Basic Information
Classification	Spirit
Skin Colour	Green tinged
Hair Colour	Black
Native to	Ireland
Distinction	Zombie-like appearance Fatal scream

Overview

Banshees are dark creatures that can be found in Ireland. They are dark spirits that often resemble women and their cries are fatal to anyone who hears them.

Drinking the laughing potion before encountering a banshee is an effective way to counter them. The sound of laughter is known to weaken and ward them off. The exact reason they are weak to laughter is unknown, but it was theorized by Cobb that they are unable to even tolerate laughter due to the fact that they are spirits of dread and tragedy in folk stories.

Description

Banshees have floor length black hair and take on the appearance of a woman. They have green skin and a skeletal face. They also wore dark clothing that was known to lighten in color as they aged. Similar to fully grown mandrakes, a Banshees scream was fatal when heard.

Most banshees are hostile, as proven by the fact that at least one witch or wizard had a boggard that was a banshee. However, at least one person, Duncan Hobhouse had a boggart of a creature that was considered harmless. Also, some banshees had the ability to communicate with other beings and were willing to uphold their end of the bargain.

There is a bunch of information that the wizarding world doesn't know about banshees, including if they are good or evil or if humans can communicate with them or not.

History

The Bandon banshee was apparently defeated by Gilderoy Lockheart, which was detailed in his book called, 'break with a banshee', though the fact that he later admitted to stealing credit for his books makes this claim not strong. The only thing that is known about the witch that actually is responsible for taking down the Bandon banshee was that she had a hair chin.

The singer known as Celestina Warbeck was known to have and preform her songs with a backup singing group of banshees, though she did have to cancel a Halloween performance once with backup banshee singers.

In 1985 a large group of banshees attacked Hogwarts in attempt to retrieve a black comb that their leader had traded with a maiden a long time ago. Jacob's siblings and Penny Haywood returned the comb to the banshees, which allowed the banshees to leave Hogwarts in peace.

During the 1989 - 1990 school year, Bill Weasley taught his sixth year students about banshees, including how to correctly defend themselves against one in one of his Defense Against the Dark Arts tutoring lessons. Bill brought a real banshee into the classroom for him and his students to study, the lot wore earmuffs to protect themselves from the banshees fatal screams. Jacob's siblings managed to banish the banshee with the help of a laughing potion.

On July 31 1992, Mrs Mason screamed like a banshee when a letter warning Harry Potter of his supposed use of underage magic (which was actually done by Dobby) arrived and was dropped on her head as she suffered from a great fear of birds.

Seamus Finnigan was afraid of banshees, as his boggart revealed in 1993 and when Harry Potter opened the golden egg and heard screeching sounds after Seamus mentioned it.

The boggle banshee was another possibility, mentioned by a second year student on 'the second year essential knowledge test' given by Gilderoy Lockheart in 1992 in his DADA class.

During the wizarding schools potions brewing championship, a banshee drove the Uagadou professor mad.

Banshees also appeared throughout the wizarding world during the calamity in the 2010s, where they acted as guards to certain foundables, such as Salazar Slytherin's portrait. A few members of the statute of secrecy task force cast a large bombardment spell in order to repel the banshees, which allowed the foundables to return to their proper places.
 

Credits/References

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Written by Achilles Whitlock
Base code by Andrew Sutherland, edited by Iselin Merilä and Desmond Gray.