The Harry Potter Lexicon

The Wizard of the month calendar on JKR.com has updated to reveal the new WotM for August 2007 to be…
Rowena Ravenclaw
Medieval (precise dates unknown).
One of the four famous Founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Rowena Ravenclaw was the most brilliant witch of her time, though legend has it that a broken heart - cause unknown - contributed to her early demise.

Her image shows her wearing her diadem (tiara). This rounds out the Four Founders of Hogwarts, and also their “relics” from the story.

The Wizard of the Month calendar on Jo’s official site is showing Happy Birthday wishes for our dear hero, Harry Potter. We would also like to extend our best wishes to Jo herself, who shares her birthday with her boy wizard. Happiest birthday to Harry and Jo!

The Wizard of the Month calendar on JKR.com has updated to wish a Happy Birthday for 30 July to Neville Longbottom! Hurray for the other hero of our story, born as the seventh month dies!

Again, lots of changes being made site-wide today. I enjoy clicking on the character pages especially and seeing the people Lisa has added in. But I wanted to post two big page overhauls I did for places: Godric’s Hollow and the Malfoy Mansion.

On a side note, thanks so much to everyone who’s helped us perfect our pages with little additions or tweaks in the pensieves. We actually want to make sure we maximize our ability to take advantage of your input - so we’re doing a couple of things on this front. First, we’ve set up an e-mail address specifically for comments on new pages, great lists you think we should consider adding, etc. from Deathly Hallows. It’s Book7@hp-lexicon.org.

Second, we’re going to be going through the Pensieves and deleting comments that don’t directly pertain to the posts. Not that we don’t want to hear what you have to say! But there’s a place for general chatter about the books, and that’s our forums. I hope to find you all there, continuing many of these fine discussions.

Thanks for reading and following along, and for understanding that a crew of a handful of volunteers takes time to get high-quality content posted! Don’t worry - we’re still plugging away.

We’ve been doing lots of work around the site today, as you’ve probably noticed if you’ve looked around.

One bigger thing I’ve put together: a page about the Deathly Hallows. Enjoy!

Revised 7/24/07: We have three new character pages! Thanks to Michele Worley we have one for Grindelwald; Lexicon Essays editor Paula Hall has made her character pages debut with Bathilda Bagshot and Xenophilius Lovegood.

I also corrected Hermione’s middle name (the source for the “Jane” was World Book Day), and made a assorted other updates.

If anyone spots high quality fan art of these Xeno, Grindelwand or Bagshot, please let us know (privately, not here), along with contact information for the artist.

Oh. My. Goodness.

We here at the Lexicon have been e-mailing back and forth in total shock and awe over Deathly Hallows. Jo, we can’t thank you enough for this incredible gift.

We also, of course, are excited to throw our full collective energy into site updates. Meaning that spoilers will soon abound - if you haven’t finished the book, close this window now, go buy a copy, and read it. Then come back. We’ll likely be posting to this page a LOT in the coming days.

For the first update, I’ve posted a first draft of the Deathly Hallows day-to-day calendar. I did the calendar for HBP too, but this one was much more challenging - outside of the first month and the week of Christmas, we have almost no specific information to work from. If you find any clues I missed, I’d love for you to post them in the Pensieve and I’ll make a point of checking back and updating.

Looking forward to seeing you here a lot this week!

I have almost finished the book.

Here at Sectus in London the venue looked like a cross between the quietest slumber party in the world and a homeless shelter…with 300 people completely engrossed in Deathly Hallows all night through. As we counted down toward midnight, there were reports of “drive-by spoiling” in Piccadilly, so we stood by the front entrance and checked badges and glared out at the night. Totally ineffectual, but it was kind of fun to do.

I am taking a bit of a break at what has to be the most exciting part. I won’t say much yet, since many of you aren’t finished with it yet, but I will tell you that my head is spinning. I have been laughing and crying in turns, punctuated with little whoops and squees as the story charges along.

Updates…oh my goodness, the updates. We’re on it. Well, we will be. Right now I think I’ll read the past 100 pages!

Oh, and Jo? Thanks. Just…thanks.

I’ve just posted the last essays that will be published before Deathly Hallows, and they should definitely keep our Pensieve humming! An active LiveJournaler, Felicity, has allowed the Lexicon to publish three essays setting forth her theories on Horcruxes: one about the Horcrux described as “Something of Ravenclaw’s or Gryffindor’s,” another about the Hufflepuff Cup, and a third about Nagini. Because the essays make predictions about Horcruxes and presumably (!) Deathly Hallows will reveal all about about them, I’ve rushed the essays into print, so to speak, in the interest of getting them out there, and will be updating the essays through the evening with links to Lexicon sources as indicated.

Enjoy!

The door on jkrowling.com is open once more - this time with a list of acknowledgements for all the wonderful people who helped her through writing the books. Thanks to everyone from us here at the Lexicon, too!

No magic is needed to open the door.

This is it, July 20! The last day before the official release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!
It’s been a long wait, and the anticipation is at a fever pitch. We hope this Countdown has helped pass the time, and offered a chance to look back over the stories in a fun way. So let’s finish it out with posting our favorite ones.

• Dumbledore was the only one You-know-who ever feared.
• Mad-Eye Moody has one normal and one magical eye.
• Only one book in the Hogwarts library has been found to refer to Horcruxes.

and lastly,

• ‘The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…’

All of the Pensieves on the Lexicon will be disabled a short while before the book goes on sale, to allow the Lexicon staff to read and savor before monitoring comments.
Here’s to the magical ending we’ve awaited so long! Enjoy!

It is now July 19th and that means only 2 more days until the release of Deathly Hallows. We are passing the time by thinking of instances from the Wizarding World that correspond to the number of days left. Here are some passages in which the number 2 is important.

• Harry had a Nimbus Two Thousand broomstick.
• The Weasley twins are often referred to as “you two”.
• Fawkes the phoenix gave just two tail feathers for use as wand cores.

Go ahead and add “a couple” to the Pensieve!