Canon discussion
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4 Great Cliffhanger Chapter Endings
• Essay
Posted
by Steve VanderArk
in Canon discussion
Admit it. Even though you've read the Harry Potter books three, four, er--twenty times before, when you get to the end of some chapters, you just HAVE to turn the page and keep reading. You even get a tiny reminder of that thrill you had the first time you read it, that shiver of excitement that made you charge on into the next chapter at 3am, even when you had somewhere to be first thing the next morning.
We've all been there. So to celebrate our shared unashamed love affair with the Harry Potter books, here's a list of Rowling's "4 Best Cliffhanger Chapter Endings" from the first three books: Read More
🎙️ Episode 13: "The budding new baby hero!"
• Essay
Steve digs into the interview archives, discussing Rowling’s control of her story and her characters, then explores the murky challenge of finding name sources, discovers the not-so-murky Grimmauld Place in London, and discusses the essential elements of book six which allow us to truly understand book seven. Show links: The… Read More
Puzzles, Mysteries, and Loose Ends
• Essay
Posted
by Steve VanderArk
in Canon discussion
Stuff we still wonder about, even after book seven … the other secret passage “There are seven in all. Now, Filch knows about these four” — he pointed them out — “but we’re sure we’re the only ones who know about these. Don’t bother with the one behind the mirror… Read More
House-Elves in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
• Essay
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was a fantastic, satisfying ending to the book series we all know and love. There are so many elements to explore and examine in this work, and here I turn my attention to the house-elves. We were introduced to the creatures in the second book of… Read More
Nagini as Horcrux
• Essay
In an interview with The Leaky Cauldron and MuggleNet in July 2005, Rowling said, “Dumbledore’s guesses are never very far wide of the mark. I don’t want to give too much away here, but Dumbledore says, ‘There are four out there, you’ve got to get rid of four, and then… Read More
The Hufflepuff Cup is in the Hogwarts Trophy Room Transfigured into the Medal for Magical Merit
• Essay
I’ve been looking at a pattern of clues in the six Harry Potter books, namely a series of interweaving and overlapping references to Transfiguration magic, secret passages/the Marauder’s Map, and trophies. Putting them all together, I believe they may be clues that the Helga Hufflepuff’s golden cup is in the… Read More
“Something of Ravenclaw’s or Gryffindor’s”
• Essay
We saw in Half-Blood Prince that Hepzibah Smith was distantly related to Helga Hufflepuff and that Hufflepuff’s gold cup was in her possession. We also saw that Salazar Slytherin’s line ends with T.M. Riddle/Lord Voldemort through the Gaunt family, which was in possession of Slytherin’s gold locket and a Slytherin family heirloom, the Peverell ring. But we haven’t been given direct information identifying the family… Read More
Quidditch Through the (Weasleys’) Ages or, The Unusual Career of Charles Weasley
• Essay
Considerable analysis has gone into the ages of the Quidditch-playing Weasley brothers, reaching the conclusion that most of the information which J.K. Rowling gives us regarding Gryffindor’s team prior to Harry’s arrival at Hogwarts is inconsistent. However, these arguments are based on a number of assumptions which are not provable… Read More
The Bendable Vow: Dumbledore’s Hand In One Last Legal Loophole
• Essay
Harry’s Unanswered Question “Professor, what happened to your—?” “I have no time to explain now,” said Dumbledore. “It is a thrilling tale, I wish to do it justice.” (HBP4) At least four times in Half-Blood Prince, Harry asks Dumbledore to explain what happened to his right hand. Each time, Dumbledore smiles and implies that… Read More
In Search of . . . The Burrow
• Essay
Where is the Burrow—Harry’s second home (his first is Hogwarts, of course, not Privet Drive!)? Ottery St. Catchpole The books give the Burrow’s location as just outside the village of Ottery St. Catchpole, but give no direct clues as to where this is. The similarity of the name to Ottery St. Mary, in Devon has… Read More
Wizard Money
• Essay
Introduction This interview that took place on March 12, 2001 became the historical point from which all theories and speculations about how much money would one need to go to Gringotts and to buy a Galleon started. Most researchers worked with the first JKR statement of “About five pounds,” while not addressing the more… Read More
In Search of . . . the Hut-on-the-Rock
• Essay
The Hut-on-the-Rock holds a key place in the life story of Harry Potter. It was here, on his eleventh birthday, that he encountered the world of wizardry for the first time since infancy. But where was it? The address on the letter brought by Hagrid in PS4 is not very helpful: Harry Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock,… Read More
Music, Rhyme, and Dance
• Essay
Posted
by Steve VanderArk
in Canon discussion
Music songs by title “A Cauldron Full of Hot, Strong Love” performed by Celestina Warbeck (HBP16) A “particularly jazzy number” with sentimental associations for Mrs. Weasley, as she and her husband danced to it when they were eighteen. Its lyrics include: Oh, come and stir my cauldron, And if you do… Read More
High Fidelity (or: How does the Fidelius Charm work?)
• Essay
This is the first explanation of the Fidelius Charm we ever encounter in the Harry Potter books. While it might seem satisfactory at first glance, it clearly raises a lot more questions than it answers (as do many other plot elements in Rowling’s saga). Is the charm cast on people, or on a specific location?… Read More