8:20 pm - 07/12/2011
- Hagrid is said to be twice the height of a human, but in the films he is mentioned to be 8 feet 6 inches.
- Crookshanks is no ordinary cat, as he is half-kneazle. Kneazles are intelligent cat-like creatures who can sniff out suspicious characters, and if a kneazle takes a liking to a witch or wizard they make excellent pets.
- Members of the Order of the Phoenix are the only wizards who know how to communicate using their patronuses. 
- Markus Flint, Slytherin Quidditch Captain had to repeat a year at Hogwarts.
So ONTD, feel free to share:
- Your favorite HP moments in the books or movies.
- If you're wearing anything fun to the premiere.
- HP CONSPIRACY THEORIES!
- Why HP is so important to you.
this post of interesting harry potter facts you may not know is dedicated to the amazing fandom <3
- Hagrid is said to be twice the height of a human, but in the films he is mentioned to be 8 feet 6 inches.
- Crookshanks is no ordinary cat, as he is half-kneazle. Kneazles are intelligent cat-like creatures who can sniff out suspicious characters, and if a kneazle takes a liking to a witch or wizard they make excellent pets.
- Members of the Order of the Phoenix are the only wizards who know how to communicate using their patronuses.
- Dementors don't breed. They grow where there's decay, like fungus.
- The tattoos on Sirus Black's body are borrowed from Russian prison gangs. These are to identify a person as one to be feared and respected.
- Garden gnomes are considered to be pests in the wizarding community because they eat the roots of plants and make little piles of earth, very much like moles.
- The ghost Nearly-Headless Nick was beheaded because of a botched dentistry job. He was trying to straighten Lady Grieve's teeth but instead she sprouted a tusk. When his head was on the block the executioner swung his axe 45 times but still didn't completely remove it from Nick's neck.
- The secret code Arthur Weasley must dial into a telephone keypad to access the Ministry of Magic is 62442. The letters underneath those numbers on a standard phone spell out the word MAGIC.
- The original snitch used in early Quidditch matches was actually a fat bird called a snidget. When some wizards thought this to be too cruel, the wizard Bowman Wright invented the Golden Snitch.
- The infamous Weasley cousin who was cut from the books was named Mafalda. She was in Slytherin.
- Dean Thomas's father was killed by Death Eaters when he refused to join them. Neither Dean nor his mother know.
- Muggle education is not required for wizard children prior to attending Hogwarts.
- Bellatrix was sexually attracted to Voldemort, and he was always her true love, not her husband.
- It is illegal to apparate between countries, but travel by portkey is allowed if both countries give permission.
- Hagrid created Blast-Ended Skrewts.
- A picture of Gandalf the Grey can be seen in the collection of great wizards in Professor Dumbledore's study in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
- Colors play an important role in the Harry Potter novels. For example, shades of red represent goodness, such as Gryffindor's scarlet robes, Harry's red ink, and the crimson Hogwarts Express train. The Weasleys have red hair and a red roof. Green is largely associated with negative events, such as when Harry sees a flash of green when his parents die and the green-colored curse that made Ron vomit.
- Numbers are symbolic in the series, especially 2, 3, 4, and 7. For example, the trio of Harry, Ron, and Hermione suggest the power of three and the spiritual trinity. Harry fatally wounds the basilisk on its third strike, and Hagrid knocks on the front door of Hogwarts three times. Students attend Hogwarts for seven years and there are seven players on each Quidditch team. Sirius is also imprisoned on the seventh floor of Hogwarts.
- Markus Flint, Slytherin Quidditch Captain had to repeat a year at Hogwarts.
- There were several discarded opening chapters for PS/SS, one of which had a muggle betraying the Potters.
- Harry lost the ability to speak Parseltongue when his scar Horcrux was destroyed.
- Peeves was never a living person. He is not a ghost but an indestructible spirit of chaos, who can unscrew chandeliers, throw walking sticks, and generally cause mayhem.
- Natalie McDonald, who appears on page 159 of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, was a real person. She was a nine-year-old girl from Toronto, Canada, who was dying of leukemia. She wrote to Rowling asking what was going to happen in the next Harry Potter book, as she would not live long enough to read it. Rowling emailed back, but Natalie had died a day earlier. In tribute, she became a first-year student at Hogwarts named by the Sorting Hat in Gryffindor. When Rowling was later in Canada for a promotional tour she visited the McDonald family.
- Harry and Ron will never read Hogwarts, A History.
So ONTD, feel free to share:
- Your favorite HP moments in the books or movies.
- If you're wearing anything fun to the premiere.
- HP CONSPIRACY THEORIES!
- Why HP is so important to you.
- Other interesting HP facts.
- etc....but keep it fun and positive, negativity can exit to the left!
What is it from/going on?
Edited at 2011-07-13 01:01 am (UTC)
/rant. sorry. but most of these "facts" are just personal head canon for jkr. and that's just such a pet peeve of mine.
wonderful for us but a nightmare for the publishers who encourage shorter books to appeal to a wider audience.
some are obvious enough, like bellatrix in love with voldemort? YOU DON'T SAY. others are just ~little things she thought she was being clever about~ and are her own personal thoughts
if this is all that important to her, she should write her fucking encyclopedia and include it. on second thought, considering how bad the annotations for beetle and the bard were, maybe she should keep it to herself.
Also, I always wondered about specialty wizarding schools. I know there's the Wizarding Academy of Dramatic Arts, but it always bothered me that Hogwarts students never got to take things like art, drama, music, etc.
Abstinence
Balderdash
Banana Fritters
Baubles
Caput Draconis (Latin for “Dragon’s Head”)
Dilligrout
Fairy Lights
Flibbertigibbet
Fortuna Major (Latin for “bigger luck”)
Mimbulus Mimbletonia
Oddsbodikins
Pig Snout
Quid Agis (Latin for “How are you”)
Scurvy Cur
Tapeworm
Wattlebird
I was 11
Edited at 2011-07-13 01:02 am (UTC)
My friend's sixth grade class was reading SS and she let me borrow her book when she was finished. The rest is history~
/old
Wow, I'm old.
fan since the first book came out das right.
I thought it was such a challenge but loved it immensely as soon as I got over the WTH IS THIS BOOK-Dursley parts.
/csb
Edited at 2011-07-13 01:56 am (UTC)
By chance, I happened to see the new girl in class was reading Philosopher's Stone and asked what it was. She was reading it for the second time and said she'd lent it to me if I was interested. We became bff thanks to that :')
I think I read the first one when I was 15, but that was in 1999 soooo...I'm just a lot older than all of you.
I read books I-V in 2005 while waiting for my dad to die in the hospital. I had nothing to do but read for 2 weeks.
/the only way I could think of to make this post slightly more depressing and nostalgic. WOW. Aw man I don't have a Debbie Downer icon, wtf is this?
i was so upset when i turned 11 and didnt get my letter :( i was waiting for it!
I found the 3rd book in the hallway closet.
lol i started a like a month ago & just finished dh like 10 minutes ago. would've ben sooner if not for stupid summer classes in the way. now im going through the hp posts i saved bc i didn't want to be spoiled. :)
I plan on dressing up as Hermione for the movie, since my hair is actually long enough for once
i also bought blue and gold (couldn't find bronze, nbd) nail polish so i can get in the ~ravenclaw spirit~
Evey mention of Hogwart, A History makes me laugh and giggle
and I always like Sirius' tattoos