Facts about Harry Potter that most fans don’t know!

I’m a huge fan of Harry Potter (which can’t be a secret any more since I’ve done the Harry Potter tag and showed my Hogwarts house. I do know about J.K. Rowling’s tweets, but that doesn’t mean I’m no longer a fan of Harry Potter. To me, Harry Potter is a thing that stands on its own, if you get what I mean. Anyway, I’m getting off-topic. Let’s take a look at those facts!

1. The sword of Gryffindor

It was a real sword that was sold at an auction. The designers searched for weeks for old medieval swords to create the perfect look.

2. The portraits in Hogwarts

Most portraits that can be seen hanging around Hogwarts, are based on the cast and crew of Harry Potter.

3. The magic potions

In the classroom for the subject of ‘Potions’, there were more than one thousand bottles. Those who drank the ‘potion’, were actually drinking soup. Their favourite flavours were carrot and coriander.

4. The Great Hall

Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson did their first scene in the Great Hall when they were filming the Sorting Hat scene. They had never seen the room beforehand. So their surprised faces in the film were their exact expressions!

5. Murals

Each path end of the Great Hall has two murals. They were painted in a very special way to let them look very old and almost faded.

6. Horcrux

The Horcruxes were designed by the artist Miraphora Mina, who had experience thanks to her mother’s work, who owned a jewellery store.

7. Chess needs strength

If you wanted to play chess in Harry Potter, you need to be very strong, have a lot of muscles even. A piece on its own had a weight of 225 kilograms.

8. Diagon Alley

There are more than 20.000 things in the shop windows located in the Diagon Alley. All of those items have been hand-made! Also, after the set was done, the crew used ropes and wrenches to make everything look higgledy-piggledy. Giving it an unusual look.

9. Dumbledore’s office

Most books in Dumbledore’s office are old phone books that are covered in dust.

10. Knight Bus

The Knight Bus in Harry Potter was too heavy because of its height. So, they had to add 4 tons of extra weight at the bottom, preventing it from falling over. After that, they closed an entire neighbourhood in London to film the bus scenes. And it was at a certain height that it couldn’t pass any bridges.

11. Goblin masks

There are 60 different types of Goblin masks that the designers made.

12. Letters

The design team wrote thousands of letters by hand until they found out that the owls couldn’t carry them. Why? Because they were too heavy. So, they had to rewrite/redo them all. On top of that: it took them 6 months to teach the owls how to carry the letters.

13. Hagrid’s hut

It has been rebuilt twice. The first one was oversized with oversized stuff and furniture, making the actors look small. The other hut was normally decorated, so the actor playing Hagrid looked like a half-giant.

14. Baby ostriches

The crew got baby ostriches for the film, who could sit in baskets and cages in Hagrid’s hut. Though, when they appeared on set, they were too big to even fit.

15. Hogwarts’ stairs

Only one stair has been built in the Hogwarts’ stairwell. The others were added digitally.

16. The Weasley clock

The hands of the clock are actually scissors. The pictures were put in the holes of the handles. The designer bought an antique clock to make it look whole.

17. Hagrid’s hair

His haircut and beard are made of six hairpieces. And speaking of his beard: things got stuck in there, multiple times. Even living bats.

18. Privet Drive

The scenes at the Privet Drive from Harry Potter were filmed in a real street. In the end, more replicas of the houses needed to be build because they needed more footage. However, they no longer had access to the original house.

19. Ministry of Magic

The tiles in the Ministry of Magic’s atrium were made from thick cardboard since real ceramic would’ve been way too expensive. They’ve painted 30.000 ’tiles’ and placed them.

20. Dobby

Dobby’s ears were based on the ears of the dog named Max. He was walking around in the design department at the time and kept crawling under their desks.

21. Bellatrix’ safe door

The door in Bellatrix’ safe in Gringotts was a real working door! It took them three months to make this!

22. Hogwarts interior

All shots on the outside of Hogwarts were made with the same model, like the door described above. It took them seven months to make and there were 40 people in the team. The design of the bridge alone, took them three months.

23. Sets

They made about 600 different types of sets for all eight Harry Potter films. Some of them are still standing there, no longer in usage. However, some were only used for a couple of minutes.

24. Kittens

40 kittens were bought to create a video shoot in front of the signs in professor Omber’s office. After the Harry Potter films were shot, they were all adopted!

Which Harry Potter fact didn’t you know?

Love, Deem ❤

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