Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Content

Storyline

Introduction

At a meeting between Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters at the Malfoy house, Severus Snape shares important information about Harry's impending escape from the Dursley house: According to this, the Order of the Phoenix plans to take Harry to the home of one of its members at sundown next Saturday, as the Dursley house will soon no longer offer him protection. A spell causes Voldemort to be unable to touch or harm Harry in the place Harry calls home. This spell ends when Harry reaches his 17th birthday. Since he intends to kill Harry personally, Voldemort decides to assist in the planned attack. The Death Eater Yaxley also reports the planned takeover of the Ministry of Magic. To do this, Yaxley has also used the Imperius Curse to take control of Pius Thicknesse, a senior Ministry official who later becomes Minister of Magic. During the meeting, Voldemort kills Hogwarts teacher Charity Burbage with a Death Curse.

The Order of the Phoenix decides to use Polyjuice Potion to confuse potential enemies during Harry's escort. Thus, several members of the Order take on Harry's appearance. Each of the fake Harrys is accompanied by an experienced wizard; the real Harry travels with Hagrid. Shortly after leaving the house on flying brooms, thestrals, and an enchanted motorcycle, a gaggle of Death Eaters circles them in mid-air and separates the group. The real Harry is eventually identified and attacked by Voldemort himself, but this fails in a similar way to the end of Harry Potter and theGoblet of Fire. By the skin of their teeth, Harry and his companion reach the safe house, the foxhole. George Weasley loses an ear due to a curse by Severus Snape and Alastor Moody dies due to Voldemort's spell.

While staying at the foxhole, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger reaffirm their decision to accompany Harry on his quest for the Horcruxes. During these days, Minister of Magic Rufus Scrimgeour visits them to give them three heirlooms from former Headmaster of Hogwarts Albus Dumbledore: Dumbledore's Deluminator for Ron and the book Tales of Beedle the Bard for Hermione. Harry receives the Snitch he caught in his first Quidditch game at Hogwarts. However, Scrimgeour denies him the sword of Godric Gryffindor, which is also bequeathed to him.

At Bill and Fleur's wedding, Harry meets Luna's father Xenophilius Lovegood, who wears a strange mark on his chest. It is the symbol of the black magician Gellert Grindelwald. However, Harry cannot believe that Luna's father has anything to do with the Dark Arts. In addition, Harry meets Ron's old aunt Muriel, who tells him rumors about the late headmaster Dumbledore. In the midst of this conversation, the Patronus of Kingsley Shacklebolt bursts in, bringing news of the Death Eaters' takeover of the Ministry of Magic and the murder of Scrimgeour, and warning the wedding party of coming Death Eaters. Moments later, they attack the wedding party. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are able to Apparate to London's Tottenham Court Road at the last second. They are found shortly afterwards by Death Eaters in a café. After a fight, the three escape again and find an initially safe house at 12 Grimmauld Place. It later turns out that the Death Eaters found the three through a taboo on the use of the name "Voldemort".

The search for the Horcruxes

Number 12 Grimmauld Place becomes the trio's headquarters. There they uncover the identity of R.A.B.: It is Sirius' brother Regulus Arcturus Black, who at the time removed the Horcrux - the Slytherin locket - from Voldemort's lair with the intention of destroying it. However, he does not succeed in doing so, nor does the old house-elf Kreacher. In the meantime, however, the locket is in the possession of Dolores Umbridge. After spying on the Ministry of Magic for a month, Harry, Hermione and Ron infiltrate it with the help of the Polyjuice Potion. Harry and Hermione manage to steal the locket from Dolores Umbridge. They also free several Muggle-born wizards, who are now being pursued by the Ministry, and encourage them to leave the country. On the run, their hideout at 12 Grimmauld Place is discovered, forcing them henceforth to spend the night in a tent in constantly changing locations.

After a few months on the run, they overhear the conversation of several fowlers, including the goblin Griphook. They learn that the Ministry unknowingly possesses only a copy of Gryffindor's sword - the original's repository is unknown. Harry questions the portrait of Phineas Nigellus, a former headmaster of Hogwarts, about this and learns that Dumbledore used the sword to destroy one of the Horcruxes. Having so far failed to destroy the locket, Harry plans to find the real sword. After several weeks of unsuccessful searching, an argument between Ron and Harry escalates, and Ron leaves in a huff. Hermione and Harry continue the search as a pair, traveling to Godric's Hollow, Harry's birthplace. In the graveyard there, they visit the graves of Harry's parents and Dumbledore's family. While there, they discover the mysterious symbol on an old gravestone that Harry saw on Xenophilius Lovegood. At the ruined home of Harry's parents, the two meet Bathilda Bagshot, a neighbor of the teenage Dumbledore. They follow her, hoping for information about the sword. However, they realize that Voldemort's serpent Nagini has made use of Bathilda's body to ambush Harry and trap him for Voldemort. The two narrowly escape. In the commotion, Harry's wand breaks.

Harry and Hermione find their next refuge in the Forest of Dean. One night, a Patronus in the form of a hind leads Harry to a frozen pond in the forest. At its bottom, he discovers the Sword of Gryffindor and dives into the freezing water to retrieve it. Underwater, the chain of the Slytherin locket tightens around his neck, nearly strangling him. When Harry regains consciousness, Ron is with him, having rescued him. With the help of the Deluminator left for him, Ron was able to find the other two. Ron then destroys the Horcrux with the sword of Gryffindor. Afterwards, he apologizes for running away and they reconcile.

Deathly Hallows

Ron, Harry and Hermione seek out Xenophilius Lovegood (Luna's father) to ask him about the symbol he wore at the wedding - a triangle with a circle and a vertical line inside. He refers to an old fairy tale, "The Tale of the Three Brothers," which Hermione reads from her storybook. The story is illustrated in the book with the same symbol.

The story is about three brothers who were once granted a wish by Death himself. All three wanted to overcome death with their wishes. The oldest brother wished for a magic wand that was more powerful than all the others. Death carved him a wand from an elder branch - the Elder Wand (Elder Wand, "elder", but also older or the oldest). The second wished for the power to raise the dead and received the Stone of Resurrection. Finally, the youngest wanted to be able to hide from death and received death's own cloak of invisibility. For the two older brothers, the gifts did not bring the success they had hoped for, and so Death quickly made them his own. The third brother, however, lived long and in peace until, as an old man, he laid aside the cloak of invisibility and passed it on to his son. Thus death finally found him, and he died.

The Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone and the Cloak of Shroud are known in the wizarding world as the so-called "Deathly Hallows", but hardly anyone believes that they really exist - including Hermione at first. But there is a kernel of truth to the legend: Harry realises that, unbeknownst to him, he has been in possession of one of the Deathly Hallows for years - the Cloak of Stealth, which he inherited from his father. But before they can think any further about it, they realize that Xenophilius is hiding a secret from them. Death Eaters are holding his daughter Luna hostage and he intends to ransom her by turning Harry, Ron and Hermione in. Summoned Death Eaters attack the house, but once again they manage to escape.

A short time later, Harry utters the name "Voldemort" again for the first time. This leads to their immediate discovery, as the word has been placed under a taboo curse. Gryphons (bounty hunters) capture her, along with the equally elusive Dean Thomas and the goblin Griphook, and take her to the Malfoy estate. Bellatrix Lestrange recognizes Godric Gryffindor's sword among her belongings and panics, as it should be safely in her dungeon at Gringotts. She has Ron and Harry locked in the cellar while she interrogates Hermione under torture. In the cellar, Harry meets the wandmaker Ollivander and Luna. Harry sees an eye in a shard of his magic mirror and asks for help. Shortly after, Dobby appears in the dungeon and helps Dean, Griphook, Luna, and Ollivander escape. Ron and Harry free Hermione; in the process, Harry defeats Draco Malfoy in a duel. The returned Dobby also rescues the trio and takes them to Fleur and Bill's house on the coast of England. However, in the process, a knife hurled by Bellatrix Lestrange severely injures Dobby and he dies. Later, Harry buries Dobby. Ollivander confirms to Harry that his wand is destroyed beyond repair. Harry instead uses the wand he took from Draco Malfoy.

From Bellatrix's panicked reaction to the sword, the three deduce that there is another Horcrux in her dungeon in the wizarding bank of Gringotts. Together with Griphook, who used to work at Gringotts, they break in there and are able to secure the next Horcrux, Helga Hufflepuff's chalice, at great risk. The three escape on the back of a blinded dragon that guarded the oldest dungeons in the bank.

Through the still existing connection between Harry's and Voldemort's souls, Harry is able to read Voldemort's mind when he is very excited. This is how he finds out that Voldemort has taken the Elder Wand in the meantime and that the last Horcrux is at Hogwarts. Now that Voldemort has realised that Harry is looking for his Horcruxes because of the break-in at Gringotts, he wants to check the remaining hiding places - most recently the one at Hogwarts, which he considers to be the safest place to keep them. Harry, Ron, and Hermione thus don't have much time left to find the Horcrux at Hogwarts. They apparate to Hogsmeade and are nearly discovered there, as the village is under curfew. Dumbledore's brother Aberforth hides them in his inn and tells them about the childhood friendship between Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald. They also learn that it was Aberforth who sent Dobby to rescue them from the Malfoys' country estate, and whose eye was always visible in the mirror shard. He shows them the only unsupervised way into Hogwarts, a secret passage from his pub to the Room of Requirement. There, almost all the members of Dumbledore's Army (DA) are waiting for Harry. Neville Longbottom also summons the former members, who notify the Order of the Phoenix. With Luna's help, Harry sets out to find the Horcrux suspected to be at Hogwarts - the lost diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw.

The Battle of Hogwarts

Professor McGonagall beats Headmaster Severus Snape into flight. The arriving members of the Order, the teachers and the DA then organize the evacuation of the younger students and the defense of Hogwarts. Voldemort gives the ultimatum that if Harry surrendered to him, he would spare everyone else so as not to spill too much magical blood. However, the remaining defenders decide to fight to give Harry time to complete his task. Meanwhile, in the Chamber of Secrets, Ron and Hermione destroy Helga Hufflepuff's goblet with the poison fang of the basilisk killed there. The battle begins and Harry realizes that the Horcrux he is looking for must be hidden in the Room of Hidden Things, a special manifestation of the Room of Requirement that Voldemort believes only he knows about. Together with Hermione and Ron, he enters the room, where, however, Draco Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle ambush them. Crabbe effects a demon fire spell that completely burns out the room. In the process, the Horcrux is also destroyed. Harry, Ron, and Hermione rescue Draco and Goyle as they leave the burning room. Crabbe perishes in his own fire. Voldemort's snake Nagini now remains as the last Horcrux.

Harry reads Voldemort's thoughts and realizes that he is in the Shrieking Shack. Together with Ron and Hermione, he overhears a conversation between Voldemort and Snape there. He learns that the Elder Wand is not serving Voldemort as hoped, as Voldemort is not its true master. According to Voldemort, only the one who killed the former owner of the Elder Wand could be its new master. Believing Snape, who killed the last owner with Dumbledore, to be the wand's master, Voldemort unleashes Nagini on Snape. He then leaves the hut. Dying, Snape leaves Harry some of his memories for the Thinkarium, while Voldemort issues another ultimatum: The attack would be halted for an hour, then Harry was to appear for the duel in the Forbidden Forest. Snape's memories explain Dumbledore's unwavering trust in Snape, who has been Dumbledore's double agent from the beginning and always absolutely loyal to him. Even Dumbledore's "murder" was at his express request, partly because Dumbledore's careless donning of the Horcrux ring put a curse on him that left him with only about a year to live. Snape had loved Harry's mother, Lily, since they were both children and could never forgive himself for his betrayal of her. Snape had also sent the Patronus hind that showed Harry the sword of Gryffindor, and had previously deposited the sword in the pond. Harry further learns that since Voldemort murdered his parents, he himself carries a part of Voldemort's soul that can only be destroyed if Harry lets Voldemort kill him. Harry decides to sacrifice himself and heads into the forest. On the way, he gives Neville the task of killing Voldemort's snake Nagini. He succeeds in opening the snitch that Dumbledore left him. Inside he finds the Stone of Resurrection, broken in two, which he uses to summon shadows of his parents, his godfather Sirius, and Lupin. They accompany him on his last walk and give him courage.

Harry offers no resistance when Voldemort puts the death curse on him. He finds himself in a kind of limbo, where he meets Dumbledore, who tells him his life story as well as explains his apparent betrayal. As planned, Harry is not dead because part of his mother's protection also lives in Voldemort since he used his blood to resurrect him. Thus, Harry's mother's sacrifice lives on in Voldemort, and Harry cannot die as long as Voldemort lives. Trying to kill Harry again had destroyed the seventh and final Horcrux in Harry. Now he had a choice between living and fighting on, or dying.

Back in life, Harry pretends to be dead. Voldemort puts the Cruciatus Curse on the presumed dead, but it does not cause him any pain. Voldemort heads to the castle with his entourage. While there, Hagrid, whom the Death Eaters captured earlier, must carry Harry. Now that Voldemort believes himself safe, he has lifted the magical protective cage around Nagini. Even now, however, the castle's defenders refuse to give up. Neville refuses to submit to Voldemort's regime, whereupon he humiliates him with the summoned Talking Hat. To everyone's surprise, the centaurs, who have so far stayed out of the fighting, now attack. Other magical beasts of the forest such as Thestrale and Sirius' hippogriff Buckbeak, as well as Hagrid's half-brother Grawp and other wizards who have since joined them, support them. In the confusion, Harry hides under his cloak of invisibility. Neville manages to pull the sword Godric Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat, decapitating Nagini and thus destroying the last Horcrux. The battle in the castle's Great Hall is also joined by the house elves, led by Kreacher.

The defenders of Hogwarts beat back the Death Eaters, leaving only Voldemort and Bellatrix to fight. Molly Weasley manages to kill Bellatrix. Harry now removes the cloak of invisibility and reappears to face Voldemort in the decisive battle. He explains to Voldemort that the latter is not the master of the Elder Wand, but Harry. For Draco Malfoy had already defeated Dumbledore before Snape's Death Curse by magically taking the powerful wand from him. Draco, who was never aware of the consequences of his disarming spell "Expelliarmus", had been defeated by Harry himself a few weeks ago in the Malfoy manor, and his wand now serves Harry. When it comes to the duel, Harry's disarming spell takes effect as a result. Voldemort's death curse rebounds on himself and he dies for good.

During the victory celebration, Harry, Ron, and Hermione revisit the headmaster's office, where they talk to Dumbledore's portrait about the significance of the Deathly Hallows. Unlike Dumbledore, Harry has not succumbed to their dangerous fascination. Instead of trying to turn the Deathly Hallows against Voldemort, he has stuck to the plan of destroying Voldemort via his Horcruxes. Although he is now the rightful owner and thus master of all the Hallows (though he has already discarded the Resurrection Stone in the forest), Harry decides to keep only the Cloak of Stealth and return the Elder Wand to Dumbledore's tomb after using it to repair his own destroyed wand. Should Harry not be defeated again by the time of his death, no one would be able to use the full power of the wand.

Epilogue

(According to J. K. Rowling, this last chapter was written when the 1st volume was written, but was revised before publication.)
In the epilogue, which takes place 19 years later, Harry and Ginny Weasley and Ron and Hermione
have married. Harry and Ginny's children are named James Sirius, Albus Severus, and Lily Luna; Ron and Hermione's children are named Rose and Hugo. At the beginning of the school year, they all meet at the Hogwarts Express. While Lily and Hugo are still too young to come along, the others board the train to Hogwarts. At the station, Harry is greeted briefly by Draco Malfoy, who is accompanying his son Scorpius. Harry has not felt his scar for 19 years now. The book ends with the words: "All was well" (in the original: "All was well").

List of killed figures

More characters die in this book than in any other book in the series. Those killed by name are listed below.

Figures	killed by	Cause of death	Time and place of death
Charity Burbage	Lord Voldemort	Avada Kedavra	Death Eaters meeting at the Malfoy estate.
Hedwig, Harry's Snowy Owl	a Death Eater	Avada Kedavra	When escaping from Little Whinging
Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody...	Lord Voldemort	Avada Kedavra	When escaping from Little Whinging
Bathilda Bagshot	Lord Voldemort	Unknown	Godric's Hollow, some time before Harry and Hermione's visit...
Gregorovich	Lord Voldemort	Avada Kedavra	Gregorovitch's House
Ted Tonks	Grapplers (Bounty Hunter)	Unknown	In the search for the "Mudbloods and the Blood Traitors,"
Dirk Cresswell	Grapplers (Bounty Hunter)	Unknown	In the search for the "Mudbloods and the Blood Traitors,"
Gornuk, Goblin	Grapplers (Bounty Hunter)	Unknown	In the search for the "Mudbloods and the Blood Traitors,"
Rufus Scrimgeour	Lord Voldemort, or at his command.	Unknown	During the Death Eaters' takeover of the Ministry...
Gellert Grindelwald	Lord Voldemort	Avada Kedavra	Nurmengard Prison
Peter Pettigrew alias Wormtail	from his silver hand, which he got from Voldemort, feeling a touch of sympathy for Harry, since Wormtail is in Harry's debt	Strangulation	In the cellar of the Malfoy estate
Dobby, house elf	Bellatrix Lestrange	stabbed to death by Bellatrix's flung knife...	During the escape from the Malfoy estate.
Remus Lupin	Unknown	Unknown	The Battle of Hogwarts
Nymphadora Tonks (surname Lupin)	Unknown	Unknown	The Battle of Hogwarts
Vincent Crabbe	himself by accident	Demon Fire (Spell)	The Battle of Hogwarts, in the room of wishes
Fred Weasley	Death Eaters	Explosion caused by unspecified spell partially collapsing a corridor at Hogwarts	The Battle of Hogwarts
Severus Snape	Nagini	bitten by Nagini, at the command of Voldemort.	The Battle of Hogwarts, in the Shrieking Shack...
Colin Creevey	Unknown	Unknown	The Battle of Hogwarts
Nagini, Voldemort's snake	Neville Longbottom	Decapitated by Godric Gryffindor's sword...	The Battle of Hogwarts
Bellatrix Lestrange	Molly Weasley	unspecified spell	The Battle of Hogwarts
Lord Voldemort	Harry Potter	Blocking the Avada Kedavra by the Elder Wand with the Disarming Spell Expelliarmus	The Battle of Hogwarts The finale Harry Potter vs. Lord Voldemort

At the Battle of Hogwarts, a total of 54 people die fighting Voldemort and an unknown number on Voldemort's side. There are also some Muggles killed in the course of the book, some in unknown ways.

List of Horcruxes Found

Horcrux	Created by the death of	Location	Destroyed by	Like	Where destroyed
Tom Riddle's diary	Jew's myrtle	Malfoy Estate (placed in Ginny's Cauldron by Lucius Malfoy)	Harry Potter	fang	Chamber of Secrets at Hogwarts (Book 2)
Marvolo [Vorlost] Gaunt's Ring (Resurrection Stone)	Tom Riddle Senior	Marvolo [Prelude] Gaunt's House in Little Hangleton	Albus Dumbledore	Godric Gryffindor's sword	Headmaster's office at Hogwarts (timed between book 5 and book 6).
Salazar Slytherin's locket	Unknown	A cave on the English coast (recovered by Regulus Black, kept by Kreacher, stolen by Mundungus Fletcher, extorted by Dolores Umbridge, retrieved by Harry Potter and Hermione Granger).	Ron Weasley	Godric Gryffindor's sword	Forest of Dean (Book 7)
Helga Hufflepuff's Goblet	Hepzibah Smith	Bellatrix Lestrange's dungeon at Gringotts...	Hermione Granger	fang	Chamber of Secrets at Hogwarts (Book 7)
Diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw	an Albanian smallholder	Room of Requirement at Hogwarts	Vincent Crabbe	Demon Fire (Spell)	Room of Requirement at Hogwarts (Book 7)
Harry Potter	Lily Potter (unintentional)	- –	Lord Voldemort	Avada Kedavra (While the curse destroyed the Horcrux in Harry, Harry had the choice to survive).	Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts (Book 7)
Nagini	Bertha Jorkins	by Lord Voldemort	Neville Longbottom	Godric Gryffindor's sword	On the School Grounds of Hogwarts (Book 7).

The last (eighth) piece of Tom Riddle's soul remained in Voldemort and was destroyed by himself when a death curse he directed at Harry Potter rebounded on himself.

The symbol of the Deathly Hallows

Edition and issues

Even before the publication date, the book was pre-ordered 1.6 million times worldwide, meaning that the seventh part overtook its predecessor. In Germany, there were a total of 450,000 pre-orders at the start of sales, 270,000 of which were placed with the online bookseller Amazon alone. In the first five years after its release, 44 million copies were sold worldwide. The first print run of the British edition from Bloomsbury Publishing comprised 2.6 million copies, the German-language first print run from Carlsen Publishing was to be 3 million copies, according to the Clausen & Bosse printing company in Leck (North Frisia). 800,000 copies were printed there, and other large printing plants in Ulm and in Thuringia were commissioned. In mid-October it was reported that the publisher had ordered more copies because of the great demand. The US edition from the Scholastic publishing house appeared in the USA with an initial print run of 14 million copies. The circulation figure for the Canadian edition is being kept secret by publisher Raincoast Books. The size of the U.S. print run surpasses the previous record set in 2005, when the sixth Harry Potter volume was released with a starting print run of 10.8 million. Sales hit another record, with 8.3 million copies sold in the first 24 hours and 11.5 million after 10 days.

The U.S. edition from Scholastic is 759 pages, which is well above the number for the sixth volume (672), but also well below the 870 pages for the fifth volume. The page count of the British edition is 607, the same number as the sixth volume. The discrepancy in page count to the American edition arises because the page count of the British edition is lower due to appropriate formatting to preserve the environment. In addition, there is a small illustration for each chapter heading in the US edition. According to Carlsen Verlag, the German edition has 736 pages.

A partial run of the British edition was printed at the GGP Media printing plant in Pößneck (Thuringia).

English editions

• J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Bloomsbury, London 2007, ISBN 0-7475-9105-9. (Hardback) (#1 on the Spiegel bestseller list for 5 weeks in 2007).
• J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Bloomsbury, London 2007, ISBN 0-7475-9106-7. (Hardback edition for adults).

German editions

• J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Carlsen, Hamburg 2007, ISBN 3-551-57777-3. (Hardback edition) (number 1 on the Spiegel bestseller list for 11 weeks in 2007 and 2008).
• J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Carlsen, Hamburg 2007, ISBN 3-551-55700-4. (Hardcover edition for adults).
• J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Carlsen, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-551-55577-9. (Softcover).
• J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Carlsen, Hamburg 2018, ISBN 978-3-551-55747-6. (Hardcover reissue for the 20th anniversary of the German editions).

Audio books

English versions

• J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Bloomsbury Publishing, London 2007, ISBN 0-7475-9109-1. (UK version, narrated by Stephen Fry).
• J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Listening Library, 2007, ISBN 0-7393-6038-8. (US version, narrator Jim Dale).

German versions

• J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Der Hörverlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 3-86717-169-6. (narrator Rufus Beck).
• J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Der Hörverlag, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-899-40828-7. (newly read version, narrator Felix von Manteuffel).