In March several of the Mandrakes threw a loud and raucous party in greenhouse three. This made Professor Sprout very happy. “The moment they start trying to move into each other’s pots, we’ll know they’re fully mature,” she told Harry.

She kept asking herself whether, if he had looked cleaner, she might have been more concerned; whether, on some subliminal level, she had confused his obvious signs of neglect with street-smartness, toughness and resilience.

She seemed to think that one of the perks of marriage was that it gave you rights of comment and intrusion over single people's love lives.

Sword? Haven't got a sword. That boy has, though. He'll lend you one.

I think it's alarming that people believe that success enables one to forget how life felt before. As if one could simply exchange one's values.

But you're dead,' said Harry. 'Oh, yes,' said Dumbledore matter-of-factly. 'Then... am I dead too?' 'Ah,' said Dumbledore, smiling still more broadly. 'That is the question, isn't it? On the whole, dear boy, I think not.

If it's a good book, anyone will read it. I'm totally unashamed about still reading things I loved in my childhood.