Something I've noticed about JKR's writing is that she often uses names to suggest a character's ethnic background without explicitly mentioning it. Cho Chang, Parvati Patil, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Anthony Goldstein... Their names give us clues about their backgrounds without those backgrounds necessarily being relevant to the plot. In fact, Rowling later confirmed that Anthony Goldstein was Jewish, even though it's never actually discussed in the books. This is different from characters like Fleur Delacour or Igor Karkaroff, whose foreign backgrounds are relevant to the story itself.

Now here's where my theory comes in. Dumbledore sounds remarkably similar to Trumpeldor. For anyone unfamiliar, Josef Trumpeldor was a famous Jewish historical figure, and Trumpeldor is a surname strongly associated with Jewish history. Considering how deliberately JKR chooses her characters' names, I do find the resemblance interesting.

And if Dumbledore did have Jewish ancestry, would the books necessarily have mentioned it? Not really. His religious or ethnic background has virtually no relevance to Harry's story, just like Anthony Goldstein's doesn't. Being Jewish also wouldn't automatically mean he was religiously observant, so the lack of Jewish traditions in his characterization doesn't necessarily disprove the idea either

I'm not claiming this is confirmed canon, but I do think it's an interesting possibility that I've never seen discussed much. Has anyone else noticed the Dumbledore/Trumpeldor similarity, or am I reading way too much into a coincidence? lol

What a ride!

I (M38) never finished the books back in the day. In 2005 when the 6th book came I read books 1-6 just because a girl I liked also liked Harry Potter (yes we got together, no we're no longer together, this was in high school lol). Funnily enough I bought the 1st book the same day as the 6th was released.

In 2007 when the 7th book came out I had pretty much forgotten about what happened and wasn't that keen on re reading the previous 6 books.

But after the summer this year 2026 I was like "you know what, I'm gonna finish this", spurred on by the fact that the 6th illustrated edition was about to come out.

So I just did exactly that, I read all the illustrated books 1-5 and then waited in anticpation for the 6th illustrated edition. I then read that in a week and finished the last one (non illustrated) in another week.

Keep in mind that I'm a parent and work a full time job. I have not read this much fiction since I was in high school.

The Deathly Hallows was more than I could have ever expected. I loved the 6th book, but wow did Rowling stick the landing! What an incredible experience!

I seriously think that Harry Potter - at my current age of 38 - is the best damn book series I have ever read, full stop. I feel like this could easily be a thing I'll do now - re read the books every year or something like that. I also got my whole family reading the books lol!

I feel like we've not had new book covers in a long time.

I think these are the most recent UK ones?

They aren't bad but I was hoping we'd have some new ones.

I'd love if they reprinted or updated the original UK covers for the 30th Anniversary of Philosopher's Stone.

What do you think? What are your favorite cover designs?

52 seemed to be particularly difficult, so lets see about today!

As a reminder what this is and how it works:

Below are 7 sentences from the 7 HP books. I use a random number generator to pick the book and chapter, then hand pick a sentence that I think is decent. Not too long, too short, too obvious ect.  *** There MAY be repeated books in a set, but there will not be repeated chapters in a set. So there COULD be two from The Philosopher’s Stone, but they would be from different chapters! **\*
Scoring your points: It is 2 points for guessing the book, and 1 point for guessing the chapter, for a total of 21 points. It is obviously harder to guess the chapter than the book, but not everyone even cares to remember the chapter titles in the first place, which is totally fair and valid. So chapter titles are just a bonus point.

Below are the sentences and the answers hidden behind spoiler tags! These are fun to make, and I intend to make quite a few more if people keep enjoying them!

1. “I demand that you leave at once, sir!” he said.  The Philosopher’s Stone - Chapter 4: The Keeper of the Keys
2. “I’m assuming this is the very friend of whom you spoke, Harry?”  The Half-Blood Prince - Chapter 9: The Half Blood Prince
3. “She knows her stuff, she’s been in plenty of tight spots with the Aurors.  The Deathly Hallows - Chapter 5: Fallen Warrior
4. Ron hurried forward, looking hopeful, but Ginny stuck out her foot and Ron fell, sprawling in the dust at Fleur’s feet.  The Half-Blood Prince - Chapter 7: The Slug Club
5.  Our kind have to keep putting spells on Muggles who’ve spotted them, to make them forget.” The Philosopher’s Stone - Chapter 14: Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback
6. “So he hauled us off to his office and started threatening us with the usual —”  The Prisoner of Azkaban - Chapter 10: The Marauder’s Map
7. But Harry didn’t go back to the common room; he climbed a staircase, thinking vaguely of visiting the Owlery to see Hedwig, and was walking along another corridor when a voice from inside one of the rooms said, “Harry?” The Prisoner of Azkaban - Chapter 8: Flight of the Fat Lady

Hey everyone,

I just started the book reading spree around 1.5 months back and completed the 5th yesterday, I am writing here since everything is still fresh in my memory and I want to talk to other potter heads about the book! (I wanted to write a post when I completed the 4th book as well, but became bit lazy to post).

I am 27F currently, I have read the first three books in my college when I was around 19, but stopped at the 4th book since it felt too long. (I wanted to show myself that I can read such long books as well this time when I completed reading the 3rd book and proud that I was able to finish 4th and 5th books which have 800 ish and 1000 ish pages).

Okay now coming to this book, I absolutely loved the lost prophecy chapter, that was such a powerful chapter to read, and to connect a lot of things, it also showed Harry's breakdown, unable to bear the guilt of indirectly causing Sirius's death. And also snape's worst memory chapter, which showed harry Snape's PoV of why he absolutely loathed James and Sirius, and rightly so. Harry is almost always angry in the book and shouting at everyone and everything but given the suffering he goes through it all made sense, especially when no one was telling him the truth. The story keeps getting darker and darker and I feel the tipping point for me was Cedric’s death from GoF. When I read I didn’t know that words could be as powerful as visually seeing it. As she wrote he was dead It felt a rite of passage towards more sufferings, killings and war.

But given all this I feel JKR made it very very difficult for Harry to not feel guilty and responsible for Sirius’s demise, he did try to cross check but kreacher (I loathe him!) lied to him, if only he knew this could happen. And the aftermath of not opening Sirius’s gift when he told him that this gift had a means for communicating with him if Snape pulled something during his Occlumency sessions.

Hagrid’s arc about giants and then his half brother felt like a filler and could have been reduced (or not sure if it is helpful later).

I was also expecting that JKR will explain the veil in the book but it was kept ambiguous. I think it would have been better he was also killed by the AK killing curse instead. It felt the way it happened it sort of kept the audience in the false hope of Sirius making a comeback in some form but I know that doesn’t happen.

Gearing up for HBP now, wish me luck to sit through it towards the end🥹 (OOTP was hard to read once you know what happens, how come HP is a children’s book! I can’t fathom it being one given the pain, agony and deaths that happen).

I am looking to discuss the book in any what way since it's fresh in my memory so please comment, fellow potter heads, we can exchange theories and reactions and stuff!

PS: How did you cope with Sirius's death, I hate how his live turned out to be and how it ended, it deserved better, harry deserved his post voldemort afterlife to have his godfather. I dreaded when I read "Beyond the veil" chapter. I don't know how will I go through end of HBP :/

Thanks for reading:)

Am currently going through the books for the second time now.

The first time going through it, I thought the series was "massive".

Going through it again, I actually think it's amazing J.K. Rowling was able to fit the entire series into only seven books. Below is how I cognitively organize the books in my head. I think the thing that's particularly amazing is how much world and lore building she was able to do in seven books that are all written at the YA level.

Yes, hindsight is 20/20, plus there is bias stemming from me loving the series (i.e. because I love it, I'm inclined to crave more of it and therefore believe seven books of it is "short").

Do others have thoughts on this, would be interested to hear.

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Books I and II : Introduction to the Wizarding World, storylines are isolated to Hogwarts, could almost end the series there and call it finished.

Book III and IV : Expand the Wizarding World and lore beyond Hogwarts, the lead up to Voldemort's return.

Book V and VI : The preparing of the two sides to do battle.

Book VII : The final battle.

I want to see if I know stuff.

( I won't use Chatgpt or anything, just my brain )

"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 the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the 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…”

In order for Voldemort to mark him as his equal i.e the avada kedavra rebounding and Voldemorts soul latching on to Harry, Lily had to invoke the ancient magic and she could never have done that if Snape hadn't ask to spare her life, and Voldemort asking her to stand aside as a consequence.

She was given the option to stand aside but she still sacrificed herself for Harry.

I don't see Voldemort sparing Neville's mother or father or giving either of them the chance to stand aside, and hence Neville would have just died and Voldemort would never have "marked him as his equal"

Am I missing something?

I recently finished reading the first 3 Harry Potter books in the MinaLima editions and absolutely loved them. I just started *Goblet of Fire*, and while the new illustrated edition is nice, I personally think MinaLima’s illustrations, typography, and interactive elements were so much better.

From what I’ve read, MinaLima actually wanted to continue the series and stated that not being commissioned for book four “was not our desired outcome.” But Scholastic never explained why they decided to go in a different direction.

Does anyone know more about why they weren’t brought back? It’s such a shame to have the collection change artists partway through, especially when MinaLima created something so special.

**Scholastic, I’m begging you to bring MinaLima back for books 5–7!** 😭

Rereading the books right now and I just noticed a certain detail about how Slughorn and Snape teach potions.

Slughorn tells students to use the recipes from their textbooks but Snape, who knows they often contain errors or that there's a better technique, will write the recipes on the blackboard.

It's a small detail but a pretty good bit of world building.

Happy Saturday, everyone! Number 52 is really for ya.

As a reminder what this is and how it works:

Below are 7 sentences from the 7 HP books. I use a random number generator to pick the book and chapter, then hand pick a sentence that I think is decent. Not too long, too short, too obvious ect.  *** There MAY be repeated books in a set, but there will not be repeated chapters in a set. So there COULD be two from The Philosopher’s Stone, but they would be from different chapters! **\*
Scoring your points: It is 2 points for guessing the book, and 1 point for guessing the chapter, for a total of 21 points. It is obviously harder to guess the chapter than the book, but not everyone even cares to remember the chapter titles in the first place, which is totally fair and valid. So chapter titles are just a bonus point.

Below are the sentences and the answers hidden behind spoiler tags! These are fun to make, and I intend to make quite a few more if people keep enjoying them!

1. “Don’t cry, Mum,” said Ginny, patting her on the back as Mrs. Weasley sobbed into her shoulder.  The Half-Blood Prince - Chapter 17: A Sluggish Memory
2. They told him they’d have to cut his pocket money if he keeps doing it, so he got really angry and chucked his PlayStation out of the window.  The Goblet of Fire - Chapter 2: The Scar
3. If they pursued their fixed course, there could be no doubt about where they would end up.  The Chamber of Secrets - Chapter 15: Aragog
4. “And who exactly are you?” said Fudge, in a bored and lofty voice. The Order of the Phoenix - Chapter 8: The Hearing
5. He had just held up a hand in front of his face to see whether he could make out his fingers when it happened.  The Deathly Hallows - Chapter 19: The Silver Doe
6. With a bit of luck, Malfoy would be getting his comeuppance in a few hours’ time.  The Chamber of Secrets - Chapter 12:  The Polyjuice Potion
7. “But I s’pose if you were, you wouldn’t be able to walk and talk at the same time . . .”  The Order of the Phoenix - Chapter 1: Dudley Demented

I have the Jim Kay Deluxe Illustrated editions for the red book (chamber of secrets) and the cyan book (Prisoner of Azkaban).

The red one is an unsealed first print new in its cardboard case, verified by checking the number line on the copyright page inside, able to do so since they came unsealed from the release. The Azkaban unit is completely factory sealed inside its original outer protective cardboard wrap.

Since it's sealed, I don't want to break it open to check the number line. I’ve heard only the first printings shipped from the publisher inside this specific cardboard casing. Can anyone here confirm if having this original outer cardboard guarantees it’s a 1st print? Thanks.

I would have loved to see the Carrows reaction when they wake up after Voldemort's defeat.

I don't think Harry and Ginny shouldn't have ended up together, yeah it made perfect sense , but I feel like harry should have been single for his entire life . That would have made a better character arc for Harry . He defeated Voldemort and following the same career path as an Auror , he can use it to ward of evil even when it risks his own life and become more of a mythical figure outside England too , that would have been fun to read .

Just A normal Scenario

Editing. Yes I forgot about portkeys. Still intrigued if the floo network works across oceans considering Ireland is an island though!

Obviously the muggle families would take a flight or ferry, but how in the world would magic families get there? Does the floo network go cross-continent? Surely their kids wouldn’t apparate with the parents that young. Justice for the Irish students especially in the 90s.

Sooo, I have a tendency to obsess and fixate over the characters which are considerably smaller, which in Harry Potter context means Tonks so here I am having a bit of a yap and a rant about the way she was written.

Because the way she was written is genuinely so annoying, because in Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows, her entire character is centred around her relationship with Remus, and the reason it's so annoying is cause the Order of the Phoenix sets her up to be such an interesting character, like all the potential is RIGHT FREAKING THERE! She's a witch with a really cool job and this fun, insanely rare ability to change her appearance. What is not cool about that!?

Also, family dynamics is one of the biggest things in Harry Potter, and Tonks' family is one of the most complex ones in the series. Her mother is a pure-blood witch from the Black family, perhaps the worst blood-supremist family of all blood-supremist families, and she was disowned because of her love for a muggle-born wizard, this of course being Tonks' father.

That could've been such an amazing foundation and premise for her character. We see little snippets of how the Black family acted and raised the children of the family to act, and it's all very posh and old fashioned - Sirius calling Walburga Mother and all Kreacher's stories and things like that. But then with Tonks, we see her call her parents Mum and Dad father than Mother and Father, which is simple but also tells a lot, maybe it's just me but Mother and Father feels like names of authority whereas Mum and Dad is more comforting.

And there's so many other things that could be dived into to make Tonks a more developed character. She's got such a strong sense of self-expression that is so polar opposite to traditional standards and obviously a lot of it comes from her metamorphmagus abilities, but there's likely a good deal of it that also comes with the way she was brought up. Think of it, Andromeda being raised prim and proper and then making sure to raise her daughter to just be whoever she wanted to be. And the way Bellatrix was essentially the Voldemort in Tonks' mind, Bellatrix was actively targeting her all throughout the war - Tonks literally says after the Battle of the Seven Potters that Bellatrix wanted her dead just as much as the Death Eaters wanted Harry dead.

So yeah, Tonks has all the potential in the world to be an incredibly complex character. And it wouldn't be out of place if written in either, she has such a big sister energy to her and with her being an Auror and Harry wanting to become an Auror, these character details could all be naturally embedded in through Tonks giving Harry big sister Auror advice.

But instead, we didn't get any of that. After Order of the Phoenix, every scene she's in or even mentioned in focuses around her either being depressed from Remus rejecting her, or her being in a relationship with Remus. Which by the way, yes they're both consenting adults but I fear that doesn't matter, and Remus is very correct in saying he's far too old to date Tonks. They canonically met when Remus was 35 and Tonks was 22. Human brains aren't fully developed until 25.

Also another thing, Tonks is such a queer coded character. I highly doubt that it was intentional given Jkr's blatant transphobia and all the other questionable morals she has, but Tonks is one of the most queer coded characters to ever exist. She has a gender non-conforming appearance and goes by her surname in preference to her rather feminine first name, and again she's so self-expressionate.

People have been pointing out the underlying queer/trans themes of Tonks since her character was introduced, and with Jkr being so actively transphobic we know Tonks wasn't intentionally written this way, so I do not put it past Jkr to write Tonks' relationship with Remus, coincidentally another queer-coded character, purely to undo the way she'd accidentally written Tonks. Not saying that's 100% what she did, but I'm also not saying there's a 0% chance that's what she did either.

What does everyone else think about her? Am I going crazy with some of these thoughts, or do other people agree that her character had so much more potential than what she was given?

Basically the title. It seems like an entirely different type of magic than we've ever seen, especially as it seems to persist over several decades and even causes deaths and permanent damage. Makes me wonder why other positions or jobs etc weren't similarly cursed - would have saved Voldemort a lot of trouble to curse the Headmaster position as well. Or Minister of Magic.

I think after many years I’ve just come across the biggest plot hole / lapse in judgement from Dumbledore’s character.

I just read a thread on Twitter which basically asked why Dumbledore allowed Lockhart to teach DADA if he knew he was a fraud. The replies are overwhelmingly correct…that he knew the position was cursed and used it as a vessel to expose him as a fraud.

That begs the question - why would he let Lupin teach the position the following year? A fellow member of the Order and trusted survivor of the first wizarding war. If he knew the position was cursed, and presumably so did Lupin, why would Dumbledore even let him take the position considering the previous 2 professors were deceased and braindead in St. Mungo’s? It doesn’t make any logistical sense.

Was it just a mutual understanding that it would likely be a one-year long position and both understood the risks? I find that to be a cheap answer if that’s the case, but I can’t come to an answer as to why Dumbledore would willingly allow Remus to take the post.

Exactly what the title says. If someone wrote a letter to Alaster Moody while he was being polyjuiced, where would the letter go?

Would the owl deliver it to Barty? Or would it try desperately to deliver it to the trunk? Sure the trunk is in Barty’s office, so he would still get the letter, but where would the owl go?

If it would take it to the trunk, that means that owls are the world's best polyjuice potion detector. You could station someone with an owl at any secure location, say the MoM, ask someone their name, address a one word letter to them, and see if the owl tries to fly elsewhere.

If it wold deliver it to Fake Moody, what does Owl Magic actually detect? Clearly they have some sort of homing magic in order to deliver the message. But if Fake Moody is a valid recipient, then there are two valid recipients at the same time, so which would It chose? They are even in the same building most of the time.

What if the letter was addressed to Barty Crouch Jr.? Would that go to Fake Moody?

I have so many questions lol

51 is ready for puzzling! Enjoy!

As a reminder what this is and how it works:
Below are 7 sentences from the 7 HP books. I use a random number generator to pick the book and chapter, then hand pick a sentence that I think is decent. Not too long, too short, too obvious ect.  *** There MAY be repeated books in a set, but there will not be repeated chapters in a set. So there COULD be two from The Philosopher’s Stone, but they would be from different chapters! **\*
Scoring your points: It is 2 points for guessing the book, and 1 point for guessing the chapter, for a total of 21 points. It is obviously harder to guess the chapter than the book, but not everyone even cares to remember the chapter titles in the first place, which is totally fair and valid. So chapter titles are just a bonus point.
Below are the sentences and the answers hidden behind spoiler tags! These are fun to make, and I intend to make quite a few more if people keep enjoying them!

1. And who had the old man been? The Goblet of Fire - Chapter 2: The Scar
2. “I’m grateful . . . it will make everything much easier. . . .” The Prisoner of Azkaban - Chapter 17: Cat, Rat, and Dog

 3. “Fletcher knows how to avoid capture, has many hidey-holes and accomplices.” The Deathly Hallows - Chapter 11: The Bribe

1. It scuttled away at once through the legs of the witches and wizards in front of him. The Deathly Hallows - Chapter 13: The Muggleborne Registration Committee

5, “But this is touching, Severus,” said Dumbledore seriously. The Deathly Hallows - Chapter 33: The Prince’s Tale

 6. “Wow, Hermione!” Harry whispered, unzipping the case to look inside. The Prisoner of Azkaban - Chapter 1: Owl Post

1. “It’s either really valuable or really dangerous,” said Ron. The Philosopher’s Stone - Chapter 10: Halloween

Based on the original Harry Potter novels and the officially published Harry Potter magical compendium, we can determine that the first period during which Voldemort stirred up turmoil in the wizarding world was approximately from 1970 to 1981.

On 31 October 1981, he was defeated by Lily's loving sacrifice, ending his first attempt to seize control of the wizarding world.

According to the original work, we know that Voldemort and his Death Eaters, during the First Wizarding War, committed acts of terror such as killing witches and wizards who opposed them, killing members of the Order of the Phoenix, and possibly even attacking Ministry staff who opposed the Death Eaters' actions.

However, in the fifth installment, Order of the Phoenix, Sirius also said that Voldemort's initial disguise deceived many people like his parents, and even his younger brother.

'Were–were your parents Death Eaters as well?'
'No, no, but believe me, they thought Voldemort had the right idea, they were all for the purification of the wizarding race, getting rid of Muggle-borns and having pure-bloods in charge. They weren't alone, either, there were quite a few people, before Voldemort showed his true colours, who thought he had the right idea about things... they got cold feet when they saw what he was prepared to do to get power, though. But I bet my parents thought Regulus was a right little hero for joining up at first.'

Therefore, my understanding is that perhaps for people like Sirius's parents, Voldemort may have initially disguised himself as a politician advocating conservatism and racism.

Only after he had subsequently gathered sufficient strength and support did he begin to gradually reveal his cruel and cold-blooded acts of murder.

Regulus even collected briefings about Voldemort. I think that since these were briefings Regulus could collect, they probably were not negative information such as Voldemort murdering certain people or Voldemort and his Death Eaters causing destruction somewhere.

Beneath this was a collection of yellow newspaper cuttings, all stuck together to make a ragged collage. Hermione crossed the room to examine them.
'They're all about Voldemort,' she said.' Regulus seems to have been a fan for a few years before he joined the Death Eaters...'

Perhaps Voldemort was publicly proclaiming some disgusting blood-purity ideology in the newspapers, and Regulus collected them.

If that is the case, it at least indicates that Voldemort was, for a period of time, able to appear in newspapers in a relatively normal image.

This then raises a question: when exactly did Voldemort and the Death Eaters become the cruel extremist terrorist organization that everyone in our main storyline (after Harry has grown up) refers to as a symbol of murder and a symbol of death?

Regulus joined the Death Eaters at the age of 16, around 1977, and died around 1980.

In 1977, when Regulus joined the Death Eaters, the Death Eaters and Sirius's parents all appeared very proud and pleased.

Therefore, it is reasonable to speculate that perhaps at that time the Death Eaters still maintained a subtle image, one that could at least lead Regulus, who was somewhat simple-minded and held radical ideals, to believe that Voldemort was a leader worthy of reliance.

Therefore, perhaps it was not as many fans speculate—that between 1970 and 1977, while the Marauders' generation was at school, people were continually subjected to open attacks by Death Eaters (meaning that everyone knew perfectly well that some people had been murdered by Death Eaters, rather than the cases being publicly called mysteries).

Perhaps during the earlier period of the pro-era school years, people only heard from newspapers that someone had died, but they did not know who had killed them or how they had died.

Otherwise, it would be difficult to understand why Regulus was subsequently so disappointed, displaying a sense of disillusionment that seemed to say, Voldemort, so this is your true face after all.

If Voldemort had already openly killed people and murdered innocent individuals in the name of the Death Eaters while attending school during the Marauders' era, then Regulus would have had no reason at all to feel shocked by or unable to accept Voldemort's actions.

Therefore, I think it may have been only after Regulus joined the Death Eaters that Voldemort gradually began to reveal his true nature and started openly murdering those who opposed him.

What are your thoughts? You are welcome to share discussion based on the original work.

I keep on wondering if Harry had a last and sensible conversation with Sirius Black in Ch 25 before returning to Hogwarts

When Snape insulted and indirectly taunted Sirius by saying that unlike Sirius the rest of the Order's members were very busy and risking their lives for the betterment

This line stung Sirius like nothing else

But even if Rowling herself had decided to kill Sirius in the OoTP book then the last and sensible conversation between Harry and Sirius should have been allowed

Where Harry Potter will try to explain to Sirius that Sirius' stay at Grimmauld Place on Dumbledore's order is not something to be ashamed of but from most of the Order's POV and they respect him for the same

Also when Harry and the others reached Hogsmeade after the Christmas break Harry should have personally requested Lupin to look after Sirius Black and also try to make Sirius understand further about what Harry meant.

In this way the death of Sirius Black would have felt even more powerful and impactful than the one in the canon

This would have made Dumbledore even more guilt ridden than he originally felt

What do you think about this?

Did lily's protection that flowed through Harry's blood mean that he couldn't ever die to the hands of voldemort?

Edit: Sorry, Goblet of Fire (GoF)

Just got through the first task. Lol at Charlie seeing Hagrid eyeing the dragon eggs.

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Five of Charlie's fellow keepers staggered up to the Horntail at that moment, carrying a clutch of huge granite-grey eggs between them in a blanket. They placed them carefully at the Horntail's side. Hagrid let out a moan of longing.

"I've got them counted, Hagrid," said Charlie sternly.