Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

On the morning of Harry’s birthday, he dreams that he is Lord Voldemort, searching for a man named Gregorovitch. Now 17, Harry is allowed to do magic outside of school. Ginny pulls Harry away to her room, and she kisses him “as she had never kissed him before” (116). Harry’s birthday dinner is attended by all of his friends in the Order, but in the middle of the celebration, the Minister of Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour, arrives and asks to speak to Harry, Ron, and Hermione about “Albus Dumbledore’s will” (123). Scrimgeour reads Dumbledore’s will as it pertains to each of them: Dumbledore left a Deluminator for Ron “in the hope that he will remember me when he uses it” (125). To Hermione, he left a book titled The Tales of Beedle the Bard “in the hope that she will find it entertaining and instructive” (126). To Harry, Dumbledore has left the first Snitch Harry ever caught in a Quidditch match “as a reminder of the rewards of perseverance and skill” (126). Scrimgeour adds that Dumbledore also left Harry the sword of Godric Gryffindor. However, he claims that the sword “was not Dumbledore’s to give away” but “an important historical artifact” (129) that must remain at Hogwarts. Scrimgeour is suspicious of the gifts, and when Harry refuses to answer his questions, the Minister of Magic becomes angry and leaves. Harry remembers how he nearly swallowed his first Snitch, so he touches the Snitch to his mouth, and the words “I open at the close” (134) appear on it.

The next day, Harry attends the wedding in disguise. Harry is surprised to see Luna Lovegood and her father, Xenophilius, and he notices that Mr. Lovegood is wearing “an odd symbol, rather like a triangular eye” (139) around his neck. Harry is also surprised to see Viktor Krum, whom Fleur invited. After an emotional wedding ceremony, Harry and Krum talk about Mr. Lovegood at the reception. Krum is angry about the symbol Mr. Lovegood is wearing because he claims that it’s the sign of Grindelwald, “the Dark wizard Dumbledore defeated” (148). Harry remembers that Krum’s wand was made by a wandmaker named Gregorovitch. He realizes that Voldemort is looking for a wandmaker. Harry then meets Elphias Doge, Dumbledore’s friend who wrote the obituary for the Daily Prophet. As they discuss Dumbledore and Rita Skeeter’s book, Ron’s Auntie Muriel states that Albus Dumbledore’s sister was a Squib without magical powers, and she claims that the Dumbledores “[imprisoned] [the] little girl in the house and [pretended] she didn’t exist” (155). Doge insists that this isn’t true and that Ariana’s health was poor. Still, Harry wonders if Dumbledore would have been capable of locking his sister away. Harry learns that “the Dumbledores lived in Godric’s Hollow” (158), the same place that Harry’s parents lived. Auntie Muriel believes that Rita Skeeter’s source for her book was Bathilda Bagshot, “a most gifted magical historian and an old friend of Albus’s” (158) who also lives in Godric’s Hollow. Suddenly, the party is interrupted when Kingsley’s Patronus arrives and announces to the wedding guests, "The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming” (159).

Panic erupts as guests begin to Disapparate, the protective enchantments around the Weasley house are broken, and “cloaked and masked figures [appear] in the crowd” (160). Hermione grabs Ron and Harry and Disapparates the three of them onto a Muggle street. With the help of an Undetectable Extension Charm, Hermione explains that she’s “had the essentials packed for days” (162) in case they had to run. They slip into a cafe and try to figure out what to do next. One thing is clear: “Voldemort’s taken over the Ministry” (164). Suddenly, they are attacked by two Death Eaters disguised as workmen, but they manage to stun their attackers. Harry suggests going to Grimmauld Place because “It’s the best chance [they’ve] got” (168) at finding a safe place. When they arrive at Grimmauld Place, Harry suddenly feels “a fury that [is] not his own pound[ing] through his body, violent and brief as an electric shock” (172). He realizes that Voldemort is angry about something. Mr. Weasley’s Patronus appears and reports, “Family safe, do not reply, we are being watched” (173). Harry rushes to the bathroom as “rage that did not belong to him possess[es] his soul” (174), and he sees a vision of Voldemort forcing Draco Malfoy to torture one of the Death Eaters from the cafe.

The next morning, Harry spies the name “Regulus Arcturus Black” written on the door of a bedroom in Grimmauld Place. Harry remembers the initials “R.A.B.” and how they were written on the fake Horcrux locket, and he remembers that Sirius’s brother was a follower of Voldemort. And “if he was a Death Eater he had access to Voldemort, and if he became disenchanted, then he would have wanted to bring Voldemort down” (186) by stealing a Horcrux and trying to destroy it. Hermione remembers that they saw the locket two years ago while cleaning out Grimmauld Place. Harry summons the house-elf Kreacher and asks if he stole “a big gold locket” (191) two years ago. Kreacher admits that he did, but he states that “Mundungus Fletcher stole it” (191) along with everything else of value in Grimmauld Place. Kreacher explains how long ago, Regulus brought Kreacher along to steal the locket from Voldemort’s hiding place. Regulus sacrificed himself to get the Horcrux locket, then ordered Kreacher to destroy it, but “nothing Kreacher did made any mark upon it” (197). Kreacher is distraught because “Kreacher failed to obey orders [...]. Master Regulus had [forbidden] him to tell any of the [family] what happened in the [cave]” (197). Harry realizes that Regulus was kind to Kreacher, and Harry gives Kreacher Regulus’s fake locket. He then asks Kreacher to “go and find Mundungus Fletcher” to “ensure that [Regulus] didn’t die in vain” (199).