QUIDDITCH, FLYING BETWEEN BROOMSTICKS AND BALLS

Today The Fosters & The Grandma have been invited to watch a quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin. They have enjoyed a lot discovering this interesting game and learning its rules. Harry Potter (Gryffindor) is one of the best seekers and Draco Malfoy is his great rival (Slytherin).

 

Before this, they have been reading a new chapter of Oscar Wilde's The Ghost of Canterville.

Quidditch is a fictional sport invented by author J. K. Rowling for her fantasy book series Harry Potter. It is a dangerous but popular sport played by witches and wizards riding flying broomsticks. Matches are played on a large oval pitch with three ring-shaped goals of different heights on each side, between two opposing teams of seven players each: three Chasers, two Beaters, the Keeper, and the Seeker. There are three different balls: the Quaffle, the two Bludgers, and the Golden Snitch.

The Chasers and the Keeper respectively score with and defend the goals against the Quaffle; the two Beaters bat the Bludgers away from their teammates and towards their opponents; and the Seeker locates and catches the Golden Snitch, whose capture simultaneously wins the Seeker's team 150 points and ends the game. The team with the most points at the end wins.

Harry Potter plays as Seeker for his house team at Hogwarts. Regional and international Quidditch competitions are mentioned throughout the series. Aspects of the sport's history are revealed in Quidditch Through the Ages, published by J. K. Rowling in 2001 to benefit Comic Relief.

A real-life version of the game has been created, in which the players use brooms, but run instead of flying.

Rowling came up with the sport in a Manchester hotel room after a row with her then-boyfriend. She explained: I had been pondering the things that hold a society together, cause it to congregate and signify its particular character and knew I needed a sport.

Rowling claims that the word Quidditch is not derived from any particular etymological root, but was the result of filling five pages of a notebook with different words beginning with Q.

The final Quidditch scene in the books appears in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Rowling experienced fiendish glee writing this scene, which features memorable commentary by Luna Lovegood.

 

More information: Wizarding World

 
In 2014 Rowling started publishing a series of match reports from the Quidditch World Cup on Pottermore, culminating in a short story about the final featuring the return of Harry, Ron, Hermione and their friends as adults. This generated interest from several media outlets, as it was the first new writing about the Harry Potter characters since the end of the series in 2007.

Quidditch is introduced in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and is a regularly recurring feature throughout the first six books. It is depicted as being played by both professionals as in tournaments like the Quidditch World Cup and amateurs.

A major motif of five of the Harry Potter books is the competition among the four Hogwarts houses for the Quidditch Cup each school year; in particular, the rivalry between Gryffindor and Slytherin.

Quidditch matches are played over an oval-shaped pitch, with a scoring area at each end consisting of three hooped goal posts, each at a different height. Each team is made up of seven players, consisting of three Chasers, two Beaters, one Keeper and one Seeker. The job of the Chasers is to keep possession of the scarlet Quaffle, a leather ball passed between players.

They must attempt to score goals worth 10 points by throwing it through one of the opponents' three hoops. These hoops are defended by the opposing team's Keeper, who ideally tries to block their goals. Meanwhile, players of both teams are attacked indiscriminately by the two Bludgers. These are round, jet-black balls made of iron that fly around violently trying to knock players off their brooms. It is the Beaters' job to defend their teammates from the Bludgers; they carry short wooden clubs, which they use to knock the Bludgers away from their teammates and/or toward the opposing team.

Finally, the role of the Seeker is to catch the Golden Snitch. This is a small golden ball the approximate size of a walnut. The winged Snitch is enchanted to hover, dart, and fly around the pitch, avoiding capture while remaining within the boundaries of the playing area.

Catching the Snitch ends the game and scores the successful Seeker's team 150 points. As the team with the most points wins, this often guarantees victory for the successful Seeker's team. A notable exception is when Bulgaria Seeker Viktor Krum catches the Snitch for Bulgaria during the World Cup Final in Goblet of Fire, while his team are still 160 points behind Ireland their opponents, thus making his own team lose by only 10 points.

Magical flying broomsticks are one of the forms of transportation for wizards and witches, as well as being used for playing Quidditch.

The three most prominent broomsticks in the books are the Nimbus 2000, Nimbus 2001, and the Firebolt, both of which have been produced as merchandise by Warner Bros.
 

The Nimbus is introduced as one of the best broomsticks in the wizarding world. Harry receives a Nimbus 2000 in Philosopher's Stone so that he can play for Gryffindor house.

Lucius Malfoy buys a full set of the more advanced Nimbus 2001s for the Slytherin team as a bribe, so they would choose his son Draco as Seeker the following year.

The Firebolt later supersedes the Nimbus as the fastest and one of the most expensive racing brooms in existence. Harry receives a Firebolt model from his godfather, Sirius Black, after his Nimbus 2000 is destroyed during a Quidditch match in Prisoner of Azkaban.

 

More information: Harry Potter Fandom

In Goblet of Fire, Harry uses his Firebolt to escape the Hungarian Horntail, a dragon, during the Triwizard Tournament.

In the real world, the word Quidditch, long predating Harry Potter, occurs in some English placenames, and seems to come from Anglo-Saxon cwǣð-dīc = mud-ditch.

A street in Lower Cambourne, Cambridgeshire, England is named Quidditch Lane, supposedly after a type of nearby dry ditch called a Quidditch. Fans have been known to visit the area.

In November 2014, a plaque appeared outside the entrance of Bristol Children's Hospital attesting that the famous hooped sculptures which stand in front of the paediatric institution are, in fact, not a 15 m interactive installation inaugurated in 2001, but instead the goalposts used in the 1998 Quidditch World Cup.

In 2017, Quidditch was defined by Oxford Dictionaries, following the inclusion of Muggle in the Third (2003) Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford Dictionaries associate editor Charlotte Buxton explained that Quidditch had gained recognition beyond the books, pointing to its existence as a real-life sport.

In 2007 the United States Quidditch Association, back then named the Intercollegiate Quidditch Association or (I.Q.A), was founded to regulate quidditch in the United States and abroad, a very popular sport amongst college students.

Since 2005, many American schools, such as UC Berkeley, have added Quidditch to their list of team sports. The sport has since then spread across more than 25 countries and includes multiple international tournaments, including a World Cup.

In 2012, the International Quidditch Association held the IQA World Cup, then named the IQA Summer Games, as the torch was passing through Oxford, UK for the Summer Olympics.

Gameplay is based on the description in the books, films, and game adaptations, though the sport has been adapted to suit real-world constraints. Quidditch is still evolving to suit safe play for the members of the teams, male and female. Apart from joining teams registered with their national governing body, individuals are also able to become an official certified referee to officiate tournaments and games throughout the year as teams compete to take part in various national and international tournaments. As the oldest national governing body, USQ has hosted a grand total of ten US Quidditch Cups as of 2017.

In the United Kingdom, the Quidditch Premier League is played between 10 teams, split between the North and South divisions. In 2017, West Midlands Revolution won the QPL.

 

More information: Sportsmatik

 He missed Hogwarts so much

it was like having a constant stomachache.

He missed the castle, with its secret passageways

and ghosts, his classes… 

 

 

 ...the mail arriving by owl, eating banquets in the Great Hall,

sleeping in his four-poster bed in the tower dormitory, visiting the gamekeeper, Hagrid, in his cabin next to the Forbidden Forest in the grounds, and especially, Quidditch,

the most popular sport in the wizarding world.
 

J. K. Rowling

MINERVA MCGONAGALL, REAL PRAGMATISM IN MAGIC

Today, the Weasleys and The Grandma have met Minerva McGonagall, one of the most popular and beloved teachers of Hogwarts.

Before this meeting, the family has studied Second Conditional, Some/Any/No Compounds and Since/For.

More info: Some/Any/No

More information: Since/For

Minerva McGonagall was the first child, and only daughter, of a Scottish Presbyterian minister and a Hogwarts-educated witch. She grew up in the Highlands of Scotland in the early twentieth century, and only gradually became aware that there was something strange, both about her own abilities, and her parents’ marriage.

Minerva’s father, the Reverend Robert McGonagall, had become captivated by the high-spirited Isobel Ross, who lived in the same village. Like his neighbours, Robert believed that Isobel attended a select ladies' boarding school in England. In fact, when Isobel vanished from her home for months at a time, it was to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry that she went.

Aware that her parent, a witch and wizard, would frown on a connection with the serious young Muggle, Isobel kept their burgeoning relationship a secret. By the time she was eighteen, she had fallen in love with Robert. Unfortunately, she had not found the courage to tell him what she was.

More information: Harry Potter Wikia

The couple eloped, to the fury of both sets of parents. Now estranged from her family, Isobel could not bring herself to mar the bliss of the honeymoon by telling her smitten new husband that she had graduated top of her class in Charms at Hogwarts, nor that she had been Captain of the school Quidditch team. Isobel and Robert moved into a manse, minister’s house, on the outskirts of Caithness, where the beautiful Isobel proved surprisingly adept at making the most of the minister’s tiny salary.

The birth of the young couple's first child, Minerva, proved both a joy and a crisis. Missing her family, and the magical community she had given up for love, Isobel insisted on naming her newborn daughter after her own grandmother, an immensely talented witch.

The outlandish name raised eyebrows in the community in which she lived, and the Reverend Robert McGonagall found it difficult to explain his wife’s choice to his parishioners. Furthermore, he was alarmed by his wife’s moodiness. Friends assured him that women were often emotional after the birth of a baby, and that Isobel would soon be herself again.

Isobel, however, became more and more withdrawn, often secluding herself with Minerva for days at a time. Isobel later told her daughter that she had displayed small, but unmistakable, signs of magic from her earliest hours. Toys that had been left on upper shelves were found in her cot. The family cat appeared to do her bidding before she could talk. Her father’s bagpipes were occasionally heard to play themselves from distant rooms, a phenomenon that made the infant Minerva chuckle.

More information: Pottermore (I)

Isobel was torn between pride and fear. She knew that she must confess the truth to Robert before he witnessed something that would alarm him. At last, in response to Robert’s patient questioning, Isobel burst into tears, retrieved her wand from the locked box under her bed and showed him what she was.

Although Minerva was too young to remember that night, its aftermath left her with a bitter understanding of the complications of growing up with magic in a Muggle world. Although Robert McGonagall loved his wife no less upon discovering that she was a witch, he was profoundly shocked by her revelation, and by the fact that she had kept such a secret from him for so long.

What was more, he, who prided himself on being an upright and honest man, was now drawn into a life of secrecy that was quite foreign to his nature. Isobel explained, through her sobs, that she (and their daughter) were bound by the International Statute of Secrecy, and that they must conceal the truth about themselves, or face the fury of the Ministry of Magic. Robert also quailed at the thought of how the locals, in the main, an austere, straight-laced and conventional breed – would feel about having a witch as their minister’s wife.

More information: Pottermore (II)

Love endured, but trust had been broken between her parents, and Minerva, a clever and observant child, saw this with sadness. Two more children, both sons, were born to the McGonagalls, and both, in due course, revealed magical ability. Minerva helped her mother explain to Malcolm and Robert Junior that they must not flaunt their magic, and aided her mother in concealing from their father the accidents and embarrassments their magic sometimes caused.

Minerva was very close to her Muggle father, whom in temperament she resembled more than her mother. She saw with pain how much he struggled with the family’s strange situation.

She sensed, too, how much of a strain it was for her mother to fit in with the all-Muggle village, and how much she missed the freedom of being with her kind, and of exercising her considerable talents. Minerva never forgot how much her mother cried, when the letter of admittance into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry arrived on Minerva's eleventh birthday; she knew that Isobel was sobbing, not only out of pride, but also out of envy.

As is often the case where the young witch or wizard comes from a family who has struggled with its magical identity, Hogwarts was, for Minerva McGonagall, a place of joyful release and freedom.

Minerva drew unusual attention to herself on her very first evening, when she was revealed to be a Hatstall. After five and a half minutes, the Sorting Hat, which had been vacillating between the houses of Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, placed Minerva in the latter. In later years, this circumstance was a subject of gentle humour between Minerva and her colleague Filius Flitwick, over whom the Sorting Hat suffered the same confusion, but reached the opposite conclusion. The two Heads of house were amused to think that they might, but for those crucial moments in their youths, have exchanged positions.

Minerva was quickly recognised as the most outstanding student of her year, with a particular talent for Transfiguration. As she progressed through the school, she demonstrated that she had inherited both her mother’s talents and her father’s cast-iron moral sense. Minerva's school career overlapped by two years with that of Pomona Sprout, later Head of Hufflepuff House, and the two women enjoyed an excellent relationship both then, and in later years.

By the end of her education at Hogwarts, Minerva McGonagall had achieved an impressive record: top grades in O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s, Prefect, Head Girl, and winner of the Transfiguration Today Most Promising Newcomer award. Under the guidance of her inspirational Transfiguration teacher, Albus Dumbledore, she had managed to become an Animagus; her animal form, with its distinctive markings -tabby cat, square spectacles markings around eyes- were duly logged in the Ministry of Magic’s Animagus Registry. 

More information: Chronicle

Minerva was also, like her mother, a gifted Quidditch player, although a nasty fall in her final year -a foul during the Gryffindor versus Slytherin game which would decide the Cup winner- left her with concussion, several broken ribs and a lifelong desire to see Slytherin crushed on the Quidditch pitch. Though she gave up Quidditch on leaving Hogwarts, the innately competitive Professor McGonagall later took a keen interest in the fortunes of her house team, and retained a keen eye for Quidditch talent.

Upon graduation from Hogwarts, Minerva returned to the manse to enjoy one last summer with her family before setting out for London, where she had been offered a position at the Ministry of Magic -Department of Magical Law Enforcement-. These months were to prove some of the most difficult of Minerva's life, for it was then, aged only eighteen, that she proved herself truly her mother's daughter, by falling head-over-heels in love with a Muggle boy.

It was the first and only time in Minerva McGonagall’s life that she might have been said to lose her head. Dougal McGregor was the handsome, clever and funny son of a local farmer. Though less beautiful than Isobel, Minerva was clever and witty. Dougal and Minerva shared a sense of humour, argued fiercely, and suspected mysterious depths in each other. Before either of them knew it, Dougal was on one knee in a ploughed field, proposing, and Minerva was accepting him.

More information: Vancouver Sun

She went home, intending to tell her parents of her engagement, yet found herself unable to do so. All that night she lay awake, thinking about her future. Dougal did not know what she, Minerva, truly was, any more than her father had known the truth about Isobel before they had married. Minerva had witnessed at close quarters the kind of marriage she might have if she wed Dougal. It would be the end of all her ambitions; it would mean a wand locked away, and children taught to lie, perhaps even to their own father. She did not fool herself that Dougal McGregor would accompany her to London, while she went to work every day at the Ministry. He was looking forward to inheriting his father’s farm.

Early next morning, Minerva slipped from her parents’ house and went to tell Dougal that she had changed her mind, and could not marry him. Mindful of the fact that if she broke the International Statute of Secrecy she would lose the job at the Ministry for which she was giving him up, she could give him no good reason for her change of heart. She left him devastated, and set out for London three days later.

Though undoubtedly her feelings for the Ministry of Magic were coloured by the fact that she had recently suffered an emotional crisis, Minerva McGonagall did not much enjoy her new home and workplace. Some of her co-workers had an engrained anti-Muggle bias which, given her adoration of her Muggle father, and her continuing love for Dougal McGregor, she deplored. Though a most efficient and gifted employee, and fond of her much older boss, Elphinstone Urquart, Minerva was unhappy in London, and found that she missed Scotland. Finally, after two years at the Ministry, she was offered a prestigious promotion, yet found herself turning it down. She sent an owl to Hogwarts, asking whether she might be considered for a teaching post. The owl returned within hours, offering her a job in the Transfiguration department, under Head of Department, Albus Dumbledore.

More information: Wizards and Whatnot

The school greeted Minerva McGonagall's return with delight. Minerva threw herself into her work, proving herself a strict but inspirational teacher. If she kept letters from Dougal McGregor locked in a box under her bed, this was, she told herself firmly, better than keeping her wand locked there. Nevertheless, it was a shock to learn from the oblivious Isobel, in the middle of a chatty letter of local news, that Dougal had married the daughter of another farmer.

Dumbledore discovered Minerva in tears in her classroom late that evening, and she confessed the whole story to him. Albus Dumbledore offered both comfort and wisdom, and told Minerva some of his own family history, previously unknown to her. The confidences exchanged that night between two intensely private and reserved characters were to form the basis of a lasting mutual esteem and friendship.

Through all her early years at Hogwarts, Minerva McGonagall remained on terms of friendship with her old boss at the Ministry, Elphinstone Urquart. He came to visit her while on holiday to Scotland, and to her great surprise and embarrassment, proposed marriage in Madam Puddifoot’s teashop. Still in love with Dougal McGregor, Minerva turned him down.

More information: Pinterest

Elphinstone, however, had never ceased to love her, nor to propose every now and then, even though she continued to refuse him. The death of Dougal McGregor, however, although traumatic, seemed to free Minerva. Shortly after Voldemort's first defeat, Elphinstone, now white-haired, proposed again during a summertime stroll around the lake in the Hogwarts grounds. This time Minerva accepted. Elphinstone, now retired, was beside himself with joy, and purchased a small cottage in Hogsmeade for the pair of them, whence Minerva could travel easily to work every day.

Known to successive generations of students as ‘Professor McGonagall’, Minerva –always something of a feminist– announced that she would be keeping her own name upon marriage. Traditionalists sniffed –why was Minerva refusing to accept a pure-blood name, and keeping that of her Muggle father?

The marriage, cut tragically short, though it was destined to be, was a very happy one. Though they had no children of their own, Minerva's nieces and nephews, children of her brothers Malcolm and Robert, were frequent visitors to their home. This was a period of great fulfillment for Minerva.

The accidental death of Elphinstone from a Venomous Tentacula bite, three years into their marriage, was an enormous sorrow to all who knew the couple. Minerva could not bear to remain alone in their cottage, but packed her things after Elphinstone's funeral and returned to her sparse stone-floored bedroom in Hogwarts Castle, accessible through a concealed door in the wall of her first-floor study. Always a very brave and private person, she poured all her energies into her work, and few people –excepting perhaps Albus Dumbledore– ever realised how much she suffered.

More information: SciFi Stack Exchange

 

I've always wanted to use that spell...

Minerva McGonagall

RITA SKEETER, THE DAILY PROPHET POISON-PEN STORIES

Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on events.

The word journalism applies to the occupation, as well as citizen journalists who gather and publish information. Journalistic media include print, television, radio, Internet, and, in the past, newsreels. Concepts of the appropriate role for journalism vary between countries. In some nations, the news media are controlled by government intervention and are not fully independent. In others, the news media are independent of the government but instead operate as private industry motivated by profit. In addition to the varying nature of how media organizations are run and funded, countries may have differing implementations of laws handling the freedom of speech and libel cases.

George Orwell, the English novelist and essayist, journalist and critic, once said that In a Time of Universal Deceit. Telling the Truth Is a Revolutionary Act.

We are living under exceptional measures and, of course, the first victim has been the truth. False information, misreported and fake news are always a problem although is more dangerous and unacceptable when these fakes are created and distributed by people who are supposed to work to protect the population.

It is not a problem located only in the Muggles' world but also in Hogwarts and because of this, today, The Grandma wants to talk about failing journalism in Hogwarts with the example of Rita Skeeter, a British witch and journalist who specialised in writing poison-pen stories, and The Daily Prophet, a wizarding newspaper based in London creator of misleading journalism -information that, while accurate in fact, leads readers to the wrong conclusion.

More information: Wizarding World

The Daily Prophet is a wizarding newspaper based in London, England. It is the primary source of news for British and Irish wizards. The current editor is Barnabas Cuffe, who works in the main office in Diagon Alley.

Because of its ability to influence the minds of many in the British and probably Irish wizarding community, the paper has been known to have its content slanted intentionally by the Ministry of Magic, which it has strong ties with, into telling the Ministry's preferred version of events. Unfortunately, the Prophet does not seem to have a lot of journalistic integrity, it has been known to be more concerned about sales than about factual accuracy.

The paper features a morning and evening edition, the latter of which is called the Evening Prophet. The weekend edition is called the Sunday Prophet. Additional news bulletins can be delivered quickly when important, newsworthy events occur. As news changes, an edition may magically change, too, over the course of the day, probably by means of a Protean Charm.

There is only one wizarding newspaper in Britain, discounting such small circulation publications such as The Quibbler.

The Daily Prophet, whose headquarters are in Diagon Alley, is delivered by owl on a daily basis to nearly every wizarding household in Britain. Payment is effected by placing coins in the pouch tied to the paper-owl's leg. Occasionally, when something particularly interesting or exciting happens, such as the illegal flight of a Ford Anglia the length of Britain, an Evening Prophet edition will be rushed out.

Subscriptions cost 1 Knut. This paper is delivered to professors and a few students at Hogwarts in the mornings, when the owl post arrives.

The Prophet is not the only publication in the Wizarding World, but it is almost certainly the most widely read. Stories in the Prophet often colour public opinion to a great amount.

When the Prophet published stories deriding Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore, most people in the Wizarding World believed what they read. The most widely read alternative newspaper in the wizarding world is The Quibbler.

More information: Wizarding World

While the Daily Prophet has been known to print facts, it has also had a somewhat negative reputation for being incredibly biassed, corrupt, and deceptive.

It is clear that, as there is strong government control of the newspaper, the facts can be misleading, if not outright fabrications, and that certain means of gathering information appear to be somewhat unethical. 

Government control of the Ministry is shown in the way that the Daily Prophet appears to pressure the government and go around official sources, and several people in Harry's circles feel that the Ministry of Magic leans heavily on Prophet.

In other instances, the Daily Prophet has misleading journalism -information that, while accurate in fact, leads readers to the wrong conclusion.

There are also occasions when the newspaper is seen to contain inaccurate or libellous content. It appears that there is little regard for accuracy in any form and there are no consequences or accountability for poor journalistic practises.

The Daily Prophet's unethical means of gathering information are most accurately seen with Rita Skeeter, a prominent but corrupt journalist who wrote with a complete disregard for accuracy, truthfulness and objectivity -often conducting interviews with a Quick Quotes Quill, a magical quill that writes automatically as the subject speaks. 

However, the quill does not record verbatim what the subject says. Instead, it takes a subject's words and creates sensational and inaccurate tales that bear little resemblance to actual events. In addition, Skeeter illegally turned herself into a beetle to spy on people and get personal information from them without being seen.

The Daily Prophet reports on everything going on the wizarding world, albeit not always in an unbiased way. In addition to news, the Daily Prophet includes a Magizoology column is run every Wednesday and a Quidditch section which features a boxed table of all the teams in the league, ranked by total number points scored, with forthcoming matches listed side by side. This section also includes articles on recent matches and other items of interest.

More information: The Daily Prophet

Wizardkind tends not to require alternative political flavours in its news coverage, which is not to say, however, that the Prophet does not have a political agenda.

As a small, outsider and occasionally beleaguered community, wizards are, by and large, interested in the same kinds of stories: whether anyone is in trouble for infractions of the International Statute of Secrecy, what irritating legislation the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office has come up with now, and when the next Celestina Warbeck/Weird Sisters concert will take place.

There is also an editorial section of the newspaper, where only few get responses, and are usually brief. The best letter is under the headline STAR LETTER.

A classified advertisements section is in the newspaper, with subheadings of JOBS, FOR SALE, and LONELY HEARTS. Birth and death notices also appear on this page. The advice section of the Prophet has a variety of experts in differing fields answer readers' questions.

Some topics covered in the past have been Medical Queries, Emotional Dilemmas, Legal Problems, and everyday magical problems.

Sometimes, the Daily Prophet has a fiendishly difficult crossword puzzle, and usually has a Magic lottery and a Magical Symbols Game.

The Daily Prophet also allows advertisements in their newspaper by businesses. some of these ads include: Nimbus brooms, clothing, Floo Powder accelerator, and O.W.L. crammers.

The Ministry also uses ad space in the Prophet. The Ministry posts various warnings, classes on advanced Defensive spells, and spells that can be used to safeguard your home.

The Evening Prophet was the name of the evening edition of the Daily Prophet. Presumably, this edition included different features, compared to the morning edition or Sunday Prophet.

Evening editions that are can apparently be delivered very quickly after an important story breaks. A witch or wizard anywhere in Britain can have a copy in hand within a short time of publication. For example, when Ron Weasley and Harry Potter were spotted by Muggles flying the Ford Anglia, Severus Snape had a copy of the hogwarts, story continued in his hand  after they arrived. One of the Muggles who spotted them was in Peebles, which is relatively close to Hogwarts, so the story couldn’t have been more than an hour old at that point.

The Sunday Prophet is the name of the weekend edition of the Daily Prophet. Presumably, this edition includes different features, compared to the daily edition.

More information: Screen Rant

The Daily Prophet has been producing papers since 1743, the year when it famously described Gideon Flatworthy, head of an extremist anti-Muggle group, as less a wizard, more a lazy walrus-like object who lies all day on a rather smelly cushion, and expects people to admire him for it.

The Daily Prophet covered the rise of Gellert Grindelwalds rise to power, questioning if then Minister for Magic Hector Flamboyant Fawley was doing enough and detailing the increased security measures taken at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

During the Ministry's campaign to discredit and slander Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter, the Prophet was an instrumental tool of the Ministry in their goal to convince the public that Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter were fear-mongering or simply mad.

The Ministry of Magic was responsible for the unfair journalism of that summer as Cornelius Fudge strove to discredit Dumbledore's account of the return of Voldemort.

Hermione subscribed to the paper to keep on top of the Ministry's agenda and see what the enemy was saying. Some people, such as Augusta Longbottom, cancelled their subscriptions due to believing in Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter over the Ministry.

Originally, Harry Potter kept getting his subscription only to skim through the front page for information about Voldemort's movements, as he was unaware of the Ministry's denial. Because of this he missed out on the slip-ins of him and Dumbledore being antagonised. Upon realising what was happening, Harry ceased his subscription.

After Fudge was forced to admit that Voldemort had returned, the Prophet changed its stance overnight, calling Harry a lone voice of truth. The newspaper even bought, from The Quibbler, Harry's interview on Voldemort's return and claimed it to be exclusive.

After the Battle of the Department of Mysteries and the Ministry was forced to accept the Rebirth of Lord Voldemort, the Daily Prophet reported on all the tragedy and terror affecting wizards and Muggles alike. This included reporting the murder of Amelia Bones and Emmeline Vance, the incorrect arrest of Stan Shunpike, and the arrest of Mundungus Fletcher for impersonating an Inferius.

When the Death Eaters took over the Ministry, they also took over the Daily Prophet, and subsequently they stopped reporting deaths that Death Eaters were responsible for. They also printed biassed, bogus news such as articles on Muggle-borns stealing magic from true wizards. As such, many resistance members turned to other programmes for news, such as Potterwatch and The Quibbler.

When Kingsley Shacklebolt became Minister for Magic, the Daily Prophet was de-corrupted.

More information: New Statesman

 

 

 The Prophet?

You deserved to be lied to if you're still reading that muck, Dirk. 

You want the facts, try The Quibbler.

Ted Tonks

 

Rita Skeeter is a British witch and journalist who specialised in writing poison-pen stories.

These stories tended to be based on false information and misreported interviews while she worked for the Daily Prophet, as well authoring a few tell-all biographies.

Skeeter was born into a half-blood or pure-blood family. Skeeter preferred writing for the sake of publicity and wrote what she thought people would like to read rather than what they ought to read and which was the truth. Rita's writing tended to be sensationalist and sometimes outright dishonest.

Albus Dumbledore described her writing as enchantingly nasty after she wrote an unfavourable article about him. Her ability to acquire information was assisted by her status as an unregistered beetle Animagus.

Notable stories Rita covered include the trials of various Death Eaters after the First Wizarding War, the Triwizard Tournament, and albeit reluctantly Harry Potter's account of Lord Voldemort's return to power for The Quibbler. She also wrote biographies of: Armando Dippet, Albus Dumbledore, Severus Snape, and Harry Potter. Her biography of Harry Potter for instance, is only one-quarter factual with the remaining three-quarters being pure fabrication.

Skeeter spent time training to become an Animagus and she was finally able to transform into a beetle at will. Skeeter aspired to be a journalist and an author, and used this ability to spy and eavesdrop for her articles.

During her early days as an author, Skeeter wrote a biography on Armando Dippet, entitled Armando Dippet: Master or Moron?. It was presumably an exaggerated history of him to gain controversy and by extension, popularity and fame. This book turned out to be a best-seller, with numerous copies sold. Also sometime in her early career, Skeeter provided a quote for the critical acclaim for Quidditch Through the Ages by Kennilworthy Whisp, when she wrote I've read worse as a review.

More information: Wizarding World

Rita was a guest speaker at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Prior to the reveal, the identity of the speaker generated quite a buzz throughout the school, with Rowan Khanna's guess being an Auror, the Minister for Magic, or a random Arithmancer, while Jacob's sibling thought to perhaps be the person Albus Dumbledore had been searching for throughout the school year.

Professor Minerva McGonagall introduced her to the school in the Great Hall, with Rita adding a bit more detail, stating herself to be a widely popular writer for the Daily Prophet.

She then gave a speech about the wizarding world being curious about the happenings within Hogwarts; Cursed Vaults aside, there apparently were talks about Hogwarts having the most promising assemblage of students in years, and that, in order to find out who the brightest student was, Professor Dumbledore had given the Prophet permission to observe and conduct a friendly competition, with the winner featuring on a front page article in the Prophet to start.

Rita then observed Potions, Transfiguration, Flying, and Charms classes, much to most of the instructors' annoyance. Following the Reappearance of the Dark Mark, Skeeter penned a scathing report of the British Ministry of Magic's handling over the riots, accusing the Ministry of incompetence over their failure to catch any of the culprits.

These articles particularly angered Arthur Weasley for her obviously biassed reporting, and he along with his son and fellow Ministry employee Percy Weasley had to head to the Ministry to help sort out the controversy, as she had mentioned Arthur in her article.

That year, Rita was given the opportunity to interview the Triwizard Tournament contestants for an article in the Daily Prophet. Under the guise of interviewing all four champions, she confronted Harry Potter in a broom cupboard where she took his ums and ers and invented her own quotes. Eventually, her interview of the contestants turned out to be a highly falsified story of Harry himself.

Harry Potter's story that Lord Voldemort had returned was not believed by much of the wizarding world, as the Daily Prophet portrayed him as either a delusional boy or an attention-seeking liar.

More information: Wizarding World

Rita was an unregistered Animagus, wherein she took the form of a beetle and was able to slip around undetected and spy on unsuspecting company so she could obtain gossip for her articles which she later exaggerated and exploited to gain the attention of the masses.

Her ability to turn into a beetle also reflected how irritating and bothersome she was to other people, particularly Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore, and it also displayed her dishonest and cunning characteristics.

Rita also wrote primarily for the Daily Prophet, though some of her articles have also appeared in other sources, such as Witch Weekly and The Quibbler.

Rita was extremely nosy and willing to do anything for a good story, from spying on people in her Animagus form of a beetle to sensationalising or outright inventing stories. She also took advantage in order to dig up dirt on the late Albus Dumbledore for her extremely critical biography. She did this despite the use of such a powerful truth serum being heavily controlled by the Ministry.

Rita tended to portray the people she wrote about poorly, presumably because it sold more stories.

Skeeter was described as having blonde hair set in elaborate curls that contrasted oddly with her heavy-jawed face. She wore jewelled spectacles studded with rhinestones, and had thick fingers ending in two-inch nails, painted crimson.

Her blonde curls were curiously rigid, suggesting it was styled with the magical equivalent of hairspray. In addition, she had penciled-on eyebrows and three gold teeth, as well as large, masculine hands. Her bright scarlet painted fingernails and toenails were usually likened to claws or talons.

She was known to carry with her a crocodile-skin handbag, inside of which she carried her acid green Quick-Quotes Quill. She usually wore magenta-coloured robes but also wore clothes of green leather with maroon furs at the collar and sleeves.

Apparently, unemployment did not serve Rita well, as when she showed up during the year she was blackmailed by Hermione Granger not to write, Rita's nails were chipped, she was missing fake stones in her glasses, and her hair was lank and unkempt.

As in her unregistered Animagus beetle form, her antennas were curled to resemble her curls in her hair and she had marking around her antennas resembling her jewelled glasses. 

Rita is a short form of the name Margarita, a Latinate form of the name Margaret. The name is derived from the Greek μαργαρίτης, margarites, meaning pearl.

Skeeter is a slang term for a mosquito. This could be a reference to her Animagus form, which is an insect, or to her career in tabloid journalism. The word paparazzi is derived from an Italian word for mosquito

Skeet is also an Anglo-Manx colloquialism for gossip or an act of nosiness. Skeeter could also be a pun off of how annoying Skeeter's lies tend to be, as people tend to find mosquitoes annoying and attempt to swat them away.

More information: Wizarding World

 

 

 Hello, I'm Rita Skeeter!

I write for the Daily Prophet.

But, of course, you know that, don't you?

It's you we don't know. You're the juicy news.

What quirks lurk beneath those rosy cheeks?

What mysteries do the muscles mask?

Does courage lie beneath those curls?

In short, what makes a champion tick?

Me, myself and I want to know.

Not to mention my ravid readers.

Rita Skeeter