Magical creatures in Harry Potter

Magical creatures comprise a colourful and integral aspect of the wizarding world in the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling. Throughout the seven books of the series, Harry and his friends encounter many of these creatures on their adventures, as well as in the Care of Magical Creatures class at Hogwarts. Rowling has also written Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a guide to the magical beasts found in the series. Many of these legendary creatures are derived from folklore, primarily Greek mythology, but also British and Scandinavian folklore. Many of the legends surrounding mythical creatures is also incorporated the books. "Children ... know that I didn't invent unicorns, but I've had to explain frequently that I didn't actually invent hippogriffs," Rowling told Stephen Fry in an interview for BBC Radio 4. "When I do use a creature that I know is a mythological entity, I like to find out as much as I can about it. I might not use it, but to make it as consistent as I feel is good for my plot."

Many pets in the series are ordinary animals with magical properties. Owls, for example, deliver mail. Only creatures that exist exclusively in the magical world are listed below.

Magizoology

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.

Regulation and classification

The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures of the Ministry of Magic is responsible for overseeing and regulating magical creatures. It is divided into three divisions: the Beast Division, the Being Division, and the Spirit Division. A "being" is generally defined, according to Fantastic Beasts, as "any creature that has sufficient intelligence to understand the laws of the magical community and to bear part of the responsibility in shaping those laws." This includes humans, goblins, hags, vampires, and, presumably, house-elves, giants, Veela, and wood Nymphs. In accordance with this definition, fairies, pixies, gnomes, and most other creatures are classified as "beasts". Centaurs and merpeople are said to have rejected "being" status in favour of "beast" status, as have leprechauns. Werewolves and Animagi are notable because they are typically in human form — a werewolf transforms from human state only at the full moon, and an Animagus is a human who has learned to transform into an animal at will. Their classification is unclear, and offices responsible for werewolves exist in both the Beast and Being Divisions. Affairs related to ghosts come under the auspices of the Spirit Division. Dementors, who are wraithlike creatures that guard Azkaban prison, are not mentioned in Fantastic Beasts.

The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures classifies magical creatures on a scale from X to XXXXX as follows (according to page xxii of Fantastic Beasts):

• X: Boring
• XX: Harmless / may be domesticated
• XXX: Competent wizards should cope
• XXXX: Dangerous / requires specialist knowledge / skilled wizard may handle / must be respected
• XXXXX: Known wizard killer / impossible to train or domesticate. (Also said to be anything Hagrid likes.)

List of magical beasts

Below is the complete list of entries in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them listed under "An A – Z of Fantastic Beasts." The Ministry of Magic classification (see above) is also noted. Blood-Sucking Bugbears, Boggarts, banshees, hinkypunks and Dementors have been mentioned in the series but do not appear in Fantastic Beasts, and hence no Ministry of Magic classification is supplied. Nor is the Blast-Ended Skrewt (a hybrid of manticores and fire crabs) mentioned in Fantastic Beasts. Those creatures which Rowling took from myth and folklore have links to their mythological articles.

Acromantula - XXXXX Ashwinder - XXX Augurey (a phoenix-like bird) - XX Basilisk - XXXXX BicornA mithological monster who eat husbands Billywig - XXX Blast-Ended Skrewt Boggart Bowtruckle - XX Bundimun - XXX Centaur - XXXX Chimaera - XXXXX Chizpurfle - XX Clabbert - XX Cockatrice Crup - XXX Demiguise - XXXX Diricawl - XX Doxy - XXX Dragon - XXXXX Antipodean Opaleye Chinese Fireball Common Welsh Green Hebridean Black Hungarian Horntail Norwegian Ridgeback Peruvian Vipertooth Romanian Longhorn Swedish Short-Snout Ukrainian Ironbelly

Dugbog - XXX Erkling - XXXX Erumpent - XXXX Fairy - XX Fire Crab - XXX Fire Slug Flobberworm - X Fwooper - XXX Ghoul - XXX Giant Squid Glumbumble - XXX Gnome - XX Graphorn - XXXX Griffin - XXXX Grindylow - XX Hippocampus - XXX Hippogriff - XXX Hinkypunk Horklump - X Hydra Imp - XX Jarvey - XXX Jobberknoll - XX Kappa - XXXX Kelpie - XXXX Loch Ness Monster Knarl - XXX Kneazle - XXX Leprechaun -XXX Lethifold - XXXXX

Lobalug - XXX Mackled Malaclaw - XXX Manticore - XXXXX Merpeople - XXXX Mermaid Merrow Selkie Moke - XXX Mooncalf - XX Murtlap - XXX Niffler - XXX Nogtail - XXX Nundu- XXXXX Occamy - XXXX Phoenix - XXXX Pixie - XXX Plimpy - XXX Pogrebin - XXX Porlock - XX Puffskein - XX Pygmy Puff - XX Quintaped - XXXXX Ramora - XX Red cap - XXX Re'em - XXXX Runespoor - XXXX Salamander - XXX Sea Serpent - XXX Shrake - XXX Snidget - XXXX

Sphinx - XXXX Streeler - XXX Tebo - XXXX Three Headed Dog Troll - XXXX Mountain Forest River Unicorn - XXXX Werewolf - XXXXX Winged Horse - XX–XXXX Abraxan Aethonan Granian Thestral Yeti - XXXX

Being

The definition of a Being is "any creature that has sufficient intelligence to understand the laws of the magical community and to bear part of the responsibility in shaping those laws".

Centaurs and merpeople voluntarily chose not to belong to this classification, because they disagreed so some creatures (such as vampires and hags) were in it.

Sphinxes, manticores and acromantulas are smart, but they could not overcome their instincts.

Jarveys and erklings can talk, but they are not particularly smart.

Despite its human aspect, fairies,pixies, redcaps, imps, trolls, ghouls and doxys are far from being classified, because their intelligence is very limited.

Leprechauns have never applied to them as claifique beings, even though they can speak and have some intelligence.

Ghosts and poltergeist part of the subdivision of spirits.

• Banshees
• Dementors
• Dwarfs
• Giants
  • Cyclops
• Goblins
• Hags
• House-Elves
• Muggles
• Ogres
• Vampires
• Veelas
• Wizards and Witches

Dark creatures

Dark creatures are frequently mentioned in the Harry Potter books though the term is not easily defined. The Harry Potter Lexicon speculates in its essay on the subject that dark creatures, as opposed to normal magical animals, are those that use dark powers for more than mere survival. Many magical creatures, such as manticores and erklings, are very dangerous, but are not considered "dark creatures," since they are natural predators utilising their power in their quest for food, reproduction, and survival; having no consciences or malicious purposes, they may not necessarily be considered "evil." A dark creature, on the other hand, seeks to harm for the sake of harm, not for its own survival. Many such creatures are defined in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them It is possible (though this is not clear) that the term demon is an appropriate term for any Dark creature, since some such creatures, such as Red Caps and grindylows, are known to be both.

Dark creatures do not necessarily reproduce and may simply result from spontaneously generating in places of strong ambient Dark Magic or where a strongly emotive or suggestive act has been committed. Red caps, for instance, appear on battlefields or other locations where human blood has been spilled in large amounts. Dementors "grow like fungus," according to J. K. Rowling, in the foulest, darkest places. Dementors are described as "breeding" in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, though this may simply mean that more are generating, rather than implying normal reproduction. Most dark creatures are not, by human standards, intelligent; vampires and werewolves, who are intelligent, are part human.

Known Dark Creatures

• Banshees^†
• Boggarts
• Bugbears
• Dementors
• Grims
• Grindylows
• Gytrash
• Hags
• Hinkypunks
• Kappas
• Kelpies
• Mummies^†
• Redcaps
• Vampires^†
• Veelas^†
• Werewolves^†
• Zombies^†

^† = part human

Characters

Below is a list of magical creatures that encountered Harry or have some significant role in the series.

Crookshanks

Template:HP character 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, 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.

Fawkes

"Fawkes" redirects here. For the Gunpowder Plot conspirator he is named after, see Guy Fawkes.

Template:HP character 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 are 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.) Fawkes then brings Harry, Ginny, Ron and Gilderoy Lockhart back up to the castle.

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.

Fawkes is named after 17th century terrorist conspirator Guy Fawkes. When asked in an online chat what Bonfire Night was, Rowling replied, "Good question! We celebrate November 5th in Britain every year. There was a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament. The ringleader of the plot was called Guy Fawkes (spot any Harry Potter connection?!), and we burn him in effigy and set off fireworks to celebrate not losing our government."

Griphook

Template:HP character Griphook is the most developed Goblin character in the series, who appears in the first and seventh books. He is a former employee at Gringotts, the Wizard bank. 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 cottage (known as 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, towards the end of the book the real sword is used when Neville Longbottom pulls it from the Sorting Hat to slay Nagini.

Hedwig

Template:HP character 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 supposedly represented the death of innocence.

Hagrid's pets

Over the course of the series, Rubeus Hagrid cares for a large number of animals, many of them dangerous, including Aragog, Buckbeak, Fang, Fluffy, Norbert (Norberta) and Tenebrus (a Thestral). In their fourth year, Harry and his classmates are expected to help care for Blast-Ended Skrewts.

Basilisks

File:TomRiddle'sBasilisk.jpg

The basilisk in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

In JK Rowling's Harry Potter series, a basilisk is a monstrous serpentine creature. Much larger than its mythical counterpart, the basilisk of the Harry Potter universe is capable of reaching lengths of up to fifty feet and living for hundreds of years. Basilisks are completely uncontrollable except by Parselmouths, and the first basilisk is believed to have been created by a Dark wizard and Parselmouth named Herpo the Foul.^[HPF] Herpo made this discovery by attempting, with success, to hatch a chicken egg under a toad. A basilisk kills both with its powerful venom and with its stare, which is immediately lethal to anyone who gazes at it directly.^[HPF] To anyone who gazes at it indirectly, such as through a camera or in a reflection, it induces a profound state of petrification. Ghosts who look at it directly will become petrified, as they cannot die again.^[HP2] It would seem that glasses do not work as protection from a basilisk's eyes as Moaning Myrtle was described as wearing spectacles and yet still died. The tear of a phoenix is the only known cure for the devastating effect of the basilisk's venom.

In the second volume of the series, a basilisk was the monster that inhabited the Chamber of Secrets. When student Tom Marvolo Riddle opened the Chamber of Secrets the Basilisk killed Moaning Myrtle, then hibernated for 50 years. During the events of the book, it was set loose again by a Horcrux of Lord Voldemort, and attempted to kill several Muggle-borns, but due to sheer luck all its victims were merely petrified. Spiders always flee from the Basilisk, as they are mortal enemies. The only thing the Basilisk seems to fear is the rooster, as the crying of the rooster is fatal to a Basilisk. Tom Riddle's Horcrux commanded Ginny Weasley to kill all the school roosters, remarked upon by Hagrid. When Harry discovers the existence of the chamber and of its location, Riddle reveals his identity and sets the basilisk loose upon Harry while Ginny's life force ebbs away. Fawkes appears to assist Harry, blinding the basilisk with its talons and carrying the Sorting Hat; Harry pulls the sword of Godric Gryffindor from that hat, and uses it to impale the basilisk's head, killing it. The basilisk's fangs and its venom absorbed by the sword of Gryffindor proved instrumental for destroying most of Voldemort's Horcruxes.

In the Final volume of the series, after losing the sword of Gryffindor to Griphook, Ron and Hermione go to the Chamber of Secrets and pull some fangs out of the Basilisk's skull, and use one on Helga Hufflepuff's cup.

Boggarts

A Boggart is a shape-shifter that takes on the form of its intended victim's worst fear. It generally likes to hide in dark, enclosed places, such as in cupboards, under beds, or in hollow trees. The term is derived from the boggart of British folklore; these creatures are annoying household spirits, but do not traditionally have shape shifting abilities. Since a boggart changes shape upon sight, few know what one actually looks like in unaltered form. In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Professor Lupin teaches his students in Defence Against the Dark Arts to approach a boggart in groups of two or more, so that the boggart will have difficulty in choosing which one to frighten. A common wizards' defence against a boggart is to use a spell to make it appear amusing, since boggarts are weakened by laughter. This is achieved by pointing a wand at the boggart and saying "Riddikulus" while thinking to something very funny; this charm can apparently be used to destroy an already weakened boggart.

Characters and their Boggarts:

• Harry Potter - A Dementor (When Professor Lupin tells him he thought that Harry's boggart would take the shape of Lord Voldemort, Harry explains that he did think of Voldemort at first, but then remembered the night on the Hogwarts Express just before the start of third year, and the dementor who boarded the train searching for Sirius Black.)
• Ron Weasley - Giant Spider
• Hermione Granger - Professor McGonagall telling her she had "failed everything".
• Neville Longbottom - Professor Snape.
• Remus Lupin - The full moon. He fears turning into a werewolf.
• Molly Weasley - The dead bodies of her loved ones.
• Parvati Patil - A bloodstained, bandaged mummy
• Seamus Finnigan - Banshee.
• Dean Thomas - A severed hand walking on its own.
• Lord Voldemort - His own corpse.
• Albus Dumbledore - The corpse of his dead sister.
• Author J. K. Rowling has stated that her boggart would be either a coffin closing around her (fear of being buried alive) or seeing those whom she loves dead.
• Actor Rupert Grint has stated that, like Ron, his boggart would be a spider.

The boggart first appears in the Prisoner of Azkaban, where Remus Lupin first shows his class the boggart. Then the boggart appears in Prisoner of Azkaban again, where Harry uses it to practise his dementor spell( Expecto Patronum). The boggart appears in the Order of the Phoenix when Mrs. Weasley gets rid of the boggart.

Centaurs

Centaurs in the Harry Potter universe are semi-wild creatures of intelligence supposedly greater than humans. Although sentient, they have not requested assignment as beings, preferring to remove themselves entirely from human affairs. Any centaur who decides to associate with humans, such as Firenze, who agreed to teach the Hogwarts students divination, is violently attacked by the other centaurs and banished.^[HP5] The Ministry of Magic's Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures has a Centaur Liaison Office, but no centaur has ever used it. In the Ministry's parlance, "being sent to the Centaur office" is a euphemism for being fired.^[HPF] Like Chiron, centaurs are skilled in healing and astrology, and spend much of their time scouring the stars for portents. They live in forests, and their society consists of groups called herds. They do not appear to employ or need any technology more advanced than a bow and arrow. They are intensely proud and fiercely territorial, and one must be highly diplomatic in dealing with them. Not paying the proper respect to a herd of centaurs can have violent consequences, as Dolores Umbridge learned to her cost.^[HP5]

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the Hogwarts centaur herd, after being admonished fiercely by Hagrid, take sides with the students against the Death Eaters and turn the tide of the fight.^[HP7] After the battle, they accepted Firenze again in the herd.

The films depict the centaurs with very bestial, animalistic facial features; however, the obvious attraction of Hogwarts' female population to Firenze suggests that the books depict centaurs in terms that are more classical. Rowling has revealed that there are no female centaurs in the Harry Potter universe.

Named Centaur characters:

• Firenze
• Bane
• Magorian
• Ronan

Dementors

The Dementors are soulless creatures considered to be among the foulest beasts on Earth. They are soul-sucking fiends who guard the wizard prison, Azkaban. In the books, Dementors appear to have a generally human shape, approximately ten feet (3.05 meters) in height, but covered in dark, hooded cloaks that reveal only grey, decayed hands. The wraith-like creatures have no eyes, and there is a large hole where the mouth should be. According to the author, they grow like fungi in the darkest, dankest places, creating a dense, chilly fog. They appear to possess a few traits of magic themselves, as evidenced by their ability to glide (fly, in the film adaptations) unsupported in either world.

Dementors are invisible to Muggles, but affect them in the same way. While at least one Squib in the series has claimed to see a Dementor, Rowling has stated that this was a lie and she noticed it because of the effect it had on her. Rowling has likened the effect of a Dementor to the human ailment known as depression, which the author has herself experienced. She describes it as "that absence of being able to envisage that you will ever be cheerful again. The absence of hope. That very deadened feeling, which is so very different from feeling sad."

Being blind, Dementors sense and feed on the positive emotions, happiness and good memories of human beings to move around, forcing them to relive their worst memories. The very presence of a Dementor makes the surrounding atmosphere grow cold and dark, and the effects are cumulative with the number of Dementors present. Despite their attachment to human emotion, Dementors seem to have difficulty distinguishing one human from another, as demonstrated by Barty Crouch Jr's escape from Azkaban, wherein they could detect no emotional/mental difference between the younger Crouch and his mother. In addition to feeding on positive emotions, Dementors can perform the Dementor's Kiss, where the Dementor latches its mouth onto a victim's and sucks out the person's soul. The victim is left as an empty shell, incapable of thought and with no possibility of recovery. It is believed that existing after a Dementor's Kiss is worse than death. The Ministry of Magic occasionally uses this as a punishment, such as on Barty Crouch, Jr. One way to shield oneself from Dementors is to use the Patronus Charm to drive them away. Chocolate is an effective first aid to mild cases of contact.

Harry Potter first encountered Dementors during his third year of school, when they were sent to guard Hogwarts against Sirius Black, who had recently escaped Azkaban Prison. Harry, whenever he got near one, was forced to relive his worst memory: hearing the last moments of his parents' lives before they were murdered by Lord Voldemort, which begins with Harry hearing his mother screaming. To overcome the Dementors, Harry asked Remus Lupin for assistance. Lupin taught Harry the Patronus Charm, albeit with some difficulty.

Harry's encounter with Dementors in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was in an alley near his home on Privet Drive, when he and his cousin Dudley Dursley were ambushed by two Dementors sent secretly and illegally by Dolores Umbridge. At the end of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the Dementors of Azkaban stage a mass revolt against their employers to join Lord Voldemort, as he can provide them with more humans to feast upon.

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows the Ministry, under the control of Voldemort, used Dementors to punish those who were Muggle born for no other reason than because Voldemort hated Muggles and Muggle-borns. The Dementors also took part on Voldemort's side during the Battle of Hogwarts. After the appointment of Kingsley Shacklebolt to the position of Minister, Dementors are removed from Azkaban. Rowling said that after Voldemort's demise, Dementors will never be used by the Ministry of Magic again and the Ministry will contain them by limiting their numbers.

Ghosts

Ghosts play an important secondary role, mainly as supporting characters. Unlike the ghosts in a traditional ghost story, these ghosts are neither frightening nor necessarily ghoulish (the traditional ghostly deformities, such as bloodstains and missing heads, are played mostly for laughs, rather than fright), and many ghosts act as advisors to the main characters in their times of need.

Ghosts in the novels appear silvery and translucent (this is in contrast to the films, which depict them with more human colourings). They can fly and pass through walls, tables and other solid objects, but nonetheless have some ability to physically affect, and be affected by, the "real" world. Moaning Myrtle can, for instance, splash the water in her toilet.^[HP2] Ghosts' banquet tables are laden with rotten food, as the decomposition increases their ability to almost smell and taste it.^[HP2] Touching or walking through a ghost induces a sensation "like walking through an icy shower."^[HP2] Ghosts can be affected by magic and curses, though not to the same degree that living beings can.^[HP2]

In the Harry Potter universe, only wizards can become ghosts. As Nearly Headless Nick explained to Harry in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, "Wizards can leave an imprint of themselves upon the earth, to walk palely where their living selves once trod ... I was afraid of death. I chose to remain behind. I sometimes wonder whether I oughtn't have ... Well, that is neither here nor there ... In fact, I am neither here nor there..."^[HP5]

Despite having chosen their afterlives, many ghosts appear quite unhappy; they bemoan their not-quite inability to eat, and many are described as "gloomy."^[HP2] They also appear to have an attraction to the morbid and melancholy; Nearly Headless Nick celebrated his "deathday" as opposed to his birthday, for which he included a cake designed to resemble a grey tombstone, black curtains, black candles with blue flames that gave off no heat, a "band" consisting of 30 musical saws, which sounded like "a thousand fingernails scraping an enormous blackboard" and a speech with the opening line, "My late, lamented lords, ladies and gentlemen, it is my great sorrow..."^[HP2]

Ghosts are very sensitive about their condition. When the Ministry of Magic initially classified them as "beings", i.e., sentient creatures with full legal rights, they claimed that the term was insensitive when they were clearly "has-beens". The Ministry's Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures therefore comprises a separate "Spirit division" as well as its original being and beast divisions.^[HPF] Moaning Myrtle flies into a rage if anyone mentions the fact that she is dead.^[HP2]

The concept of imprinting a part of yourself onto the physical world that remains after death is a recurring element in Harry Potter, and has analogues in the many moving portraits who interact with Hogwarts' physical inhabitants, and also in such magically imbued objects as the Marauder's Map and Tom Riddle's diary.

The Ministry's spirit division apparently controls the activities and haunting locations of troublesome ghosts. Moaning Myrtle was forced to go back and haunt the place of her death (a toilet) after she had disrupted the wedding of Olive Hornby, a girl who had teased her at school.^[HP2]

Named Ghost characters:

• Nearly Headless Nick
• The Bloody Baron
• The Grey Lady
• The Fat Friar
• Professor Binns
• Moaning Myrtle

Peeves, the Hogwarts poltergeist, is not considered a ghost, but an "indestructible spirit of chaos" according to Rowling.

Giants

Giants in the Harry Potter universe are capable of interbreeding with humans- both Hagrid and Olympe Maxime are half-giants. However, relations between giants and wizards are toxic; wizards on a whole loathe giants^[HP4] and have engaged in an active campaign to hunt and hound giants out of civilization.^[HP5] The last giants in Britain were killed apparently by Ministry decree, as Dumbledore had argued against it,^[HP5] but most deaths have been due to territorial aggression between themselves as wizards force them to live together in ever more confined spaces.^[HP5] The last few giants remaining in the world (the total number is between 70 and 80) are collected together in an isolated region east of Belarus. Giants range in height from twenty to twenty-five feet (6 to 7.5 meters) , and have skin similar to rhino hide.^[HP5] Their society is "governed" by a chief called a Gurg, who spends most of his time demanding food from his underlings.

Voldemort has employed giants in his attacks, after convincing them that he can offer them a better life.^[HP4] Hagrid revealed in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix that he and Madame Maxime went on an Order mission to ask the Giants to take part in the war against Voldemort; however Karkus the Gurg was killed by other Giants, thus Hagrid and Maxime were forced to introduce themselves to Golgomath, the new Gurg. Walden Macnair and other Death Eaters were sent by Voldemort in a mission too to get the Giants into the Dark Lord's side. Giants took part in the Battle of Hogwarts in the end of the series, mostly fighting for Voldemort.^[HP7] Giants either have vaguely Nordic names, such as Hengist and Fridwulfa, or onomatopoeic names like Grawp and Karkus.

Goblins

File:Gringotts goblin.jpg

Warwick Davis plays a Gringotts goblin in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Goblins are magical creatures (defined as beings, rather than beasts), chiefly involved with metal work and the running of Gringotts bank. They are represented by the Goblin Liaison Office in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Goblins are described as having long, thin fingers and feet, black eyes, and domed heads that are much larger than human heads.^[DH Ch.24] Goblins eat a diet of largely raw meat, roots, and fungi.^[DH Ch.25] Goblins converse in a language known as Gobbledygook. Goblins harbour very different feelings about ownership than Wizards: they consider the true owner of an object to be its maker, invariably, rather than its purchaser, whom they see as simply renting the object until their death, and resent the passing of goblin-made heirlooms through Wizarding families without further payment.^[DH Ch.25] As seen through the goblin Griphook, goblins can be bloodthirsty and cruel, especially towards Wizards.^[DH Ch.25] Wizarding Law prohibits the ownership of wands by goblins. Goblins are capable of using goblin magic which (like elf magic) is independent of Wizarding magic.

Relations between goblins and wizards have been strained for centuries due to misunderstandings on both sides, sometimes leading to violence in the form of goblin rebellions and riots.^[DH Ch.26] Along with house-elves, goblins seem to occupy positions as second-class citizens in the Wizarding world. Goblins consider wizards to be arrogant.^[DH Ch.25] The goblins remain a neutral force during the Second Wizarding War, siding with neither Lord Voldemort or the opposition to him, claiming that it is "a wizard's war".^[DH Ch.15] In some cases, a state of friendship exists between certain wizards and goblins (particularly Bill Weasley, who works as a Curse Breaker for Gringotts Bank), and there have even been some instances of goblin-wizard interbreeding (Professor Flitwick has distant goblin ancestry, which likely accounts for his small size [1]).

Named Goblin characters:

• Griphook
• Gornuk, an associate of Griphook
• Bogrod
• Ragnok
• Ragnuk the First: Supposedly the creator of the sword of Godric Gryffindor ^[DH Ch.25]

House-elves

Main article: House-elf

Thestrals

File:Luna riding Thestral.jpg

Luna Lovegood riding a Thestral in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Thestrals are the most elusive and least horse-like breed of magical horse. They have acquired an undeserved reputation as omens of evil. They are visible only to those who have witnessed and accepted a death, and are described as having "blank, white, shining eyes," a "dragonish face", "long, black manes", "great leathery wings", and the "skeletal body of a great, black, winged horse". They are also described, by Hagrid, as "dead clever an' useful".. Dolores Umbridge asserted that Thestrals are considered as "dangerous creatures" by the Ministry of Magic.

Thestrals have fangs and possess a well-developed sense of smell, which will lead them to carrion and fresh blood. According to Hagrid, they will not attack a human-sized target without provocation. Their wings are capable of very fast flight for at least several hours at a time, though they usually spend their time on the ground, and they have an excellent sense of direction. The breed is at least semi-domesticable, given a willing trainer. Thestrals can be used to pull loads, and make a serviceable if very uncomfortable mode of transportation for someone with enough nerve.

Hogwarts has a herd in the nearby Forbidden Forest and primarily uses them to pull the carriages that transport students to and from the Hogsmeade train station. They are introduced to Care of Magical Creatures students in the fifth year under Hagrid. They are first introduced in the same year as Harry becomes able to see them (after witnessing the death of Cedric Diggory), after having previously thought that the carriages moved on their own. In Order of the Phoenix several characters were shown to be able to see Thestrals including Harry Potter, Rubeus Hagrid, Luna Lovegood, Neville Longbottom and Theodore Nott. The first film causes a continuity error as Harry witnesses Professor Quirrell's demise in the end, as well as Cedric's, and does not see the Thestrals until his fifth year. (Note: J. K. has addressed this issue - Harry did not actually witness Quirrell's death, he was unconscious at the time, and as for Cedric, the death needs time to sink in. Harry did not immediately absorb the idea of Cedric's death until sometime during the summer). Thestrals are featured in the Battle of Hogwarts at the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, seen attacking Death Eaters.

Werewolves

The werewolf is a creature that exists only for a brief period around the full moon. At any other time, a werewolf is a normal human. However, the term werewolf is used for both the wolf-like creature and the normal human. A werewolf can be distinguished from a true wolf physically by several small distinguishing characteristics, including the pupils, snout, and tufted tail. Most werewolves live outside of normal society and steal food to survive. At one point they supported Lord Voldemort, whom they thought would give them a better life. Remus Lupin is the only known exception to this.

A person becomes a werewolf, when bitten by a werewolf in wolf-form. Once this happens, the person must learn to manage the condition. Potionmaker Damocles Belby developed a draught called Wolfsbane Potion that controls some of the effects of the condition; by allowing the sufferer to maintain his human mind in wolf form, it prevents him from harming others. Nothing discovered in the wizarding world can completely cure a werewolf. Once in a while, this condition (or disease) can be passed down through parentage.

There are only three known werewolves in the Harry Potter series: Remus Lupin, an unnamed character who was in the same ward as Arthur Weasley in St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, and Fenrir Greyback, a supporter of Voldemort, who bit a young Lupin. In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Greyback attacks and kills a five-year old boy, the younger brother of two Hogwarts students. Later in the book, he attacks Bill Weasley. However, since Greyback was in human form at the time, Bill did not become a complete werewolf, but did gain some wolfish features, such as favouring very rare meat. It is also known that werewolf traits are not necessarily transferred to offspring, as seen in Ted Remus Lupin, the only child of Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks, who was not born as a werewolf.

Gilderoy Lockhart claims to use the Homorphorus charm to transform "the Wagga Wagga werewolf" back into a human in his book. However, given his limited credibility (as he writes a severely altered account of other people's doings to insert himself in their role), this should be doubted. In addition, it is not clear whether this is touted as a permanent cure or whether it nullifies the Wolf transformation for the remainder of this full moon only.

See also

• Creatures on Harry Potter Wiki, an external wiki
• Care of Magical Creatures
• Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them