The Crumple-Horned Snorkack

• Type: Magical Creature (Existence unconfirmed, widely believed to be fictitious)
• Native to: Sweden (alleged)
• Notable Believers: Xenophilius Lovegood, Luna Lovegood (formerly)

The Crumple-Horned Snorkack is a creature believed to exist by Xenophilius Lovegood and, for many years, his daughter Luna Lovegood. According to Luna, it is a shy and very small creature that cannot fly. Its most notable feature is a single, crumpled horn on its head, from which it derives its name. Little else is described about its appearance, as no one besides the Lovegoods has ever claimed to have seen one. The creature is featured prominently in The Quibbler, the magazine edited by Xenophilius.

The primary characteristic of the Crumple-Horned Snorkack is its extreme shyness, making it exceptionally difficult to find. The Lovegoods believed the creature lived in burrows. The horn of the Snorkack was its most significant feature. Xenophilius Lovegood acquired what he claimed was a horn of a Crumple-Horned Snorkack and mounted it in his home. He believed it to be a Class A Non-Tradeable Material, though he was certain the Ministry of Magic officials who classified it were mistaken about its true identity. This specific horn had the dangerous property of being filled with a fluid that would explode with immense force upon being struck with a spell. However, Hermione Granger correctly identified this object not as a Snorkack horn but as the horn of an Erumpent, a creature known for its explosive horn.

The Crumple-Horned Snorkack was first mentioned by Luna Lovegood to Harry Potter on the Hogwarts Express at the beginning of the 1995-1996 school year. She and her father planned to travel to Sweden during the summer holidays to try and catch one. This trip, undertaken in the summer of 1996, was ultimately unsuccessful. The creature played its most significant role during the Second Wizarding War. In 1998, when Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger visited the Lovegood House seeking information about the Deathly Hallows, they saw the supposed horn mounted on the wall. When Xenophilius Lovegood betrayed the trio to the Death Eaters in a desperate attempt to secure Luna's safety, a stray Stunning Spell from a Death Eater's wand struck the horn. The resulting explosion destroyed a large part of the Lovegood home, allowing the trio to escape amidst the chaos. This event definitively proved that the object was an Erumpent horn, as its properties matched Hermione's description perfectly.

The Crumple-Horned Snorkack is a key symbol of the Lovegoods' unique worldview, representing their unwavering faith in the unseen and their willingness to embrace ideas that others dismiss as absurd. For Luna Lovegood, the belief in creatures like the Snorkack defines her character, setting her apart from the more pragmatic and evidence-based perspectives of characters like Hermione Granger. The creature also functions as a crucial plot device. The search for the Snorkack establishes the Lovegoods' eccentric interests and their publication, The Quibbler. More critically, the misidentified Erumpent horn that Xenophilius believed to be from a Snorkack serves as the catalyst for the destruction of the Lovegood House and the trio's narrow escape from the Death Eaters in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

• In a live web chat on 30 July 2007, J.K. Rowling revealed that Luna Lovegood eventually accepted that Crumple-Horned Snorkacks do not exist. She said Luna realized she and her father were “a bit wrong” and adopted a slightly more “reality-based” view of the world, though she remained endearingly eccentric. (J.K. Rowling interview)
• In the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix film, Luna first mentions the Crumple-Horned Snorkack while she, Harry, Neville, and Ginny are in the Forbidden Forest with Thestrals, a different context from the book. (film)
• The Crumple-Horned Snorkack is mentioned by Luna Lovegood in a side quest within the Hogwarts Legacy video game. (video game)