Summary

• The number seven holds significant importance throughout the Harry Potter series, appearing in many aspects such as the number of times Harry faced Voldemort and the creation of Horcruxes.
• The magical study of Arithmancy deems seven as the most magically significant number, which is why Voldemort believed seven soul fragments would grant him immortality. However, Harry's encounters with Voldemort indicate that the number seven may have been on his side instead.
• Harry's survival in his encounters with Voldemort is due to various factors, such as Lily's sacrifice, the connection between their wands, and Harry's possession of the Elder Wand. These elements come together to protect Harry and ensure Voldemort's ultimate defeat.

The Boy Who Lived came face to face with Lord Voldemort precisely seven times in the Harry Potter series. This number held a lot of significance throughout the series—there are seven Harry Potter books, Voldemort created seven Horcruxes, a wand costs seven Galleons, and the list goes on and on. One of the more subtle references to seven is the number of times that Harry faced Voldemort in the flesh and survived. It goes to show just how lucky the hero of Harry Potter was, as well as how powerful this mysterious number could be.

Though it's never entirely clear what sort of magical protection the number seven carries, its presence is constant throughout the Harry Potter series. In the magical study of Arithmancy, there is a law that deems seven the most magically significant number, which is why a young Tom Riddle believed that seven soul fragments would solidify his immortality. Of course, he accidentally ripped his soul into eight pieces, so this didn't work out how he had hoped. Instead, the number seven might have been on Harry Potter's side. This is because, from meeting Lord Voldemort as a baby to their final battle in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry survived the Dark Lord seven times.

7 Voldemort's Attempted Murder At Godric's Hallow

The first time that Harry and Voldemort came face to face was when the boy was only a year old. The Dark Lord had received word of a prophecy indicating that a boy born at the end of July, whose parents had thrice defied him, would be the one to take him down. He determined this was the young Harry Potter and set out to murder the boy and his family. However, his follower, Severus Snape, requested that Lily Potter be spared. Though it's unclear why, Voldemort agreed to allow her to live so long as she gave up her son.

Of course, Lily refused, and she stood between Voldemort and Harry without raising her wand. Her subsequent murder set off a chain reaction that would continue to keep her son protected for years. When Voldemort moved on to Harry, his Killing Curse backfired, and the Dark Lord's body was destroyed. Since Voldemort had portions of his soul hidden within his Horcruxes, the bit that had been in his destroyed body remained tethered to the living world, though it was once again ripped apart. One part embedded itself into the infant Harry Potter, while the other roamed the earth as a specter for the next decade.

6 The Search For The Philosopher's Stone

The next time Harry Potter would see Lord Voldemort was during the boy's first year at Hogwarts. In the years following the attack at Godric's Hallow, Voldemort's disembodied soul had taken refuge in Albania, awaiting an opportunity to gain power again. In a bit of luck, he was found by a young wizard named Quirinus Quirrell, who had hoped that finding the Dark Lord would earn him some renown within the wizarding community. Of course, Voldemort was too much for him to handle, and Quirrell was ultimately possessed by the Dark wizard, who then became a face protruding from the back of his head.

With Quirrell, Voldemort went to Hogwarts, where he hoped to use the Philosopher's Stone to regain a body of his own. Unfortunately for him, Harry Potter got in his way. Albus Dumbledore had cleverly used the Mirror of Erised as the last line of defense for the Philosopher's Stone, so only someone who desired the Stone selflessly could obtain it. When Quirrell tried to take the Stone from him, Lily's protective love once again made this impossible. Quirrell was killed, Voldemort's soul again escaped, and Harry survived his second interaction with the Dark Lord.

5 Voldemort's Resurrection At The Graveyard

It was a couple of years before Harry saw Lord Voldemort again. He had unknowingly found one of the Dark Lord's Horcruxes in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, but the image of young Tom Riddle wasn't quite the real deal (just as facing the Horcruxes in Deathly Hallows didn't count as a true interaction). In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Voldemort, with the help of Peter Pettigrew, managed to create a new body for himself. He used a variety of ingredients to do this, including some of Harry's blood. What he didn't realize was that this would be his undoing.

In his third interaction with Lord Voldemort, Harry stood his ground and dueled the Dark Lord. Though the villain cast the Killing Curse, the only thing that Harry could think to do in response was cast Expelliarmus. Luckily, this did the trick. Harry and Voldemort's wands shared a common core—feathers from the very same phoenix. This meant that they could do no fatal harm to one another. The colliding spells, therefore, enacted a rare wizarding world phenomenon called Priori Incantatem. The two wands connected, and imprints of Voldemort's latest victims were expelled, giving Harry enough time to escape once again.

4 The Battle At The Department Of Mysteries

It would be a couple of years before Voldemort understood why he had been unable to kill Harry at the graveyard in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. He didn't know about the twin cores and wouldn't until he abducted Ollivander the wandmaker in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. In the meantime, he decided that the answer to why Harry continued to escape him would be in Sybill Trelawney's prophecy, which he had only heard part of. So, he made it his mission to obtain this prophecy from the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic.

Only those whom the prophecies were about could fetch them from the Hall of Prophecies, and since Voldemort was trying to keep his return on the down-low, he lured Harry there to do it. However, the Boy Who Lived came with backup. Dumbledore's Army and the Order of the Phoenix put up more of a fight than the Death Eaters had anticipated. Voldemort arrived at the Ministry himself, dueled Dumbledore, and attempted to possess Harry to force Dumbledore into murdering the boy to get to him. However, Harry's love and sorrow after Sirius Black's death were too much for Voldemort to endure. He was forced to abandon Harry's body, and the Boy Who Lived escaped yet again.

3 The Battle Of Seven Potters

After the conflict at the Ministry of Magic, it was over a year before Voldemort had another chance to attack Harry Potter. The day the Boy Who Lived left the Dursleys was a prime opportunity since it meant the end of Lily's magical protection (or so everyone thought). By this point, Voldemort had discovered (through torturing Ollivander) why his wand had reacted in such a way with Harry's in Goblet of Fire. So, he borrowed another wand—Lucius Malfoy's—believing this would allow him to finally kill Harry Potter.

When Voldemort learned which of the seven Harry Potters was the real one, he attempted to use Lucius' wand to kill Harry, but it once again didn't go as planned. Though Harry wouldn't fully understand this until the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the fact that Harry and Voldemort had several physical connections—Voldemort's soul within Harry and Harry's blood within Voldemort—meant that Harry's phoenix-feather wand recognized Voldemort as both a friend and mortal enemy. This again resulted in a phenomenon that made Harry's wand regurgitate Voldemort's magic back at him. It acted on its own, and Harry escaped.

2 The Return & Near Miss At Godric's Hallow

The next time that Harry saw Voldemort in the flesh was, fittingly, back at the place where it had all begun. Harry had returned to Godric's Hallow, hoping that the Sword of Gryffindor would be hidden there, but all he found was trouble. Voldmemort's snake, Nagini, had been left there in wait. She had killed Bathilda Bagshot and taken over her body, which allowed her to lure Harry in for an attack. It was a battle of Horcrux vs. Horcrux—Harry vs. Nagini. However, this time around, it was Hermione who saved the day.

Since Nagini and Voldemort shared a mental connection, the Dark Lord knew immediately when she began her fight with Harry. He had started his search for the Elder Wand, which took him all over the world. He believed this legendary Death Stick would be the key to defeating Harry's phoenix-feather wand, ensuring that what happened during the Battle of Seven Potters wouldn't happen again. Still, he abandoned his search to rush to Godric's Hallow. Harry saw the Dark Lord in the place it had all begun for only a moment before he and Hermione Disapparated.

1 Harry & Voldemort's Final Battle At Hogwarts

The seventh time Harry faced Lord Voldemort, the Dark Lord was sure he could not lose. He had acquired the Elder Wand and murdered Severus Snape, who had killed the wand's last owner. Additionally, he had backed the Boy Who Lived into a corner. The Battle of Hogwarts had resulted in the death of many of Harry's loved ones, and Voldemort believed that Harry would turn himself over to stop the fatalities from continuing. He was correct. Harry Potter—the Boy Who Lived—entered the Forbidden Forest ready to die. Of course, it didn't happen this way.

In this seventh instance, the factors that had kept Harry alive through their various interactions came together to do so again. Since Voldemort had used Harry's blood to regain a body in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Lily's sacrifice lived on within Voldemort, therefore tethering Harry's soul to the living world (much like a Horcrux). Harry survived, and the pair faced off for a final battle. What Voldmort again didn't realize was that the Elder Wand had never been loyal to Snape. Draco Malfoy had disarmed Dumbledore, and Harry had since taken Draco's wand. So, Harry was the master of the Death Stick, as well as the other Deathly Hallows. Voldemort couldn't win.

The combination of Lily's sacrifice, Harry's own sacrifice, and the mysteries of wandlore came together yet again to save Harry's life. Had Voldemort been paying attention, and had he not been so full of hubris, he might have realized he was doomed. Additionally, the fact that this hero and villain were on their seventh interaction might have tipped the Dark Lord off on his fate. Harry survived when he shouldn't, not just once or twice, but seven times, a sign that the powers of this mysterious number of Harry Potter was always on his side.