Submitted by:

MAR EMBER S. MAWILE

Grade VII - C

Submitted to:

Ms. Michelle Crampatanta

English Teacher
I. Characters

• Harry Potter
Harry is the main protagonist. He is orphaned as a baby when his parents, James
and Lily Potter, are killed by Voldemort for resisting his attempted takeover of the
wizarding world. As a final act of love, Lily protected Harry from Voldemort's
curse, an act which saved his life but left him with a lightning-bolt-shaped scar on
his forehead. When he arrives at Hogwarts, Harry is sorted into Gryffindor House.
The events leading up to the Second Wizard War require him to constantly get into
trouble with various authority figures, a trait he inherited from his father. Over the
next seven years, he learns more about his parents', grows into an accomplished
wizard, and defeats Voldemort.

• Lord Voldemort
The main antagonist, Voldemort is a dark wizard who tried to take over the
wizarding world. Born Tom Riddle, Voldemort nearly succeeded in his attempts,
but was thwarted when he tried to curse Harry Potter as an infant. The curse
backfired and supposedly killed him. In reality, Voldemort spent the next decade
as a half-dead ghost before eventually returning to a physical body in the fourth
novel, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. He spends the remaining novels
gathering his armies, culminating in the Second Wizarding War and his eventual
defeat at the hands of Harry Potter during the Battle of Hogwarts.

II. Setting

• 1990s Britain
The plot of the novel is set in 1990s Britain, but in a veiled and separate shadow
society wherein magic is commonly used and practised, and those who can use it
live in self-enforced seclusion, hiding their abilities from the rest of the world.

• Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Hogwarts School, located somewhere in the Highlands of Scotland, consisted of
the large Hogwarts Castle and extensive school grounds surrounding it, which
included sloping lawns, flowerbeds, vegetable patches, as well as a loch (called the
Black Lake), a large dense forest (called the Forbidden Forest), several greenhouses
and other outbuildings, and a full-size Quidditch Pitch. One of the castle's towers
held an owlery, which housed all the owls owned by the school and by students.
The castle was set upon huge rocks above the Black Lake. Its three highest towers
were the Astronomy, Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor Towers. The castle's 142
staircases were known to change position. The castle was known for its many
updates and changes in layout throughout the years. It should be noted that some
rooms in the school tended to "move around", as did the steps on the Grand
 Staircase. Albus Dumbledore once noted that even he did not know all of Hogwarts'
secrets. The castle had been around for centuries, and consequently had a long
history of ancient magic. Hogwarts was founded around 990 A.D. by four of the
greatest wizards and witches of the age: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff,
Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin.[13] They each represented an aspect of
personality that they wanted to bring out in new students.

III. Conflict

Man vs. Man

This is the most common type of conflict you’ll see, when your protagonist’s objective is in
opposition to another character’s. This other character could be an antagonist who actively wants
to prevent your protagonist from succeeding, or it could be a well-meaning character (like a parent
or a teacher) who has a different perspective and enough authority to get in the way. Or it could
be both.

Take Harry Potter, for example. When Vernon is preventing Harry from reading his letters from
Hogwarts in The Sorcerer’s Stone, that’s antagonistic man vs. man conflict. When Voldemort tries
to kill Harry several times per book, same. But when Dumbledore keeps information secret from
Harry or the Order of the Phoenix tries to stop him from participating in their business, that’s man
versus man conflict, too. Both Dumbledore and the Order have Harry’s best interest in mind—it’s
just that their objective to protect him gets in the way of his objective to defeat Voldemort.

IV. Plot

The novel follows the life of a boy named Harry Potter. In the first book, Harry Potter and
the Philosopher's Stone, Harry lives in a cupboard under the stairs in the house of the Dursleys, his
aunt, uncle and cousin. The Dursleys consider themselves perfectly normal, but at the age of
eleven, Harry discovers that he is a wizard. He meets a half-giant named Hagrid who invites him
to attend the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry learns that as a baby, the dark
wizard Lord Voldemort murdered his parents. When Voldemort attempted to kill Harry, his curse
rebounded and Harry survived with a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead.

Harry becomes a student at Hogwarts and is sorted into Gryffindor House. He gains the
friendship of Ron Weasley, a member of a large but poor wizarding family, and Hermione Granger,
a witch of non-magical, or Muggle, parentage. Harry encounters the school's potions master,
Severus Snape, who displays a dislike for him; the rich pure-blood Draco Malfoy whom he
develops an enmity with; and the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Quirinus Quirrell, who
turns out to be allied with Lord Voldemort. The first book concludes with Harry's confrontation
with Voldemort, who, in his quest to regain a body, yearns to gain the power of the Philosopher's
Stone, a substance that bestows everlasting life.

In Harry's second year at Hogwarts, students are attacked and petrified by an unknown
creature; wizards of Muggle parentage are the primary targets. The attacks appear related to the
Chamber of Secrets, a fifty-year-old mystery at the school. Harry discovers an ability to speak the
snake language Parseltongue, which he learns is rare and associated with the Dark Arts. When
Hermione is attacked, Harry and Ron uncover the chamber's secrets and enter it. Harry discovers
that the chamber was opened by Ron's younger sister, Ginny Weasley, who was possessed by an
old diary in her belongings. The memory of Tom Marvolo Riddle, Voldemort's younger self,
resided inside the diary and unleashed the basilisk, an ancient monster that kills those who make
direct eye contact. Harry draws the Sword of Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat, slays the basilisk
and destroys the diary.

Harry learns that he is targeted by Sirius Black, an escaped convict who allegedly assisted
in his parents' murder. As Harry struggles with his reaction to the dementors – creatures guarding
the school that feed on despair – he reaches out to Remus Lupin, a new professor who teaches him
the Patronus charm. On a windy night, Ron is dragged by a black dog into the Shrieking Shack;
Harry and Hermione follow. The dog is revealed to be Sirius Black. Lupin enters the shack and
explains that Black was James Potter's best friend; he was framed by Peter Pettigrew, who hides
as Ron's pet rat, Scabbers. As the full moon rises, Lupin transforms into a werewolf and bounds
away; the group chase after him but are surrounded by dementors. They are saved by a mysterious
figure who casts a stag Patronus. This is later revealed to be a future version of Harry, who traveled
back in time with Hermione using the Time Turner. The duo helps Sirius escape on a Hippogriff.

In Harry's fourth year of school, he is unwillingly entered in the Triwizard Tournament, a

contest between schools of witchcraft and wizardry. Harry is Hogwarts' second participant after
Cedric Diggory, an unusual occurrence that causes his friends to distance themselves from him.
He competes against schools Beauxbatons and Durmstrang with the help of the new Defense
Against the Dark Arts professor, Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody. Harry claims the Triwizard Cup with
Cedric, but in doing so is teleported to a graveyard where Voldemort's supporters convene. Moody
reveals himself be to Barty Crouch, Jr, a Death Eater. Harry manages to escape, but Cedric is killed
and Voldemort is resurrected using Harry's blood.

The Ministry of Magic refuses to believe that Voldemort has returned. Dumbledore re-
activates the Order of the Phoenix, a secret society to counter Voldemort; meanwhile, the Ministry
appoints Dolores Umbridge as the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts. Umbridge bans the Defense
Against the Dark Arts; in response, Hermione and Ron form "Dumbledore's Army", a secret group
where Harry teaches what Umbridge forbids. Harry is punished for disobeying Umbridge, and
dreams of a dark corridor in the Ministry of Magic. Harry falsely dreams of Sirius being tortured;
he races to the Ministry where he faces Death Eaters. The Order of the Phoenix saves the teenagers'
lives, but Sirius is killed. A prophecy concerning Harry and Voldemort is then revealed: one must
die at the hands of the other.
 Snape teaches Defense Against the Dark Arts while Horace Slughorn becomes the Potions
master. Harry finds an old textbook with annotations by the Half-Blood Prince, due to which he
achieves success in Potions class. Harry also takes lessons with Dumbledore, viewing memories
about the early life of Voldemort in a device called a Pensieve. Harry learns from a drunken
Slughorn that he used to teach Tom Riddle, and that Voldemort divided his soul into pieces,
creating a novel of Horcruxes. Harry and Dumbledore travel to a distant lake to destroy a Horcrux;
they succeed, but Dumbledore weakens. On their return, they find Draco Malfoy and Death Eaters
attacking the school. The book ends with the killing of Dumbledore by Professor Snape, the titular
Half-Blood Prince.

Lord Voldemort gains control of the Ministry of Magic. Harry, Ron and Hermione learn
about the Deathly Hallows, legendary items that lead to mastery over death. The group infiltrate
the ministry, where they steal a locket Horcrux, and visit Godric's Hollow, where they are attacked
by Nagini. A silver doe Patronus leads them to the Sword of Gryffindor, with which they destroy
the locket. They steal a Horcrux from Gringotts and travel to Hogwarts, culminating in a battle
with Death Eaters. Snape is killed by Voldemort out of paranoia, but lends Harry his memories
before he dies. Harry learns that Snape was always loyal to Dumbledore, and that he himself is a
Horcrux. Harry surrenders to Voldemort and dies. The defenders of Hogwarts continue to fight
on; Harry is resurrected, faces Voldemort and kills him.

Nineteen years later, the lives of the surviving characters and the impact of Voldemort's
death. Harry and Ginny are married with three children, and Ron and Hermione are married with
two children.

V. Theme

Death
Harry Potter's overarching theme is death, when Harry looks into the Mirror of Erised, he feels
both joy and "a terrible sadness" at seeing his desire: his parents, alive and with him. Confronting
their loss is central to Harry's character arc and manifests in different ways through then novel,
such as in his struggles with Dementors. Other characters in Harry's life die; he even faces his own
death in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The novel has an existential perspective – Harry
must grow mature enough to accept death. In Harry's world, death is not binary but mutable, a
state that exists in degrees. Unlike Voldemort, who evades death by separating and hiding his soul
in seven parts, Harry's soul is whole, nourished by friendship and love.

Love distinguishes Harry and Voldemort. Harry is a hero because he loves others, even willing to
accept death to save them; Voldemort is a villain because he does not. Harry carries the protection
of his mother's sacrifice in his blood; Voldemort, who wants Harry's blood and the protection it
carries, does not understand that love vanquishes death.
Rowling has spoken about thematising death and loss in the novel. Soon after she started writing
Philosopher's Stone, her mother died; she said that "I really think from that moment on, death
became a central, if not the central theme of the seven books". Rowling has described Harry as
"the prism through which I view death", and further stated that "all of my characters are defined
by their attitude to death and the possibility of death".

VI. Moral Lesson

Harry taught us to never give up. He destroyed the horcrux within himself, and then came
back from the dead to kill Voldemort. Harry endured so much in the novel, and he persevered
through all of it. He showed us that you can push through even the hardest times, bounce back and
succeed.