Warm-up: everyone should get these
Start any Potter quiz round with the shared canon: the four houses (Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin) and their founders, the boy who lived, the three Unforgivable Curses, and the platform you reach by running at a wall between nine and ten.
What are the three Deathly Hallows?
The Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone, and the Cloak of Invisibility - unite them and you are master of Death, according to the Tale of the Three Brothers.
What is Dumbledore's full name?
Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.
What position does Harry play in Quidditch?
Seeker - the youngest at Hogwarts in a century when he joined Gryffindor's team in his first year.
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Spells, potions and magical objects
The mechanics of magic supply endless mid-difficulty questions: Expelliarmus as Harry's signature, the Patronus charm and what each character's Patronus reveals, Polyjuice Potion's month-long brewing time, and Felix Felicis - liquid luck - which Harry uses to extract the true Horcrux memory from Slughorn.
Objects round it out: the Marauder's Map's makers (Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs), the two-way mirrors, Time-Turners, and the seven Horcruxes - the diary, the ring, the locket, the cup, the diadem, Nagini, and Harry himself.
What does the spell 'Expecto Patronum' do?
It conjures a Patronus - a protective embodiment of happy memory used to repel Dementors. Harry's is a stag, like his father's Animagus form.
Who were Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs?
The Marauders: Remus Lupin (Moony), Peter Pettigrew (Wormtail), Sirius Black (Padfoot) and James Potter (Prongs) - creators of the Marauder's Map.
Which Horcrux was destroyed first, and by whom?
Tom Riddle's diary - destroyed by Harry with a basilisk fang in the Chamber of Secrets, years before anyone knew what Horcruxes were.
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Deep cuts for true Potterheads
This is where quiz nights get competitive. The Sorting Hat's near-decisions (it seriously considered Ravenclaw for Hermione and took over five minutes on Neville - a true 'Hatstall' is rarer still), wandlore (Harry's holly-and-phoenix-feather wand shares its core twin with Voldemort's yew wand - both feathers from Fawkes), and the prophecy's careful wording that could have pointed to Neville as easily as Harry.
Background details make the hardest questions: Dumbledore's scar shaped like a map of the London Underground, the twelve uses of dragon's blood he discovered, and what the Mirror of Erised shows (Harry: his family; Ron: himself as Head Boy and Quidditch captain; Dumbledore claims: socks).
What connects Harry's wand to Voldemort's?
Twin cores - each contains a phoenix feather from the same bird, Dumbledore's phoenix Fawkes, which is why the wands refused to duel properly (Priori Incantatem).
Why could the prophecy have referred to Neville Longbottom?
It described a boy born as July ends to parents who thrice defied Voldemort - true of both Harry and Neville. Voldemort chose Harry, 'marking him as his equal'.
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Quick-fire round: 10 for your next quiz night
- ✓What platform does the Hogwarts Express leave from? (Nine and three-quarters.)
- ✓What form does Snape's Patronus take, and why? (A doe - mirroring Lily Potter's.)
- ✓Name the three Unforgivable Curses. (Avada Kedavra, Crucio, Imperio.)
- ✓What does S.P.E.W. stand for? (Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare - Hermione's campaign.)
- ✓Who kills Bellatrix Lestrange? (Molly Weasley.)
- ✓What is Voldemort's real name? (Tom Marvolo Riddle.)
- ✓What creature guards the Chamber of Secrets? (A basilisk.)
- ✓What flavour did Bertie Bott's earwax bean... actually, which headmaster ate it? (Dumbledore, unluckily.)
- ✓What are the first-years sorted by? (The Sorting Hat.)
- ✓What does the Room of Requirement become for Dumbledore's Army? (A training room with defence equipment.)