20 Facts Every Harry Potter Super-Nerd Should Know

Happy Harry Potter Book Night.

Harry Potter is not unique in its phenomenon of breeding superfans: no, there are people out there who can declaim on Klingons in perfect Klingon, those who have mapped the complex histories of Middle-earth like it was their job (and those whose job it actually is), and many more besides. There is something about the thrill of brand-new worlds that attracts those of us who find little satisfaction in the mediocrity of this one. But what is perhaps unique about Harry Potter is the ubiquity of the consummate Potterhead: from ten-year-olds to thirty-year-olds and beyond, Harry has a home, it seems, in everybody€™s heart (and those who are not so inclined wisely keep quiet about it in the presence of the overwhelming, and sometimes slightly insane, majority). The Potter phenomenon has spread so far and wide that you meet far more people than must be normal for someone your age that are completely obsessed with a children€™s novel series about a magical school. And, sure, there are people who have a healthy amount of interest, but then there are those of us who turn their head lightning-fast at even the barest mention of the word €œPotter.€ Those of us who can open any of the seven volumes to a random page and read as if we had left off from there yesterday, and those of us who are so full of useless Potter factoids accumulated over years of fan-hood that there€™s simply no room for anything else left at all. So, to see where you fall on the continuum from €˜pleasantly interested€™ to €˜in utter denial about Muggle-hood,€™ take a look at these tidbits of trivia to gauge just how much you know and just how self-satisfied you can be about being the best Potter fan out there.
Contributor

Canadian student. Spends probably an unhealthy amount of time enthusing over musicals, unpopular TV shows, and Harry Potter. Main life goal: to become fluent in Elvish.