Table of Contents

  1. Changelog, Recommended Resources
  2. Writing Tips
  3. Common Mistakes
  4. Britpicking
  5. Thorny Questions
  6. Education and Life at Hogwarts
  7. Law and Disorder
  8. Wizardnomics
  9. Countries and Nations

Changelog, Recommended Resources

Potter Canon

How this guide uses the term "canon," resources for finding canonical information, and a few deep dive analyses of canon that others have written.

Defining Canon

Practically every reader takes the seven Harry Potter-titled books, PS to DH, as canon. Most will also take the books Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages as canon.

General Resources

Timelines

List of Terms Served

Because I find myself checking things like this fairly frequently, and consulting the Reference Guide is more convenient for me than dealing with the Fandom.com wiki, I'm stashing a couple of quick timelines here.

Potter Fanon

General worldbuilding and other resources which set themselves in the HP universe but aren't canonical. This includes maps, theorizing on the locations of different things, etc.

General Resources

Locations

Wands

IRL

Useful stuff that isn't tied to the Harry Potter universe, like old maps, an 1828 dictionary, and several databases of edible plants, mushrooms, and etc. in Scotland.

General Resources

British and Irish Stuff

For food and weather, check those sections.

Language

Maps

Names

Plants, Animals, and Food

Timelines

Writing Tips

Genre and Trope Advice

Thoughts on soul bond fics, Indy!Harry, etc.

Style Guide

Correct capitalization, formatting, hyphenation, formatting, etc. for Harry Potter terms.

Capitalization

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Magic

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On Dialogues and Monologues

Speech patterns for various characters, advice for writing Quidditch scenes.

On Duels

Writing magical duels that feel magical.

On the Stations of Canon

Writing a story about Harry's Hogwarts years without hitting the same beats in the same way as everybody else.

Common Mistakes

Common mistakes related to canon (character traits, Hogwarts, magic, etc.) and history (Tom and the Blitz, orphanages in the U.K., etc.).

Canon

Characters

Hogwarts

Magic

Fanonical Names for Canonical Concepts

Popular Non-Canonical Spells

Reality

Britpicking

Britpicking resources, cultural mistakes commonly made by American readers, and an overview of the Peerage of the United Kingdom.

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General Resources

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Useful Tools

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Common Cultural Mistakes Made by Americans

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The British Peerage

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Thorny Questions

For example, "How can Barty Crouch, Sr. speak more than 200 languages?" I offer no certain answers, only possibilities.

How can Barty Crouch, Sr. speak more than 200 languages?

Who attempted to defenestrate Minister Fudge?

Education and Life at Hogwarts

How different writers have approached the student population and demographics of Hogwarts. What might be going on in some of the classes that we don't see much about, like Arithmancy. Resources for making class schedules.

Location, Location

Maps for Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, and the Forbidden Forest, and speculation on where Hogwarts might be.

Student Life

Class Schedules and Lesson Plans

Other Classes

Study Materials

Why students write on parchment and how they might organize their notes.

School Government and Organization

How you might organize Hogwarts by looking to British universities as a model (and why you might want to do so).

Prefects

Departments

Board of Governors

What we know about the Board of Governors at Hogwarts, and what we can infer from real boards in the U.K.

Membership

Authority

Hogwarts Library

How various monasteries organized their libraries in Medieval Europe, and other ways that the Hogwarts Library might be laid out.

The Seven Arts

Other Historical Systems

Cog and Star's System

An Elemental System

Law and Disorder

Wizard Crime and Punishment

The Wizengamot

Particular Laws

The Witchcraft Acts

British Ministerial Legislatation, Canonical

Wizardnomics

Symbols for British wizarding currency. Thoughts about how a magical economy might function, and the assumptions that go into that, as well as speculation about the role that Gringotts plays in all of this (and why it plays that role at all).

General Recommended Resources

Wizarding Currency

The Price of Transfiguration

How the magical economy handles the existence of (canonically permanent) transfiguration.

A Matter of Sport

Different figures on the number of Quidditch players in Magical Britain, how many of them are professional players (and what that might mean in a magical economy), and how less-popular sports might function.

Occupations

Historical Occupations

Ireland. Continue from here.

Wizarding Occupations

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Countries and Nations

Countries & Regions Referenced in Canon

Nationbuilding

Replacements for MACUSA

Using Maps

National Vignettes