The Entire Life of Filius Flitwick (+ Goblin Origins) - Harry Potter Explained

Hey everyone,

Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In this video, we’ll be discussing professor Filius Flitwick- resident charms master of Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, and head of Ravenclaw house. Filius comes from the latin word for ‘Son’ and it has been expressed that his name is derived from ‘filius philosophorum’ which means ‘the philosophers son’- a symbol in alchemy.

When new students are first sorted in to Ravenclaw- they are introduced to their head of house in the follower manner:

"Speaking of eccentrics, you'll like our Head of house, Professor Filius Flitwick. People often underestimate him, because he's really tiny (we think he's part elf, but we've never been rude enough to ask) and he's got a squeaky voice, but he's the best and most knowledgeable Charms master alive in the world today. His office door is always open to any Ravenclaw with a problem, and if you're in a real state he'll get out these delicious little cupcakes he keeps in a tin in his desk drawer and make them do a little dance for you. In fact, it's worth pretending you're in a real state just to see them jive."

Flitwick is an interesting character as, though he is quite prevalent, not a lot of information is ever revealed about him or his backstory. At least not too directly. However, what we can do is piece together Flitwick’s story with the little tidbits that we’re sporadically given.

Filius was born somewhere in the British Isles to the wizarding family, the Flitwicks. His small stature can be attributed to what Rowling has described as a ‘dash’ of goblin blood- stemming back to what we believe to be his great, great, great grandparent. Clearly, goblin blood is quite potent, as despite preceding Filius’s existence by several generations, it still had a profound impact on his physical stature. We don’t know which of Filius’ parents carried the goblin blood, or exactly how far back it would have been introduced to his bloodline-but we do know that it stemmed from long before Filius. We don’t know what year he was born, because we don’t actually know how old Filius Flitwick is- and this is further complicated by the fact that the character we see on screen in films is portrayed in 2 very different ways. We’re first introduced to Flitwick right at the beginning of the books/films, in Harry Potter & the philosopher’s stone- then we see the same Flitwick return in harry Potter and the chamber of secrets. This version of Flitwick is grey-bearded, bald and clearly quite old - perhaps even giving Dumbledore a run for his money. But then, out of nowhere, The Prisoner of Azkaban introduces us to an entirely different, NEW Flitwick- a much younger version of the professor sporting a full head of brown hair, and a large curled moustache. They did a bit of a 180 on his character, but I have personally become much more familiar with the younger, brown-haired Flitwick that was present for the majority of the films.

But, while we don’t know Flitwicks EXACT age, there is a lot of speculation floating around that he was born sometime between 1935 and 1958 (this is a wide range, I know). 1958 seems late, because this would mean that he was only 40 during the Battle of Hogwarts, which makes no sense to me. 1935 on the other hand would make him 63 during the Battle of Hogwarts, which doesn’t quite match his newer appearance. I’m thinking that I personally feel best about splitting the difference- and assuming that Flitwick was born in the year 1946, which would make him 52 during the battle of Hogwarts. For some perspective, this would make him 5 years older than Bellatrix Lestrange, 2 years older than Alastor Moody, and 11 years younger than McGonagall (assuming she was born in 1935)- this seems about right.

Like most other characters, Flitwick also attended Hogwarts in his youth. Due to his goblin heritage-Flitwick was initially treated like a second class citizen by many - the result of stigma towards goblins in the wizarding community.

“Goblins, while they appear to have at least a grudging co-existence with the wizarding world, have nonetheless experienced much discrimination from wizards, and many have led significant uprisings against them in the past.”

...Watch the video for the rest!



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