Deathly Hallows short summary
editAt the beginning, Harry must leave the Dursleys' home before the protections due to his mother's sacrifice dissolve on his seventeenth birthday. The Order has sent out false information regarding when Harry will travel, and set up many decoy Polyjuiced Harrys escorted by various senior Order members, but Snape has informed Voldemort of the true date and they are attacked. Hedwig and Moody are killed and George has lost an ear, but the rest survive. Harry has been safely relocated to the Tonks residence and then The Burrow.
Minister Scrimgeour visits the Burrow on Harry's birthday to give each of the trio a bequest from Dumbledore, all of which the Ministry had initially kept for investigation. Ron is given Dumbledore's Deluminator (or "Put-Outer"), with the power to capture lights, Hermione receives a book of children's stories written in Ancient Runes, and Harry inherits Godric Gryffindor's sword and the Snitch that Harry caught in his first ever Quidditch match. The Ministry withholds the sword as being not Dumbledore's to bequeath.
Before the end of Bill and Fleur's wedding the next day, word comes that Voldemort has taken over the Ministry. The trio retreat to 12 Grimmauld Place, where they realize that Umbridge now has custody of the locket Horcrux. They spy on and infiltrate the Ministry to retrieve it, replacing it with a copy Hermione creates. However, on their return they reveal 12 Grimmauld Place to Death Eaters. The trio begin to move about the countryside, never hiding in one place for long.
Realizing that the sword of Gryffindor the Ministry had is a fake, Harry and Hermione wish to hunt for the real sword, as it can destroy Horcruxes. Ron feels this is another pointless quest, and after a bitter argument, abandons the other two. Harry and Hermione visit Godric's Hollow in hopes of finding the sword there. Historian Bathilda Bagshot seems a promising lead, but turns out to be Nagini, in disguise as a trap for Harry. In the struggle to escape, Hermione accidentally breaks Harry's wand almost completely in two; her Reparo will do nothing to fix it.
Days later, a doe Patronus appears at their latest hidden camp and leads Harry to the real sword, hidden in a frozen pool. Harry dives for it, but he is wearing the locket Horcrux, which tries to strangle him. Ron's timely intervention rescues both Harry and sword. Ron destroys the Horcrux with the sword despite the locket playing on his worst fears. Back at camp, Ron informs Harry and Hermione that the Deluminator given to him by Dumbledore showed him the way back to them.
The trio next seek out Xenophilius Lovegood (father of Luna) to ask him about the triangular symbol they keep encountering. He tells them the wizarding fairy tale of the Deathly Hallows -- the unbeatable Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone which (imperfectly) brings back the dead, and the Cloak of Invisibility. Lovegood betrays them to the Ministry, but again they narrowly escape. Harry, convinced his is the cloak, thinks their new goal must be to collect the Hallows.
Days later, with no progress on either quest, Harry is excited by a rogue wizard radio broadcast and says Voldemort's name, despite it now being Taboo and traceable by the Ministry. The trio are captured, recognised, and taken to Malfoy Manor where they are imprisoned along with Dean, Luna, Griphook and Ollivander. Peter Pettigrew hesitates to kill Harry as they escape, and is killed by the silver hand Voldemort gave him. They only escape with the help of Dobby, whom Bellatrix kills as he Disapparates the last of them to safety.
Hidden behind Fidelius at Bill and Fleur's home, the trio make plans. Harry decides to pursue the Horcruxes rather than the Elder Wand he knows Voldemort is close to acquiring, and with Griphook's help they plan a theft from Gringotts. In the end they retrieve Helga Hufflepuff's cup from the Lestrange vault and fly away on the back of a guard dragon they free. This is far from quiet and Voldemort now knows that they are hunting Horcruxes. Time is short.
Harry's connection to Voldemort allows him to see Voldemort's thoughts about the hiding places of his remaining Horcruxes, and they go to Hogwarts to find the Horcrux there before Voldemort puts even more barriers in place against it.
They Apparate to Hogsmeade and are saved from the curfew alarms there by Aberforth Dumbledore, who gives them access to a tunnel to Hogwarts through a portrait of his dead sister, Arianna. The trio arrive in the Room of Requirement, where Neville Longbottom has been leading Dumbledore's Army against Headmaster Snape and the Carrow professors. Although Harry has not intended a battle, the DA put out the call to the Order and other allies, who begin pouring in via the portrait tunnel and out into the castle.
Hermione stabs the cup Horcrux with a Basilisk fang to destroy it. With Luna's help, Harry recognizes Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem and seeks it in the Room of Requirement's room for objects people want to hide, where he'd put the Half-Blood Prince's potions text the year before. The trio are confronted by Draco, Crabbe and Goyle, but retrieve the diadem. Crabbe dies of the magical fire he sets to thwart them, which also destroys the horcrux. Draco and Goyle are rescued by Harry and Ron on broomstick.
Harry's visions now tell him that Voldemort is in the Shrieking Shack. The trio go there to find Voldemort ordering Nagini to kill Snape as he believes the Elder Wand, which was Dumbledore's, became Snape's upon Dumbledore's death. As he dies from the snake bite, Snape gives up his memories to Harry, who uses the Pensieve to find out that Snape was always working to protect Harry, motivated by his lifelong love for Lily Evans (Harry's mother). Dumbledore had asked Snape had been asked to kill him to prevent Draco from doing it himself. Snape sent the doe patronus (the same form as Lily Evans's patronus) to lead Harry to Gryffindor's Sword, which Snape had concealed. However, Harry also discovers that he himself is a Horcrux, and that Voldemort cannot be killed while Harry, and the part of Voldemort's soul within him, live.
During a cease-fire called by Voldemort, Harry tells Neville that Voldemort's snake needs to die, then goes into the Forbidden Forest to confront Voldemort. On his way out of the castle, Harry spots the bodies of Fred Weasley, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks and Colin Creevey, a sixth year who had stayed behind to fight.
Harry realizes his final meeting with Voldemort is "the close" referred to in the riddle on the Snitch Dumbledore gave him, and opens it to reveal the Resurrection Stone (on the ring Horcrux). Harry summons the spirits of his parents, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin, who support and protect him from the Dementors and help him reach Voldemort. Harry drops the Stone, takes off his cloak and reveals himself, letting Voldemort kill him with the Killing Curse. But Harry awakens, dreamlike, in what appears to be King's Cross railway station. A wounded and dying creature lies on the floor, representing a fragment of Voldemort's soul. Harry meets Dumbledore, who explains that much as Voldemort could not die while Harry held part of his soul, Harry cannot die while his blood sustains Voldemort. They remain bound by Lily's protection. Dumbledore tells him of his history wtih Grindelwald and his family; Dumbledore was not a worthy possessor of the Hallows because he desired their power. Harry, however, can use them well.
Dumbledore speculates that Harry's wand reacted against Voldemort's borrowed wand because it had absorbed some of Voldemort's soul when their wands first met each other upon Voldemort's resurrection; Harry's wand now is attuned to Voldemort, whatever wand he wields. Harry is given the choice of "going on", or continuing with life and stopping Voldemort; he chooses the latter. It is never clear whether this conversation was death or dream.
Hagrid, captured by Death Eaters, is ordered to carry Harry's body back to Hogwarts, where many things happen at once: the Sorting Hat gives Neville Gryffindor's Sword, with which he beheads Nagini; Harry ducks under his cloak and vanishes; fresh armies of opponents of Voldemorts attack. Soon, Harry with his wand faces off against Voldemort with the Elder Wand. Harry notes that his willing sacrifice has granted everyone protection from Voldemort, just as Lily's sacrifice protected Harry. He also guesses correctly that the Elder Wand never belonged to Snape; he acted on Dumbledore's orders. It was Draco who defeated Dumbledore, and as Harry has since defeated Draco, the Elder Wand now calls Harry master.
And so it proves: when the two wizards cast opposing spells, Avada Kedavra and Expelliarmus, the Elder Wand flies to Harry's hand, and the Killing Curse rebounds off the other spell to kill Voldemort.
Harry uses the immense power of the Elder Wand to repair his own holly wand and returns the Elder Wand to Dumbledore's grave. If Harry dies undefeated as he hopes, the power of that wand will die with him. He leaves the Resurrection Stone hidden where it fell in the forest, and keeps only the Invisibility Cloak, which was the choice of the wisest son in the wizarding tale.
In the story's epilogue, set nineteen years later, Harry and Ginny have three children named James, Albus Severus, and Lily. Ron and Hermione have two children named Rose and Hugo. The two families meet at King's Cross Station when taking their children to Platform Nine and Three Quarters for their departure to Hogwarts. Lily is too young to attend Hogwarts just yet, Albus is entering his first year at the school, and James is already an experienced Gryffindor. Neville Longbottom is now the Herbology professor at the school. At the station, Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione spot Draco Malfoy across the platform with his wife and his son Scorpius. Their relationship to the Malfoys is not made clear, but it is implied that they're no longer enemies. Harry's scar has not hurt in nineteen years; the book ends with the words "All is well".