- Confirmed by JK Rowling
- Very confident in its accuracy
- Moderately confident in its accuracy
- Not very confident
- Confirmed false, but I felt like posting it anyway.
Cadogan, Sir - mad knight residing in a painting on the route to Divination class
- From Steve Vander Ark of the HP Lexicon: A cadogan is "a kind of lidless teapot. ... The name is fitting for a fellow who is covered from head to toe with plate armor."
Caput Draconis - one of the passwords to the Gryffindor common room
- Latin: Caput - head, leader. Draco - dragon. Together "head of the dragon."
- Wikipedia: "In geomancy (divination by signs in the earth), the symbol Caput Draconis can be visualised as a set of footprints leading toward a doorway. It is favourable for beginnings and profit." The "doorway" imagery is quite appropriate for one of the entrance passwords. And the fact that "caput draconis" was the the trio's first password at Hogwarts, the fact that it was "favourable for beginnings" is very fitting.
Carrows - See "Alecto" and "Amycus"
Cassandra Vablatsky - See "Vablatsky, Cassandra"
Cedric Diggory - See "Diggory, Cedric"
Centaur - stargazing creatures that are half-man, half-horse.
- A race of monsters believed to have inhabited the mountain regions of Thessaly and Arcadia. They were represented as human down to the waist, with the lower torso and legs of a horse. They were the followers of the wine god Dionysus and are well known for drunkenness and carrying off helpless young maidens.
Thanks to Steve Bates on HP4GU for connecting JKR's centaurs to Roonwit, a wise centaur and advisor to King Tirian in the seventh Narnia book, The Last Battle. The centaurs from this series also are stargazers and fortune tellers.
Chang, Cho - Ravenclaw seeker. Former girlfriend to Cedric Diggory and (rebound) Harry Potter.
- NationMaster.com has done an excellent job analyzing the meaning behind Cho Chang's name. Visit their site to read their full analysis. They concluded that she was almost certainly of Chinese ancestry. In the Chinese translations of the Harry Potter novels, her given name is represented by the character for "Autumn", pronounced "qiu" ("chiu") in Mandarin and "chau" ("chow") in Cantonese. "Chang", while also a Korean surname, is the Wade-Giles spelling of the Chinese surname "Zhang".
- It's unclear as to how the Chinese meaning relates to the character, however. Most likely, Jo picked the name because it sounded stereotypically ethnic; a Chinese equivalent of Seamus Finnegan.
- Incidentally (and most likely unrelated), the Cho-chang-pei-Yuan is a stream in the western highlands of the T'ai-hang Shan mountains.
Chimaera - a Greek monster with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a dragon's tail.
- Taken right from myth. The unfortunate wizard mentioned in the entry is none other than Bellerophon.
Chocolate - counteracts depression from Dementors
- Chocolate is indeed known to cause a slight increase in endorphins, brain chemicals which give some sense of pleasure and well-being, and also some suppression of pain. Since the effect of Dementor gaze is in essence identical to major depression, anything which enhances a state of wellbeing aids in recovery. (Thanks to Brooks on HP4GU)
Chocolate Frog - wizard candy that comes with a famous wizard card
- Probably inspired by the Monty Python "Crunchy Frog" sketch. Jo is quite a fan of the famed British comedy troupe. In the sketch, the shopkeeper is under interrogation from the "Hygiene Squad" for his frankly repulsive wares. You can read the full script for the sketch here, but be warned. It contains language inappropriate for children. The snippet I've posted here is safe.
Inspector: Then we have number four. Number four: Crunchy Frog.
Proprietor: Yes.
Inspector: Am I right in thinking there's a real frog in 'ere?
Proprietor: Yes, a little one.
Inspector: What sort of frog?
Proprietor: A...a *dead* frog.
Inspector: Is it cooked?
Proprietor: No.
Inspector: What, a RAW frog?!?
Proprietor: Oh, we use only the finest baby frogs, dew-picked and flown from Iraq, cleansed in the finest quality spring water, lightly killed, and sealed in a succulent, Swiss, quintuple-smooth, treble-milk chocolate envelope, and lovingly frosted with glucose.
Inspector: That's as may be, but it's still a frog!
Proprietor: What else?
Inspector: Well, don't you even take the bones out?
Proprietor: If we took the bones out, it wouldn't be crunchy, would it?
Circe - pictured on a Chocolate Frog wizard card.
- Circe was daughter of the sun and a sorceress best known for her ability to turn men into animals with her magic wand. She is remembered for her encounter with Odysseus and his men, and renowned for her knowledge of magic and poisonous herbs. (From Encyclopedia Mythica).
Clearwater, Penelope - Percy's girlfriend. A ravenclaw prefect.
- Penelope was the ever-faithful wife of Odysseus. We can draw a very tentative link to her faithfulness in the fact that she was the only one who would tolerate and listen to Percy in his opinions on Sirius' escape at the end of PoA.
Cliodna - depicted on a Chocolate Frog wizard card
- A fairy queen and banshee of the families of South Munster (the Maccarthys). Also the Celtic goddess of beauty and the otherworld, a minor sea goddess who was drowned by her father the sea god Manaanan Mac Lir, and the daughter of the last High Druid before St Patrick.
Cockroach Cluster - a wizard "candy"
- Taken from the Monty Python "Crunchy Frog" sketch. (See entry for "Chocolate Frog" for details.)
Investigator: Well why don't you move into more conventional areas of confectionary? Like Praline, or, or Lime Creme, a very popular flavor, I'm led to understand. Or Raspberry Lite. I mean, what's this one, what's this one? 'Ere we are: Cockroach Cluster! Anthrax Ripple!
Conjunctivitis Curse - a spell that injures the eyes of the victim (Krum used this on the Chinese Fireball, Sirius suggested this for the Horntail)
- "Conjunctivitis" is the scientific name for pinkeye, the inflamation of a mucous membrane lining the inner surface of the eyeball.
Colloportus - spell used by Hermione to seal a door
- From the Latin colligo (to bind) and French porte (door).
Cornelius Oswald Fudge - see "Fudge, Cornelius Oswald"
Curse of the Bogies - A curse Professor Quirrel told his students about.
- Bogies are mischievous but harmless spirits who live in cellars, barns, attics, cupboards, hollow trees, and caves. Although they try to move with attempted stealth, their clumsiness betrays their presence with thumps, creaks and scuffles. They amuse themselves by hovering behind a person's back and thus creating a vague uneasiness, pulling blankets on cold nights and other uncreative mischief. Also they like to spy on people and listen to their conversations. However, "Bogies" is also British slang for mucus. Both would make fairly interesting curses!
Crabbe, Vincent - one of Draco Malfoy's goons
- If you switch the first letters of Crabbe and Goyle, you get "grab" and "coil", which is what a snake does to its prey. As an etymological bonus, there's the obvious connection to "crab," which can mean "an ill-tempered or grouchy person."
Croaker - MoM employee in the Department of Mysteries
- A croaker is "a person who grumbles or forebodes evil." His partner's name, Bode, has a similar meaning.
Cruciatus curse - the victim experiences extreme pain. One of the unforgiveable curses, used in torture.
- "Crucio", which is the spell word, is Latin for "to torture".
Crumple-Horned Snorkack - a creature fabricated by The Quibbler
- Sounds very much like a creature invented by Dr. Seuss.
Crup - Doglike creature with a forked tail
- Strangely enough, "crup" is the word for the rump of a horse. This probably is a nod to their strange forked tail.
Curd, Gerta - Penname of Greta Catchlove, author of Charm Your Own Cheese
- Gerta: "Gertie" is a popular name for cows.
- Curd: The part of milk that coagulates when the milk sours or is treated with enzymes. Curd is used to make cheese.
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