Yes, we know, you love Neville, and Professor McGonagall and Nymphadora Tonks. But what about the unsung heroes of the Potter series? Here, New Statesman staff make the case for their personal, obscure favourites from the books.
Let’s face it, a lot of the animals in Harry Potter are a bit high-maintenance. Owls snootily flying in with plot twists on parchment the whole time. Hippogriffs taloning your face off if you have the audacity to blink. Giant spiders with daddy issues. So it’s quite a relief to have Trevor, Neville Longbottom’s pet toad, around. He’s straightforward, unassuming, and really not arsed with the magical world. So much so that he is constantly trying to escape it – a tendency that brings Hermione into Ron and Harry’s Hogwarts Express compartment on their first day, when she’s helping Neville search for him. So without Trevor, they might never have become friends, and the Dark Lord might have prevailed.
Content from our partners
