http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/HarryPotterPic.JPG
[[caption-width:280:Burn, Harry, burn. Mystic inferno.]]

->''Harry -- [[BrokenMasquerade yer a wizard.]]''
-->-- '''Hagrid''', ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', Chapter 4

This series of seven children's books and young adult novels by 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 {{boarding school}} 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. The books also [[Film/HarryPotter inspired a series of films]] and [[Game/HarryPotter video games]].

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.

Harry goes to Hogwarts, the great school of magic, and is happy. There are the normal school troubles -- bullies, unpleasant teachers, a mysterious something hidden in the school and guarded by a three-headed dog -- 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.

That year Voldemort is defeated, but each new year brings a fresh confrontation between Harry and the forces of evil. Harry grows stronger over the years, mastering his magic, but so too does Voldemort as he recovers from his death. The wizarding world slips back into war as a final battle looms and a prophecy approaches fulfillment.
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'''Tropes specific to books, other media, and characters in the series:'''

*[[Characters/HarryPotter Characters]]
* ''[[HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone]]'' [[{{Americanitis}} (''Sorcerer's Stone'' in the United States)]]
* ''HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets''
* ''HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban''
* ''HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire''
* ''HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix''
* ''HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince''
* ''HarryPotter/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows''
* ''FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem''
* ''QuidditchThroughTheAges''
* ''TheTalesOfBeedleTheBard''
* [[Film/HarryPotter The Movies]]
* [[Game/HarryPotter The Video Games]]
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'''Series-wide tropes not already covered above:'''

* 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)
* AerithAndBob (The "Muggle" first names range from Harry to Dudley; the wizarding ones, from George to [[MeaningfulName Xenophilius]]. All in the UK.)
* AgonyBeam (The Cruciatus curse)
* AlliterativeName (Cho Chang, Colin Creevey, Dudley Dursley, Filius Flitwick, Gregory Goyle, Luna Lovegood, Minerva [=McGonagall=], Pansy Parkinson, Padma Patil, Parvati Patil, Peter Pettigrew, Severus Snape, William (Bill) Weasley. And those are just the ones that show up in multiple books.)
** Also, the four founders of Hogwarts: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin.
* AllOfTheOtherReindeer
* AllergicToEvil (Harry's scar burns when Voldemort is angry and/or killing someone.)
* AnimateDead (Inferi, first mentioned in Order of the Phoenix.)
* {{Animorphism}} (Animagi)
* AnyoneCanDie (Rather minor in the earlier books, but after ''Goblet Of Fire'' all bets were off.)
* ArtifactOfDeath (several, [[spoiler: Riddle's diary, the Elder Wand and Marvolo Gaunt's ring. The latter includes a ''literal'' ArtifactOfDeath.]])
* [[AssholeVictim Asshole Victims]] (The Riddles)
* BadassBiker (Sirius Black)
* BadassBookworm (several, but primarily Dumbledore, Hermione and Lupin)
* BadassGrandpa (Dumbledore, full stop.)
* BatmanGambit
* BecauseDestinySaysSo (played with a little... Harry's destiny is self-fulfilling because Voldemort ''insists'' on fulfilling it -- however, Dumbledore implies that not all prophecies have to be fulfilled)
* BigLabyrinthineBuilding: Hogwarts
* BlackCloak (Death Eaters, and Dementors, who seem to generate their own.)
* 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 harmless diary.)
* BoardingSchool (But also...)
* BoardingSchoolOfHorrors (Hogwarts can be one Family Unfriendly place at times)
* BondVillainStupidity (In massive amounts from Voldemort, who does many things the EvilOverlordList advises you not to do. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] and LampShaded in-series as a result of his insane egotism and megalomania.)
** And making so many horcruxes, which also had the side-effect of dehumanizing him. (Though, to be fair, nobody had ever made more than one horcrux before, so nobody could have predicted that side-effect.) In any event, Voldemort's ego, horrible temper, and tendency towards obsessive behavior leads to some very strange actions on his part, even if they do make sense from his POV. Case in point -- the whole EvilPlan in ''GobletOfFire''. No stupid person could have come up with something so intricate -- and ''it worked''.
** Averted in one instance, where Voldemort follows Rule 5 of the EvilOverlordList by storing a horcrux in a safe-deposit box in Gringotts.
*** Actually, that's the Lestrange Vault. Voldemort could have been the one coming up with the idea however.
*** Except a safe-deposit box in Gringotts ''is'' in the Cave of Despair, full of Canyons of Bottomless Doom, and guarded by the Dragons of Eternity. So really, he plays that rule straight and subverts it at the same time.
* BookDumb (Harry really isn't a diligent student, though when he ''does'' try he proves to be quite adept)
* BrainyBrunette (Hermione, throughout)
* BrokenBad (By WordOfGod, the reason Voldemort is unable to feel love, and, thus, so sadistically villainous, is because his mother used a love potion to conceive him.
* BrokenMasquerade
* ButtMonkey (Peter Pettigrew more than anyone.)
** Although, Ron plays the Butt Monkey role several times, such as wearing the hand-me-down dress robes or accidentally hexing himself with a broken wand.
*** Ron seems like more of a ChewToy (misfortune inflicted by the universe at large, frequently played for laughs/endearment from the audience) than ButtMonkey (the rest of the cast doesn't particularly single Ron out for abuse/mockery). In the Weasley family, Percy seems like more of a ButtMonkey: Fred and George especially never pass up an opportunity to mock his ambitions, his appearance, his singing...
**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.
* ButYouScrewOneGoat (Aberforth has one unhealthy obsession with caprines.)
* ByTheEyesOfTheBlind (Thestrals are only visible to people who have seen death.)
* CallingYourAttacks (Played straight at first, then subverted when a major portion of the sixth-year curriculum is learning not to call them.)
* CerebusSyndrome
* TheChamberlain (Fudge; see also WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical)
* ChangelingFantasy
* CharacterNameAndTheNounPhrase
* CharacterDevelopment
* ChekhovsArmoury (ChekhovsGun is 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.)
** There's a playful subversion in ''HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'' where Harry wonders if there's any special significance to a mouth organ stolen by the young Tom Riddle in Dumbledore's PensieveFlashback; he's informed, truthfully, that there isn't. Riddle's kleptomania of which it was an illustration, on the other hand...
* ChekhovsSkill (Ron and Chess, Harry and his Patronus, Hermione and Ancient Runes, even Neville and his botany.)
* CinderellaCircumstances: Harry at the Dursley's household, before he got his acceptance letter from Hogwarts. However, his uncle never does stop treating him like crap.
* CloudCuckooLander (Luna Lovegood)
* CoolButInefficient (So many of the things the wizards do.)
* CompleteMonster (Dolores Umbridge.)
** How can we forget Voldemort?
*** Umbridge was worse.
*** The fact that Voldemort is a genocidal, psychopathic tyrant, but Umbridge is ''still'' hated more says a lot about how evil Umbridge is. Perhaps because she embodies the idea of the banality of evil so well.
*** Some of us had real-life Umbridges as teachers. That character hits a lot closer to home than Voldemort.
*** Voldemort had to be kept offscreen most of the time to keep him scary. Plus, he knows he's a villain and expects to be hated. Umbridge is torturing the characters in front of our faces and expects them to ''thank'' her for it.
*** Also, Umbridge is 'lawful evil', i.e. has the powers of law and politics on her side. No one will protest if Harry fries Voldemort or his Death Eaters, but he can't lay a hand on Umbridge without beeing arrested. Essentially he's powerless against her, which makes her even more hate-able.
*** Umbridge has about [[http://www.fanpop.com/spots/dolores-umbridge 60]] "fans", though the site has little dedication to Umbridge. Said site is also the only one ThisTroper could find on the ''whole Internet'' that supports Umbridge (it also seems to be more of an information site than anything). Out of the millions and millions of readers, this is the only kind of "support" Umbridge has.
* CrapsackWorld (Let's be honest. 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 the wizarding world, the government seems to be run by LawfulEvil, scheming, political glory hounds (regardless of their allegiance to "good" or "bad"). The justice system is a KangarooCourt, the regulations on dangerous magic are feeble at best, the very system of instruction in magic carries a high injury/mortality rate, the entire population as a whole seems to have crippling naivete about the non magical world (to the point you wonder how they've kept the masquerade going for so long), and the overall respect for human life and sanity is appallingly low.)
* CrazyAwesome (pre-Deathly Hallows Dumbledore amongst the Trio.)
* CrazyPrepared (Hermione and her bag in ''Deathly Hallows'')
* CrowningMomentOfAwesome (Harry telling off Tom Riddle about how his 'filthy Mudblood mother' saved him, then killing off the basilisk and stabbing the diary.)
** Also, "NOT MY DAUGHTER YOU BITCH!", everything Neville does in ''Deathly Hallows'' amongst many other things.
** Harry's final [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech "let me tell you all the ways you suck" speech]] to Voldemort, calling him Riddle all the way.
** Fred and George Weasley, setting up a portable swamp and then telling off Umbridge before flying up and away out of Hogwarts. "We won't be seeing you." "Don't bother to write."
* CulturalPosturing (Even the ''Muggleborn'' wizards patronize Muggles.)
* {{Curse}}
* DancesAndBalls (The Yule Ball)
* {{Defictionalization}} (Rowling published three books mentioned in the series -- listed up there with the main series -- with profits reverted to charity; one looks like Harry and Ron's book; one seems to be a Hogwarts' Library title; and another opens with the disclaimer "translated from the original runes by Hermione Granger")
**[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Quidditch.]]
** Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, marketed by Jelly Belly.
* DesignatedVillain (Anyone who is in or has ever been in Slytherin is automatically evil)
** [[AvertedTrope Except]] for Professor Slughorn. Slytherin House's defining traits are "ambition and cunning", which are traits that easily -- but not always -- lend themselves to villainous behaviour.
** Several characters have [[FaceHeelTurn Face Heel Turn]]s as well, such as [[spoiler:Regulus Black]]
* DistantFinale (the epilogue of Deathly Hallows)
* DoorstopBaby (Harry was one)
* DyingLikeAnimals (Not just the Muggles, but Wizards too.)
** The minister of magick Cornelius Fudge is one particularly outspoken osterich in a bowler.
* EarnYourHappyEnding
* EasingIntoTheAdventure (Harry even suggests, in the first novel, that Dumbledore wanted to give them something easy to begin with.)
* EasterBunny
* EnsembleDarkhorse: Neville, especially after the seventh book, where he took a level in--do I even need to say it?
** Luna also quickly became a fan favorite.
* EmotionBomb (Dementors. Cheering Charms are a example of this in the ''good'' way.)
* EnforcedColdWar (the House rivalries, especially between Gryffindor and Slytherin)
* EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory (Partially justified, as there's a lot of alchemical symbolism in the series, including character's names. The problems arise when certain parts of the fandom take the symbols, use them to support their theories, and said theories are ''entirely wrong.'' The usual response up realizing this is to blame ''Rowling'' for being wrong, and wistfully talk about how the series would've been better if she had realized "what she had".)
*EverythingsBetterWithOtters: [[spoiler:Hermione]]'s Patronus is one.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood (Voldemort, after assuming the mantle of Dark Lord, is pretty much a poster boy for this trope. Although he knows, on purely theoretical level, that things like love or compassion do exist, his utter contempt and disregard for them directly leads to his defeat.)
* EvilCounterpart (Harry and Voldemort both had very similar beginnings, and Harry occasionally finds himself sympathetic to Voldemort. Nonetheless, the choices that both of them made sent them in totally different directions.)
** Bellatrix and Hermione. Hermione is as devoted to Harry as Bellatrix is to Voldemort. Both intelligent and powerful wizards, on the opposite side of the good/evil divide; both capable of, and shown willing to go to, extremes for their purposes (Bellatrix tortured the Longbottoms into insanity to find Voldemort, Hermione comes up with the same method for Harry to communicate with his DA members as Voldemort used with his Death Eaters, bewitched a document to permanently facially disfigure anyone who sold them out, blackmailed Rita Skeeter...).
** Also, Bellatrix to Molly Weasley.
* FakeUltimateHero (Gilderoy Lockhart)
* FanDumb (Given the popularity of the series, too many too count. [[http://wiki.fandomwank.com/index.php/Harry_Potter_fandom But here's a partial list anyway]].)
* FantasticScience
* FantasyKitchenSink (Nearly everything about wizardry from Fantasy novels is revealed to exist -- and every mythological creature as well, specially in ''Fantastic Beasts'')
* FantasyGunControl (Guns exist in the Muggle world, but apparently not even Squibs seem to have them in the Wizarding Community; in an article about Sirius Black, it's mentioned that the Muggles have been warned he's carrying a gun, which is then defined as "a type of metal wand that Muggles use to kill each other")
** The series is set in the UK, so this editor is tempted to say this trope is subverted.
* FateWorseThanDeath (Neville's parents)
** Also, the Dementor's Kiss.
** And the side-effect of drinking unicorn's blood, according to Harry.
* FemaleSuccessIsFamily Definately the case with Tonks, and arguably with Ginny and Lily.
* FieryRedhead (The Weasleys. All of them.)
* FindingJudas (Snape anyone?)
* FirstGirlWins (While she did not enter Hogwarts until the second book, Harry crossed paths with Ginny Weasley at King's Cross Station before he met any other female lead. Ginny, of course, was the person Harry eventually fell in love with.)
* FiveManBand (The series has a couple)
** The Marauders
*** TheHero James Potter
*** TheLancer Sirius Black
*** TheSmartGuy Remus Lupin
*** TheBigGuy Peter Pettigrew (more like The Fat Guy)
*** TheChick Lily Evans (after she and James hooked up.)
** The Main DA group
*** TheHero Harry Potter
*** TheLancer Ron Weasley
*** TheSmartGuy Hermione Granger
*** TheBigGuy Neville Longbottom (though Hagrid fits this role better)
*** TheChick Ginny Weasley
*** SixthRanger Luna Lovegood
* FlawExploitation (Voldemort's inability to truly understand love is his biggest weakness. Ironically, Harry often plays into Voldemort's hands because Harry will do anything to protect his beloved ones)
** According to Dumbledore, Voldemort's "inability to realize that there are things much worse than death" is his greatest weakness; but this ties into the whole "love" thing because Voldemort never figures out that [[spoiler: Snape's love for Lily]] helps lead to his downfall.
*** Likewise, [[spoiler: the Malfoys are willing to betray Voldemort if it means saving their son's life.]]
* {{Flanderization}} (The houses suffered from this in an odd way, already having one defining characteristic, but their lesser attribute became more prominent, even according to the Sorting Hat song. Slytherin went from "ambitious" to "pureblood", and Hufflepuff changed from "loyal" to, well, [[HufflepuffHouse "miscellaneous"]].)
**However, this is subverted with Professor Slughorn, who despite having the occasional selfish motive (as in the shame of telling Voldy about Horcruxes), is relatively sympathetic. Besides, Hufflepuff always had a reputation for being "a load of old duffers". It's even mentioned in the first book.
* FluffyTamer (Hagrid, of course)
* FluffyTheTerrible (Quite a few monsters, but the most famous is actually called Fluffy.)
* FlyingBroomstick (The Nimbus, the Firebolt...)
* FoeYay ([[WordOfGay Dumbledore and Grindelwald]]; Harry and Draco)
* ForgotICouldFly (Hermione, towards the end of the first book)
** And then Hermione calls Ron out on this when he forgets it in ''Deathly Hallows''
* FunctionalMagic (JKR says in interviews that she spent time working out the limits of wizard magic, but the novels only touch on these a few times: magic obeys laws of time and space, it's not possible to create food out of nothing, and death cannot be overcome. Among others.)
** Although, food is created out of thin air at least once before the Five Exceptions are ever mentioned.
*** Most instances of this imply it was simply transported from elsewhere. For example the food at Hogwarts is transported from the kitchens via an identical set of tables, and in book 6 Dumbledore states that some mead he summons from nowhere came from the pub in Hogsmeade (which made this troper laugh when reading the book, as his phrasing makes it sound like he just casually stole the mead from the pub by transporting it).
* GeekyTurnOn (Ron and Hermione's first kiss)
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: See Radar/HarryPotter.
* GlurgeAddict: Dolores Umbridge.
* GoddamnOrks ({{Slytherin House}})
* GoLookAtTheDistraction
* HangingSeparately
* HappinessInSlavery (Most house-elves love being servants)
** The other issue (which Hermione never seems to grasp in canon) is that with one exception, freeing them -- especially from a master who isn't openly abusive -- is equivalent to ''sacking them in disgrace''.
* HeroesWantRedHeads (Ginny and Lily)
* HeroSecretService (the Order of the Phoenix)
* HeterosexualLifePartners (James Potter and Sirius Black)
* HiddenDepths
* HoldYourHippogriffs (TropeNamer)
* {{Hypocrite}}
* IAmBigBoned (Madame Maxine uses this excuse not at the prospect of being called fat, but when Hagrid speculates that she is half giant. This trope also applies to The Dursley's blaming Dudley's weight on baby fat.)
* IdiotPlot (''Order of the Phoenix'' would have been a lot shorter if the adults had just leveled with Harry about what was going on instead of making him dig through all their obfuscation. The major tragedy of the story takes place because Harry had incomplete information. After defeating or stalemating the Basilisk, Death Eaters, and Voldy himself (three times) you would think they might start giving him some credit.)
* ImpoverishedPatrician
* IncestIsRelative (Just look at every pureblood family tree; Sirius' parents themselves were distant cousins and it is possible that Lucius and Narcissa are related, too, in some way or another)
* IneffectualLoner (Harry often tries to discourage his friends from helping him. This in spite of the fact that he's often quite helpless without them)
* IsThatWhatHeToldYou (Lots of well-meaning deception from Dumbledore.)
* ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies (Harry's breakup speech to Ginny)
* ItGotWorse (All of Book 7.)
* JigsawPuzzlePlot
* KilledOffForReal (Time doesn't permit us to list. At least one big death per book from ''Goblet of Fire'' on.)
** The books affirm to the reader at several points that despite the great prevalence of magic, death is final and cannot be reversed by any magical means.
** Hell, the last book had about twenty deaths of named characters, if this troper remembers correctly.
* KindheartedCatLover (Mrs. Figg)
* LaResistance (Dumbledore's Army, Potterwatch and the Order.)
* LetterMotif (Marvolo, Morfin, and Merope Gaunt.)
** Albus, Aberforth and Ariana Dumbledore as well.
* LiteraryAgentHypothesis (The companion/defictionalized books)
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters (Since it takes place at a boarding school and all. Let's see: The protagonist PowerTrio, about a baker's dozen worth of significant classmates, the entire Potter and Weasley families, about a dozen teachers (two of which are hardly ever shown, admittedly), another dozen guys from the Ministry of Magic, and about half a dozen on the antagonist side. Phew.)
** Not Phew. You forgot Krum and Fleur. Ok [[FauxHTMLTags ]].
***Still not quite. There's still a few oddball members of the Order of the Phoenix who aren't included in the above (specifically Tonks and arguably Remus as well, since he was only a teacher for one book). [[spoiler: Oh, and Fleur marries Bill, and is thus included in the Weasley family.]]
*** Tonks is an auror, and therefore works for the Ministry of Magic.
* TheLoneDalek ([[spoiler:Young Crouch]])
* LoveRedeems (Snape's motivation for his HeelFaceTurn.)
* LovesTheSoundOfScreaming (Filch loves torturing misbehaving children, and misses the old days when he could hang kids from the rafters and hear them scream)
* MachiavelliWasWrong (Voldemort is betrayed a few times by people who, despite being Slytherins, actually have feelings. [[spoiler:Snape, for example, betrayed him for over a decade; Regulus was willing to die to stop him, and Narcissa lied to him to protect her son]].)
** Not the mention that he [[spoiler:created his own worst enemy in Harry when he tried to kill him]]. It's safe to be feared, eh?
** Somewhat [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] by Dumbledore, whose philosophy of love and trust clashes with a number of his actions that are very manipulative indeed.
*** Sigh. Voldemort shows that Machiavelli was RIGHT, because Machiavelli says to avoid being hated, which of course Voldemort is.
* MagicAIsMagicA (Followed fairly closely, mainly with the teleporting power; the reader is repeatedly told that it's impossible to teleport in or out of Hogwarts. In Book 7 we find out why this is perfectly in line with the rules. In Film 6, when Harry reminds him he's about to do something impossible, Dumbledore states "This is one of the benefits of being me.")
* MagicHat (The Room of Requirement turns into whatever people need. For a more literal magic hat, there's the Sorting Hat, but ironically, only one, specific item can be pulled from it.)
** I don't know that ''only'' one item will come out of it -- Dumbledore says that only a true Gryffindor (i.e. someone who embodied the best in the things Godric Gryffindor valued) could pull that particular sword from the hat, but he never said that was all that would ever come out of it. If nothing else, presumably if a student from another house had found themselves having to use the Sorting Hat in a dire situation, they would have been able to produce a signature tool of their house's founder to help them out.
** Given that the Sorting Hat belonged to Godric Gryffindor originally, it's probably a fair assumption.
* MagicMissile (Most spells seem to follow this trope.)
* MagicVersusScience. Electronics don't even work around Hogwarts, wizards are disdainful of Muggle technology, and Muggles have no idea magic exists. Interestingly, while wizards can do most things much quicker/more efficiently with magic, there are a few cases where the wizard method of doing something just plain sucks compared to the muggle method. Most notably communication, where the wizards have nothing as effective as a cell phone or the internet. They send letters by owl, which are better than the postal service but nowhere near as good as an email (and subject to kidnapping/getting eaten on the way), and the closest thing they have to a phone is sticking your head in a magic fireplace, which is of course not portable like a cell phone.
* MartyStu (Harry is perhaps the ''ultimate'' [[SubvertedTrope Subversion]] of this trope, an in-universe example due to circumstances beyond his control, media attention, tragic events, coincedences and sheer luck, good or bad. But he's a completely normal, flawed person reluctantly caught up in a series of very painful adventures that are usually misunderstood by the rest of the wizarding world.)
* {{Masquerade}}
* MasterApprenticeChain (Harry was given special lessons from Lupin and used it and more to train the DA)
* MeaningfulName (Indeed, certain characters "just happen" to have names that relate to ''what'' they are to the point of providing more astute readers with a possible {{spoiler}}.)
** Worthy of special note are Fenrir Greyback and [[spoiler:Remus Lupin, the latter of whom's werewolf-ness is a plot twist. [[GenreSavvy Right.]] ]]
***Noteer, the legend of the city of Rome's founding. Two Twins Romulus and ''Remus'' are left for dead on the bank of one the major rivers in Italy. They are then raised by a ''she-wolf''. [[MeaningfulName Damn straight it's meaningful]].
** And [[spoiler: Sirius Black]] can transform into a [[spoiler: big black dog]] in a book where both keep appearing and disappearing without explanation.
** Harry himself has a MeaningfulName, not through any specific meaning of his name itself but by the fact that he has an extremely ordinary name, symbolising his role as an ordinary boy thrown into an extraordinary world in which he himself is one of the most extraordinary figures.
* MethuselahSyndrome
* MindYourStep (The sinking stair.)
* TheMole
** Also ReverseMole
* MoralDissonance (Harry and others are seen using the so-called Unforgivable Curses in the last book. This could be chalked up to being in a war. However, the Cruciatus curse (which causes mind-destroying pain) is used, despite it being less practical than either a killing curse or a simple stun. Worse yet, [=McGonagall=] refers to Harry taking out a Death Eater who insulted her with the curse as "gallant". Seriously.)
** Admittedly the Killing Curse is considered pretty much worse than the other two Unforgivable Curses, and so saying that they should've used it over the Cruciatus curse is kinda skewed. Still, yeah, torture over a stun or something similar is pretty ridiculous.
*** Although when Harry used it against Amycus Carrow, Cruciatus worked more like a particularly painful blasting attack rather than the usual agonizing but otherwise non-harmful torture technique.
*** Harry used it to protect, though: Amycus (read: maniacally sadistic Death Eater) was threatening [=McGonagall=] and planning to put the blame of his sister's failure on a bunch of eleven-year-olds.
*** He had also only just seen what the Carrows had been doing to his friends all year.
** In the recently premiered movie of The Half Blood Prince, Hermione, after conjuring up some birds, instead of making them attack Ron as in the book, she makes them fly at him, kamikaze style, and ''explode against the wall.'' PETA is going to be all over that.
** Teenagers having easy access to [[strike:date rape drugs]] [[strike:bottled Imperius Curses]] love potions.
*** That's probably the reason why they're ''banned from Hogwarts''.
*** Before you call them date rape drugs, consider that what they do is intensify and shift the focus of the victim's affection. This doesn't automatically lead to the bedroom, any more than having a desperate crush would.
*** The Wizarding World is ''inherently dangerous'', and it's a world in which children are universally entrusted with powerful weapons (their wands) at an early age.
* MoustacheDePlume: "J.K. Rowling" is a pseudonym forced upon the author, Joanne Rowling, because her publisher feared that young boys (the target audience) wouldn't read books written by a woman. Rowling didn't even have a middle name by then, so she used her grandmother's name, "Kathleen", in the pseudonym.
* [[MrExposition Mrs Exposition]] (When Hermione isn't [[BadassBookworm kicking ass]], she's usually providing ExpoSpeak about various spells, creatures, histories, people, etc., often because Harry and Ron didn't pay attention to the lecture.)
** Subverted in DH when ''Ron'' has plot-critical information Hermione doesn't. He basks in it for a few seconds.
* NearDeathExperience (The effect of multiple magical curses/charms takes Harry about as near death as anyone can go without actually dying.)
** The fact that Harry is the only known being to ever survive the Killing Curse [[spoiler: twice]] is actually part of what makes him famous in the wizarding world, causing many to refer to him as "The Boy Who Lived".
*** What about ''Voldemort's'' NearDeathExperience?
**** He had an insurance policy. Once it was gone, so was he.
**** Plus, "The Snake-Man EvilOverlord Who Lived" just doesn't have the same ring to it.
* NearMisses
* NeedleInAStackOFNeedles: Occurs several times.
* {{Nephewism}}
* NobodyOver50IsGay: Averted, by a margin of 100 years.
* NoOntologicalInertia (Some spells are made to last after death, most others cease.)
* NowOrNeverKiss ([[spoiler: Ron and Hermione]])
* TheNounOfAdjective
* NumerologicalMotif
**Sevens: seven years, seven novels, seven subjects (to start with), seven Horcruxes, seven players on a Quidditch team, Harry [[spoiler: and Neville]] being born in the seventh month
** Nine and three-quarters: Kings Cross platform; length of school year in months (Sept 1 - late June); Harry's exile from the wizarding world in years (1 Nov 1981 - 31 July 1991)
**Twelves: twelve subjects offered at Hogwarts (Charms, Transfiguration, History of Magic, Defense Against Dark Arts, Herbology, Potions, Astronomy; Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, Muggle Studies, Runes, Arithmancy), twelve-a-side in the Dept. of Mysteries
* OlderThanTheyThink
* OnlyICanKillHim (ugh. Far too much.)
* ParentalSubstitute (The Dursleys are a bad version of this; the Weasleys, Sirius, and Lupin do a better job.)
* PetMonstrosity (Hagrid kept a pet [[GiantSpider Acromantula]] as a student, and hasn't really broken out of the habit by the time of the books and likely, never will).
* ThePhoenix (Fawkes)
* ThePowerOfFriendship (well, yes.)
* ThePowerOfLove (alluded to throughout the series. It can protect a loved one from deadly curses, and block mental magic)
* PowerTrio Harry (ego), Ron (id), and Hermione (superego) of course!
** And the secondary trio consisting of Neville (ego), Ginny (id), and Luna (superego).
* PostDramaticStressDisorder (A lot)
* PlotCoupons
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain (Umbridge and Voldemort.)
* PoorCommunicationKills (Things would have gone a lot more smoothly if Dumbledore had thought to tell the Order that [[spoiler: he had asked Snape to kill him.]])
** No. He couldn't risk anyone learning this until [[spoiler:Snape's job was done.]] And, in the end, it was proven that he could've cleared his own name through Pensieve-ing his memories. [[spoiler: Too bad he died before Voldemort did.]]
* PropheticFallacy
* PropheticNames
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld (Wizards live longer, much longer. Except the Black family, who all seem to die relatively young.)
* ReinventingTheTelephone (Owls, floo powder, patronuses...)
* ReverseMole
* TheScottishTrope (Subverted by Dumbledore and several other heroic characters, who very determinedly say "Voldemort" despite the name's emotional baggage -- and Harry, who just doesn't ''have'' that baggage. The seventh book simultaneously [[DoubleSubversion Double Subverts]] and [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructs]] (or perhaps [[{{Reconstruction}} Reconstructs]]) it, as [[spoiler:He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named creates an enchantment that will ping his minimap, so to speak, whenever someone ''does'' say his name.]])
* SecondLove
* SelfFulfillingProphecy (More than one.)
* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan (Remus and Sirius, at least their {{Fanon}} versions.)
* SadistTeacher (Umbridge especially. Also Snape and perhaps Filch.)
* SheIsNotMyGirlfriend (Hermione. Harry actually says it once.)
* SideBet
* SignificantAnagram ("Tom Marvolo Riddle" <-> "I am Lord Voldemort". Other languages revise the anagram to make sense in their tongues -- or change his birth-name, resulting in some backronyms.)
**I particularly like the French one: Tom Elvis Jedusor = ''Je suis Voldemort''. "Jedusor" sounds like ''jeu de sort'', meaning [[strike:"riddle"]] "gamble" or "lottery", and Elvis is [[OnlyMostlyDead not really dead]].
** Created a meta-text flurry during the sixth book, when a locket signed by "R.A.B." became important to the plot. One of the first guesses on this mystery character's identity was [[spoiler:Sirius Black's brother Regulus]]... Especially after foreign readers noticed that, whenever [[spoiler:Sirius']] surname was changed to that language's word for [[spoiler:"black,"]] R.A.B's last initial had followed suit.
* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan (Hermione and Ron most prominently, but it seems to be a trend for non-villainous female characters: Molly Weasley, Ginny Weasley, Cho Chang and resident babe Fleur Delacour are all very hot for good guys while the "bad boys" seem barely a blip on their radars. Lily Potter is [[InternetBackdraft debatable]], given that James Potter is remembered as a LoveableRogue by some people and a complete JerkAss by others.)
* SixStudentClique The DA group mostly pulls this off.
** The Main Character Harry
** The Muscle Ron
** The Smart One Hermione
** The Quirk Neville
** The Pretty One Ginny
** The Wild One Luna
* SmoochOfVictory (Harry kisses Ginny after she wins Gryffindor the Quidditch cup.)
* SnowballFight
* SoulFragment
* SoulJar (Horcruxes)
* SpottingTheThread: In the film ''The Goblet of Fire'' Crouch Sr. discovers that his son is impersonating Moody when he sees Moody do his son's signature tongue flick. In the Book, ''The Deathly Hallows'', Luna Lovegood sees through Harry's disguise at Bill and Fleur's wedding because of Harry's expression.
* StevenUlyssesPerhero (Plenty--for instance, Sirius Black [[spoiler: turns into a black dog; Sirius is the Dog Star]].)
* SuperpowerfulGenetics: Works in a way that can't quite be explained by Mendelian genetics. Wizardry is clearly hereditary and is passed on from parents to children, except when it's not (squibs are children born to wizard parents, but have no magical ability). The converse of squibs are "Muggleborn" wizards who have no magical family history but are born with magical talent anyway. Furthermore, muggleborns function like regular wizards in all ways; the children of a pureblood and a muggleborn will be wizards, as will the children of two muggleborns. The discrimination of some pureblood wizards against people who aren't "pureblood" therefore seems like it would get confused after a while, but there you have it. In any case, wizardry obviously isn't a recessive gene (which would explain squibs, but it can't be the case because a wizard can marry a non-magical muggle and still have wizard children). Maybe it's a dominant gene, in which squibs would have to be explained as ''both'' copies of the gene having a serious mutation. Finally, the fact of wizards appearing at random in the population is extremely unlikely from an evolutionary standpoint. I guess it must just be magic.
** The behavior indicates that wizardry is not controlled by a single gene, but must be a multi-gene trait. Then again, WordOfGod has stated [[http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/en/extrastuff_view.cfm?id=19 "Squibs are rare; magic is a dominant and resilient gene."]] What Rowling means by "resilient" is not explained, but it seems to imply that the gift of magic ''ensures'' that it is propagated, somehow. Any mechanism that might be postulated to effect such a perpetuation would, of course, bypass Mendelian genetics entirely. Interested parties may wish to peruse [[http://www.hp-lexicon.org/essays/essay-magic-genes-and-pure-blood.html these]] [[http://www.hp-lexicon.org/essays/essay-another-view.html two]] essays on the subject at the [[http://www.hp-lexicon.org Harry Potter Lexicon]].
*** It's ''magic.'' It [[MST3kMantra doesn't have to make sense.]]
*** [[WildMassGuessing Possibly]] magic has a vague sentience (this is implied several times), even at the genetic level, which allows it to ensure that it is passed on?
* TakeThat: Gilderoy Lockhart is based on someone Rowling knew personally, while Rita Skeeter is a Take That at unethical, celebrity-hounding reporters in general. And we've probably all had a teacher like Umbridge.
* TallDarkAndHandsome (Sirius Black and Tom Riddle/Voldemort)
* TallDarkAndSnarky (Severus Snape)
**The "tall" part is only applicable in the movies, because Alan Rickman (who plays Snape) is 6'1". In Book Five, Snape is described as being "several inches shorter than" Sirius.
* TeachMeHowToFight: Dumbledore's Army is born when Ron and Hermione ask Harry to teach them how to fight.
* TearJerker (Many, actually.)
* TellMeAboutMyFather (Actually, unusually, both parents.)
** Noteworthy in that the emphasis starts with his father (Except for his eyes, he has his mom's eyes). However we later find that Harry's father was a bit of an idiot as a teenager (though he grew out of it), and the focus turns more and more to his mother. Dumbledore mentions that his true nature is much more that of her.
* ThemeNaming (Not just the characters; there's also Diagon Alley and the nearby roads, which are all puns on words that end in '-ally'.)
* TheThreeFacesOfAdam: Harry is the Hunter, Dumbledore is the Prophet, and both Ministers of Magic seen in the series are Lords (rather blind and inept, but Lords all the same).
* TheTropeWithoutATitle
* TheyWalkAmongUs
* TookALevelInBadass (Literally everyone in the DA.)
** Prisoner Of Azkaban began it with Harry learning a complex piece of magic, and then it got momentum in Goblet of Fire when Harry uses his copious freetime (and help from Hermione) to pick up a variety of offensive and defensive spells.
* TookALevelInJerkass (Percy and Cornelius Fudge)
* TonightSomeoneDies
* {{Trope2000}} (There's a whole series of Nimbus Exty-Thousand broomsticks. Harry himself owns a Nimbus Two Thousand... well, until it gets crushed by an animate tree. Magic is fun.)
* Tsundere (Hermione a bit and Lily when [[StalkerWithACrush James Potter]] is around)
* TwinBanter
* TwoActStructure: With GobletOfFire as the turning point where things start going to hell.
** And people in the opposite direction... mostly.
* UnfortunateImplications: With great popularity comes in-depth critical analysis. Consider "[[http://www.ferretbrain.com/articles/article-161 Harry Potter and the Doctrine of the Calvinists]]": People never change; any apparent change is simply their true nature being revealed. Your true nature is set by the time you're eleven years old. If you're a member of the elect, your actions are judged by a different standard.
** Which [[MisaimedFandom misses the point like whoa]]. Did they miss Dumbledore's ''"Sometimes I think we sort too soon"''?
* UnnecessaryRoughness
* UnusualEuphemism
* VillainousBreakdown (Voldemort's self-inflicted magical transformations and debasement eventually drive him completely mad, and Harry hunting down the Horcruxes and eventually turning the tide doesn't help)
* VillainWithGoodPublicity (Lucius Malfoy)
* TheVirus (Lycanthropy)
* {{Wangst}} (Harry's angst in book 5, while [[JustifiedTrope justified]], was still an annoyance to many readers)
* WhamEpisode (Each book gets its fair share, but Book 6 especially. However, ItWasHisSled.)
* {{Whatevermancy}} (Arithmancy.)
* WhatBeautifulEyes (Other than his lightning shaped scar, one of Harry's most notable and frequently commented on trait is his green eyes, which he inherited from Lily.)
* WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway (Voldemort doesn't believe ThePowerOfLove will stop him.)
* WhatTheHellHero (Plenty of Dumbledore's decisions have a helping of this, chronologically starting with his refusal to confront Grindelwald during the pillaging of Europe and ending with the metric ton of secrets kept from Harry, often for no good reason. [[spoiler:(Due to esoteric rules of magic, not telling Harry in advance that he would have to die and that he might [[IGotBetter get better]] is one of the few justified cases.)]] He gets called out by Snape, Harry in book five, and, post-mortem, Aberforth and ''Rita Skeeter''.
* WhyDontYaJustShootHim (Harry only survives through books 4 on because the revived Voldemort demands a grandiose and wand-induced death)
** And when Voldemort actually does this in Book 7, [[spoiler:it doesn't stick.]]
* WitchSpecies
* WizardBeard (Dumbledore, just look up at the picture.)
* WizardingSchool (Actually, more than one. TropeCodifier.)
* WizardsLiveLonger
* WolfMan (Remus Lupin)
* WordOfGod (Rowling's interviews)
* WritersCannotDoMath (Where to begin?)
** With the Black Family Tree, probably...
* {{Xanadu}}
* XanatosFuneral ([[spoiler:Dumbledore.]] And ''how!'')
* XanatosGambit (Voldemort's plan in the ''Half-Blood Prince'', and Dumbledore's plan revealed near the end of ''Deathly Hallows'')
* XanatosRoulette (Dumbledore's plans occasionally strain credibility)
* XanatosSucker (Pretty much the entire wizarding population other than Dumbledore, Snape, and Voldemort)
* YouRemindMeOfX: ''Everyone'' goes out of their way to tell Harry how much he reminds them of James.
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'''Fanon tropes:'''

* BadassAbnormal (Oh, the [[GaryStu Harry!Stus]]...)
* CanonFodder (and the time between books let it be milked to the limit)
* CanonSue (There are fans who debate and write essays over Hermione, Ginny, or even Lily Evans being this.)
* DieForOurShip (many fans detest Ron and Ginny for reasons of shipping, particularly those who would have preferred for Harry to end up with Hermione)
** But then again, this goes for any fan not willing to listen to "the other side" because of his or her blind devotion to the favored ship. In fact, the only fans who are guilt-free from fitting into this are fans who can ship both or are willing to see the other point of view and respect it.
* DisContinuity (one to three books from the fifth on, particularly the epilogue of the last)
* DracoInLeatherPants (Draco, of course, and Snape as well--hell, all the bad guys except Voldemort. Well, he ''was'' handsome before his psychosis was set off...)
** RonTheDeathEater (Ditto Ron, the Weasleys, and pretty much all of the good guys)
* FanDumb (The abnormally high number of mostly-former fans who think that JKR has an obligation to write what they want. Common groups include [[DieForOurShip disgruntled shippers]], [[BrokenBase the Grangerverse fans who feel ''Hermione'' is the ultimate hero of the entire story]] [[StrawFeminist and Harry is her (wait for it) "frontkick"]], [[DracoInLeatherPants Snapefen annoyed that Snape wasn't hailed as the one true hero of the story]], and [[SeriousBusiness those who had their in-depth literary theories shot down]].
** There are also fans who are ferociously loyal to everything WordOfGod states and will get miffed at any opinion that does not coincide with their own. Like they say, NotSoDifferent after all.
* HesJustHiding (About any dead character. Slightly more justified than usual since that was exactly what Voldemort was doing when everyone (in-potterverse) thought he was dead.)
* {{Lolicon}}/{{Shotacon}} (Even ''before'' the PowerTrio were 14 they were a bit ''too'' popular a subject matter for Japanese {{Doujinshi}} of the adult nature).
* JumpingTheShark (Some fans claim that the series went downhill when book five was released, while others say it was when book six or seven was released.)
* MisaimedFandom
* TheRedStapler (Demand for pet owls skyrocketed after the films were released)
* {{Shipping}}
* SlashFic
* SpotlightStealingSquad (many fans have accused the author of excessively fixating on the Weasleys)
* UnpleasableFanbase (some even consider the series to have [[JumpingTheShark Jumped the Shark]] at one of the last three books)
* WeWillNotHavePocketsInTheFuture (Or the past, what with wizard robes).
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'''Other tropes associated with the series:'''

* {{Americanitis}} (Editors at Scholastic Books forced a change from "Philosopher's Stone" -- a genuine item of folklore and alchemy -- to "Sorcerer's Stone" for the American editions on the grounds that American children would have no idea what a Philosopher's Stone was. [[IrregularWebcomic David Morgan-Mar]] has an [[http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/684.html alternative explanation.]] They have received more than a decade of excoriation since. Due to the negative reaction, British terms and slang in the later books, such as "jumper", "taking the mickey", and "snogging", were left in.)
**Parodied wonderfully in the book "Barry Trotter and the Philosopher's Scone", where it is stated that in America, said scone was renamed "The Magic Biscuit".
* TheBoardGame (yes, and there's even been more than one)
* DoorStopper (all of the books from the fourth onwards; the fifth, weighing in at 766 pages for the Bloomsbury hardback edition, is the winner here)
* MoralGuardians (The seemingly endless parade of whackos who insist that the books entice children into the occult and devil worship.)
** [[ComplainingAboutShowsYouDontWatch Complaining About Books You Don't Read]] (See [[http://www.snopes.com/humor/iftrue/potter.asp this article]] for the heights of [[MoralGuardians Moral Guardian]] Induced Stupidity)
** Particularly jarring, considering [[ThePowerOfLove the actual]] [[ThePowerOfFriendship moral messages]] of the books. [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic]] or RuleOfSymbolism?
* MultipleDemographicAppeal (A major factor in the series' runaway success)
** Quite possibly modern literature's MostTriumphantExample.
* NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity (In real life, Harry Potter got publicity just for being banned in some places for promoting witchcraft. And in the story, this is echoed a few times; for example, in Chamber of Secrets, Lockhart is very happy when a fight breaks out at a book signing for his latest book.)
** And then averted in the story when the ''Daily Prophet'', Wizarding England's primary newspaper, does a massive (and successful) smear campaign on Harry and Dumbledore.
*** Played straight in the fifth book, where the Ministry of Magic's propaganda campaign against Harry's story that Voldemort has returned is reversed when Umbridge bans a copy of ''The Quibbler'' that tells Harry's story about his encounter with Voldemort. The issue is then sold out and must be reprinted due to curiosity about why it was banned.
* PopculturalOsmosis
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids (arguably the later installments)
** Then again by the time we hit ''Order of the Phoenix,'' the original readers (and there were ''many'') had already hit teendom. Rowling was just showing us greater development of the series.
* YouVampiresSuck (Used in passing.)

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'''The series named the following tropes:'''

* The original name of AmbitionIsEvil (Slytherin House)
* DracoInLeatherPants (via the fanfic ''[[Fanfic/TheDracoTrilogy The Draco Trilogy]]'')
** RonTheDeathEater, a species of CharacterDerailment associated with the above.
* TheDumbledore
* GoldenSnitch
* HoldYourHippogriffs
* HufflepuffHouse
* InvisibilityCloak
* {{Muggles}}
** MuggleFosterParents
* PensieveFlashback
* The original name of SacrificialLion (The Cedric)
* SecretKeeper
* TheUmbridge
** BaitAndSwitchUmbridge
* WronskiFeint
* The original name of MeaningfulEcho (YouAreWithMe)
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