Top 10 Weirdest Harry Potter Characters

Top 10 Weirdest Harry Potter Characters

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Crafting memorable characters is one of the things J.K. Rowling does best – even the stranger ones. Welcome to WatchMojo and today we're counting down our picks for the Top 10 Weirdest Harry Potter Characters. For this list, we’re counting down the strangest, quirkiest and most incomprehensible characters in the Potterverse.

#10: Mr. Ollivander

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One of the first wizards Harry meets when he goes to Diagon Alley is the owner of the wand shop, Mr. Ollivander. He’s full of cryptic sayings, behaves in a bit of a manic fashion, and looks at Harry way too closely. Then again, spending your days surrounded by wands with no coworkers to talk to is probably enough to make anyone a little batty. Not to mention the fact that his store probably only has business in the lead-up to the new school year, so this guy likely has a lot of alone time.

When readers of the books were first introduced to Mrs. Figg, she was just Harry’s strange neighbor who liked to regale him with stories about her many cats. Jump forward to the fifth installment of the series, however, and we find out that oddball Arabella Figg is far more than a quirky resident of Little Whinging. She’s actually a squib who has been charged with watching over Harry while he’s with the Dursleys. A squib is a person who was born to at least one wizarding parent but possesses no magical abilities themselves, and often end up as outcasts in the wizarding world. Perhaps that explains why Mrs. Figg seems slightly off her rocker.

He may be one of the most beloved characters J.K. Rowling ever created, but he definitely has his eccentricities. Hagrid is loyal, caring and will do anything for the people he loves, but he sometimes gets sidetracked by his main hobby – taking in the occasional magical creature. Don’t get us wrong, if they were nifflers, bowtruckles or kneazles it would be a totally different story, but his proclivity for animals that err on the big and dangerous side is what gets him into trouble. Seriously, who wants an Acromantula for a pet?

#7: Nearly Headless Nick

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To start with, he’s a ghost. But even as far as ghosts go, this character is a pretty strange one. Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington – better known as Nearly Headless Nick – is the Gryffindor house ghost who bemoans the fact that he was never properly beheaded during his execution. In one chapter in the books that doesn’t appear in the movies, Nick throws himself a “Deathday” party that he invites Harry, Ron, and Hermione to. There, he tries to impress the members of the Headless Hunt that he’s worthy of inclusion in their group. An improperly-beheaded ghost still seeking the approval of his peers? How delightfully odd.

#6: Albus Dumbledore

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He may be Headmaster of Hogwarts, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, Supreme Mugwump, and the most powerful wizard of his time... but he’s still a total weirdo. Albus Dumbledore is about as quirky as they come, and neither of the actors who portrayed him in the films quite captured the character’s full range of idiosyncrasies. Whether it’s his love of muggle sweets, his hilarious commentary on his students’ love lives, or his bad luck with Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans, Dumbledore’s oddities are what make him one of the series’ greatest characters.

The second ghost to make it on our list, this character is strange in a way that is entirely her own. After being killed during her school days by the Basilisk that calls the Chamber of Secrets home, she has taken to haunting a girls’ lavatory at Hogwarts. When she first meets Harry, Ron and Hermione, she takes a liking to the boys and ends up meeting Harry again two movies later, startling him in a spectacular way. Like many of the characters we’ve talked about, we’re guessing that loneliness is the main cause of Myrtle’s oddities.

#4: Mad-Eye Moody

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It’s not kind to speak ill of the dead, but there’s no denying that this character was pretty peculiar. Even when you consider that our first impression of him is tainted by the fact that he was actually being impersonated by a dark wizard using Polyjuice Potion, the real Mad-Eye Moody ends up being pretty bizarre in his own right. He’s got a peg leg, one magical eye, is missing part of his nose and has a tendency to be suspicious of everything that comes his way... usually with good reason.

From the moment Harry first encounters this house elf in his room on Privet Drive, he knows something strange is afoot. No one could have predicted just how much havoc Dobby would wreak on Harry’s life, all in the name of keeping him safe. You know he only has good intentions once you understand his motivations, but that doesn’t stop him from being totally outlandish most of the time. He doesn’t want to have more than one day off a week, and also has a deep love for socks... but god forbid they actually match.

#2: Professor Trelawney

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In their third year, Harry, Ron and Hermione all add a new class to their course load: Divination. Their teacher is Professor Trelawney, a woman whose head seems firmly situated in the clouds. She loves to make predictions about Harry’s imminent demise – and while most of her premonitions seem to be completely fabricated, she does occasionally make a prophecy that comes to fruition. By the time Umbridge tries to kick her out of Hogwarts in the fifth movie, we had come to sympathize with her, despite how strangely she behaves.

One of the series’ biggest fan favourite characters also happens to be the most bizarre. When we first meet Luna “Loony” Lovegood, she’s reading a magazine upside down, wearing her radish earrings and talking about nargles. Her whimsy is what makes her so lovable, and the fact that she couldn’t care less what other people think makes her a great companion for Harry. Of course, after meeting her father, we know exactly where she gets it from. She never takes things too seriously, and above all she’ll do anything for her friends. Stay weird, Luna! We wouldn’t want it any other way.