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- Hagrid is said to be twice the height of a human but in the films he is mentioned to be 8 feet 6 inches.
- Hermione’s cat Crookshanks is no ordinary cat as he is half-kneazle. Kneazles are intelligent cat-like creatures who can sniff out suspicious characters and if a kneazle takes a liking to a witch or wizard, they make for excellent pets.
- Members of the Order of the Pheonix are the only wizards who know how to communicate using their patronuses. A wizard’s patronus is the individual’s unique spirit guardian and is effective in use against the dark arts.
- Dementors don’t breed. They grow where there’s decay, like fungus.
- The tattoos on Sirius Black’s body are borrowed from Russian prison gangs. These are to identify a person as one to be feared and respected.
- The command that makes the Dark Mark (the mark of the Dark Lord) appear is “Morsmorde” which appropriately means ‘take a bite out of death in French.
- Harry’s middle name is James, Hermione’s is Jane and Ron’s is unfortunately, Bilius.
- Garden gnomes are considered to be pests in the wizarding community because they eat the roots of plants and make little piles of earth, very much like moles.
- The ghost Nearly-Headless Nick was beheaded because a botched dentistry job. He was trying to straighten Lady Grieve’s teeth but instead she sprouted a tusk.
- Dumbledore has a scar in the shape of the London Underground above his knee.
- The secret code Arthur Weasley must dial into a telephone keypad to access the Ministry of Magic is 62442. The letters underneath those numbers on a standard phone spell out the word ‘magic’.
- You can only see a thestral when you can appreciate what death really means. This is why Harry could not see them until he witnessed the death of Cedric Diggory.
- The original snitch used in early Quidditch matches was actually a fat bird called a snidget. When some wizards thought this to be too cruel, the wizard Bowman Wright invented the Golden Snitch.
- Hogwarts’ school motto is ‘Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus’ which is Latin for ‘Never Tickle a Sleeping Dragon’.
- Harry Potter, JK Rowling and the actor Daniel Radcliffe all share the same birthday – July 31st
- Hermione’s patronus is an otter because Rowling likes otters and sees herself in Hermione
- JK Rowling named the driver and conductor of the Knight Bus after her grandfathers, Ernie and Stanley
- Dumbledore is an old English word for a bumble-bee. JK Rowling says she believes this suits the Hogwarts head because “one of his passions is music and I imagined him walking around humming to himself.”
- The four houses at Hogwarts correspond to the four elements. Ravenclaw is air, Gryffindor is fire, Slytherin is water and Hufflepuff is earth
- Death Eaters were once called the Knights of Walpurgis
- Harry Potter’s middle name is James, Hermione’s is Jane, Ginny’s is Molly – after her mother – and poor old Ron’s is Bilius
- A magical quill detects the birth of every magical child, and records it in a book. Then Professor McGonagall sends an owl to each child when he or she turns 11
- JK Rowling wrote the final chapter and the final word “scar” before she wrote the final book.
- Ron was amazed to hear that Tom Riddle received an award for special services to Hogwarts, saying jokingly: “Maybe he murdered Myrtle; that would’ve done everyone a favour.” He DID murder Myrtle, through the Basilisk
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