Plot introductionThroughout the six previous novels in the series, the titular character Harry Potter has struggled with the difficulties of adolescence along with being a famous wizard. When Harry was a baby, Lord Voldemort, a powerful evil wizard, murdered Harry's parents but vanished after attempting to kill Harry. Harry immediately became famous, and was placed in the care of his Muggle, or non-magical, relatives Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon.
In Philosopher's Stone, Harry re-enters the wizarding world at age 11 and enrolls in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He makes friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Harry also meets the school's headmaster, Dumbledore, and schoolmaster Severus Snape, who dislikes him. Harry fights Voldemort several times while at school, as the wizard tries to regain a physical form. In Goblet of Fire, Harry is entered in a dangerous magical competition called the Triwizard Tournament. At the conclusion of the Tournament, Harry witnesses the return of Lord Voldemort to full strength. During Order of Phoenix, the Ministry of Magic appoints Dolores Umbridge as the new High Inquisitor of Hogwarts. After forming an underground student group in opposition to Umbridge, Harry and several of his friends face off against Voldemort's Death Eaters, a group of Dark witches and wizards, and narrowly defeat them. In Half-Blood Prince, he learns that Voldemort has been using "horcruxes" to become immortal. These objects are fragments of a person's soul placed within an object so that when the body dies, a part of the soul remains and the person can be regenerated or resurrected.However, the destruction of the creator's body leaves the wizard or witch in a state of half-life, without corporeal form.When returning from a mission to discover a horcrux, Dumbledore is murdered by Snape, a former Death Eater whom Harry suspected of secretly remaining loyal to Voldemort. At the conclusion of the book, Harry decides to find and destroy Voldemort's remaining horcruxes to defeat the wizard.
Plot summaryFollowing 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 repeatedly encounter a strange symbol, that 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 Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange'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 while viewing the memories of 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 a 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 Neville Longbottom kills Voldemort's snake Nagini, the last horcrux, Harry finally defeats Voldemort, and the wizarding world lives in peace once more.
EpilogueThe novel, the last in the series, closes with a brief epilogue set 19 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 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."
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Harry James Potter is the title character and primary protagonist of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. The majority of the books' plot covers seven years in the life of the orphan Potter who, on his eleventh birthday, learns he is a wizard. Thus, he attends Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to practice magic under the guidance of the kindly headmaster Albus Dumbledore and other school professors. Harry also discovers that he is already famous throughout the novel's magical community, and that his fate is tied with that of Lord Voldemort, the nationally feared Dark Wizard and murderer of his mother and father.
Hermione Jean Granger is a fictional character and one of the three protagonists (the other two being Harry Potter and Ron Weasley) in J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. She initially appears in the first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, as a new student on her way to Hogwarts. After being saved in the girls' bathroom from a mountain troll by Harry and Ron, she becomes close friends with them and often uses her quick wit and encyclopaedic knowledge to help them. Rowling has stated that Hermione resembles her at a younger age, with her insecurity and fear of failure.
Ronald Bilius "Ron" Weasley is a fictional character and one of the three protagonists (the other two being Harry Potter and Hermione Granger) in the Harry Potter book series written by J. K. Rowling. His first appearance was in the first book of the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone as the best friend of Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. He is a member of the Weasley family, a pure blood family, who reside in "The Burrow" outside Ottery St. Catchpole. Along with Harry and Hermione, he is a member of the Gryffindor house. Ron is present in most of the action throughout the series due to his friendship with Harry. In the films, he is portrayed by Rupert Grint.
