• Character Seamus Finnigan is an Irish boy with sandy hair, who is in the same Gryffindor dormitory as Harry. He is a half-blood: his father is a Muggle, and his mother didn’t tell his dad that she was a witch until after they were married, which was a “bit… Read More
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Posted by in Canon discussion / Essays
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
• Hogwarts castle and grounds • Rooms, chambers, and floors The seventh floor corridor of Hogwarts includes the Gryffindor Common Room, the Room of Requirement, and many portraits. Read More
• Character Sir Cadogan is a little knight whose picture hangs in a seventh-floor corridor near the South Tower. He is a silly fellow whose bravura outshines his common sense and who glories in quests and challenges. He actually lived during the time of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round… Read More
• Event In an epic battle of legend, Sir Cadogan rides into battle with the infamous Wyvern of Wye. He nearly loses the battle — his horse is eaten, his helmet melted, and his wand broken — but he finds a fat gray pony in a nearby field and rides back to what he could only have… Read More
• Character Sirius Black was James Potter’s closest friend, Harry Potter’s godfather, and an Animagus, who was falsely accused of betrayal and murder and imprisoned in Azkaban. History Sirius Black was the elder of two boys born to an aristocratic family that was fiercely proud of its pureblood status and… Read More
• Event Snape is intensely curious about where Remus Lupin goes each month. Sirius jokingly suggests that Snape follow Lupin through the passage beneath the Whomping Willow. James Potter, realizing that Snape would encounter a full-blown and very dangerous werewolf at the end of the passage, stops Snape from going through, thereby… Read More
• Event On the last night of winter break, Severus Snape arrives at Grimmauld Place, headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. Mrs. Weasley tells Harry to go to the kitchen where he finds Snape and his godfather, Sirius Black, sitting in awkward silence because they are old rivals from school days. Read More
• Potions Skele-gro is a medical potion which regrows bones. The effect takes about eight hours and can be quite painful. Read More
• Character Jack Sloper was a Gryffindor Hogwarts student. He played on the Gryffindor Quidditch team as a replacement Beater when Fred and George were banned from playing (OP21). He was a poor substitute, so bad at handling his bat that he hit Angelina Johnson in the mouth with it during a… Read More
• Event The Slytherin Quidditch Team “flatten” Gryffindor in their Quidditch match the previous year, according to McGonagall (PS9). The new Gryffindors are reminded of the history during their first evening by Nearly-Headless Nick: “Gryffindor have never gone so long without winning. Slytherin have got the cup… Read More
• Quote Well, that is Snape’s tragedy. Given his time over again he would not have become a Death Eater, but like many insecure, vulnerable people (like Wormtail) he craved membership of something big and powerful, something impressive. He wanted Lily and he wanted Mulciber too. He never really understood Lily’s aversion; he… Read More
• Hogwarts Each year when the First Year students arrive at Hogwarts, they undergo a ceremony to sort them into one of the Four Houses: Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, or Hufflepuff. It is done through the use of the famous Hogwarts Sorting Hat (PS7). A stool is placed in front of the… Read More
• Character The Sorting Hat is an ancient wizard’s hat which is used at the beginning of every school year to sort incoming students into their Houses. The hat resides in the Head’s office at Hogwarts. Originally the pointed wizard’s hat of Godric Gryffindor, the Sorting Hat was bewitched… Read More
• Character Alicia Spinnet was a Gryffindor girl two years (CS7) ahead of Harry Potter, in the same year as Angelina Johnson, Fred and George Weasley and Lee Jordan. She played Chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team with Harry (PS11). She was made a full member… Read More
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Posted by in Essays
There are actually about three hundred, it would seem, although there is plenty of debate on the subject. Here’s the evidence from the books themselves: There are more or less ten students (depending on the vagarities of the Sorting) in each House per year, five boys and five girls. There were twenty broomsticks lying… Read More
• Event After the security breach that caused the death of Professor Dumbledore classes are cancelled and exams are postponed. Parents arrive over the next several days to take their children home; among the students to leave are the Patil twins and Zacharias Smith. Seamus Finnigan’s mother also wants her son to leave Hogwarts,… Read More
• Magical artifacts The sword of Godric Gryffindor is an example of goblin-made armour, and specifically was made by Ragnuk the First; according to Griphook, it is a masterpiece of goblinwork (DH25). It is described as “silver” with a handle “gleaming with rubies the size of eggs”, and has Gryffindor’s name… Read More