http://entertainment.malaysia.msn.com/movies/features/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3455779&page=0 - By Shakila Rajendra - MSN Malaysia

15/07/2009

What you didn't know about the world of Harry Potter

You may know your wizards from your muggles but how well do you remember the magical world depicted in Rowling's now famous books? We give you 15 fast facts you may not already know about the wizarding world.

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1) Hagrid is said to be twice the height of a human but in the films he is mentioned to be 8 feet 6 inches.

2) Hermione’s cat Crookshanks is no ordinary cat as he is half-kneazle. Kneazles are intelligent cat-like creatures who can sniff out suspicious characters and if a kneazle takes a liking to a witch or wizard, they make for excellent pets.

3) Members of the Order of the Pheonix are the only wizards who know how to communicate using their patronuses. A wizard’s patronus is the individual’s unique spirit guardian and is effective in use against the dark arts.

4) Dementors don’t breed. They grow where there’s decay, like fungus.

5) The tattoos on Sirius Black’s body are borrowed from Russian prison gangs. These are to identify a person as one to be feared and respected.

6) The command that makes the Dark Mark (the mark of the Dark Lord) appear is “Morsmorde” which appropriately means ‘take a bite out of death in French.

7) The original snitch used in early Quidditch matches was actually a fat bird called a snidget. When some wizards thought this to be too cruel, the wizard Bowman Wright invented the Golden Snitch.

8) Hogwarts’ school motto is ‘Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus’ which is Latin for ‘Never Tickle a Sleeping Dragon’.

9) Harry Potter, JK Rowling and the actor Daniel Radcliffe all share the same birthday – July 31st.

10) Dumbledore has a scar in the shape of the London Underground above his knee.

11) The secret code Arthur Weasley must dial into a telephone keypad to access the Ministry of Magic is 62442. The letters underneath those numbers on a standard phone spell out the word ‘magic’.

12) You can only see a thestral when you can appreciate what death really means. This is why Harry could not see them until he witnessed the death of Cedric Diggory.

13) Harry’s middle name is James, Hermione’s is Jane and Ron’s is unfortunately, Bilius.

14) Garden gnomes are considered to be pests in the wizarding community because they eat the roots of plants and make little piles of earth, very much like moles.

15) The ghost Nearly-Headless Nick was beheaded because a botched dentistry job. He was trying to straighten Lady Grieve’s teeth but instead she sprouted a tusk.

nike

20 Jul 2009, 10:06 PM

@miles: u haven include harry's actor's more facts abt him, such as, in order of phoenix fliming, daniel has his first kiss with sweeden actor katie leung(chinese name liang pei shi) who was one yr older than him during the fliming, and kissed more than 30 times(due to NG)

kox

5 Jan 2010, 12:40 AM

and the deathly hallows got 2 parts

hopefully the directors is at his best

saib

6 Jan 2010, 06:26 PM

kox

5 Jan 2010, 12:40 AM

and the deathly hallows got 2 parts

hopefully the directors is at his best

huh? so deathly hallow movie will b release in 2 part?