25) Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire-JK Rowling

The bridge between the light and the dark. The first really large book in the series. The one where everything starts happening and it's a game of cat and mouse from here on out.  I'm going to make this as short as possible because too much goes on.

The Weasley's come to fetch Harry from the Dursleys and talk him to the Quidditch World Cup. After the match has finished, the Death Eaters make their presence known, the Dark Mark is cast by Harry's wand and Barty Crouch's house elf is seen as the culprit. Unease as spread and at the start of term feast, they learn that the Triwizard Tournament has been reinstated and will be held at Hogwarts. The sky goes apeshit, some creepy man with a steel leg and bizarre eye waltzes in and fixes it. They learn within the week that Professor Alastor Moody is not someone you want to be messing with. I mean, come on. The guy performs the Unforgivable Curses in front of the entire classroom! What is that? 

Anyway, a month goes by and the school is soon infiltrated by the students of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. They learn of the rules of the Triwizard Tournament, the dangers that it entails, the courage needed and the fact that you must be seventeen to enter. On Halloween, the champions (Cedric, Fleur and Krum) are announced, but the clapping soon dies down as Harry's name explodes from the goblet. Of course he's meant to compete because it's a binding magical contract. Rita Skeeter jumps on this information and begins writing article after article on him. This also causes serious tension between Harry and Ron which leaves Hermoine stuck as a not so successful peacemaker.

Harry learns that the first task is dragons from Hagrid. Moody then helps Harry to see that he needs to play to his strengths. Luckily, they are learning Summoning Charms and Hermoine helps him perfect it in order to summon his broom to him in the dragon pit. Since he doesn't have it easy, Harry gets the angriest dragon, the Hungarian Horntail, to try and get the egg from. He summons his broom, gets a few injuries, collects the egg and gets the highest score of the event. This causes Ron to realize what an idiot he's been, they make up and it's all good. They learn of the Yule Ball, how they have to finally talk to girls that aren't Hermoine and that Harry must open the dance as one of the champions. Harry asks Cho, but obviously too late because she's already going with Cedric. Tough luck. At the last minute, Harry asks Parvarti if her and her sister would like to go with him and Ron so they don't have to go alone. They overhear an upsetting chat between Hagrid and Madame Maxime that oddly winds up in the Prophet and Ron upsets Hermoine. Again.

Cedric wishes to repay Harry for the information about the dragons, tells him to open the egg in the bath and to use the prefects bathroom. Myrtle tells him he should open it underwater. He hears the song of the merpeople, searches every book possible, loses the help of Ron and Hermoine the night before and almost sleeps beyond the starting point of the second task if it weren't for Dobby spotting him in the library. Still unsure of what to do, Dobby tells him to use Gillyweed. With only an hour under the black lake, he searches for the merpeople and what they have taken from him. He sees Ron, Hermoine, Cho and Fleur's sister tethered to rocks and attempts to free them all. He's only allowed one, frees Ron, takes the song too damn literally and after saving Fleur's sister as well, reaches the top of the lake a little outside the hour. He is awarded second place for moral fiber. 

Harry finds Barty Crouch stumbling and muttering in the woods, he pleads for Dumbledore and Harry leaves him with Krum. When he returns, Krum is stunned and Barty is gone. After some commotion, he finds himself in the pensieve looking upon a few trials held in the Department of Mysteries, including the arrest of Barty Crouch Jr. and Bellatrix Lestrange. He then tells Dumbledore about the dreams he has been having and how Voldemort is in search of Harry once more. Moody starts to seem really fishy, but hardly someone to focus on with the third task edging close. They learn the last task is to be a maze full of creatures and road blocks that will want to prevent them from the cup placed in the middle. Harry and Cedric reach the cup together, take hold of it and are transported to the graveyard of Voldy's dad. Here is where Voldy kills Cedric (later turned vampire and relocated to America), uses a spell involving Harry's blood and regenerates. A duel between Harry and Voldy breaks out, but due to their sister cores, they can scarcely do any harm. Ghostly apparitions appear and help protect Harry so he can return to the cup and spread the news the Voldy has come back. Once back, they learn of Moody really being Barty Crouch Jr., the story of how he got out of Azkaban and how the Dark Lord has returned. Everyone goes home wondering whether Dumbledore and Harry are telling the truth.

And so the darkness begins...

24) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban-JK Rowling

Ah, my favorite of the innocent years. The way I see it, the series is separated into two parts. The first half, years one through three, is the innocent years, the second half, years five through seven, being the dark years and the fourth bridging the two of them. If we're talking first half, this is by FAR the best in the first half.

It starts off like any other book. Harry is continually being mistreated by the Dursleys and it has now become intensified by the appearance of Aunt Marge. Always one to rag on Harry, she goes too far one night and he causes her to turn into a gigantic human balloon. Harry runs off with his belongings and sees a black dog peering out between some bushes which causes him to fall back and summon the Knight Bus. Once on the bus, he learns that Sirius Black was actually a prisoner in and escaped from Azkaban for a mass murder the day after Harry escaped Voldemort. Not feeling at all comfortable with this information, he turns up at the Leaky Cauldron where the minister is waiting for him. After a few weeks, he is joined by Ron and Hermoine before heading back to school. 

But, as this is Harry Potter, he is not far from trouble for long. After telling Ron and Hermoine all about Sirius Black, the train comes to an abrupt halt and is searched by the dementors. This is the first time Harry is reminded of the pain of Voldemort killing his mother, for he hears her screaming whenever the dementors get too close. He eats a bunch of chocolate, they wonder how Hermoine is getting to all of her lessons and they begin their new subjects of Divination and Care of Magical Creatures. Trelawney soon starts seeing the Grim (a giant spectral dog that is "of the darkest omens of our world. It is an omen of death.") every time she sees Harry and Buckbeak the hippogriff takes a liking to Harry. 

Because he didn't get his Hogsmeade permission slip signed, Harry is forced to sneak into the village by means of stealth. When the Weasley twins discover this, they offer him the Marauder's Map. This allows Harry to sneak into the basement of Honeydukes, meet up with Ron and Hermoine and into the Three Broomsticks where he learns of what happened the night his parents died, how Sirius is his godfather, who he murdered and how he's now on the hunt for Harry. He learns to cast a patronus from Lupin, as a few close scares with Sirius and has to deal with the fued between his friends over their pets. They go to visit Hagrid before Buckbeak's execution and things start to go wild.

Once they leave Hagrid's hut, Scabbers makes a run for it. Ron chases after him, leading the other two to chase after Ron, wind up at the base of the Whomping Willow and Ron gets dragged into the base by a large black dog. Obviously Harry and Hermoine go after him and follow the tunnel until they reach the Shrieking Shack. They arrive to see an injured Ron cupping a squirming Scabbers and a dirty, ragged version of Sirius. Before he can get his story out, Harry attacks, Lupin comes in and he begins to realize Sirius might not be guilty. As the story starts to unfold, Snape comes in, is knocked unconscious and Scabbers turns out to be Peter Pettigrew. The story of what happened unfolds and Harry's world is knocked for a loop. They go back to the school, but halfway there, Lupin sees the full moon, transforms into a werewolf and in an effort to save the trio, Sirius turns back into the dog to fight the Lupinwolf. Harry follows Sirius down to the lake where the dementors close in and almost kill both of them before a shiny silver stag prance across the lake. They wake up in hospital, Harry learns of Hermoine's time-turner, Dumbledore gives them directions and the two of them are off. They go back in time, save Buckbeak and Sirius and save the day. Yay! Just another year at good old Hogwarts.

What I really love about this one, apart from the movie being directed by none other than Alfonso Cuaron, is that it had the first really MASSIVE twist in the series. This little rat that has been in on their every conversation for the last three years is actually a HUMAN? And not just ANY human, but the one that was the secret-keeper for the Potters and betrayed them to Voldemort? It absolutely blew my mind and still does whenever I read it again. It was not something that anyone who was reading it could see coming. It resolves yet sets up so much of what happens in the rest of the series. He knows so much of what they know and throw around in order to stall his return. I think that that is absolutely wild. That twist alone is a testament to the talent that that woman possesses. 

Another little note on the movie: I am still dying for a heart shaped cotton candy like the one either Neville or Seamus has in the movie. If anyone can help me with that, I will be terribly grateful.

23) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets-JK Rowling

If we're being honest here, this is my least favorite Potter book. I really dislike spiders and snakes and what's this book filled with? A GIANT SNAKE AND A TRILLION SPIDERS. Yes, that makes reading this book an exceptionally wonderful read. Only not.

So, moving on...

Here we find Harry shut up in his room and not allowed to even SPEAK to anyone in the wizarding world. When a house elf (who doesn't love Dobby? Honestly.) shows up in his bedroom and tells him that he must not go back because terrible things are going to happen at Hogwarts and proceeds to tell Harry he has stopped his letters, Harry is both curious and furious (I really couldn't help the rhyming). Dobby refuses to take no for an answer and smashes a pudding over a visitor's head. This clearly doesn't bode well with the Dursleys and Harry becomes an absolute prisoner in his own home. Luckily, the Weasley brothers come to the rescue. 

The chapters where Fred, George and Ron come to rescue him and he's at the Burrow are my favorites. They're just so much fun. 

After crashing the flying car into the whomping willow, seeing Lockhart at the staff table, a few weeks of schoolwork and Nearly Headless Nick's 500th deathday party, the trio happens upon the first attack once the chamber of secrets has been opened. There's a few more attacks, people accuse Harry, Lockhart really sucks at being a wizard, Hermoine turns into a cat, Harry and Ron follow the spiders ("Follow the spiders?! Why couldn't it be follow the BUTTERFLIES?" is one of the best lines from that movie), they suspect Hagrid and Ginny is taken into the chamber. Being the ever adventurous duo (as Hermoine is petrified and they cannot be a trio), Harry and Ron set out to help Lockhart. Seeing as he is completely inept and cause a cascade of rock, Harry leaves Ron behind and enters the chamber to save Ginny. Why is Tom Riddle here? How has he not aged a day? Why does he have Harry's wand? Fishy stuff, if you ask me.

Anyway, it turns out that the diary is a "preserved memory" of Voldemort's sixteen-year-old self and Harry erases it with a basilisk fang. He rids the school of the monster within, saves Ginny and helps to free Dobby. Just another year at Hogwarts, you know?

I think what I have enjoyed most about rereading the early books (it's the last time to ever read the series before a movie comes out, duh) is how incredibly intricate the series as a whole is. I mean, she gives you clues in the first two books that are immensely important all the way in the seventh and final episode. I would also like to point out that for a book I enjoy least, I sure as hell had a lot to say.