House-elves of Hogwarts
Most people mistake that the feasts and festival of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is prepared by magic. However, the house-elves of Hogwarts were the ones responsible for preparing all the food and events.
Maintenance of Hogwarts were also achieved by the house-elves of Hogwarts from cleaning dormitories to facility maintenance. House-elves specialized in Apparition magic which is a sort of transportation magic, and they could quickly transport food from the kitchens to the Great Hall in seconds.
Whomping Willow
The Whomping Willow severely damaged the Flying Ford Anglia when Harry and Ron flew their way to Hogwarts as they crashed into it. The Whomping Willow was a violent plant that would physically hit any object that comes nearby.
The Whomping Willow itself was a pretty rare magical plant which explained why the professors were angry when Harry and Ron crashed into it although they were also relieved that both weren’t severely injured by it as well. It held some of the secrets of Hogwarts.
Mandrake
Also known as a mandragora, a mandrake was a plant that resembled a human and was the size of an infant. a mandrake would screech in a high pitch whenever it is pulled off from the ground. The screech of a mandrake was deadly and a fully grown mandrake was capable of killing a person.
Professor Pomona Sprout presents the mandrake which in that class, Neville Longbottom faints after hearing the screeches of the mandrake.
Mandrakes were important in the wizardry world because mandrakes were an important ingredient in brewing a restoration potion that could restore petrified, cursed or transformed(transfigured) people back to normal.
The petrified students by the monster of the Chamber of Secrets were treated with potions brewed from mandrakes as well.
Polyjuice Potion
Polyjuice Potion was a potion that could temporarily transform a person’s appearance. Although in the movie series, it was relatively easily manufactured, in the novel Polyjuice Potion was one of the most difficult potions to manufacture as the recipe of Polyjuice was complicated and took a lot of time.
The quality of the Polyjuice Potion determined the longevity of the transformation effect. Polyjuice Potion only transformed pure humans, in other words, other races or those who had shared origins couldn’t utilize Polyjuice potion.
Polyjuice potion could alter age, gender, height and dweight but it couldn’t alter the species so only human to human transformation was possible by intake of Polyjuice potions.
Polyjuice potions would last from 10 minutes up to 12 hours. This depended on the quality of the poly juice potion. Polyjuice potion was a peculiar transfiguration potion that if the person who intake Polyjuice potion died before the effects worn off, the person would permanently remain in their transformed form.
Hermione Granger had to visit Madam Pomfrey after she mistaken a cat hair for Millicent Bulstrode while Harry and Ron succesfully transformed into crabbe and Goyle by taking poly juice potion.
Polyjuice consisted of leeches, powedered bicorn horn, knotgrass, fluxweed that were harvested under the full moon, shreeded boomslang skin, and any parts of the person to be transformed into. Lacewing flies were also a key ingredient and it required stewing for 21days so the Polyjuice potion was a very difficult potion to craft.
Skele-grow – Bone growing potion
After Gilderoy Lockhart took out all the bones on Harry Potter’s arms after he was injured by the bludger attack on his Quidditch match, harry was treated by Maddam Pomfrey to grow back his arm bones.
Madam Pomfrey treats Harry with skele-grow that tasted extremely foul but instantly grew bones that only took a night to fully grow all the bones of Harry’s arms.
Skele-gro was actually an invention of Linfred Potter who was the first of the Potter family. In other words, skele-gro was one of the potions that contributed to Harry Potter’s wealth.
Colin Creevey – photographer kid
Colin Creevey was one years younger than Harry Potter and he was a muggle-born wizard. Colin had a hobby of taking photographs as he was amazed that the photos of the wizarding world were animated unlike ordinary pictures of the muggle world.
He was a great fan of Harry Potter as he was amazed by the stories of Harry’s survival against Lord Voldemort. Collin Creevey was petrified by the monster of the Chamber of Secrets when he tried to give Harry some treats. Luckily, he saw the monster by the lens of his camera so he avoided death.
Moaning Myrtle
Moaning Myrtle or Myrtle Warren was the ghost of the second-floor girl’s restroom of Hogwarts. She was a Ravenclaw student and a muggle-born witch who was killed during the first incident of the Chamber of Secrets.
As Myrtle was a muggle-born witch, everybody feared that the Chamber of Secrets was opened and Hogwarts was almost put into shutdown if it wasn’t for Tom Riddle.
The Muggle Protection Act
Arthur Weasley, the director of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office of the British Ministry of Magic proposed the Muggle Protection Act in 1992.
The Muggle Protection Act stated that necessity for protection of muggles from objects cursed by the dark arts. Along with an attempt to seek potentially harmful magical objects, the Ministry of Magic started surprise inspections on those who were suspicious of holding such dangerous magical artefacts.
Lucious Malfoy who was already plotting an evil plan in Hogwarts was forced to sell and hide some of his secret possessions. He also encounters the Weasley family at Diagon Alley where he slips the Diary of Tom Riddle into Ginerva Weasley (Ginny Weasley)’s books. Lucious Malfoy sought to take out all his enemies at once.
