Essays
Who Sent the Valentine?
• Essay
Posted
by David Frankis
in Essays
The problem is not simply knowing who sent the Valentine, but knowing what JKR’s purpose was in this episode. Is it a red herring, designed to arouse and deflect suspicion? Or a red flag, signalling something important later in the book or in a future book? Or is it… Read More
Vanishing Magic
• Essay
Various types of spells and items make things vanish, but in different ways. Vanishing The basic form of Vanishing is the Vanishing Spell. Taught in fifth year Transfiguration (OP13), this spell is usually cast using the incantation Evanesco which is Latin for “vanish.” McGonagall starts students out with Vanishing invertebrates—snails—and then works them up to mice… Read More
Everything You've Always Wanted To Know About Socks
• Essay
Posted
by Morag Traynor
in Essays
Socks are closely related to a major, if not the major, theme in Harry Potter, namely Things Are Not What They Seem. The sock is a humble, even comical, garment, necessary but often unattractive and the archetypal boring Christmas present. J K Rowling, while getting full comedy value out of all this,… Read More
Posted
by Professor Koniphorus Swamp
in Essays
I read with interest the essay “Magic, Genes, and Pure Blood,” by glamourousgeek, being myself involved in research into the complex inheritance of magic, but I must take exception to the science expressed within it.[*] Even if the magic trait is inherited through Mendelian genetics (which does not quite… Read More
A View of the Map: Understanding How the Marauder's Map Works
• Essay
Posted
by Steve Beers
in Essays
Let us take a look at the mysterious, amazing Marauder’s Map. But first, let’s look at the castle. If you research castles on the Internet, you will see that Hogwarts is a castle of unprecedented (mammoth, huge, gigantic) size. You might find some castles that have towers that are 7 commercial stories high,… Read More