The Harry Potter franchise largely focuses on a single generation of wizards, and rightly so, since it’s set during the school years of the title character. Though fans of the novels and movies know a lot of information about Harry’s generation, there are so many more wizards that make up the Harry Potter universe.
Those witches and wizards who attended Hogwarts spent their youth sorted into different houses. Out of Ravenclaw graduated some of the most creative members of the wizarding world. Keen minds, curiosity, and eccentric interests made for some particularly powerful wizards. Of course, there are always a few who don’t live up to the house’s reputation.
Most Powerful: Filius Flitwick
The Head of Ravenclaw House while Harry Potter attended Hogwarts, Filius Flitwick was also the professor of Charms class. He spent most of his life teaching young minds how to properly use their wands to cast spells. That takes a certain amount of power and patience.
What some fans might not know, however, is that Professor Flitwick also happened to be a champion dueler in his youth. He’s also half Goblin, giving him the likelihood of stronger magic and a longer lifespan.
Worst: Gilderoy Lockhart
One of the most famous wizards to graduate from Ravenclaw, Gilderoy Lockhart made a name for himself by writing books about his exploits. The trouble was, they weren’t actually his exploits.
Lockhart’s most valuable skills are an ability to weave tall tales and proficiency with memory charms. He made people forget that they ever talked to him, allowing him to pass off the stories he wrote as biographical. That eventually backfired on him when he tried to use a memory charm against Harry Potter and Ron Weasley with a broken wand. He obliterated his own memory instead.
Most Powerful: Garrick Ollivander
Long before Harry Potter went to Diagon Alley to get his first wand, the Ollivander family opened up their wand shop. Members of the Ollivander family, much like the Weasleys in Gryffindor, were traditionally sorted into Ravenclaw.
Garrick Ollivander, the man running the shop in Harry’s youth, not only created perfect wands but had a knack for finding which one was suited to which wizard. Without him, the witches and wizards of the United Kingdom wouldn’t have been able to perform magic nearly as effectively. He also remembered every wand he ever sold and to whom. That’s impressive.
Worst: Uric The Oddball
Not a character fans will know from the movies, Uric the Oddball got a few mentions in the book series. He also appears as a character on chocolate frog cards and has been a bit of trivia on various official Harry Potter websites.
Uric leans more toward the eccentric side of Ravenclaw rather than the intelligent. His place in history is documented because he wore a jellyfish as a hat. Uric also spent ten days with a concussion after thinking his wailing pet auguries were telling him he died. He ran into the wall thinking he would be able to walk right through it as a ghost. Uric the Oddball is an anecdote most Ravenclaws would rather hide in the footnotes of their history.
Most Powerful: Quirinus Quirrell
Former Hogwarts Professor Quirrell could also be listed amongst the worst of Ravenclaws. While he’s intelligent and powerful, he spent at least a year with what was left of Voldemort living on the back of his head.
A master of deception, Professor Quirrell had all of his students believing he was a coward who had garlic in his head wrap to ward off vampires. In reality, he was a cold and calculating follower of Voldemort who used his intelligence to find the dark wizard and plan a way to bring him back to life. He was eventually bested by a 12-year-old and his mother’s love, but he certainly put up a good fight.
Worst: Moaning Myrtle
Myrtle probably wouldn’t be amongst the worst if she wasn’t such an unhappy ghost. During her life, poor Myrtle was picked on by her classmates and then wound up stuck haunting the toilets in death.
Myrtle was whiny and liked to spy on the students. If she attempted to help them with more than just whether the bubbles in the bathwater ran low, she might not have made the list. To spend decades haunting the plumbing at Hogwarts only to use it to spy on the students doesn’t seem like a very Ravenclaw thing to do.
Most Powerful: Ignatia Wildsmith
We don’t know much about Ignatia Wildsmith. She didn’t feature in the Harry Potter films or novels. Instead, she’s a bit of trivia on chocolate frog cards and other official merchandise.
Ignatia was a witch in the thirteenth century who had a particular interest in herbology. She stayed within her favorite field long after attending Hogwarts and made a fantastic discovery. Ignatia is the one who developed Floo Powder from the leaves of a plant. By the 1990s, it was the most popular way for wizards to travel and the price of a scoop hadn’t changed since she made it available.
Worst: Marietta Edgecombe
Surprisingly, the film Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix cut out Marietta Edgecombe’s major contribution to the franchise. In the novels, she featured as a friend of Cho Chang’s who decided that belonging to Dumbledore’s Army wasn’t worth getting into trouble.
Marietta broke the terms of the enchanted contract to tell Dolores Umbridge about the secret organization. What she didn’t realize was that Hermione Granger had made sure anyone who betrayed the group would be obvious - with acne in the form of “SNEAK” across her face. Not only did she lie and betray the group, but she couldn’t find a way to remove the evidence.
Most Powerful: Rowena Ravenclaw
It seems impossible to talk about the most powerful Ravenclaws without talking about the woman who started it all. One of the founders of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Rowena Ravenclaw prized knowledge above all else. She believed it was important to have a curious mind and think outside of the box. Those are the traits she imparted to the sorting hat.
Fans know of her great power through a few of her acts. Proficient in Charms, she came up with the ever-changing floor plan for Hogwarts as well as enchanting the sorting hat. Rowena also had powers of divination; prophetic dreams led to the naming of Hogwarts. She enchanted her prized diadem to enhance the wisdom of the wearer, and no other witch or wizard could replicate her work.
Worst: Sybill Trelawney
Another Hogwarts professor amongst the Ravenclaws, Sybill Trelawney made her home at Hogwarts for more than a decade. An eccentric woman, she believed in all methods of divination. It’s just a shame she wasn’t very good at it.
In all her years of staring into tea leaves and crystal balls, Professor Trelawney only seemed to make one true prediction. She made the prophecy that set Voldemort on his path against Harry Potter. Outside of that single proclamation, however, she didn’t seem to impart much wisdom to her students.
