Flourish and Blotts was a popular bookshop in the wizarding world. Many students of Hogwarts School purchased their school books at the shop, and they have been known to hold book signings, including one for Gilderoy Lockhart in the summer of 1992.
Contents
About
The shelves were stacked to the ceilings and had books the size of paving stones bound in leather, postage stamps in covers of silk and books that had nothing in them.[1] The shop was half-way down to the north of Diagon Alley.[2] It usually had a display of gold-embossed spellbooks the size of paving slabs.[3]
There was a corner in the back of the shop for fortune-telling, which stacked connected books on a table.[3]
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.[3]
In the summer of 1991, Harry Potter was taken to the shop by Rubeus Hagrid to purchase school books for the first year of education. 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. Hagrid had to tell him that they do not let students use magic out of school unless they were in danger.[1]
Fight at Lockhart's book signing
In the summer of 1992, a book signing of Gilderoy Lockhart's new book, Magical Me was held. The shop had a sign in the window, announcing it was taking place at 12:30 to 4:30pm and it was very busy. There were photographers from publications and crowds of witches trying to get in. At the door was an employee, telling the crowd to be careful and not to knock into books.[4]
Lockhart saw Harry Potter at the book signing, and he saw an opportunity to gain further publicity by parading Harry to 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 School that year.[4]
In July to August 1993, the usual display of gold-embossed spellbooks was an iron cage that held hundreds of copies of the Monster Book of Monsters. It caused havoc because the books snapped their jaws and fought each other, flying everywhere in their cage. It was a new school book at Hogwarts School for Care of Magical Creatures.[3]
The manager got fed up of having to go in the cage to get a book for a customer, and wore thick, black gloves and used a walking stick to capture a book. He greeted Harry in a huff when he went in to collect books 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.[3]
Books
Known products were:
- 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[3]) by Miranda Goshawk[1]
- Gilderoy Lockhart's books[4]
- Monster Book of Monsters[3]
- 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
Notes and sources
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 5
- ↑ J.K. Rowling - "Flourish and Blotts. It's about halfway down Diagon Alley on the left hand side."
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 4
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Chapter 4
