Vampire

> "*Evil creature that roams the night feeding on the blood of living beings. Cannot go out in the daylight.*"
> ― Description[source]
>
>

A **vampire** is a dark magical humanoid being that is famed for biting people on the neck and sucking their blood. They are part of the family of beings known as the Living Dead, along with Zombies.

## Physical appearance and biology

They are usually pale and gaunt with sharp fangs for puncturing the throats of their victims.

Vampires seem to be able to live much longer than muggles. Carmilla Sanguina died aged 196, and Amarillo Lestoat died aged 201. Wizardkind can reach a similar or even older age, as displayed by wizards such as Armando Dippet and Barry Winkle.

It is unknown if any of the myths or legends surrounding vampires in the muggle world, such as the concept that they are immortal, are accurate about vampires in the wizarding world. It is unknown what effect, if any, the Killing Curse would have on a vampire.

## Diet

Vampires have a very strong aversion to garlic and can be kept at bay by its presence. They drink blood, though they are apparently also able to eat other foods such as pasties, and Honeydukes is known for selling lollipops that taste like blood, presumably for vampires to indulge in. Hermione Granger is noted for believing this, as revealed when she and Ronald Weasley visited Honeydukes in Hogsmeade in 1993.

## Vampires in the Wizarding world

As Vampires are magical creatures, they therefore live in and are affiliated with the Wizarding world. There exists a Society for the Tolerance of Vampires, which by its given name, must campaign for greater acceptance of vampires and their culture in the magical world, given their seemingly malignant reputation. The wizarding world also set guidelines to prevent exterminating vampires outright.<

Vampires are studied in first, second, and third year Defence Against the Dark Arts classes. This is because vampires, along with similar undead creatures such as Inferi, are considered dark creatures due to their presumably highly parasitic and dangerous natures.

## History

During the 1473 Quidditch World Cup, seven hundred fouls were committed, one of which was the release of a hundred vampire bats from beneath the robes of the Transylvanian Captain.

The muggle author Bram Stoker is well known for his 1897 Gothic horror novel *Dracula*, which features Count Dracula, a fictional character based on the historical vampire Vlad Drakul, the father of Vlad the Impaler.

In a 1913 Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson taught by the then Professor Albus Dumbledore at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, an unidentified student had their Boggart assume the form of a vampire as their worst fear. When the student cast the Boggart-Banishing Spell on it, the charm made the vampire-boggart assume the humorous form of a buck-toothed bunny rabbit.

During the 1920s, The New York Ghost ran an article entitled "Love at First Bite: The Unlikely Tale of a Vampire."

Professor Quirinus Quirrell claimed to have had an encounter with vampires in the Black Forest during his break from teaching to get some "hands-on" experience with dealing with the Dark Arts. Whether this is true, or merely a cover to hide his encounter with Lord Voldemort in Albania, is unclear. He decorated the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom with gloves of garlic, supposedly in the hopes of warding off a particularly vicious Romanian vampire. Quirrell's story about encountering a vampire is in some aspects true, as Voldemort was in a state between life and death at the time, and admits that he was living parasitically off of the professor. This included forcing Quirrell drink the blood of unicorns from the Forbidden Forest in order to sustain himself.

Gilderoy Lockhart wrote a book titled *Voyages with Vampires* about his supposed encounters with vampires. The book included information on a vampire that, after an encounter with Lockhart, could eat nothing but lettuce. As Lockhart merely took credit for other wizards' accomplishments, this encounter likely happened to someone else.

During the spring of 1994, Professor Remus Lupin assigned his third year students to write an essay about vampires, with Neville being confused whether vampires have to eat garlic to have it affect them. After Professor Lupin was forced to resign from his position of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher when Professor Snape revealed that he was a werewolf, Dean Thomas joked that the class might get a vampire as a teacher next, possibly indicating that vampires and werewolves don't get along in the wizarding world.

During the 1994 Quidditch World Cup, a young wizard claimed he was a Vampire hunter to impress several Veela, also stating that he has killed about ninety or so by that point. Such is illegal, according to Paragraph 12 of the Guidelines for the Treatment of Non-Wizard Part-Humans.

In a Daily Prophet article published in the summer of 1995, Rita Skeeter complained that the British Ministry of Magic employees waste time arguing over cauldron thickness when they should be "stamping out vampires." Percy Weasley angrily rejected the criticism and points out that paragraph twelve of the Guidelines for the Treatment of Non-Wizard Part-Humans clearly forbids such a policy.

In 1995, Rubeus Hagrid had a disagreement with a vampire in a pub in Minsk on his way to parley with the giants.

During his History of Magic O.W.L., Harry suspected that his answer to the question how the Statute of Secrecy was breached in 1749 and what measures were introduced to prevent a recurrence was incomplete. He thought that vampires were involved, but could not remember the details.

Eldred Worple spent time living among vampires, and wrote a Magizoology book, *Blood Brothers: My Life Amongst the Vampires*. Worple, a friend of Horace Slughorn, took with him a vampire named Sanguini to the Slug Club Christmas party at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in December 1996.

Luna Lovegood believed that Rufus Scrimgeour was a vampire. Xenophilius Lovegood, her father, wrote a very long article about him for *The Quibbler* after he became Minister for Magic, though according to Luna, the Ministry forced him not to publish it. This was possibly done to prevent the defamation of Scrimgeour, but was taken by the Lovegoods as confirmation of their theory.

## Known vampires

AmarilloLestoat.pngAmarillo LestoatBlodwynBludd.jpgBlodwyn BluddCarmillaSanguina.jpgCarmilla SanguinaLorcanDEath.pngLorcan d'Eath (Part-vampire)Sanguini.pngSanguiniSirHerbertVarney.pngHerbert VarneyCount Vlad Drakul.jpgVlad Drakul
* Romanian vampire
* Vampire in Minsk

## See also

* Blood
* Part-vampire
* Half-breed
* Living Dead
* Vampire bat
* Zombie