source: http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1582149/20080222/story.jhtml?rsspartner=rssYahooNewscrawler

Feb 22 2008 4:48 PM EST

'Harry Potter' Is Addictive, Study Conclude

Survey finds that 10 percent of participants showed signs of addiction, withdrawal after finishing 'Deathly Hallows.' by Jennifer Vineyard

No more trips to Hogwarts. No more will-they-or-won't-they for Ron and Hermione. No more theorizing if Snape is good or evil. Has the magic gone from your life?

Many Potter fans would say yes, that ever since the culmination of the series with the publication of last year's "Deathly Hallows," they've been in the throes of post-Potter depression — which a group of Pennsylvania-based researchers say shows that being a Potter fan is more serious than you might think. It can actually become an addiction.

In a just-finished study that's being submitted to the Journal of General Psychology, psych professor Dr. Jeffrey Rudski and two of his undergrad students at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, report that they found characteristics of addiction in at least 10 percent of the 4,000 Potter fans they polled online. For "Harry Potter and the End of the Line: Parallels with Addiction," they used craving scales that had been established for smoking, substituting "Deathly Hallows" for cigarettes. They surveyed fans before the book's release, upon completion of the book and six months afterwards as a follow-up. The 10 percent of respondents that Rudski considers addicted described spending more than four hours a day on Potter-related activities, experiencing interference with appetite and sleep patterns, engaging in less physical activity, having a lower sense of well-being and being more irritable after completing the series.

"Some readers can become so engaged in the series and the ancillary world that grew out of it that they report behaviors that truly fit definitions of addiction or dependence," the synopsis of his draft reads.

Granted, there are at least two more Potter movies (three if they split "Deathly Hallows") and a theme park to come, but for these participants, reaching the end of the story triggered a withdrawal, akin to quitting a drug cold turkey after having being hooked for years. "An addiction is an addiction is an addiction," Rudski said. "An addiction to a drug is no different than an addiction to Harry Potter or the Internet or pornography. Although it's not always a bad thing. There's a community that you get with Harry Potter that you don't get with heroin."

The threshold for addiction is even more blurry than the one for alcoholism — with alcohol, you note whether someone's drinking alone or more of a social drinker. But if the addiction involves a community, it's harder to draw the line between fandom and compulsion. "A lot of the addiction isn't even to the series itself," Rudski said. "The series is over. The addiction is to everything that goes along with it, the ancillary world." So while he only characterizes 10 percent of participants as being addicted, there was an additional 20 percent who gave him cause for concern, reaching what he called "a critical threshold."

That would likely include participants who wrote things like "I want Rowling to know that I hate her ... because I have nothing to live for now," "I feel like someone close to me has died" and "I had trouble getting out of bed Monday morning. I was depressed and had nightmares all night long. I dreamed I was being attacked by Lucius Malfoy and Fenrir Greyback and didn't have a wand because I was Muggle-born."

Rudski, who teaches courses in psychopharmacology and learning theory, originally wanted to make a study about addictions to popular culture when he saw people "walking around in a daze" following the O.J. Simpson verdict. "I thought, 'These people are addicted to the trial! And now they're going through withdrawal,' " he said. "And I thought, if I ever have an opportunity to look at this phenomenon, I'm going to study it."

It was a toss-up for him between studying people's reaction to the end of "The Sopranos" and the end of Harry Potter, but ultimately, Rudski chose the boy wizard because his 15-year-old daughter is a fan — well, he calls her an addict but says her addiction has positive outlets. "She's picked up guitar because she wants to be in a wizard-rock band," he said. "She's studying Latin because she wants to better understand J.K. Rowling's choices of names for her characters. She started reading Stephen King and John Irving because they spoke with Rowling at Radio City two summers ago." If that's being an addict, he's down with it.

Likewise, Rudski's subjects didn't all turn their addictions into negative forces, but he found that those who were the most creative with their fandom showed the least disruption to their personal lives, addicted or not. For instance, those he calls the "core" fans, who read the books and liked to theorize, had the greatest amount of withdrawal symptoms. Online community fans, however, showed more of an intermediate level of withdrawal after reading the last book, but six months afterwards, still reported continued disruption (as opposed to core fans, who moved on). And for those who turned Harry Potter into a creative outlet — either through fan fiction, fan art or wizard rock — didn't show hardly any withdrawal symptoms at all, though they continued to spend just as much time engaged in those activities as they did before. What does that tell us? "It's more like a caffeine addiction," Rudski said. "The withdrawal can be over, but the addiction is still there."

    The epilogue to the Harry Potter series was very well written, yet it left a lot of unanswered questions. Here is a list of the things we have been told by JKR from interviews, which we were originally left with at the end of the epilogue.

   1. What are Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny's careers? Harry and Ron are aurors, and Harry is head of the auror office. Hermione works in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, even though she said that she wouldn't in DH, but JKR says that she would be very good at that job with her amazing brain power, and whatever JKR says goes. Ginny was a professional Quidditch player for a while, but then she retired (probably when she had kids) and now writes the Quidditch column in The Daily Prophet.

    2. What happened to Luna Lovegood? JKR says that she did learn more about her father Xenophilius Lovegood, but she is probably traveling, looking for creatures such as Crumple Horkacks.

    3. Who is the character that JKR said wouldn't perform magic until later in life? She said that she was sorry to disappoint us, but as it turns out there would be no such character.

    4. Who's Victoire? Victoire is Bill and Fleur's oldest son.


However, there are other things that have been left unanswered. Those things we must go to speculate and discuss ourselves.
To see what we've still been left to investigate ourselves, please feel free to visit our Discussion center, where we talk about the stuff we're still left with.

(And if there's anything that I've left out that JKR has told us, please let me know at hermionerubin@yahoo dot com)

Note that this post contains spoilers.

    Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: the review by 12 Grimmauld Place. 

     Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows begins as a few days before Harry's protection from his mother breaks. After saying goodbye to the Dursleys, the Order of the Phoenix take Harry to Tonk's parent's house, to then take a portkey to the Burrow, which is the new headquarters since 12 Grimmauld Place technically belongs to Bellatrix Lestrange since she's the last remaining Black, even though it's Harry's according to Sirius's will. Eventually everybody arrives there, and Mad-Eye Moody meets his fate, and sadly, so does Harry's faithful companion, Hedwig.

When they arrive there, everyone prepares for the wedding of Bill and Fleur. During the wedding, Kingsley's patronus tells them that the Death Eaters have imperioused the Ministry of Magic, and that they're on their way to the wedding. Harry, Ron and Hermione go to 12 Grimmauld Place, and they stay there for a while, since it's not being used at the moment, and they cannot return to the Burrow because it's being watched by the Imperioused Ministry, especially since now Harry is wanted by the Ministry. They find out that R.A.B. is indeed, Regulas Black. (Arcturus was his middle name). They also discover that Mundungous Fletcher has stolen and sold the locket, to Dolores Jane Umbridge. They go into the Ministry, disguised, and retrieve the real locket.

Soon though, the trio go and hunt for the other horcruxes (Harry and his friends don't go back to Hogwarts). They are on the run every day, so that nothing can find them, and Ron leaves Harry and Hermione out of frustration, and then comes back. They go to Godric's Hollow, and visit the graves of Harry's parents on Christmas Eve. They realize that in order to destroy the horcruxes, they need Godric Gryffindor's sword, but there is currently a false one in Dumbledore's office. So they need to find the sword, and they find it eventually, and they destroy the locket. On the run, they are captured by the Death Eaters at the Malfoy Manor, but they escape. Then they find out about the relic of Ravenclaw, which is probably in Hogwarts, and the Deathly Hallows.

The Deathly Hallows are three items that are supposed to help you defeat Death. They are the Elder Wand--which is a superior wand, the Resurrection Stone--which brings people back from the dead, and the Invisibility Cloak--which is in perfect condition. Harry realizes that he must be the rightful owner of all the Deathly Hallows, because he has the perfect Invisibility Cloak, and the reason that Dumbledore had it the night the Potters died was because Dumbledore was examining it to be one of the Deathly Hallows; he had the resurrection stone, which was Marvolo's ring, and he just needed to find the Elder Wand, which unfortunatly Voldemort finds first.

As there is a new biography written about Dumbledore by Rita Skeeter (oh gosh), there are many rumors about Dumbledore flying around, some that he was engaged in the Dark Arts, others that his sister was a squib. Now Harry doesn't know what to belive, and feels some anger toward Dumbledore because they had always talked about Harry, but never about Dumbledore, and Harry really never knew anything about him.

The last 120 pages or so are the battle at Hogwarts--finding and destroying Ravenclaw's horcrux, more deaths. Harry realizes that he's got to die because he's a horcrux, and that there were worse things than death, and more terrible fates, one of which I cried about. And then there's the final, final showdown between Harry and Voldemort, where Harry had died but then came back to life, and Voldemort, as R.A.B. had hoped for, had met his final match, being mortal once more.

The final installment of the Harry Potter series is by far, the darkest of them all. Harry realizes that there's more to successfully getting through Hogwarts, and he learns about survival. The many fates and discoveries that the characters meet only add to the dramatic plot. Personally, I thought it was fantastic, and a great way to end the books. Fans, like myself, find out if their theories are true or false, which is of course, very good to know; for example, you do find out if Snape is good, and you do find out if Snape loved Lily. The only questions it did not really answer was the signifigance of Harry's eyes, Harry's parents jobs, and the correspondance between Dumbledore and Petunia Dursley. But I thought that everything else was answered, so when you read the last page of the book, you are satisfied, and glad that you read it. I would give it 4.5/5 stars.

The Harry Potter series has definitely not only made sort some of impact on fans, but also in the industries.

"Harry Potter Charms the Entertainment Industry
Tuesday July 10, 11:19 am ET The Nielsen Company examines Harry Potter's vast impact on Books, Movies, Internet, Television, Music and Advertising

'Defenders of Secrets, Unite!

They have waited two long years, and now they have only 24 days to go. As the diehard fans of Harry Potter count the minutes until they can get their hands on “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the seventh and final installment in the monumentally successful series by J. K. Rowling, they are engaging in a frenzy of speculation and rumor-mongering about what will happen to their beloved characters.

Predictions are flying across the Web and out of bookstores, where titles like “Mugglenet.com’s What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7,” “The End of Harry Potter?” and “The Great Snape Debate” spew theories about who will die, who will get together with whom, and who is really good or evil.

At the same time, with little more than three weeks to go before “Deathly Hallows” goes on sale at 12:01 a.m. on July 21, some people claiming to have actual knowledge of the book’s plot are posting ostensible spoilers online. At one site, for instance, what appears to be a page from a manuscript appears, showing one paragraph outlined in red, suggesting that one of the most morally enigmatic characters in the series dies in the final book, with a few bars from the chorus of “Tarzan Boy” by Baltimora playing on an endless loop in the background.

And just last week, a self-proclaimed hacker calling himself Gabriel said he had broken into the computers of Bloomsbury, the series’s British publisher, and discovered the identities of two characters killed at the end of the book, though the claim was widely discounted.

While fans take endless delight in spinning their own theories, bringing Talmudic fervor to the analysis of clues dropped throughout the previous books and in interviews with Ms. Rowling, they tend to oppose spoilers violently.

At The Leaky Cauldron (leakynews.com), the site’s hosts have posted a policy on spoilers: “DON’T DO IT.”

“We just don’t want someone taking what J. K. Rowling has earned away from her, which is the right to tell us where these mysteries end,” said Melissa Anelli, the Leaky Cauldron’s Webmaster, in a telephone interview. “She’s worked really hard for 17 years on this series, and it’s about time she reaps the satisfaction of bringing the culmination of her story to the fans herself.”

In a posting dated May 14 on Ms. Rowling’s own Web site, jkrowling.com, the author thanks Ms. Anelli for The Leaky Cauldron’s spoiler policy, and added her own plea: “I want the readers who have, in many instances, grown up with Harry, to embark on the last adventure they will share with him without knowing where they are going,” she wrote.

Attempts to spoil the ending are not new, of course. Four years ago, before the publication of “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” the fifth book in the series, The Daily News bought a copy of the book at a Brooklyn health food store four days before publication and ran a graphic image showing two pages of the book. Ms. Rowling sued The Daily News for $100 million, and the suit was settled out of court.

Hosts of MuggleNet.com, another of the biggest Potter fan sites, learned about the death of Sirius Black, Harry’s godfather, a few weeks before “Order of the Phoenix” was published, when someone sent in some scanned pages pilfered from a manuscript. And before “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” the sixth book in the series, was published two years ago, someone reportedly working on a Malaysian military base e-mailed a summary, the first page of every chapter and the whole final chapter to The Leaky Cauldron, revealing that Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts, the boarding school where Harry and his friends train in wizardry, dies at the end of the book.

“There are usually a few people who get their hands on a book and get some rush in spoiling the details for us,” said Emerson Spartz, MuggleNet’s founder and Web master. “They get some sick satisfaction that they’re sticking it to the man.”

At least one cynical fan sees the current crop of spoilers as a ruse by the publishers to increase sales.

“I think it was a ploy by someone inside to get more hype about the book and get more money off of it,” Joy Viceroy, 16, said of last week’s Gabriel incident. Ms. Viceroy, an avid fan of the series who has read each book multiple times, was waiting in line on Saturday at a public library branch near Cleveland to board the Harry Potter Knight Bus, a purple triple-decker brought in by Scholastic, Ms. Rowling’s United States publisher, to stoke up prepublication fervor.

Just in case, Ms. Viceroy didn’t look at the hacker’s posting. “It might be wrong, but I hate spoilers,” she said.

Still, like many other fans, Ms. Viceroy has her theories. “I think Harry is going to live,” she said.

In that she is joined by the hosts of MuggleNet, whose book, “What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7” has spent 19 weeks on the New York Times Paperback Children’s Best Seller list. “We’re absolutely convinced that Harry Potter is not going to die,” said Mr. Spartz, who founded the site when he was 12. (He’s now 20 and will be a junior at the University of Notre Dame in the fall.)

Bookmakers in Britain, meanwhile, stopped taking bets on Harry’s fate earlier this month because too many people were betting that the boy wizard would die in the seventh book.

“I think that it’s an innate human need to be curious about what’s going to happen,” Mr. Spartz said.

Scholastic and Bloomsbury have taken elaborate security steps with booksellers, libraries and distributors to ensure that leaks that have happened in the past don’t occur this time. As for predictions, said Lisa Holton, president of Scholastic’s trade and book fairs division, “everyone is entitled to their theory. It’s part of the fun.”

The predictions can be found everywhere, from the fan sites and chat boards to political and academic blogs. The intensity of thought is evident, with predictions based on minute details gleaned from close readings of the texts.

Dave Kopel, research director of the Independence Institute, a libertarian research group based in Golden, Colo., has posted a 16-page thesis titled “Severus Snape: The Unlikely Hero of Harry Potter Book 7,” in which he predicts that Professor Snape, whose allegiances have been the subject of fierce debate, will sacrifice himself to destroy Lord Voldemort, the unequivocal villain of the series.

In a posting filled with quotations and page references, Mr. Kopel outlines his case. “That’s part of Rowling’s genius — there are a lot of clues hidden in plain sight,” he said in a telephone interview. “But it’s hard to tell which ones are that and which ones are just detractors.”

John Granger, a professor of Latin and English at the Valley Forge Military Academy & College in Wayne, Pa., has written two books about the series and edited a third called “Who Killed Albus Dumbledore” that is filled with predictions.

He also runs a discussion group at HogwartsProfessor.com. “I’ve seen really intelligent, really literate women and men discuss these points and provide more than cogent arguments that Snape is X, Y or Z, and they all make sense in terms of all the clues she’s given in the book,” Mr. Granger said. “This has probably been the most fun that intelligent people can have with their clothes on in the 21st century.”'

--www.nytimes.com

-pg. 112: Regulas Black info. A date of death was “some fifteen years previously”. Younger brother of Sirius. Joined the Death Eaters and was considered a better son by their parents

-pg. 114: Bellatrix Black married Rodolphus Lestrange. Their daughter was Sirius’s cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange (perhaps Rodulphus was R.A.B.)

-pg. 116: Harry and Weasleys find in cabinets
    -musical box that makes you sleepy
    -heavy locket none of them could open (Probably Slytherin’s locket)
    -number of ancient seals
    -in dusty box, an Order of Merlin, First Class, that had been awarded to Sirius’s grandfather for “Services to the Ministry” AKA gave them a lot of gold

-pg. 117: Kreatcher smuggled random possessions of the Blacks. Sirius finds a large golden ring. Kreacher bursts into tears and leaves the room. Ring had belonged to Sirius’s father, but maybe it’s one of the horcruxes?

-pg. 135: Bode is mentioned. Says hello to Arthur Weasley in a bored tone.

-pg. 174: Fabian and Gideon Prewett are mentioned- took 5 Death Eaters to kill them and they fought like heroes.

-pg. 176: Mrs. Weasley’s boggart vision- dead husband and dead children

-pg. 177: Mrs. Weasley says: “I’m jus s-s-so worried. Half the f-f-family’s in the Order, it’ll b-b-be a mirable if we all come through this…and P-P-Percy’s not talking to us…What if something d-d-dreadful happens and we had never m-m-made up? And what’s going to happen if Arthur and I get killed, who’s g-g-going to look after Ron and Ginny?”

-pg. 306-8: Umbridge is appointed “High Inquisitor”—Daily Prophet article

-pg. 310-11: Fred and George tell Hermione, Ron, and Harry the way of grading OWLs.

-pg. 336-47: First D.A. meeting in the Hog’s Head

-pg. 381: Harry’s scar hurts while changing after Quidditch practice

-pg. 383: Wondering about this weapon… “He’s got other plans…plans he can put into operation very quietly indeed…stuff he can only get by stealth…like a weapon. Something he didn’t have last time.”

-pg. 391-6: First D.A. meeting in the Room of Requirement. D.A. name themselves and appoint Harry leader. They begin practicing.

-pg. 431: Hagrid tells Harry, Ron and Hermione how some Death Eaters had also brought gifts to the Gurg (Head of the giants)

-pg. 463: Harry’s “dream” when Arthur Weasley is bitten by the snake (Nagini?)

-pg. 472: Phineas Nigellus (portrait) is called upon by Dumbledore and is sent to deliver a message to Mrs. Weasley that Arthur is injured.

-pg. 486: “A very old, stooped wizard with a hearing trumpet had shuffled to the front of the queue now. ‘I’m here to see Broderick Bode!’ he wheezed.” Who is this man?

-pg. 512: Broderick Bode is “sent a potted plant and a lovely calander with a different fancy hippogriff for each month, they’ll brighten things up, won’t they?”

-pg. 514: Neville’s grandmother tells Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny that Neville’s parents had been tortured to insanity by the Death Eaters. Alice Longbottom, Neville’s mom, gives Neville a gum wrapper. Apparently she has given Neville “enough of them to paper [Neville’s] bedroom.” But he pockets the gum wrapper instead of disposing of it like his grandma told him to.

-pg. 520-1: Sirius and Snape argue. Before they jinx each other, Arthur Weasley comes home.

-pg. 532: Harry is in an occlumency lesson with Snape

-pg. 539: Sturgis Podmore is arrested when trying to break thru a door. Threesome think that he was trying to get this weapon hidden in the Department of Mysteries.

-pg. 541: Voldemort is happy and Harry feels it thru his scar

-pg. 543: Antonin Dolohov (convicted murders of Fabian and Gideon Prewett), Augustus Rockwood (convicted of leaking Ministry of Magic secrets to LV), Bellatrix Lestrange (convicted of the torture and permanent incapacitation of Frank and Alice Longbottom), are in a headline because they broke out of Azkaban. Ministry thinks it has something to do with Sirius Black’s breakout from a few years before.

-pg. 548: Bode is killed by Devil’s Snare. Bode was an UNSPEAKABLE- worked in the Department of Mysteries…he couldn’t tell anyone the kind of work they had been doing in there.

-pg. 584: Harry’s interview in The Quibbler has been published.

-pg. 588: Hermione realizes that the reason Bode was killed was because when he tried to steal the weapon, something funny happened to him. His brain had gone all funny and couldn’t talk. Apparently he was recovering before he died. But once he got his voice back, he would be able to explain what he was doing. LV couldn’t risk it.
-Bode was also in the Department of Mysteries corridor the day Harry had his hearing.

-pg. 593: Harry gets past a bunch of doors in the Department of Mysteries in his dream. Since it happens in his occlumency lesson he tells Snape what it was all about.
-Snape calls LV “Dark Lord”. Only Death Eaters call him that.

-pg. 595: Umbridge fires Trewlany

-pg. 603: First Divination lesson with Firenze

-pg. 622: Dumbledore disappears after Marietta tells Umbridge about the D.A. meeting going on.

-pg. 648: In SNAPE’S WORST MEMORY, Snape calls Lily a “filthy little mudblood”.

-pg. 662: Umbridge interferes with Harry and McGonagall’s meeting about what Harry’s career should be (Harry wants to be an Auror but Umbridge says that with his criminal record he can never be one even though he has been cleared of all charges.

-pg. 689: Hagrid introduces Grawp to Harry and Hermione

-pg. 711: Professor Marchbanks, one of the OWL examiners, asks the whereabouts of Dumbledore to Professor Umbridge

-pg. 745: Harry secretly tells Snape that Sirius is being tortured by LV

-pg. 747: Umbridge tells Harry that she was the one who had sent the dementors to Little Whinging last summer

-pg. 779: Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Luna, and Ginny find the prophecy between Harry and LV

-pg. 788: Death Eaters names
-Nott, Jugson, Bellatrix, Rodolphus (B.L.’s dad?), Dolohov, Macnair, Avery, Rockwood, Mulciber

-pg. 814: Dumbledore says to LV: “We both know there are other ways of destroying a man, Tom” (Is he referring to horcruxes?)
-Dumbledore says that “merely taking [Voldemort’s] life would not satisfy me, I admit—…Indeed, [Voldemort’s] failure to understand that there are things much worse than death has always been [Voldemort’s] greatest weakness

-pg. 823: Dumbledore tries to console Harry by telling him that he knows how Harry feels, but Harry becomes angry.

-pg. 827: Dumbledore tells Harry that Voldemort recently realized his connections and shares of powers with Harry

-pg. 831: Dumbledore tells Harry that Kreacher went to the Malfoy family and he told them how Sirius and Harry loved each other

-pg. 834-44: Dumbledore tells Harry of his plan, and how it failed because Dumbledore cared too much about Harry’s happiness than Harry’s knowledge

-pg. 841: Trewlaney’s prophecy about (what became to be because LV chose) Harry and Voldemort

“The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies…And he Dark Lord knows not…And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives…The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…”

-pg. 842: Neville could also have been the person who the prophecy was about, but Voldemort chose Harry because both of them were half-bloods.

-pg. 843: Voldemort only heard the first part of the prophecy.
-Dumbledore describes what goes on in the Department of Mysteries:
-LOVE IS PROBABLY THE ONLY THING THAT DESCRIBES THS!!!!!!!!!

“There is a room in the Department of Mysteries that is kept locked at all times. It contains a force that is at once more wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than forces of nature. It is also, perhaps, the most mysterious of the many subjects for study that reside there. It is the power held within that room that you possess in such quantities and which Voldemort has not at all. That power took you to save Sirius tonight. That power also saved you from possession by Voldemort, because he could not bear to reside in a body so full of the force he detests. In the end, it mattered not that you could not close your mind. It was your heart that saved you.”

-pg. 851: Malfoy says to Harry, “You’re dead”.
-pg. 857-8: Harry finds the mirror that Sirius gave him so that they could communicate. The note said:

This is a two-way mirror. I’ve got the other. If you need to speak to me, just say my name into it; you’ll appear in my mirror and Ill be able to talk in yours. James andI used to use them when we were in separate detentions.

-pg. 860-1: Harry and Nearly Headless Nick talk about what happens to wizards when they die

In latin, Sevrus means servent. That's probably the root work of "Severus". Now we know that we will find out where Snape's loyalties lie in the end- if Snape's really good or not. So in a way, we're going to find out in the end where Severus is a servus to.

I know it sounds like a theory, but in the skeem of things, it's really not. Whatever.

P.S. You're not going to understand a thing about the veil if you haven't read Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix 

Before another Potter book comes out there are always a number of rumors written about fans. Here are some rejected rumors by JK Rowling and her publishers:

 

"Character Information

• Dumbledore is really dead. He is not in hiding and is not coming back.
• There will be no character named "Icicle," and JK said that she didn't recall saying there ever would be
• Dumbledore is not Harry's relative
• Harry is not related to Voldemort and he is not related to Salazar Slytherin
• Lily Potter is not alive
• Lily was not a Death Eater
• Crookshanks is not an Animagus
• Neville is not the son of Peter Pettigrew
• Remus Lupin does not have a twin brother
• Petunia is not a Squib
• Dumbledore is not Harry/Ron from the future
• Mrs Norris/Crookshanks will not be discovered as an Animagus

Plot Information

• Harry will not become Minister for Magic
• Peter Pettigrew’s silver hand will not kill Lupin
• Lupin will not return as a DADA professor
• The prophecy refers to Harry, and not in any way to Neville
• The final part of the prophecy does not mean Harry has to kill Neville, or vice versa

Other

• The title of the book will not be "Harry Potter and the Pyramids of Furmat"
• No prequel books are planned (no books before Harry's time at Hogwarts)
• "Keeper of the Keys" has no secret meaning
• The Sorting Hat is not a horcrux "

www.mugglenet.com

Deciding I wasn't as familiar with the term "Hallows" as I could be, I decided to look it up at "dictionary.com". Here are the results that came up:

"

1.	to make holy; sanctify; consecrate.

2.	to honor as holy; consider sacred; venerate: to hallow a battlefield.

(this could be important! Horcrux... "consider sacred", and "to hallow a battlefield" could have something to do with the war between the Order of the Pheonix and the Death Eaters.)

Each year at Hogwarts, the Sorting Hat sorts the first years into Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Before the yearly ceromony takes place, the Sorting Hat sings a new song, each one different and unique from the year before. They also have messages- most recently that all the houses should stick together as a group and as a school. But they could also have some implications for the plot. Make your own choice about their meanings. Here are the songs:

 

Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone

Oh, you may not think I'm pretty, But don't judge on what you see, I'll eat myself if you can find A smarter hat than me. You can keep your bowlers black, Your top hats sleek and tall, For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat And I can top them all. There's nothing hidden in your head The Sorting Hat can't see, So try me on and I will tell you Where you ought to be. You might belong in Gryffindor, Where dwell the brave at heart, Their daring, nerve and chivalry Set Gryffindors apart; You might belong in Hufflepuff, Where they are just and loyal, Those patient Hufflepuffs are true And unafraid of toil; Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw, If you've a steady mind, Where those of wit and learning, Will always find their kind; Or perhaps in Slytherin You'll make your real friends, Those cunning folk use any means To achieve their ends. So put me on! Don't be afraid! And don't get in a flap! You're in safe hands (though I have none) For I'm a Thinking Cap!

Chamber of Secrets

Harry wasn't the only one to miss the sorting in Chamber of Secrets. He and Ron flew the Weasleys' car to Hogwarts after Dobby had sealed the gateway to Platform 9 3/4, then crashed it into the Whomping Willow that sits on the school grounds. Lucky for the both of them, Professor McGonagall didn't find it necessary to expell them!

Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry missed the sorting his third year because a dementor had crawled into the trio's compartment on the Hogwarts Express, and the very presence of the dementor made Harry pass out. Harry was taken to the hospital wing once the train reached Hogwarts.

Goblet of Fire

A thousand years or more ago, When I was newly sewn, There lived four wizards of renown, Whose names are still well known: Bold Gryffindor, from wild moor, Fair Ravenclaw, from glen, Sweet Hufflepuff, from valley broad, Shrewd Slytherin, from fen. They shared a wish, a hope, a dream, They hatched a daring plan To educate young sorcerers Thus Hogwarts School began. Now each of these four founders Formed their own house, for each Did value different virtues In the ones they had to teach. By Gryffindor, the bravest were Prized far beyond the rest; For Ravenclaw, the cleverest Would always be the best; For Hufflepuff, hard workers were Most worthy of admission; And power-hungry Slytherin Loved those of great ambition. While still alive they did divide Their favourites from the throng, Yet how to pick the worthy ones When they were dead and gone? 'Twas Gryffindor who found the way, He whipped me off his head The founders put some brains in me So I could choose instead! Now slip me snug about your ears, I've never yet been wrong, I'll have a look inside your mind And tell where you belong!

Order of the Phoenix

In times of old when I was new And Hogwarts barely started The Founders of our noble school Thought never to be parted: nited by a common goal, They had the selfsame yearning To make the world's best magic school And pass along their learning. "Together we will build and teach!" The Four good friends decided And never did they dream that they Might someday be divided, For were there such friends anywhere As Slytherin and Gryffindor? Unless it was the second pair Of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw? So how could it have gone so wrong? How could such friendships fail? Why, I was there and so can tell The whole sad, sorry tale. Said Slytherin, "We'll teach just those Whose ancestry is purest." Said Ravenclaw, "We'll teach those whose Intelligence is surest." Said Gryffindor, "We'll teach all those With brave deeds to their name," Said Hufflepuff, "I'll teach the lot, And treat them just the same." These differences caused little strife When first they came to light, For each of the four founders had A House in which they might Take only those they wanted, so, For instance, Slytherin Took only pure-blood wizards Of great cunning, just like him, And only those of sharpest mind Were taught by Ravenclaw While the bravest and the boldest Went to daring Gryffindor, Good Hufflepuff, she took the rest, And taught them all she knew, Thus the Houses and their founders Retained friendships firm and true. So Hogwarts worked in harmony For several happy years, But the discord crept among us Feeding on our faults and fears. The Houses that, like pillars four, Had once held up our school, Now turned upon each other and, Divided, sought to rule. And for a while it seemed the school Must meet an early end, What with dueling and with fighting And the clash of friend on friend And at last there came a morning When old Slytherin departed And though the fighting then died out He left us quite downhearted. And never since the founders four Were whittled down to three Have the Houses been united And they once were meant to be. And now the Sorting Hat is here And you all know the score: I sort you into Houses Because that is what I'm for, But this year I'll go further, Listen closely to my song: Though condemned I am to split you Still I worry that it's wrong, Though I must fulfill my duty And must quarter every year Still I wonder whether sorting May not bring the end I fear. Oh, know the perils, read the signs, The warning history shows, For our Hogwarts is in danger From external, deadly foes And we must unite inside her Or we'll crumble from within I have told you, I have warned you.. Let the sorting now begin

Half-Blood Prince

After Harry's meeting with the "Slug Club" on the train towards Hogwarts, Harry decided to follow Slytherin Blaise Zabini as he entered into a Slytherin compartment containing Malfoy. However, when done 'spying' on him, Malfoy cast the body-binding spell and Harry couldn't move a muscle, especially after Malfoy completely stomped all over his face. However, Tonks came to the train and healed Harry, but he arrived late, and missed the Sorting Ceremony.

If you have any comments or ideas, you can say them in the Guestbook, or send your ideas to me at hermionerubin@yahoo.com

 

Anagrams like these might  very important for Harry Potter, because they can be clues about what will happen in B7. Here are some anagrams that have been brought to attention:

• Harry James Potter is an anagram of Major Threat Persy
  
  Yes, Percy is really spelled with a 'c', but this could be much like the "Severus Snape/Pursues Evans" anagram. Interesting, interesting...
  
  
• Ollivanders is an anagram of Ronald Lives or Ronald's Evil
  
  This could hold several meanings. I think it's safe to assume that Ronald is Ron, and so it may mean that Ron will not die throughout the seven books. However, it may also have been a clue for Book 5. When Mrs. Weasley tackled the boggart and Ron is sprawled across the carpet, some of us thought he was actually dead. This anagram may have told us three books before that he wasn't really dead in this instance. It may also tell us that if Ron does appear to die in future books, it will not be true. As for the second possibility, I think it's just a coincidence.
  
  
• Ollivander is an anagram of An Evil Lord
  
  This could mean that Mr Ollivander is not someone to be trusted or is on Voldemort's side.
  
  
• Severus Snape is an anagram of Perseus Evans or Persues Evans or Save Pureness
  
  The first anagram, Perseus Evans, could mean several things. Perseus was a character in myth that, to put it briefly, went on a courageous quest and ended up killing the God Poseidon to save the princess (Lily?). Also, the character Medusa is linked with the legend of Perseus. Anyone who looked directly at Medusa was turned to stone. Can you say "Basilisk?" Perseus also married Andromeda, who, as we learn in Book 5, is the name of Tonks' mother. Naturally, the Evans part could mean either he is related to Lily or had a relationship with her.
  
  The second anagram, Persues Evans, could mean that Snape went after Lily, either to kill her or to have a relationship with her. The word is spelled "pursues" but this could be a deliberate misspelling.
  
  As for the third anagram, Save Pureness ... enough said.
  
  
• Tom Marvolo Riddle is an anagram of I am Lord Voldemort
  
  Obviously, this one has already been given much importance, but it just goes to show that a lot of information can be held in anagrams.
  
  
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is an anagram of Treachery rests on Transported Hero
  
  I'm almost positive this is coincidental, but it's interesting anyway! -Thanks, Tyler.
  
  
• Dolores Jane Umbridge is an anagram of Dumbledore goes in jar
  
  Dumbledore means bumblebee in Old English. Rita Skeeter was a beetle and ended up in a jar. Perhaps there is a link between Dumbledore and Rita?
  
  
• Remus Lupin is an anagram of Primus Lune
  
  Primus comes from the Latin word meaning first, or beginning, or perhaps full. Lune is from the French for moon. Lupin turns into a werewolf when there is a full moon. Coincidence? -Thanks, Jenny
  
  
• Hogwarts is an anagram of Ghost War
  
  A battle between the ghosts of Hogwarts a long time ago? Either that, or perhaps it is meant figuratively, where the war will not be seen by the teachers or students. -Thanks, Alex.
  
  
• Drooble's Best Blowing Gum is an anagram of Gold bribe below St. Mungos
  
  Very interesting... In Book 5, Neville's mum gives him a gum wrapper. Is she passing on an important message?
  
  
• Peter Pettigrew is an anagram of Tip: Pet We Regret
  
  This really speaks for itself - the Weasleys probably regret keeping Scabbers as a pet for so long and not knowing or realising he was an Animagus, even with his abnormally long life span. -Thanks, Megan
  
  
• Dean Thomas is an anagram of Death Moans
  
  This doesn't seem like a good sign for Dean. Perhaps the word "moans" means that if he does die, he will come back as a ghost to haunt. Moaning or wailing is usually associated with unsettled spirits, though perhaps it could be hinting more towards him being used as an Inferius after death. -Thanks, Megan.
  
  
• Seamus Finnigan is an anagram of Is Unsafe Naming
  
  Maybe this is hinting that Seamus will be captured by Voldemort's followers and will have to give them names or locations of specific people who are threats. If he is 'unsafe' in doing this, though, he probably won't give anything away. -Thanks, Megan.
  
  
• Bill Weasley is an anagram of Will Ably See
  
  Though it's unlikely Bill has any Seer blood in him, he might somehow predict what will happen in the battle between good and evil. Or maybe he saw something after being attacked - something that could help Harry in his search. -Thanks, Megan and Jen.
  
  
• Arthur Weasley is an anagram of We Salute Harry
  
  We know that Mr Weasley will fully support Harry on his quest, so the anagram could mean this. However, in military circles, a salute can be given when honoring the dead. This sounds ominous for Harry if Arthur is saluting him. -Thanks, Megan.
  
  
• Irma Pince is an anagram of I'm a Prince
  
  Could the "vulture-like" librarian be related to Snape? Both are described as having sharp features and a short temper... -Thanks to everyone who submitted this.
  
  
• Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson is an anagram of Cue fine new film drama starring Potter lad
  
  While this doesn't hold any significance to the books, I think this anagram is an interesting coincidence. -Thanks, Courtney.
  
  
• Platform nine and three quarters is an anagram of Frequent trains ran to help dream
  
  The train reference speaks for itself, but I'm interested about the dream part - JKR wouldn't really end the series that way, would she? -Thanks, Courtney.
  
  
• Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is an anagram of Halt! Interbred arch-foe lord not happy
  
  I think this speaks for itself. -Thanks, Courtney.
  
  
• The children's author JK Rowling is an anagram of Hint: her skill conjured Hogwart!
  
  Very true! And another funny coincidence. -Thanks, Courtney.
  
  
• Dean Thomas is an anagram of Man So Hated
  
  Poor Dean - none of his anagrams look good. Maybe he just has a very unfortunate name. -Thanks, jwadsworths.
  
  
• Romilda Vane is an anagram of Love in a Dram
  
  In case any of you aren't sure, a dram is a unit of measurement. Very appropriate for the girl who tries to slip Harry a love potion. -Thanks, Frank and V.K.
  
  
• The Lightning Struck Tower is an anagram of The Glowing Stricken Truth
  
  The word "glowing" could represent the Mark that was placed above the infamous tower in HBP. The Dark Mark is used to show that someone within the area has been killed by one of Voldemort's followers, so if this is the "stricken truth" then could this mean Dumbledore is really dead?-Thanks, Aarif.
  
  
• Albus Dumbledore is an anagram of Blamed old Rubeus
  
  What could the Hogwarts gamekeeper have done to be blamed for? Perhaps it goes as far back as when he rescued Harry after Voldemort's attack.- Thanks, Ralph.
  
  
• Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi (Inscription on the Mirror of Erised) is an anagram of Trust what you see a hero inscribed for you
  
  The cryptic writing on the mirror could have more than one meaning... - Thanks, Ralph.

source: www.mugglenet.com

Keep Investigating...

Book 1: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's/Sorcerer's Stone

"

"Oh, are you a prefect, Percy? You should have said something, we had no idea."
"Hang on I think I remember him saying something about it, once..."
"Or twice-"
"A minute-"
"All summer-"

------------------------------------------

"So light a fire!" Harry choked.
"Yes...of course...but there's no wood!" Hermione cried, wringing her hands.
"HAVE YOU GONE MAD!" Ron bellowed. "ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT!

------------------------------------------

Everybody finished the song at different times. At last, only the Weasley twins were left singing along to a very slow funeral march.

------------------------------------------

Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small watery blue eyes, and thick blonde hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head. Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel. Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.

------------------------------------------

Lee Jordan was finding it difficult not to take sides.
"So-after that obvious and disgusting bit of cheating-"
"Jordan!" growled Professor McGonagall.
"I mean, after that open and revolting foul-"
"Jordan, I'm warning you-"
"All right, all right. Flint nearly kills the Gryffindor Seeker, which could happen to anyone, I'm sure..."

------------------------------------------

"They stuff people's heads down the toilet the first day at Stonewall," [Dudley] told Harry. "Want to come upstairs and practice?"
"No, thanks," said Harry. "The poor toilet's never had anything as horrible as your head down it — it might be sick."

------------------------------------------

"You haven't got a letter on yours", George observed. "I suppose she [Mrs.Weasley] thinks you don't forget your name. But we're not stupid - we know we're called Gred and Forge."

------------------------------------------

"Sir — Professor Dumbledore? Can I ask you something?"
"Obviously, you’ve just done so," Dumbledore smiled. “You may ask me one more thing, however."
"What do you see when you look in the mirror?"
"I? I see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks."
Harry stared.
"One can never have enough socks. Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn’t get a single pair. People will insist on giving me books."

------------------------------------------

"Fred, you next," the plump woman said.
"I'm not Fred, I'm George," said the boy. "Honestly, woman, you call yourself our mother? Can't you tell I'm George?"

------------------------------------------

"And what if I wave my wand and nothing happens?" [Harry]
"Throw it away and punch him in the nose," suggested Ron.

------------------------------------------

One morning in mid-December, Hogwarts woke to find itself covered in several feet of snow. The lake froze solid and the Weasley twins were punished for bewitching several snowballs so that they followed Quirrell around, bouncing off the back of his turban.

------------------------------------------

"So you mean the Stone's only safe as long as Quirrell stands up to Snape?" said Hermione in alarm.
"It'll be gone by next Tuesday," said Ron.

------------------------------------------

"Now, you two - Behave yourselves. If I get one word that you've blown up a toilet or - " [Mrs. Weasley]
"Blown up a toilet? We've never blown up a toilet."
"Great idea though, thanks, Mum."

------------------------------------------

Speaking quietly so that no one else would hear, Harry told the other two about Snape's sudden, sinister desire to be a Quidditch referee.
"Don't play," said Hermione at once.
"Say you're ill," said Ron.
"Pretend to break your leg," Hermione suggested.
"Really break your leg," said Ron.

------------------------------------------

"See?" said Hermione, when Harry and Ron had finished. "The dog must be guarding Flamel's Sorcerer's Stone! I bet he asked Dumbledore to keep it safe for him, because they're friends and he knew someone was after it, that's why he wanted the Stone moved out of Gringotts!"
"A stone that makes gold and stops you from ever dying!" said Harry. "No wonder Snape's after it! Anyone would want it."
"And no wonder we couldn't find Flamel in that Study of Recent Developments in Wizardry," said Ron. "He's not exactly recent if he's six hundred and sixty-five, is he?"

-----------------------------------------

Harry left the locker room alone some time later, to take his Nimbus Two Thousand back to the broomshed. He couldn't ever remember feeling happier. He'd really done something to be proud of now - no one could say he was just a famous name any more. The evening air had never smelled so sweet. He walked over the damp grass, reliving the last hour in his head, which was a happy blur: Gryffindors running to lift him onto their shoulders; Ron and Hermione in the distance, jumping up and down, Ron cheering through a heavy nosebleed.

-----------------------------------------

"It bit me!" he said, showing them his hand, which was wrapped in a bloody handkerchief.
"I'm not going to be able to hold a quill for a week. I tell you, that dragon's the most horrible animal I've ever met, but the way Hagrid goes on about it, you'd think it was a fluffy little bunny rabbit. When it bit me he told me off for frightening it. And when I left, he was singing it a lullaby."

-----------------------------------------

"Your aunt and uncle will be proud, though, won't they?" said Hermione as they got off the train and joined the crowd thronging toward the enchanted barrier. "When they hear what you did this year?"
"Proud?" said Harry. "Are you crazy? All those times I could've died, and I didn't manage it? They'll be furious..."

-----------------------------------------

"There was a horrible smell in the kitchen next morning when Harry went for breakfast. It seemed to be coming from a large metal tub in the sink. He went to have a look. The tub was full of what looked like dirty rags swimming in grey water.
"What's this?" he asked Petunia.
"Your new school uniform," she said.
"Oh," he said. "I didn't realise it had to be so wet."

-----------------------------------------

Book 2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

 

Fred and George, however, found all this very funny. They went out of their way to march ahead of Harry down the corridors, shouting, "Make way for the Heir of Slytherin, seriously evil wizard coming through..."

------------------------------------------

Harry learned quickly not to feel to sorry for the gnomes. He decided to just drop the first one just over the hedge, but the gnome, sensing weakness, sank his razor sharp teeth into Harry's finger and he had a hard job shaking it off until -
"Wow, Harry - that must have been fifty feet!"

------------------------------------------

"You're alive," she said blankly to Harry.
"There's no need to sound so disappointed," he said grimly, wiping flecks of blood and slime off his glasses.
"Oh, well...I'd just been thinking...if you had died, you'd have been welcome to share my toilet," said Myrtle, blushing silver.

------------------------------------------

"A Study of Hogwarts' Prefects and Their Later Careers," Ron read aloud off the back cover. "That sounds fascinating."

------------------------------------------

Hermione, however, clapped a hand to her forehead. "Harry -- I think I've just understood something! I've got to go to the library!" And she sprinted away, up the stairs.
"What does she understand?" said Harry distractedly, still looking around, trying to tell where the voice had come from.
"Loads more than I do." said Ron, shaking his head.
"But why's she got to go to the library?"
"Because that's what Hermione does," said Ron, shrugging. "When in doubt, go to the library."

------------------------------------------

Warlock D. J. Prod of Didsbury says: "My wife used to sneer at my feeble charms, but one month into your fabulous Kwikspell course and I succeeded in turning her into a yak! Thank you, Kwikspell!"

------------------------------------------

"Do I look stupid?" snarled Uncle Vernon, a bit of fried egg dangling from his bushy mustache.

------------------------------------------

They were almost at King's Cross when Harry remembered something.
"Ginny--what did you see Percy doing, that he didn't want you to tell anyone?"
"Oh that," said Ginny, giggling. "Well--Percy's got a girlfriend."
Fred dropped a stack of books on George's head. "What?"
"It's that Ravenclaw prefect, Penelope Clearwater," said Ginny. "That's who he was writing to all last summer. He's been meeting her all over the school in secret. I walked in on them kissing in an empty classroom one day. He was so upest when she was--you know--attacked. You won't tease him, will you?" she added anxiously.
"Wouldn't dream of it," said Fred, who was looking like his birthday had come early.
"Definitely not," said George, sniggering.

----------------------------------------

 

Book 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

George looked up in time to see Malfoy pretending to faint with terror again.
"That little git," he said calmly. "He wasn't so cocky last night when the dementors were down our end of the train. Came running into our compartment, didn't he, Fred?"
"Nearly wet himself," said Fred, with a contemptuous glance at Malfoy.

------------------------------------------

Percy had what were possibly the least helpful words of comfort.
"They make a fuss about Hogsmeade, but I assure you, Harry, it's not all it's cracked up to be," he said seriously. "All right, the sweetshop's rather good, and Zonko's Joke Shop's frankly dangerous, and yes, the Shrieking Shack is always worth a visit, but really, Harry, apart from that, you're not missing anything."

------------------------------------------

As though an invisible hand were writing upon it, words appeared on the smooth surface of the map. "Mr. Moony presents his compliments to Professor Snape, and begs him to keep his abnormally large nose out of other people's business."
Snape froze. Harry stared, dumbstruck, at the message. But the map didn't stop there. More writing was appearing beneath the first.
"Mr. Prongs agrees with Mr. Moony, and would like to add that Professor Snape is an ugly git."
It would have been funny if the situation hadn't been so serious. And there was more...
"Mr. Padfoot would like to register his astonishment that an idiot like that ever became a professor."
Harry closed his eyes in horror. When he'd opened them, the map had had its last word.
"Mr. Wormtail bids Professor Snape good day, and advises him to wash his hair, the slimeball."

------------------------------------------

Ron was staring at Pettigrew with the utmost revulsion.
"I let you sleep in my bed!" he said.

------------------------------------------

"Sure you can manage that broom, Potter?" said a cold, drawling voice.
Draco Malfoy had arrived for a closer look, Crabbe and Goyle right behind him.
"Yeah, reckon so," said Harry casually.
"Got plenty of special features, hasn't it?" said Malfoy, eyes glittering maliciously. "Shame it doesn't come with a parachute - in case you get too near a Dementor."
Crabbe and Goyle sniggered.
"Pity you can't attach an extra arm to yours, Malfoy," said Harry. "Then it could catch the Snitch for you."

------------------------------------------

"Well...when we were in our first year, Harry-young, carefree, and innocent-"
Harry snorted. He doubted whether Fred and George had ever been innocent.

------------------------------------------

(Harry, just being greeted by Percy) "Harry!" said Fred, elbowing Percy out of the way and bowing deeply. "Simply splendid to see you, old boy-"
"Marvelous," said George, pushing Fred aside and seizing Harry's hand in turn. "Absolutely spiffing." Percy scowled.
"That's enough, now," said Mrs. Weasley.
"Mum!" said Fred as though he'd only just spotted her and seized her hand too. "How really corking to see you-"

------------------------------------------

Trelawney: "Would anyone like me to help interpret the shadowy realms within their orb?"
Ron: "I don't need help, it's obvious what this means: there's going to be loads of fog tonight."

------------------------------------------

"How're we getting to King's Cross tomorrow, Dad?" asked Fred as they dug into a sumptuous pudding.
"The Ministry's providing a couple of cars," said Mr. Weasley.
Everyone looked up at him.
"Why?" said Percy curiously.
"It's because of you, Perce," said George seriously. "And there'll be little flags on the hoods, with HB on them-"
"-for Humongous Bighead," said Fred.

------------------------------------------

"Where is Wood?" said Harry, suddenly realizing he wasn't there.
"Still in the showers," said Fred. "We think he's trying to drown himself."

------------------------------------------

"Professor Dumbledore - yesterday, when I was having my Divination exam, Professor Trelawney went very - very strange."
"Indeed?" said Dumbledore. "Er - stranger than usual, you mean?"

------------------------------------------

 

Book 4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

 

"I told you!" Ron hissed at Hermione as she stared down the article. "I told you not to annoy Rita Skeeter! She's made you out to be some sort of - scarlet woman!"
Hermione stopped looking astonished and snorted with laughter. "Scarlet woman?" she repeated, shaking with surprised giggles as she looked around at Ron.
"It's what my mum calls them," Ron muttered, his ears going red.

------------------------------------------

"Yeah, someone might slip dragon dung in it again, eh, Perce?" said Fred.
"That was a sample of fertilizer from Norway!" said Percy, going very red in the face. "It was nothing personal!"
"It was," Fred whispered to Harry as they got up from the table. "We sent it."

------------------------------------------

Dudley had done the thing he was threatening to do since age three: He had become wider than he was tall.

------------------------------------------

One of them was a very old wizard who was wearing a long flowery nightgown. The other was clearly a Ministry wizard; he was holding out a pair of pinstriped trousers and almost crying with exasperation.
"Just put them on, Archie, there's a good chap. You can't walk around like that, the Muggle at the gate's already getting suspicious-"
"I bought this in a Muggle shop," said the old wizard stubbornly. "Muggles wear them."
"Muggle women wear them, Archie, not the men, they wear these," said the Ministry wizard, and he brandished the pinstriped trousers.
"I'm not putting them on," said old Archie in indignation. "I like a healthy breeze 'round my privates, thanks."

------------------------------------------

"Mad-Eye Moody?" said George thoughtfully, spreading marmalade on his toast. "Isn't he that nutter-"
"Your father thinks very highly of Mad-Eye Moody," said Mrs. Weasley sternly.
"Yeah, well, Dad collects plugs, doesn't he?" said Fred quietly as Mrs. Weasley left the room. "Birds of a feather..."

------------------------------------------

"OH NO YOU DON'T, LADDIE!"
Harry spun around. Professor Moody was limping down the marble staircase. His wand was out and it was pointing right at a pure white ferret.
"I want to fix that in my memory forever," said Ron, his closed and an uplifted expression on his face. "Draco Malfoy, the amazing bouncing ferret..."

------------------------------------------

"Don't be prat, Neville, that's illegal," said George. "They wouldn't use the Cruciatus Curse on the champions. I thought it sounded a bit like Percy singing... maybe you've got to attack him while he's in the shower, Harry."

------------------------------------------

"Enjoying it?" said Ron darkly. "I don't reckon he'd come home if Dad didn't make him. He's obsessed. Just don't get him onto the subject of his boss. 'According to Mr. Crouch...as I was saying to Mr. Crouch...Mr. Crouch is of the opinion...Mr. Crouch was telling me...' They'll be announcing their engagement any day now."

------------------------------------------

Ron: "Who're you going with then?"
Fred: "Angelina."
Ron: "What? You've already asked her?"
Fred: "Good point. Oi, Angelina! Want to come to the ball with me?"

------------------------------------------

Ron: "I could've taken those mer-idiots any time I wanted."
Hermione: "What were you going to do, snore at them?"

------------------------------------------

[Harry considering whom to tell that his scar hurt] As far as informing the headmaster, Harry had no idea where Dumbledore went during the summer holidays. He amused himself for a moment, picturing Dumbledore, with his long silver beard, full-length wizard's robes, and pointed hat, stretched out on a beach somewhere, rubbing suntan lotion onto his long crooked nose.

------------------------------------------

(Harry, reading Ron's letter) ...Thought I'd send this with Pig anyway.
Harry stared at the word "Pig," and looked up at the tiny owl now fluttering around the light fixture on the ceiling. He had never seen anything that looked less like a pig.

------------------------------------------

"I've got two Neptunes here," said Harry after a while, frowning down at his piece of parchment, "that can't be right, can it?"
"Aaaaah," said Ron, imitating Professor Trelawney's mystical whisper, "when two Neptunes appear in the sky, it is a sure sign that a midget in glasses is being born, Harry..."

------------------------------------------

He therefore had to endure over an hour of Professor Trelawney, who spent half the lesson telling everyone that the position of Mars with relation to Saturn at that moment meant that people born in July were in great danger of sudden, violent deaths. "Well, that's good," said Harry loudly, his temper getting the better of him, "just as long as it's not drawn out. I don't want to suffer."

------------------------------------------

"Excuse me, I don't like people just because they're handsome!" said Hermione indignantly.
Ron gave a loud false cough, which sounded oddly like "Lockhart!"

------------------------------------------

"Oh, am I?" said Ron peering down at his predictions. "I'd better change one of them to getting trampled by a rampaging Hippogriff."
"Don't you think it's a bit obvious you've made these up?" said Hermione.
"How dare you!" said Ron in mock outrage. "We've been working like house-elves here!"

------------------------------------------

"Oh Professor look! I think I found an unaspected planet! Oooh, which one's that, Professor?"
"It is Uranus, my dear," said Professor Trelawney peering down a the chart.
"Can I have a look at Uranus too, Lavender?" said Ron.

------------------------------------------

"Mr. Weasley, it's Harry.. the fireplace has been blocked up. You won't be able to get through there."
"Damn!" said Mr. Weasley's voice. "What on earth did they want to block the fireplace for?"
"They've got an electric fire," Harry explained.
"Really?" said Mr. Weasley's voice excitedly. "Eclectic, you say? With a plug? Gracious, I must see that... Let's think...ouch, Ron!"
Ron's voice now joined the others'.
"What are we doing here? Has something gone wrong?"
"Oh no, Ron," came Fred's voice, very sarcastically. "No, this is exactly where we want to end up."
"Yeah, we're having the time of our lives here," said George, whose voice sounded muffled, as though he was squashed against the wall.

------------------------------------------

"Why weren't you two at dinner?" she [Hermione] said, coming over to join them.
"Because - oh shut up laughing, you two - because they've both just been turned down by girls they asked to the ball!" said Ginny.
That shut Harry and Ron up.
"Thanks a bunch, Ginny," said Ron sourly.
"All the good-looking ones taken, Ron?" said Hermione loftily. "Eloise Midgen starting to look quite pretty now, is she? Well, I'm sure you'll find someone somewhere who'll have you."
But Ron was staring at Hermione as though suddenly seeing her in a whole new light.
"Hermione, Neville's right - you are a girl..."
"Oh well spotted," she said acidly.
"Well - you can come with one of us!"
"No, I can't," snapped Hermione.
"Oh come on," he said impatiently, "we need partners, we're going to look really stupid if we haven't got any, everyone else has..."
"I can't come with you," said Hermione, now blushing, "because I'm already going with someone."
"No, you're not!" said Ron. "You just said that to get rid of Neville!"
"Oh, did I?" said Hermione, and her eyes flashed dangerously. "Just because it's taken you three years to notice, Ron, doesn't mean no one else has spotted I'm a girl!"

------------------------------------------

"Wild!" he said, twiddling the replay knob on the side. I can make that old bloke down there pick his nose again ... and again ... and again. . ."

------------------------------------------

"I was saying that Saturn was surely in a position of power in the heavens at the moment of your birth...your dark hair...your mean stature...tragic losses so young in life...I think I am right in saying, my dear, that you were born in midwinter?"
"No," said Harry, "I was born in July."
Ron hastily turned his laugh into a hacking cough.

------------------------------------------

"Of course we still want to know you!" Harry said, staring at Hagrid.
"You don't think anything that Skeeter cow - sorry, Professor," he added quickly, looking at Dumbledore.
"I have gone temporarily deaf and haven't any idea what you said, Harry," said Dumbledore, twiddling his thumbs and staring at the ceiling.

------------------------------------------

"What are you working on?" said Harry.
"A report for the Department of International Magical Cooperation," said Percy smugly. "We're trying to standardize cauldron thickness. Some of these foreign imports are just a shade too thin - leakages have been increasing at a rate of almost three percent a year--"
"That'll change the world, that report will," said Ron. "Front page of the Daily Prophet, I expect, cauldron leaks."

------------------------------------------

"Mr. Crouch?" said Percy, suddenly abandoning his look of poker-stiff disapproval and positively writhing with excitement. "He speaks over two hundred! Mermish and Gobbledegook and Troll..."
"Anyone can speak Troll," said Fred dismissively. "All you have to do is point and grunt."

------------------------------------------

"Mr. Crouch!" said Percy breathlessly, sunk into a kind of half-bow that made him look like a hunchback. "Would you like a cup of tea?"
"Oh," said Mr. Crouch, looking over at Percy in mild surprise. "Yes — thank you, Weatherby."
Fred and George choked into their own cups. Percy, very pink around the ears, busied himself with the kettle.

------------------------------------------

"You’re not by any chance writing out a new order form, are you?" said Mrs. Weasley shrewdly. "You wouldn’t be thinking of restarting Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes, by any chance?"
"Now, Mum," said Fred, looking up at her, a pained look on his face. "If the Hogwarts Express crashed tomorrow, and George and I died, how would you feel to know that the last thing we ever heard from you was an unfounded accusation?"

------------------------------------------

"But I think Durmstrang must be somewhere in the far north," said Hermione thoughtfully. "Somewhere very cold, because they’ve got fur capes as part of their uniforms."
"Ah think of the possibilities," said Ron dreamily. "It would’ve been so easy to push Malfoy off a glacier and make it look like an accident... Shame his mother likes him..."

------------------------------------------

"Harry’s got a long way to go before he finishes this tournament," she [Hermione] said seriously. "If that was the first task, I hate to think what’s coming next."
"Right little ray of sunshine, aren’t you?" said Ron. "You and Professor Trelawney should get together sometime."

------------------------------------------

"You’re joking, Weasley!" said Malfoy, behind them. "You’re not telling me someone’s asked that to the ball? Not the long-molared Mudblood?"
Harry and Ron both whipped round, but Hermione said loudly, waving to somebody over Malfoy’s shoulder, "Hello, Professor Moody!"
Malfoy went pale and jumped backward, looking wildly around for Moody, but he was still up at the staff table, finishing his stew.
"Twitchy little ferret, aren’t you, Malfoy?" said Hermione scathingly, and she, Harry, and Ron went up the marble staircase laughing heartily.

------------------------------------------

"Colin, I fell in!" he [Dennis Creevey] said shrilly, throwing himself into an empty seat. "It was brilliant! And something in the water grabbed me and pushed me back in the boat!"
"Cool!" said Colin, just as excitedly. "It was probably the giant squid, Dennis!"
"Wow!" said Dennis, as though nobody in their wildest dreams could hope for more than being thrown into a storm-tossed, fathoms-deep lake, and pushed out of it again by a giant sea monster.

------------------------------------------

"He's not even good-looking!" she [Hermione] muttered angrily, glaring at Krum's sharp profile. "They only like him because he's famous! They wouldn't look twice at him if he couldn't do that Wonky-Faint thing - "
"Wronski Feint," said Harry, through gritted teeth. Quite apart from liking to get Quidditch terms correct, it caused him another pang to imagine Ron's expression if he could have heard Hermione talking about Wonky-Faints.

------------------------------------------

"Maybe he'll believe I'm not enjoying myself once I've got my neck broken or - "
"That's not funny," said Hermione quietly. "That's not funny at all." She looked extremely anxious. "Harry, I've been thinking - you know what we've got to do, don't you? Straight away, the moment we get back to the castle?"
"Yeah, give Ron a good kick up the - "
"Write to Sirius."

------------------------------------------

 

Book 5: Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix

 

A week after Fred and George's departure, Harry witnessed Professor McGonagall walking right past Peeves, who was determinedly loosening a crystal chandelier, and could have sworn he heard her tell the poltergeist out of the corner of her mouth, "It unscrews the other way."

------------------------------------------

"Well, we were always going to fail that one," said Ron gloomily as they ascended the marble staircase. He had just made Harry feel rather better by telling him how he told the examiner in detail about the ugly man with a wart on his nose in the crystal ball, only to look up an realize he had been describing the examiner's reflection.

------------------------------------------

"How long have you been 'Big D' then?" said Harry.
"Shut it," snarled Dudley, turning away again.
"Cool name," said Harry, grinning, "but you'll always
be Ickle Diddykins to me."
"Shut your face."
"You don't tell her to shut her face. What about 'popkin' and 'Dinky Diddydums,' can I use them then?"

------------------------------------------

"Who's Kreacher?"
"The house-elf who lives here," said Ron. "Nutter. Never met one like him."
"He is not a nutter," said Hermione.
"His life's ambition is to have his head cut off and stuck up on a plaque like his mother," said Ron. "Is that normal, Hermione?"

------------------------------------------

(After Lupin goes through a list of all the things they've done to discredit Dumbledore) "But Dumbledore says he doesn't care what they do as long as they don't take him off the Chocolate Frog Cards," said Bill, grinning.

------------------------------------------

"Ah," said Fudge, who looked thoroughly disconcerted. "Dumbledore. Yes. You, er, got our - er - message that the time and - er - place of the hearing had been changed, then?"
"I must have missed it," said Dumbledore cheerfully. "However, due to a lucky mistake I arrived at the Ministry three hours early, so no harm done."
"Yes - well - I suppose we'll need another chair - I - Weasley, could you--?"
"Not to worry, not to worry," said Dumbledore pleasantly; he took out his wand, gave it a little flick, and a squishy chintz armchair appeared out of nowhere next to Harry. Dumbledore sat down, put the tips of his long fingers together and surveyed Fudge over them with an expression of polite interest.

------------------------------------------

"Well, I had one that I was playing Quidditch the other night," said Ron, screwing up his face in an effort to remember. "What do you think that means?"
"Probably that you're going to be eaten by a giant marshmallow or something," said Harry, turning the pages of The Dream Oracle without interest.

------------------------------------------

"Er - thanks very much, Ernie," said Harry, taken aback. Ernie might be pompous on occasions like these, but Harry was in a mood to deeply appreciate a vote of confidence from somebody who was not wearing radishes in their ears.

------------------------------------------

"The hats have gone," Hermione said happily. "Seems the house-elves do want freedom after all."
"I wouldn't bet on it," Ron told her cuttingly. "They might not count as clothes. They didn't look anything like hats to me, more like woolly bladders."

------------------------------------------

"Are you trying to weasel out of showing us any of this stuff?" said Zacharias Smith.
"Here's an idea," said Ron loudly, "why don't you shut your mouth?"
"Well, we've all turned up to learn from him and now he's telling us he can't really do any of it," he said.
"That's not what he said," said Fred Weasley.
"Would you like us to clean out your ears for you?" inquired George, pulling a long and lethal-looking metal instrument from inside one of the Zonko's bags.
"Or any part of your body, really, we're not fussy where we stick this," said Fred.

------------------------------------------

"What's up with you, Hermione?"
She was gazing out the window, but not as though she really saw it. Her eyes were unfocused and there was a frown on her face.
"Just thinking..." she said, still frowning.
"About Siri-"
"Snuffles?" said Harry.
"No...not exactly..." said Hermione slowly. "More...wondering...I suppose we're doing the right thing...I think....aren't we?"
Harry and Ron looked at each other.
"Well, that clears that up," said Ron. "It would have been really annoying if you hadn't explained yourself properly."

------------------------------------------

"- but you get these massive pus-filled boils too," said George, "and we haven't worked out how to get rid of them yet."
"I can't see any boils," said Ron, staring at the twins.
"No, well, you wouldn't," said Fred, "they're not in a place we generally display to the public-"
"-but they make sitting on a broom a right pain in the-"
Fred and George were looking particularly annoyed; both were bandy-legged and winced with every movement. "I think a few of mine have ruptured," said Fred in a hollow voice.
"Mine haven't," said George, through clenched teeth. "They're throbbing like mad...feel bigger if anything..."

------------------------------------------

They were so busy that Hermione had stopped knitting elf hats and was fretting that she was down to her last three. "All those poor elves I haven't set free yet, having to stay over during Christmas because there aren't enough hats!"

------------------------------------------

A slightly stunned silence greeted the end of this speech, then Ron said, "One person can't feel all that at once, they'd explode."
"Just because you've got the emotional range of a teaspoon doesn't mean we all have," said Hermione.

------------------------------------------

Rita stared at her. So did Harry. Luna, on the other hand, sang "Weasley is our King" dreamily under her breath and stirred her drink with a cocktail onion on a stick.

------------------------------------------

As they climbed the staircase, the photos of various Healers called out to them, diagnosing odd complaints and suggesting horrible remedies. Ron was seriously affronted when a medieval wizard called out that he clearly had a bad case of spattergroit.
"And what's that supposed to be?" he asked angrily, as the Healer pursued him through six more portraits, shoving the occupants out of the way.
"'Tis a most grievous affliction of the skin, young master, that will leave you pockmarked and more gruesome even than you are now-"
"Watch who you're calling gruesome!" said Ron, his ears turning red.
"The only remedy is to take the liver of a toad, bind it tight about your throat, stand naked by the full moon in a barrel of eels' eyes-"
"I have not got spattergroit!"
"But the unsightly blemishes on your visage, young master-"
"They're freckles!" said Ron furiously. "Now get back in your own picture and leave me alone!"
He rounded on the others, who were all keeping determinedly straight faces.

------------------------------------------

"Yeah, Montague tried to do us during break," said George.
"What do you mean, 'tried'?" said Ron quickly.
"He never managed to get all the words out," said Fred, "due to the fact that we forced him headfirst into that Vanishing Cabinet on the first floor."
Hermione looked very shocked. "But you'll get into terrible trouble!"
"Not until Montague reappears, and that could take weeks, I dunno where we sent him," said Fred coolly. "Anyway, we've decided that we don't care about getting into trouble anymore."
"Have you ever?" asked Hermione.
"'Course we have," said George. "Never been expelled, have we?"
"We might have put a toe across occasionally," said Fred.
"But we've always stopped short of causing real mayhem," said Fred.
"But now?" said Ron tentatively.
"-what with Dumbledore gone-" said Fred.
"-we reckon a bit of mayhem-" said George.
"-is exactly what our dear new Head deserves," said Fred.

------------------------------------------

"Cheers," whispered George, wiping tears of laughter from his face. "Oh, I hope she tries Vanishing them next...they multiply by ten every time you try..."
The fireworks continued to burn and spread all over the school that afternoon. Though they caused plenty of disruption, the other teachers did not seem to mind them very much.
"Dear, dear," said Professor McGonagall sardonically, as one of the dragons soared around her classroom, emitting loud bangs and exhaling flame. "Miss Brown, would you mind running along to the headmistress and informing her that we have an escaped firework in our classroom?"
"Thank you so much, Professor!" said Professor Flitwick in his squeaky little voice. "I could have got rid of the sparklers myself, of course, but I wasn't sure whether I had the authority..."
Beaming, he closed the classroom door in Umbridge's snarling face.

------------------------------------------

"How'd the exam go, Snivelly?" said James.
"I was watching him, his nose was touching the parchment," said Sirius viciously. "There'll be great grease marks all over it, they won't be able to read a word."

------------------------------------------

"You two," she went on, gazing down at Fred and George, "are about to learn what happens to wrongdoers in my school."
"You know what?" said Fred. "I don't think we are."
He turned to his twin.
"George," said Fred, "I think we've outgrown a full-time education."
"Yeah, I've been feeling that way myself," said George lightly.
"Time to test our talents in the real world, d'you reckon?" asked Fred.
"Definitely," said George.
And before Umbridge could say a word, they raised their wants and said together, "Accio Brooms!"
Harry heard a loud crash somewhere in the distance. Looking to his left he ducked just in time -- Fred and George's broomsticks, one still trailing the heavy chain and iron peg with which Umbridge had fastened them to the wall, were hurtling along the corridor toward their owners. They turned left, streaked down the stairs, and stopped sharply in front of the twins, the chain clattering loudly on the flagged stone floor.
"We won't be seeing you," Fred told Professor Umbridge, swinging his leg over his broomstick.
"Yeah, don't bother to keep in touch," said George, mounting his own.
Fred looked around at the assembled students, and at the silent, watchful crowd.
"If anybody fancies buying a Portable Swamp, as demonstrated upstairs, come to number ninety-three Diagon Alley - Weasley's Wizard Wheezes," he said in a loud voice. "Our new premises!"
"Special discounts to Hogwarts students who swear they're going to use our products to get rid of this old bat," said George, pointing at Professor Umbridge.
"STOP THEM!" shrieked Umbridge, but it was too late. As the Inquisitorial Squad closed in, Fred and George kicked off from the floor, shooting fifteen feet into the air, the iron peg swinging dangerously below. Fred looked across the hall at the poltergeist bobbing on his level above the crowd.
"Give her hell from us, Peeves."
And Peeves, whom Harry had never seen take an order from a student before, swept his belled hat from his head and sprang to a salute as Fred and George wheeled about to tumultuous applause from the students below and sped out of the open front doors into the glorious sunset.

------------------------------------------

By the time Ernie MacMillan, Hannah Abbott, Susan Bones, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Anthony Goldstein, and Terry Boot had finished using a wide variety of the hexes and jinxes Harry had taught them, Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle resembled nothing so much as three gigantic slugs squeezed into Hogwarts uniforms as Harry, Ernie, and Justin hoisted them into the luggage rack and left them there to ooze.
"I must say, I'm looking forward to seeing Malfoy's mother's face when he gets off the train," said Ernie with satisfaction.
"Goyle's mum'll be really pleased, though," said Ron. "He's loads better looking now."

------------------------------------------

"And do I look like the kind of man that can be intimidated?" barked Uncle Vernon.
"Well..." said Moody, pushing back his bowler hat to reveal his sinisterly revolving eye. Uncle Vernon lept backward in horror and collided painfully with a luggage trolley. "Yes, I'd have to say you do, Dursley."

------------------------------------------

"Didn't you listen to Dolores Umbridge's speech at the start-of-term feast, Potter?"
"Yeah," said Harry. "Yeah...she said...progress will be prohibited or...well, it meant that...that the Ministry of Magic is trying to interfere at Hogwarts."
"Well, I'm glad you listen to Hermione Granger at any rate."

------------------------------------------

Hermione drew herself to her full height; her eyes were narrowed and her hair seemed to crackle with electricity. "No," she said, her voice quivering with anger, "but I will write to your mother."
"You wouldn't," said George, horrified, taking a step back from her.
"Oh, yes, I would," said Hermione grimly. "I can't stop you from eating the stupid things yourself, but you're not giving them to first years."
Fred and George looked thunderstruck. It was clear that as far as they were concerned, Hermione's threat was way below the belt.

------------------------------------------

"Has Ron saved a goal yet?" asked Hermione.
"Well, he can do it if he thinks no one is watching him," said Fred, rolling his eyes. "So all we have to do is ask the crowd to turn their backs and talk among themselves every time the Quaffle goes up on his end Saturday."

------------------------------------------

Weasley cannot save a thing,
He cannot block a single ring,
That's why Slytherins all sing:
Weasley is our King.

Weasley was born in a bin,
He always lets the Quaffle in,
Weasley will make sure we win,
Weasley is our King.

------------------------------------------

"The headmistress would like to see you, Potter," [Filch] leered.
"I didn't do it," said Harry stupidly, thinking of whatever Fred and George were planning.
Filch's jowls wobbled with silent laughter. "Guilty conscience eh?" he wheezed.
"Follow me...."

------------------------------------------

"I'll give you undercover!" cried Mrs. Figg. "Dementors, you useless, skiving sneak thief!"
"Dementors?" repeated Mundungus, aghast. "Dementors here?"
"Yes, here, you worthless pile of bat droppings, here!" shrieked Mrs. Figg.

------------------------------------------

"Not this brave at night, are you?" sneered Dudley.
"This is night, Diddykins. That's what we call it when it goes all dark like this."

------------------------------------------

"I'll make Goyle do lines, it'll kill him, he hates writing," said Ron happily. He lowered his voice to Goyle's low grunt, and, screwing up his face in a look of pained concentration, mimed writing in midair.
"I...must...not...look...like...a...baboon's...backside..."

------------------------------------------

"Is Bill here?" he (Harry) asked. "I thought he was working in Egypt."
"He applied for a desk job so he could home and work for the Order," said Fred. "He says he misses the tombs, but," he smirked. "there are compensations..."
"What d'you mean?"
"Remember old Fleur Delacour?" said George. "She's got a job at Gringotts to eemprove 'er Eeenglish-"
"-and Bill's been giving her a lot of private lessons," sniggered Fred.

------------------------------------------

Malfoy glanced around. Harry knew he was checking for signs of teachers. Then he looked back at Harry and said in a low voice, "You're dead, Potter."
Harry raised his eyebrows. "Funny," he said, "you'd think I'd have stopped walking around..."

------------------------------------------

Draco: "You see, I, unlike you, have been made a prefect, which means that I, unlike you, have the power to hand out punishments."
"Yeah," said Harry, "but you, unlike me, are a git."

------------------------------------------

Harry looked up at Ron. "Well," he said, trying to sound as though he found this whole thing a joke, "if you want to - er - what is it?" He checked Percy's letter. "Oh yeah - 'sever ties' with me, I swear I won't get violent."
"Give it back," said Ron, holding out his hand.
"He is - " Ron said jerkily, tearing Percy's letter in half, "the world's" - He tore it into quarters - "biggest" - He tore it into eighths - "git." He threw the pieces into the fire.
"Come on, we've got to finish this essay sometime before dawn," he said briskly to Harry, pulling Professor Sinistra's essay back toward him.
Hermione was looking at Ron with an odd expression on her face.
"Oh, give them here," she said abruptly.
"What?" said Ron.
"Give them to me, I'll look through them and correct them," she said.
"Are you serious? Ah, Hermione, you're a lifesaver," said Ron, "what can I - ?"
"What you can say is, 'We promise we'll never leave our homework this late again,' " she said, holding out both hands for their essays, but she looked slightly amused all the same.
"Thanks a million, Hermione," said Harry weakly, passing over his essay, and sinking back into his armchair, rubbing his eyes.
...(Later on) "Okay, write that down," Hermione said to Ron, pushing his essay and a sheet covered in her own writing back to Ron, "and then copy out this conclusion that I've written for you."
"Hermione, you are honestly the most wonderful person I have ever met," said Ron weakly, "and if I'm ever rude to you again - "
" - I'll know you're back to normal," said Hermione.

------------------------------------------

Dudley: "He [Mark Evans] cheeked me."
Harry: "Yeah? Did he say you look like a pig that's been taught to walk on its hind legs? 'Cause that's not cheek, Dud, that's true."

------------------------------------------

"Keep your 'airnet on!" said Mundungus, his arms over his head, cowering. "I'm going, I'm going!" And with another loud CRACK, he vanished.
"I hope Dumbledore MURDERS him!" said Mrs Figg furiously. "Now come ON, Harry, what are you waiting for?"
Harry decided not to waste his remaining breath on pointing out that he could barely walk under Dudley's bulk.

------------------------------------------

"Don't put your wand there, boy!" roared Moody. "What if it ignited? Better wizards than you have lost buttocks, you know!"

------------------------------------------

"Did you like question ten, Moony?" asked Sirius as they emerged into the entrance hall.
"Loved it," said Lupin briskly. "'Give five signs that identify the werewolf.' Excellent question."
"D'you think you managed to get all the signs?" said James in tones of mock concern.
"Think I did," said Lupin seriously, as they joined the crowd thronging around the front doors eager to get out into the sunlit grounds. "One: He's sitting on my chair. Two: He's wearing my clothes. Three: His name's Remus Lupin..."

------------------------------------------

Mrs. Weasley let out a shriek just like Hermione's.
"I don't believe it! Oh, Ron, how wonderful! A prefect! That's everyone in the family!"
"What are Fred and I, next-door neighbours?" said George indignantly, as his mother pushed him aside and flung her arms around her youngest son.

------------------------------------------

"It was my father's," said Sirius, throwing the ring into the sack. "Kreacher wasn't quite as devoted to him as to my mother, but I still caught him snogging a pair of my father's old trousers last week."

------------------------------------------

"Stop doing that!" Hermione said weakly to the twins, who were as vividly red-haired as Ron, though stockier and slighty shorter.
"Hello, Harry," said George, beaming at him. "We thought we heard your dulcet tones."
"You don't want to bottle up your anger like that, Harry, let it all out," said Fred, also beaming. "There might be a couple of people fifty miles away who didn't hear you."

------------------------------------------

"Yes - yes, good point, Petunia! What were you doing under our window, boy?"
"Listening to the news," said Harry in a resigned voice.
His aunt and uncle exchanged looks of outrage.
"Listening to the news! Again?"
"Well, it changes every day, you see," said Harry.

------------------------------------------

"What do you mean, I'm not brave in bed?" said Harry, completely nonplussed. "What- am I supposed to be frightened of - pillows or something?"

------------------------------------------

"We know you're up to something funny," said Aunt Petunia.
"We're not stupid, you know," said Uncle Vernon.
"Well that's news to me," said Harry, his temper rising, and before the Dursleys could call him back, he had wheeled about, crossed the front lawn, stepped over the low garden wall, and was striding off up the street.

------------------------------------------

"Lovely evening!" shouted Uncle Vernon, waving at Mrs. Number Seven, who was glaring from behind her net curtains. "Did you hear that car backfire just now? Gave Petunia and me quite a turn!"
He continued to grin in a horrible, manic way until all the curious neighbors had disappeared from their various windows, then the grin became a grimace of rage as he beckoned Harry back toward him.

-------------------------------------------

"We're not discussing anything here, it's too risky," said Moody, turning his normal eye on Harry; his magical eye remained pointing up at the ceiling. "Damn it," he added angrily, putting a hand up to the magical eye, "it keeps sticking - ever since that scum wore it - "
And with a nasty squelching sound much like a plunger being pulled from a sink, he popped out his eye.
"Mad-eye, you know that's disgusting, don't you?" said Tonks conversationally.

-------------------------------------------

"Excellent." said Lupin, looking up as Tonks and Harry entered. "We've got about a minute, I think. We should get out into the garden so we're ready. Harry, I've left a letter telling your aunt and uncle not to worry -"
"They won't," said Harry.
"That you're safe -"
"That'll just depress them."
"- and you'll see them next summer."
"Do I have to?"

-------------------------------------------

"What can I do, Molly?" said Tonks enthusiastically, bounding forward.
Mrs. Weasley hesitated, looking apprehensive.
"Er - no, it's all right, Tonks, you have a rest too, you've done enough today.
"No, no I want to help!" said Tonks brightly, knocking over a chair as she hurried toward the dresser from which Ginny was collecting cutlery.

-------------------------------------------

"We thought we'd just have a few words with you about Harry," said Mr. Weasley, still smiling.
"Yeah," growled Moody. "About how he's treated when he's at your place."
Uncle Vernon's mustache seemed to bristle with indignation. Possibly because the bowler hat gave him the entirely mistaken impression that he was dealing with a kindred spirit, he addressed himself to Moody.
"I am not aware that it is any of your business what goes on in my house--"
"I expect what you're not aware of would fill several books, Dursley," growled Moody.

-------------------------------------------

(Ron and Harry just completed the Divination O.W.L. examination and are walking down the marble staircase)
"We shouldn't have taken up that stupid subject in the first place," said Harry.
"Still, at least we can give it up now."
"Yeah," said Harry. "No more pretending we care what happens when Jupiter and Uranus get too friendly..."
"And from now on, I don't care if my tea leaves spell 'die, Ron, die' -- I'm just chucking them in the bin where they belong."

-------------------------------------------

"This is bizarre!" Harry heard Ron yell from somewhere behind him, and he imagined how it must feel to be speeding along at this height with no visible means of support..
Ron landed a short way away and toppled immediately off his thestral onto the pavement.
"Never again," he said, struggling to his feet. He made as though to stride away from his thestral, but, unable to see it, collided with its hindquarters and almost fell over again. "Never, ever again...that was the worst---"

-------------------------------------------

"I would not go that way if I were you," said Nearly Headless Nick, drifting diconcertingly through a wall just ahead of him as he walked down the passage. "Peeves is planning an amusing joke on the next person to pass the bust of Paracelsus halfway down the corridor."
"Does it involve Paracelsus falling on top of the person's head?" asked Harry.
"Funnily enough, it does," said Nick in a bored voice. "Subtelty has never been Peeve's strong point. I'm off to try and find the Bloody Baron... He might be able to put a stop to it... See you, Harry..."

--------------------------------------------

"...Little Ronnie, a prefect...Oh, I'm all of a dither!" She [Mrs. Weasley] gave Ron yet another kiss on the cheek, sniffed loudly, and bustled from the room Fred and George exchanged looks.
"You don't mind if we don't kiss you, do you, Ron?" said Fred in a falsely anxious voice.
"We could curtsy, if you like," said George. A week after Fred and George's departure, Harry witnessed Professor McGonagall walking right past Peeves, who was determinedly loosening a crystal chandelier, and could have sworn he heard her tell the poltergeist out of the corner of her mouth, "It unscrews the other way."

------------------------------------------

"Well, we were always going to fail that one," said Ron gloomily as they ascended the marble staircase. He had just made Harry feel rather better by telling him how he told the examiner in detail about the ugly man with a wart on his nose in the crystal ball, only to look up an realize he had been describing the examiner's reflection.

------------------------------------------

"How long have you been 'Big D' then?" said Harry.
"Shut it," snarled Dudley, turning away again.
"Cool name," said Harry, grinning, "but you'll always
be Ickle Diddykins to me."
"Shut your face."
"You don't tell her to shut her face. What about 'popkin' and 'Dinky Diddydums,' can I use them then?"

------------------------------------------

"Who's Kreacher?"
"The house-elf who lives here," said Ron. "Nutter. Never met one like him."
"He is not a nutter," said Hermione.
"His life's ambition is to have his head cut off and stuck up on a plaque like his mother," said Ron. "Is that normal, Hermione?"

------------------------------------------

(After Lupin goes through a list of all the things they've done to discredit Dumbledore) "But Dumbledore says he doesn't care what they do as long as they don't take him off the Chocolate Frog Cards," said Bill, grinning.

------------------------------------------

"Ah," said Fudge, who looked thoroughly disconcerted. "Dumbledore. Yes. You, er, got our - er - message that the time and - er - place of the hearing had been changed, then?"
"I must have missed it," said Dumbledore cheerfully. "However, due to a lucky mistake I arrived at the Ministry three hours early, so no harm done."
"Yes - well - I suppose we'll need another chair - I - Weasley, could you--?"
"Not to worry, not to worry," said Dumbledore pleasantly; he took out his wand, gave it a little flick, and a squishy chintz armchair appeared out of nowhere next to Harry. Dumbledore sat down, put the tips of his long fingers together and surveyed Fudge over them with an expression of polite interest.

------------------------------------------

"Well, I had one that I was playing Quidditch the other night," said Ron, screwing up his face in an effort to remember. "What do you think that means?"
"Probably that you're going to be eaten by a giant marshmallow or something," said Harry, turning the pages of The Dream Oracle without interest.

------------------------------------------

"Er - thanks very much, Ernie," said Harry, taken aback. Ernie might be pompous on occasions like these, but Harry was in a mood to deeply appreciate a vote of confidence from somebody who was not wearing radishes in their ears.

------------------------------------------

"The hats have gone," Hermione said happily. "Seems the house-elves do want freedom after all."
"I wouldn't bet on it," Ron told her cuttingly. "They might not count as clothes. They didn't look anything like hats to me, more like woolly bladders."

------------------------------------------

"Are you trying to weasel out of showing us any of this stuff?" said Zacharias Smith.
"Here's an idea," said Ron loudly, "why don't you shut your mouth?"
"Well, we've all turned up to learn from him and now he's telling us he can't really do any of it," he said.
"That's not what he said," said Fred Weasley.
"Would you like us to clean out your ears for you?" inquired George, pulling a long and lethal-looking metal instrument from inside one of the Zonko's bags.
"Or any part of your body, really, we're not fussy where we stick this," said Fred.

------------------------------------------

"What's up with you, Hermione?"
She was gazing out the window, but not as though she really saw it. Her eyes were unfocused and there was a frown on her face.
"Just thinking..." she said, still frowning.
"About Siri-"
"Snuffles?" said Harry.
"No...not exactly..." said Hermione slowly. "More...wondering...I suppose we're doing the right thing...I think....aren't we?"
Harry and Ron looked at each other.
"Well, that clears that up," said Ron. "It would have been really annoying if you hadn't explained yourself properly."

------------------------------------------

"- but you get these massive pus-filled boils too," said George, "and we haven't worked out how to get rid of them yet."
"I can't see any boils," said Ron, staring at the twins.
"No, well, you wouldn't," said Fred, "they're not in a place we generally display to the public-"
"-but they make sitting on a broom a right pain in the-"
Fred and George were looking particularly annoyed; both were bandy-legged and winced with every movement. "I think a few of mine have ruptured," said Fred in a hollow voice.
"Mine haven't," said George, through clenched teeth. "They're throbbing like mad...feel bigger if anything..."

------------------------------------------

They were so busy that Hermione had stopped knitting elf hats and was fretting that she was down to her last three. "All those poor elves I haven't set free yet, having to stay over during Christmas because there aren't enough hats!"

------------------------------------------

A slightly stunned silence greeted the end of this speech, then Ron said, "One person can't feel all that at once, they'd explode."
"Just because you've got the emotional range of a teaspoon doesn't mean we all have," said Hermione.

------------------------------------------

Rita stared at her. So did Harry. Luna, on the other hand, sang "Weasley is our King" dreamily under her breath and stirred her drink with a cocktail onion on a stick.

------------------------------------------

As they climbed the staircase, the photos of various Healers called out to them, diagnosing odd complaints and suggesting horrible remedies. Ron was seriously affronted when a medieval wizard called out that he clearly had a bad case of spattergroit.
"And what's that supposed to be?" he asked angrily, as the Healer pursued him through six more portraits, shoving the occupants out of the way.
"'Tis a most grievous affliction of the skin, young master, that will leave you pockmarked and more gruesome even than you are now-"
"Watch who you're calling gruesome!" said Ron, his ears turning red.
"The only remedy is to take the liver of a toad, bind it tight about your throat, stand naked by the full moon in a barrel of eels' eyes-"
"I have not got spattergroit!"
"But the unsightly blemishes on your visage, young master-"
"They're freckles!" said Ron furiously. "Now get back in your own picture and leave me alone!"
He rounded on the others, who were all keeping determinedly straight faces.

------------------------------------------

"Yeah, Montague tried to do us during break," said George.
"What do you mean, 'tried'?" said Ron quickly.
"He never managed to get all the words out," said Fred, "due to the fact that we forced him headfirst into that Vanishing Cabinet on the first floor."
Hermione looked very shocked. "But you'll get into terrible trouble!"
"Not until Montague reappears, and that could take weeks, I dunno where we sent him," said Fred coolly. "Anyway, we've decided that we don't care about getting into trouble anymore."
"Have you ever?" asked Hermione.
"'Course we have," said George. "Never been expelled, have we?"
"We might have put a toe across occasionally," said Fred.
"But we've always stopped short of causing real mayhem," said Fred.
"But now?" said Ron tentatively.
"-what with Dumbledore gone-" said Fred.
"-we reckon a bit of mayhem-" said George.
"-is exactly what our dear new Head deserves," said Fred.

------------------------------------------

"Cheers," whispered George, wiping tears of laughter from his face. "Oh, I hope she tries Vanishing them next...they multiply by ten every time you try..."
The fireworks continued to burn and spread all over the school that afternoon. Though they caused plenty of disruption, the other teachers did not seem to mind them very much.
"Dear, dear," said Professor McGonagall sardonically, as one of the dragons soared around her classroom, emitting loud bangs and exhaling flame. "Miss Brown, would you mind running along to the headmistress and informing her that we have an escaped firework in our classroom?"
"Thank you so much, Professor!" said Professor Flitwick in his squeaky little voice. "I could have got rid of the sparklers myself, of course, but I wasn't sure whether I had the authority..."
Beaming, he closed the classroom door in Umbridge's snarling face.

------------------------------------------

"How'd the exam go, Snivelly?" said James.
"I was watching him, his nose was touching the parchment," said Sirius viciously. "There'll be great grease marks all over it, they won't be able to read a word."

------------------------------------------

"You two," she went on, gazing down at Fred and George, "are about to learn what happens to wrongdoers in my school."
"You know what?" said Fred. "I don't think we are."
He turned to his twin.
"George," said Fred, "I think we've outgrown a full-time education."
"Yeah, I've been feeling that way myself," said George lightly.
"Time to test our talents in the real world, d'you reckon?" asked Fred.
"Definitely," said George.
And before Umbridge could say a word, they raised their wants and said together, "Accio Brooms!"
Harry heard a loud crash somewhere in the distance. Looking to his left he ducked just in time -- Fred and George's broomsticks, one still trailing the heavy chain and iron peg with which Umbridge had fastened them to the wall, were hurtling along the corridor toward their owners. They turned left, streaked down the stairs, and stopped sharply in front of the twins, the chain clattering loudly on the flagged stone floor.
"We won't be seeing you," Fred told Professor Umbridge, swinging his leg over his broomstick.
"Yeah, don't bother to keep in touch," said George, mounting his own.
Fred looked around at the assembled students, and at the silent, watchful crowd.
"If anybody fancies buying a Portable Swamp, as demonstrated upstairs, come to number ninety-three Diagon Alley - Weasley's Wizard Wheezes," he said in a loud voice. "Our new premises!"
"Special discounts to Hogwarts students who swear they're going to use our products to get rid of this old bat," said George, pointing at Professor Umbridge.
"STOP THEM!" shrieked Umbridge, but it was too late. As the Inquisitorial Squad closed in, Fred and George kicked off from the floor, shooting fifteen feet into the air, the iron peg swinging dangerously below. Fred looked across the hall at the poltergeist bobbing on his level above the crowd.
"Give her hell from us, Peeves."
And Peeves, whom Harry had never seen take an order from a student before, swept his belled hat from his head and sprang to a salute as Fred and George wheeled about to tumultuous applause from the students below and sped out of the open front doors into the glorious sunset.

------------------------------------------

By the time Ernie MacMillan, Hannah Abbott, Susan Bones, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Anthony Goldstein, and Terry Boot had finished using a wide variety of the hexes and jinxes Harry had taught them, Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle resembled nothing so much as three gigantic slugs squeezed into Hogwarts uniforms as Harry, Ernie, and Justin hoisted them into the luggage rack and left them there to ooze.
"I must say, I'm looking forward to seeing Malfoy's mother's face when he gets off the train," said Ernie with satisfaction.
"Goyle's mum'll be really pleased, though," said Ron. "He's loads better looking now."

------------------------------------------

"And do I look like the kind of man that can be intimidated?" barked Uncle Vernon.
"Well..." said Moody, pushing back his bowler hat to reveal his sinisterly revolving eye. Uncle Vernon lept backward in horror and collided painfully with a luggage trolley. "Yes, I'd have to say you do, Dursley."

------------------------------------------

"Didn't you listen to Dolores Umbridge's speech at the start-of-term feast, Potter?"
"Yeah," said Harry. "Yeah...she said...progress will be prohibited or...well, it meant that...that the Ministry of Magic is trying to interfere at Hogwarts."
"Well, I'm glad you listen to Hermione Granger at any rate."

------------------------------------------

Hermione drew herself to her full height; her eyes were narrowed and her hair seemed to crackle with electricity. "No," she said, her voice quivering with anger, "but I will write to your mother."
"You wouldn't," said George, horrified, taking a step back from her.
"Oh, yes, I would," said Hermione grimly. "I can't stop you from eating the stupid things yourself, but you're not giving them to first years."
Fred and George looked thunderstruck. It was clear that as far as they were concerned, Hermione's threat was way below the belt.

------------------------------------------

"Has Ron saved a goal yet?" asked Hermione.
"Well, he can do it if he thinks no one is watching him," said Fred, rolling his eyes. "So all we have to do is ask the crowd to turn their backs and talk among themselves every time the Quaffle goes up on his end Saturday."

------------------------------------------

Weasley cannot save a thing,
He cannot block a single ring,
That's why Slytherins all sing:
Weasley is our King.

Weasley was born in a bin,
He always lets the Quaffle in,
Weasley will make sure we win,
Weasley is our King.

------------------------------------------

"The headmistress would like to see you, Potter," [Filch] leered.
"I didn't do it," said Harry stupidly, thinking of whatever Fred and George were planning.
Filch's jowls wobbled with silent laughter. "Guilty conscience eh?" he wheezed.
"Follow me...."

------------------------------------------

"I'll give you undercover!" cried Mrs. Figg. "Dementors, you useless, skiving sneak thief!"
"Dementors?" repeated Mundungus, aghast. "Dementors here?"
"Yes, here, you worthless pile of bat droppings, here!" shrieked Mrs. Figg.

------------------------------------------

"Not this brave at night, are you?" sneered Dudley.
"This is night, Diddykins. That's what we call it when it goes all dark like this."

------------------------------------------

"I'll make Goyle do lines, it'll kill him, he hates writing," said Ron happily. He lowered his voice to Goyle's low grunt, and, screwing up his face in a look of pained concentration, mimed writing in midair.
"I...must...not...look...like...a...baboon's...backside..."

------------------------------------------

"Is Bill here?" he (Harry) asked. "I thought he was working in Egypt."
"He applied for a desk job so he could home and work for the Order," said Fred. "He says he misses the tombs, but," he smirked. "there are compensations..."
"What d'you mean?"
"Remember old Fleur Delacour?" said George. "She's got a job at Gringotts to eemprove 'er Eeenglish-"
"-and Bill's been giving her a lot of private lessons," sniggered Fred.

------------------------------------------

Malfoy glanced around. Harry knew he was checking for signs of teachers. Then he looked back at Harry and said in a low voice, "You're dead, Potter."
Harry raised his eyebrows. "Funny," he said, "you'd think I'd have stopped walking around..."

------------------------------------------

Draco: "You see, I, unlike you, have been made a prefect, which means that I, unlike you, have the power to hand out punishments."
"Yeah," said Harry, "but you, unlike me, are a git."

------------------------------------------

Harry looked up at Ron. "Well," he said, trying to sound as though he found this whole thing a joke, "if you want to - er - what is it?" He checked Percy's letter. "Oh yeah - 'sever ties' with me, I swear I won't get violent."
"Give it back," said Ron, holding out his hand.
"He is - " Ron said jerkily, tearing Percy's letter in half, "the world's" - He tore it into quarters - "biggest" - He tore it into eighths - "git." He threw the pieces into the fire.
"Come on, we've got to finish this essay sometime before dawn," he said briskly to Harry, pulling Professor Sinistra's essay back toward him.
Hermione was looking at Ron with an odd expression on her face.
"Oh, give them here," she said abruptly.
"What?" said Ron.
"Give them to me, I'll look through them and correct them," she said.
"Are you serious? Ah, Hermione, you're a lifesaver," said Ron, "what can I - ?"
"What you can say is, 'We promise we'll never leave our homework this late again,' " she said, holding out both hands for their essays, but she looked slightly amused all the same.
"Thanks a million, Hermione," said Harry weakly, passing over his essay, and sinking back into his armchair, rubbing his eyes.
...(Later on) "Okay, write that down," Hermione said to Ron, pushing his essay and a sheet covered in her own writing back to Ron, "and then copy out this conclusion that I've written for you."
"Hermione, you are honestly the most wonderful person I have ever met," said Ron weakly, "and if I'm ever rude to you again - "
" - I'll know you're back to normal," said Hermione.

------------------------------------------

Dudley: "He [Mark Evans] cheeked me."
Harry: "Yeah? Did he say you look like a pig that's been taught to walk on its hind legs? 'Cause that's not cheek, Dud, that's true."

------------------------------------------

"Keep your 'airnet on!" said Mundungus, his arms over his head, cowering. "I'm going, I'm going!" And with another loud CRACK, he vanished.
"I hope Dumbledore MURDERS him!" said Mrs Figg furiously. "Now come ON, Harry, what are you waiting for?"
Harry decided not to waste his remaining breath on pointing out that he could barely walk under Dudley's bulk.

------------------------------------------

"Don't put your wand there, boy!" roared Moody. "What if it ignited? Better wizards than you have lost buttocks, you know!"

------------------------------------------

"Did you like question ten, Moony?" asked Sirius as they emerged into the entrance hall.
"Loved it," said Lupin briskly. "'Give five signs that identify the werewolf.' Excellent question."
"D'you think you managed to get all the signs?" said James in tones of mock concern.
"Think I did," said Lupin seriously, as they joined the crowd thronging around the front doors eager to get out into the sunlit grounds. "One: He's sitting on my chair. Two: He's wearing my clothes. Three: His name's Remus Lupin..."

------------------------------------------

Mrs. Weasley let out a shriek just like Hermione's.
"I don't believe it! Oh, Ron, how wonderful! A prefect! That's everyone in the family!"
"What are Fred and I, next-door neighbours?" said George indignantly, as his mother pushed him aside and flung her arms around her youngest son.

------------------------------------------

"It was my father's," said Sirius, throwing the ring into the sack. "Kreacher wasn't quite as devoted to him as to my mother, but I still caught him snogging a pair of my father's old trousers last week."

------------------------------------------

"Stop doing that!" Hermione said weakly to the twins, who were as vividly red-haired as Ron, though stockier and slighty shorter.
"Hello, Harry," said George, beaming at him. "We thought we heard your dulcet tones."
"You don't want to bottle up your anger like that, Harry, let it all out," said Fred, also beaming. "There might be a couple of people fifty miles away who didn't hear you."

------------------------------------------

"Yes - yes, good point, Petunia! What were you doing under our window, boy?"
"Listening to the news," said Harry in a resigned voice.
His aunt and uncle exchanged looks of outrage.
"Listening to the news! Again?"
"Well, it changes every day, you see," said Harry.

------------------------------------------

"What do you mean, I'm not brave in bed?" said Harry, completely nonplussed. "What- am I supposed to be frightened of - pillows or something?"

------------------------------------------

"We know you're up to something funny," said Aunt Petunia.
"We're not stupid, you know," said Uncle Vernon.
"Well that's news to me," said Harry, his temper rising, and before the Dursleys could call him back, he had wheeled about, crossed the front lawn, stepped over the low garden wall, and was striding off up the street.

------------------------------------------

"Lovely evening!" shouted Uncle Vernon, waving at Mrs. Number Seven, who was glaring from behind her net curtains. "Did you hear that car backfire just now? Gave Petunia and me quite a turn!"
He continued to grin in a horrible, manic way until all the curious neighbors had disappeared from their various windows, then the grin became a grimace of rage as he beckoned Harry back toward him.

-------------------------------------------

"We're not discussing anything here, it's too risky," said Moody, turning his normal eye on Harry; his magical eye remained pointing up at the ceiling. "Damn it," he added angrily, putting a hand up to the magical eye, "it keeps sticking - ever since that scum wore it - "
And with a nasty squelching sound much like a plunger being pulled from a sink, he popped out his eye.
"Mad-eye, you know that's disgusting, don't you?" said Tonks conversationally.

-------------------------------------------

"Excellent." said Lupin, looking up as Tonks and Harry entered. "We've got about a minute, I think. We should get out into the garden so we're ready. Harry, I've left a letter telling your aunt and uncle not to worry -"
"They won't," said Harry.
"That you're safe -"
"That'll just depress them."
"- and you'll see them next summer."
"Do I have to?"

-------------------------------------------

"What can I do, Molly?" said Tonks enthusiastically, bounding forward.
Mrs. Weasley hesitated, looking apprehensive.
"Er - no, it's all right, Tonks, you have a rest too, you've done enough today.
"No, no I want to help!" said Tonks brightly, knocking over a chair as she hurried toward the dresser from which Ginny was collecting cutlery.

-------------------------------------------

"We thought we'd just have a few words with you about Harry," said Mr. Weasley, still smiling.
"Yeah," growled Moody. "About how he's treated when he's at your place."
Uncle Vernon's mustache seemed to bristle with indignation. Possibly because the bowler hat gave him the entirely mistaken impression that he was dealing with a kindred spirit, he addressed himself to Moody.
"I am not aware that it is any of your business what goes on in my house--"
"I expect what you're not aware of would fill several books, Dursley," growled Moody.

-------------------------------------------

(Ron and Harry just completed the Divination O.W.L. examination and are walking down the marble staircase)
"We shouldn't have taken up that stupid subject in the first place," said Harry.
"Still, at least we can give it up now."
"Yeah," said Harry. "No more pretending we care what happens when Jupiter and Uranus get too friendly..."
"And from now on, I don't care if my tea leaves spell 'die, Ron, die' -- I'm just chucking them in the bin where they belong."

-------------------------------------------

"This is bizarre!" Harry heard Ron yell from somewhere behind him, and he imagined how it must feel to be speeding along at this height with no visible means of support..
Ron landed a short way away and toppled immediately off his thestral onto the pavement.
"Never again," he said, struggling to his feet. He made as though to stride away from his thestral, but, unable to see it, collided with its hindquarters and almost fell over again. "Never, ever again...that was the worst---"

-------------------------------------------

"I would not go that way if I were you," said Nearly Headless Nick, drifting diconcertingly through a wall just ahead of him as he walked down the passage. "Peeves is planning an amusing joke on the next person to pass the bust of Paracelsus halfway down the corridor."
"Does it involve Paracelsus falling on top of the person's head?" asked Harry.
"Funnily enough, it does," said Nick in a bored voice. "Subtelty has never been Peeve's strong point. I'm off to try and find the Bloody Baron... He might be able to put a stop to it... See you, Harry..."

--------------------------------------------

"...Little Ronnie, a prefect...Oh, I'm all of a dither!" She [Mrs. Weasley] gave Ron yet another kiss on the cheek, sniffed loudly, and bustled from the room Fred and George exchanged looks.
"You don't mind if we don't kiss you, do you, Ron?" said Fred in a falsely anxious voice.
"We could curtsy, if you like," said George.

 

Book 6: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

 

"Arthur, is that you?"
"Yes," came Mr. Weasley's weary voice. "But I would say that even if I were a Death Eater, dear. Ask the question!"
"Oh, honestly..."
"Molly!"
"All right, all right... What is your dearest ambition?"
"To find out how airplanes stay up."
Mrs. Weasley nodded and turned the doorknob, but apparently Mr. Weasley was holding tight to it on the other side, because the door remained firmly shut.
"Molly! I've got to ask you your question first!"
"Arthur, really, this is just silly..."
"What do you like me to call you when we're alone together?"
Even by the dim light of the lantern Harry could tell that Mrs. Weasley had turned bright red; he himself felt suddenly warm around the ears and neck, and hastily gulped soup, clattering his spoon as loudly as he could against the bowl.
"Mollywobbles," whispered a mortified Mrs. Weasley into the crack at the edge of the door.

------------------------------------------

"'Harry Potter knows that he can confide in me with complete confidence,' I told them. 'I would rather die than betray his trust.'"
"That's not saying much, seeing as you're already dead," Ron observed.
"Once again, you show all the sensitivity of a blunt axe," said Nearly Headless Nick in affronted tones.

------------------------------------------

"Do you remember me telling you we are practicing nonverbal spells, Potter?"
"Yes," said Harry stiffly.
"Yes, sir."
"There's no need to call me 'sir,' Professor."

------------------------------------------

"You'd think people had better things to gossip about," said Ginny as she sat on the common room floor, leaning against Harry's legs and reading the Daily Prophet. "Three Dementor attacks in a week, and all Romilda Vane does is ask me if it's true you've got a Hippogriff tattooed across your chest."
Ron and Hermione both roared with laughter. Harry ignored them.
"What did you tell her?"
"I told her it's a Hungarian Horntail," said Ginny, turning a page of the newspaper idly. "Much more macho."
"Thanks," said Harry, grinning. "And what did you tell her Ron's got?"
"A Pygmy Puff, but I didn't say where."

------------------------------------------

"And that's Smith of Hufflepuff with the Quaffle," said a dreamy voice, echoing over the grounds. "He did the commentary last time, of course, and Ginny Weasley flew into him, I think probably on purpose, it looked like it. Smith was being quite rude about Gryffindor, I expect he regrets that now he's playing them - oh, look, he's lost the Quaffle. Ginny took it from him. I do like her, she's very nice..."

------------------------------------------

"But I thought he liked me," [Myrtle] said plaintively. "Maybe if you two left, he'd come back again. We had lots in common. I'm sure he felt it."
And she looked hopefully toward the door. "When you say you had lots in common," said Ron, sounding rather amused now, "d'you mean he lives in an S-bend too?"

------------------------------------------

"Did you hear, there's supposed to be a vampire coming?"
"Rufus Scrimgeour?" asked Luna.
"I - what?" said Harry, disconcerted. "You mean the Minister of Magic?"
"Yes, he's a vampire," said Luna matter-of-factly. "Father wrote a very long article about it when Scrimgeour first took over from Cornelius Fudge, but he was forced not to publish by somebody from the Ministry. Obviously, they didn't want the truth to get out!"

------------------------------------------

[Talking about Inferi in DADA...] "When we come face-to-face with one down a dark alley, we're going to be having a look to see if it's solid, aren't we? We're not going to be asking, 'Excuse me, are you the imprint of a departed soul?'"

------------------------------------------

Fred, George, Harry, and Ron were the only ones who knew that the angel on top of the tree was actually a garden gnome that had bitten Fred on the ankle as he pulled up carrots for Christmas dinner. Stupefied, painted gold, stuffed into a miniature tutu and with small wings glued to its back, it glowered down at them all, the ugliest angel Harry had ever seen, with a large bald head like a potato and rather hairy feet.

------------------------------------------

"And the steam rising in characteristic spirals," said Hermione enthusiastically, "and it's supposed to smell differently to each of according to what attracts us, and I can smell freshly mown grass and new parchment and -"
But she turned slightly pink and did not complete the sentence.

------------------------------------------

"But you are normal!" said Harry fiercely. "You've just got a-a problem-"
Lupin burst out laughing. "Sometimes you remind me alot of James. He called it my 'furry little problem' in company. Many people were under the impression that I owned a badly behaved rabbit."

------------------------------------------

"Harry Potter!" bellowed Hagrid, slopping some of his fourteenth bucket of wine down his chin as he drained it.
"Yes, indeed," cried Slughorn a little thickly. "Parry Otter, the Chosen Boy Who - well - something of that sort," he mumbled, and drained his mug too.

------------------------------------------

Pointing his wand at nothing in particular, he gave it an upward flick and said Levicorpus! inside his head.
"Aaaaaaaargh!"
There was a flash of light and the room was full of voices: Everyone had woken up as Ron had let out a yell. Harry sent Advanced Potion-Making flying in panic; Ron was dangling upside down in midair as though an invisible hook had hoisted him up by the ankle.
"Sorry!" yelled Harry, as Dean and Seamus roared with laughter, and Neville picked himself up from the floor, having fallen out of bed. "Hang on- I'll let you down-"
He groped for the potion book and riffled through it in a panic, trying to find the right page; at last he located it and deciphered one cramped word underneath the spell: Praying that this was the counter-jinx, Harry thought Liberacorpus! with all his might.
There was another flash of light, and Ron fell in a heap onto his mattress.
"Sorry," repeated Harry weakly, while Dean and Seamus continued to roar with laughter.
"Tomorrow," said Ron in a muffled voice, "I'd rather you set the alarm clock."

------------------------------------------

"An Unbreakable Vow?" said Ron, looking stunned. "Nah, he can’t have.... Are you sure?"
"Yes I’m sure," said Harry. "Why, what does it mean?"
"Well, you can’t break an Unbreakable Vow..."
"I’d worked that much out for myself, funnily enough."

------------------------------------------

"I thought you lived in that girls' bathroom?" said Harry, who had been careful to give the place a wide berth for some years now.
"I do," [Myrtle] said, with a sulky little shrug, "but that doesn't mean I can't visit other places. I came and saw you in your bath once, remember?"
"Vividly," said Harry.

------------------------------------------

"Oh, there you are, Albus," he [Slughorn] said. "You've been a very long time. Upset stomach?"
"No, I was merely reading the Muggle magazines," said Dumbledore. "I do love knitting patterns."

------------------------------------------

"Very well then," said Dumbledore, pushing open the broom-shed door and stepping out into the yard. "I see a light in the kitchen. Let us not deprive Molly any longer of the chance to deplore how thin you are."

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"This is your copy of Advanced Potion-Making, is it, Potter?"
"Yes," said Harry, still breathing hard.
"You're quite sure of that, are you, Potter?"
"Yes," said Harry, with a touch of more defiance.
"This is the the copy of Advanced Potion-Making that you purchased from Flourish and Blotts?"
"Yes," said Harry firmly.
"Then why," asked Snape, "does it have the name 'Roonil Wazlib' written inside the front cover?"

------------------------------------------

"When we were in Diagon Alley," Harry began, but Mr. Weasley forstalled him with a grimace.
"Am I about to discover where you, Ron, and Hermione disappeared to while you were supposed to be in the back room of Fred and George's shop?"
"How did you...?"
"Harry, please. You're talking to the man who raised Fred and George."

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He [Slughorn] seemed remarkably unabashed for a man who had just been discovered pretending to be an armchair.

------------------------------------------"

 

source: www.mugglenet.com

 

This is to help with further investigation in the horcrux category. 

 

"General Facts Not Disclosed in the Books

 

(Facts go from newest to oldest, with newest on top)

 

• Prefects can take points; Ron got it wrong in Order of the Phoenix, which makes him a pretty poor prefect, eh?
• Fred and George Weasley were born on April Fool's day (no joke).
• Ginny Weasley's first name is Ginevra, and she is the first female Weasley born for "several generations," says JK.
• Arthur Weasley has two brothers.
• Molly Weasley's maiden name is Prewett.
• Crookshanks is half Kneazle.
• The infamous Weasley cousin who was cut from the books was called Mafalda. She was in Slytherin.
• Dean Thomas's father was killed by Death Eaters when he refused to join them. Neither Dean nor his mother know this.
• Dean Thomas was named Gary in the first drafts of the Philosopher's Stone.
• Hagrid, Lily, and James were in Gryffindor. (Hagrid was NOT in Hufflepuff.)
• There are about a thousand students at Hogwarts. (True, that doesn't seem right, but J.K. said so, and she's the boss.)
• James Potter was a Chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team (although he was named a Seeker in the movie).
• Hermione's birthday is September 19th; Ron's is March 1st.
• James Potter inherited lots of money and didn't need a well-paying profession.
• James Potter inherited the Invisibility Cloak from his father.
• Witches and wizards have longer life-spans than Muggles.
• The Gringotts' goblins return the Muggle money they acquire back into circulation.
• The approximate value of a Galleon is about five pounds ($7.30 or 8.00 Euro), though the exchange rate varies.
• Dumbledore is 150, McGonagall is 70 (and is really an old softy; she just doesn't act like it), Snape is 35 or 36.
• Hogwarts' school motto, "Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus," means, "Never tickle a sleeping dragon."
• If placed in front of a mirror, the inscription on the Mirror of Erised ("Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on whosi") reads, "I show not your face but your heart's desire."
• The happiest people do not become ghosts (12) (therefore we can take it that ghosts are people that died while sad, angry, etc. Myrtle was teased, Nearly Headless Nick didn't have his head completely chopped off, the Bloody Baron was...lonely?)
• The Hogwarts teachers do not stay at Hogwarts during the Christmas holidays. However, Filch, Hagrid, and Dumbledore do.
• A few of the Hogwarts professors have spouses, but that information is restricted for reasons we will find out about later. (5)
• To remove the tail that Hagrid gave Dudley in the hut on the rock, the Dursleys went to a private hospital where the staff was very discreet, and said that a wart had gone out of control. (9)
• Aragog is an Acromantula (see "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them"). (6)
• Dragons can't be domesticated, no matter what Hagrid thinks. (6)
• There is more to the cats in the story (Crookshanks, Mrs. Figg's cats, Mrs. Norris, etc.) than meets the eye. (9)
• The animal an Animagus turns into is a reflection on his/her personality. (8)
• For Hagrid, keeping dangerous creatures is all about overcoming something that could kill him. (6)
• Azkaban is in a sea north of the North Sea. A very cold sea. (12)
• You can do unfocused and uncontrolled magic without a wand (like when Harry blows up Aunt Marge), but to do really good spells, you need a wand. (5)
• Muggle education is not required for wizard children prior to attending Hogwarts. (9)
• A magical quill detects the birth of every magical child, and records it in a book; Professor McGonagall sends an owl to each child when he or she turns eleven. (14) "

source: www.mugglenet.com

"A Titles

• Aberforth - In Gaelic, it means "from the river." It is also the name of a small corporation in Edinburgh.

• Ambrosius Flume - As the founder of Honeydukes, his first name most likely comes from the word "ambrosia," which is especially sweet and delicious. A "flume" is a "narrow tunnel" that usually has something flowing through it. Combining the names, he can be seen as a supplier of sweets. Coincidentally, there is also an underground tunnel that connects Hogwarts and Honeydukes.

• Abraxan (Powerful flying horse, mentioned in Fantastic Beasts) - Abraxus was the name of a flying horse that pulled Helios, the sun god's chariot through the sky in Greco-Roman mythology.

• Abraxas (Malfoy) - The supreme Gnostic Deity. Had the body of a man, the head of a cock, and serpents for feet. This image depicts him holding a shield and whip. In some stories, he is referred to as a demon. It is believed "Abra-cadabra" originated from his name.

• Accio (Summoning Charm) - Latin for "I summon."

• Alastor - Similar to Alistair or Alisdair. It is the Scottish (Gaelic) form of Alexander. It means "defender of mankind." It is an appropriate name for an Auror and a character responsible for protecting the magical world by apprehending evil wizards.

• Albus - In Latin, it means "white" (maybe for white beard). Wisdom. Albinus was Governor of Britain at the death of the Emperor Pertinax. Decimus Clodius Albinus attempted to seize the throne but ended up in alliance with another imperial contender, Septimius Severus. After Severus defeated two other rivals (Voldemort and... maybe Slytherin?), the now expendable Albinus was forced into another attempt at usurpation, an attempt that came to an end at the bloody battle of Lyon.

• Alecto - One of the Death Eaters who broke into Hogwarts. In Greek mythology, Alecto was one of the Furies. Her name is derived from the Greek "alektos," meaning "unceasing in anger."

• Alohomora (Spell that opens locks) - Derived from the Hawaiian "Aloha" meaning "goodbye," and the Latin word "mora," meaning "obstacle."

• Alphard - Perhaps derived from the dominant star in the constellation Alpha Hydra, the Water Serpent (a Slytherin reference?). Alphard can mean "the heart of the serpent" or in Arabic, "the solitary one." It lies to the southwest of the brighter star Regulus.

• Amortentia - "Amor" is the Latin word for "love," and "tentia" is derived from "tentare," which means "the handling of," "the making of an attempt," or "the attack on." Hence, "the handling of love," "making an attempt to love," or "the attack on love."

• Amos (Diggory) - In the Bible, Amos was a prophet who used to try and make the people understand that without morals and prayers, salvation wouldn't come.

• Amycus - Another Death Eater who broke into Hogwarts. In Greek mythology, the son of Poseidon and Melia, a champion boxer and king of mythical people.

• Anapneo (Spell that clears blocked airways) - In Greek, "anapneo" means "I breathe."

• Andromeda (Tonks) - In Greek mythology, Andromeda should be married to her uncle Phineus but marries Perseus, the famous hero, instead. (Andromeda Black marries Ted Tonks, a Muggle, and is erased from the family tree). Phineus sounds like Phineas Nigellus, Sirius' great-great-grandfather. In the Old Testament, Phineas kills an Israelite man for being in love with a woman who belongs to another ethnical group. As our Phineas was a Slytherin teacher, this can't be coincidence!

• Animagus - Combination of the Latin words "animal" and "magus," meaning "animal wizard."

• Aparecium (Spell that makes invisible ink appear) - From the Latin word "aperio," meaning to "uncover, lay bare, reveal, or make clear" or "apparere," meaning to "make clear." It is spelled with only one "p," perhaps because of "apertus" which means "open, obvious, public."

• Arabella - Name translates as "prayerful." Also means "eagle" or "heroine." "Eagle eye" is slang for someone who is very attentive and watches over something or someone. She was possibly given this name since she watches over Harry.

• Aragog - "Arachnid" means spider and "Gog" was the name of a legendary giant. Combined, the name means "giant spider." Also possibly derived from the Greek word "agog," meaning "leader."

• Argus - In Greek mythology, Argus was a monster that had a hundred eyes and was ever-so-watchful. The name "Argus" means "bright and watchful." Sounds like Filch.

• Arithmancy - A method of fortune-telling based on names, numbers, and mathematical calculations. From the Greek, "arithmo" meaning "number" and "mancy" meaning "prophecy." It is also known as numerology.

• Arresto Momentum (Spell that stops the descent of a falling object) - This is strictly a movie-based spell, and it literally means "stop movement."

• Arthur - Could represent King Arthur. The legend presents Arthur as a leader in ancient times who defeated the Saxons and other enemies, thereby uniting the people of Britain in peace and harmony. Arthur Weasley sounds like Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, who won the Battler of Waterloo.

• Auror - Perhaps derived from "aurora," meaning "the dawn." The Aurors may be seen as those who bring the light, vanquishing the darkness.

• Avada Kedavra (Killing Curse) - Aramaic phrase that means "I will destroy as I speak." Also similar to "Abra-cadabra", which is an ancient spell (dates from the 2nd Century) used by conjurors to invoke spirits or supernatural powers for protection against disease or aid. "Kedavra" sounds like "cadaver," which means "corpse."

• Avis (Spell that Ollivander used to make birds fly out of Krum's wand) - Latin for "bird."

• Azkaban - Sounds very similar to and description is very much the same as the American prison known as Alcatraz, located on an island off the coast of California.

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B Titles

• Bagman - A person who collects money, as for racketeers.

• Bane - Means "nemesis," "bringer of ruin," "pernicious to well-being," "the agent or instrument of ruin or woe," or in Old English "slayer" or "murderer."

• Basilisk - The history and evolution of the myth of the basilisk is detailed in this article. The Greek basiliskos means "little king" or "petty tyrant." Some myths describe the basilisk as a cockatrice, a giant bird with a serpent's tail that could breathe fire and kill with its stare. Others call it the king of all serpents and consider it as powerful as the gods.

• Beauxbatons - French for "beautiful wands." While we do realize this actually translates as "beautiful sticks" in French, the actual term for "magic wands" being "baguettes magiques" sounds far less appealing.

• Bellatrix - "Bella" is a construct of the word "bellum" meaning "war" and "trix" refers to "a woman in power." Bellatrix is therefore known as the "Female Warrior" and is also the pale yellow star indicating the left shoulder of the constellation Orion, the Great Hunter.

• Bezoar - A "bezoar" is indeed "a ball of indigestible material that can be found in the stomach of certain animals," most notably the so called bezoar goat (capra aegagrus). And indeed it was believed in ancient times that a bezoar could serve as an antidote for most poisons.

• Blaise - Blaise was the teacher of Merlin. From the Roman name Blasius, which means "lisping." From the Latin "blaesus." A famous bearer was Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician and philosopher.

• Binns, Professor - A "bin" is what the British call "a garbage can." Many students consider Professor Binns' information to be rubbish. In Northern England, "Binns" is a slang term for glasses, possibly referring to the professor's academic nature.

• Bluebottle (Make of broomstick) - A type of annoying fly with a loud buzz and iridescent body. Also a small, blue jellyfish (also known as a Man-O-War). They appear on beaches after strong winds and their sting is very painful.

• Bode - To be an omen. When things are said to not "bode" well for somebody, it usually implies dark times ahead. It also means "a stop or delay."

• Boggart - From Wikipedia: In Celtic mythology, a boggart (or bogart, bogan, bogle or boggle) is a household spirit, sometimes mischievous, sometimes helpful. In Northern England, at least, there was the belief that the boggart should never be named, as when the boggart was given a name, it would not be reasoned with or persuaded and become uncontrollable and destructive.

• Boomslang - One of the ingredients used in brewing Polyjuice Potion, a boomslang is actually a South African snake. Boomslangs live in trees and bushes, and feed on small animals and bird eggs. They are greenish to brown or black in color and grow to about 1.5 m (about 5 feet) long. Most members of the family (Colubridae) to which the boomslang belongs are harmless, but the boomslang has a potent venom that it delivers through large, deeply grooved fangs located at the rear of the mouth. The bite of the boomslang can be fatal.

• Brian - From Old Celtic "bre" meaning "hill" or by extension "high, noble." Brian Boru was an Irish king who thwarted Viking attempts to conquer Ireland in the 11th century. He was victorious in the Battle of Clontarf, but he himself was slain. People associate Brian as a last name, but believe it's derived from Brian Boru.

• Bubotuber pus - "Tuber" refers to the fact that the bubotuber is a plant, which extends perpendicularly into the soil. It's pus is dangerous to the skin. "Bubos" is an English word for an inflamed, tender swelling of a lymph node, especially in the area of the armpit or groin. It is characteristic of certain infections, such as Bubonic plague and syphilis.

• Buckbeak - To "buck" is the "action of a horse when it leaps upward and arches its back." A "beak" is the "mouth of a bird." Very suiting considering Buckbeak is a Hippogriff.

• Bullstrode - A "bull" is "an adult male bovine animal" and "strode" means to "be astride of" or "straddle."

• Burke - Most likely named after the famous murderer and body snatcher William Burke. He used to operate in Edinburgh around 1740, and considering J.K. Rowling comes from Edinburgh, this is too much of a coincidence. Burke and his partner suffocated a bunch of people in their rooming house and sold the bodies to the local medical school. Following this, it became illegal to use cadavers in medical education. As a result, the process of killing someone to sell their body is known as "burking."

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C Titles

• Cadogan, Sir - Cadogan is a Welsh name meaning "terrible and fierce in battle." This name fits the feisty knight whose portrait hangs on the seventh floor very close to the South Tower.

• Cassandra - A prophetess. The daughter of Priam, king of Troy. She foresaw the fall of Troy. After spurning Apollo's amorous advances, the sun god gave Cassandra the gift of prophecy (with the catch that no one would ever believe her).

• Cedric - Old English for "chief" or "warleader."

• Charlie - A diminutive of Charles, which means "manly" and "strong."

• Cho Chang - Cho is Japanese for "butterfly" and in Chinese means "autumn." Chang is Chinese for "free" or "unhindered." In Chinese, "chou chang" means "melancholy."

• Colin - Means "youth, child, or victor." Also means "young dog," which fits his devotion to Harry.

• Colloportus (Spell used to lock doors) - "Coller" means "to stick together" in French, and "portus" means "door" in Latin.

• Cormac (McLaggan) - Cormac is of Irish (Gaelic) origin meaning "charioteer." Also means "son of defilement." Cormac was the son of a King in Celtic legend. He was on a mission when he was put under a spell by a jealous lover of one of his competitors. Funny how Hermione puts Cormac under a spell during Quidditch tryouts so Ron can get on the team.

• Cornelius - See Lucius.

• Crucio (Cruciatus Curse) - "Crucio" is Latin for "I torture."

• Cole, Mrs. - Similar to role she plays as head of Tom Riddle's orphanage in Half-Blood Prince, in Jane Austen's Emma, there is a character named Mrs. Cole who serves much of the same role. We all know this is one of Jo's favorite books.

• Conjunctivitis Curse (Spell that Krum used to "do something" to the eyes of the Chinese Fireball during the First Task of the Triwizard Tournament) - Conjunctivitis is the scientific name for pink-eye -- the illness that children often get that makes their eyelids crust together.

• Crookshanks - "Crook" comes from "crooked," meaning "bent or not straight," and "shank" is a "leg or a leg-like part." J.K. Rowling said herself she gave Hermione's cat "bandy-legs" and Crookshanks is often described as being "bow-legged."

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D Titles

• Dedalus (Diggle) - Daedalus was a famous Athenian inventor from Greek mythology who built the Labyrinth for King Minos and helped make wings for himself and his son, Icarus, amongst other things. Read more about Daedalus here.

• Deletrius (Banishing Spell) - Latin for "that which is erased."

• Demelza (Robbins) - Demelza House is Dan Radcliffe's favorite charity.

• Densaugeo (Spell that Malfoy used to make Hermione's front teeth grow enormous) - "Dens" is Latin for "teeth." "Augeo" is Latin for "I enlarge."

• Diagon Alley - Play on words. "Diagonally" refers to "a straight line at a slanted angle."

• Diffindo (Spell Harry used to cause Cedric's bag to split apart) - In Latin, "Diffindo" means "I split."

• Diggory - Could be an allusion to Digory Kirke, a character from The Chronicles of Narnia, specifically The Magician's Nephew. He grew up to be the Professor in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. This character had a strong sense of right and wrong, was loyal to his friends, kept his promises, and loved his mother.

• Dobby - A fatuous or foolish person. Also, a weave of cloth that is durable and natural-looking. Finer stores still sell shirts made of "dobby" weave.

• Dolohov - This Death Eater shares the name of a trouble-making character in Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace.

• Dolores - Of Latin origin. Means "lady of sorrows or pain" (psychological or physical). In Greek, "doleros" means "deceitful." In Spanish, "dolor" means "to have pain."

• Draco - Draco is a constellation that looks like a dragon but is a snake. In Latin, Draco means "dragon." There was also a Greek ruler named Draco who developed a system of severe punishments for the smallest of crimes. "Draconian" means "harsh or cruel." In Romanian, "drac" means "devil."

• Dumbledore - Means "Bumblebee" in Old English. J.K. Rowling has said that she chose this name because she imagined Dumbledore walking around the castle, humming to himself.

• Durmstrang - "Sturm und drang" is a German phrase meaning "storm" and "stress or urge." "Sturm und Drang" was a genre of German plays that were famous for their sense of foreboding and ill-fate. Their influence even reaches into modern musical theatre, as in the title song of Little Shop of Horrors.

• Dudley - An aristocratic surname used as a first name since the 19th Century. Also, a town in one of England's largest cities - Birmingham.

• Dursley - A town near J.K. Rowling's birthplace.

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E Titles

• EnnervateSee Rennervate.

• Elphias Doge - Doge was the title of the ruler of Venice from the 8th to 18th Century. "Corno," meaning horn in Italian, was the cap worn by the doge as a symbol, which is mentioned when Mad-Eye Moody shows Harry the photo of the Order: "Elphias Doge, you've met him, I'd forgotten he used to wear that stupid hat."(Order of the Phoenix, pg. 158 UK, pg. 174 US). Also, Magus Elphias Levi was a French occultist of the 19th Century.

• Engorgio (Spell that makes things grow) - In French, "engorgement" means "swelling."

• Errol - Means "wanderer" in Old English. This accurately describes the Weasley owl who always seems to get off track when delivering the post.

• Evanesco (Vanishing Spell) - Means "I disappear" or "I vanish" in Latin.

• Evans - A Celtic name that means "young warrior."

• Expecto Patronum (Spell used to conjure a Patronus) - In Latin, "expecto" is to "await, desire, or hope for" and "patronus" is "protector." Hence, "to hope for a protector." A Patronus is used to protect oneself from a Dementor.

• Expelliarmus (Disarming Spell) - Latin combination of "expellere" meaning "to expel" and "arma" meaning "weapon or upper arm."

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F Titles

• Fawkes (Dumbledore's phoenix) - Guy Fawkes was an English Catholic who, in 1605, tried to blow up the House of Parliament as an act of rebellion against the new Protestant government. In England, November 5th is now known as "Guy Fawkes Day" (or "Bonfire Night") where Guy Fawkes is burned in effigy. Every year he is resurrected to burn again. It can also be noted that he is known as one of the most infamous traitors in English history.

• Felix Felicis (Luck Potion) - "Felix" is Latin for "lucky, fortunate, or happy." "Felicis" is derived from two Latin adjectives, one for "lucky" and one for "of the lucky." It translates as "lucky of the lucky," but seems more acceptable to write it as "luck of luck." Could haves ties to the word "felicity" which means "extreme happiness."

• Fenrir - Fenrir or Fenris in Norse mythology is a gigantic and terrible monster in the shape of a wolf. He is the eldest child of Loki and the giantess Angrboda. The gods learned of a prophecy which stated that the wolf and his family would one day be responsible for the destruction of the world. They caught the wolf and locked him in a cage, bound in chains made by dwarves. Fenrir then requested that one of the gods put their hand in his mouth before he was chained as a sign of good faith. Tyr, the god of war and justice, did and his hand was bitten off (Pettigrew?). In the final battle, Fenrir will escape from his bindings and eat Odin (Lucius?), and Odin's son Vidar (Draco?) will kill him by stabbing him in the heart or ripping his jaws apart. Other stories claim Fenrir will be killed with Vidar's iron boot (Pettigrew?). Also, the evil wolf Captain serving the White Witch in C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was named Fenris Ulf.

• Ferula (Spell that creates a splint or wooden rod) - From the Latin word "ferula," meaning a "rod to beat children with." In Spanish, the word "ferula" refers to an object used to immobilize a limb, like a broken leg. The object can be either a stick to tie to the limb or a cover of plaster.

• Fidelius (Charm that makes someone a Secret-Keeper) - In Latin, "fidelis" is the comparative form of "fidelis." Thus, meaning "a person who is more faithful, devoted, loyal, earnest, true, trustworthy, dependable, reliable, constant or lasting."

• Fifi LaFolle - Author of Enchanting Encounters. Her name translates as Fifi "The Insane One." Must be, if she's claimed to have meetings with "other beings."

• Figg - "Fig" means "not literal" and a "fig leaf" is something that "conceals or camouflages." Arabella Figg keep her identity a secret from Harry until Order of the Phoenix, and is able to conceal herself in the world of Muggles.

• Filch - Means to "steal."

• Filius - In Latin, "filius" means "son." This could perhaps explain why Flitwick is such a short individual.

• Finite Incantatem (Spell that cancels out other spells) - "Incantatem" could be related to the Latin "Incantationem," which means "incantation." Together the phrase translates as "Stop the incantation!"

• Firenze - Italian name for the city of Florence. Florence was the same city that the famous astronomer Galileo lived in for most of his life. In fact, he died in his estate while serving out his life-long house-arrest sentence issued by the Inquisition, as they found him guilty of heresy.

• Flitwick - A town in England. It could also be interpreted as the movement of a wand - flit (to move quickly from one spot to another) and wick (a stick shaped cord of woven fibers).

• Fleur Delacour - Means "Flower of the Court" in French. It could also be a clever play on the similar French word "coeur" meaning "heart" (Veela's captivate men's hearts).

• Florean Fortescue - "Florean" means "flower" in Latin. Adrian Fortescue was a martyr for the Catholic Church and cousin to Anne Boleyn. He was martyred for disagreeing with Henry VII's changes to church law.

• Fluffy - Cerberus, the three-headed dog was the guardian of the underworld in Greek mythology. Orpheus got past Cerberus by lulling it to sleep with music. You get past Fluffy by lulling it to sleep with music. The name "Fluffy" itself, is just another way of J.K. Rowling showing how Hagrid does not view certain magical creatures and beasts as dangerous.

• Fudge - "Fudge," besides being a delicious chocolate confection, can mean "nonsense." As a verb, it means to "evade" or to "falsify." In technological jargon, it means "to perform in an incomplete but marginally acceptable way." We've seen the former Minister "fudge" a story many times during the series.

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G Titles

• Gabrielle (Delacour) - In Hebrew, Gabrielle means "hero of God."

• Gaunt - To be very skinny especially because of hunger or disease or cold; to have a bony body.

• Gilderoy - A highwayman known for being handsome. May also come from the word "gilded," which is defined as having a "pleasing, showy appearance, which covers something of little worth." This is very fitting considering Gilderoy's supposed good looks covered up the truth about his inability to function as a powerful wizard. The name "Roy" is Old French for "regal one" or "king."

• Ginny - "Ginevra," an Italian female and woman of the people, her name means "Juniper" as in evergreen tree. There is an old myth about a bride named Ginevra, who playfully hid in a trunk on her wedding day. The lid fell, burying her alive; and eventually her skeleton was discovered. This could relate to Ginny being taken into the Chamber of Secrets where her "skeleton would lie forever." However, J.K. Rowling has also said that she picked the name because she wanted something different and special for the only Weasley girl!

• Godric - Means "power of god." Derived from the Old English "god" combined with "ric," meaning "power" and "rule." Name became commonly used after the Norman conquest. - Godric of Finchale is an Anglo-Saxon saint.

• Granger - Possibly from the Granger movement in the 1800s, a movement to improve the lives of farmers. Could be a connection to Hermione's desire to start SPEW, a movement to improve the lives of house-elves. A granger was also a very common person, just like Hermione's parents. Granger is the name of a character from the book Fahrenheit 451. He is the leader of a groups of intellectuals known as "The Book People" whose goal is the preservation of literature in the face of their governments efforts to burn and destroy all books. A possible reference to Hermione's fanatical love of books?

• Greyback - Similar to the term "silverback" used for the dominant male in a band of gorillas. We all know Fenrir Greyback is the dominant werewolf in the wizarding world.

• Grindelwald - Perhaps derived from the Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf character Grendel, the demon. (Many theories in which the Dark wizard Grindelwald is compared to Hitler have been explored by Harry Potter fans in the past, especially since the date of his demise, 1945, is the same as the end of WWII.) A beautiful village in the mountains of Bernese Oberaland, Switzerland. Also, a well-known hotel chain in Germany.

• Grimmauld Place - "Grim Old Place" (play on words).

• Gringotts - According to J.K. Rowling the famous bank comes from the word "ingot," as a reference to "an ingot of gold." She added the "Gr" to the beginning to make it sound more powerful.

• Gryffindor - A "griffin" was "a creature in mythology with the body of a lion and the head of an eagle." Also known in Greek Mythology as the "gryphon," it was the protector of a god's gold from mortal men. In Greek, "gryphon" means "protector of wealth." In French "d'or" means "of gold," one of the Gryffindor House colors. The gryffin is fitting, considering lions are characterized as brave and courageous and eagles are described as being noble birds, all traits of the Gryffindor House.

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H Titles

• Hagrid - J.K. Rowling said: "Hagrid is also another old English word meaning if you were Hagrid, it’s a dialect word meaning you’d had a bad night. Hagrid’s a big drinker. He has a lot of bad nights." Grid was a Norse giantess known for having a terrible temper. "Ha" is a variant of the Old West Norse name element "half." So, "Ha-Grid" may just mean "Half-Grid" or more notably "Half-Giant." "Haggard" can also mean "appearing worn and exhausted, gaunt; wild or distraught in appearance; a disheveled individual." From the Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy, the Old English term "hag-rid" means "indigestion" (not surprising considering all the weird things Hagrid eats). Found in the exact same paragraph as "Dumbledore." Coincidence?

• Hannah (Abbott) - "Hannah" means "grace."

• Harry - J.K. Rowling's favorite boy's name. The name Harry is of Anglo-Saxon origin and means "power." There was also a magician named Harry Houdini in the 1900s.

• Hedwig - The Saint of Orphans that lived in Germany in the 13th and 14th Century. Means "refuge in battle." Mentioned in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

• Hepzibah - The name comes from the Hebrew "Cheftzibah," which literally translated means "my desire is for it" or "my will is in it." In Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables there is an old spouse called Hepzibah Pyncheon. She has has a remarkable lineage she is aware of, and she shows her guest and cousin Phoebe some teaspoons bearing the family coat-of-arms as well as antique china cups that belonged to one of Phoebe's ancestors. Also, at the beginning we see old Hepzibah trying to beautify herself to no avail. This is almost identical to the Hepzibah Smith in Half-Blood Prince and her actions before and during her visit with Tom Riddle.

• Hermes - The Greek Messenger. The god of merchants, shepherds, thieves, and guardian of the roads.

• Hestia (Jones) - Member of the Order of the Phoenix. In Greek mythology, Hestia was the goddess of the hearth and domestic activity.

• Hermione - Means "well-born," "earthy," or "stone." Refers to peony-type flowers. The feminine version of Hermes. In Greek mythology, was often known as the patron saint of high magic (no surprise our Hermione is so gifted). She was the daughter of Helen of Troy and King Menelaus of Sparta. In the Aeneid, Hermione was kidnapped by Pyrrhus, but her loving Orestes came and murdered Pyrrhus while he was praying. Hermione is also a character in Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale. The character is accused of adultery and dies before the intermission. At the end of the play she is brought out as a statue, and finally returns to life at the very end of the play. A possible connection to her petrification in Chamber of Secrets?

• Hippogriff - Derived from the Greek word "hippos" meaning "horse" and the magical creature known as the griffin. In this case, it has the body of a horse as opposed to a lion, but keeps the head of an eagle.

• Hog's Head - Pub in Hogsmeade. In Old English, a "hoggshead" was a medium-sized barrel holding fifty-four gallons of ale. Similar to the Boar's Head Tavern in Shakespeare's Henry IV.

• Horace - English and French form of Horatius, a Roman family name possibly derived from Latin "hora," meaning "hour, time, and season." A famous bearer was Quintus Horatius Flaccus, a Roman lyric poet in the 1st Century B.C. Horace's poems often celebrated the pleasure found in good food, drink, and spending time with congenial companions - sounds like Slughorn.

• Horcrux - "Horcrux" when broken down in many languages means "outside the cross." This is consistent with the very unholy nature of creating one, and why it is stricken from the pages in a lot of textbooks. "Crucis" means "pain or torture," and "hor" is a shortened form of the noun "horreum," which means "storehouse." Thus, "tormenting storehouse." A Horcrux is effectively a "storehouse" for the part of the soul that an individual destroys when killing someone. "Hor" can also remind readers of the words "horrible" and "horrid." The English meaning for "crux" is "the critical feature or essence," like the crux of an argument. Similar to the Latin translation, it then becomes understood as "essence storehouse." Many consider the soul to be the essence of an individual. A "crux" is also defined as a "difficult puzzle," so Horcruxes can then be seen as "horrible" or "tormenting puzzles." In Egyptian mythology, Horus was the son of the god Osiris, who became the God of the Dead. Crux is also Latin for "cross." If you combine these two words, you get the "cross of Horus," also known as the "ankh" (a cross with a loop at the top). The ankh was the symbol of life. Thus, a Horcrux would ensure life.

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I Titles

• Impedimenta (Spell used to slow down attackers) - "Impedio" is Latin for "I hinder." In Latin, "Impedimenta" means "obstacle," as in creating an obstacle to impede one's path or goal.

• Imperio (Imperius Curse) - "Imperio" is Latin for "I control" and "imperium" is Latin for "absolute control."

• Incendio (Spell that sets things on fire) - In Latin, "incendere" means "to set fire to something." "Incendio" also means "great fire" in Spanish.

• Incarcerous (Spell that makes ropes appear to wrap someone up) - In Latin, "carcer" means "prison." The word "incarcerate" means to "imprison."

• Inferi - In Latin, means "those down below; the dead."

• Inigo Imago (Author of Dream Oracle, a Divination textbook) - "Inigo" is a male name meaning "ardent or fiery" and "Imago" means "image." Imago Therapy is also a psychoanalytic technique used for helping bring out meaning from the subconscious.

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J Titles

• James - Means "supplanter." To "supplant" is" to to take the place of, or substitute, especially through intrigue or underhanded tactics." James was also an apostle of Jesus.

• Joseph Wronski - Polish seeker for which the Quidditch move, the Wronski Feint is named. Josef Wronski was a Polish mathematician born in 1778 and was widely regarded as an eccentric by the greater academic community due to his work on perpetual motion machines, machines intended to predict the future, and attempting to square the circle (making a square and a circle have the same area using only a compass and a straight edge; it was later proved to be impossible.) Wronski's most famous and lasting contribution to mathematics was the Wronskian, a function used in linear algebra and differential equations. It can be found in many textbooks today.

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K Titles

• Kappa - A water demon that attacks humans. It is described in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. To prevent it from attacking a certain person, one gives it a cucumber engraved with the person's name. This is fitting, considering "kappa" means "water spirit" in Japanese and they feed themselves on blood and cucumbers. Japanese villagers used to writer their named on cucumbers and throw them into a river, believing that this would keep the kappas from harming their family.

• Knockturn Alley - Nocturnally (play on words).

• Kreacher - Creature (play on words). Reminiscent of the German "kriecher" derived from "kriechen," meaning "to creep, crawl, cringe, grovel, tuckle, or fawn upon."

• Krum - In Swedish and Norwegian, "krum" means "curved," which is interesting considered how he is described as being uncoordinated on land (as opposed to in the air). A famous Bulgarian czar circa 800 A.D. known for killing the Byzantine emperor and making a goblet out of his skull.

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L Titles

• Legilimency - In Latin, from "legere" meaning "to read" and "mens" meaning "mind." Hence, the ability to read one's mind.

• Lestrange - To be "estranged" means to be "removed from society." In French, "etrange" means "strange" or "weird."

• Levicorpus (Spell that suspends an individual in mid-air) - In Latin, "levi" means "to raise" and "corpus" means "body." Combining these words translates as "to raise the body."

• Libatius (Borge) - The author of Advanced Potion Making. A libation is a sacrifice to the gods. In Homer's The Odyssey, amongst other Greek myths, it is used to bring up ghosts from the Underworld. After drinking the potion they are then able to speak.

• Liberacorpus (Spell that releases or frees the individual suspended in mid-air) - In Latin, "libera" means "to free" and "corpus" means "body." Combining these words translates as to "free the body." Counter-curse to Levicorpus.

• Lily - A flower symbolizing purity and innocence. It is the flower commonly used during the Easter holiday and symbolizes immortality. The bulb decays in the ground, and from it new life is released. It is Lily who gives her life so Harry can keep on living.

• Little Whinging - The house on Privet Drive is in the suburb of Little Whinging. "Whinge" is a British word for "whining and complaining." That seems to be one of the Dursleys' favorite activities whether it is about Harry, the neighbors, or just the news in general.

• Lockhart - As coincidental as the following information may be, J.K. Rowling stated in a radio interview with BBC 4 that she found the name Lockhart on a war memorial. Lockhart is a world renowned cognitive psychologist who's particular interest is in the study of memory and levels of processing. He did a lot of research in this area in the late 1970s. Town in Australia near Wagga Wagga ("Compose a poem about my defeat of the Wagga Wagga Werewolf"?). A possibly play on words as he seems to have so many women's "heart locked" on him.

• Longbottom - The name itself is considered quite humorous, but "bottom" is an old word for "staying power." This seems to accurately fit Neville's personality and overall devotion to Harry.

• Lucius - A Latin male first name. A character in Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar, Lucius is the servant of Brutus, the leader of the conspirators who plot against and assassinate Caesar. Possible connection to the similar sounding "Lucifer" (the devil). Lucifer means "light-bearer." In Romanian, "lucios" means "shiny," a possible connection to his desire for the extravagant and valuable. A Roman General named Lucius Cornelius Sulla was usurped by the people of Rome, but defeated them and seized control as a dictator. After doing so, he removed most of the popular say in the government and returned it to the Senate of Rome, which controlled the people, and founded a firm Republic.

• Ludo - Latin meaning "I play." Fitting, as Ludo Bagman likes to "play his luck" by betting on sports and is the former head of the Department of Games and Sports.

• Lumos (Spell used to make a wand emit light) - "Lumen" is Latin for "light" and "luminous" means "emitting light" in English.

• Luna - The Roman goddess of the moon. "Luna" means "moon" in Latin, Romanian and Italian. In Romanian, it also translates to "month." The word "lunatic" is also derived from the word "lunar," as it was believed in old times that strange or odd behavior was caused by the moon.. "Luna" is a term for "silver" in alchemy.

• Lupin - "Lupus" is the Latin derivative for "wolf." Canis Lupus is the scientific name for wolf. To be described as "lupine" means to "resemble a wolf."

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M Titles

• Malfoy - In Latin, "malus" means "bad" and "mal" means "pale." "Mal foi" means "bad faith, an act with bad intentions, or a malicious act" in French. "Mal de foi" means a "loss of faith." The similar French phrase "Mal fait" can be interpreted as "badly made" or "evil deeds." In Portuguese, (J.K. Rowling taught English in Portugal for a few years) "Mal foi" means "was bad" or "is bad." In Arthurian legends, Lancelot (King Arthur's greatest knight and his betrayer) is sometimes called "Le Chevallier Mal Fait" (the "mal fait" knight). "Foy" means "a farewell feast, drink, or gift, as at a wedding."

• Mandragora - In Medieval times, a Mandragora, or mandrake root, was believed to have magical properties. It was thought to resemble the human figure and was known to cause sleepiness.

• Marietta - Means "Little Bitter."

• Marvolo - Implies "marvelous," but also contains the Latin root "volo" meaning " I wish, want, will, ordain, suppose, maintain that, be willing, to mean, signify, or denote." "Volo" also means "to fly, speed, or move rapidly." Tom Riddle can be seen as a character who wants to achieve greatness very quickly. Perhaps from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night character Malviolo. He was a Puritan, who could not have fun and sought to stop the other servants from enjoying themselves. He is "sick with self love" and dreams of getting power. He thinks he is better than the others because he believes he is "pure." He is constantly the subject of practical jokes. It is here where the quote "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them" comes from. At the end of the play, he swears revenge on the lot of them.

• Mason, Mr. (Visits the Dursleys in Chamber of Secrets) - A mason is an extremely skilled builder.

• McDonald, Natalie - In Goblet of Fire (American hardcover edition, pg. 180), a girl named Natalie McDonald was sorted into Gryffindor House. She was a real girl who was suffering from a terminal illness. She wrote J.K. Rowling a letter. J.K. Rowling wrote back to Natalie and her letter included an outline of Goblet of Fire so if Natalie died, she would know how the book went. Unfortunately, the letter was too late. In memory of Natalie McDonald, J.K. Rowling included her name in Goblet of Fire.

• McGonagall, Professor - The name is Scottish (also written as McGonigle or McGonegal) and is from the Celtic name "Conegal," which means "the bravest." The "Mc" in McGonagall means "son of." The bravery fits well with her first name, Minerva, the goddess of wisdom and war.

• Merope - Means "bee-eater" and also translates to "eloquent" and "mortal." Meropia is a condition of partial blindness. The name Merope is used numerous times in Greek mythology. Click here for one lengthy explanation. Additionally, Merope was a member of the Pleiades sisters (nymphs) and was shamed eternally for marrying a mortal (Sisyphus). Since her parents were angered they made her star, Merope, weakest in the Pleiades constellation. Compare this to Merope Gaunt, a witch shamed for marrying a Muggle. A third Merope in Greek mythology, is one of the Heliades, or daughters of Helios. The Heliades were turned into poplar trees and their tears turned to amber by Helios himself. A fourth Merope was the daughter of King Oenopion who was wooed by Orion, apparently with little success.

• Metamorphmagus - In Greek, "meta" means "change," "morph" means "shape," and "magus" means "magic or wizard." Hence, a wizard that can change shape.

• Millicent - Millicent is derived from the Norman French name Melisende, which was itself derived from the Germanic name Amalaswinth. It is composed of the Germanic elements "amal" meaning "to work or labor" and "swinth," meaning "strength." This was the name of a daughter of Charlemagne. Her name also means "ambitious."

• Minerva - The Roman counterpart to the Greek goddess named Athena. Both women in their respective mythologies represent war, handicraft and practical reason or wisdom.

• Mirror of Erised - Erised backwards is desire (as in "you'll see what you desire"). The inscription around the top of the Mirror of Erised, if shown backwards with the spaces rearranged, says: "I show not your face, but your heart's desire." Oddly enough, Eris was the Greek goddess of strife.

• Moody - In Hawthorne's The Blithedale Romance there is a character called Moodie who wears a patch over one of his eyes. There is of course, the traditional meaning of "moody," which simply means to "not be in a good mood."

• Morfin (Gaunt) - Probably taken from Celtic myth. Morfan was the son of the Celtic Fertility God Ceridwen and was a fearsome warrior. Morfan fought with King Arthur in his last battle with Carlan. At first, none of Sir Mordred's men would fight against Morfan, because he was so ugly that they believed he might be the devil.

• Morsmordre (Makes the Dark Mark appear in the sky) - Combination between "mors" (Latin for "death") and "mordere" (Latin for "to bite"). Death bite? No -- Death Eater.

• Muggle - Comes from English slang. A "mug" is somebody who is easily fooled.

• Mugwump - One who sits on both sides of an issue. Referring to the "Supreme Mugwump." Originally an Algonquian word "mugquomp," meaning "chief," it became the word for a political party who wouldn't make up their mind about something in the early to mid 1800's.

• Mundungus - A stinking tobacco. Very similar to the word "mondongo," which in Spanish is the word for a cow's "stomach," a disgusting part of the animal that is often eaten.

• Myrtle, Moaning - A type of evergreen shrub that is often overlooked because of its plainness.

N Titles

• Nagini - "Naga" is "snake" in Sanskrit and "Nagin" means "female snake" in Urdu. A reference to Rudyard Kipling's cobra character Nagina, referred to as Nagini in some translations?

• Narcissa - "Narcissism" means "the excessive love of oneself." In Greek mythology, Narcissus was a man who believed himself to be the most handsome man on the planet. He died of grief, because he could not get love from his reflection in the water. When he was buried, a flower bloomed on his grave - a narcissus. Narcissa is often described as having a look like a nasty smell has been placed under her nose. Is this due to the nasty smell of the narcissus flower?

• Neville - Old French for "from the new farmland."

• Nicholas Flamel - Was a real alchemist, and supposedly DID create the Philosopher's Stone. The tale was that he had spent decades of his life trying to create the Philosopher's Stone, which could turn any metal into gold and unlock the secrets to immortality - but he could not figure it out.

• Nigellus - Nigellus might be derived from the Latin word "niger" which means "black, dark, and unlucky." "Nigellus" is pre-classical and medieval Latin, meaning "somewhat black."

• Nimbus - A rain or storm cloud. Nimbus was a god in Greek mythology. "Nimbus" is also a derivative of "nimble" - "quick, light or agile in movement or action." Perfect qualities for a broomstick.

• Norris, Mrs. - A character in Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, one of J.K. Rowling's favorite authors. The character is a busybody, always into everyone's business and trying to run things the way she wants to, even though she's not really in a position of power. Sounds like Filch's favorite feline!

• Nox (Spell that cancels out Lumos) - "Nox" is Latin for "night, darkness."

• Nymphadora (Tonks) - "Nymphadora" translates as "Gift of the Nymphs." A "nymph," in Greek mythology, refers to "a member of group of female 'spirits' found in different types of nature." They are further classified by where they were found. They also had the ability to change shapes, a very clear connection to Tonks' own ability to shape-shift. In Latin, "nympha" translates to "a bride" and "Nymphae" to "the Nymphs."

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O Titles

• Obliviate (Spell that erases one's memory) - Used in Chamber of Secrets when Lockhart tries to wipe out Ron's and Harry's memories. Comes from the word "obliterate," meaning to "wipe out, erase, or remove all traces." Also sounds like "oblivious" meaning "forgetful."

• Occlumency - From the Latin word "occludo," meaning "I close, shut up, or close off" and "mens" meaning "mind." Hence, "Occlumency" means "the closing of the mind."

• Olympe Maxime - From French "Olympe" means "Olympus," referring to Mount Olympus, the home of the gods in Ancient Greece. Maxime could come from the French "maxim," meaning a "succinct formulation of some fundamental principle or rule of conduct." Very appropriate for a headmistress. Both names give a sense of extreme size, with "Maxime" also sounding like the word "maximum," meaning the largest in size.

• Oppugno (Spell that makes conjured creatures attack on the command of the conjurer) - In Latin, means "I attack."

• Orchideous (Spell that makes flowers spring out of the tip of a wand) - An orchid is a type of flower.

• Orion (Black) - Sirius' father. Orion the Hunter is a constellation who rules the heavens from late fall to early spring with his hunting dogs (Canis Major, who's brightest star is Sirius, and Canis Minor) at his feet. His name means "dweller of the mountain" and he is known for his prowess as a hunter and lover. Bellatrix forms one corner of the Orion constellation. In Greek mythology, Orion was in love with Merope. He was killed when he stepped on Scorpio the scorpion.

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P Titles

• Padma - Means "lotus" in Sanskrit. In Hindu myth, this was another name of both the hero Rama and the goddess Lakshmi.

• Padfoot - Yorkshire name for a large phantom black dog. It was as big as a calf and haunted lonely roads.

• Pansy - Type of flower. Derived from the Old French "pensee," which means "thought."

• Parselmouth - An old word for an individual who has problems with their mouth.

• Parvati - Parvati is a Hindu goddess married to the Hindu god, Shiva the Destroyer. She gave birth to a baby boy named Ganesh, whom Shiva beheaded, but replaced the old head with an elephant head after Parvati reamed him out. Sister of the Goddess of the Ganges, Padma. There was a character named "Parvati the Witch" in Salman Rushdie's novel Midnight's Children, in which the names "Padma" and "Patil" were also significant. Parvati means "daughter of the mountain."

• Patil - Is its own surname and is quite common in the state of Maharashtra in India. It is pronounced "PAH-till" and is completely different from "Patel" other than them both being Indian surnames.

• Patronus (Charm used in defense against Dementors) - "Patronus" is Latin for "protector."

• Peeves - "Peeve" means "little devil" or something that "gets on your nerves" (like a pet peeve).

• Pensieve - The verb "penser" in French means "to think." Perhaps a combination of the English words "pensive" and "sieve." To "be pensive" is to be "wistful or thoughtful" and "a sieve" is "a utensil of wired mesh used for sifting."

• Percival - One of the legendary Knights of the Round Table. The name itself means "pierces the veil," "pierces the valley," or "destroyer." It also translates as "bringer of peace" and "from the pear tree."

• Perenelle (Flamel) - The wife of the famous inventor of the Sorcerer's Stone, Nicholas Flamel, her name refers to "perennial," meaning "continuing without interruption." An appropriate name for the wife of a man who created a stone of immortality.

• Pettigrew - Pettigrew could be interpreted two ways: "petty-grew" meaning he grew into a petty (narrow-minded) person or "pet-I-grew" foreshadowing the incident where Peter grew out of his rat form and back into a man in the Shrieking Shack. Also, from the French "petit gros" or "little, fat person."

• Petunia - A trumpet-shaped flower, with white or purple blossoms. The petunia symbolizes anger and resentment.

• Phineas - In Hebrew, means "serpent's mouth" or "loudmouth." In the Old Testament, Phineas kills an Israelite man for being in love with a woman who belongs to another ethnical group. For more, see Andromeda.

• Pigwidgeon - A "pigwidgin" is a term for "a small fairy, and later, anything that was small." A "widgeon" is kind of "duck." Pigwidgeon is the name of a mischievous fairy in the poems of Michael Drayton.

• Pince, Madam - "Pincer" is French for "to pinch". They are a pair of glasses with no side ear temples, just lenses and their frames. They clip on the bridge of the nose. These type of eyeglasses are sometimes seen on stern or bookish people in literature, movies, and television.

• Pomfrey, Madam - At the end of Prisoner of Azkaban, Dumbledore refers to Madam Pomfrey as "Poppy." A poppy plant can be used to make opium and other drugs. It makes sense that the healer at Hogwarts would have a name related to a drug so often used for medicinal purposes.

• Pomona (Sprout) - Pomona is the name of a Roman divinity. According to Edith Hamilton's book Mythology, "she cared for fruits and orchards and that was all she cared for. Her delight was in pruning and grafting and everything that belongs to the gardener's art. She shut herself away from men, alone with her beloved trees, and let no wooer come near her."

• Potter - A name J.K. Rowling has always been fond of since childhood. "Potter's Field" is often the name given to a cemetery where a city or town buries those who have gone unclaimed or unwanted (a community's orphans). "Potter's Field" is also considered a cursed land because Judas hung himself in one.

• Protean Charm - Most likely named after Proteus, a Greek god who could change his shape at will. Hermione uses this charm to alert members of Dumbledore's Army of future meetings in Order of the Phoenix.

• Privet Drive - In England, a "privet" is "a very common shrub planted as hedges in suburbia." Those with privet hedges are said to conform to the suburban identity, and privets are characterized as boring and unimaginative. Dursleys anyone? "Privet" also means "prohibition." The street name could possibly be derived from the word "private."

• Prongs - A slender pointed or projecting part; a point of an antler. Clearly referring to the stag that represents Harry Potter's Patronus and James Potter's Animagus form.

• Puddifoot, Madam - The word "Puddifoot" is name for "someone shaped like a barrel." From the word "puddy" meaning "round-bellied" or "fat." Those who are in love are often said to be "weak in the knees," so it is not a far stretch to say they have "puddy feet." Madam Puddifoot's shop is often frequented by young couples.

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Q Titles

• Quibbler - To "quibble" means to "evade the truth or importance of" an issue by raising trivial distinctions and objections. A "quibble" is an archaic term for a "pun." A term used to describe Ancient Greek philosophers. The philosophers were referred to by the commoners as "quibblers" and the act of philosophizing was known as "quibbling."

• Quidditch - J.K. Rowling has stated that the origin of this name is entirely made up (she wrote five pages of "Q" words until she found one that she liked), but it is still interesting to the note that the word "quiddity" means "the essence or real nature of a thing."

• Quietus (Spell that cancels out "Sonorus") - Obviously "quiet" means to be "silent", and "quietus" in Latin means to be "quiet."

• Quirinus - The name Quirinus is derived from the words "co-viri," meaning "of two men." Quirinus was applied to Romulus, for whom Rome was named, when he was considered a god. Furthermore, there is a connection between Quirinus and Janus Quirinus, the two-faced god. Janus was the god of both beginnings and endings and was depicted as having one face look forward while the other watched behind, much like our dear professor Quirrell.

• Quirrell - Perhaps derived from the word "quarrel," which means "an angry dispute or argument." Also sounds like squirrel, for a nervous, nut-eating rodent that lives in trees. The professor was a scared, shaky man who behaved a lot like one, later an act to cover up his allegiance to Voldemort. Possibly from "querulous" meaning full of "doubts and questions."

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R Titles

• Rabastan (Lestrange) - "Rastaban" means "serpent's head." Not very surprising for a Death Eater. Rabastan is also a star in the constellation Beta Draconis.

• Ravenclaw - Ravens are known to be smart birds. Makes sense that Ravenclaws are known as wise, quick learners.

• Reducio (Shrinking Charm) - "Reduce" means "to make smaller" in English and also "Reduco" in Latin means "to reduce."

• Regulus (Sirius' brother) - The name of the brightest star in the Alpha Leo (lion) constellation. Although this might seem odd at first, considering he was not a Gryffindor - lions in mythology are often used to symbolize those fierce or pure of heart (Pureblood?). Means "prince" and "heart of the lion." During the First Punic War (264-242 B.C.) the Roman general Regulus was captured by the Carthaginians. He travelled to Rome with a party of Carthaginian ambassadors to help secure terms of peace, agreeing to return to Carthage to face death if he failed to gain acceptance of the Carthaginian terms. Once in Rome, however, Regulus urged the Senate to reject those terms; he returned to Carthage where he was tortured and executed. Regulus Black quite possibly suffered a similar fate at the hands of Voldemort after trying to back out of being a Death Eater.

• Remus - Twin brother of Romulus (founder of Rome). The King sent the two twin babies out to a river and tried to drown them, but a female wolf, instead of killing them, nursed them after finding the two boys. He was killed by Romulus.

• Rennervate (Spell used to revive someone who has been stunned) - J.K. Rowling originally changed the name of this spell from Ennervate. Possibly from the French "revenir" meaning "to return." Also means to "add nerve" (daring or strength). Sounds similar to "re-energize."

• Rictusempra (Laughing Spell) - In Latin, "sempra" is derived from "semper" meaning "always" or "at all times," and "rictum" meaning "jaws" or "open mouth." Derived from the Latin words to mean "constantly laughing."

• Riddikulus (Spell used to transform a scary boggart into a humorous shape) - "Ridiculous" means "absurd."

• Riddle - A "riddle" is "a form of word puzzle designed to test someone's ingenuity in arriving at its solution." Riddles were used as a way to both puzzle the audience and teach them to understand poetic language.

• Rodolphus - A variation of the name Ralph. It is of Old English origins and means "wolf counsel."

• Ron - Interesting when taken in conjunction with Arthur. He is the advisor to the King. Comparisons can be made here between Ron being an advisor to Harry on all of his choices and adventures. Both Ron and Hermione listen to Harry's plan and then either agree with or tell them why they think his idea is not a good one.

• Ronan - An Irish saint. A "ronin" was "a name given to a masterless samurai, a wanderer," during the Feudal Period of Japan that lasted from 1185 to 1868. Ronins were often the targets of humiliation and satires.

• Rosmerta - In Gaulish Celtic mythology, Rosmerta was the goddess of fire, warmth, and abundance.

• Rowena - "Rowena" is Old English for "red hair," which ties in with Jo's fascination for those with red hair. It means "rugged" in Gaelic. In Welsh poetry, Rowena is named "mother of the nation," which could link in to her being a founder of Hogwarts. She also is another character whose name surfaces in the great epic Ivanhoe.

• Rubeus - "Rubeus" means "red." "Ruber" is also Latin for "red," and can mean "ruddy" - a perfect representation of our favorite gamekeeper.

• Rufus - Latin for "red-haired."

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S Titles

• Salazar - António de Oliveira Salazar was the Fascist dictator in Portugal at the same time that Mussolini, Franco and Hitler. He had the same extremist right-wing ideology as the others, exercised great prejudice, and ruled using fear.

• Sanguini - One of the only vampires we have met. "Sanguis" is the Latin word for "blood." "Sang" means "blood" in French. "Sanguinary" means "blood-thirsty."

• Scamander, Newt - Magizoologist who wrote and narrated Fantastic Beasts. Scamander was the son of Andromache and Hector. Sounds like "salamander." A newt is kind of salamander.

• Scrimgeour - A possible connection to this Family Crest? Click on "S" in the left-hand column and look for the "Scrimgeour" Crest. No wonder he resembles a lion. A "scrim" is a curtain that when lit from the front, nothing can be seen behind the curtain. When the curtain is lit from behind, anything behind the curtain can be seen. Is the good Minister hiding something? A possible relation to Brutus Scrimegeour, the author of A Beater's Bible and the writer of the intro in Quidditch Through The Ages?

• Sectumsempra (Spell used to seriously cut another person) - In Latin, "sectum" means to "cut, wound, or amputate" and "sempra" is derived from the word "semper" meaning "always" or "at all times." Hence, "to wound always or make a permanent wound."

• Serpensortia (Spell used to make snakes appear) - In Latin, "serpens" means "snake" and "ortus" means "origin." In French, "sortir" means "to go out."

• Severus - Sever means "to cut off." Snape appears to have "cut off" his ties with the Dark Lord through the first five books, and then with Dumbledore and the Order in Half-Blood Prince. "Severe" means "cruel, strict" - two characteristics that accurately describe the Potions Professor. Sounds very similar to the Latin word "servus," meaning "servant." Is he still a servant of Voldemort's? In ancient history, Lucius Septimius Severus restored stability to the Roman Empire after the tumultuous reign of Emperor Commodus (See Albus) and the civil wars that erupted in the wake of Commodus' murder. To read more on this story, go here. The name Severus is also mentioned in Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, a favorite book of J.K. Rowling. Additionally, a Saint Severus of Alexandria (Egypt) was martyred along with a Saint Peter and a Saint Leucius for publicly proclaiming the faith around 309 C.E. Severus, Peter, and Lucius - quite a coincidence!

• Shacklebolt - As an Auror, Kingsley is responsible for sending evil wizards to Azkaban. Both "shackle" and "bolt" refer to means of imprisonment.

• Shunpike, Stan - A "shunpike" is a "road people use to avoid paying a toll or fare."

• Sibyll - Sibyll comes from the Sibyls, who were famous prophets in ancient mythology. Their prophecies were often undecipherable until an event had come to pass. In The Aeneid, the Sibyl was responsible for leading Aeneas to the Underworld.

• Silencio (Spell used to silence) - Derived from the word "silence," meaning "to be quiet."

• Sirius - Named after the star, Sirius, also known as the Dog Star or Great Dog (Canis Major). It is the brightest star in the sky, often called "scorching," which quite suits his personality. According to The Magical Worlds of Harry Potter: A Treasury of Myths, Legends, and Fascinating Facts by David Colbert, in Egyptian mythology, the star Sirius is where it was believed the souls of humans traveled after death. The star had such importance that all the temples were built to align with its path across the sky. Archaeologists have discovered that long tunnels or air-shafts in the Great Pyramid make the stars visible in daytime, and that the view is the part of the sky where Sirius appears. It is thought that the shafts were meant to guide one's soul to Sirius. This is very interesting considering the manner in which Sirius died.

• Sinistra, Professor - The Latin "sinister" meaning " on the left." In ancient cultures (such as the Babylonians), the left side was often associated with evil, black magic or bad luck. We wonder what this means for our dear Astronomy teacher! The left side is also associated with females, as in the "distaff side." The left side of the brain is responsible for both logic and analysis - important qualities for Astronomy.

• Skeeter, Rita - "Skeeter" is short for "mosquito." As most people can attest, mosquitoes are among the most annoying life-forms on this planet.

• Slytherin - Sounds like "slither," as in to slither like a snake. No coincidence the Slytherin House is represented by a snake. Salazar Slytherin was also a Parselmouth (name for those who can speak to snakes). Slytherins are known to be "sly" individuals and snakes are known to be very "sly" creatures.

• Smeltings - The name of Dudley's school. It is the process used in producing iron ore to make it stronger and more suitable for use. Good luck with Dudders!

• Smith - The most common surname. Derived from the Anglo-Saxon "Smitan", meaning to "smite" or "strike."

• Snape - A town in England. Also based after a person J.K. Rowling knew.

• Sonorous (Spell used to magnify a voice like a loudspeaker) - "Sonorus" is Latin for "loud."

• Sprout, Professor - A suitable name for a Herbology teacher. "To sprout" means to "spring up and grow."

• Squib - Johnson's Dictionary defines as "any petty fellow". The term has fallen out of use. Epithet for somebody who wrote insulting articles and pamphlets. A quote from the Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Smith (1766): "I am too old now to be frightened with squibs." A "squib" is also "a small firework that fizzes out rather than doing anything exciting." "Damp squib" is "an expression for something that turns out to be a disappointment."

• Stupefy (Spell used to make someone unconscious) - "Stupefy" in English means "dull the senses of; daze."

• Susan (Bones) - Short form of Susannah. Derived from the Hebrew name "Shoshana" meaning "lily or rose."

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T Titles

• Tom Marvolo Riddle - If you rearrange the letters, it spells: "I am Lord Voldemort." The name "Tom" means "twin."

• Tonks - A "tonk" means "a fool or an idiot," "a powerful hit or stroke," and "to strike." This would definitely relate to Tonks' clumsiness.

• Toujours Pur - The Black family motto. It is French for "Always Pure." Remember that most of the Black family consider Half-Bloods to be below them.

• Trevor - From a surname originally from a place meaning "big village." From Welsh, "tref" meaning "village" and "mawr" meaning "large."

• Trelawney - Trelawney is a Cornish family tracing back to Saxon days. In 1668, Jonathan Trelawney became Dean of St. Buryan, afterwards Bishop of Rochester, and was one of the seven Bishops imprisoned in the Tower of London. He was one of the subjects of the great Cornish song "And shall Trelawney die." Apparently, the song is/was the Cornish National Anthem. Trelawney is also an area in Cornwall, England.

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U Titles

• Umbridge - Sounds like "umbrage," which is "a feeling of anger caused by an offense." In Latin, "umbra" means "shadow, shade, or ghost" and can also be interpreted as "jealous or suspicious of another" or "standing in one's light or way." The phrase "to take umbridge" means to "cause offense and make trouble." She certainly does this for Harry. The plural "umbrae" means "shadows". In this context it can be used as shadowing or following other individuals - just how Umbridge does with the Ministry of Magic.

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V Titles

• Vane, Romilda - From the English word "vain" - because that's exactly what she comes across as in Half-Blood Prince.

• Vector, Professor (Arithmancy teacher) - A "vector" is "a mathematical quantity completely specified by a magnitude and a direction."

• Veritaserum (Truth Potion) - "Veritas" is Latin for "truth" and "serum" is a potion.

• Veela - Perhaps comes from the "Vilia," a wild woodland sprite mentioned in Franz Lehar's A Merry Widow. The Vilia transfixed the huntsman so that he fell in love with her and as a result, he wanted her to love him, or he would die. The Veelas seem to make boys and men mesmerized. In Bulgarian myths, "villa" are mythological female creatures (also called samovilla and samodiva) that are very beautiful. They live near rivers and enchant every man with their dancing and singing. Interesting how it was the Bulgarian Quidditch team that brought the Veelas to the Quidditch World Cup.

• Viktor - His first name means the "victorious one" - appropriate for the best Seeker in the Quidditch World Cup.

• Voldemort, Lord - There was a dark wizard in medieval times named Voldermortist. In another language, Voldermortist means "Lord of Evil" or "Dark Lord." Legend has it that Voldermortist once tried to destroy Merlin before the time of King Arthur (Mr. Weasley?) by bewitching good people and simply bribing those who already were evil. Legend has it that Merlin destroyed Voldermortist by using a simple Paralyzing Charm (full body bind?), fed him to the many-headed-beast (Fluffy?) of the lake, the Lady of the Lake's pet (Giant Squid?), freed the bewitched people, and destroyed the evil men. That was maybe twelve, thirteen years before Arthur (how long it was from Voldemort's destruction until Harry started Hogwarts). In many European languages, "mort" or "mord" refer to "death or evil." In French, "vol-de-mort" means "flight from death" (meaning escaping death). Also in French, "vol" translates as "the act of stealing," giving Voldemort's name the alternate meaning to "steal from death." In Norwegian and Danish, "vold" means "violence." In Danish, "volde" means "to cause" and could be derived from the Latin "valde," meaning "great, exceedingly, strongly, powerfully." Using these definitions Lord Voldemort's name would then mean "excessive, great, or extreme death."

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W Titles

• Walburga (Black) - Sirius' mother. "Walburga" means "rule of the fortress", from the German "wald" meaning "rule" and "burg" meaning "fortress." St. Walburga was the name of an 8th Century Saint who did missionary work in Germany. Walburga is also another form of the word "Walpurgis" (as in the Knights of the Walpurgis) - J.K. Rowling's original name for the Death Eaters. Walpurgis Night (May 1st) was the night witches reveled in.

• Weasley - From J.K. Rowling's site weasels were known to have a bad reputation, especially in Ireland, as an unfortunate animal. And, well, the Weasleys are unfortunate because they're poor. J.K. Rowling said: "Ron was the only one of three major characters whose surname never changed; he has been 'Weasley' from start to finish. In Britain and Ireland the weasel has a bad reputation as an unfortunate, even malevolent, animal. However, since childhood I have had a great fondness for the family mustelidae; not so much malignant as maligned, in my opinion." The Weasleys and the weasel both share red hair. The Weasleys live near Ottery St. Catchpole, and it is interesting that a family with weasel in their surname lives near a town that has otter in its name (an otter is a member of the weasel family). Also, in Goblet of Fire, the group all go to Stoatshead Hill to take the Portkey to the Triwizard Tournament. A stoat is another relative of the weasel family.

• Weird Sisters, The (Music band) - The Weird Sisters were three witches in Shakespeare's play Macbeth who could foresee the future, and elicited evil in Macbeth by means of equivocation.

• Wilhelmina (Grubbly-Plank) - In German, this name means "desire to protect." This would explain why she teaches Care of Magical Creatures.

• Wingardium Leviosa (Levitation Charm) - "Wingardium" is a combination of the English word "wing" and the Latin word "arduus" meaning "steep." "Leviosa" contains the Latin word "levare" meaning "ease, lift, or pick up".

• Witherwings - "Withers" are "the place on a horse where the neck and shoulder muscles join." It is the peak at the top of the shoulders and the base of the neck, and is the tallest point of the horse. It is where measurements are taken from. It is where the wings would attack (or grow from) if a horse had them. The "wings" referring to the wings of an eagle. To "wither," also meaning to "lose freshness, vigor, or vitality." It is suiting his name is changed to this after Sirius dies.

• Wizengamot - Perhaps from "Witenagemot," which was "a council of wise elders (called witans) during the Anglo-Saxon period."

• Wulfric - St. Wulfric was described as a hermit. J.K. Rowling characterizes Dumbledore as a loner. St. Wulfric was a worldly man, as was Dumbledore. St. Wulfric was born in Bristol, the same town Hagrid flew over from Godric's Hollow. St. Wulfric supposedly had the gift of prophecy.

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X Titles

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Y Titles

• Yule Ball - "Yule" refers to the time of the Winter Solstice, thus the reason for the dance taking place around Christmas time. "Jul" (pronounced "yul") is the Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish name for Christmas. In the Danish translation of Goblet of Fire, the Yule Ball is written as "juleballet," which means "Christmas ball or dance."

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Z Titles

• Zabini - Derived from the Sabine tribe.

• Zacharias (Smith) - Greek form of Zechariah. From the Hebrew name "Zekaryah," which means "remembers God." Zechariah was a prophet in the Old Testament and the father of John the Baptist in the New Testament, who was temporarily made dumb because of his disbelief."

 

source: mugglenet.com