Biographies in Harry Potter

I'm continuing my build up to the last Harry Potter movie by writing about the biographies J. K. Rowling made up to flesh out the world of Harry Potter.

I'm probably stretching it a bit to call the works of Gilderoy Lockhart biographies but I don't think they can be classified as authoritative texts on the various creatures that he claims to have encountered (he swiped other people's work, wiped their memories, and passed off their experience as his own). Though I suppose if the folks whose memories he wiped were experts then their pirated work could be considered authoritative? But unless you know who they were how can you tell? The pirated works are: Break with a Banshee, Gadding with Ghouls, Holidays with Hags, Travels with Trolls, Voyages with Vampires, Wanderings with Werewolves, and Year with the Yeti (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets pp. 43-44). The sappy alliteration of these titles only reinforces my impression of the smarminess of Gilderoy Lockhart! And speaking of smarmy, how can I forget Lockhart's own memoir, Magical Me? (Ibid p. 58)

Rita Skeeter's works rate even lower than Gilderoy Lockhart's in terms of accuracy. I have no idea who Armando Dippet was or what he did to attract the attention of Skeeter's poison pen. Judging by the accuracy (!) of her stories about the Tri-Wizard Tournament, Rita Skeeter's Armando Dippet: Master or Moron (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows p. 252) may have been the first "tell all" work about a prominent wizard. Her book The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore (Ibid p. 22) is only the latest blob (or should I say lob?) of mud in a career of mud-slinging!

There are two other works that could be considered biographies as well. The first is Blood Brothers: My Life Amongst the Vampires by Eldred Worple, a former student of Horace Slughorn (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince p. 315). The second book may be a collection of biographies of former Hogwarts prefects in the guise of a self-help book. You may have guessed that this book, Prefects Who Gained Power, was a big hit with Percy Weasley (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets p. 58)!