(b. May 15) is the
Fictional Herbology teacher and head of
Hufflepuff house in
J.K. Rowling 's
Harry Potter series. She is a dumpy, cheerful little witch. She wears shabby earth-covered robes and a patched and frayed hat over her fly-away grey hair.
Professor Sprout was played by British character actress
Miriam Margolyes on screen.
Her most notable accomplishment in the Harry Potter novels is having prepared a draught of
Mandrake to revive those who had been
Petrified in ''
Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets ''. She subsequently appeared in ''
Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire ''. She made a strong amount of bubotuber pus that helps clear up stubborn forms of acne.
Later on in the school year she was chosen to comfort
Amos Diggory and his wife after the death of their son,
Hufflepuff student
Cedric Diggory at the hands of
Lord Voldemort .
In ''Order of the Phoenix'', she is a nonvocal supporter of Harry Potter's story about
Lord Voldemort 's resurrection. Like many teachers at Hogwarts, she detested
Umbridge's presence, and did her best to disobey her. One such occasion was when she awarded twenty points to Gryffindor because Harry passed her a watering can.
After the battle at Hogwarts in ''
Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince '', Professor Sprout got the students back to bed and was part of the meeting with
Minerva McGonagall ,
Filius Flitwick ,
Horace Slughorn and
Hagrid to discuss the future of Hogwarts. Professor Sprout is one of the main advocates of keeping Hogwarts open after Dumbledore's death, stating that Albus Dumbledore would've wanted it. She also supported the suggestion that Dumbledore should be laid to rest at Hogwarts. She attended Dumbledore's funeral, where she was seen cleaner than her students ever previously saw her, a reference to her usual activity gardening in the Hogwarts greenhouses.
As a likely reference to her subject of teaching, Professor Sprout shares her first name with
Pomona , the goddess of fruit trees and horticulture in Roman mythology. Her last name is equally appropriate; "sprout" is an English verb meaning "to grow (as shoots or buds)". Her first name was not revealed in canon until ''
Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince ''.
Until
June, 1997 , she was the only Head of House in the current age to not have the same first initial as the last (
Horace Slughorn takes over the helm as Head of Slytherin after
Severus Snape 's departure).
