invisibility cloak. The brothers then separated. The first came to a village after about a week, where he met an old adversary. In the duel he easily defeated him thanks to the power of his wand.When he was in an inn that evening, he bragged about it and thus aroused envy. That night another magician cut his throat and took the staff. The second brother wanted a deceased girl, his great love, back. But she wasn't human, just a sad shell. The second brother also died out of desperation. The third brother, however, had a long life, but when he took off his invisibility cloak after many years, death reached him too.

These three items, the elderberry wand, the original stone (attention: unofficial translations) and the invisibility cloak are the deathly hallows. Harry has had this same invisibility cloak for years without knowing it.

Harry, Ron and Hermione want to know where Luna Lovegood is because it's vacation and she should be home. They learn that she has been captured. A short time later they are attacked by Death Eaters whom Xenophilius has alerted in return for the release of his daughter.But again the heroes manage to escape.

After further traveling, they are finally captured by helpers of the Death Eaters and brought to the Malfoys estate. Bellatrix Lestrange notices Godric Gryffindor's sword and panic as it should be safely in her locker in Gringotts. Since there must also be an item that is very important to Voldemort in this locker, she fears that it could now also have come into the hands of the heroes. Hermione is therefore interrogated under torture, while the rest are locked in the dungeon. There they meet Ollivander, the wand maker, Luna Lovegood and the goblin Griphook. Dobby appears unexpectedly and helps them escape. Harry defeats Draco Malfoy in a duel and Dobby dies. They flee to Fleurs and Bill's new home, where they stay for a few weeks. Ollivander confirms to Harry that his wand has been irreparably destroyed. Instead, Harry uses Malfoys, which he took from him after the duel.Together with Griphook, they break into Gringotts and, at the greatest risk, can get the next Horcrux, Helga Hufflepuff's cup, but not destroy it, as the price for the goblin's help was Gryffindor's sword.

The still existing connection between Harry's and Voldemort's soul makes it possible for Harry to read Voldemort's mind when Voldemort is angry or very pleased. So he finds out that Voldemort has now taken the elderberry wand and that the last Horcrux is at Hogwarts. Since Voldemort now knows from the break-in at Gringotts that Harry is looking for the Horcruxes, he wants to check whether the others are still in his place. He considers Hogwarts to be the safest place and plans to go to the other places first. So Harry, Ron and Hermione don't have much time left to find the Horcrux at Hogwarts.

They Apparate to Hogsmeade and are promptly discovered by Death Eaters as the village is closely monitored.Dumbledore's brother Aberforth saves them. He tells them more about the childhood experiences around the siblings Dumbledore and Ellert Grindelwald. Then he shows them a new and now the only unsupervised route to Hogwarts, a secret passage from his pub into the Room of Requirement. Harry is expected there by almost all members of the DA. Neville Longbottom also calls in the former members to notify the Order of the Phoenix, so that eventually almost all of Harry's supporters arrive at Hogwarts. Percy Weasley also appears and is reconciled with his family.

Meanwhile, Harry and Luna search the Ravenclaws common room for information about the last unknown Horcrux. With McGonagall's help, they overpower the Carrows, who are new confidants in the teaching staff alongside Snape Voldemort. Snape flees. The teachers and the DA organize the evacuation of the students and the defense of Hogwarts. Only pupils of legal age and willing to fight are allowed to help defend the school.The Battle of Hogwarts
Under McGonagall's leadership, the teachers and some senior students stay behind in the castle to fight. Voldemort promises that if Harry Potter is handed over to him, he will spare everyone. But the remaining defenders choose to fight to give Harry time for his task: the search for the fifth Horcrux. In the meantime, Ron and Hermione were in the Chamber of Secrets to retrieve the basilisk's teeth, which can destroy Horcruxes. Thus four horcruxes are destroyed.

The battle begins and Harry realizes where the Horcrux must be hidden. A place that Voldemort surely believed: the Room of Requirement, which Harry had already used as a hiding place. He sets off with his two friends. As soon as they arrive, they are stopped by Malfoy and his two helpers, Crabbe and Goyle. Crabbe does a fiendfyre spell that burns the room out completely.The Horcrux, the diadem of Ravenclaw, is also destroyed. Thus Crabbe had unwittingly found another way to destroy Horcruxes. However, he falls victim to the fire itself. The only Horcrux left is Voldemort's serpent Nagini.

Harry reads Voldemort's mind and realizes that he is in the howling hut. Under the Invisibility Cloak, Harry, Ron and Hermione crawl through the tunnel under the whipping willow and Harry overhears a conversation between Voldemort and Snape. He learns that Voldemort may have the elderberry wand, but it is no more powerful than its old one. This is related to the fact that Voldemort is not his real master because he did not defeat the old master (the old master was Dumbledore). Believing that Snape is the new master, he kills him (since Snape had killed Dumbledore), then he hurries away. When Snape sees Harry lying dying, he lets some of his memories come to him in the form of silvery steam.Harry collects it in a bottle and rushes to Dumbledore's Pensieve, while Voldemort issues an ultimatum: the attack will be interrupted for an hour, then Harry must appear for the duel in the Forbidden Forest.

From Snape's memory it becomes clear why Dumbledore always rightly trusted him: Snape had loved Harry's mother Lily since childhood and could never forgive himself for betraying her. Snape had also sent the Patronus doe showing Harry the Gryffindor sword. Harry continues to learn that he must die by Voldemort's hand in order for Voldemort to be destroyed. Dumbledore had trusted Harry's willingness to die voluntarily. Harry accepts the assignment and rushes to the forest. On the way he orders Neville to kill Voldemort's snake. He manages to open the Snitch that Dumbledore had bequeathed to him. In it he finds the resurrection stone, which he uses to summon the shadows of his parents, his godfather Sirius and Lupins.They guide him on his last walk and give him courage.

Harry doesn't fight back when Voldemort puts the killing curse on him. Harry is the owner of all three Deathly Hallows and thus master of death, so that Voldemort cannot kill him. He finds himself in a strange room where he meets Dumbledore. Harry is not dead, he explains, as part of his mother's protection has also lived in Voldemort since Voldemort used his blood for resurrection. Harry involuntarily became the seventh Horcrux of Voldemort when he tried to kill him as a baby. Therefore, Voldemort's renewed attempt to kill Harry was necessary. The part of Voldemort's soul in Harry had been destroyed, and Harry was no longer a Horcrux. Now he has the choice between living and fighting or dying. Harry opts for the former.

Back in life, Harry plays dead and is carried to the castle by Hagrid, whom the Death Eaters have captured.They are accompanied by Voldemort and his followers. Since Voldemort now believes he is safe, he has lifted the existing protection around Nagini that existed before. But even now the defenders of the castle do not want to give up. Neville refuses to submit to Voldemort's regime on behalf of the others and is thereupon humiliated by Voldemort with the help of the Speaking Hat. Surprisingly, however, the centaurs who have so far stayed out of the fighting are attacking. They are supported by other magical figures of the forest such as the thestrals, Sirius' old hippogriff Buckbeak and Hagrid's half-brother Grawp. When the fight breaks out again, Harry immediately hides under the invisibility cloak. At first the Death Eaters have little to oppose the attacking creatures of the forest in their concentrated strength and they flee to the castle. Meanwhile, Neville succeeds in pulling Godric Gryffindor's sword out of his talking hat and beheading Nagini.Soon Harry and everyone else rush into the great hall, most of the Death Eaters have already been defeated. Finally, only Voldemort and Bellatrix are left. When Ginny is almost hit by a killing curse, Molly Weasley rushes towards Bellatrix and kills her in a duel. Harry now takes off the Invisibility Cloak and reappears to face Voldemort for the decisive battle. After a short conversation it becomes clear: the true master of the elderberry wand is Harry Potter himself, because it was not Snape who overpowered Dumbledore, but Malfoy. And this in turn was defeated by Harry. Voldemort's deadly curse is deflected back on himself by the elderberry wand to protect his master, the elderberry wand flies out of Voldemort's hand and is caught by Harry.

While the rest are partying, Harry, Ron and Hermione visit the Headmaster's office again. You are talking to the portrait of Dumbledore there. Although Harry still owns two Deathly Hallows, he decides to keep only the Invisibility Cloak.He had already lost the original stone in the forest and he wants to put the elderberry wand back in Dumbledore's grave. If Harry were not defeated by the time he died, no one would be able to use the wand's power. Before that, however, Harry repairs his own wand with the elderberry wand.


epilogue
(According to J. K. Rowling, this last chapter was written when the first volume was written and has been kept in a safe ever since.)
In the