45 Things About "Harry Potter" You Wouldn't Know Without Reading The Books

There is a Hogwarts poltergeist named Peeves who wreaks havoc wherever he goes and is actually quite hilarious.

Ghosts hold deathday parties to celebrate the day that they died. Harry, Ron, and Hermione attended Nearly Headless Nick’s deathday party on Halloween in their second year where they were served rotten fish, maggoty haggis, moldy cheese, and a tombstone-shaped gray cake.

When they were students at Hogwarts, Sirius Black intentionally lured Severus Snape to the Shrieking Shack when Remus Lupin was going through his transformation from man to werewolf, with the intention of Snape being gravely injured. But James Potter caught wind of the scheme and went after Snape and saved him.

Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black, and James Potter were the authors of the Marauder’s Map.

The Shrieking Shack was not actually haunted. The screams people would hear were from Lupin’s painful transformation into a werewolf.

James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew were unregistered Animagi.

When he was a teenager, Voldemort killed his father, Tom Riddle, and his grandparents in their home in Little Hangleton.

At the Quidditch World Cup, Barty Crouch’s house-elf, Winky, was found at the scene of the crime of the conjuring of the Dark Mark. Barty Crouch subsequently fired her and then Dumbledore hired her to work in the Hogwarts kitchens, alongside Dobby.

Hermione created an organization called S.P.E.W., which stands for the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, to stand up for the rights of house-elves.

Barty Crouch facilitated the escape of his son, Barty Crouch Jr., from Azkaban by giving his son and his wife Polyjuice Potion to each take on the appearance of the other, and switch places.

The phoenix feathers in Harry's and Voldemort’s wands came from Dumbledore’s phoenix, Fawkes.

Rita Skeeter, the Daily Prophet reporter, was an unregistered Animagus; she could turn herself into a beetle. Hermione, in an act of vengeance, captured Rita (as a beetle) in a jar after the Triwizard Tournament to prevent her from writing any more libelous stories.

Harry gave his Triwizard winnings to Fred and George Weasley to start their joke shop, Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes.

After the Dementor attack on Harry and Dudley, Vernon tried kicking Harry out of their house. But Petunia received a Howler that said “Remember my last, Petunia,” which mysteriously made her allow him to stay. The Howler had been from Dumbledore and it referred to the letter he had left with Harry on the Dursley’s doorstep the night Harry's parents died. That letter had informed Petunia of the charm that Dumbledore placed upon Harry that would protect him from Voldemort as long as he called Petunia’s house, where his mother’s blood resided, home.

Ron and Hermione were made prefects in their fifth year.

Professor Umbridge placed a lifelong Quidditch ban on Harry and George Weasley for getting into a "Muggle duel" (fist fight) with Malfoy after a Quidditch match. And for good measure, she also banned Fred Weasley, who did not fight due to being restrained by his teammates.

Neville Longbottom’s parents lived permanently in St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries after being tortured into insanity by Death Eaters.

When Professor Umbridge sacked Professor Trelawney, Dumbledore hired a centaur named Firenze to teach Divination.

Sibyll Trelawney made the prophecy about Voldemort and Harry during her interview with Dumbledore for the position of Divination professor at Hogwarts.

The full prophecy was, “The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches….Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies…And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not…And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives….The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies….”

The prophecy could have been about Voldemort and Neville Longbottom, but Voldemort made it about Harry by attempting to kill him on that fateful Halloween night.

Fenrir Greyback was the werewolf who bit Remus Lupin as a child.

When a witch or wizard is approaching age 17, they take lessons at Hogwarts to learn how to Apparate, practicing with the destination of a hoop placed in front of them. Then when they turn 17, they take a test to be licensed to Apparate.

Voldemort murdered Hepzibah Smith, the most recent owner of Slytherin’s locket and Hufflepuff’s cup, in order to obtain the two objects.

Hogwarts was never able to keep a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor for more than one year after Dumbledore refused Voldemort the position.

Severus Snape was the informant who overheard Trelawney's prophecy about Voldemort and Harry being made to Dumbledore at the Hog's Head Inn. He then relayed his incomplete information to Voldemort, thus unintentionally setting him upon the Potters.

When Dumbledore drank the potion to retrieve the locket, he was mentally brought back to the time of his sister’s accidental death.

The creatures in the lake surrounding the basin containing the fake Horcrux are called inferi, which are dead bodies bewitched by dark magic.

When Snape killed Dumbledore, Harry was hidden by his invisibility cloak under a Freezing Charm performed by Dumbledore because Dumbledore knew Harry would try to intervene.

When she was a child, Dumbledore’s sister, Ariana, was seen doing magic by three Muggle boys. The three boys attacked her out of fear and left her magical powers essentially ruined. She could no longer control them and she would have fits of magical rage. Dumbledore’s father went after the Muggle boys and was sent to Azkaban for life.

During one of Ariana’s rages, her mother, Kendra, was killed. At just shy of 18 years old, Albus became the sole caretaker of his younger brother and sister.

Harry attended Bill and Fleur’s wedding disguised as Barny Weasley, a red-headed Weasley cousin.

To test the defenses surrounding his locket Horcrux, Voldemort enlisted Kreacher, volunteered by his master Regulus Black, to accompany him to the cave, drink all the potion, and then be left there to die. However, Kreacher had been told by Regulus to return home, and a house-elf may not disobey an order. Because house-elves’ magic works differently than wizards’, he was able to disapparate from the cave. Voldemort never foresaw this because he never believed that a house-elf could have powers that he did not.

When he got cold feet about being in league with Voldemort, Regulus asked Kreacher to bring him to the cave where he had gone with Voldemort. He brought the fake locket and ordered Kreacher to switch the lockets after Regulus had drunk all the potion, and then for Kreacher to leave him there and return home to destroy the first locket. Kreacher watched as Regulus, weakened by the potion, was dragged into the lake by inferi.

There is a memorial for the Potters in Godric's Hollow that is invisible to Muggles.

James and Lily Potter’s grave had an inscription that read, “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”

During the summer after his mother died, Dumbledore developed a very strong friendship with Gellert Grindewald, who amounted to be one of the most notorious dark wizards of all time. Years later when Grindewald had gained power, after their friendship had long since ended, Dumbledore and Grindewald had a famous duel that Dumbledore was victorious in.

There was a taboo placed on Voldemort’s name where protective enchantments would be broken if the name was spoken so that the Death Eaters could immediately track and find the one who dared to say it.

The silver hand that Voldemort fashioned for Wormtail ended up strangling him to death because he showed a moment of mercy for Harry in the cellar of Malfoy Manor.

Ariana Dumbledore was killed accidentally during a duel between Albus, Aberforth, and Gellert Grindewald.

While still alive, the Bloody Baron, who became the ghost of Slytherin House, was sent by Rowena Ravenclaw to retrieve her daughter, Helena, whom he was in love with. When Helena, who became the ghost of Ravenclaw House, refused to go with him, he became angry and stabbed her. Then, distraught with having killed her, he killed himself.

Albus Dumbledore had once yearned to obtain the three Deathly Hallows and become master of death.

As a child, Petunia Dursley wanted desperately to be a witch like her sister, so she wrote to Dumbledore asking for acceptance to Hogwarts, which she was respectfully denied.

Dumbledore refused the job of Minster of Magic because he felt he could not be trusted with such power.

Harry mended his own wand with the Elder Wand before he got rid of it. The Elder Wand was the only wand in the world that could mend another wand because it was the most powerful. And for that precise reason, Harry did not want to keep it.