The Harry Potter Companion

I remember one day, a little over a year ago, when I was working on this site and it occurred to me that my son was almost exactly the same age Harry had been on the day James and Lily were killed. As a parent you’re always worried about the safety and future of your family, but that realization really made Harry’s story hit home for me in a new way.

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. :)

Posted in Off Camera
Tags: Harry Potter, James Potter, Lily Potter

I think it’s high time for another new page, don’t you?

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!

Posted in Off Camera
Tags: Harry Potter, James Potter, Lily Potter, Marauders, MWPP, Peter Pettigrew, Remus Lupin, Severus Snape, Sirius Black, Snape

From the looks of things, a whole lot of people have gotten access into Pottermore for the first time over the past couple of days. I’ve been exploring it thanks to a friend for a few weeks now, and got my own account this week – I’m a Ravenclaw, of course (anybody surprised?). My initial impression is that while it’s a fun site, and has some cool resemblances to this one, it’s not going to be a project that fundamentally affects anything that I do here. Which, I must admit, allows me a bit of a sigh of relief. :)
 

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….

Posted in Pottermore
Tags: Harry Potter, Pottermore

A long while back (perhaps a year or two?), I had a reader ask me whether I was intending to one day post pages for the Harry Potter companion books – Fantastic Beasts, Quidditch Through the Ages, and The Tales of Beedle the Bard. When I was asked the question, I looked through my art collection and thought there was no way I would be able to collect enough art, and answered the question accordingly.

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

Posted in New Chapter

Many of you may recall a while back when I posted a contest to see who could guess which Harry Potter chapters were the most drawn (at least according to my art collection). Not having much to offer as a prize, I promised that the winner would get to choose which page I would next design and post to the site. I had a couple of other pages in development at the time that I’ve posted since, but I’m finally now reaching the point of making good on my promise. I awarded two prizes, but first up is Clare, who requested a character portrait of Remus Lupin. So thanks Clare, and here it is!

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

Posted in New Chapter

Well, sort of a new essay, anyway.

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?

Posted in Essays
Tags: Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter