Timeline of Harry Potter’s Life

Editor’s note: This timeline is an archive page from the original Lexicon. It was written before the release of the sixth and seventh books. For a more detailed timeline with links to each event, scroll to the bottom of the new Lexicon’s page for Harry Potter. 

1980

• July 31: Harry James Potter born to Lily Evans Potter and James Potter.

1981

• July 31: first birthday.
• October 31: near midnight – Voldemort attempts to kill Harry Potter after murdering his parents, but his spell rebounds. Voldemort loses most of his powers and almost his life.
• November 1, late evening: Hagrid delivers baby Harry to Dumbledore, who is waiting in Privet Drive to leave the baby with the Dursleys.

1985

• June: Aunt Marge comes to Dudley’s fifth birthday party. She whacks Harry around the shins to keep him from beating Dudley at musical statues.

1985 – 1990

• Harry attends primary school. He is laughed at because of his oversized, hand-me-down clothes and taped glasses, and ostracized because none of the other kids will brave Dudley’s gang to befriend him. On one occasion he turns a teacher’s wig blue. On another occasion he inexplicably finds himself on top of the school kitchens when he was being chased by Dudley’s gang.

1988

• June: Aunt Marge comes to Dudley’s birthday party, bringing a computerized robot for Dudley and a box of dog biscuits for Harry.

1990

• June: Aunt Marge comes to Dudley’s 10th birthday party, bringing Ripper, her favorite bulldog. Harry accidentally steps on Ripper’s tail and the dog “trees” him. Marge finally calls the dog off around midnight.
• July 31: for his tenth birthday, Harry is given a coat hanger and a pair of Uncle Vernon’s old socks.

BOOK ONE

1991-1992

• June 23: Harry unexpectedly finds himself coming along on Dudley’s birthday outing to the zoo, where he accidentally releases a boa constrictor – he is locked in his cupboard until the summer holidays have begun.
• July 24-30: letters begin arriving via owl post to invite Harry to Hogwarts.
• July 31, just after midnight: Hagrid rescues Harry from the Dursleys and from the Hut on the Rock.
• July 31: visits Diagon Alley with Hagrid to buy his supplies, meets Draco Malfoy in Madam Malkin’s shop.
• September 1: meets Ron Weasley, the twins, Percy, Ginny, and Molly on Platform Nine and Three Quarters; meets Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom aboard the Hogwarts Express. Begins first year at Hogwarts, sorted into Gryffindor.
• September 12: first flying lesson for Gryffindors and Slytherins; Harry finds out he’s a natural at flying and is made the Gryffindor Seeker.
• October 31: with Ron, fights a Mountain Troll and rescues Hermione. The three become friends.
• December 25: Harry has the best Christmas of his life and receives his father’s Invisibility Cloak for a gift. Harry discovers the Mirror of Erised and sees his family for the first time in his life.
• May: Harry’s first detention, served in the Forbidden Forest with Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, and Draco Malfoy.
• first week of June: Harry, Hermione, and Ron follow Quirrell after the Stone, overcome the various protections, and defeat Quirrell/Voldemort’s attempt to steal the Stone.

BOOK TWO

1992-1993

• July 31: Harry’s twelfth birthday. Dobby the house-elf visits Harry Potter in Privet Drive; the Dursleys hold a dinner party for the Masons which is disrupted by a falling violet pudding.
• early August: Ron, Fred, and George rescue Harry from the Dursleys in a flying car.
• mid August: the Weasleys take Harry to Diagon Alley to buy school supplies for the coming year. Lockhart presents Harry with his complete works, which Harry promptly gives to Ginny.
• September 1: Harry and his friends start their second year at Hogwarts.
• October 31: 500th Deathday for Nearly Headless Nick (CS8).
• October 31, evening: Harry hears a voice threatening death and follows it to discover Mrs. Norris, Petrified.
• November: Gryffindor-Slytherin, in which Dobby’s rogue Bludger breaks Harry’s right arm at the elbow. Lockhart removes the bones of Harry’s right arm in trying to repair them, and Harry spends the night in the hospital wing.
• late November/early December: at the Dueling Club, Harry publicly speaks Parseltongue for the first time; Ron and Hermione explain the rarity of the ability to him later.
• December 25: Harry, Ron, and Hermione take Polyjuice Potion (Harry takes the shape of Goyle).
• February 14: Harry receives an anonymous singing Valentine, and in the subsequent uproar realizes how to work the diary of T.M. Riddle.
• the spirit-form of Voldemort is defeated by Harry Potter in the Chamber of Secrets.

BOOK THREE

1993-1994

• July 31: Harry’s thirteenth birthday. Harry first sees Sirius Black on Muggle television. Aunt Marge comes for a visit to the Dursleys.
• August 7: On the last day of Aunt Marge’s visit, Harry blows her up and runs away. Harry first encounters Sirius Black (in Animagus form). The Knight Bus picks Harry up in Magnolia Crescent and drops him off at the Leaky Cauldron.
• August 7-30: Harry stays at the Leaky Cauldron and spends his days in Diagon Alley. Quality Quidditch Supplies displays the new Firebolt broomstick.
• August 31: Harry meets Hermione and Ron in Diagon Alley. They are all staying at the Leaky Cauldron.
• September 1: Harry and his friends begin their third year at Hogwarts, which is now surrounded by dementors. Harry suffers his first dementor-induced flashback of his parents’ death.
• November: Harry suffers a second, more severe flashback during Gryffindor – Hufflepuff; passing out, he falls 50 feet, to be saved just short of being killed by Dumbledore. His Nimbus 2000 is destroyed by the Whomping Willow.
• December: Hogsmeade visit – Fred and George give the Marauder’s Map to Harry as an early Christmas present. In the Three Broomsticks, Harry overhears the conversation between Flitwick, Fudge, Hagrid, McGonagall, and Madam Rosmerta revealing the crime for which Sirius was condemned to Azkaban: the betrayal of Harry’s parents.
• December 25: Harry receives his Firebolt as an anonymous Christmas present (from his godfather, Sirius Black, as it turns out). Harry and Ron become estranged from Hermione when she reports the gift to McGonagall, who confiscates it until it can be verified to be free from jinxes and hexes.
• January, first week of term: Lupin begins tutoring Harry in the Patronus Charm outside class.
• February: Harry notices Cho Chang, Ravenclaw’s Seeker, for the first time during Gryffindor-Ravenclaw.
• June 6: at sundown, Buckbeak is scheduled to be executed; Sirius Black is captured that evening and narrowly escapes suffering the Dementor’s Kiss by riding to freeedom on Buckbeak.

BOOK FOUR

1994-1995

• July 31: Harry’s fourteenth birthday, for which he receives four birthday cakes, one each from Ron, Hermione, Hagrid, and Sirius.
• Monday, August 22: Harry attends the Final of the 422nd World Quidditch Cup.
• September 1: Harry and his friends start their fourth year at Hogwarts.
• October 31: Goblet of Fire selects the champions for the Triwizard Tournament – Harry is chosen, and becomes estranged from Ron Weasley as a result.
• Tuesday, November 24: First Task of the Triwizard Tournament. Harry and Ron reconcile afterward.
• December 25: Yule Ball, 8 PM until midnight. Rita Skeeter, Ron Weasley, and Harry Potter overhear Hagrid talking about his half-giant ancestry to Madame Maxime. After the ball, Cedric advises Harry to take a bath with the golden egg clue.
• February 24, 9:30 AM: Second Task of the Triwizard Tournament.
• June 24, at dusk: Third Task of the Triwizard Tournament.
• June 24: Voldemort kidnaps Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory. Cedric is killed by Wormtail using Voldemort’s wand. Voldemort is restored to his body in an ancient ceremony. The Death Eaters are called back to him and they gather. Voldemort and Harry duel and Harry manages to escape with Cedric’s body.

BOOK FIVE

1995-1996

• July 31: Harry’s fifteenth birthday. He later learns that his cousin Dudley beat up a 10-year-old neighbour, Mark Evans, this same day (OP1).
• August 2: Harry picks a quarrel with Dudley, who retaliates, saying that Harry has been talking in his sleep during his nightmares. The quarrel ends when Harry and Dudley are attacked by dementors; Harry casts a Patronus Charm and saves Dudley from being kissed. Mrs. Figg reveals her identity to Harry. The Ministry expels Harry, then rescinds the expulsion under pressure from Dumbledore (OP1, OP2).
• August 12: Harry’s disciplinary hearing is held before the full court of the Wizengamot, where through Dumbledore’s efforts and Mrs. Figg’s testimony he is cleared (OP7).
• September 1: Harry and his friends start their fifth year at Hogwarts.
• September 2: Harry’s first clash with Umbridge, who gives him nightly detention for the remainder of the week (Tuesday through Friday).
• September 7: Harry encounters Cho Chang in the Owlery (he was sending a letter to Sirius, she a birthday present to her mother). Filch attempts to search Harry’s outgoing mail but arrives too late to do so.
• October: Hogsmeade visit – the meeting at the Hog’s Head.
• November: Gryffindor-Slytherin. Gryffindor wins the match, but Harry, Fred, and George are kicked off the team. Hagrid returns (OP19, OP20).
• December, last D.A. meeting of the year: Harry and Cho Chang kiss under the mistletoe. Harry’s dreams are later brutally shattered by his vision of Voldemort’s snake attacking Arthur Weasley outside the Department of Mysteries. Dumbledore sends Harry and the Weasleys to Grimmauld Place.
• 25 December: Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione accidentally encounter Neville on the closed ward at St. Mungo’s.
• January: Harry begins Occlumency lessons with Snape.
• February 14: Harry’s first official date with Cho Chang, “a complete fiasco”, and Rita Skeeter’s interview for The Quibbler (OP25).
• March: when The Quibbler interview is published, both Cho and Seamus reconcile with Harry.
• March?: Marietta Edgecombe betrays the D.A. to Umbridge; Dumbledore takes the blame to shield Harry.
• March/April (before Easter holidays): Harry and Cho Chang quarrel over Marietta Edgecombe’s treachery, and Harry has his fateful final Occlumency lesson.
• Easter holidays: Ginny Weasley persuades Harry to tell her what’s bothering him, and arranges with the twins to help him communicate with Sirius.
• June: Harry’s O.W.L.s begin.
• June, night of Harry’s Astronomy practical O.W.L.: Harry witnesses the Ministry’s attack on Hagrid and McGonagall’s injuries.
• June 18, final day of O.W.L.s.: Harry (who’s been pulling all-nighters for days and didn’t get much sleep after the Astronomy fiasco the previous night), falls asleep in the History of Magic exam and has a vision of Sirius being tortured in the Department of Mysteries. The Battle of the Department of Mysteries is fought later that night, and Sirius Black is killed before Harry’s eyes.
• June 19, morning after the battle: Dumbledore reveals the contents of Trelawney’s first prediction to Harry (OP37).

BOOK SIX

1996-1997

BOOK SEVEN

1997-98

Epilogue

• 2017
  September: Harry’s son Albus enters Hogwarts the same year as Scorpius Malfoy and Rose Weasley (DH/e).

Original page date: March 6, 2006