This talk was delivered at the Harry Potter Academic Conference at Chestnut Hill College, October 20, 2023. “The Wandmaker,” Chapter 24 of Deathly Hallows, is a chapter of extraordinary range and eloquence. The writing is unapologetically mysterious, almost inscrutable but worth re-reading together. It starts with Dobby’s death. Harry pulls an all-nighter to dig Dobby
Happy birthday, Severus Snape! We don’t know the exact January date that Dumbledore told him he’d have to teach Harry Occlumency, but it would certainly be typical of this character’s luck if it happened on his birthday, wouldn’t it? Let’s take a look at those lessons and see what was going on in Snape’s mind
Seventh blog post about Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. Yes, the Fantastic Beasts film series is about World War II. It is significant that Queenie and Tina Goldstein are Jewish, and that will become more apparent in later films. The final showdown between Dumbledore and Grindelwald takes place in 1945. The series locations will continent-hop, with
Sixth blog post about Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. Did Leta Lestrange temporarily host an Obscurus before passing it to Credence? That was a listener theory from Episode 75 of the SpeakBeasty podcast and it seized my imagination immediately. It would make a lot of things click. The Absence of Love We learn in this movie
Fifth blog post about Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. Grimmson, a “beast hunter for hire,” is the opposite of Newt Scamander. When the Ministry wants someone to kill Credence to prevent Grindelwald from using him as a weapon, Grimmson looks at an image of Credence’s face and says, “Is that it?” “It.” Not “him.” Newt
Third blog post about Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. The first two posts: “Closer Than Brothers” and “Your brother seeks to destroy you.” Who is Credence Barebone? He’s not Credence Barebone. That name was given to him by the Puritanical adoptive mother he killed. He had a story before he had that name. He’s not
Spoiler alert! If you haven’t yet seen Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, be warned that the following blog post contains spoilers. When a hostile Ministry official accuses Dumbledore of once being “as close as brothers” with Grindelwald, Dumbledore corrects him: “We were closer than brothers.” What did that mean? Possibly over 99% of the theater
Note: Dear good people, do not do what I did. Do not throw out everything you prepared for writing a 20-minute talk on the day before the talk is scheduled because you’ve just realized that there’s something you really have to write about, so you have to scrap everything and start over. That was not a
Seventh and final blog post spurred by reading The Life and Lies of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore by Irvin Khaytman. The final chapter of Irvin’s book addresses the similarity between Dumbledore’s storyline and Snape’s. In the chapter of Deathly Hallows called “The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore,” Harry and Hermione lay out the terms of the debate.
Further reflections spurred by reading The Life and Lies of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore by Irvin Khaytman. In the Half-Blood Prince chapter, Irvin starts with the moment that Dumbledore is injured by the ring Horcrux and then branches out into complex speculation about what Dumbledore might have been thinking during his final year, as he prepared Harry to
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