Welcome to the Harry Potter Lexicon
The most compleat and amazing reference to the wonderful world of Harry Potter
est. 2000 A.D.
Phase of the Moon: Waxing Gibbous
5 GBP = 1 Galleon 
Draco Malfoy is born
He is the Pure Blood son of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, their only child. Read More
Just after midnight, Hagrid arrives at the hut-on-the-rock
He brings Harry a birthday cake, tells him the truth about his parents, and invites him to Hogwarts (PS4). Read More
Floo Powder accident lands Harry in Knockturn Alley
Using Floo powder for the first time, Harry fails to follow all the instructions he’s given by the Weasleys and ends up one fireplace off. It happens to be the fireplace in Borgin and Burkes, a shop in Knockturn Alley selling all manner of dark magic items. He barely hides himself before Lucius and Draco Malfoy enter to conduct business. Read More
Dobby tries to dissaude Harry from returning to Hogwarts
Dobby appears in Harry’s bedroom and tells Harry that his life will be in danger if he returns to Hogwarts for his second year. Between his excitement about meeting Harry, his sense of urgency in his mission to warn him, his astonishment at Harry’s kindness, and his guilt and fear of returning to Malfoy Manor, Dobby works himself into a… Read More
Harry imprisoned in his room after Dobby’s visit
Harry is punished by being locked in his room and only allowed out to use the bathroom twice a day (CS2). Furious with Harry for Dobby’s effect on the Dursleys’ dinner with the Masons and newly aware that Harry cannot legally use his magic to avoid punishment, Uncle Vernon has bars put on Harry’s bedroom window and installs a… Read More
Gilderoy Lockhart’s book signing at Flourish and Blotts
19 August 1992 – Harry, Hermione, and the Weasleys visit Flourish and Blotts to buy school books. There they discover that Gilderoy Lockhart is signing his new book, Magical Me. When Lockhart spots Harry, he drags the boy up in front of the camera with him and announces the crowd that he will be the new… Read More
On this day in 1994...
Gryffindor beats Ravenclaw despite attempts by the Slytherins to sabotage Harry
Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw in Harry Potter’s third year is the first Quidditch match where… Read More
“Oh Potter, you rotter, oh what have you done? You’re killing off students, you think it’s good fun–“… Read More
Latest from the Lexicon Blog
Draco’s Six
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So much has been made of how seven is “the most powerfully magical number” (HBP23) in Harry Potter, with it serving as something of a motif throughout the series… to the point where my podcast, The Three Broomsticks, has a recurring segment about the “seven ingredients of today’s… Read More
The Fallen Fathers of Goblet of Fire
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Jo’s portrayal of mothers in the HP books is fairly straight-forward: mother’s love is the be-all end-all of the series, so we can move right along. But her portrayal of fathers, on the other hand, is incredibly nuanced and intriguing. The turning point appears to be the middle book of… Read More
The Book of Prophecies: How "Order of the Phoenix" Predicts the Plot of "Deathly Hallows" - Part 2
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In Part I of this series, I delved into specific chapter-level comparisons between Order of the Phoenix and Deathly Hallows, and how the events in the former predict or foreshadow those in the latter. In this article, I will… Read More
The Book of Prophecies: How "Order of the Phoenix" Predicts the Plot of "Deathly Hallows" - Part 1
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The Harry Potter series is masterfully plotted, both as individual books and across the series as a whole. Within the fandom, there is a large focus on ring theory for understanding how the series is structured. In ring theory, each book has its… Read More
The Russian Philosopher’s Stone
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It’s a process familiar to most of us trying to brush up on a foreign language – get the Harry Potter books in one of the 85 languages they’ve been translated into, and read the story you know backwards and forwards in a language you may not. My first language… Read More
Mapping the Wizarding World
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Making the Calendar Fit
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I recently received two comments on two different entries in the Lexicon which brought up the same problem: the real world calendar doesn’t always agree with the days and dates in the books. I’m sure some of you are saying “Of course, we know that, this has been discussed in… Read More
The Secrets of Dumbledore ... still a secret?
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