The HP Lexicon Podcast

Now we’re into the second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Plenty of connections can be made between this book and book six, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. In fact, book two was originally going to be called Half-Blood Prince! Here’s what Rowling had to say about that:

I have been engulfed by an avalanche of questions on the subject of ‘Prince’ having once been a title of ‘Chamber’. I am therefore attempting to answer most of them under this heading, which I think just about covers all the answerable variations (the unanswerable ones include questions such as ‘who’s the Half-Blood Prince?’ ‘what happens in the Half-Blood Prince?’ and ‘what does Half-Blood Prince mean?’)

The plot of ‘Prince’ bears no resemblance whatsoever to the plot of ‘Chamber’, nor is it an off-cut of ‘Chamber’. The story of ‘Prince’ takes off where ‘Phoenix’ ended and does not hark back to four years previously. True, mention is made to events that happened in ‘Chamber,’ but of course, mention is also made of events that happened in ‘Stone’, ‘Azkaban’, ‘Goblet’ and ‘Phoenix’.

‘The Half-Blood Prince’ might be described as a strand of the overall plot. That strand could be used in a whole variety of ways and back in 1997 I considered weaving it into the story of ‘Chamber’. It really didn’t fit there, though; it was not part of the story of the basilisk and Riddle’s diary, and before long I accepted that it would be better to do it justice in book six. I clung to the title for a while, even though all trace of the ‘Prince’ storyline had disappeared, because I liked it so much (yes, I really like this title!). I re-christened book two ‘Chamber of Secrets’ when I started the second draft.

The link I mentioned between books two and six does not, in fact, relate to the ‘Half-Blood Prince’ (because there is no trace left of the HBP storyline in ‘Chamber’.) Rather, it relates to a discovery Harry made in ‘Chamber’ that foreshadows something that he finds out in ‘Prince’. (JKR: FAQ)

There may be, as Rowling states, “no trace left of the HBP storyline in ‘Chamber’,” but there certainly are a lot of connections and similarities between the two books! Many fans have commented on the fact that the first and seventh books mirror each other as do the second and sixth. Check out our list of similarities toward the bottom of this page.

And now, let’s go canon diving!

CS 1: Birthdays by Eileen Jones

CS 2: Dobby’s Warning … and other musings by Eileen Jones

CS 3: The Weasley Twins by Eileen Jones

CS 4: Privet Drive vs. The Burrow by Eileen Jones

CS 5: Or Worse, Expelled by Eileen Jones

Canon Thoughts: Book Two by Steve VanderArk

The Weasleys and Ottery St. Catchpole by Steve VanderArk

Is Dobby Really Necessary? by Eileen Jones

Who Enforces the Statute of Secrecy to the Muggles? by Barbara Moline

These guides were originally written in March of 2002. Since that time, a few edits were made here and there but basically the text remained the same. To get ready for this Canon Celebration, our editors have been revising each one. We’ve added fan artwork to the Guide which illustrates the text. At the bottom in the Commentary section we’ve added a gallery of additional artwork. So even if you’ve read our guides before, please give them another look. And if you’re doing a re-read of the book, have the Guide to each chapter open as you go! I’m sure you’ll find a lot of information you didn’t know.

Reader’s Guide to Chapter 1

Reader’s Guide to Chapter 2

Reader’s Guide to Chapter 3

Reader’s Guide to Chapter 4

Reader’s Guide to Chapter 5

Fitting the books into the real-life calendars isn’t easy! In fact, it’s impossible. But that didn’t stop us:

Day by day calendar of events in the book

Harry’s Dreams by Steve VanderArk

In Search of … The Burrow by Ravenclaw Rambler

How Do We Know the Layout of the Burrow? by John Kearns

We have hundreds and hundreds of pieces of fan artwork in our collection. Some subjects get a lot of depictions — Diagon Alley is a favorite topic, for example, and, well, of course it is! But there are a few pieces which illustrate more unusual moments in the text. Here are a few examples:

Aunt Petunia’s sugared violet creation heading for the kitchen floor (CS2)

Returning to the Burrow after playing Quidditch (CS4)

The famous author Gilderoy Lockhart, with one of his books (CS4)

Ron and Harry fly to school in a Ford Anglia (CS5)

We have tons of images of the Sorting and the Welcoming Feast. Snape and Potions lessons are a very popular topic. However, we have very few of the House ghosts apart from Nearly-Headless Nick or of Dean, Lee, and Seamus. Our Artwork Challenge for all you fan artists out there is to depict one of the lesser known characters in the series. If we really like your work, we may feature it in the Lexicon! Here are some suggestions from these chapters:

Send your artwork to [email protected]. By submitting it, you are giving us permission to display your work on the Lexicon. We would like to include your name with your artwork so you are properly credited, so when you send your work let us know what name to use. Please also include a way to get a hold of you so that if we decide to feature your work as part of our regular collection we can contact you for more details. All artwork we display remains the property of the artist and they retain all copyright.

The Burrow

Where is the Burrow? In 2008, Steve VanderArk spent some time in England searching for real-world clues to the location of Ottery St Catchpole and The Burrow. He investigated the area around Ottery St Mary in East Devon and made some very interesting discoveries. The following podcasts will tell you all about these:

The Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office

We first hear about Mr Weasley’s work in the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office at the Ministry of Magic in Chapter 3. How many of these enchanted Muggle items do you remember reading about? Some of them aren’t coming up until future books:

“Imagine a wizard buying a rusty old car and telling his wife all he wanted to do with it was take it apart to see how it worked, while really he was enchanting it to make it fly.”

“Well, dear, I think you’ll find that he would be quite within the law to do that, even if, er, he maybe would have done better to, um, tell his wife the truth … There’s a loophole in the law, you’ll find … as long as he wasn’t intending to fly the car, the fact that the car could fly wouldn’t –”

“Arthur Weasley, you made sure there was a loophole when you wrote that law….” (CS3)

Atlas guide to Ottery St Catchpole and The Burrow

Even though the Half-Blood Prince plot was removed from book two, there remain numerous overlapping or mirroring elements in the two books. Probably the most obvious overlap is the fact that the plots of both books center on a mysterious book from the past and its equally mysterious original owner.

Other connections and motifs which appear in both books:

We will be moving on to explore Chapters 6-12 of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Come and celebrate with us!

The post Chamber of Secrets 1-5 Canon Celebration appeared first on Harry Potter Lexicon.

Quidditch is the wizard sport that everyone – well, almost everyone – in the Wizarding World is mad about. It features high levels of danger and unpredictability. The strange rules and seemingly unfair scoring system of Quidditch are more than a bit illogical. But what outweighs these objections are the thrills – thrills for the spectators in the stadium and thrills for the players. It can be a very exciting game.

Quite early on, at a National Press Club luncheon in 1999, Jo Rowling said

As a former teacher, she also said that

“….sport is such an important part of life at school. I am terrible at all sports, but I gave my hero a talent I’d love to have had. Who wouldn’t want to fly?”

Quidditch in the Wizarding World is not just about Quidditch at Hogwarts. Jo has written in detail about two Quidditch World Cup tournaments (GF8, QWC), as well as reports on professional team matches (DP1, DP2, DP3, DP4) and short vignettes on historical World Cup matches (QWC).

Harry’s relationship with Quidditch plays an important part in the plots of all seven of the Harry Potter books. In Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone comes the discovery of the joy of flying on a broom. He takes to it immediately, “a natural”, and becomes the “the youngest house player” on the Gryffindor Quidditch team “in a century” (PS9). Certainly, in four of the books, the Hogwarts Quidditch schedule informs the shape of Harry’s year – having to balance Quidditch with his studies – and he does feel that Quidditch is “the only thing ….he was really good at” (CS14).

So beyond that, why do I think Quidditch is really important to Harry Potter?

In the Philosopher’s Stone, Harry hones his Quidditch and flying skills. He gains confidence. When he, Hermione and Ron have to overcome the obstacles in the dungeon to get to the Stone’s hiding place, Harry is able to catch the flying keys as if they were a Snitch in a Quidditch match.

Other than a win against Slytherin and endless practice sessions for the team, Quidditch does not play a part in the solution finding out and defeating the supposed “Heir of Slytherin” in the second book Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Harry’s skills improve and he learns more about coping with danger and injury.

The Gryffindor Quidditch team win the coveted Quidditch Cup in the third book Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. He has to balance more practice and games with his studies. His flying skills mean he is not afraid to fly Buckbeak up to the tower window to save Sirius Black.

A direct result of his Quidditch seeking skills comes into play during the Triwizard Tournament when he flies on his broom to snatch a dragon egg from a nesting mother dragon in the First Task. This dive is similar to the Wronski Feint move of Viktor Krum that he sees earlier in the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire book during the final match of the Quidditch World Cup. He escapes Lord Voldemort, but it is not without both sorrow and death occurring.

As time goes on, Harry matures and continues to develop skills, many of which come together in the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Faced with an inadequate Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Harry is talked into teaching other students the skills they need both to pass their exams and perhaps someday to be able to fight against evil. He, not Dumbledore, is the leader of Dumbledore’s Army. He also takes the lead in going to the Department of Mysteries in the Ministry of Magic – on what he thought was going to be a rescue mission, but turns out to be a battle.

In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry not only becomes the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, but also has private lessons with Dumbledore. These are not lessons in fighting or lessons on leadership, but lessons to show him some of Lord Voldemort’s life and how they give an insight into their evil enemy’s thoughts. This leads to a quest to find one of the Horcrux objects that will help to defeat the Dark Lord. Although unsuccessful, Harry is now ready to take over the quest – and ultimately to fulfil his destiny.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows departs from the school setting – Harry, Hermione and Ron are initially on the run from Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters. It is more important that ever that Harry concentrates on finding the Horcruxes in order to defeat the Dark Lord. In the end he finds strength within himself to both lead and let go. Where does this strength come from? I would argue that it comes at least in part from Harry’s involvement with Quidditch.

Harry has to grow up and learn to take responsibility for himself and others before he can defeat Lord Voldemort. Playing Quidditch helped him to do just that.

The post Why Harry Potter Needs Quidditch appeared first on Harry Potter Lexicon.

Ready to have some fun exploring? Here we go!

Trunks by Selena Gallagher

Platform Nine and 3/4 by Steve VanderArk

How Many Students Are There at Hogwarts? by Steve VanderArk

Whatever Happened to Sally-Ann? by Steve VanderArk

The Significance of Hallowe’en by Rosie Payne

Free Will, Divination and Time Travel Part 1 by Abby Koop

These guides were originally written in March of 2002. Since that time, a few edits were made here and there but basically the text remained the same. To get ready for this Canon Celebration, our editors have been revising each one. We’ve added fan artwork to the Guide which illustrates the text. At the bottom in the Commentary section we’ve added a gallery of additional artwork. So even if you’ve read our guides before, please give them another look. And if you’re doing a re-read of the first book, have the Guide to each chapter open as you go! I’m sure you’ll find a lot of information you didn’t know.

Harry’s Life at School “Pre-Hermione”

Reader’s Guide to chapter 6

Reader’s Guide to chapter 7

Reader’s Guide to chapter 8

Reader’s Guide to chapter 9

Reader’s Guide to chapter 10

The Duo becomes a Trio and Investigates

Reader’s Guide to chapter 11

Reader’s Guide to chapter 12

Reader’s Guide to chapter 13

Reader’s Guide to chapter 14

Reader’s Guide to chapter 15

The Showdown Under the School

Reader’s Guide to chapter 16  

Reader’s Guide to chapter 17

Fitting the first book into the real-life calendars isn’t easy! In fact, it’s impossible. But that didn’t stop us:

Day by day calendar of events in the book

The Riddle of the Potions by Prefect Marcus

Nicholas Flamel and the Philosopher’s Stone by Brian Dormand

What Came Before the Hogwarts Express? by Owen de Lyon

The Hogwarts Express, or In Search of … Platform Nine and Three Quarters by Ravenclaw Rambler

Why Do All the Kids Have to Go to King’s Cross? by Steve VanderArk

Secrets of the Classlist by Diana Summers

Did Albus Dumbledore Set Up Events So That Harry Potter Would Go After the Philosopher’s Stone? by Micheal Hagel and Corinne Demyanovich

Quirrell’s Leave of Absence by Melissa Erin Friedline

Thoughts on Socks by Sandra L. Diersing

Everything You’ve Ever Wanted to Know About Socks by Morag Traynor

Unicorns by Susan

That Had to Hurt…or Did It? by Steve VanderArk and Michele Worley

We have hundreds and hundreds of pieces of fan artwork in our collection. Some subjects get a lot of depictions — Diagon Alley is a favorite topic, for example, and, well, of course it is! But there are a few pieces which illustrate more unusual moments in the text. Here are a few examples:

A boy with dreadlocks was surrounded by a small crowd.

This image from the Trading Card Game illustrates a very small reference in the seventh chapter! The image is by Patrick Faricy.

Ron and Hermione joined Neville, Seamus, and Dean the West Ham fan up in the top row. As a surprise for Harry, they had painted a large banner on one of the sheets Scabbers had ruined. It said Potter for President, and Dean, who was good at drawing, had done a large Gryffindor lion underneath. Then Hermione had performed a tricky little charm so that the paint flashed different colors. (PS11)

Up at the High Table, Dumbledore had swapped his pointed wizard’s hat for a flowered bonnet, and was chuckling merrily at a joke Professor Flitwick had just read him. (PS12)

The trees were so thick he couldn’t see where Snape had gone. He flew in circles, lower and lower, brushing the top branches of trees until he heard voices. He glided toward them and landed noiselessly in a towering beech tree.

He climbed carefully along one of the branches, holding tight to his broomstick, trying to see through the leaves. Below, in a shadowy clearing, stood Snape, but he wasn’t alone. Quirrell was there, too. Harry couldn’t make out the look on his face, but he was stuttering worse than ever. Harry strained to catch what they were saying. (PS13)

We have tons of images of the Sorting and the Welcoming Feast. Snape and Potions lessons are a very popular topic. However, we have very few of the House ghosts apart from Nearly-Headless Nick or of Dean, Lee, and Seamus. Our Artwork Challenge for all you fan artists out there is to depict one of the lesser known characters in the series. If we really like your work, we may feature it in the Lexicon! Here are some suggestions:

Send your artwork to [email protected]. By submitting it, you are giving us permission to display your work on the Lexicon. We would like to include your name with your artwork so you are properly credited, so when you send your work let us know what name to use. Please also include a way to get a hold of you so that if we decide to feature your work as part of our regular collection we can contact you for more details. All artwork we display remains the property of the artist and they retain all copyright.

It’s not hard for us Muggles to find King’s Cross Station. It’s not hard to find Platforms 9 and 10 either. If you visit there, however, you’re going to find some big differences from what you see in the films — and even from what you read in the books. Here are some little-known facts about Platform 9 and 3/4:

Rowling doesn’t describe a brick wall as the entrance. The books describe a metal barrier with a ticket stand in the middle.

He wheeled his trolley forward cautiously until it was right against the barrier and pushed with all his might. The metal remained solid. (CS5)

In a moment, they had fallen sideways through the solid metal onto platform nine and three- quarters and looked up to see the Hogwarts Express, a scarlet steam engine, puffing smoke over a platform packed with witches and wizards seeing their children onto the train. (PA5)

Rowling was actually thinking of platforms 9 and 10 at Euston Station when she was writing her description and she wasn’t in London to check.

I wrote Platform 9 3/4 when I was living in Manchester, and I wrongly visualized the platforms, and I was actually thinking of Euston, so anyone who’s actually been to the real platforms 9 and 10 in King’s Cross will realize they don’t bear a great resemblance to the platforms 9 and 10 as described in the book. So that’s just me coming clean, there. I was in Manchester, I couldn’t check. (HPM)

The platforms at the two stations have one key difference: the barrier at Euston is very clearly a metal barrier. The one at King’s Cross is, well, a bit more complicated. It’s mostly framed glass and ticket boxes. Here are photos of both stations so you can compare for yourself:

Euston Station

King’s Cross Station

Platforms 9 and 10 at King’s Cross are not in the main train shed, the one with the beautiful vaulted ceiling. They’re in a smaller train shed off to the left as you enter the station. Essayist and researcher Ravenclaw Rambler suggests that the magical platform may actually exist crossways rather than in line with the existing tracks. as shown in his map:

Want to learn more?

In Search of … Platform Nine and Three Quarters

Harry Potter in London

Walking into the Great Hall in the first film is an exciting moment. However, the arrangement is not quite accurate. Based on text elsewhere in the books, the door from the Entrance Hall is actually located on the side wall nearest the Slytherin table.

Here’s a more accurate plan of the ground floor of Hogwarts, showing the placement of the Entrance Hall and the Great Hall as well as the positioning of the various House tables.

We’re going to make a slight diversion for a week and just focus on Quidditch. We’ll look at the Hogwarts teams, the professional teams in Britain and Ireland, and the international teams. We’ll dig up some interesting facts about everyone’s favorite Wizarding sport! The week after that, we will dive into book two.

The post Philosopher’s Stone 6-17 Canon Celebration appeared first on Harry Potter Lexicon.

When Harry finally gets his Hogwarts letter from Hagrid, it contains a list of required school supplies, but makes no mention of how he’s expected to pack it all. Nevertheless, on the 1st September, it’s all safely packed in a ‘huge, heavy trunk.’ This is fortuitous as it appears that the trunk is indeed the luggage of choice for Hogwarts students. Was it just a fluke that Harry happened to come by this archaic style of luggage? Where did Harry get this trunk? And why does the wizarding world favour this most inconvenient form of packing container?

In answer to the last question we could probably deduce that it’s for the same reason wizards use quills and parchment. Tradition. Or perhaps an element of being stuck in the past. Trunks, as we know them today, mostly date from the late eighteenth century to the early twentieth century, when they began to give way to the more convenient and lightweight suitcase. They conjure up images of long ocean voyages and definitely have a sense of nostalgia about them. They would undoubtedly be able to fit all manner of bulky objects required by Hogwarts students, such as cauldrons and scales – although broomsticks are another matter – as well as a year’s supply of clothes. However, they are hardly the most convenient item for an 11 year old to be lugging about. When Vernon Dursley drops Harry off at the station and walks away, Harry notes that he is ‘stranded in the middle of a station with a trunk he could hardly lift.’ Later, it was only with the help of the Weasley twins that he was able to get it on the train, as he could hardly raise one end of it by himself. I know this is a mundane concern but I can’t help wondering how on earth they ever manage to get those things up on the luggage racks!

Once at Hogwarts of course, they serve double duty as a piece of furniture. The students use them to store their things in throughout the year, so once in place, they serve their purpose quite well. It’s just that they’re not very portable. Struggling with the trunk seems to be an intrinsic part of Harry’s journey almost every year, until Deathly Hallows of course, when they finally resort to more practical rucksacks and the wonderfully portable beaded bag.

For an adult witch or wizard, a heavy, bulky trunk does not present too much of a problem. They can always use a levitating charm or something similar. However, for a lone underage witch or wizard, or even a Muggle-born with no magical parents on hand to take care of the luggage, these trunks must be a huge inconvenience. What would Hogwarts make of someone showing up with a nice light Samsonite on swivel wheels? Arthur Weasley at least would probably chuckle about Muggle inventiveness.

So where did Harry’s trunk come from? He didn’t buy it in Diagon Alley, and the Dursley’s wouldn’t have bought it for him, so it must have been something they already owned. Perhaps it was just the oldest piece of luggage in the house, and they weren’t about to send Harry off with a new suitcase, such as they might have bought for Dudley to go off to Smeltings. Is it possible that the trunk once belonged to Lily, that it was in fact Harry’s mother’s old school trunk? Perhaps the trunk was left with Lily’s parents and on their deaths it was passed to Petunia, where it had sat ever since, gathering dust in the attic. Well no, not gathering dust. I’m sure even Petunia’s attic is spotless. But if so, was this an uncharacteristic act of kindness on Petunia’s part, ensuring that Harry went off to school, not only with luggage that would allow him to fit in with everyone else, but also with something of his mother’s? That seems unlikely… but you never know.

The post Thoughts about Trunks appeared first on Harry Potter Lexicon.

Welcome to the first of twenty-six blog posts in our Canon Celebration! This time around we’re exploring the first five chapters of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

Why am I not saying “Sorcerer’s Stone”? Because that’s not the original name of the book, as you probably know. That’s the title that the editors at Scholastic came up with because they thought that kids in the US wouldn’t want to read a book with the word “philosopher” in the title. Here’s what Rowling said about that:

They wanted to call it something different and I said well how about Sorcerer’s Stone as a compromise. In retrospect I wish I hadn’t changed but to be honest with you I was so grateful that anyone wanted to buy my book at all that I was maybe a bit too compliant about that (HPM).

Ready to have some fun exploring? Here we go!

Canon Thoughts: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Wizard Currency

Magic Brains

These guides were originally written in March of 2002. Since that time, a few edits were made here and there but basically the text remained the same. To get ready for this Canon Celebration, our editors have been revising each one. We’ve added fan artwork to the Guide which illustrates the text. At the bottom in the Commentary section we’ve added a gallery of additional artwork. So even if you’ve read our guides before, please give them another look. And if you’re doing a re-read of the first book, have the Guide to each chapter open as you go! I’m sure you’ll find a lot of information you didn’t know. Here are the Reader’s Guides for each of the first five chapters:

Reader’s Guide to Chapter 1

Reader’s Guide to Chapter 2

Reader’s Guide to Chapter 3

Reader’s Guide to Chapter 4

Reader’s Guide to Chapter 5

Fitting the first book into the real-life calendars isn’t easy! In fact, it’s impossible. But that didn’t stop us:

Day by day calendar of events in the book

The text of the first book didn’t stay the same after first being published. The first US edition had quite a few changes in order to make it understandable for American children, who the editors apparently considered to be pretty dim. Here’s the list of differences between the two versions:

Differences between the British and American versions

In 2004, Bloomsbury re-released the books with new covers, including a series for grown-ups who presumably didn’t want to be seen reading a children’s book on the Underground on the way to work. The text changes fixed some errors and inconsistencies. Here’s that list:

Edits and changes to the text

More than You Ever Wanted to Know about Frog-spawn by Professor Koniphorus Swamp

The Put-Outer and Magic on Privet Drive by Cindysphinx

Imagi(c)nation in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by Connie Ann Kirk

We have hundreds and hundreds of pieces of fan artwork in our collection. Some subjects get a lot of depictions — Diagon Alley is a favorite topic, for example, and, well, of course it is! But there are a few pieces which illustrate more unusual moments in the text. Here are a few examples:

“I had a dream about a motorbike,” said Harry, remembering suddenly. “It was flying.”

“Mr Dursley however had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning. He yelled at five different people, made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more.” (PS1)

“Don’t be sorry, my dear sir, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last! Even Muggles like yourself should be celebrating, this happy, happy day!”

Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn’t been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which she left “to hide that horrible scar.”Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off. (PS2)

Is this Number 4 Privet Drive? Note the multiple chimneys, which the house would have to have if it has a fireplace in the kitchen. This is a house in Camberley, a small town just outside London, located where Little Whinging is likely to be. I took this photo while researching my book In Search of Harry Potter for Methuen Publishers of London.

Where is Little Whinging?

Above, I said that Camberley is in the right place to be Little Whinging. Out of all of Surrey, why did I think that Camberley might be the place? Ravenclaw Rambler works out the probable locations for Little Whinging and also the Hut on the Rock. Fellow essayist Nik the Hermit adds in his two cents to the discussion here and here.

Here are some lovely plans for Little Whinging and the house at Number 4, Privet Drive:

In 2001, when I was working on the timelines of the Wizarding World, I encountered a bit of a conundrum. While a casual read of the first chapter of Philosopher’s Stone seemed to say that Hagrid gathered up baby Harry from the wreckage of the cottage in Godric’s Hollow and flew with him to Privet Drive, a more careful reading revealed that the events in Privet Drive actually happened a full day later. When I brought this up in discussions online, I was told that I was wrong. But eventually everyone had to agree that the text does in fact say that Hagrid was in Godric’s Hollow the night of 31 October and that he didn’t fly into Privet Drive until just before midnight the next day, the first of November. It wasn’t until 2005 that Rowling acknowledged this fact and she never did explain it.

“I’m gonna have to really go back through notes, and either admit I’ve lost 24 hours, or, I don’t know, hurriedly come up with some back story to fill it. Either way, you either get to be right, or you get more story. So you can’t complain.”

Here’s the Lexicon’s analysis of those events:

Where Did the Time Go?

What really happened on the night James and Lily were killed? A Timeline and Commentary

We’ll be exploring the rest of the first novel, chapters 6 through 17. Also, we’ll be announcing an art challenge, so keep visiting the Lexicon and immerse yourself in Wizarding World lore!

The post Philosopher’s Stone 1-5 Canon Celebration appeared first on Harry Potter Lexicon.

Twenty-one years ago, I created a small website to collect and organize information about the Harry Potter novels. I was part of an online discussion group called Harry Potter for Grown Ups, which is just what it sounds like, and we all needed a quick way to find details from the books as we discussed the clues and hints that we found as we read the novels. I wanted to call this website The Harry Potter Encyclopedia, but at the time there was already a website called The Encyclopedia Potterica, so I had to come up with something else. Since at that time the site was essentially just a list of the cool names of things in the books, I decided to call it The Harry Potter Lexicon. The first version went online in 1999, but I didn’t really share it with anyone outside of some folks in the Harry Potter for Grownups group. When I was ready for other fans to see it, I made it public in July of 2000.

Over the next two decades, the Lexicon changed and grew a lot. There have been four versions of the site over the years. The original version was completely created with text. Any design elements came from using different text colors and sizes. Since everyone was on slow dial-up at the time, it was important that the site would load fast. I wanted users to be able to follow links and smoothly move from one page to another. There was no artwork at all. 

That “text only” idea didn’t last long. Within a few months of starting the site, I contacted Warner Bros and got permission to use the chapter artwork from the books on the Lexicon — yes, at that point Warner Bros was the gatekeeper on all visualizations of the Potter novels. That was a bit of a turning point because it marked the first appearance of artwork on the site. At that point I redesigned the Lexicon to include that artwork as well as created headers and things to dress up the pages. The overall look of the home page was that of a bunch of Diagon Alley signboards. I also created the Bestiary and the Atlas and started creating maps and charts.

As internet speeds increased, the site began to include more artwork. We started to feature the work of some prolific Potter artists of that time. And the site became very popular. It was, and still is, considered to be the best reference to the world Rowling was creating in the books. Scholastic and Warner Bros used it as their reference while editing the books and creating the films. Rowling herself said she occasionally looked up facts on the Lexicon while in the process of writing. 

The Lexicon underwent another revision in 2007, with all the content being completely reorganized and new navigation being put in place. The redesign was the work of Lisa Bunker, who created the amazing Accio Quote website and also wrote most of our original character descriptions.

Just a few years ago, the entire site was once again redesigned, this time to take advantage of technology which hadn’t been available back in 1999 when the site started. All the content was painstakingly copied over from a lot of static HTML pages into a modern content management system, created and programmed by Nick Moline, and displayed with a new, exciting page design created by Patrico Tarantino. That’s the Lexicon site you see today. 

The Lexicon has been the gold standard reference for Wizarding World canon facts for twenty years now. And to celebrate our 20th anniversary in a very “Lexicony” way, starting in July we’re going to hold a Celebration of Canon. Every week we’ll focus on part of one of the novels highlighting artwork, essays, podcasts, and more from our collection. Fans can explore that part of the Harry Potter canon with us. We hope you’ll learn details you never knew, discover artwork by some amazingly talented fan artists, and enjoy reading essays written by fans back when the books were still coming out, when we didn’t know what was going to come next. And we really hope you use the comments to give your own thoughts and insights.  

The Lexicon is twenty years old. The staff, as always, consists of a band of passionate fans who still get a thrill out of writing and researching about the Wizarding World created by Rowling. No one gets paid for this — in fact, all the costs of running the site are paid for out of our own pockets. If you want to support the Lexicon, there are very painless ways to do this. Click on the Lexicon logo in the upper left of every page and go to “support.”

And watch this blog. The collection for the first five chapters of Philosopher’s Stone will go live on Sunday, July 5. From then on through the end of the year, a different section of the canon will be featured every Sunday. 

We love hearing from fans about how they’ve enjoyed the site and how they get lost exploring canon for hours. We’re proud of what we’ve done over the past two decades and promise to keep writing, researching, and curating the best Wizarding World canon resource ever.

The post Announcing the Twentieth Anniversary Canon Celebration! appeared first on Harry Potter Lexicon.

This is an encore presentation of an episode from June, 2011

Steve talks about Pottermore misconceptions, how Rowling changed the online world once before, cool and interesting sources of canon information, Galleons changing the world, the late Quidditch match in book one, and other bits of Potter lore.

Links:

The post Encore Episode: “Oh wait a minute, who was that?” appeared first on Harry Potter Lexicon.

This is an encore presentation of an episode from February 2018.

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 how it works in the first book, telling Harry that there are 29 knuts to a sickle, 17 sickles to a galleon, and that “it’s easy enough” to work out. (PS5)

There are a couple of possibilities. J.K. Rowling has confessed many times that math is not a strength of hers (TLC, JKR). If Muggle math is confusing to her, perhaps she developed this confusing system of wizard currency to illustrate that feeling of being confused by something other people seem to find ‘easy enough.’ However, Jo has also said that keeping the Imperial system in the book was a deliberate decision, even though the editor wanted to change all the weights and measures to metric (DL), and that was because she found the old Imperial system to be much more picturesque and quirky and therefore more appropriate for the society she was creating. So it’s likely that she was influenced by the old English system of money where there were 12 pennies in a shilling and 20 shillings to a pound.

Still, 12 and 20 are friendlier numbers to work with than 17 and 29, which you’ll probably recognise are both prime numbers. Prime numbers are thought to have mystical properties, making them an appropriate choice for the wizarding currency, and other prime numbers pop up throughout the books too. More on those in a future episode. So perhaps J.K. Rowling is mathematically challenged in some areas, but she’s certainly no stranger to the magical properties of numbers.

The post Encore Presentation: Wizarding Currency appeared first on Harry Potter Lexicon.

This is an encore presentation of an episode from March, 2018.

Mister Tibbles? Mrs Norris? Why do the animals owned by Squibs seem to have similar names? And particularly human-sounding names at that?

In chapter two of Order of the Phoenix, we meet Mrs Figg properly for the first time. She’d turned up in book one as the seemingly insignificant neighbor lady who minded Harry when the Dursleys were out. She was mentioned again in Goblet of Fire, although readers at the time weren’t sure it was the same person. Dumbledore asks Sirius to alert folks he refers to as “the old crowd” and includes someone named Arabella Figg in the list. Fans spent a lot of time speculating whether Arabella Figg could possibly be the same person as the batty old babysitter of Philosopher’s Stone. Which of course she was.

In book one we learn that Mrs Figg is a cat-lover. She forces Harry to look at photos of all the cats she’d ever owned, which included Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws, and Tufty. That’s MISTER Tibbles, as we learn in Order of the Phoenix.

According to Rowling, these animals are not simply cats. She said on her old website that Mrs Figg’s cats are actually cat-Kneazle cross breeds. In other words, they’re magical animals. Rowling makes clear that they function as support animals for Squibs, rather like service dogs do for us Muggles. She wrote:

Filch has carved himself a niche at Hogwarts and Arabella Figg operates as Dumbledore’s liaison between the magical and Muggle worlds. Neither of these characters can perform magic (Filch’s Kwikspell course never worked), but they still function within the wizarding world because they have access to certain magical objects and creatures that can help them (Arabella Figg does a roaring trade in cross-bred cats and Kneazles …). — JKR

These magical helpers do a lot more than just slink around and cuddle. Mrs Norris is described this way in book one:

She patrolled the corridors alone. Break a rule in front of her, put just one toe out of line, and she’d whisk off for Filch, who’d appear, wheezing, two seconds later. — PS8

Mister Tibbles was also capable of reporting to Mrs Figg. He related to her what had happened with Mundungus Fletcher. Clever creatures indeed! Here in chapter two of Order of the Phoenix, one of those clever creatures sets in motion a hilarious sequence where we and Harry discover that his old babysitter was part of the Wizarding world all along.

The post Encore Presentation: OP2 – Kneazles appeared first on Harry Potter Lexicon.

This is an encore presentation of an episode from March, 2018.

Today we’re spending a little bit of time with chapter one of Order of the Phoenix.

From the very beginning, we’re introduced to the theme of drought. Rowling writes:

Cars that were usually gleaming stood dusty in their drives and lawns that were once emerald green lay parched and yellowing — for the use of hosepipes had been banned due to drought.

This chapter takes place on the second of August, 1995. And Rowling is spot on with the whole drought thing. In fact, in the summer of 1995 there actually was a pretty severe drought in England and hosepipe bans were a very real thing.

In story terms, the drought mirrors the complete lack of contact Harry has with the Wizarding World at that time. He is experiencing an emotional “drought,” if you will, which sets the tone for the entire book.

And why did Rowling inflict this emotional starvation on her main character? Because at the end of book four, Harry feels like he’s at the top of his game. He’s a champion, a hero. He’s defeated a dragon, proving his worth among students much older than he is. He has learned about his wonderful family — his father the Quidditch champion and his mother who was so loved by everyone. He’s a Quidditch sensation himself. He has even faced off against Voldemort and survived. Harry sees himself as becoming what I like to call “Superhero Harry,” capable of anything. Maybe capable of defeating the Dark Lord once and for all.

In book five, we’re going to see all of that stripped away. No matter how powerful Superhero Harry might become, he would never be able to stand against Voldemort. He needs to become a new type of hero, one who relies on something other than fighting prowess and his “saving people thing,” as Hermione calls it.

That transformation is what Book Five is all about.

The post Encore Presentation: OP1 – Drought appeared first on Harry Potter Lexicon.