Pygmy Puff

Pygmy Puff
Species information
Hair colour	Pink or Purple
Related to	Puffskein Appaloosa Puffskein Fanged Puffskein
Ministry of Magic Classification	Beast XX
Status	Extant

Ginny Weasley: "They're really cute!"

Fred Weasley: "They're fairly cuddly, yes."

— Description of a Pygmy Puff

A Pygmy Puff was a miniature Puffskein, bred by Fred and George Weasley and sold at their shop Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes at 93 Diagon Alley in London, as one of the known products in the WonderWitch range. It was one of their most popular products, as George said they were having trouble breeding them fast enough for the demand.

History

Ginny looking at the Pygmy Puffs at the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes

Ginny Weasley bought a purple Pygmy Puff named Arnold in August 1996, which she played with at Hogwarts. Baby Pygmy Puffs were also for sale at the Magical Menagerie.

Ginny once joked that her brother Ron had a tattoo of a Pygmy Puff, without saying where, when Romilda Vane was pestering her about whether Harry Potter had a tattoo of a Hippogriff.

During the investigation of their 9th case, Mathilda Grimblehawk and her partner had to follow a trail of blood. When they arrived at the graveyard it led to, Mathilda said "Why am I surprised? It was hardly going to lead to a basket of Pygmy Puffs!"

Characteristics

Appearance of a Pygmy Puff

Pygmy Puffs resembled little fluffy balls that rolled around, squeaked and came in various shades of pink and purple. Luna Lovegood believed that all Pygmy Puffs sang on Boxing Day. A group of Puffskeins or Pygmy Puffs was called a poffle.

Behind the scenes

Pink and purple Pygmy Puff Plushes

• While some magical creatures can naturally change their size, Pygmy Puffs would appear to be violations of the Ban on Experimental Breeding. However, as they are merely miniature pink or purple Puffskeins, this may not count as an offence as Fred and George Weasley may have attained a special licence to breed them and/or simply used the Colour Change Charm (or Crinus Muto) with the Shrinking Charm or Diminuendo or some Shrinking Solution.
• Despite not being on the Hogwarts supply list and Argus Filch's ban on the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes products in Hogwarts, Ginny somehow managed to bring Arnold with her into the school. This may be because the Pygmy Puffs are small, harmless and not joke items, and that the ban Argus Filch placed on Weasley's Wizard Wheezes may only affect their joke products. Additionally, there is a precedent for pets not on the Hogwarts supply list being allowed, as was the case with Scabbers, who was brought to Hogwarts by Percy, then Ron.
• It was reported in the 28 November 1926 issue of The New York Ghost that a Pygmy Puff that had been mistaken for a pincushion had been rescued from a No-Maj haberdashery and it advertised Pygmy Puff Pelmanism as one of the games in its game section on the covers of its 1 December and 2 December 1926 issues but it's odd since Pygmy Puffs were bred by Fred and George Weasley in 1996, and that the breeding of magical creatures in New York was banned at the time. However, it is very possible that Fred and George Weasley did not originally create the species (meaning they had been around way before them) but simply used the breeding process.
• Pink and purple Pygmy Puff plushes of various size (some with squeeze-activated sound), earmuffs and key chains, as well as pink Pygmy Puff slippers are available for purchase at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at the Magical Menagerie, Zonko's shop and Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes (some Pygmy Puff plushes are in pink cages, exactly like in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and there is the naming ceremony, a mini-show that accompanies purchasing a pygmy puff plush, in which a shopkeeper will ring a bell and announce that you have adopted one and sometimes, the name you have chosen for yours) and on the Official online merchandise store of the park. Pygmy Puff t-shirts are also available in the theme parks including shirts with the inscription: "Mini Puffskeins - Pygmy Puffs - Peacefully Pet the Puffs", the same inscription we can see on the pygmy puff cage's label in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince during the scene in Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. Plushes are also available at Harry Potter: The Exhibition online store. A Pygmy Puff throw, keychains and plushes with sound (featuring tiny white feet protruding from the fur of the Pygmy Puff and bright blue acrylic eyes standing out against its pale pink face) are also available at the The Making of Harry Potter and its online store.
• In June 2017, Universal Orlando released a 360° VR Game, the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes Challenge. In this online game the player has to find 6 objects (including a pink and a purple pygmy puff) hidden in the 360 degree room before the time runs out, the faster the items are found, the more point the player earn. The game is available at games.universalorlando.com.
• The campaign and website www.adoptapygmypuff.com was launched by The Fwooper Foundation, an animal rights group focused on "empowering young witches and wizards to get active for the magical creatures in our world by using parallels from the Harry Potter series".  

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (First appearance)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (video game) (Mobile version only)
• The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7
• Harry Potter: The Creature Vault
• J. K. Rowling's X account (Mentioned only)
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (film) (Mentioned in articles)
• Fantastic Beasts: Cases from the Wizarding World (Hidden object in Case 7: Flames of Attraction, Mentioned in Case 9: Cloke and Dagger)
• The Making of Harry Potter
• Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells
• Harry Potter: Magic Awakened (Mentioned in History of Magic classes)

See also

• Pygmy Puff Pelmanism