History Es / HarryPotter

[[quoteright:280:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/HarryPotterPic.JPG]]
[[caption-width-right:280:¡Arde, Harry, arde! ¡Místico infierno]]

->''"Harry -- [[BrokenMasquerade eres un mago.]]"''
-->-- '''Rubeus Hagrid''', ''Harry Potter y la Piedra Filosofal.''

La saga de libros más vendida de todos los tiempos.[[note]] A menos que se cuenten el viejo y nuevo testamentos de [[Literature/TheBible La Biblia]] y sus volúmenes constituyentes como una "saga".[[/note]]

Esta serie de siete novelas para niños y jóvenes adultos escrita por Creator/JKRowling explotó en la escena literaria mundial a finales de los [[TheNineties 1990s]] y se ha convertido en un fenómeno como nunca antes visto.Mezclando fantasía con el género casi extinto del [[BoardingSchool internado]] británico, hizo de su ex-profesora autora una estrella literaria, y los personajes y ambientes que creó han entrado permanentemente en la cultura popular de todo el mundo. Innecesario decir que hay [[Franchise/HarryPotter una franquicia multimedia]] alrededor de ellos, que consiste en [[Film/HarryPotter una serie de películas]], [[VideoGame/HarryPotter videojuegos]] y otros tipos de merchandising, pero el corazón de todo ello son los libros.

La historia básica es simple: Harry Potter es un niño aparentemente normal, que vive con sus resentidos y abusivos tíos tras quedar huérfano en su infancia, que en su undécimo cumpleaños descubre [[ChangelingFantasy que en realidad no es normal en absoluto]]. Sus padres eran los dos poderosos brujos, y el propio Harry es famoso por haber derrotado a Voldemort, [[EvilOverlord señor malvado]] del mundo mago. Voldemort había intentado matar a Harry cuando este tenía solo un año, pero por razones desconocidas, la maldición que lanzó al niño le afectó a él en su lugar, matándolo... [[OnlyMostlyDead más o menos]].

Harry acude a Hogwarts, la gran escuela de magia, y es feliz. Tiene los problemas normales de la escuela -- [[BreadEggsMilkSquick matones, profesores desagradables, el perro de tres cabezas que guarda algo misterioso]] -- pero nada serio, hasta que ve una sombra oscura en el bosque. Investigando, finalmente descubre que Voldemort [[NotQuiteDead no murió realmente]]. Aunque su cuerpo fue destruido, su espíritu se aferró a la vida, buscando formas de retornar a la vida y continuar su campaña de terror.

!!Tropos específicos a libros, otros medios y personajes en la serie:
!!!Los libros
# ''Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal''
# ''Harry Potter y la cámara secreta''
# ''Harry Potter y el prisionero de Azkaban''
# ''Harry Potter y el cáliz de fuego''
# ''Harry Potter y la Orden del Fénix''
# ''Harry Potter y el misterio del príncipe''
# ''Harry Potter y las Reliquias de la Muerte''
!!!Otras publicaciones
* ''Animales fantásticos y dónde encontrarlos''
* ''Quidditch a través de los tiempos''
* ''Los cuentos de Beedle el Bardo''
[[/index]]

----
!Tropes prevalent across the whole series:

* [[AcademyOfAdventure Academia de Aventura]]: Dado que Hogwarts no solo es una escuela, sino donde la mayoría de los magos más poderosos e influyentes y los secretos más antiguos tienen su hogar, esto debe ser esperado.
* [[AdoringThePests Adorando las Alimañas]]: La familia Weasley adopta una rata llamada Scabbers, que pensaban que era una rata salvaje.[[spoiler:Resultó ser una forma [[VoluntaryShapeshifting transformada]] de Peter Pettigrew.)]]
* {{Adorkable}}: Luna, y quizás Neville si le cuentas como un empollón. Ron también podría ser esto en ocasiones.
* Es/ChicaDeAccion Hermione, especialmente en ''Reliquias de la Muerte''. Tonks, Lunna, Ginny e incluso [=McGonagall=] también caen en este tropo. Por lo general, esto es más extremo en las películas. Particularmente con Hermione, también conocida como ''El Prisionero de Azkaban''[[MightyMorphinPowerRangers Rosa Granger]].
** Es/ChicaDeAccionOscura: Bellatrix Lestrange
* [[AcheyScars Dolorosas Cicatrices]]: Aunque [[spoiler:el dolor desaparece tras la muerte de Voldemort.]]
* [[AbusiveParents Padres Abusivos]]: Aunque no son sus padres biológicos, el tratamiento que Harry recibe por parte de Petunia y [[EvilUncle Vernon]] Dursley no deja de ser abusivo.
* Es/MiedoAdulto: Esta saga, a pesar de ser[[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids para niños]], tiene ''muchos'' momentos que asustan a los padres más que a los niños, y muchos tienen que ver con maltrato infantil, [[ParentalAbandonment Abandono]], y no ser capaz de proteger a tus propios hijos o cuidar de ellos. Mucho de esto probablemente vino de los propios miedos de Rowling como madre (y especialmente como madre soltera, habiendo roto un matrimonio ''abusivo'').

* Es/ChicaDeAccion Hermione, especialmente en'' y ''Reliquias de la Muerte''. Tonks, Lunna, Ginny e incluso [=McGonagall=] también caen en este tropo. Por lo general, esto es más extremo en las películas. Particularmente con Hermione, también conocida como ''El Prisionero de Azkaban[[MightyMorphinPowerRangers Rosa Granger]].

# ''Harry Potter y la cámara secreta''

# ''Harry Potter y el cáliz de fuego''
# ''Harry Potter y la Orden del Fénix''
# ''Harry Potter y el misterio del príncipe''

!! Otras publicaciones
* ''Animales fantásticos y dónde encontrarlos''
* ''Quidditch a través de los tiempos''

[[index]]
* ''Literatura/HarryPotterYLaPiedraFilosofal''
* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets''
* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban''
* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire''
* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix''
* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince''
* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows''
* ''Literature/FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem''
* ''Literature/QuidditchThroughTheAges''
* ''Literature/TheTalesOfBeedleTheBard''
* [[Film/HarryPotter The Movies]]
* [[VideoGame/HarryPotter The Video Games]]
* [[Characters/HarryPotter Characters]]
** Characters/HarryPotterTheTrio
** Characters/HarryPotterHogwartsStudents
** Characters/HarryPotterHogwartsTeachers
** Characters/HarryPotterMinistryOfMagic
** Characters/HarryPotterOrderOfThePhoenixMembers
** Characters/HarryPotterDeathEaters
** Characters/HarryPotterMuggles
** Characters/HarryPotterGhosts
** Characters/HarryPotterOtherCharacters
* [[Recap/HarryPotter Chapter Recaps]]

* ''Es/HarryPotterYLaPiedraFilosofal''

* ''Literatura/HarryPotterYLaPiedraFilosofal''

* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone''

* [[AbusiveParents Padres Abusivos]]: Aunque no son sus padres biológicos, el tratamiento que Harry recibe por parte de Petunia y [[EvilUncle Vernon]] Dursley no deja de ser abusivo.

[[/index]]

La historia básica es simple: Harry Potter es un niño aparentemente normal, que vive con sus resentidos y abusivos tíos tras quedar huérfano en su infancia, que en su undécimo cumpleaños descubre [[ChangelingFantasy que en realidad no es normal en absoluto]]. Sus padres eran los dos poderosos brujos, y el propio Harry es famoso por haber derrotado a Voldemort, [[EvilOverlord señor malvado]] del mundo mago. Voldemort había intentado matar a Harry cuando este tenía solo un año, pero por razones desconocidas, la maldición que lanzó al niño le afectó a él en su lugar, matándolo... [[OnlyMostlyDead más o menos]].

This series of seven children's and young adult novels by Creator/JKRowling exploded onto the world literary scene in the late [[TheNineties 1990s]] and has become a phenomenon unlike anything seen before in publishing. Blending fantasy with the nearly extinct British BoardingSchool genre, it made a literary superstar out of its ex-schoolteacher author, and the characters and settings she created have permanently entered popular culture the world over. Needless to say, there is [[Franchise/HarryPotter a multimedia franchise]] revolving around them, consisting of [[Film/HarryPotter a series of films]], [[VideoGame/HarryPotter video games]] and various other merchandising tie-ins, but at the heart of it are the books.

The basic story is simple: Harry Potter is a seemingly normal schoolboy, living with his resentful, abusive aunt and uncle after being orphaned in his infancy, who on his eleventh birthday discovers [[ChangelingFantasy he isn't really normal at all]]. His parents were both powerful wizards, and Harry himself is the renowned defeater of Voldemort, would-be EvilOverlord of the wizarding world. Voldemort had attempted to kill Harry when the latter was only a year old, but for unknown reasons, the curse he cast at the boy afflicted himself instead, killing him... [[OnlyMostlyDead sort of]].

Harry goes to Hogwarts, the great school of magic, and is happy. There are the normal school troubles -- [[BreadEggsMilkSquick bullies, unpleasant teachers, the three-headed dog guarding a mysterious something]] -- but nothing serious, until he sees a dark shadow creeping through the forest. Investigating, he eventually discovers that Voldemort [[NotQuiteDead did not truly die]]. Though his body was destroyed, his spirit clung to life, seeking ways to return from death and resume his campaign of terror.

!!Tropes specific to books, other media, and characters in the series:
[[index]]
* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'' (''Sorcerer's Stone'' in the United States)
* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets''
* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban''
* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire''
* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix''
* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince''
* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows''
* ''Literature/FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem''
* ''Literature/QuidditchThroughTheAges''
* ''Literature/TheTalesOfBeedleTheBard''
* [[Film/HarryPotter The Movies]]
* [[VideoGame/HarryPotter The Video Games]]
* [[Characters/HarryPotter Characters]]
** Characters/HarryPotterTheTrio
** Characters/HarryPotterHogwartsStudents
** Characters/HarryPotterHogwartsTeachers
** Characters/HarryPotterMinistryOfMagic
** Characters/HarryPotterOrderOfThePhoenixMembers
** Characters/HarryPotterDeathEaters
** Characters/HarryPotterMuggles
** Characters/HarryPotterGhosts
** Characters/HarryPotterOtherCharacters
* [[Recap/HarryPotter Chapter Recaps]]
[[/index]]

%% The tropes that a work named is trivia and belongs on the Trivia tab.

----
!Tropes prevalent across the whole series:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:A]]
* AbusiveParents: While not his biological parents, the treatment Harry receives from Petunia and [[EvilUncle Vernon]] Dursley is nothing shy of abusive.
* AcademyOfAdventure: Given that Hogwarts is not only a school, but where most of the most powerful and influential wizards and the most ancient secrets make their home, this is pretty much to be expected.
* AcheyScars: Though [[spoiler:the pains go away after Voldemort's death.]]
* ActionGirl: Hermione, especially in ''Prisoner of Azkaban'' and ''Deathly Hallows''. Tonks, Luna, Ginny and even [=McGonagall=] also fall into this trope. For the most part, this is more extreme in the films. Particularly with Hermione—otherwise known as the Pink Granger.
** DarkActionGirl: Bellatrix Lestrange
* AdoringThePests: The Weasley family adopts a rat named Scabbers, who they thought was a wild rat at the time. [[spoiler:(Turns out it was really a [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shape-shifted]] form of Peter Pettigrew.)]]
* {{Adorkable}}: Luna, and maybe Neville if you count him as a geek. Ron is sometimes seen as this too.
* AdultFear: This series, despite being [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids aimed at children]], has ''plenty'' of moments that scare the parents more than the kids, and a lot of them have to do with child abuse, ParentalAbandonment, and not being able to protect or take care of your own children. Most of this probably came from Rowling's own fears as a mother (and especially as a single mother, having broken off an ''abusive'' marriage).
* AerithAndBob: The "Muggle" first names range from Dudley to Hermione; the wizarding ones, from George to [[MeaningfulName Xenophilius]]. All in the UK. Same with the wizarding last names, which range from Potter and Black to Slytherin and Dumbledore. The old pureblood families are the ones to have the strangest names usually and they also tend to have themed names. For example, the Black family and their various offshoots named their children after constellations and stars.
* AfterSchoolCleaningDuty: This is often given as a detention at Hogwarts. There is usually a requirement that the cleaning must be performed without magic.
* AgonyBeam: The Cruciatus curse.
* AgonyOfTheFeet: In all seven books to all three main characters. Shocking.
* AllergicToEvil: Harry's scar burns when Voldemort is angry and/or killing someone -- or nearby.
* AlliterativeFamily: Albus, Aberforth, and Ariana Dumbledore. Marvolo, Morfin, and Merope Gaunt. Padma and Parvati Patil.
* AlliterativeName: Cho Chang, Colin Creevey, Dudley Dursley, Filius Flitwick, Gregory Goyle, Luna Lovegood, Minerva [=McGonagall=], Pansy Parkinson, Padma Patil, Parvati Patil, Peter Pettigrew, Poppy Pomfrey, Severus Snape, William (Bill) Weasley. And those are just the ones that show up in multiple books; but let us not forget the four founders of Hogwarts: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin. And there are also the ghosts: Nearly-Headless Nick, The Fat Friar, The Bloody Baron, and Moaning Myrtle.
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: In book 1, Harry is hated near the end for helping his house lose 150 points. In book 2, Harry is hated because his fellow students think he's attacking them. In book 4, Harry is hated because his fellow students think he sneaked his way into the Triwizard Tournament. In book 5, Harry is hated because all the students think he's an attention-seeking brat. In book 7, Harry is labeled "Undesirable No. 1" by the government.
* AllThereInTheManual: [[http://www.pottermore.com/ Pottermore]]is a hotbed of information barely even alluded to in the actual books.
* AllWitchesHaveCats: A cat is one of the animals which wizarding students can bring as a pet to Hogwarts. In this case the cats are merely pets, not familiars. A Witch and teacher, professor [=McGonagall=], can turn into a cat. Both Hermione and Umbridge own cats, the latter of whom doubles as a CrazyCatLady. There was also a CrazyCatLady who lived near the Dursleys who turned out to be a Squib.
* AlternateDVDCommentary: No, this doesn't go on the Film page -- ''MarkReadsHarryPotter'', reviewing the books a chapter at a time. It's genuinely hilarious and does very well to remind us all what it was like to read the books for the first time.
* AlwaysIdenticalTwins: The Weasley and Patil twins.
* AmbiguouslyEvil: Snape. He's a deeply unpleasant fellow with an extremely transparent bias in favor of the Slytherin house (which is ''not'' seen in a positive light—see AmbitionIsEvil below.) He also has an intense dislike of Harry Potter (which turns out to be not only for somewhat complicated reasons, but [[spoiler: is also tempered with an odd sense of loyalty and protectiveness]]) This results in Harry and friends swiftly jumping to the conclusion that Snape is one of the bad guys, ''especially'' in ''The Sorceror's Stone'', ''The Chamber of Secrets'', ''The Half-Blood Prince'', and ''The Deathly Hallows'' (and they don't really trust him in the slightest in ''Prisoner of Azkaban'' or ''The Order of the Phoenix'', either.) ''The Goblet of Fire'' is the only book in the series that ''doesn't'' seem to go out of its way to villify Snape in some fashion, at least in Harry's eyes. It doesn't help that the events of the books have a knack for making you think that Harry's suspicions might be well-founded, at least until TheReveal at the very end. [[spoiler:This comes to a head in ''The Deathly Hallows'', in which Snape has pulled an apparent full-blown FaceHeelTurn by returning to the service of the Death Eaters. However, in the very end of the book, as he lies dying, he gives Harry his memories, revealing that his murder of Dumbledore was in fact a MercyKill, and [[ReverseMole he's been on Dumbledore's side the entire time]].]]
* AmbitionIsEvil: The usual trait of those put in Slytherin House. Some fans argue this is less about ambition being bad than about the serious lack of high-profile "good" house members.
* AndYourRewardIsClothes: A house elf is freed from its master if it is given an article of clothing, which is actually sort of [[InvertedTrope an inversion]]; the clothing itself isn't the reward (at least, not the ''only'' reward), but rather a symbol ''of'' the reward.
* AnimateDead: Inferi, first mentioned in ''Order of the Phoenix''.
* AnimalMotifs: An Animagus's animal form generally fits their personality. J.K. Rowling has also stated that Animagi don't get to choose what animal they turn into.
* {{Animorphism}}: Animagi.
* AnonymousBenefactor: Harry had at least four: [[spoiler:Dumbledore gave him the invisibility cloak. Sirius gave him a Firebolt. Barty Crouch was a malicious benefactor who helped Harry by proxy. Snape left the Sword of Gryffindor in the woods for him to find.]]
* AnyoneCanDie: Not so much in the earlier books, but after ''Goblet of Fire'', all bets were off. By the time book seven was announced, and Rowling herself stoked the fires by claiming that more people ''would die'', entire websites were devoted to betting on which major characters were going to bite the big one, including the three main characters.
** Professional betting odds establishments made a fortune on the last two books. [[http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/aug/08/books.harrypotter One professional bookmaker lost over 60,000 pounds on the outcome of the last book]] due to the fact that [[spoiler:Harry both died and didn't die]], and he ended up having to pay ''everyone''.
*** It is interesting when people who haven't read ''Harry Potter'' mention things like "[[LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt It's not like she's going to kill Harry in the last book]]" [[spoiler: The answer to that is complicated.]]
*** [[FunnyAneurysmMoment Ludo Bagman??]]
* ArbitrarySkepticism: Luna Lovegood is constantly going on about the bizarre magical creatures her father writes about in his magazine. Even in a world where there's magic, dragons and the like, hardly anyone else believes they exist.
** Which, in a way, is clever. Even in a world full of fantasy and magic, cryptozoological creatures and conspiracy theorists are still going to spring up, because human imagination is unlimited.
*** Hermione's response to the legend of the Deathly Hallows is this. In a world where you can't walk an inch without some magical object turning up is it so difficult to believe that there exist three objects which are a little more magical than usual? Hermione is the character who brought TIME TRAVEL into the story, for heaven's sake!
*** Somewhat justified, because the Deathly Hallows were featured in a story for little children and there was rather scant physical evidence for their existence. It is also postulated that they aren't actual objects stolen from Death himself, but rather inventions of a few particularly talented wizards.
*** Whilst Hermione's objection may seem silly ''to us'', GenreSavvy as we are, bear in mind that the Deathly Hallows contradict the mechanisms of the Wizarding World as they are commonly understood by its inhabitants. It is a fundamental rule of magic that no magic can raise the dead (to take but one example). Thus, something that allegedly raises the dead is as alien to a wizard as something that could ignore the laws of thermodynamics would be to a Muggle.
* ArcNumber: And [[http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Seven how!]]
* ArchEnemy: Harry vs. Voldemort.
* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: How the House "points" system at Hogwarts works. Later, we discover that this is how the Ministry of Magic treats "crime" in general.
** To elaborate, there appears to be only one wizard jail for UK wizards to go to. The very act of just being there is severe psychological torture, as every happy, positive thought you've ever had is forcibly removed from you, leaving you with nothing but the worst memories of your life. You even forget that this might end. Basically, any crime that merits more than a fine warrants Azkaban. And it's even used for preventative detention of suspects.
* ArsonMurderAndLifeSaving
* ArtifactOfDeath: Several. [[spoiler:Riddle's diary, the Elder Wand, and Marvolo Gaunt's ring. The latter includes a ''literal'' ArtifactOfDeath.]]
* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Rowling's grasp of genetics is as shaky as her mathematics. To explain why Muggle-born wizards are fairly common but Squibs are very rare, she said the allele for magic is ''dominant'', which is exactly backwards. That's what you'd expect with a ''recessive'' allele.
* [[AssholeVictim Asshole Victims]]: The Riddles.
* AudienceShift: Rowling [[WordOfGod has said]] that as Harry and the original audience grew older, the maturity level of the books would "grow" as well, making it so that while the early books are straight children's literature, the later ones fall more into the YA genre. Though it will be tricky for future generations of Potter fans, it makes sense when you realize the series took over a decade to be released in full; the 10-year olds who were reading ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone'' in 1997 would be 20-year olds by the time they were reading ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'' in 2007.
* AwesomeButImpractical: [[VoluntaryShapeshifting Animagus]] transformation is largely considered more trouble than it’s worth. To begin with, it’s a particularly difficult branch of the already particularly difficult art of Transfiguration, and the consequences of botching the job are said to be disastrous. Even when carried out successfully, one is instantly labelled a criminal unless they give full public disclosure of their skill and animal form to the government to prevent misuse, which rather jives with the fact that stealth and inconspicuousness are the skill’s main use. Even with all this, the form taken by the Animagus is fixed and determined by their personality, so they can easily end up with a useless conspicuous form for all their trouble. Cats, dogs and beetles? Useful and mundane-looking in any backdrop. Huge deer? Not so much.
* AwesomeMcCoolName: A couple stand out, but '''Kingsley Shacklebolt''' wins the prize.
** Sirius Black.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:B]]
* BadPowersBadPeople: Double subversion. Parseltongue is usually an ability only found in evil wizards. Harry is good and runs into trouble when people assume he's bad because he possesses it. [[spoiler:It turns out in the last book that the reason Harry has it is because it belongs to Voldemort, who gave him the ability when he accidentally turned Harry into a seventh Horcrux. And when Harry loses the fragment of Voldemort's soul residing in his body, he supposedly loses the ability with it.]]
** Perhaps played straight as well with Dumbledore. In the first book, [=McGonagall=] suggests that Dumbledore could do everything [[BigBad Voldemort]] was capable of if he were less noble. (Whether this means that Dumbledore ''can't'' do them, or simply ''wouldn't'', is not answered.) For starters, Dumbledore knows Parseltongue; he can't speak it because he wasn't born with it, but he can understand it. Likewise, in the seventh book, Voldemort states that what he will achieve could have been Dumbledore's, implying that he could have been as "great" if he weren't such a sentimental old fool.
** To some degree it's debatable how much it's true that only those born with Parseltongue can speak it. Dumbledore is able to understand it without being able to speak it; Ron can speak it (by imitating Harry) without understanding it. If those who aren't born Parselmouths can do each one individually, it's reasonable to assume that someone might eventually figure out how to do both.
* BadassAdorable:
** [[BigBadassBirdOfPrey Buckbeak]], [[LittleMissBadass Ginny]], and Luna.
** Harry, Hermione, and Ron themselves arguably qualify as well in earlier installments. Especially Hermione.
* BadassBookworm: Several, but primarily [[TheSmartGuy Hermione]], Lupin, and, most of all, [[TheChessmaster Dumbledore]].
** Snape would also appear to count, going so far as to have made dozens of corrections in his potions text. Note that he did this while still a student.
* BadassCrew: Dumbledore's Army
* BadassFamily: The Weasley siblings already include a curse-breaker, a dragon rancher, and a prefect when the books begin, and ''all'' of them go on to be successful in various fields. And let it be put on record that [[MamaBear the matriarch]] of this family, Molly, [[spoiler:kills [[TheDragon Bellatrix]], who is the second most powerful Death Eater after Voldemort himself.]] The fact that they happen to be close friends of Harry Potter (who himself is considered a member of the family, in more ways than one) certainly helps.
* BadassGrandpa: Dumbledore, full stop.
* BadassTeacher: Moody, [=McGonagall=], Snape, Lupin, and Slughorn.
* BarredFromTheAfterlife: Ghosts are people who either refused or were too scared to accept death and move on. Apparently, there's no take-backs later on if you change your mind.
* BatmanGambit: [[BigBad Voldemort's]] plan in the ''Half-Blood Prince'' and Dumbledore's plan revealed near the end of ''Deathly Hallows''.
* BattleCouple: ''Many.'' Examples include [[spoiler: Lupin and Tonks, Harry and Ginny, Ron and Hermione, and Arthur and Molly.]]
* BeamOWar: Spells have been known to clash and cancel each other out, though there's at least one instance of two characters firing spells at each other where the beams hit each other and ricochet off at angles, each hitting the person standing right next to the intended target.
* BecauseDestinySaysSo: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]]. [[TheHero Harry's]] destiny is self-fulfilling precisely because Voldemort ''insists'' on fulfilling it. Dumbledore suggests that not all prophecies must be fulfilled.
* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe
* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: The series upgrades a few historical characters to "real" wizards.
* BerserkButton: [[PunctuatedForEmphasis "NEVER -- INSULT -- ALBUS DUMBLEDORE -- IN FRONT OF ME!'']]
** Hurting Harry or any of his furry friends will get Hagrid very angry. When Fang got hit by a spell, Hagrid hurls the perpetrator ten feet in the air.
** "NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!"
** Harry doesn't take kindly to willing parental abandonment, given his experiences as an orphan. Also, if you don't want to end up as a balloon or have your nose broken, don't even ''think'' about insulting his dead parents.
** Dumbledore will kindly accept horrible slurs against him and remains civil to his enemies even when dueling them, but reacts furiously if any of his students are threatened.
** Dobby is fiercely protective over Harry ever since Harry freed him and his trademark is "You shall not harm Harry Potter!" He is so devoted to Harry that he would [[spoiler: risk his life (and lose it) for Harry and the others to escape the Malfoy's manor.]]
---> "Kreacher will not insult Harry Potter in front of Dobby! No he won't! Or Dobby will shut Kreacher's mouth for him!"
** Ron bickers and argues with Hermione in a BelligerentSexualTension style but if anyone else goes after her, all bets are off.
** Neville flips out when Malfoy says they should send Harry to St. Mungo's as they have special floor for people with brain damage. Considering what happened to Neville's parents, this is understandable. Pretty much any mention of Neville's parents in a negative light will result in a beatdown that even Death Eaters didn't expect.
** Harry doesn't take insults to his parents very well. And when [[spoiler: Bellatrix killed his godfather/father figure]] and when someone insulted Professor [=McGonagall=] and spit at her, he truly lost it and sent the [[ToThePain Cruciatus Curse]] at said perpetrators.
** Harry also doesn't like to be left out of things, going into [[http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lqelinjo1r1qkvd9to1_500.jpg ALL-CAPS RAGE]] because he got stuck at the Dursleys', while Ron and Hermione got to hang out with the Order at Grimmauld Place.
* BigBad: Voldemort. Harry's nemesis, Dark Lord, leader of the Death Eaters, and the initiator of two Wizarding Wars. Almost everything bad that has happened from the past 50 years to the Wizarding World can be traced back to him.
* BigGood: Dumbledore. Neville, [=McGonagall=], and ultimately Harry himself assume this role at Hogwarts after [[spoiler:Dumbledore's death.]]
* BiggerBad: Lord Voldemort, the official BigBad of ''Harry Potter'', is in this role instead sometimes:
** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets''. If you consider each Horcrux as a separate person, the main portion of Voldemort's soul (residing in the disembodied Voldemort himself) was a Bigger Bad in this book. Tom Riddle was more a manifestation of Voldemort's will, and in any way acted independent from him (although in his interests).
** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban''. He wasn't directly involved in that book's events but it's believed Sirius Black, the Death Eater who helped Voldemort to kill [[Franchise/HarryPotter Harry's]] parents and later killed Peter Pettigrew and several muggle bystanders, was trying to kill Harry in hopes it'd somehow restore Voldemort. [[spoiler:Then it was revealed Peter Pettigrew faked his death and framed Black but it still counts for the trope since Voldemort killing Harry's parents led to Sirius being imprisoned and Peter faking his death.]]
** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'' doesn't feature Voldemort at all, and all his actions take place outside the main events of the plot. The BigBad of the book eventually turns out to be [[spoiler:Severus Snape, who kills Dumbledore and set most of the events in motion to further himself in Voldemort's eyes.]]
* BigLabyrinthineBuilding: Hogwarts.
* BilingualBonus: The Latin. For example, "Expecto Patronum" is the CORRECT Latin form.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Quirrell and Umbridge. The latter is arguably the queen of this trope.
* BittersweetEnding: ''Prisoner of Azkaban''. Even though [[spoiler:Sirius managed to convince Harry, Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore, and even ''Snape'' of his innocence, Wormtail still got away, preventing Sirius's true exoneration before the Ministry and eventually bringing about Voldemort's resurrection a year later.]]
** ''Deathly Hallows''. Even though [[spoiler:Voldemort is finally dead, and most of the Death Eaters are killed or captured, Hedwig, Moody, Dobby, Colin, Fred, Lupin, and Tonks all died in the process.]]
* BlackAndGreyMorality: Played with. The Ministry of Magic is definitely gray, as while they're much better than the Death Eaters, they have more than their share of [[TheQuisling Quislings]], [[FantasticRacism Fantastic Racists]], and [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Obstructive Bureaucrats]]. Harry and his friends/family are more on the unblemished side, but not entirely.
** Harry occasionally slips towards this in battle; when crossed or when his friends are threatened, Harry can become quite pitiless, instinctively resorting to the nastiest/most powerful curses he can think of (save [[InstantDeathBullet Avada Kedavra]]). He even casts [[spoiler:''[[AgonyBeam the Cruciatus Curse]]'']] at a few points (though he never uses it very effectively; as Bellatrix explains [[spoiler:after he tries it on her]], in order to cast an Unforgivable Curse successfully, you have to ''really'' want [[KickTheDog to go through with it]]). {{Justified|Trope}}, as he is a teenage boy in ''way'' over his head.
* BlackCloak: Death Eaters. Also Dementors.
** Also the Hogwarts school uniform.
* BlackSheep: Sirius and Andromeda to their respective families.
** Percy is the only member of the Weasley family who is not friendly and outgoing.
* BlastingItOutOfTheirHands: The ''Expelliarmus'' spell, which is intended for exactly this purpose. Amusingly, the spell seems capable of disarming a person of anything, whether it's a weapon or a book.
* BlondGuysAreEvil: Played straight with Draco and Lucius Malfoy, Barty Crouch Jr., Dudley Dursley, and Gilderoy Lockhart. Averted with Ernie Macmillan.
* BloodlessCarnage: Avada Kedavra's lack of leaving physical injuries on bodies provides a convenient excuse for not describing much blood and gore, so most deaths in the series partially play this straight because they are bloodless and painless. That said, there ''are'' spells for dismembering, and they can get bloody indeed.
* TheBoardGame: Yes, and there's even been more than one.
* BoardingSchool: But also...
* BoardingSchoolOfHorrors: At times, Hogwarts can be quite a dangerous place. Made obvious when, on Harry's ''first day'' at school, there's an announcement to the student body to please do not enter the third floor corridor unless you want to die horribly.
** It has been in the past: In an early book Filch talks about how they used to string students up. In book 4, Moody is admonished for punishing a student with transfiguration, but implying it was allowed at one time.
** This is in no small part due to the dangers of practicing magic on its own. Many spells can be very dangerous, especially in the hands of someone who doesn't know what they are doing.
** Hogwarts becomes this full-time when [[spoiler: Umbridge, and later Voldemort, take over. ''Deathly Hallows'' goes out of its way to explain how horrible it's become by saying that some prefects used the Crutacius curse on ''first years'' (about 11 years old) for refusing to use it themselves in the now-mandatory dark arts class.]]
* BondVillainStupidity: Massive amounts from Voldemort, who does many things that the EvilOverlordList advises you not to do. {{Justified|Trope}} and {{lampshaded}} in-series as a result of his insane egotism and megalomania. Probably more a case of SanityHasAdvantages than anything else.
** Mentioned frequently by Dumbledore, that [[spoiler:Tom Riddle]] / Voldemort never bothered to study those powers he ''already considered useless'', meaning Voldemort's plans could always be defeated by such "trivial" things as Love.
** Could also be because he's working with only one-seventh of a soul, which may be why he often seems so much less than human—almost a parody of a human. It wouldn't really be that surprising if there were intelligence-related side effects as well.
** He did follow the EvilOverlordList's suggestion to [[spoiler:leave (one of) the [[SoulJar item(s) that is the source of his power and his greatest weakness]] in his safe deposit box instead of a dungeon (well, somebody else's safe deposit box), but that didn't stop the heroes from stealing it anyway.]]
** He also followed #101, by not delegating away the task of killing "the infant who is destined to overthrow [him]", but trying to kill Harry himself. [[NiceJobBreakingItHerod That worked]] [[SarcasmMode rather brilliantly]].
** In perhaps his final big villain stupidity moment, he [[spoiler: makes one of his lackeys check to see if Harry is dead, not doing it himself or using a messy non-magic way of ensuring his greatest opponent remained dead.]]
* BookDumb: Ron and Harry really aren't diligent students, though when they ''do'' try they prove to be quite adept. Fred and George are even worse academically, but they're experts in magical joke item inventions, which eventually gets them far in the business world.
* BookEnds:
** Harry's life with the Dursleys. When he was one, having recently lost his parents and beaten Voldemort, Hagrid brings him to Privet Drive riding Sirius' magical motorcycle. When he is about to become seventeen, with the magical protections about to fall, Hagrid is the one that carries Harry out of Privet Drive on the same motorcycle. Hagrid even comments it.
** Also, in book one: Ron: "Are you a witch or not?" In book seven: Hermione: "Are you a wizard or not?"
** The entire series effectively begins and ends with [[spoiler:Voldemort getting the Avada Kedavra curse reflected back at him by Harry.]]
* BoomerangBigot: Voldemort; one of the goals of the Death Eaters was the elimination of any wizard who wasn't pure-blooded, especially if they were Muggle-born, but Voldemort himself was a half-blood. But then, he ''is'' based on AdolfHitler (see below).
** Snape is a double hitter -- in his youth, he was highly prejudiced against Muggles and Muggle-borns despite being a half-blood himself [[spoiler:and in love with a particular Muggle-born]]; as an adult teacher, he mocks [[TheSmartGuy Hermione]] for being, as he once put it, "an insufferable know-it-all" -- ironic coming from Snape, who is himself an InsufferableGenius.
* ABoyAndHisX: For all the male Hogwarts students and their pets.
* BrainBleach: The reason why Rowling has yet to reveal the exact method of creating a Horcrux. It supposedly made one of her editors vomit. (For note, one of the steps is ''committing murder'' in order to split your soul to place it in the Horcrux. Murder is one thing, but the entire process is implied to involve crossing the MoralEventHorizon, and it's certainly treated as such in-universe.)
* BribingYourWayToVictory: InUniverse, Harry is constantly praised as the best Seeker in the school, and maybe the best player for several years. However, twice in the series, Harry is gifted broomsticks that are demonstrably faster and more maneuverable than his opponents'.
** ...Kind of. Harry's initial feat of Seeking that earns him praise is performed on a school broom, which are pretty much universally derided in-universe. He then receives a good broom--but not so good a broom that it would make up for a lack of skill on his part. Then, in second year, he wins against a whole team of players on better brooms than his own, and with a serious disadvantage. (The Bludger is cursed to attack him.) It's only halfway through the third book that he gets a broom that's a whole class above his opponents', and by that point, I think he's pretty well proved himself.
* BrickJoke: In what is perhaps the most elusive brick joke in the series, at the start of book 5, Harry and Dudley are attacked by Dementors. After Harry fights them off, he attempts to explain to his aunt and uncle what happened, only to realize it's hopeless since neither of them have any idea what he's talking about. Petunia finally says, "They guard the wizard prison, Azkaban", and Harry asks how she could possibly know that. Petunia responds with "I overheard -- that awful boy -- telling ''her'' about them, years ago." At the time (and even after finishing the series), everyone simply assumed "that awful boy" to be Harry's father, James Potter. However, at the very end of book 7, we find out that it was actually [[spoiler:Severus Snape]]. While watching his memories, Harry witnesses the scene "first hand", but it's played so quickly and amidst so many other things very few people pick up on it.
* BrokenMasquerade: Despite the Dursleys' best efforts.
* BuildingOfAdventure
* BullyingADragon: Let's see, there's this giant man standing in front of you. He also possesses SuperStrength, jugding by the way he knocked your door down. This is ''clearly'' not someone to be messed with, so what do you do? Well, whatever it is, you do NOT threaten your nephew, who up until now has had no idea that he is a wizard, in front of said man, and you do NOT insult a man the giant clearly admires...unless you're Vernon TooDumbToLive Dursley, of course.
* BuryYourGays: [[spoiler:Dumbledore]] was only outed by Rowling herself, after the 7th book had been released.
* ButtMonkey:
** Neville "Why's It Always Me?" Longbottom. Peter Pettigrew during his days at Hogwarts, as well.
** There is a minor character (Dawlish), who is sort of a background ButtMonkey in that the only time we see him, he gets defeated in one hit, and whenever he is mentioned, he has been cursed or failed in something. This is pretty shocking when you consider he's an Auror, the equivalent of magic police (who above that are also elite dark wizard catchers), and is therefore supposed to be skilled at defensive magic.
** Draco Malfoy, Gilderoy Lockhart, Argus Filch, and Dolores Umbridge also fall under this category at times, although they more than deserve it. Quirrell too, until [[spoiler:he is revealed to be TheDragon at the end of Book 1.]]
** Also, Hufflepuff House in general.
** Ron Weasley, particularly to Slytherins. Harry has also been subjected to this, most notably due to the Rita Skeeter articles.
* ByTheEyesOfTheBlind: Thestrals are only visible to people who have witnessed death first-hand.
** Not only that, but they have to fully comprehend what they saw -- Harry wasn't able to see thestrals when he first came to Hogwarts despite having witnessed the murder of his parents[[spoiler:, but he is able to see them when he comes back fifth year after he saw Voldemort kill Cedric Diggory. (It's generally assumed that he couldn't see them at the end of his fourth year because Cedric's death hadn't fully sunk in at that point.)]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:C]]
* CainAndAbel: Dudley and Harry, Petunia and Lily, [[spoiler:Severus and Lily]].
* CallingYourAttacks: Played straight at first, but justified in that you ''have'' to say the name of the spell in order to cast it. However, it gets subverted when a major portion of the sixth-year curriculum turns out to be learning how to cast spells ''without'' calling them, specifically so that you don't alert your enemies as to what you are doing.
* CanisLatinicus: Expelliarmus, Wingardium Leviosa, Petrificus Totalus, Riddikulus. There ''are'' real Latin spells as well.
* CannotCrossRunningWater: Per WordOfGod, belief in this principle is why the Dursleys take Harry to a shack in the middle of the sea in their attempt to escape the wizarding world.
* CantLiveWithoutYou: Inverted by the prophecy in the fifth book -- "[[spoiler:Neither can live while the other survives.]]"
* CaptainErsatz: While possibly coincidental, the Dementors have a certain resemblance to the Nazgûl of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. But they're both based on TheGrimReaper. Dementors are also an allegory for clinical depression—they suck the joy out of everything.
* CaramelldansenVid: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inSjePhFe2o Hoo boy.]]
* CassandraDidIt: Augeries.
* {{Catchphrase}}: Several characters have one.
** Ron: "Bloody hell!"
** Hermione: "I read about it in ''Hogwarts: A History''."
** Moody: "Constant vigilance!"
** Umbridge: "Hem hem".
** Slughorn: "Merlin's beard!"
** Voldemort (in the movies): "NYEAAAAAAAA!"
* CategoryTraitor: The [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Death Eaters]] consider wizardry to be in the blood. They also feel that all "real" wizards are obliged to be "loyal" to "their own kind", and thus despise all [[{{Muggle}} regular humans]], fantasy creatures, and above all else the so-called "mud-bloods": Muggle-born wizards (and later, once they resurface and begin openly fighting the Order of the Phoenix, also any and all wizards who don't agree with the Death Eater ideology's arbitrary definition of a "real" wizard). Unsurprisingly, their contempt for pure-blood and half-blood wizards who care for muggles and mudbloods turns out to become a big part of their undoing, [[spoiler:as young Snape loses faith in them because of his love for the "mud-blood" witch Lily Evans.]]
* CatsAreMagic
* CardboardPrison: Azkaban shows this. While in book three it is said that Sirius Black is the first to ever escape from Azkaban, [[spoiler:in the very next book it is discovered that Barty Crouch Jr. had been snuck out some time ago, and in book 5 pretty much everyone gets out.]]
* CerebusSyndrome: Kinda. The darkness of the plot was there from the beginning, but it gets more visible as the story progresses.
* ChameleonCamouflage: The Dissillusionment Charm has this effect, and if done well enough can confer actual invisibility. Putting it on a garment is one way to make an InvisibilityCloak, though the charm fades over time.
* ChangelingFantasy
* CharacterNameAndTheNounPhrase
* ChekhovsArmoury: ChekhovsGun is [[ChekhovsGun/HarryPotter common]] in the series, e.g. The Deluminator; fans obsess over details in earlier books, looking for hidden Chekhov's Guns, to the point where J.K. Rowling made a public apology about accidentally giving a minor, unimportant character the same last name as Harry's mum.
* ChekhovsBoomerang
* ChekhovsGun: More accurately, Chekhov's Wand. We learn that Harry and Voldemort's wand share a common source for their magical cores; it takes on plot significance from book 4 onward. Also the Vanishing Cabinet, and Godric Gryffindor's Sword. Along with a fair laundry list of other objects. [[spoiler:Of the six Horcruxes, we actually see four of them before they are recognized for what they are.]]
* ChekhovsGunman: [[spoiler:Grindelwald, mentioned in the ''Philosopher's Stone'' and barely ever brought up again until ''Deathly Hallows''. Same goes for Aberforth Dumbledore, who was first mentioned in ''Goblet of Fire'' and first appeared in ''Order of the Phoenix''.]]
** Even better? ''We didn't know who he was until Deathly Hallows.'' In both ''Order of the Phoenix'' and ''Half Blood Prince,'' he is only referred to as "the barman of the Hog's Head," though there are hints to his identity regarding his inappropriate charms on goats...
** The name Regulus Black briefly comes up in one of the books, then [[spoiler:becomes significantly more important in Deathly Hallows.]]
* ChekhovsSkill: Ron at wizard chess; Harry and his Patronus; Hermione and Ancient Runes (Comes into play in the seventh book, as her copy of Tales of Beedle the Bard was written in runic alphabet); Neville and herbology.
** Harry's Quidditch playing. He's good at flying and good at spotting and getting ahold of small golden objects. This comes in handy when he has to catch a flying key in the The Sorcerer's Stone, and when he has to get the dragon's egg in the First Task of the Triwizard Tournament.
** Harry's Seeker skills and the generally harmless "Expelliarmus" spell both play key roles in [[spoiler:Harry's final defeat of Voldemort.]]
* ChewToy: Ron. Neville.
* TheChooserOfTheOne: Voldemort (unknowingly) got to choose his arch-enemy, and picked Harry.
* ChronicHeroSyndrome: Harry does sort of have a... saving people... thing.
** This is actually mentioned by Ron in the fourth book. He mentions that Harry couldn't help 'playing the hero'.
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: In the movies, not the books—Percy plays a fairly important role in the first movie, only to drop out of existence thereafter. He appears occasionally in background shots, but any storyline about him is just removed entirely, to the point one might wonder why his parents never talk about that son they once had hanging around their house.
** Nearly-Headless Nick doesn't appear after the first two movies either. Whenever he has an important part in later installments, they seem to replace him with Luna.
** Likewise with Dobby, at least in the film adaptations of ''Goblet of Fire'' and ''Order of the Phoenix'', where the crucial information he provides is instead revealed by Neville. Unlike Nick, Dobby [[BackForTheDead does make a reappearance]].
* ColdBloodedTorture: What happens to many characters at the hands of the Death Eaters (mostly Voldemort and Bellatrix), including [[spoiler:Neville's parents.]]
** Also what goes on in Umbridge's detentions.
* ComingOfAgeStory: ''Harry Potter'' is as much about growing up as it is about wizards.
* ContrivedCoincidence: The Marauders present themselves in their map as "Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs", or MWPP. Is it a coincidence that [[spoiler:they die in that order, backwards? Prongs (James Potter) dies on October 31st 1981, Padfoot (Sirius Black) dies in the Battle of the Ministry in June 1996 (Harry's fifth year), Wormtail (Peter Pettigrew) gets killed on March 1998 by the silver hand Voldemort gave him back in 1995, and Moony (Remus Lupin) dies in the Battle of Hogwarts on May 2nd 1998.]]
** ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'' kicks off because 1) the Weasleys won a lottery ticket 2) This gets them a large front page picture 3) Ron's pet rat Scabbers was included in said picture and 4) Cornelius Fudge happened to be carrying that exact issue when he visited Sirius Black.
* ConvenientlyCoherentThoughts: Subverted with Legilimency, which reveals thoughts in a disjointed manner and requires much training to sort out which thoughts are important.
* CoolButInefficient: So many of the things the wizards do.
** Particularly that we repeatedly see Wizards are rendered helpless when they are disarmed, which in later books often leads to their death. For some reason, there seems to be an unwritten rule amongst wizards that you can't carry ''a spare wand''.
*** Justified in story that wands are implied to be sentient on some level and choose their master. If you have a wand that's not yours you'll only be slightly better off than without one entirely.
** Given that most Wizards are capable of Apparating, possess cars such as the Knight Bus for those who can't, and possess the ability to carry large amounts of objects in a BagOfHolding, it often begs the question why they bother with the mess of using Owls to deliver their mail. Theoretically ''a single wizard'' could serve as the postman to the entire country.
* CorporalPunishment: Not unexpected, given the BoardingSchool setting. Early on, it's played relatively comically, with Argus Filch constantly bemoaning the fact that he's not ''allowed'' to string misbehaving students up by their ankles anymore. It gets rather darker later, with ''Order of the Phoenix'' featuring a quill that carves whatever you write into your hand, and God-only-knows-what going on at Hogwarts during ''Deathly Hallows''.
* CrapsaccharineWorld: Once you get past the initial cool factor of the magical world, the Harry Potter universe is not an exceptionally happy one. FantasticRacism of absurd extremes permeates every level of th