid to send Norbert off to Ron’s brother Charlie Weasley, who would take Norbert to a Romanian dragon preserve. While helping Hagrid to prepare Norbert for the journey, the dragon bit Ron’s hand, causing it to swell up and forcing Ron to see Madam Pomfrey. On the pre-arranged night, Harry and Hermione managed to smuggle Norbert in a crate up to the Astronomy Tower under Harry’s Invisibility cloak. On the way up they witnessed Professor McGonagall hauling Malfoy away for being out of bed at night, who protested that Harry was in possession of a dragon. Harry and Hermione passed the crate off to Charlie’s friends and headed back down the stairs, where they were confronted by a gleeful Argus Filch; they had left the Cloak behind.

Filch took them to McGonagall’s office, where they found Neville, who had attempted to warn them about Malfoy. Minerva McGonagall, who was very disappointed in them, took fifty points each from Harry, Hermione, and Neville and gave the three detention, which they were to serve along with Malfoy. Harry’s popularity, riding high on his Quidditch wins plummeted: no one wanted to talk to the «stupid first year» who, along with two others, had lost Gryffindor their chance of defeating Slytherin, and winning the House Cup. A week or so before exams, Harry’s new determination to not meddle in other’s business was tested when he heard Professor Quirrell, whimpering as if he was being threatened. Believing that Snape was the one threatening Quirrell, and that he was going after the Stone, Hermione suggested that they go talk to Professor Dumbledore, but Harry dismissed the idea, as they had no proof.

The next morning, Harry, Hermione, and Neville received notes from Professor McGonagall informing them their detention would begin at eleven that night. Argus Filch took them out to the Forbidden Forest, where Hagrid was waiting for them. Hagrid led them into the Forbidden Forest and showed them a pool of unicorn blood on the ground. They split up, Hagrid taking Harry and Hermione, while Neville and Malfoy went off with Fang. After Malfoy scared Neville into sending up red sparks, Hagrid sent Harry off with Malfoy, deciding that Malfoy would be less likely to scare Harry.

As they continued, Harry noticed the pools of unicorn blood they were following seemed to be growing larger and larger, as if the animal had been thrashing around. Eventually, they came to a clearing and found the laying on the ground, and very dead. As they watched, a hooded figure emerged from the bushes and began to drink the unicorn’s blood. Malfoy screamed and bolted away with Fang, leaving Harry, half blinded by the pain in his scar to stumble away from the advancing figure. Harry was saved by Firenze, a palamino centaur, who allowed Harry to ride on his back out of the forest. Firenze told Harry the properties of unicorn blood. Harry realized that there would only be one person who would be so desperate as to kill a unicorn: Lord Voldemort.

The Sorcerer’s Stone

While talking to Ron and Hermione after finishing their exams, Harry realized the strange coincidence that had occurred: Hagrid wanted a dragon more than anything else, only to meet a stranger who had one to give him. They ran down to ask Hagrid more about the man who gave him Norbert, only to find out that the stranger never lowered his hood, something of a fashion in the Hog’s Head Inn. Hagrid explained that he couldn’t remember much, as the man kept buying him drinks, but said that he thought they talked about Hogwarts and the kinds of creatures Hagrid looks after there.

Focused on remembering what had happened that night, Hagrid accidentally let slip that Fluffy fell asleep when played music. Harry, Ron, and Hermione, now convinced that Snape had all the information he needed to get past Fluffy, decided to go see Professor Dumbledore and tell him their suspicions. While walking across the Entrance Hall, they were stopped by Professor McGonagall, and decided to tell her what they’d found out. She insisted that no one could steal the Stone, and told them that Dumbledore was in London for the day.

As the trio set off that night to stop Snape, they were stopped themselves by Neville, who believed they were sneaking out without reason again, and was worried that they would loose Gryffindor even more points. Desperate as they were for time, Hermione paralyzed Neville. When they arrived the third-floor corridor, it was to find Fluffy awake, but a harp by his feet. Remembering what Hagrid told them, Harry began to blow into the wooden flute Hagrid gave him for Christmas. From the first notes, Fluffy’s eyes began to droop, and he quickly fell asleep. Jumping through the trapdoor, they found themselves in Professor Sprout’s room, filled with Devil’s Snare, which almost smothered them.

The next room, Professor Flitwick’s, held a bunch of flying keys and some broomsticks. Harry found the correct key, caught it, and unlocked the next door with it. The next room was Professor McGonagall’s, and had a large chessboard, for a game of Wizard’s Chess which Ron won at the cost of sacrificing himself. Harry and Hermione continued to the next room (leaving an unconscious Ron where they could return for him), to find an unconscious troll; Professor Quirrell’s room. Lastly, they entered Professor Snape’s room, and found seven potions in bottles along with a roll of paper giving clues on which one to drink to continue: a logic puzzle. Hermione solved the puzzle, and at Harry’s urging, drank the potion that allowed her to head back so that she could get Ron out, while Harry drank the potion to go forward to the final room.

Once inside the room, Harry’s attention was drawn to two things: the Mirror of Erised, and Quirrell. Quirrell bound Harry before explaining that the Mirror was the key to finding the stone. Desperate to distract him from the Mirror, Harry questioned Quirrell, who revealed that was serving Lord Voldemort, and although Snape hated Harry (because Snape allegedly loathed his father in their time at school), he never wanted him dead. Unable to locate the stone, Quirrell asked Voldemort for help; much to Harry’s surprise, a voice which seemed to issue from Quirrell himself said «to use the boy».

Looking in the Mirror, Harry saw his reflection pull the stone out of his pocket and replace it, at which point he felt the real stone drop his real pocket. He told Quirrell that he saw himself winning the House Cup, but Voldemort, an accomplished Legilimens, informed Quirrell that Harry was lying, and ordered Quirrell to allow him to speak «to the boy». Quirrell unwrapped his turban, and turned away from Harry. Voldemort, who was sticking out of the back of Quirrell’s head, demanded that Harry give him the Stone. Harry refused, and Quirrell seized him, causing Harry’s scar to sear with pain; but contact with Harry’s skin burned Quirrell’s hands, forcing him to release Harry. Harry, realizing that contact caused Quirrell pain, grabbed Quirrell’s arm and held on until he blacked out.

He woke in the Hospital Wing, where Albus Dumbledore reassured him that Quirrell did not succeed at getting the stone, and that the stone had in fact, been destroyed. Dumbledore then explained the reason why Quirrell could not touch him was that because Harry’s mother had died to save him, granting him protection against Voldemort.

At the End-of-Term Feast, after seemingly congratulating Slytherin on winning the House Cup, Dumbledore awarded Ron and Hermione fifty points, Harry sixty points, and Neville ten, which allowed them to win the cup.

Second year

Harry’s second year in 1992 started out badly and gradually got worse. Throughout the preceding summer, the Dursleys became so fearful of his newly discovered magical abilities that they locked away all of his school supplies immediately after his return home to them. They even went as far as to ban him from saying words pertaining or related to magic in general, as evident to Harry getting reprimanded by Uncle Vernon for saying the word «magic» at the breakfast table one day. This, however, did not stop Harry from exploiting their paranoia in order to have quiet time alone, such as taunting Dudley with made-up magical incantations (like Jiggery Pokery, Hocus Pocus, and Squiggly wiggly) whenever the latter teased him. Furthermore, he had no contact with any of his friends nor any news from the wizarding world, and Hedwig took to making noise out of boredom from being padlocked in her cage.

On July 31 (Harry’s twelfth birthday), Harry felt very lonely from receiving no letters from his friends. Dudley taunted him stating «Who would want to be friends with you?» The Dursleys seemed to have forgotten his birthday too, for they were too busy preparing for a dinner party with a client of Vernon’s at work. The sight of the hedge supposedly staring back startled Harry, but Dudley Dursley came over to bother him as the eyes vanished. Harry tried to scare his cousin away by pretending the use of incantations would set the hedge on fire. Petunia then threatened him with a soapy pan and tasked him with a list of chores to keep him out of her way until Vernon and Dudley returned home from buying dinner jackets.

When he was sent up to his bedroom later that evening for the dinner party, a house-elf named Dobby waiting on his bed to warn him against returning to Hogwarts, as it meant putting himself in great danger. He tried to tell Dobby that Hogwarts was his home and where he belonged. The elf then revealed that he prevented the direct deliverance of the mail from Harry’s friends and promised to give the letters back when Harry complied with the warning.

This bargain failed as well, so Dobby crashed the dinner party downstairs via a Hover Charm on Petunia’s homemade masterpiece of pudding, which splattered everywhere when the spell was lifted, and disappeared. The mess left behind was thus blamed on Harry, who received an official warning from the Ministry of Magic about using magic outside school. The Dursleys taking advantage of this incident and using it as a means to suppress the magical blood in their nephew, locked him in his room with bars on his window to prevent him from returning to Hogwarts as punishment.

Three nights later, Harry was rescued from his imprisonment by Ron, who was worried about not hearing from him all summer and flew with his older brothers Fred and George Weasley in a flying Ford Anglia belonging to their father Arthur Weasley, the Head of the Ministry’s Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office, to break off the bars on Harry’s window and help him retrieve his school things. Hedwig’s screeches soon alerted the Dursleys of the getaway, but they were unable to do anything as the car flew off with Harry in tow. During the flight to the Weasley family’s home the Burrow, Harry told Ron and the twins about Dobby’s warning, which Fred and George concluded must have been part of a joke from Draco Malfoy, whose family was of great wealth.

They arrived at their destination early the next morning to find a worried-sick Molly Weasley waiting in the kitchen to punish her three sons for taking the vehicle without permission by having them and Harry (who volunteered) de-gnome the garden. Mr. Weasley came home to discuss the results of his proposed Muggle Protection Act to the Ministry with his family, and was glad to meet Harry once introduced to him despite his wife berating him for bewitching their car. As a generous measure, the Weasleys welcomed the young wizard into the family fold for the rest of the summer, though this made Ron’s younger sister Ginny Weasley spend the entire day hiding in Harry’s presence.

Welcoming at Flourish and Blotts

When a Hogwarts acceptance letter for Ginny arrived a week later, the Weasleys set out for Diagon Alley using the Floo Network eight days afterwards to buy some school supplies. Harry ended up at Borgin and Burkes in the adjacent Knockturn Alley. While inside the shop he was forced to hide in a Crushing Cabinet, as Draco Malfoy and his father Lucius Malfoy entered. Draco made many sulky remarks regarding Harry’s talent in Quidditch.

The shopkeeper, Mr. Borgin was surprised that Mr. Malfoy was only selling dark and illegally enchanted artifacts and not buying. Mr. Malfoy was sealing the items before they could be confiscated by the raids on wizarding households Mr. Weasley was conducting as part of the Muggle Protection Act, Borgin expressed pity to the current decline of blood purity. Draco, on the other hand, interest in a few of the items already on sale, including the Hand of Glory and a cursed opal necklace, and was stopped from approaching Harry’s hiding place by his father.

Soon as the Malfoys left, Harry was found leaving the shop himself by Rubeus Hagrid, who brought him out of Knockturn and into Diagon Ally’s Flourish and Blotts, where the Weasleys were in line with Hermione and her parents for a book signing for the arrival of flamboyant but incompetent celebrity author Gilderoy Lockhart, who was recently appointed Hogwarts’ new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. When Lockhart saw Harry for the first time, he got excited and beckoned him up to the front, allowing the audience to take pictures of them together before giving Harry a set of his books.

Harry was too embarrassed by this publicity stunt, and gave the books to Ginny since he could afford a set of his own. Draco went over to congratulate him for being unable to avoid making the front page when walking into a bookstore, but then his father moved him aside to have a one-on-one argument with Mr. Weasley over the latter’s obsession with Muggles (finding an example of which in Hermione’s parents, both Muggle dentists), provoking Weasley into lunging at him. Hagrid broke up the fight just in time, but not before Lucius slipped a diary into Ginny’s cauldron of school books.

Car flight alongside the Hogwarts Express

When Harry and Ron tried to get onto Platform 9¾ to join Hermione and the rest of the Weasleys, the barrier mysteriously sealed, and they hit the wall. They missed the Hogwarts Express as a result, and decided to fly the car to Hogwarts, reasoning that they would not be seen due to the Invisibility Booster that Mr. Weasley installed. However, the booster failed shortly after takeoff, and the car was spotted by several Muggles as they flew northward alongside the train.

Their day-long flight ended with them crashing into the Whomping Willow, instead of with the graceful landing they imagined. Ron’s wand was inadvertently broken by the resulting impact as the gigantic tree started pounding the car in anger of being hit, but luckily for them, the battered Angila broke free from the branches to eject Harry and Ron out of the front seat with their belongings before driving off into the Forbidden Forest. Both boys were found by Professor Snape watching the Sorting ceremony from the window. They were taken to his office, where they were given separate detentions by Albus Dumbledore and professor Minerva McGonagall. Ginny Weasley, meanwhile, was sorted into Gryffindor.

The next day at breakfast, Ron received a Howler from his mother, who told him that he would be brought home if he broke another rule. The day only got worse when the Gryffindors attended their first Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Lockhart’s teaching was a disaster, since the first thing he did was give them a pop quiz on himself and claimed the answers could be found in his books. He then let a cage of «freshly caught» Cornish Pixies loose and struggled to round them up, but ran to hide from them leaving his young pupils to save the day.

As the DADA lessons continued, Harry found himself having to act out scenes from Lockhart’s books as he read them in class. Lockhart was in love with fame and kept bothering Harry, who had to help him answer his fan-mail while Ron had to polish the school’s prizes and trophies. But he was not the only one who paid him extra attention: Many first-year Gryffindors like Colin Creevey were star-struck by Harry, and Ginny had a huge crush on him that developed over the summer since she first saw the famous Potter on Platform 9¾ at the start and end of his first year. After hours of tedious work, Harry heard a disembodied, sinister voice, which Lockhart was unable to hear.

Death-day Party

In return for distracting Argus Filch just when he was about to give Harry severe punishment for something he did not do, Harry promised he would attend Nearly Headless Nick’s Death-day Party on Halloween. He did this as a favor in order to help boost Nick’s reputation, so that he might achieve his desire of joining the Headless Hunt. He brought Ron and Hermione along as well. Hermione was excited at the prospect of attending the event, as most living beings have not been to a Death-day Party. Ron on the other hand was not excited at attending the event.

The event was dismal and dreary. The party entailed a candlelit dinner of rancid, moldy food, the smell of which caused all three to gag. Harry knew the reason for this was the claim that a ghost can «almost taste» seriously spoiled food. Sir Nicolas was deeply touched that the three students put in an appearance, in part because it gave him a certain status in the eyes of his fellow deceased. But the three of them quickly grew tired of the ghostly party and returned to the Great Hall. Before they got to the Halloween feast, Harry heard the voice (which Ron and Hermione also could not hear). He followed it to the second floor where he found the bathroom flooded and Mrs. Norris, Filch’s cat, petrified — coupled with a message on the wall.

Filch became distraught and threatened Harry, as he mistakenly believed Harry to be the culprit. Filch and Snape then tried to get Harry in trouble for this, but Dumbledore said that it was powerful dark magic that no second year student could perform. They decided that Sprout’s mandrakes would be used, once they were mature enough, to create a draught capable of reviving Mrs. Norris. This occurrence left the students and staff with a sense of dread and worry, as many believed that the writing on the wall was just the beginning.

History of Magic

Hermione wanted to research the Chamber of Secrets, so she talked History of Magic Professor Cuthbert Binns into telling the class about its origin. To begin the story, Binns explained that it all started with the founding of Hogwarts itself around 990 A.D., at the hands of two of the greatest wizards and two of the greatest witches of the age: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. But Slytherin got into an argument with the other founders about whether Muggle-borns should be admitted and, when the rift grew too large between him and Gryffindor, he left the school. According to legend, he built a going-away present to the school in the form of a secret chamber that could only be opened by his true heir. This «Chamber of Secrets» allegedly contained a monster that, once released, would purge the school of all Muggle-borns. Professor Binns unsuccessfully tried to assure the class that the Chamber did not actually exist and that the school had been searched many times in vain.

Harry, Ron and Hermione decided that the heir was probably Draco Malfoy. To try to prove it, Hermione proposed to use the Polyjuice Potion, which can change one’s appearance into somebody else’s for an hour. Hermione warned that the potion would take a month to brew, supposing they gathered all the necessary ingredients (one of which could only be found in Professor Snape’s private inventory) and managed to keep it a secret.

Quidditch

During the month that it took the Polyjuice Potion to brew, a Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin took place. Draco Malfoy had been made Slytherin’s new Seeker, on the merit of his father’s generous contribution to the team: a set of Nimbus 2001 brooms. During the match one of the Bludgers took after Harry and focused completely on him. Malfoy lost no time in making fun of the manoeuvres Harry had to perform in order to avoid the Bludger. Since Bludgers were supposed to attack each and every player, the crowd soon realized that this Bludger had been tampered with. Harry still managed to catch the Snitch and Gryffindor won. He caught it right out from under Malfoy’s nose, who was more focused on taunting Harry then looking for the Snitch. However, the Bludger broke his arm and Lockhart in his attempt to fix it removed all of the bones instead. Madam Pomfrey gave Harry a potion called Skele-Gro, to counter this and he was forced to stay in the Hospital Wing overnight.

During that night, Dobby visited Harry and revealed that it was he who made the Bludger chase after Harry and was also responsible for the barrier of platform 9¾ not letting him in. Dobby did this in hopes of Harry leaving or never arriving at Hogwarts. This was a misguided attempt to protect Harry from the monter inside the chamber. Dobby proceeded to ask Harry to leave the school, something he refused to do. He also revealed that the Chamber of Secrets had been opened before and immediately punished himself, as he was not supposed to reveal anything. After Dobby disappeared, Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Madam Pomfrey entered with Colin Creevey, who had apparently been petrified. He was found with a camera containing film that had been burnt to the melting point.

Dueling Club

Harry signed up for a Dueling Club, which was (to Harry’s great displeasure) taught by his two least favorite teachers: Lockhart and Snape. The event was scheduled to take place in the Great Hall. During the club’s first meeting, Lockhart demonstrated an ineptitude. He was successfully disarmed by Snape and floundered throughout the entire practice duel. Also during a practice battle in the first meeting, Draco Malfoy conjured a snake to attack Harry. Malfoy conjured this snake via instructions from Snape. Lockhart tried to banish it, but all he managed was to set it loose on the students.

Harry saw that the snake was rapidly advancing on a Muggle-born student and Hufflepuff named Justin Finch-Fletchley (who had introduced himself to Harry before this incident) and instinctively told it to stop, which — to Harry’s great surprise — it did. The others students were less than ecstatic about this development, however. All they saw was Harry speaking Parseltongue, the language of snakes and became afraid. Since they could not understand it, it seemed to them that he was egging the snake on. It turned out that Parseltongue was a very rare gift that was closely associated with Salazar Slytherin. This was something Slytherin was famous for, hence why the symbol of Slytherin house is a serpent. Due to this, Harry became the number one suspect among students for being the heir of Slytherin. Hermione even told him that since Salazar Slytherin lived so long ago, he might actually be.

Seconds after leaving a conversation with Hagrid, Harry ran into a petrified Justin Finch-Fletchley and a black, smoking Nearly-Headless Nick. Peeves alerted the whole school, and a Hufflepuff called Ernie Macmillan claimed that Harry had been caught red-handed. For the first time, Harry was taken to Dumbledore’s office, and there he witnessed Fawkes — Dumbledore’s phoenix — bursting into ashes and being reborn. Dumbledore says that he did not believe Harry to be behind the attacks, a belief reinforced by Hagrid backing Harry’s alibi, but a large portion of the school was sure that Harry was Slytherin’s heir.

Disguised as Slytherins

Harry, Ron, and Hermione all signed up to remain at the school during Christmas, since Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle had done so as well. This gave them the perfect opportunity to use their Polyjuice potion. When Christmas arrived, they drugged Crabbe and Goyle via chocolate cakes, took their hairs and assumed their forms. Hermione tried to use a hair she thought belonged to Millicent Bulstrode, but it was actually her cat’s and Hermione was transformed into a hybrid. Hermione was forced to spend a few weeks in the Hospital Wing. As Crabbe and Goyle, Harry and Ron interrogated an unsuspecting Malfoy and discovered that Draco was not the Heir of Slytherin. They also heard that the last time the chamber was opened, a Muggle-born girl died and whoever was responsible was expelled. Malfoy also mentioned his father’s secret stash of illegal artifacts.

Weeks later, Ron and Harry overheard Argus Filch complaining about his workload and leaving. They arrive at Myrtle Warren’s bathroom to find it flooded. Myrtle, a sulking ghost, explained that she had flooded it because somebody threw a diary at her. Harry picked it up; it turned out to have belonged to a T.M. Riddle and appeared to be completely blank. Ron remembered from his detention that Riddle had won an award for special service to the school fifty years before. Hermione deduced that since this coincided with the last time the Chamber was opened, Tom Riddle might have received his prize for catching whoever was responsible for the attacks back then. Even though all attempts to extract information from the diary failed, Harry felt a strange compulsion to keep it.

On Valentine’s Day, Ron and Harry were dismayed to find out Lockhart had spread dwarves dressed as cupids throughout the school to receive and deliver Valentines. One cupid-dwarf managed to deliver one to Harry. While struggling to avoid him, the embarrassed Harry tripped and fell, spilling ink all over the contents of his bag. Ginny noticed the diary and assumed a horrified expression.

The Secret Diary

Later, Harry realized that even though the ink was spilled all over the diary, it was not stained at all. He tried writing to the diary and, to his surprise, the diary — or rather T.M. Riddle — began to write back. Riddle explained that he was the one who caught the person who opened the Chamber of Secrets the last time, and he could show Harry what happened. Harry agreed and got sucked into a «recording» of Riddle’s memory.

Harry witnessed the school’s previous headmaster, Armando Dippet, informing Riddle that the school would be closed and Riddle, apprehensive of this, catching Rubeus Hagrid fiddling with a large spider in a box. Riddle reported Hagrid to Dippet. During the memory, Harry also learned that Riddle was an orphan that did not want to go back to the orphanage, and his full name was Tom Marvolo Riddle. Having seen this, Harry wondered whether Hagrid was the one who opened the Chamber fifty years before and whether he was responsible this time. This was exactly what Riddle wanted.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione decided not to ask Hagrid about it, hoping that the attacks had stopped — and indeed, almost four months after the attack on Justin and Nearly-Headless Nick, the disembodied voice kept quiet and the attacks seemed to have ceased. However, odd things keep happening: Harry returned to his dormitory one day to find it a mess. Ron deduced that somebody had been looking for something, and Harry eventually noticed that Tom Riddle’s diary was gone. This greatly befuddled them, seeing as only a Gryffindor could know the password to enter the dormitory.

Cornelius Fudge

The next day, the scheduled Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff was canceled due to yet another attack and Harry heard the voice again. This time, Minerva McGonagall called for Harry and Ron personally, and led them to the Hospital Wing, where they saw Hermione petrified. She was found near the library with a Ravenclaw prefect, inexplicably holding a small, circular mirror. This removed Harry as a suspect in the eyes of many of the students, as they knew he would never harm Hermione. Some students even offered him an apology, such as Ernie Macmillan.

Harry and Ron decided they now must talk to Hagrid. With the now constant supervision on students, this was not easy, but they managed to do it by using Harry’s Invisibility cloak. When they reach Hagrid’s cabin, Harry and Ron managed to hide just before Dumbledore and Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge arrived at the scene. Fudge announced that Hagrid, who to the best of his knowledge opened the Chamber of Secrets the last time, would be sent to wizard prison Azkaban as a precaution. They were shortly joined by Lucius Malfoy, who declared that he and the other Hogwarts governors unanimously voted to suspend Dumbledore, despite the obvious logic that this would only worsen the situation. Both Hagrid and Dumbledore gave last words, but Hagrid covertly suggested to Harry and Ron that if they want the truth, they should «follow the spiders», and Dumbledore said that he would only truly have left the school when none there remained loyal to him. He also stressed that if anybody at Hogwarts needed help, it would always be available.

Visit to Aragog’s lair

Harry and Ron decided to follow the spiders as per Hagrid’s advice. Walking along the trails of the spiders, which were strangely all fleeing Hogwarts, take them into the Forbidden Forest. Even though Ron was deeply arachnophobic, the fact that Hermione had been petrified and that they may be able to help through this investigation gave him the willpower to go along anyway. There, they encountered the Ford Anglia, which had apparently taken to driving through the forest like some sort of wild animal. They eventually meet Aragog, a giant spider which had been the monster Hagrid had been «caught» setting on other students fifty years ago. Aragog explained that Hagrid was innocent, but rather than letting Harry and Ron go, he decided to leave them as dinner for his children. Mr. Weasley’s Ford Anglia came blasting through the layers of spiders, however, and assisted the boys’ escape.

After this, Harry and Ron felt that they had reached dead ends everywhere, until one possible last hope occurred to them. Aragog said the monster’s last victim died in a bathroom, and it occurred to Harry that Myrtle Warren might have been that victim. Of course, with the school under such security, it would be almost impossible to sneak in the girls’ bathroom near where the first attack occurred.

The last attack

Later that same day, Harry and Ron managed to trick Lockhart — who was leading them to their next class — into letting them go by stroking his ego. Just as they patted themselves on the back, they were caught by Professor McGonagall, and Harry had to make up an excuse — they were going to see Hermione in the Hospital Wing, where visitors were now barred. They now had to go along to make their story appear convincing, but rather than simply hanging around Hermione’s petrified form, this time Harry noticed a piece of paper tightly clutched in her hand.

This piece of paper revealed what Hermione had found out before she was attacked. She discovered, based on strong circumstantial evidence, that the monster in the Chamber of Secrets was a Basilisk (a giant slithering serpent capable of feeding on human and animal aura to cause petrifaction and death to anyone near it via direct eye contact), which explained why only Harry could hear it. But none of its victims died because they didn’t look at its gaze directly: Colin Creevey saw it through his camera, Justin Finch-Fletchley saw it through Nearly-Headless Nick (who was already dead), Mrs. Norris saw its reflection in the waters from the flooded bathroom, and Hermione used a mirror to look around corners after figuring things out. There was also a note about how spiders feared the Basilisk (which explained them fleeing Hogwarts) and the rooster’s call being potentially fatal to it (which explains Hagrid’s roosters having been mysteriously killed during the year). This summed up the years events.

On the note was also scribbled a single word, «pipes», which meant that the serpent moved around through the plumbing. Having solved the mystery, Harry and Ron decided to go to the staff room and report to the teachers. When they got there, they overheard the teachers talking about another attack has occurred. Harry and Ron decided to hide to hear more details, and learning that Ginny had been kidnapped and the heir of Slytherin had left another message under the previous one: Harry and Ron also heard that Hogwarts would be closed the following day. The teachers then forced Lockhart to deal with the monster, as he had been claiming he could handle whatever was responsible for the attacks, irritating the rest of the staff to no end. Looking very crestfallen, he left for his room.

Discovery in the bathroom

That night, Harry and Ron felt utterly useless and helpless, until it occurred to Harry that if the serpent used the plumbing to get around and the last time the chamber was opened a girl died, then the chamber entrance must be in the bathroom Myrtle Warren haunted. Harry and Ron decided that if Lockhart was going to deal with the monster they might as well tell him what they knew. They went to his room, only to find him frantically packing, having decided to run away. When questioned on why such a talented wizard as himself was leaving, Lockhart admitted that he was a fraud and that he put Memory Charms on the people who really did the things that he claimed to have done in his books.

He then attempted to put a memory charm on Harry and Ron as well. They managed to disarm him and under wand threats took him to Myrtle Warren’s bathroom. Harry then asked Moaning Myrtle about her death, which she happily explained. She stated that the last thing she saw was a pair of enormous eyes by one of the sinks. This sink incidentally had a tap that had never worked. Harry came to the conclusion that the tap can only be opened by the use of Parseltongue. He found a snake carved on the tap and then opened the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets.

Harry, Ron, and Lockhart slid down a large pipe and found themselves in maze-like tunnels far under the school. Down there, they encountered a snake skin left by the basilisk. Just then, Lockhart feigned fainting and stole Ron’s wand. Victoriously proclaiming that he would erase Harry and Ron’s memories and tell everybody they lost their sanity at the sight of Ginny’s mangled body, Lockhart attempted a spell. Ron’s broken wand caused the charm to backfire, erasing Lockhart’s memory and causing a portion of the ceiling to cave in. This trapped Harry in the direction of the chamber and Ron in the direction of the castle. Ron had no choice but to stay behind and clear a path through the rocks while Harry continued in search of Ginny. Harry then encountered a wall with stone snakes on it, opened it by speaking Parseltongue, and enters the Chamber itself.

The Chamber of Secrets

Inside, he found Ginny lying on the ground, pale and cold. He dropped his wand and ran to her, trying to get a response from her, but to no avail. He then saw Tom Riddle smiling at him and holding Harry’s wand. Riddle explained his presence in the present by revealing he was a memory, which had been preserved in his diary for fifty years.

He then explained what had happened. Riddle had opened the Chamber of Secrets fifty years ago and planned to purge the school of Muggle-borns and half-bloods; however, when he learned that the school was going to close down due to the attacks and that Dumbledore (then the Transfiguration teacher) was keeping a closer and closer watch on him, he had no choice but to cease the attacks and frame Hagrid for doing it. Not wanting to waste all the years he spent on figuring out where the chamber was and how to get to it, he left behind a diary containing the memory of his sixteen-year-old self in hopes that it would, one day, fall into the hands of an unsuspecting victim who would help him finish his work.

Ginny had been writing in the diary all year. Riddle had written back sympathetically and Ginny grew to confess her fears, hopes and feelings to him. She essentially poured some of her soul into him, which was exactly what he wanted. He gradually grew more powerful and eventually managed to pour some of his soul back into her, possessing her and using her body to open the chamber and launch the new series of attacks. However, eventually Ginny became suspicious of the diary and decided to get rid of it by flushing it down the toilet in Myrtle Warren’s bathroom. This is when Harry found it. When Ginny saw Harry with the diary on Valentine’s Day, she panicked and worried that Riddle had told all of her secrets to Harry, so she stole it back from Harry’s dormitory. It began taking control of her again, but this time with the intention of killing Harry, so he had Ginny write her own farewell on the wall and come down to wait, luring Harry to the rescue and, consequently, his doom.

Riddle then asked how Harry managed to defeat the Dark Wizard Lord Voldemort as a mere baby. Harry asks Riddle why he cares, as Voldemort existed after his time. Riddle replies that Voldemort was his «past, present and future.» He then wrote his name in the air with Harry’s wand: TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE Riddle then waved the wand and the letters rearrange themselves into I AM LORD VOLDEMORT. Needless to say, this meant Riddle grew up to become Lord Voldemort. Riddle then revealed he was, in fact, a half-blood, and his mother had named him Tom after his Muggle father and Marvolo after his wizard grandfather, a descendant of Salazar Slytherin. He scrambled his «filthy Muggle father’s name» to create a new one, which he knew people would fear when he became the most powerful wizard in the world.

Battling the Basilisk

Harry retorted that he must be mistaken, because the greatest wizard in the world, as everybody knew, was not Voldemort but Dumbledore. Even when Voldemort was at the peak of his power, he was afraid of Dumbledore, and now he was barely alive. Riddle angrily answered that Dumbledore had been driven out the castle by the mere memory of him. Harry yelled that Dumbledore was not as gone as Riddle seemed to believe. In this display of loyalty, he summoned Fawkes the phoenix to him, who also brought with him the Sorting Hat, both assets that Riddle deems extremely useless.

Riddle then summoned the basilisk and commanded it to kill Harry. However, Fawkes was not as defenseless as one might initially think, and pecked out the basilisk’s eyes, thus preventing its gaze from killing. The basilisk could still smell Harry, however, and remained very dangerous; Harry, in desperation, put on the Sorting Hat, wishing against hope for help. Instead of an answer, Harry had a heavy sword with a hilt embedded with rubies fall on his head from inside the hat. After several missed strikes from the blinded basilisk, Harry plunged the sword into the roof of its mouth, killing it. However, one of its poisonous fangs sank into his arm, injecting a deadly poison. While Riddle gloated over his «win», Fawkes proceeded to cry on the wound and Harry was instantly cured.

Harry then stabbed the diary three times with the Basilisk fang to rid himself of Riddle, unknowingly destroying one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes in the process. Riddle’s manifestation exploded, therefore foiling his attempt to come back to life. Ink began pouring out of the book and the memory of Riddle faded out of existence; Ginny immediately stirred and woke up, quite distraught. Harry and Ginny traveled back through the Chamber to find Ron and Lockhart, who had no idea of who or where he was.

Escaping the chamber

Harry, Ron, Ginny and Lockhart grabbed onto Fawkes and flew out of the Chamber (another phoenix specialty). They returned to the castle to find Dumbledore, McGonagall, Arthur and Molly Weasley, who were delighted to see them alive. Harry worried that Ginny would get blamed for being the person behind the attacks, but to his great relief Dumbledore rightly deduced that Voldemort was the culprit. After Ginny left to get a much-needed rest, Harry and Ron both received 200 house points each for Gryffindor and both got an Award for Special Services to the school. Dumbledore then gave Ron Hagrid’s release paper for him to mail and then spoke with Harry alone.

Harry expressed his concern that he belonged in Slytherin. Dumbledore revealed that Voldemort transferred some of his powers to Harry when he gave him his scar, explaining his ability to speak Parseltongue. He asked Harry why he thought the Sorting Hat put him in Gryffindor if he had so many Slytherin qualities, and Harry admitted that the only reason it did was because he had asked it to. Dumbledore confirmed this and told Harry that «it is our choices, rather than our abilities, that reveal who we truly are«. He also commends Harry for showing him real loyalty in the Chamber, for only that could’ve called Fawkes to his aid. He pointed out to the sword Harry had drawn out of the hat — Harry now noticed it had Godric Gryffindor’s name on it. Dumbledore said that only a true Gryffindor would be able to draw it out.

Dobby’s reward

Lucius Malfoy barged into Dumbledore’s office, outraged that Dumbledore had returned to the school after being dismissed. Dumbledore calmly responded that the governors had asked him to return once they heard that Arthur Weasley’s daughter was attacked. Apparently they had been blackmailed by Lucius to vote for Dumbledore’s dismissal in the first place on pain of Lucius cursing their families. Dobby followed Lucius into the room, thus showing that his masters were the Malfoys.

Dumbledore and Malfoy had a calm and venomous interchange (respectively), during which Dumbledore and Harry (with the help of Dobby’s unspoken hints) essentially exposed Lucius sneaking Riddle’s diary (one of his illegal artifacts) into Ginny’s school things during the fight with Arthur at Flourish and Blotts. This was supposed to frame Ginny for the attacks, with heavy implications on the Muggle Protection Act Arthur Weasley had been suggesting. Malfoy dared Dumbledore to prove his accusation, and while the Headmaster has insufficient evidence to do that, he cautioned Malfoy against orchestrating further such plots.

Knowing that a master could release his house-elf by giving them some clothes, Harry tricked Malfoy into freeing Dobby by giving Malfoy one of his own socks, which he promptly threw away, and was caught by Dobby. Malfoy, after discovering Harry’s trick, attempted to kill Harry, only to be stopped by Dobby. Dobby thanked Harry dearly for freeing him and left. At the ending feast, Dumbledore announced his school treat of canceling all final exams (much to Hermione’s dismay) and that Lockhart would not return to Hogwarts.

Third year

Harry’s third year in 1993 started out almost as bad as the year prior, and gradually got depressing. Throughout the preceding summer, the Dursleys became fearful of his magical abilities getting exposed that they banned him from talking to the neighbors immediately after his return home to them. They even went as far as punishing him for giving their phone number to his friends, as evident to Harry getting reprimanded by Uncle Vernon when the latter received a call from Ron. This, however, did not stop Harry from studying magic every night by sneaking his school supplies and hiding them in his room one night while Aunt Petunia and Dudley were out admiring Vernon’s new company car. Furthermore, he had little contact with his friends nor any news from the wizarding world since the phone incident, but Hedwig was allowed out of her padlocked cage because the Dursleys could no longer take the noise she made in boredom.

On July 31 (Harry’s thirteenth birthday), which might have made the Dursleys forget about his birthday, for they were too busy preparing for a visit from Aunt Marge. The sight of a copy of the Daily Prophet among the mail from Errol interested Harry, as it said that Ron had returned from a trip to Egypt to visit his oldest brother Bill Weasley (a Curse-Breaker of Gringotts) for which Arthur Weasley paid using seven hundred galleons he won in the Daily Prophet Grand Prize Galleon Draw. The article also showcased a picture of the Weasleys standing in front of a pyramid. It was there that Ron bought Harry the most fascinating present: a Sneakoscope, which was sold for tourists. He also received birthday presents from Hermione and Hagrid as well.

When his Hogsmeade permission form was delivered, Harry was worried of the trouble he’ll probably go through in order to persuade his aunt or uncle to sign it. They agreed to do so the next morning, but only if he behaved during Marge’s visit. However, Marge began insulting the memory of Harry’s mother at the dinner table three days later, describing her as a «bad egg» who ran off with a «scoundrel» and left the Dursleys with Harry as the «result in front of them». Harry lost his temper to this, inadvertently making Marge’s wine glass explode. The insults transitioned to his father on the final day of her visit, making him very upset to such extent that he ended up losing all control of his magic powers and accidentally inflated her with the Inflating Charm. Vernon ordered his nephew to put Marge back the way she was, but Harry said no and instead packed up his school things and left the house. He fled out of fear of being expelled from Hogwarts by the Ministry of Magic, for using underage magic outside school, something he had already been warned about.

Later that night, Harry was picked up off the curb of Magnolia Crescent by the triple-decker wizard transport the Knight Bus, which was sent to drive him as two members of the Ministry’s Accidental Magic Reversal Squad were dispatched to deflate and obliviate Marge. During the ride to the Leaky Cauldron, the bus’ conductor Stan Shunpike, gave him a copy of the Daily Prophet with its front page story being about the Ministry’s continuing struggle to recapture Sirius Black, a convicted Voldemort supporter who recently escaped from the wizard prison Azkaban (the first person ever to have done so) after spending twelve years there for the mass-murder of thirteen people with a single Blasting Curse.

They arrived at their destination to find a relieved-looking Cornelius Fudge waiting at the restaurant door to welcome Harry in for a meeting. To Harry’s relief though, the Minister of Magic took no action against him since accidental uses of magic did not count as a violation to the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, but described the choice of running away as very irresponsible despite it putting the Ministry in a right flap. As a generous measure, Fudge booked the young wizard a room in the Leaky Cauldron Inn for the rest of the summer, though this made something about Fudge’s tone spike Harry’s suspicion.

Stay at the Leaky Cauldron

When finished with his exploration of Diagon Alley for school supplies three weeks later, Harry found Ron and Hermione looking all over for him at Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlor four days afterwards while the Weasleys were booking a room at the inn. They already heard of his inflation of Marge, and while Ron thought it funny, Hermione was amazed to learn that Harry was not expelled and wondered why Fudge really let him off the hook. Ron, however, was more concerned for his pet rat Scabbers, who was looking very ill since he was brought back from Egypt (possibly due to the stress of the trip), so he and Harry went over to the Magical Menagerie to buy a bottle of rat tonic for him.

While in Diagon Alley, Harry found it very interesting to learn from the saleswoman behind the counter that most rats have an expected life span of three years. He found this odd, since Scabbers originally belonged to Ron’s older brother Percy Weasley. Thus Scabbers lived much longer than Ron could remember, at least 12 years. As Ron declined the Saleswoman’s offer to buy a sleek black rat as a replacement, a half-Kneazle cat named Crookshanks tried to attack Scabbers, who scurried away to hide in a wastepaper bin outside Quality Quidditch Supplies with his owner and Harry following. Hermione spent the early birthday money from her parents to buy the tonic and Crookshanks, much to Ron’s displeasure.

When the rat tonic was misplaced somewhere around the Leaky Cauldron salon later that night, Harry volunteered to search for it there while Ron was busy helping Percy search for his new Head Boy badge in their room at the inn. But the conversation which a worried Molly Weasley was having with her husband soon caught his attention, so Harry listened to what they were saying about Sirius Black’s escape, and what connection it had to Harry himself. According to Mr. Weasley, when Voldemort met his downfall, Black lost everything he hoped to gain, but to that day he remained a faithful servant to the Dark Lord’s cause.

The Ministry feared that the killer’s motive was to use Harry to return his master to full strength, as evident to the report from Fudge’s inspection of Azkaban saying that Black was repeatedly muttering «He’s at Hogwarts» in his sleep. This shook Harry a little to the realization that Fudge let him go because he was relieved to see Harry all right after running away. Though he was convinced that Hogwarts was a a safe haven because of the presence of Albus Dumbledore, the senior Weasleys agreed that Black could break into the school if he could break out of his Azkaban.

Delay on the Hogwarts Express

When they got onto Platform 9¾, Mr. Weasley moved Harry aside to tell him not to go looking for Black, but Harry claimed that he would never look for someone who wanted him killed. He, Ron and Hermione found only one empty compartment on the Hogwarts Express, but had to share with a friend of Harry’s parents, Remus Lupin, who was recently appointed Hogwarts’ new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. As Harry told his friends of what he heard about Black coming after him until, the train stopped almost halfway to Hogwarts, letting one of the Dementors (a gliding wraith capable of feeding on human happiness to cause depression and madness to anyone near it via mental energy draining) used as the Azkaban guards aboard to determine if Black himself was hiding on it.

Only Harry and Ginny Weasley were the most affected by the creature (since he had the worst past involving the night Voldemort killed his parents, and she had the worst experience of being under the control of the sentient memory within Tom Riddle’s diary the year before), and were about to fall victim to its fatal kiss when Lupin cast a Patronus Charm which drove it away. Harry fainted to the sound of his mother screaming, but recovered when Lupin gave him a piece of chocolate to feel better and sent a letter ahead to Professor Minerva McGonagall saying he was ill.

For one, Hermione was taking nearly twice as many classes, including some taught at the same time. Rubeus Hagrid for Care of Magical Creatures. While Lupin’s lessons were enjoyable, Hagrid’s soon become dreary. During the first lesson, Draco Malfoy deliberately provoked the hippogriff Buckbeak into attacking him. This in turn forced Lucius Malfoy to file a complaint against Hagrid with the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Meanwhile, tensions grew between Hermione and Ron over Crookshanks’ continuing habit of trying to harm Scabbers.

After several Dementors approached Harry during a Quidditch match, causing him to faint and fall off his broomstick. Albus Dumbledore stopped Harry’s fall, but his Nimbus 2000 flew into the Whomping Willow and was destroyed, much to Harry’s dismay. At Christmas, Harry received a new, superb Firebolt broomstick, although Hermione suspected Black was the anonymous donor. She reported it to Professor Minerva McGonagall, who confiscated the broom for testing. Harry and Ron were furious with Hermione and they stopped speaking to her. When the broom was returned some months later, the two boys tried to make up with her, but it went wrong when Ron discovered Scabbers was missing; Ron blamed Crookshanks because he found cat hairs and blood on his dormitory floor.

Maurader’s Map

Shortly before Christmas, the Weasley twins gave Harry their Marauder’s Map, a magical document that showed every person’s location within Hogwarts, what they were doing, and secret passageways in and out of the castle. Harry used a tunnel to sneak into Hogsmeade village, where he overheard a disturbing conversation that Sirius Black was his parents’ best friend, as well as his godfather and legal guardian. Black was the Potters’ Secret Keeper and he allegedly divulged the Potters’ secret whereabouts to Lord Voldemort and murdered their friend Peter Pettigrew, as well as twelve Muggle bystanders. Peter left a finger to prove that he has been killed with the twelve Muggles.

After Harry completed his Divination exam, Professor Trelawney entered a trance and predicted that the Dark Lord’s servant would return to him that night. Harry and Ron finally made peace with Hermione, but the trio soon learned that Buckbeak would be executed. When they visited Hagrid to console him, Scabbers appeared, and Ron picked him up. Cornelius Fudge, Albus Dumbledore and the executioner were making their way to Hagrid’s hut, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione made their way out the back door. As they were walking up the path, they thought they heard Buckbeak executed, when all of a sudden, Scabbers bit Ron, and Ron chased him to the Whomping Willow. A large dog attacked Ron and dragged him and Scabbers into a hole at the tree’s base. Harry and Hermione followed, finding a tunnel leading to the Shrieking Shack. Inside, Harry confronted Sirius Black, who, as an unregistered, and therefore illegal, Animagus, could transform into an animal at will.

The Prisoner of Azkaban

Lupin, who spotted the group on the Marauder’s Map, suddenly burst in and embraced his old friend Black. Confronted by Hermione, Lupin admitted to being a werewolf, as well as the Map’s creator along with Sirius, Peter Pettigrew, and James Potter. Also the latter two were illegal Animagi, a rat and stag respectively. Lupin and Black explained that Scabbers was actually Peter Pettigrew in his Animagus form. He was Voldemort’s servant, and he betrayed the Potters (as Black had switched his position as Secret-Keeper with Pettigrew), framing Black for the crimes.

Harry was sceptical, until Black and Lupin forced Pettigrew back into his human form. This came as a huge shock to Harry, Ron, and Hermione, especially Ron. Black then explained he discovered that Pettigrew was still alive and escaped Azkaban to seek revenge, as well as to make sure that Pettigrew could not harm Harry. Harry stopped Black and Lupin from murdering Pettigrew, believing that his father would not have wanted his two best friends to become killers.

Saving the innocent

As the group headed back to the castle, the full moon rose, causing Lupin to turn into a werewolf. During the ensuing commotion, Pettigrew escaped, while Sirius turned into his dog form to protect the others from Lupin. Lupin fled, leaving Black badly injured. As Dementors moved in to attack Black, Harry saw a mysterious figure in the distance cast a powerful stag-shaped Patronus, scattering the vicious creatures. Harry became convinced it was his father, or at least his father’s spirit, who produced the Patronus. Black was then captured and taken to the castle where the Dementors intended to suck out his soul.

Hermione revealed to Harry that she was entrusted with a time-traveling device, called a Time-Turner, which was how she was able to attend so many classes. Prompted by Dumbledore, she and Harry traveled three hours into the past, watching themselves go through the night’s previous events. They freed Buckbeak and returned to the Whomping Willow. As the Dementors were about to attack the «other» Harry and Sirius, Harry realized that the mysterious figure he saw earlier was actually himself. He cast the powerful Patronus that repelled the dementors. Harry and Hermione freed Black, who escaped on Buckbeak, as they rushed back to where they were before. As they saw Dumbledore exiting the hospital wing, they completed their journey.

After Sirius was revealed to have once again escaped, Severus Snape burst into the hospital wing and blamed Harry, but left when he was unable to convince anyone without any proof. Fudge said he would remove the Dementors because they tried to perform their kiss on Harry. Draco Malfoy was furious that Buckbeak escaped, while Hagrid was ecstatic. Professor Lupin resigned after Snape «accidentally» revealed that he was a werewolf. Harry visited Lupin in his office, during which the map was returned to him.

When Harry told Dumbledore about Professor Trelawney’s prophecy, Dumbledore encouraged him to not feel guilty about letting Pettigrew live. On the train back, Harry received a letter from Sirius, telling him that he sent him the Firebolt, and included a letter giving Harry permission to visit Hogsmeade. The letter was delivered by a small minute owl, which Sirius gives to Ron as a replacement for Scabbers. The owl was later named Pigwidgeon by Ginny.

Fourth year

Harry wakes up from a nightmare at the Dursleys’ house on Privet Drive. He experienced a vivid dream, regarding Muggle Frank Bryce. Bryce had learned of Voldemort’s plans to reward Peter Pettigrew for his help in capturing Bertha Jorkins. Jorkins was a Ministry employee, who Voldemort extracted information from before murdering. Frank was eventually discovered by Voldemort’s snake Nagini. The Dark Lord, unhappy that the elderly gardener was spying on him, casts the Killing Curse, ending the elderly gardener’s life. After which Harry wakes up with his scar hurting and considers writing to his friends and even Dumbledore, but eventually decides to write a letter to Sirius. He does not mention the dream, just that his scar was hurting and plans to send the letter once Hedwig returns.

The next day, a letter from Mrs. Weasley addressed to the Dursleys arrives, she asks if Harry can join Hermione and the Weasley family to go to the Quidditch World Cup final between Ireland and Bulgaria. The letter upsets Vernon and he intentionally says no, but one mention of Sirius Black is enough to convince him to let Harry go. Harry immediately writes back to Ron and on Sunday afternoon, the Weasleys attempt to use Floo Powder to access the Dursley household. They did this, unaware that the Dursleys have an electric fireplace, which results in Mr. Weasley destroying half the sitting room. One of the twins purposely drops a Ton-Tongue Toffee, as a means of product testing, which Dudley eats. Things only get worse form that point forward and results in Vernon throwing figurines at Mr. Weasley.

On August 25, 1994 Harry, the Weasley family (besides Mrs. Weasley), and Hermione Granger attended the Quidditch World Cup. At Stoatshead Hill, Cedric Diggory and his father, Amos joined them. Once at the camp grounds, they met Ludo Bagman, Barty Crouch Sr. with his house-elf Winky, and many other Hogwarts students and their families, including: Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, Oliver Wood, and Draco Malfoy. They were able to see the match between the Irish and Bulgarian national teams up close, because Harry, the Weasleys, and Hermione had seats in the Top Box, thanks to a favor Mr. Weasley had done for Ludo Bagman. It was during this World Cup that Harry learned of the existence of foreign wizarding schools, something he had not given any thought to before the cup.

Reappearance of the Dark Mark

The night after the match, while the Irish team’s supporters were still celebrating, a group of black-cloaked, hooded figures held terrifying celebrations of their own by suspending the Muggle camp site manager and his family in air like twisted marionettes done via Levicorpus. They also proceeded to pillage and destroy everything in sight. On Mr. Weasley’s orders, Harry fled into the woods near the camp site, along with Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, and Ginny. The group was separated in the woods and the trio were on their own. In the chaos, Harry had lost his wand, he speculated that it most have fallen out of his pocket at some point. The trio ran into Draco Malfoy in the woods, and he all but told them that his father was among the cloaked wizards. Malfoy also gave a nasty bit of advice to the trio regarding Hermione’s blood status, saying that she would be safer out of the hooded figures’ sight.

Later, Harry learned that Barty Crouch Jr. had stolen his wand from his pocket. While in a clearing in the woods, Harry, Ron, and Hermione heard someone shout the incantation Morsmordre, casting the Dark Mark — a green skull with a snake protruding from its mouth like a tongue — into the sky. Although Harry did not immediately recognize its significance, he soon learned that the Dark Mark had evil implications. Then, Barty Crouch Sr., Amos Diggory, and other Ministry of Magic employees Apparated into the clearing and began to question Harry, Ron, and Hermione about the Dark Mark. After Harry mentioned he had heard another voice conjure the Dark Mark, the Ministry employees searched the area and found the house-elf Winky unconscious in the bushes. Since Harry’s wand was found in Winky’s hand, Mr. Crouch fired her for bringing shame to his family.

«Mad-Eye» Moody

At the Hogwarts start-of-term feast, Professor Dumbledore announced that Hogwarts would host the Triwizard Tournament, a recently revived inter-school competition in which the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and the Durmstrang Institute would also participate. New rules stated that only students seventeen and older could compete, for safety reasons. Also, during the start of term feast, Dumbledore introduced «Mad-Eye» Moody, an ex-Auror, as the newly appointed Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. This news was greeted with a mixture of responses, as Moody was known to be a great Auror, a little crazy, and to have a magical eye, earning him the nickname «Mad-Eye» Moody.

During the first lesson with Moody on a Thursday, he reveals tht he will only be staying for the year and decides to show the fourth-year Gryffindors the Unforgivable Curses. Despite some fear amongst the students (especially Neville, who needs comfort from both the trio and Moody after the lesson; Moody later lends Neville a Herbology book to cheer him up), Moody shows the entire class the three curses using spiders as his test subjects: the Imperius Curse, Cruciatus Curse, and Killing Curse . He also reveals the the use of these spells gain the user a one way ticket to Azkaban.

The Goblet of Fire

Around Halloween, the students from Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and Durmstrang Institute arrived at the school. The arrival of famous international Quidditch Star Viktor Krum caused a lot of excitement, particularly among girls. Viktor Krum, Fleur Delacour, and Cedric Diggory were all chosen to represent their respective schools in this tournament. However, Harry was mysteriously chosen as a fourth competitor. This came as a shock for all those present, due to the fact that he was under-age and that he never entered his name into the Goblet of Fire during the selection process. Many people (even Ron and fellow Gryffindors) did not believe Harry’s story. They thought this to be nothing but another attempt to gain even more fame and eternal glory. This caused extreme tension between the two friends and they did not speak again for a long time. Ron started spending more time with Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan.

Hermione on the other hand «accepted his story without question» and explains the reason behind Ron’s recent actions toward Harry, stating that it steams from jealousy. She later assisted Harry in preparing for the Tournament by teaching him useful spells, such as the Summoning Charm. Harry used this charm in the first task of the Tournament. The champions were to face three dangerous challenges on their way to the Triwizard Cup. These challenges were in correspondence to the four elements.

A few days after his name unexpectedly came out of the Goblet, Harry attended the wand weighing ceremony, where his wand was inspected. After examining the other champion’s wands, Ollivander examines Harry’s and deems it in perfect condition. After the champions and judges go through a long photoshoot, Harry goes to dinner and then returns to Gryffindor Tower. Once in the tower, Ron tells him that he has an owl and that their detention starts later. The letter is from Sirius telling Harry he will contact him on November 22 at 1:00 a.m. Harry must be alone at the fireplace in the Gryffindor common room at that time. There the notorious Daily Prophet reporter Rita Skeeter asked him many leading questions, took everything he said out of context, and wrote a ludicrous article about him and Hermione.

This article was titled «HARRY POTTER’S SECRET HEARTACHE«. The piece claimed that Hermione was Harry’s girlfriend and that she was toying him around by seeking the affections of Viktor Krum, who himself was very much smitten with her. Harry faced even more turmoil during this time, as the majority of the student body was making everyday life difficult for him. Hufflepuff believed that Harry was stealing spotlight from their house and Draco Malfoy was doing everything in his power to make Harry even more miserable. He accomplished this by making and mass producing «POTTER STINKS» badges, which many students proceeded to wear around. Malfoy had also taking to commenting and reading aloud Rita Skeeter’s articles every chance he got, making Harry very uncomfortable.

The First Task

In the first task, each champion needed to get past a dragon in order to collect a golden egg. Harry received help from Hagrid, who showed the dragons to him and Madam Maxime. Realizing that every champion but Cedric had found out about the dragons, Harry told Cedric about the first task. He did this as a way of leveling the playing field. The newly appointed Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Alastor Moody, witnessed Harry telling Cedric but did not report him. Instead he advised Harry to play to his strengths, hinting that he should use his flying ability to get the golden egg.

Four different dragons were chosen for each of the champions to face. On November 24, Fleur ended up with the Common Welsh Green, Cedric with the Swedish Short-Snout, Viktor Krum with the Chinese Fireball, and Harry faced the Hungarian Horntail (the most dangerous of the four). Harry used a Summoning Charm to bring him his Firebolt and dodged the Hungarian Horntail to get the golden egg. Harry escaped the dangerous task with a mild cut to the arm, due to being grazed by one of the Horntail’s spikes. He also proved to be the fastest when it came to capturing his egg, which earned him a compliment from Professor McGonagall. He and Viktor Krum tied for first at the end of the task. After seeing how dangerous the task was, Ron decided that Harry did not put his own name in the Goblet. He made amends with Harry.

Yule Ball

Between the first and second tasks, the Yule Ball, a Triwizard Tournament tradition took place on Christmas. Ron, dismayed to discover that Viktor Krum had asked Hermione to go with him, called her out for «consorting with the enemy«, though he and Hermione acted as if they had not fought the following day. Harry asked his long-time crush Cho Chang to attend the Yule Ball with him, but was disappointed to learn that she had already accepted an invitation from Cedric Diggory, a fellow champion. Harry and Ron ended up attending with Parvati and Padma Patil, respectively.

While at the ball both Harry and Ron ended up neglecting their dates. Harry watched Cho with Cedric and Ron was overcome with jealousy for Viktor Krum, who danced with Hermione. After the Yule Ball, Rita Skeeter struck again. She had overheard Hagrid telling Madame Maxime about his family and his heritage. She then wrote an article exposing Hagrid as a half-giant, and he was so ashamed that he stopped teaching and stopped coming to meals in the Great Hall. Dumbledore tried to bring him around by visiting his hut, but to no avail. Only after Harry, Ron, and Hermione proved that they still liked and that it did not matter to them that he was half-giant did he finally return to his post.

To prepare for the second task, Harry was told that he had to open the egg he had won from the dragon, but every time he did, it let out a horrifying screech. His rescue from that particular problem came when Cedric Diggory paid him back with the information that he would figure it out if he were to «mull things over in the hot water» with the egg. Harry reluctantly followed this advice and decided to take a bath in the prefects’ bathroom. He had an uncomfortable exchange with Moaning Myrtle, and on the way back to the common room, he ran into Professors Snape and Moody. The latter informed Harry of Barty Crouch Sr.’s obsession with catching Dark Wizards.

The Second Task

Harry learned that the second task was going into the Black Lake to rescue «the thing they would miss most» from the merpeople. Harry’s new problem was how he was going to survive underwater for an hour. He got his answer in the form of gillyweed from Dobby, who had come to work at Hogwarts. The second task took place on February 24. Harry was able to save Ron, but when he reached him he was shocked to find Hermione, Cho, and Gabrielle Delacour (Fleur’s sister), there as well. After the other hostages were rescued, Harry hung around and saved Gabrielle, as well as Ron. The judges were then informed that Harry reached to hostages first. He was outside the hour that had been allotted, although doing so earned him extra points for «moral fibre». After the second task had finished, Harry and Cedric were tied for first, Viktor was in second, and Fleur was in last place.

After Harry was mysteriously entered in the Triwizard Tournament, Sirius hid in a cave near Hogsmeade, where Harry, Ron, and Hermione occasionally visited him, and provided mostly moral support to Harry during this time. Sirius warned him about Igor Karkaroff, the Durmstrang headmaster, telling Harry that Karkaroff used to be a Death Eater and that he gave up a considerable number of names in exchange for his freedom. Harry told Sirius about seeing the name «Bartemius Crouch» appear on the Marauder’s Map when he was working on the second clue. Sirius admitted that it was fishy, but told Harry to focus on the task at hand and leave the mystery surrounding Crouch to others.

A month before the final task, the Champions were shown the beginnings of the challenge. Harry and Cedric both expressed horror at the sight of the Quidditch pitch being turned into the hedge maze, put were quickly reassured by Bagman that it would be put right after the Tournament. They were told the third and final task was going into a maze filled with obstacles to find the Triwizard Cup. On the way back to the castle, Krum took Harry aside to ask him something. Thinking that this was something important, Harry went with him.

Krum then asked Harry about his relationship with Hermione, in whom Krum was deeply interested. Harry told him that there was nothing between him and Hermione and that she was just a friend. He also told Krum not to believe anything Rita Skeeter, who had recently written in Witch Weekly that there was a Harry-Hermione-Krum love triangle, wrote about him. This supposed love triangle also led to Hermione receiving numerous amounts of hate mail. At that moment, Barty Crouch Sr. appeared in the forest disoriented and asking for Dumbledore. He disappeared when Harry went to fetch Dumbledore.

The Dream and the Pensieve

During a Divination lesson, Harry passed out and had a vision of Voldemort being informed of someone’s death and him torturing Wormtail for failing to prevent someone from escaping. Harry awoke with his scar badly hurting and pretended he needed to go to the hospital wing, he actually went to see Dumbledore. Once in the headmaster’s office, Harry overheard an argument between Dumbledore, Moody, and Cornelius Fudge, regarding the Barty Crouch situation: Fudge refused to believe the words that Crouch said about Bertha Jorkins being dead and, while debating what had happened to Crouch, Fudge suggested that Madame Maxime was the likely culprit given her half-giant physiology. Dumbledore then accused the Minister of acting on personal prejudice, which he ignored due to Dumbledore’s friendship with Hagrid. Moody interrupted the debate to explain that Harry had arrived.

Harry was left alone in the office after Dumbledore, Fudge, and Moody left to examine the school grounds. While looking around, Harry noticed Dumbledore’s Pensieve. Through curiosity, Harry peered in and ended up looking into three of Dumbledore’s memories, from the days immediately after the end of the First Wizarding War. The first was the trial of Igor Karkaroff, in which he renounced his support of the Death Eaters and gave the names of existing Death Eaters, including Snape. Dumbledore (in the memory) stated that Snape had defected the Death Eaters and was a spy against Voldemort and no longer a threat. The second memory showed the trial of Ludo Bagman, who was accused of passing information to Voldemort, but his popularity quickly cleared him. The third was the trial of the Lestranges (Bellatrix, Rodolphus, and Rabastan) and Crouch’s son, for the use of the Cruciatus Curse on Alice and Frank Longbottom. Crouch sentenced them all to a lifetime in Azkaban.

The Third Task

To prepare for the final task, Harry, Ron, and Hermione used vacant classrooms to practice spells and jinxes. In Divination class between two of these study periods, Harry dozed off dreaming about Voldemort and left the classroom in a disturbing fashion. Rita Skeeter had witnessed this event and she wrote, on June 24, 1995, the day of the final task, that Harry was «disturbed and dangerous«. This did nothing to boost Harry’s morale, but when he spent the day with Bill and Molly Weasley, they cheered him up. They also came to watch the final task as his substitute family.

Harry successfully navigated the maze with the aid of the Four-Point Spell. He got past both a Blast-Ended-Skrewt and a Boggart disguised as a Dementor. Along the way, he heard Fleur scream. Harry rescued Cedric, who had been attacked by an bewitched Krum; Harry managed to stun Krum and send out a signal for Krum to be rescued before he and Cedric moved on. Harry managed to pass a sphinx.

During this final event, Harry saved Cedric from a Acromantula and Cedric, being grateful, offered Harry the cup. Both Hogwarts champions then showed supreme sportsmanship and cooperation despite the tension brought on by the maze. They agreed to touch the Triwizard Cup simultaneously, as it would be a Hogwarts victory either way, which would result in tie for first place. Harry and Cedric were unaware that the cup was actually a portkey and were transported to the graveyard in Little Hangleton.

Rebirth of Lord Voldemort

This graveyard was the Riddle family’s final resting place, where Lord Voldemort was waiting. Just as Harry and Cedric are trying to figure out what happened, someone appears and Harry’s scar begins hurting again. Acting on Voldemort’s orders, his servant Wormtail murdered Cedric with the Killing Curse. Harry saw a flash of green light and heard Cedric’s body hit the graveyard’s ground with a thud. Harry is then dragged to a large marble tombstone, with the name Tom Riddle engraved upon were he is bound. From there he was forced to witness a ritual in which Pettigrew used some of Harry’s blood to restore Voldemort’s body. The Death Eaters were summoned to the cemetery.

After his Death Eaters arrived, Voldemort spends time criticizing them for failing to seek him out during these last thirteen years, even though they knew that he had found a way to escape mortal death. He then rewards Wormtail for aiding with his rebirth by creating a new silver hand for him. The Dark Lord identifies more Death Eaters and reveals that this servant who is at Hogwarts has ensured that Harry would win the tournament and be brought to the graveyard. Voldemort then frees the injured and weakened Harry and orders him to face him in a duel, wishing to prove who among the two is stronger in front of his minions now that there is no one around to protect Harry.

Voldemort then tortured him by subjecting him to the Cruciatus Curse and used the Imperius Curse, but when it didn’t work he tried to murder Harry using the Killing Curse. Harry fired back with the Disarming Charm. The nature of their wands’ mystical connection caused their magical streams to interlock, which created an effect called Priori Incantatem (Reverse Spell effect). Harry and Voldemort then engaged in a battle of will. After Harry was momentarily shielded by the echoes of Lord Voldemort’s previous victims, including Harry’s parents and Cedric, Cedric’s echo asked Harry to return his body to his parents. This bought Harry some time to grab Cedric’s body and the Portkey.

Exposure of Barty Crouch Jr.

Chaos erupted when Harry returned to Hogwarts with Cedric’s dead body in tow. It was uncovered that Barty Crouch Jr., who had willingly taken the Dark Mark as a young man, was throughout the school year disguised as Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher Alastor Moody. Crouch (disguised as Moody) managed to usher Harry away from the panicking crowd to interrogate him about Voldemort’s return. He wanted to murder Harry, but Albus Dumbledore and several other members of the Hogwarts staff arrived to stop him. Under the influence of Veritaserum, Crouch confessed everything.

In a terrible turn of fate, Crouch’s soul was destroyed by the Dementor’s Kiss, from the Dementor that accompanied Cornelius Fudge. Fudge felt that his personal safety was in jeopardy, hence why he brought the Dementor. As a result, Crouch Jr. could not give testimony and the Ministry of Magic began to dispute Harry’s and Dumbledore’s insistence that Voldemort had returned. The Minister refused to believe Harry’s account of Voldemort’s return, even when he was supported by Albus Dumbledore. This was due to Fudge not wanting the peace and tranquillity they worked so hard for to be destabilized by this announcement. The Ministry publicly denied the Dark Lord’s return and branded Harry and Dumbledore either liars or nutters in the press. Voldemort and his Death Eaters took advantage of this to operate in secret, while Dumbledore called for a reconstitution of the Order of the Phoenix.

Fifth year

Witnessing Cedric Diggory’s murder was very difficult for Harry, and it was not helpful that he was forced back to number 4 Privet Drive in the school holidays. He suffered constant nightmares and flashbacks. Also his friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger seemed to block him from information and he was blocked entirely from the wizarding world except for the Daily Prophet that said that Harry was wrong. To make things worse than they were already, on August 2 someone (Dolores Umbridge) sent Dementors to attack Harry in the Muggle town of Little Whinging, in an attempt to neutralize him. He was forced to perform a Patronus Charm in order to save Dudley and himself.

After Harry explains to the Dursleys about the Dementor’s abilities, Vernon blames Harry and is ready to throw Harry out. He had always yearned to do so since the family received Harry, when Petunia receives a Howler. Before she has an opportunity to open the letter, it bursts into flames and a menacing voice says, «Remember my last, Petunia«. Petunia then immediately convinces her husband to let Harry remain at Privet Drive and tells him that he needs to stay in his room. Harry having no idea of what’s going on retreats to his room and proceeds to stay there.

Hearing

Subsequently, Harry was formally accused of performing underage magic in the presence of a Muggle and was expelled, but thanks to Albus Dumbledore’s intervention, this was changed to a disciplinary hearing in front of the entire Wizengamot at the Ministry of Magic on August 12. In a further attempt to discredit Harry, the Ministry changed the time and location of the hearing at the last minute, but Harry was able to make it there just minutes late. He was threatened with expulsion from Hogwarts, but was exonerated with help from Dumbledore, who had a witness and legal loopholes to help him.

Dolores Umbridge

In retaliation against Dumbledore, Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge appointed Dolores Umbridge, his Senior Undersecretary, as the new Hogwarts Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher so that she could spy on the school. She was later appointed Hogwarts High Inquisitor, empowered to arbitrarily change and impose school rules whenever she chose. She made numerous rules that the students were expected to follow and if they did not harsh punishments would be enacted. Umbridge proved to be sadistic and cruel, with a personality that resembled poisoned honey.

Harry hated her on sight and she had a deep dislike for him as well. This dislike bordered on hatred and came about because of her inability to control him. Every time Harry spoke out of turn or even mentioned Voldemort, Umbridge threw him into detention. The detentions he had with her were torturous, forcing him to write with a Black Quill. The Black Quill was of her own invention and it made him write with his own blood, scribed the message «I must not tell lies» onto the back of his hand. Harry had to endure numerous sessions with the quill, so many that the words are now permanently carved into his hand. These detentions however did not sway him from his opinions or make him subservient to Umbridge. They had the opposite effect and strengthen his resolve to stand by his statements of Voldemort’s return .

However, Umbridge presumed the message had failed to sink in, as Harry spread the word through The Quibbler about the previous year’s events, and thus he was banned from any more Hogsmeade visits. Also once Umbridge found out that he gave The Quibbler an exclusive interview she banned the magazine, which caused the whole student body to take an interest in it. Later in the year Ron was chosen to be a prefect, not him. This surprised everyone, as they all believed that Harry would have gotten the badge instead of Ron. It was later revealed that Ron was chosen instead of Harry because Dumbledore thought that Harry had «enough responsibility to be going on with«. Harry’s jealousy threatened to affect his friendship with Ron, but he felt better when he discovered that his father was also not chosen as a prefect at school. This suggests that Harry’s desire in becoming prefect was to emulate his father, who was Head Boy in his day, not to inflate a sense of his own importance.

Dumbledore’s Army

Because Fudge was raked with paranoia and stubbornly believed that Dumbledore was training an army to overthrow him, Umbridge had the Defense Against the Dark Arts class reduced to reading textbooks. This proved an ineffective teaching method and did nothing to prepare students for what was to come. Hermione proposed the idea that Harry teach the students, as he has previous experience defending himself against the Dark Arts and various monsters.

The trio held a meeting at the Hog’s Head to discuss with other students the possibility of Harry giving them Defense lessons. Harry is stunned at how many there are various Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, and Hufflepuffs show up. Although he harbored the suspicion that a few, such as Zacharias Smith, only wanted to hear about the night Cedric Diggory was murdered. After some initial scepticism, the students started to list Harry’s achievements: the rescue of the Sorcerer’s Stone from a disembodied Voldemort, slaying of Slytherin’s basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets with the Sword of Gryffindor, ability to produce a corporeal Patronus, and winning of the Triwizard Tournament.

Giving into Hermione’s persistent urgings, Harry secretly trained a group of students in practical defensive magic. In an attempt to make light of the Ministry’s fears, the group called themselves Dumbledore’s Army (or the D.A.). Aware that arranging meetings and passing the word about them verbally was not a secure method of communication, Hermione bewitched several coins with a Protean Charm one for each member of the D.A. When activated by Harry, the numbers on each coin would change to inform the bearer of the time and date of the next meeting. Feeling highly anxious and frustrated most of the time Harry found that the D.A. was now his chief source of happiness, and the thing to which he looked forward throughout his school day. This happiness was felt by most members, as all of them (particularly Neville and the Creevey brothers) gained a lot of skills under Harry’s tutelage.

Harry taught the group many different spells, ranking from the simplistic Disarming Charm to the highly advanced Patronus Charm. The class progressed at a fair rate, practicing the: Impediment Jinx, Reductor Curse, Stunning Spell, and various other hexes and jinxes before temporarily breaking up for Christmas break. Lessons continued during the early months of 1996, The class mastered the Shield Charm, and began to work on the Patronus Charm. Some members were even able to produce corporeal Patronuses, Harry thought this might have been due to the lack of Dementors present, as there was nothing to make the students scared.

Occlumency

Cho Chang also became a member. During the meetings whenever Harry was near, she would become so flustered that she had difficulty casting spells correctly. Before the Christmas holidays, she and Harry were discussing how she had never been able to pull of the Stunning Spell before, when the room generated mistletoe. The room did this due to sensing the tension that was present. Under the mistletoe, the two kissed for the first time. This moment was confusing to Harry, as Cho, clearly still suffering from her ex-boyfriend’s death, had been crying during their kiss. Cho’s crying during the kiss also caused concern in Harry. Harry later informed Hermione and Ron of his disastrous first kiss and Hermione comforted him saying that it was not his kissing that made Cho cry.

However, Harry took on some much more pressing worries later that night. Lord Voldemort, wanting a «secret weapon» against him, had heard of a prophecy hidden in the Ministry’s Department of Mysteries concerning both of them. Voldemort had been obsessing over the door to the Hall of Prophecy for the past few months, and had been inadvertently allowing Harry to read his thoughts through Legilimency. The link between Harry and Voldemort’s minds had been growing stronger for quite a while. As a result, after falling asleep on the night of his kiss with Cho, Harry witnessed Nagini attack Arthur Weasley in his dream, and felt almost as if he had been the snake. Realizing what could happen if the link grew more powerful, Dumbledore commissioned Snape to train Harry in Occlumency in an effort to prevent further problems.

Critically injured, Arthur was taken to St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. Harry, Ron, Ginny, Fred, and George took a portkey to Grimmauld Place. When they arrive at headquarters, they were greeted by Sirius, who ordered them to stay put and wait for news. Mrs. Weasley stated that Arthur survived the attack and was grateful towards Harry. Even though Arthur survived, he was required to take a Blood-Replenishing Potion at regular intervals. Mr. Weasley also shared the ward with a man who had been bitten by a werewolf and a woman with a massive chunk out of her leg who refused to tell the Healers what had bitten her, arousing suspicions she had been handling something illegal.

Hermione joined Harry and the Weasleys at Grimmauld Place for Christmas, and Percy sent back his Weasley jumper, which made his mother cry. Hermione, Ron and Ginny discovered that Neville’s parents were insane and living at St. Mungo’s. They were informed of this by Neville’s grandmother, who made it known that Frank and Alice were tortured by Death Eaters for information regarding Voldemort. They also saw their former Defense Against the Dark Arts professor Gilderoy Lockhart. Also Harry finally admitted that he knew what happened to Neville’s parents.

Unfortunately, Harry did not enjoy having his mind peered into and did not focus on using Occlumency, having indeed been extremely curious about the door himself. During a lesson in Occlumency, Snape stepped out of the room, and Harry’s curiosity got the best of him. He looked into the pensieve, which contained Snape’s memories, and, to his dismay, Harry found images of his father bullying Snape and of his mother rushing to his defense. Harry found himself siding with his mother, agreeing that James’ treatment of Snape was wrong and it bordered on being almost cruel.^[10]

The conflict escalated to the point where Snape called Lily a «Mudblood», an act that cost him his friendship with her. Snape himself discovered Harry’s spying. Snape refused to give him any more Occlumency lessons, something that Harry was not particularly concerned about and something he did not inform anyone of. Uncovering the source behind Snape’s hatred for James left Harry seeing his father in a slightly different light. He also found comfort in the fact that at least his mother appeared to be person of strong morals while wondering why she ever agreed to marry James in the first place.

Dumbledore’s escape

As the second term progressed, Harry’s relationship with Cho became more strained. While the two did like each other, Cho was mistakenly jealous of Hermione due to the latter’s closeness with Harry, and Harry still felt awkward about Cho’s feelings over Cedric. When Cho’s friend, Marietta Edgecombe, betrayed the D.A. to Umbridge, the members were all punished and forced to end their meetings. Harry was furious with Marietta but Cho insisted on defending her friend. Cho even claimed that it was not Marietta’s fault because she was being pressured by her mother. At this point, Cho’s and Harry’s relationship «fell apart», and the two no longer saw each other romantically. Umbridge is appointed Headmistress and imposes even tighter control. Fred and George Weasley rebelled against the new authority at the school. On one occasion, the twins released enchanted fireworks through the castle.

Fred and George took it easy during the Easter holidays, but then took their rebellion to a new level. They turned a corridor of the school into a swamp to create a diversion for Harry to access the fireplace in Umbridge’s office in an attempt to contact Sirius, and were cornered by Umbridge and members of the Inquisitorial Squad. In a final act of defiance, the twins summoned their brooms, openly mocked Umbridge’s authority, struck the Squad members with a variety of jinxes, and escaped the school behind to pursue a career in their joke shop with the money Harry lent them.

Careers Advice and Grawp

The fifth years begin the sessions on the advice of what they’ll need to do to prepare for the careers they’ll pursue after graduation. During Harry’s career advice session with Professor McGonagall, he tells her that he wants to be an Auror. During this admission they are rudely interrupted several times by Umbridge; she remarks against Harry’s ambition of becoming an Auror. She stating that applicants can not have a criminal record, these constant interruptions angered McGonagall. The meeting ends with McGonagall supporting him, and having a screaming argument with Umbridge.

During the final Quidditch match of the year — in which Harry did not play as Umbridge had banned him for life — Hagrid, who had returned to the school months into the term and very badly beaten, decided to show Harry and Hermione why he was so badly injured. This caused them to miss much of Gryffindor’s Quidditch match. Hagrid also relayed to the trio were he had been during those months that he was away. He along with Madam Maxime were given a mission to the Giant Colony, in order to persuade them to join Dumbledore and his cause. This mission proved to be a failure to the Order, as the giants chose to align with the Death Eaters, due to their shared love of violence and killing.

Hagrid had dragged a giant back with him from his mission over the summer. It transpired that the giant (named Grawp) was Hagrid’s half-brother on his mother’s side, and that Hagrid had been attempting to civilize the giant, but with few results. He made Harry and Hermione promise that they would look after Grawp, should Hagrid be forced to leave the school for any reason. Hagrid was attacked and left the school during O.W.L. examinations, and thus Harry never had to go down to Grawp in the forest.

Skirmish in the Forbidden Forest

Eventually, late in the O.W.L. examinations on June 18, while taking his History of Magic exam Harry dozed off. He received a vision of Voldemort torturing Sirius and ordering him to get the prophecy. Harry was prepared to go to the Ministry immediately, but Hermione advised him to check Grimmauld Place first to see if Sirius was still there. Harry used the Floo Network in Umbridge’s office to peer into Grimmauld Place, where Kreacher stated that Sirius was gone. Unfortunately, Umbridge caught Harry and his friends in the act.

Umbridge asked Snape to extract information from Harry through the use of Veritaserum, but Snape claimed to have none left in his stocks. Umbridge then resorted to the Cruciatus Curse, revealing that it was she who set the Dementors loose on Harry. Hermione managed to save him by luring Umbridge into the Forbidden Forest. Once in the forest, Umbridge attempted to harm Harry and Hermione, but was dragged off by centaurs for calling them «filthy half-breeds! Beasts!» and «creatures of near-human intelligence». Harry and Hermione escaped when Grawp stumbled into the centaur camp looking for Hagrid. The trio, along with D.A. members Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom, and Luna Lovegood — who had assisted in Harry’s attempt to contact Grimmauld Place — used Thestrals to fly to London.

Battle of the Department of Mysteries

After reaching the Department of Mysteries, Harry led them all through various rooms in search of Sirius, without finding him. The group became doubtful until they came across a room filled with crystal balls, later to be known as prophecies. One of the prophecies had Harry’s name on it, and he picked it up, much to the displeasure of Hermione. Upon picking up the prophecy, Death Eaters appeared, revealing that it was all a ruse to bring him there. Harry then attempts to buy time by fully mocking Voldemort in front of his Death Eaters, which infuriates Bellatrix, yet Lucius stops her from hurting Potter, not through defense, but so that they can protect the prophecy. Harry still refuses to hand over the prophecy, so Lucius then begins to tease him that the prophecy holds the answer to his scar, why Voldemort wishes to kill him, and the cause of the Second Wizarding War.

Just then, on Harry’s signal, the six D.A. members all use the Reductor Curse to smash the shelves of prophecies, distracting the Death Eaters so that they could flee. Ron, Ginny, and Luna had taken another path and Harry, Hermione, and Neville did not know where they were. Chaos ensued, Harry’s group was chased through various rooms. When in the Death Chamber, all but Harry and Neville were incapacitated in the fighting. Then reinforcements from the Order of the Phoenix, alerted by Snape, arrived to help aid in the battle. In the ensuing fighting, Sirius Black was murdered by a killing curse from his cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange, and fell through a mysterious stone arch. Harry pursued Bellatrix, using the Cruciatus Curse, but he was unable to kill her.

Voldemort appeared, angered by the failures of his Death Eaters. For the second time, he attempted to fatally curse Harry, who was too transfixed to even defend himself, but Dumbledore’s sudden arrival saved him. Voldemort then fully possessed Harry, hoping that Dumbledore would sacrifice Harry in order to kill Voldemort. However, Voldemort was forced to leave Harry’s body when Harry’s grief for Sirius became too overwhelming to bear, as Voldemort did not understand the concept of love. Voldemort then grabbed Bellatrix and Disapparated, but not before the Minister and Ministry employees saw him and finally accepted that he was back.

The prophecy

Back at Hogwarts, Harry appeared in Dumbledore’s office and tried to get out after Phineas Nigellus Black mentioned Sirius, only to find the door locked. Harry was none too pleased about Dumbledore’s name being mentioned by the portraits. When the Headmaster returned, Harry lost his temper and started destroying Dumbledore’s possessions, trying to get Dumbledore to let him out; Dumbledore refused, asking Harry to sit down and listen to what Dumbledore needed to say.

Dumbledore explained to Harry the real reason why Voldemort tried to kill him as an infant. A prophecy stated that he was destined to defeat the Dark Lord, for he had powers Voldemort did not: the ability to love, something that the Department of Mysteries was trying to research in a locked room. As a result of the battle, the Ministry of Magic realized that Lord Voldemort had indeed returned, and Harry and Dumbledore were vindicated along with Sirius (though he didn’t live long enough to enjoy his freedom, but was honored as hero by the Ministry). Serious steps were taken following this change in policy, such as the dismissal of Umbridge. However, this was not a sea of change, as the Ministry still had a mistrust of Dumbledore.

Sixth year

In the wake of the Battle of the Department of Mysteries Harry was sent home to 4 Privet Drive for the summer holidays. There, he obsessed and brooded over his godfather’s death where he hardly left his room and refused meals. As the battle had taken place at one point in the famed Hall of Prophecy, many in the wizarding community including the Daily Prophet began to speculate about the relationship between Harry and that place, leading to, accidentally correct reports calling Harry «the Chosen One», the one destined to defeat Lord Voldemort once and for all.

Early in his summer, Dumbledore requested that Harry join him in some unknown adventure. He arrived to pick Harry up at 4 Privet Drive on a Friday, late in the evening. Harry had not informed his aunt and uncle of this development and it came as a great surprise to them. However, they could not depart immediately, because there was a piece of business to attend to: Sirius’s will. Much to his rage, Harry inherited his godfather Sirius Black’s estate. This included: 12 Grimmauld Place, the Black family vault, and the Blacks’ irritating and half-crazed house elf, Kreacher. Harry still retained animosity towards Kreacher after his involvement in Sirius’ death a few months previous. He also gave Dumbledore permission to continue to use Grimmauld Place as Order headquarters. Afterwards they were off, and Dumbledore Apparated Harry to the small village of Budleigh Babberton, where Harry was introduced to Horace Slughorn.

In their time together, Harry and Slughorn discussed some of the professor’s old students and the improved security at Hogwarts. When Harry and Dumbledore made to leave, Slughorn agreed to return to the school if he got a raise and a larger office. Following their visit, Dumbledore dropped Harry off at The Burrow, where Harry spent the rest of the summer playing two-sided Quidditch, but not before informing Harry that he was to be given special lessons by Dumbledore himself. Later in the summer Harry learned that he had achieved seven O.W.L.s: one ‘Outstanding’^[11], five ‘Exceeds Expectations’^[11], and one ‘Acceptable’^[11]. He also received a surprise when he was made Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, which put him on equal standing with prefects.

N.E.W.T. classes

Having learned of Professor Slughorn’s propensity for hand-picking favorites, Harry experienced this first-hand. He and many others were invited to join Horace Slughorn’s Slug Club during the ride to Hogwarts aboard the Hogwarts Express. Harry did not enjoy the experience, and made to leave as soon as he possibly could. Instead of returning to his previous compartment, Harry made to eavesdrop upon Draco Malfoy. Malfoy’s precipitation in meeting weeks earlier had led Harry to believe he had taken the Dark Mark. What he heard did nothing to dispel his suspicions.

Harry arrived late to the Welcoming Feast, due to an encounter with Malfoy, in which Malfoy realized he was eavesdropping in his Hogwarts Express compartment under his invisbility cloak. Malfoy froze him with the Full Body-Bind Curse and stomped on his nose, breaking it and leaving him there unconscious, where he soon found by Nymphadora Tonks who healed his nose and escorted him to the castle. At the feast, Harry was shocked to learn that Severus Snape had been promoted to Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. While this disappointed Harry greatly, his career as an Auror reopened, as Professor Slughorn would accept his ‘Exceeds Expectations’ score in Potions. Harry proceeded to take five classes this year: Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, Potions, and Transfiguration. As Harry had not bothered to buy a text book, Slughorn allowed Harry to borrow an old one from the supply cabinet. When Harry examined it, he found that it once had belonged to a student identified only as the «Half-Blood Prince». The book contained copious handwritten notes that helped Harry excel in Potions for once. In fact, his skills won him a prize from Slughorn — a small vial of Felix Felicis, also known as «liquid luck».

Private lessons

As promised, Dumbledore begins the private series of lessons with Harry concerning Lord Voldemort. In the first lesson, Dumbledore shows Harry the first of a number of memories he has collected concerning Voldemort’s past using his pensieve. These lessons regarding Riddle’s past were in order to learn his secrets and weaknesses. Dumbledore promised Harry that this information would help him survive and would prove crucial to the eventual defeat of Lord Voldemort.

In their first lesson, the pair delved into the origin of the boy Tom Riddle, by viewing the Gaunt family that once lived around Little Hangleton. It shows a former Head of the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol, Bob Ogden visiting a man named Marvolo Gaunt in order to summon his son Morfin to a Ministry hearing in connection with an attack on a Muggle named Tom Riddle Sr. A huge commotion occurs: Morfin attacks Ogden, with Marvolo stoutly defending his son’s actions. Marvolo also tries to attack his daughter Merope after finding out that she has an intense infatuation with Riddle.

After viewing this memory, Dumbledore tells Harry that both Marvolo and Morfin were sentenced to six months and three years imprisonment respectively in Azkaban due to their behavior. During this lesson, Harry also learned who Tom Riddle’s parents were and how they came to be married. He also learned what kind of mindset of the Gaunt family possessed. How Marvolo and Morfin believed strongly in blood supremacy, something the Voldemort’s mother (Merope) did not share.

Quidditch Captain

The Saturday following Harry’s first lessons, while in the Great Hall the trio find out (courtesy of the Daily Prophet) that Stan Shunpike has been arrested for supposed Death Eater activity. Apparently he was over heard talking about the Death Eaters secret plans while in a pub. Harry believed that Stan most likely knew nothing regarding secret plans, as Stan had a habit of greatly exaggerating. Afterwards Harry, as the new Gryffindor Quidditch Captain held trials to select the team for the annual Quidditch Cup. Due to Harry’s popularity, it proves to be extremely taxing and difficult, with even first-years, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs turning up for the trials.

The first test he administered was a basic flying test, something that proved to be a good idea as it became clear to Harry that most of the students present where not adapt flyers. After an arduous morning of tantrums, foolishness, and many complaints Harry picked the members of his team. The three Chasers, one of which was Ginny Weasley (who out flew all her competition and scored seventeen goals), two Beaters, and Ron Weasley as Keeper. Ron had only survived the tryouts with Hermione’s help, who confunded his competition, Cormac McLaggen.

In studying the Half-Blood Prince’s book, Harry discovered numerous hand-written spells that the Prince supposedly invented himself, such as Levicorpus and Muffliato. He tried these spells and became increasingly fascinated with the book, going as far as having it on him at all times. This was something that his friends were quick to comment on, stating that «all he does is read that bloody book» and that he «practically sleeps with it«.^[12] Harry even considered the book to be almost a friend, a teacher and sort of guide.

Hermione disapproved of the book, partly because some of its spells have a dark nature, but mainly because it allows Harry to outperform her in potions. Three times, Slughorn attempts to invite Harry to one of his Slug Club parties, but Harry avoids them. Throughout the autumn, Harry used Quidditch to dodge Professor Slughorn’s Slug Club events, doing this because he disliked the idea and because it was kinder than leaving Ron alone as Hermione had been invited as well.

The Opal Necklace

In October, during a Hogsmeade visit, Katie Bell was nearly killed after being bewitched to carry a cursed necklace to Dumbledore. Remembering seeing the same necklace in Borgin’s shop, Harry voices his suspicions of Malfoy to Professor McGonagall. But she (like Ron and Hermione) rubbishes his theory, stating that Malfoy did not go to Hogsmeade as he had a detention with her, and that there is no proof that he bought the necklace. Harry felt annoyance towards Ron and Hermione, as they did not back him up, but he did not give up on his theory.

Harry’s lessons were quite sporadic that autumn, and he did not have another one until after tragedy befell someone at Hogwarts. In this lesson, Harry first sees Caractacus Burke talking about Slytherin’s Locket which a pregnant and desperate Merope had sold him, her husband having abandoned her when she stopped giving him love potion. Dumbledore then focused on Tom Riddle just as he was on the cusp of his Hogwarts years, and Harry discovered a troubled orphan who consciously used his magic to bully and intimidate the other children. Also Harry shared his suspicions of Malfoy with Dumbledore during their lesson, only to be rebuffed.

Not long after that meeting, Quidditch season was upon them. In preparation for their first game, Harry replaced the injured Katie Bell with Dean Thomas. The change produced some results, both expected, as the team excelled on the pitch, and unexpected, as Harry found himself in a jealous rage after seeing Dean kissing Ginny after practice. The team’s only problem was Ron, who was suffering from a lack of confidence. In an attempt to boost Ron’s confidence, Harry blatantly acted as if he had spiked Ron’s pumpkin juice with Felix Felicis. Ron took the bait and played a flawless match; however, Hermione took the bait as well and acted unkindly toward Ron and Harry. While she made up with Harry when he told her of the ruse, Ron’s sudden relationship with Lavender Brown led to continued strife, as it spiked jealousy in Hermione.

A Frosty Christmas

While Harry attempted to reconcile his best friends, the Christmas holidays were fast approaching and with them the Slug Club Christmas party out of which Harry could not wrangle. Since «the Chosen One» rumors had been printed, Harry had received an unnatural amount of attention from the young ladies at Hogwarts. Specifically a fourth year named Romilda Vane, who’s attention bordered on obsession. As Harry could not ask Ginny to the party, he was left to ask Luna Lovegood to attend with him as a friend. This made Luna extremely happy and hugely disappointed the gaggles of giggling girls who awaited Harry below every doorway with mistletoe, they gave him resentful looks.

At the party, Harry was surprised to learn that Hermione attended with Cormac McLaggen, a large Gryffindor seventh year whom Ron despised. Hermione confessed that she did this solely on the fact that fact that it would annoy Ron the most. He told her that it served her right when McLaggen was less than gentlemanly, only talking about himself and Quidditch. Harry was then forced to endure a conversation with both Snape and Slughorn in regards to his potion making skills and his future career choice. Later, after Malfoy was apprehended «gate-crashing» the party by Filch, Harry learned that Malfoy was indeed up to something. He also learned that Professor Snape had made the Unbreakable Vow with Narcissa in order to protect him.

Harry’s Christmas was less than enjoyable, as he was cornered by the new Minister of Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour. Scrimgeour had been hoping to speak with Harry for months and used Percy Weasley as his in. The Minister interrupted the Weasley family Christmas. He tried pitching Harry on becoming the Ministry’s mascot, an idea that Harry was not prepared to accept. During the meeting Harry proceeded to tell the Scrimgeour why he would not offer the Ministry his support. The main reasons for his lack of support being: the Ministry’s ineffectiveness in dealing with the Death Eater threat, the knowledge that Dolores Umbridge still held a position within the Ministry, the Ministry’s refusal to come to his aid when he tried to inform the wizarding community of Voldemort’s return the following year, and the mere fact that Harry had no desire to be used. This discussion left Harry and Scrimgeour on increasingly bad terms.

Poisoned mead

Upon returning to Hogwarts, Harry’s sporadic lessons with Dumbledore continued. Early in January, Harry delved into a memory that all but proved that Riddle had murdered his own paternal family after his fifth year at Hogwarts. Then Dumbledore showed Harry a most curious memory, a memory that Professor Slughorn had apparently tampered with, and he gave Harry his first homework assignment: to get the real memory from Slughorn. After impressing Slughorn using a bezoar in class, Harry tried the direct approach only to be instantly shot down.

By March 1, Harry had still not acquired Slughorn’s true memory and had begun to grow more obsessed with Draco Malfoy. That morning he awoke to find Ron under the influence of a very powerful Love Potion, and he took him to Slughorn, only for Ron to end up poisoned. Harry managed to act quickly and save him with a Bezoar. This was enough for Hermione to overcome her animosity toward Ron, and the three became friends again. Ron survived, but was not fit for the upcoming Quidditch match, so he was replaced by McLaggen. This turned out to be a bad choice, as McLaggen accidentally knocked Harry unconscious mid-match. Upon his recovery, Harry had yet another lesson with the Headmaster.

One funeral, two memories

In his lesson with the Headmaster Harry was upbraided by Dumbledore for not completing his assignment, witnessed the young Tom Riddle murder Hepzibah Smith for the famous artifacts (Slytherin’s Locket and Hufflepuff’s Cup) she owned, and jinx the Defense Against the Dark Arts post at Hogwarts. However, Harry still could not figure out how to obtain the memory and focused on Malfoy. His interest was bordering on obsession. It was Ron who came up with the solution to Harry’s dilemma with Slughorn. He suggested Felix Felicis, liquid luck. In the evening, Harry took the potion and not only managed to obtain the memory, but also solved many of his and his friends’s problems, including breaking up not only Ginny Weasley and Dean Thomas, but also Ron and his overly clingy girlfriend Lavender Brown.

Even though it was after midnight, Harry immediately went to Dumbledore with the new memory. It confirmed Dumbledore’s theory that Lord Voldemort had created not one but multiple Dark magical objects called Horcruxes to ensure his immortality. Together, they theorized that the Dark Lord had created Horcruxes out of special objects such as Riddle’s diary and Slytherin’s locket. Before Harry left, Dumbledore promised to let Harry join him if he found another Horcrux. With the memory found, Harry had only Quidditch and Malfoy on his mind.

Sectumsempra

Meanwhile, a recovered Katie had returned to the school, causing Harry to ask her who gave her the necklace. She states that someone Imperiused her in the girl’s bathroom at The Three Broomstick. In the week before the final Quidditch match, Harry discovered Malfoy crying in the toilet and a duel ensued. With Malfoy on the verge of using an Unforgivable Curse, Harry cast Sectumsempra, a curse with unknown effects that he found in the Half-Blood Prince’s book. The curse nearly killed Malfoy and earning Harry indefinite Saturday detentions with Snape and a telling off from McGonagall.

Unable to play in the final match, Harry waited with anticipation as he sat through his first detention. When the dentition was finally over he arrived back at Gryffindor Tower and was happy to discover that the team had won the Quidditch Cup without him. Harry having learned previously that Ginny and Dean had split up and having come to terms with his feelings, was still unwilling to ask her out, fearing Ron’s reaction. So in the heat of the moment he spontaneously kissed Ginny while over fifty people watched, about whom he had been thinking quite often. He kissed her after she embraced him in the post-match elation; this marked the beginning of their relationship.

Skirmish in the Horcrux Cave

On June 30, Dumbledore led Harry out of the castle in search of a Horcrux. Before they left, Dumbledore made Harry swear to obey any order given him, regardless of his feelings about said order. From Hogsmeade, they Apparated to a sea-side cave, where Tom Riddle had traumatized two young children from his orphanage in his youth. Once inside, Dumbledore attempted to locate the Horcrux’s second line of defense. He spoke in a whispered tongue and found a hidden doorway which only opened when it received an offering of blood. The cave was difficult to enter with a toll paid in blood, and to get to the island in the center of the cave there was only a small boat.

They next found themselves in a vast chamber containing an underground lake, with a solitary island at its center from which a faint green light was visible. After a failed attempt by Harry at Summoning the Horcrux, Dumbledore located a carefully concealed boat that would allow them safe passage across the lake. During the crossing, Harry learned another of the Horcrux’s lines of defense. The lake was filled with Inferi (animated corpses of Voldemort’s previous victims) which would attack anyone who touched the lake’s water. Dumbledore instructed Harry on the use of fire as the weapon of choice against the Inferi, should it become necessary. Inferi fear both light and warmth. The thought of the Inferi hidden below caused Harry unease, but was quickly reassured by Dumbledore.

Once on the island, Dumbledore found a stone basin from which he could not remove the Horcrux, without drinking the Emerald Potion that the Horcrux resided in. Harry was reluctant that either one of them drink it, as they did not know its effects, but there was no way to avoid it. Dumbledore extracted a promise from Harry that he would force him to drink, no matter how much he tried to persuade him not to. With this promise, Dumbledore drank and Harry watched as Dumbledore was driven out of his mind, but upheld his promise.

Dumbledore drank and experienced intense stomach pains, dehydration and saw visions that mentally tortured him. Harry later thought that Dumbledore saw the duel between him, Aberforth, and Grindelwald. Harry managed to get the potion down Dumbledore’s throat. When they finally finished the potion, Dumbledore fell unconscious. When he was revived by Harry, he asked for water. Harry attempted to conjure water for Dumbledore with a Water-Making Charm, but this proved ineffective as the water disappeared before Dumbledore could drink it. This being another defense designed by Voldemort. In desperation Harry filled a cup with water from the lake, triggering the army of Inferi that were waiting below.

As he splashed the water on Dumbledore’s face, Harry felt something ice cold on his arm and saw a disgusting hand and the Inferi climbing up from the lake. Harry panicked and attempted to fight back with a multitude of spells and curses, including Impedimenta and Sectumsempra. None of the spells worked, since the Inferi were too numerous and could not feel pain. He was overwhelmed and dragged under.

Dumbledore, having regained consciousness, created a ring of fire around them that repelled the Inferi. He pocketed the Locket and drove the Inferi back into the lake while he and Harry escaped in the boat. Harry then proceeded to Apparate them back to Hogsmeade.

Battle of the Astronomy Tower

After a short broomstick ride through the village, they landed atop the Astronomy Tower. Once on the tower, they discovered that Hogwarts had been invaded by Death Eaters, but Harry’s friends Ron, Hermione, Luna, Neville, and Ginny, who had been ordered by Harry to watch the school lest Malfoy accomplish his nefarious goal. The D.A. members battled alongside the Order of the Phoenix, on the floor below Harry and Dumbledore, with some help from the remainder of Harry’s vial of Felix Felicis. Dumbledore had stopped Harry from fighting and frozen him against a wall with a Full Body-Bind Curse, hidden underneath his invisibility cloak, so all he could do was helplessly watch and wait. While waiting Harry witnessed the death of Albus Dumbledore at the hands of Severus Snape.

Dumbledore’s body plummeted from the tallest tower at Hogwarts. With Dumbledore dead, Harry was free of the spell that petrified him. He immediately set off after Snape, petrifying a Death Eater and seeking revenge. As the Death Eaters made their way out of Hogwarts Castle and on to the grounds, trying to reach the border where they would be able to Apparate again, Harry pursued and faced off against Snape. Harry tried many times to defeat Snape, even weakly attempting the Cruciatus Curse and Snape’s own hand crafted spells, all with no effect. In the process, Snape identified himself as the Half-Blood Prince, and escaped Hogwarts with Draco Malfoy and the other Death Eaters.

Hagrid found Harry and together they managed to extinguish the fire that burnt Hagrid’s hut (caused by Thorfinn Rowle) with the Water-Making Charm. Harry then told Hagrid that «Snape killed Dumbledore«, but Hagrid refused to believe him. Harry and Hagrid returned to the castle to find people staring at Dumbledore’s crippled and lifeless body. Harry moved forward the base of the Astronomy Tower and found his mentor’s body lying still upon the ground and Hagrid finally believed him. Harry proceeded to stay next to Dumbledore’s body thinking that everything that previously happened that night had been all for naught. Harry started crying over Dumbledore’s corpse as well as straightening his half-moon spectacles upon his crooked nose and Harry wiping a trickle of blood from the dead Headmaster’s mouth with his (Harry’s) own sleeve. Hagrid tried many times to get Harry to move, but did not succeed. It was only when he was comforted by Ginny that Harry finally consented to move.

Harry, remembering the locket, took it from Dumbledore’s robes. He was absolutely beside himself when he learned it was just a plain bit of jewelry. It was in fact a decoy; there was a note inside the locket that revealed the real Horcrux was taken by someone called ‘R.A.B.’. It appeared to Harry that Dumbledore had died in vain and that they had achieved nothing that night. Harry was still processing this information while Ginny escorted him to the Hospital Wing on McGonagall’s orders, all the while holding his hand as means of comfort. Later at the end of the year, Harry would inform Hermione and Ron of the decoy locket.

Once in the Hospital Wing, he found a injured Neville apparently asleep in bed, as well as: Ron, Hermione, Luna, Tonks, Lupin, Madam Pomfrey, and Ron’s brother Bill Weasley. At some point during the battle, Bill had been horribly scarred by Fenrir Greyback. When Ginny announced that Dumbledore was dead, everyone appeared horrified. Lupin actually lost control for a moment, while Madam Pomfrey burst into tears and McGonagall was weak-kneed. Harry explained to everyone what had happened on the Astronomy Tower and when he was finished, they were all shocked by what he had said. Harry also revealed Dumbledore’s apparent reasons for trusting Snape and allowing him a second chance.

Funeral of Albus Dumbledore

After leaving the hospital wing McGonagall questions Harry about what he and Dumbledore were doing, but Harry under orders from Dumbledore not to tell anyone except Ron and Hermione, refuses. The teachers then discuss the future of Hogwarts, and plans for Dumbledore’s funeral. Harry turns his back on the Half-Blood Prince’s book, and regrets ever possessing it. Hermione and Ron comfort him, stating that nothing in the book ever indicated that he was capable of murder.

Following the death of Albus Dumbledore, his funeral was carried out. Harry was disgusted to see that Dolores Umbridge and Rita Skeeter had the nerve to attend his funeral, but he did not want to make a scene at Dumbledore’s funeral and bit his tongue. Knowing that he would have to hunt down Voldemort’s Horcruxes and, fearing for her safety, Harry took Ginny aside, and broke off their romance. Ginny told him that she did not care about the danger of being his girlfriend, but Harry still thought it was best if the two stopped seeing each other. He then spoke to Ron and Hermione, who committed to forgoing their final year at Hogwarts in order to accompany him, despite his protests.

Horcrux hunt (1997–1998)

After Albus Dumbledore’s death at the hands of Severus Snape during the Battle of the Astronomy Tower, the mission fell to Harry Potter to complete. He had to complete it if he was to finally defeat Voldemort. He was joined by Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. With four Horcruxes remaining (plus the unknown soul fragment residing inside Harry) the trio made plans.

Harry, Hermione, and Ron all remained committed to their goal to locate and destroy Voldemort’s Horcruxes. To protect their families Hermione altered her parents’ memories so that they forgot they had a daughter, then instructed them to move to Australia, and with some help from Fred, George, and their father, Ron transfigured the family ghoul to resemble himself with Spattergroit. Harry’s aunt and uncle were taken into hiding by several members of the Order of the Phoenix, such as Dedalus Diggle and Hestia Jones, despite many misgivings on the part of the Dursleys.

Battle of the Seven Potters

Harry stayed at 4 Privet Drive for a time, but the Order of the Phoenix needed to evacuate him to the Burrow before he turned seventeen. On July 27 the Order sent the Dursleys into hiding first. Harry was surprised by Dudley’s gratitude towards him for saving his soul and his sincere goodbye. Six out of thirteen of Harry’s escorts took Polyjuice Potion to take on Harry’s appearance in order to be diversions if they were attacked, despite Harry’s protests. Harry also secretly thought that he wished they would respect his body more. Upon leaving, the group was attacked by over thirty cloaked Death Eaters. Harry rode with Hagrid on his godfather Sirius’ old motorbike, that had been modified. They were attacked by multiple Death Eaters, including an Imperiused Stan Shunpike and eventually Lord Voldemort himself, who had invented and mastered unsupported flight.

Harry’s owl Hedwig was hit by a stray Killing Curse that a Death Eater sent Harry’s way. When Voldemort caught up with them, Harry thought this was the end, but his wand acted on its own to strike out at the man who was both «kin and mortal enemy«, destroying Voldemort’s borrowed wand. The chaos ended when Harry and Hagrid passed the protective enchantments placed over the house of Nymphadora Tonks’ parents, although Harry was still completely grief-stricken over the death of his beloved owl. After finding Hagrid safe and sound, the pair took a Portkey to the Burrow, where he found a worried Molly and Ginny Weasley standing watch outside in the darkness.

Harry was relieved to see that Hermione and Ron were fine, but was shocked when Remus Lupin arrived with George Weasley, who had lost an ear. Everyone else arrived safely, but Alastor Moody who had been murdered by Voldemort and Mundungus Fletcher, who had Disapparated as soon as the fight started. Many amongst those gathered at the Burrow believed that they had been betrayed, but Harry refused to believe any of those he loved would sell him to Voldemort, much to the chagrin of Remus Lupin. Harry then stormed outside, where he was struck by a vision of Voldemort torturing Ollivander.

Time at the Burrow

Once settled in at the Burrow, Harry, Ron, and Hermione helped prepare the wedding ceremony of Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour. The day before the wedding, the group celebrated Harry’s seventeenth birthday. Harry received a watch from Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, a traditional coming-of-age gift. Ginny also gave him the most passionate kiss they have ever shared. It was something to remember her by in case he «meets some veela» during the Horcrux hunt. Harry responded by saying that «dating opportunities will be thin«. The pair was then interrupted by Ron and Hermione.

At the party that night, Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgeour arrived to release the contents of Albus Dumbledore’s will. Harry was left the first Snitch he had ever caught in a Quidditch match and Godric Gryffindor’s Sword; Scrimgeour withheld this second gift, claiming that it was a historical magical item and was not exclusively Harry’s property. Noting that Harry, Ron, and Hermione were the only students mentioned by name in the will, he asked the trio why this was; the three were unable to give him an answer.

On August 1, Harry attended Bill and Fleur’s wedding disguised as a distant Weasley cousin, Barny Weasley. They used polyjuice potion and the hairs of a red-haired Muggle boy from the village to disguise him. During the party, Harry met Luna Lovegood’s father, Xenophilius, (who wore a necklace bearing an Triangle-Eyed symbol) and Viktor Krum, (who dislikes the symbol for it is synonymous with the dark wizard Grindelwald, who attended Krum’s school, Durmstrang). The reception was interrupted when the Patronus of Kingsley Shacklebolt arrived and announced the fall of the Ministry of Magic and the death of Rufus Scrimgeour. Chaos erupted and guests started to flee, while Harry and Hermione drew their wands and grabbed Ron before Disapparating to Tottenham Court Road.

There, Hermione revealed that she had planned ahead, packing supplies in her bag, which had an Undetectable Extension Charm on it. Ron changed, and Harry put on his Invisibility cloak, and the three then entered a nearby café to hang low for a while. While at the café, Ron and Hermione discussed the events of the wedding and Voldemort’s coup. They unwittingly broke the Taboo curse that had been placed on Voldemort’s name when the Death Eaters overthrew the Ministry of Magic, alerting Death Eaters Antonin Dolohov and Thorfinn Rowle to their location. After a brief skirmish, the trio defeated the Death Eaters, whose memories Hermione wiped at Harry’s suggestion. Harry, Ron, and Hermione then found refuge at 12 Grimmauld Place.

Infiltrating the Ministry of Magic

Having found no leads regarding the Horcruxes over the summer, Harry discovered R.A.B. during the trio’s first morning at 12 Grimmauld Place. Once Hermione remembered that the locket had been in the house during its occupation by the Order of the Phoenix, Harry summoned Kreacher, and they learned that it had been stolen by Mundungus Fletcher. When the trio questioned him about it, he revealed that it was now in the possession of Dolores Umbridge. On the same day, Remus Lupin had been to visit. He asked Harry if he could join them, but once Harry found out that Tonks was pregnant, he refused. This caused a temporary rift between the two of them.

For the following month, the trio would take turns under the Invisibility cloak to watch the Ministry entrance. On September 2, after formulating their plans, they managed to infiltrate the Ministry. Using Polyjuice Potion, Harry transformed into Albert Runcorn. Once inside the Ministry, it became apparent that the trio did not plan well enough, as they focused all their attention on how to get in and not what they were going to do once inside. Harry searched Umbridge’s office but did not find the locket. He did, however, take Moody’s eye from her door. Finding Umbridge trying Muggle-borns for «stealing» magic, Hermione managed to trick Umbridge into revealing the locket, and she lied about how she obtained it.

Furious, Harry stunned both her and Yaxley. He and Hermione freed the Muggle-borns who were being held by the Muggle-Born Registration Commission, and Hermione conjured a copy of the locket while they took the real thing. They met up with Ron again and escaped, though Yaxley grabbed Hermione’s arm while they were Disapparating. She evaded him with a Revulsion Jinx, but the location of 12 Grimmauld Place was revealed to him, and they were forced to abandon it as a hide-out. But instead Hermione took them to the woods that were once the location of the Quidditch World Cup.

Ron’s departure

After securing Slytherin’s locket, the three friends took turns wearing it, to ensure it was not lost. The locket had a negative influence on all of them, straining relations and causing them to all act moody and inclined to get into petty arguments. They overheard a goblin saying that the sword protected by Snape was a fake. They learned that the Sword of Gryffindor in Snape’s office was a copy of the real sword, and that they would have to trace the location of the real sword.

Harry and Hermione were excited at knowing what object they could use to destroy Horcruxes, but the locket’s negative energy pushed Ron over the edge. Knowing that they now had something they were not close to destroying, Ron and Harry got into a horrible row. Ron accused Harry of not knowing what he was doing and not being very concerned when they learned that Ginny Weasley had been punished for attempting to steal Gryffindor’s sword for them, along with Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood. Ron then abandoned his friends accusing Hermione of preferring Harry to himself.

Ron’s departure left both Harry and Hermione depressed. After some listless time in which they accomplished nothing, they decided to head to Godric’s Hollow, as Harry wanted to visit his parents’ graves, and Hermione had convinced herself that Dumbledore might have entrusted the Sword of Gryffindor to Bathilda Bagshot, a magical historian who lived there and who had been friendly with the Potters and the Dumbledores.

Attack at Godric’s Hollow

They arrived on Christmas Eve. After seeing the memorial dedicated to his parents and himself, Harry and Hermione searched the graveyard for the Potters’s grave and came across the grave of Kendra and Ariana Dumbledore and that of Ignotus Peverell. Harry was filled with regret that Dumbledore had not shared this connection with him. Upon discovering Harry’s parents’ grave, Hermione called out to him and comforted Harry when he reached the grave. After placing a conjured wreath of flowers on his parents’ graves, the two then met Bathilda Bagshot, who motioned for them to follow her into her home. Believing Bathilda wanted to give him Gryffindor’s Sword, Harry accompanied her upstairs alone when she indicated that Hermione should stay downstairs.

Once there, she questioned Harry in what he did not realize was Parseltongue, revealing herself to in fact be Nagini, Voldemort’s snake. Voldemort had murdered Bathilda and animated her corpse to hide Nagini, who attacked Harry, biting and coiling herself around Harry. Hermione raced upstairs and repelled the snake, while Harry’s scar burned, alerting him to Voldemort’s approach. The pair managed to escape, but Harry was knocked unconscious and such a close call with Voldemort caused the connection to re-open and Harry had a vision of his parents’ demise. And in the scuffle, Harry’s wand was accidentally broken by Hermione’s Blasting Curse.

Ron’s return and obtaining the Sword of Gryffindor

After escaping Voldemort, Harry and Hermione camped out in the Forest of Dean, where Hermione healed Nagini’s bite with Dittany. When they were camped out there, Harry and Hermione read parts of Rita Skeeter’s biography of Dumbledore, The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore which Hermione had stolen from the home of Bathilda Bagshot. Upon reading, Harry felt betrayed, because Dumbledore had not shared this information with him. Hermione tried to convince Harry that Dumbledore had his best interests at heart, but Harry became quite disillusioned.

A couple nights later, while standing guard outside the tent, Harry was lead by a silver doe Patronus to a frozen pool into which someone had placed the Sword of Gryffindor, which leads Harry to strip to his underwear and jump in the pool. While trying to acquire the sword, the locket attempted to strangle him, but he was rescued by Ron, who had returned through the use of his Deluminator.

During the brief intense skirmish, the Horcrux created disturbing imagery, as a last line of defense. Ron was showed his deepest fears, such as spiders and telling him that he was the least loved by his mother who craved a daughter. The final taunt was creating apparitions of Harry and Hermione. The naked Harry and Hermione began to kiss passionately angering Ron, who then destroyed the Horcrux with the sword, casting the two away. As Ron had saved his life, Harry forgave him for leaving and after seeing the Horcrux torture Ron, explained that he had no feelings for Hermione beyond that of a sibling. Hermione, who had been inside the tent during the destruction of the Horcrux, was angry with Ron for a longer period.

Visit to the Lovegood House

On December 30 at Hermione’s request, the three friends traveled to Luna Lovegood’s home to question Xenophilius Lovegood. They asked about a triangular symbol Dumbledore had left them to decipher in the book he bequeathed to Hermione. After learning of the Deathly Hallows, Harry, Ron, and Hermione discovered that Xenophilius summoned Death Eaters in an attempt to persuade them to return his abducted daughter. The trio escaped the Death Eaters when Hermione blasted the floor open to show them Harry, but managed to keep Ron’s ability of being sick at home with spattergroit intact by covering him with the Invisibility Cloak.

Harry soon became obsessed by the Deathly Hallows. He spent everyday brooding over the possibilities, forgetting about his responsibilities. With Harry’s new found obsession with the Hallows, he became more and more withdrawn and listless. He came to believe that the Resurrection Stone was enclosed within the Golden Snitch bequeathed to him by Dumbledore. He also surmised that Lord Voldemort was abroad in a search for the Elder Wand. This obsession troubled his friends, and with the drop in Harry’s attentiveness Ron’s leadership qualities flourished.

Skirmish at Malfoy Manor

After listening to a broadcast of Potterwatch around Easter 1998, Harry determined that Voldemort was seeking the Elder Wand, and accidentally broke the Taboo on Voldemort’s name. Captured by a gang of Snatchers led by Fenrir Greyback, the trio were questioned about who they were. Hermione had previously hit Harry in the face with a Stinging Hex in an attempt to conceal their true identities, but it all amounted to nothing as the Snatchers then found the Sword of Gryffindor. After Greyback and Scabior realized that they had caught Harry Potter, the trio were taken to Malfoy Manor in Wiltshire. The Snatchers decided to forgo taking Harry to the Ministry, but instead to Voldemort directly.

When Bellatrix Lestrange learned that Harry had been caught, she immediately sought to summon Voldemort. She planned to do this, until she noticed one of the Snatchers had the Sword of Gryffindor, which was supposed to be in her vault at Gringotts. From her drastic change in tone of voice and her worries that they would all perish, Harry determined that another Horcrux was hidden there as well. Bellatrix isolated Hermione for interrogation based on the knowledge that she was Muggle-born, stating that she wished to talk «girl to girl with her» and proceeded to brutally torture her with the Cruciatus Curse. While being tortured Hermione lied, claiming that the Sword was just a copy. Harry convinced Griphook (a goblin prisoner) to support this story, knowing that Bellatrix would interrogate Griphook next, as she would want a goblin’s opinion on the Sword.

In panic as Hermione screamed in pain upstairs, and Ron sobbed at hearing her, Harry called out for help — a cry heard by Aberforth Dumbledore through a fragment of a two-way mirror in the cellar. Aberforth sent Dobby the house-elf to rescue the prisoners. Harry had him take Luna Lovegood, Garrick Ollivander, and Dean Thomas to Shell Cottage, while he and Ron went to rescue Hermione. On the way, they had to fight Peter Pettigrew, whose silver hand strangled him to death when he hesitated to hurt Harry, who reminded him that he had once saved his life. A skirmish ensued upstairs, during which Harry took Draco Malfoy’s wand from him, and he and Ron saved Hermione and Griphook with Dobby’s assistance.

Dobby’s death

As they escaped Malfoy Manor by Apparition, Bellatrix Lestrange threw a silver dagger to where they were Disapparating. Harry was initially relieved to realize he had managed to apparate to Shell Cottage with Ron, Hermione, and Dobby in tow, but was horrified to see the knife protruding from the elf’s chest. Harry managed to lie him on the grass, where Dobby collapsed and died in Harry’s arms his last words being Harry’s name. Luna (whom he saved) told him it was better to close his eyes so he’d be sleeping.

Harry decided that he would not dig Dobby’s grave with magic, opting instead to do so manually, using a shovel. This was his way of both repaying Dobby’s bravery and ebbing his own grief, as his time, effort, and sweat went into the grave. As he dug, he got glimpses of Lord Voldemort furiously punishing Bellatrix Lestrange, the Malfoys, and the others that were present in the manor for their failure to keep him in their custody and allowing him and the other prisoners to escape.

Harry, his scar now burning temptingly threatening to have Voldemort’s thoughts engulf him, was finally able to learn control of denying Voldemort’s entry into his mind. He attributed this to his grief and love for Dobby. While digging the grave, more understanding came to Harry. He realized that though the Deathly Hallows were tempting objects, Dumbledore had tasked him with destroying Horcruxes. He decided to trust Dumbledore, reaffirming his faith in his mentor. During the funeral, Luna Lovegood gave a short eulogy to Dobby, and Harry managed to say his final goodbye to one of his most loyal friends.

Shell Cottage and Gringotts break-in

Following the death of Dobby, Harry, Ron, and Hermione stayed at Shell Cottage for some time. During their stay, the trio formed a plan to break into the Lestrange Vault to obtain the Horcrux within, with the help of Griphook. Due to the fact that Griphook would only help in exchange for Godric Gryffindor’s Sword, Harry decided to word his request so that the handover would not take place until after Harry had used it to dispose of the remaining Horcruxes. Harry also found out information regarding the Elder Wand from Ollivander. He learned that his hunch that Elder Wand was real and that Voldemort was going abroad to search for it was correct. Harry also learned some complex wandlore, such as what happens when a wand’s allegiance changes to that of another individual and that a wand’s allegiance doesn’t necessarily have to change hands through murder, as most (including Lord Voldemort) believed with regards to the Elder Wand.

Although feeling guilty for the deception, Harry knew that the sword was their only known weapon against the Horcruxes. The other residents of Shell Cottage could not fail to notice the trio’s behavior. Bill Weasley took Harry aside and advised Harry to be cautious when making deals with Griphook who Harry was increasingly disliking. Around the same time, Remus Lupin came to Shell Cottage bearing tidings of new birth. He asked Harry to be the godfather of his newborn child, Edward Lupin. It seemed as if the incident between them at 12 Grimmauld Place had never occurred.

The trio and Griphook left Shell Cottage early on the morning of May 1 to break into Gringotts. Hermione disguised herself as notorious Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange, using Polyjuice Potion. The goal was to try and fool the goblins at Gringotts into believing that it was really Bellatrix who was entering the vault. The trio had Bellatrix’s wand that Harry had captured at Malfoy Manor as further proof for the disguise. Ron was transfigured to look like a foreign wizard named Dragomir Despard, and Harry had Griphook on his shoulders; both were under the Invisibility Cloak.

Their plan proceeded reasonably well; Hermione made a convincing Bellatrix, despite a close encounter with a Death Eater named Travers, whose suspicions seemed to be eased and accompanied the group to Gringotts. Two human guards there had Probity Probes that detected concealment charms, and Harry used a Confundus Charm on them to get Hermione passed unchecked. Inside, the Goblins requested Bellatrix’s identification. When Hermione hesitated, one nervously said that her wand was sufficient proof, though Hermione claimed it was new. Harry suspected the goblins knew that Bellatrix’s wand was stolen and were looking for an impostor.

Griphook told Harry to use the Imperius Curse, he complied and Bogrod then accepted the wand as being correct. Bogrod requested the Clankers, and then led the trio, Griphook, and Travers into a passageway. The door slammed shut, and Harry sent Travers away to hide. Bogrod, still under the Imperius curse, summoned a cart that descended deep within Gringotts. After many twists and turns, the cart passed through Thief’s Downfall, a security waterfall that washed away all illusion charms. When the cart overturned and dumped them out, Hermione and Ron had been reverted to themselves. Griphook believed the other Goblins knew they were impostors, but Harry wanted to continue and cursed Bogrod again.

The trio and Griphook found the vault guarded by an aged, half-blind dragon. Griphook subdued it using the Clankers. Hearing pursuit approaching, Harry forced Bogrod to open the vault, which was filled with precious objects. Hermione screamed in pain, and they discovered that the vault’s protective charms included the Flagrante and Gemino curses: the contents would multiply and become searing hot every time something was touched. Harry spotted Hufflepuff’s Cup, the Horcrux, but it was out of reach. Hermione levitated Harry by the ankle and he snagged the Cup by using Gryffindor’s Sword, as to not be burned by the metal. Meanwhile Hermione, Ron, Griphook, and Bogrod all struggled to stay above the searing-hot rapidly multiplying objects below.

As Harry was setting himself down, he dropped both the Sword and the Cup. Griphook grabbed Gryffindor’s Sword, and flipped Hufflepuff’s cup up into the air. Harry caught it, ignoring the searing heat. Borne by a treasure avalanche spilling from the now-opened vault, Griphook ran off with Gryffindor’s Sword, yelling that thieves were in the vault. Harry, Hermione, and Ron hurled curses at the Goblin throng. Harry released the half-blind dragon and the three jumped on its back. The freed dragon took flight, the three blasting holes into the ceiling for it to fly through as they made their escape.

Battle of Hogwarts

A vision from Voldemort helped Harry realize that the third Horcrux, while unbeknownst to him at the time, Ravenclaw’s Diadem, remained at Hogwarts. Harry, Ron, and Hermione set out on their final mission to return to the school and obtain the diadem, inadvertently tripping the Caterwauling Charm upon Apparating to Hogsmeade and thereby alerting the waiting Death Eaters to their presence. Due to the trio being under the Invisibility cloak, however, the Death Eaters resorted to unleashing Dementors into the streets to try to force the intruders out of hiding.

Having no choice, Harry conjured his Patronus to protect himself and his friends, automatically giving away their position and confirming their identities (the Death Eaters having been pre-warned that Harry Potter’s Patronus took the form of a stag). As Death Eaters began to close in on the still invisible trio, Aberforth Dumbledore emerged from the Hog’s Head, hurriedly telling the three to enter his pub. While Harry, Ron, and Hermione did so, Aberforth remained outside, proclaiming to the Death Eaters that it was he who tripped the alarm (by letting his cat out) and conjured the Patronus to ward off the Dementor threat; mockingly contradicting a Death Eater, saying that what he had seen was a goat Patronus rather than a stag. The incensed Death Eaters believed this and retreated.

After Aberforth re-entered his pub and home, he scolded them for coming to Hogsmeade advising them to leave the country. After Harry engaged in a brief and fierce argument with him, he led the grateful trio directly into Hogwarts through a secret entrance behind the portrait of his deceased sister, Ariana Dumbledore. Neville Longbottom (acting as their escort) then guided them into the Room of Requirement, where they were enthusiastically greeted by the reconstituted Dumbledore’s Army; most of which were beaten and bruised, yet ready to fight the Death Eaters controlling the school. Harry tried to tell them that he, Ron, and Hermione only returned to find something, but Neville contacted other allies with a call to arms. Harry was initially reluctant to allow the others to help, as he had developed trust issues. But in an attempt to be a better man than Dumbledore (whom he feared he was turning into) and after some discussion with Ron and Hermione, he allowed it.

Harry hesitantly asked the room at large if they had ever heard of any sort of legendary artifact belonging to one of the Founders of Hogwarts. Luna Lovegood then elaborated on the fabled Diadem of Ravenclaw, pronouncing that a statue in Ravenclaw Tower depicted Rowena Ravenclaw wearing a diadem. Harry, having no idea of what the diadem looked like, was led by Luna to the Ravenclaw Common Room to observe the statue. Here the pair were ambushed by Alecto Carrow who pressed her Dark Mark immediately upon noticing Harry, summoning Voldemort, before Luna stunned her from under the Invisibility cloak. Amycus Carrow attempted to force his way through the common room door, designed only to open after the door-knocker’s question was correctly answered, by seeking the help of Minerva McGonagall, who easily allowed him entry by solving the door’s riddle herself; by that time, Harry had managed to rejoin Luna under the Invisibility cloak.

Amycus (in fear of his master’s wrath) suggested framing Alecto’s apparently mistaken summoning of the former on the Ravenclaw students; as he did, he spontaneously devised a lie that made it seem as though the students had forced Alecto to touch her Dark Mark at wand-point. In her outrage, McGonagall strongly insinuated that Amycus was a coward for proposing such an idea and that she would not allow it. Carrow spat in McGonagall’s face in retaliation, utterly enraging Harry who suddenly revealed himself while momentarily casting the Cruciatus Curse on the surprised Carrow. The curse sent Amycus flying backwards into the wall where he crumpled and fell unconscious. Harry then told McGonagall about the mission Dumbledore had left him, and she offered to hold Voldemort and his invading forces off, buying him the time he needed to search for the Horcrux. All students of age, the D.A., and the members of the Order of the Phoenix who had arrived to fight prepared themselves for the impending siege. The Battle of Hogwarts began as Voldemort and his army approached the outer boundaries of the school.

On May 2, Lord Voldemort upon arrival at Hogwarts, demanded that the school turn over Harry, and the Battle of Hogwarts began. Harry realized that the positioning of Alecto Carrow in Ravenclaw Tower confirmed the Horcrux’s identity. It was the lost diadem of Ravenclaw. After thinking on it for some seconds, he went to ask the Grey Lady about the diadem. From her information, Harry surmised that the Horcrux had been hidden in the Room of Requirement. Harry, in the meantime, was worried about Hermione and Ron, who seemed to have disappeared. They had gone into the Chamber of Secrets, where Hermione destroyed Helga Hufflepuff’s Cup with basilisk fangs, which were one of the few weapons able to destroy Horcruxes.

The trio quickly headed for the Room of Requirement where Harry remembered seeing the Diadem the previous year. However, Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe, and Gregory Goyle ambushed them. After a skirmish, the entire room was destroyed by the cursed fire Crabbe unleashed but could not control. Harry managed to fly himself and Malfoy out, while Ron and Hermione grabbed Goyle, but Crabbe perished in the flames that also destroyed the diadem. With one Horcrux remaining, Harry, Ron, and Hermione continued their pursuit of Nagini, but before they could go search for it, they witnessed the death of Fred Weasley. This incensed Ron and Harry, but Hermione reminded them that only they could finish Voldemort and that to obtain the final Horcrux they would have to do their share of fighting.

Snape’s death

They fought their way to the Shrieking Shack. Along the way, Harry witnessed many scenes of horror. On the grounds, Voldemort’s Dementors were waiting. After having seen so much pain and death, Harry could not summon the happiness required to conjure a Patronus. In fact, Harry welcomed the oblivion that would come with the Dementor’s Kiss. But, after seeing the patronuses conjured by Luna Lovegood, Ernie Macmillan, and Seamus Finnigan, Harry summoned the will to conjure his and managed to drive the Dementors away.

Once the trio arrived at the Shrieking Shack, they witnessed Voldemort order Nagini to kill Snape, as he believed that Snape was preventing him from being the true owner of the Elder Wand. Dumbledore was the previous owner of the wand, and as Snape killed him, Voldemort believes with Snape’s demise, he will finally gain true mastery of the wand. Before he died, Snape gave Harry memories to view in the Pensieve and asked him to look into his eyes. Upon returning to the castle, Harry saw the corpses of Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks near Fred’s, and he felt devastated. He left his friends behind to use Albus Dumbledore’s Pensieve, welcoming the time in another’s head to distract him from what was happening in his own.

During a one-hour ceasefire, Harry viewed the memories given by a dying Snape, which revealed to him that he had inadvertently been turned into a Horcrux himself. This occurred when Voldemort attempted to murder him as a baby. Because Lily Potter’s loving sacrifice made Voldemort’s Killing Curse rebound and a fragment of his soul latched itself onto the only living thing it could find: Harry himself. This led to the awful truth being reveled, that Voldemort had to kill him in order to be rendered mortal. Harry was unwillingly tethering Voldemort to life.

Harry also learned that Snape was, all along, with Dumbledore because he loved Lily Evans, since before they started school. It was clear that Harry’s life span had always been determined by how long it took to get rid of the Horcruxes, and that it was an elegant plan not to waste any more lives but to give the tasks to the boy who had already been marked for death, and whose death would not be tragic but simply another blow against Voldemort. Heavy of heart, Harry courageously slipped off on his own to carry out this dreadful task. He felt ghostly as he strode through the castle’s empty halls, feeling as if he was already dead.

Harry’s «death»

As Harry passed the Great Hall, he could not see Hermione, Ron, or the other Weasleys, nor Luna. He felt he would have given anything for one last look at them, but then he thought he would never be able to stop looking. He also came to realize that Luna had become one of his closest and dearest friends. During his way to Voldemort, he saw the corpse of Colin Creevey, who snuck back into the castle to fight despite being underage and remarked that Colin looked «tiny in death». Harry in a moments decision told Neville to slay Nagini, if he could, as Ron and Hermione might be too busy to do so. He passed Ginny, who was comforting a small girl, and almost wished she could have seen him, but under the Invisibility cloak, this was impossible. As he passed Hagrid’s hut on the Grounds, he emotionally remembered his trips there, particularly rock cakes, Ron vomiting slugs, and baby dragon Norbert.

Harry then entered the Forbidden Forest, where he managed to open the Golden Snitch, which said on it, «I open at the close«; and the words to open it were, «I’m about to die»; this revealed the Resurrection Stone contained within. Harry used it to speak to the spirits of his parents, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin, who gave him comfort and courage before he met Voldemort and offered to shield him from the Dementors. They set off, and the Dementor’s chill did not overcome him; his companions acted like Patronuses, and Harry continued deeper in the forest to find Voldemort. As Harry approached the Death Eater camp, he dropped the Resurrection Stone. Harry offered no resistance as Voldemort struck him with the Killing Curse. His last thoughts were of Ginny: her red hair, blazing looks, and the feel of her lips upon his before everything went black.

The Limbo

However, the «death» he met was not permanent: the blood Voldemort had taken from Harry to restore his physical form in 1995 still contained the Bond of Blood, anchoring him to life and protecting Harry from Voldemort’s curse, and his willingness to die triggered protections on the people of Hogwarts similar to the protections he received from his mother’s sacrifice. Also, since he had part of Voldemort’s soul in him, Voldemort’s Killing Curse unknowingly destroyed the part of Voldemort’s soul, leaving one Horcrux left. Harry entered a state of limbo, where he met the spirit of Albus Dumbledore and the piece of Voldemort’s soul that had just been destroyed. Dumbledore explained everything to Harry saying that he had «no more secrets from Harry«. After reconciling with his mentor, Harry made the choice to return to the physical world rather than go on to the afterlife with Dumbledore.

Endgame

Harry woke up, but feigned death. He was assisted in this by Narcissa Malfoy, who had secretly turned against Voldemort by telling him Harry was dead in order to protect her son, because she knew the only way she would be permitted to enter Hogwarts was with the rest of the Death Eaters in their victory march. Voldemort then triumphantly disgraced Harry’s «dead» body with the Cruciatus Curse then forced Hagrid to carry Harry’s body back to Hogwarts, proclaiming Harry dead and demanding surrender. At first, the surviving fighters were heartbroken, especially Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Professor McGonagall. They screamed abuse at the Death Eaters in anger, remaining defiant. Harry’s apparent death had spurred the defenders of Hogwarts on.

Neville Longbottom courageously stood up to Voldemort, and when the latter offered Neville a rank in his Death Eater society, Neville proudly refused and screamed to the high heavens, «Dumbledore’s Army!» Voldemort cast the Full Body-Bind Curse, then summoned the Sorting Hat and placed it upon Neville’s head. After he announced that there would be no houses and that the school colors would be those loyal to Salazar Slytherin, he caused the hat to burst into flames. As Neville cried in pain, a distant uproar came from the direction of the school boundaries. Centaurs, thestrals, Buckbeak the hippogriff, Hagrid’s half brother Grawp, and the families of the Hogwarts students who remained to fight, plus the shop and home keepers of Hogsmeade joined the fight with a flourish.

This distracted Voldemort and his Death Eaters, and Neville was able to pull off the Sorting Hat, and from its depths he received the Sword of Gryffindor and sliced off Nagini’s head in one swift, fluid motion. Harry slipped away in the ensuing mêlée under the Invisibility Cloak. Death Eaters started to fold under sheer weight of numbers as the house-elves in the kitchens joined the battle, with Kreacher at its front, declaring war against the Dark Lord in the name of brave Regulus Black. Using his Invisibility Cloak, Harry protected the defenders of Hogwarts from attack, deflecting Voldemort’s curses. Soon, only Voldemort and Bellatrix Lestrange were the only two remaining and fighting, with Voldemort duelling McGonagall, Slughorn, and Kingsley at once, and Bellatrix duelling Hermione, Luna, and Ginny. Harry was torn between the two until he saw a Killing Curse aimed at Ginny, the latter missing death by a mere inch.

Harry redirected his path to Bellatrix, until being roughly knocked aside by Molly Weasley, who duelled and ultimately killed Bellatrix. Voldemort’s fury at the fall of his last, best lieutenant exploded with the force of a bomb and Harry turned in to see McGonagall, Slughorn, and Kingsley blasted backwards in pain and Voldemort directing his wand at Molly. Harry then cast a Shield Charm to protect her from Voldemort’s wrath, revealing himself for the final duel.

Unbeknownst to Voldemort, mastery of the Elder Wand, which he had stolen from Dumbledore’s grave, had not been taken from Dumbledore by Snape, but by Draco Malfoy, because Draco had disarmed Dumbledore on the night of his murder, before Snape killed him. Thus, when Harry had disarmed Malfoy in Malfoy Manor weeks earlier, he had become the true master of the Elder Wand.

When Harry and Voldemort faced off for the last time, Harry tried to tell him this and about the other mistakes he had made. Harry also asked him to feel some remorse for his actions, which Voldemort instantly rejected. Voldemort cast the Killing Curse, and Harry countered with the Disarming Charm. The Elder Wand refused to attack its master, and the Killing Curse rebounded, destroying Voldemort once and for all.

Immediately, Harry was surrounded by overjoyed fellow fighters; Hermione and Ron reached him first, and then Ginny, Neville, and Luna. Victory celebrations began and Harry was an indispensable part of the grief and celebration.

The trio visited Albus Dumbledore’s portrait, and along the way he explained everything to his two best friends. Harry decided to prevent the Deathly Hallows from ever being reunited again by keeping the Cloak of Invisibility, leaving the Resurrection Stone where it lay in the Forbidden Forest, and returning the Elder Wand to Dumbledore’s grave, but not before using it to fix his wand.

When Voldemort destroyed the piece of his soul residing in Harry, Harry lost the ability to speak Parseltongue^[13], much to his relief. In addition, the scar on Harry’s forehead no longer held magical powers, nor did it ever cause Harry pain again.

Later life

After the end of the Second Wizarding War, Harry became an Auror at the Ministry of Magic; new Minister of Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt permitted those who had fought in the final battle to become Aurors without getting their N.E.W.T.s. In 2007, Harry became youngest head of the Auror Office at the age of 27. He helped to reform and revolutionize the Ministry along with Ron Weasley, who also became an Auror, and Hermione Granger, who was ranked high up in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. At some point, all three of them were featured on Chocolate Frog Cards for their accomplishments.

Following the war, he aided in the care of his godson, Teddy Lupin, thus fulfilling his role that his own godfather, Sirius Black, never got to play. By 2017, Harry had married Ginny Weasley and had three children: two sons James Sirius, Albus Severus, and one daughter Lily Luna. In September of that year, Harry and Ginny took their three children to King’s Cross Station to see James and Albus off to Hogwarts. There, they met Ron and Hermione, and their two children, Harry’s niece Rose and nephew Hugo. Albus expressed a fear that he might be sorted into Slytherin house, Harry told his son he was named after two Hogwarts Headmaster’s one being a Slytherin and the «bravest man he ever knew.» Harry assured him that his parents would be proud of him regardless of where he was sorted, and told him that the Sorting Hat would take his preferences into consideration, which happened to himself.

Harry ensured that Severus Snape’s portrait was hung in the Headmaster’s office at Hogwarts.^[14] He also made occasional visits to the school to give lectures to the students on Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Harry was also on «Christmas card» terms with his cousin Dudley and his family, and occasionally visited him, which were occasions dreaded by his own children.^[15] Harry also made peace with his former rival Draco Malfoy. They were civil towards each other, however they were still not friends.

Physical description

Harry was a near-spitting image of his father, having untidy jet-black hair, but his startlingly green, almond-shaped eyes were identical to those of his mother. Harry’s physique as a boy was described as «small and skinny,» with a thin face and knobbly knees, due to his poor quality of life in his childhood. However, despite the neglect he suffered, Harry seems to have grown at the same rate as James, as when he was fifteen he was within an inch of James at the same age, and when he was seventeen he was exactly the same height his father was, and James was often described as tall. Harry wore round-rimmed glasses, peculiarly similar to his father’s glasses.

Upon Harry’s forehead, covered by his unruly black hair, was a scar shaped like a lightning bolt. The scar was a result of the failed (and famed) Killing Curse cast on him by Lord Voldemort when he was an infant. It burned painfully whenever Voldemort was near Harry or feeling particularly strong emotions, but this stopped after Voldemort’s death and was reduced into an ordinary scar.

Harry also had a faint scar on the back of his right hand which says «I must not tell lies.» This scar was caused while Harry spent detentions with Dolores Umbridge, who forced him to use a quill that carved the words into the back of his hand.

In addition, Harry has an oval-shaped scar over his heart where the locket-Horcrux seared his skin during the confrontation with Nagini in Bathilda Bagshot’s house, Godric’s Hollow.

When possessed by Lord Voldemort at the end of the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, Harry’s eyes became somewhat glassy green in appearance.

Personality

Harry Potter was an extremely brave, loyal and selfless person who possessed tremendous strength of character. He willingly went to what he truly believed to be his death at the hands of Lord Voldemort because he believed that this was the only way to defeat the Dark Lord. Harry was also marked by what Hermione Granger once deemed a «saving-people thing» — he would go to great lengths and take great risks in order to help others, particularly his loved ones. Notably, this was taken advantage of by Voldemort in 1996, when he lured Harry to the Department of Mysteries by making him believe that his godfather was in danger. Harry was also very strong-willed, unafraid to stand up for himself and able to resist the Imperius Curse at a young age. Dumbledore once made parallels between Harry’s traits and qualities that Salazar Slytherin looked for in his own hand-picked students, but noted that Harry’s choice not to draw on those qualities really defined who he was rather than the simple fact that he had them.

Harry was perfectly prepared to put his friends’ needs and best interests first, shown by how he ended his relationship with Ginny Weasley due to his being concerned for her well being, even though being with her was the best thing that ever happened to him. The amount of trust that Harry put into his friends was so strong that he absolutely refused to consider that any of them would betray him to Voldemort. Considering that Harry knew a person who had betrayed all of his closest friends to Voldemort, they being Harry’s parents, godfather and Remus Lupin who was there when Harry declared his trust in him, proves Harry’s ability to love so unequivocally.

The closeness that Harry felt for many was great enough for him to behave violently should any of them get harmed. When his godfather was killed by Bellatrix Lestrange, Harry attacked her in a grief-stricken rage and attempted to use the Cruciatus Curse on her. He also attacked Severus Snape after the latter murdered Albus Dumbledore. Ironically, the only people Harry ever initiated a duel with were Snape and Bellatrix and he only desired to do so right after they killed someone he loved. This highlights Harry’s bravery even further because Harry was fully aware that Snape and Bellatrix were two of the greatest wizards and witches of the age but did not hesitate to harm them as soon as he was pushed into it.

However, Harry was also accused of being arrogant, in particular by Severus Snape (although in fairness, Snape was extremely biased, and Harry often found being famous and admired very difficult), and could be hot-tempered and impulsive. This occasionally caused him to show rudeness and disrespect to authority figures, such as Professor Snape and Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgeour, and irritable with his friends. Harry was prone to moodiness during his adolescence, though this was likely the result of the great emotional stress and trials he endured during this period. J. K. Rowling has noted that Harry’s lack of emotional control is what undermined his ability to learn Occlumency. Harry possessed an instinctual, intuitive intelligence that allowed him to make intellectual leaps as opposed to the logical intelligence of Hermione. For example, Harry divined the truth about the Deathly Hallows, well before Hermione would accept it, and although he was clever, Harry also lacked intellectual curiosity, rarely putting forth effort into school work; for example, he relied on the notes of the «Half-Blood Prince» to get ahead in his sixth-year Potions class rather than devoting time to studying (although he did study reasonably hard for his Ordinary Wizarding Levels, the only set of wizarding qualifications he sat at Hogwarts), and generally did his best magical work when tackling practical exams rather than theoretical ones. Harry also seemed to have a bit of an obsessive personality, a trait he shared with his arch enemy Lord Voldemort. During his sixth year, Harry became obsessed with finding out what Malfoy was doing. He pursued Malfoy to the detriment of his other goal such as getting the memory from Slughorn. Also, while searching for the Horcruxes, Harry became obsessed with the Deathly Hallows and did not fulfil his duty as the leader of the hunt.

Harry’s greatest strength was his ability to feel love, despite having a miserable childhood of neglect. Harry was extremely loyal to and protective of his loved ones, and that love was what allowed him to overcome Voldemort, Dumbledore noting Harry’s strength of will at resisting the temptation to act like Voldemort even when granted a direct insight into Voldemort’s mind and methods. Harry even claimed that he felt sorry for Voldemort because of his inability to feel or understand love.

Remus Lupin once noted that Harry had very good and nearly always right instincts, as he was right that Draco was up to something and that there was a Horcrux in Hogwarts.

Harry also cared very much for his children. He comforted his daughter, Lily Potter when she was upset about not going to Hogwarts. He also made sure his younger son Albus Potter would not be teased a lot by Harry’s older son, James Potter II.

Although never as given to sarcasm or humor as his best friend Ron, Harry often displayed a dry, occasionally sarcastic, wit. For instance, on finding out that Hermione Granger intended to take twelve O.W.Ls, he asked her if she planned to eat or sleep at all that year. This humor often became more cutting when applied to people Harry disliked: When threatened by Draco Malfoy and his cronies after the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, Harry remarked that he supposed that «Lord Voldemort’s just a warm-up act compared to you three», responding to Malfoy’s threat that he was dead by casually commenting that he would have thought he would have stopped walking.

Although he never sought power himself, and would be content with a normal life, when the situation required him to step up, such as when he, Ron and Hermione discovered Voldemort and Quirrell’s attempt to steal the Sorcerer’s Stone, or his time as teacher/leader of Dumbledore’s Army, Harry has shown not-inconsiderable leadership abilities, to the point that Dumbledore reflected that Harry was a better leader than him as he never sought power for himself but simply had to assume the mantle of leadership due to circumstances beyond his control and found in the process that he did it well.

Magical abilities and skills

Harry was a very talented wizard with a number of skills that he was extremely good at.

• Love: Harry’s greatest power of all was his ability to love. In spite of being raised by a family that treated him with anything but affection Harry remarkably turned out capable of very strong love. His love for his friends caused him to feel no concern for his own well being or happiness when they were at risk and put himself in danger many times to protect them. Harry’s ability to love protected and helped him on several occasions such as when he defeated Quirrell by causing his skin to burn, produced a patronus that could drive several dementors away, repelled Voldemort when he possessed him and it allowed him to close the connection between him and Voldemort when he was unable to do Occlumency. His love was strongest when directed at Ginny Weasley whom was the driving force that kept him going until Voldemort was defeated.

• Defense Against the Dark Arts: Harry was extremely adept in the Defense Against the Dark Arts, having mastered all manners of jinxes and spells, such as the Stunning Spell, Disarming Charm, Impediment Jinx and Reductor Curse. In fact, his Stunning Spell was so strong that opponents would get knocked out if they were hit directly. Harry also achieved an ‘Outstanding’ Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L., something that not even Hermione achieved, a testament of his extraordinary talent in defensive magic. Indeed, Harry was so good at D.A.D.A. that when the Ministry of Magic prevented the subject from being taught effectively in 1995 Harry set up his own D.A.D.A. club and successfully taught the members to defend themselves well against the Dark Arts (so well indeed that some of them were later able to put up a good fight in the Department of Mysteries). Harry also had developed some resistance to the Imperius Curse, demonstrated when it was first cast upon him by Barty Crouch Jr. (disguised as Alastor Moody) during a Defense Against the Dark Arts class in his fourth year. Crouch cursed Harry with it four times in a row, until he could throw it off entirely. At the end of the school year, Voldemort himself cast the Imperius Curse on Harry, which he was able to resist, much to the astonishment of the Death Eaters who were present. Harry’s natural aptitude for resisting the Imperius Curse, and ability to resist it when cast by the most powerful Dark Wizard in history, demonstrates an indescribable strength of will and character.

• Dueling: Despite his young age, Harry was a very skilled duelist, being able to single-handedly defeat Death Eaters and even survive numerous encounters with Lord Voldemort himself. He eventually defeated Voldemort by becoming the master of the Elder Wand. In many battles of the Second Wizarding War, he was able to incapacitate much more experienced Death Eaters, and during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, he was the only one of the six D.A. members to be neither injured nor incapacitated and, along with Albus Dumbledore and Remus Lupin, was the only fighter on their side to emerge from the battle physically unscathed, and in that time he had defeated Lucius Malfoy and had defeated the extremely powerful Antonin Dolohov twice. Later, in the same battle, he was able to hold his own against Bellatrix Lestrange, who was the most powerful of all the Death Eaters. In 1997, Harry defeated Yaxley, Fenrir Greyback, and one of the two Carrows, and briefly held his own against Severus Snape, who was able to block Harry’s attempts of cursing him by using Legilimency. He fought off several Death Eaters in the Battle of the Seven Potters, defeated Thorfinn Rowle with a single spell during the Skirmish at Luchino Café, knocked out Yaxley and Dolores Umbridge during the Infiltration of the Ministry of Magic, overpowered Lucius Malfoy, Draco Malfoy and Fenrir Greyback during the Skirmish at Malfoy Manor, and avoided direct conflict damage all throughout the Battle of Hogwarts (ensuring that mastery of the Elder Wand did not waver from him). He was known to be very quick off the draw and had an aggressive duelling style, even incorporating Unforgivable Curses. Harry was especially skilled in the Disarming Charm, and used it so much that it was seen as his «signature spell» by many Death Eaters. His most notable uses of the Disarming Charm were when he formed Priori Incantatem with Voldemort and when he finally killed the Dark Lord. At the remarkably young age of seventeen, Harry became an Auror, and in 2007, was promoted to Head of the Auror Office.
• Dark Arts: Harry was one of the few non-Dark Wizards who was highly proficient in the Dark Arts at all levels; while he knew simple dark charms like the Leg-Locker Curse, Full Body-Bind Curse, Reductor Curse, Pimple Jinx, Knockback Jinx, Revulsion Jinx, and Melofors Jinx, he could use stronger spells such as the Blasting Curse and even attempted some of the Unforgivable Curses with varying degrees of success, such as Imperius Curse on Travers and a goblin called Bogrod during the 1998 Break-in of Gringotts Wizarding Bank as well as the Cruciatus Curse on several occasions — once on Bellatrix Lestrange in 1996 (though he failed then), another on Snape in 1997 (at which time he was prevented from completing the incantation) and once more against Amycus Carrow in 1998, (and while the curse was more successful than Harry’s past attempts, it did not result in the prolonged, excruciating pain that the curse was famous for — instead, Carrow screamed and was incapacitated). However, he has never used the Killing Curse for obvious reasons, even in his final battle with Voldemort.

• Flying: Harry had also inherited his father’s talent for flying and for Quidditch, showing immediate command of a broomstick in his first year, which made him a naturally good Seeker. This was the first magical skill for which he discovered an aptitude, as he found in 1991. In fact, at the mere age of eleven, Harry became the youngest Seeker in a century. Harry’s extraordinary flying skills aided him when he had to capture Winged Keys to get past Professor Flitwick’s challenge in the Sorcerer’s Stone Chambers, and also helped him in the Triwizard Tournament (where he had to steal a golden egg from a Hungarian Horntail), and during the Battle of Hogwarts, during which he managed to escape a Fiendfyre inferno in the Room of Requirement.
• Parselmouth: Because he carried a piece of Voldemort’s soul within himself, Harry was able to speak and understand Parseltongue from 1981 to 1998. After that soul fragment was destroyed, Harry lost this ability, which he was glad for.
• Insight into Voldemort’s mind: Also due to the piece of Voldemort’s soul, Harry was able to see into Voldemort’s mind and through his senses from time to time. He sometimes used this ability to monitor what Voldemort was doing. However, it was a dangerous ability to have as well; Voldemort once used it, along with Legilimency, to plant a false vision in Harry’s mind of Sirius Black being tortured, which he used to lure Harry to the Department of Mysteries. Additionally, because of their connection, Harry felt a burning pain in his scar whenever he and Voldemort were in close proximity or whenever Voldemort felt strong negative emotions. Although Harry failed to learn Occlumency, he did eventually have some success at blocking his connection to Voldemort by focusing on feelings of grief, even though Albus Dumbledore told Harry it was love. As Harry lost the ability to speak parseltongue, he presumably lost this ability as well when the soul fragment within him was destroyed.
• Master of the Deathly Hallows: Harry was master of all three of the Deathly Hallows for a time. Harry overpowered and disarmed Draco Malfoy during a skirmish at Malfoy Manor. Because Draco was unknowingly the master of the Elder Wand, which he had taken from previous owner Albus Dumbledore, the wand’s allegiance turned to Harry when he disarmed him, although the wand was in Voldemort’s possession at the time. Dumbledore left the Resurrection Stone to Harry in his will, contained in the Golden Snitch that Harry had caught during his very first Quidditch match. The Cloak of Invisibility was rightfully Harry’s, as it was passed down to him through the generations of the Potter family from its original owner, Ignotus Peverell, who was Harry’s ancestor. The Resurrection Stone was lost in the Forbidden Forest in 1998, while Harry returned the Elder Wand to Dumbledore’s tomb that same year. Harry kept the Invisibility Cloak, as it was a priceless family heirloom.
• Potioneer: His Potions ability is apparently better than it appears, as he is able to achieve an ‘Exceeds Expectations’ grade in his O.W.L. exam; and improves greatly during his sixth year when he came into possession of an old potions textbook in which a talented former student (Severus Snape) had revised many potion-making techniques. However, the usage of this textbook was noted by both Hermione and Snape to be cheating, and when forced to hide it, Harry’s potion skills suffered. Despite this, it is noted that Harry has no problems with potions at all, albeit for as long as Snape is not around: Harry found that he had no problems brewing a potion when Snape was not bothering him.

• Transfiguration: Harry was able to conjure ropes and water in his sixth year and achieved an ‘Exceeds Expectation’ grade in the subject. He is also skilled enough to perform Human Transfiguration, which is noted to be very difficult. He accomplished this during a 1996 Transfiguration lesson where he succeeded in turning his eyebrow bright yellow. Minerva McGonagall herself complemented Harry on his Transfiguration ability.
• Charms: Harry also achieved an ‘Exceeds Expectations’ in his Charms O.W.L.. He frequently used the Summoning Charm successfully and would occasionally cast the protective enchantments that Hermione would use during the Horcrux hunt. Under the teaching of Remus Lupin, Harry was able to cast a corporeal Patronus charm in his third year, which was a remarkable feat and yet another proof of his talent, given that many adult wizards were unable to cast the difficult charm successfully. His Patronus takes the form of a stag, his father’s Animagus and Patronus form. Harry’s Patronus is so powerful that, even at the very first time he successfully cast it, it was able to drive away hundreds of Dementors.
• Apparition: Harry had not earned a license to apparate but he used the ability frequently during 1997 and 1998 to great success, even when forced to apparate with only a seconds notice or while guiding others. Harry used apparation in his sixth year to a very impressive degree to get himself and a weakened Albus Dumbledore over an incredibly vast distance even though he was inexperienced. Harry has stated and it is noted that he does not like the sensation however.
• Non-verbal and wandless magic: In 1995, when the Dementors attacked in Little Whinging, Dudley had knocked Harry’s wand when he punched Harry moments before. In desperation, Harry calls out «Lumos!» Although his wand was not in his hand, the wand tip lit up. During 1997 and 1998 Harry began using spells non-verbally and became quite proficient at it when Snape wasn’t bothering him. He used both non-verbal and wandless magic in 1991, when he caused the glass window of a snakes cage at the zoo to vanish and again in 1993 when he inflated Marge Dursley, although both of these occurrences were accidents fuelled by pure anger. Few other wizards have exhibited this power, although Dumbledore and Voldemort were among them. This further contributes to Harry’s skill, as only some of the most powerful wizards of his time were able to do so.
• Care of Magical Creatures: Harry has shown on more than one occasion to have good skill in handling numerous sorts of magical creatures. For example, he was the first in his class to tame a Hippogriff, which he did very excellently. He befriended the Hippogriff, Buckbeak, to the extent that Buckbeak defended him when he was in danger. He has also shown on three occasions that he is quite competent at dealing with dragons. This is shown when he was able to help Hagrid take care of baby Norbert the dragon, outsmart the Hungarian Horntail in the Triwizard Tournament, and tame a half-blind dragon into helping them escape Gringotts by flying out on its back. Harry is also quite skilled at dealing with Dementors, which he has shown on many occasions as well. Harry was also good at dealing with house-elves, befriending Dobby and eventually freeing him, which made the little elf so loyal to him that he gave his life to save him. He also earned the respect and loyalty of Kreacher, a difficult task.
• Herbologist: Harry earned an ‘Exceeds Expectations’ in Herbology, showing an aptitude in the subject.
• Detective skills: Harry, along with Ron and Hermione, is also a reasonably talented investigator. While in school the trio had a knack for finding and exposing the truth. In his first year, Harry uncovered the truth about the Sorcerer’s Stone and saved it from Voldemort. Over the next six years he would discover the Chamber of Secrets, learn of Sirius’s innocence and Pettigrew’s betrayal, find the Prophecy, and hunt down and destroy all of Voldemorts Horcruxes using his deductive skills. Harry’s deductive skills also allowed him to uncover the mystery of the Deathly Hallows and learn that he mastered the three of them.

• Leadership skills: While Harry never deliberately set out to be a leader to others, he has often taken charge when the situation required it, beginning with his impulsive decision to find and warn Hermione about the presence of a troll in the school during the 1991 Halloween feast and progressing to the point where over thirty students — some of them in their sixth and seventh years — respected him as a teacher in Dumbledore’s Army despite his being younger than they were.^[16] Dumbledore later noted that Harry was a superior leader to him as Dumbledore had deliberately sought power in his youth — and subsequently avoided anything more demanding than his role as Hogwarts headmaster — while Harry had leadership thrust upon him and accepted the burden, acknowledging his responsibilities towards those who ‘followed’ him regardless of how uncomfortable he might feel about the prospect and coordinating his efforts against his enemies well when left with no other option but to take control.^[17]

• Teaching skills: Harry has shown tremendous skills in teaching others. Having mastered many spells at a young age, Harry successfully passed them onto others even when he was still a student himself, giving proper instructions and corrections on how to perform many fields of magic, ranging from the relatively simplistic Disarming Charm to the highly advanced Patronus Charm.^[18] Harry’s effectiveness as a teacher led many, some even older than him, to choose him over a Ministry-installed professional, and he even returned to Hogwarts to give occasional lectures.

Possessions

• Potter Inheritance: When Harry’s parents were murdered by Lord Voldemort, they left behind a somewhat large savings account in vault 687 of Gringotts Wizarding Bank. This inheritance became Harry’s source of funding for all his Hogwarts textbooks, wizarding clothes, and the rest for spending money.
• Wand: As is the case with most wizards and witches, Harry’s wand is among his most valued magical possessions. Harry’s is made of Holly, a wood with the powers to repel evil.^[19] The wand is in deliberate contrast to the wand of Lord Voldemort, which is Yew. Harry’s wand shared a twin core with Voldemort’s wand, as both contained Phoenix feathers from the same phoenix, Fawkes. Harry’s wand broke in 1997 during a skirmish with Nagini in Bathilda Bagshot’s house due to a stray spell cast by Hermione Granger. Harry later used the Elder Wand to repair it.
• Cloak of Invisibility: Another valued and useful possession is Harry’s Cloak of Invisibility. In his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he received it as an anonymous Christmas gift. He later learned the gift came from Albus Dumbledore, who obtained it in turn from Harry’s father, James Potter. It was later revealed to be a family heirloom as well as one of the three Deathly Hallows. From this Harry realizes he is a direct descendent of Ignotus Peverell, one of the three brothers who created the Deathly Hallows. It is yet to be decided whether he would give the cloak to his oldest son, James Sirius, or his youngest son, Albus Severus.
• Hedwig: Harry’s animal companion, Hedwig was vitally helpful in delivering messages and packages for Harry, especially while Sirius was in hiding from the Ministry. Hedwig loved Harry dearly, showing signs by nibbling his ear or fingers, and loyally obeyed his every command (even pecking Ron and Hermione until they answer back). Harry loved her as much as she loved him. Hedwig was killed during the Battle of the Seven Potters by a stray Killing Curse that was most likely meant for Hagrid. Harry was overcome with grief over Hedwig’s death.
• Marauder’s Map: One of Harry’s most treasured possessions. In his third year, Fred and George Weasley gave it to Harry while he was trying to sneak into Hogsmeade. It was confiscated by Remus Lupin, but later returned when he quit his job. Harry kept it with him for a long period of time, keeping it in the Mokeskin wallet from Hagrid. Harry kept it in his possession until it was stolen from his desk by his son, James.
• Deathly Hallows: For a brief time, Harry was master of all three Deathly Hallows: the Cloak of Invisibility, the Resurrection Stone, and the Elder Wand (though he was not in physical possession of the Elder Wand until after losing the Resurrection Stone). These three artifacts are the most powerful magical items in all of the wizarding world and were so ancient that they were only the subject of fairy tales. When Harry lost the Resurrection Stone inside the Forbidden Forest, he decided to leave it there. Harry also interred the Elder Wand in Albus Dumbledore’s grave, so the power of the wand would be extinguished after Harry’s eventual death. However, the portrait of Dumbledore that hangs in the Headmaster’s office advised Harry to keep the Invisibility Cloak, since it was his father’s.
• Godric Gryffindor’s Sword: A relic of the founder of Harry’s house, the goblin-made sword of Godric Gryffindor was left to Harry by his former Headmaster Albus Dumbledore in his will. However, the Ministry of Magic claimed that it was not Dumbledore’s to give, and that it truly belonged to Hogwarts. Although the Ministry confiscated a replica of the sword, the true sword found its way into Harry’s possession still through the machinations of Severus Snape. Soon after, Ron Weasley used it to destroy Salazar Slytherin’s Locket, one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes. Harry lost the sword to Griphook when he, Ron and Hermione Granger stole Helga Hufflepuff’s Cup from the Lestrange Vault at Gringotts. However, the sword reappeared in the hands of Neville Longbottom during the Battle of Hogwarts; he used it to kill Nagini, and thus destroyed the last of the Horcruxes. Neville was seen sitting beside the sword after the battle, but it is likely that it was returned to Hogwarts as a relic of the Founders, along with the remains of the other Founders’ relics.
• Enchanted knife: This magical knife, with the power to open most mechanical locks and magical seals and which Harry received for Christmas from Sirius Black, was melted when Harry tried it on a locked door at the Department of Mysteries. The protective enchantments on the door were far stronger than the magic of the enchanted knife.
• Firebolt broom: During Harry’s third year at Hogwarts, the Nimbus 2000 broom he’d been riding since his first year was destroyed by the Whomping Willow, and Sirius Black replaced it by giving Harry the finest broom available as an anonymous gift. The broom was one of Harry’s most prized possessions for years. It was lost during the Battle of the Seven Potters. It is unknown if Harry ever recovered or replaced it.
• Communication mirror: Harry also owns one in a pair of two-way mirrors, given to him by his godfather Sirius Black. The mirror was intended to be a means covert communication, but Harry broke it out of anger over Sirius’ death. Harry did not realize the mirror could still work, although he kept a shard out of sentimentality. When Harry and several friends are captured at Malfoy Manor, at the time being used as a headquarters for Voldemort, Harry used the shard of mirror to communicate with Aberforth Dumbledore, who had the other mirror. Aberforth sent Dobby to rescue Harry and the other prisoners.
• Fabian Prewett’s watch: Molly Weasley gave Harry the watch of her late brother Fabian Prewett for his seventeenth birthday. It has a dent in it, but Harry kept the watch, even into his thirties. The watch does not have arms; rather, it has stars.
• Mokeskin pouch: A birthday present from Hagrid. Harry kept it with him throughout the Deathly Hallows, and kept in it his treasures that were of no use to his search; the Snitch, the broken mirror, his broken wand, his mother’s letter and the fake Horcrux. Harry also received a photo album, from Hagrid, which had photos of his parents and other family members.

After Sirius Black died, all of his remaining possessions were passed along to Harry. This included:

• Buckbeak/Witherwings’: The hippogriff Sirius acquired from Rubeus Hagrid. Harry allowed Hagrid to take care of Buckbeak/Witherwings, as Hagrid had dearly missed the creature while it was in Sirius’ possession.
• The Black Family Residence:

Located at 12 Grimmauld Place, it and all the contents and furnishings of the house, including Kreacher (the family house-elf) became Harry’s. Mundungus Fletcher would later try to steal many of Harry’s inherited possessions, including Salazar Slytherin’s Locket.

• Black Family Inheritance: Harry also inherited the remainder of Sirius’ wealth in wizard’s gold at Gringotts. Since Sirius was disowned at the age of sixteen, it is likely that this wealth was limited to the gold left to him by his uncle Alphard Black. However, that is open to debate because although Sirius Black was disinherited by his family, he ended up inheriting the Black Home after their death, which might lead us to believe in the existence of other forms of inheritance from his family other than what his uncle left him.

Relationships

Hedwig

Hedwig was the snowy owl Hagrid bought Harry for his eleventh birthday, from Eeylops Owl Emporium in Diagon Alley. Hedwig was often Harry’s only companion during the lonely holidays he spent with the Dursleys, and the bond that developed between them was a close one. Though Hedwig was usually very affectionate with Harry, which she showed by gently nibbling his ear or fingers, she wasn’t above snubbing him out of jealousy or nipping him a bit harder than usual on the rare occasions he snapped at her.

Hedwig was also highly intelligent; she understood perfectly when Harry asked her to peck Ron and Hermione until they responded to him, and even flew, completely of her own accord, to where Hermione was on holiday in France, to ensure that Harry received a gift for his thirteenth birthday. In 1997, Harry was completely grief-stricken after Hedwig was struck by a Killing Curse during the Battle of the Seven Potters.

Relatives

Parents

James and Lily Potter died when their son was only a year old. Harry barely knew them, but nevertheless regarded them with great reverence and fiercely defended their memory if anyone spoke ill of them. In 1995, he got into a physical fight with Draco Malfoy after the latter insulted his mother, and he frequently became furious with Professor Snape, who taunted Harry that James was not the great man others made him out to be. Snape was, to Harry’s horror, proven right in the spring of 1996, when Harry accidentally witnessed James bully Snape using the Levicorpus spell in one of Snape’s memories, via Dumbledore’s Pensieve. However, Harry was relieved to know that his mother was a fair and kind person, who neither participated in nor tolerated bullying, and would stand up for those in need. Remus Lupin and Sirius Black later assured him that James had changed his ways, eventually becoming mature enough to win Lily over.

The few times he ever saw his parents were through pictures given to him by Rubeus Hagrid, a vision within the Mirror of Erised, spectral forms which came out of Voldemort’s wand during Priori Incantatem, stored memories within the Pensieve, and again as spectral forms when he «recalled» them during the Battle of Hogwarts, by using the Resurrection Stone. Both James’ and Lily’s spirits told their son that they were tremendously proud of him, for being so brave and strong despite all the suffering and pain that he had been forced to endure, and gave him the support he needed to sacrifice himself to Voldemort. Harry described their presence as his courage, the very reason why he was able to keep putting one foot in front of the other, with his mother smiling at him, and his father nodding encouragement.

Albus Dumbledore maintained that Harry’s greatest strength was his love for his parents and the love they had for him, and in part, this literally translated to the protection afforded to Harry by his mother’s sacrifice. Harry eventually named two of his children after his parents. After seeing his now-ruined parents’ house, Harry experienced a flashback into Voldemort’s brain and saw the dead corpses of his father and mother.

Petunia Dursley

After Lily and James Potter were murdered by Lord Voldemort, Harry was taken in by his maternal aunt, Petunia Dursley. Petunia had not been fond of her late sister, jealously and bitterly regarding her as a «freak» for her magical abilities. She took out her resentment on Harry, treating him poorly and depriving him of affection. When Harry was finally told about his Wizarding background, Petunia admitted she had always feared he would turn out «like his parents.» Though after years of neglect, Harry didn’t particularly care for his aunt either, although he was concerned enough for the Dursleys to push them to go into hiding during the height of the Second Wizarding War. Just before departing, Petunia gave her nephew an odd, tremulous look, and seemed to want to say something more to him than goodbye, but ultimately just shook her head and left. She had wanted to wish him luck, and admit that her loathing of him and his world was born out of jealousy, but years of pretending that «normal» was best had hardened her too much.^[20]

Dudley Dursley

Harry and his cousin Dudley did not get along very well for most of their early lives. While Vernon and Petunia treated Harry poorly, they spoiled Dudley to the extreme. Dudley constantly bullied his much smaller cousin throughout their childhood, but did his best not to provoke him after he found out that Harry was a wizard, though the two still got into an occasional argument and trading of insults. This changed after Harry saved Dudley from a pair of Dementors that attacked them during the summer of 1995. When the Order of the Phoenix placed the Dursleys into hiding to keep them safe during the height of the Second Wizarding War, Dudley was the only member of the family to express concern for Harry’s safety, asking his parents why Harry was not accompanying them and where he would go, if not with them. He also expressed remorse for his prior treatment of Harry, and the two shook hands before the Dursleys left.

The cousins eventually reconciled as adults, remaining on «Christmas card terms» and visiting each other occasionally. At these times, Harry’s three children and Dudley’s children would all play together while their fathers would sit together quietly.^[21]

Vernon Dursley

Vernon Dursley became Harry’s uncle through Vernon’s marriage to Harry’s Aunt Petunia. Harry lived with the Dursleys after Albus Dumbledore appealed to Petunia and convinced her to take Harry in following the death of the Potters. Vernon seemed to resent this fact as much as, if not more than, his wife; he and Petunia begrudged Harry all but the meanest comforts, even forcing their nephew to sleep in a cupboard under the stairs until shortly before Harry’s eleventh birthday. Vernon seemed to take particular pleasure in showing Harry all he was missing, while simultaneously spoiling and indulging Harry’s cousin, Dudley. In 1995, when Harry and Dudley were attacked by Dementors, Vernon demanded that Harry leave, thinking it the only way to protect his family from Lord Voldemort, though Petunia disagreed after receiving a Howler from Dumbledore. In 1997, Harry and the Dursleys parted ways, thus ending the protection placed on Harry by his mother’s sacrifice for as long he had a «home» with his blood relatives, or until he came of age. Vernon, Petunia, and Dudley were hidden by the Order of the Phoenix, to be protected from the Death Eaters, while Harry was transported to the Burrow prior to searching for Voldemort’s Horcruxes. Vernon almost shook Harry’s hand, but changed his mind and left the house quickly. It is unknown whether Vernon kept in touch with Harry after the Second Wizarding War. However, given his profound hatred to wizardkind, it is likely that he never saw his nephew again.

Marjorie Dursley

Marge Dursley was Vernon’s sister, whom Harry was forced to call «Aunt Marge» despite only being indirectly related to her, and despite the fact that Marge, in fact, hated Harry. She seemed to resent Harry’s parents for having «left Harry to be a burden on their decent, hard working relatives,» and called his mother the «bad egg» of Petunia’s family, while assuming his father was a «good-for-nothing, lazy scrounger» after Vernon told her James had been unemployed. She spoiled Dudley, giving him gifts and money, while she gave Harry dog biscuits, and was overjoyed to think he was being regularly caned at St. Brutus’ Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys. In 1993, Harry lost control of his magic, and inflated Marge like a balloon after she insinuated that Harry’s parents had a died as a result of their driving while drunk. Had the Wizarding community not been in a panic about Sirius Black’s escape from Azkaban, the incident could have resulted in serious trouble for Harry.

Ron Weasley

Ron Weasley became Harry’s best friend during their first year at Hogwarts. Ron, along with his mother, brothers, and sister first met Harry at King’s Cross Station, when Harry was unable to find «Platform 9¾.» Ron sat across from Harry during the train ride and the two almost immediately bonded over the ample sweets Harry purchased from the Hogwarts Express food trolley, which Harry happily shared when Ron was unable to afford any himself. Harry cemented his friendship with Ron by turning down Draco Malfoy’s offer to help Harry avoid making friends «with the wrong sort,» after Draco insulted Ron’s family. After being sorted into Gryffindor House together and sharing the same dormitory, the two grew even closer, and eventually gained another best friend in Hermione Granger when they saved her from a troll on Halloween. As Ron was raised in a wizarding family, he was often called upon to explain customs and items that were commonplace to wizards, but completely new to Harry and Hermione, who had both been raised in Muggle society.

In the summer of 1992, after Dobby had prevented Harry from receiving any letters, Ron and his twin brothers (Fred and George) flew their father’s Flying Ford Anglia to rescue Harry from Privet Drive. After spending a few days at Ron’s home, Harry and Ron were supposed to return to school on the Hogwarts Express with Ron’s other siblings. However, Dobby had blocked the entrance to the platform, and Harry and Ron were unable to board the train. Panicking, the pair flew the enchanted car to Hogwarts; however, they landed on the Whomping Willow and lost the car as well as broke Ron’s wand. Later on in the year, when Hermione had been Petrified by Salazar Slytherin’s basilisk, Harry and Ron ventured into the Forbidden Forest together, where they were rescued from a clan of Acromantula by the missing Ford Anglia. Ron also accompanied Harry down to the Chamber of Secrets the same year to rescue his sister Ginny.

Harry and Ron had a major falling out in 1994 when Harry was made a Triwizard Champion; despite knowing it to be completely contrary to Harry’s character, Ron’s insecurities initially led him to believe Harry had cheated in order to enter the tournament, but left Ron out of scheme to keep the resulting glory and attention for himself. However, Ron soon realized how badly he had misjudged the situation and apologized. Ron was later taken as the object Harry would «sorely miss» in the Second Task of the competition.

Harry and Ron had an even more serious falling out in 1997, when they, along with Hermione, were hunting Voldemort’s Horcruxes; the negative energy within Salazar Slytherin’s Locket affected Ron more severely than the other two, causing him to temporarily abandon his friends before regretting his decision, and returning to them as soon as he was able.

Upon his return, Ron watched Harry follow the silver doe to Godric Gryffindor’s sword, and saved Harry’s life after he jumped into a lake to retrieve it. When Harry finally opened the locket, Voldemort’s soul targeted Ron, using images of Harry and Hermione’s likenesses taunting Ron and then kissing, to emotionally torture him. Ron overcame his insecurities by plunging the Sword into the locket, effectively destroying another of Voldemort’s horcruxes.

The hardships Ron and Harry faced together served to reinforce their bond, and they remained friends for life. Ron’s fierce loyalty and sense of humor often helped Harry relax and have fun even in the darkest times of his life. The two were like brothers, and would eventually become brothers-in-law when Harry married Ginny. Ron was the uncle of Harry’s three children, and became godfather to Harry and Ginny’s eldest son, James Sirius Potter.

Hermione Granger

Though Harry and Ron initially found Hermione Granger stuck-up and arrogant, the three became best friends after Harry and Ron saved her from a troll in 1991, and she, in turn, lied to keep them from getting in trouble. Her quick mind was at times the only thing that saved the three friends from potential failure in both life-threatening and every-day situations. Out of concern for her friend, Hermione often chided Harry for his recklessness; though this occasionally put some strain on their relationship, it often served to keep Harry on track, such as when he briefly considered pursuing the Deathly Hallows instead of the Horcruxes.

Hermione always stuck by Harry and was fiercely protective of him, from snapping at Lavender Brown when she doubted Harry’s claim that Lord Voldemort returned to interceding when Dolores Umbridge was about to use the Cruciatus Curse on Harry. Hermione stood by Harry even when Ron doubted him during the Triwizard Tournament, accepting his story «without question,» and when Ron temporarily left them in 1997, despite her own romantic feelings for Ron. Harry, for his part, was quick to defend Hermione against Cho Chang’s accusation of trickery, referring to the jinx placed on the Dumbledore’s Army sign up list that marked Cho’s friend as a «sneak.»

Though their friendship remained entirely platonic, at times their closeness engendered jealously or curiosity in others; especially those who had feelings for one or the other, including Cho Chang, Viktor Krum, and even Ron. When the two were briefly alone together during the search for the Horcruxes, Harry and Hermione experienced some «charged moments,» in which the two «shared something very intense;»^[22], however, each remained devoted to Ginny and Ron, respectively.

As Harry himself described, Hermione was his closest female friend, akin to a sister. It could be further said she was like his older sister, protective and always trying to keep him in line. The two were also close enough to share their feelings with one another, Hermione regarding Ron and Harry regarding Cho Chang and later Ginny. Through Hermione’s marriage to Ron Weasley, and through Harry’s marriage to Ginny, Hermione became his sister-in-law, as well as the godmother of his oldest child.

Ginny Weasley

Ginny Weasley and Harry first met at King’s Cross Station in 1991, though they did not formally meet until the summer of 1992, at which point it became blatantly clear that Ginny had a huge crush on Harry. Though the feeling moderated over time, until 1995 she was too shy and nervous around him to even speak to him comfortably; he was a celebrity in her eyes, and to him she was his best friend’s little sister. She became even further embarrassed after Harry saved her from the Chamber of Secrets in his second year, when she had been possessed by a fragment of Lord Voldemort’s soul. Hermione helped Ginny by advising her to be more like herself around Harry, and perhaps even see other people. Ginny took this advice, and Harry came to see her as she truly was: strong-willed, witty and compassionate. The two became friends in Harry’s fifth year.

After his relationship with Cho Chang «fell apart» and Harry spent a good deal of time with Ginny as well as Ron and Hermione at The Burrow in the summer of 1996, Harry’s feelings for Ginny began to deepen and change. In his first potions class with Slughorn, the love potion Amortentia revealed he was attracted to «something flowery he had smelled at the Burrow,» which later turned out to be Ginny’s hair. After witnessing her kissing Dean Thomas, Harry started to feel jealous and fantasize about kissing her himself, although he determinedly tried to convince himself that his feelings for her were «elder-brotherly.» He had dreams about her of a seemingly intimate nature, reflecting once that he was very glad that Ron could not perform Legilimency.

Shortly after Ginny and Dean broke up, she and Harry spontaneously kissed at a Gryffindor Quidditch Cup victory party. The two began dating, and Harry regarded this time as one of the happiest in his life. However, after the murder of Albus Dumbledore, Harry decided to end things with Ginny, fearing that Voldemort would target her if he learned of their romance and knowing that he would be leaving with Ron and Hermione to find Voldemort’s Horcruxes. Ginny was upset, but accepted Harry’s decision, knowing that it was for «some stupid, noble reason.»

The two soon saw each other again during the summer while Harry stayed at the Burrow. For Harry’s seventeenth birthday, Ginny passionately kissed Harry as something for him to remember her by, but they were intentionally interrupted by Ron, with Hermione in tow.

The former told Harry not to «mess [Ginny] around,» as his sister had been «pretty cut up» when Harry ended their relationship. The two were soon separated for months as Harry tracked down Horcruxes with Hermione and Ron, while Ginny returned to Hogwarts, but still harbored feelings for one another. After Ron abandoned his friends, Harry took to staring at Ginny’s dot on the Marauder’s Map, and was worried when he heard that she, Neville, and Luna had gotten in trouble for attempting to steal Godric Gryffindor’s Sword for him.

After the Battle of Hogwarts commenced, Harry wanted Ginny to stay out of the fighting but was forced to ask her to leave the safety of the Room of Requirement when he, Hermione, and Ron searched it for Rowena Ravenclaw’s Diadem. When preparing to sacrifice himself to Voldemort, Ginny was the last person about whom Harry thought. The Death Eaters then returned to the castle, carrying Harry’s seemingly dead body, Ginny cried, «No!», loudly, akin to that of Minerva McGonagall, Ron and Hermione. Later in battle, after Ginny was nearly killed by Bellatrix Lestrange, Harry ran at Bellatrix rather than Voldemort, though Mrs. Weasley got there first.

After Voldemort’s defeat, Harry and Ginny resumed their romance. Sometime between 1999 to 2002, they married and had three children: James Sirius, Albus Severus, and Lily Luna.

Arthur and Molly Weasley

Beginning in the summer of 1992, Harry came to spend many of his holidays with the Weasley family at the Burrow. Through his friendship with Ron and his later romance with Ginny, the Weasleys became far more of a family to him than the Dursleys ever were.

Molly Weasley announced to Harry’s godfather that Harry was «as good as» one of her actual sons. Her boggart was of dead family members, one after another — including Harry. Molly was always keen to make sure Harry was taken care of; at one point Harry noted that she «fussed over the state of his socks and tried to get him to eat fourth helpings at every meal«. Her caring sometimes led her to become overprotective of Harry, something that he considered to be smothering. She strongly objected to the Order members giving Harry information regarding Voldemort during the summer of 1995. Molly even went as far as to give him her brother’s watch, for his coming of age. The watch was clearly a treasured family heirloom and a reminder of how much she had already lost in the struggle against Voldemort.

Arthur Weasley was a surrogate father to Harry who (like his wife) treated him like one of his own children. He opened his home to Harry for months at a time and invited him to family functions. Unlike most, Arthur entrusted Harry with sensitive information others had felt him too young to understand. Arthur also like to sit next to Harry during meals and frequently talked to him about Muggle devices. Harry once saved Mr. Weasley’s life, after seeing him being attacked by Nagini in the Department of Mysteries before Christmas of 1995.

When Ron was poisoned in Harry’s sixth year, and Harry saved him with a bezoar, Arthur pointed out how he had saved several members of the Weasley family. He also said that it was a good day for the Weasleys when Ron decided to sit with him on the train in 1991.

Harry would eventually marry into the Weasley family through their only daughter, Ginny, becoming an official member of the family which had taken him in so many times. Through Harry and Ginny, Arthur and Molly would have three grandchildren. It can be assumed that Arthur and Molly remained very close with Harry throughout the years, and some time after the war, Arthur repaired and passed on Sirius’s motorcycle to Harry.

Weasley twins

Twins Fred and George Weasley held Harry in high-regard and helped him out numerous times. They saved him from the Dursleys during the summer of 1992 with an enchanted car, gave him the Marauder’s Map in 1993, volunteered to be D.A. members in 1995, and later distracted Dolores Umbridge so that Harry could use her office to communicate with Sirius Black.

Fred and George would also defend Harry whenever possible, such as when Zacharias Smith kept making hostile comments toward Harry in the Hog’s Head and they promised retribution with a lethal looking instrument if he did not stop. The twins, whom Harry regarded as close friends, were also on the Gryffindor Quidditch team with Harry for four years. Harry gave his Triwizard winnings to the Weasley twins to start Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes. In their gratitude for the «start-up loan», they gave Harry products from their joke shop free of charge. Fred’s death during the Battle of Hogwarts was one of the deaths that hit Harry the hardest.

Percy, Bill, and Charlie Weasley

Harry liked Percy Weasley the least of Ron’s brothers, finding him pompous. However, he was genuinely shocked when Percy sided with the Ministry against him in 1995 and came to resent him for it. Percy later came to his senses and fought alongside Harry in the Battle of Hogwarts. Despite all that happened between them, Harry still went to some lengths to try to make Percy move from Fred’s body to save him from the oncoming curses, apparently meaning he had considered Percy an ally once again and his changed had resulted in Harry forgiving him. He also seemed unbothered when Percy hugged him. However, Harry and Percy nevertheless remained estranged even after they became brother-in-laws through Harry’s marriage to Ginny. When Harry saw his sons off to Hogwarts, he thought he overheard Percy talking and «was glad to have the excuse not to stop and say hello«, but not out of spite.

He was also friends with Bill, describing him as «cool» upon first meeting him. Harry also participated in Bill’s wedding with Fleur Delacour and lived for a month at their house, Shell Cottage. Bill was also among those who came to support Harry during the third task of the Triwizard Tournament. Bill also stuck by Harry’s side in the Hospital Wing after the Third Task and «Harry saw Mrs. Weasley, Bill, Ron, and Hermione grouped around a harassed-looking Madam Pomfrey. They appeared to be demanding to know where Harry was and what had happened to him«, showing that he cared for Harry’s well being. Harry in return cared about Bill as well, and was disheartened when he learned that Bill had been savaged by Fenrir Greyback.

He liked Charlie, who helped him out somewhat during the Triwizard Tournament. In his first year, Harry heard many times that Charlie was a great Quidditch player, and was very happy when he and his team lived up to Charlie’s reputation. Charlie also congratulated Harry on his performance in the First Task of the Triwizard Tournament, impressed with Harry’s flying ability.

After the end of the Second Wizarding War, Harry officially became part of the Weasley family through his marriage to Ginny. Rowling stated that Harry «is never happier than when holidaying with the seven Weasleys«.^[23]

Children

Harry had three children with Ginny Weasley: James Sirius, Albus Severus, and Lily Luna. The eldest, James, was named after his paternal grandfather. He possessed an outgoing personality and was a troublemaker (like his namesake), he also liked to tease his younger brother. Albus on the other hand, was quieter and more thoughtful, much like his father. Lily, the youngest, was very like her mother in regards to personality.

Harry had a very strong connection with James, even though his oldest son didn’t want to show it in front of other people (especially his friends and girls). Still, Harry was permitted hugs before James boarded the Hogwarts Express.

It’s shown that Harry’s second son Albus liked to stay next to him and looked to him for advice and comfort. For example, when Albus confided to Harry in a «whisper that was for his father alone» how very real his fear of being Sorted into Slytherin was. Harry responded that Albus and Severus were the names of two former headmasters of Hogwarts; one was a Slytherin, and «the bravest man I ever knew«. He also informed his son that the Sorting Hat would listen to the wearer’s choice. Harry knew that for a fact because it had considered putting him into Slytherin; this was something Harry had not shared with any of his other children. When saying goodbye to him, Albus hugged him and appeared to be holding his arm «extremely tight». Albus also closely resembled Harry, having the same eyes and untidy hair. He also expressed an interest in Harry’s past, asking why the people on Platform 9¾ was staring at Harry.

Albus’ relationship with Harry became increasingly strained as his education at Hogwarts progressed. This was due to the increased pressure from those around him that wanted him to live up to his father and it was only made worse by his lack of magical talent on a broomstick and in other areas of magic. The fact that he was Sorted into Slytherin did not help matters. Albus didn’t want to be seen with his father or even speak to him at times. When Harry presented Albus with the blanket in which he was wrapped in on his journey to the Dursley’s, Albus lashed out at him in frustration and told him that he wished Harry wasn’t his father. Harry responded by saying that sometimes he wished Albus wasn’t his son, something that he regretted immediately.

The two continued to have a cold relationship, despite Harry’s attempts to reconcile with him, until they finally sat down and talked. It is demonstrated that despite the difficulty in their relationship Albus forcibly told Scorpius to put «dad» on the blanket instead of Harry. Albus even risks his own life in order to save his father from Delphini, clearly demonstrating that he loves his father dearly. This dedication is returned when Harry jumps in front of his son when a Killing Curse is aimed at Albus. Harry is later found after the battle to be furious with Delphi for even attempting to murder his son. Harry insisted that he wanted to be a better father, and Albus wanting to be a better son. Albus also stays by his father’s side as he watches the murder of his grandparents at the hands of Lord Voldemort, they embrace each other, reaching an understanding that they are going to try and do better by each other.

Harry and Lily love each other dearly and were seen holding hands while walking into Kings Cross, much like Lily’s mother and maternal grandfather. Lily was jealous of her brothers as they boarded the train for Hogwarts, exactly as Ginny had been in 1991. Harry comforted her by reminding her that she would be joining them in two years.

It is seen through Harry’s actions that he loves and cherishes each of his children very much. Harry’s difficulties as a father likely stem from him not having a stable father-figure in his own childhood, thus having no role model to base his parenting style off of.

Nieces and nephews

Harry had many nieces and nephews through the Weasley family. The children of Bill and Fleur were Victoire, Dominique and Louis, and James announced that he had seen Teddy Lupin kissing Victoire at King’s Cross Station, in 2017. The children of Percy and his wife, Audrey, were Molly, who was named after her grandmother, and Lucy, and either Molly or both of the girls were attending Hogwarts in the 2017-2018 school year, because Percy was at King’s Cross on September 1, 2017. The children of George and Angelina Johnson were Fred, who was named after his late uncle, and Roxanne.

Harry was most likely closest to Ron and Hermione’s children, Rose and Hugo, as they were the same ages as Albus and Lily, respectively, and Albus was «relieved» to meet up with Rose at King’s Cross. Ron and Hermione were probably close to all of Harry’s children, and James, Albus, and Lily are their godchildren.

Fleur Delacour

Harry met Fleur Delacour in October 1994; his first opinion of her was that she was a very beautiful girl who looked like a Veela. Fleur initially paid him as little attention, as she did most of the younger Hogwarts students. She was even condescending towards him, calling him a «little boy» and believed (like everyone else) that he cheated his way into the tournament for a chance at personal glory. She also gave him looks, such as when he was wiping his wand down and accidentally made sparks shoot out the end.

After the second task, Fleur’s attitude towards him changed, when Harry saved her younger sister Gabrielle Delacour. Fleur, in turn, became much kinder to Harry in her gratitude. She kissed him on both cheeks as a way of saying thank you and they became good friends. After the Triwizard Tournament was completed and the students were returning home she gave Harry a goodbye. The two also mourned Cedric Diggory, a friend to them both, who was murdered by Lord Voldemort during the Third Task.

In the summer of 1996, Fleur met Harry again at The Burrow, when Fleur was about to marry Bill Weasley, the eldest brother of Harry’s best friend. While Fleur stayed at the Burrow, Harry seemed to be the only male who was unaffected by Fleur’s beauty. This was possibly due to the platonic relationship that developed between them over the course of the tournament. She would often display affection for him, such as bringing him a breakfast tray while he was in still in bed and kissing him on both cheeks in a form of greeting and farewell. Like Ron and Arthur Weasley, Harry appeared to like Fleur and would defend her, much to the dismay of Molly, Hermione, and Ginny.

Eventually, Fleur joined the Order of the Phoenix and in 1997 she put herself in great danger during the Battle of the Seven Potters, acting as one of Harry’s decoys. She was also very loyal to Harry. When her wedding was gate-crashed by Death Eaters, she did not tell them that Harry had been there. After the Skirmish at Malfoy Manor, Harry and his friends lived with Bill and Fleur for roughly one month at Shell Cottage. While at the cottage, Fleur cared for them all, much like a mother or an older sister. Also during that time she became protective of him and, by extension, his friends.

Eventually, Harry married Ginny Weasley and, through marriage, Fleur became Harry’s sister-in-law. Harry’s godson, Teddy Lupin, was seen kissing Fleur’s daughter, Victoire Weasley, at King’s Cross Station in 2017. Harry had two nieces and a nephew through Fleur’s marriage to Bill. Given the bond and experience that Fleur and Harry share as surviving champions of the 1994-1995 Triwizard Tournament, they likely shared a unique sense of camaraderie. Harry would also lecture Fleur’s children during his frequent guest appearances in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classes at Hogwarts, giving them a chance to learn first-hand from their esteemed uncle in a non-familial perspective.

Luna Lovegood

Harry met fellow Hogwarts student Luna Lovegood, a Ravenclaw, on September 1, 1995 on the Hogwarts Express. Although Harry found the younger witch rather strange, he was grateful when she told him that she believed his claim that Lord Voldemort had returned. She seemed to be one of the few students who did. Harry and Luna became friendlier through Dumbledore’s Army. After they fought together in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, Luna comforted Harry over the loss of his godfather, telling him about her late mother.

The following year, Harry defended Luna and Neville Longbottom when Romilda Vane implied they were not worth spending time with, whereas the previous year he found the two as embarrassment to his standing in front of Cho Chang. Later on in the year, he invited Luna to attend Slughorn’s Christmas Party with him, as a friend. Luna was excited, as she had never been invited to a party before and told Ginny about the invitation. During the party, Harry reflected that inviting Luna had been a good idea and absolutely worth it merely to see the looks of the faces of Horace Slughorn, Severus Snape and Sybill Trelawney when she mentioned the Rotfang Conspiracy.

During the year in which Harry, Ron, and Hermione went to hunt down Lord Voldemort’s Horcruxes, Harry visited the Lovegood household and found that Luna had decorated her bedroom with pictures of her five friends: Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Neville. Harry found this site to be very touching and felt great affection for Luna. Upon learning that Luna was being held hostage by the Death Eaters, Harry felt greatly worried, to the point of feeling some pity for her father for attempting to turn the trio in for ransom, but had confidence in Luna surviving nevertheless.

In the prelude to the final battle, Luna aided Harry in his search for Ravenclaw’s Diadem, having been the one to inform Harry of its existence in the first place, and she stunned Alecto Carrow when Harry was too shocked to move, which probably saved him from being held captive until Voldemort’s arrival. Later when Harry was going to sacrifice himself, he realized that Luna was one of his closest friends and one of the persons he would like to see before his death.

After the Battle of Hogwarts, Luna was the only one who noticed that Harry wanted to get away from the victory party, and created a distraction so that he could go speak with Ron and Hermione in private. The two remained friends into adulthood and Harry gave his daughter the middle name «Luna» in honor of his friend. It’s also quite possible that Harry became friends with her husband (Rolf Scamander) and close to her twins, Lorcan and Lysander.

Dobby

Harry and Dobby had a very strong relationship. Dobby loved and respected him very much, to the point where he considered Harry to be his best friend. Dobby became a vitally important figure in Harry’s life, and their relationship played a crucial role in Harry’s ultimate defeat of Lord Voldemort. When Harry first met Dobby he was a bit confused. Throughout the year, when Dobby made attempts to drive Harry away from Hogwarts, causing some rather unpleasant results on the way, Harry made some threats that were never followed through. Near the end of the 1992-1993 school year, Harry freed Dobby from the slavery of the Malfoy family. Lucius became enraged and intended to attack Harry, but Dobby protected him by using a defensive spell. Dobby may have realized that he underestimated Harry, as Harry managed to stop Lucius’ plot and survive the Chamber of Secrets.

Dobby was appointed to work at the kitchen of Hogwarts Castle in the paid service of Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, though even as a free elf, his loyalty always laid foremost with Harry.^[24] When Harry visited the kitchens and therefore Dobby, Dobby hugged him so tightly that Harry felt as though his ribs might crack. Dobby also asked if it would be alright if he visited Harry from time-to-time, with Harry responding with an of course. Dobby visited Harry on Christmas Day and presented him with a present, socks and when Harry tried them on Dobby’s eyes misted with tears. In 1994, Dobby provided Harry with Gillyweed for the second task of the Triwizard Tournament.

In 1995, Dobby told Harry about the Room of Requirement and how to get inside. It is a secret room inside Hogwarts castle and cannot be seen even on the Marauder’s Map. Harry and his friends used the room in Dumbledore’s Army’s meetings and practices. When Marietta Edgecombe betrayed Dumbledore’s Army to Professor Umbridge, Dobby immediately warned Harry that the Inquisitorial Squad was going to attack, even though the house-elves had been forbidden to tell anyone, proving that he was far more loyal to Harry Potter than to Umbridge or Hogwarts in general. When he heard, Harry ordered Dobby not to punish himself for disobeying a direct order from Umbridge.

In 1996, Dobby had a fight with another house-elf, Kreacher after Kreacher insulted Harry. In 1998, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Luna Lovegood, Dean Thomas, Garrick Ollivander, and the goblin Griphook were captured and taken hostage at the Malfoy Manor. Alerted to their whereabouts by Aberforth Dumbledore, Dobby rescued the hostages in two groups, firstApparating Dean, Luna, and Ollivander to Shell Cottage, then returning to do the same for Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Griphook. Dobby dropped a chandelier on Bellatrix Lestrange to release Hermione from being held at knife-point, giving Ron the opportunity to take a wand and Disapparate with Hermione. Enraged by what he had done, Bellatrix threw the same silver knife at Dobby, mortally wounding him, just as he Disapparated with Harry and Griphook. Upon arriving at Shell Cottage, Harry discovered Dobby’s wound and cried out for help as Dobby died in Harry’s arms. Harry dug a grave without using magic and held a small funeral for the elf in the garden of Shell Cottage. Dobby’s epitaph read «HERE LIES DOBBY, A FREE ELF«. After the funeral, Harry remembered the one Albus Dumbledore had and thought that Dobby deserved one just as grand.

It was the grief Harry felt for Dobby’s death that ultimately grounded him, ridding Harry of the «weird, obsessive longing» to find the Elder Wand and the resentment for how little he felt Albus Dumbledore had actually disclosed during their time together. While digging Dobby’s grave, Harry reflected on all Dumbledore had said about love, all that he had foreseen, and replaced his trust in the late Headmaster. Harry then made the conscious decision to continue his pursuit of Horcruxes, and not Hallows.

Neville Longbottom

Neville Longbottom became Harry’s dormmate in 1991, in their first year at Hogwarts. In 1996, Harry learned that The Prophecy that prompted Lord Voldemort to target his parents could have been referring to Neville. Though Harry sympathized with the fact that Neville’s parents had been tortured into insanity by Bellatrix, Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange, and Barty Crouch Jr., he spent part of the journey to Hogwarts prior to his sixth year pondering how things could have been different if Voldemort had chosen to attack Neville, and he had become the «one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord» instead of Harry.

Harry and Neville didn’t become particularly close until their fifth year at school, when Neville took part in Dumbledore’s Army, an organization that Harry led in opposition to Dolores Umbridge. Neville became highly devoted to the D.A., which, in turn, helped Neville not only improve his magical abilities, but gain badly needed confidence and incredible courage. He fought alongside Harry in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, where Neville saved Harry’s life from the Death Eater Walden Macnair, and in 1997, was one of only three D.A. members who still checked their Enchanted coin enough to receive Hermione’s call for help prior to the Battle of the Astronomy Tower.

In 1998, when Harry, Ron and Hermione were on the run, Neville re-formed Dumbledore’s Army with Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood, in resistance against Death Eaters Alecto and Amycus Carrow. Neville spoke out against their anti-Muggle rhetoric and habit of using the Cruciatus Curse on students, regardless of the consequences, saying he noticed it always helped give people hope when Harry did that. When Harry returned, Neville deferred to his leadership and summoned the rest of Dumbledore’s Army (who, in turn, contacted the Order of the Phoenix) believing Harry was there to lead a revolt. Harry and Neville fought together throughout the Battle of Hogwarts, and just before Harry sacrificed himself, he left Neville with the instruction to kill Nagini, Voldemort’s snake and last remaining Horcrux. When everyone believed Harry to be dead, Neville openly defied Voldemort, who tried to burn him alive with the Sorting Hat but failed due to Harry’s Sacrificial protection. Using the opportunity given to him by the sudden arrival of reinforcements, Neville completed the task Harry gave to him; he drew Gryffindor’s Sword from the Sorting Hat and slew Nagini, destroying the last Horcrux and rendering Voldemort mortal, thus allowing Harry to finally kill him.

Nineteen years after the battle, Neville was the Herbology professor at Hogwarts, and taught Harry and Ginny’s children, James and Albus. They both remained close friends in adulthood, to the point where Ginny asked James to give Neville their love, which horrified James because although he knew Neville well, at school, he’s Professor Longbottom.

Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas

In addition to Ron and Neville, Harry’s roommates at Hogwarts were Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan. Although he was not as close to them as he was to Ron, Harry was nevertheless friendly with both of them.

Dean made a banner for Harry during his first Quidditch match, and believed him about the return of Lord Voldemort in 1995, unlike Seamus, eagerly joining Dumbledore’s Army. However, Seamus eventually realized that Harry was telling the truth about Voldemort’s return, he joined the D.A. and became friends with Harry again. Harry resented Dean slightly during their sixth year out of jealousy over Dean’s romance with Ginny Weasley, on whom he had developed a crush. When Dean and Ginny split up, Harry’s enmity lifted, though Dean then became upset when Harry kissed his ex-girlfriend soon after their break-up,^[24] in spite of this, he never seemed to carry any ill will towards Harry.

Dean, like the Trio, left Hogwarts in 1997 because he was unsure whether he was a Muggle-born or not. He was caught by a group of Snatchers, led by Fenrir Greyback, along with Ron, Harry, and Hermione. During his rescue from Malfoy Manor, he was very reluctant to escape with Dobby and leave Harry behind^[25] and lived for a few days at Shell Cottage. Seamus and Dean eventually fought along with Ron in the Battle of Hogwarts.

Cho Chang

In his earlier years at Hogwarts, Harry was attracted to Cho Chang, a popular girl in Ravenclaw House and seeker of their Quidditch team. During the Triwizard Tournament in 1994, Harry plucked up the courage to ask her to the Yule Ball, but was disappointed to find that she had already agreed to go with Cedric Diggory, though she seemed to genuinely feel bad about having to turn him down.

In their next year, following Cedric’s tragic death, Harry and Cho grew closer, eventually sharing a kiss under the mistletoe. However, Cho was still mourning Cedric, and became unreasonably jealous of Harry’s friendship with Hermione, which, compounded with Harry’s inexperience with girls, put a strain on their relationship; Harry was confused with Cho’s attitude, and the misunderstanding soured their first date’s experience.

Although Harry was still attracted to Cho it said that his stomach reacted less violently when she was around, merely doing a «feeble lurch» rather than a somersault. The last straw was Cho’s friend Marietta Edgecombe’s betrayal of Dumbledore’s Army to Dolores Umbridge; Cho defended Marietta and called the jinx Hermione had placed on the D.A. parchment a «horrible trick», both of which angered Harry. The two stopped speaking to one another, and Cho soon began dating Michael Corner. However, any animosity seemed to have vanished by 1998, as Cho was among the former D.A. members who returned to participate in the Battle of Hogwarts. Just before the battle, she offered to show Harry the Ravenclaw common room and seemed disappointed when this offer was fiercely denied by Ginny Weasley. Harry, neither disappointed nor enthusiastic went with Luna without further argument.

One of the many points that Harry fell in love with Ginny is because she was rarely weepy. This contrasts with Cho, as she cried openly for many periods of time after Cedric’s death, to which left Harry at a complete loss as to what to do at such moments. Along with Cho’s desire to talk about Cedric’s death with Harry (to which Harry refused), Harry felt it was hard to talk to her and he began to lose interest in her more and more for spoiling the mood, until he was eventually too confused at her tears when she cried at how Harry insulted Marietta, and told her off rudely. However, the two do not hate or dislike each other and remain on neutral terms.

Albus Dumbledore

Albus Dumbledore was a mentor to Harry, akin to a grandfather figure. Dumbledore arranged for Harry to be rescued from Godric’s Hollow after his parents’ murder and left him in the care of his aunt Petunia Dursley in order to give him the benefit of the magical protection of his mother’s blood. In Harry’s fifth year, he admitted to Harry that he had not told him of the prophecy concerning himself and Voldemort, because he wanted to spare Harry the pain and responsibility it would burden him with for as long as possible. Though Harry was initially furious with him for the frustration he felt for being kept in the dark, the two continued to be close. By Harry’s sixth year, Dumbledore took on the role of providing Harry with additional insights into the origins of Lord Voldemort, largely through the use of the Pensieve. He entrusted Harry with the task of getting a final, crucial memory from Horace Slughorn regarding Voldemort’s knowledge of Horcruxes.

Dumbledore’s death was greatly devastating to Harry, though he persevered in the impossibly difficult task Dumbledore had left him of finding and destroying each of Voldemort’s Horcruxes. Harry had difficulty coping with the fact that there was much Dumbledore had not told him about his history with the Deathly Hallows and Gellert Grindelwald; however, when he learned during the Battle of Hogwarts that Dumbledore had supposedly planned all along for Harry to sacrifice himself, Harry innately showed incredible faith in his mentor by serenely accepting the task. When Harry allowed himself to be struck by Voldemort’s Killing Curse, his soul entered a state of Limbo, resembling King’s Cross Station, where Dumbledore was waiting to speak with him.

The fact that Dumbledore himself was there to meet Harry in a place between life and death attested to the bond of fellowship between them. They discussed all that had happened to Harry since Dumbledore’s death, as well as things that had remained unsaid prior to it. At one point, Dumbledore seemed to beg for Harry’s reassurance, uncharacteristically doubting some of the decisions he had made in the course of his life, which Harry easily gave him. Though Harry had felt some resentment for how little he felt Dumbledore had actually revealed of himself in their time together, Harry probably learned secrets and saw a side of Dumbledore that no one else knew during the events at «King’s Cross.»

Harry also had a unique relationship Dumbledore’s phoenix, Fawkes; not only was Harry’s wand one of the only two ever made with feathers from Fawkes’s tail, but the phoenix found Harry in the Chamber of Secrets, helped him kill Salazar Slytherin’s Basilisk, and provided Harry with the only known antidote to Basilisk venom: phoenix tears. Fawkes’s song was a source of comfort for Harry on a number occasions before the phoenix left Hogwarts following Dumbledore’s death.

Harry later named his second son Albus, after the Hogwarts Headmaster.

Rubeus Hagrid

Rubeus Hagrid was Harry’s first friend in the wizarding world. In effect, he rescued Harry twice: once from the wreckage of his destroyed home, as a baby; second, from the Dursleys’ to take him back into the wizarding world.

Both orphaned outsiders, Harry and Hagrid shared a bond that Harry never failed to honor. He constantly defended the half-giant against name-calling and mockery, and despite his disapproval, helped Hagrid protect various dangerous pets and raise his half-brother, Grawp. Harry also refused to believe Hagrid opened the Chamber of Secrets, when Tom Riddle’s Diary showed him the memory.

During the Battle of Hogwarts in 1998, Voldemort forced a distraught Hagrid to carry Harry’s «dead body» out of the Forbidden Forest, during which time Hagrid expressed his fury with the centaurs for initially refusing to fight while openly sobbing over him, prompting them to join in soon after.

In 2017, Harry’s sons, James and Albus, were planning to meet Hagrid for tea shortly after their arrival at Hogwarts.

Minerva McGonagall

Harry had a strong relationship with his Transfiguration teacher and Head of House, Professor Minerva McGonagall. Though theirs was a typical student-teacher relationship for Harry’s first three years at Hogwarts, after Harry was selected to become a Triwizard Champion, the sheer level of danger he faced seemed to warm her to him. In Harry’s fifth year, McGonagall urged Harry not to give Dolores Umbridge or the Ministry any more ammunition to use against him, and she later stood up for him to Umbridge, promising to help Harry become an Auror if it was the last thing she did. Harry felt a powerful surge of anger when Umbridge later gloated that Minerva was too ill to talk to anyone after being hit in the chest with four simultaneous Stunners.

In 1998, Harry was so infuriated with Amycus Carrow for spitting in McGonagall’s face, that he succeeded in using the Cruciatus Curse on the Death Eater, agreeing with Bellatrix Lestrange’s assertion that one had to «really mean it» in order to perform the curse effectively. McGonagall returned Harry’s devotion by arming Hogwarts on Harry’s request, and then fighting Voldemort head on in the final battle. When Voldemort had Harry’s seemingly dead body brought out from the Forest, Minerva gave a terrible scream, to rival those of Ron, Hermione, and Ginny. In this way, Professor McGonagall was like a strict but fair and loving grandmother figure to Harry.

Severus Snape

During his years in school, Harry’s relationship with Potions master Severus Snape was nothing short of deepest mutual loathing. When Harry first saw Snape in the Great Hall at Hogwarts, he got the initial feeling that Snape disliked him; only after his first Potions lesson did Harry realize the resentment dug much deeper. Harry soon learned that Snape saw Harry as a younger version of his father — a self-centered boy who enjoyed the attention paid to him, and was «so arrogant that criticism simply bounced off him.»

Harry’s hatred of Snape reached its height in 1997 when he discovered that Snape had told Voldemort about the Prophecy involving him, which led Harry to believe that Snape had betrayed his parents. Harry raged at Albus Dumbledore for trusting Snape, only to have Dumbledore silence him. Later the same night, Snape killed Dumbledore, which only seemed to confirm what Harry had come to believe about his former Potions master.

Ironically, Harry and Snape shared several things in common that they were unaware of. For instance, they were both half-blood wizards who grew up amongst Muggles and their care-takers did not take good care of them (Snape’s father was abusive while the Dursleys simply neglected Harry).

In 1998, Harry witnessed Voldemort order the death of Severus Snape, in an attempt to gain the allegiance of the Elder Wand. Despite his hatred of his former teacher, he still felt sorry for the way Voldemort had killed Snape without even feeling sorry for taking his life. As Voldemort left Snape mortally wounded by Nagini in the Shrieking Shack, Harry was able to obtain several memories that contained not only the truth about Snape’s motives and unwavering allegiance to the Order of the Phoenix, but relayed a crucial message from Dumbledore. What Harry discovered about Snape’s persistent love for Lily Evans also explained Snape’s final act: he had instructed Harry to look at him, so he could die looking into the eyes Harry inherited from his mother.

By 2017, Harry considered Snape to be one of the bravest men he had ever known, and gave his second son, who was the only one of his children to inherit Lily’s eyes, the middle name «Severus.»^[HP7] Harry ensured that Snape’s portrait eventually found its rightful place among Hogwarts’s previous headmasters.

Gilderoy Lockhart

Gilderoy Lockhart was Harry’s Defense Against the Dark Arts professor in Harry’s second year. Lockhart was a very handsome and famous author, who claimed he had done great deeds but had in fact only taken credit for the deeds after erasing the memories of the actual doers: his only skill. Lockhart was extremely vain and highly self-obsessed; he assigned all of his own, very expensive, books for his class. Lockhart continually pulled Harry into the limelight against his will, often implying that Harry hoped to be as famous as Lockhart, which caused Harry a great deal of embarrassment and irritation. Indeed, Harry made an active effort to avoid Lockhart as much as possible. While Lockhart gifted his entire set of books to Harry as a publicity stunt and hoping to garner some liking from the famous boy, Harry instead donated them all to Ginny Weasley, both because he could afford his own and he was rather unhappy with his first interaction with Lockhart.

In addition to this, Lockhart was an utterly incompetent teacher, a fact that became apparent to Harry during his first lesson with the author. After setting an irrelevant, narcissistic half-hour test, Lockhart released a cage of Cornish pixies into the classroom without giving any sort of instructions on how to control the creatures, and, in the resulting havoc, went on to instruct Harry and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger to round up the creatures after his own attempt had failed. At one point during the year, Lockhart’s ineptitude caused unnecessary harm to Harry when, in a misguided attempt at first aid for a bone fracture, he used a spell that removed all the bones in his arm. This forced Harry to endure a painful night in the Hospital Wing on a course of Skele-Gro. This, combined with the fact Lockhart had arrogantly ignored Harry’s refusal of treatment, soured their relationship further. Harry’s opinion for Lockhart only worsened when the professor insisted that Rubeus Hagrid is the perpetrator of the Chamber of Secrets incident solely based on the Minister for Magic arresting him as a precaution, which made Harry yearned to throw a book at Lockhart’s face.

When Ginny Weasley had been taken into the Chamber of Secrets, Lockhart boasted that he knew exactly how to enter the Chamber and defeat the monster within; though McGonagall only challenged him to do so in order to shut him up, Harry and Ron, who actually did know how to get into the Chamber, tried to tell him what they knew, only to find him packing his things and getting ready to flee. At this point, Lockhart admitted the truth about his «accomplishments», bringing Harry’s contempt for the incompetent, arrogant narcissist to boiling point. Harry did not hesitate using the Disarming Charm to throw Lockhart backwards. In the tunnels to the Chamber of Secrets, Lockhart attempted to erase Harry and Ron’s memories, but fortunately for everyone except him, Lockhart attempted to cast the Memory Charm with Ron’s broken wand, and the charm backfired. Harry, Ron, and Hermione encountered him again, with absolutely no memories but still using his battered peacock feather quill, as a permanent resident of St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. Harry’s sympathy for Lockhart was extremely limited for the attempt was all Lockhart’s fault to begin with in addition to his intent to flee and leave Ginny for dead.

Sybill Trelawney

As Sybill Trelawney had a tendency to predict various grim deaths for Harry every Divination class, Harry was not especially fond of his Divination professor. Though most of Trelawney’s predictions were nonsensical, in 1996, Harry learned it was Trelawney who had made the prophecy about him and Voldemort, and another in 1994 regarding the return of Peter Pettigrew to the service of Voldemort, though she was completely unaware of having done so. In addition, he had a slightly better opinion of Trelawney than his friends, as while neither Hermione or Ron believed Trelawney’s prediction of Voldemort’s return, dismissing it as being just another fraudish prediction despite Harry’s description of the event, Harry was nevertheless cautious of it and it proved to be true. The fact that he was the only one out of the trio who knew Trelawney was genuinely a Seer from Dumbledore’s revelations likely made him believe Trelawney a bit more than his friends.

Though Harry was not a huge fan of the subject, in general, Harry liked the other Divination professor, Firenze, a centaur who had saved Harry’s life in 1991. During the Battle of Hogwarts Harry saw Trelawney spiking crystal balls at the invading Death Eaters.

Despite his general dislike of Sybill for being mostly a fraud who kept annoying him with nonsensical predictions of his death, it did not prevent Harry from extending his sympathy towards her when Dolores Umbridge began her attempts to weed out Sybill, as Harry pitied her poor performance when she was put on probation, understanding the amount of stress she was put under and would have felt sorry for her had he not been worrying about Hagrid, and when Umbridge finally, in the utmost cruel manner, sacked Sybill, Harry was utterly disgusted by the great callousness delight at Trelawney’s suffering Umbridge showed and later on he even asked Lavender on how she was doing, whereas Hermione and Ron did not bother to ask it, with Hermione acting cool when questioned by Lavender and Parvati, showing the most amount of genuine concern and empathy for the latter’s state out of the trio.

Remus Lupin

Harry’s simple student-teacher relationship with Remus Lupin quickly developed into a strong friendship, akin to the one that a kind, loving uncle and his favorite nephew would share.

Harry first met Remus when he was an infant, and again in 1993 when Remus saved him from the Dementors on the Hogwarts Express. Remus had been appointed the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts that year, and soon became his favorite professor as well as a mentor of sorts. It was suggested that Remus’ classes were how Harry discovered his talent for Defense Against the Dark Arts. When Harry continued to be badly affected by Dementors, Remus agreed to give Harry private lessons to teach him the Patronus Charm. It was during these lessons that Harry discovered that Remus was one of his parents’ oldest and dearest friends. Although Remus attempted to maintain a teacher-student relationship with Harry, he did act more as a close friend or a beloved uncle at times, answering his questions patiently, sharing Butterbeer after a private lesson, assisting him in avoiding trouble with Professor Snape, and even returning the Marauder’s Map to Harry once he was no longer a professor. Harry, in turn, became deeply fond of Remus, and was extremely upset to hear of his resignation after Severus Snape exposed him as a werewolf. He even attempted to try and talk him into staying on at Hogwarts, but it was futile, though Remus told him that it had been a real pleasure teaching him, and assured him that they would meet again.

The two indeed met again in the summer of 1995 when members of the Advance Guard of the Order of the Phoenix arrived to pick up Harry from Privet Drive. Although initially wary of intruders, Harry relaxed on learning of Remus’ presence in the group, indicating that he still trusted his father’s old dear friend despite a year without contact. During the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, Remus protected Harry and Neville Longbottom from an attack by Lucius Malfoy and saved Harry’s life by preventing him from running into the Veil in the Death Chamber in an attempt to save his godfather, Sirius Black.

Remus’ undercover assignment with the werewolves prevented him from maintaining contact with Harry in the wake of his godfather’s death, something about which he expressed regret. On the few occasions that they saw each other during Harry’s sixth year, Harry was worried about Remus’ increasingly haggard and gaunt appearance. He displayed a protective streak towards Remus, expressing anger over his forced resignation from Hogwarts and the general perception of werewolves.

In 1997, Harry was thrilled to hear of Remus’ marriage to Nymphadora Tonks and was puzzled by Lupin’s increasingly worried appearance. He was outraged when Remus temporarily left his wife for fear of their then unborn child becoming a werewolf. While Harry maintained his stance on their argument, he deeply regretted the harsh words he said to Remus in his anger. When Remus’ son Teddy Lupin was born, Harry was relieved that Remus had clearly forgiven him, and was overwhelmed but delighted to be made Teddy’s godfather. Remus also spoke about Harry on Potterwatch, saying that if Harry could hear him he would tell him to trust his instincts which were «nearly always right.» This deeply affected Harry who was then informed by Ron that Lupin was back with Tonks, having apparently listened to what Harry had said despite the way he said it.

Of all the people who died during the Battle of Hogwarts, Remus’ death, along with those of his wife, Nymphadora Tonks, and Fred Weasley, were the ones that hit Harry the hardest. Remus was one of the spirits that was summoned by the Resurrection Stone to speak to Harry and give him the support he needed as he walked to what he believed was his death, indicating the almost familial bond between Remus and Harry.

In Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Harry wrote in the werewolf section that they «aren’t all bad,» and Harry and Remus’ son, Teddy became very close after the war. Harry and his family had dinner with Teddy four times a week and Harry’s children hoped that Teddy would either be married into the Weasley-Potter family, or Harry would ask Teddy to move in with the Potters.

Dolores Umbridge

Harry disliked Senior Undersecretary to the Minister for Magic, Dolores Umbridge, from the moment he first laid eyes on her, which was shortly before she voted in favor of Harry’s undeserved expulsion from Hogwarts. In the summer of 1995, Umbridge sent two Dementors after Harry and his cousin, Dudley Dursley, in an attempt to silence Harry from contradicting the Ministry of Magic’s official position maintaining that Lord Voldemort had not returned to power.

Harry was forced to use a Patronus to defend himself and Dudley from the Dementors, which resulted in Harry being summoned to the Ministry on the charge of using under age magic; if convicted, he would have been expelled from Hogwarts. Umbridge took part in Harry’s prosecution and spoke in favor of his conviction, but Harry was cleared due to Albus Dumbledore’s defense, as well as the impartiality of Amelia Bones and several other members of the Wizengamot.

Harry soon encountered Umbridge again when she was appointed Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts, by the Ministry. Harry was outspoken in his outrage at the Ministry’s denial of Voldemort’s return and their refusal to allow Hogwarts students to practice defensive magic, which Umbridge sadistically responded to by making him carve the words «I must not tell lies,» into the back of his own hand using a Blood Quill. Umbridge clearly favored Slytherin students, and presumably those who had ties to the ministry in particular, as demonstrated by her allowing the Slytherin Quidditch team to re-form before any other, following the passage of Educational Decree Number Twenty-Four, and later giving Harry and the Weasley twins lifetime bans from playing Quidditch after they attacked Draco Malfoy.

Umbridge monitored all incoming and outgoing mail, resulting in the injury of Harry’s owl, Hedwig, and she made it nearly impossible for Harry, Ron and Hermione to visit Hagrid at his hut. When Harry publicly recounted witnessing Voldemort’s resurrection in an interview with Rita Skeeter, published in The Quibbler, Umbridge banned him from Hogsmeade trips. One by one, Umbridge was robbing Harry of his reasons to want to stay at Hogwarts.

In order to offer students the practical defensive education Umbridge was denying them, Harry formed and led Dumbledore’s Army. When they were betrayed to Umbridge by one of their members, Harry was nearly expelled from Hogwarts until Dumbledore convinced Cornelius Fudge that Harry only formed the organization on his orders. Dumbledore was forced to leave Hogwarts to avoid being sent to Azkaban, after which Umbridge took the position of Headmistress and the students took to making things as difficult for her as possible.

Umbridge attempted to have Hagrid arrested after a couple of Nifflers were released in her office, despite his obvious innocence, which resulted in his going on the run and Professor McGonagall being seriously injured and temporarily incapacitated at St. Mungo’s Hospital. With seemingly no adults left for him to turn to, Harry attempted to use Umbridge’s fire, the only fire not being monitored by the Ministry, to check on Sirius Black, after having a vision that Sirius was being tortured in the Department of Mysteries. Remembering that Severus Snape was, in fact, a member of the Order of the Phoenix, Harry gave Snape the cryptic message, «he’s got Padfoot at the place where it’s hidden!» Umbridge nearly used the Cruciatus Curse on Harry in order to make him explain his statement, when Hermione intervened and tricked Umbridge into believing the D.A. had been building a weapon for Dumbledore in the Forbidden Forest.

When Harry, Hermione and Umbridge were confronted by a herd of centaurs, Umbridge’s angry diatribe— in which she referred to the centaurs as «creatures of near-human intelligence» and «filthy half-breeds»— resulted in her being carried off into the depths of the forest. Neither Harry nor Hermione helped Umbridge when she tripped on tree roots during their trip into the forest, much less so much as raise a hand to defend her from the centaurs in any way.

After the Ministry finally acknowledged Voldemort’s return to power, Umbridge was removed from Hogwarts. However, Harry was furious to learn later that year that Umbridge was still working for the Ministry. When Voldemort became the de facto Minister of Magic, with an imperiused Pius Thicknesse as his puppet, Umbridge, knowingly or not, immediately showed sympathy for his agenda by taking part in the hunt for Harry Potter and branding him «Undesirable Number 1.» When Harry, disguised as Albert Runcorn by way of Polyjuice Potion, met Umbridge again in 1997, she had become Head of the Muggle-Born Registration Commission, and was cruelly interrogating and «trying» innocent Muggle-born wizards and witches, before sentencing them to Azkaban for «stealing magic.» When Umbridge taunted a Muggle-born witch by claiming Salazar Slytherin’s Locket was a family heirloom and proof of her relation to the pure-blood Selwyn family, Harry Stunned Umbridge in a fit of anger. Hermione replaced the locket with a decoy, after which she, Ron, and Harry proceeded to free all the Muggle-borns awaiting interrogation.

After the Second Wizarding War, Umbridge was arrested and convicted of several crimes, particularly those against Muggle-borns, and sentenced to life imprisonment in Azkaban. It was highly possible that Harry was one of the many witnesses present during Umbridge’s sentencing.

Horace Slughorn

Harry first met Horace Slughorn in 1996, when he accompanied Albus Dumbledore in attempting to persuade the old Potions master to come out of retirement. From the start, Harry was unsure how he felt about Slughorn; though he was clearly not someone with even the slightest inclination toward becoming a Death Eater, he seemed wholly more superficial and self-serving than the likes of people in the Order and most of Harry’s other professors. Slughorn had a habit of nurturing and promoting students who would allow him to benefit from his connections to them later on; on the other hand, he seemed to take into account genuine merit as much status within the wizarding community, as he told Harry that his mother, who had no connections at all as a Muggle-born witch, was one of his all time favorite students.

Though he resisted, Slughorn ultimately could not pass up the opportunity to «collect» Harry, nor could he deny that there was no safer place to be than where ever Dumbledore was. Horace Slughorn resumed his post as Potions Master, and made quick work of inviting several choice students (which included Ginny Weasley, when he saw her perform an excellent Bat-Bogey Hex on Zacharias Smith, and later Hermione, when he saw that she was all around brilliant) in addition to Harry, to be a part of his «Slug Club.»

In due course, Harry realized that Dumbledore had not just wanted Slughorn back at Hogwarts because he needed to fill a position. During one of their private lessons, Dumbledore showed Harry a memory that belonged to Horace Slughorn, in which Slughorn was chatting with a group of Slytherin boys, including a young Tom Riddle. Riddle had apparently gifted Slughorn his favorite Crystallised pineapple, was being being charming, and generally seemed to be building up to something. Indeed, when the other boys left, Riddle stayed behind, and slowly but surely made his way to his point; he wanted to know what Slughorn knew about Horcruxes. The room suddenly got hazy, and a voice that belonged to Slughorn but was clearly inorganic reprimanded Riddle for asking such thing, before the memory abruptly ended.

Dumbledore told Harry that original version of the modified memory would be of vital importance in understanding exactly what destroying Voldemort would entail, and tasked Harry with retrieving it. Aside from simply being «Harry Potter,» Harry had three things that would help him do what even Dumbledore apparently could not: a reputation with Slughorn as a excellent potioneer, courtesy of the Half-Blood Prince, the vial of liquid luck he had won, also courtesy of the Prince, and Slughorn’s fondness for Harry’s own mother. A combination of all those things, as well as a healthy dose of Mead and the opportunity to collect a few vials of Acromantula venom, allowed Harry to finally collect the memory that confirmed what Dumbledore had suspected Voldemort had done to travel «farther down the path to immortality than anyone else»: created not just one, but several Horcruxes.

Though it seemed as if Slughorn had fled with the rest of the Slytherins prior to the start of the Battle of Hogwarts, he soon returned with reinforcements from Hogsmeade. During the final battle in the Great Hall, Slughorn displayed his immense skill and courage by taking on Voldemort directly, duelling him alongside Minerva McGonagall and Kingsley Shacklebolt.

Death Eaters

Lord Voldemort

Dumbledore described the relationship between Lord Voldemort and Harry as follows: «You and Lord Voldemort have journeyed together into realms of magic unknown and untested… Voldemort wrapped your destinies together more securely than ever two wizards were joined in history…both kin and mortal enemy…». The two wizards, as well as sharing the same phoenix feather wand core in their wands, had their destines locked together even since a prophecy foretelling of child «with the power to Vanquish the Dark Lord» was made and relayed in part Voldemort, who decided to act to prevent it from coming to fruition. Though two infants fit the description of the «Chosen One,» Voldemort believed the son of James and Lily Potter posed the greater threat, as he, like Voldemort himself, was a Half-blood.

To circumvent the prophecy, Voldemort went to Godric’s Hollow to murder the baby Harry. When Lily refused to move aside and allow Voldemort access to his true target, her son, her willing sacrifice afforded Harry a protection so powerful, it caused the Killing Curse Voldemort aimed at Harry to rebound. Voldemort’s body was destroyed, and the fragment of soul residing within it was forced to flee and exist in a weak, spectral form. In attempting to kill Harry, Voldemort unintentionally embeddied a piece of his soul and some of his own abilities into Harry, as well as effectively marking Harry «as his equal.» It was only after Voldemort attacked Harry that the latter became a Parselmouth, a trait Voldemort inherited from Salazar Slytherin, and was able to see into Voldemort’s mind on occasion—both tools that aided Harry in bringing about Lord Voldemort’s end.

It was due to Voldemort that Harry grew up with no parents, and thus had to live with the abusive Dursley family (Petunia Dursley was his mother’s sister). Harry also met Voldemort again in 1992, when the latter, sharing Professor Quirinus Quirrell’s body, attempted to steal the Sorcerer’s Stone from Hogwarts. Voldemort attempted to use what he knew about Harry to convince the boy to hand the stone over—offering him power first, but then the possibility of seeing his parents again—and when Harry refused, he ordered Quirrell to retrieve the stone by force. When Quirrell was unable to touch Harry without experiencing excruciating pain, Voldemort gained some appreciation of the enduring power of Lily Potter’s sacrifice, though this knowledge didn’t stop him from continuing to underestimate the power of love.

A year later, Lucius Malfoy slipped Tom Riddle’s Diary into a pile of books Ginny Weasley was holding. Unbeknownst to both Ginny and Lucius, the latter most likely believing the Diary was simply enchanted to open the Chamber of Secrets, a fragment of Lord Voldemort’s soul possessed Ginny and used her to free Salazar Slytherin’s basilisk. When Riddle eventually brought Ginny into the Chamber, intending to use her life to restore his own, Harry—being a Parselmouth, and thus able to enter the chamber—followed to rescue Ginny. When Harry demonstrated the traits of a «true Gryffindor» by once again standing up to Voldemort, Fawkes the phoenix brought Harry the Sorting Hat, from which he was able to pull Godric Gryffindor’s Sword. Harry used the Sword to stab the Basilisk, and then plunged one of the snake’s fangs into Tom Riddle’s Diary; Harry thus unknowingly destroyed one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes for the first time. It was also here where he first learned that Voldemort’s original name was Tom Marvolo Riddle, a fact that shocked Harry, as he originally thought Riddle was a role model student, as many others once believed.

In 1995, Harry witnessed Lord Voldemort’s resurrection after he and Cedric Diggory were transported to the Little Hangleton graveyard by way of a secret Portkey. Peter Pettigrew murdered Diggory, and then proceeded to concoct a potion to restore Voldemort to physical form, using one of his own hands, bones dug up from the grave of Voldemort’s father, and Harry’s blood. Upon regaining a body, Voldemort attempted once again to eliminate the threat Harry posed, this time with Harry’s blood—and as such, his mother’s protection—running through his veins.

As Voldemort had expected, it no longer caused him pain to touch Harry, and in his arrogance and confidence at having overcome what he believed was the only obstacle that had prevented him from killing Harry in the first place, he initiated a duel. Harry was able to aim a Disarming Charm at Voldemort exactly at the same time the latter attempted another Killing Curse, and the two spells collided, causing the rare Priori Incantatem effect. Ghost-like echoes of Voldemort’s last victims, including Cedric Diggory and Harry’s Parents, emerged from his wand, and held Voldemort off while Harry escaped back to Hogwarts with Cedric’s body.

Having once again failed to kill Harry, Voldemort was determined to discover what was contained in the portion of the Prophecy he had not heard, and set plans in motion to retrieve a copy of it from the fabled Hall of Prophecy. Though Harry, as the subject of the Prophecy, would have been the only one able to remove the record, Voldemort succeeded in getting into Harry’s head, in more ways than one, with the help of the bullheaded refusal of Cornelius Fudge, and the Ministry of Magic, to acknowledge Voldemort’s return. As the Ministry launched a smear campaign throughout Harry’s fifth year at Hogwarts, in a bid to discredit him, Harry was filled with feelings of isolation and self-doubt that made him increasingly vulnerable to Voldemort’s manipulation. After discovering that Harry had been able more than once to see into his mind, Voldemort planted a fake vision of Harry’s godfather, Sirius Black, being tortured in the Hall of Prophecy; Harry was thus lured to the Ministry in his desire to save Sirius, where he was ambushed by several Death Eaters.

Though the record of the Prophecy was smashed in the ensuing battle, Voldemort entered the Ministry to confront Harry once more. When Voldemort was confronted with Albus Dumbledore, Voldemort possessed Harry, causing the boy intense pain and trying to get Dumbledore to kill the boy out of mercy. However, as Voldemort was incapable of feeling love, the grief Harry felt for the death of his godfather, whom he had just seen killed in the Death Chamber, caused Voldemort unbearable pain. Feeling responsible for the death of Harry’s godfather, Dumbledore finally revealed to Harry the full extent of his significance to Lord Voldemort, as well as the significance of the prophecy to Harry, and the depth of Lily’s sacrifice.

Fully confident that Voldemort would never again enter Harry’s mind, Dumbledore began teaching Harry about the origins of Tom Riddle in private lessons, by showing Harry the Headmaster’s own memories of the younger Voldemort, as well as those obtained from Riddle’s few surviving victims. Though Harry was disturbed to notice many similarities between them — both were orphans who considered Hogwarts their first real homes, and both physically resembled their fathers, as well as, to some degree, each other—Dumbledore insisted that they differed in one absolutely crucial way; Harry had the ability to love, while Voldemort did not.

A memory Dumbledore enlisted Harry’s help to retrieve from Horace Slughorn confirmed his suspicions of all Voldemort had done to «to go farther down the path to immortality than anyone else;» following Dumbledore’s death in 1997, Harry resolutely took up the the task Dumbledore had started of returning Lord Voldemort to mortality by destroying his Horcruxes.

During the time he spent searching for Voldemort’s Horcruxes, Harry was able to see into Voldemort’s mind whenever the latter was filled with such a strong surge of emotion that he was unable to apply Occlumency. In December of 1998, Harry became aware of the Deathly Hallows, and through his mental connection with Voldemort, discovered the Dark Lord was attempting to track down the Elder Wand. Harry «watched» as Voldemort tortured and killed his way to the Elder Wand’s current location: Albus Dumbledore’s tomb.

Though he had initially thought to try and find the reputedly unbeatable wand himself, the grief Harry felt for Dobby’s death grounded him, and he made the conscious decision to pursue the Horcruxes, not the Hallows, choosing not to try and beat Voldemort to obtaining the wand. After destroying all of Voldemort’s known Horcruxes, with the exception of Nagini, Harry learned during the Battle of Hogwarts that he was, himself, a Horcrux, and thus allowed himself to be hit with Voldemort’s Killing Curse. Voldemort was convinced that he only must murder the boy, and gave instructions to his Death Eaters to capture him alive so that he could perform the curse. However, when Voldemort had used Harry’s blood to restore his body, he had unwittingly bound Harry’s life to his own, and as such, the curse only destroyed the piece of Voldemort’s soul within Harry, while Harry survived.

As the two faced off one last time, Harry urged Voldemort to feel remorse—the only known means of repairing a fractured soul—but Voldemort reacted with disdain. Harry went on to inform Voldemort that despite wielding the Elder Wand, he was not its master; Draco Malfoy won the wand’s allegiance by disarming Dumbledore, but Harry had disarmed Draco weeks ago. Thus, Harry was the true master of the Elder Wand. In his fury, Voldemort made one last attempt at Harry’s life, but the Elder Wand was loyal to Harry, and the Killing Curse once again backfired on to Voldemort. Without his Horcruxes to sustain him, this time the curse finally and completely ended Voldemort’s life.

Voldemort and Harry were also related by blood, however distantly, through their shared descent from the Peverells (Voldemort through the Gaunts and Harry through the Potters), which made them distant cousins.

Draco Malfoy

Draco Malfoy became Harry’s rival almost from the moment they met at Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions in Diagon Alley. Draco came from a family that believed strongly in the importance of blood purity, thus he considered himself superior to most people. He bullied and insulted Muggle-borns and Gryffindors in particular. He was bitterly jealous of Harry’s seemingly effortless heroism. Despite his strong hatred towards Draco, Harry had restraint towards Draco’s taunts. He occasionally had to restrain Ron Weasley (and on one occasion, George Weasley) from attacking Draco and only resorted to violence if Draco insulted someone he cared about. Their rivalry became dangerous in the 1996–1997 school year, as shown when Draco broke Harry’s nose on the Hogwarts Express, and Harry slashing and seriousing injuring Draco with the curse Sectumsempra in the Sixth-floor boys’ bathroom. However, he did genuinely feel remorse for having done the deed, having never intended to wound Draco so mortally.

Draco bit off more than he could chew in his ambition to be like his father (Lucius Malfoy) when he became a Death Eater at a young age. To punish his father, Voldemort ordered Draco to assassinate Albus Dumbledore, threatening his parents’ lives if he failed. Although he let several Death Eaters into Hogwarts in 1997, Draco found himself unwilling to actually go through with murdering Dumbledore, even when given the opportunity to do so. Harry himself recognized Draco’s burdens and actually felt sorry for him.

In 1998, when Harry was brought to the Malfoy Manor to be handed over to the Dark Lord, Draco was very reluctant to identify him. During the confrontation that ensued, Harry disarmed him winning both his hawthorn wand and, unknowingly, the Elder Wand. During the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry, Ron, and Hermione saved his life twice: The first was against Crabbe’s Fiendfyre and the second from a masked Death Eater.

Because of his family’s switching of sides during the Battle of Hogwarts, Draco was not sent to Azkaban for his crimes. By 2017, he was married and had a son. Draco saw Harry, Ginny, Hermione, and Ron at King’s Cross Station when sending their children to Hogwarts, where he gave them a curt nod. While Draco and Harry eventually made peace, they were still not friends at this stage. One possible reason for this was to avoid having a similar relationship that Harry’s father and his friends had with Snape during their adulthood. It is also unknown if Harry ever gave Draco his original wand back, as Harry won its allegiance and it is never stated how a wand that has been won behaves towards its original master afterwards.

During the ensuing years, Draco managed a cordial relationship with Harry and his family due to Albus Potter being Draco’s son, Scorpius’s best friend. When Draco’s wife died, he valued the positive effect that Albus had in preventing Scorpius from being completely isolated, reaching his son in a way he couldn’t. During the crisis with Delphini, Draco confessed much to Harry during these events, including how much he envied Harry’s friendship with Ron and Hermione. And when revealing the details of his wife’s death and the effect it had on him and his son, Draco and Harry finally came to see eye-to-eye, and looked upon each other as friends for the first time, having gained a powerful and mutual respect for one another.

Quirinus Quirrell

The first of Voldemort’s servants to try to murder Harry was his Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Quirinus Quirrell. Though not a Death Eater, he encountered Voldemort in the forests of Albania, and was seduced into the Dark Lord’s service by promises of wealth and power. Harry found out about Quirrell’s true loyalties at the end of his first year, in the seventh of the Sorcerer’s Stone Chambers. This news also came with the discovery that Voldemort was actually sharing Quirrell’s body, and the turban Quirrell wore was, in fact, hiding Voldemort’s face on the back of Quirrell’s head.

When Quirrell attempted to grab Harry, he found he was unable to do so without experiencing unbearable pain, due to the power of Harry’s mother’s Sacrificial protection. Voldemort detached himself from his servant to escape the pain and fled before Albus Dumbledore’s arrival because Dumbledore could have killed him, leaving Quirrell to die. Over three years after Quirrell’s death, Harry made a sarcastic remark about Quirrell’s allegiance, and one year after that, he remarked snidely on how Quirrell died on the job, all of these showing Harry’s lack of respect for the late professor.

Barty Crouch Jr.

Harry first learned about the Death Eaters after the 1994 Quidditch World Cup Riot, where Barty Crouch Jr. raised the Dark Mark in the sky. At the end of Harry’s fourth year, he realized that the man he thought was Alastor Moody was actually Barty Crouch Jr., disguised by way of Polyjuice Potion.

Crouch attempted to kill Harry, but Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape rushed into Moody’s office and stunned him. When Dumbledore forced Crouch to drink Veritaserum, he revealed how he had escaped from Azkaban with the help his father and dying mother, and told Dumbledore about how Voldemort had helped him overpower his father, allowing Crouch to later confund the Goblet of Fire to declare Harry a Triwizard Champion. Cornelius Fudge arrived at Hogwarts soon after with a Dementor for a bodyguard, and the latter subsequently gave Crouch the Dementor’s Kiss.

Bellatrix Lestrange

Harry felt contemptuous of Bellatrix Lestrange from the moment he learned of her torturing of Alice and Frank Longbottom, his eyes immediately drawn to her picture wherever he saw it. Throughout their encounter in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, Bellatrix goaded Harry with sarcastic baby-talk, mocking Harry for falling for Lord Voldemort’s ploy and traveling to the Ministry of Magic to save his non-present godfather. She abandoned the baby-talk, however, becoming incensed when Harry used Voldemort’s name — a mark of deep disrespect in Bellatrix’s eyes.

After Bellatrix killed Sirius Black, Harry seemed to hate her as much as, if not more than, he did Voldemort, chasing her into the Atrium of the Ministry in a fit of rage. He even had to restrain himself from destroying her wand, which he managed to procure during the Skirmish at Malfoy Manor. Bellatrix would later murder both Nymphadora Tonks and Dobby the house-elf in 1998, also nearly killing Ginny Weasley during the second round of the Battle of Hogwarts. In the latter incident, Harry, who had been hurrying towards Voldemort in the Great Hall, noticed the danger to Ginny’s life and made a beeline for Bellatrix instead. He was beaten to her, however, by Molly Weasley’s abrupt intervention.

Though she spoke disparagingly of the fact that Harry was a Half-blood, and vehemently denied Harry’s claims that Voldemort was the same, Bellatrix despised Harry mostly out of loyalty to her master, the man with whom she had developed an obsessive infatuation. As such, Bellatrix more or less hated anyone who challenged or threatened Lord Voldemort. Regardless of his feelings, Harry recognized that Bellatrix made a fearsome opponent; while he hated her as his godfather’s killer, he acknowledged that she was also a witch of «prodigious» skill and absolutely no conscience.

Peter Pettigrew

Pettigrew was once a friend of Lily and James Potter and was also the man who betrayed Harry and his parents to Lord Voldemort, which resulted in Lily’s and James’ deaths and Harry being marked as the «Boy Who Lived». Harry initially believed Peter Pettigrew had been courageous for challenging the alleged traitor, Sirius Black, despite appearing so comparatively timid and weak; Harry even compared him to his own friend Neville Longbottom. As Scabbers, Harry felt that Hermione should at least feel responsible when Crookshanks allegedly ate him, when in truth Peter faked his death a second time.

After Sirius Black escaped from from Azkaban in 1993, the alleged convict made his way to Hogwarts. As Sirius was mumbling «he’s at Hogwarts» in his sleep people assumed that he supposedly had the goal of killing Harry in a crazed bid that would bring Lord Voldemort back to full power. In reality Sirius was making his way to Hogwarts in order to get revenge against Pettigrew for his role in the murder of his two friends and the previous twelve years he spent in Azkaban for a crime he did not commit. Sirius also worried about Pettigrew being within close proximity to Harry.

Towards the end of the school year, Black managed to pull Ron Weasley through the Whomping Willow and in to the Shrieking Shack, followed closely by Hermione Granger and an incensed Harry. When they were joined shortly after by Remus Lupin, he and Sirius revealed a completely different truth: Pettigrew had been the one to betray Harry’s parents, and had subsequently framed Sirius by pretending to confront him, then faked his own death by cutting off one of his own fingers and hiding in his unregistered Animagus form as Ron’s pet rat, Scabbers. Although Harry was disgusted by Pettigrew’s disloyalty and cowardice, he convinced Sirius and Remus not to become murderers, and instead force Pettigrew to face justice in the hands of the Dementors. Though Pettigrew escaped, making it impossible to prove Sirius Black’s innocence, Harry’s decision to spare his life was not fruitless: Pettigrew owed Harry a life debt.

Pettigrew, who had fled to Albania and sought protection from Sirius in the service of Lord Voldemort, returned to Great Britain in 1994. After Harry and Cedric Diggory were transported to the Little Hangleton graveyard following the end of the Triwizard Tournament, Pettigrew murdered Cedric, bound Harry to the grave of Tom Riddle Sr., and concocted a potion using the senior Riddle’s bones, one of Pettigrew’s own hands, and Harry’s blood, to return Voldemort to physical form. When instructed by Voldemort to give Harry back his wand, Pettigrew did so without looking at him.

In 1998, during the Skirmish at Malfoy Manor, Peter Pettigrew’s life debt was repaid; Harry reminded him that he had saved his life, and Pettigrew momentarily hesitated in the midst of attempting to strangle him. As a result, the silver hand Voldemort had made for Pettigrew, as a reward for sacrificing his own, saw the hesitation as sign of weakness, and turned against him. Though Ron and Harry both tried to save him, the hand ultimately strangled Pettigrew to death.

Lucius Malfoy

Harry first saw Lucius Malfoy in 1992 at Borgin and Burkes, though they didn’t officially meet until Lucius got into a fist fight with Arthur Weasley at Flourish and Blotts, over Malfoy’s many insults aimed at the Weasley family. Though Harry didn’t know it till much later, after a good deal of damage had been done, Malfoy had used the scuffle as a pretext for handing Ginny Weasley a book that turned out to be Tom Riddle’s Diary.

Harry and Malfoy met again at the end of the same year, when Harry tricked Malfoy into freeing his House-elf, Dobby; when Lucius threatened Harry in his anger at having lost his servant, Dobby demonstrated the might of his House-elf magic to protect Harry. They would eventually meet again in the Ministry of Magic, in 1995, after which Lucius was outed as an active Death Eater and arrested. Following his failure at the Ministry, and Voldemort’s discovery of the fact that Lucius had allowed one of his Horcruxes to be destroyed, Voldemort punished him by giving his son the seemingly impossible task of assassinating Albus Dumbledore.

When Harry and his friends escaped on Lucius’ watch after the Skirmish at Malfoy Manor, in 1998, the Malfoys fell further out of Voldemort’s favor. During the Battle of Hogwarts, Lucius and his wife both deserted the Death Eaters, placing greater importance in the safety of their son, and Narcissa’s crucial act of lying to Voldemort about Harry’s death insured that the Malfoy family was not sent to Azkaban.

Other Death Eaters

Throughout the Second Wizarding War, Harry encountered a number of other Death Eaters: Antonin Dolohov, who murdered the Prewetts and Remus Lupin, and almost killed Hermione Granger during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries; Travers, who killed the McKinnons; Augustus Rookwood, who was possibly responsible for the explosion that killed Fred Weasley; Yaxley, who imprisoned innocent Muggle-borns with the Muggle-Born Registration Commission; Walden Macnair, who was violent and bloodthirsty, and almost killed Buckbeak in 1993; Alecto and Amycus Carrow, who tortured the students of Hogwarts when they had been appointed Deputy Headmasters; Thorfinn Rowle, who indiscriminately cast Killing Curses all around him during the Battle of the Astronomy Tower and took part in the skirmish at the Luchino Caffe, and Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange, who participated in the torture of Alice and Frank Longbottom. Lucius Malfoy, Rookwood, Dolohov, MacNair, and the Lestranges (including Bellatrix), all took part in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, along with Mr. Crabbe and Mr. Goyle (fathers of Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle), Mr. Nott, Jugson, Avery and Mulciber.

In 1997, during the Battle of the Astronomy Tower, Harry got his first glimpse of Fenrir Greyback, who was known for craving human flesh even out of Werewolf form, as well for planning his attacks by positioning himself near his intended victims prior to the full moon (typically the children of his employer’s enemies). Harry, Ron and Hermione were taken hostage by Greyback and a gang of Snatchers just before the Skirmish at Malfoy Manor, during which time Greyback expressed a disturbing interest in Hermione. Though he wasn’t a Death Eater, and lacked the Dark Mark tattoo, Greyback was allowed to wear Death Eater’s robes whenever Voldemort made use of him.

Harry met Durmstrang Institute’s Headmaster, Igor Karkaroff, in 1994, during the Triwizard Tournament. Harry later saw Karkaroff in Dumbledore’s pensieve bearing witness against several of his fellow Death Eaters, in exchange for his own freedom. Karkaroff fled after Voldemort’s resurrection in 1995. Two years later, Harry learned that Karkaroff’s corpse was found in a shack in the north of Britain.

Harry didn’t initially think highly of Sirius Black’s younger brother, Regulus, who followed the family tradition of zealous pure-blood supremacy for most of his life. However, Kreacher later revealed to Harry, Ron and Hermione that Regulus had likely been the first to deduce the existence of Voldemort’s Horcruxes, and subsequently attempted to find and destroy them. When he located the hiding place of Salazar Slytherin’s Locket, rather than force Kreacher to consume the Drink of Despair as Voldemort had done, Regulus drank it himself after ordering Kreacher to take and destroy the the locket, resulting in Regulus’ death. In all likelihood, Harry came to appreciate Regulus’ bravery, and respect the level of compassion he had for beings that had long been ill-treated by wizarding kind.

Sirius Black

Filling in as a paternal figure or an uncle, Sirius Black was Harry’s godfather, as well as his most trusted confidant. When Harry’s scar hurt in 1994, he acknowledged that he could tell and ask Sirius anything without feeling foolish, hesitant, or uncomfortable. During Dolores Umbridge’s dictatorial rule over Hogwarts in the 1995–1996 school year, Sirius supported Harry’s plan to teach other students practical defensive magic, telling Harry that he and James would have done the same thing.

When Harry first met Sirius, he wanted to kill Sirius for the betrayal of his parents. When the truth was revealed that Peter Pettigrew had been the one who sold the Potters to Lord Voldemort, Sirius still showed immense guilt, because it had been his idea for Pettigrew to become the Potters’ Secret-Keeper.

Harry, for his part, became very protective of Sirius. Knowing that the Ministry believed him guilty of mass murder, Harry refused to put Sirius in danger if it could be avoided. When Harry was mysteriously entered into the Triwizard Tournament, he tried everything to convince Sirius to remain in hiding instead of returning to England. During Umbridge’s year at the school, Harry asked Sirius not to come to Hogsmeade as Padfoot, since he didn’t want to risk Sirius getting thrown back into Azkaban; while Sirius obeyed Harry’s wishes, he observed that James would have been willing to take the risk.

When Sirius was killed in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, Harry at first refused to believe he was dead. Harry was completely devastated by Sirius’s death; for the following months, Harry avoided talking about Sirius if he could; whenever the subject came up, he would distract himself in some way to avoid joining the discussion. Very fortunately, Harry was able to move on with his life after a short period of grieving, knowing that Sirius would not want him to shut himself away or crack up. When Harry prepared to sacrifice himself to Voldemort in 1998, Sirius was one of the spirits he summoned using the Resurrection Stone. Sirius assured Harry that dying was «quicker and easier» than falling asleep.

Sirius also was the one who gave Harry his first toy broomstick, as a year old baby. In a letter to Sirius, Harry’s mother thanked him and described James’ impression that Harry would be a «good Quidditch player.» Sirius later gave Harry another broomstick, the Firebolt, as thirteen years’ worth of presents from his godfather.

Harry would name his eldest son after James and Sirius.

Alastor Moody

Harry first saw the real Alastor «Mad-Eye» Moody shortly after Barty Crouch Jr. was revealed to have been keeping Moody imprisoned in his own trunk, using his hair for Polyjuice Potion, and taking Moody’s place as temporary Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts for most of the 1994–1995 school year.

The real Moody brought the Advance Guard of the Order of the Phoenix to Privet Drive in 1995, to safely transport Harry to the Order’s headquarters, and Sirius Black’s ancestral home, at 12 Grimmauld Place. As Harry got to know Moody through his time spent around the Order, Moody proved every bit the great, albeit incredibly paranoid, wizard he was reputed to be. When Moody was murdered by Voldemort during the Battle of the Seven Potters, Harry was shocked and horrified by the abrupt end of such a skilled Auror, and shared a drink in his honor with the rest of the Order.

In 1997, Harry infiltrated Umbridge’s office looking for Salazar Slytherin’s locket, where he found Moody’s steal magical eye lodged in the door of Umbridge’s office. Harry reclaimed the eye, although in doing so he ended up alerting the Ministry to the breach in security, and later Harry buried it under a tree he found and marked with a small cross while thinking that Moody would prefer it to having his eye put to use spying for Dolores Umbridge.

Nymphadora Tonks

Harry and Nymphadora Tonks first met in August 1995 when the Advance Guard came to Privet Drive in order to transport Harry to 12 Grimmauld Place. From there, she became one of Harry’s most valuable allies and friend. The pair immediately took a liking to each other and Harry was particularly impressed by Tonks’s position as an Auror, as well as her extraordinary Metamorphmagus abilities. At the time of their first meeting Harry was intimidated by the rest of the Advance Guard, but not Tonks who was clumsy and funny. Later, during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, Tonks was among the Order members that came to the rescue of Harry and his friends. Harry was later relieved to hear that she would recover from the injuries she suffered at the hands of Bellatrix Lestrange.

Their friendship grew during the next few years. In 1996, Harry hoped Tonks would be among the Aurors set to escort him to the Hogwarts Express, though she was not. Shortly after, Tonks rescued Harry on the Hogwarts Express; she performed the counter-curse to remove the Full Body-Bind Curse placed on him by Draco Malfoy, healed his broken nose, and ensured he reached safety within Hogwarts. Tonks felt sorry that Harry wasn’t able to attend her and Remus’ wedding in 1997. When Lupin briefly left Tonks, due to fears that the child she carried would be infected with lycanthropy like himself, Harry was furious with him for leaving his family. It was largely because of Harry’s words that Lupin returned to Tonks. Nine months later in March, Tonks and Remus asked Harry to be godfather to their son, Teddy Remus Lupin. During the Battle of Hogwarts Tonks was murdered by her aunt Bellatrix, who finally succeeded in killing her «blood traitor» niece. Tonks’s death, along with that of her husband, Fred Weasley, and Colin Creevey were those that hit Harry the hardest.

In honor of Tonks and her husband’s memory, Harry helped Nymphadora’s mother raise Teddy. Harry acted as a father figure to their orphaned son and Teddy would spend three or four nights a week dining with the Potter and Weasley families. When Harry saw his two sons off to the Hogwarts Express in 2017, James came running back to his parents to announce that he had seen Teddy snogging Victoire Weasley, which may have meant Teddy eventually became an official member of the extended Potter-Weasley family.

Aberforth Dumbledore

Aberforth was the younger brother of Albus Dumbledore. Though Harry, Ron and Hermione had known him for years as the owner of the Hog’s Head, they didn’t officially meet him or learn his true identity until 1998, when Harry, Ron and Hermione apparated outside of Aberforth’s pub, in Hogsmeade. Harry had read about Aberforth in The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore, a book Rita Skeeter had written, which described Aberforth as unlettered, rude, and bitter for having lived in the shadow of his elder brother.

When the trio apparated outside of the Hog’s Head, they set off a Caterwauling Charm set by Death Eaters. As the three were hidden beneath Harry’s Invisibility cloak, the Death Eaters used Dementors to smoke them out; the Death Eaters recognized Harry’s stag Patronus, but Aberforth claimed it was he who had set off the Caterwauling charm, and that the Patronus had actually been a goat.

Upon taking refuge in the Pub, the trio discovered Aberforth had saved their lives once before; he had been able to send Dobby to save them from the Malfoy Manor after Harry called to him through the broken shards of the two-way mirror, as Aberforth had bought Sirius’ mirror from Mundungus. Aberforth advised Harry to take Ron and Hermione away from Hogsmeade, and to save himself. He told them about his family life, and that his sister, Ariana, had been so traumatized after being attacked by three Muggle boys, that she became unable to control her magical abilities. He also told them why his father had been imprisoned in Azkaban, and about the events leading up to the deaths of his mother and sister.

Though Harry understood, or at least sympathized with Aberforth’s bitterness, as he echoed Albus’s sentiments by saying «sometimes you’ve got to think about the greater good!» Harry then informed Aberforth that, despite what he believed of his brother, Albus had never been free of what Gellert Grindelwald had done to Aberforth or what had happened to Ariana, referring to all Harry had heard Albus say under the effects of the Emerald Potion. After receiving this insight into his brother’s mind, Aberforth showed the trio the secret passage to the Room of Requirement concealed behind Ariana’s portrait.

Other Order Members

Before Harry had even known he was a wizard, Dedalus Diggle had met and even publicly bowed to a bemused, young Harry, much to the Dursleys confusion and disgust. In 1997, Diggle and Hestia Jones took the Dursleys into hiding under the Order’s protection from Voldemort and the Death Eaters. Hestia was furious when she realized how little Harry’s uncle and aunt seemed to know or care about him, and was unimpressed by Dudley’s attempt at reconciliation. Though Harry was mostly amused by Dudley’s declaration that he did not consider Harry a «waste of space», he probably appreciated Hestia’s indignation on his behalf all the same.

Harry thought Arabella Figg was just his odd, cat-loving neighbor, until 1995, when he learned she was a Squib, and a member of the Order. She was outraged to learn that Mundungus Fletcher had abandoned his post when he was supposed to be guarding Harry, which left the boy and his cousin vulnerable when they were attacked by Dementors. Figg also participated in Harry Potter’s trial, as a witness in Harry’s defense. It is unknown if Figg fought in the Battle of Hogwarts, though it is likely that she did not fight, as she lacked magical powers.

Harry had learned from Moody that several members of the First Order had been killed during the First Wizarding War, including: the Fabian and Gideon Prewett, Edgar Bones and his family, Marlene McKinnon and her family, Caradoc Dearborn, Benjy Fenwick, and Dorcas Meadowes. In Harry’s fourth year, Dumbledore told him that Alice and Frank Longbottom had been tortured to insanity and were permanently incapacitated in St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, shortly after Voldemort’s fall, by four Death Eaters who were attempting to discover their Master’s whereabouts. Harry was later confused when he heard about the arrest of Order member Sturgis Podmore, who had apparently been attempting to break into the Department of Mysteries in 1995, but eventually realized that Podmore had been imperiused. Harry also learned about the death of Emmeline Vance in the Daily Prophet, when she was killed around the same as the murder of Amelia Bones.

Mundungus Fletcher was likely the member of the Order Harry liked least (barring, initially, Severus Snape), as he was a criminal who callously pilfered many of Sirius’ inherited possessions very shortly after his death. Harry attempted to strangle Fletcher when he saw him hawking Black family heirlooms outside of the Three Broomsticks Inn, in 1996, and was disgusted to learn that Fletcher had abandoned Alastor Moody during the Battle of the Seven Potters. When Harry realized that one of the items Mundungus had stolen from 12 Grimmauld Place had been Salazar Slytherin’s Locket, he ordered Kreacher, the house-elf, to catch him. Kreacher did so, and it was with reluctance that Harry stopped the house-elf from beating Mundungus senseless, in order to learn that the locket had been taken from Mundungus by Dolores Umbridge.

Augusta Longbottom, the mother of Frank Longbottom, mother-in-law of Alice Longbottom, and grandmother of Neville Longbottom, was not an original member of the Order, but she fought in both Wizarding Wars. She thought highly of Harry and his friends, and was immensely proud of her grandson. When Augusta arrived at the school to join in the final battle, she rushed off to find Neville, whom she was unsurprised to hear was off somewhere fighting Death Eaters.

Ted Tonks (Nymphadora Tonks’ dad) also were not original members, but were crucial in transferring Harry safely the Burrow, after the sacrificial protection was broken. Harry seemed to like the cheery-looking Ted Tonks immediately. After the Battle of the Seven Potters, Andromeda and Ted healed Harry’s and Hagrid’s injuries, before they took a Portkey to the Burrow. Harry was saddened by the news of Ted Tonks’ murder at the hands of Snatchers. He later helped Andromeda raise his grandson, Teddy Lupin, after Nymphadora’s and Lupin’s deaths.

Others

Narcissa Malfoy

Narcissa Malfoy: «I see that being Dumbledore’s favorite has given you a false sense of security, Harry Potter. But Dumbledore won’t always be there to protect you.«

Harry Potter: «Wow… look at that… he’s not here now! So why not have a go? They might find you a double cell in Azkaban with your loser of a husband!«

Draco Malfoy: «Don’t you dare talk to my mother like that, Potter!«

Narcissa Malfoy: «It’s all right, Draco. I expect Potter will be reunited with dear Sirius before I am reunited with Lucius«

— Harry Potter, Narcissa Malfoy and Draco Malfoy arguing in Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions

Harry held Narcissa in contempt due to his rivalry with her son and hatred of her husband. In the same respect, Narcissa held Harry and his friends in disdain and contempt: especially Hermione Granger, as she was Muggle-born, and Ron Weasley, as he was a blood traitor. Narcissa also held Harry in contempt for being Dumbledore’s favorite student and associating with those whom she considered to be inferior.

Teddy Lupin

Teddy Lupin was Harry’s godson and the son of Remus and Nymphadora Lupin. The couple was two of Harry’s close friends. In March 1998, Remus asked Harry to be Teddy’s godfather, which he happily accepted. After Remus and Tonks were murdered in the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry helped Teddy’s grandmother raise him. By 2017 Harry and Teddy were clearly very close. When Harry’s children wanted Teddy to move in with the Potters. Harry mentioned that Teddy had been coming to their home for dinner four times a week, and that he practically lived with them already. The Potter kids were also thrilled at the idea that Teddy, who was seen kissing Victoire Weasley (the daughter of Bill and Fleur Weasley) might officially become a part of their family.

In 1998, as Harry was planning to break in to the Lestrange Vault, he wondered if he was becoming as reckless as a godfather to Teddy as Sirius Black had been to him. With helping Andromeda raise Teddy, Harry possibly became a father figure towards him, as Harry could understand how Teddy felt without parents. Harry likely also served the role that Hagrid played in his upbringing by passing down knowledge of the orphan’s parents to him just as Hagrid had done to him. Harry most likely also brought Teddy up on a parade of stories about his parents, letting him know the kind of noble and selfless heroes they were, and how being an orphan doesn’t mean that he lacks a family of his own. In many ways, Harry continued the «pack» started by the Marauders, extended through him, and furthered more in the raising of Teddy; a group of misfits and heroes forming a family of their own around one another, creating something stronger than blood, and greater than magic.

Cedric Diggory

Harry and Cedric Diggory, were, for better or worse, rivals throughout Harry’s third and fourth years at Hogwarts. As Cedric was Seeker of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, one of their first encounters involved Cedric catching the Snitch and securing the win for his team, while Harry fell off his broomstick after one of the Dementors guarding the school found its way onto the Quidditch pitch.

The next year, when both Harry and Cedric were declared Champions in the Triwizard Tournament, Cedric was the school’s obvious favorite, as most of the students believed Harry had entered the competition illegally. Harry thought Cedric also believed Harry had entered illegally, but it’s possible this wasn’t true, as Cedric did not dislike Harry for this, as most of the school did. Though the negative attention abated slightly after Harry’s stellar performance in the first task, Cedric also beat Harry to the punch in asking Cho Chang to the Yule Ball. And although Cedric remained good-natured and gracious throughout, Harry could not help feeling jealous, and even slightly insecure about the fact that Cedric «looked the part» of a Champion.

Regardless, when Hagrid showed Harry that the Tournament’s first task would involve facing dragons, Harry felt compelled to help Cedric, realizing he alone would be unprepared, as both Heads of other the two competing schools had seen the dragons as well. Cedric reciprocated by helping Harry with the second task, and during the third, each had occasion to save the other’s life. As, such, when they reached the Triwizard Cup at the same time, they agreed to take it together; both boys were transported to the Little Hangleton graveyard, and Harry watched in horror as Peter Pettigrew murdered Cedric on Voldemort’s command to «kill the spare.» When Cedric’s ghostly image emerged from Voldemort’s wand, which was locked in Priori Incantatem with Harry’s, he asked Harry to take his body back to his parents, which Harry honored, risking his life in the process.

Cedric’s death haunted Harry’s dreams well into the summer, as Dudley mockingly asked him if «Cedric» was his boyfriend, and enabled Harry to see Thestrals for the first time at the beginning of his fifth year.

Having witnessed Cedric’s death first hand made Harry feel very distraught throughout the following year, and aside from Ron and Hermione, he refused to talk about it with anyone else, as he rebuked Zacharias Smith’s demands for more details, and even when a tearful Cho asked of it.

After the Second Wizarding War and capturing Lord Voldemort’s secret daughter, Harry and his son Albus paid a visit to Cedric’s gravesite. There Harry revealed to Albus that he went there annually as a constant apology for robbing Cedric’s future and not being able to save him from Wormtail.

Kreacher

Kreacher was the last in a line of house-elves who served the Black family, inherited by Sirius Black, and eventually by Harry. In his fanatical loyalty to the House of Black, Kreacher mimicked the family’s pure-blood supremacist views, and as such, despised Sirius for being a «blood traitor» and for supposedly breaking his mother’s heart. By extension, he hated, and muttered profanities about, anyone associated with Sirius, particularly Harry and the motley crew of blood statuses that made up the rest of the Order of the Phoenix.

For his part, Sirius saw too much of the family he hated in Kreacher, and had no problem treating Kreacher with utter disdain. After the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, Harry learned that Kreacher had helped trick Harry into going to the Ministry of Magic by pretending Sirius was not at Grimmauld Place when Harry tried to find him, and thus helped bring about Sirius’s end. In his will, Sirius left everything he owned to Harry, including Kreacher. As Harry wanted nothing to do with the house-elf, but could not risk setting him free and letting any information Kreacher had about the Order fall into the hands of the Lestranges or the Malfoys, he sent Kreacher to work in the Hogwarts’ kitchens.

In 1997, when Harry, Ron and Hermione hid in 12 Grimmauld Place at the start of their hunt for Voldemort’s Horcruxes, they discovered that «R.A.B» stood for Regulus Arcturus Black, and Harry remembered actually having seen and tried to open Slytherin’s Locket in the summer of 1995. They asked Kreacher if he knew from where the locket came and what had become of it, and the house-elf was forced to reveal all that had happened between him, Voldemort, and Regulus Black; when Regulus was still a Death Eater, Voldemort told him he required the service of a house-elf, and Regulus volunteered Kreacher for the job. Voldemort took Kreacher to a seaside cave, where he ordered Kreacher to drink an emerald green potion. Kreacher was tortured by the potion, and then left to die in the hands of the Inferi; he was only able to survive and Disapparate out of the cave because his master called him home.

Regulus became disillusioned by Voldemort’s ill-treatment of Kreacher, and soon after, deduced both the existence of Voldemort’s Horcruxes and the fact that the magic that binds a house-elf to obey their master would supersede the cave’s magical protections. Regulus then had Kreacher return with him to the cave, but instead of forcing Kreacher to suffer the effects of the potion again, ordered Kreacher to leave the cave with the locket, and destroy it as soon as he could. To protect Kreacher and his family, Regulus forbade Kreacher to tell any member of the House of Black what had happened. Kreacher took the locket and attempted to destroy it, but not before watching in horror as Regulus drank the potion himself, and was killed by the Inferi.

Though he initially did not want to admit it, Harry realized that Kreacher playing a crucial role in leading Sirius to his death was something that could have, and should have, been avoided. When Kreacher finished his story, Harry, with Hermione’s guidance, made an effort to show the distraught house-elf kindness, comforting him about Regulus’ death and even giving him Regulus’ fake locket; the miserable, wretched house-elf they had known became almost unrecognizable. Kreacher told the trio that Mundungus Fletcher had taken the locket, and gladly obeyed Harry’s order — which Harry made a point of phrasing as a request — to find Fletcher and bring him to Grimmauld Place.

From that point on, Kreacher happily tidied up the house and fed the trio, until they accidentally broke the Fidelius Charm on 12 Grimmauld Place, and were forced to flee. Kreacher later led the Hogwarts house-elves, in the name of Harry, «defender of house-elves«, and brave Regulus Black, in a fervent attack on the invading Death Eaters during the Battle of Hogwarts.

Andromeda Tonks

The first time Harry met Andromeda he thought that she looked a lot like her sister Bellatrix Lestrange, but with kinder eyes and lighter hair. Her resemblance to Bellatrix was such that Harry attempted to attack her, but upon realizing his mistake he felt bad and apologized, as her physical comparison to her sister was very offensive to her. In April 1998, Remus Lupin asked Harry to be the godfather to his son and her grandson, stating that he and Tonks agreed that there was no one better.

After Voldemort’s final downfall, Harry helped Andromeda raise Teddy. The two acted as Teddy’s main parental figures. Harry respected Andromeda for her ideals and because she was Tonks’ mother. It is possible that after the war they saw each other regularly and probably in such a scenario that they developed a bond because of Teddy. It is also highly likely that Andromeda herself was welcomed at Harry and Ginny’s house as a dinner guest, just as her grandson was.

Cornelius Fudge

When Harry lost his temper and accidentally blew up his «Aunt» Marge, he went on the run and boarded the Knight Bus, believing that this time he would surely be expelled from Hogwarts. He ran into Cornelius Fudge, the then-Minister of Magic, who seemed strangely unconcerned by what Harry had done. Furthermore, Fudge treated Harry like a friend, although he did not sign Harry’s letter permitting to allow him to visit Hogsmeade. Harry initially thought fairly well of of Fudge, regarding him as a somewhat blustering and pompous, but essentially good-natured person.

However, by 1995, the relationship between Fudge and Harry was not so rosy. Harry had witnessed Voldemort’s return to power, which he told both Dumbledore and Fudge. The latter stoutly refused to believe Harry, and branded Dumbledore and Harry as liars/nutters in a smear campaign. In the summer of 1995, Harry performed a Patronus Charm to save Dudley Dursley and himself from Dementors, for which Harry was unreasonably threatened with expulsion from Hogwarts and tried by the entire Wizengamot. Though Harry was cleared of all charges, thanks to Dumbledore’s defense, Arabella Figg’s testimony and Amelia Bones’s impartiality, Fudge vindictively retaliated by employing his undersecretary Dolores Umbridge as Defense Against the Dark Arts professor and High Inquisitor of Hogwarts. Umbridge sadistically tortured Harry when he repeatedly contradicted the Ministry’s opinion that Voldemort had not returned.

In 1996, after Dumbledore’s Army was discovered, Fudge came to Hogwarts to expel Harry, but Dumbledore claimed the D.A. had been formed on his orders. Though Harry was allowed to remain at Hogwarts, Dumbledore was forced to go on the run after overpowering several Ministry officials. Later that year, toward the end of Battle of the Department of Mysteries, Fudge arrived at the Ministry just in time to see Voldemort Disapparate with Bellatrix Lestrange, and was forced to acknowledge that Dumbledore and Harry had been telling the truth all along. As the wizarding community had lost all confidence in him, he was forced to resign as Minister of Magic.

As a result of Fudge’s incompetence, blatant denial and unjust persecution of him and Dumbledore, Harry lost all faith he had in him and grew bitterly resentful of the former Minister. He was revolted when he discovered that Fudge had hoped he (Harry) would support him after all he had done.

Rufus Scrimgeour

Fudge’s successor, Rufus Scrimgeour, did little to improve Harry’s view of the Ministry. Scrimgeour asked Harry to essentially become the Ministry’s mascot for the purpose of restoring public confidence, despite all they had done to Harry and the fact that Dolores Umbridge was still in their employ. Harry refused, stating he could not pretend to approve of the Ministry’s methods, showing Scrimgeour the scars on the back of his hand and citing the fact that Scrimgeour was arresting innocent people like Stan Shunpike. Harry also took issue with the fact that the Ministry was not putting in enough effort in the matter of public safety.

On August 1, 1997 Voldemort and his Death Eaters took over the Ministry, and murdered the Minister after torturing him in an attempt to ascertain Harry’s whereabouts. Although Harry did not like Scrimgeour, who hardly appeared to care at all about what actually happened to Harry or his friends, he was incredibly grateful that the Minister’s final act had been to protect him and seemed to have grown to respect him for such an uncharacteristic act.

Etymology

Harry is the Middle English form of the name Henry, derived from the Germanic name Heinrich, from the words heim, meaning «home,» and ric, meaning «power, ruler.» It has been a very popular name in the English-speaking world for centuries. Harry can also be a diminutive form of the name Harold, from the Old English name Hereweald, meaning «leader of the army.» It has been the name of five kings of Norway, three kings of Denmark, and two kings of England.^[26][27] In an interview J. K. Rowling stated that ‘Harry’ had always been one of her favorite boy’s names and that if her daughter had been a son she would have named him ‘Harry’, although then she would have to have come up with a different name for the books as it «would have been too cruel to name him after my own son.» ^[28]

James is derived from the same Hebrew name as Jacob, meaning “holds the heel” (in the Genesis narrative, Jacob was born grasping Esau′s heel and later bought his birthright). The name came into English language from the French variation of the Late Latin name Iacomus, a dialect variant of Iacobus, from the New Testament Greek Ἰάκωβος (Iakōbos), from Hebrew word יעקב (Yaʻaqov). James is Harry’s middle name, James was the name of his father and is also the name of his first son.

Potter is a very common surname of English origin.^[29] It traditionally refers to the occupation of making pottery. Beatrix Potter was a well-known English children’s author. Potter’s Field is the name for a burial ground for the unknown or unclaimed dead, particularly soldiers and orphans; the Potter family had many members that fit that description. The Potter Box is a model for making ethical decisions developed at Harvard University. J. K. Rowling has also commented that she has liked the name since childhood, as a family that had lived near her carried this surname.^[30][31]

Behind the scenes

• Harry is portrayed by British actor Daniel Radcliffe in the film adaptations of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and Part 2 and so is one of the 14 characters to appear in all 8 film adaptations. By the time Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 was released, Radcliffe had played the role for ten years consecutively.
• Harry is right-handed. He tells this to Mr. Ollivander in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. He is also seen writing with this hand throughout the film series.
• Josh Herdman plays Harry when he is disguised as Gregory Goyle in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, as does David O’Hara when he is disguised as Albert Runcorn in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. The Saunders Triplets play Harry as an infant in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and Toby Papworth plays Harry as an infant in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.
• In a deleted scene of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, when he is disguised as Albert Runcorn, Harry calls Arthur Weasley by his first name. This is the only time Harry does this.
• Daniel Radcliffe and Harry were both born in July — Harry on the 31st and Daniel on the 23rd.
• Harry the character has green eyes, but in the films he has blue eyes. This is due to the fact that Daniel Radcliffe cannot stand wearing contact lenses. Radcliffe also has brown hair, as opposed to Harry’s black hair, and also has a strong physical body, rather than the slim frame Harry is described as having. However Harry is only described as having an uncommonly ‘slim’ frame in the earlier instalments, so it is possible that he bulked out a little into a lean frame as he matured.
• Harry’s birthday of July 31 is also the birthday of Harry Potter author, J. K. Rowling, and actor Richard Griffiths who plays Harry’s Uncle Vernon Dursley in the Harry Potter films.
• In the Mirror of Erised, Harry saw his family, a lot of people with untidy black hair, his own noses, mouths and knees. However, he also saw some people with almond-shaped green eyes, which could indicate that he saw his Muggle family as well, even though he did not see the Dursley family. All people were smiling at him, so there is a thought that all of his family, Wizards and Muggles, are proud of him.
• In the film version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry is seen practicing Lumos Maxima under the covers in his bedroom, but Harry does not get a letter from the Improper Use of Magic Office even though he is under-age. In the book, he is simply using a torch while writing his homework for History of Magic.
• While Harry repeatedly states Hermione is the best student in his year in all classes, he has beaten her in two of the three Defense Against the Dark Arts exams they had together, with Hermione only beating him in their first year exam. In addition, J.K. Rowling has said that Harry could have beat Hermione in a magical duel halfway through Prisoner of Azkaban. ^[32] Part of this can be put down to Professor Lupin’s way of teaching, as it seemed to help bring out Harry’s own talent at the subject. It is probably more accurate to say that Hermione is the best student in every subject but DADA, in which Harry is strongest, hence in Harry’s mind she is the best student overall.
• Harry’s niece and nephew, Rose and Hugo, have some of the same heritage of Harry. A Muggle-born mother, Lily and Hermione, and a pure-blood father, James and Ron. This makes Rose, Hugo and Harry all half-bloods.
• When Harry is cleaning out his school trunk in 1997, he finds a «Support Cedric Diggory!» badge in there. Considering the badges were only created by Draco Malfoy to get a rise out of Harry in 1994, it seems out of place that Harry has it, although he may have it by accident, or out of respect for Cedric. He could also have kept one as a memento from the Tournament.
• Throughout the films, Harry’s hair grows longer and longer (the longest point was in the Goblet of Fire) until it was cut for the Order of the Phoenix. It has since grown to about the same length as it was for the Prisoner of Azkaban.
• In the films, Harry’s scar is off-center on his forehead; this was apparently done at J. K. Rowling’s request: because of the books’ artwork, many fans believe the scar is in the center of his head. But it is never explicitly mentioned where the scar is located. On all the U.S. book covers (illustrations), the scar on Harry’s forehead is located in the center. The same is definitely true of the last two U.K. instalments; however, on early U.K. book covers, Harry’s scar tends to appear slightly off-center. It is somewhat hard to tell on most of these covers, as Harry’s face is only visible in profile. However, on the U.K. cover of Chamber of Secrets, Harry’s scar is decidedly off-center. It is perhaps of this book that Rowling was thinking.
• The Marauders were said to have discovered more secret places than anyone else in the history of Hogwarts. This isn’t necessarily true, as unlike Harry and Tom Riddle, they didn’t discover the Chamber of Secrets or the Room of Requirement. However, as they discovered an untold number of secret passages and hidden rooms, they did discovery more more numerous secrets than Riddle or Harry, just not the same ones.
• In Harry, A History, Rowling discussed how Steve Kloves suspected that something might happen between Harry and Hermione in Deathly Hallows. She replied: «I had always planned that Harry’s true soul mate, which I stand by, is Ginny, and that Ron and Hermione have this combative but mutual attraction. They will always bicker, there will always be rough edges there, but they are pulled together, each has something the other needs. [Kloves] felt a certain pull between them at that point. And I think he’s right. There are moments when [Harry and Hermione] touch, which are charged moments. One when she touches his hair as he sits on the hilltop reading about Dumbledore and Grindelwald, and [two] the moment when they walk out of the graveyard with their arms around each other. Now the fact is that Hermione shares moments with Harry that Ron will never be able to participate in. He walked out. She shared something very intense with Harry. So I think it could have gone that way.»^[22]
• The only person Harry ever considered killing by use of curse was Sirius Black and possibly Bellatrix Lestrange, ironically to avenge Sirius. It is, however unclear if Harry knew how to cast the Avada Kedavra curse since Harry was not taught the Unforgivable Curses until his fourth year. Furthermore, when Harry found out that Peter Pettigrew was the one who had betrayed his parents to Voldemort, he did not want Sirius and Remus Lupin to kill Pettigrew in revenge. Even during the Battle of Hogwarts, during which Harry defeated Lord Voldemort, Harry did not do so by use of any curse intended to do harm to his opponent, but rather he used his «trademark,» Expelliarmus. Harry finished Voldemort by reflecting a curse Harry would never use on another, even his mortal enemy. This suggests the love, which is «the power the Dark Lord knows not…» makes it difficult for Harry to kill. Even during the Battle of the Seven Potters, Harry illustrated his unwillingness to kill Death Eaters. During that battle the Death Eaters were masked at the time, he couldn’t know who was a willing follower and who was a controlled drone. However in the example with Voldemort, Harry knew Voldemort’s killing curse would backfire, so rather than use the same curse which would make him look somewhat bad, he instead decided to use the Disarming Charm to gain possession of the wand.
• Harry usually has the last line in every Harry Potter film. Though it could be debatable on whether he has the last line of the second film since the closed captions say that Dean said, «Yes!», so he may have had the last line.
  • «I’m not going home…not really…» (SS)
  • «There’s no Hogwarts without you, Hagrid.» (CS)
  • «Lumos. I solemnly swear that I am up to no good»/»Nox«.» (POA)
  • «Yeah. Every week.» (GOF)
  • «Something worth fighting for.» (OOTP)
  • «I never realized how beautiful this place was.» (HBP)
  • «I want to bury him [ Dobby ]… without magic.» (DHPt1)
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is the only film in which Harry does not speak the final line. It is spoken by his son Albus: «Ready.»
• Harry was Wizard of the Month on J. K. Rowling’s website for the month of October 2007.
• Harry is the inspiration for the Wizard rock band, Harry and the Potters.
• The makers of the film X-Men: First Class used Harry Potter as their role model.^[33]
• Harry Potter’s former romantic relationship with Cho Chang is well known for being his first crush, first kiss and first ex-girlfriend in the Harry Potter series.
• Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley’s romantic relationship is told in a different way in the films series from the novel versions of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:
  • In the novel version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry shares his first kiss with Ginny in front of Gryffindor students in the Gryffindor Common Room after the Gryffindor Quidditch team won the Quidditch Cup. He also breaks it off with her at Dumbledore’s funeral.
  • In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry and Ginny go to the Room of Requirement together to hide Harry’s copy of the Advanced Potion-Making book, which previously belong to the Half-Blood Prince, after he hurts Draco Malfoy. While there Ginny asked Harry to close his eyes while she goes and hides the Half-Blood Prince book so that he and other students can’t find it, when she returned back to him, Ginny kisses Harry. Harry was very much delighted and surprised that he received a kiss from her. It is implied that they are still dating at the end of the film.
  • In the novel version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry and Ginny kiss on Harry’s seventeenth birthday in Ginny’s bedroom at The Burrow, and Ron interrupts them when he opens the door.
  • In the film version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, Harry was in the kitchen at the Weasley family home, on the day of the wedding of Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour. Ginny arrives into room, she asked him to fasten the zip of her bridesmaid dress. Harry and Ginny talked and shared a kiss, while they were kissing Ginny’s brother George Weasley comes into the room and interrupts them.
• A running gag in the books is the messiness of Harry’s hair. In the films, this is not mentioned except for a reference in the fourth film. Harry notices that Hagrid has combed his hair so he will look good for Olympe Maxime. When Harry says to him, «Hagrid, have you combed your hair?!» Hagrid states, «As a matter of fact, I have. You might wanna try the same thing now and again.»
• Harry Potter is still the only wizard to this day that has had all three Unforgivable Curses cast on him and survived.
• Both Michael Corner and Harry have dated the same girls, but in a different order, Cho Chang and Ginny Weasley.
• Despite being a talented Quidditch player (and the team Seeker, considered the most important player on the team), Harry never played a full season (every minute of all three matches):
  • In his first year, he was recuperating in the hospital wing after saving the Sorcerer’s Stone, and thus missed the final match.
  • In his second year, the final match of the season was canceled due to the attack on Hermione and Penelope Clearwater.
  • In his third year, Harry came closest to playing a full season, but spent the last few seconds of the opening Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff match unconscious after being attacked by Dementors.
  • In his fourth year, the Quidditch Cup was canceled due to the Triwizard Tournament.
  • In his fifth year, Harry was banned by Dolores Umbridge after the opening Gryffindor vs. Slytherin match.
  • In his sixth year, Harry was knocked unconscious partway through the second match of the season against Hufflepuff, and then held in detention for the final match against Ravenclaw.
• One of the reasons why J.K. Rowling had Harry survive is because she values those who rebuild after a war, modeling Harry on war veterans. ^[34]
• J.K. Rowling has said that because of the demands of his life, Harry has had less sexual experience than boys of his age might have had.^[35]
• J.K. Rowling has said that Harry’s glasses are a clue to his vulnerability.^[36]
• J.K. Rowling has said that the character of Wart from T. H. White’s The Sword in the Stone is «Harry’s spiritual ancestor».^[37]
• Like his parents, Harry personally defied Voldemort three times before defeating him the fourth time: once in the Sorcerer’s Stone Chambers, once at the cemetery in Little Hangleton, and once again during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. However, there were four previous encounters if one counts the events of Harry’s second year with Tom Riddle’s Diary, though that was a memory instead of the real Voldemort.
• Harry learns a new mode of transportation in every book.
  • In his first year, he learns to travel by broomstick.
  • In his second year, he travels by Floo Powder.
  • In his third year, Buckbeak the hippogriff lets him take a ride on his back.
  • In his fourth year, he gets to the Quidditch World Cup by portkey.
  • In his fifth year, he travels to the Ministry of Magic|Ministry by thestral.
  • In his sixth year, he learns to Apparate.
  • In the seventh book, he breaks into Gringotts and flies out on a dragon.
• The only autograph he ever gave out was to Colin Creevey.
• In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2: Behind the Magic, the person who makes all the wands for the movies revealed that Dan has gone through over 80 wands over the course of the 10 years because he drums with them.

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (First appearance)
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (film)
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
• Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (play)
• The Tales of Beedle the Bard (Mentioned only)
• Quidditch Through the Ages (Mentioned only)
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter: A Pop-Up Book
• The Queen’s Handbag
• LEGO Harry Potter: Building the Magical World
• LEGO Harry Potter: Characters of the Magical World
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7
• LEGO Creator: Harry Potter
• Creator: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
• LEGO Dimensions
• LEGO Harry Potter
• Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey
• LEGO Brickheadz: Harry Potter
• Harry Potter Prequel (Mentioned on Title)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Motorbike Escape
• Pottermore
• Wizarding World
• Harry Potter Trading Card Game
• Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup
• Harry Potter for Kinect
• Harry Potter: The Character Vault
• Harry Potter: The Creature Vault
• Harry Potter: Magical Places from the Films: Hogwarts, Diagon Alley, and Beyond
• Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter: Wizards Unite
• Harry Potter: Magic Awakened
• J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life (Mentioned only)
• The Art of Harry Potter Mini Book of Graphic Design
• Harry Potter: The Wand Collection
• Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells

External links

• Harry Potter Lexicon page

Notes and references

Dumbledore’s Army
Founders: Harry Potter | Hermione Granger | Ronald Weasley
Leaders: Harry Potter | Neville Longbottom | Luna Lovegood | Ginny Weasley
Gryffindors: Katie Bell | Lavender Brown | Colin Creevey | Dennis Creevey | Seamus Finnigan | Angelina Johnson | Lee Jordan | Parvati Patil | Alicia Spinnet | Dean Thomas | Fred Weasley | George Weasley | Nigel Wolpert
Ravenclaws: Terry Boot | Cho Chang | Michael Corner | Marietta Edgecombe | Anthony Goldstein | Padma Patil
Hufflepuffs: Hannah Abbott | Susan Bones | Justin Finch-Fletchley | Ernie Macmillan | Zacharias Smith | Unidentified Hufflepuff girl
Unspecified: Luca Caruso | Alice Tolipan

Order of the Phoenix
Founder: Albus Dumbledore
Original Order of of the Phoenix: Aberforth Dumbledore | Alastor Moody | Alice Longbottom | Arabella Figg | Benjy Fenwick | Caradoc Dearborn | Dedalus Diggle | Dorcas Meadowes | Edgar Bones | Elphias Doge | Emmeline Vance | Fabian Prewett | Frank Longbottom | Gideon Prewett | Hestia Jones (possibly) | James Potter | Lily Potter | Marlene McKinnon | Minerva McGonagall | Mundungus Fletcher | Peter Pettigrew (defected) | Remus Lupin | Rubeus Hagrid | Severus Snape | Sirius Black | Sturgis Podmore
Reconstituted Order of the Phoenix: Aberforth Dumbledore | Alastor Moody | Arabella Figg | Arthur Weasley | Bill Weasley | Charlie Weasley | Dedalus Diggle | Elphias Doge | Emmeline Vance | Fleur Delacour | Fred Weasley | George Weasley | Harry Potter | Hermione Granger | Hestia Jones | Kingsley Shacklebolt | Minerva McGonagall | Molly Weasley | Mundungus Fletcher | Nymphadora Tonks | Remus Lupin | Ron Weasley | Rubeus Hagrid | Severus Snape | Sirius Black | Sturgis Podmore
Order of the Phoenix allies: Andromeda Tonks | Augusta Longbottom | Dobby | Filius Flitwick | Ginny Weasley | Grawp | Horace Slughorn | Kreacher | Lee Jordan | Luna Lovegood | Muriel | Neville Longbottom | Oliver Wood | Olympe Maxime | Percy Weasley | Pomona Sprout | Ted Tonks | Westinburgh family | Winky | Karkus | Karkus’s wife
Other affiliations: Dumbledore’s Army | Forbidden Forest Centaur colony | Headless Hunt | Hogwarts Hippogriff herd | Hogwarts house-elves | Hogwarts Ghosts | Hogwarts Staff | Hogwarts students | Hogwarts Thestral herd | Ministry of Magic | Giant colony (Karkus’s control)

The Triwizard Tournament
Objects: Goblet of Fire • Casket • Golden egg • Triwizard Cup
Schools: Beauxbatons Academy of Magic • Durmstrang Institute • Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
1994-1995 Triwizard Champions: Fleur Delacour • Viktor Krum • Cedric Diggory • Harry Potter

Department of Magical Law Enforcement employees
Heads of Department
Justus Pilliwickle · Bartemius Crouch Sr. · Amelia Bones · Pius Thicknesse · Yaxley
Auror Office
Heads: Gawain Robards · Rufus Scrimgeour · Harry Potter
John Dawlish · Alice Longbottom · Frank Longbottom · Neville Longbottom · Alastor Moody · Proudfoot · Savage · Kingsley Shacklebolt · Nymphadora Tonks · Ronald Weasley · Williamson · Unidentified Aurors · Unidentified male Auror at Hogwarts · 3 Unidentified Aurors at Hogwarts · Director of the Investigation Department No. 61042
Other Personnel
Minerva McGonagall · Elphinstone Urquart · Alastor Gumboil · Arnold Peasegood · Mafalda Hopkirk · Honoria’s fiancé · Rufus Fudge · Perkins · Hermione Granger · Travers · Bob Ogden · Arthur Weasley · Dempster Wiggleswade · Mafalda Hopkirk’s Ministerial Superior · Arthur Weasley’s ten subordinates

Hogwarts Dueling Club
Dueling Club Captains
Hogwarts: Gilderoy Lockhart · Severus Snape
Gryffindor: Angus Matlock
Hufflepuff: Dueling Club Captain
Ravenclaw: Alannis
Slytherin: Dueling Club Captain
Dueling Club Members
Gryffindor: Edward · Emily · Harry Potter · Hermione Granger · Neil Randall · Neville Longbottom · Romilda Vane · Ronald Weasley · Seamus Finnigan · Stewart
Hufflepuff: Anthony Otterburn · Heather · Justin Finch-Fletchley · Karl Limpley · Kouta Ohnishi · Rhonda Fladbury
Ravenclaw: Andrew · Helen Dawlish · Rebecca · Shoma Ichikawa · Trevor Birch
Slytherin: Bridget · Draco Malfoy · Fergus Cowley · Irfan Mustaq · Maynard Hatton · Millicent Bulstrode · Peter · Rachel · Roy
Badges
Crossfire Badge · Defender Badge · Duelling Beginner’s Luck Badge · Duelling Club Champion Badge · Duelling Veteran Badge · Keen Duellist Badge · Master Duellist Badge · Nine Lives Badge · Persistence Badge · Reflex Badge
Dueling Club locations
Great Hall · Middle Courtyard · The Quad · Training Grounds

Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young wizard, Harry Potter, and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The main story arc concerns Harry’s conflict with Lord Voldemort, a dark wizard who intends to become immortal, overthrow the wizard governing body known as the Ministry of Magic and subjugate all wizards and Muggles (non-magical people).

Harry Potter

Philosopher’s Stone (1997) Chamber of Secrets (1998) Prisoner of Azkaban (1999) Goblet of Fire (2000) Order of the Phoenix (2003) Half-Blood Prince (2005) Deathly Hallows (2007)
Author	J. K. Rowling
Cover artist	Thomas Taylor, Cliff Wright, Giles Greenfield, Jason Cockcroft
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre	Fantasy
Publisher	Bloomsbury
Published	26 June 1997 – 21 July 2007 (initial publication)
Media type	Print (hardback and paperback) Audiobook E-book
No. of books	7
Website	www.wizardingworld.com

The series was originally published in English by Bloomsbury in the United Kingdom and Scholastic Press in the United States. All versions around the world are printed by Grafica Veneta in Italy.^[1] A series of many genres, including fantasy, drama, coming-of-age fiction, and the British school story (which includes elements of mystery, thriller, adventure, horror, and romance), the world of Harry Potter explores numerous themes and includes many cultural meanings and references.^[2] According to Rowling, the main theme is death.^[3] Other major themes in the series include prejudice, corruption, and madness.^[4]

Since the release of the first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, on 26 June 1997, the books have found immense popularity, positive reviews, and commercial success worldwide. They have attracted a wide adult audience as well as younger readers and are widely considered cornerstones of modern literature.^[5][6] As of February 2023, the books have sold more than 600 million copies worldwide, making them the best-selling book series in history, and have been available in 85 languages.^[7] The last four books consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books in history, with the final instalment selling roughly 2.7 million copies in the United Kingdom and 8.3 million copies in the United States within twenty-four hours of its release.

The original seven books were adapted into an eight-part namesake film series by Warner Bros. Pictures. In 2016, the total value of the Harry Potter franchise was estimated at $25 billion,^[8] making Harry Potter one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a play based on a story co-written by Rowling.

The success of the books and films has allowed the Harry Potter franchise to expand with numerous derivative works, a travelling exhibition that premiered in Chicago in 2009, a studio tour in London that opened in 2012, a digital platform on which J. K. Rowling updates the series with new information and insight, and a pentalogy of spin-off films premiering in November 2016 with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, among many other developments. Themed attractions, collectively known as The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, have been built at several Universal Destinations & Experiences amusement parks around the world.

Plot

Early years

The series follows the life of a boy named Harry Potter. In the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Harry lives in a cupboard under the stairs in the house of the Dursleys, his aunt, uncle and cousin, Dudley. The Dursleys consider themselves perfectly normal, but at the age of 11, Harry discovers that he is a wizard. He meets a half-giant named Hagrid who invites him to attend the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry learns that as a baby, his parents were murdered by the dark wizard Lord Voldemort. When Voldemort attempted to kill Harry, his curse rebounded and Harry survived with a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead.

Harry becomes a student at Hogwarts and is sorted into Gryffindor House. He gains the friendship of Ron Weasley, a member of a large but poor wizarding family, and Hermione Granger, a witch of non-magical, or Muggle, parentage. Harry encounters the school’s potions master, Severus Snape, who displays a dislike for him; the rich pure-blood Draco Malfoy whom he develops an enmity with; and the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Quirinus Quirrell, who turns out to be allied with Lord Voldemort. The first book concludes with Harry’s confrontation with Voldemort, who, in his quest to regain a body, yearns to gain the power of the Philosopher’s Stone, a substance that bestows everlasting life.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets describes Harry’s second year at Hogwarts. Students are attacked and petrified by an unknown creature; wizards of Muggle parentage are the primary targets. The attacks appear related to the Chamber of Secrets, a fifty-year-old mystery at the school. Harry discovers an ability to speak the snake language Parseltongue, which he learns is rare and associated with the Dark Arts. When Hermione is attacked, Harry and Ron uncover the chamber’s secrets and enter it. Harry discovers that the chamber was opened by Ron’s younger sister, Ginny Weasley, who was possessed by an old diary in her belongings. The memory of Tom Marvolo Riddle, Voldemort’s younger self, resided inside the diary and unleashed the basilisk, an ancient monster that kills those who make direct eye contact. Harry draws the Sword of Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat, slays the basilisk and destroys the diary.

In the third novel, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry learns that he is targeted by Sirius Black, an escaped convict who allegedly assisted in his parents’ murder. As Harry struggles with his reaction to the dementors – creatures guarding the school that feed on despair – he reaches out to Remus Lupin, a new professor who teaches him the Patronus charm. On a windy night, Ron is dragged by a black dog into the Shrieking Shack; Harry and Hermione follow. The dog is revealed to be Sirius Black. Lupin enters the shack and explains that Black was James Potter’s best friend; he was framed by another friend of James’, Peter Pettigrew, who hides as Ron’s pet rat, Scabbers. As the full moon rises, Lupin transforms into a werewolf and bounds away; the group chase after him but are surrounded by dementors. They are saved by a mysterious figure who casts a stag Patronus. This is later revealed to be a future version of Harry, who traveled back in time with Hermione using the Time Turner. The duo help Sirius escape on a Hippogriff.

Voldemort returns

The former 1st floor Nicholson’s Cafe now renamed Spoon in Edinburgh where J. K. Rowling wrote the first few chapters of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

In Harry’s fourth year of school (detailed in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), he is unwillingly entered in the Triwizard Tournament, a contest between schools of witchcraft and wizardry. Harry is Hogwarts’ second participant after Cedric Diggory, an unusual occurrence that causes his friends to distance themselves from him. He competes against schools Beauxbatons and Durmstrang with the help of the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, Alastor «Mad-Eye» Moody. Harry claims the Triwizard Cup with Cedric, but in doing so is teleported to a graveyard where Voldemort’s supporters convene. Moody reveals himself be to Barty Crouch, Jr, a Death Eater. Harry manages to escape, but Cedric is killed and Voldemort is resurrected using Harry’s blood.

In the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the Ministry of Magic refuses to believe that Voldemort has returned. Dumbledore re-activates the Order of the Phoenix, a secret society to counter Voldemort; meanwhile, the Ministry appoints Dolores Umbridge as the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts. Umbridge bans the Defense Against the Dark Arts; in response, Hermione and Ron form «Dumbledore’s Army», a secret group where Harry teaches what Umbridge forbids. Harry is punished for disobeying Umbridge, and dreams of a dark corridor in the Ministry of Magic. Near the end of the book, Harry falsely dreams of Sirius being tortured; he races to the Ministry where he faces Death Eaters. The Order of the Phoenix saves the teenagers’ lives, but Sirius is killed. A prophecy concerning Harry and Voldemort is then revealed: one must die at the hands of the other.

In the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Snape teaches Defense Against the Dark Arts while Horace Slughorn becomes the Potions master. Harry finds an old textbook with annotations by the Half-Blood Prince, due to which he achieves success in Potions class. Harry also takes lessons with Dumbledore, viewing memories about the early life of Voldemort in a device called a Pensieve. Harry learns from a drunken Slughorn that he used to teach Tom Riddle, and that Voldemort divided his soul into pieces, creating a series of Horcruxes. Harry and Dumbledore travel to a distant lake to destroy a Horcrux; they succeed, but Dumbledore weakens. On their return, they find Draco Malfoy and Death Eaters attacking the school. The book ends with the killing of Dumbledore by Professor Snape, the titular Half-Blood Prince.

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh novel in the series, Lord Voldemort gains control of the Ministry of Magic. Harry, Ron and Hermione learn about the Deathly Hallows, legendary items that lead to mastery over death. The group infiltrate the ministry, where they steal a locket Horcrux, and visit Godric’s Hollow, where they are attacked by Nagini, Voldemort’s snake. A silver doe Patronus leads them to the Sword of Gryffindor, with which they destroy the locket. They steal a Horcrux from Gringotts and travel to Hogwarts, culminating in a battle with Death Eaters. Snape is killed by Voldemort out of paranoia, but lends Harry his memories before he dies. Harry learns that Snape was always loyal to Dumbledore, and that Harry is himself a Horcrux. Harry surrenders to Voldemort and dies. The defenders of Hogwarts continue to fight on; Harry is resurrected, faces Voldemort and kills him.

An epilogue titled «Nineteen Years Later» describes the lives of the surviving characters and the impact of Voldemort’s death. Harry and Ginny are married with three children, and Ron and Hermione are married with two children.

Style and allusions

Genre and style

The novels fall into the genre of fantasy literature, and qualify as a type of fantasy called «urban fantasy», «contemporary fantasy», or «low fantasy». They are mainly dramas, and maintain a fairly serious and dark tone throughout, though they do contain some notable instances of tragicomedy and black humour. In many respects, they are also examples of the bildungsroman, or coming of age novel,^[9] and contain elements of mystery, adventure, horror, thriller, and romance. The books are also, in the words of Stephen King, «shrewd mystery tales»,^[10] and each book is constructed in the manner of a Sherlock Holmes-style mystery adventure. The stories are told from a third person limited point of view with very few exceptions (such as the opening chapters of Philosopher’s Stone, Goblet of Fire and Deathly Hallows and the first two chapters of Half-Blood Prince).

The series can be considered part of the British children’s boarding school genre, which includes Rudyard Kipling’s Stalky & Co., Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers, St. Clare’s and the Naughtiest Girl series, and Frank Richards’s Billy Bunter novels: the Harry Potter books are predominantly set in Hogwarts, a fictional British boarding school for wizards, where the curriculum includes the use of magic.^[11] In this sense they are «in a direct line of descent from Thomas Hughes’s Tom Brown’s School Days and other Victorian and Edwardian novels of British public school life», though they are, as many note, more contemporary, grittier, darker, and more mature than the typical boarding school novel, addressing serious themes of death, love, loss, prejudice, coming-of-age, and the loss of innocence in a 1990s British setting.^[12][13]

In Harry Potter, Rowling juxtaposes the extraordinary against the ordinary.^[14] Her narrative features two worlds: a contemporary world inhabited by non-magical people called Muggles, and another featuring wizards. It differs from typical portal fantasy in that its magical elements stay grounded in the mundane.^[15] Paintings move and talk; books bite readers; letters shout messages; and maps show live journeys, making the wizarding world both exotic and familiar.^[14][16] This blend of realistic and romantic elements extends to Rowling’s characters. Their names are often onomatopoeic: Malfoy is difficult, Filch unpleasant and Lupin a werewolf.^[17][18] Harry is ordinary and relatable, with down-to-earth features such as wearing broken glasses;^[19] the scholar Roni Natov terms him an «everychild».^[20] These elements serve to highlight Harry when he is heroic, making him both an everyman and a fairytale hero.^[19][21]

Each of the seven books is set over the course of one school year. Harry struggles with the problems he encounters, and dealing with them often involves the need to violate some school rules. If students are caught breaking rules, they are often disciplined by Hogwarts professors. The stories reach their climax in the summer term, near or just after final exams, when events escalate far beyond in-school squabbles and struggles, and Harry must confront either Voldemort or one of his followers, the Death Eaters, with the stakes a matter of life and death – a point underlined, as the series progresses, by characters being killed in each of the final four books.^[22][23] In the aftermath, he learns important lessons through exposition and discussions with head teacher and mentor Albus Dumbledore. The only exception to this school-centred setting is the final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, in which Harry and his friends spend most of their time away from Hogwarts, and only return there to face Voldemort at the dénouement.^[22]

Allusions

The Harry Potter stories feature imagery and motifs drawn from Arthurian myth and fairytales. Harry’s ability to draw the Sword of Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat resembles the Arthurian sword in the stone legend.^[24] His life with the Dursleys has been compared to Cinderella.^[25] Hogwarts resembles a medieval university-cum-castle with several professors who belong to an Order of Merlin; Old Professor Binns still lectures about the International Warlock Convention of 1289; and a real historical person, a 14th-century scribe, Sir Nicolas Flamel, is described as a holder of the Philosopher’s Stone.^[26] Other medieval elements in Hogwarts include coats-of-arms and medieval weapons on the walls, letters written on parchment and sealed with wax, the Great Hall of Hogwarts which is similar to the Great Hall of Camelot, the use of Latin phrases, the tents put up for Quidditch tournaments are similar to the «marvellous tents» put up for knightly tournaments, imaginary animals like dragons and unicorns which exist around Hogwarts, and the banners with heraldic animals for the four Houses of Hogwarts.^[26]

Many of the motifs of the Potter stories such as the hero’s quest invoking objects that confer invisibility, magical animals and trees, a forest full of danger and the recognition of a character based upon scars are drawn from medieval French Arthurian romances.^[26] Other aspects borrowed from French Arthurian romances include the use of owls as messengers, werewolves as characters, and white deer.^[26] The American scholars Heather Arden and Kathrn Lorenz in particular argue that many aspects of the Potter stories are inspired by a 14th-century French Arthurian romance, Claris et Laris, writing of the «startling» similarities between the adventures of Potter and the knight Claris.^[26] Arden and Lorenz noted that Rowling graduated from the University of Exeter in 1986 with a degree in French literature and spent a year living in France afterwards.^[26]

Like C. S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter also contains Christian symbolism and allegory. The series has been viewed as a Christian moral fable in the psychomachia tradition, in which stand-ins for good and evil fight for supremacy over a person’s soul.^[27] Children’s literature critic Joy Farmer sees parallels between Harry and Jesus Christ.^[28] Comparing Rowling with Lewis, she argues that «magic is both authors’ way of talking about spiritual reality».^[29] According to Maria Nikolajeva, Christian imagery is particularly strong in the final scenes of the series: Harry dies in self-sacrifice and Voldemort delivers an «ecce homo» speech, after which Harry is resurrected and defeats his enemy.^[30]

Rowling stated that she did not reveal Harry Potter‘s religious parallels in the beginning because doing so would have «give[n] too much away to fans who might then see the parallels».^[31] In the final book of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Rowling makes the book’s Christian imagery more explicit, quoting both Matthew 6:21 and 1 Corinthians 15:26 (King James Version) when Harry visits his parents’ graves.^[31] Hermione Granger teaches Harry Potter that the meaning of these verses from the Christian Bible are «living beyond death. Living after death», which Rowling states «epitomize the whole series».^[31][32][33] Rowling also exhibits Christian values in developing Albus Dumbledore as a God-like character, the divine, trusted leader of the series, guiding the long-suffering hero along his quest. In the seventh novel, Harry speaks with and questions the deceased Dumbledore much like a person of faith would talk to and question God.^[34]

Themes

Harry Potter‘s overarching theme is death.^[35][36] In the first book, when Harry looks into the Mirror of Erised, he feels both joy and «a terrible sadness» at seeing his desire: his parents, alive and with him.^[37] Confronting their loss is central to Harry’s character arc and manifests in different ways through the series, such as in his struggles with Dementors.^[37][38] Other characters in Harry’s life die; he even faces his own death in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.^[39] The series has an existential perspective – Harry must grow mature enough to accept death.^[40] In Harry’s world, death is not binary but mutable, a state that exists in degrees.^[41] Unlike Voldemort, who evades death by separating and hiding his soul in seven parts, Harry’s soul is whole, nourished by friendship and love.^[40]

Love distinguishes Harry and Voldemort. Harry is a hero because he loves others, even willing to accept death to save them; Voldemort is a villain because he does not.^[42] Harry carries the protection of his mother’s sacrifice in his blood; Voldemort, who wants Harry’s blood and the protection it carries, does not understand that love vanquishes death.^[28]

Rowling has spoken about thematising death and loss in the series. Soon after she started writing Philosopher’s Stone, her mother died; she said that «I really think from that moment on, death became a central, if not the central theme of the seven books».^[43] Rowling has described Harry as «the prism through which I view death», and further stated that «all of my characters are defined by their attitude to death and the possibility of death».^[44]

While Harry Potter can be viewed as a story about good vs. evil, its moral divisions are not absolute.^[45][46] First impressions of characters are often misleading. Harry assumes in the first book that Quirrell is on the side of good because he opposes Snape, who appears to be malicious; in reality, Quirrell is an agent of Voldemort, while Snape is loyal to Dumbledore. This pattern later recurs with Moody and Snape.^[45] In Rowling’s world, good and evil are choices rather than inherent attributes: second chances and the possibility of redemption are key themes of the series.^[47][48] This is reflected in Harry’s self-doubts after learning his connections to Voldemort, such as Parseltongue;^[47] and prominently in Snape’s characterisation, which has been described as complex and multifaceted.^[49] In some scholars’ view, while Rowling’s narrative appears on the surface to be about Harry, her focus may actually be on Snape’s morality and character arc.^[50][51]

Rowling said that, to her, the moral significance of the tales seems «blindingly obvious». In the fourth book, Dumbledore speaks of a «choice between what is right and what is easy»; Rowling views this as a key theme, «because that … is how tyranny is started, with people being apathetic and taking the easy route and suddenly finding themselves in deep trouble».^[52]

Academics and journalists have developed many other interpretations of themes in the books, some more complex than others, and some including political subtexts. Themes such as normality, oppression, survival, and overcoming imposing odds have all been considered as prevalent throughout the series.^[53] Similarly, the theme of making one’s way through adolescence and «going over one’s most harrowing ordeals – and thus coming to terms with them» has also been considered.^[54] Rowling has stated that the books comprise «a prolonged argument for tolerance, a prolonged plea for an end to bigotry» and that they also pass on a message to «question authority and… not assume that the establishment or the press tells you all of the truth».^[55]

Development history

In 1990, Rowling was on a crowded train from Manchester to London when the idea for Harry suddenly «fell into» her head. Rowling gives an account of the experience on her website saying:

«I had been writing almost continuously since the age of six but I had never been so excited about an idea before. I simply sat and thought, for four (delayed train) hours, and all the details bubbled up in my brain, and this scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy who did not know he was a wizard became more and more real to me.»

Rowling completed Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in 1995 and the manuscript was sent off to several prospective agents.^[57] The second agent she tried, Christopher Little, offered to represent her and sent the manuscript to several publishers.^[58]

Publishing history

The logo used in British, Australian, and Canadian editions before 2010, which uses the typeface Cochin Bold^[59]

After twelve other publishers had rejected Philosopher’s Stone, Bloomsbury agreed to publish the book.^[60] Despite Rowling’s statement that she did not have any particular age group in mind when beginning to write the Harry Potter books, the publishers initially targeted children aged nine to eleven.^[61] On the eve of publishing, Rowling was asked by her publishers to adopt a more gender-neutral pen name in order to appeal to the male members of this age group, fearing that they would not be interested in reading a novel they knew to be written by a woman. She elected to use J. K. Rowling (Joanne Kathleen Rowling), using her grandmother’s name as her second name because she has no middle name.^[62][63]

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was published by Bloomsbury, the publisher of all Harry Potter books in the United Kingdom, on 26 June 1997.^[64] It was released in the United States on 1 September 1998 by Scholastic – the American publisher of the books – as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,^[65] after the American rights sold for US$105,000 – a record amount for a children’s book by an unknown author.^[66] Scholastic feared that American readers would not associate the word «philosopher» with magic, and Rowling suggested the title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone for the American market.^[67] Rowling has later said that she regrets the change.^[68]

The second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, was originally published in the UK on 2 July 1998 and in the US on 2 June 1999. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was published a year later in the UK on 8 July 1999 and in the US on 8 September 1999.^[69] Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was published on 8 July 2000 at the same time by Bloomsbury and Scholastic.^[70] Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the longest book in the series, at 766 pages in the UK version and 870 pages in the US version.^[71] It was published worldwide in English on 21 June 2003.^[72] Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was published on 16 July 2005.^[73][74] The seventh and final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was published on 21 July 2007.^[75] Rowling herself has stated that the last chapter of the final book (in fact, the epilogue) was completed «in something like 1990».^[76]

Rowling retained rights to digital editions and released them on the Pottermore website in 2012. Vendors such as Amazon displayed the ebooks in the form of links to Pottermore, which controlled pricing.^[77] All seven Harry Potter novels have been released in unabridged audiobook versions, with Stephen Fry reading the British editions and Jim Dale voicing the series for the American editions.^[78][79] On Audible, the series has been listened, as of November 2022, for over a billion hours.^[80]

Translations

The Russian translation of The Deathly Hallows goes on sale in Moscow, 2007.

The series has been translated into more than 80 languages,^[7] placing Rowling among the most translated authors in history. The books have seen translations to diverse languages such as Korean, Armenian, Ukrainian, Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, Bulgarian, Welsh, Afrikaans, Albanian, Latvian, Vietnamese and Hawaiian. The first volume has been translated into Latin and even Ancient Greek,^[81] making it the longest published work in Ancient Greek since the novels of Heliodorus of Emesa in the 3rd century AD.^[82] The second volume has also been translated into Latin.^[83]

Some of the translators hired to work on the books were well-known authors before their work on Harry Potter, such as Viktor Golyshev, who oversaw the Russian translation of the series’ fifth book. The Turkish translation of books two to seven was undertaken by Sevin Okyay, a popular literary critic and cultural commentator.^[84] For reasons of secrecy, translation on a given book could only start after it had been released in English, leading to a lag of several months before the translations were available. This led to more and more copies of the English editions being sold to impatient fans in non-English speaking countries; for example, such was the clamour to read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix that its English language edition became the first English-language book ever to top the best-seller list in France.^[85]

The United States editions were adapted into American English to make them more understandable to a young American audience.^[86]

Cover art

For cover art, Bloomsbury chose painted art in a classic style of design, with the first cover a watercolour and pencil drawing by illustrator Thomas Taylor showing Harry boarding the Hogwarts Express, and a title in the font Cochin Bold.^[87] The first releases of the successive books in the series followed in the same style but somewhat more realistic, illustrating scenes from the books. These covers were created by first Cliff Wright and then Jason Cockroft.^[88]

Due to the appeal of the books among an adult audience, Bloomsbury commissioned a second line of editions in an ‘adult’ style. These initially used black-and-white photographic art for the covers showing objects from the books (including a very American Hogwarts Express) without depicting people, but later shifted to partial colourisation with a picture of Slytherin’s locket on the cover of the final book.^{[citation needed]}

International and later editions have been created by a range of designers, including Mary GrandPré for U.S. audiences and Mika Launis in Finland.^[89][90] For a later American release, Kazu Kibuishi created covers in a somewhat anime-influenced style.^[91][92]

Reception

Commercial success

The popularity of the Harry Potter series has translated into substantial financial success for Rowling, her publishers, and other Harry Potter related license holders. This success has made Rowling the first and thus far only billionaire author.^[93] The books have sold more than 600 million copies worldwide and have also given rise to the popular film adaptations produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, all of which have been highly successful in their own right.^[94][7] The total revenue from the book sales is estimated, as of November 2018, to be around $7.7 billion.^[95] The first novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, has sold in excess of 120 million copies, making it one of the bestselling books in history.^[96][97] The films have in turn spawned eight video games and have led to the licensing of more than 400 additional Harry Potter products. The Harry Potter brand has been estimated to be worth as much as $25 billion.^[8]

The great demand for Harry Potter novels motivated The New York Times to create a separate best-seller list for children’s literature in 2000, just before the release of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. By 24 June 2000, Rowling’s novels had been on the list for 79 straight weeks; the first three novels were each on the hardcover best-seller list.^[98] On 12 April 2007, Barnes & Noble declared that Deathly Hallows had broken its pre-order record, with more than 500,000 copies pre-ordered through its site.^[99] For the release of Goblet of Fire, 9,000 FedEx trucks were used with no other purpose than to deliver the book.^[100] Together, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble pre-sold more than 700,000 copies of the book.^[100] In the United States, the book’s initial printing run was 3.8 million copies.^[100] This record statistic was broken by Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, with 8.5 million, which was then shattered by Half-Blood Prince with 10.8 million copies.^[101] Within the first 24 hours of its release, 6.9 million copies of Prince were sold in the U.S.; in the United Kingdom more than two million copies were sold on the first day.^[102] The initial U.S. print run for Deathly Hallows was 12 million copies, and more than a million were pre-ordered through Amazon and Barnes & Noble.^[103]

Fans of the series were so eager for the latest instalment that bookstores around the world began holding events to coincide with the midnight release of the books, beginning with the 2000 publication of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The events, commonly featuring mock sorting, games, face painting, and other live entertainment have achieved popularity with Potter fans and have been highly successful in attracting fans and selling books with nearly nine million of the 10.8 million initial print copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince sold in the first 24 hours.^[104][105]
The final book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows became the fastest selling book in history, moving 11 million units in the first twenty-four hours of release.^[106] The book sold 2.7 million copies in the UK and 8.3 million in the US.^[74] The series has also gathered adult fans, leading to the release of two editions of each Harry Potter book, identical in text but with one edition’s cover artwork aimed at children and the other aimed at adults.^[107]

Literary criticism

Early in its history, Harry Potter received positive reviews. On publication, the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, attracted attention from the Scottish newspapers, such as The Scotsman, which said it had «all the makings of a classic»,^[108] and The Glasgow Herald, which called it «Magic stuff».^[108] Soon the English newspapers joined in, with The Sunday Times comparing it to Roald Dahl’s work («comparisons to Dahl are, this time, justified»),^[108] while The Guardian called it «a richly textured novel given lift-off by an inventive wit».^[108]

By the time of the release of the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the books began to receive strong criticism from a number of literary scholars. Yale professor, literary scholar, and critic Harold Bloom raised criticisms of the books’ literary merits, saying, «Rowling’s mind is so governed by clichés and dead metaphors that she has no other style of writing.»^[109] A. S. Byatt authored an op-ed article in The New York Times calling Rowling’s universe a «secondary secondary world, made up of intelligently patchworked derivative motifs from all sorts of children’s literature … written for people whose imaginative lives are confined to TV cartoons, and the exaggerated (more exciting, not threatening) mirror-worlds of soaps, reality TV and celebrity gossip.»^[110]

Michael Rosen, a novelist and poet, advocated the books were not suited for children, as they would be unable to grasp the complex themes. Rosen also stated that «J. K. Rowling is more of an adult writer.»^[111] The critic Anthony Holden wrote in The Observer on his experience of judging Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for the 1999 Whitbread Awards. His overall view of the series was negative – «the Potter saga was essentially patronising, conservative, highly derivative, dispiritingly nostalgic for a bygone Britain,» and he speaks of «a pedestrian, ungrammatical prose style».^[112] Ursula K. Le Guin said, «I have no great opinion of it […] it seemed a lively kid’s fantasy crossed with a ‘school novel,’ good fare for its age group, but stylistically ordinary, imaginatively derivative, and ethically rather mean-spirited.»^[113] By contrast, author Fay Weldon, while admitting that the series is «not what the poets hoped for», nevertheless goes on to say, «but this is not poetry, it is readable, saleable, everyday, useful prose.»^[114]

The literary critic A. N. Wilson praised the Harry Potter series in The Times, stating, «There are not many writers who have JK’s Dickensian ability to make us turn the pages, to weep – openly, with tears splashing – and a few pages later to laugh, at invariably good jokes … We have lived through a decade in which we have followed the publication of the liveliest, funniest, scariest and most moving children’s stories ever written.»^[115] Charles Taylor of Salon.com, who is primarily a movie critic,^[116] took issue with Byatt’s criticisms in particular. While he conceded that she may have «a valid cultural point – a teeny one – about the impulses that drive us to reassuring pop trash and away from the troubling complexities of art»,^[117] he rejected her claims that the series is lacking in serious literary merit and that it owes its success merely to the childhood reassurances it offers.^[117] Stephen King called the series «a feat of which only a superior imagination is capable», and declared «Rowling’s punning, one-eyebrow-cocked sense of humor» to be «remarkable». However, he wrote that he is «a little tired of discovering Harry at home with his horrible aunt and uncle», the formulaic beginning of all seven books.^[10][118]

Sameer Rahim of The Daily Telegraph disagreed, saying «It depresses me to see 16- and 17-year-olds reading the series when they could be reading the great novels of childhood such as Oliver Twist or A House for Mr Biswas.»^[119] The Washington Post book critic Ron Charles opined in July 2007 that «through no fault of Rowling’s», the cultural and marketing «hysteria» marked by the publication of the later books «trains children and adults to expect the roar of the coliseum, a mass-media experience that no other novel can possibly provide».^[120] Jenny Sawyer wrote in The Christian Science Monitor on 25 July 2007 that Harry Potter neither faces a «moral struggle» nor undergoes any ethical growth, and is thus «no guide in circumstances in which right and wrong are anything less than black and white».^[121] In contrast Emily Griesinger described Harry’s first passage through to Platform 9+3⁄4 as an application of faith and hope, and his encounter with the Sorting Hat as the first of many in which Harry is shaped by the choices he makes.^[122]

In an 8 November 2002 Slate article, Chris Suellentrop likened Potter to a «trust-fund kid whose success at school is largely attributable to the gifts his friends and relatives lavish upon him».^[123] In a 12 August 2007, review of Deathly Hallows in The New York Times, however, Christopher Hitchens praised Rowling for «unmooring» her «English school story» from literary precedents «bound up with dreams of wealth and class and snobbery», arguing that she had instead created «a world of youthful democracy and diversity».^[124]
In 2016, an article written by Diana C. Mutz compares the politics of Harry Potter to the 2016 Donald Trump presidential campaign. She suggests that these themes are also present in the presidential election and it may play a significant role in how Americans have responded to the campaign.^[125]

There is ongoing discussion regarding the extent to which the series was inspired by Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings books.^[126]

Thematic critique

The portrayal of women in Harry Potter has been described as complex and varied, but nonetheless conforming to stereotypical and patriarchal depictions of gender.^[127] Gender divides are ostensibly absent in the books: Hogwarts is coeducational and women hold positions of power in wizarding society. However, this setting obscures the typecasting of female characters and the general depiction of conventional gender roles.^[128] According to scholars Elizabeth Heilman and Trevor Donaldson, the subordination of female characters goes further early in the series. The final three books «showcase richer roles and more powerful females»: for instance, the series’ «most matriarchal character», Molly Weasley, engages substantially in the final battle of Deathly Hallows, while other women are shown as leaders.^[129] Hermione Granger, in particular, becomes an active and independent character essential to the protagonists’ battle against evil.^[130] Yet, even particularly capable female characters such as Hermione and Minerva McGonagall are placed in supporting roles,^[131] and Hermione’s status as a feminist model is debated.^[132] Girls and women are more frequently shown as emotional, more often defined by their appearance, and less often given agency in family settings.^[128][133]

The social hierarchy of wizards in Rowling’s world has drawn debate among critics. «Purebloods» have two wizard parents; «half-bloods» have one; and «Muggle-born» wizards have magical abilities although neither of their parents is a wizard.^[134] Lord Voldemort and his followers believe that blood purity is paramount and that Muggles are subhuman.^[135] According to the literary scholar Andrew Blake, Harry Potter rejects blood purity as a basis for social division;^[136] Suman Gupta agrees that Voldemort’s philosophy represents «absolute evil»;^[137] and Nel and Eccleshare agree that advocates of racial or blood-based hierarchies are antagonists.^[138][139] Gupta, following Blake,^[140] suggests that the essential superiority of wizards over Muggles – wizards can use magic and Muggles cannot – means that the books cannot coherently reject anti-Muggle prejudice by appealing to equality between wizards and Muggles. Rather, according to Gupta, Harry Potter models a form of tolerance based on the «charity and altruism of those belonging to superior races» towards lesser races.^[141]

Harry Potter‘s depiction of race, specifically the slavery of house-elves, has received varied responses. Scholars such as Brycchan Carey have praised the books’ abolitionist sentiments, viewing Hermione’s Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare as a model for younger readers’ political engagement.^[142][143] Other critics including Farah Mendlesohn find the portrayal of house-elves «most difficult to accept»: the elves are denied the right to free themselves and rely on the benevolence of others like Hermione.^[144][145] Pharr terms the house-elves a disharmonious element in the series, writing that Rowling leaves their fate hanging;^[146] at the end of Deathly Hallows, the elves remain enslaved and cheerful.^[147] The goblins of the world of Harry Potter have also received criticism for following antisemitic caricatures – particularly for their grotesque «hook-nosed» portrayal in the films, an appearance associated with Jewish stereotypes.^{[148][149][150]}

Controversies

The books have been the subject of a number of legal proceedings, stemming from various conflicts over copyright and trademark infringements. The popularity and high market value of the series has led Rowling, her publishers, and film distributor Warner Bros. to take legal measures to protect their copyright, which have included banning the sale of Harry Potter imitations, targeting the owners of websites over the «Harry Potter» domain name, and suing author Nancy Stouffer to counter her accusations that Rowling had plagiarised her work.^{[151][152][153]}

Various religious fundamentalists have claimed that the books promote witchcraft and religions such as Wicca and are therefore unsuitable for children,^{[154][155][156]} while a number of critics have criticised the books for promoting various political agendas.^[157][158] The series has landed the American Library Associations’ Top 10 Banned Book List in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2019 with claims it was anti-family, discussed magic and witchcraft, contained actual spells and curses, referenced the occult/Satanism, violence, and had characters who used «nefarious means» to attain goals, as well as conflicts with religious viewpoints.^[159]

The books also aroused controversies in the literary and publishing worlds. From 1997 to 1998, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone won almost all the United Kingdom awards judged by children, but none of the children’s book awards judged by adults,^[160] and Sandra Beckett suggested the reason was intellectual snobbery towards books that were popular among children.^[161] In 1999, the winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year award children’s division was entered for the first time on the shortlist for the main award, and one judge threatened to resign if Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was declared the overall winner; it finished second, very close behind the winner of the poetry prize, Seamus Heaney’s translation of the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf.^[161]

In 2000, shortly before the publication of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the previous three Harry Potter books topped The New York Times fiction best-seller list and a third of the entries were children’s books. The newspaper created a new children’s section covering children’s books, including both fiction and non-fiction, and initially counting only hardback sales. The move was supported by publishers and booksellers.^[98] In 2004, The New York Times further split the children’s list, which was still dominated by Harry Potter books, into sections for series and individual books, and removed the Harry Potter books from the section for individual books.^[162] The split in 2000 attracted condemnation, praise and some comments that presented both benefits and disadvantages of the move.^[163] Time suggested that, on the same principle, Billboard should have created a separate «mop-tops» list in 1964 when the Beatles held the top five places in its list, and Nielsen should have created a separate game-show list when Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? dominated the ratings.^[164]

Legacy

Influence on literature

Harry Potter transformed children’s literature.^[165][166] In the 1970s, children’s books were generally realistic as opposed to fantastic,^[167] while adult fantasy became popular because of the influence of The Lord of the Rings.^[168] The next decade saw an increasing interest in grim, realist themes, with an outflow of fantasy readers and writers to adult works.^[169][170]

The commercial success of Harry Potter reversed this trend.^[171] The scale of its growth had no precedent in the children’s market: within four years of the series’ inception, it occupied 28% of that field by revenue.^[172] Children’s literature rose in cultural status,^[173] and fantasy became a dominant genre.^[174] Older works in the genre, including Diana Wynne Jones’s Chrestomanci series and Diane Duane’s Young Wizards, were reprinted and rose in popularity; some authors re-established their careers.^[175] In the following decades, many Harry Potter imitators and subversive responses grew popular.^[176][177]

Rowling has been compared to Enid Blyton, who also wrote in simple language about groups of children and long held sway over the British children’s market.^[178][179] She has also been described as an heir to Roald Dahl.^[180] Some critics view Harry Potter‘s rise, along with the concurrent success of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, as part of a broader shift in reading tastes: a rejection of literary fiction in favour of plot and adventure.^[181] This is reflected in the BBC’s 2003 «Big Read» survey of the UK’s favourite books, where Pullman and Rowling ranked at numbers 3 and 5, respectively, with very few British literary classics in the top 10.^[182]

Cultural impact

Harry Potter has been described as a cultural phenomenon.^[183][184] The word «Muggle» has spread beyond its origins in the books, entering the Oxford English Dictionary in 2003.^[185]
A real-life version of the sport Quidditch was created in 2005 and featured as an exhibition tournament in the 2012 London Olympics.^[186] Characters and elements from the series have inspired scientific names of several organisms, including the dinosaur Dracorex hogwartsia, the spider Eriovixia gryffindori, the wasp Ampulex dementor, and the crab Harryplax severus.^[187]

Librarian Nancy Knapp pointed out the books’ potential to improve literacy by motivating children to read much more than they otherwise would.^[188] The seven-book series has a word count of 1,083,594 (US edition). Agreeing about the motivating effects, Diane Penrod also praised the books’ blending of simple entertainment with «the qualities of highbrow literary fiction», but expressed concern about the distracting effect of the prolific merchandising that accompanies the book launches.^[189] However, the assumption that Harry Potter books have increased literacy among young people is «largely a folk legend».^[190]

Research by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has found no increase in reading among children coinciding with the Harry Potter publishing phenomenon, nor has the broader downward trend in reading among Americans been arrested during the rise in the popularity of the Harry Potter books.^[190][191] The research also found that children who read Harry Potter books were not more likely to go on to read outside the fantasy and mystery genres.^[190] NEA chairman Dana Gioia said the series, «got millions of kids to read a long and reasonably complex series of books. The trouble is that one Harry Potter novel every few years is not enough to reverse the decline in reading.»^[192]

Many fan fiction and fan art works about Harry Potter have been made. In March 2007, «Harry Potter» was the most commonly searched fan fiction subject on the internet.^[193]
Jennifer Conn used Snape’s and Quidditch coach Madam Hooch’s teaching methods as examples of what to avoid and what to emulate in clinical teaching,^[194] and Joyce Fields wrote that the books illustrate four of the five main topics in a typical first-year sociology class: «sociological concepts including culture, society, and socialisation; stratification and social inequality; social institutions; and social theory».^[195]

From the early 2000s onwards several news reports appeared in the UK of the Harry Potter book and movie series driving demand for pet owls^[196] and even reports that after the end of the movie series these same pet owls were now being abandoned by their owners.^[197] This led J. K. Rowling to issue several statements urging Harry Potter fans to refrain from purchasing pet owls.^[198] Despite the media flurry, research into the popularity of Harry Potter and sales of owls in the UK failed to find any evidence that the Harry Potter franchise had influenced the buying of owls in the country or the number of owls reaching animal shelters and sanctuaries.^[199]

Awards, honours, and recognition

The Harry Potter series has been recognised by a host of awards since the initial publication of Philosopher’s Stone including a platinum award from the Whitaker Gold and Platinum Book Awards ( 2001),^[200][201] three Nestlé Smarties Book Prizes (1997–1999),^[202] two Scottish Arts Council Book Awards (1999 and 2001),^[203] the inaugural Whitbread children’s book of the year award (1999),^[204] the WHSmith book of the year (2006),^[205] among others. In 2000, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Novel, and in 2001, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire won said award.^[206] Honours include a commendation for the Carnegie Medal (1997),^[207] a short listing for the Guardian Children’s Award (1998), and numerous listings on the notable books, editors’ Choices, and best books lists of the American Library Association, The New York Times, Chicago Public Library, and Publishers Weekly.^[208]

In 2002, sociologist Andrew Blake named Harry Potter a British pop culture icon along with the likes of James Bond and Sherlock Holmes.^[209] In 2003, four of the books were named in the top 24 of the BBC’s The Big Read survey of the best loved novels in the UK.^[210] A 2004 study found that books in the series were commonly read aloud in elementary schools in San Diego County, California.^[211] Based on a 2007 online poll, the U.S. National Education Association listed the series in its «Teachers’ Top 100 Books for Children».^[212] Time magazine named Rowling as a runner-up for its 2007 Person of the Year award, noting the social, moral, and political inspiration she has given her fandom.^[213] Three of the books placed among the «Top 100 Chapter Books» of all time, or children’s novels, in a 2012 survey published by School Library Journal: Sorcerer’s Stone ranked number three, Prisoner of Azkaban 12th, and Goblet of Fire 98th.^[214]

In 2007, the seven Harry Potter book covers were depicted on a series of UK postage stamps issued by Royal Mail.^[215] In 2012, the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London featured a 100-foot tall rendition of Lord Voldemort in a segment designed to showcase the UK’s cultural icons.^[216] In November 2019, the BBC listed the Harry Potter series on its list of the 100 most influential novels.^[217]

Adaptations

Films

The locomotive that features as the «Hogwarts Express» in the film series

In 1999, Rowling sold the film rights for Harry Potter to Warner Bros. for a reported £1 million (US$2,000,000).^[218][219]
Rowling had creative control on the film series, observing the filmmaking process of Philosopher’s Stone and serving as producer on the two-part Deathly Hallows, alongside David Heyman and David Barron.^[220] Rowling demanded the principal cast be kept strictly British, nonetheless allowing for the inclusion of Irish or French and Eastern European actors where characters from the book are specified as such.^[221]

Chris Columbus was selected as the director for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (titled «Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone» in the United States).^[222] Philosopher’s Stone was released on 14 November 2001. Just three days after the film’s release, production for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, also directed by Columbus, began and the film was released on 15 November 2002.^[223] Columbus declined to direct Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, only acting as producer. Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón took over the job, and after shooting in 2003, the film was released on 4 June 2004. Due to the fourth film beginning its production before the third’s release, Mike Newell was chosen as the director for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, released on 18 November 2005.^[224] Newell became the first British director of the series, with television director David Yates following suit after he was chosen to helm Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Production began in January 2006 and the film was released the following year in July 2007.^[225] Yates was selected to direct Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which was released on 15 July 2009.^[226][227] The final instalment in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released in two cinematic parts: Part 1 on 19 November 2010 and Part 2 on 15 July 2011.^[228][229]

Spin-off prequels

A new prequel series consisting of five films will take place before the main series.^[230] The first film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was released in November 2016, followed by the second Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald in November 2018 and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore in April 2022 with two more to be released. Rowling wrote the screenplay for the first three instalments,^[231] marking her foray into screenwriting.

Games

A number of non-interactive media games and board games have been released such as Cluedo Harry Potter Edition, Scene It? Harry Potter and Lego Harry Potter models, which are influenced by the themes of both the novels and films.

There are thirteen Harry Potter video games, eight corresponding with the films and books and five spin-offs. The film/book-based games are produced by Electronic Arts (EA), as was Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup, with the game version of the first entry in the series, Philosopher’s Stone, being released in November 2001. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone went on to become one of the best-selling PlayStation games ever.^[232] The video games were released to coincide with the films. Objectives usually occur in and around Hogwarts. The story and design of the games follow the selected film’s characterisation and plot; EA worked closely with Warner Bros. to include scenes from the films. The last game in the series, Deathly Hallows, was split, with Part 1 released in November 2010 and Part 2 debuting on consoles in July 2011.^[233][234]

The spin-off games Lego Harry Potter: Years 1–4 and Lego Harry Potter: Years 5–7 were developed by Traveller’s Tales and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. The spin-off games Book of Spells and Book of Potions were developed by London Studio and use the Wonderbook, an augmented reality book designed to be used in conjunction with the PlayStation Move and PlayStation Eye.^[235] The Harry Potter universe is also featured in Lego Dimensions, with the settings and side characters featured in the Harry Potter Adventure World, and Harry, Voldemort, and Hermione as playable characters. In 2017, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment opened its own Harry Potter-themed game design studio, by the name of Portkey Games, before releasing Hogwarts Mystery in 2018, developed by Jam City.^[236]

Stage production

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts I and II is a play which serves as a sequel to the books, beginning nineteen years after the events of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It was written by Jack Thorne based on an original new story by Thorne, Rowling and John Tiffany.^[237] It has run at the Palace Theatre in London’s West End since previews began on 7 June 2016 with an official premiere on 30 June 2016.^[238] The first four months of tickets for the June–September performances were sold out within several hours upon release.^[239] Forthcoming productions are planned for Broadway^[240] and Melbourne.^[241]

The script was released as a book at the time of the premiere, with a revised version following the next year.

Television

On 25 January 2021, it was reported that a live-action television series has been in early development at HBO Max. Though it was noted that the series has «complicated rights issues», due to a seven-year rights deal with Warner Bros. Domestic TV Distribution that included U.S. broadcast, cable and streaming rights to the franchise, which ends in April 2025.^[242]

On 12 April 2023, the series was confirmed to be in production, and will be streamed on the new streaming service, Max (which is set to replace HBO Max from 23 May 2023).^[243][244]

Attractions

Hogwarts Castle as depicted in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, located in Universal Orlando Resort’s Island of Adventure

Universal and Warner Brothers created The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, a Harry Potter-themed expansion to the Islands of Adventure theme park at Universal Orlando Resort in Florida. It opened to the public on 18 June 2010.^[245] It includes a re-creation of Hogsmeade and several rides; its flagship attraction is Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, which exists within a re-creation of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.^[246]

In 2014 Universal opened a Harry Potter-themed area at the Universal Studios Florida theme park. It includes a re-creation of Diagon Alley.^[247] The flagship attraction is the Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts roller coaster ride.^[248] A completely functioning full-scale replica of the Hogwarts Express was created for the Diagon Alley expansion, connecting King’s Cross Station at Universal Studios to the Hogsmeade station at Islands of Adventure.^[249][250] The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened at the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park near Los Angeles, California in 2016,^[251][252] and in Universal Studios Japan theme park in Osaka, Japan in 2014. The Osaka venue includes the village of Hogsmeade, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride, and Flight of the Hippogriff roller coaster.^[253][254]

The Making of Harry Potter is a behind-the-scenes walking tour in London featuring authentic sets, costumes and props from the film series. The attraction is located at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden, where all eight of the Harry Potter films were made. Warner Bros. constructed two new sound stages to house and showcase the sets from each of the British-made productions, following a £100 million investment.^[255] It opened to the public in March 2012.^[256]

Supplementary works

Rowling expanded the Harry Potter universe with short books produced for charities.^[257][258] In 2001, she released Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (a purported Hogwarts textbook) and Quidditch Through the Ages (a book Harry reads for fun). Proceeds from the sale of these two books benefited the charity Comic Relief.^[259] In 2007, Rowling composed seven handwritten copies of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a collection of fairy tales that is featured in the final novel, one of which was auctioned to raise money for the Children’s High Level Group, a fund for mentally disabled children in poor countries. The book was published internationally on 4 December 2008.^[260][261] Rowling also wrote an 800-word prequel in 2008 as part of a fundraiser organised by the bookseller Waterstones.^[262] All three of these books contain extra information about the wizarding world not included in the original novels.

In 2016, she released three new e-books: Hogwarts: An Incomplete and Unreliable Guide, Short Stories from Hogwarts of Power, Politics and Pesky Poltergeists
and Short Stories from Hogwarts of Heroism, Hardship and Dangerous Hobbies.^[263]

Rowling’s website Pottermore was launched in 2012.^[264] Pottermore allows users to be sorted, be chosen by their wand and play various minigames. The main purpose of the website was to allow the user to journey through the story with access to content not revealed by JK Rowling previously, with over 18,000 words of additional content.^[265] The site was redesigned in 2015 as WizardingWorld and it mainly focuses on the information already available, rather than exploration.^[266]

See also

• The Worst Witch
• Mary Poppins

References

Sources

Further reading

External links

This audio file was created from a revision of this article dated 2 January 2011, and does not reflect subsequent edits.

• Harry Potter, an external wiki
• J. K. Rowling’s personal website
• Harry Potter movies – Official website (Warner Bros.)
• Harry Potter at Bloomsbury.com (International publisher)
• Harry Potter at Scholastic.com (US publisher)
• Harry Potter at Raincoast.com (Canadian publisher)
• Works by or about Harry Potter in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Harry Potter collected news and commentary at The Guardian  
• Harry Potter collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Orlando resort, Florida