Magical Magic Creature Spotlight: Ghoul

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

Ghoul


MOM Classification: XX


It’s funny that the entry prefaces by saying that while a ghoul is ugly, it’s not dangerous. Because if it’s ugly, it must be dangerous, right? And nothing that’s beautiful could possibly be dangerous? That’s not how it works, you know, not even in this book!


Anyway, ghouls live in attics and barns, and eat moths and spiders. Note that this entry specifically indicates that ghouls seek out wizard attics and barns- I’m starting to think that magic really does smell different. Anyway, the worst that a ghoul will do is throw things around or growl at anyone who stumbles across it. For this reason, they often become pets of the wizard families they live with- though there is a magical task force to remove ghouls from houses that have passed into Muggle hands. Honestly, these wizards are just plain obsessed with keeping anything magical out of the way of Muggles (how many stories have you seen where a creature like this becomes the friend of ordinary children, again?). Remind me why they don’t know anything about how these magical creatures actually live (even when they do)?


The Weasleys have a ghoul in their attic, which is once used to pass off as Ron with dragon pox (or somesuch)- for no readily discernible reason as to why it would work. On Warner Brothers’ website when the movies were popular, there was a Harry Potter game that would involve trying to make more noise than the ghoul in the Weasleys’ attic.

Comments

[sharaz-jek.livejournal.com]

So... one has to wonder, just how the hell did the ghoul get associated with the Arabic predatory/scavenging demon, and/or the grave-robbing ambiguously-undead thing it became in the West? (Also, how did the stories about what were originally Irish gods get associated with those insectoid creatures wizards call fairies)? Did the wizards just steal names from Muggles and stick them on whatever first caught their eye?

[danajsparks.livejournal.com]

---- Note that this entry specifically indicates that ghouls seek out wizard attics and barns- I’m starting to think that magic really does smell different.

I have a theory that some places are naturally more magical than others, such as the forbidden forest, and that these are the areas of the planet where magical creatures have long resided. Wizards like to live in these magical areas, and that's why they have to deal with magical "pests" in their homes.

It's not that magical pests are solely drawn to wizarding homes, it's that wizards have chosen to live in these creatures' natural habitats.