• Plants Centaurs burn this, observing the fumes and flames to refine the results of their stargazing (OP27). Read More
• Creature The Salamander is a small magical lizard that lives in and feeds on fire. It can live up to six hours away from the fire from which it spawned, but it must be fed pepper to keep it alive, and when the fire from which the salamander spawned goes out,… Read More
• Creature Sasabonsams are “vampiric, spindle-legged creatures” native to Nigeria. Read More
• Character Almerick Sawbridge was a wizard famous for conquering the river troll that was terrorizing crossers of the Wye River (fw41). Read More
• Character The Scamanders are a notable wizarding family whose members have worked with magical creatures for generations. Read More
• Caves and vaults Inaccessible except by magic, this cave complex on the coast was visited by young Tom Riddle while he was on an outing to the coast with children from the orphanage (circa 1930). While there he terrorized two of his classmates, Amy Benson and Dennis Bishop (HBP13). Many years later,… Read More
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Posted by in Canon discussion / Essays
Where is the Burrow—Harry’s second home (his first is Hogwarts, of course, not Privet Drive!)? Ottery St. Catchpole The books give the Burrow’s location as just outside the village of Ottery St. Catchpole, but give no direct clues as to where this is. The similarity of the name to Ottery St. Mary, in Devon has… Read More
• Creature A gigantic (can grow to a hundred feet in length), snake-like beast with a horselike head and a long snakelike body rising in humps out of the sea as it moves through the water; found in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Pacific Oceans. The sea serpent has received very bad Muggle… Read More
• Creature The Selma is a large serpent found in icy Norwegian lakes. They eat fish and human flesh. The Norwegian Quidditch team brought one as their team mascot in 2014, were it caused a conflict that eventually included many of the other mascots. Read More
• Character Seraphina Picquery was a highly accomplished American witch who served as President of the Magical Congress of the United States of America from 1920 to 1928 (Pm). Piquery was already a gifted witch during her years at Ilvermorny. She was one of the few incoming students at that school which were chosen… Read More
• Creature A magically-created species of saltwater fish, found in the Atlantic Ocean, which is covered in spines and which deliberately seeks out and destroys Muggle fishing nets. The first shrake were supposedly created in the 1800s by a group of wizard fisherfolk who had been insulted by Muggles. The shrake, by… Read More
• Communication Gilderoy Lockhart dispatched a dozen “surly” dwarfs reciting poems for Valentine’s Day in Harry’s Second Year (CS13). Read More
• Event Snape is intensely curious about where Remus Lupin goes each month. Sirius jokingly suggests that Snape follow Lupin through the passage beneath the Whomping Willow. James Potter, realizing that Snape would encounter a full-blown and very dangerous werewolf at the end of the passage, stops Snape from going through, thereby… Read More
• Games, toys, and jokes A range of sweets to make the eater ill; each different category looks like a different type of sweet and causes a different kind of illness. Each sweet is colour-coded so that one end causes the illness and the other makes the effect lift (OP6). Read More
• Magical effects Puts the target person into a deep sleep; subject is in a state almost like suspended animation and does not breathe for the duration of the spell. Fleur tried to put her dragon into some sort of enchanted sleep during the first task (GF20). Dumbledore placed Cho, Ron, Hermione,… Read More
• Hogwarts Slytherin House is one of the four houses into which students are Sorted when they start their first year at Hogwarts. Slytherin House was founded by Salazar Slytherin around 990AD. His personal belief in the superiority of Pure Blood wizards still influences the attitudes of Slytherin members today. Head: Professor… Read More
• Character Salazar Slytherin was the founder of Slytherin house and one of the co-founders of Hogwarts, described as one of “the four greatest witches and wizards of the age” (along with the other three founders) (CS9). He believed that only pure-blood witches and wizards should be allowed… Read More
• Creature Snail is the common name given to mollusks that have a coiled shell.  Snails can be found on land or in water. Read More
• Creature Snakes are reptilian creatures. Below is a list of snake and snake-like creatures found in the magical world: ashwinder basilisk boa constrictor – Harry accidentally released from the zoo, frightening Dudley half to death and resulting in a severe punishment from Uncle Vernon (PS2) dragon Nagini occamy runespoor sea… Read More
• Creature The Snidget is a small round-bodied bird that was chased as part of the game of Quidditch for about a century in the 1200s and 1300s, until the bird became nearly extinct. Read More
• Character Snowy is a cross-breed Kneazle and cat who belongs to Arabella Figg. Snowy, like Mrs. Figg’s other cats, can understand human speech. Read More
• Character Sparky was a phoenix and the mascot of the Moutohora Macaws Quidditch team of New Zealand (QA8, Pm). Read More
• Creature A Sphinx has the head of a human and the body of a lion, the capacity for human speech, and an innate love of puzzles and riddles, but due to its violent tendencies it has been placed in the ‘beast’ rather than the ‘being’ category (FB).  … Read More
• Creature Spiders are arachnids, eight-legged creatures similar to insects. Hogwarts castle has quite a few common spiders, as do most human habitations. Magical spiders, unlike their common relatives, can be quite large and terrifying. The acromantula, a gigantic arachnid native to Borneo, is the best known of the magical spiders… Read More
• Ministry of Magic A division of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures with responsibility for ghosts… Read More
• Furniture and household items The staff room wardrobe is a large, ugly piece of furniture found in the teachers’ staff room on the ground floor. The teachers keep their robes in that wardrobe. Harry and Ron hid in the wardrobe when they had figured out where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets was… Read More
• Glossary These two ingredients represent a popular British filling for a pie (normally encased in pastry). Steak and kidney pies are often served with chips and appear on the menu of most British fish and chip shops. Read More
• Event Kreacher tells Harry Potter the tale of how he was told to go with the Dark Lord by his master Regulus Black, and how he failed his master by not destroying the locket. Read More
• Creature The streeler is a giant snail that changes color every hour, and deposits a trail of venom as it moves that kills and shrivels all vegetation over which it passes, and which can kill horklumps. It is often kept as a pet (FB). Read More
• Creature The Swedish Short-Snout is a species of dragon, native to Sweden. Its habitat is wild, uninhabited mountain areas. The Short-Snout is silvery-blue in color and it’s flame is a brilliant blue (FB). Sweden maintains a dragon reservation for the Short-Snout, located in the mountainous heart of the country… Read More
• Creature The Swooping Evil is a blue and green reptilian flying creature about the size of a parrot but with bat-like wings that can expand almost like a huge butterfly. It rests in a small cocoon until released, when it flies around majestically. It is intelligent and strong, capable of supporting… Read More
• Thing A small spiny cocoon houses the large flying creature known as a Swooping Evil, and contains a “luminous venom” which can be squeezed out and used to remove unpleasant memories (WFT). The cocoon unravels to release the creature, and closes up again when the Swooping Evil returns. Read More