Harry Potter spends the summer without receiving letters from his
Hogwarts friends. In his room, Harry meets
Dobby, a
house-elf
who warns him bad things will happen if he returns to Hogwarts, and
reveals he intercepted his friends' letters. Harry chases him
downstairs, where Dobby destroys a cake.
The Dursleys lock Harry up, but
Ron,
Fred and George Weasley rescue him in their father's flying
Ford Anglia.
While buying school supplies, Harry and the Weasley family encounter
Rubeus Hagrid and
Hermione Granger, and they attend a book-signing by celebrity wizard
Gilderoy Lockhart, who announces he will be the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Harry also encounters
Draco Malfoy and his father
Lucius, who slips a book in
Ginny Weasley's belongings. When Harry and Ron are blocked from entering
Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, they fly to Hogwarts in the Ford Anglia and crash into the hostile
Whomping Willow. Ron's wand is damaged, and the car throws them out before driving off. They are allowed back into school but face detention.
While serving detention with Lockhart, Harry hears strange voices and later finds caretaker
Argus Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris,
petrified,
and a message written in blood announcing the Chamber of Secrets has
been opened and threatening "Enemies of the Heir, beware".
Professor McGonagall
explains that one of Hogwarts' founders, Salazar Slytherin, supposedly
constructed a secret Chamber and placed inside it a monster that only
his Heir can control, to purge the school of impure-blooded wizards and
witches. More attacks occur over the course of the year. Harry and Ron
suspect Malfoy is the Heir, so Hermione suggests they question him while
disguised using
polyjuice potion. Their makeshift laboratory is in an abandoned bathroom haunted by a ghost,
Moaning Myrtle.
When Harry communicates with a snake (something Salazar Slytherin
could do) some believe he is the Heir. At Christmas, Harry and Ron learn
that Malfoy is not the Heir, but he mentions that a girl died when the
Chamber was last opened fifty years ago. Harry finds an enchanted diary,
owned by a former student named
Tom Riddle,
which shows him a flashback to fifty years before, where Riddle accused
Hagrid, then a student, of opening the Chamber. When the diary
disappears and Hermione is petrified, Harry and Ron question Hagrid.
Professor Dumbledore,
Cornelius Fudge, and Lucius Malfoy come to take Hagrid to
Azkaban,
but he discreetly tells the boys to "follow the spiders". Lucius has
Dumbledore suspended. In the Forbidden Forest, Harry and Ron find
Aragog, who reveals Hagrid's innocence and that the dead girl was found in a bathroom. Aragog then sets his colony of
Acromantula on the boys, but the now-wild Ford Anglia saves them.
A book page in Hermione's hand reveals the monster is a
basilisk,
a giant serpent that can instantly kill those who make direct eye
contact with it; the petrified victims saw it indirectly. The school
staff learn that Ginny was taken into the Chamber, and convince Lockhart
to save her. Harry and Ron find Lockhart, revealed as a fraud, planning
to flee; knowing Myrtle was the girl the Basilisk killed, they drag him
to her bathroom and find the Chamber's entrance. Once inside, Lockhart
uses Ron's damaged wand against them, but it backfires, wiping his
memory, and causes a cave-in.
Harry enters the Chamber alone and finds Ginny unconscious and dying
guarded by Tom Riddle. Harry realizes Riddle is the Heir and he used the
diary to manipulate Ginny and reopen the Chamber. Riddle then reveals
his full name, Tom Marvolo Riddle, from which he created the anagram for
his future new identity, "I am Lord Voldemort". After Harry expresses
support for Dumbledore, Dumbledore's
Fawkes flies in with the
Sorting Hat,
and Riddle summons the Basilisk. Fawkes blinds the Basilisk, and the
Sorting Hat eventually produces a sword with which Harry battles and
slays the Basilisk, but he is poisoned by its fangs.
Harry defeats Riddle and revives Ginny by stabbing the diary with a
basilisk fang. Fawkes' tears heal him, and he returns to Hogwarts with
his friends and a baffled professor Lockhart. Dumbledore, reinstated as
headmaster, praises them and orders for Hagrid's release. Dumbledore
shows Harry that the sword he wielded was
Godric Gryffindor's own sword,
and says he is different from Voldemort because he chose Gryffindor
House instead of Slytherin House. Harry accuses Lucius, Dobby's master,
of putting the diary in Ginny's cauldron and tricks him into freeing
Dobby. The Basilisk's victims are healed, and Hagrid returns to school.
4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
For the tournament's first task, the champions must each retrieve a golden egg guarded by a
dragon.
Harry, succeeds after he summons his broomstick to retrieve the egg,
which contains information about the second challenge. Shortly after,
another event known as the
Yule Ball dance takes place, during which Harry's crush
Cho Chang attends with Cedric, and
Hermione Granger attends with Viktor, which renders
Ron
jealous. During the second task, the champions are instructed to dive
underwater to rescue their mates; Harry comes out last but is placed
second behind Cedric due to his "moral fiber". Afterwards, Barty Crouch
Sr. is found dead by Harry.
In the third and final task, the competitors are placed inside a
hedge maze
and must reach the Triwizard Cup. Viktor, under the Imperius Curse,
incapacitates Fleur. After Harry saves Cedric when the maze attacks him,
the two claim a draw and grab the cup together, which turns out to be a
Portkey
and transports the two to a graveyard, where Wormtail and Voldemort are
waiting. Wormtail kills Cedric with the Killing Curse and performs a
ritual using a bone of Voldemort's father, Wormtail's flesh and Harry's
blood, which rejuvenates Voldemort, who then summons the Death Eaters.
Voldemort releases Harry in order to beat him in a duel to prove he is
the better wizard. Harry is unable to defend himself, but tries the
Expelliarmus charm at the same moment Voldemort attempts the Killing
Curse. Their wands cannot work against each other (as they both contain a
feather from the same phoenix, Fawkes), so Voldemort's wand is forced
to disgorge the last spells it performed. This results in shadow
impressions of the people he murdered appearing in the graveyard,
including
Harry's parents and Cedric. This provides an ample distraction to Voldemort and his Death Eaters, allowing Harry to escape with Cedric's body.
Upon his return, Harry tells Dumbledore that Voldemort has returned
and is responsible for Cedric's death. Hogwarts grieves for Cedric.
Mad-Eye takes a devastated Harry back to his room, locks the door, and
admits that it was he who put Harry's name in the Goblet, cursed Viktor
and was responsible for all the things gone wrong and tries to attack
Harry. Dumbledore, Severus Snape, and Minerva McGonagall break down his
door and force him to drink Veritaserum, a truth telling potion. It's
also revealed that he is not "Mad-Eye" Moody; the real one is imprisoned
in a magical trunk. The false Mad-Eye's
Polyjuice Potion
wears off and he is revealed as Barty Crouch Jr., working for
Voldemort. Crouch Jr. is sent back to Azkaban prison, from which he had
escaped.
Soon after, Hogwarts, Durmstrang and Beauxbatons gather to mourn Cedric and bid farewell to each other.
5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
During another summer with his
Aunt Petunia and
Uncle Vernon, Harry Potter and Dudley are attacked by
dementors. After using magic to save Dudley and himself, Harry is expelled from
Hogwarts, but the decision is later rescinded. Harry is whisked off by a group of wizards to
Number 12, Grimmauld Place, the home of his godfather,
Sirius Black. The house also serves as the headquarters of the
Order of the Phoenix, of which Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Remus Lupin, Mad-Eye Moody, and Sirius are members.
Ron Weasley and
Hermione Granger explain that the Order of the Phoenix is a secret organisation led by Hogwarts headmaster
Albus Dumbledore, dedicated to fighting
Lord Voldemort and his followers, the
Death Eaters.
From the members of the Order, Harry and the others learn that
Voldemort is seeking an object that he did not have prior to his first
defeat, and assume this object to be a weapon of some sort. Harry learns
that the Ministry of Magic, led by Cornelius Fudge, is refusing to
acknowledge Voldemort's return because of the trouble that doing so
would cause, and has been running a smear campaign against him and
Dumbledore.
At Hogwarts, Harry learns that
Dolores Umbridge, a senior employee under the Minister of Magic,
Cornelius Fudge, will be the new
Defence Against the Dark Arts
teacher. Umbridge and Harry clash, as she, like Fudge, refuses to
believe that Voldemort has returned. She punishes Harry for his
rebellious outbursts by having him write "I must not tell lies" with a
cursed quill that carves the phrase into his skin. She also refuses to
teach her students how to perform defensive spells, prompting Harry, Ron
and Hermione to form their own Defence Against the Dark Arts group,
which they call
Dumbledore's Army. Many students sign up, including
Neville Longbottom,
Fred and George Weasley and
Luna Lovegood. The club meets in the
Room of Requirement to learn and practice Defence spells under Harry's instruction.
Meanwhile, Rubeus Hagrid has not yet returned from the secret mission
given to him by Dumbledore at the end of the previous book, and is
absent for the first part of the school year. Upon his return, Harry,
Ron, and Hermione learn that his mission, which was mostly unsuccessful,
was to seek out the last giants to stop them from joining Lord
Voldemort. Dolores Umbridge has been steadily amassing more and more
power and influence at the school, and as she begins regularly
inspecting Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures lessons, it is clear that
she intends to get rid of him.
One night, Harry has a vision through the eyes of Voldemort's snake
Nagini, possessed by Voldemort, attacking Ron's father
Arthur Weasley. Harry informs
Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore, and Mr. Weasley is rescued. Dumbledore arranges for Harry to take
Occlumency lessons with
Professor Snape to protect his mind against further invasions by Voldemort.
Umbridge finally sacks Professor Trelawney, the Divination teacher;
However, she is outraged when Professor Dumbledore undermines her power
by allowing Trelawney to continue living at the school, and hires
Firenze, a centaur, to take her place, in spite of Umbridge's prejudice
against part-humans. Soon after, Umbridge is given a tip-off about
Dumbledore's Army by Marietta Edgecomb, who in doing so unwittingly
activates a curse set by Hermione which disfigures her face. When
Dumbledore takes responsibility for the illegal organization, he is
forced to leave the school and go into hiding. Dolores Umbridge becomes
headmistress, and Fred and George cause pandemonium around the school in
revenge.
During one Occlumency lesson, Snape is called away and Harry, left
alone, looks into Snape's pensieve, viewing a memory of his time as a
student at Hogwarts. Harry sees his father,
James Potter,
and Sirius bullying Snape. Snape catches Harry and, enraged, refuses to
continue the lessons. Distraught, Harry talks to Sirius and Lupin by
using Floo powder through the fireplace in Umbridge's own office, under
cover of a distraction by Fred and George. The twins then leave Hogwarts
to start a joke-shop in Diagon Alley.
Suspecting that he will be next teacher to be sacked by Umbridge,
Hagrid confesses to Harry, Ron and Hermione that he has brought his
giant half-brother, Grawp, to Hogwarts, and hidden him in the Forbidden
Forest, with the intention of eventually introducing him to human
society. Hagrid asks the three of them to look after Grawp if he himself
must leave the school. Sure enough, Umbridge leads a party of Aurors to
attack Hagrid in his house one night. Hagrid overpowers them and flees
the school. McGonagall, trying to disrupt the violence, is badly injured
and is put in St. Mungo's Hospital.
On the last day of OWL tests, Harry has a vision of Sirius being
tortured by Voldemort in the Department of Mysteries. He tries again to
illegally use Umbridge's office fire to communicate with the Order of
the Phoenix's headquarters to make sure the vision was genuine, and is
told by Kreacher the house-elf that Sirius is indeed at the Ministry,
before Umbridge catches Harry and his friends in the act. Snape is
summoned to provide Veritaserum in order to question Harry, but he
claims to have no further stocks of the potion left. Remembering that
Snape is also a member of the Order of the Phoenix, Harry gives him a
cryptic warning about Sirius's fate, but Snape claims to have not
understood it.
Umbridge decides to use the illegal
Cruciatus Curse
on Harry to interrogate him on Sirius's whereabouts. She also reveals
she herself ordered the dementor attack on him, intending to have him
either silenced or discredited. Hermione intervenes and in order to
create a distraction, convinces Umbridge that they are hiding a weapon
of Dumbledore's in the
Forbidden Forest.
Harry and Hermione lead her into an area of the forest inhabited by
centaurs, where Umbridge provokes them into taking her captive. The
centaurs are furious upon learning that Hermione used them to do her
bidding and turn on the pair, but Grawp arrives and clashes with the
centaurs, allowing Harry and Hermione to escape.
Luna, Ron, Ginny, and Neville join them in the forest and all six fly to the Ministry on
thestrals,
expecting to find and rescue Sirius. Once in the Department of
Mysteries, Harry realizes that his vision was falsely planted by
Voldemort; however, he finds a glass sphere that bears his and the Dark
Lord's names.
Death Eaters led by
Lucius Malfoy
attack in order to capture the sphere, which is a recording of a
prophecy concerning Harry and Lord Voldemort, which is revealed to be
the object Voldemort has been trying to obtain for the whole year, the
Dark Lord believing that there was something he missed when he first
heard the prophecy. Lucius explains that only the subjects of the
prophecies, in this case Harry or Voldemort, can safely remove them from
the shelves. Harry and his friends, soon joined by members of the
Order, enter a battle with the Death Eaters. Amidst the chaos,
Bellatrix Lestrange
kills Sirius and Harry faces Voldemort, who unsuccessfully tries to
possess Harry in an attempt to get Dumbledore to kill the boy.
Dumbledore does not do so and Voldemort escapes just as Cornelius Fudge
appears, finally faced with first-hand evidence that Voldemort has truly
returned.
In his office, Dumbledore explains that Snape had understood Harry's
cryptic warning, and had subsequently gotten in contact with Sirius,
learning that he was still at Grimmauld Place. After Harry failed to
return from the Forbidden Forest, Snape deduced that he had gone to the
Department of Mysteries and alerted the Order of the Phoenix, allowing
them to travel there and save Harry and his friends. It is revealed that
during the Christmas holidays, Kreacher had interpreted a command of
Sirius's as an order to leave the house, and went to Narcissa Malfoy,
the wife of Lucius, and told them about Harry and Sirius's close
relationship; Voldemort subsequently realised that he could lure Harry
to the Department of Mysteries by tricking him into thinking that Sirius
was in danger there.
Dumbledore then explains the prophecy: Before Harry was born,
Professor Trelawney predicted that a boy with the power to defeat
Voldemort would be born, would be marked as an equal by Voldemort and
have power unknown to him, and that one of the pair must kill the other,
for "neither can live while the other survives". Voldemort learnt of
the first part of the prophecy, and subsequently tried to murder Harry
in the belief that he could prevent it from coming true, unaware that he
would grant Harry power by doing so. He tells Harry that he must stay
with the Dursleys for one last summer because by taking Harry into her
home, his Aunt Petunia, Lily's sister, seals the protection that Harry's
mother afforded him when she died; As long as he is there, he is safe
from Voldemort and his followers.
Harry comes to terms with the responsibility of the prophecy, but
mourns for the loss of his godfather. Luna comforts him, telling him
about her and her father's belief in heaven. Harry then finds an old
hand-held mirror in his dormitory that was a gift from Sirius. He
realizes that Sirius would not want him to be depressed on the matter,
and resolves to continue fighting Voldemort still.
6.Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Severus Snape, a member of the
Order of the Phoenix, meets with
Narcissa Malfoy,
Draco's mother, who expresses concern that her son might not survive a dangerous mission given to him by
Lord Voldemort. He makes an
Unbreakable Vow with her to protect and assist Draco in his mission.
Dumbledore takes Harry to the temporary home of
Horace Slughorn, former
Potions teacher at
Hogwarts,
and persuades him to return to teach. Harry is taken to the Burrow,
where Hermione has already arrived. The next morning they get their
Ordinary Wizarding Level (O.W.L.) results, and school supplies lists. Later,
Ron Weasley and
Hermione Granger follow Draco to
Dark Arts supplier
Borgin and Burkes. Harry is instantly suspicious of Draco, whom he believes to be a
Death Eater.
The students return to school, where
Dumbledore announces that Snape would be teaching
Defence Against the Dark Arts
this year, while Slughorn would resume his post as Potions teacher.
Harry now excels in Potions, thanks to having received a used Potions
textbook that once belonged to someone named "The Half-Blood Prince",
who wrote numerous tips and spells in his Potions textbook. The
Half-Blood Prince's tips help Harry win a bottle of Felix Felicis, or
lucky potion, from his lessons. However, Harry's newfound brilliance in
potions angers Hermione and causes much tension between the two.
Believing that Harry needs to learn Voldemort's past to gain
advantage in a foretold battle, 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. Harry learns about
Voldemort's family and his evolution into a murderer obsessed not only with power, but with gaining eternal life.
Using his Felix Felicis, Harry eventually succeeds in retrieving one
of Slughorn's memories about how he revealed the secrets about splitting
one's soul and hiding it in several objects called
Horcruxes,
granting Voldemort immortality. Dumbledore explains that in order to
grant him mortality, all the horcruxes must be destroyed. Two Horcruxes,
including Riddle's Diary from
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, have already been destroyed but five others remain.
The love lives of the main characters come into play during the year.
Ron and Hermione grow closer together, but after learning from his
sister
Ginny
that Hermione had previously kissed Viktor Krum, Ron shuns her. Harry's
attempts to repair things between the two fail, resulting in Ron going
out with
Lavender Brown
to make Hermione jealous. Ron and Hermione later reconcile after Ron is
nearly killed in an attempt on Dumbledore's life. As a result of this,
Ron and Lavender break up when Lavender sees the two of them walking out
of the girl's dormitories together. However, this was only because she
hadn't noticed Harry, who had already hurried on ahead. Harry meanwhile
falls in love with Ginny, but he is reluctant to enter a relationship
with her for most of the year because of his friendship with Ron. He
does enter in a relationship with her though, with the permission of
Ron.
Later in the year, Harry and Dumbledore journey to a cave to retrieve
a Horcrux. Dumbledore expertly finds a secret passageway to a hollow,
where Harry and Dumbledore take a boat across the toxic lake. They reach
the basin where the Horcrux is hidden underneath a potion. Dumbledore
drinks the potion, which severely weakens him, while Harry fights off
Voldemort's
Inferi. They take the Horcrux,
Slytherin's locket, and return to find that the
Dark Mark
has been placed over Hogwarts in their absence. Dumbledore uses his
magic to freeze Harry in place while Harry remains hidden by his
cloak of invisibility. Draco arrives, accompanied by Death Eaters that he helped get inside Hogwarts. Draco
disarms
Dumbledore of his wand then threatens to kill him, acting on his
mission from Voldemort. Dumbledore tries to stall Draco, who is unable
to go through with it, but Snape arrives and kills Dumbledore.
Because of Dumbledore's death, his spell on Harry is broken, and
Harry rushes after Snape to avenge Dumbledore. Snape reveals that he is
the Half-Blood Prince
and escapes with Draco and the other Death Eaters. Later, Harry finds
out that the locket is not the real Horcrux, containing only a note from
someone named "
R. A. B.".
After Dumbledore's funeral, Harry breaks up with Ginny, saying it is
too dangerous for their relationship to continue. Harry is so devastated
by Dumbledore's death, he decides to tell 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 in destroying
Lord Voldemort for good.
7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Following Dumbledore's death, Voldemort consolidates his support and
power, including covert control of the Ministry of Magic, while Harry is
about to turn seventeen, losing the protection of his home. The
Order of the Phoenix
move Harry to a new location before his birthday, but are attacked upon
departure. Mad-Eye is killed, and George Weasley wounded, the rest
arrive safely.
Abandoning school, Ron and Hermione accompany Harry to finish
Dumbledore's quest: to hunt and destroy Voldemort's four remaining
Horcruxes. Initially they have very few clues - one is a locket once owned by Hogwarts' co-founder
Salazar Slytherin which was stolen by the mysterious "R.A.B.", one is possibly a cup originally belonging to co-founder
Helga Hufflepuff, a third might be connected to co-founder
Rowena Ravenclaw, and the fourth might be
Nagini, Voldemort's snake
familiar. They also receive apparently meaningless bequests from Dumbledore's possessions - a
Golden Snitch for Harry, a
Deluminator for Ron, and a book of fairy tales for Hermione.
Before leaving, they attend Ron's brother Bill's wedding, but the
Ministry of Magic
finally falls to Voldemort and the wedding is attacked. They flee to 12
Grimmauld Place in London, the family home of Sirius Black and
headquarters of the
Order of the Phoenix,
where they identify R.A.B. as Sirius' brother Regulus Black, and learn
from the house-elf Kreacher that Slytherin's locket was stolen from the
house and then seized by
Dolores Umbridge
of the Ministry of Magic. They infiltrate the Ministry of Magic and
take back the locket, but have no way to destroy it. Under the object's
evil influence and the strain of constant vigilance, they argue and Ron
leaves.
Harry and Hermione continue the quest, discovering more about
Dumbledore's past, including the death of Dumbledore's younger sister
and his connection to the dark wizard
Grindelwald.
They travel to Godric's Hollow, Harry's birthplace and the place where
his parents died, and meet the elderly magical historian Bathilda
Bagshot, but she turns out to be Nagini in disguise, awaiting their
arrival; the snake attacks Harry and again they barely escape, this time
to the
Forest of Dean, where their luck appears to turn. A mysterious silver doe, similar to a
Patronus, appears and silently guides Harry to an icy pond containing the
Sword of Hogwarts co-founder Godric Gryffindor, a
Goblin-made
weapon and one of the few objects able to destroy Horcruxes. During
Harry's attempt to recover the sword, the Horcrux attempts to kill him.
He is saved by Ron, who was guided back by the deluminator, and they
realize Dumbledore's gifts may be meaningful. Ron obtains the sword, and
uses it to destroy the locket.
Harry continues to have visions of Voldemort torturing and killing
wizards, apparently in pursuit of some object. Hermione identifies in
her book, a strange symbol also worn at the wedding by
Xenophilius Lovegood. They visit him and are told the symbol represents the mythical
Deathly Hallows, three objects from an old
fairy tale titled
The Tale of the Three Brothers:
the Elder Wand, an unbeatable wand; the Resurrection Stone, able to
summon the dead; and an infallible Invisibility Cloak. Harry realizes
that Voldemort is seeking (and shortly afterwards, successfully obtains)
the
Elder Wand,
won by Dumbledore after Grindelwald's defeat, recognises the
Resurrection Stone as that found by Dumbledore which had become the
second Horcrux, and his own inherited Invisibility Cloak as the third
Hallow.
The trio are captured and taken to
Malfoy Manor, where
Bellatrix Lestrange tortures Hermione to learn how the three acquired the sword, which she had believed was in her vault at
Gringotts
bank. They escape, along with Luna Lovegood, Ollivander, Dean Thomas,
and the goblin Griphook, aided by the elf Dobby. During the escape Harry
disarms
Draco Malfoy
and Dobby dies. Bellatrix' terror in interrogating Hermione suggests to
Harry that some exceptional object is in her vault, and when
questioned, Griphook confirms that a gold cup is indeed in her vault.
They break into the vault, retrieve the cup, and escape on a dragon,
although they lose the sword. Harry has a vision of Voldemort and sees
that he now understands their plan, and intends to make his remaining
horcruxes even safer. The vision also confirms that the unidentified
horcrux is at Hogwarts.
They enter the school through an undiscovered secret entrance. The
teachers drive out Snape, and defend the school to win time for Harry to
locate the penultimate horcrux. Voldemort had set a guard in the
Ravenclaw tower, corroborating Harry's belief that the horcrux is Rowena
Ravenclaw's
diadem, lost centuries ago. The Ravenclaw ghost's story further confirms this belief, and Harry remembers an old diadem in the
Room of Requirement. Ron and Hermione destroy the cup with
basilisk fangs from the
Chamber of Secrets as Voldemort and his army besiege the castle. They find the diadem but are ambushed by Draco Malfoy and his friends
Crabbe and
Goyle.
Crabbe tries to kill them using Fiendfyre, a cursed fire, but is unable
to control it; the fire destroys the diadem and himself. Harry and his
friends save Malfoy and Goyle, and several major characters are killed
in the battle, including
Remus Lupin,
Nymphadora Tonks, and
Fred Weasley.
In his encampment, Voldemort feels that the Elder Wand is not
performing as he expected. According to legend, its allegiance must be
won by killing the previous owner, and Voldemort concludes - incorrectly
- that as Snape killed Dumbledore, he will not be able to fully wield
the wand's power until he kills Snape, which he does. Harry arrives as
Snape is dying, and Snape passes him memories to view in a
pensieve.
They reveal finally, that Snape had a lifelong love for Harry's mother,
and felt haunted by causing her death, that despite hating Harry's
father he agreed at Dumbledore's request to watch over their son Harry
and act as a
double agent
against Voldemort, that Dumbledore's death was planned with Snape in
advance, that Snape cast the doe Patronus to lead Harry to the sword,
and that - apparently - he himself must die if Voldemort is to be
killed. He accepts his death and Dumbledore's scheming that has guided
his life, and goes to seek out and be killed by Voldemort. On the way he
tells
Neville Longbottom
that Voldemort's snake Nagini - the last known horcrux - must be killed
to make Voldemort vulnerable. He uses the Resurrection Stone to seek
comfort and courage from his dead loved ones - his parents, Sirius and
Lupine - dropping the stone in the forest before reaching Voldemort's
camp. Voldemort uses the
Killing Curse and Harry does not defend himself.
Harry awakens in a dreamlike location somewhat like
Kings Cross Station,
and is greeted by Dumbledore who explains that Voldemort's original
Killing Curse left a fragment of Voldemort's soul in Harry which caused
the connection they had felt, that when Voldemort used Harry's blood to
regain his full strength, this further protected Harry from Voldemort,
that this fragment of Voldemort's soul has now been killed by
Voldemort's own spell, and that Harry is free to return or "go on".
Harry chooses to return and feigns death. Voldemort displays Harry's
body and offers a truce if the defenders surrender, but Neville kills
Nagini with the sword, leaving Voldemort unprotected, and Harry escapes
under his cloak as the battle resumes.
In a final onslaught,
Bellatrix
is killed and Harry reveals to Voldemort that he is alive. He explains
to Voldemort that the Elder Wand's loyalty transfers upon the defeat,
not necessarily the killing, of its previous master. Although Voldemort
believed he has won the wand's allegiance by killing Snape, who killed
Dumbledore, in fact he (Harry) had defeated Draco Malfoy who had
previously disarmed Dumbledore. Therefore, the outcome of their duel
will depend upon whether the Elder Wand knows its previous master was
disarmed, which will have left Harry as its true master, even though
neither Draco nor Harry ever physically held it. He also explains that
his attempted self-sacrifice has protected the remaining defendants, who
can now no longer be hurt by Voldemort. Harry urges Voldemort to feel
remorse, in order to save his soul. Enraged, Voldemort attempts one
final Killing Curse, but the Elder Wand refuses to act against Harry and
the spell rebounds, killing him finally.
After Voldemort's death, Harry uses the Elder Wand to repair his
original broken wand, saying that he will return it to Dumbledore's
tomb, where its power may vanish if Harry dies undefeated and where it
may drop out of history, and the wizarding world returns to peace once
more.
