Harry Potter

Harry Potter is the central character of J K Rowling's seven novel series, beginning with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, published in Britain in 1997. He is introduced as an orphan living unwillingly with his aunt Petunia Dursley, uncle Vernon, and cousin Dudley at number four Privet Drive. On his eleventh birthday, a letter reveals that he is a wizard and has been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Hagrid personally delivers the letter after the Dursleys repeatedly hide it, then tells Harry that his parents, James and Lily Potter, were killed by Lord Voldemort. Harry's lightning shaped scar is the surviving mark of Voldemort's failed killing curse; Lily's sacrificial protection causes the curse to rebound.

At Hogwarts, the Sorting Hat places him in Gryffindor, where he becomes close friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Their first year ends with a confrontation beneath the school, where Harry prevents Voldemort from obtaining the Philosopher's Stone. The novels follow his education and escalating conflict: he survives a basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets, faces Sirius Black's misunderstood history, and witnesses Cedric Diggory's murder during the Triwizard Tournament.

In Order of the Phoenix, Harry forms Dumbledore's Army to teach practical defensive magic while the Ministry denies Voldemort's return. He also experiences visions through a connection with Voldemort, which ultimately helps expose the prophecy linking them. In Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore shows him memories about Voldemort's past and identifies Horcruxes as objects containing fragments of the villain's soul. Harry inherits the annotated potions textbook of the mysterious Half-Blood Prince, whose notes help him excel before he learns that its owner is Severus Snape.

After Dumbledore's death, Harry abandons his final school year to hunt Horcruxes with Ron and Hermione. They infiltrate the Ministry, break into Gringotts, and return to Hogwarts, where the battle claims Fred Weasley, Remus Lupin, Tonks, and many others. Harry learns that he himself contains a fragment of Voldemort's soul and willingly walks into the Forbidden Forest, expecting to die so Voldemort can be destroyed. Voldemort's curse does not permanently kill him: Harry survives because the fragment is destroyed, then returns to the battle and defeats Voldemort when the Elder Wand recognizes Harry as its rightful master. The epilogue, set nineteen years later, shows Harry married to Ginny Weasley, working at the Ministry as an Auror, and raising three children, James Sirius, Albus Severus, and Lily Luna, in peace.