Rat (Harry Potter)

> An ordinary common or garden rat like this can’t be expected to live longer than three years or so. Now, if you were looking for something a bit more hard-wearing, you might like one of these —
>
> A saleswoman in the Magical Menagerie. trying to sell a black rat to Ron Weasley, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

**Rats** are small mammals of the order Rodentia, distinguishable from ***mice*** by their larger size.

## Species Biological Information

### Hair Known Colour

* Black
* Brown
* White

### Distinction

* Small rodents
* Regarded as verminous pests
* Kept as pets

## Description

Commonly found in houses and barns, rats are typically regarded as vermin or pests, although they can be domesticated and kept as pets, as well as ***tested in labs***. The most common species of pet rat is the Brown/Norway Rat, or *Rattus norvegicus*.
Rats could also serve as pets for wizards and witches, although they typically only lived for two or three years, and were not as popular as ***owl***s or ***cat***s.
Body parts from rats, such as the ***tail*** and ***spleen***, were used as ingredients in ***potion***s, such as the ***Shrinking Solution***. According to *Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit*, dead rats should be fed to ***dragon***s as a reward for good behaviour. Despite this, after just a couple of weeks of growth, Rubeus Hagrid was feeding the young ***dragon*** ***Norberta*** (known at the time as "Norbert") dead rats by the crate.
There existed Transfiguration spells that could ***turn a teacup into a rat*** and another to ***turn a small child into a rat***.
A rat was one possible corporeal form of the Patronus Charm.

## History

The Weasley family kept a pet rat named "Scabbers" for twelve years, owned first by Percy Weasley and later by his younger brother Ron. The fact that Scabbers managed to live for over twelve years greatly surpassed the life expectancy of an average rat, making people think that he was special. However, it was revealed in 1994 that Scabbers was actually an unregistered Animagus named Peter Pettigrew, also known as "Wormtail," who had gone into hiding after Lord Voldemort's disappearance in 1981.
The Chamber of Secrets contained the skeletons of many dead rats that had been eaten by the Serpent of Slytherin, a Basilisk.

## Known types

* ***Brown Rat***
* ***Grey Rat***

## Known rat Animagi

* Peter Pettigrew - he learned it along with Sirius Black (dog) and James Potter (stag), in order to companion his friend Remus Lupin, when taking Werewolf form.

## Appearances

**The 5D-Shared-Combined Crossovers for An The-Good/Evil-Hybrid Wiki** has 0 images related to ***Rat (Harry Potter)***.
* *Harry-Potter and-the Sorcerer's S Stone* (film) (First Entire Appearance)
* *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets* (film)
* *Harry Potter and the Prisoner Of Azkaban* (film)
* *Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince* (film) (Mentioned only)

## Notes and references

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Rat at Wikipeida
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 *Harry-Potter and-the Sorcerer's S Stone* (film), Chapter 6
3. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets* (film)
4. ↑ *Harry-Potter and-the Sorcerer's S Stone* (film), Chapter 14
5. ↑ *Harry-Potter and-the Sorcerer's S Stone* (film), Chapter 4
6. ↑ *Harry-Potter and-the Sorcerer's S Stone* (film)
7. ↑ (see this image)
8. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets* (film), Chapter 16
9. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Prisoner Of Azkaban* (film) - An Chapter 018
10. ↑ *Harry Potter and the Prisoner Of Azkaban* (film) - An Chapter 019