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This article descibes various magical objects in the Harry Potter universe.
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.
Broomsticks are used for transportation by wizards and witches of all ages and for the game of Quidditch. Portkeys and Floo Powder (see below) also provide transportation. Licensed wizards of age will sometimes apparate.
A complete culture exists for broomsticks as exists for cars in the real world. There is a catalogue for broomsticks; models in the series include the Nimbus 2000, the Firebolt, the Cleansweep Seven, and the Comet Two-Sixty.
Floo powder is a green powder used by wizards to travel and communicate using fireplaces. The name comes from the word flue (the passageway which leads from a fireplace to the chimney so hot gases can escape).
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.
In the second book the Weasleys traveled to Diagon Alley by Floo powder; Sirius used it to communicate with Harry in the fourth book. In the fifth book, Dolores Umbridge and her Inquisitorial Squad inspected the incoming and outgoing Owl Post and every fireplace in Hogwarts except for Dolores Umbridge's own fire, so Harry had to put himself in considerable risk and use Umbridge's fireplace whenever he wanted to communicate with Sirius at headquarters, a method which was quite uncomfortable to begin with.
A Howler is a bright red letter usually signifying displeasure and anger from the sender directed at the recipient. When opened, the Howler begins to yell in the sender's voice at the recipient, eventually dissolving into scraps of paper. If not opened, it will explode and scream even louder. In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Mrs. Weasley sent Ron a Howler after he stole his dad's enchanted car and flew it to Hogwarts with Harry.
The invisibility cloak makes its wearer invisible. Harry Potter inherited one from his father and uses it throughout the books in order to sneak around the school. The cloak is large enough for Ron and Hermione to accompany him underneath it.
Invisibility cloaks are very rare and expensive, and they are made from the pelts of Demiguises, magical herbivore beasts that are found in the Far East.
The Marauder's Map was created by Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs and as an aid in mischief-making. The map, at first glance, is a piece of blank parchment; but when the user says, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," ink lines stretch across it, revealing a map of Hogwarts and the location of everyone within the grounds. The map also gives information on how to open secret passageways. The words "Mischief managed!" return the map to its original blank state.
The map was given to Harry by Fred and George Weasley, who found it while unattended in Filch's office. The map made its first appearance in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.
In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Snape finds the map in Harry's possession and tries to force it to reveal its secrets; the map responds by insulting him. Snape suspects dark magic at work, though given that the map's creators (Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black, and James Potter, a.k.a. Messrs. Moony, Wormtail Padfoot, and Prongs) detested Snape, the nature of these insults may have been designed specifically for him. (While insulting Snape, one of the four says he can't believe Snape ever became a professor—so while the dislike of Snape might be encoded within the map, the insults themselves are not canned.)
The Mirror of Erised is a mystical mirror that Harry discovers in one of the back corridors of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. On it is inscribed, erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi — I show not your face but your heart's desire, written backwards. According to Dumbledore, the Mirror "shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts". Harry sees his parents standing beside him (he wishes to have a family). Ron sees himself as Head Boy and Quidditch Captain holding the Quidditch Cup (he wishes to be acknowledged). Dumbledore says he sees himself holding a pair of socks, on the grounds that he did not receive any for Christmas. He may be telling the truth (in which case he already has everything that he desires, except for the warm socks), but he is more likely making a joke in order to hide the truth from Harry (after all, it is none of Harry's business).
A Pensieve is a stone basin, covered in mystic runes, with a fluid or gas within. A witch or wizard can extract his or her own memories and place them in the Pensieve, especially to relieve the mind when it becomes too flooded 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. Tom Riddle's diary seems to have this same form of virtual reality.
Like many names in these books, pensieve is a pun: it is a sieve in that it is a device used for sifting out thoughts, and in using it one becomes pensive or thoughtful.
A Pensieve first appears in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and again in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
Portkeys are first mentioned in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Once created, they can be set to transport anybody who touches them to a designated location, or to become active at a pre-determined time and transport to that location anybody who happens to be touching it at the moment.
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.
In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Barty Crouch Jr., who was masquerading as Alastor Moody, made the Triwizard Tournament cup into a portkey so it would transport anybody who touched it straight to the hands of Voldemort, expecting it would be Harry Potter. However, Harry took the cup together with Cedric Diggory, so Voldemort had Cedric unceremoniously murdered with Avada Kedavra.
[It is interesting to note that the simplicity with which portkeys are created in the beginning of the fourth book (as a method for transportation to the Quidditch tournament) and in the fifth book calls into question the need for the fourth book: Crouch, posing as Moody, could easily have turned, say, a book, into a portkey, called Harry into his office, and said, "Here, take this." This would have eliminated the need for Moody's laboriously guiding Harry through the tournament tasks turning the trophy in the labyrinth into a portkey, and for 700-plus pages of dense (albeit interesting) reading though it has been argued by some that the creation of portkeys on Hogwarts must have the permission of the Headmaster, which is why Moody cast the portkey spell on the Tri-Wizard Cup since it was theorized that it was originally intended as a portkey all along by the tournament officials for the winner of the cup to exit the maze without having to fight past the other champions and challenges of the maze again and also it would explain why the portkey took Harry back to Hogwarts and out of the maze when he touched the Cup again instead of say back into the maze at Hogwarts or not functioned at all like regular one time portkeys]
There are several enchanted objects needed to play Quidditch, the most obvious being flying broomsticks. All the balls in the game are enchanted in some way. The Golden Snitch is enchanted to fly around and also to not leave the playing field. The Bludger is enchanted to fly around and try to knock players off their broomsticks. A Bludger does not focus on one player unless it has been tampered with, as was the case in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The Quaffle may appear an exception, but it is also enchanted to make it easy to grip, and so it falls more slowly than normal.
A remembrall is a small, clear orb that turns red if you've forgotten something. Unfortunately, it does not tell you what you have forgotten.
The DVD of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone contained a software approximation of a remembrall.
See also: Personal Digital Assistant.
The Sorting Hat is an artefact used at Hogwarts which magically determines which of the four school houses — Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw or Slytherin — a new student is to be assigned to. As the First-Year students' names are read aloud alphabetically at the year's opening banquet the hat is placed on each student's head in turn, and after a few moments' deliberation it announces its choice. Occasionally, the Hat will allow a student's request to influence his decision like when Harry requested not to be placed in Slytherin. The Sorting Hat was originally the hat of Godric Gryffindor.
Before sorting the students each year the hat recites a new introductory song. These songs occasionally warn of danger to come, as in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the hat plays a critical role in the climax of the story by coming to Harry's aid in the Chamber and providing him with Godric Gryffindor's sword.
In the movie versions of the novels the hat is voiced by Leslie Phillips.
See separate article: Tom Riddle's diary.
To perform feats of magic a wand is usually used. Without a wand magic is possible, but this seems to be very difficult. A wand is personal for a wizard, although other wizards' wands can be used. When Harry Potter was selecting his wand, he had to try out a lot of wands until he found a wand that created sparks as he waved it. A wand is usually made of wood and has a core of an organic, magical object or substance. Such cores mentioned include phoenix tail feathers, unicorn tail hairs, dragon heartsrings and veela hair. Wands with cores from the same source give strange effects (Priori Incantatem) when forced to fight each other, as is the case with Harry Potter's and Lord Voldemort's wands in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Each of their wands contains a tail feather from Fawkes, the phoenix belonging to Albus Dumbledore.
The Dark Mark is Voldemort's symbol, and at the height of his power, it was sent up in the air when any one of his followers murdered someone. The Mark is also magically imprinted onto his faithful Death Eaters' left forearms. It consists of a skull with a serpent in its mouth. According to Snape, the Dark Mark can be triggered by Voldemort to glow and burn; this is intended to serve as a summons for the Death Eaters.
Witches and wizards can write words in the air with their wands.
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.
Tom Riddle, at the end of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, does this to show that I am Lord Voldemort is an anagram of Tom Marvolo Riddle.
Potions are brewed in a cauldron from magical ingredients. This results in liquids that can be made to have any kind of effect on the drinker from strength enhancement to immunity to flames. According to Snape, potions can "bewitch the mind, ensnare the senses and even put a stopper in death". Potion-making skills are not dependent on the maker's overall magic skills, as the potions result from the properties and right proportions of the ingredients.
The Draught of Living Death is made by mixing a root of Asphodel and an infusion of Wormwood. It brings upon its drinker a very powerful sleep that can last indefinitely, hence its name.
Veritaserum has properties similar to a truth drug. Three drops can force the drinker to spill his innermost secrets. The name comes from the Latin veritas ("truth") plus serum.
Polyjuice Potion is used to transform a person into the physical form of another person for one hour. The final ingredient in this potion is a piece (typically a hair) of the person that the potion-taker will transform into.
The potion doesn't work with animals. Harry, Ron and Hermione brewed this potion in an attempt to assume the appearances of three Slytherins so they could sneak into the Slytherin Common Room and find out whether Draco Malfoy was the heir of Slytherin.
Barty Crouch Jr. used Polyjuice Potion in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in order to pose as Alastor Moody.
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