Harry Potter: A Synopsis (Part Two)

Here are some plot points and important information that you may need to take in with you to fully appreciate the 7th film in the Harry Potter series.  Please see Harry Potter: A Synopsis (Part One) for recaps of the first three films.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire:

In this fourth film, Harry, Ron and Hermione are hitting adolescence and it's hitting back.  Hogwart's is involved in a wizarding competition known as the "Tri-Wizard Tournament".  The tournament is supposed to be open only to those aged 17 and older.  But somehow, Harry's name gets entered in the cup and he finds himself as a competitor.  This causes a major argument between Harry and Ron, fueled by Ron's belief that Harry put his own name in the cup to get glory.  Ron eventually sees the error in his thinking as Harry fights for his life during the first competition.  Ron faces tension with Hermione too, since he remains clueless to his feelings for her and hers for him.

During the last competition of the tournament, Harry is sucked through a portkey (a kind of magical transportation device)  into a graveyard where he meets Peter Pettigrew and the disfigured, lump that is all that remains of Voldemort.  Using a spell that includes a couple of drops of Harry's blood, Voldemort is given back a body of his own.  Voldemort tries to kill Harry again, but because their wands each contain a feather from the same Phoenix, they are linked and end up locking onto each other.  Harry's wand eventually forces Voldemort's wand to show the last spells it cast.  These spells include the killing curse that murdered Harry's parents.  Ghostly recreations of Harry's parents emit from Voldemort's wand and give Harry enough time to grab the portkey and be whisked away from the graveyard and out of Voldemort's clutches.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix:

In their fifth year at Hogwart's Harry, Ron and Hermione are forced to endure a new teacher, named Delores Umbridge.  The sickeningly sweet professor is in truth a sadist who uses torture as a method of dealing with "naughty" behavior from the students.  The Ministry has sent her to deal with Harry because they don't believe his claims that Voldemort is back.  They are claiming that Harry is simply a glory-mad young man looking for attention.

Meanwhile "The Order of the Phoenix" has been revived.  The Order is a group of witches and wizards who dedicated themselves to fighting Voldemort and was started by Dumbledore the last time Voldemort was in power.  Most of the adults in Harry's life are members including his old professor, Remus Lupin and his Godfather, Sirius.  Harry's least favorite teacher, Severus Snape is also in the Order, but is working as a double agent since he used to be a Death Eater.

Since the grown-ups won't allow the Harry to join the Order, he fights back against the ministry and Umbridge by forming "Dumbledore's Army"; a group of students determined to learn how to protect themselves from the dark arts now that the ministry has stopped teaching them anything useful.  However, Umbridge eventually takes over the school, and tries to have Dumbledore arrested claiming he's instigating the students to riot against the ministry.  Dumbledore escapes arrest.

During the year Harry has been plagued by visions, during which, he often feels that he IS Voldemort.  Dumbledore warns him that it's dangerous to allow Voldemort access to his mind and sets Harry up with Professor Snape to take "Occlumency" lessons to learn how to block Voldemort from his mind.  Harry is terrible in his lessons which are made harder because of he and Snape's animosity toward each other.

In the end Voldemort does get into Harry's mind and plants a false vision there of Sirius being tortured.  Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and their friends, Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood, all leave for the Ministry for Magic to save Sirius because that's where Sirius was in the vision.  When they get there they are confronted by Death Eaters who want Harry to retrieve a prophecy housed within the Ministry.  The prophecy says that in the end, Harry and Voldemort will have to face each other and that only one will live; thus naming Harry as "The Chosen One".  As the kids are fighting the Death Eaters, members of The Order show up to help.  One of the Death Eaters, Bellatrix LeStrange, ends up using the killing curse on Sirius.  Harry is devastated to lose his Godfather.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince:

Their sixth year at Hogwart's finds Harry, Ron and Hermione dealing with a lot of evil and a lot of adolescent hormones.  Ron starts dating a girl named Lavender much to Hermione's disgust and Harry realizes that he's in love with Ron's little sister, Ginny.  Because she's Ron's little sister though, Harry finds himself reluctant to declare his feelings.  Harry also finds himself the owner of an ancient potions textbook that has been scribbled in by the previous owner who calls himself "The Half-Blood Prince".  Harry finds that the Prince is a genius at potions and using his suggestions begins to excel in the class.

Dumbledore is taking a bigger hand in Harry's education.  He begins to tell Harry about Voldemort's past when he was Tom Riddle and still a student at Hogwart's.  The two eventually learn that Voldemort has created seven "Horcruxes".  These are magical objects that contain a piece of Voldemort's soul.  These horcruxes are what keep Voldemort immortal.  However, if they were all destroyed than Voldemort could be destroyed.

Dumbledore found one of the horcruxes, a ring, and destroyed it.  However, destroying it caused his hand to shrivel up and blacken.  The professor reveals that the diary Harry  destroyed with the Basilisk fang in his second year was another horcrux.  This means that five horcruxes remain.  When Dumbledore believes he's found the location of another, (a locket) he invites Harry along to help him destroy it.  In the process of finding it, and through a series of dark magic curses, Dumbledore is weakened almost to the point of death.

Upon returning to Hogwart's it is revealed that Harry's long-time school-yard rival, Draco Malfoy has helped his fellow Death Eaters gain access to the school in an attempt to kill Dumbledore.  Before Draco or the Death Eaters arrive, the Headmaster forces Harry to hide and reminds him of his earlier promise to follow Dumbledore's orders no matter what they were..  Harry reluctantly agrees.

Draco arrives and tells Dumbledore that he's been trying to assassinate him all year.  Malfoy eventually admits that Voldemort has threatened to kill his family if he does not kill Dumbledore.  Just as Dumbledore begins to convince Draco that he can help him, the other Death Eaters arrive.  A moment later so does Snape, walking past where Harry is hiding.  He motions for Harry to remain silent.  Harry listens to him, because, in spite of his own mistrust of Snape, Dumbledore has always trusted the professor.  As Snape comes upon the scene, the other Death Eaters encourage him to kill Dumbledore.  Dumbledore pleads, "Please, Severus".  Snape fires the Avada Kedavra curse at the Headmaster, killing him.  He and the Death Eaters escape the school amid an orgy of violence.  Harry chases Snape down and tries to get him to fight but Snape merely knocks him down and tells him that he was the mysterious "Half-Blood Prince" in the textbook.

Harry, Ron and Hermione mourn their headmaster and the loss of their innocence.  They are more heartbroken when they realize that the locket Harry and Dumbledore retrieved is a fake.  They know their future is bleak.

Hopefully these very rudimentary recaps will help trigger your memory before you see the latest installment.