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Invasion Of Hogwarts

Invasion of Hogwarts

The Battle of Hogwarts is a fictional battle in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth book of the Harry Potter fiction series by J.K. Rowling. It should be noted that the series of events are never referred to as the "'Battle of Hogwarts'" in the books.

Circumstances

Further to his investigations into the personal history and motivations of the evil Lord Voldemort, Professor Albus Dumbledore invites Harry Potter to accompany him on a quest to retrieve one of Voldemort's Horcruxes. Harry, who believes that Draco Malfoy is up to something in the Room of Requirement, briefs Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Ginny Weasley as well as giving them Felix Felicis, his luck potion. A summoning of the disbanded Dumbledore's Army is answered by Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood, and the five set up watch on Malfoy, and on Severus Snape, who is known to be a double agent, although Harry has long had reason to question where Snape's real loyalties lie. Dumbledore, accompanied by Harry, leaves the school to begin the mission. Hogwarts is left in the hands of the senior staff, but Dumbledore has given no explicit instruction to monitor Malfoy or to expect any unusual activity. He has previously appeared to refuse to give credence to Harry's warnings about Malfoy's suspicious behaviour. Ultimately, it emerges that Harry is correct, however: Malfoy had joined Voldemort the previous summer, only to find himself increasingly afraid and under pressure from the Dark Lord to carry out the assassination of the powerful Dumbledore. After several amateurish attempts on Dumbledore's life, he has managed to repair a Vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Requirement, allowing an invasive force to bypass the anti-Apparition and entrance-guarding protections.

The Battle

Voldemort's supporters, including the werewolf Fenrir Greyback, are given the task of casting the Dark Mark over the school to lure Dumbledore to the Astronomy Tower. They are immediately intercepted by Ron, Neville, and Ginny, but Malfoy creates a smoke screen using Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder - a product of Fred and George Weasley's. As members of the Order of the Phoenix - Nymphadora Tonks, Remus Lupin and Bill Weasley - and the teachers are alerted, the Death Eaters make their way to the Tower to cast the Mark. All the participants converge at the base of the tower. Meanwhile, Harry and a gravely-injured Dumbledore recover a locket which they believe to be a Horcrux. They return to Hogsmeade, only to see the Dark Mark over the school. Madam Rosmerta, acting under the control of the Death Eaters, lends them two brooms, which they use to fly to the top of the tower. Severus Snape receives word of the Death Eater invasion from fellow professor Filius Flitwick, stuns him, and heads into the fray. As he leaves, he orders Hermione and Luna, patrolling nearby, to look after Flitwick - who, Snape claims, has "collapsed" - and stay well away from events upstairs. When the Headmaster arrives, Malfoy is sent up to kill him as a test of his loyalty to Voldemort. Dumbledore immobilizes Harry under the Invisibility Cloak, but is then disarmed by Malfoy. The young Death Eater holds Dumbledore at his mercy, only to find that for all his defiance, he cannot bring himself to commit the murder. Dumbledore comes within moments of defusing the situation when additional attackers arrive. Snape rushes through the battle downstairs, both sides believing him an ally, and bursts onto the scene while Draco equivocates. Dumbledore and Snape exchange looks, as Dumbledore pleads "Severus, please". (The actual significance of these words - whether pleading with Snape not to kill him, or urging Snape to carry out some hitherto unrevealed plan - is, perhaps consciously, not made fully explicit in the text). Snape slays him with the Avada Kedavra killing curse. The task complete, Snape signals an immediate retreat. As the Death Eaters scatter and head for the gates where they can Disapparate, those still able to give pursuit do so. Hagrid attacks the fleeing Dark wizards. Harry, freed from Dumbledore's spell, pursues Snape, finally coming to duel with him on the edge of the grounds. Snape orders Malfoy and the Death Eaters away on the grounds that Harry is to be left to the Dark Lord, and then deflects Harry's attacks while criticising his fighting style. Harry infuriates Snape by calling him a coward, and Snape retaliates by stunning Harry. The Hippogriff Buckbeak attacks, injuring Snape before he Disapparates.

Aftermath

Bill Weasley's face has been badly savaged by werewolf Fenrir Greyback in human form, causing incurable lycanthropic contamination. A Death Eater known as Gibbon was hit by a Killing Curse aimed at Remus Lupin. Several Death Eaters escape, but others are known to have been immobilized in the battle. A number of mysteries surrounding Snape's actions remain. A popular if controversial theory among the fanbase is that Dumbledore knew himself to be critically injured and wished for Snape to stay alive. Minerva McGonagall becomes acting Headmistress of Hogwarts. It is unclear whether Hogwarts will reopen - the Board of Governors has yet to make that decision. Whether or not the school remains open, Harry and his friends decide not to return. They vow that, together, they will devote their lives to the destruction of Voldemort's Horcruxes and, ultimately, the Dark Lord himself. Dumbledore is buried with full honours near the Hogwarts lake. Although there has been no lasting damage done to the school and few serious casualties, the death of Dumbledore - referred to as the only wizard feared by Voldemort - signals a major victory for the Death Eaters. Category:Harry Potter Hogwarts

Battle

.]] Generally, a battle is an instance of combat in warfare between two or more parties wherein each group will seek to defeat the others. Battles are most often fought during wars or military campaigns and can usually be well defined in time, space and action. Wars and campaigns are guided by strategy whereas battles are the stage on which tactics are employed. German strategist Carl von Clausewitz stated that "the employment of battles to gain the end of war" was the essence of strategy.

Characteristics of battle

British military historian Sir John Keegan suggested an ideal definition of battle as "something which happens between two armies leading to the moral then physical disintegration of one or the other of them" though the origins and outcomes of battles can rarely be summarised so neatly. The "action" of battle is to reach a decision — the ideal decision is victory but strategy and circumstances often require a compromise. One party is deemed to have achieved victory when its opponent has surrendered, been dispersed, forced to retreat or been rendered militarily ineffective for further combat operations. However, a battle may end in a Pyrrhic victory which ultimately favours the defeated party. If no decision is reached in battle, the result is a stalemate. A conflict in which one side is unwilling to reach a decision in battle often becomes an insurgency. Up until the 20th century the majority of battles were of short duration, many lasting a day or less — the Battle of Gettysburg was exceptional for lasting three days. This was mainly due to the difficulty of supplying an army in the field. Typically the means of prolonging a battle was by siege warfare. Improvements in transportation and the onset of trench warfare, with its siege-like nature, saw the duration of battles increase to weeks and months, peaking during the First World War. Nevertheless, in a long battle the regular rotation of units meant that the periods of intensive combat to which an individual soldier was subjected tended to remain brief. Battles may be small scale, only involving a handful of individuals, perhaps two squads, up to battles on army levels where hundreds of thousands may be engaged in a single battle at one time. The space a battle occupies depends on the range of the weapons of the combatants. Until the advent of artillery and aircraft, battles were fought with the two sides in sight, if not reach, of each other. The depth of the battlefield has also increased in modern warfare with supporting units in the rear areas — supply, artillery, medical, etc. — now outnumbering the front-line combat troops. Battles are, on the whole, made up of a multitude of individual combats and the individual will usually only experience a small part of the events. To the infantryman, there may be little to distinguish between combat as part of a minor raid or a major offensive, nor is it likely that they anticipate the future course of the battle; few of the British infantry who went over the top on the first day on the Somme, 1 July, 1916, would have anticipated that they would be fighting the same battle in five months time. Conversely, some of the Allied infantry who had just dealt a crushing defeat to the French at the Battle of Waterloo fully expected to have to fight again the next day.

The Factors of Battles

Many things decide battles. The numbers of men, the commanders of each army, and the terrain are a few examples. Many battles throughout history have shown that morale and the quality of troops are more important than quantity. A good example of this are the battles fought in the Persian Wars. A good example of where quantity sometimes beats better quality troops is the Battle of Thermopylae. A good example of the opposite is the Battle of Arbela. Quality is decided by a few factors. Morale, the spirit of the troops, the equipment, and the training of the troops. If a unit charges with high morale with lesser discipline and still emerge victorious. Weapons and armor can sometimes decide battles, but not always. The Wars of Scottish Independence are a good example. The Scots did not have as good weapons as the English but they still emerged victorious. The training of troops is also a factor. At the Battle of Alesia, the Romans were greatly outnumbered but won because of the lessons and discipline that they had learned in training. Battles can also be determined by terrain. Troops get tired when they have to charge up a steep hill. When troops get tired, they cannot fight as well. This leads to those troops being exhausted and losing the battle. Another factor is the generals of the multiple armies. Napoleon Bonaparte and Julius Caesar were both good generals and were the main reasons why their armies were so good. An army of sheep led by a lion can sometimes be more fierce than an army of lion led by a sheep. This holds true for many battles because the generals were able to lower the enemie's morale and flank them.

Types of battle

Julius Caesar Battles can be fought on land, sea or in the air. Naval battles have occurred since at least the 5th century BC. Air battles are few, the most prominent being the Battle of Britain in 1940, but since the Second World War few land or sea battles are fought without air support. Indeed during the Battle of Midway, five aircraft carriers were sunk without the opposing fleets coming in to direct contact. There are numerous types of battle. A "battle of encounter" is a meeting engagement where the opposing sides collide in the field without one or the other having prepared their attack or defence. The goal of a "battle of attrition" is to inflict greater loss on the enemy than you suffer yourself; many battles of the First World War were intentionally (Verdun) or unintentionally (Somme) attrition battles. A "battle of breakthrough" aims to pierce the enemy's defences, thereby exposing the vulnerable flanks which can be turned. A "battle of encirclement" — the Kesselschlacht of the German Blitzkrieg — surrounds the enemy in a pocket. A "battle of envelopment" involves an attack on one or both flanks; the classic example being the double-envelopment of the Battle of Cannae. A "battle of annihilation" is one in which the defeated party is destroyed in the field, such as the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile. A "decisive battle" is one of particular importance; by bringing hostilities to an end, such as the Battle of Hastings, or as a turning point in the fortunes of the belligerents, such as the Battle of Stalingrad. A decisive battle can have political as well as military impact, changing the balance of power or boundaries between countries. The concept of the "decisive battle" became popular with the publication in 1851 of Edward Creasy's The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World. British military historians J.F.C. Fuller (The Decisive Battles of the Western World) and B.H. Liddell Hart (Decisive Wars of History), among many others, have written books in the style of Creasy's work.

The Difference of Land Battles Throughout History

There is an obvious difference of the way battles have been fought throughout time. In very early battles, probably fought between rival hunting bands, there was just a disorganized mob. However, during the Battle of Kadesh, the first documented battle, in 1275 BC, there was actual discipline instilled in both armies. Throught the Ancient Times and the Middle Ages, battles were usually fought between two armies in lines with discipline. However, during the many wars of the Roman Empire, barbarians would not usually fight as a disorderly mob and not as one army. During the Enlightenment Age, armies would fight in lines with discipline. They would follow the orders from their officers and fight as a single unit and not as a bunch of individuals. Each army would be divided into regiments, battalions, companies, and platoons. These armies would march in lines and fire in lines. However, the Native Americans did not fight in lines and used guerilla tactics. Neither did the United States of America during the American Revolution. However, during the Napoleonic Wars, the armies of Europe used disciplined tactics. These same tactics were used in the American Civil War. However, during World War I, trench warfare the most common. This also lead to the use of radio for communication between batallions. During both World War I and the Austro-Prussian War, poisonous gas was used. During World War II, the use of platoons and companies became much more important. Instead of the trench warfare of World War I, during World War II, there was much more fighting between small groups than larger groups. This lead to many squads becoming elite and more experienced. New battles now have the use of stealth bombers and much easier ways of communication. Modern battles are fought more like the ways of World War II than any other war.

The difference of naval battles throughout history

Naval battles have basically been the same throughout history. One main difference is the use of marine. Today, a marine is an actually infantry regiment that sometimes fights soley on land and is not always tied to the navy. A good example of an old naval battle is the Battle of Salamis. Most ancient naval battles were fought by fast ships trying to ram the other ship with their battering ram. However, before the invention of ironclads, when wooden ships ruled the seas, marines were actually used to storm enemy ships. This tactic was common used by the Romans, by pirates, and by many other civilizations. This tactic was usually used by civilizations that could not beat the enemy from a range with their ships. Another difference is the use of battering rams in ancient times. Another invention in the late Middle Ages was the use of Greek Fire by the Byzantines. Fire obviously would burn a wooden ship to pieces. Other civilizations took this idea and would light a ship on fire and send it to the enemy navy without any seamen on the ship. This would not be the most cost effective but it would save lives. After the invention of cannons, many navies were used to weaken forts or other defenses. A prime example of this was at the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812. During the 19th Century, the development of mines led to a new type of naval warfare, a somewhat underwater battle. However, the invention of a U-Boat did not appear until World War I when the Germans invented it. Suddenly, naval battles had evolved into being both on and under the water. Even more surpisingly, during World War II, naval battles were fought above the water by airplanes. Aircraft carriers would carry these plans and now naval battles were fought on, above, and below the sea.

Aerial Battles Throughout History

The most common aerial form of battle is the dog fight. This type of battle can lead to pilots becoming elite. One example of this was the German pilot Manfred von Richthofen, deemed the Red Baron because he took out 80 airplanes for the Germans. The two types of warplanes are bombers and fighters. Fighters are designed to be good against other planes and bombers are designed to bombard enemy troops, cities, or buildings. Sometimes bombers would encounter enemy fighters and win. Today, stealth bombers rarely engage in combat against other aircraft. During World War I, battles were fought between wooden planes with machine guns. Bombers would have a co-pilot drop the bombs by hand. These bombers were very innacurate. Better armored jet aircraft would be introduced during World War II. Also, during World War II, bombs would be dropped by the plane at the pilots. Today, bombs and rockets are usually aimed from a scope and a button is pressed by the pilot to release the bomb. Another invention in World War II, that was invented by the Japanese at first, was the helicopter. It was discovered by the United States after the war, but the Japanese did not use the helicopters during World War II. The helicopter has been immortalized by the Vietnam War. Helicopters added a new aspect to air battles and to land battles in general. The helicopters were armed with rockets to fire on enemy positions and with a machine gun turret to fire on enemy infantry. They could not, however, face another enemy aircraft. They were made to carry and support the infantry.

Battle naming

turret by Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom.]] Battles are almost invariably named after some feature of the battlefield geography, such as the name of a town, forest or river. Occasionally battles are named after the date on which they took place, such as The Glorious First of June. In the Middle Ages it was considered important to settle on a suitable name for a battle which could be used by the chroniclers. For example, after Henry V of England defeated a French army on 25 October, 1415, he met with the senior French herald and they agreed to name the battle after the nearby castle and so it was called the Battle of Agincourt. In other cases, the sides adopted different names for the same battle, such as the Battle of Gallipoli which is known in Turkey as the Battle of Çanakkale. Some place names have become synonymous with the battles that took place there, such as Passchendaele, Pearl Harbor or the Alamo. Military operations, many of which result in battle, are given codenames, which are not necessarily meaningful or indicative of the type or the location of the battle. Operation Market Garden and Operation Rolling Thunder are examples of battles known by their military codenames. When a battleground is the site of more than one battle in the same conflict, the instances are distinguished by ordinal number, such as the First and Second Battles of Bull Run. An extreme case are the twelve Battles of the Isonzo — First to Twelfth — between Italy and Austria-Hungary during the First World War. Some battles are named for the convenience of military historians so that periods of combat can be neatly distinguished from one another. Following the First World War, the British Battles Nomenclature Committee was formed to decide on standard names for all battles and subsidiary actions. To the soldiers who did the fighting, the distinction was usually academic; a soldier fighting at Beaumont Hamel on 13 November 1916 was probably unaware he was taking part in what the committee would call the "Battle of the Ancre". Many combats are too small to merit a name. Terms such as "action", "skirmish", "firefight", "raid" or "offensive patrol" are used to describe small-scale battle-like encounters. These combats often take place within the time and space of a battle and while they may have an objective, they are not necessarily "decisive". Sometimes the soldiers are unable to immediately gauge the significance of the combat; in the aftermath of the Battle of Waterloo, some British officers were in doubt as to whether the day's events merited the title of "battle" or would be passed off as merely an "action".

The Effects of a Battle

Battles affect the world in many different ways, both individually and politically. The individual effect of a battle is that of a psychological or a physical effect. The effect psychologically can be in the memories of the men battle. This is often the case in many war veterans whom still to this day have nightmares about wars such as the Korean War or World War II. The physical effects of battle can be death or injury. The injuries in battles throughout time can be such things as scars, severed body parts, loss of hearing, and paralysis. Battles also affect politics. A decisive battle that is won can cause one side to surrender or that same victory can be a Pyrrhic Victory and lead to the end of a campaign. Battles have been fought in civil wars to decide the fate of monarchs and different political factions. A few examples are the War of the Roses and the Jacobite Uprisings. Battles have also affected such things as the continuance of a war. One example would be the Battle of Inchon.

References

- Category:Warfare
- ja:戦闘

Fiction

, were the goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity and fertility in Greek mythology.]] Fiction is storytelling of imagined events and stands in contrast to non-fiction, which makes factual claims about reality. A large part of the appeal of fiction is its ability to evoke the entire spectrum of human emotions: to distract our minds, to give us hope in times of despair, to make us laugh, or to let us experience empathy without attachment. Fictional works—novels, stories, fairy tales, fables, films, comics, interactive fiction—may be partly based on factual occurrences but always contain some imaginary content. The term is also often used synonymously with fictional prose. In this sense, fiction refers only to novels or short stories and is often divided into two categories, popular fiction (e.g., science fiction or mystery fiction) and literary fiction (e.g., Victor Hugo or William Faulkner). Fiction is largely perceived as a form of art and/or entertainment, although not all fiction is necessarily artistic. Fiction may be created for the purpose of educating, such as fictional examples used in school textbooks. Fiction is also frequently instrumentalized by propaganda and advertising. Fiction may be propagated by parents to their children out of tradition (e.g. Santa Claus) or in order to instill certain beliefs and values. Fables with an explicit moral goal are not necessarily targeted at children, however. Fiction may over time blend with factual accounts and develop into mythology. Many atheists perceive religion as no different from any fictional tale, whereas members of religious groups typically explain their beliefs with faith and claim they are fundamentally different from fictional tales (although they may call other religious views fictional). The sociological school of constructivism argues that every view of reality is fundamentally a construction of the self and that a safe distinction between fact and fiction is impossible, whereas the philosophy of naturalism holds that reality can be approximated and truth can be demonstrated through usefulness, allowing the distinction from fiction. Fiction has often been the target of censorship or boycotts, escalating into book burnings or bans. Extremist regimes like the Taliban have been even more prohibitive, restricting all reading to religious texts. There is an ongoing debate regarding sexual content in fiction and whether or not juveniles can be safely exposed to it; opponents of fiction with sexual content typically label it pornography. The Internet has had a massive impact on the distribution of fiction, calling into question the feasibility of copyright as a means to ensure royalties are payed to copyright holders. Also digital libraries such as Project_Gutenberg have come into being which make public domain texts more readily available. The combination of inexpensive home computers, the Internet and the creativity of its users has also led to new forms of fiction, such as interactive computer games or computer-generated comics. Countless forums for fan fiction can be found online, where loyal followers of specific fictional realms create and distribute derivative stories. Through open writing systems like wikis, collaboratively written fiction is also becoming possible (see the [http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikifiction Wikifiction] initiative). Fiction is a fundamental part of human culture, and the ability to create fiction and other artistic works is frequently cited as one of the defining characteristics of humanity.

Elements of fiction

- antagonists
- conflicts
- climax
- characters
- plots
- protagonists
- resolution
- structures
- subplots
- themes
- fictional character
- suspension of disbelief

External links

- [http://book.awardannals.com/genre/fiction/ Most Honored Fiction] at the Book Award Annals
-
- ja:フィクション

J K Rowling

Joanne Rowling, OBE (Joanne Kathleen Rowling is not her legal name; see below for the explanation) (born 31 July 1965), commonly known as J. K. Rowling (pronunciation: rolling, as in rolling stone) is an English fiction writer. Rowling is most famous as author of the Harry Potter fantasy series, which has gained international attention, won multiple awards and sold a reported 300 million copies worldwide as of 2005. In February 2004, Forbes magazine estimated her fortune as £576 million (just over US$1 billion), making her the first person to become a US dollar billionaire by writing books. Rowling is also believed to be the wealthiest woman in the United Kingdom, well ahead of even Queen Elizabeth II, but this is unproven as the Queen's personal fortune is hidden in 'The Bank of England Nominees' making her fortune known to only her closest officials.[http://www.forbes.com/2004/02/26/cx_jw_0226rowlingbill04.html] [http://www.forbes.com/lists/results.jhtml?passListId=10&passYear=2004&passListType=Person&searchParameter1=unset&searchParameter2=unset&resultsHowMany=25&resultsSortProperties=%2Bstringfield11%2C-numberfield3&resultsSortCategoryName=Country&fromColumnClick=&bktDisplayField=&bktDisplayFieldLength=&category1=category&category2=category&passKeyword=&resultsStart=301]

Early life

J. K. Rowling was born in the General Hospital at Chipping Sodbury, near her parents' home in Yate, Gloucestershire, England in 1965. Together with her mother, father, and younger sister, Diana, she moved to Winterbourne, Bristol and then to Tutshill near Chepstow. She attended secondary school at Wyedean Comprehensive, where she told stories to her fellow students. In 1990, her 45-year-old mother succumbed to a decade-long battle with multiple sclerosis. After studying French and Classics at Exeter University, with a year of study in Paris, she moved to London to work as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International. During this period she had the idea for a story of a young boy attending a school of wizardry while she was on a four-hour, delayed train trip between Manchester and London. When she had reached her destination, she already had the characters and a good part of the plot for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in her head; she began working on the story during her lunch hours. Rowling then moved to Oporto, Portugal, to teach English as a foreign language. While there, she married Portuguese television journalist Jorge Arantes on 16 October 1992. They had one child, Jessica Rowling Arantes (born 27 July 1993), before their divorce in 1995. In December, 1994, she and her daughter moved to be near her sister in Edinburgh. Unemployed and living on state benefits, she completed her first novel, doing some of the work in an Edinburgh cafe — Nicolson's Cafe on Nicolsons Street (now a Chinese restaurant), owned by her brother-in-law (there is a widely circulated rumour that she wrote in a local café in order to escape from her unheated flat, but in a 2001 BBC interview Rowling remarked, "I am not stupid enough to rent an unheated flat, in Edinburgh, in mid-winter; it had heating."). Rowling spent a year studying for a PGCE in modern languages at Moray House (now part of the University of Edinburgh), graduating in 1996.

Harry Potter

University of Edinburgh Six of the seven volumes of the Harry Potter series, one for each of Harry's school years, have already been published and they have all been bestsellers. Before publishing the first volume, Bloomsbury feared that the target group of young boys might be reluctant to buy books written by a female author. They requested that Rowling use two initials, rather than reveal her first name. As she had no middle name, she chose K from Kathleen, her grandmother's name, for her second initial. However, the name Kathleen has never been part of her legal name. The book was an unexpectedly huge success. Combined with her earnings for the next three books, she became a billionaire. In 2001, she purchased a luxurious 19th-century mansion, Killiechassie House, on the banks of the River Tay in Perthshire, Scotland, where she married her second husband, Dr. Neil Murray, on 26 December 2001. Rowling also owns an $11 million Georgian style house in London, with an underground swimming pool and 24-hour security. The fifth book, titled Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, was delayed by an unsuccessful plagiarism suit directed towards her by rival author Nancy Stouffer (see below). Rowling took some time off from writing at this point, because during the process of writing the fifth book she felt her workload was too heavy. She said that at one point she had joked about breaking her arm to get out of writing, because the pressure on her was too much. After forcing her publishers to drop her deadline, she enjoyed three years of quiet writing, commenting that she spent some time working on something else that she might return to when she is finished with the Harry Potter series. The Harry Potter books
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (June 26 1997) (titled Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the United States)
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998)
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (September 8 1999)
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (July 8 2000)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (June 21 2003)
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (July 16, 2005)
- Unnamed seventh book
- Quidditch Through the Ages (2001)
- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2001) The last two purport to be facsimiles of books mentioned in the novels. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a textbook, while Quidditch Through the Ages is probably the most popular book in the Hogwarts library. They are complete with handwritten annotations and scribblings in the margins, and include introductions by Albus Dumbledore. All proceeds from them go to the UK Comic Relief charity. She has contributed money and support to many other charitable causes, especially research and treatment of multiple sclerosis, from which her mother died in 1990. This death heavily affected her writing, according to Rowling.

Harry Potter movies

A film version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was released on November 16, 2001 and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on November 15, 2002. A darker atmosphere was adopted in the June 4, 2004 film version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, attributed to the new director, Alfonso Cuarón. Rowling, who was a fan of Cuarón's work prior to the third film, has stated that the third film is her personal favourite. November 18, 2005 marked the release of the fourth film, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which was directed by yet a new director, Mike Newell. Rowling resisted suggestions by the filmmakers that the movies should be filmed in the United States or cast with American actors (only one American appears in the first film). She only reluctantly agreed with changing Philosopher's Stone to Sorcerer's Stone and limited that change to the United States. Rowling assists Steve Kloves in writing the scripts for the films, ensuring that his scripts do not contradict future books in the series. She says she has told him more about the later books than anybody else, but not everything. She has also said that she has told Alan Rickman and Robbie Coltrane certain secrets about their characters that are not yet revealed.

After Harry Potter

Harry Potter has made J.K. Rowling a well known and a very successful author, but after Rowling finishes the final Harry Potter book (the seventh, title unknown), she plans to continue writing, possibly using a pen name. In the same informative rare radio interview with a BBC journalist, Rowling stated she will most likely be aiming her new books at a younger audience.

Lawsuits

Rowling has been involved in several lawsuits over the Harry Potter series, and other litigation has been suggested or rumoured.

Nancy Stouffer

In the late 1990s Nancy Stouffer, an author of children's books published in the 1980s, began to charge publicly that Rowling's books were based on her books, including The Legend of Rah and the Muggles and Larry Potter and His Best Friend Lilly. In 2001 Rowling, Scholastic Press (the American publisher of her books) and Warner Bros. (the producer of the film adaptations) sued Stouffer, asking the court to judge that there was no infringement of Stouffer's trademarks or copyright. Stouffer, who had not previously sued, then filed counterclaims alleging such infringement. Rowling and her co-litigants argued that much of the evidence that Stouffer presented was fraudulent, and asked for sanctions and attorneys' fees as punishment. In September 2002 the court found in Rowling's favour, stating that Stouffer had lied to the court and falsified and forged documents to support her case. Stouffer was fined US$50,000 and ordered to pay part (but not all) of the plaintiffs' costs. In January 2004 it was reported that Stouffer's appeal against the judgement had been rejected. The appeals court agreed that Stouffer's claims were properly dismissed because "no reasonable juror could find a likelihood of confusion as to the source of the two parties' works". The Court explained:

Stouffer's and Plaintiffs' marks are used in two very different ways. Rowling's use of the term "Muggles" describes ordinary humans with no magical powers while Stouffer's "Muggles" are tiny, hairless creatures with elongated heads. Further, the Harry Potter books are novel-length works and whose primary customers are older children and adults whereas Stouffer's booklets appeal to young children. Accordingly, the District Court correctly dismissed Stouffer's trademark claims.

Stouffer was also ordered to pay the costs of the appeal. A report of the judgement can be found at [http://www.entlawdigest.com/story.cfm?storyID=3094 Entertainment Law Digest]. The 2002 judgement can be found here: [http://www.eyrie.org/~robotech/stouffer.htm ROWLING v. STOUFFER]

New York Daily News

On 19 June 2003 Rowling and her publisher Scholastic announced that they would sue the New York Daily News for $100 million because the newspaper had printed information on her work Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix before the book's official release date. The novel was due for release on Saturday 21 June, but the newspaper published a plot summary and short quotes on the previous Wednesday. An accompanying image even revealed two pages from the book with legible text. However, the story was complicated further when it was revealed that the paper had purchased the book from a health store whose owner received the novels wholesale and decided to place them in the window. The man claimed he was unaware he was supposed to wait until that Saturday.

The Bashu Publishing House, Chengdu

In 2003, unauthorised Chinese-language "sequels" to the Harry Potter series, such as Harry Potter and Leopard-Walk-Up-to-Dragon, appeared for sale in the People's Republic of China. These books, written by ghost writers, contain characters from the works of other authors, including Gandalf from J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, and the title character from L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Rowling's lawyers successfully took legal action against the publishers, who were forced to pay damages.

Eksmo Publishers

Also in 2003, courts in the Netherlands prevented the distribution of a Dutch translation of Tanya Grotter and the Magical Double Bass, the first of Dmitry Yemets' popular Russian series about a female apprentice wizard, Tanya Grotter. Rowling and her publishers sued, arguing that the Grotter books violate copyright law. Yemets and his original Moscow-based publishers, Eksmo, argued unsuccessfully that the books constitute a parody, permitted under copyright.

Trivia

Eksmo In late 2003, she was approached by television producer Russell T. Davies to contribute an episode to the British television science-fiction series Doctor Who. Although she was "amused by the suggestion", she turned the offer down, as she was busy working on the next novel in the Potter series. Rowling has also made a guest appearance as herself on the American cartoon show The Simpsons, in a special British-themed episode entitled "The Regina Monologues". In a July 2005 interview with the MuggleNet and Leaky Cauldron websites' managers, J. K. Rowling revealed that she is a great admirer of Aaron Sorkin's work on the American TV show The West Wing.

Family

On 26 December 2001, Rowling married Dr. Neil Murray (an anaesthetist) in a private ceremony at her home in the Perthshire village of Aberfeldy. On 23 March 2003, Rowling gave birth to her second child, a boy called David Gordon Rowling Murray, at the Simpson Centre for Reproductive Health at the New Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh. On 23 January 2005, Rowling's second child with Dr. Murray was born, fulfilling Rowling's lifelong wish to have three children. The baby girl was named Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is dedicated to her.

External links

- [http://www.jkrowling.com/en English section of J.K. Rowling's official personal site]
- [http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/welcome.cfm English section of J.K. Rowling's official personal site (text-only version)]
- [http://www.bookthoughts.co.nz/authorjkrowling.html Read Reviews On Books By J K Rowling]
- [http://www.mugglenet.com/jkrinterview.shtml MuggleNet/The Leaky Cauldron interview]
- [http://marriage.about.com/od/thearts/p/jkrowling.htm J.K. Rowling and Dr. Neil Murray Marriage Profile]
- [http://www.edupaperback.org/showauth.cfm?authid=70 Rowling biography]
- [http://www.rowling.info An introduction to J.K. Rowling]
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2268024.stm BBC news report on suit]
- "[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/1670067.stm Potter creator buys Scots hideaway]" — BBC News article, dated 22 November 2001 (reference)
- "[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/2883095.stm Baby joy for JK Rowling]" — BBC News article, dated 24 March 2003 (reference)
- "[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/showbiz/2883059.stm Potter author has baby boy]" — BBC News article, dated 25 March 2003 (reference)
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- Rowling, J. K. Rowling, J.K. Rowling, J. K. Rowling, J. K. Rowling, J. K. Rowling, J. K. Rowling, J. K. Rowling, J. K. Rowling, J. K. Rowling, J. K. Rowling, J. K. Rowling, J. K. Rowling, J. K. Rowling, J. K. zh-min-nan:J. K. Rowling ja:J・K・ローリング simple:J. K. Rowling

Lord Voldemort

Lord Voldemort (born December 31, 1926) is the fictional arch-villain of the Harry Potter series. He is an evil wizard bent on securing unmatched power and achieving immortality through the practice of Dark Magic. He is so feared by magical people that most refer to him as "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" rather than say his name out loud. His followers, the Death Eaters, do not use his name either, but instead refer to him as "the Dark Lord". Voldemort is considered one of the most powerful wizards alive. It has been said that the only wizard he fears is Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Voldemort's name can be translated as "flight of death" or "theft of death" in French (vol de mort).

Early history

Lord Voldemort was born Tom Marvolo Riddle on New Year's Eve 1926 to Tom Riddle Sr. and Merope Riddle, née Gaunt. Through his mother, he was the last descendant of Salazar Slytherin. Riddle was abandoned by his father Thomas Riddle, and his mother died shortly after his birth, so he was raised in an orphanage. When he turned eleven, Albus Dumbledore invited him to study at Hogwarts. Even as a child, he had developed some control over his abilities, a sign of his immense potential as a wizard. By the time that Dumbledore met him, he could move things with his mind, make animals do his bidding, talk to snakes, cause people pain, and, in his own words, "make bad things happen to people who annoy[ed him]". However, he also displayed cruelty, a disregard for others, a tendency to abuse his magical abilities, and a lack of moral judgement. Within a few short years of arriving at Hogwarts, Riddle began using a new name; a name he knew witches and wizards would one day fear to speak - Lord Voldemort. moral]] While a student at Hogwarts, Riddle was generally successful in concealing his motives and was a talented student. He was a gifted and exceptional student, making prefect and eventually Head Boy, though Dumbledore never forgot what Riddle confessed to him, thus never fully trusted him. He quickly gathered a group of followers amongst whom he began using the name "Lord Voldemort"--an anagram of his full name, Tom Marvolo Riddle, is "I am Lord Voldemort." After leaving Hogwarts, Riddle chose to abandon his original name and use his adopted name openly. While Riddle was at Hogwarts, he surrounded himself with a group of fellow Slytherin students whom he referred to as friends, but for whom he felt little or no compassion. Many of these people became Death Eaters, including Avery and Rodolphus Lestrange. During Riddle's fifth year at Hogwarts, he opened the Chamber of Secrets and killed Myrtle, a Muggle-born student. Only Professor Dumbledore even suspected him , as Riddle had exercised his considerable charm over most of the other staff including Potions master Horace Slughorn and framed a third year student, Rubeus Hagrid. Rubeus Hagrid After completing his education, Voldemort sought to become a teacher at Hogwarts. Dumbledore speculates that this was in order to obtain an object belonging to Godric Gryffindor or Rowena Ravenclaw. He was turned down by then-headmaster Dippet on account of his youth. Instead, he temporarily took a job at Borgin and Burkes, but left upon acquiring, by theft and murder, Salazar Slytherin's locket and a goblet bearing the Hufflepuff badger, probably to use as Horcruxes. He then disappeared and was not seen again for many years. Ten years later, he returned to Hogwarts to ask for the position of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, but was turned down again by Dumbledore because he had proven untrustworthy. At this time, it is noted, Voldemort was appearing much less human, and asked to be called by his assumed title rather than "Tom Riddle", which Dumbledore did not do. Voldemort was again turned away from the position. Enraged, he placed a hex on the Defence Against the Dark Arts job, and since then, no teacher has ever been able to keep the job longer than a year.

Rise to power

Little more is known about Riddle until he rose to power as Lord Voldemort in the 1970s. Grindelwald was vanquished while Riddle was 18 so it is possible that the two met beforehand. There have only been hints at the full horror of his attempt at control. It would seem that when Voldemort first appeared, he started his campaign with the idea of "purifying" the Wizarding race by purging Muggle-born people (notably despite, or perhaps partly because of, his own 'half-blood' heritage), which appealed to the old Wizarding families. It was during this time that he briefly resurfaced to contact Dumbledore, now the Hogwarts Headmaster, asking again to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts. At some time he "showed his true colours", which apparently caused him to lose the support of some of the old families. It is still unclear what Voldemort's exact aims were. The British Ministry of Magic – led largely by Barty Crouch Sr. – worked against Voldemort, along with the Order of the Phoenix, led by Dumbledore. Dumbledore is said to be the only wizard whom Voldemort ever feared, and Hogwarts was one of the few safe places during that dangerous time when Lord Voldemort ruled. During this period, there were high levels of suspicion and fear in the wizarding world. People felt they could never be sure who was on Voldemort's side and who wasn't. Voldemort and his followers used curses which could cause excruciating pain or instant death, or allow the spellcaster to control another person. This third curse, the Imperius Curse, was the subject of controversy, as many who supported Voldemort later claimed that his followers had been using this curse on them. Some of these people were later set free, but there is conclusive evidence that at least one, Lucius Malfoy, was acting of his own free will. Voldemort had his own group of trusted aides: the Death Eaters, over whom he maintained control by continuous, and often brutal, punishment. The Death Eaters would employ the Dark Mark, a green skull with a snake emerging from its mouth as their symbol, conjured by the incantation Morsmordre. This would be used to terrorize people – by its appearance above a house where the Death Eaters had committed a murder, for instance. The same symbol was tattooed on the arm of each Death Eater by Voldemort himself. The Dark Mark tattoo served as a means to summon his followers before him; when he pressed his finger against any Death Eater's mark, the others' marks would all change color to let them know that he wished to meet with them. Despite the efforts of the Ministry and Dumbledore, Voldemort appeared to be on the verge of victory, having infiltrated many of their organizations with his spies. The British wizarding community remained under siege and was being torn apart by widespread suspicion. Then, in early 1980, Sybill Trelawney, great-great-granddaughter of a famous and gifted seer, Cassandra Trelawney, entered a trance in the presence of Dumbledore and uttered a prophecy: :"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies ..." Two boys were later found to fit the description of the prophecy: Neville Longbottom and Harry Potter. Severus Snape overheard the prophecy as Trelawney was making it and informed Voldemort; however, he only reported the first few lines, missing out key details about the subject of the prophecy being marked 'as his equal'. Voldemort believed Harry the most likely of the two to be a risk to him, even though Neville was a pure-blood (and thus, according to Voldemort's creed, the better wizard) and went to kill the child. In doing so, he "mark[ed] him as equal" and confirmed that Harry was the one to whom the prophecy referred. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore reveals further truths relating to this prophecy. He tells Harry that by attempting to kill him, Voldemort, besides giving Harry his scar, began the chain of events that would eventually lead to fulfilment of the prophecy. This theme of inevitable fulfilment of prophecy initiated by those who seek to prevent it is a common motif in ancient myth, particularly in ancient Greek tragedy and most famously in the story of Oedipus. It can also be seen as a "what if" prophecy such as the one in Macbeth. Would Voldemort have lost his powers if he didn't go to kill Harry?
His downfall
On October 31st, 1981, Voldemort arrived at the home of James and Lily Potter, prominent members of the Order of the Phoenix who had thrice defied him (as stated as a condition of the prophecy), in Godric's Hollow. James Potter was killed in the confrontation, and Lily sacrificed her own life to save her son. This act of love granted Harry an unexplained charm of protection, which foiled Voldemort's attempt to use Avada Kedavra, the killing curse, on the baby. The one-year-old Harry became the first and only known survivor of the Avada Kedavra curse, with only a scar in the shape of a lightning bolt on his forehead. The spell somehow backfired on Voldemort, reducing him to a barely-alive shell of his former self. He was only able to survive because he had previously split his soul into pieces, five of which were imbued into objects known as Horcruxes, enabling Voldemort to defy death as long as these objects were intact. Voldemort fled, and virtually disappeared for over a decade. The protective charm bestowed on Harry by his mother's loving sacrifice afforded him a lingering protection against direct attacks by Voldemort. This charm was kept active as long as he had a home among Lily's blood relatives and only until he came of age (at seventeen). For this reason, Albus Dumbledore took the rescued baby Harry and left him in the indifferent and even neglectful care of his aunt and uncle, the Muggles Vernon and Petunia Dursley. The news of Voldemort's downfall spread fast through the wizarding community. Without his personal power to back them up, many of his supporters defected or gave themselves up. A few attempted to find him, but were unsuccessful. Overnight, Harry became a celebrity, popularly called "The Boy Who Lived." Many Death Eaters were captured and sent to Azkaban prison.
The years of exile
Voldemort led a shadow of life in a forest, where even continued existence was a struggle for him. His only remaining power was the ability to occupy the bodies of others, and he frequently possessed snakes. Animal bodies made it difficult for him to perform magic, a crucial obstacle to regaining his strength and restoring his physical form. exile Then, in the early 1990s, Professor Quirinus Quirrell, teacher of Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts, encountered Voldemort in the forests of Transylvania during his travels. Whether tempted by promises of power or overcome by trickery, Quirrell submitted to the Dark Lord's service and allowed Voldemort to possess him. He travelled to London and attempted, with the help of his new master, to steal the Philosopher's Stone (called the Sorcerer's Stone in the American version of the book), which would have allowed Voldemort to regain his former power and to become immortal. Finding that the stone had been moved from Gringotts to Hogwarts, Voldemort/Quirrell set about finding ways to break through the many layers of security now around the Philosopher's Stone. Voldemort's plans were, however, thwarted by Harry, now a first-year student at Hogwarts, and Voldemort was forced to flee his host's body, as Harry's touch reduced his host's body to ashes. Voldemort returned to hiding, angry that his Death Eaters had forsaken him, ashamed that he had been defeated by an 11-year-old boy, and afraid that he would not be able to find another wizard to possess. He remained in hiding for two years in Albania. In this interim, Death Eater Lucius Malfoy managed to send one of Voldemort's horcruxes – the diary kept by the young Tom Riddle – into Hogwarts by passing it secretly into the possession of student Ginny Weasley. By means of this sinister diary, the memory of Riddle managed to manipulate Ginny into opening the Chamber of Secrets once again, nearly killing a number of students. Riddle then tried to drain Ginny's life-force to allow himself to regain physical form outside the book. Harry, however, defeated him once again. It is not known what would have happened had Ginny been destroyed by this past version of Tom Riddle, but author J. K. Rowling has noted it would strengthen the present-day Voldemort. Luckily for Voldemort, a series of incidents forced Peter Pettigrew, who had betrayed Harry's parents to Voldemort, to leave hiding and to go in search of Voldemort. While seeking his one-time master, he kidnapped Bertha Jorkins, from whom Voldemort learned enough to formulate a plan to create a primitive body for himself, rudimentary but still corporeal, allowing him to perform magic. He then used an ancient ritual of Dark Magic to recreate the body he had before his curse rebounded at the beginning of the first book. Harry's blood formed a part of this process of rebirth, preventing the effect which caused Voldemort to almost die when he first tried to kill Harry. Many Harry Potter fans suspect that this will eventually prove to be Voldemort's undoing; when Harry was telling Dumbledore about how Voldemort had removed the charm over Harry, Dumbledore had in his eyes a look of triumph, seeming to know something no one else does. After being reborn, Voldemort summoned the Death Eaters back to him, and attempted to kill Harry — but Harry escaped the Dark Lord yet again (see below).
The Second War
At first, the British Ministry of Magic refused to believe that Lord Voldemort had risen again. The Minister for Magic (Minister of Magic in American Editions), Cornelius Fudge, began a process of discrediting Harry, who had witnessed Voldemort's resurrection, and Albus Dumbledore, Harry's chief supporter. Dumbledore was accused of being senile, and was removed from several important posts. Harry, on the other hand, was characterized as an attention-seeking liar, or psychologically unstable. Meanwhile, Lucius Malfoy, having returned to Voldemort's service, sought to gain influence within the Ministry, encouraging Fudge to believe that the real threat to his authority came from a powerful Dumbledore, not a resurgent Voldemort. In opposition to Voldemort, Dumbledore reformed the Order of the Phoenix, and set it up in Sirius Black's family home at Number 12, Grimmauld Place, London. He also sent envoys to the giants and other non-human magical beings whom Voldemort might try to lure to his side. Meanwhile, Voldemort was waiting and plotting carefully. Only a handful of wizards – the Death Eaters and the members of the Order of the Phoenix – knew or believed he was back, allowing him a free hand in his schemes. He managed to coerce the giants, Dementors and werewolves to support him. After engineering a plot to secure the break-out of some of the Death Eaters from Azkaban, Voldemort embarked on a scheme to kill Harry and retrieve the record of Trelawney's prophecy regarding Harry and Voldemort, stored in the Ministry's Department of Mysteries. His plot failed, and the only copy of the prophecy was destroyed. All but one of the Death Eaters sent to retrieve it fell into the hands of the Order of the Phoenix after a running battle inside the Ministry building. However, during the skirmish, Sirius Black fell through a strange archway in the Department, and vanished. This doorway was supposedly created so that the Ministry could study death. Overcome with anger and grief, Harry chased down the Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange, Sirius's cousin and the woman responsible for his death. They fought, but Lestrange was saved by the appearance of Voldemort himself. Harry was in turn saved from Voldemort's wand by the timely arrival of Professor Dumbledore. There followed a wizarding duel between Dumbledore and Voldemort, until finally Voldemort vanished, taking Lestrange with him. He was seen by the Minister for Magic, however, who finally accepted that Voldemort was back. This led to a return of the earlier fear and suspicion among the wizarding community, which was fueled by Voldemort's continuing attacks and schemes as he regained strength. Voldemort's next step was to engineer an attack on his most formidable enemy, Dumbledore himself. This was achieved by the machinations of Draco Malfoy, a student at Hogwarts and the son of Death Eater Lucius Malfoy, who had been arrested and sent to Azkaban following the battle inside the Ministry of Magic, and his wife Narcissa. Draco managed to arrange an access point into Hogwarts for the Death Eaters by means of two enchanted cabinets, the use of which bypassed the extensive enchantments placed around the school to prevent unauthorized access. While Dumbledore, accompanied by Harry, went on a mission to recover and destroy one of Voldemort's Horcruxes, the Death Eaters overran Hogwarts. On their return, Dumbledore and Harry joined the fight but Dumbledore, weakened from the effects of the potion he had to drink to retrieve the the Horcrux, met his death on the school battlements at the hands of none other than Professor Severus Snape. Snape was acting to complete the mission assigned by Voldemort to a hesitating young Draco, due to the Unbreakable Vow he made to Draco's mother. With "the only one he ever feared" dead, Voldemort's greatest enemy (bar Harry) is no more, and the scales of the battle have now tipped, it seems, in favour of the Dark Lord.
Characteristics
Voldemort is described as having very pale skin, no nose at all with snake-like slits for nostrils, red eyes and cat-like slits for pupils, a skeletally thin body, and long, thin hands with unnaturally long fingers. In the first HP movie, he did have red eyes, but a normal nose. There is no proof in the books that he is bald. Rather that idea has been brought about by the movies and his characterization in the Harry Potter fandom. Earlier in life, Voldemort was a handsome man with black hair, before his appearance began to transform from his experiments in the Dark Arts. There is a slight resemblance, possibly significant, to Harry Potter. The transformation into his monstrous state was caused in most part by the division of his soul by advanced dark magic so that he could create Horcruxes. Voldemort's attempts to gain immortality through the Horcruxes are similar to that used by the mythical creatures known as liches, though the liches' phylacteries require neither the user to "split" his/her soul, nor does it require a portion of said practicioner's soul to remain in his/her body. One of Voldemort's defining characteristics are his classist "pure-blood" tendencies. Voldemort looks down upon Muggles, a hatred which seems to have originated in part from his father's abandonment of his mother. He hates non-pure-bloods, despite the fact that he is one himself. While prior to his conflict with Harry Potter it is believed that his hatred for non pure-bloods was the driving force behind his violence, the books suggest that his attention has since been diverted to focusing purely on the death of Harry himself, sidelining this blood hatred. In many ways, Voldemort matches the classic profile of antisocial personality disorder. Voldemort is portrayed even from childhood as unsatisfied with what he sees as "normal" life. He wanted to be "special" and "better" and was in fact capable of consciously controlling his wand-less magic at a very young age. He came to hate his own name, partly because it links him to a father whom he hated, and also because "Tom" is a fairly common English name and did not grant Riddle the uniqueness he craved. For this reason, he adopted a pseudonym based on an anagram of his given name. As Darth Vader is "more machine than man," Voldemort appears to be "more magic than man." When first describing him to Harry, Hagrid noted that Voldemort might no longer be human enough to die: :"Some say he died. Codswallop in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die." ;Rubeus Hagrid to Harry, in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone Voldemort is also a Parselmouth: a wizard who can speak the language of snakes, Parseltongue. This is an ability he inherited from his ancestor, Salazar Slytherin, of whom he is the last living descendant, and which he unwittingly passed to Harry when he tried to kill him. Voldemort has been called the world's greatest Legilimens and Occlumens, meaning he can 'read' minds (though Snape claims that this is a basic misconception as the mind cannot be read like a book) and he can also shield his own mind from the penetration of others. Voldemort, in his arrogance, has also displayed a tendency to forget seemingly minor and insignificant details, which has led to his undoing on several occasions. In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone he states that he had forgotten the ancient magic which protected Harry, after his mother had died to save him; in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets he forgets that the tears of the phoenix have healing powers. The Harry Potter Lexicon suggests that the glint in Dumbledore's eye in the Goblet of Fire when Harry tells him that Voldemort has some of his blood in him refers to Dumbledore's knowledge that this is something else Voldemort has forgotten about. Voldemort's magic wand was made from yew, a wood associated with immortality and which produces a poisonous sap, is thirteen and a half inches long,has the feather of a phoenix at its core, and in the movie, what appears to be a bone handle. The wand's manufacturer, Mr Ollivander, got this feather from Dumbledore's pet phoenix, Fawkes. Unusually enough, Fawkes gave one more feather to be used in a wand: this wand belongs to Harry Potter. Because the two wands have a core coming from the same source, they cannot work properly when used against each other. If they are nevertheless forced to battle, what will happen is Priori Incantatem or the "reverse spell effect," where each wand will try to force the other to regurgitate shadows of the spells it has cast in reverse chronological order. All of this played an important part in Harry Potter's escape from Voldemort at the end of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. After much speculation JK Rowling revealed that Voldemort's greatest fear is "ignominious death", and that his boggart would be his own corpse. What Voldemort desires most is to be all-powerful and eternal – which is what he would see if he were ever to look in the Mirror of Erised. Dumbledore also stated in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince that Voldemort secretly fears both corpses and darkness, though, "it is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more," (Chapter 26). Dumbledore may have deduced this characteristic during his duel with Voldemort at the end of Order of the Phoenix, during which the two exchanged a series of taunts: ::VOLDEMORT: You do not seek to kill me, Dumbledore? Above such brutality, are you?" ::DUMBLEDORE: We both know that there are other ways of destroying a man, Tom. Merely taking your life would not satisfy me, I admit – ::VOLDEMORT: There is nothing worse than death, Dumbledore! ::DUMBLEDORE: You are quite wrong.

Skills

Voldemort is possibly the current most powerful wizard in the world. As Tom Riddle he was the best student in the school. He is a Parselmouth and the greatest legilimens and occlumens in the world. He is one of the few people who knows about Horcruxes, let alone have them and is the greatest dark wizard ever.

Voldemort in the films

In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone he is merely a face on the back of Quirrell's head. This was achieved by computer generated imagery voiced by Richard Bremmer. In that film, he was also shown in a flashback sequence when he arrived at the home of James and Lily Potter to kill them. In this scene Voldemort is played by Ian Hart, the actor who played Quirrell in the same film. In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Voldemort appears as a memory of his younger self, Hogwarts student Tom Riddle, who is played by Christian Coulson. Voldemort does not appear in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which is the first time Voldemort is seen in his actual physical form, he is played by Ralph Fiennes. The assumption that this casting will be preserved in the filming of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix has been supported by an interview with Fiennes. Characters seem less touchy about hearing Voldemort's name in the films than in the books.

Pronunciation

Voldemort's name means "flight from death" or "theft of death" in French, and J.K. Rowling personally uses a French pronunciation for his name, i.e. Vol-de-mor (with a silent t). However, the movies use an English pronunciation and the t is pronounced, e.g. Vol-de-mort. Since J.K. Rowling has final creative control over the movies, it can be inferred that these different pronunciations are not significant. The fact that in the movies people didn't really have a reaction to Voldemort's name angers many fans.

Voldemort's family tree


                       Salazar Slytherin
                               |
                               |
                               .
                               .
                               .
                               |
                               |
                         Marvolo Gaunt
                               |
                        +------+-----------+
                        |                  |
 Tom Riddle Sr. + Merope Gaunt        Morfin Gaunt
                |
        Tom Marvolo Riddle
         (Lord Voldemort)

Voldemort's name
Voldemort's given name was Tom Marvolo Riddle. In the second book he explains that the appellation "Lord Voldemort" is derived from an anagram of his name:

:TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE → I AM LORD VOLDEMORT

It is interesting to note that his name, Tom Marvolo Riddle, is also a riddle. 

Like a number of other names in the Harry Potter novels, "Voldemort" seems to have French origins. Indeed, Vol de mort can mean, rather appropriately, either "flight of death" or "theft of death". The word de can also translate as "from", giving "flight from death". Given Voldemort's fear of death and quest for immortality, this meaning is also appropriate.

In translated versions of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Voldemort's original name is changed to accommodate the anagram. In the Polish edition however, the translator Andrzej Polkowski decided not to make any changes, presumably because of the difficulty of translating the anagram into a meaningful sentence. In the Portuguese edition (as distinct from the Brazilian edition), the name was similarly left untranslated.



See also

 - Death Eater

 - Tom Riddle's diary

 - Nagini
References

 - Lev Grossman, "J.K. Rowling Hogwarts and All". TIME Magazine, July 25, 2005, Vol. 166, No. 4

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External links

 - [http://www.eulenfeder.de/int/ Translated names in the Harry Potter World]

 - [http://www.hp-lexicon.org/timeline.html Timeline of Lord Voldemort's Life] (Harry Potter Lexicon)

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Albus Dumbledore
Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore (born circa 1844) is a character in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series - the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and one of the most powerful wizards in the world. Being benevolent, slightly eccentric, and powerful, he resembles an archetypal good wizard in the style of Merlin or Gandalf. He is often sympathetic to Harry Potter's difficulties, and, as such, occasionally allows the young wizard more leeway than he would with others. He is described as the only wizard Lord Voldemort ever feared. 

Dumbledore is described as being tall and thin, with long hair and beard. He has blue eyes, a very long and crooked nose, and long fingers. He wears half-moon spectacles. He is often described to be very well-dressed in magnificent robes. He claims to have a scar above his left knee, its provenance unknown, which is a perfect map of the London underground.

Dumbledore's Chocolate Frog card mentions that he enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling. He has a great affinity for sweets, magical and non-magical, and has frequently set the password for the gargoyle guarding his office door to be the name of various sweets. He is also a self-stated fan of knitting patterns, and once told Harry that one could never have enough socks. 

The name Albus is from the Latin word albus ("white"), a frequently used symbol for good; "Dumbledore," which means "bumblebee," was picked by the author because she imagines him humming while strolling along the halls of Hogwarts.

In the movie versions, interestingly enough, Dumbledore is played by Irishmen. In the film adaptations of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Dumbledore was played by Richard Harris, who died in 2002 of Hodgkin's disease.  In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), Dumbledore is played by Michael Gambon. 


Early life and career
Comparatively little is revealed about Dumbledore's early history or family. At the time of the series, he is (according to an interview by Rowling) about 150 years old, meaning he entered Hogwarts around 1855, being sorted into Gryffindor House (according to Hermione Granger). His brother, Aberforth, who was prosecuted for "practising inappropriate charms on a goat," may be illiterate, and (as confirmed by Rowling) is the bartender at the Hog's Head Inn in Hogsmeade.  Dumbledore's extraordinary magical talents were apparent from an early age, as later described by the elderly Griselda Marchbanks, Head of the Wizarding Examinations Authority, who had personally examined the school-age Dumbledore for his NEWT exams in Charms and Transfiguration.  Marchbanks recalled that the young Dumbledore had "done things with a wand I'd never seen before."

Some time after his graduation from Hogwarts, he returned to the faculty as Professor of Transfiguration, and in this capacity also served in recruiting students for the school.  He identified Tom Marvolo Riddle and offered him a place at Hogwarts, glimpsing the true nature of the boy who was to become Lord Voldemort.  His keen observations of Riddle's student years led Dumbledore to influence Hogwarts' headmaster, Armando Dippet, not to offer Riddle a faculty position.

In 1945 Dumbledore defeated the dark wizard Grindelwald. As J.K. Rowling confirmed, Grindelwald and his followers are meant to be the magical-world analogues of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis.

Dumbledore also held the posts of Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, and Supreme Mugwump in International Conference of Wizards. He was a Grand Sorcerer, and was awarded the Order of Merlin, First Class. He was removed from the aforementioned posts during his conflict with the British Ministry of Magic under the Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge about the return of Voldemort and subsequent requisite actions; he was reinstated as a member of the International Conference of Wizards when the ministry was forced to see their own error.

 Magical accomplishments and skills 
Cornelius Fudge
Dumbledore is widely famous as a legendary alchemist who has worked together with Nicholas Flamel, the only known maker of the Philosopher's Stone, and is credited with discovering the twelve uses of dragon blood. In addition to these credits, he is known to be able to conjure Gubraithian Fire (magical everlasting fire).  His Patronus takes the form of a phoenix, a recurring symbol in the books.

Dumbledore also invented the method of communicating messages using a Patronus Charm, a skill he taught only to members of the Order of the Phoenix[http://www.jkrowling.com/textonly/faq_poll.cfm]. He has claimed to be able to become invisible without using an invisibility cloak (although it may have been a metaphor), and there are suggestions that he is capable of seeing through invisibility cloaks.  Dumbledore is also skilled in Occlumency and Legilimency.

Dumbledore can speak Mermish, the language of the Merpeople.

 Magical possessions 

 -  A phoenix named Fawkes 

 -  A Put-Outer - used for switching on and off the electric lights used by muggles

 -  A pocket watch with 12 hands and the planets instead of numbers, use unknown, but it is possible that the user uses the alignment of the planets to tell time

 -  A Pensieve, used for examining memories

 -  Odd silver devices on spindly-legged tables, uses unknown

 -  Half-moon spectacles: The glasses that he wears may also have magical properties, such as allowing him to see invisible objects (unconfirmed)

 Dumbledore and the rise of Voldemort 
One of Dumbledore's tasks as a teacher at Hogwarts was to visit the young Tom Riddle and offer him a place at Hogwarts. Riddle was living in a muggle orphanage, and while he had discovered some magical abilities, did not know that his mother had been a witch. Even at this early age, Dumbledore was concerned about Riddle's character, and was especially careful to watch his progress throughout his school years. Riddle attempted to get a teaching job at Hogwarts, but Dumbledore first persuaded the then headmaster to refuse Riddle's request, and himself refused a second request some years later.

It was to Dumbledore that Sybill Trelawney, subsequently appointed as professor of Divination, revealed the prophecy regarding Voldemort's fall. The prophecy was overheard by Severus Snape, who reported most of it to Voldemort. Snape was discovered eavesdropping, but no action was taken against him by Dumbledore, other than removing him from the building. Voldemort interpreted the prophecy as referring to Harry, and as a result killed his parents, James and Lily Potter, while trying to kill Harry.

Dumbledore was instrumental in the struggle against his former student, working tirelessly against him with the Order of the Phoenix.  When Harry's parents were killed, it was Dumbledore's decision to place the now-orphaned Harry in the safekeeping of Vernon and Petunia Dursley, knowing that Harry would be protected by the special magic caused by his mother's sacrifice.  

Petunia Dursley

Throughout the series Dumbledore is portrayed as a wizard with modern/reformist ideas about pure-bloodedness and the rights of Muggles, part-humans, and non-humans.  Dumbledore does not give importance to the so-called "purity of blood" and believes that an individual's choices reflect his character rather than his birth, blood, or family, saying "it matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be."  Voldemort angrily refers to Dumbledore as "champion of commoners, muggles and mudbloods.".  Unlike most wizards, Dumbledore is not afraid of speaking Lord Voldemort's name.

Dumbledore makes the important discovery that Voldemort is trying to achieve immortality through the use of Horcruxes, one of which was Tom Riddle's diary, destroyed by Harry in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.  Dumbledore himself destroys a second Horcrux, an old ring, and is killed after being weakened attempting to find a third.

 Dismissal from Hogwarts 
Dumbledore was twice dismissed from his position as Headmaster, the first time during Harry's second year at Hogwarts, when Lucius Malfoy persuaded the school's twelve governors to remove him in the wake of attacks by a basilisk on people in the school.  He was subsequently reinstated, after Harry killed the basilisk and Lucius was found to have started the attacks. 

In Harry's fifth year, Dolores Umbridge was appointed by the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, to oversee activities at Hogwarts, after Dumbledore and Harry tried to convince the wizarding world that Voldemort had returned. Harry and other students organised a club called "Dumbledore's Army" to learn defensive magic. Umbridge discovered the club and used it as an excuse to dismiss Dumbledore as headmaster.  Dumbledore was reinstated after Voldemort launched an attack on the ministry of magic.

 Death 
Dumbledore's Army in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.]]
Dumbledore's death is foreshadowed at the start of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, where he first appears with a burnt and blackened hand, a result of his recovery and destruction of a ring that was an heirloom of Voldemort's grandfather Marvolo Gaunt and was serving as one of Voldemort's Horcruxes.  On that occasion, Dumbledore was saved from death by the intervention of Severus Snape, though the injury shows no sign of improvement throughout the year that passes in the sixth book.

Dumbledore was repeatedly warned by Harry Potter that another student, Draco Malfoy, was working for Voldemort. Dumbledore refused to take any action against Draco, and instead reassured Harry that he already knew more about what was happening than did Harry. Draco made two attempts to kill Dumbledore during the year, but on each occasion a student was injured instead. The first attempt involved a cursed necklace, the second a bottle of poisoned mead. Both these attempts were secondary to Malfoy's main plan, which was to repair a broken magical cabinet already inside Hogwarts, and use it to transport Death Eaters into the castle. The attackers entered the castle while Dumbledore and Harry were away, attempting to find and destroy another Horcrux. Dumbledore was injured, possibly fatally, in this attempt as he was forced to drink a potion left by Voldemort and on their return he was captured by Malfoy. Malfoy found that he could not bring himself to kill Dumbledore, so instead Snape used the fatal Avada Kedavra curse against him (attack on Hogwarts).  

Dumbledore's last words, "Severus...please..." have raised debate over whether he begged for his life, his death, Snape's redemption, or something else. Both Dumbledore and Snape are accomplished at legilimency, and it is possible that Dumbledore's plea is the only audible portion of a greater conversation between them. Snape, a member of the Order of the Phoenix who has been trusted implicitly by Dumbledore, was also known to have sworn an unbreakable vow to aid Draco Malfoy in the task set him by Voldemort, — to kill Dumbledore. It is not clear that Snape knew what this task was when he swore to carry it out, should Draco fail. Draco demonstrably failed to kill Dumbledore when he had him disarmed and vulnerable in front of him during the attack, so the vow would have become binding on Snape's actions at that time. Had Draco demonstrably failed earlier in the year, perhaps as a result of Harry's warnings, then the vow would have come into effect at that time, leading to the likely death of either Dumbledore or Snape much earlier.

Dumbledore's funeral is attended by students, teachers, members of the Ministry of Magic, giants, ghosts, and other non-humans.  Shrouded in purple velvet, he is entombed in a white marble tomb beside the lake at Hogwarts, and is said to be the only Hogwarts headmaster who is laid to rest in the school grounds.  His portrait appears in the current headmistress's office alongside the former headmasters and headmistresses of Hogwarts, where he will presumably, like the others, give his aid to the current head of school.

Some fans refuse to believe that Dumbledore is really dead, and have theories as to how they think he survived. Dave Haber, the Managing Editor of Wizard News, has even written a webpage on the subject. [http://www.dumbledoreisnotdead.com/] Fans who do believe that he's dead point to evidence including Snape not dying due to the Unbreakable Vow, Dumbledore's body-bind spell ceasing to work, how he didn't fly up and then to the ground when the Avada Kadavra curse was used on him, and his portrait in the headmaster's office. JK Rowling indicated that she wouldn't clearly deny Dumbledore coming back, when she was asked this question, and said she just doesn't want to spoil the hopes of the readers.

See also

 -  List of characters in translations of Harry Potter

External links

 - [http://www.hp-lexicon.org/wizard

Invasion of Hogwarts

Circumstances

The Battle

Aftermath

Battle

Characteristics of battle

The Factors of Battles

Types of battle

The Difference of Land Battles Throughout History

The difference of naval battles throughout history

Aerial Battles Throughout History

Battle naming

The Effects of a Battle

See also

References

Fiction

Categories of fiction

Elements of fiction

See also

External links

J K Rowling

Early life

Harry Potter

Harry Potter movies

After Harry Potter

Lawsuits

Nancy Stouffer

New York Daily News

The Bashu Publishing House, Chengdu

Eksmo Publishers

Trivia

Family

External links

Lord Voldemort

Early history

Rise to power

His downfall

The years of exile

The Second War

Characteristics

Skills

Voldemort in the films

Pronunciation

Voldemort's family tree

Voldemort's name

See also

References

External links

Albus Dumbledore

Early life and career

Magical accomplishments and skills

Magical possessions

Dumbledore and the rise of Voldemort

Dismissal from Hogwarts

Death

See also

External links