Recaps

Harry and the other Champions competed in the final maze task, but the trophy transported Harry and Horton to Voldemort’s ritual. Voldemort returned to life and challenged Harry to a duel, which ended with Harry escaping the golden cage while spirits restrained Voldemort.

• Hogwarts won the school award, and Ron and Harry placed first and second in the individual standings.
• Harry and Ron entered the final task, a maze filled with dangerous creatures and rival Champions.
• Harry used his Invisibility Cloak to evade the Viewing Screen as Champions fought and eliminated one another inside the maze.
• Harry and Horton reached the trophy together, which transported them to a graveyard where Peter Pettigrew and Allen Dismask killed Horton.
• Peter performed a ritual with Harry’s blood, and Voldemort emerged from the cauldron and summoned his Death Eaters.
• Voldemort explained how he regained his body and used Harry’s blood to carry Lily’s protection, then forced Harry into a duel.
• Harry and Voldemort’s spells formed a golden cage, but spirits emerged from Voldemort’s wand and restrained him as Harry escaped toward the trophy.
• Harry could not summon the trophy, blocked two Stunning Spells with the Maxim Shield, and attacked Lucius Malfoy when he blocked the way.

Harry and his allies uncovered the truth about Voldemort’s return and recovered Regulus’s locket, while the Ministry denied the danger and prosecuted Harry after a Dementor attack. Harry won his hearing, but Lucius Malfoy’s presence at the Ministry left the group concerned about Voldemort’s influence.

• Voldemort returned and questioned how Harry had matched his magic, while Dismask remained an ally under his suspicion.
• Moody exposed Umbridge as an impostor trying to escape, and Barty Crouch Jr. later revealed how he had helped Harry through the Triwizard Tournament and used the Cup as a Portkey for Voldemort’s ritual.
• Dumbledore explained the connection between Harry and Voldemort’s wands, while Fudge rejected their account of Voldemort’s return.
• Daphne led Harry, Sirius, Lupin, and Kreacher to the cave where Regulus had replaced Voldemort’s Horcrux, and they recovered the locket and read Regulus’s note.
• At Privet Drive, Dikin attacked Harry for information about Horton and Weir Hallen, but Harry defeated him before two Dementors appeared and Harry destroyed them with his Patronus.
• The Ministry accused Harry of underage magic and expelled him, but Harry joined the Order at Grimmauld Place and went to his hearing with Sirius and Arthur Weasley.
• Harry demonstrated his Patronus and argued that he had used it to protect himself and Dudley from Dementors, and the Wizengamot found him innocent.
• Harry returned to Grimmauld Place, where Moody and Sirius suspected Lucius Malfoy was trying to influence Fudge on Voldemort’s behalf.

Harry returned to Hogwarts as a Gryffindor prefect while the Ministry tightened its influence through Umbridge and her theory-only Defense course. After Harry’s dreams began showing him strange scenes, Dumbledore suspected they were connected to Voldemort regaining strength.

• Mido delivered Harry and Ron’s school letters, and Ron discovered he had been made a Gryffindor prefect.
• Harry asked to join the Order of the Phoenix, but Sirius, Lupin, and the adults refused to involve the children.
• Harry traveled to Hogwarts with Ron and Hermione, met Luna on the train, and learned that Hagrid was absent while Slughorn gathered the first-years.
• The Sorting Hat warned that the school needed unity, and Umbridge joined the staff after interrupting Dumbledore’s announcements.
• Umbridge required students to study defensive theory without practicing spells, and Harry challenged her insistence that Voldemort had not returned.
• Harry used a Shield Charm against Peeves and a Spirit-Binding Charm to drive him away, then served detention with Umbridge for speaking about Voldemort.
• Harry repeatedly wrote lines with Umbridge’s quill until she canceled his detention sessions, and the twins celebrated his defiance.
• Harry experienced a strange, uncontrollable viewpoint of a pale young man entering a shabby room, then told McGonagall about his recurring dreams.
• McGonagall took Harry to Dumbledore, who suspected the dreams were connected to Voldemort regaining his strength.

As Umbridge tightened her control over Hogwarts, Harry and Hermione organized a secret group to learn practical Defense Against the Dark Arts. The group gathered in the Room of Requirement, where Harry began teaching them the Patronus Charm.

• Harry learned that Umbridge had been appointed High Inquisitor and could inspect teachers, while Sirius told him that the Order was searching for Voldemort’s Horcruxes.
• Umbridge punished Ron and imposed textbook-only Defense lessons, prompting Hermione to propose that students practice magic together.
• Hermione organized a meeting at the Hog’s Head, where Harry told the students Voldemort had returned and agreed to teach them the Patronus Charm.
• The students signed Hermione’s secrecy register and chose the Room of Requirement as their meeting place, while Harry fought Draco after Draco attacked him in Hogsmeade.
• Professor Babbling investigated Harry’s strange use of the phrase “Star Sea,” and Umbridge later restricted Gryffindor’s Quidditch practice and threatened Professor Trelawney’s position.
• Harry, Ron, and Hermione realized Umbridge was monitoring the fireplaces, while Hermione adapted a spell to transfer signers’ names between parchments and onto their hands.
• Harry opened the Room of Requirement and began teaching the assembled students about the Patronus Charm.