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
John Robert Fowles was an English novelist of international stature, critically positioned between modernism and postmodernism. His work reflects the influence of Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, among others. Fowles’ books have been translated into many languages, and several adapted as films. He was named by the Times newspaper of UK as one of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945.
