The HP Lexicon Podcast

Lexicon editor Eileen Jones continues her conversation with her friend Angela about characters each of them feels a connection to. Angela talks about Filius Flitwick which Eileen discusses Cho Chang.

The post Fan Conversations: Ravenclaw Characters appeared first on Harry Potter Lexicon.

In this Harry Potter Lexicon Minute I will discuss the sixth chapter of Goblet of Fire: The Portkey.

When I discovered the Harry Potter Lexicon years ago, one of the things I loved most about the website were the chapter discussions. From each book, the Lexicon has descriptions per chapter of what happens. These include favorite lines, the date on which events take place, interesting facts with additional notes from Steve VanderArk and other fans, and links to things and people mentioned in other books. I still highly recommend the chapter discussions, as you can read them within five minutes each. They provided me with one problem, however: it is hard to know what is left to discuss from this chapter on this Harry Potter Lexicon Minute!

One surprising element of this chapter is the mention of the Lovegoods going to the Quidditch World Cup. According to Amos Diggory, they went a week earlier. So I guess they had cheaper tickets, like Arthur Weasley explains. We do not actually meet Luna or Xenophilius Lovegood at the World Cup, but at least Luna seems to have some love for the game. Remember the lion hat she wears for the matches against Slytherin, in Order of the Phoenix and Half Blood Prince? However, it seems paying attention to the details of the match is not really her forte… I still love her “Loser’s Lurgy”! But for those who wondered where they had heard the name Lovegood before, when reading the Order of the Phoenix: this is the chapter!

Also, when Arthur explained Apparition to Harry in this chapter, it says: “Harry had a sudden vision of a pair of legs and an eyeball lying abandoned on the pavement of Privet Drive.” Upon re-reading the book, I thought that was a nice bit of foreshadowing to the leg and eyeball that would be separated from their fake host in chapter 35!

The post GF6: Foreshadowing – Lovegoods and Apparition appeared first on Harry Potter Lexicon.

Lexicon Editor Eileen Jones chats with her friend Angela about their favorite Hufflepuff characters. Angela starts out by choosing probably the best-known Hufflepuff of Harry’s time, Cedric Diggory. Eileen discusses Ernie Macmillan.

The post Fan Conversations: Hufflepuff Characters appeared first on Harry Potter Lexicon.

Eleven years ago, after the publication of the last Harry Potter novel and, as far as we knew, the end of canon, I wrote a piece for the Lexicon entitled “Puzzles, Mysteries, and Loose Ends” in which I discussed the things we still didn’t know and the questions which had never been answered. A few years ago, when I brought that essay over into the new Lexicon website, I updated it and removed a few things, since quite a bit of new canon had appeared since it had first been published and some questions had been answered. But a lot of mysteries still remain to this day.

This episode is the first in a series of podcasts in which I’ll talk about some of those enduring mysteries of the Wizarding World, the things we still wonder about even after all seven books, the things which have never been explained or which we can’t quite make sense of, despite twenty years of research.

This episode I’m going to talk about Scabbers, Ron’s pet rat.

Yes, of course we all know that Scabbers is far more than just a pet rat, but that’s not the mystery here. No, what I’m talking about is just exactly how and why Peter Pettigrew, transfigured into a rat, managed to insinuate himself into the Weasley household.

Let’s look at the timeline. Sirius Black confronted Peter Pettigrew on the first of November, 1981, shortly after the attack on the Potters on Hallowe’en night. To escape, Pettigrew blasted the street beneath his feet, killing a number of Muggles in the process, then transformed into a rat and ran off into the sewers which had been exposed by the explosion. So that was November of 1981. But what happened next?

At that time, Percy was five years old. Did he acquire a pet rat at that point? Or did a few years go by before Scabbers became an honorary Weasly? We just don’t know what happened from Pettigrew’s escape from Sirius in November 1981 until he is bequeathed to Ron in August of 1991.

Did Peter stay a rat right from the attack and escape? Did he immediately try to find a wizarding family to latch onto? Presumably it was no accident that he became part of the Weasley family. So how well did he know the Weasleys? Pettigrew was part of the original Order of the Phoenix along with Molly Weasley’s two brothers, but neither Molly nor Arthur were members of the Order during that first rise of Voldemort in the 1970s. Did Peter decide that a family like the Weasleys would be the safest place to keep tabs on the magical world of which he was no longer was a part?

What little we do know about Scabbers’ history with the Weasley family is revealed in Ron’s conversation with the proprietor of the Magical Menagerie in Diagon Alley. Ron is worried about Scabbers’ thin and haggard appearance since the Weaselys returned from Egypt. The witch in the Magical Menagerie was surprised by Scabbers’ long life but didn’t detect that he was actually a wizard in Animagus form. Here’s how that passage goes:

“Bang him on the counter,” said the witch, pulling a pair of heavy black spectacles out of her pocket.

Ron lifted Scabbers out of his inside pocket and placed him next to the cage of his fellow rats, who stopped their skipping tricks and scuffled to the wire for a better took.

Like nearly everything Ron owned, Scabbers the rat was secondhand (he had once belonged to Ron’s brother Percy) and a bit battered. Next to the glossy rats in the cage, he looked especially woebegone.

“Hm,” said the witch, picking up Scabbers. “How old is this rat?”

“Dunno,” said Ron. “Quite old. He used to belong to my brother.”

“What powers does he have?” said the witch, examining Scabbers closely.

“Er –” The truth was that Scabbers had never shown the faintest trace of interesting powers. The witch’s eyes moved from Scabbers’s tattered left ear to his front paw, which had a toe missing, and tutted loudly.

“He’s been through the mill, this one,” she said.

“He was like that when Percy gave him to me,” said Ron defensively.

“An ordinary common or garden rat like this can’t be expected to live longer than three years or so,” said the witch. “Now, if you were looking for something a bit more hard-wearing, you might like one of these –“

She indicated the black rats, who promptly started skipping again. Ron muttered, “Show-offs.” (PA3)

That doesn’t tell us much. We just don’t know how Percy acquired this odd, battered, long-lived pet rat.

Rowling never addressed the issue. Interestingly, she did mention Scabbers’ history during an interview, but only to point out how surprised she was that a boy asked her about it before book three came out. Here’s what she said:

The most startling thing or things I’ve ever been asked are when children ask me questions that reveal that they are clearly following my thought processes a lot more closely than I would have guessed.

There was – I can say this now because book three’s out – a boy asked me in San Francisco: “Where did Scabbers come from, what’s Scabbers’ history?” And Scabbers, for people who don’t know, is a rat who subsequently was revealed not to be a rat at all and I found it quite spooky that he homed in on Scabbers because, of course, I’d known from the first book that Scabbers wasn’t really a rat (HPM).

That was all she said. She didn’t say what answer, if any, she gave to this fan.

So we’re left with a mystery. How did Peter Pettigrew become Percy’s pet? Where did he get that dreadful name? And did he ever secretly transform back into a human now and then just to remember what it felt like?

It would seem that we’ll never know.

The post Mysteries: Scabbers the Rat appeared first on Harry Potter Lexicon.

As any Muggle knows, chocolate is a truly magical substance. We see it in many forms throughout the Harry Potter novels – the birthday cake that Hagrid brings for Harry’s 11th birthday is a chocolate cake, chocolate eclairs and chocolate gateau are regularly served in Hogwarts’ feasts, and of course Chocolate Frogs are featured regularly. The tempting taste of chocolate seems to be especially good for disguising illicit substances, as both Hermione and Romilda Vane found, with chocolate cakes spiked with a sleeping draught for Crabbe and Goyle, and a box of chocolate cauldrons filled with love potion intended for Harry.

However, perhaps the most interesting appearance of chocolate in the Harry Potter books is as a remedy for the effects of dementors. Professor Lupin gives some to Harry on the train after the first dementor encounter, and Madam Pomfrey signifies her approval of this treatment and later supplies her own chocolate to Harry following other dementor attacks. We hear often that chocolate is the appropriate remedy for dealing with the after-effects of being in the presence of dementors – that hopeless feeling that you’ll never be happy again.

In interviews, J.K. Rowling has confirmed that the dementors are a metaphor for depression, with their ability to suck all the happiness out of a person. In the Muggle world, chocolate has long been associated with having mood enhancing properties, and science has shown us that chocolate contains a number of psychoactive properties that can induce a sense of euphoria and help to regulate mood. Dark chocolate has also been found to be higher in flavonoids, an antioxidant that has been linked with improved inflammatory profiles, which in turn is associated with the onset of depression. A recent study found that adults who ate dark chocolate had 70% lower odds of reporting clinically relevant depressive symptoms than those who ate no chocolate at all.

So it seems that the magical and Muggle worlds can agree on this and Madam Pomfrey is right. Eating chocolate is good for you. And since dementors are invisible to Muggles, you never know when one might be around, so the safest thing to do is to keep some chocolate close by at all times!

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Chapter 35 of The Order of the Phoenix describing the Battle of the Department of Mysteries is certainly one of the most action-filled passages in any of the books.Rowling takes us on a wild ride indeed.

When the book first came out, we fans read it with quite a bit of trepidation. Rowling had revealed ahead of publication that a character would die in the book but gave no clue as to who it would be. She didn’t rule out anyone, not even the Trio. For a little while it seemed like the victim was Arthur Weasley but he pulled through. McGonagall had been seriously injured but didn’t seem to be dying. The further along we got in the book, the closer we were getting to that fateful death.

So as members of Dumbledore’s Army fell in battle, we honestly wondered if they were going to survive. WAS Hermione still alive? We didn’t know until the others found a pulse. Bellatrix’s threat to torture Neville to death felt a lot more deadly that first time we read it. When Tonks was hit and fell in the Death Chamber, we wondered if she would be getting back up again. Then finally it happened. As Lupin said, “There’s nothing you can do. He’s gone.”

When I first wrote the entry in the Lexicon’s timeline for the death of Sirius, I said that he was murdered in battle by a Killing Curse from Bellatrix Lestrange. A fan corrected me on that, telling me that Sirius was hit by a jet of red light in the books, which wouldn’t have been Avada Kedavra, but that it was shown as a green light in the film.

That wasn’t exactly correct, however. To clarify, I wrote this commentary for that entry:

But what spell does Bellatrix use to kill Sirius? Some have assumed that it’s the Killing Curse. However, that curse appears as a jet of green light. The text doesn’t actually say the color of the jet of light which hits Sirius, just says “the second jet of light”:

Only one pair was still battling, apparently unaware of the new arrival. Harry saw Sirius duck Bellatrix’s jet of red light: he was laughing at her.

‘Come on, you can do better than that!’ he yelled, his voice echoing around the cavernous room.

The second jet of light hit him squarely on the chest.

The laughter had not quite died from his face, but his eyes widened in shock.

It seemed to take Sirius an age to fall: his body curved in a graceful arc as he sank backwards through the ragged veil hanging from the arch (OP35).

Since it’s the “second” jet, fans assume that it’s the same color as the first and therefore also red. If so, then it’s clearly not Avada Kedavra, which would be green. If the second jet was actually green — just not mentioned as such — then it’s safe to assume that it was a Killing Curse.

This brings up the question of what, then, actually caused Sirius’ death. If it’s not a Killing Curse, does that mean that the archway and veil are in fact a gateway to the afterlife and that simply passing through them result in death? We simply don’t know.

After the release of book five in 2003, this was a big topic of speculation and good-natured argument among fans. We never did come to a definitive answer, I don’t believe.

The post OP35: Who’s Going to Die? appeared first on Harry Potter Lexicon.

Today I want to talk about objects that can think for themselves. When Ginny emerges from the Chamber of Secrets, Mr. Weasley scolds her, “Haven’t I taught you anything? What have I always told you? Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain” (CS18). I’ve been thinking about that quote and wondering what other sorts of objects Mr. Weasley has in mind. He comes across a lot of Muggle-baiting objects–that is, Muggle objects that have been enchanted, often for the purpose of harming or embarrassing Muggles–in his job for the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office. But a regurgitating toilet isn’t really a toilet that thinks for itself… or is it? No let’s not go there.

The first magical object that really strikes me as sentient, after the diary of Tom Riddle, is the Marauder’s Map. It’s interesting to see that this had fallen into the hands of the Weasley twins–who were presumably taught, just as Ginny was, to be wary of sentient magical objects. I wish I could see the moment when the twins stumbled across the Marauder’s Map in Filch’s office. Which passwords did they try before they successfully activated it–and did the Marauder’s insult them, or were they pleased? Did they, perhaps sensing kindred spirits, guide the twins to the correct password? Were the twins appropriately cautious in interacting with the map? A little birdie (possibly Pigwidgeon) tells me they probably weren’t.

It’s also interesting to think about the more “ordinary” magical objects that seem able to think for themselves. Many portraits and some mirrors can communicate verbally. While portraits are an imprint of a witch or wizard, capable of at least mimicking the characteristics of those they represent, mirrors in the magical world simply seem, at times, to have personalities of their own. When the one in the Burrow shouts at Harry, “Tuck your shirt in, scruffy!” it comes as no surprise to anyone else in the house. Has it simply been bewitched to scold members of the household whose appearances would meet the disapproval of Mrs. Weasley? Or does the mirror itself have opinions and feelings regarding unkempt appearances? I would guess the former, but I don’t think we can be sure, based on current information. It would be difficult, I think, to grow up in a house like the Burrow, with seemingly sentient items kind of haphazardly strewn about, and then remember to beware of them outside of the home.

The post Is A Regurgitating Toilet Sentient? appeared first on Harry Potter Lexicon.

Here at the Lexicon, we do our best to organize the information that has been presented to us by or with the express approval of J.K. Rowling. It’s an important job, because this fictional world of hers is an escape for many people, and in order to escape to that world, we need it to feel grounded in consistent ideas. Occasionally, because the world is actually fictional and no one is perfect, we do see some inconsistencies crop up, and in a fandom like Harry Potter, the popular fan choices are to complain or speculate. The wonderful thing about the Wizarding World is that, as it contains magic and is fictional, there aren’t many inconsistencies that can’t be manipulated into consistencies with a little creativity. Whether that creativity cheapens the story or enriches it is kind of up to the individual fan.

My larger point here, though, is to say that canon is not meant to be an assessment of value. Fans often produce highly compelling “head canons,” and no one has the power to take those away–not even the creator. Fan fiction is not truly less real than the fiction of the original author–both are equally fictional. But in order to share in and escape to the fictional world that the original author created, it is valuable to track these timelines and concepts.

Children who are growing up right now don’t have the experience that many of us had–of waiting years for the next installment and spending those years speculating and crafting theories, reading and writing fanfiction, and creating and interacting with other forms of fan art. For them, Harry’s Hogwarts years are pretty much set in stone. True, there are periods of time that are skipped, often brushed over with a scenic seasonal transition sentence, and we seldom see anyone use the bathroom except to brew illicit potions or listen to mermaid sounds, but we are supposed to believe as fans that the important details have been provided to us.

And that can be a little upsetting. When a character dies, and that’s not in our headcanon, we feel bereft on multiple levels–for the character and for the plotlines they can’t have anymore.

But the beauty of a fictional magical world is that we can all imagine how things would be if they went differently. We don’t have to abandon our headcanons. They can exist in a parallel fictional universe. We can share them together, as long as we acknowledge that Jo’s ideas and characters belong to her. Back in 2015, Jo tweeted, “All these people saying they never got their Hogwarts letter: you got the letter. You went to Hogwarts. We were all there together.”

We were and we weren’t, but it feels like we were, right? We all know what happened, and we know how it felt. We will always share that, and I will always be grateful for that world.

The post “Canon” Musings appeared first on Harry Potter Lexicon.

An idea came to me during a re-read of Deathly Hallows. I believe that there is evidence of a magical force in the Wizarding World that I am calling “convergence.” It’s a plot device, I know, but if we think within the story, it seems that there is something in the ancient/deep magic that affects items and humans in a particular way. It draws certain items together and pushes other items away. And it dramatically affects the behavior of the humans involved.

Take, for example, the extraordinary coincidences which set up the central conflicts of book two and especially three.

In book two, the Diary is actually left behind at the Burrow when the family is running very late and is rushing to get to King’s Cross by eleven. What ever possesses Arthur to turn around to go get it when they could have just as easily sent it by owl the next day? It’s as if the Diary refused to be left behind, refused to be ignored. And in book three, just think about the string of highly unlikely events which lead Sirius to escape from Azkaban. Arthur wins a 700 Galleon prize. The family travels to Egypt and happens to get their picture taken in Egypt for the Daily Prophet. The picture happens to include Scabbers. Scabbers happens to be positioned so that his missing toe was visible. Fudge happens to visit Azkaban carrying that particular out-of-date issue of the Prophet. Sirius Black happens to ask for it and subsequently sees the picture. The picture is what motivates him to escape.

It’s almost as if some secret power was working to make sure things happened the way they needed to. That’s what I mean by convergence. Things converge, often against logic, to nudge events toward a certain end. Maybe we’re seeing evidence of the kinds of movements in the stars so valued by the Centaurs. I think Dumbledore understood this concept a lot better than almost anyone else and used it to pull together all the bits and pieces of his master plan: the Horcruxes, the Hallows, wands, and humans.

I think the most elegant example of this convergence at work is the situation with the sword in the pool under the ice in Deathly Hallows. We have a lot of elements: Snape behind a tree, his Patronus, his love for Lily, his desire not to be known for who he was. We have Harry, who didn’t take off the Horcrux, even though he went out of his way to take off the Mokeskin pouch…what made him forget the Horcrux? We have Ron, who was drawn back to this moment in time, returning to the Horcrux and the people who loved him when they said his name … which they did for the first time in ages at just the right moment. The Horcrux recognized the danger that the sword posed. It tricked Harry leaving the deadly, dangerous, murderous thing around his neck. And then the sword presented itself to Ron, not Harry, because Harry was the “sacrifice”, the thing to be rescued for the sword to present itself to the true Gryffindor. The locket and the sword, the evil and the good, struggling against each other to force events their way.

All of these factors converging on that one moment of time.

Like the Diary. Like the Daily Prophet photo. All part of the deep underlying magic of the Wizarding World.

The post Coincidence or Something More? appeared first on Harry Potter Lexicon.

In the 34th chapter of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, we get to explore the wondrous Department of Mysteries. Anyone reading the books for the first time will tell you that by the time we get to this chapter, our curiosity is definitely piqued. Between Harry’s dreams and the odd references back in book four, we’ve definitely built up our curiosity about this part of the Ministry.

When the book first came out, fans theorized that Rowling probably wrote this chapter with the movies in mind, almost challenging them to recreate on film her wild and vivid descriptions. We were all a little disappointed when only the Hall of Prophecies and the Death Chamber made it into the film version. We wanted to see the Brain Room, the Planet Room, and particularly the Time Chamber with its huge bell jar where the Death Eater’s head was transfigured into that of a baby. The Department of Mysteries is a wild, weird, wonderful, oversized magical carnival fun house.

What I’d like to focus on in this discussion, however, is something a lot more subtle. I’d like to zero in on the reaction we get from Hermione to the archway and veil in the Death Chamber.

As always, we’re seeing this moment through the eyes of Harry. His reaction is actually mirrored by Luna. He is intrigued by the archway and then drawn to it. He’s not just curious, the way he is about everything else in the Department of Mysteries. Nothing else he’s seen can draw his focus away from the desperate mission at hand, rescuing Sirius from Voldemort. The archway and its gently moving veil is different. He is mesmerized by it. He forgets his mission and moves closer, listening.

Here’s how Rowling describes Harry’s reaction:

He had the strangest feeling that there was someone standing right behind the veil on the other side of the archway. Gripping his wand very tightly, he edged around the dais, but there was nobody there; all that could be seen was the other side of the tattered black veil.

We learned way back in Prisoner of Azkaban that Harry has the almost supernatural ability to sense the presence of someone even if they can’t be seen. This is from chapter 3:

Harry opened his trunk again and pushed the contents aside, looking for the Invisibility Cloak – but before he had found it, he straightened up suddenly, looking around him once more.

A funny prickling on the back of his neck had made Harry feel he was being watched, but the street appeared to be deserted, and no lights shone from any of the large square houses.

He bent over his trunk again, but almost immediately stood up once more, his hand clenched on his wand. He had sensed rather than heard it: someone or something was standing in the narrow gap between the garage and the fence behind him. Harry squinted at the black alleyway. If only it would move, then he’d know whether it was just a stray cat or — something else.

In Goblet of Fire chapter nine it happens again. Harry senses the presence of someone who is hidden nearby in the dark.Here’s how Rowling describes that scene:

But she broke off abruptly and looked over her shoulder. Harry and Ron looked quickly around too. It sounded as though someone was staggering toward their clearing. They waited, listening to the sounds of the uneven steps behind the dark trees. But the footsteps came to a sudden halt.

“Hello?” called Harry.

There was silence. Harry got to his feet and peered around the tree. It was too dark to see very far, but he could sense somebody standing just beyond the range of his vision.

“Who’s there?” he said.

Now again in book five Harry senses someone he can’t see, someone on the other side of the veil. Someone is there. And he hears them, too. He hears whispers, the voices of multiple people. Luna backs him up. She also hears the voices, and says “There are people in there.”

This is where Hermione becomes upset. She is, according to the chapter, “sounding much angrier that the occasion warranted.” Why is she becoming so agitated, so angry? What is frightening her?

The archway, we know, is a gateway of sorts into the realm of the dead. For those with Christian worldview, a worldview which Rowling brings to her writing, it’s a portal into heaven. The voices Harry and Luna hear are those of people who have died. Like seeing thestrals, hearing and sensing the dead seems to be a gift reserved for those who have lost someone. Notice that Neville is also entranced, as is Ginny, interestingly enough. Or perhaps it’s reserved for those who have some form of faith, some kind of belief in a higher power.

But consider the visceral negative reaction from Hermione, the pragmatist of the group. Hermione rejects Luna’s worldview based on faith in things not seen (Hebrews 11:1, KJV) as being fanciful, impractical, and illogical. Now, when faced with empirical evidence of that worldview being true, she becomes “much angrier that the occasion warranted.” Why? Because she is not in a place emotionally or intellectually to be able to accept the possibilities that the veil represents.

Hermione does have a more practical reason for panicking. She pulls Harry away because she senses deep in her being that this ancient artifact, like the Mirror of Erised, presents a great danger to those who have experienced great loss. The Mirror may have trapped someone into wasting away, staring into it, longing to see what they desperately want. The veil offers much more: a pathway to heal the loss by rejoining the departed ones. The lure of this solution — accepting death as the only way to heal the hurt — is dangerous indeed. The veil offers suicide as a solution. And Hermione fears that this solution would be a very hollow one indeed.

We see this concept played out with the Resurrection Stone as well — a desire to reunite with a lost loved one through magic does not work the way a person wishes. Very likely, had Harry stepped through that veil, he would not after all have found the answers to his emotional pain.

So Hermione, with Ron’s help, drags Harry, Luna, Neville, and Ginny away from the danger of archway and the veil, a danger that she alone could sense. They move on, exploring the Department of Mysteries. And an hour later, in the most desperate moments of the ensuing battle, Harry watches his godfather pass through that veil into death. The danger Hermione sensed is very real indeed.

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