Harry Potter (novel)/Trivia

General Trivia

 * Harry in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This had originally been taken as proof that scans that appeared online before the book was released were fake.
 * Dumbledore is an old Devon word for bumblebee. JK chose it because she liked the idea of him humming to himself all the time.
 * Hermione's surname was originally going to be Puckle. She was planned to have a younger sister, until Rowling realized it was a bit too late to start mentioning her.
 * Furthermore, the Potters originally lived on an island close to where the Puckles did. In this version of the story, Hermione's father was the one who pulled Harry out of the wreckage of his parents' house.
 * At King's Cross, there is a false archway labeled "Platform Nine and Three Quarters" kept well away from the actual platforms—complete with the rear end of a luggage trolley protruding from the brickwork. It has in recent years become the site of an annual pilgrimage of Potter fans on September 1st -- and on September 1, 2018, they were joined by actors Eddie Redmayne and Jude Law (Newt Scamader and the younger Dumbledore in the Fantastic Beasts films).
 * In fact, the description that Rowling gives of the barrier between the platforms doesn't sound anything like what currently exists at King's Cross, for the very good reason that she was thinking of nearby Euston station when she wrote it, and only discovered her mistake later. It's not even correct at Euston; at both stations, there are train tracks between platforms nine and ten. However Euston, rather than King's Cross, is generally the station to travel from for Scotland and the North.
 * Rowling considered giving Dudley a Muggle-born wizard child for the epilogue, but in the end decided that no wizarding traits would ever survive contact with Uncle Vernon's DNA. Shame, that would have been a lovely little twist.
 * Gilderoy Lockhart is based on an actual former acquaintance of JKR's. She doesn't believe he'll ever realize it's him.
 * If you read between the lines, Lupin drinks from a silver goblet in the fifth chapter of Order of the Phoenix.
 * Ginny and Harry's roles in Chamber of Secrets are reversed in Half-Blood Prince. First there's the Unrequited Love Switcheroo and then there's the fact that in the respective installments both are seduced by an evil book which they dispose of (or at least try to) after association with it causes them to endanger one or more people.
 * There are a lot of other parallels with books that are mirrors of each other, given book 4 as the centre—3 and 5 both focus a lot on the Marauders and Dementors, 2 and 6 focus on Voldemort's past, and 1 and 7 have a lot of focus on the night Harry's parents died.
 * Dean Thomas was originally going to be Ron's cousin, and would've fulfilled much of the role that eventually went to Neville Longbottom.
 * Also, Word of God revealed that Dean is a half-blood, whose father was killed for refusing to join the Death Eaters. His Muggle stepfather adopted him, explaining why Dean believes himself to be Muggle-born.
 * Pansy Parkinson was based on girls who used to bully JKR in school.
 * The core of the Elder Wand is the tail hair of a thestral.
 * Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban are the only books in which Everybody Lives. (Unless you count the basilisk; then it would just be Azkaban.)

Specific Tropes

 * Breakthrough Hit: Immediately after the release of the first book, everyone knew about J. K. Rowling.
 * Fan Nickname: Plenty, but in particular the group of Harry, Ron, and Hermione is often referred to as the Golden Trio.
 * Voldemort also has plenty of variations on his name - Voldy, Voldypants, Moldywarts, Voldyshorts - to the point where Peeves actually uses "Voldy" in the last book.
 * The quill that Umbridge made Harry write with in detention in Order of the Phoenix lacks an official name (because it was a unique creation of Umbridge's), but is almost universally referred to as a "blood quill".
 * Some fans jokingly use "Half-Prude Blintz" for "Half-Blood Prince".
 * Jossed: Blaise Zabini, first named in the first book and a popular OC Stand-In, only got his first proper introduction in the sixth. Fans who had written Blaise as white and/or female were outraged that he turned out to be a black male.
 * A lot of fanfics ended up being outdated when it turned out Ginny was not a nickname for "Virginia" but "Ginevra". Which could have been seen coming, considering that Ginevra is a British name (and an old one at that, as is popular among wizards) while Virginia is mostly an American one besides people like Virginia Woolf. Not to mention that there is a small amount of Arthurian Theme Naming going on in the Weasley family.  (Arthur, Ginevra [Guinevere], Percival...)
 * What Could Have Been: Rowling was asked permission to make a Harry Potter musical by Michael Jackson! Sadly, she turned him down. Rowling has always fought to keep Harry Potter as British as possible.
 * Word of God: Quite prevalent as Rowling gives a lot of extra information through interviews. Also, the FAQ she keeps on her various websites over the years.