Harry Potter

A weird little spider that looks like a floppy hat has been named after an infamous floppy hat: The Sorting Hat from Harry Potter. Meet your new favorite spider, Eriovixia gryffindori — which is somehow a spider and not a spell.

via MTV

Introduced in a paper published in the Indian Journal of Arachnology, this “new species of cryptic, dry-foliage mimicking araneid” looks a lot like the Sorting Hat from the side and was found in “unique ‘Kans’ forestlands of central Western Ghats, Karnataka, India,” writes Nerdist. At least they didn’t name it Hufflepuffi or else we’d dismiss this spider as totally useless. Like, why does that house even exist?

The paper explains in detail why it was named after the beloved hat:

This uniquely shaped spider derives its name from the fabulous, sentient magical artifact, the sorting hat, owned by the (fictitious) medieval wizard Godric Gryffindor, one of the four founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and stemming from the powerful imagination of Ms. J. K. Rowling, wordsmith extraordinaire, as presented in her beloved series of books, featuring everyone’s favorite boy-wizard, Harry Potter. An ode from the authors, for magic lost, and found, in an effort to draw attention to the fascinating, but oft overlooked world of invertebrates, and their secret lives.

Everyone’s favorite scene in Harry Potter is where Harry is chosen to join house Gryffindor, and we also wonder why Hogwarts doesn't revamp the Slytherin program, since it keeps producing bad guys. Seriously, there’s something up with how those kids are taught. Well, now you can ask the Sorting Hat yourself, if you are ever look in the forestlands of central Western Ghats and speak spider. 

Eriovixia gryffindori; our new species named after the sorting hat from @jk_rowling books Kudos to my brilliant coauthor @INDogProject pic.twitter.com/L8U0aeXdak

— Javed Ahmed (@curiocritters) December 10, 2016

In the coming weeks, people all over the world will be trudging back to their hometowns for holiday dinner. There will be laughs and fights and awkward conversation had by all. Ah, the holidays.

But a group of lucky fans who had just enough money, got to eat dinner in the Great Hall of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Take that, "acting like a sensible and reasonable adult." All it cost them was about $279 and very little concern for what other people thought of them. Isn’t that what those books are about anyway? How Harry learned not be ashamed of spending almost $300 on a dinner inside a movie set? 

Anyway, on Imgur, user DestinyBlue posted pictures from the event, and they are fantastic. Set on the Warner Bros. Studio Lot tour in London, the Great Hall was set up, dinner was served, and a small, yet expensive meal was eaten on a great big movie set. 

Check out the pictures from Harry Potter and the Mysterious Dinner on a Movie Set below:

I had Dinner in the Great Hall Hogwarts Set!

Quidditch, the indecipherable sport from Harry Potter, is set to catch the golden snitch in the United Kingdom.

Nearly 20 years after the sport debuted in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Sorcerer’s Stone in the states — I DON’T WANT TO GET ANY EMAILS ABOUT THAT), Quidditch, the sport in which I have no idea how it’s played, now has an organized, competitive league in the UK. The Quidditch Premier League takes its cues from the U.S.’s Major League Quidditch, meaning it will host high-level competitions and, presumably, offer a rule book explaining why anyone would bother doing anything in this game other than try to catch the golden snitch.

via BBC

The QPL has laid out their mission statement online, writing:

“The Quidditch Premier League will bring a new level of competitive play to the summer months in the United Kingdom. Exact dates are yet to be confirmed, but our tentative schedule for the inaugural season begin in early July 2017 and end in late August 2017.

Inspired by the success of Major League Quidditch in the United States, we will have regional divisions with teams competing against each other in a regular schedule. Each fixture will comprise of three matches, where each team plays the other three teams in the division. The QPL season will conclude with a scintillating championship weekend, bringing the teams from each division together to crown a champion.

Though a UK league has been demanded for years, nobody has truly attempted to bring a project of this scale to British quidditch players across the country. That is, until now.”

Why they don’t include in this explanation is why everyone on the team doesn’t just try and catch the golden snitch. Like, it just seems like that part of the game was included to give Harry an easy way to save the day."

As mentioned, the QPL will be broken down into two divisions: North and South.

South Division:

• The London Monarchs – after the residing Royal Family in the capital
• The Southwest Broadside – after the seafaring and piratical history in the area
• The Southeast Knights – after the legacy of the Battle of Hastings
• The Eastern Mermaids – after the many ‘drowned cities’ off the eastern coast

North Division:

• The Northern Watch – after the iconic Hadrian’s Wall
• The Yorkshire Roses – after the region’s famous symbol
• The East Midlands Archers – after the legend of Robin Hood
• The West Midlands Revolution – after the heritage of the Industrial Revolution

They even added this handy infographic, which helps explain why anyone would waste their time doing anything other than catching the snitch, getting the most points, and ending the game, but hey, I guess it’s better not to ask such questions.

via QPL

But why doesn’t the whole team just go after that thing? It seems easier than trying bat a ball into a hoop.

via Ok Totall

Gorkana Jobs has a listing from Pottermore that reads like this:






To try your luck, hurry before the closing date of Sept. 15th, and apply here.

The oldest house in Paris (51 Rue de Montmorency) was the first home of Nicolas Flamel. Yes, the alchemist mentioned in the Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. How quaint is that?

(Photo: Lina Nordin)

J.K. Rowling writes that Ilvermorny was a magical school of witchcraft and wizardry, founded by a pureblood Irish wizard named Isolt Sayre in the 17th century. Ilvermorny sat atop the highest peak of Mount Greylock enshrouded by powerful concealment enchantments.

Sayre was a descendant of Salazar Slytherin and the renowned Irish witch Morrigan. Sayre lived with her parents in a small Irish town till the day her mother's estranged sister Gormlaith Gaunt (pureblood zealot) murdered Sayre's parents and kidnapped her away to Hag's Glen to stop her from marrying a muggle.

A decade later, following imprisonment and continued attempts at indoctrinating Sayre, she stole her aunt's wand, and managed an escape. 

Sayre went on to pose as a Muggle boy, sailing to the 'New World', where she came across a wealth of magical creatures and fellow wizards that'd ultimately help her create Ilvermorny.

The four Ilvermorny houses are named after magical creatures:

• Horned Serpent – a ‘great horned river serpent with a jewel set into its forehead’
• Pukwudgie – ‘a short, grey-faced, large-eared creature’
• Thunderbird – a creature that ‘can create storms as it flies’
• Wampus – ‘a magical, panther-like creature that is fast, strong and almost impossible to kill’

Check out the story over on Pottermore that was just released today!