Some content in this article is derived from information featured in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and, as such, spoilers will be present.
Care of Magical Creatures is an elective course at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry that can be chosen by students in their third year. In the class, students learn about a wide range of magical creatures, from flobberworms to fire crabs, and even unicorns and thestrals. Students are taught about feeding, maintaining, breeding, and proper treatment of these various creatures.
The witches and wizards who succeeded in achieving an O.W.L. in the subject later could become Magizoologists. Some known magizoologists were; Newt Scamander, his grandson Rolf Scamander, and his wife Luna Scamander (née Lovegood).
Care of Magical Creatures is a subject taught only to those in their third year or above who choose to take it.
In a students fifth year they take the Ordinary Wizarding Level examination where they sit both a written portion and a practical portion, were they demonstrate their knowledge. On their Care of Magical Creatures practical they had to identify a knarl hidden among a dozen hedgehogs; demonstrate correct handling of a bowtruckle; feed and clean out a fire crab without sustaining serious burns; choose from a wide selection of food the diet they would give a sick unicorn.
It is unknown how many of Harry Potter's fellow students chose to continue Care of Magical Creatures in their N.E.W.T. year; however, Harry, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger left the subject after completing their O.W.L.s
Silvanus Kettleburn taught Care of Magical Creatures until 1993, when he retired "to enjoy more time with his remaining limbs." He was succeeded by Rubeus Hagrid, whose lessons became controversial after Draco Malfoy was injured by a hippogriff. After Malfoy was injured, Hagrid was more restrained in the animals he showed to the class for the remainder of the year. Hagrid occasionally brought creatures that were illegal to class. Hermione Granger attempted to organise Hagrid's classes in order to make him a better teacher and prevent him from being fired. In his second year of teaching the subject, Hagrid introduced the his fourth year class to Blast-Ended Skrewts during his lessons, a species of illegally bred creatures.
Among the creatures the students learned about in these lessons during Harry's school period were:
- Hippogriffs - Practical lesson which culminated in Buckbeak "savagely mauling" Draco Malfoy. It was actually only a small injury that Malfoy played up for several reasons. Among those were to get Hagrid in trouble, to annoy Harry, Ron, and Hermione, to get out of playing the Quidditch match vs. Gryffindor in bad weather, and to get some of his school work extended or done for him.
- Flobberworms - Dull lessons which mostly involved feeding them lettuce, which resulted in them dying from being overfed. The third year exam for the class involved caring for these creatures for one hour, with a pass given if they were alive at the end of the exam. Since flobberworms do best if left to their own devices, it was the easiest exam anyone in the class had ever taken.
- Salamanders - Taught while Hagrid was depressed about Buckbeak's pending execution.
- Blast-Ended Skrewts - Raised as a project throughout the year. All ended up killing each other, with only two remaining by the Third Task, and only one by the end of the year. These were possibly illegally bred mixes of manticores and fire crabs.
- Nifflers - A practical lesson which involved searching for leprechaun gold.
- Unicorns - Adults and foals; the adult lessons were mostly girl-dominant, while the foals allowed the boys to approach.
- Thestrals - Lesson was mostly impeded by Dolores Umbridge.
- Bowtruckles - Classwork and homework involved sketching a bowtruckle.
Other creatures shown to classes across the years include:
- "Hasn' anyone bin able ter open their books? Yeh've got to stroke 'em."
- —Hagrid in his first lesson of magical creatures; he thought the books were funny[src]
Behind the scenes
- As revealed in Pottermore, J. K. Rowling had originally devised this class to be called "Beasts", and to be compulsory from the first year.
- The year in which creatures are covered seems to depend on the teacher. Silvanus Kettleburn covered salamanders with Fred and George Weasley in their fourth year, while Rubeus Hagrid taught about salamanders in Harry Potter's third year. Hermione Granger stated that a person like Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank probably wouldn´t have covered Thestrals until reaching NEWT-level, whereas Rubeus Hagrid taught about Thestrals in Harry's fifth year.
- As of the late 20th century, many students have earned good grades in this class, something Albus Dumbledore attributed to the use of Fantastic Beasts and where to Find Them as a textbook.
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game) (Mentioned only)
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Mentioned only)
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (First appearance)
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (video game)
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film) (Danish version only)
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (video game)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film) (Mentioned only)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game) (Mentioned only)
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Mentioned only)
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (video game) (Mentioned only)
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Mentioned only)
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (play) (Mentioned only)
- LEGO Harry Potter: Building the Magical World (Mentioned only)
- LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
- Harry Potter Trading Card Game (Mentioned only)
- Pottermore (Mentioned only)
- Harry Potter: The Character Vault
- Harry Potter: The Creature Vault
Notes and references
|Professors: Silvanus Kettleburn · Rubeus Hagrid · Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank (substitute teacher)|
|Textbooks: The Monster Book of Monsters · Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them|
|Care of Magical Creatures at Hogwarts: Hagrid's Hut · Forbidden Forest · Care of Magical Creatures classroom|
|Creatures studied: Hippogriffs · Flobberworms · Salamanders · Blast-Ended Skrewts · Nifflers · Unicorns · Thestrals · Bowtruckles · Crups · Fire crabs · Knarls · Kneazles · Porlocks|
|The Eleven Schools: Beauxbatons · Castelobruxo · Durmstrang · Hogwarts · Ilvermorny · Koldovstoretz · Mahoutokoro · Uagadou|
|Specialised schools: Academy of Broom Flying · Charm School · Euro-Glyph School of Extraordinary Languages · Merge School of Under-Water Spellage · Wizarding Academy of Dramatic Arts|
|Examinations: First year exams · Second year exams · Third year exams · Fourth year exams · Ordinary Wizarding Level · Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Test|
|Core classes: Astronomy · Charms · Defence Against the Dark Arts · Herbology · History of Magic · Potions · Transfiguration|
|Elective classes: Alchemy · Arithmancy · Care of Magical Creatures · Divination · Muggle Studies · Study of Ancient Runes|
|Extra-curricular classes: Apparition · Advanced Arithmancy Studies · Ancient Studies · Art · Flying · Frog Choir · Ghoul Studies · Hogwarts orchestra · Magical Theory · Muggle Art · Muggle Music · Music · Xylomancy|