Harry Potter

and the Deathly Hallows

by J. K. Rowling
Chapter by Chapter
chapter synopses and notes by Steve Vander Ark and Michele L. Worley

Chapter One - The Dark Lord Ascending

(Reader's Guide to Chapter 1)
In which Snape reports to Voldemort the plans of the Order of the Phoenix to
move Harry Potter from number four Privet Drive, Voldemort takes Lucius
Malfoy's wand, the Death Eaters gathered in Malfoy Manor make fun of Tonks'
marriage to a werewolf, and Voldemort kills Charity Burbage, the erstwhile
Hogwarts Muggle Studies teacher.
Chapter Two - In Memoriam
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 2)
In which Harry is preparing to leave Privet Drive, emptying his school trunk and
packing a rucksack with the items most important to him. In the process, he also
sorts through the newspapers of the past few weeks to re-read and save
Dumbledore's obituary. At the end of his packing, he notices an interview in the
current day's paper in which Rita Skeeter is talking about her upcoming tell-all
biography, The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore.
Chapter Three - The Dursleys Departing
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 3)
In which Vernon Dursley is reluctant for the family to flee Privet Drive on Harry's
say-so, Harry explains the situation again, and Dudley talks sense.
Chapter Four - The Seven Potters
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 4)
In which Mad-Eye arrives with Ron, Hermione, and various Order members in
tow, announcing a change in plans. Six of them are to use Polyjuice Potion to act
as decoy Harry Potters while seven act as protectors, which each protector/Potter
pair heading to a different safe-house. Upon getting airborne and splitting up, all
of them are attacked, and Hedwig is soon killed. Harry gives himself away by
using the Disarming Charm, and he and Hagrid barely escape with their lives,
crashing into the Tonks' back garden.
Chapter Five - Fallen Warrior
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 5)
In which the survivors make their way to the Burrow, learning that Mad-Eye was
killed in the fight and George Weasley severely hurt, while Mundungus fled.
Harry then has a vision of Voldemort torturing Ollivander, seeking to know why
using Lucius Malfoy's wand did not solve the problem of being unable to defeat
Harry Potter.
Chapter Six - The Ghoul in Pyjamas
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 6)
In which Molly Weasley loads HRH up with wedding-preparation chores in an
attempt to stop them from making plans to leave, while Ron and Hermione prove
to Harry that they understand what's involved in accompanying him and have
taken steps to protect their families from retaliation. Hermione reveals that she
has researched the problem of destroying Horcruxes using books stolen from
Dumbledore's office. Fleur's parents arrive for the wedding, and simple plans are
made to celebrate Harry's birthday, which falls the day before the ceremony.
Chapter Seven - The Will of Albus Dumbledore
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 7)
In which it is Harry's seventeenth birthday, and Rufus Scrimgeour arrives to
deliver the bequests of Albus Dumbledore to Harry, Ron, and Hermione in an
attempt to pump them for information.
Chapter Eight - The Wedding
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 8)
In which Harry, disguised by Polyjuice Potion, attends Bill's wedding to Fleur,
where he meets Xenophilius Lovegood and Ron's Great Aunt Muriel and
reencounters Viktor Krum and Elphias Doge. Thanks to Krum, Harry remembers
who Gregorovitch is and learns that Xenophilius is wearing a symbol associated
with Grindelwald, and thanks to Muriel's gossip he hears more about the
Dumbledores. The party is broken up by the arrival of Shacklebolt's Patronus,
warning the guests that the Ministry has fallen and Scrimgeour is dead, so the
Death Eaters are coming.
Chapter Nine - A Place to Hide
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 9)
In which HRH flee the Death Eaters by Apparating to Tottenham Court Road,
Hermione's handbag turns out to have hidden depths, and HRH go to a Muggle
café to plan their next move. Dolohov and Rowle arrive, they duel, and after
cleaning up Harry recommends hiding out in Grimmauld Place.
Chapter Ten - Kreacher's Tale
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 10)
In which Harry explores more of Grimmauld Place, finding a letter from his
mother in Sirius' room, then discovering that Sirius' brother Regulus was the
mysterious R.A.B. Hermione remembers seeing the locket two summers before,
Harry calls Kreacher, and Kreacher reveals that while he took the locket, it was
then taken from him by Mundungus Fletcher, and explains how it came into
Regulus' possession. Harry then asks Kreacher to find Mundungus and bring him
to Grimmauld Place, and wins Kreacher's loyalty by giving him the false locket for
his own.
Chapter Eleven - The Bribe
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 11)
In which Lupin seeks out HRH at Grimmauld Place and offers to accompany
them on their quest, but Harry refuses, recognizing that Lupin is seeking escape
from complications in his personal life. Kreacher returns with Mundungus, who
reveals that Umbridge took the locket from him as a bribe for not turning him in
for selling magical artefacts without a license.
Chapter Twelve - Magic Is Might
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 12)
In which HRH, after weeks of planning, ambush three Ministry workers, assume
their identities, and sneak into Ministry headquarters. To their horror, they learn
that Ron has taken the identity of a man whose wife is about to be interrogated
about her blood status, and who faces a sentence in Azkaban for being a Muggle-
born with a wand.
Chapter Thirteen - The Muggle-born
Registration Commission
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 13)
In which Hermione accompanies Umbridge to court while Harry breaks into
Umbridge's office, to find Mad-Eye's eye mounted on her door, while inside she
has a file on Arthur Weasley and a copy of Rita Skeeter's book. Harry retrieves
the eye and heads back downstairs to the courtroom, where he and Hermione
Stun the Ministry workers, take the locket, and release the prisoners, telling them
to go into hiding. They collect Ron and attempt to return to Grimmauld Place, but
must abandon it when they realize they've accidentally brought a Death Eater
with them into its protections.
Chapter Fourteen - The Thief
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 14)
In which HRH have Apparated to the old Quidditch World Cup campgrounds,
Ron having been splinched in the process. Hermione treats Ron's injuries and
they set up camp, whereupon Harry has a vision of Voldemort interrogating
Gregorovitch and realizes that Voldemort is searching for something
Gregorovitch once had but which was stolen by a young man long ago.
Chapter Fifteen - The Goblin's Revenge
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 15)
In which HRH spend weeks moving from place to place, failing either to destroy
the locket Horcrux or to think of a lead to find the others and squabbling with one
another in frustration, aggravated by the Horcrux's poisonous influence.
Eventually they stumble across other fugitives - a party of Muggle-born wizards
and goblins on the run - and learn that a fake has been substituted for
Gryffindor's sword. They then question the portrait of Phineas Nigellus (which
Hermione hid in her bag) and learn that the sword should be able to destroy
Horcruxes. Ron, his self-control sapped by the Horcrux, then loses his temper
and leaves.
Chapter Sixteen - Godric's Hollow
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 16)
In which weeks pass while Harry and Hermione, the heart gone out of them with
Ron, concentrate on finding a lead to the sword's location. At Christmastime,
Harry asks to go to Godric's Hollow for personal reasons and Hermione agrees
for quest-related reasons. After planning carefully, they Apparate into Godric's
Hollow in disguise and visit the graves of Harry's parents.
Chapter Seventeen - Bathilda's Secret
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 17)
Leaving the cemetery, Harry and Hermione see the Potters' old house, then
encounter someone who appears to be Bathilda Bagshot but does not speak until
she gets Harry alone. Too late, Harry discovers that they've been led into a trap,
and that Bathilda's corpse is being used as a disguise for Nagini. He and
Hermione manage to escape, at the cost of Harry's wand being broken
accidentally by Hermione.
Chapter Eighteen - The Life and Lies of Albus
Dumbledore
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 18)
In which Hermione gives Harry a copy of The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore
that she picked up in the Bagshot house, and they learn that the young man in the
picture was Gellert Grindelwald, who according to Rita Skeeter was very close to
Albus Dumbledore for a brief period when they were young, at a crucial period in
both their lives.
Chapter Nineteen - The Silver Doe
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 19)
In which Hermione Apparates with Harry to the Forest of Dean, where Harry,
keeping watch late at night, sees and follows a Patronus in the form of a silver doe
to a frozen pool in which the sword of Gryffindor lies. He is nearly strangled by
the locket Horcrux's chain when he dives to retrieve it, and is saved from
drowning by Ron, who has been shown the way back by the Deluminator. Ron
then confronts and destroys the Horcrux after Harry commands it to open in
Parseltongue. They return together to camp, where Harry has to protect Ron
from Hermione for a while.
Chapter Twenty - Xenophilius Lovegood
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 20)
In which Harry and Ron bring each other up to date on their adventures,
Hermione finds the triangular mark in a photograph of one of Dumbledore's
letters, and the trio seek out Xenophilius Lovegood at his home for further
information about the mark.
Chapter Twenty-One - The Tale of the Three
Brothers
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 21)
In which Xenophilius Lovegood explains that the symbol is the symbol of the
Deathly Hallows, and that the origin of the story is "The Tale of the Three
Brothers", which Hermione then reads aloud. Xenophilius then explains the
symbolism of the symbol and discusses the Hallows. Harry, wandering around
the house, notices that there is no sign of Luna having been present for weeks,
then confronts Xenophilius. Xenophilius then reveals that the Death Eaters took
her, and he plans to hold HRH until they arrive so that he can trade them for her.
HRH manage to escape while making it clear that Xenophilius wasn't making up
what he told the Death Eaters.
Chapter Twenty-Two - The Deathly Hallows
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 22)
In which Harry becomes obsessed with the Hallows, particularly the Stone
(which he realizes is hidden inside the Snitch that Dumbledore left him). Ron
takes over the hunt for Horcruxes. Then Ron finally manages to pick up a
Potterwatch broadcast, from which HRH learn that Voldemort is out of the
country - and Harry deduces that Voldemort is looking for the Elder Wand. Harry
then accidentally says Voldemort's name aloud, which breaks their protective
enchantments, betraying their whereabouts to a gang of Snatchers.
Chapter Twenty-Three - Malfoy Manor
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 23)
In which Hermione disguises Harry's appearance with a jinx just before the
Snatchers kidnap all three of them and take them to Malfoy Manor.
Unfortunately, the Snatchers recognize Hermione and find the sword, so the
subsequent questioning at Malfoy Manor soon takes a grim turn - Hermione is
tortured by Bellatrix, who wants to know how they got the sword. Harry uses the
broken two-way mirror to ask for help, and Dobby appears. Dobby helps Ron and
Harry rescue all the captives at the Manor, which includes Disarming Bellatrix
and Draco, but in the end Dobby is fatally wounded by Bellatrix.
Chapter Twenty-Four - The Wandmaker
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 24)
In which Harry buries Dobby and regains perspective, putting the Horcrux hunt
above the Hallows quest, though he realizes where the Elder Wand is and that
Voldemort is about to get it as well as that there is probably a Horcrux hidden in
the Lestranges' Gringotts vault. He first asks for Griphook's help in breaking into
Gringotts, then asks Ollivander about the Elder Wand before telling the others
that Voldemort is stealing the Elder Wand from Dumbledore's grave.
Chapter Twenty-Five - Shell Cottage
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 25)
In which Griphook agrees to help break into Gringotts in exchange for the sword,
which he considers to be rightfully goblin property, and Harry and Ron agree in
bad faith, planning to retain it until the Horcrux hunt is over. Lupin arrives to
announce the birth of his son and to ask Harry to be godfather, and Bill takes
Harry aside in the confusion to warn Harry against breaking faith with goblins.
Chapter Twenty-Six - Gringotts
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 26)
In which, plans and preparations being complete, Griphook accompanies HRH to
Gringotts, hiding with Harry under the Cloak while Hermione poses as Bellatrix
and Ron assumes a false identity. By using various spells to interfere with the
minds of Gringotts staff members, they manage to reach the level of the
Lestranges' vault before various defences are set off against them. They manage
to obtain the cup from the vault, then escape by releasing the dragon guarding
the most secure vaults and helping it break out.
Chapter Twenty-Seven - The Final Hiding
Place
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 27)
In which HRH spend most of the day riding the dragon, only to get away from it
near sunset. Harry has a vision of the theft being reported to Voldemort, and
realizes that they are running out of time - Voldemort now knows that they are
after Horcruxes, and they have to get to the Hogwarts Horcrux before he does.
Chapter Twenty-Eight - The Missing Mirror
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 28)
In which Harry, Ron, and Hermione return to Hogsmeade, are pursued by Death
Eaters, and are rescued by Aberforth Dumbledore, who advises them to give up
their quest, and explains why he doesn't blindly trust his late brother's judgement
by telling them the true story of the life and death of Ariana Dumbledore.
Chapter Twenty-Nine - The Lost Diadem
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 29)
In which Neville escorts Harry, Ron, and Hermione through the passageway from
the Hog's Head to the Room of Requirement, where Dumbledore's Army recaps
the situation in Hogwarts and the Ravenclaws tell Harry about Ravenclaw's
diadem. Luna escorts Harry to Ravenclaw Tower to look at its representation on
Ravenclaw's statue, and Alecto Carrow ambushes them in the Ravenclaw
common room.
Chapter Thirty - The Sacking of Severus Snape
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 30)
In which the Carrows are tied up, Voldemort learns of both the theft of the locket
Horcrux and Harry's arrival in Ravenclaw Tower, Snape takes a short break,
McGonagall rouses the castle, and many alumni arrive to help defend Hogwarts
from the Death Eaters.
Chapter Thirty-One - The Battle of Hogwarts
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 31)
In which McGonagall orders the evacuation of those underage or who do not wish
to fight, Voldemort delivers an ultimatum, and Harry learns how Voldemort
acquired the diadem. Ron and Hermione return from destroying the cup, and
together HRH go to the Room of Requirement to destroy the diadem. There they
encounter Draco Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, but his former henchmen no longer
answer to Draco; during the subsequent duel, Crabbe unleashes Fiendfyre, which
destroys much of the room's contents and kills him. HRH escape, rescuing Draco
and Goyle in the process. They then encounter Percy and Fred, duelling Death
Eaters, only to be caught by an explosion that kills Fred.
Chapter Thirty-Two - The Elder Wand
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 32)
In which the battle continues but Voldemort remains with Nagini in the
Shrieking Shack, awaiting Harry and brooding on the Elder Wand. He reaches a
conclusion about the latter and sends for Snape while the trio make their way to
him under the Invisibility Cloak, only to arrive in time to witness Snape's murder
and receive some of his memories as a final message.
Chapter Thirty-Three - The Prince's Tale
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 33)
In which Harry, using the Pensieve, learns of his mother's childhood friendship
with Severus Snape, that Snape's worst memory was of how they became
estranged, of how Snape became Dumbledore 's agent, and that he himself was
accidentally made a Horcrux on the night his parents were murdered.
Chapter Thirty-Four - The Forest Again
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 34)
In which Harry, having learned that he himself was turned into a Horcrux when
Voldemort killed his parents, goes to keep his appointment with Voldemort in the
Forbidden Forest. Along the way, he makes sure that Neville knows about Nagini,
then retrieves the Resurrection Stone from the Snitch and uses it. Upon reaching
Aragog's web, where the Death Eaters are now camped, he permits Voldemort to
use the Killing Curse on him without attempting to defend himself.
Chapter Thirty-Five - King's Cross
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 35)
In which Harry awakens in what seems to him to be King's Cross station, where
he encounters a fragment of Voldemort's soul, now powerless, and Albus
Dumbledore, who explains what has just happened. Harry has to choose between
going on or going back, and chooses to go back.
Chapter Thirty-Six - The Flaw in the Plan
(Reader's Guide to Chapter 36)
In which both Harry and Voldemort regain consciousness in the Forest, Harry
plays dead, and Hagrid is forced to carry Harry's body up to the castle, where
Voldemort displays him to the defenders in an attempt to break their will to
resist. Neville confronts Voldemort, who Body-Binds him and puts the Sorting
Hat on him to make a point. Neville pulls Gryffindor's sword out of the Hat and
kills Nagini when Voldemort is distracted by the arrival of the centaurs, the battle
resumes, and Voldemort is finally defeated by Harry.
Epilogue - Nineteen Years Later
(Reader's Guide to the Epilogue)
In which Harry, Ginny, Hermione, Ron, and Draco are all putting their older
children on the Hogwarts Express.