Quantum Harry, the Podcast

How do Dumbledore’s bequests reflect the theme running throughout the series? What do Scrimgeour and Snape have in common? And why is it fitting that Regulus Black was a Seeker? Episode 27: Legacy Watch the Episode 27 video on YouTube. Related essay: The Will of Albus Dumbledore EPISODE GUIDE

In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince , JK Rowling uses Quidditch players, who are metaphorical soldiers, as couriers carrying messages of war. In the sixth book, Draco also comes to resemble Harry, a fellow anti-soldier, particularly in his choice of spell when he finally confronts Dumbledore. The similarities between the two of them go back to Harry and Draco both embodying the archetype of the Youth, the ruling archetype for the sixth book in the series (see Quantum Harry, the Podcast, Episode 7: Fountain of Youth ).   Draco is the character who best embodies this archetype in the sixth book, such that Harry steps into his shoes and, at times, the two of them swap places, each of them echoing or predicting the others’ actions. Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom aren’t considered the coolest kids by most people at Hogwarts, including Harry, at the beginning of Order of the Phoenix , when he reluctantly shares a train compartment with the two of them, plus Ginny, a...

What game played by James and Sirius in detention involves metaphorical quantum entanglement? How are Fleur, Hermione and Tonks linked to Hedwig? And how does Harry’s birthplace point to his being a symbolic Snitch? Episode 26: Until Someone Loses an Eye Watch the Episode 26 video on YouTube. Related Essay: It's All Fun and Games EPISODE GUIDE

In the sixth book of the Harry Potter series, the focus veers back and forth between love—the power of unity and wholeness—and war—the result of splintering and division. Quidditch is treated even more metaphorically than in the previous book, though the three matches that Gryffindor plays are actually important to the plot, despite only half of them including Harry, who leaves halfway through the second match and doesn’t play at all in the third, despite being the captain. Sometimes a match in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is linked to winning in love, sometimes to winning in war, and sometimes it’s a combination. It’s inevitable that literal Quidditch should recede in importance as literal war grows more prominent, though the matches in the book are all connected to war. And, in the book with the most emphasis on romance, it’s fitting that Quidditch is linked to love more than in any of the other books. War is fodder for games and competitions in the previous ...