Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Magic

A Note on Writing Magic To quote the "other minister", in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: "But for heaven's sake — you're wizards! You can do magic! Surely you can sort out — well — anything!" Making characters omnipotent, able to do anything, sounds good, but ultimately makes the story boring. A fictional wizard who could do anything at all that he wished, ultimately would be a plot-destroying device; he would have the power to instantly get out of any predicament he is in, and readers would not be intrigued to see him wave his wand and remove all barriers yet again. When writing fiction that involves magic of any sort, one must be extremely careful to plan and limit that magic so that barriers remain, so that the challenges faced by the hero are difficult for him to surmount. In order to captivate the reader, the hero must be seen to be stretching his abilities; the reader has to wonder how the hero is going to get out of the predicament he is in, so he can share the hero's joy at having figured it out, and his relief at escaping relatively unscathed. It does not need to be said that the Harry Potter series shows signs of careful planning of the available magic. The need to hide the relatively small Wizarding population from the much larger Muggle world is mentioned early in the first book, and over the course of the series we learn about the measures needed to manage that concealment, and the reasons such measures are so harsh. The relative strengths of wizards and witches is very nicely managed, as is the growing strength of the characters, especially Harry and Neville. And it is of interest that Harry's most bitter battle is not against Voldemort, a wizard of great power who at least commands respect, but rather against a petty bureaucrat and her power-hungry boss. No writer is an island, at the very least a writer must have read enough of a genre to know that they want to write in that genre. And influences do creep in, as writers adopt techniques that they appreciate. We note that in the treatment of magic, there are some similarities between this work and the Lord Darcy series by Randall Garrett. In particular, we note Garrett's mention of the difference between active and passive magic, covered in more detail in the article on The Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery; the distinction between Light and Dark magic; and the difference in types of magic, notably healing magic, covered in more detail in the article on Madam Pomfrey. No doubt there are other stories that similarly show reasonable limitations on magic, and it is equally possible that the seminal influence could have been some other work, but the similarities with the Garrett series do seem at least vaguely present to us. Creatures Animals and intelligent non-human beings that inhabit the magical world. Acromantula Ashwinder Augurey Basilisk Billywig Blibbering Humdinger Found only in the Quibbler Blood-Sucking Bugbear Boggart Bowtruckle Bundimun Centaur Chimaera Crumple Horned Snorkack Chizpurfle Clabbert Cockatrice Crup Dementor Demiguise Diricawl Doxy Dragon Dugbog Erkling Erumpent Fairy Fire Crab Flobberworm Fwooper Ghoul Giant Glumbumble Gnome Goblin Graphorn Griffin Grindylow Heliopath Hinkypunk Hippocampus Hippogriff Horklump House Elf Imp Jarvey Jobberknoll Kappa Kelpie Knarl Kneazle Leprechaun Lethifold Lobalug Mackled Malaclaw Manticore Merpeople Moke Mooncalf Murtlap Nargle Niffler Nogtail Nudu Occamy Phoenix Pixie Plimpy Pogrebin Porlock Puffskein Pygmy Puff Quintaped Ramora Red Cap Re'em Runespoor Salamander Sea Serpent Shrake Skrewt Snidget Sphinx Streeler Tebo Thestral Troll Umgubular Slashkilter Unicorn Veela Winged horse Wrackspurt Yeti Devices Objects used by wizards for various purposes. Bezoar Books and Textbooks Brooms Transportation devices Canary Cream Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes Decoy Detonator Deluminator Disappearing or Vanishing Cabinets Extendable Ear Floo Powder Foe Glass Dark Detectors Ford Anglia Goblet of Fire Hand of Glory Horcrux Howler Invisibility Cloak Knight Bus Marauder's Map Mirror of Erised Omnioculars Paintings Pensieve Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder Philosopher's Stone Photograph Portkey Probity Probe Quick-Quotes Quill Remembrall Secrecy Sensor Skiving Snackbox Sneakoscope Time-Turner Torture Quill Ton-Tongue Toffee Wand Magical Plants Abyssinian shrivelfig Blood Blisterpod Bubotuber Devil's Snare Dirigible Plum Dittany Flutterby bush Gillyweed Gurdyroot Mandrake Mimbulus Mimbletonia Snargaluff Sopophorous Bean Venomous Tentacula Whomping Willow Newspapers, Magazines, Journals The Daily Prophet The Quibbler Transfiguration Today Witch Weekly Which Broomstick Potions Amortentia Draught of Living Death Draught of Peace Dreamless Sleep Potion Felix Felicis Love Potion Pepper-Up Potion Polyjuice Potion Shrinking Solution Strengthening Solution Swelling Solution Veritaserum Wit-Sharpening Potion Wolfsbane Potion Potion Ingredients Bezoar Boomslang Lacewing Flies abraxan hair billywig wings baneberry Methods Techniques wizards use alone or when interacting with other wizards. Animagus Apparition and Disapparition Divination Fire-call Floo Network Legilimency Metamorphmagus Occlumency Parseltongue Priori Incantatem Transfiguration Unbreakable Vow Subjects Courses offered in Hogwarts. A table of who teaches which course in each year is located here. Ancient Runes Apparition Arithmancy Astronomy Care of Magical Creatures Charms Defence Against the Dark Arts Divination Flying Herbology History of Magic Muggle Studies Potions Transfiguration Spells Words or phrases that cause a certain effect when using a wand or when said by a wizard. In the books, the terms Spell, Charm, Jinx, Hex, and Curse are all used; the author explains the difference as follows: Spell is the generic term, used for all incantations. Charms typically would affect the behaviour of an object but do not change its nature. Thus making a pineapple tap-dance across the desk is properly a Charm, because the object remains a pineapple; but turning a teapot into a turtle, as is done in Transfiguration, is not. Jinxes carry a connotation of dark magic, though of a very minor sort. Jinxes, like Rictusempra, irritate and amuse, rather than harm. Hexes also carry the connotation of dark magic, again of a minor nature, but slightly darker than Jinxes. An example would be Petrificus Totalus. Curses are spells that are firmly considered Dark Magic. Curses are purely harmful in effect. A Stunning spell is more properly a charm, because the spelled object changes behaviour and not nature; but the name is kept because of the alliteration. These definitions are flexible; for instance the stunning spell Stupefy can be used either by light or dark wizards, in which case it might be seen as a charm or a hex. A note on incantation pronunciation It appears that there are three components to a spell: the incantation or spoken portion, the wand motion, and a mental component involving visualization of the desired effect. We learn in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that the incantation does not need to be spoken, but can be subvocalized, and we also observe a few spells where one or two of the three components is not required. In those cases where an incantation is required, we note that it seems to be based on the Latin word for the desired effect; this, with other context, would suggest strongly that most incantations are to be pronounced with the Latin character sounds. In particular, the "i" is generally, though not always, pronounced as a long "e", and the "o" is the long form of that vowel, while the "a" and "e" are generally the short forms of those vowels. Among the exceptions are "Wingardium leviosa" and "Rictusempra", where the first "i" seems to be best pronounced as the short English "i". "U" generally takes the long form when it is on its own, but the short form in the "ium" and "us" word endings. Alphabetical list Accio Aguamenti Alohomora Anapneo Aparecium Avada KedavraUnforgivable Curses unforgivable curse Avis Banishing Charm Bat Bogey Hex Bubble-Head Charm Colloportus Confringo Confundo Conjunctivitus Crucio unforgivable curse Defodio Deletrius Densaugeo Deprimo Descendo Diffindo Dissendium Disillusionment Duro Enervate Engorgio Episkey Evanesco Expecto Patronum Expelliarmus Expulso Ferula Fidelius Fiendfyre Finite Finite Incantatem Flagrante Flagrate Furnunculus Geminio Gemino Glisseo Homenum Revelio Impedimenta Imperio unforgivable curse Imperturbable Charm Impervius Incarcerous Incendio Langlock Legilimens Levicorpus Liberacorpus Locomotor Locomotor Mortis Lumos Mobiliarbus Mobilicorpus Morsmordre Muffliato Nox Obliviate Obscuro Oppugno Orchideous Permanent Sticking Charm Peskipiksi Pesternomi Petrificus Totalus Point Me Portus Prior Incantato Protean Charm Protego Quietus Reducio Reducto Relashio Renervate Reparo Revulsion Jinx Rictusempra Riddikulus Scourgify Sectumsempra Serpensortia Silencio Sonorus Specialis Revelio Stupefy Tarantallegra Tergeo Tongue-tying Curse Undetectable Extension Charm Waddiwasi Wingardium Leviosa Near-Human and similar It does not seem quite right to place these in the same category as magical beasts. Ghost Vampire Werewolf Blood Status and similar categories A sizable fraction of the Wizarding population believes that lineage is important, to the point that they actually categorize wizards based on their ancestry. As this is a characteristic of the Dark side in these books, these categories are important to the story, and are listed below: Blood traitor Half-blood Muggle-born (or "Mudblood") Pureblood Additionally, the following terms are used to refer to segments of the population. Muggle Squib Languages Fictional languages used throughout the books. Gobbledegook Mermish Parseltongue Troll Terms Auror Dark Mark Grim Inferius Knight Bus Money Parselmouth Patronus Prophecy Legal Structures Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery Ministry of Magic Wizengamot Key Magical Artifacts Objects that have special significance to the entire series. Horcruxes Deathly Hallows Sword of Gryffindor Sorting Hat /Magic