The Sorcerer's Companion: A Guide to the Magical World of Harry Potter by Allan Zola Kronzek, Elizabeth Kronzek Read Free Book Online Page A

a parish priest used this prayer “to deliver Arnald of Villanova from the warts on his hands!” Other charms mixed magic words with the names of saints and were used to treat maladies such as snakebites and burns.

 

 
The notion that a charm can affect us in a magical or enchanting way has given rise to many “charming” phrases and expressions. A smooth operator can “charm the pants off” someone or “charm a bird from a tree.” Quaint towns have “Old World charm,” and music, according to the English playwright William Congreve, “has charms to soothe a savage breast.” Prince Charming usually gets what he wants, and those who often escape from danger are said to lead a “charmed life.” “How charming” is usually a sarcastic remark, but “the third time’s a charm” shows that persistence pays off. And any particularly effective technique for getting what you want—a word, a smile, or a bill slipped into the hands of a maître d’—is said to “work like a charm.”

 
     
    Some poorly trained witches and wizards—and most nonmagical folk—also use the word “charm” to describe any small, portable object with magical properties. Rabbits’ feet, four-leaf clovers, and iron horseshoes are all frequently called “lucky charms,” but any serious magician would scoff at such a claim. These sorts of magical artifacts can be more precisely identified as either amulets (objects that provide magical protection) or talismans (objects that endow a person with some new magical ability). The so-called charms that hang from modern “charm bracelets” are usually purely ornamental symbols of love or friendship, possessing no magical powers.
    As Hermione would be happy to tell you, the best place to find authentic charms is in books. So if you find yourself wanting a cheering charm for a friend who’s feeling blue or a scouring charm to take care of a really nasty mess, just check the Hogwarts library for a copy of Olde and Forgotten Bewitchments and Charmes . But make sure you’ve picked just the right charm for the job and that you know how to pronounce every word. Otherwise, you may end up like Professor Dumbledore’s ne’er-do-well brother, Aberforth, who was publicly humiliated for practicing inappropriate charms on a goat.

 
    he Ministry of Magic considers certain magical creatures a suitable part of a Hogwarts education. The gentle unicorn , cuddly niffler, and fragile bowtruckle all make the grade. But many of the beasts in Hagrid’s lesson plans are deemed too dangerous for underage witches and wizards to experience firsthand. Such is the case for the fascinating but ferocious Chimera, a monster that Hagrid hopes to breed one day.
    Like her siblings the Sphinx and the three-headed dog Cerberus ( Fluffy , to his pals), the Chimera was an ancient monster of Greek mythology. The earliest source on the subject, the poet Homer, tells us that the Chimera (Greek for “she-goat”) was a three-part, fire-breathing terror, “in the fore part a lion, in the hinder a serpent, and in the middle a goat—breathing forth in terrible manner the force of blazing fire.” Hesiod, writing a century later, agreed that the Chimera was “a creature fearful,” and added to her ferocity by giving her three heads (lion, goat, and snake) instead of one. Wherever she chose to roam, the Chimera ravaged the landscape, devouring man and beast alike.

 

 
When examining the pedigrees of monsters it’s not always easy to tell which traits came from which side of the family. In the case of the Chimera, though, it’s pretty obvious where she got her violent temper and talent for flame-throwing. Her father, Typhon, was one of the most ferocious and spectacular giants of Greek mythology. The offspring of Gaia and Tartarus, Typhon towered over mountains, and his hundred heads nearly reached the stars. Streams of fire gushed from his eyes, snakes sprouted like vines from his shoulders, and he strode the world