Bone

The Serpent of Slytherin, reduced to mere bones by 1998

"Big bones... the only thing that's got bigger bones than her is a dinosaur."

— Harry Potter makes light of Olympe Maxime's insinuation that she isn't a half-giant.

Bones are a hard structure that make up the skeleton of vertebrate organisms. They provide structure and protection for the body's other organs, and are responsible for the production of blood, among other, more minor uses. In the wizarding world, bones have a variety of uses.

Notable uses

• Borgin and Burkes, a Dark magic shop on Knockturn Alley, sells human bones among its wares.
• There exists a variety of spells to remove a person's bones, including Bracium Emendo and Ossio Dispersimus. Harry Potter had his arm bones forcibly removed by Gilderoy Lockhart in 1992 due to a botched attempt to merely mend the broken bones, and spent a night in the Hospital Wing regrowing them with Skele-Gro.
• Sewing needles can be made from animal bone; Rubeus Hagrid owned a bone needle by 1994, and used it to darn some socks during a visit from Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, and Hermione Granger prior to the Hallowe'en feast that year.
• Chicken bones can be used as foodstuffs for a Hippogriff.
• A certain Dark potion that regenerates a wizard's body requires bone taken unknowingly from the wizard's father as an ingredient. When Peter Pettigrew made this potion for Voldemort in 1995, they chose the Little Hangleton graveyard as the brewing site, so that bone fragments from Tom Riddle Snr's grave could be extracted.
• A human, or at least their corpse, can be Transfigured into a bone. Bartemius Crouch Jr used this spell on his father to hide the evidence of his murder.
• Golgomath, Gurg of the last remaining giants, wore a necklace made of bones. Rubeus Hagrid speculated that at least some of the bones were human.
• The emblem of Healers employed at St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries is a bone crossed with a wand.
• A bone is an ingredient in the Strength Potion.

Behind the scenes

• Bones was the surname of a prominent wizarding family.
• Some of the members of the House of Black, such as Regulus and Hester, were depicted as skulls on the version of the Black family tree tapestry seen in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (First appearance)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film) (Appears on tapestry)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
• The Tales of Beedle the Bard
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7
• Harry Potter: The Character Vault (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter: The Creature Vault (Mentioned only)
• Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery (mentioned only)