Set of legendary objects from the Harry Potter series / TUE 6-15-21 / Where something unpleasant may stick

Constructor: Owen Travis

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (**for a Tuesday**)

THEME: DEATHLY HALLOWS (51A: Set of legendary objects from the Harry Potter series found at the ends of 20-, 24- and 41-Across) — that's a pretty literal description of the theme...

Theme answers:

• WRITTEN IN STONE (20A: Unchangeable)
• OPERA CLOAK (34A: Dressy floor-length garment)
• BUBBLE WAND (41A: Something a kid might blow right through)

Word of the Day: DEATHLY HALLOWS (51A) —

The Deathly Hallows are three highly powerful magical objects supposedly created by Death and given to each of three brothers in the Peverell family. They consisted of the Elder Wand, an immensely powerful wand that was considered unbeatable; the Resurrection Stone, a stone which could summon the spirits of the dead, and the Cloak of Invisibility, which, as its name suggests, renders the user completely invisible. According to the story, both Antioch Peverell(owner of the Wand) and Cadmus Peverell (owner of the Stone) came to bad ends. However, Ignotus Peverell's wisdom in requesting the Cloak was rewarded.

According to legend, he who possesses these three artefacts would become the Master of Death. Dumbledore told Harry that he and another wizard, Gellert Grindelwald took this to mean that the uniter of the Deathly Hallows would be invincible. The story of the Deathly Hallows was originally told by Beedle the Bard and subsequently passed from family to family as a wizard fairytale. Few wizards ever realised that the Deathly Hallows were genuine items. Most people thought that there were things that Beedle had made up to entertain young wizards and witches.

No one but Harry Potter has been known to have been in command of all three at the same time, though he was never in possession of them all at once (he dropped the stone in the Forbidden Forest just before gaining the wand that he had won the alliance of in a previous scuffle at Malfoy Manor). Albus Dumbledore had also possessed all three, but not all at once, much like Harry, as he was never the true owner of the Cloak. (harrypotter.fandom.com)

This puzzle belongs on a fan site. I read all the Harry Potter books as they came out and honestly I barely remember what a deathly hallow is, and I certainly don't care anymore. It's one thing to use the Potterverse as a constant, some might say annoyingly regular, source of fill for your puzzles, but it's quite another to build an entire theme around details of a novel this old now. When's the last time the NYT published a crossword that revolves around the details of a novel, such that you'd need to have read it to have any idea what it's talking about? Ooh, maybe we had the March sisters as the basis of a puzzle? Did we? But even there, those are the main characters of an undisputed classic, not some weird plot points from the seventh installment of the "Little Women" series. I'm just exhausted by Potterness. But I have to be honest, the main source of my exhaustion is the author of the books. I've made a conscious decision to ignore everything J.K. Rowling does. My formerly Harry Potter-loving (-devouring!) daughter has done the same. This is because Rowling, as you probably know, has decided to become, in her post-Potter years, perhaps the most prominent purveyor of transphobia on the planet. I'm not going to rehash her stupid, hateful, and frankly audience-betraying beliefs here. You can read about them all over. But a J.K. Rowling-based puzzle? During PRIDE Month? Absolutely not. This puzzle can go ... review itself.