Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington

Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington (also known as Nearly Headless Nick or just Sir Nicholas) (died October 31, 1492) is resident ghost of Gryffindor Tower at the Hogwarts Castle.

Death (1492)
Sir Nicholas was sentenced to death by beheading after a teeth-straightening spell went awry on a Lady Grieve. Unfortunately the executioner's axe was blunt and after forty-five hacks Nick's head was only partially severed. Nicholas died on October 31st 1492.

Events surrounding the re-opening of the Chamber of Secrets (1992)
Harry Potter, Nick's friend from the previous year attends his Deathday Party (the 500th anniversary of the event) in a Dungeon at Hogwarts. To Nick's great annoyance, his head was not off enough to join in the games of the Headless Hunt, a society of ghosts who had been decapitated on earth (a source of annual vexation to the ghost). During the 1992 school year, when the Chamber of Secrets was opened, he was one of those petrified by the Basilisk, which suggests that he might be Muggle-born, though it might have been simply a coincidence. By the end of the year he was revived (back to being a ghost).

1996
After Sirius Black, Harry's godfather is killed, Harry asks Nick if he can return as a ghost. Nick explains that only a wizard afraid of death can become a ghost. The alternative is moving on. However, such a thing did not happen to Lord Voldemort.

Behind the scenes
In the first draft of 'Chamber of Secrets', Nick sang a self-penned ballad explaining how his head had (nearly) come off:
 * In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Nick says he hasn't eaten in nearly 400 years. Yet he had, at the time, already been dead for ninety-nine years longer than that.
 * The Harry Potter timeline is based upon Nick's deathday party in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Having died in 1492, and celebrating his 500th death day, this ostensibly places the novels in the early to mid 1990s.

It was a mistake any wizard could make

Who was tired and caught on the hop

One piffling error, and then, to my terror,

I found myself facing the chop.

Alas for the eve when I met Lady Grieve

A-strolling the park in the dusk!

She was of the belief I could straighten her teeth

Next moment she'd sprouted a tusk.

I cried through the night that I'd soon put her right

But the process of justice was lax;

They'd brought out the block, though they'd mislaid the rock

Where they usually sharpened the axe.

Next morning at dawn, with a face most forlorn,

The priest said to try not to cry,

"You can come just like that, no, you won't need a hat,"

And I knew that my end must be nigh.

The man in the mask who would have the sad task

Of cleaving my head from my neck,

Said "Nick, if you please, will you get to your knees,"

And I turned to a gibbering wreck.

"This may sting a bit" said the cack-handed twit

As he swung the axe up in the air,

''But oh the blunt blade! No difference it made,''

My head was still definitely there.

The axeman he hacked and he whacked and he thwacked,

"Won't be too long", he assured me,

But quick it was not, and the bone-headed clot

Took forty-five goes 'til he floored me.

And so I was dead, but my faithful old head

It never saw fit to desert me,

It still lingers on, that's the end of my song,

And now, please applaud, or you'll hurt me.


 * While most of the Hogwarts students call him "Nearly Headless Nick," he prefers the more formal "Sir Nicholas de Mimsy Porpington" or "Sir Nicholas."
 * Nick's death was the same day as Lily and James Potter, October 31st, but different years.
 * Although Nick claims that he has never been guilty of cowardice in his life, he also claims to have broken down sobbing when they told him that he would die.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
 * Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game)
 * ''Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix *
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film) {(Ghost}}
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows