Harry Potter · Character
Cuthbert Binns
Also known as Professor Binns
- Minor
- First seen · Book 2 · Ch. 8
Cuthbert Binns is drawn off his lecture plan when Hermione Granger asks him about the Chamber of Secrets in Harry Potter (Book 2).
- Gender
- male
- Age
- ancient
- First appears
- Book 2 · Ch. 8
- Books
- 2
Professor Cuthbert Binns is the ghostly History of Magic teacher at Hogwarts, a man who, according to school lore, simply rose from his armchair by the staffroom fire one day and went on to teach, leaving his body behind. Entering his classroom through the blackboard and droning through goblin rebellions, he is famously the dullest lesson at the school. His one moment of real consequence comes during the Chamber of Secrets crisis, when Hermione persuades him to recount the legend of Salazar Slytherin's hidden chamber and its monster. By Goblet of Fire he is still setting essays and lecturing exactly as before, and his unchanging routine stands for the school's dusty, self-perpetuating devotion to the past.
Description
An ancient shriveled ghost with translucent, parchment-thin skin stretched over a tortoise-like face, his blinking eyes peer out with perpetual mild amazement. Wispy strands of hair float ethereally around his domed head, and thin lips purse in a dry, wheezy expression. His shriveled form shuffles spectral notes in bony hands, clad in tattered professor's robes that billow faintly. A flat, droning presence that materializes through blackboards, he exudes the dusty monotony of centuries past. Binns is identified as a ghost professor, but the text provides no detailed account of his face, coloring, hair, build, or garments. His visible appearance is therefore best kept as a restrained, spectral academic figure without added physical specifics. His presence feels quiet and routine, more an unearthly fixture of the classroom than a dramatic apparition.
Connections
Family & partnersFriends & mentorsRivals
Harry PotterTeacher/student
Harry finds Binns's lectures deadly dull, but the Chamber legend Binns recounts in his second year shapes Harry's understanding of the threat. Afterwards Binns stays a background figure in Harry's schooling.
Hermione GrangerTeacher/student
Hermione is his most attentive pupil. In Chamber of Secrets she persuades him to tell the legend of the Chamber of Secrets, which gives the trio crucial background for their investigation.
Ron WeasleyTeacher/student
Ron is a bored, often dozing student in Binns's class. Like Harry, he only listens closely during the Chamber legend.
Story so far
BOOK 2Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- Drifts into class through the blackboard and delivers his usual monotonous History of Magic lectures, putting most students to sleep.
- Is drawn off his lecture plan when Hermione Granger asks him about the Chamber of Secrets.
- Reluctantly tells the legend of Salazar Slytherin, his falling-out with the other founders, and the Chamber said to house a monster only his true heir can control.
- Dismisses the story as sensational nonsense, unaware of the petrifications and basilisk attacks happening around the school.
BOOK 4Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- Keeps teaching History of Magic as a ghost, carrying on as though nothing has changed.
- Sets lengthy essays that add to the students' workload during the Triwizard year.
- Recounts the subject's long history in his usual dry manner, which reinforces his reputation for tedium.
Appearances
Meet Cuthbert Binns in Bookworm
Meet Cuthbert Binns in your EPUB — spoiler-safe to the book you're on.