Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001)
We first meet Harry at the age of eleven as a neglected child who discovers he is a wizard. His father, James Potter, fell victim to the dark wizard Voldemort, and Harry ended up with the Dursleys, in the “room” under the stairs. The Dursleys take a dim view of Harry discovering his abilities and stop the letters from Hogwarts reaching him. Hagrid eventually solves the delivery problem, and later helps Harry buy his school supplies so he can study at Hogwarts. On the journey there he becomes friends with Hermione and Ron. As the three begin to get to know the wizarding world, they come across a description of the Philosopher’s Stone in a book. They suspect Snape wants to steal it for Voldemort, who is hiding in the Forbidden Forest and feeding on unicorn blood. When they set out to protect the Stone, they discover that it is in fact Professor Quirrell who is trying to steal it for Voldemort. Quirrell and Voldemort could only have obtained the Stone through Harry, and they fail: Quirrell dies, and Voldemort’s spirit leaves his body.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)
After the summer, Harry manages to return to Hogwarts. Several strange things happen at the school: Filch’s cat Mrs Norris, Nearly Headless Nick and a student are all found petrified. Beside the first victim, someone has written on the wall in blood: “The Chamber of Secrets has been opened The Chamber of Secrets. Enemies of the heir, beware.” Hermione and the others suspect Draco is behind the petrifications; disguised as a Slytherin student, Hermione questions him and concludes that he isn’t. Hermione is then petrified herself. On Hagrid’s advice, Harry and Ron seek out Aragog, who reveals that a basilisk living in the Chamber of Secrets is petrifying the inhabitants of Hogwarts. Using Tom Riddle’s diary, Harry and Ron find the Chamber. Riddle turns out to be Voldemort’s younger self, and he tries to have the basilisk kill Harry — but with Fawkes’s help Harry kills the basilisk, and then destroys the diary with one of its fangs.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Harry begins to learn about his own family’s history and believes his parents were betrayed by Sirius Black, who has just escaped from Azkaban. The Fat Lady, whose portrait guards the Gryffindor common room, disappears into another painting and claims that Sirius Black tried to get into the school. Dementors search for Sirius constantly: they stop the Hogwarts train and circle the school. When Ron’s rat runs off and he chases it, a huge black dog seizes him and drags him into a tunnel beneath the Whomping Willow. Following Ron, Harry finds Sirius Black in the tunnel — Sirius is an Animagus and can turn into a dog. Ron’s rat turns out to be Peter Pettigrew: it was he, not Sirius, who betrayed Harry’s parents, faked his own death and made it look as though Sirius had killed him too. The Ministry of Magic would never believe Sirius, so with a device given to them by Dumbledore, Harry and Hermione travel back in time and help him escape.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry takes part in the Triwizard Tournament, a three-task contest between three wizarding schools. The first task is to retrieve a golden egg guarded by a dragon; the second, to find within an hour a person taken by the merpeople to the bottom of the Hogwarts lake; the third, to cross a maze full of monsters and reach the Triwizard Cup. When the champions reach the cup in the final task they find themselves in a graveyard: the cup was a Portkey. There Wormtail and Voldemort appear, and using Harry’s blood Wormtail gives Voldemort a new body. Professor Moody, who mentored Harry throughout the tournament, had been working all along to deliver him to Voldemort so that the Dark Lord could return in physical form.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)
This time Harry doesn’t get back to Hogwarts as easily after the summer: he used his wand outside the wizarding world again and was expelled, though after a hearing before the Wizengamot, and thanks to Dumbledore’s argument, he is cleared. The Ministry of Magic refuses to believe Harry about Voldemort’s return. Several Death Eaters escape from Azkaban; they capture all the children except Harry and kill Sirius. Voldemort fails to kill Dumbledore, and when he tries to attack through Harry’s mind, Harry manages to fight him off.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Voldemort now poses a far greater threat to the wizarding world. Harry and his friends begin studying potions under Slughorn from second-hand textbooks. Harry’s copy once belonged to someone called the Half-Blood Prince, who annotated it heavily — and thanks to those notes Harry easily becomes a master of potions. Dumbledore asks Harry to draw out of Slughorn a memory he is hiding about Tom Riddle. Harry succeeds, and it emerges that Riddle created Horcruxes: objects containing fragments of his soul, so that he can only be killed once they are destroyed. Voldemort had given Draco the task of killing Dumbledore; unable to do it, Draco is replaced by Snape, who kills Dumbledore instead. Harry tries to curse Snape but fails, and learns that Snape is the Half-Blood Prince. Harry and his friends then set out to destroy the Horcruxes.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1
Voldemort’s Death Eaters infiltrate the Ministry of Magic and begin persecuting Muggles. The Order of the Phoenix rescues Harry from the Dursleys, where he would be an easy target, but Voldemort’s followers ambush the escaping group. Because Harry’s and Voldemort’s wands share the same core, Voldemort cannot destroy Harry’s. Harry and his friends continue destroying the Horcruxes, and while doing so are captured by Death Eaters — Dobby frees them.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2
Voldemort grows stronger and takes complete control of the Ministry of Magic. He realises that Harry and his friends have discovered the Horcruxes and accidentally reveals that one last Horcrux is at Hogwarts. The Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore’s Army defend the school against the Death Eaters. The final confrontation between Harry and Voldemort begins in the Forbidden Forest, where Harry now knows that he himself is the last Horcrux. He lets Voldemort cast the killing curse and collapses, but does not die — only the Horcrux within him is destroyed. Harry feigns death and later faces the Dark Lord again at the school, where Voldemort is finally killed by his own killing curse.
