“Fleur Delacour, Harry noticed, was eyeing Bill with great interest over her mother’s shoulder. Harry could tell she had no objection whatsoever to long hair or earrings with fangs on them.”
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter “The Third Task”
As it happens, there were several fun questions and we expect to answer more of them in future. We’ll also keep accepting new questions, so do send yours across. Today, though, let’s start with Duncan Taylor’s charming query.
Now, the headline to this Tumblr post is, you’ll soon see, quite literal, because we’re going to talk about the books behind Harry Potter.
That is to say, the ones literally behind Daniel Radcliffe in the following GIF. He’s even bought a special cloak along to help you see more of them. Cheers, Dan.
This scene, depicting Harry in the Restricted Section of Hogwarts’ library comes from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. It was filmed at the Bodleian Libraries, in Duke Humfrey’s Library, our oldest reading room. The lantern, as our Twitter followers will know, is a CG effect: flames of any kind are strictly forbidden in the Bodleian Libraries.
The books stored in Duke Humfrey’s Library are amongst the oldest in our archives, and certainly those we have been looking after the longest. Many of these books have been a part of the collection since the Bodleian opened in 1602, back when we held only 2,500 books or so, and nothing like the 12 million items in our archives today.
At that time, the books and manuscripts were classified with just four shelfmarks, denoting which part of the collection they belonged to, and where they should be shelved.
The subject of medicine was marked Med., while books on jurisprudence were marked Jur. All things theology were marked Th., and art was marked, super-simply, with Art.
The location for Mr. Potter’s misadventure was the Arts End of Duke Humfrey’s Library. Those books, therefore, are those on the subject of art as we classified them in 1602. Most of these books date back to the very first days of the Bodleian as we know it.
You’ll see that the books are chained to the shelves. This was quite normal when the Bodleian opened, and we still keep a demonstration chain in place to show visitors how the chaining system worked. Books are precious, and the chains were an early way to try to prevent their theft.
Since the filming of The Philosopher’s Stone there has been some reorganisation, thanks to the renovation of The Weston Library, which lies across the road from Duke Humfrey’s. Even since then, however, Arts End remains home to Special Collections items with Art. and Th. shelfmarks. When you visit Duke Humfrey’s today, you’ll be seeing the same historical books that young Harry Potter did.
So Rowling had no way of knowing the political climate during the 19 Years Later epilogue, but we do now. So consider this: what kind of world does the Golden Trio live in right now?
Their country is in the middle of Brexit talks, with racism and protectionism at their worst and the magic community isn’t far behind.
Young Pure Bloods march the streets with torches and capes, shouting “They will not replace us!” They wear Deatheater masks and temporary tattoos (oh it’s not the real thing, they’ll wash it off and be back at the office on Monday).
In the news, the authorities call for a cease of violence and ask people not to fight the young pure bloods. In the streets, people talk about talking to them calmly to fix things. Ron is livid. “You don’t reason with bloody Deatheaters! You throw curses at them!”
Hermione’s work for equality in the magical world gets harder every day. She starts getting death threats in her mail, many howlers that leave her in tears. She keeps going. When people insist that every werewolf is dangerous to society and they should all be banned from country, she tearfully remembers Lupin giving his life to protect them all, she remembers Dobby with a knife in his heart and Hagrid with his half giant blood and his giant heart. She keeps fighting.
As much as he hates it —and he hates it a lot— Harry becomes a vocal public figure again, constantly condemning blood purists and calling for action against them. His office calls horrified after the first interview, telling him he can’t be calling for violence against this people who are only protesting. “They are Deatheaters and this is how we deal with them,” he snarls back. “Have you forgotten Voldemort?” On the other side of the line, he can feel them flinch.
No one who fought the war has forgotten it, but so many others seem to, it pains Harry. It’s been barely twenty years since he saw children die in the grounds of Hogwarts, killed by grown angry men who believed themselves superior. It’s been barely twenty years since Tom Riddle’s death body laid on the ground and he thought they could finally have peace.
The trio sends their kids on the Hogwarts Express and they can’t help but remember their experiences there in a time much like this. They never thought their own children would have to suffer as they did, they pray they won’t have to.
Harry touches his lighting scar and reminds himself it hasn’t hurt again for years. All is well. A quiet voice inside his head wonders bitterly: “Is it, really?”
After dropping the kids off at King’s Cross, Harry and Ginny head back to the taxi with Lily.
“I hope he remembered to pack that new underwear I got him,” Ginny says, fidgeting with the seatbelt. It’s one of the few Muggle contraptions that are still a complete mystery for her; no wizarding form of transportation uses seatbelts. Her daughter helps her, rolling her eyes. “It was lying out on his bed this morning.”
“If he does, we can just owl it to him with a howler screaming, ‘YOU FORGOT YOUR UNDERWEAR!’ A great way to make new friends.” Harry glances at the teeming parking behind him as the cab inches away. “Wonder why King’s Cross was so packed with Muggles today. It’s not usually this crowded.”
Ginny stares at him. “Harry, it’s because of you.”
“What?”
“Those books about you. The Muggles love them. They came here because they knew we’d be here today.”
“I don’t understand,” Harry says. “The Muggles think those books are fiction. Why would they come all the way out here if they don’t believe I’m real?”
Ginny lays her hand on his arm, and the twinkle in her eyes reminds him of someone he knew long ago. “Well, as someone wise once said, just because it’s happening inside their heads doesn’t mean it’s not real.”
#IF YOU PAY ATTENTION YOU CAN HEAR MY SOBS IN THE BACKGROUND
I wish I knew the exact time and date that harry told snape ‘there’s no need to call me sir professor’ so that I could take a moment of silence to remember the moment each year
Judging from the context of the chapter…
We know that it’s September 2nd. I’d put it between 9:00 AM and 11:00 AM. (They have breakfast and then a free period. They have Snape’s class before their break, which was before their lunch.)
But in the UK first period typically only starts at 9 AM. So free period from around 9-10 AM and Snapes class from 10-11 AM I’d say.
Okay so 10am-11am every September 2nd is now an hour dedicated to remembering the most glorious piece of dialogue ever spoken by a fictional character
ok this just appeared on my blog with ample time for you all to prepare because apparently I stumbled across it months ago, and scheduled it to post on september first. executive function TRIUMPH!!!!!!!
Worth noting that tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the greatest burn in history
