• Source Harry spends the weekend in the hospital wing, Professor Lupin returns to class and tells Harry about Dementors, and Fred and George Weasley give Harry the Marauder’s Map. Harry uses a secret passage to join Ron and Hermione in… Read More
• Source Security is tightened, Hagrid is summoned to London with Buckbeak, Ron and Harry plan another visit to Hogsmeade despite Hermione’s appeals, Harry wears his invisibility cloak and while playing a trick on Draco Malfoy and his goons is unmasked, rushing back to… Read More
• Source Harry awakens in hospital, desperately tries to tell Sirius Black’s side of the story but is not believed until Albus Dumbledore arrives, who tells Hermione to use her Time-Turner (which she had been using to increase the amount of classes she could attend) to go… Read More
• Source Harry and Hermione safely return to the Hospital Wing, where Professor Snape arrives to blame them for Sirius Black’s escape but cannot prove it. Professor Lupin resigns, returning the invisibility cloak and Marauder’s Map to Harry. Term ends, Harry, Ron and… Read More
• Communication • Magical objects • Ministry of Magic Paper aeroplanes (US airplane) are enchanted items are used for inter-departmental memos at the Ministry of Magic Headquarters, as Harry learned when he travelled there for his hearing. Owls were used for this purpose when Arthur Weasley was younger, but their droppings created a mess and… Read More
• Character Daisy Pennifold came up with the idea of bewitching a Quaffle to fall slowly through the air to allow Chasers to keep it in play more easily. This redesigned Quaffle is known as the Pennifold Quaffle (QA6). Pennifold came up with her Quaffle ideas in… Read More
• Quidditch The Quaffle used in modern Quidditch games. The Pennifold Quaffle is bewitched to slow its fall through air to about the speed of falling through water, so that Chasers have a better chance of catching the ball in mid-air, rather than continually retrieving it from the ground… Read More
• Magical artifacts A Pensieve is a shallow stone basin with ancient Saxon runes and symbols carved around the edge used to collect and view memories (GF30, Pm). When in use, a silvery light shines from its contents, which are bright, whitish silver, and cloud-like, moving ceaselessly. Harry thought the stuff in… Read More
• Communication Memories can be physically removed from a wizard’s mind with a wand and placed in a container or the Pensieve. Pensieve Memories: Dumbledore’s memory of the Death Eater Trials, including those of Igor Karkaroff, Bellatrix, the Lestrange Brothers, and Barty Crouch Jr. (GF30) Dumbledore’s memory of 16-year-old Bertha Jorkins… Read More
• Quote “I thought it sounded a bit like Percy singing… maybe you’ve got to attack him while he’s in the shower, Harry.”… Read More
• Character Perenelle Flamel was Nicolas Flamel’s wife (PS17). She and her future husband met while attending Beauxbatons Academy (Pm). Read More
• Character A “stooped, timid-looking old wizard with fluffy white hair” who works with Arthur Weasley at the Ministry (CS4). Perkins lent a couple of tents to Arthur for the Quidditch World Cup. Perkins doesn’t camp much any more because of his lumbago (GF7). Read More
• Battles • Magical objects Appearing to be small and shabby on the outside, Perkins’ old tent was a roomy “old-fashioned three-room flat” on the inside, complete with bunk beds, a kitchen, and a bathroom (GF7). Read More
• Character Perpetua Fancourt was the inventor of the lunascope (FW). Fancourt attended Hogwarts, where she was in Ravenclaw House. She must have been rather young when she invented the lunascope, since she was born in 1900 (FW) and lunascopes were around by 1926 (WFT). Read More
• Character Antioch Peverell was the oldest of the three brothers in The Tale of the Three Brothers, and owner of the Elder Wand. Read More
• Character A legendary wizarding family connected to the Deathly Hallows and said to be the origin of the Tale of the Three Brothers by Beedle the Bard. The family became extinct through the male line, but survived through Iolanthe Peverell who married Hardwin, son of Linfred of Stinchcombe, and passed down… Read More
• Character The eldest granddaughter of Ignotus Peverell, Iolanthe was from Godric’s Hollow. As the eldest in an all-female generation, she inherited the Cloak of Invisibility (Pm). Read More
• Magical artifacts The most fabulous magic item of them all, the goal of alchemists and wizards for centuries. There was only one such stone known to be in existence, one created by Nicolas Flamel. The Philosopher’s Stone gives unlimited gold and immortality. Rather a nice payoff, but perhaps it isn’t as perfect… Read More
• Source Multiple essays: Mr Ollivander: Rowling gives a lot of background information not only about Garrick Ollivander, the current proprietor of the shop in Diagon Alley, but also about his famous wand-making family. Wand Woods: Rowling lists many wand woods and their qualities. Wand Lengths & Flexibility: Rowling writes about the… Read More
• Source Three essays: The Hogwarts Express Platform Nine and Three-Quarters Toads… Read More
• Dark magic items A poisonous candle is presumably a candle that gives off poisonous fumes when burned. Read More
• Games, toys, and jokes The Portable Swamp is a magical spell and effect created by the Weasley twins during their time at Hogwarts. When deployed, creates a swamp covering the target area. The portable swamp eventually filled a complete corridor on the fifth floor in the east wing at Hogwarts, and the Twins left no… Read More
• Ministry of Magic A division of the Department of Magical Transportation with responsibility for Portkey registration and use… Read More
• Ministry of Magic A “small, dirty oil painting” of the first Minister for Magic, Ulick Gamp, with his frog-like face and silver wig (HBP1). The portrait hangs in the office of the Muggle Prime Minister at number 10 Downing Street in London, and serves as a liason between the two worlds during… Read More
• Spells The Cushioning Charm creates an invisible “pillow” on the handle of a broom to make flying more comfortable (QA9). This spell can be used for a soft landing during an escape. Hermione cast a Cushioning Charm for protection when she, Bogrod, Harry, Ron, and Griphook were thrown from a Gringotts cart and fell a great distance (DH26). Albus Potter and… Read More
• Character Albus Potter is the middle child and second son of Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley Potter.  He is named after two headteachers of Hogwarts: Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape. Albus is Neville Longbottom‘s godson (Pm) and, when he was six years old, his best friend… Read More
• Character Fleamont Potter was the father of James Potter and the inventor of Sleekeazy’s hair potion, the sale of which added to the family’s already vast wealth. When he retired, he sold the company for an enormous profit (Pm). Fleamont Potter inherited the Cloak of Invisibility from his father, a direct… Read More
• Character Henry “Harry” Potter was a member of the Wizengamot from 1913 to 1921 and great-grandfather of Harry James Potter (Pm). Read More
• Character James Potter is a young wizard who fought against Voldemort in the 1970s, only to be killed along with his wife Lily while trying to protect their 15-month-old son Harry. James is the father of Harry Potter, and nearly identical to him in appearance except with hazel eyes (OP28). Read More
• Magical objects The Potter Stinks/Support Cedric Diggory badges were insulting badges handed out by Draco Malfoy. Background They were also worn by Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw members in a rare collaboration against Harry Potter when his name emerged from the Goblet of Fire, which was seen by other… Read More
• Communication Potterwatch was a rebel radio programme broadcast during the Second Wizarding War, hosted by Lee Jordan and featuring members of the Order of the Phoenix. During the Second Wizarding War, after Lord Voldemort, his Death Eaters and other followers had taken over the Ministry of Magic, all magical media were rigidly… Read More
• Security A long, thin, flexible golden rod used like a Muggle security wand, which detects spells of concealment and hidden magical objects (OP7, DH26). Read More
• Headlines and advertisements The Problem Page is a feature appearing in the Daily Prophet (DP3). Originally published on pages 12 & 13, the letters to the Problem Page are answered by experts brought in by the Daily Prophet (DP3). Letters answered in this issue HOW MUCH REVENGE IS SAFE? MAKING IT… Read More
• Areas of knowledge A magical law that states that while using a Time-Turner, no one can travel back in history further than five hours without doing serious harm to themselves or others (CC2.16). Read More
• Character Professor Saul Croaker was an “Unspeakable” who specialised in time-magic (Pm). Arthur Weasley identifies Croaker and Bode as both working in the Department of Mysteries in the campsite during the 1994 Quidditch World Cup (GF7). He developed Professor Croaker’s Law, which states that “the furthest someone… Read More
• Source Harry, Ron and Hermione start searching the library for facts on Flamel, the school empties for Christmas, Ron teaches Harry wizard chess, Harry gets his father’s invisibility cloak for Christmas, tries it out at night and finds the Mirror of Erised, sees his family… Read More
• Source Professor McGonagall tells the first-years a bit about the school and they are sorted into Houses by the Sorting Hat. Then Dumbledore welcomes them, they have a feast and find their dormitory for their first night at Hogwarts. Read More
• Games, toys, and jokes • Sweets One of the range of sweets found in a Skiving Snackbox. Each end of the sweet is colour-coded, so that one end causes the eater to vomit and the other cancels the effect. Fred and George had trouble with the prototype until they got the effect balanced so that the… Read More
• Magical objects A small magical object that looks like a cigarette lighter. When clicked, the Put-outer (or the Deluminator) sucks all light from a place. When reversed with another click, balls of light fly back out of the Deluminator and restores the light or lights that were extinguished. It also has other… Read More
• Article
Posted by in Canon discussion / Essays
Dumbledore’s Put-Outer is a magical device introduced in PS1, and it is unique as the only tool used to perform magic aside from wands. The Put-Outer also has the distinction of being the first magical tool introduced in the series: [Dumbledore] found what he was looking for in his… Read More