FAQ

Being evil has nothing to do with being happy. Her happy memory could be when she tortured Harry.

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Still reeling from the death of Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon), students Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe), Hermoine Granger (Emma Watson), and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) go into hiding so that Harry can avoid the eyes of the Death Eaters and continue Dumblesore's aim of looking for the Dark Lord's Horcruxes. However, Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) is growing stronger, having taken over control of the Ministry of Magic as well as Hogwarts, and now there's a new fly in the ointment with which to contend—the Deathly Hallows.

The movie is based on the first half of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007), the last book of the Harry Potter series, written by British authorJ.K. Rowling.It is preceded byHarry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001),Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002),Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004),Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005),Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)andHarry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009),and followed byHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011).

Producers previously thought of splitting each Harry Potter movie into two parts, but the books were adapted to movies mainly by deleting certain characters and subplots that served as background and were not critical to the plot. The makers felt that this was impossible for Deathly Hallows, as most of the subplots and (seemingly) trivial characters are eventually tied to the conclusion. Also, to give proper closure to each character's story and to the series as a whole, the producers felt that they should not even try to cram all that information into a single film. Consequently, the decision for a two-parter was made.

Deathly Hallows are three powerful magical objects that, when combined, make the owner the Master of Death. These objects, are (1) the Elder Wand, which is the most powerful wand ever made, (2) the Resurrection Stone, which is a stone that resurrects the dead, and (3) the Invisibility Cloak, which is a cloak that never wears out, hides the owner, and is unaffected by any spells or curses.

Only the Elderwand. However, we have seen the other two hallows in previous films. The Resurrection Stone is seen in Half-Blood Prince as part of the ring with the black stone. The Invisibility Cloak is first seen in Sorcerer's Stone when Harry receives it from Dumbledore at Christmas.

Only one: Salazar Slytherin's locket. This brings the total amount of destroyed Horcruxes to three: Voldemort's schoolboy diary (destroyed by Harry in Chamber of Secrets), the ring (destroyed by Dumbledore in Half-Blood Prince), and the Locket.

Malfoy Manor, the home of Lucius Malfoy.

In Goblet of Fire, Harry's wand reacted strangely when Voldemort attacked him in the graveyard. The two wands recognized each other because they share the same exact cores (a phoenix feather from the same phoenix, Fawkes) and none of them could win the other. During that night, Harry's wand took some powers of Voldemort's own wand. In this movie, when Harry and Hagrid were attacked by Voldemort whilst on the bike, Voldemort was previously seen "asking" Lucius Malfoy for his wand, because Voldemort was told by Ollivander that a different wand would not create Priori Incantatem (explained in the book of Goblet of Fire, Page 605) which is when the wands created the gold bond. Ollivander believed a wand with a different core would not create Priori Incantatem. Dumbledore surmises in the final chapters of Deathly Hallows, that when Harry's phoenix-feather wand defeated Voldemort's in the graveyard at Little Hangleton (in Goblet of Fire), it imbibed some of Voldemort's power, which is why it recognized him as both kin and mortal enemy when Voldemort chased Hagrid and Harry across the skies. According to Dumbledore, it regurgitated some of Voldemort's own magic at him, because it contained both Harry's enormous courage and Voldemort's deadly skill. This is why it destroyed Lucius Malfoy's wand. Ollivander, who had never encountered such a connection between two wands before, could only guess that using another's wand would suffice, but he was wrong.

It was sent by Kingsley Shacklebolt, whose Patronus in the book was a lynx.

Most viewers believe that they are unable to attack before the wedding because, in addition to the security placed on the house by the Order of the Phoenix, the Ministry of Magic was also providing all of the potential security it could. When the Ministry fell, the Death Eaters were able to break through the defenses.

It is not described in the movie. In the book, Kreacher tells the entire story to Harry, Ron, and Hermione. According to this story, Voldemort had once asked Regulus Arcturus Black (who was a Death Eater) to find a house elf for him. Regulus offered Kreacher, the house elf of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. Kreacher traveled with Voldemort to the cave where Harry and Dumbledore went to in Half-Blood Prince) where Voldemort had Kreacher drink the poison from the basin and subsequently left the horcrux inside. Kreacher was abandoned to die with the Inferi, but he apparated and went back to Black's House. Regulus had, by that time, become disillusioned with the Death Eaters and wanted to stop Voldemort. When asked, Kreacher told him the story of the horcrux and brought Regulus back to the cave. Regulus instructed Kreacher to force him to drink the potion and switch the real locket for the fake one (which contained the note to Voldemort). Before Regulus was killed, he gave the horcrux to Kreacher and ordered him to destroy it. As Kreacher was unable to do so, he hid the locket inside one of the cabinets in the Black Residence until Mundungus Fletcher found and stole it.

Gellert Grindelwald was a Dark Wizard who rose in the 1940s. He and Dumbledore were close friends before Grindelwald had committed several murders over the years and rose to power. Dumbledore fought and defeated Grindelwald and imprisoned him. In doing so, he gained the Elder Wand. Grindelwald is already mentioned in the first book (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone): Harry learns that Dumbledore is very famous in the wizarding world due to the legendary duel he had with the dark wizard.

Gellert Grindelwald was Bathilda Bagshot's nephew who visited her in Godric's Hollow the period that Dumbledore had lost his mother, Kendra. Dumbledore and Grindelwald became friends and shared their thoughts about the Deathly Hallows and their ideal vision of the wizarding world, with Wizards ruling over Muggles. Their friendship was broken when Dumbledore's ill sister was killed in a confrontation between the two and Dumbledore's brother, Aberforth. Grindelwald and Dumbledore met each other again years later. In their legendary duel, Dumbledore defeated and imprisoned Grindelwald. J.K. Rowling has stated that Dumbledore was in love with Grindelwald, which is why he waited so long to confront Grindelwarld after he heard rumors of his dark magic.

It will be explained in part 2. This is the book explanation: While Snape was a Death Eater, he loved Harry's mother Lily. When she was killed by Voldemort, Snape's patronus took the form of a Doe. (Recap, Harry and James' patronus was a Stag, and Lily's was a Doe) very similar to Book 6 when Tonks sends a patronus message, her patronus took the form of a dog very similar to Sirius's animagus before taking on its form as a werewolf when she fell in love with Lupin. According to the books, Sirius was Tonk's cousin.

According to Xenophilius Lovegood in the novel, the three Peverell brothers were believed to be the "Three Brothers" who requested the Deathly Hallows from Death. Ignotus Peverell is believed to be the brother who requested the the cloak of invisibility. This is why the mark of the Deathly Hallows is on his grave and is how other questers, like Lovegood, believe the Peverells to be linked to the Hallows. The surname also has deeper significance. In the novel version of Half-Blood Prince, Harry and Dumbledore use the pensieve to explore memories of the young Voldemort so that Harry can understand Tom Riddle in order to defeat him. One of the memories centres on Voldemort's mother's side of the family, where a ministry official recounts how Tom's inbred, fanatical, and deranged grandfather, Marvolo, was boasting about his pureblood ancestry dating back to Salazar Slytherin. One of the ways he proved it was by flaunting his ring; the grandfather incorrectly states the ring has the Peverell coat of arms (it's in fact the sign of the Deathly Hallows). This ring has descended down the family line, until Voldemort frames a murder on his uncle (Marvolo's son and Voldermort's mother's brother) to claim the ring and transform it into a Horcrux (while Marvolo did time in Azkaban leaving his prized possessions in his son's hands). Additional layer of detail for the uber-geeky: The surname Peverell died out in the male line, making it hard to trace the blood line of the family related to Slytherin (which is still present in the females who married into other surnames). However, in the novel, Rowling reveals that Harry is actually a descendant of Ignotus Peverell and that the Invisibility Cloak he inherited from James is indeed the third Hallow.

In the book, Harry says Voldemort's name. Voldemort is a Taboo word. The Death Eaters bewitched the name to catch members of the Order of the Phoenix (who are not afraid to say the name out loud). In the movie, the use of the Taboo is explained in the additional scenes of the DVD. For the film, one of the Snatchers appears to take a liking to Hermione's scent and discovers Hermione's scarf tied to the trunk of a tree after Ron's departure from the group. After escaping the Lovegood house, the trio return the this same area of woods where the Snatchers are waiting for them. The Chief Snatcher, Scabior, is even seen wearing Hermione's scarf.

Hermione casts a stinging hex on Harry to keep his identity safe from the Snatchers. As a result his face swells up and so his characteristics are not easily identified (though they recognize him from his lightning scar).

If you watch closely, Harry sees a familiar eye in his mirror and says: "Help us!". Immediately, Dobby apparates to help Harry and his friends. Who was in the mirror and how/why he sent Dobby is shown in Part 2. This is also revealed in the novel. House elves, despite their lowly status in the magical world, are imbued with strong powers, and it's because of their low status that witches and wizards do not consider them a threat when trying to protect their stuff. In the cave in Half-Blood Prince, there were all sorts of enchantments put up by Voldemort to protect his horcruxes from humans, yet Kreacher could apparate in and out of the cave without casting any pesky counter-charms that Dumbledore and Harry needed. The dungeon in the Malfoys' Manor also has these sorts of enchantments to prevent any prisoners from using apparation to escape the enclosure, but none of the magic they used had any impact on Dobby. Hogwarts also has the same sorts of enchantments where witches and wizards cannot apparate or disapparate (as Hermione has informed Harry and Ron many a time) but house elves are free to apparate throughout the castle in order to fulfill their duties.

Shell Cottage is Bill and Fleur Weasley's house. In the book, Ron stayed here during the period in which he left Harry and Hermione and knew it was protected from danger by the Fidelius Charm.

Dumbledore is definitely dead. The man in the mirror is Aberforth, Dumbledore's brother and landlord of the Hogs Head, a pub in Hogsmeade.

As previously mentioned, part of this story will be explained in Part 2. However, some explanation, which was omitted from the films, can be found in earlier books. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix reveals that James Potter and Sirius Black were frequent trouble-makers at Hogwarts (not unlike Fred and George Weasley), and were often assigned detentions. When they were given separate detentions, each of them would keep his own mirror with him and use it to communicate with the other. When the magic about them is used, each mirror acts more like a window, allowing them to look through the other mirror into the face of whomever is holding it. At Christmas, Sirius gives one of these to Harry, telling him to use it should he ever need to contact him. Not wanting to lure Sirius into danger, Harry doesn't even open it and has quite forgotten it. After Sirius's death, however, he finds it again and opens it but then angrily destroys it. Nevertheless, Harry finds the mirror shard when cleaning out his trunk over summer, glimpses a blue eye, and decides to keep the mirror shard with him.

In fact, Voldemort doesn't know the story (and thus the existence) of the Deathly Hallows. He doesn't even know about the Resurrection Stone, despite the fact that he had it in his possession in the form of Marvolo's Ring. He only knows the existence of the Elder Wand because of its bloodstained story (it became a legend as a wand that made its owner invincible, causing people to kill each other to take it). He wasn't told the "Tale of the Three Brothers" when he was a child; he was in a muggles' orphanage where such fairytales are unknown. So, he overlooks the existence of the Deathly Hallows and that's the reason he never tried to find and unite them to become immortal. He chose the brutal way, to murder and rip his soul; that is a reference to his inhuman nature.

The thing to understand here is that the origin and existence of the Deadly Hallows have become shrouded in mystery throughout the ages. Generally, myths are mostly fictitious or imaginative at best but often have a basis in fact. However, as time passes, inaccurate recounting of stories may lead to additions and omissions, making them much larger, important, and less mundane than they originally were. In the Harry Potter series, the Deathly Hallows are no exception. The three brothers did exist, and they most likely constructed three objects of exceptional magical power themselves. Throughout the ages, oral tradition changed them to objects said to be constructed to "cheat death", and were thought to be so flawless that they were even constructed by Death itself. However, historical evidence in the series shows that this is pure myth. The Elder Wand is an exceptionally powerful wand indeed, but it is the wand itself that cannot be defeated, not the wizard wielding it. Many wizards who owned the wand were killed for it, so they are by no means incapable of dying. In fact, Voldemort was able to find it because its trail of previous owners was relatively well documented. What is true is that, due to the Elder Wand's semi-sentient nature, it will only fully transfer its alegiance to the wizard who "defeated" the previous owner in any way ( "defeated" can range from getting Stunned or Disarmed to being killed).

A wizard who has fully mastered the Elder Wand has an considerable advantage, and will be hard to defeat in battle. The Dark Wizard Grindlewald had stolen the wand from its previous master, Gregorovich, by using the Stunning spell on him, and thus earned the wand's allegiance as he genuinely "defeated" its previous master; yet, as Dumbledore demonstrated, it did not make Grindlewald invincible. Vice versa, owning the wand himself (and assuming it was loyal to Dumbledore since he had defeated its previous owner) was not enough for Dumbledore to defeat Voldemort in a duel.

Another example is the Invisibility Cloak, which Harry had in his possession since the first year; the book describes it as a most effective cloak in that its magical capabilities never show any sign of degradation (in contrast to other invincibility cloaks, where the magic wears off after a while). However, Mad-Eye Moody can see Harry when he is hiding underneath it in the book Goblet of Fire, indicating its effect is by no means absolute.

An interesting sidenote is that the Cloak was passed down onto Harry through the bloodline of its creator, Ignotus Peverell. The original fairy tale indeed mentions that the original owner of the Cloak passed it down to his son; however, the Resurrection Stone was also passed onto the descendants (i.e. Voldemort) of its original owner, Cadmus Peverell; yet, the original story states that the owner wanted the stone to resurrect his dead fiancée, and then killed himself over the grief that she was unhappy in the living world. This implies the owner had no children to whom he could leave the stone, another indication that the story is largely fabricated.

The Master of Death refers to the person who possess all three hallows - the Elder wand, the Resurrection Stone and the Invisibility Cloak. The wand is said to give its owner the power to defeat his enemies, the Stone provides the ability to raise the dead, and the Cloak shields him from dying himself. At this time (Deathly Hallows: Part 1), there's no owner. The Deathly Hallows are split in two owners: (1) Harry Potter, who owns the Cloak and the Resurrection Stone (though, he doesn't know that he has the Stone yet) and (2) Albus Dumbledore, who was the last possessor of the Elder Wand. Albus became possessor of the Elder Wand by taking it from Grindelwald after winning a duel, but did not kill him for it. Grindelwald came into possession by stealing it from Gregorovich, who likewise survived. Furthermore, in the book, it is explained by Ollivander the wandmaker that a wand will turn its allegiance to the winner between wizard duels, whether the previous owner is murdered or not. In fact, he explicitly mentioned that it is not necessary to kill the previous owner to take over a wand, as long as the previous owner is defeated in some way. Even though Voldemort physically took the Elder Wand from Dumbledore's grave, he has not defeated him and therefore the wand isn't truly "his".

The Elder Wand is the most problematic of the Hallows; simply having it doesn't mean the wand recognises you as its owner; whereas you can possess the Stone and Cloak without much of an issue. So even if you have all three Hallows, if the wand's allegiance doesn't lie with you, you won't be the Master of Death. In a more general context, all comes down to the interpretation of the legend: whereas most think that the Master of Death is someone who conquers it by owning all the Deathly Hallows, the moral of the story is that one truly masters Death by embracing one's own mortality; as it happens, both interpretations describe Harry and neither describe Voldermort.

The keyword is "common magic". The sword of Godric Gryffindor has the poison of the basilisk Harry killed in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The basilisk's poison is one of the few ways to destroy a horcrux. A horcrux is hard to destroy because it is the exact opposite of the human existence. While the death of a human leaves his soul intact (while his body is destroyed), a horcrux is an object that has part of the creator's soul. When you destroy a horcrux, the fragment that lies in there dies. That's the reason horcruxes are very hard to destroy. Of course, Voldemort had also placed a lot of powerful spells on his horcruxes to make them nearly impossible to destroy. Furthermore, as explained, the sword of Gryffindor is a powerful magical object that only takes in what makes it stronger, which is why it can destroy them. It cannot become one because that would, in fact, make it weaker.

According to J.K. Rowling, the core of the Elder Wand is the tail hair of a Thestral.

"O Children" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

Instead of taking Ron, Hermoine, and the disfigured Harry to the Ministry, the Snatchers take him to Malfoy Manor where Harry and Ron are imprisoned in a cellar with Luna, Ollivander, and the goblin Griphook. Meanwhile, Bellatrix Lestrange tortures Hermione to find out how she got the sword that was supposed to be in a vault at Gringott's Bank. Dobby suddenly shows up to free Harry and the others by disapparating them onto a beach, but not before Bellatrix throws a knife that fatally stabs Dobby. Harry buries him on the beach. In the final scene, Voldemort is shown opening Dumbledore's tomb and taking the Elder Wand.

The movie ends where chapter 24 finishes, but it skips 2/3 to 3/4 of the middle of the chapter and most of what is in chapter 22, presumably to use early in the second movie. More specifically, it skips all the speculation about what two of the Deathly Hallows are, shows Dobby's death and burial, from the beginning of chapter 24, then cuts to a scene from the end of the chapter of Voldemort taking the elder wand from Dumbledore's grave. It finishes with him ominously casting a spell into the sky. There is important information that is skipped to make a dramatic ending that leaves the viewer with eager questions about what will happen next in the story.

The movie reverses the order of the first scenes; the book starts with the scene at Malfoy Manor and proceeds with the Dursleys' departure. In the movie, Hermione is seen wiping the memories of her parents, something she only mentions in the book later on.

At home, Harry reads Dumbledore's obituary in the paper, written by his friend Elphias Doge. It mentions Dumbledore's uneasy relation with his brother Aberforth, the deaths of their mother Kendra and sister Ariana, and Dumbledore's rise to fame, mainly through his legendary duel with the dark wizard Grindelwald. The paper also announces an upcoming book by Rita Skeeter, in which she details a lot of slander and gossip about Dumbledore and his family, which angers Harry.

During the Dursleys' departure, there is an unexpected reconciliation between Harry and Dudley, where Dudley thanks Harry for saving him from the Dementors two years earlier (part of this scene was filmed, but deleted from the movie).

In the movie, Mundungus Fletcher is finally introduced in the scene where Harry is escorted out by the Order; Fletcher was already introduced in the novel Order of the Phoenix. Ron's older brother Bill Weasley was also introduced here due to his previous omissions from the films; in the books, he was properly introduced in the Goblet of Fire novel. In the book, the real Harry is escorted to the house of Ted Tonks, father of Nymphadora Tonks, and from there Apparates to the Weasleys' Burrow. Ted Tonks does not appear in the movie.

Harry, Ron and Hermione spend several days at the Burrow, doing chores and planning the mission together, of which they can't say anything to the others. Harry at first objects to Ron and Hermione's participation, but they are determined to help him anyway. Ron has even managed to disguise a ghoul as himself, which will mask his absence. Harry insists they should check for clues in Godric's Hollow first, but it is not safe there. Hermione has managed to find a book about Horcruxes, learning that they can be destroyed by Basilisk venom. As Dumbledore is dead, Grimmauld Place, the Order's old hideout, is no longer secret and can't be used anymore. Fleur Delacour's parents arrive for the wedding. Meanwhile, the Death Eaters are infiltrating the Ministry of Magic, and another breakout occurs in Azkaban.

Upon Harry's seventeenth birthday, he has a vision of Voldemort searching for a man named Gregorovich; the name is familiar but he dismisses the thought for the moment. His birthday is celebrated in the Burrow, and Harry can now perform magic outside the school without being detected. Scrimgeour arrives with Dumbledore's will as in the movie, but in the book, he and Harry get into another argument over Scrimgeour's unwillingness to give Harry the Gryffindor Sword. Later that night, Harry discovers the message on the Snitch (which occurs much later in the movie).

During the wedding, Harry is disguised with Polyjuice Potion as a Weasley relative. Victor Krum also attends the wedding, and he gets into an argument with Xenophilus Lovegood over the Deadly Hallows symbol the latter is wearing; Krum believes it was once the sign of the evil wizard Grindelwald, and takes Lovegood for a sympathizer. Harry suddenly remembers that "Gregorovitch" is another famous wandmaker, now sought by Voldemort since Ollivander cannot help him any further. During his talk with Elphias Doge and Aunt Muriel, the latter confirms a lot of murky details from Dumbledore's past as described in Rita Skeeter's book, such as that his sister Ariana was a Squib (person from a magical family, but without magical powers herself); the family kept Ariana locked up out of shame, and she supposedly killed her mother during an escape attempt. Muriel even goes as far as implying that Albus killed Ariana out of revenge.

While staying at Grimmauld Place, the trio receive a Patronus from Ron's father, announcing the family is safe. Harry has another vision of Voldemort forcing Draco Malfoy to torture another Death Eater for failing to apprehend Harry. Harry finds an old letter from his mother to Sirius, thanking him for the broomstick Sirius bought for Harry's first birthday. The letter also mentions Bathilda Bagshot, prompting Harry to go there as Bagshot obviously knows a lot more. Hermione again refuses. Upon discovering who RAB is, they suddenly remember that they once encountered a locket they could not open during cleaning (occurred only in the novel Order of the Phoenix); they suspect Kreacher of having retrieved it. Kreacher explains that Voldemort took him to the cave and used the Elf to hide it in the poisoned basin. Kreacher told Regulus, who, disillusioned by the Death Eaters, retrieved it himself and gave it to Kreacher to destroy, while dying himself in the cave. Since Kreacher couldn't destroy it, he hid it in the house, until Mundungus stole it. Grateful for the information, Harry gives Kreacher the fake locket.

While waiting for Kreacher to return with Mundungus and the locket, the three get a visit from Remus Lupin; he tells them about the Muggle-born registration commission, that the Ministry is looking for Harry under the pretense that he is a suspect in Dumbledore's murder, and that Lupin himself is to become a father as Nymphadora is pregnant. Lupin offers his help in the trio's search, but they get into a heated argument when Harry reproaches Lupin for wanting to leave his pregnant wife. Lupin furiously leaves the house.

The movie contains a scene of several Death Eaters searching the Hogwarts Express for Harry, which is not in the book.

Upon hearing that Severus Snape has become Headmaster of Hogwarts, Hermione picks up Phineas Nigellus' portrait and stuffs it in her bag, afraid that Snape might use Nigellus' portrait at Hogwarts to have him spy on Grimmauld Place. Harry has another vision of Voldemort murdering a family after demanding to know Gregorovitch's whereabouts. Hermione insists that Harry use Occlumency to block out those visions, but Harry finds them helpful.

The break-in into the Ministry is largely the same as in the movie, except for some small alterations. In the book, Harry searches Umbridge's office under his Invisibility Cloak, where he finds out that Arthur Weasley has the Trace on him; by coincidence, he and Ron later get into an elevator with Ron's dad. Harry tries to warn Arthur that he is Traced, but Arthur, unaware it is Harry in disguise, mistakes this as a threat, and leaves. The trio save more Muggle-borns present at the Ministry, advising them to leave the country. When they go into the fireplace and end up in the lavatory, Harry hears Yaxley coming after them, so he grabs Ron and Hermione and Apparates to Grimmauld Place. However, Hermione immediately Apparates them away to the forest where the Quidditch World Cup was once held, as Yaxley was pulled with them to Grimmauld Place, and now knows it is their hiding place (in the movie she Apparates immediately to the Forrest of Dean, where she had once stayed with her parents).

While in the forest, Ron insist that no one use the name "Voldemort" any longer, as he feels the name is somehow jinxed (this later confirmed to be true upon Ron's return; speaking the name out loud allows the Death Eaters to quickly trace the speaker). They try to enter a small countryside village, but can't, due to the presence of Dementors; they venture to Tom Riddle's old orphanage, looking for a possible Horcrux, but the orphanage is completely replaced by offices. During one night in the forest, they eavesdrop on a conversation between a group of people, including Ted Tonks, Dean Thomas and two Goblins, who all fled from their homes. It appears that students at Hogwarts are subjected to severe punishments; a group, including Ginny, tried to steal the Gryffindor Sword from Snape's office, but were caught, and the Sword was sent to Bellatrix Lestrange's vault at Gringotts Bank. However, one goblin who saw the sword insists it was a fake. At any rate, no one seems to believe that Harry was responsible for Dumbledore's death.

Hermione questions Nigellus' portrait in her bag; he mentions that Dumbledore once used the real Gryffindor Sword to destroy a black ring; the sword is reinforced with Basilisk venom since Harry killed the Basilisk with it in the Chamber of Secrets, and can therefore destroy Horcruxes (in the movie they have no clue yet, trying to destroy the locket with conventional curses, until Hermione suddenly remembers that Basilisk fangs will do the trick, and they suddenly understand why Dumbledore left Harry the Gryffindor sword). Harry has some more talks with Nigellus' portrait later on, learning that the Hogwarts students are silently resisting Snape's rule.

There are scenes in the movie where Hermione ties her scarf to a tree for Ron, and Harry comforts Hermione by inviting her to a little dance, which are not in the book. Another scene exclusive to the film is where a group of Snatchers come dangerously close to the hidden camp, but then leave off.

When Harry and Hermione run out of ideas, they finally decide to go to Godric's Hollow; their only lead now is Bathilda Bagshot, who may known the location of Gryffindor's sword. In the book they disguise themselves as a middle-aged couple. The village has a war memorial, but this is a disguise for Muggles: wizards perceive it as a memorial of infant Harry and his parents. In the graveyard, they also find the graves of Dumbledore's mother and sister. Harry's old house bears an inscription, that it stands as a monument, invisible to Muggles. While invited inside by Bathilda, Harry's scar hurts, and he realizes that he is walking into Voldemort's trap. Nagini summons Voldemort, who suddenly Apparates inside, but Hermione is just able to Apparate them out. Half-conscious, Harry witnesses a flashback of Voldemort's memories from the night he killed Harry's parents.

Dumbledore's biography presents even more unsubstantiated rumors about Dumbledore and his family than Harry already read in the paper and heard from Aunt Muriel. However, one document written by Dumbledore himself clearly proves that Albus was once friends with Grindelwald, before he became a feared dark wizard, and that they had a shared view of wizards ruling over the Muggles for the greater good. This deeply conflicts Harry, as the Dumbledore he knew always strongly promoted equal rights for Muggle-born wizards. More anecdotal evidence points to Albus hiding his Squib sister out of shame, and her death as the point where his friendship with Grindelwald ended; apparently, Albus' brother Aberforth blamed Albus for the death, and punched him in the nose during the burial. Harry's trust in Dumbledore is starting to crumble.

At Xenophilius Lovegood's house, Harry notices a statue of Rowena Ravenclaw and her famous diadem, providing a clue for his later search. Upon hearing the story of the Deathly Hallows, they realize that Harry's Invisibility Cloak could be one of the Hallows, as, unlike other cloaks, its magic has never worn out over the years. When the Death Eaters arrive, Hermione causes an explosion and wipes Xenophilius' memory, while secretly Apparating themselves away to a field.

A large chapter spanning several weeks was excluded from the movie, where the Hallows and their alleged existence are further discussed. Harry now remembers that Voldemort's Horcrux ring had the symbol of the three Hallows engraved in it (he previously thought it was a family weapon), and realizes that the black stone set in the ring could very well be the Resurrection Stone, that had been passed to Voldemort's relatives, without he or any of them realizing. He also surmises that this stone is inside the Snitch. One night, they listen to a radio broadcast, which confirms the death of several people, including Ted Tonks. At the end, Harry inadvertently speaks Voldemort's name, which instantly removes the camp's magical protection and summons a group of Snatchers, who already have Dean Thomas and Griphook the goblin in their custody. In the movie, the three Apparate from Lovegood's house back to their old camp site, where the Snatchers, who found Hermione's scarf, are waiting for them. Dean is not with them and Griphook is already a captive at the Malfoy's.

The book does not specify how Hermione is tortured by Bellatrix (supposedly with the Cruciatus curse); in the movie, Bellatrix does it by carving the words "mudblood" into Hermione's skin. When Wormtail comes to check on the prisoners in the book, he gets into a brawl with Ron and Harry; while choking Harry with his artificial hand, Harry reminds him that he once saved Wormtail's life. Wormtail spares Harry and is subsequently choked by his own hand. Harry has another vision of Voldemort killing an uncooperative Grindelwald in his cell, whereas in the movie, Grindelwald reveals to him who took the Elder Wand, and Voldemort simply leaves.

When arriving at Shell Cottage, Harry sees Voldemort, furious about Harry's escape, punishing the Death Eaters at Malfoy Manor. Finally, he is successful in closing his mind to the vision.

The closing scene of the movie (Voldemort taking the Elder Wand from Dumbledore's tomb) is another vision that Harry witnesses, although in the book it occurs after Harry has had a talk with Griphook and Ollivander (which happens in the next film).