• Event His mother having abandoned them years earlier, Hagrid is essentially orphaned upon his father’s death (GF23). Read More
• Churches and graveyards After Voldemort killed his father and paternal grandparents, they were buried in the graveyard by the church in Little Hangleton (GF1). This, then, is also where Harry was taken by Portkey, saw Cedric Diggory killed and Voldemort reborn, and duelled Voldemort in 1995 (GF34). Read More
• Event After Voldemort struck him down with the Killing Curse in the Forbidden Forest (DH33), Harry finds himself lying naked and without his glasses on a sort of floor surrounded by a bright white mist. Slowly his surroundings take on the shape of King’s Cross Station in London, and when… 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
• Event After emerging from the pensieve and realizing that he is a Horcrux and must be killed (DH33), Harry starts walking towards the forest. He is at once terrified and numb. He reflects on how precious life is. He has his Invisibility Cloak on as he passes by the Great… Read More
• Character Nearly Headless Nick is the nickname of the ghost of Sir Nicholas de Mimsy Porpington, a wizard who died in a botched execution on October 31, 1492. He was hit forty-five times in the neck with a blunt axe, but a half-inch of skin and sinew remained connecting his head… Read More
• Article
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
• Character Hedwig is Harry Potter’s snowy owl, his companion and post owl. Hagrid bought Hedwig as an eleventh birthday present on Harry’s first visit to Diagon Alley (PS5). After returning to the Dursley’s, Harry found the name “Hedwig” in the book A History of Magic and borrowed it for his owl (… Read More
• Character More commonly known as “The Grey Lady,” the Ravenclaw ghost. Harry and Ron first encounter this tall ghost as she glided past in the corridor while out looking for the Mirror of Erised (PS12). Harry eventually discovers that The Grey Lady is Helena, the daughter of Hogwarts founder Rowena… Read More
• Character The Grey Lady is the Ravenclaw House ghost; in life, she was Helena Ravenclaw, the daughter of Hogwarts founder Rowena Ravenclaw. Helena stole her mother’s diadem to make herself cleverer and fled to Albania. Her mother became deathly ill soon after and sent Helena’s long-time admirer to find her and bring her back. When… Read More
• Character Hepzibah Smith was an immense, “very old, very rich witch” who collected magical antiques antiques and befriended Tom Marvolo Riddle in his role with Borgin and Burkes. She was distantly related to Helga Hufflepuff. Hepzibah lived in a grand house filled with so many possessions that it was difficult to walk… Read More
• Source “Why Dumbledore Went to the Hilltop” Short essay in TwitLonger by J.K. Rowling in which Rowling discusses Dumbledore’s motivation for agreeing to meet with his enemy, Snape, on a lonely hilltop after Lily and James were killed. Read More
• Dark magic items A Horcrux is ‘the receptacle in which a Dark wizard has hidden a fragment of his soul for the purposes of attaining immortality’ (JKR). ‘The receptacle is prepared by dark magic to become the receptacle of a fragmented piece of soul and that that piece of soul deliberately detached from… Read More