Appendix:Harry Potter/Characters

Characters in the Harry Potter series.^[1]

People

Blood purity

Since the ability to perform magic is an inborn attribute of certain people (wizards), characters are called by specific terms, based on whether they, and their family, are or aren't wizards. Some of their terms imply prejudice (racism) related to the supposed superiority of families believed to contain only wizards.

blood purity^{[talk][citations]}: (noun), (uncountable) The status of being pure-blood.
Mudblood^{[talk][citations]}: (noun, plural: Mudbloods) (derogatory in-universe): a Muggle-born.
Muggle-born^{[talk][citations]}: (noun, plural: Muggleborns) A wizard with Muggle parents. Hermione Granger is likely the most famous example.
Pure-blood^{[talk][citations]}: (noun, plural: Pure-bloods) A wizard who descends only from wizards.
Squib^{[talk][citations]}: (noun, plural: Squibs) Any person who is unable to perform magic but descends from wizards.

People with specific magical abilities

Some wizards have rare magical abilities.

Animagus^{[talk][citations]}: (noun, plural: Animagi) A wizard who is magically able to transform him/herself into a certain animal, and transform back to human form, at will.
Metamorphmagus^{[talk][citations]}: (noun, plural: Metamorphmagi) A wizard who is magically able to change his or her appearance at will.
Parselmouth^{[talk][citations]}: (noun, plural: Parselmouths) A wizard who is magically able to understand snakes and talk with them, by speaking parseltongue.
Seer^{[entry][talk][citations]}: (noun, plural: Seers) A wizard with the ability to divine the future and make prophecies.

People and their jobs

Some professions among wizards in Harry Potter:

Curse Breaker^{[talk][citations]}: (noun, plural: Curse Breakers) A wizard whose job is breaking curses.
gamekeeper^{[entry][talk][citations]}: (noun, plural: gamekeepers) A wizard whose job is guarding and maintaining the grounds of Hogwarts.
Healer^{[talk][citations]}: (noun, plural: Healers) A wizard whose job is healing people with magic.

Organizations

Death Eaters^{[talk][citations]}: (proper noun) The followers of Lord Voldemort.
Order of the Phoenix^{[talk][citations]}: (proper noun) A fictional organization founded by Albus Dumbledore to fight Voldemort and his followers.

Non-human species

In Harry Potter, there are magical versions of normal creatures, for instance rats and owls with unusual abilities. There are also other magical creatures.

Acromantula^{[talk][citations]}: (noun, plural: Acromantula) A species of fictional spider who are sentient, very vicious, and much bigger than humans.
Boggart^{[talk][citations]}: (noun, plural: Boggarts) A shapeshifter that takes the form of whatever the person who sees it most fears.
Patronus^{[entry][talk][citations]}: (noun, plural: Patronuses) A spirit that when summoned properly through the Patronus Charm takes the form of an ethereal and silvery animal made of positive feelings of the summoner, such as joy or hope.

Formal classifications

All species of magical creatures are officially classified into three groups (Ministry of Magic [M.O.M.] classification, it is called)^[2]^[3]:

Beast^{[entry][talk][citations]}: (noun, plural: Beasts) Any creature who is formally classified as a "Beast", for possessing certain characteristics such as lack of sentience.
Being^{[talk][citations]}: (noun, plural: Beings) Any creature who is formally classified as a "Being", for possessing certain characteristics such as sentience.
Spirit^{[entry][talk][citations]}: (noun, plural: Spirits) Any creature who is formally classified as a "Spirit", such as a ghost^[4]. Some Spirits, such as boggarts or dementors, are classified as Non-beings aka Non-Human Spiritous Apparitions^[5].

Character names

There are hundreds of named characters in the Harry Potter series.

Some of these names are common in English, such as Harry, Ronald, George and James. Names of wizards tend to be meaningful and display Greek and Latin characteristics, such as derivation from mythology, a constellation or the ending -us: Severus, Albus, Remus, Rubeus, Nymphadora, Draco, Scorpius, Bellatrix, Andromeda, Minerva, etc. Some names are misnomers; e.g. Fluffy (a monstrous three-headed dog), or Amycus Carrow (an evil teacher; amicus means "friend" in Latin). There are some nicknames (Mad-Eye, Ron, Hermy^[6], Ginny).

Many non-human characters are named, including centaurs (Firenze), Harry's pet owl (Hedwig), giants (Karkus, Golgomath), house-elves (Dobby, Winky, Kreacher), goblins (Griphook), a vampire (Sanguini), and a three-headed dog (Fluffy).

References

^ "Wizard", in this article, means witch or wizard, i.e. magical person of either gender. This is partly for simplicity, and partly because the term "witch" may be misogynistic.
^ Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (book)
^ [1]
^ [2]
^ [3]
^ In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Rubeus Hagrid's half-brother, Grawp, is taught to call Hermione "Hermy". Otherwise, however, Harry Potter characters seem to call Hermione by her full first name.