Pumpkin Johnny

Pumpkin Johnny
Biographical information
Nationality	British or Irish
Physical information
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Affiliation
Loyalty	Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Pumpkin Johnny was a mysterious character which was associated with Hallowe'en.

Biography

According to Rubeus Hagrid, Johnny was a student at Hogwarts who loved pumpkins. He'd spend hours in the pumpkin patch caring for the school pumpkins and, unfortunately, was often bullied for it by the other students. One day, on Hallowe'en, one of his classmates used the Pumpkin-Head Jinx to trap Johnny's head in a pumpkin. They started to mock him, calling him Pumpkin Johnny. He was so upset, he ran into the Forbidden Forest and nobody saw him since then.

The next day, all the pumpkins in the castle were smashed. All of the students who laughed at Johnny started having horrible nightmares. They dreamt Johnny was lurking just behind them still with a pumpkin for a head. If they turned around, he would strike them with Pumpkin-Head Jinx, trapping their heads in pumpkins forever.

Pumpkin Johnny never really went away. If anyone was to knock on a pumpkin and say his name three times, Pumpkin Johnny would return and he would wreak terror on the school until those who summoned him had learned their lesson.

According to Hagrid, many students had gone looking for Pumpkin Johnny in the Forbidden Forest and never returned.

1980s

Pumpkin Johnny's graffiti

"Well, I might've made it up... I started talkin', an' the story sorta came outta me... like a pumpkin sproutin' outta the ground. Then again, I might've heard the story when I was young, and forgot about it til jus' then..."

— Rubeus Hagrid about tale of Pumpkin Johnny

On Hallowe'en at some point between 1986 and 1990, Merula Snyde, wanting to scare the other students, knocked on a pumpkin three times and called Pumpkin Johnny's name. That same night, some of the students began to have terrible nightmares involving Pumpkin Johnny. Later, someone destroyed all the pumpkins in Hagrid's garden and left pumpkin pulp graffiti on the corridor wall. Penny Haywood, Barnaby Lee, Jacob's sibling and Merula were attacked with the Melofors Jinx but were quickly disenchanted.

It turned out that Merula and Ismelda Murk were behind the attacks, playing a prank on the other students. However, they were not responsible for the destruction of pumpkins, graffiti, and even more so the nightmares that haunted the students.

At a Hallowe'en pumpkin party, Jacob's sibling was approached by someone dressed as Pumpkin Johnny and asked if they had learned their lesson that evil pranks were unacceptable. They believed them to be Ben Copper in disguise. However, just moments after Johnny left, Jacob's sibling was approached by the real Ben.

Another year, Ismelda created the Society for the Appreciation of Pumpkin Johnny in order to try to summon and control him so that she could make Hogwarts students scared of Hallowe'en again. However when she failed to summon him, she animated an army of skeletons by accident and caused them to attack Hogsmeade. Whilst hiding from the skeleton army in Dominic Maestro's Music Shop, the skeleton army was driven away to the Forbidden Forest by a figure that looked like Pumpkin Johnny, which both Jacob's sibling and Ismelda believed to be Pumpkin Johnny, though they did not get a clear look at the figure.

Magical abilities and skills

• Dark Arts: Pumpkin Johnny would supposedly use the Pumpkin-Head Jinx on students at Hogwarts if summoned, trapping their heads in pumpkins permanently.
• Legilimency (possibly): Pumpkin Johnny would supposedly give his victims nightmares warning them of his attack, a feat which Merula pointed out would only be possible using legilimency.
• Charms (possibly): Tonks pointed out that in order to control so many charmed skeletons, Pumpkin Johnny would have to be highly skilled in charms himself.

Behind the scenes

• The legend of Pumpkin Johnny is similar to that of other pop culture phantoms like Bloody Mary and Beetlejuice, who are known to be summoned if their names are said multiple times aloud.
• It is possible that he died in the Forbidden Forest and returned as a ghost to haunt people if he was real. However, no ghosts in the Harry Potter universe are currently known to be summoned by speaking their names repeatedly aloud.

Appearances

• Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery (First appearance)

See also

• Haunted pumpkin