Editor / Essayist

Abby Koop

"Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry. But why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"
- Albus Dumbledore

cat mom, Harry Potter enthusiast, librarian, etc.

Abby Koop (ak)
Hogwarts HouseSlytherin
Ilvermorny HousePukwudgie
Calls HomeBloomington, IN
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Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
In chapter nine of Order of the Phoenix, Rowling does a lot of really poignant foreshadowing for the coming war against Voldemort. In re-reading it, I found new meaning in Harry’s confused anger after Moody shows him the photograph of the original members of the Order. This interaction is… Read More
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Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
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… Read More
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Posted by in Canon discussion / Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
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… Read More
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Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
In the new Wizards Unite game by Niantic, the mysterious Calamity is threatening the Statute of Secrecy. It’s stealing magical people, creatures, and items of significance from different periods of time and leaving them randomly scattered around the world with the protection of… Read More
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Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
We know that prophecies exist in Harry’s world. All of the prophecies that affect Harry in some way eventually come to pass. The wording is always ambiguous enough to cause anxiety, though. “The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord” meets these particular characteristics and will either… Read More
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Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
In Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore shows Harry the memory in which he interviews Tom Riddle for a job at Hogwarts. I have a lot of questions about Dumbledore’s motives for allowing even this level of consideration. He does have a little bit of a thing about manners,… Read More
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Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
It is pretty well-established at this point that love is a central theme in the Harry Potter saga, but the more sinister side of obsessive love doesn’t get quite the same attention. We see it most clearly when love potions are involved, most notably in the case with Voldemort’s… Read More
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Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
I’ve been doing some thinking about Summoning Charms, which, given the option, I would perform at least a dozen times a day, because where are my car keys and is my phone in my purse or did I leave it in the car again? (For those two reasons alone,… Read More
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Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
Percival is a suspiciously common name in the Harry Potter universe, and I’m inclined to read way into that. Probably the most well-known of these is Percy Weasley, who is not actually a confirmed “Percival.” As the Lexicon’s entry for Percy notes, “In Arthurian legend, Percival was a chivalrous knight… Read More
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Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
Hermione Granger’s birthday is September 19th. Happy Birthday, Hermione! Hermione is a Virgo, like me, but I think she would deem astrology a “very woolly” subject. When Firenze begins teaching Divination, he calls astrology “human nonsense.” Parvati attempts to explain what Professor Trelawney has taught the… 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
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Posted by in Characters / Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
There is a moment, during one of Harry’s sessions with Dumbledore in Half-Blood Prince, when Harry seems almost indignant on behalf of young Voldemort, whose mother left him at a Muggle orphanage, where she named him and then promptly died, apparently unwilling to use magic to save… Read More
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Posted by in Harry Potter Lexicon Minute
Chapter 34 of Deathly Hallows is one of the most poignant, if not the most poignant chapter in the Harry Potter series. Harry realizes that he must die in order to kill the part of Voldemort that resides in him, so he leaves the castle to confront Voldemort… Read More
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Posted by in Canon discussion / Essays
After the Dark Mark appears in the sky on the night of the Quidditch World Cup, Barty Crouch releases Winky the house-elf from his service, and her unfair treatment draws Hermione’s sympathy and indignation.  When she, Harry, and Ron visit Sirius in the cave above Hogsmeade to… Read More
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Posted by in Canon discussion / Essays
Professor Lupin‘s first class with the third-year Gryffindors covers boggarts, which shapeshift into a form that the person who encounters it will find the most frightening.  As humans grow and age, they compile more experiences, which result in unique personalities, a deeper capacity for emotions, and more… Read More
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Posted by in Canon discussion / Essays
When Harry has finished recounting the story of his experience in the Chamber of Secrets, and Dumbledore has dismissed everyone else from his office, he asks Harry to have a seat.  He thanks Harry for the loyalty that called Fawkes to him in the Chamber, then opens the discussion… Read More
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Posted by in Canon discussion / Essays
While discussing the fate of the Sorcerer’s Stone with Harry in the Hospital Wing, Dumbledore encourages Harry to use Voldemort’s name: “Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself.”  Harry has not encountered that opinion prior to this moment, but he accepts the advice readily. When Hagrid… Read More