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!"

- 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 chosen by students in their third year. 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.

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.

In a students fifth year they take the Ordinary Wizarding Level examination where they sit both a written portion and a practical portion, were they demonstrate their knowledge. On their Care of Magical Creatures practical they had to identify a knarl hidden among a dozen hedgehogs; demonstrate correct handling of a bowtruckle; feed and clean out a fire crab without sustaining serious burns; choose from a wide selection of food the diet they would give a sick unicorn.

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, 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:

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

Required 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

Pass

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

Fail

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

Behind the scenes

 * As revealed in, J. K. Rowling had originally devised this class to be called "Beasts", and to be compulsory from the first year.
 * The year in which creatures are covered seems to depend on the teacher. Silvanus Kettleburn covered salamanders with Fred and George Weasley in their fourth year, while Rubeus Hagrid taught about salamanders in Harry Potter's third year. Hermione Granger stated that a person like Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank probably wouldn´t have covered Thestrals until reaching NEWT-level, whereas Rubeus Hagrid taught about Thestrals in Harry's fifth year.
 * As of the late 20th century, many students have earned good grades in this class, something Albus Dumbledore attributed to the use of Fantastic Beasts and where to Find Them as a textbook.

Appearances

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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