Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)

Summer 1997, and the wizarding world is sliding into open darkness. Across Britain, people disappear, names are read on the radio, and Lord Voldemort's followers tighten their grip on every institution that once felt safe. There are no lessons at Hogwarts this year for Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, or Ron Weasley. Their seventeenth year will be spent on the run, hunting pieces of a soul.

The story opens with quiet, wrenching severances. In a neat, suburban Muggle house, Hermione Jean Granger stands in her parents' living room beside framed photographs that show her smiling between them. She breathes out, raises her wand, and whispers, "Obliviate." Her parents' eyes glaze. In the photos behind her, the small Hermione vanishes, leaving a couple who never had a daughter. She watches them sit together, content and unaware, before she turns and walks out of the house into the gathering war, erasing herself from their lives so they will never be targeted because of her.

At 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Harry James Potter stands alone in the small hallway, staring into the cupboard under the stairs where he once slept. The Dursleys--Vernon Dursley, Petunia Dursley, and Dudley Dursley--are hurriedly loading their car, leaving under Ministry orders to go into hiding. Dudley, awkward, tries to express a clumsy sort of gratitude, but the words fail. The door slams, the car drives away, and the house falls silent. Harry walks through the empty rooms, touching the banister, the walls, the last physical traces of the childhood he is about to abandon forever.

At the Burrow, in the English countryside, Ronald Bilius Weasley stands in his darkened bedroom, lit only by the orange glow of a wireless set. A grim-voiced announcer runs through names of the missing, the dead, the newly "registered." Ron's face tightens; he pulls his shirt down over the lingering scars of the attack from Fenrir Greyback the previous year and looks out into the night toward the war he cannot see but feels closing in.

In another part of England, the new Minister for Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour, addresses the wizarding public in a televised or magically broadcast speech. "These are dark times," he intones, insisting that the Ministry remains strong, that it will not fall. The confidence sounds brittle. Behind the words, something is already cracking.

Far from these homes, at Malfoy Manor--a grand, cold mansion that has become the seat of Voldemort's power--Severus Snape walks through wrought-iron gates under a dark sky and up a long, manicured path. The house, once proud and pure-blooded, now vibrates with dread. Inside, in a long dining hall lit by flickering candles, Lord Voldemort sits at the head of a table surrounded by his Death Eaters. Lucius Malfoy, once imperious, now sits hollow-eyed, his wand stripped from him, his status in ruins. Narcissa Malfoy watches with strained composure; Draco Malfoy stares at the table, pale, shoulders hunched as if he could fold in on himself and vanish.

Above the table, suspended in midair, Charity Burbage, former Muggle Studies professor at Hogwarts, hangs like a broken marionette. She pleads for her life and for the rights of Muggle-borns, her voice shaking as she calls out, "Severus! Please!" But Severus Snape, seated near the head of the table, says nothing.

Snape reports to Voldemort: the Order of the Phoenix will move Harry Potter from 4 Privet Drive just before his seventeenth birthday, when his mother's protective charm will break. The move, he says, will happen at night and not by Floo, nor by Portkey, but by broomsticks. The information is precise; a trap is being laid.

Voldemort turns the conversation to wands. His own yew wand and Harry Potter's holly wand share the same phoenix feather core: they are "twin" wands and cannot properly harm one another. To kill the boy once and for all, he needs a different wand--one that will not recognize Harry as its twin. He stands, walks the length of the table, and stops in front of Lucius Malfoy.

"Lucius," he says, soft and deadly. "I require your wand."

Lucius hesitates, then hands his wand over with trembling fingers. Voldemort takes it calmly, examining it with faint contempt. In the same breath, he reminds everyone what happens to those who resist. He raises Lucius's surrendered wand toward Charity Burbage. A flash of the sickly green Killing Curse--Avada Kedavra--and Charity's dangling body goes limp. Voldemort lowers her corpse onto the table with a flick. "Dinner," he murmurs. At his command, the great snake Nagini slithers along the table and coils around the body, beginning to feed. The first death we see is a lesson: mercy is over, and ideology is lethal.

Night falls over Privet Drive. Inside the darkened house, Harry waits by the window when an explosion of sound and light bursts through the front door. It's Rubeus Hagrid, half-giant and wild-haired, along with members of the Order of the Phoenix: Nymphadora Tonks, Remus Lupin, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Fred Weasley, George Weasley, Bill Weasley, Fleur Delacour, Arthur Weasley, and others. Harry runs down, wand at the ready, but these are friends coming to smuggle him out.

A plan is already in motion: the "Seven Potters." Six volunteers--Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Fred Weasley, George Weasley, Fleur Delacour, and Mundungus Fletcher--drink Polyjuice Potion, grimacing as their faces twist and stretch, bodies reshaping until seven Harry Potters stand in the living room, each in glasses and ill-fitting clothes. Real Harry protests, but there is no time. They pair off: Harry with Hagrid on Sirius Black's old flying motorbike, the others with different escorts on brooms and Thestrals.

They launch into the night sky. Almost immediately, the ambush comes. Death Eaters rise from the darkness on brooms, spells lancing through the air. Green Killing Curses streak like bolts of poisonous light. Hedwig, Harry's snowy owl, flies beside the motorbike, loyal and protective. When a Death Eater's curse streaks toward Harry, Hedwig intercepts it; she is hit full-on and tumbles lifelessly into the night. Her death, quick and brutal, tears a white hole in the black sky and in Harry's heart.

The chase becomes a chaotic dogfight over Britain. Hagrid swerves the motorbike between oncoming cars and lorries on a motorway, then rises again into the clouds. Death Eaters swarm. Harry casts spell after spell; curses fly back. Voldemort himself appears, gliding through the sky without a broom, eyes blazing. He raises Lucius Malfoy's borrowed wand and casts, "Avada Kedavra!" The green bolt streaks toward Harry, whose own wand suddenly acts of its own accord, spinning in his hand and shooting a golden fire back along the curse. The clash of magic shatters Lucius's wand in a burst of light and throws Voldemort backward through the air. Harry is left shaking; he didn't mean to counter, and yet his wand defended him, the twin-core connection still exerting a mysterious force.

They crash down at the Burrow, landing hard in the yard. One by one, the others arrive: Kingsley, Lupin, George with a bloodied ear--George's ear torn off by a Sectumsempra curse in the chaos--Bill and Fleur. But some do not return. Bill Weasley brings the news: Alastor "Mad‑Eye" Moody is dead, killed during the ambush; they never recovered his body. Inside the Burrow, anger and grief boil. Lupin seizes Harry, accusing him of not being Harry at all, demanding to know what creature was in the corner of his room when he and Tonks visited months earlier. Harry answers correctly--"A Grindylow"--and Lupin's suspicion, born of fear of Polyjuice and infiltration, eases. The war is now at the stage where even friends must be tested.

Morning brings a different tension. Minister for Magic Rufus Scrimgeour arrives at the Burrow, stepping over chickens and boots to bring the weight of the Ministry into the Weasleys' kitchen. He opens Albus Dumbledore's will and, with a bureaucrat's chill, reads out the bequests. Hermione Jean Granger is left a slim, old-fashioned book: The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Ron Bilius Weasley receives the Deluminator, the device that can snuff and restore light. Harry James Potter is left the Golden Snitch from his first Quidditch match and, Scrimgeour adds resentfully, the Sword of Godric Gryffindor. But the Ministry refuses to hand over the sword. Dumbledore, Scrimgeour says, did not own it, and in any case, the sword is missing. Scrimgeour presses Harry, seeking to know what Dumbledore told him, what mission he has been given, but Harry refuses to cooperate. The meeting ends with hostility; the supposed defenders of the realm now feel as menacing as enemies.

Time passes. Outside, tents are raised in the Burrow's garden. The Weasley family readies for a wedding: Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour will marry here, a brief flare of joy in a collapsing world. On the morning of the wedding, Molly Weasley fusses, Ginny Weasley steals a kiss from Harry in her room, and Hermione and Harry share a quiet moment as Hermione modifies her parents' memories in the Muggle world, then steps fully into exile.

The ceremony glows with golden light. In the field beside the Burrow, chairs are arranged, music plays, and guests arrive in their best robes. Xenophilius Lovegood, Luna Lovegood's eccentric father, appears with a strange triangle-circle-line symbol on a pendant around his neck. "It's the sign of the Deathly Hallows," he will later reveal, but for now it's just an oddity that catches Harry's eye.

After the vows, under a white marquee, Harry mingles. He speaks to Elphias Doge, an old friend of Dumbledore, who shares reverent memories of Albus. Then Auntie Muriel Weasley swoops in, sharp-tongued, claiming that Dumbledore's past was not as noble as Harry thinks. She mentions Godric's Hollow, Dumbledore's sister Ariana, and rumors of dark deeds, planting seeds of doubt in Harry's mind about the man who has guided his life.

The music stops. A silvery lynx Patronus bursts through the tent flaps and lands in their midst. Kingsley Shacklebolt's voice emerges: "The Ministry has fallen. The Minister of Magic is dead. They are coming." Rufus Scrimgeour has been assassinated by Death Eaters; the Ministry is now under Voldemort's control. Panic erupts. Guests scream, spells fire into the air, Death Eaters Apparate into the field, black smoke twisting. Without hesitation, Harry, Ron, and Hermione grasp each other and Disapparate.

They slam into a London alley, breathless and shaken. The city roars around them with cars and buses and Muggle life carrying on unaware. They walk, still dressed in wedding robes, into a small cafe, trying to decide what to do next. Hermione suggests Grimmauld Place; Harry isn't sure. Before they can decide, two Death Eaters walk in and sit behind them, their eyes cold. The attackers draw wands; chairs topple; cups shatter. In the tight space, curses streak between tables. Harry and Ron dive for cover; Hermione fires a Stunning Spell. The Death Eaters fall, and Hermione, trembling, raises her wand again. "Obliviate," she whispers, erasing their memories. She stares at the men she has just hollowed out and realizes this war will demand acts she never imagined of herself.

They Apparate to 12 Grimmauld Place in central London, the old Black family home and former Order of the Phoenix headquarters now legally Harry's property. The house greets them with Kreacher the house-elf's suspicious glare and the dark, oppressive portrait of Walburga Black shrieking insults. As they explore, they find a bedroom bearing the initials "R.A.B." Hermione pieces together that Regulus Arcturus Black, Sirius Black's younger brother, was the mysterious R.A.B. who stole one of Voldemort's Horcruxes. Kreacher tells them, bitterly, of how Regulus died after forcing him to switch a locket Horcrux; how the locket was once in the house and later stolen by the petty thief Mundungus Fletcher. Harry orders Kreacher to find Mundungus. For the first time, he uses ownership of a house-elf not to dominate but to recruit an ally.

Kreacher and, reluctantly, Dobby the house‑elf track Mundungus Fletcher down. From Mundungus, they learn the locket Horcrux was sold, under duress, to Dolores Umbridge, who now wears it as a gaudy family heirloom. The trail leads to the new heart of the regime: the Ministry of Magic itself.

The trio prepares to break into the Ministry, now in full Death Eater hands. Muggle-born witches and wizards are being rounded up and forced to justify their "stolen" magic. Posters of Harry Potter brand him Unwanted No. 1. On a gray morning, Harry, Ron, and Hermione lurk in a side street near a staff entrance to the Ministry. Using Polyjuice Potion brewed from stolen hairs, they transform into three Ministry workers: Harry becomes Albert Runcorn, tall and imposing; Ron becomes Reginald Cattermole; Hermione becomes Mafalda Hopkirk. They walk through the enchanted phone box entry and sink into the Ministry atrium.

Inside, the atrium has been transformed. Giant stone statues of wizards now stand on thrones supported by carved Muggle bodies, crushed beneath them. Banners proclaim purity. Posters warn against "Mudbloods." Harry moves through it, disguised as Runcorn, and feels as if he has stepped into an authoritarian nightmare.

They split up. Ron, as Cattermole, is supposedly needed to fix a flood in his boss's office. Hermione, as Mafalda, must attend a Muggle-Born Registration Commission hearing. Harry, as Runcorn, stalks the corridors searching for Dolores Umbridge. He finds her in a courtroom, presiding over the trial of a terrified Muggle-born witch, Mary Cattermole, Ron's real wife. Umbridge sits in pink, smiling as Dementors hover to suck hope from the accused. Around her neck gleams Slytherin's locket, the Horcrux they came to steal.

Hermione and Harry enter the courtroom together. Hermione attempts discretion, but when Umbridge calls Muggle-borns "thieves" of magic, something in Harry snaps. "You're lying, Dolores," he says, dropping the Runcorn facade. He stuns her bodyguards, pulls the locket from her neck, and casts the Body-Bind Curse on her. Hermione seizes control of the hearing, freeing Mary Cattermole and the other prisoners. Together, Harry and Hermione race back through the Ministry while alarms blare.

In the atrium, they rendezvous with Ron, drenched and panicked. Yaxley and other Death Eaters give chase. The trio dives into a lift, then into a moving fireplace, using the Floo Network to escape. Hermione Disapparates them mid-flight, but Yaxley's hand is on her arm. They rip free, landing hard in a remote forest with Ron howling in pain from a splinched shoulder. In that violent side-by-side Apparition, Yaxley has also learned the coordinates to 12 Grimmauld Place, rendering it unsafe. Their last refuge is gone.

They pitch a tent in the damp forest, protected by Hermione's enchantments. They now possess the locket Horcrux, but they have no idea how to destroy it. Hermione, combing Dumbledore's books, deduces that the Sword of Godric Gryffindor--which destroyed the diary Horcrux years ago--must have absorbed basilisk venom and thus can destroy Horcruxes. The sword, however, remains missing. In the meantime, someone has to carry the locket.

They start to take turns wearing it around their necks, but the Horcrux does not like to be borne. It pulses with a dark, heavy presence, whispering at the edges of minds, amplifying every insecurity. Under its influence, Ron's jealousy and fear metastasize. He listens to the radio at night, hearing names of the dead. He worries for his family, for Ginny, for his parents at the Burrow now exposed. He looks at Harry and Hermione huddled together over maps and books and feels like an outsider to his own mission.

Days stretch into weeks. They Apparate from forest to forest, from windswept moor to damp valley, endlessly moving the tent. No school, no Quidditch, no Hogwarts--just endless trees and the quiet hiss of the locket. Hunger and cold gnaw at them. Harry grows increasingly frustrated with his lack of progress, with the emptiness of Dumbledore's guidance. One night, he pulls out the Golden Snitch left by Dumbledore, turning it in his fingers. Remembering that Snitches "remember" the first mouth they touch, he presses it to his lips. Glowing words appear: "I open at the close." The riddle hangs in the air, taunting him. The Snitch stays shut.

In the tent's dim light, Hermione flips through The Tales of Beedle the Bard. She notices a strange symbol scribbled into the margins: a circle inscribed within a triangle bisected by a vertical line. It's the same symbol Harry saw on Xenophilius Lovegood's necklace at the wedding. She cannot yet explain it, but it's one more mystery layered atop the Horcrux quest.

The nights grow colder. The locket weighs heavier. At last, it breaks Ron. One evening, while Harry and Ron argue about whether to follow vague, warm feelings Harry has about the next Horcrux's location, Ron erupts. He accuses Harry of having no plan, of not caring about anyone's family but his own, of enjoying Hermione's constant attention while Ron's fears are dismissed. "You have no idea what this is like," Ron spits. "Your parents are dead. You don't have a family." The words wound more than any curse.

Hermione stands between them, eyes flicking from one to the other, pleading. Ron turns to her. "Are you coming?" he demands. Hermione cannot answer. Torn brutally between the boy she loves and the friend she has vowed to stand beside, she freezes. Ron shakes his head, shoulders his bag, and Disapparates into the night. Hermione collapses, sobbing. Harry stands, the locket heavy on his chest, watching the tent flap move in the cold wind where his best friend used to stand.

In the days after Ron's departure, the tent feels echoingly empty. Hermione and Harry move from place to place, speaking in low voices, sharing silent grief and, for Hermione, a deep vein of anger. To distract him, she suggests a change in their hunt: they should go to Godric's Hollow. Godric's Hollow--the place where James and Lily Potter died on Halloween 1981, where Harry lost his family, and where Albus Dumbledore spent his youth. They hope that Bathilda Bagshot, the village's elderly magical historian, might know something about the Sword of Gryffindor, or at least something deeper about Dumbledore.

It is Christmas Eve when they Apparate into the snow-covered village of Godric's Hollow. They use Polyjuice or simple disguises to appear as Muggles and walk down the quaint, narrow street past wreaths and fairy lights. In the churchyard, midnight mass bells toll. Harry and Hermione slip into the graveyard, wands hidden. They find the gravestone of James Potter and Lily Potter, their names carved into cold stone, surrounded by snow and frost-bitten flowers. Harry's hand trembles as he traces the letters of his parents' names; tears blur his vision. Hermione stands beside him, silently conjuring a wreath. On another gravestone nearby, they notice the strange circle-triangle-line symbol again, carved into the stone. The symbol begins to press on their quest like a second, unseen mission.

From the graveyard, they find their way to the ruined cottage where James and Lily died. The upper story is blasted apart, the roof caved in, a memorial plaque installed outside. Harry stares at the shattered nursery window, remembering screams he cannot consciously recall.

They then go to the crooked cottage of Bathilda Bagshot. Inside, the air is thick with dust and rot. Bathilda, frail and silent, stands in the dark, her eyes murky, her movements jerky. She beckons Harry upstairs with slow gestures, ignoring Hermione. Upstairs, in a cluttered room, Harry finds a photograph of a handsome, blond young man--the same boy from his visions, the one who stole a wand from the wandmaker Gregorovitch. This is Gellert Grindelwald. Before Harry can fully piece it together, Bathilda's skin begins to bulge and split. The old woman's body collapses and Nagini, Voldemort's giant snake, explodes from within, lunging at Harry.

Hermione arrives just as Nagini coils and strikes. A frantic duel rips through the tiny house. Harry smashes through walls and banisters as Nagini wraps and attacks. Hermione screams spells, blasting holes in floors, and grabs Harry. At the very moment Voldemort senses Harry's presence and hurtles toward the cottage, Harry and Hermione Disapparate in a rush of white light and falling plaster. They land hard in another forest; Harry's wand is broken in the chaos, splintered and useless. Voldemort's fury crashes into Harry's mind, a vision of red eyes and the word: "Mine."

Now wandless, without Ron, and still carrying the Horcrux, Harry sinks into despair. The winter forests close in. Hermoine conjures a protective silver dome and extra wards, but fear gnaws. Harry's visions of Voldemort intensify: he sees Voldemort torturing the wandmaker Gregorovitch for information about a legendary wand; he then sees Voldemort seeking Gellert Grindelwald in a German prison. In one such vision, Grindelwald, older now, laughs and finally reveals that the wand Voldemort wants--the Elder Wand--is buried with Albus Dumbledore in his white tomb on the grounds of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Voldemort now knows where the most powerful wand in existence lies. The race is not just for Horcruxes anymore; it is for the Deathly Hallows.

One bitter, snowed-in night, Harry sits watch outside the tent. The forest around him lies silent, the Horcrux's cold weight against his chest. Out of the darkness, a shape glides: a silver doe Patronus, luminous and delicate. It stops, looks at him, then turns and walks away. Harry recognizes it as a Patronus but not whose. Compelled, he follows, crunching through snow until he reaches a frozen forest pool. At the bottom of the ice, gleaming faintly, lies the Sword of Godric Gryffindor.

Harry strips off his clothes, breaks through the ice, and plunges into the freezing water. The locket around his neck reacts violently to the proximity of the sword; it tightens, choking him, chains drawing him down. He thrashes, lungs burning, vision fading. At the moment he is about to black out, hands grab him and haul him to the surface.

Ron Weasley stands over him on the snowy bank, panting and furious at himself and the world. He helps Harry dress, then kicks through the ice to retrieve the sword. They drag the locket onto the snow. Harry tells Ron he must be the one to destroy it. "You came back," Harry says simply. "It's got to be you."

Ron raises the Sword of Gryffindor. The locket, sensing its doom, begins to fight. When Ron opens it with Parseltongue spoken by Harry, a burst of dark vapor erupts, forming visions in the air. Inside the shimmering Horcrux, Ron sees giant versions of Harry and Hermione, their faces twisted, taunting him, telling him he is nothing, that his mother wanted a daughter, that Hermione prefers Harry. The spectral Harry and Hermione entwine, kissing passionately, their bodies half-naked, fog swirling around them. Ron staggers back, eyes wide with hurt and rage. The Horcrux is attacking the weakest places in his heart.

"Ron!" Harry yells over the hissing voices. "It lies! Kill it!" Ron raises the sword again, hands shaking, battling not only the Horcrux's venomous whispers but his own self-doubt. With a roar, he brings the sword down, shattering the locket. The visions vanish in a boom of light, leaving only broken metal and a dark, smoking stain on the snow. One of Voldemort's Horcruxes is destroyed. Ron collapses, sobbing and laughing in the same breath, the weight that has pressed on him for months suddenly gone.

Back at the tent, Hermione's reaction to Ron's return is volcanic. She slaps his chest, calling him "You complete arse!" and demands to know how he could leave them. Ron, chastened, explains that when he Disapparated, the Deluminator Dumbledore left him began to behave strangely. One night, he heard Hermione's voice emanating from it. When he clicked it, a ball of light flew from the Deluminator into his chest, and he was able to Apparate to where that voice was--directly beside Harry in the forest. Dumbledore, in other words, anticipated Ron's doubt and built a way for him to find his way back. Hermione is not ready to forgive, but she listens. The trio is whole again.

The Horcrux destroyed, they turn to the other mystery that has been threading through their journey. Hermione shows them the symbol in Beedle the Bard, reminding them of seeing it on Xenophilius Lovegood at the wedding and on the gravestone in Godric's Hollow. They need answers. They Apparate to the strange, tower-like home of Xenophilius and Luna Lovegood.

Xenophilius welcomes them with an anxious brightness, hair wild, house cluttered with printing presses and odd magical items. But Luna Lovegood is not there. Her bedroom is empty, dust disturbed, plates of food untouched. Hermione, suspicious, notes the absence; Xenophilius dodges explanations. When they ask about the symbol, he grows serious. He points to the large version painted on his wall and names it: the sign of the Deathly Hallows.

Hermione reads aloud from The Tales of Beedle the Bard: "The Tale of the Three Brothers." In an animated sequence that plays in their minds, three brothers cheat Death and are each given a gift: the Elder Wand, unbeatable in a duel; the Resurrection Stone, which can recall the dead; and the Invisibility Cloak, which hides its wearer even from Death himself. Together, these three objects are the Deathly Hallows. "United, they make one master of Death," Xenophilius says. The vertical line in the symbol is the Elder Wand; the circle is the Resurrection Stone; the triangle is the Cloak. Harry realizes, with a chill, that Voldemort must be seeking the Elder Wand to overcome his twin-core problem with Harry, and that the mental images Harry has been sharing of Voldemort's quest point directly to this legend. He also realizes, though he does not yet say it, that his own Invisibility Cloak has never frayed, never failed--perhaps it is the very Cloak from the tale.

In the midst of this explanation, Xenophilius grows increasingly agitated. He stumbles over words, fidgets with his wand, and keeps glancing out the window. Suddenly, Hermione notices a bit of parchment: a letter from the Ministry. Luna, it says obliquely, is being held. The house feels wrong. Xenophilius confesses: Death Eaters have taken Luna Lovegood as punishment for his support of Harry in The Quibbler. He has summoned them here, planning to trade Harry Potter for his daughter's life.

Outside, they hear the crack of Apparition. Death Eaters surround the house. The printing press explodes as spells slam into the walls. Harry, Ron, and Hermione race up the stairs and, in desperation, blast a hole in the floor, collapsing part of the house as a distraction. Amid the chaos, they Disapparate, leaving Xenophilius behind to face the wrath of the Death Eaters--a father destroyed by his attempt to save his child.

They reappear in yet another forest, hearts pounding. But this time, they are not alone. A group of rough wizards and werewolves--the Snatchers--led by Fenrir Greyback, emerge from the trees. They've put a price on Harry's head at the Ministry, and the Snatchers hunt fugitives for gold. Hermione, acting quickly, fires a Stinging Jinx at Harry's face, swelling and disfiguring it to make him harder to recognize. She gives a false name--"Penelope Clearwater," "Barny Weasley"--but the Snatchers are not convinced. Harry's scar is visible beneath the swelling; when he is forced to show his arm, they see no Dark Mark. They suspect enough to drag them in for verification.

Bound and marched through the forest, the trio is taken to Malfoy Manor, the place where the film began with Charity Burbage's death. Inside the marble hall, Bellatrix Lestrange and the Malfoy family wait. Draco Malfoy is ordered to identify Harry. Harry's face is barely recognizable under the swelling curse; Draco hesitates, his eyes flickering between Harry and his parents. "I can't be sure," he murmurs. The cowardice is also a mercy. Bellatrix, however, recognizes the sword they carry. The Sword of Gryffindor is in their possession, yet she believed it secure in her Gringotts vault. Panic flares in her eyes, terror that her vault has been compromised and with it something of Voldemort's.

Bellatrix orders the Snatchers paid and sends them away. She then has Harry and Ron thrown into the cellar and drags Hermione upstairs for interrogation. Down in the dark, damp cellar, Harry and Ron hear Hermione's screams through the floorboards as Bellatrix Lestrange tortures her with the Cruciatus Curse, demanding to know how they obtained the sword and whether they have breached her vault. Every cry is a knife. In the shadows, Harry and Ron discover they are not alone. Luna Lovegood sits in the gloom, thinner but serenely brave. Garrick Ollivander, the aged wandmaker, lies on a cot, haunted by his months of imprisonment, and Griphook the goblin crouches nearby, nursing his own grudges and mysteries. Malfoy Manor is not just Voldemort's headquarters; it is a private prison.

Harry, in desperation, calls out a name he has learned to trust: "Dobby." In a corner of the cellar, the house-elf Dobby appears, eyes huge, trembling with both fear and excitement. "Harry Potter," he whispers, "Dobby has come to save Harry Potter and his friends." The elf has managed to Apparate into Malfoy Manor despite wards against such magic; house-elves operate under different rules. Harry quickly gives him instructions: take Luna and Ollivander to Shell Cottage, the seaside home of Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour. Then return to help with Hermione and Ron.

Dobby does as asked. Upstairs, Bellatrix continues to torture Hermione, pressing a blade against her skin and carving the word "Mudblood" into her arm, an act of sadistic ideology. Greyback eyes Hermione hungrily, eager for a different kind of violence. Harry and Ron, freed from their cell by Dobby's magic, rush up the stairs. They burst into the main hall.

A chaotic standoff erupts. Bellatrix drags Hermione to the center of the room and presses a dagger to her throat. Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, Draco Malfoy, and Fenrir Greyback stand ready; Harry, Ron, and Dobby face them down. "Drop your wands," Bellatrix hisses, "or she dies." For a moment, everyone freezes.

Harry decides. He disarms Draco Malfoy, wrenching Draco's wand out of his hand with a spell. In that instant, the ownership of Draco's wand shifts invisibly to Harry--a detail that will matter deeply when it comes to the Elder Wand's allegiance. Ron wrestles with Greyback; Dobby snaps his fingers, and the great crystal chandelier above Bellatrix's head crashes down. Glass explodes, forcing Bellatrix to release Hermione. Dobby stands on a table, terrified but defiant. "Dobby is a free elf," he declares, "and Dobby has come to save Harry Potter and his friends."

Lucius and Narcissa cower; Draco hesitates, wandless. Bellatrix, enraged and bleeding, snatches up a gleaming silver knife. Harry grabs Hermione; Ron seizes Griphook; Dobby reaches for them, and together they Disapparate from Malfoy Manor's hall toward the safety of Shell Cottage's beach.

They appear on a windy, moonlit shoreline. For a heartbeat, it seems they have escaped. Then Dobby gasps. The silver knife Bellatrix threw as they vanished has materialized with them--buried in Dobby's chest. He collapses onto the sand, small hands clutching the hilt, blood staining his clothes. Harry drops to his knees, cradling Dobby's tiny body. Hermione and Ron's faces crumple as they kneel beside him. Waves crash in the background; the night is cold and salt-scented. "Such a beautiful place to be with friends," Dobby manages to say, eyes bright with tears and pride. "Dobby is happy to be with his friend… Harry Potter." His eyes close. Dobby, free elf, dies, killed by Bellatrix Lestrange's thrown knife.

At Shell Cottage, Bill and Fleur take Luna, Ollivander, and Griphook inside. Harry insists on digging Dobby's grave by hand, using no magic. Each shovel of sand and soil is an act of penance and love. By morning, a simple marker reads, "Here lies Dobby, a free elf." The trio stands by the grave, the sea stretching endlessly behind them. Their circle is smaller, their losses heavier, but the mission burns more fiercely in Harry's chest than ever. Somewhere beyond that horizon lie the remaining Horcruxes and now the Elder Wand.

Far away, in Scotland, on the grounds of Hogwarts, the white marble tomb of Albus Dumbledore lies by the black lake, serene and untouched since his funeral. That serenity ends. Voldemort, fueled by the knowledge wrenched from Gellert Grindelwald, glides across the hillside, followers at his back. He points his wand at the tomb. Stone cracks and explodes outward. Dumbledore's body lies within, still, hands folded, the Elder Wand resting on his chest. Voldemort reaches down and takes it.

Lightning crackles as he lifts the Elder Wand into the air. Magic pulses outward, distorting the clouds, filling the sky with unnatural light. At Shell Cottage, Harry stands at Dobby's grave, wind whipping his hair, staring off into the distance as if he can feel something in the world shifting. Voldemort, on the hill by Hogwarts, closes his eyes and tests his new prize. Sparks erupt. The wand--the unbeatable wand, Death's own gift--now answers only to him.

Harry and Voldemort are now locked not only in a hunt for Horcruxes but in a race for the Deathly Hallows. Harry, with Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley beside him, has destroyed one Horcrux locket and uncovered part of the truth about the Hallows. Voldemort, having murdered Charity Burbage, slain Rufus Scrimgeour, and indirectly caused the deaths of Mad‑Eye Moody, Hedwig, and Dobby the house‑elf, now wields the Elder Wand stolen from Albus Dumbledore's grave. The film ends in this split image: Harry, grief-stricken but resolute beside Dobby's grave at Shell Cottage, and Lord Voldemort, triumphant, raising the Elder Wand against a stormy sky. The world is balanced on the edge of a final war.

At the end of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1," Harry, Ron, and Hermione are on the run from Voldemort and his followers. They have been searching for Horcruxes, which are objects containing pieces of Voldemort's soul. The film concludes with a tense scene where they are ambushed by Death Eaters at Malfoy Manor. Harry is captured, and Ron and Hermione manage to escape. The film ends with a sense of foreboding as Voldemort retrieves the Elder Wand, setting the stage for the final confrontation.

Now, let's delve into the ending in a more detailed narrative fashion:

As the film approaches its climax, Harry, Ron, and Hermione find themselves in a precarious situation. They have been tirelessly searching for Horcruxes, the key to defeating Voldemort, but their journey has taken a dark turn. The trio is hiding in a forest, weary and anxious, when they receive a tip about the location of one of the Horcruxes. However, their hope is short-lived.

In a sudden twist, they are ambushed by Death Eaters at Malfoy Manor. The scene is tense and chaotic, filled with the sounds of spells being cast and the clashing of wands. The atmosphere is thick with fear as they are captured and brought before Voldemort's loyal followers. The camera captures the fear in Harry's eyes as he realizes the gravity of their situation.

At Malfoy Manor, the trio is held captive. The tension escalates as Bellatrix Lestrange, played with chilling intensity, interrogates them. She is ruthless, and her sadistic nature is palpable as she threatens Hermione, showcasing the danger they are in. The emotional stakes are high; Harry's desperation to protect his friends is evident, and Ron's anger simmers beneath the surface.

In a moment of bravery, Dobby, the house-elf, appears to rescue them. The scene is both heartwarming and tragic. Dobby's determination to save Harry and his friends shines through, and as they make their escape, the atmosphere shifts from despair to a fleeting sense of hope. However, this hope is short-lived. As they flee, Dobby is mortally wounded by Bellatrix's knife. The emotional weight of this moment is heavy; Harry cradles Dobby in his arms, and the sorrow is palpable. Dobby's last words, "Such a beautiful place, to be with friends," resonate deeply, highlighting the themes of friendship and sacrifice.

The film concludes with Harry, Ron, and Hermione standing at Dobby's grave, a somber moment that underscores the cost of their fight against Voldemort. The trio is united in their grief, but there is also a sense of resolve. They know that the battle is far from over.

As the final scenes unfold, Voldemort is shown in a dark chamber, retrieving the Elder Wand from Dumbledore's tomb. This moment is significant; it signifies Voldemort's growing power and sets the stage for the final confrontation. The film ends on a note of tension and uncertainty, leaving the audience with a sense of impending doom as the characters prepare for the challenges that lie ahead.

In summary, the fates of the main characters at the end of the film are as follows: Harry, Ron, and Hermione are still alive but are now fugitives, burdened by the loss of Dobby and the weight of their mission. Voldemort, having acquired the Elder Wand, is poised to unleash his full power, setting the stage for the final battle in the next installment. The emotional stakes are high, and the conflict between good and evil is more pronounced than ever.

In "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1," there is no post-credit scene. The film concludes with a somber tone as Harry, Ron, and Hermione prepare to embark on their quest to find and destroy Voldemort's Horcruxes. The ending emphasizes the gravity of their mission and the challenges that lie ahead, leaving the audience with a sense of anticipation for the next installment without any additional scenes after the credits.

The Deathly Hallows are three powerful magical objects that play a crucial role in the story. They consist of the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone, and the Invisibility Cloak. Each Hallows represents a different aspect of death and power. Harry learns about them through the tale of the Three Brothers, which is recounted by Xenophilius Lovegood. The Hallows become central to Harry's quest as he seeks to defeat Voldemort and understand the nature of mortality.

As they embark on their quest to find and destroy Voldemort's Horcruxes, the relationship between Harry, Ron, and Hermione becomes strained. The pressure of their mission, coupled with the isolation they feel while on the run, leads to moments of tension and conflict. Ron's insecurities surface, particularly when he feels overshadowed by Harry and Hermione's bond. This culminates in a significant argument where Ron leaves the group, highlighting the emotional toll of their journey and the importance of friendship.

Dobby, the free elf, plays a pivotal role in 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1.' He helps Harry, Ron, and Hermione escape from Malfoy Manor, showcasing his bravery and loyalty. His character embodies themes of freedom and sacrifice. Tragically, Dobby's fate is sealed when he is mortally wounded while rescuing them, which deeply affects Harry and serves as a catalyst for his resolve to fight against Voldemort.

The fall of the Ministry of Magic marks a turning point in the wizarding world, showcasing the rise of Voldemort's power. The Ministry is overtaken by Death Eaters, leading to the implementation of oppressive laws against Muggle-borns and those who oppose Voldemort. This event highlights the dire state of the wizarding community and sets the tone for the dangers Harry, Ron, and Hermione face as they navigate a world where trust is scarce and fear reigns.

Severus Snape's influence is felt throughout 'Deathly Hallows: Part 1,' particularly through his role as a double agent. Although he is not physically present for much of the film, his actions and the revelations about his past create a complex web of intrigue. His connection to Harry's parents and his motivations are hinted at, leaving viewers questioning his true allegiance. Snape's character adds depth to the narrative, as Harry grapples with understanding the complexities of loyalty and sacrifice.

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1" contains several scenes and themes that may be considered objectionable or upsetting for children or sensitive viewers. Here are some aspects to be aware of:

1. Dark Themes: The film delves into themes of loss, betrayal, and the struggle against evil, which may be intense for younger audiences.

2. Violence: There are scenes of violence, including battles and confrontations with Death Eaters, which may be frightening. The depiction of injuries and the aftermath of violence can be unsettling.

3. Death and Grief: Characters experience significant loss, and there are moments of mourning and despair that may be emotionally heavy.

4. Tension and Fear: The atmosphere is often tense, with characters in peril and a constant sense of danger, which could be anxiety-inducing.

5. Dark Creatures: The presence of dark creatures, such as snakes and Dementors, can be frightening for younger viewers.

6. Mature Themes: The film explores themes of sacrifice, loyalty, and the moral complexities of war, which may be difficult for younger audiences to fully grasp.

These elements contribute to a darker tone compared to earlier films in the series, making it potentially less suitable for very young children or those sensitive to such content.