Harry Potter Characters

Hermione Granger

2009-11-07T23:58:00.000-08:00

Hermione first appears in Philosopher's Stone when she meets future companions Harry and Ron on the Hogwarts Express. She constantly annoys her peers with her knowledge. Harry and Ron initially consider her arrogant, especially after she criticises Ron's incantation of the Levitation Charm. They heartily dislike her until they rescue her from a troll, for which she is so thankful that she lies to protect them from punishment, and their friendship begins. Hermione's knack for logic later enables the trio to solve a puzzle essential to retrieving the Philosopher's Stone, and she defeats the constrictive Devil's Snare plant by conjuring fire.

Rowling said on her website that she resisted her editor's requests to remove the troll scene. "Hermione is so very annoying in the early part of Philosopher's Stone that I really felt it needed something (literally) huge to bring her together with Harry and Ron."
Hermione develops a crush on handsome new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. During a morning confrontation between the Gryffindor and Slytherin Quidditch teams, a brawl nearly ensues after Draco Malfoy calls her a "Mudblood," an insulting epithet for Muggle-born wizards. She assembles the Polyjuice Potion needed for the trio to disguise themselves as Malfoy's housemates in order to collect information about the Heir of Slytherin who has reopened the Chamber of Secrets. However, she is unable to join Harry and Ron in the investigation after the hair plucked from the robes of Slytherin student Millicent Bulstrode (with whom Hermione was previously matched up during Lockhart's ill-fated Duelling Club) was actually that of her cat, whose appearance she takes on in her human form; it takes several weeks for the effects to completely wear off. Hermione is petrified by the basilisk after successfully identifying the creature through library research; though she lies incapacitated in the hospital wing, her information is crucial to Harry and Ron in their successful mission to solve the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets. Hermione is revived after Harry kills the basilisk, but she is devastated to learn that all end-of-year exams have been cancelled as a school treat.
Hermione gets a cat named Crookshanks, who takes to chasing Ron's pet rat, Scabbers. Before the start of term, Professor McGonagall secretly gives her a Time-Turner, a device which enables her to go back in time and handle her heavy class schedule. Much tension comes into play between Hermione and her two best friends; Harry is furious with her because she told McGonagall that he had received a Firebolt, which was confiscated to be inspected for traces of dark magic. Ron is irritated because he feels Crookshanks is responsible for Scabbers' disappearance.

While filling in for Remus Lupin in one Defence Against the Dark Arts class, Severus Snape labels Hermione "an insufferable know-it-all" and penalises Gryffindor after she speaks out of turn in her attempt to describe a werewolf when no one else does. She correctly deduces Lupin's secret after completing Snape's homework assignment from the class, while Crookshanks proves vital in exposing Scabbers as Peter Pettigrew, a friend of James and Lily Potter who revealed their whereabouts to Lord Voldemort the night of their murders, and was able to wrongly implicate Sirius Black (revealed to be Harry's godfather) in the Potters' deaths. The Time-Turner enables Hermione and Harry to rescue Sirius and the hippogriff Buckbeak.
Hermione is horrified by the cruelty she witnesses to house-elves and founds S.P.E.W. as an effort to gain basic rights for the elves. She is Bulgarian Quidditch prodigy Viktor Krum's date at the Yule Ball in Goblet of Fire.[17] The proper pronunciation of her name (Her-my-oh-nee) is interjected into the plot when she teaches it to Krum; the best he can do is "Herm-own-ninny," but she has no problem with it.[6] She later gets into a heated argument with Ron after he accuses her of "fraternising with the enemy" in reference to her friendship with Krum. She supports Harry through the Triwizard Tournament, helping him prepare for each task. Near the end of the term, she stops fraudulent tabloid reporter and unregistered Animagus Rita Skeeter, who had published defamatory material about Hermione, Harry, and Hagrid during the Triwizard Tournament, by holding her Animagus form (a beetle) captive in a jar.
Hermione becomes a Gryffindor prefect along with Ron, and befriends Luna Lovegood, but their friendship gets off to a rocky start after Hermione chastises Luna's father's publication: "The Quibbler's rubbish, everyone knows that." She also lambastes housemate Lavender Brown for believing the Daily Prophet's allegations of Harry fabricating stories of Voldemort's return. Later, with Luna's assistance, Hermione blackmails Rita Skeeter into interviewing Harry for an upcoming issue of The Quibbler. Attempts to ban the magazine from Hogwarts are futile as the story spreads quickly through the school. One turning point in the series is when she conceives the idea of Harry secretly teaching defensive magic to a small band of students in defiance of the Ministry of Magic's dictum to teach only the subject's basic principles. Hermione gets an unexpectedly huge response, and the group becomes the nascent Dumbledore's Army. She is involved in the battle in the Department of Mysteries and seriously injured by Death Eater Antonin Dolohov, but makes a full recovery.
New Advanced Potions professor Horace Slughorn invites Hermione to join his "Slug Club," and she helps Ron retain his spot on the Gryffindor Quidditch team when she secretly jinxes Cormac McLaggen, causing him to miss his last save attempt during Keeper tryouts. Hermione's feelings for Ron continue to grow and she decides to make a move by inviting him to Slughorn's Christmas Party, but he romances Lavender instead in retaliation for Hermione having kissed Krum. She attempts to retaliate by dating McLaggen at the Christmas party, but her plan goes bust and she abandons him midway through the party. Ron and Hermione continually feud with each other until he suffers a bout of near-fatal poisoning from tainted mead, which frightens her enough to reconcile with him. Following Dumbledore's death, Ron and Hermione both vow to stay by Harry's side regardless of what happens. A minor subplot in the book is that Hermione and Harry form a rivalry in Potions, as Hermione is used to coming first in her subjects and is angered that Harry outperforms her undeservingly by following tips and different instructions written in the margins of Harry's potions book by the previous owner.
In the seventh and final book, Hermione is invaluable in Harry's quest to destroy Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes. Before leaving on the quest, she helps ensure the safety of her parents by placing a memory charm on them, making them think they are Wendell and Monica Wilkins, whose lifetime ambition is to move to Australia. She inherits Dumbledore's personal copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, which allows her to decipher some of the secrets of the Deathly Hallows. Hermione's spell saves her and Harry from Lord Voldemort and his snake Nagini in Godric's Hollow, although the ricochet snaps Harry's wand. When she, Ron, and Harry are captured by Snatchers, who are on the hunt for Muggle-borns under the Ministry's orders, Hermione disguises Harry by temporarily disfiguring his face with a Stinging Hex. She also attempts to pass herself off as former Hogwarts student Penelope Clearwater and a half-blood to avoid persecution, but is later recognised and taken to Malfoy Manor. Because of Hermione's Muggle-born status, Bellatrix Lestrange tortures her with the Cruciatus Curse in an attempt to extract information on how Hermione, Harry, and Ron came to possess Godric Gryffindor's sword (which was supposed to be safe in the Lestranges' vault in Gringotts). Even under the torture of the Cruciatus Curse, Hermione is able to use her quick thinking to lie to Bellatrix that the sword is a fake. When the others are able to escape their cell, Bellatrix threatens to slit Hermione's throat. Hermione, Harry, Ron and the other prisoners being held in Malfoy Manor are eventually rescued by Dobby.

Hermione later uses Polyjuice Potion to impersonate Bellatrix when the trio attempt to steal Hufflepuff's cup from Gringotts. She, Harry and Ron join Dumbledore's Army in the Battle of Hogwarts, during which Hermione destroys Hufflepuff's cup in the Chamber of Secrets with a basilisk fang, eliminating another Horcrux. Hermione and Ron also share their first kiss in the midst of the battle. In the final battle in the Great Hall, Hermione fights Bellatrix with the help of Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood. However, the three of them are unable to defeat Bellatrix, and stop fighting her once Molly Weasley orders them to back off.
Nineteen years after Voldemort's downfall, Ron is married to Hermione and they have two children: a daughter, Rose, and a son, Hugo. She is the only one of the trio to complete her seventh year, after which she begins her post-Hogwarts career by working in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, where she is instrumental in greatly improving the lives of house-elves; she later moves higher up in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement while ensuring the eradication of oppressive pro-pureblood laws. Rowling stated in a webchat that Hermione found her parents in Australia and relieved them of the memory charm she had placed on them.

Ron Weasley

2009-11-07T14:46:00.000-08:00

Rowling first introduces Ron with his family in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Harry is lost at King's Cross railway station and the Weasleys guide him through the barrier of Platform 9¾ into the wizarding world. Ron and Harry share a compartment on the Hogwarts Express, and they begin their friendship: Ron fascinated with the famous Harry, and Harry fascinated with the ordinary wizard Ron. It is here that they both meet Hermione Granger as well, whom they initially dislike but who later becomes their close friend after they save each other during a dangerous encounter with a mountain troll. Ron and Harry share the same classes throughout the series, and generally have similar academic successes and disappointments. Ron plays a vital part in the quest to save the Philosopher's Stone. His strategy at Wizard's Chess allows Hermione and Harry to proceed safely through a dangerous life-size, animated chess game. During the game, Ron allows his piece to be sacrificed and is subsequently knocked unconscious. At the Leaving Feast, the last dinner of the school year, Albus Dumbledore, Hogwarts' Headmaster, awards Ron fifty House points to Gryffindor for "the best-played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years." These last-minute points help support Gryffindor's win of the House Cup.
The second instalment, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998), takes place the year following the events of the Philosopher's Stone. During the summer, Ron attempts to write to Harry several times. He receives no reply because Dobby the house elf is stopping Harry's wizard mail. Ron becomes so concerned that he and his brothers Fred and George fly their father's enchanted Ford Anglia car to Harry's home at his aunt and uncle's house. Harry spends the next month at the Weasleys' home, the Burrow. While attempting to depart from King's Cross station, Harry and Ron find themselves unable to enter the barrier to access Platform 9¾. With Harry, Ron conceives the idea of taking the flying Ford Anglia to Hogwarts. The plan is successful, but the Anglia loses power at the end of the journey and crashes into the Whomping Willow. Ron and Harry survive the impact, but the car drives itself off into the Forbidden Forest, a forest at the edge of the Hogwarts grounds in which student access is prohibited. Ron receives a Howler from his mother, chastising him for taking the car.

Later in the novel, Ron and Harry transform themselves using Polyjuice Potion to resemble Draco Malfoy's close associates Crabbe and Goyle, so that they can spy on him, and find out what he knows about the Chamber of Secrets. During the hunt to find the Heir of Slytherin, Ron is responsible for providing the first clue to the identity of Tom Marvolo Riddle, recalling that he saw the name "T. M. Riddle" on a trophy inscribed "For Special Services To The School". Later Ron is forced to come face-to-face with his biggest fear, spiders, in the Forbidden Forest, where the two have ventured at Hagrid's suggestion. Giant spiders nearly eat the two of them, but the Ford Anglia returns from the Forbidden Forest and rescues the pair. Ron and Harry then discover the entrance into the Chamber, and enter it in the hopes of saving Ginny Weasley, Ron's sister, who had been kidnapped and kept in the Chamber. Due to an accident with Ron's wand, the Chamber Entrance's ceiling collapses, trapping Ron on one side and Harry on the other. Harry goes on to rescue Ginny and save the day. Ron and Harry are given Special Awards for Services to the School for this.
When Ron's rat, Scabbers, already seen in Philosopher's Stone, goes missing, he blames Hermione's new cat Crookshanks, and the two have a falling out. They eventually make up when Hermione has a nervous breakdown brought by taking too many classes and distress at the fate of the hippogriff Buckbeak. The animal, owned by Hagrid, has been put on trial for injuring Draco Malfoy and risks execution. Ron offers to help with the preparation of Buckbeak's defence, but this fails to help. Harry, Ron and Hermione go to see Hagrid on the execution day where they discover Scabbers hiding out in Hagrid's hut.[PoA Ch.15] As they leave, Scabbers struggles free of Ron and runs away. He chases Scabbers to the Whomping Willow where he is grabbed by a large black dog and dragged into a tunnel hidden below the tree.

Harry and Hermione follow the tunnel, which leads to the Shrieking Shack. The dog is actually the animal form of Sirius Black (an Animagus), Harry's godfather and an escaped convict from the wizard prison Azkaban. The school's Defence Against the Dark Arts professor Remus Lupin arrives just after Harry and Hermione. Along with Black, Lupin casts a spell on Scabbers, who also turns out to be an Animagus by the name of Peter Pettigrew. Pettigrew was Black's, Lupin's, and James Potter's school friend, thought to have been murdered by Black. Pettigrew, who had lived as a rat ever since faking his death, denies everything, but Sirius and Lupin piece together that he has been a servant of Voldemort, and it was he who divulged the secret whereabouts of Harry's parents, leading to their murder. Initially, Ron does not believe Sirius and refuses to turn over Scabbers to him, but he is disgusted when he learns his rat's identity. Pettigrew escapes when the main characters lead him out of the Whomping Willow. Ron, knocked out by a spell from Pettigrew, is taken to the hospital wing, and is forced to remain there while Harry and Hermione travel back in time to save Sirius and Buckbeak. At the end of the novel, Sirius sends Ron an excitable little owl whom Ginny names Pigwidgeon, but whom Ron refers to as "Pig".
In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000), the Weasleys invite Harry and Hermione to the Quidditch World Cup. Ron is in awe of his favourite Quidditch champion, Viktor Krum. Ron is even more excited when Krum, still a student at the Durmstrang wizarding school, comes to Hogwarts to take part in the Triwizard Tournament, a magical wizarding tournament opposing the top three magic schools in Europe. However, when Harry, underage, mysteriously becomes the fourth Tournament champion, Ron joins the dissenters who think Harry somehow cheated his way into the tournament and feels let down; according to Hermione, this stems from Ron's latent feelings of being left out of the spotlight shared by Harry or his brothers. The rift is serious enough that the friends fail to make up for nearly a month. They only reconcile shortly after Harry successfully gets by a fire-breathing dragon in the first task; Ron realises how dangerous the Tournament is and finally believes that Harry did not enter himself.

At Christmas time, as per Triwizard Tournament tradition, Hogwarts hosts a Yule Ball. Ron and Harry panic at the prospect of having to secure dates for the event, and Ron appals Hermione with his immature approach, particularly for failing to extend her an invitation, apparently failing until the last minute to even realise she is a girl. At the last minute, Harry saves the day by getting Parvati Patil and her sister Padma to agree to come with the duo, although Padma seems less than pleased at Ron's surly attitude and shabby dress. Ron becomes overcome with jealousy when he sees Hermione with her date: his former idol Viktor Krum. When Hermione comes over to Ron and Harry for a friendly chat, Ron loses control and accuses her of "fraternising with the enemy" and giving away Harry's Triwizard secrets. At the evening's end, the two have a heated row, in which Hermione tells Ron he should have asked her before Krum, rather than simply hoping to secure her by default. Ron completely fails to get the hint and remains either in denial or oblivious to the pair's increasingly obvious feelings for each other. Ron's jealousy over Krum is mirrored by Hermione's dislike of Fleur Delacour (of the Beauxbatons Academy and a Triwizard competitor), on whom Ron has an obvious crush.

In the Second Task of the Tournament, Ron is the person selected for Harry to rescue from the depths of the Hogwarts Lake, as he is the one whom Harry would most miss. Harry successfully saves him and Ron mocks him gently for thinking that the hostages for the task were in actual danger.
In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003), Ron is appointed a Gryffindor prefect, much to the surprise of himself and everyone else, especially Hermione, the other new prefect. His brother, Percy, now distant and disconnected from the family, sends Ron an owl congratulating him and advising him to "sever ties" with Harry and side himself instead with Professor Umbridge, the abominable new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts; the letter angers Ron. Ron explicitly shows his support and loyalty for Harry when his classmates imply Harry is lying about the return of Voldemort, sometimes using his power as prefect to threaten them into silence. Though they spend their usual amount of time bickering, Ron and Hermione present a united front endorsing Harry. Ron supports Hermione's suggestion of Harry teaching students practical Defence Against the Dark Arts, which Umbridge, using the Ministry of Magic to slowly take over the Dumbledore-run school, has all but banned. He co-founds the secret students' group called Dumbledore's Army. He also joins the Gryffindor Quidditch team, but his nerves and confidence issues often get the better of him during practices and matches, causing the Slytherins to make up a song about how Ron will make sure Slytherin win the interhouse Quidditch Cup. However, during the last match, Ron plays better and wins the game and the Quidditch Cup for Gryffindor. At the climax of the novel, Ron battles the Death Eaters alongside Harry, Hermione, Ginny, Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood at the Department of Mysteries. He is injured in the fight, but makes a full recovery by the end of the novel.
In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005) Ron, who has grown taller over the summer, attracts the attention of Lavender Brown. Harry, the new Quidditch Captain, picks Ron to continue as Keeper for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, over competing candidate Cormac McLaggen who is equally-skilled but has difficulty with teamwork and following orders. Upon learning Hermione most likely had kissed Viktor Krum, Ron performs increasingly badly at Quidditch, and thrown off by jealousy of his former idol, becomes unkind to Hermione. His low self-esteem is not helped much by his younger sister, Ginny Weasley, who after Ron reacts badly to finding her kissing her boyfriend, throws in the fact that of those in the group, Ron is the only one who has never had his first kiss. To bolster Ron's confidence, Harry pretends to give him Felix Felicis, a potion which makes the drinker lucky; believing he has actually taken it, Ron performs admirably and Gryffindor wins the match. However, this leads to a major row between Ron and Hermione: Hermione accuses Harry of helping Ron cheat, while Ron berates Hermione for having no faith in his abilities . At a post-game celebration, Ron kisses Lavender (though Ginny describes it as "eating her face"). Hermione, jealous and seeking retaliation, takes Cormac McLaggen as her date to new Potions professor Horace Slughorn's Christmas party, but he proves to be an egomaniac. After Christmas, Hermione continues to ignore Ron, stopping only to give him disdainful looks and occasional snide remarks. By now, Ron is visibly discontent with his relationship with Lavender.

On his birthday in March, Ron accidentally eats love-potion-infused Chocolate Cauldrons (actually meant for Harry). After being cured by Slughorn, he then consumes poisoned mead (which Draco Malfoy actually intended for Dumbledore). Harry saves his life by forcing a bezoar, a poison antidote, into his mouth, and Ron is transferred to the hospital wing. A panic-stricken Hermione arrives, forgetting her past anger. While sitting by his bed, Hermione, Harry, Ginny and the twins hear Ron mutter Hermione's name in his delirium, although they do not hear what he is saying and ignore it. Conversely, Ron feigns sleep when Lavender visits him. Upon recovering, Ron and Hermione reconcile, and a little while later, Ron and Lavender break up. Rowling in an interview said that she "really enjoyed writing the Ron/Lavender business, and the reason that was enjoyable was Ron up to this point has been quite immature compared to the other two, and he kind of needed to make himself worthy of Hermione....he had to grow up emotionally and now he's taken a big step up."
Initially, Ron does not support Harry's belief that Draco Malfoy is a Death Eater, a follower of Voldemort, but later is convinced. Before leaving Hogwarts with Dumbledore to recover a Horcrux Harry arranges for Ron, Hermione, and Ginny—together with any of Dumbledore's Army they can summon—to keep a close watch on Malfoy and Snape. Harry also provides them with the remains of his vial of Felix Felicis, to aid them in the effort. Despite the D.A.'s watch, Malfoy provides the Death Eaters entrance into Hogwarts, and a battle ensues. Thanks to Felix Felicis, Ron, Hermione and Ginny are unharmed by the Death Eater's hexes during the battle.[HBP Ch.29] Snape kills Dumbledore during the battle when Malfoy proves that he is unable to.[HBP Ch.27] During his funeral, Ron comforts a weeping Hermione. Ron and Hermione vow to help Harry find and destroy the Horcruxes and kill Voldemort, even if it means leaving Hogwarts.
Ron agrees to go with Harry and Hermione on the quest to destroy all of Voldemort's Horcruxes. Worried that the Ministry, now taken over by Voldemort will learn he is with Potter on a quest, Ron dresses the family ghoul up in pajamas and spreads the story he is ill with "spattergroit," a type of highly contagious magical illness. Ron disguises himself as Reginald Cattermole as the trio attempts to find the locket Horcrux in the possession of Dolores Umbridge.

Harry decides he wants someone to wear the Horcrux at all time, fearing it might be lost or stolen. This has a much more profound effect on Ron than it seems to have on Hermione or Harry. Ron ends up lashing out in frustration at the lack of comforts and a concrete plan, eventually leaving his friends behind. Distressed over his absence, Harry and Hermione do not even mention his name during the time that he is gone. However, when they finally mention his name, Ron, who had immediately regretted his decision to leave but was captured by Snatchers and then could not return due to Hermione's anti-Death Eater enchantments, was lead to Harry's location by unknown magic within the Deluminator he inherited from Dumbledore. Ron dramatically returns by saving Harry from drowning when Harry is attempting to recover Godric Gryffindor's sword from an icy pool. Harry, a sudden believer in the fate created by his return, immediately forgives Ron and insists it must be Ron who uses the sword to destroy Slytherin's locket. However, the portion of Voldemort's soul inside it plays on Ron's insecurities by revealing that he thinks he is "least loved by a mother who craved a daughter", then by showing him a Harry who tells him that he was happier without him and a Hermione that does not return his affections and is involved instead with Harry. Ron summons his courage and finally breaks through the spell, destroying the locket, but is visibly shaken until Harry tells him that he thinks of Hermione as a sister and a friend, nothing more.

The trio are eventually captured by Snatchers, and Bellatrix Lestrange tortures Hermione with the Cruciatus Curse for information. This sends Ron into a panic, and he continually screams and fights with all his effort to save her, despite Harry's instruction that he calm down and think of a better plan. The trio and some other prisoners are rescued by Dobby, but the house-elf is killed by Bellatrix during the escape. Eventually, the trio returns to Hogwarts, hoping to find the last unknown Horcrux shown in Harry's vision. Having lost the Sword of Gryffindor to Griphook the goblin, Ron gets an idea to procure more Basilisk fangs and manages to speak enough Parseltongue to open the Chamber of Secrets, where Hermione destroys the Horcrux in Helga Hufflepuff's cup. He begins to worry about the fate of Hogwarts' elves. Upon hearing this, Hermione drops the basilisk fangs she was carrying and kisses him for the first time. After this, he looks as if he has been hit by a bludger. He also takes part in the Battle of Hogwarts, witnessing the death of his brother Fred, and teams up with Neville to defeat Fenrir Greyback.
Nineteen years after Voldemort's downfall, Ron is married to Hermione and they have two children - Rose, whom they are sending off to her first year at Hogwarts, and a younger son named Hugo. Ron has also passed a test in Muggle driving, despite Hermione's apparent belief that he could not do so without Confunding the examiner. However, Ron secretly reveals to Harry he actually did Confund the examiner. He and Harry work for the Ministry of Magic as Aurors, and along with Hermione they have helped to revamp the Ministry, and it is far different from the one that existed before. Before becoming an Auror, Ron joined George at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, which became a very lucrative business.

Albus Dumbledore

2009-11-07T14:43:00.000-08:00

In the opening chapter of the first novel of the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Dumbledore arrives at number four, Privet Drive in Little Whinging, Surrey. When Harry's parents were killed and Voldemort was rendered to a feeble form, it was Dumbledore's decision to place the now-orphaned Harry in the home of Vernon and Petunia Dursley. He knew that Harry would be protected by the special magic caused by his mother's sacrifice, after he evoked the magic of the bond of blood and Petunia Dursley sealed it by accepting Harry into her home. This old magic of binding love made touching Harry unbearable for Voldemort. Dumbledore left Harry upon the doorstep of the Dursley residence with a letter explaining the situation. He departs with the final phrase, "Good luck, Harry."

When Harry arrives at Hogwarts, Dumbledore tells Harry about the secrets of the Mirror of Erised, claiming that when he looks into it, he sees himself "holding a pair of thick, woollen socks." However, he, like Harry, sees his family alive and united. He also is responsible for somehow enchanting the Mirror so that it hides the Philosopher's Stone and only someone who looked into the Mirror and whose desire was "to find the Stone...but not use it" would actually receive it. He is called out to the Ministry of Magic by a false message on the night when Professor Quirinus Quirrell, Harry, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger enter the dungeons to retrieve the Stone, but realises during the trip that he is needed at Hogwarts and returns in time to rescue Harry from Quirrell and Voldemort. He also has a final conversation with Harry after the events down in the dungeons and tells him that he is too young to comprehend the information about why Voldemort attempts to kill him.

In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Dumbledore suspects that Tom Riddle is somehow involved in the attacks on the students, as he says, when asked who is the culprit, "not who, but how?” A younger Dumbledore appears in Riddle's diary, when Harry sees his memory, and asks Riddle if he knows anything about the attacks on the students. During the last half of the novel, Lucius Malfoy coerces the school's other eleven governors to suspend Dumbledore as Headmaster in the wake of attacks by a basilisk in the school when the Chamber of Secrets is opened. Dumbledore is reinstated when the governors discover that Ginny Weasley was taken into the Chamber of Secrets and Lucius is found to have coerced the other governors into suspending him.

At the beginning of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Dumbledore is forced to accept Dementors onto his school's grounds for the protection of his students from Sirius Black, the supposed killer that had escaped from Azkaban. After Black's breach into Hogwarts, Dumbledore issues orders to close every entrance to the school and grounds. After Harry falls off his broomstick during a Quidditch match because of the Dementors, Dumbledore becomes uncharacteristically angry with them and uses his wand to cause Harry to levitate safely to the ground. Later in that book, Dumbledore suggests Hermione Granger use her Ministry-approved Time-Turner to go back three hours to save Buckbeak the hippogriff and Sirius from their unjust executions.
In the fourth instalment, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Dumbledore introduces the Triwizard Tournament. He also serves as a judge during the entire event. When Harry's name comes out of the Goblet of Fire, Dumbledore is not enraged but remains calm, simply asking Harry whether he had himself, or had asked an older student, to submit his name. When Harry answers no, he believes him. By the end of the book, Dumbledore's fears are realized when Harry returns from his encounter with Voldemort clutching the dead body of Cedric Diggory and when Alastor Moody (actually being impersonated by Barty Crouch Junior through Polyjuice Potion) takes Harry away from Dumbledore and to his office inside the castle. Dumbledore immediately becomes suspicious and heads straight towards Moody's office with Minerva McGonagall and Severus Snape to save Harry and to interrogate Crouch. Afterwards, Dumbledore listens to Harry's eyewitness account about Voldemort's return. Harry though only wakes up later to find Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge in the wing arguing with McGonagall and Dumbledore, the latter of whom enters into an argument with Fudge. In the end, Fudge and Dumbledore "part ways" after an argument about the situation of Voldemort's return and the consequences that would follow should Fudge remain ignorant.

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore is demoted from Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, voted out of the Chairmanship of the International Confederation of Wizards, and is almost stripped of his Order of Merlin First Class, due to his speeches regarding the return of Voldemort. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Magic does everything they can to discredit him and Harry, mainly through the Daily Prophet. At the beginning of the book, Dumbledore enrages Fudge when he stops by at Harry's hearing with a witness (Arabella Figg) to ensure that he is not expelled. While Harry feels better when Dumbledore assists him, he becomes annoyed to the point of being angry that the headmaster refuses to speak or even look at him.

During the following year at Hogwarts, the Ministry passes Educational Decree Twenty-two, allowing Fudge to place Dolores Umbridge (after Dumbledore failed to find a suitable candidate) to the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Through her, Fudge gradually gains power over Hogwarts and Dumbledore, who he fears is building an underage wizard army to overthrow the Ministry. Umbridge forbids practical defense practice in her classes, forcing Harry, Ron, and Hermione to form Dumbledore's Army with fellow friends. It is when the Ministry discovers the D.A. that Dumbledore, choosing to accept the responsibility, falsely claims that the organisation was his own subversive creation, and allows himself to be removed as headmaster (for the second time) rather than allow Harry to be expelled.

Dumbledore is not heard of again in the book until he arrives in the Department of Mysteries to aid the Order in the battle against the Death Eaters. He subdues all of the Death Eaters, except for Bellatrix Lestrange, and binds them with an Anti-Disapparition Jinx to prevent them from magically escaping. He then saves Harry from the Avada Kedavra curse conjured by Voldemort and proceeds to engage in a ferocious duel with the Dark Lord, which ends in a virtual stalemate. After Voldemort disapparates, Dumbledore tells Fudge what happened and is reinstated as headmaster and retrieves all his distinctions. Towards the end of the book, Dumbledore explains to Harry that Voldemort chose him as his equal and that one must kill the other in the end.
In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore fetches Harry from Privet Drive and takes him to persuade Horace Slughorn to join the Hogwarts staff; his right hand, Harry notices, is shrivelled and black. During the school year, Dumbledore meets with Harry in his office to teach him of Voldemort's past because he tells Harry that it is of immense importance. Through their lessons, they visit the thoughts of others, which contained important information about the life of Voldemort, leading to his genocidal rise to power. It is learned that Voldemort created six Horcruxes to gain immortality and that they must all be destroyed before Harry goes after the final piece of Voldemort's soul that resides in the Dark Lord's body. Harry also repeatedly warns Dumbledore in most of their lessons that another student, Draco Malfoy, is working for Voldemort. Dumbledore refuses to take any action against Draco, and instead tells Harry that he already knows more about what is happening than Harry does.

By the end of the book, Dumbledore and Harry set out to the cave where Dumbledore believes a Horcrux resides. In the cave, Dumbledore drinks a potion inside the Horcrux's container; while drinking it, he begins to scream, seemingly enduring mental torture and being weakened. Dumbledore begins to scream out for water after he finishes the potion, and Harry, realizing he has no other choice, dips the goblet into the lake to give him a drink. As soon as he does this, though, all the Inferi that reside in the lake grab at Harry and attempt to drag him down and drown him in the lake. But Dumbledore suddenly recovers, thanks to the water, and conjures a fire lasso around them. Dumbledore takes the locket within and both make their way back out of the cave and back to Hogsmeade. When they return, Madam Rosmerta informs them that the Dark Mark was conjured over the Astronomy Tower and both Harry and Dumbledore set off on Rosmerta's brooms towards the tower. In the tower, Dumbledore puts Harry into a body-binding curse under his invisibility cloak and merely converses with Draco about the plot to kill him. Several other Death Eaters enter the tower and try to persuade Draco to kill Dumbledore. When Malfoy is unable to murder him, Snape appears and immediately performs the Killing Curse on Dumbledore.

Shortly after his death, Dumbledore's portrait magically appears in the Headmaster's office. His funeral is attended by students, Hogwarts teachers and staff, members of the Ministry of Magic, ghosts, centaurs, merpeople and others who wish to pay their respects. Shrouded in purple velvet, he is entombed in a white marble sarcophagus beside the lake at Hogwarts, and it is said that he is the only headmaster to be buried on the school grounds.
Rowling used several chapters in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to reveal two main matters concerning Dumbledore: his early life and his death. The book introduces Albus's parents, Percival and Kendra Dumbledore, as well as his little sister, Ariana; his brother, Aberforth Dumbledore, was mentioned in previous books. At six years old, Ariana suffered a vicious attack by three Muggle boys who had witnessed her doing magic. Because of this attack, Ariana was seriously traumatized and never able to control her magic again, having recurring outbursts of magic. Percival cursed the Muggle boys in revenge, and was sentenced to life in Azkaban. After this, Kendra moved her family to the village of Godric's Hollow. However, in one of her outbursts, Ariana accidentally killed Kendra just as Albus completed his education. Because Dumbledore's parents were absent, Albus became the head of the family and was forced to remain in his house with his sister Ariana while Aberforth completed his education.

Soon afterward, a young Gellert Grindelwald arrived in Godric's Hollow to live with his great-aunt, Bathilda Bagshot, author of A History of Magic. The two young men took to each other immediately, and together they dreamed of a world ruled by wizards over Muggles by uniting the legendary Deathly Hallows. They believed that if they were forced to destroy a few along the way, it would still be "for the greater good", and the sufferings and losses would be rewarded a hundredfold in the end. This scenario would never happen, though. A discussion between Albus, Aberforth, and Grindelwald led to a duel that resulted in Ariana's death. For the rest of his life, Dumbledore felt guilty, never certain whether it was his own curse or another's that had actually killed his sister. Grindelwald stormed back to Bagshot's home and departed to begin his own rule. As a result of his mistakes, Dumbledore felt that he was not to be trusted with power and, because of this, never took the position of Minister for Magic, despite being offered it several times. Dumbledore returned to Hogwarts as professor of Transfiguration, and he served in recruiting students for the school.

Decades later, in 1945, Dumbledore finally defeated the now-Dark wizard Grindelwald, who had come to possess the Elder Wand. Grindelwald's defeat made Dumbledore the master of the Elder Wand, which remained his until just before his death, when Draco disarmed him. Dumbledore was temporarily in possession of another hallow when, before the murders of the Potters, he asked James to let him see the Invisibility Cloak, suspecting it to be part of the legendary Deathly Hallows. When James died, Dumbledore kept the cloak and decided to pass it on to Harry, James's son.

The truth about Dumbledore's death is revealed through Snape's last memories in the Pensieve. Harry learns that Dumbledore made a terrible error by placing a cursed ring on his right hand, sometime between the fifth and sixth book, forgetting the curses that must be on the ring. The ring held the Resurrection Stone, which Dumbledore hoped to use to allow him to apologise to his sister and parents. Dumbledore called Snape to help him; however, when Snape arrived and assessed the curse, all he could do was contain it. Snape told Dumbledore that he had little more than a year to live. After hearing this news, Dumbledore revealed to Snape that he knew about Voldemort's plan to have Draco kill him. He asked Snape to use the killing curse on him when the time came because he did not want Draco to have to kill him, saying that the boy's soul was still intact, whereas Snape was fully aware that he would be merely sparing Dumbledore pain and humiliation.

Dumbledore appears one last time to Harry towards the end of the book in a limbo-like King's Cross, after Harry is struck with the killing curse. The boy comforts Dumbledore as he confesses all of his many regrets. Dumbledore then informs Harry of the choice he still has; of moving on to the next life or returning to his body to face Voldemort one last time. After returning from the mystical King's Cross and defeating Voldemort, Harry has a short conversation with Dumbledore's portrait in the Headmaster's office about the fate of each of the three Deathly Hallows. In the epilogue, it is revealed that Harry names his second son Albus Severus Potter after Dumbledore and Snape.

Lily Potter

2009-11-07T14:40:00.000-08:00

Lily Potter (née Evans) is the mother of Harry Potter. She is described as being very pretty, with startlingly green almond-shaped eyes and thick, long, dark red hair. In addition, Lily is one of the brightest students of her year, with a natural and intuitive ability at Potions. She is one of the "all-time favourite students" of Horace Slughorn, who describes her as "vivacious", "charming", "very brave", and "very funny". Rowling describes Lily as being "a bit of a catch"; she was a popular girl for whom many boys had romantic feelings. Lily is Muggle-born, and her sister Petunia Dursley despised her for being a witch and viewed her as a "freak" but is later revealed to have been jealous of her abilities. Rowling stated on her site that Lily did receive warning letters for testing the limits of the statute of secrecy.[27] Lily's Patronus is a doe, presumably to pair with James's Animagus shape of a stag (also the form of Harry's patronus).

After witnessing a memory from Snape about Lily's and James's time as Hogwarts students, Harry gathers the impression that Lily hated James, but Sirius and Lupin assure him that she did not; they "simply got off on the wrong foot". Rowling confirmed this view when asked how Lily and James had gotten together if Lily hated him. Lupin tells Harry that after James matured and changed his attitude, Lily started dating him in their seventh year. Rowling later echoed Lupin's words, describing it as James having to "[tone] down some of his more 'bombastic' behaviour". They married soon after leaving Hogwarts with Sirius as best man at their wedding.

The old, pre-Hogwarts friendship between Lily and Snape is fully revealed in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, along with the fact that Snape harboured unrequited romantic feelings for Lily from childhood. Rowling states that Lily might even have returned those feelings if Snape had not become so seriously involved in the Dark Arts. Their relationship ends in their fifth year at Hogwarts, when Snape, angry and humiliated, unthinkingly calls Lily a "Mudblood" after she defended him against James and Sirius. After leaving Hogwarts, Snape became a Death Eater and informed Voldemort of half of an overheard prophecy, which Voldemort takes to refer to Lily and her son, Harry. Fearing for Lily's life, Snape joins the Order as a spy for Dumbledore, in exchange for what he hopes will be Dumbledore's protection of Lily. Voldemort offered Lily the chance to step aside before he killed Harry because of Snape's request to spare Lily's life, but Lily refused and Voldemort killed her. The result of her selfless act of love manifested itself two ways: when Voldemort attempted to kill Harry with the Killing Curse the spell backfired, rendering Voldemort non-corporeal. The lingering protection afforded to Harry by Lily's sacrifice rendered Voldemort unable to touch him physically. The second way in which Harry is protected by Lily's sacrifice occurs when Petunia takes Harry in. Dumbledore told Harry that he had extended Lily's protection to Privet Drive, because Lily and Petunia are related by blood. This protection ends when Harry comes of age at 17.

Though Harry bears a great resemblance to his father, it is often noted that he has Lily's eyes. In a 1999 interview, Rowling stated, "Harry has his father's and mother's good looks. But he has his mother's eyes and that's very important in a future book". That "future book" was Deathly Hallows. In Snape's death scene in that novel, after having passed his memories to Harry, he whispers to Harry: "Look... at... me..." In one of Snape's memories, it is revealed that Dumbledore convinces Snape to protect Harry after Lily's death by mentioning the fact that he has "precisely" the same eyes as his mother.

James Potter

2009-11-07T14:37:00.000-08:00

James Potter, nicknamed Prongs, is the father of Harry Potter. As an only child, James is very pampered as "an extra treasure" because his parents are already elderly when he is born. James meets Sirius, Lupin and Pettigrew when they enter Hogwarts, When James, Sirius and Pettigrew discover that Lupin is in fact a werewolf, the three of them illegally learn to become Animagi, to safely accompany Lupin during his transformations and keep him under control. It is during this time that they discover almost all the secret passageways of Hogwarts and design the Marauder's Map. At school, James is a brilliant student, appointed as Head Boy without being a prefect, and said to have been a talented player on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. In the film version of Philosopher's Stone, Harry and his friends find James's name listed on a plaque as a Seeker on his Quidditch team; however, Rowling stated in an interview that she intended him to be a Chaser.

Rowling describes James and Harry as having similar attributes: the same thin face, same hands, and the same untidy black hair sticking up at the back, and nearly the same height as his son during their school days. However, Rowling also describes James as having hazel eyes and a slightly longer nose than Harry does. Like Harry, James is generally described to be a good, loyal friend who "regarded it as the height of dishonour to mistrust his friends." Characters in the books often comment on James's personality, about which Rowling comments that "there was a lot of good in James". The Hogwarts student population seems to have admired James back in his day, and teachers respect his talent, though not his behaviour. His popularity, however, is not universal, as a mutual hatred sprang up between him and Snape. Snape constantly tells Harry that James was "exceedingly arrogant",[18] and at one occasion, Sirius admits that he and James could sometimes be "arrogant little berks" but that "[James] grew out of it" (which Lily is said to have noted by their seventh year). In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, after seeing a scene from Snape's memories within a Pensieve of a fifteen-year-old James and Sirius bullying Snape, Harry agrees with Snape's assessment of his father's arrogance. According to Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, however, James and Snape shared a rivalry not unlike that of Draco Malfoy and Harry. In addition, Lupin tells Harry that Snape "never lost an opportunity to curse James". According to Rowling in a recent interview: "James always suspected Snape harboured deeper feelings for Lily, which was a factor in James's behaviour to Snape". However, when Sirius attempts to goad Snape into the Shrieking Shack where Lupin stayed after transforming into a werewolf, James saves Snape's life.

After graduating from Hogwarts, James — along with Lily and his friends — become "full-time fighters" for the Order, and do not hold regular jobs, supporting his family and Lupin, whose status as a werwolf made him unemployable, on family gold. In an interview, Rowling revealed that James and Lily were asked by Voldemort to join the Death Eaters, but refused, making it "one strike against them before they were even out of their teens". When his son Harry becomes Voldemort's target, the Potters go into hiding and name Pettigrew as their secret keeper. However, on 31 October, 1981, the Potters' whereabouts are betrayed by Pettigrew, and they are attacked by Voldemort without warning at their home in Godric's Hollow. James urges his wife to run and take Harry while he holds Voldemort off. Wandless, he is killed.

James and Sirius are the protagonists of the Harry Potter prequel, an 800-word story set three years before Harry's birth. The two friends are riding Sirius's motorbike and are chased by two Muggle policemen for breaking the speed limit. The policemen attempt to arrest them when three Death Eaters on broomsticks fly down towards them. James and Sirius use the police car as a barrier and the Death Eaters crash into it. In the end, they escape from the policemen flying on the motorbike.

Sirius Black

2009-11-07T14:36:00.000-08:00

Sirius Black, nicknamed Padfoot, is the last heir of the House of Black, a once notable pure-blood Wizarding family. Sirius's early life proved unhappy; he had come to hate most of his relatives, in particular his mother. He rejected his family's pure-blood elitism and reverence for the Dark Arts. In contrast to his home life, Sirius greatly enjoys life at Hogwarts, where he is inseparable from his best friends: James 'Prongs' Potter, Remus 'Moony' Lupin and Peter 'Wormtail' Pettigrew. Sirius leaves home at the age of sixteen and takes refuge with James and his parents. His outraged mother burns his name off the family tree, but he is left financially independent by his Uncle Alphard's generous bequest. After leaving school, he remained close friends with James and eventually attended James and Lily's wedding as best man. When their son, Harry, is born, the Potters name Sirius as his godfather. When the Potters go into hiding from Voldemort, Sirius suggests they use Pettigrew as Secret-Keeper, believing that Voldemort would hunt him down as the Potter's Secret-Keeper instead of Pettigrew. However, Pettigrew betrays James and Lily, and they are murdered by Voldemort. Sirius tracks Pettigrew down, but during the confrontation Pettigrew fakes his own death and kills twelve Muggles, framing Sirius for betraying the Potters and Pettigrew's and the Muggles' deaths. Sirius is arrested and is imprisoned without trial. Unlike most of the other Azkaban prisoners, Sirius is able to keep his sanity because he knows he is innocent.

Twelve years later, Sirius sees a picture of the Weasley family on the front cover of the Daily Prophet, in which a rat stands perched on Ron's shoulder; the rat is Ron's pet, Scabbers, and Sirius immediately recognises Pettigrew in his Animagus rat form. This knowledge clears his mind and enables him to escape Azkaban, accomplishing this feat by transforming into his Animagus dog form: his severe weight loss from malnutrition and the Dementors' lack of ability to differentiate between unsophisticated canine feelings and insanity allows him to slip through his cell bars. After his escape, Sirius takes refuge in and around Hogsmeade. Knowing that the Dementors are stationed around Hogsmeade and at Hogwarts, Sirius remains in his Animagus form during this time, and is able to enter the Hogwarts grounds without being detected by the Dementors. Towards the end of Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry, Ron, and Hermione confront Sirius and Harry attempts to kill him; however, Lupin, who has learned that Sirius is innocent, prevents Harry from doing this. Scabbers is unmasked as Pettigrew, and Harry begins to view Sirius as a surrogate father, although events swiftly turn against him again – Pettigrew escapes, and Sirius is captured by the Dementors at Hogwarts and sentenced to the "Dementor's Kiss". Harry and Hermione help him escape with Buckbeak, a hippogriff who had also been unjustly condemned.

In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Sirius has little influence; he mostly gives Harry advice on how to complete the Triwizard Tournament tasks. In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Sirius takes refuge in his ancient family home at 12, Grimmauld Place, which he allows to be used as the Order headquarters. His confinement causes depression, and he is frequently withdrawn and antagonistic. When he briefly leaves the house to see Harry off to Hogwarts, his Animagus form is recognised by Draco and Lucius Malfoy, resulting in more threats and warnings. Sirius acts as a brother figure to Harry throughout the book but, according to Rowling, "what Harry craves is a father." Sirius encourages Harry to oppose Dolores Umbridge and her reforms, and strongly approves of Harry starting the secret defensive tutorial group for students, Dumbledore's Army. He also demonstrates a high-level of trust in and respect for Harry, willingly answering the latter's questions about the Order and Voldemort. With his growing power, Voldemort implants a false vision into Harry's mind that Sirius is taken captive and under torture at the Department of Mysteries. Convinced that Voldemort is torturing Sirius, Harry and his friends gain access to the Department of Mysteries. When they are ambushed by Death Eaters, Harry realises that Voldemort has lured him into a trap. Snape, however, alerts the Order that the students have gone to the Ministry after confirming that Sirius is safe at Grimmauld Place. Several Order members arrive at the Ministry, Sirius among them, and battle the Death Eaters. During a frenzied duel with his hated cousin Bellatrix Lestrange, Sirius taunts her for failing to harm him. Bellatrix strikes Sirius with a curse, sending him backwards into a veil in the Death Chamber and thus causing his death.

Sirius makes a final appearance toward the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows when he is summoned by the Resurrection Stone along with James, Lily, and Remus Lupin to help Harry walk through the Forbidden Forest and sacrifice his life to Voldemort.

Remus Lupin

2009-11-07T14:33:00.000-08:00

Remus John Lupin, nicknamed Moony, first appears in Prisoner of Azkaban as the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. His students, except those belonging to the Slytherin house, hold him in extremely high regard and love his hands-on teaching style. During his tenure, he gives Harry private lessons in casting the Patronus Charm, to aid him in fighting off the Dementors flanking the Hogwarts grounds. Until the climax of Prisoner of Azkaban, Lupin believes Sirius is guilty of betraying James and Lily, and of killing Pettigrew. Upon discovering that Sirius is innocent, and that the very much alive Pettigrew is the traitor, he helps Sirius to explain the truth to Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the Shrieking Shack. However, Lupin has forgotten to take the Wolfsbane Potion and so reverts disastrously to beast form, retaining zero control of his actions. Sirius, in dog form, drives Lupin safely away from the others into the Forbidden Forest, where he wakes come the morning restored to his human body and mind. However, Snape, furious over Sirius's eventual escape and his resultant loss of the Order of Merlin promised to him by Cornelius Fudge, publicly reveals the nature of Lupin's lycanthropy. Anticipating a public outcry in response to the threat he himself agrees he poses for students, Lupin resigns from his post.

Long after resigning from his post, Lupin remains in the story as a friend to Harry. In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Lupin joins the newly reformed Order of the Phoenix and is part of the advance guard which escorts Harry from the Dursley family home in the book's opening chapters. Lupin is rarely seen in Grimmauld Place as he is often away performing secret tasks for the Order. Later in the book, Harry sees his father bully a school aged Snape through Snape's memory. Lupin does not participate in said bullying and gives several small indications that he disapproves of James's behaviour. When Harry confronts Lupin about the scene he witnessed in the Pensieve, Lupin expresses regret at never having had the courage to tell his friends when they were "out of order". Later, Lupin participates in the battle at the Department of Mysteries where he duels and overpowers Lucius Malfoy. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, it is revealed that it was Fenrir Greyback who bit Lupin when he was a child, thus turning him into a werewolf. Towards the climax of the book, Lupin is part of the defenders of Hogwarts when Death Eaters penetrate the school, and after Dumbledore's death, it is revealed that Nymphadora Tonks has fallen in love with Lupin, despite a thirteen-year age gap. He resists becoming involved with her because of the many risks posed by his lycanthropy, and insists that she deserves someone "young and whole".

However, by the opening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, it is revealed that Lupin and Tonks have married. Later in the book, Lupin informs Harry, Ron and Hermione that Tonks is pregnant. However, feeling ashamed that he has turned Tonks into an outcast and that his unborn child would have a high chance of inheriting lycanthropy, he plans to leave Tonks and his unborn child. This results in an intense argument between Lupin and Harry. Eventually, he recognises the truth in Harry's words and returns to his wife in time for the birth of his son, Teddy Lupin. Lupin remains active in the Order throughout the year. He is often heard providing the casualty reports section on the pirate radio station Potterwatch under the pseudonym of Romulus. Lupin commands a group of defenders on the school grounds during the Battle of Hogwarts. Both Lupin and Tonks die in combat, killed by Antonin Dolohov and Bellatrix, respectively. Rowling has since stated that she originally intended for both Lupin and Tonks to survive, but finally killed them off to compensate for the last-minute reprieve she gave to Arthur Weasley. He makes one last appearance when Harry activates the Resurrection Stone to bring forth his parents, Sirius, and Lupin to comfort him. Lupin expresses his regret that Teddy will never know his father, but says that he will know why he died: trying to make a world in which his son could live a better life.

Arthur & Molly Weasley

2009-11-07T06:25:00.000-08:00

Arthur Weasley is the patriarch of the Weasley family, a family of wizards who are considered "blood traitors" by Death Eaters for their interest in the Muggle world. He is married to Molly Weasley with whom he has seven children, including Ron, Harry's best friend. During his time at Hogwarts, Arthur belonged to the house of Gryffindor. Arthur is described as being tall and thin, and as having a receding hairline and wire-rimmed glasses. An affable, light-hearted man, he tends not to be the authority figure in the family; his wife Molly tends to handle that area. Arthur works for the Ministry of Magic, initially in the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office. He is obsessed with learning about Muggle customs and inventions and owns a large collection of mostly Muggle used items. His department lacked funding and his salary is insufficient to provide for a family of nine – leaving his family finances precarious.
Mr Weasley first appears in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, when Harry stays with the Weasley family during the summer before Hogwarts opens. In this book, Lucius Malfoy tries to discredit Arthur when Harry and Ron are seen flying his enchanted car and by placing Tom Riddle's diary in Ginny's cauldron so that she can open the Chamber of Secrets and take the blame for the attacks on Muggle-borns. However, Lucius fails to fulfil his objective and the diary is destroyed.
At the start of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Arthur wins a large cash prize in a sweepstakes and uses it to take the whole family on a holiday to Egypt. After they return, Arthur thinks that Harry should know the truth about Sirius Black. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, it seems that Arthur does not fully believe the stories of Harry's abuse at the hands of the Dursleys until he witnesses what they think about Harry and the Wizarding world and is stunned to see them so reluctant to say goodbye to him, before taking him to the Quidditch World Cup. At the beginning of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Mr Weasley is a member of the Order, and accompanies Harry to his visit in the Ministry. During one of his shifts in the Ministry guarding Sybill Trelawney's prophecy, Voldemort's pet snake Nagini attacks him. Harry, who is mentally connected with Voldemort, manages to see this in a vision and is able to warn the Hogwarts authorities. Arthur is subsequently saved just in time and sent to St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, where he fully recovers. He was originally intended to die in that scene, but Rowling could not bear to kill him. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Arthur has been promoted to Head of the Office for the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Objects. His promotion is accompanied by a pay increase.
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Arthur is part of the group that moves Harry from Privet Drive for the last time, accompanied by his son Fred who acted as one of the seven Potters. Arthur continues to work in the Ministry but all his movements are tracked. When it is discovered that Ron is travelling with Harry and not sick at home, the Weasleys are forced to hide. Arthur reappears in the Battle of Hogwarts, in which he loses his son Fred, and is joined by Percy Weasley in defeating Pius Thicknesse. Rowling has revealed that in the original draft for Order of the Phoenix she planned on killing Arthur. She changed her mind, however, saying that she could not kill Arthur as he is one of the few good fathers in the series. However, as she "wanted to kill parents," she spared Arthur's life in exchange for Lupin's and Tonks's.

Molly Weasley (née Prewett) is married to Arthur Weasley and mother of seven children. Molly is born into the pure-blood Prewett family, being the sister of Gideon and Fabian Prewett. The character is first introduced in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, when she kindly tells Harry how to cross the barrier through to Platform Nine and Three Quarters. In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, she is furious with Fred, George, and Ron after she discovers that they flew their parents' enchanted car to rescue Harry from his aunt and uncle who have imprisoned him in his room. At the beginning of the school year, Molly sends Ron a Howler, screaming at him in anger that he and Harry flew the family car again, this time to Hogwarts. In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the Weasleys win the Daily Prophet draw and use the gold on a trip to Egypt to visit Bill. They return to Britain and stay at the Leaky Cauldron with Harry and Hermione. Harry overhears Mr and Mrs Weasley arguing one night about telling the truth about the supposed relation between escapee Sirius Black and Harry; Arthur feels Harry should know the truth but Molly, feeling the truth would terrify him, assures him Harry will be perfectly safe at Hogwarts with Dumbledore's protection, and orders Percy Weasley to keep an eye on Harry at the school.
When Harry arrives at the Burrow in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Molly finds out about Fred and George's experimenting with dangerous sweets they were manufacturing and tells them off before leaving for the Quidditch World Cup; however, after the Dark Mark appears over the sky at the World Cup campsite, Molly is upset for yelling at Fred and George, worried that something might happen to them after she treated them so horribly. Towards the climax of that book, Molly and Bill arrive at Hogwarts to see the Third Task of the Triwizard Tournament, acting as family guests to Harry. After the return of Voldemort, Dumbledore asks Molly and Bill to join the Order and fight in the impending Second War. Molly comforts Harry and, for the first time in his life, he has someone to be there for him, like a mother.
Molly and the Weasleys are staying at the Order headquarters, Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, where she and Sirius fight over how much to tell Harry about the Order's operations. Days later, Molly is found in the drawing room, with a boggart that transforms into her dead family members and Harry, and confesses her nightmares of losing more family members to Voldemort and the Death Eaters. At the beginning of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Molly clashes with Bill's fiancée at this time, Fleur Delacour; however, at the end of the novel, when Molly rushes to Hogwarts with her husband and Fleur to tend to her son Bill, who is ferociously attacked by Fenrir Greyback, Fleur is offended greatly when Molly jumps to the conclusion she will break up with Bill due to his scarring; thus Fleur and Molly begin to see each other in a much more positive light.
At the beginning of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Molly and Arthur offer the Burrow as Order headquarters when Grimmauld Place is no longer safe. She feels immensely uncomfortable with the trio's decision to drop out of Hogwarts, and initially attempts to dissuade them from doing so. As the novel progresses, the family is forced to head for safety at Auntie Muriel's home. At the end of the book, Molly and her entire family fight in the Battle of Hogwarts. Upon seeing the death of Fred, she becomes devastated, and is pushed to the edge when Bellatrix Lestrange almost strikes Ginny with the Killing Curse. In great fury, she engages Bellatrix in an intense duel, killing her with a curse that hits Lestrange in the chest.

Nymphadora Tonks

2009-11-07T06:21:00.000-08:00

Nymphadora "Dora" Tonks is a Metamorphmagus, and an Auror. Her name means "Gift of the Nymphs", similar to "Theodore" ("God's Gift") and "Isidore" ("Isis' Gift"). She despises her given name and prefers to be called by her surname alone.

She is described as having "a pale heart-shaped face, dark twinkling eyes", and is usually depicted with different hair colours, which she can change at will. Tonks is seen to be notoriously clumsy and unskilled at household spells. Nymphadora is the only daughter of Ted and Andromeda Tonks, the latter being sister to Bellatrix Lestrange and Narcissa Malfoy; Nymphadora is therefore Draco Malfoy's first cousin. Tonks is sorted into Hufflepuff, and graduates from Hogwarts one year before Harry enters, after which she begins three years of Auror training; she qualifies as an Auror one year before her first appearance in Order of the Phoenix.

Tonks and Kingsley act as spies for the Order in the Ministry. She helps to escort Harry first from the Dursleys' house to Order headquarters, and later to the Hogwarts Express. Tonks later fights the Death Eaters at the Department of Mysteries, in which she is injured by Bellatrix, and has to be taken to St Mungo's. During Half-Blood Prince, Tonks is stationed at Hogsmeade and assigned to guard Hogwarts. Harry observes she is constantly depressed and rarely smiles. After Dumbledore's death, it is revealed that Tonks has fallen in love with Lupin, and her Patronus has, because of this, changed to the form of a werewolf. Lupin is reluctant to return her affections arguing that he is "too old, too poor, and too dangerous" for her. Because of this, she falls into a depression that disturbs her magical abilities.

However, early in Deathly Hallows, Tonks announces that she has recently married Lupin. Tonks accompanies twelve Order members to take Harry from the Dursleys' home to The Burrow. She flies with Ron, who impersonates Harry using Polyjuice Potion to throw the Death Eaters off the real Harry's trail. During the aerial battle, Tonks fights Bellatrix once again, and injures her husband, Rodolphus. Later in the book, Remus reveals Tonks is pregnant. He leaves her for a brief period, believing that he, through their marriage, has caused her to become an outcast and their unborn child would be better off without him, but changes his mind and returns to her side after a heated argument with Harry. In April of the seventh book, Tonks gives birth to Teddy Remus Lupin, named after her father and husband. Towards the end of the book, Tonks and Lupin join the Battle of Hogwarts. During the battle, Tonks is killed by Bellatrix, and Lupin is killed by Antonin Dolohov, leaving Teddy an orphan to be raised by his maternal grandmother, Andromeda. In an interview shortly after the release of Deathly Hallows, Rowling confessed that she had originally intended for Tonks and Lupin to survive the series ending, but felt that she had to kill them after she spared Arthur Weasley in Order of the Phoenix.

Ginny Weasley

2009-11-07T06:18:00.000-08:00

Ginevra Molly "Ginny" Weasley is the youngest of the seven Weasley children and "the first girl to be born into the Weasley clan for several generations." Ginny is introduced in Philosopher's Stone, in which she appears when Harry and four of her brothers leave for Hogwarts, and when she excitedly catches a glimpse of Harry upon his return at the end of the term.

In Chamber of Secrets, Ginny is a Gryffindor first-year. While she initially plays a behind-the-scenes role, looking mysteriously ill and having a crush on Harry, it is revealed in the climax that Tom Riddle's diary is possessing Ginny as a means to access the Chamber of Secrets and unleash a basilisk within the school grounds. Riddle intends to restore himself to full life by killing her, but Harry foils this plot by destroying the basilisk and the diary, thus saving Ginny's life. It is later revealed that Lucius Malfoy was responsible for planting the diary amongst Ginny's school books, in hopes that her actions would discredit her father and lead to Dumbledore's removal from Hogwarts. Ginny has little involvement in Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire.

In Order of the Phoenix, Ginny has "given up on Harry months ago"[32], and it is revealed that she has a boyfriend, Michael Corner, whom she met at the Yule Ball. When Umbridge punishes Harry with a "lifetime" Quidditch ban, Ginny replaces him as Gryffindor Seeker. She joins Dumbledore's Army and is one of five members who join Harry during his attempt to rescue Sirius Black from the Department of Mysteries. During the last part of the book, Ginny breaks up with Michael because of his sulking over Ravenclaw losing the Quidditch Cup final to Gryffindor, and starts dating Dean Thomas.

In Half-Blood Prince, after she casts the Bat-Bogey Hex on Zacharias Smith, Professor Slughorn respects her magical abilities enough to invite her to join his "Slug Club". Ginny becomes a Chaser for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and substitutes for Harry as Seeker when Snape puts him in detention during the Quidditch Cup final. After witnessing Ginny kissing Dean in a private hallway, Harry eventually accepts the fact that he fancies Ginny, but since Ron vocally objects to Dean dating his sister, Harry interprets this as his not wanting any of his friends to date her. Ginny's relationship with Dean ends altogether in April following an accidental "nudge" from Harry under the effects of Felix Felicis, which Ginny interprets as Dean unnecessarily trying to help her through the portrait hole. Ginny and Harry share their first kiss after Gryffindor again wins the Quidditch Cup over Ravenclaw, thus initiating their relationship. Ginny joins the other D.A. members from the battle of Department of Mysteries to protect Hogwarts from Death Eaters who entered the school, but after Dumbledore's death, Harry decides to end their relationship as he fears his feelings for Ginny would place her in danger.

Propelled by the revelation that Harry, Ron, and Hermione are leaving to seek the remaining Horcruxes in Deathly Hallows, Ginny gives Harry a passionate kiss in her bedroom, which is interrupted after Ron "accidentally" walks in on the moment. She returns to Hogwarts for her sixth year, where she works with Neville and Luna on reuniting Dumbledore's Army, participates in a plot to steal Gryffindor's sword from Snape's office, and is banned from Hogsmeade for an unknown offence. Because Ron is on the run with Harry and Hermione, Ginny is forced to go into hiding with her family. Though underage, she eagerly takes part in the Battle of Hogwarts despite her mother's and Harry's disapproval. After Harry's supposed death, she, Hermione, and Luna take on Bellatrix Lestrange, who nearly strikes Ginny with a Killing Curse, causing Mrs Weasley to intervene and slay Bellatrix herself. When the battle ends, Harry sees Ginny with her mother and decides to not interrupt, thinking that there would be time to talk later.

In the epilogue, set nineteen years after the events of Deathly Hallows, Harry and Ginny are married and have three children: sons James Sirius and Albus Severus, and daughter Lily Luna. Rowling extrapolated on Ginny's future after the release of the book, saying that after leaving Hogwarts, she joined the Holyhead Harpies and, after spending a few years as a celebrated player, retired to become the senior Quidditch correspondent at the Daily Prophet.

George & Fred Weasley

2009-11-07T06:16:00.000-08:00

Fred and George Weasley are the older identical twin brothers of Ron. Born on April Fools' Day, they first appear in Philosopher's Stone as third-years and are the school clowns and prime troublemakers, more interested in inventing new pranks than studying. Despite their poor results in their O.W.L. exams, the twins are proficient wizards capable of sophisticated magic. In addition, they served as Beaters for the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

The pair often comes to Harry's assistance throughout the series; in Chamber of Secrets, they and Ron help him escape his house arrest from Privet Drive, and give Harry the Marauder's Map during his third year. In Goblet of Fire, they begin selling novelties under the name "Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes," first testing their merchandise on impressionable first-years, and once on Dudley Dursley at the beginning of the book. The twins aspire to own a joke shop, and Harry provides their start-up capital by donating his winnings from the Triwizard Tournament. In Order of the Phoenix, the twins are permanently banned from Quidditch after a postmatch brawl with Malfoy, and later eschew the remainder of their seventh year by taking part in a student uprising against Umbridge, during which they light off a mass of fireworks and conjure up a Portable Swamp in a corridor before abandoning their education; a small amount of the swamp is later kept and cordoned off by Filius Flitwick as a tribute. In Half-Blood Prince, Fred and George continue to run their joke shop despite the unrest in Diagon Alley.

In Deathly Hallows, the twins are Order of the Phoenix members and serve as two of Harry's six decoys when he escapes Privet Drive. George's ear is severed by a stray Sectumsempra curse from Snape, originally aimed at a Death Eater, an injury that is irreparable. Meanwhile, the twins are forced to abandon their shop due to the Death Eater-helmed Ministry of Magic's surveillance of the Weasley family, and instead operate another owl-order business out of their Auntie Muriel's house. During this time, one of the twins, speculated to be Fred, shows up in the pirate radio station Potterwatch as "Rapier" . The twins return to participate in the Battle of Hogwarts, during which Fred and Percy Weasley defeat Pius Thicknesse and an unidentified Death Eater, but moments later, Fred is killed in an explosion. Rowling said in an MSNBC interview that she always knew Fred would be the twin who would die, though she could not specify a particular reason. She revealed in a web chat after the release of Deathly Hallows that George never fully got over Fred's death, but succeeded in turning Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes into a "money spinner" with Ron, who eventually quit to become an Auror. George married Angelina Johnson, with whom he had two children, Fred and Roxanne.

Neville Longbottom

2009-11-07T06:14:00.000-08:00

Neville Longbottom is a Gryffindor student in Harry's year, described as round-faced and "short and plump and blond". Throughout the series, he is often portrayed as a bumbling, disorganised character and a rather mediocre student, though he is highly gifted at Herbology. His parents, Frank and Alice Longbottom, were Aurors and Order of the Phoenix members until they were tortured and permanently incapacitated by a group of Death Eaters led by Bellatrix Lestrange; Neville was subsequently raised by his paternal grandmother, Augusta. Neville plays a minor role in the first four books, but Rowling wanted him to perform an act of bravery in Philosopher's Stone, in which Neville "finds true moral courage in standing up to his closest friends - the people who are on his side" towards the climax.
According to Rowling, Order of the Phoenix "was a real turning point for Neville" due to the bigger role he played therein. His magical abilities improve dramatically during D.A. meetings, and Harry comes to understand him on a deeper level after he and his friends learn about the fate of Neville's parents at St Mungo's. Neville participates in the battle in the Department of Mysteries, in which he accidentally breaks the prophecy about Harry and Voldemort. Dumbledore, to whom it was originally made, explains that it concerned "the Chosen One", a wizard who would have the power to vanquish Voldemort and who would be born "as the seventh month dies" to "parents who have defied the Dark Lord thrice"; thus could refer to either Neville, who was born on July 30, 1980, or Harry, born a day later. Neville receives a new wand in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, his old wand - inherited from his father - having broken during the struggle with Death Eaters during the battle in the Department of Mysteries. Neville wants the D.A. meetings to continue, because he feels they have helped him and others to improve their skills, but Harry says there is now no need as they have a proper Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. When a group of Death Eaters guided by Draco Malfoy attacks the school, Neville answers the call for help and fights against the Death Eaters once again, suffering minor injuries.

With Hogwarts at the mercy of new headmaster Severus Snape and the Carrows in Deathly Hallows, Neville reforms Dumbledore's Army with Ginny and Luna, and spends much of his seventh year as the group's interim leader in Harry's absence, helping students who are tormented under the new regime. Neville reveals to Harry that he had suffered beatings by the Carrows and that he was forced to go into hiding in the Room of Requirement. During the Battle of Hogwarts, Neville uses his knowledge of Herbology to help ward off the attackers, and later helps Oliver Wood carry the body of Colin Creevey. When Voldemort returns with Harry's apparently lifeless body, Neville decapitates Nagini with Godric Gryffindor's sword, thus destroying the final Horcrux. In the ensuing conflict, he assists Ron in taking down Fenrir Greyback. After the battle is won, Neville is surrounded by a group of admirers.

In the epilogue of Deathly Hallows, Neville becomes an Auror just like his parents for several years then returns to Hogwarts as its new Herbology professor, and shows off his D.A. Galleon to many admiring students and tells them about his adventures. Rowling revealed in October 2007 that Neville married Hannah Abbott, who then became the new landlady of the Leaky Cauldron. They live over the pub, which Rowling believed readers would find "particularly cool."

Luna Lovegood

2009-11-07T06:10:00.000-08:00

Luna Lovegood is a Ravenclaw student one year younger than Harry. She is described as having straggly, waist-length blonde hair and a "permanently surprised look". Rowling has often said that Luna is the "anti-Hermione", as Luna believes in faith alone, while Hermione grounds her views on facts and logic. Her father is Xenophilius Lovegood, the editor-in-chief of The Quibbler. When Luna was only 9-years old, her mother was killed while performing spell experiments. Luna witnessed the accident which enabled her to see Thestrals. Luna is isolated at school, but she appears to care little for what others think.

In Order of the Phoenix, she and her father are among the few who believe Harry and Dumbledore when they claim that Voldemort has returned. Luna also becomes a member of Dumbledore's Army, and later in the book joins Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Neville in the conflict with Death Eaters at the Department of Mysteries. In Half-Blood Prince, after Luna and Neville are snubbed by some of Harry's new fans, she observes that Harry is expected to be with "cooler" people. Harry later invites Luna to Slughorn's Christmas party. She also does the Quidditch commentary for Gryffindor's game against Hufflepuff, a scene that Rowling particularly enjoyed writing, calling it "blinding inspiration". Later, when Death Eaters attack Hogwarts, Luna, Ginny and Neville are the sole D.A. members who answer the call to protect the school.

In Deathly Hallows, Luna and her father attend Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour's wedding at the Burrow. She returns to school for her sixth year, where she and Ginny help Neville secretly revive the D.A. to oppose Snape's regime as Hogwarts headmaster. During Harry's visit to the Lovegood residence along with Ron and Hermione, he finds on the ceiling portraits of herself, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville and Ginny entwined with the word "Friends". The trio also notice several pieces of evidence suggesting that she has been missing for several weeks. It is then revealed that while travelling home for the Christmas break on the Hogwarts Express, Luna was kidnapped in an effort to prevent her father from publishing information in support of Harry in The Quibbler. Later on, when Harry, Ron, and Hermione are captured and held hostage at Malfoy Manor, they find there Luna and Mr Ollivander. They are soon rescued by Dobby, who takes them to safety at Shell Cottage. When Harry returns to Hogwarts in search of Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem, Luna helps him enter Ravenclaw common room in order to view a replica of the diadem, where she stuns Alecto Carrow when they are discovered. During the battle, she, Ernie, and Seamus help Harry fight the Dementors by conjuring their respective Patronuses; Luna's takes the form of a silver hare. After Harry's apparent death, Luna ends up duelling Bellatrix Lestrange, along with Hermione and Ginny, until Molly Weasley takes over and defeats Bellatrix herself. She is among the first to congratulate Harry when Voldemort is defeated and later helps him get some solitude.

Rowling revealed that, after Hogwarts, Luna pursues a career that is "the wizarding equivalent" of a naturalist. She married a fellow naturalist, the grandson of Newt Scamander, named Rolf, and they had twin boys, named Lorcan and Lysander.

Lord Voldemort

2009-11-07T06:06:00.000-08:00

Lord Voldemort makes his debut in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. In this story, Rowling introduces him as the Dark Lord who murdered Harry's parents, but as a result of his mother's love and willingness to sacrifice herself for him, baby Harry survives when Voldemort tries to murder him with a Killing Curse. Voldemort is disembodied, and Harry carries a mysterious scar on his forehead as a result. During the course of the book, Voldemort unsuccessfully tries to regain his dissolved body by stealing the titular Philosopher's Stone. To achieve his objective, Voldemort uses Professor Quirrell's aid by latching himself onto the back of Quirrell's head. However, at the climax of the book, Harry manages to prevent Voldemort from stealing the stone.

In the second instalment, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Rowling introduces the character of Tom Marvolo Riddle, a manifestation of a teenage Voldemort that resides inside a magical diary found by Ginny Weasley. In this book, Ginny is written as a shy girl with a crush on Harry. Feeling anxious and lonely, she begins to write into the diary and shares her deepest fears with the sympathetic Tom. However, at the climax of the story, when Tom Marvolo Riddle rearranges the letters in his name to create the anagram of "I am Lord Voldemort", the nature of Tom as a magical manifestation of the boy who would later grow up to become the Dark Lord is revealed. Riddle states he has grown strong on her fears and eventually possesses Ginny. He then uses her as a pawn to unlock the Chamber of Secrets, whence a basilisk is set free and petrifies several Hogwarts students. Harry defeats both the Riddle from the diary and the basilisk. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore reveals to Harry that the diary was one of Voldemort's Horcruxes (an external vessel which contains a part of his torn soul).

In the third book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Voldemort does not appear, either in person or in the form of a magical manifestation. He is, however, heard when Harry passes out from the harsh effects of a Dementor. Towards the end of the story Sybill Trelawney, the Divination professor, makes a rare genuine prophecy: The Dark Lord lies alone and friendless, abandoned by his followers. His servant has been chained these twelve years. Tonight, before midnight, the servant will break free and set out to rejoin his master. The Dark Lord will rise again with his servant's aid, greater and more terrible than ever before. Tonight... before midnight... the servant... will set out... to rejoin... his master... Though it is initially implied that the prophecy refers to Sirius Black, the book's ostensible antagonist, the servant is eventually revealed to be Peter Pettigrew, who, since the fall of Voldemort, has been disguised as Ron Weasley's pet rat, Scabbers.
In the fourth instalment of the series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Voldemort appears at the start and the climax of the book. Rowling lets many seemingly unrelated plot elements fall into order. It is revealed that Voldemort's minion Barty Crouch Jr, disguised as Hogwarts professor Mad-Eye Moody, has manipulated the events of the Triwizard Tournament. Voldemort's goal is to teleport Harry as a reluctant participant to the Little Hangleton graveyard, where the Riddle family is buried. Harry is captured and, after Pettigrew uses Harry's blood to fulfil a gruesome magical ritual, Voldemort regains his body and is restored to his full power. For the first time in the series, Rowling describes his appearance: "tall and skeletally thin", with a face "whiter than a skull, with wide, livid scarlet eyes and a nose that was as flat as a snake’s with slits for nostrils".Rowling writes that his "hands were like large, pale spiders; his long white fingers caressed his own chest, his arms, his face; the red eyes, whose pupils were slits, like a cat's, gleamed still more brightly through the darkness". It was revealed that, while in Albania, Pettigrew had captured the Ministry of Magic official Bertha Jorkins, who was tortured for information about the Ministry. After they learned that Barty Crouch Jr, a faithful Death Eater, had been smuggled out of Azkaban and was privately confined at his father's house, they killed her. With Pettigrew's help, Voldemort created a small, rudimentary body, corporeal enough to travel and perform magic, and formulated a plan to restore his own body by capturing Harry. A portion of the plan had been overheard by Frank Bryce, a gardener, whom Voldemort then killed. Voldemort then completes his plan and returns to life in his full body as a result of the ritual with Harry's blood. He then summons his Death Eaters to the graveyard to witness the death of Harry as he challenges Harry to a duel. However, when Voldemort duels Harry, their wands become magically locked together due to the twin Phoenix feather cores of the wands. Because of a phenomenon later revealed as Priori Incantatem, ghost-like manifestations of Voldemort's most recent victims (including Harry's parents) then appear and distract Voldemort, allowing Harry just enough time to escape via Portkey with the body of fellow-student, Cedric Diggory, who was murdered by Pettigrew on Voldemort's orders.

In the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort appears at the climax, having again carefully plotted against Harry. In this book, Harry goes through extreme emotional stress, and according to Rowling, it was necessary to prove that Harry is emotionally vulnerable and thus human, in contrast to his nemesis Voldemort, who is emotionally invulnerable and thus inhuman: "[Harry is] a very human hero, and this is, obviously, there’s a contrast, between him, as a very human hero, and Voldemort, who has deliberately dehumanised himself. […] and Harry, therefore, did have to reach a point where he did almost break down." In this book, Voldemort makes liberal use of the Ministry of Magic's refusal to believe that he has returned. Voldemort engineers a plot to free Bellatrix Lestrange and some other Death Eaters from Azkaban and then embarks on a scheme to retrieve the full record of a prophecy regarding Harry and himself which is stored in the Department of Mysteries. He sends a group of Death Eaters to retrieve the prophecy, where they are met by the Order of the Phoenix. All but Bellatrix are captured, and Voldemort engages in a ferocious duel with Dumbledore. Voldemort attempts to possess Harry but finds that he cannot; Harry is too full of that which Voldemort finds detestable: love. Sensing that Dumbledore could win, Voldemort disapparates, but not before the Minister for Magic sees him in person, making his return to life public knowledge.
Hero Fiennes-Tiffin as child Tom Riddle in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

In the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Voldemort once again declares war, and begins to rise to power once more. He murders Amelia Bones of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and begins to target members of the Order of the Phoenix, including Emmeline Vance.

Rowling uses several chapters as exposition to establish Voldemort's backstory. In a series of flashbacks, using the pensieve as a plot device, she reveals that Voldemort is the son of the witch Merope Gaunt and Muggle Tom Riddle, Sr. Riddle abandons Merope before their child's birth, soon after which Merope dies, just hours after giving birth. Tom Riddle, Sr. never attempts to find his son. After living in an orphanage, young Tom is told that he is a wizard by Albus Dumbledore, who arranges for him to attend Hogwarts. Riddle is outwardly a model pupil, but is in reality a sadist who enjoys using his powers to harm and control people. He eventually murders his father and grandparents as revenge for abandoning him. The book also discusses Riddle's hatred of "Muggles" (non-magical humans), his obsession with Horcruxes, and his desire to split his soul in order to achieve immortality. Rowling stated Voldemort's conception under the influence of a love potion is related to his inability to understand love.

In the main plot of the book, Voldemort's next step is to engineer an assault on Hogwarts, and to attack Dumbledore himself. This is accomplished by Draco Malfoy, who arranges transportation of Death Eaters into Hogwarts by means of a pair of Vanishing Cabinets, which bypass the extensive protective enchantments placed around the school. The cabinets allow Voldemort's Death Eaters to enter Hogwarts, where battle commences and Dumbledore is cornered. Hogwarts professor (and triple agent) Severus Snape uses the Killing Curse against Dumbledore when Draco is unable to do so himself.
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Voldemort furthers his quest for ultimate power. He disposes of the Minister for Magic and replaces him with Pius Thicknesse, who is under the Imperius Curse. Establishing a totalitarian police state, he has Muggle-borns persecuted and arrested for "stealing magic" from the "pure blood" wizards. After failing to kill Harry with Lucius Malfoy's borrowed wand (to avoid the effect of Priori Incantatem), he goes on a murderous search for the Elder Wand, the most powerful wand ever created, seeing it as the weapon he needs to overcome Harry's wand and make him truly invincible. He goes on a quest that takes him out of the country to Gregorovitch's wand shop, where he kills the old wandmaker. His journey also takes him to Nurmengard, the prison where Gellert Grindelwald is kept, and he kills Grindelwald as well. He finally locates the Elder Wand and steals it from Dumbledore's tomb.

Later, he finds out that Harry and his friends are stealing and destroying his Horcruxes. After offering the occupants of Hogwarts mercy if they give up Harry, he assembles a large army and launches an invasion of the castle, where Harry is searching for Ravenclaw's Lost Diadem, one of the Horcruxes. Voldemort orders his pet snake Nagini to execute Snape, believing it would make him the true master of the Elder Wand, since Snape killed Dumbledore. He then calls an hour's armistice, in exchange for Harry. When Harry willingly walks into Voldemort's camp in the Forbidden Forest, Voldemort strikes him down with the Elder Wand. However, the use of Harry's blood to resurrect Voldemort's body proves to be a major setback: while Harry's blood runs in Voldemort's veins, Harry cannot be killed as his mother's protection lives on now in Voldemort too. Instead, Voldemort himself destroys the part of his own soul that resides in Harry’s body. Voldemort forces Rubeus Hagrid to carry the apparently lifeless body of Harry back to the castle as a trophy, sparking another battle during which Nagini, his last Horcrux, is destroyed by Neville Longbottom. The battle then moves into the Great Hall, where Voldemort fights Minerva McGonagall, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and Horace Slughorn simultaneously. Harry then reveals himself and explains to Voldemort that Draco became the true master of the Elder Wand when he disarmed Dumbledore; Harry, in turn, won the wand's allegiance when he took Draco's wand. Voldemort nonetheless casts the Killing Curse with the Elder Wand while Harry uses a Disarming Charm with Draco's, but the Elder Wand refuses to kill its master and the spell rebounds on Voldemort who, with all of his Horcruxes destroyed, is finally killed.

Rowling stated that after his death, Voldemort is forced to exist in the stunted infant-like form that Harry sees in the King's Cross-like Limbo after his confrontation with Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest. Rowling also mentioned that, despite his extreme fear of death, he is unable to become a ghost.

Severus Snape

2009-11-07T05:59:00.000-08:00

Severus Snape first appears in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, shortly after Harry Potter arrives at Hogwarts. He is the school's Potions Master, though he is widely rumoured to covet the Defence Against the Dark Arts post. Snape himself confirms the rumour in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Snape is a sinister and malicious teacher, who makes frequent snide and disparaging remarks at Harry's expense. He quickly becomes one of the main antagonists of the book, as Harry suspects him of plotting to steal the philosopher's stone, and of attempting to kill him. Only the climax of the book reveals that Professor Quirrell, in league with Lord Voldemort, is the real enemy while Snape, suspicious of Quirrell, was looking out for Harry throughout the book. In the final chapter, Dumbledore suggests that because Harry's father James had saved Snape's life when they were both students, even though the two detested each other, Snape felt responsible for Harry in return. As the final book reveals, this is not the full story. In any case, even after Quirrell's true role is revealed, Harry retains feelings of suspicion and resentment towards Snape, and their relationship remains tense. Snape's behaviour and attitude towards Harry also remain unchanged.

Snape has a minor role in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, where he helps Gilderoy Lockhart oversee Hogwarts' short-lived Duelling Club but has little interaction with the main plot. It is while attending the Duelling Club that Harry learns the Expelliarmus spell indirectly from Snape, a spell that plays a significant role in later books.

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Snape demonstrates his expertise with potions by brewing the complex Wolfsbane potion for the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, Remus Lupin. Throughout the third book, Snape suspects that Lupin may be helping Sirius Black enter Hogwarts castle; Sirius had been convicted (falsely, as it is later revealed) for murdering innocent bystanders and betraying the Potter family's hiding place to Voldemort. This suspicion stems from Lupin's friendship with Sirius and Harry's father James while they were all at Hogwarts as students. Near the climax of the book, Snape attempts to apprehend Black, but Black escapes with Harry's aid. Snape informs Dumbledore of this and when Harry and Lupin are not punished, Snape retaliates by revealing to the entire school that Lupin is a werewolf, forcing the latter to resign his post.
Prisoner of Azkaban reveals more details about the connection between Snape and James Potter. While in school together, Sirius once tricked Snape into entering the Shrieking Shack while Lupin was there, transformed into a werewolf. James realised the danger and stopped Snape, saving his life; this is the incident Dumbledore referred to at the end of the first book. Snape, however, believes James's actions were self-serving, to avoid being expelled.
Snape's role in the fourth novel, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is not substantially different from that of the previous two books. Although he is apoplectic when Harry is unexpectedly entered into the Triwizard Tournament, this only makes him even more vindictive than usual. Later Harry accidentally falls into Dumbledore's Pensieve and views memories of several Death Eater trials from years before. At one point, Snape is named as a Death Eater by Igor Karkaroff, but Dumbledore comes to Snape's defence, claiming that although Snape had indeed been a Death Eater, he changed sides before Voldemort's downfall and turned spy against him. Later, Dumbledore assures Harry that Snape's reformation is genuine, though he refuses to tell Harry how he knows this, saying the information "is a matter between Professor Snape and myself".

At the end of the book, Dumbledore attempts to convince a disbelieving Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, that Voldemort has returned. As proof, Snape willingly shows Fudge the restored Dark Mark on his arm, and is subsequently sent on a secret mission by Dumbledore. This mission, as implied in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and revealed in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was to rejoin the Death Eaters and spy on Voldemort as a triple agent, pretending to spy on Dumbledore on behalf of Voldemort.
In the fifth novel, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Snape returns to a more prominent role. With Voldemort having returned to a fully corporeal body, Snape continues working as a triple agent for Dumbledore. He is seen prior to the start of school at Number 12, Grimmauld Place giving reports to the Order of the Phoenix. He has a very strained relationship with Sirius, who owns Grimmauld Place and must remain there in hiding. The two trade frequent snide remarks and at one point almost begin a duel. Snape taunts Sirius about the latter not being able to take an active role in the Order's missions due to his fugitive status. Harry later feels that this contributed to Sirius's willingness to take unsafe risks. Back at school, Snape's allegiance to the Order has no effect on his dislike for Harry.

Later in the book, Dumbledore has Snape teach Harry Occlumency, the protection of the mind from outside intrusion or influence. The sessions are made difficult by their mutual hostility and end prematurely when Harry uses Dumbledore's Pensieve to view one of Snape's childhood memories without the latter's permission. He sees the memory of Snape being bullied by James and Sirius, and of calling Lily Evans a Mudblood. Only in the final book is it revealed that, prior to this confrontation, Snape and Lily had been close friends.

Towards the end of the novel, Dolores Umbridge captures Harry and questions him on the whereabouts of Dumbledore. She sends for Snape to provide a truth serum to force Harry to reveal any information he may be hiding. Snape claims that his supplies of Veritaserum were exhausted earlier, when she attempted to use the drug surreptitiously to force information from Harry. Snape withholds further assistance. It is later revealed that Snape had in fact supplied Umbridge with fake Veritaserum on the prior attempt. Snape then carries Harry's cryptic warning about Sirius's capture to the other Order members, allowing them to come to the rescue in the Department of Mysteries. Harry still holds Snape partly responsible for Sirius's death, believing Snape's goading spurred Sirius into joining the battle.
In the second chapter of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Bellatrix Lestrange and Narcissa Malfoy visit Snape at his home in Spinner's End. Narcissa's son Draco has been given a difficult task by Voldemort, and Narcissa swears Snape to an Unbreakable Vow that he will protect Draco, help him complete Voldemort's task, and finish the task himself if Draco fails. When questioned by Bellatrix about his loyalties, Snape claims to have been working for Voldemort (rather than for Dumbledore) ever since Voldemort's return, and explains his actions in the previous books in that light. In addition, he points out that Dumbledore's protection has kept him out of Azkaban and free to operate on Voldemort's behalf.

At the start-of-term feast at Hogwarts, Dumbledore announces he has finally appointed Snape as Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts. Horace Slughorn, a retired Hogwarts teacher, replaces Snape as Potions Master. Slughorn lends Harry an old Potions textbook, in which Harry finds marginalia including a variety of hexes and jinxes seemingly invented by an unknown student, and substantial improvements to the book's standard potion-making instructions. The book is inscribed This Book is the Property of the Half-Blood Prince. The notes greatly bolster Harry's performance in Potions and he impresses Slughorn. Snape, who maintains that he "never had the impression that [he] had been able to teach Potter anything at all", is suspicious of Harry's newfound Potions success.

Later, in a fight with Draco, Harry casts one of the Prince's spells (Sectumsempra) marked "For Enemies" and is horrified when it causes devastating wounds to Draco's face and chest. Snape rushes to the scene and heals Draco's wounds, and then interrogates Harry about the source of the spell, using Legilimency to extract the source of Harry's knowledge (the Potions textbook) from Harry's mind. When Snape insists that Harry show him his Potions textbook, Harry hides the Prince's book and gives Ron Weasley's book to Snape instead. As punishment for Harry's attack on Malfoy and knowing Harry is lying about the textbook, Snape puts Harry in detention during the final Quidditch match of the year.

Returning to Hogwarts after a search for one of Voldemort's Horcruxes, Harry and Dumbledore alight on the school's astronomy tower. Gravely weakened by Voldemort's protective potion, Dumbledore asks Harry to fetch Snape. Before Harry can leave, Draco suddenly arrives intending to carry out Voldemort's ordered assassination of Dumbledore, but cannot bring himself to commit the murder. The Death Eaters arrive and Snape interrupts them, killing the headmaster himself. An enraged Harry (who had been paralysed by Dumbledore and witnessed the killing while under his invisibility cloak) chases Snape, Draco, and the Death Eaters as they flee the castle. Snape easily blocks Harry's attempts to attack him with magic and even jeeringly points out Harry's mistakes, but refuses to strike back. During the confrontation, Snape reveals himself to be the "Half-Blood Prince" (being the son of Muggle Tobias Snape and pure-blood Eileen Prince). Harry is unable to stop Snape before the latter passes through the school gates and Disapparates. The full story of the relationship between Dumbledore and Snape and the real reason for the killing are not revealed until the next and last book. Rowling mentioned in an interview that at this point in the series, the Harry-Snape relationship has become "as personal, if not more so, than Harry-Voldemort."
n Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Snape is named Headmaster of Hogwarts, while Death Eaters Alecto and Amycus Carrow are appointed to the Hogwarts staff. The novel later reveals that Snape uses his position as Headmaster to protect the students and to contain the Carrows. In the course of the book, Harry and Ron are led to find the Sword of Godric Gryffindor by a Patronus taking the form of a doe.[38] Harry later learns that this was Snape's Patronus, taking the same shape as Harry's mother Lily's Patronus, and that Snape had been tasked by Dumbledore with ensuring that Harry gained possession of the sword.

Towards the end of the school year, Professors McGonagall, Flitwick, and Sprout force Snape to flee the school. Voldemort summons Snape to the Shrieking Shack. Erroneously believing Snape is the master of the Elder Wand, Voldemort betrays Snape and has his pet snake Nagini bite him through the neck, mortally wounding him, believing that Snape's death will make him the master of the Wand. Snape, dying from his wounds, releases a cloud of memories and tells Harry, who has watched the entire scene from a hidden spot, to take them. From these memories, Harry sees Snape's childhood and learns his true loyalties. In this vision, Harry learns that Snape befriended Lily as a child when they lived near each other. Upon their arrival at Hogwarts, the Sorting Hat placed Snape and Lily into Slytherin and Gryffindor Houses, respectively. They remained friends for the next few years until they were driven apart by Snape's interest in the Dark Arts; the friendship finally ended following the bullying episode that Harry had briefly seen in the fifth book. Despite this separation and Snape's animosity toward Lily's eventual husband James, Snape remained in love with Lily.

Harry learns that Snape had revealed the prophecy made by Sybill Trelawney (not knowing, at first, that it was referring to Lily and her family) to Voldemort, prompting the Dark Lord to attack the Potters in an attempt to prevent its fulfilment. Though he asked Voldemort to spare Lily, Snape, still fearing for her safety, went to Dumbledore and begged him to protect the Potters. Dumbledore agreed and ensured that they were placed under the Fidelius Charm. In return, Snape became a triple agent for the Order of the Phoenix against Voldemort, using his powers of Occlumency to hide his betrayal from his master. Even with his efforts to protect her, Snape felt responsible for Lily's death when the Fidelius charm was broken. Snape demanded of Dumbledore, however, that his love for Lily — his reason for switching sides — be kept a secret. Dumbledore agreed and kept the secret throughout the series.

Snape's memories then reveal that Dumbledore had been afflicted by a powerful curse cast on the Gaunt ring, one of Voldemort's Horcruxes, prior to the start of Harry's sixth year at Hogwarts. Although Snape's knowledge of the Dark Arts enabled him to slow the spread of the curse, the curse would have ultimately killed Dumbledore within a year. Dumbledore, aware that Voldemort had ordered Draco to kill him, asked Snape to kill him instead as a way of sparing the boy's soul and of preventing his otherwise slow, painful death. Although Snape was reluctant, even asking about the impact of such an action on his own soul, Dumbledore implied that this kind of mercy killing, or killing "by request", would not damage a human's soul in the same way murder would. Snape agreed to do as the Headmaster requested. Snape's memories also provide Harry with the information he needs to ensure Voldemort's final defeat, in the form of conversations Snape had with Dumbledore.

Rowling noted in an online interview that because Snape abandoned his post before dying or officially retiring, a portrait of him does not immediately appear in the Headmaster's office following his death. She adds, however, that she would like to think Harry made Snape's true loyalty and heroism known in the Wizarding world, and that he lobbied to ensure that a portrait be installed in the office. In a separate interview, Rowling discussed Snape's back story, saying she had planned it ever since she wrote the first book because the whole series is built around it and she considers him one of the most important characters of the seventh book.

Draco Malfoy

2009-11-07T05:52:00.000-08:00

Draco Malfoy makes his first appearance in the series when he and Harry meet while being fitted for robes at Madam Malkin's. Not recognising Harry, Draco tries befriending him, but Harry is alienated by his arrogance. He asks whether Harry's parents are "our kind", then says that "the other sort" (Muggle-borns) should not be allowed at Hogwarts, because "they've never been brought up to know our ways." The two boys part without introductions, but meet again on the Hogwarts Express. After Draco ridicules Ron Weasley's family, Harry rejects his offer of friendship and their mutual antagonism is born. According to Rowling, Malfoy originally makes an effort to be Harry's friend because "it will be cool to turn up at the school being Harry Potter's friend, because Harry is so famous." However, Harry did not want Malfoy as a friend because he "has been so rude about Rubeus Hagrid and about Ron, who Harry likes so much". Barely touching Draco's head, the Sorting Hat places him into Slytherin, where he becomes an instant favourite of Potions teacher and Slytherin Head of House, Severus Snape. Draco attempts to get Harry expelled by tricking him into participating in a midnight wizard's duel after secretly informing Argus Filch in advance, but the plan fails when Harry evades Filch and safely makes it back to his dormitory.

In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Draco becomes the new Seeker for the Slytherin Quidditch team after his father, Lucius Malfoy, donates new, high-quality Nimbus 2001 broomsticks. When Hermione Granger comments that the Gryffindor players made the team through talent and not bribery, Draco responds by calling her a Mudblood. This provokes an immediate, violent response from all the Gryffindors present, except Hermione and Harry, who, having been raised by Muggles, do not know what the epithet means. Because of Draco's contempt for Muggle-borns, Harry, Ron, and Hermione suspect that Draco is the Heir of Slytherin, who has recently reopened the Chamber of Secrets. Harry and Ron disguise themselves as Crabbe and Goyle with Polyjuice Potion and infiltrate the Slytherin common room in an attempt to collect additional information, whereupon they realise that their initial suspicion about Draco is incorrect.
Left to right: Goyle, Malfoy, Crabbe, and Pansy Parkinson

During Hagrid's debut as Care of Magical Creatures instructor in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the hippogriff, Buckbeak, attacks Draco after he insults it and fails to observe proper protocol while approaching it. He exaggerates the extent of his injury, giving Slytherin a chance to postpone their Quidditch match against Gryffindor until later in the year, and as an attempt to have Hagrid fired. Hermione slaps Draco when he mocks Hagrid for crying over Buckbeak's sentence. Draco, who implies that he is aware of how Sirius Black was supposedly involved in the deaths of Harry's parents, also taunts Harry about the impending threat of Black: "If it was me, I'd want revenge. I'd hunt him down myself."
After Harry is unexpectedly chosen as a Triwizard Tournament champion in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Draco shows off a "Support Cedric Diggory" badge to Harry, then presses it to replace that phrase with "Potter Stinks." When Malfoy says that he does not "want a Mudblood sliming it up" in reference to Hermione, Harry and Draco simultaneously fire off spells which ricochet and hit Goyle and Hermione instead. Draco also gives malicious and often false information about Harry and Hagrid to muckraking Daily Prophet journalist Rita Skeeter. When Draco attempts to curse Harry behind his back, the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor Alastor Moody (actually Barty Crouch, Jr in disguise via Polyjuice Potion) humiliates Draco by transforming him into a ferret and repeatedly slamming him against the ground. Draco is romantically linked to Pansy Parkinson, who attends the Yule Ball as his date.

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Draco is named a Slytherin prefect along with Pansy. He gets Harry and the Weasley twins banned from the Gryffindor Quidditch team when they attack him during a postmatch brawl after Draco insults their families following Gryffindor's win over Slytherin. He later joins Dolores Umbridge's Inquisitorial Squad, with whom he plays an important part in the exposure of Dumbledore's Army. As the D.A. flees the Room of Requirement, Draco earns Slytherin fifty points after catching Harry, and helps hold several members captive in Umbridge's office. After his father and other Death Eaters are captured and sentenced to Azkaban following the events at the Department of Mysteries, Draco twice attempts to get revenge on Harry, but Snape and Minerva McGonagall thwart his first effort, and while returning home on the Hogwarts Express, Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle are transformed into giant slugs by a barrage of hexes cast by several D.A. members coming to Harry's defence.
Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange visit Snape at his home to discuss a dangerous task that Voldemort has assigned Draco. Narcissa, deeply worried that Draco will be killed in his attempt to complete it, begs Snape to make an Unbreakable Vow to aid Draco with this task and protect him at all costs; he agrees.

Under the Invisibility Cloak, Harry, Ron, and Hermione follow Draco to Borgin and Burkes, a dark magic shop in Knockturn Alley. Draco threatens Mr Borgin about repairing one item and keeping another safe for him. Draco shows Mr Borgin something on his arm that Harry correctly deduces is the Dark Mark, Voldemort's sign. On the Hogwarts Express, Harry invisibly spies on Draco and overhears him discussing Voldemort's task with several other Slytherins. Draco knows Harry is present and, once alone in the compartment, immobilises him and breaks his nose. Harry is left stranded on the train until Tonks rescues him. Harry spends much of the year trailing Draco's whereabouts on his Marauder's Map, but loses track of him once Draco enters the Room of Requirement. When Katie Bell is almost killed in Hogsmeade after handling a cursed necklace and Ron nearly dies by drinking poisoned mead, Harry suspects Draco is behind both attacks.

In this book, Draco is, for the first time since being introduced in the series, portrayed as having considerable initiative, ingenuity, and perseverance, and he is extensively using the Room of Requirement. However, unlike Harry, who could always rely on his friends' support and help, Draco mostly works alone, refusing to confide in or involve his own circle, which he treated more as underlings rather than as friends. This, and the realisation as to what he is ultimately expected to do, nearly drives him to a nervous breakdown. When Harry walks in on Malfoy crying in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, Draco attempts to cast the Cruciatus Curse. Harry is faster to the draw with an obscure Sectumsempra spell that he learned from the mysterious Half-Blood Prince's book. The spell cuts deep gashes into Malfoy's face and chest, resulting in severe blood loss. Snape, alerted by Myrtle's screams, swiftly arrives and heals Draco's cuts, then takes him to the hospital wing.

Near the conclusion, Draco ambushes and disarms a gravely weakened Dumbledore at the Astronomy Tower. Dumbledore calmly reasons with the frightened Draco and persuades him to reveal how he was, according to Voldemort's orders, to kill the headmaster through the cursed necklace and the poisoned mead. Malfoy reveals that he mended the broken Vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Requirement to act as a portal enabling Death Eaters to enter Hogwarts. Draco is hesitant to kill Dumbledore, and he eventually lowers his wand. Snape arrives, dispatches Dumbledore himself, and then flees Hogwarts with Draco in tow. Harry, who was horrified by the result of his duel with Draco in the bathroom incident, feels compassion for his enemy when he realises that he was forced to do Voldemort's bidding under the threat of his and his parents' deaths. As revealed during his confrontation with Dumbledore, Draco was an insecure, terrified boy incapable of committing cold-blooded murder.
The Malfoys remain reluctant followers of Voldemort, who now uses their home as his headquarters; Draco passes out after witnessing Voldemort murder Muggle Studies professor Charity Burbage. Harry experiences occasional and disturbing visions of Draco being forced into performing Voldemort's bidding and feels "sickened... by the use to which Draco was now being put by Voldemort." When Harry, Ron, and Hermione are captured and taken to Malfoy Manor, Draco is asked to identify them, and though he clearly recognises them, he only ambiguously replies "It might be." During the successful escape from Malfoy Manor headed by Dobby, Harry disarms Draco and captures his wand.

When Harry, Ron, and Hermione seek Ravenclaw's diadem in the Room of Requirement, Draco, reunited with Crabbe and Goyle, attempts to capture Harry alive. However, Crabbe defies Draco's orders and attempts to kill the trio by casting the deadly Fiendfyre; unable to control the spell, he dies in the blaze while the trio rescue Draco and Goyle. Draco, despite his often condescending and belittling attitude toward Crabbe and Goyle, grieves for his lost friend. During the Battle of Hogwarts, Draco is seen pleading with a Death Eater who seems intent on killing him, but is once again saved by Harry and Ron.

At about this time, it is revealed through the Pensieve that Dumbledore had known he was dying after being cursed by Voldemort's ring. However, to spare Draco's soul from being forever tainted by committing murder, Dumbledore pre-arranged his own death. Voldemort intended Draco to die in the attempt to kill Dumbledore so that Lucius would be punished for his failure to retrieve the prophecy from the Ministry of Magic.

Although Draco does not directly take part in Harry's final confrontation with Voldemort, he influences its outcome. After Harry is struck by the Avada Kedavra curse, Voldemort orders Narcissa to verify that Harry is actually dead. She detects his heartbeat, but she lies to Voldemort, knowing that she will be allowed to search for her son if the Death Eaters return to Hogwarts "as part of the conquering army." A plot twist reveals that Draco had unwittingly become the Elder Wand's master when he disarmed Dumbledore, even though Draco never actually possessed the wand. The wand's allegiance passes to whoever defeats its owner, so Harry, having taken Draco's wand at Malfoy Manor, became its new master; this prevents Voldemort from using its full power. In the end, it is Narcissa's lie to Voldemort concerning Harry's death that enables the Malfoys to narrowly avoid imprisonment in Azkaban.

Lucius Malfoy

2009-11-07T05:48:00.000-08:00

Lucius Malfoy is a Death Eater and head of a pure-blood Wizarding family; he lives with his wife Narcissa Malfoy (née Black) and their son Draco at the Malfoy Manor in Wiltshire. Lucius is a school governor of Hogwarts before he is sacked and has very close connections at the Ministry of Magic. To maintain his reputation and influence, he makes donations to the Ministry, to charity, and to St Mungo's Hospital. He was educated at Hogwarts, where he was a prefect in Slytherin House.
Just before Draco and Harry's second year at Hogwarts, Lucius plants Tom Riddle's diary in Ginny Weasley's potions cauldron while she is shopping for school supplies at Flourish & Blotts, in a plot to use her to reopen the Chamber of Secrets, which would lead to attacks on Muggle-born students. Lucius knows the diary is cleverly enchanted, but is not aware that it contained a part of Voldemort's soul. Lucius intends to use the opening of the Chamber of Secrets by Ginny to discredit her father, Arthur Weasley, and Dumbledore. Lucius's plans are ultimately thwarted with the help of the Malfoys' house-elf Dobby, and Harry, but not before the Chamber is opened and Lucius uses the ensuing terror (and threats to attack their families) to influence the school's Board of Governors to discredit and dismiss Dumbledore as Headmaster. Subsequently, Harry tricks Lucius into setting Dobby free. Upon this, Lucius attempts to attack Harry with his wand but Dobby disarms him before he can do any harm. Lucius is ultimately stripped of his title as a Hogwarts school governor. Despite his sacking, he still maintains strong ties with the Ministry of Magic.
Lucius next appears in the beginning of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire during the Quidditch World Cup, sharing prime seats in the Top Box with Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge. Later in that book, when Voldemort rises again and summons his Death Eaters, Malfoy rejoins him, claiming that he had done everything he could all along to find Voldemort and help him rise again (though Voldemort knows he is lying). Harry, who witnesses Malfoy's declaration of loyalty to Voldemort, tells Minister Fudge, who refuses to believe him, and the wealthy Malfoy maintains strong ties with the Ministry. During the climax of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Malfoy is the leader of the Death Eaters who are to retrieve the prophecy from Harry in the Hall of Prophecy. Lucius tries several ways to get the prophecy from Harry without breaking it, but the boy and his friends manage to escape from the Hall. Malfoy finally meets him in the Death Chamber, where Harry is about to give it to Malfoy when the Order of the Phoenix breaks into the Ministry and begins to duel the Death Eaters. Dumbledore himself arrives at the end of the battle and Malfoy is captured and sent to Azkaban.
By the final book, Voldemort has given Malfoy his freedom, though he looks significantly the worse for wear. Voldemort treats him with great contempt, has hijacked his house for Headquarters, and is forcing his son to do dark deeds against his nature, sparking sympathy for the notorious family for the first time in the series. Later in the book, Lucius, along with his wife and sister-in-law, accidentally allow Harry and his friends to escape from Malfoy Manor. Voldemort punishes them severely, eventually putting them under house arrest. Despite his long-standing position as a Death Eater and Voldemort's advocate of pure-blood supremacy, Lucius has decided his love for his family is more important than his involvement in the war. During the Battle of Hogwarts, he pleads with Voldemort to let him onto the battlefield to locate his son. He and the rest of his family are reunited at the end of the book. Following Voldemort's death, Lucius, Narcissa and Draco all manage to "weasel their way out" of being sent to Azkaban due to Narcissa's aiding Harry in the Forbidden Forest.

Bellatrix Lestrange

2009-11-07T05:46:00.000-08:00

Bellatrix Lestrange (née Black) is the first female Death Eater introduced in the books, and one of the most faithful members of Voldemort's inner circle. She is described as having been very attractive in her youth, but her patrician good looks are hollowed during her years in Azkaban, and she is left a remnant of her former beauty. Bellatrix is often portrayed as looking slightly mad and, more than once, it is implied that she is paranoid, mentally unstable and fanatically devoted to Voldemort. Despite her apparent mental instability, she is a witch of prodigious ability, as demonstrated by all her victories in duels against other characters, and as noted by Harry in the final book.
Bellatrix was born to Cygnus Black and Druella Rosier in 1951, and has two younger sisters, Andromeda and Narcissa. She is also a first cousin to Sirius and Regulus Black, and an aunt to Draco Malfoy and Nymphadora Tonks. Bellatrix married Rodolphus Lestrange a few years after leaving Hogwarts "because it was expected of her" to marry a pure-blood. However, Rowling stated in an interview that Bellatrix truly loved Voldemort. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Rowling uses Dumbledore's Pensieve as a plot device to reveal that Bellatrix, rather than deserting Voldemort after his downfall like many other Death Eaters, is part of the group of dark wizards – along with Barty Crouch Jr, Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange – that torture well-known Aurors Frank and Alice Longbottom in an attempt to gain information about Voldemort's location. For using the Unforgivable Cruciatus Curse to torture the Longbottoms until they go insane, Bellatrix and her three associates are sentenced to life imprisonment in Azkaban.
Fourteen years after Voldemort's fall, Bellatrix is one of the many Death Eaters who escaped Azkaban and rejoined him. She is present at the battle of the Department of Mysteries in the climax of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, in which a group of Death Eaters attempt to steal Sybill Trelawney's prophecy pertaining to Voldemort's downfall. Rowling let Bellatrix prove her magical powers during the mission when she overpowers her niece Tonks and Kingsley Shacklebolt in one-on-one duels, kills her cousin Sirius by blasting him through the veil in the Death Chamber, and deflects one of Dumbledore's spells as she makes her escape. Harry attempts to use the Cruciatus Curse on her in revenge for killing Sirius, but the curse is ineffective due to the lack of real cruelty behind it. Before she can do any more, Bellatrix is subdued by Dumbledore in the Ministry of Magic's Atrium while he duels Voldemort. Voldemort intercedes on Bellatrix's behalf, grabbing her and taking her with him as he Disapparates, though not before being glimpsed by Ministry officials.
In the beginning of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Bellatrix attempts to keep Narcissa from confiding Draco's secret mission to Snape at Spinner's End. Rowling used the conversation between Snape and Bellatrix to imply that Voldemort is still furious at Bellatrix's failure in the past book. That conversation also suggests that Bellatrix mistrusts Snape not only because of his low birth, but also for many valid questions about his loyalty to the Dark Lord. Snape surprises Bellatrix by replying to her with arguments and by agreeing to create an Unbreakable Vow with Narcissa to assist Draco in his mission to kill Dumbledore.
The first chapter of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows implies that Voldemort is still angry at Bellatrix, as evidenced when he makes fun of the fact that her niece Tonks married werewolf Remus Lupin. However, Voldemort gives Bellatrix a chance to "trim" her family tree during the Death Eaters' attempt to capture Harry as the boy departs from the Dursleys' home, in which Bellatrix unsuccessfully tried to kill Tonks. In this book, Rowling reveals that Bellatrix is the guardian of Helga Hufflepuff's cup (though she is unaware of its true nature), which Voldemort has entrusted the Lestranges to keep in their Gringotts vault. Bellatrix and the Malfoys detain Harry, Ron, and Hermione at Malfoy Manor, and Hermione is tortured by Bellatrix when she suspects the trio has broken into her vault, but Dobby appears and saves the prisoners, though not before being hit by a knife thrown by Bellatrix as they Disapparate to safety. Later in the book, Harry, Ron and Hermione use a stray hair of Bellatrix's to disguise Hermione as Bellatrix using the Polyjuice Potion, to get into the vault. Though Voldemort apparently punishes Bellatrix and the Malfoys severely for interrupting his Elder Wand side quest only to have Potter escape and steal the cup, she nevertheless fights for her master in the Battle of Hogwarts towards the end of the novel. Rowling stated in an interview that, during the battle, it was Bellatrix who killed Tonks. When the battle resumes inside the Great Hall after Harry's supposed death, Bellatrix simultaneously duels Hermione, Ginny and Luna, none of whom is a match for Bellatrix, who nearly kills Ginny with a Killing Curse. An enraged Molly Weasley engages Bellatrix in a duel and fires a curse that finally kills Bellatrix.

Yaxley

2009-11-07T05:43:00.000-08:00

Yaxley (first name unknown) is the brutal-faced Death Eater that is present in the battle in which Snape killed Dumbledore. He is one of the more prominent Death Eaters, and one of Voldemort's spies in the Ministry of Magic. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Yaxley argues with Snape about the correct date of Harry's departure from the Dursley’s, but John Dawlish, an Auror who is tricked by an Order member, gives him incorrect information. Yaxley announces to an impressed assemblage of Death Eaters that he has placed the Imperius Curse upon Pius Thicknesse, the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. He uses Thicknesse to Imperius the other major department heads and they allow Voldemort to murder Rufus Scrimgeour; thus Thicknesse becomes Minister for Magic.

When Harry, Ron and Hermione enter the Ministry to find Slytherin's locket, it is revealed that Yaxley has become Head of Magical Law Enforcement. He also assists Dolores Umbridge in leading the Muggle-Born Registration Commission, and the two seem to have a good relationship, together humiliating the Muggle-borns. Both are immobilised by Harry, but Yaxley recovers and grabs Hermione while she is Apparating her friends to safety. Yaxley arrives with them at Grimmauld Place, allowing him to reveal their headquarters to the Death Eaters, but not to the location that the trio immediately Apparate to.

He participates in the Battle of Hogwarts, where he duels Professor Flitwick and is later seen among those who wait with Voldemort for Harry Potter to come to him, mistakenly believing that Harry would not come within the allotted time. When the battle resumes, he is defeated by George Weasley and Lee Jordan.

Peter Pettigrew

2009-11-07T05:31:00.000-08:00

Peter Pettigrew, nicknamed Wormtail, is the only Death Eater known to have been in a House other than Slytherin (Gryffindor) while at Hogwarts. After leaving Hogwarts, Pettigrew joins forces with Voldemort, and in exchange for his own life becomes Voldemort's spy within the Order of the Phoenix, of which Pettigrew is a member. When the Potters know that their son Harry is Voldemort's target, Sirius suggests them to use Pettigrew as Secret-Keeper because he does not believe Voldemort would ever suspect a “weak, talentless thing” like Pettigrew. Pettigrew betrays the secret to Voldemort, an act that ultimately leads to James and Lily's death. Sirius decided to get revenge on Pettigrew but, during the confrontation, Pettigrew publicly accuses Sirius of the Potters' deaths, kills twelve Muggles, and then cut off his own index finger before turning into a rat, thereby framing Sirius for the betrayal of the Potters, as well as of his own murder and that of the bystanders. Pettigrew is "posthumously" awarded the Order of Merlin, and hides during the next twelve years, masquerading as Scabbers, a pet rat in the Weasley family.

Although Pettigrew appears in the first two books in the form of Scabbers, his identity is not revealed until Prisoner of Azkaban. When a photograph of the Weasley family appears in the Daily Prophet, Sirius recognizes him, prompting Sirius's escape from Azkaban. The two eventually confront each other in the Shrieking Shack, where Lupin and Sirius force Pettigrew to resume his human form. Pettigrew confesses his treachery, claiming to have committed it only to save his own life. When Sirius and Lupin are about to take their revenge, Harry intervenes and begs Sirius to turn Pettigrew over to the Ministry of Magic instead, by which device to prove Sirius's innocence. Pettigrew manages to escape as he is being led out of the Shack when Lupin begins to transform into a werewolf. Harry's actions, however, result in Pettigrew owing him a life-debt.

Pettigrew then returns to the service of Voldemort, and helps keep him alive prior to his return to full corporeal form, and assists Barty Crouch Jr in overpowering Mad-Eye Moody, setting up the events in the fourth book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. In the climactic confrontation in that book, Pettigrew kills Cedric Diggory on Voldemort's orders, and performs the complex spell to regenerate Voldemort, severing his hand in the process as a sacrifice. Upon his return to full corporeal form, Voldemort replaces Pettigrew's severed hand with a silver hand that possessed five intact fingers. Despite his role in the return of Voldemort, Pettigrew's fortunes remain low; in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Snape treats him as a servant, and in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows he is tasked with keeping watch over prisoners in the cellar of Malfoy Manor. While Harry and Ron are being kept there, Pettigrew checks on the prisoners and is unsuccessfully attacked. Pettigrew begins to strangle Harry with the silver hand, but when reminded by Harry that the latter once saved his life, he hesitates for a moment to think of the life-debt. During the moment of hesitation, the silver hand turns against him and strangles him to death in retribution for his pity.

Pettigrew is portrayed by Timothy Spall as an adult, and by Charles Hughes as a teenager in the films.