The Complete Idiot's Guide to the World of Harry Potter (12 page)

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A quill is a feather of a bird that, when dipped in ink, is used for writing. Unlike modern pens, quills tend to be quite long and beautiful, especially one from a large, attractive bird, like that of an eagle. Imaginative wizards have come up with all manner of high-tech quills, including those that ink themselves, magically check spelling, correct any errors, and even derive the correct answer on exams. Smart-Answer, Auto-Answer, and Self-Correcting quills are, of course, banned during examinations. A Quick-Quotes Quill, used during a lecture or conversation, takes notes automatically, leaving the wizard to concentrate on the discussion at hand.

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Black ink comes in bottles, into which a quill is dipped before writing on a parchment. This process can be rather messy, with ink bottles spilling, wet ink getting on one’s hands or clothes, and ink bottles smashing when a book bag is accidentally dropped.

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Parchment replaced Egyptian/Greek/Roman papyrus, which had been made by soaking the papyrus plant and drying it in thin sheets. When papyrus became inefficient as a tableau, parchment, made from the skin of an animal (usually sheep or goat), came into favor. Paper, which is used the world over by nonwizards, is made from wood pulp. Whereas paper comes in set sizes (generally 8½ by 11 inches) parchment comes in long rolls that are a bit difficult to manage—the parchment tends to roll up on you as you’re writing, which can smear the ink. Unlike flat pieces of paper that stack and file neatly, rolls of parchment are also difficult to store.

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Lunascope:
We don’t know many details about this gadget, except that it’s a silver instrument responsible for a revolutionary advance in astronomy by replacing moon charts (what we can assume are moon phase charts).

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Omnioculars:
A cross between binoculars and TiVo, Omnioculars look a lot like binoculars, but they can also slow down action, replay it, do a play-by-play, and so on.
Ocular
relates to the eyes, and
omni
means “all” or “everywhere.”

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Put-Outer:
A Put-Outer, although not the most creatively named object in the wizarding world, has an important function, especially if you have nefarious purposes. A Put-Outer looks like a cigarette lighter, but when aimed at a streetlight (and, possibly, other lights as well), it steals the light and stores it. The streetlight thus goes out until the light is restored by the Put-Outer.

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Revealer:
An eraser that reveals secret ink written on what appears to be a blank page. This is the equivalent to the old homemade invisible-ink trick of revealing lemon-juice-based words by exposing them to a heat source.

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Remembrall:
The equivalent of a Muggle tying string around one finger, a Remembrall (remember-ball) reminds you of something you’ve forgotten. This smoky glass ball is roughly the size of a marble shooter; if you forget something important, the smoke inside the ball turns bright red.

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Spellotape:
From the British product Sellotape (the UK’s equivalent to Scotch tape), Spellotape is a tape wizards use to mend books, wands, and the like. It’s used so often that it’s the wizarding equivalent of duct tape.

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Vanishing Cabinet:
Although the name may lead you to believe that the cabinet itself vanishes (if, for example, a classmate you didn’t like was coming over to borrow your best sweater, you could temporarily make your cabinet of clothes disappear), that’s not what a Vanishing Cabinet is at all. Instead, anything that’s put
into
a Vanishing Cabinet— whether your best sweater or a person— disappears. The object (or person) is not made invisible; instead, it is transported elsewhere, often for days or weeks.

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Wizard penknife:
The Swiss Army knife of the wizarding world, this penknife can unlock any locked door and undo even the most tangled of knots. The first is a little scary, what with the power that comes with undoing any lock; the second is quite convenient, especially if you’ve ever had your iPod’s earbuds all in a wad.