Wizards at large in the Muggle community may reveal themselves to each other by wearing the colours of purple and green, often in combination. However, this is no more than an unwritten code, and there is no obligation to conform to it. Plenty of members of the magical community prefer to wear their favourite colours when out and about in the Muggle world, or adopt black as a practical colour, especially when travelling by night.

The International Statute of Secrecy laid down clear guidelines on dress for witches and wizards when they are out in public.

When mingling with Muggles, wizards and witches will adopt an entirely Muggle standard of dress, which will conform as closely as possible to the fashion of the day. Clothing must be appropriate to the climate, the geographical region and the occasion. Nothing self-altering or adjusting is to be worn in front of Muggles.

In spite of these clear instructions, clothing misdemeanours have been one of the most common infractions of the International Statute of Secrecy since its inception. Younger generations have always tended to be better informed about Muggle culture in general; as children, they mingle freely with their Muggle counterparts; later, when they enter magical careers, it becomes more difficult to keep in touch with normal Muggle dress. Older witches and wizards are often hopelessly out of touch with how quickly fashions in the Muggle world change; having purchased a pair of psychedelic loon pants in their youth, they are indignant to be hauled up in front of the Wizengamot fifty years later for arousing widespread offence at a Muggle funeral.

The Ministry of Magic is not always so strict. A one-day amnesty was announced on the day that news broke of Lord Voldemort's disappearance following Harry Potter's survival of the Killing Curse. Such was the excitement that witches and wizards took to the streets in their traditional clothes, which they had either forgotten or adopted as a mark of celebration.

Some members of the magical community go out of their way to break the clothing clause in the Statute of Secrecy. A fringe movement calling itself Fresh Air Refreshes Totally (F.A.R.T.)* insists that Muggle trousers 'stem the magical flow at source' and insist on wearing robes in public, in spite of repeated warnings and fines.** More unusually, wizards deliberately adopt laughable Muggle confections, such as a crinoline worn with a sombrero and football boots.***

By and large, wizard clothing has remained outside of fashion, although small alterations have been made to such garments as dress robes. Standard wizard clothing comprises plain robes, worn with or without the traditional pointed hat, and will always be worn on such formal occasions as christenings, weddings and funerals. Women's dresses tend to be long. Wizard clothing might be said to be frozen in time, harking back to the seventeenth century, when they went into hiding. Their nostalgic adherence to this old-fashioned form of dress may be seen as a clinging to old ways and old times; a matter of cultural pride.

Day to day, however, even those who detest Muggles wear a version of Muggle clothing, which is undeniably practical compared with robes. Anti-Muggles will often attempt to demonstrate their superiority by adopting a deliberately flamboyant, out-of-date or dandyish style in public.

* President Archie Aymslowe
** To date, they appear to have been taken as cult members by Muggles.
*** These are generally taken by Muggles to be students on a dare.

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Of course, this week's post will dive into the fifth chapter entitled Diagon Alley. After Harry found out he was a wizard and read his letter, he needed to start shopping for his school supplies. But where can you find cauldrons, Owls, and flying broomsticks in one place? Diagon Alley, of course.

The opening quote details Harry's question about finding all of these wizarding supplies, reprinted below.

‘Can we buy all this in London?’ Harry wondered aloud. ‘If yeh know where to go,’ said Hagrid.

Starting on this chapter, you are propelled into Diagon Alley, with many witches and wizards going about their shopping. The quote for this moment details Harry's entrance into the most popular wizarding's shopping district, reprinted below.

The brick he had touched quivered – it wriggled – in the middle, a small hole appeared – it grew wider and wider – a second later they were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid, an archway on to a cobbled street which twisted and turned out of sight.

Perfectly placed near the Madam Malkin's clothing store, you can unlock the clothing essay from Mrs. Rowling. I will, of course, reprint it on my blog tomorromow, as a special treat.

Of course, before you can buy anything, you need some money. And in wizarding culture, the method of monetary exchange is Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts, which are all available in Gringotts. The quote for this moment details the entrance into Gringotts, reprinted below.

A pair of goblins bowed them through the silver doors and they were in a vast marble hall.

Once your in Gringotts, you just have to drag the key to unlock your vault, with 500 Galleons already inside. That should be plenty of money to buy your supplies. If your wondering the difference between Galleons, Sickles, and Knuts, Hagrid will tell you.

The gold ones are Galleons... Seventeen silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle, it's easy enough.

On the next moment, you will go shopping, using the standard, first year Hogwarts list as your guide. It certainly got me geeking out, reading all the summaries of the books, cauldrons, and pets. It was probably the most fun I have had shopping in a while.

Once your finished getting all of your books, incredients, glass phials, brass scales, and your chosen pet, you are ready for your very own wand. And at this point I will write about receiving your wand on Pottermore next week. It's a fantastic process that deserves its own blog post. Until next time, take care!

Link to the audio edition of this blog post: Link to the Audio File

Link to the audio edition of this blog post: Link to the Audio File

This is a personal expression, which has nothing to do with tales of the dead.Over the seventeen years that I planned and wrote the seven Harry Potter books (not to mention Quidditch through the Ages, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and The Tales of Beedle the Bard), I generated a mass of information about the magical world that never appeared in the books. I liked knowing these things (which was fortunate, given that I couldn't stop my imagination spewing it all out) and often, when I needed a throwaway detail, I had it ready because of the background I had developed.

I also found myself developing storylines for secondary (or even tertiary) characters that were superfluous to requirements. More of a wrench were the plots I worked out for some much more important characters that had to be sacrificed for the bigger story. All of these I inwardly termed 'ghost plots', my private expression for all the untold stories that sometimes seemed quite as real to me as the 'final cut'. I have occasionally been in conversation with a reader and made mention of part of a ghost plot; looks of consternation cross their faces as, for a split second, they ask themselves whether they have accidentally skipped twenty pages somewhere. I apologise to anyone I might have accidentally wrong-footed in this way; the problem is, literally, all in my head.

Link to the audio edition of this blog post: Link to the Audio File

As I teased, this week's post will delve into the fourth chapter entitled Keeper of the Keys. This chapter is quite the introduction to the wizarding world for Harry, as Hagrid knocks the door over, magically erupts a pig's tail on Dudley, and tells Harry how his parents really died. As always, the opening quote from the book is showcased at the beginning, reprinted below.

The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off its hinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor...

Hagrid's shadow is seen in the doorway, right after he barged it down. Initially, Harry and everyone inside the hut is terrified. But within a few moments, Harry will feel quite the opposite.

If your clever on the first moment, you will discover another unlocked essay from Mrs. Rowling, involving Ghost Plots. It details some of the plots that never made it into the final drafts of the books. I will reprint it tomorrow, as a special treat.

The next moment portrays the illuminated fireplace, Hagrid's birthday cake for Harry, and the letter from Hogwarts that Hagrid delivered. It is such an astonishing moment in Harry's life; knowing that he is special and getting away from his Aunt and Uncle for a while. The quote from the book for this moment is reprinted below.

Harry stretched out his hand at last to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to Mr H Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea. He pulled out the letter and read...

After another short post, below is the closing quote for this chapter on Pottermore. Until next week, take care!

‘It’s gettin’ late and we’ve got lots ter do tomorrow,’ said Hagrid loudly. ‘Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an’ that.'

Link to the audio edition of this blog post: Link to the Audio File

The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment...

The first moment encompasses the Dursley's kitchen table, with a half dozen mysterious letters falling from the ceiling. This moment's quote is reprinted below. There are a few things to click and explore, but not much. There is a popup box that alerts you to navigate to your personal profile.

Harry picked it up and stared at it, his heart twanging like a giant elastic band. No one, ever, in his whole life, had written to him. Who would?

As you go through your Pottermore journey, your profile will be filled with your wand, sorted house, galleons collected, friends made, and more. For now, it's pretty bare.

Continuing on, the next and final moment shows the hut on the rock that Mr. Dursley takes his family and Harry to escape the Owl and the letters. Of course, his mediocre attempt to run away failed, as the next chapter will detail.

To close out this short post, below is the closing quote for this chapter on Pottermore. Until next week, take care!

Someone was outside, knocking to come in.

Link to the audio edition of this blog post: Link to the Audio File

Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step...

As you navigate to the first moment, a popup box opens up, to alert you to the possiblity of collecting items. There is one thing to collect in this moment, and it's significance is questionable. But it is fun to look in your trunk and see all the stuff you collected on your Pottermore journey.

This moment seems to set the tone of the setting with some insight into Harry's predicament, living under the stairs and all.

Harry was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where he slept...

There not only is an item to collect but a bit more material from J. K. Rowling. This bit of information details the romantic escapades of Vernon and Petunia Dursley, as well as an interesting first meeting between Vernon and James Potter. Incidently, I posted this backstory a couple months ago. The post is under the "Pottermore Updates" category on my website.

As you continue to the second and final moment of this chapter, you are shown a brilliant depiction of the trip to the zoo. And at the end of the snake corridor is the famous boa constrictor that talked to Harry, one of the last signs in Harry's early life that he was different before being told that he was a wizard.

The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Harry’s...

And that's it, for now. This chapter did not feature a whole lot of content, but this chapter was particularly short. The next chapter in our Pottermore journey will be more exciting, considering that Harry receives a letter from "no one". To close out this post, below is the closing quote for this chapter on Pottermore. Until next week, take care!

Everybody knew that Dudley’s gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley’s gang.

Link to the audio edition of this blog post: Link to the Audio File

To start off my long-awaited review, I would like to discuss the model and year of my Mac Mini. I acquired the late 2009 model from a fellow eBay seller. The specifications are shown below for your convenience. The seller was fantastic, though initially that was not my reaction. He delayed shipment for a week, but thankfully, reconciled the trouble by providing a $50 Apple Store gift card. Not bad for a week's delay.

My Mac Mini specifications:

Processer: 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory: 4GB 1067MHz DDR3
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 9400 256MB
Hard Drive: 500GB 7200RPM

When the box finally arrived, all the components (computer, keyboard, mouse, CDs, manuals) were secured and in satisfactory condition. Exactly as described.

The hardware itself is fairly decent, able to run fairly smooth on moderately demanding games and applications. The majority of my use case for this machine is web-browsing, Sims 3, occasional video editing, writing documents, organizing photos, and other low-power tasks. It's able to handle them all with little frustrations. More on its down-sides later.

The magic mouse that came with my purchase is phenomenal, to say the least. It works superbly well with the Fullscreen function on Mac OS X Lion. Just switch between applications with two fingers. So intuitive and smooth. It almost does feel like magic.

The keyboard was initially dirty when it arrive, but a quick shrub and it looks fairly brand new. So that is certainly a plus. Typing on Apple's keyboard is easy on the hand; no hard hits, just soft taps.

Now to my impressions of the operating system.

I already talked it a bit about the Fullscreen functionality. Honestly, I'm surprised this wasn't in earlier versions of Mac OS. For applications that have this function, it allows the user to click on a little expand button on the corner to push the application to a fullscreen view. The default applications already have it integrated, like iTunes, iPhone, iMovie, Garage Band, Safari, as well as others, like VLC Media Player, Google Chrome, and Byword.

The interface when you first start it up is fairly intuitive for a previous Windows user. And I'm sure its been talked to death in countless other articles. You have the bottom row of icons, for quick access to your most used applications, folders, and files. Along the top, you have a contextual bar that changes based on the application you are using. I find that this is much better than applications in Windows, due to a more consistent interface across the board.

To show I'm not all that happy with the Mac OS, I will point out the flaws.

Starting off, I do have a problem with the rainbow wheel. I might be nit-picking, but it just seems odd. All the gray and blue of the interface is sometimes broken up by this multi-colored beach ball. However, I understand Apple's desire to provide a break to the often monotonous color of gray and black.

Additionally, and this might be a problem with the hard drive speed and processor, but it takes about 5-10 second for an application to start up. Okay, that might be nit-picking to the extreme, but I feel I had say it.

When it comes down to my experiences on the Mac Mini this past year, I am very happy I switched. The stability and ease-of-use that comes with owning a Mac is far more satisfying than owning a Windows desktop. 

Of course, you do sacrifice plenty, customizability for one. Yes, you can change the wallpaper. But it's very difficult to open the computer case, and the components are placed in a way for harder upgrades.

But enough of my rambling, what do you think? Comment below on your impressions of the Mac ecosystem.

Link to the audio edition of this blog post: Link to the Audio File

Just as British witches and wizards do not use electricity or computers, they have never turned metric. They are not governed by the decisions of the Muggle government, so when the process of metrication (switching to metric measurements) began in 1965, witches and wizards simply ignored the change.

Witches and wizards are not averse to laborious calculations, which they can, after all, do magically, so they do not find it inconvenient to weigh in ounces, pounds and stones; measure in inches, feet and miles; or pay for goods in Knuts, Sickles, and Galleons.

Link to the audio edition of this blog post: Link to the Audio File

The name of the street where the Dursleys live is a reference to that most suburban plant, the privet bush, which makes neat hedges around many English gardens. I liked the associations with both suburbia and enclosure, the Dursleys being so smugly middle class, and so determinedly separate from the wizarding world. The name of their area is 'Little Whinging', which again sounds appropriately parochial and sniffy, 'whinging' being a colloquial term for 'complaining or whining' in British English.

 

Although I describe the Dursleys' house as big and square, as befitted Uncle Vernon's status as a company director, whenever I wrote about it I was unconsciously visualising the second house I lived in as a child, which on the contrary was a rather small three-bedroomed house in the suburb of Winterbourne, near Bristol. I first became conscious of this when I entered the number four Privet Drive that had been built at Leavesden Studios, and found myself in an exact replica of my old house, down to the position of the cupboard under the stairs and the precise location of each room. As I had never described my old home to the set designer, director or producer, this was yet another of the unsettling experiences that filming the Potter books has brought me.

For no very good reason, I have never been fond of the number four, which has always struck me as a rather hard and unforgiving number, which is why I slapped it on the Dursleys' front door.

Link to the audio edition of this blog post: Link to the Audio File