Nidhi Sinha
The 1st edition of Harry Potter series had several errors that were rectified later. Let’s have a look at 10 of these magical mistakes:
1. TWO WANDS
In the first edition of Philosopher’s Stone, there is a typo on page number 53. Before going to Hogwarts, Harry receives a letter listing equipment that he needed for school. The first item on the list is ‘1 wand’. Mistakenly, ‘1 wand’ finds a repeated mention at the end of the list.
2. LILY-JAMES OR JAMES-LILY
When Harry and Voldemort’s wands connect during a duel in Goblet of Fire, a phenomenon known as ‘Priori Incantatem’ occurs, causing the spirits of those previously killed by the wands to emerge in reverse order. Lily’s spirt had to appear first since she was the last person whom Voldemort killed. However, the 1st edition shows Harry’s father emerging from Voldemort’s wand first. The error was rectified in later editions.
JK ROWLING SAID:
“Lily first, then James. That’s how it appears in my original manuscript but we were under enormous pressure to edit it very fast and my American editor thought that was the wrong way around, and he is so good at catching small errors I changed it without thinking, then realised it had been right in the first place. We were all very sleep-deprived at the time.”
3. FUDGE BECOMES CROUCH
On page number 503 of the first edition of Goblet of Fire, a line of chapter ‘The Dream’ reads, "Dumbledore, come!" said Crouch angrily. This is a printing error as Fudge from the Ministry of Magic had actually spoken the line . The correct sentence should read, ‘”Dumbledore, come!” said Fudge angrily.’
4. O DISAPPARATED
On the back cover of the first part, there is an “o” missing in Philosopher’s Stone. The line with the error is ‘Acclaim for Harry Potter and the Philospher’s Stone’.
5. WRONG NAME
The title page of the 1st part mistakenly stated the author’s name as “J A Rowling” instead of ‘J K Rowling’. Further, her name was written as “Joanne Rowling”. Notably, years ago a woman bought this piece for just 13 pence (around ₹14) from a second-hand bookshop in London. After the series rose to fame, it was sold at an auction for more than ₹10 lakh.
6. HOW MANY OWLS FOR HERMIONE?
In the first edition of The Half-Blood Prince, Ron says to Hermione, "And when you’ve got your eleven 'Outstanding' O.W.L.s…”. This is a rare misprint since Hermione was taking only ten classes; she had dropped Divination and Muggle Studies. The error was rectified in later editions to read, "your ten 'Outstanding' O.W.L.s."
7. SNAPPING SNAPE
Draco Malfoy, who encountered Harry’s head in Hogsmeade in Prisoner of Azkaban, tipped off about his presence to Professor Snape. Later, Snape inspects Harry and finds a bag of Zonko’s tricks and
the Marauder’s Map in his pockets. Right here, there is a typo as ‘Snape’ is spelled as ‘Snap’. 'Snap picked up the Zonko's bag.'
8. PERRY-TONIC
A printing error misspelled the name of Percy Weasley as 'Perry' in Chamber of Secrets. Further, another typo targeted Nymphadora Tonks and misspelled her name as 'Tonic' in Order of Phoenix.
9. DROPPED LINE
There is a broken line in the 1st chapter ‘Owl Post’ of Prisoner of Azkaban. The printing error occurs when Harry was reading ‘A History of Magic’ by Bathilda Bagshot at Dursleys’ house. The line “Indeed, Wendelin the Weird enjoyed being burnt
so much that she allowed herself to be caught no less than
forty-seven times in various disguises” has a redundant space in the middle.
10. WET INK
The 1st edition of Order of Phoenix has a printing error on the title page, where the ink had not dried. Resultantly, the wet ink had left an image on the preceding blank page.
Pic by Serafima Lazarenko
