Harry Potter - A Guide to Magical Employment Quiz

Answer: Dark magic

Aurors are effectively the magical equivalent of elite police officers - they work for the Ministry of Magic and are responsible for hunting down and arresting "dark wizards". The main task of the Auror office for many years was to capture (or kill if necessary) Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Given this background, it is hardly surprising that Harry Potter voiced a desire to become an Auror during his career planning meeting with Professor McGonagall in 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' - in his first four years at Hogwarts he had already battled against Lord Voldemort himself on several occasions.

The dangerous nature of the work is highlighted by the fates of the various Aurors who appeared in the novels. They include Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody (who died helping Harry Potter to avoid Lord Voldemort's clutches prior to his 17th birthday), Rufus Scrimgeour (the ill-fated Minister of Magic), Tonks (who died at the Battle of Hogwarts alongside her husband Remus Lupin) and Frank and Alice Longbottom (who were tortured into insanity).

Answer: Egypt

Bill Weasley is the eldest son of Arthur and Molly and had already left Hogwarts for a career with Gringotts by the time his youngest brother, Ron, and Harry Potter started their first year at the school.

Clearly there is unlikely to be an equivalent muggle career to curse-breaking, but frankly 'looter' might be a reasonable description. The aim of the job is to disable and destroy curses placed on valuable treasure and bring back the gold to increase the wealth of Gringotts. Since messing about with curses is clearly a dangerous job, this career is likely to earn any successful witch or wizard significant bonuses (if the recruiting leaflet Gringotts sent to Hogwarts in 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' is anything to go by).

The other bonus of the job is the chance to work abroad in exotic locations - presumably Egypt was a prime destination thanks to its thousands of years of history and abundance of archaeological sites. It also gave the whole Weasley family a good holiday destination when they used their "Daily Prophet Grand Prize Galleon Draw" winnings to go and visit Bill.

Answer: Chudley Cannons

There are few, if any, muggle sports where playing for your school team can net you a place in a professional side on leaving said school. Luckily for any witches or wizards with an eye on a career in sports, playing for one of Hogwarts' house Quidditch teams appears to be an established route to fame and fortune. For the most successful players there is also the added lure of being able to represent their country at the Quidditch World Cup.

Ron's favourite team, the Chudley Cannons, play in bright orange robes and are generally noted for their poor performances. At the time of Harry's visit to The Burrow at the beginning of 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets', the Cannons were in ninth place in the league (a fact that Ron seemed surprisingly proud of). In 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' we also learned that the team's chaser, Dragomir Gorgovitch, held the ignominious record of "most Quaffle drops in a season".

Oliver Wood (the former Gryffindor team captain) was signed by Puddlemere United after leaving Hogwarts; Gwenog Jones of the Holyhead Harpies was a former member of Professor Slughorn's "Slug Club"; and Ludo Bagman was formerly a star player for the Wimbourne Wasps.

Answer: Neville Longbottom

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry must be a hard place to get a job (teaching anything other than Defence Against the Dark Arts) as most of the teachers have taught there for years. The school even resorted to employing a ghost rather than searching for a replacement History of Magic teacher after the death of Professor Binns. Defence Against the Dark Arts is the exception to the rule as it is believed to have been cursed by Lord Voldemort to prevent the holder from lasting more than a year in post. However, Hogwarts is not the only option out there for budding magical teachers - if you're prepared to move abroad then the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic or the Durmstrang Institute would be alternative options.

Neville's career in education was mentioned in the epilogue 'Nineteen Years Later' at the end of 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'. Ginny reminded her son, James, to "give Neville our love"; James simply retorted that he couldn't "walk into Herbology and give him love". This was a fitting career choice for Neville as Herbology was, without question, his best subject when he attended Hogwarts.

Answer: Never tickle a sleeping dragon

The Hogwarts' school motto is Latin for "Never tickle a sleeping dragon" - quite why this information was considered important enough to drum into school age children is never really made clear. Presumably wizarding Britain must have had a much larger dragon population at the time Hogwarts was founded compared to the situation in Harry Potter's time when they were kept in check by the Ministry of Magic (to the Muggle Prime Minister's relief in 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince').

As dragon-breeding is outlawed in Britain and there are few native breeds (the Common Welsh Green and Hebridean Black were the only ones mentioned in the series), dragon keeper or 'dragonologist' is another magical career that offers good opportunities for working abroad. Charlie Weasley worked at a dragon sanctuary in Romania - but also got the odd trip home, such as when he was involved in importing three "foreign dragons" into Britain for use in the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Presumably Gringotts may have also employed a dragon keeper, since they kept one chained up in the depths of their vaults as an added security measure (at least they did until Harry, Ron and Hermione released it during their escape following their short stint as bank robbers in 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows').

Answer: Harry Potter gave them his Tri-Wizard Tournament prize money

When Harry was left holding a sack of 1,000 unwanted galleons after the tragic end to the Tri-Wizard Tournament, he chose to donate it to the Weasley twins with the instruction to use it "for the joke-shop" because "We could all do with a few laughs. I've got a feeling we're going to need them more than usual before long". The Weasley twins were then able to turn what started out as a small range of products aimed at helping them with their mischief-making at school into a highly successful and profitable business. Some of their products, such as decoy detonators and skiving snackboxes, even proved to be very helpful in Harry's quest to find and destroy Lord Voldemort's horcruxes in 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'.

For the less imaginative (or skilled) witch or wizard there are also plenty of employment opportunities at retail outlets such as Flourish and Blotts (book shop), Eeylops Owl Emporium (owl shop) or even - if they wanted to follow in Lord Voldemort's career footsteps - Borgin and Burkes (odd artefacts shop).

Fred and George did try to earn their fortune by gambling on the result of the Quidditch World Cup final, but lost their life-savings when they were swindled by Ludo Bagman.

Answer: Knight Bus conductor

In the course of the 'Harry Potter' novels the reader is only introduced to two members of staff of the Knight Bus - the conductor, Stan Shunpike (who ended up being Imperiused by Death Eaters), and the driver, Ernie Prang. However, even if there is only one Knight Bus, it seems reasonable to assume that there must have been other drivers and conductors employed - even with magic, no-one would want to have to work 24-7 (and it's a particularly bad idea for public transport employees who may well cause a disaster if they fall asleep at the wheel).

Of course, employment opportunities in magical public transport might simply be somewhat limited because of the fact that witches and wizards have so many different forms of transport available to them. Broomsticks are always an option for those people who aren't bothered by heights and don't have a fear of flying; apparation is available to those aged 17 and over who have passed their test; and the Floo Network and portkeys are made available by the Ministry of Magic. (The Hogwarts' Express probably should be included in the list as well, but is a bit limited in terms of the destinations available!)

Answer: Healer

Although Harry Potter attempted to equate the Healers of St. Mungo's with the doctors of the muggle world, this comparison is not one that pure-blood witches and wizards would easily accept. On asking Ron Weasley "Are they doctors?" during their visit to the hospital in 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix' he got the following (somewhat bemused) response: "Those Muggle nutters that cut people up? Nah, they're Healers".

Healers mentioned in the series include Dilys Derwent (the former headmistress of Hogwarts), Augustus Pye (the trainee Healer who tried out stitches on Arthur Weasley) and Hippocrates Smethwyck (who was actually in charge of Arthur's care). Medical techniques used by Healers tend to be magical in nature, such as medical spells and potions, rather than muggle options like stitches or "cutting people up". This is perhaps not surprising when you consider the point that they tend to face patients suffering from dragon pox, spattergroit, splinching, werewolf bites or the after-effects of the Cruciatus curse for example, rather than the more mundane illnesses that affect the muggle population.

Answer: Quick-Quotes Quill

Magical journalism is dominated by the Daily Prophet - the publication read by a large proportion of wizarding Britain. However, it can't really be described as the 'free press' because it was definitely biased towards the Ministry of Magic's political line: initially supportive of Harry Potter as the "Boy Who Lived"; very critical of him during the events of 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'; rallying around him as "The Chosen One" after Voldemort's return became publically acknowledged; and advertising him as a wanted man once Voldemort gained control of the ministry. It also employed one particular journalist - Rita Skeeter - whose standard of ethics was somewhat questionable.

The "Quick-Quotes Quill" was one of Rita Skeeter's particular tools of the trade. Rather than taking accurate quotes from her interviewees, it actually appeared to directly compose articles with only a passing resemblance to the events in question or what people actually said. Whether every example of the product acted in that way or whether Rita had specifically programmed her quill to reflect her preferred style of journalism was not addressed in the novels.

Other magical publications include Xenophilius Lovegood's slightly off-the-wall magazine 'The Quibbler'; the gossip magazine aimed at women, 'Witch Weekly'; and formal journals in various subjects such as 'Challenges in Charming' or 'The Practical Potioneer'.

Answer: Gregorovitch

Only two wand-makers made an appearance in the 'Harry Potter' novels, Mr Ollivander and Gregorovitch. Although Mr Ollivander's experience of Lord Voldemort (being imprisoned and tortured in the cellar of Malfoy Manor until his rescue by Harry Potter and Dobby the house-elf) was pretty bad, the fate of his colleague Gregorovitch was even worse. Poor old Gregorovitch had thought that he could improve his business by advertising his ownership of the extremely powerful Elder Wand (also known as the Deathstick or Wand of Destiny) and suggesting that he could duplicate its effects - however, it actually caused the dark wizard Grindelwald to come and steal it from him and then Lord Voldemort to come and kill him for it. (The fact he no longer had it did not induce Voldemort to show him any mercy.)

Britain's wizarding population were left at a bit of a loss over how to obtain new wands when Mr Ollivander was kidnapped by Lord Voldemort and his wand shop in Diagon Alley was shut up. This event highlights the fact that society (magical or otherwise) needs to ensure that ancient skills are taught to the younger generations or face the significant risk of them being lost forever. Given Ollivander's advanced age and Gregorovitch's death, let's hope the wizarding world does decide to expand job opportunities in this area in future.