• Cities One of the many exploits Gilderoy Lockhart claimed to have performed was to have defeated the Wagga Wagga Werewolf (CS10). Wagga Wagga is an inland city in Australia that traces its history back to the country’s first English settlers. Read More
• Countries Wales is one of the four countries that comprises the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It has very beautiful scenery and is known for its mountains, seaside and castles. Locations in Wales Abergavenny Anglesey Cardiff (Caerdydd) Caerphilly Holyhead (Caergybi) a… Read More
• Magical objects Another name for the Elder Wand, one of the Deathly Hallows (DH21, DH24, TBB/TTB). Read More
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Posted by in Website news
In celebration of Harry’s first visit to Diagon Alley on July 31, we’re very excited to present the Wizarding World Currency Exchange to help all you Muggles in your magical shopping. Hagrid may think that seventeen Sickles to the Galleon is “easy enough,” but we Muggles find it complicated. Read More
• Magical objects A complicated device made with feathers used by the Wand-shine Elf to polish wands in the MACUSA Lobby in 1926 (WFT). Read More
• Glossary Common way of saying “Put your wands away,” meaning “No magic allowed.” The phrase, when spoken by a teacher at Hogwarts, means that the upcoming lesson will be a theory lesson without any actual magic practice. The students are never particularly excited to hear that order at the beginning of… Read More
• Magical objects Most human magic is done using a wand. The wand serves as a tool to focus and control the magical energy of the spell. It is possible to cast spells without using a wand, but for most wizards results are unfocused (CR). House-elves and goblins are not permitted to carry wands,… Read More
• Character In the MACUSA Lobby in 1926, a house-elf was shining wands using a feathery contraption (WFT). Read More
• Spells Emits an animated ribbon from the tip of the wand that spells words or forms numbers… Read More
• Glossary Warlock is an ancient wizarding term originally used to denote a wizard who is trained in martial skills such as dueling. The meaning has been diluted somewhat over the centuries and is now used for a wizard who looks particularly fierce or as a title of achievement (WHH). Read More
• Common items A wastepaper basket is a container in which to collect trash. Most rooms at Hogwarts have at least one wastepaper basket. Peeves like throwing them at people’s heads (PS8). In Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, an enchanted wastepaper basket in the room used by Harry and Ron swallowed paper thrown… Read More
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Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
This Lexicon Minute is about time. No, not time travel – I only have a minute and I’d be crazy to try and tackle time travel in that short time, although technically if I could manipulate time I could make that one minute last as long as I… Read More
• Quote Potter was drawn with spectacles because, Ms Rowling said, she had worn thick glasses as a child and was frustrated that “speccies” were swots but never heroes. Read More
• Furniture and household items Grandfather clock with nine golden hands. Located in the Weasley living room, this fine clock is completely useless if you need to know the time. Each hand is engraved with the name of a member of the Weasley family . These hands point to inscriptions around the face which… Read More
• Businesses, merchants, and shops Fred and George Weasley worked for several years to develop a line of comic magic items which they hoped to sell through their company, Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes. They were putting together order forms during the summer of 1994 with the hope of selling the items at school, but their mother… Read More
• Event The first week of September is a very eventful period in Hogwarts and Wizarding World history. For British witches and wizards, the date of September first brings fond memories of boarding the Hogwarts Express for the nine-hour journey to Hogwarts in Scotland. They arrive after dark. Just for the record,… Read More
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Posted by and in The Films
Oh, of course there are a million things that I wish had been included in the films. But there are a few really weird things that I really would have loved to have seen included. Here are my top three Weird Canon Moments: Read More
• Art and Culture The Weird Sisters is a very popular all-male rock band in the wizarding world. This musical group is very popular on the WWN (GF22). The band’s instruments consist of a set of drums, several guitars, a lute, a cello, a bass guitar, and some bagpipes. They were “all… Read More
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Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
Have you ever wondered why an all-wizard rock band would call itself The Weird Sisters? Shakespeare fans may recognize the term “weird sisters” as a name applied to the witches in Macbeth. You might know that all roles in Shakespeare’s plays were played by male… Read More
• Cities Wellington is the capital of New Zealand, as well as the seat of the New Zealand Ministry of Magic. Quidditch here dates back to the seventeenth century, and as a result there is Maori art from the period depicting white wizards on brooms. Those pieces of art the Ministry has… Read More
• Ministry of Magic A part of the Beast Division of the Department for the Care and Regulation of Magical Creatures (FB)… Read More
• Rules and laws An ultimately unsuccessful rule framework developed by the Ministry of Magic in 1637 for the control of Werewolves (Pm)… Read More
• Ministry of Magic A part of the Beast Division of the Department for the Care and Regulation of Magical Creatures (FB)… Read More
• Regions, counties, and territories The West Country is a largely rural region of southwestern England which includes Cornwall, Devon, and Somerset. It was here that the Death Eaters, with the help of at least one giant, caused widespread destruction while attacking Muggles in the summer of 1996. This was… Read More
• Source “The Warlock’s Hairy Heart” is a wizarding world fairy tale, part of the collection The Tales of Beedle the Bard. This dark, “gothic” tale tells of a young warlock who removes his own heart by terrible Dark Arts to protect himself from the foolishness of love. When he meets… Read More
• Creature A legendary water creature found in the White River of Arkansas, possibly a giant fish with large spines on its back (Pm). Read More
• Source “The Wizard and the Hopping Pot” is a wizarding world fairy tale, part of the collection The Tales of Beedle the Bard. In the story, a “kindly old wizard” dies and leaves his magical cooking pot to his foolish son. The son spurns his neighbours’ requests for help and discovers… Read More
• Towns Wigtown is located in the Southwest of Scotland (on the shores of Wigtown Bay in Dumfries and Galloway). The town is home to the Wigtown Wanderers Quidditch team – a member of the British and Irish Quidditch League. Kennilworthy Whisp wrote about the team in his… Read More
• Regions, counties, and territories     Wiltshire, a county in south-central Britain west of London, is the starting point of the West Country – and the location of the Malfoy mansion (OP15). Wiltshire includes the Avebury Stone Circle, Salisbury Plain, and Stonehenge, as well as nine white chalk horses carved into… Read More
• Towns Though Wimbourne does not exist in modern Britain, there is a Wimborne Minster – a small town near the Southern coast of England. This, then, is the probable home of the Wimbourne Wasps, a member of the British & Irish Quidditch League (QA7). Read More
• Mountains, hills, and landforms Where Severus Snape met with Dumbledore to warn him that Voldemort was going to attack the Potter family because of the partial prophecy he overheard at the Hogshead (DH33). Read More
• Quote “That suggests that what you fear most of all is fear.  Very wise, Harry.”… Read More
• Art and Culture A popular show on the Wizard’s Wireless hosted by Glenda Chittock (FW). Read More
• Publications A fairly well-known women’s magazine that Mrs. Weasley subscribes to for its recipes (GF28) and that St. Mungo’s Hospital keeps lying around its waiting room (OP22). The magazine gives an annual “Most Charming Smile” award, which Gilderoy Lockhart has won five times – a feat which he seems… Read More
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Posted by in Canon discussion / Essays
Banking in the middle ages (which is the basic world in which wizards live) was in its infancy. Its primary reason for existence was to provide safe-keeping, for a price (they took some of your money in exchange for keeping it safe). This could still be the basic mode of… Read More
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Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
You may notice on the homepage of the Lexicon that it always shows the current exchange rate between a galleon and a range of different worldwide currencies. But did you ever wonder how J.K. Rowling came up with this seemingly confusing system of wizard money? Hagrid explains… Read More
• Ministry of Magic A section probably within the Ministry of Magic with responsibility for administering the O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s to Hogwarts students every year… Read More
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Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
So, if you’re like me, and I assume you are, you’ve got some questions about wizard plumbing. We know Hogwarts has bathrooms, and that those bathrooms have toilets, and that the halls of Hogwarts are lined with pipes. This is all spelled out for us in Chamber of Secrets,… Read More
• Organizations The Wizards’ Council was one of several bodies which governed the British magical community before the creation of the Ministry of Magic in 1707 (FB, MoM). It was also referred to as the “Warlock’s Council” (FW, WotM). The leader of the Council was called the… Read More
• Wizarding culture Infants magic quill at Hogwarts notes the birth of a magical child and his or her name goes on list for Hogwarts magic not always apparent in a child can be born a Squib but this might not be known for several for years can be born to Muggles Children… Read More
• Communication The equivalent of a Muggle radio; the Weasleys have one of these in their kitchen. The WWN (Wizarding Wireless Network) is listened to by many in the wizarding world. Read More
• Place Funnily enough, the hometown of Hengist of Woodcroft (fw11). Woodcroft is a tiny village located in Gloucestershire, England. Read More
• Common items Wristwatches are used by Muggles and wizards alike, but they have a special significance in the wizarding world as a traditional 17th-birthday gift. Ron received a new gold wristwatch from his parents for his seventeenth birthday (HBP19, DH7). On Harry’s seventeenth birthday, the Weasleys gave him a slightly damaged… Read More
• Occupations The writers and employees known to work for the Daily Prophet: Personnel Ludo Bagman – wrote a feature article during the 2014 Quidditch World Cup (QWC) Bozo (surname unknown) – Rita’s photographer partner (GF18, GF24) Betty Braithwaite – interviewed Rita Skeeter about… Read More
• Source Rowling wrote a series of essays, originally appearing on Pottermore, about various wizarding schools throughout the world. Aside from Hogwarts and Ilvermorny, which received extensive extra treatment, the essays described schools in Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America. The introduction mentioned that there are eleven main magic schools in the… Read More
• Source The Wizarding World of Harry Potter consists of two theme parks connected by a replica of the Hogwarts Express. Although the parks in general are recreations of the film sets and therefore not canon, Rowling herself contributed many details beyond what was already provided in the novels. Therefore some aspects… Read More