Magical objects in Harry Potter

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The following is a list of magical objects used in the Harry Potter series.

Contents

Communication[edit]

Enchanted coins[edit]

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Hermione Granger creates fake, enchanted Galleons that are used for communication between members of Dumbledore's Army. Like real Galleons, the coins have numerals around the edge; on normal Galleons these serial numbers indicate which goblin cast the coin, but on the enchanted coins, the numbers represent the time and date of the next meeting, and automatically change to match whatever numbers Harry Potter sets on his coin.[HP5] Due to the coins being infused with a Protean Charm, once Harry Potter alters his, every coin changes to suit. The coins grow hot when the numbers change to alert the members to look at their coins.

In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Draco Malfoy uses a pair of enchanted coins to bypass the communication limits imposed on Hogwarts, thus managing to keep in contact with Madam Rosmerta, whom he had placed under the Imperius Curse. Draco reveals he got the idea from Hermione's DA coins, which were themselves inspired by Lord Voldemort's use of the Dark Mark to communicate with his Death Eaters.

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Neville Longbottom uses the DA's coins to alert people such as Luna Lovegood and Ginny Weasley that Harry, Ron and Hermione have returned to Hogwarts. They then arrive at the Room of Requirement to fight in the Battle of Hogwarts on May 2, 1998.

Howler[edit]

A Howler is a blood-red letter sent to signify extreme anger or to convey a message very loudly and publicly. Upon opening it, the sender's voice, which has been magically magnified to a deafening volume, will bellow a message at the recipient and then self-destruct. If it is not opened or there is a delay in opening it, the letter will start smouldering, explode violently, and shout the message out even louder than normal.[HP2] In the film version, the Howler folds itself into an origami-style set of lips and eyes, and shouts the message out and then shreds itself into scraps of paper before it burns itself.

In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Ron Weasley receives a Howler from his mother, Molly Weasley, after he steals his father's enchanted car and flies it to Hogwarts with Harry. Neville Longbottom confessed that he once got a Howler from his grandmother, stating that he ignored it and that the result was horrible. Subsequently, Neville receives another Howler from his grandmother after Sirius Black uses his list of passwords to enter the Gryffindor Common Room in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Hermione receives one in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire after Rita Skeeter publishes an article about the (fictional) relationship between Hermione and Harry. (In the film version, this incident is not referred to.) Dumbledore sends Harry's aunt, Petunia Dursley, a Howler in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix to remind her of the agreement to allow Harry to live at Privet Drive when Harry's Uncle Vernon attempts to throw him out. (This incident is not referred to in the film version.) In the film Harry receives a Howler from Mafalda Hopkirk to announce he has been expelled from Hogwarts for using underage magic outside school and his wand is to be broken.

Concealers[edit]

Deluminator (Put-Outer)[edit]

Dumbledore is using his Deluminator in the film Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

A Deluminator is a device invented by Albus Dumbledore that resembles a cigarette lighter. It is used to remove or absorb (as well as return) the light from any light source to provide cover to the user. In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Dumbledore uses the Deluminator (then referred to as the Put-Outer)[HP1] to darken Privet Drive, where the Dursley family household is located. It was next seen in Order of the Phoenix where Dumbledore loans the Deluminator to Moody, who uses it when transporting Harry from the Dursleys' home to Number 12, Grimmauld Place. In Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore uses the Deluminator again to darken Privet Drive before collecting Harry.

In Deathly Hallows, it is bequeathed to Ron by Dumbledore. After Ron had left his friends in anger, the Deluminator demonstrated an additional capability, similar to a homing device. Ron hears Hermione through the device as she says his name for the first time since he left, and, when he clicks it, the emitted ball of light enters his body and allows him to locate and Apparate to the vicinity of Harry and Hermione's camp. Rowling stated that Dumbledore left it to Ron because he believed he might have needed a little more guidance than Harry and Hermione.[1]

Invisibility Cloak[edit]

Within the Harry Potter universe, an invisibility cloak is used to make the wearer invisible. All are very rare and expensive, and may be spun from pelts of the Demiguise, magical herbivores that are found in the Far East. They can also be ordinary cloaks with a Disillusionment Charm or a Bedazzlement Hex placed on them. Over time, these cloaks will lose their invisibility ability, eventually becoming opaque and vulnerable to penetration by various spells. Harry's cloak, being one of the three Deathly Hallows, is a true cloak of invisibility, and will retain its invisibility forever. It is also resistant to most simple spells and charms (e.g. the summoning charm).[2] Invisibility cloaks protect the wearer from visual detection only, meaning that even though the wearer cannot be seen they are still solid, and can therefore be felt by physical contact. Alastor Moody's magically charmed eye, is able to penetrate them. The cloak is less effective against some animals, such as cats (e.g. Mrs. Norris) and snakes (e.g. Nagini). The Dementors in the books have no sense of sight and instead sense human despair, a sense unhindered by the use of an invisibility cloak. In addition to Harry's cloak, Moody is known to possess two. One of these was borrowed by Sturgis Podmore in the course of work for the Order of the Phoenix. Barty Crouch, Sr. possessed one as well, which he used to hide his son Barty Crouch, Jr. to prevent him from going to Azkaban, the wizarding prison. Several times in the series, characters have been shown to either suspect or in some other fashion "sense" that Harry is wearing his cloak: Snape is seen to be suspicious when being followed by Harry, even reaching out to grab at (what appears to be) thin air; in Half-Blood Prince, Draco Malfoy realises Harry is in his train carriage and successfully immobilises him with a Petrificus Totalus (Body-Bind) curse, as despite wearing his cloak Harry inadvertently moved objects near him; and in The Chamber of Secrets, Albus Dumbledore senses Harry and Ron beneath it in Hagrid's cabin while talking to Lucius Malfoy during the event when Cornelius Fudge comes to take Hagrid to Azkaban and Lucius Malfoy hands over to Dumbledore his suspension letter.

Dark objects[edit]

Hand of Glory[edit]

The Hand of Glory is described as a large shrivelled hand displayed on a cushion in Borgin and Burkes, a Dark Arts shop in Knockturn Alley. In the film Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, when Harry puts his hand in one, he has difficulty removing it. When a candle is placed in the hand, it gives light only to the person holding it. It was first mentioned in Chamber of Secrets, when Draco and his father, Lucius Malfoy, visited Borgin & Burkes. Lucius denied Draco's request to buy the hand, saying it was a tool for a common thief. In the sixth book, Half-Blood Prince, Draco uses it when leaving the Room of Requirement, escaping from Ron and a few of Dumbledore's Army members after using Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder.

Other dark items[edit]

Forbidden Books include:

  • Sonnets of a Sorcerer, which forces the reader to speak forever in limericks
  • A book that sears the eyes of the reader
  • A book that the reader cannot stop reading or dispose of.

Unnamed items known to be found at Borgin & Burkes:

  • Bloodstained playing cards
  • A staring glass eye
  • Evil-looking masks
  • Human bones
  • Rusty, spiked instruments
  • Long coil of hangman's rope
  • Opal necklace that is cursed and has claimed the lives of nineteen Muggles. It also nearly killed Katie Bell in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, as Malfoy was trying to get it to Dumbledore.

Items known to be found in Knockturn Alley:

  • Poisonous candles
  • Human fingernails
  • Flesh-Eating Slug Repellent, used by Hagrid to kill Flesh-Eating Slugs in Chamber of Secrets when they began to destroy the school's cabbages.

Items which can be found at Number 12 Grimmauld Place:

  • Biting silver snuffbox filled with Wartcap Powder
  • A spidery instrument resembling a many-legged pair of tweezers; tries to puncture Harry's skin, destroyed by Sirius
  • A music box that plays a sinister but compelling tune, putting any listener into an enchanted sleep
  • A grandfather clock that shot heavy bolts at passers-by, which Remus Lupin helped to repair.
  • An ancient set of purple robes that tried to strangle Ron - he was rescued by Mundungus Fletcher, who is said to have 'redeemed' himself somewhat in Mrs. Weasley's mind following his failure to protect Harry from the Dementor attack in Order of the Phoenix.
  • An ornate crystal bottle with a large opal set into the stopper containing what appeared to be blood
  • Claws
  • Rusty daggers
  • Coiled snakeskin
  • A heavy locket that "none of them could open"[HP5] which later turns out to be Slytherin's locket and one of Voldemort's Horcruxes

Deathly Hallows[edit]

The sign of the Deathly Hallows represents all three objects symbolically: the Wand, the Stone, and the Cloak.

The Deathly Hallows are the three magical objects that are the focus of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The form, function, and purpose of each of the Hallows are revealed as the plot of the novel progresses. In the course of their quest to destroy Voldemort's Horcruxes, Harry, Ron, and Hermione learn of the Hallows and The Tale of the Three Brothers, notably through conversations with Xenophilius Lovegood and the wandmaker Ollivander. According to Rowling, the story about how these objects came into existence is based upon Geoffrey Chaucer's The Pardoner's Tale.[3]

According to the tale, the Peverell brothers evaded Death, who then gave them a choice of anything they wanted: the first brother chose a wand that could not be defeated in battle; the second asked for a way to bring back someone from the dead; and the third selected a cloak that made the wearer invisible, even to Death himself. Very few actually believe this story to be true (Dumbledore thinking that the Peverells were simply particularly powerful and ingenious wizard inventors) though many, like Viktor Krum, believe the sign of the Deathly Hallows to be the mark of Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald, as Krum says it had been carved into a wall at his school, Durmstrang, by Grindelwald himself (Grindelwald attended Durmstrang as a child until he was expelled for use of Dark magic).

Harry eventually comes to possess all three Hallows. He does not know until the end of the novel that he has been carrying the Resurrection Stone in the Golden Snitch bequeathed to him by Dumbledore. Draco Malfoy becomes the master of the Elder Wand when he disarms Dumbledore, but it transfers its loyalty to Harry after he takes Draco's wand in a later fight at Malfoy Manor. The Invisibility Cloak he received during his first year, and which had belonged to James Potter, proves to be the third Hallow. After Voldemort's death, Harry uses the Elder Wand to repair his own damaged wand, then decides to return it to Dumbledore's tomb (in the film, he snaps it in two and throws it off a bridge); he also drops the Resurrection Stone in the Forbidden Forest, but decides not to look for it in the hope that no wizard will ever be able to own all three Hallows. He keeps the Cloak, with the thought that he might pass it on to his children someday.

Elder Wand[edit]

The Elder Wand, known throughout history as the Deathstick or the Wand of Destiny,[HP7] is an extremely powerful wand made of elder wood with a core of Thestral tail hair.[4] It is supposedly the most powerful wand in existence, and when used by its true master, they cannot be defeated in a duel; though according to Dumbledore, this is false, for he was able to defeat the legendary dark wizard Grindelwald, who was master of the Elder Wand at that point.[5] It also appears, as the wand is somewhat sentient (as are all wands), that it will not allow itself to cause real harm to its true master. As stated by Mr. Ollivander the wandmaker, the wand will never fully work for the new user unless they directly disarm, stun or kill the previous master. Rowling has stated[citation needed] that the wand is brutal in its choice of master, and that, while most wands have some allegiance to their own masters, the Elder Wand only responds to power. If a master dies naturally without ever being defeated, the wand's power will die for any following owner, since it was never won from the former.

The power of the Elder Wand was first shown in history, as Antioch Peverell, the eldest of the mythical Three Brothers, had a duel with an enemy he had long wanted to defeat. He won, and left his enemy dead on the floor. After boasting of his unbeatable wand, Peverell was robbed in his sleep by a rival wanting to claim the wand, who slit his throat for good measure. Ever since, power-hungry wizards have sought this wand, and it is the Hallow most easy to track through history. It eventually came to the possession of Gregorovitch, a Bulgarian wandmaker. Gregorovitch boasted about possessing the Elder Wand, believing it would boost his popularity, and he tried to reverse engineer its secrets as he faced competition from Ollivander. It subsequently fell to Gellert Grindelwald, who stole it from Gregorovitch. Ultimately Grindelwald was defeated by Dumbledore, who then assumed control of the wand. Dumbledore considered it the "only hallow [he] was fit to possess, not to boast of it or kill with it, but to tame it." Ron stated that this would be the Hallow he would choose, simply because it is the "unbeatable wand", arguing that it was only dangerous to the brother who requested it because he kept on talking about his ownership of it and encouraging people to fight him.

When Dumbledore arranged his own death with Severus Snape, he intended Snape to "end up with the Elder Wand." Because his death would not have been the result of his defeat, Dumbledore hoped this might break the wand's power. However, since Draco Malfoy had disarmed Dumbledore before Snape killed Dumbledore, the plan failed; Draco unwittingly became the wand's new master, even though he never took physical possession of it from Dumbledore, and the Elder Wand was placed with Dumbledore's body in his tomb.

In the final book, Voldemort learns about the wand and goes on a search for it, and eventually learns Dumbledore had possessed the wand. He breaks into Dumbledore's tomb and claims the wand as his own. Assuming incorrectly that Snape is the wand's current master, Voldemort slays Snape, not realising the wand's allegiance was to Draco. Furthermore, the Elder Wand's allegiance had since shifted to Harry, as Harry had subsequently forcefully disarmed Draco and taken his wand (although that was not the Elder Wand). Voldemort never realises that the wand is one of the Hallows, and simply believes it to be a powerful wand. This can be seen by the way he turned the Resurrection Stone into a horcrux, although Dumbledore says that he doubts Voldemort would have any interest in the Cloak or the Stone even if he did know about them.

Only in his final encounter with Harry at the Battle of Hogwarts is Voldemort told he never won the true allegiance of the wand, as he did not gain ownership by defeating its previous owner. Despite this, Voldemort uses the Elder Wand to cast his final Killing Curse against Harry's Expelliarmus charm. Since the wand's allegiance is to Harry, Voldemort's spell backfires and kills him once and for all. Following this, in the book, Harry uses the Elder Wand to repair his own damaged holly and phoenix-feather wand, which he says he was "happier with", and returns the Elder Wand to Dumbledore's grave. In the film, Harry instead snaps the wand in two and throws the pieces off a bridge, to prevent the wand from falling into the wrong hands again.

Rowling revealed in an interview that the first working title for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was Harry Potter and the Elder Wand.[6]

Resurrection Stone[edit]

The Resurrection Stone allows the holder to communicate with the dead. According to the fairy tale concerning the origin of the Deathly Hallows, using the Resurrection Stone drove its original owner, Cadmus Peverell, to commit suicide after seeing his deceased fiancée but being unable to truly be with her. By the time the stone was seen in Marvolo Gaunt's possession, it had been set into a ring that bore the symbol of the Deathly Hallows, which Gaunt believed to be the Peverell coat of arms and used it to boast about his blood purity. Both Dumbledore and Grindelwald desired the stone, but for different reasons. While Dumbledore wanted it to communicate with his dead family, Grindelwald allegedly intended to use it to create an army of Inferi. Harry said this is the Hallow he would desire most, as like Dumbledore he could name people he would like to communicate with again. Voldemort eventually turned the ring into a Horcrux, unaware of its additional magical properties.

Dumbledore recovered the ring from Marvolo's estate, recognising it as both a Horcrux and one of the Deathly Hallows. Forgetting that it was a Horcrux and as such was likely protected by curses laid by Voldemort, and blinded by personal desire, Dumbledore attempted to use the Resurrection Stone to talk to his deceased family. The curse destroyed his hand and began to spread throughout his body. Though the spread was partly contained in the destroyed and blackened hand by Snape, Dumbledore was doomed, having at most a year to live.

The stone was later passed to Harry through Dumbledore's will, hidden inside the Golden Snitch that Harry caught with his mouth, nearly swallowing it, in his first-ever Quidditch match. The Snitch revealed the message "I open at the close" when touched by Harry's lips. Harry is unable to open the Snitch until he is about to die in the Forest, and realises then that "the close" means the end, or his death. Harry uses the Stone to summon his parents, Sirius, and Remus Lupin to comfort him before he confronts Voldemort. The stone slips through Harry's numb fingers in the Forbidden Forest. He and Dumbledore's portrait later agreed that Harry would neither search for it nor tell others where it is. In a 2007 interview, Rowling said she would like to believe that a centaur's hoof pushed it into the ground, burying it forever.[3]

Cloak of Invisibility[edit]

According to the legend, the Cloak of Invisibility has the power to shield the wearer from being seen by Death. It is a true invisibility cloak, in that it is able to completely shield the wearer from sight and cannot be worn out by time or spells; other cloaks will lose their ability to conceal the wearer over time or become worn out, but the Hallow cloak will never fade or become damaged. Hermione claims that this is the Hallow she would choose, citing the usefulness Harry has found of it.

In Deathly Hallows, it is revealed that Harry's Cloak is in fact one of the Deathly Hallows. It originally belonged to Ignotus Peverell. According to legend, he did not trust death and took the cloak to hide from him and only gave it up when he was old and ready for death. After his death, the cloak was passed down from father to son through Peverell's descendants to James Potter.[7] The Cloak was not in James's possession the night he was murdered; he had previously lent it to Dumbledore, who was greatly interested in the Deathly Hallows and suspected that the Potter family heirloom was more than it appeared. Dumbledore returned the Cloak to Harry several years later as a Christmas present during his first year at Hogwarts. Harry uses the Cloak throughout the series in order to sneak around the school on various adventures. Harry's father also used the cloak for similar purposes. It is large enough for Ron and Hermione to accompany him, and they frequently do, although this becomes increasingly difficult as they grow up throughout the series. At the end of Deathly Hallows, Dumbledore explains to Harry that the Cloak's true magic is that it can shield and protect others as well as its owner. This is apparent when it does not respond to a Death Eater's Summoning Charm while concealing Harry, Ron and Hermione in Deathly Hallows.

While making the wearer invisible to Muggles and wizards, some creatures are able to sense people hidden under it. Snakes, for example, cannot see through the Cloak of Invisibility, but they can somehow detect people under it. Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat, also seems to sense Harry when he wears the cloak. Wearers can also be detected by the "Homenum Revelio" spell.[3] In Goblet of Fire, Moody's magical eye could see Harry under the cloak. In Prisoner of Azkaban, Dumbledore warns that the Dementors' perception of humans is unhindered by invisibility cloaks, as they are blind and sense people through emotions.[8]

Detectors[edit]

Foe-glass[edit]

A Foe-glass is a mirror that detects and shows its owner's enemies in or out of focus, depending on how close they are. Like all dark detectors, it can be fooled, as mentioned by Harry in the fifth book at the beginning of the first D.A. meeting. Moody, in reality Barty Crouch, Jr. in disguise, claimed that when the whites of their eyes are visible, he is in trouble. When Moody/Crouch was attacking Harry, he watched Professors Snape, McGonagall and Dumbledore approach the room before they actually got there in the mirror. A Foe-glass is hanging in the Room of Requirement in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix when Harry uses the Room for D.A. meetings.

The Marauder's Map[edit]

The Marauder's Map is a magical map of Hogwarts created by Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black, and James Potter (respectively nicknamed "Moony", "Wormtail", "Padfoot", and "Prongs") while they were students at Hogwarts. During this time, they gained extensive knowledge about the school grounds, such as its various hidden passages, from their frequent night-time adventures together.

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Fred and George Weasley give the map to Harry so he can travel to the village of Hogsmeade through a hidden passageway. The twins had previously stolen the map from a drawer in Filch's office that contained dangerous confiscated objects; it is revealed by Lupin that Filch probably knew what it was but not how to work it. Snape later finds the map in Harry's possession and tries to force it to reveal its secrets, but the map merely mocks and insults him. Lupin (one of the creators of the map), the current Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, is called upon to investigate this "dark object", and confiscates it to keep Harry safe, though he returns it to Harry after resigning his post at Hogwarts. From then on, the map becomes one of Harry's most useful tools in his ongoing adventures.

At first glance, the Map is simply a blank piece of parchment; but when the user points his wand at the Map and says, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good", the message "Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs, purveyors of aids to magical mischief-makers, are proud to present the Marauder's Map," and a detailed layout of Hogwarts appears. Saying, "Mischief managed!" while pointing one's wand on the parchment returns the map to its original blank state. The map displays the location of everyone within the castle and its grounds, and includes the location of secret passageways and instructions on how to access them. Several locations like the Room of Requirement and the Chamber of Secrets do not appear on the map, either as the Marauders did not have any knowledge of them, or, in the case of the former, they are not a fixed location. Furthermore, Animagus disguises, Polyjuice Potion, and Invisibility Cloaks cannot fool the map, as shown in Goblet of Fire when Barty Crouch, Jr., using a Polyjuice Potion to disguise himself as Moody,[HP4] and in Prisoner of Azkaban when Peter Pettigrew, who is supposed to be dead [HP3] but as an Animagus has transformed into a rat, are both displayed on the map.

On the prop version of the map made for the films, the lines are made up of what at first glance are just random letters, but upon closer inspection are Latin words. The series makes no mention of Harry recovering the map from Moody's office, even though he continued to use it in later books; when asked about this discrepancy, Rowling answered that Harry had indeed sneaked into the office and recovered it in the days following the Third Task, and that she had forgotten to include this detail in the book. When asked during an online question session, "What child did Harry give the Marauder's Map to, if any?" (after his school years), Rowling responded, "I've got a feeling he didn't give it to any of them, but that James (Harry's eldest son) sneaked it out of his father's desk one day."[3]

Probity Probe[edit]

A Probity Probe detects spells of concealment and hidden magical objects. The detector made its first appearance in Order of the Phoenix at the Ministry of Magic as a thin golden rod. After Voldemort's return, Probes are used as part of the increased security at Gringotts as well as for scanning the students of Hogwarts for Dark objects. They are last seen when Harry, Ron, and Hermione arrive at Gringotts in The Deathly Hallows to rob Bellatrix Lestrange's vault of one of Voldemort's Horcruxes.

Remembrall[edit]

A Remembrall is a small, clear orb, about the size of a tennis ball, containing smoke that turns red when it detects that the person holding it has forgotten something. Unfortunately, it does not tell the holder what has been forgotten which makes it somewhat worthless. The forgetful Neville Longbottom is sent a Remembrall by his grandmother in Philosopher's Stone. Remembralls are forbidden from being used during the O.W.L. exams, as they would enable students to know if they had written a wrong answer.[citation needed]

Revealer[edit]

A Revealer is a bright red eraser, used to make invisible ink appear. It made its first appearance in Chamber of Secrets when Hermione tried to make hidden writing appear in Tom Riddle's diary.

Secrecy Sensor[edit]

The Secrecy Sensor is a dark detector described as "an object that looked something like an extra-squiggly, golden television aerial." It vibrates when it detects concealment and lies. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Moody mentions that it is, "No use here of course, too much interference—students in every direction lying about why they haven't done their homework." However, it may be that this is because Moody was actually Barty Crouch, Jr. using Polyjuice Potion.[citation needed]

In Order of the Phoenix, Secrecy Sensors are used at the Atrium Desk in the Ministry of Magic upon visitors to the government locale. Later in the book, Harry mentions to Dumbledore's Army that they can be easily fooled like their other dark-detecting counterparts. In Half-Blood Prince, due to Hogwarts' new stringent security measures, Argus Filch is assigned to inspect every student entering the castle with Secrecy Sensors. All the owls flying into Hogwarts, are also placed under this measure to ensure that no Dark object enters the castle through mail. Hermione later explains that although Secrecy Sensors detect jinxes, curses, and Concealment Charms, they cannot detect love potions, as they are not considered Dark.

Sneakoscope[edit]

A Sneakoscope serves as a Dark Arts detector. The device is described as a miniature glass-spinning top that emits shrill noises in the presence of deception, for instance, when an untrustworthy person is near or when a deceitful event takes place nearby.

Sneakoscopes are introduced in Prisoner of Azkaban when Harry receives a pocket-sized version from Ron for his 13th birthday. Bill says that Pocket Sneakoscopes are unreliable, as it lit up and spun at dinner for apparently no reason, but Fred and George had put beetles in his soup without his knowledge. The sneakoscope appears again on the Hogwarts Express, and again in Harry and Ron's dormitory. Harry later discovers that Scabbers, Ron's rat, who is present each time the Sneakoscope is spinning, is actually Peter Pettigrew in Animagus form. In Goblet of Fire, the somewhat paranoid Moody has several sneakoscopes that he somehow disabled (possibly related to a crack it was described as having), claiming, "It wouldn't stop whistling." Moody was later revealed to actually be Barty Crouch, Jr. under the effects of the Polyjuice Potion, thus explaining the constant alerts in his presence. Finally in Deathly Hallows, Hermione gives Harry a Sneakoscope for his seventeenth birthday which they later use as a lookout while in hiding.

Weasley family clock[edit]

The Weasleys have a special clock in their home, the Burrow, with nine hands, one for every member of the family. Instead of telling the time, the clock reveals the location or status of each family member. The known locations are: Home, School, Work, Travelling, Lost, Hospital, Prison, and Mortal Peril. The Weasleys are the only family mentioned in the series to own such a clock. Dumbledore calls the clock "excellent" and seems impressed by it.

The location Mortal Peril is situated where the numeral 12 would normally be. Throughout the first five books, the hands change to reflect the varying statuses of the family members, but by the sixth book, all nine hands point to mortal peril at all times, except when someone is travelling. Mrs. Weasley takes this to mean that, with Voldemort having returned, everyone is always in mortal peril, but she cannot verify this, as she does not know anyone else who has a clock like hers.[HP6]

Games[edit]

Exploding Snap[edit]

Exploding Snap is a wizarding card game in which the cards spontaneously explode during games. The game is popular with Hogwarts students. In Chamber of Secrets, Harry and Ron are held back from investigating why spiders were fleeing Hogwarts because Fred and George delayed them with this game. Ron later singed his eyebrows while building a card house with Exploding Snap cards. In Order of the Phoenix, Lee Jordan is punished by Dolores Umbridge for saying that she cannot tell them off for playing this game, as one of her Educational Decrees states that teachers can only talk to students about the subjects they are paid to teach.

Gobstones[edit]

Gobstones is one of the many magical games played by young wizards in the books, along with Wizard's Chess and Exploding Snap. Gobstones is similar to the Muggle games of marbles and pétanque, except that in Gobstones, the balls spit, or gob, a foul smelling liquid in the face of the opposing player when they lose a point. Hogwarts students are seen playing Gobstones throughout the books, and there is even a Gobstones Club at the school. It is also noted in the Harry Potter series that Eileen Prince (Snape's mother) was captain of Hogwart's Gobstone Club, as a student, at age 15.

Quidditch balls[edit]

The Quidditch balls consist of a Quaffle, a large red ball which the Chasers need to get through the three hoops on the field, gaining ten points each time this successfully occurs; two Bludgers, which fly around attempting to disturb the game and knock people off their brooms, and which the Beaters hit away from teammates and towards the opposing team; and the Golden Snitch, a very fast and difficult-to-see golden orb the size of a walnut with wings, which the Seeker on each team must capture to finish the game and gain 150 points. The Quidditch players wear gloves, leg pads, padded head guards, and occasionally goggles.

Self-Shuffling Playing Cards[edit]

In Chamber of Secrets, a pack of Self-Shuffling Cards is mentioned as one of the various objects littering the floor of Ron's room in the Burrow.[9]

Wizard's Chess[edit]

Wizard's Chess is played with pieces and a board identical to Chess. The rules are also unchanged. The pieces are magically animated, and they violently attack each other when performing a capture, by knocking the captured piece out and dragging it off the board.[10] The players order the pieces to move using algebraic chess notation.

Ron has a wizard's chess set left to him by his grandfather and Harry first plays with pieces borrowed from Seamus Finnigan. It is said[by whom?] that the pieces kept shouting him advice because they did not trust him.[HP1] Harry later gets a set of his own in one of his wizard crackers during his first Christmas at Hogwarts.

During the climactic chapters of Philosopher's Stone Harry, Ron and Hermione become human chess pieces in a life-sized game of Wizard's Chess, which Harry wins thanks to Ron's advice and sacrifice as a piece. In the films, the chess pieces are depicted using replicas of Lewis Chessmen.

Horcruxes[edit]

Four of Voldemort's Horcruxes

A Horcrux is an object used to store part of a person's soul, protecting him or her from death. If the body of the Horcrux's creator is destroyed, the person is still able to survive. When the body of a Horcrux owner is killed, that portion of the soul that had remained in the body does not pass on to the next world, but will rather exist in a non-corporeal form capable of being resurrected by another wizard, as in The Goblet of Fire. If all of someone's Horcruxes are destroyed, then the soul's only anchor in the material world would be the body, the destruction of which would then cause final death.

This method was chosen by Voldemort to attain immortality. The concept is first introduced in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, though Horcruxes are present in earlier novels without being identified as such. Rowling uses Horace Slughorn's expository dialogue to reveal that the creation of a Horcrux requires one to commit a murder, which, as the supreme act of evil, "rips the soul apart".[11] After the murder, a spell is cast to infuse part of the ripped soul into an object, which then becomes a Horcrux. Rowling has never published the actual enchantment. In the final book of the series, Hermione finds the spell in a book titled Secrets of the Darkest Art.[12] Rowling has revealed that she intends to detail the process and spell used to create a Horcrux in her long-mentioned Harry Potter Encyclopedia.[13]

Both inanimate objects and living organisms have been used as Horcruxes, though the latter are considered riskier to use, since a living being can move and think for itself. There is no limit to the number of Horcruxes a witch or wizard can create. As the creator's soul is divided into progressively smaller portions, they lose more of their natural humanity and the soul becomes increasingly unstable. Consequently, under very specific conditions, a soul fragment can be sealed within an object without the intention or knowledge of the creator. While the object thus affected will, like any Horcrux, preserve the immortality of the creator, it does not become a "Dark object".[14] For example, Voldemort has unusual control over Nagini,[15] and consequently Nagini is able to communicate with Voldemort about the presence of Harry in Godric's Hollow in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Horcruxes made from inanimate objects are extremely difficult to destroy. They cannot be destroyed by conventional means such as smashing, breaking, or burning. To be destroyed, a Horcrux must suffer damage so severe that repair through magical means would be impossible. Very few magical objects or spells are powerful enough to achieve this (mentioned and used were the Fiendfyre, Gryffindor's Sword and Basilisk fang, the last two only being able to inflict such damage due to the basilisk venom permeating them both). Once a Horcrux is irreparably damaged, the fragment of soul within it is destroyed. A Horcrux can be deliberately magically undone only if the creator goes through a process of deep remorse for the murder committed to create the Horcrux. The pain of this remorse can be so excruciating that the process may kill the creator.[HP7]

Voldemort's creation of Horcruxes is central to the later storyline of the Harry Potter novels. As the number seven is a powerful number in magic, Voldemort intended to split his soul into that many pieces, with six Horcruxes and the last piece reposing within his body.[16] When Voldemort attacked the Potter family, he inadvertently created the sixth Horcrux, Harry. When his body was destroyed by the rebounded Killing Curse, a piece of his soul splintered off and attached itself to the only living thing remaining in the room, Harry Potter, which made Harry a Horcrux. Later on, Voldemort, unaware of Harry being the sixth Horcrux, went on to complete his collection of the intended six Horcruxes by turning his snake Nagini into one, thus fragmenting his soul into a total of eight (counting the one residing in his own body), not seven, pieces. Complicating things even further, no more than six Horcruxes (including Harry) ever existed at any one time in the series: by the time Nagini had been made a Horcrux, one of the Horcruxes (Tom Riddle's diary) had already been destroyed.

All of Voldemort's deliberately created Horcruxes were made using objects that had been important to him or that held some sentimental value. He hid some of them carefully so that no one could find and destroy them, but used Nagini to do his bidding on several occasions, and the diary was always intended to be a weapon to carry out Voldermort's plan to remove Muggle-borns from Hogwarts. Even without magical protection, Horcruxes cannot be destroyed by any means of wand usage or physical force. In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry intentionally destroys the diary with a Basilisk fang,[17] although unaware it was a Horcrux at the time, to free Ginny from its influence. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the discovery of the diary is revealed as the proof that leads to Dumbledore beginning the hunt for other Horcruxes, as it not only gives absolute proof that Voldemort split his soul, but also that there were likely other, better protected artifacts, given the risk Voldermort was taking by using the diary as a weapon.

Rowling revealed in Pottermore that Quirinus Quirrell served as a temporary Horcrux when Voldemort's soul possessed his body during Harry's first year at Hogwarts. A notable difference however is that the piece of soul within Quirrell was able to exist without its container, as it abandoned Quirrell and left him to die in the underground chambers. Based on this, the animals that Voldemort inhabited during his years of exile, such as rats and snakes, can also be considered as temporary Horcruxes.

Marvolo Gaunt's Ring[edit]

Tom Riddle created his first Horcrux using a ring owned by his maternal grandfather, Marvolo Gaunt, during the summer before his fifth year as a student at Hogwarts, when he was fifteen years old. He casts the spell after murdering his Muggle father. The ring is introduced during the fourth chapter of Half-Blood Prince, having already been destroyed by Albus Dumbledore. In a Pensieve memory, it is revealed that Riddle had taken the gold ring, which has a black stone inscribed with a magical symbol, from his uncle Morfin Gaunt, whom he had framed for the murder of his father and grandparents by altering his uncle's memories. Riddle wears the ring while still a student at Hogwarts, but eventually hides it in the house where the Gaunt family had lived. It remains hidden under the floorboards, placed in a golden box and protected by several enchantments, until Dumbledore finds it during the summer break between the events of Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince. Dumbledore destroys the first Horcrux with Godric Gryffindor's sword, though he is mortally injured by the ring's curses after putting the ring on his finger. The injury leaves his right hand permanently disfigured and would have killed him quickly if not for the intervention of Severus Snape, who slowed the curse to Dumbledore's withered right hand and arm, but could not stop it from eventually killing him, had it run its course.[18] The damaged ring is kept for a time on a table in the Headmaster's office.

Before his death, Dumbledore hides the ring's black stone inside a Golden Snitch and he bequeaths the Snitch to Harry in his will. Dumbledore had learned the stone is, in fact, the Resurrection Stone, one of the three Deathly Hallows. This was why he had put it on his finger: he had hoped to activate it and apologise to his long-dead family, forgetting it was also a Horcrux and thus likely to be protected by destructive enchantments. Voldemort remained unaware of the stone's additional magical properties throughout his lifetime, Dumbledore noting that Voldemort's fear of death and lack of loved ones would have given him no reason to be interested in the Stone for its original purpose, and doubting that Marvolo would have been remotely interested or aware of the Stone's true history.

Tom Riddle's Diary[edit]

Tom Riddle used his diary to create his second Horcrux during his sixth year at Hogwarts. He cast the spell after murdering his fellow student Moaning Myrtle using the Basilisk. The diary is introduced in the thirteenth chapter of Chamber of Secrets and is destroyed by Harry Potter during the climax of the same book.

Before Voldemort's downfall, he entrusted the Horcrux to Lucius Malfoy. While aware of its corrupting magical properties, Malfoy did not know the diary was a Horcrux, Voldemort having informed him of its value as a weapon but believing that he would be in a position to coordinate Malfoy's use of it. In an attempt to discredit Arthur Weasley as well as dispose of an incriminating Dark object, Malfoy hid the diary in Ginny Weasley's cauldron amidst her other books. Tom Riddle's soul-fragment possessed Ginny and, through her, reopened the Chamber of Secrets, eventually starting to draw her life from her. At the end of book two, Harry saved Ginny and destroyed the diary by stabbing it with the venomous fang of a Basilisk, making it the first Horcrux (in the novels) to be destroyed. His reports of the diary's behaviour to Dumbledore were the latter's first inkling that Voldemort might have created not just one Horcrux, but several: "What intrigued and alarmed me most was that the diary had been intended as a weapon as much as a safeguard",[19] implying that Voldemort must have had backups of some sort. It is also mentioned that Malfoy was meant to wait for Voldemort's say so before allowing the diary to be smuggled into Hogwarts, and that he never received it before Voldemort's first defeat; Voldemort didn't know the diary was destroyed until he forced the truth out of Lucius, deeply enraging him at the manner Lucius had so blithely endangered a fragment of his soul.

To Rowling, a diary is a very scary object, having said in an interview: "The temptation particularly for a young girl, is to pour out her heart to a diary." Rowling's little sister Diane was prone to this, and her great fear was that someone would read her diary. This gave Rowling the idea to have a diary that is, in itself, against the confider.[20] When asked what would have happened if Ginny had died and Riddle had managed to escape, Rowling declined to give a straight answer, but revealed that "it would have strengthened the present-day Voldemort considerably."[21]

Helga Hufflepuff's Cup[edit]

Tom Riddle used a cup owned by Hogwarts cofounder Helga Hufflepuff to create his third Horcrux. The spell was cast after he murdered Hepzibah Smith by poisoning her. The cup is introduced during the twentieth chapter of Half-Blood Prince and is destroyed by Hermione Granger in the thirty-first chapter of Deathly Hallows.

Hepzibah Smith, who owned the cup, was a distant descendant of Helga Hufflepuff. Riddle killed Smith, stole the cup, then framed her house elf Hokey for the crime. Voldemort entrusted the cup to Bellatrix Lestrange, who kept it protected in her vault at Gringotts Bank, a place to which Harry guessed a once penniless Voldemort would have always coveted a connection. Additional protective spells, including the Gemino (multiply curse) and Flagrante (fire curse) curses, were used to protect the contents of the vault. Harry, Ron and Hermione, with Hermione disguised as Lestrange, broke into the bank and stole the cup. Hermione later destroyed the Horcrux using a fang from the remains of the Basilisk still in the Chamber of Secrets.

Salazar Slytherin's Locket[edit]

Riddle created his fourth Horcrux using a locket once owned by Salazar Slytherin, which had once belonged to Riddle's mother, Merope Gaunt. The spell was cast after Riddle murdered a Muggle tramp.[1] The locket is introduced briefly in Order of the Phoenix (described only as "a heavy locket that not one of them could open") and is destroyed by Ron Weasley in the nineteenth chapter of Deathly Hallows.

Slytherin's locket was passed down through the generations and eventually ended up in the possession of Merope Gaunt. After being abandoned by her husband Tom Riddle Sr., Merope sold the locket to Caractacus Burke, shopkeeper of Borgin & Burkes, for 10 Galleons, a small fraction of the locket's true value. The locket was eventually sold to Hepzibah Smith. Riddle stole the locket, along with Helga Hufflepuff's cup, after murdering Smith. Once the locket became a Horcrux, Voldemort hid it in a seaside cave where he had once terrorised two of his fellow orphans. The cave's magical protection included a door that could only be opened with a blood offering, an enchanted boat, a basin of potion that causes pain and horrific visions to the drinker, and the use of Inferi. Dumbledore and Harry Potter pursued the locket in The Half-Blood Prince only to find a fake one at the bottom of the basin.

Disillusioned Death Eater Regulus Arcturus Black had learned about the Horcrux and its hiding place from his house elf Kreacher, whom he had originally volunteered to accompany Voldemort to hide the Horcrux. In an effort to bring about Voldemort's eventual downfall, he and Kreacher navigated the magical protection and stole the locket, replacing it with the false one to fool Voldemort. While Black died in the effort, killed by the surrounding Inferi, Kreacher took the locket back to their home at Number 12, Grimmauld Place. Unable to destroy it like Black ordered, Kreacher continued to protect the locket for years. While the Order of the Phoenix was using the house as its headquarters, the locket was stolen by Mundungus Fletcher, a petty criminal and member of the Order. He gave it to Dolores Umbridge as a bribe when she caught him selling stolen property.

Two weeks after learning these details, Harry, Ron, and Hermione infiltrated the Ministry of Magic, where Umbridge worked, and stole the locket. Ron later saved Harry from being strangled by it when he wore it around his neck while attempting to retrieve the sword of Godric Gryffindor from the bottom of a lake in the Forest of Dean. When Ron attempted to destroy the locket, the fragment of soul inside assumed the shape of Harry and Hermione and played on Ron's fear that his two friends had started a romantic relationship during his absence. Briefly at this point, Ron's eyes gleamed scarlet, like Voldemort's. Ron destroyed the locket using the sword of Gryffindor in the same forest.

Rowena Ravenclaw's Diadem[edit]

Lord Voldemort created his fifth Horcrux using Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem. The diadem is introduced by name in Deathly Hallows, but actually first appeared in The Half-Blood Prince, described as "a tarnished tiara" in the Room of Requirement. Ravenclaw's daughter, Helena, stole the diadem from her mother in an attempt to become more intelligent than her mother. She fled to Albania, where she hid the diadem in the hollow of a tree when the Bloody Baron searched for her. After Helena was murdered by the Bloody Baron, she became the Ravenclaw house ghost and Tom Riddle, while a student at the school, charmed her into telling him the location of the diadem. Shortly after leaving Hogwarts and after the murder of Hepzibah Smith, he travelled to Albania and seized the artefact.[22] Voldemort murdered an Albanian peasant to turn the diadem into a Horcrux.[1] Years later, when Voldemort returned to Hogwarts, reapplying for the Defence Against the Dark Arts position but denied the job by Albus Dumbledore, he hid the diadem in the Room of Requirement. Because Voldemort believed himself to be the only one to have discovered the Room, he never placed any curses around the diadem.[22]

In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry first comes into contact with the diadem when he hastily hides Snape's old potions book in the Room of Requirement. The diadem was mentioned merely as an "old discoloured tiara" in the sixth book; Harry used it to help mark the spot so he could later find where he placed the book. Later, after having the diadem described to him by the Ravenclaw ghost, Harry recalls this scene and hurries to retrieve it from the Room.[22] The diadem was unintentionally destroyed by a Fiendfyre curse cast by Vincent Crabbe as he, Gregory Goyle, and Draco Malfoy attacked Harry, Ron, and Hermione inside the Room.[22] In the film version, Harry stabs the diadem with another basilisk fang and Ron kicks it into the Room of Requirement, as the Fiendfyre reaches the door.

Harry Potter[edit]

When Voldemort attempted to murder Harry Potter, he inadvertently sealed a fragment of his soul within the boy and turned him into the sixth Horcrux. The event took place just before the opening chapter of Philosopher's Stone. Rowling has explicitly stated that Harry never became a proper "Dark object" since the Horcrux spell was not cast.[14] Regardless, as with all Horcruxes, Voldemort would remain immortal so long as his soul fragment remained within Harry.[23] That portion of Voldemort's soul is unintentionally destroyed by Voldemort himself at the close of the thirty-fourth chapter of The Deathly Hallows with the help of the Elder Wand.

As a baby, Harry Potter was in the room when Voldemort's fatal Killing Curse backfired. Voldemort's soul had been weakened and destabilised by his continuous murders and the creation of his previous Horcruxes. Harry became a Horcrux when a fragment of Voldemort's soul attached itself to him after the unsuccessful curse. The lightning bolt-shaped scar on Harry's forehead is a direct result of this attempted murder, and the connection that formed as a result is used to explain several important plot points. Throughout the series, Harry is able to receive insight into Voldemort's mental and emotional states, allowing the reader to eavesdrop on the series' primary antagonist. This insight is usually accompanied by pain in the scar on Harry's forehead. Through Voldemort, Harry also inherited the ability to speak and understand Parseltongue. It is also revealed by Rowling in an interview that Harry's frequent pain in his scar when Voldemort is either active, nearby, or feeling strong emotions, is really the trapped bit of soul yearning to depart from Harry's body and rejoin its master's soul.[24] This yearning was one of the reasons why the Killing Curse used by Voldemort on Harry in the Forbidden Forest destroys Voldemort's Horcrux within Harry but only sends Harry into a limbo-like state. Harry could return to his body despite being hit by the Killing Curse because when Voldemort used Harry's blood to regain his full strength in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, it protected Harry from Voldemort killing him.

While Voldemort did learn of Harry's telepathic connection, Voldemort was never made aware that Harry was inadvertently protecting a portion of his soul. With this destroyed, the connections between the two were also broken, and Harry never again felt pain in his scar. Rowling revealed Harry has also lost the ability to speak Parseltongue.[1] In the epilogue of the film, the scar has faded to an ordinary looking scar on Harry's forehead.

Nagini[edit]

Main article: Nagini (Harry Potter)

The seventh Horcrux was Nagini, the snake Voldemort had with him constantly. She is the only living Horcrux apart from Harry Potter. This Horcrux was created by Voldemort when he was hiding in the forests of Albania; the victim of murder who led to its creation was Bertha Jorkins. He found Nagini, and becoming smitten by the snake, turned it into a Horcrux, being connected with it.[1] In the last chapter of Deathly Hallows, Nagini was killed by Neville Longbottom using the sword of Godric Gryffindor. The destruction of the last remaining Horcrux made Voldemort mortal.

Legendary magical artifacts[edit]

Goblet of Fire[edit]

The Goblet of Fire is a goblet made of wood and is used at the beginning of every Triwizard Tournament. It is used solely to choose the participating school champions, serving as an "impartial judge."[HP4] Slips of parchment with the names of potential candidates are placed in the Goblet and, at the designated time, a representative from each school is chosen when the slip of parchment containing their name spouts forth from the Goblet in a fountain of magical fire. The fake Moody stated once that the Goblet of Fire was "an exceptionally powerful magical object" and it is very difficult to hoodwink, unless someone uses an exceptionally strong Confundus Charm.

During its use in Goblet of Fire, it is placed in the entrance hall and surrounded by an "Age Line", a charm placed by Dumbledore to prevent underage wizards from entering the tournament. Anyone underage would grow a long white beard, as the Weasley twins demonstrated when they attempted to fool the goblet with an Ageing Potion. When not in use, the Goblet is kept in a jewelled casket in Dumbledore's closet.

Godric Gryffindor's Sword[edit]

The Sword of Godric Gryffindor is a goblin-made sword adorned with large rubies on the pommel. It was once owned by Godric Gryffindor, one of the medieval founders of Hogwarts. In Chamber of Secrets, Harry draws the Sword out of the Sorting Hat to kill a Basilisk. The sword also plays a key role in Deathly Hallows, where it is revealed to have become imbued with Basilisk venom following its use against the Basilisk, as it "only takes in that which makes it stronger". It is subsequently used to destroy three of Voldemort's Horcruxes.

Because the Sword was goblin-forged, it is indestructible, and according to Griphook the goblin, the Sword was originally forged by the goblin Ragnuk the First and "stolen" by Gryffindor, as The Sword was taken by Griphook when the Sword fell from Harry's grasp during the raid on Bellatrix Lestrange's vault in book seven. The sword returned to wizard hands, when Neville pulled it out of the Sorting Hat and used it to decapitate Nagini, Voldemort's snake. This shows that no matter where the sword happened to be at the time, it will reappear in the Hat when a true member of Gryffindor house is in need of it.

Rowling has confirmed that Gryffindor did not steal the sword from Ragnuk and that this belief is merely part of Griphook's goblin mistrust and prejudice against wizards.[25] <-- It was revealed on Pottermore [Reference at end of paragraph] --> Godric Gryffindor commissioned Ragnuk the First to make the sword for him under his specifications. Once Ragnuk had made the sword, he was so fond of it that after he had presented it to Gryffindor, he told the goblins it had been stolen and sent minions to retrieve it for him. Gryffindor defeated the goblins using magic and instead of killing them, he bewitched them to go back to Ragnuk and say that if he tried to take the sword again, he would use it against them. The king took the threat seriously, but still insisted it had been stolen from him until the day he died.[26]

It is mentioned in the Deathly Hallows that the Sword of Gryffindor is supposed to be in Bellatrix Lestrange's vault, placed there by Severus Snape. Unknown to Bellatrix, that sword was only a replica.[clarification needed] When Harry, Ron and Hermione were captured and brought to the Malfoy Manor, she spotted the sword near one of the Snatchers, who intended to keep it. She killed him and forced the rest out of the room, then tortured Hermione for information about the sword. But at Harry's request, Griphook lied and said that the sword was a forgery. Bellatrix's reaction to having her vault possibly broken into convinced Harry that the Horcrux was also placed in her vault.

Philosopher's Stone[edit]

Based upon the ancient alchemical idea of the Philosopher's stone, the Philosopher's stone is a stone, owned by Nicolas Flamel and first mentioned in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. The stone is legendary in that it changes all metals to gold, and can be used to brew a potion called the Elixir of Life, making the drinker immortal. The Philosopher's Stone is seen only in the first and last book. It was destroyed at the end of the book by Dumbledore with Flamel's agreement.

Sorting Hat[edit]

The Sorting Hat is a sapient artefact used at Hogwarts, which uses Legilimency (essentially, the ability to read minds) to determine which of the four school houses – Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherin – each new student is to be assigned. The hat resembles a dilapidated conical leather wide-brimmed wizard's hat, with folds and tears that make it appear to have eyes and a mouth. During the opening banquet at the beginning of each school year, the Hat is placed on every first-year student's head. The Hat announces its choice aloud, and the student joins the selected house. The Hat speaks to the student while they're being sorted and is willing to take the student's preferences into account when it makes its decision. Sometimes it does not have the need to do so: for instance, the Hat barely touched Draco Malfoy's head before sending him to Slytherin. The Sorting Hat had a difficult time placing Harry, almost placing him into Slytherin house before he requested specifically and emphatically not to be. The Hat instead placed him into Gryffindor, the house of his parents. Rowling has stated the reason for the Hat's indecision as to which house to place him into was because it sensed the part of Voldemort's soul within Harry.[citation needed]

The Sorting Hat is notorious for refusing to admit it has made a mistake and sticking by its original decision, even when it is obvious the student has been placed in the wrong House. The Hat has made few errors over the centuries it has worked in Hogwarts.[clarification needed]

The Sorting Hat originally belonged to Godric Gryffindor, one of the four founders of Hogwarts. The four founders used to hand-pick the students for their houses, but then realised someone else would have to do it after they died, so Gryffindor took off his hat, enchanted it, and let it choose. Since then, the Sorting Hat has always been used to choose which house the students are put in. Due to its age, it appears "patched and frayed and extremely dirty." Before Sorting the students each year, the hat recites a new introductory song. These songs occasionally warn of danger to come, as in Order of the Phoenix. The Sorting Hat's songs vary in length and content, but always include a brief description of each house.

The Sorting Hat has shown the ability to conjure the Sword of Gryffindor from under its brim, as shown on two instances. Both times it is used to kill snakes; in Chamber of Secrets, it provides the sword to Harry to kill the Basilisk, and in Deathly Hallows, it delivers the sword to Neville. Dumbledore makes it clear in Chamber of Secrets that only a true Gryffindor can summon the sword in this fashion. In Deathly Hallows the Sorting Hat is set on fire by Voldemort, although it appears the hat was not destroyed, as Neville was able to draw the Sword of Gryffindor from it immediately after and decapitate Voldemort's snake Nagini. In the epilogue at the end of Deathly Hallows, the Hat's survival is confirmed, as Harry tells his youngest son that the Hat would take his preference into consideration.

According to Pottermore,[citation needed] a Hatstall is 'an archaic Hogwarts term for any new student whose Sorting takes longer than five minutes. This is an exceptionally long time for the Sorting Hat to deliberate, and occurs rarely, perhaps once every 50 years. Of Harry Potter's contemporaries, Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom came closest to being Hatstalls. The Sorting Hat spent nearly four minutes trying to decide whether it should place Hermione in Ravenclaw or Gryffindor. In Neville's case, the Hat was determined to place him in Gryffindor: Neville, intimidated by that house's reputation for bravery, requested a placing in Hufflepuff. Their silent wrangling resulted in triumph for the Hat.'

In the Harry Potter films, the Sorting Hat is voiced by actor Leslie Phillips.

Mirrors[edit]

The Mirror of Erised[edit]

The Mirror of Erised is a mystical mirror discovered by Harry in an abandoned classroom in Philosopher's Stone. On it is inscribed "erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohs i". When mirrored and correctly spaced, this reads "I show not your face but your heart's desire." As "erised" reversed is "desire," it is the "Mirror of Desire." Harry, upon encountering the Mirror, can see his parents, as well as what appears to be a crowd of relatives; Ron sees himself as Head Boy and Quidditch Captain holding the House Cup, thus revealing his wish to escape from the shadow of his highly successful older brothers, as well as his more popular friend, Harry. Dumbledore cautions Harry that the Mirror gives neither knowledge nor truth, merely showing the viewer's deepest desire, and that men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they see.

Dumbledore, one of the few other characters to face the Mirror in the novel, claims to see himself holding a pair of socks, telling Harry that "one can never have enough socks," and lamenting that he did not receive any for Christmas, since people will insist on giving him books. However, Harry suspects that this is not true, and it is suggested in Deathly Hallows that what he really sees is his entire family alive, well and happy together again, much like Harry.[27]

The Mirror of Erised was the final protection given to the Philosopher's Stone in the first book. Dumbledore hid the Mirror and hid the Stone inside it, knowing that only a person who wanted to find but not use the Stone would be able to obtain it. Anyone else would see him or herself making an Elixir of Life or turning things to gold, rather than actually finding the Stone, and would be unable to obtain it. What happens to it afterwards is unknown.

Two-way mirrors[edit]

In Order of the Phoenix, Sirius gives Harry a mirror he originally used to communicate with James while they were in separate detentions. That mirror is a part of a set of Two-way Mirrors that are activated by holding one of them and saying the name of the other possessor, causing his or her face to appear on the caller's mirror and vice versa. Harry receives this mirror from Sirius in a package after spending his Christmas holiday at Grimmauld Place. Harry, at first, chooses not to open the package, although he does discover the mirror after Sirius's death, by which point it is no longer functional. It makes its second appearance in "Deathly Hallows" when Mundungus Fletcher loots Grimmauld Place and sells Sirius's mirror to Aberforth Dumbledore, who uses it to watch out for Harry in Deathly Hallows. When Harry desperately cries for help to a shard of the magical mirror (which broke in the bottom of his trunk), a brilliant blue eye belonging to Aberforth (which Harry mistakes for Albus's eye), appears and he sends Dobby, who arrives to help Harry escape from Malfoy Manor to Shell Cottage.

Photographs and portraits[edit]

The photographs and portraits in the world of wizards are not stationary like in the Muggle world. They move around within the frame and from one portrait to another, and are also able to talk if they are developed in a certain potion. A portrait of the Fat Lady is used in Hogwarts to cover the door to the Gryffindor common room and opens only when she is given the password. Also, there are various paintings of old Headmasters and Headmistresses of Hogwarts in Dumbledore's office, and he is shown to be in discussion with them from time to time. He also uses the portrait of Phineas Nigellus, Sirius Black's great grandfather, to communicate with Sirius and to keep a watch at the Order's Headquarters through another portrait of Phineas in the house. The headmaster portraits are special, not simply due to the fact that they appear in them because of their death. The reason for this is that part of their soul stays behind in their portrait.

Prank objects[edit]

Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes[edit]

Prank objects from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes are made and designed by the owners of the shop, Fred and George, who test their new creations on themselves and other Hogwarts students.

  • Weasley's Wild-fire Whiz-Bangs are enchanted fireworks that have overly spectacular and remarkable effects.
  • Skiving Snackboxes are sweets that are designed to make the eater ill in order to skip or "skive off" class. Each variety of Snackboxes causes a different effect, such as vomiting, fainting or developing nosebleeds. One end of the sweet causes the malady, while the other end subsequently cures it. The snackboxes include: nosebleed nougat, fever fudge and puking pastels.
  • Patented Daydream Charms are kits that put the user into a realistic 30-minute daydream which they imagine, and can easily be customised so as to be fitted into any lesson.
  • A Headless Hat creates a limited field of invisibility that covers the wearer's head, giving him or her the appearance of not having a head. Its counterpart is a Shield Hat, which deflects minor hexes and curses. Though Fred and George design the Shield Hat to be a trick item, Ministry officials are impressed by its practical value and order 500 of them for protection of the Aurors. Shield Cloaks and Shield Gloves are also on sale following the Shield Hat's success.
  • Trick Wands are magical fake wands that turn into a silly item (rubber chickens, tin parrots, etc.) when someone tries to use them. More expensive varieties beat the unwary user about the head and neck.
  • Ton-Tongue Toffees make the eater's tongue temporarily grow to an alarmingly large size, as read about in Goblet of Fire when Fred "accidentally" drops some in front of Dudley, who subsequently eats one they "forgot" to retrieve.
  • Canary Creams make the eater turn briefly into a large canary; when the effect wears off, the person moults and returns to normal.
  • U-No-Poo causes the consumer to have constipation, or as Fred and George refer to it: "The constipation sensation that's gripping the nation." Its name is a play on "You-Know-Who", commonly used to refer to Voldemort.
  • Extendable Ears are long flesh-coloured strings, one end of which is inserted into a user's ear and the other end placed further away towards a conversation or sound. Much like a listening device, the user will be able to hear the sounds as if they were much closer to the source. They were first introduced by Fred and George Weasley in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, when they used the ears to listen to the Order's meetings, until one was destroyed (and eaten) by Crookshanks.
  • Portable Swamps are, as the name suggests, realistic pop-up swamps. They were first seen in Order of the Phoenix after Umbridge is renamed Headmistress. Fred and George set one off in a corridor, partly as a distraction for Umbridge so Harry can use her fireplace, and partly to just cause general mayhem. They seem to be reasonably difficult to remove: Umbridge cannot remove it and forces Filch to punt students across, while Professor Flitwick vanishes it almost instantly later on in the novel. (He leaves a small patch untouched as a tribute to Fred and George, who have left Hogwarts by this point.)
  • Decoy Detonators are described as black horn type objects that will run out of sight, and make a noise giving the user a good distraction. Introduced in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. First used by Harry while breaking into Dolores Umbridge's office at the Ministry of Magic in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

There are also prank items which the Weasleys import from elsewhere, such as:

  • Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder, which throws an area into darkness that cannot be penetrated by wandlight or any magical means, although the effect wears off in a few minutes. Draco Malfoy uses it to avoid members of Dumbledore's Army in Half-Blood Prince. It is also used in the Half-Blood Prince film by Harry in order to gain access to the luggage space above Draco Malfoy's table on the Hogwarts Express.

Zonko's Joke Shop[edit]

Zonko's Joke Shop was a favourite place for Hogwarts students to shop on Hogsmeade trips. It carried "jokes and tricks to fulfill even Fred and George's wildest dreams." Such products include Hiccough (Hiccup) Sweets, Frog Spawn Soap, and Nose-Biting Teacups. Fred and George tried to buy the place to expand their shop in Hogsmeade during Harry's sixth year, but they turned it down due to the dark times coming up.

Other prank objects[edit]

Other prank objects include Belch Powder,[28] Dungbombs (which explode and cause a large and extremely smelly mess), and Ever-Bashing Boomerangs (which hit their target repeatedly after being thrown). Fanged Frisbees are quite literally normal Frisbees with fangs and are first mentioned in Goblet of Fire as one of Filch's newest restricted items during Dumbledore's start-of-term speech. However, they make their first appearance in Half-Blood Prince when Ron whirled one around the Gryffindor common room, it changed course with a mind of its own, and took a bite out of a tapestry. Most of these objects are banned at Hogwarts due to the possibility of injury.

More objects include Screaming Yo-Yos, which scream very loudly when worked, and Stink Pellets, which are used to distract prefects and teachers, and give a most unpleasant smell.[28]

Storage receptacles[edit]

Hermione's handbag[edit]

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Hermione used an Undetectable Extension Charm on her beaded handbag, significantly enlarging the bag's internal dimensions without affecting its physical size. As well, the mass of the objects placed in her handbag is negated, making the bag easy to carry. Bags similar to this appear in other contexts, such as the "bag of holding" in Dungeons and Dragons or the "magic satchel" in many other games. Hermione uses it to carry everything they need when they travel across the United Kingdom on their hunt for Horcruxes.

Mokeskin pouch[edit]

Mokeskin pouches are a type of draw-string pouch that can be operated only by the owner. Harry receives one as his 17th birthday present from Hagrid, using it to store several items of personal significance, such as the Golden Snitch, his broken wand, the false locket, the shard of Sirius' mirror and the Marauders' map.

Moody's Magical Trunk[edit]

Alastor Moody owns a strangely bewitched magical trunk. It has seven locks on it, and the trunk opens to a different assortment of objects for each lock. Most notably, though, the seventh compartment is about 10 feet (3.0 m) deep (possibly because of the use of an Undetectable Extension Charm), and is where Barty Crouch Jr. imprisoned the real Moody. Other compartments contain spellbooks, Dark Detectors, and Moody's Invisibility Cloak.

Pensieve[edit]

A Pensieve is a stone basin used to review memories. Covered in mystic runes, it contains memories whose physical form is neither gas nor liquid. A witch or wizard can extract their own or another's memories, store them in the Pensieve, and review them later. It also relieves the mind when it becomes cluttered with information. Anyone can examine the memories in the Pensieve, which also allows viewers to fully immerse themselves in the memories stored within, much like a magical form of virtual reality.

Users of these devices view the memories from a third-person-point-of-view, providing a near-omniscient perspective of the events preserved. Rowling confirmed memories in the Pensieve allow one to view details of things that happened even if they did not notice or remember them, and stated "that's the magic of the Pensieve, what brings it alive."[29] The memories contained in the Pensieve have the appearance of silver threads. Memories that have deteriorated due to age, or that were heavily manipulated or tampered with to alter perspectives (such as Slughorn's), may appear thick and jelly-like and offer obscured viewing. Memories are not limited to just those of humans, since Hokey the house-elf provided Dumbledore with a memory as well. It makes its last appearance in Deathly Hallows when Harry uses it to uncover the truth about Snape.

In the fourth film, the Pensieve in Dumbledore's office conforms to the description given in the novel. However, in the sixth and eighth films, it appears as a shallow metal dish, floating in midair and filled with a mercury-like liquid. During the eighth film, Harry removes it from the stone basin so he can use it to examine Snape's memories.

Transportation[edit]

Arthur Weasley's Ford Anglia[edit]

Arthur Weasley owned a Ford Anglia 105E that he subsequently enchanted; consequently, the vehicle can fly, become invisible, and carry the entire Weasley family in spite of its formerly non-enchanted interior dimensions (also the Undetectable Extension Charm), among other abilities. In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the car is borrowed by Fred, George and Ron, who use it to rescue Harry from the Dursleys' house. Ron and Harry later steal the car in order to return to Hogwarts after the gate to Platform 9¾ is sealed by Dobby. After they arrive at school, landing in the Whomping Willow, the car ejects Harry, Ron, and their luggage, then flees into the Forbidden Forest, ignoring Ron's pleas for it to come back. Mr Weasley soon faces an inquiry at the Ministry of Magic, as seven Muggles saw the car flying across the countryside, and is forced to pay a large fine.

The car reappears when Harry and Ron visit Aragog in the forest: when the great spider's colony of acromantula attempt to devour Harry and Ron, the car attacks the spiders and carries the boys to safety. The car does not return to the Weasleys despite saving Ron and Harry, choosing instead to remain on its own. The car's current condition is undisclosed; Ron had commented that the enchanted vehicle had become "wild" and thus operated autonomously, like a wild animal. In theory, it might still exist when the characters' children attend Hogwarts.

The 1962 Ford Anglia used in the film was acquired by Rupert Grint, who plays Ron Weasley, and is currently displayed in the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu.[30] A total of 14 Ford Anglias were destroyed during the filming of the scene where the car crashes into the Whomping Willow.

A replica of the car in its feral state can be seen in the queue line for the Dragon Challenge roller coaster at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure theme park. Occasionally it blinks its headlights and honks its horn when its motion detectors sense that guests are standing in front of it or walking by it.

Broomsticks[edit]

Broomsticks are used for transportation by witches and wizards of all ages, and for participating in the game of Quidditch. Their use is similar to that of flying carpets, although the latter are banned in Great Britain by the Ministry of Magic. However, they are uncomfortable for extended trips, even with a cushion charm applied, and thus many wizards favour other means of transport for those journeys.

Broomsticks are treated as a major consumer product in the wizarding world. There are numerous manufacturers and models of brooms, including Cleansweeps and Comets, all of which vary in their capabilities. These range from expensive high-performance models to toy broomsticks for young children that fly only a few feet off the ground to family-sized broomsticks that seat multiple people and include a luggage compartment below the seating area.

Since Harry plays Quidditch, his broomsticks - a Nimbus 2000 and later a Firebolt - are prominent in the series. The Nimbus 2000 was given to him by special consent of Dumbledore via Minerva McGonagall, who had chosen him as the Gryffindor Seeker.[HP1] The Firebolt was given to him by his godfather Sirius Black as a Christmas gift after his Nimbus was destroyed by the Whomping Willow tree during a Quidditch match.[HP3] The Firebolt remains the fastest broom in the world, having surpassed the previous record holder, the Nimbus 2001 (which Draco Malfoy owns and which his father Lucius Malfoy had given as gifts to the entire Slytherin team as a bribe to have Draco as their Seeker). The price of the Firebolt is so high it is only available upon request.[HP3]

Floo Powder[edit]

Floo Powder as seen in Chris Columbus' film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Floo Powder is a glittering powder used by wizards to travel and communicate using fireplaces. It was invented by Ignatia Wildsmith (1227–1320) and named after the flue, which is the passageway that leads from a fireplace to the chimney and allows hot gases to escape.

Floo powder can be used with any fireplace connected to the Floo Network. To transport from one to another, the fire at the point of departure must first be lit. The traveller throws a handful of Floo powder into the flames, turning them emerald green, then steps into the fireplace and states the intended destination in a clear and purposeful voice. Floo powder can also be used for communication; a wizard or witch can kneel in front of the fireplace and stick their head into the fire, which will then appear in the fire of the destination fireplace, leaving the witch or wizard free to talk. It is also known that other body parts may be transported via Floo Powder, as Umbridge almost catches Sirius the second time he converses with Harry through the Floo network. Voices can also be transmitted through the Floo Network, as seen in the Prisoner of Azkaban by Snape, who summons Lupin through his office's fireplace while interrogating Harry about the Marauder's Map.

In Chamber of Secrets, the Weasleys travel to Diagon Alley using Floo Powder. Harry did not say "Diagon Alley" clearly enough due to coughing in the fire's smoke and ashes, so he was sent to Borgin and Burkes in Knockturn Alley. In the fourth book, Mr. Weasley uses his position at the Ministry to have the Dursleys' fireplace temporarily connected to the Floo Network, unaware that it had been blocked. Sirius uses the network to communicate with Harry in the same book. In the fifth book, Harry uses the Gryffindor fireplace and later Umbridge's fireplace to communicate with Sirius; he is forced to use the latter because Umbridge begins monitoring all other lines of communication in and out of Hogwarts.

The Floo Network is controlled by the Ministry of Magic. The Ministry also has over 700 fireplaces in its headquarters so that officials and workers can go directly to/from work without the hustle and bustle of travelling on brooms or by Portkey - or the indignity of having to flush themselves in through a public toilet, as portrayed in Deathly Hallows.

According to Pottermore,[citation needed] the only licensed producer of Floo Powder in Britain is Floo-Pow, a company whose Headquarters is located in Diagon Alley. No shortage of Floo Powder has ever been reported, nor does anybody know anyone who makes it. Its price has remained constant for one hundred years: two Sickles a scoop.

Flying carpets[edit]

Flying carpets are thick rugs, usually highly patterned and often manufactured in the Middle East, that are enchanted with the ability to fly.[original research?] Flying Carpets were once an accepted form of travel for the British magical community, but they are banned due to being defined as a Muggle Artifact[31] by the Registry of Proscribed Charmable Objects. It is therefore against British wizarding law to charm carpets or fly them, although they are still legal in other countries. Mr. Weasley was heavily involved in the introduction of this legislation due to his position in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office. It is revealed that the ban was relatively recent, not only due to Mr. Weasley's involvement, but also because Barty Crouch's grandfather owned and operated a 12-seater Axminster before flying carpets were prohibited.

Hogwarts Express[edit]

Main article: Hogwarts Express

The Hogwarts Express is the train which transports Hogwarts students to and from the school at the beginning and end of each term. It also transports willing students home for the Christmas holidays. It is stationed in Hogsmeade when not in use, and it can be accessed only by using the magical wall between the platforms 9 and 10.

Knight Bus[edit]

The Knight Bus is a heavily enchanted purple triple-decker Regent Three class bus that transports witches and wizards. It is hailed just like in hitchhiking, but instead of the thumb, the wizard has to hold his wand hand out to hail the Knight Bus. It makes its first appearance in Prisoner of Azkaban when Harry unintentionally hails it by holding his wand hand out. Harry has a final ride on the Knight Bus with a number of his friends in Order of the Phoenix. The Knight Bus is faster than travelling by broomstick, but not as fast as near instantaneous Floo Powder and Apparating. The bus charges for the service based on distance; Harry is charged a base fare of 11 Sickles to travel from Little Whinging to The Leaky Cauldron. Amenities such as hot-water bottles, toothbrushes, and hot chocolate are available for a small additional fee.[HP3]

The bus functions as a convenient form of public transportation for the wizard or witch who cannot or will not choose another means of transportation. The riders are seemingly picked up by the bus from all over in-universe Great Britain, bringing passengers to the destinations of their choice with seemingly no set route. It bolts through the streets entirely invisible to Muggles and causes other objects to dodge it (instead of the other way around) for short distance-travel. For longer distances, the Knight Bus makes 160 km (hundred-mile) leaps, accompanied by a great bang and jolt. The interior of the bus changes depending on the time of day, having seats by day and beds by night. It is also highly uncomfortable, according to Ron and Harry. Its only mentioned limitation in travelling is that it is unable to voyage through water.

The conductor of the Knight Bus is Stan Shunpike, and its driver is Ernie Prang. In the third film, Ernie is accompanied by a talking shrunken head voiced by Lenny Henry.

As revealed in Pottermore,[citation needed] the Knight Bus was first commissioned in 1865 as a method for underage or infirm wizards to transport themselves discreetly. The idea was proposed by then-Minister of Magic Dugald McPhail, after a number of other ideas such as broomsticks with sidecars were vetoed, taking inspiration from the then-relatively-new bus service.

The actual Knight Bus seen in the film adaptation was built by grafting the top deck of a London AEC Regent III RT bus onto the top of another "RT" bus. Both buses were originally built for London Transport; the "RT" was the standard London diesel-powered double-decker bus of which approximately 4,000 were built from 1939 until the mid-1950s (and were used in daily service until 1979). The actual bus used was RT3882 (registration LLU681), with the additional top deck from former RT2240 (registration KGU169). Parts of RT 4497 (OLD 717) were also used.[32]

Portkeys[edit]

Portkeys are first mentioned in Goblet of Fire by Mr. Weasley. They are an alternative to Apparation but can also be used to transport a group of people at once. Created by using the Portus spell, a Portkey can be set to transport anybody who touches it to a designated location or to become active at a predetermined time and transport itself and anyone touching to its set destination.[HP4] It may be created for one-way, one-time use or to transport the holder to and from a particular place in a round trip. The creation of Portkeys is highly restricted and controlled by the Department of Magical Transport, Portkey office. Cornelius Fudge objects to Dumbledore spontaneously creating one, stating that Dumbledore hasn't got authorisation; and at one point[specify] Lupin says, "... it's more than our life's worth to set up an unauthorised Portkey."[HP5]

Any object can be used as a Portkey; it is common practise to select old, worthless items, to discourage unsuspecting Muggles from picking them up and activating them[HP4]. Portkey objects used in the Potter series include a football and an old Wellington boot. Once the Portus charm is cast upon an object, it glows blue and vibrates gently; once settled it has become a Portkey. When Portkeys are activated, users feel the sensation of a hook being jerked from behind their navel. The floor disappears from beneath their feet, leaving their last position behind them, and they fly forward through a whirlwind of colour and sound, appearing suddenly at their destination.[HP5] With enough practice it is possible to achieve a graceful landing: After the Portkey trip to the Quidditch World Cup in the fourth film, Mr. Weasley, Cedric and Amos Diggory land on their feet, while the less experienced teenagers, including Harry, fall on the ground.

Sirius Black's Enchanted Motorbike[edit]

Sirius Black owned a flying motorbike, which he lent to Hagrid the night Harry's parents died. It is first seen when Hagrid delivers the baby Harry to Number 4, Privet Drive in the first book, and then again when Hagrid uses it transport Harry to a safe house in the seventh volume. In Deathly Hallows, various modifications have been made to the bike by Mr. Weasley, allowing it to create a brick wall or a net that erupts from the exhaust pipe and to shoot dragon fire from the exhaust, impelling the bike's sudden acceleration. The dragon-fire feature is used to great effect by Hagrid and Harry when being chased by Voldemort; however, Mr. Weasley did warn that he was unsure of its safety and that they should use it only in an emergency. He was right to say this, as the sidecar of the motorbike, unaffected by Hagrid's magic dislodged after the abrupt acceleration.

The bike is severely damaged when, with Hagrid and Harry aboard, it crashes into Ted and Andromeda Tonks's garden pond. Mr. Weasley covertly tells Harry that he plans to put the bike back together when "he has time", meaning when Mrs. Weasley is distracted or has forgotten about it. He hides it in the chicken coop and manages to repair it, giving it to Harry between the end of Deathly Hallows and the epilogue. The bike is now still in Harry's possession, but he doesn't use it.

Time-Turners[edit]

A Time-Turner may be used for short-term time travel. Hermione receives a Time-Turner from McGonagall in Prisoner of Azkaban, enabling her to attend more than one class simultaneously. Hermione is ordered to keep it a secret from everyone, including Harry and Ron, although they do notice the suspicious impossibility of her schedule and several bizarre disappearances and reappearances. Hermione lets Harry and Ron in on the secret near the end of the book, when she and Harry use the Time-Turner to save Sirius Black and Buckbeak. Feeling the strain from her heavy course load, she finally returns the device to McGonagall at the end of the novel.

A large supply of Time-Turners is kept at the Ministry, as seen in Order of the Phoenix; however, during the events of that book, a glass-fronted cabinet containing the Time-Turners is destroyed. Due to their time-affecting properties, the cabinet is seen to fall, shatter and repair itself repeatedly. In Half-Blood Prince, Hermione quotes an article in The Daily Prophet which stated that "the entire stock of Ministry Time-Turners" was destroyed during that incident. The books do not discuss who else may be in possession of Time-Turners outside of the Ministry. Time-Turners are very dangerous when in the wrong hands, as it's said that many wizards met their demise after confronting and accidentally killing their own selves from the future so they are issued very carefully.

Hermione's Time-Turner resembles a gold hourglass pendant on a necklace; it is unclear if all of them do. The user twists the hourglass pendant, with the number of twists corresponding to the number of hours of back travel required.[33]

Vanishing Cabinet[edit]

The Vanishing Cabinet is a cabinet located in the Room of Requirement at Hogwarts that is a part of a set of two. The other cabinet resides in Borgin and Burkes. If used properly, a person who steps into one of the cabinets will instantly emerge from the other.

The Vanishing Cabinet is first seen in Chamber of Secrets when Harry hides in it to elude the Malfoys after accidentally traveling to Borgin and Burkes via the Floo Network; its transportation features are not activated as he does not shut the Cabinet completely. Its Hogwarts counterpart is also mentioned in Chamber of Secrets when Nearly Headless Nick persuades Peeves the Poltergeist to drop it (thus breaking it) over Filch's office in order to help Harry escape detention for tracking in mud. It was also used in Order of the Phoenix by Fred and George when they forced Montague, the Slytherin Quidditch captain and member of the Inquisitorial Squad, into it when he tried to take house points from Gryffindor. Draco then learns of Montague's experience, discovering transportation is possible between the two Cabinets and the other is located in Borgin and Burkes. In Half-Blood Prince he manages to fix the broken one at Hogwarts so as to transport the Death Eaters into the highly secured castle.

Though this set is the only one mentioned in the book series, the film version of Half-Blood Prince reveals that they were popular when Voldemort first came to power, as they would allow people to make a quick getaway from Voldemort and his Death Eaters in an emergency.

Writing equipment[edit]

Anti-Cheating Quill[edit]

The Anti-Cheating Quill, a quill with an anti-cheating charm on it, first mentioned in Philosopher's Stone.[PS Ch.16] In book five they are assigned to every O.W.L. student – and presumably those taking other exams – in order to prevent students from cheating in their written exams.

Auto-Answer Quill[edit]

The Auto-Answer Quill is a quill that has been bewitched so that when the quill touches a question on a piece of parchment it writes the answer instantly. The quill is banned from the O.W.L. Examinations and the inks are checked out every time the test is on.[OP Ch.31]

Blood Quill[edit]

The Blood Quill is a torture quill used by Umbridge throughout the Order of the Phoenix to punish students that she has given detention. It is described as having an unusually sharp black nib. As the user writes, the quill magically and very painfully cuts into the back of the user's hand and uses his or her blood for ink. In the fifth book, Harry has detention with Umbridge on several occasions; he is required to write lines (I must not tell lies) and is not released from this until Umbridge believes "the message has sunk in." When carried out repeatedly over an extended period, this leads to permanent scarring, as Harry shows Scrimgeour in the last two books. The scars tingle whenever Harry hears Umbridge's name, but it is not clear whether this is psychological or akin to Harry's forehead scar hurting whenever Voldemort is active. Another victim of this form of detention is Lee Jordan; in the film adaptation of the book, members of Dumbledore's Army are forced to use these quills as well. Blood quills are considered illegal to own.

Magical Quill[edit]

According to Pottermore, the Magical Quill is a magical object which detects the birth of a child with magical capabilities. It is located in Hogwarts School, where it records the children's names in a large book. Professor McGonagall consults the book and sends out the subsequent Hogwarts acceptance letters by owl once the child turns eleven. It has been made very popular due to its use in registering users for the closed beta of Pottermore.[34][dead link]

Quick Quotes Quill[edit]

A Quick Quotes Quill is a stenographic tool, acid green in colour, employed by Rita Skeeter to spin the words of her subjects into a more salacious or melodramatic form. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Skeeter uses the quill to interview Harry about his participation in the Triwizard Tournament for her column in The Daily Prophet. Harry continually tries to alert her to the inaccuracy of the quill; however, she continually ignores him. Additionally, in Deathly Hallows, Rita mentions in her Daily Prophet interview concerning her posthumous biography of Dumbledore that her Quick Quotes Quill helped her to write the book so quickly after his death.

Spell-Checking Quill[edit]

The Spell-Checking Quill temporarily corrects spelling as the user writes; however, once the charm wears off it constantly misspells words, even if the user writes them correctly. The most notable example is its misspelling of Ron's name as "Roonil Wazlib" in Half-Blood Prince. It is sold through Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, the joke shop opened by Fred and George Weasley.

Other uncategorised objects[edit]

These objects remain uncategorised as they are the only ones in their field.

Cauldron[edit]

Cauldrons are magical receptacles in which potions are brewed. They can be bought at the Cauldron Shop in Diagon Alley. There are many different sizes and materials for cauldrons; Hogwarts asks students to buy a simple pewter size 2 cauldron, though in the first book Harry expresses a longing for one of pure gold.

In Goblet of Fire, Percy Weasley writes a report on cauldrons for his new Ministry job in the hope that it will push regulation of the thickness of cauldron bottoms, as he believes foreign imports are a safety risk.

Gubraithian fire[edit]

Gubraithian Fire is an everlasting magical fire that may only be created by extremely skilled wizards. Hagrid and Madame Maxime gave a bundle of Gubraithian fire, conjured by Dumbledore, as a gift to the Gurg (leader) of the giants during their attempts to sway them to Dumbledore's side.[HP5]

Omnioculars[edit]

Omnioculars are a pair of magical brass binoculars used by Harry, Ron and Hermione in the fourth book during the Quidditch World Cup. Omnioculars, besides having the magnification capabilities of binoculars, have many other useful features. For example, they have the ability to slow down or replay something seen through the lenses, although a side effect is that the view in the lenses is not current and can lead to confusion as to the state of the match. They also have a play-by-play feature, where the names of moves performed by Quidditch players is shown in bright purple letters across the Omnioculars' lenses.[HP4] Omnioculars also have the ability to list the names and numbers of the players, and can zero in on players rapidly.

Spellotape[edit]

Spellotape is magical adhesive tape. The name is a play on Sellotape, a popular brand which has become a generic name for transparent adhesive tape in the United Kingdom.[35][36] It is used by Ron in Chamber of Secrets to repair his wand after he breaks it while trying to halt Mr. Weasley's flying car. It is also used by Hermione in Prisoner of Azkaban when she binds her Care of Magical Creatures textbook to prevent it from biting her, and by Kreacher to mend a photo of Bellatrix Lestrange later in the series. It is used by Ginny in "The Goblet of Fire", who was mending her copy of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi textbook.

Wand[edit]

A wand is a wooden stick-like object used to channel magical energy and thus increase its power, and without which only limited magic is possible. Wands are used as both tools and weapons in the wizarding world. They are thus an important aspect of nearly all magic, and great importance is placed on wand mastery. Wands are generally carried inside the wizard's robes or otherwise somewhere on their person; however, they can also be placed into other objects. For instance, Rubeus Hagrid hid the broken halves of his wand inside his umbrella, and in the film adaptations, Lucius Malfoy hides his wand in his cane. In the magical world, when a wizard is expelled from Hogwarts, their wands are snapped in half. This type of damage to a wand is nearly irreparable, though Harry is able to mend his wand, which was accidentally broken by Hermione, with the help of the powerful Elder Wand.

A wand is made by a wandmaker who is learned in wandlore, the study of wands. Wands are handcrafted from high-quality woods, or "wandwoods", which are capable of sustaining magic (e.g. holly, yew, ebony, vinewood, mahogany, cherry, oak, etc.). A core is then inserted into the middle of the wand from top to bottom. Common cores include phoenix tail feathers, unicorn tail hairs, and dragon heartstrings. Veela hair is also used, but less commonly. In the Deathly Hallows, the Elder Wand is described as the only wand with a core made from the tail hair of a Thestral.[4] The only wand shop seen in the books is Ollivanders. Garrick Ollivander is a wandmaker who has an eidetic memory concerning wands, as well as the ability to identify the distinguishing features of a wand. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Ollivander is seen to evaluate two foreign wands: Viktor Krum's, whose wand was crafted by Gregorovitch, was unusually thick and had a dragon's heartstring core; Fleur Delacour's, created by an unknown wandmaker, was made of rosewood with a core of Veela hair. Ollivander believes Veela hair produces "temperamental" wands and does not use it.

A wand is generally considered a very personal object. Wands belonging to other wizards can be borrowed, resulting in a comparatively less potent effect. In Philosopher's Stone, Harry had to try out many wands before he found one that "chose him." Wands with cores from the same source give strange effects (Priori Incantatem) when forced to fight each other, as is the case with Harry and Voldemort's wands. In Goblet of Fire, it is revealed each of their wands contains a tail feather from Fawkes, the phoenix belonging to Dumbledore. After Priori Incantatem, the wands get to know the opposites' master, as explained in Deathly Hallows. While, according to Ollivander, any object can channel magic if the wizard is strong enough, wands are the most commonly used because of their efficiency (due to the owner's bond with the wand itself). This can explain how some wizards are able to use spells without wands (for example, retrieving an item with Accio).

Furthermore, wands are able to be won from a witch or wizard and can therefore change their allegiance. This is the case when Harry takes Draco's wand at Malfoy Manor, and consequently the wand's allegiance swaps to Harry, as explained by Ollivander; and, by extension, so does the allegiance of the Elder Wand, which itself has changed hands many times.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e "J.K. Rowling Web Chat Transcript". The Leaky Cauldron. 30 July 2007. Retrieved 30 July 2007. 
  2. ^ Rowling, J. K. (2007). "The Tale of the Three Brothers". Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Bloomsbury. ISBN 1551929767. 
  3. ^ a b c d "Online Chat Transcript". Bloomsbury. 31 July 2007. Retrieved 31 July 2007. 
  4. ^ a b "Extra Stuff". J.K.Rowling Official Site. Archived from the original on 2007-12-08. 
  5. ^ The Tales of Beedle The Bard – Page 104
  6. ^ Transcript of live web interview with Bloomsbury
  7. ^ "J.K. Rowling Web Chat Transcript". Accio Quote. 30 July 2007. Retrieved 19 October 2000. 
  8. ^ "Harry Potter at Bloomsbury". Bloomsbury.com. Retrieved 25 November 2011. 
  9. ^ Rowling, J. K. (1998). "The Burrow". Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Bloomsbury. ISBN 0747538492. 
  10. ^ Mark Weeks (July 23, 2005). "Elsewhere on the Web: Harry Potter Wizard Chess". Archived from the original on 2005-10-22. 
  11. ^ Rowling, J.K. (2005). Half-Blood Prince (in English). London: Bloomsbury Publishing, et al. p. 465. UK ISBN 0-7475-8108-8.
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  15. ^ Mentioned by Dumbledore to Harry in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
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  19. ^ Rowling, Half-Blood Prince (Arthur A. Levine Books edition), pp.500
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  30. ^ Beaulieu Motor Museum: On Screen Cars
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