The four Hogwarts houses are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin, named after the four witches and wizards who founded the school; the Sorting Hat places every new student in one. A Horcrux is an object in which a dark wizard hides a piece of his own soul, torn away by murder, so that he cannot die. Voldemort made six on purpose and one by accident: Harry himself. The Unforgivable Curses are the three spells that earn a life sentence in Azkaban: the Imperius Curse, which controls, the Cruciatus Curse (Crucio), which tortures, and the Killing Curse.
This follows the seven books and says where the eight films change things. Spoilers for the whole series below. Harry, Voldemort, Bellatrix, Snape and Dobby are all on the Harry Potter shelf.
The four Hogwarts houses
Gryffindor prizes courage, daring and nerve: the lion, scarlet and gold, with Professor McGonagall as head of house. Hufflepuff prizes loyalty, hard work and fair play: the badger, yellow and black, Professor Sprout. Ravenclaw prizes wit and learning: the eagle, blue and bronze in the books (blue and silver in the films), Professor Flitwick.
Slytherin prizes ambition and cunning, and its founder, Salazar Slytherin, wanted only pure-blood students: the serpent, green and silver, and for most of Harry's school years Severus Snape as its head.
The Sorting Hat, which once belonged to Godric Gryffindor, reads each first-year at the start-of-term feast. It thinks Slytherin would help Harry to greatness; he asks it not to, and it puts him in Gryffindor. Dumbledore later tells him that this is the point: our choices show who we are far more than our abilities do.
The houses compete for the House Cup through points and Quidditch. Each has a ghost: Nearly Headless Nick, the Fat Friar, the Grey Lady and the Bloody Baron.
The boy who lived
On Halloween night 1981, Voldemort comes to the Potters' house in Godric's Hollow, sent there by a prophecy of a boy, born as July ended, with the power to defeat him. He kills James, then Lily, who dies standing between him and her son. When he turns the Killing Curse on the baby, it rebounds: Lily's sacrifice has left a protection on Harry. Voldemort is ripped from his body, and Harry is left with a lightning-bolt scar.
"The Boy Who Lived" is the title of the first book's first chapter and the wizarding world's name for him. The Boy Who Lived puts Harry with Hedwig, the snowy owl Hagrid gives him for his eleventh birthday.
The prophecy reached Voldemort through Snape, who overheard its first half and reported it, then begged him to spare Lily, whom he had loved since childhood. He also went to Dumbledore for help and became his double agent; after Voldemort killed her anyway, he spent the rest of his life protecting her son. When Dumbledore asks whether he still loves her, after all this time, his answer is one word: always. After All This Time is his cover.
The three Unforgivable Curses
The Imperius Curse (Imperio) puts the victim under the caster's control, though a strong will can throw it off, as Harry learns to. The Cruciatus Curse (Crucio) causes unbearable pain. The Killing Curse (Avada Kedavra) kills in a flash of green light. There is no counter-curse, and Harry is its only known survivor.
Harry's class first sees them in the fourth year, cast on spiders by Mad-Eye Moody, who is in fact the Death Eater Barty Crouch Jr. in disguise. Using any of them on a human means a life sentence in Azkaban, though the Ministry let its Aurors use them during the first war against Voldemort.
Bellatrix Lestrange uses them with relish. With the Cruciatus Curse she and other Death Eaters tortured Neville's parents, Frank and Alice Longbottom, into madness. In the book she kills her cousin Sirius Black with an unnamed spell that sends him through the veil in the Department of Mysteries; the film makes it the Killing Curse. Harry tries Crucio on her in return and barely hurts her, because, she tells him, you have to mean it.
Horcruxes: the full list
A Horcrux takes a murder, which tears the soul, and a spell that seals the torn piece inside an object. While it survives, its maker cannot truly die. Voldemort wanted his soul in seven pieces, seven being the most powerful magical number, so he made six Horcruxes and kept the seventh piece in his body.
- Tom Riddle's diary: destroyed by Harry with a basilisk fang in the Chamber of Secrets.
- Marvolo Gaunt's ring: destroyed by Dumbledore with the sword of Gryffindor; the curse on it withers his hand.
- Salazar Slytherin's locket: stolen by Regulus Black, kept by the house-elf Kreacher, later worn by Dolores Umbridge, destroyed by Ron with the sword.
- Helga Hufflepuff's cup: hidden in Bellatrix's vault at Gringotts, destroyed by Hermione with a basilisk fang.
- Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem: hidden in the Room of Requirement. In the book it burns in the cursed fire, Fiendfyre, that Crabbe sets; in the film Harry stabs it with a fang and Ron kicks it into fire that Goyle set.
- Nagini, his snake: killed by Neville with the sword.
- Harry: the accidental one, a fragment that lodged in him the night Lily died, destroyed when Voldemort casts the Killing Curse at him in the Forbidden Forest.
With the last of them gone, Voldemort's own Killing Curse rebounds off Harry's Disarming Charm in the Great Hall, and he dies. The film moves the duel to the castle courtyard. He Who Must Not has him with Nagini and the three friends who hunted them down.
His sign is the Dark Mark, a skull with a serpent for a tongue, burned into his Death Eaters' left forearms and cast into the sky above a killing. After the Death Eaters take the Ministry, the statue in its Atrium bears the words Magic Is Might.
Dobby, the free elf
House-elves serve one family for life and are freed only if their master gives them clothes. Dobby serves the Malfoys, and in Harry's second year he comes to warn Harry, punishing himself for every word against his masters. At the end of that year Harry hides a sock inside Riddle's diary and hands it to Lucius Malfoy, who tosses the sock aside; Dobby catches it and is free.
He takes paid work in the Hogwarts kitchens, which other elves find shameful. In the book it is Dobby who brings Harry the gillyweed for the second task of the Triwizard Tournament; the film gives that to Neville. In the last book he rescues Harry and his friends from Malfoy Manor and is killed by a knife Bellatrix throws as they vanish. Harry digs his grave by hand at Shell Cottage, and the stone reads: here lies Dobby, a Free Elf.
On the back of a tee
All six covers are on the Harry Potter shelf, drawn from canon reference art. Check the size guide before you pick a size.
Why it works on the back: the series runs on signs, a lightning-bolt scar, a skull and serpent, a single sock, and a sign is made to be read at a glance, which is the whole job of a back print.
Read next: The One Ring, the Nazgul and Smaug explained (another dark lord who put himself into an object) and InGen, frog DNA and the raptors: Jurassic Park explained.
Back Issue is fan-made, unofficial merchandise. We are not affiliated with, licensed or endorsed by any studio, publisher or rights holder. Character names, titles and marks belong to their owners and are used only to describe what a design shows. Rights & IP