My favorite literary heroine is Jo March. It is hard to overstate what she meant to a small, plain girl called Jo, who had a hot temper and a burning ambition to be a writer.

Yeh don' have ter be ashamed of what yeh are.

It was chalk white with glaring red eyes and slits for nostrils, like a snake.

Of course not, said Hermione. Everything we need is here on this paper.

Funny way to get to a wizards' school, the train. Magic carpets all got punctures, have they?

Filch and Madam Pince were secretly in love with each other.

There was a genteel tap of the knocker and the musical voice asked, again, ‘Where do vanished objects go?' ‘Into non-being, which is to say, everything,' replied Professor McGonagall. ‘Nicely phrased,' replied the eagle doorknocker, and the door swung open.