Before settling into “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” — part one of the epic finale — let’s catch up with Harry Potter and his friends Hermione and Ron.

It’s been a long six years (and six films) for the heroic trio. The days of an afternoon spent watching a game of quidditch are over. Prior foes — from the three-headed dog Fluffy to the fascist Professor Umbridge — seem mild today.

Now 17, the young wizards are at the center of a war between good and evil. And the forces of the dark Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters have never been stronger. Bellatrix Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy are both out of Azkaban, the wizard prison. They are joined by Draco Malfoy, Harry’s nemesis at Hogwarts, werewolf Fenrir Grayback and Peter Pettigrew, the mousy figure who betrayed Harry’s dad years earlier.

Few people, muggle or wizard, will stand against Voldemort.

The only wizard Voldemort ever feared, Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, was killed at the end of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.”

Professor Severus Snape, whose allegiances have always been murky, killed Dumbledore during a Death Eater attack on the school. “Half-Blood Prince” ended with the funeral of Dumbledore, the bearded patriarch who had served as the moral compass to the wizarding world and was a close mentor to Harry.

Prior to his death, Dumbledore and Harry investigated Voldemort and his seeming immortality. Together, they discovered that the dark wizard had protected himself from death by fracturing his own soul and storing the pieces in seven precious objects.

Each became known as a horcrux.

Dumbledore believed Voldemort could be killed if all of the horcruxes were destroyed. He also believed a prophecy that connected Voldemort and Harry, essentially predicting that one would kill the other.

With Ron and Hermione’s help, Harry sets out to destroy the horcruxes and kill Voldemort.