In the opening chapter of the final book, Voldemort murders Professor Charity Burbage because she portrays Muggles in a positive light and is opposed to limiting wizardry to only people of pure-blood origins. For the rest of the academic year covered by Deathly Hallows, the Death Eater Alecto Carrow teaches Muggle Studies. However, her lessons (which are made compulsory) mainly describe Muggles and Muggle-borns as subhuman and worthy of persecution. A horcrux is an object created using dark magic to attain effective immortality. The concept is first introduced in the sixth novel, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, although horcruxes are present in earlier novels without being explained or identified as such.

Other known parselmouths include Salazar Slytherin and his descendants, including the Gaunts and Voldemort. Dumbledore could also understand parseltongue; he learned it and did not naturally possess the ability. [14] In Half-Blood Prince, he repeats Morfin Gaunt's words "the big house over the way", which were spoken in parseltongue.Rowling to kill two in final book". BBC News. 27 June 2006. Archived from the original on 3 August 2009 . Retrieved 25 July 2007. Further information: Harry Potter fandom "Platform 9 + 3⁄ 4" sign on London King's Cross railway station

A real-life version of the sport Quidditch was created in 2005 and featured as an exhibition tournament in the 2012 London Olympics. [186] Characters and elements from the series have inspired scientific names of several organisms, including the dinosaur Dracorex hogwartsia, the spider Eriovixia gryffindori, the wasp Ampulex dementor, and the crab Harryplax severus. [187] Wilson, Andrew (2006). "Harry Potter in Greek". Andrew Wilson. Archived from the original on 21 June 2008 . Retrieved 28 July 2008.Rowling, J.K. (6 September 2016). Pottermore presents: Short stories from Hogwarts of heroism, hardship, and dangerous hobbies. Pottermore. ISBN 978-1-78110-628-0. Sedlmayr, Gerold; Waller, Nicole (28 October 2014). Politics in Fantasy Media: Essays on Ideology and Gender in Fiction, Film, Television and Games. McFarland & Company. p.132. ISBN 9781476617558. During this press conference, Rowling stated that the Bible quotations in that novel "almost epitomize the whole series. I think they sum up all the themes in the whole series" (reported in Adler). is a corpse controlled through a dark wizard's spells. An inferius is not alive, but a dead body that has been bewitched into acting like a puppet for the witch or wizard; this manifests as a white mist in the controlled corpse's eyes. They do not think for themselves: They are created to perform a specific duty assigned by the dark wizard who commands them, and as seen in the inferi guarding Voldemort's horcrux in a seaside cave, remain idle until their task can be performed. This task is then thoughtlessly carried out, whether or not it will produce any result. Inferi are difficult to harm by magic; however, they can be repelled by fire or any other forms of heat or light, as the inferi in Voldemort's cave are. When defeated, they return to their idle state.