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Mr. Dursley, a well-off Englishman, notices strange happenings on his way to work one day. That night, Albus Dumbledore, the head of a wizardry academy called Hogwarts, meets Professor McGonagall, who also teaches at Hogwarts, and a giant named Hagrid outside the Dursley home. Dumbledore tells McGonagall that someone named Voldemort has killed a Mr. and Mrs. Potter and tried unsuccessfully to kill their baby son, Harry. Dumbledore leaves Harry with an explanatory note in a basket in front of the Dursley home.

Ten years later, the Dursley household is dominated by the Dursleys' son, Dudley, who torments and bullies Harry. Dudley is spoiled, while Harry is forced to sleep in a cupboard under the stairs. At the zoo on Dudley's birthday, the glass in front of a boa constrictor exhibit disappears, frightening everyone. Harry is later punished for this incident.

Mysterious letters begin arriving for Harry. They worry Mr. Dursley, who tries to keep them from Harry, but the letters keep arriving through every crack in the house. Finally, he flees with his family to a secluded island shack on the eve of Harry's eleventh birthday. At midnight, they hear a large bang on the door and Hagrid enters. Hagrid hands Harry an admissions letter to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry learns that the Dursleys have tried to deny Harry's wizardry all these years.

The next day, Hagrid takes Harry to London to shop for school supplies. First they go to the wizard bank, Gringotts, where Harry learns that his parents have left him a hefty supply of money. They shop on the wizards' commercial street known as Diagon Alley, where Harry is fitted for his school uniform. Harry buys books, ingredients for potions, and, finally, a magic wand—the companion wand to the evil Voldemort's.

A month later, Harry goes to the train station and catches his train to Hogwarts on track nine and three quarters. On the train, Harry befriends other first-year students like Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, a Muggle girl chosen to attend Hogwarts. At school, the first-years take turns putting on the “Sorting Hat” to find out in which residential house they will live. Harry fears being assigned to the sinister Slytherin house, but he, Ron, and Hermione end up in the noble Gryffindor house.

As the school year gets underway, Harry discovers that his Potions professor, Snape, does not like him. Hagrid reassures Harry that Snape has no reason to dislike him. During their first flying lesson on broomsticks, the students are told to stay grounded while the teacher takes an injured boy named Neville to the hospital. Draco Malfoy, a Slytherin bully, snatches Neville's prized toy and flies off with it to the top of a tree. Harry flies after him. Malfoy throws the ball in the air, and Harry speeds downward, making a spectacular catch. Professor McGonagall witnesses this incident. Instead of punishing Harry, she recommends that he play Quidditch, a much-loved game that resembles soccer played on broomsticks, for Gryffindor. Later that day, Malfoy challenges Harry to a wizard's duel at midnight. Malfoy doesn't show up at the appointed place, and Harry almost gets in trouble. While trying to hide, he accidentally discovers a fierce three-headed dog guarding a trapdoor in the forbidden third-floor corridor.

On Halloween, a troll is found in the building. The students are all escorted back to their dormitories, but Harry and Ron sneak off to find Hermione, who is alone and unaware of the troll. Unwittingly, they lock the troll in the girls' bathroom along with Hermione. Together, they defeat the troll. Hermione tells a lie to protect Harry and Ron from being punished. During Harry's first Quidditch match, his broom jerks out of control. Hermione notices Snape staring at Harry and muttering a curse. She concludes that he is jinxing Harry's broom, and she sets Snape's clothes on fire. Harry regains control of the broom and makes a spectacular play to win the Quidditch match.

For Christmas, Harry receives his father's invisibility cloak, and he explores the school, unseen, late at night. He discovers the Mirror of Erised, which displays the deepest desire of whoever looks in it. Harry looks in it and sees his parents alive. After Christmas, Harry, Ron, and Hermione begin to unravel the mysterious connection between a break-in at Gringotts and the three-headed guard dog. They learn that the dog is guarding the Sorcerer's Stone, which is capable of providing eternal life and unlimited wealth to its owner and belongs to Nicolas Flamel, Dumbledore's old partner.

A few weeks later, Hagrid wins a dragon egg in a poker game. Because it is illegal to own dragons, Harry, Ron, and Hermione contact Ron's older brother, who studies dragons. They arrange to get rid of the dragon but get caught. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are severely punished, and Gryffindor is docked 150 points. Furthermore, part of their punishment is to go into the enchanted forest with Hagrid to find out who has been killing unicorns recently. In the forest, Harry comes upon a hooded man drinking unicorn blood. The man tries to attack Harry, but Harry is rescued by a friendly centaur who tells him that his assailant was Voldemort. Harry also learns that it is Voldemort who has been trying to steal the Sorcerer's Stone.

Harry decides that he must find the stone before Voldemort does. He, Ron, and Hermione sneak off that night to the forbidden third-floor corridor. They get past the guard dog and perform many impressive feats as they get closer and closer to the stone. Harry ultimately finds himself face to face with Quirrell, who announces that Harry must die. Knowing that Harry desires to find the stone, Quirrell puts Harry in front of the Mirror of Erised and makes him state what he sees. Harry sees himself with the stone in his pocket, and at that same moment he actually feels it in his pocket. But he tells Quirrell that he sees something else. A voice tells Quirrell that the boy is lying and requests to speak to Harry face to face. Quirrell removes his turban and reveals Voldemort's face on the back of his head. Voldemort, who is inhabiting Quirrell's body, instructs Quirrell to kill Harry, but Quirrell is burned by contact with the boy. A struggle ensues and Harry passes out.

When Harry regains consciousness, he is in the hospital with Dumbledore. Dumbledore explains that he saved Harry from Quirrell just in time. He adds that he and Flamel have decided to destroy the stone. Harry heads down to the end-of-year banquet, where Slytherin is celebrating its seventh consecutive win of the house championship cup. Dumbledore gets up and awards many last-minute points to Gryffindor for the feats of Harry and his friends, winning the house cup for Gryffindor. Harry returns to London to spend the summer with the Dursleys.

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Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets begins when Harry is spending a miserable summer with his only remaining family, the Dursleys. During a dinner party hosted by his uncle and aunt, Harry is visited by Dobby, a house-elf. Dobby warns Harry not to return to Hogwarts, the magical school for wizards that Harry attended the previous year. Harry politely disregards the warning, and Dobby wreaks havoc in the kitchen, infuriating the Dursleys. The Dursleys angrily imprison Harry in his room for the rest of the summer. Luckily, Harry's friend Ron Weasley steals Harry away in a flying car, and Harry happily spends the rest of the summer at the Weasley home.

While shopping for school supplies with the Weasleys, Harry has two unfortunate encounters. He first encounters Lockhart, one of his teachers, who demands to be in a photo shoot with Harry. Harry then encounters Lucius Malfoy, the evil father of one of Harry's enemies, who almost starts a fight with Mr. Weasley. As Harry prepares to return to Hogwarts, he finds that he and Ron are unable to enter the magically invisible train platform, so they fly the Weasley car to Hogwarts. They land messily, and both boys are given detentions. Lockhart, who believes Harry flew the car to get attention, lectures Harry.

Quidditch practices begin and Draco Malfoy is the new Slytherin seeker. On the field, he calls Hermione a "mudblood," insulting her Muggle heritage. After taunting Hermione, Draco is the suspect when, on Halloween night, someone petrifies the school caretaker's cat and writes a threatening message. Before the cat is attacked, Harry twice hears an eerie voice. He hears it first during his detention and second during a party, moments before the cat is attacked. Everybody in the school is alarmed. By doing some research, Harry, Ron, and Hermione learn that fifty years ago a chamber at Hogwarts was opened and a student was killed.

Playing for Gryffindor, Harry wins the Quidditch match against Slytherin. During the game, an enchanted ball hits Harry and causes him to lose the bones in his arm. Dobby, a house elf, has enchanted the ball in an effort to have Harry injured and sent home. That night, Harry sees the body of a first-year who has been petrified arrive at the hospital. Soon after, Lockhart begins a dueling club. During the first meeting, Harry terrifies his fellow students by speaking in Parseltongue to a snake. Harry's ability frightens the others because only the heir of Slytherin, who is responsible for opening the chamber, would have the ability to converse with snakes. Harry comes under further suspicion when he stumbles upon the petrified bodies of Justin Finch-Fletchley and Nearly- Headless Nick.

Determined to catch the culprit, Ron, Harry and Hermione brew a potion called Polyjuice. The potion allows them to assume the bodies of Slytherins and question Malfoy on the Chamber of Secrets. They find out that Malfoy is not the heir of Slytherin. No more attacks occur for a while, and right before Valentine's Day, Harry finds a diary in the broken toilet. The diary belongs to a ghost named Moaning Myrtle who haunts the girls' restroom. Harry writes in the diary, which responds by writing back. Through this dialogue, Harry meets Tom Riddle, a boy who many years before had accused Hagrid of opening the Chamber of Secrets.

Hermione and a Ravenclaw girl are mysteriously petrified. Harry and Ron venture out of the castle to question Hagrid. Before they reach Hagrid, the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, and Lucius Malfoy remove Dumbledore and Hagrid from Hogwarts. As Hagrid is led away, he instructs the boys that by following the spiders, they can find out about the Chamber monster. Several nights later, Harry and Ron sneak into the Forbidden Forest to follow the spiders. They discover the monster who killed the girl fifty years before was not a spider, that the girl's body was found in a bathroom, and that Hagrid is innocent. The boys are almost killed by a colony of giant spiders. As they escape, Harry and Ron decide that Moaning Myrtle must have been the girl killed by the monster.

A few days later, Ron and Harry discover a piece of paper with a description of a basilisk on it in Hermione's frozen hand. They deduce the Chamber monster is a basilisk. Before the boys can act on their knowledge, the teachers announce that Ginny Weasley has been taken into the chamber. Ron, Harry, and Lockhart slide down a secret passage in Myrtle's bathroom to underground tunnels. When Lockhart accidentally curses himself, Ron helps him and Harry leaves them behind. Harry enters the Chamber of Secrets and encounters Ginny's still body and Tom Riddle. Tom turns out to be a younger version of Voldemort, who has been enchanting Ginny through his journal. Harry calls for help from Dumbledore. A phoenix and a magic hat arrive. Tom summons a basilisk, but the phoenix punctures its eyes. The hat produces a sword, which Harry uses to kill the giant snake. Harry sticks a basilisk fang through the diary, destroying Tom. Ginny wakes up.

Harry explains his adventure to Dumbledore. Lucius Malfoy storms into the office with his house-elf, Dobby, and Harry frees Dobby from by tricking Lucius into giving Dobby a sock. All is well in the castle as the students leave for their summer vacations.

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Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban opens on the night before Harry's thirteenth birthday, when he receives gifts by Owl Post from his friends at school. The next morning at breakfast, Harry sees on television that a man named Black is on the loose from prison. At this time, Aunt Marge comes to stay with the Dursleys, and she insults Harry's parents numerous times. Harry accidentally causes her to inflate. Harry leaves the Dursley's house and is picked up by the Knight Bus, but only after an alarming sighting of a large, black dog. The Knight Bus drops Harry off at Diagon Alley, where he is greeted by Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic. He rents a room and awaits the start of school. In Diagon Alley, Harry finishes his schoolwork, admires a Firebolt broomstick in the window of a shop, and after some time, finds his friends Ron and Hermione. At a pet shop, Hermione buys a cat named Crookshanks, who chases Scabbers, Ron's aging pet rat. Ron is most displeased. The night before they all head off to Hogwarts, Harry overhears Ron's parents discussing the fact that Sirius Black is after Harry.

The students board the Hogwarts Express train and are stopped once by an entity called a Dementor. Harry faints and is revived by Professor Lupin, the new defense against the dark arts teacher. Soon afterward, the students arrive at Hogwarts and classes begin. In divination class, Professor Trelawney foresees Harry's death by reading tealeaves and finding the representation of a Grim, a large black dog symbolizing death. In the care of magical creatures class, Hagrid introduces the students to Hippogriffs, large, deeply dignified crosses between horses and eagles. Malfoy insults one of these beasts, Buckbeak, and is attacked. Malfoy drags out the injury in an attempt to have Hagrid fired and Buckbeak put to sleep. In Defense Against the Dark Arts, Professor Lupin leads the class in a defeat of a Boggart, which changes shape to appear as the viewer's greatest fear. For Lupin, it turns into an orb, for Ron, a spider. Harry doesn't have a chance to fight it.

During a Hogwarts visit to Hogsmeade, a wizard village which Harry is unable to visit because he has no permission slip, Harry has tea with Professor Lupin. Harry discovers that the reason he wasn't allowed to fight the Boggart was that Lupin had worried that it would take the shape of Voldemort. This concern catches Harry by surprise, because Harry had been thinking even more fearfully about the awful Dementors. Snape brings Lupin a steaming potion, which Lupin drinks, much to Harry's alarm. Later that night, Sirius Black breaks into Hogwarts and destroys the Fat Lady portrait that guards Gryffindor Tower. The students spend the night sleeping in the Great Hall while the teachers search the castle. Soon afterwards, Quidditch moves into full swing, and Gryffindor House plays against Hufflepuff. During the game, Harry spies the large black dog, and seconds later he sees a hoard of Dementors. He loses consciousness and falls off his broomstick. Harry wakes to find that his trusty broomstick had flown into the Whomping Willow and been smashed in his fall, and the game itself had lost. Later, Harry learns from Lupin that the Dementors affect Harry so much because Harry's past is so horrible.

During the next Hogsmeade visit, from which Harry is forbidden, Fred and George Weasley give Harry the Marauder's map, written by the mysterious quartet of Moony, Prongs, Wormtail and Padfoot. This map leads him through a secret passageway into Hogsmeade, where he rejoins Ron and Hermione. Inside the Hogsmeade tavern, Harry overhears Cornelius Fudge discussing Sirius Black's responsibility for Harry's parents' deaths, as well as for the death of another Hogwarts student, Peter Pettigrew, who was blown to bits, leaving only a finger. Back at Hogwarts, Harry learns that Hagrid received a notice saying that Buckbeak, the hippogriff who attacked Malfoy, is going to be put on trial, and Hagrid is inconsolable. The winter holidays roll around. For Christmas, Harry receives a Firebolt, the most impressive racing broomstick in the world. Much to his and Ron's dismay, Hermione reports the broomstick to Professor McGonagall, who takes it away out of fear that it may have been sent (and cursed) by Sirius Black.

After the holidays, Harry begins working with Professor Lupin to fight Dementors with the Patronus charm; he is moderately successful, but still not entirely confident in his ability to ward them off. Soon before the game against Ravenclaw, Harry's broomstick is returned to him, and as Ron takes it up to the dormitory, he discovers evidence that Scabbers has been eaten by Crookshanks. Ron is furious at Hermione. Soon afterwards, Gryffindor plays Ravenclaw in Quidditch. Harry, on his Firebolt, triumphs, winning the game. Once all the students have gone to bed, Sirius Black breaks into Harry's dormitory and slashes the curtain around Ron's bed. Several days later, Hagrid invites Harry and Ron over for tea and scolds them for shunning Hermione on account of Scabbers and the Firebolt. They feel slightly guilty, but not terrible. Soon Harry, under his invisibility cloak, meets Ron during a Hogsmeade trip; when he returns, Snape catches him and confiscates his Marauder's Map. Lupin saves Harry from Snape's rage, but afterwards he reprimands him severely for risking his safety for "a bag of magic tricks." As Harry leaves Lupin's office, he runs into Hermione, who informs him that Buckbeak's execution date has been set. Ron, Hermione, and Harry are reconciled in their efforts to help Hagrid. Around this time, Hermione is exceptionally stressed by all of her work, and in a day she slaps Malfoy for picking on Hagrid and she quits Divination, concluding that Professor Trelawney is a great fraud. Days later, Gryffindor beats Slytherin in a dirty game of Quidditch, winning the Cup.

Exams roll around, and during Harry's pointless Divination exam, Professor Trelawney predicts the return of Voldemort's servant before midnight. Ron, Hermione, and Harry shield themselves in Harry's invisibility cloak and head off to comfort Hagrid before the execution. While at his cabin, Hermione discovers Scabbers in Hagrid's milk jug. They leave, and Buckbeak is executed. As Ron, Harry, Harry and Hermione are leaving Hagrid's house and reeling from the sound of the axe, the large black dog approaches them, pounces on Ron, and drags him under the Whomping Willow. Harry and Hermione and Crookshanks dash down after them; oddly, Crookshanks knows the secret knob to press to still the flailing tree. They move through an underground tunnel and arrive at the Shrieking Shack. They find that the black dog has turned into Sirius Black and is in a room with Ron. Harry, Ron, and Hermione manage to disarm Black, and before Harry can kill Black, avenging his parents' deaths, Professor Lupin enters the room and disarms him. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are aghast as Lupin and Black exchange a series of nods and embrace.

Once the three students calm down enough to listen, Lupin and Black explain everything. Lupin is a werewolf who remains tame through a special steaming potion made for him by Snape. While Lupin was a student at Hogwarts, his best friends, James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew, became animagi (humans able to take on animal forms) so that they could romp the grounds with Lupin at the full moon. They explain how Snape once followed Lupin toward his transformation site in a practical joke set up by Sirius, and was rescued narrowly by James Potter. At this moment, Snape reveals himself from underneath Harry's dropped invisibility cloak, but Harry, Ron, and Hermione disarm him, rendering him unconscious. Lupin and Black then explain that the real murderer of Harry's parents is not Black, but Peter Pettigrew, who has been presumed dead but really hidden all these years disguised as Scabbers. Lupin transforms Scabbers into Pettigrew, who squeals and hedges but ultimately confesses, revealing himself to be Voldemort's servant, and Black to be innocent. They all travel back to Hogwarts, but at the sight of the full moon, Lupin, who has forgotten to take his controlling tonic (the steaming liquid), turns into a werewolf. Sirius Black responds by turning into the large black dog in order to protect Harry, Ron, and Hermione from Lupin. As Black returns from driving the werewolf into the woods, a swarm of Dementors approaches, and Black is paralyzed with fear. One of the Dementors prepares to suck the soul out of Harry, whose patronus charm is simply not strong enough. Out of somewhere comes a patronus that drives the Dementors away. Harry faints.

Harry awakens in the hospital wing to hear Snape and Cornelius Fudge discussing the fact that Sirius Black is about to be given the fatal Dementor's Kiss. Harry and Hermione protest, claiming Black's innocence, but to no avail; then Dumbledore enters the room, shoos out the others, and mysteriously suggests that Harry and Hermione travel back through Hermione's time-turning device, and save both Black and Buckbeak. Hermione turns her hour-glass necklace back three turns, and Harry and Hermione are thrust into the past, where they rescue Buckbeak shortly before his execution. From a hiding place in the forest, Harry watches the Dementor sequence and discovers that he had been the one who conjured the patronus, and he is touched and confused to note that his patronus had taken the shape of a stag that he recognizes instantly as Prongs, his father's animagi form. After saving his past self from the Dementors, Harry and Hermione fly to the tower where Black is imprisoned, and they rescue Black, sending him away to freedom on Buckbeak's back. The next day, Harry is saddened to learn that Professor Lupin is leaving Hogwarts because of the previous night's scare. Dumbledore meets with Harry and gives him wise fatherly advice on the events that have happened. On the train ride home, Harry receives an owl- post letter from Sirius that contains a Hogsmeade permission letter, words of confirmation that he is safe in hiding with Buckbeak and that he was, in fact, the sender of the Firebolt, and a small pet owl for Ron. Harry feels slightly uplifted as he returns to spend his summer with the Dursleys.

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The story begins fifty years before the present day, with a description of how the Riddle family was mysteriously killed at supper, and their groundsman, Frank Bryce, was suspected of the crime, then declared innocent. Frank Bryce, now an elderly man, wakes in the night to see a light in the window of the abandoned Riddle House. He investigates and overhears Voldemort and Wormtail plotting to kill a boy named Harry Potter. Voldemort takes note of him and kills him on the spot. Harry Potter wakes up in the night with a throbbing pain in the scar Voldemort gave him. He worries that Voldemort is nearby, and he writes to Sirius Black, his godfather, mentioning the pain in his scar.

The next morning Harry's Uncle Vernon receives a letter from the Weasleys asking Harry to join them at the Quidditch World Cup, and Vernon grudgingly agrees to let Harry go. The following day, the Weasleys arrive in the Dursleys' boarded-up fireplace to pick up Harry. The Weasley twins "accidentally" leave a trick toffee on the ground, which Dudley eats, causing his tongue to engorge itself. The Dursleys panic and throw things at Mr. Weasley as the Weasley boys and Harry exit through the fireplace. Harry arrives at The Burrow, the Weasley household, and there he meets for the two eldest Weasley brothers, Bill and Charlie, and there, Mrs. Weasley berates the twins for making Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and giving them to Dudley.

Early the next morning, the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione head off to the Quidditch World Cup. They travel by Portkey, a process that involves using a piece of trash as a touchstone for warping across space. They use the same Portkey as Cedric Diggory, another Hogwarts student, and his dad. Together they are carried to the World Cup campground. Upon arrival, the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione head off to pitch their tent. Soon, Ludo Bagman arrives, jubilant at the festivities, and makes a wager with the twins on the outcome of the Cup. Soon afterward, Mr. Crouch arrives, throwing Percy into a great reverent fuss. Before they leave, they allude to a mysterious event that will happen at Hogarts. Harry, Ron, and Hermione buy souvenirs and troop to the Top Box, where they meet Winky, a house-elf who is saving a seat for her master. The game begins, after a show from the respective mascots. In the end, Ireland wins, but Viktor Krum, the Bulgarian Seeker, catches the Snitch.

The night after the game, a crowd of Death Eaters, followers of Voldemort who escaped punishment, torture four Muggles by levitating them in the air. Harry, Hermione and Ron escape by fleeing into the woods, where Harry discovers that his wand is missing. Moments later someone fires the Dark Mark (the sign of Voldemort) using his or her wand. Winky the house-elf is found holding a wand at the scene of the crime. Mayhem ensues at the Ministry of Magic through the week.

Ron receives horrible second-hand robes from his mother and is upset. Amos Diggory brings news that a man named Mad-Eye Moody attacked an intruder at his house. Mr. Weasley runs to the Ministry to sort everything out. The Weasleys, Harry, and Hermione take taxis to the train station and board the train to Hogwarts. Upon arriving, after the Sorting ceremony and in the middle of dinner in the Hogwarts Great Hall, Dumbledore announces that the Triwizard Tournament between schools will take place this year at Hogwarts, and also that Mad-Eye Moody will be the new teacher of defense against the dark arts.

Mad-Eye Moody is a competent teacher. He turns Malfoy into a ferret for trying to attack Harry while Harry's back is turned. In class, Moody teaches Gryffindor the three unforgivable curses, Imperius, Cruciatus, and Avada Kedavra (the curse that killed Harry's parents). Meanwhile, Hermione founds a society that advocates freeing house-elves, who are slaves. She asks Harry and Ron to wear badges. As Defense Against the Dark Arts progresses, Harry learns to successfully ward off the Imperius Curse.

In late October, the delegates from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang arrive, and Ron is thrilled to see that Viktor Krum, a famous Quidditch player, has come with Durmstrang. On halloween night, the Goblet of Fire spits out the names of the champions who will compete in the Triwizard Tournament; along with Cedric Diggory, Fleur Delacour, and Viktor Krum, Harry Potter is selected. Mass chaos ensues, since Harry is too young. But because the Goblet's decision is final, it is generally decided that Harry is obligated to compete. Gryffindor House is triumphant, but Ron is sullen and envious, and he doesn't speak to Harry for quite some time. School resumes, and Harry is frustrated that few people believe he didn't place his own name in the Goblet of Fire. The first task approaches, and Harry is fretful; during the weighing of the wands, a reporter named Rita Skeeter accosts Harry and interviews him for what she says is a story about the tournament, but instead publishes a sappy, exaggerated article about Harry's tragic past.

A few nights before the task, Hagrid invites Harry for a late night walk, which ultimately turns into a glimpse of the first task: dragons. Harry hurries home, and in the Gryffindor common room fireplace, Sirius's head appears, warning Harry that Karkaroff, the head of Durmstrang, was a Death Eater and possibly still is dangerous, and that Moody was the Ministry's best dark wizard catcher ever, and is probably at Hogwarts for a reason. The next day, Harry warns Cedric about the first task; Moody overhears, commends Harry's decency, and hints that Harry should use his broomstick to get past the dragon. Harry and Hermione spend hours practicing summoning charms, and the day of the first task, Harry summons his broomstick and flies past the dragon, capturing the golden egg and receiving high marks. Everyone in Gryffindor is ecstatic, and Ron and Harry are reunited.

Soon afterward, Hermione drags Harry and Ron down to the kitchens, where they encounter Dobby, who is thrilled at his freedom, and Winky, Mr. Crouch's ex- house-elf, who is miserable at hers. In class, Professor McGonagall announces that the Yule Ball is approaching and that the champions must find partners; this is an unexpected and difficult task. Harry gathers his courage to ask Cho, but finds out that she is already going with Cedric. Hermione has a date, but won't say who it is; and she is annoyed when Ron asks her as his last-resort date. Finally, Harry and Ron procure the pretty but annoying Patil twins as their partners for the Yule Ball. On Christmas, the night of the ball, Ron wears his awful dress robes and spends the entire night staring at Hermione, who is there as Viktor Krum's date. Harry spends the whole night feeling miserable about Cho and Cedric, and so Harry and Ron leave the ball for a stroll, during which they overhear Hagrid telling Madame Maxime, the giant head of Beauxbatons, that he is half-giant. After the ball that night, Cedric hints for Harry to take a bath with the golden egg, but Harry is wary of this advice. Harry returns to Gryffindor tower to find that Hermione and Ron are having a huge fight about why she went to the ball with Krum instead of with him.

The next day, Hagrid is not teaching class. Rita Skeeter has written an article saying that his ancestors, who are giants, give him a violent and dangerous nature. He is embarrassed and refuses to emerge from his cabin. During a trip to Hogsmeade, Ludo Bagman offers to help Harry with the tournament and mentions that Mr. Crouch has stopped coming to work. Hermione insults Rita for writing such horrible articles. Harry, Ron, and Hermione return to Hogwarts, visit Hagrid, and persuade him to return. Hagrid is grateful for their loyalty, and he begs Harry to win the tournament. That night Harry takes the egg into the bathtub. It sings that he will have an hour to reclaim something valuable that has been taken into the lake. On his way back to his dorm from the bathroom, Harry, wearing his Invisibility cloak, checks his Marauder's Map and spies Mr. Crouch in Snape's office. In his surprise, he drops the golden egg, which makes a loud screeching noise. Filch and Snape appear instantly. Moody also appears, shoos away the other men and returns Harry's egg to him. Moody asks to borrow the Marauder's Map, which shows every part of Hogwarts grounds and castle, and where every person is within it.