The newly released Black family tree, now revealed in its full glory, is the topic of considerable discussion and is a source of considerable information on the relatedness of the various pure-blood wizard lines. Many familiar names show up on that tree, including Weasley (blasted off, of course). Sirius Black comments in Order of the Phoenix, “Molly and I are… Read MoreMore than You Ever Wanted to Know about Frog-spawn• Essay
In the first ten years that Harry Potter lived with the Dursleys, his Aunt Petunia never uttered a word to him about the magic ability of his mother, her sister Lily. When the truth finally comes out about his parents, this is the first statement Petunia makes about magic, and it must have summed up what in her mind were… Read MoreHarry and the Horcruxes• Essay
Since the arrival of Half-Blood Prince on July 16th, 2005, Harry Potter fans have been endlessly searching for Horcruxes. We find ourselves repeating the Horcrux possibilities just like Harry does in Half-Blood Prince: “the cup, the locket, the snake, something of Gryffindor or Ravenclaw’s . . . .” (HBP30). Several Horcrux identity theories have been circulating, with claims ranging from Tom Riddle’s mouth organ to Gryffindor’s old toothbrush. After reading… Read MoreWhat Came Before the Hogwarts Express?• Essay
The Hogwarts Express has been the subject of various essays exploring its nature and function. As has been plausibly noted elsewhere on this site, it isn’t really a steam engine, but rather a magical transportation device that mimics a Muggle equivalent in external form and function. This is consistent with the general trend in Wizard “technology,” which seems… Read MoreHow do they make all those books? Printing in the Wizarding World• Essay
I read the essay “When Magic Meets Muggle Technology” by PrefectMarcus. I thoroughly enjoyed the essay, which provides a pseudo-science, almost science fiction view of the wizarding world. Being myself an ardent fan of the sci-fi genre, I value this essay dearly. The essay ends with a question: how does a… Read MoreOpportunity Costs: What does it profit a man to defeat the Dark Lord but lose his soul?• Essay
Originally published at Books & Culture, November/December 2005, Vol. 11, No. 6, Page 22.[1] The stab of envy came instantly, unexpectedly. I was somewhere quite new to me: on one of the enormous ferries that run between the mainland of British Columbia and Vancouver Island. As we moved… Read MoreSome Thoughts on House-Elves• Essay
“One day,” said Hermione, sounding thoroughly exasperated, “you’ll read Hogwarts, A History, and perhaps that will remind you that you can’t Apparate or Disapparate inside Hogwarts.” (OP23) “Well, he [Dumbledore] can’t have Disapparated!” cried Umbridge. “You can’t inside this school—” (OP27) Quietly, tentatively, Harry spoke into the darkness. “Kreacher?” There was a very… Read MoreMagic• Article
Magic is what sets folks in the wizarding world apart from their Muggle neighbors. Magic is the heart and soul of the wizarding culture in the same way that science and technology are the heart and soul of Muggle culture. Where a Muggle would pound a stake into the ground… Read MoreThe List• Essay
“Ah, what a tangled web we weave… Or in this case, what a tangled web Jo Rowling has woven. With one volume left to wrap up all the threads, we Harry Potter fanatics have created a list of all the sphinx-like comments, unfinished story lines, incomplete character trajectories and cryptic references to… Read MoreHarry Potter and the Good Life• Essay
A pile of critical rubbish has been composting around J. K. Rowling [Editor’s Note: The link provided is to an archive of jkrowling.com, which was superseded by Pottermore.] and her Harry Potter books ever since they were discovered by young (and not-so-young) readers and became phenomenal best sellers. The charges, briefly, as these. (1)… Read MoreThe Importance of Neville Longbottom• Essay
Here in the Lexicon, there are multiple essays on Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Snape, physical locations, creatures, and practically anything else you can name. And yet there is not one essay about one person whose fate is tightly linked to Harry’s, and who has been moving gradually but inexorably towards a more important position in the books: Neville Longbottom. I think Neville becoming… Read MoreLove and Death in Harry Potter• Essay
Love and death are major themes in J.K.Rowling’s Harry Potter books. She herself has said in a recent interview in recent interview in The Tatler magazine that “My books are largely about death.” And in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, one of J.K. Rowling’s chosen spokespersons, Professor Dumbledore, impresses upon Harry that his “ability… Read MoreHarry's Dreams• Article
While Dumbledore’s statement above makes good sense, it wouldn’t do Harry any harm to try to analyze his dreams a little more than he does. Often there are important clues in his dreams to what’s going on. As a matter of fact, Harry’s extra-sensory powers are not limited to prescience. Read MoreDumbledore vivens Snapeque bonamicus• Essay
Two Modest Predictions Dumbledore vivens . . . And Now Another: Dumbledore the Fraud Snape the Accessory The Unbreakable Vow Unbroken . . . Snapeque bonamicus The “Buddy” Plot Understanding Snape Harry the Adult The Proud and the Prejudiced Modest Conclusions Severe Spoiler Warning: This essay presumes that its readers have… Read MoreIs Harry a Horcrux?• Essay
After thinking carefully through the various factors involved, I cannot help but conclude that the most logical scenario, based on all the available evidence, is that Harry is a Horcrux. I will structure this essay in four sections. First, I will discuss the background. Second, I will discuss the evidence indicating that Harryis a Horcrux. Read MoreWhere is Spinner's End?• Essay
Although Spinner’s End is probably not a real place in a real town, it’s reasonable to assume that it’s in an imaginary town in an area where towns of that type are found—just as Little Whinging is an imaginary town, but of a recognizably Surrey type. An argument has been made Spinner’s… Read MoreThe Complications with Memory• Essay
Table of Contents Introduction Pensieves Memory as a Weapon Memory as Aid Modification of Memory Memory in Objects Memory Embodied as a Threat Conclusion Introduction As Muggles, memory is a fairly straightforward process for us and unless we read a story about someone with amnesia or about a… Read MoreWhat is Magical Power in the Potterverse?• Essay
We are just two years or less from reaching the end of the Harry Potter series and many essential questions have been answered, either by the books themselves, by J.K. Rowling, or by cunning readers who have racked their brains to work out even the finest details of the universe she has created. Read MoreSecrets of the Classlist• Essay
Introduction One of the most intriguing ideas in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is that Professor Dumbledore set up events so that Harry would try and stop the theft of the Philosopher’s Stone by Voldemort. Many events in Harry’s first year seem to indicate this: his dealings with Hagrid, being given his father’s Invisibility Cloak (twice), his discovery of the Mirror of Erised, and his detention in… Read More
Magic
• Article
The Importance of Neville Longbottom
• Essay
Here in the Lexicon, there are multiple essays on Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Snape, physical locations, creatures, and practically anything else you can name. And yet there is not one essay about one person whose fate is tightly linked to Harry’s, and who has been moving gradually but inexorably towards a more important position in the books: Neville Longbottom. I think Neville becoming… Read More
Harry's Dreams
• Article
What is Magical Power in the Potterverse?
• Essay
We are just two years or less from reaching the end of the Harry Potter series and many essential questions have been answered, either by the books themselves, by J.K. Rowling, or by cunning readers who have racked their brains to work out even the finest details of the universe she has created. Read More
Secrets of the Classlist
• Essay
Introduction It only took a second. J. K. Rowling had agreed to talk about her writing for the television documentary, Harry Potter and Me. She took random pages from her endless boxes of notes. She flashed up a page with a brief comment, “This is a list of all the students… Read More