Everything You Need to Know About the Harry Potter Series
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Everything You Need to Know About the Harry Potter Series
About Charles River Editors
Chapter 1. The Boy Who Lived
Introduction
Chapter 2: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Introduction
Plot
Character Spotlight: Harry Potter
Myth and Magic
Chapter 3: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Introduction
Plot
Character Spotlight: Hermione Granger
Myth and Magic
Chapter 4: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Introduction
Plot
Character Spotlight: Rubeus Hagrid
Myth and Magic
Chapter 5: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Introduction
Plot
Character Spotlight: Ron Weasley
Myth and Magic
Chapter 6: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Introduction
Plot
Character Spotlight: Neville Longbottom
Myth and Magic
Chapter 7: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Introduction
Plot
Character Spotlight: Albus Dumbledore
Myth and Magic
Chapter 8: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Introduction
Plot
Character Spotlight: Severus Snape
Myth and Magic
Chapter 1. The Boy Who Lived
Introduction
The story of the Harry Potter series and author J. K. Rowling is one of astonishing facts: The fastest selling books of all time; the best-selling book series in history; the first female billionaire author. But it all began with the Boy Who Lived.
Joanne Rowling was on a train to London in 1990 when the idea for a story about a boy attending a wizarding school “came fully formed” into her mind, according to a 1999 article in The Boston Globe. She started writing immediately, but it would be another five years before the manuscript to “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” was finished.
In December 1990, Rowling’s mother died, and she has said dealing with the loss greatly informed how she shaped Harry’s character. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Rowling said of her mother: “The books are what they are because she died … because I loved her and she died.” Rowling moved to Portugal soon after the loss and later married and had a baby with a Portuguese journalist. However, by 1993, her marriage was over and she was living in Scotland. She was on social security with a young daughter, diagnosed with depression and has said she even contemplated suicide.
Rowling has said she saw herself at the time as “the biggest failure I knew,” according to her 2008 Harvard commencement address. But her dire situation also led to her greatest achievements, as she told the graduating Harvard students: “I had been set free, because my greatest fear had been realized, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”
Rebuild it she did. “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” was published in the U.K. in 1997, with an initial print run of just 1,000 copies. The book won its first award months later. Rowling’s name appeared as J. K. Rowling on the book, since her publishers feared her target audience of young boys may not want to read a book written by a woman. Under the title “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” the book was released in the U.S. in 1998. By the fourth book, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” the series had become a full-blown phenomenon.
Since that first edition, the Harry Potter series has won accolades and gone on to sell more than 400 million copies, making it the best-selling series in history. But it’s more than numbers that tell the story of the hugely successful series. It’s the dedicated fans and the renewed interest in reading that was sparked in both young people and adults that speak to the series’ true success.
At its heart, the series is about more than simply a young boy attending a school for wizards. When you strip away the magic, Harry Potter is a story about the power of love and friendship, choosing your own fate and making the decision to do what is right, even when it’s not easy. It’s a very human story with humble beginnings. From that first inkling of the Boy Who Lived—as the title character is known in the series—Harry Potter has gone on to transform the literary world and inspire millions.
Chapter 2: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Introduction
The power of love and self-sacrifice is a central theme of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” the first in the series. The themes established in this first book carry through the entire series as Harry and those closest to him face an increasingly dangerous world. Another major theme of the series set up in this book is Harry’s struggle to allow his friends to head into danger with him—he often feels he needs to face obstacles on his own, but he is at his most powerful with friends by his side.
This is a book of discovery, where readers (through Harry) are introduced to the fantastical world created by Rowling. Although filled with adventure and danger, the book is light and entertaining, befitting a main character who is only 11 years old.
Plot
Harry Potter has led a pretty crummy life: ignored by his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon; beat up by his spoiled, rotund cousin Dudley; forced to make his bedroom in a tiny closet under the stairs. He’s lived with the Dursley family ever since he can remember—since his parents died in a supposed car crash and he survived with a peculiar, lightning-shaped scar on his forehead.
Little does Harry know he’s actually famous. While he’s been raised in the muggle (non-magical) world, in the hidden wizarding world he is celebrated as the Boy Who Lived, the baby who survived an attack from the evil Lord Voldemort and somehow vanquished the dark wizard.
The Dursleys keep Harry’s past—and the fact his parents died trying to protect him—a secret until they can no longer hide the truth from him the summer Harry turns 11. The gargantuan wizard Rubeus Hagrid shows up with a stunning announcement: Harry is a wizard, and he’s been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
From the moment Harry steps foot into the wizarding world, he is recognized—buying school supplies in London’s all-wizard Diagon Alley; on the magical Platform 9 ¾ at King’s Cross train station; aboard the Hogwarts Express that steams ever north to the hidden castle he’ll call home. Yet the lonely childhood Harry led has, in its own way, prepared him for sudden fame. He can identify those who would be his friend only because of his renown (like arrogant fellow student Draco Malfoy) and does
n’t care about social standing or wealth. This trait leads him to develop a few fiercely loyal friends that others would consider outcasts: impoverished Ron Weasley, muggle-born Hermione Granger, self-doubting Neville Longbottom, and half-giant Rubeus Hagrid (the gamekeeper at Hogwarts).
All Harry wants is to prove himself at Hogwarts as Harry, not the Boy Who Lived, but difficulties find him. Oily, sarcastic Professor Severus Snape, the potions master, mocks him and seems to hate Harry (Harry learns that Snape and Harry’s dad, James, were bitter enemies at Hogwarts), and Draco Malfoy, seething with jealousy at Harry’s fame, tries every chance he can to get Harry in trouble.
While Harry longs for a relatively normal life, his curiosity, bravery and sense of standing up for others gets him into trouble of his own making. Harry, Ron and Hermione are pulled into a mystery that threatens to not only get them expelled from Hogwarts, but could leave them dead. The high stakes—especially for main characters that are just 11—set a tone for the rest of the series.
Harry and his friends accidentally discover that the Sorcerer’s Stone, a red gem that grants immortality, is hidden at Hogwarts, and they suspect Snape is after it. When they try to tell adults at Hogwarts, they are brushed off. This is a theme carried through the series, where young people are forced to be self-reliant because of the unwillingness or inability of adults to help them.
The more Harry and his friends investigate, the more the young students realize the Sorcerer’s Stone is valuable not just to Snape, but to Voldemort, who is not as “dead” as the rest of the wizarding world believes. Hagrid accidentally lets slip the school’s professors have secured the stone, but Harry believes only timid, incompetent Professor Quirrell is left standing between Snape and the stone. And when Headmaster Albus Dumbledore—a revered wizard who is said to have been the only one Voldemort ever feared—is called away from Hogwarts, Harry realizes it is up to him to defend the Sorcerer’s Stone from Snape. But he’s not alone. Ron and Hermione insist on helping Harry defend the stone, and as the three friends face challenges that test their bravery, logic and intelligence, Harry finally realizes he can’t succeed without his friends.
But it is Harry alone that faces the final challenge, and it’s there that he finds Professor Quirrell, not Professor Snape, frantically searching for the stone. Horrified, Harry faces Quirrell, who has allowed his body to be shared with Voldemort. Even though Harry is just 11, he is willing to die rather than allow Voldemort to gain the stone and hurt more people. Quirrell attacks Harry and Harry’s scar explodes with pain, but his professor is screaming too. With his hands clutched around Quirrell, Harry passes out.
Harry awakes in the infirmary with Dumbledore sitting beside him. The stone has been destroyed and Voldemort has fled, a bodiless spirit once more. Harry learns that what ultimately saved him was his mother’s love—a magic older and more powerful than any Voldemort knows. Voldemort can’t harm Harry all because of the sacrifice Lily Potter made trying to save her child.
Dumbledore tells Harry: “To have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever. It is in your very skin. Quirrell, full of hatred, greed, and ambition, sharing his soul with Voldemort, could not touch you for this reason. It was agony to touch a person marked by something so good.” (“Sorcerer’s Stone,” page 299)
Harry learns a lot over the course of his year at Hogwarts—the truth about his parents, the extent of his magical abilities and his strange connection to Lord Voldemort. As the term winds down, Harry is happy with his place at the school. He feels it’s his true home where he has real friends. Although he has questions—Why did Voldemort try to kill him as a baby? Why did the killing curse rebound?—they don’t weigh on him too much. Plus, as he tells Hermione as they are passing through the magical barrier at Platform 9 ¾, the Dursleys don’t know he isn’t allowed to practice magic outside of school. Harry thinks this will make for a very interesting summer.
Character Spotlight: Harry Potter
Despite the hardship of Harry’s first 10 years, he remains an optimistic, curious, bright boy. He could have easily become bitter and hard after years of torment and dismissal from the vile Dursleys, but Harry’s spirit is remarkably intact. This is an important trait that he holds on to for the entire series. Another important trait is his appearance. Adults often remark on how much he resembles his father, except for his eyes—he has his mother’s green eyes. This becomes very important.
Harry is brave and selfless, often willing to get himself into trouble or place himself in harm’s way to help others—even his enemies. He never chooses the easy path; to him, the only option is to choose the right path, even if it’s hard. Another important trait is his desire for a family. When he can’t get that from the Dursleys, he creates his own family—the Weasleys, Hagrid, Hermione and others—who help, encourage and stand by him. His faults lie in his stubborn conviction that he needs to face his trials alone, and it’s often when he refuses to ask for help that he gets into the most trouble. Harry works best as a team, with best friends Ron and Hermione complementing him perfectly.
Myth and Magic
“Sorcerer’s Stone” introduces a slew of new words and ideas, some of which have become accepted terms. “Muggle,” for instance—Rowling’s word for non-magical people born in the non-magical world— was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2003, although there it means a person lacking skill.
“Quidditch,” the sport of the wizarding world, is now a real sport played by intramural teams. In Harry’s world, quidditch is played on flying broomsticks above a pitch with three large rings at either end. Each side fields seven players: a keeper, two beaters, three chasers and one seeker. The seeker—Harry’s position—soars above it all in a quest to spot the golden snitch and catch it, thereby ending the game. Harry is the youngest seeker in a century, a fact that rankles Draco Malfoy to no end.
Rowling has created a fully-realized world with its own rules and mythology. In this world, wands are the most important tool a wizard can own, and each wand chooses its wizard. Harry’s wand has a phoenix feather core, the same core (from the same phoenix) as Voldemort’s wand, which makes their wands brothers. With the brother wands, Rowling plants a seed for the larger plot. Another important tool Harry owns is an extremely rare invisibility cloak that he inherited from his father.
Hogwarts is a large castle in Scotland that Harry comes to consider his true home. The castle is a magical place, where staircases move and paintings talk. Classes include Herbology, Potions, Charms, Transfiguration and Defense Against the Dark Arts. The school divides its students into four houses by a magical Sorting Hat. The houses are named after the founders and look for unique qualities: friendship and acceptance for Hufflepuff; intelligence for Ravenclaw; cunning and ambition for Slytherin; and bravery for Gryffindor. The houses compete in quidditch and for house “points” all leading to winning a house cup at the end of the year.
Chapter 3: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Introduction
“Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” is the second installment of the series, and it builds on the backstory of the first book to deepen the magical world. While the first book focused on Harry’s history and his connection to Voldemort, the second turns to the ancient history of the wizarding world and the very foundation of Hogwarts.
The theme of prejudice and fear of the “other” is woven through the plot, an important topic that is brought up repeatedly in subsequent books. Another significant theme is the ability to choose your own fate and the power of standing up for the rights of the minority. As with the entire series, Rowling is a master at the long plot, planting seeds for future narratives and dropping hints along the way. “Chamber of Secrets” is a scarier read for children than “Sorcerer’s Stone,” but the overall tone remains bright and hopeful.
Plot
It’s been a miserable summer for Harry Potter, whose 12th birthday is completely ignored.
Harry thinks it can’t get worse, then a pitiful creature named Dobby—an enslaved house elf who wears a tea towel for a tunic—tries to make Harry promise he won’t go back to Hogwarts because it’s too dangerous.
Harry doesn’t listen, and the trouble starts almost immediately. But first, Harry gets to spend time with the Weasley family. Ron is embarrassed by their lack of wealth, but Harry instantly loves the large, boisterous family. The Weasleys are an old wizarding clan, but their impoverished state brings scorn from families like the Malfoys, an example of the many variations of prejudice this book explores.
Dobby was serious about wanting to keep Harry away from Hogwarts. He first seals the barrier to Platform 9 ¾, then he bewitches a ball to attack Harry during quidditch. Dobby insists bad things are happening at Hogwarts, but his enslavement prevents him from saying what. Soon Harry starts hearing an eerie, disembodied voice floating through the walls. Even worse, apparently he’s the only one who can hear it. On Halloween, the caretaker’s cat is found frozen stiff—called petrified—next to a message scrawled on a wall in blood: “The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir, beware.”
The enemies, according to gossip, are those without pure wizard blood, like Hermione. According to legend, the Chamber of Secrets was built by Salazar Slytherin, one of the founders of Hogwarts, and holds a monster meant to cleanse the school of impure blood. The theme of blood purity becomes a major subject of the series, with Ron (a pureblood from a poor, muggle-loving family) and Hermione (a talented, muggle-born witch) often bearing the brunt of prejudice.
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