How much of a Harry Potter geek are you? The challenge is dropped in the video above, which features a number of magical Harry Potter trivia facts, focused mainly on the books and author J.K. Rowling, who's apparently no longer a billionaire because she's so generous.
The video comes to us courtesy of BuzzFeed, where Harry Potter quizzes tend to pop up from time to time. There are a lot of Harry Potter geeks out there, after all. I like to think that's partially because the books are just so popular, and partially because, back when the books were still coming out, there were stretches of time when all we could do was reread the previous books, study the details and obsess over whatever hints we might be able to find in the text that might help us to theorize and predict what was coming next.
And there were clues, as the above video suggests with its trivia about Professor Snape's question about powdered root of asphodel, which he asked to Harry in the first book. Had we known then that Asphodel was a type of lily that symbolizes "my regrets follow you to the grave" in Victorian flower language, we might have been able to guess as early as the first book that Snape's resentment toward Harry stemmed from his feelings toward Lily Evans. Well, that and his resentment toward James Potter, but we wouldn't know the extent of that until later.
Speaking of Lily and James Potter, I love the mention of their matching Patronuses. Of course it's no secret that Lily's doe Patronus and James' stag indicate that they're a perfect match, but taking it a step further and calling them soul mates is especially nice. RIP Lily and James Potter.
Another great one is the reminder of Fred and George bewitching snowballs to hit the back of Quirrell's turban, because leave it to Fred and George to pelt U-No-Poo You Know Who in the face with snowballs.
The trivia also notes the timeline of the books, in terms of when they were written and when they were actually set. Though Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone wasn't published until the late 90s (1997 U.K., 1998 U.S.), J.K. Rowling actually wrote it in 1990. The events of the first book are technically set in 1991, which means the Battle of Hogwarts took place in 1998. While die-hard fans are likely already aware of this, because the actual year isn't something that's regularly discussed (or referenced) in the books or films, casual fans might not be. In fact, we saw some confusion about that when we shared Rowling's acknowledgement of the 16th anniversary of the Battle of Hogwarts. She was referring to 16 years based on the book's timeline, not the publication of the book, nor the films.
To add to the above trivia, it's worth noting that if 1998 was the year of the Battle of Hogwarts, then the epilogue featured in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which is set 19 years after the Battle of Hogwarts, would have taken place in 2017, which is just three years away from now.
Maybe it's just wishful thinking, especially because we know J.K. Rowling is probably busy with other Potter-related ventures (no complaints there!), but wouldn't it be kind of cool if she took us back to Hogwarts for some kind of followup book set past the epilogue? Just a thought. There's time, anyway. And 2017 would mark the twenty-year anniversary of the publication of the first book... Just saying. Again, wishful thinking.
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