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

GRYFFINDOR, HUFFLEPUFF, RAVENCLAW & SLYTHERIN

Today, The Fosters and The Grandma have visited Hogwarts guided by Professor Albus Dumbledore, its Headmaster and Professor Rubeus Hagrid, its Guard. 

 

They have been talking about its four Houses, their history, members, values and rooms. It has been an amazing interesting day.

 

Before, the family has been preparing their Cambridge Exam studying some vocabulary about  Inside the House and Food and Drink.

 

Download Inside The House Vocabulary

 

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Download Food and Drink Vocabulary

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Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was divided into four houses: Gryffindor, founded by Godric Gryffindor; Hufflepuff, founded by Helga Hufflepuff; Ravenclaw, founded by Rowena Ravenclaw; and Slytherin, founded by Salazar Slytherin.

More information: Albus Dumbledore. Wisdom and Intelligence

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Gryffindor is one of the four Houses of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and was founded by Godric Gryffindor.

Gryffindor instructed the Sorting Hat to choose students possessing characteristics he most valued, such as courage, chivalry, and determination, to be sorted into his house. Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, also known as Nearly Headless Nick is the House ghost.

Gryffindor corresponds roughly to the element of fire, and it is for this reason that the colours scarlet and gold were chosen to represent the house. The colour of fire corresponds to that of a lion as well, with scarlet representing the mane and tail and gold representing the coat.

The emblematic animal is a lion, and its colours are scarlet and gold.

 

More information: Wizarding World

Gryffindors and Slytherins have shared a fierce house rivalry since their founders, Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin, respectively, had a severe falling out over Slytherin's emphasis on blood purity. There might also be an element of feeling wronged, as Harry and his fellow Gryffindors tend to win in a lot of circumstances which, when viewed from a neutral point of view, may be considered unfair.

The Gryffindor Common Room is located in one of the castle's towers (Gryffindor Tower), the entrance to which is located on the seventh floor and is guarded by an oil painting of the Fat Lady, who is garbed in a pink silk dress. She permits entry only after being given the correct (regularly changing) password. Behind her painting is a large common room, with a fireplace, and two staircases leading up to the girls' and boys' dormitories. There is a spell on the girls' staircase that prevents boys from using it; however, there is no such enchantment on the staircase to the boys' dormitory, allowing girls to use it whenever they wish, due to the founders' belief that girls were more trustworthy. The common room is very comfortable, and members of the Gryffindor house meet there for study groups, celebrations, or relaxation. The walls are lined with portraits, each one depicting a previous or current Head of Gryffindor.

The head of house before and during Harry Potter's time was Minerva McGonagall. Minerva became the head of house possibly in 1956, when she was appointed Transfiguration professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, taking over Albus Dumbledore's previous teaching position when he became Headmaster. It is unknown who later became the head of house when she was made Headmistress in 1998 following the end of the Second Wizarding War.

More information: Wizarding World

You might belong in Gryffindor,
Where dwell the brave at heart,
Their daring, nerve, and chivalry,
Set Gryffindors apart...
 

Hufflepuff is one of the four Houses of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Its founder was the medieval witch Helga Hufflepuff.

Hufflepuff is the most inclusive among the four houses; valuing hard work, dedication, patience, loyalty, and fair play rather than a particular aptitude in its members. Students in Hufflepuff are known to value everyone and treat them as equal.

Hufflepuff corresponds roughly to the element of earth, and it is for that reason that the House colours were chosen: yellow represented wheat, while black was emblematic of soil. The Hufflepuff point hourglass contains yellow diamonds. Students sorted into Hufflepuff often demonstrate exceptional abilities in Herbology, owing to their correspondence to earth.

The emblematic animal is a badger, and yellow and black are its colours.

Hufflepuff appears to have the least rivalry with the other houses, except in Quidditch, although the Triwizard Tournament did temporarily put a great deal of strain on the relationship between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, due to unusual circumstances of the selection of both Gryffindor student Harry Potter and Hufflepuff student Cedric Diggory as Champions. This was mended by 1998, where a majority of Hufflepuffs rose to defend Harry from Pansy Parkinson and later helped to defend Hogwarts.

Hufflepuff is the house that produced the fewest dark wizards through out its history. Their cheerful and friendly demeanor can probably account for this property of the House. Hufflepuff firmly demonstrated its loyalty during the Battle of Hogwarts in 1998, when they were second only to Harry Potter's own house of Gryffindor in the number of students willing to stay and fight against Voldemort and his forces in the defence of their school. The Hufflepuff dormitories and common room have never been seen by outsiders and is the only house with repelling devices in case of intruders. They are accessed through a pile of large barrels, found stacked in a shadowy stone recess on a right-hand side corridor near the kitchens. The barrel two from the bottom, middle of the second row, will open if tapped in the rhythm of Helga Hufflepuff.
 

The Hufflepuff's head of house before and during Harry Potter's time was Pomona Sprout. She was the Herbology professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

More information: Wizarding World

 

 

You might belong in Hufflepuff,
Where they are just and loyal,
Those patient Hufflepuffs are true,
And unafraid of toil...
 

Ravenclaw is one of the four Houses of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Its founder was the medieval witch Rowena Ravenclaw.

Members of this house are characterised by their wit, learning, and wisdom. Ravenclaw House prizes learning, wisdom, wit, and intellect in its members. Thus, many Ravenclaws tend to be academically motivated and talented students. They also pride themselves on being original in their ideas, and methods. It's not unusual to find Ravenclaw students practising especially different types of magic that other houses might shun. Ravenclaws tend to be curious about the world and pay attention to the world around them. Ravenclaws are known to be logical and rational.

Ravenclaw corresponds roughly to the element of air, and it is for that reason that the House colours were chosen; blue and bronze represent the sky and eagle feathers respectively, both having much to do with air. The Ravenclaw points hourglass contains blue sapphires.

The emblematic animal symbol is an eagle, and blue and bronze are its colours.

Ravenclaw House appears to have little rivalry with the other houses, except in Quidditch. Harry Potter believed that they tended to side with Gryffindor in its rivalry with Slytherin, as did Hufflepuff house.

The Ravenclaw common room is in one of the castle's towers and is wide and circular. You have to climb a tight spiral staircase to get there. It has graceful arched windows, and the walls are hung with blue and bronze silks. The domed ceiling is painted with stars, which are echoed in the midnight-blue carpet. Tables, chairs, and bookcases cover the expanse of the floor, and a white marble statue of Rowena Ravenclaw sits next to the door that leads to the dormitories above. Harry Potter entered the common room in 1998 while searching for clues to the location of one of Voldemort's Horcruxes. Unlike the other common rooms in the school, a logical riddle given by a bronze eagle-shaped knocker must be answered to enter.

The Head of Ravenclaw is Filius Flitwick and the house ghost is the Grey Lady, otherwise known as the daughter of Rowena Ravenclaw, Helena Ravenclaw.

More information: Wizarding World

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,
If you've a ready mind,
Where those of wit and learning,
Will always find their kind...
 

Slytherin is one of the four Houses at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, founded by Salazar Slytherin.

In establishing the house, Salazar instructed the Sorting Hat to pick students who had a few particular characteristics he most valued. Slytherins tend to be ambitious, shrewd, cunning, strong leaders, and achievement-oriented. They also have highly developed senses of self-preservation. This means that Slytherins tend to hesitate before acting, so as to weigh all possible outcomes before deciding exactly what should be done.

Slytherin corresponds roughly with the element of water due to serpents being commonly associated with the sea and lochs in western European mythology, as well as serpents being physically fluid and flexible animals. Similarly, in Celtic mythology, water is seen as a portal to another world, leading some to speculate that the element was chosen to symbolise many Slytherins' hope for a pure-blood only community. The colours also correspond with waters around lakes and lochs often being green, and silver being often associated with grey rainwater.

The emblematic animal of the house is a snake and its colours are green and silver.

Slytherin and Gryffindor are generally rivals in Quidditch and for the House Cup, of which the former had won seven years in a row prior to Harry Potter's arrival at Hogwarts in 1991. It is also rare for Slytherin and Gryffindor students to be friendly with one another, and is also quite common for them to share animosity. There are exceptions, such as Slytherin Merlin who had a friendship with Gryffindor Sir Cadogan and Slytherin Severus Snape and Gryffindor Lily Evans, who were best friends until Snape's use of the slur Mudblood as well as his aspirations to be a Death Eater caused Lily to sever their ties. 

The Slytherin common room is in the dungeons of Hogwarts Castle and underneath the Black Lake. Because of this, the light in the common room is green. Harry Potter along with Ron Weasley entered the common room in his second year to find out if Draco Malfoy was the one opening the Chamber of Secrets. To enter the Slytherin common room one must merely speak aloud the current password in front of a stretch of a damp stone wall; once the word is uttered a concealed stone door will slide aside leaving a rectangular hole in the wall leading to the Slytherin common room.

Slytherin's head of house for Harry's first six years of school was Severus Snape; however, as he fled with the Death Eaters at the end of Harry's sixth year, Potions Master Horace Slughorn became the head of Slytherin House.

More information: Wizarding World

 

Or perhaps in Slytherin,
You'll make your real friends,
These cunning folks use any means
To achieve their ends.

J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

DRACO MALFOY, THE DARK SON OF A DEATH EATER

Draco Lucius Malfoy was a pure-blood wizard and the only son of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, née Black. The son of a Death Eater, Draco was raised to believe strongly in the importance of blood purity. 

He attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and was sorted into Slytherin House. 

During his years at Hogwarts, he became friends with Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle, Pansy Parkinson, and other fellow Slytherins, but he quickly developed a rivalry with Harry Potter.

More information: Pottermore

Draco was a slender boy with sleek white-blond hair, cold grey eyes, a pale complexion and rather sharp, pointed features. He was described to have haughty good looks. As an older man, his hairline was receding, making his features look even more pointed. 

In his first and second years he had blonde hair slicked tightly back. Draco is noted to strongly resemble his father. When Draco joined the Death Eaters, Lord Voldemort had the Dark Mark burned into his left forearm, which has since faded to a mere scar upon Voldemort's death.

Draco was, in general, an arrogant, spiteful bully. Like Dudley Dursley, his narcissistic nature most likely stemmed from his being spoiled by his parents throughout his childhood, though according to Harry himself, Draco is even less sympathetic than his cousin. 

He believed himself superior to most people because of his family's pure-blood lineage as well as great wealth and social standing. He frequently behaved cruelly to Muggle-borns, so-called blood traitors, Gryffindor students, and anyone who was a supporter of Harry Potter or Albus Dumbledore. 

For much of his youth, Draco took after his bigoted father, Lucius Malfoy, as a role model, and frequently boasted about his family's influence and wealth. 

During the first five years of school Draco maintained a relatively healthy look. However, in his sixth year onward, when the stress of his mission was getting more intense, Draco's smug countenance was lost, and he became quite thin, with dark shadows under his eyes and a greyish tinge to his skin.

More information: HP Lexicon

As an adult, Draco let his hair grow long and started wearing it in a precisely placed ponytail.

He was made a prefect of his house and was a member of the Inquisitorial Squad during his fifth year, at the end of which his father was imprisoned in Azkaban following the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. 

Lord Voldemort charged Draco with making up for Lucius's failure, and he became a Death Eater at age sixteen, but was quickly disillusioned with the lifestyle. Draco was unable to complete his task -murdering Albus Dumbledore, which was taken over by Severus Snape- and only performed his other duties fearfully and reluctantly. He and his family defected hours before the end of the Second Wizarding War fearing for their lives.

More information: Screen Rant

Draco was raised in an atmosphere of regret that the Lord Voldemort had not succeeded in taking command of the wizarding community, although he was prudently reminded that such sentiments ought not to be expressed outside the small circle of the family and their close friends or Daddy might get into trouble. 

The Malfoys were very proud of their Pure-blood and social status;  they were able to maintain a respectable public image while being allied with Lord Voldemort. 

Lucius was a Death Eater who avoided imprisonment in Azkaban following the First Wizarding War by claiming that he have been under the Imperius Curse, while Narcissa merely agreed with the ideology of pure-blood supremacy. 

The Malfoys spoiled their son, giving him the best of everything as far as material possessions go. The only two hand-me-down things Draco ever received were the old family prejudice against Muggles, Muggle-borns, half-breeds, and blood traitors -in short, prejudice against anyone who was not a pure-blood wizardkind, or anyone who supports these types of people- and the Malfoy family's waste collection of powerful dark artefacts harking back to the family history.

In childhood, Draco associated mainly with the pure-blood children of his father's ex-Death Eater cronies, and therefore arrived at Hogwarts with a small gang of friends already made, including Theodore Nott and Vincent Crabbe.

More information: The Guardian

When the time came for Draco to attend school, his father wanted him to attend Durmstrang Institute, a school in Northern Europe that taught the Dark Arts and did not admit Muggle-borns. However, his mother did not like the idea of Draco going to school far away, thus they sent him to Hogwarts.

When Draco went to Diagon Alley to shop for school supplies, he met Harry Potter in Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, without knowing who he was. He made a rather intolerant speech about Muggle-borns and Rubeus Hagrid, but otherwise acted in quite a friendly manner towards Harry Potter. 

Afterwards, on the Hogwarts Express, he offered his friendship to Harry as his father believed that Harry was a Dark wizard, and Draco wished to impress him and relay some interesting news home. 

However, Harry didn't like the attitude Draco expressed towards Ron Weasley, with whom Harry had already made friends, and also found that Draco reminded him of his cousin Dudley, with his disdainful attitude. Thus, he turned him down, creating animosity that lasted through the rest of their schooling.

More information: Time

Once at Hogwarts, Draco was Sorted into the Slytherin House, like many other members of his family. He rapidly formed friendships with fellow Slytherins, while remaining hostile toward Harry to the point of challenging him to a duel. 

This was, in fact, an attempt to get Harry into trouble for being out after curfew. He resented the attention Harry received because of his fame and his prodigious flying ability, which led to Harry being permitted to join his house's Quidditch team at a younger age than most.

In his second year at Hogwarts, Draco attained the position of Seeker on the Slytherin Quidditch team. His father bought the entire team new Nimbus 2001s because of this, though Hermione Granger openly speculated that this was in fact what got Draco on the team at all.  

Draco responded angrily to this accusation, and called Hermione a filthy little Mudblood, causing the Gryffindor Quidditch team to lash out at him; Ron tried to hex him to vomit slugs, but the spell backfired due to his broken wand.

Draco started off his third year by mocking Harry's reaction to the Dementors that were near Hogwarts that year searching for escaped Azkaban prisoner Sirius Black, despite being terrified of them himself. He also hinted at Black's crimes regarding Harry and his late parents, which Harry was unaware of for some time, and told him that if someone had betrayed and gotten his parents killed -as it was believed Black had done to the Potters- he would seek revenge.

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Draco became a Slytherin prefect along with Pansy Parkinson. He was sure to mock Harry Potter for not receiving the same honour, as Gryffindor's prefects were Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. He also wrote the lyrics to the demeaning song Weasley is Our King, which mocked Ron's Quidditch abilities as Gryffindor Keeper. 

It was the invention of this song, as well as insulting Molly and Arthur Weasley and the late Lily Potter to Harry, Fred, and George's faces that prompted Harry and George to get into a fight with Draco. 

They violently assault him, which resulted in the pair, as well as George's twin brother Fred,  being banned from all further Quidditch matches. Although their bans were later lifted after Dolores Umbridge's sacking from Hogwarts and her being put on suspension for her actions.

Draco's father was seen participating in the battle as a Death Eater and was imprisoned in Azkaban for his crimes. Draco was very upset by this, and mainly blamed Harry, swearing vengeance and attempting to attack him at the end of the school year with the help of Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. However, other D.A. members came to Harry's defence, resulting in Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle ending up looking like ugly slug-like things after being hit by a number of hexes by all D.A. Members at the same time.

More information: Cinema Blend

Draco joined the Death Eaters, having replaced his incarcerated father. He bragged about having been given a mission to his fellow Slytherin students on his way to school on the Hogwarts Express. 

However, as the year dragged on, Draco became increasingly afraid that he would fail in his seemingly impossible task -to kill Albus Dumbledore. It is implied that Draco was expected to fail and that Voldemort assigned him the task with the intention of punishing Lucius Malfoy for his failure at the Department of Mysteries. 

The safety of his family rested on Draco's success with his mission. When Harry overhead some parts of Draco's conversation with his fellow Slytherins about the mission, Draco used a Full Body-Bind Curse to paralyse Harry and stomped hard on his face, crushing his nose, in revenge for imprisoning his father, Lucius, causing Harry to hate Draco more than ever, while disregarding what Harry heard as not important enough to condemn him.

Draco reluctantly participated in Death Eater activities before the beginning of the school year. Due to Draco's helpful role in Dumbledore's death, Voldemort liberated Lucius from Azkaban. He witnessed the murder of Charity Burbage and tortured Thorfinn Rowle on Lord Voldemort's orders. 

More information: Daily Mail

 

Judging by later remarks made by Vincent Crabbe, it seems that the Malfoys had lost much of their influence in the Death Eater circles. This is due to Voldemort no longer holding Lucius in high esteem and shifting his favour to Draco's maternal aunt Bellatrix Lestrange and Hogwarts teacher Severus Snape.

Draco attended his seventh year of Hogwarts that year. During the Easter holidays, Draco was seen at home in Malfoy Manor. He was called upon by his parents and aunt Bellatrix Lestrange to confirm the identities of Harry, Ron and Hermione, who were caught by a group of Snatchers led by Fenrir Greyback, but Draco showed great hesitation in doing so. 

When Hermione lied to Bellatrix under torture about Godric Gryffindor's Sword, Draco was sent to fetch the goblin, Griphook, from the dungeons to get confirmation of the story, which he did by lying saying it was a fake, but the truth was it was the true sword.

Later in the evening, the prisoners managed to escape, and Draco's wand was taken by Harry. Afterwards, Draco and his family were detained to the Manor by Lord Voldemort. Narcissa would lend Draco her wand; it was powerful, yet it didn't understand him, as he had not won its loyalty. 

After Voldemort's defeat, Draco and his parents sat in the Great Hall, looking uncertain of their place during the victory celebrations.

More information: Refinery 29

You -the three of you- 

you shone you know? 

You liked each other. 

You had fun. 

I envied you those friendships 

more than anything else.

 

Draco Malfoy

LORD VOLDEMORT, THE GREAT PRINCE OF DARKNESS

Tom Marvolo Riddle, later known as Lord Voldemort, was a half-blood wizard considered to have been the most powerful and dangerous dark wizard of all time. 

The only child and son of wealthy Muggle gentleman Tom and Merope Riddle, née Gaunt, via the coercive use of a Love Potion, Riddle was raised in the Muggle-run Wool's Orphanage after his father abandoned his new family on the streets of London when the potion's influence was lifted, and his mother died moments after giving birth to and naming him after his father and maternal grandfather, Marvolo Gaunt.

 

During his childhood and early adulthood, Tom Marvolo Riddle was tall and handsome, with pale skin, jet black hair, and dark eyes. When Harry saw him in the a memory in the Pensieve, he saw that there was no trace of the Gaunt family in his face, and that he was his father in miniature: tall for eleven years old, dark-haired and pale. Riddle's good looks continued to increase as he grew older, and he cunningly used them to charm many of the teachers at Hogwarts.

While in Wool's Orphanage, he wore the standard grey tunic as with all the other children, and switched over to the Hogwarts uniform when he attended the school, gaining the Prefect and Head Boy badges when he attained those positions. When he worked in Borgin and Burkes, he wore a simple black suit.

Voldemort was considered by many to be the most evil wizard in hundreds and hundreds of years. His nature far exceeded that of any common evildoer and Dumbledore stated that he went beyond normal evil in the extent of his crimes.

More information: Pottermore

Hagrid claimed that while all Dark Wizards go bad, Voldemort went worse than worse. Indeed, Voldemort speedily developed into a power-obsessed megalomaniac of the worst kind and the worst of any known Dark Wizard, even Gellert Grindelwald. These anti social traits were seen in his childhood, from stealing, to disturbing incidences with other orphans. Dumbledore stated that the young Riddle had a certain disregard for rules. In adult life, he performed the darkest of magic and had no regard for human life. He was a prolific killer, killing so many he created an army of Inferi.

He was highly intelligent, as evidenced by his top performance at Hogwarts and his tremendous magical achievements, but his interests were narrowly focused on the usefulness of people, objects, and powers to his goals. 

His inability to see the larger picture and inattention to events, powers and human traits that were not immediately useful to him was a serious flaw that led to most of his setbacks and ultimately his downfall.

More information: HP Lexicon

Riddle began attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and was sorted into Slytherin house. Some of his early activities included the opening of Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets and the use of its monster to attack Muggle-born students; several months' service as a purchasing agent for the Dark artefacts shop Borgin and Burkes; the ability to speak Parseltongue; and the attainment of immortality, a process begun upon the creation of his first Horcrux at the age of 16.

 

Splitting his own spirit into a total of eight fragments, Lord Voldemort created seven Horcruxes; one unintentionally and without his knowledge, Harry Potter.

Abandoning his Muggle name, he became the self-proclaimed Lord Voldemort, which was an anagram of his birth name. He commanded a veritable army of wizards and Dark creatures, committed numerous murders personally and through his followers, and on one occasion nearly succeeded and on a later occasion did succeed in taking over the Ministry of Magic by installing a puppet Minister.

 
Voldemort was ripped from his body, after attempting to kill Harry Potter, and though unable to die, was not able to regain a permanent and physical body, thus spending the intervening 14 years a shell, less than the meanest ghost, but alive. He was finally killed by his own backfiring curse after Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter, following Dumbledore's death, succeeded in destroying all of his Horcruxes.

More information: Screen Rant

Tom Riddle's broken and mutilated soul was then trapped in Limbo for eternity, unable to move on to the afterlife or even return as a disembodied spirit. Unknown to most however, Lord Voldemort's legacy and blood would live on through his daughter Delphini, whom he conceived with his loyal follower Bellatrix Lestrange. Delphini was conceived sometime after the Battle of the Department of Mysteries and before Voldemort's death at the hands of Harry Potter.

Tom Marvolo Riddle was born on 31 December, 1926 at Wool's Orphanage in London. His pure-blood mother, Merope Gaunt staggered to the door of the orphanage, had Tom born in there, and died shortly after his birth.  

Tom Riddle grew up in a dingy orphanage, completely unaware of his wizarding heritage. Since the Muggle orphanage staff did not know anything about his mother, they did not know about his magical background. Instead, they believed that Merope was a circus worker, as Mrs Cole told Albus Dumbledore shortly before his first meeting with Tom. It is unknown whether or not the orphanage staff relayed this to Tom before his first encounter with Dumbledore.

Despite his ignorance of his mother's true background, Tom did have some grasp on his abilities beyond that of normal magical children of his same age, however, and an unusually high degree of control over them. Tom could move objects with his mind and cause them to travel floating wherever he wished, manipulate animals and creatures as he wished, speak Parseltongue, and use his power to inflict harm on other orphans. 

More information: The Gamer

After getting into a fight with fellow orphan Billy Stubbs, he used his powers to hang the boy's rabbit from the rafters. On one occasion, he took two orphans, Dennis Bishop and Amy Benson, into a cave, where he performed an act so horrifying that the two orphans were traumatised into silence. 

Young Tom Riddle also stole from other orphans and hid their things in his cupboard like trophies. Albus Dumbledore later stopped him from this hobby. 

 

Dumbledore ordered Tom to return the stolen items to their rightful owners and apologise for his sins, and that he had the means to determine whether or not Tom fulfilled Dumbledore's orders. Dumbledore also strictly warned Riddle to stop his misbehaviour as Hogwarts had an honour code whereupon lying, cheating and stealing were not tolerated. 

om was educated at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and was Sorted into Slytherin House, a nod to his ancestor Salazar Slytherin himself. During summer breaks, he was forced to return to the Muggle orphanage, which he despised and dreaded more than any other place on earth.

Upon arriving at Hogwarts, Tom became obsessed with his heritage and began researching it with an insatiable hunger. While researching his heritage, Riddle focused solely on who his father was, thinking him to be the magical parent, as he felt his mother could not have been a witch if she had died. 

He searched for his father's name in the school trophy room, in the records of Hogwarts prefects and in records of wizarding history, but found nothing to suggest his father had even attended Hogwarts. He was eventually forced to accept that his father was the Muggle parent, and that his mother was the magical one. It was around this time that Tom Marvolo Riddle gave himself the alias Lord Voldemort, to spare himself of the reminder of his filthy Muggle father.

After graduating, Tom immediately approached Armando Dippet and asked him for a chance to teach Defence Against the Dark Arts, and to remain at Hogwarts, for reasons that he did not confide with the then-headmaster, Hogwarts being his true home at heart, using the influential position as a teacher to recruit students into his future army, and to continue to penetrate the castle's magical secrets. Dippet rejected this offer, deeming the boy too young, but invited Tom to reapply in a few years, if he was still interested in the post, something that Dumbledore heavily advised against.

After his death, Voldemort's body was moved to a separate chamber away from the Great Hall. It is unknown what happened to it afterwards, but it can be assumed that his body was disposed of. Meanwhile Voldemort's mutilated soul was trapped in Limbo for eternity, as the soul is meant to stay whole and intact. Because of the destruction done to his soul he was unable to move on or return to the land of the living as a ghost. After his confirmed death, the wizarding world at large seemed to be able to speak his name without any more fear. 

More information: Bustle

Avada Kedavra!

Lord Voldemort

SEVERUS SNAPE, MYSTERY AND ARTS IN MAGIC

Today, The Weasleys and The Grandma have met Professor Severus Snape, who has explained to them how to defense themselves against the Dark Arts. After this meeting, the family has practised Present Perfect.

More info: Present Perfect

 

P. Perfect vs. Past Simple

Professor Severus Snape is a half-blood wizard serving as Potions Master, Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, and Headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as well as a member of the Order of the Phoenix and a Death Eater. His double life played a extremely important role in both of the Wizarding Wars against Voldemort. 

The only child of Muggle lowlife Tobias Snape and Gobstones witch Eileen Snape, née Prince, Severus was raised in the Muggle dwelling of Spinner's End, which was in close proximity to the home of the Evans family, though in a poorer area. He met Lily and Petunia Evans when he was nine and fell deeply in love with Lily, becoming a close friend of hers.

More information: Pottermore

Severus Snape was a thin man with sallow skin, a large, hooked nose and yellow, uneven teeth. He usually dressed in flowing black robes which made him resemble an overgrown bat. He had shoulder-length, greasy black hair which framed his face in curtains, curling lips and dark, penetrating eyes that resembled tunnels. As a Death Eater, he bears the Dark Mark on his left inner forearm.

Snape was a repressed, solitary man with no friends. In his early life, he was insecure, vulnerable, and yearned to be part of something better. 

As a child, the bleak normality of working-class suburbia compounded with his neglectful Muggle father inspired in him a contempt for ordinariness. This urgent desire to be a part of something powerful and important was what drew him to Lord Voldemort's inner circle. The younger Snape had a stringy, pallid look, being round-shouldered yet angular and with a twitchy walk that recalled a spider, as well as long oily hair that jumped about his face.

More information: HP Lexicon

Snape had a strong, authoritative presence. He spoke in a soft, contained voice most of the time, except during the occasional instances when he lost his temper. Severus started at Hogwarts with Lily in 1971, where he was Sorted into Slytherin House. This put him in the same year as Lily but unfortunately for him in rival houses. Severus became the immediate enemy of James Potter and Sirius Black and was a frequent victim of their bullying. This led him to be irritable towards James's son Harry when he was a professor.

  

Snape, when young, developed a passion for the Dark Arts, which increased as his desire for revenge grew stronger. 

Snape became involved with the bullies in Slytherin House, many of whom were pure-blood supremacists. This put his friendship with Lily, a Muggle-born, under great strain until it was eventually broken in their fifth year. In an attempt to win back Lily's affections, Snape joined the Death Eaters along with a group of his fellow Slytherins.

Severus was made a member of the Slug Club presumably because of his talent at potion-making and Horace Slughorn kept a picture of him as a student, clutching his copy of Advanced Potion-Making. Despite this, Horace did not have many hopes for Severus's future, as his photograph was kept behind many others.

More information: Screen Rant

Shortly before Lily Evans was murdered by Lord Voldemort, Snape changed sides and became a member of the Order of the Phoenix and double agent during the Second Wizarding War. With tremendous difficulty, Snape prevented Lord Voldemort from learning the truth about his loyalties. 

Despite the opinions of most others including Harry during his early life, Albus Dumbledore trusted Snape for reasons that were kept between them both until their deaths. Despite Snape killing Dumbledore, it is learned that they had a special agreement for him to do so. 

When he died, it was revealed that his deep strong love for Lily Evans caused him to redeem himself, joining Dumbledore's cause for her protection from Lord Voldemort. The relationship between Dumbledore and Snape would be one of an unusually strong loyalty, so much so that Snape agreed to kill Dumbledore upon the latter's own request. Before Dumbledore's death, Snape promised to protect the students of Hogwarts from the Death Eaters, who would inevitably take control of the Ministry of Magic as well as the school. 

More information: Cinema Blend

Snape later participated in the Battle of Hogwarts but was murdered by Lord Voldemort who mistakenly believed that Snape was the master of the Elder Wand, an immensely strong and powerful wand that Voldemort deeply desired, one of the Deathly Hallows, when in reality, Harry Potter was the master of the Elder Wand, because Draco Malfoy had disarmed Dumbledore, on the night of Dumbledore's death on top of the Astronomy Tower and Harry had disarmed Draco at Malfoy Manor.

After Snape's death, Harry Potter ensured that his portrait remained at Hogwarts, honoring him as a hero, despite their significant personal differences. In addition, Harry later named his second son Albus Severus Potter in honor of Dumbledore and Severus, both an inspiration in Harry's life after the Battle of Hogwarts. 

Harry also was influenced by Severus' Hogwarts house, and freely admitted that Albus could choose Slytherin if he wished.

More information: Vanity Fair

Severus Snape was born 9 January, 1960 to Eileen Prince, a pure-blood witch, and Tobias Snape, a Muggle, making him a half-blood wizard. Severus, whose father was neglectful and possibly even violent, began to identify with his mother's family and created a secret nickname from his mother's maiden name, calling himself the Half-Blood Prince. His unhappy relationship with his father may have been the origin of his disdain for Muggles. It is implied that Severus was friendless and uncared for by his parents. This lack of care largely shaped Severus's bitter disposition and cruel behaviour later in his life.

Severus grew up at Spinner's End, a shabby suburb of Cokeworth. This area of town was near a dirty river and full of dilapidated houses, disused factories and broken down street lamps. Through the rest of his life, Severus continued to return there when he was not at school. The young Severus is depicted as being unwashed and wearing ill-fitting clothes that were so mismatched that it looked deliberate. As a child, Severus was neglected and his parents often fought with one another. He could not wait to leave for Hogwarts at the end of the summer.

 

More information: Slash Film

Severus attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as a student and was Sorted into Slytherin House, at that time led by Potions master Horace Slughorn. On the way to Hogwarts for his first year, Severus sat with Lily Evans on the train. While on the train they met James Potter and Sirius Black. This encounter between the three of them revolved around a disagreement regarding what Hogwarts house was the best. This hostile first encounter would set the tone for the antagonism between the three of them for the rest of his life.

According to Sirius, Severus excelled in the Dark Arts from an early age. At the age of eleven, he knew more curses and hexes than most of the seventh year students. He reportedly was friends with a gang of Slytherins who later became Death Eaters, including Avery and Mulciber. 

More information: The Telegraph

Severus was credited with creating a good number of popular spells like Levicorpus, Liberacorpus, Muffliato, and curses like Langlock, the Toenail Growth Hex, and his signature curse, Sectumsempra. Other Slytherins that Sirius mentioned as being friends with Severus included Evan Rosier and Wilkes.  

Severus also had contact with Lucius Malfoy, who was a prefect during his first year and greeted him kindly when he was Sorted into the Slytherin House. Most likely the two had good rapport at Hogwarts, which could also be a reason why Narcissa Malfoy trusted Severus to take care of Draco Malfoy and why he seemed to favour Draco during his later teaching years. Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew were also classmates of Severus.

Severus suffered terrible remorse when Voldemort decided that Harry Potter was the subject of the prophecy, and that Lily Evans, the woman whom he always loved, was now in danger as a result of his actions. 

He begged Voldemort to spare her in exchange for the lives of her husband and son. But, knowing that he could not leave Lily's safety in question at the hands of someone who could turn back at his word on a mere whim, and that Lily would probably defend her child to the last breath, Snape also approached Albus Dumbledore to ask him to save Lily.

More information: Independent

He pleaded with Dumbledore to hide her, along with her husband and son if he had to. Dumbledore agreed, but insisted that Severus serve him as a spy among the Death Eaters. In fact, it was Snape's request to Voldemort which allowed Lily to let herself die in order for Harry to live, when Voldemort attempted to murder him, his curse backfired and Voldemort's body was destroyed.

When Severus Snape began his teaching career at Hogwarts, he initially applied for the position of Defence Against the Dark Arts, but was rejected multiple times. 

Many students were under the impression that this was because Dumbledore feared Snape might return to his old ways if allowed to teach his favourite subject, but in reality it was because Dumbledore was aware by that point that the job had been jinxed by Voldemort. Knowing that no Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher would last longer than a year, Dumbledore instead employed Snape in the position of Potions Master and Head of Slytherin House, following the retirement of veteran Potions Master Professor Horace Slughorn. 

Though it seemed rather uncommon for someone as young as Snape to be named Head of any House at Hogwarts, it is possible that Snape was the only Slytherin teacher left at the school, or that he was placed there to keep a watchful eye on the young Slytherins, who were frequently accused of, but not without reason, joining the Death Eaters.

More information: Cosmopolitan

 

 

The Dark Arts are many, varied, 

ever-changing, and eternal. 

Fighting them is like fighting 

a many-headed monster, 

which, each time a neck is severed, 

sprouts a head even 

fiercer and cleverer than before. 

You are fighting that 

which is unfixed, mutating, indestructible.

 Severus Snape