Welcome to the Harry Potter Lexicon
The most compleat and amazing reference to the wonderful world of Harry Potter
est. 2000 A.D.
Phase of the Moon: Full Moon
5 GBP = 1 Galleon 
Floo Powder accident lands Harry in Knockturn Alley
Using Floo powder for the first time, Harry fails to follow all the instructions he’s given by the Weasleys and ends up one fireplace off. It happens to be the fireplace in Borgin and Burkes, a shop in Knockturn Alley selling all manner of dark magic items. He barely hides himself before Lucius and Draco Malfoy enter to conduct business. Read More
Gilderoy Lockhart’s book signing at Flourish and Blotts
19 August 1992 – Harry, Hermione, and the Weasleys visit Flourish and Blotts to buy school books. There they discover that Gilderoy Lockhart is signing his new book, Magical Me. When Lockhart spots Harry, he drags the boy up in front of the camera with him and announces the crowd that he will be the new… Read More
Draco Malfoy is born
He is the Pure Blood son of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, their only child. Read More
DH17: Bathilda’s Secret
Leaving the Godric’s Hollow cemetery, Harry and Hermione see the Potters’ old house, then encounter someone who appears to be Bathilda Bagshot, but she does not speak until she gets Harry alone. Too late, Harry discovers that they’ve been led into a trap, and that Bathilda’s corpse is being used as a disguise for… Read More
Dudley Dursley is born
Dudley is the only child of Vernon and Petunia Dursley of Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey. He is about about a month older than his cousin Harry who comes to live with the Dursleys in November of the following year. Dudley grows up spoiled while Harry grows up neglected and downtrodden. Read More
Snape meets Dumbledore on the Windy Hilltop
Death Eater Severus Snape sent a message to Albus Dumbledore to meet him on a lonely windswept hilltop in late 1980 so he could warn him that Lily Evans Potter and her child were in danger of being attacked by Voldemort (DH33). When the Headmaster arrived he found a frightened and overwrought Snape who shouted “Don’t kill me” because… Read More
On this day in 1993...
Harry and Ron visit a petrified Hermione and discover what she’s learned about basilisks
Harry and Ron visit the Hospital Wing, where Hermione is kept after being petrified in… Read More
“For heaven’s sake, Potter! Do you really think this is about truth or lies? It’s about keeping your head down and your temper under control!”… Read More
Latest from the Lexicon Blog
Draco’s Six
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So much has been made of how seven is “the most powerfully magical number” (HBP23) in Harry Potter, with it serving as something of a motif throughout the series… to the point where my podcast, The Three Broomsticks, has a recurring segment about the “seven ingredients of today’s… Read More
The Fallen Fathers of Goblet of Fire
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Jo’s portrayal of mothers in the HP books is fairly straight-forward: mother’s love is the be-all end-all of the series, so we can move right along. But her portrayal of fathers, on the other hand, is incredibly nuanced and intriguing. The turning point appears to be the middle book of… Read More
The Book of Prophecies: How "Order of the Phoenix" Predicts the Plot of "Deathly Hallows" - Part 2
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In Part I of this series, I delved into specific chapter-level comparisons between Order of the Phoenix and Deathly Hallows, and how the events in the former predict or foreshadow those in the latter. In this article, I will… Read More
The Book of Prophecies: How "Order of the Phoenix" Predicts the Plot of "Deathly Hallows" - Part 1
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The Harry Potter series is masterfully plotted, both as individual books and across the series as a whole. Within the fandom, there is a large focus on ring theory for understanding how the series is structured. In ring theory, each book has its… Read More
The Russian Philosopher’s Stone
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It’s a process familiar to most of us trying to brush up on a foreign language – get the Harry Potter books in one of the 85 languages they’ve been translated into, and read the story you know backwards and forwards in a language you may not. My first language… Read More
Mapping the Wizarding World
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Making the Calendar Fit
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I recently received two comments on two different entries in the Lexicon which brought up the same problem: the real world calendar doesn’t always agree with the days and dates in the books. I’m sure some of you are saying “Of course, we know that, this has been discussed in… Read More
The Secrets of Dumbledore ... still a secret?
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