Harry Potter: Animal Characters, Ranked By Their Importance

The Wizarding World is full of magical and non-magical creatures that had an essential impact on the story of The Boy Who Lived. As awesome as dragons or phoenixes might seem, the non-magical animals, like the rats and the owls, also had important roles in the story.

It is important to understand though, that no creature in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter was 100 percent good or pure evil. Every animal in the story is as complicated as the rest. Let’s review some of the animals and list them by their importance in the story.

10 Owl

Hedwig is a Snowy Owl that Harry received as a present from Rubeus Hagrid in his first-ever visit to Diagon Alley. Hedwig was an incredibly intelligent owl and never let her owner down, even if she was not always treated right by Harry. She wasn’t just a loyal pet, she was a true friend.

Hedwig made sure Harry got presents for his 13th birthday and flew to the south of France so she could get to Hermione. Clever, kind, resourceful, and loyal until her last breath, Hedwig sacrificed herself taking a killing curse from a Death Eater when Harry was being relocated from Dursley’s house to a safehouse. Hedwig saved Harry’s life.

9 Phoenix

Fawkes is a phoenix with incredible abilities. He basically lives forever, meaning that when he dies, he burns, and then is reborn from the ashes. His singing has healing abilities and he can carry extremely heavy things, including Harry, Ron, Ginny and Lockhart in one go!

His tears saved Harry’s life, as well, healing the wound after he was bitten by the Slytherin monster. He is Albus Dumbledore’s pet, companion, and friend on whom he relied very much. Not only did Fawkes save Harry, but he also brought the Sword of Gryffindor to him.

8 Stag

Harry’s and James’ Patronus was a stag. In the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry conjured the Patronus that saved Sirius and the other Harry from getting a Dementor’s kiss. In the Order of the Phoenix, Harry conjured the Patronus against the dementors, sent by Dolores Umbridge, that attacked him and his cousin Dudley.

The stag was also the animal James Potter used to turn into and he even had a nickname – Prongs. James and his two friends, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew, became animagi so that they could keep Remus Lupin company while he turned into a werewolf every full moon.

7 Dog

There are two dogs in the Harry Potter stories. The main one is Padfoot, who happened to be the dog that Sirius Black turned into. According to Sirius, he was used to the tail, but the fleas were murder. In fact, Sirius was so great as a dog that James suggested that he make the change permanent and just be Padfoot.

The other dog came as a bad omen and was called Grim. The giant specter is the worst omen of death in the Wizarding World. Harry thought he saw it when he left the Dursleys, but it turned out that it was Padfoot.

6 Doe

The Doe was Severus Snape’s Patronus and symbolized his undying love for Lilly Evans. It’s interesting that Snape’s Patronus was a different animal and it changed into a doe. Being the most efficient double agent in history, Snape made sure that Harry finds the sword of Gryffindor on the bottom of that lake in the forest that he and Hermione were hiding in.

If you have read the books, you know that the whole thing was Dumbledore’s idea and was meant to test Harry’s courage. Harry followed the Doe and it brought him to the sword.

5 Dragon

No, not Norbert, or should we say Norberta, because it turned out that Norbert was a female dragon. And no, not any of the four dragons that took part in the Triwizard Tournament. The dragon that made the real difference was the one protecting the high-security vaults in Gringotts.

After the break into Gringotts went wrong and the alarm went off, Harry, Ron, and Hermione had to escape somehow and it was this dragon that helped them get out. They took the Horcrux, got on the dragons back, and smashed the place to pieces, but they got out and flew safely away.

4 Rat

Scabbers was the rat that lived in the Weasley family for a long 12 years. Turning into a rat was also the animagus ability that Peter Pettigrew had. Peter was responsible for Voldemort’s rebirth. After he escaped from Sirius and Lupin, he turned into a rat and went to the Albanian forest.

Peter found his master by following the leads he got from other rats who told him that there is a shadow in the forest that every animal is terrified of. He gave his hand to help The Dark Lord be reborn and was rewarded with a new silver artificial one that ended up killing him because he felt regret for his actions.

3 Snake

Nagini. A Snake and a maledictus, whose story goes back to the mid 20th century. Nagini was a beautiful lady who was cursed with the ability to turn into a snake. After years of humiliation, Nagini’s curse permanently turned her into the killer beast.

The horrors she committed are uncountable. She was Voldemort’s true number two and one of the six Horcruxes that he made. She did her master’s bidding unquestionably, ate Frank Bryce, the Riddle family’s gardener, and Charity Burbage, the Muggle Studies professor, and attacked and nearly killed Arthur Weasley in her attempt to get to the Department of Mysteries.

2 Unicorn

The unicorn in the Wizarding World is an animal with incredible abilities and qualities. Unicorn tail hair has healing abilities and Hagrid used it many times to take care of wounded animals. A unicorn’s horn is used in potions and the hair is used as the core for wands. They’re one of the fastest creatures on earth and they prefer a woman’s touch.

Now here’s the bad part – when Voldemort possessed Quirrel in Harry’s first year at Hogwarts, he needed to drink as much unicorn blood as he possibly could to keep him alive.

1 The Basilisk

A giant snake and the King of Serpents, The Basilisk was placed in Hogwarts by one of the founders of the school, Salazar Slytherin. The snake would only answer to Slytherin’s heir and was meant to rid the school of Muggle-borns. The most famous victim of the monster was Moaning Myrtle. Voldemort, being a simple Tom Riddle at the time, released the beast using parseltongue and the beast answered only because he was the heir of Slytherin.

Ironically, The Basilisk’s venom was fatal to Voldemort’s Horcruxes, so the Slytherin’s monster helped (unwillingly) in destroying four of six parts of the soul of the heir of Slytherin. Two Horcruxes were destroyed by using The Basilisk’s fangs and the other two with Gryffindor’s sword. Because the sword was used to kill the monster, it acquired the ability to destroy Horcruxes. That’s the magic of a goblin made sword.

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