Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter/Characters/Crookshanks
From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection
| Muggles' Guide to Harry Potter - Character | |
| Crookshanks | |
|---|---|
| Gender | Male |
| Hair color | Ginger |
| Eye color | Unknown |
| Related Family | Unknown |
| Loyalty | Hermione Granger, Sirius Black |
Contents |
[edit] Overview
Crookshanks is a cat owned by Hermione Granger. He is quite large, for a cat, orange ("ginger") colored with brown stripes, and has an ugly, almost flat face and a bottle-brush tail. Although his significance to the the Harry Potter series is limited, readers have picked up traces of skepticism over his bearing. He is actually half-Kneazle.
[edit] Role in the Books
[edit] Prisoner of Azkaban
Crookshanks enters the story by jumping from the top of a stack of cages in the Magical Menagerie in Diagon Alley, on to Ron's head, in an almost-successful bid to catch Scabbers. Hermione then buys him, over Ron's protests that Scabbers will never get any rest with "that cat" around, and takes him to Hogwarts. During the course of the trip to Hogwarts, and several times over the school year, Crookshanks attempts to catch Scabbers, often doing damage to Ron in the process, and eventually, apparently, manages to catch Scabbers in the boy's dormitory.
Harry later sees Crookshanks in company with the large black dog that has evidently been following Harry around.
As Ron, Harry, and Hermione are heading back up to the castle after their meeting with Hagrid, Crookshanks again attacks the returned Scabbers; when Ron is dragged away under the Whomping Willow by the big black dog, Crookshanks shows the technique for freezing the Willow so that Harry and Hermione can follow.
In the Shrieking Shack, it is revealed that Crookshanks had befriended Sirius Black, and had actually stolen the list of passwords from Neville Longbottom that had given Sirius access to the Gryffindor Common Room on the night that Ron was attacked. At several points during the battle, Crookshanks acts to defend Sirius against Harry: attacking Harry when he tries to recover his wand, and sitting on Sirius' chest exactly where Harry would have to fire a spell at Sirius to kill him.
As they exit the shack and Lupin turns into a werewolf, Peter Pettigrew siezes Ron's wand and uses it to stun Ron and Crookshanks before making his escape.
Finally, when Ron is given an owl by Sirius, he holds the owl under Crookshanks' nose for approval before he accepts it. The owl will later be named Pigwidgeon.
[edit] Goblet of Fire
Crookshanks is at the Burrow with Hermione. We see him chasing gnomes in the garden before dinner. When Fred Weasley drops some fireworks as the family prepares to depart for London and the Hogwarts Express, Crookshanks is frightened and mauls a Muggle taxi-driver. He rides in the same taxi as Harry, Ron, and Hermione, and all three of them get rather badly scratched in the process.
On the Express, and throughout the book, Crookshanks is an occasional presence, curled up on a chair, jumping into either Harry's or Hermione's lap, and generally behaving as a cat should. Crookshanks seems to be quite willing to soak up almost any amount of affection from either Harry or Hermione, and sometimes Ginny, but does not seem to entirely trust Ron.
[edit] Order of the Phoenix
At Number 12, Grimmauld Place, we see Crookshanks in the kitchen, playing with Butterbeer corks, and generally acting like a cat. Throughout the book, Crookshanks is an occasional presence, curled up on a chair, jumping into either Harry's or Hermione's lap, and generally behaving as a cat should.
[edit] Half-Blood Prince
It is mentioned that Crookshanks accompanies Hermione to the Hogwarts Express when they leave The Burrow. Once again, Crookshanks seems to be acting like a cat, and having only a passing role in the story.
[edit] Deathly Hallows
We see Crookshanks at Hermione's feet when she, Ron, and Harry manage to sneak some time together in amidst the wedding preparations at The Burrow. Crookshanks, here, is behaving very much like a cat, simply lying, curled up, at Hermione's feet while she sorts books. When Mrs. Weasley bursts in on them, Crookshanks, bristling, dashes under the bed to hide.
When Harry, Ron, and Hermione need to enter the tunnel at the base of the Whomping Willow, Ron wishes that they had Crookshanks with them to push the knot that will still the tree. In words strongly reminiscent of something Ron had said in the first book, Hermione says, "Are you a wizard, or what?" Ron, recollecting himself, uses the first charm he ever learned (Wingardium Leviosa) to push a stick against the knot.
[edit] Strengths
[edit] Weaknesses
[edit] Relationships with Other Characters
Crookshanks is Hermione's cat; they are quite fond of each other. When Hermione first bought Crookshanks, the witch at the Magical Menagerie told her that he had been there for quite a while; the implication being that very few other witches or wizards were interested in him, or perhaps he in them. The author, describing the genesis of the character, says that he is based on a Muggle cat who would prowl around the sunbathers in a particular square, looking disdainful and refusing to be stroked. While she says that she only borrowed his appearance for Crookshanks, perhaps that character trait also crept in, at least in the beginning.
Crookshanks is perpetually trying to attack Scabbers, who is Ron's pet rat. Initially he seems to be doing this because he simply doesn't trust Scabbers (he may be able to detect that Scabbers is not what he seems to be). Later, it seems he is trying to fetch Scabbers at the bidding of Sirius Black, who has recognized Scabbers as Peter Pettigrew and wants to get him away from the protection afforded him by Hogwarts. Ron, of course, is trying to defend Scabbers from Crookshanks, and gets into the middle of the battles quite often; as such, at least in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the two of them are quite often fighting each other, and this almost rabid dislike has left enough bad memories that, while Ron can respect Crookshanks and his abilities, they are never quite comfortable with each other.
With other people, Crookshanks is more neutral, accepting affection and being willing to play. He is quite classically cat-like both with Harry and with Ginny Weasley, climbing into laps for a quick nap and playing with Butterbeer corks.
[edit] Analysis
Crookshanks' apparent extreme intelligence, as displayed in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, coupled with his flattened face, has led more than one reader to believe that he might be an Animagus, possibly even Regulus Black. There is precedent in the series for an unregistered Animagus, believed dead, to have stayed in his animal guise for several years. However, the author has denied this; in fact, she has stated, while discussing his origins, that Crookshanks is half Kneazle.
