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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, 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 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:

Series-wide tropes not already covered above:

  • 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)
  • 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)
  • Alliterative Name (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.
  • All Of The Other Reindeer
  • Allergic To Evil (Harry's scar burns when Voldemort is angry and/or killing someone.)
  • Animate Dead (Inferi, first mentioned in Order of the Phoenix.)
  • Animorphism (Animagi)
  • Anyone Can Die (Rather minor in the earlier books, but after Goblet Of Fire all bets were off.)
  • Artifact Of Death (several, Riddle's diary, the Elder Wand and Marvolo Gaunt's ring. The latter includes a literal Artifact Of Death.)
  • Asshole Victims (The Riddles)
  • Badass Biker (Sirius Black)
  • Badass Bookworm (several, but primarily Dumbledore, Hermione and Lupin)
  • Badass Grandpa (Dumbledore, full stop.)
  • Batman Gambit
  • Because Destiny Says So (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)
  • Black Cloak (Death Eaters, and Dementors, who seem to generate their own.)
  • 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 (Hogwarts can be one Family Unfriendly place at times)
  • Bond Villain Stupidity (In massive amounts from Voldemort, who does many things the Evil Overlord List advises you not to do. Justified and Lamp Shaded 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 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.
  • Book Dumb (Harry really isn't a diligent student, though when he does try he proves to be quite adept)
  • Brainy Brunette (Hermione, throughout)
  • Broken Bad (By Word Of God, the reason Voldemort is unable to feel love, and, thus, so sadistically villainous, is because his mother used a love potion to conceive him.
  • Broken Masquerade
  • Butt Monkey (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 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.
  • But You Screw One Goat (Aberforth has one unhealthy obsession with caprines.)
  • By The Eyes Of The Blind (Thestrals are only visible to people who have seen death.)
  • Calling Your Attacks (Played straight at first, then subverted when a major portion of the sixth-year curriculum is learning not to call them.)
  • Cerebus Syndrome
  • The Chamberlain (Fudge; see also What Do You Mean Its Not Political)
  • Changeling Fantasy
  • Character Name And The Noun Phrase
  • Character Development
  • 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. Riddle's kleptomania of which it was an illustration, on the other hand...
  • Chekhovs Skill (Ron and Chess, Harry and his Patronus, Hermione and Ancient Runes, even Neville and his botany.)
  • 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.
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander (Luna Lovegood)
  • Cool But Inefficient (So many of the things the wizards do.)
  • Complete Monster (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 60 "fans", though the site has little dedication to Umbridge. Said site is also the only one This Troper 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.
  • Crapsack World (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. 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.)
  • Crazy Awesome (pre-Deathly Hallows Dumbledore amongst the Trio.)
  • Crazy Prepared (Hermione and her bag in Deathly Hallows)
  • 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."
  • Cultural Posturing (Even the Muggleborn wizards patronize 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.
    • Several characters have Face Heel Turns as well, such as Regulus Black
  • Distant Finale (the epilogue of Deathly Hallows)
  • Doorstop Baby (Harry was one)
  • Dying Like Animals (Not just the Muggles, but Wizards too.)
    • The minister of magick Cornelius Fudge is one particularly outspoken osterich in a bowler.
  • 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
  • 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.
  • 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)
  • 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 if she had realized "what she had".)
  • Everythings Better With Otters: Hermione's Patronus is one.
  • 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, 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.
  • 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 Kitchen Sink (Nearly everything about wizardry from Fantasy novels is revealed to exist — and every mythological creature as well, specially in Fantastic Beasts)
  • 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")
    • The series is set in the UK, so this editor is tempted to say this trope is subverted.
  • Fate Worse Than Death (Neville's parents)
    • Also, the Dementor's Kiss.
    • And the side-effect of drinking unicorn's blood, according to Harry.
  • Female Success Is Family Definately the case with Tonks, and arguably with Ginny and Lily.
  • Fiery Redhead (The Weasleys. All of them.)
  • Finding Judas (Snape anyone?)
  • First Girl Wins (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.)
  • Five Man Band (The series has a couple)
  • 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", and Hufflepuff changed from "loyal" to, well, "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.
  • Fluffy Tamer (Hagrid, of course)
  • Fluffy The Terrible (Quite a few monsters, but the most famous is actually called Fluffy.)
  • Flying Broomstick (The Nimbus, 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
  • 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.)
    • 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).
  • Geeky Turn On (Ron and Hermione's first kiss)
  • Getting Crap Past The Radar: See Harry Potter.
  • Glurge Addict: Dolores Umbridge.
  • Goddamn Orks (Slytherin House)
  • Go Look At The Distraction
  • 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.
  • Heroes Want Red Heads (Ginny and Lily)
  • Hero Secret Service (the Order of the Phoenix)
  • Heterosexual Life Partners (James Potter and Sirius Black)
  • Hidden Depths
  • Hold Your Hippogriffs (Trope Namer)
  • 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 Dursley's blaming Dudley's weight on baby fat.)
  • Idiot Plot (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.)
  • 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)
  • 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)
  • 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.)
  • Jigsaw Puzzle Plot
  • Killed Off For Real (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.
  • 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)
  • 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)
  • 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.
  • 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 whom's werewolf-ness is a plot twist. 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. 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.
  • Mrs 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
  • Nobody Over 50 Is Gay: Averted, by a margin of 100 years.
  • No Ontological Inertia (Some spells are made to last after death, most others cease.)
  • Now Or Never Kiss ( Ron and Hermione)
  • The Noun Of Adjective
  • 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
    • 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
  • Older Than They Think
  • Only I Can Kill Him (ugh. Far too much.)
  • 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).
  • Teach Me How To Fight: Dumbledore's Army is born when Ron and Hermione ask Harry to teach them how to fight.
  • The Phoenix (Fawkes)
  • 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.)
  • Poor Communication Kills (Things would have gone a lot more smoothly if Dumbledore had thought to tell the Order that he had asked Snape to kill him.)
    • No. He couldn't risk anyone learning this until 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. Too bad he died before Voldemort did.
  • Prophetic Fallacy
  • Prophetic Names
  • Really Seven Hundred Years Old (Wizards live longer, much longer. Except the Black family, who all seem to die relatively young.)
  • Reinventing The Telephone (Owls, floo powder, patronuses...)
  • Reverse Mole
  • The Scottish Trope (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 Double Subverts and Deconstructs (or perhaps Reconstructs) it, as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named creates an enchantment that will ping his minimap, so to speak, whenever someone does say his name.)
  • Second Love
  • Self Fulfilling Prophecy (More than one.)
  • Sensitive Guy And Manly Man (Remus and Sirius, at least their Fanon versions.)
  • Sadist Teacher (Umbridge especially. Also Snape and perhaps Filch.)
  • She Is Not My Girlfriend (Hermione. Harry actually says it once.)
  • 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, resulting in some backronyms.)
    • I particularly like the French one: Tom Elvis Jedusor = Je suis Voldemort. "Jedusor" sounds like jeu de sort, meaning "riddle" "gamble" or "lottery", and Elvis is 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 Sirius Black's brother Regulus... Especially after foreign readers noticed that, whenever Sirius' surname was changed to 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 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
  • Smooch Of Victory (Harry kisses Ginny after she wins Gryffindor the Quidditch cup.)
  • Snowball Fight
  • Soul Fragment
  • Soul Jar (Horcruxes)
  • Spotting The Thread: 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.
  • Steven Ulysses Perhero (Plenty—for instance, Sirius Black turns into a black dog; Sirius is the Dog Star.)
  • 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?
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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
  • 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 freetime (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.
  • Unnecessary Roughness
  • Unusual Euphemism
  • 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)
  • 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 Kind Of Lame Power Is Heart Anyway (Voldemort doesn't believe The Power Of Love will stop him.)
  • 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.
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)
  • 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
  • What Do You Mean Its Not For Kids (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.
  • You Vampires Suck (Used in passing.)

The series named the following tropes:

Harrison Bergeron
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