• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
We’ve been exploring chapters from the fifth book in the Harry Potter series, The Order of the Phoenix. In several of these podcasts, I’ve marveled at the way Rowling can really bring us into the magical places in her books. The creaky, dusty old house in Grimmauld Place is… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
In this chapter, things really start heading downhill. Umbridge is appointed to be Hogwarts High Inquisitor — a name reminiscent of the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition. She begins harassing and demeaning the rest of the teaching staff immediately. These scenes where she stalks the classrooms of various… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
“They prefer the woman’s touch, unicorns,“ says professor Grubbly-Plank in chapter 24 of Goblet of Fire. Rowling uses existing myths in her wizarding world often. The unicorn is a great example of that. Unicorns have been noted as mythical creatures in both Eastern and Western mythology since antiquity. Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Website news
In celebration of Harry’s first visit to Diagon Alley on July 31, we’re very excited to present the Wizarding World Currency Exchange to help all you Muggles in your magical shopping. Hagrid may think that seventeen Sickles to the Galleon is “easy enough,” but we Muggles find it complicated. Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
Has this ever happened to you? Recently, I was playing a Harry Potter Trivia game with my friends. The question was: How was the Diadem of Ravenclaw Horcrux destroyed? I definitely know this answer, my favorite book is Deathly Hallows, and I’m a Ravenclaw, this question hits my sweet spot… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
Chapter 34 of Deathly Hallows is one of the most poignant, if not the most poignant chapter in the Harry Potter series. Harry realizes that he must die in order to kill the part of Voldemort that resides in him, so he leaves the castle to confront Voldemort… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Fandom News
With that headline, you’d probably be thinking that this is about Snape. But you’d be wrong. Snape was only mysterious while we were reading the books. Now that we’re finished, we have Snape pretty much figured out. Rowling did one of her classic “here’s all the answers, you’re welcome” chapters… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
In Chamber of Secrets Harry goes from living in one extreme to being brought to the opposite extreme. The first sentences of Chapter 4, At Flourish and Blotts, describes it perfectly: ‘Life at the Burrow was as different as possible from everything on Privet Drive. The Dursleys liked everything… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
Have you ever wondered why an all-wizard rock band would call itself The Weird Sisters? Shakespeare fans may recognize the term “weird sisters” as a name applied to the witches in Macbeth. You might know that all roles in Shakespeare’s plays were played by male… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
In China the number four is considered unlucky, presumably because the Chinese word for four is very similar to the word for death. This association with bad luck seems to have followed the number four into the wizarding world. Four is sometimes seen as a source… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
I wrote an essay recently about the timing of the attack on Neville’s parents, talking about how he must have been around five years old when it happened (give or take a year or two). This means he has an awareness of what happened and remembers his parents… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Characters / Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
When classes start in Harry’s fifth year, O.W.L.s are all anyone wants to talk about. At lunch on the first day, the Weasley twins offer some sage advice about how “it’s a nightmare of a year, the fifth, if you care about exam results, anyway.” Ron then comments, “Yeah…… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Canon discussion / Essays
After the Dark Mark appears in the sky on the night of the Quidditch World Cup, Barty Crouch releases Winky the house-elf from his service, and her unfair treatment draws Hermione’s sympathy and indignation.  When she, Harry, and Ron visit Sirius in the cave above Hogsmeade to… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
Let’s just take a moment to talk about the richness of Rowling’s imagination. In chapter six of Order of the Phoenix, we’re introduced to the weird and wonderful drawing room of number twelve Grimmauld Place, with it’s curtains filled with Doxies, the nest of dead Puffskeins… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
Arithmancy is a branch of magic which deals with the magical properties of numbers, and Hermione tells us it’s her favourite subject. In previous episodes we’ve already talked about some of the interesting ways that J.K. Rowling uses numbers in the books, and if we look through an arithmancy lens… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
Narcissa Malfoy is a rude and racist witch, but there are several moments in the series that I think show Narcissa’s better side. In Spinner’s End, chapter 2 of Half Blood Prince, Narcissa is desperate to keep her son safe. Despite her sister’s warnings and Voldemort’s instructions to… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Birthdays / Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
In today’s minute I’ll be discussing Chamber of Secrets Chapter 1 The Worst Birthday. Here are some of my thoughts: I wonder what birthdays were like for Harry the nine years between being dropped off on his aunt and uncle’s doorstep and finding out he was a wizard. Harry would… Read More
• Podcast Episode
Posted by in Canon discussion / Characters / Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
In a recent Harry Potter Minute, we discussed instances in the books where two seemingly unrelated characters have the same last name. We’ve already covered two of the three instances, the Smiths and the Gudgeons. But a third set caused quite the fuss back in the day, and is the… Read More