Alliteration, Anagrams And Initials

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Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds, usually at the beginning of words. This is one of Rowling's most common techniques as when in Book Five, 14 out of 38 chapter titles are alliterated. They range from such ordinary-sounding tidies as "The Ministry of Magic" and "Detention with Dolores," to the more exotic sounding "The Centaur and the Sneak" and "St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries." Earlier when Harry needs desperately to see Professor Dumbledore but has forgotten the password, he begins guessing with Fizzing Whizbee, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, and finally Cockroach Cluster, which to his surprise actually works. Characters with alliterated names include Luna Lovegood, Dedalus Diggle, Gellert Grindelwald, and Filius Flitwick; while businesses include the Twilfit and Tattings tailor shop and the Borgin and Burkes antique store. Professor Lockhart requires students to buy his autobiography, Magical Me, and other texts include The Adventures of Martin Miggs: The Mad Muggle, Break with a Banshee, Gadding with Ghouls, Holidays with Hags, Travels with Trolls, and Wanderings with Werewolves. All ...
... four of the Hogwarts houses Omega Seamaster Replica were founded by wizards with alliterative names: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin.

A student poster illustrates words derived from the Latin root mare. Sibilance is an especially powerful kind of alliteration because of the strength of such "hissing" sounds as s, z, sh, ch, and / Rowling humorously uses sibilance in the name of the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and in the name of St. Brutus's Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys, which is where the Dursleys tell their neighbors Harry goes during the school year. A more somber use of sibilance is the name of Severus Snape, whose given name reminds readers that he is a "severe" faculty member, while the hissing sounds and fact that his surname is just one letter off from snake probably help readers remember that he is headmaster of Slytherin House. He is also the inventor of a forbidden curse, Sectumsempra! which wounds victims with cuts that never heal.

Anagrams and initials play an unusually important role in the plot. Early in the series, readers get acquainted with a student who was a schoolmate of Harry's father and his friends. The student's name was Tom Riddle, and indeed he presents a riddle for readers to figure out. Later, readers learn that his full name is Tom Marvolo Riddle, and still later that these letters can be rearranged to spell out I Am Lord Voldemort. In another puzzler, Harry, Ron, and Hermione learn that the initials R. A. B. have something to do with one of Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes, and in a mystery that extends over a couple of books they finally discover that the initials stand for Regulus Arcturus Black, the brother of Sirius Black. In lighter parts of the series, Rowling names a set of standardized tests that students take N.E.W.T.s for "Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests," an appropriate expression of how they feel about the Omega Speedmaster Replica Watches tests. She makes an extra little joke when she names another set of tests O.W.L.s, which stands for "Ordinary Wizarding Levels." Near the end of the series, after Harry, Ron, and Hermione have left school for the summer and are at the Weasleys1 Burrow, they anxiously wait for their owls to bring them their 0. W.L.s.