The boy who lived through the killing curse, then spent seven years learning why. Son of James and Lily, godson of Sirius Black, and the unintended Horcrux Voldemort made when the curse rebounded.
Appears in
On the timeline
- 1875
The underage sorcery decree
The Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery forbids magic outside school before seventeen. The Trace will make Harry’s summers difficult. - 1980-07-31
Harry Potter is born
Harry is born on 31 July 1980 at Godric’s Hollow. - 1981-10-31
James and Lily die; Voldemort falls
Pettigrew has betrayed the secret. James dies in the hall. Lily refuses to stand aside, and the curse rebounds. Voldemort is torn from his body. A piece of soul attaches itself to Harry. - 1 November 1981
Harry is left at the Dursleys; Sirius is framed
Hagrid brings Harry to Privet Drive on Sirius’s motorcycle. Voldemort is bodiless in Albania. Pettigrew, as a rat, will find the Weasleys. Sirius is sent to Azkaban without a trial. - 1991-07-31
Hagrid takes Harry from the cupboard
On his eleventh birthday Harry learns he is a wizard. The letters stop because Hagrid has come in person. - 1991-09-01
Harry boards the Hogwarts Express
Platform 9¾, the scarlet train, and a boy named Ron in the compartment. - 1991–1992
First year: the Philosopher’s Stone
Quirrell shares his body with Voldemort. Harry becomes the youngest Seeker in a century. The Stone is destroyed with Quirrell. Voldemort flees again. - 1992–1993
Second year: the Chamber of Secrets
Ginny, Colin, and Luna’s year arrives. Lockhart teaches nothing useful. The diary possesses Ginny. Harry destroys it with a basilisk fang. - 1993–1994
Third year: the Prisoner of Azkaban
Sirius escapes. Lupin teaches Defence. Harry casts a Patronus. Pettigrew is exposed and runs. Sirius remains a wanted man. - 1994-08
The Quidditch World Cup
The 422nd World Cup ends in a Death Eater riot. Barty Crouch Jr sends up the Dark Mark. - 1994-10-31
The Goblet names four champions
Krum, Fleur, Cedric, and — impossibly — Harry. Crouch has bewitched the cup. - 1994-11-24
The first task
Four dragons. Each champion takes a golden egg. - 1995-02-24
The second task
The champions dive into the lake for the people they would miss most. - 1995-06-24
The third task; Voldemort returns
The cup is a Portkey. Cedric is killed at once. Voldemort regains a body. The wands connect. Harry escapes with Cedric’s body, and Crouch Jr is kissed. - 1995-08-02
Dementors in Little Whinging
Harry and Dudley are attacked. Harry’s Patronus saves them and gets him hauled before the Ministry. - 1995-08-12
Harry’s hearing
He is cleared. Dumbledore and Amelia Bones are the reason the trial does not go the way Fudge wanted. - 1995–1996 school year
Umbridge takes the school
She arrives to teach Defence, then becomes High Inquisitor. Educational Decrees pile up. The centaurs finally drive her out of the forest. - October 1995
Dumbledore’s Army
Hermione proposes a student group. They meet in the Room of Requirement and learn actual Defence from Harry. The name is her joke and their banner. - 1995-12
Nagini attacks Arthur Weasley
Harry sees it because of the scar. Arthur survives. Occlumency lessons with Snape begin, and fail. - 1996-06-18
The Department of Mysteries; Sirius dies
A false vision draws Harry and five friends into the Department. The prophecy sphere breaks. Bellatrix kills Sirius. Dumbledore and Voldemort duel in the atrium. The Ministry can no longer deny the return. - 1996-08
Slughorn comes back
Dumbledore and Harry recruit Horace Slughorn. Harry needs the memory Slughorn is ashamed of. - 1997-03-01
Ron is poisoned
On his seventeenth birthday Ron drinks poisoned mead meant for Dumbledore. Harry keeps him alive with a bezoar. - June 1997
The cave, the false locket, and Dumbledore’s death
Dumbledore and Harry take a locket from the cave. It is a fake, with a note from R.A.B. Death Eaters enter by Draco’s vanishing cabinet. Snape kills Dumbledore on the tower. - Late July 1997
The seven Potters
The protective charm on Privet Drive is about to break. Harry is moved under Polyjuice. Hedwig and Mad-Eye Moody die. George loses an ear. The Ministry is already being taken from within: Yaxley has Pius Thicknesse under the Imperius Curse, and Charity Burbage is murdered. - 1997-07-31
Dumbledore’s will
On Harry’s seventeenth birthday Scrimgeour brings the bequests: the snitch, the sword that the Ministry will not hand over, and the Tales of Beedle the Bard. - 1997-08-01
The wedding, and the Ministry falls
Bill and Fleur marry. The Patronus comes during the reception: Scrimgeour is dead and the Ministry has fallen. The trio flees to Grimmauld Place. - 1997-09-02
The Ministry raid
Polyjuiced, the trio enter the Ministry, take the locket from Umbridge, and are forced on the run when their cover breaks. - Autumn 1997
Ron leaves
The locket wears them down. Ron goes. He will come back. - 1997-12
Godric’s Hollow, the sword, and the locket
A trap at the cottage breaks Harry’s wand. Nagini is waiting in Bathilda’s body. Later Snape’s doe leads Harry to the sword in a frozen pool. Ron returns and destroys the locket. Luna is taken from the train to pressure her father. - 1998-03
Malfoy Manor; Dobby dies
The taboo on Voldemort’s name gets them caught. Dobby rescues them and dies on the beach. In the same stretch of weeks Voldemort opens Dumbledore’s tomb and takes the Elder Wand. Xenophilius Lovegood has already tried to trade them for Luna. - 1998-04
Teddy Lupin is born
Teddy Remus Lupin is born in April. Harry is named godfather. His parents have weeks to live. - 1998-05-02
The Battle of Hogwarts
The trio breaks into Gringotts for the cup. At the castle the diadem is destroyed, Neville kills Nagini, and fifty-odd defenders die, among them Fred, Lupin, Tonks, and Colin. Harry walks into the Forest and comes back. Voldemort dies in the Great Hall on 2 May 1998. - 2017-09-01
Nineteen years later
On 1 September 2017 Harry and Ginny send James, Albus, and Lily to the train. Ron and Hermione send Rose and Hugo. Draco sees Scorpius off. Neville teaches. Luna is off studying creatures. The platform is busy and ordinary.