document_title: Knockout

question_text: who has the highest knockout percentage in boxing

text: Knockout

text: Technical knockout[edit]

text: A technical knockout (TKO or T.K.O.), or stoppage, is declared when the referee or official ring physician decides during a round that a fighter cannot safely continue the match for any reason, without the need for an intervening count. In most regions, a TKO is declared when a fighter is knocked down three times in one round.[3] Other reasons for stopping a fight include severe facial lacerations and a fighter's inability to put up a sufficient defense following a knockdown.

text: A TKO only occurs if the fight is stopped during a round. If a fighter or his/her cornerman decides to end the fight between rounds, it is ruled a corner retirement or "referee technical decision" (RTD). Both TKO's and corner retirements are counted as knockouts in a fighter's record.

text: In MMA bouts, the referee may declare a TKO if a fighter cannot intelligently defend him/herself while being repeatedly struck.[1]

text: Double knockout[edit]

text: A double knockout, in both real life combat sports and fighting-based video games, is when both fighters trade blows and knock each other out simultaneously, and are both unable to continue fighting. In such cases, the match is declared a draw. In fighting games such as Street Fighter and Tekken, a draw is counted as a loss for both players.

text: Physical characteristics[edit]

text: Little is known about what exactly causes one to be knocked unconscious, but many agree it is related to trauma to the brain stem. This usually happens when the head rotates sharply, often as a result of a strike. There are three general manifestations of such trauma:

text:
a typical knockout, which results in a sustained (three seconds or more) loss of consciousness (comparable to general anesthesia, when the recipient emerges and has lost memory of the event),
a "flash" knockout, when a very transient (less than three seconds) loss of consciousness occurs, and the recipient often maintains awareness and memory of the combat
a "stunning," when the consciousness is maintained despite extremely distorted proprioception, visual fields, and auditory processing.

text: A basic principle of boxing and other combat sports is to defend against this vulnerability by keeping both hands raised about the face and the chin tucked in.

text: A fighter who becomes unconscious from a strike with sufficient knockout power is referred to as having been knocked out or KO'd (kay-ode). Losing balance without losing consciousness is referred to as being knocked down ("down but not out"). Repeated blows to the head are known to gradually cause permanent brain damage. In severe cases this may cause strokes or paralysis.[4] This loss of consciousness is commonly known as becoming "punch drunk" or "shot". Because of this, many physicians advise against sports involving knockouts.[5]

text: Fighters who lose by knockout (either by ten count or technical) are automatically suspended for 30 days, three months if it is the second knockout within three months, or one year if it is the third knockout within one year.[6][7][8]

text: Knockdown[edit]

text: A knockdown occurs when a fighter touches the floor of the ring with any part of the body other than the feet following a hit, but is able to rise back up and continue fighting. The term is also used if the fighter is hanging on to the ropes, caught between the ropes, or is hanging over the ropes and is unable to fall to the floor and cannot protect himself. A knockdown triggers a count by the referee; if the fighter fails the count, then the fight is ended as a KO.[9]

text: A flash knockdown is a knockdown where the fighter hits the canvas but recovers quickly enough that a count is not started.[9]

text: Knockout records[edit]

text: Top 10 boxers by most KOs[edit]

text:
Billy Bird (138)[10]
Archie Moore (132)
Young Stribling (129)
Sam Langford (128)
Buck Smith (120)
Kid Azteca (114)
George Odwell (111)[11]
Sugar Ray Robinson, Alabama Kid (108)[12]
Peter Maher (107)
Sandy Saddler (103)

text: Top 10 boxing champions (including interims) by KO %[edit]

text: Inactive National Boxing Association, World Colored Boxing Championship as well as list on List of current world boxing champions and European Boxing Union.

text:
Edwin Valero, Anthony Joshua, Artur Beterbiev, Mensur Dedic, Jun Long Zhang (100%)
Deontay Wilder (97%)
Gervonta Davis, Yunier Dorticos (95%)
Jonathan Guzmán (92%)
Carlos Zarate, Dmitry Kudryashov (90%)
Rocky Marciano, Wilfredo Gomez, Aaron Pryor, Laila Ali, Ilhan Dzafic (88%)
Vitali Klitschko, Gennady Golovkin (87%)
Khaosai Galaxy, Eduard Troyanovsky, Daniel Jacobs, Oleksandr Gvozdyk, Gerald McClellan, Miguel Berchelt (85%)
Naseem Hamed, Alfonso Zamora, Frank Bruno, Oleksandr Usyk, David Haye (84.0%)
Naoya Inoue, Óscar Valdez (83.0%)

text: Top 10 MMA fighters by most KOs[edit]

text:
Travis Fulton (92)
Melvin Manhoef (55)
Gilbert Yvel (32)
Igor Vovchanchyn, Alexander Shlemenko (29)
Wanderlei Silva (27)
Paul Daley (26)
Maiquel Falcao, Mirko Filipovic (23)
Travis Wiuff (22)
Melvin Guillard (21)
Paul Buentello, Robbie Lawler, Ben Rothwell, Anderson Silva, Tim Sylvia (20)

text: Top 10 MMA (Champions, Challengers) Fighters by KO %[edit]

text: Fighters from inactive Pride Fighting Championships and active UFC/Bellator plus champions and former champions from other organizations.

text:
Conor McGregor (81%)
Cristiane Justino (76.43%)
Cain Velasquez (73.3334%)
Vitor Belfort (72%)
Cung Le (66.66%)
Travis Browne (65%)
Junior dos Santos (64.7%)
Maiquel Falcao (63.88%)
Muhammed Lawal, Alexander Volkov (63.64%)
Holly Holm, Stipe Miocic (60%)

text: Most consecutive KOs[edit]

text:
Boxing: LaMar Clark (44)[13]
MMA: Travis Fulton (10)

text: Most 1st round KOs and most consecutive 1st round KOs[edit]

text:
Boxing: Peter Maher (50)
Consecutive/Boxing: Ali Raymi (21)
MMA: Travis Fulton (68)
Consecutive/MMA: Igor Vovchanchyn, Travis Fulton (7)

text: Top 10 K-1 and K-2 kickboxers by most KOs[edit]

text:
Changpuek Kiatsongrit (178)
Badr Hari (92)
Andy Souwer (87)
Mike Zambidis (86)
Branko Cikatic (82)
Manson Gibson (80)
Peter Aerts (78)
Rob Kaman (77)
Jerome Le Banner (64)
Ernesto Hoost (62)


document_title: Curious George (TV series)

question_text: who plays the man in the yellow hat in curious george

root

text: Curious George (TV series)

text: Settings[edit]

text:
The City: George and the Man with the Yellow Hat live in an apartment in "The City". The Doorman keeps a pigeon coop on the roof and is the guardian of Hundley, his dachshund dog. The apartment is near Endless Park, the museum where Professor Wiseman works, and a zoo. Chef Pisghetti's restaurant is nearby, as are a donut shop, Dulson's Toy Store, Mabel's Department Store, a supermarket and a pet shop. These are recurring locations.
The Country: George and the Man with the Yellow Hat vacation in a small house in the country. The house is near Lake Wanasink, a stream, and a river that eventually flows past the city and to the ocean. George is friends there with 5-year-old Allie and the teenage paperboy, Bill.

tag: ul

text: Characters[edit]

text: Curious George (voiced by Frank Welker): A tailless monkey (Barbary macaque) who is the protagonist of the show. He is excessively curious and often causes unintentional problems. He is used as the "teachable" character in the show, and he is the one to whom new concepts are explained in detail by the other characters. He is written as having the mind of a young child.

text: The Man with the Yellow Hat (voiced by Jeff Bennett): The man who first befriended George and also acts as his primary teacher and mentor. He does not wear his hat at home but wears it when going in public. the Man often has bad luck and makes mistakes (such as constantly losing his hat, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, tasting something terrible with a sour reaction, etc.). He is also absent-minded, and a bit awkward.

text: Episodes[edit]

text: The setting for most episodes is either the city, where George lives in an apartment building with The Man in the Yellow Hat or the country, where they share a small house near a lake called Lake Wanasinklake. This allows George to mirror the experiences of kids who live in an urban environment and those who live on farms and in suburbs. A few episodes take place in alternate but familiar settings, like an airport or a train station.

tag: p

text: SeasonEpisodesOriginally airedFirst airedLast aired130September 4, 2006February 23, 2007220September 3, 2007April 22, 2008311September 1, 2008April 22, 200949September 8, 2009June 14, 2010510September 6, 2010May 6, 2011610September 3, 2011April 20, 201276December 3, 2012April 24, 201386February 10, 2014May 21, 201496October 28, 2014April 1, 2015

tag: table

text: Airing History[edit]

text: United States

text: PBS (2006-present)

text: United Kingdom

text:
CITV (2006-2015)
Disney Junior (2011-2018)
Cartoonito (2018-present)[4]

text: Canada

text:
Family (2007-present)
Playhouse Disney Tele (2010-present)

text: Indonesia

text: Antv (2008-present)

text: Sweden

text: SVTB (2007-present)

text: Iceland

text: Rúv  (2006-present)

text: Awards[edit]

text: Emmy Award

text:
2008 – Outstanding Children's Animated Program
2010 – Outstanding Children's Animated Program


document_title: 1982 European Cup Final

question_text: who was manager when aston villa won the european cup

text: 1982 European Cup Final

text: Route to the final[edit]

text:
Aston Villa
Round
 Bayern Munich

Opponent
Agg.
1st leg
2nd leg

Opponent
Agg.
1st leg
2nd leg

 Valur
7–0
5–0 (H)
2–0 (A)
First round
 Öster
6–0
1–0 (A)
5–0 (H)

 Dynamo Berlin
2–2 (a)
2–1 (A)
0–1 (H)
Second round
 Benfica
4–1
0–0 (A)
4–1 (H)

 Dynamo Kyiv
2–0
0–0 (A)
2–0 (H)
Quarter-finals
 Universitatea Craiova
3–1
2–0 (A)
1–1 (H)

 Anderlecht
1–0
1–0 (H)
0–0 (A)
Semi-finals
 CSKA Sofia
7–4
3–4 (A)
4–0 (H)

text: Match[edit]

text: Summary[edit]

text: It represented a huge success in his first season as manager for Tony Barton. He had only taken over as Villa boss before the quarter-finals after the shock resignation of Villa boss Ron Saunders.

text: One of the most memorable incidents of the final occurred after 10 minutes when veteran goalkeeper Jimmy Rimmer suffered a repeat of a recurring shoulder injury. His replacement, Nigel Spink, subsequently made only his second first team appearance for the club. His performance in helping prevent Bayern from scoring throughout the match was subsequently highly praised, and is seen by many as the making of a player who would be Villa's first choice goalkeeper for the following 10 seasons.[1]

text: Also memorably Bayern Munich did find the net with three minutes of play remaining, although the goal was ruled offside. Villa also got the ball in the net for a second time a few seconds before the end of the match but this goal was also disallowed.

text: Brian Moore's commentary of the winning goal is displayed on a giant banner across the North Stand of Villa Park:

text:
“
Shaw, Williams, prepared to venture down the left. There's a good ball in for Tony Morley. Oh, it must be and it is! It's Peter Withe.
”

text: As defending European champions Villa were invited into the European Cup, European Super Cup and the Intercontinental Cup for the following season. Their defence of the European Cup ended in a quarter-final defeat to a Michel Platini-inspired Juventus. They beat Barcelona 3–1 on aggregate to win the Super Cup, but lost 2–0 to Uruguayan club Peñarol for the Intercontinental Cup in Tokyo, Japan.

text: Details[edit]

text: Aston Villa  v  Bayern Munich

text:
26 May 1982
20:15 CEST

text:
Aston Villa
1–0
 Bayern Munich

Withe  67'
Report

text:
Feijenoord Stadion, Rotterdam
Attendance: 46,000
Referee: Georges Konrath (France)

text:
Aston Villa

Bayern Munich

text:
GK
1
 Jimmy Rimmer

 9'

DF
2
 Kenny Swain

DF
3
 Gary Williams
 38'

DF
4
 Allan Evans

DF
5
 Ken McNaught

MF
6
 Dennis Mortimer (c)

MF
7
 Des Bremner

FW
8
 Gary Shaw

FW
9
 Peter Withe

MF
10
 Gordon Cowans

MF
11
 Tony Morley

Substitutes:

GK
16
 Nigel Spink

 9'

DF

 Colin Gibson

MF

 Andy Blair

MF

 Pat Heard

FW

 David Geddis

Manager:

 Tony Barton

GK
1
 Manfred Müller

DF
2
 Wolfgang Dremmler

DF
3
 Udo Horsmann

SW
4
 Hans Weiner

DF
5
 Klaus Augenthaler

MF
6
 Wolfgang Kraus

 78'

MF
7
 Bernd Dürnberger

MF
8
 Paul Breitner (c)

FW
9
 Dieter Hoeneß

MF
10
 Reinhold Mathy

 51'

FW
11
 Karl-Heinz Rummenigge

Substitutes:

MF
16
 Günter Güttler

 51'

MF
13
 Kurt Niedermayer

 78'

GK

 Walter Junghans

Manager:

 Pál Csernai


document_title: Abide with Me

question_text: what does the song abide with me mean

question_tokens: what does the song abide with me mean

text: Abide with Me

text: Lyrics[edit]

text:
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Abide with Me

text: The hymn is a prayer for God to remain present with the speaker throughout life, through trials, and through death. The opening line alludes to Luke 24:29, "Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent", and the penultimate verse draws on text from 1 Corinthians 15:55, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?":

text:
Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day;
Earth's joys grow dim; its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

Not a brief glance I beg, a passing word,
But as Thou dwell'st with Thy disciples, Lord,
Familiar, condescending, patient, free.
Come not to sojourn, but abide with me.

Thou on my head in early youth didst smile,
And though rebellious and perverse meanwhile,
Thou hast not left me, oft as I left Thee.
On to the close, O Lord, abide with me.

I need Thy presence every passing hour.
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter's power?
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.

I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death's sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.

Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

text: Tune[edit]

text:
"Eventide", by William Henry Monk

An organ performance of "Eventide," best known for its use with the hymn "Abide with Me," performed by Steven Dunlop.

Problems playing this file? See media help.

text: The hymn tune most often used with this hymn is "Eventide" composed by William Henry Monk in 1861.[2]

text: Alternative tunes include:

text:
"Abide with Me," Henry Lyte, 1847
"Morecambe", Frederick C. Atkinson, 1870
"Penitentia", Edward Dearle, 1874
"Woodlands", Walter Greatorex 1916

text: Popular use[edit]

text: Religious services[edit]

text: The hymn is popular across many Christian denominations and was said to be a favourite of King George V[3][4] and Mahatma Gandhi.[5] It is also often sung or played at Christian funerals.[citation needed] Some prominent documented occasions of its use are listed below:

text:
The hymn was played by the Mysore Palace Band when Gandhi visited the Kingdom of Mysore.[6]
In the aftermath of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, survivors reported that the Titanic's band played the hymn as the ship was sinking,[7] although detailed studies have identified other songs played by the band.
The hymn was also played at the State funeral of the titular Maharaja of Mysore, Srikanta Wadiyar.[8]
The nurse Edith Cavell is said to have sung the hymn with a chaplain in her cell the evening before she was shot by the Germans in 1915.[9]
The hymn was played at the funeral of US President Richard M. Nixon.[10]

text: Military services[edit]

text: The hymn is sung at the annual Anzac Day services in Australia and New Zealand,[11] and in some Remembrance Day services in Canada[12] and the United Kingdom.[citation needed] It is also played by the combined bands of the Indian Armed Forces during the annual Beating Retreat ceremony held on 29 January at Vijay Chowk, New Delhi, which officially marks the end of Republic Day celebrations.[5][13] A choral version of this hymn has been arranged by Moses Hogan.[citation needed]

text: Music[edit]

text:
Phrases of the finale of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 9 are often noted for their similarity to Monk's Eventide.[14]
Ralph Vaughan Williams composed an orchestral prelude on the tune for the Hereford Festival of 1936.[15]
Thelonious Monk recorded an instrumental version of "Abide with Me" with his jazz septet as the first track of the 1957 album Monk's Music. In 2006, two different takes of the recording were released on The Complete 1957 Riverside Recordings, an anthology of Thelonious Monk's work with John Coltrane.
The hymn was also set to music around 1890 by the American composer Charles Ives, and was published in his collection Thirteen Songs in 1958, four years after his death.[16]
Doris Day recorded this song on her 1962 album You'll Never Walk Alone.
The pipes and drums of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards played the hymn in their 2007 album, Spirit of the Glen.
Hayley Westenra recorded the hymn on her third international album, Treasure, and performed it live at various sporting events, including the Rugby League Challenge Cup Final in August 2009.
An instrumental version appears on the 2009 David Friesen David Friesen release, Vanishing the Darkness.
In 2013, Joe McElderry and the Royal Mail Choir recorded the song, and it was released as a charity single on 14 April 2013, raising money for Prostate Cancer UK.[17] This version reached number 19 in the UK indie charts.[18]
At Portora Royal School (the school Henry Francis Lyte attended) the song has become the school's victory song and is sung at the annual Portora Remembrance Service.[citation needed]
Alex Sharpe recorded her version of the hymn on her 2014 album, Be Still My Soul.
The Inspirational Choir recorded this song for their debut album Sweet Inspiration

text: In sport[edit]

text: Since the 1927 FA Cup Final between Arsenal and Cardiff City, the first and last verses of the hymn are traditionally sung at the FA Cup Final before the kick-off of the match, at around 2.45 pm BST.[19]

text: The hymn featured on the B-side of the 1989 charity single Ferry Cross the Mersey, which was recorded in memory of the Hillsborough disaster victims.

text: The hymn has been sung prior to the kick-off at every Rugby League Challenge Cup Final since 1929, the first final to be held at Wembley Stadium.[20]

text: "Abide with Me" was also sung at the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony, performed by Scottish recording artist Emeli Sandé,[21] as part of a memorial sequence to commemorate those who died in the 7/7 attacks in London in 2005.[22]

text: In film and television[edit]

text:
1939 film Idiot's Delight, sung by Norma Shearer and Clark Gable
1953 film Shane
TV movie Miss Marple: Nemesis (1987)
TV series Twilight Zone (1962) – In episode "The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank"
Film Fist of Fury (1972) – Played by brass band in funeral scene
TV series Scenes from a Marriage (1973) – In episode "Innocence and Panic"
TV series Ripping Yarns (1976–79) – In episode "The Testing of Eric Olthwaite"
Film A Bridge Too Far (1977) – Sung by wounded British paratroopers at a field hospital
TV Doctor Who:

In episode "Kinda" (1982)
In episode "Gridlock" (2007)

Film The Full Monty (1997) – in funeral scene
Film Crush (2001) – during interrupted wedding scene
Film 28 Days Later (2002) – while Jim, Mark and Selena are going to Jim's parents' house
TV series Touched by an Angel (2002) – in episode where Tess develops Alzheimer's disease
TV series Fat Friends (2003) - sung by the congregation at Rebecca's father's funeral
Film Latter Days (2003)
TV series Carnivàle (2004–05)
TV series Lost (2004–10) – in episode where character Charlie is in confession
TV series Ashes to Ashes (2008–10) – in episode about Sgt. Viv James's funeral
TV miniseries Oliver Twist (2007) – taught to Oliver by Rose, sung by Oliver for Bill Sykes
TV series Doc Martin series 5 episode 2 at the funeral of Joan (September 2011)
TV miniseries The Roosevelts - episode 7, during Eleanor's funeral (September 2014)
TV series Parks and Recreation - season 6 episode 1, played on bagpipes while Ron Swanson is visiting Scotland
TV series Home and Away, Episode 6180 – sung at the ANZAC Day service (April 2015)
2016 film Brimstone

text: In literature[edit]

text:
In George Orwell's Burmese Days, Flory begins attending church services after turning his mistress out of his house. One of the hymns the small congregation sings along to the sound of a tiny harmonium is "Abide with Me".
In the SF novel Voyage by Stephen Baxter, the joint US-Soviet crew of a fictional space station in lunar orbit recite five of the verses as a tribute to three astronauts who were killed following an accident aboard another spacecraft.
"Change and decay in all around I see" flash through Belinda's mind in chapter 15 of Some Tame Gazelle, the first published (in England, last published in the US) of Barbara Pym's novels.
In Sir Terry Pratchett's Unseen Academicals, Archchancellor Ridcully exclaims, "Change and decay!" Ridcully declared to the night air. "I am surrounded by traitors! They thwart me at every turn." when unable to obtain a night snack or tobacco.

text: Other media[edit]

text:
Ray Copeland, trumpet; Gigi Gryce, alto sax; Coleman Hawkins and John Coltrane, tenor saxes – on Thelonious Monk album Monk's Music (1957).
Vic Reeves – 1991 dance-mixed version[citation needed]
Elton John – 1997 album Carnival: Rainforest Foundation Concert
ITV – coverage of FA Cup competition until 2009
Old Harry's Game (BBC Radio 4) – Series 1 & 4; Professor Richard Whittingham mentions that his favourite poem was written by Henry Francis Lyte, and proceeds to recite it to Thomas and Scumspawn. He is also taken to the church where Thomas' father is Vicar and proceeds to weep as "Every Cup Final it would get to me".

text: Other[edit]

text: Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) – 1968 at transfer of power.[citation needed]


document_title: Twin

question_text: what percentage of the population has identical twins

question_tokens: what percentage of the population has identical twins

text: Twin

text: Statistics[edit]

text: The human twin birth rate in the United States, rose 76% from 1980 through 2009, from 18.9 to 33.3 per 1,000 births.[5]

text: The Yoruba peoples have the highest rate of twinning in the world, at 45–50 twin sets (or 90–100 twins) per 1,000 live births,[6][7][8] possibly because of high consumption of a specific type of yam containing a natural phytoestrogen which may stimulate the ovaries to release an egg from each side.[9][10]

text: In Central Africa there are 18–30 twin sets (or 36–60 twins) per 1,000 live births.[11] In Latin America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, the lowest rates are found; only 6 to 9 twin sets per 1,000 live births. North America and Europe have intermediate rates of 9 to 16 twin sets per 1,000 live births.[11]

text: Multiple pregnancies are much less likely to carry to full term than single births, with twin pregnancies lasting on average 37 weeks, three weeks less than full term.[12]

text: Women who have a family history of fraternal twins have a higher chance of producing fraternal twins themselves, as there is a genetically linked tendency to hyper-ovulate. There is no known genetic link for identical twinning.[13] Other factors that increase the odds of having fraternal twins include maternal age, fertility drugs and other fertility treatments, nutrition, and prior births.[14]

text: Types of twins and zygosity[edit]

text: The vast majority of twins are either dizygotic (fraternal) or monozygotic (identical). Less common variants are discussed further down the article.

text: Twins can be:

text:
Female-female—sometimes called sororal twins
Male-male twins—no special name
Male–female twins—this is the most common pairing, simply by virtue of it encompassing both "male-female" and "female-male" twins, thus half of all fraternal (dizygotic) twins are male-female

text: Among non-twin births, male singletons are slightly (about five percent) more common than female singletons. The rates for singletons vary slightly by country. For example, the sex ratio of birth in the US is 1.05 males/female,[15] while it is 1.07 males/female in Italy.[16] However, males are also more susceptible than females to die in utero, and since the death rate in utero is higher for twins, it leads to female twins being more common than male twins.

text: Zygosity is the degree of identity in the genome of twins.

text: TOP 10 DIFFERENT TYPES OF TWINS

text:
Common name
Scientific name
Zygosity
Development
Occurrence
Identification
Health
Other

identical
monozygotic
x
x
x
x
x
x

fraternal
dizygotic
x
x
x
x
x
x

half-identical
x
x
x
x
x
x
x

mirror image
x
x
x
x
x
x
x

mixed chromosome
x
x
x
x
x
x
x

superfecundation
x
x
eggs are fertilized during different acts of intercourse
x
x
x
usage is practically equivalent with Heteropaternal Superfecundation, which occurs when two different males father fraternal twins, because though superfecundation by the same father is thought to be a common occurrence, it can only be proven to have occurred with multiple fathers.

superfetation
x
x
a woman gets pregnant again while already pregnant, resulting in multiple fetuses at differing developmental stages
x
x
x
x

parasitic twin
x
x
x
x
x
by definition only healthy fully formed fetus
x

vanishing twin
fetal resorption, twin embolisation syndrome
x
x
up to 1 of every 8 multifetus pregnancies
x
by definition only healthy fully formed fetus
chimerism, mosaicism

polar body
x
x
x
x
x
x
x

conjoined twin
x
x
x
x
x
ranges from normal to compromised
x

text: Dizygotic (fraternal) twins[edit]

text: Dizygotic (DZ) or fraternal twins (also referred to as "non-identical twins", "dissimilar twins", "biovular twins", and, informally in the case of females, "sororal twins") usually occur when two fertilized eggs are implanted in the uterus wall at the same time. When two eggs are independently fertilized by two different sperm cells, fraternal twins result. The two eggs, or ova, form two zygotes, hence the terms dizygotic and biovular. Fraternal twins are, essentially, two ordinary siblings who happen to be born at the same time, since they arise from two separate eggs fertilized by two separate sperm, just like ordinary siblings.

text: This is the most common type of twin.[17]

text: Dizygotic twins, like any other siblings, have an extremely small chance of having the same chromosome profile. Even if they happen to have the same chromosome profile, they will always have different genetic material on each chromosome, due to chromosomal crossover during meiosis. Like any other siblings, dizygotic twins may look similar, particularly given that they are the same age. However, dizygotic twins may also look very different from each other.

text: Studies show that there is a genetic proclivity for dizygotic twinning. However, it is only the mother who has any effect on the chances of having such twins; there is no known mechanism for a father to cause the release of more than one ovum. Dizygotic twinning ranges from six per thousand births in Japan (similar to the rate of monozygotic twins) to 14 and more per thousand in some African countries.[18]

text: Dizygotic twins are also more common for older mothers, with twinning rates doubling in mothers over the age of 35.[19] With the advent of technologies and techniques to assist women in getting pregnant, the rate of fraternals has increased markedly.

text: Monozygotic (identical) twins[edit]

text: Monozygotic (MZ) or identical twins occur when a single egg is fertilized to form one zygote (hence, "monozygotic") which then divides into two separate embryos.

text: Mechanism[edit]

text: Regarding spontaneous or natural monozygotic twinning, a recent theory proposes that monozygotic twins are formed after a blastocyst essentially collapses, splitting the progenitor cells (those that contain the body's fundamental genetic material) in half, leaving the same genetic material divided in two on opposite sides of the embryo. Eventually, two separate fetuses develop.[20] Spontaneous division of the zygote into two embryos is not considered to be a hereditary trait, but rather a spontaneous and random event.[19]

text: Monozygotic twins may also be created artificially by embryo splitting. It can be used as an expansion of in vitro fertilization (IVF) to increase the number of available embryos for embryo transfer.[21]

text: Incidence[edit]

text: Monozygotic twinning occurs in birthing at a rate of about 3 in every 1000 deliveries worldwide.[22] (about 0.6% of the world population).

text: The likelihood of a single fertilization resulting in monozygotic twins is uniformly distributed in all populations around the world.[19] This is in marked contrast to dizygotic twinning, which ranges from about six per thousand births in Japan (almost similar to the rate of identical twins, which is around 4–5) to 15 and more per thousand in some parts of India[23] and up to over 20 in some Central African countries.[11] The exact cause for the splitting of a zygote or embryo is unknown.

text: IVF techniques are more likely to create dizygotic twins. For IVF deliveries, there are nearly 21 pairs of twins for every 1,000.[24]

text: Genetic and epigenetic similarity[edit]

text: Monozygotic twins are genetically nearly identical and they are always the same sex unless there has been a mutation during development. The children of monozygotic twins test genetically as half-siblings (or full siblings, if a pair of monozygotic twins reproduces with another pair or with the same person), rather than first cousins. Identical twins do not have the same fingerprints however, because even within the confines of the womb, the fetuses touch different parts of their environment, giving rise to small variations in their corresponding prints and thus making them unique.[25]

text: Monozygotic twins always have different phenotypes. Normally due to an environmental factor or the deactivation of different X chromosomes in female monozygotic twins, and in some extremely rare cases, due to aneuploidy, twins may express different sexual phenotypes, normally from an XXY Klinefelter syndrome zygote splitting unevenly.[26][27][28]

text: Monozygotic twins, although genetically very similar, are not genetically exactly the same. The DNA in white blood cells of 66 pairs of monozygotic twins was analyzed for 506,786 single nucleotide polymorphisms known to occur in human populations. Polymorphisms appeared in 2 of the 33 million comparisons, leading the researchers to extrapolate that the blood cells of monozygotic twins may have on the order of one DNA-sequence difference for every 1.2 x 107 nucleotides, which would imply hundreds of differences across the entire genome.[29] The mutations producing the differences detected in this study would have occurred during embryonic cell-division (after the point of fertilization). If they occur early in fetal development, they will be present in a very large proportion of body cells.

text: Another cause of difference between monozygotic twins is epigenetic modification, caused by differing environmental influences throughout their lives. Epigenetics refers to the level of activity of any particular gene. A gene may become switched on, switched off, or could become partially switched on or off in an individual. This epigenetic modification is triggered by environmental events. Monozygotic twins can have markedly different epigenetic profiles. A study of 80 pairs of monozygotic twins ranging in age from three to 74 showed that the youngest twins have relatively few epigenetic differences. The number of epigenetic differences increases with age. Fifty-year-old twins had over three times the epigenetic difference of three-year-old twins. Twins who had spent their lives apart (such as those adopted by two different sets of parents at birth) had the greatest difference.[30] However, certain characteristics become more alike as twins age, such as IQ and personality.[31][32][33]

text: Polar body and semi-identical twins[edit]

text: A 1981 study of a deceased triploid XXX twin fetus without a heart showed that although its fetal development suggested that it was an identical twin, as it shared a placenta with its healthy twin, tests revealed that it was probably a polar body twin. The authors were unable to predict whether a healthy fetus could result from a polar body twinning.[34]

text: In 2003, a study argued that many cases of triploidity arise from semi-identical twinning.[35]

text: Unknown twin type[edit]

text: In 2007, a study reported a case of a pair of living twins, one intersex and one a phenotypical male. The twins were both found to be chimeras and to share all of their maternal DNA but only half of their father's DNA. The exact mechanism of fertilization could not be determined but the study stated that it was unlikely to be a case of polar body twinning.[36]

text: Degree of separation[edit]

text: The degree of separation of the twins in utero depends on if and when they split into two zygotes. Dizygotic twins were always two zygotes. Monozygotic twins split into two zygotes at some time very early in the pregnancy. The timing of this separation determines the chorionicity (the number of placentae) and amniocity (the number of sacs) of the pregnancy. Dichorionic twins either never divided (i.e.: were dizygotic) or they divided within the first 4 days. Monoamnionic twins divide after the first week.

text: In very rare cases, twins become conjoined twins. Non-conjoined monozygotic twins form up to day 14 of embryonic development, but when twinning occurs after 14 days, the twins will likely be conjoined.[37] Furthermore, there can be various degrees of shared environment of twins in the womb, potentially leading to pregnancy complications.

text: It is a common misconception that two placentas means twins are dizygotic. But if monozygotic twins separate early enough, the arrangement of sacs and placentas in utero is indistinguishable from dizygotic twins.

text:
Type
Description
Day

Dichorionic-Diamniotic
Normally, twins have two separate (di- being a numerical prefix for two) chorions and amniotic sacs, termed Dichorionic-Diamniotic or "DiDi". It occurs in almost all cases of dizygotic twins (except in very rare cases of fusion between their blastocysts[38]) and in 18–36%[39] (or around 25%[38]) of monozygotic (identical) twins.
DiDi twins have the lowest mortality risk at about 9 percent, although that is still significantly higher than that of singletons.[40]

Dichorionic-Diamniotic twins form when splitting takes place by the third day after fertilization.[38]

Monochorionic-Diamniotic
Monochorionic twins share the same placenta.
Monochorionic twins generally have two amniotic sacs (called Monochorionic-Diamniotic "MoDi"), which occurs in 60–70% of the pregnancies with monozygotic twins,[39] and in 0.3% of all pregnancies.[41] Monochorionic-Diamniotic twins are almost always monozygotic, with a few exceptions where the blastocysts have fused.[38]
Monochorionic twins share the same placenta, and thus have a risk of twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome.

Days 4-8

Monochorionic-Monoamniotic
Monochorionic twins share the same amnion in 1–2% of monozygotic twin pregnancies.[39]
Monoamniotic twins are always monozygotic.[42]
The survival rate for monoamniotic twins is somewhere between 50%[42] to 60%.[43]
Monoamniotic twins, as with diamniotic monochorionic twins, have a risk of twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome. Also, the two umbilical cords have an increased chance of being tangled around the babies. Because of this, there is an increased chance that the newborns may be miscarried or suffer from cerebral palsy due to lack of oxygen.

Monoamniotic twins occur when the split takes place after the ninth day after fertilization.[38]

Conjoined twins

When the division of the developing zygote into 2 embryos occurs, 99% of the time it is within 8 days of fertilization.
Mortality is highest for conjoined twins due to the many complications resulting from shared organs.

If the division of the zygote occurs later than the 12 days then conjoined twins are usually the result.

text:
Dichorionic-diamniotic twins at 8 weeks and 5 days since co-incubation as part of IVF. The twin at left in the image is shown in the sagittal plane with the head pointing towards upper left. The twin at right in the image is shown in the coronal plane with the head pointing rightwards.

Abdominal ultrasonography of monoamniotic twins at a gestational age of 15 weeks. There is no sign of any membrane between the fetuses. A coronal plane is shown of the twin at left, and a sagittal plane of parts of the upper thorax and head is shown of the twin at right.

text: Demographics[edit]

text: A 2006 study has found that insulin-like growth factor present in dairy products may increase the chance of dizygotic twinning. Specifically, the study found that vegan mothers (who exclude dairy from their diets) are one-fifth as likely to have twins as vegetarian or omnivore mothers, and concluded that "Genotypes favoring elevated IGF and diets including dairy products, especially in areas where growth hormone is given to cattle, appear to enhance the chances of multiple pregnancies due to ovarian stimulation."[44]

text: From 1980 to 1997, the number of twin births in the United States rose 52%.[45] This rise can at least partly be attributed to the increasing popularity of fertility drugs and procedures such as IVF, which result in multiple births more frequently than unassisted fertilizations do. It may also be linked to the increase of growth hormones in food.[44]

text: Ethnicity[edit]

text: About 1 in 90 human births (1.1%) results from a twin pregnancy.[46] The rate of dizygotic twinning varies greatly among ethnic groups, ranging as high as about 45 per 1000 births (4.5%) for the Yoruba to 10% for Linha São Pedro, a tiny Brazilian settlement which belongs to the city of Cândido Godói.[47] In Cândido Godói, one in five pregnancies has resulted in twins.[48] The Argentine historian Jorge Camarasa has put forward a theory that experiments of the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele could be responsible for the high ratio of twins in the area.[49] His theory was rejected by Brazilian scientists who had studied twins living in Linha São Pedro; they suggested genetic factors within that community as a more likely explanation.[50] A high twinning rate has also been observed in other places of the world, including:

text:
Igbo-Ora in Nigeria[51]
Kodinji, located in Kerala, India[52]
Mohammadpur Umri, located in Uttar Pradesh, India[53][54][55]

text: The widespread use of fertility drugs causing hyperovulation (stimulated release of multiple eggs by the mother) has caused what some call an "epidemic of multiple births". In 2001, for the first time ever in the US, the twinning rate exceeded 3% of all births. Nevertheless, the rate of monozygotic twins remains at about 1 in 333 across the globe.

text: In a study on the maternity records of 5750 Hausa women living in the Savannah zone of Nigeria, there were 40 twins and 2 triplets per 1000 births. Twenty-six percent of twins were monozygotic. The incidence of multiple births, which was about five times higher than that observed in any western population, was significantly lower than that of other ethnic groups, who live in the hot and humid climate of the southern part of the country. The incidence of multiple births was related to maternal age but did not bear any association to the climate or prevalence of malaria.[56][57]

text: Predisposing factors[edit]

text: The predisposing factors of monozygotic twinning are unknown.

text: Dizygotic twin pregnancies are slightly more likely when the following factors are present in the woman:

text:
She is of West African descent (especially Yoruba)
She is between the age of 30 and 40 years
She is greater than average height and weight
She has had several previous pregnancies.

text: Women undergoing certain fertility treatments may have a greater chance of dizygotic multiple births. In the United States it has been estimated that by 2011 36% of twin births resulted from conception by assisted reproductive technology.[58]

text: The risk of twin birth can vary depending on what types of fertility treatments are used. With in vitro fertilisation (IVF), this is primarily due to the insertion of multiple embryos into the uterus. Ovarian hyperstimulation without IVF has a very high risk of multiple birth. Reversal of anovulation with clomifene (trade names including Clomid) has a relatively less but yet significant risk of multiple pregnancy.

text: Delivery interval[edit]

text: A 15-year German study[59] of 8,220 vaginally delivered twins (that is, 4,110 pregnancies) in Hesse yielded a mean delivery time interval of 13.5 minutes.[60] The delivery interval between the twins was measured as follows:

text:
Within 15 minutes: 75.8%
16–30 minutes: 16.4%
31–45 minutes: 4.3%
46–60 minutes: 1.7%
Over 60 minutes: 1.8% (72 instances)

text: The study stated that the occurrence of complications "was found to be more likely with increasing twin-to-twin delivery time interval" and suggested that the interval be kept short, though it noted that the study did not examine causes of complications and did not control for factors such as the level of experience of the obstetrician, the wish of the women giving birth, or the "management strategies" of the procedure of delivering the second twin.

text: Complications during pregnancy[edit]

text: Vanishing twins[edit]

text: Researchers suspect that as many as 1 in 8 pregnancies start out as multiples, but only a single fetus is brought to full term, because the other fetus has died very early in the pregnancy and has not been detected or recorded.[61] Early obstetric ultrasonography exams sometimes reveal an "extra" fetus, which fails to develop and instead disintegrates and vanishes in the uterus. There are several reasons for the "vanishing" fetus, including it being embodied or absorbed by the other fetus, placenta or the mother. This is known as vanishing twin syndrome. Also, in an unknown proportion of cases, two zygotes may fuse soon after fertilization, resulting in a single chimeric embryo, and, later, fetus.

text: Conjoined twins[edit]

text: Conjoined twins (or the once-commonly used term "siamese") are monozygotic twins whose bodies are joined together during pregnancy. This occurs when the zygote starts to split after day 12[38] following fertilization and fails to separate completely. This condition occurs in about 1 in 50,000 human pregnancies. Most conjoined twins are now evaluated for surgery to attempt to separate them into separate functional bodies. The degree of difficulty rises if a vital organ or structure is shared between twins, such as the brain, heart or liver.

text: Chimerism[edit]

text: A chimera is an ordinary person or animal except that some of their parts actually came from their twin or from the mother. A chimera may arise either from monozygotic twin fetuses (where it would be impossible to detect), or from dizygotic fetuses, which can be identified by chromosomal comparisons from various parts of the body. The number of cells derived from each fetus can vary from one part of the body to another, and often leads to characteristic mosaicism skin coloration in human chimeras. A chimera may be intersex, composed of cells from a male twin and a female twin. In one case DNA tests determined that a woman, mystifyingly, was not the mother of two of her three children; she was found to be a chimera, and the two children were conceived from eggs derived from cells of their mother's twin.[62]

text: Parasitic twins[edit]

text: Sometimes one twin fetus will fail to develop completely and continue to cause problems for its surviving twin. One fetus acts as a parasite towards the other. Sometimes the parasitic twin becomes an almost indistinguishable part of the other, and sometimes this needs to be treated medically.

text: Partial molar twins[edit]

text: A very rare type of parasitic twinning is one where a single viable twin is endangered when the other zygote becomes cancerous, or molar. This means that the molar zygote's cellular division continues unchecked, resulting in a cancerous growth that overtakes the viable fetus. Typically, this results when one twin has either triploidy or complete paternal uniparental disomy, resulting in little or no fetus and a cancerous, overgrown placenta, resembling a bunch of grapes.

text: Miscarried twin[edit]

text: Occasionally, a woman will suffer a miscarriage early in pregnancy, yet the pregnancy will continue; one twin was miscarried but the other was able to be carried to term. This occurrence is similar to the vanishing twin syndrome, but typically occurs later, as the twin is not reabsorbed.

text: Low birth weight[edit]

text: It is very common for twins to be born at a low birth weight. More than half of twins are born weighing less than 5.5 pounds (2.5 kg), while the average birth weight of a healthy baby should be around 6–8 pounds (3–4 kg).[63] This is largely due to the fact that twins are typically born premature. Premature birth and low birth weights, especially when under 3.5 pounds (1.6 kg), can increase the risk of several health-related issues, such as vision and hearing loss, mental disabilities, and cerebral palsy.[64] There is an increased possibility of potential complications as the birth weight of the baby decreases.

text: Twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome[edit]

text: Monozygotic twins who share a placenta can develop twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome. This condition means that blood from one twin is being diverted into the other twin. One twin, the 'donor' twin, is small and anemic, the other, the 'recipient' twin, is large and polycythemic. The lives of both twins are endangered by this condition.

text: Stillbirths[edit]

text: Stillbirths occurs when a fetus dies after 20 weeks of gestation. There are two types of stillbirth, including intrauterine death and intrapartum death. Intrauterine death occurs when a baby dies during late pregnancy. Intrapartum death, which is more common, occurs when a baby dies while the mother is giving birth. The cause of stillbirth is often unknown, but the rate of babies who are stillborn is higher in twins and multiple births. Caesareans or inductions are advised after 38 weeks of pregnancy for twins, because the risk of stillbirth increases after this time.[65]

text: Management of birth[edit]

text: For otherwise healthy twin pregnancies where both twins are head down a trial of vaginal delivery is recommended at between 37 and 38 weeks.[66][67] Vaginal delivery in this case does not worsen the outcome for the infant as compared with Caesarean section.[66] There is controversy on the best method of delivery where the first twin is head first and the second is not.[66] When the first twin is not head down a caesarean section is often recommended.[66] It is estimated that 75% of twin pregnancies in the United States were delivered by caesarean section in 2008.[68] In comparison, the rate of caesarean section for all pregnancies in the general population varies between 14% and 40%.[69] In twins that share the same placenta delivery may be considered at 36 weeks.[70]

text: Human twin studies[edit]

text: Twin studies are utilized in an attempt to determine how much of a particular trait is attributable to either genetics or environmental influence. These studies compare monozygotic and dizygotic twins for medical, genetic, or psychological characteristics to try to isolate genetic influence from epigenetic and environmental influence. Twins that have been separated early in life and raised in separate households are especially sought-after for these studies, which have been used widely in the exploration of human nature. Classical twin studies are now being supplemented with molecular genetic studies which identify individual genes.

text: Unusual twinnings[edit]

text: Among dizygotic twins, in rare cases, the eggs are fertilized at different times with two or more acts of sexual intercourse, either within one menstrual cycle (superfecundation) or, even more rarely, later on in the pregnancy (superfetation). This can lead to the possibility of a woman carrying fraternal twins with different fathers (that is, half-siblings). This phenomenon is known as heteropaternal superfecundation. One 1992 study estimates that the frequency of heteropaternal superfecundation among dizygotic twins, whose parents were involved in paternity suits, was approximately 2.4%; see the references section, below, for more details.

text: Dizygotic twins from biracial couples can sometimes be mixed twins, which exhibit differing ethnic and racial features. One such pairing was born in Germany in 2008 to a white father from Germany and a black mother from Ghana.[71][72]

text: Heterotopic pregnancy is an exceedingly rare type of dizygotic twinning in which one twin implants in the uterus as normal and the other remains in the fallopian tube as an ectopic pregnancy. Ectopic pregnancies must be resolved because they can be life-threatening to the mother. However, in most cases, the intrauterine pregnancy can be salvaged.[citation needed]

text: Among monozygotic twins, in extremely rare cases, twins have been born with different sexes (one male, one female).[73] When monozygotic twins are born with different sexes it is because of chromosomal defects. There can be monozygotic boy/girl twins if the sex gene of the embryo has an extra x chromosome (the fertilized egg would be an xxy) then when the egg splits, one can have xx (girl) genes and one can have xy (boy) genes. This is rare, but possible. Records show there are only 10 known cases of these type twins.[citation needed] The probability of this is so small that multiples having different sexes is universally accepted as a sound basis for in utero clinical determination that the multiples are not monozygotic. Another abnormality that can result in monozygotic twins of different genders is if the egg is fertilized by a male sperm but during cell division only the X chromosome is duplicated. This results in one normal male (XY) and one female with Turner syndrome (45,X).[74] In these cases, although the twins did form from the same fertilized egg, it is incorrect to refer to them as genetically identical, since they have different karyotypes.

text: Semi-identical twins[edit]

text: Monozygotic twins can develop differently, due to different genes being activated.[75] More unusual are "semi-identical twins". These "half-identical twins" are hypothesized to occur when an unfertilized egg cleaves into two identical attached ova and which are viable for fertilization. Both cloned ova are then fertilized by different sperm and the coalesced eggs undergo further cell duplications developing as a chimeric blastomere. If this blastomere then undergoes a twinning event, two embryos will be formed, each of which have different paternal genes and identical maternal genes.

text: This results in a set of twins with identical genes from the mother's side, but different genes from the father's side. Cells in each fetus carry genes from either sperm, resulting in chimeras. This form had been speculated until only recently being recorded in western medicine.[76][77][78]

text: Mirror image twins[edit]

text: Mirror image twins result when a fertilized egg splits later in the embryonic stage than normal timing, around day 9–12. This type of twinning could exhibit characteristics with reversed asymmetry, such as opposite dominant handedness, dental structure, or even organs (situs inversus).[79] If the split occurs later than this time period, the twins risk being conjoined. There is no DNA-based zygosity test that can determine if twins are indeed mirror image.[80]

text: Language development[edit]

text: There have been many studies highlighting the development of language in twins compared to single-born children. These studies have converged on the notion that there is a greater rate of delay in language development in twins compared to their single-born counterparts.[81] The reasons for this phenomenon are still in question; however, cryptophasia was thought to be the major cause.[82] Idioglossia is defined as a private language that is usually invented by young children, specifically twins. Another term to describe what some people call "twin talk" is cryptophasia where a language is developed by twins that only they can understand. The increased focused communication between two twins may isolate them from the social environment surrounding them. Idioglossia has been found to be a rare occurrence and the attention of scientists has shifted away from this idea. However, there are researchers and scientists that say cryptophasia or idioglossia is not a rare phenomenon. Current research is looking into the impacts of a richer social environment for these twins to stimulate their development of language.[83]

text: Animals[edit]

text: Twins are common in many animal species, including cats, sheep, ferrets, giant pandas, dogs, deer, marmosets, and tamarins. The incidence of twinning among cattle is about 1–4%, and research is under way to improve the odds of twinning, which can be more profitable for the breeder if complications can be sidestepped or managed. A female calf that is the twin of a bull becomes partially masculinized and is known as a freemartin.


document_title: Harry Potter (character)

question_text: how old was harry potter when he left hogwarts

text: Harry Potter (character)

text: Concept and creation

text: According to Rowling, the idea for both the Harry Potter books and its eponymous character came while waiting for a delayed train from Manchester, England to London in 1990. She stated that her idea for "this scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy who didn't know he was a wizard became more and more real to me".[1] While developing the ideas for her book, she also decided to make Harry an orphan who attended a boarding school called Hogwarts. She explained in a 1999 interview with The Guardian: "Harry had to be an orphan—so that he's a free agent, with no fear of letting down his parents, disappointing them ... Hogwarts has to be a boarding school—half the important stuff happens at night! Then there's the security. Having a child of my own reinforces my belief that children above all want security, and that's what Hogwarts offers Harry."[2]

text: Her own mother's death on 30 December 1990 inspired Rowling to write Harry as a boy longing for his dead parents, his anguish becoming "much deeper, much more real" than in earlier drafts because she related to it herself.[1] In a 2000 interview with The Guardian, Rowling also established that the character of Wart in T. H. White's novel The Once and Future King is "Harry's spiritual ancestor."[3] Finally, she established Harry's birth date as 31 July, the same as her own. However, she maintained that Harry was not directly based on any real-life person: "he came just out of a part of me".[4]

text: Rowling has also maintained that Harry is a suitable real-life role model for children. "The advantage of a fictional hero or heroine is that you can know them better than you can know a living hero, many of whom you would never meet [...] if people like Harry and identify with him, I am pleased, because I think he is very likeable."[5]

text: Appearances

text: First book

text: Harry first appears in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (published in the United States as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone). Starting in 1981,[6] when Harry was just one year old, his parents, James and Lily, were murdered by the most powerful Dark Wizard, Lord Voldemort (subsequently called "You-Know-Who" and "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named" by those too superstitious to use his actual name). He attempted to kill Harry too, but was unsuccessful and only left a lightning bolt shaped scar on Harry's forehead. Voldemort's body was destroyed, but his soul was not. Harry later learns that the reason why he survived was because his mother sacrificed herself for him, and her love was something that Voldemort could not destroy.

text: According to Rowling, fleshing out this back story was a matter of reverse planning: "The basic idea [is that] Harry ... didn't know he was a wizard ... and so then I kind of worked backwards from that position to find out how that could be, that he wouldn't know what he was... That's... When he was one year old, the most evil wizard for hundreds and hundreds of years attempted to kill him. He killed Harry's parents, and then he tried to kill Harry—he tried to curse him.... Harry has to find out, before we find out. And for some mysterious reason, the curse didn't work on Harry. So he's left with this lightning-bolt shaped scar on his forehead, and the curse rebounded upon the evil wizard who has been in hiding ever since".[7]

text: As a result, Harry is written as an orphan living with his only remaining family, the Dursleys, who are neglectful and abusive. On his eleventh birthday, Harry learns he is a wizard when Rubeus Hagrid arrives to tell him that he is to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. There he learns about the wizarding world, his parents, and his connection to the Dark Lord. When he is sorted into Gryffindor House, he becomes fast friends with classmates Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, and foils Voldemort's attempt to steal the Philosopher's Stone. He also forms a rivalry with characters Draco Malfoy, a classmate from an elitist wizarding family, and the cold, condescending Potions master, Severus Snape, Draco's mentor and the head of Slytherin House. Both feuds continue throughout the series and are settled at the series's end (Draco's in the West End play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Snape's on his deathbed in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. In a 1999 interview, Rowling stated that Draco is based on several prototypical schoolyard bullies she encountered[8] and Snape on a sadistic teacher of hers who abused his power.[8]

text: Rowling has stated that the "Mirror of Erised" chapter in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is her favourite; the mirror reflects Harry's deepest desire, namely to see his dead parents and family.[1] Her favourite funny scene is when Harry inadvertently sets a boa constrictor free from the zoo in the horrified Dursleys' presence.[8]

text: Second to fourth books

text: In the second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Rowling pits Harry against Tom Riddle, Lord Voldemort's "memory" within a secret diary which has possessed Ron's younger sister Ginny. When Muggle-born students are suddenly being Petrified, many suspect that Harry may be behind the attacks, further alienating him from his peers. Furthermore, Harry begins to doubt his worthiness for House of Gryffindor, particularly considering he discovers he shares Lord Voldemort's ability to communicate with snakes via Parseltongue. In the climax, Ginny disappears. To rescue her, Harry battles Riddle and the monster he controls that is hidden in the Chamber of Secrets. To defeat the monster, Harry summons the Sword of Godric Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat supplied by Dumbledore's pet phoenix, Fawkes. In doing so, Dumbledore later restores Harry's self-esteem by explaining that feat is clear proof of his worthiness of his present house. In the third book, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Rowling uses a time travel premise. Harry learns that his parents were betrayed to Voldemort by their friend Peter Pettigrew, who framed Harry's godfather Sirius Black for the crimes, condemning him to Azkaban, the wizard prison. When Sirius escapes to find Harry, Harry and Hermione use a Time Turner to save him and a hippogriff named Buckbeak. When Pettigrew escapes, an innocent Sirius becomes a hunted fugitive once again. Harry learns how to create a Patronus which takes the form of a stag, the same as his late father's.

text: In the previous books, Harry is written as a child, but Rowling states that in the fourth novel, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, "Harry's horizons are literally and metaphorically widening as he grows older."[9] Harry's developing maturity becomes apparent when he becomes romantically interested in Cho Chang, a student in Ravenclaw house. Tension mounts, however, when Harry is mysteriously chosen by the Goblet of Fire to compete in the dangerous Triwizard Tournament, even though another Hogwarts champion, Cedric Diggory, has already been selected.

text: Voldemort uses the Tournament for an elaborate scheme to lure Harry into a deadly trap. During the Tournament's final challenge, Harry and Cedric are transported to a graveyard, using a portkey, where Cedric is killed by Peter Pettigrew, and Voldemort, aided by Pettigrew, uses Harry's blood in a gruesome ritual to resurrect his body. When Harry duels Voldemort, their wands' magical streams connect, forcing the spirit echoes of Voldemort's victims, including Cedric and James and Lily Potter, to be expelled from his wand. The spirits briefly protect Harry as he escapes to Hogwarts with Cedric's body. For Rowling, this scene is important because it shows Harry's bravery, and by retrieving Cedric's corpse, he demonstrates selflessness and compassion. Says Rowling, "He wants to save Cedric's parents additional pain." She added that preventing Cedric's body from falling into Voldemort's hands is based on the classic scene in the Iliad where Achilles retrieves the body of his best friend Patroclus from the hands of Hector. Rowling also mentioned that book four rounds off an era in Harry's life, and the remaining three books are another,[9] "He's no longer protected. He's been very protected until now. But he's very young to have that experience. Most of us don't get that until a bit later in life. He's only just coming up to 15 and that's it now."[10]

text: Fifth and sixth books

text: In the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the Ministry of Magic has been waging a smear campaign against Harry and Dumbledore, disputing their claims that Voldemort has returned. Harry is made to look like an attention-seeking liar, and Dumbledore a trouble-maker. A new character is introduced when the Ministry of Magic appoints Dolores Umbridge as the latest Hogwarts' Defence Against the Dark Arts instructor (and Ministry spy). Because the paranoid Ministry suspects that Dumbledore is building a wizard army to overthrow them, Umbridge refuses to teach students real defensive magic. She gradually gains more power, eventually ousting Dumbledore and seizing control of the school. As a result, Harry's increasingly angry and erratic behaviour nearly estranges him from Ron and Hermione.

text: Rowling says she put Harry through extreme emotional stress to show his emotional vulnerability and humanity—a contrast to his nemesis, Voldemort. "[Harry is] a very human hero, and this is, obviously, a contrast, between him, as a very human hero, and Voldemort, who has deliberately dehumanised himself. And Harry, therefore, did have to reach a point where he did almost break down, and say he didn't want to play any more, he didn't want to be the hero any more – and he'd lost too much. And he didn't want to lose anything else. So that – Phoenix was the point at which I decided he would have his breakdown."[11]

text: At Hermione's urging, Harry forms a secret student organisation called Dumbledore's Army to teach more meaningful defence against the dark arts as Professor Umbridge is making them read off a textbook. Their plan is thwarted, however, when a Dumbledore's Army member, Marietta Edgecombe, betrays them and informs Umbridge about the D.A., causing Dumbledore to be ousted as Headmaster. Harry suffers another emotional blow, when his beloved godfather, Sirius, is killed during a duel with Sirius' cousin, the Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange, at the Department of Mysteries, but Harry ultimately defeats Voldemort's plan to steal an important prophecy. Rowling stated: "And now he [Harry] will rise from the ashes strengthened."[11] A side plot of Order of the Phoenix involves Harry's romance with Cho Chang, but the relationship quickly unravels. Says Rowling: "They were never going to be happy, it was better that it ended early!"[12]

text: In the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Harry enters a tumultuous puberty that, Rowling says, is based on her and her younger sister's own difficult teenage years.[13] Rowling also made an intimate statement about Harry's personal life: "Because of the demands of the adventure that Harry is following, he has had less sexual experience than boys of his age might have had."[14] This inexperience with romance was a factor in Harry's failed relationship with Cho. Now his thoughts concern Ginny, and a vital plot point in the last chapter includes Harry ending their budding romance to protect her from Voldemort.

text: A new character appears when former Hogwarts Potions master Horace Slughorn replaces Snape, who assumes the Defence Against the Dark Arts post. Harry suddenly excels in Potions, using an old textbook once belonging to a talented student known only as "The Half-Blood Prince." The book contains many handwritten notes, revisions, and new spells; Hermione, however, believes Harry's use of it is cheating. Through private meetings with Dumbledore, Harry learns about Voldemort's orphaned youth, his rise to power, and how he splintered his soul into Horcruxes to achieve immortality. Two Horcruxes have been destroyed—the diary and a ring; and Harry and Dumbledore locate another, although it is a fake. When Death Eaters invade Hogwarts, Snape kills Dumbledore. As Snape escapes, he proclaims that he is the Half-Blood Prince (being the son of a muggle father and the pure-blood Eileen Prince). It now falls upon Harry to find and destroy Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes and to avenge Dumbledore's death. In a 2005 interview, Rowling stated that [after the events in the sixth book] Harry has, "taken the view that they are now at war. He does become more battle-hardened. He's now ready to go out fighting. And he's after revenge [against Voldemort and Snape]."[15]

text: This book also focuses on the mysterious activities of Harry's rival Draco Malfoy. Voldemort has coerced a frightened Malfoy into attempting to kill Dumbledore. During a duel in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, Harry uses the Half-Blood Prince's spell, Sectumsempra, on Malfoy, who suffers near-fatal injuries as a result. Harry is horrified by what he has done and also comes to feel sympathy for Draco, after learning he was forced to do Voldemort's bidding under the threat of his and his parents' deaths.

text: Final book

text: In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry, Ron, and Hermione leave Hogwarts to complete Dumbledore's task: to search for and destroy Voldemort's remaining four Horcruxes, then find and kill the Dark Lord. The three pit themselves against Voldemort's newly formed totalitarian police state, an action that tests Harry's courage and moral character. Voldemort's seizure of the Ministry of Magic leads to discriminatory and genocidal policies against Muggle-borns, fuelled by propaganda and fear. According to J. K. Rowling, telling scenes are when Harry uses Cruciatus Curse and Imperius Curse, unforgivable curses for torture and mind-control, on Voldemort's servants, and also when he casts Sectumsempra on Draco Malfoy during the bathroom fight in the sixth book. Each time shows a "flawed and mortal" side to Harry. However, she explains, "He is also in an extreme situation and attempting to defend somebody very good against a violent and murderous opponent."[16]

text: Harry experiences occasional disturbing visions of Draco being forced to perform the Death Eaters' bidding and feels "...sickened...by the use to which Draco was now being put by Voldemort," again showing his compassion for an enemy.

text: Each Horcrux Harry must defeat cannot be destroyed easily. They must be destroyed with basilisk venom, Godric Gryffindor's sword, or some other destructive substance. In Book Two, Harry destroys the first horcrux, Tom Riddle's diary, with a basilisk fang, and in Book Six Dumbledore destroys the ring with Gryffindor's sword. Ron destroys Slytherin's locket with the sword, Hermione destroys Hufflepuff's cup with a basilisk fang, and Crabbe destroys Ravenclaw's diadem with Fiendfyre (cursed flame). Neville kills the snake Nagini with the sword, and Voldemort destroys the final accidental Horcrux: a fragment of soul embedded in Harry's scar.

text: Harry comes to recognise that his own single-mindedness makes him predictable to his enemies and often clouds his perceptions. When Voldemort kills Snape later in the story, Harry realises that Snape was not the traitorous murderer he believed him to be, but a tragic antihero who was loyal to Dumbledore. In Chapter 33 ('The Prince's Tale') Snape's memories reveal that he loved Harry's mother Lily, but their friendship ended over his association with future Death Eaters and his "blood purity" beliefs. When Voldemort murdered the Potters, a grieving Snape vowed to protect Lily's child, although he loathed young Harry for being James Potter's son. The memories also reveal that Snape did not murder Dumbledore, but carried out Dumbledore's prearranged plan. Dumbledore, dying from a slow-spreading curse, wanted to protect Snape's position within the Death Eaters and to spare Draco from completing Voldemort's task of murdering him.

text: To defeat Harry, Voldemort steals the most powerful wand ever created, the Elder Wand, from Dumbledore's tomb and twice casts the Killing Curse on Harry with it. The first attempt merely stuns Harry into a deathlike state; the murder attempt fails because Voldemort used Harry's blood in his resurrection during book four. The protection that his mother gave Harry with her sacrifice tethers Harry to life, as long as his blood and her sacrifice run in the veins of Voldemort. In the chapter "King's Cross," Dumbledore's spirit talks to Harry whilst in this deathlike state. Dumbledore informs Harry that when Voldemort disembodied himself during his failed attempt to kill Harry as a baby, Harry became an unintentional Horcrux; Harry could not kill Voldemort while the Dark Lord's soul shard remained within Harry's body. The piece of Voldemort's soul within Harry was destroyed through Voldemort's first killing curse with the Elder Wand because Harry willingly faced death, which cast a sacrificial protection on the defenders of Hogwarts.

text: In the book's climax, Voldemort's second Killing Curse hurled at Harry also fails and rebounds upon Voldemort, finally killing him. The spell fails because Harry, not Voldemort, had become the Elder Wand's true master and the wand could not harm its own master. Harry has each of the Hallows (the Invisibility Cloak, the Resurrection Stone, and the Elder Wand) at some point in the story but never unites them. However, J. K. Rowling said the difference between Harry and Voldemort is that Harry willingly accepts mortality, making him stronger than his nemesis. "The real master of Death accepts that he must die, and that there are much worse things in the world of the living." At the very end, Harry decides to leave the Elder Wand in Dumbledore's tomb and the Resurrection Stone hidden in the forest, but he keeps the Invisibility Cloak because it had belonged to his father.[16]

text: Epilogue

text: In the epilogue of Deathly Hallows, which is set 19 years after Voldemort's death, Harry and Ginny are a couple and have three children: James Sirius Potter, who has already been at Hogwarts for at least one year, Albus Severus Potter, who is starting his first year there, and Lily Luna Potter, who is two years away from her first year at the school.

text: According to Rowling, after Voldemort's defeat, Harry joins the "reshuffled" Auror Department under Kingsley Shacklebolt's mentoring, and ends up eventually rising to become Head of said department in 2007.[17] Rowling said that his old rival Draco has a grudging gratitude towards Harry for saving his life in the final battle, but the two are not friends.[16]

text: Film appearances

text: In the eight Harry Potter films screened from 2001 to 2011, Harry Potter has been portrayed by British actor Daniel Radcliffe. Radcliffe was asked to audition for the role of Harry in 2000 by producer David Heyman, while in attendance at a play titled Stones in His Pockets in London.[18][19] The role has been highly lucrative for Radcliffe; as of 2015, he had an estimated wealth of $110 million and was paid a collective $53 million for the last two films.[20]

text: In a 2007 interview with MTV, Radcliffe stated that, for him, Harry is a classic coming of age character: "That's what the films are about for me: a loss of innocence, going from being a young kid in awe of the world around him, to someone who is more battle-hardened by the end of it."[21] He also said that for him, important factors in Harry's psyche are his survivor's guilt in regard to his dead parents and his lingering loneliness. Because of this, Radcliffe talked to a bereavement counsellor to help him prepare for the role.[21] Radcliffe was quoted as saying that he wished for Harry to die in the books, but he clarified that he "can't imagine any other way they can be concluded."[21] After reading the last book, where Harry and his friends do indeed survive and have children, Radcliffe stated he was glad about the ending and lauded Rowling for the conclusion of the story.[22] Radcliffe stated that the most repeated question he has been asked is how Harry Potter has influenced his own life, to which he regularly answers it has been "fine," and that he did not feel pigeonholed by the role, but rather sees it as a huge privilege to portray Harry.[23]

text: Radcliffe's Harry was named the 36th greatest movie character of all time by Empire.[24]

text: Characterisation

text: Outward appearance

text: Throughout the series, Harry is described as having his father's perpetually untidy black hair, his mother's bright green eyes, and a lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead. He is further described as "small and skinny for his age" with "a thin face" and "knobbly knees", and he wears round eyeglasses. In the first book, his scar is described as "the only thing Harry liked about his own appearance". When asked about the meaning behind Harry's lightning bolt scar, Rowling said, "I wanted him to be physically marked by what he has been through. It was an outward expression of what he has been through inside... It is almost like being the chosen one or the cursed one, in a sense." Rowling has also stated that Harry inherited his parents' good looks.[25] In the later part of the series Harry grows taller, and by the seventh book is said to be 'almost' the height of his father, and 'tall' by other characters.[26]

text: Rowling explained that Harry's image came to her when she first thought up Harry Potter, seeing him as a "scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy".[1] She also mentioned that she thinks Harry's glasses are the clue to his vulnerability.[27]

text: Personality

text: According to Rowling, Harry is strongly guided by his own conscience, and has a keen feeling of what is right and wrong. Having "very limited access to truly caring adults", Rowling said, Harry "is forced to make his own decisions from an early age on."[28] He "does make mistakes", she conceded, but in the end, he does what his conscience tells him to do. According to Rowling, one of Harry's pivotal scenes came in the fourth book when he protects his dead schoolmate Cedric Diggory's body from Voldemort, because it shows he is brave and selfless.[9]

text: Rowling has stated that Harry's character flaws include anger and impulsiveness; however, Harry is also innately honourable.[16][29] "He's not a cruel boy. He's competitive, and he's a fighter. He doesn't just lie down and take abuse. But he does have native integrity, which makes him a hero to me. He's a normal boy but with those qualities most of us really admire."[30] For the most part, Harry shows humility and modesty, often downplaying his achievements; though he uses a litany of his adventures as examples of his maturity early in the fifth book. However, these very same accomplishments are later employed to explain why he should lead Dumbledore's Army, at which point he asserts them as having just been luck, and denies that they make him worthy of authority. After the seventh book, Rowling commented that Harry has the ultimate character strength, which not even Voldemort possesses: the acceptance of the inevitability of death.

text: Magical abilities and skills

text: Throughout the series, Harry Potter is described as a gifted wizard apprentice. He has a particular talent for flying, which manifests itself in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone the first time he tries it, and gets him a place on a Quidditch team one year before the normal minimum joining age. He captains it in his sixth year. In his fourth year (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire), Harry is able to confront a dragon on his broomstick.

text: Harry is also gifted in Defence Against the Dark Arts, in which he becomes proficient due to his repeated encounters with Voldemort and various monsters. In his third year, Harry becomes able to cast the very advanced Patronus Charm, and by his fifth year he has become so talented at the subject that he is able to teach his fellow students in Dumbledore's Army, some even older than him how to defend themselves against Dark Magic. At the end of that year, he achieves an 'Outstanding' Defence Against the Dark Arts O.W.L., something that not even Hermione achieved. He is a skilled duellist, the only one of the six Dumbledore's Army members to be neither injured nor incapacitated during the battle with Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. He also fends off numerous Death Eaters during his flight to the Burrow at the beginning of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

text: Harry also had the unusual ability to speak and understand "Parseltongue", a language associated with Dark Magic. This, it transpires, is because he harbours a piece of Voldemort's soul. He loses this ability after the part of Voldemort's soul inside him is destroyed at the end of The Deathly Hallows.

text: Possessions

text: Harry's parents left behind a somewhat large pile of wizard's gold, used as currency in the world of magic, in a vault in the wizarding bank, Gringotts. After Sirius' death later in the series, all of his remaining possessions are also passed along to Harry, including Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, and Sirius's vast amount of gold were transferred into Harry's account at Gringotts. Rowling noted that "Harry's money never really is that important in the books, except that he can afford his books and uniforms and so on."[31]

text: Among the school items Harry purchases in Diagon Alley after discovering his gold inheritance is his first wand, an 11-inch-long holly and phoenix feather model that he learns is the twin of Voldemort's wand, as the feathers that both wands contain as their cores both comes from Fawkes, the phoenix that Dumbledore keeps as a pet in his office until his death in Half-Blood Prince.[32] Harry's wand is broken in Deathly Hallows. For a time, he borrows Hermione's wand, and later steals Draco's. With his defeat of Voldemort at the end of the series, he comes into the possession of the Elder Wand, but uses it only to repair his holly wand, before returning it to Dumbledore's tomb, from which Voldemort had stolen it. In the film version of Deathly Hallows Part 2, Harry destroys the Elder Wand.

text: Harry also inherits indirectly two of his father's prized possessions. One is the Marauder's Map, given to him by interim owners Fred and George Weasley, which endows Harry with comprehensive knowledge of Hogwarts' facilities, grounds, and occupants. The other is his father's Invisibility Cloak, given to him by Dumbledore, which eventually proves Harry's descent from the Peverell family. Harry uses these tools both to aid in excursions at school and to protect those he cares about; the Invisibility Cloak, in particular, can hide two full-grown people. If three fully-grown people hide under the cloak their feet will be visible. When Harry reaches his age of maturity at seventeen, Molly Weasley gives him a pocket watch which had once belonged to her brother Fabian Prewett, as it is traditional to give a boy a watch when he turns seventeen.

text: Throughout the majority of the books, Harry also has a pet owl named Hedwig, used to deliver and receive messages and packages. Hedwig is killed in the seventh book, about which Rowling says: "The loss of Hedwig represented a loss of innocence and security. She has been almost like a cuddly toy to Harry at times. I know that death upset a lot of people!"[16] As a Quidditch player, Harry has owned two high-quality brooms. The first, a Nimbus Two Thousand, was procured for him by Professor Minerva Mcgonagall when Harry was added to Gryffindor's Quidditch team despite being a first-year student. This broom was destroyed by the Whomping Willow during a match in Harry's third year. It was replaced by a Firebolt, an even faster (and more expensive) broom, purchased for Harry by Sirius; however, as Sirius was believed to be trying to murder Harry at the time, the broom was subjected to stringent security inspections before Harry was allowed to ride it. Harry used it throughout his Hogwarts career until it, along with Hedwig, was lost during the July escape from Privet Drive in the final book.

text: Harry also owns a mokeskin pouch, or small 'bag' that is used for storing items, which no one but the owner can get out. He receives this from Hagrid as a 17th birthday present. Harry uses the pouch throughout the course of Deathly Hallows to keep several sentimental (yet, as he himself admits, otherwise worthless) objects such as the Marauder's Map, a shard of the magical mirror given to him by his god-father Sirius, the fake Horcrux locket that had belonged to Sirius's brother R.A.B (Regulus Arcturus Black), the Snitch bequeathed to him by Dumbledore, containing the Resurrection Stone that had previously been set into Voldemort's grandfather Marvolo Gaunt's signet ring, which Harry discovers is actually the second Hallow, a letter from his mother to Sirius with part of a photo (of him and his father, James), and eventually, his own broken wand (which Harry later repairs with the Elder Wand).

text: Family tree

text: In the novels, Harry is the only child of James and Lily Potter, orphaned as an infant. Rowling made Harry an orphan from the early drafts of her first book. She felt an orphan would be the most interesting character to write about.[2] However, after her mother's death, Rowling wrote Harry as a child longing to see his dead parents again, incorporating her own anguish into him. Harry is categorised as a "half-blood" wizard in the series, because although both his parents were magical, Lily was "Muggle-born", and James was a pure-blood.

text: Harry's aunt and uncle kept the truth about his parents' deaths from Harry, telling him that they had died in a car crash.[1] James Potter is a descendant of Ignotus Peverell, the third of the three original owners of the Deathly Hallows, and thus so is Harry, a realisation he makes during the course of the final book. The lineage continues at the end of the saga through his three children with Ginny: James Sirius Potter, Albus Severus Potter and Lily Luna Potter.

text: In an original piece published on the Pottermore website in September 2015, Rowling described the history of the Potter family in greater detail, beginning with the 12th-century wizard Linfred of Stinchcombe, "a locally well-beloved and eccentric man, whose nickname, 'the Potterer', became corrupted in time to 'Potter'". Lindred was the inventor of a number of remedies that evolved into potions still used in the modern day, including Skele-Gro and Pepperup Potion. These successful products garnered Linfred the earnings that formed the basis of the family's wealth, which grew with the work of successive generations. Linfred's oldest son, Hardwin, married a beautiful young witch from Godric's Hollow named Iolanthe Peverell, the granddaughter of Ignotus Peverell, who continued the tradition of passing down Ignotus' Invisibility Cloak through the generations. Two of Harry Potter's ancestors have sat on the Wizengamot: Ralston Potter and Henry Potter. Ralston was a member from 1612-1652, and an ardent supporter of the Statute of Secrecy. Henry Potter, known as "Harry" to his closest loved ones, was a direct descendant of Hardwin and Iolanthe, and a paternal great-grandfather of Harry Potter. Henry served on the Wizengamot from 1913 - 1921, and caused a minor controversy when he publicly condemned then Minister for Magic, Archer Evermonde, for prohibiting the magical community from helping Muggles waging the First World War. Henry's son, Fleamont Potter, who was given his grandmother's surname as his given name in order to grant the dying wish of Henry's mother to continue her family name, garnered a reputation for his duels at Hogwarts, which were provoked when others mocked him for his name. Fleamont quadrupled the family gold by creating magical Sleekeazy's Hair Potion, selling his company at a vast profit when he retired. Fleamont and his wife, Euphemia, had given up hope of having a child when she became pregnant with their son, James, who would go on to marry Lily Evans and bear a son of their own, Harry Potter. Fleamont and Euphemia lived to see James and Lily marry, but they would never meet their famous grandson, as they both died of dragon pox, stemming from their advanced age.[33][34]

text: Reception

text: In 2002, Harry Potter was voted No. 85 among the "100 Best Fictional Characters" by Book magazine[35] and also voted the 35th "Worst Briton" in Channel 4's "100 Worst Britons We Love to Hate" programme.[36] Entertainment Weekly ranked Harry Potter number two on its 2010 "100 Greatest Characters of the Last 20 Years" list, saying "Long after we've turned the last page and watched the last end credit, Harry still feels like someone we know. And that's the most magical thing about him."[37] UGO Networks listed Harry as one of their best heroes of all time, who said that "Harry is a hero to the often oppressed and downtrodden young fan boys and girls out there, who finally have an icon that is respected and revered by those who might otherwise look down on robe-wearing and wand waving as dork fodder".[38] Harry Potter was also ranked number thirty-six on Empire's 2008 list of "100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time".[39] IGN said that Harry Potter was their favourite Harry Potter character, calling him a "sympathetic figure" and saying in response to his fights against Voldemort that "everybody loves an underdog story of good vs. evil".[40] Despite being the main character, Watchmojo.com ranked him #2 on their "Top 10 Harry Potter Characters" list in 2014 (Severus Snape was ranked #1 on the list).

text: In popular culture

text: According to halloweenonline.com, Harry Potter sets were the fifth-best selling Halloween costume of 2005.[41] In addition, wizard rock bands like Harry and the Potters and others regularly dress up in the style of Harry Potter, sporting painted forehead scars, black wigs, and round bottle top glasses. Wizard rock is a musical movement dating from 2002 that consists of at least 200 bands made up of young musicians, playing songs about Harry Potter.[42][43] The movement started in Massachusetts with the band Harry and the Potters, who cosplay as Harry during live performances.[44][45]

text: Parodies

text: In April 2009, a group of University of Michigan students (StarKid Productions: Darren Criss, Joey Richter.) performed Harry Potter: The Musical, a two-act musical parody that featured major elements from all seven books and an original score. They posted the entire musical on their YouTube channel but removed it in late June, to edit some more mature elements from the videos. The musical, re-titled A Very Potter Musical, was reposted on 5 July 2009, starring Darren Criss as Harry Potter. A sequel was premiered at the 2010 HPEF Harry Potter Conference Infinitus, and released on YouTube on 22 July at 8 pm EST. The sequel was called A Very Potter Sequel and featured the Death Eaters using the Time-Turner to go back in time to Harry's first year in Hogwarts.[46] Harry Potter is spoofed in the Barry Trotter series by American writer Michael Gerber, where a "Barry Trotter" appears as the eponymous antihero. On his homepage, Gerber describes Trotter as an unpleasant character who "drinks too much, eats like a pig, sleeps until noon, and owes everybody money."[47] The author stated "[s]ince I really liked Rowling's books […] I felt obligated to try to write a spoof worthy of the originals".[48]