Care of Magical Creatures

"C'mon, now, get a move on! Got a real treat for yeh today! Great lesson comon' up! Everyone here? Right, follow me!"

- Rubeus Hagrid at his first Care of Magical Creatures lesson

Care of Magical Creatures is an elective course at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry that can be taken by students Third year and above. In the class, students learn about a wide range of magical creatures, from flobberworms to Fire crabs, and even unicorns and thestrals. Students are taught about feeding, maintaining, breeding, and proper treatment of these various creatures. The witches and wizards who succeeded in achieving an O. W. L. in the subject later could become Magizoologists. Some known magizoologists were Newt Scamander, his grandson Rolf Scamander and his wife Luna Scamander (née Lovegood).

Class location
Care of Magical Creatures classes typically take place outside of Hagrid's hut, but some lessons occasionally take place in the Forbidden Forest, such as the Thestral lesson.

Class information
"My brother Charlie was the outdoors type, so he went for Care of Magical Creatures."

- Percy Weasley on choosing subjects in third year

Care of Magical Creatures is a subject taught only to those in their Third year or above who choose to take it.

It is unknown how many of Harry Potter's fellow students chose to continue Care of Magical Creatures in their N.E.W.T. year, however Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger left the subject after completing their O.W.L.s.

Staffing


Silvanus Kettleburn taught Care of Magical Creatures until 1993, when he retired "to enjoy more time with his remaining limbs." He was succeeded by Rubeus Hagrid, whose lessons became controversial after Draco Malfoy was injured by a Hippogriff. After Malfoy was injured, Hagrid was more restrained in the animals he showed to the class for the remainder of the year. Hagrid occasionally brought creatures that were illegal to class. Hermione Granger attempted to organise Hagrid's classes in order to make him a better teacher and prevent him from being fired. In his second year of teaching the subject, Hagrid introduced the his fourth year class to Blast-Ended Skrewts during his lessons, a species of illegally bred creatures.

During the 1994–1995 school year Hagrid was replaced, for a short time, as Care of Magical Creatures Professor by Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank who gave lessons on Bowtruckles and Unicorns.

Creatures
Among the creatures the students learned about in these lessons during Harry's school period were:

Third year



 * Hippogriffs - Practical lesson which culminated in Buckbeak "savagely mauling" Draco Malfoy. It was actually only a small injury that Malfoy played up for several reasons. Among those are to get Hagrid in trouble, to annoy Harry, Ron, and Hermione, to get out of playing the Quidditch match vs. Gryffindor in bad weather, and to get some of his school work extended or done for him.
 * Flobberworms - Dull lessons which mostly involved feeding them lettuce, which resulted in them dying from being overfed. The third year exam for the class involved caring for these creatures for one hour, with a pass given if they were alive at the end of the exam. Since flobberworms do best if left to their own devices, it was the easiest exam anyone in the class had ever taken.
 * Salamanders - Taught while Hagrid was depressed about Buckbeak's pending execution.

Fourth year

 * Blast-Ended Skrewts - Raised as a project throughout the year. All ended up killing each other, with only two remaining by the Third Task, and only one by the end of the year. These were possibly illegally bred mixes of Manticores and Fire crabs.
 * Nifflers - A practical lesson which involved searching for leprechaun gold.
 * Unicorns - Adults and foals; the adult lessons were mostly girl-dominant, while the foals allowed the boys to approach.

Fifth year

 * Thestrals - Lesson was mostly impeded by Dolores Umbridge.
 * Bowtruckles - Classwork and homework involved sketching a Bowtruckle.

Other
Other creatures shown to classes across the years include:
 * Crups
 * Fire crabs
 * Knarls
 * Kneazles
 * Porlocks

Textbooks


"Hasn' anyone bin able ter open their books? Yeh've got to stroke 'em."

- Hagrid in his first lesson of magical creatures; he thought the books were funny.

During Professor Hagrid's time teaching, Third-Year students used The Monster Book of Monsters, a book which would attempt to bite anyone near it unless stroked along the spine. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was also a textbook used in this class.

Pass

 * Outstanding [O]
 * Exceeds Expectations [E]
 * Acceptable [A]

Fail

 * Poor [P]
 * Dreadful [D]
 * Troll [T]

Known O.W.L.s

 * Angelina Johnson
 * Barty Crouch Jr.
 * Bill Weasley
 * Charles Weasley
 * Harry Potter
 * Hermione Granger
 * Percy Weasley
 * Ron Weasley
 * Newt Scamander
 * Rolf Scamander
 * Luna Lovegood

Behind the scenes

 * As revealed in Pottermore, J. K. Rowling had originally devised this class to be called "Beasts", and to be compulsory from the first year.

Appearances

 * Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)
 * Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game)
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
 * Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (video game)
 * LEGO Harry Potter: Building the Magical World
 * LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
 * Harry Potter Trading Card Game
 * Pottermore

Notes and references
Cuidado de Criaturas Mágicas Pflege magischer Geschöpfe Soins aux créatures magiques Verzorging van Fabeldieren Opieka nad magicznymi stworzeniami Уход за магическими существами