Who Is The Ginger Witch? Harry Potter’s Mystery Witch Criminal Explained

The Harry Potter movie series has a mysterious character whose story and crimes are told through various headlines: the Ginger Witch, and here’s what she did. In 1997, readers were introduced to the Wizarding World in the novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, the first book in a series of seven novels following the story of the boy who lived and his battle against the darkest wizard of all, Lord Voldemort. The Harry Potter books were a big success, and as it happens with many popular book series, they were adapted to the big screen not long after the publication of the first novel.

The Harry Potter movie series was released between 2001 and 2011, with the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, being split into two movies. Deathly Hallows – Part 2 marked the end of Harry’s story on the big screen but not the end of the Wizarding World, which is now focused on the Fantastic Beasts franchise, which began in 2016 with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Both franchises are not only connected through the Wizarding World and big characters like Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald but also by one mysterious witch with an extensive criminal record: the Ginger Witch.

A lot of things happen around the characters and in the background of the whole Harry Potter series, more so as there are a lot of magical artifacts and creatures around at all times, and the story of the Ginger Witch is known through that type of details. The characters in the Wizarding World read The Daily Prophet and other local newspapers, and the Ginger Witch’s crimes made the headlines various times, and some of these appeared in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. Chronologically, as the Fantastic Beasts series is set before the events in the Harry Potter saga, the first registered crime of the Ginger Witch happened in 1926, though it’s unknown exactly what she did to be under investigation by wizarding authorities. Later that year, she was arrested for stealing a wig.

In 1927, she was seen in Lyon, France, and months later the magazine Spellbound claimed to have unveiled her identity, but this might have been just a bluff. The next crime to make it to the newspapers (and the big screen, of course) was in 1993, when she was implicated in a product recall of Berti Bott’s Every Flavour Beans, for which she was imprisoned and sent to the isolation wing. The following year, she attended a Muggle football match and was arrested for hooliganism, and in late 1994/early 1995, she got involved in an incident of flying pigs that interfered with the Muggle air traffic. In mid-1995, she was caught in a henna explosion and survived, and in 1996 she was arrested in Caxambu, Brazil, with fake henna. This incident sent her to Azkaban, but she was released some time later. The Ginger Witch and her many crimes are a creation of graphic artist Eduardo Lima, who worked on the Harry Potter saga from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban onward, and she was inspired by a red-haired friend of his and Miraphora Mina, a buyer for the set decoration department.

The Ginger Witch began as a funny headline added as an extra detail in the Harry Potter saga and ended up being a mysterious, hidden character with a lengthy list of crimes that went from absurd to potentially dangerous not only for other wizards but for Muggles as well. As mentioned above, the Harry Potter movies are packed with hidden jokes and funny details, and it’s only a matter of paying closer attention to those people and objects that aren’t necessarily interacting with the main characters in the foreground.

About The Author

Adrienne Tyler
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Adrienne Tyler is a features writer for Screen Rant. She is an Audiovisual Communication graduate who wanted to be a filmmaker, but life had other plans (and it turned out great). Prior to Screen Rant, she wrote for Pop Wrapped, 4 Your Excitement (4YE), and D20Crit, where she was also a regular guest at Netfreaks podcast. She was also a contributor for FanSided’s BamSmackPow and 1428 Elm. Adrienne is very into films and she enjoys a bit of everything: from superhero films to heartbreaking dramas, to low-budget horror films. Every time she manages to commit to a TV show without getting bored, an angel gets its wings.

When she’s not writing, you can find her trying to learn a new language, watching hockey (go Avs!), or wondering what life would have been like had Pushing Daisies, Firefly, and Limitless not been cancelled. Breakfast food is life and coffee is what makes the world go round.

Guillermo del Toro said “hi” to her once. It was great.

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