Forum:Questions to J. K. Rowling

Hi folks,

I'm admin in the german Harry Potter lexicon. Currently we're planning to send J. K. Rowling some questions no-one could answer in our discussions yet. So we want to send these questions to J. K. Rowling via a link to the wiki via twitter. Because we have to translate them into english anyway, we thought, that you might be interested in hosting the questions in your wiki so both the german and the english wiki can benefit from a possible answer by her. Additionally you could add your own questions. Now it's up to you to post them below. Make sure, that the question cannot be answered by the wiki or any other official source.

Below you can find the official description and the suggestions made by our german community members:

Questions to J. K. Rowling is a community project by Maxbrgmnn founded at 2018-01-25. It collects questions, which could not yet been answered in the discussions itself or by the wiki or any other official source. These questions will be send to J. K. Rowling's twitter account via tweet.

Questions

 * Ghosts and portraits
 * How do ghosts come into existence? Are they either actual souls or just some kind of reflection? If they are reflections, what happens to their actual souls? Do they go to the afterworld or do they just be no more?
 * What would happen if a ghost would hover through the veil in the Department of Mysteries?
 * Is it possible to become immortal using a portrait and how do portraits actually work? How is it possible for a portrait to have all the knowledge of the person it draws a likeness of?
 * Why does Peeves fear the Bloody Baron?
 * What are the Bloody Baron and the Fat Friar's real names?
 * Spells, potions and curses
 * Polyjuice Potion
 * What would be use cases for Polyjuice Potion besides those we already saw in the books?
 * Is it possible to have kind of beneficial human-animal-hybrids?
 * How to invent/develop your own spell? Are therefore any preconditions or qualifications needed?
 * How do Memory Charms work? Are there any laws concerning the use of memory charms? In case of an illegal use of a memory charm, how would the elements of an offense be called?
 * In which way was Voldemort actually able to curse the position of the DADA professor? Usually you can just curse things or people. Is that possible anyway and if it is, is it just a different use case or in fact a more dark and/or difficult level of magic?
 * How do some "coincidences" happen when someone consumed Felix Felicis? Does it just increase the user's confidence?
 * Was Narcissa Malfoy using Occlumency when confirming Harry's "death" to Voldemort, or was he simply not using Legilimency on her at the time?
 * Could an animagus morph into a magical creature?
 * Creatures, beasts and beings
 * Boggarts
 * What did Mad Eye Moody see when he used his magical eye to look into the cabinet containing a boggart in Number 12 Grimauld Place? Does he know what a Boggart's true form looks like, or would the boggart inside know that it was being looked at and transform into whatever Moody's worst fear was?
 * Can a boggart take on the abilities of what it transforms into? For example, if a boggart transformed into a snake or a spider, would it have actual venom like the real creatures?
 * Dementors
 * In which way does the ministry or its employees communicate with dementors?
 * What happened to the dementors after Azkaban stopped using them? Also, what happened to the Dementors who joined Voldemort's side in the Battle of Hogwarts? As a Dementor is impossible to truly get rid of, they must have gone somewhere after the end of the war.
 * Loch Ness Monster
 * Why did the wizarding authorities in Scotland clearly reject Hagrid's proposal to move the Loch Ness Monster to the Black Lake to prevent further breaches of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy?
 * Is the Kelpie seen in actually meant to be the Loch Ness Monster? It is rather large, lives in a Scottish loch, and appears to be taking a form slightly more similar to a sea serpent than to the species' usual horse form.
 * Magical Creature Law
 * Why was the breeding of the Blast-Ended Skrewts and Pygmy Puffs allowed despite the fact that both are clear violations of the Ban on Experimental Breeding?
 * Why was Ginny allowed to bring Arnold the Pygmy Puff into Hogwarts despite Filch's distinct ban on products from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes?
 * If you were an animagus and were bitten by a werewolf can you be healed by immediately morphing into your animagus body? Or can you prevent morphing into a werewolf when it's full moon when morphing into your animagus body?
 * What would happen if someone drank unicorn blood without killing the unicorn. Would the person's life still be cursed, or would they get the benefits without the costs due to not having killed the animal? Or, is it impossible to get the benefits without killing the animal?
 * How did the Giant Squid get into the Black Lake? Was it always native to the area, or did someone put it there? Or is the theory true that it is actually Godric Gryffindor himself in his animagus body who was able to become some kind of immortal or even just way older than usual?
 * Were any of the creatures Luna believed in real? Wrackspurts are seen in, but that scene isn't canon due to Luna finding Harry on the Hogwarts Express and not Tonks. We also know that Luna discovered many magical creatures after she left Hogwarts. Were any of her supposed "mythical" creatures among them?
 * Is the Blood-Sucking Bugbear which Hagrid blamed for the killing of his roosters classified as a Beast or a Non-Being, considering that, in our world, "Bugbear" has become another term for "Boggart"?
 * What happened to the Gringott's Dragon after it flew away after depositing Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the lake in ?
 * Where did Fawkes go after leaving Hogwarts in ?
 * What happened to Mosag and the rest of the Acromantula colony after the Battle of Hogwarts? We know that they were driven out of their nest during the battle, but did they return once it had concluded?
 * Has the giant species become functionally extinct due to the extremely small population size, the extremely high level of giant casualties during the Battle of Hogwarts, and the only confirmed survival of half-giants and Grawp after the Battle? If they aren't extinct, what happened to the few survivors after the end of the Second Wizarding War?
 * Where is the Swooping Evil native to? Newt states that "the locals" call the creature the Swooping Evil, but which locals is he talking about?
 * How is the Giant Dung Beetle different from its non-magical cousin, aside from its size and the three horns on its head? Does it have any magical abilities?
 * Is the Transforming rabbit seen at the Magical Menagerie in which can transform itself back and forth between a rabbit and a top hat at will a different species from a normal rabbit, or is it a normal rabbit that is enchanted to transform?
 * Are the "poisonous orange snails" seen at the Magical Menagerie in supposed to be Streelers, or are they a separate but related species?
 * Are Stormswift, Fleetwing, and Hothoof actually part of the Hogwarts Hippogriff herd, or were they earlier names for Buckbeak?
 * What happened to the final Blast-Ended Skrewt? Was it released into the Forest? Did Hagrid keep it for eventual re-breeding of the species? Did it die?
 * Horcruxes
 * What happens when it comes to a dementor's kiss with a human horcrux?
 * Do dementors recognize horcruxes? Are they souls for them? And if yes, could they remove them from a human horcrux without damaging his own soul?
 * Could a dementor remove a piece of soul from a non-human Horcrux? If they can, was that part of the reason why Voldemort was so quick to convince them to join his side?
 * If were able to take the horcrux from a human horcrux, would it stay intact and would they be affected by it?
 * Is it possible to work as your own human horcrux despite the fact that this would not make sense for protecting that pice of your soul?
 * Could you accidently remove your whole soul when trying to create a horcrux?
 * Is a horcrux itself splittable and/or is it possible to make horcruxes from other person's souls instead of your own?
 * Why did Voldemort not use an object from Gryffindor in the creation of his Horcruxes (not counting Harry, as Voldemort didn't intend to make him a Horcrux)? He used objects from all of the other houses, so why not Gryffindor?
 * Quidditch
 * What happens when it comes to a draw in the end of a quidditch game? Play-off? Golden Goal? Penalty shootout?
 * What is known about the 2018 Quidditch World Cup? Where is it held? Which countries are participating?
 * Has it ever happened that both Seekers caught the Golden Snitch at the same time? How does such an event affect the final result?
 * Order of Merlin
 * Were the other participants and casualties of the Battle of Hogwarts and the Second Wizarding War (ex: Alastor Moody, Nymphadora Tonks, Severus Snape, the Fallen Fifty, etc.) awarded with the Order following the fall of Voldemort?
 * What level of disgrace does it take to have such an award stripped (as threatened to Dumbledore in Order of the Phoenix)?
 * Was Peter Pettigrew's award retracted and given to Sirius Black instead for his later heroics in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries?
 * Is the Order of Merlin a British wizardkind award only, or is it an international award? If it is only a British national wizarding award, are there other national wizarding awards in other countries equivalent to it?
 * Characters
 * Was Ariana Dumbledore an Obscurial?
 * What is the full name of 40th student of the Original Forty?
 * What are the full names of Hermione Granger's parents?
 * Was the tweet about Kreacher's death actually correct? Did he actually die at age 666, or was it just a response to the criticism Rowling was getting for supposedly having Nicholas Flamel die at the same age?
 * Was Golgomath part of the Battle of Hogwarts? If he was, what happened to him after the end of the Battle?
 * Was Roger Davies actually one year, or two years above Harry?
 * Is the statement "Kingsley Shacklebolt schooled at Hogwarts" considered canon? If so, what House was he in?
 * Have all, or has any, of the band members of the Weird Sisters, gone to Hogwarts as students?
 * Hogwarts
 * Is the Room of Hidden Things accesible since Crabbe destroyed much of it with Fiendfyre?
 * Why was something as intricate and important to the school's history as the Sorting Ceremony left out of Hogwarts: A History?
 * Why was the fact that house-elves worked at Hogwarts left out of Hogwarts: A History? As house elves are commonly seen working for wizards, why would them working at Hogwarts be specifically left out of the book?
 * What happened to the Chamber of Secrets after the events of ? With its sole purpose, containing a Basilisk to kill Muggle-born students, now obsolete, would the Chamber be left abandoned and sealed forever, or would it become a new, usable room in the school?
 * Hogwarts Professors
 * Where do the professors live or sleep at Hogwarts? Hagrid has a hut, but we don't see any of the other professors' homes.
 * Which Hogwarts Professors from Harry's time are still teaching at Hogwarts in 2018? Are there any other characters that we know of (besides Neville Longbottom) teaching?
 * Was Albus Dumbledore the Head of Gryffindor House before Minerva McGonagall, during his time as the Transfiguration teacher?
 * Prefects and Head Boys/Girls
 * When Hermione Granger returned to Hogwarts for her 7th year, was she a Prefect?
 * Were there any Prefects, a Head Boy or a Head Girl during Voldemort's takeover (1997-1998 school year)? If no, did Hogwarts choose Prefects among both 5th and 6th years the next school year?
 * Was Penelope Clearwater Head Girl during Harry's 3rd year?
 * During Voldemort's takeover, education at Hogwarts was changed and later disrupted by the Battle of Hogwarts in May. Did fifth and seventh year students take their O.W.L and N.E.W.T exams anyway, even though the curriculum had changed to suit Voldemort's viewpoint, and the events/deaths probably affected their ability to focus on their education? Would any grade achieved from such a year of education, be acceptable when applying for work since the education they should have received, was not provided?
 * Because education was completely changed that year, would every year have to retake the same year of education? Therefore, would the students due to begin Hogwarts in the 1998-1999 school year be merged with the previous first years?
 * Wizarding Schools
 * What are the other four wizarding schools mentioned on Pottermore? Pottermore has stated that there are 11 wizarding schools, but only seven (Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, Castelobruxo, Durmstrang, Ilvermorny, Mahoutokoro, and Uagadou) are actually listed on the site. Rowling has mentioned that there are Australian and Canadian wizarding schools, both of which still remain unnamed, and Koldovstoretz does exist in Russia, but what is the final school and where is it located?

Fantastic Beasts specific questions
These questions are stored under this separate headline because they might be answered in upcoming films of the Fantastic Beasts series:
 * How did Newt Scamander tame a Nundu in despite his own book stating that they are classed as XXXXX and thus are impossible to tame?
 * Why did Glanmore Peakes have to slay the Sea Serpent of Cromer, as Sea serpents are described in as being completly harmless to humans?
 * We know that Newt Scamander worked with Ukrainian Ironbellies on the Eastern Front during WWI as part of a program and that the dragons would only listen to him, but what exactly was the program that Newt was working for? Also, why would the untamable dragons listen to Newt at all?
 * What happened to the real Percival Graves? Was he killed to uphold the masquerade, or kept in captivity (possibly in Nurmengard)? And if the latter, was he ever found and freed?
 * How is Newt riding a Kelpie in the trailers for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald despite the fact that a Kelpie can only be ridden if a Placement Charm is used to place a bridle on the creature's head?
 * What happened to Modesty Barebone after ? We last see her being left alone in her old home, but we have no idea what happened to her after that.

Participants
Best regards, Zuri, 00:54, May 20, 2018 (UTC)