Family Movies

Harry Potter 6: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will be released on July 17, 2009 in the United States, and the anticipation is building! Here is a bit of a refresher before you head into the theater – recaps of the previous Harry Potter films. If you missed any of the first five and want to watch them for yourself, though, you may want to skip this article; it contains spoilers for the first five films.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Harry Potter is a seemingly average 11-year-old boy who quickly learns he is, amazingly, a wizard. And he’s not just any wizard; Harry is the famous survivor of a killing curse directed at him by Lord Voldemort, a powerful and feared evil wizard. Harry is whisked away from his Muggle (non-magical) relatives and life to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he begins his magical education. On the way he meets a range of colorful characters, enemies and friends alike: the good-hearted though bumbling Hagrid, the shifty and spiteful Draco Malfoy, as well as Harry’s soon-to-be best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.

At Hogwarts, Harry discovers his talent for riding broomsticks and becomes Seeker for the Gryffindor House’s Quidditch team. He also discovers, however, that there is trouble afoot in the wizarding world. The Sorcerer’s Stone, source of the immortality-giving Elixir of Life, is being sought by Lord Voldemort despite the best attempts of the Hogwarts professors to protect it. The shifty behavior of Professor Severus Snape makes Harry Potter and his friends suspect that Snape may be on Voldemort’s side.

Wanting to help protect the wizarding world from the terror that an immortal Voldemort could inflict, Harry, Ron, and Hermione embark on a danger-filled quest to protect the Sorcerer’s Stone. They pass through a number of magical challenges before confronting Voldemort himself. Professor Dumbledore, head of Hogwarts and a powerful wizard, rescues Harry and destroys the Sorcerer’s Stone just in time.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
We catch up with Harry Potter as he is stuck, miserably, in the Muggle world with his relatives once again. Dobby, a house-elf, visits Harry to warn him that he will be in great danger if he returns to Hogwarts for the next school year. Harry, of course, disregards this warning and eagerly heads back to Hogwarts with Ron and the Weasley clan. Yet danger arises quickly at Hogwarts: the Chamber of Secrets opens to release a monster that quite literally petrifies students. Harry, Ron, and Hermione strive once again to protect their fellow students, but without much initial luck. The stakes are raised when Ginny Weasley is taken into the Chamber of Secrets to be killed.

Harry and Ron spring into action and learn how to enter the Chamber, where they find Ginny and encounter Tom Riddle, a "memory" of Voldemort’s young self. Tom Riddle attempts to kill Harry, but Dumbledore again comes to the rescue. Harry destroys the memory of Tom Riddle, reviving Ginny and the petrified students. The enmity between Harry and Draco Malfoy increases when it is revealed that the Malfoy family had a hand in Ginny’s kidnapping. Dobby is happily freed from his servitude to the Malfoys and promises Harry Potter his very enthusiastic eternal gratitude.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

The dangerous adventures of Harry Potter begin once again when he learns that Sirius Black, convicted of supporting Lord Voldemort, has escaped from the feared Azkaban prison. To make matters worse, Harry’s friends suspect that Black has his eye on one mission: to kill Harry Potter. As Harry, Ron, and Hermione travel back to Hogwarts they learn first-hand about the happiness-draining horror of the Dementors, guards from Azkaban who are searching for Sirius Black.

After repeated and terrible encounters with the Dementors, Harry gets help from the new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Lupin, to learn how to protect himself from the Dementors. When Harry learns that Sirius Black played a role in his parents’ deaths, he vows to kill Black. Harry seems to have just that chance, but it comes to light that Black is a faithful friend, not the Potters’ betrayer. Black is not only on Harry’s side but is also his godfather. This moment of joy is cut short, however, when Black is recaptured by the Dementors to be executed. With help from Dumbledore, Harry and Hermione travel back in time to change the evening’s outcome. Given a second chance, Harry successfully conjures the Patronus to save Black and allow him to escape.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
The wizarding world is once again in danger, and the Quidditch World Cup is ruined by an attack by Voldemort’s Death Eaters. Harry Potter and his friends return to Hogwarts, shaken, but are soon swept up in the excitement of the Triwizard Tournament. Harry is chosen by the Goblet of Fire to compete on behalf of Hogwarts. The Tournament’s events prove difficult and dangerous, but Harry completes the first two successfully. The third task brings Harry and Cedric Diggory to a confrontation with Voldemort. Cedric is killed and Harry is forced to duel Voldemort. Though he manages to escape, Harry now knows that Voldemort has regained his former powers. Back at Hogwarts, a distressed Harry discovers that he was thrown into the tournament by a Death Eater masquerading as a Hogwarts professor, Mad-Eye Moody. Though Harry Potter has escaped once again, the dark weight of Cedric’s death hangs heavy on him.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
As we rejoin Harry Potter, the desperate danger that Voldemort’s return to power poses has caused schisms in the wizarding community. The Ministry of Magic has chosen a denial of Voldemort’s return as its official policy. The Order of the Phoenix, a secret organization of powerful wizards gathered by Dumbledore, includes Sirius Black, Ron, Hermione, Harry, and other old friends. Refusing to ignore the reality of Voldemort’s power, the group meets to plan its fight against Voldemort. As students return to Hogwarts, Cornelius Fudge and Dolores Umbridge work to undermine Dumbledore’s authority at the school. To resist the Ministry’s influence and to protect themselves against Voldemort, Harry, Ron, and Hermione form Dumbledore’s Army to practice and teach other students defensive spells.

Harry suffers from his mental connection with Voldemort, which Professor Snape tries to teach him how to block. When Harry discovers that Sirius Black is in danger, he and other members of Dumbledore’s Army travel to London to attempt a rescue. Inside the Ministry of Magic, Harry Potter and his friends are ambushed by Death Eaters. Members of the Order of the Phoenix arrive to help in the battle, but Sirius is killed by Bellatrix Lestrange. Harry, despite his grief, is forced to face off against Voldemort. Dumbledore arrives to rescue Harry and is drawn into a fearsome duel with Voldemort. Just as Lestrange escapes and Voldemort seems to disappear, Harry is possessed by Voldemort and fights to reject the Dark Lord’s power and influence.

The battle forces the Ministry of Magic to recant its denials of Voldemort’s return and restore Dumbledore’s authority at Hogwarts. Even in the darkness after Sirius’s death, Harry Potter realizes that he and his friends have a powerful weapon that Voldemort ultimately lacks: love.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Now you’re caught up and ready to rejoin Harry Potter and his friends at Hogwarts. Discover the adventures and magic that await you and your family in Harry Potter 6!