First Wizarding War

Originally known as the Death Eater Rebellion, Dark Rebellion, or the Wizarding War and later called the First Wizarding War due to the Second Wizarding War breaking out, was a major conflict with foundations as early as the 1940s, but officially beginning in 1970 and ending abruptly in 1981. It marked the original "reign" of the Dark Lord Voldemort.

The Dark Lord's rebellion occurred only with the help of his Death Eaters, dark associates whom brought terror to both innocent Muggles and wizards.

The Little Hangleton Murders (1943)
Young Voldemort (Tom Riddle) laid the foundations of his war while a student at Hogwarts (1940s). The spark of his eventual bloodthirst may have begun with his invovement in the death of a girl named Myrtle. He then later gathered his own Muggle father, Tom Riddle Sr., and grandparents, at the Riddle House in Little Hangleton, ambushing and murdering the three of them without a trace. Initially, these killings were due to his assembling of a supposed seven-part horcrux series that would allow him immortality.

The Smith Murder (1940s)
For the next decade, young Riddle laid low, known now to his closest "friends" as Voldemort. A wealthy witch named Hepzibah Smith, who Voldemort was visiting for his then-employers Borgin and Burkes, was soon found dead with two of her most prized possessions stolen.

The Death Eater Rebellion (1970s)
By 1970, Voldemort had formed the Death Eaters and proclaimed himself the new Dark Lord. With this dark army and his horcruxes to back him up, he planned a revolution against the Ministry of Magic.

Attacks on select wizards and witches, though also a large number of Muggles, were initiated by the Death Eaters. Albus Dumbledore formed the Original Order of the Phoenix to put down the increasing threat of the Dark Lord and his minions. Aurors from the Ministry also joined the Order of the Phoenix to participate in more secretive, sudden assaults to crush the Dark Rebellion.

When the Ministry showed it would not fall easily to insurrection, Death Eaters obliterated the prominent Bones wizarding family. Gideon and Fabian Prewett, uncles of Ron Weasley and loyal members to the Order, were attacked by several Death Eaters led by Antonin Dolohov, and both died, but not without a fight. When the Rebelion was at its climax, the important Auror Caradoc Dearborn disappeared. The McKinnon family was massacred by Death Eaters. Order of the Phoenix member Benny Fenwick was mutilated to death by Voldemort's supporters.

The British Invasion of the Giants (1970s)
Voldemort had already allied his forces with the Giants of Britain. Aurors battled extra hard to maintain resistance during the Invasion of Britain which was fronted by Voldemort-supporting Giants. Many lost their lives and entire tribes of Giants were wiped out until, finally, the beasts retreated and went into hiding.

Decline of the Death Eaters (1980)
After the Giants' defeat, the Rebellion began to turn. Death Eaters Evan Rosier and Wilkes met their doom to the gradually succeeding Aurors. Other, everyday wizards, also met their ends while bravely trying to face Death Eaters, such as the father of Dean Thomas.

Regulus Black, a Death Eater, became disenchanted with the Dark Lord's cause and went on to try to destroy one of his Horcruxes, resulting in his death at the hands of the Inferi guarding Salazar Slytherin's Locket in the Horcrux Cave. His house elf, Kreacher, escaped with the locket while replacing it with a fake prepared by Regulus beforehand.

The Potter Murders and the Muggle Street-Slaughter: End of the First War (1981)
Later in 1980, Order of the Phoenix members James and Lily Potter suspected one of their allies was in fact a dark spy, very near them&mdash;perhaps one of James' own fellow "Marauders"&mdash; seeing as Voldemort's forces were beginning to make a comeback and the Order was gradually going downhill.

Albus Dumbledore advised the Potters to go into hiding using the Fidelius Charm, a highly complex spell allowing a Secret to be concealed within another person (the “Secret Keeper”). James and Lily wanted Sirius Black to be their Secret Keeper. However, believing Voldemort would suspect him but not a “weak, talentless thing” like Peter Pettigrew, Sirius and the Potters reassigned Pettigrew to this role. No one, not even Lupin or Dumbledore, knew this.

However, Pettigrew was the actual traitor and had been working for Lord Voldemort for approximately a year. He gave away the Potters' secret location in the town of Godric's Hollow where the Dark Lord personally traveled to due to him wanting to see the end of the possibility of a prophecy which could end his powerful regime.

On October 31, 1981, Voldemort destroyed the Potter couple, but when he tried to murder their son, Harry, as well, the attack backfired, killing off the Dark Lord's physical being while leaving the boy with not much more than a lightning-shaped scar and the house completely obliterated.

Later, the traitorous Peter Pettigrew tried to go into hiding himself, knowing that Sirius Black would soon confront him for giving away the Potters' hideaway and allowing them to be murdered. Sure enough, Black and Pettigrew met on a crowded Muggle street. Pettigrew quickly announced that Sirius had helped kill the Potters, created an enormous explosion with his wand in which he cut off his own finger and changed into his Animagus form of a rat and scurried away. A dozen innocent muggles were killed in the explosion and Black was blamed for the killings as well as the "murder" of Peter Pettigrew&mdash; of whom only a finger was left. Pettigrew's framing of Sirius Black worked perfectly and Black was sent to Azkaban Prison without a trial.

Pettigrew secretly escaped alive, but the Dark Lord had been defeated for the first time just hours before. Ironically, this final tragedy brought a welcomed end to the First War.

There was one last conflict after the end of the First War: Aurors Alice and Frank Longbottom were tortured to insanity by Death Eaters Rodolphus, Rabastan and Bellatrix Lestrange and Barty Crouch Jr., because the latter believed the two Aurors had information regarding the whereabouts of Lord Voldemort. Coincidentally, the Longbottoms were the parents of Neville Longbottom, who was the other baby that was mentioned in the Prophecy, but was the one Voldemort rejected as the one who would defeat him. This last attack left young Neville under the care of his grandmother Augusta Longbottom, and, in the eyes of Harry, in a worse situation than his, because Neville knows both of his parents are alive but can't recognise him, while Harry's are dead.