• Character Abraham Peasegood was an American wizard who invented the game of Quodpot (QA8). Peasegood immigrated to North America in the 1700s, intending to form a Quidditch team when he got there. The story goes that the Quaffle he had packed in his luggage came into contact with… Read More
• Character Agatha Chubb was a witch whose expertise was in ancient wizarding artefacts. While researching the Quidditch practices of the 16th century she discovered twelve Bludgers made of lead in peat bogs and marshes in Great Britain and Ireland (QA6). She used her finds to show how modern… Read More
• Article
Posted by in Canon discussion / Essays
Introduction No, I don’t intend to predict the identities of the next several Ministers for Magic, but rather to present and discuss the various evidence available in Harry Potter canon on the relative ages of the seven Weasley siblings. Since the original version of this discussion, Rowling has, on her website, www.jkrowling.com, presented us… 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
• Character Alastor “Mad-Eye” Moody is a retired Auror, considered one of the best Dark Wizard catchers the Ministry has ever had. Moody came on staff for a year at Hogwarts, but  spent it at the bottom of a magical trunk, unbeknownst to anyone but the imposter who put him there (… Read More
• Character Alberic Grunnion was the inventor of the Dungbomb (FW). His Chocolate Frog card was one of the ones Harry received on his first journey to Hogwarts (PS6). Read More
• Character Famous wizarding duellist. Toothill won the All-England competition in 1430 with a Blasting Curse. She defeated Samson Wiblin, who was the favorite to win. Toothill now appears on a Famous Wizard card (and Wiblin doesn’t!) (FW)… Read More
• Character Albert Runcorn was a tall, bearded wizard who works for the Ministry of Magic. He unwittingly played a part in Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s infiltration of the Ministry when Hermione gave him a Nosebleed Nougat, convinced him to go home, and took some of his hairs to add to… Read More
• Character Albert Tillyman was a wizard and a bully whose wife, Violet, went missing after they argued. He believed she had disappeared in the Floo Network, which caused a national scare. Unbeknownst to him, she had traveled to the wrong house and left him for the man she met there, Myron… Read More
• Event Angry that his brother is neglecting their fragile sister for his new friend, Aberforth confronts Albus and Grindelwald about their plans to leave Godric’s Hollow and make their mark on the world. Grindelwald tells Aberforth he just doesn’t understand, and then uses the Cruciatus Curse on the younger boy. Then a… Read More
• Character Albus Dumbledore was the Headmaster of Hogwarts for over thirty years, a time period that encompassed both of Voldemort’s attempts to take over the Wizarding world. Considered to be the most powerful wizard of his time, Dumbledore was awarded the Order of Merlin, First Class, and was… Read More
• Event Albus Dumbledore, one of the greatest wizards of the modern era, is born to Kendra and Percival Dumbledore in the village of Mould-on-the-Wold (DH2, DH11). Read More
• Headlines and advertisements • Historical events Albus Dumbledore Remembered is an obituary written by a life-long friend of Dumbledore, Elphias Doge, who attended Hogwarts with him as a child (DH2, DH8). Read More
• Character Alecto and Amycus Carrow (JKR) were Death Eaters, a brother and sister, part of the group of Death Eaters that invaded Hogwarts in June of 1997 (HBP27); Snape implies that they were never sent to Azkaban (HBP2). When Voldemort took over Hogwarts, Alecto Carrow became the Muggle Studies teacher… Read More
• Character Alice Longbottom, along with her husband Frank, were Aurors, popular in the Wizarding World, who fought valiantly against Voldemort and his supporters during the 1970s. Frank and Alice were captured by Death Eaters shortly after the fall of Voldemort (late 1981). They were subjected to the Cruciatus Curse in an attempt… Read More
• Character Almerick Sawbridge was a wizard famous for conquering the river troll that was terrorizing crossers of the Wye River (fw41). Read More
• Character The third of three witches in the story “The Fountain of Fair Fortune” from The Tales of Beedle the Bard. In the Amazon.com paraphrase, Amata was a witch seeking a cure from the fountain for the grief and longing caused when she was deserted by her beloved. As she… Read More
• Character Amelia Susan Bones was the sister of Edgar Bones and the aunt of Susan Bones. Before her murder by Death Eaters, Amelia was the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement (OP6) and presided over the Wizengamot (OP8), including Harry’s disciplinary hearing on August 12, 1995. She… Read More
• Event In 1996, the Head of Magical Law Enforcement put up a fight while being killed personally by Voldemort inside a locked room where she had been living alone (HBP1). Read More
• Character Amos Diggory was a Ministry of Magic official who worked for the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Amos is a ruddy-faced wizard with a scrubby brown beard. He takes a great deal of pride in his son, Cedric, even to the point of being somewhat rude… Read More
• Character Angus McMangus was a Hogwarts classmate of Miranda Goshawk, author of the Book of Spells. Read More
• Character Antioch Peverell was the oldest of the three brothers in The Tale of the Three Brothers, and owner of the Elder Wand. Read More
• Character Araminta Meliflua was a cousin of Sirius Black’s mother. Meliflua tried to force through a Ministry bill to make Muggle-hunting legal (OP6). Read More
• Character Archer Evermonde was Minister for Magic during World War I, serving  1912 – 1923. Read More
• Character Archie Aymslowe was president of the fringe movement entitled Fresh Air Refreshes Totally, or F.A.R.T. (Pm: Wizard Clothing). This character might very well be the Archie we encounter by the water pump in the campground at the World Cup, the wizard who “likes a good healthy breeze” around his privates… Read More
• Character Ariana Dumbledore was the younger sister of Albus and Aberforth – Albus’s junior by four years, Aberforth’s by one.  At six years old, she was attacked by three muggle boys and was severely traumatized by the event.  Her father, Percival, was imprisoned for seeking revenge on the boys.  As a… Read More
• Event Ariana Dumbledore, sister of Albus and Aberforth, met her accidental death during a three-way duel between the brothers and Gellert Grindelwald (DH35). According to an interview given to Rita Skeeter by Bathilda Bagshot, the brothers had a “dreadful coffin-side brawl” during the funeral in which Aberforth bloodied Albus’s nose,… Read More
• Character The first of the Malfoy family in Britain, Armand arrived in 1066 as part of William the Conqueror’s army. Armand was given a piece of land in Wiltshire as reward for his services to King William I (Pm). Read More
• Event Armand Malfoy accompanies William the Conqueror from France to Britain with the Norman Conquest in 1066. He provides assistance — possibly magical in nature — to William and is rewarded with land in Wiltshire. The Malfoy family will maintain a stately residence on that land for the next 900 years. Read More
• Character Artemisia Lufkin was the first witch to become Minister of Magic, serving from 1798 to 1811 (JKR). Lufkin established the Department of International Magical Cooperation and lobbied hard and successfully to have a Quidditch World Cup tournament held in Britain during her term in office (Pm). Read More
• Character Arthur Weasley is an easy-going, middle-aged wizard with a passion for Muggles, and whose dearest ambition is to learn how airplanes fly. Arthur fought, along with the rest of his family, in the Battle of Hogwarts in May, 1998. He and Molly have at least twelve grandchildren, and it… Read More
• Article
Posted by in Canon discussion / Essays
The newly released Black family tree, now revealed in its full glory, is the topic of considerable discussion and is a source of considerable information on the relatedness of the various pure-blood  wizard lines. Many familiar names show up on that tree, including Weasley (blasted off, of course). Sirius Black comments in Order of the Phoenix, “Molly and I are… Read More
• Character Arturo Cephalopos was a wandmaker of poor reputation, a contemporary of Gerbold Ollivander. Garrick Ollivander, Gerbold’s grandson, called Arturo “a slipshod wandmaker and an ignoramus” and stated that “nobody … was surprised when he went out of business” (Pm). Read More
• Event The Irish witch Gormlaith Gaunt attacks Ilvermorny School to take revenge on her niece, Isolt Sayre, who had stolen the family heirloom wand once belonging to Salazar Slytherin from Gormlaith and fled to America. The witch was also furious that Isolt married James Steward, a No-Maj, and was running a… Read More
• Character Editor at Obscurus Books who, in 1918, commissioned an authoritative compendium of magical creatures by a lowly Ministry employee by the name of Newt Scamander (FB). Read More
• Occupations The Aurors are an elite group of witches and wizards who battle the Dark Arts. They operate in some ways as soldiers but more often as intelligence agents, seeking out Dark wizards and defeating them, often in fierce wizard duels. Alastor Moody and Frank and Alice Longbottom were famous Aurors,… Read More
• Islands • Mythological and legendary places Avalon is a legendary island somewhere off the coast of England, which during the time of King Arthur was ruled by Morgan le Fay – a queen, a dark sorceress, and Merlin’s half-sister and enemy (fw8). Read More
• Awards • Sports and competitions Angus Buchanan Cup for Outstanding Effort Awarded yearly at Hogwarts (Pm). Barnabus Finkley Prize for Exceptional Spell-Casting Albus Dumbledore won this before his eighteenth birthday (DH18). “Dangerous” Dai Commemorative Medal Given each year to the Quidditch player who has been the most reckless, in honor of… Read More
• Islands • Mysterious places Far out in the icy waters of the North Sea lies a tiny island that is home to one of the most terrible places on earth: Azkaban, the wizarding prison (PA3, Sch1, DL). History The fortress has existed since the 15th century, and never appeared on any… Read More