The Harry Potter Story is arguably one of the best-selling and most adored book series in human history. Based on this literary masterpiece, 8 feature films were shot, games were created and theme parks were opened.
The Harry Potter series should be read in chronological order to get a feel for the development of the characters' characters and the essence of the story itself. In total, the series includes 7 books. The first part is aimed at children and is very easy to read. But with each new book, the plot gets darker. The author of the novel, J. K. Rowling, assumed that children would grow up with her story, so by the last books the life of the main characters takes on more and more bloody shades. To prepare yourself for such a turn of events, you should start with the first part.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Lord Voldemort killed the parents of little Harry, but, having made an attempt to kill the baby, he disappeared. Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, appears on Privet Drive. There he meets Minerva McGonagall. Dumbledore reports that he is forced to leave an orphan with Muggles (non-wizards) - Petunia and Vernon Dursley. Rubeus Hagrid arrives on a magic motorcycle with Harry. The boy has a lightning-shaped scratch on his forehead - all that remains of Voldemort's deadly spell.
For the next 10 years, Harry Potter lives in an extremely unfavorable environment: his uncle and aunt hate him, and their son, Dudley, constantly beats him. Harry lives in a small closet under the stairs. One morning Harry sees in the mail a letter addressed to him, but Vernon Dursley won't let him open it. When letters began to literally fill up the house, Vernon decides to urgently take the family to a secluded place where no postman can reach.
In a decrepit cliff-top hut, Harry celebrates his 11th birthday. At midnight, Hagrid breaks down the door of the building. He informs Harry that he is a wizard. The letter contains an invitation to Hogwarts school, a list of necessary school supplies and a train ticket. Together with a new friend Harry visits magic shops and a bank, from which Hagrid picks up a parcel. On the Hogwarts Express, Potter meets Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, who later became his best friends. They all ended up in the Gryffindor faculty. But there were two people at school who hated Harry - the Potions teacher, Severus Snape, and fellow Slytherin classmate Draco Malfoy.
Harry and his friends find out that the school has a philosopher's stone that gives immortality and wealth, and Voldemort himself is hunting for it. At the end of the school year, it turns out that the soul of the Dark Lord has taken over the teacher for protection from dark forces - Professor Quirrell. It was he who all year tried to get his master the coveted stone. But he could not touch the boy, because Lily Potter died protecting her son, thereby giving him the most powerful protection. Quirrell turns to ash and Dumbledore destroys the Philosopher's Stone.
Harry Potter And The Chamber of secrets
In the school of wizardry, terrible tragedies occur - several students, a cat and a ghost fall into a daze. Inscriptions appear on the walls of the school, apparently written in blood. The teachers are afraid that the school will have to be closed. The writing on the wall mentions a certain "Chamber of Secrets". Professor McGonagall tells the students that the school was founded by four wizards, whose names gave the names of four existing faculties. One of the wizards, Salazar Slytherin, quarreled with the others, and, according to legend, left a room at the school with a terrible creature capable of instantly killing a person.
Harry discovers that he can talk to snakes. This news shocked his fellow students and teachers, because only the darkest wizards have such an ability. In addition, Harry hears strange voices, as if moving along the walls of the castle. Towards the end of the school year, Hermione enters the hospital wing in a daze. She has a mirror in one hand, a page torn from a book in the other. It depicts a monster capable of killing with a glance - Basilisk, a huge snake. Everything falls into place, Harry understands whose voice he heard. Here disappears the sister of his best friend Ron - Ginny.
The Beast kidnaps Ginny Weasley and takes her body to the Chamber of Secrets. Harry and Ron find a secret entrance that can only be opened with a snake tongue. In the room, he meets not only the Basilisk, but also Tom Riddle - a young man who will become Voldemort. Tom is just a memory that was kept in the diary and sucked the life out of Ginny. Harry kills the monster, destroys Riddle's diary with the Basilisk fang, and saves Ginny.
Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban
Harry learns that Sirius Black escapes from a magic prison - a certain dark magician who killed many Muggles, and who for some reason hunts for Harry. In this regard, a special security regime is introduced in the wizarding world. Now the school and the magical village of Hogsmeade are watched by the Dementra - creatures that suck all joy from a person, and in extreme cases - a soul. They became a real nightmare for Harry, upon meeting with them he fainted. The new teacher of protection from the dark forces, Remus Lupine, helped Harry master the spell against these creatures.
An enchanted map falls into Harry's hands, which reflects all the people in Hogwarts and their location. He sees something impossible on it - the name of a friend of his father, who died 13 years ago. But the map doesn't lie, and Peter Pettigrew is indeed alive. He is an Animagus, and has been hiding from the wizarding community in the form of a rat. Harry learns that Sirius Black was imprisoned for serving Lord Voldemort, but in fact it was not he who was guilty, but Pettigrew. Black is Harry's godfather, and he did his best to protect him. Harry and his friends, as well as Lupine (an old friend of his father's and, as it turned out, a werewolf) want to restore Black's good name, but Peter escapes in the form of a rat, and this becomes impossible. Black again turns to run, hiding from the Aurors (fighters with dark forces).
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Peter Pettigrew finds the Dark Lord and brings him back to a semblance of life. Harry's scar more and more often hurts, in nightmares he sees the creature that Voldemort has become. Meanwhile, a great event is taking place at Hogwarts - the Triwizard Tournament, which attracts magicians from all over the world. Each of the three schools of wizardry (Hogwarts, Durmstrang and Beauxbatons) has one member to be elected, but something strange happens, and two students are elected from Hogwarts - Cedric Diggory and Harry Potter. During the Tournament, the chosen ones will have to go through 3 tests, but they turn out to be really difficult, and sometimes even deadly. Someone is clearly trying to hurt Harry.
The new teacher of protection from the dark forces, the Terrible Eye Moody, helps Harry in every possible way, and he goes through all the tasks. He gets to the very finish line together with Cedric, and they decide to win together, bringing glory to the whole school. But as soon as the young men touched the Cup, they were transferred to the cemetery, where Peter Pettigrew immediately killed Cedric, and Harry used the blood to resurrect the Dark Lord in his usual guise. Harry miraculously manages to escape.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Voldemort was resurrected, which Harry told the entire magical community, including the Minister of Magic. However, few people believed him, so articles in the magical newspapers diligently ridicule the image of the lying young man. On the side of Harry, however, Albus Dumbledore himself stands up, who gathers the society for the fight against dark forces - the Order of the Phoenix. Harry begins to have strange dreams in which he seems to be in the body of the Dark Lord or his snake, and does terrible things. One day he dreams that he will attack the father of his friend Ron, and realizes that it really happened, as if he was a snake himself. The father of the Weasley family was saved, but Harry felt that something was wrong with him. The lightning scar hurt more and more, signaling danger.
In one of his visions, Harry watched Voldemort torture the boy's godfather, Sirius Black. This happened in the building of the Ministry of Magic, where there is a certain prophecy about Harry and his enemy. Potter and his friends immediately rushed to help, but the vision turned out to be a terrifying trap. Harry fell into the clutches of the Death Eaters, supporters of the Dark Lord. A fierce battle ensues, which is later joined by the Order of the Phoenix. Sirius Black is killed, and many Death Eaters manage to escape. However, the Minister of Magic noticed the evil wizard and his followers before they fled, and the entire wizarding world had to finally believe Harry. From the prophecy, the young man learns that one of them two - Harry and Voldemort - will have to kill the other.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Wizards are in constant fear for their lives. In the world of Muggles, mass murders take place, in the world of magicians, people disappear. The enchanted supporter of Voldemort becomes the Minister of Magic.
Harry Potter finds an old potion-making textbook signed by a certain "Half-Blood Prince". The prince filled literally every page in the textbook with his comments and additions, thanks to which Harry becomes the best student in the class. Some handwritten spells, however, turn out to be less innocuous. Harry learns that the textbook belonged to Severus Snape. In his spare time from the main lessons, Harry studies with Dumbledore. The boy does not quite understand why he needs these classes - the director tells Harry about the biography of the Dark Lord, immersing him in the memories of different people.
Albus Dumbledore reveals to Harry a terrible secret - Voldemort cannot be killed, because he split his soul into several parts, placing them in different objects - horcruxes. The Dark Lord will be vulnerable only when there is no part of his soul left in the world. As a result of the search for one of the Horcruxes, Dumbledore dies. He is buried on the school grounds. Harry and his friends decide not to return to Hogwarts anymore, but to go in search of all parts of Voldemort's soul.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
In search of Horcruxes, friends understand that the children's tale of the three Deathly Hallows is not a fairy tale at all, but a reality. One of the Gifts, the Invisibility Cloak, came from Harry's father. It remains to find the two remaining Gifts - the resurrection stone and the elder wand. The young man hopes that the Gifts will help him cope with Lord Voldemort. But the main task remains the same, and Harry, Ron and Hermione wander the country, looking for parts of the Lord's soul.
When Harry receives all three Gifts, he realizes that they will not help him survive. They will help him to accept his death with dignity, because he - Harry - is the last Horcrux. He sacrifices himself so that his friends can kill Voldemort. But after the death spell, he does not die. He ends up in an otherworldly train station, where he meets Dumbledore. He explains to him that Harry has a choice - to get on the train and go to another world, or return to the material world and continue the struggle. In the final battle, the Death Eaters lose, and Harry kills Voldemort, repelling his own death spell.
The last chapter of the book is devoted to the life of Harry and his friends 19 years after the victory over the Dark Lord. Harry marries Ginny Weasley and Ron marries Hermione. Their children study at Hogwarts, and they themselves build successful careers in the Ministry of Magic.
