- "Hmm. Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either."
- —Sorting Hat
Harry James Potter is the main protagonist of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series of fantasy novels.
Harry James Potter (1980–present) is the only son of Lily and James Potter. He became famous at the age of one, when the Dark wizard Voldemort tried to kill him with a curse that rebounded and reduced Voldemort to a spirit-like existence, causing his first downfall. Both of Harry's parents died in the attack, and he grew up with his Muggle relatives, never knowing that he was a wizard. At his eleventh birthday, Harry learned that he could do magic and agreed to go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he was Sorted into Gryffindor. During his school years, Voldemort tried to kill him several times, but Harry escaped. He eventually became a leading figure in the Second War against Voldemort and defeated him in the Battle of Hogwarts on May 2, 1998. After the war, he became a successful Auror and married Ginny Weasley. The couple has three children, James, Albus and Lily.
Characteristics
Harry has black hair that is sticking out at odd angles from his head. He inherited his mother's almond-shaped green eyes. He is short-sighted and wears glasses. He is thin and was small for his age as a child until he had a growth spurt when he was about fifteen. He carries a famous lightning-shaped scar on his forehead; a remainder of the curse Voldemort shot at him as an infant.
One of Harry's most defining personality traits is his bravery and his willingness to risk his life for others. This is reflected by his Hogwarts House Gryffindor. He is a very loyal friend and has an especially tight bond with his two best friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. Other important friends include Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, and his later girlfriend and wife Ginny Weasley.
Harry's most important wish in life is a family. He cannot remember his parents and the Dursleys never treated him kindly. The Weasleys became a surrogate family of sorts for him, and he developed a close bond to his godfather Sirius Black before he died in the Second War. He also admired and loved the Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore, who became his most important advisor and guide. In his adult life, Harry's longing for a family of his own finally became fulfilled.
Harry has a talent for Defence Against the Dark Arts. He is an exceptionally skilled flyer and Quidditch Seeker. One of his greatest weaknesses is his inability to master Occlumency, the art of magically shielding his mind from a prying Legilimens.
A part of Voldemort's soul attached itself to Harry during the Dark Lord's failed attempt to kill him. As long as this part of soul resided inside him, he had a strong mental and emotional connection to Voldemort, something unmirrored in wizarding history. He could sense the Dark Lord's emotions when the latter was feeling strongly about something and often even see through Voldemort's eyes. The part of Voldemort's soul in Harry also empowered the boy with some of the Dark Lord's characteristics and skills, notably the ability to speak Parseltongue.
Early life
Birth
Harry Potter was born on July 31, 1980, in the middle of the First War against Voldemort. Both of his parents were members of the Order of the Phoenix, an organisation dedicated to fighting Voldemort, a Dark wizard who was trying to gain rule over Britain. They chose James' best friend Sirius Black to be his godfather. The young family lived in Godric's Hollow, a village in England with a famous wizarding history.
Voldemort's attack
Voldemort had caught word of a prophecy that predicted that a child born at the end of July would have the power to destroy him. He applied this prophecy to Harry and decided to kill the boy. When his parents learnt of Voldemort's plans, they went into hiding. For their protection, they chose the Fidelius Charm, a charm that keeps its object concealed as long as a trustworthy Secret Keeper does not reveal its whereabouts. The Potters originally intended Sirius Black to be their Secret Keeper, but Sirius convinced them at the last moment to switch to their mutual friend Peter Pettigrew, because he was a less obvious choice. Pettigrew, who had secretly joined Voldemort's Death Eaters, betrayed them and revealed their home to his new master.
On Hallowe'en 1981, Voldemort came to the Potters' home in Godric's Hollow. He killed James and wanted to proceed to kill Harry, but his mother shielded the boy from him. Unwilling to stand aside and let Voldemort kill her son, she sacrificed herself for Harry. When Voldemort finally killed her, this sacrifice gave Harry a strong, ancient magical protection, causing the Killing Curse Voldemort shot at the infant to rebound and hit its caster. The rebounding curse would have killed a normal person, but Voldemort had made use of the Dark Arts and split his soul into several Horcruxes to make himself immortal. The curse therefore only destroyed Voldemort's body and reduced him to a feeble, bodiless existence. Additionally, a part of Voldemort's unstable soul split and attached itself to Harry, who became an involuntary Horcrux.
The word of Voldemort's fall spread fast in the wizarding world, as did the rumours about Harry's involvement. By the next day, witches and wizards all over Britain were celebrating the Dark Lord's demise and praising Harry as "The Boy Who Lived". Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts and leader of the Order of the Phoenix, decided that the now orphaned Harry should live with his mother's Muggle sister Petunia and her family, his only living relatives. He strengthened the protection Lily's sacrifice had given Harry, making sure that he was safe as long as he stayed where his mother's blood, represented by her sister, dwelled.
Life with the Dursleys
Harry had a miserable childhood with the Dursleys. Petunia and her husband Vernon were both highly disdainful of everything related to magic and the wizarding world. They did not tell him of his wizarding heritage and punished him whenever he performed magic involuntarily. Harry was unappreciated and unloved; he had to live in the cupboard under the stairs, was denied any kind of pleasures and had to do all kinds of menial tasks in the household. The Dursleys' own son Dudley, who was Harry's age, was extremely spoiled and fond of tormenting his cousin.
Hogwarts letters
In the summer of 1991, letters from Hogwarts started to arrive for Harry to tell him that he had been accepted as a student for the upcoming term. The Dursleys hid the letters from Harry and destroyed them. When the letters became more and more persistent, the whole family fled from their home until they reached a hut on a tiny island out in the sea on July 30. At midnight, the time of Harry's eleventh birthday, Rubeus Hagrid, the Hogwarts gamekeeper, entered the hut and told Harry the truth about his parents and his heritage. He took him shopping for school supplies in Diagon Alley the next day, where Harry caught a first glimpse at the wizarding world and discovered that his parents had left him a fortune. Hagrid also bought Harry the owl Hedwig for his birthday. Before he left, he gave the boy his train ticket to Hogwarts.
First year at Hogwarts
On September 1, 1991, the Dursleys deposited Harry at King's Cross Station to take the train to Hogwarts. He had problems to find the magically concealed entrance to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters at first, but he got lucky and ran into the Weasley family, a wizarding family who was able to help him. On the Hogwarts Express, he became friends with Ron Weasley and made his first enemy in Draco Malfoy. Harry and Ron were both Sorted into Gryffindor.
Harry enjoyed his new life at Hogwarts, although he had to adjust to the fact that he was suddenly a celebrity. He also discovered his natural talent on a broomstick and joined the Gryffindor Quidditch team, becoming the youngest Seeker in over a hundred years. However, there was a danger inside the castle that he did not suspect: Voldemort had possessed the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher Professor Quirrell. Throughout the school year, Quirrell made attempts to kill Harry and steal the Philosopher's Stone that Dumbledore kept hidden at Hogwarts.
Harry faced his first major adventure on Hallowe'en, when he and Ron rescued Hermione Granger from a mountain troll that Quirrell had smuggled into the castle. The event was the foundation for the Trio's friendship.
Hagrid the Gamekeeper became another important friend of Harry's at Hogwarts. Due to some blunders on Hagrid's part, the Trio found out that the Philosopher's Stone was hidden at Hogwarts and that somebody was trying to steal it. Harry first suspected Severus Snape, a teacher who showed a very pronounced dislike for him.
Harry, Ron and Hermione were the only persons to whom Hagrid showed the dragon egg he had gotten illegally from a stranger (who was really Professor Quirrel in disguise). They were eventually able to convince Hagrid to send the baby dragon that hatched from it to Ron's brother Charlie, who worked at a dragon reservation in Romania. Unfortunately, Harry and Hermione were caught out after curfew after they had passed the dragon to Charlie's friends. They had to serve detention in the Forbidden Forest, where Harry saw the masked Professor Quirrell drink blood from a slain unicorn. With the help of the centaur Firenze, he figured out that Voldemort must be behind the slaying and the attempts to steal the Stone. He suspected Snape as his ally.
When Dumbledore left the school unexpectedly at the end of the school year, Harry was certain that Snape would use this day to make a final attempt to steal the Stone. Together with Ron and Hermione, he followed him. However, the Stone was protected heavily by several obstacles, and only Harry was able to reach the place where it was hidden. To his surprise, he met not Snape but Quirrell there. Quirrell could not retrieve the Stone from the Mirror of Erised, from where it could only be taken by somebody who did not want to use it. Thus, the Stone came to Harry when he stood in front of the mirror. Quirrell tried to take it from him, but because he was possessed by Voldemort, Lily's protection worked and caused him terrible pain when he tried to touch the boy. Harry was able to hold Quirrell off until Dumbledore returned. Voldemort left Quirrell's body and fled, leaving his servant to die.
Second year at Hogwarts
Summer holidays with the Dursleys
The summer holidays of 1992 started miserably for Harry. The Dursleys treated him as unkindly as ever and he longed to be back to Hogwarts. His homesickness was enforced by the fact that he did not receive any letters from his new friends. In fact, the letters were intercepted by Dobby, a house-elf working for the Malfoys, a former Death Eater family. Dobby, who idolised Harry, had learned that his master Lucius Malfoy intended to plant one of Voldemort's Horcruxes at Hogwarts: his old diary that had the power to open the Chamber of Secrets and release the Basilisk within. Now Dobby's sole aim was to prevent the Boy Who Lived from returning to Hogwarts, where he would be in mortal danger.
On July 31, Harry's twelfth birthday, Dobby paid him a visit in his bedroom while the Dursleys where having a fancy dinner party for an important customer of Uncle Vernon's firm and his wife. Dobby tried to convince Harry to stay away from Hogwarts, but as house-elves are not allowed to betray their masters, he could not reveal Malfoy's plan to Harry. When Harry did not give in, Dobby levitated and smashed the dessert for the evening. This display of magic caused the Ministry of Magic to send a letter to the Dursleys by owl, which was the final straw to ruin the dinner party and make Vernon lose a potential customer after an evening of awkward and damaging occurrences. The letter explained that magic was not allowed during the school holidays and that if any more magic were to be performed at Harry's place of residence, he would be expelled. The Dursleys retaliated by locking Harry in his bedroom. Harry was forced to remain there until Ron and his brothers, Fred and George, stole their father's flying car to come and rescue him in the dead of night, although not without some resistance on the Dursleys' part.
At Hogwarts
On September 1, Harry and the Weasleys went to King's Cross to take the Hogwarts Express. However, Dobby, who was still bent on his mission, sealed the magical entrance to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters when Ron and Harry tried to pass through. The boys missed the train and decided to fly to Hogwarts in Mr. Weasley's car. The Flying Ford Anglia was seen by several Muggles and reached Hogwarts with its last strength. It crashed into the Whomping Willow, threw them out and fled. Harry and Ron both got detention.
Lucius Malfoy had successfully planted Riddle's diary at Hogwarts. He had slipped it into Ginny Weasley's school supplies and the girl was slowly becoming possessed by Voldemort's sixteen-year-old memory. On Hallowe'en, she released the Basilisk into the school where it petrified Mrs. Norris, the caretaker's cat. Harry, who could hear the creature talk in Parseltongue while it moved through the pipes, followed its voice and was therefore the first person to arrive at the crime scene, where Ginny had left a message that the Heir of Slytherin had opened the Chamber. The first suspicions started to arise that Harry was responsible for the attacks. Harry, Ron and Hermione suspected Draco of being the Heir of Slytherin. They agreed to brew a Polyjuice Potion to disguise themselves as friends of Draco and trick a confession out of him.
During the Quidditch match of Gryffindor against Slytherin, Dobby enchanted one of the Bludgers to attack Harryand injure him so badly that he would have to be sent home. The Bludger broke Harry's arm and he was sent to the hospital wing, where he witnessed the arrival of the Basilisk's second victim Colin Creevey.
During the first session of the Duelling Club, Draco conjured a snake during his duel with Harry. When the snake tried to attack Justin Finch-Fletchley, Harry instinctively told it to leave Justin alone in Parseltongue. The snake obeyed him, but Justin, who could not understand Harry, got the impression that Harry had set the snake on him and fled. After the incident, most students believed that Harry was the Heir of Slytherin and that he had tried to kill Justin. The suspicions were solidified when Justin and Nearly Headless Nick were petrified the next day and Harry was found at the place of the attack.
On Christmas Day, Ron and Harry drank the Polyjuice Potion and turned into Draco's friends Crabbe and Goyle. During their conversation with Draco, they found out that he was not responsible for the petrifications.
Harry found Riddle's diary when Ginny became suspicious of it and tried to flush it down a toilet. He found out that he could communicate with it, and Tom Riddle showed him that Hagrid had been blamed for the opening of the Chamber fifty years previously. After Hermione and Penelope Clearwater were petrified, Harry decided to question Hagrid. He and Ron witnessed how Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge arrested Hagrid. Before he left for Azkaban, Hagrid told the boys to "follow the spiders".
Following Hagrid's advice, Harry and Ron tracked a group of spiders into the Forbidden Forest, where they were captured by Acromantula. Their leader Aragog, Hagrid's former pet, assured them that Hagrid was innocent, but did not want to tell them what was in the Chamber. Harry Ron escaped from the Acromantula with the help of the Flying Ford Anglia.
Using the information Aragog had given them, Harry and Ron worked out that the unknown monster's last victim must have been Moaning Myrtle, whose ghost still haunted the school. They tried to talk to her, but were stopped by Professor McGonagall. Students were no longer expected to walk the corridors on their own due to the attacks. Not wanting to admit their real destination, Harry told McGonagall that they wanted to visit Hermione in the hospital wing. There, the boys found a book page about Basilisks in Hermione's hand. They quickly figured out that the monster must be a Basilisk that moved through the school pipes, and that the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets must be located in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. They hurried to the staff room to notify the teachers, but as soon as they had entered the deserted room, there was an announcement that all students had to go to their common rooms. Harry and Ron hid inside a wardrobe to listen to the teachers' conversation and heard that Ginny had been taken into the Chamber.
Together with the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher Gilderoy Lockhart, Harry and Ron set out to rescue Ginny. Inside the underground tunnel that led to the Chamber, Lockhart panicked and attacked the boys. His spell backfired and caused an explosion that made the ceiling collapse. Harry was separated from Ron and Lockhart by a wall of rocks and had to go into the Chamber alone.
Inside the Chamber, he found Tom Riddle, who had sucked enough strength out of Ginny to gain a corporeal form. During their verbal confrontation, Harry professed his trust in Dumbledore; as a reward, Dumbledore's pet phoenix Fawkes appeared with the Sorting Hat. Riddle summoned the Basilisk to kill Harry, but with the help of Fawkes and the sword of Godric Gryffindor that Harry pulled from the hat, he slayed the monstrous snake and destroyed the diary with one of its fangs. Riddle vanished and Harry brought Ginny safely back to the school.
On the same night, Lucius Malfoy visited Hogwarts, bringing Dobby with him. Harry finally realised that Malfoy must have given the diary to Ginny and that Dobby had tried to warn him of this all along. He was able to trick Malfoy into throwing a sock to Dobby, thus setting the elf free.
Third year at Hogwarts
During the summer holidays of 1993, Vernon's sister Marge paid a visit to the Dursleys. When she insulted Harry's parents, he lost control and used magic on her. He ran away from Privet Drive and spent the rest of the holidays at the Leaky Cauldron. Here, he learned that Sirius Black had escaped from Azkaban and was supposedly determined to kill him. In fact, Sirius was trying to protect Harry from Peter Pettigrew, who had spent the last years disguised as Ron's pet rat Scabbers.
During the train ride to Hogwarts, Harry met his new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher Remus Lupin. A Dementor entered the train to look for Black, and Harry was affected much more strongly than the others by its presence—forced to relive the memory of his parents' death, he fainted. The incident left a strong impression on him and he realised that the Dementors were his worst fear.
During the Quidditch match of Gryffindor against Hufflepuff, over a hundred Dementors left their posts and entered the pitch. Their presence made Harry lose consciousness and drop from his broom. His Nimbus 2000 crashed into the Whomping Willow and was destroyed. After his recovery from the fall, Harry asked Lupin to teach him the Patronus Charm to fight off the Dementors.
Because the Dursleys had not given him permission, Harry could not visit Hogsmeade with the other thrid-years. Fred and George Weasley took pity on him and gave him the Marauder's Map to sneak out of Hogwarts. At Hogsmeade, Harry overheard members of the school staff saying that Sirius had betrayed his parents to Voldemort.
After Christmas, Harry practised the Patronus Charm with Lupin once a week on a Boggart that transormed into a Dementor for him. During the Quidditch match of Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw, Draco Malfoy and his friends dressed up as Dementors to scare Harry, who cast the Patronus Charm and conjured a corporeal Patronus for the first time.
At the end of the school year, Buckbeak, one of Hagrid's Hippogriffs, was sentenced to death for attacking a student. Harry, Ron and Hermione visited Hagrid shortly before the execution to console him. On their way back to the castle, Sirius Black attacked Ron, who was carrying Scabbers, and dragged him into the Shrieking Shack. Harry and Hermione followed and overpowered Sirius. Harry, filled with rage at the loss of his parents, tried to kill him, but Remus Lupin arrived while he was still hesitating.
Sirius and Remus explained to the Trio that Sirius was innocent and that Ron's rat was in fact the Animagus Pettigrew. They were able to convince them; when Snape arrived to arrest Sirius, the Trio disarmed and knocked him out. Sirius and Remus forced Pettigrew to return to his true form and they all left the Shack to hand him over to the Dementors. However, Lupin turned into a werewolf as soon as he stepped outside, and Pettigrew used the general confusion to escape. Harry, Hermione and Sirius were attacked by several Dementors. Before he lost consciousness, Harry saw a Patronus appear to save them.
Snape brought the unconscious bodies of the Trio to the hospital wing and handed Sirius over to Fudge. When Harry and Hermione learned that Sirius was to receive the Dementor's Kiss, they used Hermione's Time Turner to go back three hours in time and rescue him. They freed Buckbeak while he was waiting for his execution and hid him in the woods. Harry saw himself and the others be attacked by the Dementors and cast the stag Patronus that saved them. Then he and Hermione flew Buckbeak to the window of the room where Sirius was kept. Sirius escaped on Buckbeak's back and Harry and Hermione made it back to the hospital wing in time.
Fourth year at Hogwarts
Summer holidays and the Quidditch World Cup
During the summer holidays of 1994, Harry had a dream in which he could see Lord Voldemort and Peter Pettigrew plotting Harry's death. With Pettigrew's help, Voldemort had regained a feeble corporeal form and returned to England. Harry forgot most of the details about the dream after he awoke.
The Weasleys invited Harry to stay with them and go to the final match of the Quidditch World Cup. Barty Crouch Jr., a former Death Eater who attended the match secretly under an Invisibility Cloak, stole Harry's wand during the match. That same night, several former Death Eaters attacked a Muggle family and caused an uproar. Harry, Hermione and Ron fled into the woods, where they heard Crouch, Jr. utter the incantation for the Dark Mark, Voldemort's sign. Several Ministry members immediately apparated to the spot, but they only found the three teenagers and Barty Crouch Sr.'s house-elf Winky, who held Harry's wand. Winky was set free by her master against her will and Harry got his wand back.
The schoolyear
Back at Hogwarts, Harry learned that the Triwizard Tournament would be held at the school this year. Students from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, the other two competing schools, arrived, and those who wanted to participate in the Tournament submitted their names to the Goblet of Fire], a magical object designed to select the most worthy champion for each school.
Meanwhile, Barty Crouch, Jr. had fought off his father's Imperius Curse and rejoined his master. Under Voldemort's orders, he overpowered Alastor Moody and assumed his post as Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts with the help of Polyjuice Potion. Crouch, Jr. bewitched the Goblet of Fire so that it selected Harry Potter as the fourth Triwizard champion. Harry was therefore forced to compete in the Tournament. This caused a rift between him and Ron, who was jealous of the constant attention his best friend received and accused him of secretly entering his name for the tournament.
In the first task of the Tournament, the champions each had to get past a dragon. Wit the help of Hagrid, Harry found out about the nature of the task beforehand. He shared the information the other Hogwarts champion Cedric Diggory. Crouch, Jr. gave hints to Harry on how to get past the dragon because he wanted him to win the Tournament. Consequently, Harry did well on the task and was tied in first place with Viktor Krum, the Durmstrang champion. Impressed by Harry's performance had the danger he had been in, Ron apologised to him after the task and they made up. The champions were told that the golden egg they received at the end of the first task contained a clue for the second task.
The champions were expected to open the Yule Ball on Christmas with their partners. Harry asked Cho Chang, an older student on whom he had a crush, but she had already agreed to go with Cedric. Instead, he went with Parvati Patil. At the ball, Harry and Ron overheard Hagrid confessing to Madame Maxime, the Beauxbatons headmistress, that he was a half-giant. After the ball, Cedric gave Harry a hint on how to solve the egg's clue in return for Harry's help for the first task.
Following Cedric's advice, Harry took a bath with the egg and found out that it emitted a song in Mermish when opened under water. The song's message was that Harry had to dive to the merpeople's village at the bottom of the Great Lake. He started researching methods for underwater breathing, but was unsuccessful. However, Crouch, Jr. ensured that Dobby the house-elf helped Harry. Dobby stole Gillyweed for Harry and gave it to him on the morning of the second task. With the help of the Gillyweed, Harry could breathe under water and was the first champion to reach the merpeople's village, where a hostage was held for each of the four champions. He waited until Cedric and Krum had retrieved their hostages and then returned with both Fleur's sister and Ron, his own hostage. Although he left the lake well out of the time limit, he received high marks for "showing moral fibre" and remained in first place, now tied with Cedric.
Shortly after the second task, Sirius returned to England and hid in a cave near Hogsmeade to be closer to his godson. The Trio visited him on the next Hogsmeade weekend.
During a Divination lesson, Harry had another vision of Voldemort. He immediately went to Dumbledore's office to talk to the headmaster. While he waited for Dumbledore, he saw the headmaster's Pensieve in a cabinet of the office. Not knowing what it was, he examined the object and fell into Dumbledore's memories of trials against former Death Eaters
Voldemort's return
During the third task, the champions had to get through a maze to find the Triwizard Cup in the centre. Cedric and Harry reached the Cup at the same time and agreed to take it together.
In expectation of Harry's victory, Barty Crouch, Jr. had turned the Cup into a Portkey, and as soon as the boys touched it, it brought them to the Little Hangleton graveyard, where Wormtail and Voldemort were already waiting. Wormtail killed Cedric and bound Harry to the headstone of Voldemort's father. Using blood from Harry, his own hand, and bones of Voldemort's father, he brewed a potion that gave Voldemort a real body again . By using Harry's blood, Voldemort intended to profit from the protection Lily had given to her son. He was now able to touch the boy without suffering. Returned to his former strength, Voldemort summoned his Death Eaters and challenged Harry to a duel.
Voldemort fired the Killing Curse at the same time Harry cast Expelliarmus, and the spells met in mid air. This formed a connection between the two wands with identical cores. The connection set in an effect known as Priori Incantatem, in which Voldemort's wand produced echoes of the last spells it performed. Shadows of Voldemort's last victims emerged and shielded Harry from his enemy. Harry broke the connection and made a run for the Triwizard Cup. Before Voldemort or the Death Eaters could catch him, he grabbed Cedric's body and used the Portkey to get back to Hogwarts.
Like everybody else at Hogwarts, Harry was yet unaware of Crouch, Jr.'s disguise as Mad-Eye Moody. In the general tumult that broke out at Harry's return, Crouch was able to capture the boy and bring him to his office where he interrogated him. However, before Crouch could harm Harry, he was overpowered by professors Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape. Under the influence of Veritaserum, Crouch made a full confession. Dumbledore made Harry give an account of the events of the evening. Convinced of Voldemort's return, he immediately revived the Order of the Phoenix. Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge, however, refused to believe Harry's story and left Hogwarts in anger. Soon after, Harry travelled back to the Dursleys for the summer holidays.
Fifth year at Hogwarts
Harry's fifth year was filled with much angst and anger over Cedric Diggory's death, the rebirth of Lord Voldemort, and much secrecy by the Order of the Phoenix. Dolores Umbridge was the newest Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, and caused many problems within Hogwarts. This was the year that Harry received his first kiss from Cho Chang and sat his OWLs. After having a vision of Sirius Black being hurt in the Department of Mysteries, Harry and some of his friends travelled to London to save him from Lord Voldemort. In the ensuing battle, Harry and his friend held their ground against several Death Eaters until they were joined by members of the Order. Harry saw his godfather Sirius die and witnessed the final confrontation between Dumbledore and Voldemort.
Sixth year at Hogwarts
The sixth year focused on life at Hogwarts, and on learning more about Lord Voldemort's background. Harry got together with Ginny Weasley for a relatively short period of time, eventually breaking up with her at the end of the year for 'heroic reasons'. Harry learned about Horcruxes and witnessed Severus Snape kill Albus Dumbledore.
The hunt for the Horcruxes
After Dumbledore's death, Harry decided not to return to Hogwarts for his seventh and final year. Together with Ron and Hermione, he went on a quest to find and destroy Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes.
Adult life
After defeating Voldemort, Harry became an Auror at the age of seventeen, and became the Head of Auror Office ten years later, in 2007. He, along with Ron, who also joined the Aurors, "revolutionized" the Auror Department—and, with Hermione's help, the entire Ministry.
Harry married Ginny Weasley, and the two had three children: James Sirius, Lily Luna, and Albus.
Ships
- Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley
- Harry Potter/Cho Chang
- Harry Potter/Parvati Patil
- Harry Potter/Romilda Vane