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Thoughts on the Meaning of "Deathly Hallows"
I was initially puzzled by the news that Book 7 would be titled Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. But Rowling is a fabulous wordsmith, and I believe she’s simultaneously working with multiple meanings in the phrase “deathly hallows.” While the word “deathly” would seem plainly to mean ‘relating to or suggestive of death,’ “hallows” is an ( Read more... ) -
Why did Dumbledore have James’s Invisibility Cloak?
Note: First is my original theory and then after "Update" is my revised theory.
JK Rowling recently updated her website to include the following entry:
"NAQ
... which means, 'never asked question'.
Why did Dumbledore have James' invisibility cloak at the time of James' death, given that Dumbledore could make himself invisible without a cloak?
Prior to ( Read more... ) -
Nagini as Horcrux
The argument for Nagini as the sixth Horcrux
(Tweaked on 9-9 in response to comments)
In an interview with The Leaky Cauldron and MuggleNet in July 2005, Rowling said,
“Dumbledore's guesses are never very far wide of the mark. I don't want to give too much away here, but Dumbledore says, ‘There are four out there, you've got to get rid of four, and ( Read more... ) -
The Avada Kedavra on the Astronomy Tower
[This post is an expansion of the first section of an essay arguing the Stoppered Death theory. I needed more room over there to describe the background to that theory, so I moved the AK evidence here and vastly expanded it. Read about the Stoppered Death theory here: http://felicitys-mind.livejournal.com/2616.html]
The Avada Kedavra Snape Cast at ( Read more... ) -
Dumbledore's Boggart
What is Dumbledore’s Boggart?
In a July 2006 Leaky Cauldron/Mugglenet interview, Rowling suggested we’d be able to develop theories about Dumbledore’s boggart from reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
A boggart takes the form of what a person fears most, and I believe HBP reveals that Dumbledore’s greatest fear is harm coming to ( Read more... ) -
Fantastic Potions and How They Helped Albus Dumbledore in HBP
Reconciling the death of Albus Dumbledore with Severus Snape's loyalty to him.
On Aug 12, I revised and vastly expanded the essay and changed the title to “Fantastic Potions and How They Helped Albus Dumbledore during HBP”; it was reworked to include excellent comments from readers, to fill in areas that were unclear, to include my latest ideas ( Read more... ) -
“Something of Ravenclaw’s or Gryffindor’s”
“Something of Ravenclaw’s or Gryffindor’s”
We saw in HBP that Hepzibah Smith was distantly related to Helga Hufflepuff and that Hufflepuff’s gold cup was in her possession. We also saw that Salazar Slytherin’s line ends with T.M. Riddle/Lord Voldemort through the Gaunt family, which was in possession of Slytherin’s gold locket and a Slytherin ( Read more... ) -
The Hufflepuff Cup is in the Hogwarts Trophy Room Transfigured into the Medal for Magical Merit
I’ve been looking at a pattern of clues in the six Harry Potter books, namely a series of interweaving and overlapping references to Transfiguration magic, secret passages/the Marauder’s Map, and trophies. Putting them all together, I believe they may be clues that the Helga Hufflepuff’s golden cup is in the trophy room at Hogwarts but Transfigured ( Read more... )