Abraxan Horse | winged palomino horse averaging 30 hands and weighing 2 tons. They prefer to drink single malt whisky. |
Acromantula | a black hairy spider that grows to the size of a small house [leg span of 15 feet], is intelligent and capable of human speech. Known to eat humans. Borneo |
Basilisk | the king of snakes, a vivid green vemonous serpent that can petrify any living creature that stares into its eyes. Males are larger and have a red head crest. They can grow to 50 feet in length and live for centuries. Basilisks are born from chicken eggs incubated by a toad, but they must be the correct species of chicken and toad. Don't try this at home, it will waste a good egg and annoy your toad. Greece |
Bowtruckle | a small brown stick-insect-like creature with sharp two-fingered hands capable of wounding the unwary. It lives in and protects trees that have wand-quality wood. They eat fairy eggs when available, but can be tempted with wood lice. England/Scandinavia |
Centaur | the trunk of a human replacing the neck and head on a horse's body. Extremely intelligent, they excel at healing, divination, astronomy & archery. Greece |
Cerberus | a fierce three-headed dog the size of a pony [12 hands] traditionally used as a guard. Greek |
Chimæra | a large, agressive fire-breathing animal with a lion-like head on a goat's body and a viper for the tail [also spelled chimera, chimaera]. Greece |
Clauricon | see Leprechaun |
Cocktrice | The body of a rooster, wings of a bat, and tail of a snake, it can kill with its glance or its breath. It is usually killed with its own glance by using a mirror. |
Crup | not especially magical, essentially a Jack Russell terrier with a forked tail that prefers wizards to Muggles. Useful if you're doing something you don't want Muggles to witness. SE England |
Dementor | very tall, greyish, scabby, and thin with a generally human shape, clothed in black hooded robes they feed on emotions, glide rather than walk. Eyeless, they sense living things by their emotions. The "dementor's kiss" extracts a person's soul through their mouth. They have been used as prison guards. |
Demiguise | resembling an ape with long silky silvery hair, this shy herbivore is rarely seen in its natural Asian habitat because its hair is the fiber used to weave Invisibility Cloaks. Muggles occasionally see the large black eyes of a demiguise seemingly floating above the ground. |
Dragon | a giant reptile with the ability to breath fire. They have four legs and generally wings. Some breeds exceed 50 feet in length. Their heartstrings are used as wand cores. |
Doxy | a fairy-sized house pest covered with black hair. They have beetle wings, four arms, four legs, and a poisonous bite |
Erkling | an evil elf of the German Black Forest that leads children astray to eat them. |
Fairy | look like miniture humans with butterfly or dragonfly wings [depending on species]. Not terribly intelligent, they prefer work as decorations for parties. They use magic for protection and communicate with buzzes. |
Fire-Crab | Similar to a tortoise with a jeweled shell in appearance, but it emits a blast of fire from the back as a means of defense and propulsion. Fiji |
Giant | Up to four times the size of men, they are extremely resistent to magic and tend to be solitary and ill-tempered. |
Glaistig | half-woman/half-goat, grey with blond hair. Scottish cattle guardian who is paid with a bowl of milk. |
Gnome | rabbit-sized, brown, knobby, man-shaped garden pest with an over-sized head and hard bony feet. Northern Europe/North America |
Ghoul | not to be confused with the Mesopotamian demon that robs graves, these inhabitants of wizards' attics and barns eat spiders and moths. They also periodically make a lot of noise by throwing objects around or moaning. There are reports that they are slimey and have buckteeth, but no one is interested enough to take a snap. |
Griffin | a half-eagle/half-lion with the eagle replacing the head, neck, and front legs of a lion [also spelled: Gryffin, Gryphon]. They are used as guards. Greece |
Grindylow | pale green horned water demon that lurks in underwater weeds and grabs victims with long spindly fingers that are strong but brittle. Britain/Ireland |
Hinkypunk | looking like spirals of smoke, they live in bogs and carry lanterns to lead people into bog holes. Also known as "Will o' the Wisps" |
Hippocampus | a half-horse/half-fish with the head, neck, and front legs of a horse attached to the tail of a fish. Greece |
Hippogriff | a half-eagle/half-horse with the eagle replacing the head, neck, and front legs of a horse. They average 14 hands and 850 pounds and can carry adults in flight. Europe |
Imp | a dark brown to black wingless fairies with the same sense of humor as Pixies. They can't fly and live in damp locations where they enjoy assisting the unwary to fall into rivers and bogs. Britain/Ireland |
Kappas | small scaly monkey-like Japanese water demons that strangle waders. They have a depression on the top of their heads that holds water so they can come on to the land. They evaporate if they lose contact with water. Bowing to them when they are on land will normally make them bow in return, spill the water, and pfft. |
Keazle | They look like an Egyptian Mau/Cornish Rex cross, being spotted with large ears, but they have tufted, lion-like tails. They can interbreed with domestic cats. They are intelligent and can sense untrustworthy people. Britain |
Kelpie | a water demon/metamorph that often appears as a horse with water weeds in its mane. It attempts to lure people ride it so it can leap into the water where it eats them. Salt water Kelpies are called Each Uisge in Scotland. Britain and Ireland. |
Knarl | looking identical to a hedgehog, its quills have useful magical properties. Offers of food being rejected is one way of differentiating between knarls and hedgehogs as knarls are very suspicious. Northern Europe/America |
Leprechan | green Irish fairies, who though wingless can fly, and produce "fairy gold" which only exists for a few hours. They are one of the few fairy folk who can grow beards. While they enjoy a joke, they are not nearly as disruptive as pixies. Known to overindulge in both poteen and tobacco. |
Manticore | lion with the face of a man and the tail of a scorpion. Greece |
Merpeople | human torso with a silvery fish tail. They are intelligent with their own language but prefer to avoid humans. The salt water Sirens of the Eastern Mediterranean are beautiful by human standards and appear in Muggle art. The fresh water Selkies of Scotland and Merrows of Ireland have greenish hair and grey bodies and are not as photogenic. |
Murtlap | a coastal dwelling rodent that has a growth on its back that resembles a sea urchin. The tentacles from that growth are very useful in potions to ameliorate the effects of hexes. Britain |
Niffler | fluffy black otter-sized animal with a long snout and paddle-like front paws useful for locating gems and ores in mining. British |
Phoenix | generally resembles a peacock with scarlet body plumage blending to gold tail feathers, a golden beak and golden feet. When it dies it bursts into flame and is reborn from the ashes. They are extremely strong, can Apparate, their tears heal wounds, and their tail feathers are used as wand cores. Egypt/India/China |
Pixie | tiny, blue, Cornish fairies that are strong, can fly, and enjoy making trouble. [also spelled: Piskie, Pictsie] |
Porlock | horse guardians, they are often mistaken for wild goats among the horses as they are shaggy with cloven hooves, but they are bipeds with short arms, four-fingered hands, and large noses. England |
Puffskein | small custard-colored furballs with long tongues and a soothing purr. |
Red Caps | small goblin-like creatures that gather wherever blood has been spilled to bludgeon the unwary. They color their hats with the blood of their victims. Northern Europe |
Salamander | small brilliant white lizard-like creatures that live in very high temperature areas, like fires, forges & volcanoes. |
Skrewt | a Fire-Crab/Manticore cross that looks like a ten-foot long clawless lobster. It can leap forward with a blast of flame. The males have a poison stinger, the females a sucker, and both magic-proof shells. Scotland |
Snidget | small spherical bird with golden plummage, originally used in Quidditch matches until looming extinction led to the creation of the Snitch. Britain |
Sphinx | head of a woman on the body of a lion. They are usually a guard that can only be passed by solving a riddle. Some species have wings. The males are called androsphinges. Egypt/Greece/Assyria |
Thestral | a bony black horse-like carnivore with the wings of a bat, a dragon-like head, and glowing white eyes. They can find any location and can only seen by those who have witnessed death. They average 14 hands and 750 pounds and can carry adults in flight. |
Troll | similar to a hairless gorilla that can be twelve feet tall, but lacking the gorilla's emotional and intellectual capacity. Some species of Trolls can be trained to act as guards [but so can golden retrievers]. Mountain trolls are pale grey, forest pale green with stringy brown or green hair, and river trolls purplish with short horns. Scandinavia |
Unicorn | looking like a white horse with golden hooves and a single twisted silver horn projecting from its forehead, it is an an extremely magical creature. Adults should only be approached by witches as stallions can reach 17 hands and 1000 pounds and they don't trust men. Unicorn tail hairs are used for wand cores. Northern Europe |