Harry Potter – Other Characters / Characters

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Wizards and witches

Bathilda Bagshot

Portrayed by: Hazel Douglas

Appears in: Deathly Hallows

Famous historian of the wizarding world. She is author of several influential books, including A History of Magic, part of Hogwarts' curriculum. She lives in Godric's Hollow and is great aunt to dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald, whom she hosted during the summer of 1899. She was also a neighbour of the Dumbledores and the Potters.

Ambiguous Situation: It's never made clear what exactly happened to her or how long she'd been dead by the time Harry and Hermione come knocking.
Body Horror: Her body is used by Nagini as a meat suit.
Cassandra Truth: She told Lily about Dumbledore and Grindelwald's past but Lily writes to Sirius that she thinks it's too outlandish to be true.
Chekhov's Gunman: She has been mentioned since Philosopher's Stone, although these are mostly in relation to A History of Magic.
Dead All Along: She is from possibly before the last book began. Lord Voldemort hid Nagini inside of her corpse, which is why nobody knew for so long.
The Ghost: Is mentioned a lot in passing, especially in Deathly Hallows, but “appears” only after she’s died.
Impersonation-Exclusive Character: We have no idea what she's actually like because the only time she appears in the books, she's dead and being impersonated by Nagini. However, there is the possibility of her appearing in Fantastic Beasts so we may eventually get to actually meet her.
Killed Offscreen: Nagini had killed Bathilda before Harry and Hermione arrived at Godric's Hollow and is using her body as a vessel.
Long-Lived: One of two candidates for the naturally oldest character in the series. She's known Dumbledore since he was a kid and is Grindelwald's great aunt and they're both in their 110s throughout the series.
Maiden Aunt: There is no mention of a husband throughout her long life and if she were married at least at the times of the books, he would have noticed she was dead much sooner as Harry and Hermione surmise that her house has been vacant for months. Her only known relative is a great-nephew, Gellert Grindelwald, whose exact relation to her is unclear. However, in some languages where there are different words for relatives based on exact relation, she is called his maternal grandfather’s sister which makes it unclear if she was ever married because they wouldn’t have the same name even if she hadn’t been.
Miniature Senior Citizen: Her head only reaches Harry's chest.
One Degree of Separation: She is great aunt to Grindelwald and was a neighbour of the Dumbledores and the Potters. She often visited Harry when he was a baby and during one visit related the story of Dumbledore and Grindelwald's friendship to Lily.
Posthumous Character: She's only really introduced as a character in the last book and has been dead for at least several months by Christmas.
Scatterbrained Senior: By 1997, she has become "nutty as squirrel poo", as one witch puts it.
Vague Age: She's definitely among the oldest characters in the franchise but how old she is never stated. She was an adult when Dumbledore was about ten and moved to Godric's Hallow and he was 115 when she died which puts her minimum age of early 120s. She's Grindelwald's (who's a year or two younger than Dumbledore) great aunt and not aunt, suggesting she could be significantly older than that but perhaps there's a big age gap between her and her sibling that's his grandparent. If she's about Kendra's age (since they were friends), that would put her in her mid-140s at the time of her death.

Gabrielle Delacour

Portrayed by: Angelica Mandy

Appears in: Goblet of Fire | Deathly Hallows

Gabrielle is Fleur's little sister, and looks exactly like a younger version of her. During the Second Task of the Triwizard Tournament, Gabrielle is placed in the lake as the person Fleur would miss most. Fleur is not able to reach her, so Harry Potter brings her to the surface alongside Ron. This gains Harry extra points for "moral fiber."

Thanks to this heroism, Gabrielle develops a crush on Harry, and is sorry to have to return to France at the end of the tournament. She returns for her sister's wedding to Bill Weasley. At the wedding, she gives Harry a "glowing look" that angers Ginny.

Age Lift: Angelica Mandy is 5 years older than Gabrielle, so it's a given. Also in the book, it's not mentioned that she's a Beauxbatons student as she's too young at the time, yet in the film she clearly wears the school's attire.^note
Annoying Younger Sibling: Averted. She is shown to be the person Fleur would miss the most, and they seem to get along very well in general.
Damsel in Distress: She isn't really in danger, but she's put in the lake for Fleur to rescue. When Fleur fails to get to her, Harry (initially thinking the trope is being played straight) "saves" her along with Ron.
Precocious Crush: Has one on Harry.
Rescue Romance: She develops a crush on Harry after he "rescues" her from the lake, although she wasn't actually in danger.
Uneven Hybrid: Like her sister Fleur, she's 1/4 veela, 3/4 human.

Mrs Diggory

Appears In: Goblet of Fire

Cedric Diggory's mother and Amos Diggory's wife.

Adapted Out: She is neither seen nor mentioned in the film version of Goblet of Fire.
Nice Girl: She seemed to be a compassionate, amiable, and understanding person. For instance, she prevented her husband from arguing with Molly Weasley over Harry's supposed "theft" of Cedric's glory in being a participant of the Triwizard Tournament, allowing Harry to leave peacefully with Molly and Bill. She also demonstrated her compassion and understanding nature by thanking Harry for returning her son's body, declining Harry's offer of his Tournament winnings, and even urged him to look after himself.
Outliving One's Offspring: Outlives her deceased son Cedric who was murdered by Peter Pettigrew on Lord Voldemort's orders
What Happened to the Mouse?: It is unknown what has happened to her by the time of the events of The Cursed Child, but it's possible she might've passed away by the time of the events. This could also be chalked up to the cast constraints that come with theater.

Mykew Gregorovitch

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gregorovitch.jpg

Portrayed by: Rade Šerbedžija

Voiced by: Ernesto Casillas (Latin American Spanish), Mário Monjardim (Brazilian Portuguese)

Appears in: Deathly Hallows

A famous wandmaker from continental Europe. Many years ago, Gregorovitch came into the possession of the Elder Wand, one of the Deathly Hallows. He spread rumours about the possession, which attracted Gellert Grindelwald's attention. Grindelwald disarmed him and stole the wand, with Gregorovitch being none the wiser. Gregorovitch retired in the late 1980s, but not before giving future Quidditch player Viktor Krum his wand.

Cannot Keep a Secret: Gregorovitch cannot keep a secret that he was duplicating the properties of the Elder Wand, which led to the Elder Wand getting stolen by Grindelwald, before Grindelwald's defeat.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After extracting all information about the Elder Wand from Gregorovitch, Voldemort kills him.

Gellert Grindelwald

See Fantastic Beasts: Grindelwald's Army.

Viktor Krum

Portrayed by: Stanislav Ianevski

Appears in: Goblet of Fire | Deathly Hallows | Cursed Child

"Vot is the point of being an international Quidditch player if all the good-looking girls are taken?"

A world-renowned Bulgarian Quidditch player and the Durmstrang Triwizard Tournament champion. He becomes romantically involved with Hermione during his stay at Hogwarts, much to Ron's fury. He later shows up at Bill and Fleur's wedding, where he is angered by Xenophilius Lovegood's Deathly Hallows necklace. He explains to Harry that the symbol was the mark of Grindelwald. He remains in contact with Hermione, but only as pen pals.

Accent Adaptation: Inverted in the Bulgarian translation: in the fourth book, Viktor's speech is indirect and it's remarked that he has a "characteristic thick accent"; in the seventh, his accent is not written (as Funetik Aksent or otherwise), but his speech pattern is a bit off to make up for it.
The Ace: Becomes a professional Quidditch player good enough to represent his home country of Bulgaria while still in school, and is then selected as Durmstrang's champion in the Triwizard Tournament and acquits himself quite well.
Adaptational Attractiveness: He's a conventionally handsome Hunk in the movie, but in the book, he's described as looking like an "overgrown bird of prey", and isn't considered very handsome by Hermione, who nevertheless goes to the Yule ball with him.
Adaptational Curves: Described as thin in the books, but is muscular in the films.
Badass Bookworm: While most of his time in the library was an attempt to get close to Hermione, he apparently does like books on his own.
Berserk Button: Grindelwald's mark. He recounts a time where some fellow students had copied it down to make themselves look tough until he and some others had "taught them better" and threatens to duel Xenophilius Lovegood for wearing it. Justified, since Grindelwald killed his grandfather.
Big Brother Instinct: As an older, famous athlete who is used to dealing with the media, he quickly comes to Harry's defence when he is hounded by Rita Skeeter.
Big Man on Campus: Being a celebrity athlete, of course he's going to be this. When he arrives in Hogwarts, everyone is excited to meet him and have him sit with them at their table.
Brainwashed and Crazy: Barty Crouch Jr. puts him under the Imperius curse during the third task of the Triwizard Tournament, where he attacks Cedric against his own will.
Chick Magnet: A given, since he's a natural since he's a athlete superstar, even Hermione was attracted to him personality-wise.
Child Prodigy: His Quidditch skills are so great that he becomes an internationally renowned player before he even finishes school.
Did Not Think This Through: To complete the Second Task, he transfigures his head into that of a shark so he can breathe underwater. It works, but once he's back on land he can't undo the spell himself because he can't say the spell.
Dumb Muscle: He appears to subvert this trope, revealing himself as a soft-spoken, thoughtful boy as the story progresses. This is how Ron comes to view him when he starts taking interest in Hermione.
Earn Your Happy Ending: After many years of losing, he finally leads the Bulgarian national team to victory in the 2014 Quidditch World Cup.
Famous-Named Foreigner: Krum was a famous Bulgarian king who ruled in the 9th century.
Get Out!: In the film, he all but says this to Rita Skeeter when she harasses Harry and Hermione before the First Task.
Give Geeks a Chance: Although he is very popular, and could get a lot of other women if he wanted, he goes after the not-so-popular and slightly nerdy Hermione.
Graceful in Their Element: On a broom, he's fast and agile. On the ground, he is described as being "duck-footed."
Husky Russkie: Well, a burly Bulgarian, to be precise. Or as Skeeter put it in the movies, a Bulgarian Bon-Bon.
It's Personal: Like many other characters, he lost family to blood supremacists, which is still a sore point for him. This makes him stand out among his schoolmates, as Durmstrang does not admit Muggle-borns and is run by a former Death Eater.
Kavorka Man: He's unattractive in the books, but nevertheless has a lot of fangirls due to his Quidditch talent.
Lonely at the Top: Implied. He's world-famous and a highly respected athlete, and he has plenty of admirers, but he doesn't seem to have many friends. It's very telling that, when it comes to the thing he'd miss the most, it's a girl he's only known a couple months.
Lovable Jock: Despite his quiet and surly exterior, he is overall a nice young man who happens to be a very talented athlete.
Manly Tears: Cried when he announced his retirement after his defeat at the 2002 Quidditch World Cup. When he came out of retirement and won the Cup in 2014, he cried as well.
Nasal Trauma: A bludger breaks his nose at the 1994 Quidditch World Cup. He's still able to see enough to track the Snitch and catch it.
Nice Guy: The few times we actually hear him talk, he comes off as very nice, if a bit hard to approach because of his fame and appearance. He also genuinely likes Hermione for her intelligence and personality, rather than the way she looks. Years later when he runs into Harry at the 2014 Quidditch World Cup, he happily greets him as an old friend.
No Hero to His Valet: He seems uncomfortable with the hero worship and adoration he receives. Part of why he fell for Hermione and why he ended up on such good terms with Harry is that both saw him as a person and not a famous Quidditch player. Harry in particular empathized with the more annoying aspects of unwanted fame as The Boy Who Lived, allowing him to understand what Krum was going through.
The Quiet One: In the book, it's noted that when he's talking to Hermione at the Yule Ball, it's the first time Harry has ever actually heard him talk. In the film, he only has two lines.
Red Herring: He's a student from a Dark Arts-friendly school like Durmstrang and the favoured pupil of former Death Eater Karkaroff, suggesting he may be involved in the events of Goblet of Fire. Especially when he's also involved in a suspicious situation where he appears unconscious and Barty Crouch Sr. disappears. He turns out to have been completely innocent and just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Romantic False Lead: To Hermione, whom he romances in Goblet of Fire. Their relationship doesn't go much further after he leaves Britain.
Shark Man: Transforms into one in the second Triwizard task.
Teacher's Pet: A one sided version of this. Karkaroff lavishes praise and favouritism upon Krum, who mostly brushes it off.
Troubled, but Cute: Described as surly and glowering, he’s also duck-footed and round-shouldered. Yeah, he’s not actually described as handsome per se, but when he’s seen interacting with Hermione, he's shown to be very sweet. Also, the not-so-handsome part can be explained by Harry’s opinion on the matter being skewed. Even Hermione describes him as not being good-looking (at least before he asks her out). In the movie, this is played straight, depending on personal taste.
Two First Names: While "Viktor" and "Krum" are perfectly valid as Bulgarian given names, his proper surname should be "Krumov" if it had to adhere to the national naming conventions. One could always explain this as wizarding tradition being different, though.
White Sheep: He's probably not the only student to feel this way; he's against Durmstrang's Dark Arts heavy curriculum, preferring Hogwarts' more friendly approach. His grandfather having been murdered by a dark wizard may have something to do with this.
Wronski Feint: Uses the Trope Namer in the Quidditch World Cup.
Younger Than They Look: It's noted that he looks older than his actual age of eighteen.
- In fact, he's probably even younger than this - Ron estimates his age at 'eighteen or so' at the Quidditch world cup, but realistically, for him to still be at Durmstrang, Krum would only be seventeen at the time, and may only have turned eighteen over the course of the Triwizard Tournament.

Augusta Longbottom

Appears In: Philosopher's Stone | Prisoner of Azkaban | Order of the Phoenix | Deathly Hallows

Neville's strict grandmother, who raised him after his parents were tortured into insanity by Death Eaters.

Adapted Out: She only appears briefly in the background of the first movie and is given no lines.
Apron Matron: She's very strict with her grandson.
Hidden Badass: Neville lampshades that the Ministry likely didn't think they needed to send a strong force to capture a little old witch living alone. She ended up putting Dawlish - an Auror, one high-ranking and powerful enough both to be assigned as one of Minister Fudge's personal guards, and be praised for his skills by Dumbledore - in St. Mungos for nearly a month, and had successfully been living on the run prior to the Battle of Hogwarts.
Iron Lady: A formidable witch with a sharp tongue and a good wand arm, and a stern Parental Substitute to her grandson.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's very harsh and strict with Neville, but she does love him and merely wants him to live up to his potential. Once he starts to do so, she's immensely proud of him and helps him in a few ways.
Never Mess with Granny: The Death Eaters did exactly that. They thought they could take her but couldn't and it turns out she sent Dawlish to St. Mungo's. Later on, she joins her grandson in fighting off Death Eaters during the Battle of Hogwarts.
Raised by Grandparents: She is the grandparent, having raised Neville after his parents were tortured into insanity.
So Proud of You: After Neville fought the Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries, she said he was living up to his father's example at last, even buying him a new wand. It becomes even more pronounced after he leads the Death Eater resistance at Hogwarts, telling Neville in a letter that he truly is his parents' son and encouraging him to keep fighting.
Undying Loyalty: She and Neville are two of Harry's earliest and most loyal supporters when the Ministry begins its smear campaign against the latter, going as far as cancelling her subscription to the Daily Prophet.
Unstoppable Rage: When Neville accidentally left the list of Gryffindor common room passwords lying around, allowing Sirius Black to get into the boys' dormitory, Augusta sent him a Howler that shouted at him about how he had brought shame on the whole family.
Why Are You Not My Son?: Augusta never explicitly says it but she praises Harry multiple times through Neville. Neville admits in Half-Blood Prince that he thinks Augusta would love to have Harry as a grandson, but Deathly Hallows proves she's proud of the one she has.
Why Couldn't You Be Different?: She has very little patience for Neville's nervousness, mistakes or ineptitude at magic, and wishes he would turn out more like his parents, who were famous and respected Aurors. He does.

Xenophilius Lovegood

Portrayed by: Rhys Ifans

Voiced by: Mario Filio (Latin American Spanish), Marcelo Torreão (Brazilian Portuguese)

Appears in: Deathly Hallows

"Luna, my love, if you should feel any burgeoning talent today - perhaps an unexpected to sing opera or to declaim in mermish - do not repress it! You may have been gifted by the Gernumblies!"

Xenophilius "Xeno" Lovegood is a rather mad wizard who edits the Quibbler and is the father of Luna. He lives in the area of Ottery St. Catchpole, not far from the Weasleys, in a house that looks like a black tower. He believes in things few other people do, such as the Deathly Hallows, the Crumple-Horned Snorkack, and government conspiracies.

Xeno is very close to Luna, especially after his wife (Luna's mother) died from an experimental spell. Therefore, when Voldemort takes over, he kidnaps Luna to try to shut up Xeno and the Quibbler. Later on, Xeno himself is captured, though he is later released. Harry first sees the symbol of the Deathly Hallows when Xeno appears at Bill and Fleur's wedding wearing the symbol on a necklace.

Agent Mulder: He's a conspiracy theorist like his daughter, and the originator of most of his daughter's strange beliefs.
Bizarre Taste in Food: He enjoys drinking blended Gurdyroots, which taste like booger-flavored Every-Flavor beans.
Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Like daughter, like father. He's the originator of most of Luna's eccentricities, and at Bill & Fleur's wedding, is dressed in bright yellow robes which make him "look like an omelette".
Conspiracy Theorist: He believes, among other things, that Cornelius Fudge is a vicious goblin killer with an army of fire demons at his command, that the Auror office is planning to bring down the Ministry via combination of dark magic and gum disease, and that Rufus Scrimgeour is a vampire.
Easily Forgiven:
- Hermione makes sure the Death Eaters see Harry before they disapparate so Xenophilius won't get in trouble for lying.
- In the film, while Ron was upset over his betrayal, Harry brushes it off as the actions of a desperate parent.
Intrepid Reporter: Despite publishing a lot of blatant nonsense in his magazine, he is also willing to publish truths that the rest of Britain's too afraid to publish.
Knight Templar Parent: When the Death Eaters kidnap Luna and threaten to harm her unless he helps them capture the Golden Trio, he does. When they show up at his house, he puts on a Stepford Smiler act and pretends that everything is well and good at his house in an attempt to keep them there until the Death Eaters arrive. Unlike the ordinary portrayal of a Knight Templar Parent, he is meant to be sympathetic. Hermione even delays their escape so that the Death Eaters can see that he did indeed have the trio to present to them. Harry even noted that his attempts at stopping them for the sake of his daughter reminded him of his own mother.
Lethal Chef: When the Golden Trio makes a stop at his house, he cooks something for dinner that smells like burning underpants.
Loners Are Freaks: He seems to live a fairly solitary life like his daughter.
Mistaken for Racist: Viktor Krum mistakenly thinks he's a neo-Grindelwald sympathizer for wearing the Deathly Hallows symbol.
Meaningful Name: "Xenophilius" is Greek for "lover of the strange," opposite of "xenophobe." "Xeno" also sounds like "Zeno," the name of several Greek philosophers. The most famous one, Zeno of Elea, created several paradoxes, and was described as "the universal critic."
Papa Wolf: He doesn't hesitate to sell out the Trio to the Death Eaters, trying to get Luna back. In the movie, Harry even lampshaded that Xeno was just acting as a desperate parent.
Room Full of Crazy: His house is filled with strange artifacts.
Sanity Slippage: Not that he wasn't already highly eccentric, but he loses it near-completely when Luna is taken from him.
Stepford Smiler: After he publishes way too many supportive articles in The Quibbler supporting Harry Potter, the Death Eaters kidnap Luna and threaten to harm her unless he helps them get their hands on the Golden Trio. He does this by pretending that things are hunky-dory at their house, going so far as to pretend that Luna is still there, despite the fact that he is doing this to trap them and the fact that he is in misery over the fact that his Luna is in the hands of the Death Eaters.
Terrible Artist: Assuming it was him who drew them, his attempts at drawing cartoons of Cornelius Fudge and Sirius Black in The Quibbler aren't very recognizable.
Windmill Crusader: Spends most of his time making reports on non-existent conspiracies and other imagined threats.

Garrick Ollivander

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/ollivander_5994.jpg

Portrayed by: John Hurt

Voiced by: José Luis Orozco (Latin American Spanish, Philosopher's Stone), Víctor Delgado, (Latin American Spanish, Deathly Hallows Part I), Salvador Reyes (Latin American Spanish, Deathly Hallows Part II), Telmo Perle Munch (Brazilian Portuguese, Philosopher's Stone), Jomeri Pozzoli (Brazilian Portuguese, Deathly Hallows Part I and II)

Appears in: Philosopher’s Stone | Goblet of Fire | Deathly Hallows

"Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember... I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. Potter. After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things — terrible, yes, but great."

The most esteemed wandmaker of the British wizarding world. He is an old man operating his family's centuries old wand shop in Diagon Alley, and is the creator of most wands wielded by most of the characters in the series.

Admiring the Abomination: Ollivander towards Voldemort: "After all, He Who Must Not Be Named did great things as well. Terrible, yes - but great."
- An even more extreme example occurs in Deathly Hallows: after a year of imprisonment and torture by Voldemort, Ollivander is still briefly enthralled by the idea of Voldemort being "matched" with the Elder Wand, rumored to be the most powerful wand in history:
  The idea of the Dark Lord in possession of the Deathstick is, I must admit... formidable.
Challenge Seeker: Ollivander appears to be delighted with matching difficult wizards with wands, as shown in the first book where Harry tries an innumerable amount of wands and Ollivander appears to become happier while the pile of tried wands grows higher.
Creepy Blue Eyes: He has pale blue eyes that never seem to blink.
Distressed Dude: He disappears in the sixth book, and is revealed to have been kidnapped by the Death Eaters in the seventh one. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Dobby rescue him when they are captured and detained alongside him in Malfoy Manor.
Family Business: The Ollivanders have been operating their shop since 382 B.C.
Family Theme Naming: Every member of the Ollivander family has a first name starting with "G". You'd only ever know this from reading Ollivander's bio on Pottermore, though, since his first name is never mentioned in the books.
Insufferable Genius: He's not particularly humble about the quality of his own work, and tends to be dismissive of wands made by other wandmakers such as Gregorovitch, but he's still widely regarded as the best wandmaker in the world.
Nightmare Fetishist: A possible example; when Harry is fitted for his wand, Ollivander remarks with what seems to be almost pleasure that Harry has been selected by a wand which was made using the same materials as those used to fashion Voldemort's. Harry is understandably a little weirded out by this, and by Ollivander's next comment that he expects Harry to do great things, because so did Voldemort. "Terrible, yes - but great."
- The movie downplays this a little, where he acts appropriately disconcerted and hesitant, while the book version seems to barely remember the "terrible" part as an afterthought.
- Although he's repulsed of the idea of Voldemort getting the Elder Wand, he's entranced by the idea of the most powerful wizard holding the most powerful wand.
Odd Friendship: He seems to develop one with Luna while they are both held prisoner in Malfoy Manor.
Photographic Memory: Possibly. He can remember the details of every wand he has ever made and who bought it, which could also indicate the uniqueness for such objects and their owners.
Red Herring: Ollivander is mentioned as having gone missing at the start of Half-Blood Prince, and is presumed to have been kidnapped by Death Eaters. However, it's stated that there were no signs of a struggle at his shop, and this, along with his slightly creepy behaviour in earlier books, might lead readers to believe that he has actually joined with Voldemort willingly. The next book reveals that this is emphatically not the case, and he really has been kidnapped, tortured and forced to help Voldemort.

Madame Rosmerta

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rosmerta.png

Portrayed by: Julie Christie

Voiced by: Diana Bracho (Latin American Spanish), Selma Lopes (Brazilian Portuguese)

Appears In: Prisoner of Azkaban | Goblet of Fire | Half-Blood Prince | Hogwarts Mystery

The landlady of the Three Broomsticks inn at Hogsmeade.

Adapted Out: She doesn't appear in the film versions of The Goblet of Fire or The Half-Blood Prince.
Brainwashed and Crazy: In Half-Blood Prince, Malfoy puts her under the Imperius Curse and uses her to smuggle cursed items into Hogwarts.
Dude Magnet: She is quite pretty and has a number of admirers. Ron in particular has a crush on her.
Hidden Badass: Madame Rosmerta does not tolerate any crap in her inn. To wit: James and Sirius always behaved whenever the two were in her establishment, and when Rakepick threatens her, Rosmerta does not back down.
Parental Substitute: When Jacob's sibling uses Legilimency on Rosmerta, they discover that after Jacob was expelled from Hogwarts, Rosmerta let him stay at the inn, and allowed him to practice Legilimency on her.
Regal Ringlets: Her hair is styled this way in the films.
The Watson: In Prisoner of Azkaban, Fudge, Hagrid, McGonagall, and Flitwick explain to Rosmerta the Fidelius Charm and Sirius's supposed betrayal of the Potters and the trio overhear.

Rita Skeeter

Portrayed by: Miranda Richardson

Appears in: Goblet of Fire | Order of the Phoenix | Half-Blood Prince | Deathly Hallows

"What a charismatic quartet! Hello, I'm Rita Skeeter. I write for the Daily Prophet. But, of course, you know that, don't you? It's you we don't know. You're the juicy news. What quirks lurk beneath those rosy cheeks? What mysteries do the muscles mask? Does courage lie beneath those curls? In short, what makes a champion tick? Me, myself and I want to know. Not to mention my rabid readers. So, who's feeling up to sharing? Shall we start with the youngest? Lovely."

A reporter for the Daily Prophet known for her "enchantingly nasty" and often slanderous writings. She is an unregistered Animagus who can transform into a beetle, a fact that makes it easy for her to eavesdrop on people and reveal their darkest secrets to everyone.

Adaptational Attractiveness: The books describe her as a Gonky Femme who also goes overboard with her makeup and accessories, but being played by Miranda Richardson didn't hurt her.
Adaptational Nice Guy: The film version of Goblet of Fire drastically tones down her nastiness, and also removes the detail of her being an illegal animagus who spies on people. She is still portrayed as gossipy, overbearing and insensitive, and still exaggerates her stories for the sake of sensationalism, but she otherwise doesn't come off outwardly malicious. A contrast to the book version who is very much a cruel bully and one of the biggest Hate Sinks in the series.
All Gays Are Pedophiles: She implies this about Dumbledore in Deathly Hallows, nothing his relationship with Harry is "unnatural" and "twisted".
Animal Motifs: Insects. Like an annoying bug, she buzzes around looking for sources of gossip and spreading vicious stories in the Daily Prophet like diseases. And her Animagus form is a beetle.
Blackmail: Rita is on the receiving end of this: After Hermione works out her secret, she threatens Rita into cooperating with her whenever necessary by threatening to report Rita as an unregistered Animagus to the Ministry.
Brilliant, but Lazy: Becoming an Animagus is an extremely difficult bit of magic, implying Rita has some genuine aptitude as a Witch. She used that aptitude to become a gossip columnist.
Bullying a Dragon: Subverted. While she seems hesitant to print the names of the Death Eaters Harry lists, she does so anyway since Hermione still has her blackmailed.
Damned by Faint Praise:
- The Pottermore article "In defence of Rita Skeeter" starts out with some genuine praise towards her skill and willingness to help the heroes (even solely out of self-interest), but eventually devolves into...
  "Er, she had a unique sense of style? And, erm, her pen was cool? And, er... Erm... She wasn't a Death Eater?"
- Her reaction to Quidditch Through the Ages was, "I've read worse."
Demoted to Extra: Her subplot in the film adaptation of Goblet of Fire is significantly cut down, and the revelation of being an illegal animagus who uses her animal form to spy on people is omitted entirely.
Double Entendre: She makes several thinly veiled insinuations about the true nature of Dumbledore and Grindelwald's relationship but jumps to outright innuendo when she says people would think the duel ended when Grindelwald waved a white flag and "came quietly".
Elder Abuse: She took advantage of poor old Bathilda by coming to her house, bewitching her into spilling the beans about Dumbledore, and then stealing from her.
Everybody Has Standards:
- She was just as shocked as everyone else during the trial in Goblet of Fire upon hearing that Barty Crouch Jr. was a Death Eater.
Femme Fatalons: They're even referred to as "talons" on a few occasions.
Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Wears jewelled eyeglasses and is a total bitch.
Hate Sink: One of the best examples in the series until Umbridge came along. She's obnoxious, homophobic, willing to do anything to get a story, and doesn't respect people's privacy and boundaries.
Immoral Journalist: She'll do anything for a good story, such as spying on people, stealing, sensationalising and outright making stuff up. She's also willing to print completely false stories to damage the reputation of people she dislikes.
Molly Weasley: Rita Skeeter goes out of her way to cause trouble, Amos! I'd have thought you knew that, working at the Ministry.
Intrepid Reporter: Antagonist version. Though considering she goes after soft targets like Harry and Dumbledore (unlike Voldemort and Malfoy, who are less likely to allow for "freedom of press"), she doesn't come off as especially bold. More to the point, Hermione Granger successfully intimidates her by blackmail.
Jerkass: To the point of being the only character in the books that Dumbledore treats with open rudeness, as opposed to the condescending politeness he reserves for everyone else he dislikes.
Jerkass Has a Point:
- As sensationalist as her stories are, she actually ends up pegging Dumbledore right in her story on him, From a Certain Point of View at least. She doesn't understand the finer details, nuances of character, and ambiguity. Aberforth Dumbledore, who justifiably begrudges his brother, regards her as a hack and treats her book with contempt.
- She latches onto the disappearance of Bertha Jorkins purely for the chance to whip up some scandal about the Ministry of Magic, but she is right that Ludo Bagman was being very nonchalant about Bertha's absence, especially since she'd been missing for over a month by this point.
Karma Houdini:
- Not initially, but by the final book, she's a successful writer again. In fairness, what we see of her biography of Dumbledore isn't as blatantly untrue as what she had been writing before, though every bit as mean-spirited and biased and Dramatically Missing the Point. As per Word of Godinvoked, she will post-Series write a biography of Severus Snape that will ensure that people doubt his intentions and Heel–Face Turn even in the wizard world, for the foreseeable future.
- Subverted at the end of the 2014 Quidditch World Cup Final. After spending the entire match focusing on the VIP box in which were the Potters and the Weasleys instead of the game, making rude comments about them and their friends, she gets knocked out mid-sentence by a jinx to the solar plexus from Ginny.
- According to Newt Scamander's introduction of the 2017 release of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, she also wrote a slanderous biography of Newt, forcing him to do damage control. Presumably, it was 10% truth, 90% bollocks, as per usual.
Literal Surveillance Bug: Her Animagus form, a small beetle.
Logical Weakness: Transforming into a beetle makes her small and easy to catch. Hermione traps her in a jar enchanted with an Unbreakable Charm, preventing her from turning back.
Making a Spectacle of Yourself: She wears jewelled spectacles studded with rhinestones. In her beetle form, she retains markings resembling those spectacles around her eyes.
Malicious Slander: Or perhaps Malicious Libel. It's amply demonstrated that she's not above lying through her teeth if it will make the story more salacious. Her pen is even enchanted to do this automatically.
Meaningful Name: "Skeeter" is another name for a mosquito, which is a bloodsucking pest that carries and spreads a number of diseases. Perfect for the resident Hate Sink that spreads vicious gossip like a disease. As a bonus, her Animagus form is that of an insect.
Mrs. Robinson: Miranda Richardson's portrayal of Rita Skeeter in the film version comes across as this. Whereas in the book, she was merely a self-serving bitch, here she appears more interested in Harry than any 30+ year old woman should be in a 14-year-old boy. She had an unhealthy interest in him in the book as well, just possibly not for the same reason.
Oral Fixation: In the book, she has a habit of sucking on the end of her Quick-Quotes Quill.
Paparazzi: A typical example of a news reporter in the magical world sadly enough. Although she likes to think otherwise.
Politically Incorrect Villain: She is an absolutely detestable character and also seems to be the only one (outside Muriel who makes a much more subtle and ambiguous insinuiation) who seems to have had a problem with Dumbledore being gay. Or at the very least, she's willing to make homophobic implications when she calls their relationship "unhealthy" and "twisted".
Pragmatic Villainy: Some times, occasionally, very occassionally, she will write the truth despite it being against the Minister's and other corrupt factions interests as her career and the big scoops that maintain it come first and foremost and there isn't much that she can value over it to be bribed with. It helps that she isn't aligned to anyone for real.
Right for the Wrong Reasons: When trying to figure out Skeeter's unnatural knack for digging out secrets, Harry suggests that she might be using bugs (as in, hidden muggle microphones). Ron is fascinated by the idea, but Hermione quickly shuts the theory down, since most electronics don't work at Hogwarts. Turns out Harry wasn't entirely wrong: Skeeter turns into a literal bug to eavesdrop on people.
Smarter Than You Look: She seems like nothing more than an annoying, malicious journalist, but she was able to successfully become an Animagus, which requires significant skill in Transfiguration and Potions, and can result in permanent half-animal mutations if done incorrectly.
Spanner in the Works: Half of the problems Harry (and the Order, to a lesser extent) face in Book 5 are a direct result of Rita's narrative late in Goblet of Fire that Potter is mentally and emotionally unstable. Cornelius Fudge swallows said narrative hook, line and sinker: when Harry reveals that Voldemort's back, Fudge (out of either genuine disbelief or fear for the damage a returned Dark Lord would do to his political career) trumpets that narrative from the rooftops and does everything he can to discredit Harry and anyone else saying Voldemort's back instead of planning a defence. This not only helps the Death Eaters infiltrate and take over the Ministry, it also leads to Umbridge being appointed to Hogwarts. Had Rita Skeeter not written her normal salacious crap, the Second Wizarding War could have gone very differently.
Speak Ill of the Dead: She publishes a scandalous (but not entirely untrue) 900-page biography of Dumbledore exposing a number of unsavoury secrets about his private life, just a few months after his death. Apparently, she gave Snape a similar treatment after the Second Wizarding War.
Twisting the Words: Rita writes only what she thinks would make the most popular story, and so half her work is twisting the facts and words to fit her often slanderous version. The other half is flat-out lying.
Viewers Are Morons: She seems to hold a low opinion on her average reader's intelligence, seeing that she often contradicts herself depending on what can make a juicier story at the time. For example, in an early article during the fourth book she refers to Hermione Granger as "stunningly pretty," only to then describe her in an article published just a few months later as "a plain, but ambitious girl", heavily implied to have done so as revenge for Hermione calling her out on her nosy and gossipy nature. Then again, given how easily the Wizarding World fell into slandering Harry and Dumbledore over Voldemort's return in the next book, it seems her opinion isn't that far off from the truth.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: It turns out she manages to sneak into the Hogwarts grounds for her stories because she's a beetle Animagus.

Hepzibah Smith

Appears in: Half-Blood Prince

An old witch who collected many magical antiquities, and was a distant descendant of Helga Hufflepuff. She appears in a memory extracted from her house elf Hokey, featuring her showing off some of her antiques to Tom Riddle when he worked for Borgin and Burkes, including Helga Hufflepuff's cup and Salazar Slytherin's locket. She was killed for the aforementioned cup and locket, her death used to turn the cup into a Horcrux, with her house elf framed for the act.

Abhorrent Admirer: To Tom Riddle. Though it's clear he goes along with her crush to find out useful information about her collection.
Adapted Out: Among the characters to suffer this in the films.
Collector of the Strange: She hoards antiques and is constantly selling them off or buying more, though Harry wonders how she's able to move throughout her house because of all her belongings.
Fiery Redhead: Subverted. Her ginger coloured hair is just a big wig, although her hair might have been red when she was younger.
Gonky Femme: Age has not been kind to her, and this isn't helped by the large amounts of make-up and ridiculous wigs she wears. She's described as having an appearance similar to large, melting cake.
I Just Want to Be Loved: Her infatuation with the much younger Tom Riddle reeks of some desperation, especially since the only other thing she has going for her at this point in her life is acquiring things to add to her already huge collection.
Oh, Crap!: She has a brief one when she looks Riddle in the face and sees his eyes seem to have turned red, but dismisses it as a trick of the light.
Posthumous Character: She only appears in a memory well after her death.
Rich Bitch: One who makes more money by selling off her antiques or spends it by acquiring more.
Small Role, Big Impact: She only appeared in one chapter of the sixth book, but she was responsible for inadvertently helping Voldemort find his familial heritage by showing him Slytherin's locket and providing him with two Horcruxes, one of which was the focus of most of the sixth and seventh books. Voldemort also used her murder to turn Helga Hufflepuff's cup into a Horcrux.
Tampering with Food and Drink: She was poisoned — the official story is that her house elf, growing senile with age, accidentally put what turned out to be poison in her evening cocoa. Only much later did Dumbledore determine that this was Fake Memories planted by Tom Riddle, so the exact real events are lost to history, but it can be safely assumed that Tom was her true killer.
Too Dumb to Live: She only briefly saw a glimmer of Riddle's true nature, but dismissed it.
Uncanny Valley Makeup: She wears too much rouge.
You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The moment Tom found out much more than he thought he would was the moment Hepzibah's death warrant was signed and she was found dead two days later.

Agnes

Appears In: Order of the Phoenix | Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery

A witch with the head of a dog, who permanently resides at St. Mungo's Hospital in the ward for patients with permanent spell damage.

Ambiguous Situation:
- Her condition is implied to have been caused by a failed Animagus transformation or drinking Polyjuice Potion made with animal hair. However, it could also have been caused by something else, such as trying to Transfigure herself into an animal, or another person casting a spell on her.
- It is unclear how much of her mind remains after her transformation. She lives at St. Mungo's full-time, suggesting that she is physically and/or mentally impaired to the extent that she can't live by herself. However, in Hogwarts Mystery, she can be seen in the background apparently having a conversation with Penny Haywood, so it seems she can still communicate with others to some extent.
Animal Motifs: If she is a failed Animagus, Agnes' animal form would have been a dog had she been successful. But she wasn't, so now she's stuck in St. Mungo's.
Body Horror: Her entire body is covered in fur and can she only bark instead of speaking. Hogwarts Mystery shows her face to be covered in fur, but with human-like facial features.
The Cameo: She appears as a background character in Hogwarts Mystery. Notably this is the first canonical image of what she looks like, as she only appeared in the books and not the movies.
Inept Mage: It is implied that her condition is the result of either a failed attempt to become an Animagus or an improperly made batch of Polyjuice Potion. If it was caused by one of those, it is more likely to be the former, as Pottermore revealed that screwing up the process of becoming an Animagus can result in permanent half-human, half-animal mutations. For comparison, when Hermione accidentally drank Polyjuice Potion made with cat hair, she transformed into a Beast Man, but was still able to speak and her condition was curable.
Riddle for the Ages: Despite speculation, it has not been officially revealed what happened to cause her condition.
The Unintelligible: She is unable to speak, and can only communicate by barking.

Eileen Snape (née Prince)

Appears In: Order of the Phoenix | Half-Blood Prince (in photograph) | Deathly Hallows

The mother of Severus Snape.

The Ghost: She never makes an appearance and is described only by other characters.
Justified Title: The "Prince" of Half-Blood Prince refers to her maiden name. The title itself is a pen name Snape used, because he's a half-blood of Prince heritage.
Muggle–Mage Romance: Except for the "romance" part, since it's implied her husband was abusive to her and their son.
Passionate Sports Girl: She was president of the Hogwarts Gobstones Club.

Edward "Ted" Tonks

Appears in: Deathly Hallows

Nymphadora Tonks' father and a Muggle-born wizard. During Harry's evacuation from Privet Drive in 1997, he and his wife, Andromeda, lend their house as one of the destinations for the Order; specifically, it will be Harry and Hagrid's destination. The Death Eaters pay them a visit after the Ministry's takeover and torture them for their connection to Harry, although they survive. They take in Tonks and Lupin throughout the duration of the former's pregnancy. When the Ministry begin persecuting Muggle-borns, Ted is forced to flee and later killed during a Snatchers' attack.

Adapted Out: The film skips the scene in the Tonks residence, so he does not appear.
Disappeared Dad: Ted is killed by Snatchers shortly before Tonks gives birth. She and Lupin decide to name their son after him.
In-Series Nickname: Edward is called "Ted" by everyone.
Killed Offscreen: Harry, Ron, and Hermione learn about Ted's death from Potterwatch.
Only Known by Their Nickname: Averted, but for the longest time, Ted is only known by that nickname. We only learn about his (and his grandson's) full name from Rowling's post-series notes.

Mrs. Crouch (Unmarked Spoilers)

Appears In: Goblet of Fire

"She told my father that my mother had died to give me freedom. She had not saved me for a life of imprisonment."

— Barty Jr, repeating what Winky said about his mother's sacrifice

The wife of Barty Crouch Sr.

Death by Despair: After her only son was sentenced to Azkaban, her health began to deteriorate rapidly, leaving her in critical condition a year after. Soon after switching places with Barty Jr. in Azkaban, she died due to a combination of her health condition and the effects of the dementors.
Delicate and Sickly: She is described as frail and wispy-looking during her son's trial, and collapsed in grief after the guilty verdict.
Due to the Dead: While she died in Azkaban and was buried there, her husband held a small, private funeral for her with an empty grave.
Dying Alone: She died in Azkaban while transformed to look like her son using Polyjuice Potion, and was buried under his name and identity.
Happily Married: While we don't know much about their relationship, her husband Barty Sr. loved her so much that he honored her request to switch places with their son in Azkaban, even though he was the one who put Barty Jr. there in the first place and was so previously adamant that he should die there for his crimes.
Heroic Sacrifice: As she was dying, she begged her husband to allow her to trade places with their son in Azkaban, using Polyjuice Potion.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: She loved her son so much, she used Polyjuice Potion to disguise herself as him and take his place in Azkaban, allowing him to secretly come home while she died within the prison. With Barty Jr. being an unrepentant Death Eater, this started a chain of events that allowed him to help restore Voldemort to life and power.
Posthumous Character: She died before the events of Goblet of Fire.
Unnamed Parent: She's simply known as "Mrs. Crouch."

Dumbledore family

Percival Dumbledore

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/08aa8f97_eceb_4d57_a80d_304e6f0a8a9f.png

The husband of Kendra Dumbledore and father of Albus, Aberforth, and Ariana Dumbledore.

Disappeared Dad: He was sent to Azkaban when Albus was 10.
Mistaken for Racist: Is believed to have been a Muggle hater due to attacking those boys but it was because of what they did to Ariana, not because they were Muggles. Harry comes to realize it was silly to even think this because he was married to and had three kids with a Muggleborn. In reality, Percival allowed this accusation to stand so that no one would investigate what had happened to Ariana too closely and discover her infirmity.
One-Steve Limit: There are a couple of other Percivals and variants thereof across the franchise, including Percy Weasley and Percival Graves.
Papa Wolf: He hunted and harmed the Muggle boys who tormented Ariana, which earned him a life sentence in Azkaban.
Posthumous Character: Died a century before the start of the series.
Senseless Sacrifice: Percival never admitted the real reason why he attacked the Muggle boys, because he feared Ariana would spend the rest of her life at St. Mungo's if her madness was found out by the Ministry. Regardless, Ariana died eight years later, rendering his sacrifice pointless.

Kendra Dumbledore

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/10b0e62d_90b9_4c54_b7df_f32be0522a65.png

The Muggle-born wife of Percival Dumbledore and mother of Albus, Aberforth, and Ariana Dumbledore. She was killed on accident by Ariana when the latter was 14.

Ambiguously Brown: When Harry sees a picture of her for the first time, the narration notes that her dark hair and facial features remind him of pictures of Native Americans he saw in Muggle school. There are a few ways this can be taken. One is Harry was right although given that her kids have red and blonde hair, she’d be likely be mixed race. However, Harry is an Unreliable Narrator and isn’t a very worldly person (including not even realizing there were wizards in other countries until the fourth book) and lives in a not particularly racially diverse country which adds some ambiguity. Another is that perhaps she was another ethnicity that wasn’t (fully) white and out of ignorance he just mistakenly thought she was Native American. It should also be noted that Harry was looking at a 100 year old photo that had faded and she was in shadow which may have given Harry a false impression of her looks. Perhaps Harry was just wrong and she was white with high cheekbones and dark hair. For what it’s worth, the actor cast to play her in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is actually half-Brazilian but she didn’t make it into the final cut of the film.
The Ghost: She's mentioned both in Deathly Hallows and the third Fantastic Beasts movie but has never physically appeared. She was in Crimes of Grindelwald at some point but for unknown reasons did not make it into either the theatrical or extended cut of the film.
Internalized Categorism: Muriel implicitly accuses her of this at the wedding. She implies that she probably was so ashamed to admit she'd given birth to a Squib that she locked poor Ariana in the house for about ten years for fear of it getting out. Even though she herself came from a Muggle family.
Like Parent, Like Child: Aberforth says Albus learned his secretive and manipulative tendencies from her.
Mage Born of Muggles: She was a Muggleborn witch.
Missing Mom: She was accidentally killed by Ariana when she entered an episode of her madness. Since this happened right after Albus graduated from Hogwarts, he was forced to return home and take care of his family.
Parents as People: Although it’s a little hard to gauge because she’s never appeared, Aberforth seems to resent some of her parenting choices. He paints her as unnecessarily secretive and manipulative and strict with keeping them consistent that Ariana was sick. Albus seems more charitable towards her, however. He paints her as someone who gave up her life to care for Ariana and was utterly devoted to keeping her as happy as possible. He mentions in the third Fantastic Beasts that she’d always make Ariana’s favorite dinner in an attempt to keep her calm but that it didn’t actually seem to work. She was in no doubt a very hard situation but one of her kids ended up resenting her for the way she handled it.
Posthumous Character: Died nearly a century before the start of the series.
The Shut-In: When she moved to Godric's Hollow, she refused to socialize with any of her neighbours, because she was afraid it would overwhelm Ariana's already fragile mind. Bathilda was the only person in town who was on speaking terms with her when she died.
Struggling Single Mother: It's said in Deathly Hallows that the family had fallen on hard times by the time she died.

Albus Dumbledore

See Harry Potter – Albus Dumbledore.

Aberforth Dumbledore

See Harry Potter – Order of the Phoenix Members.

Ariana Dumbledore

Portrayed by: Hebe Beardsall | Unknown- Crimes of Grindelwald.

Appears in: Deathly Hallows | Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (mentioned) ^note | Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

Ariana was the youngest child in the Dumbledore family. When she was six years old, she was attacked by a group of older Muggle boys who saw her doing magic. She developed an obscurus parasite after this and could no longer control her magic, causing her mother to hide her away from the public so she wouldn’t be institutionalized, claiming she was sick. She later died during a fight between her brothers and Gellert Grindelwald, though none of them know who actually did it. Despite being a long dead posthumous character, she is very important to backstory of both Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts.

Adaptational Dye-Job: Blonde in the book, but her portrait in the film shows her with light brown hair. Later, both of her brothers' hair was also turned brown for Fantastic Beasts but interestingly enough, her actor from Crimes of Grindelwald is blonde, though her part was cut.
Ambiguous Situation: There’s conflicting information about what actually happened during the fight that killed her. Aberforth said they all drew their wands, that Grindelwald started crucio-ing him, Albus tried to defend him, and she got caught in the middle. Albus tells Newt that Aberforth drew his wand, he drew his, Grindelwald just laughed, and they didn’t hear her coming down the stairs. Why he omits the crucio-ing and makes it sound like he was the one that escalated is unclear. It could be that he blames himself that much, it could be that he wants to protect Grindelwald out of some mistaken loyalty, or it could just be a slight tweak to canon.
Break the Cutie: Ariana was a sweet young girl, and both her brothers adored her. However, after her encounter with three Muggle boys, she refused to use her magic and went nearly insane, turning her into an Obscurial.
The Ghost: Ariana is mentioned throughout Deathly Hallows and in both the second and third Fantastic Beasts movies but has never directly appeared in any of the franchise's media. Like her mother, she was in Crimes of Grindelwald at some point in development but never made it into either the theatrical or extended cut of the movie. However unlike her mother, there are pictures of her actor's time on set, although her name is not known.
Mercy Kill: Newt suggests in an attempt at comfort that her death in the fight was one of these in a way since she was at least saved a horrific, painful death at the hands of the parasite.
Muggle Born of Mages: Averted, but many people (including Harry, at first) believe that she was a Squib. In reality, she was a witch, but because she was mentally ill, she could not control magic, which tended to break out when she entered an episode.
Nothing Is Scarier: Whatever torment the Muggle boys gave to Ariana so bad she became mentally unhinged for the rest of her life is never detailed. There are several implications and none of them are charming.
The Ophelia: She was never the same after getting attacked, and was said to suffer from mood swings.
Parasitic Horror: Ariana developed an obscurus parasite that attacked her from within. Albus says in the third Fantastic Beasts movie that she lived a life of constant pain and illness and that none of them could do anything about it.
Posthumous Character: Long dead by the time she's even introduced, but her death greatly affects Dumbledore, Grindelwald, and Aberforth almost a century on.
Power Incontinence: She lost all control over her magic after being attacked by the Muggle boys and became an Obscurial.
Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: Like a lot of characters in the franchise, her name comes from Greek mythology. Ariana is a variant of Ariadne, a Cretan princess who helped Theseus slay the Minotaur.
Riddle for the Ages: It's never specified exactly what the Muggle boys did to her, though as mentioned above under Nothing Is Scarier, the potential implications can't be pleasant. Or who fired the curse that killed her in the three-way duel between Albus, Grindelwald, and Aberforth; this question, and the possibility that it was one of them, has haunted Arianna's brothers for over a century. Harry even comes to believe that Dumbledore never investigated it too closely because he preferred the uncertainty over knowing exactly who did it, particularly if it was him.
Self-Made Orphan: It's revealed that Ariana Dumbledore accidentally killed her mother Kendra.
Small Role, Big Impact: She's been dead for about ninety years by the time the books pick up and Harry didn't even know she existed until the last book but she's pretty much the entire reason that famous brother of hers is a teacher instead of an Evil Overlord. Somehow, she manages to even be a more important character to the backstory of Fantastic Beasts.
Superpowerful Genetics: It’s said in the first Fantastic Beasts movie that no known Obscurial made it past the age of ten. Newt says the one he’d recently met in Sudan was eight when she died. Ariana lived to be 14 and even then didn’t die of natural causes. It would turn out that the other known Obscurial who lived past the age of ten is her nephew and he lived at least to his early 30s.
Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Ariana was a sweet little girl who was doomed to an early and painful death simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
True Blue Femininity: Both the dress she's wearing in the portrait and one of the dresses from Crimes that was leaked are blue, though the former is much darker.

The House of Black

In general

The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/black_family_coat_of_arms.jpg

Aloof Dark-Haired Girl/Tall, Dark, and Handsome: The Blacks are tall, thin, and aristocratically attractive, with dark hair and grey eyes, though Narcissa (and possibly others) is blonde.
Big, Screwed-Up Family: Views Fantastic Racism as a duty.
Collector of the Strange: 12 Grimmauld Place contains many Dark artifacts that belonged to the family, including an ornate crystal bottle full of what looks like blood, tarnished silver boxes inscribed with ancient languages, a set of purple robes that try to strangle anyone who wears them, and a grandfather clock that shoots heavy bolts at anyone that passes by.
Even Evil Has Standards:
- In The Crimes Of Grindelwald, it's revealed that the Lestrange Family Tree does not include women on their tree, just listing them as flowers. The Black Family, at least, has enough standards to include the women - and their descendants - on the tree, even if they do occasionally disown them from time to time. It's also implied they have no issues with the women being heads of their families, since Walburga Black is all but said to have been the matriarch of Grimmauld Place and is the one who determines who gets disowned and burned off the family tree tapestry.
- Sirius also claims that while they initially supported Voldemort's cause, they eventually became horrified by what he was willing to do.
Haunted House: By 1995, the family house, 12 Grimmauld Place, has been long abandoned, only inhabited by an elderly house-elf, some screaming portraits of family members, and many bizarre and dangerous Dark artifacts.
Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: One family member, Araminta Black, tried and failed to get the Ministry to pass a bill that would make Muggle-hunting legal.
I Have No Son!: Any White Sheep gets disowned, signified by their name being burned off the family tree tapestry: Andromeda was struck off for marrying a Muggleborn, while Sirius was removed for joining the Order of the Phoenix (Andromeda's thoughts on this are unknown, but to Sirius it's a point of pride).
Impoverished Patrician: For many years they were one of the most powerful and wealthy families in wizarding Britain, right up there with the Malfoy's, but by the time of the series a combination of all their heirs either being killed in action during the first Wizarding War (Regulus), imprisoned in the post-war war crimes trials (Bellatrix), disowned for not being pure-blood supremacists (Sirus and Andromeda), or just married off to wealthier families (Narcissa) has left their house penniless and in ruins. Sirius is still fairly wealthy, but since he was in Azkaban for thirteen years, he obviously couldn't do anything to help.
Maiden Aunt: According to the family tree dating back to 1845, four Black members (namely, Elladora, Lycoris, Regulus I, and Cassiopeia) who were neither disowned nor died prematurely never married and had children. Cassiopeia is one of the last non-disowned Blacks and presumably lives in 12 Grimmauld Place with her married nephew Cygnus until their deaths in 1992.
Off with His Head!: One of the family's traditions is to behead house-elves when they grow too old to carry a tea tray. Afterwards, their heads are stuffed and mounted on the wall.
Posthumous Character: Only three people carrying the Black name are still alive at the start of the series: Sirius (who was disowned), Cassiopeia (Sirius' unmarried great aunt), and Cygnus (father of Bellatrix, Andromeda, and Narcissa). Cassiopeia and Cygnus die in 1992 offscreen, leaving 12 Grimmauld Place empty by the time the Order makes it their new headquarters.
Pretentious Latin Motto: French, but the idea is the same. The family motto is Toujours Pur, meaning "Always Pure".
Punny Name: The family home, 12 Grimmauld Place, is a pun on "grim old place."
The Social Darwinist: They are extremely small-minded individuals who heavily prioritize blood-purity over things like familial love, happiness and concern for the lives of other people who they consider inferior.
Stellar Name: Very nearly all named members of the line are named after stars or other heavenly bodies. The most prominent exceptions is Narcissa, which is derived from Greek myth character Narcissus, and Ted Lupin, who has Black ancestry through his mother. As said mother infamously resented her given name(s), this exception makes sense.
White Sheep: At least one per generation, who all got disowned and burned off the family tree.

Phineas Nigellus Black

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/phineas_nigellus.jpg

^{Click here to see him in Hogwarts Legacy .}

Voiced by: Simon Pegg (Hogwarts Legacy)

The least popular Headmaster of Hogwarts, of the House of Slytherin. He married Ursula Flint and fathered five children (Sirius II, Phineas II, Cygnus, Belvina, and Arcturus), through whom all known Blacks born in and after 1877 could trace their ancestry. After his death, he now lives in two portraits: one in the Headmaster's office in Hogwarts, the other in 12 Grimmauld Place. Because he can travel between the two portraits, Phineas is useful to the Order as a courier.

0% Approval Rating: Least popular headmaster Hogwarts ever had, according to Sirius.
Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Family example: he is very cold to Sirius, but if his reaction to hearing about his death is to be believed, he did care about him. Or rather his family name at least, since Sirius's death means that the Black family is gone for good, as he's the last male heir.
Dead Guy Junior: Presumably named his eldest son after his older brother, Sirius, who died when he was a boy.
Deadpan Snarker: One of the biggest in the books, and that's saying something!
Department of Redundancy Department: Phineas Nigellus Black basically means "Black Black Black".
Famous Ancestor: All known Blacks and people with Black ancestry born in and after 1877 are descended from him, because his brother, Sirius, died when he was a kid, his sister Elladora died without issue, and his other sister Iola married a Muggle and was disowned.
Grumpy Old Man: He tends to grumble a lot, especially when dealing with prideful, arrogant children who think they know best. Though in the context of that scene, he does have a point.
I Have No Son!: His second son, also named Phineas, supported Muggle rights, bringing shame to the family so much his name was burnt off of the family tapestry, and "Phineas" has never been used as a name for newborn Blacks again.
Jerkass: Even at the height of Voldemort's takeover of the wizarding world, his portrait refers to Hermione as a "Mudblood", only to be shot down and rebuked by Severus Snape.
Pet the Dog:
- He is truly devastated over Sirius's death.
- He also gives Dumbledore his honest advice on all matters and chides Harry for being disrespectful towards the Headmaster, even though Dumbledore is directly in opposition to his pure-blood supremacist views.
Portal Picture: Though he's the only one who can use the portal.
Posthumous Character: An odd version, in that while the his portrait is an actual active character, the real Phineas Nigellus is long dead by the time the books take place. Unlike a ghost, portraits seem to be mere copies that suggest the original person rather than their actual spirit.
Racist Grandma: An ancestor variant. Ironically, calling Hermione a "Mudblood" behind her back seems downright tame if you compare him to his descendant Walburga.
Repetitive Name: "Nigellus" means "black" (with a diminutive suffix, so "little black").
Sadist Teacher: Sirius describes him as Hogwarts's least popular Headmaster, and Phineas himself notes that he hated being a teacher. He also gets on very well with Snape as a headmaster.
Sarcastic Devotee: He is honor-bound to assist the Headmaster of Hogwarts, but it doesn't stop him from voicing his own personal disagreements.
Teen Hater: He loathed his students who would be from ages 11 to 18. He thought of them as tedious, self-absorbed know-it-alls. The feeling was probably mutual. Why the Board thought he would qualify as headmaster and why he accepted the job to begin with is anyone's guess.
Unseen No More: Finally appears outside of his portrait in Hogwarts Legacy, although the game is not canon.

Walburga Black

Sirius's mother, who sympathized with Voldemort's goals but did not join the Death Eaters. She lives on through a portrait of herself in 12 Grimmauld Place which has a Permanent Sticking Charm applied to it.

All There in the Script: Her first name is known from the Black Family Tree◊ that J.K. Rowling released, but never used in the books.
Berserk Button: Do NOT make loud noises around her portrait unless you want her to scream your ears off.
Black Shirt: She thought Voldemort had the right idea until he killed Regulus during his first incarnation.
Break the Haughty: After Regulus went missing, Walburga went mad in grief and incessantly tried to make Kreacher tell her where he was, only to have her questions deflected every time, because the latter was honor bound to Regulus himself not to tell anyone where and how he died.
Even Evil Has Standards: Walburga and her husband approved of Regulus joining the Death Eaters at first, but were horrified by the lengths Voldemort would go to in order to attain power, although Sirius doesn't specify exactly what they objected to him doing.
Evil Matriarch: From what Sirius tells us, anyway. She was most likely a very proper lady who prioritized blood purity over things like familial love and the lives of other people who aren't of her social class or race.
Fantastic Racism: As Sirius noted, she was of the kind of wizard who thought Muggles should be treated as slaves or second-class citizens.
Hate Sink: While she has some sympathy with the Loss of both her sons (Sirius Emotionally and Regulus through Death) you cant help but wonder her attitude towards Muggles led to everything Bad that happened to her kids in the first place, Its implied that she Put her Heritage and Backwards beliefs before her Chlidren, Sirius does not have a Positive Memory of her.
I Have No Son!: Blasted Sirius' name off of the Black Family Tree. She also did this to her brother Alphard for financially supporting Sirius, after he died.
Ironic Name: "Walburga" is a weird mix of this and Meaningful Name. Walpurgisnacht is associated with witchcraft, but the actual Walpurga was a saint and opposed witchery. Walburga was the complete opposite of both, a deeply unpleasant wizard supremacist.
Jerkass: Her tendency to purge the family tree of anyone who went against her way of living by burning their name off the list is just the least of her actions.
Kick the Dog: While she may have had many others, disowning her own brother Alphard (and after he died, even!), just because he financially supported Sirius, is pretty low.
Kissing Cousins: She and her husband, Orion, were second cousins. She had the name Walburga Black even before she married.
Large Ham: If her portrait is any indication, she was one in life.
Licked by the Dog: Kreacher loved her.
Meaningful Name:
- Walburg means 'ruler of the fortress'.
- Walburga, or Walpurga, was a Christian abbess and later saint, associated with converting pagans to Christianity and battling witchcraft. Her celebration of Walpurgisnacht (night of April 30-May 1) is also Hexennacht (Witches Night), when witches supposedly gathered at a high mountain to celebrate the change of seasons.
Nice to the Waiter: Kreacher adores her, so this must have been the case.
No Indoor Voice: Her portrait, at least, likes to yell when she speaks.
Outliving One's Offspring: She unknowingly outlived her favorite son, Regulus, by six years, though considering how she went mad in grief after her disappearance, it's hard not to think that she might have suspected it, even though Kreacher refused to tell her no matter how many times she asked.
Parental Favouritism: She favoured Regulus over Sirius.
Posthumous Character: She has been dead for six years by the time the series starts.
Racist Grandma: Might as well be her most well-known trait, even though she had no grandchildren.
The Thing That Would Not Leave: In her own house, no less. Justified due to the Permanent Sticking Charm, her portrait isn't going anywhere.

Alphard Black

Sirius' uncle, younger brother of his mother, Walburga. Because he helped Sirius after he was disowned, his name was burnt off of the family tapestry, as well.

Cain and Abel: The Abel to his sister's Cain, she was the one who wrote off his name from the tapestry, after his act of charity to her son.
Cool Uncle: He left Sirius gold as inheritance, in defiance of the rest of the family's shoddy treatment of him.
Posthumous Character: Long dead before the series started.

Bellatrix Lestrange (née Black)

See Harry Potter – Death Eaters.

Andromeda Tonks (née Black)

Appears in: Deathly Hallows

Nymphadora Tonks' mother. Andromeda is the middle daughter of Cygnus and Druella Black (née Rosier), younger sister of Bellatrix Lestrange and older sister of Narcissa Malfoy. Despite being sorted into Slytherin, she is among the few Black family members who defy their traditionally supremacist views by marrying the Muggle-born Ted Tonks, causing her to be disowned from the family.

During Harry's evacuation from Privet Drive in 1997, she and her husband lend their house as one of the destinations for the Order; specifically, it will be Harry and Hagrid's destination. The Death Eaters pay them a visit after the Ministry's takeover and torture them for their connection to Harry, although they survive. They take in Tonks and Lupin throughout the duration of the former's pregnancy. Andromeda stays in her house throughout the duration of the Ministry's persecution of Muggle-borns and the Battle of Hogwarts, where her daughter and son-in-law die, leaving her to take care of her grandson, Teddy.

Adapted Out: The film skips the scene in the Tonks residence, so she does not appear.
Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Tonks' full name (Nymphadora Vulpecula) was picked by her mother.
Cool Big Sis: Implied to have been this at one point to Sirius - presumably because she was one of the few in the family that also thought the whole blood purity thing was absolutely stupid. Sadly, the two don't seem to have seen each other alive again after Sirius's escape from Azkaban.
Foolish Husband, Responsible Wife: Inverted. Ted has to reassure his restless wife that their daughter will survive after the plan to evacuate Harry goes wrong.
Good Parents: Embarrassing name aside, Dora had an all-around good upbringing from her parents.
Happily Married: Andromeda sacrificed her reputation among her family to be with Ted, after all.
In-Series Nickname: Her name from her husband is "Dromeda".
Nice Mean And In Between: Andromeda is the nice one of her sisters, being a White Sheep in a family of racists.
Outliving One's Offspring: Andromeda outlives her only child.
Parental Substitute: Andromeda cares for her grandson, Teddy, after both of his parents are killed in the Battle of Hogwarts.
Properly Paranoid: Worries about her daughter, who is an Auror, a member of the Order of the Phoenix, and a half-blood "sullying" the "always pure" lineage of the Black family. Three very good reasons for her dear aunt Bellatrix to despise her. Andromeda is proven tragically right.
Strong Family Resemblance: Barring her brown hair and soft eyes, Andromeda looks exactly like her sister, Bellatrix. You've got to wonder if this caused her endless trouble in the past (as Harry's hostile knee-jerk reaction when they first met could testify) and then you realize that's probably why she is rarely seen outside the house.
Token Good Teammate: She, Slughorn, and Leta Lestrange are about the only kind Slytherins in the franchise.
Trauma Conga Line: Poor Andromeda has to endure harsh trials despite only physically appearing in one book. She was disowned by her family when she married a Muggle-born wizard. Because she looks similar to Bellatrix, who joined the Death Eaters and participated in countless horrific acts, she was presumably shunned by other wizards, despite having nothing to do with them. Then her favourite cousin Sirius was captured and imprisoned upon false charges. Just two years after he escaped, Bellatrix murders him. Not even two years later, she is tortured by the Death Eaters because she dared to host Harry Potter. Ted runs away to escape the Snatchers, but is killed anyway. Finally, Dora and Lupin die in the Battle of Hogwarts, leaving her to care for her newborn grandson.
White Sheep: Andromeda is one of the three in her Black generation. She is also an example of a "good Slytherin".

Narcissa Malfoy (née Black)

See Harry Potter – Death Eaters.

Sirius Black

See Harry Potter – Marauders.

Regulus Black

See Harry Potter – Death Eaters.

The House of Gaunt

In general

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gaunt_family.jpg

Illustration from Pottermore.

From left to right: Merope, Marvolo, and Morfin.

Voldemort's maternal family, from which he inherited his wizard parentage and descent from Salazar Slytherin and Cadmus Peverell, along with his ability to speak Parseltongue.

Adapted Out: Left out of the film adaptation of Half-Blood Prince.
Aerith and Bob: Their first names are rather unusual even by the standards of wizards. When Merope was giving birth at a Muggle orphanage and told the matron that her son's middle name was to be Marvolo after her father, the woman wondered if she had come from a circus.
Alliterative Family: The last patriarch of the family was named Marvolo, and his son and daughter were called Morfin and Merope.
Ax-Crazy: Almost all of them had notoriously violent tempers due to generations of inbreeding.
Dark Is Evil: They were a family of Dark wizards, and nearly every single one of them was a rotten person. Even Merope, the most sympathetic of the bunch, essentially super-roofied Tom Riddle to get his child. Especially considering that the last of their line was Voldemort himself. However, Pottermore would reveal Rionach Sayre née Gaunt and her daughter Isolt Steward, who were sympathetic to muggles, with the latter even founding the inclusive Ilvermorny, Hogwarts's American counterpart with her No-Maj husband.
Famous Ancestor: Descended through many, many generations from both Salazar Slytherin and Cadmus Peverell.
Fantastic Racism: Deconstructed. The Gaunts were pure-blood supremacists who married within their family to keep their blood pure and retain their ability to speak Parseltongue. This was not a good idea. Rionach and her daughter would later avert this.
How the Mighty Have Fallen: It's hard to imagine, but there was once a time when the House of Gaunt, pureblood descendants of Salazar Slytherin and Cadmus Peverell, belonged to the aristocratic upper class of wizarding society. Over time, inbreeding to preserve their blood purity, lack of financial sense and a love of grandeur ate up their wallets. By the 1920s, the last three Gaunts, riddled with birth defects and madness, are now living in a derelict shack and with only two valuable heirlooms remaining to their name that the family patriarch refuses to sell due to his pureblood pride.
Hillbilly Horrors: A British wizard example. Inbred, violent people, living in squalor on the outskirts of their town.
Impoverished Patrician: Due to thriftless spending by their ancestors and mental instability caused by generations of inbreeding, Marvolo and his children live in poverty, with only a few heirlooms left as reminders of their lineage; Marvolo refuses to sell them.
Inbred and Evil: Centuries of marrying their cousins led to many, many, many defects and very few morals, though the Irish branch did avert this with Isolt Steward actually marrying a No-Maj!
Insane Equals Violent: Many generations of inbreeding resulted in most of their descendants becoming violent and ill-tempered.
Irony: Heavily inbred because they thought their blood purity would make them invincible. All it did was degrade them into squalor and shame, and it was only when they got some Muggle DNA in their gene pool that their family reattained greatness, for better or worse.
Posthumous Character: The family has been extinct in the male line by the time the series takes place.
Pyrrhic Victory: The clan stayed pureblooded all the way to the end, but drove themselves into extinction, squalor, and ignominy doing so.
Riches to Rags: They were once wealthy and respected, but their lack of financial sense and liking for grandeur meant that their fortunes drained quickly. The last members of the family were reduced to living in a rundown shack near a Muggle settlement, with only two valuable heirlooms remaining to call their own.
Royal Inbreeding: Deconstructed. They were an elite pure-blood family who inbred to keep their lineage pure, leading to mental defects with later generations until irony hit and their last descendant got an infusion of Muggle DNA through his father and grew up to become the most powerful wizard of the modern era. Sadly, it also included all the baggage that came from both sides of his gene pool.
Royally Screwed Up: They were a wealthy, high-class pure-blood family who married their own cousins to keep their blood pure, leading to physical and mental health defects in their members.
Royalty Superpower: They had the genetic ability to speak Parseltongue, which was inherited by Voldemort.
The Social Darwinist: Even more close-minded than the House of Black, especially since they are Salazar Slytherin's descendants. Also like the Black family, they believe that pureblood marriages are more important than true love, happiness and care for others.
Sub-Par Supremacist: They believed themselves to be superior to other wizards because of their bloodline, despite being inbred and living in squalor.
Sssssnaketalk: All members of the family could speak Parseltongue, the language of snakes.
Walking Spoiler: Their existence is pivotal to Voldemort's origin story.
Wicked Wastefulness: Their obsession with grandeur resulted in their family going from the upper echelons of wizarding society to poverty stricken hillbillies.

Gormlaith Gaunt

See Harry Potter Other Canon Humans: Witches and Wizards.

Rionach Sayre (née Gaunt)

See Harry Potter Other Canon Humans: Witches and Wizards.

Corvinus Gaunt

See Harry Potter Other Canon Humans: Witches and Wizards.

Marvolo Gaunt

Marvolo Gaunt was one of the last living descendants of Salazar Slytherin. He was the grandfather of Tom Marvolo Riddle, aka Lord Voldemort.

Abusive Parents: He treated his daughter terribly, forcing her to do all the work around the house and constantly berating her for being bad at magic (which might have been partly because he abused her)! Even his favorite son, Morfin, is shown to fear Marvolo and believed his father would legitimately kill him for losing the ring.
Animal Motifs: Described as physically resembling a "powerful, aged monkey". Possibly justified because he was a descendant of Salazar Slytherin, who also had that description.
Anti-Education Mama: Implied. His children Merope and Morfin were terrible at magic, with it being all but stated that they never attended Hogwarts. It is heavily implied that Marvolo did not allow them to go there because they would have been learning magic alongside Muggle-borns, who he hated due to his belief in blood purity.
Ax-Crazy: He nearly strangled Merope when he found out that she was in love with a Muggle man.
Dead Guy Junior: Merope gave her child Marvolo for his middle name.
Dying Alone: When he was freed from Azkaban, his son was still imprisoned and his daughter had run off to get married. He spent the last years of his life in the cottage, alone and with no one to care for him.
Entitled Bastard: According to Dumbledore, Marvolo expected Merope to have dutifully awaited his return from Azkaban with a hot meal on his table, and was genuinely shocked to learn she'd abandoned him to elope with Tom Riddle.
Evil Old Folks: He was fairly old when he learned of his daughter's infatuation with Tom Riddle.
Hate Sink: He treated his daughter terribly, forcing her to do all the work around the house and constantly berating her for being bad at magic. Because of his bloodline, he thought he was untouchable, and proved to be unreasonable when confronted about his son's attack on Tom Riddle. When Marvolo learned of his daughter's infatuation with Riddle Sr., he tried to kill her in front of a Ministry official, leading to his and his son's arrest. His actions became the catalyst for the wizarding world to descend into chaos when Merope despaired after being left by Riddle and died giving birth to Voldemort.
I Have No Son!: After being released from Azkaban and discovering that Merope had married a Muggle, he never spoke of her name or existence again, implying that she had become this to him.
Never My Fault: His children clearly have never had any formal training in magic, it's all but stated that Marvolo didn't allow them to go to Hogwarts or any other magical school, and his abuse of Merope might have led to her being worse at magic than her brother, yet he still berates Merope for being bad at magic and calls her a "dirty Squib"!
Parental Favouritism: Favored his son Morfin over his daughter Merope at least in part because he thought she was a squib. Even with this, Morfin feared his father.
Pride: Despite living in filthy conditions and being considered an "old tramp" by his Muggle neighbors, he still demanded the respect of other wizards because of his descent from Salazar Slytherin. He preferred living in filth and squalor to selling either of his family heirlooms, the only items of any value that he owned.
Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: When a Ministry official came to summon his son to a hearing for jinxing a Muggle, Marvolo tried to get him out of it by bringing up their family name and status as the last descendants of Salazar Slytherin. It failed, because by then, the Gaunt family had lost all of their wealth entirely and their name no longer carried any meaningful weight, all due to the constant inbreeding in order to preserve their bloodline.
Small Name, Big Ego: Despite living in complete poverty, he felt being a Pureblood descendant of Salazar Slytherin made him untouchable. No one cared by that point, and his attempts to flaunt his supposed status were met with utter failure.
The Social Darwinist: Being an heir of Salazar Slytherin made him one by default. Similar to the House of Black and their family members, he harbored an incredibly parochial view of the world, looking down on Muggleborns and Muggles in general as inferior.
This Is Unforgivable!: According to Dumbledore, when Marvolo returned from Azkaban to find his daughter Merope had abandoned him to elope with Tom Riddle, he never again spoke her name nor mentioned her existence. Dumbledore also speculates that the shock of his daughter defying him in such a way may have helped contribute to his early death not long after. Either that, or he had been so dependent on others for so long, that he never learned how to feed himself and he soon starved to death. In any case, his time in Azkaban had greatly weakened him and he never lived to see Morfin return to the shack.
Too Dumb to Live: Continued to think his bloodline made him royalty, despite the fact that he was living in squalor and disdain. And Dumbledore proposes one reason he died so soon after Merope ran off with Tom Riddle is that he never learned how to feed himself.
Villainous Legacy: His deplorable treatment of his children (particularly his daughter Merope) not only led her to marry the elder Tom Riddle, but also the literal birth of Lord Voldemort himself and therefore many of the conflicts in the Harry Potter series.
Would Hit a Girl: Frequently abused his daughter for being bad at magic. And when he found out that she was in love with a Muggle, he nearly killed her.

Morfin Gaunt

The son of Marvolo Gaunt, brother of Merope Gaunt and maternal uncle of Lord Voldemort. He hexed Tom Riddle Sr. when he discovered that Merope was infatuated with him. Morfin was imprisoned in Azkaban for this and when he came back, his father and sister were already dead. After Voldemort killed the Riddle family, he modified Morfin's memories to make it seem like he was the murderer.

Acquitted Too Late: Voldemort framed him for a murder Voldemort himself committed. Dumbledore found evidence Voldemort was the real culprit, but Morfin didn't live long enough to see the verdict being overturned.
The Alcoholic: After he was released from Azkaban and until he met Voldemort, he lived alone in the Gaunt shack, surrounded by empty bottles.
Asshole Victim: He was a Muggle-hater with psychotic tendencies, who liked to mistreat his sister, is framed by Voldemort for the murder of the Riddle Family, has his memories altered so he thinks he performed them, and spends the rest of his life in Azkaban over this. He even acts proud over thinking he committed the murders and is only upset about losing his father's ring. However both Dumbledore and Harry agree that his death and imprisonment was unjust.
Whatever Morfin Gaunt was, he did not deserve to die as he did; blamed for a crime he didn't commit.
Ax-Crazy: When your favorite pastimes include torturing snakes and hexing random Muggles that pass by your family's shack, you might have issues.
Bad People Abuse Animals: That dead snake nailed to the door of the Gaunt shack? That was his work. He's seen threatening another one with the same fate.
Big Brother Bully: He was as horrible to his sister as Marvolo was, standing by and laughing as she was abused. He gleefully told their father about her crush on a Muggle, despite knowing what he would do to her if he knew.
Big Ol' Unibrow: He is portrayed with one in Pottermore art featuring him and his family.
Dying Alone: He was framed for murdering the Riddles and spent the rest of his life in Azkaban. Dumbledore visited him and managed to prove that his memory of the murder was a Fake Memory, but by then Morfin had been so weakened from his ordeal that he simply died, and was buried by the dementors within the prison walls, with no family or friends to claim his body.
Eyes Out of Sight: By the end of his life, his hair was so overgrown and filthy that it covered his eyes and mouth.
Failed a Spot Check: When the teenage Voldemort appeared at the Gaunt shack for the first and last time, Morfin commented that "he look[ed] mighty like that Muggle", but wasn't able to put two and two together that this boy, who knew Morfin's father's name, looked a great deal like the man Merope ran off with, and had the Gaunt family gift of being able to speak Parseltongue, might just have been his nephew. Possibly justified if he was unaware that his sister had a child as Tom Riddle left Merope while she was still pregnant, and because he was mentally unstable.
Fall Guy: Voldemort framed him for the murder of the Riddles. He used Morfin's wand to kill them and modified Morfin's memories so even he believed himself to be the culprit.
Fish Eyes: His eyes pointed in opposite directions, possibly a genetic defect caused by inbreeding.
Freudian Excuse: Implied, Morfin was raised in a shack with a deranged bigoted father that taught him all the wrong things. Morfin also believed his father valued one of the family heirlooms, the ring, over him.
Hidden Depths: He couldn't keep house, but unlike his father, Morfin had enough sense to learn how to feed himself, albeit poorly. In addition, given his talent for non-verbal hexes, Morfin likely did have some potential that his father forced him to throw away.
Kick the Dog:
- His favourite pastime was hexing random Muggles as they passed by.
- His second favorite hobby was torturing snakes, usually by nailing them to the door. Which is even more disturbing when one realizes he's a Parselmouth, which means he fully understands the snakes, and that he does this despite being descended from infamous snake-lover Salazar Slytherin.
- He sadistically tattles to Marvolo about Merope's crush on Tom Riddle Sr., even as his sister silently begs him not to.
Last of His Kind: The last of the male line Gaunt family members. The family became extinct in the male line upon his death.
Madness Mantra: "He'll kill me for losing his ring." This was apparently all Morfin said when he was arrested, as he was horrified that Marvolo's ring was missing (the young Voldemort had stolen it as a trophy). According to Dumbledore, he said nothing else for the rest of his life.
Right for the Wrong Reasons: He condemns his sister's marriage to Tom Riddle Sr., and says that she deserved to be abandoned by him. His reasoning is based purely on racism, rather than the fact that she drugged and raped the poor man.
Sssssnaketalk: He spoke almost entirely in Parseltongue, using it to communicate with his father and pet snakes.
Sympathy for the Devil: Morfin was an unrepentant wretch through and through, but Harry and Dumbledore still pity him, as he was imprisoned in Azkaban for the rest of his life for a crime he didn't commit.
Trash of the Titans: Eventually he was the only one living in the Gaunt shack. When Voldemort visited it, the ceiling was strung with cobwebs, the floor was covered in grime and strewn with empty alcohol bottles, and the table was covered by rotten food and rusting pots.
Unskilled, but Strong: He appears not to have had any formal training in magic or ever gone to Hogwarts, but he was good at casting disgusting Dark hexes and jinxes, including spells to render someone covered in boils or make yellow pus spew out of their nose. His favourite targets were passing Muggles. Surprisingly, he's also good at nonverbal spells, which aren't learned at Hogwarts until sixth year and are notoriously difficult.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: When he hexed Tom Riddle Sr. This simple act set off a chain of events that not only ended up destroying both of their families, but also gave rise to the most dangerous Dark Wizard of all time.

Merope Riddle (née Gaunt)

Appears in: Half-Blood Prince

The mother of Tom Riddle aka Lord Voldemort. She was abused by her father and brother (due to them thinking she was a Squib) until they were sent to Azkaban, and drugged Tom Riddle Sr. with a potion, marrying him when he was too infatuated with the potion to consent. When she became pregnant, she stopped giving him the drug, apparently hoping he had genuinely fallen in love with her over time or would at least remain for their child. He immediately left, sending Merope into a depression so deep that she only hangs on long enough to give birth to her son, then passes away.

Abhorrent Admirer: Merope was very homely, poor, mentally ill and a witch whom had feelings for the handsome, rich, and cultured Muggle, Tom Riddle. Even without the fact that Merope's brother harassed Riddle for attracting Merope, he had no attraction to her whatsoever without being drugged by a Love Potion.
Abusive Parents: Her father belittled her and abused her because he suspected her to be a Squib, despite the fact that he was completely dependent on her to feed him.
Adapted Out: Barring one passing mention from Dumbledore, she has no role in the films.
Alas, Poor Villain: She does reprehensible things, but she has a very pathetic life and death. Harry is dismissive that she couldn't bring herself to live for her son, but Dumbledore has pity for her since she went through a lot of misery.
Babies Make Everything Better: She stopped using the love potion/Imperius Curse on Tom Riddle when she got pregnant, believing he had either genuinely fallen in love with her or would stay with her for the sake of their child. She was wrong on both counts.
Broken Bird: She was treated horribly by her father and brother for most of her life, and grew up in poverty, ultimately becoming a date-rapist.
...a girl whose ragged grey dress was the exact colour of the dirty stone wall behind her. She was standing beside a steaming pot on a grimy black stove, and was fiddling around with the shelf of squalid-looking pots and pans above it. Her hair was lank and dull and she had a plain, pale, rather heavy face. Her eyes, like her brother's, stared in opposite directions. She looked a little cleaner than the two men, but Harry thought he had never seen a more defeated-looking person.
Dating What Daddy Hates: She elopes with a Muggle man, which her father believes This Is Unforgivable!
Death by Childbirth: She dies giving birth to Tom Riddle, Jr., who later renames himself Voldemort.
Death by Despair: When the love of her life left her due to her actions, she no longer had a reason to live, not even to be there for her son.
Despair Event Horizon: Being abandoned by Tom Riddle, Sr led her to stop trying to live.
Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Averted. Even if her actions concerning Tom Riddle, Sr. are never called rape, they're still recognized as being disgusting.
Extreme Doormat: Due to the abuse she suffers from her father and brother.
Fish Eyes: Her eyes stare slightly away from each other, a condition called strabismus.
Foil: Like Lily Potter, she was a young mother whose choice would determine the fate of the wizarding world. Lily had a happy (albeit short) life with friends and family who loved her, married a man who loved her as much as she loved him, and willingly died to save her infant son, Harry, who would grow up to become a great hero. Merope led a hard life, abused by her family and desperately searching for love she could not find, was left by the man she coerced into a relationship using a love potion, and died of despair, leaving behind her son Tom, who would grow up to become the most dangerous Dark wizard of all time.
Dumbledore: Merope Riddle chose death in spite of a son who needed her, but do not judge her too harshly, Harry. She was greatly weakened by long suffering and she never had your mother's courage.
Hillbilly Horrors: Her entire life and childhood is representative of this trope.
Hot Guy, Ugly Wife: The book makes it very clear that Tom Riddle was a handsome man and that Merope was an ugly woman (Mrs. Cole, the orphanage matron, comments to Dumbledore that she was "no beauty"), the result of a family that committed incest and many years of physical and psychological abuse at the hands of her father and brother. This, along with the fact that Tom was rich and Merope was poor, makes Harry wonder how they could have fallen in love, considering they both had nothing in common. This is what makes Dumbledore sure that Merope has used a love potion while Harry speculates she used the Imperius Curse.
I Just Want to Be Loved: Because she was never loved by her family, she was desperate for someone (specifically Tom Riddle Sr.) to love her. She stopped giving him love potions/the Imperius Curse once she became pregnant, hoping that he would love her on his own or at least stay with her for their child's sake. He understandably didn't.
Inept Mage: She wasn't very good at magic, leading to her father abusing her and calling her a Squib. Her attempt to levitate a pot caused it to shoot across the floor and smash against the wall. However, once her father and brother were packed off to Azkaban, her magical ability flourished to the point where she could successfully brew a love potion. (That wasn't a good thing, as we later see.)
Meaningful Name: In mythology, Merope was a nymph who married a mortal. Merope Gaunt renounced her status as a witch to marry a Muggle. The mythological Merope was also the seventh of her sisters, and Merope Gaunt's son become obsessed with the concept of seven being the most powerfully magical number, eventually making himself seven Horcruxes.
Missing Mom: Specifically, Voldemort's missing mom. She also had one herself, who was never seen in the books.
Posthumous Character: She's been dead for over sixty years by the time the series starts.
Psychoactive Powers: Her magical abilities were greatly weakened because of her father and brother constantly abusing her, making her (and them) believe she was no good at magic, which made her father think she was a Squib, which made him abuse her more. When they were packed off to Azkaban, her magical ability flourished, but sank to its lowest point when she was abandoned by her husband. By the time she was about to give birth, she couldn't even muster up enough magic to save her own life, and died less than an hour after giving birth to her son.
Psychosomatic Superpower Outage: Dumbledore suggests that, after Tom Riddle Sr. left her, Merope's despair caused her to lose her magic and led to her Death by Despair after giving birth to their son.
Rich Suitor, Poor Suitor: Merope was a poor and ugly witch, while Cecilia, Tom Riddle Sr.'s girlfriend, was a rich and pretty Muggle woman. But Merope won because she used magic to bewitch Tom Riddle Sr. into loving her and marrying her.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After her abusive father and brother were carted off to Azkaban, Merope wasted no time in making arrangements to elope with Tom Riddle and leave her abusive home behind.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: She was an Extreme Doormat due to being abused by her father and brother, which hampered her skill at magic. This made her father believe she was a Squib, giving him an excuse to abuse her even more, which weakened her magic even further.
Slipping a Mickey: She did this to Tom Riddle, Sr. once both her father and brother were locked away in Azkaban and she had an opportunity. Harry speculates that she could have also used the Imperius Curse.
Small Role, Big Impact: She's only introduced in the sixth instalment, but her actions lead to huge points in the story.
Stalker with a Crush: Towards Tom Riddle Sr. before she tricked him into drinking a Love Potion.
Teen Pregnancy: She married Tom Riddle, Sr. at the age of eighteen and died giving birth to their child at the age of nineteen.
Trauma Conga Line: Merope's entire life was nothing but a long series of miseries. She was the target of constant abuse by her father and brother, never got to go to Hogwarts (most likely because her father believed she was a Squib and/or hated the outside world that much), and fell in love with a man she knew would never want her. She either used a love potion or the Imperius Curse to make him fall in love with her and have her child, but stopped using it after a while, hoping he had genuinely fallen in love with her. He had not and was horrified by what she did to him. When he escaped her, she fell into despair and died giving birth to their son.
The Un-Favourite: Her father seems to favor her brother more than her.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: She only wanted to have someone that would love her. She ended up giving birth to Voldemort - which might not have been so bad if she hadn't died of despair, leaving him in the orphanage.
Yandere: For Tom Riddle, Sr., big time. She stalked him, drugged him with a Love Potion, and being abandoned by him plunged her into so deep a depression that she couldn't even go on after giving birth to his child.

The Peverell Brothers

In general

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/peverell_brothers.jpg

Left to right: Cadmus, Antioch, and Ignotus

The original owners of the Deathly Hallows, the three most powerful objects in the wizarding world, which according to Beedle the Bard, they allegedly obtained from Death as rewards for outwitting him. Their story is told in The Tale of the Three Brothers, while the Deathly Hallows themselves feature in the eponymous book, where they prove instrumental in Voldemort's final defeat.

Enemies with Death: According to Beedle, they became this after managing to traverse a treacherous river that many others had died trying to cross. As such, Death created the Deathly Hallows with the intent that they would eventually bring about the brothers' deaths.
Nice, Mean, and In-Between: The tale portrays them as such. Ignotus is made out to be the wisest of the three brothers with no dickish traits, and he accepted his natural passing as an old man with dignity while handing the Cloak that had ensured his survival down to his son (Nice). Antioch sought nothing more than power in his gift from Death, and he used the Elder Wand to murder a man in a bar brawl for provoking him before boasting of his power (Mean). Cadmus, when he asked for the Resurrection Stone, wanted to rub salt in the wound to Death's ego but he also wanted to use the Stone to bring back his deceased fiance, killing himself to rejoin her when he realized complete resurrection was impossible (Inbetween).
Posthumous Character: They have been dead for centuries. According to Hermione, the Peverells were among the first wizarding families in Britain to become extinct in the male line.
The Problem with Fighting Death: The two older brothers let the thought of outwitting Death get to their heads, and sought to humiliate him by requesting prizes that boasted of this fact. Said prizes would ultimately wind up leading to their untimely ends. Averted with Ignotus, whom Dumbledore states understood that We All Die Someday, and simply opted for something that would let him evade Death's detection for as long as possible.
Real After All: While the Peverell Brothers were real people and that the Deathly Hallows were real objects, it is unknown if anything else depicted in The Tale of the Three Brothers actually occured, and how much of it was embellished by Beedle. Dumbledore himself doubts the veracity of the claim that the brothers met Death and received the Hallows from him, instead believing that the Peverells were simply very skilled wizards who created the fabled items themselves.
Rule of Three: There are three brothers and three Deathly Hallows, each one associated with a specific brother.
Shrouded in Myth: The most oft-told story about them, the Tale of the Three Brothers, was a fairy tale written by Beedle long after their deaths, and because of this, it is uncertain how much of it was true. For his part, Dumbledore is skeptical of the story's main claim, that the Hallows were created by Death, and instead ascribes their creation to the brothers themselves.

Antioch Peverell

The eldest of the three brothers, Antioch is described as a "combative man". He was the possessor of The Elder Wand.

Asshole Victim: He waved the Elder Wand around everyone and boasted about his power after defeating a rival of his. Later that night he gets killed in his sleep.
Be Careful What You Wish For: He asked to become powerful enough to defeat anyone who might try to kill him; Death gave him the Elder Wand, which made its holder un-defeatable in combat. He was killed in his sleep for it, starting a chain of killings that continued every time the Wand re-surfaced.
Blood Knight: He was described as combative. After getting the Elder Wand, he almost immediately used it to kill another wizard with whom he had argued.
Easy Come, Easy Go: He only had the Elder Wand for a day or two before someone stole it while he was sleeping and slit his throat.
In Vino Veritas / Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: After using the Elder Wand to slay a wizard with whom he had a prior quarrel, Antioch went to an inn to drink, whereupon he boasted loudly of the wand and how he won it from Death. That night, another wizard snuck into his room and stole the wand, slitting Antioch's throat for good measure.
Meaningful Name: Antioch was a city in the Middle East that was one of the most important Roman settlements in the East, but gradually declined because its location made it a repeated battleground among various empires.
Slain in Their Sleep: How he met his end.
Slashed Throat: A thief killed him in the dead of night via this to get their hands on the Elder Wand.
Too Dumb to Live: According to Ron, only a total prat would run around boasting about wielding the most powerful wand ever and challenging others to duel for it.

Cadmus Peverell

The middle of the three brothers, Cadmus is described as an "arrogant man". He was the possessor of The Resurrection Stone.

Be Careful What You Wish For: He asked to nullify Death's power. Death gave this brother the Resurrection Stone, which could resurrect the dead. It worked as promised, but it turns out that the dead really don't like being brought back to life. He tried to use it to resurrect his lover, but killed himself upon realizing this.
Dies Differently in Adaptation: He is invariably said to have committed suicide, but the method varies between adaptations. In the chapter art for The Tales of Beedle the Bard, he poisons himself; in the film adaptation of Deathly Hallows — Part 1, he hangs himself; in the Deathly Hallows — Part 1 video game, he kills himself with the Killing Curse.
Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: He wanted to humiliate Death when he asked for something that could bring the dead back to life. He paid for it when the girl he loved Came Back Wrong and he ended up killing himself so he could be with her forever.
Driven to Suicide: He does this after bringing his dead lover back to life, kind of, but realizing he can never really be with her in this form.
Famous Ancestor: His descendants married into the Gaunt family, who inherited the Resurrection Stone, making him ancestor to Voldemort. By the start of the series, Voldemort is one of the last Peverells by blood, alongside Harry (who is descended from Cadmus' brother Ignotus).
The Lost Lenore: The woman he loved died before they could marry. He tried to bring her back with the Resurrection Stone, but ultimately was driven to suicide by longing when it turned out she couldn't be fully resurrected.
Meaningful Name: Cadmus is similar to cadmium, a toxic element that progressively accumulates in the body and leads to a painful death. It reflects well the decay of the Peverell brother because of the Resurrection Stone.
Together in Death: He used the Resurrection Stone to bring back the girl he loved, but she could only exist as a ghost, sad and cold. Driven mad with longing, he killed himself so he could be with her in the afterlife.

Ignotus Peverell

The youngest of the three brothers, Ignotus is described as a “humble but wise man”. He was the possessor of the Cloak of Invisibility.

Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Played with. While he did unambiguously die, he is described in The Tale of the Three Brothers at the end of his life as greeting Death as an old friend and departing the living world with him as equals. The movie adaptation depicts Death picking up Ignotus and flying away with him into the distance.
Don't Fear the Reaper: The youngest Peverell brother, having lived to age after a full life, meets up with death like an old friend. The movie actually shows the two embracing. It's surprisingly heartwarming in the context.
Face Death with Dignity: When it was his time to go, he was said to have greeted death as an "old friend" and they left together.
Famous Ancestor: The Potters, including Harry, are his descendants. Since they lived in Godric's Hollow, where Ignotus' gravestone is located, and continued the tradition of passing the Cloak of Invisibility to their children, it's possible that Ignotus' descendants never really left the village.
Meaningful Name: The word "Ignotus" means "unknown" in Latin, possibly referring to his mastery of invisibility and success in hiding from Death. The Harry Potter wiki has more interpretations of his name.
Odd Name Out: the only one of his brothers not named after a Greek mythological figure, probably done to emphasises how different he was from them in personality.
Rule of Three: The third brother does not meet an untimely death.
We All Die Someday: Accoding to Dumbledore's commentary on The Tale of the Three Brothers, Ignotus understood that death is inevitable and unavoidable, and that the best he could do was delay his next encounter with Death for as long as possible. This was why he choose the Cloak of Invisibility as his prize, so as to hide from Death for a while longer.
Wizards Live Longer: Seemingly averted. Despite Beedle's claim that Ignotus attained a "great old age", his gravestone in the films show that he died at the age of 77, which is not considered old in wizarding terms. However, it is possible that during the time Ignotus lived, the 1200s, life expectancy was considerably shorter than it is in the present day. Alternatively, because The Tale of the Three Brothers is a fairy tale, not everything stated therein might have happened in reality.
Worthy Opponent: Departs from the mortal world willingly with Death after the latter spent countless years even decades hiding from him. The tale referred that Ignotus saw Death as an "Old Friend" and willingly departed with him as his equal after passing on the Invisibility Cloak on to his son.
Youngest Child Wins: The third Peverell brother is the only one who doesn't die as a consequence of his Hallow, which he uses to hide from an early death. He has a son, who he hands his invisibility cloak to and eventually passes away peacefully.

The Deathly Hallows

In general

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/deathly_hallows_7.png

Believed by most of the wizarding world to simply be a legend and figments of Beedle's imagination, the "Deathly Hallows" is the collective term for the three magical objects given by Death to the Peverell Brothers as prizes for outwitting him. However, to those who believe in their existence, the Deathly Hallows are commonly regarded as the three most powerful objects in the wizarding world. They are the Elder Wand, given to Antioch, the Resurrection Stone, given to Cadmus, and the Cloak of Invisibility, given to Ignotus. In their eponymous final novel of the Harry Potter series, the objects are revealed to be Real After All, and feature prominently in the plot.

Adaptational Attractiveness: All of the Hallows underwent this in the films, as they appear more visually ornate when compared to their considerably plain appearances in the books.
- The Elder Wand is depicted on Pottermore as being rather unassuming in appearance, having a smooth, unadorned shaft and a handle formed from two conjoined spheres. In contrast, it is considerably more ornate in the films, with nodules running down its length, and a small bone inlay near the handle inscribed with runes. This is likely due to the fact that the film wand was first designed as Dumbledore's wand before it was revealed to be the Elder Wand.
- In the books, Marvolo Gaunt's ring is described as ugly and clumsily made from gold, with the Resurrection Stone set in it being described as large and heavy. While still golden, the filmmakers instead opted to give the ring a more elegant and detailed design, making its prongs resemble a pair of snake heads biting the Resurrection Stone. The stone itself in the films is considerably smaller and more symmetrical than the book description, and cut to resemble a black diamond.
- The Cloak of Invisibility is described in the books and depicted on Pottermore as being made from fluid-like, albeit plain-looking, silky and slivery material. In the films, it is instead made from darker colored material, and ornately decorated with runic, alchemical, and astronomical symbols.
Ancestral Weapon: While not weapons, two Hallows, the Resurrection Stone and the Cloak of Invisibility, were passed down through many generations of the House of Gaunt and the Potter family respectively, owing to their descent from the Peverell Brother associated with the respective Hallow.
Arc Symbol: The symbol of the Deathly Hallows winds up being this in the last two novels and the Fantastic Beasts prequel film series.
- It first appears in the sixth novel, where, carved into the Resurrection Stone, Marvolo Gaunt misidentifies it as the Peverell family's coat of arms, an early hint towards the stone's connection to the family and its status as one of said Hallows. The symbol would then recur throughout the seventh and final novel, where it catches Harry and Hermione's attention and eventually leads them to realize that the Hallows are Real After All.
- In the Fantastic Beasts films, Grindelwald, obssessed with tracking down and obtaining the Hallows, uses the symbol to identify himself and his followers, which in turn, causes the symbol to become largely associated with him by later wizards.
Artifact of Doom: The Elder Wand and the Resurrection Stone have acquired a reputation for being this, which may not be surprising, as Death allegedly created them with the intent of causing the deaths of the brothers he gave them to.
- Owing to its reputed status as the most powerful wand in existence, the Elder Wand proceeded to cut a long and bloody swath across wizarding history. This was helped by the fact that many wizards were willing to murder in order to acquire the wand. In fact, several of the wand's masters came by it through murdering the previous master, and would then be killed by someone else coveting it in turn. This is averted when Dumbledore and Harry gain mastery of the wand, as they strictly used it for noble purposes, with the latter even deciding that it's more trouble than its worth.
- The Resurrection Stone cannot bring back the dead as living people, instead causing them to emerge as disembodied spirits that express discomfort at being summoned back to the living world. This caused Cadmus so much distress when he summoned his deceased lover that he was Driven to Suicide to join her in death. The stone becomes this more literally when Voldemort acquires it and turns it into a Horcrux, putting a powerful curse on the ring it is set in, designed to kill whoever wears said ring. Dumbledore falls victim to the curse when he attempts to use the stone, which ultimately leads him to have Snape Mercy Kill him so that he does not suffer an Undignified Death from the curse.
Beyond the Impossible: As the most powerful objects in the wizarding world, each of the Deathly Hallows possesses traits that defy the conventions of magic.
- Aside from its immense magical power, the Elder Wand is capable of repairing other wands, a feat thought to be impossible by expert wandmakers such as Ollivander. Most notably, Harry used it to fix his phoenix feather wand after it was snapped in half. The Elder Wand also switches loyalty from master to master with an ease that is greatly unusual for a wand, as it only cares about serving the strongest master it can find.
- The Resurrection Stone is the only known object capable of allowing someone to communicate with the spirits of deceased people who have moved on to the afterlife. The only other known method is the exceedingly rare Priori Incantatem effect, which only works if one of the involved wands was used to murder and is limited to people said wand has killed. It is also the only known object that was exposed to basilisk venom, or something capable of replicating its effects (like the Sword of Gryffindor), and surviving relatively intact. However, according to a tweet from Rowling, Dumbledore's magical abilities likely also played a role in maintaining the stone's integrity and allowing it to withstand the destruction of the soul fragment it contained.
- Despite being several centuries old, the Cloak of Invisibility shows no signs of wear and tear, and still works perfectly. This is despite the fact that invisibility cloaks generally wear out or lose their effectiveness over time. The cloak is also unaffected by a number of spells and enchantments and can resist spell damage, a vulnerability possessed by other such cloaks.
Chekhov's Gun: All of them were introduced in books prior to the last, as objects associated with important characters in the series. However, it would not be until the epynomous final book wherein knowledge on them being legendary magical objects, and their relevance resolving the plot becomes known.
- The Elder Wand debuted in the first novel simply as the wand used by Dumbledore. It would play a far greater role in the final novel as the wand that Voldemort sought to obtain to become invincible, and would ultimately wind up being responsible for causing his death when it reflects his Killing Curse back at him, as it refuses to harm its master at the time, Harry Potter.
- Downplayed with the Resurrection Stone, which first appeared as an already destroyed Horcrux of Voldemort's in the sixth novel. While not yet identified as a Hallow, its connection to the Peverell family is already established, owing to the Deathly Hallows symbol carved into it. Harry would use it in the final novel to summon the spirits of his loved ones to give him the courage to enable his self-sacrifice at Voldemort's hands.
- The Cloak of Invisibility also appeared in the first novel as a Christmas gift to Harry from Dumbledore, and is simply told that it used to belong to the former's father. While Harry would use it sporadically to sneak around Hogwarts, it plays a pivotal role in the final novel, where it's used by the trio in searching for and destroying Voldemort's Horcruxes.
Doing In Death: Dumbledore suggests that the Hallows were merely exceptionally powerful and dangerous objects created by the Peverell brothers that picked up the reputation of being Death's hallow due to their notoriety.
Exactly What It Says on the Tin: All of them are examples of this trope.
- The Elder Wand is a wand made from elder wood.
- The Resurrection Stone is a stone that can bring back the dead to interact with a living user.
- The Cloak of Invisibility is a cloak that makes its wearer(s) invisible.
Fighter, Mage, Thief: The traits of each Hallow broadly falls in line with one of these archetypes.
- The Elder Wand is the Fighter, as it was allegedly capable of making its master undefeatable in a Wizard Duel, and could augment its master's spells with raw magical power that many considered to be leaps and bounds above that of any other wand.
- The Resurrection Stone was the Mage or the closest magical equivalent, as it could summon the spirits of the deceased to the living world, which rendered it preternatural even by wizarding standards, as no other object could replicate this feat.
- The Cloak of Invisibility was the Thief, as it could make its user invisible, allowing them to sneak around without detection by others. It could also No-Sell certain spells, such as the Thief's Downfall, a waterfall meant to stop bank robbers.
Gotta Catch Them All: This is the goal of some wizards who believe in the existence of the Deathly Hallows, most notably Dumbledore and Grindelwald in their youth. Ironically, Dumbledore would wind up coming across and handling all three Hallows at various points in his life, long after giving up on this ambition. Harry would also similarly acquire and master all of them as well, despite having no intention of owning the Elder Wand or the Resurrection Stone.
Immortality Inducer: Most who believe in the existence of the Hallows also wrongfully assume that they will bestow this upon the person who gathers them together. There is even a title for such an individual, the "Master of Death". In actuality, a true Master of Death understands that We All Die Someday, and that there are worse things out there than dying.
Irony: The personalities of the most famous owners of the Deathly Hallows are notably contradictory to the traits of their respective Hallows.
- Albus Dumbledore was notably a pacifist who believed in seeing the good in others, and strongly believed in love as the most powerful form of magic. On the other hand, the Elder Wand was largely used as a powerful weapon, and many wizards fought and were killed over it.
- Lord Voldemort had a Mortality Phobia and went to extreme lengths to attain Immortality, most notably splitting his soul into several Soul Jars to avert his death. The Resurection Stone wound up being one of those, and it could recall the spirits of the dead to commune with a living user. The Stone is also used to summon the spirits of the holder's loved ones, yet Voldemort is The Sociopath who loves no one and is loved by no one (except maybe Bellatrix).
- Harry Potter was known for his immense bravery and willingly went to his death as it was the only way to destroy the portion of Voldemort's soul inside him. He used the Cloak of Invisibility to stealthily sneak around, and it, according to Beedle, enabled one to hide from Death. Even more ironic was that in the final book, Harry used the cloak to be able to find his way secretly to where Voldemort was waiting for him. Instead of using it to hide from death, he was using it to walk to his death.
- Gellert Grindelwald was a quarrelsome and arrogant man with a temper who won the wand like Antioch but ultimately committed suicide over lost love like Cadmus.
"Just So" Story: They have one in the form of The Tale of the Three Brothers, a wizarding fairy tale in which the writer Beedle alleges that the objects were created by Death and given to the Peverell Brothers as rewards for outwitting him. However, Dumbledore doubts the veracity of the story and personally believed that the brothers were simply very powerful and talented wizards who created the Hallows themselves.
Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: A weird case where the "Mundane" part is magic. There's the question of whether they really were crafted by The Grim Reaper or the Peverell brothers were just really skilled wizards. Dumbledore believes the latter, but all three Hallows can do magic on a level wizards think impossible.
Motif Merger: The symbol of the Deathly Hallows can be said to be this, as it contains three shapes, each one representing a specific Hallow. The line in the middle of the symbol for the Elder Wand, the circle overlapping the line halfway for the Resurrection Stone, and the triangle enclosing the line and circle for the Cloak of Invisibility.
No Man Should Have This Power: At the end of the eponymous novel, Harry decides this of the Elder Wand and the Resurrection Stone, judging that they are too dangerous for anyone to possess and use.
- Harry decides to return the Elder Wand to Dumbledore's tomb, and predicts that if he dies a natural death and is not disarmed by anyone in the interim, the wand's power will break and be diminished. On the other hand, in the films, he simply breaks it in half and throws the pieces into a gorge on Hogwarts grounds, ensuring that it can never be used again.
- Harry drops the Resurrection Stone somewhere in the Forbidden Forest and tells Dumbledore's portrait that he has no intention of looking for it. According to Rowling, the stone is stomped on by a centaur coming to the aid of Hogwarts' defenders in the final battle against Voldemort. This buries it deep into the ground and presumably ensures that it will never be found again.
- Averted with the Cloak of Invisibility, the Ancestral Weapon of the Potter family and the only Hallow that is not an Artifact of Doom. In contrast to the other Hallows, Harry intends to keep the cloak for himself and eventually pass it down to his descendants, just as Ignotus did many centuries before. He would eventually give it to his eldest son, James Potter II.
Priceless Paperweight: The Resurrection Stone and the Cloak of Invisibility were treated as this for much of their history as heirlooms passed down the House of Gaunt and the Potter family respectively.
- The House of Gaunt never realized the true significance of the stone, and simply saw it, carved with the Deathly Hallows symbol and set into a ring, as proof that they were descended from Cadmus. Voldemort turning the stone into a Horcrux can also be seen as this, as it was a considerably mundane purpose in light of the stone's value to wizarding history.
- Most uses of the cloak in the novels entailed Harry using it to covertly sneak around Hogwarts undetected, never realizing its status as a Hallow until the final novel. His father James was also known to have used the cloak in the same way.
Real After All: While The Tale of the Three Brothers is a fairy tale, the Deathly Hallows themselves were real objects and the Peverell Brothers were real people. However, it is unknown if anything else depicted in the story actually occured, and how much of it was embellished by Beedle. Dumbledore personally believed that it was more logical that the Peverell Brothers were very skilled wizards who created the Deathly Hallows themselves, rather than receiving them from Death.
Riddle for the Ages: So what actually happens to the person who manages to attain the title of "Master of Death" by uniting all three Dealthy Hallows? Many who believe in the existence of the objects think that acquiring all three will bestow immortality upon them or make them invincible in some way. However, Dumbledore and Harry dismiss these claims and don't think the objects confer any special boon when they are together. We never find out either way, as no one has ever managed to physically possess all three Hallows at the same time. The closest anyone has ever come to this are Dumbledore, who owned and handled all three at various points in his life, and Harry, who simultaneously possessed the stone and the cloak, and had mastery of the wand, albeit it was in Voldemort's hands at the time.
Rule of Three: There are three Deathly Hallows, each one given to one of the three Peverell Brothers by Death. Additionally, the Resurrection Stone is activated by turning it three times in the user's hand.
Set Bonus: Many who believe in the existence of the Hallows have ascribed a few boons to the person who manages to unite all three of them. In particular, it is commonly believed that such an individual would acquire the title of "Master of Death", and that he would gain some form of immortality or invincibility. Dumbledore is skeptical of these claims, and instead believes that a true Master of Death accepts that We All Die Someday and is thus Not Afraid to Die.
Shrouded in Myth: Being several centuries old and regarded as the most powerful objects in the wizarding world, it's hardly surprising that their reputation preceeds them. The Tale of the Three Brothers is the most oft-cited explaination for their origins, though Dumbledore doubts its veracity and believes that the Peverell Brothers created the Hallows themselves. Additionally, the Elder Wand has popped into and out of history over the centuries, with several dark wizards being said to have owned it, though such claims are possibly apocryphal.
Spanner in the Works: All three Hallows wind up proving instrumental in bringing about Voldemort's final downfall. This is all the more the case as Voldemort attempted to use the Elder Wand and the Resurrection Stone to consolidate his power, making it easier for the protagonists to defeat him by virtue of Dumbledore's intentions for Harry to acquire the Hallows and attain mastery of them.
- Seeking a wand to overcome the Priori Incantatem effect, Voldemort coveted the Elder Wand after learning of its existence from Ollivander, and believed that it would make him invincible. However, it refuses to harm its master, who was Harry. Voldemort used the wand to try and kill the former on two occasions. The latter survived the first due to a combination of Lily's sacrificial protection rooting him to life and the wand's Loyal Phlebotinum. This also destroyed his soul fragment inside Harry, whom he unknowingly turned into a Horcrux. The second attempt ultimately resulted in Voldemort's death when the wand rebounded his Killing Curse back at him.
- Voldemort turned the Resurrection Stone, set in Marvolo Gaunt's ring, into a Horcrux in order to ensure his Immortality, and hid it in the Gaunt shack. However, this left a portion of his soul vulnerable to destruction should the ring be found and destroyed, which Dumbledore accomplished. Harry would inherit the stone from Dumbledore and use it to summon the spirits of his loved ones for the courage to seek out Voldemort and sacrifice himself to the Dark Lord. This ensured the destruction of another Horcrux, Voldemort's soul fragment inside of Harry, ultimately bringing Voldemort two steps closer to his final defeat.
- The Cloak of Invisibility was used by the trio on a number of occasions during the hunt for Voldemort's Horcruxes. In particular, Harry used it to sneak into the Ministry of Magic and Gringotts to steal Slytherin's locket and Hufflepuff's cup, respectively. It was also used a few times during the Battle of Hogwarts when the trio needed to sneak around Hogwarts without being noticed by the combatants. Most pertinently, while Voldemort thought Harry was dead, the latter hid under the cloak and used it to evade detection until Bellatrix was killed. Harry revealed himself to protect Molly Weasley, leading into his final confrontation with Voldemort.
Wrong Context Magic: The Hallows can do things that are considered impossible to perform with conventional magic. The Elder Wand can repair other wands, the Resurrection Stone can (albeit only temporarily) revive the dead, and the Cloak of Invisibility does not wear out or become opaque as normal invisibility cloaks do.

The Elder Wand

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/elder_wand_5.png

The first of the Deathly Hallows to be created, the Elder Wand was allegedly made by Death from the branch of an elder tree for Antioch, after he requested a powerful wand that "must always win duels for its owner".

Admiring the Abomination: According to Ollivander, many wandmakers have desired to study the Elder Wand because of its unique properties, despite knowing of its dark reputation. Ollivander himself described it as an "object of immense fascination" to those in his trade. While it was in his possession, Gregorovitch similarly spent many years trying to duplicate its powers. After Harry gains possession of it through vanquishing Voldemort, he catches Ron and Hermione looking at it reverently, in a manner that unsettles him.
Ambiguous Situation: Given the known ways in which the Elder Wand can change masters, some events have made tracing who has mastery of it particularly hazy.
- At the end of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Grindelwald, the wand's master, is bound and restrained by Newt, while Tina then uses a Summoning Charm to retrieve Percival Graves' wand, which Grindelwald was using at the time. As Grindelwald could have been said to be defeated, it is a matter of conjecture whether mastery of the wand transferred to either Newt or Tina. Strangely, in the next film, Grindelwald uses the Elder Wand adeptly, so it did not appear to have changed allegiance at all.
- In the first Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows movie, Grindelwald is shown stealing the Elder Wand without so much as firing a spell at Gregorovich, as was done in the book where Grindelwald stuns Gregorovich. This means that the line of ownership in the movie would have stayed with Gregorovich, who is then killed by Voldemort.
Artifact of Attraction: The Elder Wand has been coveted by a great many wizards over the centuries, such that nearly every person who has ever mastered it was murdered by someone else who wanted it. This may be a subversion, however, as nearly every master has also bragged that their wand made them invincible. That said, once Harry comes into possession of the wand, and holds it up for Ron and Hermione to see, he catches them eyeing it "with a reverence that even in his sleep-befuddled state, he didn't like".
Astonishingly Appropriate Appearance: A genuinely coincidental version of this occurs concerning the Elder Wand prop created for the films, which was made to be Dumbledore's wand, with the filmmakers having no knowledge of the Elder Wand, or the Deathly Hallows as a whole at the time. Once Dumbledore's wand was revealed to be the Elder Wand, however, it was noted that the nodules running along the length of the wand incidentally resembled clusters of elderberries.
Awesome, but Impractical: Having an unbeatable wand certainly sounds cool, but it paints a huge target on the owner's back and does nothing to protect them from being killed outside a duel by anyone who would seek to steal it from them. This is why Harry decides that owning it is more trouble than it's worth.
Dies Differently in Adaptation: At the end of the final novel, Harry returns the Elder Wand to Dumbledore's tomb, intending that the wand's power will break once he dies a natural death whilst retaining mastery, thus suggesting that the wand and its dark history will come to an end. However, this is not guaranteed, as Harry could still be overcome in the future, which is likely given his decision to become an Auror (and it actually happens when Delphini disarms him in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child). The film adaptation, on the other hand, makes Harry's intentions a certainty, by having him simply break the wand in half and throw the pieces off a gorge on Hogwarts grounds.
Explaining Your Power to the Enemy: Ron believes that part of the reason that the Elder Wand is dangerous to its master is simply because a great many such masters have gloated about owning it, thus attracting the sort of people who would have no qualms about murdering the master to obtain the wand. In particular, Antioch was Slain in Their Sleep because he boasted about winning an unbeatable wand from Death, and Gregorovitch starting rumors about coming across the wand is what allowed Grindelwald to steal it from him.
I Fight for the Strongest Side!: Unlike most other wands, the Elder Wand is notoriously fickle when it comes to who is deserving of its allegiance. It is not sentimental and owes no loyalty to any master, respecting only power and strength. Thus, it will gladly abandon its current master if he is overcome by someone else. This has conventionally been interpreted to mean that someone must defeat the master in a Wizard Duel, albeit given that the wand is the strongest in existence, doing so in a fair fight is unlikely^note. However, the wand can also switch allegiance through merely disarming the master before a fight can even begin. The Elder Wand can even shift loyalty by proxy if the master loses a duel while using a different wand. Murdering the current master outside the context of a duel is also a valid way to gain mastery of the wand, which has been a key contributor to the wand's bloody reputation.
Logical Weakness: So, how exactly does one overcome an "unbeatable" wand and earn its allegiance? It should be noted that while Antioch allegedly wished for the wand to be "unbeatable" in a duel, this trait does not extend to the wand's master. As such, it is a completely viable option to take out the wizard using the wand, preferably without the wand itself even coming into play. As such, the wand has changed allegiance over such things as its master being disarmed or killed outside of a Wizard Duel, and in a way that renders the wand a non-factor in the equation. This includes the wand not being in the physical possession of its master at the time or its master being defeated before he can even use it to defend himself.
- This ends up being the very reason that Harry becomes the Wand's master. Dumbledore had originally planned a Thanatos Gambit where the Wand's power would die with him, arranging for Snape to kill him so he would die undefeated and in turn prevent anyone gaining the Wand's allegiance thereafter. However, Draco Malfoy acted as a Spanner in the Works, disarming Dumbledore in The Half-Blood Prince before Snape killed him, and thus becoming the Wand's master without even knowing it. Then, when Harry disarmed Malfoy in The Deathly Hallows, he became the Wand's master, again without ever actually possessing it.
Loophole Abuse: The Elder Wand was intended by Antioch to be an unbeatable weapon when used in a Wizard Duel. However, in most instances where the circumstances behind the wand changing allegiance are known, such a change occurred in a way Antioch never intended. To wit, the new master typically came upon the wand through murdering or disarming the previous one outside of a duel, and/or doing so where the wand is not even a factor, either because the previous master had no chance to use it or did not have it in his physical possession. Therefore, most cases of the wand passing to another master can be construed as this trope.
Loyal Phlebotinum: Despite its willingness to switch allegiance to anyone who can overcome its current master, like any other wand, the Elder Wand will still not work properly in the hands of a holder who is not its master. Furthermore, it will also refuse to harm or kill its master.
- This is most evidenced while the wand is under Harry's mastery whilst it is physically owned by Voldemort. To wit, Harry strides into the Forbidden Forest to face Voldemort, who then used the Killing Curse on him, but only suceeded in destroying the portion of his soul inside Harry. Later, while Harry was Faking the Dead due to this, Voldemort used the Cruciatus Curse on his body to desecrate it, but this doesn't cause Harry any pain. Crucially, it is this that causes Harry to realize that the wand's allegiance now lies with him. Finally, in their final duel, when Voldemort casts the Killing Curse at Harry, the wand rebounds it back at him, killing Voldemort for good.
Mundane Solution: In the film adaptation, Harry comes up with a simple way to deal with the wand being too dangerous to let anyone use or possess. He snaps it in half and throws the pieces over a gorge, ensuring that it can never be used again.
Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Over the course of its long and bloody history, the Elder Wand has acquired several monikers, among them "the Deathstick" and "the Wand of Destiny". However, Dumbledore notes in his commentary on The Tale of the Three Brothers, that these names might have been applied to other wands made from elder by their boastful owners, if indeed they possessed such wands, rather than the Elder Wand itself.
Non-Indicative Name: A meta version of this occurs in the production of the films. The filmmakers strove to carve the wands in the wood that they were known to be made from in the books (or a high quality piece of wood if the wand's wood was unknown), before making casts in resin for use in the films. Rather than elder, the Elder Wand prop was carved in English oak. However, the prop was made by the filmmakers who intended it to be Dumbledore's wand (whose wood was unknown at the time), and its identity as the Elder Wand was not known at the time.
Not So Invincible After All: Despite all the talk about the Elder Wand being "unbeatable" in a Wizard Duel, there are at least two known instances of its master being defeated in such a duel whilst wielding it. Most notably, Dumbledore duelled and defeated Grindelwald in a duel believed by many to be unmatched by anything before or since. This had the effect of ultimately ending the latter's reign of terror and the Elder Wand switching allegiance from the latter to the former. The only other wizard who allegedly won the wand's allegiance in such a manner was Egbert the Egregious, who defeated and killed Emeric the Evil in a duel. However, Dumbledore suggests that Egbert was himself killed in a duel by someone else for mastery of the wand soon afterwards.
Only the Chosen May Wield: Downplayed. Anyone can use the Elder Wand, but it will not work as effectively for them compared to its master. And it would also not betray said master either, causing any spells fired from it at the master to backfire on the caster instead.
The Perils of Being the Best: The Elder Wand creates this situation for its owner, as the knowledge that a given person owns the most powerful wand in existence is enough to attract the kinds of people who would covet it, and are perfectly willing to use any means, including murder, to acquire it.
Women Are Wiser: According to Dumbledore's commentary on The Tale of the Three Brothers, there is no record of a woman owning the Elder Wand, nor has any woman claimed such. He then invites the reader to draw their own interpretation from this comment.
- One possibility, of course, is that women are too smart either to want the wand or to advertise that they have it.
- Alternatively, only a wizard would consider a long, thin piece of wood so valuable.
- It is also possible that any witch who has owned the wand (or claimed to do so) has since been lost to history, as the wand's chain of ownership is notoriously difficult to trace.
World's Strongest Man: Alleged to be the most powerful wand in existence.
You Kill It, You Bought It: Owing to its dark reputation, many believe that this is the only way to get the wand to switch allegiance from one master to another. This is the reason Voldemort killed Snape, as the former thought that the latter obtained mastery by killing Dumbledore. In truth, any form of nonlethal defeat, even by a spell as mundane as Expelliarmus, is sufficient. Notably, Grindelwald won the wand's allegiance by stunning Gregorovitch, its master at the time, the only known instance wherein the wand transferred to a new master without the previous one being disarmed or killed.

The Resurrection Stone

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/resurrection_stone.png

The second of the Deathly Hallows to be created, the Resurrection Stone was allegedly made by Death from a stone on the riverbank for Cadmus, after he requested "the power to recall others from Death".

Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: This nearly happened when the prop for Marvolo Gaunt's ring was designed for the film adaptation of Half-Blood Prince. At the time, the final novel had not yet been released. Additionally, the filmmakers decided not to adapt a flashback scene where Marvolo brandishes the ring at Bob Ogden, and misidentifies the Deathly Hallows symbol carved on the Resurrection Stone as the Peverell coat of arms. Instead, they choose to have Dumbledore simply mention that the ring belonged to Voldemort's maternal family members. Because of this, they did not realize the importance of the symbol, as the objects themselves were not known at the time, and opted not to include it on the prop. This would have caused a Plot Hole, as Harry's recognition of the symbol from the stone is what allowed him to identify it throughout the final novel and learn of the Hallows and their associated legend. Fortunately, the final novel was released in time for the filmmakers to learn of the significance behind the symbol and include it on the stone.
Adaptational Villainy: This possibly applies In-Universe to the spirits the Resurrection Stone can summon. In The Tale of the Three Brothers, Beedle states that while the stone allowed Cadmus to converse with his deceased lover, she was unhappy at being summoned, as the dead do not truly belong in the living world. This caused Cadmus to be Driven to Suicide from longing so as to truly join her. However, when the stone itself is used by Harry in the Forbidden Forest, the spirits of his loved ones did not express any such discomfort and appeared to be happy to see him. They repelled the Dementors surrounding Voldemort's encampment and stated that they would accompany him up until he went to face Voldemort.
- However, it was noted that the spirits summoned by Harry only stuck around him for a short while, while Cadmus desired to be fully reunited with his lover and likely kept her spirit in the living world for far longer. It is thus possible that the discomfort felt by the summoned spirits, as stated by Beedle, increases the longer they are kept in the living world by the stone's user. As such, Harry's loved ones may not have expressed this discomfort as they may simply not have been summoned for long enough to feel it. While conversing with Harry in Limbo, Dumbledore also suggests that the intent of the stone's user in summoning a spirit may factor in as well. To wit, Dumbledore remarked that his loved ones were at peace and described his own attempted use of the stone simply to see and apologize to them as selfish, suggesting that they would have been similarly unhappy at being summoned. In contrast, Harry used the stone to enable a Heroic Sacrifice at Voldemort's hands, a selfless act that his loved ones likely sensed and thus aided him in.
Animal Motifs: In the films, the setting that holds the Resurrection Stone in place on Marvolo Gaunt's ring is designed to stylistically resemble a pair of snake heads biting the stone. This is incongruous with the stone's origins, however, as the snake has no association with the Peverell family, and is the motif of the House of Gaunt's other Famous Ancestor, Salazar Slytherin. However, it should be noted that when the filmmakers designed the ring prop, they believed that it was simply an already destroyed Horcux and heirloom from Voldemort's maternal Slytherin descended ancestors, hence their descision to give the ring a snake motif. The filmmakers did not know that the stone would be important in its own right, let alone about the Deathly Hallows as a whole. Even so, within the context of the films, this discrepency can still be explained away by postulating that after the stone entered into ownership of the Gaunts from a Peverell ancestor, an early Gaunt ancestor set it into the ring and chose the setting to reference the family's ancestral connection to Slytherin.
Back from the Dead: While no magic can truly resurrect the dead, it can be argued that the Resurrection Stone comes the closest to doing so in at least enabling a living user to establish contact with the dead.
Battle Trophy: Marvolo Gaunt's ring was this to Tom Riddle in a fashion, as he stole it from his uncle Morfin after murdering his Muggle father and grandparents and framing Morfin for the crime. In a sense, the ring served as a reminder to Tom of his perceived triumph over his Muggle ancestry.
Came Back Wrong: Contrary to Cadmus' intentions, the Resurrection Stone could not bring the dead back exactly as they were in life, and could at best, only recall their spirits to the living world temporarily.
Dead Person Conversation: The Resurrection Stone allows its user to have these with the spirits that it can summon. That's the most it can do, however, as the user cannot physically interact with the summoned spirits.
Driven to Suicide: The Resurrection Stone was responsible for the deaths of two of its users, Cadmus and Dumbledore, who both committed suicide as a result of using it. In Cadmus' case, he killed himself to truly reunite with his deceased lover, after realizing that the stone could not resurrect her as a living person. In Dumbledore's case, after being infected by the curse Voldemort placed on the stone, he arranged a Suicide by Cop from Snape to prevent the curse from ultimately dealing him an Undignified Death. Downplayed in Harry's case, as he had already planned to sacifice himself to destroy the portion of Voldemort's soul inside him, and simply used the stone to enable said sacrifice.
Hidden in Plain Sight: While few people who have handled a Hallow truly knew what they were holding, this trope applies to the Resurrection Stone moreso than the other Hallows. The Elder Wand could easily be recognized as a wand and the Cloak of Invisibility an invisibility cloak, and both used accordingly. In contrast, most of the stone's owners failed to see it as anything more than a black stone with a carved symbol that adorned a ring. Due to this, they did not realize what sort of powers it had. In particular, the House of Gaunt only cared about the symbol, which they used as proof of their descent from the Peverell family.
Kids Prefer Boxes: A variant, as the House of Gaunt were more enamored with the ring that the Resurrection Stone was set in, than the stone itself. While the ring was unquestionably valuable, the stone's status as one of the Deathly Hallows made it exponentially more priceless. The stone itself also plays with this trope in a fashion, as the House of Gaunt only paid attention to the Deathly Hallows symbol carved into it as proof of their ancestral ties to the Peverell family, rather than what the stone was actually capable of.
Made of Indestructium: The Resurrection Stone is very likely the magical object most resilient to destruction in the series, insofar as that quality has been tested. To wit, while it was a Horcrux, Dumbledore struck the stone with the Sword of Gryffindor to destroy the portion of Voldemort's soul inside it. This act left the stone itself none the worse for wear, save for a crack across its face where it was hit, and it also left its original ability to recall the dead completely intact. This is despite the fact that the sword had acquired the properties of basilisk venom, a substance capable of destroying objects beyond magical repair, including Voldemort's other Horcruxes, which also qualify for the trope in their own right and were rendered unusable as objects when the soul frgaments inside them were destroyed. The stone is thus the only known object to survive this form of destruction without some innate trait to protect it. However, according to a tweet from Rowling, Dumbledore's magical abilities likely also played a role in maintaining the stone's integrity and allowing it to withstand the destruction of the soul fragment it contained.
Night of the Living Mooks: Grindelwald sought to obtain the Resurrection Stone because he wrongly believed that it could be used to create an army of Inferi as cheap and disposable troops for his insurrection against the wizarding world.
Oxymoronic Being: The Resurrection Stone possesses a number of contradictions due to its properties.
- Despite its name and the fact that it could recall the spirits of the dead to the living world, the Resurrection Stone was also responsible for the deaths of two of its users, Cadmus and Dumbledore. The former was Driven to Suicide to join his deceased lover after he realized the stone's limitations, and the latter decided to commit Suicide by Cop after being struck by a curse that Voldemort placed on the stone, knowing that said curse would eventually kill him.
- The Resurrection Stone was also this during its time as one of Voldemort's Horcruxes. To wit, its innate ability was to temporarily recall the spirits of the dead to the living world. However, as a Horcrux, it was meant to anchor a portion of Voldemort's soul to the living world and thus prevent Voldemort from dying at all.
Ring of Power: Marvolo Gaunt's ring was this, simply by virtue of having the Resurrection Stone set in it, even if the House of Gaunt never realized it. After Tom Riddle obtains it and turns it into a Horcrux, he places a powerful curse on it designed to kill anyone who tried to wear it, turning it into a literal Ring of Death as well.
Rule of Three: While this trope applies holistically to the Deathly Hallows, the Resurrection Stone most epitomizes it. To wit, the stone is activated by the user turning it three times in his hand. It was also known to have been used for its original purpose, recalling the dead, three times over the course of the series, by Cadmus, Dumbledore, and Harry. In particular, the stone also played a role in the deaths of all three users (or near-death in Harry's case), with all three instances being self-inflicted on said user's part. Cadmus killed himself to join his deceased lover after using the stone to summon her and realizing he could not truly be with her while he was still alive. Dumbledore was struck with a deadly curse placed on the stone by Voldemort when he attempted to use it, and decided to have Snape kill him to avert an Undignified Death from said curse. After deciding to sacrifice himself to Voldemort to destroy the portion of Voldemort's soul inside him, Harry used the stone to summon his loved ones for courage in carrying out this act.
Smash the Symbol: Whether intentionally or not, Dumbledore technically did this when he struck the Resurrection Stone with the Sword of Gryffindor to destroy the portion of Voldemort's soul inside of it. That act left a prominent crack across the Deathly Hallows symbol that was carved into the stone, partially mutilating its features. Considering that it was Dumbledore's desire in his youth to seek out the Hallows that wound up causing a duel that killed his sister and estranged him from his brother, this could also be symbolic.
Soul Jar: After he murdered his Muggle father, Tom Riddle would use the murder to turn Marvolo Gaunt's ring, which he stole from Morfin, into his second Horcrux. The ring was then hidden in the Gaunt family's abandoned shack until it was discovered by Dumbledore, who subsequently used the Sword of Gryffindor to destroy the ring as a Horcrux. However, in doing so, Dumbledore would suffer the effects of a lethal curse placed on the ring by Tom that would eventually be a factor in his death.
Summoning Artifact: The Resurrection Stone can recall the spirits of the dead to the world of the living, allowing its user to converse with them.
Supernatural Repellent: Spirits summoned by the Resurrection Stone are capable of repelling Dementors in a manner similar to a Patronus, as Harry's loved ones demonstrated when they protected him from the Dementors that Voldemort stationed in the Forbidden Forest to guard his encampment.
Together in Death: A nasty tendency appears to be attached to the Resurrection Stone, namely that people who use it are soon after literally reunited with the deceased loved ones whose spirits that they summoned with it.
- Cadmus was alleged to have been Driven to Suicide after he summoned the spirit of his lover and realized that he could not physically interact with her, while she was unhappy in the living world, not truly belonging there.
- Dumbledore attempted to summon the spirits of his parents and sister, but was struck by the deathly curse Voldemort placed on the ring the stone contained. The curse was the reason Dumbledore arranged for Snape to Mercy Kill him, so as to avoid an eventual Undignified Death.
- This almost happens to Harry, as he summoned the spirits of his parents, Lupin, and Sirius for courage and comfort before willingly offering himself to be killed by Voldemort to destroy the piece of Voldemort's soul inside him. Due to the circumstances of this incident, Harry wound up in Limbo, where he opted to return to the living world after a Dead Person Conversation with Dumbledore.
Undeath Always Ends: The Resurrection Stone cannot permanently keep a summoned spirit in the living world, and its effects will end, returning the spirit to the afterlife, if its user stops physically holding the stone or chooses to dispel the spirit on their own accord.
What Have I Become?: According to Beedle, this was how the spirit of Cadmus' lover reacted after he summoned her from the afterlife with the Resurrection Stone, as the dead do not truly belong in the world of the living.

The Cloak of Invisibility

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cloak_of_invisibility.png

The third and final of the Deathly Hallows to be created, Death allegedly gave Ignotus his own Cloak of Invisibility, after the latter requested something that would keep him from "being followed by Death".

The Ageless: The Cloak of Invisibility's most distinctive trait is the fact that it is several centuries old, and yet still remains in pristine condition and with its abilities intact. In contrast, normal invisibility cloaks eventually wear out with age as their enchantments stop working, and are also vulnerable to spell damage. Harry's first hint that his cloak is actually a Hallow occurs when Ron remarks upon this. To wit, Ron comments that the cloak is still perfectly intact despite also being owned by Harry's father, and thus being at least two generations old, suggesting that normal invisibility cloaks do not last anywhere near as long.
Anti-Magic: The Cloak of Invisibilty is resistant to some spells and jinxes, as it could not be Summoned and was unaffected by the Thief's Downfall. This trait sets it apart from other invisibility cloaks, which are noted to be very susceptible to spell damage. However, while the cloak itself is unaffected by spells, it does not protect its wearer from spells cast against them directly, as Draco and Dumbledore were both able to paralyse Harry with the Full Body-Bind Curse while he was wearing the cloak.
Boring, but Practical: Compared to the other two Hallows, the Cloak of Invisibility does not have any particularly flashy abilities; regular invisibility cloaks already exist, and the Cloak of Invisibility only stands out from them by having some resistance to spells and not degrading with age. However, it is undeniably effective at what it does, and according to The Tale of the Three Brothers, it is what allowed Ignotus Peverell to live a long life while his brothers had died due to their more powerful Hallows.
Chekhov's Gift: Dumbledore gifts the Cloak of Invisibility to Harry in his first year at Hogwarts as a Christmas present. While Harry used it during his school years to sneak around Hogwarts undetected, the cloak plays a much more important role during his quest to find and destroy Voldemort's horcruxes, most pertinently proving instrumental when Harry uses it to help him steal Slytherin's locket and Hufflepuff's cup.
Invisibility Cloak: Natch. Interestingly enough, despite being the Trope Namer, the cloak's proper name is the "Cloak of Invisibility". It is referred to as such as a way to distinguish it from other more common and mundane invisibility cloaks. According to Beedle, this cloak's ability to confer invisibility is such that even Death cannot locate the wearer.
Invisibility with Drawbacks: The Cloak of Invisibility only protects the user from detection via sight, and does not prevent the user from being detected through magical means or by creatures that do not rely primarily on sight for detection. To wit, Moody's magical eye, the Marauder's Map, and the Human-presence-revealing spell are all capable of exposing the presence of the cloak's user, while Dementors and Nagini could also locate Harry through their senses apart from sight.
I Thought Everyone Could Do That: The trio spent six and a half books thinking it was an ordinary if rare and well-made invisibility cloak, but we’re told that most wear out with age, are vulnerable to spell damage or not as effective as they’re meant to be, Harry’s though grants true invisibility.
It May Help You on Your Quest: Dumbledore gifts the Cloak of Invisibility to Harry with a letter advising him to "use it well". Sure enough, the cloak becomes one of Harry's most treasured and utilized possessions.
Logical Weakness: The Cloak of Invisibility can only render invisible what it can cover. Over the years, this meant that the trio had to increasingly crouch to be completely covered by the cloak while sharing it, as they grew taller and larger while the cloak itself did not. In addition, while the Cloak of Invisibility is itself impervious to spell-induced damage, its wearers can still be affected by the spell that strikes them, evidenced by Harry being made immobile when donning it in two separate occasions during the events of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Finally, entities that don't rely on optical sight to identify others' presence can bypass its protection.
Mundane Utility: When James Potter owned the Cloak as a Hogwarts student, he mainly used it to steal food from the kitchens.
Not So Invincible After All: According to legend, the Cloak hides the wearer from everyone and everything, even the eyes of Death. There are at least two ways to bypass its protection: the Cloak's wearer still appears on the Marauder's Map, and Alastor Moody's magical eye can see through it.
What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: During his conversation with Harry in Limbo, Dumbledore noted that in their youths, he and Grindelwald had great designs for the Elder Wand and the Resurrection Stone, but never really discussed the Cloak of Invisibility much, beyond the fact that obtaining it would unite the Deathly Hallows. At the time, Dumbledore's youthful arrogance led him to believe that the cloak was redundant, as he could conceal himself without it, and thus overlook its significance, namely its ability to protect and shield others rather than just its user, though he did consider using it to help hide Ariana. He would only realize this much later in his life.
The X of Y: The Cloak of Invisibility's name follows this naming scheme, ostensibly to differentiate it from more common mass produced invisibility cloaks.

Death

The personification of death itself, and thus The Grim Reaper. According to Beedle the Bard, the Peverell Brothers allegedly encountered him after they managed to cross a treacherous river where many had drowned prior. Angry at being cheated of three potential victims, Death pretends to congratulate them on this achievement, and offers them each a prize for outwitting him, ultimately intending to claim their lives in the end.

Ambiguous Situation: It’s unclear In-Universe if the figure of Death really exists or if his association with Hallows was merely a legend that emerged due to their notoriety.
The Bad Guy Wins: He is the antagonist The Tale of the Three Brothers, as he initiates all the trouble in the story with the aim of claiming the lives of the Peverell Brothers, ultimately suceeding in the end. While he was able to claim Antioch and Cadmus shortly after first meeting them, it took him many years to do the same to Ignotus, and even then, it happened only on Ignotus' own terms.
Balancing Death's Books: His entire motivation in the story amounts to this. The Peverell Brothers were supposed to die crossing a treacherous river where many others had perished before, but conjured a bridge to cross it instead. Feeling cheated, Death gifted them with the Deathly Hallows, intending that his gifts would ultimately lead to their deaths.
Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: Beedle states that Death was angry that the Peverell Brothers managed to safely cross a treacherous river that claimed the lives of many before them, as he felt cheated of three new victims.
Exact Words: As part of his Jerkass Genie schtick, he exploits this when he learns of what the brothers want as prizes from him, intending that said prizes would ultimately allow him to claim their lives.
- Antioch wanted a powerful wand that would always win duels for its owner, "worthy of a wizard that had conquered Death", intending to become an unbeatable wizard with it, so Death gifted him with the Elder Wand. Indeed, it was powerful and capable of magic no other wand could perform. However, while the wand itself might be unbeatable, as Antioch intended, this did not extend to its master. As such, it is still possible for the wand's master to be stunned, disarmed, or killed outside of a Wizard Duel, moreso if he doesn't physically have the wand or isn't given the chance to use it to defend himself.
- Cadmus wanted the power to "recall others from Death", and intended to use it to resurrect his deceased lover as a living person, so Death gifted him with the Resurrection Stone. While it could indeed bring people Back from the Dead, as Cadmus stated, they Came Back Wrong in the form of disembodied spirits who expressed discomfort at being summoned to the living world. The is likely because Cadmus was not specific about wanting his lover brought back as she was in life, both physically and emotionally. Whether Death could resurrect the dead the way Cadmus wanted remains unknown.
- Ignotus, being the wisest brother, turns this on Death by simply requesting something that allowed him to leave "without being followed by Death". As Death had no way of twisting this request to suit his ends or declining it without giving away his intentions, he was forced to give Ignotus the Cloak of Invisibility. Contrary to the other Hallows, the cloak worked exactly as its receiver wanted, and allowed Ignotus to continually evade Death. He was thus able to live to a grand old age without Death being able to find him until he took off the cloak and willingly departed the living world.
The Grim Reaper: He is this in the Wizarding World, and is visually depicted as such, except with an additional pair of wings and minus the trademark Sinister Scythe.
Hoist by His Own Petard: A downplayed example, as the Cloak of Invisibility that he gave Ignotus was capable of hiding the latter from his detection. It was only after Ignotus attained a great old age and took off the cloak was Death finally able to claim him, and even then, only on Ignotus' own terms.
Jerkass Genie: After the Peverell Brothers managed to cross a treacherous river successfully, Death appeared before them and pretended to congratulate them for outwitting him, before granting them the choice of a supremely powerful magical object. As Death felt cheated by the fact that the brothers were not killed by the river, he intended that his prizes would wind up killing them so he could claim their lives.
Pet the Dog: Death's way of dealing with Ignotus appears to be this. Rather than just instantly claiming him, he gives him time to say goodbye to his children and even allows him to pass on the Cloak rather than reclaiming it.
Super-Persistent Predator: According to Beedle, he searched for Ignotus for many years, perhaps even decades, but was unable to find him until Ignotus took off the Cloak of Invisibility and willingly departed the mortal world. This is reflective of the series' central theme that death is inescapable, and the best one can hope for is to live a good, long, worthwhile life before dying, as opposed to trying to cheat death and inevitably failing.
Trouble Magnet Gambit: He's pissed that the Peverell Brothers escaped his clutch, so he offers a 'gift' that will eventually doom the brothers. Only the youngest avoids this fate, because he does not trust Death at all.
Villain Respect: The Tale of the Three Brothers heavily implies Death came to view Ignotus, the youngest of the Peverell brothers, in this light. Not only does he not show any animosity towards Ignotus for actually succeeding in evading him for all those years, but upon Ignotus' death, they greet each other as old friends and Death even allows him to say his farewells to his family and pass the cloak down to his son.
Winged Humanoid: Has a pair of wings that he can use to hover and fly.

Knight Bus

Stan Shunpike

Portrayed by: Lee Ingleby

Voiced by: Edson Matus (Latin American Spanish)

Appears in: Prisoner of Azkaban | Goblet of Fire (book only) | Order of the Phoenix (book only) | Deathly Hallows (book only)

The conductor of the Knight Bus. He is sent to Azkaban on false suspicion of being a Death Eater and is later Imperiused into serving their cause.

Adapted Out: His appearances after Prisoner of Azkaban are left out of the films, including the subplot of his arrest and subsequent serving the Death Eaters.
Age Lift: Implied — in the books, Stan is described as looking 18-19, with a pimply face. Lee Ingleby, who plays him in the movies, was about 28 at the time of filming.
Casanova Wannabe: At the Quidditch World Cup, he attempts to impress a group of Veela by claiming he's about to become the youngest British Minister for Magic. Granted this is sort of a natural reaction to being around a Veela for those who are attracted to females but the mere fact that it is hard to tell him apart from his natural state says a lot.
Fantastic Racism: Stan holds some mildly derisive views towards non-magical people.
Harry: How come the Muggles don't hear the bus?
Stan: (contemptuously) Them! Don' listen properly, do they? Don' look properly either. Never notice nuffink, they don'.
Funetik Aksent: A Cockney one.
Hidden Depths: He seems like just an average wizard, but he's capable of conjuring a non-corporeal Patronus, which is pretty impressive.
Meaningful Name: "Shunpike" is a driving term for the practice of using minor roads to avoid paying tolls on certain major highways. Furthermore, "Stan" comes from JK Rowling's grandfather, Stanley Volant.
Those Two Guys: With Ernie Prang.

Ernie Prang

Portrayed by: Jimmy Gardner

Appears in: Prisoner of Azkaban | Half-Blood Prince (cameo, book only)

The driver of the Knight Bus.

Animal Motifs: He is described as "owlish".
The Cameo: He is one of the many attendees at Dumbledore's funeral in Half Blood Prince.
The Driver: He drives the Knight Bus.
Drives Like Crazy: Especially in the films.
Meaningful Name: "Prang" is British slang for a fender-bender or other vehicle collision. Furthermore, "Ernie" comes from J. K. Rowling's grandfather, Ernest Arthur Rowling.
Those Two Guys: With Stan Shunpike.
The Voiceless: In the films, he doesn't speak a word.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: He's terrified of dementors, like most people.
Stan: (regarding Sirius Black) Never been a breakout from Azkaban before, ’as there, Ern? Beats me ’ow ’e did it. Frightenin’, eh? Mind, I don’t fancy ’is chances against them Azkaban guards, eh, Ern?
Ernie: (shivers) Talk about summat else, Stan, there’s a good lad. Them Azkaban guards give me the collywobbles.

Dre Head

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/7847_26301.jpg

Portrayed by: Lenny Henry

Voiced by: Germán Fabregat (Latin American Spanish)

Appears in: Prisoner of Azkaban (film only)

A Jamaican shrunken head on the Knight Bus who only appears in the films.

Canon Foreigner: Only appears in the film adaptation of Prisoner of Azkaban. J. K. Rowling said she wishes she’d thought of it.
Dreadlock Rasta: One of his most prominent features.
The Hyena: Cackles loudly every few sentences.
Plucky Comic Relief: His main role.
Pun: When the bus (and everyone on it) suddenly gets stretched tall and thin to pass between two Muggle buses:
[laughing] Hey, guys! Guys! Why the long faces?
Shrunken Head: What he is.

Characters / Harry Potter – Other Characters