Thirteen

"I dare not, Headmaster! If I join the table, we shall be thirteen! Nothing could be more unlucky! Never forget that when thirteen dine together, the first to rise will be the first to die!"

— Sybill Trelawney describing the misfortune attributed to the number thirteen

Thirteen was a number that was considered by members of both the magical and non-magical communities to be unlucky and to be the cause of suffering and misfortune.

Thirteen in the wizarding world

• Pollux Black was thirteen years old when he and his wife Irma Crabbe had their first child, Walburga, in 1925.
• Lord Voldemort's wand was thirteen and a half inches long.
• Peter Pettigrew murdered twelve people after betraying James and Lily Potter, as well as faking his own death. As a result, Sirius Black was wrongly convicted of the murder of thirteen people and imprisoned in Azkaban. Pettigrew later claimed his thirteenth victim in Cedric Diggory.
• On Christmas Day, 1993, Sybill Trelawney, professor of Divination at Hogwarts, joined several of her pupils and fellow teachers for Christmas dinner in the castle's Great Hall. She was fearful upon noticing that twelve people were dining in the hall, believing that were she to sit down, the first of the thirteen seated to rise would be the first to die. Fellow professor Minerva McGonagall expressed doubts regarding her fears.
  • However, if Peter Pettigrew in his Scabbers disguise was counted as a person, there were thirteen people before Trelawney arrived. Since Dumbledore rose from his seat to greet Professor Trelawney, and assuming Derek and two other unnamed students did not die before Dumbledore's death in 1997, Professor Trelawney's prediction was correct.
  • In 1995, thirteen members of the Order of the Phoenix dined together in 12 Grimmauld Place, and the first to rise was Sirius. Sirius was the first to die of those thirteen people.
  • However, one counter-example occured at the Yule Ball in 1994. Thirteen people - the five Triwizard Tournament judges (with Percy Weasley substituting for Bartemius Crouch Senior), four contestants, and their four dates - all sit down at the same table for dinner. At the end of dinner, Albus Dumbledore stands up first and invites everyone else to do the same. However, both Cedric Diggory and Igor Karkaroff were seated at the table and died before Dumbledore.
• Barty Crouch Jnr's escape from Azkaban prison in 1982 was not known publicly until 1995, thirteen years later.
• Lord Voldemort spent thirteen years of his life without a body and the Death Eaters had not met in his presence for thirteen years before they did so in the Little Hangleton graveyard on 24 June, 1995.
• Thirteen people came to collect Harry Potter from 4 Privet Drive for the last time in 1997. It is possible that this contributed to the bad luck experienced by these wizards and witches on this operation. One of the thirteen, Alastor Moody, died that day.
• After Alastor Moody's death, thirteen people sat in the living room at The Burrow. The first person to stand up, Remus Lupin, was the first to die later in the Battle of Hogwarts.
• Lithomancy, a form of divination involving stones, used thirteen stones each with unique meanings.

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (First mentioned)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (First appearance)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
• Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery (Mentioned only)

External links

• Thirteen on Wikipedia