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aka: Harry Potter Ghosts

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As defined by Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, enchanted non-humans who demonstrate sapience are generally given status as "Magical Beings", and these creatures are a core element of wizarding society, from the banking clans of the goblins to the armies of the giants.
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Centaurs

    Applicable to all Centaurs 
  • Fantastic Race Weapon Affinity: They strongly favour the use of bows.
  • Magical Native American: Centaurs as a whole are very analogous to Native Americans, especially with the mentions of being allowed restricted territories by the government. Their main methods of Divination consist of stargazing and burning leaves to find patterns in the smoke.
  • Nice Mean And In Between: The only named centaurs, outside of Firenze, fit neatly into this category:
    • Ronan: Nice. Outside of Firenze, he's the calmest and most laid-back of the all of the centaurs we meet in the series. He was also willing to let Harry and Hermione go, despite them dragging Umbridge onto the centaurs' territory.
    • Bane: Mean. Possessed of a Hair-Trigger Temper and carries enough prejudice to rival that of your typical Death Eater. To cap it all off, he was perfectly willing to let the Voldemort-possessed Quirrell kill Harry.
    • Magorian: In between. He isn't as aggressive as Bane and can be reasoned with. However, DO NOT come on to what he views as his territory, throwing your weight around, as Dolores Umbridge found out the hard way.
  • Noodle Incident: What did the centaurs do to Umbridge when she was in the Forbidden Forest? We can safely assume it was something unpleasant.
  • Proud Warrior Race Guy: Centaurs are highly prideful creatures who despise the idea of being subservient to wizards. Even letting a human ride on their back is considered to be an insult to their pride.
  • Seers: Centaurs are known to be gifted in Divination. They watch the stars and burn plants to find patterns in the smoke that foretell future events.
  • Vagueness Is Coming: In the first book, the centaurs repeatedly comment, "Mars is bright tonight." Seems like nothing at the time, but Mars is the bringer of war and battle, foreshadowing the coming of the Second Wizarding War.
  • Wouldn't Hurt a Child: They consider the slaughter of youngsters, including foals and human children, to be a terrible crime.

    Bane 
  • Everyone Has Standards: He believes in not interfering with destiny. That destiny does not apply when Voldemort seems to have conquered Hogwarts and killed Harry Potter.
  • Pet the Dog: Dumbledore's influence brings out the best in him:
    • When Dumbledore went to politely request that the centaurs return Umbridge, the man returned with her and not a scratch on him. It's implied that Bane respects Dumbledore that much.
    • He comes to pay respects to Dumbledore's funeral, along with the rest of the centaurs. They release a volley of arrows to commemorate his passing.
  • Shut Up, Hannibal!: Umbridge tries to bluster and bully her way through the centaurs surrounding her, Harry and Hermione. Bane cuts through by saying that she has no power in the Forbidden Forest, nor over them.
  • Warrior Poet: He has an extremely intimidating and warlike personality but is, nevertheless, shown to be just as stargazing and philosophical as the rest of his kind.

    Firenze 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Firenzeinharrypotter_1192.jpg
Portrayed by: Ray Fearon
Voiced by: Eduardo Gutiérrez (European Spanish), Herman López (Latin American Spanish)

"Unicorn blood will keep you alive even if you are an inch from death... but at a terrible price."

The Centaur that rescued Harry from Quirrell in the Forbidden Forest when he was serving detention in Philosopher's Stone. When Dolores Umbridge fired Sybill Trelawney in 1996, Dumbledore hired him to replace her so as to prevent the Ministry from installing another puppet teacher. After Umbridge's removal at the end of the year, Trelawney was reinstated and the Divination curriculum was split between them, much to her irritation.

Unlike other Centaurs, Firenze is polite and friendly to humans, even allowing the 11-year old Harry to ride on his back when taking him to safety. This made him unpopular among his kind and his herd attempted to kill him after his hiring as Professor for daring to spread the Centaurs' art of Divination to humans. Hagrid rescued him, but he was banished from the herd and the forest for his transgression.


  • Adaptational Ugliness: The book describes his human half as that of a young, handsome blonde man with striking blue eyes, whereas the movie made him look far more bestial and covered with grey hair.
  • Astrologer: Firenze and other centaurs use the position of the stars to see the future, though their views differ substantially from Professor Trelawney.
  • The Baby of the Bunch: Firenze is the youngest centaur seen in the series.
  • Badass Normal: He stood by the rest of the staff in the final battle, despite having no magic to fight with.
  • Big Damn Heroes: His debut in the series.
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality: He's slightly less blue and orange than his fellow centaurs and is regarded by them as a Category Traitor but he nonetheless has a view and perspective that is hard for Hogwarts students to understand.
  • Brutal Honesty: While Firenze concedes that Trelawney may or may not have gifts as a seer, he does not know and doesn't outright call her a fraud, he is brutally frank about what he thinks of her methods. Mostly anyone who spends any time with the woman usually agrees.
    Parvati Patil: Professor Trelawney did astrology with us! Mars causes accidents and burns and things like that, and when it makes an angle to Saturn, like now, that means people need to be extra careful when handling hot things—
    Firenze: [calmly] That, is human nonsense.
    • More broadly, he's critical of people thinking that interpreting the stars can be used as a Mundane Utility when the universe has bigger fish to fry - and all the evidence in the series suggests that he's right.
  • Demoted to Extra: Though he retains his minor appearance in the first film, his role as Professor Trelawney's replacement was left out of Order of the Phoenix.
  • Expy: His nature as a calmer, more reasonable Centaur who acts as a teacher to the hero makes him one to the centaur Chiron of Greek Myth.
  • Full-Name Basis: He always calls Harry Potter by his full name.
  • Hot Teacher: As mentioned above, his human features are very handsome, prompting Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown to put their grief over Trelawney's sacking aside to swoon over him.
  • I Owe You My Life: Downplayed, while he disagrees with Hagrid's attempt to raise Grawp he won't do anything about it but asks Harry to dissuade Hagrid. Firenze mentions that the other centaurs would have had killed him if Hagrid didn't interfere and he genuinely respects the half giant's love for every creatures he meets.
  • Mr. Fanservice: His human half is fairly pretty, he doesn't wear clothes (granted his lower half is that of a horse so it doesn't matter much) and he quickly gains the admiration of Parvati and Lavender when he starts teaching. Hermione, by contrast, is dismissive.
  • My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Decidedly humbler and more accepting and appreciative of humans than any others of his herd.
  • Nice Guy: Never says a single harsh word to anyone in the series, with the closest he gets being dismissive of Trelawney's methods with Brutal Honesty (which he follows up with an acknowledgement that she may genuinely be a seer), and a bit condescending, especially when he tells Harry that Hagrid's brother is a lost cause. As Grawp later proves at Dumbledore's funeral, when he turns up beside Hagrid dressed in a literally giant suit and not only behaves perfectly, but attempts to comfort his brother.
  • Only Sane Man: Among the centaurs, or at least in the eyes of Harry and his friends. In the eyes of his own species he's a traitor to his kind.
  • The Stoic: Comes off as it, especially when factoring in his tolerance. Even after Dean Thomas unintentionally wonders if Hagrid breeds the Centaurs like cattle, he merely corrects him and continues the lesson, whereas far lesser insults send the other centaurs into violent indignant rage.

    Ronan 
  • Beware the Nice Ones: The most peaceful centaur in the series, aside from Firenze. However, while the text doesn't single him out in particular, it's made clear that none of the centaurs present, which he was one of, were happy with the insults thrown at them by Umbridge. More explicitly, he also showed his bravery when he joined the battle of Hogwarts and took on the Death Eaters.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: More so than Bane when they find out that Firenze is letting Harry Potter ride his back. He tries to calm down Bane, saying that Firenze only had good intentions. Even if he went against destiny, Ronan hates that the innocent are the first to die.

Ghosts

    Applicable to all ghosts 
  • Barred from the Afterlife: Ghosts cannot enter the afterlife, whatever that is.
  • Bizarre Taste in Food: Because they're intangible, their sense of taste is extremely dull. Therefore, to actually taste food, they have to have it served spoiled and rotten, as only then are the flavours strong enough.
  • Deader than Dead: Discussed and averted in Chamber of Secrets. Sir Nicholas took the full blast of the Basilisk's glare, but because he's a ghost, he was petrified instead of killed. This is confirmed to be because ghosts can only die once. They cannot be any more dead than they already are, or be erased.
  • Friendly Ghost: The Potterverse ghosts are at worst intimidating or mild troublemakers.
  • Ghostly Chill: The temperature drops around them and a human walking through one will feel like he's been doused by a bucket of water.
  • Intangible Man: All ghosts are intangible and see-through. This presents a problem in Chamber of Secrets, when Nick is petrified and his "body" has to be moved. The solution McGonagall comes up with is actually kind of hilarious.
  • Invisible to Normals: Pottermore says muggles can't see them and can just feel the Ghostly Chill.
  • Invisibility: The first book implies they can turn invisible because Harry pretends to be the Bloody Baron when Peeves catches him using the invisibility cloak.
  • Jacob Marley Apparel: They're always dressed in what they were wearing when they died. For example, the Bloody Baron's clothes are still stained with blood.
  • Monochrome Apparition: The ghosts are described as 'pearly white', with the exception of Peeves.
  • Our Ghosts Are Different: Ghosts in the Harry Potter verse are witches and wizards (and only witches and wizards, muggles can't become ghosts) who, for one reason or another, chose to remain in the mortal realm after death. Sir Nicholas, the Grey Lady and Moaning Myrtle's assessments on the situation imply that they frequently grow to regret this decision, as being a ghost is very different from being alive—ghosts cannot eat, breathe, touch things, or die (though that last one is kind of a given) and are permanently Barred from the Afterlife, unable to ever move on. Myrtle's personality implies that their emotional maturation gets stunted too: their personalities are left forever as they were when they died.
  • Severed Head Sports: Headless ghosts can join the Headless Hunt. A league for sports such as Head Polo.

    Nearly Headless Nick 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nearly_headless_nick.png

Portrayed by: John Cleese
Voiced by: Alfonso Ramírez (Latin American Spanish)
"Half an inch of skin and sinew holding my neck on, Harry! Most people would think that's good as beheaded, but oh, no, it's not enough for Sir Properly Decapitated-Podmore."

The resident ghost of Gryffindor House. Known in life as Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, he was beheaded (well, nearly) on Halloween in the year 1492. As per Jacob Marley Apparel, he is now stuck spending eternity with his head just barely connected to his body by a thin strip of flesh. This makes him ineligible for the Headless Hunt, much to his chagrin.

Nick is occasionally proud and pompous, but is nevertheless always a friendly mentor to young Gryffindors. He appears in all the books, but in only the first two movies.


  • Berserk Button: Implying that he is a coward infuriates him. Ron accidentally offends him by saying he is scared of the Bloody Baron (every spirits seems scared of the Bloody Baron) and later admits he views himself as a coward for becoming a ghost.
  • Breaking Bad News Gently: He tells Harry after Sirius dies that Sirius didn't become a ghost. Usually, other spirits can tell, or the Ministry interferes. Nick knows why Harry was hoping, so he could get a chance to see his godfather again. He also reassures Harry that death is a natural part of life, and refusing to move on is a Fate Worse than Death.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Only in the movies, in which he disappeared after the second film. He does make appearances in the video game adaptations of Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: It took 45 blows with a dull axe to kill him.
  • Deadpan Snarker: He has his moments, especially when it turns out he has an entire song describing his execution.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Supplemental material reveals he was on the receiving end of this. Long story short, he tried to fix a noblewoman's crooked teeth with magic, but accidentally gave her tusks instead. And before he could rectify his error, she had already ordered him executed. And then, the executioner misplaced the whetstone for the axe, leading to his Cruel and Unusual Death.
  • Do Not Call Me "Paul": It's not "Nearly Headless Nick", it's "Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington''" or "Sir Nicholas".
  • Family-Unfriendly Death: Specifically, a botched execution with a blunt axe, hence why his head remained attached by a strip of flesh.
  • Friendly Ghost: Is friends with most of the Gryffindor.
  • Headless Horseman: He wants to be one, but the fact that his head isn't completely detached makes this impossible.
  • Hidden Depths: Nick is very philosophical about the nature and condition of being a ghost and how cowardly it is and what a poor option it is to the unexplained wizarding afterlife. He starts to say to Harry that he sometimes wishes he had not chosen to become a ghost, but cuts himself off and doesn't elaborate further. With that said, he reassures Harry that Sirius was brave and didn't fear death.
  • Hollywood Costuming: Wears a ruff (useful for hiding his severed neck) despite dying a good fifty years before the ruff was commonly worn.
  • Liminal Being: Nick, speaking with Harry, reveals himself as this, stuck between life and death. It's implied that this is a universal or at least common trait among ghosts.
  • Named After the Injury: Is commonly called Nearly Headless Nick, since his head was never fully cut off during his execution and is hanging by a thread of skin. He doesn't like the name, preferring his real one, Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington (however, it's rarely ever used).
  • Negate Your Own Sacrifice: Isn't killed by the basilisk's gaze due to already being dead, just petrified. However he does keep Justin Finch Fletchley from viewing it directly.
  • Nice Guy: Compared to many of the ghosts who are shown to be cold or distant, Nick's an affable, good-natured fellow.
  • Odd Friendship: With the Bloody Baron. Other than both of them being ghosts, their personalities are as different as night and day. Nick does seem to have some fear towards him however.
  • Off with His Head!: Well, not quite all the way off.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: He prefers to be known as "Sir Nicholas" but the students much prefer "Nearly Headless Nick".
  • Overly Long Name: His real name, though not as long as Albus Dumbledore's.
  • Torso with a View: Being a ghost people can see through him, that saves a student from the basilisk since seeing through a ghost is not a direct eye contact.
  • Undignified Death: He was beheaded by an executioner who didn't bother to sharpen the ax ahead of time.

    Moaning Myrtle 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/myrtle.png
Portrayed by: Shirley Henderson
Voiced by: Mayra Arellano (Latin American Spanish)
"No one wants to upset me! That's a good one! My life was nothing but misery at this place and now people come along ruining my death!"

The ghost of Myrtle Elizabeth Warren, a Muggle-born girl who attended Hogwarts at the same time as Tom Riddle and Rubeus Hagrid. She was the first person murdered by Riddle, via the basilisk, and he used her death to create the diary Horcrux. After spending some time haunting the Alpha Bitch who tormented her when she was alive, the Ministry of Magic forced Myrtle to go haunt the place of her death instead. This was the bathroom containing the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets and she has remained there ever since.

She is, as Hermione tactfully observes in the second movie, "a little sensitive". "A little sensitive" means that she is an insane Large Ham with a Hair-Trigger Temper. In Myrtle's mind, everyone is constantly making fun of her and talking about her behind her back. Of course, this behaviour causes people to make fun of her and talk about her behind her back. She also develops a humorous crush on Harry, although he generally finds her annoying.

In the books, Myrtle appears in Chamber of Secrets, Goblet of Fire, and Half-Blood Prince. In the films, her appearance in Half-Blood Prince was removed.


  • Abhorrent Admirer: To Harry.
  • Adaptational Attractiveness:
    • A lesser-known example. The one or two descriptions and chapter-lead pictures we get of Myrtle show she was fairly significantly overweight and "doughy", which fits in with all the bullying she received. Shirley Henderson, meanwhile, was depicted as being a little "round of face" and perhaps a bit "mousy"note , but not even remotely unattractive; her Myrtle is downright cute (if a little... well, see below) in certain scenes of movie-Goblet.
    • Her voice is also nowhere near as abrasive as Myrtle's is described as being - in the books her namesake moans are a namesake because they're ear-splitting and intensely depressing, and she's unpleasant to listen to in general, while in the movie her plaintive cries do little more than pluck at heartstrings.
  • Adaptation Personality Change: Much less whiny and more flirtatious in the films.
  • All There in the Manual: In life, Myrtle was a Ravenclaw. And her full name is Myrtle Elizabeth Warren.
  • Alliterative Name: Moaning Myrtle. Subverted with her human name, Myrtle Elizabeth Warren.
  • Alone with the Psycho: She didn't realize that the boy in the bathroom was the one trying to murder all of the students. Instead, she assumed he was bothering her and came out to tell him to go away. Poor Myrtle didn't stand a chance.
  • Because You Were Nice to Me: She considerably warms up to Harry when he politely asks her how she died. Apparently no one, not even Dumbledore, thought to ask that question. He also thanks her for helping him with the Second Task in book four.
  • Beware the Quiet Ones: When we first see her, she comes off as eerily quiet, but when describing to Harry and Ron how she died, she reveals that she spent a good chunk of her time as a ghost tormenting her childhood bully for many, many years out of spite. Myrtle later mentions that "And then she [Olive Hornby] saw my body...ooooh, she didn't forget that until her dying day, I made sure of that..." which implies that she haunted Olive to death before being banished back to the school.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: She appears throughout the second book, but it's only near the end that Harry and Ron realize that she's the girl the Heir of Slytherin killed fifty years before.
  • Cerebus Retcon: It's revealed that no one likes her because she's a Drama Queen who takes even the slightest remark as an insult to her. Then we learn that when she was a kid, she got killed by a basilisk because she was being bullied and came out to tell a boy who had entered the girls' bathroom to go away and let her cry in peace. Myrtle only saw the eyes for a few seconds and didn't have time to process what was happening. That is a traumatizing experience that would turn anyone into a permanently sobbing mess.
  • The Confidant: In Half-Blood Prince, she becomes one for, of all people, Draco Malfoy. It's hinted she may have switched her affections from Harry to Draco.
  • Covert Pervert: Shy and mousy as she is, she still has that hobby mentioned below.
  • Cute Ghost Girl: In the film version, she's quite cute.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Despite being a minor character Myrtle is one of the most sarcastic and snarkiest characters in the franchise especially the films.
  • Defrosting Ice Queen: In her final appearance in the second movie, having developed her humorous crush on Harry, she greets him rather more sweetly than she has acted throughout the rest of the film. This continues in the fourth film, where she is very friendly and flirty with Harry upon seeing him again.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Okay, Olive Hornby was a bully, but did she really deserve Myrtle's ghost Gaslighting her all that time? Then again, Myrtle may not have ended up a ghost if she hadn't been in the Chamber of Secrets entrance bathroom crying as a result of Olive's bullying...
  • Do You Think I Can't Feel: A more literal example. Harry and Ron find her flooding the girls' bathroom because someone threw a book through her head. When Ron points out that ghosts can't feel things going through them, she makes it clear that it's not fun whether or not she can feel it.
  • The Eeyore: She's very gloomy and prone to crying and getting upset over small things.
  • Finagle's Law: She just had to be in the girl's bathroom where the Chamber of Secrets is, right when Tom was there talking to the Basilisk. It was the perfect set of circumstances to get her killed.
  • Ghostly Wail: Played with. Her moans are described as being alternately depressing or ear-splitting. However, other than being a ghost, she is not seen as particularly creepy by the characters and is considered an annoying drama queen. However, her lavatory haunting ground contains the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Among her other neuroses and insecurities, she has an extremely short temper regarding them. She especially gets upset when she's feeling excluded.
  • Hypocrite: She bursts into floods of tears whenever she even thinks someone is making fun of her but is happy to laugh at Hermione when a botched batch of Polyjuice Potion turns her into a Cat Girl.
  • Immortal Immaturity: She's still mentally a teenager in ghost form. This is why her crush on Harry is less creepy when you realize she's thinking as a child and not the fifty-plus old lady she would have been if she was still alive.
  • Leave Me Alone!: On her last day alive, she heard a boy in the girls' bathroom and confronted him, telling him to go away and let her cry in peace. Unfortunately, that boy was Tom Riddle, and his basilisk was out to kill.
  • Misplaced Retribution: She directed all of her anger at dying towards Olive Hornby, whose teasing sent Myrtle away crying which lead to her death. She has very few things to say about Tom Riddle who was far more directly involved. To be fair she didn't seem to have actually seen her killer, only knowing that it was a boy.
  • Necro Non Sequitur: Her death had a lot of unlucky coincidences. She wouldn't have been in the girls' bathroom where the Chamber of Secrets was if Olive Hornby hadn't been teasing her. Heck, if the school had been on lockdown, she wouldn't have been allowed to be alone in the bathroom, period. And of course of all the bathrooms in this giant school it had to be the one where the Chamber had an entrance.
  • Nerd Glasses: Something she was frequently teased about when she was alive.
  • Nice Girl: As gloomy and slightly snappish she is, she is genuinely nice when you get to know her.
  • Noodle Incident: Why, exactly, does she have so much vitriol against the living mermaid portrait in the prefects' bathroom?
  • Odd Friendship: By the events of Half-Blood Prince, she becomes friends with Draco Malfoy, of all people. He often breaks down in the bathroom when he finds himself unable to fulfil the task Voldemort gave him, and Myrtle tries her best to comfort him.
  • Parting-Words Regret: It's implied Olive Hornby was horrified that the last thing she said to Myrtle was an insult about her glasses. She came to regret it further after finding her body and getting haunted by Myrtle's ghost.
  • The Peeping Tom: A pastime of hers, as revealed in Goblet of Fire.
  • Really 700 Years Old: Being a ghost, she has remained physically (well, metaphysically) a teenager for over fifty years.
  • Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: For some reason, she really hates the living mermaid portrait in the prefects' bathroom.
  • Stalker without a Crush: In spite of her Covert Pervert tendencies mentioned elsewhere, she also fits this. After she died, she admits to stalking Olive Hornby, the girl whose teasing made her hide in the bathroom on the day she was killed, until the Ministry intervened and forced her to stop.
  • Vengeful Ghost: She doesn't say exactly why she came back, and given the way she died and how ghosts work in the Harry Potter, a desire for revenge isn't a likely reason. However, the first thing she did after coming back was to go about haunting Alpha Bitch Olive Hornby, who was bullying her before she died.
  • Who's Laughing Now?: See Disproportionate Retribution above.

    The Grey Lady 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/helena_ravenclaw.jpg
Portrayed by: Kelly Macdonald
Voiced by: Gaby Ugarte (Latin American Spanish)

The resident ghost of Ravenclaw House. Known in life as Helena Ravenclaw, the jealous daughter of Rowena Ravenclaw herself, she stole her mother's diadem and was subsequently killed by the man who would become the Bloody Baron. Centuries later, she was effectively manipulated by the charms of one Tom Riddle. She revealed the location of her mother's diadem to him and he turned it into a Horcrux.


  • Adaptation Personality Change: She's much colder, condescending and proud in the books and while less friendly than Nick, doesn't seem to avoid students or other ghosts. Her film version is much more expressive, shouting at Harry at one point, and is implied to be a bit of a Broken Bird that avoids even the other ghosts, Luna even describing her as "shy".
  • All There in the Manual: Prior to Deathly Hallows, Rowling provided the only indication that she existed. She does have a cameo in the first book, but this was only identified by Rowling.
  • Berserk Button: Mention of Tom Riddle using her mother's diadem as a Horcrux has her go from withdrawn yet dignified to screaming rage about how Voldemort DEFILED IT! WITH DARK MAGIC!
  • Brainy Brunette: Like her mother she had dark hair and was highly intelligent, though she sought to be more intelligent than her mother.
  • Colour Character: Her title is the Grey Lady.
  • Ethereal White Dress: She is based on a real life ghost legend. She dresses all in white, and is the ghost of a woman who died young due to a tragic conflict related to a man.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: She was jealous of her mother and stole the diadem because she wanted to make herself more important.
  • Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Both the books and the film portray her with long dark hair and pale skin. Fitting as she is not only the patron ghost of Ravenclaw, but Rowena Ravenclaw's own daughter.
  • Shrinking Violet: She is rather reclusive, not talking much to people or other ghosts, and she was shown briefly spending time in empty classrooms taking notes. The only person she does speak with regularly is Luna. In the book she comes across more as haughty.
  • Statuesque Stunner: Is said to be both tall and beautiful.
  • Suddenly Shouting: When Harry pushed her too far about how Tom Riddle managed to get her to tell her where her mother's diadem was in the final movie, she said her next lines in angered shouting.
  • Unwitting Pawn: Of Riddle/Voldemort.

    The Bloody Baron 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/blood_baron.jpg
Portrayed by: Terence Bayler

The resident ghost of Slytherin House. In life, he was infatuated with Helena Ravenclaw. Some time after Helena had run away with her mother's diadem, Rowena was dying and sent the baron to find her daughter. He found her, but killed her in the struggle to bring her back. Realizing what he'd done, he then killed himself. As per Jacob Marley Apparel, he will spend eternity covered in blood, hence the nickname.

During the time frame of the series, he is regarded as cold and mysterious, even by the other ghosts. For some reason, he is the only individual, other than Dumbledore, who can control Peeves.


  • Abhorrent Admirer: To Helena Ravenclaw, the Grey Lady, back when they were both alive. Judging from the way she talks about him, she didn't like him that much.
  • Adaptational Nice Guy: His only cameo in the movies has him playfully scaring some first years while flying through a table. In the books, he's The Dreaded, mainly known for being grumpy and frightening.
  • Alien Blood: Is covered in silver blood.
  • Alliterative Name: His nickname, Bloody Baron.
  • Ascended Extra: In the first PC game, the Bloody Baron appears a couple times as a minor enemy whom you have to avoid. It's not a huge role, but it's still more interaction than Harry ever had with him in the canon.
  • Chained by Fashion: He chains himself in an attempt to atone for his murder on Helena.
  • Continuity Cameo: His only appearance in the films is in a brief shot during the opening feast from the first movie. Not that he appeared much more than that in the books anyway.
  • Crime of Passion: Killed Helena in a fit of rage when she rejected him, then committed suicide out of guilt.
  • The Dreaded: No one except Helena knows why he has blood on him and the ghosts don't feel like asking him, because of his looks and chains all the ghosts and Peeves are scared of him.
  • Driven to Suicide: He killed himself after he killed Helena.
  • Hot-Blooded: The Grey Lady mentions he was a hot-tempered man in life.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: His reaction after he killed Helena.
  • Named After the Injury: The Slytherin ghost is called the Bloody Baron due to being covered in blood, though nobody knows how he became like this. It turns out he stabbed Helena Ravenclaw, with whom he was in love, in a fit of rage, and then, shocked at what he had done, killed himself.
  • Noodle Incident: Why is Peeves so afraid of him?
  • Not Good with Rejection: He killed Helena in a fit of rage because she rejected him. He immediately regrets it afterwards.
  • Odd Friendship: He seems to at least be an associate of Professor Trelawney for some reason.
    • Also with Nearly Headless Nick despite the latter's fear of him.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: His real name has never been revealed, even when his past was.
  • Shadow Archetype: To Severus Snape. Being one of the four ghosts assigned to houses, he's the one of Slytherin, and is sinister and unfriendly, much like the corresponding Head of house. Also, a member of House Slytherin who has an unrequited love for a woman, gets her killed and spends the rest of his life (or in his case, his afterlife) in remorse. His nickname is comprised of a noble title and a blood epithet, like the one of the Half-Blood Prince.

    The Fat Friar 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Friar_5548.png
Portrayed by: Simon Fisher-Becker

The resident ghost of Hufflepuff House. He seems to be cheerful and comical in personality, but nothing else is known about him other than the fact that he was evidently a friar when he was alive. Well, it is Hufflepuff House, after all.


  • Alliterative Name: The Fat Friar.
  • All There in the Manual: His backstory is only ever discussed on Pottermore.
  • Big Fun: A friendly man who also happened to be fairly heavyset.
  • Burn the Witch!: Was killed for sorcery.
  • Good Shepherd: A friar that cures diseases and always forgives Peeves.
  • No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: He spent his life healing and entertaining people with his magic. This got him executed for being a wizard.
  • No Such Thing as Wizard Jesus: Well, since a wizard can be a friar, apparently.
  • The Pollyanna: He believes in giving Peeves second chances. And third chances. And fourth chances. And so on.
  • Stupid Good: He used magic to heal people without bothering to disguise that it was magic, in a time when magic users were persecuted, and was executed for it.
  • Too Dumb to Live: He went around instantly curing diseases and pulling rabbits out of goblets during his days among the living in the medieval era. Even though he was a decent person, one has to wonder why he was expecting not to get executed.

Non-Beings

    Applicable to all non-beings 
  • The Ageless: Non-beings do not appear to age nor to die; the Boggart living in a wardrobe in Hogwarts had been used to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts since the 1910s, and Peeves the Poltergeist is centuries years-old, being as old as the school itself.
  • Anthropomorphic Personification: All of them are spirits created out of and sustained by human emotions. Dementors personify despair, Poltergeists chaos, and Boggarts fear.
  • Complete Immortality: Since they were never technically alive to begin with, they cannot be truly killed, although spells using positive emotions can ward them off.
  • Invisible to Normals: All of them cannot be seen by muggles, although they can perceive their presence in other ways, be it by feeling Ghostly Chills or by glimpses dismissed as their imagination.
  • Our Spirits Are Different: They are classified as "non-human spiritous apparitions" by the Ministry of Magic, being spiritual presences created in places with high concentration of emotions. They share several similarities with ghosts, with the difference that they never died.

    Dementors 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dementor.jpg

"I must warn you. Dementors are vicious creatures. They do not distinguish between the one they hunt and the one who gets in their way."
Albus Dumbledore

Uncanny creatures in black cloaks that are essentially walking (err, make that floating) Mind Rapes waiting to happen. Initially, they serve the Ministry of Magic as guards for Azkaban, but care nothing for human morality; all they want are victims whose emotions they can feed on, and they're more than willing to switch their allegiance to Voldemort when he offers a better deal. Notable for being Harry's worst fear, because they can use their powers to force him to relive the many traumatic experiences of his life, particularly his parents' deaths.


  • Achilles' Heel: The only thing that can repel them is a strong corporeal Patronus with a clearly defined animal form, which is already difficult to summon under normal conditions, and even harder to summon when surrounded by hundreds of dementors.
  • Adaptational Superpower Change: In the films, they notably have the power to fly, something which is never hinted in the books (they are described as "floating" and "gliding", but not more than ground level).
  • The Ageless: Dementors do not appear to age, and it's unknown if they can be killed.
  • Always Chaotic Evil: Goes with the territory of being personified despair.
  • Ambiguously Related: The dementor may be related to the lethifold, a creature described in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them that resembles a floating black cloak and is also known to prey on humans.
  • Anthropomorphic Personification: Of despair (or in Muggle terms, of clinical depression).
  • Bizarre Alien Reproduction: While Fudge says that the dementors are 'breeding' in the opening chapter of Half-blood Prince Pottermore clarifies that dementors don't reproduce the way biological creatures do. As Anthropomorphic Personifications new dementors come into being wherever there is enough misery and suffering. So with the dementors joining Voldemort and being let loose to prey on the general population they're experiencing something of a population boom.
  • Black Cloak: Usually their only distinguishable visual trait.
  • Blind Seer: They can't see and can only sense humans by their emotions.
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality: They certainly seem cruel and twisted, but practically nothing is known about their natures. They could enjoy tormenting humans, or they could simply be predatory by nature. Their pre-Voldemort gig is working for the Ministry of Magic to keep the Azkaban prisoners trapped in their own heads.
  • Cessation of Existence: According to several characters, this is what happens to a soul eaten by a Dementor. Another possibility is that the soul is still trapped inside the Dementor.
  • Despair Event Horizon: They seem to induce this; characters describe being in their presence as evoking a feeling that they could never be happy ever again.
  • The Dreaded: The mere thought of being sent to Azkaban and guarded by the Dementors is enough to terrify even Hagrid.
  • Emotion Bomb: Despair, mixed with fear.
  • Emotion Eater: Their presence drains the happiness out of you. A Patronus, the only spell that works against them, is an embodied positive thought that can't feel despair.
  • The Empath: Due to their blindness, they sense humans by their emotions.
  • Evil Is Deathly Cold: Nearby objects freeze over in their presence.
  • Eyeless Face: Which they conceal beneath their hoods. Since they have no eyes, they're essentially blind.
  • Face–Heel Turn: Downplayed, since they're a dreaded threat to the protagonists as early as their first appearance, but at the start of the series they're nominally on the good guys' side.
  • The Faceless: Until they attack, at least. This is dropped in the films after Prisoner of Azkaban, where the Dementors tend not to wear their hoods, leaving their mostly blank faces exposed.
  • Fate Worse than Death: The Dementor's Kiss, where a dementor forcibly extracts its victim's soul from their body, leaving them an empty, but still living, husk.
  • Flight: They can fly high above the ground in the films, getting into a high-speed chase with Harry in the third film. This is averted in the books, where they settle for a mere Ghostly Glide.
  • Ghostly Chill: Dementors cause freezing cold just by their presence.
  • Ghostly Glide: In the books Dementors are described to glide over the ground.
  • The Heartless: They induce depression and despair in humans by being close to them, and Pottermore stated that dementors don't reproduce the way biological creatures do. As Anthropomorphic Personifications new dementors come into being wherever there is enough misery and suffering. Their presence drains the positive emotions of everyone around them, and they will swallow the souls of anyone too weak to fight back if given the chance.
  • Humanoid Abomination: Downplayed. While the Dementors come off as ghastly and unnatural, even by the standards of the wizarding world, they can still seemingly be reasoned with, accepting their Azkaban guard positions or allying with Voldemort out of plain Greed for getting victims to steal emotions from. They're as blind as their eyelessness would imply, and they are capable of more mundane actions other than "inherently draining the happiness out of their immediate vicinity," seeing as they can provide some level of basic care to the Azkaban inmates and burying the prison's dead. The only known magical defense against them follows a diametrical logic as well - the corporeal guardians produced by Patronus charm, which is cast by thinking of a very happy memory. Their ability to drain happiness also appears to be more limited to human beings, given wizards in an Animagus form can stave off the effects.
  • In the Hood: No one knows what Dementors look like under their hoods, because the only time they remove them is to perform the Dementor's Kiss, by which point You Are Already Worse Than Dead.
  • Invisible to Normals: Muggles and squibs cannot see them, but they can feel their presence and are not immune to their Emotion Bomb and Mind Rape powers.
  • It Can Think: While they seem incapable of speech, Dementors are shown to be at least somewhat intelligent; they are capable of working out deals and communicating with wizards, as well as pretending to serve the Ministry for a while after siding with Voldemort.
  • Knight Templar: The Dementors are initially viewed as lawful guards that simply go to extreme measures to trap prisoners. Subverted, since their defection to Voldemort reveals that they care nothing for the law so long as they can feast on souls.
  • Made of Evil: They are born out of the dankest, darkest, most mildew-infested crevices in the Earth out of human despair, and their only desire is to cause as much depression and devour as many souls as possible.
  • Mind over Matter: In the films, they appear to have limited telekinesis since the Dementor on the train in the third film is able to move the compartment door without touching it.
  • Mind Rape: Merely being in the presence of a dementor causes one to feel a terrible chill inside them and start having flashbacks of painful memories with the feeling that they'll never be happy again. When there are lots of them, or they actually attack, it gets much worse.
  • Neurodiversity Is Supernatural: These guys could be the explanation behind a lot of cases of clinical depression in the Muggle world. It helps that they're Invisible to Normals.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The two that attacked Harry and Dudley in Little Whinging forced Dudley to realize that he was a spoiled, hedonistic bully and caused him to change himself for the better.
  • Our Spirits Are Different: Pottermore classifies dementors, boggarts, and poltergeists as "Non-Human Spiritous Apparitions".
  • Riddle for the Ages:
    • What does a dementor's face look like under its hood? No one knows, because the only time a dementor pulls its hood up is to give someone the Dementor's Kiss. It is then subverted, for Harry and the audience at least. Both in the book and film of their introduction, Harry is almost Kissed when they attack near the end but survives with his soul untouched, and we are given a lovely Freeze-Frame Bonus of a Dementor's face during the Quidditch Match, respectively.
    • What happens to a person's soul after it is consumed by a dementor? Is it destroyed, or is it somehow trapped inside the dementor's body?
  • See the Invisible: They're blind, but can sense Harry's emotions from under his Invisibility Cloak as easily as a visible person.
  • Sense-Impaired Monster: Dementors are completely blind and lack eyes. They're however capable of sensing the souls and thoughts of those around them, which allows them to bypass normal methods of invisibility.
  • The Soulless: The Dementors are famous for stealing the souls out of people's bodies and Rowling confirms they don't have souls of their own.
  • Sudden Name Change: Up until Harry Potter finds out the actual name of the creatures that guard Azkaban, a wizarding prison, everyone refers to them as "The Azkaban Guards". After he experience their happiness-draining power and is told their name, Dementors, in Prisoner of Azkaban, no one refers to them as the Azkaban Guards ever again.
  • Uncertain Doom: The Dementors are no longer employed as Azkaban's guards following the Second Wizarding War and are replaced by Aurors in this role, and Rowling says that their numbers can be controlled. That said, they are never seen or heard from again afterwards.
  • Vader Breath: In the films, they breathe quite heavily, as a sign of them inhaling people's happy feelings. This is consistent with the books, where in Harry's first encounter with one, it is described as "[drawing] slow, rattling breath, as though it were trying to suck something more than air from its surroundings".
  • The Voiceless: Considering that they're able to work out deals with wizards, they probably have some method of communicating, but never speak on-page or in the films.
  • Walking Wasteland: The movie versions, causing that which they come close to to frost over.
  • Your Soul Is Mine!: The Dementor's Kiss rips a soul out of a person, leaving a living husk to wither and die.

    Peeves the Poltergeist 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/c07_the_sorting_hat.jpg
Nearly Headless Nick "My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost."

A poltergeist who haunts Hogwarts, making mischief wherever he can. He's not considered a ghost by the "other" ghosts, but he's often classified as one for convenience. However, it's worth noting that Peeves is not white or transparent, but is rather solid-looking and often dressed in loudly-coloured clothes. Rowling defines Peeves as "an indestructible spirit of chaos" and that he "came with the building."

Peeves has no agenda, no motivation, no goals other than to create as much chaos as possible because It Amused Me. He is rude, crude, fond of practical jokes, and takes orders from no one other than the Bloody Baron, though he also shows some respect to Dumbledore and the like-natured Weasley Twins. Peeves and Filch are constantly at war with each other, a conflict Harry and his friends generally do not involve themselves in.

Although Peeves has a sizable role in all the books and some of the video games, he never appears in the movies (a scene was filmed though, where he was portrayed by Rik Mayall).


  • Adaptational Attractiveness: In Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. No seriously. He looks like this.
  • Adapted Out: From the movies. A scene with him had been filmed for The Philosopher's Stone where he was played by Rik Mayall, but it was left out after test audiences didn't like his design. According to actor Matt Lewis, who portrayed Neville Longbottom in all eight movies, much of the footage would have been unusable anyway, as the child actors found it difficult not to laugh at Mayall’s performance when they were supposed to be acting as though he frightened them.
  • Arch-Enemy: To Argus Filch.
  • Beware the Silly Ones: Mainly he'll just be amused if someone tries to fight back against him or beg him to stop. When Fred and George tell him to give hell to Umbridge, however, he delivers on that. Minerva also orders him to defend Hogwarts in Deathly Hallows, which he does with pleasure.
  • Bullying a Dragon:
    • On the receiving end from Katie Bell who tried to get him to leave by throwing things at him. She ended up getting doused with ink.
    • Umbridge and Filch conspired to kick Peeves out of Hogwarts. Guess how that turned out.
    • On the giving end with Lupin and Harry. Refusing to listen to Lupin resulted in humiliation, likewise with annoying Harry in the sixth book.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: While Peeves is very much a troublemaker, he takes his pranking up a notch during Order of the Phoenix, wreaking complete havoc during Umbridge's reign. During DH, he causes havoc among the Death Eaters, and composes a rude song to commemorate the defeat of Voldemort. His harm is limited to childish pranks, not actual evil.
  • Falling Chandelier of Doom: In one of his most famous scenes, he tried to cause this during his attacks against Umbridge. McGonagall tells him he is unscrewing it improperly.
  • Godzilla Threshold: When McGonagall summons Peeves for help, you know this is the final battle.
  • Gold Fish Poop Gang: His role in the video games.
  • Hidden Depths: He shows respect for Dumbledore and the Weasley twins, saluting the latter two when instructed to make Umbridge's life a living hell. He also actively fights for Hogwarts in the final battle with much gusto. In addition, Peeves admires any student who actively enjoy pranks, like Tonks and Tulip.
  • Intangibility: One of the differences between poltergeists and ghosts is that poltergeists can lift things when ghosts can't but can still walk through walls.
  • Invisibility: Helps him with a lot of his pranks.
  • It Amused Me: Why drop chandeliers on people or any of his other mischief? Because it's fun.
  • Jerkass: Half of his actions. Justified as he is the embodied entity of adolescent stress, adolescents tend to be jerkasses when stressed.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: More like Jerk with a heart of Bronze, but deep down, when it really matters, Peeves does care for Hogwarts, and is as nasty to the likes of Umbridge as that bitch deserves!
  • Leitmotif: Jeremy Soule gave us this tune, which accompanies Peeves just about every time he appears in the video games.
  • Let's Get Dangerous!: Book seven has him rise to defend Hogwarts. Minerva tells him via Filch that the castle is under attack, and they must defend it. When Peeves joins in the fracas, the Death Eaters are less than thrilled.
  • Meaningful Name: He certainly peeves the staff and students of Hogwarts.
  • Our Spirits Are Different: Most notably in that Peeves is not a ghost exactly. He looks quite different and doesn't give any indication that he was ever "alive". He can also physically interact with objects and people, which ghosts can't do, yet he can also pass through solid walls and doors. Rowling claims he is "an indestructible spirit of chaos".
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Peeves listens to no one, except the Bloody Baron. When Fred and George order him to give Umbridge hell, however, he salutes them. Then he makes good on that promise for the rest of the year and even borrows Minerva's walking stick to whack the lady as she's running out of Hogwarts.
  • Pay Evil unto Evil: After Fred and George tell him to give Umbridge hell, Peeves takes it to heart, making Umbridge's run as headmistress of Hogwarts a living hell by creating chaos in Hogwarts while she's trying to enforce her tyranny on the school by throwing parchaments, scaring students by juggling with torches, releasing spiders in the great hall, flooding floors, dropping chandeliers, or harassing Umbridge for hours by making gross noises each time she tries to speak. At the end of the year when she tries to leave Hogwarts unnoticed he chases her, while hitting her with McGonagall's walking stick and a sock full of chalk. Umbridge deserved every second of it.
  • Pet the Dog: He composes a victory song — albeit a rude one saying "Voldy's gone mouldy"— after the Battle of Hogwarts and sings it to the tired Hogwarts defenders. Ron at least finds it mildly amusing if inappropriate given the circumstances.
  • Poltergeist: As revealed by Pottermore, he follows the definition of embodied entity of adolescent stress.
  • Practically Joker: In the first two video games, he bears a striking resemblance to The Joker. Even his behaviour and goals are identical.
  • Professional Butt-Kisser: Whenever Dumbledore shows up, Peeves drops all mischief and acts like a suck-up toward the headmaster, even to the point of calling him "sir" at the end of every sentence. Harry notes that Peeves "didn't dare taunt Dumbledore".
  • Spanner in the Works: In the sixth book, Peeves wound up being one for Draco Malfoy because he had to repair the broken vanishing cabinet... the same one Peeves smashed over Filch's office to get Harry out of detention way back in the second book.
  • The Thing That Would Not Leave: All attempts to remove Peeves from the castle have ended in utter failure. In 1876, caretaker Rancorous Carpe devised an elaborate trap for him consisting of various weapons inside an enchanted bell jar. Peeves easily broke through said bell jar, armed himself with the weapons, and started firing them at the students, forcing the castle to be evacuated for three days. To make him stop, the headmistress ended up having to give him additional privileges, including a once-weekly swim in the boys' toilets, first choice of stale bread from the kitchens for throwing purposes, and a new custom-made hat.
  • Time Abyss: Peeves the Poltergeist is as old as the school itself, and has been causing mayhem for centuries.
  • Troll: Peeves loves chaos, and every scene he appears in involves him pranking or causing trouble in some form. He never backs down from an opportunity to make fun of a student. He loves tricking people with some Exact Words in his deal, like "Not saying nothing" unless Filch says "Please." Upon Filch saying "Please" Peeves replies, "Nothing."

House elves

    Applicable to all house elves 
  • Berserk Button: The Hogwarts house-elves are upset when Hermione leaves out hats and socks for them in a misguided attempt to free them, because they're insulted she was trying to trick them with a gesture their kind interprets as "You're fired." Dobby, naturally, is happy to take them all.
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality: Their lives revolve entirely around happily serving their owners. Being freed is considered the lowest of dishonours for a house-elf. They also consider hard work and appreciation for it to be its own reward and most of them are uninterested in extrinsic forms of compensation like money.
  • The Fettered: Are capable of considerable magical power, without even needing a wand (like when Dobby effortlessly blasted Lucius Malfoy down a flight of stairs), but will never actually use their powers unless explicitly ordered to.
  • Forgot About His Powers: Deathly Hallows addresses that Voldemort could have used an elf to teleport into Hogwarts or other protected locations but never thought of it due to his low opinion of non-humans.
  • Happiness in Slavery: To the point that most of them think Dobby is strange for wanting to be free. Even Dobby seems to enjoy serving people, it's the mistreatment that he has a problem with.
  • House Fey: Similar in concept to the standard trope in that they do housework, except it's for the person that happens to be living there. They're all but explicitly stated to be domestic slaves.
  • Improvised Clothes: House-elves usually don't wear proper clothing because giving them normal clothes would free them from their place of employment, so they wear things like pillowcases and tea towels.
  • No-Sell: House elf magic is different from the wizard version and is not subject to the same limitations as it. As Kreacher demonstrates, regardless of there being a spell that prevents Apparition, if a house elf's master orders him to come to him, he will come to him.
  • Self-Punishment Over Failure: House-elves are compelled to physically punish themselves if they disobey their masters.
  • Slave Race: Their lot in life, sadly. Most of them are quite okay with the situation, though it's not clear if this is genuine or if they've simply been conditioned to think that way (Hermione, at least, is sure it is the latter).
  • Smarter Than You Look: Because house-elves generally act subservient to wizards, many wizards (even Hermione) believe them to be unintelligent and easy to manipulate. Order of the Phoenix shows that not to be the case as the Hogwarts house-elves easily see through Hermione's plan to trick them into freeing themselves and Kreacher is able to use Exact Words to flee Grimmauld Place and conspire with the Death Eaters.
  • Summon Magic: Their masters can summon them by saying their names.
  • Third-Person Person: House-elves usually, but not always, speak in third person. It seems to be a species trait, but it varies from elf to elf just how strictly they adhere to it. Winky is by far the most likely to speak in first person (though still with third person grammar), but Dobby occasionally does too. Kreacher, however, always speaks in third person (and with far better grammar and a more advanced vocabulary than either Dobby or Winky).
  • Underestimating Badassery: They are subject of this by wizardkind. House elves are capable of potent magic such as concussive spells, disarmament or apparition, without needing wands like wizards do. Wizards still don't bother to put up defences against such magic coming from elves, resulting in a lot of foiled plans.
  • Undying Loyalty: To the person that owns them. If they are treated badly enough, however, they can become resentful and even turn against their owner entirely, as Dobby showed.
  • Wrong Context Magic: Elf magic is not subject to the same limitations as wizard magic. For example, it's impossible to Apparate on Hogwarts grounds, but it's still possible to summon a house-elf there, just like anywhere else.

    Dobby 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dobby.png
"Dobby never meant to kill! Dobby only meant to maim, or seriously injure!"
Portrayed by: Toby Jones
Voiced by: Ismael Castro (Latin American Spanish)

"Dobby is used to death threats, sir. Dobby gets them five times a day at home."

A house elf who initially serves the abusive Malfoy family. Unlike his masters, he admires Harry and tries to warn him and protect him when Lucius Malfoy orchestrates the opening of the Chamber of Secrets... in unfortunate ways. He is eventually freed thanks to Harry and gets new employment in the kitchens at Hogwarts, from where he occasionally lends Harry a hand.


  • All for Nothing: He tried to prevent Harry from going back to Hogwarts failed and trying to get him to leave the school failed miserbly. He underesimated Harry Potter and his friends. Harry managed to defeat the Basilisk and saved everyone in Hogwarts without Dobby's help and thus Dobby learning that Harry saved everyone and he should have realize that he underesimated Harry Potter and should have just told him about Lucius's plot instead of trying to stop Harry. Dobby went through all of this for nothing.
  • All the Other Reindeer: He's the first House Elf we meet, so his treatment as a servant by wizards makes him one by default; we later learn that even other house-elves look at him as an oddball too and see him as a weirdo.
  • Badass Adorable: Once freed, he's able to effortlessly beat Death Eaters like Lucius Malfoy and Peter Pettigrew, while continuing to be a tiny, adorable house elf.
  • Badass Finger Snap: He snaps his fingers to conduct his magic, be it teleportation or levitating.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: As sweet and kind as they come, but he's also just as powerful (maybe more so) than wizards.
  • Call a Pegasus a "Hippogriff": The name "Dobby" actually comes from a type of hobgoblin from Lancaster folklore.
  • Demoted to Extra: His numerous appearances in between Book 2 and 7 are left out completely in the films.
  • Dies Wide Open: Harry has to close Dobby's eyes for him after Bellatrix kills him.
  • The Dog Bites Back: He gets to humiliate his former masters a few times. Case in point forcing Lucius Malfoy to leave Harry alone.
  • Dumbass No More: In Book 2, he's more of The Millstone by hindering Harry with his quest to "save" the boy's life. From Book 4 onward, Harry finds him legitimately more helpful, from getting the gillyweed he needs to survive the Second Task, to warning him about Umbridge finding the Room of Requirement. Dobby dies rescuing Harry and his friends from Malfoy Manor, and is proud of it.
  • Everyone Has Standards: From the house-elves' perspective, while Dobby relishes being a free elf, his idea of freedom is less "never having to serve wizards again" and more "being able to choose which wizards he serves". Also, when Dumbledore offered him standard human wages upon hiring him (ten Galleons a week and weekends off), Dobby felt this was too much and bargained him down (one Galleon a week and a day off a month).
  • Face Death with Dignity: In the film, he's quite calm about the knife in his chest as Harry desperately holds him, begging him Please, Don't Leave Me. He decides to Go Out with a Smile and says it's a pleasure to die among friends.
  • Full-Name Basis: Always calls Harry "Harry Potter".
  • Heroic Sacrifice: He dies while rescuing Harry and his friends from Malfoy Manor, taking a knife intended for Harry.
  • Hero-Worshipper: He has looked up to Harry since he was an infant and bested Voldemort. He also seems to feel this way about Dumbledore somewhat.
  • I Die Free: By the end of Book 7.
  • Idiot Ball: In Book 7, Dobby had a chance to escape and take Harry and the others to safety; however, he had to tell Bellatrix that he's a free elf giving her time to throw the knife at him causing his death.
  • I Just Want to Be Free: For much of Chamber of Secrets, this is his dream.
  • Made of Iron: He irons his hands in the second book and takes a knife to the chest in the final book, surviving long enough to say Harry's name.
  • The Millstone: To Harry on purpose in Book 2, although he has the best intentions.
  • My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Most house-elves find unpaid slave-labor with next to nothing in personal possessions to be a dream come true. They see Dobby, who relishes his freedom, as a nutter. Downplayed just slightly, as Dobby does express discomfort with getting too luxurious (such as a five-day work week).
  • Nice Guy: Despite being a bit of an oddball, he's shown to be rather friendly and affable.
  • Older Sidekick: He was alive and serving the Malfoys before Harry was born, and can remember clearly the height of Voldemort's reign, when house-elves were treated like vermin.
  • Only One Name: House-elves don't have last names. When he first meets Harry, Dobby introduces himself as "Dobby, sir. Just Dobby."
  • Reflexive Response: Even years after escaping from the Malfoys, Dobby automatically tries to punish himself every time he does something that would have been forbidden in his old household.
  • Rummage Sale Reject: As a free elf, he takes great delight in collecting and wearing odd assortments of clothes, including socks in colourful patterns and Hermione's many elf hats.
  • Say My Name: His last words are "Harry Potter".
  • Tempting Fate: Harry tells him at the end of Book 2 to never try to save his life again, half-jokingly. Dobby dies saving Harry from Malfoy Manor.
  • Terrible Artist: For Christmas 1995, he gives Harry a really bad painting that Fred quips "looks like a gibbon with two black eyes".
  • Third-Person Person: Rarely, if ever, uses the single person pronoun. It seems to be a trait all house-elves share.
  • Thou Shalt Not Kill: He only means to maim or seriously injure.
  • Undying Loyalty:
    • Twofold for Harry Potter. First because the fall of Voldemort brought an end to a dark period of house elf history, second because Harry got Dobby his freedom. He loses his life shielding Harry from a curse.
    • He also extends his loyalty to Ron after the latter gives him some clothes for Christmas. Part of the reason he brings gillyweed to Harry for the Second Task is because he doesn't want Ron to be trapped with the merpeople.
  • Underestimating Badassery: Dobby really underesimated Harry Potter in the Chambers of Secrets. He tried prevent Harry Potter from going back to Howgarts and didn't care how miserable Harry is with the Dursleys. All of Dobby's plans failed miserbly. At the end, after Harry defeated Tom and stopped the basilisk, Dobby may have or may have not realize he underesimated Harry Potter.
  • Unwanted Assistance: His idea of "saving Harry's life" was to cause him serious injury to get him thrown out of Hogwarts. Harry mentioned wanting to beat the shit out of Dobby after finding out he was the one responsible for all the misfortunes befallen him if he hadn't been bedridden at the time. This gets averted in later books.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: In the second book, Dobby does everything in his power to prevent Harry from being killed by the basilisk from the Chamber of Secrets... including enchanting a Bludger to harm him and get him kicked out of Hogwarts. However, all his attempts failed and Harry was able to kill the basilisk. All Dobby was doing was getting in Harry's way and unintentionally helping the villains.

    Kreacher 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kreacher.jpg
Portrayed by: Timothy Bateson, Simon McBurney
Voiced by: Humberto Vélez (Latin American Spanish)

"Nasty brat standing there as bold as brass. Harry Potter, the boy who stopped the Dark Lord. Friend of Mudbloods and blood-traitors alike. If my poor mistress only knew..."

A house elf who serves the Black family. He shares the same ideologies as many of the pure-blood wizards, and looks down on Muggle-borns. Sirius Black treats him harshly, which leads to some unfortunate events at the end of Order of the Phoenix.


  • Adaptational Attractiveness: Downplayed, but the book describes him as having a distinct pig-like snout. His movie counterpart isn't exactly beautiful even for a House Elf, but his nose is similar to Dobby's.
  • Adaptational Modesty: In the books, Kreacher only wears a loincloth. In the movies, he wears a ragged garment that covers more of his body.
  • Armour-Piercing Question: Harry asks him one: if Voldemort tortured him and left him to die, with Voldemort's Death Trap killing Regulus, why did he help Bellatrix and the Dark Lord? Despite Hermione stepping in to explain Kreacher's motivations, Kreacher is actually stunned by this.
  • The Artefact: See also Demoted to Extra. His appearance in the fifth film doesn't really serve any purpose at all (beyond establishing his existence ahead of the seventh film), because his role in Sirius' death is cut out. The filmmakers wanted to cut Kreacher entirely, but J. K. Rowling warned them that they’d be setting themselves up for trouble when it came to adapting Book 7. However, precisely because his role had already been slimmed down to almost nothing, Kreacher ends up being fairly superfluous in the film adaptation of Deathly Hallows as well.
  • Because You Were Nice to Me: Kreacher deconstructs this aspect showing its good and bad sides, namely that anyone can be Nice to the Waiter, even The Sociopath like Bellatrix Lestrange and the vast majority of the Black family, while a good guy like Sirius can be totally indifferent and uncaring to Kreacher for a variety of understandable reasons, and still suffer the consequences. It is ultimately because Harry chooses not to put the blame of Sirius' death on him and treat him with kindness that he decides to go against the Death Eaters.
  • Berserk Button: Sirius notwithstanding, don't insult the Black family in any way. Mundungus offhandedly refers to Black family items that he pawned off as "junk" and Kreacher promptly attacks him with a frying pan.
  • Big Damn Heroes: He returns during the second part of the Battle of Hogwarts alongside a large battalion of house-elves from the kitchens.
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality: Hermione characterizes this as Kreacher's view. For him, the fact that his "kind master" Regulus died defying Voldemort won't affect his feelings of loyalty to Bellatrix and Narcissa who are loyal to the same man, or his dislike for Sirius who's even more defiant than Regulus. He's only loyal Because You Were Nice to Me and that's independent of any political stand for or against Voldemort. Harry even calls him out on this at one point, only for Hermione to rebuke him by saying that what matters to wizards like them doesn't necessarily concern other beings.
  • The Cavalry: Led the Elves into battle against Voldemort in the final book.
  • Demoted to Extra: In the films, his role was downplayed greatly. The filmmakers actually wanted to cut him out of the films completely, but Rowling warned them that they would run into a lot of plot issues come the seventh film if they did. Yet precisely because they cut his role so much, he ended up not affecting the plot of Deathly Hallows at all.
  • Determinator: Voldemort made him test the Death Trap potion and left him to die. But Regulus ordered Kreacher to came home. Kreacher just tells Harry he followed Regulus' orders.
  • Did Not Think This Through: As Harry points out to him, Regulus' final instructions to Kreacher were all in an effort to defeat Voldemort. When Kreacher went to Bellatrix and Narcissa and gave them information they used to further Voldemort's plans years later, Kreacher effectively dishonoured Regulus' wishes. Kreacher is stunned and then crying when Harry points this out.
  • The Dog Bites Back: His poor treatment from Sirius led to him looking for loopholes to escape and meet with other members of the Black Family to help them set up Sirius and Harry.
  • Easily Forgiven: Kreacher calls Hermione "mudblood" and the Weasleys "blood traitors", agrees with the Black family's bigotry and dark practices, plots with Narcissa Malfoy (a plot that ends with the death of Harry's beloved godfather), and injures Buckbeak. He seemingly wants to do the same thing again in the sixth book before Harry forbids him from talking to Draco Malfoy, and his praise of Malfoy makes it clear that he regrets nothing. All is forgiven after Kreacher tells the Trio about Regulus Black's death and is actually sorry when Harry tells him he accidentally dishonoured his favourite Black's memory.
    • Averted by Sirius, who doesn't forget that Kreacher was in league with his abusers (and perhaps participated in the abuse himself) and treats him cruelly. Dumbledore notes that this was uncharacteristic of Sirius but rather than finding a way to separate the two, he tells Sirius to invoke this trope. It doesn't work.
  • Face–Heel Turn: This is how Harry briefly views him for indirectly helping Voldemort lure Sirius into a trap even after Regulus died fighting against him. As it turns out, Kreacher's view is more in line with The Golden Rule; he does not really abide by the concept of "good" or "bad" that wizardkind has, just that he will respond in kind for people who are nice to him or the opposite. Kreacher for his part gets a Heel Realization when Harry spells out his hypocrisy.
  • Fantastic Racism: Thanks to living with the notoriously racist Black family, he has this view towards Muggle-borns. As he grows closer to Harry and Hermione, he eventually overcomes this. It helps that Hermione remains kind to him.
  • Foil: To Dobby. They're different as night and day, and absolutely despise one another, but both of them in their own fashion finds a way to defy and defeat their masters and enjoy a Who's Laughing Now? moment to boot.
  • The Golden Rule: His main motivation in life. If you show him affection and kindness, he will serve you, even if you were Bellatrix Lestrange. Deconstructed when Harry asks him point-blank why he helped the Dark Lord when Voldemort would've let him die, and when Regulus sacrificed his life to kill the latter and avenge Kreacher. Kreacher actually has to think about this and doesn't like the implications.
  • Go Mad from the Isolation: Apparently he was alone in Grimmauld Place with Walburga's portrait for a long time, which Sirius says has driven him "round the bend" though it's implied that his inability to follow Regulus' dying wish through and destroy Slytherin's locket has also contributed to his state of mind.
  • Heel Realization: He's actually stunned when Harry asks him why he helped Voldemort kill Sirius when Regulus died trying to defeat the Dark Lord, to avenge Kreacher's abuse. While Hermione talks over the elf, it makes Kreacher more willing to listen when Harry says they need to complete Regulus' quest and destroy the locket. Kreacher is much kinder after that to the Trio, partly to make up for accidentally dishonouring Master Regulus' wishes.
  • Inconvenient Summons: The second time Harry summons him, he's rolling on the floor fighting Dobby.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: He sets up the circumstances for Sirius' death, using Harry as a pawn. Come the next book, Dumbledore reveals that Harry has inherited Grimmauld Place and thus owns the house-elf technically. Fortunately for Kreacher, Harry just asks him politely to spy on the Malfoys and later an explanation for the locket. Kreacher also gets a Heel Realization that he dishonoured Regulus' memory with his betrayal, which is the last thing the elf wanted.
  • Meaningful Name: Kriecher is German for "bootlick". It's also meant to be pronounced in the same way as the word "creature".
  • Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Sirius' poor treatment of him leads Kreacher to set him up to be killed.
  • The Mole: In Order of the Phoenix.
  • Morality Pet: To Regulus Black. Voldemort torturing Kreacher opened up Regulus' eyes to what kind of monster the Dark Lord was.
  • Must Make Amends: When Harry points out that Kreacher dishonoured Regulus' wishes by serving the Dark Lord, Kreacher is actually horrified. He decides to ally with Harry when the latter gives him Regulus' locket and asks him to find the real one with the Horcrux.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Kreacher isn't pleased when Harry bluntly asks why he helped Voldemort and Bellatrix kill Sirius when Regulus died trying to defeat the Dark Lord. He actually has no response.
  • Number of the Beast: Rowling said he was this age when he died. It seems to be a dig at a Twitter user who complained the same day about Nicholas Flamel dying at that age and that Rowling shouldn't have put that number in a children's book to which Rowling replied that Flamel doesn't die in the books and the complainer should get their facts straight.
  • Odd Name Out: Most house-elves have names ending with a "y", but not Kreacher.
  • Old Retainer: Very, very, very clear that the proud standards of the Black family are not being upheld.
  • Replacement Goldfish: Harry is the first character to treat him with real kindness since the death of Regulus Black. As such, Kreacher becomes devoted to Harry.
  • Servile Snarker: To Sirius. In this case, the snark is only the tip of a massive iceberg of animosity.
  • Shadow Archetype: Towards Dobby. They both come from abusive households, but Dobby is a much kinder character who loves everyone while Kreacher is bitter and looks down on non-pureblood wizards.
  • Tears of Remorse: He cries these when telling the trio that Regulus sacrificed his life and ordered Kreacher not to rescue him and destroy the locket. Kreacher could not disobey, though he wanted to, badly. Then he cries harder when Harry points out that by betraying Sirius and helping the Death Eaters, he dishonoured Regulus' memory
  • Tragic Keepsake: Harry gives him Regulus' locket from the cave. Kreacher never takes it off after that.
  • Uncertain Doom: We don't know if he survived the Battle of Hogwarts but Harry wonders the next day if Kreacher can bring him a sandwich, implying he did.
  • Undying Loyalty: To Regulus Black, and later to Harry at the end of Deathly Hallows.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Harry initially reacts this way when Kreacher tells them about Regulus Black noting that Kreacher was keen on helping Voldemort through Bellatrix and Narcissa, despite Regulus dying trying to bring Voldemort down. As it turns out, it's more Sirius' fault for not treating Kreacher better but Kreacher gets a Heel Realization.

    Winky 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/554657_1286398111617_full.jpg
"My poor Mr. Crouch, what is he doing without Winky? He is needing me, he is needing my help! I is looking after the Crouches all my life, and my mother is doing it before me, and my grandmother is doing it before her... oh what is they saying if they knew Winky was freed? Oh the shame, the shame!"

The Crouch family house-elf. She is extremely loyal to Barty Crouch, Sr. and very happy with her lot in life. For years, she cared for Crouch's imprisoned son, but she was fired as punishment for failing to keep him under control at the Quidditch World Cup. Winky eventually came to work at Hogwarts, where she was very unhappy and constantly worried about how her master was getting on without her. Remaining loyal to Crouch, Sr. even after he had sacked her, she refused to divulge any of his dark secrets.


  • Adapted Out: She doesn't appear in the films, although two house-elves briefly appear riding llamas in Goblet of Fire who could possibly be her and Dobby.
  • Berserk Button: Speaking badly about her former masters, the Crouch family. In fact, other house-elves doing the same about their families provokes a similar reaction, as shown when Dobby speaks badly of the Malfoys in front of Harry.
    Winky: You is ought to be ashamed of yourself, Dobby, talking that way about your masters!
    Dobby: They isn't my masters anymore, Winky! Dobby doesn't care what they think anymore!
  • Can't Hold Her Liquor: Apparently a species trait. After being fired, she starts hitting the bottle with butterbeer, which usually doesn't have any apparent intoxicating effect. We're told that it's "strong for a house-elf", implying that it's more akin to a "near-beer" than a truly non-alcoholic drink.note 
  • The Dog Bites Back: Rowling confirms that she was among the house elves who fought for Hogwarts. Considering that Voldemort's influence corrupted Master Barty and ordered Crouch Sr.'s death after brainwashing him for several months, it's only fitting that Winky would fight to avenge her family.
  • Fatal Flaw: Her My Master, Right or Wrong mindset. Dobby says it's typical for house elves, but Winky takes it to the extreme. She helps Crouch Sr. break the law by saying nothing as he and his dying wife busted their son out of Azkaban — something that happened because Crouch Sr. put him in Azkaban — and he subsequently used the Imperius Curse to keep Master Barty under house arrest for more than ten years. Then Bertha Jorkins found out and Crouch Sr. modified her memory to avoid spilling the beans and ruining Crouch's reputation. Both of these actions would lead to the entire Crouch family destroyed and Voldemort's return. If Winky were a tad more defiant and willing to stand up to Crouch Sr. for being a reckless Hypocrite, then maybe he would have thought through his wife's Last Request more thoroughly.
  • Foil: To Dobby. Unlike Winky, Dobby was happy to be freed.
  • Happiness in Slavery: She believes in the house-elves being enslaved, much to Hermione's annoyance.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: In a less-charitable view of what happened to her, she was complicit in a tyrant of a father brainwashing his Death Eater son after sentencing him to Azkaban and causing brain-damage to a Ministry employee that figured out the family secret. That she was nicer to Master Barty didn't make his brainwashing less horrifying especially with the implications that being under the Imperius Curse for that long destroys your sanity. It's only fitting that she gets fired just before Voldemort succeeds in destroying the father in mind, the son kills Crouch Sr., and Master Barty receives the Dementor's Kiss. This also has the unfortunate benefit that she's the only member of the Crouch family who survives the decades-long ordeal.
  • No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: She convinced Crouch Sr. to let Master Barty attend the World Cup in the Top Box under an Invisibility Cloak. It creates the perfect opportunity for Master Barty to steal Harry's wand, and she didn't notice due to her fear of heights.
  • The Pig-Pen: After being fired, she enters a state of depression and stops taking care of her appearance, which results in her clothes becoming dirty.
  • Undying Loyalty: She doesn't lose her loyalty to Barty Crouch, Sr. even after he dismisses her.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Let's say it may have been better for everyone in the long run if Winky hadn't convinced Barty Crouch Sr. to allow her to bring Crouch Jr. to the World Cup under an Invisibility Cloak. Crouch Jr. causes panic by summoning the Dark Mark with Harry's stolen wand, which leads to Winky getting fired.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: She completely disappears from the story after a mention in Order of the Phoenix that mentions she is still depressed and drinking. Canonically, she helps with the Battle of Hogwarts and gets sober, but never truly gets over being sacked by Crouch. None of this is mentioned in the books themselves however.

    Hokey 
Appears in: Half-Blood Prince

Hephzibah Smith's house elf, framed by Tom Riddle for Hepzibah Smith's murder.


  • Adapted Out: She does not appear, nor is mentioned in any of the films.
  • Blatant Lies: Harry assumes that she is contractually required to lie whenever she says that Hephzibah looks beautiful.
  • Fake Memories: Tom used memory-modifying magic on her to make her believe that she accidentally poisoned Hepzibah, to cover up the fact that he did it.
  • The Scapegoat: Tom made her believe she was responsible for her mistress' death and the Ministry was far too ready to believe it — first because Hokey was rather old and second because she was a house elf.
  • Scatterbrained Senior: Harry describes her as the oldest house elf he ever saw, and the Fake Memories planted by Tom made her believe she accidentally put poison instead of sugar in Hepzibah's cocoa.

    The Hogwarts House-elves 
The house-elves who live and work in the Hogwarts kitchens, cooking for the students. Led by Pitts in 1988.
  • Badass Adorable: They participate in the Battle of Hogwarts, beating off the Death Eaters with knives and cleavers.
  • Get Out!: When Hermione tries to tell them they have the right to ask for wages and proper clothes, a prospect that horrifies them, they quickly give Harry and friends the extra food they asked for earlier and shove them out the door of the kitchen.
    House-elf: We has your extra food! Good-bye!
  • Happiness Is Mandatory: Self-enforced. When Hermione asks them why they don't try to cheer up a saddened Winky, one of them responds that house-elves don't have a right to be unhappy when there's work to be done for their masters.
  • Let's Get Dangerous!: A bunch of house elves with carving knives and more magic in their fingertips than most wizards have in their wands will spell disaster to any forest. They end up turning the tides in round two of the Battle of Hogwarts.
  • No Name Given: Aside from Dobby and Winky, their individual names are not known.
  • No Sympathy: Towards Winky during her depression over being fired. When she passes out from drinking too much butterbeer, they cover her with a blanket and push her out of sight while apologizing to Harry, Ron, and Hermione for having to see her in such a state.
  • Supreme Chef: They cook all the food served at Hogwarts, and will happily provide extra food to any student who asks.

Giants

    Applicable to all giants 
  • Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: They can mate with humans and produce viable offspring.
  • Our Giants Are Bigger: Giants are very large, bestial humanoids with extremely short and violent tempers. They're also capable of reproducing with humans... somehow...

    Grawp 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/34272_26957.gif
Portrayed by: William Todd-Jones
Hagrid: See — he's my brother! Well — half-brother. Turns out me mother took up with another giant when she left me dad, an' she went an' had Grawp here...

Hagrid's younger half brother, a sixteen foot tall Giant.


  • Androcles' Lion: Hagrid brings him back to Hogwarts because the other choice was letting Grawp die alone and young. It pays off; Grawp despite his bad temper and brute strength becomes attached to Hagrid, screaming for him when his big brother disappears. In the Battle of Hogwarts, he's helpful against the larger giants.
  • Because You Were Nice to Me: He saves Harry and Hermione from the centaurs, while terrified something happened to his big brother, because they were kind to him on their first meeting.
  • Big Little Brother: He's Hagrid's younger brother, but since he's a full giant while Hagrid is a giant-human hybrid, he's considerably larger than him. Though despite being larger than his hybrid brother, he's still considered small by giant standards.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Completely disappeared from the films after Order of the Phoenix.
  • Dumbass No More: Thanks to Hagrid taking him in, he starts wearing clothes, behaving politely without needing to be tied up, and talking semi-normally. Harry is proud to see him attending Dumbledore's funeral in a nice suit.
  • Gentle Giant: In the films, no pun intended, but Grawp's a sweetheart. Grawp has kind moments in the books, but these tend to be outweighed by his giant nature and youth.
  • Hot-Blooded: Grawp had a bit of a temper in the books.
  • I Want My Mommy!: Rather, he wants "Hagger" having realized something was wrong when Hagger went missing.
  • Large Runt: He was bullied by the other giants for his (relatively) diminutive size. Again: sixteen feet tall.
  • Precocious Crush: Apparently takes a liking to Hermione when they first meet.
  • You No Take Candle: "Grawp want Hagger!"

    Karkus 

The Gurg (leader) of the last remaining giant colony in the world. Hagrid and Maxime seemed to be making progress in getting him on their side before he was killed by Golgomath.


  • Cool Helmet: Hagrid and Maxime gave him an indestructible goblin-made helmet as a gift from Dumbledore.
  • Meaningful Name: His name sounds like "carcass". Guess what he becomes?
  • Off with His Head!: He lost his head at some point in the fight that cost him his life, Hagrid and Maxime spotted it displayed in the lake he spent so much time in.
  • The Slacker: Spends all day lying by the lake while the other giants get food for him and his wife.
  • Ungrateful Bastard: Averted. Hagrid makes a point that Karkus still remembers Dumbledore's kindness to the giant colony, and thus considered helping them against Voldemort and Death Eaters. Too bad Golgomath killed him, and then most of the giant colony follows Golgomath to ally with Death Eaters instead.

    Golgomath 
Hagrid: "There was a new Gurg, Golgomath. Well, we hadn' bargained on a new Gurg two days after we'd made friendly contact with the firs' one, an' we had a funny feelin' Golgomath wouldn' be so keen ter listen to us, but we had ter try."

The Gurg of the giant colony who kills Karkus and allies with Voldemort.


Goblins

    Applicable to all goblins 
  • Always Chaotic Evil: Well, probably closer to Lawful Evil or Neutral Evilinvoked, but either way, they're very rarely shown to be pleasant. There are aversions, although one of those is only half-goblin.
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality: According to Bill Weasley, Goblins, or rather "some" Goblins have a different view of ownership than Wizards do. They believe an object once made belongs to the craftsman who make it, and they consider anyone taking their wares not paying customers (even if they were given money) but thieves, or at best renters.
  • Dragon Tamer: In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows a Ukrainian Ironbelly dragon is kept by Gringotts to guard its vaults, in the only known instance in the series of an adult dragon being directly "tamed". It was, however, trained in an abusive manner, being conditioned to expect pain whenever it heard the sound of a bell.
  • The Fair Folk: They're an entire race of shady, conniving businessmen.
  • Fantastic Racism: They don't benefit from many of the legal rights human wizards get, and many wizards look down on them as second class citizens as a result. They make their position that a purchase from a goblin is a rental with a term of the buyer's life clear from the outset, but even the heroes refuse to honour the agreed terms. They are legally prevented from owning wands, an essential tool in the wizarding world. They've apparently rebelled against this treatment many times in the past, but have yet to win their freedom or equality with wizards.
  • Greed: One of their defining qualities, hence their status as bankers. Although this seems to be pretty much the only job they can legally hold outside of their ghettos in wizarding Britain.
  • Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: We know from Professor Flitwick's existence that they can have children with humans. Sort of an inversion of the situation with giants, too, as they're much smaller than humans.
  • Our Goblins Are Different: Depicted as conniving moneylenders who don't really care that much about others.
  • Proud Merchant Race: They do most of the money management in the wizard world.
  • Space Jews: Many have seen Goblins as a fantastic analogue of Jewish stereotypes, there's the fact that they are designated to operate finances but denied real equality by the hegemony of their fantastic society (much like medieval Europe), and many of them are actively campaigning against their classification by wizardkind. Likewise, Griphook's grudge-bearing and vindictive streak is very Shylock-esque. Some commentators note that Gnarlak in the Fantastic Beasts movie, played by Jewish actor Ron Perlman, is especially blatant as a Jewish stereotype.
  • This Is Unforgivable!: According to Bill, it would be less dangerous to break into Gringotts than to break a promise made to a goblin.
  • Ultimate Blacksmith: They are talented metalsmiths and have forged many magical items, including wizard coins, Aunt Muriel's diamond tiara, an indestructible helmet, and most importantly, Godric Gryffindor's sword.
  • Unequal Rites: Have some method of wandless magic that they refuse to teach to wizards due to wizards not letting them use wands.

    Griphook 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/griphook_profile.png
Portrayed by: Verne Troyer, Warwick Davis
Voiced by: Javier Rivero (Latin American Spanish, Philosopher's Stone), Alejandro Mayén (Latin American Spanish, Deathly Hallows Part I), Dafnis Fernández (Latin American Spanish, Deathly Hallows Part II)
A goblin working in Gringotts Wizarding Bank. He takes Harry to his family vault during his first visit to Diagon Alley, and six years later helps him break into the bank in exchange for the Sword of Gryffindor.
  • Adaptational Villainy: The film plays up his betrayal of Harry as being even more cruel. While in the books he merely expected Harry to not keep his word so seized the sword for himself, in the movies he explicitly rubs in that he was playing a case of Exact Words and almost sadistically leaves the heroes to their fate.
  • All for Nothing: Fails to actually keep the Sword of Gryffindor once he takes it, with the films killing him off in the bargain.
  • Asshole Victim: In Deathly Hallows - Part 2 (film). He wants to keep the Sword of Gryffindor for himself, betrays Harry, Hermione and Ron when they are inside Bellatrix's vault at Gringotts, and abandons one of his fellow goblins to get killed by the dragon. He ends up slaughtered by Voldemort.
  • Back for the Finale: Griphook re-appears in "Deathly Hallows", after having been absent from the series since the first book.
  • Death by Adaptation: Griphook's fate is left ambiguous in the book, however in the film he's explicitly killed by Voldemort when he arrives at the scene of the break-in.
  • Everyone Has Standards: Griphook wants Gryffindor's sword, which he believes was stolen from the goblin race, as the price for helping Harry and his friends break into Gringotts to steal a Horcrux. When Ron offers to let him take whatever treasure he wants from the Lestrange vault instead, Griphook angrily retorts that he's not a thief, and isn't trying to take something he doesn't have a right to.
  • Exact Words:
    • Harry tries to play this on Griphook, by agreeing to give him the Sword of Gryffindor but being careful not to mention the when as Harry intended to delay giving it to him until after all the Horcruxes had been destroyed. Griphook doesn't give Harry the chance to uphold his word and seizes the sword for himself.
    • In Bellatrix's vault in the movie:
      Griphook: I said I'd get you in. I never said anything about getting you out!
  • Fantastic Racism: Griphook strongly dislikes wizardkind for the way they've treated goblins in the past, and for how they refuse to share the secrets of wandcraft with other races.
  • Morally Bankrupt Banker: Most of the goblins at Gringotts seem to be like this to an extent. Griphook takes great amusement in the idea that any intruders to the vaults would be liable to be stuck in there for about ten years, and high-security vaults are guarded by dragons, who are inhumanely trained to expect pain when they hear "Clankers".
  • Properly Paranoid: Though it's not out of greed, Griphook is absolutely right to suspect Harry won't give him Gryffindor's Sword after breaking into Gringotts.
  • Sadist: Harry finds himself disturbed by how much Griphook seems to enjoy other people's suffering and actively wishes that they'll have to hurt wizards in order to break into Gringotts.
  • Unreliable Narrator: His claim that the Sword of Gryffindor was stolen from Ragnuk the First was revealed to be false in later material.
  • You Are a Credit to Your Race: Griphook notes that Harry is a "very odd wizard" for actually rescuing a goblin like him, or for giving a house elf a respectable burial.

Alternative Title(s): Harry Potter Ghosts

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