• Essay
Posted by in Canon discussion / Essays
On this page: Related information: What Magical Ability Is Canon Examples The Philosopher’s Labyrinth What Wands Are Stuff From Canon: Wand Idiosyncrasy and Power Harry as Focal Point There’s Something About Harry blood status wands   What Magical Ability Is Canon Examples What is magical ability? The wizards… Read More
• Essay
Posted by in Canon discussion / Essays
We are just two years or less from reaching the end of the Harry Potter series and many essential questions have been answered, either by the books themselves, by J.K. Rowling, or by cunning readers who have racked their brains to work out even the finest details of the universe she has created. Read More
• Essay
Posted by in Essays
The way that witches and wizards think about everything, including spells, is completely different from the way we Muggles think about it. When we consider the mechanics of, say, aiming a spell at something, we ask “Muggle” questions like “Do you have to have line of sight?” that they would… Read More
• Essay
Posted by in Essays
Magic in the Harry Potter universe is as far as we know considered to be supernatural, and has as little to do with science as ghosts and flying broomsticks. However, the fact that magic runs in families means that it is a hereditary trait. Add to that the exceptions of half-bloods, Muggle-borns and Squibs and the temptation to analyze… Read More
• Essay
Posted by in Canon discussion / Essays
From the start of the Harry Potter series, our hero finds himself a stranger in a very strange land. He discovers that the world he grew up in hides a secret wizarding world. This is no Oz or Wonderland that exists separate from the normal world and can only be entered through extraordinary means. Read More
• Essay
Posted by in Canon discussion / Essays
Contents: Introduction The Deathday Party The CS DVD ROM Timeline Lower Bounds Nicolas Flamel Quidditch through the Ages Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them The PlayStation Pairs of Date and Weekday Full Moons Summary Conclusion Appendix   Introduction The question of mapping the timeline of the Harry Potter… Read More
• Essay
Posted by in Canon discussion / Essays
As the last Harry Potter book draws ever nearer, we are all scrambling to organize and finalize theories. So, anyone who’s an HP fan must have heard of several ships[*] from the Marauder’s Era. I’ll refer to them as m-ships in this essay to make life easier. These m-ships basically put together two of the… Read More
• Essay
Posted by in Canon discussion / Essays
Snape is not a good guy. His treachery has been written in black and white all through the Harry Potter books and especially in Half-Blood Prince. Even so, some Snape fans are looking for a reprieve. One person I work with actually said, “It’s no excuse, but he did have to kill Dumbledore or die himself.” And then… Read More
• Organizations The Medieval Assembly of European Wizards was a medieval society across Europe. Professors Binns assigned a three foot-long composition on “The Medieval Assembly of European Wizards” in Harry Potter’s second year. Ron Weasley’s essay was eight inches short, while Hermione had written four feet seven inches in tiny writing. Read More
• Essay
Posted by in Canon discussion / Essays
The Harry Potter books have been the subject of much religious debate after fundamentalist Christians warned parents against the books, deeming them pro-witchcraft and consequently anti-Christian. Some Muslims, on the other hand, have banned the books for the entirely opposite reason, claiming they are poorly concealed Christian propaganda. Surprisingly however, the… Read More
• Essay
Posted by in Essays
Charms magic can be used to move objects in various ways. Locomotion Magic The basic spell for moving an object is Locomotor, which comes from two Latin words meaning roughly “move from its place.” First years learn to move objects by magic; the practical part of Flitwick’s exam for the first years… Read More
• Essay
Posted by in Essays
The quotation above was coined by Arthur C. Clarke as his Third Law, in Report on Planet Three (1972). This essay compares the different technologies available to the magical and muggle worlds. Magical Artifacts Artifacts with magical properties are quite common in the magical world described in the books of J.K. Rowling. Some of them are similar to… Read More
• Essay
Posted by in Essays
Wizards don’t use electricity for a very good reason—they don’t need it, in fact they don’t need our technology at all (except maybe for sherbet lemons). Modern Muggle technology, according to wizards, is a poor substitute for magic. And modern Muggle technology is largely based on the availability of cheap,… Read More