Throughout the six previous novels in the Harry Potter series, the main character, Harry Potter, has struggled with the inherent difficulties of adolescence along with being a famous wizard. When Harry was a baby, Lord Voldemort, a powerful evil wizard, murdered Harry's parents but mysteriously vanished after attempting to kill Harry. This results in Harry's immediate fame, and his being placed in the care of his muggle, or non-magical, relatives Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon.
Harry re-enters the wizarding world at age 11, enrolling in the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He makes friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, and is soon confronted by Lord Voldemort, who is trying to regain power (and a body). Returning to school after summer break, there are several attacks on students after the legendary "Chamber of Secrets" is thought to be opened. Harry ends the attacks by killing a Basilisk and defeating Lord Voldemort's "memory" stored in an enchanted diary. The following year, Harry hears that he has been targeted by escaped murderer Sirius Black. Despite stringent security measures at Hogwarts, Harry is confronted by Black at the end of his third year of schooling and Harry learns that Black was framed and is his godfather. Harry's fourth year of school sees him entered in a dangerous magical competition called the Triwizard Tournament. At the conclusion of the Tournament, Harry witnesses the return of Lord Voldemort to full strength. When the next school year begins, the Ministry of Magic appoints Dolores Umbridge as the new High Inquisitor of Hogwarts. After forming an underground student group in opposition to Umbridge, Harry and several of his friends face off against Voldemort's Death Eaters, a group of Dark witches and wizards, and narrowly defeat them. In Harry's sixth year of school, he learns that Voldemort has been using Horcruxes to become immortal. Horcruxes are fragments of the soul that are placed within an object so that when the body dies, a part of the soul remains and the person can be regenerated or resurrected. However, the destruction of the creator's body leaves the wizard or witch in a state of half-life, without corporeal form. When returning from a mission to discover a Horcrux, Professor Dumbledore, the Headmaster of the school and Harry's mentor, is murdered by Severus Snape, a teacher at the school with whom Harry is consistently at odds and who Harry has suspected of being a Death Eater. At the conclusion of the book, Harry pledges not to return to school the following year and to search for Horcruxes instead.
