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Minerva McGonagall

"What? Do nothing? Offer him up as bait? Potter is a boy! Not a piece of meat!"

Portrayed by: Dame Maggie Smith, Fiona Glascott (Fantastic Beasts), Sandy McDade (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, first West End run), Geraldine Hughes (Cursed Child, first Broadway run)

Voiced by: Mari Luz Olier (European Spanish), Magda Giner (Latin American Spanish, Philosopher's Stone), Queta Leonel (Latin American Spanish, Chamber of Secrets-Deathly Hallows), Vianney Monroy (Latin American Spanish, Fantastic Beasts), Lina Rossana Costa (Brazilian Portuguese, Philosopher's Stone-Goblet of Fire), Marly Ribeiro (Brazilian Portuguese, Order of the Phoenix), Melise Maia (Brazilian Portuguese, Half Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows Part 2), Maíra Goes (Brazilian Portuguese, Crimes of Grindelwald)

"We teachers are rather good at magic, you know."

Professor of Transfiguration, Deputy Headmistress, and Head of Gryffindor House. She is the third professor Harry encounters (after Hagrid and Quirrell), and he promptly and wisely decides that she is someone "not to be crossed." McGonagall is protective of her students and really dislikes it when Snape wins the Quidditch Cup from under her nose. Though she is stern, she is fair and does have a sense of humour.

She is Dumbledore's right hand, deputy leader of the Order, and a powerful witch in her own right, and she is probably the teacher Harry trusts the most. Her Animagus form is that of a tabby cat with spectacle markings around her eyes, reminiscent of her glasses. She has a fondness for tartan and Ginger Newts. If she walks into a scene and is startled, expect her to drop the stack of books she is always carrying.

Abled in the Adaptation: She always wears glasses in the books, where they are almost a personal mark of hers as said above. In the films, she rarely wears them, and whenever she does, she tends to look at people over the lenses, implying the glasses are only for reading and/or seeing from close.
Academic Athlete: During her Hogwarts days, Minerva played for Gryffindor's Quidditch team, served as Head Girl, and won Transfiguration Today's Most Promising Newcomer award.
Adaptational Nice Girl: It's downplayed compared to some of the other characters, but the films remove many of her more snappy and stern moments, making her come across more mellow as a result.
Adaptational Wimp: Only slightly, as she's pretty much as competent in the films as she is in the books. However, the films omit the scene in which McGonagall, Slughorn and Kingsley duel personally against Voldemort and manage to hold their own.
Adults Are Useless:
- Seemingly played straight in the first book. When Harry, Ron, and Hermione approach her with their concerns about someone stealing the Philosopher's Stone, she dismisses them and even threatens to dock points when they try to guard the door to the third-floor corridor. This causes them to decide to go into the trapdoor themselves to try and stop the thief. However, considering that Quirrell is unable to get the Stone from the Mirror of Erised without Harry, she did have a good point in warning them not to get involved.
- Subverted during the final book, where she's shown to be thoroughly competent when it comes down to it. She and the other teachers ready various defences in preparation for Voldemort's siege, and she, Slughorn, and Flitwick together duel Voldemort to a standstill. In the films, she is able to thoroughly batter Snape, and the collateral damage of her attack takes out the Carrows.
Age Lift: At least appearance-wise, given that her true age through the franchise remains unrevealed and looks to be a case of Continuity Drift. Although grandmotherly and a bit crochety, the books describe her hair still black and doesn't imply her to be excessively elderly, especially compared to Dumbledore's more ancient-looking visage. Only in the fifth book she is described as too old to take multiple spells as if nothing, and it's still within the context that she is merely middle-aged. In contrast, Maggie Smith was 67 when she filmed the first movie and looked her age, with graying hair to boot.
Alliterative Name: Minerva McGonagall.
Animal Motif: Her Animagus form and Patronus is a cat, and she fits the "aloof and poised, yet fierce" cat stereotype perfectly. And of course, cats are associated with both magic and witches.
Animorphism: She is an Animagus, a witch who has mastered the ability to transform into an animal (in her case, a cat) through strenuous study of magic.
The Archmage: By and large one of the most powerful witches in the story, enough so that Dumbledore personally trusts her as his Number Two, and is powerful enough that she's able to hold her ground against Voldemort (granted, this is alongside Shacklebolt and Slughorn, but against Voldemort this is justified). Madam Pomfrey even says that in a direct and fair combat situation, multiple Aurors versus one Minerva would have no chance of winning a fight. Others might be unquestionably stronger, but there's no doubt that McGonagall can rival them.
Badass Boast: "We teachers are rather good at magic, you know." This was her nonchalant response when asked if it was possible to secure the school against Voldemort. Yes, that Voldemort.
Badass Bookworm: Smart enough to prove her knowledge to the Ravenclaw Dormitory door (who only lets you in if you answer a riddle correctly), and able to hold her own against Lord Voldemort. Justified, Rowling revealed that it took the Sorting Hat five and a half minutes to decide if she was Gryffindor or Ravenclaw.
Badass Teacher: Unquestionably one of the biggest in the series. Madame Pomfrey confirms it, saying that four Aurors would have had no chance in hell of striking McGonagall if they hadn't attacked her without warning in a theoretically noncombat situation.
Beware the Nice Ones: While Dumbledore takes top spot on the "list of people you do not fuck with if you wish to live", McGonagall easily takes second place. She can cast an Imperius Curse if necessary to protect her students. Unforgivable Curses require you to want to cause harm to others.
Big Good: She serves as this at Hogwarts in Dumbledore's absence: she protects the students from the sadistic Carrows, overthrows Snape, and leads the resistance against Voldemort when Harry returns.
Big "NO!": Her reaction to Harry's Disney Death in Deathly Hallows.
Big Sister Instinct: Minerva held a deep love for her two brothers.
Birds of a Feather: Besides Harry, McGonagall almost immediately takes a liking towards Hermione due to their similarities (intelligent, rule-abiding, logical).
Bothering by the Book: In the fifth book, she shows a side of this when Umbridge takes over, as it becomes her mission to torment Umbridge as much as possible. When one of the Weasley Twins' firecrackers disrupts her class, she lets it do its thing while having one of her students request Umbridge do the removal, similar to Flitwick.
Brave Scot: She was born in the Scottish Highlands and is the head of the Hogwarts House known for its bravery. In the face of deadly situations, she never shows anything but utmost courage and strength. In the films, she speaks with an upper-class Edinburgh accent, her witch's hat has plaid trim, and many of her outfits are plaid too.
Bring It: McGonagall gives Snape a silent one of these when she fights him, by doing just that.
Career Versus Man: Pottermore reveals she turned down a proposal from her Muggle love in favour of a job at the Ministry that she ended up unhappy with. She might have chosen him, but she feared he would not take kindly to learning she was a witch.
Cats Are Magic: She is a skilled and accomplished witch who can transform into a cat.
Character Tics: Her mouth presses into a thin line when she's angry.
Cold Ham: Manages to be the centre of attention while staying calm and collected.
The Confidant: She and Dumbledore are very close and it seems that she's one of the people he confides in about his life more than anyone. At the time of the third Fantastic Beasts film, they're close enough that she's one of his few friends that seems to even know about Aberforth, let alone actually know him. When she comes to the Hog's Head and tells him about what is happening with Grindelwald's plot to rig the ICW election, she and Aberforth greet each other by name and even banter back and forth a bit. Even Newt, to whom he is also very close and is another confidant, doesn't recognize him or even seems to have known about him, let alone be familiar enough with each other to joke around. She also refers to Grindelwald as "Gellert" and is notably the only good guy in the setting other than Dumbledore himself to use the first name which would imply (and if you count Pottermore as canon confirm) that she knows more about their relationship than others. Once again, Dumbledore tells the Scamander brothers about this with great pain and only really when forced to even though Newt seems to have at least suspected for a while.
Cool Old Lady: Arguably the second most powerful magic-user in Hogwarts after Dumbledore, very smart, tough but fair but not without a sense of humour, and definitely not someone you want to cross. Yeah, she's cool.
Cool Teacher: She's a strict taskmaster but a warm and loving teacher who will put her life on the line to defend her students, especially those in her own house. This is particularly prominent in the fifth and seventh book.
Daddy's Girl: According to Pottermore, she was very close to her Muggle father.
Deadpan Snarker: In a world as snark-tastic as the Wizarding World, it says a lot that she's a standout.
- She implies that a coward, a fraud, a werewolf, and a Death Eater are all more competent than Umbridge, which especially pisses Umbridge off because she is notoriously anti-werewolf.
  "I should have made my meaning plainer," said Professor McGonagall, turning at last to look at Umbridge directly in the eyes. "He has achieved high marks in all Defence Against the Dark Arts tests set by a competent teacher."
- She mocks a prophecy of Harry's death in absolute deadpan:
  "You look in excellent health to me, Potter, so you will excuse me if I don't let you off homework today. I assure you that if you die, you need not hand it in."
- The legendary biscuit comment:
  'Is it true that you shouted at Professor Umbridge?'
  'Yes,' said Harry.
  'You called her a liar?'
  'Yes.'
  'You told her He Who Must Not Be Named is back?'
  'Yes.'
  Professor McGonagall sat down behind her desk, frowning at Harry. Then she said, 'Have a biscuit, Potter.'
Do Wrong, Right:
- Her first major moment in Order consists of Harry being sent to her for some kind of punishment, and her cautioning Harry to be careful how he subverts Umbridge's authority.
- In moments of dire need, she will approve of rule breaking. Most notable is telling Peeves the chandelier he is trying to drop unscrews the other way.
- Also, the way Jim Dale reads the audio book implies that rather than "steal" her walking stick, Peeves came up to her and told her exactly what he intended to do with it and that she gave it to him freely.
Early Personality Signs: Even at the tender age of 11, she was just as courageous as she was intelligent. The Sorting Hat took five and a half minutes to decide whether to put her in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw.
Establishing Character Moment: In Harry's first class with her, she demonstrates the three fundamental parts of her personality — her stern nature by warning the first-years how dangerous it is to mess with Transfiguration, her magical skill by turning her desk into a pig, and her softer side when she praises Hermione for being the only one able to turn a match into a needle.
Everyone Has Standards: McGonagall is a stern disciplinarian who is just as willing to dock points from her own house and administer punishment for any significant infraction, but there are some forms of punishment that even she would consider too severe.
- After tranfiguring Malfoy back from a ferret, she chastises Mad-Eye Moody (actually Barty Crouch Jr. in disguise via Polyjuice Potion), who had transfigured Malfoy for attempting to potshot Harry with a hex, that transfiguration (the subject she taught, no less) should never be used as a means of punishment.
- Umbridge, of course, needs no mention.
First-Name Basis: She's the only good guy in Fantastic Beasts besides Dumbledore who calls Grindelwald "Gellert".
Foil: The Sorting Hat had difficulty sorting her and Flitwick in the same way; both were toss-ups between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw.
Hidden Depths: Who would have expected stern Professor McGonagall to be so into Quidditch? Pottermore reveals that she received a bad Quidditch injury in her final year at school, which left her with a life-long desire to see Slytherin pulverized on the Quidditch pitch. Thankfully, she gets to see this happen on several occasions. When Harry's team finally breaks Slytherin's winning streak in the third book, she's seen drying her eyes on a large Gryffindor flag.
Honest Advisor: She's never afraid to criticize Dumbledore, and he values her for it.
Hypocritical Heartwarming:
- Despite openly questioning Professor Trelawney's competence in front of the students, she is the first to comfort the erstwhile Divination teacher upon her dismissal at the hands of Dolores Umbridge. She even keeps Trelawney on as a teacher after she's officially appointed Headmistress.
- Has shades of this trope towards Neville. She's quite stern with him (as she is with everyone) and punishes him rather harshly for the accident that resulted in Sirius Black getting the passwords to the Gryffindor common room. But when discussing N.E.W.T. classes with him, she encourages him to take classes he's good at rather than ones his grandmother wants, and offers to write her a letter reminding her that Charms isn't a "soft option" just because Augusta failed her own Charms O.W.L. She also comments that Augusta should be proud of the grandson she has, rather than the one she wishes she had.
I Always Wanted to Say That: A variation in the final movie. After summoning an army of stone statues and ordering them to protect the school she looks pleased with herself — indeed, almost reminiscent of Hermione after getting to use a particularly cool bit of magic — and notes that she's "always wanted to use that spell."
I Was Quite a Looker: While there are very few drawn pictures of McGonagall throughout the series, Pottermore provides a look at her during her Quidditch days and wow◊. Fiona Glascott, who plays the younger version of the character, is certainly a beautiful woman as well.
Intergenerational Friendship: By Order of the Phoenix she has this dynamic with Harry. Usually when she refers to him as "Harry" rather than "Potter" she speaks to him as a friend rather than a teacher.
Iron Lady: Most definitely. Though she does have rare emotional moments.
The Lost Lenore: Her husband died several years prior to the start of the series, due to a Venomous Tentacula bite.
The Maiden Name Debate: Even while she was married to Elphinstone Urquart, she kept her maiden name, McGonagall, out of respect for her father. Considering that he was a Muggle and her husband was a pure-blooded wizard from an old family, this was met with some derision in the magical community.
Mama Bear: She will fight to the death to defend any one of her students, especially Harry, Ron, or Hermione.
- Demonstrated especially in the fourth book, when fake Moody confronts Harry. After fake Moody's been stunned into unconsciousness, Snape and Dumbledore are all over him, but McGonagall goes straight to Harry to make sure he's okay. When he isn't, she even argues with Dumbledore in order to send Harry to the hospital wing.
- She even shows shades of this towards Malfoy when she tells off fake Moody for turning him into a ferret as a punishment, and chews out Harry for using Sectumsempra on him (the latter albeit offscreen).
- In the films when Snape prepares to incapacitate Harry to supposedly deliver to the Dark Lord, McGonagall interrupts their duel before it starts in the Great Hall. She pushes Harry aside, much to the other students' shock, and brandishes her wand. The viewers and Harry find out she was holding back all those years.
May–December Romance: Her late husband, Elphinstone Urquart, was much older than she was. This did not matter one infinitesimal jot to either of them.
Meaningful Name: In Classical Mythology, Minerva is the goddess of wisdom, strength, and skill. Now why does this sound familiar, again? Her surname is taken from Giftedly Bad poet William McGonagall, apparently only because Rowling found the idea of someone as brilliant as Minerva being a distant relative of someone as talentless as William to be amusing.
Minored In Ass Kicking: Though it may not be expected, McGonagall holds her own in every battle at Hogwarts. Most notably, attacking a guy with a fire-lasso and a swarm of knives in Deathly Hallows. She also has an army of galloping desks.
Morphic Resonance: Her Animagus form is a cat with square-shaped markings around its eyes, exactly like the glasses she always wears.
My Greatest Failure: It's implied that she deeply regrets not listening to The Trio when they attempted to warn her about the Philosopher's Stone's attempted theft in their first year. To her credit, though, she never makes that mistake again.
Never Mess with Granny: She is not a woman you want to cross.
No Badass to His Valet: While she's a certified badass herself, Dumbledore is still leagues ahead of her in skill and experience. Despite this, she's one of the few who isn't afraid to backsass him and openly question his decisions, and she often acts as his adjunct.
Not Afraid of You Anymore: Before the final battle in DH 2, she finally says Voldemort's name, telling Flitwick "You might as well use it, he's going to try to kill you either way."
Not So Above It All: Hilariously hinted at in Order; when people and particularly Peeves start pranking Umbridge, she suddenly displays much more tolerance to breaking the rules. Especially funny when she actually seems to help Peeves pull a prank on Umbridge.
- The fact that it's implied that Peeves didn't steal her walking stick and that she actually just gave it to him freely when he told her what he wanted it for.
- There's also the infamous moment when, upon seeing Peeves trying to unscrew a chandelier and having difficulty with it, she discreetly murmurs that it unscrews the other way and goes on her way.
- During the Christmas break of Harry's first year at Hogwarts, an incredibly drunk Hagrid kisses her on the cheek. To Harry's surprise, rather than being angry at the action, she blushes and appears rather girlishly embarrassed.
- During the first class of Harry's third year, she demonstrates her Animagus abilities to the class as she does with all the third years. When the class doesn't applaud (due to Professor Trelawney just predicting Harry's death in their previous lesson), she notes in a disappointed tone that that's the first time it didn't happen.
- One of her most badass scenes in the movies is when she animates all of Hogwarts' statues at once, rallying them with hue and cry to defend the school and fight Voldemort! She then turns to Molly Weasley, not even disguising her glee, and admits that she's always wanted to try that spell.
- She's mostly angry at Lee's bias in his Quidditch commentating, but when Malfoy prevents an easy Gryffindor victory in the Quidditch Cup by grabbing Harry's broom, she's just as livid as Lee, shaking her fist and shouting at Malfoy.
Not So Stoic: Has an expressive side. In the books, it's most prominently shown when a drunk Hagrid kisses her cheek (and she becomes embarrassed) or anytime Umbridge is involved (where there's a good chance she starts yelling). After the use of "Piertotum Locomotor" in the final film, she looks giddy as a schoolgirl when she remarks that she always wanted to use that spell to Molly Weasley. More seriously, in the books her reaction to Harry's Disney Death is a heartbroken wail of grief.
Number Two: As Deputy Headmistress, she'll follow through on helping Dumbledore with whatever course of action he decides, but not before voicing her objections, improvements, and alternatives to the plan ''du jour''.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: The only time we see her lose her temper in the series is when she gets into a screaming match with Fudge at the end of the fourth book. Harry realizes something is up when he wakes up and realizes that it is her screaming. Turns out she was pissed that Fudge had fed Crouch Jr to a dementor behind Dumbledore’s back and before they could have a chance to get important information out of him. She also starts screaming along with Ginny, Ron, and Hermione when she thinks Voldemort has finally killed Harry, her screaming being so awful, Harry is tempted to reveal that he's actually still alive.
Old Master: She's old enough to be Harry's grandmother and is one of the most capable, demanding, and intimidating of his magical mentors. She's also one of the few characters able to fight against Voldemort for any length of time; even with help (she was fighting alongside Shacklebolt and Slughorn, both of whom are extremely powerful wizards themselves), the fact that the three don't die in all of five seconds speak worlds of their power.
Parental Substitute:
- One of many to Harry. It says a great deal about their relationship that when, in Deathly Hallows, Harry uses an Unforgivable Curse against Amycus Carrow, all he has to say about it is, "He spat at you." Further explanation is neither expected nor required.
- Also one to Hermione due to their similar dispositions, and is clearly distressed when she is petrified in the second book.
Passionate Sports Girl: In her school years, she was absolutely this, and even as an old woman, she gets very passionate about the school's Quidditch matches. Especially the Gryffindor vs. Slytherin games, due to an incident in her final year at Hogwarts that led to her wanting to see Gryffindor crush Slytherin on the pitch.
Pet the Dog: Mama Bear nature notwithstanding she's a stern authority figure who doesn't hesitate to severely punish students for infractions. She still has several of these:
- In The Philosopher's Stone, when she catches Harry flying to save Neville's Remembrall, she could have expelled him. Instead, she recommended him for a position on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, gifted him with what was at the time one of the finest racing brooms available and told Harry that his father would have been proud of him.
- While she notes that Harry and Ron broke a lot of rules to uncover the Chamber of Secrets, she was more worried about the fact that they took on a basilisk and a memory of Voldemort to save Ginny. What's more, Harry told her, the Weasleys, and Dumbledore that he did that alone because Ron got trapped by Lockhart's rubble. McGonagall would fuss over the two, except Molly and Arthur are already doing that.
- She's much more gentle to Neville in the Deleted Sceneinvoked from Prisoner of Azkaban showing the aftermath of Sirius' attempted break-in at the Gryffindor dormitory; rather than being furious like in the book, she acknowledges it was an accident and doesn't punish him.
- Given her strict adherence to rules one might expect her to be angry at Harry for his name appearing from the Goblet of Fire and assume that he had magically fooled the Age Line. Instead, she immediately believes him when he insists that he didn't do it, evidently realizes that someone is out to get him and defends him from Snape and Karkaroff's insinuations. It's played up further in the film where she's aghast at Snape's suggestion that they simply let the events unfold to determine the culprit.
  McGonagall: Do nothing? Offer him up as bait? Potter is a boy, not a piece of meat!
- McGonagall also writes several permission notes for Harry to browse the Restricted Section in the library. He told her it was for preparing for the Second Task, and she knew it involved going underwater. McGonagall wanted to make sure Harry didn't drown for it.
- In Half-Blood Prince Neville is crestfallen that he won't be able to take Transfiguration at the N.E.W.T. level. After conceding that it's only because his grandmother wants him to, McGonagall suggests that it's high time that Augusta Longbottom be more proud of the grandson she has instead of the one she thinks she wants, something that shocks Neville, as McGonagall had never complimented him in such a manner before. She even offers to drop Augusta a line reminding her that failing her own Charms O.W.L. doesn't make it a "soft option".
Prim and Proper Bun: She always has her hair up in a tight bun. It's even slightly lampshaded in Goblet of Fire when several students giggle at her describing the Yule Ball as a "chance to let our hair down."
Rank Scales with Asskicking: She is the Head of Gryffindor and the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts, and there is a lot of asskicking.
Reasonable Authority Figure:
- While she's quite strict and doesn't favour Gryffindor with the same devotion that Snape favours Slytherin, she is the one teacher to go to when you need help. She might scold you later, but she'll help whenever you need it.
- After Mrs. Norris is attacked in the films, she pauses her Transfiguration class when Hermione asks about the Chamber of Secrets. McGonagall knows that all the students are worried about what happened to the cat, so she explains how Salazar Slytherin created it for his heir and his reasons. Unlike Professor Binns, who asserted that the Chamber was just a rumor made up to scare purebloods, McGonagall doesn't disavow the notion, considering it possible that Slytherin hid his chamber fairly well.
Running Gag: Dropping a stack of books whenever something shocking happens.
Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!:
- Her resistance to Umbridge in Book Five includes encouraging mutinous, rule-flouting anarchy among the students. In which she participates. "It unscrews the other way," anyone? Usually, she wouldn't approve of sassing a teacher, but when Harry does it to Umbridge, she offers him a biscuit.
- When Amycus Carrow wants to punish the Ravenclaws for a supposedly fake Dark Mark alarm and throw them under the bus, McGonagall doesn't just refuse. She says Go Through Me because Amycus will have to fight her to frame any of the underage students.
Shapeshifting: Her area of specialty is Transfiguration, magic that primarily focuses on changing forms.
Star-Crossed Lovers: Her first love was a Muggle named Dougal McGregor. She accepted his eventual proposal, but had to go back on it after considering how her mother's revelation as a witch hurt her father and home life. He was later killed by Death Eaters, leading McGonagall to wonder if she could have saved him had they been together.
Stern Teacher: The moment Harry first lays eyes on her, he can instantly tell that she's not a teacher that you'd want to cross and she proves him right. Defeat a troll all by yourselves? 5 points added, after subtracting points for punishment and rewarding points for the impressive act. Caught out of bed in the middle of the night, and then questioning the teacher's punishment? 50-point penalty! Each! Note that she was subtracting the points from her own House on that occasion!
Stoic Spectacles: McGonagall is never seen without her distinctive square-shaped glasses. Even in cat form, she has a similar pair of square-shaped markings around her eyes.
Straight Man and Wise Guy:
- Try as she might to avoid it, every time Lee Jordan did Quidditch commentary, she'd hopelessly try to correct his rambling, only to eventually fall into his pace and begin playing the Straight Man to him in something resembling an unintentional comedy routine. This is averted in Prisoner of Azkaban when Malfoy jumps onto Harry's broom; McGonagall flips! She can be seen shaking her fist at Malfoy with her hat now lopsided. When Lee graduates and the commentating position goes to Luna Lovegood, she falls back into the habit; this time trying to keep Luna on topic while she trails off on her signature Cloud Cuckoolander rants.
- Though it's not often seen, she seems to play this role to Dumbledore's Cloudcuckoolander as well whenever they are together.
Tranquil Fury: In Deathly Hallows, she silently counters all of Snape's attacks while firing back with a flurry of magic. Her expression hardly changes.
Teen Genius: She won the Transfiguration Today Most Promising Newcomer award when she was still in school.
Undying Loyalty: She follows Dumbledore's orders faithfully, although she will not hesitate to question him if she feels he is doing something wrong.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: To an extent. As an Animagus, she can transform into a cat whenever she wishes. However in the Potterverse, an Animagus can only shift to one other form, which they cannot choose.
Witch Classic: Similar to Dumbledore being a Wizard Classic, McGonagall fits this trope, especially in the film version. She was seen on the Quidditch Plaque in Philosopher's Stone, which meant she must've had skill with a broomstick, not to mention she turns into a cat, and her image is never complete without her hat.
You Are in Command Now: After the death of Dumbledore she is left as the new Headmistress, but it doesn’t last as the Death Eaters take over and Snape is installed as Headmaster the next year. Nonetheless she is still the Big Good of the school, and firmly takes control of the situation leading the Hogwarts community and allies into the Battle of Hogwarts alongside Kingsley, who leads the Order. After Voldemort’s defeat she finally becomes the true Headmistress of Hogwarts for several years, though she’s retired by the epilogue.

Pomona Sprout

Portrayed by: Miriam Margolyes

Voiced by: Yolanda Pérez (European Spanish), Ruth Toscano (Latin American Spanish), Adalmária Mesquita (Brazilian Portuguese)

"Tentacula. Devil's Snare. And Snargaluff pods... yes, I'd like to see the Death Eaters fighting those."

The short and plump professor of Herbology and Head of Hufflepuff House, Sprout doesn't mind getting dirty when dealing with dangerous plants. Like Flitwick, she is cheerful and fair to her students. Not a member of the Order, but loyal to Dumbledore even through Umbridge's reign and she played a significant role in the Battle of Hogwarts.

Adaptational Attractiveness: Professor Sprout is usually portrayed as a short, plump old lady with flyaway hair and dirty clothes. The GBC games made her a surprisingly good looking redhead.
Back for the Finale: Sprout disappeared after the Chamber of Secrets film, but returned for the final part of Deathly Hallows for a few cameos.
Badass Teacher:
- Though not as noticeable as some of the others, she's quick to help McGonagall and Flitwick fight against Snape. She also takes part in the final battle where she survives, probably defeating a few Death Eaters in the process.
- During the hour of armistice, Sprout is one of the few who hasn’t lost her fighting spirit. She’s encouraging some students to stop whining.
Beware the Nice Ones: Don't mistake her sweetness nor Head of Hufflepuff status for weakness. She can handle tough and dangerous plants without much fuss, and she rebelled against the tyranny of Umbridge and Voldemort before using her knowledge of magical plants in the Battle of Hogwarts.
Covered in Mud: She is described as having lots of earth on her clothes and fingernails that would make prim and proper Aunt Petunia faint. Justified, since Herbology is her specialty and she would naturally be around lots of plants and dirt.
Fluffy Tamer: Apparently, the only person the Whomping Willow won't attack. Other dangerous magical plants handled by her include Mandrakes, Devil's Snare, and the Venomous Tentacula.
Genki Girl: She is described as rather hyper, especially while teaching.
Green Thumb: She weaponizes her plants in the Battle of Hogwarts.
Jerkass Ball: Briefly grabs it in Goblet of Fire towards Harry, for stealing Hufflepuff's moment of glory when the Goblet spat out his name. She soon gets over it.
Let's Get Dangerous!: She's been wanting to rebel against Voldemort's regime for a while. When the teachers learn Voldemort is coming, she asks what defenses they need to secure. Then she and Neville get to work weaponizing the greenhouse plants.
Meaningful Name: Pomona is a Roman goddess in charge of fruit trees and gardens.

Filius Flitwick

"A little extra wisdom never goes amiss, Potter!"

Portrayed by: Warwick Davis

Voiced by: Eduardo Moreno (European Spanish, Philosopher's Stone-Half-Blood Prince), Francisco Javier Martínez (European Spanish, Prisoner of Azkaban), Víctor Agramunt (European Spanish, Deathly Hallows Part II), Jorge Roig (Latin American Spanish, Philosopher's Stone), Eduardo Fonseca ((Latin American Spanish), Goblet of Fire), Luis Alfonso Mendoza (Latin American Spanish, Order of the Phoenix), José Luis Miranda ((Latin American Spanish, Half-Blood Prince-Deahtly Hallows Part II), Isaac Schneider (Brazilian Portuguese)

"Now, don't forget that nice wrist movement we've been practicing! Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words properly is very important too—never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said 's' instead of 'f' and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest."

The short professor of Charms and Head of Ravenclaw House. A cheerful man who usually stands on a pile of books while addressing his class. Like Sprout, cheerful and fair to his students. Not a member of the Order, but loyal to Dumbledore and a former Duellist. He displayed the former under the rules of both Umbridge and the Carrows and the latter in the Battle of Hogwarts.

Adaptational Jerkass: Downplayed as it only occurs in one movie, and one where he isn't very prominent anyway. Flitwick is a tad pricklier in the film version of Half-Blood Prince, getting uncharacteristically impatient with Harry and Luna when they arrive late to Hogwarts and later using a fake excuse to avoid Slughorn for no readily apparent reason. And another point in the film version of Goblet of Fire where he gets angry at Hagrid for accidentally stabbing him with a fork, where compared to the books he was forgiving of (and seemingly resigned to) students accidentally hitting him with spells.
Alliterative Name: The first letters of his first and last name are "F".
Ambiguously Human: He's actually part goblin.
Badass Teacher: It's infrequently mentioned that he's a former duelling champion. Come Deathly Hallows, the readers get to see why.
Beware the Nice Ones: Prof. Flitwick is one of Hogwarts's nicest teachers, rarely using punishments to discipline students and appreciating clever acts of mischief. However, he used to be a dueling champion, as several Death Eaters would find out. Before the Battle for Hogwarts starts, he's prepared to duel Snape again, and win. Notably, despite Flitwick's goblin heritage, even Draco Malfoy treats him with respect, rather than sarcasm like he would with Lupin.
Chekhov's Gunman: A tiny one; the Gryffindors think he will lead the Duelling Club because of his reputation as an expert fighter. This gets revealed in the Battle of Hogwarts.
Cool Old Guy: He's well into middle-age and very friendly and laid-back, treating all his students fairly and helping them all improve and generally creating a positive atmosphere for learning.
Cool Teacher: He is known to be a cool, laidback teacher who rarely gives out detentions or deducts house points for mistakes, and even allows games in class close to the holidays.
Early Instalment Character Design Difference: In the movies. Despite being played by the same actor, Flitwick's appearance changed dramatically between the second and third films, from a bald old man with a bushy grey beard, to a younger one with black hair and neat moustache (seen above).
Everyone Has Standards: He becomes visibly uncomfortable and embarrassed when Lockhart suggested that for Valentine's Day, he could make charms equivalent to a Love Potion. For one, most of the students are underage and that would be the equivalent to a roofie. For another, Lockhart has no idea about how most charms work.
Face Palm: His reaction when Lockhart tells the students to ask him about Entrancing Enchantments.
Foil: The Sorting Hat had difficulty sorting him and McGonagall in the same way; both were toss-ups between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw.
Funny Background Event: Is treated as this in the book at times. If the trio are having a discussion during his class, count on Flitwick being victimized by someone's spell going awry.
Hidden Depths: According to the films and Hogwarts Mystery, he's got a side hobby as the conductor for the school's choir and orchestra. He's good at it, considering most of the students gave a concert on the first night everyone is back, meaning rehearsals would be rushed.
Lethal Joke Character: Part of the reason he was a duelling champion. He primarily used Charms, rather than the more usual destructive or offensive spells, and most of his opponents didn't know how to counter his attacks. Carried over into the Battle of Hogwarts, when a number of Death Eaters found that the tiny teacher who runs the school's music programme is not someone to be trifled with.
Let's Get Dangerous!: Once things get heated at the end of the seventh book, he shows no fear in taking on some of Voldemort's toughest including Severus Snape, Yaxley, and Antonin Dolohov.
Miniature Senior Citizens: Somewhat justified in that he has some goblin ancestry, and goblins are shorter than humans.
Nice Guy: An all-around pleasant and amiable fellow, especially compared to Snape.
Old Master: He is the expert on charms and is extremely powerful. Case in point is in "Order of the Phoenix" where Umbridge is entirely incapable of removing the swamp Fred and George left behind before they left; once she is no longer in charge, it takes Flitwick less than a minute to remove it. Three seconds, in fact.
- Even Snape is wary of Flitwick's abilities, and makes a point of knocking him out in the sixth book when the Death Eaters infiltrate Hogwarts.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- He only gives verbal praise in class when someone can master a spell, like Hermione for example. When he finds out that Harry gave an interview about the truth that Voldemort returned, he discreetly gave him a box of sugar mice and told him to stay mum about it, as thanks for speaking up against Umbridge.
- Professor Flitwick is also the least likely to sass authority figures, owing to his Nice Guy temperament. He didn't even speak out against Lockhart being a Know-Nothing Know-It-All. Then Umbridge came along, and made herself Headmistress of Hogwarts. Since the teachers and students are instructed to only talk about class material, Flitwick didn't even bother dispelling Fred and George's fireworks on day one of the lady's new job. He instead asked a student to fetch Umbridge to handle them. Flitwick tells her that he could have probably handled them, but he wasn't sure he had the "authority". Then Flitwick slams the door in her face, like that.
- In book seven, it's the only time we've seen him raging. He and Professor Sprout come across Snape duelling McGonagall, in Not What It Looks Like mode (Snape was keeping his cover as a Death Eater headmaster and McGonagall struck the first blow to distract from the Dark Mark being activated). Flitwick shouts You Leave Him Alone! and draws his wand, wanting a piece of Snape for the latter stunning him the previous year. That's the point that Snape leaves and gives up the fight.
Our Goblins Are Different: J. K. Rowling envisioned him as just a tiny old man, but his appearance in the first two movies made her rationalize he has a dash of goblin ancestry.
Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Don't let his small stature fool you. He was a master duellist prior to teaching at Hogwarts, and in Deathly Hallows he personally takes down Antonin Dolohov, arguably one of the most dangerous Death Eaters.
Reasonable Authority Figure: It says something that Neville eventually excelled in his class. Flitwick will praise students that master charms, and he's understanding when Hermione apologizes for falling asleep and missing the Cheering Charms lesson since he knew about her workload. She was frantic when he hinted that Cheering Charms would be on the third-year final, but from what we hear, she passed. For those that are struggling or failing, he assigns them extra practice as homework, rightly assessing that they need more experience. When Harry shows that he mastered a Summoning Charm and used it for the First Task, Flitwick took him aside and praised him for his technique. (It's understandable since Harry summoned his broomstick from his dormitory within minutes.) McGonagall tells Neville he should do Charms after qualifying because he is a good student and Flitwick will assist him with the NEWT preparations.
Renaissance Man: Duelling champion, leading expert on charms, teacher and, if the films are to be believed, a maestro.
Retired Badass: A duelling champion in his youth.
Sweet Tooth: Like many wizards, he's fond of sweets. In the third book, he's seen ordering a soda with cherry syrup at the Three Broomstick. Then in the fifth, he gives Harry some candy as a reward for speaking out about Voldemort in an interview.
Uneven Hybrid: According to Rowling, his grandfather was a goblin.
The Worf Effect: Subverted. Snape catches him by surprise in book six and stuns him while telling Hermione and Ginny — who were following Snape on Harry's orders — that he's ill, having just collapsed, and get help for Professor Flitwick. Hermione goes Oh, Crap! later when she says she ought to have realized Flitwick was stunned. It turned out that the professor was ambushed because he couldn't believe that one of his own colleagues would curse him, and didn't have time to react. Round two during the Battle of Hogwarts is much more dangerous for Snape, who has to flee the scene though Flitwick did want a piece of him and is angry that he fled.

Horace Slughorn

"These are mad times we live in, mad!"

Portrayed by: Jim Broadbent

Voiced by: Roger Carel (European French), Mario Martín (European Spanish), Arturo Mercado (Latin American Spanish), Isaac Bardavid (Brazilian Portuguese)

Appears in: Half-Blood Prince | Deathly Hallows

"Please don't think badly of me when you see it. You have no idea what he was like... even back then."

An old friend of Dumbledore's and, until 1981, the Potions Master and Head of Slytherin House. In 1996, he returned to his post as Potions Master, and in 1997, resumed his post as Head of Slytherin. He runs an informal organization nicknamed the Slug Club, which is an invitation-only club of students whom Slughorn believes will be successful. He's taken a liking to Harry, Hermione and, decades in the past, Tom Riddle.

Absent-Minded Professor: He is shown to be a bit of a bumbling old man when not practicing his trademark Slytherin smooth elitism. More pronounced in the films, where he often appears baffled and easy to manipulate, especially when confronted by assertive people like Harry or Tom Riddle.
Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Subverted. In the films, while Slughorn is less extroverted about it due to his weaker personality, his shame of having unknowingly helped Tom Riddle to become Voldemort takes a much more personal light, as an original piece of dialogue shows him reminiscing about his protegee Lily Evans and a gift she once gave him. While in the book he turns almost laughable when confronted by Harry, crying and begging in his drunken stupor, in the film he actually manages to remain dignified, breaking down with every word but dead set on telling his story, in order to make Harry know how deep his bond with Lily was and how he felt after realizing what his actions had brought upon her.
Adaptational Attractiveness: Slughorn is described in the books as being very short and enormously overweight to the point that buttons on his clothes are constantly threatening to pop off. Meanwhile, Jim Broadbent is 6'2" and has a fairly average, only slightly heavy build. In the books he's also stated to have a enormous, goofy mustache that makes him look like a walrus, while by comparison Jim Boardbent is clean-shaven, looking like a distinguished older gentleman.
Adaptational Nice Guy: The movie version of Slughorn has most of his negative traits heavily toned down. In the book, Slughorn feels genuine remorse by what he did, but is simply not willing to reveal it and take the risk of ruining his reputation; Harry only gets him to open up by guilt-tripping him while the old professor is painfully drunk. In the film, even although Slughorn stays relatively sober by comparison, he gets to the topic himself in a kind way and needs much less input to acquiesce to Harry's reasons. Even the resigned way he does it, very different from his defeated visage from the book, implies he had already pondered a lot about the matter and only needed some comforting words by the right person to dare to act. The Slughorn of the film is also more genuinely sympathetic towards people, and even more respectful to Hagrid (he asks if he can take some of Aragog's venom rather than getting it in secret).
Adaptational Wimp: His film version is significantly more flappable and weak-willed, to the point of becoming downright cowardly at points of the story where he was merely fussy or upset in the books. Also, as the scene where Slughorn, McGonagall and Kingsley duel Voldemort himself is omitted in the films, his contribution to the battle of Hogwarts gets reduced to helping cast the magic shield and looking afraid even while doing just that.
Ambition Is Evil: Subverted with Slughorn as a member of Slytherin. Up to Slughorn's introduction to the series, all Slytherins played this trope straight, so the audience and Harry expect Slughorn to play it straight, too, but it turns out to be mostly wrong. He has questionable traits in the form of favouritism and singling out talented or well-connected students he expects to benefit from in the future, but what subverts this ambition being bad is that he's equal-opportunity and in practice doesn't hold much prejudice against other houses or non-pure bloods (also that the level of "favours" he expects back are usually along the lines of Quidditch tickets or having an opinion published in the paper, or some sweets - basically, stuff that's trivial and inexpensive). He's also nicer and more likeable than all other Slytherins, and he is genuinely ashamed of accidentally helping Tom Riddle's rise to power.
Apathetic Teacher: Only those students who Slughorn prejudges of being of great talent and skill, or having connections, get his undivided attention. Those students who don't might try and work hard and get by ok in his class, but they will never get invited to his parties. That said, he's still a thoroughly competent teacher and it's clear that he likes his job - he might ignore you, but he'll still make sure you pass.
Badass Teacher: Not as overtly as others, but he proves at the Battle of Hogwarts that Dumbledore was not wrong when praising his skills. He takes on Voldemort in the last book along with McGonagall and Shacklebolt, and all three hold their own. That's right. Horace Slughorn fights Voldemort head-on. In his pyjamas.
Big Good: While Dumbledore is on friendly terms with him, the way he talks about Slughorn's talent, knowledge and connections imply he thinks Slughorn could have been another mainstay in the wars against Voldemort had he actually wanted. This is finally played straight in the Battle of Hogwarts, where Slughorn teams up with the post-Dumbledore Big Goods, McGonagall and Kingsley, to fight Voldemort himself.
Character Catch Phrase: He always shouts "Merlin's beard!" whenever he's surprised.
Character Development: Over the course of the final two books, the only ones he appeared in. After one of his favourite students, Tom Riddle, created Horcruxes when he told him how to do so, took power as Voldemort and killed Lily Evans, Slughorn was devastated and ashamed of himself, as Lily was a personal favourite among his students, and he fled from his mistakes for sixteen years until Harry convinced him to give him the memory so that he would help him in defeating Voldemort. Fast-forward to the next year, during the Battle of Hogwarts, despite his fear, Slughorn called the reinforcements and faced the ghosts of his past head-on, fighting against Voldemort before Harry finished him off.
Combat Pragmatist: Left with his students to make sure they escaped Hogsmeade safely, then gathered up enough forces to go back to the castle and guarantee victory.
Cool Old Guy: While some of his behavior is a bit ethically dubious, he's nevertheless a charming and friendly older man who is kind to students, even the ones that don't stand out or can't do him favors, and makes his courses quite enjoyable. Being played by the always lovable Jim Broadbent certainly helps in the films.
Cool Teacher: For all his favouritism, Slughorn does deliver an impressive first Potions lesson and he can make the course seem fun, which is a gigantic improvement over Snape (and over several other Hogwarts teachers, in fact). Ethically though, this favouritism means he's still not a perfect teacher, although he's still much better than Snape.
Cowardly Lion: Is utterly terrified of the Death Eaters and Voldemort. He still returns after evacuating the underage Slytherins in the book, and even fights Voldemort head-on. In the movie, with the Slytherins sent to their dorms in the dungeons, he helps cast the protective spells over Hogwarts, terrified but determined to protect Hogwarts.
Crazy-Prepared: Despite being skilled in the art of Occlumency, Slughorn carries around an antidote for Veritaserum, which can be resisted through Occlumency too.
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Despite his pompous personality and relative lack of guts, many characters comment on his skill, including Dumbledore of all people, and it's implied even Voldemort himself recognizes Slughorn as a powerful wizard. Certainly, Slughorn steps up to duel Voldemort alongside McGonagall and Kingsley, and even although he was the only one of the three who had not proved to be a good fighter beforehand (rather the opposite, actually), nothing implies he doesn't hold his own just as much as them.
Dark Is Not Evil: Slytherins have had a nasty reputation for being evil, and most of the prominent ones are bullies at best, the Big Bad at worst. Slughorn is the first exception to the rule, and is arguably the most "traditional" Slytherin character in that he runs a pure meritocracy. Whether he escapes the "All Slytherins are assholes" reputation may be subject to some debate, as he still plays favourites with his students and singles out those that are famous or well-connected for special treatment; but to give him his due, he also doesn't bully or abuse those who fail to catch his attention, even if he can be a bit dismissive of them by comparison. And, above all, he recognizes and celebrates Randomly Gifted characters like Hermione, even if they're someone with no connections or important relatives.
Defector from Decadence: Returns near the end of the Battle of Hogwarts, leading the Slytherins in battle against the Death Eaters and duelling Lord Voldemort. Not bad considering he was too comfortable to move at the start of the last book...
Enlightened Self-Interest: As a Nice Guy from Slytherin House, whose Hat is ambition and self-interest, he'll often help people he thinks would have potential to become great so that he will gain some benefit some way or another later (although he remains a sympathetic figure despite this considering that, as a general rule, he tends to help his proteges much more than the help he requests from them). This backfired with Tom "Lord Voldemort" Riddle, to whom he provided information on dark magics such as the Horcrux, and he regards it as My Greatest Failure.
Everyone Has Standards:
- Slughorn hates Death Eaters and what they represent. Harry even notes that he didn't invite Draco Malfoy to his club, with Lucius being a prominent figure up until the last book and influential in Fudge's regime probably owing to the father's arrest. It's not just that Voldemort killed his favourite student; it's that they ended up corrupting the Slytherin name and turning it into a symbol of Dark Magic. When McGonagall told Slughorn he could evacuate but needs to choose sides since Hogwarts defenders will shoot to kill, he makes his decision: defend Hogwarts, in both the book and film.
- He's completely sympathetic when finding out that Romilda Vane poisoned Ron with a Love Potion meant for Harry, on the boy's birthday. Slughorn does ask why Harry didn't brew the antidote but is quick to take charge when Harry explains why, that he wanted Slughorn's hands and expertise. As soon as Ron is cured and horrified, Slughorn tries to cheer him up with a drink of vintage mead he was saving for Dumbledore, saying it's a great way to celebrate many happy returns. Then when Ron is poisoned, Slughorn gets help as soon as Harry cures him with a bezoar, looking guilty that his gift went wrong.
- He is disgusted at the idea of creating Horcruxes, stating that death is preferable. Made more prominent in the films, where his expression when explaining to Tom Riddle about Horcruxes is nothing but horror and uneasiness. He's even more appalled at the idea of creating multiple Horcruxes, as it implies killing multiple people. Even when explaining that Horcruxes allow the user to not die, instead of talking about it like it's something powerful and amazing, he looks disturbed and his tone shows clear fear.
Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: While not naive, he's idealistic enough to consider the quickest way to create Horcruxes to be so effective because "killing rips the soul apart." And that the act of taking another person's life is in itself "a violation against nature".
"Seven? Merlin's beard, Tom! Isn't it bad enough to consider killing one person?"
Hypocrite: Slughorn is a bit of a hypocrite, as he tells Harry he believes teachers should not have favourites, but then proceeds to say that Harry's mother, Lily Evans, was one of his. Shortly after this encounter, Dumbledore tells Harry that in fact, while Slughorn was a teacher, he formed a group of his favourite students with him at the centre in order to forge connections, make introductions, and always reap some sort of benefit from them. In addition, Slughorn states that he is not prejudiced against Muggle-born students, but seems surprised that Harry said Hermione Granger was the best in his year, even if he still asserts that Lily was one of the most talented students he ever taught and frequently compared Harry's talent to hers in very favourable terms. It seems Slughorn feels that pure-blood students usually display the best talent but is happy to bring Muggle-borns or half-bloods into his inner circle if he thinks they are talented or gifted enough.
I Need a Freaking Drink: Right before the Battle of Hogwarts in the eighth film, Slughorn is briefly seen taking a large gulp from a flask. Subverted when some viewers realized that it could've just as easily been Felix Felicis or any other enhancing potion, which is pretty understandable considering how hellish he knows the next few hours will be.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While hardly a jerk in the true sense of the word, Slughorn is elitist and keeps superficially some typical Slytherin prejudices, as seen in his surprise that a Muggle-born would be better at magic than a pureblood and his favouring of certain students over others. Nevertheless, he is overall a decent guy and a good teacher, and he genuinely adores his favoured students regardless of their origin. Remember that he also happily invited Hermione into his club when he learned about her skills, and that his all-time favourite student was Lily Evans, Harry's mother, who was a Muggle-born.
Knowledge Broker: Tom Riddle was able to get him to reveal what Horcruxes were with some flattery and a gift of crystallized pineapple, but this went down in his mind as My Greatest Failure.
Lovable Coward: He's highly averse to risking life and limb, but his open self-interest and affability keep his cowardice from being galling.
The Mentor:
- A couple of lines from Book 6 and some simple math imply that Slughorn took Snape under his wing during the latter's N.E.W.T. years.
- Also to Tom Riddle. Slughorn was likely his favourite teacher, and Dumbledore suspected that he got a few ideas from Slughorn about recruiting followers.
My God, What Have I Done?: Even decades later he's wracked with guilt over having told Tom Riddle about Horcruxes, feeling responsible for Voldemort's rise to power and the death of Lily Evans.
My Greatest Failure: Telling Tom Riddle about Horcruxes, both because it casts him in a bad light and because it led to the death of Lily Evans, "one of my all-time favourite students."
Nerves of Steel: When Marcus Belby chokes on a bite of pheasant in his presence, Slughorn remains serene and helps him quickly with the spell version of the Heimlich manoeuvre. A similar situation, however, gets subverted for contrast: when Ron starts feeling the effects of a poisoned beverage clearly meant for Slughorn, the latter completely freezes, clearly too shocked by the implications to react as he did with Belby, and it's Harry who has to administer an antidote to Ron..
Nice Guy: Mild prejudices aside, Slughorn is genuinely friendly to Harry and the other students.
Noble Bigot: Downplayed. Though he's one of the most sympathetic Slytherins in the series, there are hints that he holds to some aspects of 'blood purity' ideology, such as his assumption that Voldemort must be a pureblood and his surprise at Muggle-born wizards with above-average talent. He doesn't hold it against them, though, and tends to adore them even more in the face of their "minor problem".
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: After he cures Ron from love potion effects, he offers him a drink as a pick-me-up and birthday present, one he was saving for Dumbledore. However, the mead ends up being poisoned and Ron nearly dies. Slughorn is horrified and gets help after Harry remembers to use a bezoar.
Noodle Incident: During his first class, he implies to have known first-hand the worst effects of love potions in his youth. Nothing more is revealed about it.
Papa Wolf: In book seven, McGonagall orders him to evacuate all the Slytherins before the final battle. He doesn't argue and gets out as many as he can, except for Malfoy who slips away. Once the students are safe, he returns with an army.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Especially when compared to Snape; unlike the former Potions master, Slughorn actually cares about teaching his students and is obviously much more talented and natural for the whole job. Even for the ones that he ignores, he makes sure that they can learn the material, and for the ones in his advanced classes, he challenges them in order to see them excel. He has no reason to believe Harry is cheating either since Harry managed an Exceeds Expectations on his OWL. Then in the seventh book, after he evacuates all of the students in his house, he comes back with an army to defend Hogwarts.
Redeeming Replacement: Even though he has flaws, he can be considered one for Snape when he takes his place as Potion teacher. Aside from being certainly a much more gifted teacher, he's shown to be far more sympathetic towards his students, doesn't bully them and doesn't give preferential treatment to the students of Slytherin. Even as a person, it's a testament to how rotten Snape is that Slughorn's own ethically dodgy tendencies seem an improvement. He also ends up being the one professor who tries to do his best to break the House Divisions among Hogwarts.
Some of My Best Friends Are X: Makes it a point to bring up his famous Muggle-born students as proof that he is not prejudiced, even while, as Harry put it, "still seeming much too surprised that a Muggle-born should make a good witch." To his credit, he IS genuinely kind towards Muggle-borns who display talent, he simply seems to have a subconscious expectation for purebloods to usually be better.
Sweet Tooth: His favourite treat is crystallized pineapple.
Token Good Teammate: He embodies the traits of Slytherin before Voldemort showed up: genuinely ambitious and cunning but not destructively so, and considering blood purity to be little more than a formality. He, Andromeda Tonks, and Leta Lestrange are about the only "nice" Slytherins in the entire franchise.
Trademark Favourite Food: Crystallized pineapple. To the point where Tom Riddle used it as part of a ploy to flatter him into spilling the secrets of what Horcruxes were.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: He became progressively more disturbed at Tom Riddle's eagerness to know more about Horcruxes but couldn't have imagined that Riddle would use that knowledge to become the most dangerous wizard in the world and wage two bloody wars against wizarding Britain.
Vicariously Ambitious: He doesn't have any big ambitions for himself, only for his students, and only some of his students, i.e. those with connections, skills, family ties, and those who he thinks might make it.
What You Are in the Dark:
- Harry has been a fugitive for a year and smeared by the Ministry. What is Slughorn's first reaction to seeing him again? Calling him "My dear boy" and actually sounding happy, if perplexed that he's here and out-of-breath from chasing after the other professors. He is fond of Lily's son, even after a year.
- Happens in both the film and book. As it's revealed with Slughorn, he is a cowardly Slytherin who would rather avoid confrontation if he can help it, especially with the Dark Lord, but he also regrets that Voldemort killed his favourite student and he blames himself for giving over the information that indirectly led to Lily's death. McGonagall orders him to evacuate all the Slytherins and warns him that if he attempts any sabotage, then the defenders of Hogwarts will shoot to kill. Slughorn does evacuate after initial hesitation, only to return with an army and fight Voldemort head on after Harry is presumed dead. In the film, the Slytherins are confined to their dormitory, but Slughorn joins in casting the protective spells over Hogwarts, looking terrified but determined to do his part.
You Are a Credit to Your Race: Harry notes that while Slughorn lacks the overt anti-Muggle-born bigotry of the rest of Slytherin, he still seems a bit too surprised that Lily and later Hermione were such talented witches, and generally frames his view of them in this manner.
You Are in Command Now: After Snape kills Dumbledore and leaves the school, Slughorn becomes the de facto head of Slytherin House, and officially retakes the position offscreen in the following school year, and with it a position as one of the primary leaders of the school.
You Owe Me: Given his habit of taking promising students under his wing and giving them their initial "foot in the door" to high-flying careers, almost every person of note in the Wizarding world owes him a favour. However, Slughorn is too lazy to take advantage of this beyond asking for free concert or sporting events tickets and sweets.

Armando Dippet

Appears in: Chamber of Secrets | Prisoner of Azkaban (mentioned, film only) | Order of the Phoenix (via portrait) | Half-Blood Prince (via portrait) | Deathly Hallows (mentioned) | The Tales of Beedle the Bard (mentioned) | Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (mentioned in newspaper)

Dumbledore's predecessor as Headmaster of Hogwarts. He was in the position from at least the early 1940s until sometime between the mid-60s and early 70s. He never appears in the present in the books but shows up in a supporting role in the second via flashbacks and in the rest of the series via his portrait.

The Cameo: He briefly appears in the Chamber of Secrets movie in Tom Riddle's memory, but he's never referred to by name and his lines from the book are cut.
The Ghost: Never appears in the present day. He's only in flashbacks, in his portrait, and/or mentioned by someone else.
Horrible Judge of Character: He was taken by Tom Riddle's charms even when he'd begun going off the deep end in his final years as a student, and had to be talked out of giving him a job after school by Dumbledore.
Killed Offscreen: In the movies, at least. A Daily Prophet article in the second movie implies he's alive. However, his portrait later appears in Dumbledore's office with the other dead headmasters, meaning he must have died over the next few months. In the books, his portrait likewise appears in Dumbledore's office, but there is nothing to suggest that he was still alive at the start of the series.
Letter Motif: He's not the only Hogwarts headmasters whose initials are "AD".
Malicious Slander: He got the Rita Skeeter treatment at some point with a book entitled, Armando Dippet: Master or Moron? Though considering that Dippet fell for Riddle's charms, Rita may have had a point.
Stern Teacher: He seems to have been more of a disciplinarian than Dumbledore. For starters, he expelled Hagrid and perhaps Newt Scamander, while Dumbledore isn't fond of expulsion and argued against it happening to them. Slughorn half-jokingly says that Headmaster Dippet will give him detention too if Riddle and co. are caught out of bed.
Wizards Live Longer: At least in the movies. The second one gives his age as 355, which is exceptionally old in a franchise that plays this trope straight. Bathilda and Professor Marchbanks are seemingly the naturally oldest characters in the books and they’d be in their 140s or so.

Other teachers

Rubeus Hagrid

"I shouldn't have told yeh that..."

Portrayed by: Robbie Coltrane (films), Martin Bayfield (young), Chris Jarman (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, first West End run), Brian Abraham (Cursed Child, first Broadway run), Greg Draven (Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure, body double)

Voiced by: Carlos Kaniowsky (European Spanish), Humberto Solórzano (Latin American Spanish, Philosopher's Stone), Víctor Hugo Aguilar (Latin American Spanish, Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban), Blas García, (Latin American Spanish, Goblet of Fire-Deathly Hallows Part II), José Santa Cruz (Brazilian Portuguese)

"I am what I am, an’ I’m not ashamed. ‘Never be ashamed,’ my ol’ dad used ter say, ‘there’s some who’ll hold it against you, but they’re not worth botherin’ with.’ An’ he was right."

The Hogwarts Keeper of Keys, gamekeeper, groundskeeper, Care of Magical Creatures professor and a half-giant as well. Hagrid introduced the wizarding world to Harry, and remains his friend throughout Harry's years at Hogwarts. He also has an unusual affection towards vicious beasts, including Norbert (dragon), Fluffy (three-headed dog), Aragog (acromantula), and Blast-ended Skrewts. Also has a weakness for alcohol.

Adaptational Wimp: In the fifth book, he is able to shrug off several spells of nearly half a dozen Aurors, whereas in the seventh film a single spell is enough to render him unconscious.
Admiring the Abomination: Which invariably leads him to trying to make it a pet.
All Genes Are Codominant: He splits the difference between giant and human in size.
Almighty Janitor: Being the Keeper of Keys, gamekeeper and groundskeeper of Hogwarts, Hagrid is effectively the third-most important member of staff after Dumbledore and McGonagall, for as much as he is dismissed by Draco Malfoy as a "servant". He's also a senior member of the Order of the Phoenix and a member of Dumbledore's most trusted inner circle, being given tasks befitting such absolute trust. He was the one tasked with retrieving Harry from Godric's Hollow, bringing him to Hogwarts on his eleventh birthday, and transporting the Philosopher's Stone from Gringotts to Hogwarts.
Awesome, yet Impractical: His teaching method. Hybidize Manticores and Fire Crabs, then let a bunch of fourteen-year-olds take care of them? Hell Yeah!
Badass Biker: For two short periods during the series. It doesn't hurt when the bike in question can shoot dragon flames at enemies and conjure freaking brick walls out of its exhaust pipe.
Badass Teacher: Deconstructed Trope; Hagrid's ruggedness and love for dangerous monsters make him ignorant to the fact that his classes terrify his students and do little to educate them about anything practical. Subverted in that he actually can teach a class "properly"; from around the midpoint of Goblet of Fire, after Professor Grubbly-Plank's brief tenure as substitute teacher, he tones down the danger and lectures his students extremely knowledgably about several different creatures, even though Harry notes that it's clear he finds the animals' normality boring.
Bear Hug: He does this to Harry, Ron, and Hermione frequently.
Because You Were Nice to Me: His Undying Loyalty to Dumbledore and to a slightly lesser degree McGonagall stems from their respecting and valuing his input, even as gamekeeper.
Beware the Nice Ones: While Hagrid is a lovable chap, don't anger him. If you insult Dumbledore or attack his friends, he will force you to repent.
- When Vernon Dursley insults Dumbledore, Hagrid loses it and aims a curse at Dudley, intending to turn him into a pig. It probably doesn't help that Hagrid is described as looking like he could "explode"; remember... Hagrid is half-giant. Now imagine Hagrid as truly angry. Scary thought, eh?
- In the fourth book, when Karkaroff, mistakingly believing that Dumbledore arranged an attack on Viktor Krum, spits at Dumbledore's feet, Hagrid promptly flies into a rage, pins Karkaroff to a tree by the neck, and demands that he apologize. It takes Dumbledore telling him to put Karkaroff down for Hagrid to obey and the only reason Hagrid listens is because he respects Dumbledore.
- Umbridge and four Ministry-trained Aurors found this out the hard way when they tried to ambush him one night. Umbridge, sadly, was the only one who escaped conscious. (Although, in another example of this trope, Hermione made her wish she hadn't.)
Big Brother Instinct: Hagrid loves his half-brother very much. In Order of the Phoenix, he brought him to the Forbidden Forest where Grawp can be free in the open air. His one request for the trio was to look after him while Hagrid was away. The scene is even more touching when he says he's the only family Grawp has. He soured both his relation with the centaurs and Maxime over it.
The Big Guy: Amongst the Hogwarts teachers and the Order of the Phoenix. He's the largest staff member, one of the strongest, and extremely tough, if unskilled.
Book Ends:
- Hagrid is the person responsible for driving baby Harry to the Dursley home in the prologue of The Philosopher's Stone. Fittingly, when Harry leaves the Dursley home for the final time in-story at the beginning of Deathly Hallows, Hagrid is the one to escort him. Even better, he does so both times by using Sirius' motorbike for transport. Lampshaded by Hagrid just before they take off for the final time.
  Hagrid: I brought you here sixteen years ago when you were no bigger than a bowtruckle. Seems only right that I should be the one to take you away now.
- A crueler example happens when Voldemort forces Hagrid to carry Harry's "dead" body up to Hogwarts in his presumed victory march. The poor guy is sobbing the whole way. Thankfully, he learns not long after that Harry is actually alive.
Bruiser with a Soft Centre: He's more soft spot than bruiser unless you make him mad. Which is not advised.
The Cameo: In Cursed Child, he appears in one of Harry's nightmares and again in a time travel scene which shows how he found baby Harry among the rubble of the Potters' house in Godric's Hollow.
Cannot Keep a Secret: Trust Hagrid with your business, trust him with your treasures, trust him with your life, heck, trust him with taking care of Harry Freaking Potter^noteAn extremely smart idea, as Hagrid is dangerous to enemies, but for the love of all that is holy, don’t trust him with your secrets. A habit of slipping into Did I Just Say That Out Loud? mixed with being a chatty drunk ensures nothing in his knowledge stays with him alone for long.
Hagrid: What that dog is guarding is strictly between Professor Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel.
Harry: Nicolas Flamel?
Hagrid: I shouldn't have said that. I should not have said that. I shouldn't have said that.
- It should be noted, that, with one exception, a lot of what he "shouldn't" have said was actually beneficial. For example, the instance of Nicolas Flamel above led to them finding out that the treasure Fluffy was guarding was in fact the Philosopher's Stone, and once Firenze tells Harry about the properties of unicorn blood, they deduce that the thief's goal is to somehow use the Elixir Of Life to bring back Voldemort.
- This is notably highlighted in Deathly Hallows. After the Battle of the Seven Potters Fleur suspects Hagrid of letting slip the real date that Harry was being moved to the Burrow, though in this particular instance Hagrid was innocent.
Change the Uncomfortable Subject: He has a habit of doing this, usually fairly obviously. When he first meets Harry, he mentions to him having been expelled from Hogwarts. However, when Harry asks him why he was expelled, he replies loudly "It's getting late! Lots to do tomorrow" and completely ignores the question.
The Cloudcuckoolander Was Right: Hermione, Harry, and Ron regard his decision to bring Grawp to the forest as his most insane action yet, something which Madame Maxime was reluctant about, and which Firenze notes is doomed. This should have been the one to finally kill him off, yet it turns out that Hagrid was right about his brother after all, and his efforts to teach him English and civilize him proved to be a big success.
Cool Teacher:
- Inverted. He really wants to be one and does what he can to succeed, but when Draco gets hurt by one of the magical creatures he was showing, his confidence vanishes. His class becomes particularly unpopular among Harry's year, even among the Gryffindors, to the point where no sixth-year students sign up for his NEWT-level class. Granted, this may also have a lot to do with the course not being very useful for students aspiring for a career outside of magical creature care, but the dangerousness of Hagrid's classes doesn't precisely help.
- It's worth noting that certain lessons demonstrate that Hagrid is capable of being this when he splits the difference between having enough confidence to teach about interesting creatures and stopping short of teaching about flat out dangerous creatures (like Blast-Ended Skrewts). Everyone has fun when he teaches everyone about Nifflers and baby unicorns, and even the hippogriff lesson goes well until Malfoy is injured, mostly by Bullying a Dragon. It is notable, too, that there is a linear progression in terms of his teaching ability: while his lessons in book three are, with the exception of the hippogriff lesson, deadly dull, and he spends the first term of book four on Skrewts, all his lessons after Christmas of Harry's fourth year are shown to be entirely competently taught and reasonably safe. Apparently Professor Grubbly-Plank being brought in as substitute teacher was enough to make Hagrid straighten up his act, or else it simply took him that long to figure out what was an appropriate level of danger for classes.
Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Occurs many times, especially when he's drinking. It even provides the one exception mention above. A disguised Quirrell deliberately gets him drunk before offering him a dragon egg (possibly to get him out of the way when he would inevitably have gotten caught) in exchange for information on how to neutralize Fluffy.
Disney Death: He is apparently overwhelmed by acromantulas during the Battle of Hogwarts, but is merely taken prisoner by the Death Eaters.
Does Not Know His Own Strength: Played with. He certainly knows his own strength when it comes to doing heavy physical labor or fighting — and he puts it to good use. But the problem comes in when he tries to use normal 'human' signs of affection, like hugs or pats on the shoulder and winds up bruising people or tossing them about.
Dogged Nice Guy: The class and cultural divisions between him and Olympe Maxime, despite their status as Half-Giants, prevents any real relationship.
Dragon Tamer: In The Philosopher's Stone Hagrid attempts to raise Norbert, a dragon whose egg he bought at Hog's Head. Emphasis on "attempts"; it's unclear if she ever truly bonded with Hagrid before being released into the wild.
Due to the Dead: When Aragog died of old age, Hagrid went to retrieve his body and give it a proper funeral. He mentions that Aragog's children wanted to eat the body.
Emotional Bruiser: He's perhaps about ten feet tall, can bend metal with his bare hands, and most spells will simply bounce off him. Are you going to tell him it's not manly to cry in public? Didn't think so.
Everyone Has Standards:
- The one thing Aragog emphasizes to Harry and Ron is that while Hagrid does enjoy taking in dangerous creatures as pets, he would never let any of them get close enough to actually kill a human being. Sure, a student may suffer some wounds but Madam Pomfrey can patch any of them up. Aragog specifies that Hagrid kept him confined to a cupboard, and got him out of Hogwarts to the Forbidden Forest.
- He's considered the local oddball by the snootier Hogwarts residents. This is due to his love of dangerous creatures, Lethal Chef mannerisms, and big bones. Even so, he is disturbed in the film version of "Half-Blood Prince" when Harry demonstrates Acromantula pincers with hand gestures and a clicking sound, acting like he's high.
The Faceless: Teenage Hagrid in Riddle's diary in the second movie.
Family Eye Resemblance: In Goblet of Fire, he shows Harry and pals a photo of him and his father, who shares his crinkled black eyes.
The Farmer and the Viper: He suffered this not with Aragog, but the Acromantula's wife and children. Hagrid had gotten expelled taking care of Aragog, smuggling him out of the castle and setting him up in the Forbidden Forest. Aragog maintained that Hagrid was always free to visit and considered him a friend. He thus forbade his children from eating Hagrid, though Harry and Ron aren't extended the same courtesy because the spiders are always hungry. After Aragog dies, however, Hagrid went through a lot of effort to rescue him from his children because he found out they were going to eat the dead body, and turned on him as well because only their father's word protected the giant. They also capture him during the Battle of Hogwarts when he's trying to get them to stop fighting or they'll be killed. It means he is tied up in silk and Forced to Watch as Harry seemingly dies in front of him.
First Friend: Hagrid is this to Harry, who before then lived under an abusive household and had no friends before in his life. Hagrid was the first to introduce Harry to the Wizarding World and has since remained an important figure in Harry's life.
Flight: Claimed to have flown to the island Harry and the Dursleys were staying at in the first book. How he did this is a Riddle for the Ages, as he didn't seem to have the bike with him and is too big for a broom (or a thestral), so it's usually put down to Early Instalment Weirdness.
Fluffy Tamer: One of the best known examples, and even named one of his pets (a gigantic three-headed dog, to be precise) "Fluffy."
Foil: To Vernon Dursley. They are both portly men who don't terribly care for people who are different from them (wizards for Vernon, muggles for Hagrid) and quick to violence when you insult something they care about. But where Vernon is unrepentant in his hatred, Hagrid is otherwise a very kind person who often bends the rules to help Harry and his friends.
Forced to Watch: He shouts at Harry to run while tied up by the spiders in the last book, when Harry comes to offer his life to the Dark Lord in exchange for the safety of everyone in the castle. He doesn't know that Dumbledore wanted Harry to die so that the last Horcrux would be defeated. Harry doesn't run, but fortunately, the death isn't permanent. Hagrid is sobbing, when forced at wandpoint to carry Harry's "body".
Frame-Up: In Book 2, it's revealed that he was expelled, with his wand broken and magical education permanently prevented from developing, because Tom Riddle framed him for attacks which he had committed. Riddle exploited the fact that he cut a dashing Villain with Good Publicity figure while Hagrid was a half-giant weirdo who got into trouble.
Friend to All Living Things: He knows a great deal about various creatures, magical and non-magical. He seems to consider "normal" creatures (as in, anything that isn't a walking death trap) relatively boring, but he loves them just the same.
Funetik Aksent: A very thick West Country accent. If yeh want ter sound like Hagrid, talk like this, o' course. I shouldnta told ya that. Notable in that, despite about 95% of the named cast being from the British Isles, he's the only character depicted as speaking like this.
Gentle Giant: Hagrid has a heart of gold, and wouldn't hurt a fly. But as noted under Beware the Nice Ones, it isn't wise to anger him.
Half-Human Hybrid: Dad was a human wizard, and reportedly a short one; mom was a giantess.
Herald: In Philosopher's Stone.
Heroes Love Dogs: He has two — Fang, an ordinary dog, and Fluffy, a giant three-headed dog.
Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: Is the product of such a union (i.e. that of a human man and a giantess. Them shagging must've been like throwing a sausage down a hallway).
I Coulda Been a Contender!: Being expelled by Hogwarts for a crime he didn't commit, framed by the young Voldemort no less, has essentially prevented Hagrid from having any other meaningful job in the wizarding world aside from being Groundskeeper and general Magical Creatures Expert for Dumbledore. Considering his wide knowledge and interest in magical creatures, he probably could have written a book like Newt Scamander or become a giant researcher if he had been given the chance. Hagrid takes it well, all thing considered.
Intergenerational Friendship: As the younger of the two with Dumbledore, who, in his own words, would trust Hagrid with his life. It becomes even more touching once you get a bit deeper into Dumbledore's character. He forms a friendship with the Trio, and even seems to have a special bond with Harry's children as of the epilogue.
In Vino Veritas: He has a penchant for drink, and at one point accidentally tells Quirrell how to get past Fluffy to get to the Philosopher's Stone.
Last-Name Basis:
- For some reason, nobody ever calls him "Rubeus" regardless of how close they are to him. Even Dumbledore, who's in First-Name Basis with everyone (including Voldemort of all people). Even Grawp calls him "Hagger", indicating that Hagrid instructed his own brother to call him by his last name. One of the few people who called him by his first name was Mr. Ollivander.
- The book Chamber of Secrets has Riddle address Hagrid by his given name in the memory he shows Harry of "arresting" him; the movie changes it back to the surname form of address. This case is exceptionally odd, as students are more often than not on a Last-Name Basis with students not in their year and/or House, and what's even more peculiar is that Slytherin students in particular, like Riddle was, almost never use anyone's first name.
Lethal Chef: Zigzagged. Harry likes his sausages and birthday cake in book one. His food is not so much inedible as it is simply unchewable, often described as having the consistency of solid rocks. Well, his stew is enjoyable enough until they find a talon in it.
Lightning Bruiser: Hagrid is described as moving extremely fast for his size, can knock out grown wizards with a punch, and can absorb a great amount of punishment thanks to his Giant heritage.
Magically Inept Fighter: He can still cast spells with a piece of his wand hidden in his umbrella, but he has to rely much more on physical strength than the rest of the cast when it comes to fighting. Being resistant to magic thanks to his heritage helps, too.
Manchild: He's in his sixties, but the trio have surpassed him in maturity and common sense by the time the third book starts, if not earlier. This doesn't mean that he is beyond saying What the Hell, Hero? on the rare occasions where he's got a more sensible view of things — Harry's suspicion of Snape, or Ron's short-lived estrangement from Hermione over the 'death' of Scabbers, for instance.
The Mentor: He is the one who gets Harry himself started on his journey as The Chosen One. He is also the Obi-Wan to Harry's Luke. Except he actually manages to survive.
Mentor Occupational Hazard: Defied. Hagrid has a few close calls throughout the series and fans worried about Hagrid for this reason. Rowling admitted that with his kindness, Hagrid's loss would have been a serious blow to Harry, and would be an obvious choice — however, she said that from the beginning, she had an image of Hagrid being the one carrying a supposedly dead Harry out of the forest in the final book.
Missing Mom: His mother, a giantess, left him when he was three and never made an attempt to contact him again. Hagrid mentions her death casually, as he hardly even remembers her and didn't consider her a model mother.
Morality Pet: Hagrid is the only one Aragog won't eat or let his children eat.
Mr. Exposition: As the first member of the Wizarding World that Harry directly encounters, he is responsible for educating Harry (and by extention the reader) about the basics of the world behind the Masquerade.
Naïve Animal Lover: He is infamous for his love of dangerous creatures, from dragons, to flesh-eating books. Although they really don't harm him (much), his monsters are often a danger to the heroes.
Nice Guy: Skewed priorities and slight anger management issues aside (and even those tend to be fairly harmless), Hagrid is one of the friendliest, most well-meaning and honest characters in the whole series.
Nightmare Fetishist: Considers dragons, Acromantulas, and huge, three-headed dogs to be "cute."
No-Sell: Spells have very little effect on him due to his giant blood, since giants are highly resistant to magic.
Older Than They Look: Possibly due to his Giant ancestry. During Harry's first year, he was in his mid-sixties, yet looks like he might be in his thirties and acts a third his age (it's easy to forget that, while you might assume he was a contemporary of the Marauders, or Arthur and Molly Weasley, he actually attended school with Voldemort). The fifth book implies he's looked the same way almost his entire life.
Open Mouth, Insert Foot: He's prone to revealing knowledge of things he shouldn't admit to knowing anything about, especially to students like Harry.
"Ooh, I shouldn'a said tha."
Papa Wolf: Towards the children of Hogwarts and Harry in particular. Hurt Harry at your peril on his watch...
Parasol of Pain: His wand, which was snapped when he was expelled, is actually in one piece and hidden in his now magical umbrella.
Pietà Plagiarism: At the end of Book 7, Hagrid carries a Not Quite Dead Harry out of the forest in this fashion.
Politically Incorrect Hero: Hagrid occasionally displays overt prejudice towards Muggles, Squibs, and foreigners. However, this is usually only when he encounters a particularly unpleasant example of one of these groups (i.e. Vernon Dursley, Argus Filch, and Igor Karkaroff) and is angered.
Prone to Tears: Prone to bursting out into great wracking sobs at least once a book, where he'll pull out some ugly old handkerchief in a vain attempt to stifle them.
Real Men Wear Pink: He's a hulking bruiser who tames monsters and often doesn't know his own strength. He's also prone to tears, baking (admittedly badly), gardening, knitting, sporting flowery aprons, and keeps what remains of his wand in a pink umbrella. Rowling said she got the inspiration from overhearing an intimidating burly biker worry about how his petunias weren't doing very well that year.
"Shaggy Dog" Story: His offscreen expedition with Madam Maxime to meet the Giants was revealed to be this, something even he laments. The only positive outcome for him was Grawp, rescuing his brother from being picked on by the other Giants.
Shoe Phone: He has a wand disguised as an umbrella.
Shoo Out the Clowns: Hagrid was apparently one of these; his role getting smaller throughout the series is due to the series becoming darker. Mitigated slightly in the final book of the series, where he's the one to drive with Harry during The Battle of the Seven Potters in the beginning and carry Harry out of the forest in the final chapter.
Skewed Priorities: Sometimes places the safety and well-being of some of the bloodthirsty monsters he is so fond of above that of other people. In book 4, he frantically tries to instruct his students not to hurt the Blast-Ended Skrewts. In the final book, he races to protect Aragog’s children from the Hogwartians and Death Eaters alike who were attacking them in self-defense.
Small Parent, Huge Child: Being half-giant, Hagrid positively towers over his more diminutive father. There's even a picture of a child Hagrid happily hefting his proud papa up on his shoulder the day they got Hagrid's acceptance letter from Hogwarts.
Stout Strength: Hagrid's ancestry makes him supernaturally strong and tough. His entire life as an employee of the school is spent doing physically taxing and highly dangerous tasks that other wizards would rather not (his predecessor left "to spend more time with his remaining limbs", according to Dumbledore). This is before one begins adding in the very dangerous situations he finds himself in as a result of his friendship with Harry. One of his first acts is to casually bend a rifle barrel into a knot after knocking a barricaded door down. And in the fifth book, he's shown being able to send a full-grown human flying through the air unconscious with a backhand.
Teleportation: In the first book, he disappears when Harry blinks on the way back from Diagon Alley.
Tranquil Fury: In the first film Hagrid's voice lowers ominously when Vernon insults Dumbledore in front of him, which makes him seem even more livid than in the book.
Undying Loyalty:
- Hagrid will fight anyone who threatens or disrespects Dumbledore, even if it gets him fired.
- Hagrid will also go to the ends of the earth for Harry. In Deathly Hallows, he brazenly holds a "Support Harry Potter" party in his hut directly under the noses of the Death Eaters overseeing Hogwarts.
Unskilled, but Strong: He never finished Wizarding School and remains distinctly immature even in his sixties, but makes up for it by being massively strong and resistant to magic due to his Giant heritage. His standard fighting strategy amounts to walking up to whichever poor bastards he's fighting while shrugging off their spells and crushing them with his hands. And it's pretty effective. However, there are hints that he's a lot stronger with magic than he lets on, as his first two demonstrated uses of magic are done silently and using a snapped wand.
What the Hell, Hero?: Averted. Hagrid politely gives Ron and Harry some good advice after alienating Hermione in the third book.
Wild Hair: The first thing mentioned about him after his size is his shaggy hair and wild beard.
Worthless Yellow Rocks: He keeps skeins of unicorn hair in his cabin because it's good for bandaging injuries, but isn't aware that it's also extremely valuable. According to Slughorn, it's worth 10 Galleons a hair.
Would Hurt a Child: While it's staged as a Laser-Guided Karma moment, he vents his rage at Vernon Dursley's insulting the name of Albus Dumbledore by attempting to turn Dudley into a pig. The resultant instantaneous growth of a pig's tail causes Dudley to "howl with pain." Dudley is eleven at the time. The movie tries to make this a bit more justified by having Dudley start eating the birthday cake Hagrid had made for Harry while no one is paying attention, and Hagrid casts the spell after catching him in the act while threatening Vernon, but it's still pretty harsh.

Sybill Patricia Trelawney

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

"How nice to see you in the physical world at last."

Portrayed by: Emma Thompson

Voiced by: Mercedes Montalá (European Spanish, Prisoner of Azkaban), Mercedes Cepeda (European Spanish, Order of the Phoenix-Deathly Hallows), Lisa Owen ((Latin American Spanish, Prisoner of Azkaban), Sarah Souza (Latin American Spanish, Order of the Phoenix-Deathly Hallows), Juraciara Diácovo (Brazilian Portuguese)

"The Eye does not See upon command!"

The professor of Divination. Trelawney fancies herself a great seer "possessed of the Inner Eye", but is widely regarded by other characters as a fraud who makes up nonsensical prophecies on the spot, particularly because of her habit of predicting death to one student of every new class she teaches. She is able to make the occasional genuine prophecy, though. Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil seem to be the only two students who take her seriously.

Accidental Truth: It is debatable how much she really believes in the "divination magic" she teaches. She is certainly unaware that she really is a seer, a gift she cannot control, let alone teach.
Adaptational Attractiveness: In the books, she's described as looking like an oversized bug. Even with the crazy hair and glasses, she's still played by Emma Thompson.
The Alcoholic: It is apparent in Half-Blood Prince that Trelawney is rapidly descending into alcoholism over her employment problems and dire prophecies.
Animal Motifs: When Harry first sees her, his first impression is of a "large, glittering insect" because of all the bangles and beads she wears, as well as her enormous glasses.
Badass Boast: After braining Fenrir Greyback with a crystal ball.
I have more, more for anyone who wants them!
Beware the Silly Ones: In the movie of Deathly Hallows: Part 2:
- Trelawney can be heard saying "Crucio" in the final battle, when the trio are running across the courtyard before coming across Lavender. Trelawney may be a little crazy, but it seems that she actually is dangerous.
- She also drops a crystal ball onto Greyback's head, having thrown it with a tennis swerve, when he attempts to bite Lavender. It knocks him out cold.
Big Damn Heroes: In the book, she bludgeons Greyback with a crystal ball in the final battle to save Lavender Brown's life.
Blind Without 'Em: It's somewhat implied in movie 3 that her (physical) sight's actually quite awful.
Broken Pedestal: Of a sort, to Harry's entire year except for Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil. Her theatrics and dramatic proclamations initially terrify Harry's class (except Hermione) into thinking she really is a seer who can regularly predict the future. However, over the course of the year, Harry, Ron, and most of their class grow less impressed with her, deciding - not without evidence - that she's a fraud aside from a few specific instances.
The Cassandra: Well, often not to Dumbledore and occasionally not to Harry. Her mumblings, however, often contain actual predictions of the future that turn out to be true, such as her tarot vision of "the lightning-struck tower" and "calamity" in Book 6. The "lightning" turns out to be the blazing green Dark Mark and the "calamity" of Dumbledore's death. Interestingly enough, her (great-?)grandmother's name happens to be Cassandra.
Chewing the Scenery: Courtesy of Emma Thompson's delightfully hammy performance. Not that her book version is restrained, with her overly dramatic proclamations about everything, mixed with slightly antiquated language.
The Chew Toy: She rarely gets through a scene without somebody making a joke at her expense. Even Harry, or rather especially Harry, can't quite help himself.
Sybill Trelawney: Everything went pitch black and the next thing I knew, I was being hurled headfirst out of the Room!
Harry Potter: And you didn't see that coming?
Sybill Trelawney: No, I did not, as I say, it was pitch-[throws him a dirty look].
- Even other professors verbally pile on her, both directly and behind her back. McGonagall makes no secret of the fact that she thinks Trelawney is a fraud and makes several unsubtle quips to her in front of students in Prisoner of Azkaban. Even Dumbledore openly belittles her to Harry.
Drowning My Sorrows: She starts drinking a lot of cooking sherry after Umbridge puts her on probation. Implicitly, she seems to have had this habit before, and never quite gets out of it (she's seen with a bottle of cooking sherry and looking quite unstable in Book 6). Part of it is due to Firenze being co-teacher with her.
Dumbass Has a Point: While almost every time she appears, the Trio are mocking her class and how much of a waste of time the ridiculous tasks she makes them do are, in their very first lesson with her in the third book, Trelawney correctly points out that she is expected to teach a literally unteachable subject. Divination is an extremely rare genetic ability you are either born with or not, and even those who have the gift seem to have no control over when and what visions they see, meaning that even if she was the most competent teacher in the entire school, she would still have no actual way to teach the subject to the 99.9% of Hogwarts students who were not born with "the sight" other than her silly crystal balls and star charts. The real problem isn't her teaching or fortune-telling ability, it's that Hogwarts offers the subject at all, which even Dumbledore agreed with and attempted to remove from the curriculum. Upon closer examination, it's shown that seers can make the various rituals she teaches work, but they require a great deal of work to interpret properly, and again, are only useable by seers.
Fainting Seer: She enters into a trance whenever she makes a genuine prophecy, and doesn't remember it afterwards.
Fantastic Racism: She never says it to his face, but book 6 has her make some snide remarks about Firenze's race.
Fortune Teller: She deliberately invokes as many related tropes as she can, because she's not too confident in her own abilities.
Genius Ditz: She makes genuine prophecies in her trance state (but, naturally, never remembers them), and it's repeatedly hinted that she's actually a Not-So-Phony Psychic outside of said trance. Unfortunately, she tends to misinterpret what she sees along the lines of what she wants to see — which, being big on drama, means that she tends to interpret everything as an impending disaster.
Improbable Weapon User: Crystal balls.
Intergenerational Friendship: Implied to have one with Lavender and Parvati, who are the only two students shown as giving her much respect, let alone taking her class seriously, even going to visit her and comfort her after Umbridge fires her. Which makes the blink-and-you-miss-it scene in Deathly Hallows Part II with her and Parvati mourning over Lavender's dead body even more heartbreaking.
Lady Drunk: After Umbridge repeatedly humiliates her, she can often be seen with a bottle of sherry. Even after Umbridge leaves Hogwarts, it seems she still indulges in it.
The Maiden Name Debate: Her brief marriage ended because she refused to take her husband's surname of 'Higgenbottom'.
Mama Bear: In Deathly Hallows, she saves Lavender Brown from being eaten alive by Fenrir Greyback by smashing his head in with her crystal ball! Poor Lavender wasn't so lucky in the movie, though...
Meaningful Name: The sibyls were female prophetesses and oracles in the Ancient World. Trelawney teaches Divination and is a true Seer (even if most of her prophecies are bollocks).
Not-So-Phony Psychic: The only real prophecies Trelawney has ever made (both of them) happen when she goes into a trance, and thus she can't remember them afterwards. Every prophecy she actually makes on purpose is made up... possibly. However, if you squint while you think, they do come true, it's just that her general underlying interpretation is all wrong.
- She claimed to be seeing a Grim a lot in POA, but was really seeing Sirius Black in his Animagus form (a large black dog, which is what a Grim looks like). The problem is that she believed the Grim was a sign of death, and that it meant Harry's days were numbered. In actual fact, Sirius Black is Harry's godfather and innocent all along, and the Grim by the end of the book is someone who Harry goes out of his way to save. Even so, come "Deathy Hallows" Harry dies young, age 17, at Voldemort's hand, and even have help working up the courage to face his death from Sirius.
- During Christmas in POA, Trelawny refuses to join everyone else for dinner because there are already twelve people at the table and when thirteen people eat at the same table the first to rise will be the first to die. Except Scabbers was at the table too, and as he was really Peter Pettigrew in disguise, he was the thirteenth person. Dumbledore rose from the table to greet Trelawny, and he did end up being the first person at the table to die, albeit three years later and in far more complex circumstances that Trelawny's superstition suggested.
- Likewise, in HBP, she idly makes several prophetic comments while attempting to read some tarot cards, but dismisses them due to not recognizing their significance. She warns Dumbledore about being on any towers, and Dumbledore did end up dying on top of the tower, but as Book 7 reveals, Dumbledore planned and arranged his death with Snape all along, well before Trelawney's warning, and Draco's attack on Hogwarts famously did not include any other casualties aside from a man who was Secretly Dying and planned a Thanatos Gambit all along.
Prophecies Are Always Right: Subverted, then hilariously doubly subverted when all of her predictions eventually come true — almost never in quite the way she expects or the way anyone else thinks it will turn out anyway, which is in fact the point of the Screw Destiny theme of the series.
Albus Dumbledore: "The consequences of our actions are always so complicated, so diverse, that predicting the future is a very difficult business indeed... Professor Trelawney, bless her, is living proof of that."
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: As the most prominent seer in the franchise (at least so far, because Grindelwald is one as well), she highlights the way this particular world's take on seeing causes this. She does genuinely see the future sometimes, but since she's a person with her own biases and views, she twists/interprets it in a way that it almost has to come true.
Small Name, Big Ego: Being a descendant of a famous seer and herself having some acuity to foreseeing, she thinks of herself as an always-right prophet. In truth, she is really bad at it.
Ultimate Job Security: As a Seer, she's got only two recognized prophecies under her belt, plus some prophetic comments that largely go unheeded even in retrospect, sprinkled among numerous failures, including predicting the deaths of a number of very much alive students over the years. As a teacher, she's got a similar record. Save for Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil, every single student she teaches doesn't take her seriously, and they've been known to make up fake predictions that she can't distinguish from real ones. She is, by any reasonable measure, terrible at her job. Dumbledore, for his part, straight-up admits to Harry that he not only doesn't respect Trelawney, he doesn't respect Divination as a subject (not on the grounds that he doesn't believe in it, but because it's so hard to pin down genuine predictions, let alone arrange them on call) and would have axed it from the curriculum if parents didn't keep demanding that Hogwarts teach it, and then when she did make the Chosen One prophecy, Dumbledore hired her to protect her from Voldemort.
The Un-Favourite: She is the only one of Hogwarts' staff that Dumbledore himself personally mocks and belittles in front of Harry. Even Snape gets an insistent "Professor Snape, Harry" whenever Harry invokes Last-Name Basis, Dumbledore straight-up admits that he considers her a hack and never wanted to hire her to start with. He only hired her to protect her from Voldemort, and considered it worthwhile because the nature of Divination means it doesn't actually matter whether the teacher is competent. Since only a tiny minority of wizards are born with the potential to be Seers at all, to most students teaching Divination is about as useful as teaching magic to class of muggles. This, however, does not stop him from treating her courteously and protecting her.

Quirinus Quirrell

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

"Yes, (Snape) does seem the type, doesn't he? Why, next to him, who would suspect p-p-poor, st-st-stuttering Professor Quirrell?"

Portrayed by: Ian Hart

Voiced by: Vincent Violette (European French), Abraham Aguilar (European Spanish), Jesús Barrero (Latin American Spanish), Marco Antônio Costa (Brazilian Portuguese)

Appears in: Philosopher’s Stone

Dumbledore: "Keep an eye on Quirrell for me, won't you?"

The Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher during Harry's first year at Hogwarts (and a Muggle Studies professor prior to that). He initially comes across as unconfident and incompetent, stuttering constantly, but this is a façade: he is a servant of Voldemort, and the host to his spirit.

Alliterative Name: Quirinus Quirrell. His first name is never actually mentioned in-series, though.
All of the Other Reindeer: Pottermore reveals that he was bullied because of his stutter and timidness.
Asshole Victim: After he is killed, no one mourns him.
Bald of Evil: Completely bald and in league with Voldemort.
Be Careful What You Wish For: According to Pottermore, Quirrell was intentionally seeking out Voldemort during his travels in hopes that he could use his power or at the very least get credit for his discovery.
Beware the Quiet Ones: Quirinus Quirrell is the nervous, mostly unnoticed and seemingly innocent character throughout the entire novel. However, at the end it turns out that he has been possessed by Voldemort all along and has been trying to kill Harry all through the book.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He seems friendly to Harry when they first meet. However, he's been trying to locate the Philosopher's Stone and kill Harry under Voldemort's instruction. In the climax, he practically mocked Harry for thinking that he was harmless and nice.
Body Horror: He has Voldemort's face embedded in the back of his skull.
Cruel and Unusual Death: Harry uses his sacrificial protection to defend himself against Quirrel, whose entire body is burnt to a crisp upon contact.
Death by Adaptation: His body ends up getting burnt up by Harry's protection, causing him to disintegrate into dust in the movie. In the book, coming into contact with Harry horribly blisters his skin and leaves him with an Uncertain Doom.
The Dog Was the Mastermind: He's set up as probably the least likely person to turn evil, mainly due to his sheer wimpiness.
Evil All Along: Seems to be nothing more than a meek, timid, perfectly benevolent teacher throughout the first book ... before the twist, anyway.
Evil Teacher: Turns out the timid teacher was working for wizard Hitler.
Faux Affably Evil: On the outside, he is a kind mannered, thoughtful and helpful teacher who does everything to help his students. In reality he is cold, sadistic and evil, with Lord Voldemort residing inside him. After he is revealed, he reveals his plans to kill Harry with "No, dear boy, I tried to kill you!" showing that beneath his façade he is very cold.
Fighting from the Inside: Very mildly, but the book suggests he is struggling against Voldemort on some occasions when Harry and co. hear him whimpering in his classroom at night, suggesting Voldemort is punishing him. They assume he is responding to Snape's bullying of course.
Final Boss: He's the final foe fought in video game adaptations of Philosopher's Stone, channelling Voldemort.
Freudian Excuse: According to Pottermore, Quirrell was bullied as a child for his timidness, which factored into his desire to "make the world sit up and notice him".
The Heavy: As Voldemort was too weak to do anything, Quirrell takes most of the antagonism at his orders in both the first book and film, killing the unicorn to drink its blood and persuading Hagrid to give him a clue to pass Fluffy.
Irony: Before encountering Voldemort, he worked as the Muggle Studies professor at Hogwarts.
Literally Shattered Lives: In the film, Harry kills him by touching him since he's merged with Voldemort, causing his body to crumble to dust. This is a step further than in the book, where Quirrell is merely burned by touching Harry and is implied to not have died until Voldemort's spirit left him.
Master Actor: Though the true extent to which his nervous wreck persona was an act is somewhat unclear. It could either be his real personality prior to meeting Voldemort, with him foregoing it after the possession but continuing to act the part to avoid rousing suspicion, or it could be a direct consequence of sharing his body with Voldemort and not entirely an act.
Meaningful Name: Quirinus was one of the epithets of Janus, the two-faced Roman deity. In the Italian translation he's renamed Raptor which, fittingly enough, can mean "thief".
Multiple Head Case: Has Voldemort's face on the back of his head.
Nervous Wreck: How he usually acts. It's not entirely clear if this was his real personality before meeting Voldemort, a façade to divert suspicion, or a result of Voldemort's possession taking a toll on him. It's likely however that it's a combination of all three.
Never Bareheaded: For most of the first book, he's never seen without his signature turban. Once he finally removes it, Harry quickly wishes he didn't.
Obfuscating Disability: His stutter is all part of his act as a meek, innocent teacher, and he completely drops it after revealing his true self.
Speak Ill of the Dead: Unsurprising given the characters involved, but both Voldemort and Snape are shown as quite willing to insult Quirrell years after his death, calling him "a fool" and "greedy and unworthy" respectively.
Starter Villain: Though alongside Voldemort he's technically the main villain of the first book, he's less of a threat than most of the later series' antagonists.
Stutter Stop: Stuttering being used as an obfuscating tactic to deflect suspicion from himself as the culprit behind the nefarious events of the first year. Notably, according to Pottermore, he used to be a real stutterer, so apparently he learned how to control it at some point.
Two-Faced: While it's never stated if Quirrell's good-looking, there's a reason why the last chapter of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is called "The Man with Two Faces". The back of his head houses the horrendously ugly, snake-like Voldemort.
Uncertain Doom: Book example only. Unlike the film, where Harry's protection causes him to crumble to ashes, his skin ends up getting blistered and burned by Harry's touch. But before we can actually see what else happens to him, Harry passes out, with Quirrell's agonizing screams being the last thing he hears. Dumbledore later states that Voldemort left him to die, with the latter even confirming this was true, but it's never stated whether Quirrell actually died from his injuries or not. He's presumably dead, though, as he never reappears in the franchise again even although multiple other servants of Voldemort enter and exit Azkaban several times, but it still not officially stated.
Walking Spoiler: The final chapter of Philosopher's Stone changes everything about him.
Who's Laughing Now?: According to the backstory on Pottermore, a major part of what drove him to seek out the fugitive Voldemort, though "all" he initially wanted was, if not to be known as the man who finally got him, then to learn such powerful magic from him to ensure "he was never laughed at again". In practice: Didn't go that way.

Gilderoy Lockhart

"Big smile, Harry. Together you and I make the front page!"

Portrayed by: Kenneth Branagh

Voiced by: Salvador Aldeguer (European Spanish), Oscar Gómez (Latin American Spanish), Eduardo Borgeth (Brazilian Portuguese)

Appears in: Chamber of Secrets | Order of the Phoenix

"Let me introduce you to your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher... me. Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary member of the Dark Force Defence League, and five times winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award. But I don't talk about that; I didn't get rid of the Banden Banshee by smiling at her!"

The Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher during Harry's second year at Hogwarts, Lockhart is a wizarding celebrity famous for his claimed defeats of various monsters like Yetis, banshees, werewolves, and trolls and his books detailing these exploits. When he arrives at Hogwarts, he completely fails to live up to his hype, proving himself to be quite untalented and incompetent, as well as vain and egotistical.

The Ace: Invoked. He likes to maintain a public façade of being this, but he's really a Fake Ultimate Hero.
Adaptation Expansion: The Stinger of the second movie (the only HP movie to have one) shows Flourish and Blott's bookstore in Diagon Alley promoting Lockhart's last book, a ghostwritten autobiography called Who Am I?.
Adaptational Badass:
- Downplayed, and requiring close inspection to notice. In the books, the spell he used against the pixies did absolutely nothing, implying either he was simply unable to work the spell or the spell was not useful, and he got his wand snatched immediately after. In the films, in a subtle contrast, he gets his wand stolen in midst of spell, which implies that the technique would have worked had he been actually allowed to finish it.
- Downplayed again in the video game version. He is now more competent with duelling spells and as a teacher, as he successfully teaches Harry the Rictusempra and Spongify spells, both of which are extensively used in both Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban. Harry even lampshades how this version of Lockhart actually knows useful things.
  Harry: [after defeating Aragog] Well, at least I learned something in Lockhart's class: Rictusempra.
Adaptational Nice Guy: In the second film, he is notably more likeable than his book version, as he has several more moments of sincerity than his literary counterpart, and his egotism and his most annoying treatment of Harry are toned down. This is seen when, for example, after some time spent boasting of himself, he suddenly draws his wand and adopts a solemn demeanour while teaching the second years, thus showing that rather than simply using his classes to as an excuse to promote his published works like the book version did, film Lockhart at least on some level wishes to make his lessons engaging for the students. Later, he wishes Harry good luck in an earnest manner as Harry takes the stage to duel Draco during the Duelling Club, and displays what seem to be genuine concern and sympathy when Harry's arm is broken (and, contrary to the book, seems more concerned about mending Harry's arm than about the surrounding crowd seeing him do it). He is also notably willing to clear Harry from Snape's insinuations that Harry was involved in Mrs Norris' petrification, informing Snape that Harry was in detention with him.
Age Lift: Lockhart was played by Kenneth Branagh, who was 42 at the time of the movie's release and appeared to play the character as being about that age. According to Pottermore, he was 28 at time of his first appearance in the books. This would have put him at Hogwarts only a few years below the Marauders' generation (Lily, James, Lupin, Pettigrew, Snape were all born in between September 1959 and August 1960, Lockhart in January 1964).
Alas, Poor Villain: Lockhart's fate, ending up in St Mungo's with no memory, has Ron feeling sorry for him.
Alliterative Title: The titles of every book he's ever released (Holidays With Hags, Travelling With Trolls, Wanderings With Werewolves, Year With a Yeti...)
Ambition Is Evil: Lockhart had lofty ambitions and a desire for fame, but without discipline to temper it he's reduced to getting the fame he craves by any means necessary - up to and including wiping people's memories. In supplemental interviews with Rowling, she revealed that the Sorting Hat seriously considered putting him in Slytherin, which given his behavior would've fit him like a glove.
Amnesiacs are Innocent: After a self-inflicted, but thoroughly unintentional brain-wipe, Lockheart is reduced to a convivial and entirely harmless buffoon who requires specialised care.
And There Was Much Rejoicing: Twice, the first time was after he had graduated from Hogwarts, and the second time was when he left Hogwarts officially after being affected by a memory spell. He was so unpopular that both teachers and students alike celebrated seeing the back of him.
Anti-Mentor: He was hired by Hogwarts school to teach the students Defence Against the Dark Arts. However, when he gets to teach, it quickly becomes apparent that he's rather incompetent, while passing it off as "accidents". That he's revealed to have stolen all of anonymous magicians' feats in order to become famous doesn't help. This was actually invoked by Dumbledore. When questioned by staff about why he was hiring so incompetent a teacher, he said there were many things Lockhart could teach the students; how not to act, for instance. It also helps that he was just about the only person who actually wanted the job.
Attention Whore: Pottermore gives the impression that he was always this trope, due to being spoiled by his mother. His years as a student at Hogwarts can best be summarized as him trying his damnedest to be the centre of attention, including (but not limited to) carving his name into the Quidditch pitch (for which he received a week's worth of detention), shooting an over-sized hologram of his own face into the sky, and mailing 800 Valentines to himself on Valentine's Day (which caused breakfast to be canceled that day because of all the feathers and droppings from the resulting massive pileup of owls polluting the porridge)! That's not even mentioning that he went around telling people that he was going to create a Philosopher's Stone before he graduated, to be captain the English Quidditch team to World Cup glory, and then settle down to be Britain's youngest Minister of Magic. It got so bad that when he finally graduated (God knows how!), everyone in Hogwarts breathed a sigh of relief.
Awesome, but Impractical: One of his few actual achievements was inventing a shampoo made from Occamy egg yolks that promised "locks of lustrous luminosity". It actually worked as it was supposed to, but was impossible to mass-produce, as a result of the danger involved in procuring the main ingredient. Specifically, the Occamy is an XXXX-level magical beast (the second most dangerous classification) and is very protective of its eggs.
Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Not that he isn't obviously an obnoxious egotist, but he does maintain a thin façade of sincere friendship with Harry, when in reality Harry is just one more way for him to draw attention to himself.
Bright Is Not Good: He has a taste for brightly-coloured clothing, and while he's no Death Eater, he's still a massive fraud who gets very ruthless when it comes to gaining fame and preserving his reputation.
Brilliant, but Lazy: During his years as a student at Hogwarts, he did have the potential to be the expert he pretended to be later on, but his desire to achieve fame and fortune without any effort crushed all hopes of that happening. Just imagine how awesome he would have been (confirmed by Rowling) if he had applied all that focus on being an Attention Whore and mastering Memory Charms to actually achieving something instead. Even with his Memory Charms mastery, you would think he could have gained fame as an expert on them rather than giving them a criminal usage.
Broken Pedestal: Initially seemed to be one of the most renowned celebrities in the wizarding world, turned out to be nothing more than a fraud who took merit for other wizards' achievements using his memory charm.
Butt-Monkey: He suffers various injuries and humiliations as he gets further in over his head, which for him doesn't take much.
Chick Magnet: His book signing at Flourish and Blotts is stated to have been full of middle-aged witches. On top of that, the vast majority of his female students have crushes on him.
Cool and Unusual Punishment: Detentions with Lockhart involve helping him answer his fanmail.
Crippling Overspecialization: He's extremely good at performing Memory Charms, but incompetent at any other spell he tries. Rowling states that he actually could have been perfectly competent at other forms of magic - indeed, nearly as good as he claims to be - but he never actually put in the effort.
Cursed with Awesome: Rowling says he never recovers from the memory charm but he's happier that way.
Cut Lex Luthor a Check: He seems to be a genuinely talented writer, and he's incredibly charismatic - had he decided to just write fiction or magical self-help, he could have become rich and famous in his own right. Additionally, due to his skill at Memory Charms, he would also likely have made a good Obliviator had he chosen to use that skill in seeking gainful employment. But he wants to be famous for his bravery as well, which leads him to his crazy memory schemes.
The Dandy: He loves fine clothes and tending to his appearance.
Dirty Coward: He tries to make a run for it when the other teachers try to push him into finding the Chamber and battle the monster within. When Harry and Ron actually bring him there, he decides he'd rather let Ginny die and fabricate a story about arriving too late after modifying Harry and Ron's memories than attempt to help save her.
Everyone Has Standards: Gilderoy Lockhart thinks and acts as though he's magically superior than everyone else, but he never once claims or pretends to be more powerful than Dumbledore. He also shamelessly refuses to say Voldemort's name, even though it would make him appear even more impressive, implying that he fears the dark wizard and is unwilling to even pretend otherwise.
Evil All Along: It's a stretch to call him "evil", just very arrogant and incompetent, but by the time he's exposed as a fraud and Dirty Coward it's clear he was never sincerely affable to begin with.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Downplayed. He's such an Attention Whore that he can't even comprehend the idea of Harry being a Humble Hero.
Evil Virtues: When Lockhart tells Harry that the path to fame is a long, hard slog, he does seem to mean it — even though his idea of a "hard slog" is to track down actual heroes, get their stories straight, then erase their memories and take all the credit himself.
Fake Ultimate Hero: He never does the amazing things he is credited for, but takes credit for them by using the only magic he is good at: erasing memories.
Faux Affably Evil: After his secret is outed and he plans to erase Ron's and Harry's memories, as well as leaving Ginny to die, he still maintains his quirky attitude.
Feet of Clay: He manages to coast along fairly well on his own hype and stories stolen from the people that actually did them, who he magicked into forgetting, and nothing else — at least until he runs into Harry.
Freudian Excuse: As revealed on Pottermore, Lockhart was a Spoiled Brat as a child, partly because he was also the only one of his siblings to be capable of magic. He came to Hogwarts expecting similar treatment and was disappointed to find he was treated as just another student.
The Friend Nobody Likes: Among the faculty at Hogwarts. Snape is (as one might expect) quite scathing, but even easygoing sorts like Professor Sprout are sick of hearing Gilderoy talk about Gilderoy.
Genius Ditz: Can't really do anything but memory charms, but he is implied to be a genius at them. Ironically, Rowling states that he actually could have been that good at everything else, too, if only he'd bothered to put the work in.
Hate Sink: An interesting variation: he doesn't start off as thoroughly detestable, but he was never that likeable to begin with as he's an arrogant Know-Nothing Know-It-All. By the end, however, it's revealed his heroic deeds were actually the works of other, more competent witches/wizards whose memories he erased so that he could claim the credit for himself. In the Chamber of Secrets, he decides he'd rather erase Harry and Ron's minds and fabricate a story that he was too late to save Ginny than actually try to save her, which leads to his own downfall courtesy of Ron's damaged wand backfiring. If his fraudulence wasn't enough to expose Lockhart as truly vile, this incident certainly was.
Healing Serpent: He invented a special kind of hair shampoo, with Occamy^noteA very serpentine creature. egg yolks.
Hoist by His Own Petard: As lampshaded by Dumbledore, his signature spell doomed him.
Dumbledore: Impaled upon your own sword, Gilderoy!
Lockhart: Sword? Haven't got a sword. That boy has, though. He'll lend you one.
Hot Teacher: Hermione certainly thinks so during most of the second book, however much she tries to deny it. She is not alone in this.
Inept Mage: He's not very good at anything except memory charms — it's even implied he elects to just spout nonsensical gibberish when he can't think of a real spell to subdue the pixies he set free in his classroom. Pottermore states that Lockhart actually had the potential to be an above-average wizard, but he was more interested in gaining fame and attention than doing actual work.
It's All About Me: He begins his lectures by reciting all his awards, up to and including Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award. Also, their first test is on the important information in his books. You know, stuff like, "What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favourite colour?"^noteLilac. and "What is Gilderoy Lockhart's secret ambition?"^note
Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: While he first comes off as an incredibly narcissistic and annoying Attention Whore, there seems to be nothing bad about him per se. That is, of course, until he reveals to have stolen his fame from others and plans to leave Ginny to die to save his own skin.
Know-Nothing Know-It-All: He initially appeared to be one of these in Chamber of Secrets, although in the end, it turns out he's well aware of his own incompetence and is impressively competent at concealing it, at least to those who don't know him well.
Large Ham: Especially in the film when he's got Kenneth Branagh playing him.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: His real talent is Memory Charms.
Leitmotif: As usual, John Williams is awesome.
Manchild: Due to his ineptitude and attention-seeking nature, he's far more immature than most of the Hogwarts students which is awfully pathetic.
Meaningful Name: He pretends to be the king of fighting off Dark creatures, but it's all fake glamour. He does, however, have the knack of unlocking the hearts of his female followers. Specifically, to "gild" something means to cover it with gold, and "roy" is an anglicisation of the French "roi", meaning King - leading to the surname Fitzroy being given to the bastard sons of Anglo-Norman monarchs. And indeed Lockhart cultivates an image of himself as handsome, talented, and brave to cover up the fact that he's a complete fraud. "Gilderoy" is also an archaic term for a proud person, befitting of his narcissist personality.
Mentor Wannabe: Lockhart assumes that Harry is a narcissistic celebrity like himself and tries to mentor him accordingly. Harry, ever the Humble Hero, obviously finds this annoying.
Miles Gloriosus: He's admitted he didn't do the things he has claimed to have done.
Momma's Boy: He was his mother's favourite, because he was a wizard and his two elder sisters were Squibs.
Mr. Fanservice: Has in-universe fangirls, including Hermione and Mrs. Weasley.
Narcissist: Kenneth Branagh wishes he could say that it's a cover for some gaping insecurity, but as far as he's concerned Lockhart's just that in love with himself.
Oh, Crap!: Happens a few times.
- The first is when he lets the Cornish Pixies out of the cage and realizes that he cannot stop them.
- The second occurs after he's easily knocked down by Snape and then has the audacity to brag to everyone in the room that, had he wanted to, he could've easily countered Snape's spell and defeated him. Snape gives him a murderous look that immediately ends their demonstration.
- The last happens after the rest of the staff task him with saving Ginny from the Heir and Monster of Slytherin, sarcastically citing his bragging that he could easily get the job done. This actually causes him to attempt a Screw This, I'm Outta Here.
Out-Gambitted:
- Dumbledore knew a few of Lockhart's victims personally and, after accurately piecing together what was going on, invited Lockhart to teach at Hogwarts with the intention of exposing him as a fraud. When Lockhart initially refused, Dumbledore revealed Harry's presence at the school, knowing that the chance to "train" another celebrity would tickle Lockhart's ego and draw him into the headmaster's trap. As you can see, it paid off.
- On the flip-side, it resulted in the DADA curriculum being wasted on learning nothing useful except to never let Cornish Pixies out of a cage. In fairness, Lockhart's fraudulence likely would have been exposed much sooner had the Chamber of Secrets not been opened. Not to mention, the jinx on the position ever since Voldemort tried to apply for it some thirty-odd years ago meant Dumbledore was having a hard time looking for a competent teacher anyway - in the book, it's explicitly stated that Lockhart was the only applicant for the job.
Parental Favoritism: According to supplementary material, his mother favored him over his two older sisters, as they were Squibs while he was a wizard. This goes a long way toward explaining his massive ego.
Pet the Dog:
- In the book, he writes Hermione a get-well card while she's in the hospital wing after the Polyjuice incident. (She sleeps with it under her pillow.)
- In the movie, when Snape accuses Harry of attacking Mrs. Norris by noting that Harry was not at dinner, Lockhart gives Harry an alibi by pointing out that Harry was helping him answer his fan mail.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When he's given the task of venturing into the Chamber of Secrets to save Ginny, the first thing he does is to pack up his bags. Harry and Ron, however, confront him and won't let him off scot-free.
Self-Made Lie: All of his accomplishments were done by other wizards, whose memories of the events he erased while he took credit for their deeds.
Shameless Self-Promoter: He takes every opportunity to refer to his past exploits and point out how useful his skills are to a given situation. He claims several prestigious titles, repeating them throughout the book, and has written several biographical works based on his adventures.
Shrine to Self: His "I Love Me" office at Hogwarts. Lots of pictures of himself.
Small Name, Big Ego: Of course, it could just be an act designed to keep his fraudulent reputation afloat. His vanity about his physical appearance is almost certainly genuine, though.
Smug Snake: He's very smug about himself despite being thoroughly incompetent in any real peril, and views most other characters as tools to gain more publicity.
Spoiled Brat: In his youth, his mother spoiled him rotten because he was the only one of his siblings who could perform magic.
Took a Level in Jerkass: When first seen, Lockhart is a vain and egotistical, though essentially harmless, blowhard. But he shows a much nastier side when he reveals that his accomplishments were stolen from other wizards with the use of memory charms and that he plans to do the same to Harry and Ron, in addition to leaving Ginny to die.
Took a Level in Kindness: After losing his memories he is very friendly with Harry and even humbly jokes that he must have been a useless wizard.
Unlimited Wardrobe: He wears quite a variety of colourful outfits throughout the book, and loves tending to his own appearance.
Villain with Good Publicity: A milder form of a "villain", considering his true nature.
Would Hurt a Child: Has no problem trying to wipe out Harry and Ron's memories as they go to rescue Ginny. His spell backfires on him, however, as he used Ron's broken wand to cast the Memory Charm.
Write Who You Know: Rowling said Lockhart is based on a real person.

Remus John Lupin

See Harry Potter - Marauders.

Dolores Jane Umbridge

See Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic.

Rolanda Hooch

Portrayed by: Zoë Wanamaker (films), Helena Lymbery (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, first West End run), Kathryn Meisle (Cursed Child, first Broadway run)

Voiced by: Lucía Esteban (European Spanish), Andrea Coto (Latin American Spanish), Nelly Andrade Amaral

"Now, I want a nice clean game... from ALL of you!"

The Hogwarts flying teacher and referee for the school Quidditch matches. She doesn't appear much, but she seems to be very strict and serious, though she humorously went gaga over Harry's Firebolt in the third book.

While she is seen off and on throughout the books, she only appears in the first movie due to salary disputes with her actress.

Animal Motifs: Her eyes are constantly being compared to those of a hawk.
Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Doesn't appear in the movies after the first one.
Cool Old Lady: A throwaway reference to "The Great War" in one of the games reveals that she's at least ninety years old as of the start of the book series.
Named by the Adaptation: Gets her first name from the trading card game. Prior to this, IMDb called her Xiomara.
Not So Above It All: While most of the time she comes off as stern and impartial, seeing Harry's Firebolt makes her geek out quite a bit.
Stern Teacher: The penalty for flying a broom without her permission? Expulsion.
Supernatural Gold Eyes: A witch with yellow eyes like a hawk.
Unnecessary Roughness: She deplores the use of this trope in Quidditch, but is sometimes lackadaisical when it comes to enforcing against it.
Written-In Absence: Madam Hooch originally had a small part in the second film, but she got written out when a deal couldn't be reached with Zoë Wanamaker. Later on, Wanamaker was willing to come back for Deathly Hallows Part II, but was never asked.

Cuthbert Binns

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

"My subject is History of Magic. I deal with facts, not myths and legends."

The History of Magic teacher and the only ghost teacher. Student legend has it that he died in his sleep while seated by the staff room fire and got up to teach the next day, leaving his body behind. Binns's lessons consist of him delivering lectures which are so boring that they put everyone to sleep, except for Hermione. But he doesn't care and just keeps droning on and on.

Accidental Misnaming: Whenever he addresses a student, he always gets their name wrong. He calls Hermione Granger "Miss Grant", Parvati Patil "Miss Pennyfeather", Seamus Finnigan "O'Flaherty" and Harry Potter "Perkins". Given he’s been around so long, he may be addressing them by the names of actual former students.
Adapted Out: He isn't present in the movies, with McGonagall taking his role of explaining the Chamber of Secrets.
Agent Scully: He insists the Chamber of Secrets could not possibly be real.
Arbitrary Skepticism: Again, we're being informed the Chamber of Secrets and the existence of a monster therein is surely just a myth by a ghost who works teaching the history of magic at a Wizard's School. To be fair, he justifies it by saying that generations of headmasters, including Dumbledore, searched for it in vain.
The Bore: It's impossible for anyone other than Hermione to listen to Binns' lectures without falling asleep. This isn't a matter of the subject itself being boring — Harry notes at one point that the history Binns teaches could very well be quite interesting if it were being recounted by anyone other than Binns.
It was amazing how he could make even bloody and vicious goblin riots sound as boring as Percy's cauldron-bottom report.
Captain Oblivious: He may not realize he's dead.
Decomposite Character: In the films, McGonagall explains the Chamber of Secrets instead of him and Flitwick does it in the video game, though the GBC and GBA ones featured Binns doing it.
Duty That Transcends Death: Even his own death doesn't prevent him from continuing to teach - though, granted, it is sometimes posited that he didn't even notice.
Lecture as Exposition: The one time he's useful in the series is when he explains the Chamber of Secrets. He thinks the legend is stupid, but he tells it anyway because the students are paying attention to him for once.
Nap-Inducing Speak: His lectures put everyone to sleep, with only Hermione being able to resist.
Passed in Their Sleep: School legend has it that he died while napping in the teachers' lounge. He then got up to teach his next class as a ghost, and it's entirely possible he hasn't actually noticed he's died. Presumably the rest of the faculty were unable to think of a tactful way to broach the subject. Though he does have a tendency to enter his classroom by passing through the wall.
Ultimate Job Security: He's the only teacher Umbridge doesn't interrogate. Not that there'd by any real way to fire a ghost teacher. Who you gonna call?

Charity Burbage

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Burbage_5025.png

Portrayed by: Carolyn Pickles

Voiced by: Rosalba Sotelo (Latin American Spanish)

Appears in: Deathly Hallows

"Severus... please... we're friends..."

The Muggle Studies teacher and an opponent of pure-blood prejudice. The first and only time we meet Burbage is in the Villain Opening Scene of Deathly Hallows, in which Voldemort murders her and then feeds her to Nagini.

Dramatic Irony: After her death in the first chapter, Arthur mentions hearing about her supposed resignation but correctly deduces that she didn’t really resign.
Et Tu, Brute?: She’s heartbroken and terrified when she begs Snape to help her, insisting that they are friends. Snape is in no position to help her and is Forced to Watch.
Fantastic Racism: Burbage is outspoken against this. Shortly before the Death Eaters got her, she published an editorial against pure-blood prejudice in the Daily Prophet.
Names to Trust Immediately: Her first name is "Charity" for crying out loud.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Even after Dumbledore’s death and the fall of the Ministry being nigh, she still is an outspoken advocate for Muggles. This gets her captured and killed by Voldemort.
Red Shirt: She exists to die and her death doesn't really have an emotional impact on any characters.
Remember the New Guy?: She was never seen or even mentioned before her death. Justified since Muggle Studies was mentioned as an elective class in previous books; the only one of Harry's friends who would have been in her classes was Hermione, and only for a single year.
What Happened to the Mouse?: In-Universe, her disappearance is commented on by Arthur who fairly bets that she didn’t simply resign from Hogwarts.

Septima Vector

The professor of Arithmancy.

The Ghost: She is one of the least seen professors.
Meaningful Name: Both of her names have mathematical connotations and she teaches Arithmancy, a kind of number magic. "Septima", of course, comes from the Latin for "seven", while vector algebra is a rather high-level form of mathematics that will generally never be encountered by those who don't choose to study mathematics in high school.

Aurora Sinistra

The rarely seen professor of Astronomy.

The Ghost: An unusual example, since unlike other rarely seen Hogwarts teachers such as Professor Vector or Charity Burbage, Harry does in fact take Sinistra's class — it's just that no scene in the entire series actually depicts one of these classes (except for the O.W.L. exam) and Sinistra is thus never given any description or characterization. Whenever she's named in the text, it's usually with "of the Astronomy department"' after, just in case you forgot who she was three books ago.
Meaningful Name: An aurora is a kind of astronomical phenomenon, like Aurora Borealis, aka The Northern Lights.
Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Subverted. With a name like "Sinistra" you'd think she were cut out to be a Marvel villain, but the name has nothing to do with the contemporary English meaning of "sinister". It's a reference to the star Sinistra in the constellation Ophiuchus, and harkens back to the original Latin meaning of "sinister", "left".

Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank

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

Portrayed by: Apple Brook

Appears in: Goblet of Fire | Order of the Phoenix

A substitute Care of Magical Creatures professor featured in the fourth and fifth books when Hagrid is indisposed.

Ambiguous Innocence: She casually extolls Dumbledore during her inspection, but it's unclear whether she was partial to him and did it on purpose to get cocky on Umbridge, being confident in that the latter couldn't still find anything bad to report about her, or she was just indifferent about the whole topic between Dumbledore and the Ministry and was simply honest about his good management. Umbridge seems to interpret it as the latter.
Cool Old Lady: She can be gruff and to the point, but the woman certainly knows how to keep her students interested in the class.
Cool Teacher: Many of Harry's classmates instantly prefer her to Hagrid, mainly because Wilhelmina makes the class enjoyable without Hagrid's habit of putting everyone in danger with wild, unpredictable creatures.
Demoted to Extra: She was never really that important to the plot beyond being a stand in for Hagrid at times, but the most she gets in the films is a cameo and acknowledgement in the fifth movie. Considering this was the movie that originally was 3 hours long, it's very possibly there were originally more scenes with her, especially considering that her actress has the good fortune to receive a credit.
Nice Girl: She refuses to criticize Dumbledore even when Umbridge attempts to prompt her to, and despite her taking over Hagrid's job and most of her students openly telling her how much better of a Professor she is than him, she never badmouths Hagrid, rather praising his handling of Hogwarts's thestrals in one of her lectures.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Harry trusts her enough in the fifth book to bring Hedwig to her when she gets injured.
Redeeming Replacement: Most of the student body enjoy her classes far more than they do Hagrid's, but she clearly believes he himself is a competent professor and never badmouths his teaching skills. She even compliments his training of the school's thestrals, pointing out it's entirely unlikely that they would've attacked Hedwig because of Hagrid's care.
Universally Beloved Leader: Even Harry, Ron, and Hermione (begrudgingly to varying degrees) admit that she's a good teacher, but lie to Hagrid about it because they clearly don't want to hurt his feelings. When Umbridge inspects her class, Wilhelmina effortlessly manages to pass even with her voicing open praise for Dumbledore. Hagrid himself ultimately feels she's a better teacher than him (which she frankly is, in regards to actual teaching skills), and considered having her take over full time.

Silvanus Kettleburn

Appears in: Prisoner of Azkaban | Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them | Hogwarts Mystery

The Care of Magical Creatures professor before Hagrid.

An Arm and a Leg: By the time he retires, his remaining limbs consist of one arm and half of a leg.
Artificial Limbs: His character design in Hogwarts Mystery has them. Notably, the leg displays minimal jointing while the arm ends in a fairly basic clamp. He's also shown with a bandage constantly covering one eye socket, and the dip in the cloth implies there's nothing behind it. If there's more sophisticated magical replacements available, he's not using them.
Ascended Extra: In the series proper, he only receives a single mention. He has a somewhat larger role in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
Cloudcuckoolander: Hogwarts Mystery implies he's not quite all there, and that's after you discount the artificial limbs. He's just a little too blaise about the possibility of serious injuries in his class, treats a chimera on the loose as something akin to a runaway cat, and takes an overall approach to dangerous creatures which makes you wonder how he has any limbs left. In terms of teacher competence, going from Kettleburn to Hagrid was pretty much a lateral move.
Fluffy Tamer: In his capacity as the Care of Magical Creatures professor.
Remember the New Guy?: Technically. Care of Magical Creatures is mentioned in Chamber of Secrets, but its teacher is not specified until Prisoner of Azkaban, at which point he has already retired.
Ultimate Job Security: He underwent 62 periods of probation during his tenure as professor.

Bathsheda Babbling

The Study of Ancient Runes professor.

Adaptation Expansion: In the books, she does not appear, nor is she ever mentioned. In the films, an uncredited extra plays an unnamed professor who could be her.
All There in the Manual: Her name comes from a list of Hogwarts professors on JK Rowling's website.
Death by Adaptation: She is killed in the Battle of Hogwarts in the films.
Meaningful Name: Babbling is a way of describing language, typically that which is difficult or impossible to comprehend, and thus makes a fitting name for a professor of Ancient Runes.

Arif Sikander

Appears in: Hogwarts Mystery

Was the Muggle Studies professor in 1990. Taught students how to navigate hazards of the non-magical world, such as dealing with rotary phones and puzzling out the purpose behind rubber ducks. Also seems to have instituted a penpal program, where Hogwarts students would be in postal contact with teens of their own age in the Muggle world. (Of course, this also meant teaching them how stamps worked.)

Character Tics: Can frequently be caught lecturing and playing with a Slinky at the same time.
Informed Ability: Has this problem with every Muggle artifact which relies on electricity. Because none of it will actually work on the Hogwarts grounds, he's stuck trying to teach his students about technology using differently-shaped paperweights.
Mundane Made Awesome: Tries to make the creations of science come across this way, readily noting that without Muggles, wizards wouldn't have indoor plumbing.
Sharp-Dressed Man: Much better with Muggle clothing than the average wizard: at worst, his outfits come across as slightly eccentric.
Surrounded by Idiots: Although he understands that pureblood students need a lot of coaching on things like 'Do not stick a fork in a toaster,' and comes across as extremely patient.

Herbert Beery

Appears in: The Tales of Beedle the Bard (mentioned)

A former Herbology professor during Armando Dippet's time. He left Hogwarts to pursue a career in the Wizarding Academy of Dramatic Arts.

All There in the Manual: He's only mentioned in Dumbledore's notes of The Tales of Beedle the Bard.
Meaningful Name: Herbert, as in "herb" referencing to the subject he taught.
Romance on the Set: Tried to invoke this by casting two students who were dating in the lead roles of his play, unaware that the boy had broken up with his girlfriend in favour of another of the actresses shortly before the curtain rose. The results were predictable.

Non-teaching faculty

Argus Filch

"Students out of bed! Students in the corridors!"

Portrayed by: David Bradley

Voiced by: Aparicio Rivero (European Spanish), Jesse Conde (Latin American Spanish), Waldir Fiori (Brazilian Portuguese, minus Prisoner of Azkaban), Mário Monjardim (Brazilian Portuguese, Prisoner of Azkaban)

"A pity they let the old punishments die. Was a time detention would find you hanging by your thumbs in the dungeons. God, I miss the screaming."

The Hogwarts caretaker, he has an extremely antagonistic relationship with the students and mostly acts as an obstacle to Harry throughout the series. His bitterness towards the students probably stems from the fact that he is a Squib, that is, someone who while born into a magical family has no magical abilities on his own. He has a cat named Mrs. Norris, probably the closest thing he has to a friend.

Abhorrent Admirer: In the film, he has a crush on Umbridge.
Adaptational Nice Guy: Despite having more or less the same supporting-level role he had in the books, the films do take special care to show his love for Mrs. Norris, proving he's not all bad. His appearance in several background scenes during the final battle of Deathly Hallows, Part II indicates he stayed and fought the Death Eaters. He's very clearly distraught when all seems lost and Voldemort demands their surrender.
Arch-Enemy: Peeves the poltergeist and the Weasley twins. Also implied to have been one for the Marauders back in the day.
Ax-Crazy: His obsession with punishing students is borderline psychotic. Hell, he even starts working under Umbridge of all people to carry out his sadistic dreams.
Berserk Button:
- Track in mud or make a mess and feel his wrath.
- Hell, be a student in his vicinity, and he will unleash the fury on you.
Black Shirt: He's the only Hogwarts employee who supports Umbridge when she takes the helm because she allows him to use harsher methods to discipline the students. Alas, he never gets to use them, because the school is too full of rebels by that point.
Butt-Monkey: Many of his appearances involve getting hexed, cursed, jinxed, or otherwise pranked by students who gleefully subvert his authority at every turn; Fred and George are particularly talented at this. The film version of Order of the Phoenix goes out of its way to emphasize his bumbling, inept attempts to capture members of Dumbledore's Army.
Child Hater: He hates the Hogwarts students and revels in every opportunity to inflict the harshest punishments he's allowed on them. It's not hard to understand why, though, being a Squib employed in a wizardry school.
Crazy Cat Lady: He's very attached to Mrs. Norris and flies off the handle when he suspects Harry of Petrifying her.
Demoted to Comic Relief: While initially starting out as a rather sinister character, his appearances get more and more Played for Laughs as the story goes on.
Disproportionate Retribution: While he has a fair point about the messes caused by the students as he's a Muggle Born of Mages who has to clean it all manually, his idea of how they should be punished for it is not exactly fair. His desired methods so line up with Dolores Umbridge, that he was the only one on her side as it meant he could use a horsewhip on rule-breakers.
- In the 2nd book after his cat gets paralyzed, Filch gets more paranoid then usual and tries to punish students for "looking happy" or "breathing loudly".
The Dragon: Acts as Umbridge's right hand during her brief stint as Headmaster.
Dragon with an Agenda: During his time as Umbridge's de facto second-in-command. He couldn't care less about the Ministry's effort to consolidate its power over Hogwarts; he's only interested in having his nemesis Peeves expelled and being able to inflict sadistic punishments on students.
Everyone Has Standards:
- When he finds Harry’s dropped golden egg, while he does think it’ll be a good excuse to get Peeves banished, he is actually genuinely angry that Peeves has apparently stolen from a champion.
- For as much as he seemed to delight in harshly punishing students, in Deathly Hallows Part II, even Filch is shown giving a dazed look of despair when Voldemort brags to everyone that he finally killed Harry and claims victory of the Second Wizarding War.
Familiar: It's implied, at least in the earlier books, that Filch shares a far deeper connection with Mrs. Norris than it seems. Apparently Mrs. Norris patrols the school on her own, and if she witnesses any rule-breaking, Filch somehow turns up shortly afterwards. In one encounter Harry actually had to tell Mrs. Norris he wasn't breaking any rules. While Rowling states that Mrs Norris isn't a familiar, she goes on to state that that being said, Mrs Norris is the single closest thing to a familiar in the entire Wizarding World.
Flanderization: Filch was used more and more for comic relief as the films went on, especially in Order of the Phoenix.
Foil:
- To Hagrid. Both characters have care-taking roles at Hogwarts and are often looked down upon for their lineage (Hagrid for being half-giant, Filch for being a Squib). However, Hagrid is much more amicable and approachable (if reckless), whereas Filch spends most of his appearances berating students and generally being more bitter. Their pets are even contrasted, with the hawkish Mrs. Norris and the loyal but cowardly Fang.
- To Mrs Figg. Both are cat-loving Squibs, but Mrs Figg holds no bitterness towards other wizards, and Ron suspects the reason Filch hates the students so much is that he's jealous.
- To Ms. Umbridge. While both have cat motifs, Mr. Filch clearly cares for, and is loved by, Mrs. Norris; Ms. Umbridge is never seen in the presence of a living cat.
Formally-Named Pet: Mrs. Norris.
Freudian Excuse: He's part of an ostracized group that receives scorn or pity from most of the magical community. It's indicated that the caretaker position at Hogwarts is one of the only ways for him to stay in contact with his magical roots, which means spending every day surrounded by children who are studying the powers that he was denied.
The Friend Nobody Likes: He's treated with a degree of professional courtesy by teachers but is otherwise not well regarded by most of the Hogwarts staff. Hagrid goes as far as calling him a "sneaking Squib" right in front of Harry and Hermione, and McGonagall gets exasperated with his overeager behaviour multiple times, finally losing her patience and calling him a blithering idiot in Deathly Hallows. This seems however to be averted with Professor Sprout and Professor Snape, as the former is known to be nice to everyone, and the latter is the only person Harry notices in Philosopher's Stone Filch is on friendly terms with.
Fun-Hating Confiscating Adult: Filch had a room full of things confiscated from students, including the Marauders' Map, which the Weasley twins liberated and then gave to Harry. Heck, he's so much this that The Wizarding World of Harry Potter even made an entire shop out of it ("Filch's Emporium of Confiscated Goods") and it's claimed that all the employees there are Hogwarts students who have to work there to serve detention.
Green-Eyed Monster: It's all-but-stated the reason for his bitterness is because he's a squib surrounded by wizards.
Harmless Villain: Downplayed. He's not actually a villain but in the first few books he's a legitimate obstacle to Harry. Starting with Prisoner of Azkaban he gets flanderized into a big Butt-Monkey who is completely ineffective at disciplining students and spends the rest of the series as an annoyance more than anything.
Hidden Depths: When the portrait of the Fat Lady gets slashed up, Dumbledore gives her to Filch to repair. The next time we see her, there's not so much as a mention about being able to see where she was patched up, implying that he was able to perfectly restore her even without magic.
I Have This Friend: His excuse when Harry finds a letter claiming to be a beginner's course in magic in his office, proving him to be a Squib.
I'll Kill You!: Threatens to end Harry after suspecting that he was responsible for petrifying Mrs. Norris.
Jerkass: He hates the student body, advocates corporeal punishment, and is generally an unpleasant person to be around.
Loves the Sound of Screaming: Filch loves torturing misbehaving children, and misses the old days when he could hang kids from the rafters and hear them scream. A lot of that talk is probably wishful thinking (not that this is a huge improvement); Dumbledore seems to have hired Filch, and Dumbledore most likely did not allow thumb screws, chains, or any of the other implements Filch claims to miss. His paraphernalia could easily be left over from well before his time.
Meaningful Name: Argus was the hundred-eyed guardian of Io in Classical Mythology, using his multiple eyes to keep watch on her forever, and Filch is notorious for keeping a hawkish eye on students and showing up to bust troublemakers at inopportune times. "Filch" is British schoolkid slang for "to commit petty theft".
Muggle Born of Mages: He's a "Squib", a person born to a wizard family who doesn't have the ability to use magic.
Muggle in Mage Custody: As a Squib, he has to be taken care of by other Hogwarts staff members.
Not-So-Harmless Villain: Filch almost manages to become this — after four books of being an empty threat, he's given the authority to hand out the sadistic punishments he's always dreamed of once Umbridge takes over. The only problem is that, by that point, there are so many troublemakers he doesn't know who to go after first.
Out of Focus: In the films, he receives little-to-no dialogue as the series progresses, likely to pay his actor less.
Pet the Dog: Despite his unpleasant behaviour, Filch loves his cat dearly. He becomes very upset when he thought Harry petrified/killed her.
Relative Button: Never, ever, try to harm a hair on Mrs. Norris if you don't want the life choked out of you.
The Resenter: His personality is at least partly caused by bitterness over being surrounded by children learning magic when he himself never could do it.
Sadist: He muses about how punishments were much more severe back in the old days and outright says that he Loves the Sound of Screaming.
Silent Snarker: In the film version of Sorcerer's Stone, he rolls his eyes at Hagrid worrying about Norbert living in a colony.
Spear Counterpart: To Aunt Petunia - both are authority figures who dislike Harry and other wizards, and it's implied they do so out of jealousy.
Ultimate Job Security: The man is a borderline sociopath who explicitly enjoys causing children pain and can't just magic away whatever messes the students cause. At no point is the option of firing him ever considered. Dumbledore's interactions with Filch hint that he allows Filch to stay on out of pity - at this point, if he were to be thrown out of Hogwarts, where would he go?
The Voiceless: In the film versions of Goblet of Fire and Order of the Phoenix.
Would Hurt a Child: Advocates for corporeal punishment to be administered towards the students and threatens to kill Harry over Mrs. Norris getting petrified.

Poppy Pomfrey

"Well, what did you expect, pumpkin juice?"

Portrayed by: Gemma Jones

Voiced by: María Teresa Neila (European Spanish), Liza Willert (Latin American Spanish), Carmen Sheila (Brazilian Portuguese)

"You should've been brought straight to me! I can mend bones in a heartbeat, but growing them back..."

The Hogwarts matron and nurse, expert in medical magic. While she is kind-hearted and always well-meaning, she's overprotective of the students in her care, which is Played for Laughs. She regards Harry, and his tendency to fall into dangerous exploits, with a kind of friendly exasperation. A frequent sight in the hospital wing is Harry, landed there after his latest crazy adventure, begging to be allowed to do something while Madam Pomfrey insists he needs to rest more.

Madam Pomfrey shows up in all the books, but appears very infrequently in the movies.

Alliterative Name: Poppy Pomfrey.
Beware the Nice Ones: She's a kind, if stern, lady who makes every effort to care for the students and keep them safe. Do not get in the way of that; it doesn't matter who you are, she will not hesitate to throw you out on your ear. Also, it's easy to overlook, but she's unnervingly calm when telling Harry that Sirius Black is about to receive the Dementor's kiss. Whether or not there's a story behind this has never been revealed.
Combat Medic: While her main claim to fame is as a medic, she's also an effective duellist, as she demonstrates during the final battle.
Deadpan Snarker: She has her moments.
Pomfrey: Nothing to worry about, I mended it at once, but I'm keeping you in overnight. You shouldn't over-exert yourself for a few hours.
Harry: I don't want to stay here overnight, I want to find McLaggen and kill him.
Pomfrey: I'm afraid that would come under the heading of 'overexertion'.
Don't Ask: She seems to know not to ask. In all her years at Hogwarts, she probably has seen a fair share of students with injuries the result of things students shouldn't be doing, but her job is to see to the students' health. Just looking at Ron's dragon bite, there's no way that she bought Ron's story that a dog bit him. (Especially seeing as dogs aren't even a legal pet at Hogwarts.) Also, given her status as a healer, it's very likely she knew Hermione had a mishap with Polyjuice Potion. This attitude is standard procedure for medical professionals — if she reports their misdeeds, then they're less likely to come to her for healing and will be at risk of their injuries getting worse or killing them.
Everyone Has Standards:
- She apologizes to Harry before giving him Skele-Gro because she can "mend bones in a heartbeat" but growing them back is much more painful. This is why she hates Lockhart for trying to heal Harry's broken arm because instead, he made things worse.
- When McGonagall is sent to St. Mungo's, Pomfrey apologizes to Harry for telling him and breaking bad news. She says she knows how he feels and she would resign in protest, but the students need her.
I Can Still Fight!: She's the one who replies, "No, you can't. Go to sleep, Harry."
Mama Bear: The safety of Hogwarts' students is her first priority, to the point that she tells Harry that it's the only reason she hangs around during Umbridge's reign.
The McCoy: Working in the same field as the real McCoy, no less.
Meaningful Name: Her last name rhymes with 'comfrey', a herb traditionally used to dress wounds. It's also an alternate spelling of Pontefract, a Yorkshire town long famed for the growing of the medicinal herb licorice. Also, poppies contain opium, which from ancient times has had medical uses as well as recreational ones.
The Medic: She runs the school's nurse's office, and considering it's Hogwarts, she's got a LOT of experience tending to wounds, anything from standard scrapes and bruises to all of the bones in a student's arm disappearing.
Oh, No... Not Again!: Upon seeing Harry in the third book, "Oh, it's you, is it? I suppose you've been doing something dangerous again?"
School Nurse: Since Hogwarts is a Wizarding School, she specializes in medicinal magic and can heal cuts and broken bones in a matter of minutes.
Secret-Keeper:
- She knew about Remus Lupin's condition from when he was a student.
- She also implicitly knows far more about the average student's misbehaviour than the average faculty member, or at least suspects things—there is simply no way she actually bought Ron's story about being bitten by a dog in the first book—but never asks any questions, and never rats them out to their Heads of Houses.
Team Mom: Among the Hogwarts staff, though more to the students than her fellow staff members.
You Can Barely Stand: She's probably lost count of the number of times she's had to tell Harry this over the years and struggle to keep him in bed so he can recover from whatever injuries he's currently suffering from.

Irma Pince

Portrayed by: Sally Mortemore

Appears in: Philosopher’s Stone | Chamber of Secrets | Order of the Phoenix | Half-Blood Prince | Hogwarts Mystery

"Chocolate in the library! Out — out — OUT!"

The Scary Librarian who runs the Hogwarts library. Madam Pince doesn't trust students any further than she could throw Hagrid, and is known for putting odd jinxes on her books to protect them.

Adaptational Attractiveness: Sally Mortemore hardly looks like any vulture.
Adapted Out: She is played by an extra in Chamber of Secrets, but, aside from that, is entirely absent from the film series.
Animal Motifs: Apparently she looks like an "underfed vulture". Lovely.
Berserk Button: Eat in the library or write in books and she'll attack you.
Continuity Cameo: Sally Mortemore plays her in the second film, though you'd only know her nonspeaking character is meant to be Madam Pince from the credits. She has no role and doesn't appear in any of the other films, though she has a speaking role in Hogwarts Mystery in which Sally Mortemore reprises her role.
Disproportionate Retribution: She's placed dozens of curses on each of the books should they be mistreated, stolen, or vandalized. Dumbledore himself notes that he made the mistake of doodling in one of her library books, then found the book trying to beat him on the head. And he can not guarantee he's gotten off all the curses on the very copy of Quidditch Through the Ages that the reader is holding...
Hidden Depths: According to Hogwarts Mystery, she's a fan of the Frog Choir.
Living Prop: She has almost no role in the books other than occasional mentions of her unpleasantness.
Pair the Spares: In a possible parody of Shipping, students speculate about her and Filch in the sixth book.
Scary Librarian: She will curse you and hit you for the most minor infractions.
Stunned Silence
- When Harry brushed off the Half-Blood Prince's old textbook as, "only a book that's been written in," she was described as looking like she was about to have a seizure.
- Apparently, when Dumbledore suggested making a copy of Quidditch Through the Ages available to Muggles, she was rendered temporarily speechless and neither moved nor blinked for several minutes, and then asked him if he had lost his mind.

The Sorting Hat

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

"Oh you may not think I'm pretty, but don't judge on what you see, I'll eat myself if you can find a smarter hat than me."

Portrayed by: Leslie Phillips (films), Chris Jarman (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, first West End run), Brian Abraham (Cursed Child, first Broadway run) | Hogwarts Mystery

Voiced by: Ramón Reparaz (European Spanish, Philosopher's Stone-Chamber of Secrets), Ramón Reparaz Jr. (Deathly Hallows Part II), Mario Filio (Latin American Spanish), Jorge Lucas (Brazilian Portuguese, minus Deathly Hallows), Pádua Moreira (Brazilian Portuguese, Deathly Hallows)

"Hmm, difficult. VERY difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind, either. There's talent, oh yes. And a thirst to prove yourself. But where to put you?"

The Sorting Hat is a wizard's hat, formerly belonging to Godric Gryffindor, that has been empowered with the intelligence from the four founders of Hogwarts. It is sentient, converses with students who place it on their head, composes and recites songs, and can attack things by blinding them. So, despite being just a hat, it certainly is a character. According to Word of God, The Sorting Hat is notorious for refusing to admit it has made a mistake in its sorting of a student. On those occasions when Slytherins behave altruistically or selflessly, when Ravenclaws flunk all their exams, when Hufflepuffs prove lazy yet academically gifted and when Gryffindors exhibit cowardice, the Hat steadfastly backs its original decision. On balance, however, the Hat has made remarkably few errors of judgement over the many centuries it has been at work.

Abled in the Adaptation: Animate Inanimate Object version. In the books, its mouth is a rip in the fabric, whereas in the film its face is formed from creases and shadows.
Animate Inanimate Object: Apparently outfitted with the personalities of all four founders of Hogwarts.
Deadpan Snarker: In the books, he slyly repeats "You would have done well in Slytherin" to Harry. In the films, they add a "raised eyebrow" when Harry insists the Sorting Hat is wrong.
Expository Theme Tune: The Sorting Hat sings one to the Hogwarts students at the beginning of Autumn Term, describing the Four Houses and what they value, and occasionally giving warnings.
Hammerspace: Gryffindor students can pull Godric's sword out of the Sorting Hat. As the Hat himself sings, he once belonged to Gryffindor himself and sat upon his head.
Humanity Ensues: In Cursed Child, he is portrayed by a human actor since making an expensive talking animatronic hat for a character that appears in just a few scenes would be incredibly wasteful.
Large Ham: He bombastically shouts the decided house for every student, but his ham value is greatly increased for the films, where he voices loudly his reflections about every choice instead of whispering them to the sortee's ear, though it isn't made clear whether his decision process is actually audible throughout the Great Hall or just the audience.
Mr. Exposition: He loosely exposits the backstory of the founding of Hogwarts in song at the beginning term feast every year.
No Indoor Voice: When announcing which house students are going into, the Hat ALWAYS talks in a boomtastic voice that echoes in the Great Hall.
Sorting Hat: Well, if you're sure... better be... GRYFFINDOR!!
The Power Of Potential: The Sorting Hat has made some retrospectively questionable sorting decisions, like Gilderoy Lockhart in Ravenclaw and Peter Pettigrew in Gryffindor. However, it's implied that like with Neville Longbottom, the Hat saw the potential in all of them to embody the core traits of their respective houses. Needless to say, only Neville lived up to his.
Telepathy: The Sorting Hat uses Legilimency to determine which house to place new students in.
What Happened to the Mouse?: The last we see of the hat in the books, Voldemort has set it on fire. Cursed Child reveals it wasn't destroyed, and Harry mentions it in the epilogue of Deathly Hallows.
You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Pottermore reveals the reason Neville Longbottom's sorting took so long was that the while the Hat quickly decided to place Neville in Gryffindor House, Neville was intimidated by Gryffindor's reputation for courage and didn't feel he belonged there, and asked to be put in Hufflepuff House instead. The Hat refused to budge, and later events in the books proved it was right about him.

Trolley Witch

"Anything from the trolley, dears?"

Portrayed By: Jean Southern (Film 1), Margery Mason (Film 4), Sandy McDade (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, first West End run), Geraldine Hughes (Cursed Child, first Broadway run)

Appears in: Philosopher’s Stone | Goblet of Fire | Cursed Child

The old woman who pushes the candy trolley on the Hogwarts Express.

Adaptational Badass: Becomes pretty dangerous in Cursed Child.
Ambiguously Human: She looks like your average Granny Classic but is over 200 years old and can turn her hands into wicked clawed appendages.
Beware the Silly Ones: Though she initially appears innocuous, Cursed Child reveals that aside from selling sweets, her duty is to prevent students from leaving the train, which she accomplishes by transfiguring her hands into claws. She's very likely no longer technically human.
Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": She is consistently called the Trolley Witch, and her real name is never revealed.
His Name Really Is "Barkeep": She has long forgotten her real name in favour of the nickname everybody uses.
Improbable Weapon User: Explosive pumpkin pasties.
Never Mess with Granny: The Marauders and the Weasley twins learned her terrible power, though Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy manage to evade her.
Really 700 Years Old: Cursed Child reveals that she is over 200 years old, having been hired by then-Minister for Magic Ottaline Gambol to work on the Hogwarts Express when it began in 1830.
Shout-Out: She attacks Albus and Scorpius by throwing exploding Pumpkin Pastries at them, and shapeshifting her arms into spikes heavily reminiscent of the T-1000's preferred method of attack from Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
Spikes of Doom: She can transfigure her hands into these.
Walking Spoiler: Though it has no plot relevance, discussing her role in Cursed Child is impossible without spoiling the surprise.

The Hogwarts Express

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

Now boarding at Platform 9 and 3/4

Portrayed By: Great Western Railways 5972 Olton Hall

A steam locomotive employed by Hogwarts to transport its students to the castle without attracting Muggle attention. It departs from Kings Cross Station on Platform 9 and 3/4.

All There in the Manual: Her history, including how she was stolen from Crewe Locomotive Works at the suggestion of Ottaline Gambol, and the fact she runs on magic, was detailed on Pottermore and not in the films themselves.
Boring, but Practical: Before Hogwarts Castle came into service, wizards had to travel to Hogwarts by broom or carriage. Ottaline Gambol put forth the idea to use a train to get to Hogwarts, as it could travel about less conspicuously.
The Caper: How she came into Hogwarts' service in the first place. A group of wizards stole her from Crewe and wiped the minds of the builders there to forget she ever existed.
Cool Train: Red, sleek, built for speed, and used to take wizards and witches to a secret school just for them, she stands amongst fiction's finest locomotives.
Just Train Wrong: A Wizard Did It aside, 5972's magical history doesn't match up with her real one.
- She was mentioned as having been built by the Crewe Locomotive Works during the 1830s—except Crew didn't exist until the 1840s, and 5972 was a product of the Great Western Railway's Swindon Works in 1937. There may have been previous locomotives and cars used beforehand, but no mention is made of that. Her cameo in Hogwarts Legacy shows that she's the exact same design in the 1890s as she is a century later—which is impossible in real life given the above information.
- The Hall class from which 5972 hails from never wore the red used in the movies—Brunswick Green was the preferred livery for them.
- Interestingly enough, there is a Castle class of locomotives from the same railroad, of which eight survive, but Olton Hall is not one of them. Consequently, Railfans joke that she's "The Hall that thinks she's a Castle".
- The franchise makes it seem that Hogwarts Castle is only used a few times a year to take students to and from Hogwarts during the start and end of each school season, or during the holidays. Running steam engines in the modern day is expensive, but it's still highly uneconomical to have such a locomotive idling for so long and not getting any use out of her.
- Even the station she charts from isn't the real deal. Exterior shots of "Kings Cross" was actually St. Pancras, which was only a little bit away from the real deal.
Overshadowed by Controversy: An In-Universe case. While she's a staple of the Hogwarts experience, many a wizard objected to the idea of using Muggle technology to get to the school when she was first introduced into service. The Ministry of Magic forced the issue by making it a law that the train would be the only way of getting to Hogwarts, like it or not.
Railroad Tracks of Doom: In Chamber of Secrets, Dobby keeps Harry and Ron from getting onto Platform 9 and 3/4, preventing them from boarding the train on time. The two are forced to steal the Weasley family's flying car to catch up to her. She catches up to them instead.
A Wizard Did It: The fact she runs on magic instead of coal in a world full of wizards and witches makes it clear that she ain't your average steam locomotive.

The Fat Lady

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_harrypotterandtheprisonerofazkaban2004uhdbluray2160pdts_x71dvhevchybridremux_framestormkv_snapshot_002734640.png

Her appearance in the third film

Portrayed By: Elizabeth Spriggs (Film 1), Dawn French (Film 3)

A portrait depicting an unnamed witch who has the task of guarding the entrance of the Gryffindor Tower.

The Alcoholic: Known for getting drunk on festivities.
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite her comedic traits she still takes the task of guarding the Gryffindor Tower very seriously. She will not give entrance unless you have the right password.
Character Exaggeration: Her comedic traits are much more prominent in the third film.
Dreadful Musician: Her singing is quite awful.
Early-Installment Weirdness: In the first film her portrait is located at the end of a corridor, she is depicted by a different actress wearing a 16th-century-inspired dress with her personality being very subdued. This depiction carried over to the games based on the first and second films. Then in the third film, her portrait is located directly in the Grand Staircase her outfit is more in line with the the Classical period and is given more humorous traits. This depiction stuck for subsequent appearances of her in video games.
Glass-Shattering Sound: In the movies, she's seen trying to shatter a glass with her singing. When unable to do so, she surreptitiously smashes it against a wall and insists she did it with just her voice
No Name Given: Oddly for one of the few important portraits in the series she's never given a name or a backstory.

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