Hogwarts Herald

Well, kind of. J.K. Rowling has hand written an 800 word outline of a prequel to Harry Potter. The story card is going to be auctioned off along with the story cards of 13 other authors. Proceeds will be going to two different charities, English PEN and Dyslexia Action. The project is all part of Waterstone’s celebration of the National year of Reading. In addition to auctioning off the originals, a book with all thirteen stories and the winners of a storycard contest that Waterstone’s holding will be published. The “What’s Your Story?” contest is going to have 2 adult and 1 child winners, who will be published in the storycard book. The proceeds from the book sales will also go to the charities. Fortunately for those of us that cannot afford the undoubted hundreds of thousands of dollars that this story card will probably start at, we will be able to visit Waterstone’s website and read all of the stories, starting June 11, 2008!!! Not just Jo’s, but stories by Doris Lessing, Neil Gaiman, Michael Rosen, Nick Hornby, Sebastian Faulks, Lauren Child, Tom Stoppard and Irvine Welsh as well. And that’s not even everyone.

J.K. Rowling has repeatedly announced that she is not writing a prequel to the Harry Potter series, and in fact would not write another book in the series. However she did hand write several copies of the Tales of Beedle the Bard which were also auctioned off to charity. Does this mean that with a good enough charity Jo might write a full prequel and donate ALL of the proceeds to said charity? I don’t think so, but we can hope can’t we?

The morning after encountering the three headed dog, Ron & Harry were quite excited about their adventure. Neville, on the other hand, just wanted to stay away from them and the danger they seemed to bring along with them, and Hermione just wants to forget it ever happened. She decides that these are not the type of boys she needs to associate with. It is at this point that I began wondering to myself if perhaps Hermione was sorted into the wrong house. After all, Gryffindor is “where dwell the brave at heart”. Perhaps someone of her intelligence and love of learning would have been better suited to Ravenclaw, with the Wise old Raven as their mascot, rather than the brave lion. Anyhow, back to the story. Ron & Harry are spending their free time trying to figure out exactly what might have been in the safe that was now being guarded by a giant monstrosity at Hogwarts.

“It was a horrible sight. Twelve feet tall, its skin was a dull, granite gray, its great lumpy body like a boulder with its small bald head perched on top like a coconut.”

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Stopping by Emma Watson’s official website has been very informative for me this fine day. By the way, if you haven’t been, it’s a lovely and well designed site and you should definately visit. Different journal entries to date have updated me on some amazing things!!!

First of all, it was posted that the principal filming on Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has finshed. Filming finished on Saturday May 17th, and now the entire cast and crew is “eagerly awaiting the November release.” HBP is scheduled to be released in theaters in the US November 21, 2008. I, for one, will be in line at 10 minutes to midnight in my wizarding best. My goal on the read-along is to be done with boox six in time for the November release of the film. I had better get cracking!

The next wonderful tidbit is about Harry Potter the Exhibition. That’s right, just like Titanic: The Exhibition and Bodies: The Exhibiton, there will now be Harry Potter: The Exhibition. A 10,000 square foot experience that will include costumes props and artifacts of many of the Hogwarts environments including the Gryffindor Common Room and Hagrid’s Hut. The Exhibition will be opening Spring of 2009 and will be touring the world stopping in at least 10 cities. Let’s hope Vegas is one of them. Of course, Titanic and Bodies were both supposed to be here for only a month or two, and they are both still here several years later. One can only hope the same will be true of Harry. More details as they come in, I promise!

In other news, not from Emma, it looks like Warner Brothers has heard my cry of lament. The official Harry Potter website has been updated with tons of new content. Games and graphics. Finally it is more than just an ad for the newest DVDs. It has the Sorting Hat, and Olivanders Wand Shop where you get your very own wand. And everywhere you navigate there is something interactive and fun! Thank you Warner Brothers for paying attention to what your customers want!!!

And finally, in celebration of the 10th anniversary of Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone, Scholastic has announced a special edition of SS to be released in September. The new copy of the book will have a brand new cover by Marie GrandPre as well as some extra tidbits from JK Rowling. I can’t wait!!!

This chapter illustrates a habit of Harry’s that continues throughout all of the books. One that Hermione doesn’t approve of at all for the most part, but Ron is pretty ok with. Harry has a habit of breaking the rules, and not only getting away with it, but actually being rewarded for it. In this chapter specifically Harry breaks several rules that should have, by all rights, gotten him kicked out of Hogwarts for good. Instead, he earns a place on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and finds the trapdoor below the three headed dog that will be the catalyst for the rest of the book.

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Robert Knox (right) 18 year old actor to portray Marcus Belby in Half-Blood Prince.

18 year old Robert Knox, set to appear as Marcus Belby in November’s release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was stabbed to death today at a bar in Sidcup, London. The young man was stabbed along with three other men while defending his 16 year old brother Jamie Knox. A 21 year old man has been arrested for the stabbing. The man arrested had wounds to his face, but was not seriously injured.

Robert was known by family and friends as a kind and loving young man who would “spend his last penny on other people instead of himself.” The family is shocked and saddened by the loss of what was clearly a very loved and “genuinely nice” person. Flowers and tributes were being left on Station Road, the site of the stabbing, by friends and family today.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: “We believe the stabbings took place in the street, outside the venue. We do not believe the incident is gang-related.”

Robert plays Marcus Belby (Ravenclaw) in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. According to the Harry Potter Lexicon, Marcus Belby was one of Professor Slughorn’s Slug Club candidates who didn’t quite make the cut. Marcus’ Uncle Damocles was part of the Slug Club, and also the famed inventor of the Wolfsbane Potion. That potion stops Werewolves from turning feral at the full moon.

My thoughts and wishes go out to the Knox family in this time of tragedy. It is my sincere hope that the man who committed this awful crime is punished to the fullest extent of the law.

Throughout Harry’s life, his main enemy has always been his cousin Dudley. While Dudley was fat and stupid and mean however, his new adversary is the exact opposite of that. Draco Malfoy is thin, good looking, and intelligent. He is also much meaner than Dudley could ever hope to be. Beyond mean, Draco Malfoy is cruel. Something Harry would learn as early on as their flying lessons together. That’s right, it’s not bad enough that they have to have potions together, but now they have flying lessons together too. Harry is positive that he will be no good at flying. He’s not very athletic after all, and he’s never been on a broom in his life. All of the wizarding family kids know all about brooms and Quidditch, and have already flown all the time. Or so they would have everyone think. The only people more frightened of flying than Harry are Neville and Hermione. Neville, because his Gran had very wisely kept his feet on the ground, and Hermione, because you just can’t learn to fly from books. No matter how much she reads about flying, that doesn’t guarantee that she will be good at it. That is a trauma that all of us bookish types (myself included) have experienced throughout the ages. No matter how good you are at all the rest of your classes, there is no promise that you are going to pass gym.

“Hermione wasn’t going to give up that easily. She followed Ron through the portrait hole, hissing at them like an angry goose.”

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Have you ever wondered which of the creatures that roam Hogwarts and the Forbidden Forest came straight out of JK Rowling’s head? And which of them have a place in myths and legends long before her time? I am beginning a new series to look closely at the critters that roam throughout Rowling’s English countryside. The one animal in the series that struck a chord in my mind and heart was the Thestrals. Maybe it’s just the Luna Lovegood in me, but I think that these are the most amazing and beautiful animals in any of the books.

Thestrals, it seems, did indeed come fully out of Jo’s head, although they may have basis in several different myths. First lets explore what we do know about the Thestrals. The first time we really encounter them is on the horseless carriages. Of course we don’t know it at the time. For years the students at Hogwarts believe that the carriages draw themselves. It’s not until after Harry sees Cedric die that he is able to see the Thestrals for what they are. And then we can see them too. Stately skeletal black horses. Winged, and slightly scary. Especially when Harry realizes that nobody else can see them. That is until “Loony” Luna Lovegood pipes up and tells Harry that she can see them too. When Hagrid introduces his Care of Magical Creatures class to the Thestrals, most of the students can’t see them. The reason for that? Only those who have seen death can see the Thestrals. While Harry was there when his parents were killed, he didn’t actually see the death. That’s why he wasn’t able to see them in the first four books. Luna can see them too, because she watched her mother die. It was an accidental death, and experimental spell gone horribly wrong. Who did Hagrid see die? As far as I know that is never made actually clear. If you know better than I on that subject, please let me know.

The Thestrals are carnivores. This is made quite clear when we see Luna walking with them in the Forbidden Forest and feeding them chunks of raw meat. The DA 6, namely Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Luna & Ginny flew on the Thestrals to London in order to try to save Sirius Black. In Book 7 the Order of the Phoenix members brought Thestrals to help with the Seven Potters Plan. They are indeed, as Hagrid said, dead useful. Perhaps one of the most interesting things though, is that the core of the Elder Wand is made with Hair of Thestral. Of course the core of one of the Deathly Hallows would be from a Thestral Hair.

So, what Myths may the Thestral be based upon? Well the first one that pops into my head is a Celtic Myth of the Pooka. The Pooka is a shapeshifting Hobgoblin that usually takes the shape of an ugly black horse. The Pooka is one of the fairy creatures, but is generally considered to be evil. Rather than evil though, the Pooka is largely misunderstood. He often appears before death because that is a point when the veil between the worlds is thin, and therefore a good time to see any of the fairy folk. People therefore see him as an omen of death when really he was there all the time, you just didn’t see him. He is also quite mischevious, as all hobgoblin and fairy creatures are.

Leah at Mugglenet has found a different myth, though, that seems much more similar. She has found a Celtic story that describe a skeletal black horse called the Mare of Doom who can transport it’s rider magically from one place to the next with the untying of a halter knot. Stop on by and read the story she has placed there. It’s a really good story and reflects the Thestrals remarkably.

Can you think of any other myth that you think might have sparked the imagination of the talented writer we love so much? Something else that may have been the first seeds of the Thestrals? What magical creature would you like me to explore next?

This chapter is the first where we really see how much Professor Snape hates Harry. Harry gets a good sense of it by Snape’s look at him during the first banquet of the year, but here he gets hit by full force in class. Snape speaks to him with disdain, and treats him with utter contempt. Throughout this first book his attitude toward Harry gets worse and worse. Of course this causes Harry to believe that Snape is the one that is after the Sorcerer’s Stone. In each successive book Snape’s behaviors become more and more agressive. The more that Harry begins to resemble his father, the more that Snape seems to despise him.

Eventually we find out that Snape attended school together with James, Lily, Sirius, and Remus. Also that Snape was just as much of an outcast as a student, as he is as a teacher and member of the Order of the Phoenix. His mother was a witch, but his father was a muggle, and he was bookish and snotty. In short, he was easy to pick on, and as hard as it was for Harry (and me) to believe it, James was one of the ones that did the most picking. James was handsome, and popular, and had a crush on the beautiful Lily Evans, who happened to be young Severus’ best friend. She was the only one who didn’t see him as a freak. She was friends with him because he was nice to her. She stepped away, however, when she found that he was as nasty to students he considered of lesser lineage, as James and his buddies were to him.

Yes, it is understandable that Severus Snape would not be too fond of the only child of James and Lily Potter. James had made his life a nightmare throughout school, and Lily, well he loved Lily more than he ever loved anyone before or after. Loved her enough that he risked his own life by going against the Dark Lord and going to Dumbledore once he figured out that he would be going after the Potters. Still, are the things that he has done to Harry excused by his dislike of his father? How about by the things that he has done to save Harry’s life? And do we think that he has saved Harrys life repeatedly because of his vows to Dumbledore, or because he loved Lily so much? What do you think readers? Was Snape’s near torture of a young boy excused by the fact that that boy’s father tortured him?

As this chapter opens we find Harry struggling to find his classes while everyone at the school is trying their best to get a gander at him. The poor little guy just trying to get to his classes on time and rather than being helpful everyone’s trying to take a peek at the famous kid. His first week is spent just figuring out the staircases and doorways. Hogwarts, it seems, is a difficult place to get around. Unless you’ve been there a while that is. Especially when you’ve got a poltergeist wandering the halls doing his best to misdirect or irritate you. And then there’s Filch, and his cat Mrs. Norris. For some strange reason Argus Filch seems to have it in for the students at Hogwarts and he has his cat trained to spy on and snitch out said students. Harry and Ron had the unfortunate experience of being “caught” by them trying to get into a locked door. They thought they were on their way to class, turns out, they were trying to get into the forbidden corridor on the third floor. Luckily ‘professor Quirrel happened by and stopped Filch from locking the lost first years in the dungeons.

“I don’t expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with it’s shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses…I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death…”

And the classes, the difficulty of learning “1000 Herbs and Fungi” with Professor Sprout, and the task of keeping awake in History of Magic with Professor Binns. The ghostly instructor died by the fire one night and got up the next morning to teach class, with or without his body. Then there’s Professor Flitwick, the Charms instructor, who stands on a pile of books behind his desk, and fell out of sight with an excited squeak when he came to Harrys name in the roll ledger.

Professor McGonagall, the head of Gryffindor House, teaches what looks to be the most difficult of all the classes. Transfiguration consists of magically transforming one thing to another. Professor McGonagall demonstrates with an impressive maneuver, transfiguring her desk to a pig and back. The students, however, start much smaller. Attempting to change a match into a needle. Nobody but Hermione made any realy progress though. It’s much more difficult than it seems. After Transfiguration they headed to Defense Against the Dark Arts, Professor Quirrell’s class. While all the students were very excited about it, the class was uneventful, leaving them all talking more about the Professors affinity for garlic, and the odd smell coming out of his turban.

All in all, Harry is very happy that he wasn’t too far behind the other students. After all, a bunch of kids also came from muggle families, and even those from wizarding families are having a hard time keeping up with all that they have to learn. So by the end of the first week, on Friday, Harry is already having a hard time with all that they have to learn. Between classes and studying, and staring at the late into Wednesday nights, this has probably been one of the most taxing weeks of his short life. He is eating breakfast with Ron when the mail call comes in, and for the first time since coming to Hogwarts he gets mail. Of the dozens of owls swooping through the Great Hall, Hedwig comes through and finds Harry. She drops a note, from Hagrid, asking Harry to tea after his classes that afternoon. Harry replies that he will be there, and then they’re off to class. Potions, a class together with the Slytherin students. The teacher is Professor Snape, the same hook nosed greasy haired professor that was talking to Professor Quirrell when Harry got the sharp pain in his scar. He is the head of Slytherin House, and everyone says that he plays favorites with the Slytherin students.

Harry & Ron make their way down into the dungeons where Potions is held. Professor Snape, like Professor Flitwick, pauses when reading Harry’s name. Commenting that Harry is “our new celebrity” in what sounds more like an insult than a compliment. He then peppers Harry with questions about herbs and their uses reacting with disgust when Harry doesn’t know the answer, and docking Gryffindor points both for his lask of knowledge, and his attitude when he points out that Hermione clearly does know the answers to his questions. Then, in their very first class, they are set to prepare a potion. Which turns out to be a total disaster when Neville messes his up completely. Snape snaps at Harry for not stopping Neville, accusing him of letting him do it so he would look better. Poor Harry doesn’t have any idea what he’s talking about and wants to say something, but thinks better of it when advised that Snape can get very nasty.

Finally they make their way out of class and up to Hagrid’s Hut. What they find there is a small one room hut complete with hams and pheasants hanging from the ceilings and a large slobbery dog named fang. Hagrid sits them down for rock cakes and tea. He took the name rock cakes a bit too literally though, as they nearly broke Harry’s tooth. They have a nice chat about everything from how much Snape hates Harry to Ron’s brothers. Then Harry notices the newspaper clipping on Hagrid’s table. It’s a clipping from the Daily Prophet about the Gringotts break in. Noting that the vault that was broken into had been emptied the same day the break in happened, which incidentally was Harry’s birthday, and the day that Hagrid and Harry had gone to Gringotts and emptied the vault for Dumbledore. Vault Seven Hundred Thirteen. It was strange, but Harry didn’t really have time to think about it on the way back to the castle for dinner.