19 Little Facts About The Harry Potter Books You Probably Didn't Know Before

    From amusing translations to mispronunciations...

    Ellie Bate
    by Ellie Bate

    BuzzFeed Staff

    We recently asked members of the BuzzFeed Community to tell us the craziest fact they know about the Harry Potter books. Here's what they said...

    1. There was a significant decrease in the number of children who went to A&E after Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince were released. – KellyLizzyLucky

    Warner Bros.

    A study conducted by the British Medical Journal found that the average number of children aged 7-15 sent to emergency wards decreased by almost half on the weekends after each Harry Potter book was released. They concluded that children were staying inside to read, and therefore were too busy to injure themselves.

    2. J.K. Rowling has said that Hufflepuff is her favourite house, but she's actually a Gryffindor. – malaky48ca46e17

    Warner Bros.

    "My daughter Jessica said to me recently, who wasn’t sorted into Hufflepuff, ‘I think we should all want to be Hufflepuffs,'" Jo said in 2012. "I can only say to you, I would not be disappointed at all to be in Hufflepuff. I’m a little upset anyone does feel that way."

    3. In the books, a Kneazle is a magical creature that can detect suspicious or unsavoury characters. – elizabethk48ea6d86f

    Warner Bros.

    It's confirmed that Crookshanks is part-Kneazle, which explains why he was so quick to realise that Scabbers was just a metaphorical rat, and not a literal one.

    4. There isn't a translation of "I am Lord Voldemort" in Swedish. The anagram had to be translated into Latin instead. – Erika Drewke, Facebook

    Warner Bros.

    In the Swedish translation, "Tom Marvolo Riddle" becomes "Tom Gus Mervolo Dolder". They had to make it so that the anagram was Latin – "ego sum Lord Voldemort" – because in Swedish it would be "jag är Herr Voldemort", and the letter ä isn't found in typical Swedish male names.

    5. In the French version of the books, a wand is called a "baguette magique". – jenniewood

    Warner Bros.

    6. And the French translation of Hufflepuff is "Poufsouffle". – Jessica Shelleman, Facebook

    Warner Bros.

    7. J.K. Rowling revealed in 2015 that everyone had been pronouncing Voldemort's name wrong. You're not ~actually~ supposed to pronounce the T at the end. – hermanfreakinpotter

    Warner Bros.

    "...But I'm pretty sure I'm the only person who pronounces it that way," she tweeted.

    8. The fourth book is so long because, when J.K. Rowling was halfway through writing it, she realised she had created a plot hole that she had to go back and explain. – samanthak4700e333c

    Warner Bros.

    "I wrote what I thought was half the book, and [there was a] huge gaping hole in the middle of the plot. I missed my deadline by two months," she said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. "I had to pull a character. She was a Weasley cousin. She served the same function that Rita Skeeter now serves. Rita was always going to be in the book, but I built her up, because I needed a kind of conduit for information outside the school. Originally, this girl fulfilled this purpose."

    9. Natalie McDonald – a minor character who was sorted into Gryffindor in Goblet of Fire – was named after a real person. – Stephanie Joy Bouley, Facebook

    Scholastic

    The girl had terminal leukemia, and a family friend wrote to J.K. Rowling, explaining that Natalie was upset she'd never know what happened at the end of the story. Jo wrote back, and officially sorted Natalie into Gryffindor for her bravery.

    10. The Harry Potter books are a large part of the reason the New York Times Bestsellers List has a children's category. – Sam Kramer, Facebook

    Scholastic

    They launched the new children's list in 2000, before the release of Goblet of Fire, because they predicted the book's popularity (and the popularity of the rest of the series) would mean the series dominated the list.

    "Some publishers have been advocating such a move for months, complaining that a cluster of popular children's books can keep deserving adult books off the lists," read the New York Times announcement.

    11. The type in Order of the Phoenix is half a point smaller than in the rest of the books, meaning it's even longer than it looks. – Alyssa Feller

    Warner Bros.

    12. There's a moment in Half-Blood Prince where Slughorn accidentally refers to Ron as "Rupert" – and it was written after Rupert Grint was cast as Ron. – lexiep47feca8cf

    Warner Bros.

    13. And, at one point, J.K. Rowling seriously considered killing off Ron "out of sheer spite". – alexac442ac570d

    Warner Bros.

    "I planned from the start that none of them would die. Then midway through, which I think is a reflection of the fact that I wasn't in a very happy place, I started thinking I might polish one of them off," she said in a conversation with Daniel Radcliffe.

    14. J.K. Rowling never originally intended to kill Lupin and Tonks, but decided they had to go after she saved Arthur Weasley in Order of the Phoenix. – idyemyhairalot

    Warner Bros.

    "Arthur lived, so Lupin had to die," she tweeted last year. "I didn't enjoy doing it. The only time my editor ever saw me cry was over the fate of Teddy."

    15. Professor Trelawney mentions that her great-grandmother's name was Cassandra. Cassandra was a woman in Greek mythology who was gifted the power of prophecy. – Sajambbu Manu, Facebook

    Warner Bros.

    After she refused to marry the god Apollo, who gave her the gift, Cassandra was cursed so that her prophecies would never be believed – just like Professor Trelawney's.

    16. And Salazar Slytherin was named after a Portuguese dictator, António de Oliveira Salazar. – thaliav4a358e737

    Warner Bros.

    17. A 16-year-old boy was arrested in France in 2007 for posting his translation of Deathly Hallows online before the official version was published. – Ellie Bate

    Warner Bros.

    18. The saying "I open at the close" is true for the books – the story of the final book, Deathly Hallows, begins in 1997, when the first book was released. – rachelh4b61c04a5

    Warner Bros.

    19. And finally... The epilogue is now technically in the past. – funkysammie

    Warner Bros.

    The epilogue of Deathly Hallows was set 19 years after the Battle of Hogwarts, on 1 September 2017 – meaning every part of the series is now set in the past.

    Want to be featured in similar BuzzFeed posts? Make sure to follow the BuzzFeed Community on Facebook and Twitter!