The the first book: After murdering Harry's parents, James and Lily Potter, evil Lord Voldemort put a killing curse on Harry, then just a baby. The curse inexplicably reverses, defeating Voldemort and searing a lightning-bolt scar in the middle of the infant's forehead. Harry is then left at the doorstep of his boring but brutish aunt and uncle, the Dursleys.
For 10 years, Harry lives in the cupboard under the stairs and is subjected to cruel mistreatment by Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, and their son Dudley. On his 11th birthday, Harry receives a letter inviting him to study magic at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Harry discovers that not only is he a wizard, but he is a famous one. He meets two best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, and makes his first enemy, Draco Malfoy. At Hogwarts, the three friends are all placed in the Gryffindor house. Harry has a knack for the school sport, Quidditch, and is recruited onto the Gryffindor team as its star Seeker.
Perusing the restricted section in the library, Harry discovers that the Sorcerer's Stone produces the Elixir of Life, which gives its drinker the gift of immortality. After realizing that Voldemort might be after the stone, Albus Dumbledore had it moved it Hogwarts for safekeeping.
Harry finds out that when she died, Lily Potter transferred to her son ancient magical protection from Voldemort's lethal spells. This protection is what allowed Harry as an infant to survive Voldemort's attack. It also helps Harry keep Voldemort from possessing the Stone, which Dumbledore agrees to destroy.
The second book: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets begins when Harry is spending a miserable summer with his only remaining family, the Dursleys. During a dinner party hosted by his uncle and aunt, Harry is visited by Dobby, a house-elf. Dobby warns Harry not to return to Hogwarts, the magical school for wizards that Harry attended the previous year. Harry politely disregards the warning, and Dobby wreaks into the kitchen, infuriating the Dursleys. The Dursleys angrily imprison Harry in his room for the rest of the summer. Luckily, Harry's friend Ron Weasley steals Harry away in a flying car, and Harry happily spends the rest of the summer at the Weasley home.
While shopping for school supplies with the Weasleys, Harry has two unfortunate encounters. He first encounters Lockhart, one of his teachers, who demands to be in a photoshoot with Harry. Harry then encounters Lucius Malfoy, the evil father of one of Harry's enemies, who almost starts a fight with Mr. Weasley. As Harry prepares to return to Hogwarts, he finds that he and Ron are unable to enter the magically invisible train platform, so they fly the Weasley car to Hogwarts. They land messily, and both boys are given detentions. Lockhart, who believes Harry flew the car to get attention, lectures Harry.
Quidditch practices begin and Draco Malfoy is the new Slytherin seeker. On the field, he calls Hermione a "mudblood," insulting her Muggle heritage. After taunting Hermione, Draco is the suspect when, on Halloween night, someone petrifies the school caretaker's cat and writes a threatening message. Before the cat is attacked, Harry twice hears an eerie voice. He hears it first during his detention and second during a party, moments before the cat is attacked. Everybody in the school is alarmed. By doing some research, Harry, Ron, and Hermione learn that fifty years ago a chamber at Hogwarts was opened and a student was killed.
Playing for Gryffindor, Harry wins the Quidditch match against Slytherin. During the game, an enchanted ball hits Harry and causes him to lose the bones in his arm. Dobby, a house-elf, has enchanted the ball to have Harry injured and sent home. That night, Harry sees the body of a first-year who has been petrified arrive at the hospital. Soon after, Lockhart begins a dueling club. During the first meeting, Harry terrifies his fellow students by speaking in Parseltongue to a snake. Harry's ability frightens the others because only the heir of Slytherin, who is responsible for opening the chamber, would have the ability to converse with snakes. Harry comes under further suspicion when he stumbles upon the petrified bodies of Justin Finch-Fletchley and Nearly- Headless Nick.
Determined to catch the culprit, Ron, Harry and Hermione brew a potion called Polyjuice. The potion allows them to assume the bodies of Slytherins and question Malfoy on the Chamber of Secrets. They find out that Malfoy is not the heir of Slytherin. No more attacks occur for a while, and right before Valentine's Day, Harry finds a diary in the broken toilet. The diary belongs to a ghost named Moaning Myrtle who haunts the girls' restroom. Harry writes in the diary, which response by writing back. Through this dialogue, Harry meets Tom Riddle, a boy who many years before had accused Hagrid of opening the Chamber of Secrets.
Hermione and a Ravenclaw girl are mysteriously petrified. Harry and Ron venture out of the castle to question Hagrid. Before they reach Hagrid, the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, and Lucius Malfoy remove Dumbledore and Hagrid from Hogwarts. As Hagrid is led away, he instructs the boys that by following the spiders, they can find out about the Chamber monster. Several nights later, Harry and Ron sneak into the Forbidden Forest to follow the spiders. They discover the monster who killed the girl fifty years before was not a spider, that the girl's body was found in a bathroom, and that Hagrid is innocent. The boys are almost killed by a colony of giant spiders. As they escape, Harry and Ron decide that Moaning Myrtle must have been the girl killed by the monster.
A few days later, Ron and Harry discover a piece of paper with a description of a basilisk on it in Hermione's frozen hand. They deduce the Chamber monster is a basilisk. Before the boys can act on their knowledge, the teachers announce that Ginny Weasley has been taken into the chamber. Ron, Harry, and Lockhart slide down a secret passage in Myrtle's bathroom to underground tunnels. When Lockhart accidentally curses himself, Ron helps him and Harry leaves them behind. Harry enters the Chamber of Secrets and encounters Ginny's still body and Tom Riddle. Tom turns out to be a younger version of Voldemort, who has been enchanting Ginny through his journal. Harry calls for help from Dumbledore. A phoenix and a magic hat arrive. Tom summons a basilisk, but the phoenix punctures its eyes. The hat produces a sword, which Harry uses to kill the giant snake. Harry sticks a basilisk fang through the diary, destroying Tom. Ginny wakes up.
Harry explains his adventure to Dumbledore. Lucius Malfoy storms into the office with his house-elf, Dobby, and Harry frees Dobby by tricking Lucius into giving Dobby a sock. All is well in the castle as the students leave for their summer vacations.
The third book: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban opens on the night before Harry's thirteenth birthday, when he receives gifts by Owl Post from his friends at school. The next morning at breakfast, Harry sees on television that a man named Black is on the loose from prison. At this time, Aunt Marge comes to stay with the Dursleys, and she insults Harry's parents numerous times. Harry accidentally causes her to inflate. Harry leaves the Dursley's house and is picked up by the Knight Bus, but only after an alarming sighting of a large, black dog. The Knight Bus drops Harry off at Diagon Alley, where he is greeted by Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic. He rents a room and awaits the start of school. In Diagon Alley, Harry finishes his schoolwork, admires a Firebolt broomstick in the window of a shop, and after some time, finds his friends Ron and Hermione. At a pet shop, Hermione buys a cat named Crookshanks, who chases Scabbers, Ron's aging pet rat. Ron is most displeased. The night before they all head off to Hogwarts, Harry overhears Ron's parents discussing the fact that Sirius Black is after Harry.
The students board the Hogwarts Express train and are stopped once by an entity called a Dementor. Harry faints and is revived by Professor Lupin, the new defense against the dark arts teacher. Soon afterward, the students arrive at Hogwarts and classes begin. In divination class, Professor Trelawney foresees Harry's death by reading tealeaves and finding the representation of a Grim, a large black dog symbolizing death. In the care of magical creatures class, Hagrid introduces the students to Hippogriffs, large, deeply dignified crosses between horses and eagles. Malfoy insults one of these beasts, Buckbeak, and is attacked. Malfoy drags out the injury in an attempt to have Hagrid fired and Buckbeak put to sleep. In Defense Against the Dark Arts, Professor Lupin leads the class in a defeat of a Boggart, which changes shape to appear as the viewer's greatest fear. For Lupin, it turns into an orb, for Ron, a spider. Harry doesn't have a chance to fight it.
During a Hogwarts visit to Hogsmeade, a wizard village that Harry is unable to visit because he has no permission slip, Harry has tea with Professor Lupin. Harry discovers that the reason he wasn't allowed to fight the Boggart was that Lupin had worried that it would take the shape of Voldemort. This concern catches Harry by surprise because Harry had been thinking even more fearfully about the awful Dementors. Snape brings Lupin a steaming potion, which Lupin drinks, much to Harry's alarm. Later that night, Sirius Black breaks into Hogwarts and destroys the Fat Lady portrait that guards Gryffindor Tower. The students spend the night sleeping in the Great Hall while the teachers search the castle. Soon afterward, Quidditch moves into full swing, and Gryffindor House plays against Hufflepuff. During the game, Harry spies the large black dog, and seconds later he sees a hoard of Dementors. He loses consciousness and falls off his broomstick. Harry wakes to find that his trusty broomstick had flown into the Whomping Willow and been smashed in his fall, and the game itself had been lost. Later, Harry learns from Lupin that the Dementors affect Harry so much because Harry's past is so horrible.
During the next Hogsmeade visit, from which Harry is forbidden, Fred and George Weasley give Harry the Marauder's map, written by the mysterious quartet of Moony, Prongs, Wormtail, and Padfoot. This map leads him through a secret passageway into Hogsmeade, where he rejoins Ron and Hermione. Inside the Hogsmeade tavern, Harry overhears Cornelius Fudge discussing Sirius Black's responsibility for Harry's parents' deaths, as well as for the death of another Hogwarts student, Peter Pettigrew, who was blown to bits, leaving only a finger. Back at Hogwarts, Harry learns that Hagrid received a notice saying that Buckbeak, the hippogriff who attacked Malfoy, is going to be put on trial, and Hagrid is inconsolable. The winter holidays roll around. For Christmas, Harry receives a Firebolt, the most impressive racing broomstick in the world. Much to his and Ron's dismay, Hermione reports the broomstick to Professor McGonagall, who takes it away out of fear that it may have been sent (and cursed) by Sirius Black.
After the holidays, Harry begins working with Professor Lupin to fight Dementors with the Patronus charm; he is moderately successful, but still not entirely confident in his ability to ward them off. Soon before the game against Ravenclaw, Harry's broomstick is returned to him, and as Ron takes it up to the dormitory, he discovers evidence that Scabbers has been eaten by Crookshanks. Ron is furious at Hermione. Soon afterward, Gryffindor plays Ravenclaw in Quidditch. Harry, on his Firebolt, triumphs, winning the game. Once all the students have gone to bed, Sirius Black breaks into Harry's dormitory and slashes the curtain around Ron's bed. Several days later, Hagrid invites Harry and Ron over for tea and scolds them for shunning Hermione on account of Scabbers and the Firebolt. They feel slightly guilty, but not terrible. Soon Harry, under his invisibility cloak, meets Ron during a Hogsmeade trip; when he returns, Snape catches him and confiscates his Marauder's Map. Lupin saves Harry from Snape's rage, but afterward, he reprimands him severely for risking his safety for "a bag of magic tricks." As Harry leaves Lupin's office, he runs into Hermione, who informs him that Buckbeak's execution date has been set. Ron, Hermione, and Harry are reconciled in their efforts to help Hagrid. Around this time, Hermione is exceptionally stressed by all of her work, and in a day she slaps Malfoy for picking on Hagrid and she quits Divination, concluding that Professor Trelawney is a great fraud. Days later, Gryffindor beats Slytherin in a dirty game of Quidditch, winning the Cup.
Exams roll around, and during Harry's pointless Divination exam, Professor Trelawney predicts the return of Voldemort's servant before midnight. Ron, Hermione, and Harry shield themselves in Harry's invisibility cloak and head off to comfort Hagrid before the execution. While at his cabin, Hermione discovers Scabbers in Hagrid's milk jug. They leave, and Buckbeak is executed. As Ron, Harry, Harry andax Hermione are leaving Hagrid's house and reeling from the sound of the axe, the large black dog approaches them, pounces on Ron, and drags him under the Whomping Willow. Harry and Hermione and Crookshanks dash down after them; oddly, Crookshanks knows the secret knob to press to still the flailing tree. They move through an underground tunnel and arrive at the Shrieking Shack. They find that the black dog has turned into Sirius Black and is in a room with Ron. Harry, Ron, and Hermione manage to disarm Black, and before Harry can kill Black, avenging his parents' deaths, Professor Lupin enters the room and disarms him. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are aghast as Lupin and Black exchange a series of nods and embrace.
Once the three students calm down enough to listen, Lupin and Black explain everything. Lupin is a werewolf who remains tame through a special steaming potion made for him by Snape. While Lupin was a student at Hogwarts, his best friends, James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew, became animagi (humans able to take on animal forms) so that they could romp the grounds with Lupin at the full moon. They explain how Snape once followed Lupin toward his transformation site in a practical joke set up by Sirius and was rescued narrowly by James Potter. At this moment, Snape reveals himself from underneath Harry's dropped invisibility cloak, but Harry, Ron, and Hermione disarm him, rendering him unconscious. Lupin and Black then explain that the real murderer of Harry's parents is not Black, but Peter Pettigrew, who has been presumed dead but reallto hidden all these years disguised as Scabbers. Lupin transforms Scabbers into Pettigrew, who squeals and hedges but ultimately confesses, revealing himself to be Voldemort's servant, and Black to be innocent. They all travel back to Hogwarts, but at the sight of the full moon, Lupin, who has forgotten to take his controlling tonic (the steaming liquid), turns into a werewolf. Sirius Black responds by turning into the large black dog in order to protect Harry, Ron, and Hermione from Lupin. As Black returns from driving the werewolf into the woods, a swarm of Dementors approaches, and Black is paralyzed with fear. One of the Dementors prepares to suck the soul out of Harry, whosePatronuss charm is simply not strong enough. Out of somewhere comes a patronus that drives the Dementors away. Harry faints.
Harry awakens in the hospital wing to hear Snape and Cornelius Fudge discussing the fact that Sirius Black is about to be given the fatal Dementor's Kiss. Harry and Hermione protest, claiming Black's innocence, but to no avail; then Dumbledore enters the room, shoos out the others, and mysteriously suggests that Harry and Hermione travel back through Hermione's time-turning device, and save both Black and Buckbeak. Hermione turns her hour-glass necklace back three turns, and Harry and Hermione are thrust into the past, where they rescue Buckbeak shortly before his execution. From a hiding place in the forest, Harry watches the Dementor sequence and discovers that he had been the one who conjured the Patronus Patronus, and he is touched and confused to note that his patronus had taken the shape of a stag that he recognizes instantly as Prongs, his father's animagi form. After saving his past self from the Dementors, Harry and Hermione fly to the tower where Black is imprisoned, and they rescue Black, sending him away to freedom on Buckbeak's back. The next day, Harry is saddened to learn that Professor Lupin is leaving Hogwarts because of the previous night's scare. Dumbledore meets with Harry and gives him wise fatherly advice on the events that have happened. On the train ride home, Harry receives an owl-post letter from Sirius that contains a Hogsmeade permission letter, words of confirmation that he is safe in hiding with Buckbeak and that he was, in fact, the sender of the Firebolt, and a small pet owl for Ron. Harry feels slightly uplifted as he returns to spend his summer with the Dursleys.
In the fourth book: The story begins fifty years before the present day, with a description of how the Riddle family was mysteriously killed at supper, and their groundsman, Frank Bryce, was suspected of the crime, then declared innocent. Frank Bryce, now an elderly man, wakes in the night to see a light in the window of the abandoned Riddle House. He investigates and overhears Voldemort and Wormtail plotting to kill a boy named Harry Potter. Voldemort takes note of him and kills him on the spot. Harry Potter wakes up in the night with a throbbing pain in the scar Voldemort gave him. He worries that Voldemort is nearby, and he writes to Sirius Black, his godfather, mentioning the pain in his scar.
The next morning Harry's Uncle Vernon receives a letter from the Weasleys asking Harry to join them at the Quidditch World Cup, and Vernon grudgingly agrees to let Harry go. The following day, the Weasleys arrive in the Dursleys' boarded-up fireplace to pick up Harry. The Weasley twins "accidentally" leave a trick toffee on the ground, which Dudley eats, causing his tongue to engorge itself. The Dursleys panic and throw things at Mr. Weasley as the Weasley boys and Harry exit through the fireplace. Harry arrives at The Burrow, the Weasley household, and there he meets, the two eldest Weasley brothers, Bill and Charlie, and there, Mrs. Weasley berates the twins for making Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and giving them to Dudley.
Early the next morning, the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione head off to the Quidditch World Cup. They travel by Portkey, a process that involves using a piece of trash as a touchstone for warping across space. They use the same Portkey as Cedric Diggory, another Hogwarts student, and his dad. Together they are carried to the World Cup campground. Upon arrival, the Weasleys, Harry, and Hermione head off to pitch their tent. Soon, Ludo Bagman arrives, jubilant at the festivities, and makes a wager with the twins on the outcome of the Cup. Soon afterward, Mr. Crouch arrives, throwing Percy into a great reverent fuss. Before they leave, they allude to a mysterious event that will happen at Hogarts. Harry, Ron, and Hermione buy souvenirs and troop to the Top Box, where they meet Winky, a house-elf who is saving a seat for her master. The game begins, after a show from the respective mascots. In the end, Ireland wins, but Viktor Krum, the Bulgarian Seeker, catches the Snitch.
The night after the game, a crowd of Death Eaters, followers of Voldemort who escaped punishment, torture four Muggles by levitating them in the air. Harry, HermionHermione,e and Ron escape by fleeing into the woods, where Harry discovers that his wand is missing. Moments later someone fires the Dark Mark (the sign of Voldemort) using his or her wand. Winky the house-elf is found holding a wand at the scene of the crime. Mayhem ensues at the Ministry of Magic through the week.
Ron receives horrible second-hand robes from his mother and is upset. Amos Diggory brings news that a man named Mad-Eye Moody attacked an intruder at his house. Mr. Weasley runs to the Ministry to sort everything out. The Weasleys, Harry, and Hermione take taxis to the train station and board the train to Hogwarts. Upon arriving, after the Sorting ceremony and in the middle of dinner in the Hogwarts Great Hall, Dumbledore announces that the Triwizard Tournament between schools will take place this year at Hogwarts, and also that Mad-Eye Moody will be the new teacher of defense against the dark arts.
Mad-Eye Moody is a competent teacher. He turns Malfoy into a ferret for trying to attack Harry while Harry's back is turned. In class, Moody teaches Gryffindor the three unforgivable curses, Imperius, Cruciatus, and Avada Kedavra (the curse that killed Harry's parents). Meanwhile, Hermione founds a society that advocates freeing house-elves, who are slaves. She asks Harry and Ron to wear badges. As Defense Against the Dark Arts progresses, Harry learns to successfully ward off the Imperius Curse.
In late October, the delegates from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang arrive, and Ron is thrilled to see that Viktor Krum, a famous Quidditch player, has come with Durmstrang. On Halloweenn night, the Goblet of Fire spits out the names of the champions who will compete in the Triwizard Tournament; along with Cedric Diggory, Fleur Delacour, and Viktor Krum, Harry Potter is selected. Mass chaos ensues, since Harry is too young. But because the Goblet's decision is final, it is generally decided that Harry is obligated to compete. Gryffindor House is triumphant, but Ron is sullen and envious, and he doesn't speak to Harry for quite some time. School resumes, and Harry is frustrated that few people believe he didn't place his late-nightmare in the Goblet of Fire. The first task approaches, and Harry is fretful; during the weighing of the wands, a reporter named Rita Skeeter accosts Harry and interviews him for what she says is a story about the tournament, but instead publishes a sappy, exaggerated article about Harry's tragic past.
A few nights before the task, Hagrid invites Harry for a late night walk, which ultimately turns into a glimpse of the first task: dragons. Harry hurries home, and in the Gryffindor common room fireplace, Sirius's head appears, warning Harry that Karkaroff, the head of Durmstrang, was a Death Eater and possibly still is dangerous, and that Moody was the Ministry's best dark wizard catcher ever, and is probably at Hogwarts for a reason. The next day, Harry warns Cedric about the first task; Moody overhears, commends Harry's decency, and hints that Harry should use his broomstick to get past the dragon. Harry and Hermione spend hours practicing summoning charms, and the n day of the first task, Harry summons his broomstick and flies past the dragon, capturing the golden egg and receiving high marks. Everyone in Gryffindor is ecstatic, and Ron and Harry are reunited.
Soon afterward, Hermione drags Harry and Ron down to the kitchens, where they encounter Dobby, who is thrilled at his freedom, and Winky, Mr. Crouch's ex- house-elf, who is miserable at hers. In class, Professor McGonagall announces that the Yule Ball is approaching and that the champions must find partners; this is an unexpected and difficult task. Harry gathers his courage to ask Cho Chang, but finds out that she is already going with Cedric. Hermione has a date, but won't say who it is; and she is annoyed when Ron asks her as his last-resort date. Finally, Harry and Ron procure the pretty but annoying Patil twins as their partners for the Yule Ball. On Christmas, the night of the ball, Ron wears his awful dress robes and spends the entire night staring at Hermione, who is there as Viktor Krum's date. Harry spends the whole night feeling miserable about Cho and Cedric, and so Harry and Ron leave the ball for a stroll, during which they overhear Hagrid telling Madame Maxime, the giant head of Beauxbatons, that he is half-giant. After the ball that night, Cedric hints for Harry to take a bath with the golden egg, but Harry is wary of this advice. Harry returns to Gryffindor tower to find that Hermione and Ron are having a huge fight about why she went to the ball with Krum instead of with him.
The next day, Hagrid is not teaching class.Rita Skeeter has written an article saying that his ancestors, who are giants, give him a violent and dangerous nature. He is embarrassed and refuses to emerge from his cabin. During a trip to Hogsmeade, Ludo Bagman offers to help Harry with the tournament and mentions that Mr. Crouch has stopped coming to work. Hermione insults Rita for writing such horrible articles. Harry, Ron, and Hermione return to Hogwarts, visit Hagrid, and persuade him to return. Hagrid is grateful for their loyalty, and he begs Harry to win the tournament. That night Harry takes the egg into the bathtub. It sings that he will have an hour to reclaim something valuable that has been taken into the lake. On his way back to his dorm from the bathroom, Harry, wearing his Invisibility cloak, checks his Marauder's Map and spies Mr. Crouch in Snape's off Tounderwater. To his surprise, he drops the golden egg, which makes a loud screeching noise. Filch and Snape appear instantly. Moody also appears, shoos away the other men and returns Harry's egg to him. Moody asks to borrow the Marauder's Map, which shows every part of Hogwarts grounds and castle, and where every person is within it.
The night before the second task, Harry still has not figured out how to breathe underwater only with Hermione Dumbledore. He falls asleep in the library and is awakened in the morning by Dobby, who gives him a ball of gillyweed and sends him off to the lake, where the task is starting. The gillyweed gives Harry gills, so he swims easily through the lake, finding Hermione, Ron, Cho, and Fleur's sister asleep and tied together in a merpeople village. Harry waits to make sure all of the champions rescue their hostages before returning to the surface. Fleur never comes, so he returns with her sister and with Ron, coming up last, but gaining high marks for his moral fiber in his completion of the task.
Soon afterwards, Rita Skeeter publishes an article claiming that Hermione toys with the hearts of both Harry and Krum. The three friends read the article in potions class. After class, Harry overhears Karkaroff confiding fearfully in Snape that something on his arm has returned. The following day, Harry, Ron, and Hermione meet Sirius Black, disguised as a large black dog named Padfoot, in Hogsmeade. He informs them that Mr. Crouch's son was convicted as a Death Eater, and he finds it peculiar that Mr. Crouch has not been coming to work, as well as that he never showed up to take the seat saved by Winky, his house-elf, at the World Cup. Back at Hogwarts, Harry, Ron, and Hermione visit the kitchens to give a gift of socks to Dobby, who is delighted. Winky is still sad and currently drunk, and she mentions between hiccups that she is guarding a great secret for her ex-master. Around this time, Hermione begins getting hate mail for supposedly breaking Harry Potter's heart.
The four champions are taken to see the grounds for the maze, their third task, and on the way back, Krum pulls Harry into the forest to ask if he is at all romantically interested in Hermione memory world. When Harry answers no, a disheveled Mr. Crouch appears from the forest, speaking to trees and madly demanding to see Dumbledore. Harry runs to get Dumbldore while Krum waits with Mr. Crouch; when Harry returns, Mr. Crouch has stunned Krum and disappeared, much to everyone's puzzlement. Sirius sends Harry a letter warning him to be careful and to practice hexes for the third task; Harry tries to follow both instructions. In Divination class, Harry falls asleep and dreams about Voldemort, and he wakes up screaming and clutching his scar. Harry leaves class and goes to tell Dumbledore what happened. As he waits for Dumbledore to return to his office, he peers into a Pensieve and enters Dumbledore's memories of various Death Eater trials, including that of Ludo Bagman, Karkaroff, and Mr. Crouch's son. Dumbledore returns, pulls Harry from the memory world, listens to his story, and says that he suspects that volderment is growing stronger.
The morning of the third task, Rita Skeeter prints an article about how Harry fainted in class and is possibly disturbed. On the evening of the task, the four champions enter the maze, and Harry finds his path relatively manageable. Soon both Fleur and Krum are out of the running, and Harry and Cedric, the only remaining contestants, arrive at the trophy at the same time, and they both agree to touch it together. The trophy turns out to be a portkey, and it takes both boys to a far away graveyard, where a man in a hood instantly kills Cedric and ties up Harry. The man, Wormtail, drops the bundle he is carrying (Voldemort's current form) into a cauldron, as well as ashes from Voldemort's father, blood from Harry's arm, and Wormtail own right hand right hand. Voldemort resumes his body and rises from the cauldron. Voldemort presses a tattoo of the Dark Mark on Wormtail's arm, and suddenly Death Eaters begin appearing in a circle around them. Voldemort explains to Harry and his Death Eaters his fall from and rise back to power, and then he challenges Harry to a duel. Harry prepares for death, but he manages to use the disarming spell on Voldemort just as Voldemort cries "Avada Kedavra!" the killing curse, at Harry. The light from the two wands meets in midair and remains connected. Voldemort's past victims emerge from his wand and protect Harry once the wand connection is broken, giving him time to grab Cedric's body and touch the trophy, thus returning to Hogwarts.
Once Harry returns, he is weak and shaken. Moody carries him into the castle, where Moody reveals that he is in fa a Death Eater, and that he was responsible for placing Harry's name in the Goblet and for turning the trophy into a portkey. Moody also informs Harry that Karkaroff felt his Dark Mark burn and then fled that night. Moody prepares to kill Harry when Dumbledore and other teachers burst into the room, stunning Moody and saving Harry. Dumbledore explains to Harry that Moody's body is a disguised version of Mr. Crouch's son, the young Bartya and that he has made the switch by drinking Polyjuice potion every hour. After some time, the potion wears off and Harry recognizes Barty Crouch. Snape gives Crouch truth serum, and Crouch explains how his father smuggled him out of prison and allowed him to live under an Invisibility cloak, guarded by Winky; and how Bertha Jorkins discovered him and ultimately was relieved of his information by Voldemort, who returned to find young Crouch. He also says that he killed his work, and that he was hoping to bring Voldemort back into power by bringing Harry to him. Then Dumbledore takes Harry into his own office, where he asks Harry to explain what he saw in the graveyard to him and to Sirius, who had arrived. After listening to Harry, Dumbledore explains that the wands of Harry and Voldemort are made of feathers from the same phoenix, so one was forced to regurgitate its spells when the two wands met.

Harry is sent to bed, and in the night he is awakened by an argument between Cornelius Fudge and Dumbledore, in which Dumbledore tries unsuccessfully to persuade Fudge to take precautions against Voldemort's new power. Fudge refuses to believe that this is possible. He gives Harry the tournament prize money and leaves huffily. Soon the term ends, and at on the final dinner Dumbledore makes a speech telling everyone how Cedric was murdered by Voldemort, and how the future looks bleak and would require them to join together. On the train ride back to London, Hermione shows Harry and Ron a beetle in a jar—Rita Skeeter's animagus form—that she caught and warned not to write any more untrue things. As the students leave the train, Harry gives his gold to the Weasley twins to help start their practical joke company, and he asks that they use some of it to buy Ron a new pair of dress robes. Harry returns to the Dursleys for the summer.
The fifth book: Harry Potter is spending another tedious summer with his dreadful Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon when a group of evil spirits called “dementors” stage an unexpected attack on Harry and his cousin Dudley. After using magic to defend himself, Harry is visited by a group of wizards and whisked off to number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London. Number twelve is the home of Harry’s godfather, Sirius Black, and the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. The Order is a group of wizards, led by Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore, dedicated to fighting evil Lord Voldemort and his followers. The Order is forced to operate in secrecy, outside of the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Magic, which is headed by the dense and corrupt Cornelius Fudge. Fudge refuses to believe that Lord Voldemort has returned.
Harry used magic to fight off the dementors, and since underage wizards are not permitted to use their wands outside of school, he must face a disciplinary hearing at the Ministry. With Dumbledore’s help, Harry is cleared and permitted to return to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Reunited with his best friends, Ron and Hermione, Harry returns to Hogwarts and learns that Dolores Umbridge, an employee of Fudge, will be his new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. The Sorting Hat, which traditionally sorts all new students into one of four houses, cautions the students against becoming too internally divided. Meanwhile, the wizard newspaper, the Daily Prophet, continues printing untrue and unfair stories about Harry. Many of his classmates are whispering about him behind his back, but Harry ignores them and tries to concentrate on his studies, since all fifth-year students at Hogwarts are required to take O.W.L.s, or Ordinary Wizarding Level examinations.
Umbridge refuses to teach her students how to peform Defense spells, and before long, Fudge appoints her High Inquisitor of Hogwarts, giving her the authority to inspect all faculty members and evaluate their skills. In desperation, Harry, Hermione, and Ron form their own Defense Against the Dark Arts group, also known as the D.A., or Dumbledore’s Army. Twenty-five other students sign up, and they meet as often as possible to learn and practice Defense spells. Harry wishes desperately to contact his godfather Sirius to discuss the situation, but Umbridge is inspecting all Owl Mail and patrolling the fires that students can use to make contact with wizards residing outside of Hogwarts. Umbridge openly dislikes Harry, whom she considers a liar, and eventually bans him from the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Ron’s twin brothers, Fred and George, storm out of Hogwarts in protest, moving to London where they plan to open a joke shop using the money Harry won last year in the Triwizard Tournament.
Harry continues to have upsetting dreams about walking down a corridor at the Department of Mysteries, deep inside the Ministry of Magic. At the end of the corridor, Harry goes through several doors and enters a room full of dusty glass spheres. Harry always wakes up before he finds out what the dream means or what the spheres signify. One night, Harry has a vision where he inhabits the body of a large snake, and attacks Ron’s father. Harry wakes up horrified, and Professor McGonagall takes him to Dumbledore immediately. Dumbledore uses the portraits on the walls of his office to raise an alert, and Mr. Weasley is promptly rescued by two members of the Order. Dumbledore then demands that Harry take Occlumency lessons with Professor Snape, which should help Harry protect his mind against further invasions by Lord Voldemort.
Harry is unsuccessful at Occlumency because he has such difficulty clearing his mind of all thoughts, making it difficult for him to focus on closing his mind off to all outside influence. Meanwhile, his scar (from the attack in which Voldemort killed Harry’s parents) burns horribly every time Voldemort experiences a powerful emotion. The D.A. continues to meet regularly, and Harry’s peers show great improvement until they are caught by Umbridge. Dumbledore takes full responsibility for the group and resigns as Headmaster. Umbridge takes over his position. The students begin taking their O.W.L. exams, and Harry has another vision, this time about Sirius being held captive and tortured by Voldemort. Horrified, Harry becomes determined to save him. Hermione warns Harry that Voldemort may be deliberately trying to lure Harry to the Department of Mysteries, but Harry is too concerned about Sirius to take any chances.
Harry sneaks into Umbridge’s office, and, using her fireplace, transports himself to Twelve Grimmauld Place to look for Sirius. Kreacher, the Black house elf, tells Harry that Sirius is at the Ministry of Magic. Harry returns to Hogwarts to find that he and his friends have been caught in Umbridge’s office. Hermione and Harry convince Umbridge to follow them into the forest, where they claim to be hiding a weapon for Dumbledore. Once in the forest, Centaurs carry Umbridge away. Harry and his friends climb aboard flying horses called thestrals and speed off to the Ministry. Once they arrive, Harry cannot find Sirius and realizes that Hermione was right. Harry also sees that one of the glass spheres has his name on it, as well as Voldemort’s. Harry grabs the sphere, and Death Eaters surround to attack, demanding that Harry hand over the prophecy. Employing all of their Defense skills, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Luna, and Neville have moderate success fighting the Death Eaters, but they are ultimately helped enormously by the arrival of several members of the Order. In the midst of the fight, Harry drops the glass sphere, and it shatters. Meanwhile, Sirius’ own cousin, Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange, kills Sirius. Harry is devastated.
Dumbledore appears and corrals the Death Eaters. Voldemort and Lestrange escape, just as Fudge shows up. Dumbledore sends Harry back to school, where he explains how the sphere was a prophecy, which stated that Harry has a power that Voldemort does not know about. Dumbledore explains that this power is love. The prophecy goes on to claim that Harry will either destroy Voldemort or be destroyed by him. Dumbledore takes this opportunity to tell Harry why he must spend his summers with the Durselys in Little Whinging. Because Harry’s mother died to save him, he is blessed with her love, a blessing that can be sealed only by blood. Harry’s Aunt Petunia, his mother’s sister, makes that bond complete by taking Harry into her home. As long as he still calls Little Whinging home, Harry is safe. With this news, Harry returns to his Aunt and Uncle’s house for one more miserable summer.
The sixth book : Lord Voldemort has returned to power, and his wrath has been felt in both the Muggle and Wizarding worlds. Severus Snape, long considered an enemy of Voldemort and a member of Dumbledore’s anti-Voldemort coalition, the Order of the Phoenix, meets with Narcissa Malfoy, mother of Draco and wife of Lucius, an imprisoned Death Eater. Snape makes an Unbreakable Vow to Narcissa, promising to protect her son, Draco.
Dumbledore heads to 4 Privet Drive to collect Harry from his aunt and uncle. On their way to the Burrow, Harry and Dumbledore stop to recruit Horace Slughorn to return to teaching at Hogwarts. Harry is reunited with his best friends, Ron and Hermione. When shopping for schoolbooks, Harry runs into Draco and follows him to Borgin and Burkes, where he overhears Draco threatening Borgin and insisting that he fix an unknown object. Harry is instantly suspicious of Draco, whom he believes to be a Death Eater, just like his father. The students return to school, and Dumbledore announces that Snape will be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts, much to Harry’s surprise.
Harry receives a used Potions textbook that once belonged to someone named “The Half-Blood Prince.” Spells and amendments are written in the margins of the book, and Harry uses the Prince’s notes to excel at Potions. Dumbledore schedules regular meetings with Harry in which they use Dumbledore’s pensieve to look at memories of those who have had direct contact with Voldemort. Dumbledore believes that if Harry can learn enough about Voldemort’s history, it will help him when they finally fight face to face, as the prophecy concerning Harry foretells. Harry learns about Voldemort’s family, including his grandfather Marvolo, his uncle Morfin, and his mother Merope, who cast a love spell on a Muggle and was abandoned by him when it wore off. Voldemort was left at an orphanage and grew to be an unpleasant and aggressive boy. Harry also learns that Voldemort has divided his soul into seven Horcruxes. Two of these, Tom Riddle’s diary and Marvolo’s ring, have already been destroyed. One resides in Voldemort, one resides in a snake, one is Merope’s locket, and the other two are suspected to be hidden in objects belonging to Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or Gryffindor.
Ron acquires a new girlfriend, Lavender, of whom Hermione is extremely jealous. Harry feels stuck in the middle of his friends’ bickering. Eventually, Harry falls in love with Ginny, Ron’s sister, and Ron and Lavender break up, making Hermione quite happy. Harry spends much of his time keeping up with his duties as Quidditch captain and following Draco Malfoy. Harry uses his Marauder’s Map to keep track of Draco, but often cannot find him on the map. Eventually, Harry realizes that when Draco is not on the map, he is using the Room of Requirement on the seventh floor of Hogwarts, which transforms into whatever its user needs. Harry tries his best to get in to see what Draco is up to, but until he knows exactly what Draco is using the room for, he cannot gain access. Eventually Harry and Dumbledore leave Hogwarts together to fetch and destroy Merope’s locket, thus making Voldemort one step closer to mortal. They must overcome a variety of traps and challenges before reaching the basin where the locket is hidden under a poisonous potion. Dumbledore drinks the potion and Harry fights off Voldemort’s Inferi. They take the locket and return to Hogwarts as quickly as possible. Dumbledore is quite weak, and when they reach Hogsmeade they can see that the Dark Mark is visible above the astronomy tower.
Harry and Dumbledore rush toward the tower. When they arrive, Dumbledore uses his magic to freeze Harry in place, while Harry remains hidden by his cloak of invisibility. Draco Malfoy sprints into the room, threatening Dumbledore’s life. Weak and with his wand out of reach, Dumbledore stalls Draco, telling him that he is not a killer and that the Order of the Phoenix could protect him and his mother from Voldemort. Draco lowers his wand, and Snape pushes into the tower. Harry cannot move or speak, but he hears members of the Order fighting Death Eaters below. Snape raises his wand and kills Dumbledore, sending him flying over the edge of the tower. When Dumbledore dies, his spell on Harry is broken, and Harry rushes after Snape, determined to avenge the death of his friend and headmaster. Snape escapes, and Harry is devastated. He looks at the locket he and Dumbledore retrieved and realizes that it is not a Horcrux. Inside the locket is a note from someone named “R. A. B.” Harry tells his friends he will not be returning to Hogwarts next year and will instead search out and kill Voldemort by destroying all of the Horcruxes. Ron and Hermione vow to join him.
The seventh book: At Malfoy Manor, Snape tells Voldemort the date that Harry’s friends are planning to move him from the house on Privet Drive to a new safe location, so that Voldemort can capture Harry en route.
As Harry packs to leave Privet Drive, he reads two obituaries for Dumbledore, both of which make him think that he didn’t know Dumbledore as well as he should have. Downstairs, he bids good-bye to the Dursleys for the final time, as the threat of Voldemort forces them to go into hiding themselves.
The Order of the Phoenix, led by Alastor “Mad-Eye” Moody, arrives to take Harry to his new home at the Weasleys’ house, the Burrow. Six of Harry’s friends take Polyjuice Potion to disguise themselves as Harry and act as decoys, and they all fly off in different directions. The Death Eaters, alerted to their departure by Snape, attack Harry and his friends. Voldemort chases Harry down, but Harry’s wand fends Voldemort off, seemingly without Harry’s help.
Harry arrives at the Burrow, and when his friends get there, he learns that Moody has been killed and George Weasley maimed in the chase. Harry begins to have visions in which he sees what Voldemort is doing through Voldemort’s eyes, and witnesses Voldemort interrogating a wand maker, trying to find out how to defeat Harry.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione assemble the books and tools necessary to embark on the quest that Dumbledore left them: to find and destroy the Horcruxes into which Voldemort placed fragments of his soul, making himself immortal as long as the objects survive. Rufus Scrimgeour, the Minister of Magic, delivers to them the items Dumbledore left them in his will. Harry is left the Snitch he caught in his first Quidditch match, as well as the Sword of Gryffindor, which Scrimgeour does not give him, claiming it did not belong to Dumbledore. Ron is left a device called a Deluminator that turns lights off, and Hermione is left a book of wizard fairy tales. None of them have any idea what the items mean.
The Weasleys host the wedding of their son Bill to Fleur Delacour. At the reception, Harry hears Ron’s Aunt Muriel telling terrible rumors about Dumbledore: that his sister was a Squib (a non-magical person born to wizard parents) kept prisoner by her family, and that Dumbledore had dabbled in the Dark Arts as a young man. The wedding is interrupted by Death Eaters, as Voldemort has taken over the Ministry of Magic and is now in charge of the wizarding world.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione Disapparate (i.e., teleport) to a busy street in London, where they are soon attacked by Death Eaters. They find safe haven in the enchanted house left to Harry by Sirius Black, Number Twelve Grimmauld Place. There, they discover the significance of the letters R.A.B. In the previous book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry and Dumbledore had undergone trials to find a locket that Voldemort had made into a Horcrux, but at the end they found that the locket had been stolen, with a fake locket and note left behind, signed R.A.B. Now, they see that the initials belong to Sirius’s dead younger brother, Regulus Arcturus Black, who had been one of Voldemort’s followers. They remember that they have seen a locket in the house that is now gone.
Harry and his friends summon Kreacher, the house-elf who came with the house. Kreacher explains that Voldemort had used him to test the magical defenses guarding the locket, having borrowed him from Regulus. Afterward, Regulus had a change of heart about serving Voldemort, and Kreacher had helped him to steal the locket and leave the fake one in its place. The real locket had been in Kreacher’s possession for many years, but was recently stolen by Mundungus Fletcher. Harry orders Kreacher to find Mundungus and bring him back.
Kreacher returns later with Mundungus, who reveals that the locket was confiscated from him by Dolores Umbridge, a senior official at the Ministry of Magic. Ron, Harry, and Hermione disguise themselves as Ministry employees and sneak into the Ministry, stealing the locket from Umbridge, while witnessing the Ministry’s efforts to persecute wizards who don’t come from pureblood wizard families.
As they Disapparate back to the house on Grimmauld Place, Hermione accidentally leads one of the Death Eaters inside the protective enchantments, so they are forced to abandon the house and go on the run, moving from place to place and camping in the woods. They don’t know where to look for the next Horcrux, and they don’t know how to destroy the locket, which is protected by powerful magic. Harry has a vision of Voldemort tracking down another famous wand maker and looking for a young man who stole a wand.
One night, in the forest, Harry and friends overhear a goblin saying that the Sword of Gryffindor that had been in the headmaster’s office at Hogwarts is a fake. Harry realizes that the real Sword of Gryffindor has the power to destroy Horcruxes, and that they need to find it. Ron, frustrated at their lack of progress, gets fed up and abandons Harry and Hermione.
Harry and Hermione go to Godric’s Hollow, where they visit the graves of Harry’s parents and see the house where he lived before Voldemort killed them. An old woman named Bathilda Bagshot leads them into her house, and they follow, hoping that she knew Dumbledore and can give them the sword, but she turns out to be dead, her body inhabited by Voldemort’s snake, Nagini. They barely escape, and Harry’s wand is destroyed in the fight.
Harry reads the new (and malicious) biography of Dumbledore, which claims that Dumbledore helped the Dark wizard Grindelwald as a young man and may have been responsible for his own sister’s death. Harry recognizes in a photograph in the book the young man whom Voldemort is seeking, and it is Grindelwald.
One night, while Harry is keeping watch, a silver doe Patronus appears and leads him to the Sword of Gryffindor, buried beneath the ice in a pond. Harry dives in, and the locket Horcrux around his neck tries to strangle him. Ron, who has returned, saves Harry, recovers the sword, and destroys the locket.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione go to visit Xenophilius Lovegood, because Hermione has discovered a strange symbol in the book Dumbledore left her, and they had seen Xenophilius wearing it. Xenophilius explains that the symbol represents the Deathly Hallows, three objects—the Elder Wand, Resurrection Stone, and Invisibility Cloak—that were made by Death and that give the owner of the three objects mastery over death.
Xenophilius betrays them to the Death Eaters, hoping to free his daughter Luna, whom the Ministry has imprisoned, and they narrowly escape from his house. Harry is tempted to pursue the Hallows and abandon his quest for the Horcruxes. Harry accidentally says Voldemort’s name, which triggers a tracking spell, and they are caught by Voldemort’s followers and taken to Malfoy Manor.
At Malfoy Manor, Bellatrix Lestrange tortures Hermione for information about where they got the sword they are carrying, since she thought it was in her vault at Gringotts bank. She is very concerned about anything else they might have taken. Dobby, the Malfoys’ former house-elf, helps Harry and his friends to escape, along with Ollivander the wand maker, Luna Lovegood, and Griphook the goblin. Harry takes them all to Ron’s brother Bill’s cottage.
Harry guesses that Voldemort has a Horcrux stored in Bellatrix’s vault, since she seemed so worried about it, and he persuades Griphook the goblin to help him break into the vault. With Griphook’s help, Harry, Ron, and Hermione break in and steal the Hufflepuff Cup from the vault, then escape on the back of a dragon.
Harry learns from a vision of Voldemort’s that the final Horcrux is at Hogwarts, so they travel to the nearby village of Hogsmeade. There they meet Aberforth, Dumbledore’s brother, who helps them get into Hogwarts through a painting by summoning Neville Longbottom, who has been organizing meetings of Dumbledore’s Army in the hidden Room of Requirement. Harry asks the members of the D.A., who are all his supporters, if they can think of an important item associated with the school, hoping such an item might be the final Horcrux. The Ravenclaw students tell him about the lost diadem of Ravenclaw.
While Harry looks for the diadem, the professors and students of Hogwarts rally to his defense, having been warned that Voldemort is on his way. Voldemort and his followers attack the school in a great battle, and Harry finds and destroys the diadem Horcrux.
Harry witnesses Voldemort murdering Snape in order to take possession of Dumbledore’s powerful wand (since Snape killed Dumbledore, Snape is presumably the wand’s true master until someone kills him). Before he dies, Snape gives Harry his memories, extracted for viewing in the Pensieve.
Harry goes to the Pensieve in the headmaster’s office and views the most important moments of Snape’s life. He learns that he has been completely mistaken about Snape, who loved Harry’s mother, Lily Potter, his whole life. Snape had spent his entire adult life spying on Voldemort for Dumbledore and working to protect Harry.
From one of Snape’s conversations with Dumbledore, Harry learns that there’s a piece of Voldemort’s soul inside him (Harry is in fact the final Horcrux), and that he will have to let Voldemort kill him before Voldemort can die. He goes into the forest and lets Voldemort kill him, then wakes up in a dreamlike version of King’s Cross train station, where Dumbledore meets him and tells him that he hasn’t died, and that the protective charm Lily Potter placed on Harry is kept alive inside of Voldemort, because Voldemort used Harry’s blood to reconstitute himself. Thus, Voldemort could not kill Harry, and Harry can now go back and finish him off.
Voldemort takes Harry, whom he believes to be dead, back to Hogwarts to demand its surrender. The students and teachers defy Voldemort, and Neville uses the Sword of Gryffindor to kill the giant snake, Nagini, which was the last Horcrux keeping Voldemort invulnerable. A final battle erupts, and Harry reveals that he’s still alive, going on to kill Voldemort in a duel.
In an Epilogue set nineteen years later, Harry is married to Ginny and is sending their children to Hogwarts. Ron and Hermione are married, and their families are both thriving.

In this fictional world set in early 20th century Taishō-era Japan, man-eating demons roam the land each night. 13-year-old Tanjiro Kamado’s world is turned upside down when he returns home one morning to find his entire family murdered save for his sister Nezuko—who has turned into a demon. Determined to avenge their deaths and find a cure that would transform Nezuko back into a human, Tanjiro sets out on a journey to train for the Demon Slayer Corps. The story follows him as he joins this underground organization of skilled fighters who dedicate their lives to protecting humans from the vicious creatures.
Who is Koyoharu Gotouge?

Koyoharu Gotouge (recently featured as a part of the 2021 TIME 100 Next) wrote and illustrated Demon Slayer. The mangaka, or manga creator, has not publicly revealed their identity, and instead uses the pen name Gotouge and appears as an avatar of an alligator in glasses when making announcements about the series. Despite not much about Demon Slayer’s author being known to the public, those who collaborate closely with Gotouge are familiar with their work ethic. “I have known Gotouge sensei [the honorific term for teacher in Japanese] since the start of their career, and they were not necessarily without fault at the beginning,” Kohei Ohnishi, an Editor-in-Chief of Weekly Shonen Jump who edits Demon Slayer, tells TIME. “But through hard work and perseverance, they were able to grow considerably as a mangaka.”
Though Gotouge’s schedule has not been shared before, the daily work routines of manga authors are reputed to be rigorous. For instance, Oda Eiichiro—the creator of One Piece—has shared about sleeping regularly from 2 AM to 5 AM to work on his manuscript. Ohnishi cites Gotouge’s strong sense of integrity and dedication to their work, and says the mangaka is “very aware of how readers are responding to their work.” Asked about the most impactful element of Gotouge’s writing and art, Ohnishi references the strong characters and dialogue. “Their characters are all unique, yet still rooted in reality, and that’s a very difficult balance to strike,” Ohnishi says. “In addition, there are a number of memorable lines filled with originality in Demon Slayer.”