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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 Parks & Resorts 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. The Dursleys consider themselves perfectly normal, but at the age of eleven, 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. 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 he himself is 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 been accused of perpetuating antisemitic caricatures – they are described by Rowling as a «secretive cabal of hook-nosed, greedy bankers», a description 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 in 1997 reversed this trend.^[171] The scale of its growth had no precedent in the children’s market: within four years, 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.^[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]

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.^[243] 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.^[244]

In 2014 Universal opened a Harry Potter-themed area at the Universal Studios Florida theme park. It includes a re-creation of Diagon Alley.^[245] The flagship attraction is the Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts roller coaster ride.^[246] 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.^[247][248] The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened at the Universal Studios Hollywood theme park near Los Angeles, California in 2016,^[249][250] 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.^[251][252]

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.^[253] It opened to the public in March 2012.^[254]

Supplementary works

Rowling expanded the Harry Potter universe with short books produced for charities.^[255][256] 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.^[257] 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.^[258][259] Rowling also wrote an 800-word prequel in 2008 as part of a fundraiser organised by the bookseller Waterstones.^[260] 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.^[261]

Rowling’s website Pottermore was launched in 2012.^[262] 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.^[263] The site was redesigned in 2015 as Wizardingworld.com and it mainly focuses on the information already available, rather than exploration.^{[264][verification needed]}

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

harry potter — перевод на русский

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Harry James^[58] Potter (b. 31 July 1980)^[1] was an English half-blood^[2] wizard, and one of the most famous wizards of modern times. The only child and son of James and Lily Potter (née Evans), Harry’s birth was overshadowed by a prophecy, naming either himself or Neville Longbottom as the one with the power to vanquish Lord Voldemort, the most powerful and feared Dark wizard in the world. After half of the prophecy was reported to Voldemort, courtesy of Severus Snape, Harry was chosen as the target due to his many similarities with the Dark Lord. In turn, this caused the Potter family to go into hiding.

Voldemort made his first attempt to circumvent the prophecy when Harry was a year and three months old. During this attempt, he murdered Harry’s parents as they tried to protect him, but this unsuccessful attempt to kill Harry led to Voldemort’s first downfall. This downfall marked the end of the First Wizarding War, and to Harry henceforth being known as «The Boy Who Lived»,^[5] as he was the only known survivor of the Killing Curse due to being magically protected by his mother’s loving sacrifice. In accordance with the terms of the prophecy, this attempt on his life also established him, not Neville, as Voldemort’s nemesis.

One consequence of Lily’s sacrifice was that her orphaned son had to be raised by her only remaining blood relative, his Muggle aunt Petunia Dursley, and her husband, uncle Vernon Dursley. While in their care, he would be protected from Lord Voldemort due to the Bond of Blood charm that Albus Dumbledore placed upon him.^[59] This powerful charm would protect him until he either came of age, or no longer called his aunt’s house home. Due to Petunia’s resentment of her sister and her magical abilities, Harry grew up abused and neglected.

Shortly before Harry’s eleventh birthday, there were several attempts from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to send him a letter inviting him to not only come to Hogwarts, but also to explain his magical heritage. Though Vernon Dursley ultimately made the decision to leave their residence at 4 Privet Drive temporarily to evade the letters, his attempts were ultimately for naught. On his eleventh birthday, Harry learned from Rubeus Hagrid that he was a wizard.^[60] Rubeus Hagrid took Harry from the Dursley family the next day to Diagon Alley. This is where Harry withdrew some of his money from Gringotts Wizarding Bank, where Hagrid bought Harry’s snow-white owl, Hedwig. While he was in Diagon Alley, Harry also got his school supplies (i.e., books from Flourish and Blotts, his robes from Madam Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions, and his potion equipment from Slug & Jiggers Apothecary). Harry began attending Hogwarts in 1991. The Sorting Hat told Harry that he would do well in Slytherin House, but Harry pleaded «not Slytherin«. The Hat heeded this plea and sorted the young wizard into Gryffindor House.^[56] At school, Harry became best friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. He was also the youngest Seeker in a century, making the house team in his first year when Minerva McGonagall introduced him to Oliver Wood, Gryffindor’s Quidditch captain at the time. He later became the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team in his sixth year, winning two Quidditch Cups.^[61] While in school, Harry also demonstrated an extraordinary talent for Defence Against the Dark Arts.^{[62][63][64][65][66]}

He became even better-known in his early years for protecting the Philosopher’s Stone from Voldemort, saving Ron’s sister Ginny Weasley, solving the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets, slaying Salazar Slytherin’s basilisk, and learning how to conjure a corporeal Patronus at the age of thirteen, which took the form of a stag. In his fourth year, Harry won the Triwizard Tournament, although the person had to be seventeen to enter, and Harry was only fourteen. The competition ended with the tragic death of Cedric Diggory and the return of Lord Voldemort. During the next school year, in defiance of Dolores Umbridge’s and the Ministry of Magic’s strict regime against the teaching of Defence Against the Dark Arts and the continued introduction of the new Educational Decree, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger first had the idea of creating an illegal Defence Against the Dark Arts group called Dumbledore’s Army. Harry was initially reluctant to the idea, but he gradually came to like it and eventually agreed to start the group. He also fought in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, during which he lost his godfather, Sirius Black, and the prophecy was destroyed.

Harry played a significant role in many other battles of the Second Wizarding War. During what would have been his seventh year, he, Ron, and Hermione hunted down and destroyed Voldemort’s Horcruxes. During the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry personally saw the deaths of Severus Snape and Fred Weasley while learning that Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Colin Creevey, and many others had fallen in the battle as well. He encountered Voldemort and nearly sacrificed himself, knowing that his doing so was the only way to destroy the fragment of Voldemort’s soul inside of him. While in limbo, after Voldemort cursed him in the forest clearing, Dumbledore gave Harry advice and background information on the Dark Lord. When told that he could choose to live or to «move on,» Harry ultimately chose to live. After he awoke, Harry confronted Voldemort and defeated him once and for all.

Harry was also noted for being the only known Master of Death, having united the three Deathly Hallows at the mere age of seventeen.

After the war, Harry became an Auror and helped reform and revolutionise the Ministry of Magic.^[54] At some point, he married Ginny, with whom he had three children: James Sirius, Albus Severus, and Lily Luna. He was also named the godfather of Edward «Teddy» Remus Lupin. In 2007, Harry was promoted to Head of the Auror Office at the age of 26,^[67][53] and would occasionally deliver Defence Against the Dark Arts lectures at Hogwarts.^[54] He was later promoted to Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement by the summer of 2020.^[55]

Biography

Family lineage

The Potters were an old and wealthy pure-blood family,^[68] dating back to their founding patriarch Linfred of Stinchcombe. Linfred was given the nickname «Potterer», which was changed simply to «Potter» over the years. The family took on the simplified nickname as a surname, thus leading to future generations calling themselves Potter.^[45]

The Potters were also descended from the Peverell family, via Hardwin Potter’s marriage to Iolanthe Peverell.^[45] 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.^[69] The Potters were thus indirectly related to the Gaunts as well, and by extension, Lord Voldemort.^[70]

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.^[71] 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.^[71]

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.^[72] Harry’s father James Potter was born late in the 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.^[73]

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.^[74]

James and Lily first met when they attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry together in 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.^[75]

By their seventh year, James lost the less savoury 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.^[75]

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 31 July 1980, at Godric’s Hollow in the West Country, England, only hours after his future classmatee Neville Longbottom.^[76] Around this time, a prophecy regarding a boy born at the end of July with the power to defeat Voldemort was stated to wizards.^[77] Harry’s christening was quiet and quick, with only mother, father, and Sirius Black in attendance.^[78] Harry spent his infancy in hiding with his parents in the Potter cottage.^[22]

For Harry’s first birthday, Sirius bought him a toy broomstick. Lily’s letter to Sirius mentioned that this broomstick had been Harry’s favourite 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 owned a cat, but what happened to it after Voldemort’s attack it remains unknown.

When it became clear that Voldemort marked the Potters for death in regards to the prophecy, Albus Dumbledore suggested that they use the Fidelius Charm to keep them safe. He even offered to be the Potter’s Secret Keeper, but the Potters had already planned to make Sirius their Secret Keeper instead. On Sirius’s advice, they changed this designation to Peter Pettigrew, who they thought would be less suspicious.^[79] In a terrible turn of fate, Pettigrew was a Death Eater spy, and betrayed the Potters’ whereabouts barely a week later.^[80]

Attack at Godric’s Hollow (1981)

On the evening of Hallowe’en in 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.^[81] 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 murdering 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.^[82] This later included Harry himself also, 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 both a bane and 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 reluctantly 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.^[83]

Hagrid delivered Harry to Dumbledore late on the evening of 1 November 1981.^[5] Dumbledore left a letter of explanation to the family living in the house, the Dursleys, who did not want to take care of Harry.^[59]

On 1 September 1984, Albus Dumbledore mentioned Harry Potter’s name at the Start-of-Term Feast to the residents of Hogwarts, telling them that he was safe, and that when old enough, he too would attend Hogwarts.^[84]

Life at Privet Drive

As the Dursleys were Muggles, they could not use magic. They knew about its existence, but refused to associate with witches and wizards. They proudly considered themselves a «normal» family and despised anything out of the ordinary, even if it had nothing to do with witches, wizards, and magic. 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.^[85] Whenever Harry tried to remember it, all that 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 Dursley, 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.^[86]

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 behaviour 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.^[85]

The Dursleys spoiled and pampered their son, Dudley, and paid almost no attention to Harry with what little attention they did pay to him being negative in its entirety. All his clothes were hand-me-downs from Dudley and were far too large for Harry. He was forced 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. She eventually made a fool out of the young Potter during Dudley’s tenth birthday, when Harry accidentally stepped on the paw of her favourite 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.^[87]

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.^[59]

Unknown to Harry, one of his neighbours, Arabella Figg, was a Squib who had been ordered by Albus Dumbledore to keep an eye on Harry but to not reveal anything of the wizarding world to him. Unfortunately for Harry, to maintain favour with the Dursleys, she was forced 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 for his safety.^[88]

On 23 June 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.^[85] After this incident, the enraged Dursleys sentenced Harry to his cupboard until the beginning of the summer holidays.^[89]

St. Grogory’s Primary School

Harry attended St. Grogory’s Primary School,^[90] 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.^[91]

Discovery of being a wizard

Harry had no birthday celebrations until the day he turned 11, 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 Dursleys’ home, addressed to him from a place called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. When the Dursleys saw 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 witches and 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, however, as the owls carrying these letters followed them wherever they went. On 30 July 1991, In a final desperate move on, the Dursleys moved to a shack on a rocky island at the edge of the sea.^[89]

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.^[60]

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 (A 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 Defence 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 Ollivander’s that very 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 Garrick 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 chosen Tom Riddle as its master long ago. But after turning to evil and assumed the alias of Lord Voldemort, Riddle ended up using this wand to attack Harry and his parents. Sharing the same phoenix origin, the two wands had a unique connection that would prevent them from successfully duelling against each other in the years to come.

Hogwarts years (1991–1997)

First year

Aboard the Hogwarts Express

Harry was guided further to his destiny on 1 September, 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 had not yet been built. 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 that 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 their 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.^[92]

While helping, the twins noticed his scar and recognised 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 did not believe it.^[92]

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 harbour. Helping to remind Neville to take his toad, Hagrid took them up a passageway to the gates of the castle.^[92]

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-emphasised the idea that Harry «would do well in Slytherin».

The Sorting Ceremony was followed by the Start-of-Term Feast. Having previously never been allowed to eat as much as he wanted, Harry 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 was because Lord Voldemort was inhabiting Quirrell’s body as anytime Voldemort was near Harry’s scar hurt. 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 older brother 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 that 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. Terrified of being left behind, Neville 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 would 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 did not need to be taught. Bending low on the broom handle, he shot toward Draco, who realised that Harry was a better flyer 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. Expecting punishment, Harry 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 rivalling 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. Realising that Draco tricked them and informed Filch of 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.^[93]

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.

Hallowe’en

On Hallowe’en, Professor Flitwick began teaching his students how to perform the Levitation Charm. Only Hermione succeeded; offended by her air of superiority, Ron 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 Hallowe’en feast later, their guilt was forgotten amidst the splendour 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 realised 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 did not realise 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 troll’s nose, Ron finally knocked the troll out, by levitating the troll’s own club to smash into its head.

Attracted by the troll’s yells, the teachers arrived 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 must have checked put from the library. During break on 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; realising 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 penalised, 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. As 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 was well above the level of a second year and therefore had to have been cast 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, resulting in Gryffindor’s victory.

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. Surprised by their knowledge, Hagrid 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 thought on the Cloak and decided to try it out. Realising 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 realised whom Filch was talking to: Snape. As Snape and Filch rounded the corner, Harry realised 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 realised 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 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 practising 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 favour 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 realised how much Harry, Ron, and Hermione had worked out about the 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. Growing uncomfortable in the heat, Harry 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. Riding high on his Quidditch wins, Harry’s popularity 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 others’ 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 realised that there would only be one person who would be so desperate as to kill a unicorn: Lord Voldemort.

The Philosopher’s Stone

While talking to Ron and Hermione after finishing their exams, Harry realised 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 Hogs head. Hagrid explained that he could not 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. Now convinced that Snape had all the information he needed to get past Fluffy,Harry, Ron, and Hermione 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 had 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 that 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 paralysed 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 he 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. Sticking out of the back of Quirrell’s head, Voldemort 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. Realising that contact caused Quirrell pain, Harry 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

Meeting Dobby

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 31 July (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, he found a house-elf named Dobby waited 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. Taking advantage of this incident and using it as a means to suppress the magical blood in their nephew, the Dursleys locked him in his room with bars on his window to prevent him from returning to Hogwarts as punishment.

Escape to the Burrow

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 Artefacts 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 artefacts and not buying. Mr Malfoy was sealing the items before they could be confiscated by the raids on wizarding households that 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, had 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.

As 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 the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts. 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 the senior Malfoy 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 Defence 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.

Deathday 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 Hallowe’en. He did this as a favour 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 Deathday 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, mouldy 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 Hallowe’en 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 realised 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 monster 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.

Duelling Club

Harry signed up for a Duelling Club, which was (to Harry’s great displeasure) taught by his two least favourite 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. His ability to speak Parseltongue also caused the student body to spread vicious rumours about him. They claimed that he could not be a decent wizard, since he could speak to snakes.

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.

Posing 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. During the interrogation Malfoy also mentioned Dumbledore and Harry. He relayed his negative opinion of them, stating that Dumbledore was the worst thing to happen to Hogwarts. Malfoy also mentioned his father’s secret stash of illegal artefacts that was kept within Malfoy Manor.

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. A sulking ghost, Myrtle 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 learn that 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 realised 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 in 1942.

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 kept 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 cancelled 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 for 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, they went 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 that 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 did not look directly at its gaze: 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 explained Hagrid’s roosters having been mysteriously killed during the year). This summed up the year’s 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 that had 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 that 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 that 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 that 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 entered 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 that 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 had 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, Ginny eventually 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 that 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 that 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 defenceless 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; in desperation, Harry 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 return 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 travelled 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 commended Harry for showing him real loyalty in the Chamber, for only that could have 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. They apparently 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 artefacts) 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 that 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. After discovering Harry’s trick, Malfoy 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 cancelling all final exams (much to Hermione’s dismay) and that Lockhart would not return to Hogwarts.

Third year

Inflation accident

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 neighbours 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 31 July (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 for 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 Parlour 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 realisation 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 Defence 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. At some point Ginny and Neville entered the trio’s compartment, as the presence of the Dementors frightened them. Lupin managed to drive the Dementor off with a disguised Patronus.

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 Voldemort’s old school 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.

Elective classes

Lessons started the next day. Harry, Ron and Hermione headed to the North Tower for their first Divination lesson. They met Sybill Trelawney, who predicted future events using tea leaves. Harry saw a black dog in his tea cup, which Trelawney identified as the Grim, the omen of death.^[94] This worried Harry, as he remembered the black dog he saw when he ran away. While in Transfiguration, Professor Minerva McGonagall assured Harry that Trelawney had predicted the deaths of a number of students, none of whom have died.^[94]

For one, Hermione was taking nearly twice as many classes, including some taught at the same time. While Lupin’s lessons were enjoyable, Hagrid’s soon became dreary. In their Care of Magical Creatures lesson, Hagrid taught them about Hippogriffs. Although initially nervous, Harry successfully approached and rode a grey hippogriff named Buckbeak. During the first lesson, Draco Malfoy deliberately provoked the Buckbeak into attacking him.^[94]

This in turn cased Draco to tell his father of the provoked attack. Lucius Malfoy, then filed a complaint against Hagrid. Lucius filed this complaint with the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, more specifically the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures. Meanwhile, tensions grew between Hermione and Ron over Crookshanks’s continuing habit of trying to harm Scabbers.

Sirius Black’s first break-in

Harry learnt that Black had been sighted near Hogwarts. During a Potions lesson, Malfoy hinted that Black may be connected to Harry’s past. In Defence Against the Dark Arts, Lupin taught the third-years about Boggarts, shape-shifters that took the shape of a person’s worst fear. The class then took on the Boggart, forcing it to assume a shape they find amusing. When it came to Harry’s turn he was sure the Boggart would turn into a Dementor but Lupin jumped in and repeled the Boggart for him.^[95] Faced by Lupin, the Boggart took the shape of a bright glowing orb. Harry was disappointed that Lupin did not let him fight the Boggart, thinking that Lupin felt he was not up to the task.

In October, the Gryffindor Quidditch team practised hard for the upcoming Quidditch season, especially since this was their team captain Oliver Wood’s final year at Hogwarts. Oliver believed that despite the misfortune which occurred during the previous two years their team should be able to win the Quidditch Cup before he graduates. Third-years were also visiting Hogsmeade on Hallowe’en, and only Harry was not allowed, because his uncle did not sign his permission form. Harry spent the day in Lupin’s office, drinking tea with him. Lupin told him that he did not let Harry face the Boggart because he did not want the Boggart to become Lord Voldemort.^[96] Shortly afterwards, Snape appeared with a mysterious potion for Lupin. Lupin claimed to simply have an illness, and that he was aided by the potion.

A few hours later, Ron and Hermione returned from Hogsmeade. They reached the portrait of the Fat Lady and saw that it was slashed and that the Fat Lady was gone. Using his Animagus form, Sirius was able to enter the castle undetected. He made his way unseen all the way up to the entrance of Gryffindor Tower and changed back to his true form. However, The Fat Lady would not let him in without the password. Frustrated, Black slashed her portrait and fled. Peeves revealed Black to be the attacker, and that he had seen the Fat Lady fleeing through other portraits. Albus Dumbledore, Percy Weasley, and Argus Filch then went to locate her.^[96]

Maurader’s Map

During the last weekend before the holidays, while the eligible students visited Hogsmeade, Harry was yet again not able to go. To bring some Christmas cheer to Harry, Fred and George revealed that they knew secret passages in and out of Hogwarts. They gave Harry the Marauder’s Map as a Christmas present and instructed him on how to use it. It showed Hogwarts’ secret passages, corridors, classrooms, offices, common rooms, etc., as well as every person’s location within the castle and the grounds.^[83]

Harry used the Marauder’s Map to sneak into Hogsmeade. He then met Ron and Hermione in Honeydukes, where they were discussing what kind of sweets to get Harry. They visited the Three Broomsticks, a pub run by Madam Rosmerta. When Cornelius Fudge, Minerva McGonagall, Filius Flitwick, and Rubeus Hagrid arrived, Harry hide underneath their table to avoid being seen. Harry used a tunnel to sneak into Hogsmeade village.

While sneaking back into the school, he overheard a disturbing conversation that had a severe impact on his mental state.^[83] Sirius Black was his parents’ best friend, and was 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 had been killed with the twelve Muggles.^[83]

The Firebolt

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.^[97]

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. The perceived loss of Scabbers upset Ron greatly, the twins and Harry were unable to cheer Ron up.^[98]

The Patronus

Harry started his lessons with Lupin. Lupin told Harry that the spell to drive off Dementors is called the Patronus Charm. Lupin then instructed him in how to cast one, and lets him practise on a Boggart. Harry failed to produce a Patronus at first. This, however, was to be expected; the Patronus Charm was well beyond O.W.L. standard. During his first lesson, Harry learned that Lupin was a friend of his father James during their days at Hogwarts, and that he knew Sirius Black as well.^[98]

By February, Harry had became quite good at producing a Patronus after a few lessons, but did not master it entirely. At the end of a lesson, Lupin explained the concept of a Dementor’s Kiss and revealed that it would be Black’s punishment, as an article in the Daily Prophet confirmed that the Ministry gave the Dementors permission to use the Kiss on Black when they find him. While thinking about the horror of the punishment, Harry ran into McGonagall on his way back to Gryffindor Tower. McGonagall gave Harry back the Firebolt, which had been proven not to be jinxed, and suggested that he practise with it before the match.^[98]

Harry met up with Ron and they decided to go make up with Hermione. Outside Gryffindor Tower, they bumped into Neville who was in trouble because he lost a list. After the pair let him in, Neville told Harry and Ron that he made a list of the passwords for Gryffindor Tower because Sir Cadogan was still changing them twice a day but somehow they got lost. Harry attempted to patch things up with Hermione but Scabbers disappeared after they arrived at Gryffindor Tower, ruining any chance for Ron and Hermione’s reconciliation.^[98]

As March arrived, a new Quidditch match approached: Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw. Harry spent the last practice session before the match getting used to his Firebolt. During the game, just as Harry was about to catch the Snitch, fourth-year Seeker Cho Chang screamed. Harry looked around and saw three Dementors in the stands. He reacted instantly, sending a full-fledged Patronus at the Dementors. Harry caught the Snitch before Cho Chang, which led to Gryffindor winning the match. Gryffindor would later play Slytherin and win the Quidditch Cup.^[99]

Cat, rat, and dog

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. Harry, Ron and Hermione refused to believe that Pettigrew was alive, pointing out that he was murdered by Black. Black denied this, and Lupin convinced him to tell Harry the truth of what happened. Lupin told the story about his time at Hogwarts; he had been bitten as a child, and Dumbledore took precautions for his stay at Hogwarts, having the Shrieking Shack and the passage leading to it built to provide Lupin with a safe place to transform.The Whomping Willow was planted on the entrance to the tunnel to prevent anyone from running into the transformed Lupin. The rumours that the Hogsmeade residents started about the Shack being haunted by violent ghosts were allowed to spread to keep people from guessing that it was actually a werewolf making those sounds.^[100]

Eventually, Lupin’s friends, Sirius, Pettigrew and James Potter, discovered Lupin’s secret, and became Animagi to support him. Sirius became a dog to keep Lupin under control with James, and Pettigrew became a rat so he could disable the Willow by scurrying under its branches and touching a certain spot on its trunk. Lupin admitted that he has not told Dumbledore about Sirius being an Animagus, as it would have meant admitting that he had betrayed his trust and led three students into illegally becoming Animagi. He also revealed the reason for Snape’s animosity towards him during the year: during their days at school, Sirius had played a near-fatal trick on Snape involving Lupin in his transformed form but James saved him. Snape thought both of them were involved with Sirius’ trick. Just then, Snape arrived using Harry’s Invisibility Cloak, which he had left at the foot of the Whomping Willow.^[100]

Snape was knocked out by Harry, Ron and, Hermione who all tried to disarm Snape at the same time. 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. It was especially shocking to Ron, as Scabbers had been his pet for the last three years and had slept in their dormitory. 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.^[79]

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-travelling device, called a Time-Turner, which was how she was able to attend so many classes. Prompted by Dumbledore, she and Harry travelled 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 realised 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 the previous nights events 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

Journey to the Quidditch World Cup

Harry woke 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 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, cast the Killing Curse, ending the elderly gardener’s life. After which Harry woke up with his scar hurting and considered writing to his friends and even Dumbledore, but eventually decided to write a letter to Sirius. He did not mention the dream, just that his scar was hurting and planned to send the letter once Hedwig returned.

The next day, a letter from Mrs Weasley addressed to the Dursleys arrived and she asked if Harry could join Hermione and the Weasley family to go to the Quidditch World Cup final between Ireland and Bulgaria. The letter upset Vernon and he intentionally said no, but one mention of Sirius Black was enough to convince him to let Harry go. Harry immediately wrote back to Ron and on Sunday afternoon, the Weasleys attempted to use Floo powder to access the Dursley household. They did this unaware that the Dursleys had an electric fireplace, which resulted in Mr Weasley destroying half the sitting room. One of the twins purposely dropped a Ton-Tongue Toffee as a means of product testing, which Dudley ate. Things only got worse form that point forward and resulted in Vernon throwing figurines at Mr Weasley.

On 25 August, 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 Snr 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 favour 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 Jnr 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 recognise its significance, he soon learned that the Dark Mark had evil implications. Then, Barty Crouch Snr, 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 Defence 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 Hallowe’en, 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 22 November 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. Realising 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 levelling the playing field. The newly appointed Defence 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 24 November, 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.

Harry 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 also came to the conclusion that someone was trying to kill Harry and made amends with him after months of not speaking. Harry was so relieved that Ron had come to his scenes that he instantly forgave him.

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 Snr’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 24 February. 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 Snr 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 practise 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 24 June, 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.^[49]

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.^[49]

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.^[49]

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 criticising 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.

When Harry refused to observe the formalities of a wizard’s duel, Voldemort used the Imperius Curse to force Harry to bow to him. Voldemort then tortured him by subjecting him to the Cruciatus Curse and attempted to use the Imperius Curse again, but Harry was able to resist it the second time. 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 Jnr

Chaos erupted when Harry returned to Hogwarts with Cedric’s dead body in tow. It was uncovered that Barty Crouch Jnr, who had willingly taken the Dark Mark as a young man, was throughout the school year disguised as Defence 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 extracted 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 Jnr 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 destabilised 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

Dementor attack

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, Ronald 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 2 August someone sent Dementors to attack Harry in the Muggle town of Little Whinging, in an attempt to neutralise him. He was forced to perform a Patronus Charm in order to save Dudley and himself.

After Harry explained to the Dursleys about the Dementor’s abilities, Vernon blamed Harry and was ready to throw Harry out. He had always yearned to do so since the family received Harry, when Petunia received a Howler. Before she had an opportunity to open the letter, it burst into flames and a menacing voice said, «Remember my last, Petunia«. Petunia then immediately convinced her husband to let Harry remain at Privet Drive and told him that he needed to stay in his room. Harry, having no idea of what was going on, retreated to his room and proceeded 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 12 August. 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 for Magic Cornelius Fudge appointed Dolores Umbridge, his Senior Under-Secretary, as the new Hogwarts Defence 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 Defence 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 Defence lessons. Harry is stunned at how many there are various Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, and Hufflepuffs show up. Although he harboured 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 Philosopher’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, practising 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.

Christmas on the Closed Ward

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.

A result of this growing connection come to pass after Harry fell asleep in the boys dormitory (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. Harry woke the other boys and proceeded to vomit, Professor McGonagall was immediately alerted to the problem. Realising 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 Defence Against the Dark Arts professor Gilderoy Lockhart. Also Harry finally admitted that he knew what happened to Neville’s parents.

Occlumency

Lessons were given once a week, under the guise of Remedial Potions, much to Harry’s discomfort. Unfortunately, Harry was extremely curious about the door he keep seeing within his dreams. Under Snape’s tutelage, Harry repeatedly had his mind broken into in order to train him. Snape also ordered Harry to close his mind every night as practice. Unfortunately, due to the mutual animosity between the teacher and student, Snape was unkind and discouraging in his methods despite his own mastery of the skill, while Harry did not take Snape’s lessons too seriously, and neglected to practise.^[101]

Coupled with Harry being emotionally open at all times, the lessons did not progress much, with only rare instances where Harry was able to resist, if only briefly. If anything, having his mind repeatedly assaulted forced Harry to leave himself more vulnerable, as he barely tried to close it willingly. 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 defence. Harry found himself siding with his mother, agreeing that James’ treatment of Snape was wrong and it bordered on being almost cruel.^[102]

The conflict escalated to the point where Snape called Lily a «Mudblood». Snape attempted to apologise for his actions, but this incident cost him her friendship. 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 began the sessions on the advice of what they would need to do to prepare for the careers they would pursue after graduation. During Harry’s career advice session with Professor McGonagall, he told her that he wanted to be an Auror. During this admission they were rudely interrupted several times by Umbridge; she remarked against Harry’s ambition of becoming an Auror. She stated that applicants could not have a criminal record, and these constant interruptions angered McGonagall. The meeting ended 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 civilise 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 18 June, 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 defence, 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 he 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 realised 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 honoured 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

Helping recruit Horace Slughorn

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’^[66], five ‘Exceeds Expectations’^[66], and one ‘Acceptable’^[66]. 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 favourites. 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 realised 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 Defence 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, Defence 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 began the private series of lessons with Harry concerning Lord Voldemort. In the first lesson, Dumbledore showed Harry the first of a number of memories he had 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 showed 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 Snr. A huge commotion occurred: Morfin attacked Ogden, with Marvolo stoutly defending his son’s actions. Marvolo also tried to attack his daughter Merope after finding out that she had an intense infatuation with Riddle.

After viewing this memory, Dumbledore told Harry that both Marvolo and Morfin were sentenced to six months and three years imprisonment respectively in Azkaban due to their behaviour. 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, and 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«.^[103] 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» rumours 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 for Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour. Scrimgeour had been hoping to speak with Harry for months and used Percy Weasley as his way in. The Minister interrupted the Weasley family Christmas. He tried to persuade Harry to become the Ministry’s mascot, an idea that Harry was not prepared to accept. During the meeting Harry proceeded to tell Scrimgeour why he would not offer the Ministry his support, the main reasons 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 previous year, the fact that the Ministry had proven throughout the previous year that it was incredibly corrupt and dangerously complacent to the point of being rotten, 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 1 March, 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 artefacts (Slytherin’s Locket and Hufflepuff’s Cup) she owned, and jinx the Defence 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 theorised 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 30 June, 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 traumatised two young children from his orphanage in his youth. Once inside, Dumbledore attempted to locate the Horcrux’s second line of defence. 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 centre 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 centre 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 defence. 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 defence 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 jewellery. 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 (Dumbledore was the one who began the hunt in July 1996) 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 27 July 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 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 for 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 1 August, 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. Whilst at the café, Ron and Hermione discussed the events of the wedding and Voldemort’s coup. They unwittingly broke the Taboo 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 2 September 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. Once he left, Harry and Hermione left the camping site they were last in. Hermione tied her scarf on a tree for a reason. With the locket in hand they Apparated away to Malham Cove.

They set up the tent and Harry stared into the sunset before dark. Hermione was listening to music in which Harry noticed and came in. Hermione was even more depressed as her boyfriend left them. Harry offered Hermione a dance in which she took and they danced until the song ended, they were happy for that moment.

That morning, Harry sat in his tent bed and watched his Golden Snitch and kissed it, revealing it was made from Flesh Memory. He went to Hermione and told her this, to which she replied that she noticed the Sign of the Deathly Hallows in her copy. 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 realise 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 defence. 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 30 December at Hermione’s request, the three friends travelled 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 alibi 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 realised 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 kill 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 realise 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 realised 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.

Stay at Shell Cottage

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 behaviour. Bill Weasley took Harry aside and advised Harry to be cautious when making deals with Griphook who Harry was increasingly disliking; Bill elaborated some wisdom that only one who lived in the company of goblins, such as himself, could impart. Namely how a goblin saw the maker of an object as the latter’s true owner and master, not whoever purchased it from the former. Harry started to defend that if the object in question was bought proper, then the new ownership over it must mean that the manufacturer acknowledged the transfer, rendering the buyer as the new owner.

Bill cut him off, correcting the younger wizard’s naive way of thinking, insisting that goblins would merely consider the item «rented» and must therefore be returned to the original maker at the death of the person it was sold to, and wizards and witches habitually passing such down as familial heirlooms, through their generations without intermittent pay per subsequent ownership, basically equated to thievery in a goblin’s judgement. 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. As Harry thinks about his upcoming heist, he wonders if he’s becoming as reckless a godfather to Teddy as Sirius had been to him.

Gringotts break-in

The trio and Griphook left Shell Cottage early on the morning of 1 May 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 the 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, and 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 realise that the third Horcrux, whilst 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 artefact 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 2 May, Lord Voldemort upon arrival at Hogwarts, demanded that the school turn over Harry, and the Battle of Hogwarts began. Harry realised 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 almost 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 revelled, 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 sacrifice

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 realise 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.

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«, with Harry seeing a side of Dumbledore that no one else ever had. After reconciling with his mentor, Harry made the choice to return to the physical world. He had the option of boarding a train and continuing 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 colours 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, as the most powerful wand in the world fell into the hands of its true master at last.

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.^[104] It is possible, however, that he regained the ability later.

After Hogwarts (1998–2006)

Harry ensured that Severus Snape’s portrait was hung in the Headmaster’s office at Hogwarts.^[105] He also made occasional visits to the school to give lectures to the students on Defence Against the Dark Arts. At some point, the trio were featured on Chocolate Frog Cards for their accomplishments.

Harry was also on «Christmas card» terms with his cousin Dudley Dursley and his family, and occasionally visited him, which were occasions dreaded by his own children.^[106] Harry also made peace with his former rival Draco Malfoy, something that his father and his friends were never able to do with Severus Snape. They were civil towards each other; however, their schoolboy enmity meant that they were still not friends at this stage.

Also following the war, he aided in the care of his godson, Teddy Lupin, thus fulfilling the role that his own godfather, Sirius Black, never got to play. Harry and Teddy eventually became very close. Harry’s children commented that they wanted Teddy to move in with the family, Harry mentioned that Teddy had already been coming to their home for dinner four times a week, and that he was practically living with them as it was.^[107] The Potters were also thrilled at the idea that Teddy, who was seen snogging Victoire Weasley (the eldest daughter of Bill and Fleur Weasley) might officially become a part of their family.

Career as an Auror (2007–2019)

At the end of the Second Wizarding War, Harry was recruited by the new Minister for Magic Kingsley Shacklebolt and became an Auror at the British Ministry of Magic. Kingsley permitted those who had fought in the final battle to become Aurors without getting their N.E.W.T.s, as surviving such a battle satisfied the skill and character requirements.^[108]

Along with his friend Ron Weasley, Harry was considered an expert and helped reform and revolutionise the Auror department and the rest of the Ministry, along with Hermione Granger, who became a high ranking official in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.^[54] In 2007, Harry became the Head of the Auror Office at the age of 26 or 27.^[53]

On 1 September 2008, Harry arrived at the King’s Cross Station and guided a student to the barrier that connected to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. Later in the school year, he visited Neville Longbottom at Hogwarts and met the same student, who, despite hearing the name «Harry», did not realise who he really was until he left.^[109][110]

In 2010, when third-year students went to Hogsmeade for the first time, Harry was also there with Rubeus Hagrid, drinking Butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks Inn. When Harry choked on it, Hagrid patted him on the back.^[109]

At some point later, Harry returned to Hogwarts to give a DADA lecture and met the same student again in the Great Hall. They went to the Quidditch pitch and the Viaduct Courtyard and talked about their memories.^[109]

When Hogwarts was under attack by Dementors and other Dark creatures, Harry returned to the school and cast the final Patronus Charm that ended the battle. He also saw individuals by the forests wearing white masks, who he suspected may have been the culprits of the attacks. He then talked to the students and staff and, as an Auror, promised to look into the case properly.^[111]

2014 Quidditch World Cup

Harry had married Ginny likely sometime before 2005, but certainly by 2014.^[112][113] By 2017, the couple had three children of their own: two sons James Sirius and Albus Severus, and one daughter Lily Luna. Harry attended the final of the 2014 Quidditch World Cup in early July in the Patagonian Desert. Harry, James, and Albus joined Ginny Potter, who had been in Patagonia since the start of the Cup, in her capacity of special Quidditch correspondent to the Daily Prophet.^[114]

Harry along with his family (including Teddy Lupin) and Dumbledore’s Army were granted access to the VIP section of the campsite. Harry embraced Viktor Krum, who was competing again after being retired for a few years, upon meeting him and introduced him to his sons, James and Albus.^[115] He supported Bulgaria in the match together with the rest of his family (save for Albus) and looked «emotional» when Viktor Krum and his team had won the match. While at the game Harry also sported a nasty cut over his right cheekbone, which was a result of his top-secret work for the British Auror Office.

On 31 July 2014, Rita Skeeter launched a book at Flourish and Blotts titled Dumbledore’s Army: The Dark Side of the Demob, regarding the lives of the members of Dumbledore’s Army. The book according to Rita’s description, seemed to focus on the D.A. members «imperfections». Harry and Ginny were featured on the front cover, Harry trying to hide their faces behind his hand. Rita also wrote a mostly fictionalised biography about Harry, with an unnamed title.

Rising tensions

On 1 September 2017, 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. When Albus expressed a fear that he might be Sorted into Slytherin House, Harry told his son that Albus was named after two Hogwarts Headmasters of whom one was a Slytherin and «probably the bravest man [he] ever knew«. Harry assured him that his parents would be proud of him regardless of where he was Sorted. He also told him that the Sorting Hat would take his preferences into consideration, which happened to him when he was being Sorted. This was a secret he had never shared with his other children.

When Harry picked Albus up from King’s Cross, who had returned from a year at Hogwarts, he was surprised to find Albus distant and colder. This distance was in direct response to the pressure Albus felt regarding Harry’s legacy and the expectations that others put on him because of it. Albus and Scorpius Malfoy became fast friends during the year, as they were kindred spirits — they both carry a burden stemming from their family identity and feel that they are misfits and «losers» in comparison with the other students at Hogwarts. Harry did not like this and he questioned why Albus was content to have only the one friend. Their relationship would stay strained for the next couple of years to come.

In September 2018, Harry took Albus to King’s Cross again. He was hurt when Albus told him he wanted to be alone. This stemmed from all the pedestrians watching the two, Albus felt as though they were watching the famous Harry Potter and «his disappointing son». Harry told him not to be bothered by people looking and thought his friendship with Scorpius Malfoy, the child of his rival, was the reason why Albus wanted nothing to do with him. Harry then demanded Albus sever their friendship, but his son refused.

In September 2019, Harry took Albus to King’s Cross yet again where he gave Albus the permission slip he needed to visit Hogsmeade. Albus destroyed the slip by burning it, stating that he had no wish to go to Hogsmeade and left his father behind. This in turn caused Harry to become angry with him. Their father-son relationship continued to deteriorate, going from bad to worse.

Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement (2020–)

Experimental Time-Turner

By late summer of 2020, Harry had been made Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.^[116] After hearing a rumour about an illegal and very powerful Time-Turner, Harry and his team of Aurors raided the Nott residence and confiscated it. Harry defeated Nott in a duel and then arrested him. He was arrested for the illegal possession of an unregistered and advanced Time-Turner.^[117]

Nott had created at least two Time-Turners for Lucius Malfoy, who was paying him for his services. The prototype, which was restricted by a boundary of five minutes, was seized by Potter and later used by his son to travel to the past. The improved Time-Turner, which gleamed gold and allowed the traveller to stay in the past for an unlimited time, was kept by Lucius who never used it.^[4]

Harry turned the prototype Time-Turner over to Hermione (the Minister for Magic) for safekeeping. While in his paper laden workoffice, he and Hermione spoke about recent activity among Voldemort’s former allies and how action must be taken. They discuess the «mountain trolls riding Graphorns through Hungary, giants with winged tattoos on their backs walking through the Greek Seas, and the werewolves that have gone entirely underground«.^[116]

Amos Diggory’s request

Harry was later visited at home by Amos Diggory, who had heard he might have the Time-Turner. Whom he supposedly learned this information from is unknown. While Albus and Delphi Diggory (who claimed to be Amos’ carer and niece) listened in, Amos demanded Harry go back in time and save Cedric. Amos proceeded to tell Harry that Cedric was more then a spare and that he deserved a chance to life a full life. However, Harry refused due to the implications of intervening greatly with the past, as changing the past can have severe consequences on the future. This caused Amos to react negatively, calling Harry cold. Later that night Harry attempted to reconcile with Albus.

Harry’s relationship with Albus had strained increasingly since he had left for Hogwarts. In an effort to mend things, Harry spoke to Albus and tried to give him the old baby blanket he received from his mother Lily. He did this in the hope a reminder of what happened would make him change his behaviour. This was a significant and sentimental gift on Harry’s part, as it was the only physical piece of his mother that he had. When Albus rejected the gift, it led to an argument in which they both expressed the wish that they were not related. Harry regretted what he said, but it was too late to take it back.

Harry began to experience nightmares and pains in his scar, something that he had not experienced since his final defeat of Voldemort. Ginny tried to comfort him and proceeded to ask what was wrong. When Harry explained, they decided to let Hermione know. Harry took his scar hurting to be an ominous sign and it left him with many worries concerning his son and the outcome of the future.

He and Hermione held a public meeting, but the community was not convinced there is a threat, as they were not willing to accept that danger was once again imminent. Draco accused Harry of only wanting his name in the papers and proceeded to storm out of the public meeting. Later on Harry, Ginny, and Draco then learnt that Albus and Scorpius were missing. This prompted Draco to start a duel with Harry, Ginny was quick to interrupt it, before it got out of hand. They had decided to retrieve the Time-Turner and help Amos save Cedric. Ginny concluded Albus ran away after his argument with Harry, and Draco was upset that Scorpius had been pulled into their family issues.

Searching for Albus Potter

Albus and Scorpius’s time-travelling antics created two separate alternate timelines. This was something that could have disastrous effects for everyone. In one, Harry received a dream revealing Albus’s location in the Forbidden Forest. As he and the others searched, Harry came across the centaur Bane. Bane warned him that a «dark cloud» haunted Albus. He took this «dark cloud» to mean Scorpius and his doubts regarding his son’s friendship with him strengthened even more. He, Ron, and Ginny found the boys just after they return from the past. Scorpius was uninjured, but Albus sustained a broken arm.

Albus was brought to the school’s hospital wing, where Harry conversed with a portrait of Albus Dumbledore. After Harry aired decades of pent-up emotion left over from the horrors of his childhood and Dumbledore reassuring him he did what he though was best for Harry’s well being at the time, the portrait advised him to see Albus as he is. Harry demanded that Albus break off his association with Scorpius. He even went so far as to bully Headmistress Minerva McGonagall into using the Marauder’s Map to keep them apart. This was something that he would not normally do. Harry’s worry for his son had intensified so much that it blinded him to the bigger picture.

When Albus and Scorpius went time travelling again, Harry and Ginny received a visit from Draco. He and Harry argued about their children, which resulted in a premature wizards’ duel. When Ginny intervened and reminded them their children were missing, Draco surprised them by explaining how lonely he was at Hogwarts and how lucky Harry was to have such great friendships.

Harry and Draco finally gained a mutual respect for one another, and looked upon each other as friends. When Draco speaks of the great bond and sacrifices he has made for Scorpius and his late wife, Harry finally realised he was dangerously isolating Albus. They returned to Hogwarts, where Harry apologised to Professor McGonagall and they attempted to locate the boys, ultimately discovering that they had the Time-Turner.

However, in the other timeline, Albus and Scorpius had created a world where Harry had died at the Battle of Hogwarts. Fortunately, with the help of the alternate Hermione, Ron and Severus Snape, Scorpius managed to salvage the original timeline and returned both Harry, and Albus to life. Harry visited Albus in his dormitory where despite his anger, he manages to plant the seed for a reconciliation with Albus.

Later, Harry and his friends learn that Albus and Scorpius were missing again and were last seen with Delphi. They went to see Amos to find out what he knows, and found out he had been Confunded by Delphi into believing she was his niece and carer.

Searching the room for clues to find out Delphi’s true identity, they stumbled upon a prophecy that, if fulfilled, would enable the return of Voldemort, and realised Delphi’s true identity as Voldemort’s secret daughter with Bellatrix Lestrange. However, since they did not know where in time Delphi, Albus, and Scorpius were, they could only bide their time and wait.

Skirmish at St Jerome’s Church

At home, Harry looked at the blanket he had tried to give Albus. He noticed writing on it, and found out it was a message sent by Albus from the past. He and Ginny noticed the date, being 30 October, 1981 — one day before the night that Voldemort murdered Harry’s parents. They alerted Ron and Hermione. Draco, who joined in, secretly revealed to them that his family had a Time-Turner that would be more potent and valuable than the one seized by the Ministry, which was merely a prototype and thus not as desirable to a true Death Eater.

They travelled back in time to join Albus and Scorpius. However, under Ginny’s prodding, they realised that Delphi did not to want to kill baby Harry, but rather to stop Voldemort from doing so in the hope he would live and his reign would continue. Delphi thought she could make her father stronger as he would know love when he met her, which its lacking was what had originally led to his downfall.

Everyone agreed they had to transfigure Harry to look like Voldemort in the hope that they could fool Delphi and hinder her in saving the real Voldemort. They picked Harry because he not only knew Voldemort well through the connection they shared when he was a Horcrux, but he now also understood Parseltongue again.

Delphi pleaded with her «father» to recognise her, which Harry managed before the transfiguration spell came undone. However, when Delphi sees she had been set up, she engaged in a fierce duel with Harry, who is later joined by his friends and Albus. They managed to subdue her and she pleaded that she only wants to know her father. A surprised Harry explained that this would not be possible; they cannot change the past.

Upon hearing the real Voldemort arrive to kill Harry’s parents, Delphi tried calling out to him, but Hermione and Malfoy silenced her and sent her back to present day. Harry decided to watch the scene of his parents’ murder once more, with Albus by his side, to provide a sense of closure for them. They later returned to the present when a devastated Hagrid arrived at the scene to bring Harry to the Dursleys.

Visiting the dead

Back at Hogwarts, Albus was asked by Harry to join him one afternoon for a hike up a steep hill. Harry revealed that he had brought Albus to Cedric Diggory’s grave, which he regularly visited so he could apologise for his role in his death.

The Calamity

At some point during Kingsley’s tenure as Minister Harry helped advance werewolf rights. He did this by setting up an outreach programme.^[118] He also proposed providing free Wolfsbane Potions to any werewolf who wanted the potion. However, his Wolfsbane proposal never came to fruition, as politics and protocols prevented it from happening.^[118]

Shortly after, Harry was made the leader of the members of the Statute of Secrecy Task Force. This task force was an emergency response team established by the International Confederation of Wizards with the help of the British Ministry of Magic to deal with a series of large-scale breaches of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy known as the Calamity. He congratulated those who choose the career of an Auror, but warned them that it could either be the best or worst job depending on their abilities.

Harry would introduce to the Aurors the common Weakening Hex, which lowers the damage their enemies cause. He would also teach and supervise practising duelling sessions, during which he outmatch them. However, their valiance allowed them to come out with increased power in their spells. For those pursuing a profession as Magizoologists, Harry gave them a lesson on maintaining confidence that eventually resulted in him teaching them the Bravery Charm.^[118]

After an article about his work with the Task Force was published in the Daily Prophet, several of Harry’s belongings became foundables. Hermione suspected that this had to do with the article.^[119]

The Unforgivable

In the spring of 2021, The Unforgivable threatened Harry and Hermione after the two began wrenching control of Calamity surges away from the cabal. The two feared that their children would be targeted, but Harry insisted on continuing to fight against the Unforgivable. Harry redirected a Calamity surge and controlled it using memories of the Marauders. When Minerva McGonagall was uncharacteristically late in reporting to the SOS Task Force, Constance Pickering, Harry, and Hermione feared she had been attacked. By April, it became apparent that while Minerva was unharmed, Ginny had been attacked and Ron had been abducted.^[120]

Following their attack on Ginny and Ron, the Unforgivable unleashed a surge of Dragon Adversaries. While this was disastrous, it allowed Harry to tap into somebody’s memory of being forced to abduct Ron.^[121] Shortly after, the Unforgivable unleashed a surge of Foundables related to Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes where Ron worked. While the Unforgivable succeeded in intimidating Harry and Hermione, Harry even enlisted the help of MACUSA in the hopes of finding his best friend, this attack only made Hermione even more determined to bring the cabal to justice.^[122] The Unforgivable began a campaign of harassment and manipulation to secure their position preceding negotiations for Ron’s returns, including implanting false memories in Molly of Ron crying and begging her to tell Harry and Hermione to listen to the Unforgivable so that he could return home. Molly instead instructed Hermione to «give them Hell».^[122]

By the end of April, the Unforgivable had delivered their list of demands via notes dispatched within Foundables. In exchange for Ron’s safe return, they not only wanted full command of the Calamity but for London Five victim Kit Gerrard and the defector informant Flavius Flint to be delivered to them. Hermione decided that she and Constance should use Polyjuice Potion to take the places of Gerrard and Flint as a means to infiltrate the Unforgivable, with Harry delivering them in exchange for Ron. It seemed the Unforgivable were aware of this deception, as well as where the Ministry’s defences were weakest, however.

Whilst duelling against members of the cabal, Constance was hit with a Blasting Curse but luckily came away with only mild burns. While Ron was recovering, albeit unconscious, the real Flavius and Kit were taken. When Constance returned from having her injuries healed at St Mungo’s, she reported that Ron had woken up and his memories had been completely Obliviated, to the point where he could not even recognise his wife.^[121] Hermione wondered if everything, including rescuing Ron, had been part of the cabal’s plans all along. She and Harry considered the possibility of a mole in the Ministry or a Legilimens among the Unforgivable’s ranks.^[122]

In May 2021, Calamity surges surrounding baby magical creatures created the impression that the Unforgivable were involved in illegal poaching and trading of rare beasts. Fragments of a note apparently from Grim Fawley contained co-ordinates to a location in Cape Town, where Harry led a team of Aurors in order to stop a potential auction, and to find members of the cabal. Unfortunately, no auction took place, adding weight to the theory of a mole in the Ministry. Hermione used Truth Serum then erasing their memories of being interrogated by her. This method outed Gareth Greengrass as not only the mole but a high ranking member of the Unforgivable.^[123]

Following his detention, Gareth Greengrass repeatedly proclaimed innocence and his colleagues in the Department of Mysteries called for his release, even going so far as to accuse Harry and Hermione of using the Imperius Curse to obtain a false confession. During this time, an Auror discovered that Gareth’s strange habit of delivering Interdepartmental Memos via owl was part of a ruse. Gareth’s owl was a Transfigured potions cabinet containing Polyjuice Potion. When tested, those who imbibed the potions turned into Hermione and the editor-in-chief of the Daily Prophet, linking Gareth Greengrass to the abduction of Ron and the attempted abduction of Ginny. A complication arose, however, when it became apparent one of the Polyjuice Potions had been tampered with during the month that Gareth was detained. Hermione concluded that this was part of an escape attempt and alerted Harry.^[124]

Gareth Greengrass was eventually caught out and taken into custody in an official capacity, but remained tight-lipped until Harry rose the issue of Gareth’s daughter. It was discovered that Cereus Greengrass suffered a blood malediction. Gareth and Harry formed an Unbreakable Vow, sealed by Constance Pickering, whereby Harry would find a cure for Gareth’s daughter and in turn Gareth would help Harry uncover the identities of the Unforgivable. Harry visited St Mungo’s and placed a large donation, securing special care for Cereus. By the time he returned, however, Gareth Greengrass was dead.

Physical description

Harry was a near-spitting image of his father, having inherited his untidy jet-black hair. However, his almond-shaped startlingly green eyes were identical to those of his mother. This strong resemblance was often remarked on by those who had known his parents.

Harry’s physique as a boy was described as «small and skinny», with a thin face and knobbly knees. This skinniness was due to his poor quality of life in his childhood. Despite the neglect he suffered, Harry seems to have grown at the same rate as James. 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 was so much like his father that Harry mistook his future self for him while saving Sirius’s life from the Dementors, although his father was then dead.

Harry wore round-rimmed glasses, peculiarly similar to his father’s glasses. During his time hunting Voldemort’s Horcruxes, Harry’s black hair grew shoulder length as was described when he saw his reflection in Malfoy Manor. This was due to his preoccupation with the hunt for the Horcruxes and his lack of interest in his physical appearance, and it was the longest his hair had ever been.

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 said «I must not tell lies«. This scar was caused while Harry spent detentions with Dolores Umbridge, who forced him to use the Black 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.

After Harry was possessed by Lord Voldemort after the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, Harry’s eyes became somewhat glassy green in appearance, and his voice became a mixture of his own and Voldemort’s.^[24]

Harry had «great skin» and never suffered from zits.^[125]

In the summer of 2014, Harry made an appearance in the Patagonian Desert, where he would attend the final of the 427th Quidditch World Cup with his family, sporting a nasty cut over his right cheekbone, which was a result of his top-secret work for the Auror Office. At age 33, Harry already had «a couple of threads of silver» in his hair, according to Daily Prophet gossip columnist Rita Skeeter.^[115] When he was 40, Moaning Myrtle stated that Harry seemed to have gotten more handsome in his older age.^[126]

Personality and traits

Harry 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, because he believed that this was the only way to defeat the Dark Lord. Harry was also marked by what Lord Voldemort once deemed a «weakness for heroics» — 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.^[127] Harry was also very strong-willed and unafraid to stand up for himself. The fact that he was capable of repelling the Imperius Curse suggests that he had an unusually strong sense of himself and his morals.^[128] Dumbledore once made parallels between Harry’s traits and qualities that Salazar Slytherin looked for in his own hand-picked students. He also 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.^[129]

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 concern for her well being (even though being with her was one of the best things that ever happened to him).^[130] 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 (Peter Pettigrew) who had betrayed all of his closest friends to Voldemort, this proves Harry’s ability to love so unequivocally.

The closeness that Harry felt for many was great enough for him to behave violently if any of them were harmed.^[131] When his godfather was murdered by Bellatrix Lestrange, Harry attacked her in a grief-stricken rage of righteous anger and attempted to use the Cruciatus Curse on her. He also attacked Severus Snape after the latter murdered Dumbledore. Ironically, the only people with whom Harry ever initiated a duel 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 very skilled and experienced duellists, but did not hesitate to harm them as soon as he was pushed into it. This can also happen if a loved one of his is, even if it isn’t true, insulted in front of him, as he so enraged he was seriously considering attacking Albus Dumbledore himself when he stated he believed Sirius was wrong to have treated Kreacher the way he did and that he was trying to keep Sirius alive by keeping him in 12 Grimmauld Place, as Harry believed that Dumbledore had no right, despite knowing fully well he was completely outmatched by Dumbledore, whom he acknowledged to be the greatest wizard in history, but fortunately for Harry Dumbledore did not resort to such means and calmly levelled with him.

However, Harry was also accused of being arrogant, in particular by Severus Snape (although Snape’s perspective was skewed due to his poor relationship with James Potter, and Harry often found being famous and admired very difficult), and could be hot-tempered and impulsive. This could sometimes make him rude to authority figures such as Professor Snape and Minister for Magic Rufus Scrimgeour. In contrast, Dumbledore stated that «many teachers report that [Harry’s] modest, likeable, and reasonably talented«.^[41]

Harry was prone to moodiness and unkind remarks towards even his friends during his adolescence, though this is likely the result of the great emotional stress and trials he endured during this period. Harry displayed many signs of clinical depression throughout his mid-to-late teens, however this extended to his older life. In his mid-to-late teens, Harry showed signs of these symptoms: general discontent, guilt, hopelessness, mood swings, insomnia (nightmares), agitation, irritability, social isolation and even lack of concentration. These symptoms were continued to be well into his mid ages. It was clear that Harry received limited assistance in his depression during his adolescence, although this was possibly improved in his later life.

Harry was also not one to let bygones be bygones. He had a vindictive streak that made him vengeful at best and spiteful at worse towards those who did him wrong. This varied from wanting to murder/torture those who had performed unforgivable acts like: Bellatrix, Voldemort, and Dolores Umbridge to a desire for pettiness towards: Ron Weasley, Draco Malfoy, Snape, and the Dursley’s. Harry even wanted Sirius (before learning of his innocence) and Pettigrew to suffer the Dementor’s kiss for their crimes and spent the entirety of the Horcrux hunt angry at Dumbledore for the latter’s lack of trust.

Harry possessed an instinctual, intuitive intelligence. This intelligence 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.^[132] And although he was clever, Harry lacked intellectual curiosity. He rarely put forth effort into school work; for instance, 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.^[133] Although he did study reasonably hard for his Ordinary Wizarding Levels, the only set of wizarding qualifications he sat at Hogwarts. Harry generally did his best magical work when tackling practical exams rather than theoretical ones. This could be a result of the lack of confidence that Harry developed from growing up with the Dursleys.

Barty Crouch Jnr (disguised as Alastor Moody) remarked that Harry possessed a streak of pride and independence that almost cost him the Triwizard Tournament. His pride didn’t allow him to ask for help regarding the problem of breathing underwater for an hour, which was required for the Second task that took place in the Black Lake, was what almost cost him the competition.^[128] Harry was also known for wanting to tackle challenges and obstacles on his own, without the aid or interference of others. His friends had to frequently remind him that he needed their assistance and that he «did not always have to go it alone«.

Harry also seemed to have a bit of an obsessive personality, a trait he shared with his arch enemy Lord Voldemort. He could be somewhat nosy and was known for sleuthing around and getting involved in things that did not concern him. For instance, during his sixth year Harry became intensely preoccupied with finding out what Malfoy was doing in his free time.^[133] He also developed on unhealthy obsession with the Deathly Hallows, to the point where he was listless with longing for the three artefacts. This period of listlessness lasted for many weeks during the hunt for Lord Voldemort’s Horcruxes.

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 noted that Harry’s strength of will at resisting the temptation of the Dark Arts, even when granted a direct insight into Voldemort’s mind and methods was due to Harry’s ability to love. Harry even claimed that he felt sorry for Voldemort because of his inability to feel or understand love. Ginny, his wife, commented that he was the kindest and most loving man anyone would ever meet.^[134]

Albus Dumbledore noted that Harry was unfailingly kind and compassionate. This is shown by how he freed Dobby from the Malfoys and by standing up for Muggle-borns, half-bloods, and half-breeds (like Hagrid). This is likely attributable to his childhood, during which the Dursleys deprived him of compassion and discriminated against him due to his magical abilities. His compassionate led him to spare the life of Delphi, the daughter of Lord Voldemort, despite the history between himself and the Dark Lord. Also, Harry was not a cruel person and he never wished anyone harm. He rarely initiated duels, instead fighting in self-defence. Even after Bellatrix Lestrange had murdered his godfather, Harry failed to cast the Cruciatus Curse on her. Bellatrix noted the he had failed to cast the curse properly because he had cast it out of righteous anger and not malicious intent.^[131] However, he did use the Cruciatus Curse more effectively on Amycus Carrow after he spat at and insulted Minerva McGonagall. In addition, he saved Peter Pettigrew from being killed by his (Pettigrew’s) former friends Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, though this was not done for humanitarian reasons but for the memory of his father.

Remus Lupin once noted that Harry had very good and nearly always right instincts.^[132] Harry had a strong awareness of the incalculable power of certain acts, which is never more apparent than when he refused to allow Lupin to accompany him and leave his wife and child at home and realised that Ron Weasley was meant to destroy Slytherin’s locket.

In some ways, Harry could become extremely intimidating toward people, such as Gilderoy Lockhart, Mundungus Fletcher, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley. Harry was seen becoming extremely frightening when pushed to the point of anger or extreme annoyance. When in a bad mood and argumentative, even Harry’s closest friends had been wary of him, usually replying to his angry tone in a calm and appeasing voice. The only person who did not appear to be afraid of him when he was angry (other than his teachers and other authority figures in his life) was Ginny Weasley. Dumbledore was a special case, as he acted fatherly towards Harry and had managed to successfully calm him down whenever he got angry with him.

Harry seemed to have good and long memory, as he remembered the motorbike ride to Privet Drive with Hagrid when he was eleven and could remember the deaths of his mother and Voldemort’s laughter when the events occurred ten years earlier.^[40] Despite needing glasses, Harry possessed a tremendous eyesight as well; he was able to locate the Golden Snitch (which was approximately the size of a golf ball) in a massive Quidditch field. 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.

Although never as given to sarcasm or humour as his best friend Ron, Harry often displayed a dry 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 humour 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 «funny, you’d think I’d have stopped walking around«.^[6] Harry also displayed wittiness when he first encountered Crookshanks, remarking that he was either «a very large cat or quite a small tiger«.^[135]

He was also known to apply his cutting wit to Severus Snape and Dudley Dursley as well. During his first Potions lesson, Snape antagonised Harry with question after question. This was until Harry responded with «I don’t know. I think Hermione does, though, why don’t you try her?«^[40] He also commented that he was surprised that Dudley was intelligent enough to know the days of the week, after Dudley stated he knew what day it was. When Harry was eleven, Dudley suggested that he and Harry should go upstairs and practise shoving heads down toilets. Harry then stated that the toilet had never had something as disgusting as Dudley’s head down it.

Although he never sought power himself and would be content with a normal life, when a situation required him to step up he would do so. Such as when he, Ron, and Hermione discovered Voldemort and Quirrell’s attempt to steal the Philosopher’s Stone and his time as teacher/leader of Dumbledore’s Army. Harry had 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.

Like many non-pure-blood wizards raised by Muggles and seeing his life spent in the Muggle world, he had a certain lack of culture towards the wizarding world, and many of the characteristic of this he had heard recently and they turned out to be new to him.

During his youth, Harry tended to see things in a rather stark, absolute manner, particularly when it came to the Hogwarts Houses. Harry generally regarded members of Slytherin House as evil and therefore his enemies, while Gryffindors, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuffs were allies. The former part could be due to his own status as a Gryffindor and that many of the Slytherins he encountered, such as Lord Voldemort, Draco Malfoy, and Severus Snape, were significant enemies of his during this period. In addition, many of his friends and allies, such as: Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore, and Hagrid, were fellow Gryffindors. However, this mentality eroded as he aged, since he encountered both allies among Slytherin, such as Horace Slughorn (and later, Snape) and enemies among the other three Houses, such as Peter Pettigrew (a fellow Gryffindor) and Quirinus Quirrell (a Ravenclaw). By 2017, Harry had adopted a more moderate attitude on the Houses, telling his younger son Albus Potter that «it doesn’t matter to us» if Albus was Sorted in Slytherin or Gryffindor. In addition, Harry named that same son after Severus Snape, whom he recounted as «the bravest man [he] ever knew«.

In the aftermath of the Secondary Wizarding War, Harry was shown to suffer from survivor’s guilt and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. These two symptoms extended into his childhood and throughout his life at Hogwarts. Because of his depression, he also claimed that he was supposed to die and everyone knew it, but he survived it all. He also claimed that too many people died for the «Boy Who Lived» and that he wasn’t worth dying for at all. Harry’s depression and trauma were caused by not having removed Voldemort completely from his life, and he feared that he would always allow Voldemort to have some mental and emotional control over him.

Harry also had shown signs of suffering from recurring clinical depression, such as his sullen and withdrawn demeanour during his mid-to-late teens as a result of the tragedies in his life. A particular symptom of this was his outrageous temper during his bouts of depression, which frightened all but Ginny by their sheer force and magnitude alone. Overall, Harry was much the same as any other soldier, struggling to carry on despite the horrors of his past and the brutality he had been a part of for so long.

Harry did have some fears, although he hid them extremely well from his family. In fact, he hid them so well that his younger son considered his father to be utterly fearless. These fears included the dark, pigeons, small spaces, and seeing his family in danger.

It is commented by his son that Harry’s personality was complicated, something that was furthered by Ron, who called him intense in terms of his traits and past experiences.^[136]

Magical abilities and skills

Harry was seen and had proven himself to be an extremely powerful and talented wizard. His power was evident from the start: he demonstrated immediate command of a broomstick, was able to conjure a corporeal Patronus at an exceptionally young age (a mark of superior magical ability),^[113] and even survived numerous encounters with Lord Voldemort. He was top of his class at Defence Against the Dark Arts, even instructing older students in defensive and offensive magic.^[62][63][66] He mastered a wand made of hawthorn, which one should only ever consider placing in the hands of a witch or wizard of proven talent.^[137] Harry was also a very gifted flyer and Quidditch player, the youngest Seeker in a century.

• 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; for example, Harry’s love for his friends caused him to sacrifice himself to Voldemort. This loving sacrifice conferred a certain amount of protection onto his allies, making it so that spells Voldemort tried to place on them quickly wore off.^[138] Harry’s ability to love has also protected and helped him on several occasions. Those occasions are; when he produced a Patronus that could drive hundreds of Dementors away,^[139] repelled Voldemort when he possessed him,^[131] and the times he was able to close the connection between himself and Voldemort.^[140] His love was strongest when directed at Ginny Weasley, who was the driving force that kept him going until Voldemort was defeated. Harry also felt strong love toward his three children, such as when he deliberately placed himself between his son Albus and a Killing Curse. Harry even felt compassion and pity for his enemies, offering Voldemort a chance to feel remorse for his actions.

• Defence Against the Dark Arts: Harry was extremely adept at Defence Against the Dark Arts, having mastered all manners of spells. Some of the spells include the: Stunning Spell,^{[141][131][142][143]} Disarming Charm,^{[144][145][129][79][143][146]} Impediment Jinx,^{[128][63][141][147]} Full Body-Bind Curse,^{[141][147][142]} Reductor Curse,^[49][141] and many others. In fact, his Stunning Spell was so strong that opponents would get knocked out if they were hit directly. He was also skilled at defending himself against Dark creatures such as: Grindylows, Red Caps, Hinkypunks, Boggarts, Erklings, and Dementors. In his third year, he was the only student who flawlessly made it through the end-of-the-year exam (an obstacle course containing some of the said creatures).^[148] In his fifth year, Professor McGonagall stated that Professor Lupin said he showed a «pronounced aptitude» for the subject. He had also «achieved high marks on all his Defence Against the Dark Arts tests«.^[64] In fact, Harry had beaten Hermione in two of the three Defence Against the Dark Arts exams they had taken together. The only exam she beat him in was their first year exam. Hermione later reflected that it did not count, as Quirrell «wasn’t a particularly good teacher«. Harry also knew things that Viktor Krum (who was several years older then Harry) did not.^[62] Harry improved his skills in this subject significantly during his fourth year, by learning a lot of new spells in order to face the Triwizard Tournament. During his O.W.L. examination, Professor Tofty (Wizarding Examinations Authority) expressed pleasure at Harry’s performance of Defence Against the Dark Arts, calling it «excellent«. During his exams «he had no problem with any of the written questions» and «took particular pleasure, during the practical examination, in performing all the counter-jinxes and defensive spells right in front of Umbridge«.^[65] Professor Tofty’s statement was later proven true when he achieved an ‘Outstanding’ Defence Against the Dark Arts O.W.L. (something that not even Hermione achieved), a testament of his extraordinary talent in defensive magic. In 1996, Ron stated that it came as no surprise that Harry was top of the class at Defence Against the Dark Arts.^[66] Indeed, Harry was so good at DADA that when the Ministry of Magic prevented the subject from being taught effectively in 1995, he set up his own Defence Against the Dark Arts club. He successfully taught club members how to defend themselves against the Dark Arts, some of these club members were even older then him. He immediately became an Auror after the Second Wizarding War, which also required considerable skill in both defensive and offensive magic. Harry also developed a high level of resistance towards the Imperius Curse.^[149] It was cast upon him by Barty Crouch Jnr (disguised as Alastor Moody) in 1994 and by Lord Voldemort himself in 1995.^[128]

• Duelling: Despite Harry’s young age, he was an accomplished and very skilful duellist. He was able to single-handedly defeat some of the most formidable Death Eaters, and even survive numerous encounters with Lord Voldemort. 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. During the Battle of the Department of Mysteries; he, Albus Dumbledore, and Remus Lupin were the only fighters on the Order’s side to emerge from the battle physically unscathed. In that time, he had held off Lucius Malfoy and Antonin Dolohov twice and was able to hold his own against the extremely powerful Bellatrix Lestrange.^[75] In 1997, Harry defeated Yaxley, Fenrir Greyback, and one of the two Carrows.^[28] He fought off several Death Eaters in the Battle of the Seven Potters. During the Skirmish at Malfoy Manor he overpowered Lucius Malfoy, Draco Malfoy, and Fenrir Greyback and avoided direct conflict damage all throughout the Battle of Hogwarts.^[150] Harry was known to be very quick off the draw and had an aggressive duelling style, even incorporating Unforgivable Curses. He was also known to taunt his opponents and would get them to talk at length, angering them and throwing them mentally off-balance. He did this in order to buy himself time to strategise or to lull them into lowering their guard. 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 was promoted to Head of the Auror Office at the age of 26.^[53][151] During a raid, he was able to quite easily defeat (without any injuries to himself) the skilled Theodore Nott. Also, while holding back, he duelled Draco Malfoy to a standstill. This was no easy feat, as Draco similarly improved his duelling skills over the years. Harry was even able to hold his own against Delphini. After his friends came to his aid, they swiftly defeated her.^[152] He and Delphini «fired bolts mercilessly at each other» during their church duel.

• Dark Arts: Harry was one of the few non-Dark wizards who was highly proficient in the Dark Arts at all levels. On top of being able to cast simple dark charms like the: Leg-Locker Curse,^[153] Full Body-Bind Curse,^{[141][147][142]} Reductor Curse,^[49][141] Pimple Jinx,^[154][155] Knockback Jinx,^{[156][157][158]} Revulsion Jinx,^[159][160] Ebublio Jinx,^[161] Curse of the Bogies,^[156] and Melofors Jinx^[161], he could cast more powerful dark spells such as the Blasting Curse.^[143] He was also able to flawlessly cast the jinxes, hexes and curses in the Half-Blood Prince’s copy of Advanced Potion-Making. This included the Toenail-growing hex, Langlock, and the extremely dangerous curse Sectumsempra, which he cast at Draco Malfoy in 1997.^[162][153] This severely slashed and wounded Malfoy.^[133] Harry even used two of the three Unforgivable Curses. He used the Imperius Curse on Travers and a Goblin called Bogrod during the 1998 Break-in of Gringotts Wizarding Bank,^[160] as well as the Cruciatus Curse on several occasions. However, his first successful attempt was in 1998 against Amycus Carrow, but it did not result in the prolonged, excruciating pain that the curse was famous for. Instead, Carrow screamed and was incapacitated.^[163] He never used the Killing Curse for obviously moral reasons, even in his final battle with Voldemort.

• Flying: Harry had inherited his father’s talent for flying and for Quidditch. Harry showed 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. In fact, at the mere age of eleven, Harry became the youngest Seeker in a century.^[164] As a Seeker, Harry was capable of surpassing even far more experienced Seekers, near-always winning the Quidditch matches for Gryffindor. He was considered to be even better than Charlie Weasley. He only ever lost to Cedric Diggory, due to the presence of Dementors. Sirius Black noted that Harry’s Quidditch skills were equal to his father’s own. His extraordinary flying skills, also aided him when pursuing the Winged Keys enchanted by Professor Flitwick in the Philosopher’s Stone Chambers. He was the primary leader of the trio’s chase of the Keys, and the one who noticed and captured the Key needed to unlock the door. It also helped him in the Triwizard Tournament (where he had to steal a golden egg from a Hungarian Horntail), managing to successfully irritate the dragon into chasing him by dodging all her flame attacks and then outrace her into the egg. This display highly impressed all of the witnesses and earned him the first place among the Triwizard Champions. During the Battle of Hogwarts, he also managed to escape a Fiendfyre inferno in the Room of Requirement, via broomstick.

• Parseltongue: Because Harry carried a piece of Voldemort’s soul within himself, he was able to speak and understand Parseltongue from 1981 to 1998. After that soul fragment was destroyed, Harry had (seemingly) lost this ability. However, in 2020, Harry had somehow regained the ability to speak Parseltongue again, although it was possible that he never lost it to begin with or that the ability had just simply became (temporarily) suppressed after the Horcrux was destroyed.
• Insight into Voldemort’s mind: Due to the piece of Voldemort’s soul; Harry was able to look into Voldemort’s mind and see 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. Voldemort used this false vision to lure Harry to the Department of Mysteries.^[165] 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. Harry lost this ability when the soul fragment within him was destroyed. Harry also possessed a non-magical insight into Voldemort’s mind from the information Dumbledore shared with him during their lessons. This insight allowed Harry to figure out that a Horcrux was stored at Gringotts Wizarding Bank. Ron and Hermoine noted Harry’s understanding of Voldemort, considering it impressive that Harry understood Voldemort so well.

• Charms: Harry achieved an ‘Exceeds Expectations’^[66] on his O.W.L. exam and advanced to N.E.W.T.-level. He proved to be particularly talented in this subject. Before receivinghis O.W.L. results Harry thought his Charms practical «went rather well».^[65] Additionally, Harry mastered the Summoning Charm in only one day and often used it successfully. He would also occasionally cast the protective enchantments that Hermione used during the Horcrux hunt.^[22][166] These enchantments included: Salvio Hexia, Protego Totalum, Repello Muggletum, Muffliato, Cave Inimicum, Disillusionment Charms, and possibly others.^[22] Harry was also able to cast the Confundus Charm and the Gouging Spell on the first try.^[160] He displayed an impressive mastery of the Shield Charm, surpassing that of many Ministry employees;^[167] his Shield Charms were so powerful that they were able to deflect curses from Lord Voldemort himself.^[138] During the Battle of the Seven Potters, he was able to levitate a side-car with himself in it for a long stretch of time. He could also cast simpler charms such as the: Wand-Lighting Charm,^{[168][145][169]} Levitation Charm,^{[65][131][143]} Colour Change Charm,^[65][58] Banishing Charm,^[159] Refilling Charm,^[16] Freezing Spell,^[158] Locking Spell,^[141] Unlocking Charm,^{[156][157][158]} Engorgement Charm,^[170] Shrinking Charm,^[170] and various others. Under the teaching of Remus Lupin, Harry was able to conjure an extremely powerful corporeal stag Patronus in his third year. This was a remarkable feat and yet another proof of his talent, as the vast majority of witches and wizards were unable to cast this extremely difficult charm successfully.^[113] As an Auror, Harry displayed the ability to use charms in combat. He used incapacitating ones such as, the Tickling Charm,^[171] Obscuro, and Brachiabindo^[172] when duelling Draco Malfoy.

• Potions: Harry’s strong dislike for Snape made Potions an adverse subject for him. However, it was later shown that Harry had no problem with potions when Slughorn was his teacher.^[64][65] Harry had even inherited Lily’s talent to some extent. When Snape was not pestering him, he was able to brew a reasonably adequate Strengthening Solution. Harry even concocted an Invigoration Draught that would have earned him an ‘Exceeds Expectations’ had Hermione not vanished it.^[75] His practical O.W.L. exam «was not as dreadful as he had expected it to be. With Snape absent from the proceedings he found that he was much more relaxed than he usually was while making potions«.^[65] He achieved an ‘Exceeds Expectations’^[66] on his O.W.L. exam — proof of his proficiency in the subject. He was one of only twelve students able to reach the required level to take N.E.W.T. potions, although he would not have if Snape was still teaching the subject.^[12] His great success during his sixth year, was only after he came into possession of the Half-Blood Prince’s copy of Advanced Potion-Making. This textbook contained revised instructions from the Half-Blood Prince (Severus Snape), which allowed Harry to gain the position of best in class. He was able to follow the Prince’s instructions so exactly that he even surpassed Hermione. After hiding the book, Harry was still able to do a decent enough job at potion-making that Slughorn’s suspicions were not raised. Harry also had first hand knowledge on the effects of Polyjuice Potion,^[65] love potions,^[173] Felix Felicis,^[16] and Veritaserum.^[174] It was probable that he improved his Potions ability during his time as a Auror. He most likely became proficient in poisons and antidotes, as this was required.

• Transfiguration: Harry achieved an ‘Exceeds Expectations’^[66] on his O.W.L. exam. He showed proficiency in the subject and advanced to N.E.W.T.-level. He was able to perform Conjuration, an advanced type of Transfiguration that was taught only to N.E.W.T students. Harry demonstrated this at various points by conjuring ropes,^[147][142] water,^[147] blindfolds,^[172] and fire.^[152] He could also vanish objects, which is one of the most complicated spells taught at Ordinary Wizarding Level. In 1996, Harry vanished a whole iguana with the Vanishing Spell.^[65] In 1997, he vanished a snake that crossed his path with the Snake-Vanishing Spell. He was also skilled in Transforming Spells. For example, he could cast the Avifors Spell and the Lapifors Spell.^[157][161] Harry was also skilled enough to perform Human Transfiguration, which is noted to be «immensely difficult«. He accomplished this during a 1996 Transfiguration lesson, where he succeeded in turning his eyebrow bright yellow.^[14] Minerva McGonagall herself complimented him on his talents in transfiguration.^[12]

• Herbology: Harry achieved an ‘Exceeds Expectations’^[66] on his O.W.L. exam. He showed proficiency in the subject and advanced to N.E.W.T.-level. In 1998, Harry was able to recognise a Snargaluff plant at the Lovegood House and knew to give it a wide berth.^[170] He also had knowledge of plants such as: Devil’s Snare,^[175] Gillyweed,^[159] Venomous Tentacula,^[13] Mandrakes,^[176] Dittany,^[177] and Fanged Geranium^[65] from hands-on experience. He could cast plant-related spells such as the Fire-Making Spell,^[156] Severing Charm, and the Herbivicus Charm.
• Master of Death: Harry mastered all three Deathly Hallows and accepted his own death.^[41] First, he inherited the Cloak of Invisibility from his father, James. Then, he inherited the Resurrection Stone from Dumbledore, which was inside a Snitch. Finally, he won the Elder Wand from Draco Malfoy during the Skirmish at Malfoy Manor. All three were directly or indirectly employed by Harry in the Forbidden Forest: he was wearing the Cloak, using the Stone, and was preparing to be killed by the Wand, which he had already won.^[169] The only Hallow he choose to keep was the cloak as it was a priceless family heirloom; the Stone was lost in the forest and the wand returned to Dumbledore’s tomb.^[138]

• Healing magic: Harry was able to effectively cast healing spells; for example, he could perform the Reparifors^[158] spell in his third year. After Nymphadora Tonks cast Episkey on his broken nose, he fixed Demelza Robins’ broken lip in 1996 with the same spell. This was a spell used to treat mild to moderate injuries.^[178] He could also perform a healing spell for clearing up dried blood from a bleeding wound.^[81] He was also able to use the Reviving Spell to waken those who have been rendered unconscious.^[49][147]

• Nonverbal magic: During 1997 and 1998, Harry began using spells nonverbally and became quite proficient at it when Snape was not harassing him.^[41] On July 31, 1997 Harry was able to light a lamp in the Weasley’s sitting room with no words and a flick of his wand.^[58] As an adult, Harry displays the ability to consciously use nonverbal magic; shown when he straightened his work-space with the simple wave of his wand.^[179] He also demonstrated the use of nonverbal magic during his church duel with Delphini. During the duel the two were mercilessly firing spells at each other. One of the spells he used nonverbally was the Fire-Making Spell.^[152]
• Wandless magic: In 1995 when Dementors attacked in Little Whinging, Dudley had knocked Harry’s wand out of his hand when he punched him. In desperation, Harry was able to light the tip his wand, even though it was not in his hand.^[180] When enraged he was able to inflate Aunt Marge without a wand,^[87] possibly with Inflatus. Few other wizards have exhibited this power, although Dumbledore and Voldemort were among them. This further testifies 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 achieved an ‘Exceeds Expectations’^[66] on his O.W.L. exam. He 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 excellently.^[94] He befriended the hippogriff to a great extent, which resulted in Buckbeak defending him while he was in danger. Harry 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 tamed a half-blind dragon into helping the trio escape Gringotts by flying out on its back. He was also one of very few in his class who was able to see Thestrals, and had no trouble mounting his in June 1996. Harry was also good with House-elves, befriending the house-elf Dobby and eventually freeing him. This act of kindness made the little elf so loyal to him that he gave his life to save him.^[140] He also earned the respect and loyalty of Kreacher, a very difficult task. During his O.W.L. practical he correctly identified the knarl hidden among a dozen hedgehogs, as he knew the trick was to offer them all milk in turn. He was aware that knarls were highly suspicious creatures, who would consider the milk an attempt to poison them. Harry also demonstrated the correct handling of a bowtruckle, was able to feed and clean a fire-crab without sustaining serious burns, and knew the diet to give a sick unicorn. When his practical was over he gave Hagrid a thumbs-up, indicating that it went well.^[65]

• Astronomy: Harry was able to pass his O.W.L. exam with an ‘Acceptable’.^[66] He thought the written portion of the O.W.L. exam «went well enough«. He did not finish his practical exam because he was distracted by Dolores Umbridge’s attempt to arrest Hagrid. However, he was able to complete the constellation Orion on his star chart.^[65] It is unknown if he was able to advance to the N.E.W.T class or not since he did not apply for advancement.

• Indomitable willpower: Harry appeared to possess an unbreakable spirit and though not above depression, he never truly gave up on any mission. He had been shown to rise from defeat and loss, such as the deaths of many loved ones, even stronger than before. Harry’s indomitable will was exemplified by his ability to resist the Imperius Curse. His indomitable will could also be exemplified by his ability to cast powerful Imperius Curses as well. Furthermore, he had never begged for mercy (even in life-and-death situations) and would fight back in defiance of himself, as well as perform nonverbal spells flawlessly.^[41] His inability to perform Occlumency (despite possessing the required willpower) was due to his inability to keep his emotions under control.
• Detective skills: Harry was a formidably talented investigator. While in school, he and his friends had a knack for solving difficult mysteries and discovering the truth despite all attempts by others to conceal it. Hermione generally finding the background information, while Harry put the pieces together to make a coherent picture. In his first year, Harry uncovered the truth about the Philosopher’s Stone and saved it from Voldemort. In his second year, he solved the centuries old mystery of the Chamber of Secrets. During the same year, he understood how the Basilisk’s victims were attacked and why they did not die, but more importantly, he located the entrance of the Chamber. Furthermore, he rightly deduced that the victim of the first opening of the Chamber was Moaning Myrtle.^[168] In his third year, he understood (with almost no clues) what Dumbledore wanted he and Hermione to do after spinning the Time Turner. In his fifth year, he uncovered the truth about the prophecy. Two years later, he hunted down and destroyed all of Voldemort’s Horcruxes using his amazing deductive skills. During his sixth year, he also observed Dumbledore’s memories regarding Voldemort and noticed things which would help him later. Harry’s deductive skills also allowed him to uncover the mystery of the Deathly Hallows.^[132] He discovered that he mastered the three of them, when even Ron and Hermione were initially sceptical of their existence. Harry also had a knack for spotting things that others did not, and had a sharp eye for details. He was able to tell that Luna Lovegood had not been home in weeks by the state of her room.^[181] In 1992, he became suspicious when Dobby revealed that he had known that Harry was not getting any letters. His intelligence also allowed him to intuitively know that Draco Malfoy had been branded with the Dark Mark despite no solid proof, that Malfoy was using the Room of Requirement as a work shop, and that he was having Crabbe and Goyle use Polyjuice Potion in order to disguise themselves as girls while keeping watch outside the room.^[182] He also had an eye for details and a very good memory. For instance, even in an highly stressful situation, such as the Battle of Hogwarts,^[146] he was able to remember objects he saw over a year prior in the Room of Hidden Things.^[153]

• Resourcefulness: Harry showed resourcefulness in many different situations. In 1992. Harry impersonated the Bloody Baron in order to keep Peeves away from the third floor that night. He did not want Peeves to inconvenience the trio on their quest to save the Philosopher’s Stone.^[175] In his second year, when encountering Professor McGonagall after hours, he lied and said that he and Ron were on their way to see Hermione in the hospital wing.^[145] Also in his second year, he used a basilisk fang to destroy Riddle’s Diary.^[183] In his fourth year, he managed to escape from Voldemort and all the Death Eaters using a Summoning Charm, taking Cedric Diggory’s dead body with him. In his fifth year, while under interrogation from Umbridge, he relayed a coded message to Snape. He relayed this coded message in an attempt to warn Snape and by extension, the Order, that Voldemort had Sirius. In the same year, while surrounded by Death Eaters, Harry came up with the plan to smash the shelves in the Hall of Prophecy. The smashed selves were meant to be a distraction, so that he and the D.A. could try and escape. During the hunt for Horcruxes, he used the Godric Gryffindor’s Sword as a way of retrieving Helga Hufflepuff’s cup from the mounds of burning treasure and used a half-blind dragon as a means to escape from Gringotts Wizarding Bank.^[160] Harry was also cunning enough that the Sorting Hat heavily considered Sorting him into Slytherin house.^[56]

• Leadership skills: While Harry never deliberately set out to be a leader to others, he had often taken charge when the situation required it. This began with his impulsive decision to find and warn Hermione about the presence of a troll in the school during the 1991 Hallowe’en feast. It progressed to the point where over thirty students, some of them in their sixth and seventh years — respect him as a teacher in Dumbledore’s Army, despite him being younger than they were.^[63] Dumbledore later noted that Harry was a superior leader to him. 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. Harry accepted the burden of command, acknowledging his responsibilities towards those who «followed» him. He did this regardless of how uncomfortable he might feel about the prospect. He coordinated his efforts against his enemies well, when left with no option but to take control.^[184] Harry’s natural talents later served the rest of the wizarding community of Great Britain. In 2007, he was promoted to the Head of the Auror Office at age 26 and was later made the Head of Department of Magical Law Enforcement.^[116] His promotion to these positions of power at relatively young ages demonstrated Harry’s natural talent as a commander.

• Teaching skills: Harry demonstrated tremendous skill in teaching others. Having mastered many spells at a young age, Harry successfully taught them to others, even when he was still a student himself. He would give 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.^[75] Harry’s effectiveness as a teacher led many, some even older than him, to choose him over the Ministry-installed (but highly incompetent) teacher Dolores Umbridge. He even returned to Hogwarts to give occasional Defence Against the Dark Arts lectures as an adult and professional Auror. He kept his teaching aptitude in his later years and successfully instructed the members of the Statute of Secrecy Task Force in the use of several formidable spells.^[185]

• Apparition: Harry had not earned a licence to Apparate, but he used the ability frequently during 1997 and 1998 to great success. He was able to Apparate with only a few seconds’ notice or while guiding others.^[41] He was also very precise in his Apparition, as he was able to Apparate directly onto Grimmauld Place’s front step under the Cloak of Invisibility. He also used Apparition in his sixth year to a very impressive degree. He used it to get himself and a weakened Albus Dumbledore over an incredibly vast distance even though he was inexperienced.^[147]
• Wand versatility: Harry was able to use Hermione’s wand after his was broken during the Attack at Godric’s Hollow in 1997. He was able to use spells such as: the Wand-Lighting Charm, the Shield Charm, and the Severing Charm at full strength, despite not having won the wand’s allegiance.^[19] He also gained the allegiance of Draco Malfoy’s wand, the Elder Wand, and quite possibly Voldemort’s wand by defeating the previous masters.

• Auror skills: Harry was extremely young for an Auror, which spoke highly of his magical abilities. He became Head of the Auror Office at the age of 26, presumably the youngest Head appointed. Being a fully qualified Auror meant three additional years of study. During his time in the department, he gained skills in various areas of magic such as: Concealment and Disguise, Stealth and Tracking, and poisons and antidotes. He also had high skill in Transfiguration, as Aurors had to frequently transfigure and untransfigure things in their line of work.^[64] Harry also possessed a great instinct for the right thing to do, especially when faced with stressful and difficult situations. This instinct contributed to him becoming a fantastic Auror. Harry has also been stated as being a consummate expert in his line of work.^[186]

Possessions

Harry was a wealthy wizard, having inherited the Potter family fortune after his parents were murdered by Lord Voldemort. Harry relied on this gold for his school supplies, clothing, and other expenses. Following the death of his godfather Sirius Black, Harry became the sole heir of the Black family fortune as well.

• Wand: Made of holly, a wood with the powers to repel evil,^[187] Harry’s wand was «brothers» with Voldemort’s wand as both had cores with 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. Later he used the Elder Wand to repair it.
• 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 showed affection by nibbling Harry’s ear or fingers, and loyally obeyed his every command (even pecking Ron and Hermione until they answered back). Hedwig was killed during the Battle of the Seven Potters, and Harry was overcome with grief.
• Schoolbag: A schoolbag was used by Harry Potter to carry around textbooks, quills, and other items throughout his six years attending Hogwarts. It is possible that this bag was used even in his Muggle education before attending Hogwarts.
• Alarm clock: In the summer of 1991, Harry found and repaired the alarm clock and in the summer of 1996, this alarm clock ticked on Harry’s windowsill as he slept on the night that Albus Dumbledore came to collect him.
• Nimbus 2000: This broomstick was gifted to him from Professor McGonagall after agreeing to join the Gryffindor Quidditch team in 1991. He used it during his first and second years at Hogwarts. In his third year it blew into the Whomping Willow and was smashed to bits, breaking it beyond repair.
• 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 realises he is a direct descendant of Ignotus Peverell, one of the three brothers who created the Deathly Hallows. Harry later gave the Cloak to his eldest son, James Sirius.
• Photo album: In June of 1992 Hagrid gave Harry this photo album containing pictures of his parents, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and himself.
• Flying with the Cannons: Harry received a copy of this from Ron Weasley in 1992 as a Christmas present.^[188]
• Firebolt: During Harry’s third year at Hogwarts, the Nimbus 2000 broomstick 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 not known if Harry ever recovered or replaced it.

• Marauder’s Map: One of Harry’s most treasured possessions. In his third year, Fred Weasley 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 Lupin quit his job. Harry kept it with him for a long period of time, keeping it in the mokeskin wallet he had gotten from Hagrid, until it was finally stolen from his desk by his son, James.

• Weasley jumpers: Harry received a homemade jumper every Christmas from Mrs Weasley. His were said to be much more extravagant, as Mrs Weasley «made much more effort» when her presents were not made for actual family members. The known jumpers he has include an emerald green one, a scarlet one, a green one with a Hungarian Horntail on the front, and one with a Golden Snitch on the front.
• 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.
• Toy broomstick: this was a gift to him from Sirius Black, it was the first broomstick he had ridden. It’s unknown what happened to it after the 1981 attack at Godric’s Hollow.

• Watch: This watch was used by Harry until it was destroyed in the Second Task of the Triwizard Tournament, since it was not waterproof and by May of 1995, he had discarded the watch entirely.

• Dress robes: Harry wore dress robes to the Yule Ball for the 1994 Triwizard Tournament, they were bottle green that matched his eyes. He also wore dress robes to Bill and Fleur’s wedding in 1997. He also wore a set of dress robes to Slughorn’s Christmas Party in 1996.
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: Harry owned a copy of this book, as was mandatory for any student of Hogwarts studying Care of Magical Creatures. He shared it with Ron Weasley after the latter lost his. The trio doodled and wrote messages to each other throughout the book.
• Quidditch Teams of Britain and Ireland: Hermione Granger gave this book to Harry in 1994, as a Christmas gift.
• Practical Defensive Magic and Its Use Against the Dark Arts: This book had moving colour illustrations of all the counter-jinxes and hexes it described. Harry received a set of these books in 1995 as a Christmas present from Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. Harry planned to put them to good use in his lessons for Dumbledore’s Army.

• Twelve Fail-Safe Ways to Charm Witches: This book is a sophomoric manual on dating and flirting with girls. A copy was given to Harry on his seventeenth birthday from Ron Weasley. Harry speculated that there might be an entire chapter devoted to compliments.
• Sneakoscope: Hermione Granger gave Harry a Sneakoscope as a gift for his seventeenth birthday at breakfast, the trio would later take it on their hunt for Horcruxes.
• 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.
• Enchanted razor: In 1997, Harry received an enchanted razor on his seventeenth birthday from Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour. It is not known whether he used it at any point or if he still owns it.
• Rucksack: This rucksack was owned by Harry during the 1997-1998 school year. He packed it with everything he felt he would need during the hunt for Horcruxes. He almost lost it during the Battle of the Seven Potters, but managed to keep hold of it.
• Notebook: This notebook was owned by Harry from at least 1997. It was used to keep his notes and other writings, such as things he wanted to remember.
• 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 realise 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.
• 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.

• 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 artefacts 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 Slytherin’s Locket, one of Voldemort’s Horcruxes. Harry lost the sword to Griphook when he, Ron and Hermione Granger stole 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.
• Draco Malfoy’s wand: In 1998, Harry won the hawthorn wand’s allegiance after overpowering Draco Malfoy during the Skirmish at Malfoy Manor. This wand was carried by him for the remainder of the Second Wizarding War; seeing action in the break-in at Gringotts, as well as during the final climactic Battle of Hogwarts. It is unknown what happened to the wand after Harry repaired his wand.

• 12 Grimmauld Place: Following Sirius’s death, Harry inherited his family’s London townhouse with all its contents and furnishings, including Kreacher (the family house-elf). Mundungus Fletcher would continue stealing many of Harry’s inherited possessions, including Slytherin’s Locket, as he had stolen from Sirius. Harry, Ron, and Hermione hid out there in August and September 1997.
• Motorbike: As one of Sirius’s possessions, it was left to Harry in his will. Despite the severe damage done to it in the Battle of the Seven Potters, Arthur Weasley managed to repair the bike and returned it to Harry.^[189] Harry presumably learned to ride it sometime after the war. Given the ease with which he learned to fly a broomstick, ride animals such as hippogriffs and thestrals, and even a dragon, Harry likely learned how to ride with very little trouble at all.
• Golden Snitch: This Snitch was caught by Harry during the 1991–1992 school year. It was later left to him in Albus Dumbledore’s will, to posthumously ensure that Marvolo Gaunt’s Ring would be safely delivered to him.
• Car: This car was used by Harry to drive his family to King’s Cross Station on 1 September, 2017. On Platform 9¾, Ron Weasley asked Harry if he had parked the vehicle alright, then told him he had managed to park his own car.
• Family home: Sometime following the war, Harry acquired his own house and raised his three children there alongside his wife, Ginny. This can be assumed due to Harry denying James’ request to have Teddy move in with them in exchange for sharing a room with his younger brother. Harry replied that he would only allow the two Potter brothers to share a room when «[he wanted] the house demolished.»

Relationships

Throughout his life, Harry has had many relationships with a variety of people. Because of his upbringing, he had few connections in his early years, the only people he truly interacted with being the abusive Dursleys. With his introduction to the wizarding world, this changed and he built connections with many of the residents of the magical community, both good and bad. His strongest relationships were with: his parents, his children, Hermione Granger, the Weasley family, Sirius Black, Hedwig, Dobby, Albus Dumbledore, Rubeus Hagrid, Minerva McGonagall, Remus Lupin, Neville Longbottom, Cho Chang, Luna Lovegood and Teddy Lupin.

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.^[190][191] In an interview J. K. Rowling stated that ‘Harry’ had always been one of her favourite 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».^[192] It is possible that he was named after Henry Potter, nicknamed ‘Harry’, who was James’ grandfather and Harry’s great-grandfather.

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.^[193] 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.^[192][194] The last name «Potter» was also carried by the first successful magician in 1811 in America named Richard Potter^[195] who also happened to be African-American, the land that was bought by the magician and where Potter lived was called «Potter Place».^[196]

Behind the scenes

Further information: Behind the scenes of Harry Potter’s relationships

• He often describes various parts of his anatomy as feeling like lead.
• The Marauders believed they discovered more secret places than anyone else in the history of Hogwarts. This is not necessarily true, as unlike Harry and Tom Riddle, they did not 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 discover more numerous secrets than Riddle or Harry, just not the same ones.
• Like his best friend Ron Weasley, Harry got a Muggle driving licence and bought himself a car, but it was never said if they got the Licence to Apparate (although, both of them having been Aurors, most likely they did).
• The only autographs he ever gave out were to Colin Creevey and an unknown man on the Hogwarts Express.
• Harry Potter is still the only wizard to this day that has had all three Unforgivable Curses cast on him and survived.
  • He also used two out of the three: the Cruciatus Curse and the Imperius Curse. The only one he never used was the Killing Curse, which, on the contrary, is his nemesis’ favourite spell.
• Like his parents, Harry personally defied Voldemort three times before defeating him the fourth time: once in the Underground Chambers, once at the cemetery in Little Hangleton, and once again during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. However, there were five 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, and the night his parents were killed in Godric’s Hollow.
• Harry’s initial trouble with Potions is somewhat ironic as he has famous potioneers in his family, notably Linfred of Stinchcombe («the Potterer») who first established the family fortune with his medicinal potions and Fleamont Potter who was said to have quadrupled the fortune with his Sleekeazy’s Hair Potion. According to Horace Slughorn, Harry’s mother Lily was also an accomplished potioneer in her own right. Some of this does come from Harry’s enmity with Severus Snape but it is portrayed as his weakness. However, he makes strides in later novels.
• Despite Remus Lupin suggested him not to let the Expelliarmus become his signature spell, this was the very spell which Harry used in his last duel against Voldemort.
• 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 he 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, in 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, so he could not 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 was very much like Newton Scamander as they both didn’t seek power nor popularity and also was liked by the same person, Albus Dumbledore.
• Harry learns a new mode of transportation in every year since he was introduced to magic:
  • In his first year, he learns to travel by broomstick.
  • In his second year, he travels by Floo Powder and Flying Ford Anglia.
  • In his third year, he travels on the Knight Bus and 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 by Thestral.
  • In his sixth year, he learns to Apparate.
  • In what would have been his seventh year, he breaks into Gringotts and flies out on a dragon.

• 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 Philosopher’s Stone, and thus missed the final match.
  • In his second year, the final match of the season was cancelled 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 cancelled 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.
  • In what would have been his seventh year, he didn’t attend Hogwarts due to his quest to destroy the Horcruxes.
• Harry is portrayed by British actor Daniel Radcliffe in the film adaptations of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Chamber of Secrets, Prisoner of Azkaban, Goblet of Fire, Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince and 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 Deathly Hallows: Part 2 was released, Radcliffe had played the role for ten years consecutively.
  • Harry has green eyes, but in the films he has blue eyes. This is due to the fact that Daniel Radcliffe was allergic to the contact lenses. While his hair is also still black, it is not as messy as it is in the books, and he 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.
  • The first actor to be cast as Harry was actually American actor Liam Aiken,^{[citation needed]} but he lost the part the next day, allegedly because he wasn’t British.
  • Daniel Radcliffe never provided voice-acting for any of the Harry Potter video games. Harry is instead voiced by Joe Sowerbutts in the Philosopher’s Stone video game, Tom Attenborough in the Chamber of Secrets video game, both Tom Attenborough and Harry Robinson in the Prisoner of Azkaban video game, Daniel Larner in the Goblet of Fire video game, both Daniel Larner and Adam Sopp in the Order of the Phoenix video game, and again by Adam Sopp in the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and Deathly Hallows: Part 2 video games.
  • Josh Herdman plays Harry when he is disguised as Gregory Goyle in Chamber of Secrets, as does David O’Hara when he is disguised as Albert Runcorn in Deathly Hallows: Part 1. The Saunders triplets play Harry as an infant in Philosopher’s Stone and Toby Papworth plays Harry as an infant in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.
• In the play of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Harry is portrayed by the following actors:
  • Jamie Parker^[197] (original West End and original Broadway)
  • Jamie Glover (West End Year 2)
  • Gareth Reeves (original Melbourne and Years 2 & 3)
  • James Snyder (Broadway Years 2 & 3)
  • Jamie Ballard (West End Years 3-5)
  • John Skelley (original San Francisco and Year 2)
  • Markus Schöttl (original Hamburg)
  • Trevor White (original Toronto)
• James Romney, the actor who was first a part of the Ensemble and eventually portrayed Albus Potter in the Year 3 Broadway production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, portrayed Harry Potter, voicing him in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Chapter 6 (The Journey from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters) for the Harry Potter At Home project.^[198]
• Benjamin Papac, the actor portraying Albus Potter in the San Francisco Curran Theatre production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, also portrayed Harry Potter, voicing him when the cast of Cursed Child read aloud Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Chapter 5 (Diagon Alley) together, organised by Bloomsbury Publishing for the 2021 Harry Potter Book Night.^[199][200]
• The first spell casted on Harry, Reparo, used by Hermione Granger on the Hogwarts Express during their first encounter, is also the last spell used by Harry in the novels.
• Harry is right-handed. He tells this to Mr Ollivander in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. He is also seen writing with this hand throughout the film series.
• Several undisclosed theories suggest that, as per the prophecy, Voldemort was the only one capable of killing Harry. Meaning that, with Voldemort dead, Harry cannot be killed, though he can presumably still die of natural causes.
  • Still, in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Harry was killed by Lord Voldemort in an alternate universe.
• Several times throughout Cursed Child, Harry has been called «savior of the wizarding world», it is unknown whether this is a given title or an alias that has been given to Harry in his older age. Although, this places Harry higher in respect than Dumbledore, in his defeat of an internationally wanted wizard.
• In the whole Harry Potter series, Harry has only called Draco Malfoy by just his first name two times.
  • The first time was when they were in detention in the Forbidden Forest in their first year.
  • The second and last time he called Draco Malfoy by his first name was during the final duel with Voldemort in the Great Hall, when Harry talked about the mastery of the Elder wand. He said that Voldemort was not the master of the Elder Wand, Draco was.
• While Harry repeatedly states Hermione is the best student in his year in all classes, he likely simply meant she is the best student overall, for he has beaten her in two of the three Defence Against the Dark Arts exams they had together, with Hermione only beating him in their first year exam.
  • In addition, Rowling has said that Harry could have beaten Hermione in a magical duel halfway through Prisoner of Azkaban.^[201] Part of this can be put down to Professor Lupin’s way of teaching, which preferred practical lessons over theory, as it seemed to help bring out Harry’s own talent at the subject.
• Harry’s birthday of 31 July is also the birthday of Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling and actor Richard Griffiths, who played Harry’s uncle Vernon Dursley in the Harry Potter films.
  • In addition to Rowling and Griffiths, Harry’s star sign Leo, a lion, also the sign of the Gryffindor house, was shared by Ginny and Harry’s portrayer Daniel Radcliffe, who was born on 23 July.
  • On his famous wizard card shown in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (video game), Harry’s year of birth was not given, instead question marks were shown, indicating his year of birth may not have been made public in the wizarding world.
• In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, despite Harry’s birthday being on July 31st in the books, it seems that it was moved to August 31st, because Hagrid first met Harry in the shack on the day of Harry’s birthday, then he took Harry to Diagon Alley and then to King’s Cross the next day, where Harry took the Hogwarts Express.
• In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry is seen practising 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, however, judging by the book he is reading, his reason for doing so is most likely for homework. In the book he is simply using a torch while writing his homework for History of Magic.
• 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».
• In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry tells Dumbledore at the train station that he likes riding around on trains as it takes his mind off things.
• In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Ginny and Neville are both climbing up on one of the staircases, and run into Harry during the battle. Neville ask Harry if he has seen Luna Lovegood, then he confesses to Ginny and Harry that he as feelings for Luna, he went away to find and tell her. Harry and Ginny share a quick kiss, Harry was going to tell Ginny that he loved her, but Ginny quickly told him that she knows, and they both went back to what they were doing before they met up. This did not happen in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book.
• In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: Behind the Magic, the person who makes all the wands for the films revealed that Dan has gone through over 80 wands over the course of the ten years because he drums with them.
• 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.
• In the films:
  • Harry is shown to wear the colour blue in nearly all his clothing. It could possibly connect with the symbolic meanings of the colour to be that of; trust, wisdom, loyalty, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth and heaven. These particular attributes are significantly linked to Harry’s personality throughout the series.
  • Harry’s hair grows longer and longer (the longest point was in Goblet of Fire) until it was cut for Order of the Phoenix. It has since grown to about the same length as it was for Prisoner of Azkaban.
  • Harry’s scar is off-centre 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 centre 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 centre. 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-centre. 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-centre. It is perhaps of this book that Rowling was thinking.

• A variant of Harry is available in the «Downloadable Character Pack» DLC for LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7. The variant is called «Harry (Yule Ball)» because it portrays Harry wearing the dress robes he wore to the Yule Ball.
• Harry has the last line in many of the books, and if not, he makes the last gesture.
  • «I’m going to have a lot of fun with Dudley this summer.» (PS)
  • «All those times I could’ve died and I didn’t manage it? They’ll be furious!» (CS)
  • «He likes to keep in touch with me, …keep up with my news…check I’m happy.» (POA)
  • «Harry-thanks.» Harry winked at them. (Spoken by George Weasley) (GOF)
  • «Really soon Harry, we promise.» Harry nodded. (Spoken by Hermione Granger) (OOTP)
  • «Yeah we shouldn’t miss that [ Bill and Fleur’s Wedding ].» (HBP)
  • «I know he will.» (DH)
• 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..» (PS)
  • «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 realised 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.» However, it is also obvious that it’s mostly Harry’s other son James who says the last line in this film to Albus just before he (Albus) sits down next to his brother: «Come on.»
• Harry was Wizard of the Month on J. K. Rowling’s official site 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.^[202]

• Harry Potter is J. K. Rowling’s favourite character, though she feels that she is unusual in this, as she finds that Ron is generally more popular.^[203]
• A rumour circulating on the Internet stated that early drafts of the second half of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire included a scene in which Harry lost his virginity, but that this scene was cut to avoid complaints from parents. J. K. Rowling confirmed that this rumour was false, however,^[204] later further clarifying that she «never wrote it, never announced it, and never edited it out».^[205]
• In a PotterCast interview, Rowling says when Harry faced Voldemort in the forest and didn’t defend himself that she never saw like a scientific equation and that Harry wasn’t guaranteed to survive, there has to be space, to make Harry truly heroic, for free will. It has to be his choice. The whole thing’s his choice. He chooses to sacrifice himself just as Lily chose to sacrifice herself. He chooses to pull himself back to life, and that’s his own will and courage. So ultimately, those things, all of them were more important than the magic.^[108]
• J. K. Rowling has stated:
  • Because of the demands of his life, Harry has had less sexual experience than boys of his age might have had.^[206]
  • Harry’s glasses are a clue to his vulnerability.^[207]
  • The character of Wart from T. H. White’s The Sword in the Stone is «Harry’s spiritual ancestor».^[208]
• «It was not an arbitrary decision: holly has certain connotations that were perfect for Harry, particularly when contrasted with the traditional associations of yew, from which Voldemort’s wand is made. European tradition has it that the holly tree (the name comes from ‘holy’) repels evil, while yew, which can achieve astonishing longevity (there are British yew trees over two thousand years old), can symbolise both death and resurrection; the sap is also poisonous. Some time after I had given Harry his holly-and-phoenix wand I came across a description of how the Celts had assigned trees to different parts of the year and discovered that, entirely by coincidence, I had assigned Harry the ‘correct’ wood for his day of birth.«^[209]

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (First appearance)
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (film)
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher’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)
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Mentioned only)
• Quidditch Through the Ages (Mentioned only)
• The Tales of Beedle the Bard (Mentioned only)
• Pottermore
• Wizarding World
• Harry Potter: A Pop-Up Book
• The Queen’s Handbag
• 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
• LEGO Harry Potter: Building the Magical World
• LEGO Harry Potter
• 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
• 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) (Appears as statue)
• Harry Potter: Wizards Unite
• Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells
• Harry Potter: Magic Awakened

External links

• Harry Potter Lexicon page
• Hogwarts Project — Harry Potter

Notes and references

Dumbledore’s Army
Founders
Harry Potter · Hermione Granger · Ronald Weasley
Leaders
Harry Potter · Neville Longbottom · Luna Lovegood · Ginny Weasley
Members
Gryffindor	Katie Bell · Lavender Brown · Colin Creevey · Dennis Creevey · Seamus Finnigan · Angelina Johnson · Lee Jordan · Cormac McLaggen · Parvati Patil · Alicia Spinnet · Dean Thomas · Romilda Vane · Fred Weasley · George Weasley · Nigel Wolpert · Unidentified female · Unidentified female (II)
Ravenclaw	Terry Boot · Cho Chang · Michael Corner · Marietta Edgecombe · Anthony Goldstein · Padma Patil · Maisy Reynolds · Unidentified male · Unidentified male (II) · Unidentified female
Hufflepuff	Hannah Abbott · Susan Bones · Justin Finch-Fletchley · Ernie Macmillan · Zacharias Smith · Leanne · Unidentified female
Unknown House	Luca Caruso · Alice Tolipan
Allies and other affiliations
Order of the Phoenix · Hogwarts staff · Augusta Longbottom · Andromeda Tonks · Ted Tonks · Percy Weasley · Oliver Wood · Grawp · Dobby · Winky · Hogwarts house-elves · Forbidden Forest Centaur colony · Hogwarts Hippogriff herd · Hogwarts Ghosts · Hogwarts students · Hogwarts Thestral herd

Order of the Phoenix
Founder: Albus Dumbledore
Leaders: Albus Dumbledore | Alastor Moody | Kingsley Shacklebolt
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 | James Potter | Lily Potter | Marlene McKinnon | 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 | Buckbeak | Dobby | Fawkes | Filius Flitwick | Firenze | Garrick Ollivander | Ginny Weasley | Grawp | Helena Ravenclaw | Horace Slughorn | Karkus | Karkus’s wife | Kreacher | Lee Jordan | Luna Lovegood | McKinnon family | Mr Westenberg | Mrs Westenberg | Muriel | Nearly-Headless Nick | Neville Longbottom | Oliver Wood | Olympe Maxime | Rita Skeeter | Peeves | Percy Weasley | Pomona Sprout | Poppy Pomfrey | Sybill Trelawney | Ted Tonks | The Fallen Fifty | Westenberg family | Winky | Xenophilius Lovegood
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 & Locations: Goblet of Fire • Casket • Golden egg • Hedge Maze • Triwizard Cup
Schools: Beauxbatons • Durmstrang • Hogwarts
1994-1995 Triwizard Champions: Fleur Delacour • Viktor Krum • Cedric Diggory • Harry Potter

Known owners of the Deathly Hallows

Elder Wand

Death (manufacturer) · Antioch Peverell · Antioch Peverell’s killer · Emeric the Evil · Egbert the Egregious · Godelot · Hereward · Barnabas Deverill · Loxias · Arcus or Livius · Mykew Gregorovitch · Gellert Grindelwald · Albus Dumbledore · Draco Malfoy (master only) · Tom Riddle (owner only) · Harry Potter · (Interred)

Resurrection Stone

Death (manufacturer) · Cadmus Peverell · (generations of Gaunts) · Marvolo Gaunt · Morfin Gaunt · Tom Riddle · Albus Dumbledore · Harry Potter · (Lost)

Cloak of Invisibility

Death (manufacturer) · Ignotus Peverell · Ignotus Peverell’s son · Iolanthe Potter · (generations of Potters) · Henry Potter · Fleamont Potter · James Potter I · Albus Dumbledore (owner only) · Harry Potter · James Potter II · Albus Potter

Hogwarts Duelling Club
Duelling Club Captains
Hogwarts: Gilderoy Lockhart · Severus Snape
Gryffindor: Angus Matlock
Hufflepuff: Duelling Club Captain
Ravenclaw: Alannis
Slytherin: Duelling Club Captain
Duelling 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 · Fawcett · Rebecca · Shoma Ichikawa · Terry Boot · 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
Duelling Club locations
Great Hall · Middle Courtyard · The Quad · Training Grounds

	Chocolate Frog Cards
Gold cards	Armando Dippet · Albus Dumbledore · Barberus Bragge · Bertie Bott · Carlotta Pinkstone · Dzou Yen · Falco Aesalon · Godric Gryffindor · Harry Potter · Herpo the Foul · Helga Hufflepuff · Montague Knightley · Phillipus von Hohenheim · Rowena Ravenclaw · Salazar Slytherin
Silver cards	Alberic Grunnion · Alberta Toothill · Andros the Invincible · Artemisia Lufkin · Blenheim Stalk · Bowman Wright · Chauncey Oldridge · Circe · Cliodna · Crispin Cronk · Cyprian Youdle · Daisy Dodderidge · Derwent Shimpling · Donaghan Tremlett · Dunbar Oglethorpe · Dymphna Furmage · Elfrida Clagg · Felix Summerbee · Fulbert the Fearful · Gaspard Shingleton · Gideon Crumb · Glenda Chittock · Gondoline Oliphant · Gregory the Smarmy · Gwenog Jones · Honoria Nutcombe · Ignatia Wildsmith · Joscelind Wadcock · Kirley Duke · Laverne de Montmorency · Leopoldina Smethwyck · Maeve · Mirabella Plunkett · Mopsus · Morgan le Fay · Oswald Beamish · Roderick Plumpton · Sacharissa Tugwood · Thaddeus Thurkell · Wendelin the Weird · Xavier Rastrick
Bronze cards	Adalbert Waffling · Almeric Sawbridge · Archibald Alderton · Balfour Blane · Beatrix Bloxam · Beaumont Marjoribanks · Bridget Wenlock · Burdock Muldoon · Cassandra Vablatsky · Celestina Warbeck · Cornelius Agrippa · Devlin Whitehorn · Dorcas Wellbeloved · Edgar Stroulger · Elladora Ketteridge · Ethelred the Ever-Ready · Flavius Belby · Gifford Ollerton · Glanmore Peakes · Glover Hipworth · Greta Catchlove · Grogan Stump · Gulliver Pokeby · Gunhilda de Gorsemoor · Havelock Sweeting · Hengist of Woodcroft · Heathcote Barbary · Herman Wintringham · Hesper Starkey · Jocunda Sykes · Justus Pilliwickle · Merlin · Merton Graves · Merwyn the Malicious · Miranda Goshawk · Mungo Bonham · Musidora Barkwith · Myron Wagtail · Newton Scamander · Norvel Twonk · Orsino Thruston · Perpetua Fancourt · Quong Po · Roland Kegg · Stoddard Withers · Tilly Toke · Uric the Oddball · Yardley Platt
Famous Vampires cards	Blodwyn Bludd · Vlad Drakul · Amarillo Lestoat · Carmilla Sanguina · Herbert Varney
Famous Hags cards	Babayaga · Malodora Grymm · Old Mother Hubbard · Cordelia Misericordia · Leticia Somnolens
Famous Giants cards	Bran the Bloodthirsty · Cyclops · Goliath · Morholt · Hengist of Upper Barnton
Famous Goblins cards	Alguff the Awful · Eargit the Ugly · Gringott · Ug the Unreliable · Urg the Unclean
Dragon cards	Common Welsh Green · Hebridean Black · Hungarian Horntail · Norwegian Ridgeback · Romanian Longhorn
Beast cards	Billywig · Bowtruckle · Doxy · Double-ended Newt · Giant Purple Toad · Giant Squid · Gnome · Gytrash · Imp · Kelpie · Manticore · Mountain Troll · Streeler · Phoenix · Unicorn