Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them  

Posted by READERS' CLUB

All the hype around Harry Potter and its latest silver screen instalment has propmted us to decide it was time for a Potter-fest! It has infected this blog (somewhat), but since everyone has probably read the seven books by now, we'll review a sort of 'branch' from the oh-so-popular series.
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By Norfaezatul Fazlina, Siti Mashairana bt Johar and Ummi Nazirah bt Abd Kadil

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a fictional book written by English author J. K. Rowling as a supplement to the Harry Potter series. In this book, you will find all the required details on the magical creatures found in the series. Rowling stated that she chose the subject of magical creatures because it was a fun topic for which she had already developed a lot of information. Unicorn, werewolf, dragons...do they sound familiar to you? Now, I’m going to introduce a few of them.

Centaurs in the Harry Potter universe are wild creatures with intelligence supposedly greater than humans. Although sentient, they have not requested assignment as beings, preferring to remove themselves entirely from human affairs. Any centaur who decides to associate with humans, such as Firenze, who agrees to teach Divination at Hogwarts, is violently attacked by the other centaurs and banished from the herd. The Ministry of Magic's Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures has a Centaur Liaison Office, but no centaur has ever used it. Centaurs are skilled in healing and astrology, and spend much of their time scouring the stars for portents. They live in forests, and their society consists of groups called herds. They do not appear to employ or need any technology more advanced than a bow and arrow. They are intensely proud and fiercely territorial, and one must be highly diplomatic in dealing with them. Not paying the proper respect to a herd of centaurs can have violent consequences, as Dolores Umbridge learned to her cost.

The werewolf is a creature that exists only for a brief period around the full moon. At any other time, a werewolf is a normal human. However, the term werewolf is used for both the wolf-like creature and the normal human. A werewolf can be distinguished from a true wolf physically by several small distinguishing characteristics, including the pupils, snout, and tufted tail. A person becomes a werewolf, when bitten by a werewolf in wolf-form. Once this happens, the person must learn to manage the condition. The 'Wolfsbane Potion' controls some of the effects of the condition; by allowing the sufferer to maintain their human mind in wolf form, it prevents them from harming others. Nothing discovered in the wizarding world can completely cure a werewolf. Most werewolves live outside of normal society and steal food to survive. At one point they supported Voldemort, whom they thought would give them a better life. Remus Lupin is the only known exception to this. There are only three known werewolves in the Harry Potter series: Lupin, Fenrir Greyback, and an unnamed character who was in the same ward as Arthur Weasley in St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.

Hedwig is Harry Potter's owl. Hedwig is a Snowy Owl, which Rowling considers to be the most beautiful owl of all. In the story, Hedwig is a gift to Harry from Hagrid in the first book of the series, purchased in Diagon Alley while shopping for supplies for Harry's first year at Hogwarts. The name Hedwig is a name Harry found in his schoolbook, A History of Magic. Hedwig is used for delivering messages throughout the series. Hedwig could be considered an owl with a "formal" personality, and often has a habit of staring or hooting "reproachfully," cuffing Harry with a wing when miffed, and being far more vocal than the average Snowy Owl. She can act with hurt or anger due to Harry's sometimes innocently thoughtless actions or words. In the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Hedwig is intercepted by Dolores Umbridge and is hurt, but is later healed by Professor Grubbly-Plank. At the start of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Hedwig is killed during Harry's escape from Privet Drive by a stray Killing Curse. According to Rowling, Hedwig's death represented the death of innocence.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 21, 2009 at Friday, August 21, 2009 . You can follow any responses to this entry through the comments feed .

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