“Tut, Tut, Tut. Naughty, Naughty, You’ll Get Caughty.”

Peeves – “Peeve” means “little devil” or something that “gets on your nerves” (like a pet peeve).

If you’ve never read the books, you’ll have no idea who I’m talking about this entire post, so go sit in a corner and actually read the books. I’m just kidding, I love all Potterheads, whether or not they’ve read all the books or seen all the movies. But Peeves, he’s quite the interesting character. He’s a poltergeist and completely cut out of the movies. When I was younger, I didn’t really realize that he wasn’t, but then when I was rewatching Sorcerer’s Stone after I had just reread the series I realized a great scene was cut out. Harry and Ron (and possibly Hermione) are out and about wandering under Harry’s invisibility cloak when the run into Peeves who immediately assumes (correctly) that it’s students out of bed. In his terror, Harry has one of his few brilliant ideas. He imitates the Bloody Baron (who again you probably wouldn’t know much about without reading), who happens to be the one person who Peeves is terrified of and therefore listens to. Harry tells him the Baron has business in this area and that he should stay away. Problem solved. It’s so great because I always pictured Harry as a little tiny kid with a higher pitched voice and the Bloody Baron as a ruder and meaner version of the Fat Friar (this is probably because he’s the Slytherin House ghost and I assumed everything Slytherin is ruder and meaner than everything else). Now that I think about it more, it might be the night that Draco sets Ron and Harry up for the midnight duel, or it’s when they’re going to save the Stone.

Another great scene that was cut: Fred and George’s last day at Hogwarts. Well, it’s more of a quote than the entire scene, though that it’s pretty great too.

Fred looked across the hall at the poltergeist bobbing on his level above the crowd.
“Give her hell from us, Peeves.”
And Peeves, whom Harry had never seen take an order from a student before, swept his belled hat from his head and sprang to a salute as Fred and George wheeled about to tumultuous applause from the students below and sped out of the open front doors into the glorious sunset.

It’s so great, I wish it had been in the movie. I love Fred and George. Another thing I loved about Peeves was his favoritism of the word “ickle.” It’s not even a word, but it’s hilarious. Also, his songs and poems and weird rhymes. My personal favorite happens to be about Voldemort. “We did it, we bashed them, wee Potter’s the one/and Voldy’s gone mouldy, so let’s have fun!” Never gets old. There were so many others too so if you want to read even more Peeves quotes go to this site. Peeves is also part of making Umbridge’s life hell during Order of the Phoenix. Which makes me love him even more. But I’m a little torn, because he’s so annoying at times, but he’s hilarious.

Normally, I’d go on a mini rant about reasons behind the name, but I think Peeves’ name is pretty obvious. He’s a nuisance. Just like a pet peeve. You can’t get rid of him no matter what (unless you’re the director of the HP movies…). You love him, yet you hate him. He’s definitely a “little devil.”

Fun Fact: Peeves was one of the first characters Rowling created, along with Harry, Ron, Hagrid, and Nearly Headless Nick. She also said that Peeves has been at Hogwarts since its founding – he just “comes with the building” according to Jo.

More fun stuff about Peeves here!

Here’s the link for Peeve’s quotes again!

And if you have a Pottermore account, you can read even more about Peeves in Book 2, Chapter 8.