The Deathly Hallows - The Final installment of Harry Potter

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the seventh and final of the Harry Potter novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The book was released on 21 July 2007, ending the series that began in 1997 with the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. This book chronicles the events directly following Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005), and leads to the long-awaited final confrontation between Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort.

Deathly Hallows is published in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury Publishing, in the United States by Scholastic, in Canada by Raincoast Books, and in Australia and New Zealand by Allen & Unwin. Released globally in ninety-three countries, Deathly Hallows broke sales records as the fastest-selling book ever, selling more than 11 million copies in the first twenty-four hours following its release. The previous record, nine million in its first day, had been held by Half-Blood Prince.

Plot (Warning, Contains Spoilers)

Beginning of book

The book begins at the home of Lucius Malfoy, with Snape and a Ministry official, Yaxley, informing Lord Voldemort of the date Harry Potter intends to leave the Dursley’s house. Voldemort borrows Lucius wand, because his own is ineffective against Harry. Voldemort plans to kill Harry when he is moved to a new safe place, which has to happen when he turns seventeen and his safety with the Dursleys expires.

Harry, on the night he is to leave the Dursleys, reads an obituary of Albus Dumbledore, written by Dumbledore’s friend Elphias “Dogbreath” Doge. Harry learns about Dumbledore’s family including his brother Aberforth and sister Ariana, and he regrets not having asked Dumbledore more about his past.

With the Dursleys escorted to safety by a pair of wizards, the Order of the Phoenix arrives to sneak Harry out of his house. Despite an attempted decoy involving the younger members of the Order of the Phoenix take a Polyjuice potion to make themselves look like him, Harry, accompanied by Hagrid, is correctly identified by his “trademark” disarming spell and attacked by Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Harry’s wand reacts with Voldemort’s new, borrowed wand, destroying it. Hedwig, Harry’s owl, is killed by a stray Killing Curse. After narrowly escaping, Harry and the Order eventually reach the Burrow. George Weasley lost an ear, and Alastor Moody had been killed by Voldemort himself. Reacting to Voldemort’s anger at his escape, Harry has a vision of the Dark Lord questioning Ollivander the wand maker over why even his borrowed wand reacted with Harry’s.

A few days later, the Minister of Magic arrives at the Burrow to give Harry, Ron, and Hermione bequests from Dumbledore’s will. Ron is given Dumbledore’s Deluminator (or “Put-Outer”), with the power to capture lights; to Hermione, a book of children’s stories written in Ancient Runes; and to Harry, Godric Gryffindor’s sword and the first Snitch that Harry had ever caught. The Ministry withholds the sword. The three try to discover the purpose of the bequests, without success.

Near the end of the wedding reception, news comes that Voldemort has taken over the Ministry of Magic, and the Death Eaters attack again, trying to capture the now disguised Potter. The three flee the wedding, first to a Muggle café, but after being attacked by Death Eaters again, to 12 Grimmauld Place, the former home of the Black family. There, the three realize that Regulus Arcturus Black was the R.A.B. who removed the locket from the lake, dying in the attempt. However, Kreacher tells them that Mundungus Fletcher has stolen the locket from the house. Fletcher reveals that he has passed it on to Dolores Umbridge as a bribe.

Middle of book

After a month of spying on the Ministry of Magic, the trio attempt to infiltrate it to retrieve the Horcrux from Dolores Umbridge. They discover the Ministry of Magic has changed considerably; Muggle-born wizards and witches are being rounded up openly for questioning. The trio eventually locate Umbridge and take the Horcrux, knocking her out in the process. They free a number of Muggle-born wizards and witches, and encourage them to leave the country. However, the trio’s hiding place at 12 Grimmauld Place is discovered and they are forced to flee to the countryside, moving from place to place, never staying anywhere too long.

After several months of this, they overhear a conversation revealing that the Ministry only possesses a replica of Gryffindor’s sword; the original’s location is unknown. Harry questions the portrait of Phineas Black, and discovers that Dumbledore used the sword to destroy a Horcrux, the Gaunts’ ring. Harry suggests attempting to locate the real sword, but Ron objects, feeling that this is a pointless quest. After an argument with Harry, he leaves the group. Harry and Hermione are greatly saddened, but decide to go to Godric’s Hollow on the off-chance that Dumbledore left the sword there for them there.

Arriving in Godric’s Hollow, the two first visit the memorial to Harry’s family, then the graveyard, where both Harry and Dumbledore’s families are buried. There they encounter the old woman Bathilda Bagshot, an old family friend of Dumbledore’s who wrote A History of Magic. Thinking she may have been entrusted with the sword, they follow her to her house. But this is a trap; the apparent Bagshot is Nagini, Voldemort’s snake familiar, and Harry and Hermione only narrowly escape from Voldemort, accidentally breaking Harry’s wand; an attempt to mend it using Hermione’s wand does not work.

On the run for a few more days, eventually a doe Patronus appears on the edge of their camp and leads Harry to Godric Gryffindor’s sword, hidden in a frozen forest pool. Harry strips down and dives down after the sword, but the locket Horcrux which Harry is carrying responds poorly and tries to strangle Harry. Ron returns and saves Harry from drowning, and also retrieves the sword from the pool. The two then destroy the Horcrux with the sword and return to camp. Hermione is less than pleased with Ron and his return, but had discovered their next step: to speak to Xenophilius Lovegood and ask him about Grindelwald’s mark, a symbol which has shown up several times during their journey.

The Deathly Hallows themselves

At Lovegood’s home, Harry, Ron, and Hermione are told an old wizard story about three brothers who bested Death, and each had received a magical item for it, the three Deathly Hallows – an unbeatable wand (called the Elder Wand), a stone which could bring back the dead (the Resurrection Stone), and an Invisibility Cloak that never failed with age. Harry believes that his own cloak is that Invisibility Cloak, and is very excited, but soon discovers that Lovegood has betrayed them to the Ministry; Luna, his daughter, has been taken captive and he believes that giving them Harry Potter would cause them to free her. The trio barely escape from the wizards sent to fetch them, but Harry is emboldened and believes that they need to collect all the Deathly Hallows, these artifacts given by Death, to defeat Voldemort.

A few weeks later, the three are still no closer to finding the Deathly Hallows or more Horcruxes. They finally manage to tune into a rogue wizard radio broadcast, run by people they know which gives news on what is really happening. However, Harry accidentally says Voldemort’s name and Voldemort’s followers, having made the name Taboo so anyone saying it can be immediately traced, find Harry, Ron, and Hermione and capture them, taking them to Lucius Malfoy’s home. There, Hermione is tortured and interrogated by Bellatrix Lestrange to find how she acquired Godric Griffindor’s sword, believing it to have been stolen from her vault, while Harry and Ron are imprisoned in the basement with Dean Thomas, Griphook the goblin, Ollivander the wand maker, and Luna Lovegood. Harry asks the broken fragment of mirror he has for help and Dobby appears to help him, freeing them. Dobby saves Dean and Ollivander, but they have made too much noise and Wormtail is sent to check on the prisoners. Harry and Ron subdue him, and Wormtail refuses to strangle Harry. Ron takes away Wormtail’s wand. Wormtail’s artificial hand, made by Voldemort, strangles its owner to death for the mercy he has shown. Ron and Harry, helpless to aid him, rush upstairs to save Hermione with the help of Dobby. They escape as Voldemort is close to arriving, but Dobby is slain by Bellatrix Lestrange as they flee.

Harry and his friends bury Dobby and begin planning anew. Harry questions Ollivander about the Elder Wand, and chooses not to try and prevent Voldemort from acquiring it from the tomb of its last owner, Dumbledore. Instead, he questions Griphook about how to break into Gringotts, and in exchange offers him the goblin made sword of Godric Gryffindor. After extensive planning, the group goes to Gringotts to see if they can find one of the Horcruxes in the Lestrange vault; Hermione poses as Bellatrix Lestrange, Ron is disguised, and Griphook and Harry go in under the Invisibility Cloak. They manage to penetrate the traps and find the Horcrux, Hufflepuff’s cup, but Griphook betrays their presence and flees with the sword. Harry, Ron, and Hermione narrowly escape on the back of a captive dragon, but Voldemort discovers at last that they are seeking out his Horcruxes.

Harry has a vision shortly after the escape; he can see from Voldemort’s eyes and hear his thoughts. Voldemort lists all the locations of the Horcruxes, realizing now they are being sought after and destroyed. Voldemort inadvertently reveals that the final Horcrux, which Harry suspects to be a relic of the founder of Ravenclaw, is safe within Hogwarts. Harry realizes that if they want to get the Horcrux within Hogwarts, they need to do so immediately, before Voldemort finds his other Horcruxes missing.

End of book

At Hogsmeade, Harry and friends are cornered by Death Eaters and saved by Aberforth Dumbledore. Aberforth opens a secret passageway to Hogwarts, where Neville Longbottom greets them. Harry alerts the Heads of Houses at Hogwarts to Voldemort’s imminent arrival and evacuation measures are implemented to ensure the younger students’ safety, with the older ones able to stay and fight. After saving Draco Malfoy’s life, Harry finds Ravenclaw’s diadem in the Room of Requirement. Draco Malfoy and Crabbe and Goyle are also in there after the diadem. Crabbe mishandles a spell and sets on fire the centuries’ accumulation of junk and items hidden there by students, and it is destroyed. Harry and his friends get away on two broomsticks which they find in there, and manage to rescue Draco and Goyle, but Crabbe cannot be found in time and dies in the fire. Hagrid is captured by acromantulas and later ends up a captive in the hands of the Death Eaters. Fred Weasley is killed by a Death Eater just after his estranged brother Percy Weasley comes back to reunite with his family. Harry, Hermione and Ron go to the Shrieking Shack, where they see Voldemort kill Snape, believing this will transfer the Elder Wand’s power to him. As he dies, Snape gives up his memories to Harry, who uses the Pensieve to find out that Snape was on Dumbledore’s side, motivated by his lifelong love of Lily Potter. Snape was asked by Dumbledore to kill him if the situation demands it; the curse placed on the Horcrux ring limited Dumbledore’s life, regardless. Harry also discovers that he himself is a Horcrux, and that Voldemort cannot be killed while Harry remains alive. Resigned to his fate, Harry sacrifices himself to Voldemort, and is seemingly killed by the Avada Kedavra curse.

However, Harry awakens and meets the deceased Albus Dumbledore in an enormous deserted hall, which is explained to be a sort of equivalent to King’s Cross railway station. Here, it is explained he cannot die while Voldemort lives since he used Harry’s blood to recreate his body, and Lily’s protection binds the two. It is unclear if he actually dies, or it is merely a dream. He discovers he was the final Horcrux and needed to die before Voldemort can be killed, finding that the spell destroyed the part of Voldemort’s soul he had inside himself; that part soul appears represented by a wounded dying creature. He also discovers that Dumbledore sought the Hallows, with Grindelwald, for less than noble reasons - resulting in the death of his sister Ariana from neglect. Only Harry is worthy of possessing the Hallows. Harry is given the choice of “going on”, or returning to try and stop Voldemort, he chooses the latter.

Back in the forest, on Voldemort’s orders, Hagrid carries Harry (seemingly dead) back to Hogwarts to much dismay and shock to those there. Bravely, Voldemort is faced down by Neville, who rejects his offer to join him and become a Death Eater. Voldemort then summons the Sorting Hat and puts it on Neville’s head and sets it on fire to torture him - at that moment, the Centaurs attack. In the confusion, Harry covers himself with the invisibility cloak, and Neville kills Nagini, the last Horcrux, using Gryffindor’s sword pulled from the Sorting Hat. In the ensuing battle, Bellatrix is killed or stunned by Molly Weasley and Harry reveals himself to prevent Voldemort from killing her in retaliation. Coming face to face with Voldemort in the Great Hall, Harry is seemingly faced with impossible odds - with Voldemort possessing the Elder Wand, he cannot be beaten in a duel. However, Harry gambles correctly that Draco Malfoy was the true master of the Elder Wand, not Snape. By disarming Malfoy, the mastery of the wand has passed to Harry, not Voldemort. When Voldemort strikes Harry with the killing curse from the Elder Wand it rebounds on him, due to Harry’s mastery of the wand, killing himself once and for all. Harry decides to return the Elder Wand to Dumbledore’s grave instead of keeping it for himself, but first repaired his original wand with it.

Epilogue

In the story’s epilogue, taking place 19 years after the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry and Ginny Weasley are married and have three children named James, Albus Severus, and Lily. Ron and Hermione are also married and have two children named Rose and Hugo. Draco Malfoy has a wife (unnamed) and a child named Scorpius. Lupin and Tonks’ orphan son Teddy is apparently in love with Victoire, Bill and Fleur’s daughter. They all meet at King’s Cross, about to send their children to Hogwarts at the beginning of term. Neville Longbottom has become the Herbology Professor at Hogwarts. The Sorting Hat has survived, or has been repaired or replaced. It is revealed that Harry’s scar has not hurt since the Dark Lord’s defeat, and there the story ends.