49 Fun Facts About Hard Harry Potter

Which relative of Dumbledore died in the three-way duel between Albus, Aberforth and Grindelwald?

Ariana, Dumbledore's sister, was killed in the duel; nobody ever knew whose curse struck her, which haunted Albus for the rest of his life.

In which village did the Dumbledore family live before moving to Godric's Hollow?

The Dumbledores lived at Mould-on-the-Wold until the father's imprisonment in Azkaban, after which the family moved to Godric's Hollow, as Rita Skeeter's biography recounts in Deathly Hallows.

On what date was Tom Marvolo Riddle born?

Tom Riddle was born on 31 December 1926 at a Muggle orphanage in London, where his mother died within an hour of giving birth.

What was the name of Voldemort's witch mother?

Merope Gaunt, Marvolo's daughter, bewitched the Muggle Tom Riddle and died within an hour of giving birth to their son at a London orphanage.

Who was headmaster of Hogwarts while Tom Riddle was a student?

Armando Dippet was headmaster during Riddle's school years; in the diary memory Riddle asks Dippet to let him stay at Hogwarts over the summer, and is refused.

Which Hogwarts teacher did Voldemort kill in the opening chapter of Deathly Hallows?

Charity Burbage, the Muggle Studies teacher, was suspended above the Death Eaters' table and killed by Voldemort in the opening chapter of Deathly Hallows; her body was fed to Nagini.

What was the maiden name of Severus Snape's mother?

Snape's mother was the witch Eileen Prince; his Muggle father Tobias Snape made Severus a half-blood, hence the nickname he gave himself.

What was the name of the street where Snape grew up and later lived?

Snape lived at Spinner's End, a grim street beside a disused mill; Narcissa and her sister visit him there in the second chapter of the sixth book.

What form did Snape's Patronus take, and why?

Snape's Patronus was a doe, like Lily's, because his love for her never ended; when Dumbledore saw it he asked 'After all this time?' and Snape answered 'Always.'

Sirius Black was named, in family tradition, after which heavenly body?

Sirius is the Dog Star, the brightest star in the night sky, fitting for a wizard whose Animagus form was a huge black dog nicknamed Padfoot.

What was the full name of Sirius Black's younger brother?

Regulus Arcturus Black, Sirius's younger brother, stole the real locket Horcrux from the cave and left a fake one with a note signed R.A.B.

Which of his three cousins did Sirius consider his favourite?

Andromeda was Sirius's favourite cousin; she was blasted off the family tapestry for marrying the Muggle-born Ted Tonks and became mother to Nymphadora.

How many years did Sirius spend in Azkaban before his escape?

Sirius spent twelve years in Azkaban, from 1981 until his 1993 escape; he kept his sanity knowing he was innocent and slipped out as a dog, whose simpler emotions confused the Dementors.

What did Sirius lend Hagrid on the night the Potters were killed?

Hagrid landed on Privet Drive on Sirius's flying motorbike ('Young Sirius Black lent it me'), the very first mention of Sirius, in the opening chapter of Philosopher's Stone.

According to Rowling, what is the core of the Elder Wand?

The Elder Wand's core is Thestral hair, a core Rowling gave to no other wand; it suits a wand of death, since thestrals are visible only to those who have seen someone die.

Which Peverell brother was the original owner of the Elder Wand?

Antioch, the eldest Peverell brother, took the Elder Wand from Death and was murdered in his sleep for it; Cadmus took the Stone and Ignotus the Cloak.

How does the Elder Wand's allegiance pass from one wizard to the next?

That loophole is why Harry, who disarmed Draco, was its true master when Voldemort tried to use it.

Which Dumbledore invention helped Ron find his way back to Harry and Hermione?

The Deluminator, the Put-Outer of chapter one, let Ron hear Hermione say his name and sent a ball of light into his chest that guided him back to the tent.

The inscription on the Mirror of Erised is which phrase written backwards?

The frame reads 'Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi', which is 'I show not your face but your heart's desire' backwards; Erised itself is desire reversed.

Which veteran British actor provided the voice of the Sorting Hat in the films?

Leslie Phillips, born in 1924, voiced the Sorting Hat in the first two films and returned for Deathly Hallows Part 2 at the age of 87.

Under Croaker's Law, legal Time-Turners may reach how far into the past?

Croaker's Law, named for the Unspeakable Saul Croaker, sets five hours as the furthest a Time-Turner can safely reach back; the illegal one in Cursed Child breaks that rule, which is how the plot goes wrong.

What do memories look like when they are stored in a Pensieve?

Memories come out of the head as silver threads, a glowing silvery substance neither liquid nor gas, which swirl in the stone basin until someone plunges a face into them.

What destroyed Harry's Nimbus 2000, prompting Sirius to send him a Firebolt?

Harry fell from his broom when Dementors swarmed the match and the wind carried the riderless Nimbus 2000 into the Whomping Willow, which smashed it to splinters.

Who bought Nimbus 2001 brooms for the entire Slytherin Quidditch team?

Lucius Malfoy gave the whole Slytherin team Nimbus 2001s in Chamber of Secrets, the same year Draco became Seeker, which Hermione called buying his way in.

Where and when was Hogwarts founded, according to the Wizarding World website?

Hogwarts was founded in the Highlands of Scotland in the 9th-10th century by Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin, 'a thousand years or more ago' as the Sorting Hat sings.

What form does Hermione's Patronus take?

Rowling chose it because the otter is her own favourite animal.

What does the acronym of the organisation Hermione founds in Goblet of Fire, S.P.E.W., stand for?

S.P.E.W. stands for Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, founded by Hermione in Goblet of Fire after she saw Winky sacked; Ron and Harry mostly humoured her.

What was the name of Hagrid's giantess mother?

Hagrid's mother was the giantess Fridwulfa, who left when he was about three; she later had Grawp, Hagrid's half-brother, with another giant.

Where does Hagrid keep the pieces of his snapped wand?

Hagrid hides the pieces of his snapped wand in a pink umbrella; expelled in his third year and forbidden to do magic, he still sneaks spells such as Dudley's pig tail.

Where was the baby dragon Norbert taken after Harry, Ron and Hermione helped Hagrid get rid of him?

Charlie Weasley's friends collected Norbert from the top of the Astronomy Tower and flew him off to the dragon sanctuary in Romania where Charlie worked.

What is Nearly Headless Nick's full name?

Nearly Headless Nick is Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, Gryffindor's ghost, whose 1492 execution took forty-five blows of a blunt axe and left his head attached by a strip of skin.

Which four Death Eaters tortured Neville's parents into insanity?

Bellatrix, Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange, and Barty Crouch Jr were sentenced at the trial Harry sees in the Pensieve; Frank and Alice Longbottom had been Aurors in the original Order.

What job does Neville hold at Hogwarts nineteen years after the Battle of Hogwarts?

It was the one subject he was brilliant at from the start, under Professor Sprout.

What are the names of Luna Lovegood's twin sons?

Luna's twin sons with Rolf Scamander, grandson of the magizoologist Newt Scamander, are Lorcan and Lysander, names Rowling revealed after the books ended.

Whom did Draco Malfoy marry?

Draco married Astoria Greengrass, Daphne's younger sister; by Cursed Child she has died young of an ancestral blood curse, leaving Draco to raise their son Scorpius.

What did Draco repair in the Room of Requirement to smuggle Death Eaters into Hogwarts?

Draco mended the Vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Requirement; its twin stood in Borgin and Burkes in Knockturn Alley, making a passage Death Eaters used on the night Dumbledore died.

Which professional Quidditch team did Ginny Weasley join after Hogwarts, according to Rowling?

Ginny played for the Holyhead Harpies, the all-witch team, for several years before becoming the Daily Prophet's senior Quidditch correspondent.

How did Barty Crouch Jr get out of Azkaban?

His dying mother took his place in the cell, and he later posed as Mad-Eye Moody for a whole school year.

Which Hogwarts teacher is the only one who is a ghost?

Professor Binns teaches History of Magic as a ghost; legend says he fell asleep by the staff-room fire and got up to teach the next morning, leaving his body behind.

According to Rowling, which character is the only one in the series based on a real person?

Gilderoy Lockhart is the one character Rowling consciously based on a real person, an acquaintance who, she said, was even more objectionable and told whopping great fibs about his past.

Where did Professor Quirrell's first name, Quirinus, first appear?

Quirinus first appeared on cards in the 2001 Harry Potter Trading Card Game; it is the name of a Roman god who, as Janus Quirinus, is tied to the two-faced Janus.

Which Harry Potter creature lent its name to a real species found in Iran?

Lycosa aragogi, a wolf spider from Iran described in 2017, was named after Aragog, though it is nowhere near the size of an acromantula.

Which ghost haunts Hufflepuff House?

The Fat Friar is Hufflepuff's ghost; the Bloody Baron belongs to Slytherin, the Grey Lady (Helena Ravenclaw) to her mother's house, and Nearly Headless Nick to Gryffindor.

How big was Bloomsbury's first hardback print run of Philosopher's Stone in June 1997?

Just 500 hardbacks were printed, 300 of them for libraries — standard for a first novel at the time.

How much did Scholastic pay for the US rights to Philosopher's Stone at the 1997 Bologna Book Fair?

$105,000 was an unusually high sum for a children's book; Arthur Levine then retitled it Sorcerer's Stone.

How much was the advance Bloomsbury paid Rowling for the first Harry Potter book?

Bloomsbury paid a £2,500 advance; Rowling later got an £8,000 Scottish Arts Council grant to plan the sequels.

How many Deathly Hallows books sold in the US in its first 24 hours, a Guinness World Record?

8.3 million sold in the US and 2.65 million in the UK on day one — the record for most novels sold within 24 hours.

Which UK supermarket sparked a price war by announcing it would sell Deathly Hallows for just £5?

Asda's £5 loss-leader announcement two days before launch enraged independent booksellers.

According to Rowling, in which Ministry department did Hermione begin her post-Hogwarts career?

She started in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures before moving to Magical Law Enforcement and eventually becoming Minister.