Every Single Dragon Harry Potter uses
Ten recognized kinds of dragons abound in the Harry Potter series, and they have a major impact. Given evidence of two more breeds allegedly to have gone extinct, that figure could have been higher. Though they tried, dragons were gorgeous animals but practically hard to raise. Still, the enormous, fire-breathing monsters fulfilled more than one function for wizards and witches. Dealers were known to trade and sell dragon eggs covertly outside the Ministry of Magic. For potions, resources such dragon blood, claws, horns, hides, and hearts are sought by wizards; clothing, wands, and tools also come from these sources.
Renowned Dragonologist Charlie Weasley worked with several Harry Potter dragon breeds in Romania. Charlie follows the selected dragons to Hogwarts during the Triwizard Tournament in Harry Potter. As a renowned Magizoologist, Newt Scamander of the Fantastic Beasts series also has experience working with dragons. Though not much is known about each particular species, dragons surfaced and made sporadic references throughout the Harry Potter series.
Oppodean Opaleye
Unusual for them since most Harry Potter Dragons live in mountains, the Antipodean Opaleye is one of the ones who live in valleys. Among the most exquisite of the dragon breeds, they have a glossy glitter to their scales.
Although native of New Zealand, the Opaleye had migrated to Australia. The breed was not known to be aggressive unless in pursuit of food. According to Newt Scamander's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them textbook, a male Opaleye left the territory and killed several kangaroos with his strong fire breath in Australia in the 1970s. When it comes to human interaction, nevertheless, this is the least lethal of the dragon breeds. Mostly found in video games, this particular Harry Potter dragon doesn't play a part in any of the main novels or films.
ChineseFireball
The Chinese Fireball is another quite remarkable Harry Potter dragon. Often known as the Liondragon, the Chinese Fireball as the name implies has the ability to spew balls of flame from its nostrils. The Fireball sticks out with its silky red skin rimmed in golden spikes.
At two to four tons, the dragons are also somewhat big. Native to China, wizards utilized the breed for the first chore of the Triwizard Tournament. Viktor Krum encountered this specific breed during the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Tournament; he stole the Golden Egg after blinding the Fireball with a Conjunctivitis Curse. The full-size Chinese Fireball never shows in the film even though the spectator hears what happened with Krum; it only occurs in the book. Though naturally in LEGO form, the LEGO Harry Potter game is the one place to view the Chinese Fireball.
Regular Welsh Green
Common Welsh Green: Native of Wales, Harry Potter dragon usually lives in mountainous areas. Usually hunting small animals or lambs, the Fantastic Beast creature is well-known for his recognizable roar. The Welsh Green generally quite tamed, however in 1932 a rogue dragon assaulted sunbathers in Ilfracombe, Devon, England. Author J.K. Rowling claims that the Great Fire of London in 1666 could have originated with a Welsh Green. A Common Welsh Green also assaulted muggles in England in 1990-1991; the Ministry had to seize it to return it home.
During the Triwizard Tournament, Fleur Delacour confronts the breed and grabs the Golden Egg by beguiling the dragon till it nods off. But the dragon arrived too before she was done and attacked, burning Delacour's clothes. Traditionally red, the actual Welsh Dragon is the national animal of Wales and shown on their flags.
Black Hebrideans
The Hebridean Black is even more aggressive than the Common Welsh Green since the second Harry Potter dragon breed is indigenous to Great Britain. Originating in Scotland's Hebrides Islands close to Hogwarts Castle, the MacFusty clan acquired ownership for the breed. Dark scales and an arrow-shaped tip on the end of their tail define the Hebridean Black.
The dragon has amazing purple eyes and bat-like wings; it may grow up to thirty feet long. The dragon hunts other magical creatures like Graphorns in addition to surviving by eating cattle and sheep. First formally seen in the Hogwarts Legacy game, this Harry Potter dragon appears in Horntail Hall, where poachers have one. Pupils assist the dragon flee into the countryside and save it.
Hungarian horizon tail
Hungarian Horntail is the Harry Potter dragon breed most known to franchise enthusiasts. Native of Hungary, this dragon looks like a lizard with black scales and bright eyes. Of all the dragons in this imaginary realm, people rank the Hungarian Horntail as the most deadly. Ahead all the challenges the Horntail was probably the toughest to deal with in the Triwizard Tournament, Hagrid cautioned Harry.
Using bronze horns and flames that might extend up to 50 feet in attacks, Hungarian Horntails are infamous for their violence. The breed consumes humans, cattle, goats, and even sheep, so their participation in the Trizwizard Tournament is quite alarming. Harry Potter sketched the Hungarian Horntail during the Triwizard Tournament in Goblet of Fire, and thanks to Hagrid's warning he knew it would be a challenge. He aimed his broomstick at the dragon, but it stayed on flight. Harry Potter even made jokes about preferring to face another Hungarian Horntail over asking someone to attend the Yule Ball.
Norwegian R Ridgeback
Though it has black ridges on its back and is less aggressive, the Norwegian Ridgeback looks somewhat similar to the Hungarian Horntail. Native of Norway, this Harry Potter dragon finds solace in the Northern Alps. The breed contains venomous fangs and is known to eat large mammals, as well as water mammals at times. According to Fantastic Beasts, a Ridgeback once took a whale calf out of the water.
Hagrid was given a Norwegian Ridgeback egg in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. When it hatched, Hagrid named the Harry Potter creature Norbert and had help raising the creature from Harry, Ron, and Hermione as a special pet. It's expected for Hagrid to try this as he typically believed even the most dangerous of creatures could be domesticated. Hagrid eventually gives the dragon to Charlie Weasley, and Charlie later discovers the dragon is a female, so he changes its name to Norberta.
Peru's Vipertooth
The Peruvian Vipertooth, native to Peru, also has venomous fangs similar to those of the Norwegian Ridgeback. The Harry Potter dragon breed has smooth copper-colored scales and short horns on its heads. The Vipertooth is known as the smallest and fastest breed of dragon.
Unfortunately, the breed enjoys eating humans, making it one of the most dangerous creatures in the Wizarding World. Since it has the ability to hide from muggles, it was also the deadliest. In the 19th century, the International Confederation of Wizards sent out an extermination squad to reduce the growing Vipertooth population. The Dragon Pox disease, similar to Game of Thrones in-universe disease greyscale, was thought to have started with wizards who worked with Peruvian Vipertooths. This particular breed of dragon doesn't appear in the movies but is one of the bosses that games fight in the video game Harry Potter: Magic Awakened.
Romanian Longhorn
The Romanian Longhorn is one of the largest Harry Potter Dragons in existence, growing to around 40 feet in length. The breed inhabited the Carpathian Mountains in Romania. The Longhorn has dark green scales and two enormous glittering gold horns on its head. Those horns were highly prized ingredients for certain potions.
Due to the demand for their horns, the Romanian Longhorn became endangered, so the Ministry of Magic turned its territory into a dragon reservation. Like many dragons in the franchise, the Romanian Longhorn isn't in the movies and is only mentioned and appears in video games. Its first appearance came in the video game adaptation of Harry Potter and the Prison of Azkaban. The franchise also mentioned it in the novelization of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. It was finally visualized with a photo in the Harry Potter: Magic Awakened mobile game.
Swedish Short-Snout
The Swedish Short-Snout preferred to live in the isolated mountains of Sweden. The beautiful silvery-blue Harry Potter dragon has a powerful flame that turns blue and can turn bone into ashes. This powerful flame made the Swedish Short-Snout one of the more dangerous Dragon Species in Harry Potter. Hunters seek this dragon for manufacturing protective gloves and shields. However, it is not dangerous to most humans, as it has fewer recorded killings than other breeds.
The Short-Snout appeared in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, although it was yellow in the film. Cedric Diggory faced the breed during the Tournament and was able to distract the dragon long enough to retrieve the Golden Egg. Cedric transforms a rock into a dog, which is almost sufficient to achieve his task in the Triwizard Tournament. However, the dragon changed its mind and blasted Cedric with fire, though he survived.
Ukrainian Ironbelly
The Ukrainian Ironbelly is the largest Harry Potter dragon breed in the Wizarding World. Due to its size and strength, it is also one of the most dangerous. The Ironbelly has metallic grey scales that are as hard as steel. Native to Ukraine, an Ironbelly is said to have been powerful enough to carry off a ship sailing in the Black Sea in 1799. Newt Scamander notably told Jacob Kowalski that he worked with Ukrainian Ironbellies during World War I.
In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, a Ukranian Ironbelly guards the Lestrange Vault at Gringotts Wizarding Bank. Luckily, they subdue it using clankers, which this specific dragon associates with pain. Harry, Ron, and Hermione free the dragon and ride it to escape after their Gringotts break in. It carried them a long distance away and to safety before flying away.
Lesser-Known Dragon Breeds In Harry Potter
To his knowledge, Newt Scamander has claimed that only ten dragon breeds existed, but J.K. Rowling revealed two other Harry Potter dragons. On a page of the book Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit, displayed on the author's website, there is an image of a Portuguese Long-Snout found in the north of Portugal. This particular breed was said to have light green scales and long, pointed horns.
The book revealed the other breed as the Catalonian Fireball, a native to Spain. The Fireball has a scorched snout and two black horns. Presumably, the Portuguese Long-Snout and Catalonian Fireball went extinct, as their existence in the Harry Potter books and movies is unknown. The extinction would have happened sometime before the 1990s when students attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry used Newt's textbook in those movies.
The Triwizard Tournament: Dragon Mayhem
In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the Triwizard Tournament takes precedence over all else at Hogwarts. The First Task for the four champions is to retrieve a golden egg guarded by a real Harry Potter dragon. There are four champions, so four different dragon breeds are used for the First Task — the Welsh Green, the Swedish Short-Snout, the Chinese Fireball, and the Hungarian Horntail.
Fleur Delacour of Beauxbatons selected the Welsh Green figurine from Barty Crouch Sr.'s magical purple pouch, and she snatches up her egg by using a charm to put the dragon to sleep. Viktor Krum of Durmstrang picked the Chinese Fireball to go up against, and during his run at the first task, he used the Conjunctivitis Curse to temporarily blind the creature and steal the egg from its clutches. Cedric Diggory (Robert Pattinson) chose the Swedish Short-Snout for his Harry Potter dragon and, in turn, transfigured a large boulder into a Labrador Retriever to distract the beast, grabbing the egg while it was unaware.
Harry Potter got the unfortunate task of taking on a Hungarian Horntail. In the Goblet of Fire movie, Harry summoned his broom and took the dragon on a thrilling chase throughout the castle. In the book, Harry spent a lot of time learning the Accio charm to summon his broomstick from the castle but kept the Horntail in the confines of the arena, instead using his flying prowess to his advantage.
Dragons in Fantastic Beasts: A Missed Opportunity
While there are a wide variety of Harry Potter dragons in the universe, the Fantastic Beasts series of movies chose none of them to draw from. Oddly enough, Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) was the one who wrote Harry's textbook, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the title of the first film in the prequel franchise. While the series has depicted everything from Demiguises to Nifflers, not a single dragon has appeared in those movies.
It's bizarre, to say the least, especially considering Newt spent a lot of time during World War I (which occurred before the Fantastic Beasts movies) working with the Ukrainian Ironbelly. Not one dragon resides in his magical case. Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon capitalized on their use of the mythic beast, and it is seen as a missed opportunity that the Fantastic Beasts franchise features no dragons, despite their existence in the Wizarding World coming straight from protagonist Newt Scamander. It's possible that Fantastic Beasts 4 could have shown some of these Harry Potter dragons if the movies had continued.
From the start, the Fantastic Beasts franchise has changed several elements of the Harry Potter canon in mild to major ways in the prequel movies. From Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore to Harry Potter & The Cursed Child, we explore all the main beats in JK Rowling's complex timeline.
