13 Things About “Harry Potter” You Wouldn’t Know Without Reading The Books

This list is not a substitution for reading this magical series in its entirety. So hurry up and get started!

1. Pass the Moldy Cheese

Ghosts hold deathday parties to celebrate the day that they died. Harry, Ron, and Hermione attended Nearly Headless Nick’s deathday party on Halloween in their second year where they were served rotten fish, maggoty haggis, moldy cheese, and a tombstone-shaped gray cake.

2. Close One, Severus

When they were students at Hogwarts, Sirius Black intentionally lured Severus Snape to the Shrieking Shack when Remus Lupin was going through his transformation from man to werewolf, with the intention of Snape being gravely injured. But James Potter caught wind of the scheme and went after Snape and saved him.

3. Mooney, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs

Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black, and James Potter were the authors of the Marauder’s Map.

4. Dad Problems

When he was a teenager, Voldemort killed his father, Tom Riddle, and his grandparents in their home in Little Hangleton.

5. S.P.E.W.

Hermione created an organization called S.P.E.W., which stands for the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, to stand up for the rights of house-elves.

6. The Phoenix Cores

The phoenix feathers in Harry’s and Voldemort’s wands came from Dumbledore’s phoenix, Fawkes.

7. “Remember my last, Petunia.”

After the Dementor attack on Harry and Dudley, Vernon tried kicking Harry out of their house. But Petunia received a Howler that said “Remember my last, Petunia,” which mysteriously made her allow him to stay. The Howler had been from Dumbledore and it referred to the letter he had left with Harry on the Dursley’s doorstep the night Harry’s parents died. That letter had informed Petunia of the charm that Dumbledore placed upon Harry that would protect him from Voldemort as long as he called Petunia’s house, where his mother’s blood resided, home.

8. The Longbottoms

Neville Longbottom’s parents lived permanently in St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries after being tortured into insanity by Death Eaters.

9. No Chance for Tenure

Hogwarts was never able to keep a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor for more than one year after Dumbledore refused Voldemort the position.

10. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named-Unless-You-Want-To-Be-Killed

There was a taboo placed on Voldemort’s name where protective enchantments would be broken if the name was spoken so that the Death Eaters could immediately track and find the one who dared to say it.

11. What I Did for Love

While still alive, the Bloody Baron, who became the ghost of Slytherin House, was sent by Rowena Ravenclaw to retrieve her daughter, Helena, whom he was in love with. When Helena, who became the ghost of Ravenclaw House, refused to go with him, he became angry and stabbed her. Then, distraught with having killed her, he killed himself.

12. Sorry to Blow Up Your Spot, Petunia

As a child, Petunia Dursley wanted desperately to be a witch like her sister, so she wrote to Dumbledore asking for acceptance to Hogwarts, which she was respectfully denied.

13. Elder Wand

Harry mended his own wand with the Elder Wand before he got rid of it. The Elder Wand was the only wand in the world that could mend another wand because it was the most powerful. And for that precise reason, Harry did not want to keep it.

 

But whether or not you knew any of these facts, always remember…

“…whether you come back by page or by the big screen, Hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home.” —JK Rowling