Harry Potter - "To 'B', or Not to 'B'" Quiz

Answer: Bathilda Bagshot

Bathilda Bagshot was the author of the textbook "A History of Magic", which was included on the list of required textbooks sent to all Hogwarts first-year students prior to the start of their formal magical education. Although mentioned very early in the 'Harry Potter' series, the character did not actually make an appearance until she beckoned Harry and Hermione into her home in Godric's Hollow during the events of 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'. Unfortunately, it transpired that Bathilda was dead and that her body had been reanimated by Nagini - Lord Voldemort's horcrux-bearing snake - as part of a plan to capture Harry during his time on the run.

Rita Skeeter's book "The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore" laid out some of Bathilda's earlier history. She had been a long-term resident of Godric's Hollow and was a neighbour of both the Potter and Dumbledore families. She was also the great-aunt of the evil wizard Gellert Grindelwald.

Answer: Charity Burbage

Despite being a member of the Hogwarts' teaching staff, Professor Charity Burbage never appeared at the school in any of the novels - probably because neither Harry or his best friend, Ron Weasley, attended Muggle Studies lessons. Her only appearance was shortly before her death at the beginning of 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' when she was suspended over a meeting table in the Malfoy's drawing room before being killed by Lord Voldemort and fed to his snake, Nagini.

Professor Burbage's job at Hogwarts was then taken by the Death Eater Alecto Carrow, who changed the syllabus from educating the students about muggle life to teaching them that muggles "are like animals, stupid and dirty".

Answer: Katie Bell

Along with Alicia Spinnet and Angelina Johnson, Katie Bell was one of the trio of female Gryffindor chasers who played for the house team during Harry Potter's early years at Hogwarts. Katie was one year ahead of Harry and remained on the team after he was named team captain in 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'. However, her participation in that year's Quidditch Cup competition was cut short when she was almost killed after touching a cursed necklace during a trip to Hogsmeade. The necklace was one of Draco Malfoy's increasingly desperate attempts to murder the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, on the orders of his new master - Lord Voldemort.

Katie was one of the former students and DA (Dumbledore's Army) members who returned to Hogwarts in 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' to participate in the final battle against Lord Voldemort.

Answer: Cuthbert Binns

Professor Binns had been the History of Magic teacher at Hogwarts for a very long time, despite the fact that he had died years before Harry Potter ever set foot in the school. His lessons were renowned for being soporifically boring - which seems quite an achievement given that magic itself is an exciting topic and must have been particularly so for any muggle-born students. Perhaps the latter point may help to explain why Hermione Granger (probably the most well-known of Hogwarts' muggle-born students) mostly managed to stay awake...

There was only one occasion during Harry Potter's time at Hogwarts that Professor Binns' knowledge became of great interest to his students. That occurred during the Harry's second year, when Hermione asked Binns to explain the legend of the Chamber of Secrets to the class.

Answer: Ludo Bagman

The (somewhat shady) character of Ludo Bagman was introduced in 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'. He was the Ministry of Magic official in charge of the Department of Magical Games and Sports - a job he presumably got because of his background as a professional Quidditch player. He had once been a beater (one of the two players armed with bats who were responsible for thwacking bludgers away from the rest of their team-mates) for both the Wimbourne Wasps and the England national team.

Bagman was responsible for organising the Quidditch World Cup and was the commentator on the final match between Ireland and Bulgaria. He also commentated on the Triwizard Tournament held at Hogwarts in the same year. It later transpired that he had lost all his money gambling, and was so heavily in debt to the goblins that he was forced to go on the run.

In 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' it was also revealed that Bagman had once been tried by the Wizengamot on suspicion of passing secret Ministry information to the Death Eaters - he was acquitted, probably thanks to his Quidditch fame.

Answer: The Bloody Baron

The Bloody Baron spent most of his time clanking about the corridors of Hogwarts in blood-stained robes and heavy chains (well, chains that would have been heavy if they were corporeal). His forbidding appearance tended to make both students and the other ghosts uncomfortable, a fact that was probably exacerbated by his habit of staring blankly through people. The Baron was the ghost of Slytherin House and regularly spent time sitting at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall, in the same way that Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington - otherwise known as "Nearly-Headless Nick" - spent time with the Gryffindors.

The Bloody Baron's story was finally revealed by the Grey Lady - formerly Helena Ravenclaw - in 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'. He had lived during the time of the original founders of Hogwarts and was in love with Helena, the daughter of the founder of Ravenclaw House. After Helena stole her mother's prized diadem and fled to Albania, the Bloody Baron went after her and murdered her in a fit of rage when she refused to return with him. After he returned to Hogwarts as a ghost he wore his chains in penance for Helena's murder.

Answer: Beedle the Bard

Beedle the Bard's book of wizarding fairy tales was a common feature of magical childhoods for many years, but didn't become widely available to muggle children until a charity edition was published in December 2008. Members of wizarding society would probably be shocked to discover that muggles hold the general belief that the book was written by one of their own - a woman by the name of J.K. Rowling...

'The Tales of Beedle the Bard' consisted of five stories: "Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump", "The Fountain of Fair Fortune", "The Warlock's Hairy Heart", "The Wizard and the Hopping Pot" and "The Tale of the Three Brothers". The last of these told the story of (somewhat unsurprisingly) three brothers who attempted to defeat Death himself by asking him for three powerful magical objects collectively known as the Deathly Hallows - the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone and an invisibility cloak. These objects all went on to play a role in Harry Potter's final battle against Lord Voldemort, after Albus Dumbledore alerted Harry to their existence by bequeathing his copy of "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" to Hermione Granger.

Answer: Millicent Bulstrode

'Harry Potter' readers first heard about Millicent Bulstrode when she was the sixth student to step up to be sorted by the Sorting Hat in 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' (or 'Sorceror's Stone' depending on the location of the reader). Later she and her cat played an unwitting role in 'Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets' when Hermione chose Millicent as the Slytherin student she wanted to impersonate using Polyjuice Potion. Unfortunately for Hermione, the hair she plucked from Millicent's robes actually belonged to Millicent's pet cat rather than Millicent herself and since Polyjuice didn't work properly with animal hair, Hermione ended up stuck as a half-transformed cat. It took several weeks in the infirmary before the school's matron Madam Pomfrey was able to cure Hermione and return her to fully-human form.

Millicent turned up again later in the series when she was one of several Slytherin students to be awarded a place on Dolores Umbridge's Inquisitorial Squad.

Answer: Frank Bryce

Frank Bryce was the first character to appear in 'Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire'. He left his cottage to investigate what he thought was local youths messing about in the old Riddle House only to stumble across Lord Voldemort, his loyal servant Peter Pettigrew and the snake Nagini. After he was discovered by Nagini he was subjected to the killing curse Avada Kedavra by Voldemort himself. Bryce had been the gardener for the Riddle family for many years and had become something of a social outcast since being falsely suspected of involvement in their deaths by the local muggle community. In fact Tom Riddle, Sr. and his parents had also been killed by an Avada Kedavra cast by their own son/grandson.

During the battle between Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort in the Little Hangleton graveyard near the end of novel, Frank Bryce was one of the five ghostly apparitions who emerged from Voldemort's wand under the priori incantatem effect and allowed Harry to escape safely back to Hogwarts.

Answer: Sirius Black

Sirius Black was first introduced in the 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban' as a dangerous criminal on the run from the wizarding prison, who also happened to be Harry's godfather. The wizarding world was under the impression that Sirius had been the person responsible for betraying the secret of James, Lily and Harry Potter's safe house to Lord Voldemort, an act that resulted in both the deaths of James and Lily and baby Harry's miraculous yet mysterious defeat of the evil wizard. He was also accused of the murder of another friend, Peter Pettigrew, and a group of muggles. However, it turned out that Pettigrew had framed him and escaped justice by spending the next decade and a bit in his animagus form - a rat.

Despite remaining on the run, Sirius became an important father figure for Harry and a member of Dumbledore's anti-Voldemort organisation, the Order of the Phoenix. Sirius's family home, 12 Grimmauld Place, became the headquarters of the Order, but Sirius himself was killed while trying to save Harry from Death Eaters at the Ministry of Magic in 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'.