Anything you'd like to ask JKR about her books. If we get enough of a response will compile the one's she's most likely to answer and try to e-mail them to her.

please use spoiler tags for anything relating to DH

Spoiler

Why did you have Scimgour escape the ministry in Deathly Hollows and then never mention him again?

Why did snape flee the school rather than Defending his students or trying to explain to harry?

How is it that harry is suddenly able to control his link to voldemort?

Why would Snape's Patronous be a Doe? I understand that it's supposed to represent Lilly Evans, but to the best of my knowledge you never gave her an animagus form.

What was the purpose for Ron's sudden stint as a ladies man in Half Blood Prince? Why did Hermoine suddenly become obsessed with him just as he did?

 

1. What is the Goblin's jurisdiction in the Wizarding World? Are they responsible for only financial matters or are they responsible for Wills and things like that?
2. Does Department of Mysteries have any purposes besides research?
3. What does the process of making Philosopher's Stone involve? For example: does it need Potions, Runes, Arithmancy, Charms, Dark Arts?
4. How rich Harry Potter is?
5. How old the Potter Family is?
7. How many new things could an average student learn after leaving Hogwarts?
8. How often do Dark Lords rise in the History of the Wizarding World? Every 100, 50 years? Irregularly?
9. Which families were the members of Wizards Council that was active before the creation of the Ministry of Magic?
10. When the Triwizard tournament started?
11. Was Wizarding Government that corrupt forever? Or was it capable of doing its job until the wars against Grindelwald and Voldemort?
12. How discriminative Wizarding World really is?


Sorry for bad english...

 

Dante, the Philosopher's Stone is made using alchemy.

My question would be:

What would you say the wizarding exam levels (OWLs and NEWTs) are equivalent to in modern muggle exams.

You say that Snape is a Potion's Master. Does that title come from his job as being the teacher of Potions, or is there another level of education above NEWTs which grants the title Master. If so, how long does it take to gain it?

 

Not sure if this has been answered before,

How long can it take owl's to deliver letter's from hogwarts to london? (eg order headquarter's, ministry)

 

Does each country have its own magical government, even the smaller countries like Luxembourg and Belgium?

How many countries are in the ICW, which ones aren't, and do they have thier own seperate confederation?

Is Latin the language all spells are based off of? Are other ancient languages viable for spell-creation?

 

I want to know what the centaurs did to Umbridge.

 

What really matters more, the will and intent behind the spell or the wand motions and incantations?

Do the Dark Arts really stain and twist the soul with use, or are they really just more powerful spells that are misunderstood by the evil, corrupt Ministry? ^_^

Spoiler

Had Ariana not died, and Dumbledore and Grindlewald continued with their plans, would they have succeeded with their plans of enslaving the Muggles?

How did Dumbledore defeat Grindlewald when the latter had the Elder Wand?

Are the political boundaries in the Magical World consistent with the Muggle World, or are the two worlds separate enough that the boundaries are different? (I much prefer the latter.)

What does the Wizengamot actually do? Are they a judicial and legislative system rolled into one? Are the seats hereditary or do you have to be elected?

 

Lots of these questions have already been answered.

Spoiler

Why did you have Scimgour escape the ministry in Deathly Hollows and then never mention him again?

Scrimgoeur died in the chapter "The Wedding".

Spoiler

Why did Snape flee the school rather than defending his students or trying to explain to Harry?

So that he could fulfill Dumbledore's last request - that is, protecting the students. You will remember that Snape kept on asking Voldemort to be on the front lines of the battle. This was so that he could aid the Order, much like he attempted to do in the escape from Privet Drive.

Spoiler

How is it that Harry is suddenly able to control his link to Voldemort?

As Dumbledore said, due to the sharing of the blood and the horcrux, the link between Voldemort and Harry was growing stronger, so much so that it was beyond Occlumency.

Spoiler

Why would Snape's Patronous be a Doe? I understand that it's supposed to represent Lilly Evans, but to the best of my knowledge you never gave her an animagus form.

Lily's Patronus was a doe.

We saw in DH that the Ministry is in charge of wills.

Alchemy.

Older than Hogwarts, seeming as they are decended from the Peverells.

The Wizard's Council was non-hereditary.

JKR has said there is no formal education beyond Hogwarts, other than vocational training.

Anyway, this doesn't need an answer from JKR. It would be like asking her if the title "Professor" comes from the job of being a professor or if there is another level of education that grants the title. "Master" is just another name given to school teachers who are the head of their department. For example, at my school, the man who is the head of the Boarding house is called the Boarding Master. It's a British thing, though I would have thought you, Mordecai, would have known that...

We've seen in canon non-latin based spells. One example: "Point Me".

Wand motions and incantations. In HBP Harry used Sectumsempra without a clue as to what it did, and yet the spell worked.

Anyway, my questions:

How rare is the skill of occlumency? It's obviously an important skill for duelling purposes, as shown by Snape at the end of HBP, so you'd think aurors would know it, yet only Dumbledore and Snape seem to know it out of the whole Order.

What is there to magic, other than incantations and wand movements, that makes magic complex and hard to do?

What were James and Lily's professions?

Are some people born more powerful than others, or is power completely dependant on what you make of yourself?

Spoiler

Would Dumbledore have been corrupted by power, as he suspected he would, had he taken the post of Minister?

 

Taure, I'm well aware of that fact. I would jsut like it confirmed by JKR that that was her intention with the title, and that there is no titular level of education granting the title Master. Vocational training could in fact grant such a title in theory.

 

Oh, very interesting topic. My questions:

1) To end a big debate among fellow members, Who would win in a Muggles vs Wizarding World war? Take into account the disadvantages and advantages each side has.

2) How expansive is magic? Are there thousands upon thousands of hexes, curses, jinxes, etc around the world? Or is what we saw in the books what there is?

3) Does magic usage vary depending on the culture? Would Egypt or Africa have a different system of using magic? Would they have different spells? And would their spells be Latin based? Or would they be based of their own language?

4) Are NEWTS optional? Since Harry, Hermione, and Ron didn't go back for their 7th, they missed NEWTS. Is it Okay that they missed them? Or did they go take them at the ministry? Are NEWTS the equivalent to a Ph.D?

5) If a person gets an O on a subject for the NEWTS, does that grant him some kind of title? Are they considered a Master of the subject they got the O in?

6) How do the Hogwarts Founders compare and match up to Dumbledore and Voldemort in terms of raw power, skill, and magical knowledge?

7) Is it possible to have the animagus form of a magical animal?

Edit: Changed my last question, I thought it was too obvious an answer. I will think of more later

 

This just reminded me of something I read on the Lexicon the other day:

Blowing up a street is apparently not the smallest of magical feats.

 

Umm.. What truly is Alchemy? Maybe it is more difficult combination of Potions, Transfiguration, Charms, Artihmancy, Runes, Astrology? With our knowledge of Wizarding World, saying that Philosopher's Stone is made by Alchemy is the same as asking a five year old who haven't read a medicine book in his life, about process of difficult brain surgeries.

 

Alchemy was the original science. Its a verifiable historical fact. I think it was historically centered around Prague, but that might be a faulty memory.

 

I don't remember if it was European centre of the Alchemy (I always thought that it was Paris; don't know why), but in Prague lived for a long time both Kelley and Dee, who are probably one of the most famous alchemists.

As for my question to JKR:

I'd like to ask, how in the hell Crouch learned so many languages (he knew around three hundred of them, if my memory serves me right)? In my opinion, it's probably the most impressive magical feat I found in the books.

 

Aakunen, the only reason I'm thinking of Prague is because I remember reading somewhere about a section of town where some mad rich guy imprisoned alchemists and had a nasty habit of killing them when they failed to make the Philosophers Stone. Needless to they tended to have a rather short period of employment.

 

Paris had both Flamel and the Comte de Saint Germaine, London had Boyle and Newton, Prague had Dee and Kelley, Paracelsus and Agrippa were contemporaries in Germany, and Apollonius of Tyana wandered Greece and Turkey at the beginning of the Common Era. Arguably however Alchemy started and reached it's height long before even Apollonius with Hermes Trismegistus and Thoth in ancient Egypt or perhaps earlier with some unknown sage in the Indus valley (a possible common ancestor for both the Western and Chinese branches of Alchemy).

I don't think there was ever a single epicenter for Alchemy. Since the very first man looked at the world around him and asked "why" there have been alchemists. It is the esoteric search for meaning and connection in the broadest possible sense. It is the Great Art. The single greatest failing of science is that it does not have an exoteric parallel for this all encompassing field of study, there is no "Great Science" to match it.

 

Now, I'll probably spend few next days looking through city's history, because I also remember something similar (it could be something entirely different, but it'll be certainly interesting).

*goes to the bookshelf trying to locate Prague's history*

 

Wasn't that Percy ass-licking in GoF? He was completely in love with Crouch and was trying to make him look better.
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Questions:
1.). What magical countries are equivalent of the muggle superpowers, that are permanent members in the United Nations Security Council.
2.). What kind of attitude all the major religions have in relation to magic? Is it the old medieval: "You must burn in hell, you satan-spawn", or is it moderate: "Well, it happens. We don't like, and we won't burn you on a stake. But we still don't like you."
3.). What kind of legal and judical system the wizards have (in Europe)? Is it the old Roman Law or has the laws evolved in the same way as in the muggle world (roman law - feudal law - great codifications of XIX century - modern law)?
4.). Is magic an internal part of a wizard/witch (as in "the magical core" idea) or an external part (ability to manipulate energy that comes from another dimension etc.) of him/her?

 

It doesn't matter if Percy was lying or not. Important was the fact that nobody was surprised by the number he provided; Twins only pointed out that everybody knows Trollish (sp?).

As for another question:
Are wands the best magical foci for casting spells, or just wizards are keen of phallic shaped ones? In my opinion, rings or bracelets would be much more practical.

 

Actually, from the point of view of wand motions, they would be moderately to impossibly difficult to replicate with a ring or bracelet.