Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (film)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is an upcoming film, based on J.K. Rowling's novel of the same name. It will be the seventh and final film in the popular fantasy adventure Harry Potter film series. It will be distributed by Warner Bros.[1] The three actors who have played the main characters in the previous six instalments, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, will all return for the final film.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Produced by David Heyman
Written by Novel:
J. K. Rowling
Starring Daniel Radcliffe
Rupert Grint
Emma Watson
Music by Themes by:
John Williams
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Country United Kingdom
United States
Language English
Preceded by Half-Blood Prince
IMDb profile

Production
Alfonso Cuarón, director of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, has said that he would be "tempted" to return to direct,[2] and David Yates, director of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has also expressed and interest in returning if time and scheduling allowed it.[3]

According to one report, the film's screenplay will be written by Steve Kloves, who wrote the screenplays to the first four and the sixth films.[4] Michael Goldenberg, who wrote the screenplay to the Order of the Phoenix, has not made a public statement expressing interest in returning.

John Williams, who composed the scores to the first three films, has expressed interest in returning to score the film and noted he was "confident" he would get the assignment.[5]


Cast
See also: List of Harry Potter films cast members
Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter: Warner Bros. officially announced on 23 March 2007.
Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley: Warner Bros. officially announced on 23 March 2007.[1]
Emma Watson as Hermione Granger: Warner Bros. officially announced on 23 March 2007.
Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange: Confirmed in an Entertainment Weekly interview.[6]
David Thewlis as Remus Lupin: Confirmed in an interview with Sky News on October 6, 2007 interview.[7]
Kreacher, the Black family's house-elf, had been cut from Order of the Phoenix in one draft of the script. However, Rowling persuaded the filmmakers to include him, saying, "You know, I wouldn't [cut him] if I were you. Or you can, but if you get to make a seventh film, you'll be tied in knots", and he was added back into the script.[8] Timothy Bateson voiced the character in the film;[9] it is unknown if Bateson will again voice the character.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

For the film, see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film).
Harry Potter books
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Author J. K. Rowling
Illustrators Jason Cockcroft
Mary GrandPré
Genre Fantasy
Publishers Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, Scholastic Press, Raincoast Books
Released July 16, 2005
Book no. Six
Sales ~65 million (Worldwide)
Story timeline 1996-1997
Chapters 30
Pages 607
652
Preceded by Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Followed by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, released on July 16, 2005, is the sixth of seven novels in J. K. Rowling's popular Harry Potter series. Set during Harry Potter's sixth year at Hogwarts, the novel explores Lord Voldemort's past, and Harry's preparations for the final battle amidst emerging romantic relationships and the emotional confusions and conflict resolutions characteristic of mid-adolescence.

The book sold nine million copies in the first 24 hours after its release, a record at the time which was eventually broken by its successor, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows[1].

For the film, see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film).
Harry Potter books

Plot

Before school starts

As Voldemort and his Death Eaters openly wreak havoc throughout Britain, Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge has been forced to resign following public outcry over his mishandling the situation. Rufus Scrimgeour succeeds him. At his home in Spinner's End, Severus Snape is sworn to an Unbreakable Vow by Draco Malfoy's mother Narcissa. Although her sister, Bellatrix Lestrange, distrusts Snape, he agrees to protect Draco during his task assigned by the Dark Lord and complete the mission should he fail.

During the summer, Albus Dumbledore enlists Harry Potter's unwitting help to persuade retired professor Horace Slughorn to return to his old Hogwarts post. Harry then spends the remaining holiday at The Burrow with the Weasleys and Hermione. To his family's dismay, Bill Weasley has become engaged to Fleur Delacour, the Beauxbatons champion in the Triwizard Tournament, while Harry realizes he is developing romantic feelings for Ginny. Harry, Ron, and Hermione receive their O.W.L. results. To become Aurors, Harry and Ron must take N.E.W.T.-level Potions as a prerequisite, but their grades in the subject are too low for Snape's advanced class, thus ending their career ambitions. While in Diagon Alley, Harry, Ron and Hermione spot Draco Malfoy and follow him. At Borgin & Burkes, a dark magic shop in Knockturn Alley, Malfoy threatens Mr Borgin about repairing one item and keeping another safe. Suspecting Draco may be a Death Eater, Harry resolves to keep a close watch on him.


At Hogwarts
As school begins, Snape is unexpectedly announced as the new Defence Against the Dark Arts instructor while Slughorn replaces him as the Potions teacher. Slughorn only requires a minimum "E" grade (Exceeds Expectations) at O.W.L. to take his N.E.W.T.-level Potion classes, making Harry and Ron eligible for the class. Slughorn lends them old Potions textbooks until they buy their own. Harry's copy is marked as the property of, "The Half-Blood Prince". The talented former owner's notes help Harry excel in the class. As a reward, Slughorn gives him a small vial of Felix Felicis, a good luck potion.

Death Eater attacks continue throughout the year and may be linked to events at Hogwarts. On the first Hogsmeade visit, Katie Bell, a Gryffindor student, is seriously injured while carrying a cursed necklace, apparently while under the Imperius Curse. In another incident, Ron accidentally drinks poisoned mead intended for Dumbledore— only Harry's quick action saves him. Hermione is so distraught over this that she and Ron, who were feuding mostly over Ron dating Lavender Brown and her relationship with Viktor Krum, reconcile; Ron soon breaks up with Lavender. Meanwhile, Harry realizes his true feelings for Ginny, although she is now dating Dean Thomas.


Horcruxes
Dumbledore privately tutors Harry using his Pensieve to view collected memories about Voldemort's past. Dumbledore speculates that Voldemort splintered his soul into six fragments called Horcruxes to attain immortality, while leaving a seventh piece in his body. Two Horcruxes have been destroyed (Tom Riddle's diary by Harry[HP2] and Marvolo Gaunt's ring by Dumbledore).

When Harry finds Malfoy sobbing in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, they hurl curses at each other. Harry casts one of the Prince's spells, causing huge gashes across Malfoy's body. Snape arrives and saves Malfoy. He confiscates Harry's Potions book, but Harry has given him Ron's copy. Harry receives detention, causing him to miss the Quidditch finals. Gryffindor wins the Cup, and during the victory celebration, Harry's suppressed feelings for Ginny are revealed when he spontaneously kisses her; Ginny has just broken up with Dean Thomas, and she and Harry begin dating.

Harry reports Malfoy's suspicious behavior to a seemingly unconcerned Dumbledore, although Dumbledore asks Snape to investigate. Soon after, Harry learns from Professor Trelawney that it was Snape who passed a prophecy to Voldemort that ultimately led to James and Lily Potter's deaths. Enraged, Harry confronts Dumbledore, but he reaffirms Snape's loyalty. Dumbledore, meanwhile, has located another Horcrux and asks Harry to accompany him in retrieving it. Distrusting Malfoy and Snape, Harry asks Ron, Hermione, Luna Lovegood, Neville Longbottom and Ginny to patrol the halls while he and Dumbledore are gone and gives them the remaining Felix Felicis potion for luck. Harry and Dumbledore disapparate to a secret cave. They retrieve the Horcrux (Salazar Slytherin's locket), but Dumbledore has been poisoned by drinking a potion that covered the locket inside a basin.


Battle at Hogwarts
Returning to Hogsmeade, Harry and Dumbledore see Lord Voldemort's Dark Mark hovering over Hogwarts. They fly to the Astronomy Tower on borrowed broomsticks and are ambushed by Draco Malfoy. Dumbledore paralyses Harry, who is under his Invisibility Cloak, just before Draco disarms Dumbledore. Draco admits he was behind the school attacks and has helped Death Eaters secretly enter Hogwarts, although Dumbledore discerns that the obviously frightened boy has been coerced by Voldemort.

As Order of the Phoenix members, faculty, and students battle Voldemort's followers in the castle below, Death Eaters appear in the tower and urge Draco to fulfill his mission—killing Dumbledore—but Draco hesitates. Snape arrives and a weakened Dumbledore entreats him with an ambiguous plea; Snape casts Avada Kedavra that kills Dumbledore and hurls his body over the tower wall. Upon Dumbledore's death, Harry is released from the paralysing spell. Harry pursues Snape, who identifies himself as the Half-Blood Prince in a short-lived duel where, incredibly, he instructs Harry on how to fight correctly. Snape escapes with Malfoy. Harry recovers the locket from Dumbledore's body only to discover it is a fake. Inside is a note from someone with the initials "R.A.B." who has stolen the real Horcrux.

The school year ends abruptly with Dumbledore's funeral. Professor McGonagall is appointed Hogwarts' interim headmistress and Professor Slughorn replaces Snape as the head of Slytherin House, although Hogwarts may not reopen. Harry decides to leave school to search for the remaining Horcruxes. Ron and Hermione vow to accompany him, while Harry ends his relationship with Ginny to protect her from Voldemort. The book concludes as Harry looks forward to Bill and Fleur's wedding and being comforted that "...there was still one last golden day of peace left to enjoy with Ron and Hermione."


Pre-release history
The record-breaking publication of Half-Blood Prince was accompanied by controversy. In May 2005 bookmakers in the UK suspended bets on which main character would die in the book amid fears of insider knowledge. A number of high value bets were made on the death of Albus Dumbledore, many coming from the town of Bungay where, it was believed, the books were being printed at the time. Betting was later reopened.[2] Other controversies included the "right to read" Potter books inadvertently sold before the release date, environmental concerns over the source of the paper used in the printing of millions of books, and fan reactions to the plot developments and revelations of the novel.


Right to read controversy
In early July 2005, a Real Canadian Superstore in Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada, accidentally sold fourteen copies of The Half-Blood Prince before the authorised release date. The Canadian publisher, Raincoast Books, obtained an injunction from the Supreme Court of British Columbia prohibiting the purchasers from reading the books before the official release date or from discussing the contents. Purchasers were offered a Harry Potter T-shirt and an autographed copy of the book if they returned their copies before July 16.

On July 15, less than twelve hours before the book went on sale in the Eastern time zone, Raincoast warned The Globe and Mail newspaper that publishing a review from a Canada-based writer at midnight, as the paper had promised, would be seen as a violation of the trade secret injunction. The injunction sparked a number of news articles alleging that the injunction had restricted fundamental rights. Canadian law professor Michael Geist posted commentary on his blog;[3] Richard Stallman called for a boycott, requesting that the publisher issue an apology.[4] The Globe and Mail published a review from two UK-based writers in its July 16 edition and posted the Canadian writer's review on its website at 9 a.m. that morning.[5] Commentary was also provided on the Raincoast website.[6]

In the same week, a Chicago Walgreens mistakenly sold a copy of the book. When the purchaser read about the Canadian incident on the Internet she said she would not return the book, but that she would not read the novel until the U.S. release date.[citation needed]


Environmental concerns
Before and after the release of the book, the environmental organizations Greenpeace and the National Wildlife Federation urged consumers in the United States who planned to buy Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to do so from the book's Canadian publisher, Raincoast Books,[7] [8] which published on 100% recycled, chlorine-free, ancient forest–free paper. The U.S. edition of the book, published by Scholastic Press, was printed with a percentage of recycled paper that Scholastic declined to make public. The Scholastic Hardcover edition of the book claims, on the last page, to be free of fibres from ancient forests.


Spoilers

The plot detail "Snape kills Dumbledore", along with a list of chapter titles, were leaked on the Usenet group alt.fan.harrypotter as early as July 14, 2005 — two days before the official release date. Weeks earlier, betting patterns on the website "Blue Square" recorded an unusual surge in bets originating in a town where the book was being printed (as pointed out in the Guardian newspaper May 24, 2005).[9]


Dedication

Wikinews has related news:
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince releasedRowling became pregnant with her third child during the writing of this book, and often joked about them racing each other into the world. For this reason, the book has this dedication:

To Mackenzie,
my beautiful daughter,
I dedicate
her ink and paper twin

Movie release date
Box Office Mojo reports that the movie based on the sixth book is scheduled to be released on November 21, 2008. Steve Kloves is expected to write the screenplay, and David Yates is set to direct.[10]


Text changes
As with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the United States version of the novel has slightly changed text from the British version. One particular section has been remarked upon, where the alteration makes the nature of Dumbledore's offer to Draco Malfoy before Snape kills Dumbledore in the Half-Blood Prince explicit. The reason for the editing of the below text has not been explained on the author's webpage, but the British edition is more ambiguous. The text can be found in chapter 27, "The Lightning-Struck Tower". The U.S. text was changed to match the UK version with the publication of the paperback edition.[11] The parts added in the United States version have been highlighted in bold, below:

"[…] He told me to do it or he'll kill me. I've got no choice." "He cannot kill you if you are already dead. Come over to the right side Draco, and we can hide you more completely than you can possibly imagine. What is more, I can send members of the Order to your mother tonight to hide her likewise. Nobody would be surprised that you had died in your attempt to kill me — forgive me, but Lord Voldemort probably expects it. Nor would the Death Eaters be surprised that we had captured and killed your mother — it is what they would do themselves, after all. Your father is safe at the moment in Azkaban […]"
(U.S. Edition p. 591)(CND Edition p. 552) [HP6]


Translations

Main article: Harry Potter in translation

Editions
Bloomsbury (United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, etc.)
ISBN 0-7475-8108-8 Hardcover
ISBN 0-7475-8468-0 Paperback
ISBN 0-7475-8110-X Hardcover (adult edition)
ISBN 0-7475-8466-4 Paperback (adult edition)
Scholastic (United States, etc.)
ISBN 0-439-78454-9 Hardcover
ISBN 0-439-78596-0 Paperback
ISBN 0-439-79132-4 Deluxe Edition
Raincoast (Canada, etc.)
ISBN 1-55192-756-X Hardcover
ISBN 1-55192-760-8 Hardcover (adult edition) (Different cover and binding, same text)
ISBN 0-7475-8152-5 Hardcover (large print edition)

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

OotP” redirects here. For the baseball simulator, see Out of the Park Baseball.
This article is about the book. You may be looking for the film or the video game.
Harry Potter books
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Author J. K. Rowling
Illustrators Jason Cockcroft
Mary GrandPré
Genre Fantasy
Publishers Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, Scholastic Press, Raincoast Books
Released June 21, 2003
Book no. Five
Sales ~55 million (Worldwide)
Story timeline Unknown
Chapters 38
Pages 766
870
Preceded by Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Followed by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the fifth novel in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling. It is the longest book in the series, and was released on June 21, 2003.

Plot

Trouble before school

Harry Potter casts a Patronus charm when he and his cousin Dudley are attacked by Dementors in a park. Order of the Phoenix members soon arrive to escort Harry to their secret headquarters at the Black family home, Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place in London. The Weasley family, Hermione Granger, and Harry’s godfather Sirius Black are there, and Harry learns that Voldemort is building an army and is attempting to retrieve a "weapon". Meanwhile, the Ministry of Magic charges Harry with performing underage magic. A few days later, Arthur Weasley escorts Harry to his hearing where he is cleared after testimony from Albus Dumbledore and Harry's neighbour, Arabella Figg (who is a Squib).


Problems at Hogwarts
Ron and Hermione are named Gryffindor prefects, leaving Harry somewhat envious. At Hogwarts, they are surprised that Dolores Umbridge, Senior Undersecretary to the Minister and who presided at Harry's hearing, has been appointed as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Hermione's opinion that the Ministry is interfering with Hogwarts is accurate; Umbridge is there to spy on the school and only teaches Ministry approved theory rather than practical defence methods. She is soon appointed as High Inquisitor, arbitrarily imposing strict rules and regulations. She also harbours racial hatred for "half-breeds," such as centaurs, werewolves, and similar creatures. She considers Rubeus Hagrid (a half-giant) and Sybill Trelawney incompetent, and fires Trelawney and puts Hagrid on probation. Although Dumbledore is unable to prevent Trelawney's dismissal, he invokes his authority to allow her to remain in the castle and appoints a new Divination teacher — the centaur, Firenze.

Harry has been having disturbing dreams about running down a hallway and attempting to open a door in the Ministry of Magic's Department of Mysteries. One night he dreams he is a snake attacking Ron's father. Mr. Weasley is indeed found injured at the Ministry, suffering from severe venomous snake bites, causing Harry to fear that he is being possessed by Voldemort. In response, Dumbledore has Severus Snape teach Harry Occlumency to block his mind from intrusion, but their mutual animosity ends their lessons prematurely.

To combat the Ministry's smear campaign against Harry and Dumbledore, Hermione blackmails hack journalist Rita Skeeter into writing a favourable article about Harry witnessing Voldemort's return. Ravenclaw student Luna Lovegood's father publishes the story in his magazine, The Quibbler. Furious, Umbridge bans the tabloid from the school, but the story spreads rapidly, garnering support for Harry.


Dumbledore's Army and the Student Revolt
Hermione convinces Harry to secretly teach Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff students Defense Against the Dark Arts. They name their clandestine group "Dumbledore's Army", or "D.A." for short, to mock the Ministry of Magic, which fears Dumbledore is secretly building a wizard army. Under Harry's tutoring, the group learns defensive Dark Art magic, but Umbridge's Inquisitorial Squad, consisting mostly of Slytherin students, eventually uncovers the D.A.'s meetings. To protect Harry and the other students from reprisals, Dumbledore claims he organized the group. Confronted by two Aurors (Dawlish and Shacklebolt), Minister Fudge, Percy Weasley and Umbridge, Dumbledore easily overpowers them and is spectacularly whisked away by his phoenix, Fawkes.

Umbridge is appointed Headmistress and enacts even more rigid rules and fires Hagrid. Fed up, the Weasley twins revolt, unleashing non-stop magical chaos throughout the school, while the staff purposely do nothing to help Umbridge regain control. Fred and George are caught, but summoning their confiscated brooms, they zoom off, leaving Hogwarts for good to open their own joke shop in Diagon Alley.


Visions
Harry receives a vision that Sirius is being tortured at the Department of Mysteries, although Hermione suspects it may be a trap. Harry desperately attempts to contact Sirius at Grimmauld Place via the Floo Network in Umbridge's office fireplace, but he is caught. Umbridge reveals it was she who sent the Dementors to attack Harry during the summer. As she is about to use the illegal Cruciatus Curse on him, Hermione claims that Dumbledore has hidden a powerful weapon in the Forbidden Forest. She leads Harry and Umbridge into the forest where they encounter the centaurs. Umbridge foolishly insults them and an angry centaur picks up Umbridge and carries her off screaming into the woods. When Hagrid's giant half-brother, Grawp, crashes onto the scene, Hermione and Harry escape amid the chaos. Harry, Ron, and Hermione, along with fellow D.A. members Ginny, Neville, and Luna fly to the Ministry of Magic on the school's Thestrals.


Battle at the Department of Mysteries
At the Ministry of Magic, Death Eaters ambush the students. They heroically defend themselves, but are outmatched. As they are nearly defeated, Order members arrive. During the ensuing battle, the glass prophecy sphere that Voldemort was seeking is shattered and the prophecy lost. Sirius is blasted with a spell by his Death Eater cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange, and falls backwards through a mysterious veiled archway. Lupin restrains Harry from going after him; Sirius is dead.

The Death Eaters are captured except for Bellatrix Lestrange, who Harry pursues into the atrium. Lord Voldemort appears and attacks Harry, but he is saved by Dumbledore. Ministry of Magic employees arrive in time to see the Dark Lord before he Disapparates, taking Lestrange with him. Cornelius Fudge finally admits that Voldemort has returned. Rita Skeeter's story is reprinted in the Daily Prophet, exonerating Harry and Dumbledore.

Later, Dumbledore apologizes to Harry for withholding information over the past five years. He reveals the lost prophecy, which was originally given to him by Sybill Trelawney. Either Harry or Voldemort "must die at the hands of the other, for neither can live while the other survives". Dumbledore also reveals that, due to when the boy was predicted to be born, Neville Longbottom could also have been the child in the prophecy. Dumbledore believes Voldemort chose to attack Harry because he is a half-blood like himself; Neville is a pureblood. In so doing, the Dark Lord marked Harry as his equal. Dumbledore also discloses why he continues to send Harry back to the Dursleys' home for the summer. He tells Harry that when his mother died to protect him, this initiated an ancient magic. As long as Harry stays at the house of his blood-relative long enough to call it a home, it would provide for him a shield protection not even Voldemort is able to overcome. Furthermore, Dumbledore explains to Harry why he had not made him a prefect: he thought that Harry had enough to worry about and did not want to burden him with more responsibilities.


Dealing with loss
Shortly before school ends, Harry seeks out Nearly Headless Nick. He asks if Sirius can come back as a ghost, but Sir Nick says, "he will have...gone on". It is only those fearing death who remain as earthbound spirits. Still grieving, Harry finds Luna Lovegood hanging posters in the hall asking the whereabouts of her missing possessions that students have taken to taunt her. He asks about her being able to see the thestrals, and she replies that she saw her mother die, the result of an experimental magic spell gone wrong. But Luna says that she knows she will see her mother again; she and others who have died are just behind the veiled arch. Surprisingly, Harry feels comforted knowing that he may see Sirius again and heads off to finish packing.

At King's Cross station, several Order members are there to greet Harry and the Dursleys. Alastor Moody warns Uncle Vernon that if Harry is mistreated, they will intervene. Harry leaves to head back to 4 Privet Drive with the Dursleys, stopping once to look back towards his two best friends, Ron and Hermione.


Notes
The Death Eaters captured at the Ministry were Nott, Jugson, Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange, Antonin Dolohov, Vincent Crabbe Sr., Walden Macnair, Avery, Augustus Rookwood, Lucius Malfoy and Mulciber. Lord Voldemort and Bellatrix Lestrange were also at the Ministry, but they escaped. This list includes most of the Death Eaters whose names were known to the reader at this time, though Peter Pettigrew and Goyle Sr. were both absent from this mission and likely others as well, given the number of Death Eaters that Harry saw at Voldemort's rebirth in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The only Death Eater that had never been mentioned before was Jugson.
The access code for the visitor's entrance for the Ministry of Magic is 6-2-4-4-2 on the telephone, which spells M-A-G-I-C.
In another interview where she was asked if there was anything she would go back and change about the seven novels, Rowling stated she would go back and edit Phoenix a bit better, as she feels it is too long.[1]
In the second chapter Petunia surprises Harry with her knowledge about the Dementors. She reveals that she heard 'that awful boy — telling her about them'. While Harry guesses that she is talking about his parents, in book 7 it is revealed that Petunia actually overheard Snape, not James, talking to Lily.

Pre-release history
Potter fans waited three years between the releases of the fourth and fifth books.[2] Before the release of the fifth book, 200 million copies of the first four books had already been sold and translated into 55 languages in 200 countries.[3] As the series was already a global phenomenon, the book forged new pre-order records, with thousands of people queueing outside book stores on June 20th, 2003 to secure their copy at midnight.[3] Despite the security, thousands of copies were stolen from a Earlestown, Merseyside warehouse on June 15, 2003.[4]

In a Newsnight interview with Jeremy Paxman, Rowling reported that she was "reduced to tears" when she killed off a significant character in the book, despite rewriting the death scene several times.[5] She added that although her husband suggested she undo the character's death to stop her sadness, she needed to be "a ruthless killer."[5] However, Rowling revealed in a 2007 interview that she had originally planned to kill off Arthur Weasley in this book, but ultimately couldn't bear to do it.[6] Three days before the book's release, betting firm Ladbrokes stopped taking bets as to the identity of the character to die, saying that people already knew and that it would be a "licence to lose money."[5] Scottish bookmaker Blue Square also took bets on the identity of the killed character, with Hagrid the favourite at 7/2 odds, followed by Sirius Black at 4/1 and Professors Minerva McGonagall and Albus Dumbledore at 5/1.[7]


Translations
Main article: Harry Potter in translation
The first official foreign translation of the book appeared in Vietnamese on 21 July 2003, when the first of 22 instalments was released. The first official European translation appeared in Serbia and Montenegro in Serbian, by the official publisher Narodna Knjiga, in early September 2003. Other translations appeared later, e.g. in November 2003 in Dutch and German. The English language version has topped the best seller list in France; while in Germany and The Netherlands an unofficial distributed translation process has been started on the net.[8]

In the Czech Republic a college student translated the book in July/September, long before its intended release date, and one 14-year old schoolboy made it available on his private website. This led to confusion, with many newspapers stating that this unofficial translation was done by group of teenagers[9] and the official Czech publisher (Albatros) announcing that they would sue the schoolboy.[10] Later they retracted this announcement.

Editions
The book was published on 21 June 2003 in the United Kingdom and the majority of other countries. It sold almost seven million copies in the United Kingdom and United States combined on that day. It has 38 chapters, is about 255,000 words long,[11] and is the longest book in the series.[12]

In Britain, the blind then-Home Secretary David Blunkett complained about the delay of the cassette version of the book, as well as its projected price.

The Canadian version of the book is made from recycled paper and saved the equivalent of 29,650 trees in the initial print run of 1 million books. J.K. Rowling comments on this in a message written specifically for the Canadian edition of the book.

Bloomsbury (United Kingdom, Australia, Canada etc.)
ISBN 0-7475-5100-6 Hardback
ISBN 0-7475-6107-9 Paperback
ISBN 0-7475-6940-1 Hardback (adult edition)
ISBN 0-7475-7073-6 Paperback (adult edition)
Scholastic (United States etc.)
ISBN 0-439-35806-X Hardback
ISBN 0-439-35807-8 Paperback

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

This article is about the book. You may be looking for the film or the video game.
Harry Potter books
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Author J. K. Rowling
Illustrators Giles Greenfield
Mary GrandPré
Genre Fantasy
Publishers Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, Scholastic Press, Raincoast Books
Released July 8, 2000
Book no. Four
Sales ~ 55 million (Worldwide)
Story timeline 1942
1994-1995
Chapters 37
Pages 636
734
Preceded by Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Followed by Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the fourth novel in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling. Published on July 8, 2000, the release of this book was surrounded by more hype than any other book in recent times — outdone only by its successors, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The book attracted much additional attention because of a pre-publication warning from J.K. Rowling that one of the characters would be murdered in the book.

The novel won a Hugo Award in 2000. The book was made into a film which was released worldwide on November 18, 2005.

Plot

Before school

The fourth book opens as Frank Bryce, the Riddle manor's elderly caretaker, sees lights inside the abandoned house. Investigating, he overhears Lord Voldemort and Peter Pettigrew (Wormtail) plotting Harry Potter's death. Frank is discovered and killed; at that same moment, Harry awakes with his scar hurting and having seen the murder in his dream.

Soon after, Harry departs for the Quidditch World Cup with Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, the Weasley family and Amos and Cedric Diggory. Following the match, Death Eaters, Lord Voldemort's servants, storm the camp, creating panic and mayhem. The trio flee into the forest where they see the Dark Mark, Lord Voldemort's sign, shot into the night sky. Barty Crouch, the head of the Department Of International Magical Co-operation, arrives and accuses the trio of Ron, Harry and Hermione of conjuring it, but upon investigating, Crouch's house elf, Winky, is found clutching Harry's stolen wand. Crouch is furious and fires Winky.


Triwizard Tournament
Professor Dumbledore announces during the Welcoming Feast that Hogwarts will host the Triwizard Tournament. The centuries old inter-school competition was discontinued because it became too dangerous, but has been recently revived. The tournament includes three difficult tasks, one held during each school term.

The Goblet of Fire chooses one student from each competing school. Because the tournament is so dangerous, students must be at least 17 years old to enter. Cedric Diggory is chosen as Hogwarts' champion, Fleur Delacour is selected for Beauxbatons Academy and Durmstrang Institute is represented by Viktor Krum. The Goblet unexpectedly selects a fourth champion — Harry Potter — even though Harry never entered and is underage. This leads to a falling out with Ron, who thinks Harry cheated to enter.

Harry is guided through the tournament by Professor Alastor Moody, the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher and a former Auror. In the first task, the champions must retrieve a golden egg from a dragon. With advice from Hagrid, Moody, and Hermione, Harry uses his broom to fly past the dragon and capture the egg, earning high marks. Seeing how dangerous the task was, Ron realizes Harry would not have cheated, and they reconcile. Meanwhile, Hermione begins S.P.E.W., the Society For the Protection of Elfish Welfare.

The champions are required to attend the Yule Ball, a tradition associated with the Triwizard Tournament. Harry wants to invite Cho Chang, but when he learns she is attending with Cedric Diggory, he agrees to take Parvati Patil, while her twin sister, Padma, goes with Ron. Hermione Granger attends with Viktor Krum — sparking Ron's jealousy, made worse by Hermione's unexpectedly beautiful appearance at the Ball.

The second task requires retrieving something important to each champion that is hidden in Hogwarts' lake. Harry has delayed in finding a way to stay submerged for an hour. As the event is about to begin, Dobby, the Malfoys' former house-elf, gives Harry gillyweed so he can breathe underwater. Harry rescues Ron, but when the other champions do not appear, he releases the others", losing time and leaving him tied for first place with Cedric.

For the third task, the champions must navigate a large maze filled with dangerous obstacles. Shortly before the event, Harry and Viktor Krum are startled when a dishevelled Mr. Crouch emerges from the forest, mumbling incoherently and demanding to see Dumbledore. Harry runs for help, but when he returns with Dumbledore, they find Krum unconscious and Crouch missing. While waiting in Dumbledore's office, Harry peers inside a pensieve containing the professor's memories. In one, Harry sees a wizarding trial in which Barty Crouch, Jr., a Death Eater, is sentenced to Azkaban by his father, Crouch Sr. Harry also hears testimony that Severus Snape was once a Death Eater.


Little Hangleton graveyard
During the third task, Harry and Cedric successfully navigate the maze. Because they helped each other, they agree to grab the Cup simultaneously. Unknown to them, it is actually a portkey that transports them to an old cemetery in Little Hangleton. Awaiting is Peter Pettigrew, who is carrying what appears to be a deformed infant, who is actually Lord Voldemort. Voldemort orders Pettigrew to kill Diggory, which he does. Harry is then tied from head to toe to a tombstone, and Pettigrew uses Harry's blood, a bone from Voldemort's long-dead father, and his own severed hand in a bizarre ritual that restores Lord Voldemort to his full body and power. Voldemort now carries Harry's blood within him and is no longer affected by the magic that has protected the boy since infancy.

Voldemort reveals that his servant at Hogwarts ensured Harry would win the tournament and be brought to the graveyard. After summoning his Death Eaters, Voldemort challenges Harry to a duel. Unknown to Voldemort, his and Harry's wands are "twins", each containing the same magical core (a tail feather from Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes). As the wands' streams interlock, a Priori Incantatem effect occurs, causing the spirit echoes of Voldemort's victims, including Cedric Diggory, Bertha Jorkins, James and Lily Potter, and even Muggle Frank Bryce, to spill out from his wand. The echoes momentarily protect Harry by distracting Voldemort, allowing him to grab the portkey and escape to Hogwarts with Diggory's body.


Aftermath
After Harry returns to the school grounds through the portkey, Moody takes Harry to his office immediately. He reveals that he has been helping Harry throughout all the tournament's events including helping Harry pass some obstacles in the maze from the exterior. He tells Harry that he did this, so that Harry would reach the portkey, and thus send him to the cemetery, giving Voldemort his chance to revive. After the explanation, the Imposter-Mad-Eye tries to attack Harry. However, he is saved by Dumbledore, Snape and McGonagall. Dumbledore states that when he saw Moody take Harry out of sight after returning from the maze, he knew instantly that something was not right, and thus he followed. When Snape feeds Moody a bottle of Veritaserum, a truth potion, Moody is exposed as Barty Crouch, Jr. who escaped Azkaban and used a Polyjuice Potion to impersonate the real Alastor Moody, who is trapped in a magical trunk in his office. Crouch Jr. murdered his father and entered Harry's name into the Goblet of Fire, covertly ensuring that Harry completed each difficult task. Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, arrives at Hogwarts accompanied by a Dementor. Fudge denies Dumbledore's claim that Voldemort has returned and before Crouch can repeat his confession, the Dementor performs the Dementor's Kiss on him.

Dumbledore swiftly and urgently revives the [[Order of the Phoenix (organisation)|Order of the memorial, Dumbledore, against the Ministry's orders, tells students the truth about Cedric's death and that Voldemort has returned, stating "It would be an insult to his memory" to claim otherwise.


Foreshadowing
Ron's jealousy comes to the fore when Harry's name is pulled from the Goblet of Fire. He thinks Harry is lying about putting his name in for the contest, and abandons his friend. Ron later returns when he sees how dangerous the competition is. This foreshadows the episode in the Deathly Hallows where Ron ceases to believe in Harry's mission and abandons him and Hermione. Ron returns in time to save Harry from a dangerous situation, and finally faces down his jealousy when he destroys one of the Horcruxes.
Fleur looks interested in Bill Weasley, whom she later dates (Order of the Phoenix), gets engaged to (Half-Blood Prince) and marries (Deathly Hallows).

Release history
Until the official title's announcement on June 27, 2000, the fourth book was called by its working title, Harry Potter and the Doomspell Tournament.[1] J.K. Rowling expressed her indecision about the title in an Entertainment Weekly interview.

“ I changed my mind twice on what [the title] was. The working title had got out — 'Harry Potter and the Doomspell Tournament.' Then I changed 'Doomspell' to 'Triwizard Tournament.' Then I was teetering between 'Goblet of Fire' and 'Triwizard Tournament.' In the end, I preferred 'Goblet of Fire' because it's got that kind of 'cup of destiny' feel about it, which is the theme of the book.[2] ”

Rowling also admitted that the fourth book was the most difficult to write at the time, because she noticed a giant plot hole half-way through writing[citation needed]. In particular, Rowling had trouble with the ninth chapter, which she rewrote 13 times.[3]


U.S./U.K. Release

"Goblet of Fire" was the first book in the Harry Potter series to be released simultaneously in the United States and the United Kingdom, on July 8, 2000. The three previous books had been released in the United Kingdom several months before the U.S. edition.


Editions
Bloomsbury (United Kingdom, Australia, Canada etc.)
ISBN 0-7475-4624-X Hardcover
ISBN 0-7475-5099-9 Paperback
ISBN 0-7475-7450-2 Hardcover (adult edition)
ISBN 0-7475-7450-2 Paperback (adult edition)
Scholastic (United States etc.)
ISBN 0-439-13959-7 Hardcover
ISBN 0-439-13960-0 Paperback

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

“HP3” redirects here. For the Ilford photographic film, see Ilford HP.
This article is about the book. You may be looking for the film or the video game.
Harry Potter books
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Author J. K. Rowling
Illustrators Cliff Wright
Mary GrandPré
Genre Fantasy
Publishers Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, Scholastic Press, Raincoast Books
Released 8 July 1999
September 8, 1999
Book no. Three
Sales ~55 million (Worldwide)
Story timeline 1993-1994
Chapters 22
Pages 317
435
Preceded by Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Followed by Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the third novel in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling. The book was published on 8 July 1999. The novel won both the 1999 Costa Book Awards and the Bram Stoker Award, and was shortlisted for other awards, placing it among the most-honoured works of fantasy in recent history. [1]. A film based on the book was released on 31 May 2004, in the United Kingdom and June 4, 2004 in the U.S. and many other countries.

Plot

Disturbing news

J.K. Rowling's third book opens with Harry Potter enduring another unhappy summer at the Dursleys'. One day, Harry overhears a news report about escaped convict, Sirius Black. When Uncle Vernon's sister, Marge, viciously insults Harry, his anger causes her to inflate and float to the ceiling. Upset, Harry runs away. On a dark street, he sees a large black dog ominously watching him from the bushes, but the Knight Bus suddenly appears and takes him to Diagon Alley. During the trip, Harry learns that Black murdered thirteen people with one curse and is a supporter of Lord Voldemort. He is met by Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, who Harry is certain will expel him from Hogwarts for using under-age magic. Surprisingly, the matter is dropped. While staying at the Leaky Cauldron, Harry hears Mr. and Mrs. Weasley arguing over whether he should be warned about Black.

There are a few changes at Hogwarts as Harry begins his third year. For one, Hermione is taking nearly twice as many classes, including some taught at the same time. In addition, two new teachers join the staff: Professor Remus J. Lupin for Defence Against the Dark Arts and Rubeus Hagrid for Care of Magical Creatures. While Lupin's lessons are enjoyable, Hagrid's soon become dreary. During the first class, Draco Malfoy deliberately provokes the hippogriff Buckbeak, a half-horse, half-bird creature, into attacking him. Draco's father, Lucius Malfoy, files a complaint against Hagrid.


Rising tensions
Because Black is still at large, Dementors, the inhuman Azkaban prison guards, patrol Hogwarts. Dementors drain happiness from anything they approach. Harry is particularly affected, and Professor Lupin teaches him the Patronus charm that repels them. During a Quidditch match, several Dementors approach Harry, causing him to faint and fall off his broomstick. Albus Dumbledore stops Harry's fall, but his Nimbus 2000 flies into the Whomping Willow and is destroyed.

Meanwhile, tension grows between Hermione and Ron because Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, continually torments Ron's rat, Scabbers. At Christmas, Harry receives a superb Firebolt broomstick, although Hermione suspects Black is the anonymous donor. She reports it to Professor Minerva McGonagall, who confiscates the broom for testing. Harry and Ron are furious with Hermione and stop speaking to her. When the broom is returned some months later, the two boys try to make up with Hermione, but it goes wrong when Ron discovers Scabbers is missing; Ron blames Crookshanks.


Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot & Prongs
Shortly before Christmas, the Weasley twins give Harry their Marauder's Map, a magical document that shows every person's location within Hogwarts as well as secret passageways in and out of the castle. Harry uses a tunnel to sneak into Hogsmeade village where he overhears a disturbing conversation that Black was his parents' best friend and is his godfather and legal guardian. He was the Potters' Secret Keeper and he supposedly divulged the Potters' secret whereabouts to Lord Voldemort and murdered their friend Peter Pettigrew, as well as the twelve Muggle bystanders.

After Harry completes his Divination Exam, Professor Trelawney enters a trance and predicts that the Dark Lord's servant will return to him that night. Harry and Ron finally make peace with Hermione, but the Trio soon learn that Buckbeak will be executed. When they visit Hagrid to console him, Scabbers turns up, although Crookshanks chases him to the Whomping Willow. A large dog attacks Ron and drags him and Scabbers into a hole at the tree's base. Harry and Hermione follow, finding a tunnel leading to the Shrieking Shack. Inside, Harry confronts Sirius Black, who, as an unregistered, and therefore illegal, Animagus, can transform into an animal at will. Lupin, who spotted the group on the Marauder's Map, suddenly bursts in and embraces his old friend Black. Confronted by Hermione, Lupin admits to being a werewolf and also the Map's creator, along with Black, Pettigrew, and James Potter, the latter two also being illegal Animagi (a rat and a stag, respectively). Lupin and Black explain that Scabbers is actually Peter Pettigrew in his Animagus form. He is Voldemort's servant, and he betrayed the Potters, framing Black for the crimes. Harry is skeptical until Black and Lupin force Pettigrew back into his human form. Black explains he discovered that Pettigrew was still alive and escaped Azkaban to seek revenge.


Saving the innocent
As the group heads back to the castle, the full moon rises, causing Lupin to turn into a werewolf. During the ensuing commotion, Pettigrew escapes. Black turns into his dog form to protect the others from Werewolf Lupin. Lupin flees, leaving Black badly injured. As Dementors move in to attack Black, Harry and Hermione see a mysterious figure in the distance cast a powerful stag-shaped Patronus, scattering the vicious creatures. Harry becomes convinced it is his father, or at least his father's spirit, who produced the Patronus. Black is then captured and taken to the castle where the Dementors intend to suck out his soul.

Hermione reveals to Harry that she was entrusted with a time-traveling device, which is how she was able to attend so many classes. Prompted by Dumbledore, she and Harry travel three hours into the past, watching themselves go through the night's previous events. They set Buckbeak free and return to the Whomping Willow. As the dementors are about to attack the "other" Harry and Black, Harry realises that the mysterious figure he saw earlier was actually himself. He casts the powerful Patronus that repels the dementors. Harry and Hermione free Black, who escapes on Buckbeak as the timeline restores itself to normal.


Pre-release history
Of the first three books in the series, Prisoner of Azkaban took the shortest amount of time to write - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone took five years to complete and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets needed two years, while Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was written in one year[2]. Rowling's favourite aspect of this book was introducing the character Remus Lupin.[2]


Editions
Bloomsbury (United Kingdom, Australia, Canada etc.)
ISBN 0-7475-4215-5 Hardcover
ISBN 0-7475-4629-0 Paperback
ISBN 0-7475-7362-X Hardcover (adult edition)
ISBN 0-7475-7449-9 Paperback (adult edition)
ISBN 0-7475-7376-X Paperback ("celebratory" edition)
ISBN 0-7475-4511-1 Hardcover (special edition)
Scholastic (United States etc.)
ISBN 0-439-13635-0 Hardcover
ISBN 0-439-13636-9 Paperback
Raincoast (Canada)
ISBN 1-55192-704-7 Paperback (adult edition)
See: Harry Potter in translation for foreign language editions.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

“HP2” redirects here. For the Ilford photographic film, see Ilford HP.
This article is about the book. You may be looking for the film or the video game.
Harry Potter books
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Author J. K. Rowling
Illustrators Cliff Wright
Mary GrandPré
Genre Fantasy
Publishers Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, Scholastic Press, Raincoast Books
Released 2 July 1998
June 2, 1999
Book no. Two
Sales ~77 million (Worldwide)
Story timeline 1943
1992-1993
Chapters 18
Pages 251
341
Preceded by Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Followed by Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, is the second novel in the Harry Potter series written by J.K. Rowling. The book was published on 2 July 1998.

Contents [hide]
1 Plot
1.1 An unusual summer
1.2 Heir of Slytherin
1.3 The Chamber of Secrets
1.4 Resolution
2 Pre-release history
3 Editions
4 Translations
5 References
6 External links



Plot

An unusual summer

While home with the Dursleys for the summer, Harry Potter is not getting any mail from his friends, Ron and Hermione. On his twelfth birthday (July 31) Harry is visited by Dobby, a house-elf, who warns Harry that he will be in mortal danger if he returns to Hogwarts. Harry ignores Dobby's dire warning and is determined to return. It turns out that Dobby has been collecting Harry's letters to make it seem as though his friends had forgotten him, hoping Harry might then not want to return to Hogwarts. Seeing that he will have to use force, Dobby decides to destroy, by the use of a charm, a pudding that Aunt Petunia has made for an important dinner party attended by a potential client and his wife of Vernon Dursley. Harry is blamed by the Ministry of Magic for Dobby's charm, and is told that if he does magic outside school again, he will be expelled. On learning that Harry cannot perform magic outside school, the Dursleys, previously fearful of his wizarding, lock Harry’s books and wand away and Vernon Dursley fits bars onto his bedroom window and door, making Harry a prisoner.

A few days later, Fred, George and Ron Weasley come to his rescue in their father's enchanted Ford Anglia. After a pleasant summer together in the the Weasley house, everyone heads to Platform 9¾ to take the Hogwarts Express back to school. To their shock, Harry and Ron are unable to enter the barrier between platforms 9 and 10. In desperation, they fly to Hogwarts in the car, crashing into the Whomping Willow and damaging Ron's wand. The semi-sentient car ejects them and their belongings and disappears into the Forbidden Forest.


Heir of Slytherin
Harry Potter soon finds he is the unwanted center of attention of three people: the vain new Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, Gilderoy Lockhart (a wizard perpetuating his own legend), admirer Colin Creevey (a young first year Gryffindor who endlessly takes photos of Harry and begs for autographs), and Ron's sister, Ginny Weasley, who fancies Harry. Events take a turn for the worse when the Chamber of Secrets is opened and a monster stalks the castle, with the power to turn people to stone. To the horror of Hogwarts, the monster petrifies several students. According to legend, the Chamber was built by Salazar Slytherin and can only be opened by his heir, in order to purge Hogwarts of students who are not pure-blood wizards. Many suspect Harry is the heir of Slytherin, especially after he inadvertently speaks Parseltongue (the language of snakes), a rare ability Harry gained after Voldemort's failed murderous attack upon him when he was an infant.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione attempt to discover the Heir of Slytherin's true identity. Using Polyjuice Potion brewed by Hermione, Ron and Harry disguise themselves as Slytherin students, Crabbe and Goyle, hoping to learn from Draco Malfoy the identity of the Heir. Malfoy, they learn, does not know who the Heir of Slytherin is, but he inadvertently provides Harry and Ron with an important clue about the Chamber of Secrets.

Unfortunately, the hair that Hermione took from Millicent Bullstrode's uniform was from a cat, and as the Polyjuice Potion is only intended for human transformations she assumes a feline appearance; it takes several weeks to restore her normal human form. During her time in the hospital wing, the shades are pulled around Hermione's bed so that she does not have to endure the shame and humiliation of being stared at by other students, with rumours going around about her disappearance, and Harry and Ron bring Hermione her homework at her request. She is released from the hospital wing in early February, her normal appearance restored, and looks over the diary of Tom Riddle when Harry shows it to her, but she cannot make much of it.


The Chamber of Secrets
The attacks increase throughout the year, petrifying more students, including Hermione. Most horribly, a message written on a wall declares that Ginny Weasley has been taken into the Chamber, where "her skeleton will lie forever."

With the help of Ron and Moaning Myrtle, Harry discovers the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. They force Gilderoy Lockhart, a fraud who wipes clean other wizards' memories and claims their achievements, to go with them. Once they find the entrance to the Chamber, Lockhart attempts to use Ron's broken wand to erase Harry and Ron's memories, but the spell backfires on to himself and brings the ceiling caving in, separating Harry from Ron and Lockhart. Lockhart revives, but has now lost his own memory.

Harry makes it to the Chamber where he finds an unconscious Ginny. He also meets a young man named Tom Riddle, who claims to be a "memory". Harry learns that Ginny, under the control of Lord Voldemort, opened the Chamber. Voldemort, whose real name is Tom Marvolo Riddle (the anagram of which is "I am Lord Voldemort"), imprinted his memory in an enchanted diary, in order to one day continue the work he began when he opened the Chamber fifty years ago — ridding Hogwarts of non-pureblood witches and wizards. It was Hagrid, a Hogwarts student at the time, who was blamed for the attacks and expelled.

Tom Riddle's memory grows more powerful as it steals life from Ginny's body, and it tries to kill Harry by setting loose a basilisk (the monster responsible for petrifying the students). But Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes, arrives carrying the Sorting Hat, from which Harry draws out the sword of Godric Gryffindor. Fawkes blinds the basilisk, destroying its fatal gaze, and Harry slays it with the sword. In attempting to slay the basilisk, Harry's arm has been pierced by the creature's fang, and Riddle tells him that the venom will kill him within a minute. Harry stabs the diary with one of the basilisk's fangs, and the memory of Riddle is destroyed; Ginny awakens from her near-death state. Fawkes returns to heal Harry with his tears (phoenix tears have healing power). Ginny recovers fully, along with Hermione, Mrs Norris, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Nearly Headless Nick, Colin Creevey, and Penelope Clearwater.


Resolution
Harry realises it was Lucius Malfoy, Draco Malfoy's father, who slipped the diary into Ginny's cauldron when he encountered the Weasleys in a Diagon Alley bookshop, but he is unable to prove it. Dobby reveals he is the Malfoys' servant, and knowing their treachery, had been trying to protect Harry all year. In gratitude, Harry hides one of his old socks in the diary and hands it to Lucius. Lucius throws the diary back at Harry, but Dobby catches it and opens it to reveal the sock. This constitutes, in Dobby's eyes, a gift of clothing — the traditional manner in which a master frees a house-elf from servitude. The freed Dobby declares he is eternally grateful to Harry and protects him from an attempted reprisal from Lucius.

Dumbledore dispels Harry's fears that he should have been put into Slytherin rather than into Gryffindor when he tells Harry that it is his choices that define him and not his abilities, and that Harry could not have wielded the sword of Gryffindor if he did not truly belong to that house.


Pre-release history
In the early drafts of this book, the author had the ghost Nearly Headless Nick sing a self-composed song explaining his condition and the circumstances of his death. The material was cut as the book's editor did not care for the poem, although it has been subsequently published as an extra on J.K. Rowling's official website [1]. Another sub-plot cut from Chamber of Secrets was the family background of Dean Thomas, which was removed from the draft because Rowling and her publishers considered it an "unnecessary digression", and she considered Neville Longbottom's own journey of discovery "more important to the central plot"[2].

This book is thematically linked with the sixth book of the series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. In fact, Half-Blood Prince was the working title of Chamber of Secrets and certain "crucial" plot information from that book was intended to be placed in this volume, but Rowling ultimately felt that "this information's proper home was book six"[3]. Several items that later play a role in Half-Blood Prince first make their appearance in Chamber of Secrets, including the Hand of Glory and the opal necklace that appear when Harry is in Borgin & Burkes, Tom Riddle's diary and a Vanishing Cabinet damaged by Peeves the Poltergeist.

First edition printings had several errors, which were fixed in subsequent reprints. This includes Dumbledore saying that Voldemort was the last remaining ancestor of Salazar Slytherin, instead of descendant. Also, Lockhart's book on werewolves is entitled "Weekends with Werewolves" at one point, and "Wanderings with Werewolves" later in the book.


Editions
Bloomsbury (United Kingdom, Australia, Canada etc.)
ISBN 0-7475-3849-2 Hardcover
ISBN 0-7475-3848-4 Paperback
ISBN 0-7475-7361-1 Hardcover (adult edition)
ISBN 0-7475-7448-0 Paperback (adult edition)
Scholastic (United States etc.)
ISBN 0-439-06486-4 Hardcover
ISBN 0-439-06487-2 Paperback

Translations
Main article: Harry Potter in translation

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the seventh and final book of Harry Potter novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The book was released on July 21, 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 UK by Bloomsbury Publishing, in the USA by Scholastic Press, 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 eleven 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.[1]

Author J. K. Rowling
Illustrators Jason Cockcroft,
Mary GrandPré
Genre Fantasy
Publishers Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, Scholastic Press, Raincoast Books
Released July 21, 2007
Book no. Seven
Sales 11+ million (in first 24 hours after release)[1]
Story timeline July 1997 – May 1998 and 1 September 2017
Chapters 36 chapters and an epilogue
Pages 607
759
Preceded by Harry Potter and the Half-
Epigraph
All the books in the Harry Potter series have dedications, but Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the only one to include an epigraph. It contains two quotes relating to death and friendship. The first quotation is an English translation from Ancient Greek of a passage from The Libation Bearers, by the 5th century BC playwright Aeschylus.[2] The second quotation is from More Fruits of Solitude (1682) by William Penn, the Quaker author and founder of the American Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.[3]


Plot

The final summerLord Voldemort and his followers plot to ambush Harry Potter when he leaves the protected Dursley home for the last time. Voldemort also seeks a new wand to defeat Harry's. As members of the Order escort Harry to a safe house, they are attacked en route by Death Eaters. Harry narrowly escapes, but Hedwig and Mad-Eye Moody are killed.

A few days later, Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgeour arrives at The Burrow to give Harry, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger bequests from Albus Dumbledore's will. Ron receives a Deluminator, and Hermione is left a children's book, The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Harry inherits Godric Gryffindor's Sword and the Snitch he caught in his first-ever Quidditch match, although Scrimgeour withholds the sword. Although it's unclear why Dumbledore bequethed these particular objects, it appears they are meant to aid the trio's search for Voldemort's Horcruxes.


The search begins
During Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour's wedding reception, Kingsley Shacklebolt's Patronus arrives, warning that Scrimgeour is dead and the Ministry is now under Voldemort's control. As Death Eaters approach, Harry, Ron and Hermione Disapparate, ultimately taking refuge in 12 Grimmauld Place. There, Harry deduces that Sirius Black's brother Regulus was the "R.A.B" who removed the locket Horcrux from the sea cave.[HP6] Hermione recalls seeing a locket amongst house-elf Kreacher's possessions.[HP5] Kreacher reveals that he placed the locket Horcrux in the cave for Voldemort, and Regulus died retrieving it. The Horcrux has since fallen into Dolores Umbridge's possession via Mundungus Fletcher. The trio successfully infiltrate the Ministry of Magic and recover the locket, but Grimmauld Place is compromised during their escape, forcing them to flee.

The trio learn that the Gryffindor Sword confiscated by the Ministry is a fake. Harry wants to find the real one because it can destroy Horcruxes, but a frustrated Ron leaves the group. Harry and Hermione seek the sword in Godric's Hollow, but they are ambushed by Nagini and Voldemort. During their escape, Hermione accidentally breaks Harry's wand.

In the Forest of Dean, a doe-shaped Patronus leads Harry to an icy pond containing the real Sword. As Harry attempts to retrieve it, the locket Horcrux tightens around his neck, strangling him. He is saved by Ron, who has returned using Dumbledore'e Deluminator and destroys the locket with the sword. Reunited with his friends, Ron warns them that Voldemort's name is now a Taboo: uttering it reveals the speaker's location to bounty hunters, known as Snatchers.


The Deathly Hallows
The trio learn from Xenophilius Lovegood, Luna's father, that a cryptic symbol they have repeatedly encountered represents the three Deathly Hallows: the Elder Wand, Resurrection Stone, and Invisibility Cloak. When pressed about Luna's absence, Lovegood admits that Death Eaters abducted her in retaliation for supporting Harry in his paper, The Quibbler. Fearing for Luna's safety, he has alerted the Death Eaters that the trio is there, but they escape.

Harry is convinced Voldemort is seeking the Elder Wand, but when he accidentally speaks Voldemort's tabooed name, they are immediately captured by Snatchers and imprisoned at Malfoy Manor, along with Luna, Dean, Ollivander, and Griphook. Finding Gryffindor's Sword among the trio's possessions, Bellatrix Lestrange suspects they have broken into her Gringotts vault, and tortures Hermione for information. Dobby Apparates into the cellar and rescues Luna, Dean, and Ollivander, prompting Peter Pettigrew to investigate the noise. He throttles Harry, but reminded that he owes a life debt,[HP3] Pettigrew loosens his grip, causing his own silver hand to choke him to death in retribution. Harry and Ron rush upstairs, where Ron disarms Bellatrix and Harry takes Draco's wand. Dobby reappears, and they Disapparate to Bill and Fleur Weasley's cottage. Dobby is killed by Bellatrix's knife during the escape.

At the cottage, Ollivander confirms the Elder Wand's existence and says that a wand can transfer allegiance if its owner is defeated or disarmed. Bellatrix's behaviour convinces the trio that another Horcrux is hidden in the Lestrange vault. Aided by Griphook, they pentrate Gringotts' defences and retrieve Hufflepuff's Cup Horcrux.

Meanwhile, Voldemort steals the Elder Wand from Dumbledore's tomb, believing it is the only wand powerful enough to defeat Harry. Dumbledore captured it after defeating the dark wizard Grindelwald in a duel. Voldemort also realises that his Horcruxes are being destroyed; his mind link with Harry unintentionally reveals that another Horcrux is hidden in Hogwarts.


The Battle of Hogwarts
The trio travel to Hogsmeade, where Aberforth Dumbledore smuggles them into Hogwarts. Harry alerts the staff to Voldemort's impending invasion; Hogwarts allies arrive to help. Harry learns that Ravenclaw's Diadem is a Horcrux, while Hermione destroys the Cup Horcrux with a basilisk fang from the Chamber of Secrets.[HP2] Harry recalls seeing the diadem in the Room of Requirement.[HP6] The trio are attacked there by Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. Crabbe mishandles the powerful Fiendfyre spell, killing himself and destroying the diadem, but the others escape.

Harry sees into Voldemort's mind again, leading the trio to the Shrieking Shack. There they witness Voldemort kill Snape with Nagini, believing it will make him the Elder Wand's master. As Snape dies, he gives Harry memories that prove his loyalty to Dumbledore, motivated by his lifelong love for Harry's mother Lily. After being cursed by Gaunt's Ring Horcrux, a doomed Dumbledore ordered Snape to kill him, if necessary, at a strategic time. It was Snape who sent the doe Patronus. The memories also show that Harry himself is a Horcrux.

Resigned to death, Harry approaches Voldemort's camp in the Forbidden Forest. Along the way, he finds the Resurrection Stone inside the Snitch and summons the spirits of his parents, Sirius Black and the recently killed Remus Lupin, who comfort him. Voldemort strikes him with Avada Kedavra.

Awakening in an ethereal place, Harry is unsure whether he is alive or dead. Dumbledore appears and explains that Voldemort's Horcrux within Harry has been destroyed. He says that just as Voldemort cannot die while his soul fragments remain, Voldemort cannot kill Harry because he used Harry's blood in his resurrection.

Harry revives, but feigns death. Voldemort forces Hagrid to carry Harry's body to Hogwarts as a trophy. When Neville Longbottom defies Voldemort, the Sorting Hat is placed aflame atop his head; pulling it off, Neville withdraws Gryffindor's sword from it and beheads Nagini, destroying the final Horcrux. As the battle resumes, many magical folk join the combat against the Death Eaters. Knowing that he is the Elder Wand's true master, Harry challenges Voldemort. When Draco Malfoy disarmed Dumbledore on the Astronomy Tower,[HP6] he unknowingly became the Elder Wand's master; Harry gained its allegiance when he captured Draco's own wand. Voldemort casts a Killing Curse as Harry conjures a Disarming Spell, but the Elder Wand rebounds Voldemort's curse, killing him.

Among the battle's casualties are Fred Weasley, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Colin Creevey, and Bellatrix Lestrange. Harry tells Dumbledore's portrait he is keeping the Invisibility Cloak, but the Resurrection Stone will remain lost in the forest, and the Elder Wand is to be returned to Dumbledore's tomb, where its power will be extinguished if Harry dies undefeated. Dumbledore approves. Before returning the Elder Wand to the tomb, Harry uses it to repair his own wand.


Epilogue
Nineteen years later, Harry and Ginny Weasley are married and have three children: James, Albus Severus, and Lily. Ron and Hermione are also married and have two children, Rose and Hugo. The families meet at King's Cross station, where a nervous Albus is departing for his first year at Hogwarts. Harry's nineteen-year-old godson, Teddy Lupin, is found kissing Victoire Weasley in a train compartment. Teddy is a frequent visitor to the Potters, coming to dinner about four times a week. Harry sees Draco Malfoy and his unnamed wife with their son, Scorpius; Malfoy acknowledges Harry with a curt nod, then turns away. Harry comforts Albus, who is worried he will be sorted into Slytherin, by telling him that his namesake, Severus Snape, was a Slytherin and the bravest man he ever met. He adds that the Sorting Hat takes one's own choice into account. Neville Longbottom is now the Hogwarts Herbology professor and is close friends with Harry. The book concludes: "The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well."


Rowling's commentary and supplement
In an interview[4], online chat,[5][6][7], and Wizard of the Month section of her website, Rowling gave additional information on the futures of the main characters that she chose not to include in the epilogue of the book. She stated that:

Harry becomes an Auror for the Ministry of Magic, and is later appointed head of the department. He keeps Sirius's motorcycle, which Arthur Weasley repaired for him, but he can no longer speak Parseltongue after Voldemort's soul fragment inside him was destroyed.
Ginny Weasley plays for the Holyhead Harpies Quidditch team for a time, leaves to establish a family with Harry and later becomes the lead Quidditch correspondent for the Daily Prophet.
Ron Weasley works at George's store for a time, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, then joins Harry as an Auror.
Hermione finds her parents in Australia and removes the memory modification charm she put on them. She initially works for the Ministry of Magic in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, greatly improving life for house elves and their ilk. She later moves to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and assists in eradicating oppressive, pro-pureblood laws.
Rowling also explained the fates of several secondary characters:

George Weasley continues his successful joke shop and names his first child Fred, in memory of his late twin brother.
Luna Lovegood searches the world for odd and unique creatures. She eventually marries Rolf, a grandson of the famed naturalist, Newt Scamander.[7] Her father's publication, The Quibbler, has returned to its usual condition of "advanced lunacy" and is appreciated for its unintentional humour.
Firenze is welcomed back into his herd, who finally acknowledge the virtue of his pro-human leanings.
Dolores Umbridge is arrested, interrogated, and imprisoned for crimes against Muggle-borns.
There have been transformations in the wider wizarding world:

Kingsley Shacklebolt is the permanent Minister for Magic, with Percy Weasley working under him as a high official. Among the reforms introduced by Shacklebolt, Azkaban no longer uses Dementors. Consequently, the world is now a "much sunnier place". Harry, Ron, and Hermione have also been instrumental in reforming the Ministry.
At Hogwarts, Slytherin House has become more diluted and is no longer the pureblood bastion it once was, although its dark reputation lingers.
Voldemort's jinx on the Defence Against the Dark Arts (DADA) position is broken with his death. There is now a permanent DADA teacher.
A portrait of Snape, who briefly served as Hogwarts Headmaster, does not appear in the headmaster's office as he abandoned his post. Harry intends to lobby for the addition of Snape's portrait, and publicly reveals Snape's steadfastness.

Pre-release history

Choice of title
Shortly before releasing the title, J. K. Rowling announced that she had considered three different titles for the book.[5][8] The final title, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released to the public on December 21, 2006 via a special Christmas-themed hangman puzzle on Rowling's website, confirmed shortly afterwards by the book's publishers.[9] Asked during a live chat as to the other titles she had been considering, Rowling mentioned Harry Potter and the Elder Wand and Harry Potter and the Peverell Quest.[5]


Marketing campaigns
Scholastic's Seven Questions
In the build-up to the book's release, American publisher Scholastic released seven questions that fans would find answered in the final book:[10]

Who Will Live? Who Will Die?
Is Snape Good or Evil?
Will Hogwarts Reopen?
Who Winds Up With Whom?
Where are the Horcruxes?
Will Voldemort Be Defeated?
What are the Deathly Hallows?

The launch was celebrated by an all-night book signing and reading at the Natural History Museum in London, which Rowling attended along with 1700 guests chosen by ballot.[11] Rowling intends to tour the USA in October 2007, where another event will be held at Carnegie Hall in New York with tickets allocated by sweepstake.[12]

Scholastic Inc., the American publisher of the Harry Potter series, launched a multi-million dollar "THERE WILL SOON BE 7" marketing campaign with a 'Knight Bus' travelling to forty libraries across the United States, online fan discussions and competitions, collectible bookmarks, tattoos, and the staged release of seven Deathly Hallows questions most debated by fans.[13]

Scholastic also hosted "Harry Potter Place" — a magical and interactive street celebration at Scholastic headquarters in New York City, where the first U.S. signed edition of Deathly Hallows were unveiled on July 20, 2007.[14] The festivities included a 20 foot (6 metre)-high Whomping Willow, face-painting, wand-making, fire-eaters, magicians, jugglers and stilt-walkers.

Several bookstores set up small kiosks displaying free-to-take bookmarks. The bookmarks show reasons why Severus Snape should be considered a friend or a foe on opposite sides along with the Deathly Hallows logo at the bottom.[15]

J. K. Rowling arranged with her publishers for a poster bearing the face of the missing Madeleine McCann to be made available to book sellers when Deathly Hallows was launched on 21 July and said that she hoped that the posters would be displayed prominently in shops all over the world.[16]


Rowling on finishing the book
Rowling completed the book while staying at the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh in January 2007, and left a signed statement on a marble bust of Hermes in her room which read: "JK Rowling finished writing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in this room (652) on 11 January 2007".[17] In a statement on her website, she said, "I've never felt such a mixture of extreme emotions in my life, never dreamed I could feel simultaneously heartbroken and euphoric." She compared her mixed feelings to those expressed by Charles Dickens in the preface of the 1850 edition of David Copperfield, "a two-years' imaginative task." "To which," she added, "I can only sigh, try seventeen years, Charles..." She ended her message, "Deathly Hallows is my favourite, and that is the most wonderful way to finish the series."[18]

When asked before publication about the forthcoming book, Rowling stated that she could not change the ending even if she wanted to. "These books have been plotted for such a long time, and for six books now, that they're all leading a certain direction. So, I really can't."[19] She also commented that the final volume related closely to the previous book in the series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, "almost as though they are two halves of the same novel."[20] She has said that the last chapter of the book was written "in something like 1990", as part of her earliest work on the series.[21]


Spoiler embargo

Rowling made a public request that anyone with advance information about the content of the last book should keep it to themselves, in order to avoid spoiling the experience for other readers.[22] To this end, Bloomsbury invested GB£10 million in an attempt to keep the book's contents secure until the July 21 release date.[23] Arthur Levine, U.S. editor of the Harry Potter series, denied distributing any copies of Deathly Hallows in advance for press review, but two U.S. papers published early reviews anyway.[24][25]


Online leaks and early delivery

The title page of the leaked book.In the week prior to its release, a number of texts purporting to be genuine leaks appeared in various forms. On July 16, a set of photographs representing all 759 pages of the U.S. edition was leaked to the Internet and was fully transcribed prior to the official release date.[26][27][28][29] The photographs later appeared on websites and peer-to-peer networks, leading Scholastic to seek a subpoena in order to identify one source.[30] This represented the most serious security breach in the Harry Potter series' history.[31] Rowling and her lawyer admitted that there were genuine online leaks.[32] Reviews published in both The Baltimore Sun and The New York Times on July 18, 2007 corroborated many of the plot elements from this leak, and about one day prior to release, The New York Times confirmed that the main circulating leak was real.[33]

Scholastic announced that approximately one ten-thousandth (0.01%) of the U.S. supply had been shipped early — interpreted to mean about 1,200 copies.[34] One reader in Maryland received a copy of the book in the mail from DeepDiscount.com four days before it was launched, which evoked incredulous responses on the part of both Scholastic and DeepDiscount. Scholastic initially reported that they were satisfied it had been a "human error" and would not discuss possible penalties.[35] However, the following day Scholastic announced that it would be launching legal action against DeepDiscount.com and its distributor, Levy Home Entertainment.[36] Scholastic has filed for damages in Chicago's Circuit Court of Cook County, claiming[37] that DeepDiscount engaged in a "complete and flagrant violation of the agreements that they knew were part of the carefully constructed release of this eagerly awaited book." Some of the early release books soon appeared on eBay, in one case being sold to Publishers Weekly for US$250 from an initial price of US$18.[38]


Price wars and other controversies

ASDA,[39] plus several other UK supermarkets, had already taken pre-orders for the book at a heavily discounted price. ASDA then sparked a further price war two days before the book's launch by announcing they would sell it for just GB£5.00 a copy (about US$10). Other retail chains also offered the book at discounted prices.[40] In Malaysia, a similar price war brought about controversy regarding sales of the book.[41] The book's early Saturday morning release in Israel was criticised for violating the Sabbath.[42]


Sales

Queue in London at Waterstone's near Picadilly Circus; some people camped outside the bookseller for over two days to be among the first to receive the book.On 21 July 2007, all English language editions, except for the American and Canadian editions, were released at one minute past midnight (00:01) BST; the American and Canadian editions were released at one minute past midnight (00:01), local time.[43][44] It was released globally in 93 countries.[45] The book reached the top spot on both the Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble best-seller lists just a few hours after the date of publication was announced on 1 February 2007.[46] In July 2007 the U.K. newspaper the Daily Telegraph reported that it had been bought by more than 10% of the British population in the 5 days since its release.[47]


The countdown to the book's release outside of Toys R Us, Times Square, New York City.Retailers such as Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and Borders reported that more orders had been placed for this book than for any other in history,[48] with Amazon.com stating that advance orders of the book reached 2.2 million worldwide,[49] breaking the record set by the sixth book of 1.5 million.[50] Scholastic announced an unprecedented initial print run of 12 million copies.[13]


A bookstore in the United States just before the midnight release.On the book's first day of sales, it sold 11 million copies in the UK and U.S., breaking the record of 9 million held by the sixth book.[51] In the U.S., 8.3 million hardcovers were sold during the first 24 hours, breaking the record of 6.9 million set by the sixth book.[52] In addition 400,000 copies were sold in Germany in the first 24 hours,[47] all 250,000 copies made available in Holland and Belgium,[47] 170,000 in India,[53] and just over 573,000 copies in Australia;[54] while in Canada over 800,000 copies were sold in the first two days.[55] Barnes & Noble, the largest U.S. book chain, reported all-time record sales of 1.8 million copies in the first two days including 560,000 in the first hour - a rate of more than 150 copies per second. The audiobook broke records as well, with 225,000 copies sold in the first two days, according to Random House Audio's Listening Library.[56] Borders reported record sales of 1.2 million copies on the first day, breaking the record of 850,000 set by the sixth book.[57]

During the run-up to the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Bloomsbury's stock lost more than £151M in value. Investors were reacting to the end of the publisher's key product.[58] In the last financial year in which no Harry Potter book was released, Bloomsbury's profits dropped by 75%.


Critical reception
The Baltimore Sun's critic, Mary Carole McCauley's, praised the entire Harry Potter series as "a classic bildungsroman, or coming-of-age tale." She noted that "[b]ook seven... lacks much of the charm and humor that distinguished the earlier novels. Even the writing is more prosaic", but then observed that given the book's darker subject matter, "[h]ow could it be otherwise?"[59]

Reviewer Alice Fordham from The Times writes that "Rowling’s genius is not just her total realisation of a fantasy world, but the quieter skill of creating characters that bounce off the page, real and flawed and brave and lovable." Fordham concludes, "We have been a long way together, and neither [Rowling] nor Harry let us down in the end."[60]

By contrast, Jenny Sawyer of the Christian Science Monitor says that while "There is much to love about the Harry Potter series, from its brilliantly realized magical world to its multilayered narrative," however, "A story is about someone who changes. And, puberty aside, Harry doesn't change much. As envisioned by Rowling, he walks the path of good so unwaveringly that his final victory over Voldemort feels, not just inevitable, but hollow."[61]

Stephen King criticised the reactions of some reviewers to the books, including McCauley, for jumping too quickly to surface conclusions of the work.[62] He felt this was inevitable, because of the extreme secrecy before launch which did not allow reviewers time to read and consider the book, but meant that many early reviews lacked depth. Rather than finding the writing style disappointing he felt it had matured and improved. He acknowledged that the subject matter of the books had become more adult, and that Rowling had clearly been writing with the adult audience firmly in mind since the middle of the series. He compared the works in this respect to Huckleberry Finn and Alice in Wonderland which also achieved success and have become established classics, in part by appealing to the adult audience as well as children.


Translations
Main article: Harry Potter in translation
Following a pre-release question from the Swedish publisher about the difficulty of translating the two words "Deathly Hallows" without having read the book, Rowling revealed an alternative title from which non-English editions could be translated: Harry Potter and the Relics of Death.[63]

The first translation to be released was the Ukrainian translation, on September 25, 2007. [64] Translation of the book is still underway in a range of languages. Expected publication dates for various translations:

Turkish (as Harry Potter ve Ölüm Yadigarları) version expected to be released on October 9, 2007 Harry Potter'ın yeni kitabi 9 Ekim'de Türkiye'de
Russian, on October 13, 2007 [1]
Vietnamese (tentatively titled Harry Potter và tử thần tích expected to be released in mid-October, 2007 (Vietnamese) Thông tin từ NXB Trẻ về Harry Potter 7. Trẻ Publishing House (July 24, 2007). Retrieved on 2007-07-26.
Traditional Chinese (as 哈利波特-死神的聖物, Pinyin: Hālìpōtè - Sǐshéndeshèngwù) version will be released on October 20, 2007
French (as Harry Potter et les reliques de la mort, expected release date of October 26, 2007 Annonce officielle de la version française du tome 7
German (Harry Potter und die Heiligtümer des Todes, expected release date October 27, 2007 www.carlsen-harrypotter.de)
Portuguese, expected release in Portugal on November 16, 2007 [2]
Hebrew translation expected in Israel in December 2007. (Chicago Jewish Star, July 27, 2007).
Finnish (name yet undisclosed) expected March 7, 2008www.tammi.net/harrypotter (Finnish)

Editions

Stack of the Scholastic version displayed at Comic Con 2007.Bloomsbury (United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, etc.)
ISBN 0-7475-9105-9 Hardcover
ISBN 0-7475-9106-7 Hardcover (adult edition)
ISBN 0-7475-9107-5 Hardcover (special edition)
Scholastic (United States, etc.)
ISBN 0-545-01022-5 Hardcover
ISBN 0-545-02937-6 Deluxe Hardcover; Raincoast (Canada, etc. - Same as Bloomsbury editions)
ISBN 1551929767 Hardcover
ISBN 1551929783 Hardcover (adult edition)

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

“HP1” redirects here. For protein molecule, see Heterochromatin Protein 1.
This article is about the book. You may be looking for the film or the video game.
Harry Potter books
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Author J. K. Rowling
Illustrators Thomas Taylor,
Mary GrandPré
Genre Fantasy
Publishers Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, Scholastic Press, Raincoast Books
Released June 30, 1997 (1997-06-30)
September 1, 1998 (1998-09-01)
Book no. One
Sales ~107 million (Worldwide)
Story timeline 1981
1991-1992
Chapters 17
Pages 223
309

Followed by Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (published in the United States as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) is the first novel in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling and featuring the fictional character Harry Potter, a young wizard. It was published 30 June 1997 by Bloomsbury in London, and has also been made into a feature-length film of the same name. This is also the most popular of the books in terms of number sold — an estimated 107 million copies worldwide. As of August 2007, the book is number nine on the best selling book list of all time, and is the second best-selling non-religious, non-political work of fiction of all time, beaten only by Don Quixote by Cervantes.


Plot


Beginning
Lord Voldemort, an evil and powerful dark wizard, has just been defeated. When he tried to kill a one-year old child, Harry Potter, the killing curse rebounded upon him, destroying his body. Harry is left an orphan with a lightning-bolt scar on his forehead, Voldemort having killed his parents, Lily and James Potter. Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall and Gamekeeper Hagrid leave him on the doorstep of his ultra-conventional, insensitive, negligent Muggle (non-magical) relatives, the Dursley family, who take him in. Harry's aunt, Petunia Dursley, was Harry's mother Lily's sister. Harry's relatives decide to conceal his magical heritage from him and make him live in a cupboard (closet) under the stairs for ten years.

Shortly before Harry's eleventh birthday, he receives a letter addressed specifically to him. His outraged uncle, however, reads and burns it before Harry has a chance to look at the contents. The sender does not give up, and the Dursleys receive successively larger numbers of the same correspondence. Soon, his uncle becomes so paranoid that the Dursleys, with Harry in tow, hide in a hut on a small island to escape. That night (which happens to be Harry's birthday), he is visited by an enormous man named Hagrid who bursts through the locked door of the hut. With Hagrid holding the Dursleys at bay, Harry finally reads his letter, in which he learns he has been invited to study magic at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The next day Harry and Hagrid leave the hut and head to Diagon Alley in London (the secret magical location hidden behind the famous wizarding pub The Leaky Cauldron). Harry enters the wizarding world for the first time, learns to his surprise that he is famous, and meets the new Hogwarts Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Quirrell. He takes the train to Hogwarts from Platform Nine and three-quarters, befriending Ron Weasley, and meeting Neville Longbottom, a frightfully forgetful boy, and Hermione Granger, a Muggle-born witch.

Admission to Hogwarts
Upon arrival, the Sorting Hat places Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville in Gryffindor House. Draco Malfoy, an arrogant and elitist student whom Harry had met at Diagon Alley, gets placed in Slytherin. At the end of his first week at Hogwarts, Harry and Ron discover that the wizarding bank Gringotts was robbed, and a vault that Harry and Hagrid visited had been the subject of the burglary. Later, Harry discovers he has a talent for riding broomsticks, and after a broom-mounted game of keep away with Malfoy over Neville's Remembrall, an orb that tells you when you've forgotten something, is recruited to join Gryffindor's Quidditch team as a Seeker. He is the youngest Quidditch player at the school in a century, much to Malfoy's displeasure.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville are out in Hogwarts' halls late at night waiting for Harry's duel challenger Malfoy to arrive. When the caretaker Filch startles them, they flee and accidentally stumble across the door to a corridor, finding themselves near a monstrous three-headed dog, christened Fluffy by Hagrid, that guards a trapdoor. On Halloween, Quirrell informs everyone that a troll has entered the castle and is in the dungeon; as the rest of the students hurry to their dorms, Ron and Harry remember hearing that Hermione is in the girls' bathroom crying because Ron insulted her, and realize that she does not know about the troll. The two of them go to the girls bathroom and see that the troll has broken into it. They fight the troll and save Hermione and the three become best friends.


SuspicionsAt Harry's first Quidditch match, Harry's broom becomes possessed, nearly knocking him off. Hermione sees Professor Severus Snape, the sinister Potions master, staring at Harry and mouthing words, making her believe that Snape has caused the broom to misbehave with a dark curse. Hoping to save Harry, Hermione sets Snape's robes on fire, distracting him and others and allowing Harry to survive and catch the Snitch.

At Christmas, Harry receives an Invisibility Cloak, once belonging to his father, which renders its wearer invisible. Harry uses it to explore the Restricted Section in the library to research information on Nicolas Flamel, a name Hagrid lets slip when confronted about his knowledge of Fluffy. On being discovered in the library by caretaker Argus Filch, Harry escapes to a disused classroom in which he finds the Mirror of Erised which shows Harry's family. After three nights of returning to the mirror, once accompanied by Ron, Harry is confronted by Dumbledore though he is not angry at Harry. Dumbledore explains that the mirror shows the deepest desires of our Hearts; Harry can see his family; Ron sees himself better than all his brothers. Dumbledore then tells Harry the mirror is to be moved and if he sees it again he will be prepared. Harry then asks Dumbledore what he saw when he looked in the mirror and he answers a pair of woollen socks, he says every Christmas holidays he is given books and for once he would like some nice woollen socks. However, Harry suspected that this was the only question that Dumbledore did not answer honestly in their friendship. Eventually, Harry learns (through Hermonie who found out from a library book) that "Nicolas Flamel is the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone, which produces the Elixir of Life which will make the drinker immortal."[1]

Harry sees Snape trying to get information from Quirrell about getting past Fluffy; Quirrell says he does not know what he's talking about. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are sure that Snape is trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone in order to restore Lord Voldemort to power, but Hagrid denies it. While at Hagrid's hut, the trio discover a dragon egg Hagrid was nursing in a fire. Later the egg hatches a Norwegian Ridgeback dragon, and Hagrid decides to call him "Norbert". The friends are nervous for Hagrid, since dragon breeding had long been outlawed in the wizarding world, and Hagrid had something of a reckless nature, who has long since nursed a strong desire for a dragon. Finally, Harry, Ron, and Hermione are able to convince Hagrid to let Norbert go live with other dragons of his kind in Romania, and arranged for the dragon, (now quite large in size), to be picked up by Ron's older dragon trainer brother, Charlie.

Harry, Hermione, Neville, and Draco are caught out late at night (Ron is meanwhile in the hospital wing, being treated for a bite from Norbert), and are forced to serve detention with Hagrid in the Forbidden Forest. Harry sees a hooded figure drink the blood of an injured unicorn, which makes Harry's forehead scar start burning. Firenze, a centaur, tells Harry that it is a monstrous thing to slay a unicorn, let alone drink its blood. He also tells Harry that unicorn blood sustains life but gives the drinker a cursed life and that the hooded figure is in fact Voldemort.


The Philosopher's Stone
Harry, Hermione and Ron find out that Hagrid, while he was drunk in a pub, has told a hooded stranger how to get past Fluffy, and they believe the theft of the Stone is imminent. Rushing to finally confide in Professor Dumbledore their news, they meet Professor McGonagall, who is shocked to find out how much they knew about the Stone, but reassures them all the same that it is safe in the castle. She also tells them that Dumbledore has been sent away on an important mission by the Ministry of Magic. Positive that Dumbledore's summons was a red herring to take Professor Dumbledore away from Hogwarts, the trio make plans to thwart Snape's theft of the stone. They set out to reach the stone first, navigating the security system set up by the school's staff, which is a series of complex magical challenges. The three make it through together until finally, Harry must enter the inner chamber alone. There he finds that meek Professor Quirrell, not Snape, is attempting to steal the Stone who then uses magic to tie Harry up. Realising that Snape was trying to protect him from harm all along, Harry confronts Quirrell and survives a second encounter with Lord Voldemort, who has possessed Quirrell and appears as a ghastly face on the back of Quirrell's head. Quirrell gets blisters when he touches Harry's skin, and Harry suffers because of his close proximity to Lord Voldemort. Dumbledore arrives just in time to rescue Harry. Voldemort then pitilessly abandons Quirrell, who dies in the aftermath of his possession.

Aftermath
Dumbledore reveals to Harry that Harry's mother died to protect Harry as an infant. Her pure, loving sacrifice provides Harry with an ancient magical protection from Voldemort's lethal spells and also prevents Voldemort from touching Harry without suffering terribly. Dumbledore also says that the Philosopher's Stone has been destroyed to prevent future attempts by Voldemort to steal it.

Whilst in the Hospital wing Harry asks Dumbledore why Voldemort attempted to kill him when he was a young child. Dumbledore tells Harry when he is old enough he will tell him why.

Finally, at the end-of-year feast, the House Points totals are given: Gryffindor is in last place. However, Dumbledore gives a few "last-minute additions", granting points to Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville, so that Gryffindor wins the House Cup.


[edit] Missing text
As with Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the American version of the book has retained text edited out of the British version. According to the author's website:[2]

“ Anybody who has read both the American and British versions of 'Philosopher's Stone' will notice that Dean Thomas' appearance is not mentioned in the British book, whereas in the American one there is a line describing him (in the chapter 'The Sorting Hat').
This was an editorial cut in the British version; my editor thought that chapter was too long and pruned everything that he thought was surplus to requirements.


The American version reads as follows. The text not in the British version is highlighted in bold:[3]

“ And now there were only three people left to be sorted. "Thomas, Dean," a Black boy even taller than Ron, joined Harry at the Gryffindor table. "Turpin, Lisa," became a Ravenclaw and then it was Ron's turn. ”

This edit also created a minor incongruency in the American edition. Since Dean Thomas' mention had been edited out of the British edition, it is mentioned that "there were only three people left to be sorted". However, in the American edition, Dean Thomas, Lisa Turpin, Ron Weasley and Blaise Zabini were all sorted after this statement was made.


Translations
Main article: Harry Potter in translation
American edition
Both the book and the motion picture were released in the United States with the revised title Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The book's U.S. editor, Arthur Levine, who was also responsible for Americanizing words, spellings, and grammar characteristic of British English, felt that Philosopher's Stone conveyed an incorrect idea of the subject matter, and that a title change was necessary. Rowling and Levine had agreed to change words only when they felt that British usages would be unnecessarily confusing to American readers (e.g., replacing the phrase "Quidditch pitch" with "Quidditch field" in multiple instances). Several alternative titles were discussed, and Rowling chose Sorcerer's Stone in the end.[4] The "translations" in the American edition led to criticism by many readers. The New York Times ran an op-ed titled "Harry Potter, Minus a Certain Flavour" on July 10, 2000, which heavily criticised Scholastic's decision to Americanize the U.S. Harry Potter editions.[5] Many felt that the translations insulted the intelligence of the American public, and also deprived American readers of an opportunity to learn about other dialects of English. In their editions of the sequels, Scholastic continued to replace British orthography (such as "flavour") with the standard U.S. spellings, but otherwise left many of the British usages unaltered, and did not change the titles.