Among other things I’ve had a backlog of drawings that I’ve been saving to add to the site. These are drawings either that were done after I posted the chapters, or that I found later on in my search. But I’m excited to begin adding them, as I think they will really enhance the chapters I’m adding them to. So I began today with Philosopher’s Stone, and the following pieces:

• Harry entering Diagon Alley in PS5, by new artist Mel Tregonning;
• A beautiful depiction of the first-years on the boats in PS6, by Catching-Smoke;
• The trio plus Neville facing Fluffy in PS9, by MioneBookworm;
• Hermione showing up Ron in Charms in PS10, by Lisa Villella;
• Hermione battling Devil’s Snare in PS16, by thepolestar;
• Ron preparing to face the chess men, also in PS16, by new artist Sahin Düzgün;
• And Hermione discovering the potions riddle in PS16, by MioneBookworm;

Enjoy!

My little boy is now almost two and a half, but our family otherwise looks much the same as the Potters once did. So it’s probably not surprising that the story that this new page tells is one that fascinates me – the sort of thing that makes me want to cry with joy and horror all at the same time. The Potter Family wasn’t a family for long, but they sure left their mark on the world.

Harry Potter Off Camera: The Potter Family

By the way, I appreciate the comments and e-mails I’ve gotten expressing folks’ excitement that I posted a new page again this week. Even as I’ve been updating less frequently recently, the site is still going strong (we’re over 3.5 million page views now), and I can’t thank you all enough. I’m sure I’ll still be in and out over time, but I’m no less determined to finish the projects I’ve started (and I have a new project or two that I’ve been mulling over for when they’re done, so we’ll see how that goes). So, thanks! It’s good to see you all again. :)

It always amazes me how much people love the Marauders – there is so much artwork, and fanfiction, and simple fascination with these characters and the era in which they grew up. I was never the type to think about them much, but I will confess to have enjoyed living in their world for a few days and building one of the most requested pages in the history of this website. Here it is:

Harry Potter Off Camera: The Marauder Years

I also need to welcome a new addition to our team of artists, Iria Abella!

I hope you’re all enjoying your holidays, and have a wonderful new year!

A couple of quick things for those who signed up for early access. First, a dear friend of mine is collecting data on the wand selection and Sorting processes, and for those who have already been Sorted, it would help her out greatly for you to fill out her anonymous survey. Please only do this if you’ve already been Sorted, so her results are meaningful! Here are the links:
Wand questions: tinyurl.com/wand-questions
Sorting questions: tinyurl.com/sort-hat-qs
 

Finally, if anybody is interested in being Pottermore friends, I’d love to see you there! Drop me a comment or an e-mail (john at hpcompanion dot com) with your screen name and your real name (or the name you use on this site) and I’ll send you a request.
 

In the meantime, I am indeed working on my next post for *this* site, which should be arriving soon! Take care….

A month or so ago, however, I was thinking about Fantastic Beasts, and decided to start searching around to see if there might be any artwork out there that I’d simply overlooked. I was surprised and so pleased to discover that well beyond the usual Harry Potter fan art community, there are a number of artists out there who have drawn exclusively the Fantastic Beasts. I went on another art collecting spree, and the result is, I think, a beautiful page of artwork, and a book that lends itself to more insights than I once imagined. So for anybody out there who’s been longing for another new chapter page – here it is! Much more work than the old ones, but I couldn’t be happier with the result. And I hope you feel the same.

Of course, this also means we have several new artists to add to our ranks – so a very warm welcome to Juan Ruben Juarez M., Laura Williams (aka Eudocia), Stephanie Schmidt, and C.W. Bexiga!

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

I love Lupin especially because his character is so real – his wonderful attributes and his flaws are so pronounced, and so in tandem with each other. I’ve met people very much like him, and I think we can all on some level relate to his desire to be liked and desire to belong, yet feeling like no matter what he does, he’ll never quite belong the way he wants to. His story is so tragic, but his guidance to Harry is so loving and invaluable. He’s great fun to read about and great fun to build a portrait of, and I hope you enjoy it.

Character Portrait: Remus John Lupin

It’s actually been almost two years since I posted the original version of this essay here. But I’ve always been dissatisfied with it. I never stopped believing in my basic premise, but most of the comments I got were along the lines of “I don’t buy it.” I clearly wasn’t doing a good enough job of explaining myself, and a couple of weeks ago I was thinking about the problem and realized why I think that was. So I decided to give it another crack.

The result is an essay that has very little in common with the original beyond the title. But I think it explains my theory very well, and I hope you’ll agree. I’m looking forward to hearing all of your thoughts. :)

Book 2 Essay: What Did Dobby Know?

Character Portrait: Ginevra ‘Ginny’ Molly Weasley Potter

I would say that as a general rule, you all did pretty well. A couple of different people looked through the pages on this website to determine which chapters had the most artwork – and interestingly got different answers from each other – and generally had stronger scores than most. Here were the top ten most-drawn chapters, and the number of points you got for selecting each one:

1. DH33, The Prince’s Tale – 84 (all 13 respondents guessed this one)
2. DH36, The Flaw in the Plan – 42 (8)
3. HBP24, Sectumsempra – 39 (10)
4. PA21, Hermione’s Secret – 36 (3)
5. HBP14, Felix Felicis – 33 (3)
6T. GF23, The Yule Ball – 30 (6)
6T. DH32, The Elder Wand – 30 (2)
8T. HBP2, Spinner’s End – 29 (2)
8T. DH19, The Silver Doe – 29 (8)
10T. HBP27, The Lightning-Struck Tower – 28 (2)
10T. DH8, The Wedding – 28 (1)
10T. DH34, The Forest Again – 28 (2)

Here are the other chapters that were guessed that weren’t in the top ten:
13. DH31, The Battle of Hogwarts – 27 (11)
14T. OP28, Snape’s Worst Memory – 26 (10)
14T. OP35, Beyond the Veil – 26 (4)
16T. PS12, The Mirror of Erised – 24 (2)
16T. OP10, Luna Lovegood – 24 (1)
19. HBP26, The Cave – 23 (6)
20T. PS1, The Boy Who Lived – 22 (5)
20T. CS17, The Heir of Slytherin – 22 (1)
20T. PA15, The Quidditch Final – 22 (1)
20T. OP21, The Eye of the Snake – 22 (1)
20T. OP34, The Department of Mysteries – 22 (2)
27T. PS2, The Vanishing Glass – 20 (1)
27T. PA17, Cat, Rat, and Dog – 20 (1)
33T. HBP28, Flight of the Prince – 19 (3)
33T. DH4, The Seven Potters – 19 (2)
33T. DH23, Malfoy Manor – 19 (3)
39T. OP36, The Only One He Ever Feared – 18 (4)
39T. PA14, Snape’s Grudge – 18 (1)
46T. PS5, Diagon Alley – 16 (1)
46T. DH7, The Will of Albus Dumbledore – 16 (2)
52T. DHe, Nineteen Years Later – 15 (1)
58T. GF20, The First Task – 14 (2)
68T. PS16, Through the Trapdoor – 13 (1)
109T. HBP1, The Other Minister – 10 (1)
143T. GF34, Priori Incantatem – 8 (3)
171T. OP18, Dumbledore’s Army – 6 (1)
178T. DH21, The Tale of the Three Brothers – 5 (1)

Here are the chapters that were commonly drawn but guessed by nobody at all:
16T. HBP30, The White Tomb – 24
20T. PS6, The Journey From Platform Nine and Three-Quarters – 22
26. HBP5, An Excess of Phlegm – 21
27T. PA8, Flight of the Fat Lady – 20
27T. PA22, Owl Post Again – 20
27T. OP29, Careers Advice – 20
27T. HBP15, The Unbreakable Vow – 20

And finally, just for fun, the least-drawn chapters of all:
194T. GF6, The Portkey – 3
194T. OP17, Educational Decree Number Twenty-Four – 3
194T. DH12, Magic is Might – 3
197T. GF3, The Invitation – 2
197T. DH3, The Dursleys Departing – 2
197T. DH25, Shell Cottage – 2

———————-

SO. There is a prize that needs awarding. And I’ve actually decided to give out not one, but two prizes. First, here is our score list (and let me know if I counted yours wrong, it’s possible):
Maximum Possible Score – 380
Berit – 362
Heather – 350
Anastacia Malfoy – 346
Will – 345
Lorena – 337
Squib71 – 336
Natalia – 332
hazelwillow – 329
Andrea – 316
Clare – 296
Josiah – 272
Danielle – 272
hpboy13 – 242

So Berit is our winner! But there’s one more prize I want to award, for someone who got in just under the wire and selected what proved to be the most difficult chapter – DH8, The Wedding, was the only chapter that was in the top ten yet selected by only one contestant. So for nailing that response, I’m also going to give our illustrious prize to Clare. Congrats to you both! And I’ll be emailing you soon to discuss what pages you’d like to see on the HPC.

Thanks everyone, it’s been fun. :-D

John

Hope you all enjoy. ;)
Character Portrait: Harry James Potter