The Winds Whisk Harry Off to the Zoo Quiz

Answer: A cat

Professor McGonagall is the Head of Gryffindor House at Hogwarts, which is the House that Harry, Ron and Hermione belong to. These three noble yet mischievous heroes of the Harry Potter books often test their teacher's wisdom and patience! In the movies she was played by Dame Maggie Smith.

In a nod to her wisdom, her character is named Minerva after the Roman goddess of wisdom. Over the course of the books she also holds the position of Deputy Headmistress and Headmistress of Hogwarts. Her animagus or alter ego is a silver tabby cat belonging to the British Shorthair breed. McGonagall's was the first animagus introduced in the series.

Answer: Sirius Black

The story behind these four characters is explained in "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban". Remus Lupin, the professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts, turns out to be a werewolf. When he doesn't take his medicine in time, he turns into a big bad wolf at full moon.

When Lupin was still a student at Hogwarts, his friends Sirius, James and Peter decided to learn the trick of transforming into an animal at will. James (Harry's father) could turn into a stag, Peter became a rat whenever he wanted, and Sirius Black (Harry's godfather) chose to change into a big black dog.

Answer: Rita Skeeter

Rita Skeeter first appears in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" as the reporter for the "Daily Prophet", eager to tell the readers all about the Triwizard Tournament. She doesn't only use the Quick-Quotes Quill, able to distill half a page out of a mere "err", but after the Yule ball she also reveals some very secret conversations between our friends. Finally Hermione discovers Rita is in fact an unregistered animagus, turning into a water beetle at will.

Answer: Fly

Spiders love to catch flies in their webs and prepare them for dinner. Although the spiders in the Forbidden Forest are huge, they have never caught a Weasley or a weasel. Ron did however have a narrow escape in "Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets".

Answer: Marge

Aunt Marge visits the muggle Dursley family at the start of "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban". After inquiring after the amount of corporal punishment Harry experiences at his school, she goes on insulting Harry's parents. Aunt Marge states Harry's mother Lily was a "bad egg".

When Marge calls Harry's father James "A no-account, good-for-nothing, lazy scrounger", Harry can't take it any longer. In a fit of rage he inflates Aunt Marge to the size of a hovering elephant, and she floats out the window into the air.

Answer: Centaurs

The scene described in this question takes place at a turning point in "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", when the action moves from Hogwarts towards the Ministry of Magic. Dolores follows Harry and Hermione to the Forbidden Forest, where (according to Hermione) Dumbledore hid a secret weapon.

But Hermione leads the tyrannic teacher to a half-wild giant (Hagrid's brother) and a dozen Centaurs. After Dolores insulted the Centaurs, they chased her. Thus Harry and Hermione could escape and face the Deatheaters at the Ministry.

Answer: Fox

Hermione started school at the same time as Ron and Harry, but she astounds them each time with her vast knowledge. She may not always be as proud as a peacock, but she can be as cunning as a fox. For instance, in the way she convinced Harry to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts in the book "Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix".

In fairy tales, foxes are often described as being cunning, a quality that coincidentally also applies to witches!

Answer: Dolores Umbridge

In "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", Dolores Umbridge was appointed as the professor for the Defence Against the Dark Arts course at Hogwarts. She was a half witch - her father was a wizard and mother, a muggle. When Harry first saw her, he described her as looking "like a large, pale toad. She was rather squat with a broad, flabby face, as little neck as Uncle Vernon and a very wide, slack mouth. Her eyes were large, round and slightly bulging. Even the little velvet bow perched on top of her short curly hair put him in mind of a large fly she was about to catch on a long sticky tongue."

The description of her like a toad about to strike a fly is a form of early indicator of her negative character. Later in the series she joins forces with Voldemort to persecute other half-bloods, despite herself being one.

Answer: Rubeus Hagrid

Rubeus Hagrid is a half-giant and half-human character. He is the Keeper of Keys and Grounds of Hogwarts. The references to his beetle-black eyes are many and found in passages in "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" and "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire". The resemblance to a mammoth is drawn from descriptions like the one in this passage from "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" - "He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so wild - long tangles of bushy black hair and a beard hid most of his face..". A mammoth is an extinct mammal often depicted as a large, hairy elephant.

Note: "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" was also published under the title "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone".

Answer: Lord Voldemort

Lord Voldemort is the main villain of the Harry Potter series and strikes so much fear in the heart of most characters, that he is rarely mentioned by name. Instead terms like "You-Know-Who", "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" or "the Dark Lord" are used to refer to him.

In "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", he is described as having "a nose that was as flat as a snake's with slits for nostrils". In "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", he is described as "Tall, thin, and black-hooded, his terrible snakelike face white and gaunt, his scarlet, slit-pupilled eyes staring.." Since snakes have always been associated with evil in most western cultures, the appearance of Lord Voldemort is fitting. To add to this analogy, he also has a pet snake called Nagini.