Warning!
At least some content in this article is derived from information featured in: Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery & Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells & Harry Potter: Magic Awakened & Hogwarts Legacy. |
"Is this all real? Or has this been happening inside my head?"
The topic of this article is of a real-life subject that has been mentioned "in-universe" in a canon source. The Harry Potter Wiki is written from the perspective that all information presented in canon is true (e.g., Hogwarts really existed), and, as such, details contained in this article may differ from real world facts. |
- Harry Potter: "What do you see when you look in the mirror?"
- Albus Dumbledore: "I? I see myself holding a pair of thick, woollen socks. One can never have enough socks. Another Christmas has gone and I didn't get a single pair. People will insist on giving me books."
- — Albus Dumbledore on what he saw in the Mirror of Erised[src]
Socks are short stockings that reach a point between the ankle and the knee.[4]
History[]
In the early 1890s, a cheapskate witch bought her son, a Hufflepuff student, a pair of dancing socks that were sold for cheap. They caused his feet to dance uncontrollably and he said he would prefer to have no socks.[5]
Barnaby Lee owned a pair of "lucky" socks.[6] Socks could also be turned into Portkeys. One of these was stolen during the 1990 infiltration of the British Ministry of Magic.[7]
On Harry Potter's tenth birthday on 31 July 1990, he was given a pair of Vernon Dursley's old socks, and a coat hanger.[2]
During the 1991–1992 school year, a sock bewitched to force its wearer to perform very silly walks was located and collected by an agent of the Rare, Obscure, and Confounding Case Division, who attempted to investigate it.[8]
On Hallowe'en 1991, when Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley went to search for Hermione Granger to save her from the mountain troll that had been let into Hogwarts, Harry detected an odour that smelled like "a mixture of old socks and the kind of public toilet no one seems to clean."[9]
Not long after Christmas later that year, when Harry was caught staring at the Mirror of Erised by Albus Dumbledore, he asked Dumbledore what he saw when he looked into the mirror. Dumbledore lied that he saw himself holding a pair of thick, woollen socks, noting that one can never have too many socks.[10]
In 1993, Harry Potter tricked Lucius Malfoy into freeing his House-elf Dobby by placing one of his socks into the diary that he handed back to Malfoy. Because he was only given one sock, he though that they were worn mixed up.[3] A pair of socks were placed on Dobby's grave after his death in 1998.[11]
The Dursleys often give Harry socks as birthday[2] and Christmas gifts. One of the socks Harry was given held his sneakoscope.[12]
On the Christmas of 1993, Ronald Weasley received a pair of maroon socks apparently knitted by his mother, Molly Weasley, as a Christmas gift, even though he wasn't fond of the colour.[13]
Once, when Fred and George Weasley offered to attach Ron's Prefect badge to his forehead with a Permanent Sticking Charm, he wrapped it tenderly in his maroon socks and locked it in his trunk.[14]
When Harry Potter won a bottle of Felix Felicis on 1 September 1996 in his first Potions lesson, he stuffed his phial of the potion inside a pair of his socks.[15]
Behind the scenes[]
- Nippy23: "We see socks a lot throughout the series, such as Dobby's love for them and Dumbledore's claim to see them in the Mirror of Erised. What's the reason behind all the socks?"
- J. K. Rowling: "Nothing deep and significant, I'm afraid. They're just a comedy item."
- — J. K. Rowling on the lack of significance of socks
- J. K. Rowling has said that there is nothing particularly significant about socks in the Harry Potter books, serving merely as a source of comedy.[16]
Appearances[]
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (First appearance)
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)
- 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)
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film)
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (film)
- Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
- Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
- Pottermore
- Wizarding World
- LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
- LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7
- LEGO Harry Potter
- Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery
- Harry Potter: Wizards Unite
- Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells
- Harry Potter: Magic Awakened
- Hogwarts Legacy
Notes and references[]
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 2 (The Vanishing Glass)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 3 (The Letters from No One)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Chapter 18 (Dobby's Reward)
- ↑ Socks on Wikipedia
- ↑ Hogwarts Legacy
- ↑ Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery
- ↑ Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, Year 7, Chapter 8 (Back to Hogwarts)
- ↑ Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, Beyond Hogwarts, Volume 1, Chapter 8 (Ink Link)
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 10 (Hallowe'en)
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 12 (The Mirror of Erised)
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 24 (The Wandmaker)
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 5 (The Dementor)
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 11 (The Firebolt)
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 9 (The Woes of Mrs Weasley)
- ↑ Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 9 (The Half-Blood Prince)
- ↑ Accio Quote!