Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (3 page)

At last agreement was reached.
⁶
Twenty-seven species, ranging in size from dragons to Bundimuns, were to be hidden from Muggles so as to create the
illusion that they had never existed outside the imagination. This number was increased over the following century, as wizards became more confident in their methods of concealment. In 1750, Clause
73 was inserted in the International Code of Wizarding Secrecy, to which wizard ministries worldwide conform today:

4
Anyone interested in a full account of this particularly bloody period of wizarding history should consult
A History of Magic
by Bathilda Bagshot (Little Red Books, 1947).

5
Delegations of centaurs, merpeople, and goblins were persuaded to attend the summit.

6
Except by the goblins.

I
t would be idle to deny that there have been occasional breaches of Clause 73 since it was first put in place. Older British readers will
remember the Ilfracombe Incident of 1932, when a rogue Welsh Green dragon swooped down upon a crowded beach full of sunbathing Muggles. Fatalities were mercifully prevented by the brave actions of
a holidaying wizarding family (subsequently awarded Orders of Merlin, First Class), when they immediately performed the largest batch of Memory Charms this century on the inhabitants of Ilfracombe,
thus narrowly averting catastrophe.
⁷

The International Confederation of Wizards has had to fine certain nations repeatedly for contravening Clause 73. Tibet and Scotland are two of the most persistent offenders. Muggle sightings of
the yeti have been so numerous that the International Confederation of Wizards felt it necessary to station an International Task Force in the mountains on a permanent basis. Meanwhile the
world’s largest kelpie continues to evade capture in Loch Ness and appears to have developed a positive thirst for publicity.

These unfortunate mishaps notwithstanding, we wizards may congratulate ourselves on a job well done. There can be no doubt that the overwhelming majority of present-day Muggles refuse to believe
in the magical beasts their ancestors so feared. Even those Muggles who do notice Porlock droppings or Streeler trails – it would be foolish to suppose that all traces of these creatures can
be hidden – appear satisfied with the flimsiest non-magical explanation.
⁸
If any Muggle is unwise enough to confide in another that he has spotted a
Hippogriff winging its way north, he is generally believed to be drunk or a “loony.” Unfair though this may seem on the Muggle in question, it is nevertheless preferable to being burnt
at the stake or drowned in the village duckpond.

So how does the wizarding community hide fantastic beasts?

Luckily, some species do not require much wizarding assistance in avoiding the notice of Muggles. Creatures such as the Tebo, the Demiguise, and the Bowtruckle have their own highly effective
means of camouflage and no intervention by the Ministry of Magic has ever been necessary on their behalf. Then there are those beasts that, due to cleverness or innate shyness, avoid contact with
Muggles at all costs – for instance, the unicorn, the Mooncalf, and the centaur. Other magical creatures inhabit places inaccessible to Muggles – one thinks of the Acromantula, deep in
the uncharted jungle of Borneo, and the phoenix, nesting high on mountain peaks unreachable without the use of magic. Finally, and most commonly, we have beasts that are too small, too speedy, or
too adept at passing for mundane animals to attract a Muggle’s attention – Chizpurfles, Billywigs, and Crups fall into this category.

Nevertheless there are still plenty of beasts that, whether willfully or inadvertently, remain conspicuous even to the Muggle eye, and it is these that create a significant amount of work for
the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. This department, the second largest at the Ministry of Magic,
⁹
deals with the varying
needs of the many species under its care in a variety of different ways.

Safe Habitats

Perhaps the most important step in the concealment of magical creatures is the creation of safe habitats. Muggle-Repelling Charms prevent trespassers into the forests where
centaurs and unicorns live, and on the lakes and rivers set aside for the use of merpeople. In extreme cases, such as that of the Quintaped, whole areas have been made unplottable.
¹⁰

Some of these safe areas must be kept under constant wizarding supervision; for example, dragon reservations. While unicorns and merpeople are only too happy to stay within the territories
designated for their use, dragons will seek any opportunity to set forth in search of prey beyond the reservation borders. In some cases Muggle-Repelling Charms will not work, as the beast’s
own powers will cancel them. Cases in point are the kelpie, whose sole aim in life is to attract humans towards it, and the Pogrebin, which seeks out humans for itself.

Controls on Selling and Breeding

The possibility of a Muggle being alarmed by any of the larger or more dangerous magical beasts has been greatly reduced by the severe penalties now attached to their breeding
and the sale of their young and eggs. The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures keeps a strict watch on the trade in fantastic beasts. The 1965 Ban on Experimental Breeding
has made the creation of new species illegal.

Disillusionment Charms

The wizard on the street also plays a part in the concealment of magical beasts. Those who own a Hippogriff, for example, are bound by law to enchant the beast with a
Disillusionment Charm to distort the vision of any Muggle who may see it. Disillusionment Charms should be performed daily, as their effects are apt to wear off.

Memory Charms

When the worst happens and a Muggle sees what he or she is not supposed to see, the Memory Charm is perhaps the most useful repair tool. The Memory Charm may be performed by the
owner of the beast in question, but in severe cases of Muggle notice, a team of trained Obliviators may be sent in by the Ministry of Magic.

The Office of Misinformation

The Office of Misinformation will become involved in only the very worst magical-Muggle collisions. Some magical catastrophes or accidents are simply too glaringly obvious to be
explained away by Muggles without the help of an outside authority. The Office of Misinformation will in such a case liaise directly with the Muggle prime minister to seek a plausible non-magical
explanation for the event. The unstinting efforts of this office in persuading Muggles that all photographic evidence of the Loch Ness kelpie is fake have gone some way to salvaging a situation
that at one time looked exceedingly dangerous.

7
In his 1972 book
Muggles Who Notice,
Blenheim Stalk asserts that some residents of Ilfracombe escaped the Mass Memory Charm.
“To this day, a Muggle bearing the nickname ‘Dodgy Dirk’ holds forth in bars along the south coast on the subject of a ‘dirty great flying lizard’ that punctured his
lilo.”

8
For a fascinating examination of this fortunate tendency of Muggles, the reader might like to consult
The Philosophy of the
Mundane: Why the Muggles Prefer Not to Know,
Professor Mordicus Egg (Dust & Mildewe, 1963).

9
The largest department at the Ministry of Magic is the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, to which the remaining six departments
are all, in some respect, answerable – with the possible exception of the Department of Mysteries.

10
When an area of land is made unplottable, it is impossible to chart on maps.

W
HY
M
AGIZOOLOGY
M
ATTERS

T
he measures described above merely hint at the full scope and extent of the work done by the Department for the Regulation and Control of
Magical Creatures. It remains only to answer that question to which we all, in our hearts, know the answer: Why do we continue, as a community and as individuals, to attempt to protect and conceal
magical beasts, even those that are savage and untameable? The answer is, of course: to ensure that future generations of witches and wizards enjoy their strange beauty and powers as we have been
privileged to do.

I offer this work as a mere introduction to the wealth of fantastic beasts that inhabit our world. Seventy-five species are described in the following pages, but I do not doubt that some time
this year yet another will be discovered, necessitating a fifty-third revised edition of
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
In the meantime I will merely add that it affords me great
pleasure to think that generations of young witches and wizards have grown to a fuller knowledge and understanding of the fantastic beasts I love through the pages of this book.

MINISTRY OF MAGIC CLASSIFICATIONS

T
he Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures gives classifications to all known beasts, beings, and spirits. These
offer an at-a-glance guide to the perceived dangerousness of a creature. The five categories are as follows:

Ministry of Magic (M.O.M.) Classification

In some cases I have felt an explanation for the classification of a particular beast is necessary and have added footnotes accordingly.

A
N
A–Z
OF
F
ANTASTIC
B
EASTS

A
CROMANTULA

M.O.M. Classification: XXXXX

The Acromantula is a monstrous eight-eyed spider capable of human speech. It originated in Borneo, where it inhabits dense jungle. Its distinctive features include the thick
black hair that covers its body; its legspan, which may reach up to fifteen feet; its pincers, which produce a distinctive clicking sound when the Acromantula is excited or angry; and a poisonous
secretion. The Acromantula is carnivorous and prefers large prey. It spins dome-shaped webs upon the ground. The female is bigger than the male and may lay up to one hundred eggs at a time. Soft
and white, these are as large as beach balls. The young hatch in six to eight weeks. Acromantula eggs are defined as Class A Non-Tradeable Goods by the Department for the Regulation and Control of
Magical Creatures, meaning that severe penalties are attached to their importation or sale.