As a writer, J.K. Rowling was always careful about her use of certain techniques when creating the Harry Potter series. She of course knew that the use of caps-lock in one's writing had the effect of making the reader think a character was SHOUTING AT THEM!

Sorry to blow up at you like that, but to show the point, Jo used all-caps sparingly to depict moments of extreme anger for her characters. Thing is - she's brilliant - so often times her characters are angry for more complex reasons than the obvious ones.

Take Severus Snape, arguably one of the most complex characters in the series.

In chapter 19 of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Snape steps forward from the Invisibility Cloak and confronts Sirius Black, Professor Lupin and the trio in the Shreiking Shack. He then proceeds to freak out about three times.

First, when Hermione ventures a question of the greasy-haired Potions master as she might have done if they were in class...

“Miss Granger, you are already facing suspension from this school,” Snape spat. “You, Potter, and Weasley are out-of-bounds, in the company of a convicted murderer and a werewolf. For once in your life, hold your tongue.”

“But if — if there was a mistake —”

“KEEP QUIET, YOU STUPID GIRL!” Snape shouted, looking suddenly quite deranged. “DON’T TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND!” A few sparks shot out of the end of his wand, which was still pointed at Black’s face. Hermione fell silent. (US Edition p. 359-360)

After this display, Harry's own frustration begins to build (and he goes caps-lock too!) but once he does, Snape responds right back with an anger we rarely see from him in the series:

“SILENCE! I WILL NOT BE SPOKEN TO LIKE THAT!” Snape shrieked, looking madder than ever. “Like father, like son, Potter! I have just saved your neck; you should be thanking me on bended knee! You would have been well served if he’d killed you! You’d have died like your father, too arrogant to believe you might be mistaken in Black — now get out of the way, or I will make you. GET OUT OF THE WAY, POTTER!” (US Edition p. 361)

Given Snape's screaming of the words like "keep quiet" and "silence" maybe Snape just gets very irritated hearing the voices of children! In all seriousness though, what are the main reasons for Snape's rage in this scene? Is he frightened for Harry, Ron and Hermione's livelihoods because he believes they are in the presence of a real killer (Sirius)?, is he disgusted to simply be in the presence of two childhood bullies from the past, or is he particularly demented in this sequence because he believes he's finally come head to head with the chief betrayer of Lily Potter?

For more answers to this question, check out the Alohomora! podcast question of the week! And for further reading about Snape's anger we recommend this essay written by hpboy13.

Note: This post was inspired by David M. Martin’s panel at MISTI-Con, “Twelve Failsafe Ways to Charm Witches: Lessons from Ron’s Success with Hermione”

One of the more intriguing presents Harry receives on his seventeenth birthday is a book titled Twelve Failsafe Ways to Charm Witches. It’s a present from Ron, who’s gotten it from Fred and George for his own birthday five months earlier. He tells Harry, “Explains everything you need to know about girls. If only I’d had this last year I’d have known exactly how to get rid of Lavender and I would’ve known how to get going with...” (DH113)

But what are these twelve mystery tips exactly?

We certainly see a large transformation in Ron’s behavior toward Hermione beginning with his seventeenth birthday onward. Even Harry remarks on this: “Ron got back off the bed, put his arm around [Hermione] once more, and frowned at Harry as though reproaching him for lack of tact. Harry could not think of anything to say, not least because it was highly unusual for Ron to be teaching anyone else tact.” (DH97)

Ron comforting Hermione when she’s upset is just one of the changes we see in him. He also starts complementing Hermione, to great effect.

“Nice,” said Ron, as with one final flourish of her wand, Hermione turned the leaves of the crabapple tree to gold. “You’ve really got an eye for that sort of thing.” “Thank you, Ron!” said Hermione, looking both pleased and a little confused. Harry turned away, smiling to himself. He had a funny notion that he would find a chapter on compliments when he found time to peruse his copy of Twelve Failsafe Ways to Charm Witches” (DH118-119)

And the final charm that Ron needed to win Hermione’s heart, he performs at the end of the series. When Ron pretends to care about what matters to Hermione, then Hermione has been completely charmed.

“No,” said Ron seriously, “I mean we should tell [the house-elves] to get out. We don’t want any more Dobbies, do we? We can’t order them to die for us --” There was a clatter as the basilisk fangs cascaded out of Hermione’s arms. Running at Ron, she flung them around his neck and kissed him full on the mouth. (DH625)

So we can guess that three of the twelve are comforting the witch, giving her compliments, and showing an interest in what’s important to her. The panel at MISTI-Con provided the full twelve ways, and we’ll reveal those in a follow-up post, but I’m curious to hear what you think. What do you think are the Twelve Failsafe Ways to Charm Witches? And do you think there might be a companion novel about charming wizards - if so, what might those be?

This post was contributed by hpboy13.

The Harry Potter Alliance (HPA) has just one week left in their Accio Books drive and they want to finish it out in style. This year, HPA members have collected over 15,000 books, but we know that they can do so much better! So we want you to help the HPA bring that number up to 25,000 before their campaign ends next weekend.

Right now, Ravenclaw has a pretty sizeable lead in the House Cup, so to reward their generosity, they're bringing in one of our favorite Ravenclaws: Evanna Lynch.

You may know Evanna as Luna Lovegood from the Harry Potter movies. She's also a close friend to MuggleNet and the HPA and has served as the Head of House for Ravenclaw during some past chapter cups. Evanna will be speaking about what she's currently reading and to discuss how books have changed her life. (Hint: books turned her into Luna Lovegood!)

The HPA will be broadcasting Saturday, May 25th from 3-5pm EST. So start clearing out your bookshelves and join the HPA and Evanna Lynch online tomorrow afternoon RIGHT HERE!

"Books Rule, Voldemort Droolz"

Potterheads, occasionally we call on you to rise up and do something great for the Harry Potter fandom. Today is one of those days.

The epic conclusions of both the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings movie franchises (after trumping Twilight and Narnia most easily) are going head to head in moviefone's "Summer Sequl Smackdown"

And we need your help to make sure the right fandom brings the smackdown.

As fans ourselves of both, we know it is unfair to make you choose - but we have elected to make you do it anyway! As both of these films (Deathly Hallows - part 2 and Return of the King) are epic cinematic masterpieces, to judge them based on special effects, direction, acting, or even the sheer amount of academy awards is one way to assess these films and come to a logical decision as far as your vote today.

Logic would make sense, right, if fan-hood were logical that is! To be a fan of something is so much more - you feel it - and the kind of fanatical attachment you develop allows you to connect with other people around the world who feel similarly.

At the end of the day, how did each of these movies make you feel? While Harry, Ron and Hermione had their adventures on screen a whole generation of kids (myself included) felt like we were growing and attending Hogwarts with them. That sort of connection between audience and film in the Harry Potter fandom speaks to a particular kind of magic which I would argue Lord of the Rings simply does not match.

Then again, Lord of the Rings comes from a different generation of storytelling that doesn't include you and engage you the way Harry Potter movies do. So because of this we believe Harry Potter should win in the "fantasy" category of the Summer Sequel Smackdown - not because it presents a better fantasy, not even because it's a better fantasy flick, but because each film was made in such a way that the "fantasy" became real for so many simultaneously.

That's pretty magical. Make Dumbledore proud and vote for Harry today!

Lord Voldemort is the second most powerful wizard the world has ever seen, and that entails being able to do a lot of impressive things, the most terrifying of which is his ability to possess.

We’re first introduced to this concept in the very first novel, in the form of poor Professor Quirrell. Failing to obtain the Philosopher’s Stone on his own, the Dark Lord possesses him. At this time, Voldemort is what the fandom loves to call “Vapormort” or as Voldy himself describes it: “less than spirit, less than the meanest ghost” (GOF, p. 566, UK). What we can glean from this is that he was an incorporeal or nonphysical being. One might go so far as to say he was purely a soul confined to the physical realm.

Here, his ability to possess Quirrell or any other living thing is easily understood; as a soul or pseudo-spirit, he would merely enter a body and take over it. This fits the stereotypical understanding of possession found in media.

Next let us look at Chamber of Secrets, and Ginny Weasley’s possession:

This example of possession is much more interesting, because we have a fragment of Voldemort’s soul in a horcrux (the diary). This soul fragment, however, is still very powerful and clearly has his power of possession…but is it the same? Remember, Riddle was only able to possess Ginny once she had poured her heart out to him and become emotionally attached to the diary, whereas Quirrell and the animals mentioned in Goblet of Fire are easily possessed. Furthermore, Quirrell was conscious of the possession, while Ginny was not.

The last example of possession is when Voldemort possesses Harry in the Ministry of Magic. What makes this case curious is that Voldemort is no longer an incorporeal being; his soul has been restored to his body. This means his soul has been ‘re-chained’ to a body, so to speak, and so does not have the freedom of his disembodied state to possess people. How then was Voldemort able to transfer his soul to Harry, and again why was this a conscious possession?

Having laid out the groundwork, it’s your turn fans. How do you think possession works? What is the difference between possessing someone as a spirit and when one’s soul is still attached to a body? Why are some victims conscious, while others have no recollection?