Selina Sapworthy
Physical information
Species	Human
Gender	Female
Hair colour	Black
Eye colour	Dark
Skin colour	Pale
Affiliation
Occupation	Author Servant to the International Quidditch Team[1]
House	Gryffindor

[Source]

Selina Sapworthy was a witch, a Gryffindor alumna at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and, later in her life, an award-winning author in the fields of Herbology and plant-related Divination. She was also a loyal servant to the International Quidditch Team^[1], sometime after her graduation.

BiographyEdit

Early lifeEdit

Selina Sapworthy was born somewhere in the British Isles and, as a child, attended Hogwarts, where she was Sorted into Gryffindor House.^[2] During this time, she presumably excelled in the studies of Herbology and Divination, as she later wrote books on both subjects.

Later lifeEdit

Once she graduated from Hogwarts, Sapworthy became a loyal servant to the International Quidditch Team.^[1]

She went on to write an Herbology book, Winogrand's Wonderous Water Plants, focusing specifically on the water plants among Sir Winogrand's collection in the African Lakes. It was part of the required reading at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for at least a quarter of a century.^[3] She also published Xylomancy, a book exploring the eponymous (and often overlooked) art of Divination by twigs.^[4]

A portrait of her was hung at Hogwarts Castle by the 1990s, near the sixth-floor landing of the Grand Staircase.

EtymologyEdit

• "Selena" is the Latinized form of "Selene", a Greek name that means "moon". Selene was the name of a Greek goddess of the moon, sometimes identified with the goddess Artemis.^[5] "Sapworthy" may be a variation of the English surname "Sapworth", and a pun on the word "sap", the word used to describe the juice of plants of any kind, especially the ascending and descending juices or circulating fluid essential to nutrition, as both her known published works involve plants in some way.

Behind the scenesEdit

• The portrait of Selina Sapworthy featured in the Harry Potter films seems to have been based on a 1840 portrait of Mary Shelley, author of the Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus, by artist Richard Rothwell.

AppearancesEdit

• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film) (Appears in portrait(s))
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (Name on book cover)
• Pottermore (Mentioned only)

Notes and referencesEdit

Herbology
Professors: Herbert Beery · Pomona Sprout · Neville Longbottom
Textbooks: Flesh-Eating Trees of the World · Goshawk's Guide to Herbology · Magical Water Plants of the Mediterranean · One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi · Winogrand's Wonderous Water Plants
Hogwarts class: Herbology Award · Herbology Lesson Cup · Herbology Race Cup · Herbology Store
Hogwarts greenhouses: One · Two · Three · Four · Five · Six · Seven · Professor's Office
Herbologists: Herbert Beery · Miranda Goshawk · Elladora Ketteridge · Beaumont Marjoribanks · Nepali wizard · Phyllida Spore · Tilden Toots · Hadrian Whittle · Sir Winogrand · Selina Sapworthy
Plants Studied: Bouncing Bulb · Bubotuber · Devil's Snare · Fire Seed Bush · Mandrake · Mimbulus Mimbletonia · Puffapod · Screechsnap · Self-fertilising shrub · Snargaluff · Spiky Bush · Spiky Prickly Plant · Umbrella Flower · Venomous Tentacula · Whomping Willow · Wild rice