• Character Hambledon Quince was a wizard who has published a theory that wizards originate from Mars and Muggles from mushrooms (JKR, WoM). Read More
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Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
I have this weird thing about fate in the Harry Potter books. There’s just so many close shaves where Harry barely makes it out alive. I always come back to believing that fate has a hand in all of it. The funny thing about that is one of the main… Read More
• Page Information which has come directly from JKR in either written or spoken form is considered canon. All other sources, including the film version from Warner Bros., are NOT considered official or canon, although some information from them is included in the Lexicon if it can be verified as coming from… Read More
• Source Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is the second book in the series of Harry Potter novels by J.K. Rowling. First British printing: July 2, 1998, Bloomsbury Books First American printing: June 2, 1999, Scholastic, Arthur A. Levine Books U.S. illustrations by Mary GrandPré, 1999 Word count: Harry Potter… Read More
• Event The final playscript edition of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was released on 25 July 2017. It contained only minor changes from the “Special Rehearsal Edition Script”, which had been released on 31 July 2016, the day after the play’s opening in London. Read More
• Event The rehearsal script for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (CC) is published worldwide at midnight on July 31st, 2016. Statistics show it to be the most pre-ordered book since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (DH) back in 2009. Just like for the release dates of the last several Harry Potter novels,… Read More
• Source Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth book in the series, was published in 2000. For the first time, bookstores held midnight release parties. The Harry Potter phenomenon was in full swing. Unfortunately, the scene in the graveyard provoked a strong anti-Potter response from some conservative Christian groups who… Read More
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Posted by in Canon discussion / Essays
  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has been composting around J. K. Rowling [Editor’s Note: The link provided is to an archive of jkrowling.com, which was superseded by Pottermore.]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 More
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Posted by in Essays
© 2000 First Things 99 (January 2000): 35-38. By now most readers in this country are aware of what has come to be called the Harry Potter phenomenon. It’s hard to be unaware. Any bookstore you might care to enter is strewn with giant stacks of the Harry Potter… Read More
• Source The Harry Potter books are a series of stories written by Scottish author Joanne Rowling. She writes under the pen name of J.K. Rowling, although in reality she has no middle name (the inital ‘K’ was borrowed from her grandmother, Kathleen). The books tell the story of a boy named… Read More
• Source Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth book in the series. The first four Potter novels came out one per year and the long wait for the fifth book built up the interest to a fever pitch. During the intervening three years the first two of the… Read More
• Source Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is the first in the series of Harry Potter novels by J.K. Rowling. It was published in the U.S. as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone a year after being published in the UK. First British printing: July 1, 1997, Bloomsbury Books First American printing: September 1,… Read More
• Source Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the third book in the series. This book marks a turning point in the saga, as Harry for the first time confronts the darker side of his own past and the pasts of some of the people he loves and trusts. Harry is forced to… Read More
• Event Harry and Hagrid visit Diagon Alley. Harry realizes how famous he is when he is recognized at the Leaky Cauldron. At Gringotts, Harry learns of his parents’ fortune and Hagrid retrieves the Philosopher’s Stone. Harry meets Draco Malfoy for the first time at Madame Malkin’s Robes for All Occasions. Harry… Read More
• Hogwarts The list of new books for Harry’s second year: The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 by Miranda Goshawk Break with a Banshee by Gilderoy Lockhart Gadding with Ghouls by Gilderoy Lockhart Holidays with Hags by Gilderoy Lockhart Travels with Trolls by Gilderoy Lockhart Voyages with Vampires by Gilderoy Lockhart… Read More
• Source Harry discovers his newfound popularity, learns that Stan Shunpike has been arrested, and holds a frustratingly massive Quidditch tryout that includes a run-in with Cormac McLaggen. They visit Hagrid and learn that Aragog is dying, Harry confronts Hermione about having confunded McLaggen… Read More
• Source Harry tries one of the Half-Blood Prince’s spells while reading in bed and levitates Ron by accident. He argues with Hermione over the danger of the Prince, and gets word of his next lesson with Professor Dumbledore. They then walk to Hogsmeade, where… Read More
• Source Harry gives Horace Slughorn a bezoar instead of an antidote in Potions class, then asks him unsuccessfully about Horcruxes. The sixth-years then have their first apparition lesson, where Harry overhears Draco Malfoy saying Crabbe has been acting as his lookout, and… Read More
• Source Harry talks with Ron and Hermione about Apparition, Professor Slughorn’s memory, and Lavender Brown. Kreacher and Dobby show up to report on Draco Malfoy, making Harry realize Draco’s been using the Room of Requirement with the Polyjuiced Crabbe… Read More
• Source Harry speaks with Mrs. Weasley (and later Mr. Weasley) about the latest Ministry of Magic news. We see Fleur Delacour, who was nicknamed Phlegm by Ginny, and learn that she and Bill Weasley are engaged, to his family’s dismay. Harry tells Ron and… Read More
• Source We learn of several disappearances including Florean Fortescue and Mr. Ollivander. Harry, Hermione, and the Weasleys go shopping at Diagon Alley, escorted by Hagrid.  There they discover a much-changed atmosphere and an empty Leaky Cauldron. They have a run-in with Draco and Narcissa Malfoy in Madam Malkin’s and… Read More
• Source Gryffindors get their course schedules. Harry, Ron and Hermione discuss Malfoy and Quidditch trials, then go to their first day of classes.  In Defence Against the Dark Arts Harry fights back against Snape’s attempt to jinx him and gets detention, during break he hears his first lesson with Dumbledore will… Read More
• Headlines and advertisements Headlines and articles from the Daily Prophet by date: Historical A series of articles about the disappearance of Violet Tillyman in the Floo Network (DL) Bring Back Our Baskets! (12 February 1883) (QA6) Our Chasers Aren’t Cheating! (22 June 1884) (QA6) An article by… Read More
• Books and Literature The book The Healer’s Helpmate is a standard household guide to common first aid for magical injuries and illnesses. The book contains a chapter on “Bruises, Cuts, and Abrasions” which Mrs. Weasley consulted while trying to heal the black eye Hermione had received from the twins’ punching telescope (HBP5). Read More
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Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
There comes a point as a Harry Potter fan when you think you have found or heard about all the connections between the series and the world of literature and mythology. And then, out of nowhere, another one smacks you in the face. I have just finished reading Paulo Coelho’s… Read More
• Source Stephen Fry interviewed J.K. Rowling on Saturday 8 July 2000, the publication day of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The interview took place aboard the Hogwart’s Express train while it was between King’s Cross & Didcot stations.  … Read More
• Character Hedley Fleetwood was a wizard whose Patronus took the form of a wooly mammoth. This was notable to Miranda Goshawk, who references him in the Book of Spells, because extinct Patronuses are exceptionally rare. (BoS)… Read More
• Character Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim was scholar and author who wrote on many topics, including the occult. He appears on a Chocolate Frog trading card, which reads “celebrated wizard imprisoned by Muggles for his writing, because they thought his books were evil” (FW, PS6, CF). In September 1991, Ron… Read More
• Books and Literature The Heir of Slytherin is one of several Dark Magic books in the Minister for Magic’s office. It is a book about Lord Voldemort (CC1.19). Minister Hermione Granger kept this book in the booby-trapped bookcase (CC1.19). Read More
• Character Henry Shaw (Sr.) was a powerful 1920s media titan based in New York (WFT). Read More
• Character Helbert Spleen was a Healer at St. Mungo’s Hospital of Magical Maladies. He also wrote for the Daily Prophet (DP3)… Read More
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Posted by in Canon discussion / Essays
I do know that many people have theorized about how Muggle-borns get their Hogwarts letters (and take them seriously), or are taken to Diagon Alley for the first time, or how they are able to adjust. Even with Rowling’s recent comments on this topic, we’re still left with a lot… Read More
• Event After Professor Moody/Barty Crouch Jr. gives Harry some hints, he realizes that he can summon his broomstick and use it to deal with dragons. Harry enlists Hermione’s help, and they skip lunch to practice the Summoning Charm in an empty classroom. At first, Harry struggles and has trouble concentrating. They… Read More
• Magical objects Found in Delphi’s room at St Oswald’s Home for Old Witches and Wizards, it contained a hidden prophecy in Parseltongue (CC3.21). Read More
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Posted by in About Sources
by Steve VanderArk and Bob Williams 1990 Ideas for Harry Potter and the wizard world form in J.K. Rowling’s mind while she is on an interminable train journey from Manchester to King’s Cross. 1991 J.K. Rowling goes to Portugal to teach English as a foreign language. There, she writes ten… Read More
• Books and Literature One of the most famous wizarding books, a standard reference published in 1947 by Little Red Books. Read More
• Headlines and advertisements The History of the Quidditch World Cup appeared in the Daily Prophet on 14 March 2014, before the start of the Quidditch World Cup tournament (QWC). Background The article highlights the contents of The Official Guide to the Quidditch World Cup from the International Confederation of Wizards Quidditch Committee… Read More
• Hogwarts • Sentient objects The names of future Hogwarts students are written down at birth in the Book of Admittance, a special parchment book bound with dragon hide kept in a locked tower. When a magical child is born, the Quill of Acceptance floats out of a silver ink pot nearby to write the… Read More
• Books and Literature Hogwarts: A History is a one-thousand-page book about the thousand-year history of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The book describes such things as the enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall (PS7), the fact that the Founders thought boys were less trustworthy than girls (OP17), and other facts. One… Read More
• Headlines and advertisements Hogwarts School Increases Security is a headline from a magical newspaper in 1926. Hogwarts School needed better security because evil Wizard Gellert Grindelwald, an old friend of Albus Dumbledore, was on a rampage in Europe (WFT). Read More
• Schools Hogwarts is one of the world’s finest wizarding schools, located in a massive castle in Scotland. Hogwarts takes students from all over Great Britain, starting at the age of 11. The students leave school after their seventh year. The students at Hogwarts are sorted at the beginning of their first… Read More
• Books and Literature Thrilling autobiographical accounts of adventures dealing with various exotic and dangerous beasts, none of which, as it turns out, actually involved the author. Read More
• Hogwarts academics Homework, schoolwork assigned to be completed outside of class time, is part of the students’ lives at Hogwarts. Teachers assign essays, research, and other tasks which must be completed before the next time the class meets. Details of homework assignment can be found in the entries for individual classes. Read More
• Character Daisy Hookum wrote bestseller My Life as a Muggle after giving up magic for a year. She was married to celebrity gardener Tilden Toots. Read More
• Quote “People have said the humour is very adult, but I do think they underestimate children. Certainly, some of the kids I’ve met have got every joke and even if they haven’t, it doesn’t actually matter. It annoys me that people think you have to dumb down for children.”… Read More
• Character Grizel Hurtz is the “Agony Aunt” of the Daily Prophet and one of the experts featured on the Problem Page (DP3). Ms Hurtz advised lovelorn witch Lilith Molesby about the drawbacks of using a Love Potion to force a wizard to be in love with her. She recommended a course… Read More