| HARRY POTTER CHARACTERS |
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| Muggle - Non magic people (like you and me) [A/N: Don't break out crying here, even though it's sad truth.] Mudblood - An offensive word for a muggleborn witch or wizard. Pureblood - Someone who comes from a long family of witches and wizards. Halfblood - Someone whose one parent is a muggle and the other magic. Azkaban - Wizard prison guarded by dementors. Dementor - A creature that sucks all the happiness out of its surroundings. Hogwarts - A school for witches and wizards. Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff - The four different houses at Hogwarts created by the founders of the school (Godric Gryffindor, Salazar Slytherin, Rowena Ravenclaw and Helga Hufflepuff). Gryffindor and Slytherin are rivals since ages back. Secret keeper - If someone goes into hiding by a certain spell, they will have a secret keeper. The secret keeper is the only ones who knows where they are and unless the secret keeper breaks his/her promise and doesn't tell anyone the person in hiding won't be able to be found by anyone. |
| This is just basic info about characters and words in the Harry Potter world. This was for a 10-minute ramble for the class, so the facts are limited and not all characters are in cluded. I have done my best to work my way around the spoilers and still get some information about these people. Hard work I tell you, you can't guess how many times I had to remove parts about people like say... Lupin ;) |
| *Harry Potter* |
| The main character is, obviously, Harry Potter. He is a skinny little boy, with green eyes, black chronically untidy hair, glasses and a lightning shaped scar in his forehead. It is believed that he is born 1979, although this is never stated in the books. In the beginning of the first books Harry is only a year old and his parents have just been killed by a dark wizard called Lord Voldemort, who tried to kill Harry too. Harry survived, nobody knows how, with only a scar in his forehead. He is left at the doorstep at the Dursleys, them being his only living relatives. He grows up there, and is never told the truth about his parents nor that he is a wizard, and on his eleventh birthday he gets a letter that tells him that he's been accepted to Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He ends up in Gryffindor together with his close friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. |
| *Lily and James Potter* |
| Harry's parents were Lily and James Potter. Both were powerful magicians who went into hiding because of Voldemort. Unfortunately their secret keeper betrayed them and they were both murdered. Lily was muggleborn, but James was a pureblood, and because of this Harry is often said to be a halfblood. |
| *The Dursleys* |
| The Dursleys are aunt Petunia (Lily's sister), uncle Vernon and Harry's cousin Dudley. They are all muggles and they hate magic and all that it means. They aren't that found of Harry either and they treat him rather unfair. |
| *Voldemort* |
| Voldemort a.k.a. You-Know-Who a.k.a. He who must not be named a.k.a. the Dark Lord a.k.a. Tom Riddle, is one of the most powerful wizards ever to walk on earth. His followers are called Death Eater. A known former Death Eater is Lucius Malfoy, who claimed (like many others) to be have been under a spell when Voldemort disappeared. Voldemort's goal is immortality, as well as world domination. He also seems to believe that only purebloods should be allowed to do magic, which is rather odd considering that he himself is a halfblood. His hate towards muggles is most likely a result of his father, who was a muggle, leaving his mother when she told him that she was a witch. She died giving birth and Voldemort grew up in an orphanage. He speaks Parseltounge, which means he can talk to snakes. When Voldemort went to Hogwarts, then under his birthname Tom Marvolo Riddle, he was a Slytherin with great potential and under his last year he was head boy. Somehow he grew up to become one of the greatest Dark Wizards of all time. |
| *Ron Weasley* |
| Ron is Harry's best friend along with Hermione. He comes from a large and rather poor family and have five older brothers (Charlie, Bill, Percy, Fred, George) and a younger sister (Ginny). He got red hair, freckles and is tall. He owns a rat named Scabbers for the first three books, but later Scabbers runs away and he gets and owl, Pigwidgeon, from Harry's godfather. Ron got a short temper, especially around Draco Malfoy who makes fun of him and his friends. |
| Hermione Granger |
| Hermione got bushy brown hair and large front teeth. She is the smartest student in her year and got the highest grade in all subjects. Hermione is muggleborn, an only child and her parents are both dentists. Draco often calls her "mudblood", which she tries to ignore while Ron gets upset. Withouth Hermione's help most of Harry's adventures would never have been possible. "Hermione" is from the Greek myth of Troy. She was the daughter of Helen of Troy and Menelaus, King of Sparta. |
| *Draco Malfoy* |
| Son of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy. He got pale blond hair and grey eyes and is said to look a whole lot like Lucius. Draco is a pureblood and, like Lucius, is not too found of muggleborns or muggles. He is a Slytherin, like the rest of the Malfoys were in their time at Hogwarts. He refers to his parents as Father and Mother, and is rather spoiled. Vincet Crabbe and Gregory Goyle are Draco's, pretty dumb, sidekicks who he is almost always flanked by. Pansy Parkinson, a pug faced Slytherin girl, got a crush on him. Draco's father used to be in Voldemort's inner circle, but when Voldemort fell he claimed to have been under a spell and was found not guilty of being a Death Eater. Draco and Harry hates each other and Draco never misses an opportunity to insult Harry and his friends. |
| *Severus Snape* |
| Snape is a professor in Potions at Hogwarts, although it is well known that he wishes to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts. He went to school the same time as Harry's father although in Slytherin unlike James who was a Gryffindor. Snape and James hated each other, and Snape hates Harry too and doesn't bother to hide it. Snape is the head of Slytherin and he favorites the students in his house, especially Draco Malfoy. |
| *Sirius Black* |
| Sirius was James Potter's, Harry's father, best friend. They were a group of four friends (nicknamed the Marauders) being James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. Sirius spent around 12 years in Azkaban for being responsible to why Voldemort found the Potters and killing 12 muggles and his old friend Peter Pettigrew, he was sent there without a trial. In the third book Sirius escapes, and becomes the first prisoner to ever break out of Azkaban, and tries to find Harry. |
| *Remus Lupin* |
| Lupin was one of James Potter's best friends when they were in school. In the third book he works as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, much to Snape's anger. Harry, Ron and Hermione meets him on the Hogwarts train, although he is asleep most of the trip. Lupin believes in 'hands on' teaching and brings several none too dangerous creatures for the children to learn on in class. He is also very patient and friendly, especially to Neville Longbottom who Snape likes to pick on, and tries to teach Harry how to defend himself against the dementors. |