Voldemort is unable to give his complete attention to the quest to kill Harry because he is searching for one of the hallows: an undefeatable wand. The search for the Horcruxes is complicated when Harry learns of the existence of another set of magical objects – the “deathly hallows” – which might also be vital to the settlement of the final battle. Unable to return to Hogwarts, Harry is forced to go on the run with Ron and Hermione, hunting desperately for the “Horcruxes” that contain fragments of Voldemort’s soul and thus maintain his invulnerability.
When the spell that has kept him safe until his seventeenth birthday expires, he and his helpers are immediately attacked by Voldemort, suffering casualties. Following another deeply troubled year at Hogwarts, described in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, at the end of which Dumbledore is killed by the ever-deceptive Severus Snape, Harry begins the final volume of the series in hiding.
