Perkins and the meaning of warlock in the HP universe

[Christina Kopp]

No: HPFGUIDX 88975

Rolshan wrote:
<Ah, Perkins, a mysterious fellow. No answers but
questions: 1. referred to as a warlock when all other
male wizards are "wizards", 2. loans the tent to the
Weasleys that they use at the World Cup and that
smells alot like Mrs. Figg's house 3. when Prof.
Binns refers to Harry (he never seems to know any
students' names, not even Harry Potter!) he calls him
"Perkins" by mistake. Anything to it?>

Carol wrote:
<And an unrelated question that I'll throw in because
it's not worthy of its own post: The narrator (or one
of the Weasleys?) keeps referring to Perkins, the
wizard who works with Arthur in the Muggle
Artifacts office, as an "old warlock." No other
character, IIRC, is referred to by that term. I always
thought a warlock was just a male
witch, but JKR seems to use "wizard" in that sense. So
what is a warlock by JKR's definition and how is he
different from other wizards?>

Sophierom:

Perhaps JKR uses warlock to as a term of respect for
older or more experienced male wizards. Dumbledore is
the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, which seems like
it would be something like Chief Justice on the
Supreme Court of the U.S.  Ideally, this position is
appointed to the most experienced or the wisest of
judges.  

Though Perkins doesn't share Dumbledore's high
position of power, the Weasley's might use warlock to
describe him because of his old age.  Not completely
sure of his age, but Perkins seems to be old. He is
mentioned as having lumbago in GOF (sorry, don't know
page number ... books elsewhere). Maybe, then, being
called in "old warlock" is more respectful than saying
he's an "old wizard."  

Whatever JKR means by warlock, the fact that she uses
the term to describe a seemingly insignificant
character suggests to me that she's hinting at some
greater importance for Perkins.  As Rolshan pointed
out in post 88843 (snipped above), Perkins' tent
reminds Harry of Mrs. Figg's cats (perhaps he's part
of the old Order ... or he has some contact or
relationship with Mrs. Figg?).  And Binns' calling
Harry "Perkins" is really interesting. It could just
be a red herring (Perkins and Potter both start with P
and Binns really is out of it) ... or it could suggest
that Binns taught the old warlock Perkins back when he
was still alive. Maybe Perkins was one of his best
students? With JKR, who knows? 

(An odd  side note: practitioners of Wicca define
warlocks not as male witches but as traitors!  From my
dim recollection of Perkins, he hardly seems like a
traitor, and since there is also the position of Chief
Warlock of the Wizengamot, I seriously doubt that JKR
uses the Wiccan definition of warlock.) 

Sophierom


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