So it looks like I’ll be dragged to the new Harry Potter film tomorrow. Only problem is I haven’t ready any of the books and saw only the first movie.
In a nutshell, what have I missed?
No fucking way, man. There’s four full length books, including the longest of the entire series, between where you were and where you are. Un-possible!!
I’ll bite. Nano-encapsulations:
Chamber of Secrets: intro to Ginny, meeting with V.
Prisoner of Azkaban: an innocent man - Sirius Black, Harry’s godfather - vindicated. A villain - Peter Pettigrew - exposed. Time travel introduced.
Goblet of Fire: sometimes good guys die, sometimes apparently good people aren’t what - or who - they seem to be.
Order of the Phoenix: you don’t have to be evil to be bad, just want to cover things up. Teenage angst.
In a nutshell? [spoiler]Book 2 and 3 are kind of self-contained backstory;in book 2 we meet Tom Riddle, who is Voldemort as a child and has been stored as a “memory” in a diary that Lucius Malfoy (Draco’s dad) planted on Ginny in an attempt to create hate and discontent at Hogwarts. The diary becomes very important in book 6. There’s also a basilisk and a sword that belonged to Godric Gryffindor, which becomes important in book 7.
In book 3 we meet Sirius Black (Harry’s godfather, childhood friend of his parents, who dies in book 5), Professor Lupin (a werewolf, also a childhood friend), and Peter Pettigrew (another childhood friend, who turns out to be a traitor). Sirius goes on the run with Harry’s help because everyone thinks he’s the one who betrayed Harry’s parents to Voldemort. We are introduced to Dementors (like Nazgul but with no style), Patronuses (spirit animals, kind of, that a wizard can conjure up to drive away Dementors), and Animagi (wizards that can change into something else - Ron’s rat Scabbers is actually Peter Pettigrew, he’s been hiding since Voldemort disappeared).
In Book 4 Voldemort comes back to life and kills [del]Edward the Sparklepire[/del] Cedric Diggory, a fellow student and competitor with Harry in the Tri-Wizard Tournament; Harry manages to escape after his and Voldemort’s wands recognize each other as “brothers” (they share cores, each contains a phoenix feather from Dumbledore’s pet phoenix) and won’t work properly against each other. The Minister of Magic shows its colors as bureacratic head-in-the-sand dimwits and Snape and Hagrid both get sent off on secret missions by Dumbledore. Snape becomes very important at this point.
Book 5 is all about the anti-Voldemort movement; Harry is extremely pissy in this book because Dumbledore is ignoring him and no one will tell him what’s going on (they’re all trying to protect him). The Ministry has placed an evil little spy at Hogwarts (Dolores Umbridge) because they don’t believe Harry and Dumbledore when they say Voldemort is back; she succeeds in driving out Dumbledore (we meet her again in book 7). We learn that Harry and Voldemort share some kind of mental link that allows them to invade each other’s heads. Voldemort lures Harry to the Ministry of Magic, where there’s a really cool wizard dual, Sirius Black gets smoked, and the Ministry is finally forced to accept that Voldemort’s back. Harry hears the prophecy that prompted Voldemort to target him when he was a baby, and is not happy about it, but by the time book 6 starts he’s kind of settled down.
In book 6 we find out Rosebud is a sled. In book 7 Bobby Ewing wakes up and we find out it was all a dream.[/spoiler]
There ya go.
I’d recommend going over to Wiki and reading the synopsis for each book/film.
It’ll save someone here from doing A LOT of typing.