The Quibbler

**Ted Tonks**: "*The* Prophet*? You deserved to be lied to if you're still reading that muck, Dirk. You want the facts?, try* The Quibbler*.*"
**Dirk Cresswell**: "The Quibbler*? That lunatic rag of Xenophilius Lovegood's?*"
**Ted Tonks**: "*It's not so lunatic these days, you'll want to give it a look. Xeno is printing all the stuff the* Prophet's *ignoring, not a single mention of Crumple-Horned Snorkacks in the last issue. How long they'll let you get away with it, mind, I don't know. But Xeno says, front page of every issue, that any wizard who's against You-Know-Who ought to make helping Harry Potter their number-one priority.*"
— Ted Tonks and Dirk Cresswell discussing *The Quibbler* in 1997[src]

***The Quibbler***, marketed as The Wizarding World's Alternative Voice, is a wizarding tabloid published and edited by Xenophilius Lovegood, father of Luna Lovegood. Luna gained every issue of *The Quibbler* when it was published, which often contributed to her eccentric beliefs.

*The Quibbler* publishes odd articles, including conspiracy theories and discussions of imaginary creatures; it also published Rita Skeeter's interview of Harry Potter on Lord Voldemort's return. Many think *The Quibbler* was rubbish, including Hermione Granger, Rita Skeeter, and Dirk Cresswell; the latter referred to it as a "*lunatic rag*," and when Hermione informed Rita that she would be publishing the interview in *The Quibbler*, Rita looked at Hermione with disdain.

## History

Publishing of *The Quibbler* started by the 1980s. The magazine published many ridiculous articles, such as those on the supposed existence of the Crumple-Horned Snorkack. At some point in or before 1987, the magazine had an article about a witch who did not know she was a werewolf.

Reading *The Quibbler* was part of sixth year Divination classes in the 1989–1990 school year. There was at least one mention of Celestina Warbeck saying something, which students did not believe was something she actually said.

In July or August 1995, the magazine published an edition with an article that put forward the theory that Sirius Black was actually the reclusive rock star Stubby Boardman. When Harry Potter read the article on the Hogwarts Express, he found it to be total rubbish. The same issue also had a segment written in Runes which caused the reader to look at the magazine upside down, which was probably why Luna Lovegood read it upside down.

### Interview with Harry Potter

> "*Dad's reprinting!....I can't believe it, he says people seem even more interested in this than the Crumple-Horned Snorkacks!*"
> ― Luna Lovegood[source]
>
>

*The Quibbler* scored a journalistic coup in February of 1996 when the magazine agreed to run an interview with Harry Potter concerning the Rebirth of Lord Voldemort. The interview, given by ex-*Daily Prophet* columnist Rita Skeeter, was published in the March edition, and as it offered another take on recent events, the magazine quickly sold out. Dolores Umbridge, a Ministry bureaucrat acting as the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, Hogwarts High Inquisitor, and later Headmistress at Hogwarts, banned students from having copies of *The Quibbler* after this article, as she and the Ministry were intent on denying Voldemort's return.

However, Hermione was very pleased about this, saying that the one thing Umbridge could have done to make all the students (and teachers) want to read it was to ban it, as the students were very focused on rebelling against the sadistic tyrant. Harry received lots of fan mail during breakfast at the Great Hall, and some letters said he had them convinced, especially after the Ministry's poor reaction to the 1996 mass breakout from Azkaban. In the article, he names all the Death Eaters he saw in the Little Hangleton graveyard and gives as many details as he could of the night Voldemort returned. Though Rita was displeased about writing for *The Quibbler*, and even more displeased that she wasn't going to get paid for it, she was blackmailed into writing the article by Hermione, who threatened to reveal to the world that Skeeter was an unregistered Animagus.

The interview with Harry went on to be one of the biggest selling individual issues ever. After the Battle of the Department of Mysteries and the world was forced to believe Voldemort had returned, the *Daily Prophet* began to stop slandering Harry Potter and call him the "lone voice of truth". In addition, they used this interview in their paper, calling it "exclusive", even though it was printed in *The Quibbler* months ago. By late summer that same year, *The Quibbler* had returned to its usual form, offering an issue with free Spectrespecs to see Wrackspurts.

### Second Wizarding War

During the height of the Second Wizarding War, when Voldemort took over the Ministry of Magic, *The Quibbler* was one of the only media outlets to print the truth and publicly support Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. To combat this dissent, the Death Eaters abducted Luna, and held her hostage against Xenophilius's good behaviour in the basement of Malfoy Manor.

Due to his daughter's capture, Xenophilus began printing stories advocating the capture of "Undesirable No. 1" (Harry), and when Harry, Hermione, and Ron Weasley came to visit his home in the spring of 1998, Xenophilius tried to turn them in to the Ministry (i.e. the Death Eaters) in a desperate attempt to get his daughter back. The trio narrowly escaped, and Xenophilius was imprisoned in Azkaban and his house was blown up because of an erumpent horn.

### Later work

> "'**[The Quibbler] *has returned to its usual condition of advanced lunacy, and is appreciated for its unintentional humour.*"**
> ― J. K. Rowling on *The Quibbler* after the defeat of Voldemort
>
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After Voldemort's defeat, *The Quibbler* returned to printing its strange theories, possibly including proof of the existence of some creatures discovered by Luna, who became a famous wizarding naturalist.

## Known articles

*Main article: The Quibbler articles*
* "Hogwarts Secrets Revealed!"
* "Rowena Ravenclaw's Staircase Strategy!"
* "Sinking Stairs and How to Avoid Them"
* "SIRIUS - Black As He's Painted?"
* "How Far Will Fudge Go to Gain Gringotts?"
* "CRUMPLE-HORNED SNORKACK SIGHTING!"
* "REMEMBERING DUMBLEDORE"
* "DEATH EATERS ON THE DANCEFLOOR!"
* "MINISTRY MOVE TO REGULATE MUGGLE-BORNS"
* "DOLORES UMBRIDGE TO PROSECUTE WIZARDING WORLD"
* "PURE-BLOODS AND MUGGLE-BORNS: WIZARDS ALL!"
* "ALLEGED MURDERER IN CHARGE OF YOUR CHILDREN!"
* "DUMBLEDORE - THE TRUTH AND LIES (1/4)"
* "MORE LIES ABOUT DUMBLEDORE! (2/4)"
* "DUMBLEDORE - THE TRUE AND THE WISE! (3/4)"
* "DUMBLEDORE DEATH DECEIT DISCREDITED! (4/4)"
* "SCRIMGEOUR DISAPPEARS!"
* "WIZARDS INVADE GRINGOTTS"
* "DEATH EATER ATTACKS ON MUGGLES"
* "WIZARDING WIRELESS SAVED BY UNDERGROUND BROADCASTS?"

## Best-selling *Quibbler*

> "*HARRY POTTER SPEAKS OUT AT LAST: THE TRUTH ABOUT HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED AND THE NIGHT I SAW HIM RETURN*"
> ― a label in front cover of March 1996 edition of *The Quibbler*[source]
>
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In an effort to make people believe Harry Potter's story of what happened in the graveyard on the night of Lord Voldemort's return, Hermione Granger arranged for an interview between him and Rita Skeeter to be published in *The Quibbler*, as the *Daily Prophet* was painting Harry as either a liar or a nutter, in line with the Ministry's stance that the Dark Lord had not returned.

This turned out to be the best-selling issue of all time. Dolores Umbridge banned the magazine from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Educational Decree Number Twenty-Seven once this interview was printed, but students found ways to magically hide the magazine and read it anyway, with many of them reading it purely because Umbridge banned it. This caused a surge in the popularity of *The Quibbler* making it have to reprint. Xenophilius eventually sold the story to the *Daily Prophet* once the Ministry was forced to admit that Voldemort had returned, and he and Luna used the money to travel to Sweden in search of Crumple-Horned Snorkacks.

## Etymology

* To 'quibble' is to avoid or to be vague, so therefore a 'quibbler' is one who avoids or is vague.