Flourish and Blotts is a popular bookshop in the Harry Potter book series.
About[]
The shop has books the size of paving stones bound in leather, postage stamps in covers of silk and books that have nothing in them.[1] There is a display of gold-embossed spellbooks the size of paving slabs.[2] In a corner in the back of the shop is an area for fortune-telling with a stack of divination books on a table.[2] The shelves of the shop are stacked to the ceilings.[1]
History[]
At an unknown date, the shop stocked copies of the Invisible Book of Invisibility but it cost a fortune and they went missing, never to be found again.[2]
In the summer of 1991, Harry Potter was taken to the shop by Rubeus Hagrid to purchase schoolbooks for the first year of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry was amazed by the shop and had to be stopped from purchasing Curses and Counter-Curses by Hagrid because he wanted to jinx Dudley Dursley.[1]
Fight at Lockhart's book signing
In August 1992, Gilderoy Lockhart had a book signing for Magical Me. The shop had a sign in the window, announcing it was taking place at 12:30 to 4:30pm. It was very busy. There were photographers for publications and crowds of witches trying to get in. At the door was an employee telling the crowd to be careful and try not to knock into books.[3]
Lockhart saw Harry at the book signing and he saw an opportunity to gain further publicity by parading Harry in front of a newspaper photographer, telling everyone even Harry was a fan of him. He then gave him a free copy of the autobiography and announced that he was the new Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor at Hogwarts that year. Arthur Weasley and Lucius Malfoy had a fight in the bookshop, where Lucius also slipped Tom Riddle's Diary into her supplies.[3]
In July to August 1993, the usual display of gold-embossed spellbooks was an iron cage with hundreds of copies of The Monster Book of Monsters for students of Care of Magical Creatures. They caused havoc because the books snapped their jaws and fought each other, flying everywhere in their cage. The manager was fed up of having to go into the cage to get a book for a customer. He had to wear thick, black gloves and use a walking stick to capture a book. He greeted Harry in a huff because he was bitten five times that day. Harry didn't need a copy of that book, but the manager had to shout at two books trying to rip a third book into pieces. He told Harry he was never going to stock it again, and helped him find the books he needed.[2]
Books[]
Known products are:
- A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch
- A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot
- Curses and Counter-Curses by Professor Vindictus Viridian
- Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger
- Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling
- One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore
- The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble
- The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1 to at least Grade 3[2]) by Miranda Goshawk[1]
- Gilderoy Lockhart's books[3]
- The Monster Book of Monsters[2]
- Invisible Book of Invisibility
- Unfogging the Future
- Predicting the Unpredictable: Insulate Yourself Against Shocks
- Broken Balls: When Fortunes Turn Foul
- Death Omens: What to Do When You Know the Worst Is Coming
- Intermediate Transfiguration