For over a decade now, Harry Potter has been a favourite among readers. Its popularity has soared, with fans calling themselves Potterheads all over the world. Annually the Warner Bros. Studio sees thousands of fans flock the Harry Potter World in London. Millions of users register themselves on the official website pottermore.com and find out their Houses, wands and Patronus. The Harry Potter Universe has almost become as good as real. Fans often hail themselves to be Witches and Wizards stuck in the Muggle (non magic) world.
Die hard fans love Harry Potter deep enough to be updated with all Potter facts. Or so it seems! The world of Harry Potter is vast with welcoming new fans everyday. So here is a compilation of extremely fun Harry Potter facts for every fan out there.
- The brilliance of Rowling’s invention is downright impressive. And the House names play a big role in earning her this accolade. Apparently, she had come up with them on the backside of a barf bag.
2. The Harry Potter saga is punctuated by heart wrenching deaths, especially as the end of the series drew near. Readers were anticipating some of the deaths, and Rowling herself had clarified about her initial plans of killing certain characters. For example, she had intended to kill Arthur Weasely initially. But later that place was taken by Sirius Black. No doubt, either death would have been tragic and brought tears to the eyes. It did when Sirius died, indeed.
3. Rowling, however, cleared her plans about Hagrid. He was never supposed to die. Hagrid is one of the closest parent figure left to Harry after Sirius dies. Rowling had planned to keep him from the beginning to the end of the story, including the half giant carrying Harry’s apparent dead body after Voldemort applies the Killing Curse on him during the Battle. This was supposedly drawing a parallel with the first appearance of both Harry and Hagrid, the former in the latter’s arms as a baby right after Voldemort had applied the Killing Curse on him and failed.
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4. Rowling had wrote a sketch of the final chapter of the last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. She had written it way before she had even started with the later books of the series. In fact, she wrote it within a year of publication of the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
5. The names that Rowling came up with were not always conjured from out of the blue. Some actually have meaning behind them. For example, Albus Dumbledore’s last name means bumblebee. In fact, most of the spells used in Harry Potter are derived from Latin. The Hogwarts motto, ‘Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus‘ can be translated to “never tickle a spleeping dragon”. The same forethought has been displayed in naming Sirius- the dog shaped constellation, and Remus- one of the founders of Rome who was suckled by a wolf.
6. Time and again it has been discussed that Harry Potter plays with psychology in multi layered narrative, including the traits of the characters. No person is black and white, showing that in real life every person has two sides, and their motives can be explained in some way, though not justified. (The fandom, however, unanimously accepts that this does not apply to Umbridge). Beyond characters, this reflection is seen in elements like the Dementors. These bleak dark beings apparently arose from Rowling’s struggle with depression after her mother’s death.
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7. The Wizards who want to board the Hogwarts Express have to enter the enchanted Platform 9 and 3/4 through a wall in Kings Cross Station. Reportedly the mention of Kings Cross was Rowling’s way of paying homage to her parents. She revealed that the place holds a special meaning for her.
8. Quidditch, the wizarding sport, has international fame in the Harry Potter Universe, with world cups held in the stories. The ornate description of the game can be found in the book Quidditch Through the Ages,a part of the Hogwarts Library Series. And all this has been woven out from Rowling’s imagination alone. The funniest part is, the spark for the idea of Quidditch came to Rowling after a fight with her then-boyfriend. Even Rowling is not sure what connection there is, but as she said it, deep down she hoped that her boyfriend got hit by a Bludger!
9. Extremely random fact, but wizards don’t like wearing trousers. As per the International Statute of Secrecy, there are strict regulations for what wizards can wear around Muggles, and making sure they are appropriate for the weather and surrounding. But some wizards prefer disregarding the rules just to avoid wearing trousers.
10. The Harry Potter Universe has a lot of unrealistic, imaginary stuff. But if there is one thing that appears made up, but isn’t, is the vast list of plants used by Rowling in the books. In an interview to 60 Minutes, she said, “I used to collect names of plants that sounded witchy, and then I found this, Culpeper’s Complete Herbal, and it was the answer to my every prayer: flax weed, toadflax, fleawort, Gout-wort, grommel, knotgrass, Mugwort.” This book was written by Nicholas Culpeper, an English botanist from the 17th Century.
11. According to Rowling, if Voldemort saw a boggart, it would transform into his own dead body. He feared his own death the most.
12. Sad for many fans, Rowling has admitted that she regretted the Hermione-Ron pairing.
13. The date 31st October is highly significant in the story. It is the day Voldemort killed James and Lily. Ten years later, it becomes the day the Golden Trio came into being- the day Harry, Ron and Hermione faced the troll in the dungeon.
14. A reason why The Goblet of Fire is so long is, Rowling realized she had created a major loophole in the plot, and so had to fix it.
15. Dolores Umbridge was sent to Azkaban. In the books the fate of Umbridge is never revealed completely. Later Rowling revealed in an interview that Umbridge did not get away with her misdeeds. Not just an abusive power hungry woman, she was also racist. More importantly, she stood with the Minister of Magic in his delusion. So for her crimes, she was sentenced to Azkaban.
16. Otters hold hand when they sleep. It so happens that Hermione’s Patronus is an otter. And in The Deathly Hallows Rowling describes, she and Ron fell asleep holding hands. Also significant that Ron’s Patronus is a Jack Russell Terrier, an animal known to chase otters.
17. Rupert Grint had to be removed from set while filming the kissing scene of Horcrux version of Harry and Hermione because he couldn’t just stop laughing hysterically.
18. The cat that plays Professor McGonagall in the movies has a fabulous name. She is called Mrs. P Head. Some speculate the P stands for Potter.
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Do these names sound familiar?
Probably not. Because these were the names used to cover up The Deathly Hallows to prevent it from leaking.
20. Initially, the Harry Potter movies were set to be directed by Steven Spielberg. He had decided to cast the Sixth Sense star Haley Joel Osment to play the role of Harry. But he fell out with Rowling over creative issues, and the role of direction was taken over by Chris Colombus. Over 300 boys were auditioned before Daniel Radcliffe landed with the role.
The Harry Potter Universe is replete with such trivia, and thousands of facts can be found. While some are quite popular among fans, like the casting of Fred and George, some do not get as much attention. If you know of such facts, you can add them down below on the comments!