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Moon

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.
As such, spoilers will be present within the article.

"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.

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This article is about Earth's natural satellite. You may be looking for an individual.

"The moon was glistening palely through the trees and its rays mingled with the light spilling from Hagrid's window to illuminate Aragog's body lying on the edge of a massive pit, beside a ten-foot-high mound of freshly dug earth."
— The moonlight illuminating the Funeral of Aragog[src]

The moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the fifth largest natural satellite in the Solar System.[1] The moon's phases were very useful and important in the wizarding world.[2][3] The moon shone so brightly in the night sky as it reflected light directly from the sun.[3]

Overview

Creatures

The Mooncalf was a peaceful magical beast that only came out of its burrow during a full moon and then performed a complicated mating dance.[4] The presence of a full moon could induce Basilisk eggs to hatch early if given certain other circumstances.[5] Moon Frogs were alleged to have existed on the Moon.[6]

Potions

Lunar Phases HM Astronomy Icon

The phases of the Moon influenced the making of certain potions, as studied by the witch Hesper Starkey.[2] Veritaserum took a full moon cycle to mature[7] and when making Polyjuice Potion, the fluxweed for it had to be picked during the full moon.[8]

The Animagus potion required one to keep a Mandrake leaf in their mouth for one entire month (from full moon to full moon) and then spitting it out into a phial within range of the full moons light.

Diseases

It was believed by medieval Healers that taking the liver of a toad, binding it tight about the victim's throat and standing naked by the full moon in a barrel of eels' eyes would cure spattergroit.[9] Wizards infected with lycanthropy transformed into a werewolf if exposed to the full moon's rays.[10][11] Because of this, Remus Lupin, a werewolf, was afraid of the moon, and thus his Boggart assumed the form of it.[12][13]

History

During the 1989–1990 school year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Professor Aurora Sinistra taught sixth-year students in Astronomy about lunar phases.[3]

Moonlight lit the grounds of the Forbidden Forest in 1992 as Rubeus Hagrid conducted a detention for Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy and Neville Longbottom there. During the detention, after an encounter with centaurs, he described them as being "ruddy stargazers" who were "not interested in anythin' closer'n the moon".[14] In the summer of 1992, moonlight was streaming through the bars of Harry's window in The Smallest Bedroom as Ron, Fred and George Weasley arrived by flying car to rescue him from 4 Privet Drive.[15] As they made their escape, the car "shot suddenly toward the moon" when Fred put his foot down on the accelerator.[16] At approximately one o'clock in the morning on 31 July 1993, the moon was large, full and golden, and silhouetted by Errol, Hedwig and an owl sent by Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as they flew to his house with birthday wishes and, in the case of the latter, a form for Harry's guardians to sign so that he could go to Hogsmeade.[17]

Lupin-boggart

As Harry Potter went to bed on the night of 5 February 1994, he twitched the hangings of his four-poster shut to block out a ray of moonlight.[18] In the early evening of 6 June 1994, thick clouds covered the moon, although later that night when Ron Weasley, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Sirius Black, Professor Lupin and Peter Pettigrew left the Shrieking Shack through the entrance at the base of the Whomping Willow, the clouds moved aside to reveal a full moon, and Lupin, who was a werewolf, transformed.[19] On the evening of 30 October 1994, as the students of Hogwarts greeted the delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, a pale, transparent-looking moon shone down over the Forbidden Forest.[20]

In early 1995, as Harry Potter travelled to the Prefects' bathroom to work out the golden egg clue, the corridors of Hogwarts were moon-lit.[21] In February of that year, as he searched more and more desperately for a way to survive for up to an hour in the Great Lake, its "dark and icy depths" started to seem to him "as distant as the moon".[22] During the summer holidays of 1995, The Quibbler published an interview with a wizard who claimed to have flown to the moon on a Cleansweep Six and brought back a bag of Moon Frogs to prove it.[23]

In April 1997, on the night that Rubeus Hagrid buried Aragog, the moon glistened palely through the trees and illuminated Aragog's body.[24] On 30 June that year, the moon was crescent as the Battle of the Astronomy Tower broke out.[25] Sometime prior to 27 July of that year, on the night of Charity Burbage's murder, the moon was out and shown down upon Severus Snape and Yaxley as they paid a visit to Lord Voldemort at Malfoy Manor.[26] Later in December, a ghostly moon hung behind the Lovegood House in the afternoon sky as Harry, Ron and Hermione visited it.[27]

Behind the scenes

CS C3

Appearances

Notes and references

  1. ↑ Moon on Wikipedia
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery, Year 6, Chapter 25 (Written in the Stars) - Astronomy Lesson "Lunar Phases"
  4. ↑ Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
  5. ↑ "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Basilisk Page - replica movie prop" at Your Props
  6. ↑ Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 10 (Luna Lovegood)
  7. ↑ Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 32 (Out of the Fire)
  8. ↑ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Chapter 10 (The Rogue Bludger)
  9. ↑ Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 23 (Christmas on the Closed Ward)
  10. ↑ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 20 (The Dementor's Kiss)
  11. ↑ Writing by J. K. Rowling: "Werewolves" at Harry Potter (website)
  12. ↑ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 7 (The Boggart in the Wardrobe)
  13. ↑ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 17 (Cat, Rat and Dog)
  14. ↑ Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 15 (The Forbidden Forest)
  15. ↑ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Chapter 2 (Dobby's Warning)
  16. ↑ Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Chapter 3 (The Burrow)
  17. ↑ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 1 (Owl Post)
  18. ↑ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 13 (Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw)
  19. ↑ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Chapter 20 (The Dementor's Kiss)
  20. ↑ Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 15 (Beauxbatons and Durmstrang)
  21. ↑ Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 25 (The Egg and the Eye)
  22. ↑ Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 26 (The Second Task)
  23. ↑ Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 10 (Luna Lovegood)
  24. ↑ Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 22 (After the Burial)
  25. ↑ Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 28 (Flight of the Prince)
  26. ↑ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 1 (The Dark Lord Ascending)
  27. ↑ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 20 (Xenophilius Lovegood)
  28. ↑ Pottermore - Book 4, Chapter 1, Moment 1 - The House on the Hill
Astronomy
study · class
Professors: Satyavati Shah · Aurora Sinistra
Astronomy at Hogwarts: Astronomy classroom · Astronomy Corridor · Astronomy Club · Astronomy department · Astronomy homework meeting · Astronomy reading room · Astronomy Room · Astronomy Stairs · Astronomy Tower
Astronomers: Aurora Sinistra · Copernicus · George von Rheticus · Perpetua Fancourt · Hesper Starkey
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Stars: Arcturus · Canopus · Sirius · Vega
Other topics: Black holes · Celestial Studies · Cosmic ages · Dark energy · Dark matter · Eclipse · Galaxy · Lunar phases · Meteor showers · Space weather · Wormholes