Summaries of books 1-5

[BC-Christina]

I found this on a parenting website. Disclaimer: I have not read all of the points so I do not know if they are accurate at this time.


Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone


*Hard times with the Dursleys. Since the death of his parents when he was a newborn, Harry Potter has been living a punishing life with his muggle (non-wizard) relatives, the Dursleys, who are ashamed of the boy's wizardry heritage.
*A greeting from the past. On Harry's 10th birthday a lovable giant named Hagrid, sent by Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry headmaster Albus Dumbledore, arrives to take Harry away from his miserable life and enroll him at Hogwarts.
* New friends and foes. Harry boards the Hogwarts Express train and quickly meets his soon-to-be loyal friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, along with his nemesis, Draco Malfoy, the son of a pure-wizard family who despises half-muggles.
* A school and a sport. Once at Hogwarts, Harry is selected by the Sorting Hat to be in the honorable Gryffindor house, along with Ron, Hermione, and the older Weasley twins, Fred and George. Harry is introduced to the game of Quidditch, a soccer-like game played in the air on brooms, and is chosen to be the Gryffindor Seeker because of his natural talent for flying.
* Missing power. Meanwhile, a mysterious object, which turns out to be the Sorcerer's Stone, vanishes from the wizard bank, Gringotts. Legend has it that the stone has the power to prolong life. After the disappearance, a monstrous three-headed dog is brought into Hogwarts to guard a strange door.
* The evil Voldemort. Harry discovers that Lord Voldemort, the powerful sorcerer who is responsible for the deaths of Harry's parents and for Harry's famous forehead scar, is trying to claim the Stone to restore his powers that were diminished during the struggle with Harry's parents.
* The pursuit for the Stone. Harry, Ron, and Hermione realize a connection between the three-headed guard dog and the missing Stone. They manage to dodge the beast and outwit a series of traps to arrive at the Stone.
* Showdown with Quirrel. Upon arrival, they meet Quirrel, the Defense against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts. Lord Voldemort, weak in his own powers, has claimed the body of the professor. He instructs Quirrel to kill Harry. A battle ensues, where Harry passes out after contact with Voldemort/Quirrel.
* Order is restored. Later, Harry awakes to find that Dumbledore had saved him from Quirrel. The Stone was also destroyed, leading Voldemort to retreat without regaining his powers. An end-of-year banquet is held in celebration.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

* Dobby's warning. After a torturous summer chez Dursley, Harry can't wait to go back to Hogwarts. But just as he's about to make his escape he encounters Dobby, a strange impish creatures who warns that disaster will strike if Harry returns.
* A strange return. Strange things happen once Harry arrives at Hogwarts, despite Dobby's pleas. He hears mysterious voices, people and animals become petrified, and the menacing message -- "The Chamber of Secrets Has Been Opened. Enemies of the Heir, Beware." -- appears on a wall.
* The magic diary. Harry finds a magic diary that responds when written to. He discovers the voice of the diary is Tom Riddle, a boy who many years ago had accused Harry's friend, Hagrid, of opening the Chamber.
* The answer is in the spiders. After Hermione and other students are petrified, the Ministry of Magic removes Hagrid (for his former accusation of opening the Chamber) and headmaster Dumbledore from Hogwarts. Before Hagrid is escorted out, he tells Harry about a monster in the Chamber, and in order to find out more, Harry must follow the spiders.
* Walking into the forest. Harry and Ron go into the Forbidden Forest to find the spiders and prove Hagrid's innocence. After a run-in with menacing spiders, and with a clue from Hermione before she was petrified, they discover the whereabouts of the Chamber.
* Inside the Chamber. Harry goes into the Chamber to fight the monster and restore order. There, he finds yet another petrified body, that of Ginny Weasley, along with Tom Riddle, whom Voldemort has possessed.
* The big showdown. Riddle summons a basilisk, which seems an insurmountable enemy for a young wizard like Harry. But Dumbledore comes to Harry's aid, sending him his pet phoenix, Fawkes, a magic hat, and a powerful sword. These odd instruments prove to be an unbeatable combination for the basilisk, Tom Riddle, and Voldemort. Fawkes and Harry team up to defeat the massive snake, destroy the diary and Riddle, and awaken the petrified students.


Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

* A prison escape. In the third installment of the Harry Potter series, Harry makes his escape from the Dursleys with a wild ride on the Knight Bus. Before his departure, he is frightened by the sighting of a large black dog, and the news of an escaped prisoner, Sirius Black, the man who is blamed for betraying Harry's parents.
* Among the presence of Dementors. On the way to Hogwarts, Harry faints at the presence of a Dementor, a death-like entity on the hunt for Black. Professor Lupin, the new Defense of the Dark Arts teacher, revives Harry. This won't be the only time the Dementors affect Harry -- Lupin explains that the Dementors have a powerful effect on him because of Harry's horrific past.
* Pets and animals. In school, Hermione and Ron are now squabbling pet-owners, as Hermione's cat Crookshanks constantly terrorizes Scabbers, the aging and useless mouse Ron has long cherished. Meanwhile, Hagrid is teaching a class on magical creatures. One of his creatures, a hippogriff -- a wild, flying animal that is a cross between a horse and an eagle -- attacks Malfoy after being teased. Malfoy overreacts to a minor injury, which sentences the hippogriff, Buckbeak, to execution.
* A forced entry. Meanwhile, despite the presence of the Dementors, Black penetrates Hogwarts, breaking into Harry's room when he is not there.
* The black dog returns. One day, Harry, Ron, and Hermione sneak away to comfort Hagrid about Buckbeak's impending execution. After it's killed, the black dog returns and attacks Ron, dragging him to the forest. Harry and Hermione run after the dog, following it into a secret underground tunnel, eventually arriving at the Shrieking Shack. There, the black dog morphs into Sirius Black.
* Getting to the truth. Just as Harry and Hermione are about to kill Black, Lupin arrives to stop them. Lupin reveals that he, along with Black, Harry's father, James, and another former Hogwarts student named Peter Pettigrew were part of a club of animagis -- humans that can take on an animal form. He also explains that Black was wrongly blamed for the death of Harry's parents. Instead, it was Pettigrew who betrayed Harry's parents to Voldemort, and the sneaky rat has in fact been living as one all these years, right under their noses in the form of Scabbers!
* Unveiling Scabbers. Ron reveals Scabbers, who morphs back into Pettigrew, and confesses that he is Voldemort's servant, and that Black is innocent.
* Chaos and blackout. The group heads back to Hogwarts, dragging along Pettigrew so he can exonerate Black. Suddenly, Lupin morphs into his werewolf form, chaos ensues, and the group is swarmed by an army of Dementors. In the shuffle, a Dementor begins to take Harry's soul. But a mysterious force stops it, and Harry once again blacks out.
* Rescuing the innocent. When he later awakens, Harry learns that Pettigrew has escaped, and that Black, caught by the Dementors, is to be sentenced to death. But Dumbledore believes Harry, Ron, and Hermione's story about what went on at the Shrieking Shack, and he subtly hints, with a wink at Hermione, that they may be able to save both Black and Buckbeat from their undeserved executions.
* Collision of the past and the future. Using the time machine device Hermione had been using to double-up on her courses, Harry and Hermione go back to the scene of Buckbeat's execution. This time, they save the creature. Harry realizes that the mysterious force that had stopped the Dementor from taking his soul was actually himself -- in the future form. He saves his past self by casting a powerful spell on the Dementor.
* Mission accomplished. Then, Hermione and Harry fly Buckbeat to where Black is being held prisoner. They release Black, who rides away on the hippogriff.


Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

* More back story on Voldemort. We learn that 50 years ago, the Riddle family (Lord Voldemort's family) was mysteriously wiped out. Now, Voldemort and his sidekick, Wormtail, plot to kill 15-year-old Harry Potter, once and for all.
* Quidditch excitement. Harry joins the Weasley family and Hermione to see Ireland and Bulgaria duke it out for the Quidditch World Cup. We are introduced to the Bulgarian star Seeker, Viktor Krum.
* New year, new teacher. The latest teacher to fill the ever-changing position of Defense Against the Dark Arts, Mad-Eye Moody, has a checkered past, but seems to be a useful teacher. He teaches the fourth years how to counter the "unforgivable" curses, including Avada Kedavra, the curse that killed Harry's parents.
* Tests of bravery. Dumbledore announces the Triwizard Tournament, a dangerous competition of three tasks, between other schools of wizardry, the Bulgarian Durmstrang, and the French Beauxbatons. The contestants: Hogwarts' Harry and Cedric Diggory; Viktor Krum; and Fleur Delacour.
* Fair play. When Hagrid and Moody give Harry advice to help him with his Triwizard tasks, Harry chooses to share the information with Cedric. Harry also saves Ron, Hermione, and Fleur's sister, Gabrielle Delacour, from a watery scrape, even though it costs him the task win.
* Tragic loss. Just as it seems like Harry and Cedric are going to win the Triwizard Tournament, Wormtail murders Cedric, and resurrects Voldemort. Newly strengthened, Voldemort challenges Harry to a duel using Avada Kedavra, but Harry counters it, and the ghosts of all of Voldemort's victims help Harry survive.
* Teacher, disguised. Harry discovers that Moody is really a disguised Barty Crouch, an old follower of Voldemort. It was the disguised Moody that entered Harry's name in the Triwizard Tournament so Voldemort could kill Harry.


Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

* Reunited with friends. After Harry and his cousin, Dudley, have a run-in with Dementors, Harry heads to his godfather Sirius Black's house, the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. The Order is a group of wizards, including Ron's parents and the former Professor Lupin, dedicated to defeating Lord Voldemort and his followers.
* An enemy from within. The newest Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher (who refuses to teach Defense spells), Dolores Umbridge, takes an immediate dislike to Harry and his friends, and begins a campaign of persecution against them, including getting Harry, Fred, and George Weasley kicked off the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
* Fighting back. Tired of Dolores Umbridge's unreasonable regime, Harry, Hermione, and Ron -- along with other classmates like Harry's big crush, Cho Chang -- form Dumbledore's Army, a secret society to fight against the dark arts.
* Truth in dreams. When Harry dreams repeatedly of the Ministry of Magic, as well as visions that show Mr. Weasley and Sirius under attack, Professor Dumbledore counsels Harry to stay vigilant against Voldemort's mind tactics. Dumbledore tells Harry to work with Professor Snape on Occlumency, teachings that will help Harry fight Voldemort's power.
* Back to school. Hermione puts Harry and Ron on a strict academic schedule to prepare and ace the OWLs, Ordinary Wizarding Level exams, their biggest academic challenge yet.
* A tragic battle. Dumbledore and Voldemort tangle at the Ministry of Magic -- but not before Sirius dies at the hands of his cousin and Voldemort crony, Bellatrix Lestrange -- thus setting the stage for the "Second War."
* Harry's power. Dumbledore explains that even though Voldemort and Bellatrix have escaped, Harry has a power that they know nothing about. Harry's core strength is love. When Harry's mother died to protect Harry, she left a legacy of love that protects him against Voldemort.