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Harry Potter
Burn, Harry, burn. Mystic inferno.

Harry — 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 JK Rowling exploded onto the world literary scene in the late 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 inspired a series of films and 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 he isn't really normal at all. His parents were both powerful wizards, and Harry himself is the renowned defeater of Voldemort, would-be Evil Overlord 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, 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 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.
Tropes specific to books, other media, and characters in the series:

Tropes prevalent across the whole series:

  • Academy Of Adventure: 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)
  • Achey Scars: And how! Though the pains go away after Voldemort's death.
  • Aerith And Bob: The "Muggle" first names range from Harry to Dudley; the wizarding ones, from George to Xenophilius. All in the UK.)
  • Agony Beam: The Cruciatus curse.
  • Allergic To Evil: Harry's scar burns when Voldemort is angry and/or killing someone — or nearby.
  • Alliterative Name: 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.
  • All Of The Other Reindeer
  • Almighty Mom: Mrs Weasley, especially in Order Of The Phoenix.
  • Alternate Character Interpretation: Many, especially Severus Snape (not even the characters know his real facade), Albus Dumbledore, Gellert Grindelwald, Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter.
  • Animate Dead: Inferi, first mentioned in Order of the Phoenix.
  • Animorphism: Animagi.
  • Anyone Can Die: Not so much in the earlier books, but after Goblet Of Fire, all bets were off.
  • Arch Enemy: Harry vs. Voldemort
  • Arson Murder And Jaywalking: How the House "points" system at Hogwarts works. Later we discover that this is how the Ministry of Magic treats "crime" in general.
  • Arson Murder And Life Saving
  • Artifact Of Death (several, Riddle's diary, the Elder Wand and Marvolo Gaunt's ring. The latter includes a literal Artifact Of Death.)
  • As Long As It Sounds Foreign: Death Eater Antonin Dolohov. Antonín is Czech, Dolohov is Russian.
  • Asshole Victims: The Riddles.
  • Badass Biker: Sirius Black.
  • Badass Bookworm: Several, but primarily Hermione, Lupin, and, most of all, Dumbledore.
  • Badass Family: The Weasley siblings already include a dragon rancher and a prefect when the books begin, and all of them go on to be successful in various fields.
  • Badass Grandpa: Dumbledore, full stop.
  • Batman Gambit
  • Because Destiny Says So: Played with. Harry's destiny is self-fulfilling precisely because Voldemort insists on fulfilling it. Dumbledore suggests that not all prophecies must be fulfilled.
  • Big Bad: Voldemort
  • Big Labyrinthine Building: Hogwarts.
  • Black Cloak: Death Eaters. Also Dementors.
  • Blasting It Out Of Their Hands: 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.
  • Boarding School: But also.
  • Boarding School Of Horrors: At times, Hogwarts can be quite a Family Unfriendly place.
  • Bond Villain Stupidity: Massive amounts from Voldemort, who does many things the Evil Overlord List advises you not to do. 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 Evil Plan in Goblet Of Fire. 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 Evil Overlord List by storing a Horcrux in the Lestrange Vault in Gringotts.
  • Book Dumb: Ron and Harry really aren't diligent students, though when they do try they prove to be quite adept.
  • Brainy Brunette: Hermione.
  • Broken Masquerade
  • Butt Monkey: A few, but Peter Pettigrew most of all.
    • Harry is this for Draco Malfoy.
    • 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 Chew Toy (misfortune inflicted by the universe at large, frequently played for laughs/endearment from the audience) than Butt Monkey (the rest of the cast doesn't particularly single Ron out for abuse/mockery). In the Weasley family, Percy seems like more of a Butt Monkey: 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 Butt Monkey 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.
    • Gilderoy Lockhart gets beat up by pixies and accidentally erases his own memory with a broken wand.
      • Considering the fact that Rowling herself admits a real-life person she disliked inspired her into creating the character of Gilderoy Lockhart, this could be also a Take That from her POV.
  • But You Screw One Goat: Aberforth has one unhealthy obsession with Capra aegagrus.
  • By The Eyes Of The Blind: Thestrals are only visible to people who have witnessed death first-hand.
  • Calling Your Attacks: Played straight at first, then subverted when a major portion of the sixth-year curriculum is learning not to call them.
  • Captain Ersatz: While possibly coincidental, the Dementors have a certain resemblance to the Nazgul of Lord Of The Rings. But they're both based on the Grim Reaper.
  • Cerebus Syndrome
  • The Chamberlain: Fudge; see also What Do You Mean Its Not Political, below.
  • Changeling Fantasy
  • Character Development
  • Character Name And The Noun Phrase
  • Chekhovs Armoury: Chekhovs Gun 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 Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince where Harry wonders if there's any special significance to a mouth organ stolen by the young Tom Riddle in Dumbledore's Pensieve Flashback; he's informed, truthfully, that there isn't. On the other hand, Riddle's kleptomania ...
  • Chekhovs Boomerang
  • Chekhovs Gun
  • Chekhovs Skill: Ron at wizard chess; Harry and his Patronus; Hermione and Ancient Runes; Neville and herbology.
  • Chew Toy: Ron. Neville.
  • Cinderella Circumstances: 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.
  • Cool But Inefficient: So many of the things the wizards do.
  • Complete Monster: Dolores Umbridge. Voldemort. Bellatrix Lestrange. Fenrir Greyback.
  • Crapsack World: Once you get past the initial cool factor of the magical world, the Harry Potter universe is not an exceptionally happy one. Fantastic Racism of absurd extremes permeates every level of the wizarding world, the government seems to be run by Lawful Evil, scheming, political glory hounds (regardless of their allegiance to "good" or "bad"). The justice system is a Kangaroo Court, 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.
    • Word Of God says that things got a lot better when Voldemort and his Death Eaters were defeated.
  • Crazy Awesome: Dumbledore.
  • Crazy Prepared: Hermione, especially with her bag in Deathly Hallows. Also, Dumbledore, in general.
  • Crowning Moment Of Awesome: 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 "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."
      • Same scene: "Give her hell from us, Peeves!"
  • Cultural Posturing: Even the Muggleborn wizards are condescending toward Muggles.
  • Curse
  • Dances And Balls: 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".
    • Quidditch.
    • Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, marketed by Jelly Belly.
  • Designated Villain (Anyone who is in or has ever been in Slytherin is automatically evil)
    • 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.
    • Subverted hard with Severus Snape.
    • Several other characters, such as Regulus Black, have Heel Face Turns.
  • Dont Tell Mama: The only time the Weasley twins get talked into cooperating with authority is when Hermione threatens to tell Mrs. Weaslsey about their antics.
  • Doorstop Baby: Harry.
  • The Dreaded: Lord Voldemort, AKA "You-Know-Who" and "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named".
  • Dying Like Animals: Not just the Muggles, but wizards and witches, too.
    • Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge is one particularly outspoken ostrich in a bowler.
  • Early Bird Cameo: Several supporting characters were mentioned in passing long before their importance to the plot was revealed, among them Mrs. Figg, Mundungus Fletcher, Aberforth Dumbledore, and, of course, Sirius Black.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending
  • Easing Into The Adventure: Harry even suggests, in the first novel, that Dumbledore wanted to give them something easy to begin with.
  • Easter Bunny
  • Emotion Bomb: Dementors.
    • Cheering Charms are a example of this in the good way.
  • Enforced Cold War: The House rivalries, especially between Gryffindor and Slytherin.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: 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.
  • Everyone Is Jesus In Purgatory: 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.
  • Everyone Is Related: Check out the Black family tree.
  • Everyone Looks Sexier If French: Beauxbatons.
  • Everything's Better With Otters: Hermione's Patronus.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: 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.
  • Evil Counterpart: 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. For all her scruples, Hermione winds up doing some questionable tactics to make sure Harry triumphs: she comes up with the same method for Harry to communicate with his DA members as Voldemort used with his Death Eaters; she bewitches a DA document so that it will permanently facially disfigure anyone who signs it and later sells them out; she blackmails Rita Skeeter.)
    • Bellatrix also serves as an Evil Counterpart to Molly Weasley.
    • Voldemort and Dumbledore turn out to have a lot in common.
  • Fainting: Many characters do this, but this unfortunately happens to Harry multiple times in each book, especially in Prisoner of Azkaban (wherein the Dementors inevitably have this effect on him) and Order of the Phoenix.
  • Fake Ultimate Hero: Gilderoy Lockhart.
  • Fan Dumb: Given the popularity of the series, too many too count. But here's a partial list anyway.
  • Fantastic Science
  • Fantasy Gun Control: 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".
    • A Justified Trope, considering this is a world where you can regrow bones. A bullet could possibly be treatable.
    • Considering that the series is set in the UK, which already has gun control, the relevence of the trope is debatable.
  • Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Nearly everything about wizardry from Fantasy novels is revealed to exist — and every mythological creature as well, specially in Fantastic Beasts.
  • Fate Worse Than Death: What happens to Neville's parents.
    • The Dementor's Kiss.
    • The side-effect of drinking unicorn blood.
  • Female Success Is Family The most prominent examples being Tonks, Ginny Weasely, Molly Weasely, and Lily Evans / Lily Potter.
  • Fiery Redhead: The Weasleys. All of them. Also Lily Evans in book five.
  • Finding Judas: Snape.
  • First Girl Wins: Ginny Weasley was the first wizard girl he heard at Platform 9 3/4, and Hermione was the first female friend Ron Weasley made. Years later, Harry married Ginny, and Ron married Hermione.
    • In The Film Of The Book, Ginny Weasley is the first girl Harry's age we meet in both the first film and the second. She's also almost the first girl we see in the third film — soon after Hermione's entrance, we see Ginny's face in a newspaper clipping.
  • Five Man Band: The series has a few:
  • Flaw Exploitation: 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 Snape's love for Lily helps lead to his downfall.
      • Likewise, 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", (although this editor notes a mistake in that Voldemort, a half-blood, became a Slytherin)and Hufflepuff changed from "loyal" to, well, "miscellaneous".)
    • The fact that Voldemort was a direct descendant of Salazar Slytherin himself probably helped a lot for getting into that particular house.
    • 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.
      • It's arguable, however, as every Slytherin is still portrayed as being unlikeable and having highly negative personality traits. Slughorn is opportunistic and underhanded, and, with a few exceptions, he tends to see people as things he can use to get ahead — even if he is a nice guy about it. Also note that every other good-aligned Slytherin is a result of a Heel Face Turn — they were evil first and then something made them see the light; not one of them was simply good-hearted to begin with. Of all the Slytherins we meet, except Slughorn, the least antagonistic is Blaise Zabini, and, based on what little time he gets, that seems to be because he's indifferent to everyone equally.
  • Fluffy Tamer: Hagrid.
  • Fluffy The Terrible: Quite a few monsters, but the most famous is actually named Fluffy. [[Inverted Inverted Trope]] with Hagrid's cowardly boar hound, Fang, and subverted in the case of his Acromantula, Aragog.)
  • Flying Broomstick: Quite a few, often of plot significance, including the Nimbus and the Firebolt.
  • Foe Yay (Dumbledore and Grindelwald; Harry and Draco)
  • Forgot I Could Fly (Hermione, towards the end of the first book)
    • And then Hermione calls Ron out on this when he forgets it in Deathly Hallows.
  • For The Evulz: This seems to be the motivation behind at least half the things done by members of Slytherin House — especially Malfoy. Seems rather bizarre when you remember that they're supposedly the House for the cunning, intelligent, ambitious, and rational.
  • Fridge Brilliance: (spoilered for those who haven't read Deathly Hallows At every opportunity since Harry's first divination class in Prisoner of Azkaban, Trelawny has insisted that Harry will die a premature death (with one exception in Order of the Phoenix). Guess what? He does. She also references the Grim, which is supposed to herald death, and he even see it a few times, but it turns out to be Sirius. Whom Harry sees before he dies.)
  • Fridge Logic (The kids get sent off (or snatched up) at the age of eleven to go to this school for wizards, which is never stated to have standard classes like English or Social Studies (although there is an Arithmancy class,apparently to do with numbers). Do all of these wizards just stop after five years of schooling?)
  • Functional Magic (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.)
  • Geeky Turn On
  • Getting Crap Past The Radar: See Harry Potter.
  • Glurge Addict: Dolores Umbridge.
  • Goddamn Orks: Slytherin House.
  • Go Look At The Distraction
  • Gotta Catch Them All - The sixth and seventh books involve a long quest to find all of the Horcruxes.
  • Hanging Separately
  • Happiness In Slavery (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.
  • Headless Horseman (The Headless Hunt)
  • Heroes Want Red Heads (Ginny and Lily)
  • Hero Secret Service (the Order of the Phoenix)
  • The Hero's Journey
  • Heterosexual Life Partners James Potter and Sirius Black
    • Harry and Ron most definitely. They even had two break-up episodes. Once in Goblet of Fire, and mildly in Deathly Hallows.
  • Hidden Depths
  • Hidden Wizard World - Wizards regularly travel between sanctuaries such as their homes and Diagon Alley, but on average the entire Wizarding World is Invisible To Normals.
  • Hormone Addled Teenager: Nicely averts this trope until the later books, and then subverts it by making the main characters' teenage relationship tangles A) realistic and B) quite secondary to the actual plot. Done especially well with Hermione. After her brief liaison with Viktor Krum in Goblet of Fire, she decides dating isn't all it's cracked up to be and realizes she's still not old enough for serious romantic entanglements. She's also largely uninterested in clothes and doesn't care that she has frizzy hair, concerning herself with academics rather than vanity.
  • Hypocrite
  • I Am Big Boned (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 Dursleys blaming Dudley's weight on baby fat.)
  • Impoverished Patrician
  • Incest Is Relative (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)
  • I Need To Go Iron My Dog Dumbledore uses this method to leave Harry alone with Professor Slughorn so as to persuade him to return to Hogwarts—specifically, by asking to use the loo. The fact he returns afterwards with a magazine he wants to keep "for the knitting patterns" just highlights his eccentricity and hilarious kookiness. It was still a nice bit of obfuscation.
  • Ineffectual Loner (Harry often tries to discourage his friends from helping him. This in spite of the fact that he's often quite helpless without them Hermione)
  • Is That What He Told You (Lots of well-meaning deception from Dumbledore.)
  • Its Not You Its My Enemies (Harry's breakup speech to Ginny)
  • It Got Worse (All of Book 7.)
    • One could argue, however, that this trend begins much earlier — such as the end of Book 4. Book 7 is when things hit rock bottom, though.
  • Jigsaw Puzzle Plot (Too many instances to count.)
  • Kill It With Fire (One of the few ways to destroy a Horcrux is with the dark magic spell Fiendfyre, a.k.a. cursed fire, but the spell is so dangerous and hard to control that even Hermione says she wouldn't have dared try it. And in Deathly Hallows, it's demonstrated that the Inferi are, if not destroyed, at least repelled by fire.)
  • Killed Off For Real (Goblet of Fire through Half-Blood Prince have one big one each; Deathly Hallows seems like Rowling had a hit list on her desk)
    • Goblet of Fire: ( Cedric Diggory)
    • Order of The Phoenix: ( Sirius Black)
    • Half-Blood Prince: ( Albus Dumbledore)
    • Deathly Hallows: ( Hogwarts Muggle Studies teacher Charity Burbage, Hedwig, Mad-Eye Moody, Rufus Scrimgeour, wand maker Gregorovich, magical historian Bathilda Bagshot, Ted Tonks, Dirk Cresswell, Gellart Grindelwald, Peter Pettigrew, Dobby, Fred Weasley, Severus Snape, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Colin Creevey, Bellatrix Lestrange, and of course Voldemort himself.)
  • Kindhearted Cat Lover (Mrs. Figg)
  • La Resistance (Dumbledore's Army, Potterwatch and the Order.)
  • Letter Motif (Marvolo, Morfin, and Merope Gaunt.)
    • Albus, Aberforth and Ariana Dumbledore as well.
  • Literary Agent Hypothesis (The companion/defictionalized books)
  • Living Labyrinth
  • Loads And Loads Of Characters (Since it takes place at a boarding school and all. Let's see: The protagonist Power Trio, 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 <Phew>.
      • 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). 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.
  • The Lone Dalek (Young Crouch)
  • Love Redeems (Snape's motivation for his Heel Face Turn.)
  • Loves The Sound Of Screaming (Filch loves torturing misbehaving children, and misses the old days when he could hang kids from the rafters and hear them scream)
  • Lucky Seven (Seven books, based on Harry's seven years in school (the last one would've come out on 7/7/07, but the London Tube bombings the year before spoiled it). Voldemort tries to split himself seven ways using himself + six horcruxes it's the eighth one that screws him over. This is foreshadowed in The Movie with the rock broken into seven pieces in young Tom's room.)
  • Machiavelli Was Wrong (Voldemort is betrayed a few times by people who, despite being Slytherins, actually have feelings. 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 created his own worst enemy in Harry when he tried to kill him. It's safe to be feared, eh?
    • Somewhat 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.
  • Magic A Is Magic A (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.")
  • Magic Hat (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.
  • Magic Missile (Most spells seem to follow this trope.)
  • Magic Versus Science (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.)
  • Mama Bear (Ms. Weasley in Deathly Hallows; possibly Lily Evans Potter, given what her last-minute defiance of Voldemort achieved.)
  • Marty Stu (Harry is perhaps the ultimate 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
  • Master Apprentice Chain (Harry was given special lessons from Lupin and used it and more to train the DA)
  • Meaningful Name (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 Remus Lupin, the latter of whose lycanthropy is a plot twist. Right.
      • Note 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. Damn straight it's meaningful.
    • And Sirius Black can transform into a big black dog in a book where both keep appearing and disappearing without explanation.
    • Harry himself has a Meaningful Name, 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.
  • Methuselah Syndrome
  • Mind Your Step (The sinking stair.)
  • The Mole
  • Moral Dissonance (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 date rape drugs 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.
  • Moustache De Plume: "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.
  • Ms Exposition (When Hermione isn't kicking ass, she's usually providing Expo Speak 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.
  • Near Death Experience (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 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 Near Death Experience?
      • He had an insurance policy. Once it was gone, so was he.
      • Plus, "The Snake-Man Evil Overlord Who Lived" just doesn't have the same ring to it.
  • Near Misses
  • Needle In A Stack OF Needles: Occurs several times.
  • Nephewism
  • No Ontological Inertia (Some spells are made to last after death, most others cease.)
  • The Noun Of Adjective
  • Now Or Never Kiss ( Ron and Hermione)
  • Numerological Motif
    • Sevens: seven years, seven novels, seven subjects (to start with), seven Horcruxes, seven players on a Quidditch team, Harry and Neville being born in the seventh month, seven Weasley children
    • 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
    • Primes: 17 sickles to the galleon, 29 knuts to the sickle.
  • Older Than They Think
  • Only I Can Kill Him (ugh. Far too much.)
  • Our Fairies Are Different
  • Parental Substitute (The Dursleys are a bad version of this; the Weasleys, Sirius, and Lupin do a better job.)
  • Pet Monstrosity (Hagrid kept a pet Acromantula as a student, and hasn't really broken out of the habit by the time of the books and likely, never will).
  • The Phoenix (Fawkes)
  • Plot Armor (Harry is the god of this trope! Even as a baby when Voldermort attacked him!)
    • Then with the grims (Prisoner of Azkaban), he survives! Death omens!
      • Not really...it just happens a bit later than predicted, and then he gets better
  • The Power Of Friendship (well, yes.)
  • The Power Of Love (alluded to throughout the series. It can protect a loved one from deadly curses, and block mental magic)
  • Power Trio Harry (ego), Ron (id), and Hermione (superego) of course!
    • And the secondary trio consisting of Neville (ego), Ginny (id), and Luna (superego).
  • Post Dramatic Stress Disorder (A lot)
  • Plot Coupons
  • Politically Incorrect Villain: Umbridge and Voldemort.
  • Pre Meeting: In the first six books, Harry always meets his new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher before school starts.
  • Prophecies Are Always Right: Toyed with and inverted multiple times (see Because Destiny Says So), but ultimately played straight. Although the Divination teacher Professor Trewlawney is portrayed as a massive fraud, shockingly, every prediction she makes throughout the series turns out to be (at least somewhat) correct.
    • For example: Neville's teacup, Lavender's anxiety over her bunny, Harry being late to his second Divination class, Hermione leaving the class near Easter, Umbridge's experience in the Forbidden Forest, both Dumbledore's and Harry's deaths. In addition, she has a few "genuine" prophecies about Voldemort's attack on Harry and eventual return in The Goblet of Fire.
  • Prophetic Fallacy
  • Prophetic Names
  • Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Wizards live longer than humans. (Although members of the Black family seem to die relatively young.)
  • Reinventing The Telephone: Owls, floo powder, patronuses...
  • Reverse Mole
  • The Rival (Harry and Draco, James and Snape)
  • The Scottish Trope (Subverted by Dumbledore and several other heroic characters who very determinedly say "Voldemort" despite the name's emotional baggage — and by Harry, who just doesn't have that baggage. The seventh book simultaneously double subverts and deconstructs — or perhaps reconstructs) it, as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named creates an enchantment that allows him to locate anyone who dares say his name.))
  • Second Love
  • Self Fulfilling Prophecy: More than one.
  • Sadist Teacher: Umbridge. Also Snape, and perhaps Filch, although he's not technically a teacher.
  • She Is Not My Girlfriend: Harry says this about Hermione.
  • Side Bet
  • Significant Anagram : "Tom Marvolo Riddle" <-> "I am Lord Voldemort". Other languages revise the anagram to make sense in their tongues — or change his birth-name.
    • For example, in French: Tom Elvis Jedusor = Je suis Voldemort. "Jedusor" sounds like jeu de sort, meaning "riddle" "gamble" or "lottery" — and Elvis is not really dead. And in Spanish: Tom Sorvolo Ryddle = Yo soy Lord Voldemort.
    • 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 Sirius Black's brother Regulus. Those who read the books in foreign languages noticed that whatever Sirius' surname was changed to (i.e., that language's word for "black"), R.A.B's last initial had followed suit.
  • Single Woman Seeks Good Man: 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 debatable, given that James Potter is remembered as a Loveable Rogue by some people and a complete Jerk Ass by others.
  • Six Student Clique: The D.A. 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
      • Luna is a "wild" one?
  • Smooch Of Victory: Harry kisses Ginny after she wins Gryffindor the Quidditch cup. (Also an Accidental Kiss.)
  • Snowball Fight
  • Soul Fragment
  • Soul Jar (The horcruxes)
  • Spotting The Thread (In the film The Goblet of Fire, Crouch Sr. realizes 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 simply from the expression on Harry's face.)
  • Staying With Friends
  • Stern Teacher: McGonagall is this to a T.
  • Steven Ulysses Perhero (Plenty — for instance, Sirius Black turns into a black dog; Sirius is the Dog Star.)
  • Stout Strength: Rubeus Hagrid. His entire life as an employee of the school is spent doing physically taxing and highly dangerous tasks that other wizards would rather not (his predecessor left "to spend more time with his remaining limbs", according to Dumbledore). This is of course BEFORE one begins adding in the very dangerous situations he finds himself in as a result of his friendship with Harry.
  • Straight Arrow: Centaurs are known for, among other things, their archery skills.
  • Superpowerful Genetics: 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, Word Of God has stated "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 these two essays on the subject at the Harry Potter Lexicon.
      • It's magic. It doesn't have to make sense.
      • 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?
    • Word Of God says that muggle-borns are descendants of Squibs who married Muggles, causing the magic in that branch of the family to appear to die out until it resurfaces several generations later.
  • Take That: 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.
    • Pansy Perkinson is every mean girl that Rowling ever knew.
  • Tall Dark And Handsome (Sirius Black and Tom Riddle/Voldemort)
  • Tall Dark And Snarky (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.
  • Teach Me How To Fight: Dumbledore's Army is born when Ron and Hermione ask Harry to teach them how to fight.
  • Tear Jerker (Many, actually.)
  • Tell Me About My Father (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.
  • Theme Naming (Not just the characters; there's also Diagon Alley and the nearby roads, which are all puns on words that end in '-ally'.)
  • The Three Faces Of Adam: 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).
  • The Trope Without A Title
  • They Walk Among Us
  • Third Person Person: The House Elves refer to themselves this way.
  • Took A Level In Badass (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 free time (and help from Hermione) to pick up a variety of offensive and defensive spells.
  • Took A Level In Jerkass (Percy and Cornelius Fudge)
  • Tonight Someone Dies
  • 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 James Potter is around)
  • Twin Banter
  • Two Act Structure: With Goblet Of Fire as the turning point where things start going to hell.
    • And people in the opposite direction... mostly.
  • Unfortunate Implications: With great popularity comes in-depth critical analysis. Consider "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 misses the point like whoa. Did they miss Dumbledore's "Sometimes I think we sort too soon"?
      • The article does mention that line and in fact treats it as proof of HP's series having a determinist message.
  • Unnecessary Roughness
  • Unusual Euphemism
  • Victorious Childhood Friend: Ginny, for Harry. Hermione, for Ron.
  • Villainous Breakdown (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)
    • Barty Crouch, Jr. also went through one when his father was forced to send him to Azkaban:
    "Father, I didn't! I didn't, I swear it, Father, don't send me back to the Dementors... No! Mother, no! I didn't do it, I didn't do it, I didn't do it, I didn't know! Don't send me there, don't let him! I'm your son! I'm your son!"
  • Villain With Good Publicity (Lucius Malfoy)
  • The Virus (Lycanthropy)
  • Wangst (Harry's angst in book 5, while justified, was still an annoyance to many readers)
  • Wham Episode (Each book gets its fair share, but Book 6 especially. However, It Was His Sled.)
  • Whatevermancy (Arithmancy.)
  • What Beautiful Eyes (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.)
  • What Do You Mean Its For Kids / What Do You Mean Its Not For Kids: Seems to fall into both. Rowling did indeed conceive the books as a children's series, despite the protestations of many older fans that it's not really for kids. But it's fair to say that the books "grew" with the original fanbase, and the last three or four aren't appropriate for the books' original elementary-school-age audience. Evidenced by the fact that the ratings of the Harry Potter movies seem to be increasing with each sequel: the first few were PG, the more recent ones have been PG-13, and with reports about possible nudity in the two-part Deathly Hallows adaptations it looks like the filmmakers are shooting for an R-rating.
  • What Do You Mean Its Not Political: Many people were are convinced that Voldemort represents George W Bush. Alfonso Cuaron (director of the film version of Prisoner of Azkaban) said that he envisioned Big Daddy V as a combination of Bush and Saddam Hussein. Rowling said he's the worst traits of Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin combined.
  • What Happened To The Mouse: The Hogwarts Song. Remember that one?
  • What Kind Of Lame Power Is Heart Anyway (Voldemort doesn't believe The Power Of Love will stop him.)
    • And Harry himself nearly falls into this once, until Dumbledore snaps him out of it.
  • What The Hell Hero (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. (Due to esoteric rules of magic, not telling Harry in advance that he would have to die and that he might 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.
  • Why Dont Ya Just Shoot Him (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, it doesn't stick.
  • Witch Species
  • Wizard Beard (Dumbledore, just look up at the picture.)
  • Wizarding School (Actually, more than one. Trope Codifier.)
  • Wizards Live Longer
  • Wolf Man (Remus Lupin)
  • Word Of God (Rowling's interviews)
  • Writers Cannot Do Math (Where to begin?)
    • With the Black Family Tree, probably.
  • Xanadu
  • Xanatos Funeral (Dumbledore. And how!)
  • Xanatos Gambit (Voldemort's plan in the Half-Blood Prince, and Dumbledore's plan revealed near the end of Deathly Hallows)
  • Xanatos Roulette (Dumbledore's plans occasionally strain credibility)
  • Xanatos Sucker (Pretty much the entire wizarding population other than Dumbledore, Snape, and Voldemort)
  • You Remind Me Of X: Everyone goes out of their way to tell Harry how much he reminds them of James.
  • Your Vampires Suck: HP-verse vampires are pretty pathetic, and Rowling pokes fun of a vampire who hypnotizes its victims with a boring doorstopper of a book.

Fanon tropes:

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. David Morgan-Mar has an 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".
  • The Board Game (yes, and there's even been more than one)
  • Door Stopper (all of the books from the fourth onwards; the fifth, weighing in at 766 pages for the Bloomsbury hardback edition, is the winner here)
    • The original American hardcover edition had it at over 800 pages.
  • Moral Guardians (The seemingly endless parade of whackos who insist that the books entice children into the occult and devil worship.)
  • Multiple Demographic Appeal (A major factor in the series' runaway success)
  • No Such Thing As Bad Publicity (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.
  • Popcultural Osmosis

The series named the following tropes:

Hard Drinking TropesIndex IndexHaunted Index
BionicleLego ThemesIndiana Jones
Evie ScelanSpeculative Fiction SeriesNursery Crime
BatmanTrope OverdosedBuffy The Vampire Slayer
Duel MastersCard GamesLegend Of The Five Rings
Harrison BergeronLiteratureHarry Potter And The Philosophers Stone
GoosebumpsThe NinetiesHis Dark Materials
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