NORBERT @ NORBERTA

Norbert, later renamed Norberta, is a Norwegian Ridgeback dragon that Hagrid had acquired as an egg from a mysterious, hooded stranger, who turned out to be Lord Voldemort who had concealed himself in the body of Hogwarts' (then) current Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Quirrell. The Ministry of Magic classifies dragon eggs as Class A Non-Tradable goods. Hagrid helps the dragon hatch from the egg. Norbert becomes very dangerous and much bigger in the weeks following, so Harry, Ron, and Hermione finally persuade Hagrid to give her to Ron's older brother Charlie, who is studying dragons in Romania. While helping Hagrid take care of his new pet, Ron is bitten and is in the Hogwarts hospital wing the night Charlie's friends come to collect the dragon. Harry and Hermione take Norbert up in a crate under Harry's invisibility cloak. However, Malfoy also sneaks out in the dead of night and is caught by Professor McGonagall. After Charlie’s friends take Norbert away, Hermione and Harry are also caught, as is Neville who was found lurking in the corridors on his way to warn them about Malfoy. Norbert is frequently mentioned throughout the rest of the series. Most of Norbert's story was cut out of the Philosopher's Stone film for time reasons.
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Charlie Weasley revealed to Hagrid that Norbert was actually female, and had been renamed Norberta. Charlie notes that female dragons are more vicious than the males.

Tags: MAGICAL CREATURES, NORBERT

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FLUFFY---A MUSIC LOVER

Fluffy is a giant three-headed dog used by Hagrid to guard the trapdoor leading to the underground chamber where the Philosopher's Stone is hidden in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. The only way to get past Fluffy is to lull him to sleep by playing music. Fluffy is based on Cerberus, the three-headed dog from Greek Mythology that guards the gates to the underworld. As with Fluffy, Cerberus was lulled to sleep with music by Orpheus.
In the book Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Harry, Ron, and Hermione accidentally run into Fluffy after running from caretaker Argus Filch. At Halloween, Harry and Ron witness Snape entering the door to Fluffy's chamber, and for the next few days he has a pronounced limp and is overheard saying "How are you meant to keep your eyes on all three heads at once?" However, it is later revealed that he followed Professor Quirrell into the chamber. Later, Professor Quirrell gets past Fluffy by playing a harp, while Harry, Ron, and Hermione use a flute that had been given to Harry by Hagrid because Fluffy falls asleep to music.
In the book, Hagrid acquires Fluffy from a Greek he meets in a pub, while in the film Hagrid says he got Fluffy from an Irish person instead. Steve Kloves says when he wrote the script it said "Greek," but was changed somewhere down the line. J. K. Rowling was asked in an interview what happened to Fluffy after he was no longer needed to protect the Stone. She said Fluffy was released into the Forbidden Forest.

Tags: FLUFFY, MAGICAL CREATURES

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FANG--A DROOLING BOARHOUND

Fang is a large boarhound that, aside from his enormous size, appears to be an entirely ordinary dog. While Fang's appearance is intimidating, he is, in Hagrid's words, "a bloody coward." Boisterous and loving with people he knows, he seems especially fond of Harry and at times, Hermione. Fang, like Hagrid, is not as fierce as he looks. He seems to enjoy licking Harry, Ron, or Hermione around the face or ears, as he is mentioned attempting to do it in many of the trio's visits to Hagrid's house.
In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone he accompanied Harry, Hagrid, Draco Malfoy, Hermione and Neville into the Forbidden Forest to look for an injured unicorn. In the following book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry and Ron took Fang into the forest where he was scared stiff of both the gigantic acromantula and Mr Weasley's flying Ford Anglia. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, an escaping Death Eater set fire to Hagrid's hut while Fang was inside; Hagrid entered the flaming hut, slung Fang over his shoulder, and carried him to safety. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Fang and Hagrid participated in the Battle of Hogwarts; though Fang's exact involvement was not clear. He was last seen running away after a shattered vase frightened him. Fang is said in the books to be a boarhound.

Tags: FANG, MAGICAL CREATURES

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BUCKBEAK @ WITHERWINGS

Buckbeak along with eleven other hippogriffs, is introduced during one of Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures classes. Hagrid explains that hippogriffs are very calm, powerful giants, but are touchy creatures and demand respect. Harry successfully approaches Buckbeak, who allows him to ride him around the paddock. He still must bow on subsequent encounters, though Buckbeak apparently had taken a great liking to Harry from then on.
Draco Malfoy, in an arrogant attempt to show up his school nemesis, endeavours to approach Buckbeak as well. It becomes obvious that the Slytherin neither listened to nor cared about Hagrid's warnings about the hippogriffs' touchiness, as he makes contemptuous remarks about Buckbeak. Quickly angered, Buckbeak slashes Draco's arm with his claws. Pretending to be injured much more severely than he truly is, Draco persuades his father, Lucius Malfoy, to use his political power to sentence Buckbeak to death. Hagrid's numerous appeals fail, and Walden Macnair of the Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures comes to Hogwarts to execute Buckbeak. With the use of a time-turner, Hermione and Harry free Buckbeak and rescue Sirius Black from the tower in which he was being held before being handed over to the Dementors. Sirius escapes with Buckbeak and flies to safety. During most of Harry's fourth year, Sirius and Buckbeak hide in a cave in the mountains above Hogsmeade. After this, they move to Number 12 Grimmauld Place, whereupon Buckbeak stays in Sirius' mother's former room.
In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry inherits Buckbeak, and allows Hagrid to look after him again. To avoid suspicion from the Ministry of Magic, he is given the alias "Witherwings" (Hagrid also calls Buckbeak by the nickname "Beaky"). A fiercely loyal creature, Buckbeak chased away Professor Snape from Harry by slashing his claws at the end of Half-Blood Prince. Buckbeak also features in the Battle of Hogwarts at the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows leading the Hogwarts' Thestrals against Voldemort's giants.

Tags: BUCKBEAK, MAGICAL CREATURES

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ARAGOG---THE WRONG OPENER

Aragog was an Acromantula - an enormous, sentient, talking spider that made a unique clicking noise as he moved in search of prey. Hagrid raised him from an egg as a Hogwarts student, keeping him inside a cupboard. The spider's discovery was partly responsible for Hagrid's expulsion. Hagrid was caught talking to the spider in the dungeons by Tom Riddle. Riddle then alleged that the creature was the "Monster of Slytherin," and that Hagrid, by extension, had opened the Chamber and released it. In fact, the "Monster" was a basilisk which Riddle, the real Heir of Slytherin, had released.
After Hagrid's expulsion, Aragog lived in the Forbidden Forest. Hagrid even found him a mate, Mosag, with whom Aragog had many offspring and became the patriarch of an entire colony of Acromantulas. He remained grateful to Hagrid and kept his carnivorous children from attacking him when he came to visit, but this did not extend to anyone else (as Harry, Ron, and Fang found out in Chamber of Secrets). Hagrid had told them to simply "follow the spiders." Doing as he wished, they found Aragog and his children, who tried to eat them. They were only saved at the last minute by Ron's flying car that had been lost in the forest a few months prior. Aragog remained in the forest for the rest of his life, eventually growing weak, going blind, and dying in the Half-Blood Prince. Hagrid retrieved Aragog's body from the forest, fearing that his children would devour his body. During his funeral, Professor Slughorn bottles his precious venom and takes it for himself.
Later in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Aragog's offspring return during the Battle at Hogwarts; having been driven from the Forbidden Forest, they began to attack Death Eaters and Hogwarts' inhabitants indiscriminately. Hagrid endangers himself and, potentially, other Hogwarts' inhabitants by attempting to protect Aragog's offspring from harm, in fact being captured by them and taken to Voldemort.

Tags: ARAGOG, MAGICAL CREATURES

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PEEVES--- THE POLTERIGEIST

Peeves is a poltergeist who haunts Hogwarts. Being a poltergeist, Peeves is a spirit rather than a physical being, but very different from the ghosts for which he is occasionally mistaken. Peeves is capable of flight, intangibility and teleportation. Like ghosts, he is also capable of invisibility, however he is usually observed to take physical form. Peeves is also seen to have the ability to manipulate objects; a trait not generally possible with ghosts. Peeves's existence is essentially the embodiment of disorder ("an indestructible spirit of chaos"[28]), where he is observed to constantly cause it. In appearance, he is a small man with a mischievous face, dressed in wildly coloured clothing. He derives joy from mischievous acts, causing more of disruptions rather than actually being violent and dangerous. As a "spirit of chaos," it is his entire purpose to cause disorder, break things, and be as annoying and disruptive as possible.
Peeves does not listen to Hogwarts prefects, teachers or anyone else, with the exception of the headmaster of the school, Albus Dumbledore, and the ghost of the Slytherin house, the Bloody Baron. Argus Filch, who is usually left with cleaning up the messes and damage Peeves causes, is his nemesis and works continuously to try to get Peeves thrown out. However, Rowling has stated in an interview that not even Dumbledore would be able to rid Hogwarts of Peeves forever.[29] Peeves is, however, vulnerable to some magic; in Prisoner of Azkaban, Remus Lupin uses magic to teach Peeves a lesson by making the gum Peeves was stuffing into a keyhole shoot back out and up the poltergeist's nose. In Half Blood Prince, Harry also uses magic to glue Peeves's tongue to the roof of his mouth, after which Peeves angrily departs.
Peeves is not completely chaotic nor without loyalties. During Dolores Umbridge's attempts to take control of Hogwarts in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix which were met with passive insurrection, he actually shows respect for his fellow troublemakers Fred and George Weasley and takes their parting words ("Give her hell from us, Peeves") to heart as they flee the school, marking possibly the only time Peeves ever obeys a student, let alone salutes one. This is immediately followed by his finest hour; his destructive tendencies shift into overdrive and he goes on a rampage. When Umbridge attempts to sneak out of Hogwarts, Peeves chased her out of the castle; alternately whacking her with Minerva McGonagall's cane and a sock full of chalk. Peeves is depicted in Deathly Hallows only two times, first where he aids the defenders of Hogwarts by dropping Snargaluff pods on the heads of attacking Death Eaters, and second singing a victory song for Harry at the end.

Tags: MAGICAL CREATURES, PEEVES

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HEDWIG---AN INNOCENT FRIEND

Hedwig is Harry Potter's owl. According to J. K. Rowling, Hedwig is a Snowy Owl, which Rowling considers to be the most beautiful owl of all. In the story, Hedwig is a gift to Harry from Hagrid in the first book of the series, purchased in Diagon Alley while shopping for supplies for Harry's first year at Hogwarts. The name Hedwig is a name Harry found in his schoolbook, A History of Magic. Hedwig is used for messages throughout the series. In the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Hedwig is intercepted by Professor Dolores Umbridge and is hurt. Harry pretends he feels unwell in History of Magic lesson and sets off to find Professor Grubbly-Plank, Hedwig behind his back. Keeping Hedwig at home during the summer holiday continues to be just one more area of conflict between Harry and the Dursleys.
Hedwig could be considered an owl with a 'formal' personality, and has a habit of staring/hooting "reproachfully", cuffing Harry with a wing when miffed (which is rather often), and being far more vocal than the average Snowy Owl. She also can act with hurt or anger due to Harry's sometimes innocently thoughtless actions or words. It is implied throughout the books that Hedwig can fully understand Harry and, apparently, to some extent vice versa. This implies in turn that she is a very intelligent owl, or that owls hide their intelligence from Muggles. At the start of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Hedwig is killed during Harry's escape from the Dursleys' by a stray killing curse. Hedwig's death represented the death of innocence.

Tags: HEDWIG, MAGICAL CREATURES

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GRIPHOOK--A GREEDY POSSESSIVE GOBLIN

Griphook is the most developed Goblin character in the series, who appears in the first and seventh books. He is an employee at Gringotts until the Second Wizarding War. In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, he was assigned to take Hagrid and Harry Potter to Harry's vault (to get gold to purchase supplies) and Vault 713 (which contained the Philosopher's Stone). He is not seen again until Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, imprisoned in the Malfoy Manor. When Hermione Granger lied under torture to Bellatrix Lestrange that the Sword of Gryffindor was a fake, Bellatrix sent for Griphook for confirmation. Though he knew the sword was real, he lied and told her it was a fake. He was saved, along with Harry, Ron, and Hermione, by Dobby and successfully escaped to Bill Weasley's Shell Cottage. Bellatrix killed Dobby for helping them escape. Griphook's respect for Harry grew after watching him bury the elf, because he dug the grave by hand without magic. Griphook considers Harry Potter as a very strange wizard.
Because Harry needed to get the Horcrux out of Bellatrix's vault, Harry asked Griphook to assist him breaking into Gringotts. He reluctantly agreed in exchange for the sword of Gryffindor. They broke in successfully but when escaping he betrayed them to the other goblins and escaped with the sword. However, at the end of the book the sword reappears when Neville Longbottom pulls it from the Sorting Hat and slays Nagini.

Tags: GRIPHOOK, MAGICAL CREATURES

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FIRENZE---A CENTAUR ALWAYS A MYSTERY

Firenze is a Centaur and later a teacher at Hogwarts. He is described in the book as a blonde centaur with astonishingly blue eyes. He also has a muscled upper body, like all centaurs. Supposedly, he is quite good-looking, as many of the female population of Hogwarts are attracted to him. His first appearance comes towards the end of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, in which he rescues Harry from Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest. Having carried Harry to safety on his back, Firenze is involved in an altercation with the other centaur residents in the forest, who object to the symbolic suggestion that centaurs are subservient to humans. They argue further about the responsibility of centaurs to read the future in the stars and whether it is correct to intervene in the unfolding of that future. Firenze remains with his herd but he is clearly at odds on some issues.
The character does not make another appearance until Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, in which he is appointed by the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, to teach Divination at Hogwarts in place of Sybill Trelawney, who had been sacked by the High Inquisitor, Dolores Umbridge. When Harry sees Firenze in class, it is obvious that Firenze has been attacked, and it emerges that he was indeed cast out of the centaur herd for agreeing to answer Dumbledore's request for help. Firenze ignored the centaurs' taboo on assisting humans because he felt he had an obligation to contribute to the struggle against Voldemort. At the end of the fifth book, Firenze remained a member of the teaching staff, and in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince he shares teaching duties with a reinstated Trelawney, a situation which she finds distasteful. Dumbledore keeps him on because Firenze would have no place left to go, as he is an exile from his herd.
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, he is seen near the end of the book fighting alongside the other professors of Hogwarts, helping to defend the school against Voldemort and his Death Eaters; it was mentioned that he was wounded on his flanks by the Death Eaters but ultimately survived the battle. Although not mentioned in the series, according to a J. K. Rowling web chat Firenze's herd is later forced to acknowledge that Firenze's pro-human leanings are not shameful and allows him back into the fold

Tags: FIRENZE, MAGICAL CREATURES

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FAWKES--TAIL FEATHER IN THE WANDS

Fawkes is Albus Dumbledore's pet phoenix. Fawkes is an intensely magical creature, possessing a number of incredible magical abilities, the precise extent of which is unknown. Phoenix tail feathers are suitable for inclusion in some wands; Fawkes himself provided the feathers for both Lord Voldemort's and Harry Potter's wands. Whenever Fawkes dies, whether by violence or of old age, he bursts into flame and is promptly reborn out of the ashes as a baby phoenix. As an adult, he is about swan-sized and possesses magnificent red and gold plumage, but infant stage Fawkes has the appearance of a newborn chicken and in his geriatric stages he has dull, limp plumage like a "half-plucked turkey".
Fawkes plays a special role in Chamber of Secrets: He is summoned by Harry's loyalty to Albus Dumbledore to the aid of the protagonist as he (Harry) fights against Salazar Slytherin's basilisk, the monstrous serpent that lives in Hogwarts and is controlled by Tom Riddle's diary through Ginny Weasley. Fawkes gouges the basilisk's eyes out, blinding it and eliminating its ability to kill with its gaze. Harry is later wounded by the basilisk's fang; he nearly dies from the venom, but Fawkes heals the wound with his tears. (Phoenix tears have healing powers and are the only antidote for basilisk venom). Fawkes then brings Harry, Ginny, Ron and Gilderoy Lockhart back up to the castle, bearing their combined weight as they hold his tail feathers.
During the confrontation between Voldemort and Dumbledore in the Ministry of Magic towards the fifth book's end, Fawkes saves Dumbledore's life by swallowing a Killing Curse from Voldemort. Fawkes then bursts into flame and is reborn as a chick from the ashes. After Dumbledore's death in Half-Blood Prince, Fawkes is heard singing a lament for him. When the singing stops, Harry knows that Fawkes has left Hogwarts forever. It is unknown what becomes of Fawkes afterwards. He makes no appearances in Deathly Hallows except in a flashback from Severus Snape's final memories.

Tags: FAWKES, MAGICAL CREATURES

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CROOKSHANKS--IS HE A ANIMAGUS???????

Crookshanks is the pet cat of Hermione Granger. "Crookshanks" means, "bent legs"; in keeping with this, the cat is described as bow-legged when the characters first meet him. He was described as having a "squashed face," which was inspired by a real cat J. K. Rowling once saw that she said looked like it had run face first into a brick wall. Hermione bought Crookshanks from a shop in Diagon Alley out of sympathy, as nobody wanted him due to his squashed-looking face.
Crookshanks had a habit of trying to hunt down the pet rat of Ron Weasley, Scabbers. This caused a great deal of fighting between Ron and Hermione in the third book. Rowling has confirmed that Crookshanks is half kneazle,[21] an intelligent, cat-like creature who can detect when they are around untrustworthy people, explaining his higher than normal cat intelligence and stature. Because of this, he was immediately aware that Scabbers, Ron Weasley's pet rat, was not a real rat, and that the huge black dog lurking around the school was not a real dog. Crookshanks was proved right when it was revealed that Scabbers was in fact Peter Pettigrew, whereas the dog was Sirius Black. Sirius eventually persuaded Crookshanks to trust him and sent him to bring Pettigrew to him; Crookshanks, who had been pouncing on Scabbers from the moment the two had met, evidently agreed. Afterwards, Crookshanks played no major role.
It had been suggested that Crookshanks is an Animagus; however, J. K. Rowling has officially confirmed that he is not

Tags: CROOKSHANKS, MAGICAL CREATURES

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Magizoology---study of magical creatures

Magizoology (a portmanteau of "magic" and "zoology") is the study of magical creatures in the Harry Potter series. A person who studies Magizoology is known as a magizoologist. There are magizoologists who work in the Ministry of Magic, particularly in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. One notable magizoologist is Newt Scamander, who in the universe of the series is the author of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a textbook on magical creatures that is popular in the wizarding world. Rowling used Newt Scamander as her pseudonym for the real-life Fantastic Beasts. Other characters who study magical creatures include Newt's grandson Rolf Scamander, as well as Luna Lovegood who eventually marries Rolf, although these two have only been referred to by Rowling as naturalists.

Tags: MAGICAL CREATURES, Magizoology

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