Harry Potter Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Harry Potter Wiki

Wolves are a species of canine closely related to the domestic dog.[1]

A wolf was one possible corporeal form of the Patronus Charm.[2]

History[]

A human affected with lycanthropy would turn into a wolf-like being known as a werewolf every full moon, although they could be distinguished from a true wolf by their shorter snout and smaller pupils. However, the real difference was in behaviour. Genuine wolves were not very aggressive, and the vast number of folk tales representing them as mindless predators were believed by wizarding authorities to refer to werewolves, not true wolves. A wolf was unlikely to attack a human except under exceptional circumstances.[3] It appeared to be a staple of the Hogwarts Defence Against the Dark Arts curriculum to teach the difference between a werewolf and the true wolf; it was a question on the 1976 Ordinary Wizarding Levels,[4] and Severus Snape taught it as part of a lesson on werewolves during a third year Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson he was teaching as a substitute in 1993.[5]

A pack of wolves lived in the Forbidden Forest. This particular pack was descended from two werewolves who mated in wolf form during a full moon. They were kind and gentle but acted vicious to scare children away from the forest, which had many other dangers.[3] Borf was a member of this pack during the 1980s.

Remus Lupin's Patronus took the form of a wolf, as did that of Nymphadora Tonks once she fell in love with him.[6]

Wolf was also a common surname and given name among people of Germanic descent from which the word originated, and had been adapted by others in the Americas, such as the famous American wandmaker Shikoba Wolfe.[7]

Werewolf offspring[]

When two werewolves mated when transformed, their offspring would be a beautiful and highly intelligent wolf that lacked any of the savagery and taste for human flesh that normal werewolves had.[3] They would also be unable to transform like humans afflicted with lycanthropy could.[8]

Appearances[]

Notes and references[]

Advertisement