Rowling J. K. - 101 More Amazing Harry Potter Facts

Title Page

101 MORE AMAZING HARRY POTTER FACTS

Jack Goldstein & Frankie Taylor

Publisher Information

Published in 2013 by

Andrews UK Limited

www.andrewsuk.com

The rights of Jack Goldstein and Frankie Taylor to be identified as the Authors of this Work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998

Copyright 2013 Jack Goldstein and Frankie Taylor

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Any person who does so may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

All facts contained within this book have been researched from reputable sources. If any information is found to be false, please contact the publishers, who will be happy to make corrections for future editions.

Introduction

Following on from Jack Goldstein and Frankie Taylors popular 101 Amazing Harry Potter Facts , this book contains over one hundred more amazing facts covering topics such as muggles in the series, the Ministry of Magic, the Weasleys, quidditch, the triwizard tournament and much more! Through JK Rowlings books and films, we have been introduced to a fantastic and magical world that many of us would like to visit, despite the chance of running into a Death Eater or even Voldemort himself. If you love the world of Harry Potter, youll also love reading this book!

Dumbledore

1. Do you know Dumbledores full name (including post-nominal letters)? If you do you must have a fantastic memory! It is Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., D. Wiz., X.J.(sorc.), S. of Mag.Q!
2. Before he became headmaster, Dumbledore was the professor of Transfiguration. He has also held other posts, including Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards.
3. Perhaps unsurprisingly, when Dumbledore attended Hogwarts he was sorted into Gryffindor house. His first term at the school was in the autumn of 1892, and on his first day became friends with Elphias Doge. No-one else wanted to get acquainted with Doge because he was suffering from a bad case of Dragon Pox!
4. During his time at the school, he was pretty much a perfect student. He did however once set the curtains of his dormitory on fire by accident... he said he hadnt liked them anyway!
5. It is often mentioned that the post of Defence against the Dark Arts teacher is cursed. This is in fact true! The curse was put on the post by Lord Voldemort, when Dumbledore turned him down for the job when he applied (in fact for the second time - he had already been turned down by Armando Dippet, the previous headmaster). Dumbledore rightly suspected Voldemort had been carrying out illicit activities and therefore didnt want him in a position of power in his school. This didnt go down too well with Voldemort...
6. Apparently, one of Dumbledores greatest achievements was discovering the twelve uses of dragon blood. The only one were told about however is that is a fantastic oven cleaner.
7. Well give you a hundred points if you can name Dumbledores animagus form. No? It is a swan!
8. The character of Dumbledore was played in the first two films by Richard Harris. Sadly however, Harris died after filming The Chamber of Secrets, so the role was then given to Michael Gambon. But a third actor has also played the great wizard - Toby Regbo. If that name doesnt ring any bells, you can be forgiven - he played a very young Dumbledore in The Deathly Hallows Part One .
9. Richard Harris knew his health was on the wane when he accepted the role. He did so reluctantly, knowing he would probably not live to play Dumbledore throughout the whole series. The reason he took the job on was because his granddaughter (who was aged eleven at the time) threatened never to speak to him again if he didnt take it!
10. If you think of other great film wizards, one of the first that probably comes to mind is that of Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings series. Gandalf was played by Sir Ian McKellen, who was actually offered Dumbledores role after Harris died. He turned it down however for two reasons. Firstly because he felt it was too similar to his other most famous fantasy outing, and secondly because Harris had called him a dreadful actor before his death!

The Malfoys

1. Lucius Malfoys father was named Abraxas Malfoy. In ancient Greece, the word abraxas was carved into amulets that also had pictures of basilisks on them - a real-life link to the chamber of secrets maybe! In addition to this, the word Abracadabra is supposedly related to the word Abraxas, with ancient peoples believing it had magical properties.
2. The Malfoys, of course, claim to be a pure-blood family. According to Hagrid, there is no such thing anymore, however Lucius and his clan certainly wouldnt want you to think that! Being a pure-blood family in the Harry Potter universe can possibly be compared to pre-20 th century European royalty. During this period of history, a member of the aristocracy from one country could only marry someone of similar stature from another. This lead to a fair amount of inbreeding, which we now know is very bad for a humans genetic makeup (it causes all manner of health problems including ones of the mind). Perhaps this is what happened to the Malfoys and the Blacks.
3. The first of the Malfoy family to set foot on English soil was a wizard called Armand Malfoy, who came over in 1066 during the Norman conquest. After helping William the Conqueror to win the country from the natives, the king awarded him the estate on which the family still live.
4. The Malfoys family crest is black, green and silver and features images of a number of snakes and snake-like creatures. It bears the motto Sanctimonia Vincet Semper which translates as Purity Will Always Conquer.
5. According to JK Rowling, Narcissa Malfoy was not actually a death eater, however she did agree with their pure-blood philosophy.
6. Rowling was very clever in choosing the name Malfoy. In French it can be written as Mal Foi which translates as Bad Faith. Bad Faith is in fact a concept in philosophy whereby an individual blames their failures on anyone (or anything) but themselves. This ties in perfectly with the actions of the characters throughout the books!
7. Emma Watson (who plays Hermione) has said that during filming - and despite rumours that circulated at the time, she never actually had a thing for Daniel Radcliffe. She did however have a major crush on Tom Felton, who plays Draco. Were not too sure Harry would approve of this...
8. JK Rowling has said that Draco Malfoy would have attended Durmstrang, which does not accept muggle-born wizards, however his mother didnt want him so far away from home... Ahhhhh!
9. Before settling on the name Malfoy, Rowling tried out other surnames including Spungen, Spinks and Smart.
10. The character of Lucius Malfoy is played by experienced actor Jason Isaacs. The two hosts of a BBC radio podcast - Kermode & Mayos Film Review - are great fans of Jason, and in almost every one of their weekly shows announce Hello to Jason Isaacs. This started a trend around the world where well-known TV programmes (amazingly even including a famous news channel) slipped the phrase into their broadcasts.

Quidditch

1. A wizards Quidditch pitch is quite big... it is an oval shape, five hundred feet long and on hundred and eighty feet wide. Thats about 150m by 55m.
2. There was once a Quidditch team called the Banchory Bangers, but most wizards havent heard of them. This is because they were disbanded by the Department of Magical Games and Sports because they repeatedly broke the rules set down by The International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy of 1692. Mainly, the team did not play their Quidditch matched far enough away from Muggle towns.