Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Harry Potter is the most miserable, lonely boy you can imagine. He’s shunned by his
relatives, the Dursley’s, that have raised him since he was an infant. He’s forced to live
in the cupboard under the stairs, forced to wear his Cousin Dudley’s hand-me-down
clothes, and forced to go to his neighbor’s house when the rest of the family is doing
something fun. Yes, he’s just about as miserable as you can get.

Harry’s world gets turned upside down on his 11th birthday, however. A giant, Hagrid,
informs Harry that he’s really a wizard, and will soon be attending Hogwarts School of
Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry also learns that, in the wizarding world, he’s a hero.
When he was an infant, the evil Lord Voldemort killed his parents and then tried to kill
Harry too. What’s so amazing to everyone is that Harry survived, and allegedly
destroyed Voldemort in the process.

When Harry hears all this, he doesn’t know what to think. However, everything Hagrid
tells him turns out to be true, and with a joyful heart Harry starts Wizarding School in
September. He quickly becomes best friends with a boy named Ron Weasley, and
before they even make it to Christmas, they break tons of school rules when they attack
a troll and prevent it from killing fellow student Hermione Granger. After the troll
incident, the three become inseparable, and Harry is amazed to have found such great
friends. He is constantly busy trying to stay on top of the mounds of homework, as well
as participating in weekly Quidditch practices. Quidditch is a popular sport among
wizards and Harry is the youngest Quidditch player in over a century. It's also a game
Harry loves more than anything else at school.

As the year progresses, the three friends set out to solve the mystery of the gigantic
three-headed dog that is guarding something in a deserted corridor in the school. They
figure out that a very valuable object, the Sorcerer’s Stone, is being hidden in the
school, although they don’t know why. When one of the professors starts acting as if
he’s trying to steal it, they quickly take action to circumvent the theft.

Things come to a head when they sneak past the vicious, three-headed dog and go
down into the bowels of the school, determined to save the stone. Ron and Hermione
help Harry get through the challenges set forth to stop the thief, but Harry must go on
alone to battle the professor. When he finally gets to the last room, however, he’s
astonished to find someone else entirely.

Harry is forced to do battle with the wizard that tried to kill him so many years before,
Lord Voldemort. He’s able to save the Sorcerer’s Stone, although he’s almost killed in
process. The school headmaster, Dumbledore, arrives just in time to save Harry.

The school year ends spectacularly. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are honored for their
service to the school, and Harry leaves to go back to the Dursley’s for the summer
feeling as if he’s finally found a place where he really belongs.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

It’s been another long summer at the Dursley’s for Harry Potter. He can’t wait to get
back to Hogwarts and is counting down the days until he can return. He’s surprised
when, on his birthday, a strange elfish creature named Dobby shows up with dire
warnings for Harry: He must not return to Hogwarts!

When Harry refuses to stay home from school, Dobby lands him in heaps of trouble with
the Dursley’s, who lock Harry up in his room and refuse to let him out. Before Harry can
sink too far into despair, however, Ron Weasley and his two brothers, twins Fred and
George, come to his rescue in a flying car and spirit him back to their house, where
Harry is thrilled to spend the remainder of the summer.

Thus starts an eventful second year for Harry Potter. Between having to cope with more
homework than ever, a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor who is vain and
convinced Harry is too, and a mysterious voice he keeps hearing in the walls, Harry’s
days are nothing if not interesting.

As the school year progresses, however, the mysterious voice Harry keeps hearing is
getting more and more menacing, and soon vicious attacks start happening to the
students of Hogwarts. When Harry discovers, quite by accident, that he is a
Parslemouth and can speak to snakes, he’s quickly singled out as Slytherin’s heir, the
person who, according to legend, will open the mysterious “Chamber of Secrets” and
release the monster within.

Of course Harry has no idea who is attacking the students, but he quickly resolves to
find out who is responsible. He, Ron, and Hermione come up with an elaborate plan to
disguise themselves as Slytherin students so they can question Draco Malfoy, whom
they believe is the one setting the monster loose in the school. The plan goes perfectly,
but they’re disappointed when they find out from Draco that he is not the one they’re
looking for.

The quest gets personal when Hermione is attacked and petrified by the monster. Ron
and Harry are devastated, and are left on their own to uncover the true identity of the
person responsible. Events come to a head when Ron’s sister, Ginny, is kidnapped and
taken down into the Chamber of Secrets, and Ron and Harry discover an important clue
that Hermione left for them. They quickly head down into the Chamber of Secrets to
rescue Ginny.

Harry and Ron get separated once they’re down there and Harry is left to pursue the
monster on his own. He quickly finds Ginny, and thanks to some mysterious help from
Dumbledore and his pet phoenix, Fawkes, Harry is able to destroy Slytherin’s heir, who
turns out to be a younger version of Lord Voldemort. Voldemort had possessed Ginny
through an enchanted diary and was using her to set the monster loose on the students.
Harry and Ron are both hailed as heroes when they make it back out with Ginny, and
Harry can’t imagine a finer end to such an eventful year when Hermione and the rest of
the victims are healed and they win Gryffindor loads of House points.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry starts off his third year at Hogwarts rather eventfully when he inadvertently blows
up his Aunt Marge, goes on the run, and is then personally absolved by the Minister of
Magic himself. He then learns that mass murderer, Sirius Black, is intent on killing him,
and Mr. Weasley makes him promise a strange thing, that no matter what he hears he
won’t go looking for Black. Confused, Harry agrees.

As he heads back to school armed with this knowledge, he learns that dementors, evil,
soul-sucking creatures, have been stationed around Hogwarts to protect the students
from Black. The dementors affect Harry much more than the other students because of
his terrible past, and he quickly resolves to learn to defend himself when he begins
collapsing every time they come near. He finds a willing teacher in Professor Lupin, the
new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, who begins teaching Harry the Patronus
Charm, which is the only spell that will work against the foul creatures.

As the school year progresses, the third year students are buried under piles of
homework. Hermione is already stressed out due to her enormous course load, and
none of them can figure out how she’s getting to all her classes. It doesn’t help that
Hermione’s cat, Crookshanks, repeatedly tries to eat Ron’s rat, Scabbers, causing the
two friends to argue ceaselessly about the animals. They stop speaking entirely when
it’s discovered that Crookshanks seems to have eaten Scabbers and Ron is devastated.

Harry has a few close calls with Black when he breaks into the castle, but Black is not
apprehended. Things come to a climax as the school year ends when a number of
events occur. First, Ron’s rat, Scabbers, turns out to still be alive and is really a wizard
in disguise. This wizard, Peter Pettigrew, has chosen to hide himself in this way so that
he can spy on Harry and his friends on behalf of Lord Voldemort. Harry learns that it
was Peter, and not Sirius Black, that betrayed his parents to Voldemort. Just when
Harry is sure Peter is finally going to be punished for his crimes, he escapes into the
night.

Sirius, long thought to be a mass murderer and Voldemort supporter, turns out to be
innocent. Harry also learns that Sirius is his godfather. He’s overjoyed when, for a
moment, he thinks he might be finally free of the Dursleys and able to live with Sirius,
but Sirius has to go on the run from the Ministry to avoid being apprehended.
Professor Lupin, Harry’s favorite teacher, ends up resigning his post when it’s
discovered that he’s a werewolf. He narrowly avoids attacking the kids, and it’s Sirius
that saves their lives when he turns into a huge shaggy dog to protect them.

It’s an action-packed year to be sure, but Harry is very happy that Sirius makes it out
safely and is finally free from Azkaban. He’s comforted by the fact that he finally has a
family-member, so to speak, out there watching over him.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Harry can’t believe it. The Weasley’s have invited him to the Quidditch World Cup,
which means he’ll get to leave the Dursley’s house early and go see a game that
anyone would kill to see.

The game is intense, but not just because of the stellar players and non-stop action.
Voldemort’s servants, the Death Eaters, make an appearance and the wizarding world
is shocked when Voldemort’s sign appears in the sky after the game.

When Harry, Ron, and Hermione finally make it back to Hogwarts a few weeks later,
they’re shocked to find that the school is the host of the Triwizard Tournament this year.
That's a competition between the three wizarding schools of Hogwarts, Durmstrang, and
Beauxbatons. The goblet of fire choses one champion for each school. There, they also
learn, that there is an new teacher for the subject Defence Against the Dark Arts. It´s
Mad-Eye-Moody, an ex-auror. When the students from the other schools arrive in
October, the students begin putting their name in the Goblet of Fire in order to be
chosen at Halloween as their school's champion. The champion of Hogwarts is Cedric
Diggory, the champion of Durmstrang is Victor Krum, a famous Quidditch-player and the
champion of Beauxbatons is Fleur Delacour. Harry is shocked beyond belief when, in
spite of his inability to compete because of his age, he’s chosen as the fourth school
champion.

What’s even worse is that Ron doesn’t believe that Harry didn’t put his name in the
goblet. They get into a huge fight, and Ron stops talking to Harry. The rest of Hogwarts
is also incensed that Harry is "looking for more fame", and the only person who stands
by Harry’s side is Hermione.

In the tournament, the champions must steal a golden eye from a dragon. Harry
accomplish this task and the hazard of the fight against the dragon convinces Ron, that
Harry had always told the truth and he reconcile with him.

As the school year progresses Harry is beset with troubles. Snooping journalist, Rita
Skeeter, continues to publish gossipy articles about Harry that alienate him from the rest
of the school, he’s turned down by his crush, Cho Chang, when he asks her to the Yule
Ball, and in the days leading up to the second task of the tournament, which involves
retrieving something important from the bottom of a lake filled with mer-people, he
almost doesn’t find a way to accomplish what he’s got to do. Saved at the last minute,
however, Harry again gets almost full marks and is tied for first place.

Sirius returns to keep an eye on Harry, as well as the mysterious happenings that keep
taking place at Hogwarts. There is someone at the school who wants Harry dead, but
no one knows who it is.

In the final task of the tournament, the champions are in a knot garden, they need to
look for the Winner´s Cup. The plants which build the maze caught Cedric,the other
champion of Hogwarts, but Harry helps him. Harry and Cedric decide to be jointly the
winner, so they put their hands on the winner´s cup, but in this moment they are
transported to a graveyard where Cedric is killed by Wormtrail. Harry witnessed
Voldemort’s return to power, and barely makes it back to Hogwarts alive, clutching
Cedric’s body.

Back at Hogwarts, Professor Moody comforts him, but then Harry discovers, that he is a
traitor, who infiltrated Hogwarts in order of Voldemort. He’s a Death Eater who
transmuted his body with Polyjuice Potion. Harry warns Dumbledore and the Minister of
Magic, Cornelius Fudge about the occurrence wit Voldemort, but only Dumbledore
believes him. He starts to arrange the defense for the return of the dark lord.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

It's been another long, hot summer at the Dursleys' for Harry Potter. Having spent most
of it in an adolescent "funk" of depression and bitterness over the lack of informative
letters from his friends about Voldemort's return, he's suddenly jolted out of his bad
mood when two Dementors show up in the town of Little Whinging and attack Harry and
his cousin, Dudley. When Harry uses magic to drive them off, however, he quickly
receives a succession of owls from the Ministry, requiring him to attend a disciplinary
hearing. His heart sinks when he reads that the question of whether to expel him from
Hogwarts will be decided at the hearing.

Harry is exonerated at the hearing but when Harry finally manages to make it back to
school, he finds things are different than when he left. Hagrid's missing, there are
skeletal horses pulling the school carriages that only he can see, and the new Defense
Against the Dark Arts teacher is none other than toadlike, repulsive Dolores Umbridge,
a Ministry representative whom Harry is all too familiar with.

Even worse is the constant mutterings of the other students. Having spent all summer
discrediting both Harry and Dumbledore, the Ministry has succeeded in convincing
everyone they're both crazy and that Voldemort's return is nothing but a figment of their
imagination.

With only Ron and Hermione standing by his side, Harry is hard-pressed to stay in a
good mood and often lashes out at the ones he is closest to. His defiant behavior lands
him in detention for weeks at a time with Professor Umbridge, who soon rises to the
status of Hogwarts High Inquistor and revels in sacking teachers and keeping the entire
school under the control of her stubby, ugly-ringed fingers.

As the school year progresses Harry and Umbridge frequently lock horns, and she
retaliates by taking away everything he cares about: Quidditch, letters from Sirius, and
visits with Hagrid. So Harry fights back the only way he can, by forming a secret
defense group, known as Dumbledore's Army, and teaching his friends how to fight
properly.

In spite of the frantic workload in preparing for their OWLs (tests that determine the
student's future career choices), the tyranny of Umbridge, and Harry's unbearable crush
on Ravenclaw seeker, Cho Chang, Harry keeps having tantalizing dreams of dark
corridors and locked doors that are distracting at best. His scar prickles constantly and
he soon finds he's turned into a tiny antenna for Voldemort's mood swings, which
certainly doesn't help his own temper.

Things take a disastrous turn when Dolores Umbridge finds out about Harry's secret
defense group. Harry is filled with guilt when Dumbledore, claims credit for the group in
order to protect Harry, and has to flee the school to escape arrest.

This installment ends with an epic battle of good and evil, resulting in a devastating loss
to Harry when his godfather Sirius Black is killed, and the full revelation that his destiny
lies intertwined with none other than Voldemort himself. In the end, Dumbledore reveals
the lost prophecy to Harry: either Harry will kill Lord Voldemort or Voldemort will kill
Harry.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Harry's sixth year at Hogwarts opens to find him more mellow and grown up than ever.
The death of Sirius Black has left an indelible mark on him, and he's more determined
than ever to put an end to Voldemort and his Death Eaters. He's happy to escape the
tyranny of the Dursley's early in the summer when Dumbledore picks him up to attend to
a mysterious errand, which ends up in Harry's persuading ex-professor, Horace
Slughorn, to come out of retirement to teach at Hogwarts again.

When the day finally arrives, Harry is as usual overjoyed to be back at school. He's
been made Quidditch Team Captain. However, Harry and his friends are dismayed to
find out that Professor Severus Snape has finally achieved his burning desire to
become Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Harry is excited to be taking private
lessons with Dumbledore this year, who is showing him all about Voldemort's past.
Dumbledore hopes that knowing as much as he can about Voldemort will help Harry in
his final battle with the Dark Lord.
A mysterious book previously owned by the Half-Blood Prince comes into Harry's hands
early on during his Potions class and changes the course of his school year by giving
him a reputation for Potions brilliance that baffles everyone. Harry quickly grows to
depend on the information he gets from the Half-Blood Prince's book and uses some of
his spells outside of class, much to Hermione's displeasure.

Harry also keeps an increasingly close eye on Draco Malfoy. Convinced that Malfoy has
replaced his father as the head of the Death Eaters, Harry believes Malfoy is
constructing a dark plot inside the school but can't for the life of him figure out what it is.
Between Ron and Hermione's skepticism, and Malfoy's disappearances from the school
grounds, Harry has his hands full trying to uncover what Malfoy's up to.

As the year speeds by, Harry and Ron are both amazed at their blossoming love lives.
Harry especially falls hard for someone he knows he shouldn't, his best friend Ron's
sister, Ginny. His lessons with Dumbledore continue sporadically, and he's excited to
hear that he might be able to go with Dumbledore on a dangerous mission to help
destroy a horcrux that contains a part of Voldemort's soul.

Things reach a frantic pace when several things happen all at once. Harry and
Dumbledore leave on their mission, Malfoy's dark plot finally works and he is able to
sneak in Death Eaters to attack the school, and a fierce battle takes place between the
students, members of the Order of the Phoenix, and the Death Eaters. Having
succeeded in their mission to recover the horcrux, Harry and Dumbledore return only to
get trapped on the Astronomy Tower where, to Harry's dismay, Professor Snape kills
Dumbledore.

Dumbledore's death is a terrible blow to Harry, but it enables him to see clearly what his
true mission is. He resolves that he will not return to Hogwarts, but instead sets off to
destroy the remaining fragments of Voldemort's soul. He is bolstered by Ron and
Hermione's insistence on going with him, and as soon as Dumbledore's funeral is over,
they agree to start their journey together.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Harry has finally come of age, and finally started on his final journey to defeat Voldemort
for good. The Dursely’s are forced to go into hiding so that Voldemort’s Death Eaters
will not torture them for information, and Harry sets off with Ron and Hermione on a
difficult quest to find and destroy the last of Voldemort’s Horcruxes. Only once those
have been destroyed, Harry knows, can Voldemort truly be killed.

It’s not easy. Harry is plagued with rumors of Dumbledore’s past, and begins to wonder
if the Headmaster he so long revered might have had a much darker past than he ever
let on. The three are frequently without food, and with winter coming their journey is no
day at the beach. Because of their lack of plan, lack of food, and lack of progress, their
spirits are often low, and Ron especially becomes argumentative. One night he and
Harry get into an epic fight and Ron leaves to go back home.
Harry and Hermione are devastated that he’d abandoned them. They finally decide to
revisit Godric’s Hollow in search of clues, and once again they’re almost caught by
Voldemort. Every step they make, it seems, he is there anticipating them. They’ve
almost died too many times to count, and their spirits sink even lower when Harry
discovers his wand was broken in the battle.

Ron redeems himself a few weeks later by coming back and saving Harry’s life in the
nick of time. They manage to destroy another Horcrux with Gryffindor’s sword, and they
become excited again as they begin to learn about a mysterious trio of magical objects
called the Deathly Hallows. Whomever possesses the three objects will be a master of
death, and to Harry, it’s his one chance to beat Voldemort and live to tell the tale.

As his adventures and the danger he’s in increases, Harry begins to truly understand
what Dumbledore intended him to do. He realizes, almost at the last minute, that his
own life will have to be sacrificed in order for Voldemort to truly be vanquished. Filled
with love for his friends, he willingly gives his life so that they may live.

His last act of heroism, however, saves his life. He meets Dumbledore again in death,
and Dumbledore answers many of his questions. He is given a choice to stay or to go
back, and he chooses to go back and fight.

It’s all over between Harry and Voldemort with just one spell. Harry is left alive, the true
master of the Hallows, and Voldemort is killed for good. He now understands more than
he ever has about love (which he loves Ginny), and life, and sacrifice, and in spite of the
loss of many of his friends during the last battle, is grateful for the second chance he’s
been