Harry Potter conventions

Because there are so many long terms and words in the Harry Potter universe, it would be webmaster's nightmare to keep referring to the full versions. As a result, a number of conventions and abbreviations have been invented and are used by fans in shorthand. These words can be found all over The Pensieve and other Harry Potter sites, so it's important that you know what they mean.

- HP: Harry Potter

- TP: The Pensieve

- JK/JKR: Author JK (Jo) Rowling

- PS/Book 1/'Stone'/Movie 1: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's ("Sorcerer's" for the U.S) Stone (set in 1991/92)

- CoS/Book 2/'Chamber'/Movie 2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (set in 1992/93)

- PoA/Book 3/'Azkaban'/'Prisoner' Movie 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (set in 1993/94)

- GoF/Book 4/'Goblet'/Movie 4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (set in 1994/95)

- OotP/Book 5/'Phoenix'/Movie 5: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (set in 1995/96)

- HBP/Book 6/'Prince'/HP&THBP: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (set in 1995/96)

- DH/Book 7/'Hallows'/Deathly Hallows: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (set in 1996/97 onwards)


- Fanfic/Fic: Fan fiction (Stories by the fans, based on HP)

- Ships/Shippers (short for 'relationshipper'): Shippers are people who root for a particular romantic relationship to happen between certain characters in the book or someone who likes the idea of characters pairing up (even though there may be no evidence of this in the books). A 'ship' is simply short for a 'relationship' (of the romantic kind).

- Canon: Definitive, factual or accepted source material. Things that become canon fall into the following categories: the six Harry Potter books, Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts (written for charity) and anything Jo Rowling has stated as fact on her website, in a chat, or during an interview. As the films are different interpretations of the books, they do not wholly qualify as canon.

- D.A.D.A: Defence Against the Dark Arts

- The Trio: The 3 main movie actors, Dan (Harry), Rupert (Ron) and Emma (Hermione)

- The Marauders: Authors of the Marauder's Map (Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, James Potter and Peter Pettigrew)

- The Order: The Order of the Phoenix (Dumbledore's Anti-Voldemort league)

- D.A: Dumbledore's Army (Harry's Defence Against the Dark Arts group)

- HP Sleuth: Harry Potter detective/clue finder/theoriser

Know of any more Harry Potter conventions? Send them to me! For more on when the books are set, see the timeline.