The portrait hall
People.
Short profiles in our words. Connections are story facts. Family sketches are simplified on purpose and say so. Later plot sits behind the book you have reached.
Albus Dumbledore
Headmaster of Hogwarts for most of the school story: brilliant, fond of sweets, and more willing to withhold a plan than a frightened child would like.
ParentArthur Weasley
A ministry wizard who likes Muggle objects and underestimates how much his curiosity annoys his employers.
House-elfDobby
A house-elf who tries to save Harry by making his life impossible, then asks for freedom as if it were a radical idea. It is.
StudentDraco Malfoy
A Slytherin student from a rich pure-blood family. Harry’s school rival, raised to think the rivalry is about blood.
Student, then shopkeeperFred Weasley
One half of the twin joke shop. A Gryffindor who treats rules as raw material.
Student, then shopkeeperGeorge Weasley
The other twin. The joke is shared, and the later books refuse to treat him as a spare.
StudentGinny Weasley
The youngest Weasley and the only daughter. She starts as a girl in a doorway and becomes one of the series’ most capable people.
StudentHarry Potter
The student the seven novels follow: a boy left on a ordinary doorstep, then claimed by a school and by a war he did not start.
StudentHermione Granger
A Muggle-born student who treats the library as a moral instrument and refuses to let the boys improvise alone.
Harry’s fatherJames Potter
Harry’s father. A gifted, arrogant Gryffindor student who grew into a man willing to die for his family, and who was unkind on the way there.
Harry’s motherLily Potter
Harry’s mother. A Muggle-born witch whose choice, in the opening tragedy, is the protection the series keeps trying to understand.
School governorLucius Malfoy
Draco’s father. A rich governor of the school, a collector of influence, and a man who prefers other people to do the dangerous work.
StudentLuna Lovegood
A Ravenclaw who believes odd things on purpose and sees several real ones other students miss.
ProfessorMinerva McGonagall
Deputy headmistress, Transfiguration professor, and head of Gryffindor. Strict in the way a good door is strict.
ParentMolly Weasley
The Weasley mother. A clock that reports danger, a howler that reports disappointment, and a household that runs on her nerve.
ParentNarcissa Malfoy
Draco’s mother. A Black by birth, a Malfoy by marriage, and someone whose loyalty runs to her son before it runs to a dark lord.
StudentNeville Longbottom
A Gryffindor student who loses things, including other people’s patience, and who is braver than the joke about him.
ProfessorRemus Lupin
A shabby, excellent Defense teacher for one year. A werewolf, a friend of Harry’s parents, and a man practiced at leaving before he is asked to.
StudentRon Weasley
The youngest son in a large, poor, loyal family. Harry’s first friend on the train, and the person who knows the castle as a home rather than a discovery.
Keeper of keys and groundsRubeus Hagrid
Keeper of keys and grounds. Half-giant, all hospitality, and the person who first tells Harry he is a wizard.
ProfessorSeverus Snape
Potions master, head of Slytherin, and a teacher whose grudge against Harry’s father is visible from the first lesson.
GodfatherSirius Black
Harry’s godfather. A Gryffindor of the previous generation, an animagus, and a man the ministry got badly wrong.
AntagonistTom Riddle
The boy who becomes Lord Voldemort. A Hogwarts student, a murderer, and the antagonist whose name the wizarding world is afraid to say.
Family sketch
The Potters
A three-person sketch. The novels mention a wider family, including Harry’s aunt on his mother’s side, and this drawing leaves that street for the book.
Family sketch
The Weasleys
Arthur, Molly, and their seven children. Bill, Charlie, and Percy are named here so the row is true. They do not all have full profiles yet.
Family sketch
Malfoy and Black, simplified
Not a complete Black family tree. It shows the marriage and the cousin link the school story actually uses. Andromeda, Regulus, and Bellatrix are names only.
- Sirius Black
- Regulus Black
- Bellatrix
- Andromeda
- Narcissa