Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback

Norbert is a dragon. There are some different sorts of dragons mentioned in the book. A Norwegian Ridgeback comes from Norway and his backside is hilly. Hagrid has a very strange relation to monsters. He has them as pets. And so he is very happy to win Norbert from a stranger in a game when he is still an egg. He doesn’t know anything about dragons so he reads a lot of books about them. Also it is forbidden to own a dragon and so Hagrid has to hide it in his house. He breeds the egg in the fire in his house. After a few days it hatches: “It looks like a crumpled, black umbrella. Its spiny wings are huge compared to its skinny jet body and it has a long snout with wide nostrils, stubs of horns and bulging, orange eyes”. The dragon is a Norwegian Ridgeback and Hagrid calls him Norbert but that doesn’t mean that he is a nice pet. He is dangerous and one time he bites Ron. The hand swells to twice its usual size and the cut turns a nasty shade of green. So Ron has to go to the hospital wing and stay there some days.

The dragon grows very fast and so Hagrid can’t keep him although he loves Norbert. So they have no other chance than to send Norbert to Ron’s brother Charlie who studies dragons in Europe.
 

Hedwig

In the wizarding world you use owls to send your post. There are many different kinds of owls. Hagrid buys Harry an owl for his birthday because they are very useful and popular with children. It is a beautiful, big snowy owl and her name is Hedwig.
 

Scabbers

Scabbers is Ron’s pet. He got it from his older brother Percy. It is a grey fat rat which is always sleeping and hardly wakes up. Ron isn’t very happy to own it because it is, like the most things he had, second hand.
 

Fluffy the three-headed dog

In Fluffy, Hagrid’s three-headed dog, you can see parallels to Cerberus from the Greek mythology. Cerberus guards the entrance to the lower world. Fluffy also guards an entrance – the third floor and the Philosophers Stone. He is a monstrous dog with three heads and fills the whole space between ceiling and floor. When you try to get past Fluffy one of his heads always sees and hurts you. The only way to get past him is to play him a bit of music.

The name “Fluffy” is very curios for a monstrous dog but it shows that Hagrid loves monsters like a normal person loves a cat or dog.
 

Unicorns

Unicorns  are  slender, white horses with a spiralling horn on its foreheads and are one of the most beautiful thing in the world. They are also mentioned in the Greek mythology. Unicorns are powerful magic creatures and their blood can keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death. But when you drink it you have to pay a high price. You have slain something pure and defenceless to save yourself and you will have but a half life, a cursed life!

The unicorns live in the Forbidden Forrest around Hogwarts. In the book Voldemort kills some of them to keep him alive until he gets the Philosophers Stone.
 

Centaurs

Centaurs also come from the Greek mythology. Thy are part human and part horse with the torso and head of a human, and the body of a horse.

In the book they live in the Forbidden Forrest. They have the gift to see the future in the Stars. Harry meets Ronan and Bane when he is searching for the dead unicorn. But they don’t help them because they think the future shouldn’t be known of somebody else and shouldn’t be change.

The only one who helps Harry is Firenze. He guards Harry in the Forrest and tells him about unicorns and Voldemort because he thinks it is good for them when Harry knows something about the dark side.
 

Mrs. Norris

Mrs. Norris is a strict cat belonging to Filch who spends her time patrolling trough Hogwarts in search of students who fall out of line or try sneaking around where they shouldn't be. Harry and his friends try to avoid her when they are out of their towers at night, which is not allowed.
 

Mountain troll

At Halloween there is a troll at Hogwarts. It is twelve feet tall, its skin is a dull, granite grey, its great lumpy body like a boulder with its small bald head perched on top like a coconut. It has short legs thick a tree trunks with flat, horny feet. “It smells like a mixture of old socks and a kind of toilet.” Harry and Ron knock it out to rescue Hermione.

Andy

 

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