Overview

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the final instalment in the Harry Potter series (so far! Jo could still pick up where she left off!). The Ministry of Magic has been taken over by Voldemort who is now at the pinnacle of his power. Harry, Ron and Hermione set out to find Voldemort’s horcruxes. The trio faces new and terrible dangers and their friendships are tested. Harry learns a lot more about his past and his family but also about Dumbledore and his past — information which causes him to question a lot of what he thought he knew about Dumbledore and the quest to kill Voldemort.

Harry, Ron and Hermione also learn about the Deathly Hallows, three mythical magical objects which make one the “master of death” when united. The Hallows consist of the Resurrection Stone which can recall the dead in a ghostly form, the Elder Wand (an “unbeatable” wand) and a cloak of invisibility which is impervious to counter-enchantments and which never loses its invisible properties. Hermione does not believe that these objects can possibly exist, but Harry becomes convinced that his own cloak of invisibility matches the description of the legend, and it also begins to become clear that there is an Elder Wand which has left a real and bloody trail of violence through Wizarding history.

Eventually, Harry learns that Voldemort is seeking the Elder Wand and he realizes that it is buried with Dumbledore. Rather than seek the wand for himself though, he allows Voldemort to get to it first, believing that he was not meant to have it. The three then return to Hogsmeade in order to enter Hogwart’s and find the final horcruxes. Here they meet Dumbledore’s brother Aberforth who helps the enter Hogwart’s which is now under Severus Snape as headmaster (though he makes a run for it when the other teachers revolt after they realize that Harry has returned and that Voldemort will be coming soon as well).

At this point, Voldemort knows that Harry is looking for horcruxes and decides to check on each one to see if he has found them before coming to Hogwart’s in order to find and kill Harry. Meanwhile, Harry talks to the ghost of Ravenclaw Tower, the Grey Lady and learns about an ancient relic of Rowena Ravenclaw’s that Tom Riddle had been looking for in his time at Hogwart’s. Harry is able to find the final horcrux and it is destroyed in an evil enchanted fire set to kill Harry, Ron and Hermione by one of Draco Malfoy’s thuggish friends, Gregory Goyle, who is killed in the fire himself.

Now there remains only one horcrux, Voldemort’s pet snake Nagini. Does Harry die? Is Voldemort defeated? Read the book to find out! It’s much better than internet summaries

Released on July 21, 2007.

Sold: Over 44 million copies as of 2011.