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Timeline

A chronology from the founding of Hogwarts through 2017. Uncertain dates are marked, and a few entries correct the source timeline where it conflicts with the books.

Founding

  1. c. 10th century

    Hogwarts is founded

    Uncertain

    Hostility in Europe pushes Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin to found a school and four houses.

  2. Soon after the founding

    The Chamber is built, and Slytherin leaves

    Uncertain

    A quarrel over who may study at Hogwarts ends with Slytherin leaving. He has already built the Chamber of Secrets and left a basilisk that only his heir is supposed to command.

Middle ages

  1. c. 1294

    The Triwizard Tournament begins

    Uncertain

    Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang agree to a contest every five years. It is later judged too dangerous and dropped for centuries.

  2. 1327

    Nicolas Flamel is born

    Uncertain

    The alchemist who will make the Philosopher’s Stone is born. He and his wife Perenelle later live far beyond a normal span because of it.

  3. 1473

    The first Quidditch World Cup

    The first World Cup final is played. Later accounts enjoy saying the match produced hundreds of kinds of foul.

  4. 1492-10-31

    Nearly Headless Nick dies

    Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington is executed badly enough to remain nearly headless, and becomes the ghost of Gryffindor.

Statute of Secrecy

  1. 1637

    The Werewolf Code of Conduct

    A code of conduct for werewolves is enacted. It does not stop prejudice, as Remus Lupin learns centuries later.

  2. 1689

    The International Statute of Secrecy

    Wizarding governments agree to hide from Muggles. The signature year is 1689. The statute is commonly treated as fully in force from 1692.

  3. 1709

    Dragon breeding is banned

    A wizards’ convention forbids breeding dragons. Hagrid will ignore the spirit of this more than once.

Eighteenth century

  1. 1722

    Dilys Derwent at St Mungo’s

    Dilys Derwent begins work as a Healer. Her portrait will later hang both at the hospital and in the headmaster’s office.

  2. 1741

    Dilys Derwent becomes headmistress

    Derwent is appointed headmistress of Hogwarts.

  3. 1768

    Dilys Derwent retires

    She leaves the post after a long tenure.

Nineteenth century

  1. 1875

    The underage sorcery decree

    The Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery forbids magic outside school before seventeen. The Trace will make Harry’s summers difficult.

  2. Late summer 1881

    Albus Dumbledore is born

    Uncertain

    Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore is born into a family that will not stay peaceful.

  3. c. 1899

    Ariana dies, and Dumbledore breaks with Grindelwald

    Uncertain

    In their youth Albus and Gellert Grindelwald plan a new order. Ariana Dumbledore dies in the wreck of that summer, and Albus breaks with Grindelwald for decades.

Tom Riddle

  1. 1926-12-31

    Tom Marvolo Riddle is born

    Merope Gaunt gives birth in a Muggle orphanage on New Year’s Eve and dies shortly after. The child is named for his father and his grandfather.

  2. 1928-12-06

    Rubeus Hagrid is born

    A half-giant child is born. His mother leaves; his father raises him.

  3. 1938

    Dumbledore fetches Tom, who is sorted into Slytherin

    Dumbledore visits the orphanage and brings Tom to Hogwarts. The Hat places him in Slytherin. He already frightens the other children.

  4. 1940

    Hagrid starts at Hogwarts

    Hagrid is sorted into Gryffindor. He will be expelled before he can finish, blamed for a crime Tom committed.

  5. 1943-06-13

    The Chamber opens; Myrtle dies; the diary becomes a Horcrux

    Uncertain

    In his fifth year Tom opens the Chamber. The basilisk kills Myrtle Warren. He frames Hagrid, and after the murder he makes his first Horcrux, the diary.

  6. 1942–1943

    “I am Lord Voldemort”

    Uncertain

    Tom rearranges the letters of Tom Marvolo Riddle. The diary shows he was already using the name at school. The day he coined it is not given.

  7. Summer 1943

    The Riddle murders and the ring Horcrux

    In the summer between his fifth and sixth years Tom finds the Gaunts, kills his father and grandparents, frames Morfin, and takes the ring. He makes it a second Horcrux.

  8. Date unknown

    The ring is hidden at the Gaunt shack

    Uncertain

    The ring Horcrux is later returned to the ruined shack. When, exactly, is not said.

  9. 1945

    Riddle leaves school and Dippet refuses him

    Tom graduates, leaves the diary at the school, and asks Armando Dippet for the Defence post. Dippet says he is too young. Dippet, not Dumbledore, is headmaster.

  10. Late 1940s

    Hepzibah Smith is murdered

    Uncertain

    While working at Borgin and Burkes, Tom flatters Hepzibah Smith, kills her, and takes Slytherin’s locket and Hufflepuff’s cup. Both become Horcruxes. Her house-elf is blamed.

  11. Mid to late 1940s

    Borgin and Burkes, and the search for the diadem

    Uncertain

    Tom works in the Knockturn Alley shop, hunts founder relics, and will turn Ravenclaw’s diadem into a Horcrux after a murder abroad. He does not become headmaster of anything.

  12. Mid to late 1950s

    Dumbledore refuses the Defence post

    Uncertain

    Tom returns, already changed, and asks again to teach Defence. Dumbledore refuses. On that visit the diadem Horcrux is hidden in the Room of Requirement.

Grindelwald

  1. 1945

    Dumbledore defeats Grindelwald

    In 1945 Dumbledore wins the duel and the Elder Wand. It is the most famous thing he has done, and it is not the same event as becoming headmaster.

Before the first war

  1. 1956-12

    McGonagall begins teaching

    In December 1956 Dumbledore, Head of Transfiguration under Headmaster Dippet, offers Minerva McGonagall a post.

  2. After December 1956, before September 1971

    Dumbledore becomes headmaster

    Uncertain

    Albus Dumbledore succeeds Armando Dippet. Minerva McGonagall will in time become Head of Transfiguration and deputy headmistress.

  3. 1959-11-03

    Sirius Black is born

    Sirius Black is born on 3 November 1959. He will be 36 when he dies in June 1996, before his next birthday.

  4. 1960-01-30

    Lily Evans is born

    Lily Evans is born. She will be Muggle-born, brilliant at Potions, and the reason Snape changes sides.

  5. 1960-03-27

    James Potter is born

    James Potter is born on 27 March 1960. Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, and Severus Snape are born the same year. Sirius was born the previous November.

  6. 1961

    Regulus Black is born

    Sirius’s younger brother is born into the same house Sirius will reject.

First wizarding war

  1. 1970

    The Death Eaters gather

    Voldemort, long out of sight, recruits. The mark and the name Death Eater spread.

  2. 1970-11-29

    Bill Weasley is born

    The eldest Weasley child is born on 29 November 1970.

  3. 1971

    The Marauders and Snape start Hogwarts

    Lily, James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter are sorted into Gryffindor. Snape is sorted into Slytherin. The Whomping Willow is planted so Lupin can be safely shut away.

  4. During the first war

    The cup goes to the Lestrange vault

    Uncertain

    The Hufflepuff cup, already a Horcrux, is placed in the Lestrange vault at Gringotts. Bellatrix will treat the vault as her charge.

  5. 1972

    Lucius graduates; Charlie Weasley is born

    Lucius Malfoy leaves Hogwarts and joins the Death Eaters. Charlie Weasley is born the same year.

  6. 1974

    Regulus starts at Hogwarts

    Regulus Black is sorted into Slytherin. He will join the Death Eaters younger than he can afford.

  7. 1975

    The Marauders become Animagi

    By their fifth year James, Sirius, and Peter can become a stag, a dog, and a rat, so they can keep Lupin company. Lupin is a Gryffindor prefect.

  8. c. 1975–1978

    The Marauder’s Map

    Uncertain

    James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter make a map of the castle that shows everyone in it. The exact year is not given. It is their work as students, most likely in the later 1970s.

  9. 1976

    Percy’s year, and Sirius leaves home

    Uncertain

    Percy Weasley, Oliver Wood, Viktor Krum, and Fleur Delacour are born around this time. Sirius runs away and is taken in by the Potters.

  10. 1977

    Cedric is born; Regulus takes the mark

    Cedric Diggory is born. Regulus Black becomes a Death Eater. Sirius is living away from Grimmauld Place.

  11. 1978

    The Marauders graduate; James and Lily marry

    James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, and Snape leave school. Snape and Pettigrew are among the Death Eaters. James and Lily marry. Fred and George Weasley are born on April Fools’ Day.

  12. 1979

    The cave, and Regulus dies

    Voldemort hides the locket in a cave of Inferi. Regulus learns the secret, has Kreacher help him switch the locket, and is dragged under. Kreacher is left with the real one and an order he cannot bear.

  13. 1979-09-19

    Hermione Granger is born

    Hermione is born on 19 September 1979 to a Muggle dentist and a Muggle dentist.

  14. Early 1980

    The prophecy, and Snape changes sides

    Uncertain

    Sybill Trelawney makes the prophecy at the Hog’s Head. Snape overhears part of it and tells Voldemort. When he realises it points at Lily, he goes to Dumbledore.

  15. 1980-03-01

    Ron Weasley is born

    Ron Weasley is born on 1 March 1980.

  16. 1980-06-05

    Draco Malfoy is born

    Draco is born on 5 June 1980. Cornelius Fudge does not become Minister this year.

  17. 1980-06

    Dudley Dursley is born

    Uncertain

    Petunia and Vernon Dursley’s son is born in June 1980.

  18. 1980-07-30

    Neville Longbottom is born

    Neville is born on 30 July 1980, a day before Harry. The prophecy could have meant either boy.

  19. 1980-07-31

    Harry Potter is born

    Harry is born on 31 July 1980 at Godric’s Hollow.

  20. 1981

    Snape joins the staff

    Uncertain

    Snape becomes Potions master and Head of Slytherin while still Dumbledore’s man. Ginny Weasley, Luna Lovegood, and Colin Creevey are born this year.

  21. 1981-10-31

    James and Lily die; Voldemort falls

    Pettigrew has betrayed the secret. James dies in the hall. Lily refuses to stand aside, and the curse rebounds. Voldemort is torn from his body. A piece of soul attaches itself to Harry.

  22. 1 November 1981

    Harry is left at the Dursleys; Sirius is framed

    Uncertain

    Hagrid brings Harry to Privet Drive on Sirius’s motorcycle. Voldemort is bodiless in Albania. Pettigrew, as a rat, will find the Weasleys. Sirius is sent to Azkaban without a trial.

Between the wars

  1. 1982

    Bill starts Hogwarts

    Uncertain

    Bill Weasley is sorted into Gryffindor. The same stretch of years includes Aberforth Dumbledore’s notorious goat case, which the source timeline places in 1982.

  2. 1987

    Percy starts at Hogwarts

    Percy Weasley is sorted into Gryffindor and will be a prefect as soon as the rules allow.

  3. 1988

    Cedric starts at Hogwarts

    Cedric Diggory is sorted into Hufflepuff.

  4. 1989

    Bill leaves; the twins arrive

    Bill becomes a curse-breaker. Fred, George, and their yearmates start in Gryffindor.

  5. 1990

    Cho and Katie start; Hagrid buys Fluffy

    Cho Chang is sorted into Ravenclaw and Katie Bell into Gryffindor. Hagrid buys a three-headed dog from a Greek chap he met in the pub.

  6. 1990

    Cornelius Fudge becomes Minister

    Fudge takes office in 1990. He will deny Voldemort’s return until the evidence is standing in the Ministry atrium, and he resigns in the summer of 1996.

The seven school years

  1. 1991-07-31

    Hagrid takes Harry from the cupboard

    On his eleventh birthday Harry learns he is a wizard. The letters stop because Hagrid has come in person.

  2. 1991-09-01

    Harry boards the Hogwarts Express

    Platform 9¾, the scarlet train, and a boy named Ron in the compartment.

  3. 1991–1992

    First year: the Philosopher’s Stone

    Quirrell shares his body with Voldemort. Harry becomes the youngest Seeker in a century. The Stone is destroyed with Quirrell. Voldemort flees again.

  4. 1992–1993

    Second year: the Chamber of Secrets

    Ginny, Colin, and Luna’s year arrives. Lockhart teaches nothing useful. The diary possesses Ginny. Harry destroys it with a basilisk fang.

  5. 1993–1994

    Third year: the Prisoner of Azkaban

    Sirius escapes. Lupin teaches Defence. Harry casts a Patronus. Pettigrew is exposed and runs. Sirius remains a wanted man.

  6. Summer 1994

    Frank Bryce dies; Nagini becomes a Horcrux

    Pettigrew finds what is left of Voldemort. The Riddle gardener, Frank Bryce, is killed. Nagini is made into a Horcrux. This is the summer before the World Cup.

  7. 1994-08

    The Quidditch World Cup

    The 422nd World Cup ends in a Death Eater riot. Barty Crouch Jr sends up the Dark Mark.

  8. Late August 1994

    Moody is replaced

    Uncertain

    Crouch Jr and Pettigrew attack Alastor Moody. Crouch will spend the year in his skin, teaching Defence.

  9. 1994-10-30

    Durmstrang and Beauxbatons arrive

    The visiting schools reach Hogwarts for the Tournament. Krum and Fleur are already the likely champions.

  10. 1994-10-31

    The Goblet names four champions

    Krum, Fleur, Cedric, and — impossibly — Harry. Crouch has bewitched the cup.

  11. 1994-11-24

    The first task

    Four dragons. Each champion takes a golden egg.

  12. 1995-02-24

    The second task

    The champions dive into the lake for the people they would miss most.

  13. Spring 1995

    Barty Crouch Sr is killed

    Uncertain

    Crouch Jr kills his father on the grounds and hides the body. Harry will dream it before he understands it.

  14. 1995-06-24

    The third task; Voldemort returns

    The cup is a Portkey. Cedric is killed at once. Voldemort regains a body. The wands connect. Harry escapes with Cedric’s body, and Crouch Jr is kissed.

  15. 1995-07

    The Order of the Phoenix reforms

    Headquarters is number twelve, Grimmauld Place. Sirius is still a fugitive inside his own mother’s house.

  16. 1995-08-02

    Dementors in Little Whinging

    Harry and Dudley are attacked. Harry’s Patronus saves them and gets him hauled before the Ministry.

  17. 1995-08-12

    Harry’s hearing

    He is cleared. Dumbledore and Amelia Bones are the reason the trial does not go the way Fudge wanted.

  18. 1995–1996 school year

    Umbridge takes the school

    She arrives to teach Defence, then becomes High Inquisitor. Educational Decrees pile up. The centaurs finally drive her out of the forest.

  19. October 1995

    Dumbledore’s Army

    Uncertain

    Hermione proposes a student group. They meet in the Room of Requirement and learn actual Defence from Harry. The name is her joke and their banner.

  20. 1995

    Sturgis Podmore is caught

    Uncertain

    Podmore, Imperiused, is arrested trying to get through a door in the Ministry. The aim was the prophecy.

  21. 1995-12

    Nagini attacks Arthur Weasley

    Harry sees it because of the scar. Arthur survives. Occlumency lessons with Snape begin, and fail.

  22. 1996-01

    The Azkaban breakout

    Bellatrix and other Death Eaters escape. Broderick Bode, who had been made to steal the prophecy, is murdered in St Mungo’s.

  23. 1996-06-18

    The Department of Mysteries; Sirius dies

    A false vision draws Harry and five friends into the Department. The prophecy sphere breaks. Bellatrix kills Sirius. Dumbledore and Voldemort duel in the atrium. The Ministry can no longer deny the return.

  24. Summer 1996

    The ring, the vow, and a new Minister

    Dumbledore puts on the ring and takes a fatal curse. He asks Snape to kill him when the time comes, rather than let Draco do it. Snape makes the Unbreakable Vow with Narcissa. Fudge is out. Rufus Scrimgeour is in. Amelia Bones and Emmeline Vance are dead.

  25. 1996-08

    Slughorn comes back

    Dumbledore and Harry recruit Horace Slughorn. Harry needs the memory Slughorn is ashamed of.

  26. 1996-10

    The opal necklace

    A cursed necklace meant for Dumbledore injures Katie Bell. Draco is already failing at murder and does not know how to stop.

  27. 1997-03-01

    Ron is poisoned

    On his seventeenth birthday Ron drinks poisoned mead meant for Dumbledore. Harry keeps him alive with a bezoar.

  28. June 1997

    The cave, the false locket, and Dumbledore’s death

    Uncertain

    Dumbledore and Harry take a locket from the cave. It is a fake, with a note from R.A.B. Death Eaters enter by Draco’s vanishing cabinet. Snape kills Dumbledore on the tower.

  29. June–July 1997

    Lupin and Tonks marry

    Uncertain

    Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks marry in the weeks after Dumbledore’s funeral, before the Ministry falls.

  30. Late July 1997

    The seven Potters

    Uncertain

    The protective charm on Privet Drive is about to break. Harry is moved under Polyjuice. Hedwig and Mad-Eye Moody die. George loses an ear. The Ministry is already being taken from within: Yaxley has Pius Thicknesse under the Imperius Curse, and Charity Burbage is murdered.

  31. 1997-07-31

    Dumbledore’s will

    On Harry’s seventeenth birthday Scrimgeour brings the bequests: the snitch, the sword that the Ministry will not hand over, and the Tales of Beedle the Bard.

  32. 1997-08-01

    The wedding, and the Ministry falls

    Bill and Fleur marry. The Patronus comes during the reception: Scrimgeour is dead and the Ministry has fallen. The trio flees to Grimmauld Place.

  33. 1997-09-01

    Snape is made headmaster

    Term opens under Severus Snape. The Carrows teach cruelty as a subject.

  34. 1997-09-02

    The Ministry raid

    Polyjuiced, the trio enter the Ministry, take the locket from Umbridge, and are forced on the run when their cover breaks.

  35. Autumn 1997

    Ron leaves

    The locket wears them down. Ron goes. He will come back.

  36. 1997-12

    Godric’s Hollow, the sword, and the locket

    A trap at the cottage breaks Harry’s wand. Nagini is waiting in Bathilda’s body. Later Snape’s doe leads Harry to the sword in a frozen pool. Ron returns and destroys the locket. Luna is taken from the train to pressure her father.

  37. 1998-03

    Malfoy Manor; Dobby dies

    The taboo on Voldemort’s name gets them caught. Dobby rescues them and dies on the beach. In the same stretch of weeks Voldemort opens Dumbledore’s tomb and takes the Elder Wand. Xenophilius Lovegood has already tried to trade them for Luna.

  38. 1998-04

    Teddy Lupin is born

    Uncertain

    Teddy Remus Lupin is born in April. Harry is named godfather. His parents have weeks to live.

  39. 1998-05-02

    The Battle of Hogwarts

    The trio breaks into Gringotts for the cup. At the castle the diadem is destroyed, Neville kills Nagini, and fifty-odd defenders die, among them Fred, Lupin, Tonks, and Colin. Harry walks into the Forest and comes back. Voldemort dies in the Great Hall on 2 May 1998.

Epilogue

  1. May 1998

    Kingsley Shacklebolt becomes Minister

    Uncertain

    After the battle Kingsley leads the Ministry, first as acting Minister and then confirmed. The day of the formal appointment is not pinned down here.

  2. 2017-09-01

    Nineteen years later

    On 1 September 2017 Harry and Ginny send James, Albus, and Lily to the train. Ron and Hermione send Rose and Hugo. Draco sees Scorpius off. Neville teaches. Luna is off studying creatures. The platform is busy and ordinary.