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Ron Weasley: "What was that?"
Harry Potter: "It was either a very big cat or quite a small tiger."
Ron and Harry meet Crookshanks for the first time[src]

A Kneazle was a magical beast related to, and similar in appearance to, a cat.[1]

Description[]

Crookshanks FH

Crookshanks, a half-Kneazle and pet to Hermione Granger

Kneazles had spotted, speckled or flecked fur, large ears and a lightly plumed tail, akin to that of a lion's. They were thought to have separate breeds, like cats, and therefore each one varied in appearance. They made excellent pets if they liked the witch or wizard who wanted to own them. Kneazles could interbreed with normal cats, and generally had up to eight kittens in every litter. Kneazle owners were required to be licenced.[1] Some people, both wizards and Squibs, made a living by breeding Kneazles or part-Kneazles, such as Arabella Figg.[2][3] One notable Kneazle hybrid was Hermione Granger's half-Kneazle, Crookshanks, who she purchased from the Magical Menagerie in Diagon Alley in 1993, which was known to sell pet Kneazles.[4]

Kneazle whiskers could be used in wand cores, although they were said to make inferior wands when compared with the three supreme wand cores, unicorn hair, phoenix feather and dragon heartstring.[5]

Nature[]

KneazleWU

An adult Kneazle

Kneazles had a very high level of intelligence, were independent and occasionally aggressive, and had an uncanny ability to detect suspicious and untrustworthy people.[6] They did, however, sometimes bond with people they found to be loyal and worthy of their compassion, and could make good pets to those people, often protecting them and safety guarding them and their home. Because of their aggression towards certain individuals, Kneazles had an XXX classification by the Ministry of Magic, if they were not interbred with another species.[1]

History[]

In 1832, wizard Abel Treetops of Cincinnati claimed to have patented a method of taming Wampus cats for use as guards over wizarding houses. Treetops was exposed as a fraud when MACUSA raided his home and found him putting Engorgement Charms on Kneazles.[7]

During the 1890–1891 school year, fifth-year Hogwarts students were trained in looking after Kneazles in Care of Magical Creatures class. During a class, Poppy Sweeting and a newly arrived student defended one of those Kneazles, named Persephone, from a Slytherin and a Ravenclaw student, who wanted to harvest their whiskers and sell them.[8]

Caught Kneazles

Caught Kneazles on Care of Magical Creatures grounds

During the 1987–1988 school year, Professor Silvanus Kettleburn taught his fourth-year Care of Magical Creatures students about Kneazles.[9] During the 1990–1991 school year, Jacob's sibling and Charlie Weasley practised catching Kneazles as a warm-up for their planned capture of a Wampus cat.[10]

During the Calamity in the 2010s, several Kneazle Foundables were guarded by fire-breathing chicken Confoundables, which appeared throughout the wizarding world. Volunteer members of the Statute of Secrecy Task Force had to liberate these Kneazles being provoked by these Fire-breathing chickens by using the Ebublio Jinx to trap the chickens and allow the Kneazle Foundables to return to their rightful place of origin.[11]

Known Kneazles and part-Kneazles[]

Kneazle HM

Some Hogwarts students owned Kneazles as pets

Pure Kneazles[]

Half-Kneazles[]

Behind the scenes[]

Kneazle

A Kneazle in the Magical Menagerie in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

  • While their exact life expectancy is never stated, it is known that Hoppy, Milly and Mauler have lived with Newt and Tina from at least 1991 - 2017, at least 26 years, an age that would be considered very old if reached by a non-magical cat.

Appearances[]

Wiki
The Harry Potter Wiki has 21 images related to Kneazle.

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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