This year will mark the twentieth anniversary of the publication of J.K. Rowling’s groundbreaking Harry Potter series. To celebrate this momentous occasion, we’ve decided to profile the characters that we think deserve a moment in the limelight on this very special anniversary.
The Boy Who Lived
At the beginning of this year, everyone was talking about Robert Pattinson. The former Twilight star was in the news for a variety of reasons, from his marriage to Kate Winslet to his mother, Queen Elizabeth the Second, being arrested and charged with fraud. If you’ve been living under a rock for the past two years, here’s a short refresher course:
In August 2014, reports surfaced that Robert Pattinson had fathered a child with his longtime girlfriend Kate Winslet. The couple reportedly wed in secret without inviting their celebrity friends to the ceremony, which was held in Tuscany. A few days after the wedding, it was announced that Winslet was six months pregnant with the couple’s first child. Their daughter, Mia, was born in October 2014.
The story didn’t end there. In March 2015, it was revealed that Prince Edward, the Duke of Wessex, was allegedly involved in a car crash in Paris while intoxicated. He and his girlfriend, Sophie Winkleman, broke up shortly thereafter. According to the Daily Mail, at the time of the accident, Edward was almost three times the legal drink-driving limit. The Duchess of Wessex was unhurt, but her father, Prince George, was sent to the hospital for observation. He was released a few days later, but due to his age (he’s fifty-one) and health issues, he was forced to cancel a number of upcoming public appearances. A few weeks later, it was announced that George was stepping down as the president of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) in order to “pursue other interests.” The organization will be led by his son, Prince Andrew, who is currently serving as the king’s representative in the UK.
Scorpius Malfoy
Another fan-favorite character from the Harry Potter series is Scorpius Malfoy. While most Hogwarts students were busy celebrating Christmas in July 2015, Draco Malfoy and his friends were in Italy for the summer sun, wearing designer swimsuits and sipping espresso. The group was reportedly on a bachelor party trip organized by the rich and arrogant son of a Russian oligarch. According to reports, the bachelors were treated to a private tour of Florence, which is home to one of the most prestigious art collections in the world. The trip was allegedly arranged so that the men could get a glimpse of the city’s sex appeal. They weren’t disappointed; the Italian women were reportedly wearing stunning gowns and serving the bachelors espresso. While in Italy, the twenty somethings spent their time socializing and sightseeing, taking photos and posting about the beauty of the Italian culture on social media.
Gellert Grindelwald
Named after Edmund Gellert, the ninth Earl of Warwick, Hogwarts pride and wizarding world villain Gellert Grindelwald made a brief, but memorable appearance in J.K. Rowling’s 1998 novel, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Rowling originally described him as a “man who loved power and knew how to get it, who hated children and was obsessed with sex.”
The character of Grindelwald quickly became a topic of discussion among Harry Potter fans. For those who had longed to see this notorious villain face off against our protagonist, the chance to do so had finally come. In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Gellert Grindelwald is played by Anthony Hopkins, who is more than eighty years old. Despite his advanced age, Hopkins, who has won several awards for his performance, embodies the chilling charm of the film’s notorious villain.
Lavender Brown
While we’re on the topic of adaptations, let’s take a quick trip back in time to when the Harry Potter series was still a draft. In 2002, a fifteen year old Harry Potter fanatic, Katie Bell, wrote a letter to the author J.K. Rowling, begging her to let her see the manuscript. As it turns out, Bell’s letter was one of hundreds that J.K. Rowling responded to that year, with many writers and fans sharing their own letters on social media. One of those fans was Katie Bell’s mother, Sue. After reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Bell’s mother was so inspired that she decided to write her own children’s book, Harry Potter and the Family Coven. Sue’s book, Lavender Brown, chronicles the adventures of a young witch named Lavender who befriends a magic cat, Brown. The book was adapted into a film in 2009, with Alicia Silverstone playing the role of Lavender. Like its inspiration, the film Lavender Brown is a coming-of-age story that follows the journey of a young witch who finds her magic and determines to use it for good.
Alicia Spinster
Alicia Spinster, portrayed by Emily Blunt, is a fictional character in the 2011 film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1. In the film, Blunt plays the part of a powerful witch who was previously married to Rolf Harris. In real life, Blunt is a gifted child actor who has appeared in several Oscar-winning films, including 2005’s Pride and 2007’s The Devil Wears Prada. We saw a lot of Emily Blunt this year, as she starred in two incredible films: the Oscar-nominated The Girl on the Train, and the sequel to that film, The Woman in the Window. In the Harry Potter films, Alicia Spinster is introduced as the powerful grand-niece of Salazar Slytherin, the headmaster of Slytherin School, who turns out to be Harry Potter’s greatest enemy. In the last book of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, we learn that Alicia Spinster is the daughter of Salazar Slytherin and Minna, a half-blood witch. Because of this, she is a half-blooded hybrid who is both human and witch. According to J.K. Rowling, it was William Shakespeare’s King Lear who first coined the phrase “a two-sided creature.” It is a reference to witches and wizards, who are often depicted with two sets of arms in films and comics, but are considered one-sided creatures in literary and mythological circles.
Dobby The House Elf
The Christmas holidays are just around the corner, so it’s time for us to reflect on one of the most beloved characters from the Harry Potter saga: Hagrid’s massive, bumbling but lovable pet, Dobby. If you’re one of the millions of people who have read the Harry Potter books, you may remember that Dobby is a house elf who serves Hagrid in his towering fifty-room mansion, Burrow. Despite his size, Dobby is a talented wizard who assists his human master in various ways. In one of the most memorable scenes from the series, Dobby frees a group of slaves who have been captured by Voldemort and his Death Eater followers. In their grateful thanks, the freed men tell Dobby of his great mercy, assuring him that he has saved their lives. In an interview with The Telegraph, author and screenwriter Nigel Williams revealed that Dobby’s story was originally meant to be included in the Goblet of Fire, but was cut from the final edition of the book.
Fang
The titular character of Lisa Snow’s bestselling novel Fang is a shape-shifting vampire who can take any form she chooses. She can shed her human skin like an insect and assume the appearance of any living creature. Her superpower is highly useful, as she finds it easy to seduce and trick humans into doing her dirty work. Fang is also a gifted hacker, specializing in computer security and information assurance. She used this skill to gain access to a secure server and steal a large amount of highly classified data. According to the Daily Beast, the stolen information “concerned a U.S. Army weapons system; Chinese military codes and communications; the identity of a mole within the National Security Agency; and much more.”
Snow’s book made international headlines when it was revealed that the CIA and FBI were investigating the possible leak of state secrets. In response, the writer and the publisher issued a joint statement: “Given the international dimension and sensitive nature of the material, we believe it is inappropriate to comment on the specifics of the case, however, we want to make it clear that neither the author nor the publisher condone, promote, or encourage the leaking of classified information.” While we don’t know for sure, it is highly likely that Fang was behind the recent spate of classified data leaks, which is why we included her on this list.