Plot

Further information: Harry Potter universe

Coat of arms of Hogwarts.

The novels revolve around Harry Potter, an orphan who discovers at the age of eleven that he is a wizard. [12] Wizard ability is

inborn, but children are sent to wizarding school to learn the magical skills necessary to succeed in the wizarding world.
[13]
 Harry is invited to attend the boarding school calledHogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Each book chronicles

one year in Harry's life, and most of the events take place at Hogwarts. [14] As he struggles through adolescence, Harry learns

to overcome many magical, social and emotional hurdles. [15]

The main narrative of the novels is set in the years 1991-1998,[16] with significant memories from the year 1976 (Harry's

parents' Ordinary Wizarding Level (O.W.L.) year) and memories from various determinable and undeterminable periods after

1945; though little reference is made to features of any period.

Wizarding world

Flashbacks throughout the series reveal that when Harry was a baby he witnessed his parents' murder by Lord

Voldemort who was a dark wizard obsessed with blood purity.[17] For reasons not immediately revealed, the spell Voldemort

tries to kill Harry with rebounds.[17] Voldemort is seemingly killed and Harry survives with only a lightning-shaped mark on his

forehead as a memento of the attack.[17] As its inadvertent saviour from Voldemort's reign of terror, Harry becomes a living

legend in the wizard world. However, at the orders of his patron, the wizard Albus Dumbledore, the orphaned Harry is placed

in the home of his unpleasant Muggle (non-wizard) relatives, who keep him safe but completely ignorant of his true heritage.
[17]

The first novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (changed in the U.S. to Harry Potter and the

Sorcerer's Stone), begins near Harry's 11th birthday. Half-giant Rubeus Hagrid reveals Harry's history and introduces him to

the wizarding world.[17] The world J. K. Rowling created is both completely separate from and yet intimately connected to the

real world. While the fantasy world of Narnia is analternative universe and the Lord of the Rings’ Middle-earth a mythic past,
the Wizarding world of Harry Potter exists alongside that of the real world and contains magical elements similar to things in

the non-magical world. Many of its institutions and locations are in places that are recognizable in the real world, such as

London.[18] It comprises a fragmented collection of hidden streets, overlooked and ancient pubs, lonely country manors and

secluded castles that remain invisible to the non-magical population of Muggles.[13]

With Hagrid's help, Harry prepares for and undertakes his first year of study at Hogwarts. As Harry begins to explore the

magical world, the reader is introduced to many of the primary locations used throughout the series. Harry meets most of the

main characters and gains his two closest friends: Ron Weasley, a fun-loving member of an ancient, large, happy, but hard-

up wizarding family, and Hermione Granger, an obsessively bookish witch of non-magical parentage. [17][19] Harry also

encounters the school's potions master, Severus Snape, who displays a deep and abiding dislike for him. The plot

concludes with Harry's second confrontation with Lord Voldemort, who in his quest for immortality, yearns to gain the power

of the Philosopher's Stone.[17]

The series continues with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets describing Harry's second year at Hogwarts. He and his

friends investigate a 50-year-old mystery that appears tied to recent sinister events at the school. Ron's younger sister,

Ginny Weasley, enrolls in her first year at Hogwarts, and brings with her a notebook which turns out to be Voldemort's

school-time diary. Ginny becomes possessed by Voldemort through the diary and opens the "Chamber of Secrets",

unleashing an ancient monster within which begins attacking students at Hogwarts. The novel delves into the history of

Hogwarts and a legend revolving around the Chamber. Also, for the first time, Harry realises that racial prejudice exists in

the wizarding world, and he learns that Voldemort's reign of terror was often directed at wizards who were descended from

Muggles. Harry is also shocked to learn that he can speak Parseltongue, the language of snakes; this rare ability is often

equated with the dark arts. The novel ends after Harry saves the life of Ginny Weasley, by destroying a Basilisk and the

diary, in which Voldemort saved a piece of his soul (although Harry does not realise this until later in the series). The

concept of storing part of one's soul inside of an object in order to prevent death is officially introduced in the sixth novel

under the term "horcrux".

The third novel, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, follows Harry in his third year of magical education. It is the only

book in the series which does not feature Voldemort. Instead, Harry must deal with the knowledge that he has been targeted

by Sirius Black, an escaped murderer believed to have assisted in the deaths of Harry's parents. As Harry struggles with his

reaction to the dementors—dark creatures with the power to devour a human soul—which are ostensibly protecting the

school, he reaches out to Remus Lupin, a Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher with a dark secret. Lupin teaches Harry

defensive measures which are well above the level of magic generally shown by people his age. Harry learns that both

Lupin and Black were close friends of his father and that Black was framed by their fourth friend, Peter Pettigrew.[20] In this

book, another recurring theme throughout the series is emphasised - in every book there is a new Defence Against the Dark

Arts teacher, none of whom lasts more than one school year. In the sixth book, it is implied that the job has actually been

jinxed.

Voldemort returns
"The Elephant House" – A Café in Edinburgh in which Rowling wrote the first part of Harry Potter

During Harry's fourth year of school, detailed in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry unwillingly participates in

the Triwizard Tournament, a dangerous magical contest with the young foreign witches and wizards of visiting schools.
[21]
 Harry attempts to discover who has forced him to compete in the tournament, and why. [22] An anxious Harry is guided

through the tournament by Professor Alastor Moody, a new teacher who turns out to be an impostor—one of Voldemort's

supporters in disguise. The whole thing eventually turns out to be a conspiracy to kidnap Harry and bring Voldemort back to

power. The point at which the mystery is unravelled marks the series' shift from foreboding and uncertainty into open conflict

as the children are growing up. The novel ends with Voldemort's resurgence and the death of Cedric Diggory, one of Harry's

fellow student competitors in the tournament.

In the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry must confront the newly resurfaced Voldemort. In

response to Voldemort's reappearance, Dumbledore re-activates the Order of the Phoenix, a secret society which works

from Sirius Black's dark family home to defeat Voldemort's minions and protect Voldemort's targets, including Harry. The

Order includes many of the adults Harry trusts, including Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, and members of the Weasley family,

but also some surprising members; the loyalties of some characters are not so obvious. Despite Harry's description of

Voldemort's recent activities, the Ministry of Magic and many others in the magical world refuse to believe that Voldemort

has returned.[23]

In an attempt to counter and eventually discredit Dumbledore, who along with Harry is the most prominent voice in the

Wizarding World attempting to warn of the Dark Lord's return, the Ministry appoints Dolores Umbridge as the High Inquisitor

of Hogwarts. She transforms the school by a dictatorial regime and refuses to allow the students to learn ways to defend

themselves against dark magic.[23] Harry forms asecret study group to teach his classmates the higher-level skills of Defense

Against the Dark Arts that he has learned. The novel introduces Harry to Luna Lovegood, an airy young witch with a

tendency to believe in oddball conspiracy theories. An important prophecy concerning Harry and Voldemort is revealed,
[24]
 and Harry discovers that he and Voldemort have a painful connection, allowing Harry to view some of Voldemort's actions

telepathically. In the novel's climax, Harry and his school friends face off against Voldemort's Death Eaters, who include the
rich and arrogant Malfoy family. The timely arrival of members of the Order of the Phoenix saves the children's lives and

allows many of the Death Eaters to be captured and imprisoned. [23]

In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the protagonists, who are in their sixth year, have passed their OWLs and start on

their specialist NEWT courses. Voldemort is leading another wizarding war, which has become so violent that even Muggles

have noticed some of its effects. Although Harry and friends are relatively protected from that danger at Hogwarts, they are

subject to all the difficulties of adolescence. At the beginning of the novel, he stumbles upon an old potions textbook filled

with annotations and recommendations signed by a mysterious writer, the Half-Blood Prince. [25] While the shortcuts written in

the book help Harry to excel at potions, he eventually learns to mistrust the anonymous writer's spells. Harry also takes

private tutoring with Albus Dumbledore, who shows him various memories concerning the early life of Voldemort. These

reveal that Voldemort's soul is splintered into a series of horcruxes, evil enchanted items hidden in various locations.
[25]
 Harry's snobbish adversary, Draco Malfoy, attempts to attack Dumbledore, and the book culminates in the killing of

Dumbledore by Professor Snape.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last book in the series, begins directly after the events of the sixth book.

Voldemort has completed his ascension to power and gains control of the Ministry of Magic. Harry, Ron, and Hermione drop

out of school so that they can find and destroy Voldemort's remaining horcruxes. To ensure their own safety as well as that

of their family and friends, they are forced to isolate themselves. As they search for the horcruxes, the trio learn details about

Dumbledore's past, as well as Snape's true motives.

The book culminates in the Battle of Hogwarts. Harry, Ron, and Hermione, in conjunction with members of the Order of the

Phoenix and many of the teachers and students, defend Hogwarts from Voldemort, his Death Eaters, and various magical

creatures. Several major characters are killed in the first wave of the battle and Voldemort resumes his intention to kill Harry.

In an effort to save the survivors, Harry surrenders himself but the battle resumes as the parents of many Hogwarts

students, residents of the nearby village Hogsmeade and other magical creatures arrive to reinforce the Order of the

Phoenix. With the last horcrux destroyed, Harry finally faces Voldemort. Harry offers the Dark Lord a chance at remorse, but

Voldemort ignores this and attempts to kill Harry one final time; resulting in Voldemort's death, again, by a rebounding spell

(the complications of which are described in depth near the end of the novel). An epilogue describes the lives of the

surviving characters and the effects on the wizarding world.