So you can be not a foe, but a friend!
Pointless trivia about Harry Potter. And believe me, I have a LOT of trivia about this.
During filming of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, they got through over 100 wand props because Daniel Radcliffe kept using them as drumsticks between takes and breaking them.
Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) had to have his Hogwarts robes' pockets sewn shut because he kept trying to sneak food onto the set in them.
Tom Felton first auditioned for the part of Harry and then Ron before finally landing the role of Draco.
Rupert Grint did a rap as part of his audition for Ron Weasley. It began with the line "Hello, my name is Rupert Grint, I hope you don't think I stink."
For most of the scenes in the movies, Daniel Radcliffe is just wearing frames, with no actual lenses in them.
In the movies, Harry has Daniel Radcliffe's natural blue eyes, despite Harry having green eyes being a minor plot point in the books. He was originally supposed to have green eyes, but Daniel had an allergic reaction to the coloured contact lenses.
In the books, Hermione's dress that she wears at the school ball is described as periwinkle blue. In the film, it's pink.
Dudley is described as blond with blue eyes in the books, though in the movie he's a brunet with brown eyes.
In the movie of Chamber of Secrets, when Malfoy comes across Harry and Ron (disguised as Crabbe and Goyle), Malfoy asks the disguised Harry why he's wearing glasses. Harry, thinking quickly, replies "Reading," to which Malfoy responds "I didn't know you could read." This last line was an ad lib by Tom Felton - Malfoy wasn't actually supposed to say anything there.
Towards the end of the same movie, Lucius Malfoy sneers at Harry "Let us hope that Mr Potter will always be there to save the day," to which Harry retorts "Don't worry, I will be." Both of these lines were ad-libbed.
Jason Isaacs (Lucius) makes another ad-lib a little earlier on. When he casts Avada Kedavra - the Killing Curse - at Harry, the script merely called for him to cast a spell, and Isaacs just said the first spell that came into his head. Note that in the book, he doesn't use any magic at all in this scene and is just described as lunging at Harry.
J. K. Rowling has said that if Voldemort ever encountered a Boggart, it would transform into his own corpse, since death is his greatest fear.
According to Rowling, the 't' at the end of Voldemort is silent. It's taken from the French phrase 'vol de mort', which can translate as either "fleeing from death" or "stealing from death", both of which fit the character.
The Hogwarts school motto, "Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus", translates literally as "A sleeping dragon is never to be tickled".
Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, the foreign wizarding schools that compete in the Triwizard Tournament along with Hogwarts in Goblet of Fire, have punny names. "Beaux batons" essentially means "beautiful wands" in French, and Durmstrang is a play on the German expression "Sturm und Drang", literally "storm and stress" and used to mean a period of emotional intensity or anxiety.
Hogwarts was named by one of its founders, Rowena Ravenclaw, after she had a dream in which a warty hog was leading her to the old cliff by the lake.
There is a type of real-life flower whose scientific name is Dracorex hogwartsia, named after the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
When Stephen Fry (a friend of J. K. Rowling) was recording the audiobook for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, he had some trouble pronouncing the phrase "Harry pocketed it". Eventually, he phoned Rowling and asked if he could change it to "Harry put it in his pocket". After a moment's consideration, Rowling answered "No"... and then included the phrase "Harry pocketed it" in each of the next four books in the series.
Rowling has said that Evanna Lynch perfectly resembles how she pictured Luna Lovegood. She also admitted to writing the character of Severus Snape with Alan Rickman in mind, which may explain why Rickman was chosen to play Snape in the movies.
Contrary to popular belief, Rowling never called Harry/Hermione shippers "delusional". The interviewer (from famous Harry Potter fansite MuggleNet) called them delusional, and she laughed before diplomatically steering the conversation towards more neutral territory.
Rowling never actually wrote the first Harry Potter book on napkins. She did it in a café, but she did it the normal way, with a pen and paper. When she heard that rumour, she laughed and said that next they'll be saying she wrote it on teabags.
Rowling spent the first five years of her writing career coming up with rules for what her characters could and couldn't do.
Rowling later revealed that the reason Goblet of Fire is so long is that she rushed into writing it and ended up creating, in her words, a giant hole in the plot, which she then had to go back and fix.
Neville Longbottom's surname was originally going to be Sidebottom or Puff. Hermione Granger's surname was originally Puckle.
Rowling included the scene in Goblet of Fire in which Viktor Krum mispronounces Hermione's name as a subtle dig at the many readers who pronounced her name incorrectly (most often pronouncing it "Hermy-own", as Krum does). She mentioned that one fan actually called her "Hermy-one" (pronouncing "one" like the number), which amused her so much that she briefly considered making that the official pronunciation. She's also revealed that Hermione's surname is pronounced "Grain-jer", rather than "Granger" (to rhyme with "anger"). Both pronunciations for this surname are used in Britain in real life. And yes, Hermione is a real name - specifically, it's a Greek name, and it means "earthy", fitting well with the down-to-Earth Hermione. For the record, the correct pronunciation is "Her-my-oh-nee".
In Half Blood Prince, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Slughorn, constantly gets Ron's name wrong. At one point, he calls him Rupert, a reference to Rupert Grint, who plays Ron in the movies.
During filming, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson were known as Do-It-Again Dan, Re-do Rupert and One-Take Watson, respectively.
As part of their filming, Daniel, Rupert and Emma were asked to write an essay about their characters. True to character, Emma (Hermione) wrote a 10-page essay, Daniel (Harry) wrote a one-page summary, and Rupert (Ron) never handed his in.
James and Oliver Phelps, real-life identical twins who played Fred and George Weasley, admitted to getting caught switching roles on the set a few times.
Dumbledore is the Old English word for a bumblebee. Rowling said she gave him that name because she imagined him walking around humming to himself.
Hagrid's name is a play on the word "hagridden", meaning tormented, harrassed or worried. His first name, Rubeus, is Latin for "red" and the root of the English word "ruby".
Remus Lupin's name has many layers to it. "Remus" is one of the twins who founded Rome along with his brother Romulus, both of whom were suckled by a she-wolf when they were infants. "Lupin" is French for "wolf". The letters in his name can also be rearranged to spell "Primus Lune", which is Latin for "full moon".
"Sirius" means "dog" in Latin, and is also the name of a star known as the Dog Star.
Fred and George were born on April 1.
Both Fred and Sirius - Hogwarts pranksters from different generations - died laughing.
Crabbe was absent from the final movies due to his actor, Jamie Waylett, being arrested for possession of marijuana (which is illegal in the UK). This led to Goyle dying instead of Crabbe.
Rowling has said that Pansy Parkinson will never get a happy ending because Rowling hates her. According to Rowling, "She's every girl who ever bullied me at school. She's the anti-Hermione. I loathe her." Curiously, Rowling also described Luna as the anti-Hermione, though for a different reason - Hermione is very logical, while Luna is very dreamy and imaginative.
Anagrams play an important role in Harry Potter, with some even serving as foreshadowing. The only one that's actually pointed out is Tom Marvolo Riddle rearranging to spell "I am Lord Voldemort", but there are others that can be found from rearranging names.
"Harry Potter" rearranges to "Try hero part", a reference to Harry being accused of "playing the hero".
Hermione Granger can rearrange to "Ring here Ron, game?", which, while most likely a coincidence, does foreshadow the fact that she and Ron eventually get married (the ring in this case being a wedding ring, and "game?" being British slang meaning essentially "up for it?")
Ronald Weasley anagrams to "Yellow and ears", a reference to his red hair and big ears.
Albus Dumbledore rearranges to "Blamed old Rubeus", which is ironic as Dumbledore was the only one who DIDN'T accuse Hagrid of opening the Chamber of Secrets.
Peter Pettigrew rearranges to "Tip: Pet we regret", referencing how he disguised himself as Ron's rat Scabbers in order to hide from Sirius Black.
Lavender Brown is an anagram of "Brand new lover", referencing her status as Ron's girlfriend in Half-Blood Prince.
Romilda Vane rearranges to "Love in a dram", nicely foreshadowing the event in Half-Blood Prince where she spikes some chocolates with love potion ("dram" meaning "a small amount of strong alcohol or poison", or in this case, potion).
Ollivander's can rearrange to "Ronald lives" or "Ronald's evil" - while the second is blatantly not true, the first indeed is. It could also (assuming it's not a coincidence) be a clue to a certain scene in Order of the Phoenix, when Harry finds Ron lying dead on the floor of a room in the Weasley house and panics - before remembering that Ron is actually downstairs, and the "Ron" he's looking at is really a Boggart that Mrs Weasley is trying to deal with.
When Arthur Weasley was attacked by Nagini in Order of the Phoenix, he was originally supposed to die. However, with the death of Sirius Black later in the book, Rowling realised this would essentially deprive Harry of both his father figures, so she changed it to him just being injured.
Rowling revealed that she considered killing off Ron at some point during the series. The above-mentioned Boggart scene may have been a result of this.
J. K. Rowling's surname is often mispronounced "Rau-ling" by fans, saying "Row" to rhyme with "cow". According to her, it's pronounced "rolling", as in "pin".
J. K. Rowling has no middle name - her full name is Joanne Rowling. She took the K from her grandmother's name, Kathleen, after her editor suggesting using her initials in order to appeal to male readers.
The train to Hogwarts departs from Platform 9 3/4 at London King's Cross Station, which is accessed by running at the barrier between platforms nine and ten. However, at the actual King's Cross Station, there are train tracks between platforms nine and ten. Rowling later admitted she may have been subconsciously thinking of another train station in London, Euston Station, though that one also has train tracks between platforms nine and ten. Trains do go to Scotland (where Hogwarts is) from both stations, though by different routes.
The real King's Cross Station has an artwork of a shopping trolley half-embedded in a wall in the waiting area, with a sign above it reading "Platform 9 3/4", as an homage to Harry Potter.
Despite what the internet may tell you, Rowling never said she took the name "Harry Potter" from the Troll movies, consciously or subconsciously. She took the name "Potter" from the surname of a family she knew as a child, and "Harry" simply because she has always loved that name.
Rowling has said she based the character of Gilderoy Lockhart on someone she knew in real life, but refuses to say who it was (many believe she based him on her ex-husband, but she hasn't explicitly confirmed this) - not because she's afraid of being sued for defamation, but because she doesn't want to give him something else to brag about.
It's often easy to forget that the Hogwarts school uniform also includes hats, since the characters are never shown wearing their hats in the movies.
In the early Spanish translations of the first book, Neville's toad Trevor was mis-translated as a turtle. That's right, Neville had a turtle that liked to jump from his hand. This was corrected in later reprintings.
According to Rowling, Hermione's pet cat Crookshanks is part Kneazle. (Kneazles are magical feline creatures similar in apperarance to cats, which are very intelligent, though independent and occasionally aggressive and have an uncanny ability to detect suspect or untrustworthy people. This is probably why Crookshanks always went after Ron's pet rat Scabbers, who was really Peter Pettigrew in disguise.)
It's often mentioned that Ron let Scabbers the rat sleep with him in his bed. This is a very unwise thing to do with a real pet rat - not only is there a possibility you might roll over and crush it, but you will most likely end up with rat waste all over your sheets and holes chewed in your mattress. Ron probably only got away with it because Scabbers was an Animagus (a human that can transform into an animal) and not a real rat.
Though never seen in the series, Rowling revealed that Ron's Patronus is a Jack Russell terrier, which are known for chasing otters. Hermione's Patronus, funnily enough, is an otter.
Another point contrary to rumour: It was at one point believed that Rowling said she regretted pairing Ron with Hermione and admitted that Harry and Hermione would have made more sense. This was essentially a twisting of the truth by the media (as they are liable to do) - what Rowling actually said was that Ron and Hermione might have a rocky relationship to start with, but they would be fine after some marriage counselling. This mutated into "Rowling regrets making Ron and Hermione a couple" and later into "Rowling admits Harry would have been a better fit for Hermione than Ron" despite Rowling herself barely if ever even mentioning Harry originally.
Most of the spell names are actually grammatically-correct and relevant Latin - for instance, "Expecto Patronum" translates as "I await a guardian". Others are English, such as "Stupefy", or just thematically-appropriate nonsense, like "Wingardium Leviosa".
Rupert Grint was going through puberty while filming Chamber of Secrets, which meant his voice was breaking. Those voice cracks you hear during the "follow the spiders" scenes from Ron weren't always intentional.
Speaking of those scenes, Rupert Grint revealed that he, like Ron, is arachnophobic, so Ron's fear in those scenes is actually real fear from Rupert (the small spiders were animatronic, though Aragog was CG).
During the filming of the Harry Potter movies, the part of Dobby the house elf was played by an orange ball on a stick, since Dobby himself was entirely CG - the ball just gave Daniel Radcliffe a guide on where to look when Harry was talking to Dobby.
Sir Ian McKellen was asked to play Dumbledore in the movies after Dumbledore's intial actor, Richard Harris, died, but he turned down the role, explaining that one popular wizard (i.e. Gandalf, whom Sir Ian played in the The Lord of the Rings movies) was enough for him. Though his real reason was most likely that Harris had insulted his acting before.
Michael Gambon, Dumbledore's replacement actor, admitted to affecting a slight Irish accent during his portrayal of Dumbledore (despite the character never being explicitly stated to be Irish or of Irish descent) in honour of his predecessor, Richard Harris, who was Irish and used his natural accent when playing Dumbledore.
The occasional tongue flick done by Barty Crouch, Jr. in the movie of Goblet of Fire was not in the book or the script. It was improvised on the spot by David Tennant.
Peeves was originally going to be included in the movies, and was going to be played by Rik Mayall. However, when Mayall turned down the role for reasons unknown, the producers decided to just leave out Peeves altogether. Their main reason for doing so was budget concerns, as a poltergeist who can actually pick up and handle objects while floating/flying around would be very difficult to portray in a live-action movie.
Michael Jackson once asked Rowling for permission to make a Harry Potter musical, though sadly she turned him down as she said she wants to keep Harry Potter as British as possible.
Prisoner of Azkaban is the only Harry Potter book where nobody dies (though Chamber of Secrets also has no deaths if you don't count the Basilisk).
James and Oliver Phelps are actually brunets in real life. They dyed their hair red for the movies.
Tom Felton is a natural blond, but he still had to bleach his hair to make it even blonder in order to play Draco Malfoy.
Yet another "contrary to popular belief" - the title of the first book was not changed from Philosopher's Stone to Sorcerer's Stone in America because the editors thought Americans wouldn't know what a philosopher was. It was actually changed because the myth of the Philosopher's Stone wasn't well-known in America at the time and Scholastic thought American kids wouldn't want to read a book with the word "philosopher" in the title, since they figured the word "philosopher" would conjure up images of boring old people for them.
It was rumoured that Rowling originally considered Harry Potter and the Green Flame Torch, Harry Potter and the Pillar of Storge ("Storge" being the Greek word for "familial love"), or Harry Potter and the Fortress of Shadows as the title of the sixth or seventh book. She responded by sarcastically suggesting Harry Potter and the Toenail of Icklibogg.
There is also a rumour that still can be found on the internet that Rowling said that the snake Harry freed in the zoo in the first book is actually Nagini, Voldemort's pet snake. This is demonstrably false - the snake Harry frees in the book is a boa constrictor, and a python in the movie. Neither is venomous or has fangs. Nagini is and does.
As if there weren't enough rumours already, there's also a rumour that the actor who plays baby Harry in the first movie is the same as the one who plays Harry's son, Albus Severus Potter, in the final scene of the Deathly Hallows movie. A quick IMDB check will tell you that baby Harry in the first movie was actually played by a set of triplets (not all at the same time, obviously).
Rowling considered giving Dudley a Muggle-born wizard child for the epilogue, but decided that no wizarding traits would ever survive contact with Uncle Vernon's DNA.
When asked about Harry and Dudley's relationship after the end of the series, Rowling answered that they remained on "Christmas card terms", and that Harry would occasionally take his kids to visit Dudley's kids, which his children always dreaded.
Dean Thomas was originally going to be Ron's cousin. Rowling also revealed that Dean is actually a half-blood - his father was killed for refusing to join the Death Eaters and his Muggle stepfather adopted him, which is why he believes himself to be Muggle-born.
Hermione was originally going to have a little sister, until Rowling realised it was a bit too late to start mentioning her.
There was originally a plan for a new Slytherin student called Mafalda, the daughter of a Muggle and a squib, to serve as something of a rival/archenemy for Hermione due to her high intelligence in Goblet of Fire. However, Rowling couldn't figure out how to explain a first-year student knowing as much as if not more than a fourth-year student, so she created the character of Rita Skeeter instead. Rita was also originally going to appear in the first book (then named Brigit) during the scene in the Leaky Cauldron, but Rowling decided to wait until later in the series to focus on Harry's fame.
It's often believed that the unnamed grey-haired witch in the aforementioned Leaky Cauldron scene in the first movie is J. K. Rowling herself in an uncredited cameo. Rowling went on record that she refused to play any role in the series (she was actually asked to play Lily Potter, Harry's mother, in the flashback scene in the first movie) since she didn't consider herself a good enough actor.
Lily Potter's maiden name is Evans, a name Rowling is fond of. In the book of Order of the Phoenix, a minor character by the name of Mark Evans is mentioned. Fans immediately assumed there was a connection between the two, until Rowling apologised, admitting it was just a coincidence and she really should have known better.
J. K. Rowling based the Dementors on her own depression. She's said that depression leaves you feeling like your soul has been sucked out of you and that you'll never be happy again, which is exactly the feeling Dementors cause in the books (and they do actually suck your soul out if they get the chance).
Rowling admitted that she split up her personality into Harry, Ron and Hermione, with most of it going into Hermione. She's said that Hermione is very similar, personality-wise, to what she was like at school. She also partly based Ron on her best friend and Snape on her old chemistry teacher, John Nettleship.
In the first movie, it's stated that Harry's father was a Seeker. This fact is not in the book, and Rowling later revealed that James Potter was actually a Chaser.
Nigel Reynolds, then-art correspondent for British newspaper the Daily Telegraph, met Rowling and she handed him a first-edition copy of Philosopher's Stone. He took it to his office, skimmed it and threw it away. Copies of that first edition, of which only 500 were printed, are now worth thousands of pounds.
The longest Harry Potter book (the Goblet of Fire) is also the shortest movie.
Alan Rickman was possibly the only person, other than Rowling herself, to know that Snape was in love with Harry's mother before it was actually revealed in the books. Rowling told him before filming of the first movie, because she wanted him to know "where the bitterness for the boy came from". Alan Rickman based his entire performance of Snape on this fact.
During filming of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, they got through over 100 wand props because Daniel Radcliffe kept using them as drumsticks between takes and breaking them.
Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) had to have his Hogwarts robes' pockets sewn shut because he kept trying to sneak food onto the set in them.
Tom Felton first auditioned for the part of Harry and then Ron before finally landing the role of Draco.
Rupert Grint did a rap as part of his audition for Ron Weasley. It began with the line "Hello, my name is Rupert Grint, I hope you don't think I stink."
For most of the scenes in the movies, Daniel Radcliffe is just wearing frames, with no actual lenses in them.
In the movies, Harry has Daniel Radcliffe's natural blue eyes, despite Harry having green eyes being a minor plot point in the books. He was originally supposed to have green eyes, but Daniel had an allergic reaction to the coloured contact lenses.
In the books, Hermione's dress that she wears at the school ball is described as periwinkle blue. In the film, it's pink.
Dudley is described as blond with blue eyes in the books, though in the movie he's a brunet with brown eyes.
In the movie of Chamber of Secrets, when Malfoy comes across Harry and Ron (disguised as Crabbe and Goyle), Malfoy asks the disguised Harry why he's wearing glasses. Harry, thinking quickly, replies "Reading," to which Malfoy responds "I didn't know you could read." This last line was an ad lib by Tom Felton - Malfoy wasn't actually supposed to say anything there.
Towards the end of the same movie, Lucius Malfoy sneers at Harry "Let us hope that Mr Potter will always be there to save the day," to which Harry retorts "Don't worry, I will be." Both of these lines were ad-libbed.
Jason Isaacs (Lucius) makes another ad-lib a little earlier on. When he casts Avada Kedavra - the Killing Curse - at Harry, the script merely called for him to cast a spell, and Isaacs just said the first spell that came into his head. Note that in the book, he doesn't use any magic at all in this scene and is just described as lunging at Harry.
J. K. Rowling has said that if Voldemort ever encountered a Boggart, it would transform into his own corpse, since death is his greatest fear.
According to Rowling, the 't' at the end of Voldemort is silent. It's taken from the French phrase 'vol de mort', which can translate as either "fleeing from death" or "stealing from death", both of which fit the character.
The Hogwarts school motto, "Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus", translates literally as "A sleeping dragon is never to be tickled".
Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, the foreign wizarding schools that compete in the Triwizard Tournament along with Hogwarts in Goblet of Fire, have punny names. "Beaux batons" essentially means "beautiful wands" in French, and Durmstrang is a play on the German expression "Sturm und Drang", literally "storm and stress" and used to mean a period of emotional intensity or anxiety.
Hogwarts was named by one of its founders, Rowena Ravenclaw, after she had a dream in which a warty hog was leading her to the old cliff by the lake.
There is a type of real-life flower whose scientific name is Dracorex hogwartsia, named after the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
When Stephen Fry (a friend of J. K. Rowling) was recording the audiobook for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, he had some trouble pronouncing the phrase "Harry pocketed it". Eventually, he phoned Rowling and asked if he could change it to "Harry put it in his pocket". After a moment's consideration, Rowling answered "No"... and then included the phrase "Harry pocketed it" in each of the next four books in the series.
Rowling has said that Evanna Lynch perfectly resembles how she pictured Luna Lovegood. She also admitted to writing the character of Severus Snape with Alan Rickman in mind, which may explain why Rickman was chosen to play Snape in the movies.
Contrary to popular belief, Rowling never called Harry/Hermione shippers "delusional". The interviewer (from famous Harry Potter fansite MuggleNet) called them delusional, and she laughed before diplomatically steering the conversation towards more neutral territory.
Rowling never actually wrote the first Harry Potter book on napkins. She did it in a café, but she did it the normal way, with a pen and paper. When she heard that rumour, she laughed and said that next they'll be saying she wrote it on teabags.
Rowling spent the first five years of her writing career coming up with rules for what her characters could and couldn't do.
Rowling later revealed that the reason Goblet of Fire is so long is that she rushed into writing it and ended up creating, in her words, a giant hole in the plot, which she then had to go back and fix.
Neville Longbottom's surname was originally going to be Sidebottom or Puff. Hermione Granger's surname was originally Puckle.
Rowling included the scene in Goblet of Fire in which Viktor Krum mispronounces Hermione's name as a subtle dig at the many readers who pronounced her name incorrectly (most often pronouncing it "Hermy-own", as Krum does). She mentioned that one fan actually called her "Hermy-one" (pronouncing "one" like the number), which amused her so much that she briefly considered making that the official pronunciation. She's also revealed that Hermione's surname is pronounced "Grain-jer", rather than "Granger" (to rhyme with "anger"). Both pronunciations for this surname are used in Britain in real life. And yes, Hermione is a real name - specifically, it's a Greek name, and it means "earthy", fitting well with the down-to-Earth Hermione. For the record, the correct pronunciation is "Her-my-oh-nee".
In Half Blood Prince, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Slughorn, constantly gets Ron's name wrong. At one point, he calls him Rupert, a reference to Rupert Grint, who plays Ron in the movies.
During filming, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson were known as Do-It-Again Dan, Re-do Rupert and One-Take Watson, respectively.
As part of their filming, Daniel, Rupert and Emma were asked to write an essay about their characters. True to character, Emma (Hermione) wrote a 10-page essay, Daniel (Harry) wrote a one-page summary, and Rupert (Ron) never handed his in.
James and Oliver Phelps, real-life identical twins who played Fred and George Weasley, admitted to getting caught switching roles on the set a few times.
Dumbledore is the Old English word for a bumblebee. Rowling said she gave him that name because she imagined him walking around humming to himself.
Hagrid's name is a play on the word "hagridden", meaning tormented, harrassed or worried. His first name, Rubeus, is Latin for "red" and the root of the English word "ruby".
Remus Lupin's name has many layers to it. "Remus" is one of the twins who founded Rome along with his brother Romulus, both of whom were suckled by a she-wolf when they were infants. "Lupin" is French for "wolf". The letters in his name can also be rearranged to spell "Primus Lune", which is Latin for "full moon".
"Sirius" means "dog" in Latin, and is also the name of a star known as the Dog Star.
Fred and George were born on April 1.
Both Fred and Sirius - Hogwarts pranksters from different generations - died laughing.
Crabbe was absent from the final movies due to his actor, Jamie Waylett, being arrested for possession of marijuana (which is illegal in the UK). This led to Goyle dying instead of Crabbe.
Rowling has said that Pansy Parkinson will never get a happy ending because Rowling hates her. According to Rowling, "She's every girl who ever bullied me at school. She's the anti-Hermione. I loathe her." Curiously, Rowling also described Luna as the anti-Hermione, though for a different reason - Hermione is very logical, while Luna is very dreamy and imaginative.
Anagrams play an important role in Harry Potter, with some even serving as foreshadowing. The only one that's actually pointed out is Tom Marvolo Riddle rearranging to spell "I am Lord Voldemort", but there are others that can be found from rearranging names.
"Harry Potter" rearranges to "Try hero part", a reference to Harry being accused of "playing the hero".
Hermione Granger can rearrange to "Ring here Ron, game?", which, while most likely a coincidence, does foreshadow the fact that she and Ron eventually get married (the ring in this case being a wedding ring, and "game?" being British slang meaning essentially "up for it?")
Ronald Weasley anagrams to "Yellow and ears", a reference to his red hair and big ears.
Albus Dumbledore rearranges to "Blamed old Rubeus", which is ironic as Dumbledore was the only one who DIDN'T accuse Hagrid of opening the Chamber of Secrets.
Peter Pettigrew rearranges to "Tip: Pet we regret", referencing how he disguised himself as Ron's rat Scabbers in order to hide from Sirius Black.
Lavender Brown is an anagram of "Brand new lover", referencing her status as Ron's girlfriend in Half-Blood Prince.
Romilda Vane rearranges to "Love in a dram", nicely foreshadowing the event in Half-Blood Prince where she spikes some chocolates with love potion ("dram" meaning "a small amount of strong alcohol or poison", or in this case, potion).
Ollivander's can rearrange to "Ronald lives" or "Ronald's evil" - while the second is blatantly not true, the first indeed is. It could also (assuming it's not a coincidence) be a clue to a certain scene in Order of the Phoenix, when Harry finds Ron lying dead on the floor of a room in the Weasley house and panics - before remembering that Ron is actually downstairs, and the "Ron" he's looking at is really a Boggart that Mrs Weasley is trying to deal with.
When Arthur Weasley was attacked by Nagini in Order of the Phoenix, he was originally supposed to die. However, with the death of Sirius Black later in the book, Rowling realised this would essentially deprive Harry of both his father figures, so she changed it to him just being injured.
Rowling revealed that she considered killing off Ron at some point during the series. The above-mentioned Boggart scene may have been a result of this.
J. K. Rowling's surname is often mispronounced "Rau-ling" by fans, saying "Row" to rhyme with "cow". According to her, it's pronounced "rolling", as in "pin".
J. K. Rowling has no middle name - her full name is Joanne Rowling. She took the K from her grandmother's name, Kathleen, after her editor suggesting using her initials in order to appeal to male readers.
The train to Hogwarts departs from Platform 9 3/4 at London King's Cross Station, which is accessed by running at the barrier between platforms nine and ten. However, at the actual King's Cross Station, there are train tracks between platforms nine and ten. Rowling later admitted she may have been subconsciously thinking of another train station in London, Euston Station, though that one also has train tracks between platforms nine and ten. Trains do go to Scotland (where Hogwarts is) from both stations, though by different routes.
The real King's Cross Station has an artwork of a shopping trolley half-embedded in a wall in the waiting area, with a sign above it reading "Platform 9 3/4", as an homage to Harry Potter.
Despite what the internet may tell you, Rowling never said she took the name "Harry Potter" from the Troll movies, consciously or subconsciously. She took the name "Potter" from the surname of a family she knew as a child, and "Harry" simply because she has always loved that name.
Rowling has said she based the character of Gilderoy Lockhart on someone she knew in real life, but refuses to say who it was (many believe she based him on her ex-husband, but she hasn't explicitly confirmed this) - not because she's afraid of being sued for defamation, but because she doesn't want to give him something else to brag about.
It's often easy to forget that the Hogwarts school uniform also includes hats, since the characters are never shown wearing their hats in the movies.
In the early Spanish translations of the first book, Neville's toad Trevor was mis-translated as a turtle. That's right, Neville had a turtle that liked to jump from his hand. This was corrected in later reprintings.
According to Rowling, Hermione's pet cat Crookshanks is part Kneazle. (Kneazles are magical feline creatures similar in apperarance to cats, which are very intelligent, though independent and occasionally aggressive and have an uncanny ability to detect suspect or untrustworthy people. This is probably why Crookshanks always went after Ron's pet rat Scabbers, who was really Peter Pettigrew in disguise.)
It's often mentioned that Ron let Scabbers the rat sleep with him in his bed. This is a very unwise thing to do with a real pet rat - not only is there a possibility you might roll over and crush it, but you will most likely end up with rat waste all over your sheets and holes chewed in your mattress. Ron probably only got away with it because Scabbers was an Animagus (a human that can transform into an animal) and not a real rat.
Though never seen in the series, Rowling revealed that Ron's Patronus is a Jack Russell terrier, which are known for chasing otters. Hermione's Patronus, funnily enough, is an otter.
Another point contrary to rumour: It was at one point believed that Rowling said she regretted pairing Ron with Hermione and admitted that Harry and Hermione would have made more sense. This was essentially a twisting of the truth by the media (as they are liable to do) - what Rowling actually said was that Ron and Hermione might have a rocky relationship to start with, but they would be fine after some marriage counselling. This mutated into "Rowling regrets making Ron and Hermione a couple" and later into "Rowling admits Harry would have been a better fit for Hermione than Ron" despite Rowling herself barely if ever even mentioning Harry originally.
Most of the spell names are actually grammatically-correct and relevant Latin - for instance, "Expecto Patronum" translates as "I await a guardian". Others are English, such as "Stupefy", or just thematically-appropriate nonsense, like "Wingardium Leviosa".
Rupert Grint was going through puberty while filming Chamber of Secrets, which meant his voice was breaking. Those voice cracks you hear during the "follow the spiders" scenes from Ron weren't always intentional.
Speaking of those scenes, Rupert Grint revealed that he, like Ron, is arachnophobic, so Ron's fear in those scenes is actually real fear from Rupert (the small spiders were animatronic, though Aragog was CG).
During the filming of the Harry Potter movies, the part of Dobby the house elf was played by an orange ball on a stick, since Dobby himself was entirely CG - the ball just gave Daniel Radcliffe a guide on where to look when Harry was talking to Dobby.
Sir Ian McKellen was asked to play Dumbledore in the movies after Dumbledore's intial actor, Richard Harris, died, but he turned down the role, explaining that one popular wizard (i.e. Gandalf, whom Sir Ian played in the The Lord of the Rings movies) was enough for him. Though his real reason was most likely that Harris had insulted his acting before.
Michael Gambon, Dumbledore's replacement actor, admitted to affecting a slight Irish accent during his portrayal of Dumbledore (despite the character never being explicitly stated to be Irish or of Irish descent) in honour of his predecessor, Richard Harris, who was Irish and used his natural accent when playing Dumbledore.
The occasional tongue flick done by Barty Crouch, Jr. in the movie of Goblet of Fire was not in the book or the script. It was improvised on the spot by David Tennant.
Peeves was originally going to be included in the movies, and was going to be played by Rik Mayall. However, when Mayall turned down the role for reasons unknown, the producers decided to just leave out Peeves altogether. Their main reason for doing so was budget concerns, as a poltergeist who can actually pick up and handle objects while floating/flying around would be very difficult to portray in a live-action movie.
Michael Jackson once asked Rowling for permission to make a Harry Potter musical, though sadly she turned him down as she said she wants to keep Harry Potter as British as possible.
Prisoner of Azkaban is the only Harry Potter book where nobody dies (though Chamber of Secrets also has no deaths if you don't count the Basilisk).
James and Oliver Phelps are actually brunets in real life. They dyed their hair red for the movies.
Tom Felton is a natural blond, but he still had to bleach his hair to make it even blonder in order to play Draco Malfoy.
Yet another "contrary to popular belief" - the title of the first book was not changed from Philosopher's Stone to Sorcerer's Stone in America because the editors thought Americans wouldn't know what a philosopher was. It was actually changed because the myth of the Philosopher's Stone wasn't well-known in America at the time and Scholastic thought American kids wouldn't want to read a book with the word "philosopher" in the title, since they figured the word "philosopher" would conjure up images of boring old people for them.
It was rumoured that Rowling originally considered Harry Potter and the Green Flame Torch, Harry Potter and the Pillar of Storge ("Storge" being the Greek word for "familial love"), or Harry Potter and the Fortress of Shadows as the title of the sixth or seventh book. She responded by sarcastically suggesting Harry Potter and the Toenail of Icklibogg.
There is also a rumour that still can be found on the internet that Rowling said that the snake Harry freed in the zoo in the first book is actually Nagini, Voldemort's pet snake. This is demonstrably false - the snake Harry frees in the book is a boa constrictor, and a python in the movie. Neither is venomous or has fangs. Nagini is and does.
As if there weren't enough rumours already, there's also a rumour that the actor who plays baby Harry in the first movie is the same as the one who plays Harry's son, Albus Severus Potter, in the final scene of the Deathly Hallows movie. A quick IMDB check will tell you that baby Harry in the first movie was actually played by a set of triplets (not all at the same time, obviously).
Rowling considered giving Dudley a Muggle-born wizard child for the epilogue, but decided that no wizarding traits would ever survive contact with Uncle Vernon's DNA.
When asked about Harry and Dudley's relationship after the end of the series, Rowling answered that they remained on "Christmas card terms", and that Harry would occasionally take his kids to visit Dudley's kids, which his children always dreaded.
Dean Thomas was originally going to be Ron's cousin. Rowling also revealed that Dean is actually a half-blood - his father was killed for refusing to join the Death Eaters and his Muggle stepfather adopted him, which is why he believes himself to be Muggle-born.
Hermione was originally going to have a little sister, until Rowling realised it was a bit too late to start mentioning her.
There was originally a plan for a new Slytherin student called Mafalda, the daughter of a Muggle and a squib, to serve as something of a rival/archenemy for Hermione due to her high intelligence in Goblet of Fire. However, Rowling couldn't figure out how to explain a first-year student knowing as much as if not more than a fourth-year student, so she created the character of Rita Skeeter instead. Rita was also originally going to appear in the first book (then named Brigit) during the scene in the Leaky Cauldron, but Rowling decided to wait until later in the series to focus on Harry's fame.
It's often believed that the unnamed grey-haired witch in the aforementioned Leaky Cauldron scene in the first movie is J. K. Rowling herself in an uncredited cameo. Rowling went on record that she refused to play any role in the series (she was actually asked to play Lily Potter, Harry's mother, in the flashback scene in the first movie) since she didn't consider herself a good enough actor.
Lily Potter's maiden name is Evans, a name Rowling is fond of. In the book of Order of the Phoenix, a minor character by the name of Mark Evans is mentioned. Fans immediately assumed there was a connection between the two, until Rowling apologised, admitting it was just a coincidence and she really should have known better.
J. K. Rowling based the Dementors on her own depression. She's said that depression leaves you feeling like your soul has been sucked out of you and that you'll never be happy again, which is exactly the feeling Dementors cause in the books (and they do actually suck your soul out if they get the chance).
Rowling admitted that she split up her personality into Harry, Ron and Hermione, with most of it going into Hermione. She's said that Hermione is very similar, personality-wise, to what she was like at school. She also partly based Ron on her best friend and Snape on her old chemistry teacher, John Nettleship.
In the first movie, it's stated that Harry's father was a Seeker. This fact is not in the book, and Rowling later revealed that James Potter was actually a Chaser.
Nigel Reynolds, then-art correspondent for British newspaper the Daily Telegraph, met Rowling and she handed him a first-edition copy of Philosopher's Stone. He took it to his office, skimmed it and threw it away. Copies of that first edition, of which only 500 were printed, are now worth thousands of pounds.
The longest Harry Potter book (the Goblet of Fire) is also the shortest movie.
Alan Rickman was possibly the only person, other than Rowling herself, to know that Snape was in love with Harry's mother before it was actually revealed in the books. Rowling told him before filming of the first movie, because she wanted him to know "where the bitterness for the boy came from". Alan Rickman based his entire performance of Snape on this fact.
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