Philosopher's Stone

Just before the start of the novel, Voldemort, the most powerful Dark wizard in history, killed Harry's parents but mysteriously vanished after trying to kill Harry. While the wizarding world is celebrating Voldemort's downfall, Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall and Hagrid place the one year-old orphan in the care of his Muggle (non-wizard) aunt and uncle, Vernon and Petunia Dursley.

For ten years, they and their son Dudley bully Harry. Shortly before Harry's eleventh birthday, a series of letters addressed to Harry arrive, but Vernon destroys them before Harry can read them. To get away from the letters, Vernon takes the family to a lonely island. As they are settling in, Hagrid bursts through the door to tell Harry what the Dursleys have kept him from finding out: Harry is a wizard and has been accepted at Hogwarts.

Hagrid takes Harry to Diagon Alley, a magically-concealed shopping precinct in London, where Harry is bewildered to discover how famous he is among wizards as "the boy who lived." He also finds that he is quite wealthy, since a bequest from his parents has remained on deposit at Gringotts Wizarding Bank. Guided by Hagrid, he buys the books and equipment he needs for Hogwarts. At the wand shop, he finds that the only wand that works well for him is the twin of Voldemort's. Both wands contain feathers from the same phoenix.

A month later Harry leaves the Dursleys' home to catch the Hogwarts Express from King's Cross railway station. There he meets the Weasley family, who show him how to pass through the magical wall to Platform 9¾, where the train is waiting. While on the train Harry makes friends with Ron Weasley, who tells him that someone tried to rob a vault at Gringotts. Another new pupil, Draco Malfoy, accompanied by his sidekicks Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, offers to advise Harry, but Harry dislikes Draco's arrogance and prejudice.

Before the term's first dinner in the school's Great Hall, the new pupils are allocated to houses by the magical Sorting Hat. When it is Harry's turn to be sorted, the Hat wonders whether he should be in Slytherin, but when Harry objects, the Hat sends him to join the Weasleys in Gryffindor. While Harry is eating, Professor Snape catches his eye and Harry feels a sudden stab of pain in the scar Voldemort left on his forehead.

After a horrible first Potions lesson with Snape, Harry and Ron visit Hagrid, who lives in a rustic house on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. There they learn that the attempted robbery at Gringotts happened the day Harry withdrew money. Harry remembers that Hagrid had removed a small package from the vault that was broken into and searched.

During the new pupils' first broom-flying lesson, Neville Longbottom breaks his wrist, and Draco takes advantage to throw the forgetful Neville's fragile Remembrall high in the air. Harry gives chase on his broomstick, catching the Remembrall inches from the ground. Professor McGonagall dashes out and appoints him as the new Seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

When Draco tricks Ron and Harry, accompanied by Neville and the bossy Hermione Granger, into a midnight excursion, they accidentally enter a forbidden corridor and find a huge three-headed dog. The group hastily retreats, and Hermione notices that the dog is standing over a trap-door. Harry concludes that the monster is guarding the package Hagrid retrieved from Gringotts.

After Ron criticizes Hermione's ostentatious proficiency in Charms, she hides in tears in the girls' toilet. Professor Quirrellreports that a troll has entered the dungeons. While everyone else returns to their dormitories, Harry and Ron rush to warn Hermione. The troll corners Hermione in the toilet but when Harry sticks his wand up one of its nostrils, Ron uses thelevitation spell to knock out the troll with its own club. Afterwards, several professors arrive and Hermione takes the blame for the battle and becomes a firm friend of the two boys.

The evening before Harry's first Quidditch match, he sees Snape receiving medical attention from Filch for a bite on his leg by the three-headed dog. During the game, Harry's broomstick goes out of control, endangering his life, and Hermione notices that Snape is staring at Harry and muttering. She dashes over to the Professors' stand, knocking over Professor Quirrell in her haste, and sets fire to Snape's robe. Harry regains control of his broomstick and catches the Golden Snitch, winning the game for Gryffindor. Hagrid refuses to believe that Snape was responsible for Harry's danger, but lets slip that he bought the three-headed dog, and that the monster is guarding a secret that belongs to Professor Dumbledore and someone called Nicolas Flamel.

Harry and the Weasleys stay at Hogwarts for Christmas, and one of Harry's presents, from an anonymous donor, is anInvisibility Cloak. Harry uses the Cloak to search the library's Restricted Section for information about the mysterious Flamel, has to evade Snape and Filch after an enchanted book shrieks an alarm, and slips into a room containing the Mirror of Erised, which shows his parents and several of their ancestors. Harry becomes addicted to the Mirror's visions and is rescued by Professor Dumbledore, who explains that it shows what the viewer most desperately longs for.

When the rest of the pupils return for the next term, Draco plays a prank on Neville, and Harry consoles Neville with a sweet. The collectible card wrapped with the sweet identifies Flamel as an alchemist. Hermione soon finds that he is a 665-year-old man who possesses the only known Philosopher's stone, from which can be extracted an elixir of life. A few days later Harry notices Snape sneaking towards the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest. There he half-hears a furtive conversation about the Philosopher's Stone, in which Snape asks Professor Quirrell if he has found a way past the three-headed dog and menacingly tells Quirrell to decide whose side he is on. Harry concludes that Snape is trying to steal the Stone and Quirrell has prepared a series of defences for it.

The three friends discover that Hagrid is raising a baby dragon, which is against wizard law, and arrange to smuggle it out of the country around midnight. Draco arrives, hoping to raise the alarm and get them into trouble, and Neville comes to warn them of Draco's mischief. Although Ron is bitten by the dragon and is sent to the infirmary, Harry and Hermione spirit the dragon safely away. However, they are caught, and Harry loses the Invisibility Cloak. As part of their punishment, Harry, Hermione, Draco and Neville are compelled to help Hagrid to rescue a badly-injured unicorn in the Forbidden Forest. They split into two parties, and Harry and Draco find the unicorn dead, surrounded by its blood. A hooded figure crawls to the corpse and drinks the blood, while Draco screams and flees. The hooded figure moves towards Harry, who is knocked out by an agonising pain spreading from his scar. When Harry regains consciousness, the hooded figure has gone and acentaur, Firenze, offers to give him a ride back to the school. The centaur tells Harry that drinking a unicorn's blood will save the life of a mortally injured person, but leave them only barely alive. Firenze suggests Voldemort drank the unicorn's blood to gain enough strength to make the elixir of life from the Philosopher's Stone, and regain full health by drinking that. On his return, Harry finds that someone has slipped the Invisibility Cloak under his sheets.

A few weeks later, while relaxing after the end-of-session examinations, Harry suddenly wonders how something as illegal as a dragon's egg came into Hagrid's possession. The gamekeeper says he was given it by a hooded stranger who bought him several drinks and asked him how to get past the three-headed dog, which Hagrid admits is easy – music sends it to sleep. Realising that one of the Philosopher's Stone's defences is no longer secure, Harry goes to inform Professor Dumbledore, only to find that the headmaster has just left for an important meeting. Harry concludes that Snape faked the message that called Dumbledore away and will try to steal the Stone that night.

Covered by the Invisibility Cloak, Harry and his two friends go to the three-headed dog's chamber, where Harry sends the beast to sleep by playing a flute. After lifting the trap-door, they encounter a series of obstacles, each of which requires special skills possessed by one of the three, and one of which requires Ron to sacrifice himself. In the final room Harry, now alone, finds Quirrell rather than Snape. Quirrell admits that he let in the troll that tried to kill Hermione in the toilet, and that he tried to kill Harry during the first Quidditch match but was knocked over by Hermione. Snape had been trying to protect Harry and suspected Quirrell. Quirrell serves Voldemort and, after failing to steal the Philosopher's Stone from Gringotts, allowed his master to possess him in order to improve their chances of success. However the only other object in the room is the Mirror of Erised, and Quirrell can see no sign of the Stone. At Voldemort's bidding, Quirrel forces Harry to stand in front of the Mirror. Harry feels the Stone drop into his pocket and tries to stall. Quirrell removes his turban, revealing the face of Voldemort on the back of his head. Voldemort/Quirrell tries to grab the Stone from Harry, but simply touching Harry causes Quirrell's flesh to burn. After further struggles Harry passes out.

He awakes in the school hospital, where Professor Dumbledore tells him that he survived because his mother sacrificed her life to protect him, and Voldemort could not understand the power of such love. Voldemort left Quirrell to die, and is likely to return by some other means. Dumbledore had foreseen that the Mirror would show Voldemort/Quirrell only themselves making the elixir of life, as they wanted to use the Philosopher's Stone; Harry was able to see the Stone in the Mirror because he wanted to find it but not to use it. The Stone has now been destroyed.

Harry returns to the Dursleys for the summer holiday, but does not tell them that under-age wizards are forbidden to use magic outside Hogwarts.

[Credit: Wikipedia]

Chamber of Secrets

In the first book in the series, the main character, Harry Potter, has struggled with the difficulties of growing up and the added challenge of being a famous wizard. When Harry was a baby, Voldemort, the most powerful Dark wizard in history, killed Harry's parents but mysteriously vanished after trying to kill Harry. This results in Harry's immediate fame and his being placed in the care of his Muggle, or non-magical, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon.

Harry enters the wizarding world at the age of eleven and is enrolled in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He makes friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger and is confronted by Lord Voldemort trying to regain power.

Soon after the start of Harry's second year at Hogwarts, messages on the walls of the corridors say that the mythical Chamber of Secrets has been re-opened and that the "heir of Slytherin" will kill all pupils whose parents are both Muggles. Over the next few months, various inhabitants of the school are found petrified in corridors. Meanwhile, Harry, Ron, and Hermione discover Moaning Myrtle, the ghost of a girl who was killed the last time the Chamber was opened and now haunts the girls' toilet in which she died. Myrtle shows Harry a diary bearing the name Tom Marvolo Riddle. Although its pages are blank, it responds when Harry writes in it. Eventually the book shows him Hogwarts as it was fifty years ago. There he sees Tom Riddle, Head Boy at the time, blame Rubeus Hagrid, who was then thirteen years old and already kept dangerous creatures as pets, for opening the Chamber.

Four months later the diary is stolen, and shortly afterward Hermione is petrified. However, she holds a note explaining that the culprit is a basilisk, a huge serpent whose gaze kills those who look into its eyes directly but only petrifies those who see their reflection. Hermione concluded that the monster travels through the school's pipes and emerges through the toilet Myrtle haunts. As the attacks continue, Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic, holds Hagrid in the wizards' prison as a precaution. Lucius Malfoy, Draco's father and a former supporter of Voldemort who claims to have reformed, announces that the school's governors have suspended Dumbledore from the position of headmaster.

After Ron's younger sister, Ginny, is taken into the Chamber, the staff insist that the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher,Gilderoy Lockhart, should handle the situation. However, when Harry and Ron go to his office to tell him what they have discovered about the basilisk, Lockhart reveals that he is a fraud who took credit for the accomplishments of others and attempts to erase the boys' memories. Disarming Lockhart, they march him to Moaning Myrtle's toilet, where Harry opens the passage to the Chamber of Secrets. In the sewers under the school, Lockhart grabs Ron's wand and tries again to wipe the boys' memories, but since Ron's wand had been damaged, the spell backfires, inflicting total amnesia on Lockhart, collapsing part of the tunnel, and separating Harry from Ron and Lockhart.

While Ron attempts to tunnel through the rubble, Harry enters the Chamber of Secrets, where Ginny lies beside the diary. As he examines her, Tom Riddle appears, looking exactly as he did fifty years ago, and explains that he is a memory stored in the diary. Ginny wrote in it about her adolescent hopes and fears, and Riddle won her confidence by appearing sympathetic, possessed her, and used her to open the Chamber. Riddle also reveals that he is Voldemort as a boy. He further explains that he learned from Ginny who Harry was and about his own deeds as Voldemort. When Ginny realised that she had been responsible for the attacks, she attempted to throw the diary away, which is how it came into Harry's possession. Riddle then releases the basilisk to kill Harry. Dumbledore's pet phoenix, Fawkes, brings a magnificent sword wrapped in theSorting Hat. Harry uses the sword to kill the basilisk, but only after being bitten by the creature's venomous fangs, one of which breaks off. As Riddle gloats over the dying Harry, Fawkes cries on Harry's wound to cure it. Harry stabs the diary with the broken fang, and Riddle vanishes. Ginny revives and they return to Ron, who is still watching over the amnesic Lockhart. Fawkes carries all four out of the tunnels.

Harry recounts the whole story to Dumbledore, who has been reinstated. When Harry mentions his fears that he is similar to Tom Riddle, Dumbledore says that Harry chose Gryffindor House, and only a true member of that House could have used Godric Gryffindor's sword to kill the basilisk. Lucius Malfoy bursts in, and Harry accuses him of slipping the diary into one of Ginny's books while the pupils were shopping for school books. Finally, the basilisk's petrified victims are revived by a potion, the preparation of which has taken several months.

[Credit: Wikipedia]

Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger return to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and find security has been tightened because ofSirius Black's escape. The grounds are now guarded by Dementors, dark, sinister beings that drain the happiness of anyone nearby and guard Azkaban prison. They also cause Harry to hear his parents. Professor Remus Lupin, the school's newDefence Against the Dark Arts teacher, tells Harry he is more vulnerable to the Dementors because he has seen genuine horrors in his past. He agrees to teach Harry the Patronus Charm, a shield against the Dementors.

Harry is depressed to learn he will not be allowed to visit Hogsmeade, the local village, because Uncle Vernon refused to sign Harry's form. He is also angry withDraco Malfoy for ruining Hagrid's first lesson as Care of Magical Creatures teacher. Malfoy causes himself to be attacked by Buckbeak, Hagrid's beloved Hippogriff, and his father ensures that Buckbeak is sentenced to be executed in the course of the year. Hermione uses a Time-Turner to travel in time and attend classes held at the same time. Black manages to break into the castle twice, but is unable to reach Harry. Fred and George Weasley show Harry a secret passageway to Hogsmeade and give him the Marauder's Map.

Ron discovers that Scabbers, his rat, has disappeared and believes he has been eaten by Crookshanks, Hermione's cat, causing a falling-out between him and Hermione. Hermione later finds Scabbers in Hagrid's hut when the three of them visit him before Buckbeak's execution. On their way back from the hut, Ron is suddenly attacked by a large black dog and dragged into a passage beneath theWhomping Willow, a magical tree. Harry and Hermione receive a brutal beating from the Whomping Willow before entering the passageway.

Harry and Hermione follow the sounds of Ron's screams and find themselves in an old, boarded-up shack known as theShrieking Shack. They also discover that the dog is Sirius Black, who is an Animagus. Harry attempts to attack Black when Lupin arrives. Hermione confronts Lupin about habits she has observed during her classes with him. She says she figured out that Professor Lupin was a werewolf after completing one of Professor Snape's essays, and the characteristics are similar to Lupin's. Lupin then admits to being a werewolf. Lupin explains that he, Black, Pettigrew, and James Potter, Harry's father, were great friends and wrote the Marauder's Map. To make Lupin's transformations more enjoyable, his friends all became Animagi, humans who can turn into animals at will. The Marauders remained friends after growing up, and when they learned Voldemort was after the Potters, Black became their Secret-Keeper. However, Black then reveals that he had secretly switched this duty with Pettigrew in order to serve as a decoy. Black states Pettigrew is the betrayer and, rather than being murdered by Black, is actually Scabbers. Professor Snape suddenly barges in on the scene and threatens Lupin and Black with his wand, and taunts Black with threats of turning him over to the Dementors. However, Harry, Hermione, and Ron all attack Professor Snape with the same spell, thus knocking Snape out.This allowed Lupin and Black to take Scabbers from Ron and revert him back into Pettigrew.

Pettigrew admits to the story, but Harry stops Black and Lupin from killing him and becoming murderers themselves. Instead, Harry persuades them to take Pettigrew back to Hogwarts in order to clear Sirius's name. However, as they return to the castle, the full moon emerges and Lupin transforms into a werewolf. Pettigrew transforms back into a rat and escapes while Lupin loses control in his wolf form. Black is knocked out by Lupin, who is about to kill Harry when a strange howl alerts Lupin and lures him away from Harry. Harry finds an unconscious Sirius lying by a pond, where Dementors suddenly descend on the pair and nearly kill them. They are saved at the last minute by a strange figure using the Patronus Charm, which Harry believes to have been cast by his father. Harry then passes out.

Harry awakes in the castle to learn that Black has been captured. To save him, Harry and Hermione use the Time-Turner to travel back in time and prevent his capture. Harry and Hermione rescue Buckbeak and re-watch the scenes of the night, until they see the Dementors cornering Harry and Sirius. Harry is determined to see who sent the Patronus, only to realize that it was himself. Sirius is rescued and flees on Buckbeak; Lupin, outed as a werewolf, resigns. Harry stated that Professor Lupin was the best Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher he ever had. Harry is worried that Pettigrew may help Voldemort to return, but Dumbledore says Harry may be grateful that he helped save Pettigrew's life.

[Credit: Wikipedia]

Goblet of Fire

The book opens with Harry Potter having a dream about Frank Bryce, the ex-caretaker at the Riddle family mansion, who is caught eavesdropping on a deformed Lord Voldemort and his servant, Peter Pettigrew. In Harry's dream, Bryce is killed by Voldemort. Later in the summer, Harry, Hermione Granger, and the Weasley family take a trip to the Quidditch World Cup. While there, Death Eaters, Voldemort's servants, storm the grounds, harass some muggles, and run away when they see the Dark Mark in the sky.

Albus Dumbledore announces during the welcoming feast that the school will host the Triwizard Tournament, an inter-school competition. One student from each of three magical schools will be chosen by the Goblet of Fire to compete. The other two magical institutions, Beauxbatons Academy, and Durmstrang Institute, arrive at Hogwarts two months into the school term. The champions chosen by the goblet were Fleur Delacour from Beauxbatons, Viktor Krum of Durmstrang, and Cedric Diggory of Hogwarts. Mysteriously, Harry is also chosen, even though he did not submit his name. Ron Weasley is instantly infuriated, thinking Harry submitted himself, and their friendship suffers.

The new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor is Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, a former Auror and Dumbledore's friend. In class, he illegally talks about and demonstrates the three Unforgivable Curses: the Imperius Curse, which forces the victim to do the caster's bidding; the Cruciatus Curse, a spell that tortures its victim; and the Killing Curse, Avada Kedavra. Harry learns he and Voldemort are the only known persons who have survived the Killing Curse, cast against him by Voldemort when he was a baby. Because of his mother's loving sacrifice Harry survives the curse and the curse rebounds over Lord Voldemort.

In the first of the three tasks of the Triwizard Tournament, the champions are to collect a golden egg guarded by a dragon. Harry completes the task with hints from Rubeus Hagrid and Moody. Following the first task, Ron and Harry mend their broken friendship. The second task requires retrieving something important that was taken from each champion and hidden in the Hogwarts lake. Ten minutes before the task, Harry is given gillyweed by Dobby so he can breathe underwater. Harry finds the four "important objects" of the tournament's contestants: Ron, Hermione, Cho Chang, and Fleur’s little sister,Gabrielle Delacour. He is forced to rescue Gabrielle along with Ron when Fleur does not come, so he loses the challenge but gains points for 'moral fibre.'

One night, Harry and Krum are startled when a dishevelled Barty Crouch, Sr. emerges from the forest, mumbling nonsense and demanding to see Dumbledore. Harry runs for help, but when he returns with Dumbledore, they find Krum unconscious and Crouch missing. Harry learns more about the Crouches when he sees one of Dumbledore's memories in the Pensieve, a memory-storing tool. The memory shows Barty Crouch, Jr., a Death Eater, sentenced to Azkaban by his father for helping Bellatrix Lestrange torture Frank and Alice Longbottom, Neville's parents, into insanity.

The third and final tournament task involves navigating a labyrinth filled with magical obstacles. Harry and Cedric successfully help each other navigate the maze. They reach the Triwizard cup and agree to take hold of it simultaneously, making both of them winners. The Cup turns out to be a portkey that transports them to an old graveyard in Little Hangleton, where they see Pettigrew and a deformed Lord Voldemort. Pettigrew kills Cedric and ties Harry to the Riddle tombstone. He then uses a bone from Voldemort's father's grave, some of Harry's blood, and his own cut-off hand in a magical ritual that restores Lord Voldemort to a new body.

Voldemort summons the Death Eaters and reveals that a servant of his at Hogwarts ensured that Harry would participate in the tournament, win it, and thus be brought to the graveyard. Harry tries to disarm Voldemort with the Expelliarmus spell at exactly the same time that Voldemort uses the Killing Curse. Since the wands are twins, the two spells meet and interlock, causing a bond between the wands that displays the "echoes" of Voldemort's most recent victims, including Frank Bryce, Cedric, Bertha Jorkins, James Potter, and Lily Potter. The echoes provide protection to Harry, allowing him to escape with Cedric's body and leave Voldemort behind in a rage.

Harry, carrying Cedric's body, returns to the school grounds by using the portkey. Moody rushes Harry to his office, where he reveals that he was Voldemort's servant and attempts to kill Harry himself. Moody is stopped by Dumbledore, Severus Snape, and Minerva McGonagall. Dumbledore feeds Moody Veritaserum, and they discover that "Moody" is actually Barty Crouch, Jr., who was smuggled out of Azkaban and was using a Polyjuice Potion to impersonate the real Alastor Moody.Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic, arrives at Hogwarts but refuses to believe Dumbledore's and Harry's word that Voldemort is back.

Harry is crowned Triwizard Champion and awarded with 1,000 galleons. Days later, Dumbledore makes an announcement at the gloomy Leaving Feast, telling everybody about Voldemort. While leaving the Hogwarts Express on King's Cross Station, Harry gives his winnings to Fred and George so they can start a joke shop.

[Credit: Wikipedia]

Order of the Phoenix

This novel begins when Harry and his cousin, Dudley Dursley, are attacked by dementors. Harry uses magic to fight them off and must attend a disciplinary hearing for underage magic. In response to Voldemort's reappearance, Dumbledore has re-activated the Order of the Phoenix, a secret society which works to defeat Voldemort's minions and protect his targets. Despite Harry's description of Voldemort's recent activities, the Ministry of Magic and many others in the magical world refuse to believe that Voldemort has returned, and are causing a smear campaign against Harry and Dumbledore.

In an attempt to enforce its version of the school curriculum, the Ministry appoints Dolores Umbridge as the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher of Hogwarts. She transforms the school into a quasi-dictatorial regime and refuses to teach the students to defend themselves against dark magic. She is later installed as a school inspector, and finally as Headmistress after Dumbledore is forced to flee. Harry's friends Ron and Hermione persuade him to form a secret study group and teach his classmates the higher-level skills he has learned. He also meets Luna Lovegood, an airy yet good hearted young witch with a tendency to believe in oddball conspiracy theories. He also discovers that he and Voldemort have a telepathic connection, allowing Harry to view some of Voldemort's actions.

In the novel's climax, Voldemort lures Harry into the Ministry of Magic in a plot to steal a record of a prophecy which concerns Harry and Voldemort. Harry and his friends face off against Voldemort's Death Eaters in a battle, during which the prophecy is smashed. The timely arrival of members of the Order of the Phoenix saves the children's lives, but Sirius Black, Harry's godfather, is killed in battle by Bellatrix Lestrange. In the entrance hall, Harry comes face to face with Voldemort for the fourth time in his life, but is saved by Dumbledore who engages with the Dark Lord in a ferocious duel. In the end, most Death Eaters are captured, and the return of Voldemort is confirmed within the magical world.

In the aftermath of the battle, Dumbledore explains to Harry that just before his birth, a prophecy was made saying that a child was being born with the power to defeat Voldemort. The prophecy could have referred to Harry or Neville Longbottom, but it was Harry that Voldemort chose to hunt down. Since his return, Voldemort has been determined to find out the rest of the Self-fulfilling prophecy, which Dumbledore reveals to Harry: firstly, "the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal", and that "neither can live as the other survives" – ultimately, either Harry or Voldemort will kill the other.

[Credit: Wikipedia]

Half-Blood Prince

Harry Potter and his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, return toHogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for their sixth year of magical education. Before Returning they find out that Emmeline Vance and Amelia Susan Bones are murdered by Lord Voldemort. It is announced that Severus Snape has become the new Defence Against the Dark Arts instructor, while Horace Slughornhas taken Snape's place as Potions teacher. Harry discovers that the previous owner of his Potions textbook, the "Half-Blood Prince", has annotated the book with refinements that allow Harry to excel in class and become a favourite of Slughorn's. Slughorn is also intrigued by the rumour that Harry is the "Chosen One" who will finally kill the evil Lord Voldemort, who has recently regained power and is set on conquering the wizarding world.

Harry recognises his attraction to Ginny Weasley, but fears that acting on it will harm his friendship with Ron, her overprotective older brother. Ron begins dating Lavender Brown, causing a rift between him and Hermione, who secretly harbours feelings for him. The rift heals only when Ron is nearly killed by poisoned meadintended for Hogwarts' headmaster, Albus Dumbledore. Harry suspects that his nemesis, Draco Malfoy, has become one of Voldemort's supporters and believes he was behind both the mead and a previous failed attack on Dumbledore's life. However, no one seems to believe him.

During private meetings held throughout the year, Dumbledore uses his Pensieve to show Harry memories of Voldemort's past. A memory Harry procures from Slughorn confirms Dumbledore's suspicion that Voldemort splintered his soul into seven fragments in order to achieve near immortality. Six of these fragments are contained in magical objects called Horcruxes, which must be destroyed before Voldemort can be killed. Two Horcruxes have already been destroyed: Tom Riddle's diary, which Harry stabbed with a basilisk fang in his second year, and Voldemort's grandfather's ring, which Dumbledore destroyed during the summer. Dumbledore suspects that the remaining Horcruxes are Voldemort's pet snake Nagini and objects formerly owned by Hogwarts' founders: Salazar Slytherin's locket, Helga Hufflepuff's cup, and an unidentified object of Rowena Ravenclaw's.

After Snape sees Harry cast a curse from the Half-Blood Prince's book and attempts to confiscate the book, Harry hides it in the Room of Requirement. Harry's Hogwarts House, Gryffindor, wins the school's Quidditch championship; euphoric, Harry spontaneously kisses Ginny, and with Ron's diffident approval, they start dating.

Dumbledore locates a Horcrux and asks Harry for help destroying it. They travel to a cave and retrieve what they believe to be Salazar's locket, but Dumbledore is severely weakened after drinking the magical potion that protects the Horcrux. They return to Hogwarts and see Voldemort's symbol hovering over Hogwarts's Astronomy Tower. At the top of the tower, Dumbledore is confronted by Draco. Draco admits that he was behind the attacks on Dumbledore's life, as Voldemort had ordered Draco to kill him and would kill Draco if he failed, but he cannot bring himself to kill Dumbledore on the spot. However, Snape arrives and kills Dumbledore. Enraged, Harry pursues Snape, who fends off Harry's attacks and reveals that he is the Half-Blood Prince shortly before disapparating.

Harry recovers the locket from Dumbledore's body, only to discover that it is a fake left by someone with the initials R. A. B., who stole the real Horcrux and left a note declaring his opposition to Voldemort. The school year ends with Dumbledore's funeral; he and his wand are buried in a tomb beside the lake on Hogwarts' grounds. After the funeral, Harry breaks up with Ginny, fearing that Voldemort will target her if they continue to see each other. He, Ron, and Hermione decide not to return to school the following year, but to hunt for the remaining Horcruxes instead.

[Credit: Wikipedia]

Deathly Hallows

Following Dumbledore's death, Voldemort completes his ascension to power and gains control of the Ministry of Magic. Harry, Ron, and Hermione leave Hogwarts to hunt and destroy Voldemort's remaining horcruxes. They isolate themselves to ensure their friends and families' safety. They have little knowledge about the remaining horcruxes except the possibility that two are objects once belonging to Hogwarts founders Rowena Ravenclaw and Helga Hufflepuff, and the third may be Nagini, Voldemort's snake familiar. The whereabouts of the two founders' objects is unknown, and Nagini is presumed to be with Voldemort. As they search for the Horcruxes, the trio learn more about Dumbledore's past.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione recover the first horcrux, Salazar Slytherin's locket, by infiltrating the Ministry of Magic. Under the object's evil influence and the stress of being on the run, Ron leaves the others. A mysterious silver doe leads Harry to the Sword of Godric Gryffindor, among the few objects able to destroy Horcruxes. When Harry attempts to recover the sword, the horcrux attempts to kill him. Ron reappears, saving Harry and using the sword to destroy the locket. Resuming their search, the trio continually encounter a strange symbol, which an eccentric wizard named Xenophilius Lovegood tells them represents the mythical Deathly Hallows. The Hallows are three sacred objects: the Resurrection Stone, with the power to summon the dead to the living world; the Elder Wand, an unbeatable wand; and an infallible Invisibility Cloak. Harry learns that Voldemort is seeking the Elder Wand, but is unaware of the other Hallows and their significance. Harry decides that finding Voldemort's horcruxes is more important than procuring the Hallows. They break into a Death Eater's vault at the Wizarding Bank Gringotts to recover another horcrux, Helga Hufflepuff's cup. Harry learns that another Horcrux is hidden in Hogwarts. Harry, Ron, and Hermione enter the school and find the Horcrux, the Diadem of Ravenclaw, and destroy the cup and the diadem.

Voldemort and his followers besiege Hogwarts. Harry, Ron, and Hermione, their allies, and various magical creatures defend Hogwarts. Several major characters are killed in the first wave of the battle, including Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks,Fred Weasley, and Severus Snape. Harry discovers whilst viewing the memories of Severus Snape that Voldemort inadvertently made Harry a horcrux when he attacked him as a baby and that Harry must die to destroy Voldemort. These memories also confirm Snape's unwavering loyalty to Dumbledore and his role as spy in Voldemort's camp. Harry surrenders himself to Voldemort, who casts the Killing Curse at him, sending Harry to Limbo-like state between life and death. There, Dumbledore explains that when Voldemort used Harry's blood to regain his full strength, it protected Harry from Voldemort harming him; the Horcrux inside Harry has been destroyed, and Harry can return to his body despite being hit by the Killing Curse. Harry returns, the battle resumes, and after the last horcrux is destroyed, Voldemort is killed, and the wizarding worldlives in peace once more.

The novel, the last in the series, closes with a brief epilogue set nineteen years later, in which Harry and Ginny Weasley are a married couple with three children: James Sirius, Albus Severus, and Lily Luna. Ron and Hermione married and have two children, Rose and Hugo. The families meet at King's Cross station, where a nervous Albus is departing for his first year at Hogwarts. Harry's godson, Teddy Lupin, is found kissing Bill and Fleur Weasley's daughter Victoire in a train carriage. Harry sees Draco Malfoy and his wife (revealed on Rowling's website behind the door as Astoria Greengrass) with their son, Scorpius. Neville Longbottom is now the Hogwarts Herbology professor and remains friends with the two families. Harry comforts Albus, who is worried he will be sorted into Slytherin, and tells his son that one of his two namesakes, Severus Snape, was a Slytherin and the bravest man he had ever met. He adds that the Sorting Hat takes one's choice into account, like it did for Harry. The book ends with these final words: "The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well."

[Credit: Wikipedia]