Percival Pratt

Percival Pratt
Biographical information
Died	Before 1991 (possibly)
Physical information
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Hair colour	Brown
Eye colour	Blue
Skin colour	White
Relationship information
Family members	Ferdinand Octavius Pratt (possibly)
Affiliation
Occupation	Poet
House	Gryffindor (possibly)
Loyalty	Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

"I'm a man of few words — I rarely speak. Find someone else if discourse you seek."

— Percival Pratt's portrait

Percival Pratt was a wizard poet.

Biography

He had a portrait hung in Hogwarts Castle's Grand Staircase. In his portrait, he was portrayed as a man in red robes, writing on his desk, with a starry sky and a full moon behind him. He was often heard saying rhymes and riddles to students who walked by. He often encouraged students to "take time every day to rhyme what [they] say." Up until the 1995–1996 school year, Pratt's portrait guarded a shortcut between the Grand Staircase and the Boathouse. The password of this shortcut was "This password is absurd".

Etymology

The name "Percival" was created by the 12th-century French poet Chrétien de Troyes for his poem Perceval, the Story of the Grail. In the poem, Perceval was one of King Arthur's knights of the Round Table who was given a glimpse of the Holy Grail. The character (and probably the name) of Perceval was based on that of the Welsh hero Peredur. The spelling was perhaps altered under the influence of Old French percer val "to pierce the valley".

E. J. Pratt (1882–1964) was a celebrated Canadian poet who has won the country's Governor General's Award for poetry three times, and who has been called "the foremost Canadian poet of the first half of the century."

Behind the scenes

• The Weasley family, students at Hogwarts during the time when Percival's photo hung there, often described their brother Percy as 'a prat'. It is an amusing coincidence that "Percy's a prat" sounds so similar to this wizard's name.
• Pratt may have died sometime prior to 1991, as many portraits hung at Hogwarts Castle depict deceased individuals. Some art historians have assigned it to the latter half of the sixteenth century or the first decade of the seventeenth century on stylistic grounds.
• Percival's portrait seems to have been based on a circa 1620 portrait of English playwright John Fletcher (1579–1625), by an unknown artist.
• Phineas St Gruber's portrait seems to be identical to the Percival Pratt's only fliped horizontally.

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film) (First appearance) (Appears in portrait(s))
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film) (Appears in portrait(s))
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film) (Appears in portrait(s))
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (video game) (Appears in portrait(s))
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film) (Appears in portrait(s))
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game) (First identified as Percival Pratt) (Appears in portrait(s))
• Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery (Appears in portrait(s))
• Harry Potter: Magic Awakened (Appears in portrait(s))