Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus

Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by the British author J. K. Rowling. The books chronicle the adventures of the adolescent wizard Harry Potterand his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The main story arc concerns Harry's quandary involving the evil wizard Lord Voldemort, who killed Harry's parents in his quest to conquer the wizarding world and subjugate non-magical people (Muggles).
Since the June 30, 1997 release of the first novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, (retitled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the United States) the books have gained immense popularity, critical acclaim and commercial success worldwide. The series has also had some share of criticism, including concern for the increasingly dark tone. As of June 2008, the book series has sold more than 400 million copies and has been translated into 67 languages, and the last four books have consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books in history.

A series of many genres, including fantasy and coming of age, it has many cultural meanings and references. According to Rowling, the main theme is death, although it is primarily considered to be a work of children's literature. There are also many other themes in the series, such as love and prejudice.
English-language versions of the books are published by Bloomsbury in the United Kingdom, Scholastic Press in the United States, Allen & Unwin in Australia, andRaincoast Books in Canada. Through 2010, the first six books have been made into films by Warner Brothers; it is the highest grossing film series of all time. The seventh book is being made into two movies which are currently scheduled to be released nearly eight months apart: Part I on November 19, 2010 and the series finale on July 15, 2011. The series also originated much tie-in merchandise, making the Harry Potter brand worth $24 billion.






Plot




The novels revolve around Harry Potter, an orphan who discovers at the age of eleven that he is a wizard. Wizard ability is inborn, but children are sent to wizarding school to learn the magical skills necessary to succeed in the wizarding world. Harry is invited to attend the boarding school called Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Each book chronicles one year in Harry's life, and most of the events take place at Hogwarts. As he struggles through adolescence, Harry learns to overcome many magical, social and emotional hurdles.
The main narrative of the novels is set in the years 1991–98, with significant memories from the year 1976 (Harry's parents' Ordinary Wizarding Level (OWL) year) and memories from various determinable and undeterminable periods after 1945; though little reference is made to features of any period. The only specific dates given in the series are in the last book, on the grave of James and Lily Potter which identifies them to have died in 1981, and in on Nearly Headless Nick's deathday cake in Chamber of Secrets, which points out the date as 1992.
Wizarding world
Flashbacks throughout the series reveal that when Harry was a baby he witnessed his parents' murder by Lord Voldemort who was a dark wizard obsessed with blood purity. For reasons not immediately revealed, the spell Voldemort tries to kill Harry with rebounds. Voldemort is seemingly killed and Harry survives with only a lightning-shaped mark on his forehead as a memento of the attack. As its inadvertent saviour from Voldemort's reign of terror, Harry becomes a living legend in the wizard world. However, at the orders of his patron, the wizard Albus Dumbledore, the orphaned Harry is placed in the home of his unpleasant Muggle (non-wizard) relatives, who keep him safe but completely ignorant of his true heritage.
The first novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (changed in the U.S. to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone), begins near Harry's 11th birthday. Half-giant Rubeus Hagrid reveals Harry's history and introduces him to the wizarding world. The world J. K. Rowling created is both completely separate from and yet intimately connected to the real world. While the fantasy world of Narnia is analternative universe and the Lord of the Rings’ Middle-earth a mythic past, the Wizarding world of Harry Potter exists alongside that of the real world and contains magical elements similar to things in the non-magical world. Many of its institutions and locations are in places that are recognizable in the real world, such as London. It comprises a fragmented collection of hidden streets, overlooked and ancient pubs, lonely country manors and secluded castles that remain invisible to the non-magical population of Muggles.
With Hagrid's help, Harry prepares for and undertakes his first year of study at Hogwarts. As Harry begins to explore the magical world, the reader is introduced to many of the primary locations used throughout the series. Harry meets most of the main characters and gains his two closest friends: Ron Weasley, a fun-loving member of an ancient, large, happy, but hard-up wizarding family, and Hermione Granger, a gifted and hard working witch of non-magical parentage. Harry also encounters the school's potions master, Severus Snape, who displays a deep and abiding dislike for him. The plot concludes with Harry's second confrontation with Lord Voldemort, who in his quest for immortality, yearns to gain the power of the Philosopher's Stone.
The series continues with Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets describing Harry's second year at Hogwarts. He and his friends investigate a 50-year-old mystery that appears tied to recent sinister events at the school. Ron's younger sister, Ginny Weasley, enrolls in her first year at Hogwarts, and brings with her a notebook which turns out to be Voldemort's school-time diary. Ginny becomes possessed by Voldemort through the diary and opens the "Chamber of Secrets", unleashing an ancient monster within, which begins attacking students at Hogwarts. The novel delves into the history of Hogwarts and a legend revolving around the Chamber. Also, for the first time, Harry realises that racial prejudice exists in the wizarding world, and he learns that Voldemort's reign of terror was often directed at wizards who were descended from Muggles. Harry is also shocked to learn that he can speak Parseltongue, the language of snakes; this rare ability is often equated with the dark arts. The novel ends after Harry saves the life of Ginny Weasley, by destroying a Basilisk and the diary, in which Voldemort saved a piece of his soul (although Harry does not realise this until later in the series). The concept of storing part of one's soul inside of an object in order to prevent death is officially introduced in the sixth novel under the term "horcrux".
The third novel, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, follows Harry in his third year of magical education. It is the only book in the series which does not feature Voldemort. Instead, Harry must deal with the knowledge that he has been targeted by Sirius Black, an escaped murderer believed to have assisted in the deaths of Harry's parents. As Harry struggles with his reaction to the dementors—dark creatures with the power to devour a human soul—which are ostensibly protecting the school, he reaches out to Remus Lupin, a Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher with a dark secret. Lupin teaches Harry defensive measures which are well above the level of magic generally shown by people his age. Harry learns that both Lupin and Black were close friends of his father and that Black was framed by their fourth friend, Peter Pettigrew.In this book, another recurring theme throughout the series is emphasised—in every book there is a new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, none of whom lasts more than one school year. In the sixth book, it is implied that the job has actually been jinxed.
Voldemort returns


During Harry's fourth year of school, detailed in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry unwillingly participates in the Triwizard Tournament, a dangerous magical contest with the young foreign witches and wizards of visiting schools. Harry attempts to discover who has forced him to compete in the tournament, and why. An anxious Harry is guided through the tournament by Professor Alastor Moody, a new teacher who turns out to be an impostor—one of Voldemort's supporters in disguise. The whole thing eventually turns out to be a conspiracy to kidnap Harry and bring Voldemort back to power. The point at which the mystery is unravelled marks the series' shift from foreboding and uncertainty into open conflict as the children are growing up. The novel ends with Voldemort's resurgence and the death of Cedric Diggory, one of Harry's fellow student competitors in the tournament.
In the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry must confront the newly resurfaced Voldemort. In response to Voldemort's reappearance, Dumbledore re-activates the Order of the Phoenix, a secret society which works from Sirius Black's dark family home to defeat Voldemort's minions and protect Voldemort's targets, including Harry. The Order includes many of the adults Harry trusts, including Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, and members of the Weasley family, but also some surprising members; the loyalties of some characters are not so obvious. Despite Harry's description of Voldemort's recent activities, the Ministry of Magic and many others in the magical world refuse to believe that Voldemort has returned.
In an attempt to counter and eventually discredit Dumbledore, who along with Harry is the most prominent voice in the Wizarding World attempting to warn of the Dark Lord's return, the Ministry appoints Dolores Umbridge as the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts. She transforms the school by a dictatorial regime and refuses to allow the students to learn ways to defend themselves against dark magic. Harry forms a secret study group to teach his classmates the higher-level skills of Defense Against the Dark Arts that he has learned. The novel introduces Harry to Luna Lovegood, an airy young witch with a tendency to believe in oddball conspiracy theories. An important prophecy concerning Harry and Voldemort is revealed, and Harry discovers that he and Voldemort have a painful connection, allowing Harry to view some of Voldemort's actions telepathically. In the novel's climax, Harry and his school friends face off against Voldemort's Death Eaters, who include the rich and arrogant Malfoy family. The timely arrival of members of the Order of the Phoenix saves the children's lives and allows many of the Death Eaters to be captured and imprisoned.
In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the protagonists, who are in their sixth year, have passed their OWLs and start on their specialist NEWT courses. Voldemort is leading another wizarding war, which has become so violent that even Muggles have noticed some of its effects. Although Harry and friends are relatively protected from that danger at Hogwarts, they are subject to all the difficulties of adolescence. At the beginning of the novel, he stumbles upon an old potions textbook filled with annotations and recommendations signed by a mysterious writer, the Half-Blood Prince. While the shortcuts written in the book help Harry to excel at potions, he eventually learns to mistrust the anonymous writer's spells. Harry also takes private tutoring with Albus Dumbledore, who shows him various memories concerning the early life of Voldemort. These reveal that Voldemort's soul is splintered into a series of horcruxes, evil enchanted items hidden in various locations. Harry's snobbish adversary, Draco Malfoy, attempts to attack Dumbledore, and the book culminates in the killing of Dumbledore by Professor Snape.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last book in the series, begins directly after the events of the sixth book. Voldemort has completed his ascension to power and gains control of the Ministry of Magic. Harry, Ron, and Hermione drop out of school so that they can find and destroy Voldemort's remaining horcruxes. To ensure their own safety as well as that of their family and friends, they are forced to isolate themselves. As they search for the horcruxes, the trio learn details about Dumbledore's past, as well as Snape's true motives.
The book culminates in the Battle of Hogwarts. Harry, Ron, and Hermione, in conjunction with members of the Order of the Phoenix and many of the teachers and students, defend Hogwarts from Voldemort, his Death Eaters, and various magical creatures. Several major characters are killed in the first wave of the battle and Voldemort resumes his intention to kill Harry. In an effort to save the survivors, Harry surrenders himself but the battle resumes as the parents of many Hogwarts students, residents of the nearby village Hogsmeade and other magical creatures arrive to reinforce the Order of the Phoenix. With the last horcrux destroyed, Harry finally faces Voldemort. Harry offers the Dark Lord a chance at remorse, but Voldemort ignores this and attempts to kill Harry one final time; resulting in Voldemort's death, again, by a rebounding spell (the complications of which are described in depth near the end of the novel). An epilogue describes the lives of the surviving characters and the effects on the wizarding world.
Supplementary works
Rowling has expanded the Harry Potter universe with several short books produced for various charities. In 2001, she released Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (a purported Hogwarts textbook) andQuidditch Through the Ages (a book Harry read for fun). Proceeds from the sale of these two books benefitted the charity Comic Relief. In 2007, Rowling composed seven handwritten copies of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a collection of fairy tales that is featured in the final novel, one of which was auctioned to raise money for the Children's High Level Group, a fund for mentally disabled children in poor countries. The book was published internationally on 4 December 2008 Rowling also wrote an 800-word prequel in 2008 as part of a fundraiser organised by the bookseller Waterstones.




Structure and Genre


The Harry Potter novels fall within the genre of fantasy literature; however, in many respects they are also bildungsromans, or coming of age novels. They can be considered part of the British children's boarding school genre, which includes Enid Blyton's Malory Towers, St. Clare's and the Naughtiest Girl series, and Frank Richards's Billy Bunter novels: the Harry Potter books are predominantly set in Hogwarts, a fictional British boarding school for wizards, where the curriculum includes the use of magic. In this sense they are "in a direct line of descent from Thomas Hughes's Tom Brown's School Days and other Victorian and Edwardian novels of British public school life". They are also, in the words of Stephen King, "shrewd mystery tales", and each book is constructed in the manner of a Sherlock Holmes-style mysteryadventure. The stories are told from a third person limited point of view with very few exceptions (such as the opening chapters of Philosopher's Stone and Deathly Hallows and the first two chapters of Half-Blood Prince).
In the middle of each book, Harry struggles with the problems he encounters, and dealing with them often involves the need to violate some school rules—the penalties, in case of being caught out, being disciplinary punishments set out in the Hogwarts regulations (in which the Harry Potter books follow many precedents in the boarding school sub-genre). However, the stories reach their climax in the summer term, near or just after final exams, when events escalate far beyond in-school squabbles and struggles, and Harry must confront either Voldemort or one of his followers, the Death Eaters, with the stakes a matter of life and death–a point underlined, as the series progresses, by one or more characters being killed in each of the final four books. In the aftermath, he learns important lessons through exposition and discussions with head teacher and mentor Albus Dumbledore.
In the final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry and his friends spend most of their time away from Hogwarts, and only return there to face Voldemort at the dénouement. Completing the bildungsroman format, in this part Harry must grow up prematurely, losing the chance of a last year as a pupil in a school and needing to act as an adult, on whose decisions everybody else depends—the grown-ups included.




Audiobooks


The Harry Potter books have all been released on unabridged audiobook. The UK versions are read by Stephen Fry and the US versions are read by Jim Dale. Dale is also the narrator for the special features disc on the DVDs.




Films


In 1998, Rowling sold the film rights of the first four Harry Potter books to Warner Bros. for a reported £1 million ($1,982,900). Rowling demanded the principal cast be kept strictly British, nonetheless allowing for the inclusion of many Irish actors such as the late Richard Harris as Dumbledore, and for casting of French andEastern European actors in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire where characters from the book are specified as such. After many directors including Steven Spielberg, Terry Gilliam, Jonathan Demme, and Alan Parker were considered, Chris Columbus was appointed on 28 March 2000 as director for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (titled "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" in the United States), with Warner Bros. citing his work on other family films such as Home Aloneand Mrs. Doubtfire and proven experience with directing children as influences for their decision. After extensive casting, filming began in October 2000 atLeavesden Film Studios and in London itself, with production ending in July 2001. Philosopher's Stone was released on 14 November 2001. Just three days afterPhilosopher's Stone's release, production for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, also directed by Columbus began, finishing in summer 2002. The film was released on 15 November 2002. Harry Potter was played by Daniel Radcliffe.
Chris Columbus declined to direct Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, only acting as producer. Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón took over the job, and after shooting in 2003, the film was released on 4 June 2004. Due to the fourth film beginning its production before the third's release, Mike Newell was chosen as the director for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, released on 18 November 2005. Newell declined to direct the next movie, and British television director David Yates was chosen for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which began production on January 2006, and was released on 11 July 2007. Yates also directed Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which was released on 15 July 2009.
In March 2008, Warner Bros. announced that the final instalment of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, would be released in two cinematic parts: Part 1 on November 19, 2010 and Part II in July, 2011.David Yates returned to direct and production of both parts started in February 2009. The final day of filming took place on Saturday 12 June 2010.
J. K. Rowling served as executive producer on Philosopher's Stone and was later appointed producer on the two-part Deathly Hallows, alongside David Heyman and David Barron. The Harry Potter films have been top-rank box office hits, with all six current releases on the list of highest-grossing films worldwide.
Opinions of the films are generally divided among fans, with one group preferring the more faithful approach of the first two films, and another group preferring the more stylised character-driven approach of the later films. Rowling has been constantly supportive of the films, and evaluated Half-Blood Prince as her "favourite one" in the series. She wrote on her web site of the changes in the book-to-film transition, "It is simply impossible to incorporate every one of my storylines into a film that has to be kept under four hours long. Obviously films have restrictions novels do not have, constraints of time and budget; I can create dazzling effects relying on nothing but the interaction of my own and my readers’ imaginations".




Games


There are eight Harry Potter video games which correspond with the films and books. The games are produced by Electronic Arts, with the game version of the first entry in the series, Philosopher's Stone, being released in November 2001. The video games are released to coincide with the films, containing scenery and details from the films as well as the tone and spirit of the books. Objectives usually occur in and aroundHogwarts, along with various other magical areas. The story and design of the games follows the selected film's characterisation and plot; EA worked closely with Warner Brothers to include scenes from the films. The last game in the series, Deathly Hallows, was split with Part I released in November 2010 and Part II debuting on consoles in July 2011. The two-part game forms the first entry to convey an intense theme of action and violence, with the gameplay revolving around a third-person shooter style format. A number of other non-EA Harry Potter games have been released, including DVD and board games such asCluedo: Harry Potter Edition, Scene It? Harry Potter and Lego Harry Potter which are influenced by the themes of both the novels and films.




Theme park


After the success of the films and books, Universal and Warner Brothers announced they would create "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" theme park at Universal Orlando in Florida. A soft opening was held at the end of March 2010, with the park opening again on 16 June 2010 for reserved guests. The park was officially opened to the public on 18 June 2010.
The entrance is through a recreated version of the Hogsmeade station, leading into the village of Hogsmeade, with Hogwarts castle at the very end of the park. Rides include a twin high-speed rollercoaster named the Dragon Challenge and a family roller coaster called Flight of the Hippogriff. The park's main attraction is The Forbidden Journey, a dark ride that takes passengers through many realistic scenes influenced by the movies and books, including travelling by Floo Network, soaring over Hogwarts, narrowly escaping a dragon attack, having a close encounter with the Whomping Willow, and getting pulled into a Quidditch match. Every shop and restaurant is themed – Honeydukes sell sweets, such as chocolate frogs and 'Bertie Bott's Every-Flavour Beans', Ollivanders offer magic wands, Zonko's joke shop sell various items including Sneakoscopes and the Three Broomsticks serves food and drink, most notably Butterbeer.

Harry Potter Books