Hookah

• Type: Smoking Apparatus
• Owners: An unidentified blue caterpillar
• Maker: Unknown

The hookah is a traditional-looking water pipe with a glass base, a central stem, and at least one long, flexible hose with a mouthpiece. It is used by a large, blue caterpillar which rests atop a mushroom in an illustration within the book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (film).

The primary observed function of this hookah is its use in creating magically-formed text. The blue caterpillar smokes from the pipe, and the exhaled smoke visibly and deliberately forms into letters. These letters spell out the title of the book, “Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them”, before dissipating. It is unknown whether the magical properties reside within the hookah itself, the substance being smoked, or are a result of the caterpillar's own magical nature.

The origins and history of this specific hookah are unknown. It is only seen once, within a living illustration in a book.

The hookah's role is a minor world-building detail. It appears during Harry Potter's second year when he visits Flourish and Blotts in Diagon Alley. While looking at a copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, he sees the animated illustration of the caterpillar using the hookah. This moment serves to reinforce the whimsical and animated nature of magical objects and media in the wizarding world.

• The hookah and its smoking caterpillar are an invention for the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and do not appear in the original novel.
• The scene is a clear visual homage to the iconic hookah-smoking caterpillar from Lewis Carroll's classic 1865 novel, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.