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"While Dumbledore turns a blind eye, Hagrid has maimed several pupils during a series of lessons that many admit to being 'very frightening.' 'I was attacked by a hippogriff, and my friend Vincent Crabbe got a bad bite off a flobberworm,' says Draco Malfoy, a fourth-year student. 'We all hate Hagrid, but we're just too scared to say anything.'"
Rita Skeeter reports exaggerated claims in the Daily Prophet.

The Flobberworm is a ten-inch, toothless brown worm which eats vegetation, especially lettuce and cabbage. It is a fairly boring creature, with a Ministry of Magic Classification of only X (the lowest possible ranking, denoting harmlessness). Each end is identical to the other, and from both it exudes mucus which is sometimes used to thicken potions. It moves very little and prefers to live in damp ditches.

Contrary to the claims of Draco Malfoy and his gang, which were designed to attack Hagrid and his quality as a professor (although he was doing a pretty good job of that himself), Flobberworms do not have teeth and do not bite.

Flobberworms are apparently edible and Flobberworm fritters are sometimes served for lunch at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, much to the dismay of the student body.

The Flobberworm was notable for being one of the few living creatures capable of being Summoned with the Summoning Charm.[1]

History

"Nobody really liked Care of Magical Creatures, which, after the action-packed first class, had become extremely dull. Hagrid seemed to have lost his confidence. They were now spending lesson after lesson learning how to look after flobberworms, which had to be some of the most boring creatures in existence. 'Why would anyone bother looking after them?' said Ron, after yet another hour of poking shredded lettuce down the flobberworms' throats."
— Ron gripes about looking after the flobberworms.[src]

After losing his nerve during the Hippogriff debacle in his first Care of Magical Creatures lesson during the 1993–1994 school year, Rubeus Hagrid had his third year students raise flobberworms for a term. The exercise was completely pointless, as they prefer to be left alone and to do nothing. They didn't require much care, although they seemed unable to control how much food they needed as they will die if overfed. For the students' final exam, they simply had to monitor a flobberworm and make sure it was alive at the end of the hour appointed for the lesson.

In potions

Flobberworm mucus is green and sticky and is used to thicken potions. Flobberworm mucus is a vital ingredient in the Wiggenweld potion.

In the book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Snape's detention for Harry includes scraping flobberworm mucus off the desks.

Behind the scenes

Appearances

Notes and references

Care of Magical Creatures
Fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them-pottermore
Care of Magical Creatures at Hogwarts
Hagrid's Hut · Forbidden Forest · Care of Magical Creatures Classroom · Magical Creatures (club) · The Paddock
Professors Silvanus Kettleburn · Rubeus Hagrid · Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank (substitute teacher)
Textbooks The Monster Book of Monsters · Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Creatures studied at Hogwarts
Blast-Ended Skrewt · Bowtruckle · Chimaera · Crup · Demiguise · Diricawl · Doxy · Dugbog · Fairy · Fire Crab · Fire Dwelling Salamander · Flobberworm · Fwooper · Glumbumble · Gnome · Golden Snidget · Griffin · Hippogriff · Imp · Jackalope · Knarl · Kneazle · Moke · Murtlap · Niffler · Occamy · Porlock · Quintaped · Streeler · Thestral · Unicorn · Yeti
Magical creatures by classification
X Flobberworm · Horklump
XX Augurey · Bowtruckle · Chizpurfle · Clabbert · Diricawl · Fairy · Ghoul · Gnome · Grindylow · Imp · Jobberknoll · Mooncalf · Porlock · Puffskein · Ramora · Winged horse
XXX Ashwinder · Billywig · Bundimun · Crup · Doxy · Dugbog · Fire crab · Fwooper · Glumbumble · Hippocampus · Hippogriff · Hodag · Jarvey · Knarl · Kneazle · Leprechaun · Lobalug · Mackled Malaclaw · Moke · Murtlap · Niffler · Nogtail · Pixie · Plimpy · Pogrebin · Red Cap · Salamander · Sea serpent · Shrake · Streeler · Winged horse
XXXX Centaur · Demiguise · Erkling · Erumpent · Golden Snidget · Graphorn · Griffin · Hidebehind · Kappa · Kelpie · Merperson · Occamy · Phoenix · Re'em · Runespoor · Snallygaster · Sphinx · Tebo · Thestral · Thunderbird · Troll · Unicorn · Winged horse · Yeti
XXXXX Acromantula · Basilisk · Chimaera · Dragon · Horned Serpent · Lethifold · Manticore · Nundu · Quintaped · Wampus cat · Werewolf
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