The Monster Book Of Monsters
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The Monster Book Of Monsters
Armadillo
The bile of this creature is used for making potions, including Wit-Sharpening Potion.
Bicorn
Horn of this creature is used as a potion ingredient. The name “bicorn” suggests a creature with two horns. The Bicorn is a mythical demonic creature which eats human flesh.
Blast-Ended Skrewt
Magical creatures bred by Hagrid prior to the autumn of Y14 by crossing manticores with fire-crabs. Blast-Ended Skrewts are some of the most revolting creatures ever seen.
Boggart
A shape shifter that prefers to live in dark, confined spaces, taking the form of the thing most feared by the person it encounters; nobody knows what a boggart looks like in its natural state (although Moody recongnized one using his magical eye to spot it as it hid in a corner desk at number 12 Grimmauld Place. One wonders what it was that Moody actually saw…). A boggart appears to feed on the emotion of fear rather than simply deploying this ability as a defense mechanism, hence its classification as a Dark creature. Many Muggle children may have encountered boggarts as “the monster under the bed”, though this is not stated explicitly in the text.
Cockatrice
A combination of a rooster and a dragon or snake. A cockatrice went on a rampage in the Triwizard Tournament of 1792.
Ferret
Buckbeak enjoys a plate of dead ferrets. Mad-Eye Moody turns Draco into one
Mortlake owned some extremely odd ferrets. During the practical portion of the Transfiguration OWL, Hannah Abbott turned her ferret into a flock of flamingos, temporarily halting the test.
Fire Slugs
Creatures which live in the Brazilian rain forests. Newt Scamander is currently studying them
Flesh-Eating Slug
Apparently a frightening creature, since someone was scared enough of them to turn a Boggart into it. Hagrid once needed a repellent for Flesh-Eating Slugs which were getting into the cabbages, and went shopping for it in Knockturn Alley
”Furballs”
Custard-colored furballs, humming loudly, were for sale in the Magical Menagerie; these are probably Puffskeins.
Giant
Full-blooded giants are about twenty feet tall. The race of Giants now lives mostly in remote mountain areas, but there was a time when they were a force to be reckoned with in the Wizarding World. The Giants allied themselves with Voldemort in the 1970s and were responsible for many of the worst incidents of killing and torturing, especially of Muggles. A great many of the Giants were killed by Aurors and the rest fled.
Grim (barghest)
The Grim is a ghostly image of a large dog-like beast; seeing one portends death
Grindylow
A grindylow is a pale green creature that lives in the weed beds on the bottom of lakes in Britain. It is also known as a water demon. Grindylows have long, brittle fingers which they use to grip their prey, sharp little horns, and green teeth. Lupin taught his third year students about them
Gytrash
The Gytrash is a huge, spectral hound which lives in the forest.
Hinkypunk
A little one-legged creature, with the appearance of being made of smoke, the hinkypunk carries a light with which it lures travelers into bogs
Horned toad
Neville once had to disembowel an entire barrel full of horned toads while in detention with Snape. Afterward, Ron fantasized about Mad-Eye Moody turning Snape into a horned toad, similar to the ‘amazing bouncing ferret’ punishment inflicted on Draco Malfoy. Horned toads are really lizards, and very fearsome-looking lizards at that. Poor Neville had quite an evening, I think.
Inferius (plural: Inferi)
The Inferi are animated corpses who do the bidding of the Dark Wizard who created them. Harry encountered a large number of Inferi floating just below the surface of the underground lake surrounding the Cursed Basin where the locket Horcrux had been hidden. The Inferi attacked Harry when he touched the water but Dumbledore surrounded them with a ring of fire which drove the Inferi away, back into the water.
Leech
A small slug-like creature that lives in water. Leeches attach themselves to other creatures and suck their blood. Leeches are used as potion ingredients, both sliced and in the form of Leech Juice.
Mummy
The preserved remains of a body, human or animal, from which fluids have been removed. Although mummification can occur through natural processes in very dry conditions, the most common conception of a mummy is that of one deliberately embalmed as a preparation for burial, for which additional preservative measures have been performed. In ancient Egypt, mummification was performed on the bodies of humans and of cats, and was considered a necessary step in preparing the deceased for the afterlife.
Puffskein
A long-tongued custard-coloured little furball that makes a calming purring noise. These pleasant creatures are often kept as pets, particularly by wizarding children; Ron Weasley used to own one until Fred used it for Bludger practice. As scavengers that will eat anything from leftovers to spiders, they are very easy to care for. There was a nest of dead puffskeins under the sofa of the drawing room of Number 12 Grimmauld Place
Rabbit
A fat white rabbit in the Magical Menagerie transformed itself into a top hat and back again (reminiscent of the Muggle conjuring trick in which the performer pulls a rabbit out of a top hat). It is unclear if this is a magical creature or if it had simply been enchanted to perform this bit of Transfiguration. Lavender Brown had a young pet rabbit at home, named Binky, which was killed by a fox during her third year.
Rat
In the Magical Menagerie was a cage full of black rats which were busy jumping rope with their tails; the saleswitch implied that they would live longer than a common rat’s three-year lifespan. Rat Animagi appear to have some ability to communicate with ordinary rats. While living in hiding in Grimmauld Place, Sirius appears to have kept Buckbeak mainly on a diet of dead rats.
Raven
Ravens were for sale on Diagon Alley
Squid, giant
The largest invertebrate known to Muggle science, the giant squid can grow to 70 feet. Speaking more specifically, at least one giant squid lives in the lake near Hogwarts castle, and seems to be more or less friendly toward the inhabitants.
Thestral
A carnivorous black winged horse, skeletal and reptilian, which supposedly brings bad luck. Actually, thestrals are amazingly magical creatures which are invisible to anyone who hasn’t seen death first hand. Hogwarts has a herd of about a hundred of them, including one named Tenebrus
Toads and frogs
Toads are allowed as pets for students at Hogwarts, but they’re out of fashion, so if you have one, you’re likely to be laughed at for it. Nevertheless, Neville has a toad named Trevor, a gift from an older family member, and there are enormous purple toads in the Magical Menagerie. Furthermore, judging from Mundungus’ story on Harry’s first night in Grimmauld Place, toads (at least in bulk) are valuable enough to go to quite a bit of trouble to steal
Tortoise
Dudley threw his tortoise through the greenhouse roof. The gigantic tortoise with jewel-encrusted shell that Harry, Ron, and Hermione saw in the Magical Menagerie was probably a Fire Crab.
Werewolf
A werewolf is a human who has been infected with lycanthropy
Wood nymph
Fleur told everyone at her table during dinner at the Yule Ball that the Christmas decorations at Beauxbatons included wood nymphs, who sing to the students as they eat