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Ted Tonks: "The Prophet? You deserved to be lied to if you're still reading that muck, Dirk. You want the facts?, try The Quibbler."
Dirk Cresswell: "The Quibbler? That lunatic rag of Xenophilius Lovegood's?"
Ted Tonks: "It's not so lunatic these days, you'll want to give it a look. Xeno is printing all the stuff the Prophet's ignoring, not a single mention of Crumple-Horned Snorkacks in the last issue. How long they'll let you get away with it, mind, I don't know. But Xeno says, front page of every issue, that any wizard who's against You-Know-Who ought to make helping Harry Potter their number-one priority."
Ted Tonks and Dirk Cresswell discussing The Quibbler in 1997[src]

The Quibbler, marketed as The Wizarding World's Alternative Voice, was a wizarding tabloid published and edited by Xenophilius Lovegood, father of Luna Lovegood. Luna gained every issue of The Quibbler when it was published, which often contributed to her eccentric beliefs.[1]

The Quibbler published odd articles, including conspiracy theories and discussions of imaginary creatures;[1][2][3] it also published Rita Skeeter's interview of Harry Potter on Lord Voldemort's return.[4] Many thought The Quibbler was rubbish, including Hermione Granger,[1] Rita Skeeter,[4] Jacob's sibling and Dirk Cresswell; the latter referred to it as a "lunatic rag".[5] When Hermione informed Rita that she would be publishing the interview in The Quibbler, Rita looked at Hermione with disdain.[4]

History[]

Quibbler No1

Publishing of The Quibbler started by the 1980s. The magazine published many ridiculous articles, such as those on the supposed existence of the Crumple-Horned Snorkack. At some point in or before 1987, the magazine had an article about a witch who did not know she was a werewolf.[6]

Reading The Quibbler was part of sixth year Divination classes during the 1989–1990 school year,[7][8][9] and seventh year classes during the 1990–1991 school year.[10] There was at least one mention of Celestina Warbeck saying something, which students did not believe was something she actually said.[7]

In July or August 1995, the magazine published an edition with an article that put forward the theory that Sirius Black was actually the reclusive rock star Stubby Boardman.[1] When Harry Potter read the article on the Hogwarts Express, he found it to be total rubbish. The same issue also had a segment written in Runes which caused the reader to look at the magazine upside down, which was probably why Luna Lovegood read it upside down.[1]

Interview with Harry Potter[]

"Dad's reprinting!....I can't believe it, he says people seem even more interested in this than the Crumple-Horned Snorkacks!"
Luna Lovegood[src]
Quibbler 4

A copy of The Quibbler

The Quibbler scored a journalistic coup in February of 1996 when the magazine agreed to run an interview with Harry Potter concerning the Rebirth of Lord Voldemort.[4] The interview, given by ex-Daily Prophet columnist Rita Skeeter, was published in the March edition, and as it offered another take on recent events, the magazine quickly sold out.[4]

Dolores Umbridge, a Ministry bureaucrat acting as the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, Hogwarts High Inquisitor, and later Headmistress at Hogwarts, banned students from having copies of The Quibbler after this article, as she and the Ministry were intent on denying Voldemort's return.[11]

Quibbler 3

A copy of The Quibbler

However, Hermione was very pleased about this, saying that the one thing Umbridge could have done to make all the students (and teachers) want to read it was to ban it, as the students were very focused on rebelling against the sadistic tyrant. Harry received lots of fan mail during breakfast at the Great Hall, and some letters said he had them convinced, especially after the Ministry's poor reaction to the 1996 mass breakout from Azkaban.

In the article, he names all the Death Eaters he saw in the Little Hangleton graveyard and gives as many details as he could have the night Voldemort returned. Though Rita was displeased about writing for The Quibbler, and even more displeased that she wasn't going to get paid for it, she was blackmailed into writing the article by Hermione, who threatened to reveal to the world that Skeeter was an unregistered Animagus.[4]

The Quibbler

Printing The Quibbler

The interview with Harry went on to be one of the biggest selling individual issues ever.[11] After the Battle of the Department of Mysteries and the world was forced to believe Voldemort had returned, the Daily Prophet began to stop slandering Harry Potter and call him the "lone voice of truth".

In addition, they used this interview in their paper, calling it "exclusive", even though it was printed in The Quibbler months ago.[12] By late summer that same year, The Quibbler had returned to its usual form, offering an issue with free Spectrespecs to see Wrackspurts.[13]

Second Wizarding War[]

QuibblerWhereisTheChosenOne

During the height of the Second Wizarding War, when Voldemort took over the Ministry of Magic, The Quibbler was one of the only media outlets to print the truth and publicly support Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.[5] To combat this dissent, the Death Eaters abducted Luna, and held her hostage against Xenophilius's good behaviour in the basement of Malfoy Manor.[14]

Quibbler

The Quibbler turning on Harry

Due to his daughter's capture, Xenophilus began printing stories advocating the capture of "Undesirable No. 1" (Harry). He did this in an attempt to gain the Death Eater's favor and to keep Luna from further harm.

When Harry, Hermione, and Ron Weasley came to visit his home in the spring of 1998, Xenophilius tried to turn them in to the Ministry (i.e. the Death Eaters) in a desperate attempt to get his daughter back. The trio narrowly escaped, and Xenophilius was imprisoned in Azkaban. His house was blown up and completely destroyed because of an erumpent horn.[14]

Later work[]

"[The Quibbler] has returned to its usual condition of advanced lunacy, and is appreciated for its unintentional humour."
J. K. Rowling on The Quibbler after the defeat of Voldemort
Quibbler 5

After Voldemort's defeat, The Quibbler returned to printing its strange theories, possibly including proof of the existence of some creatures discovered by Luna, who became a famous wizarding naturalist.[15][16]

In an issue release before or during the 2008–2009 school year was an article about Ivy Warrington using the Vanishing Spell on her sister Winifred.[17]

During the Calamity in the late 2010s and early 2020s, a Calamity Investigator working for the Statute of Secrecy Task Force convinced Xenophilius Lovegood to allow The Quibbler to be used as an alternative wrapper for fish and chips in wizarding pubs after the Daily Prophet's new focus on hard news reduced the size of its editions. Xenophilius later wrote an article in an issue of The Quibbler outlining various horticultural techniques to attract certain "unconfirmed" magical creatures. This article was read by the same Calamity Investigator, who, although they found no support for the article's ideas, used the concepts presented within it to help increase the effect time for their Greenhouse Charm.[18]

The same Calamity Investigator also read through hundreds of editions of The Quibbler in order to learn more about their history of documenting the many, if often unconfirmed, wonders of the wizarding world, emerging from the experience more aware than before. The Quibbler later ran a story claiming that each Confoundable was linked to the Foundable it protected.

The story was read by the same Calamity Investigator, who found the story so ridiculous that they decided they might have been missing something about Confoundables. The investigator decided to change up their spellcasting methods and found that doing so actually reduced the likelihood that Confoundables would try to flee from them in combat.[18]

Known articles[]

Main article: The Quibbler articles

Best-selling Quibbler[]

"HARRY POTTER SPEAKS OUT AT LAST: THE TRUTH ABOUT HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED AND THE NIGHT I SAW HIM RETURN"
— a label in front cover of March 1996 edition of The Quibbler[src]
Quibbler-Luna

Luna reading The Quibbler (upside down)

In an effort to make people believe Harry Potter's story of what happened in the graveyard on the night of Lord Voldemort's return, Hermione Granger arranged for an interview between him and Rita Skeeter to be published in The Quibbler, as the Daily Prophet was painting Harry as either a liar or a nutter, in line with the Ministry's stance that the Dark Lord had not returned.[4]

This turned out to be the best-selling issue of all time. Dolores Umbridge banned the magazine from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Educational Decree Number Twenty-Seven once this interview was printed, but students found ways to magically hide the magazine and read it anyway, with many of them reading it purely because Umbridge banned it.

This caused a surge in the popularity of The Quibbler making it have to reprint.[11] Xenophilius eventually sold the story to the Daily Prophet once the Ministry was forced to admit that Voldemort had returned, and he and Luna used the money to travel to Sweden in search of Crumple-Horned Snorkacks.[12]

Etymology[]

To 'quibble' is to avoid or to be vague, so therefore a 'quibbler' is one who avoids or is vague.

Behind the scenes[]

Appearances[]

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Notes and references[]

  1. 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 10 (Luna Lovegood)
  2. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 16 (In The Hog's Head)
  3. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 34 (The Department of Mysteries)
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 25 (The Beetle at Bay)
  5. 5.0 5.1 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 15 (The Goblin's Revenge)
  6. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, Year 3, Side Quest "Audition for the Frog Choir"
  7. 7.0 7.1 Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, Year 6, Chapter 7 (Niffler Hunting) - Divination Lesson "Cartomancy"
  8. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, Year 6, Chapter 11 (Love in a Bottle) - Divination Lesson "Crystal-gazing"
  9. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, Year 6, Chapter 13 (On the Run)
  10. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, Year 7, Chapter 47 (The Circle and the Crown) - Divination Lesson "Lithomancy"
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 26 (Seen and Unforeseen)
  12. 12.0 12.1 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 38 (The Second War Begins)
  13. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 7 (The Slug Club)
  14. 14.0 14.1 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 21 (The Tale of the Three Brothers)
  15. Bloomsbury Live Chat
  16. "Finished ‘Potter'? Rowling tells what happens next" from MSNBC.com
  17. Harry Potter: Magic Awakened, Year 1,
  18. 18.0 18.1 Harry Potter: Wizards Unite

See also[]

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