The Harry Potter movies are overall faithful to the books, but what do people think and which ones they prefer?
Following Dumbledore’s death, Voldemort is attempting to take control of the Ministry of Magic. During Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour’s wedding, the Ministry falls to Voldemort, and the wedding is attacked by Death Eaters.
Late one night, Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall, professors at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, along with the school’s groundskeeper Rubeus Hagrid, deliver a recently orphaned infant named Harry Potter to his only remaining relatives, the Dursleys. After he and the Dursleys escape to an island to avoid more letters, Hagrid re-appears and informs Harry that he is a wizard and has been accepted into Hogwarts against the Dursleys’ wishes.
Spending the summer with the Dursleys, Harry Potter meets Dobby, a house-elf who warns him it’s too dangerous to return to Hogwarts. Harry and the Weasley family are joined by Rubeus Hagrid and Hermione Granger at a book-signing by Gilderoy Lockhart, who announces he is Hogwarts’ new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher.
Harry is back at the Dursleys’ for the summer holidays, where he sees on Muggle television that a convict named Sirius Black has escaped from prison. After being picked up by the Knight Bus, meeting Stan Shunpike, and encountering a large black dog that seems to be watching him, he travels to the Leaky Cauldron, where Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic, asks Harry to stay in Diagon Alley for his own protection.
Harry Potter awakens from a nightmare wherein a man named Frank Bryce is killed after overhearing Lord Voldemort conspiring with Peter Pettigrew and another man. While Harry attends the Quidditch World Cup match between Ireland and Bulgaria with the Weasleys and Hermione, Death Eaters terrorise the camp, and the man who appeared in Harry’s dream summons the Dark Mark.
The Order of the Phoenix, a secret organization founded by Albus Dumbledore, informs Harry Potter that the Ministry of Magic is oblivious to Lord Voldemort’s return. As Umbridge’s control over the school increases, Ron and Hermione aid Harry in forming a secret group to train students in defensive spells, calling themselves Dumbledore’s Army.
The Minister for Magic Rufus Scrimgeour addresses the wizarding media, stating that the Ministry remains strong despite Lord Voldemort gaining power and the Death Eaters committing mass killings of Muggles and infiltrating the Ministry. Meanwhile, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger resolve to complete the mission Albus Dumbledore gave Harry by hunting down and destroying Voldemort’s Horcruxes.
Severus Snape, a member of the Order of the Phoenix, meets with Narcissa Malfoy, Draco’s mother, and her sister Bellatrix Lestrange, Lord Voldemort’s supporter. They detour to the home of Horace Slughorn, former Potions teacher at Hogwarts, and Harry unwittingly helps persuade Slughorn to teach.
In 1926, British wizard and magizoologist Newton Newt Scamander arrives in New York City. Attempting to recapture a Niffler that escaped from his suitcase of magical creatures, Newt meets No-Maj Jacob Kowalski, an aspiring baker, and they unwittingly swap suitcases.
In 1927, the Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA) transfers the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald to Europe to stand trial, but Grindelwald escapes. Three months later in London, Newt Scamander visits the Ministry of Magic to appeal his international travel ban, and runs into Leta Lestrange, his Hogwarts classmate and the fiancée of his Auror brother Theseus.