17 “Harry Potter” Details That J.K. Rowling Revealed After the Books’ Release

In 2007, the last of J.K. Rowling’s books about Harry Potter was released. However she continued making Harry Potter fans happy and in 2012, she started the Wizarding World web site. Here, Rowling posts additional information that sheds a bit more light on the mysterious world of wizards.

We at Bright Side read all the articles from the famous writer and watched her interviews, and we are in a hurry to share our findings with you.

• It usually takes the Sorting Hat less than 5 minutes to choose the faculty. But if it fails to make a decision during this time, Hatstall happens. This very rare event occurs approximately once every 50 years. Among Harry Potter’s contemporaries, Hatstall happened only 2 times. The first time was with Professor McGonagall, whom the Sorting Hat wanted to send either to Ravenclaw or to Gryffindor. And the second situation happened with Peter Pettigrew. In his case, it was a choice between Gryffindor and Slytherin.

• James, Remus, Sirius, and Peter enchanted the Marauder’s Map in such a way that it would always repel the curiosity of their nemesis, Severus Snape.

• There’s a “Pure-Blood Directory” which was published in the 1930s by an anonymous author. It contains a list of truly pure-blood families who are called the “Sacred Twenty-Eight”. Among them, are the families of Sirius Black, Neville Longbottom, Bellatrix Lestrange, Draco Malfoy, and Ron Weasley.
  The publication of the directory caused a strong public outcry in the world of wizards. Some were outraged that their names weren’t on the list. Others were angry because they were included on it. The latest category included the Weasley family, who always considered the Muggles interesting and hardworking and didn’t see anything shameful in communicating with them. But the majority of the remaining families of the “Sacred Twenty-Eight” put the purity of blood above other qualities and despised those who communicated with Muggles and half-breeds.

• After the battle at Hogwarts, the head of the Malfoy family escaped the punishment because he provided the court with information about other Death Eaters.

• Astoria, the wife of Draco Malfoy, refused to raise her son to hate Muggles and half-breed wizards, even though her family and her husband’s family, like many others on the list of the “Sacred Twenty-Eight,” instilled in their children a belief in the superiority of pure blood. Because of this, family gatherings with Narcissa and Lucius were extremely stressful.

• Only the wizards who have realized what death is can see Thestrals. Harry couldn’t see Thestrals until Cedric’s death, despite the fact that his mother was killed in front of him. It happened because his mother was murdered when he was barely out of babyhood and he was unable to realize his loss. When Professor Quirrell died in the first book, Harry was unconscious.
  On the other hand, Luna Lovegood also lost her mother when she was younger too. But she was able to see Thestrals before Harry because she, according to Rowling, is more spiritual and unafraid of the afterlife.

• Neville didn’t marry Luna (who he ran to, to confess his love in the last film), he married Hannah Abbott from Hufflepuff.

• Minerva McGonagall was not only one of the cleverest students, but an amazing Quidditch player as well. She inherited this talent from her mother who was once the captain of the team.
• When she was 18, McGonagall fell madly in love with the son of the Scottish farmer, Dougal McGregor. He proposed to her, and she agreed. But Minerva then thought about her future all night — she was invited to London to work at the Ministry of Magic, and Dougal was looking forward to inheriting his father’s farm as soon as possible. Besides, he knew nothing about the magical origin of his love. In the end, McGonagall decided to refuse to marry him.

• Initially, Azkaban wasn’t a prison for wizards. A sorcerer named Ekrizdis lived in this enchanted and hidden fortress, and he practiced the worst forms of dark magic. Because Ekrizdis lived alone, he entertained himself by luring in Muggle sailors, torturing them cruelly, and then killing them.
  After the death of the sorcerer, the Ministry of Magic found this fortress and turned it into a prison. They tried to get rid of the dementors that were found inside, but the only reason the Dementors were (mostly) confined to the island was that they were being provided with a constant supply of souls on which to feed. If deprived of prisoners, they were likely to abandon the prison and head for the mainland.

• In 1998, after Voldemort’s death, Kingsley Shacklebolt became the Minister for Magic. He cleared Azkaban from Dementors, and Aurors became the new guards.

• Durmstrang is one of the most secretive of all schools in the wizarding world. Those who were lucky enough to be visitors of this school had to comply with memory charms which erased their knowledge of how they got there.

• Magic portraits of real people preserve the memory and character of their prototypes. But they can’t completely replace a living person. A portrait of each headmaster or headmistress of Hogwarts automatically appears in the office after their death, because it’s painted during their lifetime. When the picture is ready, the headmaster or headmistress keeps it locked in a closet. They can visit the portrait and convey to their painted version all of their useful memories.

• Dolores Umbridge was ashamed of where she came from — her father was a wizard and her mother was a Muggle. She lied to everyone about being pure-blooded and never spoke of her Muggle mother and Squib brother.
  Right after graduation she started to work at the Ministry. At the age of 17, she was already intolerant and unjust and showed sadistic inclinations. When the Dark Lord was destroyed, Dolores appeared before the court for her active co-operation to support his regime and was convicted of the torture and death of several people.

• In 2015, Rowling admitted that she carelessly approached the theme of time travel. She realized that due to the Time Turner, she might have problems with the plot. So she asked herself, “If a wizard can return to the past and fix all their problems, then what can I write about next?” That’s why she destroyed all the remaining Time Turners in the 5th book.

• On Pottermore, Rowling wrote that with the help of the Time Turner, a wizard can’t go back, even to the previous day. The longest period for which you can go back in time is 5 hours. If a wizard goes beyond this time period, they will die or, even worse, irreparably affect the life of a large number of people. But in 2016, the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child co-authored by J.K. Rowling was released. According to the plot, the characters have an improved Time Turner. Thanks to this model, you can stay in the past for any period of time, and the sons of Potter and Malfoy took advantage of this.

Bonus: at first J.K. Rowling believed that Emma Watson was too pretty for the role

• In one of her interviews, the writer confessed that when she saw Emma Watson for the first time, she was upset. The young actress didn’t suit this role, because she was too pretty.
  The point is that, in her books, Rowling showed a gradual transformation of this character from an inconspicuous girl into a beautiful woman. But it was impossible to show this with the charming Emma Watson. The writer eventually reassured herself that this was just a movie and Emma was a wonderful actress who was very much like Miss Granger in nature.

What do you think about the Rowling story twist with the Time Turner? Why did the writer decide to return to this controversial (in her opinion) magical object again?