Now that our beloved Harry Potter has fulfilled his prophecy and done away with Lord Voldemort, lets explore some of the lesser known, lesser mentioned facts from the books. Maybe we can learn more about the world that we’ve spent so much time in over the last ten years.
1) The twin jokers Fred and George, the owners of Diagon Alley’s new Wesley’s Wizard Wheezes, celebrate their birthday on the best day of the year for their characters, April Fool’s Day.
2) Harry could not see the thestrals until his fifth year because until that point, he did not truly appreciate the meaning of a death. When his parents were killed, he was in his crib and did not witness it, just the flash of green from Voldemort’s spell. Since he never witnessed the death of Quirrell, it wasn’t until he witnessed Cedric Diggory’s death, and it had sunk in over the summer, that he could he see the thestrals.
3) Nearly-Headless Nick was nearly-headless because, while trying to straighten Lady Grieve’s teeth, she sprouted a tusk. A bit of magical dentistry gone awry got him sent to execution. The executioner swung his axe 45 times but still didn’t completely remove it from Nick’s neck.
4) The only Muggle football (soccer) team mentioned in the books is West Ham United, honoring one of Rowling’s oldest friends, Troy, who supports them. Outside of this brief reference, the only other sports that are mentioned are Wizarding sports and teams.
5) Contrary to much belief, Ginny’s real name is not Virginia, it is Ginerva. The only reference to this can be found in the final book. Nowhere else in the series is that mentioned.
6) When Arthur Weasley takes Harry to the Ministry of Magic for his hearing, they must first dial a secret code into a telephone keypad. He enters the number 62442. The letters underneath those numbers on a standard phone spell out the word “magic”
7) Natalie McDonald, who appears as a first year student in 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 sorted into Gryffindor House by the Sorting Hat.
8) The only characters that can communicate via their patronus are member of The Order Of The Phoenix. This is because Albus Dumbledore created this method of communication and no one outside of the Order were shown how to use it. The patronus is an efficient messenger because it is effective against the dark arts, not hindered by physical barriers, and each is unique – so there’s never any doubt as to who sent it. Dumbledore’s patronus was a phoenix.
9) Demelza Robins, the Gryffindor Chaser in Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince, is named after Daniel Radcliffe’s favorite charity: the Demelza House Children’s Hospice, which cares for terminally ill youngsters in Kent, East Sussex and South London.
10) Despite being able to conjure things whenever they want, Wizards still need to have money. This is because the magical laws prohibit what can be conjured, and most conjured items do not last very long.
Now that we’ve learned a bit more about Harry Potter and his world, why not go back and read through the books again. You never know what other little things that you might pick up on by doing so.
